Part 19: The Cleansing of the Mesa II

Some headlines:


Chairman Visits War Orphans The Chairman reassured troops on the Front: 'Your children are in safe hands back home.' (People's Daily)


Borehole 01 Heralds Clean, Safe Geothermal Energy For All But Gaian green-loonies are still complaining! (People's Daily)



Hive Occupies Communal Nexus The attackers say they are just taking back what is theirs, but who counts the human cost? (Union Herald)


Who Cares About The Sea? Top 15 land based tourist hotspots. (Financial Times, AC edition)


Communists in Space! Yang says his space program is purely peaceful, but can we really believe him? (Financial Times, AC edition)


Liberated From Freedom? Churches burnt amidst heavy looting, as Hive security forces target collaborators. (Gaian Times)


Our Brave Troops Restore Aspiration to the Hive! Triumphant scenes as exiled governor returns to base. (People's Daily)


Sunny Mesa is Ours! Yang applauds brave troops, and hard-working labourers of state munitions factories. (People's Daily)
Reason Over Religion Yang's victory illustrates the strength of scientific understanding over imbecilic appeals to supernatural forces. (Campus Post)


How to Look Good at 100 We can't all pull a Deidre, but here are some tips for getting pretty close. (Campus Post)

Why Are We Being So Light on Yang? Guns, not development, are at the heart of the Hive machine. (Gaian Times)


Gaian Arms Deals: The Truth Strange craft spotted by Hive air force, technology of Gaian origin? (Campus Post)
Now We Have Fusion Planes Too Miriam gloats during live broadcast, embarrassing Gaian allies. (Campus Post)


Rifts in Deidre-Santiago Pact? While the Gaians offer aid to one side of the current conflict, Santiago trades technology with the other. (Guns and Ammo Magazine)


Butchers of Salvation Hive annihilates civilian populations of Time of Salvation and Terrible Swift Sword. Yang blames 'unavoidable collateral damage'. (Union Herald)
Slow Going? The destruction of Time of Salvation is a tactical mistake. Now a wide swathe of exposed desert lies between Yang's army and Believer bases. To continue their offensive, Yang's eyes are bound to turn West... (Guns and Ammo)


Lal Announces 'Lasting Peace' Between UN and Hive Late night deal brokered, with 100 credits set to Hive 'humanitarian projects' (Union Herald)
Appeasement! Though Lal might think that his deal protects him, history shows otherwise. Yang's troops are already massing on his borders. (Gaian Times)


The Growth of a New Anti-Gaian Alliance Zakharov sends offer to Yang: 'Let us be rid of that mad Gaian bitch.' (Campus Post)

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Man, has things gotten complicated... Notice that we've successfully isolated Lal using probe teams. He won't be getting Fusion tech anytime soon, hopefully... Miriam, however is in pact with Gaia, and it would be hard to break that with just framing Deidre for espionage.



Zakharov's offer is quite tempting. The tech is nice, and the credits is kinda useless. A long term alliance with him will probably mean some more free techs for us. However, direct war with Gaia would be an inconvenience, even though they are already sending techs to Miriam - there's a Gaian base south of the UN which can be real trouble.
Choices
-Accept alliance
-Refuse

Next update: We invade Lal!
Renaming required for:


(The above list also gives a hint about why we are attacking Lal right now, and why he's so keen to buy time...)