We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Nah, humans are capable of outright long-range telepathy. Though I concede that the Asari melds being cross-species compatible indicates something odd is afoot.
Perchance to Dream (Mass Effect / Commander)
- Thread starter Drich
- Start date
3.7
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
3.7
+++
Protheans.
Fifty thousand years ago, a thriving empire. Today, nothing but history. A people reduced to ghosts and ruins.
The latest in a long line of victims, murdered by tortured masses of metal and nerve. Who had, more than likely, been made into more of those twisted things.
The Harvesters would come, in time. They would come for Humanity. They would come for every other species out in the galaxy, too. They would come with numbers sufficient to blot the skies, with evil intelligence seeking endlessly for things to take and corrupt. They would not rest, would not relent, until their latest victims had succumbed, been destroyed and silenced.
It went without saying, of course, that Humanity had no intention of passing quietly into the dark.
+++
2108:
Further decoding of the Prothean data banks reveals both the purpose and how to operate the other alien device in the system.
The Protheans refer to them as Conduits. The Conduit in the solar system is one part of a network that spans a significant portion of the galaxy. It functions as a transport system, capable of transporting ships from Conduit to Conduit at instantaneous speeds.
There are two types of Conduits, Primaries and Secondaries. Primaries link to only a single other Conduit, but can span distances of thousands of lightyears easily. Secondaries can link to any number of other Conduits, but only over a range approximately a tenth of that of the Primary.
This information shortly leads to the ability to interact with and utilize the Charon Conduit. As expected, the loop it was caught in was, in fact, an error, with the Conduit incapable of contacting its partner. It is a Primary Conduit, but also one that links to a Conduit in what Humanity knows as the Arcturus System, a mere 36.66 light years away, and thus being used to less than a hundredth of its true potential.
Scientists are shortly able to extract a 'map' of the Conduits. Though fifty thousand years out of date, it still provides a rough search area for Conduits that will eventually assist in rapid expansion.
2109:
The decoding of the Prothean Archives continues unabated. The more recent the information is, the more erratic and nonsensical it becomes. The shift from ordinary, structured data starts approximately two hundred years before the facility became inactive.
The information that is decoded, however, paints a ghastly picture. The Harvesters attacked suddenly and without warning, beginning with an attack on a central location, referred to in the archives as 'The Keep', which fell shortly. Not long afterwards, and before the Protheans could respond, the Conduits were suddenly turned off, isolating systems and sectors from each other, and allowing the Harvesters to attack without significant resistance.
This, in turn, leads to the quick discovery that the Conduits had been constructed by the Harvesters.
The Charon Conduit is assimilated less than two minutes afterwards, immediately receiving intense scrutiny by most of Humanity.
Now assimilated, the Charon Conduit is significantly less capable of hiding its secrets, and several things are shortly discovered.
First; the material it is made out of is incredible durable, owing to its equally incredible density and molecular structure. The material's resilience is augmented even further by a system that generates a quantum effect that locks the Conduit's structure into place on a subatomic level.
According to calculations, the only thing that would be capable of damaging it at that point would be a very large asteroid moving very fast. One goes as far as to claim that "If it isn't capable of killing the Dinosaurs, it won't damage a Conduit."
This enhanced durability would even enable a Conduit to survive a supernova, if it happened to be caught in one.
Second; if the Conduit was indeed damaged or destroyed, it would be a very, very bad thing, on account of the simple simple fact that it would explode with dramatic and supernova levels of energy if it happened.
The Conduit's generator far surpasses even the Prothean power core. It functions by utilizing Element Zero to generate mass increasing fields, then fusing matter that is under the influence of those fields. This generates an excess of energy, a portion of which is then used to fission the newly fused matter while it is under the influence of mass decreasing fields, effectively doing so at an energy cost vastly lower than what it would normally be.
The newly fissioned matter is then cycled around to be re-fused, presenting a net energy gain in defiance of thermodynamics.
At the theoretical maximum capacity, the Conduit could generate power in comparison to a supernova; though the act of generating that kind of power would also immediately break containment and obliterate both the Conduit and everything in its surroundings. The Conduit normally runs only at a fraction of a fraction of this maximum.
The Conduit's ability to be a 'cold' object, not radiating any heat, is in fact caused by its energy harvesting system; which transforms the heat, light, and other byproducts that the reactor generates directly into usable energy. Any excess is utilized in the fission process, with the mass decreasing being set to less power, thus taking more energy to fission and ultimately running on a perfect energy neutral operation.
Third; the Conduit's Mass Effect Engine surpassed any others. Prothean Mass Effect technology couldn't even come close to the sheer size, scale, efficiency, and potency of the Conduit's technology.
Fourth; the Conduit has two sets of faster than light communications systems. One is a quantum entanglement communicator, with the other being a relatively normal communications system, except enhanced with the Conduit's Mass Effect Engine. The first had been rendered inoperable when the Dreamer had accelerated time and therefore broke the entanglement, but the second was still working. The only reason the Conduit hadn't connected to the network was because it was timing out in between communication pulses.
Fifth; a number of smaller subsystems kept everything in working order. The Conduit possessed both self-repair and self-cleaning functions. They existed more for recovery after long periods of dormancy than for general operation, on account of the fact that, for the former, it was just about impossible to damage one without destroying it, and for the latter, it was only when the Mass Effect Engine was offline that debris and cosmic dust could gather on the structure.
Understanding the underlying mechanics of it all will take much more time than understanding the basics. That said, studying the Conduit is set to provide a technological boost in the future.
2109 ends with two feelings; a somber one, at the death of the Protheans and the discovery of the Harvester's trap, and an eager one, at the knowledge that this time, it will be different.
Nothing is going to go according to the Harvesters' plan.
Humanity will make quite certain of that.
+++
Protheans.
Fifty thousand years ago, a thriving empire. Today, nothing but history. A people reduced to ghosts and ruins.
The latest in a long line of victims, murdered by tortured masses of metal and nerve. Who had, more than likely, been made into more of those twisted things.
The Harvesters would come, in time. They would come for Humanity. They would come for every other species out in the galaxy, too. They would come with numbers sufficient to blot the skies, with evil intelligence seeking endlessly for things to take and corrupt. They would not rest, would not relent, until their latest victims had succumbed, been destroyed and silenced.
It went without saying, of course, that Humanity had no intention of passing quietly into the dark.
+++
2108:
Further decoding of the Prothean data banks reveals both the purpose and how to operate the other alien device in the system.
The Protheans refer to them as Conduits. The Conduit in the solar system is one part of a network that spans a significant portion of the galaxy. It functions as a transport system, capable of transporting ships from Conduit to Conduit at instantaneous speeds.
There are two types of Conduits, Primaries and Secondaries. Primaries link to only a single other Conduit, but can span distances of thousands of lightyears easily. Secondaries can link to any number of other Conduits, but only over a range approximately a tenth of that of the Primary.
This information shortly leads to the ability to interact with and utilize the Charon Conduit. As expected, the loop it was caught in was, in fact, an error, with the Conduit incapable of contacting its partner. It is a Primary Conduit, but also one that links to a Conduit in what Humanity knows as the Arcturus System, a mere 36.66 light years away, and thus being used to less than a hundredth of its true potential.
Scientists are shortly able to extract a 'map' of the Conduits. Though fifty thousand years out of date, it still provides a rough search area for Conduits that will eventually assist in rapid expansion.
2109:
The decoding of the Prothean Archives continues unabated. The more recent the information is, the more erratic and nonsensical it becomes. The shift from ordinary, structured data starts approximately two hundred years before the facility became inactive.
The information that is decoded, however, paints a ghastly picture. The Harvesters attacked suddenly and without warning, beginning with an attack on a central location, referred to in the archives as 'The Keep', which fell shortly. Not long afterwards, and before the Protheans could respond, the Conduits were suddenly turned off, isolating systems and sectors from each other, and allowing the Harvesters to attack without significant resistance.
This, in turn, leads to the quick discovery that the Conduits had been constructed by the Harvesters.
The Charon Conduit is assimilated less than two minutes afterwards, immediately receiving intense scrutiny by most of Humanity.
Now assimilated, the Charon Conduit is significantly less capable of hiding its secrets, and several things are shortly discovered.
First; the material it is made out of is incredible durable, owing to its equally incredible density and molecular structure. The material's resilience is augmented even further by a system that generates a quantum effect that locks the Conduit's structure into place on a subatomic level.
According to calculations, the only thing that would be capable of damaging it at that point would be a very large asteroid moving very fast. One goes as far as to claim that "If it isn't capable of killing the Dinosaurs, it won't damage a Conduit."
This enhanced durability would even enable a Conduit to survive a supernova, if it happened to be caught in one.
Second; if the Conduit was indeed damaged or destroyed, it would be a very, very bad thing, on account of the simple simple fact that it would explode with dramatic and supernova levels of energy if it happened.
The Conduit's generator far surpasses even the Prothean power core. It functions by utilizing Element Zero to generate mass increasing fields, then fusing matter that is under the influence of those fields. This generates an excess of energy, a portion of which is then used to fission the newly fused matter while it is under the influence of mass decreasing fields, effectively doing so at an energy cost vastly lower than what it would normally be.
The newly fissioned matter is then cycled around to be re-fused, presenting a net energy gain in defiance of thermodynamics.
At the theoretical maximum capacity, the Conduit could generate power in comparison to a supernova; though the act of generating that kind of power would also immediately break containment and obliterate both the Conduit and everything in its surroundings. The Conduit normally runs only at a fraction of a fraction of this maximum.
The Conduit's ability to be a 'cold' object, not radiating any heat, is in fact caused by its energy harvesting system; which transforms the heat, light, and other byproducts that the reactor generates directly into usable energy. Any excess is utilized in the fission process, with the mass decreasing being set to less power, thus taking more energy to fission and ultimately running on a perfect energy neutral operation.
Third; the Conduit's Mass Effect Engine surpassed any others. Prothean Mass Effect technology couldn't even come close to the sheer size, scale, efficiency, and potency of the Conduit's technology.
Fourth; the Conduit has two sets of faster than light communications systems. One is a quantum entanglement communicator, with the other being a relatively normal communications system, except enhanced with the Conduit's Mass Effect Engine. The first had been rendered inoperable when the Dreamer had accelerated time and therefore broke the entanglement, but the second was still working. The only reason the Conduit hadn't connected to the network was because it was timing out in between communication pulses.
Fifth; a number of smaller subsystems kept everything in working order. The Conduit possessed both self-repair and self-cleaning functions. They existed more for recovery after long periods of dormancy than for general operation, on account of the fact that, for the former, it was just about impossible to damage one without destroying it, and for the latter, it was only when the Mass Effect Engine was offline that debris and cosmic dust could gather on the structure.
Understanding the underlying mechanics of it all will take much more time than understanding the basics. That said, studying the Conduit is set to provide a technological boost in the future.
2109 ends with two feelings; a somber one, at the death of the Protheans and the discovery of the Harvester's trap, and an eager one, at the knowledge that this time, it will be different.
Nothing is going to go according to the Harvesters' plan.
Humanity will make quite certain of that.
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And what Humanity doesn't screw over, Drichmander will. Or already has, depending on how you look at it.
Those tenses get kinda weird around achronal entities, don't they?
Oh, time travel has nothing to do with it. Remember what the Dreamer really is? It could be said that Drichmander is behind any screwing of plans "Psimanity" does.Those tenses get kinda weird around achronal entities, don't they?
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Let's see how the galaxy, especially the Hanar react to their Enkindlers being actually slaughtered with them being next.
Nihilo
Authorial parasite
- Location
- Catalonia
For a second there I thought we had crossed into From Magister to God.
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
You know, I hope humanity eventually figures out how to make psychic energy reactors.
They can. You just mentally fabricate a fully fueled anti-matter reactor. When it runs out, de-fabricate it and make a new one.
Or, you know, a nine volt battery. Whatever power level you end up needing.
As long as you have psionic power you never run out of physical power
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Not quite what I had in mind; I meant a reactor that *produces* psychic energy.
And I'm just laughing that at first I wondered how many tries it took to make an anti-matter reactor that doesn't explode and kill everyone before I remembered that nobody can really die so who cares.
An anti-matter powered orbital going off is more of an irritant than a genuine disaster.
Syn0
QoP of Pain
- Location
- Low Priority T_T
They can also build stuff on the fly. Ground battles are going to look like a rendition of Fortnite I'd bet.
And now I'm imagining Wrex' reaction once he sees Shepard riding a rocket...
I'm not sure the concept of battle applies. If one side is psionic and the other not, then the non-psionic side loses. If both sides are psionic then you can't fight a ground battle because you can't kilk your target meaningfully.
Or perhaps you mean it looks like Fortnight because you have swarms of people fighting within a tightly contrained set of rules where death is meaningless except for score.
Syn0
QoP of Pain
- Location
- Low Priority T_T
I mainly wanted to contrast the effects of immortality on a culture with video games where players do stupid things "for the lulz" because there are no consequences in doing so. Fortnite was merely the most appropriate example at hand.
3.8
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
3.8
+++
"There's an anomaly in the Psi-Net."
"What do you mean?"
"For the past four months, at the beginning of each month, an information request is processed by the Psi-Net. The thing is, however, this request has no source and no destination. When the Psi-Net tries to send back the requested data, it fails. Error correction means that this isn't a problem, so the request is simply logged for perusal."
"And?"
"At first glance, the requested data seems random and nonsensical. But, thing is? It started forming patterns. It started making sense. So, I started running all the requests through a cypher, see if I could figure it out."
"What did you find?"
"The cipher is an Excellius-Pattern, type 888. The result transforms the data requests into bundles of text. All except the first; that one transforms into a psi-pattern."
"Whose?"
"The Dreamer's."
"... Truly?"
"Do you think I would joke about something like this?"
"No. But the Dreamer is dead."
"The Dreamer itself told us that death was temporary."
"The Dreamer said it would eventually return. It did not say anything about trying to talk to us even during its death."
"It's the Dreamer. Maybe it could be the result of the Dreamer trying to talk, maybe it's an unknown facet of the Dreamer's Gift, or maybe the Dreamer just put that information away and it's only surfacing now. It wouldn't be too hard, even for us. The Dreamer could have done it with an errant thought."
"Fair. What does the text say?"
"The first text bundle said '4068'. The next one was '4067'. It's a number, each time. And, each time, each month, at the beginning of each month, it counts down by one. We are currently at 4066."
"A countdown? For what?"
"I don't know."
"I could guess. Once a month, at the beginning of each month. A simple timeframe; 4066 months is 338 years and ten months. I assume that this is the remaining time for the temporal acceleration around Sol."
"On what grounds?"
"We know when the Harvesters will awake; 2185. 338 years from now will take us to 2449 from our perspective, but only to 2074 for the rest of the universe, leaving us with enough time to spread outside of Sol and prepare for the Harvesters. The temporal expectation fits."
"That is quite the long shot."
"Hence; guess. What else would the Dreamer try to be telling us, really?"
"Hmm..."
+++
2110:
Progress on understanding the Conduit continues, though it is not complete. Understanding the computer systems, specifically, is taking longer than anything else.
2115:
A project is proposed to terraform Mars. Billions agree to join the efforts.
The first step is to find a way to stop solar winds from blowing away Mars' atmosphere, whether by restoring Mars' long lost magnetic field, or by replacing it with something else.
They eventually settle on the latter, if only because it will be easy to get rid of if it doesn't work. The plan calls for the creation of a magnetic dipole shield at Mars' Lagrange 1 point, which would protect Mars from the majority of cosmic radiation and solar winds, letting an atmosphere be rebuilt without being stripped away.
The required magnetic field to shield Mars would need to be comparable to Earth's own. Generating it would need a magnet of up to twenty thousand gauss; which is not impossible.
2116:
After a number of false starts, one accident where the electromagnet tore itself apart due to a slight miscalculation of material strength, and five separate re-designs to get everything working properly, the electromagnetic shield is properly in place.
At 1.72 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, it operates even better than expected. The magnetic field it generates is large and strong, and catches Mars squarely in its magnetotail, immediately and drastically reducing the cosmic radiation and solar winds that the planet receives, and therefore, it dramatically cuts the amount of atmosphere lost.
The generator itself is a significantly sized structure, protected by advanced materials and Mass Effect shields, powered by a generator derived from studying the Conduit, and, at six kilometers wide, the largest artificial non-Psi structure ever created by Humanity. Most of its mass is dedicated to the electromagnetic generators.
Over the next several years, more atmosphere will be added to Mars. As atmosphere builds up, it will begin to cause a runaway greenhouse effect, heating the planet up. As the planet heats up, polar ice caps will begin to melt, leading to liquid water oceans beginning to appear.
Terraforming will not end there, however. Significant additions must be made to both planetary atmosphere and planetary water supply even afterwards- to say nothing of the rest of the terraforming process, like introducing flora, fauna, and other forms of life to Mars.
2125:
Nine years of directed terraforming efforts have left Martian atmosphere capable of hosting life. Martian oceans are still filling, but only have another third to go before being filled to projected targets.
At this stage, plankton, bacteria, and other forms of life are being introduced to Mars. Planetary atmospheric content is shifting closer and closer to Earth.
Over time, more and more life forms will be introduced, until Mars' ecosystem is fully self-sustaining.
2138:
The last of the computer systems behind the Conduit is deciphered, and with it, all the technology behind the Conduit.
The knowledge is tested shortly afterwards, with the construction of a Human-designed Conduit. It differs mildly from the Harvesters' version, being slightly larger, a result of a number of modifications to the internal systems, the most prominent being a significantly more comprehensive communication system.
After six months to work out the bugs, defects, and imperfections, the Conduit design is eventually replicated across the system. It functions as expected, with the Conduits automatically forming a communication web that connects them all in a network enabling instantaneous transport of matter and energy between any Conduits in the system.
They are shortly renamed "Star Rails", to prevent confusion.
In the future, the Star Rails will connect directly to other systems, acting as an alternative to the Conduits, and thus a way to get around the Harvesters' trap.
Safeguards built into the Star Rails should prevent the Harvesters from using them. They are also equipped to scan for any tampering, with differences of code, physical structure, or unlogged activities resulting in the reactor disengaging its containment systems and triggering an energy surge that will result in an explosion of roughly eight hundred megatons, vaporizing the Star Rail and hopefully whatever managed to tamper with it.
The only way around this safeguard is to broadcast a specific psi-signature, which a psy-crystal inside the Star Rail will detect and temporarily disengage the safeguard. As Harvesters do not possess Psychic abilities, this will effectively leave them unable to mess with them without destroying them, and likely also themselves in the process.
Exactly as intended.
2145:
Mars is now comfortably habitable for most forms of life. The terraforming is mostly completed, at this stage, all that is left is the minutiae, the final adjustments and monitoring- ironically, also the longest part of it all.
While catastrophe is unlikely at this point, ecosystem collapse could still potentially occur.
Another project is proposed; this time for the terraformation of Venus. Many agree on the project itself, but the details on how to do it receive some argument.
Some say that Venus' rotational period should be altered to be closer to Earth's, but others point out that Venus' current slow rotation isn't actually a negative when it comes to hosting life; rather, the slow rotation helps with forming thick cloud covers that would significantly reduce the planetary temperature. If Venus had an atmosphere like Earth's, it would see 'day' and 'night' periods approximately 58 days long, each, with the day resembling a short summer with heavy, overcast skies, and significant rainfall, and the nights being short winters with cold temperatures and snowfall.
The novelty of it is enough to convince most to go with the latter.
How to go about achieving the latter sees significantly more discussion; with some wanting to go the simple route and just remove most of the atmosphere through assimilation, while others claim that this is boring and the same result could be achieved through the much more entertaining and spectacular method of throwing giant rocks really really fast.
The math is presented as such; a 700 kilometer wide kinetic impactor striking Venus at over 20 kilometers a second will eject all the atmosphere above the horizon from the viewpoint of the impact; thus getting rid of about a thousandth of Venus' atmosphere in a single, glorious shot. Further shots would be less efficient, but no less entertaining, and would also serve the purpose of pulverising Venus' surface, as well as creating some truly amazing craters.
When accused, some would admit that they really just want to bombard the crap out of Venus.
The proposal eventually goes forward, under the caveat that they'll only do it once, and afterwards, move on to simply assimilating it.
The impactor takes thirteen days to prepare, with an additional four days of preparation, aiming, and acceleration before it arrives.
The resulting impact can be seen from across the system. It ejects some four hundred and eighty trillion tons of atmosphere, plus far less though still significant amounts of planetary ejecta. It generates such a disturbance in the atmosphere that it creates some of the most powerful lightning storms ever seen, with hurricanes and tornadoes forming and collapsing for months in the aftermath. It makes volcanic activity run rampant, causing eruptions planet-wide, lava and magma flowing violently and freely. The scars left in the wake of the impact glow bright, hot, and deep, penetrating through the planet's crust. It scatters matter all throughout the solar orbit, requiring clean-up so that it doesn't get caught in Venus gravity and go to rejoin the planet.
It is the single greatest act of magnificently violent fury in memory.
The second impactor strikes three hours afterwards.
2147:
After a total of 636 impacts, the atmosphere has thinned significantly. If not for the fact that the terraforming people were returning planetary ejecta to Venus after catching it, Venus itself would have lost a minor portion of its mass.
From this point forward, focus splits between two goals; the first being to further alter the atmosphere, and the second being to start shaping the planetary landscape after the bombardment turned every inch of the planet into alternating craters. Planetary superstorms are still ongoing, but will calm down with time.
Approximately 30 billion are involved in this stage on some level; most only to a relatively minor extent of shaping the ground or changing the atmosphere, but it is still significantly more than the Mars terraforming.
2160:
Venus, after thirteen years of alteration, is finally beginning to calm down. Atmospheric pressures are, at this point, three times that of Earth. The atmospheric content, however, is much closer.
This much less dense atmosphere is enough to start seeing the beginnings of the prediction made fifteen years ago; significant cloud covers have formed on the side of the planet facing the sun, with temperatures dropping massively, though it is still too high to comfortably host non extremophilic life.
Planetary surface has become significantly more flat, with water beginning to fill what will eventually become Venus' oceans.
2165:
Atmospheric alteration completes; with the atmosphere now Earth-like. Seeding of plankton and bacteria begins.
2170:
By this point, Venus is beginning to see the first of larger flora and fauna. The ecosystem is still under construction. The alteration of the crust and mantle begins, in an effort to reduce volcanic activity, still riled up by the bombardment over two decades ago. Mostly, a matter of alleviating pressure before it can grow into something problematic.
2175:
Venus reaches the point of being comfortably habitable by most forms of life. Again, what's left is mostly minutiae, the final adjustments and alterations.
With Mars complete and Venus mostly complete, there are no more 'easy' terraforming options in the solar system. Few celestial bodies in the solar system are even capable of self-sustaining without advanced technology actively maintaining ecosystems and atmospheres.
Focus, instead, turns back to Earth in the meantime. While the planet has mostly recovered over the past seventy five years, the long exploitation prior to Project Ascendence have still left its scars.
The third, and final, major project of the century is proposed.
Project Home aims to repair all damage that the Earth had suffered at Human hands over the course of history
Project Home starts with cleaning up wastes, spent and buried nuclear fuels, radioactive storages, oil spills, soil contamination, and other such things.
2180:
It takes five years to clean up the most major and obvious effects. It would have taken less time, but careful effort is required to ensure things recover properly.
What comes nexts promises to be even more difficult; removing what isn't obvious, restoring species that had been hunted to extinction, or otherwise lost, and cleaning up the effects of cities and other massive constructions that had significantly altered the environment.
2185:
Two new facets of Project Home begin; the first being cleaning up the atmosphere. Though already reduced greatly in the last seventy five years, there is a significant amount of pollutants and excess greenhouse gasses. Again, care is required, as too much of a shift too quickly may cause further damage to ecosystems that have already adapted to the presence of such things.
The second is a much more ambitious goal; putting a ring around the Earth.
An Orbital Ring has long been an established concept, and theoretically, Humanity did have the capacity to construct one, but this is the first time that the theory be put into practice. The plan starts with the construction of a Space Elevator, which will provide the surface anchor for the Orbital Ring.
Several such Space Elevators are expected to built. Initial plans call for three.
The second starts immediately, with three stations equidistant with each other, all in geosynchronous orbit. As they extend cable down to the surface of Earth, they extend a counterweight for the cable away from it, keeping it balanced.
Once the cables reach the surface, they are attached to surface-side anchors, each of which is large, heavy, and attached firmly to the ground. After anchoring, additional cable can be extended down, providing something for additional structures to be attached to.
2190:
With the three Orbital Elevators fully constructed, the can be connected to each other, the three sections of the Orbital Ring first being started with long strands of cable, before being reinforced with additional structures. This will provide space-side housing, manufacturing, power generation, and resource manipulation, none of which is entirely necessary, but all of which will assist in maintaining Earth for the foreseeable future.
Ground-side, cleanup continues, with cities and other Human constructions being either renovated to harmonize with the environment, or being removed entirely. While many historical sites are left intact, a significant portion of more modern sites vanish to be replaced by nature.
2195:
Reintroduction of previously extinct species continues, with many being brought back and most managing to survive in their new environments.
2199:
Project Home, for the most part, completes. The Orbital Ring finishes, fully intact and equipped. Countless species have been reintroduced, the environment is back to near-pristine condition, and the atmosphere has been altered to have the worst of the pollutants and greenhouse gasses removed.
Once more, all that's left is minutiae.
According to a census at the end of the century, Human population is now at 288,279,479,712.
The countdown continues.
The new century begins with promise.
+++
"There's an anomaly in the Psi-Net."
"What do you mean?"
"For the past four months, at the beginning of each month, an information request is processed by the Psi-Net. The thing is, however, this request has no source and no destination. When the Psi-Net tries to send back the requested data, it fails. Error correction means that this isn't a problem, so the request is simply logged for perusal."
"And?"
"At first glance, the requested data seems random and nonsensical. But, thing is? It started forming patterns. It started making sense. So, I started running all the requests through a cypher, see if I could figure it out."
"What did you find?"
"The cipher is an Excellius-Pattern, type 888. The result transforms the data requests into bundles of text. All except the first; that one transforms into a psi-pattern."
"Whose?"
"The Dreamer's."
"... Truly?"
"Do you think I would joke about something like this?"
"No. But the Dreamer is dead."
"The Dreamer itself told us that death was temporary."
"The Dreamer said it would eventually return. It did not say anything about trying to talk to us even during its death."
"It's the Dreamer. Maybe it could be the result of the Dreamer trying to talk, maybe it's an unknown facet of the Dreamer's Gift, or maybe the Dreamer just put that information away and it's only surfacing now. It wouldn't be too hard, even for us. The Dreamer could have done it with an errant thought."
"Fair. What does the text say?"
"The first text bundle said '4068'. The next one was '4067'. It's a number, each time. And, each time, each month, at the beginning of each month, it counts down by one. We are currently at 4066."
"A countdown? For what?"
"I don't know."
"I could guess. Once a month, at the beginning of each month. A simple timeframe; 4066 months is 338 years and ten months. I assume that this is the remaining time for the temporal acceleration around Sol."
"On what grounds?"
"We know when the Harvesters will awake; 2185. 338 years from now will take us to 2449 from our perspective, but only to 2074 for the rest of the universe, leaving us with enough time to spread outside of Sol and prepare for the Harvesters. The temporal expectation fits."
"That is quite the long shot."
"Hence; guess. What else would the Dreamer try to be telling us, really?"
"Hmm..."
+++
2110:
Progress on understanding the Conduit continues, though it is not complete. Understanding the computer systems, specifically, is taking longer than anything else.
2115:
A project is proposed to terraform Mars. Billions agree to join the efforts.
The first step is to find a way to stop solar winds from blowing away Mars' atmosphere, whether by restoring Mars' long lost magnetic field, or by replacing it with something else.
They eventually settle on the latter, if only because it will be easy to get rid of if it doesn't work. The plan calls for the creation of a magnetic dipole shield at Mars' Lagrange 1 point, which would protect Mars from the majority of cosmic radiation and solar winds, letting an atmosphere be rebuilt without being stripped away.
The required magnetic field to shield Mars would need to be comparable to Earth's own. Generating it would need a magnet of up to twenty thousand gauss; which is not impossible.
2116:
After a number of false starts, one accident where the electromagnet tore itself apart due to a slight miscalculation of material strength, and five separate re-designs to get everything working properly, the electromagnetic shield is properly in place.
At 1.72 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, it operates even better than expected. The magnetic field it generates is large and strong, and catches Mars squarely in its magnetotail, immediately and drastically reducing the cosmic radiation and solar winds that the planet receives, and therefore, it dramatically cuts the amount of atmosphere lost.
The generator itself is a significantly sized structure, protected by advanced materials and Mass Effect shields, powered by a generator derived from studying the Conduit, and, at six kilometers wide, the largest artificial non-Psi structure ever created by Humanity. Most of its mass is dedicated to the electromagnetic generators.
Over the next several years, more atmosphere will be added to Mars. As atmosphere builds up, it will begin to cause a runaway greenhouse effect, heating the planet up. As the planet heats up, polar ice caps will begin to melt, leading to liquid water oceans beginning to appear.
Terraforming will not end there, however. Significant additions must be made to both planetary atmosphere and planetary water supply even afterwards- to say nothing of the rest of the terraforming process, like introducing flora, fauna, and other forms of life to Mars.
2125:
Nine years of directed terraforming efforts have left Martian atmosphere capable of hosting life. Martian oceans are still filling, but only have another third to go before being filled to projected targets.
At this stage, plankton, bacteria, and other forms of life are being introduced to Mars. Planetary atmospheric content is shifting closer and closer to Earth.
Over time, more and more life forms will be introduced, until Mars' ecosystem is fully self-sustaining.
2138:
The last of the computer systems behind the Conduit is deciphered, and with it, all the technology behind the Conduit.
The knowledge is tested shortly afterwards, with the construction of a Human-designed Conduit. It differs mildly from the Harvesters' version, being slightly larger, a result of a number of modifications to the internal systems, the most prominent being a significantly more comprehensive communication system.
After six months to work out the bugs, defects, and imperfections, the Conduit design is eventually replicated across the system. It functions as expected, with the Conduits automatically forming a communication web that connects them all in a network enabling instantaneous transport of matter and energy between any Conduits in the system.
They are shortly renamed "Star Rails", to prevent confusion.
In the future, the Star Rails will connect directly to other systems, acting as an alternative to the Conduits, and thus a way to get around the Harvesters' trap.
Safeguards built into the Star Rails should prevent the Harvesters from using them. They are also equipped to scan for any tampering, with differences of code, physical structure, or unlogged activities resulting in the reactor disengaging its containment systems and triggering an energy surge that will result in an explosion of roughly eight hundred megatons, vaporizing the Star Rail and hopefully whatever managed to tamper with it.
The only way around this safeguard is to broadcast a specific psi-signature, which a psy-crystal inside the Star Rail will detect and temporarily disengage the safeguard. As Harvesters do not possess Psychic abilities, this will effectively leave them unable to mess with them without destroying them, and likely also themselves in the process.
Exactly as intended.
2145:
Mars is now comfortably habitable for most forms of life. The terraforming is mostly completed, at this stage, all that is left is the minutiae, the final adjustments and monitoring- ironically, also the longest part of it all.
While catastrophe is unlikely at this point, ecosystem collapse could still potentially occur.
Another project is proposed; this time for the terraformation of Venus. Many agree on the project itself, but the details on how to do it receive some argument.
Some say that Venus' rotational period should be altered to be closer to Earth's, but others point out that Venus' current slow rotation isn't actually a negative when it comes to hosting life; rather, the slow rotation helps with forming thick cloud covers that would significantly reduce the planetary temperature. If Venus had an atmosphere like Earth's, it would see 'day' and 'night' periods approximately 58 days long, each, with the day resembling a short summer with heavy, overcast skies, and significant rainfall, and the nights being short winters with cold temperatures and snowfall.
The novelty of it is enough to convince most to go with the latter.
How to go about achieving the latter sees significantly more discussion; with some wanting to go the simple route and just remove most of the atmosphere through assimilation, while others claim that this is boring and the same result could be achieved through the much more entertaining and spectacular method of throwing giant rocks really really fast.
The math is presented as such; a 700 kilometer wide kinetic impactor striking Venus at over 20 kilometers a second will eject all the atmosphere above the horizon from the viewpoint of the impact; thus getting rid of about a thousandth of Venus' atmosphere in a single, glorious shot. Further shots would be less efficient, but no less entertaining, and would also serve the purpose of pulverising Venus' surface, as well as creating some truly amazing craters.
When accused, some would admit that they really just want to bombard the crap out of Venus.
The proposal eventually goes forward, under the caveat that they'll only do it once, and afterwards, move on to simply assimilating it.
The impactor takes thirteen days to prepare, with an additional four days of preparation, aiming, and acceleration before it arrives.
The resulting impact can be seen from across the system. It ejects some four hundred and eighty trillion tons of atmosphere, plus far less though still significant amounts of planetary ejecta. It generates such a disturbance in the atmosphere that it creates some of the most powerful lightning storms ever seen, with hurricanes and tornadoes forming and collapsing for months in the aftermath. It makes volcanic activity run rampant, causing eruptions planet-wide, lava and magma flowing violently and freely. The scars left in the wake of the impact glow bright, hot, and deep, penetrating through the planet's crust. It scatters matter all throughout the solar orbit, requiring clean-up so that it doesn't get caught in Venus gravity and go to rejoin the planet.
It is the single greatest act of magnificently violent fury in memory.
The second impactor strikes three hours afterwards.
2147:
After a total of 636 impacts, the atmosphere has thinned significantly. If not for the fact that the terraforming people were returning planetary ejecta to Venus after catching it, Venus itself would have lost a minor portion of its mass.
From this point forward, focus splits between two goals; the first being to further alter the atmosphere, and the second being to start shaping the planetary landscape after the bombardment turned every inch of the planet into alternating craters. Planetary superstorms are still ongoing, but will calm down with time.
Approximately 30 billion are involved in this stage on some level; most only to a relatively minor extent of shaping the ground or changing the atmosphere, but it is still significantly more than the Mars terraforming.
2160:
Venus, after thirteen years of alteration, is finally beginning to calm down. Atmospheric pressures are, at this point, three times that of Earth. The atmospheric content, however, is much closer.
This much less dense atmosphere is enough to start seeing the beginnings of the prediction made fifteen years ago; significant cloud covers have formed on the side of the planet facing the sun, with temperatures dropping massively, though it is still too high to comfortably host non extremophilic life.
Planetary surface has become significantly more flat, with water beginning to fill what will eventually become Venus' oceans.
2165:
Atmospheric alteration completes; with the atmosphere now Earth-like. Seeding of plankton and bacteria begins.
2170:
By this point, Venus is beginning to see the first of larger flora and fauna. The ecosystem is still under construction. The alteration of the crust and mantle begins, in an effort to reduce volcanic activity, still riled up by the bombardment over two decades ago. Mostly, a matter of alleviating pressure before it can grow into something problematic.
2175:
Venus reaches the point of being comfortably habitable by most forms of life. Again, what's left is mostly minutiae, the final adjustments and alterations.
With Mars complete and Venus mostly complete, there are no more 'easy' terraforming options in the solar system. Few celestial bodies in the solar system are even capable of self-sustaining without advanced technology actively maintaining ecosystems and atmospheres.
Focus, instead, turns back to Earth in the meantime. While the planet has mostly recovered over the past seventy five years, the long exploitation prior to Project Ascendence have still left its scars.
The third, and final, major project of the century is proposed.
Project Home aims to repair all damage that the Earth had suffered at Human hands over the course of history
Project Home starts with cleaning up wastes, spent and buried nuclear fuels, radioactive storages, oil spills, soil contamination, and other such things.
2180:
It takes five years to clean up the most major and obvious effects. It would have taken less time, but careful effort is required to ensure things recover properly.
What comes nexts promises to be even more difficult; removing what isn't obvious, restoring species that had been hunted to extinction, or otherwise lost, and cleaning up the effects of cities and other massive constructions that had significantly altered the environment.
2185:
Two new facets of Project Home begin; the first being cleaning up the atmosphere. Though already reduced greatly in the last seventy five years, there is a significant amount of pollutants and excess greenhouse gasses. Again, care is required, as too much of a shift too quickly may cause further damage to ecosystems that have already adapted to the presence of such things.
The second is a much more ambitious goal; putting a ring around the Earth.
An Orbital Ring has long been an established concept, and theoretically, Humanity did have the capacity to construct one, but this is the first time that the theory be put into practice. The plan starts with the construction of a Space Elevator, which will provide the surface anchor for the Orbital Ring.
Several such Space Elevators are expected to built. Initial plans call for three.
The second starts immediately, with three stations equidistant with each other, all in geosynchronous orbit. As they extend cable down to the surface of Earth, they extend a counterweight for the cable away from it, keeping it balanced.
Once the cables reach the surface, they are attached to surface-side anchors, each of which is large, heavy, and attached firmly to the ground. After anchoring, additional cable can be extended down, providing something for additional structures to be attached to.
2190:
With the three Orbital Elevators fully constructed, the can be connected to each other, the three sections of the Orbital Ring first being started with long strands of cable, before being reinforced with additional structures. This will provide space-side housing, manufacturing, power generation, and resource manipulation, none of which is entirely necessary, but all of which will assist in maintaining Earth for the foreseeable future.
Ground-side, cleanup continues, with cities and other Human constructions being either renovated to harmonize with the environment, or being removed entirely. While many historical sites are left intact, a significant portion of more modern sites vanish to be replaced by nature.
2195:
Reintroduction of previously extinct species continues, with many being brought back and most managing to survive in their new environments.
2199:
Project Home, for the most part, completes. The Orbital Ring finishes, fully intact and equipped. Countless species have been reintroduced, the environment is back to near-pristine condition, and the atmosphere has been altered to have the worst of the pollutants and greenhouse gasses removed.
Once more, all that's left is minutiae.
According to a census at the end of the century, Human population is now at 288,279,479,712.
The countdown continues.
The new century begins with promise.
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- Location
- Earth: Universe Meta - 1
Woah, 288 Billion! That's not a small number at all. Even without all the psychic BS humanity given the time dilation field would already be a roughly equal challenge to the reapers too.
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
The venus segment was beautiful, and entirely in line for humanity in this story.
"Alright all we need to do is remove some atmosphere, which can be done simply and easily by-"
"We can throw a really big rock at it!"
"Fine, but only once. Then were moving on."
*One Epic Bombardment Later*
"AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!"
"Alright all we need to do is remove some atmosphere, which can be done simply and easily by-"
"We can throw a really big rock at it!"
"Fine, but only once. Then were moving on."
*One Epic Bombardment Later*
"AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!"
- Location
- Russia
It's good that the Dreamer gave humanity empathetic powers by default. They may be maniacs, but they're compassionate, friendly maniacs who don't cause harm that actually harms anyone.
Jordisk
<Unverified N00B>
- Location
- Blind Eternities
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I honestly can't see any TRULY post-scarcity society not doing the most impressive options "for the lulz". They don't "need" the space, they don't "need" the resources, they are just figuring out what they can do, and how they can do it. They use a big rock instead of assimilation for the same reason the Q speak in riddles and prank Starfleet: It is funny.
If they don't need to do it the best way, do it the most interesting way.
Once they get done with the teraforming and orbital ring I wonder if humanity tries it's hand at Teragenisis.
Ie, making a planet wholesale.
They COULD cheat and redirect asteroids to form the base for a counter earth (a planet in the same orbit as earth, but on the opposite side) but that's not strictly needed. They could just manifest the needed mass wholesale. 6x10^21 tons... 3x10^11 humans... How fast can a human make 2x10^10 tons of mass? How many years would it take for humans to just will a planet into existance?
And they need a second earth. Where else do you put the dinosaurs?
Ie, making a planet wholesale.
They COULD cheat and redirect asteroids to form the base for a counter earth (a planet in the same orbit as earth, but on the opposite side) but that's not strictly needed. They could just manifest the needed mass wholesale. 6x10^21 tons... 3x10^11 humans... How fast can a human make 2x10^10 tons of mass? How many years would it take for humans to just will a planet into existance?
And they need a second earth. Where else do you put the dinosaurs?
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I suspect humanity is still stretching it's legs. They have not woken up to the fact that they are collectivly a god just yet. Teraform Mars is something a civilization could do. Use Mars as raw materials for a whole new planet... That is more godlike.
- Location
- Russia
Or they just wanted to keep it out of sentimental value, and to realize the lifelong dream of billions even if it's a bit too late for that.
Those billions are mostly still around. The ones who lived to see Dritch show up at least.
Jordisk
<Unverified N00B>
- Location
- Blind Eternities
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
They don't need raw materials to make an earth-sized planet. They just need to have enough people spawn in matter in sufficient amounts. Assuming that Psymanity on the whole is as powerful as the Festum that came from Outer Space, they can assimilate a city in an instant, lets say a second, and assume a creation rate half that of the assimilation rate (for lack of any other figure). As such, they could create a planet in...a few days? Actual terraforming comes afterwards, of course, but a fully "functional" planet with atmosphere and magnetic fields and all the rest? Easy.
But as was said, they are still figuring out what they can do. They are Psymanity, a REALITY WARPING HIVE MIND. The question is not if they CAN do it, but do they know HOW, and WILL they?
But as was said, they are still figuring out what they can do. They are Psymanity, a REALITY WARPING HIVE MIND. The question is not if they CAN do it, but do they know HOW, and WILL they?