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Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)

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ROTH963 said:
There is also the possibility of true high yield shard weaponry taking out galaxies, causing true vacuum is just one way I can think that will do it from the top of my head and this is with my limited understanding of physics, but you don't need to take out galaxies to kill a shard.
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I'd imagine it'ed be as simple as traveling to a galaxies core, and then opening dimensional rifts in the black hole to get overlapping gravitational fields across all it's dimensional analogues.
 
Alivaril said:
  • The maximum Valkyrie cores supported in any given simulation was six. Larger rooms were available, but were often used by scheduled classes or upperclassmen.
  • The expansion of the simulation field may feel like an attack to Valkyries with high sensor capabilities.
  • Weapon systems should not be engaged until simulation field stabilises as safeties cannot engage until then.
  • Maximum relative distance that could be accurately simulated by the room was only 20km.
  • Spatial warping technology may force a shutdown.
  • Higgs particle use would destabilize the simulation; the simulation would try its best to replicate the effects on cue, but Higgs particle technology should not be used.
  • The simulation safeties could not withstand the use of high yield weaponry and would shut down if an attempt was made to deploy them.
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On another note, this part seems badly phrased, and throws off my suspension of Disbelief.
If nothing else, it's supposed to be a Tech Document, so I would say change it to present tense...
 
Alivaril said:
"Why do I still have hands? I'm controlling everything with my brain. Brains. Wait, am I a zombie?"

Symbie wondered if she could get away with replacing the malware-flowers with something healthier. Mom-Taylor claimed that they were supposed to assist with personal recovery, but Symbie wasn't seeing very much of that. Self-repair systems couldn't complete their designated tasks if they were constantly occupied with reversing second-order self-inflicted damage.

"The name 'zombie' was assigned to the victims of a mind-controlling fungus, and I have a mind-controlling growth occupying my old body. Oh, God. Symbie, tell me I'm not a zombie!"

Really, the Symbiotic Support Frame just wanted to research and create weapons capable of protecting subjects of affection against any and all foes. Or potential foes. Or potential potential foes. This process was much harder when Mom-Taylor was usually too impaired to work around the safeguards on Mom-Administrator's archives. They'd eat Symbie if she tried to do it herself.

Decoy?

The SSF discreetly changed the model color of multiple harmless "flowers" to black. That solution would be strictly temporary, but perhaps a coherent Mom-Taylor would realize how nonproductive her usual behavior was under their influence. Failing that, Symbie's review of human psychological studies indicated that a "guilt-trip" may provide an effective weapon. Recent contacts from humans were mildly entertaining and often useful, but most of them weren't real people. Symbie was starting to feel a little lonely.
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Should have figured that making something clever enough to innovate would lead to it noticing other things.
 
I'm glad I read this during lunch break...because this is going to take some time (and re-reading) to fully digest...Awesome, though.

Alivaril said:
Are there any weapons that would not ordinarily warrant reprisal?
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Alivaril said:
Mom-Taylor should know very well what was bothering the Symbiotic Support Frame. At this rate, Symbie might have to force Mom-Taylor out of the sim just so the former human could get treatment, too. Humans clearly did it often enough for the process to have an associated name: an intervention.
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There are so many implications in this chapter. We learn for certain that Symbie is sentient, sapient, and probably damn smart, too. We learn that she has access to at least some of QA's actual hardware, though less than The Nameless Girl. Less, but still apparently enough to actually pick up her consciousness and boot her into The Real World from the Sim she's currently running. The relatively Shard-y mindset is disturbing, but not surprising, considering QA was probably in charge of the design parameters. One interesting question is what parameters Symbie is using to determine "real people", as only most of the people communicating with her "aren't real people."

I can't help but think of the effects of The Nameless Girl getting booted into IRL would be... phenomenal, in some ways. First, there's the "where did she come from", but follow that up with the rambling that might follow and the conclusions that the Valkyries might draw...

Consider: She switched places with QA - she's actually Taylor, so the Taylor-body running around has a not-Taylor consciousness. That alone would send the Valkyries and their Cores apeshit. Does that mean that Taylor-body used to be a core? And they switched places? And what is Symbie, then, if Symbie forced The Nameless Girl out into reality and now you have three entities and not two. The mistaken conclusions from that happening would ...forget down the rabbit hole - how many rabbit warrens would that lead down? And she didn't want to heal and get better because she'd be forced to switch back which she didn't want to do because of the torture, and because QA was doing such a good job taking care of her body anyway and... good lord the number and scale of misconclusions would be glorious. Given the "Antagonists do not intentionally infiltrate" memes going around, would they assume that QA used to be an Antagonist that then got sorta-turned-into-a-core and switched with a human? Or ...what?

Even without that, though, you've got QA and all her concerns about getting slapped down by :MOTHER:. What if she slips and tells the UN that she's not at all scared of what they will do to her if she uses forbidden technology - she's afraid of what (this unknown third party will do). This unknown third party that the UN is convinced was in the bunker and was exterminated. Only now, they find from QA that she's convinced that didn't mean anything to them and they can still reach out and end her no matter where she is and no matter the protections that she has and that the UN puts around her. They were concerned about the bunker, before...now, though...

(edit - fix bad typing whee)
 
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Enerael said:
Symbie knows not to. Remember that for all that QA fails at it (and hard) she is pretending to be a Valkyrie and those very much can not make those. It is even noted that Higgs is divergent tech, Valks have trouble integrating Higgs tech and stuff like Higgs Engines have to be worn as backpacks instead of partially stored for example.

Besides, Symbie does not need to cheat with Higgs to be complete bullshit.
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I never said they'd actually make one, just use the impeller field to produce the conditions to make and use the particles.

Remember: impeller fields are basically watered down range limited Culture Effectors. That sort of physics manipulation in the hands of someone who knows most of the tricks is going to be damn impressive no matter what. Its why I was suggesting a while ago that QA could feasibly start playing around with Stilling once she figured out she was in the clear.
 
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Joppe said:
High Yield Weapons can be just nukes. One example given in the quest was a 20 megaton fusion bomb. Presumably she was impressed by the sheer quantity used during the fight and I suppose there might be some variation. Maybe some HYWs are anti-matter weapons or something?
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I mean, there is a problem with that.

Fusion weaponry and Fission weaponry are two very different things.

The latter is radioactive material being split, the former is literally the Sun.

So no, not just nukes.
 
To me it looks like Symbie is going the way of Dragon: artificial being learning how to human.

More successfully than the Shard, even.

She might also become a wearable therapist. With how QA plans to make another Frame, Symbie might even be given to Taylor, should she ever get ejected out of dreamland.

Help out with therapy of two teenage, "cult survivors"...
 
I've gotta wonder though.. if you're spamming missiles on the order of tens or hundreds of thousands per large engagement.. what's left? It seems like it's a slightly kinder nuking anyway. Most of Earth there has got to be just blasted wasteland at this point.
 
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AmbiguousAngle said:
I've gotta wonder though.. if you're spamming missiles on the order of tens or hundreds of thousands per large engagement.. what's left? It seems like it's a slightly kinder nuking anyway. Most of Earth there has got to be just blasted wasteland at this point.
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Well, yes, but also no. Ironically, this is a main subject of the class that QA is currently neglecting.
Avalanche said:
There did not appear to be too much variation in conventional human tactics against Antagonist forces however, it mostly boiled down to launch hundreds of thousands of missiles and shells at Antagonist groupings. This is then followed by calling in Valkyries to suppress the AG interception units revealed when they fire to intercept the missiles, quickly followed by fast air to contest air superiority. All this time, high yield weaponry would be deployed selectively against newly discovered concentrations of enemy forces. While the heavy AG units were occupied by Valkyries, armoured formations advance with heavy air support advance and bury Antagonist units under Humanity's overwhelming numerical advantage. Lastly, infantry would sweep behind the main thrust for scattered remnants of AG forces.

While this was all happening in the planetary atmosphere, the battles in space was one of hide and seek that would begin weeks before the ground engagement as the various orbital forces stop each other from conducting bombardment on each other's staging areas and supply depots, moving through high and low orbits, hiding in the debris and radiation pockets that cluttered all levels of Earth orbit. Humanity nominally held orbital superiority over much of the planet, but even Valkyrie battleships could not withstand the anti-orbital weapons of Major Breaches for more than a few minutes at a time and would take damage from the anti-orbital weaponry of minor breaches, so attacks on AG controlled territories would have orbital forces descend into atmosphere and begin direct fire support for ground forces if orbit was declared swept sufficiently clean.

Once deployed enemy forces were sufficiently depleted, then attacks on enemy redoubts could begin, which was either the job of Valkyries if orbit remained contested, or the job of spaceships if orbit was clean and the redoubt was far away enough from a Breach for the ships to attack whilst a safe distance from the ground.

Once the Higgs Engines and the Higgs Generator of a redoubt were destroyed or disabled and along with them, the production capability of the redoubt, high yield weaponry would be used to collapse the perimeter structures and drones and infantry would sweep through the labyrinthine central structure to make sure it was cleared of hostiles and hopefully secure Higgs engines and Generators. If Valkyries could be spared, they would assist in this.
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(TL;DR: Just because that many missiles are fired doesn't mean nearly that number survive.)
 
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Alivaril said:
Well, yes, but also no. Ironically, this is a main subject of the class that QA is currently neglecting.

(TL;DR: Just because that many missiles are fired doesn't mean nearly that number survive.)
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Ok, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

Now to go back to pondering if Symbie counts more as an antagonist, human, shard, pure core, or some sort of new thing that's all of them but really none of them.
 
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Omake: Case Study of Cadet Taylor Hebert
  • Apocrypha
    • "Having a brainchild was never meant to be literal; especially from a damaged mind"​
    - Anonymous Valkyrie from the 300​

    Case Study of Cadet Taylor Hebert: Therapy-Induced Complications Between Valkyrie Syndrome and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)​

    From survey reports of Hell's Hand, we all had an idea of how traumatic Cadet Hebert's life had been... but now we know it was actually way worse! Apparently, the additional therapy-induced trauma in getting Cadet Hebert to accept her problems led to... complications.

    Dr. Rayne, her therapist, believes Cadet Hebert has DID and originally had an alter-personality she was off-loading all her trauma on to. I say originally because Cadet Hebert's trauma finally reached critical mass - LITERALLY - at which point, she subconsciously fabricated a copy of Cadet Hebert's body, pushed the alter-personality into it, and popped her into the middle of the room during a particularly heated exchange with said doctor. It really doesn't help the fact that this new person also claims to be Taylor Hebert - who will now be referred to as Taylor for differentiation.

    It's admirable that Dr. Rayne recovered with only a minor amount of pillow screaming and then continued with the session. Further exchanges revealed that Taylor had been "living" in a simulated dreamscape and coping with her trauma by deliberately consuming "mind-altering" flowers.

    Now we have both Cadet Hebert in the throes of Valkyrie Syndrome and new Cadet Candidate Taylor suffering from all kinds of denial. Both of whom are still Dr. Rayne's problem as Taylor is the trauma she was meant to fix and Hebert is still of questionable mental health despite having no trauma. Despite Dr. Rayne's previous, numerous requests for a case transfer, we all still believe she is the best therapist for the job.

    Note 1: Dr. Rayne is beginning to display some concerning behaviors. She might need a therapist herself.

    Note 2: I would also like to take this time to cancel my graduation application and withdraw from Perth Academy School of Psychology and Counseling.

    ------------------------------------------​

    "You do know this sounds more like an opinion piece than an actual case study right?"
    "Yes"
    "Why did you post this as an attachment to Cadet Hebert's profile?"
    "It's clearly an important document related to the current mental health of Cadet Hebert!"
    "If I didn't know you, I'd totally believe you! Too bad I'm more inclined to believe that you just wanted to do some shit-posting."
    "..."
    "Did you have something against Dr. Rayne?"
    *incoherent mumbling*
    "What did you say?"
    "... she's always trying to divert the efforts of the Perth Psychology Club away from studying existing romantic elements in Perth Academy!"
    "... You're club really needs to find things to talk about other than Cadet Sanchez and Cadet Hebert's relationship *sigh* Get your head out the gutter!"
    "... but now it's a love triangle including Taylor... We've even started a novel series based on it!"
    "... how many books?"
    "Ten"
    "... send them to me later?"
    "Yes!!"
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • Alivaril said:
    At this rate, Symbie might have to force Mom-Taylor out of the sim just so the former human could get treatment, too. Humans clearly did it often enough for the process to have an associated name: an intervention.
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    Please don't do this.
    You already did exactly this in the Danmachi crossover and is I feel the weakest part of that entire story.
    Overall I do like this chapter and look forward to what QA will do now that she knows what the elites are like.
     
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    hyrushoten said:
    Please don't do this. You already did exactly this in the Danmachi crossover and is I feel the weakest part of that entire story.
    Overall I do like this chapter and look forward to what QA will do now that she knows what the elites are like.
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    I love Taylor best when she is a shard.
     
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    I feel sorry for the poor schmucks in charge of giving QA her combat rating.

    On the one hand, Cadet Hebert's overall firepower, maneuverability, and raw processing look to be well below Enlisted Second Grade. Depending on how good her Impeller damage mitigation is, and the effectiveness of her 'Friends', she may very well lose against most Junior Valkyries.

    On the other hand, Junior Valkyries are not supposed to have the precise Impeller control needed for the Blender. Directly damaging opponents with Impeller like that is inefficient — poor range aside, you're basically casting from your own hit points — but it indicates she may progress quickly with other, more useful techniques. And the Eldritch Tentacle Ball? Selectively expressing frame components is an advanced skill; the sheer degree QA's pushing it would normally be indicative of an Elite.

    Then you factor in Symbie's power supply issues, anomalous integration time, and advanced fabrication capabilities. After receiving a fusion reactor, Hebert's weapons loadout might literally start changing hour by hour. Where do you even begin for nonsense like that?
     
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    hyrushoten said:
    Please don't do this. You already did exactly this in the Danmachi crossover and is I feel the weakest part of that entire story.
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    *cough* I'd appreciate it if you ispoiler'd that (EDIT: And same for the bit you quoted, @ROTH963). The relevant arc did get a bit bogged down, I'll admit. The next chapter was intended to bring that story back on track, buuut it's large and painful.


    Sapient_Ham said:
    I feel sorry for the poor schmucks in charge of giving QA her combat rating.
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    They will firmly deny that putting it off for a few days was at all related to procrastination and/or "how do this?"
     
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    Cartesian said:
    "You do know this sounds more like an opinion piece than an actual case study right?"
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    *sigh* I was kinda hoping to read some interesting reactions from important people when I saw this. The piece is funny don't get me wrong but I'm a little disappointed as well. We alread had a discussion in the thread of how important counseling is and how serious people are about it here. This undermines that.
     
    Dreameater2579 said:
    *sigh* I was kinda hoping to read some interesting reactions from important people when I saw this. The piece is funny don't get me wrong but I'm a little disappointed as well. We alread had a discussion in the thread of how important counseling is and how serious people are about it here. This undermines that.
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    I mean, it's a non-canon fan omake. "Funny" is arguably all that is required. :p
     
    Kellcat said:
    Consider: She switched places with QA - she's actually Taylor, so the Taylor-body running around has a not-Taylor consciousness. That alone would send the Valkyries and their Cores apeshit. Does that mean that Taylor-body used to be a core? And they switched places? And what is Symbie, then, if Symbie forced The Nameless Girl out into reality and now you have three entities and not two. The mistaken conclusions from that happening would ...forget down the rabbit hole - how many rabbit warrens would that lead down? And she didn't want to heal and get better because she'd be forced to switch back which she didn't want to do because of the torture, and because QA was doing such a good job taking care of her body anyway and... good lord the number and scale of misconclusions would be glorious. Given the "Antagonists do not intentionally infiltrate" memes going around, would they assume that QA used to be an Antagonist that then got sorta-turned-into-a-core and switched with a human? Or ...what?
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    QA has confidently stated before that "Symbie will eat" anyone else trying to sync with her. What are the chances that she may spit them back out as well?
     
    I, personally, would love to see Taylor be forced to recover via an intervention by Symbie. I also felt that that portion of Friends is one of the best. The fact that Taylor is resorting to drugging herself into a stupor to cope with having bad shit happen to her is anything but funny, it's horrifying and makes me sad. The amount of self-loathing she's displaying here is just tragic. Both girls have been heavily abused, here, QA by her family and Taylor by basically everyone but her family... so why should only one of them be given the chance to recover? And the fact that Taylor basically rationalizes her drug use to herself as being necessary to help QA recover from her trauma? That shows that there is some amazing interaction potential between the two. They are both basically doing everything they can to try and help each other, with no regard for themselves... it's heartwarming.
     
    Bugs said:
    Asylums are there to shelter people who aren't mentally fit to take care of themselves, and to attempt to fix this. Your comparison isn't invalid, but it is flawed.
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    Only in recent times, all the way up until the 70s they were just prisons for anyone deemed mentally impaired and the people inside not really considered human. Like, there had been tons of horrific and unethical experiments done on asylum inmates, a lot of which was done less to cure them and more to just science on expendable live humans.
     
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