fiction: fanfic of a failed leader

The other night, I couldn't sleep, so I played Alpha Centauri for hours - yes, the 20+ year old scifi game. And somehow, I got one of the most evocative play through I ever had.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (Wikipedia)

I've written some short fanfic about it, cryptically, in poem form. Depressing and perhaps hard to decide if you didn't play, but it's a mood.

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The Seven Failed Assassins of Former Chairman Domai

1. GROWTH STAGNANT AT CENTRAL; POPULATION LIMIT REACHED IN GUILD CITIES

At Planetfall we built our home; in solidarity, we grew;

But others came to profit, and the worker paid in pride

He gifted glittering sister cities to home the gilded few

And the guildlords of gold and green would let us all abide

2. PACT DECLARES VENDETTA AGAINST THE FEDERATION

A pact parley among the three: solidarity, bureaucracy and piracy

A Spartan rogue did seek to strike, a knave amongst the knaves

Once caught, he gave the order: the soldier found no mercy

The only warlords we accept are clad in blue and ocean waves

3. NEW TAX REFUND POLICY A BIG HIT WITH YOUNG WORKER-OWNERS; OPPOSITION SENATORS LOSE BIG AT THE VOTING BOOTH

A worker is free if she owns the labor and the loom

A marketplace is free if she can labor for the gilded life

A gilded life will keep you safe amidst the sirens and fungal bloom

So trade the loom and trade the vote, free at last from toil and strife

4. CHAIRMAN ANNOUNCES NEW LONGEVITY VACCINE DEPLOYMENT AFTER DISCLOSURE OF PRIVATE USAGE

to kill a worker, need no gun; just say the grand project's begun,

and if he toils all day for legacy, without a bite of bread

the nation will rise like the ocean tides;

and followers will idolize;

and historians will dramatize;

and all children shall live in that glorious time

(but the worker's just as dead)

5. GREEN MOVEMENT BANNED FOR ANTI-WORKER PROPAGANDA

The reactionaries of the south attacked; our defenders fell to their savage ruse

In wrath, he melted the ice, he quaked the earth, he promised to drown them in their caves

The enemy island shook, and above the waves it did rise

Only the artists and archivists drowned beneath the waves

6. LEADERSHIP EVACUATE CAPITAL, GUILD CITIES AS CONCLAVE FORCES BREAK PERIMETER DEFENSES; CHAIRMAN CALLS FOR "STRENGTH IN SOLIDARITY"; UNALIGNED NAVAL FORCES SPOTTED OFF WESTERN COASTLINE; CONCLAVE LEADER ISSUES BIZARRE SPEECH AGAINST HOSTILE TERRAFORMING PROJECTS AS ACTS OF WAR

the crimson flag of the people: beneath broken glass

the orange emblem of the invader: upon shining armor

abandoned by the leader's folly: we, the working class

abandoned in the fallen capital: his honor

7. PACIFIST DEMONSTRATORS ARRESTED FOR LEAKING MILITARY SECRETS

the worst war

is a failed war

no, chairman

we will not build it

we will not build the bomb

we will not break our world

again

8. CHAIRMAN ESCORTED BY SUPREME COMMANDER TO INDUSTRIAL PLANNING CONFAB AT NEW ORBITAL CAPITAL; SENATORS PROTEST BEING FROZEN OUT OF NEGOTIATIONS; AMNESTY PASSPORTS TO DISPUTED CONCLAVE TERRITORIES STILL FROZEN

Now it's day and night the irons clang, and like our forefathers past

We toil and toil, and we do not die, until we have worked our last

But some dark night, when we have seized the rocket to the skies

I'll reach his orbital redoubt, and strike between his eyes

Once a worker, then a master, he'll never see planet's shore

And he'll regret he's left Jim Jones to toil on Planet once more

-- "Jim Jones", Traditional (adapted)

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#fiction #smac

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