Maybe they'll be able to provide some context to what was said. In retrospect, something like "stasis" "secure" "capture" or "prisoner" would have been better.
Btw @Snowfire has Amanda ever tried Speaking a person's name?
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The Practice War [Complete]
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
Btw @Snowfire has Amanda ever tried Speaking a person's name?
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
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?
I'm sure it won't be too... Okay, going to stop right there. My Murphy Detector just broke and it looks like the power cable for my Anti-Murphy Cloak just short-circuited and fried the whole thing...
SBOS is the acronym for Second Battle of SoL. Aka the big fight the first half this quest was preparing for.
I mean, it's not really a "Crit" if the die roll is a 15, is it? The QM just has a policy of "any time the combined total is > 100 that's a crit; add another 1d100", gives the opposition a ton of bonuses, then gives a rolling +25 to every > 100 reroll, so it becomes "any time the combined total is > 100 that's a crit; add another 1d100+25", and it's not terribly surprising the total got so massively inflated.
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
Don't worry, I'm sure everyone else in this thread has done something similarly oblivious... It just might have been a while since they last did it...
Alternatively, they just haven't figured out what they did yet, that's always a possibility... XD
Turn 19 - Perils of Insight: Part 4
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
It took time for you to calm the delegates down after that bombshell, even with Neil and Phoebe helping as best they can. If it had just been one of disbelief or shock, then it probably would have been…the word you were looking for was simple. Not easy, but straightforward. As it was, things were just a fraction more complicated. The problem was, apparently, the sheer audacity of what you'd said. On the one hand, it didn't really make sense compared to the UPI report and what War Fleets really were. On the other, logic had no place here, because this was an emotional matter. Dispelling the mystique of the War Fleets and offering a defence system were…technical things. They were bigger than people, with consequences of such enormity that they could be accepted without the mind having to deal with the deeper conclusions that you knew they'd draw given time.
Even Purify itself was too big, or simply too strange, to be properly internalised for what it was. You'd even explained it that way, as the condensed will of your species made manifest. And then you'd told them the Shiplords hadn't come after the Calypso for being the firing point, which would have made at least some sense. No. They'd come after you, specifically. Maybe it had been a mistake to make the point so bluntly, you considered, patiently wearing Marshal Karak back into silence. They'd have worked it out quickly enough, but maybe if you'd let them make that connection themselves? In the end, it didn't really matter. You'd made your play, now it was up to you to make it work.
"Marshal," you didn't raise your voice, but for a very short moment, you let the gentle façade you'd maintained throughout most of your interactions, which wasn't so much a mask as the part of yourself that you were most comfortable with, slip. It wasn't much, but you'd learnt how to make yourself heard decades ago. How to make a point in a single word had taken longer, but you'd had plenty of time to refine your craft. He stopped mid-word. "If you want me to explain, I have to ask that you give me the space to do so." There wasn't a hint of anything that might even be irritation in your voice, but there didn't have to be. Presence was unaligned.
"It would be simplest if you'd watch the footage," you continued into the silence your voice had made. "It's helmet cam footage, from my perspective." Not technically untrue. "We have a composite that adds in bridge sensor recordings as well, if you'd like." The Schorvan emissary growled something under his breath, but didn't reject the offer. You looked over at the rest of the delegation, wanting an affirmative before you went forward.
"Being able to see what you have spoken of would help us all, I think," Farspeaker Taljin admitted, the sound of their stony voice a surprise. They'd not spoken often throughout all the time you'd been involved in the diplomatic process. "You can prove the validity of these recordings, yes?"
"We can." It would have been stupid of you to even bring it up if you couldn't.
"Then let us see, please." They asked, and you nodded firmly.
"Gladly."
You watched Amanda behind a mask of careful calm as the holo above the table started to move, the image of the Shiplord combat chassis moving forward steadily, and was it truly a real one? How much did it matter? There was little that the Reverie had ever been able to tell your people of those creatures, but that they existed and were to be feared. Perhaps, somewhere buried deep, there might be an image of a similar being, but perhaps not. Why would they care to reveal themselves to tribute, soon destroyed but for- you cut off the thought. Not now. You focused again on the recording, but kept an eye on Amanda's face. If this was true, and after everything else, you couldn't imagine it wasn't, then there'd be clues. This was the first time she'd had to fight for her life, at least in this way. The memories would tell. Of all the members of the Contact Fleet, it was you who understood the complexities of non-verbal human behaviour best. And as you watched, the long hours of focus paid for themselves.
Something in her face tightened as the movements played out, the world blurring in a flurry of defensive movements, the sight of another Potential off to one side, moving like a wraith between the attacks of three more combat chassis as their leader struck directly at Amanda. Bolts of particle energy soared through the air from behind her, splashing on the armour of two more Shiplords, moving swiftly out on either side of Amanda's vision, charging the source of fire. She had been afraid, you realised. Not for herself, but everyone else there with her; who her presence had turned into targets. Fierce orange light slammed against the pale blur of her staff in motion, knocking away her attacker's fists. It fell back a step, offering a pause, an opportunity to strike. You wondered why she hadn't taken it. Then the stance shifted and words echoed in the room. They were toneless and quite without emotion, but they sent a shiver through your soul nonetheless.
"How dare you," the image spat, the perspective jerking back as if stung. "How dare you profane that gift and persist!" You weren't alone in the outburst of sudden shock. There was rage in its voice, somehow, you could tell. Then it blurred forward again. Amanda's staff caught the first strike, but not the second and harsh orange light bloomed below the recording input. Amanda couldn't quite hold back a wince, one hand dropping involuntarily to her side, then the staff of cyan light slammed the Shiplord back. It didn't seem to hurt it, though. Maybe that was why she hadn't attacked when it had offered the opportunity. You were no soldier, but it made sense.
In the chair across from you, blue eyes glittered like tiny stars, defiant as they watched the recording that was as much memory as footage. Her fingers tightened into a fist, mimicking the action on screen as her past self crushed the staff and brought the energy pouring into her. Something flickered across the imagery, a shadow of light that you recognised from the recordings taken of Amanda before she spoke away the last infiltrators in the Contact Fleet. The Shiplord blurred in place, starting to move forward again now that its opponent had let her weapon go. And a word rang out.
"Stop." It wasn't loud, she never raised her voice. The delivery reminded you of how Amanda had brought the entire room to stillness a few moments ago, to show you this. But the differences were obvious. A lucent shockwave snapped out across the flag bridge with dreadful suddenness, pouring over the languid motions of the other Unisonbound – Vega Cant, you thought. It parted around her, leaving her untouched, but the fate of any Shiplords within view was quite different. The force engulfed the combat chassis in near-invisible might. This was the power you'd seen only a handful of times since arrival, the war-fighting potential of Practice unleashed.
One of the Shiplords was unaffected, but Vega, you were sure now, dropped below its assault with almost frightening ease and lashed out with a rope of light that bound its ankles and sent it tumbling. But that was almost an afterthought, as the featureless helm of the Shiplord that had targeted Amanda was frozen almost right in front of her, caught in a shell of lucid light.
"This will not hold me, desecrator," its flat, synthesised voice stated, tiny cracks starting to spread across the shell.
"I have done nothing but defend my people," Amanda's voice sounded from the recording, defiant even in the face of something she couldn't have understood then. "But why do we have to fight like this?" You felt the sudden stillness next to you, the Nilean equivalent of an indrawn breath. "Why the tribute slaughter? Why these fleet games?"
The Shiplord didn't answer, and you felt the false-skin on your cheeks pale as the nature of those questions sunk in. She had asked it why? In the middle of a battlefield? A burst of light shaded the moment, followed by the sound of a larger particle weapon going off. A human one, given Amanda's lack of movement. The pickup shifted, then more words came.
"I want to," you recognised the power building in the syllables, you'd just had an example of what that sounded like. "Understand." There was no flash of power this time. No sudden burst of light, or visible result of energy unleashed in search of something so very simple. The head of the combat armour tilted up, fighting against the energy shell until if it had had eyes, it would have been staring straight at the source of the recording. The Sarthee Representative gave a soft, low cry as golden light bloomed around the armour, coming from within, not without.
"I am your prophet and portent of doom
I call fire from the stars
Cause old fears to resume
I am progress's enemy
Complacency's friend
I am that from which
You must always defend
I am a voice from the stars
Speaker lying unseen
I am the figure that haunts
At the edge of your dream
I am dark and I am danger
Trials without end
But when time comes to greet me
You will call me
Friend"
The words were spoken in the same toneless way, a synthesiser, you thought. Yet there was a calm to them. White flashed through the gold, forging a momentary pattern of lines, maybe seams? And the chassis quite literally fell apart. The shell of Practice made real flickered out and plates of dead armour began to fall, crashing down to form neat little piles as the recitation came to a close.
"For all that I am,
I am not your enemy."
The helmet fell, if that had been what it truly was, and another word caught at the edge of your hearing, faint enough that there must have been enhancement added to ensure you would hear it.
"Believe."
The helmet landed on the pile of parts with a ringing clang, and the recording stopped. The room around you was deathly silent, Hylmc's plumage shaded to a deathly grey as you all waited…waited for something to happen that could make everything you'd just seen and heard make sense.
It never came.
Finally, Amanda cleared her throat. "If you wish," she said softly, "we can bring up pieces of that armour for you to examine. There was nothing living left in it after it came apart, we checked that very carefully."
"What did it mean?" Farspeaker Taljin asked, their usually vibrant voice dead. Amanda shook her head heavily.
"We don't know, Farspeaker," she admitted, in that same, soft voice. "I'm sorry, but we just don't know. But in that recording is proof that regardless of how far we are from their territory, once the Shiplords know of us, know of what we can do, they will come against us in strength. We know that it will make us a target for forces that we can only really understand as words and letters of a page," she nodded to the scattered hardcopy, now so innocuous compared to what you'd just seen. And a sudden defiance blazed to life in her eyes. "But we are committed to that course regardless, for it is the right thing to do. Practice is a gift, one beyond anything else humanity has ever grasped, and if we are to be true to ourselves and those we have lost, we cannot stand by and watch. The galaxy is far older than our race, cloaked in sorrows greater than we can imagine, but if we act together then maybe it does not have to stay that way." Colour and motion started to return to the delegates around you as she spoke, an exultation of pure will pushing back the despair of confusion.
"And it is a gift that we cannot hoard, not if our nations are to endure victorious. In the years to come, our navy will expand, and the drives you've offered to us along with those taken from the Tribute Fleet will be the seeds of fleets that will be sent out to protect your worlds as well. My research teams are deeply involved in the process of the FSN's refits; I know what they'll be capable of. It might be a small force now, compared to those of your polities, but it will not stay that way. Here or in the light of your stars, we will stand with you, to whatever end comes."
Your hand moved, flicking a datapacket down the table to Kendl, and you saw her fingers flicker in sudden shock. More messages whined across the web of information that existed between you all, a new picture of the future forming at the touch of your decision. It took only moments, but it felt as if it should have taken longer.
"Diplomat Grasis," Kendl said, speaking past Amanda with her hands set in a highly ceremonial sign with words stiff with formality. "This is the position of your government?"
"It is," he replied instantly.
Out of the Nilean's pocket came a chip, which she pushed across the table. "This contains an authenticated identity key to the comm buoy chain that should have finished construction by the end of this year, leading all the way back to our launch point, and from there capable of linking into a much wider network. I would ask that you do not use it until you know it is safe to do so," she formed a gestured towards the leader of Insight, "but it is the opinion of us six that you should have this now. If we are to fight together, then we must be able to do so as one."
Even Purify itself was too big, or simply too strange, to be properly internalised for what it was. You'd even explained it that way, as the condensed will of your species made manifest. And then you'd told them the Shiplords hadn't come after the Calypso for being the firing point, which would have made at least some sense. No. They'd come after you, specifically. Maybe it had been a mistake to make the point so bluntly, you considered, patiently wearing Marshal Karak back into silence. They'd have worked it out quickly enough, but maybe if you'd let them make that connection themselves? In the end, it didn't really matter. You'd made your play, now it was up to you to make it work.
"Marshal," you didn't raise your voice, but for a very short moment, you let the gentle façade you'd maintained throughout most of your interactions, which wasn't so much a mask as the part of yourself that you were most comfortable with, slip. It wasn't much, but you'd learnt how to make yourself heard decades ago. How to make a point in a single word had taken longer, but you'd had plenty of time to refine your craft. He stopped mid-word. "If you want me to explain, I have to ask that you give me the space to do so." There wasn't a hint of anything that might even be irritation in your voice, but there didn't have to be. Presence was unaligned.
"It would be simplest if you'd watch the footage," you continued into the silence your voice had made. "It's helmet cam footage, from my perspective." Not technically untrue. "We have a composite that adds in bridge sensor recordings as well, if you'd like." The Schorvan emissary growled something under his breath, but didn't reject the offer. You looked over at the rest of the delegation, wanting an affirmative before you went forward.
"Being able to see what you have spoken of would help us all, I think," Farspeaker Taljin admitted, the sound of their stony voice a surprise. They'd not spoken often throughout all the time you'd been involved in the diplomatic process. "You can prove the validity of these recordings, yes?"
"We can." It would have been stupid of you to even bring it up if you couldn't.
"Then let us see, please." They asked, and you nodded firmly.
"Gladly."
You watched Amanda behind a mask of careful calm as the holo above the table started to move, the image of the Shiplord combat chassis moving forward steadily, and was it truly a real one? How much did it matter? There was little that the Reverie had ever been able to tell your people of those creatures, but that they existed and were to be feared. Perhaps, somewhere buried deep, there might be an image of a similar being, but perhaps not. Why would they care to reveal themselves to tribute, soon destroyed but for- you cut off the thought. Not now. You focused again on the recording, but kept an eye on Amanda's face. If this was true, and after everything else, you couldn't imagine it wasn't, then there'd be clues. This was the first time she'd had to fight for her life, at least in this way. The memories would tell. Of all the members of the Contact Fleet, it was you who understood the complexities of non-verbal human behaviour best. And as you watched, the long hours of focus paid for themselves.
Something in her face tightened as the movements played out, the world blurring in a flurry of defensive movements, the sight of another Potential off to one side, moving like a wraith between the attacks of three more combat chassis as their leader struck directly at Amanda. Bolts of particle energy soared through the air from behind her, splashing on the armour of two more Shiplords, moving swiftly out on either side of Amanda's vision, charging the source of fire. She had been afraid, you realised. Not for herself, but everyone else there with her; who her presence had turned into targets. Fierce orange light slammed against the pale blur of her staff in motion, knocking away her attacker's fists. It fell back a step, offering a pause, an opportunity to strike. You wondered why she hadn't taken it. Then the stance shifted and words echoed in the room. They were toneless and quite without emotion, but they sent a shiver through your soul nonetheless.
"How dare you," the image spat, the perspective jerking back as if stung. "How dare you profane that gift and persist!" You weren't alone in the outburst of sudden shock. There was rage in its voice, somehow, you could tell. Then it blurred forward again. Amanda's staff caught the first strike, but not the second and harsh orange light bloomed below the recording input. Amanda couldn't quite hold back a wince, one hand dropping involuntarily to her side, then the staff of cyan light slammed the Shiplord back. It didn't seem to hurt it, though. Maybe that was why she hadn't attacked when it had offered the opportunity. You were no soldier, but it made sense.
In the chair across from you, blue eyes glittered like tiny stars, defiant as they watched the recording that was as much memory as footage. Her fingers tightened into a fist, mimicking the action on screen as her past self crushed the staff and brought the energy pouring into her. Something flickered across the imagery, a shadow of light that you recognised from the recordings taken of Amanda before she spoke away the last infiltrators in the Contact Fleet. The Shiplord blurred in place, starting to move forward again now that its opponent had let her weapon go. And a word rang out.
"Stop." It wasn't loud, she never raised her voice. The delivery reminded you of how Amanda had brought the entire room to stillness a few moments ago, to show you this. But the differences were obvious. A lucent shockwave snapped out across the flag bridge with dreadful suddenness, pouring over the languid motions of the other Unisonbound – Vega Cant, you thought. It parted around her, leaving her untouched, but the fate of any Shiplords within view was quite different. The force engulfed the combat chassis in near-invisible might. This was the power you'd seen only a handful of times since arrival, the war-fighting potential of Practice unleashed.
One of the Shiplords was unaffected, but Vega, you were sure now, dropped below its assault with almost frightening ease and lashed out with a rope of light that bound its ankles and sent it tumbling. But that was almost an afterthought, as the featureless helm of the Shiplord that had targeted Amanda was frozen almost right in front of her, caught in a shell of lucid light.
"This will not hold me, desecrator," its flat, synthesised voice stated, tiny cracks starting to spread across the shell.
"I have done nothing but defend my people," Amanda's voice sounded from the recording, defiant even in the face of something she couldn't have understood then. "But why do we have to fight like this?" You felt the sudden stillness next to you, the Nilean equivalent of an indrawn breath. "Why the tribute slaughter? Why these fleet games?"
The Shiplord didn't answer, and you felt the false-skin on your cheeks pale as the nature of those questions sunk in. She had asked it why? In the middle of a battlefield? A burst of light shaded the moment, followed by the sound of a larger particle weapon going off. A human one, given Amanda's lack of movement. The pickup shifted, then more words came.
"I want to," you recognised the power building in the syllables, you'd just had an example of what that sounded like. "Understand." There was no flash of power this time. No sudden burst of light, or visible result of energy unleashed in search of something so very simple. The head of the combat armour tilted up, fighting against the energy shell until if it had had eyes, it would have been staring straight at the source of the recording. The Sarthee Representative gave a soft, low cry as golden light bloomed around the armour, coming from within, not without.
"I am your prophet and portent of doom
I call fire from the stars
Cause old fears to resume
I am progress's enemy
Complacency's friend
I am that from which
You must always defend
I am a voice from the stars
Speaker lying unseen
I am the figure that haunts
At the edge of your dream
I am dark and I am danger
Trials without end
But when time comes to greet me
You will call me
Friend"
The words were spoken in the same toneless way, a synthesiser, you thought. Yet there was a calm to them. White flashed through the gold, forging a momentary pattern of lines, maybe seams? And the chassis quite literally fell apart. The shell of Practice made real flickered out and plates of dead armour began to fall, crashing down to form neat little piles as the recitation came to a close.
"For all that I am,
I am not your enemy."
The helmet fell, if that had been what it truly was, and another word caught at the edge of your hearing, faint enough that there must have been enhancement added to ensure you would hear it.
"Believe."
The helmet landed on the pile of parts with a ringing clang, and the recording stopped. The room around you was deathly silent, Hylmc's plumage shaded to a deathly grey as you all waited…waited for something to happen that could make everything you'd just seen and heard make sense.
It never came.
Finally, Amanda cleared her throat. "If you wish," she said softly, "we can bring up pieces of that armour for you to examine. There was nothing living left in it after it came apart, we checked that very carefully."
"What did it mean?" Farspeaker Taljin asked, their usually vibrant voice dead. Amanda shook her head heavily.
"We don't know, Farspeaker," she admitted, in that same, soft voice. "I'm sorry, but we just don't know. But in that recording is proof that regardless of how far we are from their territory, once the Shiplords know of us, know of what we can do, they will come against us in strength. We know that it will make us a target for forces that we can only really understand as words and letters of a page," she nodded to the scattered hardcopy, now so innocuous compared to what you'd just seen. And a sudden defiance blazed to life in her eyes. "But we are committed to that course regardless, for it is the right thing to do. Practice is a gift, one beyond anything else humanity has ever grasped, and if we are to be true to ourselves and those we have lost, we cannot stand by and watch. The galaxy is far older than our race, cloaked in sorrows greater than we can imagine, but if we act together then maybe it does not have to stay that way." Colour and motion started to return to the delegates around you as she spoke, an exultation of pure will pushing back the despair of confusion.
"And it is a gift that we cannot hoard, not if our nations are to endure victorious. In the years to come, our navy will expand, and the drives you've offered to us along with those taken from the Tribute Fleet will be the seeds of fleets that will be sent out to protect your worlds as well. My research teams are deeply involved in the process of the FSN's refits; I know what they'll be capable of. It might be a small force now, compared to those of your polities, but it will not stay that way. Here or in the light of your stars, we will stand with you, to whatever end comes."
Your hand moved, flicking a datapacket down the table to Kendl, and you saw her fingers flicker in sudden shock. More messages whined across the web of information that existed between you all, a new picture of the future forming at the touch of your decision. It took only moments, but it felt as if it should have taken longer.
"Diplomat Grasis," Kendl said, speaking past Amanda with her hands set in a highly ceremonial sign with words stiff with formality. "This is the position of your government?"
"It is," he replied instantly.
Out of the Nilean's pocket came a chip, which she pushed across the table. "This contains an authenticated identity key to the comm buoy chain that should have finished construction by the end of this year, leading all the way back to our launch point, and from there capable of linking into a much wider network. I would ask that you do not use it until you know it is safe to do so," she formed a gestured towards the leader of Insight, "but it is the opinion of us six that you should have this now. If we are to fight together, then we must be able to do so as one."
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Many thanks go to @Jeboboid and @Coda for checking this over for me. This is the final section of Perils of Insight, containing within something that some had suspected might be the case (I think) and if you hadn't, well, yay me I get to surprise folk. So yeah, there was another reason for the Contact Fleet taking so long, that they hadn't told you about. Your actions, together with those of the Diplomatic Corps, have now proven sufficient for them to trust you with it. No, I'm not telling you where the relays are, or why the Nileans are confident in putting them down without making breadcrumb trails. Not important for Amanda to know right now either, so even though it's a question that will get asked later, she isn't likely to find out about it. Still, you may consider the network to be rather secure, although Adri is going to be getting Insight to do full passes of it before she even tries to connect, let alone send any messages. This took a bit to get right, but I worked out Friday evening that I was coming at the main section of the piece wrong. I didn't want to write Amanda reacting to her own actions, I wanted something more interesting. I think I got you that.
Final section of the turn sometime this coming week - I'm away on work again, but that's sometimes a good thing.
Final section of the turn sometime this coming week - I'm away on work again, but that's sometimes a good thing.
- Location
- Florida
Ooooh, alien perspective and opinions on how that confrontation went. I love it, it's so fascinating.
Bit odd that this one paragraph is the only one in the entire section that's from Amanda's perspective instead of the perspective of the alien watching the recording.
Delete one of these words.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Likely a case of Loreli's Reverie of Amanda, slipping on her perspective unconsicously.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Somehow missed this, sorry. No, she hasn't. She's really not sure what might happen and is a little concerned about that.
Typo fixed and GYAH! That section was meant to be deleted >.< Copied the wrong damn section in. My bad.
Hah, I knew we had the Marionettes' basically unconditioned support! That Reverie was an even bigger deal than we knew at the time, and we thought it was a game-changer at the time.
Still waiting to see how the others fall, though. This depends a lot on the psychologies of various alien races that we just don't know enough about, but even if the shock does make some of them take a step or two back in the present I do believe that going the full disclosure route like we did is a better idea in the long run.
You spoil us Snowfire. Thank you.
Quick thoughts
============
It just occurs to me: It's one thing to attack the Calypso.
But how did they know to target Amanda as the person responsible? Not Vega, Amanda.
No evidence they broke our comms.
They know she has a Unison Platform, and they were actually withess to the 223 practice session, and what Amanda was wearing.
When she says helmetcam, iy's safe to assume they understand what she means.
Emissary: Nilean Community. Kendl
Marshal: Schorvan. Karak.
Representative: Sarthee
Observer: Marionette. Lorelli.
Lightseeker: Telas Luminary. Hylmc.
Cich'swa: Farspeaker. Taljin.
Each title tells us something about the society behind it.
I'll note that we have never actually seen the Sarthee addressed by name, and Amanda actually spent two updates talking to a Sarthee!
That confirms that while Humanity may be the only users of Practice extant at the moment, they are not the first ever that the Shiplords have met.
Especially given their possession of Practice-like effects, and the whole desecration spiel.
If the Marios know any more about the SLs, Lorelli is not cleared for the info, nor skilled enough to find it on his/her own.
And they're both the oldest, and the only members of the G6 with a significant Uninvolved movement, as well as confirmed contact with at least one member of an Ascended species. AND the most travelled exploration fleets.
I suspect those things are related.
Quick thoughts
============
Question:
It just occurs to me: It's one thing to attack the Calypso.
But how did they know to target Amanda as the person responsible? Not Vega, Amanda.
No evidence they broke our comms.
It is true.
They know she has a Unison Platform, and they were actually withess to the 223 practice session, and what Amanda was wearing.
When she says helmetcam, iy's safe to assume they understand what she means.
Heh.
We now have titles for the primary representatives of all six nations.
Emissary: Nilean Community. Kendl
Marshal: Schorvan. Karak.
Representative: Sarthee
Observer: Marionette. Lorelli.
Lightseeker: Telas Luminary. Hylmc.
Cich'swa: Farspeaker. Taljin.
Each title tells us something about the society behind it.
I'll note that we have never actually seen the Sarthee addressed by name, and Amanda actually spent two updates talking to a Sarthee!
They recognize Practice. And/or Speaking.
That confirms that while Humanity may be the only users of Practice extant at the moment, they are not the first ever that the Shiplords have met.
Especially given their possession of Practice-like effects, and the whole desecration spiel.
There's an answer to that.
If the Marios know any more about the SLs, Lorelli is not cleared for the info, nor skilled enough to find it on his/her own.
The Sarthee rep seems to recognize that phenomenon.
And they're both the oldest, and the only members of the G6 with a significant Uninvolved movement, as well as confirmed contact with at least one member of an Ascended species. AND the most travelled exploration fleets.
I suspect those things are related.
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- Location
- Somewhere out there
Oops, I missed one!
Vortex279
Changer of Fate, Seeker of Donuts
- Location
- Del Rio, Texas
I can't help but wonder something, given the Shiplord's reaction to Amanda's Speaking. Is it possible that the race with Practice/Speech that the Shiplord's theoretically met set them on their path of "testing" the galaxy? After all, The shiplord did say:
Snowfire said: ↑
"How dare you," the image spat, the perspective jerking back as if stung. "How dare you profane that gift and persist!"
Edit: Wait, duh, missed who was talking/thinking here.
And yeah, some really important info about the Sarthee. I hope we'll have a chance to get more info on that from him; I suspect that auto-vaporization thing the Shiplords are doing to be called back soon.
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- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
They have seen similar effects. Whether or not that was Practice is still open.
Whoops.
Error on my part. Not sure how it got there. Will fix.
Similar enough to call it desecration? Similar enough that they knew it was the work of one person? At a point you might as well call them the same thing.
Note that it wasn't the use of Practice that set them off; they didn't freak out at the Practice boosting of mundane ships, or Calypso's protections, or the Unisonbound, or Vega running a Harmonic link, or even Kali doing her best angel of death imitation.
None of that caused them to break.
As you noted, they have access to Practice-like effects, and if Nilean sensors are good enough to pick up active Practice effects, so are Shiplord sensors.
Hell, note that Tombstone saw the Miracle of Prologue, and the first megascale uses of Practice. It was around ftom the Week of Sorrows till Turn 5 or so. Practice was in more or less open use. None of that triggered any immediate alarms about what we were using, just our rate of progression.
It was the Act of Speaking, and it's results, that triggered the bezerker fit by the Tribute Fleet. It was Speaking that was labeled a desecration. It was the Speaker that was especially targeted by the Shiplord leader.
I'm not sure what it means, but it means Something.
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- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I still got the feeling1 that Uninvolved, or the becoming thereof, goes hand in hand with similar effects. And that our use of Practice/speaking deviates in a way from what (soon to be) Uninvolved do that triggered the SL.
1Perhaps because I still think that one of reasons the SL do what the do is to increase the rate of races becoming Uninvolved.
I agree there's a link. How extensive, I dunno.
Note that we got Practice as the result of an entire species, a species that loved us, suiciding, and taking some humans with them. It was characterized as a gift
There's a reason the Shiplords prohibit Second Secret use, which allows wholesale creation of new species.
@Snowfire
QUESTION
Do we, or the G6 know of any nation that evolved with multiple species of sophonts on the same planet/star system? Or were multispecies before Shiplord contact?
To the best of our knowledge, it's First Secret use that triggers SL contact.
Are we aware of any that had created/uplifted a second sapient race of sophonts via Second Secret tech before Shiplord contact(besides Humanity)? If so, what is/was their fate.
Does anyone else win the right to use bioships?
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Is it possible that it was more specific than that? Using Mending to destroy could easily be seen as a desecration.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
I am going on a huge tangent here...
But may the act of Speaking be something the Shiplords see as divine?
An actual act of (their?) God? Their Creator?
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
- No. Neither you nor the G6.
- The Shiplords have wiped out anyone that has attempted to reclaim Second Secret technology advanced enough to create tailored lifeforms wholesale, let alone bioships.
Oh bugger.
I have no excuse for not seeing this earlier; I actually passed church confirmation.
Snowfire you cheeky blighter.