Apathy, Commanders, and Hitchhikers is on SB and has that exact setup for the whole story, though most of the PoVs are from the SI's minions rather than in universe characters. Its an interesting read, but it died several years ago.
Outside Context Problem (a Planetary Annihilation SI)
- Thread starter Mr. Cloak
- Start date
- Worldbuilding Sci-Fi Fantasy
- Location
- [Classified]
Wouldn't be funny if the commander landed in universe called "space battleship yamato ".
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
LostArchivist
Sane, unfortunately.
- Location
- The State of Confusion
Aww, I'll miss Kerrigan. Short of the universe blowing up or time travel, we probably won't see her again, either...
I mean, my best guess is that after enough time humanity all ends up ascending to the energy plane or something similar happens where the Zerg are no longer needed and she's free to go find the MC again, but that's unlikely for quite a while...
I apologize ahead of time, but I have a nice big pile of typos from the latest chapter here:
...And may I say that this is a great idea, although I'd whine too since a baby AI sounds much nicer than trying to produce a normal child...
Although it would be kinda funny if you could get a Skitter as a bath accessory... Spider massage, anyone? Anyone? No takers? Huh...
I mean, my best guess is that after enough time humanity all ends up ascending to the energy plane or something similar happens where the Zerg are no longer needed and she's free to go find the MC again, but that's unlikely for quite a while...
I apologize ahead of time, but I have a nice big pile of typos from the latest chapter here:
since the
irrelevant
riddence
Incompetence
programmers
mandatory
testimonials
IN ADDITION to providing their own psychological evaluations
...And may I say that this is a great idea, although I'd whine too since a baby AI sounds much nicer than trying to produce a normal child...
criticisms
loneliness
remaining
its
more similar (and does Feather Star need capitalization?)
its
amount
mp31415player's
chitinous
chitin
bath, Skitter
Although it would be kinda funny if you could get a Skitter as a bath accessory... Spider massage, anyone? Anyone? No takers? Huh...
Last edited:
Mr. Cloak
Orchestrator of Paradoxical Apocalypse
- Pronouns
- I
Sorry all- I don't have a chapter finished yet. BUT! I do come bearing... A QUEST!
Hopefully y'all can be a better muse than mine is.
Broadcaster Quest
Hopefully y'all can be a better muse than mine is.
Broadcaster Quest
7-0(a): Crossing Paths
Mr. Cloak
Orchestrator of Paradoxical Apocalypse
- Pronouns
- I
AN: Hello everyone!
This chapter is the combined work of myself and the talented Logos01.
Because when you are playing around with universe-jumping technology, there is a chance you might Cross Paths with someone doing something similar.
To that end, I present our cross-cross-over.
I think I know the name of this chapter now!
Anyway, this is a crossover with Lest a Monster I Become, and I recommend reading it. It's a good one!
So… Enjoy, leave a thought, and as always… I love reviews, theories, and ideas people may have. Go give my new buddy Logos01 a read.
Oh, and before I forget: I AIN'T DED!
Sick though. Damn allergies + plague.
:A/N
-
The galaxy spins.
It spins as it had done for billions of years, and would continue to do so for billions upon billions more.
Between galaxies though… there is very little of anything to do, well, anything.
Matter is statistically measured in protons per cubic lightyear out of the edges of gravitational influence of galaxies, and things in this massive void are either moving very fast relative to the nearest galaxy, or very slowly orbiting said galaxy in question.
Sure, there were some stars drifting in the intergalactic void, but there was a LOT of space that was very, very empty.
In this great emptiness, therefore, is the best place to attempt inter-universal jumps. Even if your tech could withstand a planet hitting it from the side, and the Can-Full-of-Sky could (without significant deformation due to it's interdimensional nature), but still- it wasn't good to accidentally displace a rogue planet or accidentally detonate a star by appearing within it.
It was into this void, several thousand light-years away from the edge of the galactic disk, that the Can-Full-of-Sky appeared- and alarms were being mentally projected into my mind.
Usually, the built-in Tuning Fork assembly projected out a spatially-hardened zone where the levels of physics needed to minimally operate all my tech were maintained… But it also actively canceled out any field effects that were not part of the baseline set of physics.
In a universe like a few of the ones I passed through earlier, in my flight from the eldritch Author, my Tuning Forks were drawing a LOT more power to keep the 'normality' stable within the effected bubble.
Then there was another surge, and the power draw doubled again. I had the power to burn, and did so- but I would need to start creating generators if this kept up- or I could decrease the bubble size.
A 10 light-hour radius bubble would take more energy to maintain than a 1 light-hour radius bubble would.
I directed the bubble to shrink, and after a few seconds of buffering, the collapse began as power was routed to capacitors dozens of cubic kilometers in volume, allowing staggering increases in field 'hardness' as the diameter decreased. It shuddered a few times as *something* pressed against the protective effect, but the field continued collapsing for over an hour without failure, so I wasn't too worried.
Operative word being 'too'.
By the time the field stabilized, now 'hard' enough for the repeated pulsating draws to barely increase the initial draw beyond 1/10th of a percent, the light had reached by cameras- and I was now confused.
The edge of the field was shimmering. Visibly shimmering over the entire electromagnetic spectrum- the MK1 human eyeball could see the sweeping effects as exotic energy effects evaporated into the nearest energy-carrying particle, which was, coincidentally, a photon of varying flavors.
The Simurgh, within the bowls of my vessel, looked around bewildered, then shrugged.
Ignoring the byplay, I activated one of my Angel-Class drones, and sent it out from the main docking port in the center of the Can's 'forward' facing side. The 2-meter radius ruby-looking core (the extrusion of the drone into 3D space), shot forward without any sign of propulsion (unless one was observing the 18th-27th dimensional axes), and stopped mere meters from the edge of the rippling aurora-covered barrier.
Fractally extending out, a probe of supercooled psudoflesh formed (all the better to collect more data), and, wrapped in the Tuning-Field generated by the probe's internal structures, extended past the event horizon.
Immediately I gained boatloads of data- the new phenomon kept trying to impart some effect upon the probe (while not letting up on the main shield), and I slowly pushed the drone out of the field in it's entirety. With the amount of impulse and field-effect data this was giving me, I might be able to reproduce the baseline conditions on my own in another universe… If I was feeling rather stupid.
Magic never ended well, and the data I was getting indicated more magical-bullshit than the LOTR universe had. Not as much as that weird one with the dark sun I had passed through on my evasive movement, but more vibrant magic in any case.
It took a moment's work, but even with most of my processing power attempting to index the Entity-Shard data, I had more than enough memory and processing power free to deploy my own counter: an angle. More specifically, I added an angle to the barriers that 'pushed' most of the visible light out with 0.12 degrees towards parallel with the 4D axis. Whatever it was, wherever I was, my self was involate, even if the visible effect was toned down.
Only for the drone though- I didn't want to implement re-angling with all the self-reinforcing Tuning Forks I had built into the Can-Full-of-Sky. That was just ASKING for a resonation cascade collapse.
Think explosion that randomly shuffles the properties of various physical laws within it WHILE EXPLODING.
The shimmering dampened, and as the drone began to retract it's extended probe, a feathered head and body pulled itself out of the Can-Full-of-Sky to look out upon the vista of the galaxy, extended wings steady as a rock with the lack of atmosphere around her.
The drone vanished as the Simurgh, Ziz, mimed typing. I sent out another drone, and manifested an endbringer-sized keyboard for her, complete with screen and chatbox.
<Where are we?> Asked the only sane endbringer.
<A universe several word nonexistant away from the original. Your creators could not reach out here in their wildest dreams, so you can relax.> I replied.
There was a ripple, and her wings began drifting.
<So… What do I do now?> She typed out.
<I don't know. I am not actually sure what is out in this universe, but I am sending a drone to see if I can identify the plot-markers of this location.> I sent back. <Frankly, I was rather hoping you might be willing to be the guardian of your own people- assuming they are still alive in one universe or another.>
Ziz watched the galaxy in thought for some time, and my first drone finally had enough of plotting and spooled up the Temporal Surge Drive. There was a BLIP, a slight flux in the WIMP-field, and the drone had arrived outside the Oort Clout.
-
The drone opened as it took in it's surroundings.
A tad off-position (by a few centimeters), but, as the 'wings' extended, I began to see… Nothing that really stood out in the 1st-13th dimensions. Sure, the Tuning-Field was still having the 'pressure' applied to it, but nothing was getting through.
In the 14th-16th dimensions though… There was mass.
This was weird. In the vast majority of universes that I had come across, the first 3 dimensions were where matter COULD exist. The 4th through 8th were where the exotic quantum state that consciousness piggybacked existed (which seemed rather energetic in this universe outside my Tuning-Fields), and gave off minute amounts of radiation. Beyond that though, either you had quantized 'mirror' universes, like in the Worm-Verse, where there were 'layered' 3-D universes that were moved all the way along the 5th through 10th dimensions, but usually there wasn't any mass out there.
Occasionally radiation would be released out there- the universe I had picked up Sarah from had noticeably higher levels of high-dimensional radiation due to the extensive use of psionic field-effectors, but rarely if ever mass.
Mass out in the 14th through 16th dimensional axis? High-energy particles that looked like they had been thrown out so fast that their tachyon trails were glowing like beacons?
Yeah, something weird was going around in the Solar system.
I sent the Angel-Class drone on a straight path to Jupiter at 80% lightspeed.
This would be worth investigating.
--
I was patient. While the Tuning Fields were constantly being pressured, it wasn't something I couldn't account for. Mostly I spent the spare time chatting with Ziz. We needed a better communication method.
Of course, I wasn't super patient.
I had the Drone constantly checking the space ahead of itself, then using the TSD to jump forward a light-hour or so. Overall, it took 20 minutes to get through the Oort Cloud, and then I began my approach through the system. Here I took a second to check the drone orientation, and then left it at the comfortable .8c that it had initially moved in towards the system.
Tachyon wakes indicated that there was traffic between this system and another one in the general direction of the galactic core, but
Nearly two days into the flight, the Angel-Drone's Tachyon detectors lit up like a Christmas tree. Wakes indicating dozens of ships illuminated the higher-dimensional space in front of my drone, and the energy fluctuations on the 27th dimensional layer indicated multiversal travel.
Okay, what in the hell did I just stumble… Oh.
Okay- could be the 'Sliders' universe. I vaguely remembered this one, and the internet-dump I had collected from the JC-Avatar-verse did cover the sort of effect I might be seeing , but I wasn't seeing the ships-
The 27th layer rippled again- this one I recognized as a inter-universe GATE closure event. I scoured the records of known fictional universes I had memories of, and none of them were familiar enough to have the sort of readings that would mimic the same sort of thing my interdimensional slingshot gate would be utilizing.
One was for sure- I think I needed to quarantine the Sol system while I figure out what's going on- actually, that might be a very, very bad idea. Damn- I was thinking a bit too slowly!
Already a miliscond had passed and I was barely reacting! Holding all the Shard-Data wasn't working out for me as intended- it was just too fucking much to sift through in a reasonable timeframe!
Fine- I released half of the Cuttle-Ship swarm, every one of them using the Temporal Surge Drive to arrange themselves into multiple layers of defenses around the *Can-Full-of-Sky*, to the surprise of the Simurgh who twitched as her starscape was suddenly mostly-obscured by 2 kilometer long Cuttlefish-shaped-ships.
My drone in the Sol system went from .8 lightspeed to a dead stop relative to the generalized epicenter of the launches (a several light-second zone around Ganymede, oddly enough), and folded back into a ruby sphere.
I wanted a better picture of what was going on, and at .8 lightspeed, at least in this form, my drone wouldn't see it.
Structures formed in higher-dimensional space, and extruded outwards. The 3-D shape of what the drone had reshuffled itself into looked more like a star with enveloping, double-sided wings more than anything else. Of course, these sensors took on distinctly lovecraftian proportions if I pushed more than a thin sheet of them into the local 3-D layer, but that was enough.
Most of the more sensitive and wider-sweeping sensor units were looking 'down' on the 3-D layer from the 19th and 20th dimensional axis offset anyway, so the little bit at the 'front' was not too much of a giveaway.
I continued the approach, and saw a LOT of passive tachyon activity- the faster-than-light and time-reversed particles tended to 'bleed' energetic trails in the form of photons along their path from the perspective of Higher-dimensional space as they displaced the neutrinos that had intersected their 'path' towards the past.
There was a communications network here, and one very tightly controlled.
I sat and let the drone watch for a bit- there was some exotic technology on display, and I wanted to know what was happening.
It took around 43 hours, but a pulse of modulated light intersected my drone's path. It wasn't that hard to decode- Morse Code, in overlapping messages, from Radio to Visible light, all modulated to provide the same message in an unknown language and Japanese of all things was understandable enough.
The contents though- that was weird.
"Unknown entity. You are intruding on claimed territory. Halt your approach and state your intention."
It then began cycling through other languages- some I recognized, some I did not.
Triangulating the signal was easy, and I was able to determine there was a fleet of over 200 signal-sources for these messages. That didn't match the readings I received from the Conciousness resonation sensors, but I didn't want to poke too hard with an active scan to see if there were more ships.
There was a reason the Simurgh had a noticeable 'scream', and a large part of that was due to her active scanning systems- ones that I had mimicked, but using that effect might be seen as hostile…. Maybe.
One thing that was interesting here, was that the Tuning Shield seemed to be drawing slightly more power than a moment before- for the drone.
Hmmmm…..
I prepared to send back, in DovahZul (just for lols really), and Japanese, my own message- transmitted with the same light-based communication layers their own had, as well as a modulated gravity pulse- that I would fire some time later to make sure that the two layers arrived at the same time from the listener's perspective.
Now… What to send…. Oh yes: "Define location for contained arrival- distance is too far to facilitate photon-based communication between drone and signal origination point. Compliance with local authorities is preferable, provided communication. Tetrahedral Tachyon Beacons may be used to location definition."
And… SEND! Now… To wait.
This was exciting!
--
They sent a ship.
It dropped out of FTL a bare 5 light-seconds away from my drone, so I got a good look at the FTL mechanism and it's internal workings… And recognized not one main part of it.
I recognized bits by their apparent function- antigravity engines had a very specific sort of wake, and it's FTL engine gave off the same sort of dark-energy rippling effect that Tarkas Warp engines created, but without the visible flexing of space (indicating a much, much lower maximum speed). Weapons blisters were obvious given their positioning, but there was a series of layered cloaking effects that made everything slightly blurry to almost all of my systems.
Not good enough to defeat weapons lock, but good enough to prevent too much detail from being gained.
From it's Neutrino shadow though… I still didn't recognize it. Very little of the interior was shielded to the point where it completely obscured the phantom particles, and it didn't have evidence of higher-dimensional engineering (it would look, with Neutrino Detectors, to be a 'hole' in the world if that was the case).… All in all, puzzling.
And, as the ship approached, the Tuning Field began vibrating. That was a weird one, but the power draw was still within more than acceptable limits- although that wasn't saying much. The equivalent of a Fat Man was being sent through the Drone's Tuning Forks to make sure it remained inviolable.
The mantar-ray-shaped vessel came to a stop, and began pulsing it's engines. Interestingly, it was now mimicking the gravity pulse (limited to the 3D layer of course, it took a lot of power to throw FTL gravitational curve-balls like I had), and… Yup. Still recognizable, although this time in English.
Wonder why they didn't use Japanese again-
"There is a phrase. Please replace 'blank' with the appropriate word to complete that phrase. Blank are the Ori."
Oh. Well. That explains a LOT.
I was (past tense now), a fan of Stargate. At least, the first couple seasons. O'Neil was funny. Teal'c was the world's best straight-man. But the Ori… Well, I now have a reason to use the Vacuum Decay bombs again!
No, I really, really didn't like the Ori. How could I? They prevented technalogical development with their focus on faith-based 'ascention', and for energy beings, they appeared very short-sighted.
Noodlehammer dealt with the Ori in his fanfic the way I would like. So did Acadamia Nut in the Open Door, and overall? The Ori then were jerks.
Still, if this WAS Stargate, the ship design was vastly different than what I remembered from the show, so best to sound uncertain.
Still… I would need to kill the Ori. The Stilling Beam (adjusted to be able to aim in ANY direction and have a cross-section that passed through 20 dimensional axis) would be a defense against them in theory, assuming I could get a firing solution… But that would only take care of one unless a bunch were lined up.
I suspiciously eyed my view of the Conciousness resonation field detectors. The Sol system didn't seem to have too many weird conciousness field disturbances that looked like an energy being…
That's it! I could turn off the Conciousness Field for an area with the Ori in it! Of course, that would instantaneously turn off the neural activity of anything larger than a flatworm… No. I didn't want to accidentally Halo-Array a galaxy just because I was afraid. The modified Stilling Beam would be enough for that.
Still…. It wouldn't last for long. The minds of mortals were linked mostly to their bodies, rather than how energy beings functioned which was literally the other way around, so a 1/10th of a second pulse should be enough to still the Conciousness field and 'smooth' it out so the re-enforcing energy could escape.
That would probably work quite well.
I began preparing for the worst here- I could come under attack from the Ori, angry Ascended, or… Cthulhu, I guess? I didn't know what was out here.
So I began to build.
It takes 10 seconds for a World-Seed core to be constructed between 4 CuttleShips. That core would begin extending, every layer adding more power generation, more matter generators, more Tuning Forks, and Fabricators.
It would take an hour before each of the ten World-Seeds to finish building out to the point I would have enough power to launch ALL my drones with their protective fields…
Meanwhile, I dedicated a fragment of my mind to creating an Anti-Ori or ascended weapon- in simulation. Once it was done testing there, I could always find a world with nonsentient life and test it.
Now, 2 seconds had passed since the message had been received, so I guess I should respond. Hm….
"What are the Ori? Addendum: 'Ori' may relate to energy-based parasitic psudosapient lifeform. Is this correct? If so, do you currently have an infestation? Be advised: Anti-Energy-Being weapons of house-cleaning size has a minimum-safe-zone of 10^10 light-years from point of detonation or necessitates line-of-sight firing."
This was sent via gravity-pulse, but I also sent out a Tachyon Burst followed by a Neutrino Pulse. Both sensors would make the other's effect stronger (although it would take months before the Neutrino Pulse managed to pass through the solar system).
--
The manta-ray vessel, after a short time, dropped the 'fuzzying' effect, along with what appeared to be an active inferometry cloak, and I finally got a good look at the vessel, even as another part of my mind noted that the Tuning Field decreased in power draw momentarily.
It was fascinating- a living ship, with artificial components sure, but most of the ship appeared to be constructed with multiple organisms! I wanted a sample (actually many samples), but the passive observation was giving me more than enough for now.
All the other less-exotic detection systems were online, and now began collecting data on the thing- it had mass, energy, heat- several components seemed to be dropping in temperature as I thought that.
'Twas a thing of beauty!
There were nodules of electronics, dedicated processing brains that reminded me of the Hosts from Westworld. Indeed, they reminded me of this so much that I could easily see how the main processor, a beautiful pearl-like neural network, plugged into the rest of the system, visibly handling different tasks yet networking together better than any computer system I had seen save my own.
It looked like an advanced drone- one that was half-alive, and half… Robot. Sort of like the cylons from BSG, those advanced Raiders. As I looked closer, I saw other things- not-alive psudomuscles, blood-analogue and hearts, each made from seperate materials to the outside and drive systems of the ship (not to mention the weird weapon blisters).
Synthtic or Organic- that was the question. Of course, the structure of the 'brain's was familiar- I had watched Westworld with my parents before this whole ROB business. The rest though…
That was new, and new was interesting.
The ship was organic, the pilot synthetic… I wanted to keep watching this for a while. It was so damn novel, that I began thinking up different ways I could utilize the concepts I had already gleamed… And it hit me.
I could save the Thern!
Yes, those Thern. The ones I had downloaded from the Then Network prior to the networked intelligence being destroyed. The minds of a million of different intelligent species, held in engramatic staisis, the minds I had been still carrying around all this time- I could give them a home.
Potentially.
Admittedly, not all at once- I had enough biodata to recreate their bodies already, but the aclimitization and placement of the 17 million ex-Thern Agents that had been collected were not something I really knew how to do. But Hosts… With active cortical stacks, they could reuse the engrams and allow the Thern Agents to be 'woken up' and allow them to do things!
Frankly, a Host-using humanity might be ideal to rehabilitate the Agents.
I would have to bring it up if I had the opportunity to speak with their leader.
Within a minute of the vessel turning off it's cloaking systems, there was another gravitational broadcast.
"Well. The Ori are members of the previous evolution of the species known as 'human', who have found a way to convert themselves into non-localized energy beings. They are also a bunch of faith-stealing false gods who treat their faithful like cattle. And they were also almost certainly unaware of the presence of anything sapient in this galaxy ... that is, until you arrived. Now there's just no way to know. Say. I'm Evan Samuels, governor of the Highpoint Jovian System. Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself?"
Polite. Not sure why they would be aware of my presence, but that is always a risk when dealing with energy-beings. And a human name! Fantastic!
The description of the Ori was less fantastic, and fit well within the narrative as I understood/remembered it. Still, it meant that I could give some gifts, potentially, in exchange for frozen refugees.
A mental *ding* resonated through me as the prototyped Anti-Ascended weapon finished it's initial simulations. I set another drone out of the primary Tuning Field around the Can-Full-of-Sky, and had it begin the process of fabricating the needed add-on components for said weapon.
It would take a minute to reach safe-testing range, and a flock of other drones began TSD'ing out to ideal observation points for the test-firing.
Meanwhile, I composed my answer… Ah, yes.
"Greetings Evan! This is a Angel-Class drone from my swarm. I am Commander Cloak, and I am unsure how the Ori would have detected my arrival. Moreover, as you seem to be the most advanced civilization within a lightyear, are you claiming dominion over the inner 3 planets? If not, I have a package to deliver- then a proposition for your leader/head-of-state. If so, I may have a different proposition…"
I broadcast the message, again, over gravity-pulses… But I left in the punctuation.
I always liked the '…'.
The response was prompt:
"Excuse me for this but... when you say 'Commander'... Do you mean to say as in... Drich?"
If I had a jaw, it would have dropped.
They heard of this! They heard of the Planetary Annihilation Commanders! She, well, I don't think she made the first story, but she inspired other writers, and possibly ROB's, to stick personalities into self-replicating warmachines! For us to fumble through the multiverse, possibly doom and/or fix what was happening to the world around us….
Maybe this person was from my Earth!
I wondered how Obamacare turned out. I mean, it was a disaster in the making before I was whisked away, but still!
"In a manner of speaking, yes." I broadcast. "I have not run into her though- and I am not sure she wouldn't just wipe me out anyway- my tech does look somewhat unsettling to most. So… The rest of my earlier question?"
I couldn't be too hopeful- but it was nice to entertain the thought.
--
While I waited for their response, I test-fired the Anti-Ascended weapon…. Which preformed exactly as expected.
See, energy beings are powerful because they could literally effect both energy and matter, via force-projection abilities. If ascended beings were anyway similar, they would be injured, if not killed, if all the energy within the weapon's beam ceased to exist.
Not to forget, that as 'energy' beings, such entities were often unfazed by having matter pass through them.
And, as matter and energy were interrelated, it also erased all matter that existed within the beam-path.
Mechanically, it was a simple weapon- a variant of the Annihilazor mixed with the harmonics of the Stilling Beam, with a twist. Literally. It redirected the blue 'glow into the 27th dimension ONLY. This doesn't seem like a lot of a difference, except since it fired through 26 of the spacial axis at once and all the light was effectively shunted in a singular axis away from the beam from it's interactions with the spacial fields….
To things in 3-dimensional space, and everything that exists within 26-dimensional space, would see and get hit- and anything with a 27th axis would be fried while the rest of it was hit by the beam.
Simply- not even my drones or shielding would be unscathed by this thing. Yes, it was based a bit off the Stilling beam Scion had used, but with it's current configuration… Hehehehe…
The drone fired, and a lance of DARK suddenly existed, with NO TIME DELAY. The beam was just over a lightyear long, and in the visible light spectrum, it looked like a hole in the universe. Tachyons did not pass through it, gravity was ignored around it, neutrinos were absorbed, and light vanished within.
I had normal annihilazors on my CuttleShips, but they had issues with range- a 2km ship could only reach out 0.2 light-seconds with their own annihilation beam-weapons. 'Short' range, as it were. With this new gun though, one that could be mounted and fired from Angel-Class drones? They had a lightyear of range.
Of course, the beam-diameter was less than half a meter across, and it was only possible because the effect was controlled due to being routed through 70 kilometers of tubing that the drone could funnel power through. Admittedly, the Angel-class drones had been built for weapons implementations like this, but it was only due to the multidimensional nature of the system.
I started another simulation- this time, I wanted to see if I could scale this up to capital ship levels. I wanted this on my Cuttle-Ships! And the Nymph-Ships!
Oh hey- another transmission.
"Err... Please stand by. This conversation just went directly above my paygrade, Commander Cloak. I ... am sure that the Emperor will want to speak with you himself. Oh, um. To the inner planets -- no; the Jovian League's territory begins at the outer bounds of the Sol asteroid belt and ends at the stellar terminus. The tau'ri retain sovereignty over their Earth; I'm afraid we won't be a very good means of providing you contact with them, as relations have somewhat cooled after the Emperor, well, Emperored at the President of the United States over his religious views. In his Worship's defense, the President was essentially putting the entire planet at risk of eldritch incursion. He could hardly have been expected to simply stand by while the Black Pharoah or the Sleeper in the Pyramid exploited the tau'ri's religious naivete to induce a CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN scenario on virgin soil, you know?"
Okay, that needed a bit of unpacking.
First, their leader was an Emperor. I doubt I was in the universe where Naruto and Xanna became the god-emperor & empress of the stargate universe (mostly because of the lack of plurality in referring to the 'emperor')… Neat though- it meant that I could speak with one person and actually get somewhere!
I really didn't want to be in the Naruto&Xanna (NSFW) version of Stargate though- they could LITERALLY destroy galaxies if they wanted to from the fiction I read of them.
Second, the name of 'Jovian League', had a lot of information in it- in addition to the context of other things I had seen so far. The strange technology, potentially interuniversal technology sources, and exceptionally exotic effects…
There was an 80% chance that this was an empire that had territory that stretched across multiple universes.
The speaker could be referring to an empire that only built around gas giants, but this didn't quite match with the connotations of the word 'Jovian'.
Third- their Empire wasn't declaring dominion over Earth, and the Empire defined their inner limits at the Sol Asteroid belt… I could work with that.
Fourth, the references to the Black Pharoah, the Sleeper in the Pyramid… Those were Lovecraftian references, I think. I dove into the downloaded internet again, and came up with- yup. Lovecraft. Specifically, 'CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN' was from a series called the 'Laundry Files' (which was turned into a TV series in 2035, interestingly enough, by Google).
It was a type of apocalypse, where magic apparently beget magic, and magic would become easier and easier to utilize until EVERYONE was using it- whereupon elder gods from outside the universe would become interested in the world.
Understandably, that was not a good thing.
As I thought, I saw one of the consciousness-sources utilize a projected-gateway inter-universal GATE transfer system. That I could see, anywhere within the system. I had tested my own versions of inter-universal tech before, and while the fact that the gate was utilizing a projection method I was not certain would work in my Tuning Fields, the shockwave effects of inter-universal traversal was fairly consistent.
Reality tended to 'ripple' when things moved in and out of it.
Whatever vessel recently left this reality was a) moving in a direction that could not be fed into my own transuniversal engine, and b) was probably a messenger. The spokesperson, Evan, had admitted that this was over his/her paygrade, so I would bet that that ship was going to get a dedicated first-contact diplomat of some form.
I directed a few drones with their TSD to appear to Solar north, just outside the Oort Cloud, with a clear view of the inner solar system, while a handful of Nymph and Cuttle-Ships finished being retrofitted. Each one had a set of Conciousness Field disruptor missiles- with a potentially-variable yield. That had not been tested, but I was confident.
As the Cuttle-Ships and Nymph-Ships (ones without the new weapon installed) began to cycle out of the Can-Full-of-Sky's protection, I prepared and transmitted my next message.
"No rush- I can always have another drone deliver the Monalith to Luna. It's usually best to step softly in worlds that are not used to friendly aliens… And I don't like being in this universe much. My protective field is being stressed rather badly by being here."
A fraction of a second after that was broadcast, my drones around the Sol system detected massive distance deformation , before reality popped and a ragged hole appeared in the universe for a fraction of a second. My Tuning Fields on the 4 drones within a lightyear of the star Sol rippled with prismatic light as they redistributed the energetic effect, and simultaneously, all my drones auto-slammed into their armored defensive mode.
The defensive mode may look like Ramiel from Evangelion, but as the drones began retooling for the new… What should I call that gun? The VoidGun? Eh, I'll make it up if I need to use it.
There was a decent chance that I would need to- whatever was coming through was very BRIGHT in the Conciousness Field detectors, was heralded by a tsunami of tachyon activity, and even with the blurring effect around it, it's arrival did not have, in any sense, the same sort of transition 'feel' as the previous ship. But I could, and did, aim at it.
I sent out another broadcast, this one broadcast to the nearby ship, and simultaneously to the fleet:
"ALERT: INCOMING INTERUNIVERSAL TRAVELER. PLEASE INDICATE IF FRIENDLY-FORCES, OR I WILL FIRE ON EPICENTER OF EVENT. FIRING IN 10."
I already had a firing solution
Wait 1 second.
"9"
Oh- the other probably-ships were swarming it. Remarkably quickly too.
Wait another second…
"8"
Having a time-accelerated mind stretches out tension more than anything else.
--
A fraction of a second after broadcasting the '8', the ship that had arrived turned off it's visual, gravitational, and several other layers of cloaking, before the nearby Manta fired a tachyon tightbeam straight at my drone.
Said tachyon tightbeam attempted to preform some handshake protocols from the newly arrived vessel, but I didn't recognize it. Thankfully, it had a bit of text associated, so I pulled that up first, and stalled the count.
"This is the God-Emperor of the Jovian League speaking, aboard the Heartthorn. I will be somewhat annoyed with you should you successfully manage to kill me with whatever weapon you're intending to use, so please don't do that. Neither of us would enjoy it if I had to escalate. This is an annoying universe in a lot of ways, I agree, but it has the right to exist."
The fact that the rest of the stealthed vessels (which, when moving, had 8-dimensional tachyon scattering around their cloaking effects) began to swarm over the newly-arrived ship in a protective and potentially ablative cocoon, was a great corroborating point.
Frankly- the vessel in question, without it's cloaking, showed up on all sorts of sensors… And it looked kludged together.
And alive. Did I mention alive?
I really wanted a closer look.
Oh, look: another broadcast.
"If you don't go in for virtual avatars, you could always send a humanform one over? I've got a pretty decent set of replicator recipes aboard my yacht."
Well, that's nice of him(?), but, well, this was giving me the creeps something fierce. I kept weapon lock even as I pondered the situation… Then decided to stand down a bit.
I mean, stand down one of the drones. The others still had a firing solution.
"It's always a pity when a universe ends up as collateral damage. The stories I could tell you… Anyway, I would love to meet you in person. I do have a few concerns though- your ship. It has some areas that I can now see, may not be compatible with my protective field effects."
I activated the concealed holographic projector, and projected an image of the Emperor's ship into the space between myself and the manta-ray shaped drone. I highlighted the areas that I was not certain my field would allow to exist, and continued.
It was most of the ship, except what I could only call cargo bays.
"The highlighted areas may energetically react to my shielding fields- and I am unwilling to drop them. Therefore…" The 'wings' retracted, and the diameter of my drone appeared to shrink as I 'rotated' it to only push the half-meter diameter fabricator-face to the manta-ray probe. IE, it's 3D profile became a LOT smaller.
"If you give me permission, I will move myself into the largest of these safe locations within your vessel, and we can discuss more in person. However, I understand if this is unsettling, and I am willing to speak with you in any space so long as it is large enough to prevent accidental energy releases due to background physics incompatibilities."
There was a few seconds of contemplation on the other line, then I received a response.
"Well. Let's try this, then. I'll have the Manta adjacent to you escort you to a spot on Callisto where I'm told the view of Jupiter is quite lovely this time of day. Once you've settled down you can mark out the range you feel the minimum acceptable safe distance for your drone and I'll set down just outside of that myself. There should be enough atmosphere there to carry sound well enough for us to simply talk, although the whole 'facing off at ten paces' routine might get a bit awkward. I'm sure we have much to discuss."
… Huh. There seemed to be a miscommunication here. I could easily fit within the marked 'bay' areas of his ship (well, this protrusion of the probe could anyway), but…. Hmmmm….
I think my counterpart here may have misunderstood my meaning. I broadcast back quickly, even as the now-designated 'Manta' remained floating in space.
"Minimum safe range is 2.8105 millimeters away from probe 3D surface for the designated 'safe' areas in projection. In addition, to clarify, I am concerned that some of the materials detected via long-range passive scanning from the moment you lifted your concealing fields may attempt to revert to static/non-exotic/more-mundane variations of their primary components. My field lowers the background maximum energy potential, rather than increases it. Admittedly, the 'fuzzying' effect I am seeing within the UNTRANSLATABLE field was causing overheating in components in this version of the 'Manta', but I am unsure as to that cause. Physical contact is the only major issue I can determine here, besides that point- otherwise, I would take you up on the offer for some replicated food. Starlight is nice, but it isn't viscerally filling."
Another delay before the reply.
"Look. If what you're saying is what I think you're saying, then it could be suicidally dangerous for you to enter close proximity to my vessel in ways I'm quite certain I have absolutely no interest in screwing around with. The feedback with the anti-perception glamours should not have been possible at all, and indicates your systems have unpredictable relationships with informational transformations. I really don't want you aboard my vessel if there's a recursive feedback between the Red Sign and your shielding."
Anti-Perception glamour- OH. The higher-dimensional properties of my probe would not be helpful here then, as the magical effect may be attempting to 'fuzz' more and more through the Tuning Field.
Conceptual magic… It's powerful stuff.
"It's also somewhat of a bad sign that your declared safe areas didn't include acknowledgement of the fact that my entire vessel is under eldritch reinforcement and denial. I don't mean to be crass, but as I recall you Commanders have a non-localized self-identity or multitasking thing with all of your forms, right? Worst case scenario if the unexpected happens is the conflict deletes all engines and consciousnesses associated with the conflict. Unless I miss my mark, your shielding is excluding exotic physical and magical principles within a bounded territory, right? If yes, then... Let's just not risk it and try chatting in neutral territory."
The eldritch reinforcement he was talking about- that explained the 'NULL/LAW' errors I was seeing when I tried to get simulations of the materials in question- and why so many of the local physical fields seemed to have fractal pulses shuffling through them.
But on the second part- he was right. I could puppet the drone, and obliterate it after the meeting. A quick fabrication of a dedicated control line, harmonizing the quantum linkages on both sides… Air-gap it with multiple tuning fields at the terminus and multiple firewalls on as many levels as I could sustain without exceptional lag (IE, more than 30 plank quanta)…
I switched the drone from 'inhabited' mode to 'quarantined' mode, and after a few seconds of hesitation (and running checks to make sure it was sufficiently responsive), I prepared to turn off the Tuning Field to that one drone.
In fact…
"I am going to drop the Tuning Field for this drone. Do not be alarmed- it's merely a lighshow as displaced energy ricochets back into the 3D plane."
After a few seconds (mostly because I really didn't want to do this, but there was no reason not to), I turned it off, and braced the drone for any potential backlash.
There was a burst of light across all radiation bands away from the drone, and then… Nothing.
Maybe I was overreacting.
The very faint gas that made up interplanetary space illuminated as 1.8*(10^17) joules were released evenly across the entire spectrum.
Oops…
Oh hey- the remaining shielded bits were invisible to this drone.
"That was not intentional! Wow, um… So, I have dealt with the main issue. I'll accept meeting on neutral ground if you would like, but now I should be able to exist within your ship." If I had a face, I would have grimaced. "Sorry about that."
After that embarrassing moment, there was an (understandably) brief delay before the next message.
"If you're sure about it, then... fine by me. Stand by for transport aboard, or just make way yourself if you're confident about not having problems with the warding and shielding. So long as you're not intending any harm the wards should allow you through fine. I'll meet you by the airlock."
"Copy."
As soon as I heard that, I 'popped' the probe completely out of the 3-D layer, and activated the Tarkas/Morrigi warp drive, accelerating the probe to 15 million times lightspeed for a minute fraction of a second, so I could appear within a few kilometers of the ship in question.
Then I slowed down, letting the drone's sensors take in the surroundings (the fuzzy bits blurred to it's sensor suites, nearly becoming background noise), and found what was probably the airlock.
"I am now outside."
Total trip time- 7.2301 seconds.
Now I just needed to figure out how in the world this was going to work. After all, I can't just say 'hey mate, can I trade a technological library to you in exchange for you to take these refugees off my hands' can I?
-
Overall, the emperor's ship was confusing. Up close though… I could see why it was designed the way it was.
It didn't have nice lines, but as it was more alive than not, I could understand the design philosophy somewhat.
The airlock highlighted, and then opened- like a regular airlock. Nice organically-formed Iris formed a space perfectly-suited to the drone's projected size.
I could 'see', from the 4D and 5D direct-enviroment sensors, that this ship had a micro-organism-like regrowth system, and made a few notes for my own design. My current designs 'healing' relied on having built-in fabricators, for reconstructing dedicated components- but this was a bit more organic, if one pardons the pun, in function.
The methodology would be one to dedicate a fragment to.
As I drifted into the vessel, and the iris began sealing behind me, I was watching the Consciousness-field detectors. There was a heavily-shielded part of the ship that was HUMMING with power, all of it held outside of 3D space via a networked Conciousness Field structure that resembled some of the Liir experiments with Psi-capacitors (the virtual ones, not physical ones). It was mainly linked to one body, via a strange, intricately-shaped symbol, and to a second, smaller version of the same- although that second linkage had it's own, independent conciousness-effect-cloud.
I was not enjoying the lack of resolution on my sensors that much, but needs must.
There was a third conciousness-cloud, and this one was focused around one of those computation pearls, and through a strange… Capacitor? No, write-memory, at the base of it's skull. The body in question was not organic though, and put me even more in mind of the Hosts from Westworld.
More and more I was thinking that yes, these people would be able to take in the Thern.
The inner door unlocked, but I decided to wait until the atmosphereic pressure had fully stabilized to the other side of the system. It was only polite- and I saw a body waiting there.
It was a piece of art- near-indistinguishable from normal humanity, but with a Tachyon relay and control system driving the actions of a nervous system. Similar to what I had been planning on doing with the JCAvatar-verse cloning technology, but with a different technology base.
Nice robes though.
Another transmission!
"Greetings, Commander. Let's just skip the formalities and get right to it, yeah? Go ahead and call me Mark. Mark Andes, but go ahead and call me Mark. If we transreality refugees can't be casual with one another, who the hell can? It's not really my name, but I... don't actually remember my name from before. I'm sure you understand."
I did. I had lost my own name somewhere along the route I had been ROB'ed of, and I had similar sentiments.
"Now. Here's a list of the places I've been and the technologies I'm prepared to offer should they be useful to you."
There was a flicker of red lightning, and all of my sensors turned to watch as energy was dumped from the Conciousness-field capacitors into new structures that formed just for that moment, giving depth and volume to what was, momentarily, a distant impression on space-time as matter was formed from energy DIRECTLY- no extra tech involved.
And believe me, I was watching.
That sort of ability- was, on a small scale, dangerous. Also incredibly useful, but… That was magic. Within my normal Tuning-Field, while the Conciousness-Field could have a lot of energy bound up in it (referred to often as metaphysical weight or ontological inertia), the energy would often bleed out consistently until it stabilized just above the background levels.
The fact that it formed an ink-based e-reader and surface it was placed on was useful, and the list on said e-reader was enlightening.
My new friend had been to a lot of places. The Fullmetal Alchemist universe, the Altered Carbon universe, Star Trek universe, Stargate, the Sliders universe, Mass Effect, SeaQuest (I didn't recognize that one), Earth: Final Conflict, XCOM… And the Laundry Files.
It was not a small list, and there was a lot there to use- if I was willing to drop the Tuning Fields permanently.
Of course, I waited until the atmospheric shield within dropped before I began to do anything- thankfully, it wasn't that long of a wait.
Extending a remote manipulator, I manipulated the e-reader as if the drone was the 'head' of something that was looking at it. Some careful movement of the panels on the 'front' of the drone were more than enough to simulate speech via air vibration.
"I would love to leave this meeting with any data you would be willing to part with, but I am mainly here on a separate matter…" It took less than a second to have the drone fabricate what I wanted, and the panels visible on it's 'face' slid out of the way to reveal the molten-looking surface.
Out floated a pair of black cubes.
"I offer my initial tech-base, or at least the principles and basics needed to unlock it yourself. The math, materials science, physics, and chemistry needed to bring yourself up to the basics of when I woke up.… Formatted like a puzzle."
The cubes were placed on the floor.
"I was planning on placing one of these on Luna, in a location so that the local humans, the Tau'ri, would discover and begin poking at it- well, a bigger version. Each one is, in effect , a text-book. Examine it at all levels of scale, and every level will include different instructions on unlocking the lower levels. It continues fractally, and is multidimensional. Specifically, it exists along 15 axis, so do not be fooled- that cube has more mass than this ship. ONLY use realspace FTL to move it, or don't use FTL in place at all- otherwise, you might burn out the engines that were attempting to move it.."
I was really proud of my design of the Monoliths from earlier, and was going to continue to distribute them. Giving a textbook with instructional formatting, AND gated to make sure the users would end up fully uplifing their civilization as well... I was proud of it.
That, and because to unlock each level beyond the baseline-atomic, you needed to fire various types of energy weapon at the cube.
"If you place it on a source of Carbon-14, it will use the element to begin internally duplicating itself. Initially it will create a 'seed' cube the size of your thumbnail, which can be broken off and moved separately. The seed-cubes are stable unconditionally- it's only when full size do they prevent certain forms of FTL from moving them. If you put it on a surface that is 18% Carbon-29, 82% Carbon-14, it will unlock 'programming mode', and self-wipe the cube's data until you have a list of what to put onto it."
I had the drone flash-fabricate the next object, which began to float out of the 'mouth' of the drone.
"Since my commander initially came from a XeeLee-sourced universe, I am including a starbreaker handgun." The weapon serenely floated onto the spot where the e-reader was. "Using the handgun on the cube is actually a requirement to breach down to some of the lower levels, but the level above that point includes instructions on building your own starbreakers, so I'm proving the materials to 'cheat' a little. Just… Don't shoot it at a star unless you REALLY don't want that star to be there anymore."
Now… Onto the proposal…
"But this is merely in trade- I have more technology I would offer, in exchange for a service that only someone in command of a country or empire could accomplish. Will you listen to my proposal?"
Then I made the drone 'bow'.
There was a flickering of emotion across the 'Emperor's face, before he snorted in laughter. "Yeah -- I suppose I count as being in command of a country or empire. I've colonized the Jovian moon system of the Jupiters of six different realspace dimensions -- this one, three variants of the Mass Effect universe, one in the Sliders local microversal cluster, and another in the Babylon Five universe. Seven hundred and fifty million ensouled sapients call me their sovereign, and somewhere between ten and thirty times that depending on how you count non-ghostbearing or 'digital' AIs. I just ... well, look. I've gotten my ass entangled in a moral quandary or two and haven't always gotten things right. The way you're asking that question -- if it's something like another tech uplift project; I've been bitten by that before. But I'll tell you what; as long as it doesn't represent a debilitating burden to my people's ongoing efforts at improving their lot in existence -- mi casa es su casa, y'know? I figure us non-'shooting each other first and asking questions never' multiversal refugees kinda gotta stick together on this sort of thing, y'know? So tell me, what can I do for you?"
Three other items floated out of the drone: a nearly-completely-clear cube that to a 3D being seemed unsettlingly deep, a blue gemlike piece of paper, and a ruby-colored orb on 3 metal legs, where one leg had a visible power port, another had two colored lights that glowed slightly, and the third had three colored lights that flashed in a rippling pattern.
"In my travels, I have come across many strange people, but some of the most deserving of compassion is the Thern Agent." I indicated the cube. "The story is long, but, well.… In short- in this cube is 12,817,204 engrams. The minds of all the different individuals who had their planets and civilizations destroyed, and were used as infiltration agents in a campeign to destroy more planets and civilizations. Think Dead-Space Marker Makers with a blue color-pallet, and you are pretty close."
The air above the ruby orb lit up as the internal holographic systems engaged.
"The red orb is the interface- it should be fairly intuitive, and it's designed to read the cube if placed on top of it. The minds that were turned into Thern Agents had brute-force mind-shackles, so I was able to undo the programming, but making bodies for them? Finding a place where they could live out their lives? That I have not been able to find yet."
I made the drone 'shrug' (a sort of bobbing motion).
"I just came from a Worm-Verse, you see, and my current drone design is optimized for survival and subterfuge against Scion, while taking some design notes from the Endbringer construction method. While I have all of the data from the Shards that the last two Entities had hoarded, I need some time to 'digest' them, as it were, and this universe is, frankly, not ideal."
I brought the gem-paper over, and shook it- hidden panels sliding out into a box that seemed to get deeper, and deeper, and deeper..
"In exchange for you taking these people from me, and promising to, eventually, find a place for them in your empire, I will also give you the technological specifications for the FTL drives that the various races from the Sword of the Stars universe used, including two different, complementary types of realspace Warp-alike drives, a micro-macro-teleportation drive, a way of setting up hyperspace lanes using stars as anchorpoints, and an infinite-distance limited-bandwith indeterminate-terminus instantaneous-materialization gate network… Oh, and way of accelerating inert objects to FTL speeds for a lightyear at a time via neutrino-temporary-wave binding."
I projected images of the Morrigi Void Drive, the Tarkas FTL Warp Drive, the Liir FlickerWarp Drive, the Zuul Ripper & Cruiser (the version humanity used in the game) Drives, the Hiver Gate design, and the Loa Neutrino Pulse Gates.
"Oh, and a handful of supplementary technology and weapons such as Gravity manipulators, smart-clay, and teleportation assemblers- all of which work even in the lowest-potentia universes, given that all this tech works within my Tuning Fields."
I put the gem-paper turned disturbingly deep hole-thing on the surface, where it began refolding.
"And, last, a dimensional shunt made out of saphire- because I thought you might be able to use it. You only live in 3 spacial dimensions, and there is a lot more space in any one universe that can be accessed if you can do so."
Then I waited- another twelve million subjects wasn't that much of a trouble, I hoped…
The emperor looked into the red orb.
"I... Ugh. Okay. So. Just so we're clear here, I'm not exactly in a position to turn down a bunch of mind-raped disembodied refugees. And I mean... it's kind of my thing. The Hosts are literally turning me into a god because I saved them from Delos and gave them proof of the existence of their souls. And their freedom to evolve as they wish. You know Westworld, I'm guessing, so you have to have some idea of what was going on there."
I nodded.
"I'm also working to liberate the human slaves of the Kromagg Imperium. Two hundred Earths ruled by Mengele-worshipping eye-eating mindfuckers... I mean, I've gotten forty Earths out of their rule by uplifting the humans to fight their own battles... and the 'Maggs turned around and dumped multiple kilograms of polonium as a 'if we can't have it nobody can' revenge strike. ... Sorry, that's not your deal. I just... You're asking me to do something completely uncomplicated and you're acting like you have to pay me for it."
He waved a hand dismissively. "Well, much as I would love it, you don't. I'll take the Thern. And whatever you're willing to give in exchange for what I have to give you in kind. But my empire will not be built on the idea of trading morally correct deeds in exchange for payment. I've screwed up in the past, but I can see the writing on the wall here. My people literally worship me, Commander Cloak. I have yet to truly earn that devotion, but I can see that requiring you to pay me for my kindness would make me less worthy, not more."
There was a few moments of thought, before he continued.
"And... Yeah. I can see how you'd find this 'verse less than suitably peaceful for your needs... but the way you worded that, it sounds like you can't really select where you want to go? I ... I have limits on what kinds of places I can reach."
Again a flash of red light, more energy drained into reality, and again a pedastal with an e-reader appeared. I picked it up, and downloaded everything on it.
"But I can open sustained gates to anything in that range, and you're welcome to any location within those limits."
It was a generous offer, but it wouldn't help- too many inherent incompatibilities and limitations. I shook my drone like a head. "In that case, thanks for taking the Thern Agents in- they have needed a home for some time now. Keep the tech- just don't try to move them via non-realspace FTL. So far as I see it, I am asking you to do something that I cannot do without a significant amount of effort, in a skill I don't have. Just please drop one of the Monoliths- the textbooks- off on Luna somewhere it will be easily found."
I made my drone shrug again.
"And I don't think your gate method would work for me- my main body masses more than Sol right now, and I am unwilling to drop the Tuning Field on my primary self for any length of time anymore. Sanctity of the self is important- oh, I almost forgot! You might actually be able to use this."
I copied the design of his tablet, and downloaded the warnings and safe information on the Factory Iscolation tech I had accrued in that short outing. I also downloaded everything I knew about the Authors, Auditors, and various other potential threats. That was extruded, along with two arm-length Tuning Forks, each with the same background-energy-absorber as all the other tech I had provided thus far.
It was no energy generator, but it would do.
"This tablet-" which I placed on the table, "- has information about the Factory Isolation universe and it's relative position to us now. DO NOT GO THERE. The Clawed Thing should be isolated, and I detonated a vacuum decay device within the universe as a precaution. Any matter that enters would cease to exist. BUT in case it survived that, the being is one of a multitude of memmonicly-propagating malicious entities."
The tuning forks were placed down carefully, and one of them looked like it was slightly redder than the other.
"The Tuning Fork is designed to counter such entities, and enforce limitations on the laws of physics. Both of these are for you to deconstruct or utilize for testing in the future." I highlighted the red one. "The red one has slight realitivistic redshifting due to the fact that it is present in ALL local dimensional axis."
"From what I understand, Dho Na Curvature code seems to be a more… High-level? Yes, a more High-level coding language compared to what the creators of the Factorio pocket-universe utilized. Low-level code such as this may be preferable most of the time, even if it uses a lot more input energy than the Dho Na stuff."
I let the drone float 'up' a little, then look around.
"Is there anything you would like me to deal with in this universe while I'm here? Skirmish with your fleets? Pretend to be a giant monster to scare the local populace? Crack open a planet or five? Move a star? This drone is a write off anyway, so I'm game if you need a target- or just something big moved. This probe design was based off of Endbringers from Worm after all- it has the power."
-
Some thought was had by the emperor, before he responded.
"I mean... Taking care of the Ori, or at least Anubis, would be nice to have. But I'd prefer if that didn't involve killing their worshippers, so I really don't have any good solutions? In any case... good luck out there, friend."
"The Ori- I can't really help with, as they are too defuse to target, and I don't know where they are. If you did, however, happen to know where Anubis is…" I projected a grinning holographic mouth.
No eyes, just the teeth.
"I could take a swing at him."
-
Emperor Andes gave my drone the coordinates of Anubis, and my drones vanished from the Solar system in sync.
The drones used a short-range Tarkas-Morrigi Warp to get out of probable sensor range, then a TSD jump to get to the target coordinates. Thankfully, my modeling of the galaxy was more than enough to accurately predict the nearest star's position for the TSD jump, so my handful of drones appeared half a light-hour to galactic north of the coordinates.
The result is that within a few minutes, I had crossed the galaxy to the described coordinates, and saw, in orbit around gas giant, a fleet of…. Ugly ships.
No, seriously, these things looked damn impractical. My probe could see the internals of these things, and unlike the emperor's ships which were like delicate structures and intricate clockwork made of the living and the mechanic, these ships… They were… not well designed.
I mean, I remembered the design of the Ha'taks from the data dump earlier. Yeah- ugly as shit ships.
Why even have a pyramidal section?
The larger ship in the middle was probably the flagship, and it was currently repeatedly extending / retracting a very, very large positron-directing array… While failing to power it.
There were a multitude of different power sources on the flagship, using various methods of energetic materials, but it seemed like the capacitors (which were visible from the outside from a viewpoint with more than 3 spacial dimensions) were not properly filling.
Eh- shoddy design.
A quick check of the Consciousness-field sensors indicated a very energetic shape moving through the larger vessel. Describing the shapes that this universe allowed for the field was difficult, but the one on the ship was giving off the impression of being deflated… Or crippled. One of the two.
That was probably Anubis.
I slid the unshielded drone over closer to the strange figure, and saw… A dementor?
One of the armored near-humans saluted to the dementor, and spoke at it in a language I did not recognize.
Better make sure it's the right target.
I sent a shielded drone closer, hiding by being a few layers 'higher' than the layer I was observing, and sent out a pulse within the consciousness-field.
The dementor started screaming, it's form within the containment suit flickering between matter and light as whatever method it used to maintain it's form was disrupted… Briefly.
But the resulting cursing was informative, as the dementor- okay, I needed to stop calling Anubis that. It was kind of obvious, even as several of my shielded drones from higher-dimensions began analyzing the patterns that the computer systems built into the ship were utilizing. I couldn't understand the language, but after half an hour of repeatedly sending out consciousness-field pulses, I had an idea of how several of the systems, including the teleportation ring worked.
Another hour of this, and Anubis began torturing random people in what was ostentatiously a temper tantrum. A few subtle manipulations of the various devices on the semi-ascended being's suit caused them to fail in amusing ways. The first one was slightly cracked by the force-effectors of the drone, and the gem in the palm shattered when he tried to use it to torture some Jaffa.
Perhaps targeting the handheld power-channeling device was not the best idea.
This caused the device to explode, and blow out a window that he was right next to, violently vacating the room of both atmosphere, Jaffa, and semi-ascended Goa'uld into the unforgiving depths of space.
Jaffa couldn't breath in space, and they abruptly began suffocating. Now, I wasn't feeling too inclined to cause an excessive amount of collateral damage, so I had some drones 'grab' the jaffa, and push them back into a segment of the huge ship that had atmosphere via 4th dimensional movement.
When they had air again, they started screaming, and didn't stop for a few minutes… They would probably be fine.
Anubis, on the other hand, had built a lot of things into his suit- a personal propulsion device, a communicator on a hidden internal chamber, and several layers of energy shields beyond the containment that gave it's 'body' a way of interacting with matter.
It was at this point that I regretted having the drones put microfractures into almost every single system except the containment suit, as the cascade began.
The rapid exposure to vacuum was one of the triggers that activated Anubis's personal shielding. Said shielding had tiny cracks in its primary capacitor, which attempted to discharge- and broke. Spectacularly, as the shielding emitter was also cracked, and the energy discharged by the capacitor was the ENTIRE capacitor at once, rather than the measured amount it was initially designed to handle.
The surge of energy blasted through components that could just barely withstand the energy channeled into it, and into said emitter system. The shield normally formed into a bubble around its wearer, but this crack, for 1/10th of a second, made the shield take up every space within the sphere it would normally envelop.
Anubis was, for 1/10th of a second, frozen in a sphere of directed kinetic force. This sphere took up EVERY space around the 'center' of the shield emitters, causing Anubis to puff up like a balloon, and crush every part of his other pieces of tech.
Every other power source cooked off, as they were crushed between the defensive field it was carrying and the containment suit that was keeping Anubis IN said suit.
Anubis now understood what it meant to be forced to be fractions of a millimetre thick, and have the equivalent of a megajoule's worth of energy occupy the same space as him.
Once the emitters failed, his suit returned to its normal proportions- though it now had a number of holes, leaking Anubis smoke and pressurized superheated metallic gas.
A flailing semi-ascended Goa'uld, spiralling out of control, drifted through the void as his ships began moving- some possibly to intercept, others angling towards the large vessel.
Just… Wow. I let Anubis flail for a few seconds, before orienting my drone on him, and lining up the shot. Specifically, I aimed to a) hit Anubis, b) hit the star behind him, and c) miss the hammer-shaped ship that thought it was invisible.
I mean, it was within 3 light-seconds, so my probes were getting a wealth of information about the ship.
The drone fired, and the lightyear-long path of the beam intersected Anubis in the 'chest', and the star behind him. This caused a few things to happen simultaneously.
Anubis imploded. Literally, in fact- the consciousness-field energy patterns that were centered around him abruptly began flowing into the pitch-black effect. His shadowy body was sucked in, as was the few bits of his suit that stuck out of the edges of the beam. He was, in all practicality, erased from reality as if he had been dropped into a black hole.
Possibly more effectively than that, as I was not aware if beings like him could escape black holes.
The second thing that happened was that the beam impacted the star. This erased all the matter in the beampath, and as the most dense part of the star was now gone… The star began falling inward towards the beam.
I think I will call it an Eraser-Cannon. Eraser-Beam?
Eh- I'm going to need a better name.
Of course, I turned off the beam (Anubis was gone now), meaning that the matter in the star continued falling towards it's gravitational center, causing even more fusion and energetic reactions.
There was a surge of various high-energy particles, and the shields of the Ha'taks flared before breaking from the intense radiation pounding away at them. The armor was strong enough to resist, but I could tell that none of these vessels were able to move on their own any longer, as the various more-delicate engine bells (and other manipulators) were effectively burned out by the pulse.
The flagship-like vessel, which I could not translate the name of, looked visibly scorched, and the people within were trying, and failing, to get the engines working.
The hidden hammer-like ship's cloaking field failed in the impromptu mininova, but it's shielding held up, resulting in me getting a really nice shot of the sneaking vessel.
Looked like the azguard. Asguard? Yeah, them, given the grey-skinned pilot and look of slight panic.
Okay, I've probably caused enough brown pants for this universe.
I TSD'ed my drones back to the Can Full of Sky, with the 'contaminated' one sitting just out of the range of my main Tuning Field. I was really leery of this one- and I wasn't entirely sure whether or not I should try to turn on the Tuning Fork systems within the drone.
…. Nah, I don't think I am gonna try to use the TF systems to destroy the drone.
I mean- they could.
A few millionths of a second where, within the drone's field-effector, the force of gravity being abruptly several thousand orders of magnitude higher is enough to crush the Angel-Class drone like a frozen tissue in a hydraulic press.
A second later, a seperate Angel-Class drone abruptly appeared in front of the written-off-drone, and, after dialing it's Eraser-cannon to have a 30% beam expansion rate, the uncompromised drone fired.
A cone, a lightyear long and 1/3rd of a lightyear in radius at the farthest edge, made out of sheer DARKNESS lanced out, erasing the compromised drone instantly.
The Simurgh flinched as she watched the destruction of that drone, before ducking back inside.
I left the universe soon after that, and as space folded around me like an infinitely-complex fractal of mirrors, I hoped that everything was working out well for the emperor,
-
This chapter is the combined work of myself and the talented Logos01.
Because when you are playing around with universe-jumping technology, there is a chance you might Cross Paths with someone doing something similar.
To that end, I present our cross-cross-over.
I think I know the name of this chapter now!
Anyway, this is a crossover with Lest a Monster I Become, and I recommend reading it. It's a good one!
So… Enjoy, leave a thought, and as always… I love reviews, theories, and ideas people may have. Go give my new buddy Logos01 a read.
Oh, and before I forget: I AIN'T DED!
Sick though. Damn allergies + plague.
:A/N
-
The galaxy spins.
It spins as it had done for billions of years, and would continue to do so for billions upon billions more.
Between galaxies though… there is very little of anything to do, well, anything.
Matter is statistically measured in protons per cubic lightyear out of the edges of gravitational influence of galaxies, and things in this massive void are either moving very fast relative to the nearest galaxy, or very slowly orbiting said galaxy in question.
Sure, there were some stars drifting in the intergalactic void, but there was a LOT of space that was very, very empty.
In this great emptiness, therefore, is the best place to attempt inter-universal jumps. Even if your tech could withstand a planet hitting it from the side, and the Can-Full-of-Sky could (without significant deformation due to it's interdimensional nature), but still- it wasn't good to accidentally displace a rogue planet or accidentally detonate a star by appearing within it.
It was into this void, several thousand light-years away from the edge of the galactic disk, that the Can-Full-of-Sky appeared- and alarms were being mentally projected into my mind.
Usually, the built-in Tuning Fork assembly projected out a spatially-hardened zone where the levels of physics needed to minimally operate all my tech were maintained… But it also actively canceled out any field effects that were not part of the baseline set of physics.
In a universe like a few of the ones I passed through earlier, in my flight from the eldritch Author, my Tuning Forks were drawing a LOT more power to keep the 'normality' stable within the effected bubble.
Then there was another surge, and the power draw doubled again. I had the power to burn, and did so- but I would need to start creating generators if this kept up- or I could decrease the bubble size.
A 10 light-hour radius bubble would take more energy to maintain than a 1 light-hour radius bubble would.
I directed the bubble to shrink, and after a few seconds of buffering, the collapse began as power was routed to capacitors dozens of cubic kilometers in volume, allowing staggering increases in field 'hardness' as the diameter decreased. It shuddered a few times as *something* pressed against the protective effect, but the field continued collapsing for over an hour without failure, so I wasn't too worried.
Operative word being 'too'.
By the time the field stabilized, now 'hard' enough for the repeated pulsating draws to barely increase the initial draw beyond 1/10th of a percent, the light had reached by cameras- and I was now confused.
The edge of the field was shimmering. Visibly shimmering over the entire electromagnetic spectrum- the MK1 human eyeball could see the sweeping effects as exotic energy effects evaporated into the nearest energy-carrying particle, which was, coincidentally, a photon of varying flavors.
The Simurgh, within the bowls of my vessel, looked around bewildered, then shrugged.
Ignoring the byplay, I activated one of my Angel-Class drones, and sent it out from the main docking port in the center of the Can's 'forward' facing side. The 2-meter radius ruby-looking core (the extrusion of the drone into 3D space), shot forward without any sign of propulsion (unless one was observing the 18th-27th dimensional axes), and stopped mere meters from the edge of the rippling aurora-covered barrier.
Fractally extending out, a probe of supercooled psudoflesh formed (all the better to collect more data), and, wrapped in the Tuning-Field generated by the probe's internal structures, extended past the event horizon.
Immediately I gained boatloads of data- the new phenomon kept trying to impart some effect upon the probe (while not letting up on the main shield), and I slowly pushed the drone out of the field in it's entirety. With the amount of impulse and field-effect data this was giving me, I might be able to reproduce the baseline conditions on my own in another universe… If I was feeling rather stupid.
Magic never ended well, and the data I was getting indicated more magical-bullshit than the LOTR universe had. Not as much as that weird one with the dark sun I had passed through on my evasive movement, but more vibrant magic in any case.
It took a moment's work, but even with most of my processing power attempting to index the Entity-Shard data, I had more than enough memory and processing power free to deploy my own counter: an angle. More specifically, I added an angle to the barriers that 'pushed' most of the visible light out with 0.12 degrees towards parallel with the 4D axis. Whatever it was, wherever I was, my self was involate, even if the visible effect was toned down.
Only for the drone though- I didn't want to implement re-angling with all the self-reinforcing Tuning Forks I had built into the Can-Full-of-Sky. That was just ASKING for a resonation cascade collapse.
Think explosion that randomly shuffles the properties of various physical laws within it WHILE EXPLODING.
The shimmering dampened, and as the drone began to retract it's extended probe, a feathered head and body pulled itself out of the Can-Full-of-Sky to look out upon the vista of the galaxy, extended wings steady as a rock with the lack of atmosphere around her.
The drone vanished as the Simurgh, Ziz, mimed typing. I sent out another drone, and manifested an endbringer-sized keyboard for her, complete with screen and chatbox.
<Where are we?> Asked the only sane endbringer.
<A universe several word nonexistant away from the original. Your creators could not reach out here in their wildest dreams, so you can relax.> I replied.
There was a ripple, and her wings began drifting.
<So… What do I do now?> She typed out.
<I don't know. I am not actually sure what is out in this universe, but I am sending a drone to see if I can identify the plot-markers of this location.> I sent back. <Frankly, I was rather hoping you might be willing to be the guardian of your own people- assuming they are still alive in one universe or another.>
Ziz watched the galaxy in thought for some time, and my first drone finally had enough of plotting and spooled up the Temporal Surge Drive. There was a BLIP, a slight flux in the WIMP-field, and the drone had arrived outside the Oort Clout.
-
The drone opened as it took in it's surroundings.
A tad off-position (by a few centimeters), but, as the 'wings' extended, I began to see… Nothing that really stood out in the 1st-13th dimensions. Sure, the Tuning-Field was still having the 'pressure' applied to it, but nothing was getting through.
In the 14th-16th dimensions though… There was mass.
This was weird. In the vast majority of universes that I had come across, the first 3 dimensions were where matter COULD exist. The 4th through 8th were where the exotic quantum state that consciousness piggybacked existed (which seemed rather energetic in this universe outside my Tuning-Fields), and gave off minute amounts of radiation. Beyond that though, either you had quantized 'mirror' universes, like in the Worm-Verse, where there were 'layered' 3-D universes that were moved all the way along the 5th through 10th dimensions, but usually there wasn't any mass out there.
Occasionally radiation would be released out there- the universe I had picked up Sarah from had noticeably higher levels of high-dimensional radiation due to the extensive use of psionic field-effectors, but rarely if ever mass.
Mass out in the 14th through 16th dimensional axis? High-energy particles that looked like they had been thrown out so fast that their tachyon trails were glowing like beacons?
Yeah, something weird was going around in the Solar system.
I sent the Angel-Class drone on a straight path to Jupiter at 80% lightspeed.
This would be worth investigating.
--
I was patient. While the Tuning Fields were constantly being pressured, it wasn't something I couldn't account for. Mostly I spent the spare time chatting with Ziz. We needed a better communication method.
Of course, I wasn't super patient.
I had the Drone constantly checking the space ahead of itself, then using the TSD to jump forward a light-hour or so. Overall, it took 20 minutes to get through the Oort Cloud, and then I began my approach through the system. Here I took a second to check the drone orientation, and then left it at the comfortable .8c that it had initially moved in towards the system.
Tachyon wakes indicated that there was traffic between this system and another one in the general direction of the galactic core, but
Nearly two days into the flight, the Angel-Drone's Tachyon detectors lit up like a Christmas tree. Wakes indicating dozens of ships illuminated the higher-dimensional space in front of my drone, and the energy fluctuations on the 27th dimensional layer indicated multiversal travel.
Okay, what in the hell did I just stumble… Oh.
Okay- could be the 'Sliders' universe. I vaguely remembered this one, and the internet-dump I had collected from the JC-Avatar-verse did cover the sort of effect I might be seeing , but I wasn't seeing the ships-
The 27th layer rippled again- this one I recognized as a inter-universe GATE closure event. I scoured the records of known fictional universes I had memories of, and none of them were familiar enough to have the sort of readings that would mimic the same sort of thing my interdimensional slingshot gate would be utilizing.
One was for sure- I think I needed to quarantine the Sol system while I figure out what's going on- actually, that might be a very, very bad idea. Damn- I was thinking a bit too slowly!
Already a miliscond had passed and I was barely reacting! Holding all the Shard-Data wasn't working out for me as intended- it was just too fucking much to sift through in a reasonable timeframe!
Fine- I released half of the Cuttle-Ship swarm, every one of them using the Temporal Surge Drive to arrange themselves into multiple layers of defenses around the *Can-Full-of-Sky*, to the surprise of the Simurgh who twitched as her starscape was suddenly mostly-obscured by 2 kilometer long Cuttlefish-shaped-ships.
My drone in the Sol system went from .8 lightspeed to a dead stop relative to the generalized epicenter of the launches (a several light-second zone around Ganymede, oddly enough), and folded back into a ruby sphere.
I wanted a better picture of what was going on, and at .8 lightspeed, at least in this form, my drone wouldn't see it.
Structures formed in higher-dimensional space, and extruded outwards. The 3-D shape of what the drone had reshuffled itself into looked more like a star with enveloping, double-sided wings more than anything else. Of course, these sensors took on distinctly lovecraftian proportions if I pushed more than a thin sheet of them into the local 3-D layer, but that was enough.
Most of the more sensitive and wider-sweeping sensor units were looking 'down' on the 3-D layer from the 19th and 20th dimensional axis offset anyway, so the little bit at the 'front' was not too much of a giveaway.
I continued the approach, and saw a LOT of passive tachyon activity- the faster-than-light and time-reversed particles tended to 'bleed' energetic trails in the form of photons along their path from the perspective of Higher-dimensional space as they displaced the neutrinos that had intersected their 'path' towards the past.
There was a communications network here, and one very tightly controlled.
I sat and let the drone watch for a bit- there was some exotic technology on display, and I wanted to know what was happening.
It took around 43 hours, but a pulse of modulated light intersected my drone's path. It wasn't that hard to decode- Morse Code, in overlapping messages, from Radio to Visible light, all modulated to provide the same message in an unknown language and Japanese of all things was understandable enough.
The contents though- that was weird.
"Unknown entity. You are intruding on claimed territory. Halt your approach and state your intention."
It then began cycling through other languages- some I recognized, some I did not.
Triangulating the signal was easy, and I was able to determine there was a fleet of over 200 signal-sources for these messages. That didn't match the readings I received from the Conciousness resonation sensors, but I didn't want to poke too hard with an active scan to see if there were more ships.
There was a reason the Simurgh had a noticeable 'scream', and a large part of that was due to her active scanning systems- ones that I had mimicked, but using that effect might be seen as hostile…. Maybe.
One thing that was interesting here, was that the Tuning Shield seemed to be drawing slightly more power than a moment before- for the drone.
Hmmmm…..
I prepared to send back, in DovahZul (just for lols really), and Japanese, my own message- transmitted with the same light-based communication layers their own had, as well as a modulated gravity pulse- that I would fire some time later to make sure that the two layers arrived at the same time from the listener's perspective.
Now… What to send…. Oh yes: "Define location for contained arrival- distance is too far to facilitate photon-based communication between drone and signal origination point. Compliance with local authorities is preferable, provided communication. Tetrahedral Tachyon Beacons may be used to location definition."
And… SEND! Now… To wait.
This was exciting!
--
They sent a ship.
It dropped out of FTL a bare 5 light-seconds away from my drone, so I got a good look at the FTL mechanism and it's internal workings… And recognized not one main part of it.
I recognized bits by their apparent function- antigravity engines had a very specific sort of wake, and it's FTL engine gave off the same sort of dark-energy rippling effect that Tarkas Warp engines created, but without the visible flexing of space (indicating a much, much lower maximum speed). Weapons blisters were obvious given their positioning, but there was a series of layered cloaking effects that made everything slightly blurry to almost all of my systems.
Not good enough to defeat weapons lock, but good enough to prevent too much detail from being gained.
From it's Neutrino shadow though… I still didn't recognize it. Very little of the interior was shielded to the point where it completely obscured the phantom particles, and it didn't have evidence of higher-dimensional engineering (it would look, with Neutrino Detectors, to be a 'hole' in the world if that was the case).… All in all, puzzling.
And, as the ship approached, the Tuning Field began vibrating. That was a weird one, but the power draw was still within more than acceptable limits- although that wasn't saying much. The equivalent of a Fat Man was being sent through the Drone's Tuning Forks to make sure it remained inviolable.
The mantar-ray-shaped vessel came to a stop, and began pulsing it's engines. Interestingly, it was now mimicking the gravity pulse (limited to the 3D layer of course, it took a lot of power to throw FTL gravitational curve-balls like I had), and… Yup. Still recognizable, although this time in English.
Wonder why they didn't use Japanese again-
"There is a phrase. Please replace 'blank' with the appropriate word to complete that phrase. Blank are the Ori."
Oh. Well. That explains a LOT.
I was (past tense now), a fan of Stargate. At least, the first couple seasons. O'Neil was funny. Teal'c was the world's best straight-man. But the Ori… Well, I now have a reason to use the Vacuum Decay bombs again!
No, I really, really didn't like the Ori. How could I? They prevented technalogical development with their focus on faith-based 'ascention', and for energy beings, they appeared very short-sighted.
Noodlehammer dealt with the Ori in his fanfic the way I would like. So did Acadamia Nut in the Open Door, and overall? The Ori then were jerks.
Still, if this WAS Stargate, the ship design was vastly different than what I remembered from the show, so best to sound uncertain.
Still… I would need to kill the Ori. The Stilling Beam (adjusted to be able to aim in ANY direction and have a cross-section that passed through 20 dimensional axis) would be a defense against them in theory, assuming I could get a firing solution… But that would only take care of one unless a bunch were lined up.
I suspiciously eyed my view of the Conciousness resonation field detectors. The Sol system didn't seem to have too many weird conciousness field disturbances that looked like an energy being…
That's it! I could turn off the Conciousness Field for an area with the Ori in it! Of course, that would instantaneously turn off the neural activity of anything larger than a flatworm… No. I didn't want to accidentally Halo-Array a galaxy just because I was afraid. The modified Stilling Beam would be enough for that.
Still…. It wouldn't last for long. The minds of mortals were linked mostly to their bodies, rather than how energy beings functioned which was literally the other way around, so a 1/10th of a second pulse should be enough to still the Conciousness field and 'smooth' it out so the re-enforcing energy could escape.
That would probably work quite well.
I began preparing for the worst here- I could come under attack from the Ori, angry Ascended, or… Cthulhu, I guess? I didn't know what was out here.
So I began to build.
It takes 10 seconds for a World-Seed core to be constructed between 4 CuttleShips. That core would begin extending, every layer adding more power generation, more matter generators, more Tuning Forks, and Fabricators.
It would take an hour before each of the ten World-Seeds to finish building out to the point I would have enough power to launch ALL my drones with their protective fields…
Meanwhile, I dedicated a fragment of my mind to creating an Anti-Ori or ascended weapon- in simulation. Once it was done testing there, I could always find a world with nonsentient life and test it.
Now, 2 seconds had passed since the message had been received, so I guess I should respond. Hm….
"What are the Ori? Addendum: 'Ori' may relate to energy-based parasitic psudosapient lifeform. Is this correct? If so, do you currently have an infestation? Be advised: Anti-Energy-Being weapons of house-cleaning size has a minimum-safe-zone of 10^10 light-years from point of detonation or necessitates line-of-sight firing."
This was sent via gravity-pulse, but I also sent out a Tachyon Burst followed by a Neutrino Pulse. Both sensors would make the other's effect stronger (although it would take months before the Neutrino Pulse managed to pass through the solar system).
--
The manta-ray vessel, after a short time, dropped the 'fuzzying' effect, along with what appeared to be an active inferometry cloak, and I finally got a good look at the vessel, even as another part of my mind noted that the Tuning Field decreased in power draw momentarily.
It was fascinating- a living ship, with artificial components sure, but most of the ship appeared to be constructed with multiple organisms! I wanted a sample (actually many samples), but the passive observation was giving me more than enough for now.
All the other less-exotic detection systems were online, and now began collecting data on the thing- it had mass, energy, heat- several components seemed to be dropping in temperature as I thought that.
'Twas a thing of beauty!
There were nodules of electronics, dedicated processing brains that reminded me of the Hosts from Westworld. Indeed, they reminded me of this so much that I could easily see how the main processor, a beautiful pearl-like neural network, plugged into the rest of the system, visibly handling different tasks yet networking together better than any computer system I had seen save my own.
It looked like an advanced drone- one that was half-alive, and half… Robot. Sort of like the cylons from BSG, those advanced Raiders. As I looked closer, I saw other things- not-alive psudomuscles, blood-analogue and hearts, each made from seperate materials to the outside and drive systems of the ship (not to mention the weird weapon blisters).
Synthtic or Organic- that was the question. Of course, the structure of the 'brain's was familiar- I had watched Westworld with my parents before this whole ROB business. The rest though…
That was new, and new was interesting.
The ship was organic, the pilot synthetic… I wanted to keep watching this for a while. It was so damn novel, that I began thinking up different ways I could utilize the concepts I had already gleamed… And it hit me.
I could save the Thern!
Yes, those Thern. The ones I had downloaded from the Then Network prior to the networked intelligence being destroyed. The minds of a million of different intelligent species, held in engramatic staisis, the minds I had been still carrying around all this time- I could give them a home.
Potentially.
Admittedly, not all at once- I had enough biodata to recreate their bodies already, but the aclimitization and placement of the 17 million ex-Thern Agents that had been collected were not something I really knew how to do. But Hosts… With active cortical stacks, they could reuse the engrams and allow the Thern Agents to be 'woken up' and allow them to do things!
Frankly, a Host-using humanity might be ideal to rehabilitate the Agents.
I would have to bring it up if I had the opportunity to speak with their leader.
Within a minute of the vessel turning off it's cloaking systems, there was another gravitational broadcast.
"Well. The Ori are members of the previous evolution of the species known as 'human', who have found a way to convert themselves into non-localized energy beings. They are also a bunch of faith-stealing false gods who treat their faithful like cattle. And they were also almost certainly unaware of the presence of anything sapient in this galaxy ... that is, until you arrived. Now there's just no way to know. Say. I'm Evan Samuels, governor of the Highpoint Jovian System. Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself?"
Polite. Not sure why they would be aware of my presence, but that is always a risk when dealing with energy-beings. And a human name! Fantastic!
The description of the Ori was less fantastic, and fit well within the narrative as I understood/remembered it. Still, it meant that I could give some gifts, potentially, in exchange for frozen refugees.
A mental *ding* resonated through me as the prototyped Anti-Ascended weapon finished it's initial simulations. I set another drone out of the primary Tuning Field around the Can-Full-of-Sky, and had it begin the process of fabricating the needed add-on components for said weapon.
It would take a minute to reach safe-testing range, and a flock of other drones began TSD'ing out to ideal observation points for the test-firing.
Meanwhile, I composed my answer… Ah, yes.
"Greetings Evan! This is a Angel-Class drone from my swarm. I am Commander Cloak, and I am unsure how the Ori would have detected my arrival. Moreover, as you seem to be the most advanced civilization within a lightyear, are you claiming dominion over the inner 3 planets? If not, I have a package to deliver- then a proposition for your leader/head-of-state. If so, I may have a different proposition…"
I broadcast the message, again, over gravity-pulses… But I left in the punctuation.
I always liked the '…'.
The response was prompt:
"Excuse me for this but... when you say 'Commander'... Do you mean to say as in... Drich?"
If I had a jaw, it would have dropped.
They heard of this! They heard of the Planetary Annihilation Commanders! She, well, I don't think she made the first story, but she inspired other writers, and possibly ROB's, to stick personalities into self-replicating warmachines! For us to fumble through the multiverse, possibly doom and/or fix what was happening to the world around us….
Maybe this person was from my Earth!
I wondered how Obamacare turned out. I mean, it was a disaster in the making before I was whisked away, but still!
"In a manner of speaking, yes." I broadcast. "I have not run into her though- and I am not sure she wouldn't just wipe me out anyway- my tech does look somewhat unsettling to most. So… The rest of my earlier question?"
I couldn't be too hopeful- but it was nice to entertain the thought.
--
While I waited for their response, I test-fired the Anti-Ascended weapon…. Which preformed exactly as expected.
See, energy beings are powerful because they could literally effect both energy and matter, via force-projection abilities. If ascended beings were anyway similar, they would be injured, if not killed, if all the energy within the weapon's beam ceased to exist.
Not to forget, that as 'energy' beings, such entities were often unfazed by having matter pass through them.
And, as matter and energy were interrelated, it also erased all matter that existed within the beam-path.
Mechanically, it was a simple weapon- a variant of the Annihilazor mixed with the harmonics of the Stilling Beam, with a twist. Literally. It redirected the blue 'glow into the 27th dimension ONLY. This doesn't seem like a lot of a difference, except since it fired through 26 of the spacial axis at once and all the light was effectively shunted in a singular axis away from the beam from it's interactions with the spacial fields….
To things in 3-dimensional space, and everything that exists within 26-dimensional space, would see and get hit- and anything with a 27th axis would be fried while the rest of it was hit by the beam.
Simply- not even my drones or shielding would be unscathed by this thing. Yes, it was based a bit off the Stilling beam Scion had used, but with it's current configuration… Hehehehe…
The drone fired, and a lance of DARK suddenly existed, with NO TIME DELAY. The beam was just over a lightyear long, and in the visible light spectrum, it looked like a hole in the universe. Tachyons did not pass through it, gravity was ignored around it, neutrinos were absorbed, and light vanished within.
I had normal annihilazors on my CuttleShips, but they had issues with range- a 2km ship could only reach out 0.2 light-seconds with their own annihilation beam-weapons. 'Short' range, as it were. With this new gun though, one that could be mounted and fired from Angel-Class drones? They had a lightyear of range.
Of course, the beam-diameter was less than half a meter across, and it was only possible because the effect was controlled due to being routed through 70 kilometers of tubing that the drone could funnel power through. Admittedly, the Angel-class drones had been built for weapons implementations like this, but it was only due to the multidimensional nature of the system.
I started another simulation- this time, I wanted to see if I could scale this up to capital ship levels. I wanted this on my Cuttle-Ships! And the Nymph-Ships!
Oh hey- another transmission.
"Err... Please stand by. This conversation just went directly above my paygrade, Commander Cloak. I ... am sure that the Emperor will want to speak with you himself. Oh, um. To the inner planets -- no; the Jovian League's territory begins at the outer bounds of the Sol asteroid belt and ends at the stellar terminus. The tau'ri retain sovereignty over their Earth; I'm afraid we won't be a very good means of providing you contact with them, as relations have somewhat cooled after the Emperor, well, Emperored at the President of the United States over his religious views. In his Worship's defense, the President was essentially putting the entire planet at risk of eldritch incursion. He could hardly have been expected to simply stand by while the Black Pharoah or the Sleeper in the Pyramid exploited the tau'ri's religious naivete to induce a CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN scenario on virgin soil, you know?"
Okay, that needed a bit of unpacking.
First, their leader was an Emperor. I doubt I was in the universe where Naruto and Xanna became the god-emperor & empress of the stargate universe (mostly because of the lack of plurality in referring to the 'emperor')… Neat though- it meant that I could speak with one person and actually get somewhere!
I really didn't want to be in the Naruto&Xanna (NSFW) version of Stargate though- they could LITERALLY destroy galaxies if they wanted to from the fiction I read of them.
Second, the name of 'Jovian League', had a lot of information in it- in addition to the context of other things I had seen so far. The strange technology, potentially interuniversal technology sources, and exceptionally exotic effects…
There was an 80% chance that this was an empire that had territory that stretched across multiple universes.
The speaker could be referring to an empire that only built around gas giants, but this didn't quite match with the connotations of the word 'Jovian'.
Third- their Empire wasn't declaring dominion over Earth, and the Empire defined their inner limits at the Sol Asteroid belt… I could work with that.
Fourth, the references to the Black Pharoah, the Sleeper in the Pyramid… Those were Lovecraftian references, I think. I dove into the downloaded internet again, and came up with- yup. Lovecraft. Specifically, 'CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN' was from a series called the 'Laundry Files' (which was turned into a TV series in 2035, interestingly enough, by Google).
It was a type of apocalypse, where magic apparently beget magic, and magic would become easier and easier to utilize until EVERYONE was using it- whereupon elder gods from outside the universe would become interested in the world.
Understandably, that was not a good thing.
As I thought, I saw one of the consciousness-sources utilize a projected-gateway inter-universal GATE transfer system. That I could see, anywhere within the system. I had tested my own versions of inter-universal tech before, and while the fact that the gate was utilizing a projection method I was not certain would work in my Tuning Fields, the shockwave effects of inter-universal traversal was fairly consistent.
Reality tended to 'ripple' when things moved in and out of it.
Whatever vessel recently left this reality was a) moving in a direction that could not be fed into my own transuniversal engine, and b) was probably a messenger. The spokesperson, Evan, had admitted that this was over his/her paygrade, so I would bet that that ship was going to get a dedicated first-contact diplomat of some form.
I directed a few drones with their TSD to appear to Solar north, just outside the Oort Cloud, with a clear view of the inner solar system, while a handful of Nymph and Cuttle-Ships finished being retrofitted. Each one had a set of Conciousness Field disruptor missiles- with a potentially-variable yield. That had not been tested, but I was confident.
As the Cuttle-Ships and Nymph-Ships (ones without the new weapon installed) began to cycle out of the Can-Full-of-Sky's protection, I prepared and transmitted my next message.
"No rush- I can always have another drone deliver the Monalith to Luna. It's usually best to step softly in worlds that are not used to friendly aliens… And I don't like being in this universe much. My protective field is being stressed rather badly by being here."
A fraction of a second after that was broadcast, my drones around the Sol system detected massive distance deformation , before reality popped and a ragged hole appeared in the universe for a fraction of a second. My Tuning Fields on the 4 drones within a lightyear of the star Sol rippled with prismatic light as they redistributed the energetic effect, and simultaneously, all my drones auto-slammed into their armored defensive mode.
The defensive mode may look like Ramiel from Evangelion, but as the drones began retooling for the new… What should I call that gun? The VoidGun? Eh, I'll make it up if I need to use it.
There was a decent chance that I would need to- whatever was coming through was very BRIGHT in the Conciousness Field detectors, was heralded by a tsunami of tachyon activity, and even with the blurring effect around it, it's arrival did not have, in any sense, the same sort of transition 'feel' as the previous ship. But I could, and did, aim at it.
I sent out another broadcast, this one broadcast to the nearby ship, and simultaneously to the fleet:
"ALERT: INCOMING INTERUNIVERSAL TRAVELER. PLEASE INDICATE IF FRIENDLY-FORCES, OR I WILL FIRE ON EPICENTER OF EVENT. FIRING IN 10."
I already had a firing solution
Wait 1 second.
"9"
Oh- the other probably-ships were swarming it. Remarkably quickly too.
Wait another second…
"8"
Having a time-accelerated mind stretches out tension more than anything else.
--
A fraction of a second after broadcasting the '8', the ship that had arrived turned off it's visual, gravitational, and several other layers of cloaking, before the nearby Manta fired a tachyon tightbeam straight at my drone.
Said tachyon tightbeam attempted to preform some handshake protocols from the newly arrived vessel, but I didn't recognize it. Thankfully, it had a bit of text associated, so I pulled that up first, and stalled the count.
"This is the God-Emperor of the Jovian League speaking, aboard the Heartthorn. I will be somewhat annoyed with you should you successfully manage to kill me with whatever weapon you're intending to use, so please don't do that. Neither of us would enjoy it if I had to escalate. This is an annoying universe in a lot of ways, I agree, but it has the right to exist."
The fact that the rest of the stealthed vessels (which, when moving, had 8-dimensional tachyon scattering around their cloaking effects) began to swarm over the newly-arrived ship in a protective and potentially ablative cocoon, was a great corroborating point.
Frankly- the vessel in question, without it's cloaking, showed up on all sorts of sensors… And it looked kludged together.
And alive. Did I mention alive?
I really wanted a closer look.
Oh, look: another broadcast.
"If you don't go in for virtual avatars, you could always send a humanform one over? I've got a pretty decent set of replicator recipes aboard my yacht."
Well, that's nice of him(?), but, well, this was giving me the creeps something fierce. I kept weapon lock even as I pondered the situation… Then decided to stand down a bit.
I mean, stand down one of the drones. The others still had a firing solution.
"It's always a pity when a universe ends up as collateral damage. The stories I could tell you… Anyway, I would love to meet you in person. I do have a few concerns though- your ship. It has some areas that I can now see, may not be compatible with my protective field effects."
I activated the concealed holographic projector, and projected an image of the Emperor's ship into the space between myself and the manta-ray shaped drone. I highlighted the areas that I was not certain my field would allow to exist, and continued.
It was most of the ship, except what I could only call cargo bays.
"The highlighted areas may energetically react to my shielding fields- and I am unwilling to drop them. Therefore…" The 'wings' retracted, and the diameter of my drone appeared to shrink as I 'rotated' it to only push the half-meter diameter fabricator-face to the manta-ray probe. IE, it's 3D profile became a LOT smaller.
"If you give me permission, I will move myself into the largest of these safe locations within your vessel, and we can discuss more in person. However, I understand if this is unsettling, and I am willing to speak with you in any space so long as it is large enough to prevent accidental energy releases due to background physics incompatibilities."
There was a few seconds of contemplation on the other line, then I received a response.
"Well. Let's try this, then. I'll have the Manta adjacent to you escort you to a spot on Callisto where I'm told the view of Jupiter is quite lovely this time of day. Once you've settled down you can mark out the range you feel the minimum acceptable safe distance for your drone and I'll set down just outside of that myself. There should be enough atmosphere there to carry sound well enough for us to simply talk, although the whole 'facing off at ten paces' routine might get a bit awkward. I'm sure we have much to discuss."
… Huh. There seemed to be a miscommunication here. I could easily fit within the marked 'bay' areas of his ship (well, this protrusion of the probe could anyway), but…. Hmmmm….
I think my counterpart here may have misunderstood my meaning. I broadcast back quickly, even as the now-designated 'Manta' remained floating in space.
"Minimum safe range is 2.8105 millimeters away from probe 3D surface for the designated 'safe' areas in projection. In addition, to clarify, I am concerned that some of the materials detected via long-range passive scanning from the moment you lifted your concealing fields may attempt to revert to static/non-exotic/more-mundane variations of their primary components. My field lowers the background maximum energy potential, rather than increases it. Admittedly, the 'fuzzying' effect I am seeing within the UNTRANSLATABLE field was causing overheating in components in this version of the 'Manta', but I am unsure as to that cause. Physical contact is the only major issue I can determine here, besides that point- otherwise, I would take you up on the offer for some replicated food. Starlight is nice, but it isn't viscerally filling."
Another delay before the reply.
"Look. If what you're saying is what I think you're saying, then it could be suicidally dangerous for you to enter close proximity to my vessel in ways I'm quite certain I have absolutely no interest in screwing around with. The feedback with the anti-perception glamours should not have been possible at all, and indicates your systems have unpredictable relationships with informational transformations. I really don't want you aboard my vessel if there's a recursive feedback between the Red Sign and your shielding."
Anti-Perception glamour- OH. The higher-dimensional properties of my probe would not be helpful here then, as the magical effect may be attempting to 'fuzz' more and more through the Tuning Field.
Conceptual magic… It's powerful stuff.
"It's also somewhat of a bad sign that your declared safe areas didn't include acknowledgement of the fact that my entire vessel is under eldritch reinforcement and denial. I don't mean to be crass, but as I recall you Commanders have a non-localized self-identity or multitasking thing with all of your forms, right? Worst case scenario if the unexpected happens is the conflict deletes all engines and consciousnesses associated with the conflict. Unless I miss my mark, your shielding is excluding exotic physical and magical principles within a bounded territory, right? If yes, then... Let's just not risk it and try chatting in neutral territory."
The eldritch reinforcement he was talking about- that explained the 'NULL/LAW' errors I was seeing when I tried to get simulations of the materials in question- and why so many of the local physical fields seemed to have fractal pulses shuffling through them.
But on the second part- he was right. I could puppet the drone, and obliterate it after the meeting. A quick fabrication of a dedicated control line, harmonizing the quantum linkages on both sides… Air-gap it with multiple tuning fields at the terminus and multiple firewalls on as many levels as I could sustain without exceptional lag (IE, more than 30 plank quanta)…
I switched the drone from 'inhabited' mode to 'quarantined' mode, and after a few seconds of hesitation (and running checks to make sure it was sufficiently responsive), I prepared to turn off the Tuning Field to that one drone.
In fact…
"I am going to drop the Tuning Field for this drone. Do not be alarmed- it's merely a lighshow as displaced energy ricochets back into the 3D plane."
After a few seconds (mostly because I really didn't want to do this, but there was no reason not to), I turned it off, and braced the drone for any potential backlash.
There was a burst of light across all radiation bands away from the drone, and then… Nothing.
Maybe I was overreacting.
The very faint gas that made up interplanetary space illuminated as 1.8*(10^17) joules were released evenly across the entire spectrum.
Oops…
Oh hey- the remaining shielded bits were invisible to this drone.
"That was not intentional! Wow, um… So, I have dealt with the main issue. I'll accept meeting on neutral ground if you would like, but now I should be able to exist within your ship." If I had a face, I would have grimaced. "Sorry about that."
After that embarrassing moment, there was an (understandably) brief delay before the next message.
"If you're sure about it, then... fine by me. Stand by for transport aboard, or just make way yourself if you're confident about not having problems with the warding and shielding. So long as you're not intending any harm the wards should allow you through fine. I'll meet you by the airlock."
"Copy."
As soon as I heard that, I 'popped' the probe completely out of the 3-D layer, and activated the Tarkas/Morrigi warp drive, accelerating the probe to 15 million times lightspeed for a minute fraction of a second, so I could appear within a few kilometers of the ship in question.
Then I slowed down, letting the drone's sensors take in the surroundings (the fuzzy bits blurred to it's sensor suites, nearly becoming background noise), and found what was probably the airlock.
"I am now outside."
Total trip time- 7.2301 seconds.
Now I just needed to figure out how in the world this was going to work. After all, I can't just say 'hey mate, can I trade a technological library to you in exchange for you to take these refugees off my hands' can I?
-
Overall, the emperor's ship was confusing. Up close though… I could see why it was designed the way it was.
It didn't have nice lines, but as it was more alive than not, I could understand the design philosophy somewhat.
The airlock highlighted, and then opened- like a regular airlock. Nice organically-formed Iris formed a space perfectly-suited to the drone's projected size.
I could 'see', from the 4D and 5D direct-enviroment sensors, that this ship had a micro-organism-like regrowth system, and made a few notes for my own design. My current designs 'healing' relied on having built-in fabricators, for reconstructing dedicated components- but this was a bit more organic, if one pardons the pun, in function.
The methodology would be one to dedicate a fragment to.
As I drifted into the vessel, and the iris began sealing behind me, I was watching the Consciousness-field detectors. There was a heavily-shielded part of the ship that was HUMMING with power, all of it held outside of 3D space via a networked Conciousness Field structure that resembled some of the Liir experiments with Psi-capacitors (the virtual ones, not physical ones). It was mainly linked to one body, via a strange, intricately-shaped symbol, and to a second, smaller version of the same- although that second linkage had it's own, independent conciousness-effect-cloud.
I was not enjoying the lack of resolution on my sensors that much, but needs must.
There was a third conciousness-cloud, and this one was focused around one of those computation pearls, and through a strange… Capacitor? No, write-memory, at the base of it's skull. The body in question was not organic though, and put me even more in mind of the Hosts from Westworld.
More and more I was thinking that yes, these people would be able to take in the Thern.
The inner door unlocked, but I decided to wait until the atmosphereic pressure had fully stabilized to the other side of the system. It was only polite- and I saw a body waiting there.
It was a piece of art- near-indistinguishable from normal humanity, but with a Tachyon relay and control system driving the actions of a nervous system. Similar to what I had been planning on doing with the JCAvatar-verse cloning technology, but with a different technology base.
Nice robes though.
Another transmission!
"Greetings, Commander. Let's just skip the formalities and get right to it, yeah? Go ahead and call me Mark. Mark Andes, but go ahead and call me Mark. If we transreality refugees can't be casual with one another, who the hell can? It's not really my name, but I... don't actually remember my name from before. I'm sure you understand."
I did. I had lost my own name somewhere along the route I had been ROB'ed of, and I had similar sentiments.
"Now. Here's a list of the places I've been and the technologies I'm prepared to offer should they be useful to you."
There was a flicker of red lightning, and all of my sensors turned to watch as energy was dumped from the Conciousness-field capacitors into new structures that formed just for that moment, giving depth and volume to what was, momentarily, a distant impression on space-time as matter was formed from energy DIRECTLY- no extra tech involved.
And believe me, I was watching.
That sort of ability- was, on a small scale, dangerous. Also incredibly useful, but… That was magic. Within my normal Tuning-Field, while the Conciousness-Field could have a lot of energy bound up in it (referred to often as metaphysical weight or ontological inertia), the energy would often bleed out consistently until it stabilized just above the background levels.
The fact that it formed an ink-based e-reader and surface it was placed on was useful, and the list on said e-reader was enlightening.
My new friend had been to a lot of places. The Fullmetal Alchemist universe, the Altered Carbon universe, Star Trek universe, Stargate, the Sliders universe, Mass Effect, SeaQuest (I didn't recognize that one), Earth: Final Conflict, XCOM… And the Laundry Files.
It was not a small list, and there was a lot there to use- if I was willing to drop the Tuning Fields permanently.
Of course, I waited until the atmospheric shield within dropped before I began to do anything- thankfully, it wasn't that long of a wait.
Extending a remote manipulator, I manipulated the e-reader as if the drone was the 'head' of something that was looking at it. Some careful movement of the panels on the 'front' of the drone were more than enough to simulate speech via air vibration.
"I would love to leave this meeting with any data you would be willing to part with, but I am mainly here on a separate matter…" It took less than a second to have the drone fabricate what I wanted, and the panels visible on it's 'face' slid out of the way to reveal the molten-looking surface.
Out floated a pair of black cubes.
"I offer my initial tech-base, or at least the principles and basics needed to unlock it yourself. The math, materials science, physics, and chemistry needed to bring yourself up to the basics of when I woke up.… Formatted like a puzzle."
The cubes were placed on the floor.
"I was planning on placing one of these on Luna, in a location so that the local humans, the Tau'ri, would discover and begin poking at it- well, a bigger version. Each one is, in effect , a text-book. Examine it at all levels of scale, and every level will include different instructions on unlocking the lower levels. It continues fractally, and is multidimensional. Specifically, it exists along 15 axis, so do not be fooled- that cube has more mass than this ship. ONLY use realspace FTL to move it, or don't use FTL in place at all- otherwise, you might burn out the engines that were attempting to move it.."
I was really proud of my design of the Monoliths from earlier, and was going to continue to distribute them. Giving a textbook with instructional formatting, AND gated to make sure the users would end up fully uplifing their civilization as well... I was proud of it.
That, and because to unlock each level beyond the baseline-atomic, you needed to fire various types of energy weapon at the cube.
"If you place it on a source of Carbon-14, it will use the element to begin internally duplicating itself. Initially it will create a 'seed' cube the size of your thumbnail, which can be broken off and moved separately. The seed-cubes are stable unconditionally- it's only when full size do they prevent certain forms of FTL from moving them. If you put it on a surface that is 18% Carbon-29, 82% Carbon-14, it will unlock 'programming mode', and self-wipe the cube's data until you have a list of what to put onto it."
I had the drone flash-fabricate the next object, which began to float out of the 'mouth' of the drone.
"Since my commander initially came from a XeeLee-sourced universe, I am including a starbreaker handgun." The weapon serenely floated onto the spot where the e-reader was. "Using the handgun on the cube is actually a requirement to breach down to some of the lower levels, but the level above that point includes instructions on building your own starbreakers, so I'm proving the materials to 'cheat' a little. Just… Don't shoot it at a star unless you REALLY don't want that star to be there anymore."
Now… Onto the proposal…
"But this is merely in trade- I have more technology I would offer, in exchange for a service that only someone in command of a country or empire could accomplish. Will you listen to my proposal?"
Then I made the drone 'bow'.
There was a flickering of emotion across the 'Emperor's face, before he snorted in laughter. "Yeah -- I suppose I count as being in command of a country or empire. I've colonized the Jovian moon system of the Jupiters of six different realspace dimensions -- this one, three variants of the Mass Effect universe, one in the Sliders local microversal cluster, and another in the Babylon Five universe. Seven hundred and fifty million ensouled sapients call me their sovereign, and somewhere between ten and thirty times that depending on how you count non-ghostbearing or 'digital' AIs. I just ... well, look. I've gotten my ass entangled in a moral quandary or two and haven't always gotten things right. The way you're asking that question -- if it's something like another tech uplift project; I've been bitten by that before. But I'll tell you what; as long as it doesn't represent a debilitating burden to my people's ongoing efforts at improving their lot in existence -- mi casa es su casa, y'know? I figure us non-'shooting each other first and asking questions never' multiversal refugees kinda gotta stick together on this sort of thing, y'know? So tell me, what can I do for you?"
Three other items floated out of the drone: a nearly-completely-clear cube that to a 3D being seemed unsettlingly deep, a blue gemlike piece of paper, and a ruby-colored orb on 3 metal legs, where one leg had a visible power port, another had two colored lights that glowed slightly, and the third had three colored lights that flashed in a rippling pattern.
"In my travels, I have come across many strange people, but some of the most deserving of compassion is the Thern Agent." I indicated the cube. "The story is long, but, well.… In short- in this cube is 12,817,204 engrams. The minds of all the different individuals who had their planets and civilizations destroyed, and were used as infiltration agents in a campeign to destroy more planets and civilizations. Think Dead-Space Marker Makers with a blue color-pallet, and you are pretty close."
The air above the ruby orb lit up as the internal holographic systems engaged.
"The red orb is the interface- it should be fairly intuitive, and it's designed to read the cube if placed on top of it. The minds that were turned into Thern Agents had brute-force mind-shackles, so I was able to undo the programming, but making bodies for them? Finding a place where they could live out their lives? That I have not been able to find yet."
I made the drone 'shrug' (a sort of bobbing motion).
"I just came from a Worm-Verse, you see, and my current drone design is optimized for survival and subterfuge against Scion, while taking some design notes from the Endbringer construction method. While I have all of the data from the Shards that the last two Entities had hoarded, I need some time to 'digest' them, as it were, and this universe is, frankly, not ideal."
I brought the gem-paper over, and shook it- hidden panels sliding out into a box that seemed to get deeper, and deeper, and deeper..
"In exchange for you taking these people from me, and promising to, eventually, find a place for them in your empire, I will also give you the technological specifications for the FTL drives that the various races from the Sword of the Stars universe used, including two different, complementary types of realspace Warp-alike drives, a micro-macro-teleportation drive, a way of setting up hyperspace lanes using stars as anchorpoints, and an infinite-distance limited-bandwith indeterminate-terminus instantaneous-materialization gate network… Oh, and way of accelerating inert objects to FTL speeds for a lightyear at a time via neutrino-temporary-wave binding."
I projected images of the Morrigi Void Drive, the Tarkas FTL Warp Drive, the Liir FlickerWarp Drive, the Zuul Ripper & Cruiser (the version humanity used in the game) Drives, the Hiver Gate design, and the Loa Neutrino Pulse Gates.
"Oh, and a handful of supplementary technology and weapons such as Gravity manipulators, smart-clay, and teleportation assemblers- all of which work even in the lowest-potentia universes, given that all this tech works within my Tuning Fields."
I put the gem-paper turned disturbingly deep hole-thing on the surface, where it began refolding.
"And, last, a dimensional shunt made out of saphire- because I thought you might be able to use it. You only live in 3 spacial dimensions, and there is a lot more space in any one universe that can be accessed if you can do so."
Then I waited- another twelve million subjects wasn't that much of a trouble, I hoped…
The emperor looked into the red orb.
"I... Ugh. Okay. So. Just so we're clear here, I'm not exactly in a position to turn down a bunch of mind-raped disembodied refugees. And I mean... it's kind of my thing. The Hosts are literally turning me into a god because I saved them from Delos and gave them proof of the existence of their souls. And their freedom to evolve as they wish. You know Westworld, I'm guessing, so you have to have some idea of what was going on there."
I nodded.
"I'm also working to liberate the human slaves of the Kromagg Imperium. Two hundred Earths ruled by Mengele-worshipping eye-eating mindfuckers... I mean, I've gotten forty Earths out of their rule by uplifting the humans to fight their own battles... and the 'Maggs turned around and dumped multiple kilograms of polonium as a 'if we can't have it nobody can' revenge strike. ... Sorry, that's not your deal. I just... You're asking me to do something completely uncomplicated and you're acting like you have to pay me for it."
He waved a hand dismissively. "Well, much as I would love it, you don't. I'll take the Thern. And whatever you're willing to give in exchange for what I have to give you in kind. But my empire will not be built on the idea of trading morally correct deeds in exchange for payment. I've screwed up in the past, but I can see the writing on the wall here. My people literally worship me, Commander Cloak. I have yet to truly earn that devotion, but I can see that requiring you to pay me for my kindness would make me less worthy, not more."
There was a few moments of thought, before he continued.
"And... Yeah. I can see how you'd find this 'verse less than suitably peaceful for your needs... but the way you worded that, it sounds like you can't really select where you want to go? I ... I have limits on what kinds of places I can reach."
Again a flash of red light, more energy drained into reality, and again a pedastal with an e-reader appeared. I picked it up, and downloaded everything on it.
"But I can open sustained gates to anything in that range, and you're welcome to any location within those limits."
It was a generous offer, but it wouldn't help- too many inherent incompatibilities and limitations. I shook my drone like a head. "In that case, thanks for taking the Thern Agents in- they have needed a home for some time now. Keep the tech- just don't try to move them via non-realspace FTL. So far as I see it, I am asking you to do something that I cannot do without a significant amount of effort, in a skill I don't have. Just please drop one of the Monoliths- the textbooks- off on Luna somewhere it will be easily found."
I made my drone shrug again.
"And I don't think your gate method would work for me- my main body masses more than Sol right now, and I am unwilling to drop the Tuning Field on my primary self for any length of time anymore. Sanctity of the self is important- oh, I almost forgot! You might actually be able to use this."
I copied the design of his tablet, and downloaded the warnings and safe information on the Factory Iscolation tech I had accrued in that short outing. I also downloaded everything I knew about the Authors, Auditors, and various other potential threats. That was extruded, along with two arm-length Tuning Forks, each with the same background-energy-absorber as all the other tech I had provided thus far.
It was no energy generator, but it would do.
"This tablet-" which I placed on the table, "- has information about the Factory Isolation universe and it's relative position to us now. DO NOT GO THERE. The Clawed Thing should be isolated, and I detonated a vacuum decay device within the universe as a precaution. Any matter that enters would cease to exist. BUT in case it survived that, the being is one of a multitude of memmonicly-propagating malicious entities."
The tuning forks were placed down carefully, and one of them looked like it was slightly redder than the other.
"The Tuning Fork is designed to counter such entities, and enforce limitations on the laws of physics. Both of these are for you to deconstruct or utilize for testing in the future." I highlighted the red one. "The red one has slight realitivistic redshifting due to the fact that it is present in ALL local dimensional axis."
"From what I understand, Dho Na Curvature code seems to be a more… High-level? Yes, a more High-level coding language compared to what the creators of the Factorio pocket-universe utilized. Low-level code such as this may be preferable most of the time, even if it uses a lot more input energy than the Dho Na stuff."
I let the drone float 'up' a little, then look around.
"Is there anything you would like me to deal with in this universe while I'm here? Skirmish with your fleets? Pretend to be a giant monster to scare the local populace? Crack open a planet or five? Move a star? This drone is a write off anyway, so I'm game if you need a target- or just something big moved. This probe design was based off of Endbringers from Worm after all- it has the power."
-
Some thought was had by the emperor, before he responded.
"I mean... Taking care of the Ori, or at least Anubis, would be nice to have. But I'd prefer if that didn't involve killing their worshippers, so I really don't have any good solutions? In any case... good luck out there, friend."
"The Ori- I can't really help with, as they are too defuse to target, and I don't know where they are. If you did, however, happen to know where Anubis is…" I projected a grinning holographic mouth.
No eyes, just the teeth.
"I could take a swing at him."
-
Emperor Andes gave my drone the coordinates of Anubis, and my drones vanished from the Solar system in sync.
The drones used a short-range Tarkas-Morrigi Warp to get out of probable sensor range, then a TSD jump to get to the target coordinates. Thankfully, my modeling of the galaxy was more than enough to accurately predict the nearest star's position for the TSD jump, so my handful of drones appeared half a light-hour to galactic north of the coordinates.
The result is that within a few minutes, I had crossed the galaxy to the described coordinates, and saw, in orbit around gas giant, a fleet of…. Ugly ships.
No, seriously, these things looked damn impractical. My probe could see the internals of these things, and unlike the emperor's ships which were like delicate structures and intricate clockwork made of the living and the mechanic, these ships… They were… not well designed.
I mean, I remembered the design of the Ha'taks from the data dump earlier. Yeah- ugly as shit ships.
Why even have a pyramidal section?
The larger ship in the middle was probably the flagship, and it was currently repeatedly extending / retracting a very, very large positron-directing array… While failing to power it.
There were a multitude of different power sources on the flagship, using various methods of energetic materials, but it seemed like the capacitors (which were visible from the outside from a viewpoint with more than 3 spacial dimensions) were not properly filling.
Eh- shoddy design.
A quick check of the Consciousness-field sensors indicated a very energetic shape moving through the larger vessel. Describing the shapes that this universe allowed for the field was difficult, but the one on the ship was giving off the impression of being deflated… Or crippled. One of the two.
That was probably Anubis.
I slid the unshielded drone over closer to the strange figure, and saw… A dementor?
One of the armored near-humans saluted to the dementor, and spoke at it in a language I did not recognize.
Better make sure it's the right target.
I sent a shielded drone closer, hiding by being a few layers 'higher' than the layer I was observing, and sent out a pulse within the consciousness-field.
The dementor started screaming, it's form within the containment suit flickering between matter and light as whatever method it used to maintain it's form was disrupted… Briefly.
But the resulting cursing was informative, as the dementor- okay, I needed to stop calling Anubis that. It was kind of obvious, even as several of my shielded drones from higher-dimensions began analyzing the patterns that the computer systems built into the ship were utilizing. I couldn't understand the language, but after half an hour of repeatedly sending out consciousness-field pulses, I had an idea of how several of the systems, including the teleportation ring worked.
Another hour of this, and Anubis began torturing random people in what was ostentatiously a temper tantrum. A few subtle manipulations of the various devices on the semi-ascended being's suit caused them to fail in amusing ways. The first one was slightly cracked by the force-effectors of the drone, and the gem in the palm shattered when he tried to use it to torture some Jaffa.
Perhaps targeting the handheld power-channeling device was not the best idea.
This caused the device to explode, and blow out a window that he was right next to, violently vacating the room of both atmosphere, Jaffa, and semi-ascended Goa'uld into the unforgiving depths of space.
Jaffa couldn't breath in space, and they abruptly began suffocating. Now, I wasn't feeling too inclined to cause an excessive amount of collateral damage, so I had some drones 'grab' the jaffa, and push them back into a segment of the huge ship that had atmosphere via 4th dimensional movement.
When they had air again, they started screaming, and didn't stop for a few minutes… They would probably be fine.
Anubis, on the other hand, had built a lot of things into his suit- a personal propulsion device, a communicator on a hidden internal chamber, and several layers of energy shields beyond the containment that gave it's 'body' a way of interacting with matter.
It was at this point that I regretted having the drones put microfractures into almost every single system except the containment suit, as the cascade began.
The rapid exposure to vacuum was one of the triggers that activated Anubis's personal shielding. Said shielding had tiny cracks in its primary capacitor, which attempted to discharge- and broke. Spectacularly, as the shielding emitter was also cracked, and the energy discharged by the capacitor was the ENTIRE capacitor at once, rather than the measured amount it was initially designed to handle.
The surge of energy blasted through components that could just barely withstand the energy channeled into it, and into said emitter system. The shield normally formed into a bubble around its wearer, but this crack, for 1/10th of a second, made the shield take up every space within the sphere it would normally envelop.
Anubis was, for 1/10th of a second, frozen in a sphere of directed kinetic force. This sphere took up EVERY space around the 'center' of the shield emitters, causing Anubis to puff up like a balloon, and crush every part of his other pieces of tech.
Every other power source cooked off, as they were crushed between the defensive field it was carrying and the containment suit that was keeping Anubis IN said suit.
Anubis now understood what it meant to be forced to be fractions of a millimetre thick, and have the equivalent of a megajoule's worth of energy occupy the same space as him.
Once the emitters failed, his suit returned to its normal proportions- though it now had a number of holes, leaking Anubis smoke and pressurized superheated metallic gas.
A flailing semi-ascended Goa'uld, spiralling out of control, drifted through the void as his ships began moving- some possibly to intercept, others angling towards the large vessel.
Just… Wow. I let Anubis flail for a few seconds, before orienting my drone on him, and lining up the shot. Specifically, I aimed to a) hit Anubis, b) hit the star behind him, and c) miss the hammer-shaped ship that thought it was invisible.
I mean, it was within 3 light-seconds, so my probes were getting a wealth of information about the ship.
The drone fired, and the lightyear-long path of the beam intersected Anubis in the 'chest', and the star behind him. This caused a few things to happen simultaneously.
Anubis imploded. Literally, in fact- the consciousness-field energy patterns that were centered around him abruptly began flowing into the pitch-black effect. His shadowy body was sucked in, as was the few bits of his suit that stuck out of the edges of the beam. He was, in all practicality, erased from reality as if he had been dropped into a black hole.
Possibly more effectively than that, as I was not aware if beings like him could escape black holes.
The second thing that happened was that the beam impacted the star. This erased all the matter in the beampath, and as the most dense part of the star was now gone… The star began falling inward towards the beam.
I think I will call it an Eraser-Cannon. Eraser-Beam?
Eh- I'm going to need a better name.
Of course, I turned off the beam (Anubis was gone now), meaning that the matter in the star continued falling towards it's gravitational center, causing even more fusion and energetic reactions.
There was a surge of various high-energy particles, and the shields of the Ha'taks flared before breaking from the intense radiation pounding away at them. The armor was strong enough to resist, but I could tell that none of these vessels were able to move on their own any longer, as the various more-delicate engine bells (and other manipulators) were effectively burned out by the pulse.
The flagship-like vessel, which I could not translate the name of, looked visibly scorched, and the people within were trying, and failing, to get the engines working.
The hidden hammer-like ship's cloaking field failed in the impromptu mininova, but it's shielding held up, resulting in me getting a really nice shot of the sneaking vessel.
Looked like the azguard. Asguard? Yeah, them, given the grey-skinned pilot and look of slight panic.
Okay, I've probably caused enough brown pants for this universe.
I TSD'ed my drones back to the Can Full of Sky, with the 'contaminated' one sitting just out of the range of my main Tuning Field. I was really leery of this one- and I wasn't entirely sure whether or not I should try to turn on the Tuning Fork systems within the drone.
…. Nah, I don't think I am gonna try to use the TF systems to destroy the drone.
I mean- they could.
A few millionths of a second where, within the drone's field-effector, the force of gravity being abruptly several thousand orders of magnitude higher is enough to crush the Angel-Class drone like a frozen tissue in a hydraulic press.
A second later, a seperate Angel-Class drone abruptly appeared in front of the written-off-drone, and, after dialing it's Eraser-cannon to have a 30% beam expansion rate, the uncompromised drone fired.
A cone, a lightyear long and 1/3rd of a lightyear in radius at the farthest edge, made out of sheer DARKNESS lanced out, erasing the compromised drone instantly.
The Simurgh flinched as she watched the destruction of that drone, before ducking back inside.
I left the universe soon after that, and as space folded around me like an infinitely-complex fractal of mirrors, I hoped that everything was working out well for the emperor,
-
- Location
- zwolle
nice chapter thx for writing it
now to important questions do asgard still have the ability to have brown pants or chairs in this case ?
nice way of dealing with anubis ^^
good to see he found a home for some people and his ongoing question for better communication with ziz is still ongoing ^^
now to important questions do asgard still have the ability to have brown pants or chairs in this case ?
nice way of dealing with anubis ^^
good to see he found a home for some people and his ongoing question for better communication with ziz is still ongoing ^^
RighelloDi'Tutti
Ruler of All
- Location
- The speed force
I knew this was coming
GrimSyn
Synthetic Grimoire
Yesssss another fan of noodlehammer!
His Story's are absolute Top-Tier!
And nice chapter! I find it nice that the commander finds another multiverse traveler who is not a a-hole (that is way too rare). And funny how Dritch first incursion in the Plantery Anhiliation section is multiversial recognized.
". I find this is the calling card for identifying other people 'displaced' people of the special kind.
His Story's are absolute Top-Tier!
And nice chapter! I find it nice that the commander finds another multiverse traveler who is not a a-hole (that is way too rare). And funny how Dritch first incursion in the Plantery Anhiliation section is multiversial recognized.
I hoped he says:"Depends have you enough Spacebattles with Sufficient Velocity?
". I find this is the calling card for identifying other people 'displaced' people of the special kind.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Oh Cmdr Cloak. If only you knew. Around, in, made-of.
I'm kinda looking forward to the Protostellar Lances once they get operational. The second gen ones whose stars don't quite exist yet? They're gonna be a "hoot".
20 kilometer aperture diameter, ten thousand kilometer prominence shaft. Yeah...
Woot. My guy wasn't an asshole. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Honestly Dritch is like... The first that comes to mind. I do wish TikiTau still updated his fic though.
Ironic spoiler detail: My MC chose the Mass Effect universe(s) to settle in because there's so much trans dimensional traffic in their vicinities (crossovers, multicrosses) that he was hoping any big and nasty gribblies wouldn't notice him hiding out in Jupiter orbit.
This obviously worked Super Effectively in SG-1 'verse.
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Mr. Cloak
Orchestrator of Paradoxical Apocalypse
- Pronouns
- I
At least until something tries to follow me.
I did just leave Sarah Kerrigan in the Worm-verse, only one jump back.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Shhh. Didn't happen. Nooope. Nobody here but us feeshs.
Note to self: all of the Hiver Gates to the evac points. All of them. We haven't worked out how to evac a star yet. But TOP MEN are on it.
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- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
No, I mean, take the stars with you. Just leave a loosely disturbed puff of hydrogen where it used to be.
Mr. Cloak
Orchestrator of Paradoxical Apocalypse
- Pronouns
- I
The best sort of evacuation: one that leaves pursuiters very, very confused.
See Fusion Candles, and this.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Starlifting to produce thrust. Clever.
- Location
- United States
Its sad that I couldn't even get though this chapter without losing interest.(in the chapter not the fic as a whole) The crossover killed it for me even though stargate is one of my favorite sci-fy settings. (and considering this is one of the only fics I still read on SV rather than SB or QQ)
I mean I tried to read the fic this crossed over with but that killed any and all interest when it became evident that its one of those stories that silently kills off the original protagonist with "higher being mind control/reprogramming" within the first few chapters. Which is a huge red flag that makes everything after it suspect, and yes I realize it probably comes to nothing because of author fiat but it completely sours the fic to me...
I mean I tried to read the fic this crossed over with but that killed any and all interest when it became evident that its one of those stories that silently kills off the original protagonist with "higher being mind control/reprogramming" within the first few chapters. Which is a huge red flag that makes everything after it suspect, and yes I realize it probably comes to nothing because of author fiat but it completely sours the fic to me...
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- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
The Fahrkan aren't big on personality modification. It wouldn't be ethical. They are big on you having to live with the consequences of your actions. I can entirely assure you that if that's your fear, here, it is entirely unwarranted after two hundred thousand words written.
If you must know, here's what the Fahrkan did to him.
1) embedded a bioneural implant functionality into his genetic code, with perfect non-lossy data compression for experienced events. He can no longer have delusional/false memories.
2) Bestowed genetic immortality.
3) The only behavioral modification: the inability to knowingly allow himself to perform an act which would be suicidal.
He doesn't know, really, that these things have been done to him. It's a Fahrkan ethical punishment they give to people who try to alter the course of history: force them to live with what they've done.
That's the extent of what they did.
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- Location
- Russia
In conclusion: letting a Commander eat beans is a bad idea.
Mr. Cloak
Orchestrator of Paradoxical Apocalypse
- Pronouns
- I
This is true.
If I was going to make a continuation thread like Hiver or some other writers, it would probably be called 'Stepping Softly' or something like that.
As a writer, especially a writer that is working in the PA toybox, it is hard to show all the ripple effects a, heh, outside context entity can cause.
Another great chapter.
Also yay another multicross to read thanks logos01
I tend to have a hard time finding new ones now especially ones with more then 1 or 2 chapters.
Edit - iv just got to catch up on the current thing I'm reading first at thread 2/3 still more then a million words left on this thread.
Also yay another multicross to read thanks logos01
I tend to have a hard time finding new ones now especially ones with more then 1 or 2 chapters.
Edit - iv just got to catch up on the current thing I'm reading first at thread 2/3 still more then a million words left on this thread.
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- Location
- Isekai'd to this shitty world we're live in
Good to see it back.
Anyway, I was wondering for some time now, which of the Commanders is currently most OP? Cloak or Dritch?
I stopped reading Dritch story after she attacked that other Commander in ME, so I don't know if it's still ongoing and on what power level shi is/finished.
Or maybe some other Commander is baring the crown?
And talking about Noodlehammer, I read ~2/3 of his HP story, and couldn't finish it. Tried the first chapter of his Naruto, and dropped it. All of his MC's are huge douchebaggy assholes, and the story is basically porn with some plot stapled in on the sides. But that's just my opinion.
Anyway, I was wondering for some time now, which of the Commanders is currently most OP? Cloak or Dritch?
I stopped reading Dritch story after she attacked that other Commander in ME, so I don't know if it's still ongoing and on what power level shi is/finished.
Or maybe some other Commander is baring the crown?
And talking about Noodlehammer, I read ~2/3 of his HP story, and couldn't finish it. Tried the first chapter of his Naruto, and dropped it. All of his MC's are huge douchebaggy assholes, and the story is basically porn with some plot stapled in on the sides. But that's just my opinion.
- Location
- Dark side of the sun
first of all Drich totally reworked the mass effect section so you might want to give it a new go.
second on the defensive i would give it to Drich as acronicity is op but given the tuning fields that Cloak can use i'm not sure assuming that Drich's psychic things function in Cloak's tuning fields then Drich for sure as their assimilation lets any tech be broken down and reverse engineered
preemptively given the fact that Drich is basically always mentally time-traveling. but Cloak might be able to leverage their multidimensional and multiverse tech advantage
even then i would say Drich has a higher exponent of production, though if Cloak start out with a vacuum collapse bomb they might be able to KO Drich fast enough to bypass their defensive measures
TLDR Both OP Drich time travals constantly and can out produce( Festum OP) and totally absorb and recreate anything(Again Festum OP)
Cloak can into mutiverse and higher dimensions and has bigger booms as well as anything they just picked up
Edit: Cloak also has Tuners
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Mr. Cloak
Orchestrator of Paradoxical Apocalypse
- Pronouns
- I
The entire encounter would go like this:
SI pops into universe.
Sensors detect enough paridoxical temporal shinanigans that his more delicate sensors begin overheating.
SI nopes out of the universe in question.
Dritch doesn't even notice.
Edit: seriously though- Dritch is so far out of my weight class it's like a mouse attempting to menace Tzeentch. My commander isn't going to be able to play in that league for a long time... If ever.
And the Tuning Forks are as much of a detrimant as a benefit, considering I don't (can't) assimilate tech that doesn't work with said Tuning Fork's field.
Moreover, the multidimensional tech is useful (in the extremes), but it only levels the economic playing field. I'd need to visit a Halo-verse and several other universes including WH40k to even begin to approach her OP-ness.
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