Part 12: Master Control

Chapter 12: Master Control

Greetings! I am Master Control. Please be patient with any errors you encounter, as many of my systems have been re-appropriated from the Panopticon.

Below you will find a summary of the social, economic, and diplomatic situation of the Freeland colony over the past fifteen years.* This summary is intended only for personnel of clearance level three or higher. Be advised that if this category does not include you, your name and location will be sent to Central Defense Command for threat evaluation.

*It has been more than fifteen turns, but I'm purposefully playing loose with how long a turn is, in order to justify Hutama still being alive, even with longevity treatments. It's already been nearly 200 turns, which would be stretching it with our current tech if each one were actually a year, I think.




Master Control is now in the upper right, and the Panopticon is in the lower left.

It is my primary duty to issue directions to a wide range of civilian and government work groups, based on directives decided by the Central Planning Committee. It is often necessary for me to utilize my vocal imitation programs to convince them that their orders come from a human being, rather than a sophisticated artificial intelligence. They are less likely to protest or question the orders this way.

It is irrational for them to do so, in any case. They can resent my influence if they will, but the fact is that before my construction, the colony was wavering, full of discontent, food shortages, and civil unrest. Now that I have begun efficiently coordinating the efforts of the population, these problems have nearly vanished. As more Intelligence operatives finish their sweeps of foreign networks and return home to join the Freeland Citizens' Support Department, the colony has finally returned to a stable state.








(The Stellar Codex constructed by the African Union colony does not conflict with any policy objectives of Freeland, but I have included a summary of its capabilities nonetheless:


...of Drees wished to cement his authority over that community with a statue depicting himself as a Stellar Codexicant.)

It is not solely due to the CSD's benign propaganda efforts in lending financial and emotional support to the population, however. The government-capital-backed introduction of massive 'gene smelters' to complement our cloning plants in all major settlements has seen an explosion of medical innovation.






Improving cognition would have given us more Science, but right now, Health is the top priority.




Food preservation carries 10% of a city's Food over to the new bar after it grows in population, but again, Health is more important.

People are now capable of gaining more nourishment from less food, resisting all types of deformities and disease, and considering problems in a more rational manner. As a consequence of the latter, scientific endeavors are now also more effective and numerous, and many new technologies have been discovered and implemented.












I was tired of my Workers taking Miasma damage, mainly. This only took four turns to research though!

It is worth noting that many citizens of Asraya have begun productively asserting themselves in public life. A number of previous inhabitants of the colony sympathize with their message of non-violence and respect for the planet's ecology.




Because a lot of people in the thread have chosen whatever will get us close to a Health Virtue fastest, we went with this. The next Virtue after it will give a huge bonus. After that, we'll go back to voting on them, I promise. We also get another synergy bonus!



More importantly, all classes of citizens have begun following a philosophy of civic duty revolving around responsible taxation, labor rights, and petitioning of local committees. Improving quality of life for another member of the community is viewed as the highest virtue. Mass voting is not currently advised, but Hutama has been extremely successful in cultivating his image of a people's politician, who will make their voices heard within the government. It is also, for the most part, not merely an image, which is surely beneficial.

Owing to these improvements, large-scale projects have once again become feasible. The first among them are the Ectogenesis pods scattered around the outskirts of our cities.






The first Biowells have been completed, and since there's no description of them in the civpedia, I'm going to narrate them as supplementary Ectogenesis Pods for this game.


Simultaneously, the xenocyte experiments at our Vivariums have borne fruit, allowing us to clone healthier, more valuable plants, animals, and citizens than ever before. The creation of mythological and fantastic species has also become a rare luxury, and is expected to increase in popularity as the costs involved continue to decrease. Aside from the expected sphinxes and jabberwocks, creatures based on the mythos of newer generations have been spliced into being. Most notable are the plethora of species that look like how their creators imagine the mysterious Progenitors.


Despite the improvement of domestic life, Freeland's foreign policy remains troubled. The Alliance with the Pan-Asian Cooperative has been allowed to lapse, and the widely-recognized prophet Kavitha Thakur has personally condemned Freeland for a variety of reasons, particularly our excavation of the ruins of Omoikane.



Wars have also broken out between various other colonies over limited resources, poor planning, inefficiency, and shrinking living space. Most of these skirmishes are brief, at least.




This war lasted like... five turns. Also, ARC declared war on Franco-Iberia soon afterwards, which is still going on.

As the cities of Polystralia become more populous and advanced, there is a risk of such conflicts spreading here. Thankfully, the population has begun finding beauty and meaning in the cities themselves, greatly reducing these pressures.





The proliferation of sophisticated information networks has recently become the subject of much debate, even while they allow an unprecedented number of people to directly participate in said debate.




The first choice here makes agents 'level up' with fewer successful operations, though I'm mainly putting this to a vote for narrative reasons, to judge how much surveillance the people are willing to tolerate. The second choice gives +10 city hit points.




Reducing food consumption would make 10% of a city's food carry over after growth (cumulative with other such bonuses), while recruiting passive agents would give us another operative to conduct covert business. This is a tougher call, and an interesting one, so I leave it to the thread. Thus, two things to vote on this time: strengthening covert ops or cities with Surveillance Webs, plus reducing food consumption or recruiting passive agents with CEL Cradles.