The Secrets' Crusade
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
- Location
- Somewhere out there
I think you're making a cultural reference that people from English-speaking countries don't know, again. I'm not finding anything online that lines up with that description. From context, I'm guessing it's a story about a slave whose concept of heaven was "outside"? And by that, I think you're trying to say that it only seems interesting because it's what we know about from our limited perspective as readers who live in the real world?
- Location
- Somewhere out there
Ah. I think I get it.
If I'm right, you probably would have been understood better if you had made an analogy to Atomic Age fiction and how authors glorified the power of the atom and radioactivity, being exotic things outside of what the average consumer understood.
But don't worry. The tech support team is going to make sure nobody is hulking out from being exposed to gamma radiation. We definitely did not just slap a pop-science label on it in order to handwave the mechanism. We have some basic underlying principles we're working from that form the conceit of the setting, and we make sure that observations from real-world physics would still be true within the extent of practical measurement in such a universe. (Or at least, as best as we understand the physics. We ARE just laypeople that read a lot, not actual theoretical physicists.)
Dmol8
The Undead Unhinged Lunatic of the Web
- Location
- Belgrade,Serbia
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Please tell me you've at least accounted for all seven of the current SI base units in your calculations.
- Location
- Somewhere out there
That's deeper than we've bothered going, for the most part. We've tried to avoid being TOO specific about anything particularly mathematical. The most mathematical I've ever gotten was to roughly sketch out a proof that something might be possible, but I don't even remember what that was anymore.
(That said: Baughn and I know all of the units and how to use them.)
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- Location
- Somewhere out there
Heh. Snowfire has reminded me of one of the conversations we had back in 2018. If it says anything about the level of pedantry we bring to the table...
We had a serious debate about how a particular change to the Lorentz metric that we were considering would have resulted in visible deviations in computer technology due to introducing an anisotropy into spacetime.
I don't think you have anything to worry about.
We had a serious debate about how a particular change to the Lorentz metric that we were considering would have resulted in visible deviations in computer technology due to introducing an anisotropy into spacetime.
I don't think you have anything to worry about.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Dmol, can I just ask you a candid question:
Have you ever, ever in your life, actually heard the term "Molly Slavery" used by an English-speaker, and if so, where and when?
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
The sound you are currently hearing is that of past-Snowfire screaming in agony as @Baughn and @Coda forced basic understanding of these concepts (among many others) into their poor brain.Heh. Snowfire has reminded me of one of the conversations we had back in 2018. If it says anything about the level of pedantry we bring to the table...
We had a serious debate about how a particular change to the Lorentz metric that we were considering would have resulted in visible deviations in computer technology due to introducing an anisotropy into spacetime.
I don't think you have anything to worry about.
- Location
- Minnesota
I would be most interested in this one:
Between the stars we seek - PoV Alternate Nutrient Source Advised (Neras Starhome)
Between the stars we seek - PoV Alternate Nutrient Source Advised (Neras Starhome)
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
Google results are personalized. And that slang is much more unusual than you seem to think it is. That's fine, just know that I at least also had no clue what you were on about. And that is with me knowing one of the things Molly is slang for is ecstasy
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Thebigpieman
I've got this, I think.
- Location
- United States
Molly is also a common first name so uh... no. Molly slave is not a common thing. In fact this is the first time I've heard it too.
Thebigpieman
I've got this, I think.
- Location
- United States
Sigh.
@Dmol8 you're doing that thing again. That thing where you start posting about terminology that you've come up with that no one else uses and then expect everyone else to know what the fuck you're talking about despite, again, no one else using the terminology you've personally come up with.
At least this time you've included something in common parlance but Batman slavery???? Batman slavery????
@Dmol8 you're doing that thing again. That thing where you start posting about terminology that you've come up with that no one else uses and then expect everyone else to know what the fuck you're talking about despite, again, no one else using the terminology you've personally come up with.
At least this time you've included something in common parlance but Batman slavery???? Batman slavery????
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
Surely, one of the three is what I want.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Today is entirely the wrong day for this shit. Get this out of my thread before I do something I will later regret.
Dmol8
The Undead Unhinged Lunatic of the Web
- Location
- Belgrade,Serbia
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Deleted all of my posts on that topic.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Dropping in a brief post as a palate cleanser and status update.
The interlude that 'won' is progressing well, and I hope to have it done this evening - Saturday at the latest. I would have likely had it earlier but...I'm just going to use the words "this week" and I suspect you'll all know what I mean. Please don't follow that line into discussion, just understand that it's had an effect on my mental state which has predictably hit my writing.
Despite that, interlude is...uh...wait when did it become 1600 words? I swear it was 900 yesterday. Well okay it's that first one, then. Probably not a huge amount more to it, but who knows with me.
Regardless. I'll aim for interlude completion in the next day. And I'm just going to close the vote now, as I very much doubt it's going to swing now. And...just try to be good to each other. Please. Everyone needs that sometimes.
Vote Closed
The interlude that 'won' is progressing well, and I hope to have it done this evening - Saturday at the latest. I would have likely had it earlier but...I'm just going to use the words "this week" and I suspect you'll all know what I mean. Please don't follow that line into discussion, just understand that it's had an effect on my mental state which has predictably hit my writing.
Despite that, interlude is...uh...wait when did it become 1600 words? I swear it was 900 yesterday. Well okay it's that first one, then. Probably not a huge amount more to it, but who knows with me.
Regardless. I'll aim for interlude completion in the next day. And I'm just going to close the vote now, as I very much doubt it's going to swing now. And...just try to be good to each other. Please. Everyone needs that sometimes.
Vote Closed
The Truth of Orders
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Shiplord Sector Command Node Abide by Twilight
There were a great many things that you'd found yourself having missed about the world during your time in Storage. The taste of familiar foods were subtly different, even in the best attempts to replicate them. The impossible closeness of even low-grade interface, reminding you of ancient days, before deeper understanding made clear the potential dangers. Even the simple, indescribable privilege of the trust of those under your command, paired to the driving burden to be worthy of it.
There was no direct gap in memory, no vast elapse of simulation to cover the millions of years lost to stasis, but you still felt it. A gaping absence, easily missed until circumstances brought it to mind.
What you had certainly not missed, though, were meetings like this one. Where the burden of leadership collided with political demand.
"But surely you can understand our concerns, High Fleetleader?" The veil of the speaker was artistry and grace, pure politeness. And the worst part? It was even true. There were no hidden twists to the form, something long experience would have shown you.
A pawn, perhaps? That, again, you had not missed. Yours had not been a truly fractious people, but divisions had been present as long as you could remember. And with those divisions, inevitably, came the games of politics.
"I understand entirely, Honoured Member," you replied, tempering your physical reaction to simple respect: that due a member of the Authority. "But the strategic situation facing our people today is too complex for me to consider a different course of action."
The Member's veil shifted, deferring the point, yet not to you. Instead, they passed the question back to the head of the virtual delegation. That Member's veil was tighter in its angles, lines of unease cutting the gentler curves that promised trust. It shifted as they recognised the deferment, anxiousness sharpening towards jagged concern.
"To the nature of the situation, that we surely agree," they said. A limb lifted, manipulators shifting and extending, directing attention towards the display that you'd laid out for the delegation.
"There is a reason that we turned to you in this moment, High Fleetleader. That we could." The pause there between the sentences was almost small enough to ignore. Its meanings were not. "But this plan you have given us, its focus will surely concern the Authority."
Said plan floated in the air between you, marked out across a sharply rendered image of the galaxy in miniature. Fleet markers and command node locations had been shifted into the pattern of a vast sphere. Many were drawn from the galaxy's outer reaches, some from postings almost as ancient as you. Jump paths brought them together, tracing a way back to the security of home ground. And yet, even a civilian eye would surely see the ragged gaps torn in the net that had once been laid to master the entire galaxy.
You were still struggling with what it said about your people for that to be a primary goal. Kicha's visit had helped lay out the new reality, but understanding the trail that had been walked to get there, that was much harder. And more than a small part of you just didn't want to.
"Of course it will," you replied, tone giving no indication of your heavy thoughts. You reached out with your implants, and points of light flared, spreading out to trace the lines of known territories. What you would have given for intelligence this complete when formulating your last war plan.
"The situation we face here is deeply troubling, Honoured Members, on that we agree." You fixed the leader of the delegation, use-name Ririm, with the core of your attention. "But the scale of it, in immediate terms, is far worse than I fear you understand."
"We're all CentCom cleared, High Fleetleader," Ririm replied coolly. Which was true. They had clearance to access all the same data that you did. However-
"There is a difference between reading briefs and applying them to our strategic situation, Honoured Member," you pointed out diffidently. Humour fluttered in the lines of your veil a moment. "If it was truly so simple, you would hardly need someone like me."
Ririm shifted their veil in a motion of grudging agreement, but said nothing for the moment. You let the silence hold for a moment before continuing, emphasising your point. On the display, the territory markers of the various identified belligerents finished forming. They formed an incomplete and rather lopsided ring around your people's space at the galactic core, and you felt the collective response to it from the delegates.
"It's different to see, isn't it." It really wasn't a question. Imagery had always had a way that words lacked. "And remember, we know that several of the powers noted here have fleet bases beyond their borders. Bases that they have been using to attack our galactic communications network."
Less than half a cycle ago, the lines that spread out across the map would have been coloured in gentle blues, forming a vast webwork of interconnected comm stations and transfer nodes. Today that carefully balanced web was ripped and torn. The further from your home territories one got, the worse it became.
"I cannot, in good conscience, maintain our deep range presence in the face of this. Not when it could leave significant portions of the active Fleet severed from central command, and therefore unable to effectively contribute to the war."
"Surely that's a little exaggerated, High Fleetleader," Ririm's reply seemed concerned, but there was a twisting undertone to the set of their veil. One that you only noticed from the benefit of long experience. They didn't like what you were showing them. "The GalCom net was designed with multiple levels of redundancies, even with the damage sustained so far-"
"We began to lose tertiary nodes over a week ago, Member Ririm." You did, perhaps, take a little pleasure in the interruption. If not its content, which was grim. "It's especially bad in the rimward sectors, where the destruction of mid-core relays has restricted transmission paths. And if it continues, we're going to lose contact with more of our deep range anchorages within days."
"It's certainly a problem," Ririm accepted, a little more respectfully this time. "But even with that damage, and the losses of the two fleet bases closest to the Human home star, the reports have made it clear that we hold a definitive advantage."
"But it's not just those losses, Honoured Member," you sighed. "And whilst you're correct on the matter of hull counts, we need to bring enough of the active Fleet together to actually leverage that advantage. Our smaller bases and detachments remain vulnerable to assault, as the past months clearly show."
"Which is why you want to pull back to the old Spheric lines," another Member said, motions gently inquiring to match her tone.
"The lines themselves will be further out, to take into account expansion since the War of the Sphere. But essentially, yes." The current situation made you very thankful that your people had held to the ancient colonisation lines. Having to deal with colonies scattered all across the galaxy would have been simply impossible.
"Retreating to a fortress configuration will secure our borders and protect our territory from potential raids whilst we bring the Reserve back into service. After that, we can address our enemies more clearly."
"Which will take a full cycle by current estimates," Ririm grumbled.
"Closer to two-thirds of one, assuming the Authority is willing to support the industrial reactivation sections of this plan." The amount of currently dormant infrastructure in the core territories had been a little shocking at first. But then you'd realised that, after the abortive war with the Teel, your people had had little need of it all. So it had been mothballed, just like the Reserve after victory over the Sphere.
"It will also provide Central Intelligence with the time to build a better picture of what we're facing." You flicked several fingers, bringing up the predicted position of intelligence assets currently in motion. "Once we have more immediate assessments, I can produce a properly informed plan on how to deploy the first wave of the Reserve."
Your attention lingered for a moment on the furthest out of those assets, dispatched weeks before you'd been awakened. You had a feeling that Eyes the Sun was in for a very interesting mission.
"Or we could dispatch a force from the coreward Fleets to assault one of the nearer rebellious polities, crush their defences, and extract any information we need directly." Ririm said bullishly. Veils shifted in subtle agreement with their words, the Member's own extending jagged marks of frustration. "Retreat the deep range fleets if you must. But we could have the truth of this within the cycle, instead of ceding strategic initiative.
"The humans have some ability to challenge our War Fleets when on the defence, but we've seen no sign of that from any of the rest. Better to deal with them before that knowledge can spread." Ririm's veil adjusted further, a warping line very close to scorn scything across it.
"When we asked you to assemble a plan for this war, High Fleetleader, your orders were to deploy our fleets as required to resolve this crisis." A pause, and those lines solidified, casting doubt across every aspect of what you had offered. "So why do you not seek to crush these threats to our people, and swiftly? That is the purpose of the Fleet, is it not?"
Kicha had warned you to be prepared for this reaction. She'd told you how much had changed, how the nature of your people had turned so completely from what you'd remembered. But to actually hear those words from a member of the Authority…
"The purpose of the Fleet?" you asked, words entirely precise. Anyone who'd known you would have recognised the tone, and the utter calm suffusing your veil. Alas for them, but none in this delegation did.
"Yes." Ririm's answer came swiftly, building on their already present tempo. So quick to do so, but then that was expected. Their allegiance in the Authority was to those who truly supported the Tribute Fleet doctrine, and the meanings implicit in making them head of this delegation had never been subtle.
"These younger powers have struck against a system that has protected the galaxy for millennia. That has kept us safe, and the galaxy safe." It was clear in every line the reality of their opinion on those polities. Ririm had said younger, yes, but they'd meant primitive. "And not just one power, alone. But six. Six, High Fleetleader. Such actions cannot be allowed to stand, to threaten all that we've built."
You made an appearance of considering those words, swallowing down the harsh, angry language that you wished you could indulge in. If Kicha hadn't warned you, you might have done so. But she had, and that had given you time to plan for this moment.
So instead you set yourself, and spoke calmly. "You're quite correct, Member Ririm. A coreward Fleet detachment could be sent out to Confederacy or Luminary space. But dispatching that much strength, before the Reserve can be activated, would leave us vulnerable to raids from the Nileans, Sarthee, or even Humanity."
Unrest rustled across the room at the last name, the source of so many impossible woes. Their creation of an Orrery system had been bad enough at their age. But now, human fleets were flitting at unthinkable speed across the rimward sectors, striking down your people's presence there with terrifying precision.
Their part in this war was most critical; you'd have believed that even before your conversation with Kicha. With what the Hearthguard's Warden, your old friend, had told you though? That importance only increased. Just not quite in the way the Authority would have expected, or that you could admit.
"The purpose of the Fleet is not to strike out at our enemies," you said, still speaking calmly. "To do so would be to abandon the very reason that saw it founded. A reason written into its founding charter, Honoured Members. The first duty of the Fleet is the protection of our people."
"Removing the threat would protect us." Ririm didn't sneer. That would have been beneath their dignity. And instead of lashing back, you shaped your veil into the deliberate, canted lines of formal acceptance and sorrow.
"Perhaps so," you conceded. "But that isn't what the line means."
For a moment, you saw reason grapple with the frustration of a zealot, and let yourself hope. Today, that hope failed. Ririm squared their lines, sharpening posture to demand compliance without speaking a word. And let themselves forget.
"How could you possibly know that, High Fleetleader?" they asked. And a small, small smile shaped the lines at your core as you gathered your reply.
"Because I wrote it."
The silence that followed was deafening, and you took full advantage of it, compressing your war plan for transmission.
"Present this to your colleagues, Honoured Members," you said, taking in your entire audience. And ignoring the sputtering Ririm. "Show them this meeting. And make sure they understand that if I will not deny the most sacred principle of the Fleet's creation in the conflict ahead of us."
"Regardless of your orders?" the quieter Member, the one who'd spoken in your defence, asked.
"There are orders, Member Kyian," you said gravely. "And there are orders. It is up to us all to decide which are true."
"Decisions can have consequences, High Fleetleader," she warned. Other members presented their own opinions in the silent, bristling motions of their veils. "Your support in the Authority is not unlimited. If sufficient Members begin to question this plan…"
She trailed off, leaving the implication unsaid. Ririm, certainly, would waste no time in pursuing that outcome. It wouldn't happen fast, as nothing in politics did. But with enough time, anything was possible. The current existence of your people was proof of that.
"That shall be the Authority's choice." It was a professional's answer. The right one. But it wasn't everything you had to say, either. "I simply ask that you consider the future composition of the Fleet when making it."
It was as close as you would come to a far more dangerous statement. Crewing the Reserve was going to rely almost entirely on the crews that had fought in the War of the Sphere. People who'd gone into Storage to escape the horrors of that war's victory. Who believed in your people's more ancient truth, now seemingly forgotten. And for whom you were the only High Fleetleader most had ever known.
Decisions, as Kyian had just said, had consequences. You just prayed that the Authority could recognise that. And, perhaps, remember what had happened the last time they'd pushed the Fleet too far.
There were a great many things that you'd found yourself having missed about the world during your time in Storage. The taste of familiar foods were subtly different, even in the best attempts to replicate them. The impossible closeness of even low-grade interface, reminding you of ancient days, before deeper understanding made clear the potential dangers. Even the simple, indescribable privilege of the trust of those under your command, paired to the driving burden to be worthy of it.
There was no direct gap in memory, no vast elapse of simulation to cover the millions of years lost to stasis, but you still felt it. A gaping absence, easily missed until circumstances brought it to mind.
What you had certainly not missed, though, were meetings like this one. Where the burden of leadership collided with political demand.
"But surely you can understand our concerns, High Fleetleader?" The veil of the speaker was artistry and grace, pure politeness. And the worst part? It was even true. There were no hidden twists to the form, something long experience would have shown you.
A pawn, perhaps? That, again, you had not missed. Yours had not been a truly fractious people, but divisions had been present as long as you could remember. And with those divisions, inevitably, came the games of politics.
"I understand entirely, Honoured Member," you replied, tempering your physical reaction to simple respect: that due a member of the Authority. "But the strategic situation facing our people today is too complex for me to consider a different course of action."
The Member's veil shifted, deferring the point, yet not to you. Instead, they passed the question back to the head of the virtual delegation. That Member's veil was tighter in its angles, lines of unease cutting the gentler curves that promised trust. It shifted as they recognised the deferment, anxiousness sharpening towards jagged concern.
"To the nature of the situation, that we surely agree," they said. A limb lifted, manipulators shifting and extending, directing attention towards the display that you'd laid out for the delegation.
"There is a reason that we turned to you in this moment, High Fleetleader. That we could." The pause there between the sentences was almost small enough to ignore. Its meanings were not. "But this plan you have given us, its focus will surely concern the Authority."
Said plan floated in the air between you, marked out across a sharply rendered image of the galaxy in miniature. Fleet markers and command node locations had been shifted into the pattern of a vast sphere. Many were drawn from the galaxy's outer reaches, some from postings almost as ancient as you. Jump paths brought them together, tracing a way back to the security of home ground. And yet, even a civilian eye would surely see the ragged gaps torn in the net that had once been laid to master the entire galaxy.
You were still struggling with what it said about your people for that to be a primary goal. Kicha's visit had helped lay out the new reality, but understanding the trail that had been walked to get there, that was much harder. And more than a small part of you just didn't want to.
"Of course it will," you replied, tone giving no indication of your heavy thoughts. You reached out with your implants, and points of light flared, spreading out to trace the lines of known territories. What you would have given for intelligence this complete when formulating your last war plan.
"The situation we face here is deeply troubling, Honoured Members, on that we agree." You fixed the leader of the delegation, use-name Ririm, with the core of your attention. "But the scale of it, in immediate terms, is far worse than I fear you understand."
"We're all CentCom cleared, High Fleetleader," Ririm replied coolly. Which was true. They had clearance to access all the same data that you did. However-
"There is a difference between reading briefs and applying them to our strategic situation, Honoured Member," you pointed out diffidently. Humour fluttered in the lines of your veil a moment. "If it was truly so simple, you would hardly need someone like me."
Ririm shifted their veil in a motion of grudging agreement, but said nothing for the moment. You let the silence hold for a moment before continuing, emphasising your point. On the display, the territory markers of the various identified belligerents finished forming. They formed an incomplete and rather lopsided ring around your people's space at the galactic core, and you felt the collective response to it from the delegates.
"It's different to see, isn't it." It really wasn't a question. Imagery had always had a way that words lacked. "And remember, we know that several of the powers noted here have fleet bases beyond their borders. Bases that they have been using to attack our galactic communications network."
Less than half a cycle ago, the lines that spread out across the map would have been coloured in gentle blues, forming a vast webwork of interconnected comm stations and transfer nodes. Today that carefully balanced web was ripped and torn. The further from your home territories one got, the worse it became.
"I cannot, in good conscience, maintain our deep range presence in the face of this. Not when it could leave significant portions of the active Fleet severed from central command, and therefore unable to effectively contribute to the war."
"Surely that's a little exaggerated, High Fleetleader," Ririm's reply seemed concerned, but there was a twisting undertone to the set of their veil. One that you only noticed from the benefit of long experience. They didn't like what you were showing them. "The GalCom net was designed with multiple levels of redundancies, even with the damage sustained so far-"
"We began to lose tertiary nodes over a week ago, Member Ririm." You did, perhaps, take a little pleasure in the interruption. If not its content, which was grim. "It's especially bad in the rimward sectors, where the destruction of mid-core relays has restricted transmission paths. And if it continues, we're going to lose contact with more of our deep range anchorages within days."
"It's certainly a problem," Ririm accepted, a little more respectfully this time. "But even with that damage, and the losses of the two fleet bases closest to the Human home star, the reports have made it clear that we hold a definitive advantage."
"But it's not just those losses, Honoured Member," you sighed. "And whilst you're correct on the matter of hull counts, we need to bring enough of the active Fleet together to actually leverage that advantage. Our smaller bases and detachments remain vulnerable to assault, as the past months clearly show."
"Which is why you want to pull back to the old Spheric lines," another Member said, motions gently inquiring to match her tone.
"The lines themselves will be further out, to take into account expansion since the War of the Sphere. But essentially, yes." The current situation made you very thankful that your people had held to the ancient colonisation lines. Having to deal with colonies scattered all across the galaxy would have been simply impossible.
"Retreating to a fortress configuration will secure our borders and protect our territory from potential raids whilst we bring the Reserve back into service. After that, we can address our enemies more clearly."
"Which will take a full cycle by current estimates," Ririm grumbled.
"Closer to two-thirds of one, assuming the Authority is willing to support the industrial reactivation sections of this plan." The amount of currently dormant infrastructure in the core territories had been a little shocking at first. But then you'd realised that, after the abortive war with the Teel, your people had had little need of it all. So it had been mothballed, just like the Reserve after victory over the Sphere.
"It will also provide Central Intelligence with the time to build a better picture of what we're facing." You flicked several fingers, bringing up the predicted position of intelligence assets currently in motion. "Once we have more immediate assessments, I can produce a properly informed plan on how to deploy the first wave of the Reserve."
Your attention lingered for a moment on the furthest out of those assets, dispatched weeks before you'd been awakened. You had a feeling that Eyes the Sun was in for a very interesting mission.
"Or we could dispatch a force from the coreward Fleets to assault one of the nearer rebellious polities, crush their defences, and extract any information we need directly." Ririm said bullishly. Veils shifted in subtle agreement with their words, the Member's own extending jagged marks of frustration. "Retreat the deep range fleets if you must. But we could have the truth of this within the cycle, instead of ceding strategic initiative.
"The humans have some ability to challenge our War Fleets when on the defence, but we've seen no sign of that from any of the rest. Better to deal with them before that knowledge can spread." Ririm's veil adjusted further, a warping line very close to scorn scything across it.
"When we asked you to assemble a plan for this war, High Fleetleader, your orders were to deploy our fleets as required to resolve this crisis." A pause, and those lines solidified, casting doubt across every aspect of what you had offered. "So why do you not seek to crush these threats to our people, and swiftly? That is the purpose of the Fleet, is it not?"
Kicha had warned you to be prepared for this reaction. She'd told you how much had changed, how the nature of your people had turned so completely from what you'd remembered. But to actually hear those words from a member of the Authority…
"The purpose of the Fleet?" you asked, words entirely precise. Anyone who'd known you would have recognised the tone, and the utter calm suffusing your veil. Alas for them, but none in this delegation did.
"Yes." Ririm's answer came swiftly, building on their already present tempo. So quick to do so, but then that was expected. Their allegiance in the Authority was to those who truly supported the Tribute Fleet doctrine, and the meanings implicit in making them head of this delegation had never been subtle.
"These younger powers have struck against a system that has protected the galaxy for millennia. That has kept us safe, and the galaxy safe." It was clear in every line the reality of their opinion on those polities. Ririm had said younger, yes, but they'd meant primitive. "And not just one power, alone. But six. Six, High Fleetleader. Such actions cannot be allowed to stand, to threaten all that we've built."
You made an appearance of considering those words, swallowing down the harsh, angry language that you wished you could indulge in. If Kicha hadn't warned you, you might have done so. But she had, and that had given you time to plan for this moment.
So instead you set yourself, and spoke calmly. "You're quite correct, Member Ririm. A coreward Fleet detachment could be sent out to Confederacy or Luminary space. But dispatching that much strength, before the Reserve can be activated, would leave us vulnerable to raids from the Nileans, Sarthee, or even Humanity."
Unrest rustled across the room at the last name, the source of so many impossible woes. Their creation of an Orrery system had been bad enough at their age. But now, human fleets were flitting at unthinkable speed across the rimward sectors, striking down your people's presence there with terrifying precision.
Their part in this war was most critical; you'd have believed that even before your conversation with Kicha. With what the Hearthguard's Warden, your old friend, had told you though? That importance only increased. Just not quite in the way the Authority would have expected, or that you could admit.
"The purpose of the Fleet is not to strike out at our enemies," you said, still speaking calmly. "To do so would be to abandon the very reason that saw it founded. A reason written into its founding charter, Honoured Members. The first duty of the Fleet is the protection of our people."
"Removing the threat would protect us." Ririm didn't sneer. That would have been beneath their dignity. And instead of lashing back, you shaped your veil into the deliberate, canted lines of formal acceptance and sorrow.
"Perhaps so," you conceded. "But that isn't what the line means."
For a moment, you saw reason grapple with the frustration of a zealot, and let yourself hope. Today, that hope failed. Ririm squared their lines, sharpening posture to demand compliance without speaking a word. And let themselves forget.
"How could you possibly know that, High Fleetleader?" they asked. And a small, small smile shaped the lines at your core as you gathered your reply.
"Because I wrote it."
The silence that followed was deafening, and you took full advantage of it, compressing your war plan for transmission.
"Present this to your colleagues, Honoured Members," you said, taking in your entire audience. And ignoring the sputtering Ririm. "Show them this meeting. And make sure they understand that if I will not deny the most sacred principle of the Fleet's creation in the conflict ahead of us."
"Regardless of your orders?" the quieter Member, the one who'd spoken in your defence, asked.
"There are orders, Member Kyian," you said gravely. "And there are orders. It is up to us all to decide which are true."
"Decisions can have consequences, High Fleetleader," she warned. Other members presented their own opinions in the silent, bristling motions of their veils. "Your support in the Authority is not unlimited. If sufficient Members begin to question this plan…"
She trailed off, leaving the implication unsaid. Ririm, certainly, would waste no time in pursuing that outcome. It wouldn't happen fast, as nothing in politics did. But with enough time, anything was possible. The current existence of your people was proof of that.
"That shall be the Authority's choice." It was a professional's answer. The right one. But it wasn't everything you had to say, either. "I simply ask that you consider the future composition of the Fleet when making it."
It was as close as you would come to a far more dangerous statement. Crewing the Reserve was going to rely almost entirely on the crews that had fought in the War of the Sphere. People who'd gone into Storage to escape the horrors of that war's victory. Who believed in your people's more ancient truth, now seemingly forgotten. And for whom you were the only High Fleetleader most had ever known.
Decisions, as Kyian had just said, had consequences. You just prayed that the Authority could recognise that. And, perhaps, remember what had happened the last time they'd pushed the Fleet too far.
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
A little later than I'd planned, but much improved thanks to the aid of my betas. Thank you again, both of you, you help make this story so much better. Really hope people enjoy this closer viewport into some of current Shiplord affairs, and a glimpse of their current military planning.
I'll start work on the next update this evening or sometime tomorrow. Hope to have it with you midweek at the latest. Not made any rolls yet, but I fully expect them to be...interesting.
I'll start work on the next update this evening or sometime tomorrow. Hope to have it with you midweek at the latest. Not made any rolls yet, but I fully expect them to be...interesting.
- Location
- Florida
Ooooh I love the subtle shots being fired.
- Location
- San Ramon, CA
It feels like Taldor is deliberately buying time for Humanity (and the other 'rebellious' species) by pulling back and fortifying, in the hopes that Amanda and her crew will find a better way to preserve the galaxy. Hopefully his efforts will not be in vain, and there won't be some blaring alarm that intruders have invaded the Consolat home system.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
It's the correct course of action militarily, but he is also definitely hoping humanity comes through.
If they did send a war fleet to crush one of the polities they would discover that humanity somehow started handing out orrey cores like candy.
Vortex279
Changer of Fate, Seeker of Donuts
- Location
- Del Rio, Texas
Do you mean by that single reference to Kisha? I almost misjudged it there. The fact that the man who set the shiplord fleet doctrine for main and war fleets gives me quite the puzzler.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
I would suggest going back to have a look at the To Uncertain Present interlude.