This will be a wild ride
–
AN: Hi everyone. So I've been in this site for a few years and now...
–
AN: Hi everyone. So I've been in this site for a few years and now...
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Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
This will be a wild ride (PA/Multicross)
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Chapter 0.1 – Beginning
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
This will be a wild ride
–
AN: Hi everyone. So I've been in this site for a few years and now I decided to try my hand at writing. Decided to go the "safe" rout: a Planetary Annihilation story, mainly inspired by works such as Playing Fair and Rise of the Steel Phoenix. Fair warning I'm not a writer by trade and English is not my first language and I can't play PA myself, so expect mistakes and delays. I will try to update as fast as possible but expect delays. Productive criticism is appreciated.
[]
Chapter 0.1
Clip
This is the first thing greeting my consciousness. Afterward, everything else is like digital interface and heads-up display hybrid with augmented reality like an overlay on too high-quality visuals. Then comes shock, panic, fear, disbelief and more shock.
I know that "introduction", seen it enough time in youtube to understand its meaning. When I finally see what's around me, a snowy field, I practically froze. I have read enough fanfic about Commanders but IT CAN'T BE REAL! LIFE IS NOT SOME FANTASY!!! WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!
- - - - - - - - -
Ok. After…. chronometer says 33 minutes and 24 seconds since activation, so nearly as long panic attack, I, kinda, calmed down. No, not calmed down, just mellowed slightly. Allot of stories make it sound easy, the sudden "Tomato in the Mirror" moment is just a few seconds and then all is "fine and dandy" - it's not.
I remember myself as human, remember the touch, sound, sight and even my thoughts being different. That difference is still jarring, I won't get used to it for quite some time. Everything feels alien and yet familiar and that is scary. Logically that familiarity implies some nasty things about my existence i.e. I was never human, but my memories and … feelings make me think otherwise. No stop, keep those existential fear (Was I ever human? Was I just a simulation living in a simulated world like Elon Musk said? Or was my mind uploaded when I slept? Born in it? Copy of the original? Gods exist and some are dicks? ROBs? SOMETHING?!) for later, dad always said need to be calm in extreme situations. Think of the positive.
Well, at least one good thing about being a twelve-meter tall deathbot is that cold does little to affect my … chassis. Gives enough time to understand how to move, or really do anything substantial in this body besides attempting to read hud info. It feels wrong, and stiff and like it always been like that..
Ok screw moving, I need some information, where's 'help' when you need one.. huh, readout's changed: 'settings', 'units', 'command', 'communications', 'status', 'self-diagnosis' and more, useful, but later, Ah, found it.
I'm an Osiris Commander, a four-legged vaguely insect-like mech, so not even humanoid, awesome! Sensors are online and optimal. Primary generator offline [repairs needed], secondary generator offline [repairs needed], reserve (experimental?) generator offline [repairs needed], primary reserve energy storage at 30%, secondary one at 97%. Power is above the red line, but better fix that, material resources- holy, that's a long list! Hundreds of different materials, components, alloy and more for construction. So no simplified "energy – metal" system? Besides the point! Ah, condition.
It shows physically minor, superficial damage remaining, after emergency repairs? What? And is that-. Dievs žēlīgs, something managed to damage Osiris' core, force-deactivating it! And it was in emergency repair-mode for nearly 1300 yea-r-s. N-no, no thinking a-about that, just find kā kustētities šajā draņķī!…
Was that mental dissonance? NO, no priories, moveme- *thug* . O-ow, ran into a tree. So movement is.. almost intuitive, like human body, despite the non-humanoid design. I can somewhat move now, and other systems are "green", what now? … Build a Metal Extractor? Eff that!
I'm NOT mentally sound to do that! Not in some random tundra near a mountain. And SOMEHOW my human needs to find shelter, reminded me that I slowed down, am still in a snowy field, with few trees scattered around and a mountain in front, completely EXPOSED (am I insane?). Speaking of that mountain, there's a cave, possibly big enough to house .. me. Labi, trek towards the cave. Wow so many tracks, feeling kinda embarrassed. That must have been a sight: Commander running like a headless chicken, not even straight. So what MENTAL problems do I have?! *thoooo* huh?
[
Quick Software Analysis complete:
-Quantum Computers 1-to-5: online
--Q1: green
--Q2: green
--Q3: green
--Q4: green
--Q5: green
-E-Warfare: 100%
-Unit databas: 100%
-Archive data: 60% {40% data lost}
--Memory archive 1: {information available}
--Memory archive 2: {all non-critical information lost}
--Memory archive 3: {non-critical information corrupted}
--Memory archive 4: {information available}
->PrimaryCore 1-to-10: ERROR {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
->SecondaryCore 1-to-10: ERROR {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
-->AdditionalCore: ERROR {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
Initializing Deep Software Analysis and Debugging
WARNING
Deep Software Analysis and Debugging requires significant energy and time investment
Start process: Y/N
]
Apparently tons. My situation is not good enough, when I have some Generators, Extractors, and Storages I'll do it ASAP, but right now it's a dead-sentence, no for now put it on ice. I will need to fix my Osiris body, can't always rely on an external power source and … I need a distraction.
OK, a plan. Uhh, I think the 1st thing is to understand my capabilities: find out what *I* can do and not, since energy and metal resources are not like in the game, the only "real" reference I have. Then again PA is(was?) a spiritual successor of Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, should dig up what remember of them just in case?
2nd what's my situation: where am I, when am I, what resources I have, technology, information, specific location, threats, etc. cause nothing is ever this peaceful for long.
3rd analyze mental state: I STILL don't want to accept this as reality.
4th get a long term solution/plan.
5th find people to talk to. Isolation and loneliness can have (MORE) negative effect on anyone's (my) psyche.
6th…
Uh, I'm not that good at planning long term. Just keep it flexible yet simple.
Fine, hurry up get into the cave, hide and then thing up guidelines to follow. Maybe then I could actually calm down and think what is what. .. And I have a program that records some of my actions into an abbreviated after-action report, cause why not.
No matter what happens This will be a wild ride.
___________________________________________
AN: So this is the beginning of the story. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Comment below.
Last edited:
Possible Universes
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
Last edited:
Chapter 0.2
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
–
AN: This chapter will contain some quasi-relevant exposition, but don't worry the classic PA actions will start in the next chapter. Without further ado:
[]
Chapter 0.2
After a whole hour of walking and another half-hour of just standing and looking at HUD, I finally calmed down. Asking existential questions, or blaming some random non-corporeal entity, aka ROB, is pointless without more "solid" information. Real situation might be more different than the wildest imagination, in short I need more data.
And as it turns out some data is available in the corrupted archives. Those can be fixed, but to do that I need time and stabile energy income. Yet before I do anything about those lets deduce what's real, what's not and how to do all that, I mean it's not a fanfic where you master it in a snap and can build stuff in seconds, reality matters damnit!
So for the foreseeable future looking through what I have, and CAN do is a priority. Primary reserve energy storage, P-RES for short, is at 25%, and second one is almost full as well. Reading up about Commander mind and comparing to what I feel/see(?) to get a grasp of what's what is a start, alongside Extractors, and Generators in parallel with deducing my location, especially considering this is a habitable world a relative rarity by human 21st century science and data-points in the Archives.. wait, how do I know that?
- - - - - - - - -
Well, dis-a-thing. From what I understood in my impromptu relative 8 hour "learning" spree, Commanders have a central processing hardware (5 networked "mini" room-temperature quantum supercomputers with mind-boggling specs) that contains hundreds high-level, yet specialised (non-sentient) AI Programmes arranged into some kind of neural net. And they're arranged in different "levels" and runtime priorities, like human conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind. Really it reminds me of a brain with one difference: human brains don't have a centralised command core. If anything nothing I remember of my "human" studies indicate that the brain has something that controls other functions, which is the "Core" of a Commander.
And that's just for a normal Commander. My case is WAY different.
So standard Commanders have Centralised Control Core that control other systems and Commanders physical activities. It's heavily centralised. As in this Core is the Keystone – without it, Commander is just hunk of weirdly shaped metal.
For me? *I* am the Centralised Control Core. Like not the conscious part that I identified as, but the whole me: memories, subconscious and unconscious, aka whole brain in digital format.
So why did I fumble and How am I even capable of processing all this? Short answer: subconscious and unconscious mind. A lot of Commanders AI "mind" is similar to human mind, and thus some emergency system for lack of better terms "fused" Commanders sub-AIs with part of my mind (I'm no longer human). That fusion caused some massive changes.
UNLIKE Commander CCC I don't directly "control" all these sub-processes, they are partially affected by my non-conscious mind. I both directly am and am not those, know and don't know all info that's here. Human brain adaptability and in-build adaptive systems "fill in the blanks", ensuring that I'm functional and get more familiar to all this, but it's crude so these AIs now have semi-independence: they don't need my direct supervision, but they are affected by my subconsciousness. Yeah, don't understand HOW that works, besides that it does.
That's the reason for my gradually growing understanding and familiarity of these systems. Weirdest part: only halfway through I noticed that I understood how to read and was "reading" multiple threads at the same time. It's slowly sinking in: I'm no longer human (I'm no longer human), sasodīts.
Well the good thing from all that: I now can build any unit in my database. Bad thing: no hack.
True, Progenitor nanites can build units quickly, but it's still like an hour for a single Metal Extractor and 2 some hours for Energy generator. Quantum computers allows multitasking, but depending on number of action not infinite multitasking. It is possible to "overclock" systems to increase reaction-time, including bullet-time, but costs more energy and might damage systems. Hacking is possible only when digital systems are similar, and sure an interface system can be made to interact with other non-Progenitor tech, but it's not instant. Cyberwarfare is also a thing judging by number of dedicated AIs with non-insignificant chance of me getting hacked (note to self: Improve cyber defences, fast). Reverse engineering tech requires time EVEN if tech is comparable. True there is that Quantum Resource Network that transports matter and energy between units (but not modify it in transit). Out of everything this looks like magic, BUT has limited "bandwidth". Aka only matter transportation, so I need to make that material before it's converted and send through QRN. Energy is bit more lenient: no braking conservation of energy. Can't tell about efficiency though, no real reference point.
I DO have an "Resource Core" but it's functions are not clear and it's labeled as "AdditionalCore" which, yeah. Not now.
So after 2 hours (real time) familiarisation let's do a Commander thing and build economy… God heaven't played RTS in forever.
- - - - - - - - -
Ok, 17 hour in and I have small base: 8 Basic Energy Plants - fusion plants that use QRN stored Hydrogen to start ignition, then continuing the reaction up to heavy element Iron creating "sun in a bottle" (fusion power is real! NOT "20 years" away!), 6 Metal Extractors in somewhat optimal position for material extraction (they also act as manufacturing units, producing some necessary materials that are "fed" into QRN), one Metal and one Energy Storage Facility (to be somewhat efficient) and single Bot Factory with few bots for additional help.
At first I was worried what will happen, I mean in game all units and structures are part of a single Commander, how would that translate here? Would it distill me across units? As far as I can guess I'm a unique case of upload into Commander, there might be problems. True Total Annihilation had uploads: all it did was make you a "soulless killing machine", but I don't feel like that (and hopefully never will) so that's out.
Luckily fear was unfounded, yes, it was strange, but not deliberating.
First ting I build was an Energy Plant (because energy is my lifeline no energy = dead). I could access its sensor readouts (game equivalent to vision) and regulate some of it's functions, but it was automated.
As it turned out all structures and units have in-build computer that automates processes decreasing Commanders direct control, but are inactive (or outright "dead") if there are no Commander oversight or very specific situations. Meaning once, say a Dox, is build the only thing Commander does is gives general orders (move to this location, fire at the enemy, patrol designated rout, etc.), unit itself calculates how it fulfils the objective. In addition some structures like Factories have additional quantum-computers that increase Commanders "unit cap".
Turns out there's a reason for that: everything is centralised. To ridiculous degree. Just as those interconnected pseudo-AIs, every unit, every structure, every nanite is connected to the Commander. Units and structures can't be hacked. Period. Only point of vulnerability: Commander. And everything that's not a Commander (practically) is expandable. Another point for the theory that Progenitors were not humans, such centralisation is unhealthy. Moving on.
It turns out E-Plants and M-Extractors production were set on "redline" aka it worked as fast as it could, and while it "produced more" it also caused some inefficiency: some 15-20% materials and energy was wasted (damaged materials, waste heat, etc.). True overall it produced 30% more than optimised solutions and for combat that's what's important, but I'm not in combat. Had to fumble with economy structure settings, though in the end I managed to decreased production speed to "civilian speeds" not emergency levels.
And those Fabricators? Those Fabrication Bots are godsend, building speed increased almost exponentially, in battle I could drown potential enemies in waves of machines in hours if I don't take things slow. No wonder Commanders are called "brutally efficient self-replicating mechanism of war".
Now that I have stable economy I decided to check what I need to fix my Osiris frame, because my P-RES was 1% when I finished the 1st E-Plant. Sincerely doubt that commanders are suppose to lose energy THAT quickly. Luckily all I need is basic Bot Factory to "realign" Osiris' personal energy storage units, and refill secondary generator that turn out to be a fission plant (.. I'm a walking nuclear station.. shaize). Primary generator (a fusion plant.. wow) will require Advanced Bot Factory due to specific designs that are too complex and delicate for basic factories to build, but that can wait, let's fix what I can.
So without further delay I stepped on the Factory and let the internal AIs to do their job.
And that's when Murphy (laipni lūgts !) decided to knock: there was an explosion and moments later my seismic sensors detected a crash. Something fell, something .. big.
___________________________________________
AN: This chapter will contain some quasi-relevant exposition, but don't worry the classic PA actions will start in the next chapter. Without further ado:
[]
Chapter 0.2
After a whole hour of walking and another half-hour of just standing and looking at HUD, I finally calmed down. Asking existential questions, or blaming some random non-corporeal entity, aka ROB, is pointless without more "solid" information. Real situation might be more different than the wildest imagination, in short I need more data.
And as it turns out some data is available in the corrupted archives. Those can be fixed, but to do that I need time and stabile energy income. Yet before I do anything about those lets deduce what's real, what's not and how to do all that, I mean it's not a fanfic where you master it in a snap and can build stuff in seconds, reality matters damnit!
So for the foreseeable future looking through what I have, and CAN do is a priority. Primary reserve energy storage, P-RES for short, is at 25%, and second one is almost full as well. Reading up about Commander mind and comparing to what I feel/see(?) to get a grasp of what's what is a start, alongside Extractors, and Generators in parallel with deducing my location, especially considering this is a habitable world a relative rarity by human 21st century science and data-points in the Archives.. wait, how do I know that?
- - - - - - - - -
Well, dis-a-thing. From what I understood in my impromptu relative 8 hour "learning" spree, Commanders have a central processing hardware (5 networked "mini" room-temperature quantum supercomputers with mind-boggling specs) that contains hundreds high-level, yet specialised (non-sentient) AI Programmes arranged into some kind of neural net. And they're arranged in different "levels" and runtime priorities, like human conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind. Really it reminds me of a brain with one difference: human brains don't have a centralised command core. If anything nothing I remember of my "human" studies indicate that the brain has something that controls other functions, which is the "Core" of a Commander.
And that's just for a normal Commander. My case is WAY different.
So standard Commanders have Centralised Control Core that control other systems and Commanders physical activities. It's heavily centralised. As in this Core is the Keystone – without it, Commander is just hunk of weirdly shaped metal.
For me? *I* am the Centralised Control Core. Like not the conscious part that I identified as, but the whole me: memories, subconscious and unconscious, aka whole brain in digital format.
So why did I fumble and How am I even capable of processing all this? Short answer: subconscious and unconscious mind. A lot of Commanders AI "mind" is similar to human mind, and thus some emergency system for lack of better terms "fused" Commanders sub-AIs with part of my mind (I'm no longer human). That fusion caused some massive changes.
UNLIKE Commander CCC I don't directly "control" all these sub-processes, they are partially affected by my non-conscious mind. I both directly am and am not those, know and don't know all info that's here. Human brain adaptability and in-build adaptive systems "fill in the blanks", ensuring that I'm functional and get more familiar to all this, but it's crude so these AIs now have semi-independence: they don't need my direct supervision, but they are affected by my subconsciousness. Yeah, don't understand HOW that works, besides that it does.
That's the reason for my gradually growing understanding and familiarity of these systems. Weirdest part: only halfway through I noticed that I understood how to read and was "reading" multiple threads at the same time. It's slowly sinking in: I'm no longer human (I'm no longer human), sasodīts.
Well the good thing from all that: I now can build any unit in my database. Bad thing: no hack.
True, Progenitor nanites can build units quickly, but it's still like an hour for a single Metal Extractor and 2 some hours for Energy generator. Quantum computers allows multitasking, but depending on number of action not infinite multitasking. It is possible to "overclock" systems to increase reaction-time, including bullet-time, but costs more energy and might damage systems. Hacking is possible only when digital systems are similar, and sure an interface system can be made to interact with other non-Progenitor tech, but it's not instant. Cyberwarfare is also a thing judging by number of dedicated AIs with non-insignificant chance of me getting hacked (note to self: Improve cyber defences, fast). Reverse engineering tech requires time EVEN if tech is comparable. True there is that Quantum Resource Network that transports matter and energy between units (but not modify it in transit). Out of everything this looks like magic, BUT has limited "bandwidth". Aka only matter transportation, so I need to make that material before it's converted and send through QRN. Energy is bit more lenient: no braking conservation of energy. Can't tell about efficiency though, no real reference point.
I DO have an "Resource Core" but it's functions are not clear and it's labeled as "AdditionalCore" which, yeah. Not now.
So after 2 hours (real time) familiarisation let's do a Commander thing and build economy… God heaven't played RTS in forever.
- - - - - - - - -
Ok, 17 hour in and I have small base: 8 Basic Energy Plants - fusion plants that use QRN stored Hydrogen to start ignition, then continuing the reaction up to heavy element Iron creating "sun in a bottle" (fusion power is real! NOT "20 years" away!), 6 Metal Extractors in somewhat optimal position for material extraction (they also act as manufacturing units, producing some necessary materials that are "fed" into QRN), one Metal and one Energy Storage Facility (to be somewhat efficient) and single Bot Factory with few bots for additional help.
At first I was worried what will happen, I mean in game all units and structures are part of a single Commander, how would that translate here? Would it distill me across units? As far as I can guess I'm a unique case of upload into Commander, there might be problems. True Total Annihilation had uploads: all it did was make you a "soulless killing machine", but I don't feel like that (and hopefully never will) so that's out.
Luckily fear was unfounded, yes, it was strange, but not deliberating.
First ting I build was an Energy Plant (because energy is my lifeline no energy = dead). I could access its sensor readouts (game equivalent to vision) and regulate some of it's functions, but it was automated.
As it turned out all structures and units have in-build computer that automates processes decreasing Commanders direct control, but are inactive (or outright "dead") if there are no Commander oversight or very specific situations. Meaning once, say a Dox, is build the only thing Commander does is gives general orders (move to this location, fire at the enemy, patrol designated rout, etc.), unit itself calculates how it fulfils the objective. In addition some structures like Factories have additional quantum-computers that increase Commanders "unit cap".
Turns out there's a reason for that: everything is centralised. To ridiculous degree. Just as those interconnected pseudo-AIs, every unit, every structure, every nanite is connected to the Commander. Units and structures can't be hacked. Period. Only point of vulnerability: Commander. And everything that's not a Commander (practically) is expandable. Another point for the theory that Progenitors were not humans, such centralisation is unhealthy. Moving on.
It turns out E-Plants and M-Extractors production were set on "redline" aka it worked as fast as it could, and while it "produced more" it also caused some inefficiency: some 15-20% materials and energy was wasted (damaged materials, waste heat, etc.). True overall it produced 30% more than optimised solutions and for combat that's what's important, but I'm not in combat. Had to fumble with economy structure settings, though in the end I managed to decreased production speed to "civilian speeds" not emergency levels.
And those Fabricators? Those Fabrication Bots are godsend, building speed increased almost exponentially, in battle I could drown potential enemies in waves of machines in hours if I don't take things slow. No wonder Commanders are called "brutally efficient self-replicating mechanism of war".
Now that I have stable economy I decided to check what I need to fix my Osiris frame, because my P-RES was 1% when I finished the 1st E-Plant. Sincerely doubt that commanders are suppose to lose energy THAT quickly. Luckily all I need is basic Bot Factory to "realign" Osiris' personal energy storage units, and refill secondary generator that turn out to be a fission plant (.. I'm a walking nuclear station.. shaize). Primary generator (a fusion plant.. wow) will require Advanced Bot Factory due to specific designs that are too complex and delicate for basic factories to build, but that can wait, let's fix what I can.
So without further delay I stepped on the Factory and let the internal AIs to do their job.
And that's when Murphy (laipni lūgts !) decided to knock: there was an explosion and moments later my seismic sensors detected a crash. Something fell, something .. big.
___________________________________________
Chapter 1.1
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
-
AN: Thanks for the comments! Here's another part I'm satisfied with:
[]
Chapter 1.1
Something massive just landed some distance from my position. Something that my sensors, highly advanced alien sensors detected only AFTER it landed. My forces consist of some economy structures, one Basic Bot_Factory (build inside a cave to avoid winds and snow), 15 fabber bots and no defensive structures. To top it off the Osiris' chassis, my body, is in the middle of a long, delicate repair process that CAN'T BE INTERRUPTED without damaging it further!
So of course in the middle of this I discover a simulation program that's throwing out hundred's of simulations, from bad to worst, and different scenarios of my defeat, brīnišķīgi. Why do Commanders need an in build simulator anyway?! … Oh, for analysing possible tactics, success-fail ratios, and .. researching new tech, wha-? No! One problem at a time.
I know next to nothing: not where exactly it is, not whether it's a thread, possible ally, anomaly or what-have-you! There are no external signals that my systems can detect, so that route is out, and might not have worked at all. Heck I don't even know how to respond (no, standard Commander protocols don't count, really NO)! What I do know is that's not a natural occurrence. To fix that I need information. Need scouts. Judging by my storage I-, hmm.
Okey, 1st lets turn E-plants back to combat production and slow down my personal repair, ?I?'ll need to manage every ounce of resources here. Then direct all 15 fabricator bots some 40 meters outside the cave… Good enough, now to build an Air Factory. That should decrease build time to 15 minutes instead of 4 and some hours. Fun tip - with greater number of construction units they can automatically start building multiple things at the same time (i.e. one builds basic carcass, other builds internal gears, etc.). Will eat a lot out of my resources, but it should get me what I need: eyes in the sky, Firefly.
When the Air_Factory is ready, I'll direct three foruths of the fabricator bots to build more Metal Extractors in optimised position, maybe some Energy Plants; the rest will assist in building my scout plane, and later bombers and fighters (Air Fabricators will come later, when I feel safer). Just need to be ready in case I meet something hostiles.
- - - - - - - - -
20 minutes later my Firefly takes off. It's a rather thin plane, relatively small, light but fast. It has a weak laser as "defence armament" but I'm not putting my money on it not in this weather. The craft truly excels at scouting runs aka information gathering (aka what I need). I send it on a bit curved flight path that will take bit longer to reach the anomaly's crash/landing site. I purposely avoided straight line, because if it's a hostile, it's the same as showing them where to find me. I'm not a solider, but I'm not dumb, and won't take such risks when I don't have an army, can't fight back and survive.
It will approach the anomaly from North-East (judging by in-build compass its north of me). Firefly has strict orders to only find, observe, patrol around the anomaly, and notengage. Depending on what it observes in the next 30 minutes and 17 seconds, I'll decide how to react.
While Firefly follows its trajectory, the AirFactory and its 4 designated construction bots start their next orders, others are putting down M-extractors where they can. While the local geology is relatively rich with elements, there are no good places for large material income so all I have are below-optimal spots that can't yield enough in combat production speeds. I know that most of my world mining companies couldn't get even fraction of what I get from such places, but that doesn't change how stressful this is: only 2 more Metal-extractors near the caves entrance and other good spots are further away. Firefly might as well find what is that when I get those extractors.
Speaking of, production estimates show that I might get 2 Bumblebee bombers and 1 Hummingbird Fighter (they seriously called that? good grief), at the end will have some resources left, but energy will be fine. Important to add: my/Osiris' repairs at these speeds will be done in 14 day and 3 hours. Even at fastest repair speeds it would have taken 2 and a half days (with significant risk percentage of having new problems), so I'd been stuck either way. Didn't exactly plan on dealing with something unexpected: just wanted to start repairs, and slowly expand, while reading/learning accessible data.
I couldn't remain hidden forever and turtling up with defence structures would only give them initiative… 27 minutes and 5 seconds till contact. Nothing to do but wait.
- - - - - - - - -
Two additional M-extractors just came online, and my small airforce is ready to deploy. The closer Firefly got to the target, the more nervous yet focused I got. The moment of truth. Through Firefly's sensors I will "see" what caused this ruckus. Contact in 4, 3, 2, …
… That's a spaceship. Big spaceship. It is crashed, but even with that you can see just how massive it is, with somewhat complex shape with sloped front. In pieces. Neticami. What happened?
Wait, I know that from somewhere, but where? No, i-it can't… Overclock systems (open simulator). Put in Firefly data (tell AI to reconstruct the ship, NOW!). Erase not ship parts and environment (switch to wireframe configuration). Reattach broken pieces (pull up squished frame). Compare with (human memories)… Ma(tch).
…
(…)
..no.
(…)
(End overclocking).
3 seconds. It took me 3 real world seconds to confirm what I though: Battlestar. A severely damaged one.
It's a colonial ship from Battlestar Galactica. Ship crews by humans-s-s-s… Overriding Fireflys original orders and direct it as close as possible. It's not a pretty picture. Hull and superstructure sustained heavy damaged, multiple holes dot the once impressive armor, some kind of "exotic radiation" and "standard" radiation, and tons more, but not what I'm looking for! Please tell me I'm wrong, please tell me I'm wrong, please tell me I'm wrong, please tell me I'm wrong!
There, organic matter… blood and broken bones, liquified organs, muscles, nerves..
They're dead. They're all dead. Humans couldn't survive such a crash, I knew that, but… Oh, Dievs žēlīgais. They're all dead.
- - - - - - - - -
As it turns out I can still feel grief. I can still feel human emotions, I can still be overwhelmed by them.. to limited extend. I lack organic body and associated chemicals/processes to truly… Not important (not a biologist).
Thousands of sentient beings died. Were killed. Impact crater was immense, but smaller then it should be from orbital entry, Commander's programmes confirm that. And colonials are too smart (and paranoid) to miscalculate their FTL jump. This was either an emergency jump or sabotage. But..
It can wait. I stoped most of my units order, and took a moment of silence. Least I could do. Especially with what I have planned to do next.
___________________________________________
AN: As I said might be infrequent updates + I'll answer some comments at a later date. sorry
AN: Thanks for the comments! Here's another part I'm satisfied with:
[]
Chapter 1.1
Something massive just landed some distance from my position. Something that my sensors, highly advanced alien sensors detected only AFTER it landed. My forces consist of some economy structures, one Basic Bot_Factory (build inside a cave to avoid winds and snow), 15 fabber bots and no defensive structures. To top it off the Osiris' chassis, my body, is in the middle of a long, delicate repair process that CAN'T BE INTERRUPTED without damaging it further!
So of course in the middle of this I discover a simulation program that's throwing out hundred's of simulations, from bad to worst, and different scenarios of my defeat, brīnišķīgi. Why do Commanders need an in build simulator anyway?! … Oh, for analysing possible tactics, success-fail ratios, and .. researching new tech, wha-? No! One problem at a time.
I know next to nothing: not where exactly it is, not whether it's a thread, possible ally, anomaly or what-have-you! There are no external signals that my systems can detect, so that route is out, and might not have worked at all. Heck I don't even know how to respond (no, standard Commander protocols don't count, really NO)! What I do know is that's not a natural occurrence. To fix that I need information. Need scouts. Judging by my storage I-, hmm.
Okey, 1st lets turn E-plants back to combat production and slow down my personal repair, ?I?'ll need to manage every ounce of resources here. Then direct all 15 fabricator bots some 40 meters outside the cave… Good enough, now to build an Air Factory. That should decrease build time to 15 minutes instead of 4 and some hours. Fun tip - with greater number of construction units they can automatically start building multiple things at the same time (i.e. one builds basic carcass, other builds internal gears, etc.). Will eat a lot out of my resources, but it should get me what I need: eyes in the sky, Firefly.
When the Air_Factory is ready, I'll direct three foruths of the fabricator bots to build more Metal Extractors in optimised position, maybe some Energy Plants; the rest will assist in building my scout plane, and later bombers and fighters (Air Fabricators will come later, when I feel safer). Just need to be ready in case I meet something hostiles.
- - - - - - - - -
20 minutes later my Firefly takes off. It's a rather thin plane, relatively small, light but fast. It has a weak laser as "defence armament" but I'm not putting my money on it not in this weather. The craft truly excels at scouting runs aka information gathering (aka what I need). I send it on a bit curved flight path that will take bit longer to reach the anomaly's crash/landing site. I purposely avoided straight line, because if it's a hostile, it's the same as showing them where to find me. I'm not a solider, but I'm not dumb, and won't take such risks when I don't have an army, can't fight back and survive.
It will approach the anomaly from North-East (judging by in-build compass its north of me). Firefly has strict orders to only find, observe, patrol around the anomaly, and notengage. Depending on what it observes in the next 30 minutes and 17 seconds, I'll decide how to react.
While Firefly follows its trajectory, the AirFactory and its 4 designated construction bots start their next orders, others are putting down M-extractors where they can. While the local geology is relatively rich with elements, there are no good places for large material income so all I have are below-optimal spots that can't yield enough in combat production speeds. I know that most of my world mining companies couldn't get even fraction of what I get from such places, but that doesn't change how stressful this is: only 2 more Metal-extractors near the caves entrance and other good spots are further away. Firefly might as well find what is that when I get those extractors.
Speaking of, production estimates show that I might get 2 Bumblebee bombers and 1 Hummingbird Fighter (they seriously called that? good grief), at the end will have some resources left, but energy will be fine. Important to add: my/Osiris' repairs at these speeds will be done in 14 day and 3 hours. Even at fastest repair speeds it would have taken 2 and a half days (with significant risk percentage of having new problems), so I'd been stuck either way. Didn't exactly plan on dealing with something unexpected: just wanted to start repairs, and slowly expand, while reading/learning accessible data.
I couldn't remain hidden forever and turtling up with defence structures would only give them initiative… 27 minutes and 5 seconds till contact. Nothing to do but wait.
- - - - - - - - -
Two additional M-extractors just came online, and my small airforce is ready to deploy. The closer Firefly got to the target, the more nervous yet focused I got. The moment of truth. Through Firefly's sensors I will "see" what caused this ruckus. Contact in 4, 3, 2, …
… That's a spaceship. Big spaceship. It is crashed, but even with that you can see just how massive it is, with somewhat complex shape with sloped front. In pieces. Neticami. What happened?
Wait, I know that from somewhere, but where? No, i-it can't… Overclock systems (open simulator). Put in Firefly data (tell AI to reconstruct the ship, NOW!). Erase not ship parts and environment (switch to wireframe configuration). Reattach broken pieces (pull up squished frame). Compare with (human memories)… Ma(tch).
…
(…)
..no.
(…)
(End overclocking).
3 seconds. It took me 3 real world seconds to confirm what I though: Battlestar. A severely damaged one.
It's a colonial ship from Battlestar Galactica. Ship crews by humans-s-s-s… Overriding Fireflys original orders and direct it as close as possible. It's not a pretty picture. Hull and superstructure sustained heavy damaged, multiple holes dot the once impressive armor, some kind of "exotic radiation" and "standard" radiation, and tons more, but not what I'm looking for! Please tell me I'm wrong, please tell me I'm wrong, please tell me I'm wrong, please tell me I'm wrong!
There, organic matter… blood and broken bones, liquified organs, muscles, nerves..
They're dead. They're all dead. Humans couldn't survive such a crash, I knew that, but… Oh, Dievs žēlīgais. They're all dead.
- - - - - - - - -
As it turns out I can still feel grief. I can still feel human emotions, I can still be overwhelmed by them.. to limited extend. I lack organic body and associated chemicals/processes to truly… Not important (not a biologist).
Thousands of sentient beings died. Were killed. Impact crater was immense, but smaller then it should be from orbital entry, Commander's programmes confirm that. And colonials are too smart (and paranoid) to miscalculate their FTL jump. This was either an emergency jump or sabotage. But..
It can wait. I stoped most of my units order, and took a moment of silence. Least I could do. Especially with what I have planned to do next.
___________________________________________
AN: As I said might be infrequent updates + I'll answer some comments at a later date. sorry
Last edited:
Chapter 1.2
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
-
Sorry for the delay, I usually want to post when I have rechecked what I have written and have one chapter ahead.
This will still be a slow burn.
[]
Chapter 1.2
It took some time, but I managed to get enough pictures of colonial emblem to digitally recreate it. Then I spend "subjective" 9 hours (1.78 real world hours) looking through available archives for ways to recreate it physically. The moment one of my threads (still not used to that) found how to do that I got to work.
.. it was not easy. Took several tries (and sub-AIs reinterpreting and refining what I want correctly), but I managed to create a good 5 meter tall, half meter tick disk made out of gold (an "eternal metal".. that's cheaper than Progenitor alloy and more symbolic) with Colonial emblem on it.
The memorials has two purposes: honouring the dead and testing my capabilities (They were soldiers protecting their civilisation. From an outsider, this should be a good way to honour them).
While Commanders can, theoretically, build almost anything with their nanobots, they can't build them just like that. From what I gathered I suspect it's a Progenitor in-build limiter – they were build for war, they're efficient at war and that's it (again over specialisation). Commanders are not used for civilian project. Then how did I build something that should be "impossible"?
Combination of things: creative use of existing systems for tech analysis, my status as (non-progenitor) brain upload (or something like that) crating previously non-existent possibilities, and the AdditionalCore functions. It's functioning and affecting me, but I can't access its data due to errors and system analysis requirements. It all works in a roundabout way.
Suffice to say I had to improvise to get the results I wanted. Luckily a combination of simulation programme, analysis systems and (ouch)… my memories… allowed to create a new sub-programme that I'm tentatively calling "design software". Does what the title says: gives me the chance to design and test new units (so lucky that I have army of [slowly improving] AIs that streamline the process, otherwise it would take WAY more time). Now I can research, design, save and add new units to my Archives yay.
During all that I also supervised construction orders and actions. Bots put down additional M-Extractors and E-Plants, a group of Air Fabricators were build and send towards the Battlestar, another group started building additional factories, and my body repairs have been accelerated.
My situation was slowly improving, but the main concern is to find other colonial survivors. If my haunch about the time period is correct… No point in speculating, first I need to confirm my suspicions.
- - - - - - - - -
10 minutes later the 12 Air Fabricators notified me of them reaching the crashed Battlestar as instructed. Now starts the hard part. Setting other units on pre instructed tasks on cycle, I focused most of my awareness on the task ahead.
First using air-fab sensors (visual, electromagnetic, infrared, thermal, gravimetric, and more) and "few" nanites I carefully scanned the whole damaged Battlestar starting from pieces laying around it, small and big, moving slowly toward the ship. A lot of debris were just strong half-melted armor platings (proportionally weaker than progenitor alloys and much heavier), few internal structural ribbings, pieces of gun barrels, and some pieces were just cooled lumps of metal and their origin unidentifiable, the work. With that done, let's get to the ship itself.
God damn, 12 Colonies of Kobol could engineer. While no hexagonal (honeycomb) internal structure, their design could withstand absurd amount of stress. Need to run some tests, but a fully intact Battlestar might be even more durable than any of my space units.
And I'm only extrapolating from the surviving heavily damaged, slagged and broken carcass. That's saying something.
Engines and power generators are strange. Based on my knowledge of "Battlestar Galactica" and power generator videos I've watched the power plants are fusion generator (still cool!), with a twist: tylium. The fictional material that allows physics bending things to happen. Yes, I found that some fictional materials are real, least in this universe. There are only few drops of the yellow oil like liquid in storage tanks. Even with nanites scouring all up… All together enough for thorough analysis yet due to its complex atomic makeup and "volatility", there'll be little to nothing left afterwards (store for now, examine later). Without this "unobtainium" power plants are "nothing special". In fact, quick comparison with Progenitor fusion reactors (that are similar to tokamak reactors), indicate that it should be "low" power reactor (high-double digit kilojoules).
Same with engines. The sublight engines seem to be a type of fusion torch - it expels relatively small amount of reaction mass with disproportionally large acceleration. Again thanks to tylium. Judging by my unit data, Omegas, the 2nd largest spacefaring unit in my current arsenal, with its Progenitor-grade fusion engines while more "wasteful" than battlestar's has greater delta V (brute force for the win).
Strangely, Colonial gravity technology is in some ways more advanced than progenitor. I won't get too technical (mainly because I don't understand everything), but the gist is Progenitor gravity technology uses vortex gravitoelectromagnetism to create a directed "repulsive" gravity force (somehow). Colonials (and to extend Cylons) uses some pice of tech that effectively converts magnetic fields into "gravity" (… that's not how science works!!.. or is [my] humanity just that far behind? depressing). Odd as it may be that's not what I am looking for.
Aha, and there's the masterpiece: Faster-Than-Light jump drive. It's in a bad shape. Many components are burned, containment plating breached, permanent magnets are dead, as in no longer capable of magnetic fields (didn't know that's even possible) and more. It's connected with some kind of "tylium energiser" that's… I only recognised it due to pipes leading from t-storage tanks to it. All that damage to both energiser and jump system, coupled with low amount of tylium left, colonials must have dumped all available fuel for this jump (point one to my theory).
Surprisingly I feel disappointed. Wanted a fully functional example to compare with what I know about (my) Earth's, theoretical Musha jump drive<1>. Do colonial FTL treats light speed limit as "sound barrier" and using quantum tunnelling effect like Musha drive? Idle mussing aside I need this jump drive because Commander FTL is a wormhole with strict mass limit – it can't send anything heavier than fully stocked Commander in a specialised transport pod. Colonial (and Cylon) jump drives could (possibly) bypass this limitation, allowing me to transport whole armies, without need to "start from scratch". When I get full schematics and at least some basic science for this, I'll see how to improve this.
Onto other matters: surprisingly there are fighters inside a surviving, half-collapsed flight pod. Well, there are some. It was eerily empty (another point to my theory). Most were crushed completely, identifiable only by some pieces, though one was in "repairable" condition.
Unfortunately that's when I stumbled into problems.
From series fans know that Colonial's used relatively "primitive" technology, mainly to decrease Cylon cyberattack effectiveness. To do so they strip away most wireless networking, requiring humans to physical interact with separate systems. Pain, but I already thought ways to circumvent that issue. Bigger problem is that most electronic devices and computers were eliminated, though some lucky ones survived, mainly in ships best defended section, the CIC. By lucky I mean "1 in-a-billion-chance lucky". And the bigger problem? No, not physical issue, I have enough samples of wiring, resistors, inducers, capacitors and other physical components to fix that in few minutes. No, the biggest issue is programming compatibility.
…Makes sense: on (my) Earth, technology that is slightly more than just 10 years old has high chance of being unusable by newer devices without upgrading their software or processors, CPU, Ram or other component. Right now I am an alien build warmachine and colonials are considered "never before encountered species".
I can sidestep physical problems by creating similar replicas from available materials but the software? Multiple sub-programmes are testing and building computer interface system. It'll take few minutes before my systems can (somewhat) interact with colonial tech, but it seems PA lore about Commanders being capable of assimilating any tech is not as far fetched as I originally feared.
While that's going on, I'll look what I can find out the old fashion way: reading letters. Turns out Colonial language and English are similar enough for me to read them plus I never paid attention before I found the battlestar, but Commanders also have linguistic programmes that ... have merged with my linguistic centres… (being so aware of your psyche is soooo wrong). Tālāk!!
Oh. Found the designation of this Battlestar: "BSG-38 Selena". … and it's the same Mercury-class as Pegasus. So it's around 1.8 kilometres (slightly longer than 1 mile) has in-build manufacturing units, better armor than Galactice, higher automation and has networking tech, considered top-of-the-line Colonial warship (thanks Spacedock). It's saying something about this classes quality, that Cylons felt better to install a back-door/virus in the software than to fight these ships directly (I've read fan speculations and seen the clips).
There are no way that crew of such vessel would make a FTL jump that crashes them. It's speculation with high-chance of success, but I think I'm close to the beginning of reimagined Battlestar: Galactica and this was one of the few Colonial ships that escaped complete destruction. Interesting fact: they never specified how many such ships were made, just that Pegasus was the last of it's kind…
Not as good as I hoped, not as bad as I feared. I can't save 12 Colonies of Kobol, they have already fallen, but I can help the exodus fleet. I also have no delusion that I can make things peach for them. Not everything I do will be for the best, I know that. All I can do is what I can to help them.
Though convincing technophobic civilisation that machine that makes their robotic creation look simple, is a good guy will be a challenge in and off itself! Not to mention…
One thing at a time. I have information to dissect, economy to build and a ship to fix… Hell let's get going.
___________________________________________
<1> - real thing published in 2016. Quick summary here
Sorry for the delay, I usually want to post when I have rechecked what I have written and have one chapter ahead.
This will still be a slow burn.
[]
Chapter 1.2
It took some time, but I managed to get enough pictures of colonial emblem to digitally recreate it. Then I spend "subjective" 9 hours (1.78 real world hours) looking through available archives for ways to recreate it physically. The moment one of my threads (still not used to that) found how to do that I got to work.
.. it was not easy. Took several tries (and sub-AIs reinterpreting and refining what I want correctly), but I managed to create a good 5 meter tall, half meter tick disk made out of gold (an "eternal metal".. that's cheaper than Progenitor alloy and more symbolic) with Colonial emblem on it.
The memorials has two purposes: honouring the dead and testing my capabilities (They were soldiers protecting their civilisation. From an outsider, this should be a good way to honour them).
While Commanders can, theoretically, build almost anything with their nanobots, they can't build them just like that. From what I gathered I suspect it's a Progenitor in-build limiter – they were build for war, they're efficient at war and that's it (again over specialisation). Commanders are not used for civilian project. Then how did I build something that should be "impossible"?
Combination of things: creative use of existing systems for tech analysis, my status as (non-progenitor) brain upload (or something like that) crating previously non-existent possibilities, and the AdditionalCore functions. It's functioning and affecting me, but I can't access its data due to errors and system analysis requirements. It all works in a roundabout way.
Suffice to say I had to improvise to get the results I wanted. Luckily a combination of simulation programme, analysis systems and (ouch)… my memories… allowed to create a new sub-programme that I'm tentatively calling "design software". Does what the title says: gives me the chance to design and test new units (so lucky that I have army of [slowly improving] AIs that streamline the process, otherwise it would take WAY more time). Now I can research, design, save and add new units to my Archives yay.
During all that I also supervised construction orders and actions. Bots put down additional M-Extractors and E-Plants, a group of Air Fabricators were build and send towards the Battlestar, another group started building additional factories, and my body repairs have been accelerated.
My situation was slowly improving, but the main concern is to find other colonial survivors. If my haunch about the time period is correct… No point in speculating, first I need to confirm my suspicions.
- - - - - - - - -
10 minutes later the 12 Air Fabricators notified me of them reaching the crashed Battlestar as instructed. Now starts the hard part. Setting other units on pre instructed tasks on cycle, I focused most of my awareness on the task ahead.
First using air-fab sensors (visual, electromagnetic, infrared, thermal, gravimetric, and more) and "few" nanites I carefully scanned the whole damaged Battlestar starting from pieces laying around it, small and big, moving slowly toward the ship. A lot of debris were just strong half-melted armor platings (proportionally weaker than progenitor alloys and much heavier), few internal structural ribbings, pieces of gun barrels, and some pieces were just cooled lumps of metal and their origin unidentifiable, the work. With that done, let's get to the ship itself.
God damn, 12 Colonies of Kobol could engineer. While no hexagonal (honeycomb) internal structure, their design could withstand absurd amount of stress. Need to run some tests, but a fully intact Battlestar might be even more durable than any of my space units.
And I'm only extrapolating from the surviving heavily damaged, slagged and broken carcass. That's saying something.
Engines and power generators are strange. Based on my knowledge of "Battlestar Galactica" and power generator videos I've watched the power plants are fusion generator (still cool!), with a twist: tylium. The fictional material that allows physics bending things to happen. Yes, I found that some fictional materials are real, least in this universe. There are only few drops of the yellow oil like liquid in storage tanks. Even with nanites scouring all up… All together enough for thorough analysis yet due to its complex atomic makeup and "volatility", there'll be little to nothing left afterwards (store for now, examine later). Without this "unobtainium" power plants are "nothing special". In fact, quick comparison with Progenitor fusion reactors (that are similar to tokamak reactors), indicate that it should be "low" power reactor (high-double digit kilojoules).
Same with engines. The sublight engines seem to be a type of fusion torch - it expels relatively small amount of reaction mass with disproportionally large acceleration. Again thanks to tylium. Judging by my unit data, Omegas, the 2nd largest spacefaring unit in my current arsenal, with its Progenitor-grade fusion engines while more "wasteful" than battlestar's has greater delta V (brute force for the win).
Strangely, Colonial gravity technology is in some ways more advanced than progenitor. I won't get too technical (mainly because I don't understand everything), but the gist is Progenitor gravity technology uses vortex gravitoelectromagnetism to create a directed "repulsive" gravity force (somehow). Colonials (and to extend Cylons) uses some pice of tech that effectively converts magnetic fields into "gravity" (… that's not how science works!!.. or is [my] humanity just that far behind? depressing). Odd as it may be that's not what I am looking for.
Aha, and there's the masterpiece: Faster-Than-Light jump drive. It's in a bad shape. Many components are burned, containment plating breached, permanent magnets are dead, as in no longer capable of magnetic fields (didn't know that's even possible) and more. It's connected with some kind of "tylium energiser" that's… I only recognised it due to pipes leading from t-storage tanks to it. All that damage to both energiser and jump system, coupled with low amount of tylium left, colonials must have dumped all available fuel for this jump (point one to my theory).
Surprisingly I feel disappointed. Wanted a fully functional example to compare with what I know about (my) Earth's, theoretical Musha jump drive<1>. Do colonial FTL treats light speed limit as "sound barrier" and using quantum tunnelling effect like Musha drive? Idle mussing aside I need this jump drive because Commander FTL is a wormhole with strict mass limit – it can't send anything heavier than fully stocked Commander in a specialised transport pod. Colonial (and Cylon) jump drives could (possibly) bypass this limitation, allowing me to transport whole armies, without need to "start from scratch". When I get full schematics and at least some basic science for this, I'll see how to improve this.
Onto other matters: surprisingly there are fighters inside a surviving, half-collapsed flight pod. Well, there are some. It was eerily empty (another point to my theory). Most were crushed completely, identifiable only by some pieces, though one was in "repairable" condition.
Unfortunately that's when I stumbled into problems.
From series fans know that Colonial's used relatively "primitive" technology, mainly to decrease Cylon cyberattack effectiveness. To do so they strip away most wireless networking, requiring humans to physical interact with separate systems. Pain, but I already thought ways to circumvent that issue. Bigger problem is that most electronic devices and computers were eliminated, though some lucky ones survived, mainly in ships best defended section, the CIC. By lucky I mean "1 in-a-billion-chance lucky". And the bigger problem? No, not physical issue, I have enough samples of wiring, resistors, inducers, capacitors and other physical components to fix that in few minutes. No, the biggest issue is programming compatibility.
…Makes sense: on (my) Earth, technology that is slightly more than just 10 years old has high chance of being unusable by newer devices without upgrading their software or processors, CPU, Ram or other component. Right now I am an alien build warmachine and colonials are considered "never before encountered species".
I can sidestep physical problems by creating similar replicas from available materials but the software? Multiple sub-programmes are testing and building computer interface system. It'll take few minutes before my systems can (somewhat) interact with colonial tech, but it seems PA lore about Commanders being capable of assimilating any tech is not as far fetched as I originally feared.
While that's going on, I'll look what I can find out the old fashion way: reading letters. Turns out Colonial language and English are similar enough for me to read them plus I never paid attention before I found the battlestar, but Commanders also have linguistic programmes that ... have merged with my linguistic centres… (being so aware of your psyche is soooo wrong). Tālāk!!
Oh. Found the designation of this Battlestar: "BSG-38 Selena". … and it's the same Mercury-class as Pegasus. So it's around 1.8 kilometres (slightly longer than 1 mile) has in-build manufacturing units, better armor than Galactice, higher automation and has networking tech, considered top-of-the-line Colonial warship (thanks Spacedock). It's saying something about this classes quality, that Cylons felt better to install a back-door/virus in the software than to fight these ships directly (I've read fan speculations and seen the clips).
There are no way that crew of such vessel would make a FTL jump that crashes them. It's speculation with high-chance of success, but I think I'm close to the beginning of reimagined Battlestar: Galactica and this was one of the few Colonial ships that escaped complete destruction. Interesting fact: they never specified how many such ships were made, just that Pegasus was the last of it's kind…
Not as good as I hoped, not as bad as I feared. I can't save 12 Colonies of Kobol, they have already fallen, but I can help the exodus fleet. I also have no delusion that I can make things peach for them. Not everything I do will be for the best, I know that. All I can do is what I can to help them.
Though convincing technophobic civilisation that machine that makes their robotic creation look simple, is a good guy will be a challenge in and off itself! Not to mention…
One thing at a time. I have information to dissect, economy to build and a ship to fix… Hell let's get going.
___________________________________________
<1> - real thing published in 2016. Quick summary here
Last edited:
Chapter 1.3
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
-
Ok, today's my birthday, and decided a small present in form of a chapter. Enjoy.
[]
Chapter 1.3
I had my hopes up too much (I know I'm taking it slow, but still!).
That basic computer interface system? Colonials use different programming than Progenitors, than (my) 21st century humanity and whatever hybrid I am, so the few programming languages that I know are useless (well useless as translators, but as reference points for refining cis helps making it more responsive and flexible).
That's not to say I'm not making progress, yet coupled with the extensive damage, corrupted files, imperfect (yet improving) compatibility, lost files, it might take few days to get something useful (military records, coordinates, whatever) from all this disjointed data points viss maz!
… ok no, I can put some AIs to deal with this, right now I need to fix the Selena. While I have space-worthy units, they have many flaws, biggest of them: none are designed for long term deep-space voyage (they are not optimised for "endurance"). You can use them for such purpose, but a) they don't have dedicated systems for such travels; b) lack in-build energy storage or generation systems in case of emergency; and c) Quantum Resource Network. As I said, QRN isn't magic and has its limits (for one it seems to not have infinite range).
Unlike them Mercury-class battlestars were designed for long(er) term operations, has space for storing power plants, some units, maybe manufacturing systems, and (most importantly) might have a FTL system with less limitation than Commander wormhole drive. I said "fix" because I don't yet have full battlestar's blueprints, so I can't rebuild it from scratch, nor can I make it "Progenitor bullshittech" with a snap. Oh, my systems are learning and cataloging what they find, simulation programmes (with almost 100% realistic physics systems, damn) helps avoid irreparable mistakes and refine (the small) ways to refit the downed ship plus some improvisation (i.e. using alloy with similar tensile strength, but lighter here, use similar spec, but smaller resistor there, etc.). Most actions became a routine and nothing particularly new will come up, so I better return (most of) my awareness away from Selena and back to my base. After all my main "body" (Osiris chassis) first stage repairs are about to be done and there are few new things I've discovered.
- - - - - - - - -
Seal outer hull shut and done! After 6 days of rearranging and repairing internal energy storage banks (some complex metallic, maybe, solid-state capacitors) and nuclear fission reactor, and few other miscellaneous patches I can finally move my … primary body(?). Whatever, Osiris chassis hasn't really seen the sun or my base in a long while, time to stretch my legs. And it's an interesting sight.
The thing about my base, in the last 6 days it grew. Enormously. Now it is spread through multiple thousands of square kilometres (both land and sea), has hundreds of M-Extractors, (more) E-Plants, multiple different factories and over thousands of units of varying quality. "Varying" because I (an instance of me, that still feels strange) build Basic and Advanced Factories of all types. Few interesting things cropped up.
First up the planet. Using chain of several basic and advanced Radars and Satellites (that use "light particles" for their light-speed quantum radar<1>) I have a fairly decent picture of the planet I'm on. This planet is slightly larger and heavier than Earth with impressive amount of elements, very oxygent-light atmosphere and despite having organic life (mainly silicon heavy plant life) there are not many large multi-cell animals. Coupled with radioactive-decay analysis (why would a Commander need that?) indicating that this planet is 'just' 2.7 ± 0.09 billion years (compared to my Earth's 4.5 billion). Rather a good find: no intelligent life that I might threaten (or they threaten me), resource abundant, and there are little hazards for me, even on biological side.
Turns out Commanders have whole slew of protocols and procedures how to deal with bio-hazards (from animals, insects, plants, algae, viruses, chemicaks, organic compounds, and stuff I don't know how to pronounce, ow). Some of those are pure nightmare fuel (biological metal eating gray-goo equivalent, anyone? no? good). I really hope (and please universe, please) I don't have to use most of those.
The difference between Basic and Advanced fabbots are (mostly) the nanites. Advanced nanite 'builders' are more complex, constructed using rear earth elements, otherwise the construction nanites are indistinguishable in function between the two. Well not quite.
In general Fabricator bots have "specialised" construction nanites. Well there are 3 types of construction nanites, to be exact: standard, liquid-resistant, and exoatmospheric. Most "ground" and "air" fabricators and structures (and Commanders), use "normal" construction nanobots. These nanites can build in almost any environment, but will underperform in certain conditions (for example in no outer space).
Liquid-resistant are just that – specialised for performance in liquid environments, be it H2O (water is universal, at least) or ammonia "lakes", their performance will decrease outside such places (i.e. it will take longer to build ground based structures).
Exo-atmospheric or space-nanites are optimised for orbital construction. Unlike other construction nanobots, exo-nanites are lighter and more sensitive to temperature/chemical changes than the other two types, have longer operational range (~100 meters versus 42 m standard and 15-to-30 m for liquid), use much strong electromagnetic fields to keep themselves from drifting from one another and their fabrication unit (not against such local centralisation, don't want a grey goo scenario).
Advanced Metal Extractors are basically an improved Basic Metal Extractors, just, eh, more. Through the use of an odd combination of traditional (drills, pumps, conveyers, nets, centrifuges, and similar) and somewhat exotic (vibrating nano-wires, lasers, laser-based "tractor" beams etc.) mining equipment Extractors can dig deep and extract (hence the name) multiple tonnes of materials (mostly metal, little to no other elements… why?) in few minutes. Then using on-board nano-machines, foundries, forging and construction equipment, and tractor beams ("short" range using photons as a manipulator <2>) to perform processing to create necessary materials (mostly alloys) and feed them into the QRN for storage and for building purposes.
Next – Advanced Energy Plants. They produce considerably more power than basic ones (more than 6 times). I wanted to know how, and the answer surprised me – Quark fusion (Holy, I have effin quark fusion reactors, scientists were right!<3>). I've read about them its practically nuclear fusion using not with atoms, but their building blocks - quarks (If I remember right scientists calculated this reaction produces up-to 8 time more energy than nuclear fusion, apbrīnojami)! Quark fusion is a much harder reaction to produce though, mainly due to quark decay (extremely short lifespan). For this to work you'd need powerful particle accelerators (Wakefield accelerators <4>, nice, maybe using this I can add Particle Accelerator weapons to my arsenal in the future) to create the necessary reaction quarks.
And the Server Bank. This is my own "unique" structure. Server Bank is a one storey sized building (5x8x3 meters) consisting of a collection of multiple stacked progenitor quantum computers with the express purpose to increase the computing power of few programmes (analysis, simulator, design software, background processes et cetera). I thought of this concept to speed-up my diagnostics, but since I found the Selena it found other uses.
I've noticed, and mentioned before in previous AAR, that all structures have in-build quantum computers that increase Commander control "bandwidth". With my rudimentary design software (really want to get a better one) I manage to isolate the right components, modelled the receivers/transceivers, cooling systems, build interlocked parallel layered structure and constructed the outer protective layer. Programming was the hardest part, cause something prevented me from creating even semi-separate systems (note-to-self: get rid of progenitor restrictions), but I found a way to "circumvent" the problem. Commanders use centralised control so I used "the same principle": extend my programmes' resources through direct control.
Constructed by advanced fabricators 3 days ago it's a relative power-hog, but well worth the expanses: computational resources centupled, threads and programmes are working faster, managing units become so much easier, and deciphering damaged and corrupt Colonial programming become… slightly faster (lot's of damage and blanks to fill [no magical solution]).
Still Server Bank made it easier to fix the Selena and retrofit it at the same time. With so much computing resources I can run simultaneous hundreds of threads (still weird) toward designing and simulating, both decreasing reconstruction mistakes (while cutting off some "unnecessary" parts like doors or life support…) and reverse-engineering some of Colonial technologies (primarily artificial gravity and Jump drive).
It even allows me to (extend) redesign some of my own weapons before integrating them into Selena (and units themselves where it's beneficial). Mainly to shore up few of battlestars weaknesses, but also to find optimal weapon, reactor and storage placements aka make it "suitable" for me.
Then there's the Orbital and Deepspace Radar that will finish construction in few minutes, something that I really need (for my embarrassment). Thing is, while Commander has fairly large sensor coverage it does not cover the entire planet, nor does it actually reach orbit, not to mention the rest of the star system. Yes, using other sensors (optical, radio-wave, ultraviolet, x-rays and similar "traditional" sensors) I can view some natural satellite, and with my satellites like Hermes I can get better data and with in-build orbital mechanics algorithms (would have been harder otherwise) I can calculate and send my units to other celestial objects. BUT all that, and here's the fun part, is light-delayed. While precise, and relatively small, I still have to spend some computational resources to correctly calculate trajectories, and the less precise information I have, the bigger probability something is not calculated with 100% precision. Case in point, one of my Hermes was almost hit by a fast, stray comet that shot past this planet. Surprisingly to mitigate this the Orbital and Deepspace Radar ha- *ding*
Ah! It «1» is done! Time to see my "backyard". Activating «2» and … neticami. This planet is 1.2 times larger than my Earth, has two moons one around 34 kilometers, and other, around 2 km (1905 m). The star emits almost white light (yellow-white colouring), there is one rocky, smaller than Mars planet closest to it, three planets further away from the star and the (second) planet I'm located at is a large circumstellar asteroid belt, further out "behind" them - one gas giant, with "vertical" rings around it, and number of dwarf-planets further out. And I detect everything in real-time! Yes, ODRadar gives a real-time system wide view (īsts Faster Than Light detection system!). And it has two modes.
On omni-directional setting the radar can precisely identify anything bigger than tennis ball in 10 light-hour range and with rough estimates around 1 light-year range (all using electromagnetic/quantum particle science humanity wouldn't begin to understand for hundreds of years). An almost perfect identification system. Almost. Progenitors have masking systems that can spoof signal readings and thus returning signals become unidentifiable (why in PA games you can see [most] enemies as dots, not identify precise units till "conventional" sensor ranges).
ODRadar's secondary mode - a tight narrow field view - gives a view in a given cone (one millionth of a apex degree) about 10 light-years scope (with the same precision as aforementioned 10 light-hour bounds) and with rough precision around 500 light-years distance. Archives state it's less often used due to its (relatively) short effective range and galaxy-wide system consisting of deep-space probes acting as mapping systems with far more powerful and accurate sensors (praktiski galaktiskais GoogleMaps, skaidrs).
OK, ODRadar has WAY more potential than I first thought. Not just for tracking local space, with this I have potential to get highly accurate coordinate for Jump Drive! I'll run some tests/simulations, but it might be valuable to install one ODR directly in the battlestar. For now, I have planets, asteroids and gas giant to "colonise" for resources, structures and units to build, and Colonials are being hunted, so time's a premium… Least have reason to be productive.
___________________________________________
<1> Real life concept, but still theoretical Quantum radar - Wikipedia
<3> more info: "Quark Fusion" produces eight times more energy than nuclear fusion ; again you can find basic info on YouTube as well
<2> Partially inspired by this: Physicists Develop Reversible Laser Tractor Beam Functional Over Long Distances
<4> Wakefield accelerators
- - - - - - - - -
AN: Bit sad none comments, but then again nothing much to talk about. Any tips?
— — — — —
Edit:
«1» <- http://i.imgur.com/o3EkMdih.jpg
«2» <- http://i.imgur.com/wq52ybGh.jpg
___________________________________________
Ok, today's my birthday, and decided a small present in form of a chapter. Enjoy.
[]
Chapter 1.3
I had my hopes up too much (I know I'm taking it slow, but still!).
That basic computer interface system? Colonials use different programming than Progenitors, than (my) 21st century humanity and whatever hybrid I am, so the few programming languages that I know are useless (well useless as translators, but as reference points for refining cis helps making it more responsive and flexible).
That's not to say I'm not making progress, yet coupled with the extensive damage, corrupted files, imperfect (yet improving) compatibility, lost files, it might take few days to get something useful (military records, coordinates, whatever) from all this disjointed data points viss maz!
… ok no, I can put some AIs to deal with this, right now I need to fix the Selena. While I have space-worthy units, they have many flaws, biggest of them: none are designed for long term deep-space voyage (they are not optimised for "endurance"). You can use them for such purpose, but a) they don't have dedicated systems for such travels; b) lack in-build energy storage or generation systems in case of emergency; and c) Quantum Resource Network. As I said, QRN isn't magic and has its limits (for one it seems to not have infinite range).
Unlike them Mercury-class battlestars were designed for long(er) term operations, has space for storing power plants, some units, maybe manufacturing systems, and (most importantly) might have a FTL system with less limitation than Commander wormhole drive. I said "fix" because I don't yet have full battlestar's blueprints, so I can't rebuild it from scratch, nor can I make it "Progenitor bullshittech" with a snap. Oh, my systems are learning and cataloging what they find, simulation programmes (with almost 100% realistic physics systems, damn) helps avoid irreparable mistakes and refine (the small) ways to refit the downed ship plus some improvisation (i.e. using alloy with similar tensile strength, but lighter here, use similar spec, but smaller resistor there, etc.). Most actions became a routine and nothing particularly new will come up, so I better return (most of) my awareness away from Selena and back to my base. After all my main "body" (Osiris chassis) first stage repairs are about to be done and there are few new things I've discovered.
- - - - - - - - -
Seal outer hull shut and done! After 6 days of rearranging and repairing internal energy storage banks (some complex metallic, maybe, solid-state capacitors) and nuclear fission reactor, and few other miscellaneous patches I can finally move my … primary body(?). Whatever, Osiris chassis hasn't really seen the sun or my base in a long while, time to stretch my legs. And it's an interesting sight.
The thing about my base, in the last 6 days it grew. Enormously. Now it is spread through multiple thousands of square kilometres (both land and sea), has hundreds of M-Extractors, (more) E-Plants, multiple different factories and over thousands of units of varying quality. "Varying" because I (an instance of me, that still feels strange) build Basic and Advanced Factories of all types. Few interesting things cropped up.
First up the planet. Using chain of several basic and advanced Radars and Satellites (that use "light particles" for their light-speed quantum radar<1>) I have a fairly decent picture of the planet I'm on. This planet is slightly larger and heavier than Earth with impressive amount of elements, very oxygent-light atmosphere and despite having organic life (mainly silicon heavy plant life) there are not many large multi-cell animals. Coupled with radioactive-decay analysis (why would a Commander need that?) indicating that this planet is 'just' 2.7 ± 0.09 billion years (compared to my Earth's 4.5 billion). Rather a good find: no intelligent life that I might threaten (or they threaten me), resource abundant, and there are little hazards for me, even on biological side.
Turns out Commanders have whole slew of protocols and procedures how to deal with bio-hazards (from animals, insects, plants, algae, viruses, chemicaks, organic compounds, and stuff I don't know how to pronounce, ow). Some of those are pure nightmare fuel (biological metal eating gray-goo equivalent, anyone? no? good). I really hope (and please universe, please) I don't have to use most of those.
The difference between Basic and Advanced fabbots are (mostly) the nanites. Advanced nanite 'builders' are more complex, constructed using rear earth elements, otherwise the construction nanites are indistinguishable in function between the two. Well not quite.
In general Fabricator bots have "specialised" construction nanites. Well there are 3 types of construction nanites, to be exact: standard, liquid-resistant, and exoatmospheric. Most "ground" and "air" fabricators and structures (and Commanders), use "normal" construction nanobots. These nanites can build in almost any environment, but will underperform in certain conditions (for example in no outer space).
Liquid-resistant are just that – specialised for performance in liquid environments, be it H2O (water is universal, at least) or ammonia "lakes", their performance will decrease outside such places (i.e. it will take longer to build ground based structures).
Exo-atmospheric or space-nanites are optimised for orbital construction. Unlike other construction nanobots, exo-nanites are lighter and more sensitive to temperature/chemical changes than the other two types, have longer operational range (~100 meters versus 42 m standard and 15-to-30 m for liquid), use much strong electromagnetic fields to keep themselves from drifting from one another and their fabrication unit (not against such local centralisation, don't want a grey goo scenario).
Advanced Metal Extractors are basically an improved Basic Metal Extractors, just, eh, more. Through the use of an odd combination of traditional (drills, pumps, conveyers, nets, centrifuges, and similar) and somewhat exotic (vibrating nano-wires, lasers, laser-based "tractor" beams etc.) mining equipment Extractors can dig deep and extract (hence the name) multiple tonnes of materials (mostly metal, little to no other elements… why?) in few minutes. Then using on-board nano-machines, foundries, forging and construction equipment, and tractor beams ("short" range using photons as a manipulator <2>) to perform processing to create necessary materials (mostly alloys) and feed them into the QRN for storage and for building purposes.
Next – Advanced Energy Plants. They produce considerably more power than basic ones (more than 6 times). I wanted to know how, and the answer surprised me – Quark fusion (Holy, I have effin quark fusion reactors, scientists were right!<3>). I've read about them its practically nuclear fusion using not with atoms, but their building blocks - quarks (If I remember right scientists calculated this reaction produces up-to 8 time more energy than nuclear fusion, apbrīnojami)! Quark fusion is a much harder reaction to produce though, mainly due to quark decay (extremely short lifespan). For this to work you'd need powerful particle accelerators (Wakefield accelerators <4>, nice, maybe using this I can add Particle Accelerator weapons to my arsenal in the future) to create the necessary reaction quarks.
And the Server Bank. This is my own "unique" structure. Server Bank is a one storey sized building (5x8x3 meters) consisting of a collection of multiple stacked progenitor quantum computers with the express purpose to increase the computing power of few programmes (analysis, simulator, design software, background processes et cetera). I thought of this concept to speed-up my diagnostics, but since I found the Selena it found other uses.
I've noticed, and mentioned before in previous AAR, that all structures have in-build quantum computers that increase Commander control "bandwidth". With my rudimentary design software (really want to get a better one) I manage to isolate the right components, modelled the receivers/transceivers, cooling systems, build interlocked parallel layered structure and constructed the outer protective layer. Programming was the hardest part, cause something prevented me from creating even semi-separate systems (note-to-self: get rid of progenitor restrictions), but I found a way to "circumvent" the problem. Commanders use centralised control so I used "the same principle": extend my programmes' resources through direct control.
Constructed by advanced fabricators 3 days ago it's a relative power-hog, but well worth the expanses: computational resources centupled, threads and programmes are working faster, managing units become so much easier, and deciphering damaged and corrupt Colonial programming become… slightly faster (lot's of damage and blanks to fill [no magical solution]).
Still Server Bank made it easier to fix the Selena and retrofit it at the same time. With so much computing resources I can run simultaneous hundreds of threads (still weird) toward designing and simulating, both decreasing reconstruction mistakes (while cutting off some "unnecessary" parts like doors or life support…) and reverse-engineering some of Colonial technologies (primarily artificial gravity and Jump drive).
It even allows me to (extend) redesign some of my own weapons before integrating them into Selena (and units themselves where it's beneficial). Mainly to shore up few of battlestars weaknesses, but also to find optimal weapon, reactor and storage placements aka make it "suitable" for me.
Then there's the Orbital and Deepspace Radar that will finish construction in few minutes, something that I really need (for my embarrassment). Thing is, while Commander has fairly large sensor coverage it does not cover the entire planet, nor does it actually reach orbit, not to mention the rest of the star system. Yes, using other sensors (optical, radio-wave, ultraviolet, x-rays and similar "traditional" sensors) I can view some natural satellite, and with my satellites like Hermes I can get better data and with in-build orbital mechanics algorithms (would have been harder otherwise) I can calculate and send my units to other celestial objects. BUT all that, and here's the fun part, is light-delayed. While precise, and relatively small, I still have to spend some computational resources to correctly calculate trajectories, and the less precise information I have, the bigger probability something is not calculated with 100% precision. Case in point, one of my Hermes was almost hit by a fast, stray comet that shot past this planet. Surprisingly to mitigate this the Orbital and Deepspace Radar ha- *ding*
Ah! It «1» is done! Time to see my "backyard". Activating «2» and … neticami. This planet is 1.2 times larger than my Earth, has two moons one around 34 kilometers, and other, around 2 km (1905 m). The star emits almost white light (yellow-white colouring), there is one rocky, smaller than Mars planet closest to it, three planets further away from the star and the (second) planet I'm located at is a large circumstellar asteroid belt, further out "behind" them - one gas giant, with "vertical" rings around it, and number of dwarf-planets further out. And I detect everything in real-time! Yes, ODRadar gives a real-time system wide view (īsts Faster Than Light detection system!). And it has two modes.
On omni-directional setting the radar can precisely identify anything bigger than tennis ball in 10 light-hour range and with rough estimates around 1 light-year range (all using electromagnetic/quantum particle science humanity wouldn't begin to understand for hundreds of years). An almost perfect identification system. Almost. Progenitors have masking systems that can spoof signal readings and thus returning signals become unidentifiable (why in PA games you can see [most] enemies as dots, not identify precise units till "conventional" sensor ranges).
ODRadar's secondary mode - a tight narrow field view - gives a view in a given cone (one millionth of a apex degree) about 10 light-years scope (with the same precision as aforementioned 10 light-hour bounds) and with rough precision around 500 light-years distance. Archives state it's less often used due to its (relatively) short effective range and galaxy-wide system consisting of deep-space probes acting as mapping systems with far more powerful and accurate sensors (praktiski galaktiskais GoogleMaps, skaidrs).
OK, ODRadar has WAY more potential than I first thought. Not just for tracking local space, with this I have potential to get highly accurate coordinate for Jump Drive! I'll run some tests/simulations, but it might be valuable to install one ODR directly in the battlestar. For now, I have planets, asteroids and gas giant to "colonise" for resources, structures and units to build, and Colonials are being hunted, so time's a premium… Least have reason to be productive.
___________________________________________
<1> Real life concept, but still theoretical Quantum radar - Wikipedia
<3> more info: "Quark Fusion" produces eight times more energy than nuclear fusion ; again you can find basic info on YouTube as well
<2> Partially inspired by this: Physicists Develop Reversible Laser Tractor Beam Functional Over Long Distances
<4> Wakefield accelerators
- - - - - - - - -
AN: Bit sad none comments, but then again nothing much to talk about. Any tips?
— — — — —
Edit:
«1» <- http://i.imgur.com/o3EkMdih.jpg
«2» <- http://i.imgur.com/wq52ybGh.jpg
___________________________________________
Last edited:
Chapter 1.4
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
-
[]
Chapter 1.4
Day and a half. That's how long it took to get all salvageable and restorable data from Selena. 49% of it's originally stored data. At this point I had somewhat of a good grasp of -corrupted- Colonial programming (and slight insight into Cylon "virus" examples). The rest can't be retrieved and is more-or-less gone.
While I'm partially to blame (acted slowly, imperfect interface, incorrect prioritisation…), the circumstances weren't ideal either (infected/corrupted, burned, damaged and broken systems) so I'll consider this a -small- net gain. Force descriptions, basic technical manuals, personal diaries, some communication protocols, there are even some, heh, "historic documents" about -now- First Cylon War. But (in my opinion) the best I got from battlestar's archives are few coordinates. Both a "cypher" to understand their long-range FTL coordination system and possible explorable locations IF the deviations are not too big.
Now that surviving data is more or less secured, I can really start to repair/change the downed battlestar. While I was fixing it, the process was slow and I did prioritise data translation and extraction, tech "reverse-engineering", but now that all sensitive and valuable stuff is "safe" I can ramp up my repair speed. Peculiarly Mercury-class' onboard manufacturing systems are… Ignoring Progenitor extractor's in-build material extraction systems, Commanders only have nano-assemblers, devices that build their technology at microscopic–nanoscopic scales and, while efficient, to extend, is wasteful: why build expendable aluminium missile shell that way if it takes less time to construct thge shell using, for example, human smelting/welding conveyer? Okey, I know why, the differences and limitations (including that of QRN), but "normal" construction methods have their own advantages, so yes, battlestars manufacturing units are very useful, give insight into "traditional" construction methods and I'll spend some threads trying to integrate it into my own systems (if "Rise of the Steel Phoenix" <1> thought me anything it's better to have fallback options, one-trick-ponies don't live long… wonder if he finished his fic… or if I'll ever read it… depressed).
Battlestar's new hull structure is largely the same as any other battlestars with some new "towers", missile racks and systems doting the outer section in places for optimised coverage, and visibly altered railguns (improvements taken straight from Artemes Railgun Platform). These are the only visual differences hinting on all the changes and upgrades I am doing beneath that thick armor.
Likewise I decided to rename the ship, make it more.. mine. Also to honour its previous crew I settled with a 'minor' change. So itss rechristened name is Luna. In addition…
I.. wanted some reminder, something that will to extend ground me, to not lose myself in times to come. So I replaced outer Colonial symbols with my countries flag (Dievs svētī' Latviju). I'm not hyper-nationalist, and consider myself open-minded to other cultures (so long ashuman sentient rights and freedom ain't suppressed), but no matter how small, I care about my country (, my family) and this little promotion will serve as good reminder of my origin.
I wasn't idle during that time either. Now around 1/100 of the planet's supercontinent and ocean is -my- territory and houses hundred's of thousands structures (šausmas, exponential growth is scary). And with the help of ODRadar both moons are now covered with extractors (for little good, quiet resource poor those) and energy plants plus orbitals are occupied with satellites, Orbital Factories, Solar Array's, Orbital Fabrication Bot's etc. increasing my industry in space. Though it will take days before closest planets are reached even with Progenitor fusion drives (space is big, what a surprise). Speaking about space travel one: almost all my space units have thermal regulators, radiators, microsheets (etc) for heat management and two: spacecraft follow fully Newtonian physics aka no magic "WWII dogfight" in space. I mean, I like Star Wars, but I love real physics and sane reality much more. And, to be honest, that's something I didn't spot. The heat, I mean. Most of my structures while active produce some amount of waste heat (proportionally little more than overworked MacBook, but that's -nothing-) and unless you "cool" them, or space their production amount accordingly, becomes very hot. As far as I can tell there's no large risk of them overheating, but the environment IS feeling the consequences. It's not alarming, though "locally" air temperature has risen by 2°… and around some extractors/generators there are ponds from melted snow. Actually I'm worried about that: for the last 11 days I have build structures, produced fabricators non-stop and only now I spotted that there are negative consequences. The only reason I'm okey with that is that this planet is 'uninhabited' and for the most part there are no complex biological organisms, plus environmental damages that the nature won't fix in few centuries or millennia. Something to keep in mind when I reach sentient inhabited worlds.
Also about 10 hours ago I've started constructing second Server Bank and it finished 3 minutes ago. I had a thought about networking multiple Server Banks, to increase processing power in order to accelerate technology research. Around this time I • am about 65% done with Colonial FTL analysis, meaning, without tylium-energy problem, I can build (read: copy-past) Colonial style Jump drives (and to a degree alter it's scale), but I still need more research in this area ; • discovered that Colonial artificial gravity technology can be hybridised with Progenitor grav tech. Some more refinement is needed and either way it will use more energy, but it will shore up the general weaknesses of either tech greatly improving current usage and opening new possibilities (Colonial/Cylon's general inefficient conversion energy usage, range and directional field ; Progenitor lack of constant, non-layered, non-homogeneous/equable field quality).
And I'm on time limit. While nothing directly affects me, every minute I spend here is indeterminate amount of time (due to time dilation) the Colonial fleet loses people, resources, gets hunted down and all this pointless one mans genocide (Cavil!) continues. Ignoring that most Cylons are "descendants" of brain uploaded, enslaved and tortured girl, as "evolved" sentient beings such actions are just pure idiocy (no way to hind it). *Sigh* enough philosophy, time to get things done.
- - - - - - - - -
Today, (13 dAT - days After Transference) I'm physically testing few new technologies and especially my first Jump drive equipped crafts. It's an ugly thing: modified Hermes space probe with back attached 1:10 miniaturised Colonial based FTL system all encased into large egg-like outer shell. Without tylium catalyst (the only "exotic" material I can't find in any amount) it could eat a lot of energy, but simulations are showing promising results. This is first of several real life tests, cause I want to be 100% sure that nothing unexpectedly bad happens before I "mainstream" some technologies. This test is meant to evaluate FTL precision and energy expenditure for single and multi stage jumps. Not far, just few inter-system jumps (average distance around 3 light-hour range).
OK, "testing field" is ready, 1st predicted destination set (this planet's larger moon), detection units and structures primed, Server Banks ready for data flow, probes' sensors calibrated, FTL drive primed. Now let's overclock systems and…
[
Operation: Start overclocking 1:100'000
]
(now one millisecond feels like minute and a half .. everything's so slow) First test, 4.5 light-seconds jump commence in 3.., 2.., 1.., Jump.
*zzin*
[
" Status
"
Operation: End overclocking
]
Even with accelerated perception, if I weren't monitoring both starting and ending destinations (and crafts own external-internal systems) I'd miss the transition. But it was as I suspected, BSG Jump drive works as Musha speculated: using momentary vacuum pulse and quantum tunnelling effect to pierce the "light barrier" and propel the craft at superluminal speed..
Simplified explanation, when activated jump drive "pierces" the fabric of space using quantum tunnelling effect (same principle that happens inside stars, is used in USBs and Progenitor Teleporter) creating something like a singularity (or an open ended string/wormhole analogue), at the same time, envelopes the spaceship in a superdense photon bubble via strong light/laser burst. The bubble acts as super cavity bubble that allows objects to move faster that the given environment allows, but only as long as the bubble holds. The split moment this bubble "pops" the object is ejected from the "tunnel" and returns in normal space. Shorter range than Commander Wormhole, but far less energy intensive, and slightly more versatile (bigger mass transit and precision ["Adama manoeuvre" come to mind]). The same thing my successful simulations showed down to the nanometer (if not as impressive, that was apbrīnojami).
The reason I wanted to do a physical jump test was because Selena's FTL consisted of more than just the "engine" and navigation computers commonly showed in series. Colonial and perhaps Cylon FTL drives also have multiple emitters around the ship that create the photon bubble (hence the "egghermes"). Just want to ensure that everything works fine, don't want a critical failure during combat.
Speaking of, since this test is a resounding successful, let's do the rest.
- - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - -
Ok, with about 300 individual and chain jumps for Hermes-J and 10 jumps each for number of FTL enhanced Orbital Fabrication Bots, Orbital Factories and Jig Gas mining station I'm fairly confident most problems are dealt with (don't want to call Murphy again). With progenitor computers their precision and distance are much better that near anything in BSG, but without tylium and any reasonable way to acquire it (be it mining, or synthetically producing it), I need to expand at minimum around 20'000 energy units (around 20% single Energy Storage units capacity) or 110 terawatts.. that's about 100 times the power Hoover Dam power plants produces in one year (energy efficient indeed, and its clever how quantum tunnelling and singularity itself picks up the slack). I can mitigate this problem by constructing more E-Storage units inside the battlestas, with an additional Advanced E-Plant, for faster production just in case (need to use the space somewhat efficiently, right?).
The biggest problem I discovered was my operational limits and QRN range. In games Commanders usually arrive alone, build up and when they move to another star system, they start again from the beginning. From game perspective that's understandable, but I didn't expect that in reality… In reality, Commanders have limited operational and direct control range that's around 1.15 light-day (that's ~ 200 Earth astronomical units or 3x10^10 km effective range). Once this far from Commander one of two things happen to mobile units: either they self destruct (as I found out first-hand), or follow pre-defined instruction with strict time limits until it's again in my direct control (second attempt) or, after the time limit expires, self-destructs (I guess to deny enemy access to resources or tech, or something.. ). What archive data I can find mentions there should be signal boosters for increasing the range, but even that will suffer due to Quantum Resource Network. In short within the ~ 1 light-day range QRN can transfer energy (and to extend matter) approximately 1:~1 with next to no loss from Commander, but further than this threshold it will exponentially lose more and more in the transfer.
Some Archive data hints there were some experimental boosters, technologies or combination therefor that could allow for longer range affect, but nothing progenitors would archive in Commander "for safety reasons" (again those progenitor restrictions)… Either way that's not the main point: all test were successful, operational limitations known and soon I can go off to find the Exodus Fleet …
- - - - - - - - -
Ok, after multiple iterations, simulations and tests I still can't get satisfactory results. At least I started this after I finished constructing and installing the new gravity tech, but still… Bad news – the hybridised gravity system eats 30.7% (4.1% higher than expected) more energy than standard progenitor gravity 'repulsor'. Good news – it has greatly improved acceleration/deceleration, increases crafts manuverability by 29.9-48.2% (depending on craft), adds multi-range/shape field projection capability, 'few' additional "miscellaneous" improvements -and- greatly increased its applicability in other fields (besides thrusters for Progenitors, or the 1G artificial gravity for Colonials, especially possible future weapon and research technologies). It turns out Colonial magnetic-to-gravity converter (that uses non-metallic components Progenitors lacked until I worked the problem out .. again, why is that?) shunt through progenitor vortex mechanics, in a way 'refines' and 'compresses' the process in witch magnetic fields are shifted to gravitational fields as well as its "quality". The increased power consumption is because vortex gravitoelectromagnetic systems need that much to successfully "thicken" the dispersed gravity waves, meaning I had to fiddle with this systems and components to get it -just- right (at the end had to decrease Colonial systems power usage by half and increase Progenitor part by 381% for the most optimal power-to-effect ratio).
Yet even with all this breakthrough, I can't finish my next project. Who knew trying to replicate ME Normandy style effective reactionless drive would be that hard. With further research it's possible (no thermal exhaust, nigh-perfect stealth even in space), but it's not a priority. Oh, it seems time's up. Saving all researched data and start packing.
With that returning probe and test done, I'll soon can go off to find the Exodus Fleet …
- - - - - - - - -
Ok, with that I have full contingent and some reserves for Luna. While I have Avengers for space combat I needed new fighter that would fit with battlestars launching mechanism and honestly, little variation is healthy, though it took less time and iterations than I anticipated to clean up any defects in my new fighter designs. While each can fulfil multiple roles, they have some specialisations.
My first fighter, the aerospace multirole 'jack-of-all'. Outwardly this variant is marginally longer otherwise differs little from the Viper Mk VII (which exact components and design I saved just in case I encounter Galactica), internally though.. Augmented most computers with progenitor pieces taken and modified from Avenger orbital fighter, with AI redesigned to operate the new tool (it can operate as single unit or in swarms. scalable and adaptable), cockpit now hosts most of it's new sensor equipment so no manual piloting possible. The only changes to the weapons I made was to swap Colonial style missiles with Commander ones and added specialised micro-assembler for new kinetic rounds pluss better coil-gun firing system. As a norm, hucked it up to my QRN so its effective range's the same as my other units'.
Second that I tentatively calling Hammer is a mix between a "light-bomber" and "heavy-fighter". Shorter height and slightly stockier, it is fitted with 'heavy' direct pulse laser weapons, newly invented 'smart' anti-fighter swarm missiles (since Cylons like to use large numbers of Raiders) and mini-tactical nuclear missiles (no bigger than Davy Crocker<2>). With a yield of 50 kT should be strong enough to damage even capital ships, especially with the little surprise I added.
The last design codename Spear is a bit different. Lightest of the craft and "fastest" this small fighter is armed with two 'light' pulse lasers for defence (still powerful by BSG standards) and highly enhanced jamming/E-warfare systems this fighter is my specialist craft. While nearly all my units have jammers, Spears have the most advanced jamming equipment and -active- E-warfare suits. In theory, it can spoof enemy sensors making it and company practically invisible to most active and passive sensors, or forcing enemy fighters/weapons into close visual ranges to hit my fighter-drones. In theory. Can't test it without assistance.
All my fighters are fitted with the newly developed gravity systems increasing their acceleration, deceleration and manuverability, in addition to decreasing fuel consumption. I also wanted to install mini-jump drives, but I lack both space and some components to install them inside such small shapes (and again due to lacking knowledge in non-metalics. I'm starting to see a pattern here).
Problem for later, my other instance informed my that the probe just finished it's last test successfully meaning I can go off to find the Exodus Fleet …
- - - - - - - - -
… discontinuing production, stopping all mining operations, transfer resources to newly restored and improves battlestar.. that's even now is rising, leaving planets atmosphere. God the new gravity systems are more than worth their weight in gold. Housing my primary body inside what used to be mess hall (now bottom hangar bay) I and 142 different construction units (from ground based to aquatic, to some space fabs) are safely secured in what little free space I left. Soon Luna will break geosynchronous orbit and I'm off.
It's strange. This is clearly an illogical, semi-suicidal move, completely irrational in this situation. This is not my fight, I could just sit put and do my own business. But then again people, and sentient species are living beings fictional or not. Or did we merely saw one version of them as per multiple-world theory?
Ah! Enough philosophy, I was raised to be human, and that's what I'll do! Input the extracted last-used coordinates, spool up the FTL engine. It's time, no second thoughts, no retrospective analysis, don't care how nervous I feel, let's change fate.
*zzin*
___________________________________________
<1> Fanfic, quite good, read if you're interested "Rise of the Steel Phoenix"
<2> yes, based on that that Davy Crockett (nuclear device) - Wikipedia
- - - - - - - - -
Finally finished. RL did throw some curveballs, but this part didn't want to be written... AND I HAVE NO DIALOGUES YET!! Just great
[]
Chapter 1.4
Day and a half. That's how long it took to get all salvageable and restorable data from Selena. 49% of it's originally stored data. At this point I had somewhat of a good grasp of -corrupted- Colonial programming (and slight insight into Cylon "virus" examples). The rest can't be retrieved and is more-or-less gone.
While I'm partially to blame (acted slowly, imperfect interface, incorrect prioritisation…), the circumstances weren't ideal either (infected/corrupted, burned, damaged and broken systems) so I'll consider this a -small- net gain. Force descriptions, basic technical manuals, personal diaries, some communication protocols, there are even some, heh, "historic documents" about -now- First Cylon War. But (in my opinion) the best I got from battlestar's archives are few coordinates. Both a "cypher" to understand their long-range FTL coordination system and possible explorable locations IF the deviations are not too big.
Now that surviving data is more or less secured, I can really start to repair/change the downed battlestar. While I was fixing it, the process was slow and I did prioritise data translation and extraction, tech "reverse-engineering", but now that all sensitive and valuable stuff is "safe" I can ramp up my repair speed. Peculiarly Mercury-class' onboard manufacturing systems are… Ignoring Progenitor extractor's in-build material extraction systems, Commanders only have nano-assemblers, devices that build their technology at microscopic–nanoscopic scales and, while efficient, to extend, is wasteful: why build expendable aluminium missile shell that way if it takes less time to construct thge shell using, for example, human smelting/welding conveyer? Okey, I know why, the differences and limitations (including that of QRN), but "normal" construction methods have their own advantages, so yes, battlestars manufacturing units are very useful, give insight into "traditional" construction methods and I'll spend some threads trying to integrate it into my own systems (if "Rise of the Steel Phoenix" <1> thought me anything it's better to have fallback options, one-trick-ponies don't live long… wonder if he finished his fic… or if I'll ever read it… depressed).
Battlestar's new hull structure is largely the same as any other battlestars with some new "towers", missile racks and systems doting the outer section in places for optimised coverage, and visibly altered railguns (improvements taken straight from Artemes Railgun Platform). These are the only visual differences hinting on all the changes and upgrades I am doing beneath that thick armor.
Likewise I decided to rename the ship, make it more.. mine. Also to honour its previous crew I settled with a 'minor' change. So itss rechristened name is Luna. In addition…
I.. wanted some reminder, something that will to extend ground me, to not lose myself in times to come. So I replaced outer Colonial symbols with my countries flag (Dievs svētī' Latviju). I'm not hyper-nationalist, and consider myself open-minded to other cultures (so long as
I wasn't idle during that time either. Now around 1/100 of the planet's supercontinent and ocean is -my- territory and houses hundred's of thousands structures (šausmas, exponential growth is scary). And with the help of ODRadar both moons are now covered with extractors (for little good, quiet resource poor those) and energy plants plus orbitals are occupied with satellites, Orbital Factories, Solar Array's, Orbital Fabrication Bot's etc. increasing my industry in space. Though it will take days before closest planets are reached even with Progenitor fusion drives (space is big, what a surprise). Speaking about space travel one: almost all my space units have thermal regulators, radiators, microsheets (etc) for heat management and two: spacecraft follow fully Newtonian physics aka no magic "WWII dogfight" in space. I mean, I like Star Wars, but I love real physics and sane reality much more. And, to be honest, that's something I didn't spot. The heat, I mean. Most of my structures while active produce some amount of waste heat (proportionally little more than overworked MacBook, but that's -nothing-) and unless you "cool" them, or space their production amount accordingly, becomes very hot. As far as I can tell there's no large risk of them overheating, but the environment IS feeling the consequences. It's not alarming, though "locally" air temperature has risen by 2°… and around some extractors/generators there are ponds from melted snow. Actually I'm worried about that: for the last 11 days I have build structures, produced fabricators non-stop and only now I spotted that there are negative consequences. The only reason I'm okey with that is that this planet is 'uninhabited' and for the most part there are no complex biological organisms, plus environmental damages that the nature won't fix in few centuries or millennia. Something to keep in mind when I reach sentient inhabited worlds.
Also about 10 hours ago I've started constructing second Server Bank and it finished 3 minutes ago. I had a thought about networking multiple Server Banks, to increase processing power in order to accelerate technology research. Around this time I • am about 65% done with Colonial FTL analysis, meaning, without tylium-energy problem, I can build (read: copy-past) Colonial style Jump drives (and to a degree alter it's scale), but I still need more research in this area ; • discovered that Colonial artificial gravity technology can be hybridised with Progenitor grav tech. Some more refinement is needed and either way it will use more energy, but it will shore up the general weaknesses of either tech greatly improving current usage and opening new possibilities (Colonial/Cylon's general inefficient conversion energy usage, range and directional field ; Progenitor lack of constant, non-layered, non-homogeneous/equable field quality).
And I'm on time limit. While nothing directly affects me, every minute I spend here is indeterminate amount of time (due to time dilation) the Colonial fleet loses people, resources, gets hunted down and all this pointless one mans genocide (Cavil!) continues. Ignoring that most Cylons are "descendants" of brain uploaded, enslaved and tortured girl, as "evolved" sentient beings such actions are just pure idiocy (no way to hind it). *Sigh* enough philosophy, time to get things done.
- - - - - - - - -
Today, (13 dAT - days After Transference) I'm physically testing few new technologies and especially my first Jump drive equipped crafts. It's an ugly thing: modified Hermes space probe with back attached 1:10 miniaturised Colonial based FTL system all encased into large egg-like outer shell. Without tylium catalyst (the only "exotic" material I can't find in any amount) it could eat a lot of energy, but simulations are showing promising results. This is first of several real life tests, cause I want to be 100% sure that nothing unexpectedly bad happens before I "mainstream" some technologies. This test is meant to evaluate FTL precision and energy expenditure for single and multi stage jumps. Not far, just few inter-system jumps (average distance around 3 light-hour range).
OK, "testing field" is ready, 1st predicted destination set (this planet's larger moon), detection units and structures primed, Server Banks ready for data flow, probes' sensors calibrated, FTL drive primed. Now let's overclock systems and…
[
Operation: Start overclocking 1:100'000
]
(now one millisecond feels like minute and a half .. everything's so slow) First test, 4.5 light-seconds jump commence in 3.., 2.., 1.., Jump.
*zzin*
[
" Status
"Operation: End overclocking
]
Even with accelerated perception, if I weren't monitoring both starting and ending destinations (and crafts own external-internal systems) I'd miss the transition. But it was as I suspected, BSG Jump drive works as Musha speculated: using momentary vacuum pulse and quantum tunnelling effect to pierce the "light barrier" and propel the craft at superluminal speed..
Simplified explanation, when activated jump drive "pierces" the fabric of space using quantum tunnelling effect (same principle that happens inside stars, is used in USBs and Progenitor Teleporter) creating something like a singularity (or an open ended string/wormhole analogue), at the same time, envelopes the spaceship in a superdense photon bubble via strong light/laser burst. The bubble acts as super cavity bubble that allows objects to move faster that the given environment allows, but only as long as the bubble holds. The split moment this bubble "pops" the object is ejected from the "tunnel" and returns in normal space. Shorter range than Commander Wormhole, but far less energy intensive, and slightly more versatile (bigger mass transit and precision ["Adama manoeuvre" come to mind]). The same thing my successful simulations showed down to the nanometer (if not as impressive, that was apbrīnojami).
The reason I wanted to do a physical jump test was because Selena's FTL consisted of more than just the "engine" and navigation computers commonly showed in series. Colonial and perhaps Cylon FTL drives also have multiple emitters around the ship that create the photon bubble (hence the "egghermes"). Just want to ensure that everything works fine, don't want a critical failure during combat.
Speaking of, since this test is a resounding successful, let's do the rest.
- - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - -
Ok, with about 300 individual and chain jumps for Hermes-J and 10 jumps each for number of FTL enhanced Orbital Fabrication Bots, Orbital Factories and Jig Gas mining station I'm fairly confident most problems are dealt with (don't want to call Murphy again). With progenitor computers their precision and distance are much better that near anything in BSG, but without tylium and any reasonable way to acquire it (be it mining, or synthetically producing it), I need to expand at minimum around 20'000 energy units (around 20% single Energy Storage units capacity) or 110 terawatts.. that's about 100 times the power Hoover Dam power plants produces in one year (energy efficient indeed, and its clever how quantum tunnelling and singularity itself picks up the slack). I can mitigate this problem by constructing more E-Storage units inside the battlestas, with an additional Advanced E-Plant, for faster production just in case (need to use the space somewhat efficiently, right?).
The biggest problem I discovered was my operational limits and QRN range. In games Commanders usually arrive alone, build up and when they move to another star system, they start again from the beginning. From game perspective that's understandable, but I didn't expect that in reality… In reality, Commanders have limited operational and direct control range that's around 1.15 light-day (that's ~ 200 Earth astronomical units or 3x10^10 km effective range). Once this far from Commander one of two things happen to mobile units: either they self destruct (as I found out first-hand), or follow pre-defined instruction with strict time limits until it's again in my direct control (second attempt) or, after the time limit expires, self-destructs (I guess to deny enemy access to resources or tech, or something.. ). What archive data I can find mentions there should be signal boosters for increasing the range, but even that will suffer due to Quantum Resource Network. In short within the ~ 1 light-day range QRN can transfer energy (and to extend matter) approximately 1:~1 with next to no loss from Commander, but further than this threshold it will exponentially lose more and more in the transfer.
Some Archive data hints there were some experimental boosters, technologies or combination therefor that could allow for longer range affect, but nothing progenitors would archive in Commander "for safety reasons" (again those progenitor restrictions)… Either way that's not the main point: all test were successful, operational limitations known and soon I can go off to find the Exodus Fleet …
- - - - - - - - -
Ok, after multiple iterations, simulations and tests I still can't get satisfactory results. At least I started this after I finished constructing and installing the new gravity tech, but still… Bad news – the hybridised gravity system eats 30.7% (4.1% higher than expected) more energy than standard progenitor gravity 'repulsor'. Good news – it has greatly improved acceleration/deceleration, increases crafts manuverability by 29.9-48.2% (depending on craft), adds multi-range/shape field projection capability, 'few' additional "miscellaneous" improvements -and- greatly increased its applicability in other fields (besides thrusters for Progenitors, or the 1G artificial gravity for Colonials, especially possible future weapon and research technologies). It turns out Colonial magnetic-to-gravity converter (that uses non-metallic components Progenitors lacked until I worked the problem out .. again, why is that?) shunt through progenitor vortex mechanics, in a way 'refines' and 'compresses' the process in witch magnetic fields are shifted to gravitational fields as well as its "quality". The increased power consumption is because vortex gravitoelectromagnetic systems need that much to successfully "thicken" the dispersed gravity waves, meaning I had to fiddle with this systems and components to get it -just- right (at the end had to decrease Colonial systems power usage by half and increase Progenitor part by 381% for the most optimal power-to-effect ratio).
Yet even with all this breakthrough, I can't finish my next project. Who knew trying to replicate ME Normandy style effective reactionless drive would be that hard. With further research it's possible (no thermal exhaust, nigh-perfect stealth even in space), but it's not a priority. Oh, it seems time's up. Saving all researched data and start packing.
With that returning probe and test done, I'll soon can go off to find the Exodus Fleet …
- - - - - - - - -
Ok, with that I have full contingent and some reserves for Luna. While I have Avengers for space combat I needed new fighter that would fit with battlestars launching mechanism and honestly, little variation is healthy, though it took less time and iterations than I anticipated to clean up any defects in my new fighter designs. While each can fulfil multiple roles, they have some specialisations.
My first fighter, the aerospace multirole 'jack-of-all'. Outwardly this variant is marginally longer otherwise differs little from the Viper Mk VII (which exact components and design I saved just in case I encounter Galactica), internally though.. Augmented most computers with progenitor pieces taken and modified from Avenger orbital fighter, with AI redesigned to operate the new tool (it can operate as single unit or in swarms. scalable and adaptable), cockpit now hosts most of it's new sensor equipment so no manual piloting possible. The only changes to the weapons I made was to swap Colonial style missiles with Commander ones and added specialised micro-assembler for new kinetic rounds pluss better coil-gun firing system. As a norm, hucked it up to my QRN so its effective range's the same as my other units'.
Second that I tentatively calling Hammer is a mix between a "light-bomber" and "heavy-fighter". Shorter height and slightly stockier, it is fitted with 'heavy' direct pulse laser weapons, newly invented 'smart' anti-fighter swarm missiles (since Cylons like to use large numbers of Raiders) and mini-tactical nuclear missiles (no bigger than Davy Crocker<2>). With a yield of 50 kT should be strong enough to damage even capital ships, especially with the little surprise I added.
The last design codename Spear is a bit different. Lightest of the craft and "fastest" this small fighter is armed with two 'light' pulse lasers for defence (still powerful by BSG standards) and highly enhanced jamming/E-warfare systems this fighter is my specialist craft. While nearly all my units have jammers, Spears have the most advanced jamming equipment and -active- E-warfare suits. In theory, it can spoof enemy sensors making it and company practically invisible to most active and passive sensors, or forcing enemy fighters/weapons into close visual ranges to hit my fighter-drones. In theory. Can't test it without assistance.
All my fighters are fitted with the newly developed gravity systems increasing their acceleration, deceleration and manuverability, in addition to decreasing fuel consumption. I also wanted to install mini-jump drives, but I lack both space and some components to install them inside such small shapes (and again due to lacking knowledge in non-metalics. I'm starting to see a pattern here).
Problem for later, my other instance informed my that the probe just finished it's last test successfully meaning I can go off to find the Exodus Fleet …
- - - - - - - - -
… discontinuing production, stopping all mining operations, transfer resources to newly restored and improves battlestar.. that's even now is rising, leaving planets atmosphere. God the new gravity systems are more than worth their weight in gold. Housing my primary body inside what used to be mess hall (now bottom hangar bay) I and 142 different construction units (from ground based to aquatic, to some space fabs) are safely secured in what little free space I left. Soon Luna will break geosynchronous orbit and I'm off.
It's strange. This is clearly an illogical, semi-suicidal move, completely irrational in this situation. This is not my fight, I could just sit put and do my own business. But then again people, and sentient species are living beings fictional or not. Or did we merely saw one version of them as per multiple-world theory?
Ah! Enough philosophy, I was raised to be human, and that's what I'll do! Input the extracted last-used coordinates, spool up the FTL engine. It's time, no second thoughts, no retrospective analysis, don't care how nervous I feel, let's change fate.
*zzin*
___________________________________________
<1> Fanfic, quite good, read if you're interested "Rise of the Steel Phoenix"
<2> yes, based on that that Davy Crockett (nuclear device) - Wikipedia
- - - - - - - - -
Finally finished. RL did throw some curveballs, but this part didn't want to be written... AND I HAVE NO DIALOGUES YET!! Just great
Last edited:
Chapter 1.5
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
-
[]
Chapter 1.5
*zzin*
[^
='Musha' FTL transition sequence complete=
Engine status: stand-by.. green {no critical problems detected; optional provisionary system scan advised}
Power Systems:
-EP1: operational
-EP2: operational
-AEP1: operational
-AEP2: operational
-ES1: 51%
-ES2: 100%
-ES3: 100%
-ES4: 100%
^]
Wow, that was.. disorienting which is impossible, cause there's nothing in me as upload (I'll settle with this, end of story) to disorient. Systems seem to be working fine, eh
[
Quick Software Analysis complete:
-Quantum Computers 1-to-5: online
- -Q1: green
- -Q2: green
- -Q3: green
- -Q4: green
- -Q5: green
-E-Warfare: 100%
-Unit database: 100%
-Archive data: 60% {40% data lost}
--Memory archive 1: {information available}
--Memory archive 2: {all non-critical information lost}
--Memory archive 3: {non-critical information corrupted}
--Memory archive 4: {information available}
->PrimaryCore 1-to-10: ERROR {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
->SecondaryCore 1-to-10: ERROR {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
-->AdditionalCore: ERROR/?OPERATIONAL¿ {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
]
yup, everything is working as intended. Using different "dimension" for faster than light travel enacts a change in environment and that change from "normal" space to string-tunnel-whatever-space and back is not pleasant… (I'll just compare it to jump into water not accurate, but the sudden shift is closest human experience I can compare it to!).
No, wait I'm here for a reason not to puzzle my own horror nature! This should be around ± 0.5 light-month range from Selena's emergency jump starting position (the margin error mainly due to hastily inputed 'random jump' coordinates, Cylon virus wrecking havoc, with a small dashing of stellar drift). Looking around in the "immediate" standard sensor range nothing substan- scratch that, minisculely increased background radiation, and slightly higher number of particles and space junk in "near" space, and- there, ODR reveals large amount of ship debris 9 light-days (that's around 1560 AUs aka 1560 time the distance from Sun to Earth) from Luna (all that detected in 8.6 microseconds… damn Commanders are fast). From the recognisable pieces I can tentatively virtually restore and identify few colonial ship types, like Valkyrie, some supply ships, an- wait, is that…? (Double check!) .. that's Manticore from Deadlock?! It can't… no, no the game more-or-less depicted what transpired in 1st Cylon war and I'm a War-machine in a different reality myself, of course it's possible. I guess it still hasn't sinked in, this is NOT fiction! But that means Cylon capabilities.. I really should have watched more videos about Deadlock not just few ship breakdowns. Ok, positive… I'm lucky I learned about this surprise here, rather during a battle, that might have cost me (but then again Deadlock ain't the only depiction, there were others and even a prequel series). Whatever, I now know not to 100% rely on my admittedly limited foreknowledge, always expect deviations. Ok, but where to go from here…
- - - - - - - - -
… So hard. No scratch that, problem being hard isn't the thing, it's BOREDOM! Space is big. Stupendously big, like ridiculously, impossibly big. Even as an upload with vastly expanded capabilities, "senses", alien knowledge and variable army of semi-intelligent AIs, its still mindboggling (nedaudz šausminoši, really impressive, but still mindboggling). And herein lays the problem. Space has no easily discernible "landmarks" and navigating by stars is not overly reliable (since those are distant, change depending on observers position and in constant motion relative to themselves and Luna that's ALSO in motion, not to mention FTL..). While Commander's are equipped with sensors and technology such as Orbital Deepspace Radar that allow for orientation, without precise coordinates (or Progenitor GoogleMaps equivalent) it is useful only for reaching semi-random solar systems, not a rag tag survivor fleet.
So why did I thought it's a good idea to use my sensory equipment to find Pulsars or use ODR to act its namesake and scan every sector around me to find Exodus fleet‽?!! Pulsars I get, because, at least to my sensors, are very distinct and unique so I reasoned if I had locations and frequencies of multiple X-ray pulsars I could triangulate my position accurately near anywhere in the galaxy, give or take some minimal drift distance (worse comes to worse, I can use them as "mere lighthouses" to orient myself). I already found 5 X-ray Pulsars, just re-checking and making minor adjustments using few Advanced Radar Satellites for multiple angle view, don't want to screw up and have a wrong map here.
But ODR… It is very useful, don't get me wrong, but it's also limited. With it's relative "short" range, cone view and the amount of space I need to comb through, it's easier to find a piece of paper in a hay stack…… And I'm think-talking with myself, great, boredom and insanity, just peachy!
*sigh* For the "after action report" – 13 hours since I found the wreckage, 12 and a half since I wisen up and begun my search for "landmarks" aka Pulsars, 11 since I begun dissecting what Archives I had on space navigation (both intact and readable corrupted files), and 10 h 42 min since I employed ODR to comb the Space for Colonials. The thing is I have no idea how far everyone is, the distances they can and have to travel, not to mention that yes real big interstellar space is screwing with my perception and my sanity (scientists were right everything is dust in cosmic scales).
Though have to say Selena's crew did an insane gamble. The planet "Prime-2" I .. woke up on, is 71 light-years rounded down from the location Selena jumped and that's way past their Red line. Considering that normal Mercury-class battlestar's maximum safe jump distance is 30 LY and you get my point.
Sad thing is I highly suspect that I found one of the colonies (though don't know which one), but from distance of 34 light-years ± 1 light-months, I can't be 100% sure (some of ODR's limits, past 10 LY readings gets slightly .. spotty, especially since there are no artificial systems or active technologies like Basestar's to detect). Data from Selena is a bit scrambled, but the gist of it the Twelve Colonies of Cobolt occupy a local star cluster with the farthest colonies being, give-or-take, 48 LY apart and their relative position changes very little (hence more precise long jumps inside Colonial space of influence). I could attempt to FTL and search from near that planet there (with similar results as now).. if I want to get Cylon attention. Been debating it for 7 hours, benefits, drawbacks, possible scenarios. In short:
Pros: Colonials might get some breathing room; Cylons might get distracted from their plans; I could get chance to get their technology; my presence and possibly my actions might alter their.. "society". Cons: Cylons might react negatively to me; I lose my element of surprise and give them a chance to observe/study my technology and modus operandi; I can't predict how Hybrids might react to an 'outsider' or my affect on their "divine plan". And that's what unnerves me the most.
The thing is I don't know much about BSG spiritual/magical aspect. Somecharacter people (atceries pie velna!) like Boomer or that "scientist" Baltar(?) experienced "visions" that at first might have been Cylon doing, but later seasons and Hybrid reactions somewhat debunked that hypotheses. And then there's the Hybrid mantra "it all happened before, it will happen again" (sounds a lot like they are stuck in a cycle).. No, no I decided Colonials first, THEN deal with semi-religious slaver cyborg civilisation. Besides Exodus Fleet has reasonable Cylons that I can talk to, so that's even better.
Ok, been here in one place for too long, time to relocate.
- - - - - - - - -
15 days After Transference, three different locations with no success at detecting Colonial Exodus Fleet. Monotonous and time consuming work, especially since I have programs for that and seemingly don't need to sleep (note: check 'why' later). But I don't understand, I had to find at least something by now! Yes, space is big and ships are comparatively small, but c'mon!… *sigh* What ever, pack up and to the next location, this time to that unusual readings 21 lightyears from here. Maybe it's a small stray planet? If true might stop by for a little while, do some industry actions (cause, in my "wisdom" or paranoia, I destroyed all assets I couldn't take with me in "Prime" solar system before I left) and think up a new game plan, because this search is almost pointless. Anyway finish up my "on the fly" projects/distractions, such as magnetic plasma sheets over hangar doorways (..had nothing better to do, and I wanted my force fields), fine-tune Luna's other new non-combat upgrade. Ok, all is set and.
*zzin*
Cool, y' know the dril- *ping* What? "*chsss*, *wriiiiii* ay, e *shhh* e ** p" No, no, clean up the noise, (Overclock systems) what are they saying (sensors, Radar, Lidar, enhanced DRADIS, ODR up, where are they)!! "Ma*shh*y, ** maday, *whiii* -yone, we need help, please!" (There) Survivors! 5 light-seconds 60° overhead, 45° starboard side!
Shit. This is bad. 5 civilian ships, all with varying damag, limping, power's fluctuating.. shit! Overriding safeties, don't care for the necessary system cooldown! Initiating short range jump, now!
*zzin*
*kro* (Sasodīts) There, 50 klicks from Luna, open channel "This is battlestar Luna, to all survivors: We heard ya' came as fast as we could. What's your situations, respond" it almost sounds like my voi-, NOT NOW! "Thank the gods. This is refinery ship Mountain Ore, Star Memory's life support is barely holding, it needs immediate assist!" That's the passenger liner and it's practically breaking apart!
"Hold on Star Memory, help is on its way" engines at half thrust, need to control my approach vectors, yet don't have much time and WHAT AM I DOING?! Damnit, I'm not prepared for this scenario! How can I .. Wait! My flight pod! Just barely, but I can get that liner inside of my upper hangar, vacuum seal the exits, pressurise the pod.. running simulation… success! OK, engaging reverse thrusters there's the liner, few kilometres away, prototype tractor beam, your first live test run, don't fail me now. "Star Memory brace for repositioning," "*Shzz*ruste*shzz* dead, wha*shzz* re you doi-, WHAT T*shhhhh* -AK!" good, careful now, careful. Guide it inside, through the plasma screen, activate artificial gravity, pressurise the atmosphere aaand.. "Welcome aboard Star Memory", "What was that! What did you do!" .. fudge, they don't have such technology, how can I…
*Kreeeu, Kreeeu* Oh, what now! .. Contacts! Dozens of them. Hundreds. 130'000 kilometres aft of Luna.. It's Cylons. Just my luck (Like I didn't have enough to deal with Murphy)!
Need to stop Colonial panic "Attention all survivors, DRADIS contacts, 400 and counting. Cylon Raiders. Reposition behind Luna and prepare for FTL." "By the lords of Kobolt.. Whoever you are we can't jump, our drives are dead!" There goes the easy choice. "Then get behind me. This will get ugly quickly" launching fighters. I have 300 Fighters, 90 Hammers and 60 Spears including the reserves, 10% of each will guard remaining Colonial ships and watch for any other surprises. Reposition Luna, putting its large overhead profile between Cylons and remaining Colonial survivors. I am terrified, this is my first battle with real lives at stake, but I won't run away now, I won't become less human than I am. And I won't let people be slaughters, without fighting back.
___________________________________________
- - - - - - - - -
Slow updates are slow. Sorry for the wait.
[]
Chapter 1.5
*zzin*
[^
='Musha' FTL transition sequence complete=
Engine status: stand-by.. green {no critical problems detected; optional provisionary system scan advised}
Power Systems:
-EP1: operational
-EP2: operational
-AEP1: operational
-AEP2: operational
-ES1: 51%
-ES2: 100%
-ES3: 100%
-ES4: 100%
^]
Wow, that was.. disorienting which is impossible, cause there's nothing in me as upload (I'll settle with this, end of story) to disorient. Systems seem to be working fine, eh
[
Quick Software Analysis complete:
-Quantum Computers 1-to-5: online
- -Q1: green
- -Q2: green
- -Q3: green
- -Q4: green
- -Q5: green
-E-Warfare: 100%
-Unit database: 100%
-Archive data: 60% {40% data lost}
--Memory archive 1: {information available}
--Memory archive 2: {all non-critical information lost}
--Memory archive 3: {non-critical information corrupted}
--Memory archive 4: {information available}
->PrimaryCore 1-to-10: ERROR {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
->SecondaryCore 1-to-10: ERROR {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
-->AdditionalCore: ERROR/?OPERATIONAL¿ {for additional information Deep Software Analysis required}
]
yup, everything is working as intended. Using different "dimension" for faster than light travel enacts a change in environment and that change from "normal" space to string-tunnel-whatever-space and back is not pleasant… (I'll just compare it to jump into water not accurate, but the sudden shift is closest human experience I can compare it to!).
No, wait I'm here for a reason not to puzzle my own horror nature! This should be around ± 0.5 light-month range from Selena's emergency jump starting position (the margin error mainly due to hastily inputed 'random jump' coordinates, Cylon virus wrecking havoc, with a small dashing of stellar drift). Looking around in the "immediate" standard sensor range nothing substan- scratch that, minisculely increased background radiation, and slightly higher number of particles and space junk in "near" space, and- there, ODR reveals large amount of ship debris 9 light-days (that's around 1560 AUs aka 1560 time the distance from Sun to Earth) from Luna (all that detected in 8.6 microseconds… damn Commanders are fast). From the recognisable pieces I can tentatively virtually restore and identify few colonial ship types, like Valkyrie, some supply ships, an- wait, is that…? (Double check!) .. that's Manticore from Deadlock?! It can't… no, no the game more-or-less depicted what transpired in 1st Cylon war and I'm a War-machine in a different reality myself, of course it's possible. I guess it still hasn't sinked in, this is NOT fiction! But that means Cylon capabilities.. I really should have watched more videos about Deadlock not just few ship breakdowns. Ok, positive… I'm lucky I learned about this surprise here, rather during a battle, that might have cost me (but then again Deadlock ain't the only depiction, there were others and even a prequel series). Whatever, I now know not to 100% rely on my admittedly limited foreknowledge, always expect deviations. Ok, but where to go from here…
- - - - - - - - -
… So hard. No scratch that, problem being hard isn't the thing, it's BOREDOM! Space is big. Stupendously big, like ridiculously, impossibly big. Even as an upload with vastly expanded capabilities, "senses", alien knowledge and variable army of semi-intelligent AIs, its still mindboggling (nedaudz šausminoši, really impressive, but still mindboggling). And herein lays the problem. Space has no easily discernible "landmarks" and navigating by stars is not overly reliable (since those are distant, change depending on observers position and in constant motion relative to themselves and Luna that's ALSO in motion, not to mention FTL..). While Commander's are equipped with sensors and technology such as Orbital Deepspace Radar that allow for orientation, without precise coordinates (or Progenitor GoogleMaps equivalent) it is useful only for reaching semi-random solar systems, not a rag tag survivor fleet.
So why did I thought it's a good idea to use my sensory equipment to find Pulsars or use ODR to act its namesake and scan every sector around me to find Exodus fleet‽?!! Pulsars I get, because, at least to my sensors, are very distinct and unique so I reasoned if I had locations and frequencies of multiple X-ray pulsars I could triangulate my position accurately near anywhere in the galaxy, give or take some minimal drift distance (worse comes to worse, I can use them as "mere lighthouses" to orient myself). I already found 5 X-ray Pulsars, just re-checking and making minor adjustments using few Advanced Radar Satellites for multiple angle view, don't want to screw up and have a wrong map here.
But ODR… It is very useful, don't get me wrong, but it's also limited. With it's relative "short" range, cone view and the amount of space I need to comb through, it's easier to find a piece of paper in a hay stack…… And I'm think-talking with myself, great, boredom and insanity, just peachy!
*sigh* For the "after action report" – 13 hours since I found the wreckage, 12 and a half since I wisen up and begun my search for "landmarks" aka Pulsars, 11 since I begun dissecting what Archives I had on space navigation (both intact and readable corrupted files), and 10 h 42 min since I employed ODR to comb the Space for Colonials. The thing is I have no idea how far everyone is, the distances they can and have to travel, not to mention that yes real big interstellar space is screwing with my perception and my sanity (scientists were right everything is dust in cosmic scales).
Though have to say Selena's crew did an insane gamble. The planet "Prime-2" I .. woke up on, is 71 light-years rounded down from the location Selena jumped and that's way past their Red line. Considering that normal Mercury-class battlestar's maximum safe jump distance is 30 LY and you get my point.
Sad thing is I highly suspect that I found one of the colonies (though don't know which one), but from distance of 34 light-years ± 1 light-months, I can't be 100% sure (some of ODR's limits, past 10 LY readings gets slightly .. spotty, especially since there are no artificial systems or active technologies like Basestar's to detect). Data from Selena is a bit scrambled, but the gist of it the Twelve Colonies of Cobolt occupy a local star cluster with the farthest colonies being, give-or-take, 48 LY apart and their relative position changes very little (hence more precise long jumps inside Colonial space of influence). I could attempt to FTL and search from near that planet there (with similar results as now).. if I want to get Cylon attention. Been debating it for 7 hours, benefits, drawbacks, possible scenarios. In short:
Pros: Colonials might get some breathing room; Cylons might get distracted from their plans; I could get chance to get their technology; my presence and possibly my actions might alter their.. "society". Cons: Cylons might react negatively to me; I lose my element of surprise and give them a chance to observe/study my technology and modus operandi; I can't predict how Hybrids might react to an 'outsider' or my affect on their "divine plan". And that's what unnerves me the most.
The thing is I don't know much about BSG spiritual/magical aspect. Some
Ok, been here in one place for too long, time to relocate.
- - - - - - - - -
15 days After Transference, three different locations with no success at detecting Colonial Exodus Fleet. Monotonous and time consuming work, especially since I have programs for that and seemingly don't need to sleep (note: check 'why' later). But I don't understand, I had to find at least something by now! Yes, space is big and ships are comparatively small, but c'mon!… *sigh* What ever, pack up and to the next location, this time to that unusual readings 21 lightyears from here. Maybe it's a small stray planet? If true might stop by for a little while, do some industry actions (cause, in my "wisdom" or paranoia, I destroyed all assets I couldn't take with me in "Prime" solar system before I left) and think up a new game plan, because this search is almost pointless. Anyway finish up my "on the fly" projects/distractions, such as magnetic plasma sheets over hangar doorways (..had nothing better to do, and I wanted my force fields), fine-tune Luna's other new non-combat upgrade. Ok, all is set and.
*zzin*
Cool, y' know the dril- *ping* What? "*chsss*, *wriiiiii* ay, e *shhh* e ** p" No, no, clean up the noise, (Overclock systems) what are they saying (sensors, Radar, Lidar, enhanced DRADIS, ODR up, where are they)!! "Ma*shh*y, ** maday, *whiii* -yone, we need help, please!" (There) Survivors! 5 light-seconds 60° overhead, 45° starboard side!
Shit. This is bad. 5 civilian ships, all with varying damag, limping, power's fluctuating.. shit! Overriding safeties, don't care for the necessary system cooldown! Initiating short range jump, now!
*zzin*
*kro* (Sasodīts) There, 50 klicks from Luna, open channel "This is battlestar Luna, to all survivors: We heard ya' came as fast as we could. What's your situations, respond" it almost sounds like my voi-, NOT NOW! "Thank the gods. This is refinery ship Mountain Ore, Star Memory's life support is barely holding, it needs immediate assist!" That's the passenger liner and it's practically breaking apart!
"Hold on Star Memory, help is on its way" engines at half thrust, need to control my approach vectors, yet don't have much time and WHAT AM I DOING?! Damnit, I'm not prepared for this scenario! How can I .. Wait! My flight pod! Just barely, but I can get that liner inside of my upper hangar, vacuum seal the exits, pressurise the pod.. running simulation… success! OK, engaging reverse thrusters there's the liner, few kilometres away, prototype tractor beam, your first live test run, don't fail me now. "Star Memory brace for repositioning," "*Shzz*ruste*shzz* dead, wha*shzz* re you doi-, WHAT T*shhhhh* -AK!" good, careful now, careful. Guide it inside, through the plasma screen, activate artificial gravity, pressurise the atmosphere aaand.. "Welcome aboard Star Memory", "What was that! What did you do!" .. fudge, they don't have such technology, how can I…
*Kreeeu, Kreeeu* Oh, what now! .. Contacts! Dozens of them. Hundreds. 130'000 kilometres aft of Luna.. It's Cylons. Just my luck (Like I didn't have enough to deal with Murphy)!
Need to stop Colonial panic "Attention all survivors, DRADIS contacts, 400 and counting. Cylon Raiders. Reposition behind Luna and prepare for FTL." "By the lords of Kobolt.. Whoever you are we can't jump, our drives are dead!" There goes the easy choice. "Then get behind me. This will get ugly quickly" launching fighters. I have 300 Fighters, 90 Hammers and 60 Spears including the reserves, 10% of each will guard remaining Colonial ships and watch for any other surprises. Reposition Luna, putting its large overhead profile between Cylons and remaining Colonial survivors. I am terrified, this is my first battle with real lives at stake, but I won't run away now, I won't become less human than I am. And I won't let people be slaughters, without fighting back.
___________________________________________
- - - - - - - - -
Slow updates are slow. Sorry for the wait.
Chapter 1.6
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
-
Big shot out to @Devlman127 for beta-reading this whole thing.
[]
Chapter 1.6
This will be my first battle in this universe and my tactical situation is not pleasant. An "immobile" defensive battle where failure means the death of several thousand lives.
Retreat is not an option.
My best asset, Luna, is in a stationary position protecting damaged Colonial ships ventral side. My fighter-drones are arranged into two forces, attack wings made of ten by forty around Luna and garrison of fifty drones spread around the Colonials.
Cylons present 4,000 raiders spread like a net "above" us. A formidable force… But there are no Basestars, no carriers, cruisers, gunships, nothing. Against 5 unarmed, on-their-last-leg civilian ships that's overkill. Against a dedicated warship, however, not so much - unless it needs to protect said civilians.
Coincidence or not, if this were a real trap for a Battlestar, there would have been at least one capital ship.
12 seconds in and Cylons are not altering their leisurely approach vectors. Like they know we can't escape.
Oh, and there's the virus transmission. Monitoring systems, but.. it doesn't seem to be working. Well, since nothing seems to be happening, I might dedicate some threads to analyze this and if possible find vulnerabilities to exploit.
Meanwhile – sending six wings at quarter max acceleration towards the center of Cylon formation. Three seconds later, I fire two long-range non-nuclear "torpedoes". With acceleration of 12 g, it'll take less than half an hour to reach the Cylon forces. In few seconds, as expected, raiders react…
Oh, some of them are changing positions, though the "swarm" as a whole seems disorganized. Guess this pushed them off their rhythm. Good. Initiative taken.
I played my first card, your move Cylons.
- - - - - - - - -
"Star Wars" portrayed space combat as fast-paced, action-pumped up-your-nose combat, "Star Trek" portrayed it as submarine combat where you need to get close enough to deliver damage, but "Expanse" portrayed it most realistically that can be summed up as "hurry up and wait". Especially due to scale.
I said it before and it bears repeating: Space. Is. Big. Coupled with my accelerated perception, the next ten minutes felt far, far too long. Whelp, least some of my threads managed to fine-tune ODR to more easily pick up Cylon and Colonial tech at longer distances.
Turns out to detect Commander level tech ODR has to contend with not only laws of physics, but also a considerable amount of countermeasures. In other words, this universes technology, while having next to no countermeasures, at long ranges, are interpreted as "junk" data (so how many times have I missed the fleet due to system settings?!).
Also during the wait, raiders got their act together and are responding properly now. A few hundred raiders speed ahead to intercept torpedoes, followed by a second wave a few dozen klicks apart, presumably to take out my fighters. A somewhat valid tactic and in some ways that's actually better for me.
3 minutes before contact, my "torpedoes" separately alter their course and speed. Primary speeds ahead, secondary cuts thrust and adjusts trajectory.
Minute later primary torpedo is now close enough - activating localized EMP bursts…
Ok, just every fifth raider gets outright disabled, though everyone… show signs of pain: most jerk around, some haphazardly fire wherever, few even twist around seemingly to "run away"…
Not as I planned, but I'll take it. Maybe their resistant and aberrant reactions are due to organic brains? I mean organic brains - even for cyborgs - require different methods to effectively disab.… What the-? wow.
60 raiders are shooting at the primary torpedo, with little success. Their missile guidance systems are "dead" due to EMP, most KEWs miss so the same can be said about their targ- Nē!…
Twenty-five raiders just rammed and demolished my prototype EMP weapon! Shag it, plan "B" it is. Secondary torpedo sheds its outer layer releasing its payload – 64 "fragmentation" missiles. They spread out and accelerate to maximize damage potential. 8 seconds later each of said missiles explodes filling the space with six-inch titanium-tipped flechette rounds.
Moving at speeds over 150 kilometers per second, these rounds turn hundreds of raiders into nothing more than unrecognizable space junk. Looking around, I don't know why I was worried. In a span of 54 seconds, four thousand strong Cylon force has dwindled to 2,341 raiders and once, in a few seconds, they get inside my laser weapons effective range the rest wi-
Velns! Half the riders jumped close range! *Thumm* Damn, doesn't matter whether their targeting computers were fried, Luna's too big to miss. Point defenses activate and take out as many targets they can, but good chunks still hits the armor. Worst yet, they're aiming for the Colonials!
The main forces will deal with the remaining Cylons! Garrison's engaging the enemy, Spears jamming at max power. Diverting PDCs to deal with raiders. Drone priority: intercept targets that endanger Colonial ships. Don't care how many fighters I lose, THE COLONIALS WILL LIVE!
- - - - - - - - -
And done, the last active riders in this area are eradicated. Better call it. "Battlestar Luna to all Colonial vessels: Cylon raiders are defeated, you're safe," little moral boost won't hurt, but it's not over.
Ignoring their unusual actions at the beginning, at this point in time Cylons won't operate outside their Resurrection ship's "revival" range, meaning I (probably) haven't truly destroyed any raider, and they will inform other Cylons, if only just by the number of resurrections alone. Not to mention those few raiders, that escaped engagement during their surprise attack… Yeah, better hurry.
"Mountain Ore, a word, please. In private," while I'm waiting for their response, so what's my stock…
Luna took some hits: several laser towers and barrels are damage, engines singed but otherwise fine, the armor's scratched and dented in some places (man, Colonials build their Battlestars tough), all systems are operational, Star Memory, its crew and remaining Colonial ships are a bit shaken, but otherwise unharmed.
On my drone side, I lost 68 Fighters, 5 Hammers and 7 Spears. Most loses happened due to intercepting 'lucky' missiles and kamikazes aimed towards Colonial ships, with few in the battle against their main force. I'll review their performance for improvements later, but so far I like the results.
On the other side, the repairs of the Musha Drive is underway. Nothing critical, the problem arose mostly due to hasty jump than the battle itself. Turns out every "non-chain jump" (a jump sequence that's executed up to 0.5 milliseconds seconds of each other) necessitates some cool-down otherwise one or two of the more sensitive components overheats. You will complete your current FTL transition, but without maintenance, later ones either won't happen or will damage the ship.
*Sheww* "Active Captain Ronald Kerut of Mountain Ore, you wanted to talk?" sounds like the same person, though slightly nervous.
"Captain. In short: how long before you can jump?" my modulated voice, while measured and calm had an undertone of urgency to it. "Don't bother with calculations, I will provide them, just how much time you need to fix your drives? We need to leave as soon as we can."
"You saw our ships, we're barely holding on. We lost people, food is practically gone, there are no spare parts, not after that bitch-!" What the fuck?! Wait, no it can't be…
Please let me be wrong. "Ronald.. What. Happened?"
"… There were more of us before, you know," he sounds forlorn, drained. "We barely escaped when Cylons attacked my home, Cancer. At first, there were just two ships, but throughout the weeks we managed to find other survivors. We banded together, shared our space, helped each other. Soon enough there were 40 of us, a whole fleet."
"None of our ships were meant to operate this long without a dry-dock, and it showed, but somehow we managed to get by. All the while we were running from Cylon hunting parties. Somehow they always managed to find us." (Trackers… or bio-Cylons) "Then like a miracle we encountered a Battlestar. After all the hell we went through we finally had some hope. For the next few days things looked better, heck, its admiral even managed to fend off occasional Cylon attack…"
"Then the admiral ordered her troops to take our materials, food, jump drives, everything. If we objected they used force. Some like Singing Wave or Snow Peak tried to resist, to stop the madness… She destroyed them. Over a hundred people dead, not by Cylon, but by human hands."
"We couldn't take it any longer, so we tried to escape, leave the fleet. We acted as quietly as we could nevertheless somehow she got wind of it and ordered an attack… We're all that's left…"
"… I'm sorry."
There's nothing else to say. What can I, when he confirmed that Cain is insane?
- - - - - - - -
10 minutes later, I finished my conversation with Ronald, him promising to talk with other captains for details and suggestions, but my scans… it's bad.
One cargo transport had lost most of its engines and is running on fumes, another has nasty multiple deck gash on its side, while the medical ship has some holes in the middle of it, and the liner Star Memory in my hangar is in awful condition. Its has a ripped hull, empty fuel tanks, and shot-to-hell life support, and even the jump drive seems to be ripped out.
Mountain Ore is in the best shape, despite the bullet holes and damaged engines. Guess Cain wanted to retrieve a tylium refinery ship as "intact" as possible because other ships are in way worse condition. How can someone do such things?
I haven't met her, but from what I see, she more then deserves her out-of-universe scorn. God, I hate this. Once I find her I have to be diplomatic, cause like it or not, Pegasus is one of few good ships left for the Colonials, and their technophobia will prevent me, an unknown AI, from taking things in my own hands.
[
*Ping*
Construction complete;
Utility system TB Network installed;
]
Some good news, finally. Since my prototype tractor beam test was successful I decided to streamline and install multiple TB emitters.
Now all of Luna's flight pods are equipped with tractor beam emitter networks.
I already have a laser-based system built into Extractors, but they are meant for small scale precision operations with piddling range (though atoms, molecules, and dust size particles don't need that long a reach). But I wanted something more practical at a macroscopic scale. Using lasers alone would make it into a sloppy weapon at best, which I don't want.
Purely gravity based one, besides working out the "how" part, would guzzle so much power it's not even funny.
So part of me was amazed that it is possible to use both to economically achieve my goal. See, specifically polarised rotating laser generated photons, as a quantum particle of electromagnetic radiation, interacts with gravitoelectromagnetic altering properties of my anti-grav systems, produces "gravitophotons" which… dammit.
I'm an upload and still fifteen and a half days of isolation affected me.
*Sheww*"Hey, ya' hear me?"
Oh. Yeah, Ronald. "Yeah, I'm here. Something's the matter?" Because it's been only 7.3 minutes, way too little time for … organics.
"Well, to start with, Demani's and Cibra's computers are too far gone to fix on the spot, Doves Wing's hull is too compromised to jump, Ore's containers are somewhat grazed, its not leaking, but only just. And you've seen Star Memory's condition. The best action would be to transfer to your ship and scuttle ours… Unless you can pull off that trick you did with Star again."
"It'll be a tight squeeze, but I think we-"
"You're not human, are you." that's not a question, but a statement.
"Why such an accusation, captain?"
"When Cylon's came you acted almost before we spotted them, without a delay. Your fighters are too different and the Battlestar is nothing like the one I served on. Your voice is too even, too measured, you're not even breathing. You're not denying any of what I said. And you never gave your name." … Sasper mani jods. He's right.
"I'm not your enemy Ronald."
"… No. No, you're not. And frankly, I don't have a choice. We're alive right now only because of you. So care to give a name or what?"
Frankly, I don't want to give my real name for multiple reasons, chief of which is I don't think I'm the same person. (Yet one more thing I lost…) But something similar, to acknowledge both how I'm both the same person and yet not? A derivative of which my name is evolved from? That, that might do.
"My name is Reinhart, Commander of the Luna"
"Reinhar. Thanks for the help. So, about that plan…"
___________________________________________
- - - - - - - - -
Big shot out to @Devlman127 for beta-reading this whole thing.
[]
Chapter 1.6
This will be my first battle in this universe and my tactical situation is not pleasant. An "immobile" defensive battle where failure means the death of several thousand lives.
Retreat is not an option.
My best asset, Luna, is in a stationary position protecting damaged Colonial ships ventral side. My fighter-drones are arranged into two forces, attack wings made of ten by forty around Luna and garrison of fifty drones spread around the Colonials.
Cylons present 4,000 raiders spread like a net "above" us. A formidable force… But there are no Basestars, no carriers, cruisers, gunships, nothing. Against 5 unarmed, on-their-last-leg civilian ships that's overkill. Against a dedicated warship, however, not so much - unless it needs to protect said civilians.
Coincidence or not, if this were a real trap for a Battlestar, there would have been at least one capital ship.
12 seconds in and Cylons are not altering their leisurely approach vectors. Like they know we can't escape.
Oh, and there's the virus transmission. Monitoring systems, but.. it doesn't seem to be working. Well, since nothing seems to be happening, I might dedicate some threads to analyze this and if possible find vulnerabilities to exploit.
Meanwhile – sending six wings at quarter max acceleration towards the center of Cylon formation. Three seconds later, I fire two long-range non-nuclear "torpedoes". With acceleration of 12 g, it'll take less than half an hour to reach the Cylon forces. In few seconds, as expected, raiders react…
Oh, some of them are changing positions, though the "swarm" as a whole seems disorganized. Guess this pushed them off their rhythm. Good. Initiative taken.
I played my first card, your move Cylons.
- - - - - - - - -
"Star Wars" portrayed space combat as fast-paced, action-pumped up-your-nose combat, "Star Trek" portrayed it as submarine combat where you need to get close enough to deliver damage, but "Expanse" portrayed it most realistically that can be summed up as "hurry up and wait". Especially due to scale.
I said it before and it bears repeating: Space. Is. Big. Coupled with my accelerated perception, the next ten minutes felt far, far too long. Whelp, least some of my threads managed to fine-tune ODR to more easily pick up Cylon and Colonial tech at longer distances.
Turns out to detect Commander level tech ODR has to contend with not only laws of physics, but also a considerable amount of countermeasures. In other words, this universes technology, while having next to no countermeasures, at long ranges, are interpreted as "junk" data (so how many times have I missed the fleet due to system settings?!).
Also during the wait, raiders got their act together and are responding properly now. A few hundred raiders speed ahead to intercept torpedoes, followed by a second wave a few dozen klicks apart, presumably to take out my fighters. A somewhat valid tactic and in some ways that's actually better for me.
3 minutes before contact, my "torpedoes" separately alter their course and speed. Primary speeds ahead, secondary cuts thrust and adjusts trajectory.
Minute later primary torpedo is now close enough - activating localized EMP bursts…
Ok, just every fifth raider gets outright disabled, though everyone… show signs of pain: most jerk around, some haphazardly fire wherever, few even twist around seemingly to "run away"…
Not as I planned, but I'll take it. Maybe their resistant and aberrant reactions are due to organic brains? I mean organic brains - even for cyborgs - require different methods to effectively disab.… What the-? wow.
60 raiders are shooting at the primary torpedo, with little success. Their missile guidance systems are "dead" due to EMP, most KEWs miss so the same can be said about their targ- Nē!…
Twenty-five raiders just rammed and demolished my prototype EMP weapon! Shag it, plan "B" it is. Secondary torpedo sheds its outer layer releasing its payload – 64 "fragmentation" missiles. They spread out and accelerate to maximize damage potential. 8 seconds later each of said missiles explodes filling the space with six-inch titanium-tipped flechette rounds.
Moving at speeds over 150 kilometers per second, these rounds turn hundreds of raiders into nothing more than unrecognizable space junk. Looking around, I don't know why I was worried. In a span of 54 seconds, four thousand strong Cylon force has dwindled to 2,341 raiders and once, in a few seconds, they get inside my laser weapons effective range the rest wi-
Velns! Half the riders jumped close range! *Thumm* Damn, doesn't matter whether their targeting computers were fried, Luna's too big to miss. Point defenses activate and take out as many targets they can, but good chunks still hits the armor. Worst yet, they're aiming for the Colonials!
The main forces will deal with the remaining Cylons! Garrison's engaging the enemy, Spears jamming at max power. Diverting PDCs to deal with raiders. Drone priority: intercept targets that endanger Colonial ships. Don't care how many fighters I lose, THE COLONIALS WILL LIVE!
- - - - - - - - -
And done, the last active riders in this area are eradicated. Better call it. "Battlestar Luna to all Colonial vessels: Cylon raiders are defeated, you're safe," little moral boost won't hurt, but it's not over.
Ignoring their unusual actions at the beginning, at this point in time Cylons won't operate outside their Resurrection ship's "revival" range, meaning I (probably) haven't truly destroyed any raider, and they will inform other Cylons, if only just by the number of resurrections alone. Not to mention those few raiders, that escaped engagement during their surprise attack… Yeah, better hurry.
"Mountain Ore, a word, please. In private," while I'm waiting for their response, so what's my stock…
Luna took some hits: several laser towers and barrels are damage, engines singed but otherwise fine, the armor's scratched and dented in some places (man, Colonials build their Battlestars tough), all systems are operational, Star Memory, its crew and remaining Colonial ships are a bit shaken, but otherwise unharmed.
On my drone side, I lost 68 Fighters, 5 Hammers and 7 Spears. Most loses happened due to intercepting 'lucky' missiles and kamikazes aimed towards Colonial ships, with few in the battle against their main force. I'll review their performance for improvements later, but so far I like the results.
On the other side, the repairs of the Musha Drive is underway. Nothing critical, the problem arose mostly due to hasty jump than the battle itself. Turns out every "non-chain jump" (a jump sequence that's executed up to 0.5 milliseconds seconds of each other) necessitates some cool-down otherwise one or two of the more sensitive components overheats. You will complete your current FTL transition, but without maintenance, later ones either won't happen or will damage the ship.
*Sheww* "Active Captain Ronald Kerut of Mountain Ore, you wanted to talk?" sounds like the same person, though slightly nervous.
"Captain. In short: how long before you can jump?" my modulated voice, while measured and calm had an undertone of urgency to it. "Don't bother with calculations, I will provide them, just how much time you need to fix your drives? We need to leave as soon as we can."
"You saw our ships, we're barely holding on. We lost people, food is practically gone, there are no spare parts, not after that bitch-!" What the fuck?! Wait, no it can't be…
Please let me be wrong. "Ronald.. What. Happened?"
"… There were more of us before, you know," he sounds forlorn, drained. "We barely escaped when Cylons attacked my home, Cancer. At first, there were just two ships, but throughout the weeks we managed to find other survivors. We banded together, shared our space, helped each other. Soon enough there were 40 of us, a whole fleet."
"None of our ships were meant to operate this long without a dry-dock, and it showed, but somehow we managed to get by. All the while we were running from Cylon hunting parties. Somehow they always managed to find us." (Trackers… or bio-Cylons) "Then like a miracle we encountered a Battlestar. After all the hell we went through we finally had some hope. For the next few days things looked better, heck, its admiral even managed to fend off occasional Cylon attack…"
"Then the admiral ordered her troops to take our materials, food, jump drives, everything. If we objected they used force. Some like Singing Wave or Snow Peak tried to resist, to stop the madness… She destroyed them. Over a hundred people dead, not by Cylon, but by human hands."
"We couldn't take it any longer, so we tried to escape, leave the fleet. We acted as quietly as we could nevertheless somehow she got wind of it and ordered an attack… We're all that's left…"
"… I'm sorry."
There's nothing else to say. What can I, when he confirmed that Cain is insane?
- - - - - - - -
10 minutes later, I finished my conversation with Ronald, him promising to talk with other captains for details and suggestions, but my scans… it's bad.
One cargo transport had lost most of its engines and is running on fumes, another has nasty multiple deck gash on its side, while the medical ship has some holes in the middle of it, and the liner Star Memory in my hangar is in awful condition. Its has a ripped hull, empty fuel tanks, and shot-to-hell life support, and even the jump drive seems to be ripped out.
Mountain Ore is in the best shape, despite the bullet holes and damaged engines. Guess Cain wanted to retrieve a tylium refinery ship as "intact" as possible because other ships are in way worse condition. How can someone do such things?
I haven't met her, but from what I see, she more then deserves her out-of-universe scorn. God, I hate this. Once I find her I have to be diplomatic, cause like it or not, Pegasus is one of few good ships left for the Colonials, and their technophobia will prevent me, an unknown AI, from taking things in my own hands.
[
*Ping*
Construction complete;
Utility system TB Network installed;
]
Some good news, finally. Since my prototype tractor beam test was successful I decided to streamline and install multiple TB emitters.
Now all of Luna's flight pods are equipped with tractor beam emitter networks.
I already have a laser-based system built into Extractors, but they are meant for small scale precision operations with piddling range (though atoms, molecules, and dust size particles don't need that long a reach). But I wanted something more practical at a macroscopic scale. Using lasers alone would make it into a sloppy weapon at best, which I don't want.
Purely gravity based one, besides working out the "how" part, would guzzle so much power it's not even funny.
So part of me was amazed that it is possible to use both to economically achieve my goal. See, specifically polarised rotating laser generated photons, as a quantum particle of electromagnetic radiation, interacts with gravitoelectromagnetic altering properties of my anti-grav systems, produces "gravitophotons" which… dammit.
I'm an upload and still fifteen and a half days of isolation affected me.
*Sheww*"Hey, ya' hear me?"
Oh. Yeah, Ronald. "Yeah, I'm here. Something's the matter?" Because it's been only 7.3 minutes, way too little time for … organics.
"Well, to start with, Demani's and Cibra's computers are too far gone to fix on the spot, Doves Wing's hull is too compromised to jump, Ore's containers are somewhat grazed, its not leaking, but only just. And you've seen Star Memory's condition. The best action would be to transfer to your ship and scuttle ours… Unless you can pull off that trick you did with Star again."
"It'll be a tight squeeze, but I think we-"
"You're not human, are you." that's not a question, but a statement.
"Why such an accusation, captain?"
"When Cylon's came you acted almost before we spotted them, without a delay. Your fighters are too different and the Battlestar is nothing like the one I served on. Your voice is too even, too measured, you're not even breathing. You're not denying any of what I said. And you never gave your name." … Sasper mani jods. He's right.
"I'm not your enemy Ronald."
"… No. No, you're not. And frankly, I don't have a choice. We're alive right now only because of you. So care to give a name or what?"
Frankly, I don't want to give my real name for multiple reasons, chief of which is I don't think I'm the same person. (Yet one more thing I lost…) But something similar, to acknowledge both how I'm both the same person and yet not? A derivative of which my name is evolved from? That, that might do.
"My name is Reinhart, Commander of the Luna"
"Reinhar. Thanks for the help. So, about that plan…"
___________________________________________
- - - - - - - - -
Chapter 1.7
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
-
[]
Chapter 1.7
It took some tricky handling, but nevertheless, I managed to securely squeeze all five vessels inside Luna. So now Star Memory shares the right upper flight pod with the medical ship Doves Wing's while Demani and Cibra occupy the left upper flight pod.
Mountain Ore, being too wide for any pod's doors, had to be stored inside the bottom docking bay. That forced me to relocate Osiris and most fabbers though. Some had to be secured along the walls (mainly aquatic and areal fab_bots) but the rest were sent deeper inside Luna. Luckily corridors are now big enough to house my units without major problems. Ore's crew, though, will have to wait a bit while I reinstall life support.
And all ships need considerable maintenance, which I can provide with minimal impact on my material reserves once we leave this area.
Speaking of, the battlefield is littered with raiders in varying levels of damage. While I have yet to find a fully intact, functional rider I did manage to secure a number of the standard and heavy raiders, as well as some less intact pieces. Studying them -will- give me some valuable information, and might give insight into cybernetic technology as well.
The collective term most often used in Commander fanfics: "shinies"! (need some levity) But seriously – to deny Cylons the same chance, because it is a sensible thing to do and this is REAL LIFE, I reclaimed or otherwise dealt with my own drone wreckages.
*Kreeeu, Kreeeu*
And not too soon. Cylons have returned. And not just raiders this time. An actual fleet… Huh.
I count two 'modern' Basestars, one Cerberus capital ships from 'Deadlock', plus four support ships with an additional 7,000 standard and 1,000 heavy raiders some 143,400 km from Luna. And ODR detects thrice the numbers ten lightyears from here. And twice that 60 lightyears further away.
Hmm… Nope.
"Attention all hands – Cylon armada detected. Bunker down where you are, as soon as we can, we jump."
And wasn't that a distasteful surprise. The last 'emergency' jump damaged some of Musha Drive's more delicate components. Repairing the damage itself is not hard, but getting to them without damaging the engine further? Partially regret making my engine units much tougher and robust compared to the local FTL. Though I'm mollified by the fact that in a similar situation Colonial drives would have been slagged and ship dead in all sense of the word.
"Demani here, how long til' the jump? Can you hold off so many toasters?!" Maybe I shouldn't have connected my radars to theirs. Though offering them the ability to detect enemies faster than their DRADIS did somewhat mollify several of the more worried Colonials.
"I need 3 more minutes, Captain Mary. As long as they don't ram us we're fine."
Truth be told, I could stay and fight but that would be too much of a risk. My Battlestar is stronger than any individual ship present here, yet in war, numbers matter. As the saying goes 'quantity has a quality of its own' (and their ships are not too weak in armament). Luna would win, no questions asked but would suffer severe damage and in most cases, Colonials would be killed.
Shit! The second fleet jumped to mere 13 klicks, well within effective weapons range and firing for all they're worth.
"Everyone strapped in and hold on, executing evasive maneuvers!" Luna is faster and more maneuverable than any ship her size should be and I'm utilizing as much of it as safely possible.
My ECM suits are active; laser, kinetic, flack, missile based point defenses fire like there's no tomorrow. It is easing the pressure, however, the volume they throw at me is ridiculous.
Thousands of Cylon missiles and rockets are detonated prematurely or outright miss, hundreds of raiders are shot down, nukes countered, but Luna still receives a portion of the damage. Mass Effect Codex was right - even if you have 100% accuracy, with enough numbers some attack will get through.
Most of my return fire is countered by a variable cloud of bullets, flak, and raiders, though some get through. Fun fact: in space nuclear weapon omnidirectional explosion is far less destructive than on planets due to lack of atmosphere. There are only 2 reasonable ways to mitigate this problem: a) use a bigger nuclear charge (employed by locals) or b) shape the explosion (what I chose to test).
Of twenty warheads aimed against Cerberuses, only 3 survived till impact. Usually, 100 kilo-tone thermonuclear warhead won't do extensive damage, but shaped as they were, the nukes managed to not only penetrate the armor but damaged their target inside, crippling both ships. A lucky strike must have caught a power system cause one Cerberus exploded.
If anything this made Cylons fight with greater fever. They're even employing railguns. You're not supposed to have railguns!
*Thumm*
I need them to back off! Fortunately, my stunt gave me a near unobscure sight of a Basestar. Changing Luna's trajectory, realigning starboard railgun and laser batteries, and fire!… Wow, I suspected they were fragile but outright disintegrating!?
Whatever it was, it had the intended effect - Cylon assault cased. Completely. Not even raiders are chasing us…
A Quick check shows that Luna took quite a beating: multiple armor sections need replacing, towers 13 - 19 slagged, port launch tubes 6 to 28 inoperable, munition reserves down by 43.8% but the Colonials are ok. Disoriented but still in one piece. Even better news - Drive's repairs are nearly complete.
"1 minute till jump, people. Just a little longer!"
*Ping*
Huh, communication-? Why would Cylons want to communicate? And NOW? Whatever, if it buys me more time, I'll bite. Open channel. "You have 1 minute, speak your piece." Aggressive, but I'm irritated and we are enemies.
"Connection enabled. Analyzing," ha, good luck finding anything in a sterile, build from grounds-up 'empty' and isolated system. V2.0 will have malware for you.
"Attention Colonial. We came to finish what started in the Colonies. Your struggles are meaningless, you resistance - pointless. You will be eliminated. Your civilization will be erased from the universe. You will be eradicated as was intended." "Electron charge altering transition-" oh, that does it.
"Oh, Hello! Are you in a Basestar or Cerberus? Cause y'know, I want to shoot you, and need to know where to aim."
"Brave wo-"
"Not done One! Or was it Cavil? Ehh, I'll just call you Cav, ok Cav?"
"What-?" unprepared and confused. Good.
"Come on Cav, it's simple: tell me which ship I should blow up next! No need to broadcast from all of them. Seriously, don't be shy, kiddy-widdy!" He's a psychotic and dangerous dictator, not to be underestimated, but I won't give him respect. Such things don't deserve dignity, only disdain.
"Quiet! I can end you with one order!" he is angry… and times up.
"Yeah, yea, kill ya later fart-mug."
"NO-"
*zinn*
- - - - - - - -
I just pissed off one of Cylon main 'leader models. Diplomacy with them will be much harder now, especially if Cavil remains in charge. But I'm not going to submit to a genocidal maniac. Speaking of his victims.
"We left the immediate danger. Are any of you hurt?" Cause some of you don't look that good.
"Fine. W-we're fine" Mary's face looks a bit green there, "J-just fix you antigrav. We felt those turns."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Had to avoid some shots with high-g burns. Couldn't compensate. I'll change the internal gravity to compensate next time we're in combat."
"That might happen soon, though" Ronald speaks up, "Tracking remember?"
"Unless Cylons can jump hundred and thirteen lightyears spinward-rimward in the next hour. Plus my jamming's working at full power they can't track their signal."
"You sure?" is that.. yup slight disbelieve and hint of hope.
"Not 100% no, but what I've seen suggests that's the case. Not to mention Cylon FTL signal takes time before someone receives them, unlike entangled quantum particles which they don't use. I've checked."
"Ok, stop! Have you forgot what he did?!" and that's Arnold Sharp. What else this paranoic want's to complain about? Unless…
"Do you mean fighting off the Cylon fleet or talking with Cavil?"
"You hear that! It even provoked the Cylons! It's one of them, a gods damn toaster!" goddamnit, really?
"Sharp-"
"Then why are we alive? Frak, why fight his own kind?! He helping us you nutjob!"
"Please, Mary-"
"And what of Cain! She's a human and that bitch butchered our fleet, left us for dead! This thing ain't even human!"
Hey!
"Cain was-!"
"Shut it you-!"
"All you do-!"
"And what if-!"
"You stupid, frakking-!" That's it!
"ENOUGH!" "ENOUGH!"
Huh, guess I'm not the only one whose patience ran out.
"Thank you, Ronald. As for you, children, I know this is too much to take in, too many things went wrong, and something good happening is unbelievable, but screaming your heads off like that won't help anyone. You five are responsible for over two thousand survivors. They look up to you for guidance, for stability. You fear me, an unknown, and that's fine, but I AM helping. If it will ease your uncertainties, I will answer what questions I can later, but right this instance you need to get things sorted out."
"Now all hangars are connected, life support's active and hallways pressurized, you can take stock of what you have, how many need medical assistance, what can be salvaged and so on. I have a few things that require my attention, so I'll leave you to your own device and contact you in an hour or so. If you need anything, just call. Is that acceptable?"
There are some mumbles here and there but overall they agree with me. Most of what I said is true: people need some stability and infighting will cause debilitating problems.
One by one they end their calls and leave to gather their respective crew. They need time to cool off and I need to think about what is safe to reveal.
"Hey, Reinhart" and now Ronald's the last one still on "You're ok?" …
"Yes and no. We just escaped a hazardous situation and the first thing they do? Scream and curse despite the laundry list of problems that needs sorting. Sorry to say, but I don't envy your position."
"Ha. Thanks for that. I know Cibra's captain might be a bit crazy though he's not wrong on one aspect: you know more than you've let on. And you don't even deny it, heck it is like you want to tell us but don't. Why?" the topic I wanted to postpone.
"Things are more complicated than you think. My situation, you exodus fleets, Cylon fuckery, everything. Even still, I myself need to sort out some Archive data to confirm some theories and understand the bigger picture" though I get the gist of it, I hope. "That's why."
"So, that's it? Nothing?" his voice is kept neutral like he's trying to state a fact, not accuse me. Huff… Don't want to but I could share 'something' what I think he suspects if not expects.
"Short, non-informative answer: I am a Human shoved inside a 'machine'. My body is that of a 'robot' but still have my memories, emotion, and thoughts but I …… Uhhh, I don't know everything, ok? I promise to answer and explain what I can in an hour or so, Captain Ronald, but when we're cooled off, not tired, adrenaline-high or making mistakes while saving people." I hope this is just enough info to satisfy his curiosity without spilling everything.
"… That's quite a bombshell…" you have no idea men.
"I know, but it's not life-threatening just lots to take in. S' why I ask to talk later when you all calmed down and are ready for more - as you put it - 'bombshells'."
"At least you're up front. Fine, we'll talk in a few hours. Good luck fixing your ship, it took 'heck of a beating." and with that, he is off the coms.
Now. I need to review my previous battles, either design new toys or change tactics (or both), fix up Luna (minor damage overall so I should be done in less than an hour), and decide how much should I tell the Colonials, that barely survived Cylon ambush, Cain's treachery and now must rely on me to survive.
What can I do to get out of this mess?
___________________________________________
[]
Chapter 1.7
It took some tricky handling, but nevertheless, I managed to securely squeeze all five vessels inside Luna. So now Star Memory shares the right upper flight pod with the medical ship Doves Wing's while Demani and Cibra occupy the left upper flight pod.
Mountain Ore, being too wide for any pod's doors, had to be stored inside the bottom docking bay. That forced me to relocate Osiris and most fabbers though. Some had to be secured along the walls (mainly aquatic and areal fab_bots) but the rest were sent deeper inside Luna. Luckily corridors are now big enough to house my units without major problems. Ore's crew, though, will have to wait a bit while I reinstall life support.
And all ships need considerable maintenance, which I can provide with minimal impact on my material reserves once we leave this area.
Speaking of, the battlefield is littered with raiders in varying levels of damage. While I have yet to find a fully intact, functional rider I did manage to secure a number of the standard and heavy raiders, as well as some less intact pieces. Studying them -will- give me some valuable information, and might give insight into cybernetic technology as well.
The collective term most often used in Commander fanfics: "shinies"! (need some levity) But seriously – to deny Cylons the same chance, because it is a sensible thing to do and this is REAL LIFE, I reclaimed or otherwise dealt with my own drone wreckages.
*Kreeeu, Kreeeu*
And not too soon. Cylons have returned. And not just raiders this time. An actual fleet… Huh.
I count two 'modern' Basestars, one Cerberus capital ships from 'Deadlock', plus four support ships with an additional 7,000 standard and 1,000 heavy raiders some 143,400 km from Luna. And ODR detects thrice the numbers ten lightyears from here. And twice that 60 lightyears further away.
Hmm… Nope.
"Attention all hands – Cylon armada detected. Bunker down where you are, as soon as we can, we jump."
And wasn't that a distasteful surprise. The last 'emergency' jump damaged some of Musha Drive's more delicate components. Repairing the damage itself is not hard, but getting to them without damaging the engine further? Partially regret making my engine units much tougher and robust compared to the local FTL. Though I'm mollified by the fact that in a similar situation Colonial drives would have been slagged and ship dead in all sense of the word.
"Demani here, how long til' the jump? Can you hold off so many toasters?!" Maybe I shouldn't have connected my radars to theirs. Though offering them the ability to detect enemies faster than their DRADIS did somewhat mollify several of the more worried Colonials.
"I need 3 more minutes, Captain Mary. As long as they don't ram us we're fine."
Truth be told, I could stay and fight but that would be too much of a risk. My Battlestar is stronger than any individual ship present here, yet in war, numbers matter. As the saying goes 'quantity has a quality of its own' (and their ships are not too weak in armament). Luna would win, no questions asked but would suffer severe damage and in most cases, Colonials would be killed.
Shit! The second fleet jumped to mere 13 klicks, well within effective weapons range and firing for all they're worth.
"Everyone strapped in and hold on, executing evasive maneuvers!" Luna is faster and more maneuverable than any ship her size should be and I'm utilizing as much of it as safely possible.
My ECM suits are active; laser, kinetic, flack, missile based point defenses fire like there's no tomorrow. It is easing the pressure, however, the volume they throw at me is ridiculous.
Thousands of Cylon missiles and rockets are detonated prematurely or outright miss, hundreds of raiders are shot down, nukes countered, but Luna still receives a portion of the damage. Mass Effect Codex was right - even if you have 100% accuracy, with enough numbers some attack will get through.
Most of my return fire is countered by a variable cloud of bullets, flak, and raiders, though some get through. Fun fact: in space nuclear weapon omnidirectional explosion is far less destructive than on planets due to lack of atmosphere. There are only 2 reasonable ways to mitigate this problem: a) use a bigger nuclear charge (employed by locals) or b) shape the explosion (what I chose to test).
Of twenty warheads aimed against Cerberuses, only 3 survived till impact. Usually, 100 kilo-tone thermonuclear warhead won't do extensive damage, but shaped as they were, the nukes managed to not only penetrate the armor but damaged their target inside, crippling both ships. A lucky strike must have caught a power system cause one Cerberus exploded.
If anything this made Cylons fight with greater fever. They're even employing railguns. You're not supposed to have railguns!
*Thumm*
I need them to back off! Fortunately, my stunt gave me a near unobscure sight of a Basestar. Changing Luna's trajectory, realigning starboard railgun and laser batteries, and fire!… Wow, I suspected they were fragile but outright disintegrating!?
Whatever it was, it had the intended effect - Cylon assault cased. Completely. Not even raiders are chasing us…
A Quick check shows that Luna took quite a beating: multiple armor sections need replacing, towers 13 - 19 slagged, port launch tubes 6 to 28 inoperable, munition reserves down by 43.8% but the Colonials are ok. Disoriented but still in one piece. Even better news - Drive's repairs are nearly complete.
"1 minute till jump, people. Just a little longer!"
*Ping*
Huh, communication-? Why would Cylons want to communicate? And NOW? Whatever, if it buys me more time, I'll bite. Open channel. "You have 1 minute, speak your piece." Aggressive, but I'm irritated and we are enemies.
"Connection enabled. Analyzing," ha, good luck finding anything in a sterile, build from grounds-up 'empty' and isolated system. V2.0 will have malware for you.
"Attention Colonial. We came to finish what started in the Colonies. Your struggles are meaningless, you resistance - pointless. You will be eliminated. Your civilization will be erased from the universe. You will be eradicated as was intended." "Electron charge altering transition-" oh, that does it.
"Oh, Hello! Are you in a Basestar or Cerberus? Cause y'know, I want to shoot you, and need to know where to aim."
"Brave wo-"
"Not done One! Or was it Cavil? Ehh, I'll just call you Cav, ok Cav?"
"What-?" unprepared and confused. Good.
"Come on Cav, it's simple: tell me which ship I should blow up next! No need to broadcast from all of them. Seriously, don't be shy, kiddy-widdy!" He's a psychotic and dangerous dictator, not to be underestimated, but I won't give him respect. Such things don't deserve dignity, only disdain.
"Quiet! I can end you with one order!" he is angry… and times up.
"Yeah, yea, kill ya later fart-mug."
"NO-"
*zinn*
- - - - - - - -
I just pissed off one of Cylon main 'leader models. Diplomacy with them will be much harder now, especially if Cavil remains in charge. But I'm not going to submit to a genocidal maniac. Speaking of his victims.
"We left the immediate danger. Are any of you hurt?" Cause some of you don't look that good.
"Fine. W-we're fine" Mary's face looks a bit green there, "J-just fix you antigrav. We felt those turns."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Had to avoid some shots with high-g burns. Couldn't compensate. I'll change the internal gravity to compensate next time we're in combat."
"That might happen soon, though" Ronald speaks up, "Tracking remember?"
"Unless Cylons can jump hundred and thirteen lightyears spinward-rimward in the next hour. Plus my jamming's working at full power they can't track their signal."
"You sure?" is that.. yup slight disbelieve and hint of hope.
"Not 100% no, but what I've seen suggests that's the case. Not to mention Cylon FTL signal takes time before someone receives them, unlike entangled quantum particles which they don't use. I've checked."
"Ok, stop! Have you forgot what he did?!" and that's Arnold Sharp. What else this paranoic want's to complain about? Unless…
"Do you mean fighting off the Cylon fleet or talking with Cavil?"
"You hear that! It even provoked the Cylons! It's one of them, a gods damn toaster!" goddamnit, really?
"Sharp-"
"Then why are we alive? Frak, why fight his own kind?! He helping us you nutjob!"
"Please, Mary-"
"And what of Cain! She's a human and that bitch butchered our fleet, left us for dead! This thing ain't even human!"
Hey!
"Cain was-!"
"Shut it you-!"
"All you do-!"
"And what if-!"
"You stupid, frakking-!" That's it!
"ENOUGH!" "ENOUGH!"
Huh, guess I'm not the only one whose patience ran out.
"Thank you, Ronald. As for you, children, I know this is too much to take in, too many things went wrong, and something good happening is unbelievable, but screaming your heads off like that won't help anyone. You five are responsible for over two thousand survivors. They look up to you for guidance, for stability. You fear me, an unknown, and that's fine, but I AM helping. If it will ease your uncertainties, I will answer what questions I can later, but right this instance you need to get things sorted out."
"Now all hangars are connected, life support's active and hallways pressurized, you can take stock of what you have, how many need medical assistance, what can be salvaged and so on. I have a few things that require my attention, so I'll leave you to your own device and contact you in an hour or so. If you need anything, just call. Is that acceptable?"
There are some mumbles here and there but overall they agree with me. Most of what I said is true: people need some stability and infighting will cause debilitating problems.
One by one they end their calls and leave to gather their respective crew. They need time to cool off and I need to think about what is safe to reveal.
"Hey, Reinhart" and now Ronald's the last one still on "You're ok?" …
"Yes and no. We just escaped a hazardous situation and the first thing they do? Scream and curse despite the laundry list of problems that needs sorting. Sorry to say, but I don't envy your position."
"Ha. Thanks for that. I know Cibra's captain might be a bit crazy though he's not wrong on one aspect: you know more than you've let on. And you don't even deny it, heck it is like you want to tell us but don't. Why?" the topic I wanted to postpone.
"Things are more complicated than you think. My situation, you exodus fleets, Cylon fuckery, everything. Even still, I myself need to sort out some Archive data to confirm some theories and understand the bigger picture" though I get the gist of it, I hope. "That's why."
"So, that's it? Nothing?" his voice is kept neutral like he's trying to state a fact, not accuse me. Huff… Don't want to but I could share 'something' what I think he suspects if not expects.
"Short, non-informative answer: I am a Human shoved inside a 'machine'. My body is that of a 'robot' but still have my memories, emotion, and thoughts but I …… Uhhh, I don't know everything, ok? I promise to answer and explain what I can in an hour or so, Captain Ronald, but when we're cooled off, not tired, adrenaline-high or making mistakes while saving people." I hope this is just enough info to satisfy his curiosity without spilling everything.
"… That's quite a bombshell…" you have no idea men.
"I know, but it's not life-threatening just lots to take in. S' why I ask to talk later when you all calmed down and are ready for more - as you put it - 'bombshells'."
"At least you're up front. Fine, we'll talk in a few hours. Good luck fixing your ship, it took 'heck of a beating." and with that, he is off the coms.
Now. I need to review my previous battles, either design new toys or change tactics (or both), fix up Luna (minor damage overall so I should be done in less than an hour), and decide how much should I tell the Colonials, that barely survived Cylon ambush, Cain's treachery and now must rely on me to survive.
What can I do to get out of this mess?
___________________________________________
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