Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Empire

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Czernobog
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Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Empire

Post by Czernobog »

So, inspired by Vic's thread and driven by my own idle musings, I started this.

Rules:

- Collaborative post-by-post universe. There will be brief synopses on what there is so far now and then.
- There is no need to contribute one whole subject matter per post. You can also add detail or twists to any existing subject, or leave a skeleton for others to add to!
- You cannot post after your own post (to maintain balanced content input) EXCEPT in cases when no one has posted something for five days.
- You cannot contradict a previous poster's material (only build upon each others' stuff).

I'll start the thing off with a definite premise:

----

The Terran Supremacy is faltering. The sector-governors are corrupt or evil to the core, the might of the Lazarus Engines, their resurrection equipment once used for great purposes, is being used for increasingly petty tasks. But more than that, there is something deeply rotten on the throne-world of the Supremacy, Terra itself. The ruler of the galaxy, Ever-August Terran Emperor Thaddeus II Roosevelt-Hohenzollern, has been assassinated with no legitimate heirs left. Even as the galaxy's greatest investigator-savants look for the culprits, a succession crisis brews, one that may tear the very political structure of the galaxy asunder. As rebellions against the Supremacy blossom on a thousand worlds, it may be too late already to save the Supremacy.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
We taught the galaxy these things.

And we shall do so again.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by Heretic »

You're asking for it..


The Eldritch Game Masters
Games. Simulating activities which relies on strategy, endurance, luck, and imagination. Mankind and other races have played various types of games and sports throughout history and space (aside from the dull Xordons, of course). Even with AEON..I mean, the Terran Supremacy faltering, games are still being played and enjoyed, virtually or otherwise.

But there is a race out there; an ancient, dreadful race. The Eldritchs, as they are collectively called, or the Antediluvians by some. Indifferent to the plight of the inferior races, these shapeshifting abominations sit in their living bio-thrones, near the core of the Galaxy, musing at the intricacies of the universe...

...and planning the next adventure for their gaming session.

Before Gygax and Co. in puny Earth were ever conceived, before H.G. Wells' kind oozed out of primordial muck to create Little Wars and Floor Games, the Eldritchs were bored with warring and causing unspeakable horrors. They had completed and did all that a super-race could do, and they were so, so bored.

While make-believe and war-games were all the rage before then, The Eldritchs took it to a new level. They combined the tabletop gaming system with LARP. They created worlds for their campaigns, and NPCs were biological husks who complied with the rules and responded only when interacted or triggered. The gaming group would create characters for that world, and from a safe view, look through screens at their unfortunate bioslaves as the real people roll dice.

Many Eldritch, though, prefer to simply travel around the galaxy with only gamebooks, fatty vittles, and countless dice in the multi-dimensional pockets the unspeakable GMs have created in eons long gone. When these wandering game masters make a session, they would simply play the old-fashion way. With hallucinations and "Special Effects" added in also.

But not all Eldritchs are RPG gamemasters. The Eldritchs are fascinated with other types of games as well. Coaches for Xenoball, Clan Leaders for the next big FPS, Wargamers, Chess Masters, and even Marble-players exist of the Eldritch race. To put simply, the Eldritchs love games. Many of them have different styles. Some prefer number-crunching, others on roleplaying, and even some on sheer insanity. There are Eldritchs who prefer strategy and there are Eldritchs who prefer straight-up strength. This Eldritch likes old-school systems that are complex, and that Eldritch likes experimental and fast-paced systems.

But do not be fooled by their casual goals. These beings are almost on par with Cthulhu and Beholders, and being a serious threat on them can result in the victim having rocks dropped on him, literally. You can ask the dinosaurs. And some people who play these games become addicted to them and spend much time and material wealth joining and supplementing the GM's campaigns, almost selling their soul to the Eldritch.

Let's play a game.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by Invictus »

Year of the Six Hundred Emperors

The line of Roosevelt-Hohenzollern has always been sacrosanct from the bioquantum touch of the Lazarus Engines, a prohibition enforced bloodily and zealously even in the latter days of the Terran Supremacy. Much of it stemmed from the paranoia of the Ever-August Emperors, who were always fearful of plots and doppelgangers and of any possible pretender to their throne outside the handful of Imperial heirs he controlled. However, patriots of the Supremacy and seditious cliques alike chafed equally against this prohibition as they saw the Roosevelt-Hohenzollern line narrow and dwindle throughout the centuries until a single accident, a single death could end the dynasty completely. This was, depending on one's ambitions, an unmitigated tragedy or a tremendous opportunity.

Even as the last Roosevelt-Hohenzollern Emperor of his line perished in the fireball, a thousand conspiracies awoke themselves and a thousand Lazarus Engines thrummed into action. Some promptly malfunctioned as destructive quantum interference between two exact copies of the same resurrected figure existing in the same universe aborted the process. More canny conspirators inserted trivial biological and mental differences into their blueprints beforehand to bypass the paradox, only to be met with sabotage or deadly ambushes by their rivals and the Imperial Guard. However, it is secretly known that some four hundred or so effective clones of Thaddeus II Roosevelt-Hohenzollern are now at large in the Supremacy, with three alone who have the perfect alibis to claim to be the the original Emperor who survived the assassination attempt. The others will have no worse claims to legitimacy as long as they are backed by sufficient propaganda and military force. Beyond them, over a hundred copies of various other figures of the Roosevelt-Hohenzollern dynasty have also been resurrected - mostly those of Leopold LX Roosevelt-Hohenzollern, the current Emperor's uncle who only enjoyed a brief reign; and Prince Valerian Roosevelt-Hohenzollern, the last heir Thaddeus II disposed of. They are also capable of variously claiming secret survival or simple blood-legitimacy.

Logically, few of these Emperors have a chance at the throne: many simply have insufficient backing by the Ministries and the Star Marshalls, or suffer from congenital defects due to botched de-paradoxification or rushed resurrection procedures. However, great tournaments of Eldritch have already descended to claim many of these pretenders as pawns, granting them followers and fleets and planet-wrecking superweapons and even preternatural powers from thin air. Existing grand fleet battles and planet-wide LARP campaigns are being set aside as increasing numbers of the godlike race rush to join the most exciting event in millenia yet.
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by Czernobog »

Conspiracy Theories

The death of Thaddeus II has caused some alarm in the wider Supremacy, and the barometer of this alarm is the wide belief in conspiracy theories about his death by atomic explosion. The most of these theories involve cabals of some religio-ethnic minority the theorist hates, but the most prominent are variations on one of three themes.

The first of these themes is 'Governors and Star-Marshalls' which holds that a secret coalition of sector governors and star-marshalls have killed the Emperor, usually as part of some much wider plot. This is hard to believe when you consider that these people hate and have been known to send assassins to kill each other. Not for an instant could any such conspiracy not descend into internecine warfare.

The second theme is 'the Resurrected', AKA those resurrected by the bioquantum energies of the Lazarus Engines. Prominent culprits according to this set of theories are General Von Stauffenberg, Master of the Imperial Guard and Keeper of the Koenigsberg Gate of the Imperial Palace; the eccentric Lady Stefani Roosevelt-Hohenzollern, pop star from the early 21st Century and Thaddeus II's most beloved Consort; and finally, any number of Sector Governors that have been Resurrected. Mostly these theories are put forth by those who lost positions of power to the Resurrected, but both the Imperial Guard and the investigators of the Galactic Court have found the defences of Stefani and Stauffenberg flawless.

The third and least-common theme is 'the Military' which holds that Thaddeus II's death is part of a plot to create a military dictatorship of the Supremacy. The military of the Supremacy consists of many organs, all squabbling for funding and prestige and influence. It is doubtful that they could take over the Supremacy, for the same reasons that any coalition of Governors and Star-Marshalls could take over.

So, the culprits behind Thaddeus II's assassination remain utterly unknown by the common citizen, and will likely remain that way for some time.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
We taught the galaxy these things.

And we shall do so again.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Hey, why not?

ACEs
The ACEs first crossed paths with humankind over two hundred years ago through the renegade sector governor turned daring space adventurer Marcus Judas Obama. The Governor-turned-captain’s many exploits in the unexplored depths of the Greater Sagittarius Arm brought him to the attention of an Eldritch, whose gaming group were holding a session in the volume, who involved him in their campaign. As part of this he provided Obama with a number of profiles of the creatures and people he might encounter on his way, though due to an attack on his ship, the Changer, by aggressive and intelligent software viruses at the hands of a rival Eldritch, the following is all that remains of the ACE profile, and an acronym taken from it has given them their name.
Climate/Terrain: Planetary, warm and arid
Organization: National, imperial and tyrannical.
Challenge Rating: 4-17
Treasure: All kinds.
Alignment: Always Chaotic Evil
Obama’s first encounter with the ACEs was far from cordial, and this first contact, as well as the information humanity first received about them, has forever tainted relations between the two races. The Dominion of Xerellum, that is, the ACE society Obama first encountered, used information garnered from investigating him to track down the outlying systems of the Terran Supremacy, and since then other pirates and emperors have followed, victimizing vulnerable human worlds. The Supremacy, never known for its lenience towards pirates or anyone associated with them, responded in kind. Thus, to this day the Supreme Military offers rewards to anyone who can prove they have killed an ACE, and complete property rights of an uninhabited planetoid to anyone who has destroyed an ACE planet*, whilst it is in fact a crime not to shoot an ACE who enters Supremacy territory on sight.

Is it too late for there to be peace between the two races, and is the nature of the ACEs really as hostile as their name implies? The answers to both of these questions are difficult to discern because there is so little contact between man and ACE, but certain things have been learnt about these monsters from the core. The first is that they were almost certainly created by the Antideluvians as part of one of their campaigns**, the second is that what is known of their society shows them to be prone to aggression, dominance-seeking bordering on megalomania, a lack of empathy and difficulty in understanding and conforming to organized structure, the third thing is that they are in general extremely intelligent and creative beings. Given what is known about them, in short, most scientists do not believe their society should be able to exist, and are convinced that it is only through a very carefully placed system of mental negative feedback controls placed in them by their designers that any group of ACEs manages to avoid slaughtering each other. Other theories suggest that ACEs in general may adhere to a religious or philosophical system which promises them greater rewards in exchange for temporary subservience*** or that particularly dominant ACEs make use of neurological or pheromone controls to enforce their will on their subjects. Very few human scientists, of course, have ever made it far enough past missile range to test these theories, and most of those who have were in no position to do so, but research continues wherever it can.

ACEs are an extremely dangerous and unpredictable enemy for any military leader, and the increasing decrepitude of the Terran Supremacy in recent decades has brought their raids on in increasing numbers. Some sector governors have attempted to buy them off or hire their services against their enemies, this has mostly proved to be a bad idea, as they have an inherent tendency to rebel against any kind of rule imposed upon them, even simple deals backed up by mutual benefit. The only case of a man who seems to have successfully used ACE pirates for his own ends is the notorious Sector-Governor Gustav Bismarck-Borgia, a man who, it was said, was genetically and neuro-quantumly created by his father to combine ruthless efficiency with plain, vicious ruthlessness.

*In the last 50 years there have been 9 individuals declared ‘traitors to Earth and foes of mankind’ for campaigns of sedition they started after budget cuts denied them this reward for their acts of Patriotic Genocide.
**This was determined both through physical examinations and an analysis of their implausible sociology.
***Though these scientists will admit the Antideluvians probably designed their religion, whatever it is.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by Czernobog »

The Peerage of the Terran Supremacy

The peerage of the Terran Supremacy is a ridiculously complex system, to say the least. Thousands of hypersavants have spent fruitless lives attempting to discern order amongst its complexities, or to produce convoluted genealogies and authoritative lists of peers. At the top can be said to be the Ever-August Terran Emperor, with all peerages theoretically titles of his that he has chosen, in his infinite benevolence, to gift to others. However, there now exists a vast bureaucracy whose only purpose in existence is to gift titles independently of the constant oversight of the Ever-August Emperor.

There are often peerages granting dominion over overlapping territories, or peerages claimed by up to five people, and other such ridiculous things. One of the customary things that is done after the official resurrection of somebody via a Lazarus Engine is the granting of a peerage to that person based on either his/her known birthplace or whatever the bureaucracy (known as the Most August Office of Peerages) finds fitting. Peerages have even been granted claiming dominion over cities long subsumed into the Europe-spanning agglomeration that is the Imperial Palace, or individual homes (although that is most commonly the result of a person being snubbed).

Also, while a peerage grants dominion over a territory, that dominion is mostly exercised by the government deputy assigned to it. For instance, Stefani Roosevelt-Hohenzollern is Queen of New York, but her power is exercised by the Deputy Governor assigned to the Manhattan District of the North American East Coast Agglomeration. Peerages can be granted for any number of reasons - military success, solid governance, support of the Emperor, or even flat out 'donations' to the Most August Office of Peerages or another branch of government.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
We taught the galaxy these things.

And we shall do so again.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by Invictus »

Leonid Kennedy-Cromwell-Liefson, The Mad Quaestor

The deeply venal and corrupt sector-governors of the Terran Supremacy fear assassination and disrepute and ACE piracy, but they fear nothing in common more than the shadow of Supreme Quaestor Leonid Kennedy-Cromwell-Liefson's auditor fleet. With a fiery zeal for fiscal accountability that borders on insanity, he strikes one sector of the Supremacy after another, running roughshod over the governor and sending his equally zealous subordinates to uproot and reform the sector government's finances, often leaving thousands of officials executed and millions more destitute in the process. Once satisfied, he leaves with gigabonds' worth of confiscated funds, goods and warcraft which goes straight into his war chest for persecuting his campaign at his next destination. Given the woeful state of Supremacy governance especially in the outlying sectors, virtually any governor can fall under Leonid's scrutiny and be found wanting when compared to the perfect model of efficiency he holds in his mind, which has not existed in the Supremacy since its most golden age.

Though no sector-governor has been as bold to simply defy the Supreme Quaestor's demands backed by unchallengeable plenipotentiary authority granted by Terra itself, it cannot be said that more subtle methods of resistance haven't been tried. Unfortunately, Leonid and his immediate subordinates have proved remarkably incorruptible, a possible result of the bioquantum traits engineered into him for this very purpose. For assassins and governors seeking more violent solutions, the Quaestor has also proved to be highly charismatic and a ridiculously talented and brilliant military commander, frequently taking command to maneuver the pledged fleets, Imperial Guard divisions and mercenary companies under his disposal to smash the slightest trace of resistance from local authorities. It is estimated that even in open war, there are very few sector militaries which can challenge the auditor fleet. It may come to an alliance of sector-governors to finally wear down and defeat what they undoubtedly view as a common threat, but so far the chronic backstabbing and general animosity between these fief-rulers have prevented such a move from being made.

It may seem odd for such a figure to move unopposed by the highest levels of government in this fallen age, and indeed many factions and Star Marshalls unconditionally support the Quaestor and back him with their resources and goodwill. The Ministry of Finance, believing that it can control Leonid with its directives, intends to use him as a bludgeon to bring the sectors back in line and gather enough revenue to line the empty Terran Treasury and end the paralysis of the central government. The First Church of Terra holds the deeply devout Leonid as a figurehead in their own power struggles and hope to draw him into the Church's affairs despite centuries of prohibition. And others cultivate his growing infamy as a loud and useful decoy, so more subtle plots against the galaxy may been more smoothly accomplished...
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
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REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

The Scorpion Club

Though everyone knows it is exists, and moreover, everyone knows what it is for to some degree or another, the members of the galactically infamous Scorpion Club have taken great pains to make sure it is difficult to prove their guilt or the true extent of their organisation's nefariousness.

Made up of hundreds of the most ruthless, corrupt, vicious and power hungry people in the Supremacy, including pirate lords, illicit bioquantumics merchants, slave-growers, mercenaries and sector governors, there are two theories as to where the club's name is derived. The first and least interesting, is simply that its first annual meeting was held in the Scorpio system, under the auspices of Gustav Bismarck-Borgia, one of the club's most influential and vicious members. The second explanation is that it is derived from an ancient story regarding a dog and a scorpion, and that the club's members both know exactly how harmful to and despised by the authorities of the Supremacy they are, and that they don't care, and probably find it highly amusing.

The purpose of the Club is, indeed, to allow all of the various nefarious activities of its members to go ahead with as little interference from mankind's higher authorities as possible, while increasing their mutual profits. Individually a corrupt sector governor may be significant, but surrounded by and backed up by the power of hundreds of similar men, women and others, he can be untouchable. It is only through the help of the Scorpion Club that any such man can hope to hide all his doings from the eyes of the auditors, or survive an inspection by the dread Leonid Kennedy-Cromwell-Liefson*

Indeed, the Club's first meeting occurred during the first year's of the now Grand Quaestor's rise to power, and it may be that it was first established to guard against a renewal of the vigour and power of the Supremacy's central authority. Despite the Quaestor's rampages, that fear has proved to be for the most part unfounded, and the Scorpion Club and its members have largely been free to flaunt the laws of Man and God out of the reach of old Earth. With the chaos following the Emperor's death, the Club has become more tightly knit under the guidance of Bismarck-Borgia, and seems to be deciding between a number of the six hundred present candidates for the Terrestrial Throne to support in the upcoming struggle.

*It should be noted that it only three sector governors who were members of the Club have actually managed this once the Quaestor began investigations into their sectors. One of them has since fled and lives in hiding, one has become notoriously paranoid, and the third is Bismarck-Borgia himself.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

The Hobbes-Medici Doctrine of Paralell Planetary Assignment

Human planets have for centuries been colonised based upon a series of doctrines devised by the sociosages of the Ever-August Terran Emperor's court, one of the most enduring doctrines, applied to thousands of worlds throughout the worlds of man, was that of Paralell Planetary Assignment. The doctrine stemmed from two central premises; first, that a planet's culture was more controlled and harmonious when all its people derived from the same 'stock', giving them a sense of cultural unity, second, that no two planets, much less a group of planets, must be allowed to form a connection which made them believe they could challenge the authority of Earth. Thus, the doctrine demanded that each planet colonised be given over to a particular group of people, thus leading to the many worlds throughout the galaxy originally set up to house people of particular human cultures*. It also meant that for each new colony set up, there had to be worlds nearby representing some other culture with which it had a particular animosity. The idea was that this 'patchwork of animosity' would keep the sectors constantly at odds with one another, eliminating any possibility that they could unite and find common cause against the Supremacy.

The Doctrine seemed to work for some time, but it is now thought by a large number of remaining sociosages** that this was an illusion created by the effectiveness of the overall regime which enforced the doctrine. The bottom line is that in the last hundred and fifty years the monocultural nature of many of these planets has simply broken down; New Asgard is now home to people of all creeds and colours, as is Teutonswelt and Edo. Moreover, the animosities between many of these places have simply not been maintained where Imperial power has been insufficient to look after their interests, hence why the supposedly mutually hateful worlds of Britannia and Couronney have developed an unshakeable alliance in the face of increased piracy and lawlessness in the systems around them. Still, there are other areas where the Doctrine has held true, more is the pity, for in the absence of a controlling hand to crush dissent and tend to the people's interests, the engineered hatred between Earth's subject worlds has added yet another strain to the many already pulling at the stretched fabric of human unity.

*Sometimes the cultures which the sociosages decided upon had not existed in any meaningful form for hundreds of years, and had to be recreated via bioquantum engineering and intensive neurological reprogamming, as did the conflicts which the inhabitants had to feel with their new neighbours

**Many have fled the Supremacy over the last 100 years, finding work in other avenues or defecting to other nations such as the Xordon Accountancy.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by Heretic »

I like how you explain the reason for culturally and racially homogeneous planets.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Thanks, though it's only partially my own idea, the bit about cultural unity was an excuse used in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

So, what makes the Xordons so boring?
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

The Xordons and the Age of Reason

The Xordons are widely considered one of the most boring, if not the singular most boring, races in the universe. They do not play games, they do not create or indulge in fiction, their food is flavourless, their science includes only that which has a well defined practical purpose, their social interactions are flawlessly polite, punctual, businesslike and to the point. By their own lights they are the only race in the galaxy who have really grown up, to everyone else, they are simply bland, soulless and, they suspect, quietly and infuriatingly smug.

The reason for all this can be found in their name. In their own language 'Xor' is 'growth' or rather 'the nature of one's growth' and to add 'don' means 'completed', this is in contrast to their cousins the Xorgons, where 'gon' means 'continues'. The Xorgons, though their are many and varied types of Xorgons throughout the galaxy, continue to grow indefinitely, and have no average lifespan, in theory they can live forever, but their bodies, minds and egoes will grow with them. Anyone who has seen the 'Greatest of the Great Ones' on Xorgo Prime will tell you just how frightening the results of this can be. It was the fear of this rampant growth, back on their ancestral homeworld, which prompted the Xordons to become as they are.

Through centuries of medical research the Xorgons had managed to extend their lifespan enormously, but growth brought them strife as elder Xorgons fought each other for resources and power, as well as bringing an increasing risk of cancers, organ failure, psychosis and other dangers the older one grew. The holy grail of Xorgon science had always been to halt their growth while allowing them to live on, and eventually, with devastating wars looming on the horizon, they found it. The new race, the Xordons, became the new masters of the planet, and banished their ever growing, ever youthful cousins into space, where they founded new civilisations of their own. Unfortunately, the Xordon's stability, which had made them the masters of their world, came with a price. The bioquantum engeineering which allowed them to halt their growth, and to live on, virtually immortal, had also made them fixed points in time, and robbed them of almost all their creativity. Thus, to this day, though unfalteringly logical and intelligent, the Xordons are a narrowminded, unimaginitive race, each one an expert in his own field and virtually useless outside of it and unable to learn anything else. Nonetheless their skills and strict nature has found them employment throuhout the galaxy in professions where drive and imagination are not required.
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Re: Collaborative Post-by-Post Worldbuilding Game: End of Em

Post by Heretic »

Auditor Teams
"I will F--ing AUDIT your ASS!"
-Sergeant Jason Al Ala-Din to ex-governor Lefroy Damme at the aftermath of the Great Zemboran Uprising.

Part Imperial Guard and part auditors, Auditor Teams are small strike forces loyal only to Leonid Kennedy-Cromwell-Liefson. They go into local provinces and make sure the local officials and governors are keeping the books accurate. The Auditor Teams can, for a fee, fix any mistakes as long as nothing illegal occured. But if the teams spot embezzling or fraud, or if the governor takes actions against the Auditor Fleet, the Auditor Teams will replace double-entry programs and glasses with heatray rifles and killcam goggles.

Almost always working in groups of 12, the Auditor Teams are equipped with the best accounting education and equipment; not only that, all Auditors are required to have served a tour as an Imperial Guard and be distinguished in the heat of combat. Out of 1000 applicants every fiscal year, only 2 are selected on average. So not only are the Auditors the best accountants, but veteran warriors as well.

The equipment varies planet to planet, but usually the Teams are given computer programs with the accounts from over the years handy, fraud detection programs and the cyber-computer needed for the computing. Weapon and armor also varies, from power armor and nuclear weapons to a simple muscle shirt body armor and a HE coilgun for that special operation audition. And Terra forbid the governor tries to send a whole fleet against a single team. The Auditors are known to consecutively hijack and sabotage until they control a super-destroyer or force the fleet to turn against the seditionist leader.
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
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