The Rise And Victory (Or Decline And Fall?) Of The Foundation

[DuckofDoom]

Okay, I have to say right now that this probably will be one of the less interesting AARs because I expected to be sorely beaten and lose at this difficulty, my skills considered. Thus I didn't bother taking screenshots for the first part, whereupon at about 2230* I realized that I was not subjugated under someone else's iron fist (yet?) and started to AARize.

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Galactic Cartography:
=Galaxy Size: Huge
=Victory Conditions: All
=Number of Habitable Planets: Occaisional
=Number of Planets: Common
=Number of Stars: Common
=Number of Anomalies: Common
=Star Density: Loose Clusters
=Technology Rate: Normal

The Foundation Itself:
=Name: Foundation
=Leader: Mayor Ente
=Homeworld: Terminus
=Ruling Party: Technologists (+20 Research, +1 Sensor)
=Racial Specials: +60 Research (We're the Foundation), +25 Luck (Yay for Seldon), +10 Economy, +10 Influence, +6 Logistics
=Starting Techs: Hyperdrive, Stellar Cartography, New Propulsion Techniques, Xeno Engineering, Xeno Research, Xeno Communications

The Opposition:
=Civilizations: 6
=The Terran Alliance, The Drengin Empire, The Arcean Empire, The Altarian Republic, The Torian Confederation, and The Yor Collective
=Intelligence: Bright (all 6)
=Difficulty: Challenging
=Expectation: To Lose?

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CHAPTER 1: The Foundation. Hyperdrive.

The Foundation had stood for thousands of years and had not wavered once. The Foundation was dying. These two statements were not incongruous, for reasons that shall be made apparent.

The Foundationers, also known as Terminics due to their homeworld's name and very occaisionally as Florinese after their star, were the third of the triad of races that shared appearance. The Altarians from Altair and the Terrans from Earth or Terra appeared to look the same. There they diverged, for the Terrans were an upstart race of diplomats. The Altarians and the Foundation were more noble, ancient races that (despite recent setbacks) had until recently held technological advantage over their neighbors, especially the Foundation with its fusion-powered weaponry.

Despite the vast distances and problems involved with interstellar travel, the Foundation had known the five races of interstellar space through their Stargates for thousands of years, working slowly and steadily at technological paces as was standard. They never expected the next few decades to show so much dangerous progress.

The Foundation, it was said, was guaranteed victory by a plan created by one Hari Seldon long, long ago. He had planned out history in advance. It was a slow, but inevitable victory. But for all his Psychohistory, Hari Seldon himself could not plan for what happened next.

The five other races of the Interstellar Community were completely taken off guard when the Arceans discovered a new race, known as Human. The Humans looked similar to the Altarians, but were apparantly much stupider and less advanced. The Arceans gave them a Stargate, and doubtless planned to doublecross the naïve and simple humanity and invade through it.

There was one catch to the Arcean plan. Humans had advanced nuclear weaponry, and the Arceans did not. Only Mankind and the Foundation had possessed the reckless use of the Atom that is Fusion Technology. The Arceans were cowed and did not invade, although some say they just are waiting until the time is right again.

However, the excitement did not end there. The naïve humans gifted the Galaxy with Fusion Technology, ruining the only strategic weapon the Foundation had. Then the Humans made an even worse mistake.

Terran scientists, led by a man known as Doctor Hsien Ho, invented a miraculous device. Fusion powered, it was as if it were a stargate that functioned independently. This alone, a terminusless stargate, would have shifted the balance of interstellar power and perhaps restarted the old Drengin/Arcean war. But this was much, much worse. Athough large and expensive, it could fit onto a single starship.

This would have guaranteed Human dominance of the stars for all eternity, had they not accidentally leaked the document to the other races. Stargate communications were immediately shut down. All the races stopped talking with one another, each building up.

The Seldon Plan was in ruins. Due to just one mistake, the Foundation no longer posessed a great strategic weapon. Due to a single man on one planet, Interstellar Travel had been revolutionized and the Foundation was vulnerable. There was only one thing to do- roll with the blow and try to make the best of it.

The people understood the threat that this posed. The Mayor was immediately gifted with Emergency Powers, essentially making him a dictator. He promised to return power to local officials in time, once the crisis was averted. Nobody really believed him, but most people didn't care at the time because the Mayor was not as disliked as he would become.

The Foundation then took the Human Invention and improved it. They managed to make it about 9% more efficient, and then built two for a prototype run. More would follow later, the Mayor promised, if they worked well.

One would go onto the FSS Journeyman, a ship designed to search the universe that was now open to interstellar travel. Another was placed onto the FSS C.H. Kuwalski, a gigantic habitation ship filled with half a billion government funded colonists, despite costs per colonization ship numbering in the trillions of Foundation credits.

The Foundation was the first Younger Race to conquer the atomic power of stars, and so now they hoped to be the first to conquer the stars themselves.

[DuckofDoom]

CHAPTER 2: A Plan. A Better Plan.

The day was 3 January 2225 to Humanity. It was the third day since the launch of the FFS Journeyman and the FFS C.H. Kuwalski.

The FFS Journeyman carried one of the Hyperspace Cores of the Prototype Run. It was a 20-man scoutship designed to go explore the universe. There would likely be interesting things about for it to find.

The other ship, the Kuwalski, was a massive behemoth of a ship. It was designed to carry five hundred million colonists on a six month or more journey to the stars. The Main Cluster, where most of the stars of the galaxy conglomerated in Hyperspace, was very far from the tiny collection of Stars near Florin and its planet Terminus.

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3 January 2225, 1243 Hours, Local Terminic Time

Inside the Mayor's Office, Mayor Kai J. Ente conferred with his advisors. Grand Admiral Jerrek, a Sudtrandan of noble birth, was the new head of the admittedly rather small Foundation Starmada, which consisted currently of 21 people and a few technical specialists.

The Mayor also was with his economic advisor James and a few other sycophants such as the head of the new Westgaard Incorporated Hyperspacial Fold Engine Design Company, Ltd., who was clamoring to present his new ideas on charged particle expulsion and fold coil dispersion efficiency and other technobabble for Hyperspace engines. The Mayor liked the science presentations because they gave him time to nap.

However, it was his turn to speak at this time. Silently, with a great air of dignity, he and Jerrek nodded to eachother. Mayor Ente withdrew a piece of paper from a sketchbook in his back pocket, smoothed it out a bit, and threw it onto the table.

"This, my friends, is the plan," he said, and showed the paper to the rest of the advisors.



There followed an awkward silence and several boring minutes of explanations on why that would not work. The Mayor was too busy drawing his new plan on the back of the other one to hear the objections, but he caught a few snippets such as the lack of the technology to make space weaponry, the lack of starships at all, and the fact that the Foundation has no idea where the "everybody else" is.

"Okay, those are some valid points. But that wasn't my only idea. What about... this?" he said, smiling, and revealing his second plan.



"Um, Mr. Mayor, that's the same one," said somebody.

"Oh," said the Mayor, quickly flipping it around to the right side.



There was an appreciative silence. The head of the Hyperspace Company spoke up.

"That could work."

And thus the Great Foundation Plan #2 was born.

[Lord of Pain]

Nice maps

[Castellon]

LOL I love the Secret Plans.
Shh! don't worry I won't tell a sole about them.

[DuckofDoom]

I must admit that I was inspired by the Swiss Victoria AAR, "Take London" on that last scene. Go read that one, if you haven't, by the way.

CHAPTER 3: Colonization. Whoops.

The Mayor's Office
8 Feb 2225
0914 Hours, Local Terminic Time

The Mayor blinked a few times. "You're telling me," he said, still a bit tired from being woken up just minutes ago, "that my spaceship- my interstellar spaceship went to Terminus Minor? I told the Captain to go find a habitable planet."

Grand Admiral Jerrek still hadn't forgiven him for abandoning Plan #1. "Mr. Mayor, Terminus Minor is a habitable planet."

The Mayor considered this. "Okay, but I told them to go to a habitable planet in another System. Terminus Minor still orbits Florin, does it not, Admiral?"

The Admiral looked at the floor uncomfortably. "No, Mr. Mayor, you said to, and I quote 'Tell the Captain of the Koo-whatever to go to a habitable planet and set down.'"

"I did? Ah, well, in that case, he did a good job. Terminus Minor is a horrible place, though, isn't it? No liquid water? Frozen deserts? That must be bad for those half a billion souls." The Mayor said, worrying for his newest planet.

"Actually, sir, there's around 630 million of them now. They set down a week ago," said Jerrek.

"How exactly does that work?"

"Yeah... well, we're not exactly sure, but there are definately a couple hundred million more people on Terminor- that's what they're calling it- than last week. Same here, after you ordered the construction of that gigantic farm in Westgaard."

"Strange. Anyhow, Jerrek, I have new orders for you. We need to build 22 more colony ships and send them towards the Main Cluster of the galaxy, so that we can better spread out and rule the Universe."

Jerrek paused, and consulted over his commlink with James, the Minister of the Economy. "Sir, we'd have to deport the entire Terminic population to get 22 colony ships full. Each one of them costs a trillion credits to build- at best we can make four right now before we run out of money."

The Mayor nearly fell out of his chair when he heard a trillion credits. That sounded like a large number. Large enough that he couldn't count to it, assuredly. There was no way they had money to make his 22 ships now.

"All right, let's make two, then. Two trillions sounds like a good amount to spend on conquering the galaxy. Also, tell the colony ship on Terminor to come back and pick up some new people."

Jerrek was apologetic. "I'm sorry. The Colony Ship is now the main capital city of Terminor. There's no way we can lift it off without flinging millions and millions of people into outer space."

"You're kidding. The colony ship just transformed into a city? Just like that? Like some sort of gigantic... transforming... colony?" the Mayor struggled with the concept, torn between the loss of another colony ship from his idea and the coolness of a transforming starship.

"That's why they cost a trillion credits, Mr. Mayor," said Grand Admiral Jerrek, solemnly.

"Well, then, we'll just buy two colony ships and send them out," said the Mayor, trying to make the best of the situation.

"Right away, Mr. Mayor. You should draw a poster to show the people the methods and benefits of colony ships. That way we can somehow scrape up a billion volunteers to go into space on a one-way trip to God-knows-where."

The Mayor started drawing.

Several weeks later, the latest propaganda poster came up. The people were overjoyed- they had gotten tired of last year's "49% Taxes! It's What's For Dinner!" and "The Mayor Is Such A Nice Guy, Look At Him Pet This Kitten" posters.

[DuckofDoom]

CHAPTER 4: Anacreon. The Gap. The Foundation Sets Forth.

The next pair of Colony Ship left Terminus, traveling spinward from Terminus. One of them broke off to head Rimwards towards the Andersona system, just a few parsecs away.

The other grimly turned towards the Marshall System. The journey would be a three month journey in Hyperspace, with a ship full of 500 million residents. They hoped that a Planet would be there, but many were unsure.

When the word had gotten out that anyone who boarded a ship would be guaranteed a job and housing on the new planet, many Terminic citizens immediately jumped at the opportunity despite the four pages of fine print attached to the offer to "clarify". In the end, there were so many lower-class and poor wishing to leave that many of them were left behind and promised passage on the next colony ship to leave.

Colony Primus was sent out to explore the other two stars in the general area of the Foundation. Andoria did not contain any suitable planets, but a few hyperspace jumps and several weeks later a habitable world was discovered in the Theta Iota system. It was known as Theta Iota II, but the colonists quickly renamed it Anacreon after it landed.

Although the Planetological Society classed it in the same area as Terminus, Anacreon was slightly inferior according to most colonists and the blue-tinted foliage was said to be "creepy". Despite these faults, Anacreon flourished, creating its own culture and society compared to the Foundation due to seperation and the fact that it was colonized almost entirely by hot-blooded Westgaardan pioneers who had been first to sign up for the colonization program.

Colony Secundus' mission was much more ambitious. Seperating the Foundation from the Galaxy at large was a vast swath of empty territory, almost 30 parsecs wide at its narrowest. Only a single star, Marshall, was present inside "The Gap", as the northern end was known. The southern ends were known as "The Wastes", and were much too vast and empty to even attempt to cross.

The ship quickly reached the Marshall System, a month or so after Colony Primus landed and founded Anacreon. However, the Marshall System was as barren as the space around it. Only a small, scorched inner-system planet and a rocky, airless dirtball orbited the sun. The colonists pushed forwards, hoping to close the gap and find a new home among the stars yet to keep their promised benefits.

It was around this time, somewhere in July, that a small mining operation was founded on a planet that the Foundation had found between Anacreon and Terminus. The planet was unusable for colonization, but it contained vast deposits of a crystal that when used as a part in Foundation research computers would speed them up considerably. Foundation scientists were baffled, and could not reproduce the effect with synthetic crystals. A large, metropolis sized structure was constructed in orbit around the planet just to coordinate mining efforts for the crystals. The base was officially named Mineral Orbiter 1, but it was known as "The Starbase" to everybody involved.

Meanwhile, on Anacreon a startling development had occured. The Westgaard Incorporated Hyperspacial Fold Engines Corporation, Ltd. made a breakthrough in their fold coil efficiencies and jump charting methods, just as their leader had promised the Mayor. Not only were the new "Impulse Drives" smaller, they also were faster. A colony ship on Anacreon was built using them, and sent towards the Galactic Core with around half of Anacreon's small populace. Now the Foundation could cross The Gap and perhaps even The Wastes, to go spread to innumerable worlds just as the Mayor had promised.


This pamphlet sent to the Mayor from the Westgaard Company interestingly enough forgot to include Anacreon in its drawing, perhaps because Anacreon was not a very recognizable planet (consisting mostly of blue-pigmented forests and small blue lakes all around)

[Castellon]

Continues to be enjoyable, I look forward to your next update.

[mib]

Your nonsensically-funny drawings are a dire threat to all we honest screenie-using writAARs!

*To others*
Burn him! Burn him!

[Gothmog]

Nice AAR, thus far, I like both the Foundation theme (how could one not like that bit?) and the inept mayor and his drawings/posters.

Keep it coming.

[Lord_Robertus]

An enjoyable AAR. Keep up the good work Mayor!

[Lord Boreal]

Looks like im following quite a few AARs. Be sure to be on the look out for mine when the game eventually arrives.

[DuckofDoom]

We're back, for another episode.

CHAPTER 5: Secundus. Bugs. Woes.

The Mayor's Office
12 Jul 2225
Way Too Early In The Morning, Local Terminic Time

Grand Admiral Jerrek came running into the office in excitement that was completely out of place for a man as blue-blooded and high ranked as he. Jerrek waved a paper in the air, probably an Ultrawave Fax by the look of it, and ran into the office, nearly tripping and smacking into the Mayor's desk because there was a tiny step of height difference between the two rooms.

The Mayor quickly minimized his game of Solitare. Wonderful game, best thing ever to come from Earth, he thought wistfully, as the Admiral showed a piece of paper under his nose.

"We've done it, Kai! We've done it!" he shouted, before looking at the official business-like reports that The Mayor kept in the background. "Am I interrupting your work?"

"No, of course not. Summarize for me, Admiral, I left my glasses somewhere and can't find them," said The Mayor. He pushed the paper away into the Grand Admiral's hands, completely neglecting to mention that he was farsighted, not nearsighted.

"Colony Secundus just landed on a planet in the Main Cluster! They're calling it Ravenna, it's in the Aquilae system," said Jerrek, as if the name of the Star would mean something to The Mayor.

"Good, good," said the Mayor. "Now that that's all sorted out-"

"Mr. Mayor, that's the problem. The Ravennan colonists have a problem with their world. You see, somebody is already living there."

"Those dastardly Terran Swine! Ravenna is our world. Launch our Navy immediately!" said The Mayor.

"Mr. Mayor, we don't have a Navy. And calm down. It's not the Terrans. There's some primitives on the planet. Their wars are all over the planet, making it extremely annoying to settle."

"Well, let's civilize them. Stop the wars and such," said The Mayor.

"Ah, that's the problem. They primitives are gigantic bugs. The colonists are scared of them. Their message makes it plain they really want permission to destroy the 'infestation'," said Jerrek gravely.

"Well, I'm The Mayor and what I say goes. They aren't, otherwise they wouldn't be on that spaceship and they'd be here in this desk playing Soli- working," said The Mayor.

"Of course, Mr. Mayor. We all know that you're the boss. I'll send a stern Ultrawave Message with your signature telling them to stop the wars and save the Bugs from their barbarities immediately, okay?"

"That's all taken care of. I'm sure that the Interstellar Community will approve of our actions," said The Mayor happily.

"I don't think the Interstellar Community knows where we are, let alone whether or not we kill some bugs, Mr. Mayor," interjected the Grand Admiral.

"Nonsense. This action obviously reflects on our species' morals as a whole, regardless of whether anyone sees it or not," said The Mayor, sagely steepling his hands together before noticing a black seven that could be placed atop the eight of diamonds and returning to his prior work. “Now that we’re done with that, I have to go back to my business, Admiral.”


This picture was later discovered in The Mayor's diary, perhaps giving an insight into the thought processes of a true leader.

The Grand Admiral coughed slightly. “Sir, that’s not only the other problem. It’s not really my place, so I’ve put the Minister of Economy on speakercom. Here he is.” Jerrek set his comm on the desk.

“Sir, I’ve checked the budget and it’s true what I’ve been told. We’re spending more money than we make. Over 18 billion credits more a day, in fact. That’s quite unacceptable. In a year, that will add up to 6.7 Trillion Credits. I don’t even think that many credits exist to pay with, so we’re pretty screwed. What should we do?”

“What sort of options do I have?” asked The Mayor, furrowing his brow in concentration. He was trying to remember his Generic Economic Minister’s name. It was Jim. Or Jarred? Jordon? Jamis? Something like that. The man defied social conventions and common decency by being so unremarkable and unnoticeable.

“Well, Mr. Mayor, you could increase taxes and get more money to try to balance it out despite people getting mad, or spend less money which will make everything get less money,” said Minister J, as The Mayor decided to name him.

That actually sounded rather fetching and ‘hip’ and ‘new’, he decided. Maybe Minister J could be his Vice Dictator or something, to better get in touch with the lower aged voters in their annual one-candidate elections. He filed this away for another cabinet meeting.

“Well, we need all the money we can get. Raise taxes to around 69 percent. I have a strange feeling that somehow that is much more acceptable than 70,” said The Mayor confidently.

“Sir, that won't stop all of the losses. In addition, a Psychohistorical Poll just calculated gives you approval rating of just 36 out of 100,” Minister J announced with a touch of worry.

“What are they going to do, vote for the Not-Mayor Party in the Elections?” chortled The Mayor.

“We have a Not-Mayor Party?” asked Grand Admiral Jerrek.

“Of course not,” snapped The Mayor. “That would defeat the purpose of Elections.”

And thus another meeting of the Glorious People’s Council Of Terminus And Its Associated Colonies came to a close.


A summary of the Foundation's problem in mid-2225. Nitpickers will notice the money loss gets so bad that apparantly it sucks itself 1 pixel back in time at one point.

[Lord Boreal]

lol I like the douglas adams style wit you've slipped in there.

I approve!

(and the pictures )

[Gothmog]

Originally Posted by Lord Boreal

lol I like the douglas adams style wit you've slipped in there.

I approve!

Agreed. A combination of Isaac Asomiv and Douglas Adams makes for an enjoyable reading for sure (with the latter of the two making the far greater contribution in terms of style).

As stated earlier, keep it coming.

[Lord Boreal]

The latter indeed. All you have to do is look at my sig and title and you can see how much I approve. The man was god. I worship his ever lasting spirit. May god have his soul.

Update!

[Amric]

I found a way to keep from losing a ton of money while trying to expand rapidly. I would sell tech to other starfaring nations. Of course it was always a tech or two level BEHIND what I had, but it gave me PILES of money. Which is why I have 35 planets and just a hair over 50 percent of the galaxy in my iron fist. And still having a good reputation and a 98 percent approval rating. But that is me...Enjoyable stuff. The mayor, god help me, reminds me of the mayor of the Powerpuff Girls cartoon. Blame my daughter, she loved that show for awhile....The stupidity of the mayor seems so like the guy in the cartoon.

Excellent stuff!

[Castellon]

That is why I play with Tech Trading turned off.

[Dr Bob]

Really good AAR, packed with...ummm...cool drawings

[Lord Boreal]

So you all on the latest beta? Im on 1.0X or whatever

[Gothmog]

Originally Posted by Amric

I found a way to keep from losing a ton of money while trying to expand rapidly. I would sell tech to other starfaring nations. Of course it was always a tech or two level BEHIND what I had, but it gave me PILES of money. Which is why I have 35 planets and just a hair over 50 percent of the galaxy in my iron fist. And still having a good reputation and a 98 percent approval rating.

I'm guessing you're playing a research focused race then (sort of like the Foundation being played right here maybe)...either that or the tech trading system seems a bit odd (at least to this poster, who as of yet hasn't played the game).