ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
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- Earth
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- She/Her
I mean they aren't short on materiel or material. Just the ability to keep track of such a chaotic situation.
Limit Theory [PA Multicross SI]
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
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How about back to the Gundam neighborhood? There's nothing to be done for the version her Extremely Unsafe Mode reboot wiped out, but the close-AU exploration developed in Half-Life might let her find other variants. Like G-Gundam! Everyone loves Mobile Fighter G-Gundam! I mean, I'm not entirely sure what she might do there besides unfuck their version of machine-mind interface to not drive users insane and maybe hand off some low to mid range FTL tech to let them get some of their eggs out of the one basket, and do some terraforming around the universe so there's actually somewhere else to go if that's another one where life emerged just the once, but still, G-Gundam! Don't you want to see how Rachel and Penny can fare against giant robots themed on a windmill, cactus, bull, magical girl, charioteers and horsemen, a giant flying head, and so on? Who with a soul wouldn't!?
e: Sailor Moon (pick your continuity) might also be fun, and with more obvious hooks to connect to than Naruto
e: Sailor Moon (pick your continuity) might also be fun, and with more obvious hooks to connect to than Naruto
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ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
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- She/Her
But the line to get into amusement parks is always so long!
"This soul of mine burns with an awesome power! A power that tells me to defeat you! Semblence: Overwhelm!"
And six copies of Rachel's Gundam Cutlass proceed to hold down the other Gundam and whack at it with swords until it dies.
Rachel makes herself a moon cat avatar and beats Luna to the Senshi, then, uh... actually don't know enough about Sailor Moon to tell.
Everything I know about Sailor Moon I learned from this dork. (Oh, and some Shadowjack too.)
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
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- She/Her
Eh, BAEN villain syndrome (our villain is totally the best manipulator ever! Except for the fact that they have the temper of nitroglyerin, and the attitude of a lawn dart, and the personability of an industrial cheese grater. And they're so smart and in control of things. Except for literally everything ever.) and heroes that are heroic heroes who do wrong....
I was mostly just thinking of how hilarious it would be to give the Exiles access to the tech what with all those grasers, X-ray equipped missiles, nukes, and all other manner of fun.
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
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Eh, Honorverse tech really isn't all that great compared to what they already have. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that they don't already have something better, to be honest...
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
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- Earth
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- She/Her
Hmmm. So, I checked the wiki. I was thinking that the HH-verse ships had c-fractional drives, but it turns out they only get around 500-600g acceleration. Meanwhile the new-model effector drives on the 4.5th gen stuff considers 200g "measly," though I didn't come up with a new maximum straight-line acceleration. (In rotation mode, the acceleration depends on the speed and the definiteness of the stationary field.)
That was the only real ability that I didn't think the Exiles had, but apparently they match up just fine. They already have powerful beam weapons, in photon molecule cannons and exotic principle cannons. They already have powerful missiles, like the EMAM Dust (100-exaton warheads) and Helferno Mix Dust (which, I must remind people, uses FOOF to stabilize the whole mess.) as well as weird warheads like the burner missiles. They don't have bomb-pumped DEW missiles though. Not that they probably need them.
- Location
- Texas
I think it would be interesting to see the Exiles interact with all the fun politics in Star Trek. Rachel's done galactic politics in Avalon, but Star Trek actually has a bunch of viable political units. They might get away with just making friends with the Federation and having hijinks with the crew of the Enterprise. There probably isn't any actual tech they can upgrade with unless they raid the Q Continuum, but they need more friends than just the Asgard and the Furlings.
- Location
- Sydney
@Itmauve has already expressed a refusal to deal with any setting which has conspicuous time travel. Granted she could probably write it out like she did in Stargate, but it would be difficult.
Actually that reminds me @Itmauve how did the SGC avoid being taken over / bio-bombed by the Ashen since canonically that involves time travel. And why is General Hammond in command and Sam Carter in the air force since again canonically the reason Jacob Carter survived the Vietnam War is because young Hammond took a risk knowing he had to survive along with Jacob? Several timeline show that without this incident Sam is a civilian and Hammond is a Colonel.
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- Location
- Mt. Holly, North Carolina
Hold up, helferno uses FOOF as a stabilizer? What the fuck kind of black magic bullshit is this helferno dust mix?
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
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- Earth
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- She/Her
....
Actually, as it turns out, the SGC wouldn't have met the Aschen anyway until later. ("Upgrades" is s4e3, "2010" is s4e16)
Dunno, hadn't considered it before. Though now that I'm thinking of it, maybe one Colonel Samuel O'Neill gave advice to Hammond when they were younger. Thus, MGM thought "Okay, Hammond was mentored by O'Neill's dad when he was younger. But what if it was a time-travel plot?"
Again, 50 kilos of the stuff, that could probably fit in two of those big bags of fertilizer you can get at the hardware store (assuming those bags were in a time-lock,) is enough to light a moon-sized refinery on multiple different kinds of fire. For a few weeks.
(It was a an automated refinery, otherwise Rachel wouldn't have used it.)
But ever since I heard of various explosive chemicals that are less volatile when in a cocrystal with TNT, I knew I had to write a chemical stabilized with FOOF. Plenty of exotic chemistry involved (that I won't explain or even think about myself) but there it is.
Article: Recall that this is the compound whose cocrystal with TNT is actually less dangerous than the pure starting material itself, and yeah, I know that sounds like the guy at the pet store packing a starved Komodo dragon into the carrier with your new dog, just to calm him down some. But there it is.
Article: Not that it's what you'd call a perfect compound in that regard – despite a lot of effort, it's still not quite ready to be hauled around in trucks. There's a recent report of a method to make a more stable form of it, by mixing it with TNT. Yes, this is an example of something that becomes less explosive as a one-to-one cocrystal with TNT. Although, as the authors point out, if you heat those crystals up the two components separate out, and you're left with crystals of pure CL-20 soaking in liquid TNT, a situation that will heighten your awareness of the fleeting nature of life.
(These articles are both written by pharmaceutical chemist Derek Lowe for his column "In The Pipeline.")
- Location
- Land of Confusion
When you're using TNT as a stabilizer, it's time to admit you've turned to Mad Science.
Do note that TNT, when not properly detonated, is quite tame. You burn it, basically it result in slow burn instead of explosion. You shake it, make it fall from height, slamming on it with hammer, it would take abuse as long as it's not detonated.
There's reason why it was widely used during WW2, and not because it's bigger explosive than, say, nitroglycerine.
- Location
- Land of Confusion
Sure. As long as it's not sweating. Or too old, or incorrectly mixed, or improperly stored. In any of those cases, it has the potential to become extremely volatile.
And TNT is nitroglycerine, just cut with retardant material to tone down nitroglycerine's touchiness. ('Just.' hah. It's more complicated than that, but it's the general idea.) That's what the N stands for.
Chapter 222
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chapter 222
--------------
Purple Hearts HIGHCOM
-------------
"Thank you." General Sieba Kerren, commander of Camelot Station and the Indigo Fleet, thanked Merlin 1 for its summary of the situation. "So, do we accept the goods, or destroy them?" He asked his fellow generals. Only three of them were present in the flesh; the remainder were telepresence holograms that only were real-time because of some new technology out of BuEnergy.
"Well, I doubt there will be any negatives from rejecting the goods. Besides, of course, not having the material." General Emin Forte stated. The commander of Eighth Fleet looked very similar to Kerren, which was not surprising since they were created from a limited collection of genetic templates, or first- or second-generation mutations from those templates.
"Actually, there might be." General Cena Tenno, commander of Second Fleet, spoke up. "The Exiles might take it as an insult to refuse the material. We've seen something similar happen with the Drifter lord Hime and the Tarkos stations. Or, if it is their intent to use us as a proxy, then rejecting the material signals we won't be useful like that. In which case, we could be receiving something significantly more deadly than three unpowered barges."
"But that leaves a risk of attack via the supplies, or more likely the computers in the equipment." General Telos Amuro, commander of Fifteenth Fleet, commented. "But that's assuming that they would need us to accept the material in order to conduct an attack. The Intelligence division's public key collection isn't squidproof, but COMPWAR said it'd be impossible to get data out without leaving a trace. And they have that whatever-the-heck-teleportation that won't give us a month of warning while they Telemothy Fold a wormhole. They could probably place a 15-ton Dimmie bomb in the middle of Indigo with about two seconds warning."
"Lack of hostile action is not lack of hostile intent." Forte said.
"Very true." Kerren said. "However, I still think we're more likely to wind up getting turned into a subordinate state then outright destroyed. Merlins, did we miss anything?"
"Affirmative." A synthetic voice spoke up. A holographic '7' appeared in the center of the large, round table the generals sat at, pulsing in time with the syllables.
"The economic effect of the resources must be taken into account. This is not just war materiel." Merlin 7 continued. "Currently our method of generating essential minerals for hydroponic usage is to process material lifted from stillborn garden worlds. This is the current bottleneck for expanding hydroponic production, and therefore our population. By using the essential minerals included in the shipment, an additional 12,782 kilometers of pipe can be made operational without any use of stillborn soil processing."
The generals took a moment to look at each other, purple eyes meeting other purple eyes. The number the AI had listed was nearly a third their current crop infrastructure. That was enough to feed almost 36 million people. It wouldn't put them above their pre-Transfer-Wars population, but it was a start
At the current ratios, that would be two thousand geneticists to crunch through Projects L and E, and two hundred thousand less-skilled scientists to help them do that. That would be nearly a million engineers and assistants for the seven different design bureaus.
That would be two million more technicians and repair crew to keep Indigo alive. It would be five million souls producing more food. It would be three million more prospectors and miners.
That would be eight more Fleets, nine-point-six-million men at arms. That would be the Crystal Paladins being kicked out of the Novarin, Alkon, and Henno clusters. That would be eighty more independent squadrons to completely annihilate any problems from all but the strongest Drifter enclaves.
General Sohii Tano, commander of Twentieth Fleet, broke the silence. "If the resources are actually usable." He cautioned. "In addition, it'll be sixteen years until the first children enter the workforce."
"Of course." Forte said. "We will need to check the cargo very carefully anyway. Coming up with a way to do that quickly would be Bu-Inf's job. Anyway, there is still the political aspect of accepting the material."
"I propose we attempt to deny it as a source of political leverage." General Soro Fior, commander of Second Fleet, stated. "They have limited resources of some sort. Whatever that is, we need to exploit it. They didn't even bother to communicate in real time in an attempt to butter us up. That lets us control communications.
"We can draft and review our response to them, then have it automatically transmitted the next time their ships show up in system. Their weird teleportation trick produces some sort of radiation surge that we can use as a trigger, right?"
"Correct." Merlin 12 spoke up. "The radiation spectra does not match any previously observed phenomena. What is not known is the appropriate margin of error for the spectra of the surge. Still, that is a minor detail and that action will be successful."
"That matter aside, what are we actually going to say to them?" Kerran said.
"Do we even need to?" Forte asked. "They said as little as possible. They might not even care about our words."
"We should keep it short, whatever we say." Kerran said. "For such a serious delivery, there was very little in that message. Our response should be likewise."
"Agreed." Forte said. "I'll send a draft response around for review sometime in the next week. If that's all that's urgent enough for us to conference, then I suggest we adjourn."
"No other matters of high priority remain." Merlin 1 said.
"Excellent, meeting adjourned." Kerran said, slapping the table. Twenty-two holograms vanished. "This better work." He muttered, then said a bit louder. "I'll send a request to Bu-Inf for that scanning system."
--------------
Purple Hearts HIGHCOM
-------------
"Thank you." General Sieba Kerren, commander of Camelot Station and the Indigo Fleet, thanked Merlin 1 for its summary of the situation. "So, do we accept the goods, or destroy them?" He asked his fellow generals. Only three of them were present in the flesh; the remainder were telepresence holograms that only were real-time because of some new technology out of BuEnergy.
"Well, I doubt there will be any negatives from rejecting the goods. Besides, of course, not having the material." General Emin Forte stated. The commander of Eighth Fleet looked very similar to Kerren, which was not surprising since they were created from a limited collection of genetic templates, or first- or second-generation mutations from those templates.
"Actually, there might be." General Cena Tenno, commander of Second Fleet, spoke up. "The Exiles might take it as an insult to refuse the material. We've seen something similar happen with the Drifter lord Hime and the Tarkos stations. Or, if it is their intent to use us as a proxy, then rejecting the material signals we won't be useful like that. In which case, we could be receiving something significantly more deadly than three unpowered barges."
"But that leaves a risk of attack via the supplies, or more likely the computers in the equipment." General Telos Amuro, commander of Fifteenth Fleet, commented. "But that's assuming that they would need us to accept the material in order to conduct an attack. The Intelligence division's public key collection isn't squidproof, but COMPWAR said it'd be impossible to get data out without leaving a trace. And they have that whatever-the-heck-teleportation that won't give us a month of warning while they Telemothy Fold a wormhole. They could probably place a 15-ton Dimmie bomb in the middle of Indigo with about two seconds warning."
"Lack of hostile action is not lack of hostile intent." Forte said.
"Very true." Kerren said. "However, I still think we're more likely to wind up getting turned into a subordinate state then outright destroyed. Merlins, did we miss anything?"
"Affirmative." A synthetic voice spoke up. A holographic '7' appeared in the center of the large, round table the generals sat at, pulsing in time with the syllables.
"The economic effect of the resources must be taken into account. This is not just war materiel." Merlin 7 continued. "Currently our method of generating essential minerals for hydroponic usage is to process material lifted from stillborn garden worlds. This is the current bottleneck for expanding hydroponic production, and therefore our population. By using the essential minerals included in the shipment, an additional 12,782 kilometers of pipe can be made operational without any use of stillborn soil processing."
The generals took a moment to look at each other, purple eyes meeting other purple eyes. The number the AI had listed was nearly a third their current crop infrastructure. That was enough to feed almost 36 million people. It wouldn't put them above their pre-Transfer-Wars population, but it was a start
At the current ratios, that would be two thousand geneticists to crunch through Projects L and E, and two hundred thousand less-skilled scientists to help them do that. That would be nearly a million engineers and assistants for the seven different design bureaus.
That would be two million more technicians and repair crew to keep Indigo alive. It would be five million souls producing more food. It would be three million more prospectors and miners.
That would be eight more Fleets, nine-point-six-million men at arms. That would be the Crystal Paladins being kicked out of the Novarin, Alkon, and Henno clusters. That would be eighty more independent squadrons to completely annihilate any problems from all but the strongest Drifter enclaves.
General Sohii Tano, commander of Twentieth Fleet, broke the silence. "If the resources are actually usable." He cautioned. "In addition, it'll be sixteen years until the first children enter the workforce."
"Of course." Forte said. "We will need to check the cargo very carefully anyway. Coming up with a way to do that quickly would be Bu-Inf's job. Anyway, there is still the political aspect of accepting the material."
"I propose we attempt to deny it as a source of political leverage." General Soro Fior, commander of Second Fleet, stated. "They have limited resources of some sort. Whatever that is, we need to exploit it. They didn't even bother to communicate in real time in an attempt to butter us up. That lets us control communications.
"We can draft and review our response to them, then have it automatically transmitted the next time their ships show up in system. Their weird teleportation trick produces some sort of radiation surge that we can use as a trigger, right?"
"Correct." Merlin 12 spoke up. "The radiation spectra does not match any previously observed phenomena. What is not known is the appropriate margin of error for the spectra of the surge. Still, that is a minor detail and that action will be successful."
"That matter aside, what are we actually going to say to them?" Kerran said.
"Do we even need to?" Forte asked. "They said as little as possible. They might not even care about our words."
"We should keep it short, whatever we say." Kerran said. "For such a serious delivery, there was very little in that message. Our response should be likewise."
"Agreed." Forte said. "I'll send a draft response around for review sometime in the next week. If that's all that's urgent enough for us to conference, then I suggest we adjourn."
"No other matters of high priority remain." Merlin 1 said.
"Excellent, meeting adjourned." Kerran said, slapping the table. Twenty-two holograms vanished. "This better work." He muttered, then said a bit louder. "I'll send a request to Bu-Inf for that scanning system."
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
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So in other words, they're choosing to extend just enough trust to verify before drawing further conclusions? I can approve of this course of action.
LostArchivist
Sane, unfortunately.
- Location
- The State of Confusion
Publishing? That's nice.
Uh, this wouldn't be the kind where you have to take down the original, is it? Also, please no DRM. We need more people refusing to use that crap...
How does that work for crossover stories, though? I mean, it uses settings and some characters from other works, and I'm not really sure how it's possible to use those in your own work (technically even without selling the thing).
Huh, I got ninja'd by a chapter. So, after reading that, are they planning to not get the free goodie bag on the chance that it's tainted? Normally sane, but in this case I see it as a good chance that they go "Well, okay. Bye!"
Uh, this wouldn't be the kind where you have to take down the original, is it? Also, please no DRM. We need more people refusing to use that crap...
How does that work for crossover stories, though? I mean, it uses settings and some characters from other works, and I'm not really sure how it's possible to use those in your own work (technically even without selling the thing).
Huh, I got ninja'd by a chapter. So, after reading that, are they planning to not get the free goodie bag on the chance that it's tainted? Normally sane, but in this case I see it as a good chance that they go "Well, okay. Bye!"
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Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
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Was that posted in the right thread, @LostArchivist? I don't see anything about publishing things here...
Salvare7097
be the salvation of the hopeless!
- Location
- [REDACTED] [O5 APPROVAL REQUIRED]
@LostArchivist What is DRM?
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
Digital Rights Management - copy protection, if I remember right.
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
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Copy protection in the sense of always having to have an internet connection to so much as back up your save games to a different memory card on a PS Vita, or run a Steam game, or those Micro$oft shop ebooks that are now unopenable because M$ decided there weren't enough $$$ in ebooks and shut down the service.
That's actually referred to as "always-online DRM." There are other kinds, which are generally both less effective and less likely to get people to boycott your product on principle.
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yep.
No, they're planning on taking it. It's just they're being very careful to see if it's a trap, hence getting the Bureau of Infrastructure and Logistics to come up with a way to scan the raw materials, as well as going over the computers in everything with a fine-toothed comb.
... I'm not planning on publishing this, though. Where'd you get that idea?