21-06-2001 17:13									#1
	What If SMAC/X Fiction Challenge Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Okay, i have this idea for a SMAC/X story, but I suck at writing stories, so hard for me to do :P and i don't even know exactly what i would i do in it too......

A What If story

What If Unity never got struck by a meteor? (of coursem maybe a near miss which caused some minor alarms :P) What If Unity got around Chiron undamaged and without crashing into the planet?
What If Captain Garland and the people in the 8th pod was still alive? What would happen?

mutiny may still happen, split up and so on... maybe not, but with a lot of tension atleast... Morgan would be found in the ship illegally, but can't go back to earth... Santiego and her small band of Spartan Coalition people may still cause trouble... the Aki Zeta-Five project may get found out, especially if it screwed around with the ships computers... this what if story would of course highlight the main characters of smac/x. Garland could still get assinated and than the people mutiny, divide and so on.... like the Generals have done the Emperor, the Leader, got killed.
Another thing, they would be bit more advance than what they started off in the game since Unity is still around with a lot of the lost techs. When the aliens show up, they may end up shoot down Unity with them too :P

what do you people think? who is up for that?

-LordLMP

	21-06-2001 20:24									#2
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So the story would be sat after they landed safely. I prusume they would have purposly landed close together. I don't think Garland would last long down there. Santiago and Yang would have split off early. In fact people like Lal and Dee might not have made it long either. Then again other personalities might have emerged. Totally different from the ones we have. It might prove interesting to see if Garland and Lal would have been able to keep the the eight bases together and also what would happen when they began to expand. There might come to be some kind of city state type of arrangement who knows. This sounds like the story could become too much for one writer. Can you imagine bases wanting to be independed and Garland or Lal demanding them to remain apart of one large colony.

	21-06-2001 21:12									#3
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Sounds like an interesting idea to me too. But would it be better to just create an new setting entirely? what if Luke in StarWars had been a disabled-person? what if the characters in Starship Troopers had all been consciencious objectors? What if America was a German speaking nation?

it is interesting though, i would read such a story anyway, but i would'nt write it, instead i'd write text about an entirely different saga of colonization and population growth, probably call it Imperium Galactica III or something

Have you got any links to the game you mentioned, The Emporer, that sounds interesting too, i like the name anyway its like The Prince or Shogun or something, one word implying a rich range of strategic game-play issues sort of thing.


-solution_adult

	22-06-2001 11:32									#4
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I agree with Sprayber that no one is really going to survive long, with so many opposing ideologies and power struggles. If you have a lot of cousins like me (my father is one of six children who all have children...), just think of the family get-togethers where people who dislike each other are forced to spend time in each other's company.

However it sounds like it would be a really complex story with all the characters having convoluted motivation. So what if lots of people end up dead? Sometimes that makes fine reading...

I personally think you should start your story and invite people to join in, perhaps taking up the major characters. I suck at writing too, but it has never stopped me. You just have to hope the ideas are good enough to compensate for the lack of coherence in the text.

Good luck,

Alynzia.

Last edited by Alynzia on 22-06-2001 at 12:26

	23-06-2001 06:54									#5
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If they going to have a hard time being together, than what makes you think they will all land in the same spot?

Anyway, if you read the official starting story, the following events has happened.....

.....Meteor hits Unity, causing major damage, one Cryo Bay got nailed and people died there(atleast in their sleep :P). Command personel and some security and so on woke up by the computer due to emergency. Santiego was part of the security people that awoke...maybe before command did due to some hacking to computer before unity left earth or whatever... those security people are members of the Spartan Coalition, which of course band together and started trouble in the ship. computer is bit mest up caused by Zhakarov's illegal experiment with Aki. Morgan found illegally in the ship...i(i think, been awhile since i last read the story) and so on and so on.

Idealogical split ups could still happen. Mutiny could of still happened. Garland could of still got assassinated.

The What If event that would change the Unity story is that the meteor didn't hit Unity, but may of still cause alarms throughout the ship due to close proximity of it, near miss, and awoke the command staff and some security and so on. Garland and the other main SMAC characters which made up part of the command staff, except morgan as he is a stowaway...but cryo cell may of still opened due to altered programming. So Santiego and her followers may of awoken early, due to hacked programming probebly, and still create trouble. Due Zhakarov's hidden illegal pre-sentient algorithm experiment, it mess up Unity's computer a bit, which would also create problems. While Command try to pilot Unity to orbit Chiron, mutiny may still sprang out because of Santiego..whoes followers would/could sabotage stuff in the ship. Zhakarov becomes a pain in the butt in wanting to awake more engineers up, Deirdre obsess in keeping the Hydroponic Bays operational and so on.... So with that going on, hard to keep "Unity" in the ship and organize proper colonization of Chiron. Garland may end up getting assassinated (which would cause more mutiny and division) or he stays alive and tries to keep the ship together, prevent the mutineers to take over the ship, forced to allow Santiego and so on to take Colony Pod to the planet. This all may lead where most of the factions starts off a lot better than they would have, Unity still in orbit around Chiron or crash into Chiron still due to heavy fighting in the ship, damaging stuff. May have a extra faction or two....one lead by Captain Garland, or not. Garland may still end up having control of the ship, with the help of loyal people. So Deirdre, Lal, and so on, would be on his side. Maybe Yang and Zhakarov for bit until they get annoyed with the Captain and take some pods of their own............so on and so on.....

Nothing seriously different from the normal SMAC story not so complex....the SMAC story is complex, just that it has already been started, where the character are introduced and so on....and we , players and fans of the game, continue it with many different stories..... so many alternate realities and alternate Chiron. The only thing that is seriously the same between those realities is the beginning, where it started off by that meteor hit, damaging Unity...... Even if they were no meteor at period, and that Unity safely orbits chiron without to much problems. So they organize properly the colonization of chiron, where Garland leads from Unity. tensions would always be there....after a few years, with some proper bases setup...tensions may get stronger due to idealogies, nationalities and so on....after a decade or two...where the population would have grown.... munity, civil war and so on may still break out...lead by one or more of the SMAC characters.... the colony may still end up splitting up in various factions.... the factions may not be the same as in normal smac, maybe so with many differences... They would still have plenty of trouble with the mindworms and so on...

anyway, shoudl stop now :P

-LordLMP

	23-06-2001 13:18									#6
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You will have to forgive the following, I'm a very argumentative person

I am sorry but I assumed if there was no meteor, there was no defined window of opportunity for escalating tensions which led to all out mutiny on the Unity. I aasumed the events are tied up with that.

If your idea was merely "Oh another SMAC story but minus the meteor", quite frankly that is super weak.

Why? Chaos Theory, in that you change the initial conditions and everything unfolds differently. Does everything unfold differently in every piece of AC fiction produce, however you do it? If they are all going to split up with only a small change in the beginning (not a very interesting one at that), the factional game play is not going to be profoundly different. The ideas in variant stories rarely portray events being of direct and logical consequence from previous actions. The point would be...?

I was stupid enough to assume you were proposing a more subtle and character driven story where each pod lands within a base radius of one another. These bases cooperate as the U.N. intended. The crew continue as a functioning team but with lots of squabbling and subterfugue. Eventually tensions between colonists lead to a slow factional splintering.

This would be more complicated because each faction leader would be functioning within a tighter constraint.

You lead a faction. You control the politics. You can behave in accordance with your core beliefs for the most part.

cf.

You are a member of a team, you must function in accordance with other people and, more importantly, the hierachy.

Now I speak soley of personal motive and interactive complexities. Please explain how the former is as complex as the latter where human action is driven from a context of opposing ideals that you are in everyday contact with.

	26-06-2001 10:50									#7
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Yeah I also thought that you meant that their was no impact and the Unity mission went along as intended. In that case like as been said the leaders would have would have taken longer to emerge. People like Dee and Zak may have not formed factions at all. But Yang, Miriam and maybe Satiago would not have been able to remain under the authority of Garland and Lal for long. There may have been others that rose to the top to lead spinter groups. I suppose that the mission would have stayed together in the first few years since the hardships would have demanded cooperation. But just as soon as survival was ensured, there would have been trouble in paradise. Oh well, what might have been. I think the central character of the whole game is the violent breakup of the Unity mission and the subseqent isolation of the factions from each other.

	28-06-2001 04:11									#8
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Unless, of course, when the colonists landed they found the Usurpers and Caretakers there already, engaged in their war, and the factions arose to take sides in the conflict.

e,g, Deirdre, Lal and Miriam with H'minee - Corazon and Yang maybe with Marr, and perhaps Morgan and Zakharov sitting on the sidelines listening to the idealogical arguments of both and being swayed by neither (although I think Marr's 'Godhood' quest would resonate with Morgan)

Progenitors find it more sensible to fight their war through their proxies, so the humans get to play with singularity cannon and blink displacers, et al.

Might make for an interesting read.

G

.

	07-07-2001 04:20									#9
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Here's my theory on what would happen.

The Unity would get close to AC then the core staff would be woken up. This would either be because of a fault or because of Santiago's people messing with the computers.
They would find out that the Unity is basically a piece of junk since it was rush built but they would make it to orbit and the pods would launch. Santiago would probably end up with a pod as she would have had lots of time to prepare.
The seven pods under Garland would establish a few bases as the UN intended. Santiago would set up her own base elsewhere if she got off the Unity safely.
The Unity would either burn up, crash or skip off the atmosphere unless they were very lucky.
Several years after planetfall the progenitors would arrive.

After that I dont know.

	11-07-2001 10:01									#10
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I just notice today that I have been mentioned in the Apolyton SMAC site on the news. Like wow, hmm, okay.

Anyway, it is Challenge. Don't have to try, but would be fun if you do

-LordLMP

	11-07-2001 10:04									#11
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quote: Originally posted by Evil Twin Here's my theory on what would happen. The Unity would get close to AC then the core staff would be woken up. This would either be because of a fault or because of Santiago's people messing with the computers. They would find out that the Unity is basically a piece of junk since it was rush built but they would make it to orbit and the pods would launch. Santiago would probably end up with a pod as she would have had lots of time to prepare. The seven pods under Garland would establish a few bases as the UN intended. Santiago would set up her own base elsewhere if she got off the Unity safely. The Unity would either burn up, crash or skip off the atmosphere unless they were very lucky. Several years after planetfall the progenitors would arrive. After that I dont know.

Other may split off too, but thats the thing i forget to mention, the aliens :P Humans would end up batteling them and split up then.

-LordLMP

	11-07-2001 22:08									#12
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I'm not good at writing stories but i will upload my attempt sometime later today. So far, it covers everything from the awakening to the launching of the pods. I have drafts of what happens once they reach the surface but i'm still working on them.

Almost forgot, i dont think they would end up battling both alien factions straight away. The caretakers would probably try to talk first whereas the usurpers would attack once contact was made.

Last edited by Evil Twin on 11-07-2001 at 22:14

	12-07-2001 01:31									#13
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You can find it here

its not brilliant though. Next few chapters will be uploaded if anyone wants to read them.

	13-07-2001 18:49									#14
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I read the story and looks pretty cool Sure is a good alternate. Don't have to be the best writer in the world to write a goos story. Let see, the colony pod that failed was Captain Garland's ?

-LordLMP

	14-07-2001 03:20									#15
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It was supposed to be but Garland wasnt in it. He gave it to Santiago. I needed Garland to hold to factions together for a while on the surface.

Next part is here

	15-07-2001 14:06									#16
	Your Story Rules, Evil Twin!! Suffering from ads?

I have read your two offerings, Evil Twin and I think they are really superb.

If my opinion counts, I'd like to say I think you are a good author. I love your style of writing because I can read an great adventure in one sitting instead of having to read through tons of superfluous descriptive rubbish that disguises a flimsy plot. That wasn't a criticism of anyone in particular, but fiction in general.

I am really impressed with how much time you spent on your story, and if you can keep it coming, I for one would appreciate it. I like how you used the names from the game for the assistants and doctors, plus how there is actual science involved. Cool.

Oh, and an apology to [Lord LMP]. You have once again proved your SMAC superiority over mere mortals, your story idea turned into something really great. I am sorry I argued about it . I was very wrong.

Alynzia.

	15-07-2001 17:24									#17
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I am going away for a week so you can expect the next installment when i get back.

Thanks for all the support

	20-07-2001 23:19									#18
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Chapter 9