Ryoga is still missing.
Pathfinder: The Search For Earth; Book One: First Contact [Ranma 1/2 x Star Wars]
- Thread starter Grounders10
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Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
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Is he 'talented' enough to take a city-sized ship with him when he goes missing???
(Possibly if he builds-up enough 'getting lost' potential?
)
I find it more likely that the pirates will wipe the navicomputer right before the boarders break through and take the bridge.
"You've got the ship, but you don't have the location of your homeworld. We just wiped everything since the last navicomputer backup. Have fun trying to figure out how to find you homeworld."
Ace Dreamer
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Would using astronomical data, and things like pulsars as beacons be any use? Sol's exact (spectral) details are known pretty well... But, that would require suitably skilled astronomers, and/or astronomical data, on-board when the skip leaves. That might be there, brought-up (by the engineers/scientists) to compare with the navigation systems of the ship?
And... I'm unsure how knowing the (rough?) location of the Sol System in the galaxy would translate into FTL navigation...
Might the ship wild-jump to a different galaxy???
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It might not. In Star Wars, FTL travel is all about precise calculations. If your course isn't plotted exactly right you could fly through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that would end your trip real quick. Knowing roughly where Earth is, that's only the start. You need to know about any stellar object/phenomenon casting a mass shadow big enough to yank a ship out of hyperspace. Without that information, you're playing Russian Roulette with your hyperdrive
Ace Dreamer
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Does this mean, at some point, someone spent a lot of time and effort to create the hyperspace nav data to get to Earth? Would slavers do that? Or, would they buy the info from professional explorers? Or, scrape it from an ancient (alien?) database someone stumbled across?
Of course, if you throw-in a bit of a /Urusei Yatsura cross (a previous work by the Ranma author) maybe they got it from the oni...
Probably not professional explorers. But I can see there being a network of sketchy explorers on the Outer Rim who work out just-barely-safe nav data to new systems and sell it to the highest bidder so that they can swoop in and mine it of any easily-obtainable resources. An explorer who detected radio emissions from an unknown pre-space civilization might try to get max money offering it to slavers first.
In this scenario, there would be an isolated explorer crew out there who knows the route to Earth, but even if they hear of the Earthers arrival (and are not out exploring again), they may think it wiser to keep quiet and not admit they sold the route to slavers.
(They might offer to sell the data anonymously, but such an offer would likely be lost in a sea of scams offering the same thing.)
"Canonically" in Legends Earth is in the Fath Sector of the Outer Rim, AKA the Space Boonies.
Looking at this Picture from Legends we are closer to the Core of the Galaxy then in RL, with Ord Cantrell being one of the only places of Note close to us.
This has screwed us somewhat as our closest neighbor is a Super Exclusive Resort preventing Exploration of the surrounding area and there are not a lot of good Hyperlanes branching off of the Entralla Route, the main Lane of that area, which leaves other Systems rather isolated.
Interestingly in Legends we are fairly close to Mygeeto, a major front in the Clone Wars and the Imperial Remnant. It's just that again Earth is in the Space Boonies and more importantly "Between Major Hyperspace Routes" so went undiscovered for a long time.
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But in any case SW Tech being Analogue is likely due to Droids, as you need to physically interact with it to change things, with IPad Analogues shown in Legends and Canon being mostly Communication and Data Reading not capable of giving Commands.
Again this makes a lot of sense given the prevalence of Droids, and mirrors what we know of Nuclear Launch Codes in Real Life, using Older Outdated Tech to prevent Hacking. Only this is for everything as Droids are everywhere and thankfully not a lot of them are on the level of R2 who can hack pretty much everything due to being modified over the years by The Royalty of Naboo, a Jedi Mechanic/Engineer listed as one of the best in the Order, and the Rebel Alliance/Royal House of Alderaan specifically for the best possible performance and most importantly not receiving a Regularly Scheduled Memory Wipe, allowing R2 to develop a Unique and Highly Intelligent Personality.
Most Droids get Memory Wipes every few Months to prevent from Developing Fully Sapient Personalities that can cause "Problems" down the line, and this is the reason why B1's acted so "comedic" in the Clone Wars. Te CIS was simply to cheap to preform regular maintenance when most B1's were expected to be destroyed in battle and just pumped out more, so surviving ones developed Personalities and acted so "stupid and quirky" since they were literally overloading their Processors with more Data then they were made to operate with.
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Lastly no matter what Tech and Knowledge Earth gets they are literally always going to be "small fish" in a Giant Ocean. They don't have the Industry or Materials to compete and it is laughable to think they do. This aint Stargate where most of the Galaxy's Inhabitants are kept in a Primitive State and the Gouald's numbers are limited.
The Star Wars Galaxy has had FTL and Energy Weapons/Shielding as well as AI since before Human Civilization formed Agriculture (12,000 Years Ago) with the Republic being close to 25,000 Years old at this point. That is true for both Legends and Disney Canon.
Given that the Rakaata and the other "Precursors" where running around before that (and yes Andor brought the Rakaata back into Disney Canon by mentioning them) FTL Capable Civilizations have been around for a very long time by Earth Standards.
Since Humans are "founding species" of the Republic in both versions the fact that someone took them offworld and "uplifted them" several millenia before Humans on Earth even developed Agriculture, Earth as "Humanity's Homeworld" means very little.
Hell SW Humans are freaking ancient in Legends, having driven the Taung off Coruscant somewhere around 200,000 BBY and by 90,000 BBY had already turned Coruscant into an Ecumenopolis that needed to have "new levels" built on top of the City Covering Planet just to make space.
One thing everyone underestimates is just how Old the SW Galactic Society is, and how little Earth brings to the table. Which is a perfect Old School Scifi Scenario of Earthers exploring "strange new worlds, many far more advanced then themselves and trying to understand Alien Cultures".
Ace Dreamer
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A common confusion about Star Wars is that it's 'science fiction', or 'space opera', at base, with some sort of psionics called 'The Force', as mystic icing.
Doyalist viewpoint? The above just don't work. Keeps running into dead ends.
Possibly better logic? Heard from multiple sources? It's a Hong Kong Martial Arts action movie. Maybe with a bit of space cowboy. This seems to fit a lot better, and explains why 'Ranma Half' can be effectively mixed with it.
Any science fiction is 'flavour', look-and-feel, meant to support the Action Movie stuff. It isn't 'real'. So, super-science, from Earth, as Mad As A Hatter, no problem, Space Zeppelins away!
So, yeah, (Earth) HFY - might turn out to have Ki-enhanced super-scientists, and engineers, as good in their fields as Ranma is in Martial Arts. And, now they've got something to all turn their attention to, instead of feuding...
Rationalisation? The aliens who abducted and 'uplifted' some humans - didn't get a proper sampling of the human genetic diversity. There's a lot more to humanity than the 'slice' they took.
Weapon tech?
Autonomous stealth missiles, with shaped-charge tactical nukes, anyone?
Nuclear-bomb pumped gamma-ray lasers?
And, that's before mining the alien tech for things like gravitational singularity bombs...
Horrible, horrible, weapons based on abuse of hyperspace...
...
The poor aliens, with their 'stable' tech base, their Force-based politics...
They might... get a bit of a surprise!
(Ref: Q (James Bond), Dr. Hans Zarkov, Doc. Savage, Dejah Thoris "Deety" Burroughs-Carter (Number of the Beast), Dexter's Laboratory, Phineas and Ferb's Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Rick Sanchez, looking anime-wards Dr. Stone, other scientist protags, various builders of (giant) robots/mecha, and many, many others...)
("That's a stupid way to do Faster-Than-Light. Hyperspace, Ha! Insufficient Velocity! This is how you should do FTL!")
((I liked the quote, "Don't challenge me. You won't like me when I'm challenged!".))
Doyalist viewpoint? The above just don't work. Keeps running into dead ends.
Possibly better logic? Heard from multiple sources? It's a Hong Kong Martial Arts action movie. Maybe with a bit of space cowboy. This seems to fit a lot better, and explains why 'Ranma Half' can be effectively mixed with it.
Any science fiction is 'flavour', look-and-feel, meant to support the Action Movie stuff. It isn't 'real'. So, super-science, from Earth, as Mad As A Hatter, no problem, Space Zeppelins away!
So, yeah, (Earth) HFY - might turn out to have Ki-enhanced super-scientists, and engineers, as good in their fields as Ranma is in Martial Arts. And, now they've got something to all turn their attention to, instead of feuding...
Rationalisation? The aliens who abducted and 'uplifted' some humans - didn't get a proper sampling of the human genetic diversity. There's a lot more to humanity than the 'slice' they took.
Weapon tech?
Autonomous stealth missiles, with shaped-charge tactical nukes, anyone?
Nuclear-bomb pumped gamma-ray lasers?
And, that's before mining the alien tech for things like gravitational singularity bombs...
Horrible, horrible, weapons based on abuse of hyperspace...
...
The poor aliens, with their 'stable' tech base, their Force-based politics...
They might... get a bit of a surprise!
(Ref: Q (James Bond), Dr. Hans Zarkov, Doc. Savage, Dejah Thoris "Deety" Burroughs-Carter (Number of the Beast), Dexter's Laboratory, Phineas and Ferb's Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Rick Sanchez, looking anime-wards Dr. Stone, other scientist protags, various builders of (giant) robots/mecha, and many, many others...)
("That's a stupid way to do Faster-Than-Light. Hyperspace, Ha! Insufficient Velocity! This is how you should do FTL!")
((I liked the quote, "Don't challenge me. You won't like me when I'm challenged!".))
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The story title suggests that this isn't about what earth does.
And it's awefully difficult to upgrade exterior tech without a dry dock.
Which suggests that there won't be alot of upgrades to weapons as the ship will have limited supplies.
Especially if it's basically lost in space.
Things in the star wars universe are not free for the most part unless you turn to piracy, so for a dry dock they will need galactic credits.
Basically this is more the premise of sgu/ or Battlestar Galactica.
A lone ship of humans/ and allies getting into shenanigans.
There is also the tech and language learning curve to consider, yes there are wookies and droids and other tech knowledgeable former slaves but for a human idea to translate into a significant upgrade there needs to be understanding.
And this is not just a sw fic. It's also a ranma fic so there should be misunderstandings.
The real questions are,
Who will be the new captain.
Where is ryouga...
Where is mouse? And how ridiculously high is his body count.
How much water and human compatible food is available.
Are the other two members of the nwc still cursed when away from earth?
And it's awefully difficult to upgrade exterior tech without a dry dock.
Which suggests that there won't be alot of upgrades to weapons as the ship will have limited supplies.
Especially if it's basically lost in space.
Things in the star wars universe are not free for the most part unless you turn to piracy, so for a dry dock they will need galactic credits.
Basically this is more the premise of sgu/ or Battlestar Galactica.
A lone ship of humans/ and allies getting into shenanigans.
There is also the tech and language learning curve to consider, yes there are wookies and droids and other tech knowledgeable former slaves but for a human idea to translate into a significant upgrade there needs to be understanding.
And this is not just a sw fic. It's also a ranma fic so there should be misunderstandings.
The real questions are,
Who will be the new captain.
Where is ryouga...
Where is mouse? And how ridiculously high is his body count.
How much water and human compatible food is available.
Are the other two members of the nwc still cursed when away from earth?
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Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
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This story. Doesn't mean there aren't other, potential, stories that'd fit this setting. Omake, etc.
Deploying weapons? A lot could be done out of the small-ship launch bays... Yes, major ship-mounted weapons, you'd likely need some sort of dock to fit. Worth noting this ship has already been significantly upgraded, though, and suitably paid they'd probably be happy to do more work...
Kasumi, of course!
There's a Wookie Princess here, and the major military force aboard is Wookie, so, the answer is "Whatever the Wookie says"?
Big ship, could be anywhere. Or, has had a cold water experience, and is in the kitchen, watching an alien cook sharpen their knives...
See above. 'Big ship'. Also, ditto. Somewhere re-duck-ulous.
Assuming the slavers are/were competent, enough to get to both their first planned next port, and the second, plus a safety margin (+50%?). Of course, they might have been greedy...
Almost certainly. The logic of the setting requires the magic to be on them, not something which links them to the Pools, on Earth. And, also requires that magic, at least, to exist across the SW setting. Subject to author fiat, of course.
No magic might mean Ranma going male, without the water curse - I don't see that happening.
Just my opinion, of course...
Eh It would be a fun plot twist if It actually mean everyone else was looking for earth instead because they start messing around the outer ring and the hoggs
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
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"We never should have let Moose go off on his own. He killed everyone on this immense slaver-pirate mobile dry-dock, by switching their atmosphere to pure nitrogen."
"He's done it now. What do we do with the place?"
"The slavers haven't got any use for it, anymore. So, give all their bodies a decent send-off, by dropping them into the local sun? Then, take the place back to Earth? Go back to following his trail of bodies?"
"Doesn't sound like a bad idea... You don't think it'll get us the wrong sort of attention?"
"Nah. Let's do it. What could go wrong?"
(I'll leave it up to others to figure-out who this discussion might be between.
)
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- Location
- Australia
I like this, curious how they get yeeted from earth. If it will be the main ship, Battlestar Galactica style, or if it will be on one of the smaller ships… and they get stuck in the galaxy Far Far Away from home having to deal with the Empire? Republic?
Only quibble I have with the story is how the duel between Ranma and the captain went. Ki users essentially being a hole (or something similar) in the Force feels… eh… to me. Like a bit of a cop out, so not really a fan of it. Especially since Ranma can immediately feel the Force. Maybe it's due to difference it training, Jedi focusing on the Force around them rather than inwards like ki users or something i dunno, but it had me a little concerned. Last SW/Ranma fic I read basically had Ranma kind of lecturing the Jedi on how they're doing 'it' wrong.
Only quibble I have with the story is how the duel between Ranma and the captain went. Ki users essentially being a hole (or something similar) in the Force feels… eh… to me. Like a bit of a cop out, so not really a fan of it. Especially since Ranma can immediately feel the Force. Maybe it's due to difference it training, Jedi focusing on the Force around them rather than inwards like ki users or something i dunno, but it had me a little concerned. Last SW/Ranma fic I read basically had Ranma kind of lecturing the Jedi on how they're doing 'it' wrong.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
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I think there's a concept of 'internal' and 'external' Ki? So, most of what Ranma does is very precise control of ki within the body, so precise it hides their 'life energy' from Force users? But, when Ranma does a ki-blast, an external effect, backed by Confidence, is gets really, really, visible.
Force users are more like surfers, with the Force being their sea, the waves. They constantly interact with the Force, and loss of emotional control can be disasterous. Really nasty feedback-loops can build-up, and they can do counter-survival stuff? Ranma only picked-up on Force use, and then only a tiny bit, when it was used to lash-out. The Force-user equivalent to ki-blasts?
Ranma might find it... interesting to meet untrained Force-sensitives, who want to learn how to do the 'athletic stuff'. If they can be trained in ki-based martial arts... I don't think this Ranma would tell trained Force users that they're 'doing it wrong', unless pressed really hard...
It might be interesting, too, to see what a Force user experienced, on watching Akane break bricks. Possibly when she gets angry enough her strength seriously spikes. Somehow, I suspect she'd be a lot more 'splashy' in her ki use...
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Crayz9000
Deranged Bounty Hunter
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- Improbably superpositioned
One thing a lot of people massively underestimate is just how difficult it is to bring an obsolete system out of mothballs. The whole reason we can't build the Saturn 5 today has nothing to do with destroyed blueprints and everything to do with the technology and the tooling used for it moving on too far.
For example, the avionics computers located in the interstage ring were each the size of a refrigerator and utilized core memory that simply isn't made anymore. Each computer had less effective processing power than a single esp32.
And as nice as it would be to see something like the Buran shuttle brought back to life, it simply wouldn't happen without a decades-long project of rebuilding and reverse engineering everything so much of the launch infrastructure and the orbiters themselves were destroyed by neglect.
It would be much faster to dust off some old concepts like Sea Dragon, which was designed to be built in a shipyard out of mild steel, towed out to sea by a nuclear aircraft carrier and fueled with electrolyzed hydrogen and oxygen en route, and then tipped upright and launched partly underwater.
This is also very similar to the approach SpaceX took with their Starship system, which took a fraction of the time of SLS to develop and greatly exceeds its payload capacity to low orbit.
But enough about boring Earth technology, let's get back to the shenanigans.
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
What is this? The closest I can find that matches the physical description is a Mankvim fighter, but I can't find anything on a 'reliable' class.
TBF, the Star Wars galaxy has gone through, what? Four? Dark ages. At least two of those were caused by Droid rebellions, too.
Their tech base being a little schizo is only to be expected.
Funnily enough, this can also be done by a force sensitive. And once you have repulsor tech, you can use repulsors to make more space-time knots without needing black holes or force users.
Which is why some luckier races has repulsors before they developed agriculture. Repulsors are so damn useful that some races never even developed the wheel.
- Location
- Georgia
Rephrase it as "salvage old stuff for parts to get the first orbital systems in place in the least possible time," then, though I did recently read a HP/MLP:FiM cross where they did refit the Buran, using magic to make it far, far better.
Something else that probably works against Star Wars tech levels is the sheer number of habitable worlds out there. In Star Wars, the majority of stars with orbiting planets have at least one that supports life. This means it is easier, though less effective, to look outward, to other races, to see if anybody else has already solved whatever issue you're working on. Earth, though its isolation, has a kind of technological "chunky salsa"* effect going on. We can check all known technologies in a couple of days, down to seconds for more readily available data, which acts to amplify creativity.
*A rather graphic description of the results of putting a person and a grenade in a confined space.
Star Wars is also a place where very few species make it to space on their own. Most are found and traded with/exploited by other aliens, such as is happening in this story, so reverse engineered tech lets them skip technological steps to get into hyperspace travel faster, but because they skipped those steps, they didn't learn the lessons from them.
The Reliable-Class
Grounders10
Nine-Tailed Kitsune
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Ah, it's an original class for the story. It's more a gunship than a fighter really, though it's designed for both roles since it originates as a policing vessel for moderately well-off outer-rim worlds. I based it off the image in this post:
Pathfinder: The Search For Earth; Book One: First Contact [Ranma 1/2 x Star Wars] Crossover
Following an encounter with the Musk Prince Herb, Ranma's plans for revenge are put on hold when slave taking pirates begin to raid earth leading to a long adventure in a galaxy that turns out to be not so far away.
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
Reliable-Class Fighter-Bomber
Manufacturer: Reliant Industries
Crew: Pilot and Co-Pilot
Weapons:
2x Taim & Bak IX3-C Laser Cannon
2x Torpedo Tubes loaded with Concussion missiles
One Bomb Bay on the underside of the vessel loaded with 4x Proton bombs
Has a troop bay in the back for six passengers.
History: Created by Reliant Industries as the solution to the Outer Rim's constant piracy issues, the Reliable has proven to be a favourite of policing organizations the rim over. Lacking a hyperdrive means it is system-bound and requires a carrier or station to base from, but its reliability, diverse set of weapons, and solid shielding make it a favourite amongst planetary defence forces. Created forty years before the battle of Yavin, it is solidly in its heyday as of the Battle of Geonosis.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
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Yes, that's useful. Really good is knowing what won't work, because that's been tried, before, too.
People talk of the 'body of scientific/technological knowledge'. Problem is, it's more like a 'spider web', stretched over the surface of what's possible, than a 'body'. People are effectively trained to navigate along that web, wearing blinkers, so they just see what's ahead, and they can only see along other existing web-strands, at the junctions.
Humans are really good at laser-focus concentration, on what they know, what they believe. It's a very powerful, useful, tool. But, that focus, means it's easy to believe there's nothing important, beyond it.
Creativity research strongly suggests that, with few exceptions, you need 15yrs in a profession before you know it well enough to start seeing 'the holes', 'the boundaries', where new things could fit, grow. Or, steal bits from apparently totally unrelated places, recycle in a new context.
Having SW alien tech, totally changes everything. Some theories about how it works, sensors built to figure it out, could be totally novel to SW! Entire new bits are added to the Earth 'knowledge web', as the 'blinkers' are blown off.
Elderly experts who've been saying 'That's not possible', 'This is only way things could work', will have to retire or remember when they were students, again. The best of them will be really excited at the new possibilities!
And, some will say, "What's all the fuss about? It's not Martial Arts".
Here's the design of the fighters I'm using for the pirates. Treating it as a fighter-bomber with a little bit of transport mixed in. (Room for 6 humans in the back)
Ah, it's an original class for the story. It's more a gunship than a fighter really, though it's designed for both roles since it originates as a policing vessel for moderately well-off outer-rim worlds. I based it off the image in this post:
Pathfinder: The Search For Earth; Book One: First Contact [Ranma 1/2 x Star Wars] Crossover
Following an encounter with the Musk Prince Herb, Ranma's plans for revenge are put on hold when slave taking pirates begin to raid earth leading to a long adventure in a galaxy that turns out to be not so far away.
Reliable-Class Fighter-Bomber
Manufacturer: Reliant Industries
Crew: Pilot and Co-Pilot
Weapons:
2x Taim & Bak IX3-C Laser Cannon
2x Torpedo Tubes loaded with Concussion missiles
One Bomb Bay on the underside of the vessel loaded with 4x Proton bombs
Has a troop bay in the back for six passengers.
History: Created by Reliant Industries as the solution to the Outer Rim's constant piracy issues, the Reliable has proven to be a favourite of policing organizations the rim over. Lacking a hyperdrive means it is system-bound and requires a carrier or station to base from, but its reliability, diverse set of weapons, and solid shielding make it a favourite amongst planetary defence forces. Created forty years before the battle of Yavin, it is solidly in its heyday as of the Battle of Geonosis.
Hey @Grounders10 may I suggest you add that picture post to the Informational section/tag to complement the description of the Reliable-class fighter-bomber?
That way, they could complement each other and it'll be easier for readers to look for the pic in the Informational section/tag.
BTW, does anyone else feel that the Reliable-class fighter-bomber's capability description sounds vaguely similar to one of the UNSC Longsword's interceptor/fighter-bomber variants (one of the fairly larger Longsword variants)?
From @Grounders10's description, the Reliable-class fighter-bomber sounds like a decent example for Earth to study and reverse-engineer as a baseline for a domestic interceptor/fighter-bomber design.
It's a little weird how well Ranma can play into "force weirdness", then again Starwars was originally inspired by samurai films so I guess it's not too surprising.
Though I imagine the jedi will shit bricks when they find out about a faction of force users somehow managed to find a way to cut themselves off from the greater force and siphon energy from it without being detected (could even spin that as how Earth cut itself off from the galaxy).
As long as a commune of lesbian space Witches who die if you poke them while they're attacking you don't randomly appear this should be better than the latest Disney Trainwreck.
Though I imagine the jedi will shit bricks when they find out about a faction of force users somehow managed to find a way to cut themselves off from the greater force and siphon energy from it without being detected (could even spin that as how Earth cut itself off from the galaxy).
As long as a commune of lesbian space Witches who die if you poke them while they're attacking you don't randomly appear this should be better than the latest Disney Trainwreck.