The Garden of Madness (AAR)

[Sigma]

Gunfire ricochets off the bulkhead walls. Counter fire. The sound of shouts and the screaming dying. The very skeleton of the ship groans and shudders from distant explosions. The lights flicker off and back on, and the corridor plunges into a strange, crimson darkness as emergency power takes over. It will not last long.

Colette shouts my name. I break off from the barricade, abandoning my spent rifle. Life support has been lost. The bridge has been taken. The Captain is dead. I feel a subtle vibration through the soles of my boots. Unity is falling into the planet's atmosphere, a maneuver it was never designed for. Its hull will superheat and then it too will fail. The ship will not survive. We must reach one of the colony pods, the last failsafe built into mankind's final lifeboat.



My hundred loyalists are silent as the pod crashes through the sky of our new home, a shooting star bound for the surface of the new world. A stone thrown into the stars by dead men from a dying world, who haven't spoken in over forty years. Retrothrust settles us to the ground, and for a long time no one speaks.

This wasn't the plan. The plan is dead along with countless thousands left behind. High above, the wreckage of the Unity rains down in streaks of fire scattered across this world.



It's time to get to work.

[Sigma]

Welcome to the Garden of Madness

Why the name? Because I had a radical notion.

While I was classifying the vast collection of Custom Factions in ACU, I thought it might be fun to take them for a little spin. So what I did was the following:

1.) I determined how many custom factions we have
2.) I used a random number generator to randomly select 6 Factions from the list
3.) I loaded the game up. Presto!

The result, as you will see, is pretty chaotic. So to balance these nutcases out, I decided to play the one faction that I knew would be having none of that-- the Colonial Authority. Dedicated above all else to maintaining colonial unity at all costs, how will Marshall Basque fair when the chaos aboard the Unity has seeded Planet with an exceedingly eclectic supply of Factions? Let's find out!

The Schedule
Make no mistake, this will be a sloooow burn. It will probably go on for a long time, and there may be some time between updates. But I plan on sticking with it for as long as it remains fun. Hope you all enjoy it!

[Sigma]

First thing's first-- we survey the landscape. Despite the havoc wrecked by the mutiny and destruction of the Unity, our navigator was able to find us an excellent landing spot. The weather is rainy, which will be good for growing food, and there is abundant mineral resources, which will be necessary once we begin rebuilding our forces. In a final gesture of providence, the Unity saw fit to seed our touchdown site with supply pods from her holds.

I was able to secure a scout rover in the colony pod, which I immediately order out of our base of operations, which I have given the formal name Colony One. I send its pilot to scout out the Unity Pods to determine what they contain.




What luck! A survey pod locates a veritable treasure trove of nitrate rich soil, perfect for farming. The second communique from the scout party is even more excited. Marcel, our chief librarian, rushes into the communication room when he hears the news. Synthmetal! The cornerstone of modern manufacturing! He immediately rushes to our central data core to integrate the technological specifics.


Another Scout Rover is found undamaged in a crashed pod. The Rover crew splits in half to operate the newfound vehicle, doubling our ability to explore this new territory.


But the greatest discovery comes when one of the rover crews stumbles upon...this. A towering, half buried obelisk jutting up from the soil. I sit stunned as the report comes in. Could it be, that this world is...inhabited? I order our scouts to explore this and any other such structures found on Planet.


My scientists have finally set up a proper research lab, and inquire as to what technological endeavour we should pursue. I tell them that gaining an ecological foothold on this alien world is our top priority, so they begin to channel their efforts into determining how best to begin our terraforming efforts. I must admit, that kind of work bores me. As much as I understand the importance of scientific research, I understand that of far greater need is holding to the mission for which we were sent to this Planet-- to raise up a new human race on a new home world.

[ete]

I hope you didn't get anyone too crazy as a foe, interesting to see what happens and who you've got. If you run into the Energists or something it'll be a slaughter. There are a bunch monsters like annihilators and exterminatus, but they've got absolutely nothing on the really broken things lurking in ACU.

Will be reading .

[Sigma]

I don't believe any of my competitors are excessively powerful. Excessively strange, on the other hand...

[ete]

I see. Well, I look forward to meeting them.

[Sigma]

A frantic mayday from one of the Rover Squads. They cracked open a Unity Pod and out poured a wriggling mass of unknown life, lunging after them. The sudden assault manifested not just via their grotesque, snapping mandibles but through paralyzing hallucinations. They were caught flatfooted, but they are still soldiers of the Authority.


Conventional gunfire had little effect on the vermin swarm, but through the haze of panic the squad commander reached one his Rover's tool chest and brought out an incendiary sprayer. He'd requested it for clearing paths through the thick fungus that blankets this world, but once turned on the disgusting "mind worms" it made short work of them. To hear him describe it, the slimy things burst open the instant the gout of flame reached them. I've recommended him an award for his bravery and leadership in the face of unknown dangers.


The second Rover squad radios back a much less horrible find. Not only have they unearthed an energy supply pod, but even now their are looking up a seaside valley towards a dense tangle of nature, not unlike the Brazilian rainforest. If it holds the promise of agricultural fertility that Amazonia does, then colonizing it will be a high priority. I order a Colony Pod to be sent on an expedition into the jungle to lay down a new base.



Meanwhile our scouts continue to venture westward. They report more encounters with native life, and further report similar results to the first.  But that is not all that they find.



I expected that others would have found their way to Colony Pods from the Unity's descent; radio chatter from other parts of the world confirmed such. I have the Chief Librarian consult the datalinks for records of this individual. He is able to produce an essay distributed through Planet's still burgeoning information network. I find an excerpt of interest:

"Earth had become an abomination of a planet. Poverty had spread
throughout the world, and overpopulation lead to more poverty.
The Imperialists have survived and made it to Chiron. Here we
will build a new humanity, without the mistakes of Earth.

       -- Governor Jay Throckman IV,
           "Histories Folly"

I check the crew and passenger records that I brought from the Unity. Throckman hailed from the United Kingdom, as the scion of the Throckman Estate. He was was one a member of the Executive Finance Board of the Unity Project, and had a hand in financing it. On Earth he had a reputation for being something of a demagogue, promoting old world ideas as the solution to modern problems. Now he's styling himself as a Governor. Interesting.


Throckman is cooperative enough, fortunately. We exchange some of our technical knowhow. His Biogenetics research will be helpful in recycling our meager resources.

Throckman's representatives depart soon after. I'm somewhat frustrated that he seems to have planted his base of operations on the cusp of the very forest that I am intent on claiming.

No sooner can I depart the communications room than am I called back. Another transmission has been received.


I am at a loss for words.

[ete]

ahahaah, you got aol.. Just wait for their diplomacy. And basenames. And blurbs.


Imperialists are a bit OP, +1 econ and +1 Indust, but you'll probably be okay.

[Yitzi]

ahahaah, you got aol.. Just wait for their diplomacy. And basenames. And blurbs.


Imperialists are a bit OP, +1 econ and +1 Indust, but you'll probably be okay.

Actually, imperialists probably aren't that scary under AI control; they favor power, and ECONOMY, so they won't go for the Planned/Wealth combo that makes them truly dangerous, but probably will go for Free Market which comes with -6 PLANET for them (so mind worms will defend against them easily) and -5 POLICE (quite problematic considering their tendency to be aggressive and focus on military.)

[ete]

Fair points, usually (including this time) I use OP I'm talking about in human hands, since without genuinely silly bonuses AI is not much of a threat once you're fairly competent. Those bonuses are not the kind that make a faction scary in AI hands, for the reasons you stated. I was not sufficiently clear, but hoped that the "you'll probably be okay" part indicated that it did not constitute a prediction that they would be a major threat.

[Yitzi]

Fair points, usually (including this time) I use OP I'm talking about in human hands, since without genuinely silly bonuses AI is not much of a threat once you're fairly competent. Those bonuses are not the kind that make a faction scary in AI hands, for the reasons you stated. I was not sufficiently clear, but hoped that the "you'll probably be okay" part indicated that it did not constitute a prediction that they would be a major threat.

Yeah, in human hands the Imperialists would be quite powerful, once they get Industrial Automation.