Planetfall: Humanity's New Challenge (turn reporting thread)

Googlie · December 22, 2001, 14:57

This is a SMAC game

Players, in turn order, are:

Gaians: Darsnan - dnandal@twcny.rr.com
Hive: SPasmofiT - spasm@xnet.ro
Morgan: wgabrie - wgabrie@yahoo.com
Peacekeepers: Black Sunrise - indra@blacksunrise.com

Settings:

Standard Planet (so early contact)
50% to 70% water
Mountainous
Rainy
Average native life
All victory conditions on
directed research
spoils of war activated
no random events
peaceful AI

Googlie accelerated start (all have 3 colony pods and 3 scouts)

2101 on its way to Darsnan - as are passwords and e-mail forwarding addies (also given above)

Good luck all

Googlie

Darsnan · December 22, 2001, 15:17

We have survived planetfall. To say this, under the circumstances, is a statement of the capabilities of the Gaian people. But so much has been lost: with Unity falling apart around us, we lost so much of the flora and fauna that had been brought from Earth. What little we have saved will now have to sustain us through the first years until we establish ourselves on this new world and learn to breed and grow new plants and animals, and to form a symbiotic relationship with our new home.

Lady Diedre

MY 2101

SPasmofiT · December 22, 2001, 17:43

Turn to Morgan.
Sorry for the reload. I kept on trying my old password... I'm used to being moderated by TauCeti ;-)

Can we exchange techs w/o having contact? Are we playing by PBEM rules?

wgabrie · December 22, 2001, 18:19

Morgon Industries was founded in the year following planetfall. Our people have high hopes that we can make the best of the situation and rebuild all that we have lost.
**********

No problem SPasmofiT.

Black Sunrise · December 23, 2001, 08:38

Received wrong move. Contacted author for resend.

wgabrie · December 23, 2001, 09:59

Correct turn sent.

**********

Trouble yet again.

Black Sunrise I am going to e-mail you the correct file. (I hope) If you still have trouble I'll give you my password so you can go on to your turn from mine.

Black Sunrise · December 23, 2001, 19:12

Correct move received.

Planetfall! Heavily damaged, our craft smashes into a lake. Tired and haggard, the survivors gaze at a double star through their oxy-masks. Commander Indra meets with his leadership team to issue orders.

What's the status of the communicator?

Sir, we landed on it. I don't think it will be possible for us to contact other factions until we meet them in person.

Well, that will benefit the stupid, I suppose. A pity, for early contact with Morgan might have proved profitable. For the best, I suppose.

What's the status for the wrecked lander?

Sir, we have used the wreckage to establish Base 001. Initial efforts are underway to make it self-sustaining, adding a recycling tank. I doubt it will be fully complete and operational for a number of years, though.

Excellent. We must plan for the future. How does the preliminary scan look?

Sir, we have located no less than 2 of the strange objects described by the scout module! If we can, indeed, hook them up to our generators, we will have an incredible resource.

Send men to do so immediately. We have an advantage. Now we must make full use of it.

Darsnan · December 23, 2001, 19:46

To say that we have established our first base would be an overstatement - the ramshackle hovels that now pass as quarters, compared to what we had on Unity, is like comparing Earth 21st century living quarters to those of the the Dark Ages.
However, it is home, and we must make the best of it. We have stumbled upon some sort of esoteric alien shrine: it has enhanced the capabilities of our personnel designated as scouts, as well as providing us with much needed resources. Planet has smiled upon us, this, our time of need, and we hope in the future to reciprocate in kind.
Two other colony teams are still trynig to locate the best locations to begin settlements: like a farmer carefully sowing his seeds, we seek the best locations in order to cultivate our progeny: we hope they are as lucky as Gaia's Landing....

Turn to Spasm.

Black Sunrise · December 23, 2001, 20:41

Out of character, I would like to commend Darsnan's role-playing.
While I like Darsnan as a person, especially since he posts and plays promptly and extensively, his role playing is so good that I want to burn down his ceremonial trees and put them in the recycling tanks! The Gaian ideology never appealed to me, I fear.

Merry Christmas!

Darsnan · December 23, 2001, 20:55

Heah Black Sunrise,
wait until the MABB game gets back online and you see me as The Concsciousness: I've got a post titled, "Breeding program, run subroutine 'Bar Scene'" - I think you'll like it!
I appreciate your compliment in the previous post, and return the compliment in kind: I've been following some of your other games, and you appear to be a worthy opponent. As far as the trees are concerned: I'm so Green I bleed tree sap!

And just as in the most barren lands fruit can be raised given patience and perseverance, so too do I hope to cultivate in you an appreciation of the Greater Gaia that is our own biosphere!

Out of character: Happy Holidays to all of you! I've only been hanging out at this website a little while, but I've really enjoyed the banter and comeraderie on this website. May the New Year bring much more entertainment!

Game On, Bro's!

Black Sunrise · December 24, 2001, 13:08

Issue this broadcast:

"Greetings fellow inhabitants of Planet. It is clear our faction is the superior one, and our unbeatable starting location is the new Garden of Eden. We feel pity on you, scrabbling in your huts. Join our empire and we will assume control over you, and guide your people into a pale reflection of our greatness."

(Did I mention my Minister of Propaganda, Lt. Miriam?)

Black Sunrise · December 24, 2001, 13:09

PS.
Naked hippie tree lovers smoking worm-weed need not apply.

Darsnan · December 24, 2001, 13:35

we prefer the term "eco-warrior", and if you are not familiar with it, then I am sure that in time we can remedy this affliction of the mind as well. Sorry can't write more now - I've got 2 hours to wrap the tots presents.

Turn to Spasm

To all a Merry Xmas - even those that smell of industrial waste and other foulness of their trade!

wgabrie · December 24, 2001, 17:08

We the Morganites respectfully decline Black Sunrise's generous offer. We see no need to join him at this time; because, it is only 3 years after planetfall. (I may change my mind in return for say 110 energy credits)

By the way, I take it that you landed in the jungles near Miriam? If so can you tell me if googlie set her to non-aggressive?

Black Sunrise · December 24, 2001, 21:29

While our people do, indeed, have word of a major geological event worthy of being named from orbit, we decline on giving information about it at this time.
Lt. Miriam is actually one of our Peacekeeper people, in charge of our more...enlightened messages. (ie, one factor in roleplaying)

We look forward to next year, and the founding of our "Christmas Base".

Personally, we think the term "Biosphere" goes a bit too far. We will generously concede the term "mold-encustrued-spheroid" for now.

Darsnan · December 24, 2001, 21:57

Two beautiful valleys located for our next settlements! We have also located several of the Unity's Pod beacons, and should be able to find them within one turn. Progress, although measured in meters, is progress, and we shall strive to continue to move our fledgeling colony forward.
In other news we were able to hear a Peacekeeper broadcast transmission last turn (2103). Although it was good to hear voices other than our own, the message was in itself disturbing. There was much debate as to whether we should respond to the Peacekeepers message to let them know we had also landed, but we decided that, with a majority of the blame for the Unity disaster laid deservadly at the feet of this faction, as well as the fact that other, more warlike factions have also probably survived, we decided to remain silent. Let the fool Peacekeepers continue to transmit their worthless blatherings: this will only act as a homing beacon for the more warlike factions, as well as anything else that is out there.......

Turn to Spasm

SPasmofiT · December 25, 2001, 05:17

Turn to wgabrie!
So, can me make pre-encounter contact or not?

Darsnan · December 25, 2001, 07:43

although I don't see a significant value in pre-encounter contact, why I do not oppose it, either. So I guess my vote is a firm, solid shrug on the subject matter.

The kids are bugging me to hand out the presents, so I gotta go!

wgabrie · December 25, 2001, 09:44

pre-encounter contact is fine with me if only for the early tech trading.

Black Sunrise · December 25, 2001, 10:42

Sir. We have lost contact with colony pod 003!

Is it possible something happened to their radio?

Sir, they are still on radar, but they aren't moving, and aren't responding. Possibly they could be stopped.

I know of no reason for them to stop, and a broken radio could be fixed while on the move. Send a Scout Patrol to check them out.

Darsnan · December 25, 2001, 11:43

sorry for the delay in responding: I have a new Firewall program installed which is only allowing me intermittent Internet access: the program is called "Kids new computer games"!

Game mode: Success! The Unity Pod contained a working Rover. Once we got it running, we were immediately able to locate the next pod, which furnished much needed energy resources. Planet has smiled upon us, for sure!
However, this success has to be tempered with an ominous side as well. Those in our enclave with demonstrated empathic capabilities have been on edge lately. They will suddenly stop their work, and stare out at the fungal jungles that surround us, as if something is calling to them, or as if they can are trying to see something that remains hidden to the rest of us. This, coupled with the implications implied in another intercepted Peacekeeper emergency message, makes us feel as though we may not be alone on Planet......

Turn to Spasm

wgabrie · December 25, 2001, 18:03

Morgan steps into has personal office for some relaxation after his inspection tour of the east wing. He glances at the data terminal on his desk and finds a report from one of the scout leaders regarding a matter of great intrest. Morgan opens a comm link and dials up the Chief of Operations. "Yes, Morgan we did find a structure of unknown origin" says the voice at the other end. "What do we know about it?" asks Morgan who is begining to get excited, but then refrains from expressing it to the officer at the other end. "well, from our first readings, it seems to be focusing energy from fungus and monoliths across planet.", "I want you to investigate the structure, and I'm sending my top scientist to look it over first hand" replied Morgan.

*** Morgan colony registration - 2105 ***
Morgan Interstellar - 2105
Morgan Transport - 2105
*** Registration logout \]***

Black Sunrise · December 25, 2001, 20:02

Sir! They're ... they're all dead!

Christ, private! What happened? What's going on out there?

Sir, some kind of alien life form! And they're moving towards our base!

Oh no. Send patrols to stop them.

Sir, I don't think we can get there in time.

I know, private. It appears this is no garden of eden. It appears we have landed in hell.

Gentlemen, I fully expect to open my move next turn with a total population, including colony pods, of 1.
BTW, I did not trigger these worms. Not from opening a pod, not a fungal bloom, not from trying to enter fungus. They just appeared, whacked one of my pods, and now are about to burn my capital.

Watch me get Punishment Sphere'd by Planet.

Darsnan · December 25, 2001, 20:36

The Comm Officer burst into the Gaian High Council meeting. "M'Lady, it's the Peace Keeper's again! They're being decimated by something coming out of the fungus!"
Lady Deidre softened the glare she had been developing towards the Comm Officer: he had been right to interupt the Council meeting with this news. "Yes, Pavlov, what is it?"
The Comm Officer gave a quick account of the latest Peace Keeper transmissions, ending with, "and it sounds as though their capitol is about to be overun!"
Lady Deidre motioned for the Comm Officer to leave, then turned to her council. Speaking quickly and with resolve she issued her directives,"Just as an animal coming down with an infection generates white blood cells to combat the invader, so too must we raise our own white blood cell count. I want all future colony pods to be accompanied by at least a scout. Also, I want to have a militia raised for each base: what has befallen the Peace Keepers will not happen to us!" Lady Deidre dismissed the council, turning away from them as they hastened to leave and relay the commands to their subordinates. So Planet was a harsh mistress after all! Sadness overcame her for the Peace Keeper's plight, but, she thought, even if the Peace Keeper's were wiped out to the last child, at least some of their legacy would live on.
Lady Deidre turned to more pressing matters.

Turn to Spasm

Darsnan · December 26, 2001, 10:33

The debate in the Gain High Council Chamber raged deep into the night: whether to send aid to the Peace Keeper's or not.
From the Military Commander,"This could be a Spartan trap! They practiced this very technique on Unity of sending out false distress calls in order to lure the unwary to their demise!"
From the Political Officer, "If it was us enduring this calamity, would we not reward our benefactors with undieing loyalty?"
Lay Deidre sat in silence, letting the debate swirl around her. Finally, the two sides paused, as if two behemoths had pulled back from their battles, taking time to warily assess each others capabilities, as well as the weaknesses.
Into this silence came a voice, not from either of the vocal facions, but from the back of the chamber hall, "I'll go".
All heads snapped as one to the sound of the voice: it was a young Gaian in the uniform of the newly established civil command.
Lady Deidre turned to the Military Commander,"who is this, General Zhukov?"
"Able Scout Darsnan, M'Lady". Zhukov turned to eye the young man," I was considering promoting him to Scoutmaster", he said it in such a way as to imply that this might not be the case anymore, but with enough authority to leave the matter in doubt.
Eyes slowly turned to Lady Deidre. She sat staring at the young man for a moment, then spoke slowly, with measured words,"and just what do you mean by saying that you will go?"
The young man braced himself, then spoke,"the arguments are mainly about whether we should reveal our location to anyone, and not about whether to give humanitarian assistance or not, correct?"
Lady Deidre nodded, implying for the young man to proceed.
"So my thought was that if one individual were to make the trip with whatever we could afford to send, then we could circumnavigate the issue of revealing our location by sending a broadcast offering assistance."
General Zhukov took the opportunity to speak,"and if it is a Spartan or Hive trap, they are quite capable of making you reveal where we are - you are aware of these implications, no?"
"I am aware".
General Zhukov seemed to accept this, implying that he had confidence in the young man's abilities. He turned to Lady Deidre,"he has shown much aptitude in the military training classes, as well as having a high empathic talent. He could conceivably take a utility truck and make the journey in, say, one Standard Turn".
Lady Deidre turned to the Political officer. The man remained silent, offering no argument for, nor against, the proposition.
Lady Deidre turned back to Zhukov,"do it!"

While the debate raged in the High Council chambers, 2 communique's came in from the field:

First communique: Unity Pod located. When opened, some sort of manifestation boiled out of it. Request assistance immediately!

Second communique: This is Scout 002: responding! We will be in position to assist in one Standard Turn!

Turn to Spasm

wgabrie · December 26, 2001, 10:49

"What's this about a distress call?" asked Morgan. "It seems that the peacekeepers are about to be overrun with worms" replied the young comm officer. "Why wasn't I informed earlier?" asked Morgan. "You were busy investigating the Alien Temple" replied the officer "We didn't want to disturb you", "Next time please inform me sooner" ordered Morgan. Waving for her to be leave, He headed toward the window and looked out over the fungus fields. Some where out there the Peacekeepers were probably being eaten alive. Sadness fell over Morgan as he thought how he may have prevented in if he had responded to the Peacekeepers transmissions earlier. "A pity" he said finaly. "He would have made an excelent trading partner" With that he turned his attantion to strengthening Base defences in all sectors.

wgabrie · December 26, 2001, 11:35

Morgan sits in the visitors lounge at Morgan Industries where his top economic leaders have come bringing with them news on the progress of the other Morganite colonies. "Our other bases are developing acording to plan" says Sub Head advisor Britney Regan "However our bases are underdefended, and will need three unit turns to defend". "Thats good S.H. Regan" replied Morgan. "Dismissed". As everyone gets up to go, The Young Comm officer barges in with some news on the developing peacekeeper situation. You forgive the rudness and ask what news she has to report. She informs you that low level comm signals are still eminating from peacekeeper frequences. "What do you make of it" you ask her. "We are unsure at this time, but we think this might be a trick to reveal ourselfs too early" replies the young officer. "It will take one unit turn to analize the comm data" she finishes. You thank her for the information as she leaves. After she is gone, you realize you still don't know her name. Hopefuly there will be time to learn her name later.

******

Do you think it's realy a trick?

wgabrie · December 26, 2001, 17:06

Mogan scans over the comm report with a smurk. "I see you have been able to glean out that their headquaters is still standind" noded Morgan in aprovingly. "Yes" replied the comm officer. She then goes into the technical details of the comm probe. "Can we get more spesific information from their brodcasts?" morgan asks. "No" she replies, "We would need to infultrate their datalinks first" she finishes. As she turns to leave you ask her what her name is. "It's Sinder Roze" she replies. "Sinder Roze is it" added Morgan "I have been setting aside Talents for um... a special Ops and would like you to join" I'm honored she says as she leaves.

Darsnan · December 26, 2001, 18:15

The reports came flooding across Deidre's desk from every sector. In one report, two scout teams had cornered a mindworm boil, "The empath talents assigned to each scout team seemed to confuse the creatures. We flamed them down where they massed. Suggest having an empath assigned to each scout team". Another, "we followed the beacon into the fungus to what we thought would be another Unity Pod. Instead it turned out to be a Unity Escape Module filled with dead Spartans. They appeared to have died upon impact. After contacting the Spartans with the sad news, we buried the Cohort with full military honors, as is Spartan custom." A third report from the Gaian Trading Commission,"Colonel Santiago sends her best. She and her staff seem to have come out the worse for wear from the Unity disaster, and are very eager to establish trading relations for much needed equipment. Our coffers should start filling up with enough money from these trade agreements to make even CEO Morgan blush! We also suggest selling the Spartan comm frequency to anyone else who would be interested." Another was a request for a planetwide broadcast selling the Spartan comm frequency, which Deidre initialed against her better judgement, " To anyone who can hear this broadcast and is interested in obtaining Colonel Santiago's comm frequency: we are willing to share this information for 40ec."
And yet, the one report that she was consciously looking for failed to appear: the fungus seemed to have swallowed Scout Darsnan without a trace, and there hadn't been any comm signals from the Peace Keeper's enclave for over a Standard Turn now.....

Turn to Spasm

Black Sunrise · December 26, 2001, 19:57

The leader stared out the porthole at the swirling snow.
He triggered his personal recorder.

"Four light years, we still get buried in the crap. Ugh. Must rush work on the formers, maybe we can dig our way out."

A small red light indicated a communication from the science lab.
He stared at it for several minutes before triggering it with a twitch of his head. Apparently something was wrong with his arms.

On screen, a white-jacketed officer came into view. The officer appeared to be studying something off-screen.

"Sir... we've come to some tentative conclusions. First of all, the native creatures are attracted to the strange Monoliths. Second, the Monoliths make them MUCH more dangerous. Third, while at the Monolith, for a bit of time they hold still. We believe this phenomenon to be some kind of a growth stage. We think it may be what saved us."

The officer glanced at the screen, blanched, looked hurridly away.

"That and our troops."

"Yes." The leader remarked dryly. He twitched his head again. The screen changed to the communications room.

"Scout Darsnan. We have reached a decision. We thank your people for their hospitality and offer of assistance, but we fear you misunderstood our intentions. We were offering you help. Help in the form of valuable information. Information that Planet was far more dangerous than you suspected. Return to your people. Give them our regards. Inform them of what you have seen here."

The screen blackened. The last image Darsnan saw was a hideously scarred face, heavily bandaged. Mind worm infestations are a terrible thing to resist. Especially when you lead the attack yourself. The Peacekeeper people were lucky to have his guidance still. Perhaps future medical research might even allow him to walk again.