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This will be a wild ride (PA/Multicross)
- Thread starter Renars
- Start date
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
From Cylon perspective (from this distance) Luna looks like practically any other battlestar, and while I dodn't have that much time, I did upgrade it. Still I won't make it simple, especially for my first battle (not fight, BATTLE, that's a whole other level of stress man)
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…"
___________________________________________
- - - - - - - - -
Ryven Razgriz
I need a Gun and I'll let you know 'What's up?'.
- Location
- South East Asia
Roight, what was preventing you from building bigger and more ships again instead of just relying on one piddly little warship?
- Location
- Australia
Universe suggestion: Stargate it would be awesome
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
Thanks for showing interest, means I did something right.
Let's start with • time constraints (the longer I work, the more Colonials die);
• then the fact there's a limit to operational range and most units eventually self-destruct outside it;
• range for interstellar scanning;
• the fact I don't have an immediate good design program thus limiting my construction options;
then the fact no Commander space unit was meant to operate in interstellar space and thus lacked any form of FTL, except for "transport pod" that flings Commanders primary body from one planet to the next (and without range extenders leaves your accumulated economy).
This was hinted at before.
So I have two questions.
1. Will Reinhart scavenge all those Cylon wrecks? After all he could use them to repair the civilian ships and take samples of the Cylon tech for study and preparing counter-mesures.
2. If his original tech cames with self destruct why don't use purely Colonial/Cylon tech and use it as basis and add from schematics of his own tech to make substitutes(like taking high tech I-phone and then make its equivalent with Soviet tech level science, it would be bulky and more massive that original but it would function even when the rigged Pregonitor tech not) without self destruct for supporting ships and then make primitive pseudo Cylons(absolutly loyal of course) to man them? It should be fairly easy to recreate the simpler Cylon units and then use them as crews for ships, aslo Cylons have FTL comunications so it should be possible to use them to. This way he can create and command forces without risking their self destruction if they leave his range. In short, use the Commander tech to upgrade the Colonial and Cylon tech and then use it to build up your forcess using only it, this way you side step the problem of self destruct.
1. Will Reinhart scavenge all those Cylon wrecks? After all he could use them to repair the civilian ships and take samples of the Cylon tech for study and preparing counter-mesures.
2. If his original tech cames with self destruct why don't use purely Colonial/Cylon tech and use it as basis and add from schematics of his own tech to make substitutes(like taking high tech I-phone and then make its equivalent with Soviet tech level science, it would be bulky and more massive that original but it would function even when the rigged Pregonitor tech not) without self destruct for supporting ships and then make primitive pseudo Cylons(absolutly loyal of course) to man them? It should be fairly easy to recreate the simpler Cylon units and then use them as crews for ships, aslo Cylons have FTL comunications so it should be possible to use them to. This way he can create and command forces without risking their self destruction if they leave his range. In short, use the Commander tech to upgrade the Colonial and Cylon tech and then use it to build up your forcess using only it, this way you side step the problem of self destruct.
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- Location
- Latvia, Riga
While good questions I'll 'answer' them next chapter, though I'll give a tip: before I did complain about Progenitor/Commander ************
Though it works on something very simple (like armor plating), something more complex gets a different priority/rating.
Caught the hint?
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
Oh, and before I forget, Reinhart (or Reinhar "for short") is from January 29th, 2019. So "mostly" up-to-date on many events, situations, advancements.
Some "I" will recognize, some will take time before I compare or even suspect. Though I doubt I'll know to recognize some.
btb if I present an interlude, should it be 1st person perspective like the above, or 3rd person view? Just asking to know in the future.
Some "I" will recognize, some will take time before I compare or even suspect. Though I doubt I'll know to recognize some.
btb if I present an interlude, should it be 1st person perspective like the above, or 3rd person view? Just asking to know in the future.
I personally would like a little bit of both, the 1st person are nice for perpective of people from other factions like Cylons or Colonials. But the 3rd person view would be good when for example two sides fight a battle but the MC is not there but it will have consequencys for him later. At least that's my opinion.
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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Well I would say that wathever you say speak only truth and don't try to lay in anything, you can don't say everything but state outright that some information are simply secrets you will reveal when they will know you better and trust more and some information are still on need to know basis for now. So while he reveal some facts he shouldn't simply spill everytihing just because they asked, after all they just meet and the more the trust will they build up the more you can say them, but start small and say only what you must at first. Bombing them with whole truth at once will make most of them think you are eighter insane robot or are simply laying, you need time and actions to show them you can be trusted and the smae in other way, theyneed to prove that they can be trusted with the truth, only then you can tell and show then more.
As for more firepower, Reinhart should first fix and then after asking them, for permission completly remodel and upgrade the Colonial ships to make them much more durable and powerfull. Also allowing the Colonnials to help fight the future Cylon attacks would help vent their anger and fear while making them trust you more so allowing them to fight eighter in their ships or by remotly piloting some of his fighters or bombers would be great idea.
And he should finally try to create unmanned ships made from upgraded Colonial/Cylon tech but piloted by pseudo Cylons but onl;y loyal to him to make his own fleet(he needs them, he is heavly outnumbered), making them this way allows to sidestep the issue of Progenitor tech stopping existing after leaving his range. So no new Progenitor ships models but complelty new Cylon/Colonial ship hybrids upgraded and juiced up to the gills by best tech, materials and designe he can invent but not having any purely Progenitor machines or systems on board. Like using modern automatic automated factories and supercomputers to designe create best possible steam powered vehicless and purelly mechanical weapons with not a single pice of electronics because they are to be used in EMP rich enviroment. I hope I didn't mess up the analogy.
As for more firepower, Reinhart should first fix and then after asking them, for permission completly remodel and upgrade the Colonial ships to make them much more durable and powerfull. Also allowing the Colonnials to help fight the future Cylon attacks would help vent their anger and fear while making them trust you more so allowing them to fight eighter in their ships or by remotly piloting some of his fighters or bombers would be great idea.
And he should finally try to create unmanned ships made from upgraded Colonial/Cylon tech but piloted by pseudo Cylons but onl;y loyal to him to make his own fleet(he needs them, he is heavly outnumbered), making them this way allows to sidestep the issue of Progenitor tech stopping existing after leaving his range. So no new Progenitor ships models but complelty new Cylon/Colonial ship hybrids upgraded and juiced up to the gills by best tech, materials and designe he can invent but not having any purely Progenitor machines or systems on board. Like using modern automatic automated factories and supercomputers to designe create best possible steam powered vehicless and purelly mechanical weapons with not a single pice of electronics because they are to be used in EMP rich enviroment. I hope I didn't mess up the analogy.
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- Location
- Romania
Meh, there's no reason to put up with too much bullshit. You have no real reason to explain yourself to anybody and have no reason to bend over backwards to help people that don't want it. If people aren't happy with you let them off somewhere and be done with it.
Even if you're a nice guy doesn't mean you have to become a doormat for stupid people.
Even if you're a nice guy doesn't mean you have to become a doormat for stupid people.
Chapter 1.8
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
-
[]
Chapter 1.8
And .. done. With that, the last damaged section is replaced. Pretty sure most would think Luna just came out of a dry-dock. And all it took was an hour and a half, bulk of that spend re-cycling and re-laying armor plates.
During the fix, I also decided to orient myself and look around. Turns out we're near the outer edge of some star system, judging by that slightly larger than Pluto dwarf planet and the star's distance. With nothing better to do, I've decided to fly closer to it and send out some of my fabrication bots. It took 3/4 hours on engine power to reach Dwarfy, and in the next 30 minutes I got a few M-extractors, in more optimal areas, and 2 Basic power plants.
Not much but I'm expanding and will soon refill my used material reserves.
Additionally, I'm adding finishing touches on my combat reviews. The most notable being the effect of my High-power Electromagnetic and Microwave Pulse ('h e m p'.. 'hamper'.. HEMP-ER? Unintentional yet somewhat fittingly descriptive acronym) torpedo prototype. Emission data and timestamps indicate which pulses at what distances had the most effect on Raiders, 'close-range' directed microwaves being the most devastating.
Turns out Cylon unique build gives them some protections and vulnerabilities: their organic segments give them limited resistance to 'conventional' EMPs, while their mechanical components limit what kind of emissions can get through and affect their squishy pieces, but once something gets through, their own isolation methods will ensure debilitating after-effects stays inside.
And I've also got some insight into Cylons, at least their Raiders. I still want to vomit, despite no ability to do so. Dear God, how could anyone do something like this?! Inhibitor chips are awful enough on their own (by sending painful electrical feedback if the mechanical Cylons so much as think anything negative against bio-Cylons), but to rip out part of living beings' brains?! WTF?!! ( I need a distraction).
Ok, positive, positive… Least now I can miniaturize Musha drive and install it into my units, though nothing smaller than a fighter.
And again I needed some non-metallic components, but it's odd. It's not like Commanders lack those elements, or that they lack knowledge (or research AIs/systems to learn) about those but its like… like most non-metallic elements are a rarity. Huh. That's, actually…
[
*New decoding vectors added
*New file repair process implemented
*New search directive enabled
File search and repairs updated
]
Just a hunch, but if I'm right…
Wait, it's been almost 2 hours, and no one contacted me. What are the Colonials doing?
…
Oh, they're asleep. Well, most, there is some activity around, but the majority are either sleeping or resting. Though it's a bit concerning how little healthy people came out of their ships. Or how many require medical help. Their supplies can't be enough and even their medical personnel have too many to attend.
Speaking of, there she is, inside Dove Wings, attending a sleeping patient. If I'd have to guess after-operation narcosis. Ok, lower the volume, and a little soft p-a sound before speaking "Doctor Grey?" (Why does this sound familiar?) "Do you have a moment?"
The woman with shoulder-length brown-hair around mid-thirties stiffens, but then promptly finishes her inspection and smoothly puts down her instruments, before moving toward the cockpit. Once she closes the doors, I wait until she contacts me. Roughly a half a minute later she does. "Hello. You wanted to speak to me?"
Her voice has a slight Spanish accent and while clear, is tired (and nervous). Judging by the number of patients I would not be surprised if she was busy this whole time.
Right better start small "Yes, about several topics, considering we'll stay in this system for at least a few days but first: are you ok? I saw the injured and you sound sleep-deprived, so… "
"Since we escaped Cain I've been coordinating, instructing or patching wounded with whatever we got laying around for hours before Cylons and you found us. I had to keep most of the staff, volunteers, and interns from panicking during the battle, we're running low on medicine and supplies, there are still wounded that need help and I haven't slept for over 20 hours. Of course, I'm not O-K, damn-it." Her Whisper colder than Pluto's temperature during winter
Oh… That's more than most expect from doctors. More than most of my Earth's doctors would be capable of. "Wrong query, sorry."
"Oh, no, no, I'm sorry, I didn't want vent I just-" (fear, not ok)
"Hey, hey, it's fine. A doctor's job on its own is stressful at the best of circumstances, that you managed to do what you have despite the circumstances speaks highly of you. Aaand that's one of the reasons I wanted to talk with you." here goes.
"I'll be blunt: I have little-to-no medical knowledge and certainly nothing that can be safely applicable. What I can do right now is to provide 'raw' materials and some finished products like scalpels, gauzes, nigh-distilled water, water in general."
"Okey, but.."
"But if you need complex things like MRI or anti-cancer drugs I, in return, need detailed information, either a physical example or schematics to …"
"Why is that? What do you gain from this, specifically?" she's quick on the uptake. Here goes.
".. as I was saying first it would allow me to help you, and I gain insight into making devices that I couldn't before. And yes that IS my 'price': I obtain new knowledge, you - gain resources and goods that you couldn't otherwise in this situation."
"You're not really subtle in what you want. Why is that? I mean, besides the information what do you really gain?"
"For one - a smidgen of your trust. You don't have to guess and worry why I do this, you outright know what I acquire… Let's don't mince words, doc: your culture is technophobic. Not all of you are against advanced technology, but you people, in general, have been hurt by Cylons, your own tech, your own creation. For over half a century you Colonials have demonized Cylons, demonized your own tech, and only recently have started the first small steps towards healing when out of nowhere Cylons came back and this fuckery happened. I am not your enemy, but as Sharp said I am an outsider. People don't immediately trust Unknowns, and as is normal I have to earn you trust. Speaking frankly is a start. All I ask, Doctor Ashly Grey, help me help you."
"I see. I'll need to consult others, but in general …"
- - - - - - - - -
Thought threading and such multitasking still feels weird yet it is useful especially since just as the good doctor finished her rant I spotted Star's Memory captain Jarvis and few others in Viper's flight control deck. (What are they doing there?) Since Ashly calmed down I won't end my conversation with her, but I need to talk with the Memory's captain as well.
Discretely activating microphones and … "… elling you this Rait-guy is hiding somethin'." uhhh, really?
"Then what, pray tell, will he gain from that?" woman's voice countered "Unlike with Cain, we have no useful resources, without repairs our ships are worthless scraps. He d.."
"Exactly! He had NO reason to save us -" interruption!
Though not loud the ringing and blinking console easily gets the attention of all occupants in the room. There are some shouts and disorganized attempts to do something (to name a few: answering, ignoring, leaving the room), but Jarvis quickly took the lead. In a minute the arguing stopped and a measure of calm restored, Jarvis answered the console: "Hello?"
The screen, along with several subtle cameras, activates with my chosen symbol displayed.
"Hello, infrared showed this room was occupied, did something happen?" I said, the sign lighted upon every syllable (for psychological effect).
"Shit it's him"
"quiet! He'll hear you"
"Oh, just me and some acquaintances wanting to talk few things in private.. in a separate room.. when everyone's asleep, *hufff*" constructing a possible narrative … I can use that "of course it looks suspicious. I'm sorry we don't want to imply we're ungrateful, it's just a lot to take in."
"It's fine, this is an unusual situation even for me," if only you knew. "But while we're at it: are there any problems? Are there enough resources to go around? Too cold, or hot?"
"Well, ah, we're... well you KNOW our situation, and far as I can tell, no, people are too tired to worry about such stuff for now... Why such interest?"
"After a.. simple night's sleep you could discuss what problems we have and concentrate on those that can be solved. I know most don't trust me, so little chats like this might get you guys less jumpy and more aware of me."
"Heh, well then guess we'll get out of your hair then... you have hair, right?"
Of all the - "... Yea, we'll talk "in the morning" then. Good night," with that I end the conversation and switch off the screen. Dievs žēlīgais, that was embarrassing!
- - - - - - - - -
Similar little conversations happen throughout the ship some, and while some are tense, all are too tired to do more than voice their discomfort, before they go to bed.
So now I have about 6-to-8 hours to myself. Maybe industry building and some of their requests would distract me for a while. Tomorrow will be awkward.
___________________________________________
A/N: So can't promise I'll update this regularly, but here's what I have completed for now.
Good Luck
[]
Chapter 1.8
And .. done. With that, the last damaged section is replaced. Pretty sure most would think Luna just came out of a dry-dock. And all it took was an hour and a half, bulk of that spend re-cycling and re-laying armor plates.
During the fix, I also decided to orient myself and look around. Turns out we're near the outer edge of some star system, judging by that slightly larger than Pluto dwarf planet and the star's distance. With nothing better to do, I've decided to fly closer to it and send out some of my fabrication bots. It took 3/4 hours on engine power to reach Dwarfy, and in the next 30 minutes I got a few M-extractors, in more optimal areas, and 2 Basic power plants.
Not much but I'm expanding and will soon refill my used material reserves.
Additionally, I'm adding finishing touches on my combat reviews. The most notable being the effect of my High-power Electromagnetic and Microwave Pulse ('h e m p'.. 'hamper'.. HEMP-ER? Unintentional yet somewhat fittingly descriptive acronym) torpedo prototype. Emission data and timestamps indicate which pulses at what distances had the most effect on Raiders, 'close-range' directed microwaves being the most devastating.
Turns out Cylon unique build gives them some protections and vulnerabilities: their organic segments give them limited resistance to 'conventional' EMPs, while their mechanical components limit what kind of emissions can get through and affect their squishy pieces, but once something gets through, their own isolation methods will ensure debilitating after-effects stays inside.
And I've also got some insight into Cylons, at least their Raiders. I still want to vomit, despite no ability to do so. Dear God, how could anyone do something like this?! Inhibitor chips are awful enough on their own (by sending painful electrical feedback if the mechanical Cylons so much as think anything negative against bio-Cylons), but to rip out part of living beings' brains?! WTF?!! ( I need a distraction).
Ok, positive, positive… Least now I can miniaturize Musha drive and install it into my units, though nothing smaller than a fighter.
And again I needed some non-metallic components, but it's odd. It's not like Commanders lack those elements, or that they lack knowledge (or research AIs/systems to learn) about those but its like… like most non-metallic elements are a rarity. Huh. That's, actually…
[
*New decoding vectors added
*New file repair process implemented
*New search directive enabled
File search and repairs updated
]
Just a hunch, but if I'm right…
Wait, it's been almost 2 hours, and no one contacted me. What are the Colonials doing?
…
Oh, they're asleep. Well, most, there is some activity around, but the majority are either sleeping or resting. Though it's a bit concerning how little healthy people came out of their ships. Or how many require medical help. Their supplies can't be enough and even their medical personnel have too many to attend.
Speaking of, there she is, inside Dove Wings, attending a sleeping patient. If I'd have to guess after-operation narcosis. Ok, lower the volume, and a little soft p-a sound before speaking "Doctor Grey?" (Why does this sound familiar?) "Do you have a moment?"
The woman with shoulder-length brown-hair around mid-thirties stiffens, but then promptly finishes her inspection and smoothly puts down her instruments, before moving toward the cockpit. Once she closes the doors, I wait until she contacts me. Roughly a half a minute later she does. "Hello. You wanted to speak to me?"
Her voice has a slight Spanish accent and while clear, is tired (and nervous). Judging by the number of patients I would not be surprised if she was busy this whole time.
Right better start small "Yes, about several topics, considering we'll stay in this system for at least a few days but first: are you ok? I saw the injured and you sound sleep-deprived, so… "
"Since we escaped Cain I've been coordinating, instructing or patching wounded with whatever we got laying around for hours before Cylons and you found us. I had to keep most of the staff, volunteers, and interns from panicking during the battle, we're running low on medicine and supplies, there are still wounded that need help and I haven't slept for over 20 hours. Of course, I'm not O-K, damn-it." Her Whisper colder than Pluto's temperature during winter
Oh… That's more than most expect from doctors. More than most of my Earth's doctors would be capable of. "Wrong query, sorry."
"Oh, no, no, I'm sorry, I didn't want vent I just-" (fear, not ok)
"Hey, hey, it's fine. A doctor's job on its own is stressful at the best of circumstances, that you managed to do what you have despite the circumstances speaks highly of you. Aaand that's one of the reasons I wanted to talk with you." here goes.
"I'll be blunt: I have little-to-no medical knowledge and certainly nothing that can be safely applicable. What I can do right now is to provide 'raw' materials and some finished products like scalpels, gauzes, nigh-distilled water, water in general."
"Okey, but.."
"But if you need complex things like MRI or anti-cancer drugs I, in return, need detailed information, either a physical example or schematics to …"
"Why is that? What do you gain from this, specifically?" she's quick on the uptake. Here goes.
".. as I was saying first it would allow me to help you, and I gain insight into making devices that I couldn't before. And yes that IS my 'price': I obtain new knowledge, you - gain resources and goods that you couldn't otherwise in this situation."
"You're not really subtle in what you want. Why is that? I mean, besides the information what do you really gain?"
"For one - a smidgen of your trust. You don't have to guess and worry why I do this, you outright know what I acquire… Let's don't mince words, doc: your culture is technophobic. Not all of you are against advanced technology, but you people, in general, have been hurt by Cylons, your own tech, your own creation. For over half a century you Colonials have demonized Cylons, demonized your own tech, and only recently have started the first small steps towards healing when out of nowhere Cylons came back and this fuckery happened. I am not your enemy, but as Sharp said I am an outsider. People don't immediately trust Unknowns, and as is normal I have to earn you trust. Speaking frankly is a start. All I ask, Doctor Ashly Grey, help me help you."
"I see. I'll need to consult others, but in general …"
- - - - - - - - -
Thought threading and such multitasking still feels weird yet it is useful especially since just as the good doctor finished her rant I spotted Star's Memory captain Jarvis and few others in Viper's flight control deck. (What are they doing there?) Since Ashly calmed down I won't end my conversation with her, but I need to talk with the Memory's captain as well.
Discretely activating microphones and … "… elling you this Rait-guy is hiding somethin'." uhhh, really?
"Then what, pray tell, will he gain from that?" woman's voice countered "Unlike with Cain, we have no useful resources, without repairs our ships are worthless scraps. He d.."
"Exactly! He had NO reason to save us -" interruption!
Though not loud the ringing and blinking console easily gets the attention of all occupants in the room. There are some shouts and disorganized attempts to do something (to name a few: answering, ignoring, leaving the room), but Jarvis quickly took the lead. In a minute the arguing stopped and a measure of calm restored, Jarvis answered the console: "Hello?"
The screen, along with several subtle cameras, activates with my chosen symbol displayed.
"Hello, infrared showed this room was occupied, did something happen?" I said, the sign lighted upon every syllable (for psychological effect).
"Shit it's him"
"quiet! He'll hear you"
"Oh, just me and some acquaintances wanting to talk few things in private.. in a separate room.. when everyone's asleep, *hufff*" constructing a possible narrative … I can use that "of course it looks suspicious. I'm sorry we don't want to imply we're ungrateful, it's just a lot to take in."
"It's fine, this is an unusual situation even for me," if only you knew. "But while we're at it: are there any problems? Are there enough resources to go around? Too cold, or hot?"
"Well, ah, we're... well you KNOW our situation, and far as I can tell, no, people are too tired to worry about such stuff for now... Why such interest?"
"After a.. simple night's sleep you could discuss what problems we have and concentrate on those that can be solved. I know most don't trust me, so little chats like this might get you guys less jumpy and more aware of me."
"Heh, well then guess we'll get out of your hair then... you have hair, right?"
Of all the - "... Yea, we'll talk "in the morning" then. Good night," with that I end the conversation and switch off the screen. Dievs žēlīgais, that was embarrassing!
- - - - - - - - -
Similar little conversations happen throughout the ship some, and while some are tense, all are too tired to do more than voice their discomfort, before they go to bed.
So now I have about 6-to-8 hours to myself. Maybe industry building and some of their requests would distract me for a while. Tomorrow will be awkward.
___________________________________________
A/N: So can't promise I'll update this regularly, but here's what I have completed for now.
Good Luck
Last edited:
Nitronorm5688
The Armchair Reader
- Location
- Oakdale, CT
It lives!
Honestly, I'd forgotten about this fic. Glad to see that it's up and running again!
Honestly, I'd forgotten about this fic. Glad to see that it's up and running again!
- Location
- space
So far I love it and I hope to see more
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
Thanks for these kind words!
Though from past mistakes I've decided to aim for at least 1 per month, to not stumble as much, and to compensate for studies.
The entrance exams and past semester took up quite some time, but least I learned something from that. Hopefully it will translate well in this fic.
Though from past mistakes I've decided to aim for at least 1 per month, to not stumble as much, and to compensate for studies.
The entrance exams and past semester took up quite some time, but least I learned something from that. Hopefully it will translate well in this fic.