So I figured out how to win my super massive world:
I had swept away all resistance in bloody battles, seized every strategical outpost in the world island and expanded like there was no tomorrow. The Gaians and University were both also destroyed under my rule, leaving me to make preparations to destroy the remaining three factions who surrendered to me, the remaining three who could not do their own research to any level of genuine quality.
That still left the Morganites. Their island was so distant that sending troops over by transport cruiser was too risky, they still had many patrol foils and there weren't nearly enough of my own destroyers to find all of them and injured ships had nowhere close by to repair themselves. Likewise, air cover was not a thing to be had.
So I started thinking with colony pods. First, nothing too complicated, just snuck a single base through whilst using six foils of my own as a distraction. The idea was to build up a stronghold in the south and use my superior military technology to win. Needlejets were queued up.
Then something weird happened, something that should have been easy suddenly complicated itself further. The Morganites had existed on their island at constant war with all of the factions on the world island, occasionally sending token troops and dueling with world island ships, but never accomplishing anything worthwhile. This had done weird things to their military, things which compel me to investigate how the AI builds itself around faction interactions... Or lack thereof. Their units all sported highly advanced military software like arial tracking systems, yet the fiercest weapon they sported was the humble impact rifle and their armour the simple plasma steel. Then I showed up and I suppose the Morganites realized their military was shit compared to my shard needlejets and 12-5-1 SAM shock troopers. They began flooding my outpost with impact soldiers, then gatling soldiers, then missile soldiers.
So I decided to make a permanent enough solution.
Think with colony pods! With the planetary transit system you can build one colony pod, build a sea base, rush build another colony pod with the first 10 minerals and build another colony pod with the first. Growth becomes exponential! The best part is that with pressure domes you get so much food from the base that you can use the workers to keep themselves in check, equalizing the drones with empaths.
I built a wall around the Morganites that allowed my ships through with ease, put another 197 destroyer ships of the HMS Godwinson variant on the production lines, intercepted all of the mind worms Morgan was causing to appear from reaching the World Island and allowed shard penetrators to begin attacking the Morganite coasts. And then the probe teams arrived.
As for the Garland situation, I'm narrowing down who could have been behind it.
- Pravin Lal is definitely ruled out. Lal wanted to save Garland and had no reason to kill Garland, was opposed to the faction split and dedicated absolutely to the UN mission. Even if for some reason he wanted to kill Garland he was too preoccupied with taking the pods the Spartans had over.
- Deidre Skye is not likely. When she is at the council she gets the Planet heeby jeebies, but if she had sent an assassin it would have been to ensure none of the colony pods made it, yet the assassin goes to Garland to let the pods go not knowing he had already tried to let them go. Possible crazy lone wolf who also got the planet heeby jeebies and wanted Deidre to make it onto planetfall, and this one is possible since we know Planet can do that sort of thing and Deidre is the one who eventually wins the race to transcendence.
- Miriam Godwinson is not likely. When she is at the council she opposes the whole splitting up of the seven factions and had not made plans to start her own faction, she also would not have been able to send an assassin as the moment she finds her future followers the pods are just about to break off. She had no one to send. It is possible the assassin was a crazy lone wolf who made it onto the ship and killed Garland to make sure Miriam made it to planetfall without Miriam even knowing, but the assassin would have had to have known about the plan about the factions splitting from someone beforehand and this is impossible without God detailing to the assassin word for word what would soon happen, and from what we see of Miriam God works in vague and mysterious ways, not detailed and specific orders.
- Nwabudike Morgan, a possible candidate. We know it's almost certain he smuggled heavy weapons onto the ship (though it seems his weapons cache was stolen by another faction, probably Spartans), we also know he had been planning something big from the start. He had been cosying up to his supposed guard and his doctor was clearly a part of some other big plan. If Morgan snuck himself on, it is possible Morgan had his doctor revive an assassin too. Morgan certainly had the vision the assassin talks about.
- Corazon Santiago, a good candidate, but I don't think she did it. Personally. She was behind bars when it happened and would have had no role in this assassination attempt, seeing as how she already planned to assassinate Garland it would stand to reason that she would have had contingency plans. It also appears she had trained them to be able to function completely without her, so a loss of command would not cripple them. It stands to reason that a survivalist Spartan could make their way to Garland, demand the pods to be released (thereby saving the Spartans) and would also be willing to sacrifice themself to save the rest of the Spartans.
- Prokhor Zhakarov, a great candidate. He was one of the first to awake and had the largest pools of manpower on the ship. In addition he had armed his own faction and had shown his dislike to Garland rather obviously. To further add, his will to survive was probably the greatest on the Unity, he had been making plans from the start and the idea to split up and become captains of their own colony pods was his idea. The assassin was armed with a shredder pistol and the only faction workers/soldiers we see armed with those are Spartans, Hive or University. Zhakarov also makes mention of sending word of his intentions to the Captain, a word possibly being his assassin.
- Sheng-Ji Yang. Excellent candidate, was in the middle of taking over the ship and fighting basically every single one of the other factions for their colonists right before planetfall. Known to have had a lot of spare time between his lectures to his students, between his capture and escape from the Spartans and would without a doubt have had a plan to kill Garland and secure his own escape. He also would have known all about the security protocols being the head of security. Garland presumably thinks Yang is also the one who arranges the assassination, watching the security footage that shows Yang force the Spartan soldier to commit suicide. The assassin is also very youthful, and Yang certainly had a large following of young students on the ship, and the eyes of the assassin seem dull and lifeless - possibly due to her indoctrination to the Hive's cause.
It's a tie in between the Spartans, University and Hive for "who killed Garland anyways?"
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Topic: The Alpha Centauri (SMAC/SMAX) thread 2 (Read 8642 times)