What is the current situation of the Free State?

[Della]

Politically, relations with Nepleslia and Yamatai, internally, conditions of the various fleets and population, what's happening at the Great Lighthouse and in the other places that have been hit by Yamataian attack, etc.

The current situation is a bit confused (in my mind, at least). Can someone help me clear it out? I THINK I know what happened, but it's always better to ask.

Also, If there's need for something Freespacer-related, until Jessica returns I can try and fill in for her something, if nothing else, just to keep the 'spacers "alive" (news, etc) until she comes back. I know them quite a bit and helped her out with a couple of wiki articles on them, so I thought i could be of some help to SARP. I'd hate to see such a well-written race fall from activity and be forgotten.

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

Most of the Freespacer population was wiped out by Yamatai, or are in Yamataian prison camps. The Maras rescued a very small number of them, including several SIs. The only non-refugee Freespacers left are a small group on Halna (although apparently the locals decided it would be fun to murder them all) and the communities that were already present on Nepleslia.

As for the Free State itself, it's more or less Yamataian territory by now, seeing as Yui has yet to withdraw her fleets. The planets themselves are pretty much devastated, though.

 

[Della]

So, the planets have more or less been conquered/destroyed? Got it. Might be a good idea to update the map, then.

As for "wiped out", aren't 'spacers supposed to be nomads? They don't really have a "territory"... if Yamatai takes over the place where they were up to a moment ago, they'd probably just move out of the way and reestablish themselves somewhere else. After all, the overwhelming majority of their population lives in spaceborne Fleets and Motherships.

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

Most of the fleets were destroyed. There are probably some survivors, but very few, and many of them are in Yamataian prison camps.

 

[Della]

So it's been more of a war of extermination than a war of conquest? As in, systematically destroying as many starships and killing as many people as possible? I had the impression that it was more aimed at taking over planets and left the fleets relatively untouched...

 

[Wes]

At Halna, the objective was to remove the Freespacers and eliminate the ones to leave. At the Great Lighthouse, it was more destroying weapons and pillaging knowledge and information. Freehold Factory, however, was as you put it, "extermination" and the planets were bombarded heavily there. Some Freespacer fleets were destroyed but there's more out there. The Polysentience is significantly weakened, though, since its main hubs have been either damaged or destroyed.

Star Army forces are still lurking in the Halna area but have mostly pulled out of Freespacer territory as promised, taking a large number of captives with them that Yamatai is trying to integrate into Yamataian society. For the spacers, Yamatai can be a paradise of sorts in a way (no worries about finding enough food/water, powerful networks, etc) so this may be successful on some level. There are relativity few actual Freespacers in actual prisons.

Since Himiko took over, Star Army ships have been delivering relief supplies to the Great Lighthouse: canned foods, rice, large amounts of fresh water from Albini, and limited amounts of fresh produce from Hoshi no Iori. The aid ships typically just airdrop the stuff rather than risk landing since some spacers don't like Yamatai despite the regime change.

Certain militant factions are still enemies of the SAoY, but the SAoY is only targeting them, not the Freespacers as a whole like they did during Katsuko's reign.

 

[Della]

At Halna, the objective was to remove the Freespacers and eliminate the ones to leave. At the Great Lighthouse, it was more destroying weapons and pillaging knowledge and information. Freehold Factory, however, was as you put it, "extermination" and the planets were bombarded heavily there. Some Freespacer fleets were destroyed but there's more out there. The Polysentience is significantly weakened, though, since its main hubs have been either damaged or destroyed.

Mh, then, if there are survivors, they're very likely to consider reestablishing communication nodes as a very high priority, which may or may not mean a more widespread use of FTL systems.

Star Army forces are still lurking in the Halna area but have mostly pulled out of Freespacer territory as promised, taking a large number of captives with them that Yamatai is trying to integrate into Yamataian society. For the spacers, Yamatai can be a paradise of sorts in a way (no worries about finding enough food/water, powerful networks, etc) so this may be successful on some level.

Mh. For some reason, I see this as unlikely. Most Freespacers are too anarchic and antiauthoritarian to live voluntarily in an empire, probably.

Since Himiko took over, Star Army ships have been delivering relief supplies to the Great Lighthouse: canned foods, rice, large amounts of fresh water from Albini, and limited amounts of fresh produce from Hoshi no Iori. The aid ships typically just airdrop the stuff rather than risk landing since some spacers don't like Yamatai despite the regime change.

There's to say that probably most Freespacers don't even understand what a "regime change" should be: the idea that a whole nation is lead by just one people is completely alien to them, so they don't really know that Yamataian leadership is different now, or what that's supposed to mean.

Certain militant factions are still enemies of the SAoY, but the SAoY is only targeting them, not the Freespacers as a whole like they did during Katsuko's reign.

Yeah, probably the Wired Rovers and some factions of the Hacker Cult aren't very likely to forgive Yamatai anytime soon.

 

[Exhack]

It seems very odd for a group of former prisoners of war that had just escaped a genocide to suddenly enjoy life in Yamatai, just because it fulfills certain needs. Sometimes, you bite the hand that feeds you, especially when it killed your brother, burned down your house and dragged you halfway across the universe to an utterly alien society.

NOTE:

Though you've made some OOC clarifications, the issue of exactly what happened at Freehold Factory needs to be addressed. It received only passing mention, which I personally find unsuitable for this site, but I think there is potential for a plot situation. I'd like to bring this up for discussion with the other GMs soon.

 

[Wes]

what happened at Freehold Factory needs to be addressed.

What happened was Yui's massive attack forces split in half and hit the Great Lighthouse and Freehold Factory at the same time. The Lighthouse was systematically attacked and invaded, but Freehold was carpet-bombarded with heavy weapons fire, devastating everything on the surface.

 

[Exhack]

Well... that should have been RP'd out. As it were, you made it a short footnote on the end of a coup-de-grace post in an unrelated JP.

 

[Cora]

I would like to point out that from the wiki page, the Factory's primary use was mining, thus everything of need was underground, so by technical rights, unless the ships actually blew the planet up wholesale, they largely didn't destroy anything of value.. (aside from NOTHING about Yui's fleet being split in half was mentioned at all in the Lighthouse JP that me and four other people were witness to.

 

[Andrew]

"Dun worry I 2nd Fleeted it."

I think the whole attack on the Freespacers is something which needs to be carefully examined in that we have to ask ourselves if it is in this way that we find it appropriate to gage war between factions.

The whole ordeal is littered with vagueness (including my own), inconsistancies (like aether weapons being fired after the Maras did it thing and the fleet switched over to A/M), and well it is far from being exciting to read. Something like this would of taken weeks, maybe a month for me to actually play out. Not that my way is any better.

My little quote above, is a little catch phrase that has been circulating around for a while, referring to how the 2nd Standard Fleet (the original one) was lost in a single news paragraph. This was handled in a bigger format, but probably a little worse.

I think that yes, what has happened with the freespacers happened (we have plotlines with several mentions to it), but in the future this situation needs to serve as an example of how "combat" is waged in a faction vs. faction level. -- I think ill write some articles on fleet combat this summer (considering that is my forte).

Perhaps we should adopt a policy similar to our policy regarding dead characters, that it is up to the parties involved to be in agreement OOCly before such an engagement would occur.

 

[Della]

I think that yes, what has happened with the freespacers happened (we have plotlines with several mentions to it), but in the future this situation needs to serve as an example of how "combat" is waged in a faction vs. faction level. -- I think ill write some articles on fleet combat this summer (considering that is my forte).

Perhaps we should adopt a policy similar to our policy regarding dead characters, that it is up to the parties involved to be in agreement OOCly before such an engagement would occur.

I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[Wes]

NOTHING about Yui's fleet being split in half was mentioned at all in the Lighthouse JP that me and four other people were witness to.

That was, however, how it went. Andrew and some of the other SAoY guys were shown the diagram image that explained the operation a couple days before it began. The force that split in half was the combined fleet from Operation 832.

Over 5,000 starships exited hyperspace just outside the Great Lighthouse system, with shields up and weapons ready.

The Great Lighthouse lost communications with Freehold Factory, which had last reported a fleet of over 4,000 starships conducting a simultaneous attack, but a mass destruction type rather than the precision attack being conducted on the lighthouse.

The JP was focused on the Battle of the Great Lighthouse, NOT Freehold Factory, so the destruction of Freehold was described from the Lighthouse point of view.

inconsistancies (like aether weapons being fired after the Maras did it thing and the fleet switched over to A/M)

This was edited shortly after the JP was posted. It's been fixed long ago.

I think that yes, what has happened with the freespacers happened (we have plotlines with several mentions to it), but in the future this situation needs to serve as an example of how "combat" is waged in a faction vs. faction level.

This wasn't really a good example of faction vs. faction combat - it was more GM description than actual roleplay in my opinion. It wasn't part of a plot, but rather more like an interactive news event.

Something like this would have taken weeks, maybe a month for me to actually play out.

No offense against the Freespacers intended, but it wasn't worth the effort to play it out for weeks. There were no spacer plots to involve and the outcome was inevitable due to Yamatai's staggering forces and technological superiority. It was more of a "well, let's get this stuff over with."

I think ill write some articles on fleet combat this summer (considering that is my forte).

I would love to see fleet combat articles. I think we could use some.

Perhaps we should adopt a policy similar to our policy regarding dead characters, that it is up to the parties involved to be in agreement OOCly before such an engagement would occur.

This goes back to faction ownership -- my stance for a long time has been "characters are own by players but factions are owned by everyone" but I'm thinking of shifting to a "creator controls it" type policy again to make the community happier. What do you think? I'd like to outline what a faction owner's rights and responisibilities are within the next week or two.

Lastly I would like to note that, despite being the GM of that JP, I didn't even know what was going on with Kiyoko's fleet of SMX dudes. They just showed up without warning in my JP and I didn't even know who I was shooting at and the next thing you know Star Army dudes are blowing each other up and then UOC goes nuts (not that Kiyoko stayed dead anyway). Next time a little communication would be nice.

 

[Cora]

No offense against the Freespacers intended, but it wasn't worth the effort to play it out for weeks. There were no spacer plots to involve and the outcome was inevitable due to Yamatai's staggering forces and technological superiority. It was more of a "well, let's get this stuff over with."

No offense against you Wes, but the next time you get bored, why not do something more constructive instead of arbitrarily attacking a faction you don't like that someone spent the better part of two years working on fleshing out and building up when the original conflict (with Nelpeslia lol) didn't pan out.

 

[MissingNo]

Wes, your attitude toward the whole thing is disappointing.

"Let's get this over with" is how you viewed the conflict, Wes. Look at this from everyone else's (Strangelove's most of all) viewpoint: First, it's a race that is largely admired in some way or another. Second, though it doesn't have any factional plotlines, it DID have the sufficient amount of players to make it an official IC player-race. Third, the way that conflict played out could have been much different (though still most likely ending in the Free State's defeat anyway) if rules of engagement were even remotely observed. If the rules of roleplaying such things were remotely observed...

At the very least, playing out every part of the conflict should have been necessary, if only because the focus of this roleplay is no longer Yamatai-centric. Each faction -- Yamatai, Nepleslia, Free State, Abwere and the rest -- has its own fans and backers, and none of them are entirely good or bad. So all sides of a conflict need to have a fair chance for their players (or GM, in this case) to properly give their side's reaction to the opposition. In fiction books there is a protagonist and antagonist in classic literature form. Here, the roleplay allows for no such distinction. So there can be no "Good Guy wins" here because there is no Good Guy. Just two races who both want to survive.

Autoing has never looked good in roleplay, even if the attacking player has every reason to believe that an attack (or a battle) will have predictable results, that player doesn't know _everything_ -- techniques, tactics, or defenses, much less psychology -- about his or her opponent so the player needs to allow the other to judge the effects.

All I know for sure is that this carries shades of the Fenyar aftermath with the POWs (forced refugees in Fenyar's case) being NPCed by the GM of the Captor Race (anyone see something off about this?) as if they find Utopia when they reach the captor's homeworld.

It seems very odd for a group of former prisoners of war that had just escaped a genocide to suddenly enjoy life in Yamatai, just because it fulfills certain needs. Sometimes, you bite the hand that feeds you, especially when it killed your brother, burned down your house and dragged you halfway across the universe to an utterly alien society.

Exhack is right: This doesn't make sense at all, especially in such a short period of time.

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

Let's also not forget that unless Yamatai feels like converting massive areas of its territory into completely sterile wastelands filled with nuclear waste, it's effectively murdering the 'Spacers. I also do not believe that they'd go willingly. Even if they weren't going to be full of spite towards Yamatai for murdering hundreds of thousands of their countrymen, it's doubtful they'd go to Yamatai. The type of government and society is pretty much the exact opposite of what 'Spacers like.

 

[Exhack]

Let's also not forget that unless Yamatai feels like converting massive areas of its territory into completely sterile wastelands filled with nuclear waste, it's effectively murdering the 'Spacers.

Not quite. They'd just need some medium-dosage radiation pills, but then again, that would sound like a good way of controlling them, i.e.: "If you misbehave, the prison guards won't give you your daily dose."

But that would be a return to pre-reformist Yamatai, wouldn't it?

 

[Wes]

Actually, there's a habitable but radioactive world in the UX-21 system that's perfect for them.

 

[MoonMan]

Actually, there's a habitable but radioactive world in the UX-21 system that's perfect for them.

Which is kind of like putting the Native Americans on preserves. This isn't even an option anyway; I seriously doubt any Freespacer will willingly do anything a Yamataian tells him or her to do after what they have done.

Yamatai did what they did folks, and the Freespacer incident wasn't a very good attempt at roleplay. Everyone knows this; we can either complain about it, or learn from it.