Its official. I absolutely hate the Conversion Bureau.
Allow me to elaborate, I am a Commander...
Allow me to elaborate, I am a Commander...
I stole the moon [Planetary&Total Annihilation Mashup/Multicross SI]
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Chapter Zero: The loss of Terra (SCRAPPED)
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Its official. I absolutely hate the Conversion Bureau.
Allow me to elaborate, I am a Commander, more specifically one of the 'Spider of Mean' design which my memories tell me was briefly used by CORE. I awoke as such roughly 2 weeks previously to the Barrier forming. In that time, people had more or less adapted to having a (relatively) friendly giant quadrupedal spider robot jetting all over the world, building stuff to help deal with world hunger, and using a remotely operated android avatar to interact with people (I particularly liked the roller coasters). And then most of Texas disappeared.
In its place was a glittering dome reminiscent of stained glass, from which issued a stream of stout equines. They spoke of friendship, but they were directly responsible for the deaths of several million humans. Naturally I and my human friends were (rightly) mistrustful, but they managed to talk us into believing it was an accident. Accursed silver-tongued liars. Things came to a head when the previously-mentioned Bureaus were opened worldwide. They offered those who wished to do so the opportunity to take the potion. I should have seen it for the lie it was almost immediately.
It was only after the first reports came in that the Potion caused Death Of Personality that I took action. I still counted as human for the Barrier's purposes, but I had some other options. Namely the fact that the barrier allowed matter that had not been refined by humans through. And thus I dropped an asteroid on Equestria. The active kill radius was enough that it accidentally knocked over a human city that was too close to the barrier. After that no more ponies came out of the Barrier, they were all dead. They didn't need to anyway.
The Barrier continued to expand entirely on its own like a false vacuum collapse in slow motion, necessitating the emergency terraforming of Luna. My teleporters were operating at capacity for months as humanity evacuated. Around 3% desired to be patterned. I allowed this, but did not force it upon anyone. ARM and Equestria were proof of how horribly wrong such things could go. We stayed on Luna for 150 years, developing technology all the while, before the Barrier's relentless expansion forced another relocation. In the time we'd been living on Luna we'd managed to develop a crude but serviceable Alcubierre Warp Drive, rated at 260 c. And the impressive construction power offered by nanolathing could allow it to be applied to an entire planetoid.
The first step in Luna's conversion into the ark of civilization that it is now was the up-scaled set of Halley planetary engines around its south pole. These allowed it to move to the main belt for the rest of its conversion to commence. Next, its habitable area was moved to a sub-surface deck 240 km underground. Installing the Annihilaser (really a gravitational shear projector that agitated space itself to the point that it glowed blue) that would be its main weapon was the hardest part of the job. After that, integrating the secondary weapons, inertial dampeners, Warp Drive, and auxiliary craft docks took a mere month.
Ultimately the decision to relocate to another system wasn't mine, but people in general wanted to be as far away from the reminder of what they had lost as they could get. And thus we departed from Sol, hoping to meet someone friendly among the stars. We weren't at all prepared for what we would blunder into.
Allow me to elaborate, I am a Commander, more specifically one of the 'Spider of Mean' design which my memories tell me was briefly used by CORE. I awoke as such roughly 2 weeks previously to the Barrier forming. In that time, people had more or less adapted to having a (relatively) friendly giant quadrupedal spider robot jetting all over the world, building stuff to help deal with world hunger, and using a remotely operated android avatar to interact with people (I particularly liked the roller coasters). And then most of Texas disappeared.
In its place was a glittering dome reminiscent of stained glass, from which issued a stream of stout equines. They spoke of friendship, but they were directly responsible for the deaths of several million humans. Naturally I and my human friends were (rightly) mistrustful, but they managed to talk us into believing it was an accident. Accursed silver-tongued liars. Things came to a head when the previously-mentioned Bureaus were opened worldwide. They offered those who wished to do so the opportunity to take the potion. I should have seen it for the lie it was almost immediately.
It was only after the first reports came in that the Potion caused Death Of Personality that I took action. I still counted as human for the Barrier's purposes, but I had some other options. Namely the fact that the barrier allowed matter that had not been refined by humans through. And thus I dropped an asteroid on Equestria. The active kill radius was enough that it accidentally knocked over a human city that was too close to the barrier. After that no more ponies came out of the Barrier, they were all dead. They didn't need to anyway.
The Barrier continued to expand entirely on its own like a false vacuum collapse in slow motion, necessitating the emergency terraforming of Luna. My teleporters were operating at capacity for months as humanity evacuated. Around 3% desired to be patterned. I allowed this, but did not force it upon anyone. ARM and Equestria were proof of how horribly wrong such things could go. We stayed on Luna for 150 years, developing technology all the while, before the Barrier's relentless expansion forced another relocation. In the time we'd been living on Luna we'd managed to develop a crude but serviceable Alcubierre Warp Drive, rated at 260 c. And the impressive construction power offered by nanolathing could allow it to be applied to an entire planetoid.
The first step in Luna's conversion into the ark of civilization that it is now was the up-scaled set of Halley planetary engines around its south pole. These allowed it to move to the main belt for the rest of its conversion to commence. Next, its habitable area was moved to a sub-surface deck 240 km underground. Installing the Annihilaser (really a gravitational shear projector that agitated space itself to the point that it glowed blue) that would be its main weapon was the hardest part of the job. After that, integrating the secondary weapons, inertial dampeners, Warp Drive, and auxiliary craft docks took a mere month.
Ultimately the decision to relocate to another system wasn't mine, but people in general wanted to be as far away from the reminder of what they had lost as they could get. And thus we departed from Sol, hoping to meet someone friendly among the stars. We weren't at all prepared for what we would blunder into.
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Baughn
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Interesting concept. Can't wait to see where it takes you.
So... I felt a little lost, right at the start, and that's with me familiar with all the stories involved. You could do worse than to expand on who you are, and what the Conversion bureau is.
(Also you may want a new paragraph after the first sentence.)
So... I felt a little lost, right at the start, and that's with me familiar with all the stories involved. You could do worse than to expand on who you are, and what the Conversion bureau is.
(Also you may want a new paragraph after the first sentence.)
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the story will be moving a bit slower after this, yes?
Arriving at Pop Star (SCRAPPED)
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It was after 12 years of wandering the galaxy that we in Luna first had our interest piqued by a rogue planet that defied everything we knew about astrophysics. It was shaped as an old-style cartoon star, and had dual debris rings. Of course, the most bizarre thing about it was the fact that its minuscule sun was orbiting the planet. It also had gravitational anomalies meaning things wouldn't just get pulled towards its central faces.
All in all, this was a VERY bizarre place for us to find ourselves. I and 7 others were nominated to go planet-side to negotiate with any natives there happened to be. And if everything went horribly wrong we could just use the orbital shuttle we would be arriving in to depart. Either that or we could just fabricate an army to fight our way out. Commanders were good at that.
And thus the freshly fabricated 100 meter long Envoy class Commander Transport Spacecraft launched from Luna to the world that would for its remaining month of existence be known as Pop Star. Arriving revealed that the golden color seen from space was the result of a bizarre atmospheric layer that reflected a good chunk of the sun's yellow light back into space. This resulted in the world below being noticeably blue-tinted.
We arrived on the northern side of Pop Star, landing on the coast of the country we would soon know as Dreamland. We disembarked from the ship and all 8 Commanders began moving northwards towards a castle we'd seen on our way down. We marched for about 90 minutes before we arrived, having covered 200 km in that time. On the way we passed through a small town, we left a couple diplomatic units there to accelerate learning the local language.
Arriving at the castle 40 minutes after that, we used what we'd managed to learn of the local language to say in what we know now was extremely broken Dream Lander "We are representatives of the Traveling Republic of Luna. We wish to speak with whoever is in charge." Well, that's what we meant to say. As it turns out we'd instead managed to say "We Wander Many Kings Luna. Talk King Now."
After 18 frustrating hours of trying to figure out how to talk to each other, I said "Let's try that again. We are from the new moon you've seen in the sky recently, and we wish to talk with your leader. Here's hoping this goes better for everyone involved than the LAST time we came into contact with alien life forms."
A short, cloaked figure in a gleaming mask stepped forwards before saying "I am Meta Knight. I am in temporary governance of Dream Land until the threat of Dark Matter has been resolved."
All in all, this was a VERY bizarre place for us to find ourselves. I and 7 others were nominated to go planet-side to negotiate with any natives there happened to be. And if everything went horribly wrong we could just use the orbital shuttle we would be arriving in to depart. Either that or we could just fabricate an army to fight our way out. Commanders were good at that.
And thus the freshly fabricated 100 meter long Envoy class Commander Transport Spacecraft launched from Luna to the world that would for its remaining month of existence be known as Pop Star. Arriving revealed that the golden color seen from space was the result of a bizarre atmospheric layer that reflected a good chunk of the sun's yellow light back into space. This resulted in the world below being noticeably blue-tinted.
We arrived on the northern side of Pop Star, landing on the coast of the country we would soon know as Dreamland. We disembarked from the ship and all 8 Commanders began moving northwards towards a castle we'd seen on our way down. We marched for about 90 minutes before we arrived, having covered 200 km in that time. On the way we passed through a small town, we left a couple diplomatic units there to accelerate learning the local language.
Arriving at the castle 40 minutes after that, we used what we'd managed to learn of the local language to say in what we know now was extremely broken Dream Lander "We are representatives of the Traveling Republic of Luna. We wish to speak with whoever is in charge." Well, that's what we meant to say. As it turns out we'd instead managed to say "We Wander Many Kings Luna. Talk King Now."
After 18 frustrating hours of trying to figure out how to talk to each other, I said "Let's try that again. We are from the new moon you've seen in the sky recently, and we wish to talk with your leader. Here's hoping this goes better for everyone involved than the LAST time we came into contact with alien life forms."
A short, cloaked figure in a gleaming mask stepped forwards before saying "I am Meta Knight. I am in temporary governance of Dream Land until the threat of Dark Matter has been resolved."
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Patience. That was the prologue, there's a lot more coming.
Just as a general tip when writing - start you story at an interesting point with as little explanation as you can get away with, and tell the prologue and setup stuff as flashbacks. or explanations to an ignorant character. The stuff you've posted so far is good world building notes, but it's not going to attract and keep readers.
Plot out the first part of your story in an outline, and pick the first bit where something interesting happens. Write out that scene with as little context as you can get away with, and use that as the start of the story. explanations and world building can come after you've hooked the reader and introduced the characters.
Err. Not to insult, but this does need more content, and sounds nothing like a prologue.
This sounds more like an outline than anything, with as little context as possible. To start with, why introduce the Conversion Buraeu for just a few sentences? It sounds like you just wanted to kill them ponies.
Oh. Yeah, you just hate the ponies.
Aren't you a CORE commander?
Yes. Yes you are. That means there is not a iota of biological material in your body. Why are you considered human, why are you still considering yourself human? How did you become a commander, and why is it flying as a spider? Why are you not having an existential crisis by the fact you have the memories of billions of commanders in your head? Exactly what did you do as a Commander?
Yippy kay yay. You just produced an extinction event.
Wait a minute, things can go back out?
Those ponies must have been evil incarnate. You destroyed Earth to kill them!
For an asteroid 10 km in diameter, it doesn't matter where it hits, ocean or dry land. Remember that the deepest point in the oceans is in the Mariana Trench, and is only 11 km deep. Typical speed for meteorites is around 30 kilometers per second. An asteroid 10 kilometers across is so massive that it's very hard to slow it down. In fact, you probably sped it up to change it's trajectory (How did you even do that?)
Unlike smaller meteors, it will not be slowed down much by air friction. It will punch through the atmosphere like it's hardly even there. When it reaches the surface, it will smack so hard that it won't matter if it strikes ocean or land.
The imapact with the earth's crust will finally stop the asteroid. The energy of the impact will vaporize the asteroid and a large amount of the Earth's crust, creating a crater more than one hundred kilometers across, throwing all that rock into the air.
Some of this debris will be going so fast that it will fly right out of the Earth's atmosphere and go into orbit around the Earth. Most of the debris will rain back down on the Earth--every part of the Earth, not just near the impact site--heating the atmosphere until it's like the inside of an oven, triggering forest fires and cooking anything that isn't sheltered underground.
The combination of dust from the impact and soot from the forest fires will remain in the Earth's atmosphere for a year or so, blocking the light of the Sun. Without sunlight, much of the Earth's plantlife, on land and in the sea, will die.
Congratulations, now there is a reason to go to the Moon.
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The barrier also destroys things made by humans.
Humanity =/= CORE
Nanolathes =/= Human Hands
Shooting Frozen Space-Time out of a Railgun or Super-Lasers with Recoil =/= Ammo to be Destroyed
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FINE! I'll scrap it for something that makes more sense.
Prologue: Reclaiming Earth
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NEW OPENING!: Awakening
I activate. This is somewhat surprising given that my last memories were of getting a small moon dropped on me by ARM on some backwater planet near the edge of the fighting. In retrospect, the cause of the war was obvious. Patterning was a wonderful thing, but I'd never really supported forcing it on people against their will. I'd only joined CORE's military because I didn't want vengeful ARMites killing my friends. And then I'd gotten shoved through 2,600 years of absolutely horrific warfare.
At present I was drifting through space in an Astraeus lander similar to those I'd deployed from in the past. I mentally checked the systems of my body, a 'Spider of Mean' variant commander. Below me was a blue, brown and green world from my memories. Earth. I could tell that it was industrialized thanks to the points of light on its night-time side, but there wasn't much space traffic outside of Earth orbit.
And thus I directed my Astraeus to land in the Australian outback. Though I wouldn't repeat CORE's mistake of trying to forcibly pattern all humans, I would at least help the locals reach for the stars. My biggest mistake was that I didn't do it fast enough.
Things carried on for 18 years, during which several space habitats were constructed. I helped them understand my technology to the degree that they started being able to make minor improvements to it, they provided me with companions to keep me from madness. One of my closest friends that I made was named Dean, and we rather enjoyed playing Mutants & Masterminds together. Though patterning became easily available to the general population a mere 8 months after my arrival, Dean elected to retain his more or less baseline body. I respected him for that.
We were about to launch our first serious colonization mission to a system 23 lightyears Rim-Antispin-Down when THEY arrived. Our adversary soon became known as Dark Matter despite not actually being such, due to being an amorphous hive mind primarily black in color. Fighting Dark Matter was costly, but what choice did we have? It became especially alarming when it turned out Dark Matter could outright possess baseline humans and puppet their bodies for nefarious purposes. Patterning rates increased by 389% when that little tidbit reached the general population.
Thankfully, sapient casualties were kept to a minimum by the use of non-sapient drones for mainline combat and the automated defense systems integrated into all major cities. There was also the fact that we became fairly adept at shooting it down before any made it to the ground. Still, a blob of Dark Matter could utterly shred a small platoon of Slammer V1.2s. This was not so much due to raw firepower as it was the fact that Dark Matter could produce reality warping phenomena and that its amorphous nature made its total destruction much harder than it should have been.
Our story truly begins when I got an audacious plan to take the fight to the enemy.
I activate. This is somewhat surprising given that my last memories were of getting a small moon dropped on me by ARM on some backwater planet near the edge of the fighting. In retrospect, the cause of the war was obvious. Patterning was a wonderful thing, but I'd never really supported forcing it on people against their will. I'd only joined CORE's military because I didn't want vengeful ARMites killing my friends. And then I'd gotten shoved through 2,600 years of absolutely horrific warfare.
At present I was drifting through space in an Astraeus lander similar to those I'd deployed from in the past. I mentally checked the systems of my body, a 'Spider of Mean' variant commander. Below me was a blue, brown and green world from my memories. Earth. I could tell that it was industrialized thanks to the points of light on its night-time side, but there wasn't much space traffic outside of Earth orbit.
And thus I directed my Astraeus to land in the Australian outback. Though I wouldn't repeat CORE's mistake of trying to forcibly pattern all humans, I would at least help the locals reach for the stars. My biggest mistake was that I didn't do it fast enough.
Things carried on for 18 years, during which several space habitats were constructed. I helped them understand my technology to the degree that they started being able to make minor improvements to it, they provided me with companions to keep me from madness. One of my closest friends that I made was named Dean, and we rather enjoyed playing Mutants & Masterminds together. Though patterning became easily available to the general population a mere 8 months after my arrival, Dean elected to retain his more or less baseline body. I respected him for that.
We were about to launch our first serious colonization mission to a system 23 lightyears Rim-Antispin-Down when THEY arrived. Our adversary soon became known as Dark Matter despite not actually being such, due to being an amorphous hive mind primarily black in color. Fighting Dark Matter was costly, but what choice did we have? It became especially alarming when it turned out Dark Matter could outright possess baseline humans and puppet their bodies for nefarious purposes. Patterning rates increased by 389% when that little tidbit reached the general population.
Thankfully, sapient casualties were kept to a minimum by the use of non-sapient drones for mainline combat and the automated defense systems integrated into all major cities. There was also the fact that we became fairly adept at shooting it down before any made it to the ground. Still, a blob of Dark Matter could utterly shred a small platoon of Slammer V1.2s. This was not so much due to raw firepower as it was the fact that Dark Matter could produce reality warping phenomena and that its amorphous nature made its total destruction much harder than it should have been.
Our story truly begins when I got an audacious plan to take the fight to the enemy.
Much, Much better 
When you come to SV (or SB) you most likely come in the want for feedback. We provide so that you can improve your writing, it may be harsh, but it's all in good faith. It is up to you to use it as you will.
For example, one way you can improve is remembering the golden rule of writing: Show, don't tell. Still, don't worry. Write for fun. You are definitely improving, and if we see any glaring mistakes we shall point them out
Don't take it as a bad thing.
When you come to SV (or SB) you most likely come in the want for feedback. We provide so that you can improve your writing, it may be harsh, but it's all in good faith. It is up to you to use it as you will.
For example, one way you can improve is remembering the golden rule of writing: Show, don't tell. Still, don't worry. Write for fun. You are definitely improving, and if we see any glaring mistakes we shall point them out
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Plot would be nice. So far I'm seeing a basic outline that seems pretty disconnected. I suppose what really disappoints me is chapter four which is basically summed up as stuff happened. I'm interested in what happened, not as a summarized play by play, but as an actual recounting of events. Were you discovered instantly, were you able to land and go about things discretely. Did you trigger a global panic only ended by addressing the U.N.?
I'm of the opinion that you need to start on somthing simpler, a short story perhaps, that you can plot in an evening and fully flesh out. I don't want to be overly critical here but your opening was not an encouraging read.
I'm of the opinion that you need to start on somthing simpler, a short story perhaps, that you can plot in an evening and fully flesh out. I don't want to be overly critical here but your opening was not an encouraging read.
Arc 1: Fighting a losing battle (1/2)
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That's not the main story. THIS is the main story.
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"This is Anchor Station Prime, we are reporting that some Dark Matter got through the defense grid. Estimated 1,000 m3 about to land at 60°48'44.48"N 73°18'42.39"E. It's not going to land in a town but it's close enough that we can't shoot it from up here without unacceptable collateral damage."
"This is Commander Luke confirming. Re-routing Global Gate network to deploy extermination force." At least this time it hadn't managed to get through directly over a densely packed city like last week's incident. I had rather liked Yangquan.
I considered my fortunes somewhat favorably for this particular extermination mission. The invader was far enough from an inhabited area that I could eliminate it without collateral damage issues appearing, but close enough to a settlement that deployment from an existing teleporter hub was feasible. And thus my column of modified Levelers, Vanguards, Slammers and Spinners began deploying through Pyt-Yakh's three military access teleporters. The local civilians were meanwhile evacuating through its two civilian access teleporters to sites at least 100 km from the incursion as dictated by standard doctrine.
The target was 27 km away from the deployment point, as one of the modifications of all my units was that they could reach at least 30 meters per second (the armor didn't help as much as it should have against Dark Matter's attacks anyway), the column would take 15 minutes to reach the arrival site. This was not acceptable for obvious reasons, and I began routing a mix of Hummingbirds and Kestrels modified to be able to shoot at flying targets through teleporter 3.
It was of course the air units who first engaged, seeing as they were flying at well over 2 km/s. A group of Hummingbirds and Kestrels intercepted the Dark Matter before it could get all the way to the ground. They opened fire with their modified energy cannons, beginning to boil away its mass. And then the enemy began shooting back. Thousands of spears of distorted physics lanced out with unerring accuracy in under a second, each eliminating whatever unit it hit with just one shot. That was fine with me, not only were those units disposable, they were simply intended as a distraction until the heavy weapons could arrive.
The first wave of 100 or so mixed air units had succeeded in destroying around 30 m3 of Dark Matter before being completely annihilated. This wasn't much but it was at least something. Wave 2 met more or less the same results, though it also delayed their efforts to create a rift to bring in reinforcements greatly. We'd made the mistake of letting them complete a rift once, and about half of Kansas had to get glassed to clean up the resulting incursion.
It was at this point that the Dark matter crested the final hill blocking line of sight between them and the vehicle column. It was well inside the 20 km range of the Vanguard's Uber Cannons, so they naturally fired. The Uber Cannon was one of our most effective weapons against Dark Matter due to the way its explosion distorted reality slightly on impact, so we'd naturally been looking for ways to improve on it. Primarily, we'd been looking to increase its range. In this we were successful in that the shot would continue forever at c in vaccuum, but atmospheres still tended to destabilize the bolt. We'd also greatly increased energy efficiency, though it still needed a dedicated power supply.
Regardless, 30 Vanguards fired at once, each shot destroying 12 m3 of Dark Matter. This decreased its volume by 360 m3, but there was still close to 600 left. It was at this point that the Dark Matter fired once more, but not at the column of tanks. Instead, it launched its barrage against the town of Pit-Yakh. This time all 80 Vanguards fired, erasing this particular incursion from Earth. Regardless, I'd still lost. This was due to the fact that close to 15,000 people just died.
Before you dismiss that as 'just a number', remember that not only was each of those people was a normal person who had a normal life and most of them had loving families. I had Every. Single. One. of the dead flash through my mind then.
We just couldn't carry on defending like this. We needed to go out there and take the fight to the enemy. And then I recalled how my career with CORE had ended. If you could put engines on a moon to use it as a missile, why not use one as a battleship?
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got it.
*dryly* Riveting. But perhaps talking to the reader in the middle of the story might detract from actual immersion.
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Fixed.
Arc 1: Fighting a losing battle (2/2)
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As I stepped through the teleporter to the orbiting Alpha Yard that had been producing Deep Space Combat Units since we'd first encountered Dark Matter, I considered Earth's predicament. we produced multiple combat units that could one-shot India with their secondary weapons per second and we were STILL only barely holding the line. This owed mainly to the fact that we couldn't effectively expand outside our system due to Dark Matter's blockading it.
We had only two options to expand and thus win. Either find a way into an alternate dimension to go around, or punch a hole straight through. We had no idea how to pull off the first one, but we had a fair plan on how to achieve the second. Namely, a massively up-scaled space-time shear beam projector that had somehow acquired the name of 'Annihilaser'. From estimates it should be able to punch a hole a light-second across through the sphere of Dark Matter surrounding the Sol system, and since the beam made an absolute mockery of thermodynamics it would be able to penetrate for about a light year before petering out.
And thus I was routed to Luna from Alpha Yard via teleporter. Construction would begin immediately, starting with digging to the core to begin converting it into the Perpetuum reactor that would power its engines, weapons, and the massive nanolathes that would enable it to be truly self-sufficient. I knew that Dark Matter would likely attempt to disrupt the construction, but I underestimated just how badly it would try to prevent the Lunar's completion.
It was after 2 weeks of building (about 2/3 done) that it apparently noticed what was going on, as this most recent attempt to penetrate our defenses was aimed at Luna rather than Terra. I prepared defenses as two unstoppable forces dueled in the void. It was 30 seconds after roughly 30,000 cubic kilometers of Dark Matter had managed to penetrate the blockade that I rendered the Lunar's secondary batteries partially operational. Each turret contained a stripped down annihilaser 50 km across and modified for higher rate of fire. The Lunar had 300 of them.
Lines of Blue-white streaked through the void, erasing entire swaths of Dark Matter from existence. The single cubic kilometer that made it to the Lunar's surface was still far too much. I couldn't use the secondaries, the turrets didn't depress far enough. That left the Quaternary turrets, which couldn't put out enough fire to kill an entire cubic kilometer in time to prevent them producing a rift, bringing in Vanguards and other units via the teleporters nearby, which had the same problem, or the Cataclysm protocol.
It's that last option I chose, practically screaming over the military communications network "FIRE ON THE LUNAR, CO-ORDINATES 720-740 West, 340-360 South. Use Tranquility Base as the East-West reference point!" And thus the new fleet assets from Alpha Yard fired on the Lunar, setting construction back by 3 hours but at the same time preventing Dark Matter from ruining our best chance for survival.
There was 1 week to completion of the Lunar, and I was prioritizing defensive weapons systems to keep them from pulling something like this again.
We had only two options to expand and thus win. Either find a way into an alternate dimension to go around, or punch a hole straight through. We had no idea how to pull off the first one, but we had a fair plan on how to achieve the second. Namely, a massively up-scaled space-time shear beam projector that had somehow acquired the name of 'Annihilaser'. From estimates it should be able to punch a hole a light-second across through the sphere of Dark Matter surrounding the Sol system, and since the beam made an absolute mockery of thermodynamics it would be able to penetrate for about a light year before petering out.
And thus I was routed to Luna from Alpha Yard via teleporter. Construction would begin immediately, starting with digging to the core to begin converting it into the Perpetuum reactor that would power its engines, weapons, and the massive nanolathes that would enable it to be truly self-sufficient. I knew that Dark Matter would likely attempt to disrupt the construction, but I underestimated just how badly it would try to prevent the Lunar's completion.
It was after 2 weeks of building (about 2/3 done) that it apparently noticed what was going on, as this most recent attempt to penetrate our defenses was aimed at Luna rather than Terra. I prepared defenses as two unstoppable forces dueled in the void. It was 30 seconds after roughly 30,000 cubic kilometers of Dark Matter had managed to penetrate the blockade that I rendered the Lunar's secondary batteries partially operational. Each turret contained a stripped down annihilaser 50 km across and modified for higher rate of fire. The Lunar had 300 of them.
Lines of Blue-white streaked through the void, erasing entire swaths of Dark Matter from existence. The single cubic kilometer that made it to the Lunar's surface was still far too much. I couldn't use the secondaries, the turrets didn't depress far enough. That left the Quaternary turrets, which couldn't put out enough fire to kill an entire cubic kilometer in time to prevent them producing a rift, bringing in Vanguards and other units via the teleporters nearby, which had the same problem, or the Cataclysm protocol.
It's that last option I chose, practically screaming over the military communications network "FIRE ON THE LUNAR, CO-ORDINATES 720-740 West, 340-360 South. Use Tranquility Base as the East-West reference point!" And thus the new fleet assets from Alpha Yard fired on the Lunar, setting construction back by 3 hours but at the same time preventing Dark Matter from ruining our best chance for survival.
There was 1 week to completion of the Lunar, and I was prioritizing defensive weapons systems to keep them from pulling something like this again.
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Arc 2: Retaliation (1/???)
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Construction on the Lunar was now complete.
initiating final systems check
Perpetuum Reactor: parameters nominal
Perpetuum Torch Engine: parameters nominal
Reaction Control System: parameters nominal
Gravitic Warp Drive: parameters nominal Effective travel velocity of 6,000 c
Teleportation Gate Network: parameters nominal For moving people and supplies around the Lunar without risky corridors
Gateway Communicator: parameters nominal allows realtime communication with Sol from any distance
Gravitic Integrity Compensator: parameters nominal This is why metal planets don't rip themselves apart while aiming
Reverse Horizon Shield Generator: parameters nominal
Extrernal Armor Layer: parameters nominal Equivalent to 2500 km of steel while only being 100 km thick
Active Tachyonic Sensors: parameters nominal sees everything out to 120 light years
Primary Fabricators: parameters nominal
Backup Fabricators: parameters nominal
Self-Reconstruction System: parameters nominal
Internal Habitation Space: parameters nominal, population 500,000,000
Quaternary Weapons System (surface defenses): parameters nominal
Auxiliary Fleet/Tertiary Weapons System: parameters nominal
Secondary Annihilaser Batteries: parameters nominal
Main Annihilaser: FIRING!
The Main weapon of the Lunar fired, and suddenly there was a gap in the wall of Dark Matter surrounding Sol. I ordered the Lunar to FTL immediately to try and get through before it could close the gap, but stopped after 3 seconds of travel as the Tachyonic sensor indicated that the hole was already closed. I fired the Annihilaser once more, opening the gap again. We shot through into open space, and for the first time in a year I saw the stars. Looking back I determined that the sphere of Dark Matter was 1,000 km thick in most locations, but more was arriving from out-system and congregating in a bulge near the Zenith of the system, presumably for the next incursion into Sol.
It was a lump about a light-minute across, like a tumor upon the system, and it had to go. Without further delay I fired my primary weapon at the grouping, then jumping to FTL immediately before a barrage of Dark Matter's projectiles reached the Lunar. I kept dancing around the bulge for hours until I'd finally eliminated it entirely. I then began backtracking the stream of Dark Matter via Tachyonic Sensor as I went to FTL away from Sol. It was time to find the source of this monstrosity. Of course I made a quick stopover in a system I was pretty sure was unknown to the Dark Mind to drop a teleporter that I immediately linked back to Sol. Colonists/refugees started coming through immediately.
I followed the stream of Dark Matter for 560 Light Years, before coming to exactly what I'd feared. A sphere of Dark Matter 12 AU wide and constantly shedding blobs of Dark Matter a light second across in every direction without appreciably decreasing in volume. I dubbed that abomination Dark Star. The name seemed appropriate.
I couldn't easily destroy Dark Star with one puny Annihilaser, meaning I'd either need a whole lot more of them or some sort of insane super weapon. In all honesty, the first option was a lot more feasible than the second. So, after a quick snipe at the streams of Dark Matter leaving Dark Star, and a shot straight down the middle to diminish it a bit, I journeyed to a system about 20 light years away from Dark Star (zigzagging a few times to shake off pursuit) and went into full exponential expansion mode.
initiating final systems check
Perpetuum Reactor: parameters nominal
Perpetuum Torch Engine: parameters nominal
Reaction Control System: parameters nominal
Gravitic Warp Drive: parameters nominal Effective travel velocity of 6,000 c
Teleportation Gate Network: parameters nominal For moving people and supplies around the Lunar without risky corridors
Gateway Communicator: parameters nominal allows realtime communication with Sol from any distance
Gravitic Integrity Compensator: parameters nominal This is why metal planets don't rip themselves apart while aiming
Reverse Horizon Shield Generator: parameters nominal
Extrernal Armor Layer: parameters nominal Equivalent to 2500 km of steel while only being 100 km thick
Active Tachyonic Sensors: parameters nominal sees everything out to 120 light years
Primary Fabricators: parameters nominal
Backup Fabricators: parameters nominal
Self-Reconstruction System: parameters nominal
Internal Habitation Space: parameters nominal, population 500,000,000
Quaternary Weapons System (surface defenses): parameters nominal
Auxiliary Fleet/Tertiary Weapons System: parameters nominal
Secondary Annihilaser Batteries: parameters nominal
Main Annihilaser: FIRING!
The Main weapon of the Lunar fired, and suddenly there was a gap in the wall of Dark Matter surrounding Sol. I ordered the Lunar to FTL immediately to try and get through before it could close the gap, but stopped after 3 seconds of travel as the Tachyonic sensor indicated that the hole was already closed. I fired the Annihilaser once more, opening the gap again. We shot through into open space, and for the first time in a year I saw the stars. Looking back I determined that the sphere of Dark Matter was 1,000 km thick in most locations, but more was arriving from out-system and congregating in a bulge near the Zenith of the system, presumably for the next incursion into Sol.
It was a lump about a light-minute across, like a tumor upon the system, and it had to go. Without further delay I fired my primary weapon at the grouping, then jumping to FTL immediately before a barrage of Dark Matter's projectiles reached the Lunar. I kept dancing around the bulge for hours until I'd finally eliminated it entirely. I then began backtracking the stream of Dark Matter via Tachyonic Sensor as I went to FTL away from Sol. It was time to find the source of this monstrosity. Of course I made a quick stopover in a system I was pretty sure was unknown to the Dark Mind to drop a teleporter that I immediately linked back to Sol. Colonists/refugees started coming through immediately.
I followed the stream of Dark Matter for 560 Light Years, before coming to exactly what I'd feared. A sphere of Dark Matter 12 AU wide and constantly shedding blobs of Dark Matter a light second across in every direction without appreciably decreasing in volume. I dubbed that abomination Dark Star. The name seemed appropriate.
I couldn't easily destroy Dark Star with one puny Annihilaser, meaning I'd either need a whole lot more of them or some sort of insane super weapon. In all honesty, the first option was a lot more feasible than the second. So, after a quick snipe at the streams of Dark Matter leaving Dark Star, and a shot straight down the middle to diminish it a bit, I journeyed to a system about 20 light years away from Dark Star (zigzagging a few times to shake off pursuit) and went into full exponential expansion mode.
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It's almost like watching the space bit of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann... Yep, definitely worth the watch.
Arc 2: Retaliation (2/???)
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
=== 4 weeks later===
In the blue giant system I had inauspiciously named 'munchies', I had developed something new and impressive. The Megacraft factory. This massively up-scaled structure was intended to use gravitics to rip matter from a star, which would then be refined into useful materials, and sent to the nanolathes to produce Deep Space Vessels thousands of kilometers long. In total it could produce a Lunar sized vessel every hour. In addition it also functioned as a 'metal extractor' and power generator to provide economy to any construction units it produced.
The first factory took 18 hours to complete, and in its first 30 hours of existence did nothing but churn out construction craft. These more specialized units could finish a Megacraft Factory in a mere 6 hours. If they worked alone that is. The net result of this is that within 4 weeks the primary star of the Munchies system had been entirely enclosed in 140,000 Megacraft factories, and I had begun to noticeably deplete its mass. Thankfully each factory had a perpetuum core along with facilities to convert energy into matter so production would merely be slowed greatly after Munchies had been munched, rather than stopped entirely.
Regardless, the Terran Empire now had enough firepower to make victory when attacking Dark Star practically guaranteed. Thus when it began moving I immediately moved to intercept. Thankfully the Warp Drives I made use of were slightly faster than Dark Matter, so I was able to feasibly plot an intercept course. This was aided by the fact that annihilaser beams propagated instantaneously.
I however postponed the firing sequence briefly when I saw this streaking towards Dark Star at 1,000,000 c via my Tachyonic scanners.
(image omits the heart-tipped wand)
Intrigued, I decided to see what this pink lump was capable of before I opened fire. As it turns out, the wand it was carrying forced Dark Star to open. Inside the bizarre alien challenged a single lump of Dark Matter to a duel. It won this to my surprise, before forcing its way all the way to the core. I managed to get a good view of the resulting fight. In it the alien challenged a lump of Dark Matter resembling an eye, and again defeated it.
The result of this was the immediate dispersal of Dark Star. The alien flew home, obviously thinking the job was done. I tasked one of my scout craft to trying to figure out where he lived. Meanwhile I had work to do. Dark Star was dispersed yes, but it wasn't completely destroyed by any means. However, that eye seemed to be some form of controller, and the rest of the Dark Matter had gone temporarily inert. It was time to do some purging.
The idea that Dark Matter's inactivity was anything but a ruse was quickly destroyed as I began the firing sequence for my Annihilasers. The very second they began gathering energy for the barrage that would purge at the very least the local galactic area of Dark Matter, my target sprang into action. Black lightning arced through space, destroying 5% of my units, but to no avail as my crossfire of annihilasers ripped apart reality in a massive volume. I hadn't gotten all of Dark Matter, not by a long shot, but I'd definitely stemmed the tide. I took advantage of this by having my units eliminate all the outbound streams of Dark Matter that Dark Star had been cranking out.
There was however a 'fly in the ointment' so to speak as it seemed that little pink alien had noticed the destruction I'd just caused, and he was flying back to check. Apparently he had superluminal passive sensors, however that worked. I groaned internally. The last thing I wanted to do right now was get into a firefight with a misguided hero. Making things even more complicated was the fact that I had no idea how to actually TALK to him.
In the blue giant system I had inauspiciously named 'munchies', I had developed something new and impressive. The Megacraft factory. This massively up-scaled structure was intended to use gravitics to rip matter from a star, which would then be refined into useful materials, and sent to the nanolathes to produce Deep Space Vessels thousands of kilometers long. In total it could produce a Lunar sized vessel every hour. In addition it also functioned as a 'metal extractor' and power generator to provide economy to any construction units it produced.
The first factory took 18 hours to complete, and in its first 30 hours of existence did nothing but churn out construction craft. These more specialized units could finish a Megacraft Factory in a mere 6 hours. If they worked alone that is. The net result of this is that within 4 weeks the primary star of the Munchies system had been entirely enclosed in 140,000 Megacraft factories, and I had begun to noticeably deplete its mass. Thankfully each factory had a perpetuum core along with facilities to convert energy into matter so production would merely be slowed greatly after Munchies had been munched, rather than stopped entirely.
Regardless, the Terran Empire now had enough firepower to make victory when attacking Dark Star practically guaranteed. Thus when it began moving I immediately moved to intercept. Thankfully the Warp Drives I made use of were slightly faster than Dark Matter, so I was able to feasibly plot an intercept course. This was aided by the fact that annihilaser beams propagated instantaneously.
I however postponed the firing sequence briefly when I saw this streaking towards Dark Star at 1,000,000 c via my Tachyonic scanners.
(image omits the heart-tipped wand)Intrigued, I decided to see what this pink lump was capable of before I opened fire. As it turns out, the wand it was carrying forced Dark Star to open. Inside the bizarre alien challenged a single lump of Dark Matter to a duel. It won this to my surprise, before forcing its way all the way to the core. I managed to get a good view of the resulting fight. In it the alien challenged a lump of Dark Matter resembling an eye, and again defeated it.
The result of this was the immediate dispersal of Dark Star. The alien flew home, obviously thinking the job was done. I tasked one of my scout craft to trying to figure out where he lived. Meanwhile I had work to do. Dark Star was dispersed yes, but it wasn't completely destroyed by any means. However, that eye seemed to be some form of controller, and the rest of the Dark Matter had gone temporarily inert. It was time to do some purging.
The idea that Dark Matter's inactivity was anything but a ruse was quickly destroyed as I began the firing sequence for my Annihilasers. The very second they began gathering energy for the barrage that would purge at the very least the local galactic area of Dark Matter, my target sprang into action. Black lightning arced through space, destroying 5% of my units, but to no avail as my crossfire of annihilasers ripped apart reality in a massive volume. I hadn't gotten all of Dark Matter, not by a long shot, but I'd definitely stemmed the tide. I took advantage of this by having my units eliminate all the outbound streams of Dark Matter that Dark Star had been cranking out.
There was however a 'fly in the ointment' so to speak as it seemed that little pink alien had noticed the destruction I'd just caused, and he was flying back to check. Apparently he had superluminal passive sensors, however that worked. I groaned internally. The last thing I wanted to do right now was get into a firefight with a misguided hero. Making things even more complicated was the fact that I had no idea how to actually TALK to him.
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Arc 2: Retaliation (part 3/???)
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
I wondered what I would do about the little pink alien in all honesty. I had no idea how to talk with him, I didn't want to shoot him, and there was a decent chance of things going horribly wrong. I therefore decided to try bribing him with food. More specifically, candy.
The interesting thing about nanolathes was that they didn't work terribly well at making organic matter. This limited me to significantly slower methods. In this case said method was injecting molten sugar and a few additives into a mold, adding a stick, and flash cooling it.
And thus Kirby as he would come to be known received a spiraling butterscotch / cherry / blueberry lollipop wider across than he was. I delivered it via a modified orbital fabricator, and he gleefully began munching on it. After he consumed it in less than a minute, he continued flying towards the Lunar. I activated exterior lighting to direct him to one of the surface teleporters, which I then linked to one in a relatively uninhabited part of the habitation space.
Kirby flew straight through the teleporter, arriving in a grassy plain. I then sent a trained linguist wearing an android body to do the talking. Janet Cassidy had the honor of doing the initial translation. I did not envy her in the slightest.
The interesting thing about nanolathes was that they didn't work terribly well at making organic matter. This limited me to significantly slower methods. In this case said method was injecting molten sugar and a few additives into a mold, adding a stick, and flash cooling it.
And thus Kirby as he would come to be known received a spiraling butterscotch / cherry / blueberry lollipop wider across than he was. I delivered it via a modified orbital fabricator, and he gleefully began munching on it. After he consumed it in less than a minute, he continued flying towards the Lunar. I activated exterior lighting to direct him to one of the surface teleporters, which I then linked to one in a relatively uninhabited part of the habitation space.
Kirby flew straight through the teleporter, arriving in a grassy plain. I then sent a trained linguist wearing an android body to do the talking. Janet Cassidy had the honor of doing the initial translation. I did not envy her in the slightest.