RECAP

The Rapture happened on October 11, 1996. Nicolae Carpatescu's ascension to effective global power after that was swift and surprisingly uncontested; the global potentate has been working hard to create a unified and fair world, and managed to assuage most of his detractor, save for a fringe "Christian Remnant" that claims he is the Antichrist and the world is going to end in about six years now. The first post-Rapture babies are now two years old, and show no sign of ill health or abnormalities.

It's now the waning days of the year 1998; You have been in charge of the Custodial Arrangement of Telecommunications System for five seasons now, and your hardworking crews of engineers, technicians, contractor wranglers, and financial analysts have managed to blanket the globe with a thin but ever-strengthening web of fiber and radio waves so that even the poorest Brazilian or Malay farmer can check expected prices for her wares in advance using a cell phone or public terminal. Global poverty has gone below the double digit percentage for the first time in recorded history, and your boss is happy to admit -- in private -- that your own efforts were instrumental in reaching this goal.

Not all is well in this up-and-coming utopia; tensions in Africa are mounting, with Subpotentate Rebohoth's power base having to resort to more and more naked threats of violence to keep a lid on things - and you are actively working to destabilize the region in order to be able to install a more pliant subpotentate. If Carpatescu is aware of this power play, he's letting you get away with it. To this and other ends, you've built a small force of former soldiers, investigators, and repo men (and an Indian Irish demolitionist, apparently) and procured a decommissioned small aircraft carrier.

There's also the matter that when the Event happened, in addition to taking away the world's children and a few religious nuts, some of the world's radiation was taken away as well... this caused the Event to be blamed on radiation in the popular press, resulting in the closure of all nuclear programs. You have, however, started your own, way far north in the Canadian interior, to try to figure out what's going on.

Is the world really going to end in six years and a bit? Why did Carpatescu hypnotize you a few months ago, apparently just for the fun of it? What looms?

>>3627145
>have moria support a covert team. The one that will be protecting civilians
> we will visit Briton and Europe to see if there are any connections to be made as we havent visited there yet.

>>3627145
>we will do what we can

#We'll do what we can

#Have Moira support our covert team in Africa.

>>3627204
>>3627291

You take the time to formally meet with Terry April, the subpotentate of the United Great Britian States (OOC note: Apparently Britian is a word in this universe).

April is dimly aware of your admittedly minor role in helping wind down the Troubles; you haven't done much work over there, so the meetings are largely ceremonial. The British royal family is still nominally on the throne (much like US President Hugh Fitzgerald is still sitting in a slowly emptying White House as the federal government devolves its responsibilities to Subpotentate Dimmsdale as cabinet position appointments expire and aren't renewed) and you get to attend the knighting ceremony of author Terry Pratchett.

It is generally thought that Queen Elizabeth will be the last British monarch, so she's stepped up her schedule when it comes to conferring peerages and the like; the 50 year old author is knighted alongside industry luminaires such as Richard Branson, and indicates that he did not expect the honor. At a brief interview afterwards, he speaks of the challenge of writing children's literature during the Rapture gap ("I'm wealthy enough to focus on writing for future generations and not have to chase today's market"), his opinion on why he got a knighthood and J. K. Rowling did not, despite the latter's indisputably greater success ("She says she didn't think she was writing a fantasy novel. I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds... would have given her a clue?"), and his plans for the future ("The power of story is perhaps more important today than ever. I'm going to take a short break from writing.... but it's only because, now that I am a knight, I am going to forge a sword! Can't carry it around though; that would be knife crime").

The assimilation of Iceland into what's left of the British Commonwealth has happened with relatively little drama: Carpatescu's Global Community has removed most barriers to trade anyway, and Subpotentate April is the first to admit that the northern island is a lot easier to govern than Britain proper.

You do not get to meet the Queen, alas, although she has a handsome letter of thanks sent to you for your efforts.

>>3627205
>>3627291

"We'll do what we can, Dr. Robertson. You understand that this is a politically sensitive topic, we have to move cautiously."

"That it is. I'm glad that neutrino research is not something that most laymen follow - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Did you hear about people at CERN protesting about the possibility of a resonance cascade? There isn't even such a thing in the first place!"

One thing that Dr. Robertson reassures you about is that the anomaly seems limited to gamma and cosmic radiation, ironically excluding neutrinos themselves. "It's almost as if something's sitting on us and gobbling the small wavelengths up. Good thing it didn't happen a hundred years ago, or we'd never have discovered quantum mechanics."

Rolled 37 (1d100)

------

>>3627291
>>3627204

This operation sees the first use of the Garibaldi. The carrier (which, for some reason, ended up getting nose art of a Capybara) is docked in a Lybian port, ostensibly to complete her refit after her partial demolition, and Moira's team drives out in the APCs, escorting a number of hastily up-armored school buses that happen to work on the same grade of diesel fuel. Since they only have small arms, the plan is to use the APCs to distract the attacking force while the buses evacuate most or all of the villagers.

Rehoboth's irregulars are clearly the worst elements of the Peacekeeper force, likely hand-picked for a lack of scruples and wearing white bands with a stylized hawk in place of the United Nation's blue band on standard issue Peacekeeper body armor; they barely even bothered to swap the uniforms out.

Their attack forces consist mostly of technicals, pickup trucks mounting heavy machine guns or rocket launchers on the bed; your APCs are better armored, but carry no weapons other than what your infantry can fire from the armored vehicles' gun ports. Your team's ability to improvise has paid off: one of the APCs is mounting one of the Garibaldi's SCLAR launchers, loaded with as many flares as could be found on the decommissioned carrier.

This is happening during your European visit; you manage to feign calm after being walked through the diplomatic paces, knowing that your men and women are facing something like an opposing army just two hours' flight away. The Nomenklator team helps you avoid committing a faux pas.

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Your intel indicated that Rebohoth's goons were planning to "pilliage, THEN burn" as Moira put it. It seems that there's been a change of plans: along with the technicals is what looks like a TIR truck on which a 57mm artillery piece has been installed. Instead of driving in, the enemy forces park around the improvised artillery and start shelling the village.

That was not supposed to happen.

Bravely, the bus drivers move forward anyway, while the APCs carrying the flare launcher is driven on the dune between the village and the attackers and fires half its ordnance at a high arc towards the improvised self-propelled gun; hopefully they will think that they are being fired upon by something with equal force, or that they have been targeted by an air strike.

The ruse is unsuccessful: the flare launchers are designed to drive heat seeking missiles away, not hit a target with precision. Since the attackers are all clustered together, they're not using phones or radios, just yelling at each other - you have no SIGINT on what they are saying, but can see that they admire the brief daytime firework display then resume firing.

Three technicals are dispatched to go after the APC; the second APC charges in from behind the dune to offer fire support, but after a brief firefight that reminds you of an Age of Sail ship battle that's been sped up and recolored, it becomes apparent to the attackers that your security team has no heavy weapon.

The artillery piece is quickly turned around to aim at the APCs, who have to dodge heavy machine gun and RPG fire from the technicals; fortunately, it wasn't intended to fire at a moving target.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RJQPlPE2yQ

Modern armor is resistent to anti-materiel projectile and Cold War era rocket propeller grenades, but not invulnerable to it. The evacuation is proceeding well, thanks to the fact that the enemies' only long range gun is busy, but after half an hour of feinting and exchanging fire - and a few casualties on the enemies' side, largely thanks to lucky shots from the gunners inside the APCs and the fact that the gunners on the Toyota truck have no armor protecting them beyond flak vests - one of your two APCs is hit in a wheel well by a rocket propeller grenade and disabled. Moira is not in it; her skillset is better suited to driving the evacuation buses across the tolle ondulee'. You've managed to get most everyone out: the Garibaldi's cargo hold is now full of refugees, most of whom are unharmed or have only sustained a few bruises. Some of the young men of the village are prepared to make the enemy fight house by house, and your other APC is intact, although it had to retreat into the village. Rehoboth's forces have resumed shelling the village; the damaged APC has been surrounded, but after two point-blank RPG shots fail to do more than scratch the armor, it becomes obvious to the attackers that all they can do is further damage the wheels. It's winter, so your stranded squad can withstand a siege until they run out of water.

# Send the other security team, aborting the other mission.

# Send the other security team AND go in yourself, either for negotiation or for a counterattack.

# Have the remaining members of the squad drive by, drop off a satellite radio with a signal flag, and try to negotiate.

# This has gotten a bit too big - call Carpatescu.

#Have the remaining members of the squad drive by, drop off a satellite radio with a signal flag, and try to negotiate.

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>>3627407

Your remaining APC takes a few shots, but they'll buff right out. After a sensible amount of poking and prodding to make sure it's not a bomb, Rehoboth's goons pick up the satellite phone. You are treated to a low-framerate rendition of someone who could be a former male model, identifying himself as General Hassan.

He demands that your "terrorists" stand down, but does not identify himself as a Peacekeeper. He seems to have made peace with the notion that most of the villagers have been evacuated; his main demand is that your men and the remaining fighters surrender, leave their weapons where they stand, leave the keys for the APCs in the ignition (key blocks have been added by your mechanics right after you got the vehicles - either he knows this, or he's ignorant of the fact that most military vehicles don't have ignition keys) and walk away. "I will be generous - keep any water you have with you, head north back to civilization, and never return."

# That's acceptable. You will lose two of your APCs, but suffer no casualties, if he's sincere.

# Try to buy time while your second team gets there.

# Try to buy time while your second team and yourself get there.

# Thanks to the GPS in the satellite radio, you now know exactly what vehicle Hassan is in: have your remaining forces go all-in for a ramming attack.

(How many APCs do we have in total?)

>>3627431

Four; you've assigned two per security team. They have no weapons, but feature modern reactive armor and have protected gun ports for the squad to shoot out of. They are based on the Centauro IFV chassis.

One has been incapacitated by a lucky RPG shot in the wheel well.

Hmmmm....

While I would prefer taking the loss (we got most of everyone out), it might be tricky getting more APCs.

Instead I'm for buying time, see if we can get into a better bargaining position.

"General Hassan, you are generous in your offer. I would assume your mandate is to maintain the peace on behalf of the Sub Potentate and our mutual boss, Carpatescu."

"Perhaps we could come to an arrangement that could b mutually beneficial to both our mandates?"

>>3627462

"I just told you it. Tell your boys to stand down and walk it off before I decide they should limp it off."

Moira notes that if Hassan is smart, he'll drain the downed APC's gas tank, then dig a hole and light a fire under it. "This isn't just an armored car, it's got fancy NBC filters, but heat will smoke anyone out regardless." If he doesn't, you have about a day and a half to solve this crisis; if he does, you have hours at best.

>>3627546
We were able to drop a radio on him, are we able to drop anything else?

>>3627611

The main issue is that Hassan has artillery (albeit crappy artillery, a 57mm field piece mounted on the back of a truck) and you don't; the radio was dropped off by doing a drive-by with the good APC, which has now retreated back into the village.

>>3627652
What would we have to roll to succeed in having the good APC ram that truck in such a fashion as to disable said artillery, at which point we have armor he can't penetrate?

>>3627652
Alternatively, can we patch his call through to some kind of broadcast, do a "Mister Hassan, you are now seen and heard by the world. Would you care to tell the world why you were here to murder civilians?"

I was hoping to delay him by offering a deal. He seems interested in acquiring better military gear; ergo we could arrange providing better TelCom to coordinate troops with. I worry our 'peacekeeping' shenanigans are just digging us into a bigger hole in the region.

>>3627693
Any 'deal' we make with him will make him a sharper knife in our back later.

>>3627677

Thanks to a year and a half of effort, you can do literally that: patch the video into GNN, either live or with a seven-second delay.

Of course there's a catch, there are only two people on Earth who can do that, and Hassan )and presumably Rebohoth) already knows you're not Carpatescu.

>>3627672

Moira looks at the GPS coordinates; looks like Hassan is in one of the technicals, not in the artillery truck. The bad thing is that the 57mm gun is back mounted, so any sort of chase would pit the APC against the only vehicle that can hurt it reliably.. The good thing is that a Centauro can bulldoze through a Toyota pickup truck without slowing down, and slam into the artillery truck sustaining only minor damage. Of course, she volunteers for the mission.

"I drive one of the buses back there after welding some plates on one side, the village boys use it to provide covering fire, and then let's play demolition derby!"

>>3627693

You definitely have that option; as far as Hassan knows, you have no other forces to commit to this, and the clock is ticking for you faster than for him. He shows you a few of his goons beating on the APC's armored hull with crowbars; they can't crack it open, but they can definitely give ringing ears to the occupants.

After a bit of conversation it has become obvious that Hassan doesn't know who he is dealing with; his assumption is that it's a different (former) warlord.

>>3627713
I vote: Moira Get Your Gun. Attack, and try to take out the artillery piece. Calling for vote from other players.

Well Moira has a plan at least~! :P

I'll vote for it.

>>3627713

The timeline is currently as such:

30 minutes: Moira gets there for the ram attack plan.

60 minutes: Moira gets there for the ram attack plan, with a bit of extra prep.

120 minutes: Your second security squad is ready to go to provide backup.

150 minutes: You get there yourself, by flying a business jet and directing it to either land on the Garibaldi or let you parachute down. You can then join one of the squads.

180 minutes: Your second squad is ready to go to provide backup, with some extra prep (Moira suggests building an old-timey spar torpedo out of gas canisters and welding it to one of the APC, giving it one guaranteed kill on ram).

1440 minutes: The people in the downed APC will surrender at the latest.


The question is when will Hassan tire of talking, and/or realize that he can just light a fire under the APC.


# Call Santiago on a secure line for advice, this looks like the sort of thing she's all about.

# Don't show weakness.

>>3627725
Clarification: that is, go with Moira's plan, on the radio stall for time and ask Hassan what assurances you have that he will keep his word and let them go if they leave the vehicles.

#Don't show weakness. Go with Moira's plan but with extra prep.

>>3627731
60 minute timeline, Moira's plan with prep

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>>3627746
>>3627732
>>3627776


At your command, Moira starts shouting at the Garibaldi's crew to get out their tools, remove the seats from one of the buses, and weld on an additional set of tires on each axle to improve off-road movement.

Her plan is simple: take the lightened bus into the village, quickly get everyone else aboard it, then have it fire pot shots at the enemy before leading as many technicals as possible into a chase, using the widened tires to beat any pursuers in off-road mobility. From there, she's going to take the good APC and ram first the artillery truck then whatever technical Hassan is sitting in.

The only part of the plan you aren't sure about is the spar torpedo which she has built out of a bunch of propane tanks - it will undoubtedly damage the APC, but it will guarantee a mobility kill on whatever she hits first, unless they manage to shoot at it.

Your job is now to stall for time.

# Offer to bring in first-aid kits to prevent the enemy wounded from getting worse.

# Offer communication equipment which will be delivered by the bus.

# Suggest that the crew of the damaged APC be allowed to get out and into the village, hoping that the enemy will divert some manpower into rigging the broken vehicle to be towed off.

# Write in.

#Offer communication equipment which will be delivered by bus. Emphasize its many uses in coordinating troops while also suggesting that even if he doesn't see the practical use, he can probably fetch a good price for it.

Maybe to we can also suggest the crew be allowed to leave the APC, letting some of his men try to rig the vehicle as a 'token of good will'... while we talk business. All the better so he doesn't notice the counter attack.

>>3627788
# Offer communication equipment which will be delivered by the bus.

Hassan is not the type to give a damn about people bleeding out.

>>3627812
no! keep the crew IN the APC. the moment they step out of it they're going to be shot.

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>>3627788

# Suggest that the crew of the damaged APC be allowed to get out and into the village, hoping that the enemy will divert some manpower into rigging the broken vehicle to be towed off.


>>3627173
>and an Indian Irish demolitionist, apparently
Either she gave a fake last name since such a name like that doesn't exist or shes looks like the Mother of Dragons. I'm hoping for the former, but I won't mind to much if she looks like the latter.....

>>3627825
I think the point of the suggestion is that its a
stall tactic to buy time.


We should look up some info and pretend to be a opposing warlord in the area he has fought or has reason to not trust him and claim the past interactions with him prove he is untrustworthy!

>>3627812
>>3627817

"Interesting. I understand that Carpatescu's head geek has a grudge with Elder Rebohoth, so we're under some sort of embargo. That sounds like it'd fetch a pretty penny."

While the bus is prepped, you

# Get a bunch of radios and phones, and strip one of the Garibaldi's comm arrays, to put in the bus. It's the equivalent of trying to pass a box full of pinball parts for a nuclear bomb, but it should work.

# Just put a bunch of empty boxes in the bus to save weight.

On top of that, you tell moira to

# Take up an additional 10 minutes to rig one of the boxes with a stick of dynamite. Why'd she bring dynamite in the first place is something that will need answered later, but being as your men only have automatic rifles and DMRs, it's the closest thing you can do to a grenade trap.

# just hurry up.


You hand off the horn to one of your sysadmins who happens to speak Arabic, and he starts reading specs for the current generation of consumer phones to Hassan until he's told to shut up. This still buys you a few minutes. In the background, you see Hassan pretend to nod knowledgeably in the sight of his underlings.

>>3627825
>>3627834
>>3627812

(Pick one!)

>>3627834

You can't speak any of the common African languages, but that doesn't mean much - you might be an American associate of a rival former warlord.

Rehoboth's main rivals are Mwangati Ngumo, former UN Secretary General before Carpatescu and now currently in hiding, and Enoch Litwala, a former South African anti-apartheid leader who has recently been abandoned by a good chunk of his power base for being too much of a moderate.

#Get a bunch of radios and phones, and hope that Hasan isn't familiar with Back to the Future.

#Tell Moira to add a stick of dynamite

(Are we in fact dealing with Libyans? =D )

>>3627867
seconded

>>3627855

# Get a bunch of radios and phones, and strip one of the Garibaldi's comm arrays, to put in the bus. It's the equivalent of trying to pass a box full of pinball parts for a nuclear bomb, but it should work.

#Tell Moira to add a stick of dynamite

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Rolled 9, 44, 18 = 71 (3d100)

>>3627867
>>3627869
>>3627880

This is all going down in what used to be Libya, so, probably.

"Very well, we are preparing the shipment."

Hassan barks something to a subordinate, which your Nomenklator team helpfully translates as "Stand down and stop banging on the APC! They're surrendering. Don't give any explanation."

You direct one of your technicians to tell Hassan what he will be getting, with instructions to be verbose but let the man ask technical questions and talk in case he reveals any other precious bits of information.

You don't get much from that, unfortunately, aside from the fat that Hassan was ordered to raze the village, which you already knew, and that Rebohoth has kept a small cache of military weapons as insurance. You figure that so has Santiago, for sure, and likely so have the other subpotentates.

Moira gets to the village in a very visible way, driving the bus slowly as if it had taken some hits. She quickly debarks, lets the village volunteers and the rest of your security squad get on, and takes on one volunteer to operate the APC's radio, cameras, and spar torpedo.

One technical has been lightened of its heavy machine gun in order to take the cargo; Hassan's men seem to have relaxed to a degree, although most are still clutching their rifles.

# Actually follow through on the deal, you will only lose one APC instead of two.

# Hit it!

>>3627895
# Hit it!

#Hit it!

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>3627895

Rolled 15 (1d100)

>>3627920
>>3627919
>>3627916
>>3627895

(Welp dice)

The bus has just unloaded its supposedly precious cargo in front of the pickup truck, where a last-minute negotiation goes on.

"You unloaded, you load."

"No, we unloaded, you load."

It takes Hassan shouting at his men to just make it quick to solve the matter; meekly, the stranded half of your security team hand over their guns to Hassan's men, exit the damaged APC, and board the bus, which starts puttering off. Moira drives the good APC behind one of the village houses so that its camera gives you a decent view.

The only vehicle big enough to tow the APC is the artillery truck, so its cannon is lifted and tow straps and chains attached to the rear differential - the APC can move on seven wheels as long as it sticks to what passes for a road and some weight is put on the opposite corner.

Then, the bus suddenly leaves the road north and veers left.

"Fág an Bealach!" Moira shouts, and charges the Centauro APC forward; she's affixed a crude spar torpedo to the front of it.

That would probably have worked, if it wasn't for another lucky shot on the side of Hassan's men; when it became clear that the APC was going for a ram on Hassan's truck, people instinctively emptied their magazines at it. One lucky shot blew out the propane tank.

Wanting to get a diversion, Moira chooses that moment to blow up the dynamite stick hidden in the electronics; the blow takes out the pickup truck and the two people loading it.

You do get to save one video frame of Hassan making a fish face after realizing it's a trap, before he drops the satellite radio, so there's that. https://youtu.be/4F4qzPbcFiA

Moira goes after Hassan's technical, since the artillery truck is currently unable to fire; unfortunately, Hassan is smart enough to tell the driver to stay on the road or on hard terrain, where the technical is able to go as fast as the Centauro. The gunner in the back sprays the APC with 50 caliber machine gun bullets, pockmarking the armor and making it impossible for Moira's gunner to return fire.

# Direct the people in the bus to circle Hassan's vehicles and try to take down as many men as they can while they're out in the open.

# Direct the people in the bus to circle Hassan's vehicles and focus on suppression.

# Direct the people in the bus to go straight for the artillery truck while it's unable to fire.

# Call for abort.

>>3627964
# Direct the people in the bus to go straight for the artillery truck while it's unable to fire.
Steal the 57mm Use against enemy.

>>3627964
# Direct the people in the bus to go strait for the artillery truck.

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Rolled 27 (1d100)

>>3628125
>>3628087

While Moira chases Hassan up the road, your men slam the bus into the back of the artillery truck, crumpling the two vehicles together into a mess that will take a half day and a third tow truck to sort out.

Then, they pour out of the bus, a few appearing to fire wildly as they suppress enemy reaction, a few taking aimed shots.

Your people have superior training, but Hassan's men have the advantage of heavy weapons: they scramble for the back of their pickup trucks and start using the belt-fed machine guns making holes in the bus and even their own artillery truck, which your soldiers are using for cover. You are taking some casualties; Hassan's men are enraged at the betrayal and keep shooting those who fall.

Things really went south quickly; your other other squad is following the reports with apprehension - they can do security and infiltration, but if they are to go against paramilitary forces, they'd need ether better weapons, or air support!

# Recall Moira so that she can ram the APC into the technicals and let your guys regroup, at the risk of Hassan rallying his troops.

# Let Moira keep chasing Hassan.

Wtf is going on, I get drunk on the most important day of the nation and the dice or the players are aiming to slaughter our recently acquired agent and the teams we sent.

>>3628138
>>3628141
Idk, its bad dice rolling. We were suppose to be recruiting this turn but oh well.

Can we jam all enemy coms in the area?

>>3628141

Yes, but thing is - there aren't any. General Hassan's men barely outnumber yours, and by the look of it, they're all clustered around the artillery truck. The situation can devolve into a disorganized firefight; if your soldiers can regroup, they have better training, and can at least try to do fire-and-maneuver towards the village. Hassan gave orders with a megaphone, and is now being chased by Moira.

>>3628138
# Recall Moira so that she can ram the APC into the technicals and let your guys regroup, at the risk of Hassan rallying his troops.

Chasing an enemy into his own territory is BAD IDEA!

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Rolled 68 (1d100)

>>3628182
>>3628172

Huh... Hassan has hung up on you, unsurprisingly, and is now trying to use the satellite phone that you punted at him to call trying to call someone, presumably Rehoboth.

# Turn it off, except for the tracking system of course.

# Taunt him.

# Give him the runaround: for English press 1, for Arabic press 2, etc.

# Let the call go through so that you can listen in.

Moira seems to have a minor case of target fixation: you have to remind her to not stray too far from her teammates. Then, you describe the situation on the ground to her.

She turns the Centauro around, and accelerates back towards the engagement site while her gunner sets up a DMR to get a few potshots in.

At the site, it looks like that the situation has degenerated into a chaotic firefight: that's bad news for you, since they have squad weapons and you don't. Your squad contains many experienced soldiers, so they try to use the bus and artillery truck wrecks as cover, and get ready to bolt for the village before they are surrounded. The artillery piece's barrel has been bent in the impact: it can be fixed, of course, but definitely not today.

>>3628199
# Give him the runaround: for English press 1, for Arabic press 2, etc.

# Recall Moira so that she can ram the APC into the technicals and let your guys regroup, at the risk of Hassan rallying his troops.

>>3628206
>>3628199

You set one of your phone-bank operators, Gladys, to give Hassan the runaround; she can do such a good monotone that over even a mildly noisy connection it'd be hard to tell for people if they are talking to a young woman or a vocoder.

Hassan's screams of "LET ME TALK TO A HUMAN BEING!" in English and Arabic cause some laughter in your situation room, even as tense as the situation is.

Moira accelerates the Centauro to its top speed, then blares the horn and slams the heavy APC into three technicals setting up to surround your men, obliterating one and breaking the weapons off the other two.

The tide of the firefight turns around; deprived of most of their heavy weapons, Hassan's men finish their circling maneuver to find that your men have reorganized somewhat, with one of them making a daring dash for one of the technicals' HMGs and training it on the enemy.

Hassan's driver keeps carrying the "General" outside of the combat zone while he tries in vain to reach his superior; he stops trying, throwing the phone out of the window, when he sees one of the overturned technicals blow up in the rearview mirror.

Since you have no heavy vehicles, the crew of the Garibaldi is busy trying to find a flatbed truck to take the damaged vehicles home with!

The butcher's bill is fairly severe, although it could have gone worse: this covert team will be busy recruiting and training the new recruits for at least a month, likely two if you want them back to full combat strength. This is the first time your covert division has sustained deaths; the hit on morale is mitigated by the knowledge that they were deployed to protect civilians, and have by and large succeeded in that task.

# Take the villagers to Sicily using the Garibaldi; they will be safer there.

# Help the villagers resettle; they will assist with recovering the vehicles.

One good thing is that the 57mm gun can be recovered; you have it mounted

# rigged for direct fire on one of the Centauro vehicles, almost bringing it back to full combat capability, although it won't be able to carry half a squad anymore.

# rigged for indirect or AA fire on a truck, same as what Hassan was doing.

Moira thinks it was a job well done, but shares the unit's sentiment about not ever wanting to do this again without artillery or air support. "You know they'll be back with actual army assets next time, and even if it's just Soviet crap from the sixties, it's more than we can currently handle."

A day or so later, you get an email from Colonel Santiago, apropos of nothing, really. She however takes the opportunity to remind you that a wise leader leaves herself the option of leading from the front. Did she find out about the engagement by herself?


( The OTHER covert unit has not been used, so they can go do something a bit more calm, I hope.... and that's that for the month. OOC, is it better to have detailed actions like this, or would you rather autoresolve more?)

>>3628224
Both? For the most part I like the deeper interaction, but I think we should be able to auto resolve it if we put someone to task on it or something that guarantees higher success.

>>3628224
# Take the villagers to Sicily using the Garibaldi; they will be safer there.

# rigged for direct fire on one of the Centauro vehicles. A single 57mm AA probably wouldn't be effective against modern aircrafts, if it comes to that.

>>3628224
# Help the villagers resettle; they will assist with recovering the vehicles.

# rigged for direct fire on one of the Centauro vehicles, almost bringing it back to full combat capability, although it won't be able to carry half a squad anymore.

Won't dropping them in Sicily make things worse there and make picking a side there harder?

>>3628281

The situation in Cassibile, Sicily, has more or less solved itself; a few people died. A few dozen people are unlikely to cause a refugee crisis all by themselves. It just so happens that Sicily is the closest landmass of reasonable size that isn't under Rehoboth's control.

>>3628601
Darn. I had an idea of playing that situation to our advantage.

>>3628606

(OOC note : Sorry, I did write how it was playing out month to month, though! Don't worry about completionism).

>>3628610
Thought they were stuck in stalemate so I figured we'd have a bit more time.

#Take the villagers to Sicily.

Hassan and his boss will be back and in bigger numbers.

Would it be possible to recruit from the rescued villagers? While they might not be ideal for covert ops, there might be some villagers who could do construction or mining with some training perhaps?

#Rigged for direct fire. We need bigger guns if we're going to engage in this type of shenanigans.

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>>3629191
>>3628281
>>3628242

A day later, the Garibaldi steams into port; the refugees are debarked and your wounded are quickly taken to the nearest hospital. Subpotentate April does owe you a favor, albeit a small one, so the incident gets reported in the news as a rescue attempt, rather than a firefight.

The local populace are largely indifferent: they've had their own stupidity to deal with, but it's now over, and since the refugees and your people aren't taking hospital beds away from the local, they are treated to a perfunctory display of traditional hospitality.

On one hand, your men are heroes; on the other, a few openly complain that they didn't sign up for this. A few former soldiers note bitterly that under the old system they'd at least get a commendation, which you can't really provide

# so you ensure that they receive a bonus, since that you can provide.

# so you set up a private ceremony for CATS staff and family.

>>3626393

Given what happened in the north, the second security team asks you to reconsider getting into more trouble in Rebohoth's territory until you are better prepared.

# If things are coming to a head, so be it.

# Go with them to show that you aren't afraid of leading from the front!

# Abort the South Africa mission.

Upon the activation of the Cellular-Solar global coverage, Carpatescu sends his congratulations. He mentions being extremely busy setting up countermeasures to deal with "the death throes of the various nationalist movements", such as centralizing the Peacekeeper hierarchy and, regretfully, reforming some standing armed regiments as part of what he calls a "global defense initiative".

"I have observed your Network Node demo: it was excellent. I want one here in New Babylon as soon as humanly possible, and I want one in each potentate's capitol. I am supremely confident that you will smooth over any obstacles should the relevant potentate be reticent to accept your gift."

# Answer with a polite acknowledgement.

# Point out that network nodes are expensive, and request more resources.

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>>3629191
>>3628242

Fortunately the Centauro chassis is specifically designed to be modular, much like the Garibaldi, due to the Italian armed forces' chronic lack of funding and emphasis on the doctrine of flexibility. Your welders find the specs for the Freccia variant's turret, and adapt it to fit the 57mm gun you were able to salvage. While it's not exactly high power artillery, it has the invaluable plus of having been captured in a way that is entirely plausibly deniable.

The resulting IFV can still carry half a squad, albeit less comfortably, and can provide long range fire support if necessary. It still wouldn't win a tank battle with anything built after 1930, of course, but should it ever be necessary, it can do things like one-shot a suicide-bomb car.

# Now that you won the engagement, discuss it with Santiago.

# Keep it secret, as much as possible.

>>3630515
# so you ensure that they receive a bonus, since that you can provide.

# Abort the South Africa mission
We come back with guns.

# Answer with a polite acknowledgement.
>>3630520

Who was Santiago?

>>3630515
>You ensure they receive a bonus and set up a private ceremony

> send the security team but promise them we will divert funds to purchasing more effective equipment

> point out that we can do this much faster with more resouces. Request more resouces.

>>3630520

>discuss it with Santiago.

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>>3630543

Corazon Santiago: The subpotentate of the United South American States. Argentinian by birth, she survived the purges in her childhood by taking up violent resistance early. Very much a fan of the right to bear arms. Known for her incorruptibility and Spartan lifestyle, she has been called the Robespierre of South America.

She is generally happy with your work in her territory, and has secured from you the promise that satellites over South America will not use cameras. She is unaware of the potentialities of data mining, however.

She has sent a trainer to your security forces, who were taught the basics of unconventional warfare, and personally taught you how to shoot, although you've only spent time at the range with her a couple of times.

>>3630515
# so you ensure that they receive a bonus, since that you can provide.
Both, but the deserve more.
# so you set up a private ceremony for CATS staff and family.

# Go with them to show that you aren't afraid of leading from the front!

Wait, we are going to SA? As is? Don't we lack the support in firepower? if so we needa Abort.

# Point out that network nodes are expensive, and request more resources.

If he gives us more funds, we build him a node next month if possible....

# Keep it secret, as much as possible.
Keep in mind, she openly and seemingly genuinely proclaimed her loyalty to our boss.

>>3630571
I'll change to Abort mission for now.

>>3630515
# so you ensure that they receive a bonus, since that you can provide.
# Abort the South Africa mission.
# Point out that network nodes are expensive, and request more resources.

>>3630515
# so you ensure that they receive a bonus, since that you can provide.
&
# so you set up a private ceremony for CATS staff and family.

# Abort the South Africa mission.

# Point out that network nodes are expensive, and request more resources.

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>>3630543
>>3630571
>>3630588

Picking a further fight with Rebohoth, by proxy or not, while you have no heavy weaponry seems unwise, especially since Hassan has escaped. You abort the deployment, much to the relief of the men and women who were getting ready to go.

Later in the week, the warehouse used as a motor pool for CATS work teams is cleared out so that those who fought to protect civilians can be honored and those who died be given a proper farewell. You let those in your employ who are former soldiers handle the ceremonial protocol; officially, these people died during a rescue attempt at sea, although you hope that nobody cross-correlates the dates of death with the excellent weather across the Mediterranean that week.

>>3630571
>>3630601

"You have been a good investment, Foreman. I look forward to seeing the New Babylon network node operational by the end of the month. Keep up the good work. You should consider visiting New Babylon informally, be a tourist for a few days perhaps, after you have completed that task. I understand you were in the neighborhood, recently." Does he mean Europe, or Lybia?

The budget increase wasn't as big as you hoped, but being able to field three more crews each trimester isn't anything to sneeze at....

As soon as it comes in, you allocate 1BN of your new budget to set aside a pension fund for the family members of the deceased; the entire operation ended up costing money, but it's the first time that happens, and besides - people lived who would have died, because of your efforts.

# Discuss the raid with Santiago.

# Don't.

>>3630618
# Don't.

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>>3630623
>>3630571
>>3630551

You choose to not discuss the issue with Colonel Santiago; if she is aware of what happened, she says nothing.

At the end of the month, Carpatescu announces that due to an ongoing security threat by nationalist forces opposed to the united world order, some form of organized military will be reinstated. This Global Defense Initiative will be headed, when appropriate, by former military officers, so those who used to have a job in the various countries' militaries are urged to reapply for it.

"This is not a restoration of the old world order, with its defense-industrial complex and its lack of accountability from civilian authority. If people wish to fly the Maple Leaf on July 2nd or their old flags during the FIFA world cup, we welcome the upkeep of patriotic traditions. But we must have peace, we must demand peace of the universe, because it will not be given to us."

The re-hiring standards are extremely high; your analysts expect that maybe five percent of former military personnel will get their job back. Interestingly, you go over the personnel list and find that Bruno Folgore is going to be heading one of the security detachments in the Middle East.

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Hello, Foreman!

You are planning out CATS' operation for the month. Rules for allocating personnel and assets: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.Quest2Rules.html

You, the Foreman, can deploy yourself on TWO actions (in most cases) for a small bonus to all rolls. You can even risk your own life on a covert action, if you so choose!

Dr. Robertson can be deployed on ONE action for a large bonus to R&D rolls or a small bonus to any non-covert rolls.

Ryan Andrews can be deployed on ONE action for a large bonus to construction rolls or a small bonus to any non-covert rolls.

Moira McSingh can be deployed on ONE action per turn, for a medium bonus to covert rolls or a small bonus to all rolls. She can work with both covert and work crews and will give basic combat capability to a work crew.

Your Nomenklator system can be issued to ONE team per turn, for a small bonus to all rolls, but at the risk of being revealed to the public.

Performing an action outside of your home territory will also require the availability of (complexity) fleet assets, OR renting fleet assets out at the cost of 1/asset.

C0:

Survey a territory for opportunity using yourself or a trusted agent. Not surveyed: Caribbean, Northern Europe, Western Europe, China, India, Greenland, Japan, Indochina,

Pacific Islands, Afghanistan, Madagascar, Sahara, Central Africa, South Africa, Israel, Middle East, Western Russia

Buy equipment on the open market:
Power generation 1
Small arms 1
Network equipment 2
Fleet assets 2
Aerospace part 3

Buy equipment on the black market:
Small arms 1
Squad weapons 2
Stimulants 1

Undergo combat training (Max once per month)

C1:

Survey a territory for opportunity using a team. The result will vary depending on whether a work or covert team was sent.

Hire out a covert operations team for a situational reward.

Construct network equipment.

Construct a Cellular-Solar pylon. (+1 cellular or internet; requires 1 network part)

C2:

Do research (1~3).

Construct an aerospace part.

Construct a logistics hub (cap 1 fleet requirement for that territory; can deploy covert teams there with no advance notice; costs 1 power)

C3:

Recruit a work team.

Schedule a satellite launch, which will happen at the end of NEXT month. Requires an aerospace part.

Do research (4~6).

C4:

Recruit a covert team.

Do research (7~9). None of your research programs are far ahead enough.

Construct a network node. (unifies cell and net in that territory; costs 1 power, 1 network)

C5:

Rush a satellite launch, which will happen at the end of this month. Requires an aerospace part.

Do research (10). None of your research programs are far ahead enough.

What are your orders for the month?

>>3630655


>3 teams make network node in new Babylon with ryan andrews
>3 team recruit covert team with us on it
>2 team research nuclear system with ryan becuase we said we would to him last round.

1 covert team with us contact our black market contact and get some larger weapons.

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>>3630657

Ryan Andrews can only be given one task per month; the former shipping magnate is running your Northern Canada mine. He's set it up so that it's largely self sufficient (and he gets a bit of payoff) and ready to go for future use as a secondary base or to actually extract nuclear fuel. Did you mean Dr. Robertson?

>>3630663

Yeah i did mean dr. Robinson sorry.

>>3630663
>>3630657
Support

Do we need to stockpile food and good untainted soil, or is that taken care of?

Also can we look into making or purchasing drones and arming them?

>>3630663
Maybe we can put Moira on the recruitment team and we can go to Babylon.

>>3630675

The Israeli armed forces has been working on an unmanned aerial vehicle program for a few years, with some American interest. You send a few feelers out, and find that Zevo Toys of Moscow, Idaho, briefly tried to pitch the idea to the Army (not the Air Force, oddly) after the factory's founder died and the older son, a retired general, took over briefly. The factory was shut down shortly after the Event, like many of its kind, due to a sudden lack of customers; the then-manager, Leslie Zevo, committed suicide in his home in Tiburon, California.

Stockpiling food is certainly possible, but you'd have to rent warehouse space. Why bother though? The Eden fertilizer and your own efforts to streamline the global market have brought humanity within a hair's breadth of finally eradicating world hunger! Should you wish to stockpile, now would be a good time: prices are so low that half the subpotentates are buying to stockpile, just to avoid a price crash. Government cheese for everyone! You do have a list of existing warehouses, so there's that.

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Rolled 77, 14, 6 = 97 (3d100)

>>3630682

(To clarify, this means that you can send a team, an agent, or yourself to survey the shuttered factory).

>>3630674

(No worries, just making sure!)

>>3630682
To have food on hand to feed refugees and provide longer ability for our crews both covert and regular crews to stay out in the field longer.

It can even be used for humanitarian aid and support to groups under siege like the Waco folks or Boers who are having their farms seized.

Also, didn't we have a weird dream?

Focus on non perishables, store them in places like our secret base in that mine base we have.

Seems like armed drones are barely a concept right now, mostly focused on target practice and reconnaissance.

Might be easier to get military trainers and light attack aircraft.

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>>3630691

Excellent idea! Carla lets you know that she's happy to add that to the tracker, but deploying emergency stockpiles efficiently and reliably will need more preparedness work.

>>3630657

You decide to go talk to Klaue in force, escorted by the covert team that wasn't deployed last time. The meeting happens just outside what's left of the village that you rescued the population thereof -- the place has been razed, with the sand already at work covering it.

Good thing you came prepared: Klaue's men seem as likely to pounce on you as they are to sell you weapons.

"So that's where those dago IFV's went... interesting. Maybe we can make you an offer for them?"

"I'm here strictly to buy, Klaue. And to let you know you're not my only supplier" you bluff.

Klaue's men have technicals, and they are - unsurprisingly - in better shape than Hassan's.

# You just want squad-level infantry weapons: heavy machine guns, grenades, maybe RPGs. -2BN

# Actually, I see that some of your trucks have BMP-1 turrets. Give me squad weapons AND three of those that I may put them on my IFV's. -3BN

"Hey, you're the customer here. If you want to get into a rumble with the Subpotentate it's just more fooking business for me, the way I see it."

>>3630691

The Garibaldi was designed around the Sea Harrier jump jet, but given that she's roughly the size of a WW2 carrier, she can support propeller aircraft and helicopters with no problems. If you aren't planning to go against modern jets, low-n-slow may be the way to go.

You have a sysadmin look around classified ads and nascent internet bulletin boards for

# any startup doing unmanned aerial vehicles.

# military trainer aircraft and the like.

# bush planes that can be converted for carrier operation and up-armored.

On the debt side, your recruiting efforts largely fall flat: with Carpatescu's announcement of a global defense initiative, most former military are flocking the Peacekeeper testing centers to see if they qualify for the new force, which they see as more prestigious than - for all they know - playing mall cop for the phone company. Most are likely to be rejected, but for this month you don't get much done, save for recruiting a few folks to replace your losses in Libya.

Ryan is doing a good job of setting up the New Babylon network node; Carpatescu even sends a brief note of approval, praising your ability to take the best of public service and private industry and making them work harmoniously. Andrews unsheathes his inner Howard Hughes, makes a show of losing a lot of money in New Babylon's brand new glittering gambling halls and laughing it off, and quietly makes most of it back at the smaller tables, all the while making sure that your work teams work efficiently.

You've run out of spare parts for the month, but by the end of it, the quasi-world-capitol can show off the best communication infrastructure on Earth, with most hotels and resorts offering complementary wireless internet at the unheard-of speed of 11Mbps.

Things seem to go well.

And that's when Dr. Robertson calls you and tells you that there's been a serious accident during nuclear testing.

# Go there yourself.

# Stay away.

>>3630705
Don't forget claymores and remote explosives.

Maybe we can ask Moira to set some underground factory for us.

Maybe we should ask her that over the Nokolmatur?

Ask the guy if he can acquire some manpads or some 20mm, 25mm, 30mm guns/autocannons.

Ask if he can get some light military aircraft.

Also, why are we meeting back at the scene of the crime.....?

Did we recover the damaged APC?

>>3630718
# military trainer aircraft and the like.

# bush planes that can be converted for carrier operation and up-armored.

If we go the UAV route we are gonna have to do most of the R&D when we need the capabilities now rather than later.

# Go there yourself.
Have him give us a quick rundown on our way there.


Oh fuck, we went to the black market arms deal in person.....

>>3630720

Yes, you were able to get the APC back. You have four (two per team), one of which has a cannon turret.

You are meeting back at the scene of the crime because, once it was clear that the place had been razed, it's probably the safest spot to; Hassan doesn't seem to have the strategic or technical know-how to leave sensors behind.

>>3630726

(Which is why you get access to turrets now rather than later)

>>3630726

Since your mandate is to make sure that the whole world has internet connectivity, including hard to reach places, there's no suspicion to be gotten from seeing if you can buy bush planes; trainer aircraft may look a little odd to some, but if you're hiring pilots, it makes sense to train them and train well, right?

>>3630720

Moira points out that she can handle that part better than any bush-war hack. "A'course, I'll need a few extra hands and a bag of cash..."

# What if I just give you the cash, can you work with the Ghilottis or some of your own people?

# Let's do that as soon as we have the manpower then.

# Maybe later.

>>3630736
# What if I just give you the cash, can you work with the Ghilottis or some of your own people?
Maybe she got's some lads who are lookin for work but due to ahhh... rough patches in their work record, or "disagreements with their previous employer", they''d be willing to sign up.

>>3630726

"Foreman, here's the bad news first: I've lost some of your men. A few got hurt, and a few more, well, they've quit. One I've had to kick out of the lab when she started screaming that the end was nigh and the world had stopped making sense..."

You are a little perplexed to see a series of cubes, glowing red-hot, in an ancient meteoric crater out of Sudbury. Dr. Robertson hands you lead-lined overalls without comment when you finally arrive. "Now, you'll be wanting to stand back, this stuff can still kill you. What you see in front of you is approximately one point three critical masses of fissile material. Note the part where there is no mushroom cloud and we haven't all turned into dirty glass."

The few workers and students milling about are all wearing radiation protection, but some are doing so in an unprofessionally shoddy manner.

"What do you mean?"

"The critical mass of plutonium has changed. I suspect, of course, that it did so during the Event. What's disturbing is that it seems to have done so retroactively, in a way. That explains the lack of radiation in most samples from the nuclear test sites. We're going to literally have to rewrite the textbooks here." Dr. Robertson is tired, but there is fire in his eyes - he's probably been up all night, if not all week.

"I'm not going to try to do math with you, Foreman, and please don't take it as patronizing: right now we wouldn't know what math to use. At minimum, I can tell you that this has affected most other elements; carbon-fourteen, cobalt-sixty... Right now we would have to throw out pretty much everything we know about radiometric dating, my next course of action after we're done here is talk to some paleontologists and archeologists and tell them to re-calibrate, well, everything. The worst part is that the variance has gone up considerably, since there's less fission events per second to work with; we may have lost the capability to reliably date soil samples or dead organisms, at least until we develop much better statistical models and better detectors."

# What does it mean from an engineering perspective?

# What does it mean from a military perspective?


>>3630746

Moira draws two cartoony bags of cash on a piece of scrap paper. "Ooooh, I think I know just the guy for you then, Tavish Finnegan DeGroot, from Ullapool. He's.... retired from worksite ops, but there's none better when it comes to reliable equipment for demolition. Only, the kerns may not like the ordnance very much if you want things to look all ship shape and official like. Most of our people are used to Mk2's, not pipe bombs."

# Hand over the dough.

# Maybe later.

>>3630726

"This is the last freebie you get from me, Foreman, but I'd take a trip to Cuba if you want some good airplanes". The email came from Colonel Santiago; from the formatting you note, with some amusement, that she's sent it from her phone.

>>3630772
# What does it mean from an engineering perspective?

Military wise, this would mean no nukes, or nukes need more material, and much more expensive nuclear power for less returns....

Tell Moira we are more interested in making satchel charges or things like C/4 in house.

If that's possible then hand over the money bags. Literally get two big bags of money and have her carry em like a sack of potatoes.

>>3630801
I had some Swiss and Russian planes in mind....

Also that trainer guy is a blabber mouth.

We'll have to visit her some time.

>>3630806

(Pictures welcome! I had the AN-2 in mind, obviously).

>>3630806

"Well, for one, the whole denuclearization thing that Carpatescu based his world takeover bid on" Dr. Robertson harrumphs "not that it was a bad thing of course... not much of a choice there. No more nukes is correct, at least as far as I can tell. No bombs, no nuclear reactors. No thermonuclear bombs either, since the energy of a fission bomb is required to initiate a fusion event. Now what this means for fusion reactors.... not a whole lot, as far as I can tell. Much as it pains me to break the news to Robert Zubrin, no fission fragment engines any time soon, either. We would need decades to work out the new physics."

You urge him to continue.

"This does open up a few interesting possibilities, though: radiothermal generators are a lot easier to build, since we don't have to worry about criticality. It might even be possible to build a RTG large enough to work as a traditional power plant, even. If, of course, you can persuade people to be near the damn things, I can show you it's safe - I just did - but some people just broke into hysterics. The obvious other use would be a gamma-stimulated particle beam; now before you start looking at me like I want to build a death ray, I'm thinking of uses like a portable plasma welder, or a thermal lance that needs little fuel and can use rods the size of a chopstick rather than a crowbar. The other option..."

"Yes?"

"Remember when I told you that some samples were unaffected? It's possible that gun-type uranium bombs, or even the abandoned uranium hydride bomb design, might still work. Working towards this goal would assuredly be a scientific boon, but you'd have to hide a nuclear explosion, or else make the project public, eventually."

# A handheld thermal lance? Please work on that Doctor, I want lightsabers.

# We should look at the long term, if a new Manhattan Project is the way to give us back atomic energy, let's do that.

>>3630705
# Actually, I see that some of your trucks have BMP-1 turrets. Give me squad weapons AND three of those that I may put them on my IFV's. -3BN
Ask if he can get some more APC's or turrets/ guns like the M242 Bushmaster

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>>3630815

"Tall order, Foreman. Now granted, long as there's two people left on Earth, someone's going to want someone dead... but if you want the good milspec stuff, you're best off asking your boss."

He points to one of his vehicles, an angular, intimidating armored truck.

"This is the best my grease monkeys can do. Good build, easy to repair, and you can rat-at-at at it for hours with a kalash to no effect, but it'd still get ripped in half by a proper tank. Now the Bushmaster is a beaut; good fit for your rigs, too, low profile and doesn't need a man in the turret. Frankly if you could get your hands on any, I'd buy them from you. Aren't you people flying out of Yank town? I'd look there, not here."

Since nobody wants to be there longer than they have to, the three turrets are removed from Klaue's trucks and handed over to you via an engine hoist. Just to make the point that he's not letting his guard down, Klaue has his personal vehicle - a dark-red Humvee mounting a M134, both of which look pretty damn shiny and new - spin up the weapon and shoot a few rounds into the sand.

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>>3630813
MH-6 Little Bird is pictured here
Bell 412
Mi-24
Pilatus PC-9 or PC-7
A-37 Dragonfly
L-39 Albatros

What if we got the manufacturing equipment and started making them?

>>3630817
It looks like if a Halo Warthog and a Starwars Walker had a baby.

>>3630828
(OOC note: Expect stuff from https://www.reddit.com/r/shittytechnicals/ to show up a lot if you fight a land war in Africa)

>>3630826

If you just need to buy small helicopters, there are plenty; your people have generally been renting them, for the purpose of installing and maintaining cell phone towers. Stationing them on the Garibaldi will incur extra costs however, largely because the pilots and maintenance crew will want extra pay for not getting to go home at the end of the day.

>>3630837
>reddit

>>3630838
I forge the name of the guy, but I recall there was a guy who fought a one man war with a HIND helicopter in Africa.

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>>3630838
So before going to Cuba, could we stop by this place, or after?

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>>3630846

Neall Ellis is known for being an exceptional combat pilot, but rumors of him fighting a one-man war are exaggerated. He's currently in South Africa. (OOC note: In this timeline, that hasn't happened.... yet?)

>>3630850

Definitely. The main issue with modern military airplanes is that they are very expensive to maintain, since they require specialized parts, an engine rebuild every few dozen flying hours, and a lot of expensive fuel. You do know, because it made the rounds on the web, that a couple of BattleBots build teams were busted breaking into the Boneyard to acquire parts for their machines, just before the Event.

>>3630852
Yes that's the guy, I was worried the event might have taken away his glorious battle....

I'm mostly looking for a Ac130 gunship of sorts.

Just need one desu.

>>3630856

The Event occurred on or about October 11, 1996. It was, as far as anyone can tell, simultaneous across the world. Every child under 11 years of age disappeared, as did many others between 11 and 13.

A number of adults across the world likewise disappeared, the only common denominator being that they were some flavor of Christians of various denominations, mostly Protestant; notably, Pope John XXIV was among the disappeared.

The official explanation, after an article in Global Weekly highlighting Geiger counter anomalies right after the Event, is that radiation from decades of nuclear testing caused the disappearances. Current global potentate Nicolae Carpatescu rose to prominence as Secretary-General of the UN on a platform of complete denuclearization, to which all nations except the US, Russia and Israel signed onto after a particularly impassioned General Assembly speech by Carpatescu. Though disssenting, the two superpowers were convinced to not veto the resolution and, eventually, to sign onto the compact. Israel joined the compact a few months ago. This month, you learned that concurrently with the Event, something began affecting nuclear physics to the effect of rendering Carpatescu's anti-nuclear crusade entirely moot.

tldr; It's the Rapture, not the Thanos Snap :)

>>3630856
Thanks to the Garibaldi's ski-jump ramp, any propeller aircraft the size of a Mitchell B-25 or smaller can take off from her - possibly larger craft if they have RATO bottles. Carrying more than two or three aircraft would require reconfiguring the Garibaldi into a pure aircraft carrier setup.

Landing is, of course, another story, but it may not be necessary.

>>3630869
Okay, we can drop the c130 then.

Can we do some more recruiting? I think we failed the last round of recruitment.

>>3630888

Yes, in the following month. I was mostly waiting for an answer for

>>3630813

before proceeding.

I try to keep these quests realistic, save for the obvious supernatural stuff, but like with LBQ1 I will make an exception for nuclear technology, for obvious reasons.

>>3630896
>>3630896

If the reversal ever happens with nuclear physics returning to normal, then would that make any new power plants turn into nuclear bombs in an instant? Would there be a way to account for this and make safety measures?

>>3630898

Dr. Robertson attempts to raise an eyebrow, but can't quite do the Spock thing, so he just raises both.

"Good question. The answer, and please understand that I don't know this for sure but believe in erring on the side of caution, is yes. Let's take an instant to be perhaps a few milliseconds, and you will see that there is no way to take safety measures, save for burying the new power plant about as deep as my neutrino observatory... which, by the way, must remain free of any such things, so we're clear."

It's technically not "his" neutrino observatory, but the point stands.

"I suppose that on the other hand it would be an excellent way to cause a massive simultaneous nuclear initiation, if you could trigger a reversal. You could easily pop a mountain off its foundation that way, if you don't mind causing a nuclear winter in the process."

>>3630902
I can see why Carpatescu wanted all power plants turned off.....

If I am understanding this correctly, if it now takes twice as much effort to for power plants to go "critical", then if power plants running at the new norm suddenly have the laws of physics revered in a similar reversal incident f the "rapture" then the nuclear power plants could go super critical in an instant all over the world depending on how many are turned back on. That could be another end game doomsday scenario in itself.

Then again, I expect we may die again so lets yolt!

Could we also do both? Once we reach the limit on one tech tree we look into the other?

Just had an idea..... what if we gathered materials from space to observe if this new laws of physics is universal or only limited to earth? I suspect it may be the latter. We should ask the good Dr.

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>>3630813
Fuck it, I'm going Nuclear!

# We should look at the long term, if a new Manhattan Project is the way to give us back atomic energy, let's do that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkAp5gAYDUQ

>>3630910

"Interesting that you'd bring that up, Foreman. Happily enough, there's a way to do that which doesn't involve starting a space program - I understand that Carpatescu is trying to decide whether to deorbit Mir and begin work on the Global Community Space Station, or expanding the Soviet system. I suspect that orbital mechanics will decide for him."

"I was thinking something further out than low earth orbit" you say.

"So was I. How does 165000 light years sound, give or take ten percent?"

"What, the new physics let us build a warp drive?"

Robertson chuckles, managing a pretty good Santa Claus impression. "No, not at all. One of the best known extended objects in the universe, due to its relative proximity - and keep in mind that 165kLY is close - is the stellar remnant of Supernova 1987A. We've been using the spectroscopy of the ejecta as a way to calibrate speed of light measurements on long time scales, since cobalt isotope ratio is extremely predictable... or it used to. We'd just have to restart that program."

"So you need an observatory?"

"Yes. Specifically, one in the southern hemisphere, since as luck would have it that's where SN1987A is visible from. Now, I'm a nuclear physicist, not a cosmologist; my involvement would be simply as a lab manager. There's a closed observatory in the Atacama Desert which can be reopened, or we can set up our own facility in South Africa or New Zealand."

You explain that South Africa right now would be problematic.

"So if you had this observatory?"

"I believe that, combined with my continued work, six months of readings there - you understand, we have to let the Earth cross half a solar orbit in order to perform parallax measurements - will give us a quantitative answer about what to expect. In turn, this will allow any engineering projects to start from a baseline of reliable measurements, rather than guesswork. So, it's a matter of whether you want results fast, or good. Either way, it will not be cheap."

# You will lose a work crew and 2BN of budget for six months to reopen the observatory in South America or New Zealand. The local subpotentate will likely appreciate the investment. There is a high likelyhood of major science returns in six months.

# We can't afford it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=nRmJbP25m-Y

>>3630930
# You will lose a work crew and 2BN of budget for six months to reopen the observatory in South America or New Zealand. The local subpotentate will likely appreciate the investment. There is a high likelyhood of major science returns in six months.

FOR SCIENCE IS HOW WE DEFEAT GOD

>>3630935
>>3630917

(OOC note: Can I get a consensus on these? It's kind of an important decision.)

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>>3630930
# You will lose a work crew and 2BN of budget for six months to reopen the observatory in South America or New Zealand. The local subpotentate will likely appreciate the investment. There is a high likelyhood of major science returns in six months.

>>3630939
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

Sorry, I was looking for my memes.

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>>3630945
>>3630935

You decide to

# reopen the Atacama Observatory. Subpotentate Santiago doesn't strike you as someone who cares terribly much about science, but she's likely to appreciate the business.

# reopen the Mount John University Observatory. Subpotentate Wahid is more of a technocrat than Santiago, and may be more appreciative of the effort, but the observatory is at a lower elevation and will require a bit more work.

Both science facilities were shut down shortly after the Event and, for one reason or another, never reopened. Carpatescu seems more interested in promoting applied science and engineering than pure science, and most subpotentates save Zakharov have followed suit.

#Set up work crew in South America to reopen observatory

#Go with the nuclear option.

>>3630950

# reopen the Atacama Observatory. Subpotentate Santiago doesn't strike you as someone who cares terribly much about science, but she's likely to appreciate the business.

A chance to speak to Santiago and catch up.

>>3630951

"Very well, Foreman. The rules may have changed, but we can still play hockey."

Next time you see Dr. Robertson (by telepresence, of course) his lab seems to have gone back in time a little; tomes from the 1930s and 1940s have been brought out of storage, there's a picture of Dr. Oppenheimer on the wall, and the man himself seems to have aged a little bit, possibly due to lack of sleep at an advanced age.

With the turrets on, your APCs look a lot more military than before, when they could have passed as police vehicles. You can take them off quickly, of course, but right now they have to be on, for training.

Your covert team has recovered its manpower, and the new guys are training out in the yard; you'll have to explain to them that "covert" doesn't really go well with singing cadence at five in the morning.

"I don't know but I've been told, Nicky's got a network node! Likes to flip the on off switch, dig that Rom son of a bitch!"

Could be worse, really. Mr. Carpatescu seems too pragmatic to care much about this sort of thing, and he's made such a big deal about freedom of speech that the Global Community Weekly editor-at-large (very at large, since as far as you know he hasn't penned an editorial since the Event) is a member of the Christian Remnant.

(I gotta do a bit of math)

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Hello, Foreman!

You are planning out CATS' operation for the month. Rules for allocating personnel and assets: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.Quest2Rules.html

You, the Foreman, can deploy yourself on TWO actions (in most cases) for a small bonus to all rolls. You can even risk your own life on a covert action, if you so choose!

Dr. Robertson is somewhat busy setting up the observatory for this month, but can be deployed on ONE action for a medium bonus to R&D rolls.

Ryan Andrews can be deployed on ONE action for a large bonus to construction rolls or a small bonus to any non-covert rolls.

Moira McSingh can be deployed on ONE action per turn, for a medium bonus to covert rolls or a small bonus to all rolls. She can work with both covert and work crews and will give basic combat capability to a work crew.

Your Nomenklator system can be issued to ONE team per turn, for a small bonus to all rolls, but at the risk of being revealed to the public.

Performing an action outside of your home territory will also require the availability of (complexity) fleet assets, OR renting fleet assets out at the cost of 1/asset.

C0:

Survey a territory for opportunity using yourself or a trusted agent. Not surveyed: Caribbean, Northern Europe, Western Europe, China, India, Greenland, Japan, Indochina, Pacific Islands, Afghanistan, Madagascar, Sahara, Central Africa, South Africa, Israel, Middle East, Western Russia

Buy equipment on the open market:
Power generation 1
Small arms 1
Network equipment 2
Fleet assets 2
Aerospace part 3
Supplies (food, water, fuel) 0.25

Buy equipment on the black market:
Small arms 1
Squad weapons 2
Stimulants 1

Undergo combat training (Max once per month)

C1:

Reconfigure the Garibaldi (generic, cargo, hospital, strike, orbital)

Survey a territory for opportunity using a team. The result will vary depending on whether a work or covert team was sent.

Hire out a covert operations team for a situational reward.

Construct network equipment.

Construct a Cellular-Solar pylon. (+1 cellular or internet; requires 1 network part)

C2:

Do research (1~3).

Construct an aerospace part.

Construct a logistics hub (cap 1 fleet requirement for that territory; can deploy covert teams there with no advance notice; costs 1 power)

C3:

Recruit a work team.

Schedule a satellite launch, which will happen at the end of NEXT month. Requires an aerospace part.

Do research (4~6).

C4:

Recruit a covert team.

Do research (7~9). None of your research programs are far ahead enough.

Construct a network node. (unifies cell and net in that territory; costs 1 power, 1 network)

C5:

Rush a satellite launch, which will happen at the end of this month. Requires an aerospace part.

Do research (10). None of your research programs are far ahead enough.

What are your orders for the month?

>>3630980

(Note that the options have changed somewhat; notably, you can take half your time for the month to take basic combat training)

Carla is still setting up the warehouse monitoring system.

>>3630980

Further clarification: In territories with a network node, there are only two numbers because constructing additional pylons will improve both voice and data connectivity. That's the whole point of a network node.

>>3630985
>>3630991
Did we finish build the stuff for Carpatescu in his new city?

If so lets get to recruitment

Have 4 work teams split into two groups recruiting more work crews. One headed by us, and another headed by Mr Andrews

Have the remaining work crews and the covert teams recruiting lead by Moira.

Go train with some firearms

>>3631020

Yes, the network node for Carpatescu got built on schedule and within budget.

Note that you only have 6 work crews available: 1 is busy in Atacama and 1 was lost to attrition (research fumble earlier).

>>3630991
We left Mr. Folgore as a freelancer right?

Can we have him recruit and hire some teams for us?

>>3631022
We actually lost an entire research crew to that? Holy red heifer!

Robby really is a mad scientist.

Hmm should we send a work crew to the middle east and meet up with Folgore?

Maybe pull a work crew off the covert recruitment to go survey the middle east.

So if i did it the turn correctly it should look like

4 work crews on recruitment in two teams
2 lead by Andrews
2 lead by Foreman

2 covert and 1 work crew on recruiting a covert team lead by Moira.

1 team on survey to middle east

Our last action on firearms training.

We could put the middle east survey team on hold and fold that team into one of the others on recruitment.

>>3631024

Bruno Folgore completed his training and is now working for Carpatescu directly. You did not come to terms, largely because he felt the other assignment was more prestigious.

>>3631026

(Blame the dice, and the fact that Robertson and Tsion got each other's number: a few people converted and quit upon realizing that physics had changed)

>>3631033
Oh darn.

I guess we roll that last work crew back into recruitment where ever their needed or constructing more equipment. Have that last crew make some network equipment actually.

I hope everything checks out.

>>3631038

why do we need 3 military squads?

we should keep working on theology so that we get an idea when SHTF and know when to stockpile. put a tail on the pastor guy who is in our own city anyway or at least check on his internet connection.

>>3631046
Because casualties reduce us to only 1 squad effectively.

On top of that, it it would be easier to recruit them in the future since it would increase our success chance without having to take from work crews.

Also we will need them if we want to be able to build in Africa. Either our crews work with extra protection, or we need to bump off the current African Subpotentate and put someone friendlier. Either way we need more guys.

Also sending more people on a mission increases its success.

>>3631046
A tail on the pastor guy still requires an covert team, unless you want to put work crews on it wand probably watch them fail hilariously.

>>3631046
>>3631062
Let me correct ya on something. We have 2 covert teams but no guns. Get the equipment first then train. We also have to at least do something on the map this turn, so build at least one thing somewhere so our boss doesn't get pissy with us.

>>3631065
We just bought a bunch, and its easier to send a bunch of crews to acquire weapons than it is to acquire said crews to handle the weapons.

There is one work crew building network equipment.

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>>3631046
>>3631063

You've already put a passive tap on Rev. Barnes' church website; they haven't been doing much, is all. You do know that they are using a lot of bandwidth in video calls, though. The website itself is pretty forgettable ( http://www.f3.to/newhopevillagechurch ) although it gets a reasonable amount of traffic for what it is.

One thing you do find out is that only Barnes' friends know about the bunker under the church, the fitting of which (in the guise of installing a water tank and renovating the parking lot) is eating up most of the church's weekly donation income.


>>3631065

You do have guns now! The Centauro IFVs have been fitted with turrets, and you were able to procure squad weapons from Klaue and explosives from deGroot. All in all you can field two squads with two IFVs each. Fortunately, your force composition choices have given you professionals, rather than weirdos (Moira excluded, possibly), a good mix of former soldiers from the US and Commonwealth countries, and private investigators or repo men who are better suited for quiet or sneaky jobs.

What are your orders for the month?

>>3631104
We can tip of some critical journalists and maybe send a agent to snap a picture of the construction efforts to "expose" him and where all the funds are going. Not sure if we should though.....

Start building I guess? How did recruitment go?

>>3631117
>>3631020
>>3631030

Confirm that this is the plan? It checks out for resources and manpower

>>3631121
How much is the resource cost? I have trouble tallying the costs.

Sure confirm.

>>3631123

You're looking at an expense of 8. Can I get a second? :)

>>3631134
Oh I miscounted, I thought it was 7.

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>>3631134
I second.

>>3631134
I say no we only have 11 funds we need our dudes making money if we want to do anything on turn three. What is all your planning here? We will only have 3 funds on a whole turn we wont be able to do shit

>>3630980
My vote for a plan is
>2 work team with us recruiting a new work team
>1 team make network
> buy one power
>3 team make a node in south america with ryan Andrews
>2 covert team do jobs.with moira

> us go to mew Babylon for a visit as requested

>>3631225
Doesn't this leave us with less than 2 funds?

And we lose out on firearms training to face the boss after he probably knows what we did in Africa. It would be better to avoid him till we have built more stuff.

>>3631414

This would still cost 8 but the 2 covert teams would be working reasonably makeing us 2 putting us at 5 money they can then work the turn after bringing us to 7

Thinking on that we can have the 2 getting another work team doing somthing else. Like research with our doctor while we go to firearms training as well.

>>3631521
I thought situational rewards were more like boons or objects and items rather than flat out cash.... it'd need to be at least 2 BN to cover costs so we come out with 1 BN or hopefully more?

>>3631614
When the mission states +1 bn that means we make that as profit. If they say they dont pay we get a -1 bn some missions also showed +2bn i assume they are harder but we can try for cash.
Using the covert teams never cost us money unless they fucked up like last time.

>>3631225
I second.

In the near future I would propose we put some further research into Disaster Preparedness. Maybe send some work crews to areas around the Pacific rim (Chile, Japan, etc) that have regular exposure to earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.

Lets build ourselves an internet that can withstand even the Apocalypse.

>>3631628
So its a bit a of gamble then.

Also why couldn't we just send covert teams next round for cash and use it the same month? I'm fairly certain we have 1 more month till "next turn".

>>3631860
Its 1 month a turn. Its been that way the whole game?
We get our budget every quarter - 3 turns - 3 months of the year.

We can do that but then we would only have cash and could only use 5 work teams at min. If we do it both turns we can use 7 reasonably.

>>3631727
We could switch from recruiting work team to researching preparedness with the the doctor that sounds like a fine idea considering our budget.

>>3631225
>>3631104

Changing my plan too
>2 work team researching preparedness with doctor Robertson.
>1 team make network
> buy one power
>3 team make a node in south america with ryan Andrews
>2 covert team do jobs.with moira
> us go to mew Babylon for a visit as requested
>us go do combat training.

>>3631727

That's the job, yes :) ostensibly, anyway.

>>3631879
>>3631860
>>3631727

So is the plan >>3631886 ?

>>3631879
>We get our budget every quarter
That's what I mean by turn. I tend to think of the month by month as rounds or actions.

I think our good doktor is busy at an observatory doing important SCIENCE! for the next few months.

>>3631915
Ahh I see I seperated turn by month as that is when we do things. Either way works i guess.

We can tell him to do other things though the turn setup still says he can be deployed although the research should be fine without him anyways.

>>3631921
What about Carla? Can't we get her on this? We can probably Contract her for a few months since this seems to be her area of expertise.

>>3631914
I only object to visiting New Babylon, at least not without a security team.

>>3631943
Well our boss asked us to come. I think he would consider it a slight to not, as well i think the security team might annoy him. Its not like they could actually save us if the literal anti christ wanted us dead.

From what we can tell his words can probably cause them to turn on us due to mind controling jesus magic.

>>3631934
Thats a good idea we can switch visiting new Babylon to talking to carla and see if she would assist us in desaster preparedness

>>3631914

Plan v3

>2 work team researching preparedness with doctor Robertson.
>1 team make network
> buy one power
>3 team make a node in south america with ryan Andrews
>2 covert team do jobs.with moira
>l> us go to talk to carla to assist on disaster preparedness.
>us go do combat training.

How about this?

We still got to at least talk to the boss. Perhaps make the excuse we're busy doing field research on disaster prep and do a phone conference? We can at least mollify him by showing some initiative.

>>3631914
Yeah that is my vote

>>3631959
I just don't want to visit this soon, I intend to visit just not this turn....

I want us to have some more things done to make our boss happy, so he'd be less harsh on us or overlook some details, if he knows about our African tumble in the sand.

>>3631973
About as good as it'll get.

Still not sure about distracting Robertson, but lets roll with it.

>>3631973
Supporting.

Rolled 77, 81 = 158 (2d100)

>>3632082
>>3631973

Dr. Robertson is actually in a good spot to assist with disaster preparedness: the Atacama desert has been used before by NASA for simulating the Martian environment. Add to that that it hasn't rained in decades there, and that it's the dog days of summer (January), and the teams working there end up testing dew collectors and what Dr. Robertson calls "little more than dowsing rods" but are in fact honest attempts at detecting well-digging spots using magnetometry.

In the meantime, you have people work on the basics: the network nodes that Carpatescu requested and that ultimately will give you a robust Internet are being built; you prefer to do the assembling in house. Routine work perhaps, but very much necessary.

Colonel Santiago does not get along with Mr. Andrews, at all; they are polite and professional to each other, of course, but it's pretty obvious that they see the world in drastically different ways.

Carla has been in communication with Dr. Robertson; she tells you that he recommends you put the Network Node away from the observatory to avoid electromagnetic noise.

"So, it looks like Carpatescu has been stockpiling. I appreciate his reluctance to destroy surplus food, it's an insult to dignity, but MRE production is just as high as it was when the world had multiple functioning militaries - those military contractors were never demobilized. The other group that is stockpiling, mainly food staples, calls itself the International Commodity Co-op, apparently it's being run by a few former Stanford students so I'd imagine they got some venture-capitalist money.

I'm working on integrating emergency stockpiles into our nodal map.; with our current fleet assets and using the Nomenklator as an expert system, we should be able to efficiently route supplies where they are needed, should there be a tsunami or earthquake."

"How about disasters with a global scope?" you ask, mindful more of Dr. Robertson's recipe for nuclear disaster than of Tsion Ben-Judah's apocalyptic warnings.

"Survival of the fittest, I suppose, then" Carla shrugs. "Paradoxically, I'd recommend heading towards hostile environments: they are a lot more predictable than people."

With the Peacekeepers recruiting for Carpatescu's global defence initiative, a lot of local security forces found themselves in the same personnel bind as you.

# Peacekeeping forces led by Bruno Folgore have surrounded the Cairo Museum, where a group of fanatics are attempting to resurrect an ancient mummy using all sorts of ritual items they've stolen. The issue is that they have hostages; Folgore said that if the fanatics don't surrender in two days he's going to tear-gas the building, which would damage the priceless artifacts inside. This would require some finesse. Reward: 1BN

# Noted author Terry Pratchett, freshly knighted by Queen Elizabeth (who still holds a ceremonial position), has disappeared; his editor would like to track him down. Since you run the internet and he's known to have been an amateur coder since the 1980s, you have an advantage there. Reward: 1BN

# The situation in South Africa has finally come to blows: Rebohoths' land reform measures have begun with a "pilot program" that is basically a naked land grab away from white farmers and towards Rebohoth's cronies. Some of the black farmers who were left out have attacked existing landowners, figuring that the subpotentate will turn a blind eye. The landowners are asking for help, either to be evacuated (1BN) or to defend their land until they can petition Carpatescu for relief (2BN). You will have to do this under a false flag, since Rebohoth has it in for you.

# In less dramatic developments, the Risto Shipping Company is requesting an armed escort for another nuclear reactor deactivation job, this time in Fukushima, Japan. Reward: 1 fleet asset.

# Closer to home, the Peacekeepers under the command of Mr. Dimmsdale want to run a field training exercise and have asked for a private security outfit to be the OPFOR. Reward: 1BN

Moira points out that it would be expedient for your security force to have its own corporate identity when hiring itself out.

>>3632267

Carla and Dr. Robertson make progress; the experiences in the desert and in northern Canada allow the creation of a web based, easy to print survival guide of sorts. Within week, a guy named Jimmy Wales has forked the webpage and added a CGI script to allow users to expand upon it. Topics include dealing with extremes in temperature, recovering clean water from the environment, making the most of scarce electrical power, and field medicine.

Despite their personal antipathy, Andrews and Santiago are sufficiently professional that the Network Node is installed in Rio De Janeiro without any issues; the bandwidth is sufficient for basic video distribution, to the point that within the month a local studio pops up to start distributing horrible ripoffs of American cartoons. The lawyers will have a field day with that one, but on your end, it means that the infrastructure works and, encouragingly, people are taking advantage of it.

You have decided to

# get between Ryan and Santiago and undergo combat training in South America.

# train locally.

# join the OPFOR job, since barring accidents it will be safe. (Requires accepting it)

>>3632289
# The situation in South Africa has finally come to blows: Rebohoths' land reform measures have begun with a "pilot program" that is basically a naked land grab away from white farmers and towards Rebohoth's cronies. Some of the black farmers who were left out have attacked existing landowners, figuring that the subpotentate will turn a blind eye. The landowners are asking for help, either to be evacuated (1BN) or to defend their land until they can petition Carpatescu for relief (2BN). You will have to do this under a false flag, since Rebohoth has it in for you.
I want farmers to help us farm....

# Peacekeeping forces led by Bruno Folgore have surrounded the Cairo Museum, where a group of fanatics are attempting to resurrect an ancient mummy using all sorts of ritual items they've stolen. The issue is that they have hostages; Folgore said that if the fanatics don't surrender in two days he's going to tear-gas the building, which would damage the priceless artifacts inside. This would require some finesse. Reward: 1BN
Gotta save history.

# get between Ryan and Santiago and undergo combat training in South America.
Make peace and with girl who can kill us with her thighs, and a professor soon to have radioactive powers ACTIVATE!

>Left beyond is back.
Well that's grand, what's the quest like now?

>>3632462

There's been a game over already. Do you need a recap?

>>3632468
>There's been a game over already.
I was wondering why we were a human now, go ahead and recap.

>>3632478

RECAP

The Rapture happened on October 11, 1996. Nicolae Carpatescu's ascension to effective global power after that was swift and surprisingly uncontested; the global potentate has been working hard to create a unified and fair world, and managed to assuage most of his detractor, save for a fringe "Christian Remnant" that claims he is the Antichrist and the world is going to end in about six years now. The first post-Rapture babies are now two years old, and show no sign of ill health or abnormalities.

It's now the waning days of the year 1998; You have been in charge of the Custodial Arrangement of Telecommunications System for five seasons now, and your hardworking crews of engineers, technicians, contractor wranglers, and financial analysts have managed to blanket the globe with a thin but ever-strengthening web of fiber and radio waves so that even the poorest Brazilian or Malay farmer can check expected prices for her wares in advance using a cell phone or public terminal. Global poverty has gone below the double digit percentage for the first time in recorded history, and your boss is happy to admit -- in private -- that your own efforts were instrumental in reaching this goal.

Not all is well in this up-and-coming utopia; tensions in Africa are mounting, with Subpotentate Rebohoth's power base having to resort to more and more naked threats of violence to keep a lid on things - and you are actively working to destabilize the region in order to be able to install a more pliant subpotentate. If Carpatescu is aware of this power play, he's letting you get away with it. To this and other ends, you've built a small force of former soldiers, investigators, and repo men (and an Indian-Irish demolitionist, apparently) and procured a decommissioned small aircraft carrier.

There's also the matter that when the Event happened, in addition to taking away the world's children and a few religious nuts, some of the world's radiation was taken away as well... this caused the Event to be blamed on radiation in the popular press, resulting in the closure of all nuclear programs. You have, however, started your own, way far north in the Canadian interior and in the Andine deserts, to try to figure out what's going on. So far, the results are ominous: the laws of physics have, for most intents and purposed, changed - not much, but enough that any nuclear program would have to be started from scratch and radiometric dating may now be impossible.

Is the world really going to end in six years and a bit? Why did Carpatescu hypnotize you a few months ago and made you stand in a broom closet for an hour, apparently just for the fun of it? Why did renowned Jewish scholar Tsion Ben-Judah sound exactly like an American televangelist when you finally met him? What looms?

>>3632489

(Bad repaste, it's actually February 1999. You have seen a Tribulation timeline, but a very approximate one, and some of the details were wrong, and you haven't studied the matter further yet)

>>3632478

The game over was due to the Foreman being a bit too willing to stand up in person to Rebohoth, Subpotentate of the United African States, who is basically a cross between Robert Mugabe and the Nigerians from District 9.

You have generally good relations with the other subpotentates, but with this guy you've already crossed the "shooting war" threshold. Carpatescu seems either unaware, or unwilling to interfere as long as it doesn't escalate so much that it makes the news.

>>3632478
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=left%20beyond has the old and new archive. And a post about SMAC in the middle

>>3632607
How does it feel having a quest get so popular it buds fanfic.

>>3632643

I'm very grateful and hope I am doing a good job with this one! https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12330438/1/Mercy

>>3632455

Lets not get further involved in Africa. We got a lot of heat in the region and we really need to let it cool so we don't get assassins after us or worse, get Carpatescu pissed at us for workplace drama.

If we want farmers, there are probably plenty of opportunities in areas like Central America, Central Asia, etc.

#Go train in South America.

#Help Bruno Folgore deal with the crazy cultists.

(Isn't Ryan the Industrialist?)

#Assist Risto Shipping
Opportunity to explore more mysteries of the Atom and maybe get some ideas on how to protect our buildings from disaster.... Possibly?

>>3632683
He is. Apparently styr wasn't the only one from the future to show up in the past. . . . . . Hmmmmn.

>>3632455
Support prefering defending the land

Rolled 99 (1d100)

>>3632782
>>3632683
>>3632455

You can send both your squads to South Africa, or one to there and one to elsewhere. The later option is, of course, more dangerous.

>>3632455
>>3632683

You join Ryan Andrews in Brazil, ostensibly to be there for the ribbon-cutting for the network node. Actually, you spend a significant amount of time with Colonel Santiago... and end up having to listen to her griping about the Yankee's capitalistic ways.

"So he goes" *BLAM!* "Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant." *BLAM! BLAM!* "Si me dice, verdad? Needed a MBA for that?" *BLAM!*

She notes that you shoot better when you're distracted, which she doesn't take as a good sign - you should be more focused.

"So, not impressed. Now your band of eggheads in the mountains" *BLAM!* "they're at least taking the time to learn from the locals - stop, stop, trigger discipline, if you're not shooting you shouldn't hold it like that - "

And that's the part where you get shot in the head.

Oh dear... x.x

>>3632903
Did we just get killed again? Wtf?

>>3632903

Santiago wanted to make your training realistic, so she slapped a PASGT helmet, infantry, standard issue, on your noggin so that you'd have to deal with the slight obstruction in visibility. Good thing, too, because it saved your life.

Mindful of what you've been taught, you duck behind the lane separators, take a moment to check if you have a concussion, and peek out in the direction that you figure the attack came from.

The would-be assassin must have been either fantastically stupid or suicidal to try to shoot a VIP inside the training facility of Santiago's personal guard - although he gets partial credit for getting in there in the first place, you suppose.

Santiago orders you to get the hell up as if you were a rank private, and you do; your would-be murderer has been disarmed, courtesy of a shot to the palm that looks like stigmata, and is now holding his hands up in front of your gun.

"You're the Antichrist! Your network is the real mark of the beast! You must die! Thousands will come after me!"

He's white, but has an Afrikaans accent, which means that he was likely sent by Rebohoth.

Santiago makes a few rapid hand signs, and her guards grab the man and hold him up in your sights.

"Your shot, Foreman, if you like. As an apology for the security breach."

You get the idea that Santiago's guards are in for the mother of all dressing-downs....


# Shoot the guy, cleanly.

# Shoot the guy, messily.

# Perform a brief interrogation.

# Tell Santiago that you'll let it slide, but she owes you.

>>3632903
>And that's the part where you get shot in the head.
Well i guess the quest's over again.

(Nice fakeout~!)

#Perform a brief interrogation

>>3632947

(If your relationships with a subpotentate go to zero, they'll send an assassin. Your "landlord" and Carpatescu, obviously, have an advantage in doing so. This guy... didn't. A perk of being young is that you start with some combat skill, a drawback of being old is that you can't engage in combat at all, a perk of being a committee is that you can't be assassinated except by Carpatescu)

>>3632947
I'm gonna kill everyone you ever loved.
>>3632946
# Perform a brief interrogation.
Demand to know what group he is affiliated with and why a Christian is working for not only the most evil of Carpatescu's subpotenants, but doing so while claiming to be out to kill the Anti-christ when it's an open fucking secret who the real one is. Press the gun into his dick, Then ask again.

>>3632968
>I'm gonna kill everyone you ever loved.
Good luck with that.

>>3632968
I don't think its 'common knowledge' outside the Christian Remnant. The Apocalypse just started; he hasn't done anything particularly cheeky aside from hypnotize his cabinet to ignore a murder he committed....

I'm curious why a white Afrikaaner is the hitman. Aren't they the ones being oppressed by Rehoboth's antics?

>>3632968
>>3632955

You aim at the guy's head first. He doesn't blink. You aim between his legs. He does.

"Who are you with?"

"I- I'm-"

"I didn't ask your name, I don't give a shit. Who sent you?"

"P-please! Rebohoth sent me! They have my wife hostage and my farmstead surrounded! I swear!"

"What was the Antichrist bullshit about?"

"It's what he told me to say!"

"Are you a Christian?"

"I always went to church! I have nothing to do with the Rapture crazies!"

"How were you planning to escape?"

The guy starts crying. "I wasn't! I had to say a pass phrase so that Rebohoth would know I made the hit!"


# Let's get Rebohoth on the phone.

# Shoot this clown and send him back to Africa in a box.

# He's telling you what he thinks you want to hear; let's lock him up and get an actual confession later.

# Get Santiago to play good cop, since you're the one holding a gun to this man's balls. She can be bad cop next time.

>>3633002

The claim has been made publically. However, various groups have made it about Carpatescu, his former mentor Johnatan Stonagal (who died right after the UN General Assembly meeting that devolved near-absolute power to Carpatescu, incidentally - a murder-suicide apparently), you, every male subpotentate, the wife of the former governor of Arkansas for some reason, the Prince of Wales, and lately that the Internet has begun to be available all over the world although it hasn't penetrated daily life much yet, either internet itself or the Gangster Computer God that is supposedly in control of it. You know that at least one of these claims has been made by William Cameron to muddy the waters.

#Get Santiago to play good cop.

Well we do know there have been land grabs. And now we have a legitimate reason to give Rehoboth the business in South Africa...

>>3633016
# Get Santiago to play good cop, since you're the one holding a gun to this man's balls. She can be bad cop next time.

Maybe we play dead for a bit while we take out Rebohoth.

So I plan we support the farmers to rebell but that's a distraction to lead Hassan away. We send a kill team to take out Rebohoth either via poison or any other means. Then we use our informational powers to try and get the UN guy elected to african supontate.

Is Dr Robertson here training with us?

Oooh, I like the idea of going off the grid for a while. Out of curiosity, who would succeed us in the event of our death?

Hasan's probably based in North Africa. Probably different leader in South. There's also Enoch the Moderate guy. UN dude is in hiding.

We have not made a proper contingency for that yet.. We can try planning for it....

Definitely worth investing in.

>>3633016
>get Santiago to play good cop

File: 300px-Protracker_3.62_scr(...).png (89 KB, 300x240)

89 KB PNG

>>3633042
>>3633036
>>3633206

You growl something in passable Spanish, making it sounds like an insult to your would-be assassin - you actually told Santiago to play good cop. The expression isn't native to the language, but she figures it out anyway.

She pretends to yell at you to calm down, and tells the guy that since he has surrendered, he will be considered a prisoner of war despite being here on false pretenses. "We are strong, we can afford mercy."

You say something else, and she "has the brilliant idea" of sticking a gun loaded with rubber bullelts in the guy's good hand and have him shoot one of her guards that happens to look like you. The Afrikaaner understands her intentions, and plays along; if his family is alive, this will keep them alive a little longer, at least.

Courtesy of some tomato sauce and a cell phone camera, you have a video of your own demise, in glorious 144p. It wouldn't stand accurate scrutiny - namely the camera turns on and turns off at slightly too convenient moments - but it's pretty decent.

# It can go on GNN immediately.

# It can go on GNN tonight - your death isn't breaking news.

# Leak it through the internet.

# Leak it through the internet, and pretend to suppress or disclaim it immediately after, via press release.

# Leak it through the internet, and pretend to suppress or disclaim it immediately after, via a still image and a voiceover by you that is intentionally badly cut so that it seems pasted from existing audio of you.

After a shower, Santiago says that she has to kick the ass of her internal security for a half hour or so, and while the press release is prepared, you are left alone with your thoughts. She'd like to talk to you afterwards, if you feel up to it.

# See what the sec teams have been doing.

# Snoop on Rev. Barnes' FTP server, just because you can.

# Send an email to Carpatescu to explain the situation.

# Send an email to Dr. Robertson to explain the situation.

>>3633263
# It can go on GNN tonight - your death isn't breaking news.

# Send an email to Dr. Robertson to explain the situation.
Then talk to Santiago some more. The most dangerous enemy is one that you think is dead.

# Leak it through the internet, and pretend to suppress or disclaim it immediately after, via press release.

# Send an email to Carpatescu to explain the situation.

# Send an email to Dr. Robertson to explain the situation

>>3633263

>It can go on GNN tonight.

>send an email to Carpatescu, all our names characters and our covert teams explaining the situation.

>>3632289
Task some of the brighter minds in our work geouos figure out a good corperate identity for them.

> with this nues put both teams on the work in Africa defending the farmers. We want to hurt that bastard.

>>3633289
>>3633306
Why the fuck would you guys tell Carpatescu? Don't, that like looking at a sign that says "minefield" and walking strait into it!

>>3633332

Easy. Keep the boss on the level so we still have a job after this is all over. Its not like he's the literal devil... yet

>>3633341
Ya do realize he's more liable to kill us if he knows that were fighting with his underling than he is of we deal with that problem ourselves and do it to his benefit right?

>>3633357
He's also likely to kill us if he thinks we're going rogue and operating independently of the Global Community. Keeping him in the loop maintains the trust.

It's just like working with TOL in the last campaign. Maintain the trust.... for now

>>3633371
Dude, when they learned that we were making plans to help them, they responded by making plans to replace us with "human computers." This is the situation where you don't let your boss know anything so they don't look into your activities.

>>3633357
We can say he tried to assassinate us amd we are going low to avoid it. Or not even mention we know who assasinated us amd we are looking into it. We just cant have him think we are dead.

Yeah lets just tell him we had an attempted assasination and we are laying low till we find out who did it. He can even help.

>>3633542
And when he finds put he dosnt nessesarilly find out why beyond this bastard didn't put a cell tower in my nation first as our troops were working under proxy.

(Y'all decide on what to tell Carpatescu, if anything! I have to see a consensus because it's kind of important...)

You send a brief secured email to Dr. Robertson to tell him that this is a sting operation and you are alive and well, he hasn't lost his patron.

That done, you send a single text message to Moira. "Proceed with full force."

Your adversary has very little understanding of modern communications technology, so there's little to worry about when it comes to SIGINT... yet.

>>3633306
>>3633284

"... in other news, the administrator for the Global Community Web initiative has been targeted by a Christian Remnant suicide attacker. When reached by GNN, Global News Weekly editor-at-large William Cameron had this to say: "We are a peaceful amalgamation of Bible-believing churches, and while we disagree with the Carpatescu administration's heavy-handed approach to globalization, we do not believe in violence. This is clearly the work of secular nationalists, or black supremacists- I mean, white supremacists. As a newspaperman, I consider the fledgling digital media worthy of our respect and consideration, and will indicate my staff to engage our best investigative reporting efforts in assisting local law enforcement with their inquries.""

The grainy video is made even grainier by NTSC/PAL conversion, which should hopefully let Rebohoth think whatever he wants to think; the only people who know that your would-be asssassin is in custody rather than in a body bag are those in Santiago's remarkably Spartan headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.

You have your HQ team stream to your laptop what they can of the Centauri's cameras. Moira has gone a bit hammy on this one: the vehicles have been hastily repainted black with red highlights (by the look of it someone literally splashed red paint buckets on the sides) and an extremely garish orange flag with "TIGER MAFIA!!" written on it with a wallpaint brush.

A few of your troopers, by the look of it the designated marksmen, get out of the IFV's and reinforce the farmers.

The attackers are mostly carrying small arms and a few AK74s; your IFVs are essentially impervious to these. Above, a single helicopter is hovering; the resolution is too low to tell what kind it is, all you know is that it's not shooting. Maybe it's the news?

You tell Moira to

# use her best judgement, nobody needs a backseat driver an ocean away.

# focus on helping the farmers evacuate.

# pin down the attackers with some carefully misaimed autocannon fire so that the besieged can regroup.

# fuck it, mow the attackers down!

# lift one of the autocannons and take the helicopter out, it's likely the only player in this that's directly under Rebohoth's control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_1zWAvHCkE

>>3633640
# use her best judgement, nobody needs a backseat driver an ocean away.

If we tell Carpatescu anything. Tell him we'll be playing dead while we work and it won't impact our ability to get shit done. I still support leaving him out of it.

>>3633640
>tell Moira to use her best judgement. She can have fun with the explosives she bought if she likes.

>>3633673

Yeah i vote tell him we are playing dead to find out who assasinated us and lay low till the danger is over our job will proceed as normal.

>>3633679
Why the hell do y'all want to keep telling him what were doing. All we should say if you guys force us to say anything is that we're gonna play dead and it won't keep us from completing our directive.

>>3633688
So just cut out the part where we are trying to find out who killed us. Its on live television we died i dont want him putting someone else in out place. We should tell hin Somthing. I think its perfectly reasonable to say hey im gonna find out who tried to kill me to your boss.

Why keep it secret he will apoint a new head of our organization. We will loose our job and then pop out of hiding? No thats fucking stupid we cant just actually have everyone think we are dead we will get REPLACED BY CARPATESCU BECAUSE HE THINKS WE ARE DEAD. We need to tell him something.

>>3633702
If we just tell him, "hey, I'm gonna pretend I'm dead for a while, and it's not gonna stop me from meeting your directive." We won't get fired or replaced. If you say, 'im gonna try to Private investigator this shit myself on your time' were gonna be fucking murdered, you dumb fuck.

>>3633640
I fell asleep so I missed faking our death.

>>3633730
Ok so you'd rather he investigate why we got shot? Then he can find out why this is happening in the first place. Do we not want to avoid that?

Rolled 78, 58 = 136 (2d100)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYCwCvf6IjA

>>3633673
>>3633679

Moira flashes a peace sign and starts calling out targets to the turret gunner. "Arright, boss! OPEN FIRE!"

The Centauro IFVs shoot all their flares and smoke grenades in the air and towards the attacking guerrillas respectively, making as much flash and noise as possible; the IFV with the 57mm fires in the guerrillas' general direction, while the other three lift their 30mm autocannons at the helicopter. You can't really tell what's going on, since the flares have saturated the cameras.

"Huh, that looks interesting." You did want to talk to Santiago, but not quite right now... she came in barely making a sound, and you are, when it comes down to it, in her home

# but she should probably leave anyway, you're jumpy enough.

# and it looks like you're going to get a free tactical commentary, so you live with it.

>>3633263
I'm too late for this vote but....
# Leak it through the internet, and pretend to suppress or disclaim it immediately after, via a still image and a voice over by you that is intentionally badly cut so that it seems pasted from existing audio of you.

# Send an email to Dr. Robertson to explain the situation.

# See what the sec teams have been doing.
Are the showers cummunal?

>>3633640
Can we intercept any video and radio signals coming from the helicopter? It would help us determine if we should shoot it down or not.

>>3633749
He's not going to investigate it if the shit he wants is still getting done. Carpatescu isn't a "good boss" he's a neglectful dumbass who gets mad when something isn't going right but doesn't care when what he wants is getting done. You are the exact opposite of genre savvy.

>>3633752
# and it looks like you're going to get a free tactical commentary, so you live with it.

>>3633758
I have to agree, hes not going to investigate, hes probably going to send a new guy to take our spot.....

# and it looks like you're going to get a free tactical commentary, so you live with it.

We have satellite with the camera's turned off in her territory. If she does anything that gets us removed, the new guy is likely to turn them back on.

>>3633752
>and it looks like your going to get a free tactical commentary.
I like this girl hopefully we can trust her.


>>3633758
Hes gonna investigate because hes the leader of a world organization whos had an improtsnt worker get shot. Hes going to look into specifically becuase he is not a neglectiful dumbass. Nothing weve seen about him shows that he wont look into somthing once they have a reason too.we need to direct that investigation so he dosnt find out things we dont want him too.

>>3633774
Remeber a few threads ago when we actually did get shot and killed by Rebohoth's men? No investigation...

>>3633790
Well im P sure Reboth told him and, he was just like fine whatever as we really hadnt done much at that point to prove our worth. Rn he dosnt know who did it and he wouldnt pass up on killing some good christian folk as we claimed that denomination did it.

>>3633804
I'm sorry but I hate to remind you, this ain't game of thrones, it's left behind, sub par Christian fiction. The bad guys don't act competently like in >>3633774 they ignore important details. They make things more complicated because it's fun, they sacrifice people and react to death as if it's of no consequence to anyone. Because that's how demonically alligned people in Christian fiction act, so stop selecting trap options, and stop creating your own trap options, you autistic spider tank fetishist retard!

>>3633754

Yes, actually. They are also devoid of any sort of heating for either water or air; make of that what you will.

>>3633752

When the image comes back, you see a lot of smoke. The helicopter is either gone, or has been knocked out; one of the gunner reports at least a glancing hit.

Moira is... did she actually get out of the IFV? Yep. She's using the PA system on it as a megaphone. "All right boys and girls, this is the part where you run away! Run away! Hardloop wig! Kimbia! Squaiate!"

She ducks a stray shot hitting a foot to her left, points, and the APC with the big gun fires in that general direction. Oddly, there are two explosion noises.

And that's pretty much how it ends. The casualty report is in the single digits on both sides, none of which are yours.

"These weren't professional soldiers or fanatics, they were just hoping to take the land by showing up en masse... Nobody was that committed to a fight. In that case, the woman who makes the loudest noise wins the battle." Santiago comments tersely. "I doubt it'll be the case again, but your field commander made the right choice." You don't let Moira know that the South American subpotentate was watching, just yet.

"Plus, she was the only one with any idea what was going on on the ground. That's an important advantage to have, Foreman, even if you can only keep it for a second. Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts. Know, of course, thine enemy. But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself. The commander who embraces this totality of battle shall win even with inferior force."

You recognize the quote, although she's probably quoting a translation of a translation. "Sun Tzu said that?"

Santiago nods. "And I'd say he knows a little bit more about fighting than YOU do, pal!" She just jammed a finger in your chest, and it hurt. Huh, you didn't fancy her for someone who bites her fingernails.

"Now as long as you're no longer among the living, you're under my roof, so you obey my rules, you hear? Tomorrow afternoon, sixteen hundred sharp, gym A3. What's your boxing glove size?"

You stare at your hands for a moment. What?

"Eh, we'll make a fighter out of you despite the tiny hands, don't you worry. You're not stupid, Foreman, and you keep your promises. I can respect that. You'll never be a warrior, but if you listen to me every once in a while, you won't be a corpse any time soon either!"

# Uh, who am I supposed to fight?

# I only have a few days of breathing room at best, I don't have time for a sparring match.

# You know what? You're on.

>>3633754

The only people with any sort of digital radio are the farmers - that's what they called for help with. Either the helicopter had no radio or, more likely, was using an old VHF set to communicate with whoever was giving it instructions.

>>3633825

(OOC note: This is not the flattened Millennial Earth, it's more or less Earth in the late 1990s)

>>3633837
># You know what? You're on.

>>3633837
# Uh, who am I supposed to fight?

Thank you, yes the earth isn't flat, wildlife can still kill us, but is our boss in any way more compassionate towards us than Sunday and the week gang of the millennial kingdom setting were?

>>3633866

Carpatescu is extremely affable in public, very pragmatic in policy, at least so far, and is more of a Francisco Franco or Mustapha Kemal than a Hitler or Mussolini; either he is earnest, or he's just confident from past performance that he can outmaneuver everyone else. He speaks at least twelve languages (always with a slight accent; even his Romanian has a trace of Sinte in it), has been seen holding a conversation in Latin with current pontifex Peter Mathews, and when called "an extremely high functioning sociopath" by a late night pundit he called into the show and thanked the man for the compliment. It is publicly known that he is a hobbyist hypnotist, although you don't think anyone should naturally ever be quite as good as you experienced.

>>3633866

"You'll see."

>>3633857

"Excellent! Be sure to get some sleep."


(I do need to know what the Foreman will tell Carpatescu, if anything)

>>3633837
# Uh, who am I supposed to fight?
# You know what? You're on.

I suggest balance of power politics in which we use the Boers and south Africans to form a bulk of elite forces for the new government like Tito did with the Serbs (with less murder hopefully) in order to hold onto control and power. We put the peace loving UN guy, whats his name into power after we bump off Rebohoth.

I recommend we assassinate him while he sends Hassan to fight the farmers while arming them with some MAPADS and AT weapons.

>>3633896
Send a simple to the point message. Nothing more, nothing less.

"I'm still alive."

>>3633906
Or maybe shorten it even more and say.

"I'm alive".

>>3633906
This, "I'm alive, your work will get done."

>>3633825
>>3633866

Fuck you for the spider tank insult that had Nothing to do with me. I heavily disagree with your idea of him but fuck it your vote already won so i guess we will find out. If it fucks us I goddamn told you so.

Also you sre such a demeaning cunt to someone who disagrees with you stop that bullshit if they arent actually retarded


>>3633837
> you know what your on
>>3633896
I vote for telling him that we are alive and our work will continue to get done. We are also looking into the matter and if you wish to assist with tour teams it would be appreciated. Once the threat has been remived we will return to the public eye.

>>3633913
>>3633909

After telling Dr. Robertson that he's still doing science, you text Carpatescu (on a secure line, of course) that you're still alive.

"Good! You are hard to replace. I suspect you are busy; don't let me detain you."

Carpatescu is probably the only person on Earth who uses semicolons in text messages.

# Onto the next day.

# Check on the strategy layer first, if there's anything left to do.

>>3633913
Yeah that's better, Worried if I say "still" he might be amused and try to have us killed for fun to see if he can make that message ironic.

Also I only want to send a message so our hq doesn't end up confused at the arrival of a new boss from Carpatescu.

>>3633924
I think the spider tank thing is more of a running gag than an insult. At least to me it is.

Could you further elaborate your ideas so we can discuss its merits?

>>3633940
# Check on the strategy layer first, if there's anything left to do.

>>3633913
Alright fine you won. Haha goddamit I thought it was gonna be so much worse. Honestly it is better this way.

>>3633942
Nah he was right not much else to discuss on what to tell our boss.

>>3633940
>check on the strategy layer first

>>3633940
# Check on the strategy layer first, if there's anything left to do.

>>3633924
We've already gotten one game over, I'm just trying to prevent another needless one. If your not the spidertank guy then my apologies, but for the love of God, don't ram us into fatal trap optons.

>>3633959
Well I sort of want be the person to be there in person to take out Rebohoth but that in itself poses a huge risk. I don't want the men we are sending to their deaths see us as a weakling or coward.

>>3633959
I just genuinly thought it was the right choice. It dosnt seem like hes going to investigate so you are right, I was in the wrong here.

>>3633959
>>3633957
>>3633945

Given what's happened to you in the last six hours, yesterday's worry - replacing turnover losses from your work crews, which is fortunately a lot easier than replacing casualties - seems very mundane. Nevertheless, it needs done; most of the recruiting happened between North America and here, and you've been shown a few promisng candidates that moved on to exchanging a few emails with you.

Everything else seems to have gone well, surprisingly: the nework node got built, you have sufficient subsystems to build the next one, and.... well, you and all of yours are alive, which is damn nice.