The Secrets' Crusade

[Snowfire]

Bright thinkers had thought that neural interface technology would remove direct auditory cues from human technology. It had seemed a reasonable assessment at the time; direct interlink could give far more to work with than an alarm tone. Practicality, however, was rather different. Human beings had evolved over millennia to react at a bone-deep level to audio cues, and that evolutionary advantage was easier to work with, than to work around.

So the FSN had put it to work. The accelerated environments utilised by your crews, no more than a highly tuned form of AR in most cases, used simulated audio cues alongside more direct interlink points. It had been recognised early on that allowing the use of deep link to the point that certain reactions caused physical pain was a bad idea.

You'd been the one who signed off on that decision, in fact, and you knew it had been the correct one. It was just...difficult to accept right now, as the warbling tone of shield failure alarms filled the command simulation. Yours was entirely virtual reality, but the logic remained. The visual displays had been turned down, replaced with ship codes and vectors, but you could still look past them to see the flickering doom that had enveloped your fleet.

"They're starting to get through the rotations," Alex reported, flicking a waterfall diagram of fleet shield status to you. There were five bars on it, one for each of the battlegroups that made up your fleet, and none of them were fully recovered. None of them were below danger thresholds, not yet, but it was getting closer than you'd have hoped this early into the operation.

"I see. " You considered the diagram for a moment, then nodded firmly. "Increase rotation frequency. Eighty percent threshold."

"Yes ma'am." The orders flashed out, carried across a command and control network heavily reinforced by Harmonials. The Shiplords hadn't seriously tried to mess with your comms yet, but you weren't leaving any holes for them to exploit.

You'd taken First Fleet out past the Stellar Exclusion Zone for several reasons and, at least for now, they were still valid. A War Fleet with nothing to focus on could just retreat out of range of the Aegis, robbing the Orrery of the sensory data it needed to get a lock on them, but there was more to that decision. The Orrery was only a possibility. To make it a certainty, you had to be able to use the data in a way that would be decisive. And that meant giving the War Fleet a target to shoot at.

The choice to lead First Fleet into this had been one that President Thera had fought you on, but also one in the finest tradition of post-Sorrows leadership. President Hawk had flown the Calypso's lights into the heart of Second Sol, and you'd done the same at Third, despite the odds against you in that fight. In cold calculus, devoid of humanity, was it the right decision? Perhaps not. But it wasn't the wrong decision, either. First Fleet was the most capable combat formation in the FSN, and a month had been more than enough time to make up the material losses inflicted during the Third Battle of Sol.

Impossibly, you'd even managed to squeeze in time for a few upgrades, including the first human examples of Third Secret technology. Without those, you weren't sure you'd still be holding position under the War Fleet's relentless pounding. At least not without bringing Practice more directly into play, and you didn't want to do that yet.

Sierra-Five relied on a similar calculus to the battle plan you'd used at Third Sol, that the Unisonbound of the Two Twenty Three and the Auxilia would be best applied in a sudden, crushing offensive. You would rely on more subtle applications of Practice to maintain your fleet until Vision had the measure of your War Fleet guests. If that was going to prove possible, of course, was another matter.

You checked the time again. Vision had promised you third wave results within the next minute, but every one of those was an age under War Fleet assault. Ships dashed up and down through the sphere that First Fleet had formed up into before we jumped, replacing holes in the shield rotation. Bursts of tortured gravity screamed across the void, seeking the flickering ghosts of the War Fleet craft, and finding nothing.

"At least we're putting on one hell of a show," Nick pointed out from his station on your right. "If they didn't think we had military technology close to theirs, this'll settle the matter."

"Defensive and offensive technology, certainly," you replied with a wan smile. He was trying to distract you, but it was working. "But we're missing the last piece we need for parity. If we didn't know what a War Fleet was, we'd be as doomed as all the others who've tried to fight them this way."

"Maybe not quite so doomed." Alex remarked, somehow finding the time between passing further orders to Battlegroup Five. Green lights flashed around you, at the furthest points of the sphere, and BG2 moved up to the place of their beleaguered fellows. "Thirty seconds, but we're going to need to go on this recall. They're getting a better handle on our shield tech, enough that we're past the point of no return on rotations."

"You do wonder how long it's been since they had to spend this long shooting a stationary fleet before it broke." You mused, that thought leading to another, far more dangerous one. "Though I do wonder why they haven't-"

"Emergence in Saturn orbit." Vision's voice cut through your own, and your focus point whirled away from First Fleet, rising up until you could see the crimson scar of a new contact clearly. A moment later, a signature profile you'd never wanted to see within the heliopause flashed up before you. "You just had to jinx it, ma'am."

"I guess I did." You admitted, but there was a grim reality beneath the joke. There'd only ever been two reasons that the Shiplords would deploy a Lumen against Sol. It had been possible, however unlikely, that they might attempt to use it as a form of intimidation. Leverage, to bring humanity to heel. Far more likely was that it would signal an escalation of the battle to one where the only option other than victory was total extinction.

A motion brought up the strategic coordination channel.

"We have a Lumen on field." You said, speaking quickly but calmly. There was no hush of indrawn breath in reply, you were pleased to note. You'd known your commanders had prepared themselves, but steady hands would be needed now more than ever. "Assignments remain as discussed; Castle and Birch."

Assent flared back along the link, but you'd already dropped it for more present matters, reaching to one side for your connection to First Fleet's battlegroup commanders. All of them were still alive for now, though it had been a close thing with the Chang'an in their last rotation. Six figures flashed up around you, a privacy screen enclosing you from the rest of the command simulation.

"We're out of time" You said, in the same tone you'd used with your Admirals. "We go with the third wave Orrery analysis." Off to the side, you could hear Alex briefing the Unisonbound contingent of the First Fleet. The Two Twenty Three still lacked something after the loss of Amanda's Heartcircle, but the Auxilia had yet to win a single combat drill against them. For the dice you were about to roll, nothing but humanity's best would suffice.

Acknowledgement signals flashed up around each figure, faster than speaking, even here. Your use of a screened space had made it clear you were open to questions. You held the connection for a few seconds more, then dropped it when none came.

"Vision?" You asked quietly, not dropping the privacy screen.

"Yes Minister?" The swirling pattern of blue-white light that humanity's first AI used to represent herself appeared beside you.

"How close is this one going to be?" You asked. Vision made a noncommittal sound.

"You know I can't be sure," she cautioned you.

"I do," you said. "And I know we have to go with this one anyway. But I'm still giving the order, and I need to be able to prepare myself for that." The Orrery should work, the stats looked good. But those statistics had never been tested, and being forced to use them now could be very, very bad.

"No less than seventy percent." Vision answered promptly. "Assuming my models hold."

That was much better than you'd feared, although it didn't do much to help if it ended up being wrong. Even with the improvements made to humanity's FTL capacity, minutes could be very long indeed when under War Fleet fire. But there was just no more time. A Lumen could charge fast when it wasn't under attack, and if you were sending Third and Fourth Fleet out there, they had to be able to shoot back. None of your other FTL capable formations had the same weight as First Fleet.

"Third stage analysis complete." Vision spoke to the full simulation now, having moved outside of your privacy screen before speaking. "Predictive models ready for use."

All eyes turned to you.

"Are we ready?" you asked, brows drawing together above your eyes. It was a poor attempt to buy time, but one you could afford.

"We are, Lina." Alex told you softly. Of course he'd recognise the signs. "The Two Twenty Three are briefed and all battlegroups are green to engage." That wasn't entirely true, but they were as ready to engage as they could be after the last twenty minutes of hell.

"Very well." You said. "Vision, activate current predictive model."

"Yes, Minister," Vision acknowledged. "Targeting data available."

You saw it go out, streaming up from the inner system across the breadth of First Fleet. You saw the Third, Fourth, Sixth and Second Fleets bolt from their safe zones just short of SEZ firing range, drives already charged. The Unisonbound shot from their launch tubes, Practice gathering around them to strike at the Shiplord invaders. And behind it all, you took a firm grip on the blade you'd spent decades crafting, undaunted by the hail of lethal fire scorching out of the black from ships you couldn't even see.

Now was time for you to swing.

"Open fire."

 

[Snowfire]

The first volley came as a total surprise.

First Fleet had engaged as best it could with its own targeting systems, but you'd kept its fire limited to attempted interdiction and opportunity fire. That had been within the expected profile according to Project Insight, and you couldn't afford breaking from it far enough to focus all of the fleet's power on defensive action. The War Fleet needed to be held in place, and if you'd not presented a threat, they'd have ignored you until you did.

Perhaps that had fooled them enough that they'd become overconfident, certain in their belief that the War Fleets remained a weapon which no Tributary could match. They weren't wrong about that, even now. But you didn't have to match a War Fleet to kill it, all you had to do was know what it was. Humanity did, and your species had had more than a decade to prepare your countermeasures.

The Pacifier class was a marvel of engineering, equipped with an FTL drive so advanced that it would beggar entire minor polities to construct just one and a primary armament more suited to the largest of Regular Fleet vessels. But for all that, they were small, heavily coated in stealth composites instead of armour, and lacking all but the most basic shielding.

The Shiplords did lose them occasionally, though only to the blindest chance. Despite all of its advanced technology, a hit from a capital class disruptor could disrupt a Pacifier's jump cycle, leaving it open to destruction. Given the volume of space that a War Fleet could operate within, these occasions came so rarely as to be negligible. But it was a weakness, and First Fleet had paid in blood to give humanity the chance to exploit it.

The designated Fleets for response slashed out to the edge of the SEZ, and vanished into jump in a flurry of translations. Two of them were targeted on the Lumen, and were going to be needed to break the craft's frankly obscene shield capacity before it would be able to jump again. The Sixth and Second Fleets had different priorities. As your weapons shifted to fire based on the Orrery's targeting data, those ships jumped to the edge of a two light-second radius sphere centred on First Fleet. It was the closest thing to a deep space ambush that you'd been able to come up with in your planning sessions.

And then there were the Two-Twenty Three.

A veritable sheet of grav disruptor fire lashed out and in at the dancing War Fleet craft, thickened by the fury of the Unisonbound, and the tactical holo polarised as space in every direction erupted into a solid curtain of detonating starships. Perhaps five percent of them were yours.

You'd known from the beginning that you were only going to get one chance to do this, and you'd had to prove that the Orrery could work. So you'd stacked the deck, then stacked it again, and as the universe blew apart around you, you felt nothing but furious exaltation. It had worked!

Exactly how many War Fleet craft were destroyed in that initial clash, you could never say. But it shattered the contingent of Pacifiers dispatched to handle First Fleet, and your drives were almost recharged.

"Lantern." You snapped over the tac-net. The Two Twenty Three complied with the ease of endless training, streaming back to their couriers buried deep in the centre of your fleet, their drives fully charged. The sudden lack of incoming fire came as a shock, and a welcome one, but you were alone in enjoying it. Your outer shell, scattered as they were, now raced inwards, trying to close into mutual support range before the other War Fleet contingents could react.

Most succeeded, but most is only more than half. The Shiplords had been shocked by the sudden eruption of targeted fire against their ships, but they weren't stupid. The assignments shifted, and lances of grav fire carved through the rear echelons of Second and Sixth, wreaking a terrible price on ships too far from each other to effectively combine their shielding or firepower. That was the trade-off you'd had to make for your hammer blow.

It was worth it, you told yourself, trying not to feel the sudden flood of casualties. There'd be time enough for that if you won. The Orrery gave you a fighting chance, but at the percentages Vision had given you, it didn't guarantee victory. For that, you had to destroy the Lumen pointing at Sol, and it had weathered the initial attack on it far too capably for your liking. But that was what Lantern was for. First, Second and Sixth would hold here until you could move to reinforce Fourth and Third Fleet, but the Two Twenty Three could move now. And that was exactly what they did.

You wished, not for the first time, that Kalilah had stayed for this fight. The Adamant hadn't needed her for its mission, but she'd not been chosen for her particular Focus. Amanda had chosen to put her faith in the bonds of friendship and harmony that she'd helped create, and you'd seen the power of those enough before. Unfortunately, it left you without the only person in the entire star system who you were confident could have dropped the Lumen's shields barring Amanda herself. And without Vega to act as a nexus for the power around you - you shook the thought away.

The two Unison couriers blinked out of existence, and the two hundred seventeen Unisonbound of the remaining Two Twenty Three hurled themselves into the maelstrom of dying starships wreathing the Shiplord starkiller like a ghastly corona.

"How long?" You snapped. It was a needless question, but you needed something to take your mind away from that, even for a moment.

"Three minutes for us." Alex replied, watching the Fleet's power focus skew towards its drives. He glanced at the readouts for the Lumen, and his lips thinned. "The Second and Sixth won't get there in time, Lina. Either we kill it before they're recharged, or we've lost."

"At least the Two Twenty Three are in there." You said, trying to reassure your subordinates, and yourself. "Even without the First, they should be enough."

"It will be closer than you think." Vision reported, still moving faster than your intelligence officer. It was rather unfair, honestly. "I am detecting new ship profiles, with the same weapon signatures as those used against the Two Twenty Three in the Third Battle of Sol."

"Get them back in!" Your gaze snapped around, to where the Two Twenty three had already spread out around the Third and Fourth Fleets, raising barriers to protect them. Their own heavy hitters slammed fire inwards, hurling energy at the Lumen that threatened everything humanity had ever called its own. "Get them into the globe!"

Alex was already calling the codeword, and the world around you slowed to a crawl, heat building at the back of your neck as your enhancements pushed themselves to their limits. And there, in that crucial moment, a Shiplord EWAR tech found the right frequency. Comms slashed off from your detached ships around Saturn, slicing through the call to withdraw before it could be spoken. Alex's hand flashed in the light, in time with your own. Shiplords could jam lagless, but they'd yet to succeed at jamming the Unisonbound's connections, and the Auxilia had those too.

But not even those reactions were perfect, and despite all the training and preparation in the world, it took a moment for the message to be passed and authenticated. Just one moment, out of so many. But it was enough.

The reconfigured Pacifiers slashed out of jump perfectly positioned around one of the roaming Heartcircles of the Two Twenty Three, and the Unisonbound staggered in space as the next best thing to jamming of the soul ripped through them. They'd had some practice since the Third, those Unisonbound, and they'd managed something approaching a countermeasure. But it took time, and that was the one thing that the Shiplords' stroke of good fortune had robbed them of.

Shields and veils burned away, and the Heartcircle was still moving to reestablish its evasive pattern when another group of Pacifiers blinked into being around them. These didn't have the old, ancient weapons that had struck Potentials so harshly. They were more mundane, but no less lethal for it.

The Aegis' of the Two Twenty Three protected their Potentials in ways that went beyond human understanding, and you'd seen them tested under capital bombardment before. But even those impossible creations had limits. Grav disruption tore out, and there was no miracle waiting to stop it this time. One of the Unisonbound, an Insight Focused with their wits more about them than the rest, hurled himself between the incoming barrage. He interdicted almost sixty percent of the incoming fire, enough for the rest of his Heartcircle to survive.

Across the breadth of the formation, the scene repeated itself. Most survived, though dreadfully wounded. But that first, the swiftest, was gone when distortion of criss-crossing grav fire faded, and he wasn't alone. In a single, dreadful moment, the Shiplords took four of the Two Twenty Three from humanity, and there was no sign of the first's Platform. The rest of the ranging Heartcircles fell back, scooping up their wounded comrades, and you shuddered to imagine the pain in those places as they did so. It tore at your own soul, the screaming pain all the sharper when it was those you knew dying.

The Two Twenty Three had been the symbol of an undaunted humanity, but without their leaders, they'd been lessened. You'd known that. But it hadn't been a choice you could afford to make any other way. But what came from it, as the heat close to your spine faded, and your perceptions decelerated, proved that you'd not been wrong when you'd chosen them.

No miracle had saved those four, maybe no miracle could have. You'd try to convince yourself of that, in dark nights still to come. But Kalilah hadn't been the only First Awoken among that force, just the most obvious. And Vega hadn't been the only Harmonial. Were they late? You didn't think that was a fair assessment, or a fair question. What mattered was that humanity still breathed, and it did.

Down where the Lumen's shield still held against the torrent of grav disruptor fire and more Practiced attacks, a spark of white light erupted. A spark of pure destruction, unleashed by five souls brought together in concert, that cared not a whit for the reality of that shield before it. The jamming fell, your own techs fighting back the encroachment of the Shiplords on the lagless, and the words of those five came across the net.

"Be Undone"

The light reached out for the Lumen, as it stood undaunted, still charging, hanging over your star like a headsman's axe. And smote it from creation.

---

The battle didn't end there, but the Shiplords appeared unwilling to commit a second Lumen, if they'd even brought one. The War Fleet retreated from Sol's heliopause several minutes later, unwilling to trade more of their number for lesser, human craft. Victory, for you, and for something far more important too. For the Orrery had performed exactly as you'd needed it to. It had been horribly, terribly bloody, and you couldn't imagine it would get any better as the Shiplords adapted to the new reality. But the defence against their most feared weapon had worked.

That lit a fire in you, in all of your staff, and more. Despite the losses, so much more terrible than any of the battles before it, you had proof that War Fleets could be fought. That they could, if not beaten, at least driven back. The threat of Lumens or similar special weapon designs would have to be taken into account for the other races, as they lacked the edge of Practice. But they had larger fleets, and weapons that were still more than a match to your own.

Already, as First Fleet returned to the dockyards for further upgrades, courier ships were being loaded with the core components of the Orrery designs you'd created. Hermes II, humanity's new interstellar lagless station, was unfolding swiftly from its prefabbed components. It would be online within the day, and then you'd be able to tell your prospective allies that you'd lived, and that they could too. The war, as horrible as you knew it was going to be, was on. And unless the Adamant found something truly remarkable out there, there'd be no turning back.

Stars were going to burn, yours and theirs, before this was done and the weight of that reality was almost enough to crush you. If it had been just you, it probably would have, but you weren't alone. You had comrades, and friends, and more than that too. Humanity was united, as the Elder First had begun, and Amanda had finished. Together, you believed, you could do this.

There was just one, last, thing.

"What do you mean, not what we think?" You asked Vision's avatar blearily, tiredly directing your Prologue enhancements to scrub the alcohol from your system. It was several days after the Fourth Battle of Sol now, and you'd thought it reasonable to celebrate a little. You'd succeeded too, and you could feel the flush of life in you that came from those rare moments, where you could be just Lina. You knew you should allow yourself more, but there'd just been no time since the Third.

That said, Vision wouldn't have woken you without good reason. At least she'd waited until your normal waking time, and you shifted one of the bodies in between you and the edge of the bed to let you slide out of it.

"I have only recently been able to recover the full telemetry from the Lux satellites." Vision explained. "And dedicating the requisite processing power was impossible until early this morning. The results, however, speak for themselves."

"One second," you slid your feet into your uniform, and it flowed up your body quickly. "Let me get to the secure unit." That was the work of a few moments, thankfully. One of the perks of being Minister of War, you had a secure interface in your quarters.

"Alright," you continued, flopping down on the reactive couch with a heavy sigh. "What did you find, Vision?"

"Understand that you will need to contact the President after seeing this." She replied. "I am bringing this to you due to your position in the chain of command."

"Understood." You flicked a few connections, checking Adri's schedule. It was still night where she was, but she'd wake up for a priority call. "But I need to know what I'm going to be reporting first."

"Of course." Vision bobbed once in place, then imagery filled your display. You blinked your eyes again, making sure you were awake, then examined it. It was a frame-by-frame of that...you swallowed hard and told yourself to use his name. Savino Lindholm, the Insight Focused who'd been the first of the Two Twenty Three's casualties in history. And the only one who'd been lost with his Platform. But the imagery on your screen looked...you jerked upright in your seat as it ended.

"Is this right?" You demanded, rewinding and playing it back through. Vision's avatar bobbed again.

"All projections support this conclusion." She told you, in the time it took for you your third repetition of the footage completed.

"What about the others?" You asked, squelching the hope. "Anything like this with Sharon, Ishael or Nyera?"

"I am afraid not." Vision said. You started repeat number five. "I would request that Project Insight be consulted to be sure, however."

"Yes." You swallowed again, to wet a throat gone dry. "I can understand that. Get me President Thera. Priority override."

Before you, caught by one of the Lux Sagum platforms established so many years ago now, was a very different fate. Savino's Aegis was ripped and torn, but he was still intact, still alive, reaching for his Platform to cast it away. And frozen, in a cage of gravity, as a Shiplord craft scooped him out of the black into a bay that the glimpse your sensor had gotten of it was saturated in the same jamming that had been used against the Two Twenty Three as weapons.

And then it was gone.

The Shiplords had indeed taken four of humanity's greatest weapons from you. But not all of them were dead, and you couldn't help but think that maybe it would have been a mercy for Sav to have died.

 

[Snowfire]

Personal Journal, Vega Cant, September 5th, 2130

I'm worried about Mandy.

It's not a simple thing to say that about my friend, the woman who led humanity through trials that I don't think any of us could have imagined. She's stood for so long at the heart of humanity, and of our purpose. She placed herself there, made herself into a symbol, and accepted the cost without blinking. It's a burden she's withstood for decades, and despite everything that I am, I never saw her crack even once. Not until now.

What we saw down there, on that world we're swiftly leaving behind, was simply beyond us. What the Shiplords fought, what the Uninvolved had to break from their position to end, it's so much bigger than humanity and the war we've begun. We want freedom, a peaceful future that I know is worth fighting for. But if we can find that future, how do we keep it? I know, that where we're now going, we should be able to discover more of the truth of the Sphere. Why the war began.

This place, this system, we think it's the reason the Second Secret was barred to us by the Directives. After seeing what it's capable of, I'm struggling to disagree. We all are. Properly explaining what we saw to the other is more difficult than you could imagine, and I wish I'd spent the time to try and understand how the Marionettes share memories. Or maybe I don't. Sharing this with others in a way more than words, I don't know if I could do that without feeling guilt. The horror of what we saw, and the finality of the Uninvolved's actions to stop it are terrifying.

Amanda hasn't spoken much since then, but she knows something. Something that's been eating at her, and I don't know what it is. Mary and Iris, they try, but neither of them are sure either. None of us are. She's trying to come to terms with something, I think, something that she doesn't want us to see. And something that I know she's afraid of. The shocks of what I can only assume were the Fourth Battle of Sol haven't helped either.

Four distinct pulses, so close together that they were almost one, then nothing. We'd tested the 223's internal web over interstellar distances before, but we'd only been able to go so far. Communication, direct communication I should say, seemed impossible. But when the Shiplords reduced our number to two hundred nineteen? We felt it, even this far away. In a way, it's a blessing; the lack of any more shocks means the Orrery worked, and that humanity still lives. Whatever price we paid, Lina proved that a War Fleet could be fought. But for Mir, Amanda and I, the timing couldn't be worse.

We've seen now a glimpse of the sort of horrors that the Secrets can truly unleash, and I have no doubt that we'll discover yet more on the world ahead of us. What the Shiplords have done to countless trillions is inexcusable, but now I know that there's something worse. I delved back into the memory we were given through Kagiso, bending my Focus to the task of trying to understand it. What I found was that the Sphere called itself that because it wasn't just made up of Hjivin. There were other races, other souls, poured into the monster they tried to create, and none of them were truly willing. Not even those of their own people.

What sort of journey must a race take to do something like that to their own? And at a practical level, how did they do it? Surely if direct control in that capacity was possible, the Shiplords could just force a problematic race to go Uninvolved. So why don't they? They've walked these stars for longer than our species has existed, and Insight has always been very clear on their mastery of the Secrets. So what's stopping them?

None of us have an answer to that question. Not a real one. The best we have, stripped of all the various dressings, is that there apparently are some things that not even the Shiplords will do. That to meddle in the soul is a moral event horizon that not even they would cross. Easier for us to believe with how the war against the Sphere was referenced in the tomb of the Zlathbu, perhaps. But it's not easy. Never that.

How long will that refusal last, in the face of true rebellion? I wonder if that's what Mandy is afraid of, but I don't think it is. Her fear is more personal, fixed on the nature of herself instead of the reality around her. She's only spoken to me and the rest of the crew to issue orders, as if she's trying to hide it, but it's such a poor trick that it makes it utterly obvious. Lea is trying to work out what to do, but it would take me and Kalilah together to hold Mandy still long enough to let her get through to her. Or Mary, I suppose.

Mir has been a great comfort, I can't deny that. His presence has helped to soothe my own fears, and I know mine has done the same for him. He's so young - I never believed I'd say that - yet so subtly strong. I needed that strength to get through to the other side of what we experienced together. Yet again, every time I consider it, I'm struck with the truth that Amanda doesn't need that help. I'm so used to knowing what the answer is, being able to discover it by following the path to harmony. It makes it so much harder when the answer I find is to leave something alone. That there is no simple solution but time.

Do we have that time to spare? I'm not sure. If the Fourth Battle has already taken place, three days ago now, then Adriana will already be moving into the next stages. The network of comsats that link the galaxy together for the Shiplords will have been broken, and they'll be mobilising in response. Hermes II will been assembled to inform our allies of our survival, and to pass on the plans that will allow them to replicate our success. It will take months or years for conventional Shiplord forces to reach Sol in any numbers, but the Void Crystal experiments should allow the FSN to aid our allies far more swiftly.

And whilst they do that, we have to focus on our own mission, which brings me back to my own worries. We'll be fine going down there, I think. We don't have Iris in the security systems, but we never needed her last time. So I'm not worried about our chances there. What does concern me is what that information might do to us. Myself and Mir are hurting, and that's spread throughout the Heartcircle. But Amanda is vulnerable in a way that I've only seen once before, after she almost died at the hands of a Shiplord assassination attempt.

She's always been one of our strongest, but that strength was also what unleashed Purify. And if presented with similar horrors, as I fully expect us to be, will she be able to prevent a similar response?

Before a week ago, I'd not have considered that question. Now I have to, because I don't know the answer anymore.

---

The approach to the second habitable planet went smoothly, as there was plentiful civilian traffic this time to hide the Adamant's approach. You were glad of that, as it gave your pilots some time to ease back into use of the ship's stealth systems. The week of quiet would have been good for the crew in most circumstances, but these weren't those.

"How are we doing, Jane?" You asked, watching the clear displays around you.

"We're through their main sensor screen now." She said, gesturing to the display in front of you both. The planetary screen, supplemented by the dormant warship, had been her greatest concern. "We should be in position to send down a landing party within the hour."

"Good." You nodded. "That's good. Do we have any more detailed scans?"

Jane shook her head. "Nothing more than the layout. We'll need people on the ground to find out more."

Your lips tightened below clouded blue eyes. "That'll have to do, then." You rose to your feet. "Keep me apprised of any further developments. We'll be landing the moment we reach a safe distance."

"Ma'am?" Jane's tone was polite, but there was a layer of concern there that hadn't been there before. You knew why it was, the careful looks had been obvious, but there just wasn't time. Not with these new stakes.

"I'd prefer to be out of this system as fast as I can, Jane." You told her. It was even true - but when had you started keeping secrets like that? You weren't sure. "Go down, find what we can, move on to the next. Better than waiting in orbit for another week."

"Of course." She nodded, but her face was tight around her darker eyes. "I'll inform the rest of the landing team to be at the launch bay in seventy minutes."

"Thanks." You said, and meant it. A moment later, you were gone.

That hour and some passed quickly, lost in a haze of meditation that Sidra was eventually forced to bodily rip you from in time to make your own deadline. You'd not lost time, not exactly, but there was a lot on your mind. A lot that still didn't make sense. You knew you weren't explaining, and that you really, really should, but where could you even begin?

Better to get this done, you told yourself, lying all the while. Better to be out of this place before whatever this was caught up with you. Safer for everyone, too. You moved with an almost surgical precision as you crossed the ship to the launch bay, choosing your landing party, boarding the shuttle. It was...no different in substance, but there was an edge this time. A fear of what you were going to find, and more than that. What it might cost?

The planet was not the same as the one before, but where Mary had drawn your attention to fauna and flora before, you left it to the automated systems this time. The Zlathbu had had none, and it was good to see how the autos functioned without supervision.

But stepping out into the air of a third extrasolar body, the sight before you was very different. Three towers this time, but connected, not alone, ringed a central plaza. They shimmered silver in the light of the system's star, scattering the light like vast prisms. A small cleared area separated the compound from the sprawling jungle around it, extending to secure the landing zones you'd taken advantage of. You weren't logged in the system this time, though. Without Iris there on the other side, that would have been far too dangerous.

So you ghosted this time, and hoped that you would still be welcome. This was still a civilian installation, after all. You needn't have worried. Your Masque rippled faintly as a Shiplord approached, and as before at the tomb of the Zlathbu, bid you be welcome beneath the towers. This one, their use-name Kicha, offered you warm greetings of the Hearthguard, and a choice like the last. You left the small-talk to Vega, her Focus far more capable than your own in that respect.

"There are three paths here, to experience the truth of this place." Kicha said to you and your small party. "All are open to you, but only one may be taken first, and none of the Hearthguard will speak more of them without first knowing your choice."

A slight variation, but that was expected. Three more than two, that would change anything.

"Would you witness?" A hand-analogue rose towards the towers, before moving down, implying the plaza, you thought. "Remember?" The not-hand moved again, to the low structures that bound the three towers together into a circle. "Or experience?"

You have brought a maximum of three others with you. You may select as many you wish, or leave allocation to Amanda's discretion. Vega is automatically present. Elil has remained aboard the Adamant to ensure stealth is maintained.

[] Iris – Your daughter, and the only non-Unisonbound on the list. As an AI, she is more capable in the infospace than any other member of your crew, and her avatar is fully capable of interfacing with a Masque. She can think even faster than you can, but her physical capabilities still lag behind a Unisonbound. But then, so long as she has lagless signal she's never in any real danger.
[] Kalilah Mishra – A risky choice, you would have believed, but Kalilah has continued to change since the Third Battle of Sol. Her experiences in the home system of the Zlathbu have left their mark, though you are unsure if her request to join you this time was driven by curiosity or concern. If you are discovered, there will be no greater ally in returning you all safely home.
[] Lea Halwood – A Mender like you, though through a different lens, Lea tends to act as a sounding board for you, and the younger woman is very good at it. Easily capable of keeping up, and would provide a backup medic in the event of combat.
[] Mir Hayes – Apart from you and Vega, the only Speaker on the mission. Mir also possesses a truly rare Focus of Peace, and believes that he may be able to turn this to your advantage in seeking undisturbed access to the Shiplord memorial site. His request to join this mission was oddly intent.

And where do you choose to begin?

[] Witness
[] Experience
[] Remember

 

[Snowfire]

Spoiler: Winning Vote

[X] Experience

Where could you begin? The answer to that question had seemed simple enough during your descent, a solid consensus built on your experiences in the tomb of the Zlathbu. And you'd been prepared for different options. You just weren't sure if there could have been any option so poisonously tempting as what your guide had just offered.

:But is it the right choice?: Vega considered, ahead of your Heartcircle's internal debate curve by the simple merit of being the primary node for its communication.

:Can we afford not to take it?: Mir asked in reply. :We know what happened here at the end,: a shudder swept through you as you shied away from that memory, :but nothing of how it started. Witnessing that history would be one thing, and it's what we agreed on before coming down here if the options were the same. But if we can experience those actions, don't we owe that opportunity due consideration?:

His words cut to the heart of the matter. The truth of this place's ending might not be fully known even to the Shiplords - the fact that an Uninvolved had involved itself so completely implied that the Shiplords had not been capable of stopping the Sphere from completing their horrific creation. But as horrible as that had been, Mir was right. That was just the end, and you were here to try and find another way out of this war.

:This conflict is far, far older than the Zlathbu.: You agreed. :And according to what we found in their home system, the War of the Sphere caused many of the changes that we've suffered for.: It was painfully obvious that that conflict was the source of the ban on use of the Second Secret, assuming one hadn't already existed.

:And we were sent to understand why. No matter how abhorrent their actions, we need to understand why they think it's justified.: Kalilah heaved a bitter mental sigh. :But do we want to do this now?:

:Will it truly help to wait?: Lea asked, still in the second between one breath and the next. :We know that this option exists now. We know we will take it. You have accepted its costs, regardless of what they might be.: Not so hidden within that statement was the frustration of a concerned physician, one you knew well from the other side. Still not good at accepting it. :So why are we waiting?:

:She's right.: Vega pulsed agreement through the words, translating through all the fears she knew you felt, yet the resolution behind it too. :The heart does what the heart wants. That's as it should be, and we've fought for that ideal. No matter how bitter it is now, we know that truth.:

Something in that statement rocked against the patchworked pain that had taken root so deep inside your soul. And for a moment, you let it and your friends guide you. You needed to see everything else to make sense of the end.

"Experience." You said to Kicha, the Shiplord who had greeted you. They swept their gaze over you all for a few moments, long enough to make you fear that your Masques had failed. Then they motioned in assent, and turned towards the closest of the smaller buildings that ringed the towers.

"Come, then. This way."

Kicha led you into the compound, and then directly to the closest building, down a walkway so well used that the composites had actually been worn away by countless footsteps. How many billions must it have taken to do that, you wondered. Groups of Shiplords passed back and forth along the wide path, some larger, but few smaller than your own, and each led by a member of the Hearthguard. A section of wall irised open as you approached it, revealing what a human would call an atrium, built wide to connect the dozens of corridors that branched off of it throughout the structure.

:Look.: Vega said. The word brought a direction with it, and you turned your head to watch a small party of Shiplords jump from the ground floor all the way to the top level of the building. Sensors examined it, identifying the use of Sixth Secret emitters, but that wasn't the interesting thing.

:No stairs.: You agreed, glancing around to confirm it. :No links at all between the levels, and none of the platforms that we saw used on the last world.:

:Maybe they aren't needed for internal spaces,: Mir suggested. :Though there must be some sort of safety in case their suit systems fail?:

:Their suits can take high-intensity energy fire, Mir.: Kalilah pointed out wryly. :Do you think they'd worry about something so trivial?:

:We would.: Vega sent, as your guide directed you towards one of the ground level corridors. :But humanity is still acclimatising to Secrets-based technology being widely available. The Shiplords have lived with their abundance for millions of years. We were seeing the beginnings of cultural change in response before the Third Battle of Sol, but nothing close to this.:

:Not yet, at least: You added quietly.

"Here." Kicha came to a stop, a gesture from the Shiplord opening the wall to reveal a surprisingly plain room.

:Wait.: Kagiso, Vega's Unison, spoke. And dozens of points across the walls of the room flared with light. :Look there. Hologram emitters, or something like them.:

:So it is a simulation.: Kalilah said. You'd all guessed what this choice might mean, but this still didn't answer everything. A simulation, yes, that had been the most likely. But of what?

"To you I grant this space," Kicha hadn't stopped talking. "To experience the truth of this horrific war, and the hopes of all Hearthguard, that you might find another way for it to have ended."

Those words. They were so similar, and for a moment you found yourself far away, standing wreathed in power within the void of space, holding one of your dearest comrades in your arms. Spitting fiery words at the savaged elements of a Regular Fleet, withdrawing from Sol.

"If you believe you can find a better way, then please, find it swiftly."

That had been the message they'd left you with. The message that had, in many ways, made you willing to believe what the Uninvolved had told you. And here, perhaps, you had found the source of it.

"We shall try." You said, following your instincts in the words, and then again in the movement of a short bow. "All of us. To seek a better way."

For a moment your host froze again, so briefly that you almost missed it, before the feeling of a smile born of ageless anguish spread across their form.

"Go then." The Shiplord said tenderly, almost like the words were fragile. "Seek what none before you could find."

That was the end of that conversation, you all felt it. So you did as you were bid, all striding into the room, moving together. You felt something there, through the veil of pain that still fought you. The vitality and energy of combat, but not as you'd known it most recently. This was a battle, one that no Shiplord had ever won.

Could you?

The emitters all around you flared to life as you thought that question, and the world changed. A bare room slipped away, and a bridge appeared around you, filled with forms like your own. Shiplords, but there was something odd about the technology around you. It felt old, somehow, less elegant. A million years gives much time to perfect designs.

"The Deepscan Array was right, Captain." A Shiplord from the simulation reported, their attention clearly turned to you. It was an odd bridge, compared to human models. Those had a firm hierarchy to them, flowing out from the centre. Shiplord design shared the latter, but it focused all bridge crew around a central control column, allowing every member of the crew to see each other easily.

An image flashed up at the centre of that column, a star system that you recognised from your entrance through the shield around this star system, but there were so many differences. Ships flooded across the space between the two primary worlds, streaming through a cornucopia of orbitals and platforms like some enormous, multi-limbed beast of shifting lights.

"Two fully habitable worlds," another Shiplord said, so clearly excited by what they could see. "Massive orbital use. And look, here." The image focused on the system's star, where enormous gantries had been constructed. "They're building a convertor!"

Had you all been shoved into your own simulations, you wondered. Wait, you corrected yourself. There, on another panel, you saw Vega. Kalilah, quietly absorbing her own. How had they chosen to place all of you? And why were you in a position of command? Because you'd given voice to the decision you'd all made?

:You can pause, if you wish.: Sidra said, the Unison almost absentminded in their reply. You could feel why. Data poured from the simulation, into your Masque, and then into you. So much data. This wasn't the only simulation, there were others. From shipboard actions like this, what had to be Shiplord first contact with the Sphere, to massive strategic simulations. The later stages of the war?

And there, there! There was the Shiplord perspective of the end. Quasi-tactical, by the header. A command simulation? And this simulation directly interacted with the Masques, allowing for full use of your accelerated perceptions. You had time to experience it all, to plumb the depths of a war that had defined Shiplord society. But time enough to see it all, did not mean time enough to know it. Even your accelerated perceptions weren't up to the task of absorbing more than a millennia of war. Sidra was already copying as quickly as they could, spreading the information across your Heartcircle's storage for the analysts back on the Adamant.

But what did you do with it now? The simulation was still moving around you, reports flowing in from the memories or recordings of Shiplords long since dead. Was it truly giving you a chance to try to change things? To find a different path through the events that led up to a war whose remembered end had scarred you so deeply. Moments later, you had your answer.

:There's something around the simulations, linking them all together,: Sidra said, a deep awe flooding across your link. :It feels almost like Vision, but so much more.:

:And so much less.: Vega said, her sadness a physical force. :It's all her power, and none of her will.:

:Would you want a creation like this to have a will?: Lea asked. She drew your attention back to the simulations, to the links between them, and more. :This is their attempt to find a solution on their own. A solution that a perfect analyst couldn't think up.:

:It raises some other questions, though.: Kalilah said, taking those implications squarely by the horns. :If they can create simulations like this, why don't they use them to keep younger races in line? Even if they need incredibly precise models, initial Tribute Fleet contact could give them that. They leave control mechanisms behind, but their subnet was so much less than this.:

:It has to be something cultural.: You answered immediately. :We know the Tribute Fleets hold a place of near-reverence within their culture; this could be related. It's hypocrisy at a truly awesome scale, of course, but that's nothing new. There is a difference between predictive modelling and their chosen forms of control, of course, but either is oppression on a scale where comparisons lose meaning.:

:So what are we meant to do with this, then?: Mir asked. :We came here to learn, and we expected a simulation. Our Unisons can read the simulation headers, too, so we can focus on specific points if we want to. But how much do we want to?:

:I'm not sure.: Vega said cautiously. :There's so much here that we don't fully understand, that we can't fully understand without experiencing it all first. And what would we even call a victory here? We know how this war ended, what the Sphere was trying to create and the horrors they were willing to commit to do so. But did they start from that place, or did the Shiplords make them become that? Surely that has to be our first question.:

:Then we're in the right place, aren't we?:

:Maybe.: Sidra being hesitant was unusual, but you couldn't deny that it made sense here. :There's one other simulation that happens close to this one chronologically, and there's a huge amount of connection between them. Whatever we do here will affect how it plays, but I don't think we can discover the truth of things properly without running through initial contact.:

:And there's another question there.: Kalilah passed a data segment from the simulation around you into the Unison network. :Because this isn't a Tribute craft. It's much more like what the G6 polities sent to find us, just much more advanced. The simulation IDs it as the lead ship of a Contact Fleet detachment.:

You glanced across the central display, then to the scattering of pale dots hovering at the edge of the star system. Glyphs surrounded them as your attention shifted there, designations flowing into your HUD to provide you with details on capabilities and specific designations. And not just designations, these ships had names, too. When had the Shiplords stopped doing that?

:Where do we put our focus, then?: You said, pulling your focus back from that aspect of the current simulation. :Even with full perceptual acceleration, there's a limit to how much we can do here without drawing attention to ourselves. And we have to get a grasp of the wider war, too. We don't know nearly enough to make informed decisions right now:

:I think we can solve most of that using the higher level simulations.: Sidra said. :I can read the headers, and there's more data on them if I dig. There are several strategic scale sims that modify the historic model depending on user input. I can use the standard settings to optimise our pathway to historic normal, let us ground ourselves with the knowledge that we already should have.:

You flashed the look of a question across the shared link.

:I don't see a better option.: Kalilah.

:Nor I.: Lea.

:Seems the best option we have.: Mir and Vega spoke together.

:Then let us begin.:

Time slowed, and the world around you blurred.

From a beginning of curiosity came concern, then suspicion, to be followed by horror as the full truth of the facade was revealed. A desperate escape, from the creations of brilliant minds seeking to chain anything that would stand against how they saw reality, a slavery as subtle as it was obscene. A slavery you had seen variants of - how had they rationalised the use of such things in your present?

Then came war. A war that shook the pillars of the galaxy, with all the horrors that you knew the one your actions had largely begun would bring. Worlds broke and stars burned, scorching entire systems in their death throes. Overstep and counterstroke, back and forth it went as the Shiplords fought to create something that could properly defend their worlds from the hordes at the gates. Their War Fleets had always been unstoppable, and that remained the case, but their territory had grown too large to defend against a conventional assault, and the Sphere was relentless in their growth. And the Hjivin had War Fleets of their own, besides.

World after world lost, to an enemy that held more resemblance to a plague than a sentient species. Many of them surrendered with much of their population, to fates that curdled your blood when you discovered them later. But that later did come, through new ships and fleets forged to combat Hjivin tactics, and their shared mastery of the First Secret. Then, as the war turned, the ending you had seen came to pass. What you had seen within one star system played out across scores more, the death of a species executed in the space of moments.

And from that ending came a great fear, cloaked in history that you did not recognise. Scars millions of years old then fuelled it, and was it truly so irrational? The Uninvolved that had finally acted to bring an end to the conflict had wiped away a race with all the apparent effort of swatting a fly. Who-

And then you were back where you'd begun. The simulation, the first simulation you knew now, enveloped you again. A tremulous gesture brought up the imagery you'd had in front of you a subject eternity ago, and you stared at it, finding it hard not to shake.

The point of this place, you understood now, was to try and find a different solution. To find a way for the war as it had been to be averted. Could you do that here? This simulation was part of a package under the Contact header, but was there anything you could think to try with what you now knew about the Sphere? Could humanity have survived meeting them?

:Depends on the humanity.: Kalilah's voice was steady despite the experience you'd all just shared. :I don't think they'd have had any luck against anyone like you, Mandy. Or Vega. But a pre-Sorrows humanity? We'd have just been another notch.:

:Which means it might not be about stopping the war at all.: Vega suggested, and you could feel her mind leaping down the chains of possibility her Focus opened to her. But this was a matter of ending war, which made another of your Heartcircle far more capable.

:I don't think it is.: Mir agreed. :It's about finding a better way to peace. And I'm not sure if I could find one in this moment. We know what the Hjivin are now,: a wave of nausea surged across the link as you all remembered what you'd seen. :We know what they want, and how they...just don't seem to care what it costs.:

:What if the Shiplords understood what they were facing from the beginning?: Lea asked, eyes shadowed behind the veil of her Masque. :That it was deliberate, all of it.:

:I'm not sure it helps.: You replied heavily. :The Shiplords had to create the Regulars to win this war. Maybe they could have started building them sooner, but design and construction times were never a problem for them. Their bottleneck was moving all those ships into place in time. I don't think any amount of early warning could have saved their colony worlds on this side of the core.:

:So...what then?: Lea demanded, and you could feel the frustration burning in her voice. :There can't be nothing.:

:Maybe not here.: Mir said gently, one hand lifting to manipulate the simulation control. :But I was watching with more than my eyes as we went through these simulations, and my Focus latched on to two points more than the rest. The first is the simulation point right after this one.:

:That one?: You forced yourself not to shiver. Mir nodded.

:Yes.:

Unhappy agreement flashed across the Heartcircle at the confirmation, and you grimaced. You trusted Mir, you just truly did not want to experience that simulation unless you had to. But, you reminded yourself, that was why you'd come here. And this was Mir's Focus to a tee.

:Sidra, could you set historical defaults for the current simulation and move us to the next one?:

The sim was already shifting as you formed the request, the close command space fading into a more spaced environment. Something like the ready room on the Adamant, you thought. And there you all were, sat around it, the nanoshells of the projected Shiplords reflecting deep concern.

It was about three human months after first contact with the Sphere, and the first true strands of suspicion were beginning to take root among the various Contact Fleet crews. The Sphere looked remarkably good on paper, a Second Secret primary polity that was capable of massive industrial output and appeared entirely open to diplomatic overtures. But there were rats in the walls, or something like them, and none of the detachment's Captains had quite been able to ignore them. So they'd gone digging, as was sometimes Contact's remit.

"All of the groupwide analysis point to the same thing." The posture of the detachment's intelligence lead was deeply withdrawn, a protectivity bordering on something very close to fear. "The Hjivin are hiding something, something integral to how their culture functions. I don't think anyone without Contact's experience with this could have found it, and we had to go looking. It wasn't obvious in the least. I know there have been disagreements in command channels about possible reasons, but I can say this with total certainty. This is not a mark of cultural shame, it's something still active in their current societal matrix. And they did not want us to find it."

"So where do we go from here?" One of the captains, not one of your group, asked. "Command has been asking for a formal recommendation for weeks now. And with respect, Rhyn, something that their culture didn't want us to find doesn't provide satisfactory reasoning to deny their current requests."

"But it does give us leave to investigate further." Rhyn replied sharply. "If the detachment commander wishes us to do so." And with that, attention swung towards you.

You knew that in true history, the Shiplord whose form you were currently wearing had chosen to undertake a limited covert probe into the nature of what the Sphere was hiding. It had succeeded, but not without consequence, and the whole point of this was to try something different. And you knew, as everyone who had likely ever entered this room, what the Hjivin truly had to hide.

So what would you do?

[] Contact Fleets were diplomats as much as anything else, but were any of their number ever as skilled as you? What might happen if you simply ask?
[] Turn the full strength of the Contact Fleet's expertise to investigating the rotten truth beneath the Sphere's skin. They are close to matching the Shiplords of this time, but only that.
[] The Hjivin emissaries will not give you the answers you seek. But might their staff, or the servants below them? Dangerous to act right under the nose of a near-peer, but it just might work.
[] Write-in

A Note: Having experienced a flash of the entire known history from Shiplord perspective loaded into the simulation chamber, Amanda and the rest now have far more data on what is waiting for them behind these options. Given this and the combination of Sidra and the other Unison Intelligences rapidly copying all the data they can, your access to knowledge is now much higher. I am obfuscating in the narration here for effect, but if you have questions, I will answer as fully within the limits of the extensive sim data you now have access to. If people feel an Informational post on the war would be a benefit I will produce one, just let me know.

 

[Snowfire]

The War of the Hjivin Sphere was the largest armed conflict in known galactic history, a meeting of powers close enough to be peers and fully possessed of all the horrors of Secrets-based warfare on such a scale. It is the only example of this form of warfare since the establishment of Shiplord dominion over the galaxy, with a confirmed death toll reaching well into the hundreds of billions. This figure does not include the consequences of the singular Involvement that brought the conflict to a sudden and stunning conclusion.

The Hjivin were a fully fledged interstellar power at the time of Shiplord first contact, and one in the process of rapid expansion. They were not limited to uninhabited systems, either, absorbing preexisting civilisation with the same ease as Second Secret technologies allowed them to terraform barren or unusable environments. On an initial glance, these annexed worlds all seemed quite content with the arrangement, their cultures still basically in place and autonomous under Hjivin suzerainty.

When Contact's analysts looked closer, however, they found pieces missing in what should have been a cultural melting pot. Further examination at the order of the Contact Fleet's commander led them steadily towards the truth, until a final, highly risky mission by two of the Fleet's intelligence operatives revealed it in full.

The Hjivin had found a way to maintain control of other polities through judicious application of the Second Secret. They had in fact already cemented control of their own species using these techniques long before expansion beyond their own star system had begun. To Shiplords of the time, this was an atrocity on the same scale as it is seen by humanity as of the current point in the quest. The Sphere didn't have to conquer or exterminate newly discovered races. They simply took control of them.

It is a testament to the skill and valour of that Contact Fleet's personnel that any message reached Shiplord Survey Command. Several far more guarded attempts at diplomacy were launched in response to the truth beneath the Sphere's elegant facade, but all ended in failure. The last of them was met by a declaration of war from the Hjivin's ruling minds, having come to the conclusion that the Shiplords were, whilst powerful, also vulnerable. The draw of the technological capabilities of their kind and the challenge of a peer's personal protective systems was too much for them to simply let pass.

In truth, the military strength of the Shiplords at the time was significantly less than that of the Sphere. War Fleets had long since become the preferred form of combat by the Shiplords, to the point that the maintenance of other combat arms had been reduced to sublight-only system defence craft and semi-fixed platforms that acted as nexi for their Orrerys. Their role was strictly defensive, and were intended to hold a system against an enemy assault until a War Fleet could arrive. Given the compact nature of Shiplord space at the time, response times longer than a galactic day were rare to say the least.

Had it been the full War Fleet strength of both polities arrayed against each other, the Shiplords' technological edge would have delivered them a convincing victory - as indeed is what happened on the rare occasions where Hjivin and Shiplord War Fleets met in full flight. The wrinkle lay in the Sphere's massive wing of more conventional FTL-capable forces that, whilst deeply limited in terms of strategic agility, proved more than capable of swamping the relatively light defences of the Shiplord colony worlds despite the best efforts of defending War Fleets.

This truth was even more the case for the worlds of younger species scattered across the broad sweep of space between the Hjivin and Shiplord core worlds. Although all possessed some naval capacity, most had grown under the steady watch and protection of the Shiplords. When that aegis faltered, few were capable of adapting in time. A handful of more advanced or militaristic polities were able to provide local naval support to Shiplord commanders, and the sacrifices of those crews bought time for the deployment of massive evacuation craft.

On closer evaluation, these evacuation craft bear a striking similarity to the Collector class vessels of the Tribute Fleets.
-Kalilah Mishra

Although there's no record of Neras involvement in the battles of the War of the Sphere, Starhomes converged in unprecedented numbers on these threatened polities as well as the Shiplord colonies in the line of advance. Their ability to traverse distances at War Fleet scale speeds came as a surprise to the Shiplords, but not one they had any reason to object to. Lending their jump capacity to the evacuation fleets allowed the massive ships to make scores more journeys than they'd have been able to alone, and saved tens of billions from the encroaching Sphere.

Even this could not save the entire population of those worlds, however. Especially not those unlucky few close to Hjivin space. And as the Sphere advanced, so too did their logistical corps, establishing stellar convertors around stars to fuel their continuing invasion. Shiplords of the time lacked starkillers, but as the truth of their enemy spread along with their invasion fleets, development began on the first prototypes of ancestors to the Lumen class. Alongside this development came that of a new generation of FTL-capable warships, deploying into the first formations of the Regular Fleets.

Shiplord military infrastructure groups had not been idle, either. Ancient stellar-scale construction vessels reactivated from carefully tended storage yards had thrown up a bristling wall of fortifications across the border systems. And for all they had not been able to save, the valiant to often self-sacrificial defence by Shiplord War Fleets and the militaries of younger races had bought enough time for the Shiplords to properly train and deploy their first wave of Regular Fleet detachments.

The Hjivin minds had expected for the Shiplord core worlds to be more challenging than their colonies, or even the homeworlds of younger races. But for all their attempts to explain, the Hjivin's leaders had never quite believed the Shiplords' claims of age. They saw an enemy forced to swivel to tactics that would surely be unfamiliar, and saw no reason to halt their advance. Nearly half a century after first contact, Hjivin fleets entered combat all along a line of seventy-three Shiplord border systems.

What followed would not end for more than a century, and is collectively known as the Battle of the Burning Line.

 

[Snowfire]

Scheduled vote count started by Snowfire on Jul 13, 2021 at 10:48 AM, finished with 95 posts and 15 votes.

• ---

  11 people have voted

  [X] Contact Fleets were diplomats as much as anything else, but were any of their number ever as skilled as you? What might happen if you simply ask?

  • Kirbstomp
  • RyubosJ
  • Brogatar
  • Zfglx
  • carterhall
  • Shwaggy
  • acegunner
  • Lightwhispers
  • Dmol8
  • JOJOBRN
  • Starman4308

  2 people have voted

  [x] Write-in: Get the key information as quickly as possible and then try to get the attention of the Uninvolved early.

  • Coda
  • Random12345

  1 people have voted

  [X] Experience

  • Snowfire

  1 people have voted

  [X] The Hjivin emissaries will not give you the answers you seek. But might their staff, or the servants below them? Dangerous to act right under the nose of a near-peer, but it just might work.

  • Faraway-R

 

[Snowfire]

"Then we will investigate further," you answered.

You weren't sure how the simulation was going to handle this. The Shiplords had tried a partial investigation in reality. Surely others had attempted different variants of it. But had any of them ever thought to just...ask? Given what you knew about the Hjivin, how you expected them to react, you couldn't imagine anyone had.

But they weren't you. And the entire reason for the war, at least as it had been, had been founded in a place where the Hjivin could not believe that the Shiplords could develop for so long and not come to the same conclusion. That thought made you smile sadly; how right they'd been proven in the end.

"What are you doing?" Kalilah asked, the guise of your tactical advisor well suiting the question. Beneath it, though, came the real question. :You know where this leads.:

"What only a fool would consider," you replied. You weren't anywhere close to as calm as those words sounded, but it was enough. A thought found the right comm setting. :What no Shiplord would even think to try.:

:Oh.: Vega said, her voice small. :I get it.:

:This is a simulation.: You continued, feeling the awareness sink into the Unisonbound around you. Feeling them realise where you were taking this, and why. :Built on the echo of the Hjivin or not, I cannot accept that there was no way to at least hold back the war. Maybe long enough for the Shiplords to win without what happened here.:

:I'm not sure that's possible.: Mir sighed, yet you felt the smile on his face. :But that's just the thing. I'm not certain.:

:And if it's not impossible, we have to try.: You finished.

"If they have something they are hiding, then we will seek it plainly," you announced, affirming your own thoughts. "Rhyn, give me your full analysis packet. And get me the Hjivin Speaker. Now."

"Yes, Captain."

The data packet slotted into place with almost disturbing ease. Looking at it made you wonder how they'd missed it, but you forced yourself to try to remember that this had been a new experience to the Shiplords. They'd had protocols to investigate, but never for something of the Sphere's scale. Was that why?

"Coming through now." The report broke you from the thought, yet part of you remained there even as you turned the full weight of your attention to the figure that swam into being before you. You thought you had been prepared for Hjivin creations, but something about their Speaker just felt wrong. Its limbs were sleekly defined, yet there were odd shifts in their angles, and the creature seemed in motion even at rest. There was brilliance in it, you'd recognised that in the sim's data packet. But the important thing was that they were here. It showed that the Hjivin considered the Shiplords close enough to a peer to speak with, and to respond promptly. You could work with that.

"Greetings again from the Sphere, fellow travellers." Their motions were almost perfect, mimicking Shiplord body cues as well as you'd done. Maybe even better, which was more than a little frightening. "This is not our scheduled meeting. Have you come to a decision?"

"Not yet," you replied. The Sphere had been pushing now, carefully but with pressure, to formalise relations between the two polities. "Though this conversation will inform it."

"I see." The Speaker reflected surprise. For a wonder, you believed it. "What of our worlds trouble you?"

"It is quite simple," you told them calmly. "If we are to reach an accord, we must do so openly. And you have not been open with us, Speaker." Something shifted in the creature as you made the accusation, wounded innocence, no...pride. Had they truly believed their work was so seamless?

"I assure you," they began, and you cut a motion in the air, the lines of your Masque sharpening to almost do so in truth.

"You did not believe the packets we sent you." You leant forward, sharp edges and all, yet for one who could look there was no anger in the strength. "You did not believe that we could be so old, and not come in war or treachery. But you are hiding something on the worlds below, and all the rest. We may be ancient, Speaker for the Hjivin, but we are not decrepit."

:Bring all combat systems to instant standby: You snapped the command out across the internal formation net, silent to the conversation before you as the Speaker considered their reply. Energy surged through your small fleet, stirring all the weapons and wards that the Shiplords had ever thought to include in their Contact Fleet designs in their slumber. Thankfully, Contact Fleet doctrine required all groups to maintain charge enough in their stardrives for an evasive jump until proper relations had been established.

"And yet you choose to accuse us?" There was something ugly in the being's eyes, but it didn't touch you. You could almost feel the burnt arrogance seething beneath the innocent outrage of its skin.

"I choose the truth." The reply came easily, the meaning behind it even more so. "I choose to know you, as you are, behind the facade. As I must, if we are to ever forge agreements deeper than our greetings."

"You ask us to reveal the deepest secrets of our people. To reveal how the Sphere grew to become what it is," the Speaker replied, visibly calmer now. A gland, or something more? You couldn't tell. "What could you possibly offer us in return?"

"It is born of the Second Secret, isn't it," you replied, and this time the Speaker blurred back, shock sending its angles hard and hating. Still, you hadn't gone beyond the report yet. The Shiplords had suspected. "It is that or the Sixth, and your mastery extends far more to the Second. Is it a surprise that we would recognise that?"

"What then?" The Speaker said, this time the calm was utterly false, but you had no wish to break it.

"To offer truth for truth, we are not fully sure," you told them. And it was a them, wasn't it. They'd discovered that later in the war, that the Speaker wasn't called that as a title. That was what it was. A vessel, for a fragment of the minds that anchored and led the Sphere. "I can guess, if you wish. But I would prefer your words, Speaker."

"Our words?" The Speaker spoke in what was nearly a growl, the lines of its face hard. "You would know us? You would think you could? We are the Sphere, we are the worlds, and all upon them serve us."

"You are not a hivemind. We know what those look like." You actually did now, at least a little. The Shiplords had encountered some before, and there were comparisons between the Sphere's actions and that of a hive in Rhyn's report.

"We are close enough," they replied. The full weight of the Sphere's guiding minds pressed down upon you through their vessel. "We have added to who we are, what we are, and made our worlds perfect and pure. If you have lived so long, you must understand."

"We understand that the Second Secret allows something close to what you claim. But the question that I must ask is how was it done?" The answer to this question had inevitably started the war, but the Sphere had never been taken off guard like this. Even when it faced the Shiplords at the negotiating table, it did so believing that they'd stumbled to the truth.

"The Sphere grows." The reply came, and you bowed your head in sadness. "As you will know soon."

Space tore apart all across your fleet, alarms howling to life as your defensive networks registered targeting sensors and the telltale spikes of grav-shear weaponry in the moment before they fired. Yet the fleet had been ready, this time, alarmed by your own suspicions from the Speaker's reactions.

Ship after ship vanished into jump, fleeing to randomly selected spatial coordinates as far from this star as their drive charge allowed. It wouldn't be that far, but it would be enough. Your ships might not possess War Fleet drives, but they didn't have to. Space, after all, was vast.

Ship after ship, but not your own. A command lanced across your Heartcircle, telling them to delay, to hold just short of jump, and let the Sphere fire. You wanted to see what they'd do. You needed to see.

Lances of torn gravity ripped through empty spaces where Shiplord craft had been instants before, and a full dozen slammed into your flagship's shields. The hull of the ship bucked wildly as the shields, then the ship's drive, were overwhelmed. The relatively light armour of the craft splintered under the remains of those bolts, but they'd cut off soon enough to not kill you. They wanted you alive.

"Ready all drones," you ordered your section, even as biomass gathered and leapt to your ship from those around you. Their weapons forged a cage around you, one you could not escape, yet you did not wish to. "All hands to emergency stations."

The biomass flooded across the space between you, engulfing your vessel. It didn't disable your ability to jump, but it might as well have. Taking these ships along with you wouldn't delay anything. And the Speaker, whose image had never flickered, hissed something hot and hateful.

"We will come for you. And speak once you are of us. We will understand."

"No." You shook your head. "I will not surrender this ship, or my crew."

"You believe you have a choice?" it spat, contempt dripping from the words.

"You believe I don't?" Your gaze fell on Kalilah. "Full defensive charge."

She returned the motion of a nod, and you winced as the world around you erupted with a howling scream that shook your ship to its bones.

The Shiplords had never delved as deeply into the Second Secret as the Hjivin at this point had. But they'd learnt a great deal, and had a long, long time to perfect that understanding. What you used now, you knew, was the adult version of the neural disruptor which Tribute Fleets unleashed on those who wielded living weapons. Sadly they had not included its schematics, but the effects were immediate.

A shrieking howl that had no right to exist split the world, the biomass invaders of the Hjivin screaming out in agony. Exactly how those disruptors worked, you still weren't sure. There had to be a weakness somewhere in how the Second Secret created life, how it built organic matter into something that could live and breathe and know and fight. The Sphere would be able to defend against it; you knew their mastery was greater than that of the Shiplords at this moment. But only a master of the secrets, a relative equal, would have been able to build one.

This wasn't how you liked to do diplomacy. There was too much pain, too much violence to it for your tastes. But against the Sphere and without Practice, it had been one of your only viable options if, and more likely when, words failed. You had to make them understand that they were not facing a facade, that the Shiplords possessed the full suite of knowledge to match them, and the age to make victory nigh impossible.

The biomass was forced back, and secondary shield generators flickered to life, holding it there. Without purchase on the hull, none of their craft would follow you when you jumped. And despite your wish to teach the Hjivin the truth of what they faced, you also did not wish this crew to die.

"We have known the Secrets since before your race knew the touch of light," you told the Speaker, feeling the lighting peaks of their grav disruptors. "We know how to wield them, and how to fight them. Just because we do not wish to fight you does not mean we lack the ability."

"You truly believe that?" The question… it was actually real. Or close enough. And the grav weapons were holding fire.

Your mind flashed to the other hidden stars. The Shiplords had called the Hjivin their last true enemy. Not the first. That meant there had been others, and the lack of truly galactic devastation meant that they'd all lost long before they could threaten things as deeply as the Sphere had.

"You are not the first," you told them, forcing the sharpness of your shell to recede. It was the opposite of what you needed to make this real. "We have defended these stars before. If you wish for war, you will lose."

You felt the fields around you faltering, losing power to keep the ocean of biomass around you at bay. They were waiting until they were sure you had no further tricks before they broke your shields. Too bad for them.

"Then why come here?" the Speaker demanded.

"War isn't what we want," you replied, and you had to fight against the feeling of tears. It was the truth, but it was also more than just this truth. You didn't want war at all. You hated it. "My people will seek you again, but if you are willing to talk, we will be too. And I am sorry, but you will not be able to keep us to confirm it."

"You-"

You triggered the emergency jump routine.

"What was that?" were the first words greeting you on the other side. Or at least they would have been, had you not overestimated the capability of the Shiplords just a fraction. Some of the Hjivin biomass had had enough time to form a construct capable of resisting the disruptor. Not enough to maintain full mental processes, but enough to know the role you played was a primary target.

So as the ship flashed back into reality, stardrive already recharging for your next leg home, the simulation didn't end. Instead, a multi-limbed mass slashed open the floor under your seat and reared up to engulf you. It wouldn't work, you knew that somewhere, even as the world around you slid into slow motion. But it would reach you, and when it did.

Wait. That shouldn't be possible.

It felt real. Not just to the scanners, but to your soul, again. The same wrongness as you'd felt before from parts of Shiplord technology, and yet somehow worse. Like it wanted to reach into you and rip out your very self, remodel it into something new and. You tried to stop, part of you marvelling. How on earth had the Shiplords made a simulation so real? Holo had never triggered this sort of reaction befo-

:Mandy, stop!: Lea screamed.

You were a Mender. Even now, a Mender, seeking to find a way to fix… something. But that was secondary right now. Right now, you were still a Mender, surrounded by matter that the very sight of had birthed the energies of a star. Surrounded. By. It.

Reaction Strength: 97

Your soul howled defiance, caring not for the simulation, caring not for where you were, only that you were faced again by its antithesis and at a range so much closer than you'd ever been before. You scrambled after it, locking the release down, trying to soothe it. This wasn't real, no matter how real it felt. It was just a simulation, and that was fine, that meant it wasn't real, and that you didn't have to break everything. It would all be fine.

Reaction Control (you literally needed 10+ on the dice for this): 2

It was such a close thing, so very close to what would have been enough. Until your hand, had it been a hand? Something like a hand then. The grasp you'd wrapped around your own soul, that you'd held so well, for so long, slipped. It was a tiny thing, by your own measure, barely enough to leave a ripple. Far more would've been needed to trigger any sensors for Uninvolved action, even within such a deadened space. It should have been fine.

Should have been.

A single, tiny pulse rolled out from your skin, and the entire simulation went dead.

 

[Snowfire]

:Fuck!: Kalilah swore, her Aegis ripping at the Masque around her as she whirled, energy swirling within her. She was ready to completely destroy this place, but she didn't want to have to. Your eyes went to Vega, begging for an answer.

:I've got nothing,: the Harmonial replied, and you could literally feel the pressure of her Focus as she tried to exert it without letting it stray beyond her body. :Lea, is Mandy alright?:

You could've answered that!

:No you can't,: Lea told you, not harshly, but very firmly. :But I think you're fine. It was a reaction, one you had to be truly distracted to slip on, but we've all been that way recently.: You felt the sound of a sigh. :We all knew this was a risk.:

:Then why aren't there guards flooding in here?: Mir asked. At least no one else had to ask that now. :Not that I'm complaining, but the sim crashing can't exactly be common. And-:

He cut off as the wall where you'd entered swam like water, then flowed back into a door. A Shiplord was standing there. You recognised their shell, that of your guide, but her entire manner was wrong. Kicha was staring at you, but the reactions pulsing along her nanoshell were ones of shock and realisation, but no anger. No rage for intruders into this most sacred - it was a fair term - of places. That… was unexpected.

It was also the only thing holding Kalilah back from murdering her.

Kicha stepped inside, light as a feather and just as vulnerable to a stiff breeze, and the door swam back into being a wall.

She made a small gesture, and the basic simulation reonlined.

"Shiplords are capable of ending their lives whenever we want to, once we understand the concept," she said, preempting any questions. "It's like a euthanasia switch. We use it when our world has gone on too long, if we don't wish to try sleeping for a few thousand years."

Another gesture, careful, so careful, and something flickered up on your virtual display.

"I just gave you control of mine," she said, with all appearance of total calm. "Call it a token of… you call it faith, I think. That you might be able to help us."

It took you a moment for you to realise that she'd said 'faith' in perfect English. It was all you could do not to reel back, and the implications of what Kicha had given you were too much to prevent that. Kicha-- the entire species had the ability to create a suicide switch, and Kicha had just given you hers?

"I've disabled any recording systems," she continued. "And purged the system crash, though not the historical profile your actions created. I may need to modify some aspects of your sim-access later, if you let me have one."

You just stared. Wasn't she meant to be your enemy?

But enemies, you told yourself, are always easiest to handle when they're faceless. Was this a ploy? Some kind of trick whilst they tried to find the Adamant, or blew the entire site from orbit using the guns of the ancient dreadnought above?

:It's not.: Mir said, with absolute certainty. :There is no war in her being. No expectation of sacrifice. She wants peace, Mandy. I can't begin to describe how much she wants it.:

:It's strong enough to form a Focus, if she were human,: Vega agreed softly.

:So...we try?: You asked tentatively.

:Not sure we have much choice,: Kalilah growled. :But I'm staying ready until we know for sure.:

Ready to kill her, you knew. Not that you could blame Kalilah, especially after your mistake and her own experience.

But where to even begin?

[] Why are you doing this?
[] What do you mean, help us?
[] Who are you, really?
[] Kill her and leave Amanda says no
[] Write-in?

 

[Snowfire]

Covering the full detail of the Battle of the Burning Line would take historians decades. Suffice to say that it began a full century and a quarter before it was ended, inflicted a cost in lives numbering in the hundreds of millions, and reduced forty of the seventy-three Shiplord border systems to burnt-out shells of their former glory. It was high intensity warfare on a scale that had never been conducted before and has never been matched since, fuelled by dozens of stellar converters on both sides.

It ended with the destruction of the Hjivin's local logistical base, at the hands of a series of strikes by the entire War Fleet strength of the Shiplord-led coalition and the first predecessors to the Lumen class stellar disruptor. The decision to employ these weapons was one that consumed Shiplord society for decades even as the Hjivin pressed hard on their defences, threatening more than once to breach the wall of fortress systems and rampage deeper into the Shiplord core worlds.

Although many would sometimes attempt to argue otherwise, the final word in that decision was a brutal mathematical analysis that outlined the full probable cost to the Shiplords if they attempted to force the Hjivin back using only conventional forces.

It could have been done. Despite all the attempts of the Sphere to level the technological playing field, the Shiplords held a solid edge that would have eventually proven decisive. But it would have cost tens of billions of lives across millennia of war, and faced with such an outcome, a heartsick Shiplord population approved the deployment of these new and terrible weapons. Five cycles later, the Shiplords intensified their defensive operations in a move calculated to provoke a response from the Sphere.

They paid a bloody price to open the door for their counterattack, but it was a sacrifice that had to be made to draw the Hjivin's War Fleets into battle across the Burning Line. With their deployment confirmed, and thousands of Shiplords and their allies dying every minute to keep them there, the Shiplords committed the full strength of their own War Fleets. Not to the Burning Line, but to eight key logistical bases beyond it that allowed the Sphere to swiftly replenish its forces, and maintain the brutal intensity of their assault.

Even with total surprise, the War Fleets of the Shiplords' coalition did not prevail unscathed. War Fleets are impossibly quick to any who do not possess them, and the Hjivin commanders realised what their enemies were attempting very swiftly. They'd never constructed stellar disruptors, but they could recognise the physics involved, and they reacted appropriately. Of the twenty-four stellar disruptors deployed by the Shiplord in this assault, only ten managed to escape, and their War Fleet escorts suffered significant losses to protect them. Yet as terrible as those losses were, the consequences for the Sphere were endlessly worse. Eight stellar shipyards burned across the space of hours, and the Hjivin attacks screeched to a deafening halt as the number of jumps to their nearest source of reinforcements increased by a factor of two.

Faced with the ruin of their supply base, the Sphere withdrew those forces they could from the Burning Line in good order, retreating back into easy logistical range of their next line of converters. And brilliant, pitiless minds turned to the task of replicating the Shiplord weapons.

It would take two centuries more for the Hjivin to be driven from the intermediate space between their initial borders and those of the Shiplords, and more than twenty stars would burn in the process. Some, most even, proved to be Hjivin shipyards or supply bases. Some, however, were not. As the Shiplords pushed back, they were forced to mimic the Hjivin strategic playbook, establishing their own converters to support their advance. And this provided the rapidly developed Hjivin starkillers with targets of their own.

It remains unclear exactly when the Hjivin started experimenting with creating an Uninvolved, but what is known to the Shiplords makes for brief reading. The process likely began as the true nature of the war asserted itself. The Hjivin had believed the Shiplords incapable of matching their industrial strength, and this proved an ultimately terminal error in their strategy. The Shiplords did not just expand their own forces with wild abandon, but once their industry had pivoted, armed their allies with War and Regular Fleet craft of their own, too. It is in the realisation of this miscalculation that many analysts believe the Hjivin's insanity was born.

Whatever the truth of the matter might be, the Shiplords and their allies were still in the process of breaching deeper into Hjivin space when the Uninvolved acted. Sensor data shows entire fleets wiped from the skies, worlds cleansed in moments of Hjivin life, along with every other member of their species. The original biomes of those planets were strangely untouched, except in those places where Second Secret manipulation had been applied to elements of it for the Sphere's benefit. In those places, these modifications and the strains resulting from it were also annihilated without a trace.

It is telling that the Shiplords' response to the Uninvolved's action was a silence so absolute that none attempted to breach it. A coalition War Fleet made its way at max drive into the heart of Hjivin space, to be met by an incarnation of the Uninvolved. The entity's explanations were accepted, but the Shiplords are known to have conducted several private interactions with the being before it departed. The content of these discussions are not included within the simulation data.

In the cycles that followed, the Shiplords and their allies would conduct full investigations of all previously inhabited Hjivin worlds. They would disassemble the vast battery of Stellar Convertors that had fuelled their enemy's invasion, and delve deep into the Second Secret to heal the scattered survivors of the Hjivin's conquests. Not all of these attempts would prove successful, but they were pursued nonetheless, and with the full sweep of the Shiplords' mastery of the Secrets.

Their vast, stellar-scale construction ships would be deployed again, to rebuild the shattered star systems of the races that had once called them home. A full third of those species would never return home except aboard burial ships. But they would return to the worlds that they had known, the Shiplords made sure of that.

Finally, the Shiplords embarked on a then-secret development program. Their goal was simple, and inevitably successful: to create weapons capable of attacking and destroying an Uninvolved. If the program was begun on the basis of defence or offence is impossible to determine, but its success is one of the pillars upon which modern Shiplord dominance of the galaxy is built. If escaping the material world isn't enough to outrun the threat of oblivion at Shiplord hands, what could be?

 

[Snowfire]

Scheduled vote count started by Snowfire on Jul 27, 2021 at 9:53 AM, finished with 112 posts and 17 votes.

• ---

  10 people have voted

  [X] Who are you, really?

  • Shard
  • Shwaggy
  • Coda
  • Cecylene
  • Lightwhispers
  • Tirfarthuan
  • Donkey Hote
  • strauss
  • Random12345
  • Starman4308

  3 people have voted

  [X] How did your people go from using Contact Fleets for the First Contact, to using Tribute Fleets? We have witnessed the Hjivin and the Zlathbu, but we see no answer just yet.

  • Faraway-R
  • carterhall
  • Random12345

  2 people have voted

  [X] What do you mean, help us?

  • Kirbstomp
  • Shard

  1 people have voted

  [X] Explain. (yes, that's open. But I think there's a lot to learn of how Kicha is understanding that offer/question.)

  • MTB

  1 people have voted

  [X] Write-in: Why did you decide there was no better alternative?

  • Arcus

  1 people have voted

  [X] Why are you doing this?

  • Michiru

  1 people have voted

  [X] "We want peace. You want peace. You wanted peace. ...Why, then, are we spiraling into war?" (Why are you doing this?)

  • TheBiggerFish

  1 people have voted

  [X] On many levels: who, what, when, where, why, and how to pretty much the entirety of current Shiplord culture and affairs. We're here because we know there is a way to end the war without burnt-out stars across the galaxy. But, we can start with:

  • Starman4308