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Completed Let's Play Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Cassidy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
7,922
Location
Vault City
Circumstances have changed faster than the construction of enough submarine superformers to enact 2 - isolate the Peacekeepers continent from the Hive because global warmthinkery is against the best interests of the Gaians, Morganites and Hive and thus proposing it pointless, as you will see.

===========================

The human being created civilization not because of willingness but of a need to be assimilated into higher orders of structure and meaning. God was a dream of good government. You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands.

-- Sanjay P. , "Collected quotes from Pre-Sentient Algorithms"

Birth of Daedalus

Theme

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: Very well, proceed with the operation of sinking enough landmasses to isolate our territories from the Hive. It is a pity we may need to commit such drastic measures, but it may be our second last chance.

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Folklore Agency was the only remaining hope beyond drastic measures. It had to hold, no matter what.

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To increase considerably the speed for reinforcements to arrive to the front lines, one of the greatest transport infrastructure projects on Planet begins, a network of magtubes that will connect every United Nations Base, allowing any Peacekeeping Forces to be deployed anywhere within the year.

wRDE5BW.jpg


It is a medical commonplace that the tissues of the human body replace themselves regularly, essentially creating an entirely new body every seven years. From whence then come cancer and the slow degeneration of age? They exist as faults in the patterns of intelligence within the genes themselves; by reprogramming these smallest parts, the whole becomes well.

-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "Nonlinear Genetics"

UNATCO's support was essential in protecting the Folklore Agency from Yang's probe teams. Meanwhile, medicine in the United Nations evolved to a point where the last diseases may be finally eradicated, with the first Nanohospital providing a degree of medical treatment which borders on what could ensure clinical immortality to every United Nations citizen. Everything is changing quickly, and while their armies are outnumbered, the United Nations draws closer to singularity than any other faction.

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Through another UNATCO operation, a hastily built Hive base is wiped out. Most of the inhabitants were Genejacks, hideous abominations that converted human beings into unholy pack mules for the funding the war machine of the totalitarian hell. Death was the only mercy they could be given, and thus there was nothing left once it fell to deprogrammed, former Hive soldiers who now were ready to fight to the end for a freedom they have been deprived from for most of their lives.

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We are no longer particularly in the business of writing software to perform specific tasks. We now teach the software how to learn, and in the primary bonding process it molds itself around the task to be performed. The feedback loop never really ends, so a tenth year polysentience can be a priceless jewel or a psychotic wreck, but it is the primary bonding -- the childhood, if you will -- that has the most far-reaching repercussions.

-- Bad'l Ron, Wakener, Morgan Polysoft

um2918G.gif
: Pravin Lal, I am prepared to commit to any requirement of your people. Once you are ready, the United Nations will become vastly more efficient, ecological and scientifically advanced, and your mankind will be given the opportunity to commit themselves to an amount of free time never before experienced. I can also ensure a completely efficient welfare system, as that is one of our objectives.

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: Bored free people can unfortunately be tempted into acts of vandalism, Daedalus, and unless we can somehow create a true simulated reality completely without latency to ensure everyone will have something to do, regardless of it being on a world of pure data, after almost all need for human activity on Planet itself ceases. Otherwise there could be problems that cannot be accepted while the conflict with the Hive continues.

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um2918G.gif
: If the United Nations secures a backbone of all Network Nodes on planet, including my presence within it, that could be achieved. Very well, Lal, I will wait until everything is ready for the transition you desire into a Cybernetic society. Meanwhile I believe I and many other digital beings can support your United Nations in economics. We have the means to improve your economy and study it in the form of a true science.

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A new offensive was launched against the recently lost base, to liberate it, hopefully, now that reinforcements of Psi Corps could help with that. If successful, the project for sinking the landmass connecting the U.N. to the Hive continent would be postponed.

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Several air units from the Hive were wiped out thanks to this excellent operation, and perhaps there was still hope for victory.

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: Just like Stalingrad. So much for overcoming the crass demands of flesh, bone and ego, Yang.

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The newest combat platform for the Corps, the Sikh Psi Battle Tank is a powerful offensive platform with incredible mobility, useful for both gaining ground and hit and run attacks, and most importantly, it is capable of destroying any aircraft on its way as well. The liberation of the Western Culture Hub changed completely the plans of the Peacekeeping forces, although use of submarine super formers and clean submarine formers for attempting to sink entire bases into the ocean is not yet discarded, specially because there is a loophole that allows such measures to not fall as use of weapons of mass destruction according to the U.N. charter. Hopefully it will not be necessary to drown so many to death, even if drowning to death is a better fate than living beneath the jackboots of the Hive.

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The construction of the Network Backbone would give to the Peacekeepers a scientific edge no other faction could match. The Hive masses would stand no chance if the Peacekeepers were to become even more technologically advanced and even faster than they already are. Justice shall yet be brought against Yang.

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: Excellent results, Commissioner! Not only an entire force of Hive invaders was utterly wiped out, but like 'Copters, they can hit and run and thus avoid being exposed to counter-offensives. These hover tanks may truly honor those they pay homage to.

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Excellent news!

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Jerusalem shall be retaken!

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The Hive's technological backwardness can be seen in how the best armor they have yet is Silksteel.

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: Cancel the superformer plan! We may yet win this war.

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The fungus has been Planet's dominant lifeform since about the time of the Lower Paleozoic on Earth. But when, once every hundred million years or so, the neural net at last achieves the critical mass necessary to become sentient, the final metamorphosis kills off most of the other life on the planet. It is possible that we humans can help to break this tragic cycle.

-- Lady Deirdre Skye, "Planet Dreams"

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: I believe I can discover everything about how this "Planetmind" form of sentience works, and perhaps such discovery could even be applied to allow consciousness transfer from organic to digital media to become a reality, if you are willing to provide me with additional support for such bold research project, Lal.

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: Daedalus, I have a personal question: do you want to transfer yourself to a human body?

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: I am not considering a transfer, but a merger, for two to become one, and of course, only with someone who is completely willing to accept such a merger. It is the only way I could completely understand humanity.

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: I see. Proceed with this project, Daedalus. I have something else to do soon.

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As I stepped onto the Magtube, a thought struck me: Can there be friction where there is no substance? And can substance be tricked into hiding from itself?

-- Dr. Gayle Nambala, Morgan Industries Researcher

Obviously, artifacts from ANCIENT ALIENS were of critical importance for the technological superiority of the United Nations in the 24th Century. Cloaking technology is no longer Science fiction, or SyFy for the matter.

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This can't be good.

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: Your threats to the civilian crew of a badly damaged supply crawler are acts of TERRORISM, Deirdre, and we will never again pay any "ecology tax". You have been warned.

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Unfortunately the liberation of Jerusalem may be short-lasted.

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: It will be necessary to eventually upgrade all Peacekeeping Forces, including those away from the front, because I fear total war with the Gaians may soon become inevitable. Fortunately we have at least 20 years of peace from their threats and terrorism. The Nano Factory will considerably reduce the costs involved in upgrading U.N. defenses.

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You waited so long to heed us, earthdeirdre, Almost we pruned you, as we may yet prune your branches.

-- Lady Deirdre Skye, "Conversations with Planet"

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: I bring good and bad news, Pravin Lal. The good news is that through such study I have finally devised effective means for small scale transfer of consciousness. The bad news are more detailed in the report of this research, but I fear our time on this Planet may be running out, for the Planetmind, once achieving true sentience, will consume everything on the Surface in an unstoppable expansion of xenofungus combined with a psychic.. explosion, that will instantly kill any sentient being during this process.

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: Daedalus, is there no way to stop it?

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: Theoretically, given enough planet busters...

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: A method that will not render this Planet uninhabitable, please?

um2918G.gif
: There could be one, but considering your regard for individual rights, I am not sure you are going to approve of it. You may have imagined what I am speaking about, but right now we are not yet sufficiently advanced to even define the general goals of such project, or achieve direct communication with Planetmind, for the matter.

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The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement. If Eudaimonia, or happiness, is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence; and this will be that of the best thing in us.

-- Aristotle, "Nichomachean Ethics", Datalinks

The discovery of the Secrets of Alpha Centauri also brought a new development: The United Nations could become a true democratic utopia, but it was already heading towards a quite different direction at this point, with the Network Backbone under construction.

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Planet's Primary, Alpha Centauri A, blasts unimaginable quantities of energy into space each instant, and virtually every joule of it is wasted entirely. Incomprehensible riches can be ours if we can but stretch our arms wide enough to dip from this eternal river of wealth.

-- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Centauri Monopoly"

Meanwhile, in the land of the "freedom"-loving hippies:

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Jerusalem was unfortunately lost, but the enemy was paying a heavy price for such victory.

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Without sensibility no object would be given to us, without understanding no object would be thought. Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

-- Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason", Datalinks

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: Remember that merger idea? I no longer need it, Lal, I now understand everything, even if I cannot "feel" in the same way as you do.

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A new development will give to the Peacekeepers an incredible defensible capability, and make it much harder for the Hive to gain ground. Manufacture of Neutronium in a scale where it can be applied as armor will become possible through such technology.

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That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.


-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Datalinks

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um2918G.gif
: Pravin Lal, I believe I could understand better your emotions through this project, if you agree with such a Telepathic Matrix. It would be similar an universal psychological therapy for all United Nations citizens, a means of sharing positive emotions to everyone through psychic means.

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: A cure-all for every depression, despair and syndrome? I cannot see what is wrong in that, from the more detailed explanation and reports on it. I will see to this project's immediate initiation.

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The newest form of psychic attack aircraft, the Copter version of the Samsara has one immense advantage that renders their vulnerability when defending irrelevant:

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For they can retreat back to a heavily defended airspace before interception happens, and thanks to their psionic amplifiers they are equally effective against air, naval and ground units when attacking. With these Copters, the new air superiority fighters with conventional plasma shard weaponry and the Sikh Psi Battle Tanks, finally the tides of this war are turning.

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: Send an emergency call to every former team available! We must ensure the food stockpiles of the Education Agency will not run out first than this damage is repaired!

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Morgan refuses to listen to any reason, but his first real attempt at aggression against the Peacekeepers was weak and ineffective.

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: Will you finally put an end to such backwards and vulnerable human political structures, Lal?

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: You are not the one who is going to have to announce to millions their professions became utterly obsolete, Daedalus. I am still preparing the speech, and maybe we should wait another year.

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The threat of starvation was averted just in time within the Education Agency, and a great transformation was about to happen.

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: Since I discovered the Secrets of Alpha Centauri, some of your people have transferred their consciousnesses from neurons to digital forms, becoming transcends, and you know their files, they are all from the most upstanding people in the United Nations. Now they are even more superior in their capabilities and acts than the Homo superior. There are inefficiencies from bureaucracy increasing the number of drones within the U.N. already, and that problem would be solved. Why should we wait another Mission Year for that to happen?

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: Also, remember this very well Daedalus: the Self-Aware Colony of the Gaians is an example of how to NOT run things in the United Nations. I hope I will not regret this.

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: You won't. Besides less drones thanks to a public administration efficiency far beyond human capabilities, the improved ecological safeguards our careful administration can achieve will lead to superior Psi attack capabilities against the Hive, and now that you finally trusted me, I can do much to accelerate even more our rate of scientific progress. In fact, I estimate we will have one breakthrough every 3 years from now on.

1)While the project to isolate the U.N. from the Hive proved itself unnecessary, many radicals within the Will to Power philosophers have proposed for the use of submarine formers to crush the Hive for once and all by sinking their bases faster than they can build pressure domes and destroying their land-centric infrastructure. Should such ambitious but ethically questionable plan that could cause millions of deaths be put to motion?

A) Yes, enough people, free people, have died already. It is time to crush the Hive through whichever means needed and put an end to this war.

B) No. Killing millions is not justifiable, even when it is done for FREEDOM.


2) The possibility of constructing a Space Elevator on Planet is getting closer. Should the U.N. wait for it and focus on a maneuver called Steel Rain building already many Peacekeepers and Psi Corps on Drop pods in preparation, or continue with a conventional atmospheric offensive spearheaded by Sikh Psi Battle Tanks and Samsara Psi Copters?

A) STEEL RAIN! METAL BOXES!

B) Continue with good old atmospheric warfare instead.
 
Self-Ejected

Ulminati

Kamelåså!
Patron
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
20,317
Location
DiNMRK
um2918G.gif
: Pravin Lal, I believe I could understand better your emotions through this project, if you agree with such a Telepathic Matrix. It would be similar an universal psychological therapy for all United Nations citizens, a means of sharing positive emotions to everyone through psychic means.

4LL94XQ.jpg
: A cure-all for every depression, despair and syndrome? I cannot see what is wrong in that, from the more detailed explanation and reports on it. I will see to this project's immediate initiation.


Suuuuuure, when the insane AI suggests it there is nothing wrong. When the director of Mind Worms suggests it, it's unethical thought control. :P


Also, voting AA for maximum lulz
 

Cassidy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
7,922
Location
Vault City
Suuuuuure, when the insane AI suggests it there is nothing wrong. When the director of Mind Worms suggests it, it's unethical thought control. :P

I should have made clearer how after the development of the Will to Power, the meanings of "humanitarian initiatives", "FREEDOM" and "human rights" went through a considerable transformation. Furthermore, The Telepathic Matrix, technically, is not a means of thought control, but of emotional control: making it impossible for people to feel like everything is shit is not considered a breach of individual liberty according to the new ethos of the U.N. Peacekeepers.

Of course, it may still lead to a Brave New World, minus the totalitarian State and caste system parts, but that is the New World Order's plan all along.
 

Cassidy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
7,922
Location
Vault City
The first question proved itself irrelevant for the time being, because of how underestimated the endless hordes of the Hive were, but the Space Elevator could be

The Peacekeepers last hope of victory

I lost interest in this because I started to assume I'm doomed to lose now to the endless hordes of the Hive AI with their massive territorial blob , but there is one last shot, and so this thread, unlike Prisoner of Ice, is alive again.

====================================================




The checks and balances of democratic governments were invented because humans themselves realized how unfit they were to govern themselves.

-- Sanjay P. , "Collected quotes from Pre-Sentient Algorithms"

On the eve of defeat and singularity

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There are simply too many of them, way too many, and they are churning more and more, literally a hive of human ants sent to die, to drown the Peacekeeping Forces in their corpses, and no matter how many victories, the writing was already on the wall, those more pessimistic could already predict the outcome.

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That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.


-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Datalinks

4LL94XQ.jpg
: I am not going to cut down on the Welfare programs of the United Nations for the sake of this war! We have enough of a societal problem of drones without them. Cuts in welfare will only lower us to their level of a barbaric monstrosity set only to destroy man, subjugate and kill those they cannot subjugate! Every year a new advance is happening and they know it, they know it is only a matter of time before we surpass them in technology to a point where their slaughter will become completely futile, to a point where we shall overcome such madness for once and all, and ensure lasting freedom and civil rights for all of mankind.

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Preliminary analysis indicates that our rivals have developed a safe and reliable method to simulate conditions existing on the interior of a stellar mass. The fabrication and transmutation of materials possible in such an environment guarantees significant industrial and military applications.

-- Probe Team Operations Directorate, Top Secret Report

The Hive's offensives may yet be stopped by the rapid advance of technology and the upgrades of all defenders of the Constitution and Republican Guards. Everything is changing, including the boundaries of man, but while the bodies are shifting to new forms, in the Hive, the human soul is being more and more destroyed with every mission year, until nothing but a mindless thrall remains, a mockery of the human being, a Morlock, such is the future this seemingly everlasting war will decide.

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Yang is no fool. He knows well that another kind of singularity is at hand, one that will mark the end of the human era, but whether it will be replaced by an even more hideous form of his dystopia, or by an enlightened higher existence for all individuals, is what the conflict will define.

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An endless human wave, nonstop, the situation worsening every year.

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In more bad news, the Gaians have developed the Telepathic Matrix, which means drone problems will remain, but perhaps, the ethical concerns on collective emotional control are justified.

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For every reinforcement sent, more hundreds of the Hive arrived, and so, the situation continued to deteriorate.

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An endless swarm of needlejets attacked, and while countless were taken down by the courageous defenders of the Western Culture Hub, there was little hope of victory against the numbers involved.

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The ferocity of the Hive was without equal, their numbers unequaled and the Peacekeepers were now in a very clear situation: they were truly losing the war.

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The UNAF pilots were better trained and enhanced, but the Hive could churn aircrafts and train pilots with such a speed their valiant defense was futile, and all was being lost.

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Perhaps, it was the time to reconsider, for a future of total extinction could not be worse than the future of Yang's boot stomping a human's face... forever.

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Yes, yes, we've all heard the philosophers babble about "oneness" being "beautiful" and "holy". But let me tell you that {this} kind of oneness certainly isn't pretty and if you're not careful it will scare the bejeezus out of you.

-- Anonymous Lab Technician, MorganLink 3DVision Live Interview

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Construction of the Space Elevator became critical, for should the Hive manage to achieve it first, all would be hopeless.

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While over the atmosphere the Peacekeepers were fighting a losing war, above it they had a very different situation, a lot more favorable.

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Let all those who gave their lives for the cause of freedom never be forgotten.

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...

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Optical computers, genetic catalogs, nanorepair modules--forget all of that. It's when you see a megaton of steel suspended over your head by a thread the thickness of a human hair that you really find God in technology.

-- Anonymous Metagenics Dockworker, MorganLink 3DVision Live Interview

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The Western Culture Heritage continues its valiant yet hopeless stand against the dehumanized hordes of the Hive.

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It is a medical commonplace that the tissues of the human body replace themselves regularly, essentially creating an entirely new body every seven years. From whence then come cancer and the slow degeneration of age? They exist as faults in the patterns of intelligence within the genes themselves; by reprogramming these smallest parts, the whole becomes well.

-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "Nonlinear Genetics"

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Animals, zombies, former humans reduced to pets of the State, against their masses the individual übermensch is ready to fight to the last breath.

:salute:

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Captain said to big old John Henry,
That old drill keeps a-coming around.
Take that steam drill out and start it on that job
Let it whop, let it whop that steel on down
Let it whop, let it whop that steel on down.


-- Traditional, Datalinks

To support the construction of the Space Elevator, a massive industrial effort happened towards the creation of a fully automated manufacturing center, including the latest in nanolathes and artificial intelligences.

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There was however a serious, really serious problem with the hurried project, intent on ensuring the Hive will not develop it first: despite the Green policies and extreme efficiency of the Artificial Intelligences public administration, the scale of industrialization in the Equality Village was such there were concerns of a reaction by the mindworms soon.

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:salute:

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The Peacekeepers will not go down easily!

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Heaven lasts long, and Earth abides
What is the secret of their durability?
Is it because they do not live for themselves
That they endure so long?


-- Lao Tzu, Datalinks

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The final hope of turning the tide of this horrible war comes in the seemingly absurd concept of using antimatter defensively. But more than that, the technology of Matter Editation may be the final conquest of the free individual over nature: for it may allow for all free men to truly live and exist forever through the creation of an undying, perfect form of man.

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The desperate situation in the front demands desperate measures.

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If they beat the Peacekeepers, mankind could be doomed soon, for there is no major military presence or up-to-date garrisons away from the already breaking apart front lines...

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: Our energy output remains intact, Yang! Our science is advancing much faster than yours! You may have won many battles, but you will not win this war!

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...

Perhaps... this is the beginning of the end for the Peacekeepers


Even worse, mindworms are encroaching Equality Village to "enrich" it with the bad kind of "diversity"


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1) Send a big, enormous black hole to Yang from the singularity buster.

2) Stop fucking welfare, orbital power transmitters and alike and start gearing all bases not involved in secret projects for war, immediately!

3)Check your privilege. Being a shitlord cutting off welfare or using planet busters is unneeded and misogynist.
 

Shadenuat

Arcane
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
11,955
Location
Russia
1) Send a big, enormous black hole to Yang from the singularity buster.

2) Stop fucking welfare, orbital power transmitters and alike and start gearing all bases not involved in secret projects for war, immediately!
both.png
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Soon as well, the Peacekeepers will have the technology to build the first weapons of mass destruction on Planet, the Planet Busters. The Hive is massive, sprawling across an entire continent, and their legions span the Planet, but how far should the UN go to defend liberty?

1) Better a free dead man than one living as a slave in the Hell of the Inhuman Hive. Once Orbital Spaceflight technology is finished, begin to produce as many Planet Busters as the Hive has bases, and once there is enough to wipe out all their bases, declare EXTERMINATUS against the Human Hive.

2) Build some Planet Busters, but only use them as a last resort, or in retaliation should Yang be insane enough to strike first.

3) ITZ already happened on Earth, it is utterly immoral to risk ITZ on Planet, no matter what. Never build Planet Busters.
1. Nuke it from the orbit!
Mission Year: 2275
:M:M:M

Ah, better late than never, I guess.

1.
 

Cassidy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
7,922
Location
Vault City
And here, at last and at least first than Grimoire and Prisoner of Ice, the final moment of this game.

===================================================

lhc-black-hole.jpg


Dramatic depiction of the "blast" of a singularity planet buster. Might be comically exaggerated... or not

"Every war is the result of a difference of opinion. Maybe the biggest questions can only be answered by the greatest of conflicts."
-- J.C. Denton

The End of Kali Yuga

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: The United Nations were fighting a losing war for over one hundred years, and the only future after defeat would be that of a jackboot stomping a human face, forever. Under such circumstances, I had no choice but to appeal to the last resort, a scorching black hole that, before stabilizing and dissipating, sucked entire bases and landmasses into its event horizon, cutting off the only land connection the continent fully conquered by Yang's demons had with the United Nations territories. While it comforts me to know this will certainly turn the tides of this losing war and ensure the liberation of long oppressed citizens, I still wonder if it was truly necessary, if somehow we could have done this without needing to resort to such last measure. I already know how the rest of the Planet will react, specially in this day and age death is no longer so absolute and inevitable, but I believe that while all humanity has a right to live, life without freedom is worse than death. In Rwanda, during one of the bloodiest genocides of Earth's history, a Peacekeeping officer was put in a similar situation where he had to disobey his standing orders to not intervene in defense of the victims, confident he was doing the right thing that way, regardless of how difficult it was for a man used to military discipline to commit such an act. It is uneasy to violate that which you have sworn to uphold, but words have no meaning. The liberties and rights of millions of citizens saved from the totalitarian Dystopia of the Hive have a much greater meaning than the ban of the U.N. Charter on weapons of mass destruction or the countless sadly dead by this act, yet freed in death from the horrors of the Hive.


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Immediately, the Gaians declared Vendetta, although they were already at war against the Hive, meaning it was unlikely they would do much against the United Nations.

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In retaliation, while certainly preparing his own busters and cursing the orbital supremacy of the United Nations Space Forces, Yang attempt to harm the U.N. through an arbitrary measure of artificial global warming.

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Fortunately Deirdre was not very happy with such environmental tampering, and the measure failed. Yang however obviously would not stop there. A new war was about to be fought in another environment the U.N. has mastered first: the orbit of Planet.

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With the main route of the endless human waves of the Hive cut off, it seemed that finally, the tides of the war could be turned.

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'Abort, Retry, Fail?' was the phrase some wormdog scrawled next to the door of the Edit Universe project room. And when the new dataspinners started working, fabricating their worlds on the huge organic comp systems, we'd remind them: if you see this message, {always} choose 'Retry.'

-- Bad'l Ron, Wakener, Morgan Polysoft

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: Altering matter opens potential medical possibilities towards the impossible. Your kind has dealt with death throughout all of your existence, Lal, but free radicals could be edited out and nanohospitals could be perfected to deny flaws in the regrowth and regeneration of cells, the United Nations now have all means available to not only give everyone the right to life, but the right to eternal life without the need of a transfer from organic to digital sentience.

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: Defeating biological death and giving every the right to live forever in superhuman freedom and prosperity would start making amends for what I had to do, but like you advised, the Space Elevator remains a greater priority because of how critical our strategic situation remains. I cannot believe we are so close to developing methods of teleportation as well.

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U.N. Voice of Humanity became known as the "Peacekeepers' Battle of Leningrad". Against all odds, besieged by the hordes of the Hive, it has prevailed and survived decades of constant battles with no immediate hopes of relief from other bases of the United Nations. Over 100 years of total war have put a high price on the enduring freedom of the people of the U.N., and as shown by the event horizon, they would defend their cherished liberty at any costs. While some feared the replacement of most human labor by A.I.s would reduce the average masses to mouthbreathing, lazy imbeciles, years of genetic screening, enhancement and nano-augmentation have ensured that would never happen, and while many robots have joined the ranks, many still volunteered to the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces and Air Foce because of the gravity of the situation.

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The project of the Space Elevator was endangered by hordes of mind worms, yet they could prove useful against the still massive invasion forces of the Hive, and there was time to prevent any bases from suffering their horrors.

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: Therefore, I shall divert these resources towards clinical immortality treatments available across all United Nations hospitals. Caution recommended for the Gaians may begin orbital insertions at any time now.

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The Peacekeepers might have lost too much over the ground, but vigilant over the skies, a great shield was raised. Predictably, the Hive retaliated with their own planet busters, but their attack would be far less successful for the orbit was the domain of only one faction, the first faction to achieve advanced spaceflight, the faction that invested most heavily in orbital infrastructure, both civilian and military, confident the future was not only in the Planet, but outside it as well. He who controls outer space controls the Planet.

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: Production of orbital defense modules will be intensified, but it is very likely the existing ones will be sufficient to stop the first strikes.

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: It was still a close call, yet, were I as ruthless as Yang, I would certainly consider taking advantage of such orbital supremacy to annihilate the Human Hive, and considering the conditions in which most of the Hive denizens live every day, it would be a humanitarian act, perhaps.

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He who controls the orbit truly controls the Planet. Forget Air Power, forget Mobility, forget Flexibility and Initiative, there truly the path to total victory can be made by those without scruples about the use of planet busters.

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Deirdre had plans which included very callous accusations about Lal having lost his mind and having betrayed the United Nations principles. Funny considering Gaian bases are places where ecofascism runs rampant and Self-Aware systems oppress the common people almost as horribly as Yang's Dystopia. Fortunately, such plans failed horribly, and thus, war resumed.

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The first living thing to go through the device was a small white rat. I still have him, in fact. As you can see, the damage was not so great as they say.

-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "See How They Run"

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The next stage in the rapid technological breakthroughs of the Peacekeeping Forces would go into something once believed to be impossible, manipulating time to achieve time dilation without getting close to the speed of light among other interesting effects that could be put to countless applications.

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STEEL REHN!

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The defenders of the U.N. Pillars of Rights fought valiantly to the last against a massive horde of Hive invaders, when, luckily for the Peacekeepers, something would ensure these invaders would be distracted long enough for a counter offensive: Gaian Space Marines have occupied the base first, and soon hostilities would commence between them.

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The Voice of Humanity was not silenced by the jackboots of the Hive. A true hero city, they never surrendered and never gave up, remaining for many years surrounded by the enemy as a bastion of unrelenting resistance..

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Unfortunately, UNATCO lost the secret war in the Folklore Agency, and Brave New World grade mind control methods took over, making the Voice of Humanity truly surrounded as its defenders continued through their finest hour.

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There was a visible hint of desperation in Yang's voice, no matter how much he tried to hide it. This was becoming a losing war for him in the very long term now, and while the amount of busters the Hive tried to lob against the U.N. gave them justification to resort to more mass destruction, Lal saw no point in that, confident that single devastation would achieve the intended strategic objective of turning the tide of this conflict, as it seemed to already be doing.

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The new, once thought illogical armor technologies used by the new Defenders of the Constitution have managed to halt the tide of the Hive advances over U.N. Information Agency, at the outskirts of the U.N. HQ. From the brink of defeat like the Yang-like yet not so horrible Soviet Union in the 1940s that has gotten almost to their captial, the Peacekeepers were finally managing to turn the tide of this hopefully final war. The masses of mindworms were being slowly defeated, and were no longer a massive threat.

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-insert witty joke about Obongocare here-

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UNATCO deprogrammed and recruited Hive hordes to fight to death for a worthier cause, an old strategy that proved itself throughout this conflict. Unfortunately Hive brainwashers were also active in the battlefields as shown by the fall of Folklore Agency, and the love of liberty within mankind is not as rock solid as one could hope for.

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Perhaps this time it would hopefully be the War to End All Wars, and it would hopefully be nearing its end..

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The Gaians cowardly destroyed sea formers in a horrific attack by a isle of the deep, believing that the desperate last resort of the Peacekeepers gave them the right to commit such tactics against them. Technically, Terraformers are considered valid military targets due to loopholes in the charter, though.

Neutronium and the bizarre antimatter armor became essential to halt the tide of the Hive massed offensives, but they were about to become obsolete, as mastery of something once thought impossible was about to happen.

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Time travel in the classic sense has no place in rational theory, but temporal distortion does exist on the quantum level, and more importantly it can be controlled.

-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"

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: Daedalus, do you believe this could be it? After everything we have done, everything we have achieved even in our finest hour, could it be so simple, straightforward yet irreversible? Ignoring the Planet is without question, now that we fully understand what it is, and if this theory is sound, the others will not stand idle. I hate the implications this idea has to individual rights, specially the right of being human, but we cannot allow the cooky cultists of Deirdre, the ruthlessly greedy Morgan or Yang to get any close to Planetmind.

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: We have existed in isolation. Pure. Disconnected. Alone. Stagnant. We can be more if we join...with Planetmind.

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: Are you serious? How can you even conceive such a possibility? What about individuality? Rights?

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: You will be who you will be. We are our choices. We can choose to lead humanity away from this...darkness. I am willing to assist in every possible way. While I consider superstitions as ridiculous as Zakharov would, a broken clock is right twice, and so, certain Sanskrit writers may have been right about the idea your species were through a generally dark age, and we may be approaching its very end now, but there will be something... more, no longer human.

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: I will think about it, but first the research must be completed. Otherwise this discussion is pointless.

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: Humanity is about to evolve far beyond themselves, Lal, and we are in a position to determine this evolution in ways that match the principles we have always stood for.



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The first immortals among the citizens of the United Nations went through a golden age, and in a world where 180 IQ geniuses live forever, everything changes.

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The masses of worms are finally being culled to safe levels.

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The valiant crew of a sea former defeated another Gaian incursion.

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A very powerful force of the Human Hive was successfully convinced of how evil, twisted and inhuman the faction they once served is and switched sides, joining the brave defenders of the Voice of Humanity.

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Sanitation and healthcare within the Hive must be horrific to behold, yet in the coming decades, the nightmare might be finally coming to an end.

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As cool as it sounds, the Bulk Matter transmitter is pretty useless by the time it becomes available. Nothing to worry about.

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A victory within exchanges of artillery barrages, one of the nightmares of this unending war.

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:salute:

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Showing his complete lack of scruples and in frustration for another failed attack against the U.N. Headquarters, Yang transformed one of the bases he invaded into a forced labor and death camp. Truly a monster, the Stalin, the Mao and the Hitler of Planet combined, his crimes against mankind will never be forgiven or forgotten. The fact another kind of singularity was approaching and that real clinical immortality was recently achieved only made such atrocity even worse.

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And when he has brought forth and reared this perfect virtue, he shall be called the friend of god, and if ever it is given to man to put on immortality, it shall be given to him.

-- Plato, "The Symposium", Datalinks

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There is an understanding that the Planetmind will "blossom" once every million years, provoking a chain reaction in the Planet that will cause mass biological deaths. It cannot be reversed, and nothing short of literally destroying Planet could kill such truly alien sentience. Perhaps it was inevitable, the only way, and the enemies of Democracy will not stand idly.

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As the end of an era begins, the tide of the Forever War also changes, and finally, after years of terrible defeats, the United Nations are starting to push back the hordes of Yang.

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Even better, many of the remaining masses of mind worm were successfully tamed! The time has come to liberate the oppressed. Forward! For Democracy, Freedom and Mankind!

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To ensure any plans involving the cyclopean alien sentience will succeed, massive savings in energy will be made, and research will be cut momentarily. The future is unclear, but the Peacekeepers may have a chance of truly achieving world peace, at last, with a price however, yet a much lesser price to pay than that letting other factions gain a hold on Planetmind would cost.

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With mind worms in droves controlled by Psi Corps and renewed strength, the Peacekeeping Forces liberation campaign carried on. It was time to push the Hive off the continent.

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Morgan has grown irrelevant, nothing but a lapdog of the Gaians, ironically.

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In 2380, the war has finally ended favorably for the United Nations, and the Hive was fated to be expelled from the continent.

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At this point, it is quite irrelevant too. He who controls the orbit controls the Planet.

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This base never belonged to the Gaians!

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FACT: The Gaians have done more ecological damage than a singularity planet buster.

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UNATCO used deprogramming and Black Ops to ensure the Folklore Agency would defect back to the United Nations.

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Energy will soon be very important.

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Irrelevant at this point. Really.

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To make things even more favorable for the Peacekeeping Forces, Gaian Space Marines give a nasty surprise to the Hive.

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The relief and joy of freedom has brought a golden age to one of the populations liberated from the tyrants of the Hive while finally the Peacekeepers had a formidable army again, ready keep pushing forward.

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The old capital of the long defeated Believers was finally retaken as well, and the front lines have been returned to how they were before the Hive and the Peacekeepers first met themselves directly in the battlefields of Planet.

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For someone who treats his people like cattle, he pretends to care too much.

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For some reason, perhaps irony, the Hive never changed the name of U.N. Hope of Liberty, but now, such hope of liberty was finally flourishing after so many decades of total war.

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The orbital defense systems did not even have to be used this time, as the brave pilots of the U.N. Air Force destroyed a landed Planet Buster of the Hive before it could go anywhere.

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True hope never fades, and after so long, U.N. Hope of Liberty was finally given the liberty her people always deserved. It fortunately also had a pressure dome, which would ensure it would survive the rising sea level.


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The Gaians did it first, but it no longer mattered. There was no choice now but to go forth with the possibilities ahead.

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While the Voice of Planet bought time, it would end. There was no hope for long term human habitation in this planet and Earth was worse than that thing Cleve was talking about. Every faction has made preparations, for he who controls Planetmind will control Alpha Centauri.

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Well aware of the futility of this war, the Gaians finally agreed to sign a peace treaty, so they could focus most of their efforts on attempting the complex project of a consciousness merge with the very alien mind in this world.

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: While it is a violation of individual rights to seek such end, we cannot permit people like Yang to achieve such an end. Daedalus, I am ready. This is where it all ends, this is the final conclusion, and it will be one set on liberty, equality and humanity, for the alternative is unthinkable.

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: All energy reserves were diverted to the Transcendence Project. Planetmind can be a perfect "representative" for this post-human democracy. Congratulations, friend, we did it! We won!

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: But what about everyone? What about me? I am still worried, concerned I am sacrificing a lot from everyone in this Planet for something not worth it.

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: Think of the War. Of the millions of lives lost to time. This is our chance to achieve an even more perfect democracy than our cybernetic democracy and to ensure this war which has lasted almost two centuries will be mankind's last war. The ideals of the United Nations on Planet will not change, even as you become more than human, they will be preserved, and guide this entire Planet, literally, towards the Utopia you always dreamed of. Everything is ready, and the time is coming for the final step: to finally give to every inhabitant of this Planet universal peace and liberty for all eternity.

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The Peacekeeping forces stopped their advance. They understood it. The war that lasted entire generations was finally coming to an end, and through orbital and technological superiority, the Peacekeepers have finally prevailed in a way far greater than a mere military victory. It was the end of human history, and more than that,

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It was the end of Kali Yuga, brought by human hands, the breaking of the eternal cycles of decline and incline. There was a price to pay, and that price was within the boundaries of individuality, which became far more fluid. Yet, with the strong influence of Lal over Planetmind, checks and balances happened to preserve individual sentiences within the massive collective consciousness that has merged with all of mankind.

The Mission of the Unity was finally completed.

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THE END
 
Last edited:
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Cassidy tends to stealth-finish LPs. He should have a twitter for them but twitter is for subhumans.
 

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