Part 4: Emergency Session 1: Bacchus

Now calm down, you miserable sods, calm down! I know y'all are eager to talk about the aliens we encountered. I know I sure as hell would rather be talkin' about that right now, but we've convened because of the situation on Bacchus, and by God, that's what we're gonna talk about!


I still can't believe you shouted that during the official meeting.


I said shut it! We can go into that in July. Right now, we got something more pressing to worry about.


Hello everyone, this is the Unseen Dictator speaking, and I'd like to go into game mechanics a little. You see, every once in a while, mostly during the colonization of a planet, a random event like this will pop up and demand your attention. Right now our civilization is considered "Neutral," but until we research Xeno Ethics, followed by Good and Evil, we don't have an official alignment. Selecting the good, neutral, or evil choices during events like this one will change where we stand on the alignment scale, and while we can choose any alignment after researching Good and Evil, where we trend will determine how much it'll cost us to pick one. If we keep picking evil choices but want to be Good, for instance, that'll cost more than if we keep picking good choices instead.

Most of the choices are like this one: a big bonus for evil choices, a moderate bonus for neutral, and either no bonus or a negative for good. These almost always only apply to the planet in question, by the way. Honestly, I don't know why the good choices are so terrible, since the Good, Neutral, and Evil bonuses are all balanced against each other.

The choice is yours. You can pick based on your personal preference, or on the bonuses given here and now. If you want to think further ahead, this link goes to the GalCiv wiki, which will tell you what the Good, Neutral, and Evil civ bonuses are. Voting will last until midnight, or 11.5 hours from now. Also, the committee chairs would like to chime in with their opinions on the matter.


How could we ever even think of asking the colonists to make such a choice? Absolutely not. I refuse.


The lives of our people, of all sophonts, should be considered sacred. There is no need to use such a device as this.


I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice. If our colonists wish to take a few off the top from that for the sake of their own defense, who am I to refuse?


Such murderous technology should never exist! Suicide is a sin, and any who demand it from their followers is damned to hell.


It is not suicide, but sacrifice. The men and women who run these stations will be giving their lives in defense of their fellows, just as surely as the soldier on the field. We have just met an alien race, and we cannot shirk our defense now.


Planetary defense is important, yes, but what is the point if there are no people left to defend? Perhaps a limited production will be sufficient.


Such a strange scientific phenomenon deserves to be studied and exploited properly. I would gladly give my life for such knowledge, but I am sadly needed here instead.


What? Do I have something on my face? Oh, right, my opinion. Well, I suppose keepin' the planets safe is important, but I sure as shit wouldn't wanna throw away my crotchety years just on the off-chance something mean comes by. Rotate out the personnel, that sounds reasonable. Sorta like what we do with nuclear plants.