Jump 240: Alpha Centauri

Jump #240: Alpha Centauri
>The Hanged Man: Letting go of past patterns and growing beyond them.
>Faction: University of Planet
Well, somebody's gotta do the heavy lifting with research, now don't they?
>Identity: Talent
Screw going faction leader, I'd rather be one of the transcendi.
>Drawbacks: Firaxians (+600), Alien Crossfire (0)
The way to deal with this is the way you deal with it if you add them as a proper enemy in the game itself. Drown them in scouts and take their tech via probe teams. Also doubling the factions is fun, even if some of them are stupid. Gotta make sure to kill off the Nautilus Pirates before they get fusion power, though.
>Worker (Free, Talent)
I am pretty sure that after nearly sixty thousand years I have an established work ethic, but what the heck.
>Doctor (1500, Talent)
Why, yes, I am a real doctor.
>Transcendent (1100, Talent)
A very promising perk - all my psychic powers magnified, strong telekinesis... and a strong sense of self. Yes, this is very valuable.
>Groupthink (1000)
Now here's an interesting perk; not only can I be in telepathic contact with others, but I can facilitate contact between them and let them share their senses and knowledge. Oh yes.
>Xeno Empathy (800)
I'll have to find the progenitors and speak fluently with them just to blow their minds early on.
>Ascent to Transcendence (0)
This is absolutely worth the points. EVERYONE, LEND ME YOUR ENERGY! No, seriously, I can magnify my psychic powers by everyone who supports me. Combine this with the perk from Civ that lets me affect everyone that follows me as if I were standing next to them, and I can probably reinforce their potential. Not quite a feedback loop, but to hell with moving mountains, I could probably move PLANETS.
>Values: Knowledge (Free, University)
Huh. Well, I suppose there are advantages to being a part of the University. Fits nicely with the similar perk from Civilization, too.

"Prokhor Zakharov. I've been waiting for the chance to speak to you."
>"Where did you come from? Guards!"
"I'm afraid they can't hear you right now, Zakharov, I've made sure we will not be interrupted. I am here to speak to you of what has been and what will be to come. You've had a busy year, establishing University Base, and I've been content to serve as a doctor and ensure everyone's health, but I won't stand idly by and watch you play a part in destroying this planet."
>"Do you intend to kill me, then? A coup, by a doctor? Don't be absurd. You aren't even armed."
"I don't need to be, as though there were my intention. If you'll observe? I am an expression of what humanity may yet become in time on Charon. They'll call them Transcendi. Transcendent humanity."
>"...telekinesis? Impossible-"
"No, in time you'll find that humanity has a great deal of talent to that end, you simply haven't discovered that yet, but you will. This planet is uniquely suited to bringing out such potential. I will ask you to suspend disbelief while I tell you the future history of the planet."
>"Very well. Tell me what you have come to tell me."
"In roughly five years there will be two opposing groups of intellignet extraterrestrials of the same species which will crash land on this planet. They're part of the species that set this planet up as an experiment of sorts, but they're in decline and squabbling over what they should do. They've forgotten the goal of this experiment."
>"Leading with the most unbelievable thing, are you?"
"No, the most unbelievable thing would be that the xenofungus across the planet functions as a neural network and the planet is roughly as intelligent as a four year old. The native wildlife acts as an immune system of sorts."
>"Are you telling me that the Gaians are right? This is insane."
"Yes, yes it is. If you like, I'll fast-forward to the end, around mission year 2500: the remaining population consists solely of yourself, Pravin Lal and Deirdre Skye, voluntarily trapped in an endless virtual reality dream under a mountain, after a war between the Spartans and the Believers went hot and a massive nuclear exchange caused the native wildlife to go berserk. Imagine mind worms on the wing - yes, they exist. They killed the rest of humanity. My purpose is to avert this."
>"An interesting story. How do you intend to do that?"
"Why, by getting you to turn over control of the University to me. Voluntarily, I'll add. No, not now, don't worry so much. I don't want to stage a coup, but you'll find that there are a group of humans - Firaxians, they call themselves - that settled on this planet as well..."
>"--improbable unless they came via a separate colony ship--"
"...which likely the case, making them the last to get off the planet before biological and nuclear war rendered all human life on Earth extinct. Regardless, I guarantee you they want to bring all life on this planet under their heel. And then the aliens, who wish to exterminate humanity outright of course."
>"Yes, the aliens. An interesting claim."
"Truth, though. So I propose this: if my claims are true, you turn over political control to myself after I spend the next four years distinguishing myself, and you go back to work in research."
>"Research? Honestly I would love to if I only had the time."
"Well, I tell you this, Zakharov - I am confident that if you have the time and resources, you could go further. The Unity was a marvel for its time, but here? You could crack faster-than-light travel. Get humanity off this rock, and somewhere safer, where the only way to positively end things involves all of humanity surrendering itself and becoming part of the planetary consciousness."
>"That's... abominable."
"Now you understand why I must prevent this from happening. Humanity's future should lay in its own hands, no one else's. Especially a childlike alien godling. I assume the series of events I lay out are sufficiently improbable that you will take me at my word should the signs manifest?"
>"... sigh. Agreed. Humanity's survival is more important."
"I'm glad you agree. And honestly? You're probably the only one who would. Lal would go back on his word, Deirdre would probably try to feed me to the planet, and everyone else would probably have me shot outright. Which... really would not end well for them..."

So.

That happened.

Basically, when the aliens landed, Zakharov turned over control of the faction to me (after a lot of waffling). And I prompted used Great Man Theory to get him to revolutionize industries and make space travel possible a century before it should have been, with (admittedly slow) FTL travel. While it meant the tech tree had a few very significant changes, it didn't really change much else in the long run - granted, getting off-planet was still a chore, but it was POSSIBLE, and once in orbit ships could travel quite impressively. By the time synthetic fossil fuels were being rolled out, Zakharov had runabouts travelling warp 3, and was scouting Earth and the surrounding stars. Sure, it took three months to get to Earth and back, but being able to GET there and check it out was an immense thing to have happen before a hundred years on Planet had passed.

It doesn't hurt anything that Konasse was brought into this jump as well and made a part of the University faction, bootstrapping their economy something fierce, though it was kept a state secret for a very long time. It made sure there was plenty of energy to go around, and plenty of industrial might to crank out units like scouts and probe teams.

The Firaxians? They demanded we surrender or die. We drowned them in probe teams and scouts, of course - while they had singularity tech, that's the only thing that they had beyond the curve. Laser singularity scouts are scary because they can survive combat four times longer than anyone else, but buying their loyalty means suddenly WE have them. Sabotaging their build progress and stealing the singularity mechanics technology all but guaranteed our eventual victory. Drowning their bases in scouts to keep them from being able to use any resources cut down the possible units they had, and artillery scouts were a factor too. Sure, it didn't do MUCH damage, but we bombarded their bases endlessly so that no damage could be repaired.

Victory by attrition.

The Progenitors had much less kind fates. Those singularity laser scouts? They were upgraded with newer weaponry as time went on. Sure, it wasn't practical to always have the few singularity-based units hit them, but I pulled no punches in trying to out-tech everyone with the University. When we had missiles, everyone else was barely upgrading from lasers to particle impactors. When we were deploying silksteel sentinels, everyone else was barely rolling out plasma steel. Sure, the Progenitors had unique tech... and I emphasize, HAD.

The University won a cooperative victory, after it completely annihilated the Believers, Spartans, and five out of seven Alien Crossfire factions. We revealed that the University had been exploring with FTL on the eve of the vote to unite behind Zakharov as supreme leader. Sure, he wasn't the leader of the University contingent on Planet... but he was the creator of warp drive, was in the process of resettling Earth and terraforming it back to an acceptable state, as well as beginning terraforming of Mars.

I left him with detailed plans on how best to evacuate the planet when the native wildlife inevitable went out of control.

All in all, I'd call that a good end.