The Practice War [Complete]
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
Turn 19 - Perils of Insight: Part 3
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
What could humanity offer? That was an answer you'd have known well even without the additional briefing packet that you'd pored over the night before. With it, you knew exactly what you could say. The only question was how you said it. The people in front of you quite sensibly feared the response of the Shiplords to a rebellion, especially one so clearly planned. It would bring the full weight of the Shiplords' wrath down upon them, and for all their time among the stars, none of them truly knew what a War Fleet was. To them, it was a nothing less than the inevitable touch of death to entire star systems. Stripping away the mystique of that force would have helped, but now that the construction of the Orrery was fully underway, you were able to offer a shield against it.
"It would be easy for me to simply say that you can," you said, silently accessing a secured file set that had been created at the same time as the UPI report and feeding it into the conference room's holoprojectors. "But we know what you'll face. What some of you call the Deathwind," the entire non-human side of the room went still as you spoke that name. "But it isn't some force of nature, unleashed at their command."
You triggered the activation circuit. "The Shiplords call them War Fleets." An image appeared in the space above you, a slowly revolving ship possessed of all the lethal grace of a resting panther. "They're the most powerful link of a chain that has bound the galaxy for millions of years. But they're just ships. Built with a technical mastery of the Secrets that none of us can match, but just ships. This," you gestured theatrically to the ship, "isn't a warship. Not as we know them. But it doesn't have to be." The Schorvan Marshal shifted, and you abridged what you had left to say.
"The vessels you brought here can jump every few minutes, am I correct?" A soundless chorus of gestures returned a single answer. "In full flight, these craft are designed to jump multiple times a second." Any fidgeting abruptly ceased. "They use that ability to apply a disruptor armament that would be more suited to a vessel three times their size without ever exposing themselves to danger. And the speed with which they jump gives you the sensor ghosts that some of you found when the Shiplords' deployed this weapon against you." The entire delegation stared at you, the beginnings of true terror flickering in the colour of feathers and other, less obvious things. But they needed to know, if only so that they could trust what followed. And your next word froze those beginnings short.
"But once you know that and understand how they do what they do," you fed a new schematic into the projectors, "you can design a defence mechanism." The image what the Shiplords called a Pacifier vanished, replaced by one of Sol. "You've seen the beginning of it take shape whilst you've been here," you said, a mental command highlighting the beginnings of Lina's expansion on the Beltway stations.
"With respect, Envoy Hawk," the Sarthee's voice was hard, if not harsh, "we have seen systems with an enclosed inner system before. It did not save them."
"I understand, but that isn't what these are for. Not really." The stations expanded up and across the sphere of Sol's stellar exclusion zone, then strands of arctic blue arced back into the centre of the system, wrapping around your two inhabited planets. "We'll be able to shield the entire inner system with them, yes, but their main purpose is to be processing centres for the real defence system." Another command, and the countless eyes of the Argus Protocol flickered to life across the outer system like luminous stardust. "Every single one of those is an eye. Between them, they'll make it possible for us to isolate what most sensors would only catch as wraiths. Apply a powerful enough computer to that, and we'll not just be able to find them, we'll be able to predict them. And then…" You shrugged eloquently. "They're nothing but glass."
"I assume you can prove that this is possible," Kendl asked carefully.
"We can," you nodded. "And we will. The Orrery system is a gift to all who suffer under Shiplord rule. At its hand, the myth of the War Fleets will die." And it would show them that even the most terrifying power in the galaxy could be beaten. That was important.
"A worthy gift." Hylmc stated.
"But it's not just gifts you're looking for." You replied, a smile softening what the words could have been. "You need reassurances to take back to your superiors, that we'll be as much a part of this war as you." It was funny really, given what you knew of Lina's expansion plans. "And to explain that, we have to go back to a moment nine years past, and what it meant. Not just for us, but for the Shiplords." The holo between you shifted, zooming in on the space above Mars to show a reflection of the Second Battle of Sol, frozen in place in the golden light that had speared out from Calypso at the touch of a Spoken Word.
"You know what this moment is," it was impossible that they'd missed it. "What you don't know is how it was done and yes," you said, as the Confederacy Farspeaker moved to interrupt. "That does matter."
Kendl raised a hand and crafted a simple sign of forbearance. "You and yours have more than earned patience. We will listen, Envoy." The Farspeaker jerked abruptly, then gave their expression of nod.
"Thank you." A gesture took in the image again, your fingers twisting in a sign of appreciation. "You know what this act did, and that it was an act of Practice. The relevant point is that it wasn't myself, or even a group of Potentials that made it happen." And here was where you might lose them, if you weren't careful. "The soul is a miraculous thing. It's the vehicle for our existence, what makes all of us who and what we are. For humanity, though, there's a little bit more to it than that. Practice draws through the soul, and when the Tribute Fleet returned, every fragment of it not bound to Potentials was focused on the battle against it. And, more specifically, on me. This," you pointed to the lance of golden flame crashing into the Medicament, blazing with the fury of a dying star. "Was the will of my species, channelled through my soul, and given shape by a word." Your recollection of the moment sang in the back of your mind, lending your words far more weight.
"What word?" You glanced over at the question from the Lightseeker, his colours fading into a respectfully curious light red. It would have been hard to miss the reverence in his voice.
"Purify." For a moment the room echoed with ghostly sound, the touch of power that you'd not called deliberately, but had come all the same. Memory was a powerful thing. "And it did. But it also did something else. You've seen the recordings, after the Medicament died, the Tribute Fleet threw itself against us. They targeted the Calypso with everything they had, without reason but to do as much damage as possible. One of their Collectors even engulfed the vessel, though we fought our way free in the end. What you don't know, what very few humans know, is what actually happened in there." They were hooked now, you could tell. No matter how insane what you were about to say might seem, they'd at least give it a fair chance. That was all you needed.
"I once said that we knew the true face of our shared enemy." A new picture took the place, the Shiplord combat chassis that had attacked you specifically, energy flaring out around it like wings as it caught the blast of energy you'd hurled at it. It was 'helmet cam' footage from Sidra. "That wasn't hyperbole. This is imagery of the commander of the Tribute Fleet sent to our star, when they broke onto the flag bridge of the Calypso, specifically targeting me for death and, in the process of failing, spoke to me."
There was a moment of complete shock, as the representatives of six powers so much older than humanity processed what you'd just stated. And then six very different voices filled the air as all of them started talking at once.
"It would be easy for me to simply say that you can," you said, silently accessing a secured file set that had been created at the same time as the UPI report and feeding it into the conference room's holoprojectors. "But we know what you'll face. What some of you call the Deathwind," the entire non-human side of the room went still as you spoke that name. "But it isn't some force of nature, unleashed at their command."
You triggered the activation circuit. "The Shiplords call them War Fleets." An image appeared in the space above you, a slowly revolving ship possessed of all the lethal grace of a resting panther. "They're the most powerful link of a chain that has bound the galaxy for millions of years. But they're just ships. Built with a technical mastery of the Secrets that none of us can match, but just ships. This," you gestured theatrically to the ship, "isn't a warship. Not as we know them. But it doesn't have to be." The Schorvan Marshal shifted, and you abridged what you had left to say.
"The vessels you brought here can jump every few minutes, am I correct?" A soundless chorus of gestures returned a single answer. "In full flight, these craft are designed to jump multiple times a second." Any fidgeting abruptly ceased. "They use that ability to apply a disruptor armament that would be more suited to a vessel three times their size without ever exposing themselves to danger. And the speed with which they jump gives you the sensor ghosts that some of you found when the Shiplords' deployed this weapon against you." The entire delegation stared at you, the beginnings of true terror flickering in the colour of feathers and other, less obvious things. But they needed to know, if only so that they could trust what followed. And your next word froze those beginnings short.
"But once you know that and understand how they do what they do," you fed a new schematic into the projectors, "you can design a defence mechanism." The image what the Shiplords called a Pacifier vanished, replaced by one of Sol. "You've seen the beginning of it take shape whilst you've been here," you said, a mental command highlighting the beginnings of Lina's expansion on the Beltway stations.
"With respect, Envoy Hawk," the Sarthee's voice was hard, if not harsh, "we have seen systems with an enclosed inner system before. It did not save them."
"I understand, but that isn't what these are for. Not really." The stations expanded up and across the sphere of Sol's stellar exclusion zone, then strands of arctic blue arced back into the centre of the system, wrapping around your two inhabited planets. "We'll be able to shield the entire inner system with them, yes, but their main purpose is to be processing centres for the real defence system." Another command, and the countless eyes of the Argus Protocol flickered to life across the outer system like luminous stardust. "Every single one of those is an eye. Between them, they'll make it possible for us to isolate what most sensors would only catch as wraiths. Apply a powerful enough computer to that, and we'll not just be able to find them, we'll be able to predict them. And then…" You shrugged eloquently. "They're nothing but glass."
"I assume you can prove that this is possible," Kendl asked carefully.
"We can," you nodded. "And we will. The Orrery system is a gift to all who suffer under Shiplord rule. At its hand, the myth of the War Fleets will die." And it would show them that even the most terrifying power in the galaxy could be beaten. That was important.
"A worthy gift." Hylmc stated.
"But it's not just gifts you're looking for." You replied, a smile softening what the words could have been. "You need reassurances to take back to your superiors, that we'll be as much a part of this war as you." It was funny really, given what you knew of Lina's expansion plans. "And to explain that, we have to go back to a moment nine years past, and what it meant. Not just for us, but for the Shiplords." The holo between you shifted, zooming in on the space above Mars to show a reflection of the Second Battle of Sol, frozen in place in the golden light that had speared out from Calypso at the touch of a Spoken Word.
"You know what this moment is," it was impossible that they'd missed it. "What you don't know is how it was done and yes," you said, as the Confederacy Farspeaker moved to interrupt. "That does matter."
Kendl raised a hand and crafted a simple sign of forbearance. "You and yours have more than earned patience. We will listen, Envoy." The Farspeaker jerked abruptly, then gave their expression of nod.
"Thank you." A gesture took in the image again, your fingers twisting in a sign of appreciation. "You know what this act did, and that it was an act of Practice. The relevant point is that it wasn't myself, or even a group of Potentials that made it happen." And here was where you might lose them, if you weren't careful. "The soul is a miraculous thing. It's the vehicle for our existence, what makes all of us who and what we are. For humanity, though, there's a little bit more to it than that. Practice draws through the soul, and when the Tribute Fleet returned, every fragment of it not bound to Potentials was focused on the battle against it. And, more specifically, on me. This," you pointed to the lance of golden flame crashing into the Medicament, blazing with the fury of a dying star. "Was the will of my species, channelled through my soul, and given shape by a word." Your recollection of the moment sang in the back of your mind, lending your words far more weight.
"What word?" You glanced over at the question from the Lightseeker, his colours fading into a respectfully curious light red. It would have been hard to miss the reverence in his voice.
"Purify." For a moment the room echoed with ghostly sound, the touch of power that you'd not called deliberately, but had come all the same. Memory was a powerful thing. "And it did. But it also did something else. You've seen the recordings, after the Medicament died, the Tribute Fleet threw itself against us. They targeted the Calypso with everything they had, without reason but to do as much damage as possible. One of their Collectors even engulfed the vessel, though we fought our way free in the end. What you don't know, what very few humans know, is what actually happened in there." They were hooked now, you could tell. No matter how insane what you were about to say might seem, they'd at least give it a fair chance. That was all you needed.
"I once said that we knew the true face of our shared enemy." A new picture took the place, the Shiplord combat chassis that had attacked you specifically, energy flaring out around it like wings as it caught the blast of energy you'd hurled at it. It was 'helmet cam' footage from Sidra. "That wasn't hyperbole. This is imagery of the commander of the Tribute Fleet sent to our star, when they broke onto the flag bridge of the Calypso, specifically targeting me for death and, in the process of failing, spoke to me."
There was a moment of complete shock, as the representatives of six powers so much older than humanity processed what you'd just stated. And then six very different voices filled the air as all of them started talking at once.
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
I finished this a day or so ago, but I wanted to get a firm start on the final section before I posted it. The reason is probably obvious. There's no vote here, because I couldn't really find one and making one up seemed heavily off, but when I reached the final sentence of this section my brain just went "Nope, you're done." After showing it to a few people, particular thanks here go to @Coda for sanity checking my decision to cut it off here, and also for making the point of ensuring that I make a good start on the next section before posting this. There's nothing worse than cutting off an interlude set and then leaving you waiting. It'll probably not be completed tonight, but it should be up by the end of the weekend at the latest. I hope you'll forgive my cliffhanging.
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- Location
- Florida
Definitely a good stopping point. We really put the fox with the hens, huh?
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
That's probably an understatement. But yes, it works as an analogy.
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That they, like us, prefer to distance themselves from their atrocities through professional understatement?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
"WAIT WHAT YOU MET ONE!?"
They make a desert, and they call it peace.
Not necessarily.
RL Humans name weapon platforms after intimidating things, animals or phenomena.
Or famous war leaders or incidents. Things with resonance of excellence at violence or war, and occasionally other things.
Pacifier is almost painfully mundane by comparison.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
It's not as if Collector is all that exciting, to be fair.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
The thing is, humans have a pretty short and variegated history, and we all deal with each other so we have a shared cultural reference pool that goes back to when we were primitives huddling in huts.
The Shiplords have an aeons-deep history as massively post-human galactic genocidaires. They may know their own race's history from before they became what they are, but unless they've gone to extreme lengths to preserve it, it has no emotional resonance for them. Their culture appears to be very heavily built around sustaining this war effort against the rest of the galaxy, continuously, forever. And I strongly suspect that most of the things that are still even remotely intimidating to their species are things they would prefer not to name ships after, for the same reasons we'd hesitate to name a ship the USS Cthulhu.
So they pick ship names that are reasonably descriptive of the ships' actual functions, to minimize confusion, and probably also so that roles and descriptions remain stable over time. A War Fleet ship of today may not be entirely the same as one of five million years ago, but they're still Pacifiers, they're just Mark 1837 Pacifiers.
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
True. My claim was too sweeping given the existence of Hellfire missiles, but we do still have "enhanced interrogations" and "internment camps" and such sprinkled throughout. Things that we're not totally on board with get nice, safe, sterile names. It'd be interesting to know whether there are things that the Shiplords give more exciting names to or if the military is somber throughout.
Like I said, painfully mundane.
Collector. Medicament. Pacifier. Tribute Feet. Regular Fleet. War Fleet.
Aleph-class platforms.
It's beginning to look like a pattern, especially compared to the G6 calling War Fleets the Deathwind.
Still a fascinating insight into their culture though.
Names are fascinating, and I speak as someone who's lived where people are bestowed based on their meanings.
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Vortex279
Changer of Fate, Seeker of Donuts
- Location
- Del Rio, Texas
Dang, it makes one wonder if anyone else has ever seen a Shiplord upclose. Who knows how may races out there have pissed of the shiplords enough to get the reaction they did?
On another note, @Snowfire, I wondered if you have ever seen rolls like this from any other quest story you have read:
"This is the Finish!: Roll 99 + 77 (Strength) + 18 (Sword) + 30 (Party) + 30 (Allura) + 100 (Bonus) = 354 req roll 200/200 = Pass/Pass/Crit!
Explosion!: Roll 92 + 72 (Strength) + 18 (Sword) + 30 (Party) + 30 (Allura) + 100 (Bonus) + 254 (ED) = 601 req roll 400/400 = Pass/Pass/Triple Crit!
Chain Reaction!: 85 + 77 (Strength) + 18 (Sword) + 30 (Party) + 30 (Allura) + 100 (Bonus) + 501 (ED) = 841 req roll 800/800 = Pass/Pass/Quintuple Crit! (@.@)"
I was reading a story by @dingbat on Spacebattles, and ran into this. I have been reading for some time, yet i have never seen a quintuple crit before.
Quick additional note:
We actually know what the Shiplords have done with the people they have kidnapped.
The G6 only have suspicions. The Marionettes might have a better idea due to their genetic memory, but they wouldn't have shared it. Not if they were unclear about the dimensions of that ability.
I wonder if that has come up yet.
We actually know what the Shiplords have done with the people they have kidnapped.
The G6 only have suspicions. The Marionettes might have a better idea due to their genetic memory, but they wouldn't have shared it. Not if they were unclear about the dimensions of that ability.
I wonder if that has come up yet.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I suspect that the G6 have figured it out to an acceptable level of certainty, being as how they have surely defeated Tribute Fleets in battle before, and seen others fight them.
But you may be right.
But you may be right.
- Location
- Somewhere out there
A further question: If anyone has seen them up close and lived to tell the tale.
I THINK I remember that Project Insight has determined that Practice is unique to Humanity though.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
This is correct, yes. They've been around long enough to work it out, although not all of them have certainty on the matter. Pro-tip, the Nileans do.
Practice is definitely unique to Humanity.
But as we've seen with the Marionettes, Practice is not the only weird racial trick out there.
The Marios certainly know what the interiors of Collectors look like, and might even have seen Shiplords; that whole racial memory is a very useful strategic intelligence tool.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Heh.
This is the question you'd really want to ask, though. A good number of races have probably seen Shiplords. Lived to tell about it? Well...that's another story.
Remember:
Marios do not have to survive an encounter to tell other Marios about what they see. As long as the issue is important enough to get a senior memory person involved, they can learn from the experiences of the dead.
Unless the SLs can jam that stuff, of course.
They must have a very interesting legal system.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Their racial memory is just a tad less universal than you seem to think it is
- Location
- Staring into the void
I saw a Deca Critical Roll in an omake.
Yes it was in a Sage quest...
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
*looks at the Mechanics sections for the SBOS that he is never going to let anyone else see*
Don't mind me.
Vortex279
Changer of Fate, Seeker of Donuts
- Location
- Del Rio, Texas
Oh god in heaven, I should never have mentioned the crit chain . . . now @Snowfire has IDEAS! I am going to go over to the corner and cry, guys. Sorry if i just cursed the dice to a repeat of the DECA roll.
EDIT: Just as an aside, what is the SBOS? I've never heard of it before?
EDIT: Just as an aside, what is the SBOS? I've never heard of it before?
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