NationStates Jolt Archive

Confederate Starfleet Command, Log 3445, CSS John Bolton

The small starship approached the planet, at speed that decreased as the ship approached.

We're aproaching body 2003UB313. It is unknown why it hasn't been colonised yet. The planet, which is yet to be formally named, is at least as big as Pluto and about three times farther away from the Sun than Pluto. It is very cold and dark. We recommend that bases be built for both Confederate and Allied assets as soon as it is humanly possible

A spearlike device was launched from the ship, maybe a few meters long, if that.

Simultaneously, tightbeam transmissions were sent out to several Allanean military craft throughout the system. Allied craft were also notified. Officially, 2003UB313 was an Allanean territory. Unofficially, Allanea did not expect to hold on to it alone. And so, her allies were notified. It was a long list. Central Facehuggeria, Derscon, Reichskamphen, Neo-Mekanta, Tarasovka, California and Alaska, and even Abu-Dhabi Khristatata were sent a note. Within days, colonisation would begin...

Colony ship Don't put boats in bags was a vessel which had changing priorities these last few days. It had been sent out to form a small mining colony in the Kuiper belt. That had changed a week ago, to a major colony effort closer to home, repositioning a few asteroids in a stable orbit between pluto and the beginnings of the Oort cloud and Kuiper Belt. And now it had been changed again, a few hours before it was set to leave. This time it was to head out to some object that Allanea had beaconed, and set down an outpost to keep the pirates away. Enough room for a Nonsequitor rack, the facilities to deal with the assorted crew, a dock to receive supplies, the usual. Then there was the assorted power, recreation, market facilities, local government hub, parks to be dug into the solid rock, air scrubbers, water recycling, all sorts had to come after it, and that was before the dedicated civilian infrastructure was moved into place. This all became much more complex when it was standard practice to build everything underground, where it could be adequately heated. Still there were several hundreds of these facilities lying around the solar system, what was one more?

Captain Basho floated a few inches from the floor of his vessel. A freelance colonist who was also a freelance columnist, he never really felt easy on a solid surface, somehow. it made him feel uncomfortable, restrained, as it were. It was his job to cart the civilians, and the desired equipment to wherever it was, use the surprisingly advanced equipment running up and down the spine of his spindly ship to cut big holes into the planet/asteroid, and plant the prefab construction units, before covering them back up with chunks of rock that had been pulled free. It was a giant ship, as the civilian ships of the Eternal Empire were wont to be. This ship was oversized, however, as it had to provide the basis of a planetary colony, and still have enough ship to get home with afterwords. As it was, it protruded from the side of pluto, inside the large "Freight only" docking bays. Two large metal sheets clamped it, seemingly merging it with the walls of the bay, preventing the atmosphere from draining away into space. In platforms jutting out into the wide cavern, lines of civilians, at least several hundred, trundled into the vessel. several of them were enterprising merchants of some sort, most of them were the husbands, wives, or children of such people, dragged along in their latest venture. Hanging from the underside though, were the prefab structures, each kilometres long, and many more deep. Ventures like these took years to set up due to the massive resource investment necessary.


After everything was boarded, everyone was ready, and the green lights came up from traffic control, the ship lurched. In space, plumes of plasma shot out of the sides, tugging the ship from its moorings. More and more of these bright flares appeared, slowly but surely releasing the vessel. More and more space of the docking bay inside was freed from the mechanical monstrosities domination, as it pulled out. Once it had fully left, the final of these vast engines activated, directly at the back. One final shunt of that behemoth engine sent the Don't put boats in bags Hurtling away in the direction of the beaconed planet. It looked, for a few minutes, like it was going to continue at sublight speeds, but in actuality, it was simply clearing the local space of the planet. it took a lot of acceleration for a ship such as this to build up speed, so it carried a one-burst FTL device, with its own pre-charged capacitors to reduce the length of the journey from weeks to minutes. If noise travelled through the vaccuum, there would be the pummel of a foghorn as the FTL activated, but it doesn't, so there wasn't.

Approximately half an hour later, the ship re-appeared in realspace without fanfare or activity, the small planet looming improbably large within its bow facing windows.

All passengers, we have reached Lucy, and preliminary colonisation will begin in 15 minutes. Ensure that you have all your belongings, and prepare to depart. Basho stated into the microphone, and the message was pumped around the ship.

Almost on cue, 4 transport shuttles appeared out of FTL, ready to ferry the civilians down to their colony, once the Don't put boats in bags had finished excavating and implanting it.

Excavating the area was simple. The colony ship approached the planet to within several metres, and four "prongs" with superheavy mining equipment jutted out of the bottom of the ship at 90 degree angles, mounted on bearings to allow them to turn on their axis. Drilling to a depth double the thickness of the prefab, they cut out the shape, and reaching down underneath the soil, cut it from the rest of the planet. Then, latching onto each other, sheets of metal telescoped from their sides, making a stable metal surface, and the chunk of planet was pulled off and moved to a safe distance. Once that was done, the prefab structure was carefully lowered into the hole, and a segment cut from the original rock was laid back down, covering the prefab up, except for a few holes that had no effect on the air-tight fabric that could be filled in at leisure. Then the process was repeated, corridors dug between by the prefabs far lighter arrays as was necessary.


Basho knew that his request for everyone to assemble their equipment was premature. The mining phase took hours, and it was incredibly dull. But part of him just enjoyed toying with the people aboard in such minor ways. Besides, they had their full AV suites provided to them thanks to him, so they wouldn't have to sit through the entire procedure like he would.

OOC: Forums ate up my original post. Here is the important part.

<To: The CSS John Bolton>
<From: The TSS Charmonium>
<Subject: Planet Lila>

To the Commanding Officer of the John Bolton:

As agreed by our governments, the United Solaris Federation of Tiburon has formally claimed the Eastern Hemisphere of the Planet Lila, while the Confederate States of Allanea has claimed the Western Hemisphere. This is a notice that the United Solaris Federation shall be landing settlers shortly.

Sincerely,
Colonel James Zolcraft,
The TSS Charmonium

OOC2: Yes, we agreed to this. On IRC.

OOC: Well, my agreement with Jordaxia was slightly previous, per se. Here’s what it looks like [very NOT to scale: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v42/allanea/map.jpg

IC:
As the spear-like object touched down on Lila’s surface, the impact made something in the object change, unwrapping a second pole, hanging the object horizontally. From it, the famous Dixie Cross flag was unwrapped, hanging in a standard-like fashion, held unwrapped by it’s gravity alone. It didn’t wave and it did not move, simply hanging there - a simple, yet proud symbol of things to come.

Ten hours later, the first military craft would begin to arrive - smalll, yet well-protected Hughie-Mk II class craft. The CSS Alabama, Florida, Zara-Krista, and Yurka-City where the first to arrive in orbit above the new Allanean colony - named, so far, New-Alaska. While the colony ships were far from being prepared, those would patrol the skies of Lila, protecting the Tiburonese, Jordaxians, and Allaneans on the planet from any violent harm. From the deeper reaches of Sol, the CSS Yoshitaka Amano', Mamoru Oshii, and Shoji Kawamori where on the way, as well.

And while, so far, no specialized settler ships arrived, dozens of enterprising Allaneans in SSUV vehicles swarmed upon the planet. Some of them simply mined themselves a bit of ore from the surface of the Allanean colony - later to be known as the state of New Utah - some to set up some form of temporary dwelling for long-term operation. By ‘long term’, most of them meant ‘a month or three’. However, one of them was different.

His name was John ‘Shining Light’ Laden, and it was this unknown heretofore man that would establish the first permanent Allanean dwelling on Lila. A space cruise liner, the Fanboy’s Dream Girl, was settled onto the surface, becoming the Fanboy’s Dream Girl Bar, Casino, and Brothel. Such was the first settlement that was the foundation to the city of New Crawford, after the living place of a great American pesident from a past which was sacred history to the Allaneans - descended from the Americans as they actually were.

And so, the first Allanean settlement on the new planet was not a research center, it was not a factory, it was not a military base. For once, someone actually did something useful with their space possessions. Certainly more useful than military bases.

A conversation overheard at the Menelmacari Prefecture of State

"Some random folks claiming to be... survivors of Allanea, I guess... just claimed a Kuiper Belt object."

*blinks* "Why? KBO's are useless iceballs. There's no resources to speak of."

"Oh, apparently it's special, being as it's a really big Kuiper Belt object."

"Whoopdedoo. Great, so they've got a whole lot of useless, dirty ice. I'm sure they're very proud. Let's do up a short press release, and have someone announce it commensurate with how much we care."

The resulting release:

Menelmacar congratulates the survivors of Allanea and the band of misfits they call 'allies' on having claimed a useless iceball. While we are sure it will be a constant drain on what remains of Allanean resources, as there's nothing to gain from colonizing a Kuiper Belt object, at least it will be peaceful, since nobody else with half a mind will have any interest in taking it away.

~Diego Mendez, foreign guest-worker deputy assistant night janitor who sweeps the square in front of the Prefecture of State

OOC: Actually, given the current state of affairs in Allanea, Menelmacar’s description of the situation is almost accurate, so I’ll run with it.

IC:

Aboard the CSS ‘Conestoga - 456’ settler vessel, secret IC

‘Misfits? Since when have the Menelmacari started complimenting us, anyhow?’ - asked Shargat Nikht, the new governor of the State of New-Alaska. His orcish face contorted it what seemed to be amazement. - ‘I thought they don’t really care about us.’

His aide chuckled. ‘Well, Mr. Nikht, I don’t think they see it as a compliment, themselves. It is only perhaps in the Confederacy, here, that we see the word ‘misfit’ as something positive’.

‘Oh well. Just as I was getting excited. I assume it’s not withhin our authority to send them a dictionary of Allanean-English, now is it?’

‘No, Mr. Nikht. I think we just should leave it without comment. Soon, very soon, it will become obvious which ones are right. And if the population thinks Menelmacar is dropping us compliments for this, well, I know who’s going to be the next Governor of this new State, Sir.’

Mr. Nikht chuckled. ‘Well, I be damned. Never thought Menelmacar would help an Orc get re-elected for office.

‘I don’t think they did, either’. - laughed the aide.

OOC (Allanea): Fine by me.

IC: <Sent Via ANSINet>
<Message Type: Classified (Top Secret- DIMIC)>
<To: Diego Mendez, Night Janitor of the Prefecture of State, the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar>
<From: Colonel James Zolcraft, the United Solaris Federation Aerospace Force, et al.>
<Subject: Menelmacari Response to the Colonization of Lila>
<Cc: Lady Sirithil nos Fëanor, Elentári, the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar>

Mr. Mendez,

Although we will not comment on Menelmacar's stance towards Allanea, since we believe it is none of our business, we would like to note that recent statements by the Menelmacari government regarding the usefulness of Kuiper Belt objects may not only offend citizens of the USF living within Comet Shield and Solar Edge Republics. Although resource-wise, certain areas of the Kuiper Belt may be lacking, other areas within the Comet Shield and Solar Edge Republics have great usefulness to the United Solaris Federation. Given the friendly relations and alliance between our nations, however, we do not expect this to alter Tiburonese-Menelmacari relations in any way. Just to let you guys know.

Sincerely,
Colonel James Zolcraft, the United Solaris Federation Aerospace Force

OOC2: Well, New Mexico has no resources either. It still has some purpose within the USA. Mainly to provide electoral votes, but meh.

In the meanwhile, as the Menelmacari would be surprised, probably, to know, the Confederate States Stellar Navy has begun to build it’s base there - known henceforth as Fort Lila. It would house a small amount of corvettes - namely, twenty of the - and a military research station. It seemed that the owner of the Fanboy’s Dream Girl has made the correct guess when putting down stakes on Lila. He was not the only one - Allanean resource-harvesters working in the Kuiper’s Belt stopped often at Lila for repairs, and owners of restaurants, gambling emporiums, and, of course, brothels in New Alaska stood to gain a lot from the positioning. So far, John Laden was the only one. When other came, he would end up being the richest one, too.

Official Message from the United Solaris Federation of Tiburon

The United Solaris Federation of Tiburon is limiting its initial claim to the Eastern Hemisphere of the stellar object designated 2003UB313. The USF shall limit its claim to all lands between 22.5 degrees East and 67.5 degrees East, above the equator of the planet.

The KCS Peter Ikatori arrived at Lila with the intention of establishing a refueling station for future Khristian vessels that would be traveling thoughout the area on missions of exploration, colonization and resoure-collecting.

The Ikatori had traded most of his combat craft for small construction corvettes that would build the station. Commander Daniel Ikatori was also on a mission to inquire about aquiring land on Lila itself.