Total War: Principia IC II

[kemmotar]

The Judiciary Collective of the Kramagorian Moons
Reputation: Neutral
Morale: 8

Spoiler: Vanguard Unit Z-358 - Public

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OOC before your midturn. A temporary injunction would prevent (if successful) the JCKM from attacking UEO this turn. In order to apply for one you would need to pay a retainer to a JCKM lawyer at midturn, otherwise, it would only be payable at EoT and then apply on the following turn.

We would be willing to accept accept Ka I & Log as downpayment at equivalent SCI value and can further negotiate after midturn given the lack of time and you being busy.

Spoiler

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Spoiler: Space Opera and other foibles

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The only way in which the collective could be accused of levity, and perhaps in some circles precisely so they are not accused for a lack of one, they have given a nod to the cultured past by naming some of their crack squads after ancient operations memorialized through the physical arts.

1) In memory of the battle of the swan conflagration, a crack squad an elite assault squad was created specializing in boarding actions. The pointe berserkers, equipped with the latest in mechanized battle armour (thin but durable) they use rotating monomolecular blades attached to the bottom of their feet to move at incredible speeds along all 3 dimensions (especially in the weightlessness of void warfare). The swan conflagration originates from a small stranded squad of swan vessels (so called because their huge engines built for speed caused an incredibly strong magnetic field that is harmful to all life – As such the cockpit and living area had to be further away from the engine room resulting in a body with a long neck) in enemy territory and being assaulted by the technomages led by Rotbart the Black who sought the superior technology of the lead vessel “Odette”. The standstill was broken by the assault of Segafredo squadron after tipping the scales against Rotbart by destroying his flagship “Odille”, which had been masquerading as an empire vessel. Thankfully the cybernetic warfare module of Segafredo squadron was able to see through the mimicked vessel tags by recognizing the different engine frequency of the inferior Rotbart vessel and blasted to atoms. Then, the squadron let the “Odette” and her attendant vessels back to the empire shipyards. This is commemorated through an ancient piece of music by one Chai-trotsky and the point berserkers are psychoindoctrinated to enter a battle frenzy when they hear his piece of long forgotten music, some say it was written for star crossed shapechanging lovers. What piffle….but the music seemed to engender a certain aggressive reaction in individuals with a certain genetic anomaly.

2) Juliette squadron, a famous wing of the collective's fleet so named after Juliette the oubliette, a famous spy in the times of the pre arco medean era. She is most well known for the events that led to her obtaining the codes for the self destruct sequence for the weapons of mass destruction of a faction of rebels called the Veronese after the controversial decision which had banned the installation of high grade AIs in android bodies that have humanlike skin. The veronese threatened to detonate quantum busters under the server archive holding the names of AIs downloaded already in what would be non-compliant bodies. Juliette, then a little known intelligence agent barely out of the academy took advantage of her young looks and the Veronese terrorist leader Romeo proclivities and managed to insinuate herself into his life as his lover. She was quickly able to make him fall in love with her by adopting a meek persona but she still was unable to extract the necessary information from him. Getting desperate she concocted a plot with the help of another of the agents that had infiltrated the organization posing as a doctor. She would be injected with an agent that would put her in a medically induced coma 12 hours after the injection. She would also be given a vial that was ostensibly poison, but was in fact the counteragent to the injection. By taking it before she went into the coma, she would be able to convince Romeo of her death. The plan was that in his grief, near the end, she would convince him to give up enough information to help the investigation. In fact what she had not been counting on, was Romeo’s unstable mental state, when Juliette drank the poison in front of him claiming that she could no longer live in fear of Romeo one day being capture or worse. In response Romeo, stricken by the loss, committed suicide himself using his own personal weapon just as the incredibly surprised Juliette was slipping into the coma. She awoke a few hours later covered in blood and in a panic. As far as she knew, there was no one alive who knew the full plan and Romeo’s lieutenants had been ordered to never reveal their part of the plan. Her only option now was to use Romeo’s body to bypass biometric protections around his personal quarters. Using his severed hands and removed eyes, she gained access to his computer, through this and by impersonating Romeo in electronic communication she managed to convince his lieutenants that the plan had been compromised. By in turn accusing each one of his lieutenants as being the leak, which she (Romeo) knew because it was each lieutenant’s piece of the puzzle that had been leaked, she managed to gather sufficient information on both the attack and secondary cells spread out all over the system. Finally, she struck gold when in one of the replies of a lieutenant she found an email with the encrypted disarming code. Romeo had always worn an earring that Juliette had never really been able to reconcile with his personality. She snapped the code into her memory cortex and once more returned to her room where she had stashed the body in the lavatory cubicle. After some fiddling she discovered that the earring was in fact a scrambler decoder and after plugging it into her own memory cortex she was able to unscramble the code. Soon after she sent the code to her handler and once she had confirmation that the WMDs had been remotely deactivated, she secretly left the compound. In her honour the cybernetic warfare squadron has been formed by the collective and each year one of the officers of the squadron has the honour of playing the heroic role in a play that is held in the capital.
3) Further text redacted to protect the Collective armed forces and obscure their capabilities.

Spoiler: Articles of Incorporation

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Articles of incorporation, binding upon the collective
1) The collective will never go back on its legal obligations as set out in the relevant agreement.
2) War is a lawful endeavour provided that the rules of alliances and principia are maintained (casus belli provided and announced to senate or privately with notice).
3) The judiciary of the collective shall remain impartial in its judgment of any claim brough before it with the aim of accomplishing restitution against the aggrieved party.
4) The collective may bring a claim internally with itself as the claimant in order to seek the fulfillment of any agreement that has been reneged or pursue any cause of action.
5) Anyone who has retained legal representation from the legal firms of the Kramagorian moons or any other legal body recognized by the judicial body of the collective will benefit from attorney client privilege and all other duties of confidentiality, disclosure of conflict of interest and the best legal defense that the contracted entity
6) The Collective maintains the right to alter its articles of association and any other legal documentation at its absolute discretion without any forewarning, although all agreements shall be honoured on the basis of the version of the relevant legislation applicable at the time.

Spoiler: Laws and procedure, non-exhaustive

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s.1 Rights of the claimant
a.All individuals and/or factions may request intervention from the courts where they believe they have been wronged.
b. In order for a claim to be considered there will be a procedural fee to reflect the labour and process of the courts. This will be decided ad hoc and at the discretion of the courts. The fee will be made known to the potential claimant through their representative to the courts (non refundable)
c. Once the fee has been agreed the courts will send summons to the defendant and initiate due process against them. If the defendant does not respond to the summons, the courts will investigate to the best of their ability the facts in evidence and proceed with any legal action as required by the determination of the courts without recourse.
d.Both parties agree to abide by the decision of the courts, whatever the determination. The courts may decide on the following actions at their absolute discretion but always taking into account the contents of the claim and other circumstances that become evident during the proceedings. Relief that the court may grant at its discretion include but are not limited to:
1) restitution action
2) injunction
3) punitive action
4) ethical restitution
5) any other action considered necessary by the courts for justice and balance to be delivered between parties.

s.2 Judiciary and legal services
a. Barristers, judges below the rank of Supreme Justice or other agents of the court may be retained as required to provide legal services on a prolonged contract or a one-off.
b. the fees for such services will be negotiated and agreed to on an ad-hoc bilateral basis, are non-refundable payable before commencement of the service.
c. Services may include, but are not limited to arbitration of dispute, legal discovery, defensive discovery, legal representation to the Judiciary, alliance maintenance.
d. the collective, any of its department or legal firms and institutions reserve the right to not accept any given business proposal, extension or alteration thereof or to discontinue services giving (1) cycle of notice, without further recourse.
e. A declaration of war by the collective or against the collective during the performance of their duties shall have the immediate, unilateral and irrevocable effect of cessation of contractual performance and immediate return of any of its agents, officers or employees including any goods or materials that have been assigned.
f. A sitting member of the judiciary that is not actively engaged in a case may be retained for services such as dispute arbitration, alliance monitoring, witnesses to contracts or any other service such as may not result in a conflict of interest. Judges employed in this capacity may not sit in judgment of a relevant claim but may provide evidence to the judiciary for any claim that arises related to the services that have been provided.
s.3 Quantum of restitution:
1) Sum under dispute in addition to any ethical damages as quantified the courts at their discretion.
2) Interest charged at 10% per cycle minimum (1) per cycle.
3) Fees paid by the claimant to initiate proceedings.
4) Costs and expenses of determination and enforcement of claim.
b. Reverse order of claim seniority - if full restitution has not been accomplished through legal actions the claimant may pay a small processing fee to extend legal action into the following cycles in order to secure full restitution. The fee is repeatable for each subsequent cycle the restitution action is sought.
c. Should the defendant admit wrongdoing and agree to pay restitution under the original claim then legal action shall be pending full restitution. Once the claimant has confirmed they have been made whole, all claims against the defendant shall be dismissed and
d. Any and all actions in response of judicial action will be carried upon the unilateral determination of the courts without any duty to announce the results prior to the passing of any specific cycle, but has a duty to announce the result after the fact. Action by the courts in accordance with its determination are considered to be done solely at the behest of the claimant and the courts bear no responsibility for any and all outcomes. The action does not constitute a cause of action against the courts or the claimant but may be subject to injunction from the defendant if duly represented and the claim for injunction of any action by the courts passes summary judgment. Through the simple existence of a claim against the defendant the defendant is considered to be on notice of potential action and as such any requirement for a declaration of war before legal action is waiv
sub 1. Summary judgment: upon retention of a legal representative and payment of the processing fee of the courts a defendant may apply for an injunction to delay any action against them provided they have also presented evidence to the judge sitting on judgment of the original claim. Any evidence presented to the former judge will be shared with the latter and may form part of the decision even if the summary judgment for injunction is dismissed. Should the defendant of the original claimant, here the claimant of injunctive relief, present evidence sufficient to show either:
1) Bad faith on the part of the claimant – ie having first caused the creation of a cause of action for the claimant of injunctive relief.
2) That there is insufficient evidence to show wrongdoing and therefore requiring the courts to launch a full investigation into the circumstances of
a. The claimant under the first claim, being the defendant in the second claim, shall be invited to participate in the summary judgment to provide or counter evidence provided by the claimant of the injunction against the first claim unless the claimant of the second claim can demonstrate that there is sufficient reason for such proceedings to be kept private.
b. For this determination to be made, the claimant of the second claim must send a direct representative to the courts. The courts cannot guarantee that a motion for injunction against the first claim will be granted.
c. The courts may at their discretion hear evidence on why a motion for injunction should be kept private in the absence of a direct representative but cannot guarantee that such determination or discussion will be inviolable.
S4.Causes of action (including but not limited to):
1) breach of contract.
2) dealing in bad faith - acting in such a way so as to steer an actual or nominal ally into action or inaction that brings them into the path of harm when the nominal defendant had information of actual or potential action from a third party or parties intent on bringing, causing, conspiring to cause, perpetrating or motivate harm directly or indirectly on the claimant.
3) Non-performance of duties or breach of alliance obligations.
4) Attack without proper and legal declaration or with insufficient notice.
5) Theft or destruction of property between two or more factions that are not at war or with insufficient declaration (Including but not limited to theft of moneys, materiel, information, goods tangible or intangible, planets, sectors, systems etc).
6) Murder, causing the death, unlawful detainment or serious injury of a sentient individual, AI or member of a faction, however defined by the faction without recourse to the rights, laws, regulations or ethical considerations of the actor.
7) Breach of non-aggression pact whether by obvious or hidden means.
8) Frivolous and damaging claims aiming to cause ethical and reputational damage.
9) Attempted bribery.
10) Aiding and abetting any of the above.
11) Being a causal link to the direct or indirect destruction, removal, lowering or making not available permanently or temporarily resources of another faction (stardate 13438.1)
12) Creation of hyperlanes between two non-allied nations without notice prior to the creation of said hyperlane (stardate 13438.5)
s.5
a) all judgments of the court, including the grievance, evidence presented forming the basis of the judge’s determination (ratio decidendi) as well as any legal action deriving from the court’s judgment shall be a matter of public record.
b) a party to another claim may use the ratio decidendi of another claim, where the circumstances of said claim are alike to the current claim (the burden of proof lying with the party seeking to use the prior ratio). The courts must abide by prior decisions of a higher court.

Sch. 1 Any action shall be subject to the rules of proportionality and the quantum of restitution being claimed may be adjusted accordingly to reflect this principle. The courts may at their discretion increase the quantum of the original claim at their discretion to remedy ethical damaged inflicted on the claimant through the defendant's actions, taking into account facts that may not have been in evidence during the original claim.

Sch. 2
a) All fees are considered to be net of any transactional costs, tariffs, restrictions, damage during transit and any other factor or circumstance, foreseen or unforeseen, avoidable or unavoidable that may result in the funds reaching the collective being less than agreed upon fee.
b) The collective retains the right to set-off the balance of the fee remaining unpaid against any funds of the client whether the collective is in possession or not of those funds.

Sch. 3 – The courts
1. Claims shall be considered by a court specializing in the subject matter of the claim. The lower courts must follow all precedent. These are divided between the following chambers:
a. Commercial court
b. Criminal court
c. Arbitration court
d. Ethical court
2. The legal representative of the claimant or defendant may request a higher court to hear the case, although that will only be done once the facts have been established by the specialized court. Higher courts will sit only on the legal matters.
3. The middle ranked courts are the appellate courts. These courts may overrule any decision of the lower courts if an appeal is granted. They may also set precedent at a higher seniority than the lower courts. The appellate courts may also willingly invite a case to their purview.
4. The High Courts act only of their own initiative and may set or ignore precedent at their discretion where the application or misapplication of precedent to the current claim would result in material injustice. They may also decide a case on a non-precedential basis due to unique characteristics of a case.
5. The Supreme Justice may on a non-precedential and discretionary manner to assist any court in deciding a point of law.

Sch. 4 - War
1. a state of war will remain until it has been explicitly rescinded by both parties.
2. While two factions are in a state of war, no action between the two shall be considered unlawful
3. where one is part to an alliance a state of war shall be deemed to exist between the opposing faction, factions, secondary groups, alliance or alliances of the first party and all its allies unless it is shown that the allies of the first party had no foreknowledge of such actions and remove the first party from the alliance and cease any communication/trade with them. Any trade between former allies where the alliance was dissolved shall be considered to be aid in the war and as such, the opposing party or parties as defined earlier shall be considered to be at war with the trading parties.
4. Where a cause of action is made public or is known by all involved, then war is considered to have been declared between the two parties automatically. (stardate 13438.6)

[GameOfChampions]

Antarean Crusade
Mor 13
Rep: Feared

Spoiler: UEO

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Greetings,

The tale of Bheura Prime is echoing through the galaxy and I feel the stain upon the star forced to witness such horrors enacted by the Iron Gods.

We would offer our aid in the war on the gods but as of right now we have an... understanding between us and the gods. Breaking would lead to an escalation of the war on all fronts.

However we do know you have your warbwith the judges and would be more then willing to join your fight against the beauracrats. We have long held them in I'll contempt with their unbending adherence to their corrupt laws, perfectly summed up in their condemnation of your nation.

We are willing to join you in this fight. We ask only you aid us in arriving to the fight in time to assist. We ask you create a route for us to use into their territories while we make our own preparations.

Of course your people shall be granted asylum among us. 17 is a happy and mostly unpopulated system. The star speaks of happy times with thriving environs ready for you to make your home there. We shall create a route to our systems for you to use.

Spoiler: OOC

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We will make you a route to our lands and you can travel through to 17 no issue. We just want you to make a route from somewherenin your systems to the judges.

[ArcaneStomper]

Spoiler: Midturn (GM)

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Roll for VIP (1d6)[1]
1. Mil, 2. Esp, 3. Eco, 4. Mor, 5. Sci, 6. Psi

Send Aakaash, 2 Sci, and 3 Mil to the Vanguard for use in exploration. Also allow them access to my Boundary Garden Installation.

Send 3 Sci to the Judiciary Collective to help with their exploration.

Send 1 Sci to the Muridun presumably for their exploration as well.

Set Bheura Trust shareholders. Sages of Iettis, Iron Gods, Judiciary Collective, and Muridun

[kemmotar]

The Judiciary Collective of the Kramagorian Moons
Reputation: Neutral
Morale: 8

Spoiler: Midturn - GM

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1 SCI exploring Lair of Linnorms
3 SCI from sages exploring Lair of Linnorms

Adjust reputation of UEO negatively.

A woman that looks like a newscaster appears on screen of the released video.

"Today, at the request of the Supreme Justice, a significant amount of material has been declassified. This material is sourced from the report of the investigating officers of the prosecution and have led to the arrest of many individuals involved. These testimonials speak for themselves. "

The actual content is a jumble of media, some are of confessions, others are videos or telephone calls captured between citizens of the Collective and individuals identifying themselves as agents of the UEO. The testimonials begin with a series of attempts to extort corporations over minor ecological accidents. The agents promise that they will lead such a campaign that they would bankrupt the companies purely on negative publicity.

"One might wonder, why an order so devoted to protecting nature and preventing damage to the environment would actively seek out big and small offenders only to extort them for money. This is the question many prosecutors asked and presumably one of the reasons for their finding that the UEO is a criminal syndicate. But that is not all. The worst offense has been left for last. "

There is no video as the screen turns black. Only two voices can be heard, the subtitles read "Junior administrator Roland Peck" and "Unknown UEO agent" to separate the two voices as they speak. The UEO agent is pressing the junior administrator for secrets of the collective, dispositions of defenses and sensor arrays, patrol codes used to allow vessels access to restricted areas of space and other secrets that would allow the UEO to not only hack confidential information but also how to physically infiltrate the defenses of the Collective and even get armies past them. The agent at times cajoles and at times browbeats the young man. The young man repeats that he does not want to be a traitor but eventually he caves through the agent's deft manipulation and starts spilling secrets. He believes this is for the best as the agent promises that these secrets will be used to allow the UEO to access hidden information about ecological accidents hidden by the government.

"The naive young man was manipulated deftly by this agent that the prosecution has identified as an agent of the UEO, he believed he would benefit the ordinary citizens of the Collective. However blameless the young man was found guilty of treason. Although we mourn for his loss, his mistake could have had disastrous consequences had the UEO decided to attack our worlds at the time, since they would have easily been able to infiltrate our defenses and cause untold damage. Today, we have unmaksed the true nature of the UEO and we hope that those of you watching will see their true faces. They are hypocrites that use their eco-friendly face to infiltrate the lives of innocents in order to extract money and secrets to further their criminal enterprises."

Spoiler

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Spoiler: Space Opera and other foibles

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The only way in which the collective could be accused of levity, and perhaps in some circles precisely so they are not accused for a lack of one, they have given a nod to the cultured past by naming some of their crack squads after ancient operations memorialized through the physical arts.

1) In memory of the battle of the swan conflagration, a crack squad an elite assault squad was created specializing in boarding actions. The pointe berserkers, equipped with the latest in mechanized battle armour (thin but durable) they use rotating monomolecular blades attached to the bottom of their feet to move at incredible speeds along all 3 dimensions (especially in the weightlessness of void warfare). The swan conflagration originates from a small stranded squad of swan vessels (so called because their huge engines built for speed caused an incredibly strong magnetic field that is harmful to all life – As such the cockpit and living area had to be further away from the engine room resulting in a body with a long neck) in enemy territory and being assaulted by the technomages led by Rotbart the Black who sought the superior technology of the lead vessel “Odette”. The standstill was broken by the assault of Segafredo squadron after tipping the scales against Rotbart by destroying his flagship “Odille”, which had been masquerading as an empire vessel. Thankfully the cybernetic warfare module of Segafredo squadron was able to see through the mimicked vessel tags by recognizing the different engine frequency of the inferior Rotbart vessel and blasted to atoms. Then, the squadron let the “Odette” and her attendant vessels back to the empire shipyards. This is commemorated through an ancient piece of music by one Chai-trotsky and the point berserkers are psychoindoctrinated to enter a battle frenzy when they hear his piece of long forgotten music, some say it was written for star crossed shapechanging lovers. What piffle….but the music seemed to engender a certain aggressive reaction in individuals with a certain genetic anomaly.

2) Juliette squadron, a famous wing of the collective's fleet so named after Juliette the oubliette, a famous spy in the times of the pre arco medean era. She is most well known for the events that led to her obtaining the codes for the self destruct sequence for the weapons of mass destruction of a faction of rebels called the Veronese after the controversial decision which had banned the installation of high grade AIs in android bodies that have humanlike skin. The veronese threatened to detonate quantum busters under the server archive holding the names of AIs downloaded already in what would be non-compliant bodies. Juliette, then a little known intelligence agent barely out of the academy took advantage of her young looks and the Veronese terrorist leader Romeo proclivities and managed to insinuate herself into his life as his lover. She was quickly able to make him fall in love with her by adopting a meek persona but she still was unable to extract the necessary information from him. Getting desperate she concocted a plot with the help of another of the agents that had infiltrated the organization posing as a doctor. She would be injected with an agent that would put her in a medically induced coma 12 hours after the injection. She would also be given a vial that was ostensibly poison, but was in fact the counteragent to the injection. By taking it before she went into the coma, she would be able to convince Romeo of her death. The plan was that in his grief, near the end, she would convince him to give up enough information to help the investigation. In fact what she had not been counting on, was Romeo’s unstable mental state, when Juliette drank the poison in front of him claiming that she could no longer live in fear of Romeo one day being capture or worse. In response Romeo, stricken by the loss, committed suicide himself using his own personal weapon just as the incredibly surprised Juliette was slipping into the coma. She awoke a few hours later covered in blood and in a panic. As far as she knew, there was no one alive who knew the full plan and Romeo’s lieutenants had been ordered to never reveal their part of the plan. Her only option now was to use Romeo’s body to bypass biometric protections around his personal quarters. Using his severed hands and removed eyes, she gained access to his computer, through this and by impersonating Romeo in electronic communication she managed to convince his lieutenants that the plan had been compromised. By in turn accusing each one of his lieutenants as being the leak, which she (Romeo) knew because it was each lieutenant’s piece of the puzzle that had been leaked, she managed to gather sufficient information on both the attack and secondary cells spread out all over the system. Finally, she struck gold when in one of the replies of a lieutenant she found an email with the encrypted disarming code. Romeo had always worn an earring that Juliette had never really been able to reconcile with his personality. She snapped the code into her memory cortex and once more returned to her room where she had stashed the body in the lavatory cubicle. After some fiddling she discovered that the earring was in fact a scrambler decoder and after plugging it into her own memory cortex she was able to unscramble the code. Soon after she sent the code to her handler and once she had confirmation that the WMDs had been remotely deactivated, she secretly left the compound. In her honour the cybernetic warfare squadron has been formed by the collective and each year one of the officers of the squadron has the honour of playing the heroic role in a play that is held in the capital.
3) Further text redacted to protect the Collective armed forces and obscure their capabilities.

Spoiler: Articles of Incorporation

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Articles of incorporation, binding upon the collective
1) The collective will never go back on its legal obligations as set out in the relevant agreement.
2) War is a lawful endeavour provided that the rules of alliances and principia are maintained (casus belli provided and announced to senate or privately with notice).
3) The judiciary of the collective shall remain impartial in its judgment of any claim brough before it with the aim of accomplishing restitution against the aggrieved party.
4) The collective may bring a claim internally with itself as the claimant in order to seek the fulfillment of any agreement that has been reneged or pursue any cause of action.
5) Anyone who has retained legal representation from the legal firms of the Kramagorian moons or any other legal body recognized by the judicial body of the collective will benefit from attorney client privilege and all other duties of confidentiality, disclosure of conflict of interest and the best legal defense that the contracted entity
6) The Collective maintains the right to alter its articles of association and any other legal documentation at its absolute discretion without any forewarning, although all agreements shall be honoured on the basis of the version of the relevant legislation applicable at the time.

Spoiler: Laws and procedure, non-exhaustive

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s.1 Rights of the claimant
a.All individuals and/or factions may request intervention from the courts where they believe they have been wronged.
b. In order for a claim to be considered there will be a procedural fee to reflect the labour and process of the courts. This will be decided ad hoc and at the discretion of the courts. The fee will be made known to the potential claimant through their representative to the courts (non refundable)
c. Once the fee has been agreed the courts will send summons to the defendant and initiate due process against them. If the defendant does not respond to the summons, the courts will investigate to the best of their ability the facts in evidence and proceed with any legal action as required by the determination of the courts without recourse.
d.Both parties agree to abide by the decision of the courts, whatever the determination. The courts may decide on the following actions at their absolute discretion but always taking into account the contents of the claim and other circumstances that become evident during the proceedings. Relief that the court may grant at its discretion include but are not limited to:
1) restitution action
2) injunction
3) punitive action
4) ethical restitution
5) any other action considered necessary by the courts for justice and balance to be delivered between parties.

s.2 Judiciary and legal services
a. Barristers, judges below the rank of Supreme Justice or other agents of the court may be retained as required to provide legal services on a prolonged contract or a one-off.
b. the fees for such services will be negotiated and agreed to on an ad-hoc bilateral basis, are non-refundable payable before commencement of the service.
c. Services may include, but are not limited to arbitration of dispute, legal discovery, defensive discovery, legal representation to the Judiciary, alliance maintenance.
d. the collective, any of its department or legal firms and institutions reserve the right to not accept any given business proposal, extension or alteration thereof or to discontinue services giving (1) cycle of notice, without further recourse.
e. A declaration of war by the collective or against the collective during the performance of their duties shall have the immediate, unilateral and irrevocable effect of cessation of contractual performance and immediate return of any of its agents, officers or employees including any goods or materials that have been assigned.
f. A sitting member of the judiciary that is not actively engaged in a case may be retained for services such as dispute arbitration, alliance monitoring, witnesses to contracts or any other service such as may not result in a conflict of interest. Judges employed in this capacity may not sit in judgment of a relevant claim but may provide evidence to the judiciary for any claim that arises related to the services that have been provided.
s.3 Quantum of restitution:
1) Sum under dispute in addition to any ethical damages as quantified the courts at their discretion.
2) Interest charged at 10% per cycle minimum (1) per cycle.
3) Fees paid by the claimant to initiate proceedings.
4) Costs and expenses of determination and enforcement of claim.
b. Reverse order of claim seniority - if full restitution has not been accomplished through legal actions the claimant may pay a small processing fee to extend legal action into the following cycles in order to secure full restitution. The fee is repeatable for each subsequent cycle the restitution action is sought.
c. Should the defendant admit wrongdoing and agree to pay restitution under the original claim then legal action shall be pending full restitution. Once the claimant has confirmed they have been made whole, all claims against the defendant shall be dismissed and
d. Any and all actions in response of judicial action will be carried upon the unilateral determination of the courts without any duty to announce the results prior to the passing of any specific cycle, but has a duty to announce the result after the fact. Action by the courts in accordance with its determination are considered to be done solely at the behest of the claimant and the courts bear no responsibility for any and all outcomes. The action does not constitute a cause of action against the courts or the claimant but may be subject to injunction from the defendant if duly represented and the claim for injunction of any action by the courts passes summary judgment. Through the simple existence of a claim against the defendant the defendant is considered to be on notice of potential action and as such any requirement for a declaration of war before legal action is waiv
sub 1. Summary judgment: upon retention of a legal representative and payment of the processing fee of the courts a defendant may apply for an injunction to delay any action against them provided they have also presented evidence to the judge sitting on judgment of the original claim. Any evidence presented to the former judge will be shared with the latter and may form part of the decision even if the summary judgment for injunction is dismissed. Should the defendant of the original claimant, here the claimant of injunctive relief, present evidence sufficient to show either:
1) Bad faith on the part of the claimant – ie having first caused the creation of a cause of action for the claimant of injunctive relief.
2) That there is insufficient evidence to show wrongdoing and therefore requiring the courts to launch a full investigation into the circumstances of
a. The claimant under the first claim, being the defendant in the second claim, shall be invited to participate in the summary judgment to provide or counter evidence provided by the claimant of the injunction against the first claim unless the claimant of the second claim can demonstrate that there is sufficient reason for such proceedings to be kept private.
b. For this determination to be made, the claimant of the second claim must send a direct representative to the courts. The courts cannot guarantee that a motion for injunction against the first claim will be granted.
c. The courts may at their discretion hear evidence on why a motion for injunction should be kept private in the absence of a direct representative but cannot guarantee that such determination or discussion will be inviolable.
S4.Causes of action (including but not limited to):
1) breach of contract.
2) dealing in bad faith - acting in such a way so as to steer an actual or nominal ally into action or inaction that brings them into the path of harm when the nominal defendant had information of actual or potential action from a third party or parties intent on bringing, causing, conspiring to cause, perpetrating or motivate harm directly or indirectly on the claimant.
3) Non-performance of duties or breach of alliance obligations.
4) Attack without proper and legal declaration or with insufficient notice.
5) Theft or destruction of property between two or more factions that are not at war or with insufficient declaration (Including but not limited to theft of moneys, materiel, information, goods tangible or intangible, planets, sectors, systems etc).
6) Murder, causing the death, unlawful detainment or serious injury of a sentient individual, AI or member of a faction, however defined by the faction without recourse to the rights, laws, regulations or ethical considerations of the actor.
7) Breach of non-aggression pact whether by obvious or hidden means.
8) Frivolous and damaging claims aiming to cause ethical and reputational damage.
9) Attempted bribery.
10) Aiding and abetting any of the above.
11) Being a causal link to the direct or indirect destruction, removal, lowering or making not available permanently or temporarily resources of another faction (stardate 13438.1)
12) Creation of hyperlanes between two non-allied nations without notice prior to the creation of said hyperlane (stardate 13438.5)
s.5
a) all judgments of the court, including the grievance, evidence presented forming the basis of the judge’s determination (ratio decidendi) as well as any legal action deriving from the court’s judgment shall be a matter of public record.
b) a party to another claim may use the ratio decidendi of another claim, where the circumstances of said claim are alike to the current claim (the burden of proof lying with the party seeking to use the prior ratio). The courts must abide by prior decisions of a higher court.

Sch. 1 Any action shall be subject to the rules of proportionality and the quantum of restitution being claimed may be adjusted accordingly to reflect this principle. The courts may at their discretion increase the quantum of the original claim at their discretion to remedy ethical damaged inflicted on the claimant through the defendant's actions, taking into account facts that may not have been in evidence during the original claim.

Sch. 2
a) All fees are considered to be net of any transactional costs, tariffs, restrictions, damage during transit and any other factor or circumstance, foreseen or unforeseen, avoidable or unavoidable that may result in the funds reaching the collective being less than agreed upon fee.
b) The collective retains the right to set-off the balance of the fee remaining unpaid against any funds of the client whether the collective is in possession or not of those funds.

Sch. 3 – The courts
1. Claims shall be considered by a court specializing in the subject matter of the claim. The lower courts must follow all precedent. These are divided between the following chambers:
a. Commercial court
b. Criminal court
c. Arbitration court
d. Ethical court
2. The legal representative of the claimant or defendant may request a higher court to hear the case, although that will only be done once the facts have been established by the specialized court. Higher courts will sit only on the legal matters.
3. The middle ranked courts are the appellate courts. These courts may overrule any decision of the lower courts if an appeal is granted. They may also set precedent at a higher seniority than the lower courts. The appellate courts may also willingly invite a case to their purview.
4. The High Courts act only of their own initiative and may set or ignore precedent at their discretion where the application or misapplication of precedent to the current claim would result in material injustice. They may also decide a case on a non-precedential basis due to unique characteristics of a case.
5. The Supreme Justice may on a non-precedential and discretionary manner to assist any court in deciding a point of law.

Sch. 4 - War
1. a state of war will remain until it has been explicitly rescinded by both parties.
2. While two factions are in a state of war, no action between the two shall be considered unlawful
3. where one is part to an alliance a state of war shall be deemed to exist between the opposing faction, factions, secondary groups, alliance or alliances of the first party and all its allies unless it is shown that the allies of the first party had no foreknowledge of such actions and remove the first party from the alliance and cease any communication/trade with them. Any trade between former allies where the alliance was dissolved shall be considered to be aid in the war and as such, the opposing party or parties as defined earlier shall be considered to be at war with the trading parties.
4. Where a cause of action is made public or is known by all involved, then war is considered to have been declared between the two parties automatically. (stardate 13438.6)

[St. Justicar]

The Iron Gods of Ur



Reputation: Dreaded, Encryption Level 18

Spoiler: Kramagorian Judiciary

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Greetings,

Consider this an official request to retain council for the purposes of negotiations regarding the disposition of the Barakan system and a ceasefire to the current conflict in the north of principia.

-Asharra, Priestess of ENLIL, Favoured Voice of Heaven

Spoiler: Sages of Iettis, UEO

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It goes without saying, but I would formally request the Sages host these peace talks in the coming year. Haven is the nearest world with anything like neutrality and a communication system worth the name anyway.

For the purposes of keeping things as simple as possible, I have sought to retain the services of a Kramagorian mediator to attend them as well. I will inform you as my success when I know.

-Asharra, Priestess of ENLIL, Favoured Voice of Heaven

Spoiler: Midturn

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5 Points of Sci to explore the Birdcage - With a newly developed appreciation for scarcity - and understanding that if they break their toys they'll have to argue with the war effort for resources to replace them - the investigation of the ancient prison is carried out with significantly more caution than the Black Ark. A low bar, admittedly, but smaller, better equipped teams of acolytes attempting to clear sections piece by piece, all new ground broken by extremelly expendable drones that are little more than camera and engines, and so on.

But hey, if you've got a war to win, why not go looking for any myriad-old war criminal ghosts who might be able to help, right?

Reduce UEO's Reputation - use every bit of personal information and government protocol and every bit of seized classified information on Barrakan to launch a truly dizzying variety of new automated scams purporting to be refugees trying to escape from UEO space before the war comes to them, successful refugees who just need some funds to gain access to their lost cutting edge prototypes on Barakan, and just fraudulent attempts to solicit donations for the Gaskite war effort. Quantity over quality here - any success is besides the point, which is to make 'UEO recruiters/sympathizer trying to organize aid or get people's compassion' the Principian equivalent of a Nigerian prince.

In order to help sell the deception, several million people's identities will be coneniently leaked onto various dark web data trading sites, sold to brokers and miners for pennies on the dollar.

Activating TheAnnalyst Equation

[3SecondCultist]

The Numinous Secretariat of Lithos
Morale 15

Spoiler: To the Sages of Iettis VI and the Judiciary Committee of the Kramagorian Moons (Public)

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We have Heard your Reasons, and find them Wanting.

Time and Time Again, you Excuse the Culling of Worlds. There will be no Peace if the Dread Light that Rests in Ur comes to your Doorstep. We have been Called Mad, Capricious. This does not Escape the Secretariat’s Notice. Yet you are Madder Still, if you think that Turning to Anathema with Open Arms will Result in anything but your Doom.

For a Second Time, we Warn you. Turn away from Ur, before it is Too Late.

Public: The Numinous Secretariat renews its war declaration on the Iron Gods of Ur and the Sages of Iettis VI, and declares war on the Judiciary Collective.

Spoiler: To Vanguard Unit Z-358

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You may have Some Sense, Saviours of Far Away.

We would be Willing to Hear what you Have to Say on the Principian Question. Your Voices may be Worth adding to the Record of our Codex. However, what would you be Willing to do to Attain our Good Graces?

Spoiler: To the UEO

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You have some Sense, for all that your Methods are Unorthodox, verging on Heretical. For you look to your Borders and see Death.

Should you wish to Engage in Trade, the Secretariat would be Willing to Offer Succour to the Damned. A Gift of Parting, a Final Grace before One or Both of Us Fall Prey to Anathema.

Spoiler: OOC

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They’re open to trading favourably with you this turn, to give you discounted rates of Mor if you use it to withstand the Iron Gods.

Aos Il'ukaran, the Stewards of Understanding
Morale 6

Spoiler: To Vanguard Unit Z-358

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Direction: the Vanguard Corps.

Greetings! The Stewards have begun extensive preparations for your arrival on Hagia, including but not limited to synchronizing system data, optimizing simulators, and ensuring maximum compatibility. I personally have broken down the code of several rampant programs, reassembling local reality stacks to match your preferred mode of quiddity interaction.

As to your offer, let me be the first to work with you personally to share our resources for a stress test of our work. The Silent Cartographer awaits you, engineer.

Sincerely,
Triune, the All-Code

Spoiler: OOC

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They are willing to offer the use of Triune herself (Sci 3 VIP) and 1 extra point of Sci to help you trade this turn in exchange for 5 Eco. You would clear 7 floors with that, not including your extra 3 points so you could theoretically clear 10.

The Chronarkate of Miron
Morale 4

Spoiler: To the Sages of Iettis VI

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Dearest Eldest,

The resources that you sent to our home system were gratefully received and put to good use. The Chronarch system is still beyond our full comprehension, but the time stream holds many secrets ready to be used by careful minds.

In point of fact, House Adriel and House Liase have restored their primacy among the Ninety in the recent Night of Knives. The heirs to the opposing bloodlines have been purged or chemically sterilized, allowing the rightful power to ascend to influence in Miron. Ours is the future.

In the coming years, our two houses plan on making the most of our time in the proverbial son and pitch everything we have towards ChroInt. There is no greater power than controlling time itself. We hope that you will continue to aid us in this endeavour.

Cordially,
The Ninety

Spoiler: OOC

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The Chronarkate is the active NPC this turn, and would be happy to accept any stats to help complete their LTP.

Spoiler: To Vanguard Unit Z-358

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Fair day, Maidens of the Vanguard!

The members of the great houses of Miron who number the Covenant of the Ninety have long admired the struggle that is Principia. Even more, we admire those capable of swimming in the currents of the churn and keep their head above the water. The forces of Rainbow Tell appear to belong to this rarified category of being.

While we are currently not available to trade with you directly during this sector cycle, we would be happy to use the Sages of Iettis VI as an intermediary, provided the Sages themselves sign off on the bargain. They have approached us first, after all, and we are nothing if not our word.

Cordially,
The Ninety

The Lunara Collective
Morale 5

Spoiler: To the Sages of Iettis VI

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Peaceful greetings, Sages of Iettis VI,

It has been some years since we have spoken, but the notes of your music reach the ears of billions. It is a truly harmonious tune, and one that pleases both the Immanent Impetus and the rest of the Nimbus. You have proven yourself an ardent defender of the innocent, and we hope to see your efforts with the misguided violent souls of this sector bear fruit.

Our friends in the Vanguard Unit have collaborated with us on our past work, to see that which is potential made actual. But a garden does not grow overnight, and that which we tend must be seen to with care. Should you wish to engage us in trade or join our mission yourself, you are more than welcome.

Spoiler: OOC

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So the Vanguard have already helped them on their project (gotta check the backlogs to get the number), but they’re willing to accept stat points to complete it. You know what it does.

Spoiler: To Vanguard Unit Z-358

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Peaceful greetings, members of the Vanguard Unit,

As in all things, begin how you would end. Our Collective believes in collaboration, friendship, and shared goals. Your own people have long since lived up to this ideal, and surely will again.

We are close to completing that which we have spoken of in the past. The power of the Nimbus is that of pure will, overriding all other concerns. The Sages of Iettis VI have expressed an offer to help, and we wish to accept their aid as well. However, given your past efforts and stalwart aid to the cause, we thought it best to consult you on the matter first.

[neriractor]

Vanguard Unit Z-358

Reputation: Adored
mor: 7


PCs

Spoiler: Sages of Iettis VI

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(OOC: Please use my expedition to explore Boundary Garden (2 Psi, 2 Mil, 3 Sci). Not Beached Leviathan just so we're clear. I realized that the clearing faction gets the VP, and you would explicitly be the clearing faction in order to take advantage of the Silent Cartographer.)

Sounds like a plan.)

Spoiler: Judiciary collective

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OOC: gonna have to stick to the after midturn, should be more or less free (comparatively) by tuesday.

NPCs

Spoiler: Lunara Collective

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And we thank you for such consideration. First we would need to know, just how close are you to completing it? we seeked to cooperate with the Sages, in the thought that your shared idea will be a large jump towards our goal of a stable Principia, bound in positive emotions and it would do us well to make that jump fast.

but if you are close enough that only our aid will be required, then it would be for the best that the Sages, who have proven of similar goals to us both (if shaky in action at times), be encouraged to follow their own agenda aside from yours, while The Vanguard bears the costs involved in our great leap.

Eager to help,
-Most Active Guardian's of Innocent Creature's, Vanguard corps.

Spoiler: Stewards of Understanding

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Most excellent, with the Silent Cartographer and your wealth of knowledge we are bound to find success.

-Log.

Spoiler: OOC

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we take those.

Spoiler: The Numinous Secretariat of Lithos

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Esteemed Scholars,

For now we strive to support the other fighter, to stand against the Judiciary in their own game too, yet we know this is not enough. What would you have?

-Most Active Guardian's of Innocent Creature's, Vanguard corps.

Spoiler: Midturn-GM only

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Rep Action: The Vanguard, while still humans, when caught in certain moments, say, half an hour in saturday mornings, are as living exemplars of all that's good in life and all that's worth preserving about it. As respect for their new allies and cooperators means their security is lax no doubt the Iron Gods with their superior technology get to watch all such moments, and after the constants experience there is to be found within their cold methalic chasis, and interior, and everything, some warmth. (Raise the Iron Gods of Ur reputation).

sending 5 eco to the Stewards of understanding for payment.
Expect to receive in trades:
4 Sci from the Muridun
Triune, the all-code (Sci 3 VIP) and 1 Sci from the stewards.
I saved 1 Sci myself last EoT.
2 Psi, 2 Mil, 3 Sci from the Sages of Lettis (far as I understand there is a VIP in there, but I don't know the details).
getting +3 Sci to adored. (1 to be leftover for use at EoT)

The Delvings:
Ka I and Log, while sharing the grandest of chats with the All-code whenever they crossed paths preparing the expedition are to be separated, as the largest expedition during The Vanguard's (admitedly) short time on principia is assembled.

*Team L (to Boundary Garden, no idea which system that is though).(2 Psi, 2 Mil, 3 Sci: clears 5 floors): Esentially the same team the Sages had sent, a small crew of Vanguard with access to the Silent Cartographer (purely fluff) is to accompany them back to a lair of Acho Medean greatness within their space.

*Team W (to The Supplicant's Shrine,32) (Ka I and Log (tier 3 Sci VIP), 1 Sci, 1 Sci, 2 Sci: clears 10 floors): Ka I and Log, together with several experts from the Stewards and the Logopatrons are to visit a temple that seems to hold some importance for Log. Unlike the other big project, the requisites for discovering the secrets are not immediately obvious, but the challenge will make it all the better.

*Team S (clears diminution, 33) (Triune, The all-code Tier 3 SCI; 4 Sci: clears 10): The Muridun are still considered to be a little unreliable in whether they would even come (as their ability to deal with AIs is second to none), as so Triune did the preliminary work in designing exploratory drones and both theoretical and practical analisis for the challenges that would be faced within the tiny realm.

[Writtensanity]

Spoiler: To the Muridun: MOR 10

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Hail friends. We have been made an offer by the living star which we would be fools to turn away. They simply need us to create one path between our worlds and those of the Judges, and they will come through the black of Principia to fight against one of our two main enemies.

We are not turning this offer away. We understand that some of the Zultari in your midst will lose opinion of us for working with the Living Star, but hopefully their keen military minds reassure them that it would be suicide to turn away the forces of Anteres coming to our aid. Especially considering they are offering us haven on their side of the Galaxy should the tide of the Iron Gods wash over more of our worlds.

We need some of our scientists to stabilize the chaos of the warp into a useable path. We are still able to spare some their places on the front lines, though we've never had a large technological study core.

Additionally, while swaying the opinions of the Zultari toward us, if you wouldn't mind helping your people understand what we are fighting for and why our nations are aligned. Local merchants still need some convincing.

[OOC: We still have that -1 Penalty from being awed. Raising my own, trying to get up to Respected to represent the new place in the Galaxy. If your Rep isn't busy I'd love the assist getting there.

Sending 1 SCI, I know it's not much but it's honest work. ]

Spoiler: To the Crusade: MOR 10

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If we turned our noses at such a generous offer of support, we wouldn't be worth assisting. We accept and will be making a route for you to travel. Our gunners in the area will be aware of the incoming Star Spawn.

On that note, our forces are on edge and it's unlikely to end well if we travel the route you're creating to our territory this decade. Too likely that someone misfires with so many enemies around.

We will send you a missive when the route it created so out scientists can prepare for your arrival.

Additionally, local merchants are seemingly deaf to our recent cause in the galaxy and still hung up on our escapades with the Galactic Republic. Would you mind sharing the word of our work as you travel the stars? We imagine you have a positive opinion of us considering the amount of help you're offering.

[OOC: I'll make a route. You can read my midturn results. Our armies would clash if we went along it at the same turn. Once we are hopefully neighbors next turn I'll take you up on the offer to jump to 17.

Trying to get my rep to match my current situation in the game's RP. If you're not using your rep for the midturn, would you mind adjusting mine up? Aiming for Respected or Liked. ]

Spoiler: To the Secretariat: MOR 10

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What do you need in exchange for your assistance? We are happy to hear missives from you. At least it shows that the Iron Gods cannot battle against both of us at once.

[OOC just asking what they want.]

Spoiler: To the Unity Party: MOR 10

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If we are to engage in business, we need to speak to local merchants as part of the deal and unfortunately some are still rather focused on our previous engagement with the Grand Pricipian Republic as opposed to our more recent efforts and wars.

We would love assistance in changing that, as it will likely allow us to get more out out of exchange with you, should it all work out.

[OOC: We would be trading at -1 which makes it hard to turn too much of a profit, getting to Respected would change that but I can't do it alone. Requesting a push to raise my rep if yours is free.]

Spoiler: MIDTURN: TO GM ONLY

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UEO Scientists, hearing the promise of help from the other side of the Galaxy are baffled by the speed of the Crusade, but immediately prepare for their arrival by taking advantage of a small temperature shift on the edge of Graidan's space to control warp reactions until they open a gate that will be stable enough for one travel between [50] and [46]. (spending 1 sci)

The rest of the UEO scientists will be sent to the Muridun (so 1) to assist with their explorations and continue their work away from the front lines.

The UEO will additionally be putting extra effort into putting their best foot forward during the aftermath of the attacks. Everyone loves an underdog, and it's trival for the United Ecological Order to step into the spotlight and the comparatively quiet Gask Triad to slip back into the shadows until they are needed.

RAISING REP to Neutral for the Midturn. Looks like I'm doing some trading soon.

Return at 11 Please <3

[GameOfChampions]

Antarean Crusade
Mor 13
Rep: Feared

Spoiler: Midturn (GM)

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Create route from 21 to 44 and 16 to 51.

Rep: Raise UEO rep.

[Eldan]

Midturn (GM only)

Spoiler

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Trading:
2 t.eco to the Unity Party for 2 t.sci
1 t.mil and 1 t.mor to the UEO for 1 t.sci
1 t.sci to the Sages for 1 t.sci

Then, we are sending 5 t.sci to the Vanguard, as repayment for the artefacts they sent us.

Exploration
This leaves us with 6 sci from our own stats, plus Ali Zaybak (Sci VIP 2) and 2+1 sci items, which are also given to Ali Zaybak, which should add up to 12 levels explored.

Ali Zaybak will lead one of his usual daring expeditions, this time to the Obelisk of Still Waters, as they idea of an ocean in space is irresistiable to a daring explorer. Him, plus the two +1 items, plus 4 points of sci should clear 10 levels of the Obelisk.

The rest of my science (2 points) should be spent continuing the slow exploration of the Playground.

Reputation
Finally, we will continue our effort to lower the Reputation of the Grand Republic, aiming at making them more warlike and aggressive.

[n0ble]

Spoiler: Midturn-GM only

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Dr warrant (lvl 1 sci vip) and 2 sci to clear isotropa lost
Maintain rep

[ArcaneStomper]

Spoiler: Midturn Addendum (GM)

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Activate the Emerald Beacon on Garuda as Mil again.

[3SecondCultist]

Midturn 4 Results

Iron Gods of Ur
Morale 18

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation of the UEO unsuccessfully adjusted! Their current Reputation: Neutral.

Annalyst Equation activated! Esp set at 1.5 to read all mail.

The Birdcage is a fearsome place, formerly filled with some of the most dangerous and depraved individuals in the entire sector. Thankfully, dangerous is just another day under the chrome heel of the Iron Gods of Ur, and so the chaff that is sent in is seen as little more than offal in Heaven's great game. What they recover is puzzling: a living memory, a spiteful spirit made up of the gestalt consciousness of the Birdcage's worst inmates; an Immortal Mantle (+1 Mil item). This is of course alongside a number of living acolytes who have kept the prison running and now turn their powers to a new banner in the form of alchemic merchandise (++++ Eco).

However, the Birdcage has come with its own complication. Attaching the Immortal Mantle to INANNA - using similar processes to those that have upgraded the goddess of war thus far - turned out to be a huge mistake, as the raw psychic energies emanating from the memories have crippled Heaven's chosen. INANNA (Mil 3 VIP) cannot be used until EoT 5.

United Ecological Order, aka Gask Triad
Morale 11

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation successfully adjusted! Current Reputation: Neutral.

Secret hyperspace lane (50-46) created.

Sages of Iettis VI
Morale 9

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation successfully maintained. Current Reputation: Adored.

Emerald Beacon activated! +2 Mil (cumulative) to Garuda.

With the aid of the scientific resources from the Vanguard Unit and their new allies in the Stewards of Understanding, the exploration into the Boundary Garden can begin. There are a truly staggering amount of alternate realities that the Garden leads to, and not enough time to explore them all, but the Silent Cartographer allows the joint team to make some inroads, uncovering a treasure by most terrestrial accountings (++++ Eco, +++ Psi). There is certainly the promise of even more wealth to be uncovered, should the delvings continue. 5/20 floors cleared.

However, a Garden that leads to many places can be dangerous. The exploration has triggered a cascade reality fracture in the Sages' system, which unless dealt with could have catastrophic side effects on the integrity of local space-time. Lesser Threat (deals 2 random stat damage per turn if not handled, costs 3 Sci or 6 Mil or Psi in any combination) unleashed.

Antarean Crusade
Morale 13

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation of the UEO successfully adjusted! Their current Reputation: Neutral.

Secret hyperlane routes (21-44, 16-51) successfully created.

Judiciary Collective of the Kramagorian Moons
Morale 11

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation of the UEO unsuccessfully adjusted! Their current Reputation: Neutral.

Despite warnings that they may not be equipped to handle some of the dangers, the Jucidiary research teams embark beneath the legendary glacier sheets of Glimnir III, the largest world in the system of the same name. The scientific experts that make up the paucity of research capability in the present Collective are thankfully aided by the Sages of Iettis, allowing them to greatly expand their search depth into the troves that lie below. The discoveries are not without some merit: the teams bring back plenty of treasure (++ Eco), though in order to risk greater reward, the teams will need to dive further into the darkness. 4/10 floors cleared.

The Muridun
Morale 10

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation of Grand Republic unsuccessfully adjusted! Their current Reputation: Adored.

Although a great share of the Muridun's scientific expertise is outsourced to other powers this decade, Ali Zaybak is able to lead an expedition into the strange phenomenon of the ocean in space. It appears to be bound by a kind of subjective gravity, leading the researchers to theorize that the ocean is itself alive, somehow perpetuating itself despite all the laws of nature saying that it's impossible. Ali leads the Muridun explorers deep into the temple at the ocean's heart, uncovering great spoils (+++++++++ Eco). In the central chambers of the temple is a unique battery, half of a linked pair (1/2 of Tier 2 Archeotech). The Obelisk of Still Waters is now fully charted. 10/10 floors cleared. Gain 1 VP!

Unfortunately, the risks of traversing an artificial ocean in space avail themselves to the Muridun before too long. Many teams are choked by liquid, the water seemingly able to replicate within the bodies of sentient beings to drown them no matter where they are. Lose 2 Sci.

Meanwhile, the slow incursions into the Playground yield barely more than the last time. Although the dangers of Fortis Containment remain unsolved, they await the Muridun with great promise. 3/10 floors cleared.

Spoiler: Quantum Splicers - Tier 2

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The Quantum Splicers are a series of linked twin engines that drain power from their surroundings to split possible futures. When someone has both halves, they can see up to two future paths and collapse the one that they dislike, allowing for optimal results. After a faction activates this Archeotech, they may add 1 conditional order into their EoT, formatted as an 'if X, then Y' statement.

Unity Party
Morale 6

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation of the UEO successfully adjusted! Their current Reputation: Neutral.

Egalitarium activated! Every stat point built using only Eco this turn is increased by an additional 1 point.

As Eins is now equipped with the Cranial Implants, they are uniquely well suited to navigating the myriad corridors of the Changing Road. The space-time highway is dizzying and leads to more places than could possibly exist, yet there is an underlying logic to its structure that can be viewed by those who are not in their right minds. By skimming the surface of insanity, Eins is able to show the way through to the rest of the Party's scientists, revealing a massively profitable series of alternate realities (+++++++++ Eco) and the experience changes Eins on a deep level (6 bonus XP to Eins). However, the influx of new information and dwelling in the broken halls of the mind has crippled Eins for who knows how long. Eins (Sci 2 VIP) cannot be used until EoT 5. 10/10 floors cleared. Gain 1 VP!

The teams did uncover something unique: the source of the Changing Road is an engine, a thing that breaks down materia into their purest forms, splitting them into components without regard for consequence. It would seem that someone plugged in space and time into the matrix, though with the Road now closed, the engine might be usefully repurposed given time and the appropriate resources (1/2 of Tier 2 Archeotech).

Spoiler: Essentia Refractory - Tier 2

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This engine is capable of breaking down any object or phenomena in its immediate vicinity, turning it into its component parts to be used again in a different context. There is seemingly no limit to the nature of what can be fed into its input systems, although it appears to operate extremely slowly. Whenever this Archeotech is activated, the faction holding it can sacrifice 1 permanent point of any stat to gain 6 temporary points of the same stat. E.g. A faction could sacrifice 1 point of Eco to gain 6 temp Eco.

Believers of the Unwilling God
Morale 9

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation maintained. Current Reputation: Liked.

The Believers of the Unwilling God complete their search into Isotropa Lost-Insecure. The final push into the weapons depot proves to be an ideal search, free of disaster and full of reward. The slow, incremental nature of the investigation and the watchful eyes of Dr. Warrant have made sure that there are no more containment breaches of any kind, allowing for plenty of raw materials (++++ Eco) to be harvested. 10/10 floors cleared. Gain 1 VP!

There are two major treasures in Isotropa Lost-Insecure that far exceed material wealth. The first is the mostly-working remnant of a surgical suite that allows for major modification of the Believers' various leaders (1/1 of Tier 1 Archeotech). The second is an ancestral memory, stored deep in a data vault. There are thousands of years of Ultrumite history, condensed into a single genetic compound that can only be absorbed by one bloodline: Hapaxia. When Nufai absorbs it, he grows as he never has before (19 bonus XP to Nufai).

Spoiler: Arkangel - Tier 1

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Arkangel is a unique, top-of-the-line nanosurgical suite that was built for a specific purpose: to facilitate memory and talent downloads. When accompanied by cybernetic and biochemical engineering mods, there is truly no limit to the variety of champions it can produce. Whenever this Archeotech is activated, the faction holding it can change 1 Tier of the specialty of any VIP under their control.

Vanguard Unit Z-358
Morale 7

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation of the Iron Gods successfully adjusted! Their current Reputation: Feared.

With the map of the various Arco-Medean sites now in hand, the Vanguard forces set out to make their claim on the cosmos. The Silent Cartographer is perhaps the most comprehensive program to detail the various troves and dangers of the ancients, and so Ka I and Log are dispatched along with an interstellar coalition of researchers from all over Principia to delve two new sites: the Supplicant's Shrine and the curious Diminution. Both expeditions are rousing successes: in completely exploring each site, the Vanguard walks away with a staggering amount of wealth (++++++++++++++++++ Eco), along with strategic resources of both psionic and scientific value (++++ Psi, +++++ Sci). Each time, the Cartographer guides the Vanguard to the optimal caches. They also uncover a twin-linked Monomolecular Pulse Battery (+2 Mil item).

In the unprecedented surge of discovery, Ka I and Log are reflective of their gains, learning to read the map and attuning to its various discoveries (7 bonus XP to Ka I). Finally, each site boasts a final treasure: two new pieces of Archeotech, one new and the other familiar (2x 1/2 of Tier 2 Archeotechs). 10/10 floors x2. Gain 2 VP!

That being said, just because the Vanguard possesses the collected wisdom of the Stewards does not mean that the danger is wholly past. In the process of sifting through the rubble of the Shrine, Ka I's team accidentally unleashes a cybernetic ghost of sorts, a presence that was once a fragment of an artificial god. The fragment's release is not peaceful, either: it wipes out entire sections of the Vanguard's teams before seemingly targeting their laboratory and R&D networks. Lose 3 Sci. Moderate Threat (deals 3 random stat damage per turn if not dealt with, costs 4 Sci or 8 Mil or Psi in any combination) unleashed.

Finally, a team of scientists and researchers that work for the Sages of Iettis are hired out to the Vanguard to approach the Boundary Garden. There are a truly staggering amount of alternate realities that the Garden leads to, and not enough time to explore them all, but the Silent Cartographer allows the joint team to make some inroads, uncovering a treasure by most terrestrial accountings (++++ Eco, +++ Psi). There is certainly the promise of even more wealth to be uncovered, should the delvings continue. 5/20 floors cleared.

However, a Garden that leads to many places can be dangerous. The exploration has triggered a cascade reality fracture in the Sages' system, which unless dealt with could have catastrophic side effects on the integrity of local space-time. Lesser Threat (deals 2 random stat damage per turn if not handled, costs 3 Sci or 6 Mil or Psi in any combination) unleashed.

Spoiler: Primal Monolith - Tier 2

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Pyramid fragments floating through space with no entrances or exits which inspire mad visions in all nearby. When assembled, there is no limit to how they might shape the potential of the collective mind. When activated, the faction holding this Archeotech counts all base stat points as 150% effective for the purposes of all LTPs. This does not include bonus temp stats from trades, other faction abilities, or VIPs.

Spoiler: Time in a Bottle - Tier 2

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This Archeotech takes the form of a vessel filled with raw temporal energy that can be dispersed to create a mass stasis field. When activated, it delays 1 random stat attack, theft, or invasion that occurs that EoT by 1 full turn. The Archeotech holder is not told which attack has been delayed, should any occur.

Grand Republic of Principia
Morale 6

Spoiler: Midturn Results

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Reputation successfully maintained. Current Reputation: Adored.

---

The News, Vol 2 - 13.479.06

The political firestorm that has enveloped the people of Principia over the past half-decade has redefined the term 'polarizing'. Debates have raged on the airwaves, on various cyber and virtual forums, and in real space as to the nature of sentient rights, articles of just war, and legality versus morality. At the heart of the debate is the question of the United Ecological Order: denounced by the courts of the Judiciary Collective as being merely cover for an extortionate terrorist organization, the clash centers on whether or not the UEO can be called a legitimate nation-state, whether the attacks on its home systems were justified, and the nature of the interstellar response that ought to respond to it. The terabytes of supposedly classified data that have been routinely linked onto dark webs and purported UEO scams only muddy the waters further, though it is a general opinion within a few years that the Iron Gods are behind the maneuver.

The judges and gods fail only in numbers. While their campaigning strategy is effective overall at dragging the UEO name in the mud, even they cannot account for popular opinion. The narrative of refugees being driven from their homes by literal murder machines is too compelling not for the average Principian to root for. The newswaves all over the sector pour out their support for the poor people of Barakan, and the casualty lists seem to band everyone together. It helps that channels in both Antarean and Unity Party sector space pick up and disseminate the same stories, ensuring an unprecedented interstellar coverage of the atrocities committed against the non-combatants and families caught in the crossfire of the conflict. In the end, the pro-UEO channels outweigh the negative press, and the scale turns towards acceptance.

Strangely, during this same time, the Vanguard Unit produces a series of startling documentaries regarding the inner life of robots. They are targeted at the Iron Gods of Ur, trying to detail the 'why' behind the invasions. But the result does not pull back the curtain on a monster: instead, revealing the inner hearts of the new gods softens their mien in the eyes of the common people. When Principians speak of the Iron Gods, it is still with fear, but also with understanding. Perhaps they are not so terrible as they once were?

Spoiler: OOC

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Some people have mucked around with each others' Reputations again! Here are those pulling strings as per the rules.

• The UEO, the Unity Party, and the Antarean Crusade attempted to adjust the UEO upwards. Success! Current Reputation: Neutral.
• The Iron Gods and the Judiciary Collective attempted to adjust the Reputation of the UEO downwards. Failure. Current Reputation: Neutral.
• The Muridun attempted to adjust the Reputation of the Grand Republic downwards. Failure. Current Reputation: Adored.
  The Vanguard Unit attempted to adjust the Reputation of the Iron Gods upwards. Success! Current Reputation: Feared.

Additionally, the Vanguard Unit has successfully assembled a Tier 2 Archeotech! They have therefore earned a Victory Point, though it is not quite enough to catch up with the Unity Party.

Imminent Confederations - Stewards of Understanding
Current Winners - Unity Party (6 VP)

EoTs are due at 11:59 PM on Sunday, May 1st (EST)

[kemmotar]

The Judiciary Collective of the Kramagorian Moons
Reputation: Neutral
Morale: 8

Spoiler: PSA - Public

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To all states in good standing,

We would like to inform all interested parties that it has come to the attention of the Collective that the UEO is co-operating with the Antarean Crusade. The former has created a hyperlane between the sectors designated sectors 50 and 46.

That will be all t this time.

Spoiler: Everyone but the UEO - Public

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To all states in good standing:

As you may surmise we are incredibly reticent to reply to any public issue the UEO raises as thanks to their agents, we can never be certain that any issue that the UEO has challenged will be considered a public reply to them and give their agents just the ammunition they need in order to infiltrate our defenses as a prelude to an attack. It seems that none of those who accuse us of twisting our own laws wish to acknowledge the aggressive and intrusive nature of the operations of the UEO.

Although many have been happy to challenge our determination, none have been willing to engage with any facts other than to condemn us due to the perceived association with the Iron Gods, our police action against the UEO has no relation to the ideology or actions of the Iron Gods. Our policy of non-intervention in or by reason of internal issues is public and remains unchallenged. We invite those who would seek to condemn our stance to consider how they propose to determine what each state does with conquered worlds and how they administer their citizens. We invite those condemn us to consider the association between the UEO and the star of Antares.

Spoiler: attachment

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The opening barrage took the form of targeted meteor showers, raining celestial debris at terminal velocities at targeted encampments across valleys, inlets, hilltops, and forests. Every settlement that the Sublime Clans had built aboveground was hit simultaneously by countless tons of space rock, molten flame, and searing starlight.

The conflagrations raged quickly, devouring their targets whole. Halls, temples, longhouses, schools, training grounds - all razed within an hour of the first star making earthfall. The Star Spawn themselves, the children of Antares, would not be far behind.

And not a single Zultari was killed, for each and every settlement and camp had been quietly evacuated the previous evening. Specially set-up earthworks and firebreaks prevented the blazes from extending too far into the wilds beyond the boundaries of each impact zone.

Qalrani saw the smoke rising from what had once been her own village and knew that it was time. As Ndabacile had told them after she had tranced and they had drawn up their battle-plan, they would have one good opportunity to strike out at the invaders.

....
Everywhere she looked was fire and smoke, figures emerging only to disappear once again.

[post 55]

It appears that the front of the UEO is no more than that if they would happily lie in the same bed as those who sought to burn an entire planet without care for the impact their attack may have. In fact if it had not been for the foresight of the Zultari in creating firebreaks and evacuating their places of settlement the damage to the planets pristine rainforests and the casualties would have been much greater. Or perhaps the UEO would have us believe that meteor showers and fire on a pristine jungle world are precise instruments. How can the UEO support actions that could have plausibly resulted in a planetwide extinction event?

++++
Disclaimer: Despite the opinion the star of Antares seems to have formed that the Collective looks askance on their conquest of Zultar Prime, the Collective has not formed any determination and has in fact asked for all concerned parties to make comment and have a fruitful discussion, they have not engaged with us on this matter. Further to this, we have stated our policy of non-intervention on internal matters such as the method of conquest and have treated the Iron Gods no differently for their own methods. Though they are not our own, we do not have the standing to challenge this and have no intention to do so. To those who believe they do we ask this only, where does this stop? What if your morality or understanding is different than the one you accuse and become their target for that purpose alone? Where is the line and at what point does this become justification only rather than true moral decisions. Who decides which is the correct morality? This is why the Collective deals in facts.
++++

The UEO also indicates that they accept our designation of them as a criminal syndicate if the collective foots their bill for the Umbra. They are seemingly happy to shirk any responsibility to the common good provided they make a small saving when their own purported identity indicates they should be first in line to defend the galaxy from ecological disaster if the Umbra descends upon any world. The colletive would have expected a state in good standing with such a mandate to offer to cover the portion of less civic minded principalities. But it seems they do not have much care if a planet or two burn, provided they make a profit. Strangely fitting in line with our determination despite their feeble protestations. In fact, had they acted in line with their self-imposed mandate, it would have been evidence supporting the claim of states in good standing that the laws of the collective had been misapplied. As things stand, we do not find the argument that only states in good standing would offer to shoulder part of the cost as regardless of their legal status the Umbra would equally target them. Shouldering part of the cost benefits them as well as others. The collective is merely waiting on the determination of the proposal of the Sages and once the commonality had decided on a course of action, the Collective will be happy to contribute.

The Vanguard has proposed to sue the Collective, a challenge which we welcome. We have indicated to them the routes that are open to them and invite any other states in good standing to join them. If the law has been misapplied or the law is unfair, we will be happy to change this if presented with facts, not vague morality. The latter belongs in an ideal and unachievable utopia, in the real world, morality means different things to different individuals, groups and states and is misapplied or deliberately called upon to defend immoral acts. We do not claim morality, merely facts which none have even attempted to refute.

The defences of the Collective were breached by agents of the UEO on stardate 13.433.79. Whatever the nature, intent or size of the breach the fact of it remains undisputed. Had the UEO opted to attack us at the time their agents would have penetrated our defenses and caused significantly more damage. The same applies to all here. The only alternative is to stand by allow them to extort corporations. Those are the facts.

We have even offered other states to apply for a temporary injunction on any offensive operations against the UEO despite the fact that this could potentially prejudice our efforts. Meanwhile, the UEO betrays its own principles when it suits them while the Collective follows its publicly appointed procedures even to its detriment. Given that the UEO seems happy to accept that it is a criminal syndicate provided we foot the bill if all states in good standing agree with the designation of the UEO as a criminal syndicate, cease diplomatic relations, trade and any assistance then the Collective will happily agree to pay the share that the UEO is so eager to shirk.

The Collective always has and always will act in accordance with its published laws and procedures.

Spoiler: Vanguard Unit Z-358 - Public

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To: lawful representative of Vanguard Unit Z-358

We have the following statement in our records.

"This peace is acceptable to the Vaguard, and given Novinus' own commitments, the least we can do is help it go through. Should anybody within this treaty break the southern peace before the second treaty is agreed upon, we will join on the side of the defendant and make sure they do not win the ensuing conflict"

Spoiler: The Numinous Secretariat of Lithos - Public

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Dear Sir, Madam or Other,

We have previously offered to you our assistance in dealing with the Iron Gods and to safeguard the codex. Our own equivalent is public for all to witness that we follow the word and for all to challenge, including yourselves. We have stated that we will not sanction the Iron Gods or any other on the basis of vague morality but only their actions towards the commonality. The UEO which you support has breached our laws and will suffer as a result,while it seeks to align itself with the star of Antares. If your judgment of the Iron Gods taints us by association, then does the association between Antares and the UEO not taint them.

There is no madness in adherence to the word and the determined procedures. The Iron Gods have breached none of them. If you are true adherents of the word you will see that this is so and if you paint us with the brush of madness then you paint yourself with the same brush. Not once have we thought your adherence to the words of your codex mad or capricious but admirable. If your adherence stops at a sense of vague morality, detriment or fear, or if you seek tell us to disregard our own laws then we are disappointed. We had thought to find another whose understanding for the need for rules was equal to our own.

If we start to ignore the the word of Law because it suits us, then there is nothing but chaos and disorder. Perhaps your adherence to your own codex is limited to your own convenience. In that case, the UEO make excellent bedfellows.

Spoiler: Sages of Iettis VI - Public

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Dear Eldest,

Although pickings were slim from this exploration we would be happy to offer you the entirety. Our joined teams uncovered [2 eco], which will be sent to your good selves. Our portion will serve as partial settlement of the amounts owed during the previous exploration. We would also be happy for you to receive our dividends from our common business venture in partial payment of our debt. We are anticipating an attack from the UEO and possibly Antares in the near future.

Trade representative Iapetus Smithson Forge the 4th, LLB DDC Bar.

Spoiler: Iron Gods of UR - Public

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Dear Asharra Favoured Voice of Heaven,

The collective will be happy to mediate this dispute at a cost of [3 Eco]. The duties of the mediator shall be to assist both parties to a resolution that is acceptable to both parties. The mediator will not take sides nor support the cause of one over the other. The determination of the courts of the Judiciary Collective of Kramagorian Moons that the UEO is a criminal syndicate has no impact on the mediation as this mediation takes place regardless of the legal standing of the parties. The only consideration is the willingness of both parties to partake in the mediation. If these terms are acceptable a qualified mediator will reach out to the each party separately to gauge their willingness to mediation and establish a baseline for the terms of each party.

Administrator Ronald Perrins.

Spoiler

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Spoiler: Space Opera and other foibles

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The only way in which the collective could be accused of levity, and perhaps in some circles precisely so they are not accused for a lack of one, they have given a nod to the cultured past by naming some of their crack squads after ancient operations memorialized through the physical arts.

1) In memory of the battle of the swan conflagration, a crack squad an elite assault squad was created specializing in boarding actions. The pointe berserkers, equipped with the latest in mechanized battle armour (thin but durable) they use rotating monomolecular blades attached to the bottom of their feet to move at incredible speeds along all 3 dimensions (especially in the weightlessness of void warfare). The swan conflagration originates from a small stranded squad of swan vessels (so called because their huge engines built for speed caused an incredibly strong magnetic field that is harmful to all life – As such the cockpit and living area had to be further away from the engine room resulting in a body with a long neck) in enemy territory and being assaulted by the technomages led by Rotbart the Black who sought the superior technology of the lead vessel “Odette”. The standstill was broken by the assault of Segafredo squadron after tipping the scales against Rotbart by destroying his flagship “Odille”, which had been masquerading as an empire vessel. Thankfully the cybernetic warfare module of Segafredo squadron was able to see through the mimicked vessel tags by recognizing the different engine frequency of the inferior Rotbart vessel and blasted to atoms. Then, the squadron let the “Odette” and her attendant vessels back to the empire shipyards. This is commemorated through an ancient piece of music by one Chai-trotsky and the point berserkers are psychoindoctrinated to enter a battle frenzy when they hear his piece of long forgotten music, some say it was written for star crossed shapechanging lovers. What piffle….but the music seemed to engender a certain aggressive reaction in individuals with a certain genetic anomaly.

2) Juliette squadron, a famous wing of the collective's fleet so named after Juliette the oubliette, a famous spy in the times of the pre arco medean era. She is most well known for the events that led to her obtaining the codes for the self destruct sequence for the weapons of mass destruction of a faction of rebels called the Veronese after the controversial decision which had banned the installation of high grade AIs in android bodies that have humanlike skin. The veronese threatened to detonate quantum busters under the server archive holding the names of AIs downloaded already in what would be non-compliant bodies. Juliette, then a little known intelligence agent barely out of the academy took advantage of her young looks and the Veronese terrorist leader Romeo proclivities and managed to insinuate herself into his life as his lover. She was quickly able to make him fall in love with her by adopting a meek persona but she still was unable to extract the necessary information from him. Getting desperate she concocted a plot with the help of another of the agents that had infiltrated the organization posing as a doctor. She would be injected with an agent that would put her in a medically induced coma 12 hours after the injection. She would also be given a vial that was ostensibly poison, but was in fact the counteragent to the injection. By taking it before she went into the coma, she would be able to convince Romeo of her death. The plan was that in his grief, near the end, she would convince him to give up enough information to help the investigation. In fact what she had not been counting on, was Romeo’s unstable mental state, when Juliette drank the poison in front of him claiming that she could no longer live in fear of Romeo one day being capture or worse. In response Romeo, stricken by the loss, committed suicide himself using his own personal weapon just as the incredibly surprised Juliette was slipping into the coma. She awoke a few hours later covered in blood and in a panic. As far as she knew, there was no one alive who knew the full plan and Romeo’s lieutenants had been ordered to never reveal their part of the plan. Her only option now was to use Romeo’s body to bypass biometric protections around his personal quarters. Using his severed hands and removed eyes, she gained access to his computer, through this and by impersonating Romeo in electronic communication she managed to convince his lieutenants that the plan had been compromised. By in turn accusing each one of his lieutenants as being the leak, which she (Romeo) knew because it was each lieutenant’s piece of the puzzle that had been leaked, she managed to gather sufficient information on both the attack and secondary cells spread out all over the system. Finally, she struck gold when in one of the replies of a lieutenant she found an email with the encrypted disarming code. Romeo had always worn an earring that Juliette had never really been able to reconcile with his personality. She snapped the code into her memory cortex and once more returned to her room where she had stashed the body in the lavatory cubicle. After some fiddling she discovered that the earring was in fact a scrambler decoder and after plugging it into her own memory cortex she was able to unscramble the code. Soon after she sent the code to her handler and once she had confirmation that the WMDs had been remotely deactivated, she secretly left the compound. In her honour the cybernetic warfare squadron has been formed by the collective and each year one of the officers of the squadron has the honour of playing the heroic role in a play that is held in the capital.
3) Further text redacted to protect the Collective armed forces and obscure their capabilities.

Spoiler: Articles of Incorporation

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Articles of incorporation, binding upon the collective
1) The collective will never go back on its legal obligations as set out in the relevant agreement.
2) War is a lawful endeavour provided that the rules of alliances and principia are maintained (casus belli provided and announced to senate or privately with notice).
3) The judiciary of the collective shall remain impartial in its judgment of any claim brough before it with the aim of accomplishing restitution against the aggrieved party.
4) The collective may bring a claim internally with itself as the claimant in order to seek the fulfillment of any agreement that has been reneged or pursue any cause of action.
5) Anyone who has retained legal representation from the legal firms of the Kramagorian moons or any other legal body recognized by the judicial body of the collective will benefit from attorney client privilege and all other duties of confidentiality, disclosure of conflict of interest and the best legal defense that the contracted entity
6) The Collective maintains the right to alter its articles of association and any other legal documentation at its absolute discretion without any forewarning, although all agreements shall be honoured on the basis of the version of the relevant legislation applicable at the time.

Spoiler: Laws and procedure, non-exhaustive

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s.1 Rights of the claimant
a.All individuals and/or factions may request intervention from the courts where they believe they have been wronged.
b. In order for a claim to be considered there will be a procedural fee to reflect the labour and process of the courts. This will be decided ad hoc and at the discretion of the courts. The fee will be made known to the potential claimant through their representative to the courts (non refundable)
c. Once the fee has been agreed the courts will send summons to the defendant and initiate due process against them. If the defendant does not respond to the summons, the courts will investigate to the best of their ability the facts in evidence and proceed with any legal action as required by the determination of the courts without recourse.
d.Both parties agree to abide by the decision of the courts, whatever the determination. The courts may decide on the following actions at their absolute discretion but always taking into account the contents of the claim and other circumstances that become evident during the proceedings. Relief that the court may grant at its discretion include but are not limited to:
1) restitution action
2) injunction
3) punitive action
4) ethical restitution
5) any other action considered necessary by the courts for justice and balance to be delivered between parties.

s.2 Judiciary and legal services
a. Barristers, judges below the rank of Supreme Justice or other agents of the court may be retained as required to provide legal services on a prolonged contract or a one-off.
b. the fees for such services will be negotiated and agreed to on an ad-hoc bilateral basis, are non-refundable payable before commencement of the service.
c. Services may include, but are not limited to arbitration of dispute, legal discovery, defensive discovery, legal representation to the Judiciary, alliance maintenance.
d. the collective, any of its department or legal firms and institutions reserve the right to not accept any given business proposal, extension or alteration thereof or to discontinue services giving (1) cycle of notice, without further recourse.
e. A declaration of war by the collective or against the collective during the performance of their duties shall have the immediate, unilateral and irrevocable effect of cessation of contractual performance and immediate return of any of its agents, officers or employees including any goods or materials that have been assigned.
f. A sitting member of the judiciary that is not actively engaged in a case may be retained for services such as dispute arbitration, alliance monitoring, witnesses to contracts or any other service such as may not result in a conflict of interest. Judges employed in this capacity may not sit in judgment of a relevant claim but may provide evidence to the judiciary for any claim that arises related to the services that have been provided.
s.3 Quantum of restitution:
1) Sum under dispute in addition to any ethical damages as quantified the courts at their discretion.
2) Interest charged at 10% per cycle minimum (1) per cycle.
3) Fees paid by the claimant to initiate proceedings.
4) Costs and expenses of determination and enforcement of claim.
b. Reverse order of claim seniority - if full restitution has not been accomplished through legal actions the claimant may pay a small processing fee to extend legal action into the following cycles in order to secure full restitution. The fee is repeatable for each subsequent cycle the restitution action is sought.
c. Should the defendant admit wrongdoing and agree to pay restitution under the original claim then legal action shall be pending full restitution. Once the claimant has confirmed they have been made whole, all claims against the defendant shall be dismissed and
d. Any and all actions in response of judicial action will be carried upon the unilateral determination of the courts without any duty to announce the results prior to the passing of any specific cycle, but has a duty to announce the result after the fact. Action by the courts in accordance with its determination are considered to be done solely at the behest of the claimant and the courts bear no responsibility for any and all outcomes. The action does not constitute a cause of action against the courts or the claimant but may be subject to injunction from the defendant if duly represented and the claim for injunction of any action by the courts passes summary judgment. Through the simple existence of a claim against the defendant the defendant is considered to be on notice of potential action and as such any requirement for a declaration of war before legal action is waiv
sub 1. Summary judgment: upon retention of a legal representative and payment of the processing fee of the courts a defendant may apply for an injunction to delay any action against them provided they have also presented evidence to the judge sitting on judgment of the original claim. Any evidence presented to the former judge will be shared with the latter and may form part of the decision even if the summary judgment for injunction is dismissed. Should the defendant of the original claimant, here the claimant of injunctive relief, present evidence sufficient to show either:
1) Bad faith on the part of the claimant – ie having first caused the creation of a cause of action for the claimant of injunctive relief.
2) That there is insufficient evidence to show wrongdoing and therefore requiring the courts to launch a full investigation into the circumstances of
a. The claimant under the first claim, being the defendant in the second claim, shall be invited to participate in the summary judgment to provide or counter evidence provided by the claimant of the injunction against the first claim unless the claimant of the second claim can demonstrate that there is sufficient reason for such proceedings to be kept private.
b. For this determination to be made, the claimant of the second claim must send a direct representative to the courts. The courts cannot guarantee that a motion for injunction against the first claim will be granted.
c. The courts may at their discretion hear evidence on why a motion for injunction should be kept private in the absence of a direct representative but cannot guarantee that such determination or discussion will be inviolable.
S4.Causes of action (including but not limited to):
1) breach of contract.
2) dealing in bad faith - acting in such a way so as to steer an actual or nominal ally into action or inaction that brings them into the path of harm when the nominal defendant had information of actual or potential action from a third party or parties intent on bringing, causing, conspiring to cause, perpetrating or motivate harm directly or indirectly on the claimant.
3) Non-performance of duties or breach of alliance obligations.
4) Attack without proper and legal declaration or with insufficient notice.
5) Theft or destruction of property between two or more factions that are not at war or with insufficient declaration (Including but not limited to theft of moneys, materiel, information, goods tangible or intangible, planets, sectors, systems etc).
6) Murder, causing the death, unlawful detainment or serious injury of a sentient individual, AI or member of a faction, however defined by the faction without recourse to the rights, laws, regulations or ethical considerations of the actor.
7) Breach of non-aggression pact whether by obvious or hidden means.
8) Frivolous and damaging claims aiming to cause ethical and reputational damage.
9) Attempted bribery.
10) Aiding and abetting any of the above.
11) Being a causal link to the direct or indirect destruction, removal, lowering or making not available permanently or temporarily resources of another faction (stardate 13438.1)
12) Creation of hyperlanes between two non-allied nations without notice prior to the creation of said hyperlane (stardate 13438.5)
s.5
a) all judgments of the court, including the grievance, evidence presented forming the basis of the judge’s determination (ratio decidendi) as well as any legal action deriving from the court’s judgment shall be a matter of public record.
b) a party to another claim may use the ratio decidendi of another claim, where the circumstances of said claim are alike to the current claim (the burden of proof lying with the party seeking to use the prior ratio). The courts must abide by prior decisions of a higher court.

Sch. 1 Any action shall be subject to the rules of proportionality and the quantum of restitution being claimed may be adjusted accordingly to reflect this principle. The courts may at their discretion increase the quantum of the original claim at their discretion to remedy ethical damaged inflicted on the claimant through the defendant's actions, taking into account facts that may not have been in evidence during the original claim.

Sch. 2
a) All fees are considered to be net of any transactional costs, tariffs, restrictions, damage during transit and any other factor or circumstance, foreseen or unforeseen, avoidable or unavoidable that may result in the funds reaching the collective being less than agreed upon fee.
b) The collective retains the right to set-off the balance of the fee remaining unpaid against any funds of the client whether the collective is in possession or not of those funds.

Sch. 3 – The courts
1. Claims shall be considered by a court specializing in the subject matter of the claim. The lower courts must follow all precedent. These are divided between the following chambers:
a. Commercial court
b. Criminal court
c. Arbitration court
d. Ethical court
2. The legal representative of the claimant or defendant may request a higher court to hear the case, although that will only be done once the facts have been established by the specialized court. Higher courts will sit only on the legal matters.
3. The middle ranked courts are the appellate courts. These courts may overrule any decision of the lower courts if an appeal is granted. They may also set precedent at a higher seniority than the lower courts. The appellate courts may also willingly invite a case to their purview.
4. The High Courts act only of their own initiative and may set or ignore precedent at their discretion where the application or misapplication of precedent to the current claim would result in material injustice. They may also decide a case on a non-precedential basis due to unique characteristics of a case.
5. The Supreme Justice may on a non-precedential and discretionary manner to assist any court in deciding a point of law.

Sch. 4 - War
1. a state of war will remain until it has been explicitly rescinded by both parties.
2. While two factions are in a state of war, no action between the two shall be considered unlawful
3. where one is part to an alliance a state of war shall be deemed to exist between the opposing faction, factions, secondary groups, alliance or alliances of the first party and all its allies unless it is shown that the allies of the first party had no foreknowledge of such actions and remove the first party from the alliance and cease any communication/trade with them. Any trade between former allies where the alliance was dissolved shall be considered to be aid in the war and as such, the opposing party or parties as defined earlier shall be considered to be at war with the trading parties.
4. Where a cause of action is made public or is known by all involved, then war is considered to have been declared between the two parties automatically. (stardate 13438.6)

[ArcaneStomper]

Sages of Iettis VI
Reputation: Adored
Morale: 9

The Corpse World
The Observer had watched as the Muridun data mystics invoked the names of their gods. The Observer had even helped translate some of those names to be more accurate in their effect against MEMRA. It had watched as their great guardian had destroyed MEMRA in a cataclysm of dust and ash. And when the Muridun dispersed confident in their victory the Observer remained.

For years it remained above the dead world constantly examining the debris looking for any signs of life. A few electrons moving along intact. A databank shielded from destruction. A collection of memories imprinted onto rock. At last it had finished its work. And the Observer sung out. Its song reached across systems to its distant siblings and they lent their strength to its purpose.

The psionic might of the Sages reach down through layers of nanodust. Sifting through the cloud it picked out the intact remnants piece by piece. And following the plans laid out by the Observer each piece was placed next to each other in a configuration best suited to bring the ancient planet mind back to life. The result was small. No longer a planet, barely a moon, but it was alive and pulsed with a mind. Though not the same mind.

Dragging its new friend behind it the Observer sailed back to Iettis. Past the streams of tourist craft and the lazy guardians. It brought the mind core to a reserved place where the Friends of Iettis had built a station to monitor the newborn Sage. A mass of flesh and blood ringed with weapons and bulky armor plating.

The Observer took a moment to reminisce to when Garuda had been so small. Then it began guiding the mind core to its resting place. A special interface built for a machine mind to become the first cyborg Sage.

Then the Poet spoke. Actually spoke its words jarring the collective song of the Sages. "Wait, do we really want to give the remnants of a half mad Arco-Medean AI the form of a guardian."

The Sages collectively considered whether this was indeed a good idea. And they collectively winced. The Observer set the mind core spinning around Mother. They would find a more suitable, less dangerous, form for the remnant mind. And perhaps Weaver could continue its therapy sessions in the mean time.

Meanwhile the newborn sage still waited. The Sculptor fished out the cybernetic interface and wove a network of ganglions and memory towers to replace it. The Gardener a melody of vitality as it sent wisps of energy into the resulting blank slate. And the Sages sang a joyous welcome to the newborn Turul.

Spoiler: Iron Gods, UEO (Morale: 9)

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We would be more than happy to offer Haven as a neutral meeting ground for these talks.

The Eldest

Spoiler: The Chronarkate of Miron (Morale: 9)

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Greetings to the Covenant of the Ninety,

That is excellent news. We will certainly endeavor to help you as much as we can.

To a Coordinated Future,
The Eldest

Spoiler: The Lunara Collective (Morale: 9)

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Greetings,

We are pleased to hear that you are doing well. We have already approached the Vanguard about collaborating in our aid to you. And it is our hope that we will be able to help you greatly in the years to come.

To a Peaceful Future,
The Eldest

Spoiler: Vanguard Unit Z-358 (Morale:9)

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Greetings Theophania, Tutor of applied thaumaturgy,

We are pleased with how our cooperation has turned out in regarding to exploring the Boundary Garden. As agreed we would like to discuss what you wish for in return. We also have further thoughts on the Silent Cartographer, but to start we feel we should discuss the Lunara Collective and how best to complete their Nexus.

To a Cooperative Future,
The Eldest

Spoiler: Judiciary Collective (Morale: 9)

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Greetings Trade representative Iapetus Smithson Forge the 4th, LLB DDC Bar,

We are pleased to hear that no new horrors have arisen from the depths this decade. We will accept your portion of the Trust's dividends as payment on the loan. However we have an additional proposal for you. Allow us to confederate [40], and we will count it as (5 points). Which combined with the Trust dividend will leave your remaining debt at only (2).

To a Cooperative Future
The Eldest

Spoiler: Everyone: Public

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Greetings Principia,

We Sages are in need of more psionic energy to sustain our endeavors this decade. We are willing to trade material wealth for such immaterial energy.

The Sculptor

[GameOfChampions]

Antarean Crusade
Mor 13
Rep: Feared

Spoiler: Grand Republic

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Greetings ever changing politicians,

Now that we have recovered our system we have no desire to continue fighting you. We did not start this war and do not seek to pursue it when there are greater challenges afflicting this Galaxy.

Would you declare this war to be at an end with us?

Regards,
The Great Antares

Spoiler: UEO

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Greetings Eco Warriors,

We threw our weight behind your neutrality as you desired. We will be joining you in war against the Judges. They have bismerched us for the last time!

Were you able to create your routes as asked?

Spoiler: Judges (Public)

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We tire of your blight

You are bound so tightly in your bureaucracy and laws that you cannot even attend them properly. You demand war declarations from the galaxy, shown in publicized certificates, yet when you march to war we did not learn of it until after the failure.

We tire of your presence in this galaxy, your over reaching arms attempting to grasp all our systems within your jurisdiction, your constant slights of those you deem 'wrong', and finally your latest attempt to demonize the subject of your unannounced war.

We will purge your systems and leave them a utopia in the arms of Antares, free of your stain.

See you soon.

Antarean Crusade declares war on the Judiciary Collective

[Writtensanity]

Res’ki Nothinala was the first to bring the meetings at Haven to Order once more, calling for the first larger meeting in several years while nations had been more concerned with internal politics than collective ones.

"Thank you for attending representatives," she opened, taking a quick bow to the center of the room as opposed to any single delegate. "we appreciate you showing up on such short notice but we felt it prudent to discuss certain messages being sent out about the United Ecological Order as soon as we were able to decipher them.'

Saying it like that made it sound like it had been a long time, but the diplomatic communications from the Judiciary had only been delivered hours before.

"The Judiciary have taken it upon themselves to attempt a, second, campaign of slander against us. We are going to refute and explain their accusations and then we can all return to enjoying the amenities of our generous hosts for as long as our governments require us to be here." She motioned to the screens each delegate had, "I've taken the liberty of sending you the Judiciary communications in case you hadn't been granted access by your governments."

"Firstly and foremost, yes we are working with Anteres as they have both offered to assist us in war against the Judicary in wake of their unannounced attack, and they additionally offered our citizens asylum in systems that were in their marked territory. Simply put, we need allies at the moment and Anterean offered action against the Judiciary at the small cost of a single stabilization of a hyperlane route. Such a generous offer would be difficult to turn down from any source."

"But," there was a pause for effect, "Anterean isn't the worst of sources, in fact, though our methods are different Anterean's primary goal is to bring order to places that were abusing the natural life of planets. It's essentially in line with ours."

Spoiler: From Anterean's Origin

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Antares couldn't take anymore, they saw the world closest to them destroy an ecologically important geographical feature in pursuit of rare ores. Ruining a wide swathe of land around it as the ecosystem crumbled.

The great star bent its wrath and power into message. Telling the residents their folly. That they must stop certain actions and take certain courses or they would perish. The planet] did not listen. Only attempts at sending powerful explosives to the star.

"The Judicary claims that Anterean would have burned down the entirety of Zultar, but the images show extremely measured and targeted destruction. It's more thorough than it needed to be but- Res'ki raised a talon and paused for effect, "not a single Zultari was killed, because Anterean warned the Zultari about their plans and allowed them time to bring their civilians to safety."

"It's true that there was a bloody battle between the Zultari and Anterean after this, but to claim that Zultar would have entirely burned is completely antithetical to Anterean's previous actions during conquests, their stated goals, and their treatment of Zultar under their care and the Zultari that joined their campaign."

"We know that there are Zultari in the galaxy that will dispute the claims of Anterean over their world, in fact, we reached out to them upon accepting the offer from Anterean to explain that this was help that we needed."

"Anterean is perhaps too ready for a fight, they are a crusade after-all, but they share our goals, declare their wars honestly and are support that the United Ecological Order and especially the people of Barakan Prime need right now. We won't and cannot align with all of their actions, but we are happy to have them on our side."

Res'ki took a quick drink and a deep breath. All of this explanation was exhausting but some things needed answers.

"AS for our statements at the conference of the Umbra. We repeat that we will happily pay as a member of Principia, BUT if the Judiciary is so adamant that we do not deserve a spot at that table, then they can clearly afford to pay our part. Our debt will be paid to the common goal of stopping the Umbra, that was never in question. What was in question was whether the Judiciary was willing to back up their statements about our status as a nation."

"The answer there is simple, it's not a shirking of cost, it's a matter of not accepting the Judiciary to only treat us as valid when it suits them to do so. They may put their money where their mouth is to prove their belief and attempt to convince the rest of Principia, or are can all be reasonable leaders that understand the scope of the powers at play here, and we will happily contribute."

"As for their accusations of attacks. Yes. Had we attacked the Judiciary we would do considerable damage to their infrastructure. We don't apologize for being well prepared to defend ourselves. Through your actions you have evidenced that we have reasons to do so."

"Good day."

Spoiler: To Anteres: MOR 10

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Yes, the route you requested as payment for your generous offer has been finalized, as was mentioned in an announcement by the Judiciary.

As the other part of the payment, our signals are on standby to allow those bearing the sigil of Anteres through our systems, including our newly created path.

Spoiler: TO the Sages and the Iron Gods: MOR PUBLIC

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Then if we are mediating, the following is our offer of a ceasefire:

The full return of Barakan Prime to the United Ecological Order [53]

The United Ecological Order will recede it's claimed borders, allowing the Iron Gods of UR to claim [57] to store the equipment from Barakan Prime.

The Iron Gods of UR will provide the United Ecological Order with [1 PERM MOR] to compensate the citizens of Barakan Prime.

The United Ecological Order will provide the Iron Gods of Ur with [5 Temp ECON] to fund the removal of units from Barakan Prime and United Ecological Order space.


It breaks our hearts to turn away potential member planets on [57] but the people of Barakan Prime are first in our hearts in this case. Let it be known that despite a ceasefire, we cannot see a Galaxy in which both the United Ecological Order and the Iron Gods of Ur continu exist in their current state, and the most we can promise is a ceasefire for [2 turns]

Spoiler: To the Sages: MOR 10

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We would offer to commercial help on your projects as a sign of good will but our psionics wouldn't be effective over such a distance, impossible to coordinate.

[OOC: I would trade but I have 1 PSI and it would incur a -1 penalty on my end of the trade so I don't even think it would really help.]

[St. Justicar]

The Iron Gods of Ur



Reputation: Feared, Encryption Level 18

Spoiler: Wildflower Wars Ceasefire Negotiations – Sages, UEO, Judiciary, Public

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Asharra arrived at the conference space provided by the Sages quite punctually, accompanied by an even larger routine than usual. Two larger, specifically – one, one of the now so famous freelance lawyers of the Kramagorian Judiciary, hired at no small expense as a mediator and notary.

The other, surely known by sight to the UEO represent, one Aika Lithany. Physically she seems quite whole and unharmed, blinking tracker and explosive charge on her collar notwithstanding. Mentally, meanwhile – her eyes are glassy, and she has no reaction to the appearance of strangers. Only the (relatively) gentle but insistent guidance of one of Asharra’s bodyguards holding her arm even keeps her moving in the right direction.

Asharra nods in acknowledgement of the facilitator provided by the Sages before turning to the UEO’s negotiator with a crisp smile. “I’m profoundly glad the pessimism of the war party among my patrons has turned out to be unfounded and you have chosen to see reason. Were it not for your ... emphatic propaganda and continuous declarations of enmity, there really are far productive uses for Heaven’s Armada.

Sadly, I’m afraid your offer is wholly unsatisfactory. Allow me to present the God’s current terms of conditional surrender.

1. The UEO will forswear all future diplomatic relationships or trade with the Numinous Secretariet of Lithos
2. In order to make this commitment credible, the UEO will withdraw all assets and personnel from [System 56] within the next standard decade.
3. The UEO will recognize systems [55, 56, 57] as within the Gods sphere of influence, to be disposed of as they wish.
4. The UEO will demilitarize, turning over [some combination of Mil and Esp totally 3 points] to the Gods as proof of their commitment to peace.

In exchange

1. The Armada of Heaven will withdraw from the Barakan system, and allow Gaskite forces to retake control.
2. The surviving population of the system [2 Mor] will be remanded to the custody of the Sages, to be interned in Iettis for one full decade to ensure the UEO abides by the terms of the treaty. After which they will be allowed to repatriate, should they wish to.

If there’s any particular points you’d like to contest by all means, lets hear it.”

Spoiler: Unity Party

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Greetings,

After reviewing the resources made available to me for trade and commerce I am happy to report that my patrons will be able to take advantage of your offered services in the next few years. Expect [3 Eco] routed through various financial institutions on Iettis in the near future, for which I expect samples of the bleeding edge of surveillance and encryption programs [1 Mor]. Further, large shipments of exotic and extinct species preserved in taxidermy, as well as other several mass haulers full of more traditional trade goods [6 Eco] can be delivered over the border over the next years, for which I hope to be able to report several dozen factory-new science and surveyor ships refitted for Divine pilots to be delivered by the end of the decade [2 Sci].

Will that work for you?

-Asharra, Priestess of ENLIL, Favoured Voice of Heaven

Spoiler: Sages

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Greetings, Honoured Eldest,

If I recall correctly, some five years ago you said that you would have an update on the practicalities of how the first round of dividends for the trust could be dispersed by roughly this date. The wealth represented by the projected dividends would be quite significant to several potential purchases I am considering on my patron’s behalf, and so if possible I would request this information now.

On a different note, while the Gods possess little in the way of witchcraft, I could happily arrange for the services of those sorcerers who serve them to be placed at your disposal in exchange for a certain amount of hard currency dispersed as requested through the wider financial system [1 Psi for 1 Eco].

-Asharra, Priestess of ENLIL, Favoured Voice of Heaven

Spoiler: Kramagorian Judiciary

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Financial institutions in the wider Principian economy are rather loathe to take our money, skittish and swayed by propaganda as they are. While I’m happy to arrange for [3 eco] to be transferred to you,I can only promise [2] will arrive. Perhaps some alternate payment can be arranged for the remainder?

-Asharra, Priestess of ENLIL, Favoured Voice of Heaven

Spoiler: Vanguard

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Sometimes after the confused blitz of propaganda campaigns Thephania receives a request to meet for tea from the Urrite ambassador. The cafe named is unsurprisingly deserted when she arrives, aside from Asharra and her usual retinue. A pot is already steeping, and a seat pulled out for the Vanguard envoy. Asharra waits for her to sit before she begins.
“I have been informed your government is ultimately responsible for the recent .. outreach campaign undertaken on the Gods behalf. I do not intend to sound ungrateful but... why?”

[Writtensanity]

Spoiler: The Wildflower Wars Ceasefire Negotiations: PUBLIC

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"Clearly our perspectives on the current state of this war are different," Res'ki drums a set of talons on the desk in front of her before continuing, "the offers that we were sent with are quite separate, but we do not quite have a rebuttal prepared. Though we will warn you that removing support from Gradian in order to free Barakan is off the table. We will not condemn one United Ecological Order planet to liberate another. Though we could likely evacuate most of the populace before your arrival, it would be arrogant to assume that everyone on the planet would leave their homeworld in order to join our order. Afterall, they joined it in the first place to protect their planet."

"That all said," Res'ki steals a look at Alika before continuing to speak, "I know these are our negotiations, but everyone is listening, I am going to take a moment to address them."

"Though the Iron Gods of Ur terms are harsh, they are fair. Aside from the cessation of Gradian, this is something we at the United Ecological Order would consider. Frankly, the most likely part of Survival and Success for the Order would be to end this war today-" she takes a deep breath and smooths the top of the black mourning cloak she's wearing, "we are not only fighting in the interest of the United Ecological Order."

"Should we accept these terms, sans the removal of Gradian, we would be choosing our survival over the lives of those on [57] & [55], additionally we would assuredly be condemning the Numinous Secretariat to a fate as bad or worse to that currently happening on Barakan Prime."

"With this, the United Ecological Order benefits, and Principia suffers. Which brings up my question to all nations listening. Is this the United Ecological Order's War? Or Principia's War?"

"We have had many offers of friendship as well as offers of beneficial trade but, by and large, the United Ecological Order stands alone against the Iron Gods for all practical purposes. The Unwilling God has declared war but, as is their tendency, remains silence since their declaration. Anterean has stepped up to defend our backs from the Judiciary but, understandably, wishes to maintain their tenuous ceasefire with the Iron Gods as they do so."

"I understand it will never be the popular decision to get yourselves into a war halfway across the galaxy. It will delay your projects. It will slow economic growth- but-"

"You heard them, there are 'more productive uses for Heavens armada. If it's not the Ecological Order, it's one of you."

"Words will not drive back the Gods. Words will not liberate Barakan Prime. Words will not prevent the Gods from coming for the next name on their list as soon as they are done with us, by ceasefire or conquest."

"So I ask again, is this the United Ecological Order's war that we should look to end? Or is this Principia's war where what they are asking is far too high a price?"

[Eldan]

The Muridun - Mor 10

The Numinous Secretariat of Lithos

Spoiler

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Honored Scholars,

We hear your words to the rulers of the sector. Not only do we wish to stand with all who stand against Ur, we also deeply respect your wisdom and would do so even if we did not share enemies.

With the mad God banished from our midst, we once again have free resources and would wish to see them at your disposal. Tell us what you need from us and you shall have it.

-Ambassador Mariana bint-Naiwal

The UEO

Spoiler

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We hear your words. Much as we wish you a successful peace process and a respite for your peoples, we also share your fears: that any peace with the Gods is merely a delay, more time for them to build their armies. We should not stand idle, whether a peace is made or not. As such, speak the words and we will obey: our warriors are your to command for the decade, Zultar stands behind you, whether to assist you in battle, or in rebuilding and training your own forces.

OOC: I can offer you another 8 t.mil this turn, if you need it. For free, though I'd ask you to give it back mostly intact.

[kemmotar]

The Judiciary Collective of the Kramagorian Moons
Reputation: Neutral
Morale: 8

Spoiler: Mediation// Iron Gods of Ur and UEO - MOR 2

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A woman dressed in a form fitting black uniform, not military but clearly denoting some kind of hierarchy, from the number of pins on her epaulettes and the front right of her blazer it seemed she was quite high. Long curly red hair framed an angular face with determined eyes. She was not pretty, but her charisma lent her appeal.

As she sat down she opened a briefcase and took out a small transparent glass data tablet as well as some old fashioned papers topped by a notebook and a stylus.

Thank you both for joining, my name is Elspeth Irella. Although your negotiations may of course be public as both of you have opted to do so, we would encourage both parties to refrain from public negotiations. If the parties desire, I as mediator can provide small data updates and reassurances that negotiations are ongoing. This would in my experience allow both parties to bypass political posturing in favour of "honest talk".

You have both established your primary positions, which are not unexpectedly unappealing to the other side. Before I begin, I would like to note that the judiciary arms of the Collective do not form part of any governmental body, have no affiliation or stake in political decisions. The courts and mediators exist solely to interpret and apply the law and serve as a check on the government if called upon. In my position here I do not serve the interests of either party but to represent the interests of negotiation. I will receive no bonuses or any additional payments or perks regardless of the outcome of these negotiations and any bribery attempts will be broadcast to the rest of Principia by an independent monitor who evaluates my ethical behaviour during the course of these negotiations."

She indicates a small camera and mic combo that sits on her lapel in the shape of a sword and scales.

"The monitors are assigned randomly and change every 4 hours and there is no method of communication between them and myself. If you are both happy to commence, we would like to ask that the parties limit themselves to factual statements rather than emotional ones. The Iron Gods have sued for peace although they are not the ones who started this war and they also have yet to "process" the population of the captured population of the UEO. As a first step, we would like to ask if the two parties are amenable to a ceasefire.

Spoiler

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Spoiler: Space Opera and other foibles

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The only way in which the collective could be accused of levity, and perhaps in some circles precisely so they are not accused for a lack of one, they have given a nod to the cultured past by naming some of their crack squads after ancient operations memorialized through the physical arts.

1) In memory of the battle of the swan conflagration, a crack squad an elite assault squad was created specializing in boarding actions. The pointe berserkers, equipped with the latest in mechanized battle armour (thin but durable) they use rotating monomolecular blades attached to the bottom of their feet to move at incredible speeds along all 3 dimensions (especially in the weightlessness of void warfare). The swan conflagration originates from a small stranded squad of swan vessels (so called because their huge engines built for speed caused an incredibly strong magnetic field that is harmful to all life – As such the cockpit and living area had to be further away from the engine room resulting in a body with a long neck) in enemy territory and being assaulted by the technomages led by Rotbart the Black who sought the superior technology of the lead vessel “Odette”. The standstill was broken by the assault of Segafredo squadron after tipping the scales against Rotbart by destroying his flagship “Odille”, which had been masquerading as an empire vessel. Thankfully the cybernetic warfare module of Segafredo squadron was able to see through the mimicked vessel tags by recognizing the different engine frequency of the inferior Rotbart vessel and blasted to atoms. Then, the squadron let the “Odette” and her attendant vessels back to the empire shipyards. This is commemorated through an ancient piece of music by one Chai-trotsky and the point berserkers are psychoindoctrinated to enter a battle frenzy when they hear his piece of long forgotten music, some say it was written for star crossed shapechanging lovers. What piffle….but the music seemed to engender a certain aggressive reaction in individuals with a certain genetic anomaly.

2) Juliette squadron, a famous wing of the collective's fleet so named after Juliette the oubliette, a famous spy in the times of the pre arco medean era. She is most well known for the events that led to her obtaining the codes for the self destruct sequence for the weapons of mass destruction of a faction of rebels called the Veronese after the controversial decision which had banned the installation of high grade AIs in android bodies that have humanlike skin. The veronese threatened to detonate quantum busters under the server archive holding the names of AIs downloaded already in what would be non-compliant bodies. Juliette, then a little known intelligence agent barely out of the academy took advantage of her young looks and the Veronese terrorist leader Romeo proclivities and managed to insinuate herself into his life as his lover. She was quickly able to make him fall in love with her by adopting a meek persona but she still was unable to extract the necessary information from him. Getting desperate she concocted a plot with the help of another of the agents that had infiltrated the organization posing as a doctor. She would be injected with an agent that would put her in a medically induced coma 12 hours after the injection. She would also be given a vial that was ostensibly poison, but was in fact the counteragent to the injection. By taking it before she went into the coma, she would be able to convince Romeo of her death. The plan was that in his grief, near the end, she would convince him to give up enough information to help the investigation. In fact what she had not been counting on, was Romeo’s unstable mental state, when Juliette drank the poison in front of him claiming that she could no longer live in fear of Romeo one day being capture or worse. In response Romeo, stricken by the loss, committed suicide himself using his own personal weapon just as the incredibly surprised Juliette was slipping into the coma. She awoke a few hours later covered in blood and in a panic. As far as she knew, there was no one alive who knew the full plan and Romeo’s lieutenants had been ordered to never reveal their part of the plan. Her only option now was to use Romeo’s body to bypass biometric protections around his personal quarters. Using his severed hands and removed eyes, she gained access to his computer, through this and by impersonating Romeo in electronic communication she managed to convince his lieutenants that the plan had been compromised. By in turn accusing each one of his lieutenants as being the leak, which she (Romeo) knew because it was each lieutenant’s piece of the puzzle that had been leaked, she managed to gather sufficient information on both the attack and secondary cells spread out all over the system. Finally, she struck gold when in one of the replies of a lieutenant she found an email with the encrypted disarming code. Romeo had always worn an earring that Juliette had never really been able to reconcile with his personality. She snapped the code into her memory cortex and once more returned to her room where she had stashed the body in the lavatory cubicle. After some fiddling she discovered that the earring was in fact a scrambler decoder and after plugging it into her own memory cortex she was able to unscramble the code. Soon after she sent the code to her handler and once she had confirmation that the WMDs had been remotely deactivated, she secretly left the compound. In her honour the cybernetic warfare squadron has been formed by the collective and each year one of the officers of the squadron has the honour of playing the heroic role in a play that is held in the capital.
3) Further text redacted to protect the Collective armed forces and obscure their capabilities.

Spoiler: Articles of Incorporation

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Articles of incorporation, binding upon the collective
1) The collective will never go back on its legal obligations as set out in the relevant agreement.
2) War is a lawful endeavour provided that the rules of alliances and principia are maintained (casus belli provided and announced to senate or privately with notice).
3) The judiciary of the collective shall remain impartial in its judgment of any claim brough before it with the aim of accomplishing restitution against the aggrieved party.
4) The collective may bring a claim internally with itself as the claimant in order to seek the fulfillment of any agreement that has been reneged or pursue any cause of action.
5) Anyone who has retained legal representation from the legal firms of the Kramagorian moons or any other legal body recognized by the judicial body of the collective will benefit from attorney client privilege and all other duties of confidentiality, disclosure of conflict of interest and the best legal defense that the contracted entity
6) The Collective maintains the right to alter its articles of association and any other legal documentation at its absolute discretion without any forewarning, although all agreements shall be honoured on the basis of the version of the relevant legislation applicable at the time.

Spoiler: Laws and procedure, non-exhaustive

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s.1 Rights of the claimant
a.All individuals and/or factions may request intervention from the courts where they believe they have been wronged.
b. In order for a claim to be considered there will be a procedural fee to reflect the labour and process of the courts. This will be decided ad hoc and at the discretion of the courts. The fee will be made known to the potential claimant through their representative to the courts (non refundable)
c. Once the fee has been agreed the courts will send summons to the defendant and initiate due process against them. If the defendant does not respond to the summons, the courts will investigate to the best of their ability the facts in evidence and proceed with any legal action as required by the determination of the courts without recourse.
d.Both parties agree to abide by the decision of the courts, whatever the determination. The courts may decide on the following actions at their absolute discretion but always taking into account the contents of the claim and other circumstances that become evident during the proceedings. Relief that the court may grant at its discretion include but are not limited to:
1) restitution action
2) injunction
3) punitive action
4) ethical restitution
5) any other action considered necessary by the courts for justice and balance to be delivered between parties.

s.2 Judiciary and legal services
a. Barristers, judges below the rank of Supreme Justice or other agents of the court may be retained as required to provide legal services on a prolonged contract or a one-off.
b. the fees for such services will be negotiated and agreed to on an ad-hoc bilateral basis, are non-refundable payable before commencement of the service.
c. Services may include, but are not limited to arbitration of dispute, legal discovery, defensive discovery, legal representation to the Judiciary, alliance maintenance.
d. the collective, any of its department or legal firms and institutions reserve the right to not accept any given business proposal, extension or alteration thereof or to discontinue services giving (1) cycle of notice, without further recourse.
e. A declaration of war by the collective or against the collective during the performance of their duties shall have the immediate, unilateral and irrevocable effect of cessation of contractual performance and immediate return of any of its agents, officers or employees including any goods or materials that have been assigned.
f. A sitting member of the judiciary that is not actively engaged in a case may be retained for services such as dispute arbitration, alliance monitoring, witnesses to contracts or any other service such as may not result in a conflict of interest. Judges employed in this capacity may not sit in judgment of a relevant claim but may provide evidence to the judiciary for any claim that arises related to the services that have been provided.
s.3 Quantum of restitution:
1) Sum under dispute in addition to any ethical damages as quantified the courts at their discretion.
2) Interest charged at 10% per cycle minimum (1) per cycle.
3) Fees paid by the claimant to initiate proceedings.
4) Costs and expenses of determination and enforcement of claim.
b. Reverse order of claim seniority - if full restitution has not been accomplished through legal actions the claimant may pay a small processing fee to extend legal action into the following cycles in order to secure full restitution. The fee is repeatable for each subsequent cycle the restitution action is sought.
c. Should the defendant admit wrongdoing and agree to pay restitution under the original claim then legal action shall be pending full restitution. Once the claimant has confirmed they have been made whole, all claims against the defendant shall be dismissed and
d. Any and all actions in response of judicial action will be carried upon the unilateral determination of the courts without any duty to announce the results prior to the passing of any specific cycle, but has a duty to announce the result after the fact. Action by the courts in accordance with its determination are considered to be done solely at the behest of the claimant and the courts bear no responsibility for any and all outcomes. The action does not constitute a cause of action against the courts or the claimant but may be subject to injunction from the defendant if duly represented and the claim for injunction of any action by the courts passes summary judgment. Through the simple existence of a claim against the defendant the defendant is considered to be on notice of potential action and as such any requirement for a declaration of war before legal action is waiv
sub 1. Summary judgment: upon retention of a legal representative and payment of the processing fee of the courts a defendant may apply for an injunction to delay any action against them provided they have also presented evidence to the judge sitting on judgment of the original claim. Any evidence presented to the former judge will be shared with the latter and may form part of the decision even if the summary judgment for injunction is dismissed. Should the defendant of the original claimant, here the claimant of injunctive relief, present evidence sufficient to show either:
1) Bad faith on the part of the claimant – ie having first caused the creation of a cause of action for the claimant of injunctive relief.
2) That there is insufficient evidence to show wrongdoing and therefore requiring the courts to launch a full investigation into the circumstances of
a. The claimant under the first claim, being the defendant in the second claim, shall be invited to participate in the summary judgment to provide or counter evidence provided by the claimant of the injunction against the first claim unless the claimant of the second claim can demonstrate that there is sufficient reason for such proceedings to be kept private.
b. For this determination to be made, the claimant of the second claim must send a direct representative to the courts. The courts cannot guarantee that a motion for injunction against the first claim will be granted.
c. The courts may at their discretion hear evidence on why a motion for injunction should be kept private in the absence of a direct representative but cannot guarantee that such determination or discussion will be inviolable.
S4.Causes of action (including but not limited to):
1) breach of contract.
2) dealing in bad faith - acting in such a way so as to steer an actual or nominal ally into action or inaction that brings them into the path of harm when the nominal defendant had information of actual or potential action from a third party or parties intent on bringing, causing, conspiring to cause, perpetrating or motivate harm directly or indirectly on the claimant.
3) Non-performance of duties or breach of alliance obligations.
4) Attack without proper and legal declaration or with insufficient notice.
5) Theft or destruction of property between two or more factions that are not at war or with insufficient declaration (Including but not limited to theft of moneys, materiel, information, goods tangible or intangible, planets, sectors, systems etc).
6) Murder, causing the death, unlawful detainment or serious injury of a sentient individual, AI or member of a faction, however defined by the faction without recourse to the rights, laws, regulations or ethical considerations of the actor.
7) Breach of non-aggression pact whether by obvious or hidden means.
8) Frivolous and damaging claims aiming to cause ethical and reputational damage.
9) Attempted bribery.
10) Aiding and abetting any of the above.
11) Being a causal link to the direct or indirect destruction, removal, lowering or making not available permanently or temporarily resources of another faction (stardate 13438.1)
12) Creation of hyperlanes between two non-allied nations without notice prior to the creation of said hyperlane (stardate 13438.5)
s.5
a) all judgments of the court, including the grievance, evidence presented forming the basis of the judge’s determination (ratio decidendi) as well as any legal action deriving from the court’s judgment shall be a matter of public record.
b) a party to another claim may use the ratio decidendi of another claim, where the circumstances of said claim are alike to the current claim (the burden of proof lying with the party seeking to use the prior ratio). The courts must abide by prior decisions of a higher court.

Sch. 1 Any action shall be subject to the rules of proportionality and the quantum of restitution being claimed may be adjusted accordingly to reflect this principle. The courts may at their discretion increase the quantum of the original claim at their discretion to remedy ethical damaged inflicted on the claimant through the defendant's actions, taking into account facts that may not have been in evidence during the original claim.

Sch. 2
a) All fees are considered to be net of any transactional costs, tariffs, restrictions, damage during transit and any other factor or circumstance, foreseen or unforeseen, avoidable or unavoidable that may result in the funds reaching the collective being less than agreed upon fee.
b) The collective retains the right to set-off the balance of the fee remaining unpaid against any funds of the client whether the collective is in possession or not of those funds.

Sch. 3 – The courts
1. Claims shall be considered by a court specializing in the subject matter of the claim. The lower courts must follow all precedent. These are divided between the following chambers:
a. Commercial court
b. Criminal court
c. Arbitration court
d. Ethical court
2. The legal representative of the claimant or defendant may request a higher court to hear the case, although that will only be done once the facts have been established by the specialized court. Higher courts will sit only on the legal matters.
3. The middle ranked courts are the appellate courts. These courts may overrule any decision of the lower courts if an appeal is granted. They may also set precedent at a higher seniority than the lower courts. The appellate courts may also willingly invite a case to their purview.
4. The High Courts act only of their own initiative and may set or ignore precedent at their discretion where the application or misapplication of precedent to the current claim would result in material injustice. They may also decide a case on a non-precedential basis due to unique characteristics of a case.
5. The Supreme Justice may on a non-precedential and discretionary manner to assist any court in deciding a point of law.

Sch. 4 - War
1. a state of war will remain until it has been explicitly rescinded by both parties.
2. While two factions are in a state of war, no action between the two shall be considered unlawful
3. where one is part to an alliance a state of war shall be deemed to exist between the opposing faction, factions, secondary groups, alliance or alliances of the first party and all its allies unless it is shown that the allies of the first party had no foreknowledge of such actions and remove the first party from the alliance and cease any communication/trade with them. Any trade between former allies where the alliance was dissolved shall be considered to be aid in the war and as such, the opposing party or parties as defined earlier shall be considered to be at war with the trading parties.
4. Where a cause of action is made public or is known by all involved, then war is considered to have been declared between the two parties automatically. (stardate 13438.6)

[ArcaneStomper]

Sages of Iettis VI
Reputation: Adored
Morale: 9

Spoiler: The Wildflower Wars Ceasefire Negotiations: PUBLIC

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The Eldest's bioform waited until everyone was done and then spoke. "A ceasefire is the best that can be hoped for Elspeth Irella. Envoy Res’ki Nothinala has made the United Ecological Order's stance on that clear. However we have an additional proposal for the delegates consideration. The fate of Gradian seems to be a sticking point in the negotiation, but the Iron Gods don't need to be the ones to claim it."

"If another party were to claim (56) after the UEO withdraws it would disconnect them from the Secretariat and also provide a buffer between your two polities. We would suggest either the Vanguard as being a neutral party, or the Antarean Crusade as having positive relations with both your polities. Similarly if (55) was ceded to a third party it would leave only the 58-52 veil gate as a point of contact, which would certainly work to reduce tension."

Spoiler: Muridun, Iron Gods, Judiciary Collective (Morale: 9)

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Greetings Friends,

As we stated before we have finished finalizing the Bheura Prime Trust. We have named as shareholders the Muridun, The Iron Gods of Ur, the Judiciary Collective of the Kramagorian Moons, and the Sages of Iettis VI. The current funds in the trust stand at (45) which will result in dividends onf (10) every decade. This will be split equally between all shareholders for (2) this decade, then (3) next decade, and so on. Shareholders may withdraw their dividends as any combination of (eco) or (psi).

Additional investment may be made at (4 points per 1 dividend). And we note that by the Bheura Prime agreement the Iron Gods of Ur have agreed to pay an additional two decades worth of output into the Trust (10).

Every decade a shareholder meeting will be held to determine the shareholders for the next decade with each shareholder voting aye or nay on every prospective faction. We note that the by laws of the trust require such votes to be unanimous to take effect. As such we move that the shareholder meeting be waived unless a shareholder wishes to propose a new member for the Trust.

We have prepared your official certificates of stake and will deliver them now.

Spoiler: Muridun Certificate

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Spoiler: Iron Gods Certificate

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Spoiler: Judiciary Certificate

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Spoiler: The UEO (Morale: 9)

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Greetings,

We appreciate the offer in the spirit of friendship. Even if the practicalities make it impossible.

Spoiler: The Iron Gods (Morale: 9)

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Greetings Asharra, Priestess of ENLIL, Favoured Voice of Heaven,

We will gladly make this trade with you.

We would also reiterate our desire to evacuate the innocent from Barakan II. Although the fate of the planet is still being decided there is no need to make them suffer for any longer.

To a Cooperative Future,
The Eldest

[Writtensanity]

Spoiler: TO the Wildflower Negotiations: PUBLIC

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"We are still awaiting responses from any of the powers in Principia from our previous statement and cannot make a full judgement as to whether we are open to a ceasefire at something closet to the offered terms yet. Please standby."

Spoiler: To the Muridun, Anterean & Unity Party: MOR 10

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Anterean has offered our citizens haven within his previously drawn borders on Vinotavi [17]. It's a relatively unpopulated and lush world with a local populace built from previous explorative expeditions. According to the living star, they are amenable to the UEO provided we establish a military baseline presence in the area.

Considering the generous offer of the Zultari under Muridun's banner to join our cause for the decade to help facilitate fighting, training and evacuations, our first consideration, both for the safety of the Zultari and political ease, would be to have them coordinate Vinotavi's transition to UEO control, and helping escort those who wish to leave the front line of traditional UEO space to the largely protected Vinotavi.

This action would be going through the borders of all three of your galactic nations. If you're open to this, we ask that you leave your border patrol on standby to accept and monitor UEO actions through your systems.

As we are tight on physical resources during wartime, we are instead offering you access to our information networks. Though we are cautious to simply open all channels to everyone considering we are asking most of the Galaxy for help at this point. Our offer instead is this:

For the next this and next turn, if someone is speaking about your nation in messages that don't include you, the United Ecological Order will message you, providing permission to read the message in question.

Due to the generous offers of Muridun and Anterean, this has already been granted to them as of my permission today to carry out the action. To the Unity Party, this offer would be contingent on allowing us through your borders for this action.

Thank you for your consideration.

Spoiler: OOC:

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Asking permission to move MIL through your territories to make it all the way to [17] through Muridun and our the UEO's shared border. Would need permission from all 3 parties to make it happen.

[kemmotar]

The Judiciary Collective of the Kramagorian Moons
Reputation: Neutral
Morale: 8

Haven

As representative of the Collective I would like to compliment the UEO for allying with "not the worst of sources" while leading the diplomatic effort against the Iron Gods, whose reputation is just that much worse than Antares. We would also like to congratulate the Antares for, as the UEO representative reminds us, allowed Zultari populations to escape their settlements before killing them and for not burning down the planet thanks to the Zultari putting up firebreaks to protect them after the attacked the planet with "precision meteorites" which are under no circumstances to be considered large uncontrolled objects falling from orbit, on fire and not causing considerable collateral damage. Clearly, the galaxy submitting to the crusade of a living star is much preferable to the Iron Gods who have dealt with their neighbours fairly and non initiated any wars. Because the Crusade of course will also stop at a reasonable expansion that will not threaten any other nations.

As for their accusations of attacks. Yes. Had we attacked the Judiciary we would do considerable damage to their infrastructure. We don't apologize for being well prepared to defend ourselves. Through your actions you have evidenced that we have reasons to do so."

]We would also like to congratulate the physicists of the UEO. Clearly they must be so far ahead of us in their field for our understanding of time is still linear. You see in our timeline, the UEO breached the defenses of the Collective and then the Collective retaliated and announced their intention in accordance with our laws. If that is not the case, then clearly our attack was in self defense for the attack that the Antares will launch on us with the help of the UEO. We would also love to hear the explanation of the UEO on why extortions of corporations are not only legal but in fact good for Principia. For the public benefit we would like to remind the attendants of the conference the definition of extortion.

Extortion, the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

Spoiler

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Spoiler: Space Opera and other foibles

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The only way in which the collective could be accused of levity, and perhaps in some circles precisely so they are not accused for a lack of one, they have given a nod to the cultured past by naming some of their crack squads after ancient operations memorialized through the physical arts.

1) In memory of the battle of the swan conflagration, a crack squad an elite assault squad was created specializing in boarding actions. The pointe berserkers, equipped with the latest in mechanized battle armour (thin but durable) they use rotating monomolecular blades attached to the bottom of their feet to move at incredible speeds along all 3 dimensions (especially in the weightlessness of void warfare). The swan conflagration originates from a small stranded squad of swan vessels (so called because their huge engines built for speed caused an incredibly strong magnetic field that is harmful to all life – As such the cockpit and living area had to be further away from the engine room resulting in a body with a long neck) in enemy territory and being assaulted by the technomages led by Rotbart the Black who sought the superior technology of the lead vessel “Odette”. The standstill was broken by the assault of Segafredo squadron after tipping the scales against Rotbart by destroying his flagship “Odille”, which had been masquerading as an empire vessel. Thankfully the cybernetic warfare module of Segafredo squadron was able to see through the mimicked vessel tags by recognizing the different engine frequency of the inferior Rotbart vessel and blasted to atoms. Then, the squadron let the “Odette” and her attendant vessels back to the empire shipyards. This is commemorated through an ancient piece of music by one Chai-trotsky and the point berserkers are psychoindoctrinated to enter a battle frenzy when they hear his piece of long forgotten music, some say it was written for star crossed shapechanging lovers. What piffle….but the music seemed to engender a certain aggressive reaction in individuals with a certain genetic anomaly.

2) Juliette squadron, a famous wing of the collective's fleet so named after Juliette the oubliette, a famous spy in the times of the pre arco medean era. She is most well known for the events that led to her obtaining the codes for the self destruct sequence for the weapons of mass destruction of a faction of rebels called the Veronese after the controversial decision which had banned the installation of high grade AIs in android bodies that have humanlike skin. The veronese threatened to detonate quantum busters under the server archive holding the names of AIs downloaded already in what would be non-compliant bodies. Juliette, then a little known intelligence agent barely out of the academy took advantage of her young looks and the Veronese terrorist leader Romeo proclivities and managed to insinuate herself into his life as his lover. She was quickly able to make him fall in love with her by adopting a meek persona but she still was unable to extract the necessary information from him. Getting desperate she concocted a plot with the help of another of the agents that had infiltrated the organization posing as a doctor. She would be injected with an agent that would put her in a medically induced coma 12 hours after the injection. She would also be given a vial that was ostensibly poison, but was in fact the counteragent to the injection. By taking it before she went into the coma, she would be able to convince Romeo of her death. The plan was that in his grief, near the end, she would convince him to give up enough information to help the investigation. In fact what she had not been counting on, was Romeo’s unstable mental state, when Juliette drank the poison in front of him claiming that she could no longer live in fear of Romeo one day being capture or worse. In response Romeo, stricken by the loss, committed suicide himself using his own personal weapon just as the incredibly surprised Juliette was slipping into the coma. She awoke a few hours later covered in blood and in a panic. As far as she knew, there was no one alive who knew the full plan and Romeo’s lieutenants had been ordered to never reveal their part of the plan. Her only option now was to use Romeo’s body to bypass biometric protections around his personal quarters. Using his severed hands and removed eyes, she gained access to his computer, through this and by impersonating Romeo in electronic communication she managed to convince his lieutenants that the plan had been compromised. By in turn accusing each one of his lieutenants as being the leak, which she (Romeo) knew because it was each lieutenant’s piece of the puzzle that had been leaked, she managed to gather sufficient information on both the attack and secondary cells spread out all over the system. Finally, she struck gold when in one of the replies of a lieutenant she found an email with the encrypted disarming code. Romeo had always worn an earring that Juliette had never really been able to reconcile with his personality. She snapped the code into her memory cortex and once more returned to her room where she had stashed the body in the lavatory cubicle. After some fiddling she discovered that the earring was in fact a scrambler decoder and after plugging it into her own memory cortex she was able to unscramble the code. Soon after she sent the code to her handler and once she had confirmation that the WMDs had been remotely deactivated, she secretly left the compound. In her honour the cybernetic warfare squadron has been formed by the collective and each year one of the officers of the squadron has the honour of playing the heroic role in a play that is held in the capital.
3) Further text redacted to protect the Collective armed forces and obscure their capabilities.

Spoiler: Articles of Incorporation

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Articles of incorporation, binding upon the collective
1) The collective will never go back on its legal obligations as set out in the relevant agreement.
2) War is a lawful endeavour provided that the rules of alliances and principia are maintained (casus belli provided and announced to senate or privately with notice).
3) The judiciary of the collective shall remain impartial in its judgment of any claim brough before it with the aim of accomplishing restitution against the aggrieved party.
4) The collective may bring a claim internally with itself as the claimant in order to seek the fulfillment of any agreement that has been reneged or pursue any cause of action.
5) Anyone who has retained legal representation from the legal firms of the Kramagorian moons or any other legal body recognized by the judicial body of the collective will benefit from attorney client privilege and all other duties of confidentiality, disclosure of conflict of interest and the best legal defense that the contracted entity
6) The Collective maintains the right to alter its articles of association and any other legal documentation at its absolute discretion without any forewarning, although all agreements shall be honoured on the basis of the version of the relevant legislation applicable at the time.

Spoiler: Laws and procedure, non-exhaustive

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s.1 Rights of the claimant
a.All individuals and/or factions may request intervention from the courts where they believe they have been wronged.
b. In order for a claim to be considered there will be a procedural fee to reflect the labour and process of the courts. This will be decided ad hoc and at the discretion of the courts. The fee will be made known to the potential claimant through their representative to the courts (non refundable)
c. Once the fee has been agreed the courts will send summons to the defendant and initiate due process against them. If the defendant does not respond to the summons, the courts will investigate to the best of their ability the facts in evidence and proceed with any legal action as required by the determination of the courts without recourse.
d.Both parties agree to abide by the decision of the courts, whatever the determination. The courts may decide on the following actions at their absolute discretion but always taking into account the contents of the claim and other circumstances that become evident during the proceedings. Relief that the court may grant at its discretion include but are not limited to:
1) restitution action
2) injunction
3) punitive action
4) ethical restitution
5) any other action considered necessary by the courts for justice and balance to be delivered between parties.

s.2 Judiciary and legal services
a. Barristers, judges below the rank of Supreme Justice or other agents of the court may be retained as required to provide legal services on a prolonged contract or a one-off.
b. the fees for such services will be negotiated and agreed to on an ad-hoc bilateral basis, are non-refundable payable before commencement of the service.
c. Services may include, but are not limited to arbitration of dispute, legal discovery, defensive discovery, legal representation to the Judiciary, alliance maintenance.
d. the collective, any of its department or legal firms and institutions reserve the right to not accept any given business proposal, extension or alteration thereof or to discontinue services giving (1) cycle of notice, without further recourse.
e. A declaration of war by the collective or against the collective during the performance of their duties shall have the immediate, unilateral and irrevocable effect of cessation of contractual performance and immediate return of any of its agents, officers or employees including any goods or materials that have been assigned.
f. A sitting member of the judiciary that is not actively engaged in a case may be retained for services such as dispute arbitration, alliance monitoring, witnesses to contracts or any other service such as may not result in a conflict of interest. Judges employed in this capacity may not sit in judgment of a relevant claim but may provide evidence to the judiciary for any claim that arises related to the services that have been provided.
s.3 Quantum of restitution:
1) Sum under dispute in addition to any ethical damages as quantified the courts at their discretion.
2) Interest charged at 10% per cycle minimum (1) per cycle.
3) Fees paid by the claimant to initiate proceedings.
4) Costs and expenses of determination and enforcement of claim.
b. Reverse order of claim seniority - if full restitution has not been accomplished through legal actions the claimant may pay a small processing fee to extend legal action into the following cycles in order to secure full restitution. The fee is repeatable for each subsequent cycle the restitution action is sought.
c. Should the defendant admit wrongdoing and agree to pay restitution under the original claim then legal action shall be pending full restitution. Once the claimant has confirmed they have been made whole, all claims against the defendant shall be dismissed and
d. Any and all actions in response of judicial action will be carried upon the unilateral determination of the courts without any duty to announce the results prior to the passing of any specific cycle, but has a duty to announce the result after the fact. Action by the courts in accordance with its determination are considered to be done solely at the behest of the claimant and the courts bear no responsibility for any and all outcomes. The action does not constitute a cause of action against the courts or the claimant but may be subject to injunction from the defendant if duly represented and the claim for injunction of any action by the courts passes summary judgment. Through the simple existence of a claim against the defendant the defendant is considered to be on notice of potential action and as such any requirement for a declaration of war before legal action is waiv
sub 1. Summary judgment: upon retention of a legal representative and payment of the processing fee of the courts a defendant may apply for an injunction to delay any action against them provided they have also presented evidence to the judge sitting on judgment of the original claim. Any evidence presented to the former judge will be shared with the latter and may form part of the decision even if the summary judgment for injunction is dismissed. Should the defendant of the original claimant, here the claimant of injunctive relief, present evidence sufficient to show either:
1) Bad faith on the part of the claimant – ie having first caused the creation of a cause of action for the claimant of injunctive relief.
2) That there is insufficient evidence to show wrongdoing and therefore requiring the courts to launch a full investigation into the circumstances of
a. The claimant under the first claim, being the defendant in the second claim, shall be invited to participate in the summary judgment to provide or counter evidence provided by the claimant of the injunction against the first claim unless the claimant of the second claim can demonstrate that there is sufficient reason for such proceedings to be kept private.
b. For this determination to be made, the claimant of the second claim must send a direct representative to the courts. The courts cannot guarantee that a motion for injunction against the first claim will be granted.
c. The courts may at their discretion hear evidence on why a motion for injunction should be kept private in the absence of a direct representative but cannot guarantee that such determination or discussion will be inviolable.
S4.Causes of action (including but not limited to):
1) breach of contract.
2) dealing in bad faith - acting in such a way so as to steer an actual or nominal ally into action or inaction that brings them into the path of harm when the nominal defendant had information of actual or potential action from a third party or parties intent on bringing, causing, conspiring to cause, perpetrating or motivate harm directly or indirectly on the claimant.
3) Non-performance of duties or breach of alliance obligations.
4) Attack without proper and legal declaration or with insufficient notice.
5) Theft or destruction of property between two or more factions that are not at war or with insufficient declaration (Including but not limited to theft of moneys, materiel, information, goods tangible or intangible, planets, sectors, systems etc).
6) Murder, causing the death, unlawful detainment or serious injury of a sentient individual, AI or member of a faction, however defined by the faction without recourse to the rights, laws, regulations or ethical considerations of the actor.
7) Breach of non-aggression pact whether by obvious or hidden means.
8) Frivolous and damaging claims aiming to cause ethical and reputational damage.
9) Attempted bribery.
10) Aiding and abetting any of the above.
11) Being a causal link to the direct or indirect destruction, removal, lowering or making not available permanently or temporarily resources of another faction (stardate 13438.1)
12) Creation of hyperlanes between two non-allied nations without notice prior to the creation of said hyperlane (stardate 13438.5)
s.5
a) all judgments of the court, including the grievance, evidence presented forming the basis of the judge’s determination (ratio decidendi) as well as any legal action deriving from the court’s judgment shall be a matter of public record.
b) a party to another claim may use the ratio decidendi of another claim, where the circumstances of said claim are alike to the current claim (the burden of proof lying with the party seeking to use the prior ratio). The courts must abide by prior decisions of a higher court.

Sch. 1 Any action shall be subject to the rules of proportionality and the quantum of restitution being claimed may be adjusted accordingly to reflect this principle. The courts may at their discretion increase the quantum of the original claim at their discretion to remedy ethical damaged inflicted on the claimant through the defendant's actions, taking into account facts that may not have been in evidence during the original claim.

Sch. 2
a) All fees are considered to be net of any transactional costs, tariffs, restrictions, damage during transit and any other factor or circumstance, foreseen or unforeseen, avoidable or unavoidable that may result in the funds reaching the collective being less than agreed upon fee.
b) The collective retains the right to set-off the balance of the fee remaining unpaid against any funds of the client whether the collective is in possession or not of those funds.

Sch. 3 – The courts
1. Claims shall be considered by a court specializing in the subject matter of the claim. The lower courts must follow all precedent. These are divided between the following chambers:
a. Commercial court
b. Criminal court
c. Arbitration court
d. Ethical court
2. The legal representative of the claimant or defendant may request a higher court to hear the case, although that will only be done once the facts have been established by the specialized court. Higher courts will sit only on the legal matters.
3. The middle ranked courts are the appellate courts. These courts may overrule any decision of the lower courts if an appeal is granted. They may also set precedent at a higher seniority than the lower courts. The appellate courts may also willingly invite a case to their purview.
4. The High Courts act only of their own initiative and may set or ignore precedent at their discretion where the application or misapplication of precedent to the current claim would result in material injustice. They may also decide a case on a non-precedential basis due to unique characteristics of a case.
5. The Supreme Justice may on a non-precedential and discretionary manner to assist any court in deciding a point of law.

Sch. 4 - War
1. a state of war will remain until it has been explicitly rescinded by both parties.
2. While two factions are in a state of war, no action between the two shall be considered unlawful
3. where one is part to an alliance a state of war shall be deemed to exist between the opposing faction, factions, secondary groups, alliance or alliances of the first party and all its allies unless it is shown that the allies of the first party had no foreknowledge of such actions and remove the first party from the alliance and cease any communication/trade with them. Any trade between former allies where the alliance was dissolved shall be considered to be aid in the war and as such, the opposing party or parties as defined earlier shall be considered to be at war with the trading parties.
4. Where a cause of action is made public or is known by all involved, then war is considered to have been declared between the two parties automatically. (stardate 13438.6)

[Writtensanity]

"Once again Councilor, we are not going to accept your claim that identifying flaws in your defensive network is akin to an active attack against the Judiciary. That would be similar to claiming that having a planetary force on standby is an active attack in case you ever invade someone in the coming centuries. Additionally we maintain that if no other force in the Galaxy knows you're at war, it's a surprise war. You clearly had no intent of telling us and giving us time to evacuate our citizens from Midonia."

"As for the extortion point, the UEO using our political cause to pressure companies into donations is aggressive, yes. We threaten them with political backlash for their environmentally damaging practices should they not contribute to mitigating those damages through donations to the order. Thanks to their donations, our member planets as well as several planned others are fully protected ecological paradises within Principia. This helps offset some of the inherent damages that these massive corporations cause in the name of profit."

"Finally, we don't feel the need to argue the state of Anterean against the Iron Gods of Ur, the differences between the two have been starkly clear to anyone paying attention to politics. For a main one, those who were willing to join their cause have been treated and trained as equals under Anterean, their battle on Zultar was brutal, yes, but they didn't specifically reject surrenders and obliterate civilian transports attempting to leave the planet at the Iron Gods of Ur did."

"It's remarkable how the Law will sink to justify its own conclusions."

[neriractor]

Vanguard Unit Z-538

Reputation: adored
Morale: 7

Spoiler: iron god of ur

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Theophania arrived with just a token guard, seemingly satisfied enough with her last display to refrain from bringing her own parade of creations, perhaps as a result, her ritual probation seemed to linger less.

She sat down in the seat kept for her and after a minor pause to very conspicuously divine the tea for dangerous agents she took a sip, followed by a smile of pleasant surprise. "The judge's little stunt has has caused no shortages of confusion amongst some of our strategists" some disdain seeps into her expression "seemed like a good time for a change in policy, we seem to be getting peo... Things wrong left and right, I expected whoever pulls those strings I can't reach without a diplomatic incident to just laugh, not even be curious, for one thing."

"I hope that's enough, so satisfy me too. has there been even the smallest (not exactly shooting for accuracy after so little time) decrease in hostile thought from yours, after the recent reduction of hostile thought towards them?"

Spoiler: Judiciary collective - Public

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Thank you very much for the quick reply.

We would like to discuss the possibility of both.

1) The fact is, that the opinion of the masses is what brings information or money into the hands of the dreadful gask triad the UEO has seen fit to work with. We must commend you, for granting such freedom of market and movement that such exchanges are possible but we can hardly call inspiring others to do better for their countries an attack, the problem is as you said internal.
(OOC: try a LTP to go more big brother) and still:

2) as this can both affect the demand and our previous case we'll have it here. While there was a trial, and perhaps you could argue for the willingness of Judiciary citizens to betray them for the UEO to be a sort of attack (if you squint enough) it remains evident that
Sch 4.4 does not apply, not only because most don't consider the activity an attack, but because, even if war is considered automatic. There was a trial, meaning there was a disputed claim as to the nature of those "attacks" and given that such a trial could have no other defendant but the UEO we believe the court to have been in clear breach of S1.C as no summons were sent to the defendant, breaking the system at one of its most fundamental points, regardless of who the claimant was.

As for the constitutional challenge: while every excerpt of the law dealing with the punishment of the guilty is vague enough to allow for the vastness of actions possible, we would like to call attention to the court, that the actions they intend to punish, if they even were to be punisheable are losses so small as to not require intervention from the state to recover (the passive does fade after a turn, and cost you nothing to fix/pay), the precedent that a faction long accepted as a member of the international order (whether in good standing or not) can be punished with unilateral dismissal from the system of rule for such a minor offense is not only tyrannical, but a borderline invitation to anarchy.


Political wing:
As you can read there, we committed to helping the defendant win in case someone broke the treaty. As both parties broke the treaty in their own way there is no defendant to help win... Nevertheless, we are waiting on words from the Unwilling one, who knows, an intervention against both might be in order.

Spoiler: Sages of Iettis VI

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Eldest,

We are happy to hear that. As for our business:

For now, we would rather the shared policy, so long as the Vanguard gets to use it first and we agree to an eventual expansion to fit us both. A referendum will be held amongst the Lunara collective to see who would rather work with you sages or with us* the system will be on our care, while you get the prestige of having granted it**

And of course, we hope since we invited you to aid us far before you could, and held off on completing the project beforehand, you would be so kind to put a similar word in with us to the chronarkate, who seem to hold you in the highest of esteems.

As for pay, either allowing the UEO use of Garuda for (4 eco) covered by us, or (1 sci or 2 mor) and a promise of delivery should you find a piece archaotech we are waiting for, your choice. In addition an agreement that if losses on our side are inevitable, come a future expedition, the sages will restitute them***

For a cooperative future,
Theophania, commander of auxiliary thaumaturgy

Spoiler: ooc

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*With is a fancy way of saying we'll get roughly half and half, depending on what is actually to be earned.
** I get the land and grant you the VP as you suggested.
*** Did cultist tell you what you got or should I? Also, apparently cleaning your installations with your stats puts my stats in danger, so I'll expect replenishment if we are doing this again.

Spoiler: unity party

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Our diggings have been fruitful, is still not certain, as a quick fix of resource may be most pressing than growth, but for now we have found quite a cache of wealth (15 eco) for dealing, and would rather it supply us with exploration fleets (4 Sci) and cyber security (1 mor)... For no particular reason.

-Most Active Guardians of Innocent Creatures, Vanguard Corps.

[ArcaneStomper]

Spoiler: Vanguard Unit Z-358 (Morale: 9)

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Greetings Theophania, Commander of auxiliary thaumaturgy

We will start by wishing you well in your new position. Your thoughts on the collective are quite agreeable to us. We strongly believe in the rights of sapients to choose their own future. However do you know how much more energy will be needed to stabilize the Nexus?

As for the Chronarkate we will advise the Covenant of Ninety that you are worth working with. However we do note that we had intended to finish helping them complete their calibrations within the decade. If you plan on assisting as well, then we should make sure to coordinate to ensure everything is done properly. Though of course that would mean we would have more resources free to aid the Lunara Collective.

Now on to the expedition agreement. We regret that the first two of these options are not possible for us at the moment. Garuda is undergoing a key metamorphosis that cannot be interrupted. And the Observer is quite busy dealing with reality rifts radiating out from the Boundary Garden. We can provide you with Gardener's assistance however (2 Mor). Though we would ask what archeotech it is that you are looking for.

Of course we will offer restitution for any losses you receive helping us. Though we hope that the Silent Cartographer will help alleviate any such need.

To a Cooperative Future,
The Eldest

(OOC: I got the results in my midturn since cultist said there wasn't really any choices in the rolls. Though if there is a difference in the future it might only go to you. You didn't lose anything this turn did you. My midturn only mentioned a lesser threat.)

Spoiler: The Chronarkate of Miron (Morale: 9)

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Greetings to the Covenant of the Ninety,

The Vanguard have asked us if they could also assist in your project. We are happy to accept their aid in this ourselves, but we leave the descision up to you.

To a Coordinated Future,
The Eldest

[Hamste]

Unity Party
Morale 6

Spoiler: Iron Gods of Ur

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That does indeed work for us. The algorithm has already told us the location with the highest demand for taxidermy and we should be able to get good returns on it.

We will start the investments immediately and have your requested items with in the decade.

Thank you for your business, may we deal again in Unity

Spoiler: Vanguard Unit

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Very good, we will send you the requested ships with in the decade with the other requested item installed and easily replicable.

Thank you for your business, may we deal again in Unity

Spoiler: UEO

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We are willing to let you through our space but we don't quite see the need. You can reach [17] from Muridun alone.

You also seemed somewhat interested in purchasing from us. Are you still considering or have you decided if you will make a purchase or not?

Spoiler: Sages of Iettis

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Hello, we are checking in on you as you expressed interest in purchasing from us earlier but wished to wait to look over your finances. Are you still interested in ordering from us?

[neriractor]

Vanguard Unit Z-538

Reputation: adored
Morale: 7

Spoiler: Sages of Iettis VI

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Eldest,

Thank you, it has been a challenge but most things that need doing are.

And thank you as well for your words towards Chronarkate, if we work together and the Umbra threat allows I'm sure we will be able to achieve both shared agreements with ease... How much is needed is reliant on a response from Lunara collective, unlike say, the Zultari, who made no move or calls of their own before finding their way barred by Antares, the Lunara are quite active and have surely made progress towards their LTP. The fee is agreed.

Regards,
Theophania, Commander of auxiliary thaumathurgy.

Attached to the message come a list of unfinished Archaeotech, and a different proposal regarding the achievement of all LTPs

Spoiler: Archaeotech

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Primal Monolith - Tier 2, lacking one part
Matrioshka cortex-Tier 3, lacking 2 parts

Spoiler: LTPs OOC

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Alright, so I hardly think we can put out 80 points in one turn, so:
We prioritize Lithos (if they rescind their war)(you keep LTP as you are far more likely to never send attacks, stats split) >> Chronarkate (LTP split, you keep most stats depending on exactly how much you have already invested, the land and what comes with it)>> Lunara Collective (I keep, as using Psi as anything is something I'll enjoy far more than the mor one)(Stats split, I keep land and VP as a counter balace to chronarkate and because presumably we will make this one next turn if all goes right).

[St. Justicar]

The Iron Gods of Ur



Reputation: Feared, Encryption Level 18

Spoiler: Wildflower Wars Ceasefire Negotiations – Morale 2

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“I’d ask you to refrain from openly soliciting military aid in the middle of peace negotiations, if that’s quite alright. It makes it difficult to continue believing you’re here in good faith.

Turning over Gradian to a third party is not intolerable to my patrons, though compensation for both its material value and strategic location would be necessary. [8 Eco] and acknowledged rights over System 49, perhaps. If you would prefer to pay in kind, [2 permanent points worth] of military hardware, industrial machinery, or lab ships would be acceptable instead. Though given the amount of ‘charitable aid’ you’ve been soliciting from every corporation and syndicate in the sector while their princes turn a blind eye, I doubt finding the liquid capital would be an issue for you.”

A ceasefire without conditions hardly seems to my patrons advantage. While a permanent treaty is unnecessary, I will require some material concessions before I can agree to it. Or aid from the Sages or other nonbeligeriants matching what the reports I have access to indicate the UEO has already begun receiving.”

Asharra paused for a moment, as if considering something, then shrugged. “Unless the assembled princes of the sector would prefer the Gods focus on the other blasphemous gnats on their border and settle the Lithosan Question in the coming years instead, I suppose. But I don’t believe the UEO is quite so popular as the mad scribes.”

Spoiler: Vanguard

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Asharra sipped her tea as Theophania spoke, but wasn’t quite able to hide a slightly sardonic smile at her question. “A somewhat odd thing to ask, given my patrons are currently in the middle of a shooting war. I’m sure you’ve seen all the same oh so heart-wrenching-” the contempt dripped from each word “-charitable appeals for the poor souls of Barakan as I have. Unless making sure they’re playing around me is someone’s idea of a joke, I suppose.” She gave a slight shrug before continuing “There are certain voices who argue that exporting apotheosis at the point of a sword is needlessly destructive, and perhaps more effort than it is worth. They have certainly become more prominent over the last few years, though giving wider mortal opinion much credit for the shift may be giving your superiors rather too much credit.”

“Now, I assume you’ve been following the farce that we’re all pretending are peace talks? The Sages proposal concerning the Gradian system?”

Spoiler: Sages

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Honoured Eldest,

I’m afraid my patron’s position remains much the same as it was when you first asked several years ago – you are welcome to retrieve and prepubscents and any who forswear any loyalty to the UEO or their former government, and in either case only those you can solemnly swear will never go on to bear arms or work against my patrons.

For more population-level transfers, at the moment the population represents a signifcant amount of leverage in peace negotiations, leverage which cannot be given up without good reason.

Regarding the Trust, while the Gods are absolutely committed to keeping their commitments on investing into it, I must warn you that the amount that can be promised in this decade as oppossed to the next depends in large part on the outcomeof the current negotiations.

-Asharra, Priestess of ENLIL, Favoured Voice of Heaven