YES! Faith has fought off the Reapers' transdimensional gambit-
And the Reapers have aquired reinforcements. Faen.
And the Reapers have aquired reinforcements. Faen.
Faith in Superior Firepower [Planetary Annihilation Multicross SI]
- Thread starter Faith
- Start date
Wobulator
Within 1 AU of you!
- Location
- Mars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
ROB's collecting all the people Faith has fucked over and is organizing them.
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
Reapers ain't getting no help from these chumps.
I didn't think I'd made it that unclear, but Wobulator is right. Rob's building a 'let's kill Faith' team from the various leaders who've had their shit collectively kicked in by a brutally efficient self replicating mechanism of war.
IncognitoTBT
Yorokobe, Shoujo!
- Location
- Mitakihara Town, Japan
An incompetent Brutally Efficient Self Replicating Mechanism of War. More like a Peacekeeper than a BESRMoW, but eh.
Interesting and Watch'd!
Interesting and Watch'd!
Riddle78
Reality nibbler.
- Location
- CFB Middle of Nowhere on the Trans-Can
More like peacemaker. Carbine.
You know, I think I'm going to try tossing my hat into the PA/SI Multi-cross Ring. It'll take me a while to get a first chapter together though, I tend to be working more than is healthy (I get one day off a week, if that) and my Muse is hardly awake very much but I really can't resist taking an attempt at this.
Wobulator
Within 1 AU of you!
- Location
- Mars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I wish that I could start chanting "One of us! One of us!" but I haven't actually written a PA/SI multicross, so...
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Do eet, do eet, do eet!I wish that I could start chanting "One of us! One of us!" but I haven't actually written a PA/SI multicross, so...
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
Cool as it is that you felt the need to post that here, there's a thread for that which I would prefer you to use.
I mean, these threads go off topic all the time, but since this story is currentlywaiting on Fusou napping, I'd rather this thread lie dormant with it.
I mean, these threads go off topic all the time, but since this story is currently
68 - Barren
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
I can't remember if my old schedule was Wednesday/Saturday or Wednesday/Sunday.
And I don't particularly care, because it's the former now.
---
68 - Barren
After what felt like months, but was probably closer to a few seconds, I emerged back to realspace, a blue glow clouding my vision. As always, the kaleidoscope of blue energies faded quickly from my sight, leaving me alone and slightly disoriented in orbit around an barren world.
Man, I have got to start bringing a drop pod through the portals with me. That, or a mecha-sized jetpack. Because this is just getting silly.
[UNSTABLE ORBITAL TRAJECTORY]
Given my orbital trajectory was 'straight down', I figured that was a fair comment.
[ATMOSPHERIC RE-ENTRY IMMINENT]
Yeah, no shit. Still falling straight down, here.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE ESTIMATED]
Oh.
[WARNING - ADJUST COURSE IMMEDIATELY]
Well, fudge.
---
All around, as far as I could see, there was nothing but dust and rock - jagged spikes and mounds rising from the ground. Most of those were my fault - or rather, the fault of the douchebag who dropped a huge metal robot onto a planet from orbit, generating a wave of destructive forces on a similar level to strategic munitions.
So, technically, still me. But I'm blaming ROB. Fuck that guy.
A single yellow star lit the world, and while my sensors detected at least four other planets and an asteroid belt within the system, there were no moons - at least, none visible to my sensors. Perhaps a worthless bit of information to know, for now, but interesting nonetheless.
Not wasting any time, I pinpointed the nearest Metal Deposit and made my way towards it, the Osiris Commander's four legs easily crossing the rough and rocky terrain. A steady stream of nanomachines quickly built up the Metal Extractor, and I followed it as I always did with an Energy Generator and a Sensor Spire, establishing my holy trifecta as rapidly as possible.
As the sensor input flooded in, I took a second to examine the huge swathe of the planet I now had visibility over. A fair few metal deposits, large expanses of badland, some relatively flat areas that might make a good place to establish a base… and more than a few craters. I made a note to investigate them further, in case there was anything of note inside. Beyond that, at the edges of my range, I could see a few places where the environment became a bit more hospitable.
The crater-marked badlands eventually gave way to a large mountain range to the west, and closer to the magnetic north my sensors detected more flatlands. The east and south, as far as my sensors could see, continued to be largely badlands, but I didn't discount them as an option. Notably, nowhere within my sensor's range did I pick up any signs of habitation. No obvious structures, no electronic signals, no artificial satellites.
The Energy Generator now complete, I started putting together an Air Factory with utmost haste. Until I figured out where I was, I wanted to expand as rapidly as possible. The last thing I needed was to be caught by a swarm of Zerg or something before I had any ability to defend myself.
Once the Air Factory was completed, I twisted my torso ninety degrees, still firing the Fabricator, and began constructing another one, as the first factory engaged its own fabricators, a queue of Air Fabricators waiting to be built.
--
Once I had three Air Factories set up, I began my expansion. The first factory continued to build Air Fabricators which spread out, moving to and building over every metal deposit in range. The second factory was also building Air Fabricators, but they remained in the vicinity of my little base, constructing additional pyl - I mean, Energy Generators, as well as assisting my Commander body with the Orbital Launcher.
The third factory was producing my Gageas, the agile craft living up to their role as scouts by racing off at top speed towards distant horizons. It would be a while before there was any benefit, but eventually they'd reach the edge of my sensor's range, and start slowly expanding my already extensive lines of sight.
The Orbital Launcher was completed in seconds, thanks to the valiant aid of four Air Fabricators, and I soon had an ARKYD Sensor platform jetting off into space, an Orbital Fabricator queued to go up after it.
The sensor revealed nothing in the immediate vicinity - I wasn't sure whether to take that as a good thing or not, - and so I sent up the Fabricator, construction orders already laid out for it. The rocket tore free of the planet's atmosphere, making a beeline for the asteroid field I'd already noticed between the third and fourth planets. It had worked in the FTLverse, and I held hopes that it would work here as well.
Wherever 'here' was.
On the ground, my assembled Air Fabricators spread out to build more Metal Extractors, leaving behind them a trail of SAFE Laser Towers - god, I liked that new name, - as a preliminary defence. Well. To call them a 'preliminary' defence would be an insult to their awesome power - every one I put down increased the firepower of the entire grid, after all, and that was nothing to be laughing about given the not-inconsiderable power a single Friendship Laser had behind it.
I, on the other hand, began construction of the first underground facility. Until I had a better idea of what setting I was in, I saw no reason to leave my buildings just lying around on the surface, where they'd be easy to find. Once I had the majority of the underground set up, then I could deconstruct my surface structures. For much the same reason, my Orbital Fabricator was under orders to build inside the largest asteroids, as opposed to on their surface.
If anyone wanted to find me here, well, they'd damn well have to look.
Hopefully. It was entirely possible that, wherever I was, they possessed technology on such a level that hundreds of metres of dirt were no obstacle even to a casual scan. I found it unlikely, but it was by no means impossible.
I had no idea what setting I was in, and so I needed to find out as soon as possible, in order to make more reliable judgements on the capacities of the locals. Until then, paranoia, ho!
Unfortunately, from what I'd seen of the planet, I wasn't going to have much luck finding evidence of whatever civilisations were about on this hunk of rock. Fortunately, that meant it could potentially serve as a staging ground for my base.
That said, my Gageas weren't done with their scouting yet - it was theoretically possible that there was a city on the far side of the planet with insufficient size, emissions, and general levels of industry to be detected from orbit. Which, I suppose, would've likely meant a society rather low down on the technology scale, and therefore not much of a threat. That, or a society so advanced they simply didn't have excess emissions. Or a society inside a sealed dome city, which would not have been unreasonable given the rather inconvenient low gravity, 82 degrees celsius global temperature average, and almost non-existent atmosphere containing only trace amounts of krypton and xenon.
Or… or it could be that.
--
I immediately replaced every order in every build queue with the order to return to my location - barring the Orbital Fabricator, which was to continue its work building my asteroid shipyard. The Gageas immediately broke apart in midair - I didn't want to risk having a bunch of fast moving fliers around, due to the chance that they'd be detected. Even as the individual parts fell, nanobots inside broke apart the vehicle, disassembling it into its component atoms before self-destructing, leaving no trace that they'd ever been there.
As the Air Fabricators completed their current tasks, they turned and moved towards me with the utmost haste, slowly filtering in from the region around my base. They were smaller, slower moving, and flew lower - I was less worried about them being detected. Also, they were much closer to me than the Gageas had been - anything that could detect one of my Fabricators could probably detect me, too.
As they arrived, they were immediately put to work, adding their fabricators to the efforts to dig a really big hole in the planet's crust.
As the chasm grew deeper I began establishing the groundworks of the tunnel, a cylindrical support frame backed up by several kinds of energy shields that would prevent the ground from collapsing into the pit. A temporary measure, and one I would eventually replace with fully-plated supports, but the shields were capable of expanding to fit and required less resources and time to build, meaning I could spend more time digging, which was a very good thing.
The less time I was exposed, the better.
--
Once I reached about seven hundred metres below the surface, with still no sign of any potential hazards, I started to relax. Slightly. I assigned a dozen of my Air Fabricators to now go back and reinforce my underground tunnel, as well as installing sliding silo doors at the surface, and another fifty metres below. Just for the sake of redundancy.
The remaining thirty fabricators set to work hollowing out a huge underground space - what would eventually become the location of my new base.
As they spread out, digging out the dirt and replacing it with walls of cold steel - well, not steel, but you catch my drift, - I made my own way through the artificial cavern, laying down a number of Energy Generators. Unfortunately, I couldn't replace my sources of metal income - yet - and so I had to keep the exposed Metal Extractors for now, but every other surface building, turrets included, began to break apart, feeding the constructions in the new lair beneath the ground.
Once I had a little more time on my hands, I could put in some Resource Cores - actually, better to start that now. They did take a fairly long time to build, after all. Well, relative to everything else.
I assigned five Air Fabricators to build five Resource Cores whilst I set up two Land Factories. From them, I began producing more fabricators - the treaded Vehicle Fabricators to assist the Air Fabricators in excavation, and the bipedal Bot Fabricators assisting me in the construction of the base's facilities. Admittedly, there weren't too many more of them to go.
A few Teleporter panels, and probably a Teleporter Gate linked to my asteroid shipyard, so I could actually use the units I would be creating down here.
Some shield generators, to protect the base should the worst happen and I be discovered. They probably wouldn't help much against orbital bombardment, but it was worth a shot.
A small bunker-esque type facility at the top of the launch silo where I could place my sensors so they wouldn't be blocked by seven hundred metres of rock and metal ore.
Retractable turrets inside the silo and base, in case anyone got any funny ideas about trying to invade through either the main entrance or the starport teleporter.
Finally, I needed some way to access the planet's metal deposits. Resource Cores couldn't sustain me forever, after all - not in the limited number I currently possessed.
And of those five tasks, only the first two were suitable for Bot Fabricators. The third and fourth were better suited to fliers and I'd have to bring out the Mining Fabricators if I wanted to get the fifth done in any reasonable timeframe.
I issued the appropriate commands and relaxed, literally leaving my body on autopilot whilst it completed the menial task of constructing the rest of the facilities in my vast underground outpost.
If those stupid robot cuttlefish wanted a piece of me… well, I wasn't going to make it easy for them.
Now I just needed to send Hope a warning.
And I don't particularly care, because it's the former now.
---
68 - Barren
After what felt like months, but was probably closer to a few seconds, I emerged back to realspace, a blue glow clouding my vision. As always, the kaleidoscope of blue energies faded quickly from my sight, leaving me alone and slightly disoriented in orbit around an barren world.
Man, I have got to start bringing a drop pod through the portals with me. That, or a mecha-sized jetpack. Because this is just getting silly.
[UNSTABLE ORBITAL TRAJECTORY]
Given my orbital trajectory was 'straight down', I figured that was a fair comment.
[ATMOSPHERIC RE-ENTRY IMMINENT]
Yeah, no shit. Still falling straight down, here.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE ESTIMATED]
Oh.
[WARNING - ADJUST COURSE IMMEDIATELY]
Well, fudge.
---
All around, as far as I could see, there was nothing but dust and rock - jagged spikes and mounds rising from the ground. Most of those were my fault - or rather, the fault of the douchebag who dropped a huge metal robot onto a planet from orbit, generating a wave of destructive forces on a similar level to strategic munitions.
So, technically, still me. But I'm blaming ROB. Fuck that guy.
A single yellow star lit the world, and while my sensors detected at least four other planets and an asteroid belt within the system, there were no moons - at least, none visible to my sensors. Perhaps a worthless bit of information to know, for now, but interesting nonetheless.
Not wasting any time, I pinpointed the nearest Metal Deposit and made my way towards it, the Osiris Commander's four legs easily crossing the rough and rocky terrain. A steady stream of nanomachines quickly built up the Metal Extractor, and I followed it as I always did with an Energy Generator and a Sensor Spire, establishing my holy trifecta as rapidly as possible.
As the sensor input flooded in, I took a second to examine the huge swathe of the planet I now had visibility over. A fair few metal deposits, large expanses of badland, some relatively flat areas that might make a good place to establish a base… and more than a few craters. I made a note to investigate them further, in case there was anything of note inside. Beyond that, at the edges of my range, I could see a few places where the environment became a bit more hospitable.
The crater-marked badlands eventually gave way to a large mountain range to the west, and closer to the magnetic north my sensors detected more flatlands. The east and south, as far as my sensors could see, continued to be largely badlands, but I didn't discount them as an option. Notably, nowhere within my sensor's range did I pick up any signs of habitation. No obvious structures, no electronic signals, no artificial satellites.
The Energy Generator now complete, I started putting together an Air Factory with utmost haste. Until I figured out where I was, I wanted to expand as rapidly as possible. The last thing I needed was to be caught by a swarm of Zerg or something before I had any ability to defend myself.
Once the Air Factory was completed, I twisted my torso ninety degrees, still firing the Fabricator, and began constructing another one, as the first factory engaged its own fabricators, a queue of Air Fabricators waiting to be built.
--
Once I had three Air Factories set up, I began my expansion. The first factory continued to build Air Fabricators which spread out, moving to and building over every metal deposit in range. The second factory was also building Air Fabricators, but they remained in the vicinity of my little base, constructing additional pyl - I mean, Energy Generators, as well as assisting my Commander body with the Orbital Launcher.
The third factory was producing my Gageas, the agile craft living up to their role as scouts by racing off at top speed towards distant horizons. It would be a while before there was any benefit, but eventually they'd reach the edge of my sensor's range, and start slowly expanding my already extensive lines of sight.
The Orbital Launcher was completed in seconds, thanks to the valiant aid of four Air Fabricators, and I soon had an ARKYD Sensor platform jetting off into space, an Orbital Fabricator queued to go up after it.
The sensor revealed nothing in the immediate vicinity - I wasn't sure whether to take that as a good thing or not, - and so I sent up the Fabricator, construction orders already laid out for it. The rocket tore free of the planet's atmosphere, making a beeline for the asteroid field I'd already noticed between the third and fourth planets. It had worked in the FTLverse, and I held hopes that it would work here as well.
Wherever 'here' was.
On the ground, my assembled Air Fabricators spread out to build more Metal Extractors, leaving behind them a trail of SAFE Laser Towers - god, I liked that new name, - as a preliminary defence. Well. To call them a 'preliminary' defence would be an insult to their awesome power - every one I put down increased the firepower of the entire grid, after all, and that was nothing to be laughing about given the not-inconsiderable power a single Friendship Laser had behind it.
I, on the other hand, began construction of the first underground facility. Until I had a better idea of what setting I was in, I saw no reason to leave my buildings just lying around on the surface, where they'd be easy to find. Once I had the majority of the underground set up, then I could deconstruct my surface structures. For much the same reason, my Orbital Fabricator was under orders to build inside the largest asteroids, as opposed to on their surface.
If anyone wanted to find me here, well, they'd damn well have to look.
Hopefully. It was entirely possible that, wherever I was, they possessed technology on such a level that hundreds of metres of dirt were no obstacle even to a casual scan. I found it unlikely, but it was by no means impossible.
I had no idea what setting I was in, and so I needed to find out as soon as possible, in order to make more reliable judgements on the capacities of the locals. Until then, paranoia, ho!
Unfortunately, from what I'd seen of the planet, I wasn't going to have much luck finding evidence of whatever civilisations were about on this hunk of rock. Fortunately, that meant it could potentially serve as a staging ground for my base.
That said, my Gageas weren't done with their scouting yet - it was theoretically possible that there was a city on the far side of the planet with insufficient size, emissions, and general levels of industry to be detected from orbit. Which, I suppose, would've likely meant a society rather low down on the technology scale, and therefore not much of a threat. That, or a society so advanced they simply didn't have excess emissions. Or a society inside a sealed dome city, which would not have been unreasonable given the rather inconvenient low gravity, 82 degrees celsius global temperature average, and almost non-existent atmosphere containing only trace amounts of krypton and xenon.
Or… or it could be that.
--
I immediately replaced every order in every build queue with the order to return to my location - barring the Orbital Fabricator, which was to continue its work building my asteroid shipyard. The Gageas immediately broke apart in midair - I didn't want to risk having a bunch of fast moving fliers around, due to the chance that they'd be detected. Even as the individual parts fell, nanobots inside broke apart the vehicle, disassembling it into its component atoms before self-destructing, leaving no trace that they'd ever been there.
As the Air Fabricators completed their current tasks, they turned and moved towards me with the utmost haste, slowly filtering in from the region around my base. They were smaller, slower moving, and flew lower - I was less worried about them being detected. Also, they were much closer to me than the Gageas had been - anything that could detect one of my Fabricators could probably detect me, too.
As they arrived, they were immediately put to work, adding their fabricators to the efforts to dig a really big hole in the planet's crust.
As the chasm grew deeper I began establishing the groundworks of the tunnel, a cylindrical support frame backed up by several kinds of energy shields that would prevent the ground from collapsing into the pit. A temporary measure, and one I would eventually replace with fully-plated supports, but the shields were capable of expanding to fit and required less resources and time to build, meaning I could spend more time digging, which was a very good thing.
The less time I was exposed, the better.
--
Once I reached about seven hundred metres below the surface, with still no sign of any potential hazards, I started to relax. Slightly. I assigned a dozen of my Air Fabricators to now go back and reinforce my underground tunnel, as well as installing sliding silo doors at the surface, and another fifty metres below. Just for the sake of redundancy.
The remaining thirty fabricators set to work hollowing out a huge underground space - what would eventually become the location of my new base.
As they spread out, digging out the dirt and replacing it with walls of cold steel - well, not steel, but you catch my drift, - I made my own way through the artificial cavern, laying down a number of Energy Generators. Unfortunately, I couldn't replace my sources of metal income - yet - and so I had to keep the exposed Metal Extractors for now, but every other surface building, turrets included, began to break apart, feeding the constructions in the new lair beneath the ground.
Once I had a little more time on my hands, I could put in some Resource Cores - actually, better to start that now. They did take a fairly long time to build, after all. Well, relative to everything else.
I assigned five Air Fabricators to build five Resource Cores whilst I set up two Land Factories. From them, I began producing more fabricators - the treaded Vehicle Fabricators to assist the Air Fabricators in excavation, and the bipedal Bot Fabricators assisting me in the construction of the base's facilities. Admittedly, there weren't too many more of them to go.
A few Teleporter panels, and probably a Teleporter Gate linked to my asteroid shipyard, so I could actually use the units I would be creating down here.
Some shield generators, to protect the base should the worst happen and I be discovered. They probably wouldn't help much against orbital bombardment, but it was worth a shot.
A small bunker-esque type facility at the top of the launch silo where I could place my sensors so they wouldn't be blocked by seven hundred metres of rock and metal ore.
Retractable turrets inside the silo and base, in case anyone got any funny ideas about trying to invade through either the main entrance or the starport teleporter.
Finally, I needed some way to access the planet's metal deposits. Resource Cores couldn't sustain me forever, after all - not in the limited number I currently possessed.
And of those five tasks, only the first two were suitable for Bot Fabricators. The third and fourth were better suited to fliers and I'd have to bring out the Mining Fabricators if I wanted to get the fifth done in any reasonable timeframe.
I issued the appropriate commands and relaxed, literally leaving my body on autopilot whilst it completed the menial task of constructing the rest of the facilities in my vast underground outpost.
If those stupid robot cuttlefish wanted a piece of me… well, I wasn't going to make it easy for them.
Now I just needed to send Hope a warning.
- Location
- Over the hill and far away
So which system did she wind up in? I'm not familiar enough with ME to know, but I feel like from the description I ought to know?
Also:
Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Also:
Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Sooooo mass effect?
Oh this is gonna be fun.
Oh this is gonna be fun.
- Location
- Australia
If whatever is on the other side of the planet has (and is paying attention to) any seismic sensors worthy of the name, they'll know something's up. Hitting the planet hard enough to leave a crater comparable to a strategic nuclear weapon would ring the planet like a bell. It's actually one of the ways that RL agencies detect other countries performing underground nuclear weapon tests. That said, the planet you've landed is pretty much a nigh-airless nigh-uninhabited rock with a nearby asteroid belt; hopefully it'll just assume a hard meteor impact (since you basically were exactly that) and assign any investigation a low priority if at all.
On the third hand, the entire system might be littered with passive micro-sensors out the wazoo, and the only reason you're not getting an unfriendly visit is that local robot cuttlefish is deep asleep? In any case, nice cliffhanger, I'm looking forward to the next expisode!
On the third hand, the entire system might be littered with passive micro-sensors out the wazoo, and the only reason you're not getting an unfriendly visit is that local robot cuttlefish is deep asleep? In any case, nice cliffhanger, I'm looking forward to the next expisode!
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Huh. I would think that a Commander versus a Reaper would end in the Commander's favor. Considering that Indoctrination works against organic brains, not whatever flavor of computronium Faith's running on, direct indoctrination is impossible. And Faith has bullshit cyberdefenses, so it probably can't even access her files, to say nothing of getting enough information about her system to make an indoctrination virus like they did for the geth.
Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
What did you see that made you figure out you were in ME?
- Location
- North of England
- Pronouns
- She/They
Might be she's on that planet with the giant RKKV impact crater and the dead Reaper in orbit, that would be fairly distinctive.
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think that there are a few derelict reapers floating around, specifically the leviathan of dis, which the Bavarians said doesn't exist.
