Part 11: Off and On Again
Chapter 11: Off and On Again
[Panopticon Activity Log Alpha000387]
Satellites: Online
Camera feeds: Online
Network Monitor: Online
Human agents: Online
Weirdly, some entries in the civpedia have this end-game history-like perspective, and some don't.
>>Ultrasonic fences operating at 220% capacity. Recommending design re-evaluation to Central.
Categories: “indigenous life forms”, “human policy decision”, “energy grid”
I might have put this to a vote, except that since we rely on trade, this is really the only option. The other choice would have extended the range of the fences to three hexes, which is meh.
>>!!!Alert!!! Un-contained alien life signs detected within borders... Cancel Alert. Unit code-name 'manticore' under guidance of Central military. Initiating classification procedures.
Categories: “indigenous life forms”, “great worm”, “top secret”
The Siege Worm we just killed left a skeleton, and we got another manticore by sending an explorer to it. Yay...
>>20% increase in number of official visitors to alien preserves. 90% are military or scientific personnel.
Categories: “indigenous life forms”, “SCIENCE”
>>Defense perimeter construction complete in capital. 25% decrease in threat level, 60% chance of escalation in Kavithan Protectorate crisis.
Categories: “Freeland”, “defense”, “KP”
>>Alliance with Pan-Asian Cooperative secured. 75% chance of escalation in Kavithan Protectorate crisis.
Categories: “defense”, “KP”, “PAC”
>>Defense perimeter operating at 163% capacity. Recommending design re-evaluation to Central.
Categories: “defense”, “energy grid”
Considering we are all about dat money, I took the free maintenance option. The other would have given our cities better defenses, but in general, if your cities are under attack, you're already fucked.
>>Encrypted intelligence reports from Central agents intercepted, combing data for keywords... Complete. Agent missions successful; agents were detected but not identified.
Categories: “intelligence”, “defense”, “energy grid”, “Culper Cell”
>>Beginning initial scans of 'Firaxite' mine and its personnel...
Categories: “null”, “isee”
!!!Error!!!
>>PX/
94143243431512659321054872390486828512913474876027
67195923460238582958304725016523252592969257276553
64363462727184012012643147546329450127847264841075
62234789626728592858295347502772262646456217613984
829519475412398501
And the log just stops there.
What am I looking at here, my fine intern? It looks like gibberish.
No one is quite sure yet.
So we went through all the trouble of building this huge thing, only to have it crap out on us after a week?
Not necessarily. It's still running, just not printing logs anymore.
Let's reboot the damn thing. Turning it off and on again is tech support 101, right? Now that that's settled, hopefully I can make some headway on this refugee situation.
Excavating the derelict settlement that Omoikane left behind, and this was the result.
What's going on with that, by the way? I'm worried.
That information is going to become public soon anyway, so I have no qualms about telling you. There were indeed human experiments going on underneath the monastery. But they were little beyond what the Augmented had already done by the time they landed here. In fact, the knowledge the test subjects bring with them might well advance our understanding of augmentation significantly. The salvage team found a whole mess of surviving scientists and subjects in an underground bunker, and here we are.
So they were attacked just because of that? That's terrible!
Indeed it is. The original Augmented especially think so. War might be more terrible, but that decision may already be out of my hands. Go home to your family, my friend. You have the rest of the day off.
What about you?
I've got some calls to make.
Freeland's advances in genetics and computation, combined with the work (unethical, many contended) of the scientist-monks of Omoikane, produced a surge of advancement in the technology of man-machine interfaces.
Thanks to the remarkable, though not-entirely-understood, properties of Firaxite, the progress was so rapid that sweeping social change resulted.
You can also see the Panopticon tower northeast of Freeland.
The most visible change was in architecture. In addition to being a superconductor and energy supply, Firaxite also doubled as a light source. "Spent" crystals turned black and malleable, though still possessing incredible hardness, high tensile strength, and light weight. Contractors in Freeland began using spent Firaxite on construction projects.
Over less than a decade, a significant portion of the colony, including its leadership, came to embrace the philosophy of Omoikane. Called “Supremacists” by their detractors, they held that humanity's frailties were only a result of its lack of creativity and ambition in dealing with them.
Most of them adopted the label as their own. Taking a cue from the ancient Earth philosopher Plato, the early Supremacists believed in an abstract realm of ideal forms, especially the ideal forms of humanity, and they considered it their mission to use technology to bring reality closer to those ideals. There was, of course, much disagreement over exactly what those ideal forms looked like, and over what methods were acceptable in pursuit of their mission, but overall the philosophy was a unifying rather than divisive force in the colony, at least early on.
Thanks to the widespread use of cloning and genetic surgery, entirely new types of human beings were created, possessing a wide range of adaptations, including enhanced senses, superior reflexes, and greater cognitive capacity. Though this practice was only in its infancy, these clones were raised from birth to interface with advanced machines that shored up their shortcomings.
The first wave of such new people were known as “Disciples”, and they were instrumental in bringing the war against the Kavithan Protectorate to a swift conclusion. Though outnumbered by their allies in the Pan-Asian Cooperative, these advanced soldiers nevertheless did far more damage and secured more territory faster. Strangely, many enhanced soldiers reported getting direct feedback from the presumed-defunct Panopticon during battle, further increasing their impressive efficiency.
After taking Asraya and securing the narrow pass to the western part of the continent, most members of Polystralia's Central Planning committee, including Hutama, pushed for a peace settlement. In exchange for reparation payments to the survivors of the attack on Omoikane, they would cease their assault on the Protectorate.
Since Might/Adaptive Tactics got the most support, a war made sense. But because of our previous focus on Industry, a limited war for reparations, with the unspoken goal of securing a trade route, also made sense.
Though peace reigned, the conflict between the hawk and dove members of the Central Planning Committee soon spilled over to the rest of the population. On top of that, the difficulty with assimilating a city full of zealous adherents to a very different religion gave rise to widespread turmoil. Fear, dissent, and even the mostly banished specter of disease reared their heads, and sporadic riots broke out from Asraya to Neo New Zealand. Many blamed the rapid advancement of human augmentation for this turn of events, and the practice saw an ugly backlash.
As an influential public figure, Hutama worked constantly to stem this tide of unrest. He managed to hold onto his own power, but actual progress in solving Freeland's growing number of issues was slow.
What Virtue should we pick next? None of them will immediately solve the Unhealthiness problem, but all trees do have some health-boosting picks eventually, even Might. Here are the new ones we can get, since I took Adaptive Tactics last time:
And: Frugality (+10% Food retained after city growth), Foresight (+10% Science when Healthy), Liquidity (-20% cost to purchase units and buildings), Scalable Infrastructure (+15% Wonder production), Social Investment (+2 Production from Manufactories)