The Spore - Containment required

[RyuKazuha]

Bunda-System, 2320.11.01.01.23 RNS Lorod-Rekad VII, Section 32B.
Lieutenant Kiralex, one of the youngest among his fellow officers, still had some trouble to take in the multitude of displays fed by the ships extensive sensornetwork. Gravimetric scans, subspace analytics, short range ladar, long range hyperspace monitoring and many others provided full range intel on everything happening inside and outside the Lorod-Klonol-Class Battle Ship. Even after all these information had been sorted and prioritized by the ships AIs, there was so much going on at the same time, that Kiralex was sure he was missing most of it, most of the time. He had considered getting an implant to connect directly to the Network, but after witnessing what was colloquially called a "burn out", he wasn't to sure wether the risk of getting his brain fried was worth the gain.
After all most of the old birds did the same job without implants for decades now. The old Torolex always told him to approach the data from the birds eye view, feeling out dubious drifts and currents, rather then trying to see in detail. The AIs were perfect when it came to detailed analysis, but they had no intuition and thus he had to provide just that to the system. He had allways thought of this as very inspiring, but did not find it to be very helpfull advice, as he had no idea just how to achieve such birds eye view.
Trying to follow the data, Kiralex was beset by the feeling of something being wrong. He focused, dozens of different displays flashing before his eyes. There was none wich was in itself wrong, or outside of parameters, but still the young officer could not stave off that feeling. "Wake the major, something's up." he ordered, praying to the great bird he hadn't drawn a blank.

Bunda-System, 2320.11.01.03.11 RNS Lorod-Rekad VII, Bridge.
"Admiral Koralex. Section 32 just confirmed the preliminary reports. There's a spatial distortion building in segment Sigma-7345, a wormhole is expected to be opening within the next hour. Judging by the target segment it's..." the Officer fell silent, as Koralex rose from his chair. "The Spore." he completed the mans sentence, adding: "I want all personell on station within the next twenty minutes. The fleet will be leaving orbit within thirty.". The Admiral made a few steps, just to silence his bodys desire to move around and peered out of the great window into the dark.
They had made him to wait, just as he had feared, and now the Spore would fight on its terms once more. He knew the Igarians were still mustering forces for their Mithar Offensive, so there was still a chance to make the enemy bleed, but the impact of whatever the 2nd Void Skulkers could achieve would be severely diminished.


Bunda-System, 2320.11.01.13.57 RNS Lorod-Rekad VII, Section 222.
Radolex felt like he was being cooked alive. They had done several training runs with live ammunition and he knew the plasma cannons were prone to generating a lot of waste heat, but they had seldomly fired more then three or five shots in a row. Just now the ejector recoiled for the thritieth time without more the minimal pause to reenergize the capacitators and get the system down to a temperature keeping the system from melting itself with the next shot.
Of course the radiators could not be deployed in combat, thus all the waste heat generated was funneled into the heat sinks beneath the installation. Even then, the temperatures within the engineering section put even the hottest of desert planets to shame.
As he was still lamenting the unbearable heat, Radolex was blinded by bright lance of energy piercing the outer hull, slamming into the section and burning its way deeper into the ship. Moments later he crashed into the wall, as he was hit by the fist of expanding gases, just to be pulled towards the breach as the superheated air began to escape into space, ripping parts of the hull with it in one fell sweep. Radolex hit his head on the way out, cracking the helmet and as he spun out into the endless dark with broken bones, burned skin and precious air leaking from his helmet, at least his vision returned for a brief moment...

Bunda-System, 2320.11.01.16.41 RNS Lorod-Rekad VII, Bridge.

"Keep focusing the Destroyers." ordered the Admiral. The last hours of fighting had cost him many good man and ships. Any hope he might have had before was dead, replaced by stoic heroism. His heart screamed, apologizing to those who had died under his command and begging those who still lived to flee, but his lips were sealed save for directing the dance of death he had commited himself to see through.
Destroying as many of the smaller ships the spore had brought to the field was paramount, not only to reduce the number of guns and point defenses in play, but more so to deny the Spore the ability to split its forces as needed, crippling their ability to siege multiple colonies or even systems at once and allowing for easier focus fire in later battles - even though he knew fully well, there would be no later battle for his people to take advantage of this. Even if the Igarians would not capitalize on it, buying the refugees time to reach colonies outside of the spores range could at least save lives wich might allow the Rak'Thalak'Nak to rebuild and survive as a civilisation.

Rak'Thalax-System, 2320.11.02.05.29, Lorod-Kluven Station
"Minister. Its time to go." The minister, looking back at 138 years of life eyeballed his much younger assisstent. "Where to?" he asked, turning his gaze out of the window. "A ship is prepared to evacuate you to the southern colonies." the young avian replied. "I'm the minister of homeland security." The older said. "Am I not?" The assisstent seemed confused. "You are.". "What minister would I be, if there is no more homeland to secure?" The Minister asked, waving the answer away with a smile. "Admiral Koralex sacrificed the whole fleet to buy time for us to defend the home world. And had we not hold him back, instead of 70% he might have defeated their fleet whole. We still have a homeworld to defend, and time to do it. So I'm still the minister of homeland security." The older one explained. "Take the ship that is waiting to the surface, take as many civilians as you can and flee. I have a duty to fullfill, as did the Admiral." His gaze turned away from the assisstant, towards the planet below.
"Minister?" "What is it?" "May I stay? I haven't forgotten how to wield a rifle." "Then you may teach me."

 

[Viden]

Civilizations across the Galaxy feel incredible fractured. Too much for their own good...

 

[sebas379]

Another glorious yet doomed stand against the Spore. If the various species don't start working together soon, it will be too late.

 

[Henry v. Keiper]

The Spore continue to advance! Awesome AAR.

 

[RyuKazuha]

Im glad you're all enjoying this. I certainly enjoy the writing part Truth be told, the gaming part is somewhat dull atm. I'm somewhat inclined to just declare war on everyone and see what happens.

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Believe

At this point in time no less then four empires have fallen victim to spore contamination, with at least two being seriously threatened. The emergence of this galactic threat has exposed many weaknesses in intergalactic policies and a great deal more about the psyche of the individuals and species in contact with the contamination.

Over the last 125 years the Spores influence cannot only be felt in military doctrines, but mainstream media, culture and even religion, as individuals try to cope with its effects and scale.
Many will have heard about the suicide of the Wacegi Empress leading to the emergence of suicide cults among the survivors as their civi society and state religion collapsed along side the last remnants of their empire. These cults claimed an estimated fifty million lives within less then a decade.
This is in stark contrast to the Rak'Thalak'Nak, a species historically driven by scientific curiosity, developing an astounding amount zeal after the fall of their capitol world, with religious minorities quickly growing as the Nation is cut off from its roots.

Lesser known, though much more concerning, are the effects of spore contamination on the Holy Igarian Empire. Igarians are slow to trust outsiders, especially in religious matters and there's much to say about the intricacies of their religion, but rather then going into all the details, I will stay my hand and keep to the essentials here. We'll talk about the specifics later this year.

The basics of the Igarian Faith seem simple:

1. What we perceive to be the real world is a dream in the mind of the great creator.
2. The dream will end if the creator awakes, thus ending the world.
3. As long as the creator can enjoy his dream, he will remain asleep.

Since the first encounter with the Spore, it is seen by the Igarians to be a sign of awakening, a kind of personified force of corruption spreading to extinguish the light of the stars itself, ending the dream. As such, the war against the spore is a holy one and volunteers are plentyfull.

However, while being an enemy, the Spore is also an instrument as everyone in doubt will perish in its wake, thus cleasing the dream of their influence. This is thought to be the main reason why the Igarians are so slow to react to their neighbours being attacked:
They do consider them impure and deserving to die, even against the consequence of facing the foe alone one day. As the Igarians say: All of darkness cannot defeat the light of a single candle. And the Holy Igarian Empire is a bright candee indeed.

Still, things are not that easy though again, we're not delving into specifics. The appearance of the Spore has facilitated the rise of a formerly small sect among the wider population. This sect teaches that the dream must end for creation to actualize itself and a true paradise to be born, rather then the flawed illusion with its many terrors and unspeakable atrocities.
To them the Spore is a sign of salvation and should be embraced as the inevitable wich is the awakening of the great dreamer and the coming of the true world. Seeing as the spore does gain momentum every year, the attraction of such blasphemous and dangerous ideas has risen among those who despair and are spreading beyond igarian borders into the surrounding nations. Ironically a feat never achieved by the parent religion.

The Igarian Faith declared any inolvement with the sect to be a major heresy punishable by death, but this is a rather weak deterrent, as even laypeople are keenly aware, that there "dream forms" will perish as the great creator wakens.

Even away from the frontline, death cults of various flavors seem to be on the rise, wether they be passively celebrating the impending doom, or actively seek to undermine civil society by means of sabotage and murder, the Spore contaminates not only the planets it conquers, but also the minds of those who fight against it. Religion, while it might provide its subjects with comfort and an easy moral framework, all to often tries to convince us there is a better world ahead beyond the veil of death.

The Spore does not concern itself with the afterlife or heavenly rewards. It concerns itself with survival. As should we, if we're to withstand its onslaught.

- Excerpt from Professor Tall'adex's Lectures on "The Spore and its Cutural Significance" Rax'Thaak Academy of Xenology, 2322

 

[sebas379]

Death cults and the rise of religious zeal over science and logic. If anything demonstrates the futility of trying to resist the spore it must be these acts of deaperation.

 

[Henry v. Keiper]

I'm somewhat inclined to just declare war on everyone and see what happens.

Why not do it? Even if you end up losing, you're writing from the perspective of the Spore's enemies, so it'll still seem like a victory of sorts.

 

[RyuKazuha]

I'm not so much scared of losing the game, wich would make for interesting story and gameplay, but rather of wasting the fleets of all the empires in the galaxy because they can't figure out how to attack together and having to do 500 years of mop-up afterwards.

Unfortunately th ten year truce isn't enough for your average AI-Empire to get back on its feet and stay there. I've thought about lowering the warscorecost of planetwide genocide ( i mean "abandon" planet, ofc) to finish of the empires faster, but this would just mean I expand even quicker and snowball harder. Not ideal either.
The AI being kept from forming aliances by the pact-requirements also keeps the galaxy from uniting. wich may probably be more realistic, but isn't as fun if you would want them to.

Anyway, I'll give the game some time to breathe come Saturday and see were it takes me. You guys still enjoy it and overall so do I, wich is the point of doing this. Heinlein breaking my game is still a good number of weeks away and I intend to use them.

 

[Tus3]

Perhaps you could try the middleroad by declaring war on only two alliances at the same time.
(Or declare war on a large empire in the middle of an other war and RP it as them pre-emptively attacking you).

 

[m4st3rm_]

Very nice writing- however you choose to end it, it should be a good read.

 

[Henry v. Keiper]

I'm not so much scared of losing the game, wich would make for interesting story and gameplay, but rather of wasting the fleets of all the empires in the galaxy because they can't figure out how to attack together and having to do 500 years of mop-up afterwards.

Write the "mopping up" as survivors attempting to fight back and get on with their lives.

 

[RyuKazuha]

The Folly of the Fiiral

What is now widely known as the Fiirals Folly, or Folly of the Fiiral, took place in the early months of 2332. The Contamination had just swept over the Igarian Capitol System of Cajubus and wiped out several Igarian Colonies in the process and was starting to attack the Andigonj United Systems in Bitrius.
The itself event was prompted by renewed sporian aggression against the Girtab and Daranma Systems, demarcating the border between Fiiral Coucil Space and the Contamination Zone at the time.

While it is hard to tell as to why the Folly occured, the details of what happened are easier to determine. The 2nd Stellar Rectrix had been hastily assembled at the start of the Invasion of Girtab and ordered to fight off the Spore fleet present in the System, as well as destroy any sporian ground troops before they'd be able to make planetfall. Unfortunately, the admiral in charge had fallen ill, and thus replaced by the highest ranking Captain, a grim men well known for his hatred against the enemy, but not so well for his restraint in battle or tactical finesse.
As the fleet entered the System, the Spore Ships had allready left, but sporian dropships had not yet reached Jiindet Orbit. Seeing a chance to rid the world of 34 enemy dropships, the 2nd Stellar Rectrix moved to attack, but was unable to destroy the transports, before they were able to flee through a hastily opened wormhole.
It was in this situation, that the captain decided to pursue the enemy ground troops. Perhaps under the impression of the spore stretching itself to thin, or the wish to delay the next planetary invasions as much as possible, the fleet began chasing the dropships deep into sporian territory.
As it seems, the fleet attacked a spaceport in the Hark-System in former Wacegi Space, receiving no reaction before continuing their chase, wich would lead them to Quastillani, where they found their prey.

With its 3 Battleships, 5 Cruisers, 5 Destoryers and 6 Corvettes, the 2nd Stellar Rectrix was not a force to be trifled with, but as they entering what is now believed to be the Spores central staging system, they were outnumbered and outgunned by the dozens, with two major sporian fleets and a couple of reserve ships currently in Orbit.

Now it is at this point, that the folly came fully into its own, as the Fleets commander did choose not to fight, but to retreat before major blows had been traded. Now of course, retreating from a major opponent is not a foolish thing. However, retreating into a system well within wormhole range of the enemy and one of their colony systems on top, is very foolish indeed.
The 2nd Stellar Rectrix was found by one of the Spore Fleets while still under warp cooldown and as the data collected heavily implies, slaughtered to a man without so much as a shot fired from even one of its vessels, after the enemy dropped right onto their position.

Left defenseless, the Fiiral Council lost 60% of its colonized worlds within the next three years, including their homeworld and would certainly have lost more, if the spores wormhole network had had enough reach to it.

- Excerpt from "A history of Containment" by Ashedi Wax, former 1st Historian of the Wacegi Empire


The Galaxy in 2336

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I'd certainly find a way to write the mopping up in an interesting fashion, but it'd be the most boring thing to play. Anyway, as you can see, interesting things are still happening. Even if this particular event was certainly not contributing to the spores defeat.

 

[sebas379]

Another one bites the dust.
You dont happen to have any of tbose anti purge anti slavery muppets as a fallen empire in the area, do you. They could make life very interesting for the spore.

 

[RyuKazuha]

Nope, we got Keepers, Militants and Guardians, but no Observers. The Keepers I actually made contact with recently. We'll see how the Spore deals with them later.

By the way, it's kind of tragic that the only nation who ever won a battle against the Spore currently gets battered by its neighbours up north. Sentients... allways doing stupid things for stupid reasons...

 

[sebas379]

Nope, we got Keepers, Militants and Guardians, but no Observers. The Keepers I actually made contact with recently. We'll see how the Spore deals with them later.

By the way, it's kind of tragic that the only nation who ever won a battle against the Spore currently gets battered by its neighbours up north. Sentients... allways doing stupid things for stupid reasons...

Pity. Well perhaps the Guardians will wake up to the carnage around them when the spore burns one of their precious planets. You did make it to the 24th century already so maybe the Spore will soon evolve into an even more dangerous form of fleet euipped with Jump Drives or Psi Jump Drives.... (I kind of doubt you want to get AI, I don't really see the Spore building robots)

 

[RyuKazuha]

I don't see the spore getting jump drives either (though I might research them, just to provoke the FE, same with AI). Currently the Spores research rate has plateaued, as they do not need to change to do what the do. Maybe this will change if their victims start to actually make gains.

Fun fact though: There is actually a single robot pop on one of my planets. I've no idea how it got there. Apparently the Spore classifies it as nonaggressive equipment and allows it to continue mining.

 

[sebas379]

I don't see the spore getting jump drives either (though I might research them, just to provoke the FE, same with AI). Currently the Spores research rate has plateaued, as they do not need to change to do what the do. Maybe this will change if their victims start to actually make gains.

Fun fact though: There is actually a single robot pop on one of my planets. I've no idea how it got there. Apparently the Spore classifies it as nonaggressive equipment and allows it to continue mining.

Machine units unaffected by the Spore, an interesting development Must be a leftover from a dead race. It would be nice if the AI started to really fight back

 

[Viden]

As far I am concerned, if you have the religious ethos, you cannot build robots.

 

[RyuKazuha]

On the War of Twelve

When after half a decade of relative peace the Spore began showing its ugly face again, it was the eruption of the biggest war effort seen to this date, and arguably the most successfull, or as the pessimist would put it, the least devastating one. As the name still rising in popularity suggests, there were 12 Nations involved in battling the spore, mainly due to various defensive pacts and alliances. These being in alphabetical order:

01. Andigonj United Systems,
02. Chimm Confederated Worlds,
03. Democratic Rak'Thalak'Nak Nation
04. Democratic Rax'Thalak Assembly,
05. Ekwynian Republik,
06. Fiiral Council
07. Groknaploran League,
08. Holy Igarian Empire,
09. Tezhnid Confederation,
10. United Zemmerpuk Hegemony,
11. United Ymorz Nations,
12. Xanyr Confederation of Constituents

Plotted to a map of 2345

It might be interesting to know, that in all due technicality the War of Twelve actually consisted of five wars involving the Democratic Rak'Thalak'Nak Nation, the Democratic Rax'Thalak Assembly, the Ekwynian Republik, the Fiiral Council and the Holy Igarian Empire as primary defenders respectively.

The first thing to learn from this war was the fleet structure of our enemy, wich seems to have solidified into a certain structure. All four fleets encountered during the last five years started out consisting of 3 Battleships, 3 Cruisers and 30 Destroyer-Class Vessels as well as 33 Dropships. It is currently unknown wether the 3 holds any significance to the spore or if there other reasons for such specific numbers.
Of the four fleets encountered, three were used exclusively proactive, cutting their way into the DRN, FiC and HIE, swiftly overwhelming planetary defenses and covering the ground assaults, while one fleet seems to have been tasked with defending Spore Territory from enemy encursions in a reactive fashion.
The inial hope of deterring aggression against the bordering states by attacking the spores worlds in force was quickly lost. While several spaceports and orbital installtions could be destroyed, the enemy did not seem to notice it at all, aside from the defensive fleet reacting to whatever incursion would be nearest as soon as one was dealt with. Meanwhile the ships lost to the defensive fleet would just be replaced within little to no time, and it wasn't until 2349 that the UYN Navy was finally able to break the Spores defense for good, and shatter the fleet completly.

As is widely know by this point in time the Fiiral Council and the DRN had allready collapsed with the HIE barely holding on to its capital planet, while the aggressive Spore Fleets had started to push into DRA and Ekywian space, neither of the three particularly damaged. It would be only after an UYN-invasion of the spores supposed home planet in Ze'Zebb, that the nearest aggressive Cluster would abort its mission and return to spore space in order to retake the system.

The Galaxy in 2350

While short in duration, the occupation of the Planet once called "Reyub'Ofe" did yield a plethora of new information. UYN-PsyComs were able to determine that the planet is indeed the center of the outbreak, though certainly not the home of the spore. If their reports is to be trusted, a number of ekwynian smugglershad set up shop on the planet intending to use the "wasteland" as a base for illigitimate trades between the surrounding empires. Though somewhat uncomfortable with the "fungal" mattress spanning the surface, they seem to have thought it to be a decent deterrent for any other settlers, be they privateers or statesanctioned colonists.
Apparently the smugglers also found extensive alien ruins below the surface wich they planned to exploit. None of these ruins could be entered by the PsyComs, but they managed to secure a small number of artifacts, very much reminiscent of what little technology we're able to attain from the Iztran Unity. This begs the question wether the spore was the reason for the Unitys retreat, or if something more sinister might be going on...

The fact of the matter is: the Spore will continue to expand and without a galactic effort, there's little chance for any empire to stop it.

 

[sebas379]

I wonder why the Spore is so relentless in its expansion south and east whilst leaving states alive in its rear, pressed against the edge of the galaxy. Clearly it is no extragalactic substance for it would have entered through these nations and wiped them out first.