- Location
- Earth
Whoops. I thought Buggy was being literal a few pages ago when he said the ambush bug chapter was non-canon, didn't think to double check.
With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
- Status
Respite (supplementary, Renegade option)
- Location
- Hampden Park
16th August
17:51 GMT
I float out of the hush tube into near-Emana space, the outline agreement on a datapad under my arm. Regent Alonzo isn't exactly an autocrat, and he needed time to find out precisely what -or rather who- he could offer me. Similarly, since I'm not planning on kicking King Myand'r out of office I'm technically only negotiating on his behalf and unless I want to give the impression that I'm planning to kick him out I will need him to okay this. Regent Alonzo was mostly interested in technical data and intelligence, but the fact that he asked me to include something about expanding our alliance later suggests to me that he at least understands that their shield will be going down in the not too distant future.
There's a flash of orange as Koriand'r transitions into close proximity. Since I didn't want my Lanterns spending the hour losing their focus, I ordered them to monitor specific areas of Emana to see what they were doing, with the sisters monitoring the capital city. I nod as she approaches. "What news?"
"They started to abandon their orbital shipyards a few minutes ago. Ships have been despatched to their mining colonies in this system to bring their citizens back to the planet. It appears that they will comply." I nod. "Would you actually have done it?"
"What, exterminated them?" She nods, clearly uncomfortable. "No. I would have carried out a limited strike against various facilities on their planet, inviting them to reconsider after each attack. And I would have taken as much of the orbital infrastructure by storm as possible, killing whatever workers were present. But I would have stopped well short of wiping the species out." She nods again, somewhat mollified. "Princess, I appreciate that the Branx were less directly involved in what happened to Tamaran than the Citadelians and the Gordanians and less involved in what happened to you than the Psions, but they are a part of the same alliance. The ships that destroyed the Tamaranian navy were designed and built here. A substantial chunk of the naval force that has maintained Citadel control-."
Her face hardens. "You do not need to remind me of those facts."
I nod sombrely. "I apologise. Perhaps if you told me precisely what your concerns were?"
"Citadel Complex was a military installation. All of the people there were warriors." Ignoring the allied tradespeople who ran most of the businesses in the entertainment district, certainly. "I would not hesitate to kill Branx warriors and I would certainly kill adults working in military industries, but I would not agree to simply bombard a planet until it was utterly destroyed."
I nod again. "Did I tell you that I had access to a Psion crèche when I was on the Wombworld?"
She shakes her head, her hair floating gloriously in the vacuum. "You mentioned that you were studying their civilisation, but you did not mention exactly where you went."
"There are peaceful Branx traders, just as there are peaceful Gordanian clans. The Citadelians are… Were, universally brutes, intentionally created as such. I wasn't sure about the Psions. I was on the verge of deciding that it didn't matter, but Mother Box-." She frowns slightly. "My AI. She pointed out that I could be killing good people, or at least people who were no worse than average. So I set out to check."
"What did you discover?"
"It might be possible to rehabilitate them. Maybe. But we can certainly kill all of the adults without being morally troubled by it; their educational indoctrination is very good." I sigh. "But they have children who can probably be taught to not be evil. And I'm… Going to make an attempt, if doing so is reasonably practical."
Koriand'r smiles at me. It's faint and I get the impression that she's somewhat surprised to be directing it at me, but it's there. And I… I feel a little… Good, to be receiving it. Heh. What a remarkable woman: to still feel sympathy for such a people after what she went through.
Attention: message incoming from planetary government.
"Excuse me." I raise my right hand. "Answer."
The same woman's face appears. "Grayven. We are preparing to acquiesce to the majority of your demands."
I nod. "And that's nearly good enough."
"We would like permission to keep the core of our satellite communications network-."
"I'm sure you would. No. You can use ground-based relays of some kind or high altitude in-atmosphere platform."
"I-." She appears to chew the cud for a moment, a gesture the ring helpfully tells me means that she's struggling to find the words with which to express herself. "What.. about.. defence? If we are limited to ground-based assets we will be extremely vulnerable."
That's.. a reasonable point. I want people to know that when I say 'surrender to my terms and there will be no further punishment' that that is what will happen. If a group of marauders fly through here in a few weeks time… "Very well. I will give you the designs for Euphorix's planetary shield, and guarantee your defence in the period it takes you to construct it."
"You do not have a fleet either. That is the reason why you are steal-. Confiscating our property."
"True, but I have a Lantern Corps. The people who make it up don't like you very much but they hate pirates and raiders even more."
"We also.. need to negotiate time. Some of our guilds are.. somewhat reluctant to-."
"Point us at the most reluctant ones. We'll soon get them moving." I glance at Koriand'r. "I'll give your people one year before we kill in response to a breach of your isolation in order for you to persuade people who haven't returned yet. However, deliberate dawdling may result in impoliteness."
"Then, on behalf of Emana, I.. acquiesce to your demands."
"Glad to hear it. Now get back to work." I dismiss the image then call Komand'r, her face appearing over the ring a moment later. "You hear that?"
"Yes. It was delicious to hear her so humbled."
"Take thirty Lanterns and start moving evacuated orbital structures to Tamaran." Hang on, they've only been using rings for a few days. "Probably best if you use boom tubes to get it to Tamaran and use rings for manoeuvring only. And make sure that there is a constant guard: the planet is our prisoner so it falls to us to look after it. And that goes for our people too. I don't want any of ours taking a sneaky shot once my back is turned."
She shrugs. "As you wish."
One hundred and forty two remaining. Give Komand'r a minute to make her picks…
"How is Ph'yzzon faring?"
Ah yes, the Psions tried to get creative with that one. "It turns out that the Psions didn't rediscover how their forebears created X'Hal. But they were trying to. With you and your sister they were simply trying to copy her more obvious abilities. With him they were trying to copy her higher order abilities instead."
"Were they successful?"
"They managed to do something, but… No, it appears not. If they'd kept trying… Perhaps, eventually." And I doubt that Mother Box will be anything like as enthusiastic about the idea of looking into it as Father Box would have been. "Sphere believes that he'll recover his senses eventually, but at the moment we're keeping him unconscious. Until we're sure that he's coherent." She nods, and I raise the ring again. "Grayven to everyone Komand'r hasn't given alternate orders to. We're heading to Rashashoon to rendezvous with the Karnan/Crown Imperium fleet, then we'll be pressing on to Karna to destroy the Gordanian war fleet. Once that is achieved, we will assist ground operations as requested."
I was surprised to learn that the Karnans had ships, but it turns out that a few were ordered to run when the Gordanian putsch happened and the Crown Imperium has been playing host to them since. Virtually all of the surviving vessels will be joining us, and the Crown Fleet were happy to join in if they got to see the largest source of pirates in the region finally cleaned out.
"Plot courses and warp on three."
17:51 GMT
I float out of the hush tube into near-Emana space, the outline agreement on a datapad under my arm. Regent Alonzo isn't exactly an autocrat, and he needed time to find out precisely what -or rather who- he could offer me. Similarly, since I'm not planning on kicking King Myand'r out of office I'm technically only negotiating on his behalf and unless I want to give the impression that I'm planning to kick him out I will need him to okay this. Regent Alonzo was mostly interested in technical data and intelligence, but the fact that he asked me to include something about expanding our alliance later suggests to me that he at least understands that their shield will be going down in the not too distant future.
There's a flash of orange as Koriand'r transitions into close proximity. Since I didn't want my Lanterns spending the hour losing their focus, I ordered them to monitor specific areas of Emana to see what they were doing, with the sisters monitoring the capital city. I nod as she approaches. "What news?"
"They started to abandon their orbital shipyards a few minutes ago. Ships have been despatched to their mining colonies in this system to bring their citizens back to the planet. It appears that they will comply." I nod. "Would you actually have done it?"
"What, exterminated them?" She nods, clearly uncomfortable. "No. I would have carried out a limited strike against various facilities on their planet, inviting them to reconsider after each attack. And I would have taken as much of the orbital infrastructure by storm as possible, killing whatever workers were present. But I would have stopped well short of wiping the species out." She nods again, somewhat mollified. "Princess, I appreciate that the Branx were less directly involved in what happened to Tamaran than the Citadelians and the Gordanians and less involved in what happened to you than the Psions, but they are a part of the same alliance. The ships that destroyed the Tamaranian navy were designed and built here. A substantial chunk of the naval force that has maintained Citadel control-."
Her face hardens. "You do not need to remind me of those facts."
I nod sombrely. "I apologise. Perhaps if you told me precisely what your concerns were?"
"Citadel Complex was a military installation. All of the people there were warriors." Ignoring the allied tradespeople who ran most of the businesses in the entertainment district, certainly. "I would not hesitate to kill Branx warriors and I would certainly kill adults working in military industries, but I would not agree to simply bombard a planet until it was utterly destroyed."
I nod again. "Did I tell you that I had access to a Psion crèche when I was on the Wombworld?"
She shakes her head, her hair floating gloriously in the vacuum. "You mentioned that you were studying their civilisation, but you did not mention exactly where you went."
"There are peaceful Branx traders, just as there are peaceful Gordanian clans. The Citadelians are… Were, universally brutes, intentionally created as such. I wasn't sure about the Psions. I was on the verge of deciding that it didn't matter, but Mother Box-." She frowns slightly. "My AI. She pointed out that I could be killing good people, or at least people who were no worse than average. So I set out to check."
"What did you discover?"
"It might be possible to rehabilitate them. Maybe. But we can certainly kill all of the adults without being morally troubled by it; their educational indoctrination is very good." I sigh. "But they have children who can probably be taught to not be evil. And I'm… Going to make an attempt, if doing so is reasonably practical."
Koriand'r smiles at me. It's faint and I get the impression that she's somewhat surprised to be directing it at me, but it's there. And I… I feel a little… Good, to be receiving it. Heh. What a remarkable woman: to still feel sympathy for such a people after what she went through.
Attention: message incoming from planetary government.
"Excuse me." I raise my right hand. "Answer."
The same woman's face appears. "Grayven. We are preparing to acquiesce to the majority of your demands."
I nod. "And that's nearly good enough."
"We would like permission to keep the core of our satellite communications network-."
"I'm sure you would. No. You can use ground-based relays of some kind or high altitude in-atmosphere platform."
"I-." She appears to chew the cud for a moment, a gesture the ring helpfully tells me means that she's struggling to find the words with which to express herself. "What.. about.. defence? If we are limited to ground-based assets we will be extremely vulnerable."
That's.. a reasonable point. I want people to know that when I say 'surrender to my terms and there will be no further punishment' that that is what will happen. If a group of marauders fly through here in a few weeks time… "Very well. I will give you the designs for Euphorix's planetary shield, and guarantee your defence in the period it takes you to construct it."
"You do not have a fleet either. That is the reason why you are steal-. Confiscating our property."
"True, but I have a Lantern Corps. The people who make it up don't like you very much but they hate pirates and raiders even more."
"We also.. need to negotiate time. Some of our guilds are.. somewhat reluctant to-."
"Point us at the most reluctant ones. We'll soon get them moving." I glance at Koriand'r. "I'll give your people one year before we kill in response to a breach of your isolation in order for you to persuade people who haven't returned yet. However, deliberate dawdling may result in impoliteness."
"Then, on behalf of Emana, I.. acquiesce to your demands."
"Glad to hear it. Now get back to work." I dismiss the image then call Komand'r, her face appearing over the ring a moment later. "You hear that?"
"Yes. It was delicious to hear her so humbled."
"Take thirty Lanterns and start moving evacuated orbital structures to Tamaran." Hang on, they've only been using rings for a few days. "Probably best if you use boom tubes to get it to Tamaran and use rings for manoeuvring only. And make sure that there is a constant guard: the planet is our prisoner so it falls to us to look after it. And that goes for our people too. I don't want any of ours taking a sneaky shot once my back is turned."
She shrugs. "As you wish."
One hundred and forty two remaining. Give Komand'r a minute to make her picks…
"How is Ph'yzzon faring?"
Ah yes, the Psions tried to get creative with that one. "It turns out that the Psions didn't rediscover how their forebears created X'Hal. But they were trying to. With you and your sister they were simply trying to copy her more obvious abilities. With him they were trying to copy her higher order abilities instead."
"Were they successful?"
"They managed to do something, but… No, it appears not. If they'd kept trying… Perhaps, eventually." And I doubt that Mother Box will be anything like as enthusiastic about the idea of looking into it as Father Box would have been. "Sphere believes that he'll recover his senses eventually, but at the moment we're keeping him unconscious. Until we're sure that he's coherent." She nods, and I raise the ring again. "Grayven to everyone Komand'r hasn't given alternate orders to. We're heading to Rashashoon to rendezvous with the Karnan/Crown Imperium fleet, then we'll be pressing on to Karna to destroy the Gordanian war fleet. Once that is achieved, we will assist ground operations as requested."
I was surprised to learn that the Karnans had ships, but it turns out that a few were ordered to run when the Gordanian putsch happened and the Crown Imperium has been playing host to them since. Virtually all of the surviving vessels will be joining us, and the Crown Fleet were happy to join in if they got to see the largest source of pirates in the region finally cleaned out.
"Plot courses and warp on three."
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RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
What are you trying to say here? I'm unsure if there's a typo or more likely a missing word, or if I'm just stupid.
EDIT: I wonder if he'll send Kori to Earth, by hush tube, to the team to prove that there are good people in the galaxy. And also as a way of opening up a bit of trade between these two nascent inter-stellar planetary societies.
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- Location
- Greece
Maybe change it to
Edit:
or maybe
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RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
Nah, the man's pretty Kind. And after all of that subjugation, he has earnt that title.
- Location
- Hampden Park
Thank you, corrected.
- Location
- texas
The DC franchise has authors without breaking the fourth wall.
Like Destiny's book, or the Time Tailors of Slaughter Swamp.
As for why Paul isn't manipulating tropes to his own advantage, my theory is that Zoat the memesmith of Earth Prime programmed his tulpa doppelgangers to not think about it because he doesn't want to write that kind of story.
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- Location
- texas
Paul knows that the book of destiny is a thing. Which means he knows that the past, present, and future are stories written by a cosmic entity in the universe he lives, that's just fact.
Paul acting like he's not in a story is not genre savviness, it's denial.
The fact that Zoat rewards that denial doesn't change that.
RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
An interesting omake or spin off to this story would be if Batman either took Paul up on his offer for danner augmentation and aid in designing additional gear, or took Grayven up on his deification offer without enhancements.
This isn't Marvel where the One Above All is writing the universe. It's DC where the universe is being written and is pre-written into Destinys Book. There's no set author with tropes being adhered to, that we're aware of. It's more like DEATHS LIBRARY.
This isn't Marvel where the One Above All is writing the universe. It's DC where the universe is being written and is pre-written into Destinys Book. There's no set author with tropes being adhered to, that we're aware of. It's more like DEATHS LIBRARY.
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The Chosen One
Yes, THAT One.
- Location
- The Pedant Gallery
..or, rather, whom
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Since he's successfully gone against the "rules" of comic book stories, it's not. There's also the problem that trying to gain an advantage by treating the world as a story is if it's true, it's just asking the story to be changed maliciously by the offended "author".
I'm reminded of the quote from Hogfather, about the Discworld's equivalent of Pascal's Wager.
The Powers That Be don't like it when the mortals try to game the rules.
The Chosen One
Yes, THAT One.
- Location
- The Pedant Gallery
What, this argument again?
Yes, Paul's in denial. He explicitly resolved not to think about meta stuff too hard after realizing he might be a self-insert. Let him. There's been plenty of meta in the story already, and it was really good! But we've waited literal years for the Lantern Corps Arc, let's enjoy it.
Yes, Paul's in denial. He explicitly resolved not to think about meta stuff too hard after realizing he might be a self-insert. Let him. There's been plenty of meta in the story already, and it was really good! But we've waited literal years for the Lantern Corps Arc, let's enjoy it.
- Pronouns
- she/her
You really think Paul's going to whip out his snake in front of his mother? He has some class.
- Location
- Hampden Park
Grayvens grammar is imperfect.
NeoDarklight
Lord of Mind
The first one isn't, I can verify. It still says-
I'd recommend getting rid of "the", as that makes more sense, though that still leaves it somewhat awkward. Is it perhaps a leftover from an earlier draft?
- Location
- Greece
Actually he did change it... It used to say 'we kill is response' instead of 'we kill in response'.
It still doesn't make much sense though
- Location
- Somewhere out there
Citadelians
if doing so
Comma instead of semicolon
Phrasing is still pretty confusing. I can't quite pinpoint what you were trying to say.
- Location
- Hampden Park
Thank you, properly corrected.
Thank you, corrected.
Are you sure?
RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
Yeah, that reads much smoother now.
- Location
- Cajun Country
I can confirm this: it should be either a comma, a dash, or (if you want to live on the edge) a colon.
- Location
- Hampden Park
Colon it is then.
Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
I agree. Also, it would be sad if Kori never got to meet Dick.
- Location
- Russia
Typo:
It
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- Status