Sorry man, but I already played through the next update before your vote but sort of forgot to post it here, and I really would rather carry on than redo it. With that in mind, the results were:
1) A - Build the Dream Twister
2) Weighing the first vote of everyone with 5 points, followed by 4, 3, 2 and if any last one is mentioned, 1, because nobody voted for a project not listed already, here the priority for now based on the sum of values:
B - The Dream Twister (18 points)
D - The Nano Factory (12 points)
C - The Telepathic Matrix (11 points)
A - The Network Backbone (10 points)
E - The Space Elevator (8 points)
3) B - Start deploying psionic weaponry instead of plasma shards against the Hive.
And in 4) there was a draw between A) get on the choppa and B) don't build transport helicopters.
I just learned the painful way that psi-weapons behave strangely on air combat. In one hand, when attacking those with SAM special ability are equally effective against air strike and ground units and with the Dream Twister, they will be very devastating, but on the other hand, when facing air units with SAM ability their psi attack is counted as only 3 points vs. the 13 of the plasma shard, and you can bet what happened because of that. I'm probably going to switch to psi helicopters with SAM as ground strike air units plus plasma air superiority needlejets for air defense.
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The enemies of intellectual liberty always try to present their case as a plea for discipline versus individualism. The issue truth-versus-untruth is as far as possible kept in the background. Although the point of emphasis may vary, the writer who refuses to sell his opinions is always branded as a mere egoist. He is accused, that is, either of wanting to shut himself up in an ivory tower, or of making an exhibitionist display of his own personality, or of resisting the inevitable current of history in an attempt to cling to unjustified privileges.
-- George Orwell, "The Prevention of Literature", Datalinks
Art by Prosper
Twisted Dreams
Bear McCreary - Bloodshed
The base renamed ironically as U.N. Hope of Liberty was lost, Bester's agents slaughtered by the hordes of the Human Hive, and the Armageddon War continued to appear unfavorable for the Peacekeepers. Legions and more legions marched like ants from a hill, to die for their odious and totalitarian ideology.
However, the hope for liberty will never, ever die, no matter how many sacrifices are necessary to eventually defeat Yang and put an end to his horrors, even if it takes one thousand years of war, liberty will prevail. Let all who gave their lives to defend the principles of Democracy, Freedom and Human rights be remembered for all time.
A brave little theory, and actually quite coherent for a system of five or seven dimensions -- if only we lived in one.
-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "Now We Are Alone"
There was not really much of a choice in the next field of research, for in science the United Nations may yet find the means to finally turn the tide of this war. With the development of monopole magnets, many new potential applications would become possible.
On the productive field, the United Nations economy and industry is booming, and eventually, eventually, the Hive will no longer be able to gain any more ground.
: I am saddened by the tragedy of the previous operation, we simply underestimated their numbers, but look, Commissioner: the first field test results with the Samsara seem promising for the first Air Force wing of the Psi Corps. I suggest you implement a larger number of these new models armed with psionic amplifiers instead of conventional ballistic or energy weaponry.
: It is too soon, but I will give you another chance. At this point we need every possible advantage we can against our enemies.
Another wave wiped out, but they could afford such losses, and despite them, the Peacekeeping Forces have failed to gain ground. Worse, the loss of Jerusalem was still felt across the United Nations on Planet.
As the odds were changing, more bases were switching to training of new recruits in this seemingly everlasting war. Command Centers and Bioenhancement Centers were spreading as well.
: Morgan is truly an opportunist, using genetic engineering to pollute this Planet with his reckless capitalism without having so many mind worm problems as a reaction, yet compared to Yang, he is a saint.
The defenses were being readied as quickly as possible for the cost of this war has been very, very high, and the Peacekeepers were not yet fully mobilized. The Tachyon Field was a practical way of generating "force fields", at least in large scale, similar yet different from the ones depicted in 20th and early 21st Century Earth fiction books.
Over the Gaian territories, mass human cloning became the rule, which may point out a degree of hypocrisy in their fanatical environmentalism, and any reminiscence of old Earth family structures is likely to fade out completely.
The hordes of the Hive were not the only problem the U.N. was facing. While UNATCO probably saved one of the front line bases from being hit by a mind control probe, Drones riots happen one more time. Many bases are sub-optimal in terms of productivity as Empaths are utterly necessary to keep order in a humane way.
: What a shame. My last hope of a renewed alliance, even in face of a common threat, ending at last in nothing at all. If you are not crushed by the Gaians, I hope you will give up on such pointless conflict, Morgan, because if you don't, you will give me no choice.
With sufficient enlightenment we can give substance to any distinction: mind without body, north without south, pleasure without pain. Remember, enlightenment is a function of willpower, not of physical strength.
-- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"
The klaxon began to wail, but we felt the reassuring tingle of the Tachyon Field crackling to life around us, encasing the entire base in its impenetrable glow.
-- Spartan Kel, "The Fall of Sparta"
: Explain this, Secretary Bester! The air combat reports indicated your Psi Corps pilots were crushed in air combat, without any chance of fighting back.
: Calm down, Commissioner, and let us plan ahead so the deaths here will not be in vain. What this shows is that psionic amplifiers can intercept ground attack aircrafts and attack bases with equal efficiency, but are a poor choice against enemy air superiority aircrafts. I'd suggest retiring conventional ground attack aircrafts and putting my Corps on helicopters, because one that can destroy enemy ground attack aircrafts and bypass the tough defenses of the Hive bases, then return to safety, is great, and with conventional air superiority needlejets protecting them, we can finally win the war once their production is at full speed.
: At the moment, I am afraid I will have no choice but to send any fighter pilot I can spare to the front. Things are horrible over there, and the situation is worsening every year. We cannot allow the next bases to fall, specially Folklore Agency, because if it falls, our only remaining defense could be that planet buster... and I really do not want to be forced into using it.
Beware, you who seek first and final principles, for you are trampling the garden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem.
-- Sister Miriam Godwinson, "But for the Grace of God"
: One of the artifacts retrieved by the Corps was just linked in, and I think you will like the results. We may yet beat the Hive to the Theory of Everything if this breakthrough is properly used, Commissioner.
: I already understood what you meant. It shall be done. A totalitarian state is a horrible environment for scientific progress, and this would not change that. Now, eventually we will be ahead of them to a point their numbers will grow more and more irrelevant.
: I am not sure if the true answers to such a long existential question of mankind will be pleasant, but now that we have the means to finally find it, it is our duty to do so.
They kept attacking. Outnumbered, the superior training and nanoaugmentation of the UNAF pilots mattered nothing. The numbers dwindled and more hordes marched endlessly in this infernal war. The death toll of the Armageddon War, approaching 100 years of length, rivals that of the most devastating conflicts on Earth, but it must end, it has to.
For Yang, a perpetual war is much profitable, almost like an ancient book predicted about such brutal totalitarian states having constant war as a powerful ally to keep themselves stable. For the United Nations, it would be a tragedy.
This being repeated once again alone speaks volumes of what kind of man Yang is. A brutal tyrant that would make Stalin, Mao, Hitler and the most horrific criminals against mankind on Earth's history combine pale in comparison.
: I really wish there was another way, but it seems all is falling apart like it happened in Jerusalem, I watch this, and I realize how close we are to defeat, no matter what.
Note: I will remember this. On one hand an unit that can crush attack aircrafts and ground forces quite well, but on the other it needs escort from air units with conventional weaponry to survive, and if it gets intercepted... it's over.
The Western Culture Hub is about to fall, all struggles ending in vain. The Hive achieved air superiority, and the situation seems more and more desperate as the tragic 24th Century unfolds.
There is yet hope for the Peacekeepers, however, that the Übermensch of Freedom shall prevail against the "Morlocks" of the Human Hive.
And when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality, when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, as it is in eternity, then eternity asks you and every individual in these millions and millions about only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not.
-- Soren Kierkegaard, "The Sickness Unto Death", Datalinks
Note: unlike the typical stuff from pretentious hackjob Sci-Fi writers, I like how these descriptions don't try to point out a "truth", and what these secrets truly mean is left as a mystery.
: With all this knowledge everything becomes even clearer: we must prevail, to ensure the essence of humanity, the good essence of us, will remain the same even as we evolve, for all eternity.
Another tragedy happens, the hordes continue coming, yet, the United Nations might be close to a final solution, one that will put not only this war to an end, but Yang as well. Gazing upon the Secrets of Creation, one still blurry possibility begins to be speculated about: true singularity, the end of the human era, but hopefully not the end of human freedom and individuality.
Massed artillery bombardments ravage the last hope of the Peacekeepers. For behind the Folklore Agency defenses are so thin that the only defense left would be to violate the very principles Lal stands for once, to use a weapon of mass destruction and cut off the access of the Hive to the Peacekeepers continent by sinking an entire mass of Earth.
Objects once measured in meters have become so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, with revolutionary applications across the board. Gentlemen, forget what your courtesans have told you: size does matter!
-- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, Morgan Industries Annual Report
A new era is beginning, and the Peacekeepers are at the forefront. With nanotechnology finally going being the relative safety of the human body, a new, even greater industrial revolution than the ones that already happened on Planet may finally give to the Peacekeepers the edge needed to win this war.
However, if this conflict lasts too long, now that almost 100 years of total war already passed, this Nano-industrial Revolution may also lead to something else... only slightly less worse than the future Yang desires...
UNATCO agents are doing their best to ensure no more bases shall fall, no matter what.
The situation is so bleak that the last mindworms are being sent in what is most likely a suicidal operation.
Then...
Note:
Kalin , this sounds way too familiar.
Fortunately, Deirdre's ploy failed. This also cutted off all last remnants of positive relations between them and the United Nations, and made it very clear that there is no hope of trustworthy allies, even with the common enemy of the Hive.
It also revealed the fact Morgan most likely surrendered to the Gaians. Otherwise he would not have voted in favor of this.
Deirdre's ploy however was not the most relevant and infamous news of that Mission Year.
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Note: I hope my "dramatic depiction" of the Dream Twister was OK. For best results listen to the audio of the original video while gazing upon the prosperous masterpieces above one by one.
Already we have turned all of our critical industries, all of our material resources, over to these . . . things . . . these lumps of silver and paste we call nanorobots. And now we propose to teach them intelligence? What, pray tell, will we do when these little homunculi awaken one day and announce that they have no further need of us?
-- Sister Miriam Godwinson, "We Must Dissent"
The 24th Century was the last century of mankind with any remote resemblance to the men of Earth. Everything was changing, everything, and the United Nations, no matter how bleak the situation at the front lines, was not so far from developing the first true Artificial Intelligence, codename Daedalus.
The Nano Factory could dramatically change the course of the war, but for now, the situation remained bleak. Mistakes were made, serious ones regarding aerial Psi Corps forces, but there was a more pressing issue: Defeatism. Some of the population insisted on trying to make peace with the Hive, while others suggested a less drastic measure before the Planet Buster becomes the literal last resort. In the end, there would be only one answer:
1) Like the United Kingdom in their Darkest Hour on Earth's 20th Century did against another brutal totalitarian regime that seemed undefeatable, we will fight to the end, and if the United Nations lasts for a million years, post-humans will still say: This was their finest hour!
2) Launch a proposal to increase the sea levels to hopefully succeed at the voting and cut off the Peacekeeper's continent from the Hive's continent, and prepare for a long, brutal naval war.
3) This is hopeless, but the Peacekeepers must at least fight well enough to force the Hive to the negotiating table, and as long as they are willing to sign a peace treaty, accept it, even if they demand technology for the same.
4) The time for resorting to last resorts is already now. Use a planet buster to cut off the Hive's direct land access to the Peacekeepers territory, preferably somewhere that will isolate their forces in the front lines from the mainland, allowing the U.N. to retake their lost bases.