In High School, I learned that the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy in New York had a constitution and system of representative democracy predating European colonization. I recently found out that further west there were other multi-ethnic political alliances and confederacies. For example, most of the Lake Michigan area looks like it was controlled by the Anishinaabe Council of Three Fires. What do we know about the organization of these groups? Did members hold votes? Did membership provide nations with advantages beyond protection from shared enemies?

Also, as far as I can tell the Great Sioux Nation and Council of Three Fires still exist as organizations in one form or another. I don't mean to imply they're gone, but I would guess that their function has changed over the past 300 years.

Thanks!

Weird to think about, but interesting fact.

I’m curious if I have to play as specifically a Cree nomadic Peyotist character in order to be able to form the Iron Confederacy, because I’ve played as a Siux peyotist nomad in Wyoming and couldn’t find the decision?

Following extended peace talks, the Grand Council of the Black Iron Confederacy has determined that the only way forth to peace is through war.

Following multiple, independently verified reports, the B.I.C. has determined that the Kansaskan Republic has expanded northwards into historic Dakota and Cheyenne Lands in order to carry out a campaign of violence, genocide, and colonization to reclaim the whole of their stated claim -- the Great Plains.

Peace talks opened with the Kansaskan Republic reiterating their claim, but allowing for the possibility of dropping their claim over Montana -- leaving claims open over Wyoming and the Dakotas. They further more insisted that the BIC surrender lands allowing them for westward expansion, which the BIC delegation determined was not it's responsibility.

Kansaska allowed for an ultimatum: either surrender the land, or face war. While issuing the ultimatum, the Kansaskan delegation established it's ignorance and intentions by stating that it would allow native peoples living on the land to "worship their native gods" (when, in fact, most BIC residents worship in a Judeo-Christian system, or a syncretic blend of Great Plains religions, centered around a monotheistic deity and traditional rituals such as the Sun Dance or Ghost Dance), and by stating that they would not use force or genocide if the land was ceded.

The BIC delegation rejected these terms, and offered a new deal -- one that would grant Northeast Wyoming in exchange for Southwest South Dakota, which would allow Kansaska a gateway west (via Colorado).

Kansaksa responded by demanding more than half of both Dakotas (leaving the BIC Wyoming and Montana), and suggesting a conspiracy between the BIC and Heliopolis, a baseless claim. Kasnaska furthermore attempted to establish the legitimacy of their claim by citing the previous borders of the western unorganized territory and Nebraskan territories -- bodies of land that existed between 1854 and 1867, and ignored already (and continually) existent tribal boundaries and populations.

Citing the continuous existence of the Dakota people in the Dakotas since time immemorial, the BIC rejected Kasnaska's claims.

Kansaska, in turn, denied the claim of the BIC.

The BIC terminated negotiations.

On the orders of the Grand Council of the Black Iron Confederacy, the armies of the Black Iron Confederacy, in partnership with the Northwest Union, have declared war against Kansaska in order to reclaim land r

Now decades away from the initial resurgence of the North American bison populations, the Black Iron Confederacy has announced a major plan to restructure North American agricultural markets. Using the Free Cities as regional centers for agriculture collection, the BIC will allow markets where food goods can be traded without tariff or tax. They will also allow the free import of all food shipments destined for the cites.

"Then we are in accord," the eldest chief said, her hands clutched in her lap. Deep lines carved valleys through her weather-worn knuckles, and the stain of red dyes and ceremonial powder littered her fingers and the creases of palm that could be seen.

"We are." This chief was younger, and strong. His black hair was shorn short, and the leathers he wore belied a warrior's physique. In an earlier life, he had been a teacher. When the bombs fell, he had had to become something else.

"They will wonder where we were," she said, to no one in particular. Her words were almost swallowed by the faint rush of wind over the plains and the crackling sparks of the seven fires cast around them. "They will wonder why we stood by."

"We had little and less choice," spoke yet another chief. His skin was the lightest, and his eyes were a piercing blue, but there was no mistaking the Crow ancestry in his cheekbones and long, braided hair. "We could not agree."

The Chiefs nodded, solemnly and sadly. Here were Shoshone, Crow, Blackfoot, and Algonquin. Dakota, Lakota, Assiniboine, and Cheyenne. Here were men and women from all different walks of life and ages, all united around the common purpose and calling of leadership - and all of them had been divided.

The strong young man stood. "It is always hard when family splits," he grimaced. This too, received nods and grunts of affirmation. The alliance they had fallen into had been divided up, split, and torn asunder by madness and strife. "We were cut between blood and honor, and neither choice was wrong."

The blue-eyed chief cut in. "Doing nothing was not right."

"We did more than we agreed upon, James," said the other.

The woman raised her hands. Her palms were a symphony of sacred color. "There will be time enough to admit fault and make peace, brothers," she said. "The time comes now to make our faces known again, and come to the aid of our brothers and sisters." There was quiet. "Shall we vote?"

Nods.

"All here who agree to annex the Eastman region, and provide aid, services, and security to those Native Peoples in the Eastman region of Manitoba, make your peace with the Council known." She paused a moment before speaking.

"I, Chaske Scatters-Her-Own, speak on behalf of all the Lakota people. We make peace with the Council."

The big man spoke next. "I, Byron Seen-From-Afar, make peace on the part of the Blackfoot Nation."

"I, James Wandering Spirit, speak for the Assiniboine people. We make peace."

"I am

The Black Iron Confederacy recognizes it's incredible luck in geography, history, people, and alliance. Our friends have been staunchly loyal, and have been indispensable in allowing our great Confederacy to reach the heights it has today.

It's why the last year has been especially difficult, as two of our closest friends and allies -- the First Nations and the Bay Nation -- have found themselves in open conflict, with Alaska joining in as well. It is our goal to see peace between all parties, but we cannot do that from our current vantage.

With that said, we are hereby resigning our membership from the New World Nations, and will henceforth act as independent peacebrokers and mediators between the New World Nations and the Mackinack Nations. To serve in such a role as a member of the NWN would be an unconscionable conflict of interest.

In hope and peace,

James Wandering Spirit, Chief of the Black Iron Confederacy and Director of Diplomacy

The BIC has adopted a series of cryptographic smoke signals for communicating over long distances. Messages are translated based on elevation, color of smoke, and number of smoke plumes. The network allows for rudimentary tactical and diplomatic discussions to be had over long distances throughout various outposts on the Great Plains.

Hello apes,

Now time for the serious posts.

I love tinfoil theories. I got one date right, let's see if I’m going to be right about March.

Shoutaht u/Badasstrader. Stole my post name you beautiful bastard. I’m reclaiming my time here, BA.

Regardless if it happens in the next week before the end of the year, you all should be mighty excited.

The company is almost completely rebuilt from the ground up and will have something great coming soon. Almost like how a sports team needs a rebuilding year to catapult it to a championship, I feel that was what 2021 was for GameStop. There was that initial sneeze in January, but thank goodness that that pride doth cometh before the fall and SHF have no sense of restraint when it comes to shorting.

The MOASS will happen, but this company needed some time to effectuate its changes first, apes. That is what great companies do and that is how great investors work; they look at the pieces and team that a company is assembling and make their judgment on whether or not to invest according to what the company is doing to win.

Book your tickets apes. No stowaways on a rocket heading to the 420th dimension. DRS is still da wae.

I love you apes. Merry Christmas, peace and goodwill to all of you!

Disclaimer: yadadada not financial advice, This is also but one apes interpretation of history, Please please if you find it welcome, leave a comment telling me where I can expand on something or maybe you could share your own expertise on a particular subject. Crowdsourcing information is the best.

-----------------------------------------------------

Now time to REWIND to move forward.

Welcome to decentralization baby.

Hell what is Centralization?

Here’s some definitions before we get started so there is no confusion.

Decentralization: To distribute the administrative powers or functions of (a central authority) over a less concentrated area.

Centralization: to concentrate by placing power and authority in a center or central organization.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christopher Columbus set out for an expedition to find a trade route to China on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria in 1492 and “discovered” the New World by accident. He was sent and financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to find a route overseas to open trade with China. The Spainards also wanted to

#Navigation

• Previous Discussion: October 31, 2020
• Last Week: Maori
• Next Week: Poland

Check the Wiki for the full list of Civ of the Week Discussion Threads.

#Cree

• Required DLC: Rise and Fall Expansion Pack

##Unique Ability

Nîhithaw

• Gain +1 Trade Route Capacity and a free Trader unit upon researching Pottery tech
• Unclaimed tiles within three tiles of any Cree city come under Cree control when a Trader moves to those tiles

##Unique Unit

Okihtcitaw

• Basic Attributes
  • Unit type: Recon
  • Requires: No tech/civic requirement
  • Replaces: Scout
• Cost
  • 40 Production cost (Standard Speed)
• Maintenance
  • No Gold maintenance
• Base Stats
  • 20 Combat Strength
  • 3 Movement
  • 2 Sight Range
• Unique Abilities
  • Starts with a free promotion
• Differences from Replaced Unit
  • +10 Production cost (Standard Speed)
  • +10 Combat Strength
  • Unique Abilities

##Unique Infrastructure

Mekewap

• Basic Attributes
  • Infrastructure type: Improvement
  • Requires: Pottery tech
• Base Effects
  • +1 Production
  • +1 Housing
• Upgrades
  • +1 Production upon researching Civil Service civic
• Adjacency Bonuses
  • +1 Food for every two adjacent bonus resources
    • Changes to +1 Food for each adjacent bonus resource upon researching Conservation civic
  • +2 Gold for each adjacent luxury resource upon researching Cartography tech
• Restrictions
  • Cannot be built adjacent to another Mekewap

#Leader: Poundmaker

##Leader Ability

Favorable Terms

• All Alliance types provide Shared Visibility
• Trade Routes grant +1 Food in the origin city per Camp and Pasture in the destination city
• Trade Routes grant +1 Gold in the destination city per Camp and Pasture in the destination city

##Agenda

Iron Confederacy

• Tries to establish as many alliances as possible
• Likes civilizations who have many

Another report on r/ SouthernLiberty, which has continued to support the CSA and promote the "Lost Cause", defending the Confederacy's secession as justified, denying that it was motivated by preserving slavery, as well as posters downplaying slavery as "not as bad as thought":

• In this post (keep in mind that it may be difficult to read through, because it was brigaded by anti-Confederacy posters making ironic comments), a link to the pseudo-historical site the Abbeville Institute defending the CSA's war for "state sovereignty", not slavery, OP says that Southern slaves were better treated than blacks in the north and that slave owners only owned Africans' labor, not the people themselves, and that the war was only over tariffs:

https://archive.md/L7gWd

>Southern view of history is far far more accurate than Yankee fake history. CRT is bullshit. BLM stands for Bowel Movement.
>
>--
>
>Slaves were better off than factory workers in the north. Time on the Cross by Fogle. War had nothing to do with slavery. War was over tariffs. Obviously, you can’t handle the truth.
>
>--
>
>Slaves better off than Yankee factory workers
>
>--
>
>Slaves were well cared for. Only their labor was owned.
>
>--
>
>We didn’t fight for slavery. That is Yankee bullcrap. We fought for independence. We were willing to give up slavery for independence and Lincoln was willing to keep slavery if it saved the “union.”

• This post with just some casual racism, commenters talking about how a "certain group of people who used to be enslaved" are causing the most trouble in the South, "13% of the population" joke:

https://archive.md/3XbmK#selection-3369.0-3369.64

>We all know who causes the most trouble in southern states. It goes without saying unfortunately.
>
>-> i feel like we aren't thinking the same thing cause i know who causes the most trouble
>
>--> Hmm... Were the people you are referring to previously enslaved?
>
>---> maybe should've looked at your name first cause now i believe we are talking about the same people
>
>----> You have to be careful, because even if you state statistics on Reddit they'll hunt you for "hate speech". Hence the code. Lol

• This poster, a self-identified descendant of Gen. Robert E. Lee, claims

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

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Two legs? Two arms? Two eyes? Only a single torso? How can you take something built so strangely, without quadruped perfection, serious in any way?

An easy question to ask.

If you've never seen a human fight. - Former Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, from I Have Ridden the Hasslehoff

The house was somewhat lavish by modern standards. Six or seven years prior it would have been a lavish estate owned by a rich and powerful Overseers with Third Most High rank or better. It had two kitchens, a small set of suites for servants, two offices, four children's rooms, a large dining room, its own shelter, alcoves for security beings. The furniture was wood, brass, and polished iron. The paint and tile were selected with an eye for beauty rather than function. The smart windows were perfect clarity and placed in such a way that the beautiful yard could be seen.

It was the on-post housing of a Colonel or higher.

Before the Precursor Autonomous War Machines had come, before the Terrans had defended Telkan, before the fall of the Omni-Corps, the closest Brentili'ik would have come to a house like that one was to be brought in through the servant's entrance to scrub a toilet and a bathroom floor.

Now she sat in the secure office, two Telkan Intelligence agents on guard.

Not to mention her brother in law wearing the Ultion Knight armor he had worn after her husbands had been killed in his reality.

Her sisters, all of them the same sister, each from a different reality, sat on the couch across from her.

Her Interim Chief of Telkan Intelligence, Kreldan, sat in one of the chairs. The whiskers and fur on the left side of his muzzle were burned away, his skin glittered with quikheal gel, his eye was patched as the cybernetic eye synched up to his brain, and he had moved slowly and stiffly.

"Most of your staff was killed, Madame Director," he said softly. He leaned forward, winced slightly, and set a datacube on the edge of the holotank. "It was so fast. I thought I knew what it was like, thought my people were trained, but it was just so fast."

"Do we know at least what species they were?" Brentili'ik asked.

The male shook his head. "No. Inversion charges for the bodies, the armor was

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&gt;>CONFEDMIL<<

OK, I tallied them up. The winner is:

<drum roll>

Incident-2394276a127a-raw-file.hol

Since we're in a secure chat room, we can run the file.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>MANTID FREE WORLDS<<

How many votes did whatever that was get?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>CONFEDMIL<<

Three. Beating P'Thok & the Malevolent Festive Holiday Gourd.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS<<

Aw. I wanted to watch the Scoopie Crew face off with P'Thok against the Gourd Headed Equine Rider.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT<<

OK, now I'm curious.

What's the file?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>TELKAN FORGE WORLD<<

It's... scary. Really scary.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS<<

OK, I'm in. Let's see it.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>CONFEDMIL<<

It's full sensory.

And it's scary.

Here...

...we

...go!

-----

The small squadron was different than most Space Force squadrons. Rather than a core battalion of cruisers or better it was instead six frigates and a single destroyer, the hulls modified heavily enough they fit in no standard classes for their hullsize. Rather than bristling with weapons and groaning under the weight of armor they were built along the lines of fish, agile and sleek, moving through space and not-space smoothly without causing ripples or cavitation or eddies. Arriving in the system they dropped from an esoteric not-space and into what most people thought of as space and went still.

Under max stealth, the destroyer deployed massive arrays of scanners, sent scanning drones off in a complicated web, the drones moving with their own stealthed drives. The frigates launched their own web of drones along carefully planned routes. Once the drones were in position, they deployed their own scanning arrays that were sensitive enough to detect even the most exhausted photon's passage years after the fact. Every available scanner known to the Terran Confederacy was deployed, from simple visual and audio scanners (the latter not as laughable as it would have once been thought, with the return of the Bla

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Her name was Roca del Yaung y. McDonald, born a female on the third planet of Vanderme-7, known in the local language as "Land of Flowers" and settled for over 3,500 years. Like most Confederate citizens, she'd grown up in luxury and privilege. Nearly anything she could want was available in the public nanoforge template libraries. She had clean air, clean water, safety, she went to sleep with her belly full. Her DNA had been cleaned and tweaked, her parents had chosen her eye color and hair color, although that lasted till her teenage years. She was educated via eVR, in schooling till she was 22. At 25 she was proclaimed an adult and even though she could have left at any time, her parent's house had plenty of room.

She switched bodies often, just like her peers. Rarely going for longer than six months in the same body. Her fully mature body had long blonde hair, tan skin, green eyes, freckles on her face, was six foot two (the shorter side of normal for women), and well built and sculpted.

She'd been killed twice. Once when she'd choked on a piece of food because she'd been talking with her mouth full on the phone while walking along a trail outside of the nanite zones. The second time she had not been paying attention, immersed in an Enhanced Reality Game and walked into traffic, injured badly enough that the 'soup' couldn't save her. Therapy had eased the trauma of being killed, since both of them were 'lingering traumatic death events', and she had largely forgotten about them by the time she was 19.

Her life was one of parties, hanging out with friends, luxuries, and wanting for nothing. She had even traveled to other planets, and during Final Education Year Three she had even visited Earth and her ancestor's ancient homeland of Azatlan and The Wailing Loch. She'd even seen the immortal Bessie as the great beast surfaced to blow air at one of the Lochs.

It wasn't until she was almost thirty-five that she began to feel like something else was missing.

She had two children. Not like her mother, who she kind of looked down on as a 'breeder' and 'free birther', but normally, making sure the zygote was formed from donor sperm and a carefully selected egg, the

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&gt;>TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS<<

Sis, come out. Have some popcorn and some spiced and baked festive holiday gourd seeds.

Come on. Come out.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>MANTID FREE WORLDS<<

No.

I'm fine right here behind the couch in my blanket fort.

But hand me some popcorn and seeds.

Ooh, and a Fizzybrew.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS<<

I thought the Terrans announced themselves and offered an opportunity to surrender.

I know they sterilized systems that were Lanaktallan controlled during the war, but this is really different.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL<<

It's like these guys are completely silent.

It's eerie.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT<<

They're... not TDH.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS<<

Oof. The Theseus? They mean business.

Ooh, Quack is being fielded?

That flotilla is roughly a fifth of their known ships. That means that, if they follow their patterns over the last eight thousand years, they've got another 5th in for rearming and repairs, another fifth preparing for a mission, and the remaining 2/5ths guarding their systems as backup for the home guard.

If Quack was activated, that means their four or five other heavyweights are too.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>CONFEDMIL<<

We've spotted three of the others.

We haven't spotted Hell's Heart yet.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>MANTID FREE WORLDS<<

Thank the Digital Omnimessiah.

brrrrr

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS<<

OK, who are they if they aren't TDH?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS<<

Yeah.

I mean, their ship lines are all off, they make sure the ship's lit up like they want it targeted, and how did they come in? What was that? I've never seen anything like it!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>LANAKTALLAN FREE HERD<<

How did you get this, Telkan?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>TELKAN FORGE WORLDS<<

I'm not at liberty to say.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

&gt;>CONFEDMIL<<

I know, so does CONFEDINT and CONFEDMILINT.

---NOT

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"While it was said that the Sixth Precursor War was about the Terran Confederacy and the Unified Council, as 435c3417A4323 discovered that there is more to it than that. This discovery helped lend credence to the name itself as the third Precursor known as the Atrekna had consecutively replaced the Lanaktallan for the Precursor being fought."

- History of the Milky Way Galaxy on the Atrekna, published and verified by the Amalgamated Races Research and Development

Nakteti moved down the hallway, escorted by five of Lady Keena's children. Two on each side, one trailing slightly behind. In defiance of her expectations, her escorts weren't unarmed, but rather just waved through the checkpoint manned by white armored troops. She found the helmets they wore slightly imposing and reminiscent of Terran skulls, which she supposed was the exact reaction the designer had been trying to create.

The hallway was obviously built for Lanaktallans, she could tell by the width and the slow corners. The artwork on the walls was a mixture of Lanaktallan and Terran and something else. Lots of paintings of small spacecraft, space battles depicting large wedge shaped ships, and charging white armored troops.

Finally she reached the door at the end and waited as bowing functionaries pulled it open.

Nakteti had to admit, she half expected to find Darth Harmonus sitting on a throne atop a stack of skulls with mostly-nude Terran females chained to the throne.

Instead it was a comfortable meeting room with a large table that she could tell had a built in holotank hidden beneath the wooden veneer. There were multiple chairs at the sides, two drink dispensers, and a nutriforge.

Inside was two Lanaktallan, one in heavy manacles without chains and the other in a severe uniform. There were four Terrans, all of them in military uniforms, a chrome cyborg with a single red eye that moved back and forth across a horizontal black macroplas visor, a glimmering digital sentience made of red and silver...

And of course, Darth Harmonus himself.

Nakteti had to admit, the sight of him took her breath away. He was taller than the other humans, dressed entirely in black combat armor, with a cape t

First | Next

It has been a rough month for Sh’ruluc. After the insectoïd assault, he had to oversee the repairs of his ship and the recruitment of the crew. Thanks to his two troublesome humans, he had only minimal casualties. But on the other hand, by saving the rest of the crew from a parasite invasion, he had been vigorously asked by his crew members to hire even more humans. The same crew that was at first, very reluctant to accept two humans. Ironic.
Even the top brass, who seemed to have loved the media praising the act of heroism by the two humans, were involved. As the Human Confederacy was shrouded in rumors and mystery, most of them being terrifying, having such an opportunity to raise Human reputation didn’t land on deaf antennas.

As such, he was also “encouraged” by his superiors to choose amidst the pre-selected list of new recruits, a list consisting of a myriad of humans of course.

While he wasn’t ecstatic at the idea, he was inclined to agree it was the safest option. He had a hard time accepting it, though. Reviewing for the last time the sheet of data, he tried his best to remain hopeful. But he wanted to avoid anything close to the relationship between Jeff and Cedric, and reviewing human history wasn’t part of his job.

Lost in thoughts, he pondered his current situation. All he wanted was a quiet life as a corvette captain inside the core space. He wasn’t used to being in the spotlight and hated every moment of it.

Deciding to ask the two humans in question about his dilemma, he made his way to the bar. The hallways were buzzing with activity with workers both from his ship and from the station working on the repairs. Finally passing through the last gaps on the walls, all reminders of the previous battle, he arrived in front of the two humans sitting at a makeshift table.

“Greetings”

“Hey cap’tain! Glad to see you again.”

“Need our help on something cap?”

Brushing aside the informal greetings, Sh’ruluc went to sit alongside them. They seemed to play po-cer, and while the infamous game was a restricted game in the galactic community he did tolerate it. As long as something calmed their nerves and avoided giving him another headache.

“Nice to see you completely recovered Cedric. And yes, precisely. I’ve come to ask for some human advice. I would like you to be honest with me on this.”

Letting a slight hiss escape from his mandibules, the equivalent of

Do your worst!

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

Because she wanted to see the task manager.

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"For those of you raised under the iron fist of the Executor Council and the Unified Council's laws, the Confederacy's insistence of "Innocent Until Proven Guilty", with the burden of proof relying on the prosecution and State rather than upon the accused, with the burden of proof being 'beyond a reasonable doubt' and sometimes 'overwhelming', is a horrible shock.

"The Terran Confederacy believes it is better to let a hundred guilty beings go free than punish a single innocent being.

"Which is why it took me so long to understand exactly what was being prosecuted during the historical Trial of General Trucker." - Former Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, from I Have Ridden the Hasslehoff

The station drifted around the dark neutron star, a strange and twisted thing of bioengineered structure and mechanical engineering. Extruded resin melded with welded battlesteel meshed with throbbing organs pulsating with unnatural life that were joined with strange and esoteric machinery in such a way that it gave both a dark and disturbing life.

Docked to the station was a twisted living ship, a great scar upon its hull where a Confederate Naval C+ cannon had been merged with the ship, twisted engines that could move through time, dimensions, jumpspace, hyperspace, stringspace, and despite the danger, hellspace.

Inside the strange and twisted station was a single Atrekna, his needs and desires seen to by carefully grown servitors instilled with dark life and purpose by the Atrekna researcher.

Formerly the researcher, who had taken to thinking of itself as a 'him', had investigated the relatively simple discipline of temporal mechanics.

But that was in the Old Universe, which was gone, destroyed by the Mad Lemurs of Terra.

Now, temporal mechanics was a demanding and difficult discipline, each discovery, each breakthrough, leading to greater danger and stranger questions.

But the Atrekna, who had labeled itself Dalvanak despite the fact that Atrekna identified one another by psychic auras rather than anything so crass as audible speech, found the increased difficulty, the danger, the questions, and the hard work to be strangely satisfying in a way he had never experienced.

Unlike

Link to part 1.

Link to part 2.

Link to part 3.

Link to part 4.

Link to part 5.

Link to part 6.

11: KANDAWIRE

• Kandawire is escaping the Palace, to rendezvous with her approaching insurgent convoy:

>The roads passed in a blur of noise, slurred movement and gathering anxiety. Whole sectors seemed to have fractured into a state of confusion, buffeted by both the ferocity of the storm and a gathering sense of inchoate fear. Things had never been quite settled here – there had always been an air of impermanence, of transience. Order had been imposed in the fullest sense by the promise of a better future, rather than the reality of life in the outer city – people were still poor, they were still hungry, and it didn’t take much to scratch below the surface of that to reveal the fear beneath.
>
>***‘It all degrades so fast,’ Kandawire mused, looking idly through the condensation-misted viewport.***
>
>The groundcars had powered down the main transitways*, looping between empty spires and teeming hab-blocks,* kicking up sprays of snow and slithering about even on their chains. In the established centre, under the imperfect shadow of the mighty Senatorum Imperialis, things were more or less as they always had been, but once they got further out, into the suburban sprawl and semi-solid mass of shanty dwellings, the strictures became looser, and the inhabitants knew a little more about what was going on beyond those semi-complete walls.
>
>The Arbites were out in force, though even their lumpen personnel carriers slipped and blew gaskets in this foul gale. A handful of suppressor aircraft battled through the storm, searchlights piercing the gloom in fleeting sweeps. *Some crowds were milling uncertainly – many were heading further in, others seemed to be making for the perimeter sectors, their masked faces lowered against the sto