kermit

'appearing to be a genuine beacon of liberty' would probably be the better phrasing. an effort to appear as such was made, otherwise various alien freedoms would just not be where they are. of course the reasoning behind this is incredibly malicious and its largely bc the corporations want a larger workforce, but the facade was a more convincing one imo. It all boils down to me believing the 2 centre states in our lore (Sol and Biesel) being very similar politically (at least in recent characterisation): they both have a strong streak of nationalism and they both have a streak of imperialism. the Sol Marine's 'oorah' is mirrored 1:1 by the Legionnaire's 'for the republic'. ofc there are differences, but I don't think they'll be very significant come talk of war and I think its the imperialism/nationalist that is going to pop out come pre-NBT2. So, I think the 2 centrepiece states need to be differentiated. The Alliance has always been the nationalistic/imperialistic one of the two, with Biesel going that route later on, so that's why I'm specifically saying Biesel should find its own path. Good vs. Evil is a boring theme in war stories, so I hadn't thought of or intend to white-wash Biesel. I think Biesel is too far gone for that and it's been rotted too deep by the megacorporations, of which the megacorporations are the arch-evil of the greater setting. This should not be a concern and Biesel will have its fair share of being evil. I just don't want it to be an overtly imperalistic or nationalistic flavour of evil, because that domain is what Sol is or has just shed out of. As for the ultimatum, I respect and don't want to waste the LTAs time and I think they can handle the bluntness. I don't like the characterisation of Biesel in years past much, I think it can be improved with the NBT2 in mind and result in an overall better outcome without departing too far from current direction (afaik). If this is one of the 'fixed' things or if my plans do significantly depart from current direction, then the LTA needs to know that in my application now and not in a few weeks. This is me letting the LTA know what strings I would like to play with, so that if this particular string is inflexible they can shoot me down and give another candidate a go.

Ckey/BYOND Username: sadkermit Position Being Applied For: Biesel/Megacorporations Lore Writer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: deputy lore master Oct 2024—Nov 2025. diona deputy writer for 9 months before that Examples of Past Work: Bits and pieces and a lot of editing for the Phoron Rework (eg. Interstellar Travel page rework, Technology page) SCCV Horizon page glam-up Megacorporations landing page Biesel/Megacorp side of the Pale Blue Dots (Nralakk megacorp expansion initiatives) and Pharsalia (Sol consulars lead-up) article arcs Crescent Expanse mini-arc Bits and pieces of the 2024 diona revamps (eg. Narrows rework, Titan’s Rapture/Hieroaetheria system/environment. What do you think you can bring to the setting as the megacorporation lore writer? Something fun, hopefully. This project is for a game and so everything I write I try to ensure can be threaded into gameplay or is accessible to include in character creation. As such, a lot of material I contribute probably includes something gimmicky — it’s there to stand-out on a wiki page to catch an eye when someone is thinking of character creation ideas. A double-edged sword, but more authentic sci-fi writing. Aurora is a hodge-podge of sci-fi–flavoured fantasy, soft–sci-fi, hard sci-fi, non–sci-fi, and anything other varieties of sci-fi, so committing either way is a bullet to the foot, but I tend to lean towards harder sci-fi, insofar as it contributes something useable and isn’t completely at odds with existing lore. The Warp Travel section (particularly dangers of) is probably the best place to illustrate what I mean, with warp travel having a few sprinkles of real science splashed in to contrast it against bullshit travel. It can be fun and sometimes interesting and is just a different flavour of lore. Familiarity, prior experience. Unless NBT2 plans have significantly changed, I am already aware of and geeenerally aligned with overall plans/heading and it won't be hard onboarding me. I presume a general direction for Biesel is already there and just needs discussion by this new Biesel/Megacorps team, revision and writing. What are megacorporations and Biesel lore lacking the most in your opinion? Do you have any ideas on how to rectify such? An actual presence. The LTA have been occupied with other projects that have seen megacorporation and Biesel lore severely lag behind other lore teams. I presume this is half the reason why Biesel/Megacorporation lore is being split from the LTA to be its own team (and so you have more peons to do your writing for you lol). Something I said I wanted to do in my DLM app then never did (because I was wound up with DLM-specific tasks and hadn’t the energy to pursue this) was use the Relay more for slice-of-life megacorp/Biesel posts. I had begun to do this shortly before I left with the introduction of Spurley, but I resigned before I could get that ball rolling. Mini-events are another way to do this, and I do intend to pick up where I left off with frequent events, granted with less independence I had when both DLM+admin but I’m quite okay nagging at those I will need to rely upon (hi, Fyni). A lot of megacorporation lore is alluded to but not written. A defining trait of megacorporatiosn is being equivalent in power/influence to a state, and while it is mentioned that NanoTrasen has a navy and that Hephaestus has sovereign territory, this can be hard to find. It wouldn't be too hard to expand some of the megacorporation pages to emphasise just how mega they are. Stuff like this will be necessary to show the decline of the megacorporations come NBT2 as they start to lose these bits and pieces. Biesel continues to be a flavourless area, and its recent characterisation is one I am not fond of. It has slowly turned into a Sol Alliance copycat with its jingoism and imperialism, which has only solidified it as being the Space USA and also ruined its themes of being an underdog, champion of freedom, etc. Torvald is a nothingburger who says whatever is most convenient for the article/lore team at the time, which means his true direction is invisible. Biesel has grown out of being the 'default' player origin, but still has the bland 'default' origin flavour. I think this can be remedied without conflicting with the NBT2 vision, so I have a couple of plans: Introduce a unique flavour to Biesel so it stands out as its own origin, which I am gonna temporarily dub ‘phoronpunk’. The Phoron Rework already started this and I know the NBT2 intends to have mechanics surrounding phoron-tech, and so this kind of sets up where phoron tech will be visually distinct, instead of just Normal Looking Equipment with Hidden Phoron Inside. Biesel is described as one of the most technologically advanced states, so this intends to have that be apparent, instead of an unsubstantiated factoid. Cultural revisions will also have to be made to go with this. It’s probably far too late idc, as it's something I absolutely want to do, which is trying to rein in the jingoism and USAisms. I haven’t decided the specifics on this yet and it will be something I’d want to discuss with deputies. Biesel needs a political re-themeing that isn’t just 1:1 taken from the Alliance’s homework. Pre-Collapse, it was an underdog that relied on being a genuine beacon of liberty to attract support, even where this came at great cost (eg. the sky-rocketting crime and societal decay in parts of Mendell), so that would be my start to see if these themes can be salvaged. The beacon of liberty part is forever tarnished by its CRZ conquests and would need lore developments to repair, and the underdog theme isn’t too far gone (especially if Biesel’s CRZ conquests were to fall into total megacorporate control as part of corporate-political manoeuvring [surprisingly, for megacorporations, they hold very little independent land, save for a couple of exceptions]). I don't think changing any of this will be detrimental to NBT2 plans and the way I intend to do it has the NBT2 setting in mind but, frankly, if the current characterisation of Biesel is locked-in then this application does die here. On the other hand, what do you think is the strongest point of our megacorporation lore? Lots of room for darker themes and social commentary. The tendrils of megacorporations run deep with a Spur-wide effect and affecting all characters in the current setting. This isn’t novel and exists IRL, so yeah. Based on what has been revealed so far about Anabasis, what are your thoughts on the corporations' place in the new setting and what ideas do you have about them, if any? I was privy to and contributed a lot of stuff that I still think is unannounced, so sorry-not-sorry about the lack of specifisc, I'm just avoiding leaking stuff. You can find some of my comments/edits/notes in the earlier NBT2 docs for such. A lot of the megacorporations simply do not belong in the new setting and can be cut loose. Only the interesting ones with a role to play need to stay. The megacorporations that do remain will be forever changed — for 400 years they have essentially had dominion over humanity’s expansion and settlement into the stars. Their influence is going to significantly dwindle, and go from tugging at the strings of states to having to rebuild their spiderweb, which is a whole other game to what they have been playing in previous centuries. I think that’s quite interesting and will be fun to characterise. One megacorporation may continue to hold actual land with a claim on a small region of space; a megacorporation elsewhere might be entirely in the shadows, subtly influencing states here and there. Each megacorporation should have a distinct role in the new setting. Additional Comments: weh

my officer/investigator play wasnt too affected. a lot of the time i didnt even equip the .45 pistol/revolver and was able to wait until i got a weapon from the armoury. no different than having a (mini-)disruptor. on the traitor side of things (bc my merc rounds were totally unaffected), it was honestly a bit frustrating at first. before, i could do minimal/light violence with a bit of a grace period until the armoury was opened. during the testmerge, there were a number of times i just had a .45 quickdrawn and fired on me within 5 minutes of such minimally/light violence, where i wasn't even particularly trying to escalate to a gunfight. unlike disruptor where the fire rate and projectile speed is slow and gives you time to react/break the firing line, theres little you can do when the same happens with a .45 othen than take it or hope you had pre-dosed on stims/been wearing okay armour. bit of a vibe kill each time and made me wish i had just bought uplink stims as a crutch or locked-in more without goofing around. i got used to it and just settled on doing totally non-violent gimmicks whenever i rolled traitor, bc i preferred the goofy factor/not having to lock in, and couldn't discount that at least 1 officer may immediately resort to the .45. but, i still prefer the leeway and guarantee no overeager officer can mess you up on first encounter (unless you fumble bad)

disruptors being dentrimental to security is kind of the entire point; they were nerfed to make room for low intensity/low gear/roleplay-focused antags (which i like doing now and then). they can do shenanigans, get into an escalatory stand-off with disruptor-using officers, and usually get away from that first fight before having to lock-in with uplink gear/expect to be detained post-armoury activation. .45 rubbers at the start makes zero difference when it comes to any antags who bought even a mid-range uplink weapon bc that will still trigger an armoury activation, and all of the difference for low intensity antags (bleeds that leave trails; brute that slow-releases pain ontop of initial pain; bonebreaks that do eeeven more pain and can do organ damage that do yet more pain, potentially lasting the rest of the round if you dont find 5 mins to use sana) and as a security player too, the use of force escalation up to using rubber rounds is significantly higher than using a taser-esque disruptor. where my characters ditched the disruptor because its plain dog shit, my characters probably will ditch the .45 too bc if an antag is armed/armoured the armoury is probably going to be opened

all of the xenoscience roles can also pilot the intrepid when the quark is unavailable, which is scarcely contested as BCs have the canary as their designated shuttle, so i dont think xenoarchs are going to get stuck often bc a scientist/other xenoscience role beat them to the quark. generic scientists being allowed to pilot the shuttle does stop them bringing in a pilot to fly, but scientists being able to launch their own expeditions independently means there's more chance engineers/medics/others get the opportunity to join such an expedition. 1 scientist relying on finding 1 pilot vs. 1 scientist being able to give an opportunity to all crew to join an expedition (not that a scientist may open their expedition to all crew every time, but the few times make it count perhaps). anyway i fancy the idea bc i like playing non-mechanical social scientists, but that locks me out of starting expeditions (eg. visiting local cultists to do a social survey) unless said social scientist is an RD, which then has its own restrictions (not being able to leave ship if you're the sole command member, ie. most of the eurohour rounds i played on that character)

the commissary/vending machine changes have been fun for me and go hand-in-hand together rather well. i already liked the commissary but never really had a reason to visit it, but its quite easy to find a reason to pop by. so, nicely done my one suggestion would be adding a a self-checkout, using the Idris Ordering Terminal like the one by the kitchen, for when there is no one staffing the Commissary. there's been a few rounds lately where the HTs are just too busy with other duties, so a self-checkout means other crew can still pay if they need something semi-urgently (eg. chocolate for the kitchen), but also loosens the shackles tying HTs to the commissary once its been advertised as open. bonus points if the Ordering Terminals can be turned on/off by the HTs as they staff/unstaff the counter., as im not sure if that functionality is present rn. bluespace flare behaviour could be merged with the marshalling wands. press Z to continuously wave the wand, while doing so a new landing point is generated a few tiles ahead of whichever direction the signaler is facing. up until the wand-waving action is cancelled. bluespace flares could remain as a limited resource for any expeditioner or entirely removed to necessitate a HT being needed to open up those extra/emergency landing points.

SCCV Horizon Returns to Charted Space The Stellar Corporate Conglomerate has announced that the SCCV Horizon has been safely recovered from the deep Crescent Expanse. In August of this year, the SCCV Horizon set course into the Crescent Expanse as part of a phoron surveying operation in the northern frontier. The vessel lost contact with the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate and greater Spur, which was anticipated due to the lack of communications infrastructure in the region. Worry began to set in late in September, when the SCCV Horizon failed to reestablish contact by operation deadlines and was undetected by telescopes along its intended flight plan. All changed for the better yesterday, when the SCCV Horizon and the PMV Chromatic (a Nexus Corporate Security asset protection vessel contracted to locate and rescue the SCCV Horizon) were detected reentering charted space, then later reestablishing contact with the Chainlink. Pictured: SCCV Horizon reenters charted space after missing for 1 month. It has since been disclosed by the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate that the SCCV Horizon was sent off course after an emergency bluespace jump away from a large, pirate community within the Crescent Expanse. Not dissuaded, a pirate fleet would pursue the SCCV Horizon. A defensive action by the PMV Chromatic, with the SCCV Horizon supporting, has seen these pirates entered into corporate detention aboard the Chromatic, where they are now awaiting transport to the Republic of Biesel. A Stellar Corporate Conglomerate executive had this to say: ‘The SCCV Horizon was sent drastically off course into uncharted, unpredictable, and unsafe space by the organised, pirate group that pursued them. In the face of this crisis, the Horizon’s crew, led by the best, stood together as the unbreakable chainlink we aspire to be; they were unwavering and demonstrated great perseverance despite any and all setbacks. There was never a doubt that the Horizon would return, and they will continue setting the example,’ — Jenna Thorman, Stellar Corporate Conglomerate executive. The SCCV Horizon is now expected to set course for the Golden Deep’s Pactolus.

Here's the feedback thread for the regional, Crescent Expanse mini-arc set in a pirate-infested Warp Lane 7. I'd love to hear, and it will be useful for future lore doings when I'm gone, what everyone thought of various aspects of the arc, including: The ingame events, of course. The forum thread minigame. Other 'atmosphere setting' doings (leading up to or during the arc), be it done via relay, PR, or similar. All I'll say here prior to receiving and unprompted by any feedback yet is: Being a mini-arc, this arc was low production, using (where and as best as possible) existing assets or lightly edited assets only. The goal was to see how doable a 'let's work with what 1 person can do using only we have' kinda arc would be. It'd be interesting to hear whether it succeeded, felt too rough around the edges at times (most egregiously with engineering event objectives, I imagine), and how it compared to higher production, major arcs. I think this is the first arc that's occured since the event intensity was revised to include an 'Extreme' intensity. Were any Highs too extreme; were any Extremes not extreme enough? Event scale here for anyone uncertain on wtf the difference is. All that said, thanks to everyone who took part, as a player, volunteer, or helping hand at any point. I hope everyone had at least one event they found memorable <3

Crescent Expanse: Warp Lane 7 — The Last Week Bridge Memo Good morning, Command and Bridge Crew, The gate-assisted warp jump out of Warp Lane 7 and onto Warp Lane 1 was successeful. We are now on a charted course to the nearest major port, Pactolus, Arusha. Following the Malebranche's assault, the SCCV Horizon has sustained notable but non-critical damage. Damage control has remedied the worst of it, as did the PMV Chromatic which expertly fended off the worst the Malebranche could throw. Remaining non-repairable damage can be restored once we make port at Pactolus. All pirates detained during the assault have been collected by a Nexus Corporate Security vessel for eventual transport to the Republic of Biesel. Justice will be served. With a defined course plotted for the SCCV Horizon, this mail thread will be closed. My commendations all. Routed via internal relay. Composed by Virgil AI.

Crescent Expanse: Warp Lane 7 — The Penultimate Week Bridge Memo Command and Bridge Crew, The warp gate leading to Warp Lane 1, our route back to charted space, has been restored to an operable state. Final readiness checks will be performed due to the derelict condition of the warp gate, with the SCCV Horizon's gate-assisted warp jump scheduled next weekend for 2467-11-02. Should the final GO be given, we will have successfully returned to safer spaces. Also resulting from the reactivation of the warp gate, the PMV Chromatic, an asset protection cruiser of Nexus Corporate Security, has arrived in the SCCV Horizon's current system as part of our vessel's now unneeded rescue: Nexus Corporate Security logistics personnel will be performing repeat resupplies over the next week to fully replenish the SCCV Horizon's stores. A Stellar Corporate Conglomerate executive has been scheduled to board the SCCV Horizon tomorrow to establish interim contact with the Chainlink, and to open an initial inquiry into the vessel's Crescent Expanse Operation. Of lesser importance, a C'thuric 'Klat'xatl' hivecell has embarked onto the SCCV Horizon as in-distress rescues. Cooperation between this hivecell and present Horizon command was integral to the safe and timely restoration of the warp gate, and so they will be permitted passage on the SCCV Horizon to the first safe port within the known Spur. Well done all. Routed via internal relay. Composed by Virgil AI.

Crescent Expanse: Warp Lane 7 — Week 7 —— Bridge Memo: Ship Navigation Good afternoon, Command and Bridge Crew, After an additional week stay in CES-142 assisting the Coalition of Colonies surveyors embark on the SCCV Horizon, and following an expedition to recover supplies from an infested auxiliary outpost, the following developments should be noted: Operations has processed a significant quantity of supplies recovered from a supply cache at the auxiliary outpost. Though the ship continues to lack more specialist and luxury goods, the vessel has resupplied enough to complete our operation in Warp Lane 7 comfortably. Engineering was able to recover a large quantity of gaseous phoron from the outpost, enough for an additional bluespace jump. Command was able to identify and recover warp navigation data from the outpost. The information from this data will allow the SCCV Horizon to perform twice the manoeuvres in one week. ((OOC: The SCCV Horizon can perform 2 movements during 1 of its turns using the Warp Navigation Data — when is up to you, but it can only be done once)) Regarding the Malebranche: The Galga-class surveying vessel with an improvised explosive payload has successfully destroyed one of the Malebranche's escorts, and rendered moderate damage upon the Malebranche itself. The remotely piloted vessel was sent to the CES-144 and was last tracked rendezvousing with the Malebranche, where it then detonated. It is expected that the Malebranche will need to take one week to recover from this action. With the Malebranche's escorts at reduced effectiveness, any attack on the Malebranche itself is more likely to succeed. The escort destroyed is also believed to have been transporting a significant quantity of supplies and fuel utilised by the ship group; at risk of supply loss, the Malebranche and its remaining escort may disengage in a number of weeks if it is unable to keep up with us. The Warp Interdiction Net has been planted in the egress zone of CES-142's warp gate. Should the Malebranche enter the system, the interdiction net should overload the Malebranche's warp drive, causing catastrophic power failures that, hopefully, should render the vessel inoperative for one week. Finally, as previously stated, the distress beacon was scheduled to be activated on 2467-10-11. With the beacon's activation, the SCCV Horizon's location will be broadcasted to all vessels in the region, including a potential rescue vessel if the vessel is unable to locate the warp gate off of the current warp lane. ((OOC: The deadline is being set for Saturday, 1st of November [so, 3 more turns])) Let us endeavour to find this warp gate as soon as we can, or hope our rescue finds us to direct us to one. Routed via internal relay. Composed by Virgil AI. ——— TO: Command, Bridge Crew FROM: Automated Bridge Notices SUBJECT: Bridge Notice: Flight Plan Update MESSAGE BODY: A flight plan update has been made. The SCCV Horizon is now routing to CES-146 via WARP GATE TRANSIT. Estimated time of arrival: 5 DAYS. Please make the appropriate preparations.

Crescent Expanse: Warp Lane 7 — Week 6 ————— Bridge Memo: Ship Navigation Good morning, Command and Bridge Crew, Following the investigation of and response to a Coalition of Colonies surveying outpost in CES-142, a number of developments should be noted: After an agreement between Horizon Command and the crew of the surveying outpost, the surveying outpost's crew will be embarking upon the SCCV Horizon in 3 days time as distress signal rescues. They have been provided basic accomodation, passenger credentials, and have been slotted into an essentials-only rationing schema. This information has been forwarded to Coalition of Colonies consulate staff. The SCCV Horizon, by restoring the outpost's water-ice electrolysis-based hydrogen refinery and successfully prospecting a rich ice deposit, has had a number of deliveries of hydrogen, oxygen, and other organic volatile gases. As such, with many of these being usable as bluespace drive moderators, our bluespace jump budget should now accomodate for 3 jumps, up from 2. As part of the outpost crew's evacuation from the surveying outpost and to compensate the SCCV Horizon for aid rendered, we have received a notable quantity of supplies. If we can locate another source of supplies, we should be able to fully resupply for the journey out of Warp Lane 7 and make it out of our supplies struggle. ((The supplies count will remain at 'Partially Resupplied', for which the Scarcity PR will remain merged. Finding one more resupply option will have the Horizon become 'Adequately Supplied' and the Scarcity PR unmerged. Resupplying isn't *necessary* to leave Warp Lane 7, if you can tolerate the scarcity!)) With the dereliction of their damaged Galga-class surveying vessel, the surveying outpost's crew have agreed to refit the vessel to hold an explosive payload, which can be remotely piloted into the Malebranche's heading. It's rendezvous with the Malebranche next week should see significant damage done to the Malebranche or its escorts. Regarding the Malebranche, they are hot on our tail. It appears their familiarity with this region has seen them cross double the anticipated distance. This manoeuvre of theirs has put us into their sensor range. Fortunately, their hasty traversal of the warp lanes spared the ISS Lu'Nioh from a confrontation. Routed via internal relay. Composed by Virgil AI.