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[Blood_Librarian]

An idea for the next turn.

Design:Compound 78-C 'Longevity'
78 is a derivative of early trials in the creation of a non-deleterious variant of Compound 42b 'Spice'.

Variant C is a recently remade substance of the original A & B Variants, which originally caused massive widespread organ failure due to uncontrollable cellular replication in critical parts of the body. Its origins are squarely within the times when our tools were utterly crude, even before the initiation of the Golden-Eyes sub project; revisiting old concepts like these is part of a new initiative to find new sparks of genius where we once failed.

As is Spice, 78-C is a metamorphic treatment that used pharmoaugmentive methods to deliver improvements to patients undergoing the process. Ruthless and callous testing through the countless expenditure of human lives has resulted in very low failure rates for the perfected serum. None of this is particularly groundbreaking, up until the effects of "Longevity" was first duplicated reliably.

All examples of those augmented with Compound 78-C as described under Appendix 6:Optimal Delivery practices for Zeocyclonoxonolic Compounds are gifted with an augmented mitochondrial cell structure. Splitting into an entire taxonomic family of cellular structures, the new symbiotic structures rapidly permeate and colonize every part of the patient during the imprinting procedure while being monitored by technicians. the entire process takes approximately six hours, with lingering cryo-cell time to allow the changes to safely take place.

These symbiotic structures aid in the replication of DNA, leave their respective cells to create microstructures where stem-cells paired with oxygen saturated energy sources stockpiled are forced to replicate and stand by for trauma, restructure large scale formations of tissue such as muscles, fat, and organs for a more robust function, and process and produce ATP much more efficiently due to the presence of ceramo-metallic catalysts that tinges their blood a synthetic purple.

In layman's terms, our specially treated soldiers are expected to be tough enough to theoretically survive decapitation if a medic was ready to sew their head back on and move them to a rear echelon cryo tank. With an endurance unparalleled, a soldier can stay in the fight where any Merethian would fall. To a lesser extent, attributes such as strength, reflexes, and intelligence are improved due to the vastly improved cardiovascular functions and tissue reconstruction that the serum imparts.

Mainly built around the quick-release pharmoaugmentive "shortcuts" of the Militarized Base-line, One must go through both the augmentative process and the "spin-down" period before the Longevity serum can be applied, to allow the necessary "base" that the Baseline provides to solidify.

Preliminary trials expect Longevity to be compatible (if less effective due to the presence of unexpected substances) with some or all subjects exposed to Spice and it's derived serums, but if this becomes infeasible to keep, progress will be made in spite of the incompatibilities for the sake of the unaware.

A vastly increased logistical uptake in terms of raw food, as well as specialized "refills" for the ceramo-metallic catalysts is expected to be appended to our logistical overhead for our burgeoning addition to the special forces.

Revision: Divertor, Blanket, Shield Medicines
The medical field has been exponentially improved by our unfathomably advanced leaps in the field of pharmaceutical augmentations and the ten thousand other fields that have evolved with it.
Three research Programs simultaneously create the pharmaceutical medications necessary to treat ailments previously far too strenuous for all but the longest durations in the tank.
Diverter is the largest project with the most investment: Divertor creates self-sustaining metabolic processes within the short intestines that create several of the precursors for both augmenting an individual into the Spice Program and maintaining the pharmaceutical augmentations and reducing the logistical overhead for supplying our troops with expensive to produce rare chemicals.

Blanket and Divertor are closely related: both dealing with the incredibly taxing problem that Radiation damage has on our troops. to sum up a moderately complicated pharmaceutical miracle, Blanket covers radiation effected tissue with particles that absorb toxins and materials common with radiation exposure as well as the toxic build-up from chemical exposure. Once the particulate captures any material, it is deposited into waste by existing bloodstream mechanisms.  Divertor is a medicine that "sits" closely with DNA, which it copies into its own memory before activating in earnest. Once this copy is retained, it retentively checks the DNA within the cell it is deposited in for defects and replacing them. Combined with the fact that it absorbs ionizing radiation before it has a chance to damage DNA, it prevents dangerous radiation exposure.

[Chiefwaffles]

Revision: Guardian ANGEL Centralized Communications Center Platform
Normal: (2+3)=5: Average

The Guardian ANGEL platform lies situated below ANGEL station as it previously existed. It's here where Guardians are trained to resist the Astral nonsense happening out in space and where a rotating permanent crew manages the relay of transmissions to and from the Orator satellites part of the ORATION network.
Orator satellites scan space for non-Aratamite (so barring something weird happening -- which to be honest, isn't that unlikely at this point -- Merethan) signals and relay anything found to the Guardian ANGEL platform. If there's something of value found in the data, then the crew of the Guardian ANGEL platform can alert our ground forces wearing the appropriate radio equipment. Equipment capable of receiving these signals is cheap enough to be a non-consideration in outfitting our troops. However, logistics surrounding the deployment and use of transmitting equipment is a different story. The material cost of outfitting a soldier with a transmitter is irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact that the Guardian ANGEL platform is a huge bottleneck. Very high-ranking officers are given the equipment and authority to send transmissions to the Guardian ANGEL platform which can then be relayed elsewhere. Anything else simply becomes too much for the platform to handle.

So in short, with this revision the ORATION network is capable of occasionally receiving transmissions from Merethan assets in orbit and can alert our military of this fact, though we are unable to get the exact locations relevant to the transmission. Military commanders are capable of using the network to relay critical orders and intelligence to other parts of the military. Useful, but not a game-changer.

Guardians that are (at least ostensibly?) resistant to the problems created by the Astral's interaction with ORATION will be ready immediately. The military doesn't need this, but if they're available for immediate use by the Design Bureau in combat/intrigue actions.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Space Transport Capacity: 0/0 (Nothing Imported) (Aratamite STC is the sum of its designs' STCs, multiplied by two thanks to the ANGEL Project.)
Resources: 3 Ore, 4 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals

Moon Region Rating: 0 (Regions Occupied / Max # of Occupied Regions)
Moon Resources: Nothing (Succesfully imported Moon Resources are included in "Resources" as well)

Weapons

• Heavy Plasma Rifle "Albatross": A heavy recombinated weapon based on the plasma-creating principles of the GM-BP Reactor. Uses a Tesla-derived containment beam to fire a continuous beam of SynthOil-created-plasma at the target, where the beam maintains a building-up convection cell of heat and plasma until it collapses and/or the beam stops, when it detonates inwards towards any gashes or cavities on the target. SynthOil cells are inserted like magazines and with range configured by the operator, last for 1s Long range, 15s Medium range, 60s Short range (where it's more like a blast wave than a beam). Overheats after 4 seconds of continuous usage, needing 8 seconds to cooldown -- 2s or less shots recommended. Massive amounts of heat are dumped into an arc-shaped radiator on the front-bottom edge that can be used as an effective melee weapon when heated.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 4 Oil
• HMKR-59 'Osprey': Hybrid Magnetic Kinetic Rifle; a variant of the Pursuit rifle that houses coilgun components to increase the velocity of bullets after conventional firing. Has a slot in the back for a single SynthOil battery, which has enough charge for 10 powered shots (soldiers carry 2 batteries total). Powered shots are accurate to Medium range (unpowered shots to Short range) and have increased lethality and armor piercing capabilities.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 1 Oil
• Tesla Rifle: A "rifle" that fires bolts of ARC lightning at Medium range. Using an inner "Lightning Rod" chamber, it gradually charges from a backpack SynthOil battery - it has four levels of charge, with Level 3 being the optimum Medium range + good lethality and Level 4 being overkill with a chance of explosive backfiring. It takes about 40s to charge to Level 3 (charging can be paused but the charge decays slightly over time), and the battery has enough juice for 5 Lvl3 shots. Extremely lethal against anything conductive, and has a modest area-of-effect as the electricity arcs to other conductors in close proximity. Can be hooked up to external SynthOil batteries as well. Soldiers pre-charge to Level 3 when aware of hostile situations, but are still vulnerable to ambushes.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil
• "Chelsea" SMILE: Single-use rocket launcher with Red Skies incendiary (useful v. COMBAT armor) or Tesla (useful with area of effect and v. electronics) payloads. Effective to long-range (still useful but unreliable beyond), and has a flip-out glass targeting visor with a crosshair predicting impact site based on wind and fall.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
• "Storm" GMRL-ECP-61S: A 250lb active radar homing missile with a 6km range and 5m effective blast radius. Fired from 4-rail trucks (with radar) and aircraft mounts. It has a poor resolution, greatly decreasing the reliability of locking onto non-huge aerial targets and making locking onto surface targets next-to-impossible, though large ships prove easy targets. Equipped with an HE or ARC warhead, with the ARC warhead using a chain SynthOil reaction to generate arcing electricity frying electronics and melting metal as it jumps from conductor to conductor.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 4 Oil
  
  • ION-Storm: Variant with a second stage, improved tracking, reduced payload, and it's only able to be launched from a truck. Designed to intercept Merethan air(space?)craft re-entering the atmosphere.
    Expensive] 3 Ore, 5 Oil
• "Red Skies" Multiple Missile Launcher: A 300 lb version of the Storm missile using Inertial guidance and adapted entirely for surface-to-surface use. Has a SynthOil-based incendiary payload that's capable of effectively burning through armor, but is less immediately destructive. Has a range of 15 km. Its guidance allows it to easily and effectively target any ground point, but it can't change course mid-flight and can't actively track any targets; its effectiveness in accuracy mostly is based on what intelligence the operator has when firing. Intended for use as surface-to-surface artillery.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 4 Oil
• Beacon Bomb: Variant of a STOP-IT Beacon (for bombardment targeting) designed to be deployed from aircraft like a bomb. After hitting ground, emits signal for 30 seconds that causes about 3 STOP bombardments in the general area. More inaccurate than regular beacon, due to added bomb imprecision. Heavy, fits onto hardpoints. Sol Invictus can equip 2 at slight top speed penalty. Takes ore for insulation and for advanced miniaturized manufacturing. Takes oil for massive amounts of energy. Complex due to requirements of extracting energy quickly.
  NATIONAL EXPENSE 4 Ore, 6 Oil, [Complex]

Land Vehicles

• M3T1A1 Raider: Diesel-Electric tracked APC. It has light RHA armor , plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew. It has an interchangeable turret. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore 2 Oil
• Privateer 1 1/2 Ton Truck: An antique Cannalan truck somehow STILL being used for cargo transport, sheesh.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC
• "Glaive"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-72: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a Reactor-charged coaxial-mounted Tesla Rifle (capable of firing a steady stream of L1/L2 shots). Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by a GMBP Reactor, allowing for unlimited movement and power for Coilgun shots, making the only main logistical concerns for the tank being Coilgun ammunition and crew supplies.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• "Ettin" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61-B: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; two self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically in consecutive fashion flak shells to shoot down aircraft and infantry. The turret can be angled downwards effectively to shoot at infantry; limited ammo supply means the gunner has to be somewhat conservative with his firing patterns and can't just fill the sky with flak. Electric computer & radar guidance overlays a digital crosshair on a small sheet of "glass" in front of the gunner that is overlaid on top of the physical crosshair to maximize accuracy, allowing for decent accuracy as long as the aircraft isn't too fast or evasive. The commander and driver reside in the cramped interior and exit/enter largely via a door to the side, with the front of the tank being heavily angled downward for firing angle reasons. The turret is armored, but has poor visibility. Can travel for 10 hours on a full SynthOil battery, and the gun doesn't require power to operate.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Spacecraft

• Slug-Throwing Orbital Platform (STOP): A small "spacecraft" with an extremely cramped 2-crew compartment, 24 hour life support, and a Reactor with enough fuel to keep it running for a week. Tiny plasma thrusters dot the platform for great turning and very slow movement. Small radio allows contact with ANGEL Complex, small radar allows detection of nearby enemies and display of their blips + predicted trajectory and where to shoot to hit them on the HUD. Gunner controls turning and targets enemies via just the canopy/HUD, their sight, and radar blips. Controller manages moving and maintaining systems. Large gauss cannon lining underside (30 seconds to load in a new shell, 20 seconds to charge to max once a shell is loaded) can fire up to 10 shells at enemies, with extreme damage at 100% charge and exponentially less but still very good damage at 50% charge. Each 100%-charged shot takes about 9% of SynthOil fuel, leaving a STOP that fired 10 100%-charged shots with only a few hours of operation. Crew compartment and life support can be explosively detached, where crew enter stasis to slow breathing (surviving for about a month on a full tank of oxygen), a beacon starts pinging for retrieval, and solar panels just barely power life support + beacon. Can be easily brought to geostationary orbit on board ANGEL shuttle.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 2 Oil
  
  • STOP-IT Orbital Bombardment Beacon: Large beacon that must be carried by >=2 baseline troopers and has about 1min chargeup time. Once charged, sends a signal to orbit so any STOP relatively above can fire at the ground near the beacon. Somewhat innacurate and the beacon must be protected for its chargeup time and STOP firing/charging time, but STOP orbital bombardment is extremely devastating. Allied troops must evacuate area to avoid friendly fire, generally.
• ORATION: Orbital communications network consisting of individual 1-man 'Orator' satellites. Relayed through a central "Guardian" ANGEL station platform, this network can vaguely triangulate Merethan spaceborne transmissions and relay critical orders/intelligence across the military. Transmissions from Guardian platform can be reliably received by any ground asset, but a bandwidth severely bottlenecked by the Guardian ANGEL platform means only very high-ranking officers can send transmissions to be relayed. Guardians are trained to resist strong spaceborne Astral influence on board the Guardian platform.

Air Vehicles

• A-8.8 'Sol Invictus' LEO ECM Fighter: Relatively-for-Aratam-aircraft small fighter with light recombinated armor and forward-swept wings. Has single integrated Rapidfire Plasma Cannon capable of firing blobs of plasma at a rapid speed that splash over large portions of armor, though with a somewhat poor range; has 2 regular hardpoints. Contains a single internal Reactor optimized for plasma generation to feed plasma to RF Cannon and to two independently-360-3D-thrust-vectoring plasma thrusters. Very fast and agile, but a bit slower than top speed + agility of Merethan spacecraft. Top acceleration reduced when firing RF Cannon. Reactor lasts for very long times even with high speeds + cannon usage, giving extreme maximum distances and mission lengths. Can go into space with limited life support, but only sub-orbital trajectories possible due to lack of proper navigation. "Mercury" ECM decreases detection range against Merethan sensors or can prevent a single target from transmitting non-vital data. Cockpit is transparent recombinated material, and has target overlay for sensor data coming from the Mercury.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 4 Oil
• 'Lantern' A-7 Armored Jet: A large jet built with metal-recombinated materials, giving it good structural integrity and relatively good durability. Massive amounts of recombinated armor are present all across the aircraft. Direct hits by Shrike missiles can be survived with only moderate damage, and air-bursts/lasers are much less effective. An integrated Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor is used to power electrical systems and SynthOil tanks are used to fuel both the reactor and the combustion Ramjets. The heavy weight of the armor give the Lantern a great speed but not quite matching Mereth's Blizzard jet craft. Different systems provide the Torch with great relative agility, but only SEEM Operatives are capable of properly operating the complex controls in the airplane (though their enhanced abilities are a huge boon with speed and agility). 2 always-powered Ospreys are mounted on the front, with no other weapon capacity.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil (Expense can only be as low as current SEEM expense)
• 'Meteor' Air Frigate: A gigantic flying vessel, more akin to a boat than any traditional aircraft. Foregoing aerodynamics, it's propelled by 6 (4 on bottom, 2 on back) thrust-vectoring plasma GM-BP Thrusters (based on expelling plasma generated by the GM-BP process seen in Reactors for large thrust) that also produce its power. It can move quickly and isn't too sluggish, being able to easily outpace any kind of ground force yet being much slower than Merethan aircraft. Four Tesla cannon turrets -- 3 on top, 1 on bottom -- with greater range and rate of fire to their counter parts powered by the Meteor's capacitors provide an excellent anti-air screen, being able to fire once per few seconds and being able to intercept missiles and bombs when operated by SEEMs. A coilcannon array on the bottom largely mechanized allows for slow yet respectfully-paced terrific bombarding of ground targets, with mediocre targeting. A full radar suite and command center/bridge inside the hull give excellent battlefield intelligence and this information is distributed via radio to nearby forces, and to turrets on the frigate. Very heavily armored and able to resist constant Shrike bombardment for a relatively long time, yet limited internal space forces any non-essential for short-term operation facilities outside on the hull where they're more akin to fancy camps, providing a convenient target to greatly decrease combat effectiveness of everything but minimal radar operation and Coilcannon operation. Constant firing of more than one Tesla turret fairly quickly drains capacitors, quintupling tesla charge times. Thrust vectoring allows the Meteor to stay in the air with multiple missing thrusters. An internal bridge serves as an excellent mobile field command center.
  [National Effort] [8 Ore], [7 Oil]

Navy

• Corsair Destroyer: A moderate sized ship with light steel hull armor. It has a light cannon armament of two hydraulic-equipped Nightwind cannons and four Can Shredders. However, its main armament is its Shark Torpedo launchers (2x each side) and Seahorse mines.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 3 Oil
• Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• SLS-61 Magpie: A basic landing ship with a bow able to open up with a ramp to allow vehicles and troops onto the shore, and has extremely basic treads to de-beach itself. Has Thin armor and a few mounts for infantry rifles on the top to provide basic covering fire. Powered by Gen 1 SynthOil engines, which requires it to use the majority of its cargo space to hold enough SynthOil to make it across the sea without running out of fuel. Normally has a modest capacity for soldiers (and capable of holding a few moderate-sized vehicles), but the fuel requirement limits it to only a small amount of soldiers and/or perhaps one tank at best.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• Atlas-class Cargo Ship: A Santos-class with the weaponry and aircraft equipment and just about everything else stripped off. Utilizes SynthOil batteries for general powering of ship, though oil-burning steam turbines from the Santos still power most of it. Uses a system derived from Cryostats to cryogenically freeze perishable cargo as well as people for maximum storage efficiency.
  Provides 2 TC

Chemicals & Drugs

• Spice: An extremely potent manufactured drug resulting in extreme schizophrenia, delusions of power, frequent seizures, and eventually death. Extremely addictive. Those who undergo the week-long "Goldeneye" treatment in a CryoStat tank become accustomed (and permanently addicted) to low dosages of Spice, enabling very high awareness of surroundings and mildly increased reaction and thinking speeds when under the influence of the drug.
  [Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals.
  
  • SEEM: Systemic Elimination of the Entropic Mind. An extremely intensive and long procedure where top-ranked veterans are subjected to week-long bouts of sensory deprivation in CryoStat tanks, and have their mind essentially transformed into a new form via the combined use of modified Metal Recombinators and Spice. Experienced SEEM Guides facilitate this Journey across the barrier into the Astral Realm. For now, this allows survivors of the treatment to exhibit extreme (much higher than Goldeneyes) awareness of surroundings, visible or not. This awareness manifests itself in many ways, from avoiding traps/bombardments to knowing where to shoot at to knowing when one's being shot at, and more.
    [Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals,
• Combat Drug 'Fury': A Spice-based drug that massively decreases reaction time, and lasts for ~2 hours. Also incites rage, decreasing soldier effectiveness at range and chances of occasional friendly fire. Mild hallucinations are common, preventing users from being effective at recon/espionage/etc. roles. Makes veins much more apparent and red. Addictive, and takes effect >5 minutes after injection.
  [Expensive] 3 Rare Chemicals
• Metal Recombinators: A special mixture that separates pure metal from ore, obsoleting a large part of Aratam's refining industry. A variant can also be used to fuse metal with (likely) any other matter.
  Provides 1 Ore.

Astral

• BioForged Guardians: Recruited as children or younger teenagers, these candidates are subjected to long and incremental SEEM/light organic recombination treatments in addition to intensive training. Gradual welcoming of their mind to the Astral along with minor recombination enhancement of the brain allows for greater Astral abilities and full awareness of the Astral, along with conscious control of many brain functions. Superior memory and much stronger/tougher/quick-healing than even Military Baseline. They are consciously aware of events about to happen in the near-immediate future, and have "insane" reaction times in addition to greater smarts. Generally better than SEEMs in every way. Can shunt their awareness to the Astral realm, where they can perform mental combat with others and sense the consciousness of other humans a notable distance away.
  [Very Expensive] 1 Ore, 6 Rare Chemicals, Complex
• Blackwell Technique: Through channeling Astral Energy into a specific area, an Astral-trained operative can create a reflection of the Astral Realm coded for the astral connection of one specific person (targeted via line of sight or accurate recreation). This person will suffer severe symptoms ranging from death to severe brain damage to memory loss to seizures to full-blown hallucinations to extreme paranoia and more. But permanent affects are rare for those without long exposure times. Non-targeted and non-Astral-trained individuals will suffer milder, all-short-term symptoms only when looking at the Reflection. Looking at a recreation (i.e. television screen) of the Reflection will only affect people who've already seen that exact Reflection, recreating their prior symptoms.
  All Astral-trained operatives can invoke this. But it requires intense concentration and 10 seconds to create the reflection, and continued intense concentration to maintain the reflection.
• Wadjet Branding: Tactile symbols of the Eye of Horus printed on the exterior of the hands in uniforms for our Astral-enhanced individuals. For some currently unknown reason, focusing on this symbol notably improves Astral effectiveness and safety for the focusing individual. Useful for newbies to practice Astral techniques by feeling the symbol in different ways through extravagant hand motions, apparently.

Other

• R.A./M.P. Suit: A metal/ceramic/rubber recombinated suit of armor with heating/cooling capabilities and a quick-inject system where any single one of 6 vials stored in a back compartment can be instantly injected w/ instant effects by a series of buttons on the wrist. Contains a default adrenaline mix, but vials can be filled with FURY, SEEM, or other drugs. A particle filter and visor (w/ internal red lighting) covered by a recombinated hood sit on the head, and a jacket covers the rest of the suit for appearance/morale sake. Light, yet surprisingly durable: survival rates of soldiers are increased greatly across the board, with soldiers oftentimes being able to shrug off light-caliber shots from Merethan rifles. Looks like this, but with a slightly-red-glowing visor instead.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore
  
  • R.A./M.P. Space Suit: Variant of the RA/MP suit that is very bulky and cumbersome, but lets the occupant survive for an hour in a vacuum before suffocating/suffering drug withdrawal.
• CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. A single "set" of machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total, can manage roughly a dozen CryoStat tanks at a time. Basic automation assists technicians, allowing for a single technician to manage many CryoStat tanks. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs in the solution naturally infuse into the bloodstream through the skin. Once taken out. Use is tracked through a computer-assisted bureaucracy dubbed the "CryoState". A day stabilizes minor life-threatening wounds, and a week stabilizes near all wounds. A month starts completely healing scars and generally brings up health status to pristine, and a year can restore lost limbs. Also used for life-extending "rejuvenation" processes by important people.
  [Cheap] 2 Rare Chemicals
• SynthOil: SMRO-58 "SynthOil" is an advanced form of oil - it's made using a combination of oil and other chemicals, making a much more stable and energy-dense solution. Has a peculiar property - with the right tools, it can directly produce electricity.
  Provides 1 Oil
• Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor: A 1m-radius spherical "nuclear-ish" reactor that uses gamma radiation to break down SynthOil into electrical energy. Rather efficient and good at making energy, especially compared with anything else in the world comparable in size/expense, but hard to miniaturize and has a notable radiation poisoning issue with anyone spending a notable amount of time in proximity.
• Stormcaller Circle: A shift-based group of the top SEEMs in Aratam, "bonded" with tendrils of Tesla energy embedded throughout the atmosphere surrounding the continent. They can use their tremendous amounts of Astral energy at store to manipulate these tendrils and thus weather. Every season, the Bureau may vote on a single theatre and single weather phenomenon to invoke there. Our troops will be prepared (with the equipment that they already have, that is) ahead of time, but we can't micromanage the phenomenon to further aid our troops.

Infrastructure

• The Refinery: An extremely secretive facility hidden under the canopy in a remote part of the rainforest, identifiable only by its smoke. Contains large liquid storage tanks and refineries for the production of chemicals, well-equipped laboratories, cells for test subjects, a steady supply of test subjects from Aratam's prisoners, and more. Useful as a base for chemical research.
  Provides 1 Rare Chemical
• The Militarized Baseline: Our soldiers are enhanced above regular humans (in notable, but not major ways) in many categories; namely strength, reflexes, and intelligence. All soldiers now have implanted ports for quick drug infusion, and a logistical structure is in place to facilitate the drug infusion and treatments of the entire Aratamite military.
• The Black Chamber: A giant facility built beneath the Refinery full of specially-modified CryoStat tanks, training areas, niche laboratories, and subjects attempting to reach the world beyond ours: the Astral Realm.

• Embassy "The Brewery": An embassy for Cannalan diplomats that doubles as a highly advanced brewery of Aratam's signature drink, Arachaca. The Cannalans can see the brewing process below through their glass flooring and taps straight form the brewery are available for Arachaca straight from the source. Uses basic electronic systems for very limited automation in conjunction with its general advanced brewing systems.

Wonder

• ANGEL Project: A space elevator, comprised of the Complex, Shuttle, and Station. The Complex is a huge facility anchored to the sea floor north of Aratam's coast, and holds a large number of docks and warehouses. Training facilities. Orbital command center. Logistics centers. Worker residences. Security posts. "Mini" embassies for other nations to coordinate their usage of it. And more. Three massive struts going up 100km to the end of the atmosphere hold up electromagnetic-propelling rings to acccelerate a large shuttle hooked to four recombinated Graphene tethers to maximum safe speeds. It cruises from left-over speed to the Station.
  The Shuttle has two decks -- a top deck with space for 30 comfortable people, and an unpressurized much taller bottom deck for cargo. Movement between decks is impossible without an external structure to maximize cargo space. The shuttle's top deck reaches the station, with the buttom deck having access to space.
  The Station is one moderately-sized pressurized room in Geostationary orbit with primitive life support reliant on constant resupply, fitting a 24/7 rotated 4 crew and 6 other people (3 guaranteed to Aratam for research/tourism/development, 3 given to other nations).
  International use of the ANGEL Project is authorized, though limited to non-military use and analyzed for security risks.
  
  Doubles STC, Gives +1 STC to Mereth.
  Can be used to easily send people, prefabs, supplies, materials, station parts, ships, ship parts, etc. etc. into Geostationary orbit. Can be used to improve R&D of space assets. Can assist construction of anything in space.
  Both sides can use it for civilian/non-military use and R&D, but Aratam will know of Merethan activity if they do use the ANGEL Project in an action (after that action is processed). Only Aratam can use this for military purposes/R&D.

The Combat Phase of Summer 1965 has begun. Submit any votes necessary for the combat phase, such as for an Intrigue action and/or strategy proposals and whatnot.

[Blood_Librarian]

Deployment Plan Alpha-2 "Thunderstruck"

STRATEGIC DEPLOYMENT:
[X]: Meteor "Hour of Relentless Intent" Frigate redeployed to MOUNTAIN.
[X]: Beacon Munitions Deployed to PLAINS
[X]: Storm Caller Circle tasked towards PLAINS:
            Sub Intent:  utilization opportunistic weather patterns allow for the patterning of large scale tornados that form and dissipate unpredictably. This phenomenon is designed to introduce complicated variables to enemy precog systems.
           

INTRIGUE ACTION:
Use our trained Guardians to investigate the 8-pattern transmissions in depth and attempt to trace their source. Attempt communication if possible, mirroring the transmission we're receiving. If no contact is possible, studies should focus on specific frequencies the 8-pattern will more readily piggypack onto.

(If you have a suggestion for an alternative action I would be happy to hear it.)

[Rockeater]

(1) Deployment Plan Alpha-2 "Thunderstruck": Rockeater

[Man of Paper]

Operation: Ground and Pound

Deploy Meteor to the Mountains.
Deploy Beacon Bomb to Plains.
Use Stormcaller Circle in the Plains, applying Intense Dry Heat and High Winds to stimulate and sustain massive dust storms.

Intrigue Action: Use our trained Guardians to investigate the 8-pattern transmissions in depth and attempt to trace their source. Attempt communication if possible, mirroring the transmission we're receiving. If no contact is possible, studies should focus on specific frequencies the 8-pattern will more readily piggypack onto.

----------------

A different plan with an actually viable domestic intrigue action. "Unpredictable" storms are going to hurt us more than Mereth, because they're probably going to be able to get some ability to identify weather patterns changing well before we can and act accordingly. We can look at it this way: Mereth predicts better than us. If we're unpredictable for the both of us then our lack of predictive ability does nothing, while Mereth gets some chance of figuring things out.

[Blood_Librarian]

Their entire battleplan runs on a massive computer that allows them to predict what is happening and then apply resources to fix that.  not to mention they have automation that are able to automatically fire on us when this ability is on. disrupting this puts them on our level, and we do have some level of predictive ability that is very short term, more for troop level guidance then anything else.

We don't get harmed as much by unpredictable weather phenomena because of this. our troops have an instinctual way of avoiding it, while Merethians have to deal with it on a strategic level. I still stand by my plan, although with an edit to include the intrigue action that you came up with since it is far superior.

[Man of Paper]

They don't "instinctually avoid", they're equipped and prepared for the phenomena appropriately. Making it unpredictable isn't going to be diminished much by our guys knowing that sometime, somewhere, a tornado could touch down. That just mean's they're gonna worry about it constantly. I can easily see an assault getting interrupted, or the beacon bomb aircraft needing to go for a smolbean target because turbulent atmosphere was preventing accurate deployment somewhere useful.

[Blood_Librarian]

(1) Deployment Plan Alpha-2 "Thunderstruck": Rockeater,
(2) Operation: Ground and Pound: Man of Paper, Blood_Librarian

[Rockeater]

(3) Operation: Ground and Pound: Man of Paper, Blood_Librarian, Rockeater

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report: Fall 1965

Living in a state suspended between the real world and the Astral Realm isn't as pleasant as they make it out to be. Any given document has a 50% chance of turning out to actually just be gibberish when read. People keep on drinking nonexistent coffee from the broken machine. It's irritating.


Intrigue

Use our trained Guardians to investigate the 8-pattern transmissions in depth and attempt to trace their source. Attempt communication if possible, mirroring the transmission we're receiving. If no contact is possible, studies should focus on specific frequencies the 8-pattern will more readily piggypack onto.

The Astral shenanigans of late have made this a bit easier than expected. With Guardians actually capable of handling the transmissions, we have conducted a very extensive investigation into this 8-pattern. The results are interesting, at least.

The number '8' appears in many different patterns in many different ways across the Astral Realm. It can best be described as a coincidental fractal pattern. We can't actually locate any common cause or factor between different instances of the patterns appearing. But they're always translated to the number 8 in some capacity, and are fractal in nature. One pattern is comprised of infinitely many additional patterns, each sub-pattern also consisting of infinite patterns itself. And so on.
Furthermore, cross-referencing past events and creating trajectories from what we do know has revealed worrying information. The pattern started roughly a decade ago and has been exponentially increasing in intensity over time. This increase in intensity along with an increase in our reliance on the Astral Realm has lead to the increasing amount of trouble we've been seeing. But the growth will continue.

If nothing changes, we expect the pattern to begin affecting everyone within months. Not just those with Astral potential or training.  Everyone. This will continue to increase in intensity until the effect becomes debilitating. This will happen no later than a year from now. At this point, only the most trained and prepared individuals will be able to stay sane. A month or so later, no amount of training will be able to prevent a complete irreversible loss of sanity.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Space Transport Capacity: 0/0 (Nothing Imported) (Aratamite STC is the sum of its designs' STCs, multiplied by two thanks to the ANGEL Project.)
Resources: 3 Ore, 4 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals

Moon Region Rating: 0 (Regions Occupied / Max # of Occupied Regions)
Moon Resources: Nothing (Succesfully imported Moon Resources are included in "Resources" as well)

Weapons

• Heavy Plasma Rifle "Albatross": A heavy recombinated weapon based on the plasma-creating principles of the GM-BP Reactor. Uses a Tesla-derived containment beam to fire a continuous beam of SynthOil-created-plasma at the target, where the beam maintains a building-up convection cell of heat and plasma until it collapses and/or the beam stops, when it detonates inwards towards any gashes or cavities on the target. SynthOil cells are inserted like magazines and with range configured by the operator, last for 1s Long range, 15s Medium range, 60s Short range (where it's more like a blast wave than a beam). Overheats after 4 seconds of continuous usage, needing 8 seconds to cooldown -- 2s or less shots recommended. Massive amounts of heat are dumped into an arc-shaped radiator on the front-bottom edge that can be used as an effective melee weapon when heated.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 4 Oil
• HMKR-59 'Osprey': Hybrid Magnetic Kinetic Rifle; a variant of the Pursuit rifle that houses coilgun components to increase the velocity of bullets after conventional firing. Has a slot in the back for a single SynthOil battery, which has enough charge for 10 powered shots (soldiers carry 2 batteries total). Powered shots are accurate to Medium range (unpowered shots to Short range) and have increased lethality and armor piercing capabilities.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 1 Oil
• Tesla Rifle: A "rifle" that fires bolts of ARC lightning at Medium range. Using an inner "Lightning Rod" chamber, it gradually charges from a backpack SynthOil battery - it has four levels of charge, with Level 3 being the optimum Medium range + good lethality and Level 4 being overkill with a chance of explosive backfiring. It takes about 40s to charge to Level 3 (charging can be paused but the charge decays slightly over time), and the battery has enough juice for 5 Lvl3 shots. Extremely lethal against anything conductive, and has a modest area-of-effect as the electricity arcs to other conductors in close proximity. Can be hooked up to external SynthOil batteries as well. Soldiers pre-charge to Level 3 when aware of hostile situations, but are still vulnerable to ambushes.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil
• "Chelsea" SMILE: Single-use rocket launcher with Red Skies incendiary (useful v. COMBAT armor) or Tesla (useful with area of effect and v. electronics) payloads. Effective to long-range (still useful but unreliable beyond), and has a flip-out glass targeting visor with a crosshair predicting impact site based on wind and fall.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
• "Storm" GMRL-ECP-61S: A 250lb active radar homing missile with a 6km range and 5m effective blast radius. Fired from 4-rail trucks (with radar) and aircraft mounts. It has a poor resolution, greatly decreasing the reliability of locking onto non-huge aerial targets and making locking onto surface targets next-to-impossible, though large ships prove easy targets. Equipped with an HE or ARC warhead, with the ARC warhead using a chain SynthOil reaction to generate arcing electricity frying electronics and melting metal as it jumps from conductor to conductor.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 4 Oil
  
  • ION-Storm: Variant with a second stage, improved tracking, reduced payload, and it's only able to be launched from a truck. Designed to intercept Merethan air(space?)craft re-entering the atmosphere.
    Expensive] 3 Ore, 5 Oil
• "Red Skies" Multiple Missile Launcher: A 300 lb version of the Storm missile using Inertial guidance and adapted entirely for surface-to-surface use. Has a SynthOil-based incendiary payload that's capable of effectively burning through armor, but is less immediately destructive. Has a range of 15 km. Its guidance allows it to easily and effectively target any ground point, but it can't change course mid-flight and can't actively track any targets; its effectiveness in accuracy mostly is based on what intelligence the operator has when firing. Intended for use as surface-to-surface artillery.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 4 Oil
• Beacon Bomb: Variant of a STOP-IT Beacon (for bombardment targeting) designed to be deployed from aircraft like a bomb. After hitting ground, emits signal for 30 seconds that causes about 3 STOP bombardments in the general area. More inaccurate than regular beacon, due to added bomb imprecision. Heavy, fits onto hardpoints. Sol Invictus can equip 2 at slight top speed penalty. Takes ore for insulation and for advanced miniaturized manufacturing. Takes oil for massive amounts of energy. Complex due to requirements of extracting energy quickly.
  NATIONAL EXPENSE 4 Ore, 6 Oil, [Complex]

Land Vehicles

• M3T1A1 Raider: Diesel-Electric tracked APC. It has light RHA armor , plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew. It has an interchangeable turret. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore 2 Oil
• Privateer 1 1/2 Ton Truck: An antique Cannalan truck somehow STILL being used for cargo transport, sheesh.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC
• "Glaive"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-72: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a Reactor-charged coaxial-mounted Tesla Rifle (capable of firing a steady stream of L1/L2 shots). Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by a GMBP Reactor, allowing for unlimited movement and power for Coilgun shots, making the only main logistical concerns for the tank being Coilgun ammunition and crew supplies.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• "Ettin" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61-B: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; two self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically in consecutive fashion flak shells to shoot down aircraft and infantry. The turret can be angled downwards effectively to shoot at infantry; limited ammo supply means the gunner has to be somewhat conservative with his firing patterns and can't just fill the sky with flak. Electric computer & radar guidance overlays a digital crosshair on a small sheet of "glass" in front of the gunner that is overlaid on top of the physical crosshair to maximize accuracy, allowing for decent accuracy as long as the aircraft isn't too fast or evasive. The commander and driver reside in the cramped interior and exit/enter largely via a door to the side, with the front of the tank being heavily angled downward for firing angle reasons. The turret is armored, but has poor visibility. Can travel for 10 hours on a full SynthOil battery, and the gun doesn't require power to operate.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Spacecraft

• Slug-Throwing Orbital Platform (STOP): A small "spacecraft" with an extremely cramped 2-crew compartment, 24 hour life support, and a Reactor with enough fuel to keep it running for a week. Tiny plasma thrusters dot the platform for great turning and very slow movement. Small radio allows contact with ANGEL Complex, small radar allows detection of nearby enemies and display of their blips + predicted trajectory and where to shoot to hit them on the HUD. Gunner controls turning and targets enemies via just the canopy/HUD, their sight, and radar blips. Controller manages moving and maintaining systems. Large gauss cannon lining underside (30 seconds to load in a new shell, 20 seconds to charge to max once a shell is loaded) can fire up to 10 shells at enemies, with extreme damage at 100% charge and exponentially less but still very good damage at 50% charge. Each 100%-charged shot takes about 9% of SynthOil fuel, leaving a STOP that fired 10 100%-charged shots with only a few hours of operation. Crew compartment and life support can be explosively detached, where crew enter stasis to slow breathing (surviving for about a month on a full tank of oxygen), a beacon starts pinging for retrieval, and solar panels just barely power life support + beacon. Can be easily brought to geostationary orbit on board ANGEL shuttle.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 2 Oil
  
  • STOP-IT Orbital Bombardment Beacon: Large beacon that must be carried by >=2 baseline troopers and has about 1min chargeup time. Once charged, sends a signal to orbit so any STOP relatively above can fire at the ground near the beacon. Somewhat innacurate and the beacon must be protected for its chargeup time and STOP firing/charging time, but STOP orbital bombardment is extremely devastating. Allied troops must evacuate area to avoid friendly fire, generally.
• ORATION: Orbital communications network consisting of individual 1-man 'Orator' satellites. Relayed through a central "Guardian" ANGEL station platform, this network can vaguely triangulate Merethan spaceborne transmissions and relay critical orders/intelligence across the military. Transmissions from Guardian platform can be reliably received by any ground asset, but a bandwidth severely bottlenecked by the Guardian ANGEL platform means only very high-ranking officers can send transmissions to be relayed. Guardians are trained to resist strong spaceborne Astral influence on board the Guardian platform.

Air Vehicles

• A-8.8 'Sol Invictus' LEO ECM Fighter: Relatively-for-Aratam-aircraft small fighter with light recombinated armor and forward-swept wings. Has single integrated Rapidfire Plasma Cannon capable of firing blobs of plasma at a rapid speed that splash over large portions of armor, though with a somewhat poor range; has 2 regular hardpoints. Contains a single internal Reactor optimized for plasma generation to feed plasma to RF Cannon and to two independently-360-3D-thrust-vectoring plasma thrusters. Very fast and agile, but a bit slower than top speed + agility of Merethan spacecraft. Top acceleration reduced when firing RF Cannon. Reactor lasts for very long times even with high speeds + cannon usage, giving extreme maximum distances and mission lengths. Can go into space with limited life support, but only sub-orbital trajectories possible due to lack of proper navigation. "Mercury" ECM decreases detection range against Merethan sensors or can prevent a single target from transmitting non-vital data. Cockpit is transparent recombinated material, and has target overlay for sensor data coming from the Mercury.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 4 Oil
• 'Lantern' A-7 Armored Jet: A large jet built with metal-recombinated materials, giving it good structural integrity and relatively good durability. Massive amounts of recombinated armor are present all across the aircraft. Direct hits by Shrike missiles can be survived with only moderate damage, and air-bursts/lasers are much less effective. An integrated Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor is used to power electrical systems and SynthOil tanks are used to fuel both the reactor and the combustion Ramjets. The heavy weight of the armor give the Lantern a great speed but not quite matching Mereth's Blizzard jet craft. Different systems provide the Torch with great relative agility, but only SEEM Operatives are capable of properly operating the complex controls in the airplane (though their enhanced abilities are a huge boon with speed and agility). 2 always-powered Ospreys are mounted on the front, with no other weapon capacity.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil (Expense can only be as low as current SEEM expense)
• 'Meteor' Air Frigate: A gigantic flying vessel, more akin to a boat than any traditional aircraft. Foregoing aerodynamics, it's propelled by 6 (4 on bottom, 2 on back) thrust-vectoring plasma GM-BP Thrusters (based on expelling plasma generated by the GM-BP process seen in Reactors for large thrust) that also produce its power. It can move quickly and isn't too sluggish, being able to easily outpace any kind of ground force yet being much slower than Merethan aircraft. Four Tesla cannon turrets -- 3 on top, 1 on bottom -- with greater range and rate of fire to their counter parts powered by the Meteor's capacitors provide an excellent anti-air screen, being able to fire once per few seconds and being able to intercept missiles and bombs when operated by SEEMs. A coilcannon array on the bottom largely mechanized allows for slow yet respectfully-paced terrific bombarding of ground targets, with mediocre targeting. A full radar suite and command center/bridge inside the hull give excellent battlefield intelligence and this information is distributed via radio to nearby forces, and to turrets on the frigate. Very heavily armored and able to resist constant Shrike bombardment for a relatively long time, yet limited internal space forces any non-essential for short-term operation facilities outside on the hull where they're more akin to fancy camps, providing a convenient target to greatly decrease combat effectiveness of everything but minimal radar operation and Coilcannon operation. Constant firing of more than one Tesla turret fairly quickly drains capacitors, quintupling tesla charge times. Thrust vectoring allows the Meteor to stay in the air with multiple missing thrusters. An internal bridge serves as an excellent mobile field command center.
  [National Effort] [8 Ore], [7 Oil]

Navy

• Corsair Destroyer: A moderate sized ship with light steel hull armor. It has a light cannon armament of two hydraulic-equipped Nightwind cannons and four Can Shredders. However, its main armament is its Shark Torpedo launchers (2x each side) and Seahorse mines.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 3 Oil
• Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• SLS-61 Magpie: A basic landing ship with a bow able to open up with a ramp to allow vehicles and troops onto the shore, and has extremely basic treads to de-beach itself. Has Thin armor and a few mounts for infantry rifles on the top to provide basic covering fire. Powered by Gen 1 SynthOil engines, which requires it to use the majority of its cargo space to hold enough SynthOil to make it across the sea without running out of fuel. Normally has a modest capacity for soldiers (and capable of holding a few moderate-sized vehicles), but the fuel requirement limits it to only a small amount of soldiers and/or perhaps one tank at best.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• Atlas-class Cargo Ship: A Santos-class with the weaponry and aircraft equipment and just about everything else stripped off. Utilizes SynthOil batteries for general powering of ship, though oil-burning steam turbines from the Santos still power most of it. Uses a system derived from Cryostats to cryogenically freeze perishable cargo as well as people for maximum storage efficiency.
  Provides 2 TC

Chemicals & Drugs

• Spice: An extremely potent manufactured drug resulting in extreme schizophrenia, delusions of power, frequent seizures, and eventually death. Extremely addictive. Those who undergo the week-long "Goldeneye" treatment in a CryoStat tank become accustomed (and permanently addicted) to low dosages of Spice, enabling very high awareness of surroundings and mildly increased reaction and thinking speeds when under the influence of the drug.
  [Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals.
  
  • SEEM: Systemic Elimination of the Entropic Mind. An extremely intensive and long procedure where top-ranked veterans are subjected to week-long bouts of sensory deprivation in CryoStat tanks, and have their mind essentially transformed into a new form via the combined use of modified Metal Recombinators and Spice. Experienced SEEM Guides facilitate this Journey across the barrier into the Astral Realm. For now, this allows survivors of the treatment to exhibit extreme (much higher than Goldeneyes) awareness of surroundings, visible or not. This awareness manifests itself in many ways, from avoiding traps/bombardments to knowing where to shoot at to knowing when one's being shot at, and more.
    [Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals,
• Combat Drug 'Fury': A Spice-based drug that massively decreases reaction time, and lasts for ~2 hours. Also incites rage, decreasing soldier effectiveness at range and chances of occasional friendly fire. Mild hallucinations are common, preventing users from being effective at recon/espionage/etc. roles. Makes veins much more apparent and red. Addictive, and takes effect >5 minutes after injection.
  [Expensive] 3 Rare Chemicals
• Metal Recombinators: A special mixture that separates pure metal from ore, obsoleting a large part of Aratam's refining industry. A variant can also be used to fuse metal with (likely) any other matter.
  Provides 1 Ore.

Astral

• BioForged Guardians: Recruited as children or younger teenagers, these candidates are subjected to long and incremental SEEM/light organic recombination treatments in addition to intensive training. Gradual welcoming of their mind to the Astral along with minor recombination enhancement of the brain allows for greater Astral abilities and full awareness of the Astral, along with conscious control of many brain functions. Superior memory and much stronger/tougher/quick-healing than even Military Baseline. They are consciously aware of events about to happen in the near-immediate future, and have "insane" reaction times in addition to greater smarts. Generally better than SEEMs in every way. Can shunt their awareness to the Astral realm, where they can perform mental combat with others and sense the consciousness of other humans a notable distance away.
  [Very Expensive] 1 Ore, 6 Rare Chemicals, Complex
• Blackwell Technique: Through channeling Astral Energy into a specific area, an Astral-trained operative can create a reflection of the Astral Realm coded for the astral connection of one specific person (targeted via line of sight or accurate recreation). This person will suffer severe symptoms ranging from death to severe brain damage to memory loss to seizures to full-blown hallucinations to extreme paranoia and more. But permanent affects are rare for those without long exposure times. Non-targeted and non-Astral-trained individuals will suffer milder, all-short-term symptoms only when looking at the Reflection. Looking at a recreation (i.e. television screen) of the Reflection will only affect people who've already seen that exact Reflection, recreating their prior symptoms.
  All Astral-trained operatives can invoke this. But it requires intense concentration and 10 seconds to create the reflection, and continued intense concentration to maintain the reflection.
• Wadjet Branding: Tactile symbols of the Eye of Horus printed on the exterior of the hands in uniforms for our Astral-enhanced individuals. For some currently unknown reason, focusing on this symbol notably improves Astral effectiveness and safety for the focusing individual. Useful for newbies to practice Astral techniques by feeling the symbol in different ways through extravagant hand motions, apparently.

Other

• R.A./M.P. Suit: A metal/ceramic/rubber recombinated suit of armor with heating/cooling capabilities and a quick-inject system where any single one of 6 vials stored in a back compartment can be instantly injected w/ instant effects by a series of buttons on the wrist. Contains a default adrenaline mix, but vials can be filled with FURY, SEEM, or other drugs. A particle filter and visor (w/ internal red lighting) covered by a recombinated hood sit on the head, and a jacket covers the rest of the suit for appearance/morale sake. Light, yet surprisingly durable: survival rates of soldiers are increased greatly across the board, with soldiers oftentimes being able to shrug off light-caliber shots from Merethan rifles. Looks like this, but with a slightly-red-glowing visor instead.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore
  
  • R.A./M.P. Space Suit: Variant of the RA/MP suit that is very bulky and cumbersome, but lets the occupant survive for an hour in a vacuum before suffocating/suffering drug withdrawal.
• CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. A single "set" of machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total, can manage roughly a dozen CryoStat tanks at a time. Basic automation assists technicians, allowing for a single technician to manage many CryoStat tanks. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs in the solution naturally infuse into the bloodstream through the skin. Once taken out. Use is tracked through a computer-assisted bureaucracy dubbed the "CryoState". A day stabilizes minor life-threatening wounds, and a week stabilizes near all wounds. A month starts completely healing scars and generally brings up health status to pristine, and a year can restore lost limbs. Also used for life-extending "rejuvenation" processes by important people.
  [Cheap] 2 Rare Chemicals
• SynthOil: SMRO-58 "SynthOil" is an advanced form of oil - it's made using a combination of oil and other chemicals, making a much more stable and energy-dense solution. Has a peculiar property - with the right tools, it can directly produce electricity.
  Provides 1 Oil
• Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor: A 1m-radius spherical "nuclear-ish" reactor that uses gamma radiation to break down SynthOil into electrical energy. Rather efficient and good at making energy, especially compared with anything else in the world comparable in size/expense, but hard to miniaturize and has a notable radiation poisoning issue with anyone spending a notable amount of time in proximity.
• Stormcaller Circle: A shift-based group of the top SEEMs in Aratam, "bonded" with tendrils of Tesla energy embedded throughout the atmosphere surrounding the continent. They can use their tremendous amounts of Astral energy at store to manipulate these tendrils and thus weather. Every season, the Bureau may vote on a single theatre and single weather phenomenon to invoke there. Our troops will be prepared (with the equipment that they already have, that is) ahead of time, but we can't micromanage the phenomenon to further aid our troops.

Infrastructure

• The Refinery: An extremely secretive facility hidden under the canopy in a remote part of the rainforest, identifiable only by its smoke. Contains large liquid storage tanks and refineries for the production of chemicals, well-equipped laboratories, cells for test subjects, a steady supply of test subjects from Aratam's prisoners, and more. Useful as a base for chemical research.
  Provides 1 Rare Chemical
• The Militarized Baseline: Our soldiers are enhanced above regular humans (in notable, but not major ways) in many categories; namely strength, reflexes, and intelligence. All soldiers now have implanted ports for quick drug infusion, and a logistical structure is in place to facilitate the drug infusion and treatments of the entire Aratamite military.
• The Black Chamber: A giant facility built beneath the Refinery full of specially-modified CryoStat tanks, training areas, niche laboratories, and subjects attempting to reach the world beyond ours: the Astral Realm.

• Embassy "The Brewery": An embassy for Cannalan diplomats that doubles as a highly advanced brewery of Aratam's signature drink, Arachaca. The Cannalans can see the brewing process below through their glass flooring and taps straight form the brewery are available for Arachaca straight from the source. Uses basic electronic systems for very limited automation in conjunction with its general advanced brewing systems.

Wonder

• ANGEL Project: A space elevator, comprised of the Complex, Shuttle, and Station. The Complex is a huge facility anchored to the sea floor north of Aratam's coast, and holds a large number of docks and warehouses. Training facilities. Orbital command center. Logistics centers. Worker residences. Security posts. "Mini" embassies for other nations to coordinate their usage of it. And more. Three massive struts going up 100km to the end of the atmosphere hold up electromagnetic-propelling rings to acccelerate a large shuttle hooked to four recombinated Graphene tethers to maximum safe speeds. It cruises from left-over speed to the Station.
  The Shuttle has two decks -- a top deck with space for 30 comfortable people, and an unpressurized much taller bottom deck for cargo. Movement between decks is impossible without an external structure to maximize cargo space. The shuttle's top deck reaches the station, with the buttom deck having access to space.
  The Station is one moderately-sized pressurized room in Geostationary orbit with primitive life support reliant on constant resupply, fitting a 24/7 rotated 4 crew and 6 other people (3 guaranteed to Aratam for research/tourism/development, 3 given to other nations).
  International use of the ANGEL Project is authorized, though limited to non-military use and analyzed for security risks.
  
  Doubles STC, Gives +1 STC to Mereth.
  Can be used to easily send people, prefabs, supplies, materials, station parts, ships, ship parts, etc. etc. into Geostationary orbit. Can be used to improve R&D of space assets. Can assist construction of anything in space.
  Both sides can use it for civilian/non-military use and R&D, but Aratam will know of Merethan activity if they do use the ANGEL Project in an action (after that action is processed). Only Aratam can use this for military purposes/R&D.

The FINAL DESIGN PHASE, of Fall 1965, has begun.
Remember -- this will be your last design (and following that, revision) together as the Design Division.
Your stated orders and goal is to create a design to "assist" with the current situation and the summit in a week -- after your revision. Use it wisely.

[Blood_Librarian]

Several ideas have been posted onboard the discord channel with regards on the whole eight problem, I'll go ahead and post the eight of them.

• Make some kind of machine or process to feed N-space energy to a Merethian machine
• "Throw wizards and robots into the gateway to fix the problem" - Madman198237
• Go into the Astral and take back the physical laws we put in there / create a new physica law - Ensorceler
• "combining a computer and brute psychic power would probably be the best way to handle it" - Madman198237
• "I really do think we have the tech to make a golden throne kind of machine to stabilize the astral, given a psychic source" - Andrea
• there wasnt actually eight of them
• woops
• 8

A design idea while I think on some more.

DOMAIN
The situation  that we have found ourselves has necessitated the acceleration of the deployment of high level projects ahead of schedule.

To that end, the DOMAIN project is a work in creating the "next step" of both the Storm Caller Circle as well as a quick and dirty adjusted process to provide the "motor" to the impending solutions problem solving.

It is in our best interest to provide the power, or perhaps the foil to to whatever hellish Merethian process that is baking in their skunkworks, so the quick and eight of it is that the DOMAIN project covers the process by which a wholly new entity is born or fabricated after receiving feedback from astrally active individuals who were augmented with a astral shunt pointed at the  astral-based formation core for the new entity. It then goes to form it's own "network", which can then include individuals who are not quite astrally active enough to project useful abilities. These networks are also fluid, and can join or separate from eachother after a reformation process to allow for reorganization, though more mature networks are naturally more powerful and efficient in their operation.

What is important is that it results in a qualitative leap in the sophistication in the usage of astral "energy" thanks to the gestalts backing intelligence (the collective will of all involved individuals, with the only apparent capability of enabling astral operations) intuiting efficient and capable solutions to operational tasks. It is also capable of gathering a wide net of energy and using it, originally intended on upcasting the weather effects of the storm caller circle into a precision weapon.

If nothing else, the final goal of project DOMAIN is to create a Domain that consists of the entire, literal brain power of Aratam and brave this calamity, together.

[Man of Paper]

Bah, I don't trust a merethian as far as I can throw them, and that's not very far on account of the heavy power armor. Therefore I propose that we offer our hand in friendship while we jab them in the kidneys with a knife in the other hand. Let's see what the two teams can come up with together, then make our own changes on our end to ensure Aratamite supremacy over whatever remains, if anything remains.

[Blood_Librarian]

I'm not so sure I like the idea of a era of eight enfolded darkness, and that might occur if we do a backstab before the whole world is saved, but I agree with the general sentiment, Man of Paper.

[BBBence1111]

I too would prefer not going insane to the Astral, though I don't mind a bit of backstabbing if we can get away with it. Also, BL, this is kind of typical to this AR, but I have no idea what your suggestion is or what is it trying to achieve. Anyway, here's my take:

Solution Theta Prime

The Astral colliding with our world seems to be caused by it's increased presence here, and thus our top SEEMs came up with a suggestion. Dissimilarity and distruption. The current cirumstances affecting reality are greatly useful to this plan, as the Stormcaller Circle is more powerful than ever, with the rules not applying all that much.

Eight times eight of our strongest Astral users are to use the energy of the Stormcaller Circle to create what is effectively a "Spiritual Bomb of Will", and use it to remove the number 8 from our world. This effect would hit Aratam and Mereth first, then propagating over the rest of the planet (and even further beyond) with some time. 7 being the number before 9 may have drastic consequences, but less so than everyone going insane as the Astral eats Earth.

This however might not stop the Astral by itself, and so another solution is needed. One of our madder than the rest scientists used the current chaos to research number theory, and came to a conclusion. In the currently Astraled region, there is an extra integer between 3 and 4. This by itself is not useful, but combined with mathematically trained Guardians, and the energy of the 8 removal effect, a new 'Theta Prime' based pattern can be introduced to the Astral, distrupting it enough that with 8 no longer being a thing, the collision will be avoided and the Astral's effects on our country will greatly lessen.