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[S34N1C]

Ok, so since some intel was stolen, but we don't know what, I think we should either change the MEC controller thing so they can't get in, or scrap it altogether. It's too risky.

[Kashyyk]

There's a few ways we can counter it without wasting dev time:

Modify MEC code to not attack anyone bearing Advent insignia, even if ordered to, unless said uses force on Advent forces. (Prevents resistance from using our MECs to attack our own guys, but allows them to impersonate Advent so long as they don't attack)

Encrypt the information transmitted by the control interfaces, using encryption keys that change on a regular basis. (Could probably be brute forced by gremlin hacking)

Modify the MEC code to only follow commands from interfaces that bear an approved ID (Interfaces can then be individually locked out if they fall into resistance hands, but MECs could get hacked to accept foreign IDs via OP gremlin)

[Chiefwaffles]

Week 7, Post Collapse


Skirmish Aftermath

The wounded agent found at the Administrative Center was  successfully treated for their wounds and brought to the Peacekeeping Base to be put under a secure guard. The site of the skirmish was also cleaned up and the bodies were given graves in the growing Resistance graveyard where their dog tags were also left at. No useful gear was found on them, however.

The agent was questioned by the Peacekeeping Head a few days after being brought to the Peacekeeping Base. He cracks just before the Peacekeeping Head was about to give up. They didn't reveal too much, but some information was gained.
As one may expect, the skirmish between Resistance and Administration forces was a distraction for the raid on the Administrative Center. The escaping agent did succesfully escape with the data. Though supposedly the prisoner doesn't know what the Resistance managed to extract from the computer systems.
Something notable extracted from the prisoner was the nature of the second operative. According to him, the person that the prisoner was accompanying wasn't a usual Resistance member. He seemed to know way more and was much more skilled than just about anyone else. This man was apparently new to the Resistance cell, and appeared about two weeks after the collapse.


Meanwhile, the Technological Head looks at the extents of the data breach. After some analyzing, he reports that they took a lot of "general" data from the computer. Stuff such as the patrols and stations of the Militia, contents of the warehouses, and more. And matching with your suspicions, it does seem that they have knowledge of the Aqueduct project and the new MEC Interface. But the Technogical head assures you that the information they have about the MEC interface is extremely limited in nature. They really only have the basic overview of it - basically exactly what you were told about it last week. They shouldn't have any idea how it exactly works and the techniques or security utilized. The Technological Head assures you that the MEC Interface is still safe to roll out.
In fact, some of your suggestions for security are already implemented. The Head looks mildly offended when you first tell him about your ideas, and asks if you think he's an idiot. Of course he's done that, he says.


A Militia squadron is given the order to along the partially-constructed Aqueduct to prevent sabotage.

The Food Riots

Without direct action from you, the Food Riots continue. Some ADVENT monuments and similar sites are heavily vandalized, with the rioting crowds sometimes even toppling the odd statue. Militia forces have all but given up in keeping the peace. With such low numbers and no equipment useful in riot situations, they've become useless in riots. The Militia has, under the Peacekeeping Head's orders, instead taken up more pre-emptive roles. While they can't dispel or even contain the riots, they can try and look for the precursors to riots and dispel those instead.
It's not that useful, but it's better than nothing.

Early in the week you have 2 Militia Squadrons stationed at the warehouses in an effort to stave any looters off. This works quite well, and a large number of would-be looters are scared off by the mere presence of the Militia. Your Administrative Head tells you that chances are you would have lost at least a week's worth of food and water without the warehouse patrols.

Though there is one worsening aspect. New Adelaide has run out of water. There was luckily enough water to last this week, but starting next week and without further action by the Administration, the riots will worsen and people will start dying. There's still a relatively decent amount of food still stored, but it won't be there for much longer.

And speaking of people dying. The Administrative Head estimates 50 citizens have died in the riots so far, and 30 missing. And the Peacekeeping Head reports 2 more Militia Squads missing. The Militia squadrons disappearing is a very confusing matter. The Peacekeeping Head explains that the three total missing squadrons have been patrolling near the outskirts of the City and their trackers just... turn off. She suggests further investigation, but the actual plan of action here is up to you.


Explosive Fishing

Knowing that you still need more food to last until a more permanent solution is found, you have the Administrative Head look into fishing.
Explosive fishing, more precisely. While regular fishing is an option, blast fishing is the preferred temporary solution here. It may have a negative impact on the environment, but that's just a sacrifice that needs to be made in order to keep the people from starving.

The first step is to get volunteers. With the public panic over food and water, this is easy. Calls for volunteers are responded with hundreds of willing citizens. No commercial fishing boats are found at the port, but plenty of recreational ones and other voluneered civilian boats are. The seaport is abuzz with activity as the volunteer civilians head to their boats and cast off. The sea is littered with small and tiny boats, as well as the occasional moderately-sized vessel. Explosions rock the water and fish go flying into the air. Eventually, they return to port with their gains. This goes on for the whole week as more fish is stockpiled.

By the end of the week, 12u in Food is counted heading to the warehouses and the participating civilians are allowed to leave with a minuscule portion of what they gathered as a small token of gratitude. Your Administrative Head predicts that if you try this again next week, it won't be nearly as good in terms of the benefits. The intense amount of blast fishing has already exhausted a good deal of the fish in this area for now, and volunteer turnouts won't be as good as this week. Searching for a permanent source of food is recommended.


After mentioning a permanent source of food, the Head steers the conversation towards that. He tells you that ADVENT has to have a food production facility somewhere in this region. Or at least they must have some evidence of their methods for food production stored somewhere. He explains that he's already scoured the city for signs of ADVENT food production techniques, but returned empty-handed. If one of their food production techniques is found to be explained somewhere, the City can likely replicate it with enough supplies. If an actual food production facility is located, it can maybe even be restored to full operations again.


Lost Cities

A major goal of yours this week is to search for other ADVENT cities.
You of course know where the cities were pre-collapse. But plenty of cities were outright destroyed in the riots of the collapse. Resistance cells coupled with extraordinarily enraged citizens ended in the downfall of the cities and the movement of residents to elsewhere. Some other cities were even overthrown with help of the Resistance, and the citizens put in a new government (after executing the administration, of course) allied with the Resistance.
This is all known from the refugees that came in the days of the collapse. You haven't seen any refugees for a while, but they were already small in number when they were coming.

So you have the Dropships methodically check the known sites of cities before the collapse. Not much ground will be covered even with the locations of the cities, as ADVENT particularly liked dense but spread out cities. Five known sites are determined to be able to be reached this week, and the dropships head their ways.

Eventually, you have a pretty good idea of the new political situation.
There is 1 Resistance city nearby, 2 ADVENT cities, and 2 destroyed cities.

The Resistance city is remarkably small, and from the aerial flyover, it would appear that most of the populace lives in the small and few intact parts of the cities and a decent portion lives in makeshift homes constructed from the ruined parts of the city.
The ADVENT city of Unity City has a recorded population of 700,000 and it definitely looks like it still has around that number. It's one of the largest cities in the area pre-collapse, in fact.
The second ADVENT city is smaller, with a recorded population of 300,000. There is some visible destruction in the City's outskirts, but it's definitely still under ADVENT control.
Both destroyed cities are quite tiny and appear to be completely devastated from fighting. A very tiny populace is seen in both cities living in camps both outside and inside the city.


There wasn't enough time this week to actually contact any of them. Especially considering that there's no way to contact them from a distance, with communications outside of the city and around the region severed. Communications would have to be done in person or via courier.

Spoiler: New Adelaide (click to show/hide)

Statistics
Population: 199,920

Stores
- 30u Peacekeeper Armor
- 4u Construction Supplies
- 5u Genetic Slurry
- + 12u Food
- 0u Water


Infrastructure
- Peacekeeping Base
- Nonoperational Rail Station [Controls locked]
- Unfinished Gene Hospital [Can't finish - Lacking blueprints]
- Seaport
- Warehouses

- Makeshift Resistance Graveyard


Research & Projects
- [2] Aqueduct Project: An Aqueduct in the wilderness bringing water from a large source of fresh water all the way to the city.


Prisoners
- Resistance AGENT [Wounded]


Peacekeeping Forces
50 ADVENT MECs [AI Mode - Obeys general orders from administration] (Deactivated when not deployed)
50 MECs stored at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base


1 ADVENT Trooper Squadron [Volunteer ADVENT - Follows by choice | Magnetic Weaponry | Peacekeeper Armor]
- - 1 ADVENT Officer
- - 7 ADVENT Troopers [Controlled psionically by Officer]
1 squad stationed at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base


25 Untrained Militia Squadrons [Volunteer Civilians - Obey administration out of mild loyalty | Magnetic Weaponry | No Armor]
- - 1 Militia Captain [Untrained+]
- - 9 Militia [Untrained]
18 squads patrolling New Adelaide
2 squads stationed at New Adelaide Warehouses
1 squad stationed at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base
1 squad patrolling Resistance Graveyard
1 squad patrolling Gene Hospital Construction Site

1 Untrained Militia Squadron [Volunteer Civilians - Obey administration out of mild loyalty | Magnetic Weaponry | No Armor]
- - 1 Militia Captain [Untrained+]
- - 8 Militia [Untrained]
1 squad patrolling New Adelaide


2 Rookie Militia Squadrons [Volunteer Civilians - Obey administration out of mild loyalty | Magnetic Weaponry | Peacekeeper Armor]
- - 1 Militia Captain [Rookie]
- - 9 Militia [Rookie]
2 squads patrolling New Adelaide

1 Rookie Militia Squadron [Volunteer Civilians - Obey administration out of mild loyalty | Magnetic Weaponry | Peacekeeper Armor]
- - 1 Militia Captain [Rookie]
- - 6 Militia [Rookie]
1 squad patrolling New Adelaide



3 Dropships [Can carry 5 units each]
3 stationed at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base
1 Interceptor
1 stationed at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base

Spoiler: New Adelaide Wilderness (click to show/hide)

Points of Interest
- ADVENT Security Checkpoint
- - Empty ADVENT Train

- Fresh Water Sources

[helmacon]

What happened to the water airlift?

After the raid is dealt with we can use our dropships to begin bringing in water from the wilderness berlin-airlift style.

[Kashyyk]

Could we mass produce water purification tablets? We can then use the lake water for a bit whilst the aqueduct is finished.

Combine it with the Berlin Water Airlift, and we might have enough to prevent mass dehydration death.

Regarding the actual riots, I suggest a military curfew, enforced by the militia with MEC backup. Unless we have access to nonlethal firearms, we're just going to have to accept the fact that some of the rioters are going to die.

[ZBridges]

If two dropships are enough to deal with the water situation, maybe send one with a courier to the Peacekeeping Base at Unity City requesting:

1.  The locations of food, clone, or MEC manufacturing facilities,
2.  Temporary use of any non-lethal forces they can spare to help put down the food riots,
3.  Authorization, on the off chance they have it, to use the rail network,
4.  Blueprints for a small psi relay or gene therapy clinic.

Ask if there's anything we can do in return.

[Chiefwaffles]

What happened to the water airlift?

After the raid is dealt with we can use our dropships to begin bringing in water from the wilderness berlin-airlift style.

I must have missed it as I usually just skim over most posts for more obvious actions. I'll include it next update and there shouldn't really be any difference between doing it now or then.

[Deny]

So there's either a veteran resistance fighter among the resistance or, more worryingly, an agent of XCOM among the local resistance, wonderful.

And as for the missing militia, they're either being ambushed or, more worryingly, defecting. We need to take efforts to ensure the loyalty of the remaining militia, maybe give their families higher priority on food and water rations?

Meanwhile +1 to diplomatic overtures to Unity city and +1 to martial law with the mecs support.

[helmacon]

Information has zero cost to duplicate or transfer. Lets ask for all the intel/blueprints/ideas/authorizations they have. We can find out how they have been dealing with thier various problems and shortages and see if any are easily applicable to our own situation. They are a much bigger city, so they must already have a way of dealing with the food/water supply issue. See if they can spare some.

The vanishing patrols are a worrying issue. Let's start pairing them up, groups of two patrols. It will be much harder to ambush and kill two whole patrols without someone getting a distress call off. If they are deserting then the presence of another patrol should dissuade that. Have them paired differently each time so they don't have the ability to conspire between squads.

Also, we do have water restrictions in place right? like, people aren't out there watering thier lawns with our water are they? Do that if we don't.

That puts us at,
3 + weeks of food
Water enough to fit demand (hopefully)
and enough supplies to build something.

Woh WOH WOH
IDEA:

All the rail lines are still in place right? i'ts just the trains we can't use. We have rail connections to these other cities just sitting idle. LETS BUILD A TRAIN. We can start trading with the other cities, and specializing our production. We can start building an economy!! A proper economic powerhouse can shut out any resistance threat so long as we aren't try to do something stupid like exterminate the population.

The plan:
1. Solve our immediate supply problems.
2. Build a Train
3. establish our connections with other advent cities.
4. specialise our production.
5. Transform from advent city states to the Advent nation!
6. Spend the rest of this thread arguing over flag designs and city planning.


Bit of thought here, New adelaide is only 200 000 people. All things considered, it's really not all that big a city. It's like, roughly the size of Amarillo.

[helmacon]

bump?

[Puppyguard]

-snipped to not take up the entire thread-

+1 I like this plan.

[joaquin55]

PTW

[Chiefwaffles]

Week 8, Post Collapse


Diplomacy

At the beginning of the week, a trusted courier is put on an available dropship and sent to Unity City to negotiate for a laundry list of requests sent with them.

After some period of time, the courier returns with bad news. After being forced to land in the outskirts of the city under heavy guard, the courier made little progress with the City's administration. The word he uses to describe it is "Isolationist" and his assesment certainly doesn't seem inaccurate.
The administration of Unity City obviously has the situation under control at the moment utilizing strict measures. The courier recounts as they traveled through the city, seeing constant vigilance by a well-equipped and well-manned military force. Arrests and punishments were strict with accompanying propaganda. It appeared to essentially have complete martial law in place.

One thing the courier noted of particular importance was a form of psionic relay. Your Administrative and Technological heads affirm your belief that based on the appearance of it, the relay essentially served as a repeater for the ADVENT administration before the collapse. Construction crews and equipment was returning from the site of the relay, as if a project was being completed.
Your Technological head lights up when hearing this, and tells you that he even thought of this already. Unity City was, after all, the sector capital before the collapse. They would have much higher authorizations, higher-ranked staff, more resources, intelligence, research, and more. The head goes on to explain that the administration of Unity City almost certainly used their information to convert the psionic repeater into a full-fledged relay, allowing the local administration to exhibit much mroe effective control over their troops.

The courier virtually confirms this when he describes the military forces he had seen and their level of coordination. Numerous aliens and different types of ADVENT troops were seen, all acting in a matter greatly suggestive of psionic control. (Not that these troops are "mind controlled" using a psionic relay, but instead the relay's effects have varying effects depending on the rank of the controlled trooper, ranging from "strong suggestions" to "simple order")


Then the courier gets to the actual bad news. According to the city's administration, they had their forces occupied "maintaining and expanding their way of life". When pressed, apparently the Administrator mentioned that they were in the process of rooting out Resistance cells harassing them. Asking for any true help was useless, as they declined to involve themselves in the affairs of other cities, apparently not wanting to attract the attention of additional Resistance cells or XCOM.

But the courier does have something out of the whole trip. An extensive appeal to the Administrator roughly along the lines of "helping us helps you" granted one thing: Rail network authorization. The courier also mentions that he believes a perceived equal trade may be able to get something out of Unity City.


The Water Crisis

Without the help of Unity City, the prospects to deal with the current complete lack of water become worrying.
The first thing you do is enact stringent measures on the use of water. Despite the fact that when someone turns on a faucet, no water comes out, your new measures mean that water can only be used for the bare essentials and anyone "misusing" it would be eligible for serious fines and punishments.
This would help if you had water to ration in the first place. But you hope that you'll have water to ration by the end of the week.

A new program is also created. Ideally, you would be able to fully supply the Militia with food and water, but right now that's not possible. So in order to raise morale of the militia, you create a basic system of vouchers that can be redeemed for higher priority in food and water rations. These vouchers are given to the Militia volunteers based on perceived need. This slightly angers the public, but ultimately it doesn't seem like much relative to other events in the week.

At the beginning of the week you also order your Technological Head to look into the possibility of water purification tablets to use in conjunction with the source of fresh water nearby. He looks at you quizzically before seeming to realize what you asked. He informs you that the Administrative Head already looked into the health consequences of the water source that was found. Likely, the worst thing that would happen is worse-tasting water. Actual worst-case scenario, a few people may get headaches. Dedicating resources and retooling factories to produce water purification tablets would apparently be a huge waste of resources.


Throughout the week, dropships ferry water between the fresh water and the city. Yet it isn't enough. Constant flying and switching-out of pilots just barely yields a unit of water in comparison to the four units per week needed to sustain the populace. These dropships aren't designed to ferry water, and the fact that there are only three of them (and that one was occupied for a day ferrying the courier) doesn't help either.
Luckily the water restrictions help increase the value of this one unit, but it's not enough. 340 people are reported dead from dehydration by the end of the week and most people are forced to desperate measures just to live.


The Riots

The riots haven't improved when the beginning of the week rolls around. The utter lack of water even further fans the flames. So in response, you decided heavy action was necessary.
The MECs are programmed to allow for lethal force for most detected infractions in the law, and the Militia patrols continue with the MECs. While the militia without Peacekeeper armor isn't able to utilize the new Local MEC Interface system develoepd last week, the limited nature of the MECs' programming end up working for their uses this week.

The following week yields a huge 3,600 deaths. Each day, the MECs gun down hundreds of people, including rioters, looters, protestors, and even numerous accounted law-abiding civilian casualties. The cost is large, but it works. Deathly afraid of well, death, the civilians begin to cower indoors under the "protection" of the curfew. The militia squadrons have a much lower kill count than the MECs, which is deemed almost certainly due to the fact that the militias prioritized breaking up smaller gatherings of rioters while the MECs handled large demonstrations. Zero militia casualties are reported as well.

Nonlethal methods were unfortunately unavailable. Stun lances are strangely not present in the stores, but your Peacekeeping Head says that if you still want to pursue nonlethal measures, shipments of stun lances across the area is almost a given and some could be scavenged from some place. If obtained, training could be given and stun lances rolled out to those trained to use them. MECs would be even harder to arm with nonlethal weapons. There are no documented stun or crowd control tools for the MEC - they were designed as tools of intimidation, urban combat, and riot suppression like the methods just enacted.


The riots have nearly completely stopped with the deployment of the MECs and strict curfews. Much lower casualties will likely continue occuring though as people grow desperate enough to try and face the peacekeeping forces. Serious public relation control will also have to be done once the food and water problems are solved as this little demonstration of force, while effective, didn't exactly do much for the Administration's public image.


The Missing Patrols

The voucher system allowing for food and water prioritization to the Militia volunteers and their family seems to work amazingly for militia morale. While you can't say if this had an impact in the lost patrols, the morale benefit is obvious.

Squads are also assigned to patrol in random squadron pairs. This does seem to stop (for all you know, it may be a coincidence) the patrol disappearances, but consequences in the city are obvious. With only 9 effective patrols active in the city, your Peacekeeping Head reported that there was a definite correlated increase in civilian casualties from the riots.


While discussing the missing patrols with the Peacekeeping Head, he mentions that he ordered precise stock to be taken of the Magnetic Rifles that were being issued to the militia. Because the disappearing militia didn't exactly deposit their guns before disappearing, and there is not an infinite supply of those things.


The Aqueduct

Progress on the Aqueduct project is nearly complete. In his report this week, the Administrative Head predicts with high certainty that the Aqueduct will be completely finished next week. Unfortunately, water likely won't start coming in until Week 10, as the construction will only finish a bit into Week 9 and there's still stress testing to do and pumps to activate and the like.
So the head recommends further action for obtaining water next week as the shortage will definitely still be present. He also mentions the fact that a source for food is still very much required.

Spoiler: New Adelaide (click to show/hide)

Statistics
Population: 196,080

Stores
- 30u Peacekeeper Armor
- 50u Magnetic Rifles
- 4u Construction Supplies
- 5u Genetic Slurry
- ?u + 8u Food
- 0u Water


Infrastructure
- Peacekeeping Base
- Nonoperational Rail Station [Controls locked]
- Unfinished Gene Hospital [Can't finish - Lacking blueprints]
- Seaport
- Warehouses

- Makeshift Resistance Graveyard


Research & Projects
- [1] Aqueduct Project: An Aqueduct in the wilderness bringing water from a large source of fresh water all the way to the city.

- [FIN] Local MEC Interface: Any authorized user in Peacekeeper Armor has the ability to exert control over nearby MECs via direct orders.
 
Other Assets
- ADVENT Rail Network Authorization (Ability to exert control over the ADVENT Rail Network)

Prisoners
- Resistance AGENT [Wounded]


Peacekeeping Forces
50 ADVENT MECs [AI Mode - Obeys general orders from administration] (Deactivated when not deployed)
50 MECs in LETHAL mode patrolling New Adelaide


1 ADVENT Trooper Squadron [Volunteer ADVENT - Follows by choice | Magnetic Weaponry | Peacekeeper Armor]
- - 1 ADVENT Officer
- - 7 ADVENT Troopers [Controlled psionically by Officer]
1 squad stationed at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base


25 Untrained Militia Squadrons [Volunteer Civilians - Obey administration out of mild loyalty | Magnetic Weaponry | No Armor]
- - 1 Militia Captain [Untrained+]
- - 9 Militia [Untrained]
18 squads patrolling New Adelaide
2 squads stationed at New Adelaide Warehouses
1 squad stationed at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base
1 squad patrolling Resistance Graveyard
1 squad patrolling Gene Hospital Construction Site

1 Untrained Militia Squadron [Volunteer Civilians - Obey administration out of mild loyalty | Magnetic Weaponry | No Armor]
- - 1 Militia Captain [Untrained+]
- - 8 Militia [Untrained]
1 squad patrolling New Adelaide


2 Rookie Militia Squadrons [Volunteer Civilians - Obey administration out of mild loyalty | Magnetic Weaponry | Peacekeeper Armor]
- - 1 Militia Captain [Rookie]
- - 9 Militia [Rookie]
2 squads patrolling New Adelaide

1 Rookie Militia Squadron [Volunteer Civilians - Obey administration out of mild loyalty | Magnetic Weaponry | Peacekeeper Armor]
- - 1 Militia Captain [Rookie]
- - 6 Militia [Rookie]
1 squad patrolling New Adelaide



3 Dropships [Can carry 5 units each]
3 stationed at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base
1 Interceptor
1 stationed at New Adelaide Peacekeeping Base

Spoiler: New Adelaide Wilderness (click to show/hide)

Points of Interest
- ADVENT Security Checkpoint
- - Empty ADVENT Train

- Fresh Water Sources

[stabbymcstabstab]

alongside using the drop ships to continually ferry in water, lets see if we can jury rig the train and possible forced conscription of non-essential workers and ex-farmers to get food production started while sending out a squad or two to either locate food transports of non-advent controlled towns to raid for food.

[helmacon]

I'm not sure the actual geography here, but if we have a railway outside the city we could just ferry water by dropship to the train and then take the train into the city. It would help us move water a little faster.

We should start scouting out and recovering any other inactive trains on the rail network too. They are sure to become a commodity soon.

Bigger problems to come, food production. We should start sustainable deep sea fishing now, while food isn't a crisis and we don't have to rush it. The blast fishing stunt probably hurt our max production, but it should still be worthwhile if we don't do something like that again.