[GAME] Assemble a Space Station!

[AlexanderHowl]

A 50

Criminal punishment is accomplished through memetic programming and psychological erasure. Memetic programming reinforces social taboos to counter minor forms of criminality while psychological erasure removes the psychological aspects that allow major forms of criminality. Imprisonment is considered barbaric beyond the minimum required for the trial and treatment process.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Question 48 [STN]
Give a description of the standard approach, landing, customs and quarantine procedure.
(d6: 6 Sentences)

A48
Approach procedure begins with contacting space traffic control by radio, with the ships computer providing universal ship identification, and usually submission of customs paperwork. Except for very large ships, this usually directs the ship to one of New Hong Kong's many hangar bays for roll-on roll-off cargo transfer. After landing, the ship may be randomly searched by New Hong Kong customs (Always if dangerous cargo is indicated), and then docking fees and any fines are then assessed. If admission to the 44th Republic is desired, all cargo will be thoroughly searched, any contraband will be seized (be sure to rent a locker to store any illegal materials before your trip), and the ship will be quarantined under armed guard before departure. All passengers and crew will require an admissions certificate indicating purpose of visit (which needs supporting evidence and may be denied), a doctor's note indicating any transmissible diseases, and a DNA sample, or instead proof of citizenship.

Question 51 [SET]
Are the lots of emigrants passing through New Hong Kong? Which direction?
(d6: 4 Sentences)

Question 52 [STN]
What's the most recent major service disruption on New Hong Kong? (i.e. Convention making everything busy, riots, disease prompting quarantine, dockworkers strike etc)
(d6: 6 Sentences)

[Daigoro]

Don't forget your questions. Without them, we hit a dead end.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Question 43 [STN]
What are examples of contraband Quarantine has seized recently? (d6: 4 sentences)

A nanofac a smuggler tried to sneak out of the republic

Communication gear lacking standard republic safeguards and monitoring equipment

a suitcase of Servitor Embryos

An enormous stock of food not properly checked for disease.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

A 50
Criminal punishment is accomplished through memetic programming and psychological erasure. Memetic programming reinforces social taboos to counter minor forms of criminality while psychological erasure removes the psychological aspects that allow major forms of criminality. Imprisonment is considered barbaric beyond the minimum required for the trial and treatment process.

Question 53
How effective (or ineffective) is memetic programming of criminals?
5 sentences

Question 54
What nasty side effects or unintended consequences accompany memetic programming?
4 sentences

Question 55
Is memetic programming used on political dissidents, children, or public servants?
1 sentence

Originally Posted by TGLS

... traces its lineage to the First Republic, originally named the Terran Republic, founded approximately two thousand years ago.

I was hoping for the first Republic of France (they're on their fifth). Oh well. Its interesting that they claim descent from a government that ruled all of earth. That has implications.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Question 53
How effective (or ineffective) is memetic programming of criminals?
5 sentences

Question 54
What nasty side effects or unintended consequences accompany memetic programming?
4 sentences

Question 55
Is memetic programming used on political dissidents, children, or public servants?
1 sentence

A53, 54, & 55
Memetic programming is respected in the territories of the Spinward Trade Alliance as a highly effective treatment. In addition to its use on criminals, children and employee throughout the Spinward Trade Alliance are often programmed to improve discipline, eliminate minor mental disabilities, and to enhance natural talents.

However, despite programming success stories, the process has a number of issues. Memetic programming is difficult to reverse, which means wrongful convictions cannot be undone. Sometimes the process can cause unwanted compulsive behaviours in subjects, ranging from minor problems like having exceptional difficulty lying and chewing gum addiction, to excess sexual desire and extreme overconfidence. There are some reports that there are memetic programmers working in the criminal underworld, reinforcing personalities against treatment and encouraging suicidal devotion to their employers.

Question 56
What do Forty-Fourthers think of Memetic Programming, and how do they punish their criminals?
5 sentences

Question 57
How is the Spinward Trade Alliance organized?
3 sentences

Question 58
What's the fastest way of delivering message to a faraway star?
3 sentences

Question 59
What's really trendy on New Hong Kong?
1 sentences

[AlexanderHowl]

A 57

The Spinward Alliance is a parliamentary bicameral system where the lower chamber is based on population (a minimum of one seat per member) and the upper chamber is two seats per member. The lower chamber seats are filled through popular elections (a prime minister is selected by a vote by the elected officials of the lower chamber) while the upper chamber seats are filled by appointment for life by the associated members (a president is selected for a four year term, maximum two terms, by a vote by the appointed officials of the upper chamber). While mostly ceremonial, the president possesses two important powers: the ability to veto any bill (though the veto can be overcome by a two-thirds vote by both chambers) and the authority to nominate appointees to the three levels of the Alliance Judiciary, whose members serve for life (though they must be confirmed by a majority vote in both chambers).

Question 60

Who are the dominant members of the Spinward Alliance and why are they dominant? (5 sentences).

[Daigoro]

A recap...

Originally Posted by TGLS

The Servitors (this is their official name), were designed and constructed by a team of geneticists under Former Academician Abbi Rowland, years before the yellow expedition....Some considered the Servitors abominable sights, others took exception to the sale of living creatures, and others saw them as an intolerable threat to the jobs of zero-gee maintenance people. In the wake of the controversy, Rowland was expelled from the Republican Academy of Sciences, and a freeze was instated on further biogenesis, so all living Servitors today were born, not made.

Originally Posted by ericthered

In the Fourty-Fourth Republic, The servitors enjoy both citizenship and a battery of laws protecting them from "exploitation"....This is in stark contrast to the 43rd republic, where servitors suffered a period of what amounted to slavery.

Question 49
Do any of the previous republics (1st through 43rd) exist in some form?
(5 sentence)

Answer 49- The 43rd Republic-in-Exile
There are actually a fair number of the previous republics still in existence and spread around the galaxy.

There's the 38th Republic in the Honig Sector, which sent the colonists to this region in the wake of the Heaven's Tribes Invasion who then established the 39th.

The 39th to 42nd each disappeared in turn with the advent of their successor state, but loyalists to the 43rd escaped to the Augustinian system to continue as an exiled government.

It was actually the issue of Servitor rights that precipitated the deposition of the 43rd, and they fled so they could continue research into properly controlling Seneclex technology.

Unfortunately, the system they are based in only has a minimal amount of the tech, so Forty Thirder spies and operatives often try to acquire access to the tech in the 44th's three systems.



Question 39 (6 sentence)
What ever happened to Abbi Rowland?

Answer 39- Abbi Rowland
Rowland accepted the criticism that her work violated the rights of the new sapient species, but strongly felt that the nation's need to access Seneclex technology outweighed that consideration.

Because of this, she ended up at the centre of the power cabal trying to retain the 43rd's power as the revolution occurred.

Rowland, a General Fen and Grand Speaker Urashima were smuggled away by loyalist forces and became the ruling bloc of the new 43rd Republic-in-exile.

Rowland was therefore able to continue her research and developed a number of different breeds of Servitor, but research into their use with actual Seneclex technology was stymied by the limited access to it.

That was 162 years ago, and the news five decades later reported her death and burial with state honours.

However, there are persistent rumours from the 44th's intelligence arm that Rowland may have transferred her consciousness to another form, with conflicting stories that it was into a Servitor body, a human clone lineage, or even a Seneclex AI host framework.

-----

Question 61 [44th]
Of the member systems of the 44th, being Pascal's Wager, Plato's Cave and Morton's Fork, where is the capital located?
(d6: 1 sentence)

Question 62 [44th]
Why does the 44th Republic have such a strong policy on isolation?
(d6: 4 sentences)

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Question 61 [44th]
Of the member systems of the 44th, being Pascal's Wager, Plato's Cave and Morton's Fork, where is the capital located?
(d6: 1 sentence)

A61
The capital of the 44th Republic is on Truth's Shadow in Plato's Cave system.

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Question 42 [SYS][Name 5]
Apart from New Hong Kong and the Solar Shield, what are 5 other precursor bases or devices in the Pascal's Wager system?
(d6 roll: 3 sentences each)

I'll just tweak this to say "in the 44th Republic"

A42a
Truth's Shadow has a system similar to the Solar Shield, but instead of periodically blocking the Sun, it simulates the sky (with clouds and such). This system was previously a nuisance as it used to have odd messages, grid lines, and peculiar static drawn onto the sky. These days the 44th Republic has mastered the device, and can display anything they want in the sky, but occasionally there are odd, unplanned sightings...

Question 62 [HIS]
What was the Heaven's Tribe Invasion, and why did it prompt the 38th Republic to send colonists so far away?
(d6: 2 sentences, ouch)

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Question 31 [SET] (NEW)
Who are the Heaven's Tribes, and why did they invade and attempt to wipe out the precursors (4 Sentences)

(Reading "precursors" here to mean "Pascalons".)

Answer 31 [HIS] - Invasion of Heaven's Tribes
The Heaven's Tribes, with their nanotech star fortresses and horse-headed warsuits, were a rampaging host that scourged a good portion of the known galaxy.

However, to their minds, they were on a mission to save the galaxy from a great, presaged apocalyptic fate, The Nine Foes.

In order to build their Heaven's Army of Ninety Nine Tribes to defeat the Nine Foes, they went from system to system gathering together various alien races, either forcibly recruiting whole civilisations or destroying them if they resisted.

It's not completely clear which fate the Pascalons suffered, but their Seneclex defenses were insufficient and the Tribes' passing saw their homeworld and society nigh obliterated.

Originally Posted by TGLS

Question 62 [HIS]
What was the Heaven's Tribe Invasion, and why did it prompt the 38th Republic to send colonists so far away?
(d6: 2 sentences, ouch)

(Luckily, half of that was covered above.)

Answer 62 [HIS] - Colonists from the 38th Republic
The Heaven's Tribes, already being founded and led by the Terran Tribe, mainly left human civilisations unmolested in their rampage, but these human nations across the galaxy could do little against the might of the Tribes.

Instead many, like the 38th Republic, would move in in their wake to either resuscitate destroyed alien civilisations or occupy their vacant territories.


-----

Question 63 [HIS]
How did the scourge of the Heaven's Tribes end?
(d6: 2 sentences)

Question 64 [HIS]
What was the nature of the Heaven's Tribes Nine Foes?
(d6: 3 sentences)

Question 65 [SET]
Are there any remnants of the Tribes or their superior technology?
(d6: 3 sentences)

[AlexanderHowl]

Q 63

The threat of the Tribes were ended by the mysterious and alien V'tt, who killed every male member of the Tribes for their sin of destroying one of their hatchery worlds. The V'tt captured the female members of the Tribes and took them to their remaining hatchery worlds, where their descendants (produced through the reproductive technology of egg fusion) serve as the guardians of the V'tt hatchery worlds to this day.

Question 66

What are the V'tt to the rest of humanity and what do they want in trade from humanity? (4 sentences).