Agents Of Empire/Turns/18/Colony Worlds

Turn 18

< Turn 17 | Turn 19 >

House Actions

• Shipping:
  • The wormhole is open!
    • And there was great rejoicing.
  • Tesher and Old Betsy fly to Arroyo, to take part in the fighting there next turn.
  • The StarFar Reigspress follows, bearing Seve.
  • The Space Whale loads up 4 units of Frozen Gas and 1 unit of Starlight Survey Squad, then takes them to Elvis.
  • The Mighty Mammoth loads up 3 units of Petro-alloy Plating and 1 unit of Kookie Krysp and sets out to deliver them to Arroyo.
  • Titanicus goes to Boumfadour.
• Fighting:
  • Dalek Yellow rests (under cover if possible).
  • When Jude goes out to salvage the crashed ship, he radios the last remaining scout and offers them amnesty if they surrender. If they try to attack instead, Daleks Red and Blue exterminate them them using the INSECTICIDE formation.
  • EVEN MASSIVER SPACE BATTLE FOR ARROYO - ROUND TWO
    • Tyrannosaur and Utahraptor savagely destroy the battleship from Hrobaj.
    • Dromiceiomimus and the Reiglight Revenge (led by Rick) annihilate the battleship from Elvis.
    • Triceratops and Thunderchild finishes off the crippled (but hitherto otherwise undamaged) battleship from Boumfadour.
    • In the middle of the fighting, Bram pretends to fall out of the Triceratops as it battles the battleship (heck, it's probably going to actually be destroyed anyway) just as the scout ship is going by. His parachute has a big metaphorical target painted on it. As the scout ship flies in to finish him off, the Fightin' Fighters and the Foreign Legion erupt from the undergrowth, executing Buzz Maneuver II, attacking and destroying the last remaining scout from the original Gwyne force at Arroyo.
    • Gwyne, being the sort of guys they are, probably fight back. Based on their previous style, I'm guessing that the Hrobaj battleship destroys Tyrannosaur, the Elvis battleship destroys Dromiceiomimus, the Boumfadour battleship attacks Triceratops (but may or may not do any damage depending on whether or not it gets help), and the scout destroys the Fightin' Fighters. The Vefna cruiser is the wildcard, whether it'll simply attack alone (e.g. damaging the Utahraptor) or if it'll be clever enough to team up with someone (e.g. against Triceratops). If it attacks the ground troops, the ground troops head for cover, and neither the scout nor the cruiser will be attacked at all, but neither will they be able to attack anyone else.
  • MASSIVE CRAB BATTLE FOR BOUMFADOUR
    • Before Rafael arrives at the installation, Dark installs his calm/provoke wildlife device from 10 turns ago into the structure with a remote switch.
    • Rafael and the class-3 troops arrive, if they aren't embroiled in battle already Dark sets off the "aggression" setting attracting crab warriors.
    • Gwyne soldiers and crabs battle. Rafael and crew takes cover best they can.
    • About halfway in the battle, when the soldiers are at maximum distraction, Dark leads the Prime Irregulars and the Drones into a pincer formation attack, surrounding the enemy on three sides. The Irregulars take the lead to make sure they take the hits (if any) and not the injured Drones.
    • Hopefully +1 (Drones) +1 (Irregulars) +1/2? (Crabs, also Rafael's difficult terrain on the trek) +1 (Dark's Leadership) causes maximum carnage.
• Exploration:
  • The Lewison Clarks continue their exploration of the Cavernous Region (making it 14/18 of the way to Explored-III).
  • KANE begins exploring a new region on Vefna (making it 2/6 of the way to Explored-I).
• Industry:
  • Bonanza Region: Produces 6 units of Hyperidot.
  • Island Region: Supposing Crab Battle goes well, colonists de-evacuate to the Island.
  • Ocean Region: Produces nothing (because they are fully evacuated).
  • Pleistocene Region: Produces 3 units of Mammoth Byproducts (Food: 1).
  • Bloos Wade Region: Produces 1 unit of Unsorted Crystals (with homesteader help) and 3 units of Food.
  • Alshu Cup Region: Produces 3 units of Metal.
  • Hau Ndogg Region:
    • Hau Ndogg Region: The Riju Tri-Lateral Industrial Complex processes 3 units of Unsorted Crystals, 3 units of Hyperidot and 3 units of Food into 3 units of Max-EnerG HyperJuice (a rank-3 refined good with a Food value of 4).
• Research:
  • The Farlight Institute of Crystal Biotechnology sets aside their incomplete work on opening and closing wormholes. Instead, they start researching how Arroyo can feed itself without help in the future. Specifically, they try to develop a new strain of plant or bacterium that digests Hyperidot to produce a fluid called HyperPlasma that can be intravenously injected to provide the body with all of its energy needs (and thus has a Food value of 1), such that any Hyperidot-producing Mining region can easily be seeded to produce this resource as well (much like how Boumfadour's Industrial Kelp mines also produce Food).
    • "1800 degrees! Real Bloosberry Flyvor! It's got what bloodstreams crave!"
    • "Bejazzle your Stomach!"
    • "Now you, too, can run on the same ultra-efficient fuel our starships use!"
    • Boumfadour's Kelp->Food program doesn't actually require a Useful Device, so maybe this might not either? On the other hand, eating kelp is narratively more logical than eating warp crystals.
  • The Hau Ndogg Community College astro-polo stadium (and secret underground advanced physics laboratory) picks up and completes the Farlight Institute's research on how to open and close the wormhole as needed.
  • The Boumfadour Institue for Ecology and Planetary Development sets up permanent shop in the sub.
  • The Boumfadour Institue for History and Archaeology helps.
• Building:
  • The Seve Ballesteros Memorial Shipyard probably doesn't have anything to do this turn.
• Landing:
  • Old Betsy arrives near Arroyo in time for Turn 19's Combat phase. Likewise, the StarFar Reigspress shows up and takes advantage of the combat going on to airdrop Seve onto the Seveyard, where he will descend from heaven like a returning messiah.
  • The Space Whale lands on Elvis and unloads everything.
  • The Mighty Mammoth arrives at Arroyo. Assuming the space battle is keeping everyone pretty busy, it lands and unloads its cargo.
  • Titanicus arrives at Boumfadour (but will only land if there's a region containing raw materials which is not controlled by Gwyne at the time).
• Trading:
  • Elvis' Hau Ndogg Region, Bloos Wade Region and Alshu Cup Region each consume 1/4 unit of Max-EnerG HyperJuice.
  • Vefna's Pleistocene Region consumes 1/5 unit of Rations.
  • Boumfadour's Island Region and Ocean Region are not presently occupied and thus consumes no resources.
  • Arroyo's Cavernous Region and Bonanza Region each consume 1/4 unit of Kookie Krysp.
• Politics:
  • We probably file some sort of formal complaint about Gwyne committing a major military action against us. (Basinbloke?)

Character Actions

Colony

• Dark: Fights! ON LAND!
• Jude: Salvages the cruiser into a damaged rank-1 fighter, and offers Gwyne L1 scout crew amnesty. (How embarrassing: being asked to surrender by the least threatening engineer in the universe. But that's what Daleks are for.)
• Rick: Fights! IN SPACE!
• Kyil: Goes to Elvis, and investigates Little Iavo.

Imperial Core

• Reig: iiiiiisss OFF to see the ora-CLE! The wonderful oracle-of-three-million-eyes.
• Seve: Travels to Arroyo on the StarFar Reigspress. Also, upon arrival, shoots some important documentary footage of him and his team kicking tails and taking names. (With the idea of getting some useful pro-Seve and anti-Gwyne propaganda -- but of course, ahem, saving his home planet is much more important.)
• Silentus: Probably something related to tracking down Nitf@x and the origins of space babies?
• Tesher: Flies to Arroyo. While in transit, he writes up some official paperwork noting how Clause (vi) in Paragraph 3 of Subsection XXVII in Article Q of the Universal Commercial Code notes that when an Act of God or War on the part of an unrelated third party makes it impossible for one party to fulfill their part in a contract for a period of time, all terms of said contract can be delayed by that party until such time as it is again possible for them to be fulfilled. He sends this to Topni at his earliest convenience.
• (NPC) Basinbloke: Researches the contenders to the throne.

Results

Space battle, round two!

On Vefna, the colonists produce some resources, some of which gets shipped to Elvis. Kyil explores the mysterious (and extreme) caves of ice.

On Elvis, Jude repairs one crashed/exploded Gwyne ship while trying to talk the crew of another into surrendering. It takes some doing (and a fate point), but he eventually convinces them that Gwyne is on the way out and if they surrender they can blend into the population and lead healthy and productive lives in a fire swamp. This having been settled, on the rest of the planet business goes on as usual since there are no remaining enemies. The Farlight Institute and Secret Advanced Physics Lab publish some theoretical results on Wormhole Control I, which everyone is pleased to see.

On Boumfadour, Rafael skillfully lures the Gwyne troops into a crab ambush, which quickly becomes a crab salad when Dark leads the Irregulars and drones into the attack. One of the Gwyne soldiers realizes it was a setup and disables Rafael himself with a shot to the arm (which injures the explorers), but Dark's blaster keeps the soldier from doing further harm, and nobody else suffers except the Gwyne troops. And the crab warriors, who are pretty much wiped out in the crossfire. With the planet becoming mostly free of enemy forces, the submarine resurfaces and the settlers disembark to the Island region, where they are hungry and not very productive. They do manage to relocate the research lab to the submarine, though, which bodes well for next turn.

On Arroyo, there is the aforementioned round two of the space battle. Tyrannosaur and Utahraptor team up to destroy the battleship from Hrobaj, which makes a TINY hole in Tyrannosaur's hull, which leads to a LITTLE decompression problem! Similarly, Dromiceiomimus and the Reiglight Revenge (with Rick's piloting) together destroy the battleship from Elvis, which destroys Dromiceiomimus in turn. Triceratops (directed by Bram) and Thunderchild fight the (damaged) battleship from Boumfadour, destroying it, but both Triceratops and Thunderchild are destroyed when the Vefnan cruiser and scout ship join the battle. Bram, however, was counting on that, and lures the scout ship into an ambush with ground troops, where it too is destroyed. When all the dust settles, only a few ships remain above Arroyo. On the ground, things are pretty quiet, and the Bonanza region gets back to work, mining hyperidot and whistling.

Finally, the prodigal sons from across the galaxy return through the wormhole: Old Betsy with Tesher, Titanicus with nobody, and the StarFar Reigspress with Seve and a small group of documentary filmmakers. Reig and Silentus are feeling less prodigal and stick with their own missions. Also, while in flight, Tesher extends the contract with Topni.

Basinbloke looks into the imperial situation, and sends the colony some NEWS FROM THE EMPIRE.