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!
There were a few hints scattered, but I wouldn't expect anyone to really look at it and know straight away. It's not a planet you ever visit in game. To be honest, most of the description of the planet only exists because I wanted to pad it up to 2k words.
Sooooo mass effect?
Oh this is gonna be fun.
Yes! It's been in the works for months. I'm really quite excited.
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!
No 'nigh-uninhabited' about it - if there are any people on world, they're numbered in the tens.
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.
At current, Faith's fear is less 'I might be indoctrinated' and more 'there might be a couple of thousand Reapers kicking around upstairs'. She doesn't know when during the cycle she is, hence her bunkering up underground.
What did you see that made you figure out you were in ME?
Hinted at in chapter in a vague manner, and some people have already guessed it.
No, no, no, you moron, she's not here ye- I mean, wait, what?
Having just
come from Mars, she probably would have recognised it.
I think that there are a few derelict Reapers floating around, specifically the Leviathan of Dis, which the Bavarians said doesn't exist.
Uh... I wasn't aware the Germans were involved with the LoD.
I vaguely remember hearing about the origin point of each of the Commander's in this 4-way fracas but for the life of me I can't remember...
Fusou was the Sol System, Drich was way the fuck off the galactic plane, Faith was Hegemony area and I believe TikiTau's area will be with the Geth or the Terminus systems.
Bam, Mandabar's all over this.
Yay! A new chapter! It does need a threadmark still though.
Really enjoyed the setup, now to see where it goes.
I see what you did there!
So it does, fix'd.
The 'felt like months, was more like seconds' joke I actually swiped from Drich. She used it somewhere in the Supreme Commander arc.
I believe that is exactly where she is, I thought the hints made it clear heh.
My intention was to make things just clear enough for some to guess, without making it obvious.
Big fan of the story, and since We are seeing the SI participate in the Commander Effect mass-crossover, I'm wondering if they're letting other commanders join in / Start in CE world?
And, if no will that glorious tech be there for looting / Archaeology / SCIENCE after they leave / during.
Personally I prefer the old acronym PASIMEMC, but I guess it is a bit of a mouthful.
It's been said before in PMs but I'll post it here as well - current consensus (don't recall if Tiki's spoken on it, though, so maybe just the ladies' consensus) is that other PASIs or Multicross SIs are free to use the alternate Mass Effect Universe that will result from this little clusterfuck, but they have to:
A - wait until we're done with it first. Butterflies, and all that.
B - ask for permission.
"Even a dead god can still dream."
Indoctrination isn't purely for organic minds. The Reapers have indoctrinated the Geth,and not via a virus. From what I gathered,they've done so with the usual methods; By subtly rewriting the logic of the subject mind. You gain an excellent insight to the process in the tie-in novel Ascension,even though it's on an organic mind. Legion themselves said something similar; The Geth exposed to the Reapers came to a different solution to the equation than those that didn't. Sounds similar,no?
By that logic... I doubt that Faith,Hope,and their drones are safe.
Indoctrination is incredibly subtle and incredibly dangerous. Being that Faith has had exactly zero experiences with anything even remotely similar, she is very much unsafe. The fact that her E-War systems are damaged is a big part of that.
By that logic then Faith & Hope could reverse-psychology themselves into returning to their starting logic.
That is the logical solution, and Hope, who seems a bit more competent & logical will probably have stored a hard copy of their logic-states at some point to compare said logic differences.
Of course, while their logic-states are altered we should see their drones act kinda strangely.
This logic and counter-logic theory of course relies on the ROB sharing his toys with the reapers
Why does it rely on ROB sharing toys with the Reapers? They're massively powerful AI with literally billions of minds worth of computational power. Given time to observe, they could probably figure out Faith's rough mindset themselves.
Hope has not yet made copies of either Faith or Hope's mind, mainly because last time a mind copy was created, Faith accidentally Hope.
Here's the thing... Reaper indoctrination isn't obvious to the subject. In Ascension,Grayson knew he was indoctrinated,but he couldn't tell which actions were his or the will of the Reapers. At one point,he resolved to space himself,to keep himself from being used by the Reapers. The Reapers then made it seem like his idea to not,to "try and scuttle their plans more directly". The Illusive Man is in a similar boat,as is Saren. Every single person who is indoctrinated is literally incapable of identifying what is them and what is the Reapers. It doesn't matter if they know; The Reapers are able to direct you away from killing yourself or otherwise being a problem by means so subtle,you'd think its your own idea.
Tl;dr Reaper Indocrination is dangerous.
They've been doing this for untold eons. A college student in a bullshit hypertech body is still a college student. Her minions are more-or-less Geth. The logic-counterlogic defence,by the logic outlined in the books and games,is exactly what the Reapers expect,and know how to effortlessly deflect.
Faith has exactly two ways of dealing with Indoctrination without outside assistance. Logic/Counterlogic is not one of them, for this reason.
So, given that one can't identify Reaper-induced thoughts from the inside, the solution may be to analyze them from the outside. Consider the creation of a logic-analysis suite. Archive your axioms in a read-only storage system, and precommit to analyzing your currently active logic using the suite, comparing against your existing axioms, no less often than once a week. Empower the system to archive and repair your current consciousness if anomalies are detected. If no anomalies are detected, create an additional backup of your current state. Basically, use Master/Stranger protocols with the enhancement that you can backup and inspect your mindstate.
Again, mindstate copying is not a thing that's being done yet, because Faith and Hope don't want to accidentally another sister.
This is pretty much exactly how people have "broken" indoctrination in Mass Effect. Outside individuals,usually Shepard,outlines exactly how the subject has been subverted,enabling the subject enough clarity of self to attempt to undo the indoctrination the only way they can; By eating their gun. As a digital lifeform,Faith has alternatives.
Alternatives with serious mental baggage attached. Also, if the Indoctrination ever gets that bad, the MEGalaxy will have been pretty much fucked anyway. Nothing the Citadel has even comes remotely close to threatening the
Mercury class corvettes, and they can annihilate entire fleets with a single sweep of the SAFE Lasers, never mind the planet cracker railguns, the 'star-with-a-focusing-lens' Focus Laser and the FUCKING BLACK HOLE CANNON.
