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The grandest of these theolo-political cults, the Kommune, promises change and equality, that everyone shall live equal and improved in the future state. Sandro, a young and attractive man in charge of it leads the riots himself, his fame increasing with each baton strike and tear gas cannister he endures. Yet, most remember that the Kommune came as refugees from their previous attempt at a revolution. And a few whisper of a sinister conspiracy of a hivemind directing their members.
Amongst the less ideological cults, first stands the Iaicchik cult, the most numerous religion, formerly propagated by the Iaicchik dynasty, still revering their founders and it’s last notable member, the current empress married to the head of the new dynasty, Tuai.
Far below them, numerically, stands the sect of the black lady, a broadly prosecuted cult shrouded in mystery. Despite their low numbers, they hold disproportionate influence due to the large numbers of priestesses the cult sends to Lei as concubines. What further happens to them is not known.
And, surprisingly, a large physiolatric cult had erupted in the strech between Yunqi and Isge, comprised primarily from farmers and slaves. Despite the impressive numbers of this cult, they are yet to show themselves as cohesive or politically coordinated.
///////////////////////////////////////////
Welcome to Despot of Lanu, my first attempt at running a quest. In this quest you’ll be controlling a individual (who is usually) in positions of political and military power on the world of Lanu, a new acquisition in the Ghosphodstvo, a vile, rotting, exploitative and decadent interplanetary empire under the rule of a incompetent tyrant who is well on his way to end his reign.
Depending on the actions you take and how you take them, there may be a lot of rolling or near to none, dialogue will usually be resolved with a few rolls, while combat and battles will rely on quite a few. I will do my best to not disclose how the system works as to keep the quest as opaque and narrative focused as I can.

You are:
>Ryan Doyle, a middle aged lord of the Doyle family designated to be in charge of the fishing and shipping industries of the world of Lanu and a close associate and drinking buddy of Lei Fu
>Guo Xia, a castrated, genetically modified, artificial parasite carrying leader of the local contingent of police, the most competent, powerful and important military organization on the world of Lanu
>Sandro Saks, the young, charismatic and attractive leader of the Kommune, rumored to be an AI and the organizer of the unrests and riots that have since recently plagued Lanu
>Ocan Ommolo, the leader of the Iaicchik cult, an ancient warrior that had long ago fought on Surtshe to overthrow the Tamudaic dynasty, but having long since renounced the life of a rifle wielding soldier
>Vimal Bista, the man in charge of the cult of the black lady, a mysterious and pragmatic figure that has not yet been seen in public
>Matei Dragan, a common man working in the swamp fields close to the town of Paya

>>5855468
>>Vimal Bista, the man in charge of the cult of the black lady, a mysterious and pragmatic figure that has not yet been seen in public

>>5855468

>Vimal Bista, the man in charge of the cult of the black lady, a mysterious and pragmatic figure that has not yet been seen in public

Well, your setting is definitely interesting, OP. I’ll bite

>>5855468
>Matei Dragan, a common man working in the swamp fields close to the town of Paya

>>5855501
>Well, your setting is definitely interesting, OP. I’ll bite
Hopefully the execution will be acceptable.

>>5855468
>Matei Dragan, a common man working in the swamp fields close to the town of Paya
Can we make him young?

>>5855528
He is young. Early 20's.

>>5855468
>>Vimal Bista, the man in charge of the cult of the black lady, a mysterious and pragmatic figure that has not yet been seen in public

>>5855468
>Sandro Saks, the young, charismatic and attractive leader of the Kommune, rumored to be an AI and the organizer of the unrests and riots that have since recently plagued Lanu

>>5855482
>>5855501
>>5855550
3 for Vimal Bista

>>5855528
>>5855503
2 for Matei Dragan

>>5855558
1 for Sandro Saks

I guess we're going down the black lady route. Odd, I thought Ryan or Guo would be more popular.

You step through the curtain door separating the black lady from the world and firmly step into the large stone chamber. Only you have this privilege, for the black lady chose you herself. And you did not deny her requests, but had your eyes removed and your eardrums pierced. Yet despite this, you see brighter than any of the fools who still cling to their eyes and hear better than any with their eardrums.
You step onto the stone dais, covered in runes and carvings for the health of the lady and approach the metal table on which her near motionless body lays. Your lips mutter a prayer to her health you don’t understand and you approach her, your limbs moving on your own. You don’t fight it as they move with the motions of a skilled physician, your legs striding around the table as your body tends to her needs, replacing burst stitches and tainted bandages. And yet, despite your lacking eyes, you catch a glimpse of her raising and lowering chest. She is still alive and is getting better. Recovering from her wounds. Your fingers skillfully dance with needles and scalpels, cutting and sowing her flesh back together as they enter her stomach and chest, taking out chunks of metal and flesh. Fatigue sets in, yet you don’t slow. As the hours drag on, you start losing concentration, yet nothing changes in the motions of your body, until eventually, the motions stop.
Your body takes you over to the side of the black lady and a sound escapes her lips as you bend and place your ear over her mouth. You don’t know what you hear, but it fills you with dread. More sacrifices will need to be given. You step back and almost collapse under the exhaustion as your sweat drenched limbs spasm, finally given back to your control. You prostrate yourself towards the limp body of your lord and then exit through the same curtain door.
As you step through, a pair of guards immediately step in and help carry you through towards the council chambers, a massive stone room, much in the style of the surgery room you had just exited. As soon as you enter, you sense dozens of pairs of eyes fixated on you, half audible murmuring fully understandable to your ears. As you are placed upon your hard wooden chair all the noise stops. A lone, red robed man of oriental heritage stands up.
“How is she?” He asks, genuine concern and anticipation in his voice audible to all.
“She did not bleed, no maggots or worms erupted from spilled blood.” You reply. “She breathes, her chest raises and falls. She still speaks.”
“Praise be.” He mutters.
“Do not be at ease.” You interrupt. “Her mutterings foretell of great struggles.”
The faces around the table immediately change from their happy moment into one of discomfort and anxiety.
“What shall we do?” The red robed man asks again.

>>5856350

You choose to ignore him as an assistant arrives and offers you a sip from the ethanol-bag. You push the organism aside and grasp for a needle with a near transparent, but light blue substance. The assistant understands and takes it, carefully stabbing it into your neck.
“Rani.” You call. “How did your trip go?”
A short woman of south Asian descent stands up, her half transparent blue robes fluttering around her. “It went well master.” She says, waits for you to flick your hand in a motion to continue, then does so. “We have smuggled four dozen crates of guns and ammo and no-one suspects a thing.”
You nod at her and she sits back down and pats her robes down. Then you turn back to the red robed man. “Jivan, give Rani and the rest of our representatives the rundown on what happened while they were procuring weaponry.” You pause for a few moments, collecting your wits. “And don’t spare the details.” You say, hoping that the drugs you had taken would kick in by the time he finishes.
“Yes master.” Jivan says, clears his throat and steps back. A servant girl with robotic arms steps in and places a number of small electronic devices on the corners of the table. A few moments after she finishes, a exaggerated holographic 3d map of the region pop up in three dimensions.
“In the past two weeks,” Jivan says “we have seen a massive uptake in random violent attacks. It is becoming an epidemic of random violence carried out by completely random people, some of them even being our own members. The local police officer, Zheng, has taken measures and installed automated turrets on a number of positions in the city” Jivan says as the robot armed girl zooms in the map on Telan and starts touching positions where the turrets are located, each touch lighting a small reddish beacon “and has started investigating this as a potential biological, chemical or even electronic attack and has sent a good chunk of his men upstream to check if anyone is tampering with the river.” The girl zooms out of the city and traces the river.
“How bad are these attacks?” Rani asks after you point at her raised hand.
“It went from about 20 per a hundred thousand to about 300 if the current trends continue.” Jivan says. “And it’s not merely homicides, it’s cannibalism and post death mutilation. I presume all of you have seen the photos of the woman hanging from the lamplight in the city square?”
“And has there been any reinforcements from Yunqi?” A huge yellow robed man of african descent asks after you permit him to.
Jivan shakes his head. “Yunqi is rioting because they are starving, Hei and Hunhe are receiving additional garrisons because of Sandro and every settlement south of Nass is experiencing this.” He waits for a few more seconds to see if any questions will be asked, then continues.

>>5856351

“The next thing on the agenda is the Kommune.” He says with obvious distaste. “The rabble-rouser has fled from Hei towards Isge and has probably entered it by now. It’s why we can’t expect anything from down there either. We can expect a slave uprising of some variant of it down there soon enough. Probably won’t see much success.”
“But that’s not what Guo said. He held a speech in Yunqi before I left, saying how Saks was apprehended and executed.” You hear Rani say.
“We saw him fleeing and considered gunning him down.” Hagos, the yellow robed negroid says. “Chose to let the police do their job instead.”
“And to counteract this danger we will potentially have to face, we have been ingratiating ourselves with the lord of Lanu, primarily by touching up and sending some of our more attractive recruits for his harem. And by stockpiling weapons and supplies, including food, ammunition, bio-mass and mercenaries, some of whom have already been inducted and are undergoing state of the art biosculpting, better than even the Yunqi medical center's.”
“Can you give us more concrete figures?” You hear Hagos ask Jivan.
“About twelve hundred rifles, two hundred mercenaries, enough food and water for four months and only some four hundred policemen in a city of just under three hundred thousand citizens.” Jivan recites. “Master?”

>We should try getting more police into Telan, try to get Lei Fu to sign off on it. Bribe him in concubines, since it’s the only thing he cares about.
>More mercenaries are needed, we can have as many guns as we want, if we don’t have professionals to deal with things when they get tough, we’ll fold.
>More guns are needed, we can’t rely on a few mercenaries to defend us against tens of thousands of lunatics.
>We need more food, the turrets will have the city on lockdown and in case they don’t, we’ll be besieged.
>Write-in ideas

>>5856352

>More mercenaries are needed, we can have as many guns as we want, if we don’t have professionals to deal with things when they get tough, we’ll fold.

We need armed men under our command

>>5856352
>>More mercenaries are needed, we can have as many guns as we want, if we don’t have professionals to deal with things when they get tough, we’ll fold.

>>5856352
>More guns are needed, we can’t rely on a few mercenaries to defend us against tens of thousands of lunatics.

>>5856352
>>We should try getting more police into Telan, try to get Lei Fu to sign off on it. Bribe him in concubines, since it’s the only thing he cares about.

>>5856398

>>5856408

>>5856420

>>5856484

Merc’s it is.
“Jivan.” You say to him. “Arrange to get us more guns for hire. We already have enough guns; now we just need more people who know how to use them.”

He bows. “Yes master.”

“The rest of you, return to your duties.” You say as you push yourself up out of your chair, the two guards immediately rushing to help you. You worldlessly shake them off, your vigor somewhat recovered due to drugs. The acolytes leave ahead of you, and you take a few moments to let them get sufficiently far ahead before starting your own path for your bedroom. It does not take you long to fall asleep on the silky surface of the bed, and you wake up the next day, still sore and pained from the surgery but recovered.

“What time is it?” You speak into the room, only for a female voice to reply.

“Nine-fourteen.” The AI says. “You have spent close to 33 hours asleep.”

“Anything of interest?” You aimlessly say as you run your hand over your face, feeling the inside of your fingers press against cavities where your eyes used to be.

“Seventeen attacks on your personnel.” The female voice replies.

“Next.” You reply, not caring for the results.

“A Kommunard mob is about to start assembling in Telan.”

You push yourself up from your bed. “Get me some servants. And tell me more about the Kommunards.”

“Ahvo, a prominent member of the Kommunard, has entered Telan from the south. He might have come from Isge.” The AI says as a pair of slaves enters your room to help you dress yourself. “He has come with a group of about 30 armed gunmen and has already broken into a canning factory, gunning down four police officers and losing a dozen of his own. He seems to be rallying workers.”

By now, the pair of slaves have dressed you. One of the slaves is holding its hand up patiently.

“Speak.” You say it with a slight jerk of your head upward.

“Breakfast, master?” The slave says, cringing at the slight agression you have displayed towards it.

You nod and watch the slave walk out while the other one remains in position, stiffly standing at attention.

“How many workers were there in the factory?” You ask.

“A moment.” The AI says. As you wait, you slightly shift the robes around your neck. “Thirteen thousand.”

“And Zheng sent four hundred men out of his thousand upstream?” You ask for confirmation.

“Yes.” The AI says.

You rub your chin, then speak to the AI again. “Summon the council.”

“Yes.” The AI says again.

In about half an hour, you find yourself in the familiar, cold wooden chair in the same old cold stone chamber, the same groups of people as yesterday, clustered around their three leaders, and you standing ahead of them.

“How goes the mercenary procurement?” You ask the group indistinctly.

“I have arranged for a company to serve us. All that remains is the issue of getting them to descend unnoticed and to transport them to here with their equipment.” Jivan says, now dressed in a tight black robe.

>>5856898

You wave your hand dismissively. “I assume you’ve all heard about the Kommune?”

Nods and an affirmative chorus ripples through the acolytes and priests.

“Advise me.” You say as you point at Jivan.

“Let the police handle it.” The man says it plainly. “The police will cordon them off before they can do anything, and the turrets will gun them down.”

You shift your finger towards Rani, who was holding her hand up. “They fled Hei and Isge. Maybe they know something we don’t? Is it fair to dismiss them so casually?”

You shift your finger back at Jivan. “They are now twenty gunmen holding a factory hostage. Zheng won’t bat an eye at collateral when he orders the police to enter.”

You withdraw your hands to below the desk as the two start arguing, bringing up points about how the police had failed to suppress the Kommune for years at this point, how they have popular support, and how they are well organized, then, as counterarguments, their repeated failures, their lack of equipment, and the small numbers of their actual members in leadership. Before long, a slave approaches the table and raises her metallic arm.

You clear your throat and then nod at her. “I have been told to inform you that the Kommune cells have started carrying out attacks across Isge, Ucht, Nass, Tein, Hunhe, Hei, Berg, Meins, and Fels.” With that, the slave bows and walks away from the table.

“It doesn’t matter. They will be crushed.” Jivan says. “Sooner or later.”

“And what if they don’t get crushed?” Rani replies.

Hagos, the negroid, clears his throat, silencing the arguing couple, and turns to you. “Master, if we are to do anything, we should do it now.”

“Us having weapons is illegal.” Jivan says, a scornful expression on his face. “If we use them, we are committed to a lost fight. And Guo doesn’t forgive.”

>Establish contact with the Kommune, publically support them in their risky endevour, hand them some of your equipment and supplies
>Establish contact with the Kommune, discreetely inform them that you are sympathetic to their cause
>Establish contact with the Kommune but remain strictly neutral
>Proclaim your support for the police and Lei Fu’s regime
>Send in your own men against the Kommune
>Write-in

>>5856899
>>Establish contact with the Kommune, discreetely inform them that you are sympathetic to their cause
Allow them at a safe house or two

>>5856899
>Establish contact with the Kommune, discreetely inform them that you are sympathetic to their cause
>Proclaim your support for the police and Lei Fu’s regime

Rolled 47 (1d100)

>>5856899
>Send in your own men against the Kommune

>>5856899

>Establish contact with the Kommune but remain strictly neutral

What if we offer them a meeting with some high government officials in return for ceasing their rioting and terror acts?

Of course, we could just betray them later if they actually agree

>>5856998
>>5857000
>>5857052
>>5857156
Just as Rani is about to open her mouth, you speak, cutting her off “Get into contact with them.”
Her lips curl upwards in satisfaction, but she does her best to conceal it.
“And tell them we are sympathetic to their cause.” You continue.
“Hopefully that will stop the animals form burning our property.” Jivan says.
“Is that all?” Rani asks, failing to conceal her satisfaction at your choices.
A barely percievable nod of your head is your only reply. You receive a number of nods and bows by the acolytes and priests as they filter out, leaving only the heads of the staff in the room with you. The robot armed slave sets up the projectors on the table corners and slinks off.
In an hour and a half, a mercenary will finish his facial surgery and, pumped full of drugs and wearing civilian clothes will approach the canning factory. He will carefully observe the positions of both the police and the turrets, before making a daring dash through the open street. A pair of bullets will pierce his thigh, one of them shattering his femur, and yet, under the heavy drugs, he will manage to make it into a drainage ditch and will crawl up it into the factory, where he will quickly inject more drugs and make a improvised crutch for his leg. A short walk later, he will introduce himself to Ahvo and recite your message to him.
“You have chosen well.” Ahvo says, for the final liberation is upon us.
A hour and a half later, about four hundred policemen, all heavily armed and armoured start their assault, first by unleashing assualt drones as a massive first wave, the legged, tracked and flying machines leading, followed by a massed assault of the heavily armed and armoured policemen themselves. You observe the compiled projection on the holographic map made by a number of your acolytes observing from the rooftops and streets.
To your surprise, not only are the factory workers shooting back, but by the end of the first hour, the factory hadn’t fallen and the AI had noted three hospital trucks filled with wounded policemen. Tactical observations from the few mercenary officers you brought into the room in the meanwhile are interrupted by the familiar voice of the AI and the sounds of the robot armed girl stepping towards the table.
“A large explosion has occurred on the-” The voice is cut out as the lights flicker. A few moments later, the lights flick back on. “Internal generators online.”
“State of the inteligence network?” Jivan asks.
“Limited.” The AI replies.
“Put everyone on standby and put the mercenaries on guard duty.” You say getting up.
It is only tomorrow that news start flooding back in. Yesterday a series of explosions rocked the city as public infrastructure was hit, primarily the network towers and key points in the electrical grid. Yet, despite that, the two companies of men sent upstream have returned and entered into a fierce gunfight with the rioters throughout the city.

>>5857785

“I’m so glad the temple is outside of the city proper.” You hear one of your slaves comment on the offhand.
By the dusk, the council assembles yet again.
“A report.” You demand.
“The police and the Kommune rioters are engaging in firefights across the city. Simply put, we don’t know who’s winning.” Jivan says. “The police is defending their armory and the port, while the rioters have most of the residential and urban areas. And tens of thousands of people are hiding in their homes, basements or even wilderness.”
>Stay tight, call all our people into the temple grounds, let’s not lose anyone needlessly
>Send out agents to get us a better picture of the event, we’ll make a choice later on
>Time to help the Kommune, if we swing the battle their way we’ll be spared in their purges
>We can’t risk the police losing, let’s send our men to support them
>Establish a cordon around the temple
>Write in

>>5857789
>>Send out agents to get us a better picture of the event, we’ll make a choice later on

>>5857789
>Establish a cordon around the temple

>>5857789
>>Establish a cordon around the temple

>>5857871
>>5858095
>>5858334
“It’ll sort itself out.” You say. “Call in our men and establish an armed cordon around the temple property.”
The following day is spent in hard labor by the various servants, slaves and believers, as a series of fortifications, trenches, slits, foxholes and obstacles are placed to the best skill of your officers, with the mercenaries, who finally arrived being quickly introduced to their new jobs and positions.
As for the news, early in the day, collumns of policemen in Isge, Fluch and Bogl were spotted moving towards the ports in those cities and later in the day, sailing downstream towards the ports in Lembak and Glach, abandoning those cities to the Kommune, much to the amusement of Rani and surprise of Jivan.
A bit further in the day, more concerning news arrive from Yunqi, of the police garrison being driven out of Paya by an angry riotous mob. However, the videos that you receive were more interesting, as mobs of blank faced men and women tore policemen limb from limb with their bare hands, continuing their march forwards despite gushing blood flowing from bulletholes.
By the evening, a similar, yet way smaller attack of similar characteristics occurred in the west of Telan, when a patrol of Kommunalists were attacked by a mob of people later identified as having recently gone missing following a ship incident. The disturbing video shows the dozen Kommunalist riflemen walking in a single file through a swampy strech of land, when, with exceptional speed and endurance, a way larger mob of men appears from behind a dense cluster of tall reeds. The riflemen spread out into a line and, after the mob refuses to identify itself and starts sprinting forwards, open fire, tearing into the mob. By the quarter of an hour, the last of the Kommunalist riflemen is tackled and drowned by what looks like a fifteen year old body who had drowned a week ago when a boat overturned on Mai.
>Have your men hold positions within their fortified positions
>Send your men to the city to try and combat the newcomer mobs
>Send your men to try and dislodge the police, you’ll need their weapons and the Kommunalists as allies
>Send your men to try and kill off the Kommunalists, it’ll take the police and their expertease to protect Telan from this

>>5859046
Forgot ID

>>5859046
>>Send your men to try and dislodge the police, you’ll need their weapons and the Kommunalists as allies

>>5859046
>>Send your men to try and dislodge the police, you’ll need their weapons and the Kommunalists as allies

>>5859046
>Send your men to the city to try and combat the newcomer mobs

>>5859046
>Have your men hold positions within their fortified positions

At dawn break, a soft whisper of a slave awoke you.
“Do you wish to observe the assault?” He spoke softly.
You slowly raised your eyelids and observed the pale faced youth in a fine and modest uniform given only to your personal servants. His eyes darted around the almost pitch black room.
“Yeah.” You said.
He nodded and walked outside, returned soon after and placed a projector at the base of your bed. The projection on your wall showed a view from a tall building towards the police station, a series of bunkers located on a man made hill overlooking the neighboring streets and buildings.
You watch as the column of civilian vehicles with a mercenary flag at the head of it is driving towards the bunkers, both the mercenaries and the policemen anxious. Then in a moment, the mercenaries, along with their robotic and biological assisstant leap from the head truck, it quickly coming under heavy fire as autocannons opened up, the impacts and explosions tearing and warping the metal. Almost immediately after, the rest of the convoy disembarked and the gunfire started. A few moments later, sniper fire from various buildings started surprising the policemen strongpoints and drones, grenades and bombs started impacting them. The automatic self destroy, despite the hopes of the retreating policemen, was stopped by a mercenary codebreaker and by the end of an hour; your well prepared assault had captured the domineeringly positioned bunker complex.
By the midday, a corridor is established between the temple and the police station, with the captured equipment being taken care of. It is roughly then that you receive communication from the Kommune and specifically Ahvo in the form of a holographic recording. As a servant turns it on the holograph appears in front of you, the tall and way too slim form of Ahvo in a multi layered and baggy combat suit and his recognizable implant, a grafted on organism covering his left eye and bulging out of the side of his head.
“I congratulate you on your victory priest.” He says stiffly. “But the revolution is far from over. I invite you to hand us control over your mercenaries, don the red flag and hand us the weapons you captured.”
He pauses for a few moments. “And I am to remind you that the biological weapon unleashed upon us in Paya is a threat to both us and you. If it is not contained, neither the police bunker nor your temple defenses will defend you.”
>Obey his requests, hand the reds your weapons, send your mercenaries to him and publicly proclaim your support for the revolution
>Send in your mercs to help him fight the lunatic mobs, but keep the captured weapons
>Hand him the captured equipment but keep the mercs under your employ
>Make a token gesture, hand him some of the equipment and a few mercs but keep almost all of them for yourself
>Ignore him and prepare for a potential reprisal attack
>Strike him first, the surprise will carry you to success with your three hundred remaining mercs
>Write in

>>5859760
>Strike him first, the surprise will carry you to success with your three hundred remaining mercs

>>5859760
>Strike him first, the surprise will carry you to success with your three hundred remaining mercs

>>5859760
>>Send in your mercs to help him fight the lunatic mobs, but keep the captured weapons

>>5859760
>Strike him first, the surprise will carry you to success with your three hundred remaining mercs

The then leaderless masses will look at us for guidance, no matter that they don't know or trust us yet, we will be the only power in this city capable of keeping them safe from the plague.

>>5859760
>Strike him first, the surprise will carry you to success with your three hundred remaining mercs

>>5859770
>>5859976
>>5860309
>>5860470
>>5860687
A short consultation with the AI’s, mercenary officers and some of your priests leads to your choice of the next action. Plans are worked out, troops quickly redeployed, temple disciples rapidly armed and deployed in support duties and mercenaries drugged up and promised slaves and plunder, all the while fake negotiations were held with the Kommunalists, promising them aid and the full support of the cult. Just as the negotiations were finishing, you gave your blessings to the mercenaries and sacrificed a virgin girl to the dark lady.
The attack started at 3 in the morning, drones and indirect fire weapons opening up on the positions that were located through electronic means during the negotiations, the disciples opening fire across the entire front between you and the Kommunalists and your mercenaries driving in three multiple columns, one headed for the factory area where the revolution in Telan began, to gain the advantageous hillside overlooking much of the city, one heading for the port with the goal of cutting off supply and evacuation and the last heading for the north to cut the biggest pocket of Kommunalists in two, hundreds of droids driving, marching or flying in and around the armored trucks and hundreds of your more reverent disciples, armed with rifles and little else, going in after them on foot, there more to hold the line and exchange fire than to advance.
It is around midday that you received conclusive reports of light casualties on your side, mostly amongst the disciples rather than around the mercenaries, as they achieved some of the goals. The factory was flattened by a rotary cannon firing anti material rounds, burying any who survived it under tons of steel, concrete, plastic, bio-materials and dying tissue. The force heading for the docks had encountered heavier resistance from the police forces, now holding the docks and preparing for an evacuations, forcing the commander of that column to cease his advance and form a cresent shaped front. And finally the commander of the northwards thrust, encountering significantly more resistance than expected, had driven a considerable distance, but eventually got bogged down in brutal urban fighting, the civilians and slaves flocking to join the Kommunalist, firing down on his mercenary column with improvised and homemade firearms and throwing improvise explosives and bricks and stones down on them.

>>5860819
“Sir.” The commander of the factory column says to you over the holograph, as he finishes his segment of the report, a self satisfied smile on his bearded face showing his enthusiasm. “What do you want of us?”
You observe the three holographs staring at you.

>Have the factory column join the northwards thrust, you’d rather eliminate the Kommunalists and let the police retreat. Besides, they already repelled your attack and they’re better equipped and fortified
>Have the factory column join the dockyard thrust, you’d rather eliminate the police and let the Kommunalists bother you for a while more
>Have the factory column split in two and support both the dockyard and the northwards columns, a risky plan, but it might let you kill off both sides
>Sit tight
>Write-in

>>5860820
>Have the factory column join the dockyard thrust, you’d rather eliminate the police and let the Kommunalists bother you for a while more

>>5860820
>Have the factory column split in two and support both the dockyard and the northwards columns, a risky plan, but it might let you kill off both sides

>>5860820
>Have the factory column join the northwards thrust, you’d rather eliminate the Kommunalists and let the police retreat. Besides, they already repelled your attack and they’re better equipped and fortified

>>5860820
>Have the factory column join the northwards thrust, you’d rather eliminate the Kommunalists and let the police retreat. Besides, they already repelled your attack and they’re better equipped and fortified

>>5860820
>Have the factory column join the northwards thrust, you’d rather eliminate the Kommunalists and let the police retreat. Besides, they already repelled your attack and they’re better equipped and fortified

>>5860820
>Have the factory column join the northwards thrust, you’d rather eliminate the Kommunalists and let the police retreat. Besides, they already repelled your attack and they’re better equipped and fortified
The police is already fucking off, and the sooner we cut the head of kommunalists the sooner we stop their poisonous ideology spreading.

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>>5860925
>>5860974
>>5861067
>>5861150
>>5861159
>>5861634
By the sunset, the column of mercenaries from the factory had repositioned and together with the forces already in the north, started an offensive and managed to shatter the Kommunalist defenses throughout the night. The urban defenses proved way more brittle than yesterday, the defenders, low on ammo and equipment. The Kommunalist defenders that were not encircled, gunned down or wounded fled northwards over the flats, probably hoping to reach some other settlement, leaving what little equipment they had and couldn’t carry, some leaving on foot and some leaving on various vehicles. Of course, the mercenaries and desciples fired on them, hoping to wound and kill as many as possible.
It was during the next morning that the policemen, having seen the situation and having finally prepared adequately, left Telan, hoping to sail downstream into the Mai river stream, and from there, probably down to Ucht.
Despite the condition of the city you had finally captured, the general mood was a celebratory one, fireworks were fired, drinks had and prisoners and civilians abused. Yet, unlike the mercenaries and the disciples, you didn’t celebrate. You spent most of the day in the surgical chamber, carefully tending to the body and the wounds of the black lady. After the ordeal, you went to the council chambers and under the drugs, started paying attention to this world again.
A quick glance at the map revealed the broader state of the Lanu before you returned to the conversation.
“About seventeen thousand dead and thrice as many wounded amongst the Kommunalists and civilians, only two hundred casualties amongst our disciples and almost as many amongst the mercenaries.” Jivan says proudly. “We can tend to ours.”
You nod at him.
“So, master?” Rina asks for permission, recieves it and then continues. “What do we do now? That we have control of the city? What do we do with the civilians? And what about the prisoners?”
>Execute the prisoners and enslave the civilians
>Enslave them all prisoners and civilians, shock collars, prohibitive parasites, chemicals and pheromones in the water, do everything to ensure a complete control over the civilian populace
>Execute the prisoners and enslave the civilians
>Enslave the prisoners of war and let the rest go back to their previous conditions
>Let them all go free, the former Kommunalists will see you wisdom and mercy
>Write-in

>>5862058
>>Execute the prisoners and enslave the civilians

>>5862058
>Enslave them all prisoners and civilians, shock collars, prohibitive parasites, chemicals and pheromones in the water, do everything to ensure a complete control over the civilian populace

>>5862058
>Execute the prisoners and enslave the civilians

>>5862058
>publicly sacrifice the prisoners and enslave the civilians

Go big or go home

>>5862058
>publicly sacrifice the prisoners and enslave the civilians

>>5862120
>>5862129
>>5862161
>>5862239
>>5862733
For the following day, the streets run red with blood. Countless prisoners of war are carved open upon sacrificial tables, their still beating hearts expertly removed from their chests, their limp bodies left lying about. Many prisoners are cut down, beheaded, their heads mounted upon pikes, while others are impaled on stakes naked, then quickly chemically treated to retain their uncomposed look for years, maybe decades. The disciples chant while roaming the streets, carving odd runes into the bodies of quivering prisoners, only to hang them at street corners. Over the span of the day, all nineteen thousand prisoners are dead.
Soon after the blood ritual in the name of the black lady, you begin your systematic enslavement of the civilian populace. Mechanical collars with idiot AI’s, brain implants, artificial organs built purely to secrete hormones, nasally inserted manufactured parasites that worm their way into the brain and all the other various methods you knew of and could use were employed to cope with the goal of controlling such a massive populace.
The enslavement of the population takes most of the following two days, however, soon after it is finished, you receive worrying news from the mercenaries concerning a major force traveling upstream. When you inquire about the size of the force an estimate of thirty thousand is dropped.
Defenses are quickly erected, turrets placed, guns handed out and troops deployed. Yet, to everyone's surprise, the massive column stops a few kilometers away from you and sends out a lone bannerman forward under a tattered green banner. As the bannerman approaches within visual range, you are able to see it is a fully naked man, shivering and covered in scars, cuts and bruises, his eyes hazy and unfocused.
“I summon your lord, a blind sage who can see!” the naked bannerman shouts.
>Go and meet him
>Order to have him brought to you
>Have him gunned down
>Write-in

>>5862876
>>Order to have him brought to you

>>5862876
>Order to have him brought to you

>>5862876
>Order to have him brought to you
Meet him in an open courtyard with a reinforced glass divider after he's been throughly inspected.
I saw Dune.

>>5862876
>Order to have him brought to you

>>5862986

Seconding this

>>5862876
>Have him gunned down

>>5862912
>>5862974
>>5862986
>>5863584
>>5863671
>>5863678

You'll forgive me for the shitty writing, I barely slept and had some draining shit to do.

In about half an hour you hear the AI speak “The vehicle with the guest will soon be arriving.”
Having nothing better to do and hating the idea of starting a major project only to interrupt it, you walk towards the window overlooking the approaches to the temple, you spot the vehicle approaching in the distance. You speak to the AI “No need to inspect our guest.” You mutter.
“As you wish.” The robotic voice replies.
Within a few minutes you are entering the temple gardens where the bannerman is. Well, bannerman might be took kind of a word to describe him. The AI identified the man as Matei Dragan, a nobody. Matei was currently standing in front of you, completely naked and covered in bruises and cuts, pale from either bloodloss or fear and shivering, from cold, pain or confusion.
Yet it wasn’t him who bothered you, it was her. She stood some almost four meters tall, her arms pushing down on Matei’s shoulders, her body covered with overlapping bone plates, the long, elegant fingers of her arms ending in claws, claws that were now digging into Matei’s chest. She gave you the same mixed feelings of both utter horror and awe at the sight of both a predator that all life had learnt to fear and the epitome of beauty. The slightly too slanted eyeslit enclosing bone white and featureless eyeballs, the sharp teeth, the beautiful geometry of the feminine body with the power to so casually destroy and kill.
And of all the people in the temple, only you could see her.
“Thank you for the rid-.” Matei starts, only for her to shut him up by shifting one of her hands to his head and squeezing down on it, the tip of her finger entering his eyeball and penetrating it.
“Be silent honey. He can see me.” She says as she turns to you. “And you can hear me.”
Even if you intended to lie, your reactions would betray you.
You compose yourself the best you can and deliver a respectful nod.
A disarming smile spreads across her face and you can’t help but reply in kind.
“Now, I sense a fellow number close by. What do you know of it?” She asks. “And can I see it?”
“A number?” You ask, confused by the terminology.
“Yes, a number, a powerful creature, like me.” She replies.
She’s talking about the black lady. You spend a few moments thinking about it.
>Be honest and tell her about the state of the black lady and lead her to the. If this thing wanted you dead, you’d be dead.
>Tell her about the black lady but refuse to take her to the black lady. You can’t risk anything happening to her.
>Lie, tell her that the black lady isn’t taking visitors. You aren’t sure you can bluff a number, but you might aswell try.
>Refuse to speak. Expect the worst.

>>5864083

>”You have come here to the domain of my master and you seek answers without introduction? Name yourself and your goals and I will consider your request.”

Don’t let this bone woman push us around, she’s on our turf

>>5864083
>>Lie, tell her that the black lady isn’t taking visitors. You aren’t sure you can bluff a number, but you might aswell try.

>>5864083
>Tell her about the black lady but refuse to take her to the black lady. You can’t risk anything happening to her.

>>5864083
>Matei Dragan
Man, that's a really fucked up fate for him.

>Refuse to speak. Expect the worst

>>5864083
>prostrate yourself and beg for assistance in aiding the recovery of our black lady.

As an existance close to our lady she is owed respect and fear.
We probably could repel her army at great cost but cannot stop her ourselves.
After knowing the situation she probably will take control for better or worse, but i feel even if she were to take out the black lady we would end up with at least a net positive of a living goddess so the cult would get stronger.

>>5864384
Wait is she the origin of the plague?
Fucking hell we need her on our side!
The government and kommunalists are both large players but with her we actually have a chance to compete.
Though it will be up to the black lady to make this partnership more equal,
But we actually have an established chain of command and contacts outside the planet to call on mercenaries and smugglers.

>>5864391
>Wait is she the origin of the plague?
Yep.

>>5864086
>>5864133
>>5864305
>>5864328
>>5864384
Alright, so, to me, this looks like a mixture of "no, I'm not taking you to the black lady" (4 to 1), with the excuse/dialogue/reasoning being undecided. So I’ll just wait for some tie-breaker.

>>58643284
supporting

>>5864083
>Tell her about the black lady but refuse to take her to the black lady. You can’t risk anything happening to her.

>>5865468
“It is the black lady.” You say looking at the things face. “She is held in the temple complex on a surgery table. I’ve been tending to her wounds for years.”
“Oh, have you?” She says, her lips parting in a smile to reveal her sharp teeth yet again. “Tell me more about her.”
You try to swallow, but you feel yourself being drawn into the hypnotizing gaze. You dig the nail on your thumb into the side of your index finger hard enough to draw blood in the hope that the prick of pain will shake you out of her allure. “She has been in the care of the cult for a hundred and forty years. We were exiled from our homeworld some fifty years ago.”
“And how did she end up in the care of the cult?” The she-demon asks, now leaning closer to you.
“The previous arch-priest took that knowledge to the grave with himself.” You say defiantly.
The two of you exchange a hostile look for a few moments, but you feel yourself loosing your composure. She breaks the tension.
“Tell me how does she look like?”
You think about it for a few moments.
“A perfect human woman. Unmodified, skin is pitch black, nothing blemishes it and it absorbs all light, all color. The only thing not abyssally black is her bright eyes.”
“Take me to her.” The she-demon orders.
“I’m afraid I cannot do that.” You reply.
“You will.” She says with conviction that shakes yours.
“She is not in condition to take guests.” You reply, doing your best to keep your voice calm.
“I cannot risk one of my type dying or even bleeding. And I cannot trust a human to do the job properly.” She says, then straightens out to her full four meters of height. “So take me to her.”
>Refuse to take her to the black lady
>Refuse and call guards on her
>Take her to the black lady
>Write in

>>5865995
>Refuse to take her to the black lady

>>5865995

>Refuse to take her to the black lady

I mean, can’t we just confer with the black lady and see what she wants?

>>5866012
As far as you know, she hasn't been capable of speech since the cult got her. Or at least you've never heard her speak. Or saw her move beyond breathing.

>>5865995
>Take her to the black lady

>>5866036

Thanks for clarifying, I still think we should decline the bone woman’s demand, though.

>>5865995
>Take her to the black lady

I would rather not antagonize this entity that's on par with our own goddess.
And at least at face value she seems genuine, if she wanted to she could have done as she wished. that she even entertained us at all is more than i expected.

>>5865995
>Take her to the black lady

>>5865995
>Take her to the black lady

test

>>5866652
>>5866356
>>5866218
>>5866164
>>5866122
>>5866012
>>5866010
Bending to her requests, you deliver a short bow and turn around. Your walk takes you out of the expertly maintained and enviromentally sealed gardens, through the servant chambers where your slaves and employees live, past the barracks where the mercenaries, still drunk or drinking are having fun with a few prisoners they dragged into here, then finally into the priest quarters. You and the now significanlty shorter she-demon enter the elevator alongside a pair of male servants. During the ride, you observe the she demon dragging her claws lazily around their necks. To your surprise, everyone remains alive as the thing contends itself with knocking the food tray out of the servants arms. You ignore the panicked glances of the two servants and lead the thing through the stone council chambers and past the pair of ever vigilant guards, holding the curtain door open for the she-thing to enter.
“Oh my.” The she thing says as it enters, stepping towards the table. As she finally reaches it, she seats herself on it and crosses her legs. After a few moments of observing the chambers, she twists her back enough to observe the slowly breathing black lady.
You anxiously stand as the she thing observes the black lady and keep your tense pose as time passes. About half an hour of anxious waiting later, the she thing turns back to you and spends a few minutes observing you.
“This is fine.” She says. “You are doing well.” And with that she gets up and starts walking away.
>Let her leave.
>Say something to her before she leaves (write-in)

>>5866753

>Say something to her before she leaves (write-in)

How can we awaken her?

>>5866753
>Say something to her before she leaves (write-in)
When will she awaken?

>>5866765
>>5866769
Supporting

>>5866753
>Say something to her before she leaves (write-in)
What happened to her?

>>5866753
>Say something to her before she leaves (write-in)
Show me how your kind bleed.
Then stab her with a hidden blade. Or call her a bitch.

>>5866753
>Let her leave.

File: Map moment2.png (62 KB, 1000x1000)

62 KB PNG

>>5866765
>>5866769
>>5866784
>>5867077
>>5867162
>>5867800

“When will she wake up?” You say as you hastily walk after her.
“When she heals her wounds.” The she-thing says as she continues her stride past the curtain doors.
“Am I healing her?” You ask as you rush past the two unmoving guards flanking the curtain doors, your robes snatching on the steel bayonet attached to the rifle barrel.
You hear a “Yes.” From outside, glimpse to the side and see her form elegantly, like a olympic diver, falling out the window. By the time you run to the window, she is already gone.
You slump into one of the chairs to rest. Eventually, you call a pair of servants to drag you back to your room. You wake up the next morning and are immediately briefed by the AI.
“The army of thirty thousand has retreated and dispersed.”
By the midday, after you have properly shaken yourself awake, you start observing the inteligence reports.
“In the south, the Kommunalists, following failed negotiations, led by Sandro Saks are engaging in a large pitched battle in the swamps against the followers of the ‘maiden’. The engaged forces counted six divisions on the Kommunalist side and four on the ‘maiden’ side. Currently, the battle is a stalemate.”
“In the north-east, the Kommunalists are mounting desparate attacks on Hunhe as 3 divisions worth of men are attempting to take the northen of the twin cities to secure a connection to the Tein Kommunalist cell, which itself is under attack by a police brigade.”
“Further west, a police regiment has been driven out of Ucht and it’s remnants are desparately fighting for Nass. If they fail to protect Nass, the holy city of Yunqi will be the next on the chopping block.”
“Lei has started hiring offworld mercenaries to supplement his own guard and has sent some of his personal bodyguard to roam the streets of Yunqi, snatching girls and boys for an upcoming party. He has granted the authority over these mercenaries to a certain Ryan Doyle, a capitalist and industrialist, also his favourite drinking partner.”
Taking in the inteligence reports and forwarding a good chunk of them to your advisors, you give them some time before calling another council meeting. In the evening, you meet with the now expanded council, having decided to invite the mercenary leader who led the assault into the factory district and who ended up leading the decisive assault on the housing area.
You start the meeting with a prayer thanking the black lady for the victory and good fortunes, the council members repeating it after you and the mercenary captain intently observing your eyeless face.
“You summoned me?” The thick necked man named Nino asks with his clear and domineering voice.
“We will make use of your military expertease.” Jivan replies before turning to you. “Do you wish for a rundown?”
You nod.

>>5867819

“The city is in ruins, we lack adequate housing for the slaves, the industry is damaged and inoperational, but since we are cut off from the factories that would provide us the raw resources for our factories, we need not worry about it. Further, the harbor is completely demolished and the police has wrecked the river port when leaving.” Jivan says, pauses, then continues.
“For the good things, we luckily have power as we have some dams upstream. And we also have drinkable water and enough territory and hydroponics under our control to feed our population.”
As Jivan finishes, all eyes turn to you before Nino interrupts the silence. “Your military capabilities are inadequate. The two hundred mercenaries might have been enough to carry out a pair of surprise attacks against unprepared cops and half armed workers, but they won’t be enough for anything more. And as for your disciples, they are no better than the revolutionaries. Eager, yes, capable, no.”
A silence follows before Rani speaks up. “The slaves aren’t happy and there has been an epidemic of suicides. Most slaves live in extremely cramped conditions. On the upside, the homicide rate has greatly dropped and less people are dying now compared to before, but that is mostly because of the persuasion methods we’ve been employing. We’ve been drugging the water supply.”
You think for a few moments about what you should do.

>Write-in
>Train up more disciples as soldiers
>Construct small spaceport
>Take more wilderness, increase farms and get more territory as a buffer
>Work on fixing the conditions in the city

>>5867820
>Train up more disciples as soldiers

>>5867820
>Train up more disciples as soldiers
>subtly recruit some disciples from the slaves

The time is right to build up our forces while all other powers are busy.
We can then fix up the city a little once we're secure and then think of expanding.

>>5867820

>Take more wilderness, increase farms and get more territory as a buffer
>offer slaves a chance at freedom if they become disciples

>>5867820
>Work on fixing the conditions in the city

>>5867950
>>5867947
>>5867847
>>5868479
>>5867950
>>5867947
>>5867847
“Then train up our disciples captain.” You tell Nino.
The man maintains eye contact with you for a few seconds and only then nods. “Will I be provided adequate supplies?”
“The stocks are at your disposal.” You reply.
Nino nods, then speaks up again. “Is that all?”
“Yes.” You reply, then watch as the mercenary pushes himself up and heads out of the chamber. As he exits, you turn to the rest of your councilors. “Let out some feelers, try to get some of the slaves that were sympathetic to us in our ranks.”
“Yes sir.” Rani says.
The rest of the day and most of the following are spent dealing with the dual issues of figuring out how to run a city and how to help Nino prepare his men and the disciples for the drilling and training.
And in the worrying news of the Fuist police and the wide assortment of mercenary companies advancing southwards and eastwards, overrunning the cities of Ucht and Tein and beating back the Kommunalists attacking Hunhe as well as starting probing attacks on Basah.
Regarding the news, you also receive reports of a massive orgy carried in Yunqi by Lei, supposedly having eight hundred sterilized women and a hundred sterilized (or castrated) men in it. The video you see regarding the opening of the orgy involves a thousand Kommunalists are ritually hung by the Tuai priests, each Kommunalist on his own raft, with the noose holding the ritually cut body dangling just over the water, before the rafts are released down the river. You don’t particularly care about the remainder of the video and turn it off before continuing to observe the drills of your own disciples.
You watch a zoomed out birds eye view of a company of men darting from cover to cover, their bodies, heavily drugged and exhausted from continuous exercise, sluggishly darting between trench lines, raising the heavy rifles, shooting heavy bullets at pre-designated targets and diving from dummy grenades. After a few minutes of the surprisingly mesmerizing and well choreographed movement, you switch to a different camera, this time, one built into the eye of a certain disciple, from where you observe a duo of them being briefed by a mercenary. You observe the other disciple, a muscular and surgically enhanced man, with obvious inbuilt synthetic muscles, a external skeleton extruding from his back and a second set of organic arms built just under the first set.

>>5868487

The AI voice jerks you out of your observation of your disciple. “Jivan is asking for an audience.”
“Send him in.” You say.
A few moments later, Jivan, clothed in formal dress enters.
“What is it?” You ask.
“Sir, I would like to establish an intelligence agency.” He says.
“What for?” You bite, expecting solid reasoning from one of your most intelligent subordinates.
“Stuff is happening behind the scenes master. You know this as well as I do. And Lanu is being flooded with mercenaries, sects, cults and what else. If we do not find a way to deal with this, we will be swept aside.” He says.
>Go for it. You have my support.
>Do not let him, he is already influential and powerful, this might be too much power.
>Write-in

>>5868488
>Go for it. You have my support.

>>5868488

>Go for it. You have my support.

Some wild stuff going on

>>5868488
>Do not let him, he is already influential and powerful, this might be too much power.

>>5868488
>Go for it. You have my support.

>>5868488
>>Do not let him, he is already influential and powerful, this might be too much power.

>>5868500
>>5868546
>>5868674
>>5868791
>>5869315

“You have my blessings.”
Jivan bows. “Thank you master. You won’t be disappointed master.”
The next two days go on relatively uninterrupted until you are woken up at 3 in the morning by a servant girl gently shaking you.
“… in Yunqi.” Are the only words you are able to make out. You shove her aside as you collect yourself.
“Say again.” You order her as you push yourself up on your elbows.
“There’s a shootout at the imperial palace in Yunqi.” She says.
“Shoot me up.” You tell her. She nods and pushes a needle into your vein. A few seconds later, you push yourself up from your bed and start your path towards the councli chambers.
For the remainder of the night, you and your fellow councilors, all roused from sleep, are carefully observing as a pair of servants map out the locations of conflict and as you piece together a story and a timeline.
By five in the morning, you have a somewhat full picture. The police, following the end of the orgy, attempted to storm the Yunqi palace, but were held long enough for the mercenaries to extract Lei. The initial ideas about a single group attempting a mercenary coup or a lone group of mercenaries attempting to force Lei into compliance or paying of a ransom were dashed when the police started gunning down mercenaries around Hunhe, Hei, Tein, Yunqi, Nass, Ucht and Basah while the mercenaries replied in kind elsewhere.
By around 7 in the morning, a more complete image formed as an almost clear cut fight between mercs and policemen crystalized, with Ryan Doyle appearing with Lei Fu and organizing a haphazard mercenary defense and Guo Xia announcing that the police is defending the legitimate heir of the Fu family and not allowing infanticide.
>Order Rani to attempt to find out more about the situation through personal connections.
>Order Jivan to put his barely formed intelligence agency to use.
>Order Nino to use mercenaries and infiltration to get a better image of the situation.
>Write-in

>>5869324

>Order Rani to attempt to find out more about the situation through personal connections.

This seems like the least bad option. This planet is a complete clusterfuck

>>5869324
>Order Jivan to put his barely formed intelligence agency to use.

>>5869324
>>Order Rani to attempt to find out more about the situation through personal connections.

>>5869324
>Order Rani to attempt to find out more about the situation through personal connections.

>>5869324
>>Order Rani to attempt to find out more about the situation through personal connections.

All it takes is for you to tilt your head towards Rani. She nods. “I’ll get to it master.”
With that, the council disassembles and people head of to sleep as a new crew of desciples and mercenaries comes and starts charting the events.
By the time of the next evening and the next council meeting, Rani brings forth an report.
“From what I’ve gathered…” She begins as the robot armed servant girl changes the holograph to a video of an very attractive and naked blonde girl being pushed through a corridor. “Either Guo fixed it so, or it happened due to an accident, it is unclear, but a unsterilized girl somehow entered into the orgy. It looks like she was a twin sister of a woman who was sterilized and that she got pushed into the orgy by either a mistake of a police officer or by deliberate action. We also cannot rule out a possibility of deliberate cloning with this in mind.” Rani then proceeds to list off a bunch of pointless information regarding the girl, her health, her socio-economic status, etc.
After a few minutes, she turns the page, the servant changes the holograph to a 3d map and lets an animation play. “The following day, upon finding out about the girls pregnancy, Lei ordered her killed. The policemen refused, then launched an attack upon the palace. Luckily for Lei, his bodyguard harem was there to protect him.” As she mentions that, a video of a very brief firefight that leaves two dozen policemen and half a dozen of Lei’s bodyguard harem dead plays. “Lei escaped through hidden passages and his location is unknown.” Rani makes an pause. “To the broader public that is. I suspect Jihua.”
You nod and let the discussion happen. “What happened on the fronts?” Hagos asks.
“Depends on who you’re rooting for.” Rani says. “Hunhe has fallen and a certain Ahvo has taken command of a major Kommunalist force in the vicinity of Hunhe. And Basah has been defended.”
“And what between the mercs and the police?”
Rani runs a hand through her hair. “The mercs have control of all the coastal settlements, Deal and Buna. Doyle fishing company is loyal to Doyle. As are the mercs.”
You nod. “Good job.”
Rani does a slight ballerina bow.
“So the question is, what do we do ourselves?” Jivan asks before Rani finishes her bow.
Nino speaks up, his voice abruptly tearing through the room. “The desciples are combat capable. Not truly ready, but accelerated training, adequate equipment, memory implants, body modification and a lot of coordination exercises in a short timespan have made them into troops that can do adequate defensive work.” He says, reads the room and then adds. “Mercenaries are still better and cops will still mop the floor with either.”
>Sit tight, work on the city and keep training your troops and recruiting here and there from the slaves
>Strike towards the Mei river, you might be able to route the she-demons armies and take a city here and there from her
>Strike Ucht over the swamps, it will be unexpected and the cops are weakened
>Write-in

>>5870075
>Strike towards the Mei river, you might be able to route the she-demons armies and take a city here and there from her

>>5870075
>Strike Ucht over the swamps, it will be unexpected and the cops are weakened

>>5870075

>Sit tight, work on the city and keep training your troops and recruiting here and there from the slaves

I honestly think hunkering down while everyone else tears each other to pieces is a good strategy.

With any luck the black lady will awaken soon and help us out?

>>5870075
>Sit tight, work on the city and keep training your troops and recruiting here and there from the slaves
>Work towards building a spaceport

Striking the other goddess's army seems like suicide to me. So does expending our limited strength wading into the brawl between the police and the other mercenaries in Ucht. We need access to space again now that it is known we aren't loyal to anyone but ourselves, likewise repairing the factories is a high priority for when we get access to ores again.

>>5870075
>Sit tight, work on the city and keep training your troops and recruiting here and there from the slaves

>>5870075
>Sit tight, work on the city and keep training your troops and recruiting here and there from the slaves

Though we could also try and send some diplomatic overtures towards the plague cultists to establish some sort of exchange network to strenghten both.

Sorry guys, no update today. Shit went south and I drank to cope.

“We do nothing.” You say. “The disciples keep training, we keep a watch on the surroundings and we work on the city. Clean up the streets, fix the housing and move some of the slaves around, restart production of what we can and start doing what else we can with the remainder of the slaves.”
“I’ll give you a list of proposals.” Hagos says.
“No need, I trust your judgement.” You reply flatly, more interested in avoiding such a pointless and dry job than actually caring for his opinion.
After a few more minor questions regarding coordination and nomenclature, the longer discussion regarding the chain of command and who should be the main fighting force, the reports of the adequate progress of the disciple trainees and the state of the equipment, the council slowly disassembles itself, with you staying until the end to answer to some questions aimed exclusively at you.
After the meeting had finished, you decided to take a walk to one of the temple towers, wanting to enjoy the fresh breeze that only a high elevation can provide to you. Walking through the empty corridors, you call the elevator, enter it and endure the slight downwards tug as it accelerates upwards. Stepping outside, you enjoy the slight warmth of the sunlight on your skin. You walk up to the railing and grip it softly with your hands, leaning forwards.
Then you hear a sound. Immediately suspecting the railing, you throw yourself back, but realize the sound wasn’t the railing snapping, but someone behind you. You slowly reach for a concealed pistol in your robes.
“Wait, please.” Says a soft female voice behind you.
You grip the handle of the pistol “Who are you?”
An uncomfortably long pause ensues as you gently tap a microphone on your wrist, turning it on.
“I don’t know who I am.” The female says.
“What are you doing out here?” You ask, somewhat accusatorily.
“I fled from my parents.” She admits, somewhat ashamed of herself.
“Who are they?” You ask, now getting slightly angry.
“Matei and the big feminine number. You know, she visited you. And you remained alive. As did your number.” She says, then adds “Well, not your number, the number you’re tending to.”
You hear a voice inside of your head, an implant, speak. “We’re at the bottom of the elevator, do we go up sir?”
>No, I will handle this myself.
>Yes, kill this thing.
>Yes, arrest this thing.
>Write-in

>>5872006
>No, I will handle this myself

>>5872006
>No, I will handle this myself.

If she wanted to kill us, she presumably could've. She's the daughter of a 'number' after all. Lets talk this out.

>>5872006
>No, I will handle this myself.

>>5872064

Supporting, but I have no idea what she is talking about

>>5872111
She claims to be the child of the emissary we received and the big floaty bone-demon thing that we just interacted with.

>>5872006
>No, I will handle this myself.

“No need.” You think and turn around to face the thing behind you. Somehow, you are both surprised and not at the same time. The thing behind you has both the attractive and the distinctly dangerous looks of her mother, but is significantly more human. Or at least she feels so to you. The proportions of her body are way more human, but somehow androgynous in proportion. What truly separates her from her bone clad mother is the tufts of soft white fur or hair, you can’t really decide, and a pair of large white wings that you would describe as both bat and insect adjacent at the same time.
“Thank you.” She says as she jumps down from the roof and lands next to you, this time, completely soundlessly.
Keeping your distance, you gently lean against the wall, still facing the younger she-thing. “Why are you here?”
She waits for a few moments, then speaks. “My mother wanted to entomb me. I didn’t want to get entombed. So I fled, thought about my options and chose to come here.”
You look at the large round black eyes expectantly.
“I could have fled to the wilderness, but I didn’t want to be alone.” She begins. “The kommunalists don’t tolerate the numbers since it is against their own belief and intent to create their own number. So entombment if I’m lucky. Murder if I’m not, and the worm wars as a consequence. The Xia would hand me to the imperial cult, who would entomb me. The Doylists would probably entomb me aswell.” She pauses. “And I know mother came here and visited you. So I presume you know enough about numbers.”
You think for a few moments, but chose information is slightly more important than appearing more informed than you are. “Refresh me on the numbers.”
She sucks on her lower lip for a moment, then speaks. “Very powerful beings, capable with breeding with just about anything. Capable of manipulating time, space and matter beyond human understanding. And if they die or bleed, worms, flies, maggots and what else will grow fat and powerful beyond reason and will consume all they can.”
You nod, having understood enough of her statements. “Do you have a name?” You ask her.
“I’m less than a week old and my mother wasn’t very loving.” She replies somewhat bitterly. “If you want to name me, feel free to.”
>Write-in name suggestions
“So, what do you want?” You ask her.
“A refuge, a place to stay. To hide from my mother.” She says.
>Sure, you’re free to stay here
>No, you’re not welcome
>No, it’s not safe here, your mother could probably sense you
>Write-in

>>5872620
>>No, it’s not safe here, your mother could probably sense you

>>5872620
>Name: Lanu, after the the planet, lush and beautiful and full of potential but laid to waste away by petty despots. She can choose to adopt Dragan's last name or ours if she so chooses, or to go with only a first name.

>You can stay here, but you need to help us. This is as risky for us as it is for you.

If she could've sensed her then I imagine she would've by now and came back army in tow.

As things stand, the creature's armies are in known positions and are fixed in battle with both the kommume and police. In fact, she is likely losing, she is outnumbered in the south by the kommunalists by two whole divisions, and she just lost Ucht to the police and mercenaries. Those retreating armies from the north will likely need to reinforce the south because she is outnumbered. We are the only actor with freedom of movement, we need not fear her at the moment.

>>5872688

Supporting, having a spare goddess to help us (or as something to ransom) seems wise.

Or maybe there’s a way we can sacrifice her to awaken the black lady?

>>5872688
+1

>>5872688
Supporting

>>5872620
>>5872688
I'll support this, she needs to stay hidden and provide what help she can.
I'm not sure i want her near the black lady until she awakens, there's too much we don't know.

>>5872746
>Sacrifice
Interesting thought, it'll be a fight to subdue a number though and we don't even know if the rituals do actually work in that sense...
I guess we have somebody to ask that now, we can secretly sacrifice some to mothgirl and see how she feels about it.

“You’re welcome here, but we’ll need your help.” You reply.
“Thank you.” She says, slightly bowing her head.
“As for the name, I think Lanu would suit you.” You continue.
“Lanu?” She asks, somewhat caught off-guard.
“Beautiful and full of potential, but almost destroyed by fools.” You reply.
She changes her posture a bit. There is something so human about the slight tilt of the head that tells you she is happy.
Over the next few days, Lanu proves extremely intelligent, capable of grasping complex ideas and concepts with ease, becoming surprisingly competent in everything from military theory to surgery, architecture, engineering, urban planning, agriculture and organization with envy inducing speed.
By the time the next council meeting has come, summoned by Jivan, Lanu has had a full half a week to learn and study. She had obviously been using her time well.
“Jivan.” You give the word to him.
“Thank you sir.” Jivan bows, then starts. “In the south, the Kommunalists have broken through at Lembak. It is a question whether Glach will be able to put up any significant resistance before being overrun. I have employed some of our more technically savvy individuals to get a more detailed assessment of the defenses and it’s not looking bright for” he says, looks at Lanu and speaks “your mother.”
He coughs to clear his throat and continues “A presumed twenty five thousand casualties on the cultist side and ten thousand for the Kommunalists. A mortality rate for the casualties is fifty and twenty percent respectively. The Kommunalists have, despite their shoddy start, organized into an adequate, if not exceptional force, while Glach has not prepared proper fortifications. It’s currently limited to sandbags and IED’s implanted into trash piles on roads.”
He walks over through the holographic map and stands between Ucht and Telan. “In here” He says, pointing over at Basah “The cult has had more luck, routing the few policemen still fighting. I presume they have captured some equipment at least.” He then points at Ucht. “This here, is where I have a proposal to make.”
You nod at him to continue, he nods, then runs his finger around his collar, loosening his shirt a bit. “Ucht has almost no garrison. I have managed to get into contact with some groups. Radical groups, and I believe that we could provide them with some weapons and that they’d be able to capture Ucht and be a general nuisance. They would both prevent reinforcements and retreat of the policemen, and prove a sufficient blocker to the cult.”

>>5873447
“Or we could take Ucht ourselves.” Hagos says. “If its so weakly defended that is.”
“How weak?” Nino interrupts.
“Maybe two platoons.” Jivan says.
Nino nods affirmatively at you.
“We could take it and try to paint it as a sympathetic move to just about every group.” Rani says. “The Kommunalists would like it, since we are striking at their enemy from the rear, the Doylists would be happy because of the same reason, Lanu’s mom would be getting saved in the north by us…” Rani says, trailing off “But then we’d need to defend it.”
“Kommunalists won’t ever like us.” Jivan says. “Remember when we executed twenty thousand of them?”
Rani nods.
“We’ll think about it some more, what’s the situation at the north eastern front?” Hagos asks.
“The Kommunalists are pushing into Hei.” Jivan says plainly. “Ahvo is doing a surprisingly good job and the police is unable to focus on just one direction. By now, he has the Berg, Meins and Fels motorized rifle divisions, a foreign volunteer division, a Hunhe miners division, a Hunhe liberated slave division and a Hunhe android and robot division. Meanwhile, the cops have two brigades. That is some seventy thousand men going against ten thousand.”
You nod and turn to Lanu.
“I like the idea of informal agreements with multiple groups. Try to agree to an anti Kommunalist pact with my mother and try and take Ucht before agreeing to a ceasefire with the cops.” She says.
Nino speaks up. “We have some four hundred mercenaries still with us and four thousand combat capable disciples.”
“Yeah, we hopefully wouldn’t be using them.” Lanu says.
“Hopefully.” Jivan emphasizes that word. “If you let me send adequate weaponry, we can have someone else doing the fighting.”
“Who even is this group?” Hagos asks.
“Dardi, a ethno-religious political group. They have a lot of ex mercs and soldiers amongst their ranks. At least a few thousand in number.”
>Lanu’s proposal: Capture Ucht ourselves and make an informal agreement of nonaggression with both her mother and Guo
>Jivan’s proposal: Supply weapons to a radical group and let them disrupt everyone around them

File: Map point 4.jpg (363 KB, 1000x1000)

363 KB JPG

Oh and a map and a reminder that you can always
>Write-in

>>5873448
>Lanu’s proposal: Capture Ucht ourselves and make an informal agreement of nonaggression with both her mother and Guo

>>5873448
>Lanu’s proposal: Capture Ucht ourselves and make an informal agreement of nonaggression with both her mother and Guo

We already had neutral-ish relations with Lanu's mom and she's on the back foot and could really use our assistance given that she is outnumbered from the south and is at a qualitative disadvantage in the north against the police. She isn't in a position to dictate terms to us either, given her military situation and the fact that we now know not to let her get close enough to coerce us, thus denying her whatever immense advantage in personal power she possesses

Furthermore, I think we need to ally against the kommune given their strong popular support and the fact that Lanu revealed that they 'don't tolerate numbers' and intend to create their own number. Peace was never an option against them, for now that means supporting anyone that is in active conflict with them.

It is risky going against the police, but with us joining the fray they will have four simultaneous fronts open, and they really need to focus on not losing Hei. Plus, once we actually take the town our conscripts will be perfectly suitable for defensive warfare.

We also can't sit out the war forever given anon's earlier choices to abandon secrecy and attack both the police and the kommune (not that you guys had much of a choice given the deteriorating situation and the illegality of weapons) and other minor factions like the mob, though thankfully not Lanu's mom and Jihua's Doylists. Eventually we need to take territory, people, factories, resources, etc.

>>5873448
I have a proposal
>suggest we attack and take utch strangling the cop's army supplies to their frontline then sandwitch the remnants between us and the zombie horde, then we are left defending utch from reprisal and the plaguemilf can swing her suddenly free northern army from Paya to take Lembak thus squishing in a pincer the south kommunalist's army and then have carte blanche to devour the south with her full might.

(Leaving her vulnerable to a decapitating strike if the black lady were to decree it so.)

>>5873981
This is a good idea, but we can not do much more than offer the suggestion when we give the overtures of nonaggression, the decision ultimately lies with the mommy number. From her perspective we may not be trustworthy enough to leave her flank open to, or she may insist that part of our army come along to the southern manoeuvre as collateral or assistance to cement our pact. It may be better to just go with Lanu's proposal and hope her mother acts in a similar way to what you suggest, allowing us to take advantage, rather than give her ideas/open suspicions.

“How long do you need to prepare an offensive against Ucht?” You ask Nino.
“Two days should be enough.” He replies. “Half a day for planning, a day for amassing and positioning and half a day for the finer details.”
You nod. Half a day later, the council reassembles and Nino brings his proposal before you.
“Me and the officers prepared this.” He says as small numbers appear above the three dimensional terrain holograph. “The mercenaries go on swamp skimmers straight accross the swamp while the desciples skim the swamp and go on dryer and higher ground on trucks, imv’s, apc’s, ifv’s, arv’s and basically every wheeled and tracked vehicle we have. A segment of the mercenaries that are more specialized in long range support and command and control will head with the desciples. The mercenaries will take a number of domineering and easily defencible buildings on the riverside and hunker down, drawing the fire in. The militia will rapidly advance into the city from the rear, hopefully very quickly convincing the police to retreat. And as they do, we will fire upon them in their barges and boats.”
He pauses, see’s that people are expecting more information from him and then continues speaking. “All of the mercenaries will be commited and the first and second regiments will be commited aswell. The third and fourth will remain in Telan as security. We expect a moderate casualty rate. No more than five hundred.” A few inconsequential questions and answers later, the council is dismissed and Nino is left to his efforts.
When the day of the assault arrives, you are informed by a slave servant who helps you dress yourself, then you head to the council chambers to rejoin your drugged up councilors in the observations of the assault, from your point of view, a mixture of dots, glitchy projections of live videos onto threedimensional satelite footage and half comperhensible shouts from either drug, alcohol or zealoutry born enthusiasm.
The first casualties, as predicted by everyone, come when a leading swampskimmer gets lit up by an automated turret, resulting in a pair of cameras getting drenched in blood, followed by agonized screams and shouts. Within thirty seconds, the mercenaries have disembarked from their skimmers and are advancing on foot and within twenty minutes, have stormed and occupied a large riverside building, a hospital. Within the following half hour, they will storm and capture 7 more buildings and will engage in prolonged firefights, pinned down by the increasing enemy attacks.

>>5874183
Some fourty minutes after that, almost half an hour behind scheduale, the desciple militia will begin their sloppy assault on the city, delayed by a minefield and unexpected turret defences planted on the city outskirts. Despite their hopes and enthusiasm, the attack will quickly bog down in the hastily prepared defences on the eastern side of the city, but will regain its momentum after a lone desciple sneaks beneath the police line through the sewers and blows himself up, wiping out a command center. Following the unexpected failiure, the police will quickly abandon their positions and head towards the docks in a attempt to evacuate themselves out of Ucht.
At this point, the mercenaries will finally properly open up on the retreating police, deploying their drones they’ve kept in reserve since the start of the battle. The casualty lists will count some 70 mercenaries, 50 of whom will be dead and some 300 desciples, out of which 220 will be dead.
“It went well.” Jivan says. “So, a number of things for us to discuss. First, what do we do with the civilians? Do we enslave them?”
“I think it might be worth it to keep them not enslaved, to send a message.” Rani interjects. “To send a message. Oppose us and you’ll be enslaved, stay support us and you’ll stay free.”
Jivan thinks a bit and nods, then turns to you. But then Lanu speaks up. “I could try something. Similar to what my mother did. If you want.”
Her voice does not instil confidence in you.
>Enslave them, like we did in Telan
>Let them continue living as normal
>Let Lanu have a try at governance

>>5874184

>Let them continue living as normal

But hit them with YUGE propaganda about the mercy of the black lady (that she interceded to stop us from mass sacrifice) and try to get as many as possible to join our cult

>>5874184
>>Let Lanu have a try at governance

>>5874184
>Enslave them, like we did in Telan

Merry Christmas!

>>5874184
>Let them continue living as normal
But be ready to enslave dissidents and disappear them to our capital.

And as for Lanu we can put aside a sample sized group of guinea pigs for her to experiment.
This is valuable info to have

>>5874184
>Let them continue living as normal
>Tell Lanu that she can give it a try at Nass, our next target.

Give her time to develop whatever she plans to do. Give her disciples to test on if need be, but don't just give her the whole settlement to do whatever the fuck with before we even know what she can or will do.

Anyways, now is the time to continue pushing, imo. We've cut off the police field army from Ucht, and these villages seem to be lightly defended, and we have troops in reserve. Keep up the momentum, while garrisoning Ucht heavily, with reinforcements from Telan if need be.

Also, Merry Christmas!

>>5874195
>>5874215
>>5874217
>>5874235
>>5874391
Thanks bro's, you too.

“No need to enslave them.” You conclude.
“Now, another thing to decide for you.” Jivan says. “Whom do we appoint to manage the city?”
“Who did it before?” You ask.
“Before the unrest, it was handled by a Fu appointed official, however, he has fled during the Kommunalist uprisings and is currently in Yunqi. More recently, after the coup attempt specifically, it came down to a police commander. He too has fled the city.”
“Any candidates?” You ask.
“A few.” Jivan replies. “We could appoint a priest from our sect.”
“Or we could let them elect one of their own.” Rani says. “Have a vote.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, they’re animals. They’ll just pick whoever is most popular. If we are to let one of them govern, we should pick someone who can.”
“And there’s the Dardi? What about one of them?” Hagos asks.
“You could let one of them do something, but that would probably be closer to a military colony than a city.” Jivan says.
A subvocalized message from Jivan echoes in your mind “Or we could appoint Nino.”
You wait for a few moments. “I’ll decide on it in a bit. Now, what do we do next? Any hopes for an assault on Nass?”
Nino rubs his chin for a few moments. “It would be risky.” He says. “We need to keep substantial garrisons in both Telan and Ucht, not to mention that we tired out and used our best troops in the Ucht assault.”
“It is possible?” Jivan asks.
“I cannot guarantee success.” Nino replies. “We have already used up our element of surprise and since Yunqi is close enough, I cannot imagine Guo would simply give the city up without a fight.”
Choose who to appoint to rule Ucht:
>A priest of our own sect
>Let the free men of Ucht vote for it
>A prominent local
>A Dardi leader
>Nino
>Write in
Choose what to do with the overall situation:
>Organize an attack at Nass
>Work on infrastructure
>Focus on expanding the armed forces
>Write-in

>>5874517
>A prominent local

Either this or one of our own priests. It is a toss up between attentiveness to local issues and control. Either way, I don't want some populist or demagogue in control, at least with the locals we get to pick and choose who to appoint from a patch of promising candidates. They should know the fate that awaits them if they get too uppity.

Nino has duties to attend here, distracting him from his management of the mercenaries and advisement duties to us will only hamper us.

>Organize an attack at Nass

Risky, but if Nass is garrisoned similarly to Ucht and if we follow up quickly then it shouldn't be an issue. The problem would be a counter attack, but the same applies to just Ucht, at least if we take Nass we have more ground to give and more forewarning.

Again, the nearby police field army is fixed in combat with the Lanu's mother's army in Basah and cut off from supplies, their best options are probably either to retreat entirely or try and finish off their opponents. They could try and take back Ucht, but they'd be running into a force on the defence. Telan is probably too much of a logistical lunge for them, and even if we attack Nass I imagine we'd be leaving at least one regiment of troops in our capital for defence.

The other police field army is tied down trying to retain Hei, a major city that is pretty important to hold if they want to to prevent the kommunalists from becoming a massive horde practically on their capital's doorstep. They are also massively outnumbered there.

Sure, we'll also be within lunging range of Yunqi, and I'm sure they have some troops in reserve in the capital that they could threaten us with, but we are weaker and less of a threat to them than the reds. We also intend to make a nonaggression pact with them, they may not know if we intend to honour it, but again, they have bigger fish to fry.

I say go for Nass. Have one of the regiments that struck Ucht dig in there with a few mercs as consultants on fortification, act as a garrison and recover. The rest of the mercs and the other blooded regiment, plus one more from Talen can try and take Nass before we go for the nonaggression pact.

>>5874517
>A priest of our own sect
>Focus on expanding the armed forces

I don't trust anybody not of the cult, nor i want to disrupt the powerbalance in the council

As we are our forces are a joke, a true army could push our shit back to our first base easily and surely the cops have some reserve forces, if they crush us and retake Ucht then the plaguemilf will return under pressure and probably break and we would be next.

>>5874555

Supporting this, I don’t think we’re ready for another city assault. We have access to a new population so we should triple down on recruitment of both cultists and soldiers

>>5874517
>Lanu
>Work on infrastructure

>>5874517
>A priest of our own sect
>Work on infrastructure

>>5874517
>A priest of our own sect
>Focus on expanding the armed forces

File: Map point 5.jpg (652 KB, 1000x1000)

652 KB JPG

>>5874528
>>5874555
>>5874558
>>5874661
>>5875252
>>5875511

“Appoint one of our own for Ucht.” You say. “Mouyu looks like a good candidate. And start building up our forces. Recruit who you can in case we need more men under arms.”
“Yes sir.” Jivan says and Nino nods, glad that he won’t be leading an assault.
As the days pass by, your forces start expanding due to an influx of volunteers, with the notable overrepresentation of the Dardi volunteers into your forces. Nino and Jivan are informed to take note about them, while Rani sends her own infiltrators into the group, having a bunch of female priests aesthetically touched up before they head off to attempt to work their way into the Dardi. You also note how Lanu took interest in body-sculpting amongst the priestesses, surpassing even your own masterful bodysculptors with her mere weeks of experience.
You also note how Lanu manages to bring back a small number of mercenaries who died in an assault on Ucht back to life with her patchwork of surgeries, cybernetics and “number” powers.
Before long, your forces are up significantly, as you organize two more regiments of convert disciples from Telan, two regiments Nino dubiously names as “elite” from the Dardi ranks and two volunteer regiments from Ucht, bringing your number of soldiers up to some 8 regiments of men and a large company of mercenaries.
It is also at this time that Nino informs you that you are running out of weaponry to equip new troops with.
Parallel to this, some interesting developments occur as:
Lanu’s mother redirects her forces southwards and manages to push back Sandro’s forces back to Lembak, with both sides suffering significant losses.
Ahvo manages to capture Hei as forces are redirected from the eastern front to the north, particularily towards Yunqi.
And Doyle launches a set of massive mercenary attacks towards Jiangluo, Umpf and Yunqi, failing only in the conquest of the planetary capital.
And, most interesting of all, the police technicians, in control of the externet, turn off the connection to the broader galaxy, isolating this solar system from the galactic information network.
As the council meets yet again, you are presented with a number of opinions:
>It would be stupid not to strike towards Nass as it’s bound to be barely defended
>One might make use in assaulting Basah as Lanu’s mother seems to have left it near deserted
>We might want to start manufacturing our own second rate weaponry since we are running out of it
>Write in

>>5875531

>It would be stupid not to strike towards Nass as it’s bound to be barely defended

Time to advance.

Can we reach out to Doyle (I think he is blue on the map) and negotiate a ceasefire/alliance?

We can promise to stay out of the capital to sweeten the pot. Later we can team up with the bone woman to bring down his techno capitalist faction

>>5875531
>>It would be stupid not to strike towards Nass as it’s bound to be barely defended

>>5875531
>It would be stupid not to strike towards Nass as it’s bound to be barely defended

Schmuck bait, but I'm a schmuck.

>>5875531
>It would be stupid not to strike towards Nass as it’s bound to be barely defended
>We might want to start manufacturing our own second rate weaponry since we are running out of it

I don't see why we can't do both since one occupies the army and the other the civilian side.


About Nass it may become untenable if it comes under heavy assault so i think it best to loot anything out of it and into Ucht then start preparing traps and defenses to turn Nass into a killbox.

Hopefully the Kommunalists prefer running for Berli- i mean Yunqi instead of bothering with Nass, but if they do they will suffer for it.

>>5875926
The reasoning behind it is that one takes weeks, requires mercenary oversight, resource commitment, results in a increase in the army size and is a general administrative action, while the other takes days and again requires mercenary and resource commitment.

>>5875539
Noted.

>>5875603
>>5875572
Nino, as per your orders, plans and organizes an broad assault on Nass. To your surprise, it goes almost flawlessly and ends up being done ahead of schedule, with the only roadbumps being a few minefields and a few automatic turrets. The ultimate sign of the near nonexistent committeemen of the police towards Nass is seen when a single police truck sets off out of the city as you advance upon it.
Initially dubious about the trap, you send in slaves and droids to examine the city, but no signs of traps or ambushes are present and you eventually move in properly. Upon asking for Nino’s opinions, he simply says “Guo has his reasons.”
The city of Nass, not having been a major industrial centre previously, does not have much of note in itself and its police armory has been stripped bare. A quick survey of the people, industrial machinery and objects does not prove promising as not much of import has been left behind.
Before long you summon a council meeting to discuss the next goal of action regarding the little statelet you carved out.
“Any news?” You begin.
“Doyle’s attacks on Yunqi failed. Heavy casualties amongst the mercenaries.” Jivan replies. “And Tein has fallen. Guo is confined to Yunqi.”
“My mother is attacking Lembak.” Lanu says. “And is working on improving her soldiers.”
“And very interestingly, a small Fu spacefleet is up above in orbit, establishing a blockade of the planet.”
“What are our prospects for further increasing our armed forces?” You ask.
“Lack of guns.” Nino shuts down the discussion before it even begins.
“Can we manufacture them?” Hagos asks.
“Yeah, if we strip the metal out of buildings, cars and fences.” Jivan replies.
“Didn’t Lanu produce it’s own steel?” You hear Rani ask.
“Yeah, up north in Deal. Coal came from Hei.” Jivan replies.
“So use up our infrastructure to make guns.” Hagos concludes.
“And our current numbers are?” You ask again.
“Unchanged, 8 regiments and a company.” Nino replies. “We aren’t capturing Yunqi.”

Pick:
>Start making guns
>Hold off on making guns

And pick one of the following (you'll get to do others if you want to, this is just to establish a chronological order):
>Attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)
>Attack Yunqi (Guo)
>Start negotiations with Guo (police chief)
>Start negotiations with Doyle (Lei’s regent)
>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother
>Start negotiations with Ahvo (guy we expelled from Telan and currently in control of the northern Kommunalist pocket)
>Start negotiations with Sandro (Kommunalist in charge of the southern pocket)
>Write-in

>>5876211

>Start making guns

>Reach out to Guo

Hear me out - Guo is probably sitting on a huge pile of weapon and turning Yunqi into a fortress.

We have access to lots of people, but no munitions. What if we offer a ceasefire/alliance to Guo in exchange for weaponry? Guo probably hates us, but we could be useful to him and we’re not even close to being an actual threat to Yunqi at this point. Guo would want us to fight other factions to weaken them.

We could then attack the cities to the east once we’re armed properly

>>5876211
>Prospect for iron and coal upriver towards the mountains.

They both clearly exist on this planet. If they exist at all in economically viable amounts then I imagine the nodes are as relatively plentiful as on other planets like Lanu.

I'm not against scrapping our infrastructure to bet it all on the war, it is the prudent call given what is at stake, but lets try and actually find the raw resources before we permanently scrap the machinery we would use to operate as a functioning independent state and keep our people happy and economy going.

We are still arguably the weakest of the factions, police included. I'd like to have a backup plan besides 'hope to win an all out war despite being the weakest faction'. Remember, we did have the option to expand into the wilderness earlier, implying more options aside from merely building more guns, recruiting more soldiers, and attacking people.

>Start negotiations with Guo (police chief)
>Start negotiations with Doyle (Lei’s regent)
>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother

In that order. Wanna try and convince Guo that we see Yunqi as a poisoned chalice regardless of his apparent weakness, and have no plans for further aggression. Ask him to attend a (virtual) diplomatic meeting, or send envoys with us to Doyle to try and convince him that the Kommunalists are the biggest threat (citing their numbers and populist ideology) and that we should all *temporarily* join forces to retake the northeast. Try and come to some sort of power sharing agreement over Hei regarding coking coal.

Next talk to Doyle privately and see if he agrees to the deal above. Try and get him to pressure Guo if he agrees but Guo doesn't. If Doyle refuses, try and go for a nonaggression pact and insist that we have no designs on Yunqi. See if he is open to dividing the northeast with us in return for our help there, if not pretend to want to peacefully reintegrate slowly. We'll be keep our guns though, until he proves he isn't gonna repress our cult or try and kill us.

With mommy number just try and come to a military alliance or nonaggression pact if that doesn't work out. We can probably at least agree on wanting to annihilate the kommune.

>>5876241
>>5876211

That is an intriguing thought, indeed our fight is going to be with the kommunalist first and foremost.
I'll support your vote

I'm this guy:
>>5875926

>>5876211
>Start making guns
>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother

>>5876246
+1

Despite the initial hopes, prospecting finds not much of use. A source of rare gemstones just a bit upstream from Telan, along with a few more gemstone deposits upstream, all of whom would be profitable ventures in different times. You feel frustration at having missed such a source of wealth during peace and only finding it now during wartime and order the weaponry production started.
Meanwhile, you have Rani establish contacts with Guo’s subordinates, with the goal of arranging a meeting. Some back and forth, a virtual meeting is arranged with him. Within a few hours, a cable is laid between Yunqi and Nass, from where you start your conference with him.
A initial flicker of rainbow colored light blinds you until your eyes get used to the increased brightness, at which point, the model of Guo is standing in front of you. He is a large, yellow uniform clad man of impressive age and oriental heritage, slightly hunched forwards and with a somewhat special facial parasite, that, in addition to covering his nose and upper lip, also has a pair of additional feelers, each on the different side of his nose, the feelers snaking up his nose, then to the side, before worming their way beneath the eyelids, displaying a visible bulge that eventually gets lost as the feelers enter past his eyes.
“What is it that you pester me about traitor?” He speaks in a raspy and old, yet strong and domineering voice.
You think about the irony of a man like him accusing you of treachery, but decide against it. You do a slight bow forwards as you greet him. “Greetings regent for the young Fu prince. I seek to discuss politics with you.”
“That much is obvious.” He says plainly.
“Indeed. I wish to inform you that I harbor no further hostile intent against you and offer you a peaceful settlement of our differences.” You say.
“And to what do I owe this pleasure? Did the whore bitch from down south turn on you?” He asks you mockingly.
“I took all I sought. Yunqi is a poisoned chalice that opens you up to aggression from all sides.” You say.
“Indeed, it is also the one place you can control this world form.” He says. “What are you truly playing at?”
“I would be willing to cooperate with you against the Kommunalists.” You say. “Of course, for weaponry, which I’m sure you have more than enough of.”
“You ask of me to arm my enemies and give them the land of my other foes?” Guo says chuckling. “I finished the imperial academy boy, all the way back when I still had balls. I am not stupid. If you desire a ceasefire, you can have one, but you are not getting anything more out of me.”
“Do you truly consider me worse scum than the Kommunalists?” You ask somewhat slyly.
He inhales, then, in a surprising outburst of violent emotion, shouts “I do not care who rebels against imperial authority, be they gods, priests, commoners, nobles or even usurpers, all shall be killed!”
And with that, he steps forwards and cuts the video feed.

>>5877175

You rub your empty eye sockets and think about the next thing to deal with.

>Attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)
>Attack Yunqi (Guo)
>Start negotiations with Doyle (Lei’s regent)
>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother
>Start negotiations with Ahvo (guy we expelled from Telan and currently in control of the northern Kommunalist pocket)
>Start negotiations with Sandro (Kommunalist in charge of the southern pocket)
>Write-in

>>5877176
>>5877176
A bit disappointing but within expectations

I actually have an idea to try and infiltrate the ranks of Doyle since he has mostly mercenaries, we can entice the most reprehensible of the lot with the newly discovered gems and the abundant slaves we have, to desert and change sides, hopefully bringing directly or diverting weapon shipments to us.

>>5877201

This is a cool idea, let’s do this while we manufacture arms. A ceasefire with Guo is still good to have, even if he probably wasn’t going to attack us anytime soon.

We can also consider selling Guo military secrets about our mutual enemies to ensure that Yunqi can stand against attackers - it’s in our interest now that Guo defeats our more powerful rivals

>>5877176
>Start negotiations with Doyle (Lei’s regent)

>>5877201
This is a good idea, we should begin mining immediately concurrent with our negotiations, our north is secure for the moment. Let the others continue hostilities while we begin to extract what little value we can for diplomatic plays.

>>5877176
>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother

>>5877176
>>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother

File: Map point 6.jpg (239 KB, 1000x1000)

239 KB JPG

After the "talks" with Guo, you decide to take some time off while communication wires are laid with Lanu’s mother.
“Could you start mining those gemstones?” You ask Hagos.
“Yeah, we could. We couldn’t cut them, but we could mine them.” He replies.
“Rani, you reckon some mercs would switch over for uncut gemstones? Like, a lot of them?” You turn your attention around.
She tilts her head a bit and places her thumb on her cheek. “I don’t see why not?”
“Try to keep it on the down low, I don’t want to anger Doyle.” You say as you leave to rest a bit before communications are established. As you are leaving, Lanu walks up to you and starts speaking as soon as you get further past the first door.
“Vimal, I really don’t think this is a good idea.” She says. “She’s a number. Nothing she says has any meaning, she views you as you view ants and can kill you with ease. Her promises to anyone not a number are as meaningful as a vow you would make to your dinner plate.”
You pause, and turn your eyeless face to her. Deep within yourself, you feel the AI release an alert ping to your guards and the temple AI. “And yet, she behaved and held her side of the unsaid agreement since the last time we met.” You reply.
“Because she is too lazy to care for the black lady herself.” Lanu says. “Numbers can bleed and numbers can definitively die, but always with disasters effects.”
“Do you have an example?” You ask.
“Where did humans come from?” Lanu asks.
“Heaven, the first imperial family, mud, earth, the mythical first planet, clay, fire? Which mythology are you aiming at?” You ask.
“The planet called earth, in the solar system called Sol.” Lanu replies.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that theory.” You reply.
“It’s not just a theory, it’s been destroyed mere decades before the Surtshe dynasty came into power.” Lanu begins. “Back when humanity was united under U.R. governance. This U.R. governance fell when a research institute somewhere on earth attempted to create a number. They fucked up, the number died very quickly and worms, flies, maggots and other vermin came forth, bursting from the body and devoured the planet, the atmosphere, the humans and eventually the sun aswell, before dying in the cold vacuum of space, having devoured all they could have from the solar system.”
You look at her, with every cell in your body telling you she is saying the truth, but the rational and cynical segment of your mind telling you she, a number, is bound to be a master of manipulation.
“And how are the defeated numbers handled?” You ask her.
A look of almost betrayal flashes over her face, but she composes herself. “A tomb, runes, spells and technology are emploed.” She pauses, then continues. “Please, just, if you’re going to be talking with her, be careful when negotiating anything with my mother.”
>Don’t heed Lanu’s warnings, proceed to the negotiations with her mother (Write in talking points and goals)
>Call off negotiations with Lanu’s mother (write in ideas of what to do)
>Write-in

>>5877736

>Call off negotiations with Lanu’s mother (write in ideas of what to do)

Well, why are we keeping Lanu around if she’s a walking magic bomb.

We need to begin designing countermeasures for numbers so the Black Lady arises uncontested.

In terms of what to do next, maybe let’s just broadcast propaganda locally and see if we can strengthen our cult

>>5877736
>Call off negotiations with Lanu’s mother (Expand into the wilderness, claim farmland for the populace, gain defensive depth through the swamp, move right up to the borders of all our neighbours with our patrols and pickets for early warning of any army movements. Begin negotiations with Doyle. Ask Lanu to begin making a tomb suitable for containing her mother, only Lanu and the Black Lady will be tolerated on the planet of her namesake.)

I wasn't in favour of negotiating with the number anyways, or at least not extensively. I just want nonaggression to be formalized, but if her word holds no bond then we'll just have to trust on unspoken military priorities. She has bigger problems than us, no need to expend strength on each other when we have the kommune to worry about.

To be fair to ourselves, even if we negotiated I think it was always understood that this would be a formality and that we'd resume hostilities once our more dangerous opponents were dealt with. Unless she and the Black Lady are friendly, then we can come to an accord.

I suppose we could betray Lanu and sell her out to her mother in return for the mother's help in reviving the Black Lady, but I don't trust Lanu's mother as much as her, nor do we know if her mother can even actually revive her. No point in betraying 'our' number for an favour we don't know is even possible to fulfill.

If talking to the number passes, then I suggest ask her more about herself and her goals, we cannot plan around her without knowing what her intent is, or what she claims it is.

>>5877736
>Call off negotiations with Lanu’s mother (write in ideas of what to do)

I'll fall for your manipulation.. this time.
But we need to have some sort of talk with this one, would she submit to the black lady? What of her mother?
I don't want her to prepare a tomb for now, too damning against numbers, but maybe we could get some tutoring on rituals. For the headpriest of a cult we know pathetically little of the occult.

You cross your arms. “Alright. I’ll call the talks with your mother off.” You say. “But I’m going to need to talk with you a bit.”
She nods.
“What are you actually trying to do here?” You begin.
Lanu exhales, something you don’t think you’ve seen her do before. A quick moment of thinking later, you conclude it’s probably a behavior she picked up from someone else. “I don’t know.” She says. “Trying to avoid getting entombed. Haven’t thought much beyond that.”
“And would you submit to the Black lady?” You ask.
“I…” Lanu says, thinks a bit and then continues. “Depending on what she asks of me. Unlike my mother, who wouldn’t agree to anything, I merely don’t intend to breed or to go into the tomb.”
“Breed?” You ask.
“Yeah.” Lanu replies. “The genetic purity of a number is very valuable. The less of a non number there is in a number, the more powerful they are. Generally. I’m only a quarter number. My mother is only a half number.”
“You’re three quarters human?” You ask.
“I’m only half human. The last quarter is some alien species that I have no knowledge of.” Lanu replies.
“A servile race or?” You ask, your interest peaked.
Lanu stands there with a pained expression, obviously struggling internally, but then finally speaks up. “It might have been an animal. Numbers can breed with just about anything living. And if they have any intellect, they chose not to. My mother didn’t have said self control.”
You raise your eyebrow inquisitively.
“I think she was entombed on this world by her father who was a full number.” She pauses, again preparing herself to say something she doesn’t want to. “I think she tried forcing herself on her mother.”
You frown. “Isn’t your mother a female?”
“The physical form of a number is very temporary. We can change it as we wish and desire.”
“And why should the numbers seek to avoid breeding?” You ask.
“To avoid more numbers. The more of us there are, the bigger the chances one of us fucks up and a solar system goes missing.” Lanu says.
“So, would you teach me more about your immaterial methods?” You ask.
Lanu pauses. “I…” She begins. “I’ll try.”
“Thank you.” You say politely.
You give her a slight smile, but are surprised when she closes the distance and hugs you. A few moments later, she breaks the hug and leaves.
You finish your walk to your rooms, then speak to the temple AI after you feel a ping in your head. “Yes?”
“About one in ten Telanites are now following your cult, as opposed to one in thirty seven before the war.” The female voice says.
“Good, tell Rani to intensify the propaganda efforts outside of Telan aswell.” You say. “And be sure to record everything Lanu does with extra detail from now on.”
With that, you summon a slave, order a dinner and enjoy for an hour before going to sleep. The next morning, you wake up and head to a meeting to get briefed yet again.
The briefing begins with the same metal armed servant girl and the same 3d holograph projected from the corners of your table you are so used to by now.

>>5878703
(I really need to start remembering to put in my name. And happy new year everyone!)

“The Yunqi garrison has been getting offworld reinforcements and beat off 8 separate assaults by the Kommunalists and Regentist forces, sustaining light casualties and inflicting disproportionately higher ones. Skirmishing is happening between the Kommunalist and Regentist forces on multiple smaller battlefields north of Yunqi itself.” Jivan says as the girl hurriedly points towards the battlefields and projected recordings. “In the south, the horde is slowly pushing through the swamps but is not making significant progress.”
With that, he steps back and nods towards Rani, who continues. “Our efforts at recruitment of Doylist mercenaries have proven somewhat successful. We have about two dozen deserters and have managed to snatch and recruit half a dozen wounded men off the battlefield.” She says.
“And we have recruited, equipped and trained two companies with domestically made equipment so far.” Hagos adds.
You think a bit, then say:
>Attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)
>Attack Yunqi (Guo)
>Start negotiations with Doyle (Lei’s regent)
>Start negotiations with Ahvo (guy we expelled from Telan and currently in control of the northern Kommunalist pocket)
>Start negotiations with Sandro (Kommunalist in charge of the southern pocket)
>Inquire about where the reinforcements are coming from
>Write-in

>>5878704

Happy NY to you, Lanu-QM!

>Start negotiations with Sandro (Kommunalist in charge of the southern pocket)

I don’t love the idea of attacking north to Yunqi, Doyle is on the wrong side of the map, and attacking the northern Kommunalists would be a bad strategic decision (no doubt we’re horridly undermatched).

So that leaves the Bone Woman - we should therefore team up with Sandro for a combined pincer assault. We take Baswah and he assaults the southern cities.

With Lanu on our side, hopefully we can partially counteract any number-occultism used against us

>>5878704
>Inquire about where the reinforcements are coming from

This is pretty important.

>Attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)

Short of Doyle being amenable to an agreement, we seem to be out of options, I think we need to start gaining land and people, and whatever natural resources we can find. This is probably the best time. Lanu's mother is committed to the south, the kommunalists and Regentist forces are tying down the police for a while longer. We have trained troops, Lanu's mother probably doesn't. Go for a bite and hold strategy for now, we'll need to fortify our gains to resist her numbers.

The other I idea I have is to negotiate with Sandro. Ahvo will be hostile towards us, and the kommune's goals are wholly incompatible with ours, but a temporary agreement could be arranged.

The hope is that Sandro hasn't been in communication with Ahvo, their territories are cut off from each other by a large distance, messengers would have to trek through wilderness, and the need to lay cables for communication has been mentioned before.

Time our mutual attacks for the most benefit, trade resources and guns if we can.

Still, I think that is better left until after we attack initially, to retain surprise. Less chance of interception of our plans that way, and we waste less time.

Enjoy your New Year everyone!

>>5878704
>Inquire about where the reinforcements are coming from
>send inflitrators and spies everywhere

Nobody is looking at us or attacking we need to know where they stand and how powerful everybody is.
How strong is the hold of Doyle over his settlements?
How many soldiers do the kommunalists have?

Because we may be the runt but we could have a bigger bite than we think, just need to find the jugular.

If Ahvo is in Hei could we send a killteam to cut the head of the snake?

>>5878716
I don't know about crossing plaguemommy yet, she could feel betrayed and turn all her armies on us thus gifting her territory to the kommunalists, besides we don't have a tomb to contain her and the fight to restrain a number without killing it would be a nightmare by itself, we need the black lady up and about before we can think of it.

>>5878704
I'll switch to support >>5879012

I was hasty.

“Jivan.” You say. “Put your intelligence agency to use. Find out about the source of those reinforcements. And see if you can get infiltrators into all of our neighbors.”
“Yes sir.” He says.
“The rest of you, continue as previous. Try to further ingrain ourselves in the lives of the people we rule over, keep bribing mercenaries, keep building more guns. I think that should keep you busy until we get better information of our environment.” You say, stand up and dismiss the council.
As you head back to your chambers, you notice Lanu heading after you. “Yes?”
“I have prepared some material for you to study.” She says.
“Good.” You say. “When can you teach me?”
“Now?” She asks, somewhat uncertain.
“Good, let’s get to it.” You reply and turn to follow her. To your surprise, she merely takes you to her room, grabs something wrapped in cloth and takes you to the garden lake.
“If you could call for a slave you don’t mind losing?” Lanu asks.
You nod and do so. A few minutes later, a middle aged man is brought before you by the duo of guards.
Lanu, in the meanwhile, is very carefully unwrapping the item from the cloth bundle.
“There are odd things amongst us, forged or touched by numbers or great men.” She begins as she carefully brings up what looks to you as a common kitchen knife. “This is just one that I found in my short stay. A knife, centuries old, forged of meteoric metals. Look at it closely and intently and you might be able to see it for its true form.”
You look at the knife, seeing nothing unusual, yet, as Lanu told you, you keep watching, observing the square rends of the knifeblade as they slowly smooth out, then fill in, the handle as it extends and wraps itself in a wooden handle, until the knife eventually receives a new shape, of a malicious and ancient, large, full tanged hunting knife. You blink, misbelieving your missing eyes and have it return to its regular form.
“You glimpsed it?” Lanu asks you.
“Yes.” You reply.
“Be careful around it. Like a lot of the artifacts, it is malicious and evil and seeks blood. You are supposed to draw the deeper and subconscious emotions of a number using artifacts that still have their stench.” Lanu says. “But as little as possible, lest you draw the attention of a number you are pestering.”
“Whose artifact is this?” You ask.
Lanu shrugs. “Does it matter? It is a knife, it can do little more than seek blood to spill and flesh to rend.”
It’s at this point that the slave tries stepping back, but is shoved forwards by the guard.
“You know sacrifices.” Lanu says. “Try and carve desires and prayers to a number as you would whisper suggestions into ones mind. The tiny and seductive voice that speaks to ones simplest lizard brain. You are doing that in the flesh of a fellow man for the goal of influencing a number.”
“What language do I write in?” You ask.
“Hopefully one that a number understands.” Lanu replies. “Don’t worry if you fail. Human lives are very cheap.”

>>5879183

The slave tries running away, but gets the rifle butt to the side of his head, knocking him out.
“Do I strip him?” The soldier asks.
You nod, wait a few minutes and start carving.
A few days later, you are summoned to a concil to be briefed.
“I think you’ll be pleased.” Jivan says as you approach. “We have more or less complete numbers on a lot of our neighbors.”
“Go on.” You say flatly.
“Sandro’s Kommunalists have about 200,000 men *under arms*, with the under arms part being dubious. Lanu’s mother has 400,000 men, yet even less of them are under arms. The two groups are partially going at eachother with melee weapons.” Jivan says.
Nino smirks.
“Ahvo has about 300,000 men actually armed. Doyle has 60,000 mercenaries and Guo has somewhere close to 20,000 policemen.” Jivan says. “Compared to our now 12,000 armed men.”
Nino interrupts. “The southern Kommunalists and Lanu’s bitch mother are nowhere near as strong as you think. We probably have as many if not more proper gunmen than either of them.”
“Still, that’s a lot of bodies.” Rani says.
“They’re not the primary concern. Guo has been receiving offworld reinforcements from a small fleet in orbit. And it seems that the twin that got pregnant arrived offworld shortly before the orgy.” Jivan says. “Or, it seems that this was an offworld sabotage of Lei’s rule. By someone who has police loyalty and a lot of money and influence. Either a Fu family member or a high ranking offworld policeman.”
“Interesting.” Nino says.
“A few more things to ask.” You say. “How well does Doyle hold his cities?”
“As well or better than the police used to hold them. At least for now.” Jivan replies.
“Any odds of assassinating Ahvo?”
Jivan pauses and thinks. “He’s currently in Meins in a well fortified bunker complex surrounded by professionals. We could try it, but it wouldn’t be likely we manage it.”
A brief period of consideration follows.
“I don’t see the issue.” Hagos says. “Everyone else is bleeding themselves dry. Let them. Make our own spaceport and see if we can get smugglers to get us stuff.”
“And what if Guo launches an attack?” Rani asks.
“Or if the Kommunalists break through?” Jivan asks in reply. “We’re the weak group here. Whoever wins in the south is coming for us. Whoever captures Yunqi is coming for us aswell.”
>Hagos’ proposal, build a spaceport and get smugglers to provide guns to you.
>Have Lanu start building a tomb for her mother
>Attempt assassination of Ahvo
>Write in

>>5879184

>Hagos’ proposal, build a spaceport and get smugglers to provide guns to you.

This is a great suggestion - let’s invest in economy and in our forces while everyone else is beating the shit out of each other.

With the uncut gems mining operation we have access to financial resources as well

>>5879184
>Hagos’ proposal, build a spaceport and get smugglers to provide guns to you.

>>5879184
>Hagos’ proposal, build a spaceport and get smugglers to provide guns to you.

Will note that while mercenaries aren't as skilled as policemen, Doyle has the necessary 3:1 ratio typically stated to be necessary for an attacker to overcome a defender. With our help, he could take the city. Food for thought if we wanted to negotiate with Doyle now in return for concessions, clemency and alliance. Between the capitalists and the kommunalists, I'd prefer for the devil we knew to win. We previously were imbedded in the local power structure, we can be again, until we are ready to take the helm.

We also know the south is weak, despite their numbers. If we wanted to, we could attack Lanu's mother after making a tomb. Or make a deal with her, we get all her current territory, plus maybe either Fluch or Bogl after she takes the south, she gets Isge and one other town, we also get access to Isge's spaceport if there is one. Or something like that.

For now though, letting them weaken each other while we grow strong with off world resources is not a bad idea. I just worry about letting the north decide it's own fate without our intervention.

>>5879184
>Hagos’ proposal, build a spaceport and get smugglers to provide guns to you.

I guess we could also try some more subversion by organizing slave raids.
Dunno how much of the population did plaguemom turn into ghouls but maybe she emptyed the cities to make her horde more mobile, in which case she might not even notice if we roll into town and sack it of good stuff.

And holy shit Ahvo has lots of militias, but his attrition rate has to be the worst.
I think Guo's position is the strongest one in the north with the capital fortified completely and help from space.
Though i doubt he will go on the offensive any time soon.

>>5879726

I think our best bet is making contact with the orbital fleet and seeing if they’ll cooperate with us (even if Guo won’t do more than a ceasefire). Hopefully they’ll be motivated to arm us so that we can kill the bone lady and the southern kommies

>>5879759
I just hope the space fleet doesn't interdict our smugglers.

“Start the work on a spaceport. And start contacting the fleet.” You say.
The following days are spent in a massive effort to organize, equip and coordinate the workers in the construction of a massive landing platform that can harbor the orbital ships, with everyone of note putting in effort towards it while also dedicating themselves to their other tasks, be it espionage, social conditioning, or in your case, carving people. It is also during this period, that two very interesting things happen, one of them being as you were carving a middle aged woman, that you finally felt the knife play in her flesh by itself, guiding you and finally granting you your wish for a century of health you had just carved into her in a language you did not understand, following which you noted down the language and on Lanu’s recommendation, locked the knife away in a tomb.
The second thing of interest that drew you in was, as you were heading into the Lady’s chamber to do surgery on her yet again, you did not feel the control of your body slip out of your grasp, so you approached her, only for her to slightly tilt her head towards you, struggling as she did.
“I need no more of your surgery.” She said in her soft, angelic voice that reverberated in your skull. “But tell no-one of this. And leave me alone. I must rest.”
Half disbelieving yourself, you bowed and left her chambers, not fully convinced in what just happened. After a few hours, you chose to ignore what happened and continue with your usual life.
A whole week after starting the spaceport construction, you were hurriedly summoned to the conference room. Quickly changing your clothes from the blood stained ones, abandoning the bleeding slave to die in the gardens as you switched to more important job. A few minutes later, you arrived in front of the holograph of a middle aged man in a uniform very similar to that of Guo.
“Vimal I believe.” The man speaks in a surprisingly childlike voice. You can already guess why.
“Indeed, whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?” You reply.
“Zou Fang.” He replies. “Admiral of the house of Fu.”
“Well then, admiral Fang, I am glad to have made an acquaintance with you.” You reply. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“To the fact you are building a spaceport.” He replies frankly. “I think I could use it well. And I think you would gladly support me as an righteous supporter of the Fu house and the broader Gospodarstvo. Wouldn’t you?” He continues, a smile pulling itself broader and broader across his soft face.
Your mind races for a few moments before you utter your answer (pick the points you wish to bring up, you will make your choice up after the round of dialogue):

>Guo is hostile to us for legitimate reasons, we require protection
>Guo is hostile to us for illegitimate reasons, we require protection
>We want guns
>We have free numbers around
>We want to keep our conquests
>(Finely worded “What if we refuse?”)
>Write-in

>>5880205

>Guo is hostile to us for illegitimate reasons, we require protection

Protection meaning guns, and the ability to keep our territory, plus any new conquests we obtain.

>>5880205
>>(Finely worded “What if we refuse?”)

>>5880205
>Guo is hostile to us for illegitimate reasons, we require protection
>We want guns

Doubt they will believe us since they probably heard a report on us being just another warlord, but it's also true that we did not attack yunqi itself.

I would rather not ask for permission to keep our territory but rather ask for guns to defend against the Kommunalists, make no mention of numbers, cults or anything weird.

An enforced ceasefire with guo and a supply of guns is good, we will probably have to fend off attacks when the other catch on that we've opened a line to reinforce the capital.

>>5880205
If I recall correctly (and I'm not sure that I am, I'd have to reread more closely), we never actually declared against Lei Fu. We just...killed some police before the police's treachery was known. If we fudge the timeline or claim secret knowledge of events before they happened, and say we attempted to warn Lei Fu but our messages didn't get through, then saying Guo is illegitimately hostile to us isn't necessarily untrue.

We are just defending ourselves. Guo is actually the most dangerous to house Fu, while the kommunalists are in rebellion, Guo outright attempted a palace coup. Plus, you know...he's actually competent, and super fucking mad.

>Guo is hostile to us for illegitimate reasons, we require protection
>We want guns
>For our efforts in defending the people, the residents of Nass and Ucht have shouted cries of adoration from the rooftops. We were proclaimed as temporary mayor of those towns by right of acclamation, we'd appreciate it if that temporary station became permanent when Lei Fu is restored to his rightful place on the throne.

Basically help us help you deal with Guo, please don't let him curbstomp us, oh, and pretty please allow us control of our territory. The distinction being we aren't breaking off as an independent statelet, of course we'll accept Fu overlordship, we'd just like to be brought into the fold for our services.

Also ssshhhh about the numbers. Don't let them know about our knowledge, or give them a reason to glass half the region from orbit.

>>5880205
>>Guo is hostile to us for illegitimate reasons, we require protection
>>We want guns

>>5880251
Wait isn't guo the police chief trying to coup against Lei using his unborn son and with support from the outside forces blockading the planet?
And that Doyle is the one in support of Lei?

So the fleet in orbit is actually in cahoots with Guo?

>>5880617
Having just went back to check, I think you are correct. Here's the relevant quotes.

>>5869324
By five in the morning, you have a somewhat full picture. The police, following the end of the orgy, attempted to storm the Yunqi palace, but were held long enough for the mercenaries to extract Lei. The initial ideas about a single group attempting a mercenary coup or a lone group of mercenaries attempting to force Lei into compliance or paying of a ransom were dashed when the police started gunning down mercenaries around Hunhe, Hei, Tein, Yunqi, Nass, Ucht and Basah while the mercenaries replied in kind elsewhere.
By around 7 in the morning, a more complete image formed as an almost clear cut fight between mercs and policemen crystalized, with Ryan Doyle appearing with Lei Fu and organizing a haphazard mercenary defense and Guo Xia announcing that the police is defending the legitimate heir of the Fu family and not allowing infanticide.

>>5870075
“From what I’ve gathered…” She begins as the robot armed servant girl changes the holograph to a video of an very attractive and naked blonde girl being pushed through a corridor. “Either Guo fixed it so, or it happened due to an accident, it is unclear, but a unsterilized girl somehow entered into the orgy. It looks like she was a twin sister of a woman who was sterilized and that she got pushed into the orgy by either a mistake of a police officer or by deliberate action. We also cannot rule out a possibility of deliberate cloning with this in mind.” Rani then proceeds to list off a bunch of pointless information regarding the girl, her health, her socio-economic status, etc.
After a few minutes, she turns the page, the servant changes the holograph to a 3d map and lets an animation play. “The following day, upon finding out about the girls pregnancy, Lei ordered her killed. The policemen refused, then launched an attack upon the palace. Luckily for Lei, his bodyguard harem was there to protect him.” As she mentions that, a video of a very brief firefight that leaves two dozen policemen and half a dozen of Lei’s bodyguard harem dead plays. “Lei escaped through hidden passages and his location is unknown.” Rani makes an pause. “To the broader public that is. I suspect Jihua.”

>>5879184
“They’re not the primary concern. Guo has been receiving offworld reinforcements from a small fleet in orbit. And it seems that the twin that got pregnant arrived offworld shortly before the orgy.” Jivan says. “Or, it seems that this was an offworld sabotage of Lei’s rule. By someone who has police loyalty and a lot of money and influence. Either a Fu family member or a high ranking offworld policeman.”

>>5880617
>>5880624
I understood most of this and who Guo was. The problem was my attention lapsed during this last little bit. This anon >>5879759 had his suggestion taken and we contacted the fleet helping Guo, I thought we were talking to some random other fleet that had arrived or to our smugglers.

I'm not sure there is anything to be gained from talking extensively to this person, especially in the future. We'd only be giving them info on our intentions, info they could record and disseminate to the other factions in return for modest quid pro quo. This person is a Fu admiral, the last quote I posted above has Jivan speculating the reinforcements are from a Fu family member or some high ranking policeman. They are the real powers behind the coup attempt that incited this whole shebang, or the Doyle/Guo part of it at least.

Not to say Guo doesn't have his own reasons, but ultimately his goals align with his benefactors and he is dependent on them for survival. His goals just seems to be purge all those he sees as corrupt...which is all of us.

Or rather, we can gain something from this admiral, but we should do so with the understanding that they don't have our best interests at heart and are the ones supporting one of our enemies. If they want to land troops, then we should be ready to make sure they don't make any hostile moves upon landing. No getting coup de main'd. Make sure we get what we want first, and that every step of the transfer is honoured without any funny business, the rest of the options aside from the guns are just talk, which they may or may not respect (probably not).

So we have:
3 x >Guo is hostile to us for illegitimate reasons, we require protection
3 x >We want guns
1 x >We want to keep our conquests
1 x >Kommunalists are the real enemy
1 x >(Finely worded “What if we refuse?”)
1 x >I don’t trust you
From what I’m getting, the core of our argument will be a carefully worded “We want peace with Guo” and “We want guns”.

“I would gladly help the house of Fu but I fear for the safety of your troops and of ours as Guo is, unfortunately, confusing us and lumping us in with Kommunalists and other revolutionary traitors.” You say.
“Oh, dear, I feared something like this would happen.” The admiral replies, full well knowing you are lying to his face. “Well, in that case, I would do well to convince him to redirect his effort form you and towards the real enemies like the mercenaries and the Kommunalists. And like that warlord down south of you, Dragan was it?”
“He is indeed Dragan.” You say. “We would be glad to strike south for the glory of the house of Fu, if only we had more guns.”
He smiles and tilts his head. “Ah, such a shame we have none to grant you.” He replies. “Still, I believe our own men would be able to protect your southern border against the horde down south.”
>Kindly refuse his offer of him occupying you
>Accept it, he has cornered you
>Proclaim you support Lei’s right to rule
>Write in

>>5881099

The fucker is trying to double cross us and take our spaceport, no doubt. Is there anyone on this godforsaken world who isn’t a con artist? lol

Well, I think we should double cross him first! Accept his deal but then ambush his ships when they land at our spaceport. It would be nice to take some of his orbital shuttles and arm ourselves with his soldiers weaponry

>>5881099
Is orbital bombardment a thing in this setting, QM?

If not, or if it is imprecise, then I vote we do as >>5881104 suggests

This guy is the man behind Guo, he just wants the throne for himself. At this point the only thing worth a damn on this planet is strength. The commodities being bodies and guns to arm those bodies.

The only potential ally we have left is Doyle, and maybe Lanu's mom. Even then, they are alliances of convenience owing to the balance of power.

We can defend our borders, we don't need protection from this guy, getting him to call off Guo from counterattacking us was just an assurance. Guo has other more important avenues to attack and defend from. If he isn't will to offer us guns, then he has nothing to offer us and is just another adversary.

>>5881171
>Is orbital bombardment a thing in this setting, QM?
It is, however it's not used except in extreme circumstances, think of it like nuclear weapons for us, but way more destructive. The reasoning behind it is a combination of not wanting to destroy cities, as they are what you desire to capture as intact as possible and glassing them from space is simply stupid in that case, combined with the (what you assume to be) possible risk of harming a number and starting worm wars).

>>5881188
Ah, I see. Well my vote to support >>5881104 remains the same. Though we ought to recall much of our forces from Ucht aside from a token garrison to assist with the ambush. Lest they actually overwhelm us with their superior skill.

>>5881099

I really don't want them to come here, so long as the south remains an unknown we are at the advantage as the presence of active numbers has hopefully not spread, altough i'm not sure if that would make it more or less likely to glass us from orbit but i would rather not discover so soon what kind of bullshit black ops they have for numbers containment.

Rolled 59 (1d100)

>>5881104
>>5881171
>>5881192
>>5881606
“We shall inform you as soon as the spaceport is ready to accept your ships. After all, we would be glad for order to be reestablished on this world.” You say.
“My men shall await your summons.” He replies and ends the hologram.
You wait for a few more seconds until a technician speaks. “Information recived is at zero!” A few moments later, one yells “Information sent is at zero!”.
You exhale and wait for a few moments.
“It is completely safe!” The first technician replies.
You turn to a servant “Summon Nino.” You say. He has some work ahead of himself.
After a brief introduction to the problem, Nino started work on the ambush. By the end of the day, a plan was drawn up with the help of the AI and Lanu, involving a series of planted charges on the support beams of the surrounding structures, seeking to collapse the pillars on the ships to prvent them from taking off, in combination with explosives planted into the concrete itself, meant to shatter the ground beneath and around the spaceship, partially sinking it into the concrete itself. Mercenaries and more capable desciples would be on standby in the buildings around the port or dressed as workers, while some heavy equipment would be prepared in crates and a small fleet of drones, both UAV’s and biologicals would be ready for takeoff in case the spaceship attemped to fly off and escape.
The only thing that remained uncertain was the succes of the operation.
I need one person to give me a d100+20 (and hopefully score above my d100).

Rolled 85 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>5882633
For the black lady!

>>5882634
For the black lady indeed.
The first space-obit ship lands and is immediately surrounded by a swarm of slaves with implanted explosives dressed as port workers. After some reluctance, the ship opens its mouth and a small delegation of expendables exits. Then as the work continues, the offworld workers, followed by an vanguard. Yet, despite this, your men don’t flinch. Eventually, when Nino judges enough men have left, all hell breaks loose.
Explosions reverberate, the concrete crumbles and the heavy aircraft sinks into the ground, the gunmen open up cutting down the vanguard with the help of the heavy equipment deployed in crates and containers, the ludicrously high rate of fire melting through steel and concrete, all the while Lanu and your palace AI, supported by all the tech experts you have, are working on defusing the internal bomb.
Within a few minutes, the elite mercenaries and the Dardi volunteers start storming the aircraft.
Meanwhile, you receive a message from the admiral.
“I honestly expected this. I guess your cult will have to be cut down to the last, your eyes plucked out by crows, your flesh eaten by maggots and your bones ground into dust.” He says with a sigh.
Your mercenaries and the Dardi will spend a whole day cleaning out the crew from the ship. At the midday the next day, a Dardi officer with black hair and tan skin approaches you to deliver the report.
“We lost about a hundred mercenaries and seven hundred soldiers. We killed some six hundred.” He says plainly. “Nino ate a bullet to the eye. Lanu is patching him up.”
“And the aircraft?” You ask.
“Will be operational very soon. A day or two.”
You think a bit, then decide:
>Start training paratroopers
>Start looking for offworld smugglers
>Attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)
>Attack Yunqi (Guo)
>Start negotiations with Doyle (Lei’s regent)
>Start negotiations with Ahvo (guy we expelled from Telan and currently in control of the northern Kommunalist pocket)
>Start negotiations with Sandro (Kommunalist in charge of the southern pocket)
>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother
>Have Lanu start building a tomb for her mother
>Attempt assassination of Ahvo
>Write in

>>5882640
>>Start training paratroopers
>>Start looking for offworld smugglers

>>5882685

Supporting!

We have to be one of the only factions with space-capable craft - a huge deal!

>>5882640
"Jokes on the crows i don't need my eyes to see and the worms will eat us all"

>Start looking for offworld smugglers

Come all come all, we're open for business!

>>5882640
>Attempt assassination of Ahvo

>>5882640
Support >>5882685

Well, that went well.

>>5882685
+1

4 for paratroopers
5 for smugglers
1 for assassinating ahvo

“Summon the council.” A short time later you inform them that they are to: “Train some of our own men to handle the shuttle and pick out some volunteers for aerial assault troops.” You say. “And look for some smugglers from offworld who are willing to sell us weapons. Pay them in whatever they want. Slaves, gemstones, land, food, whatever.”
Before long, your little fiefdom sets to work and before long a first smuggling ship lands in your repaired port, the shuttle first sending out combat droids due to a fear of the crew being gunned down. However, you quickly convince the captain that the two of you can trade and you exchange barrels of food and sacks of uncut gemstones for crates of guns, suits of body armor and boxes of ammo.
In the meanwhile, your volunteers, now slightly suspiciously almost all Dardi, are training as paratroopers, in improvised and home made equipment, with a eventual conclusion of the superiority of single man parachute and back mounted battery powered fan setup, and manage to carry out some basic aerial descent maneuvers.
In the meanwhile, the political situation develops further, with Lanu’s mother pushing significantly further south against Sandro’s Kommunalists while also managing to run out of ammo. By now, the footage of the combat regularily shows ancient style battles with pike blocks, swordsmen with shields and formations of massed crossbowmen and javelineers flanking eachother, only to get mown down by small squads of gunmen or grenadiers.
Further north, Yunqi is managing to hold despite the horrific casualties the civilians in the city are enduring as more and more offworld troops and mercenaries flock to Yunqi. Guo seems to in fact be gaining some of the outskirts and contesting the hills around his city. Interestingly enough, Doyle seems to be handing his situation the worst, as his mercenaries are slowly getting attritioned away and as he is attempting to rally the civilians in his city to his banners.
The truly scary force in the north seems to be Ahvo as his Kommunalists seem to be forging themselves into a truly impressive militia, with domestically produced heavy equipment. The particularly grim reminder of their competence being a video in which a squad of policemen attempts to advance up a hill, only to get vaporized by a newly deployed squad based weapon, a quad barreled machinegun firing 20mm caliber bullets at 3000 rpm.
While this is happening, you are partaking in more simple cultic practice under Lanu, as you sacrifice slave after slave to the health of the black lady, which seems to be having effect.
Eventually, you summon the council meeting yet again to ask for the advice on what to do next.
Jivan begins “What is there to discuss? Lanu’s mother’s armies are broken, as are Sandro’s.”
Nino, with one side of his head significantly lighter in skintone than the other stands somewhat alone. “And what of her mother?” He asks.

>>5883484
“Lanu, can you entomb your mother?” Jivan asks.
“I can make a tomb for her.” Lanu says. “But I couldn’t force her into the tomb.”
“Could we do it?” Jivan asks.
Lanu shrugs. “Even if you do, it’ll be a costly endeavor.”
“Could the black lady do it?” You ask.
“In full health and with my help, definitively.” Lanu replies.
“And do you think we should just wait until she recovers?” Jivan asks.
“We could work on our realm some more.” Rani says. “Resume hiring offworld mercenaries, maybe look for gem cutters or buy iron for canning factories, improve our sources of wealth.”
>Have Lanu start building a tomb for her mother and attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)
>Start looking for offworld economic machinery and specialists we can employ
>Attack Yunqi (Guo)
>Start negotiations with Doyle (Lei’s regent)
>Start negotiations with Ahvo (guy we expelled from Telan and currently in control of the northern Kommunalist pocket)
>Start negotiations with Sandro (Kommunalist in charge of the southern pocket)
>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother
>Attempt assassination of Ahvo
>Write in

>>5883486

>Have Lanu start building a tomb for her mother and attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)

This has to be the right time - between the lack of ammo for the bone cultists and our new aerial attack capability, taking Basah should be a cakewalk.

>>5883486
>Attempt assassination of Ahvo

>>5883486
>Have Lanu start building a tomb for her mother and attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)
>Start looking for offworld economic machinery and specialists we can employ

Both of these. Delegate the tomb construction to Lanu, give her access to whatever she needs.

We need to take the south and become the third or fourth major power, staying a minor statelet while Ahvo becomes an industrial powerhouse and Guo receives constant support is a death sentence. We need manpower, strategic depth, more resources.

>>5883486
>>5883609
I’ll support this. I’m honestly not inclined to take the planet, but everyone else seems likely to run us over if we let them. There’s a non-zero chance we can work something out with Sandro since he’s an unknown to us, but when the Black Lady is up we can see what her plans would be and calibrate appropriately.

In the meantime, we need more resources to get more materials smuggled in and peel away the merc stream Guo is using to work for us instead.

We should probably vastly increase our human sacrifices to the Black Lady as well, since she seems to be responding to this. Maybe once we take Basah we can mass-sacrifice like 10% of the population to her? Having her awake would massively increase our powerlevel

>>5883664
Personally I think there's nothing to be done with Sandro. It was previously stated that the kommunalists do not tolerate any other numbers, as they wish to create their own. Plus there's the whole 'maybe led by an AI or possibly wants to create an AI number' thing.

>>5883688
This seems like a good idea.

>>5883486
>Have Lanu start building a tomb for her mother and attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)

>>5883699
We can play at not being opposed to their goal if we do open discussions. Lanu has told us about Numbers and they generally dislike each other due to competition, but the goals of our Black Lady may not be contrary to whatever Number they seek to create. Acknowledging that may be enough to secure a temporary cooperation against other forces that are actively hostile to us both like Gao.

Now, I don’t think we even SHOULD negotiate now. We’re not threatened enough to make it necessary. But if we get pressured up north while they’re still in the south then we can make a play at it. The deal may fall apart when the Black Lady arises but so be it.

Although she is well enough now to speak. Perhaps the next time we go in (I assume we’re still doing “surgery” occasionally to keep up appearances) we could ask her how she feels about the various Numbers.

>>5883844

I mean, at some point she will tell us what she WANTS, right? We haven’t really gotten any orders from her at all

>>5883486
>Start looking for offworld economic machinery and specialists we can employ

I dunno about you guys but maybe we should also look into these dardi cultists, i mean a cult within a cult? Suspicious.

And did they spring up before or after lanu appeared? I can't remember but what if she's secretly leading them preparing to take over?

4 for >Have Lanu start building a tomb for her mother and attack Basah (Lanu’s mother)
1 for >Attempt assassination of Ahvo (shit luck man, you’re the only one in favour of trying this)
3 for >Start looking for offworld economic machinery and specialists we can employ
2 for mass sacrifice in Basah

“Lanu.” You say. “Can you make a tomb for your mother?”
She waits a bit, then speaks. “I’ll get to it.”
You nod. “Thank you.” Then you turn to Nino. “Start planning for a offensive on Basah and the rest of Lanu’s mother’s territory.”
Nino nods.
“As for the rest of you, I want you to start importing equipment we can use. Get the smugglers to bring in the big machinery and items in here.”
Jivan, Rani and Hagos nod.
It is very soon that your subordinates start working towards their assigned goals, with Rani finding the best contacts, while Jivan quickly falls back to his previously assigned duty of intelligence gathering and Hagos reverts to managing the simple but tedious internal matters. Nino is given almost complete authority over the management of the military matters, while you spend most of your time with Lanu, helping her carve and learning from her.
Interestingly enough, during one of your “surgery” sessions, you find the black lady sitting on the edge of her table. As soon as you enter you drop to your knees and prostrate yourself infront of her.
“Vimal.” Her soft voice speaks. “Stand up Vimal.” She says.
You obey her, your lacking eyes dancing upon her pristine black body, abyssally black, unperceivably black, so black merely its silhouette can barely be discerned from the air around it.
“Come here Vimal.” She says softly.
You step towards her, a mixture of anxiety, fear and joy in you.
You feel happiness in her as you step towards her. Maybe even a smile on her unseeable features.
“Lady.” You whisper.
She doesn’t say anything, but you feel her permission to continue.
“Lady, what do you desire of us?” You say softly.
“Now, nothing. Just authorize your AI to speak with me. I shall choose what to do later on.” She says as she reaches towards your face. You feel a spark of pain on your head that spreads over your body and stagger backwards, barely containing a pained scream as you stumble against a wall and then slump against it.
A moment later, you realize you have eyes again.
“Lady?” You say, confused.
“Now that I am whole and beautiful, so shall all those who follow me. For is it not beauty that shall save the world?”
“Yes lady.” You mutter at the ancient words as you get up. After a moment of silence, you authorize your AI to speak with the black lady.
“You are free to go.” She says.
When you return, you are followed by confused stares by most of the staff, with the exceptions in Nino and some of his officers.
“New eyes sir?” Nino asks.

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>>5884594
You give him a glance and realize he’s recently gotten a new one of his own.
Nino points at the projection. “Troops will be drawn Ucht and Telan, with the fresh ones being left behind to garrison. A dual thrust will be made, with the stronger column heading down the river and a weaker one going overland at Basah. We are expecting weak resistance.” He says.
You nod absent mindedly, still thinking about the lady. Nino notices this.
“You’ll get used to the eyes.” He says as he gets up. “I’ll handle this.”
Before you are able to reply, Nino marches out of the room.
In a few days, when the lady confirms she is ready for a fight with Lanu’s mother and when Lanu says the tomb is ready, the attack is launched and the AI summons you to the council chambers to follow the conquest. To everyone's surprise, Basah falls without fired shots as the armoured trucks and cars roll into the city. To the south however, the main river force and the flanking swamp crawlers encounter light resistance. It is not long before it buckles and Nino’s men push forwards to the assigned goals. However, something of note happens both on the river and in Basah, as the Dardi men are noted dragging away female prisoners and pulling them into their trucks. When one of the disciple officers asks, the Dardi say it is their payment for war. The officer chooses not to ask more questions and simply relays the video.
When asked to comment on this, Nino simply shrugged. “Not my choice for getting a wife.”
Despite the quick advance, Lanu’s mother does not appear.
>Attack Paya (Lanu’s mother)
>Attack Glach (Lanu’s mother)
>Attack Paya and Glach (Lanu’s mother)
>Start looking for offworld economic machinery and specialists we can employ
>Attack Yunqi (Guo)
>Start negotiations with Doyle (Lei’s regent)
>Start negotiations with Ahvo (guy we expelled from Telan and currently in control of the northern Kommunalist pocket)
>Start negotiations with Sandro (Kommunalist in charge of the southern pocket)
>Start negotiations with Lanu’s mother
>Attempt assassination of Ahvo
>Write in

>>5884130
Jivan, our spymaster, was the one who first brought up the Dardi. So he’s the one most likely leading them if anyone is doing so.

>>5884595
Our Lady is back! I suppose she’s willing to leave the war to us.

Lots of actions to do this turn.
>Attack Paya and Glach (Lanu’s mother)
So long as defenses are light we can continue our lightning advance.
>Lay groundwork for the assassination of Ahvo
Throwing the other anon a bone since we really will need this eventually. Ahvo has the most well-equipped group here from what we’ve seen, and he has bodies. That said, we don’t want him to fall until Yunqi flips hands or we finish the south. He helps tie up the mercenaries coming in from offworld. So let’s have Jivan and Lanu prepare to kill him instead so it’s more likely to succeed when we later pull the trigger. Jivan since he’s our spymaster, Lanu since she might find a way to enhance/control some agents better with her own skills. She needs to be ready to go to the field on short notice to deal with her mother though.
>Have Rani give you information on how embedded the Dardi are within your forces, and have Nino dilute their concentrations within your special forces. This is expected to be a gradual process to limit combat readiness degradation.
We know the paratroppers are mostly Dardi. Let’s see what else they have near total control of as a bloc and work on getting more mercenaries/regulars in them. If they have grander designs they’ll either launch a coup early or be forced to accept a setback in control.
>Start looking for offworld economic machinery and specialists we can employ
The remaining work for Hagos. He may not work quickly with resources being used up elsewhere but partial progress is still progress.

>>5884621

I support all of this, good thinking anon

>>5884595
>Attempt assassination of Ahvo

>>5884595
Support >>5884621

Good idea to take our time laying the groundwork rather than just jumping into it. We also want to keep Jivan busy in case it is the case that he is getting any funny ideas. Lanu can help keep an eye on him too. Our mystical learning can take a break while she works, or we can experiment on our own or work on fundamentals.

Maybe gradually shift the Dardi into more of a shocktrooper role.

>>5884595
>Attack Paya (Lanu’s mother)

I think she's going to feel the heat and try for an ambush, dividing our forces in two can lead to a defeat in detail.
Next we march directly on lembak, let the kommunalist take glacht if they can but our objective is to contain the number first and foremost.

As for the dardi i guess we'll look into it after taking the south

Based effortpost wins.
A hurriedly written message is delivered to Nino about how he should continue his rapid advance. He replies with an equally as hurriedly written message of “ok”. A few hours later, you receive a message that the columns are on the road again. The swamp column crosses diagonally towards Paya and captures it without much issue, while the Basah column starts entering captured ships from every dockyard possible and sailing downstream towards Glach. By the time they and the forward elements of the swamp column arrive however, there is a significant force of cultists and gunmen in the city. While it originally looks like a stalemate between your forwards elements, a small force of Dardi makes themselves useful as they strip down and dive across the river, ambushing one of the gunmen and shooting a gap in the defenses. It is a quick victory, but a bloody one.
Nino informs you that there won’t be further advances for a while at least as your force is facing a massive horde, probably with mommy dearest amongst them.
In the meanwhile, Jivan has been dealing with a new task you’ve given him of assassinating Ahvo. While he hasn’t made much actual progress beyond compiling information, it is enough to point you in a drection. The hivemind and the AI things might be a exaggeration, but the use of drugs, implants, treatments and therapy towards a collective conciousness isn’t as Jivan describes them as a “system without cracks”.
Which leaves you with a killteam of assassins as one of the better choices. It’s up to you to decide who to send and how to buy their loyalty.
In a while, Rani delivers you a report on the Dardi inclusion in your ranks, informing you they form up two out of the eight regiments in your army, about seven out of ten paratroopers and almost all of the volunteers for the 9th regiment being built from captured, produced and bought weapons. She also informs you that the Dardi have, as a rule, brought back female prisoners and civilians from captured lands back to their homes and forced them into marriage, noting the lack of monogamy amongst the Dardi. As for the grander goals, she says that the Dardi are a very opaque organization unwilling to accept foreigners and that her spies she’s been sending into the organization haven’t gotten much information out.
Hagos is putting in work, but as expected, between your territories supplying the various formations in the fields and the extortionist prices the smugglers demand, you really aren’t managing to aquire too much.
On the outside scene, interesting things happened. Doyle and his troops fell back from their half encirclement of Yunqi while Ahvo’s Kommunalists moved up and captured the abandoned fortifications, while in the south, the horde fell back from the swamps and the Kommunalists carefully regained it.
To much surprise, a Doylist messenger arrived to ask you about a possibility of negotiation.

File: Map point 8.jpg (661 KB, 1000x1000)

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>>5885583

At the end of this short timespan, you were presented with a number of choices, first, regarding your forces:
>Order Nino forwards, break the horde before it fortifies Lembak
>Let him regroup his forces
>Write-in
Then, you had the choice of the assassination:
>Reject the killsquad idea
>Approve of the idea and pick the assassins (write in your desired group for assassins)
Next, the Dardi question came up:
>Allow them to stay as they were
>Dillute their formations
>Write-in
Finally, the option of negotiating with Doyle:
>Establish a connection
>Reject the offer of negotiation
And of course, the option to:
>Write-in

>>5885584
>Order Nino forwards, break the horde before it fortifies Lembak

>Hold off on the killsquad idea. See about peeling off kommunalist stragglers from the battle of Yunqi to indoctrinate. Give them the blessed privilege of being taught the true path by the Black Lady herself, should she choose to allow it.

I may have thought to sent Lanu or asked the Black Lady to handle it, but they are needed elsewhere, so this limited use of their time will have to be enough for now. Battle should be their primary focus at the moment. Or whatever the lady desires from us, of course.

>Hold off on diluting their formations until the battle with Lanu's mother is done. We don't want internal trouble just yet. See about giving a few select wounded Dardi "special medical treatment", i.e take them before Lanu or the Black Lady for interrogation and indoctrination. We need to discover their intent.

>Establish a connection

>Fortify Nass and Ucht

Lembak is still the main effort, but special engineering efforts should be put towards digging in at our northern border. An economy of force effort, but still the big secondary effort just below Lembak.

>>5885584
>>5885595
Oh and...

>Use our paratroopers where applicable at the Battle of Lembak.

Not sure it needed saying, but just in case. Just in case the QM was defaulting to keeping them in reserve unless we wrote it in.

>>5885584
>>5885595
>>5885596
Actually, one more addition.

>Visit Paya personally, excavate and investigate Lanu's mother's tomb. Search for artifacts and a second tomb we can use and bring them back to our private quarters. Learn what rituals we can piece together. Have Matei Dragan's origins and the story of how he discovered his captor looked into. Get Hagos and Rani to lend us a few specialists needed for remote communication, take a unit of bodyguards, some slaves with tools useful for mining and excavation, an engineer, and some NBC equipment for everyone.

This would be after we disseminate orders and talk to Doyle.

We now control the origin point for the supposed "bioweapon" that we now know was the bony plaguemommy. May as well investigate and deepen our knowledge of the occult. It'll even be our first time gaining independent knowledge of the mystic arts aside from what Lanu teaches us and the sight beyond sight that the Black Lady gifted us. Plus, there could be a ton of artifacts left behind by the plaguemommy in haste, given she probably didn't see our rapid advance coming, maybe by her father as well.

Plus we can get a second tomb rapidly and secretly, in case the kommunalists succeed in creating another number, or Lanu is manipulating us.

It's not like we do a ton of coordinating or battle management ourselves. We mostly delegate and tend to the Black Lady.

>>5885584
>Let him regroup his forces

>Approve of the idea and pick the assassins (write in your desired group for assassins)
Delegate to Jivan, broadstrokes, go for a night assassination with Dardi dressed up as Guo enforcers and make it look like overdose of Lanu’s mother's drugs/forced conversion mutilation

>Allow them to stay as they were

>Establish a connection

>Write-in
Send a boat into the ocean and try to find new lands/people to try to negotiate with.

>>5885635
How would we reach the ocean in a warzone? All the rivers are controlled by opposing factions along at least part of their course. Especially in a large and well constructed enough vessel to survive the open seas, it wouldn't exactly be sneaky.

Also, aren't we a part of a spacefaring empire? I doubt there are undiscovered settlements on this planet that we don't already have on the map because of satellite footage, and if there is a wider populace beyond the local conflict, you'd think they'd already be involved since this is the planetary capital. I'd imagine they'd fill out the carrying capacity of the area surrounding the capital and the rich delta around it before landing colonies elsewhere, benefits of agglomeration and limits of administrative bandwidth and all that.

>>5885644
Dress up the boat as a medical boat, offering aid to those they come in contact with or a mercantile boat selling wares.

It's a pretty big planet. I'd imagine not everyone can wage open warfare, wants to claim a far-off piece of the pie for themselves, knows what's happening, or even care for that matter. We can send an expeditionary force to find those people and make them our allies.

>>5885654
Fair enough. Assuming civilian traffic is still allowed through, I guess our envoys don't have to carry guns or insignia.

I assumed much of the planet is unoccupied, or was otherwise involved in the ongoing conflict. Since we've had no prompt to seek alliance with other factions outside the local region, I thought this was a classic sci-fi "one suburb per planet" scenario. Particularly since wilderness still claims much of this fertile area and the only spaceport we know of besides Yunqi was constructed by us in Telan, I assumed colonists would only be landing at the capital and settling the still unclaimed local area.