I was not surprised.
The shorter of the two figures in Hazmat Suits, Augustine (yes, I still remembered the movie and I had all their personnel files- did you know she was allergic to tofu?) began to speak. "Can you understand us?" Her voice was altered by the suit, to make it sound more artificial than not.
I raised an eyebrow. "Obviously." I deliberately had chosen this voice because it didn't sound *quite* human. There were tones of resonance that went both under and above normal human hearing, and it gave very interesting effects between whoever heard it.
Augustine twitched and fondled her tablet-thing. Quartich didn't move a muscle.
"Alright.... I have a few questions that I have been instructed to ask you. May I do so?" She sounded so damned nervous.
I almost wanted to face-palm. Almost. "Would I be sitting here if I wasn't?" I answered in such a dry tone that she leaned away from me. "Think it through, human- if I had not been willing to answer questions, why would this avatar be present in this base?"
Despite having her face covered, Augustine looked uncomfortable at that. "I see. In that case, what is your name?"
Wow. Just... Really? "Define 'your'. I am currently engaged in the operation of three million, two-thousand, seven-hundred and thirty-five platforms greater than this one, most of which are vessels longer and more massive that your ship in orbit."
Quartich actually moved, adjusting the angle of one of his gloves.
Augustine was silent, as I imagined her trying to understand what she just heard. "I mean the entity I am talking to right now."
"I am C̢̢̀͏҉̸̴̨̢̧̕͘͘͢͞͝ớ̴̵̵̶̡̡̀̀͘͘͜͢͞͞m̷̨̕m҉̷̧̧̀̕̕͘͘͡҉̡̛́̕a̴͘̕n̴̵̡̨̨̧̡͞͞͝d̶̸̷̵̢̛́͘͢͜͟͢͝͡ę̸̷̴̸̴̸̷̧̢̡̧̧̡̡̛́́͞͝r̸̀́͢͜͜͡҉̷̡̢̕͘͘͘͢͠͠ ̵͟҉̷̵̴̡͟͞͞C̸̵̵̸̡̡̢̧̀̕͜͜͢ļ̵̢̀͘͢͜͝͝͏̛̛̛oa̵̶̡̧̛k, but can call me Mister Cloak." I just loved the fact that Zalgo still existed on the internet. Judging by the way both their heads involuntarily twitched, I suspected that whatever systems were between me and them in their suits, had just broadcast a massive error noise. "You are Doctor Grace Augustine." I nodded at the doctor. "And you are Colonel Quartich." Another nod.
Augustine's suit barely moved, but her heat signature within nodded. "I am. What is your purpose here?"
"Have you ever read fanfiction?"
That took them both back. "I don't... What?" Augustine asked, completely bewildered.
"Fanfiction. You know- stories written by people who wanted to see another story end differently, or want to write what they think should have happened if one character had done something different?" Fanfiction isn't gone- several HUNDRED websites were storing the information.
"I have." Quartich said stoically. "I was an avid reader before my current deployment."
"Bandwidth issues?"
"Bandwidth issues."
I was having trouble not bursting into giggles at Augustine's expression. "Well, I have been perusing your internet for some time, and there are many interesting stories I have come across. The complete 'Taylor Varga' being one of them."
"My nephews were fans of the Worm stories. I was more of a Star Trek reader." How was Quartich being that deadpan? It's a lost art. "I did, however, read it. Having the operation for a data link was worth it at the time."
I nodded slowly. "Well then, I should probably tell you that you are not the first intelligent species I have come across. Nor the first time I have encountered humanity." And there dropped the jaws. "I encountered humanity last in, oh, around the year twenty-seventeen by your count. So much potential, and yet so young- there was no reason to contact you then, so I left." Complete bullshit, but how would they know? "After some more traveling and re-connecting with the Queen of Edges, we decided that you would probably be able to deal with meeting another intelligent species without undergoing complete societal collapse." I made sure to frown here. "But then you found this planet, and I needed to change my current travel schedule."
"What does fanfiction have to do with this?" Quartich asked. I had seen Augustine message him to ask this, but preempting it would be rude. Also even more confusing.
"I have seen cultures collapse before, and I saw some of the signs in yours." I raised a finger. "Excessive consumerism." Another finger. "An increasing disregard for your own species as individuals." Another finger. "A lack of pride in the personality and accomplishments of your own species." That one had me look at Augustine. I raised another finger. "A lack of scalability and long-range planning to better yourself, your species, and your culture." Now the final finger. "And limited expansion."
I could hear the frown in Augustine's voice. "But we have so much-"
My eyes glowed red. "Don't. I read your doctoral dissertation, and that of so many others. YES, the natives on this world have an interesting culture and a form of life within their environment that has not been seen on Earth, but that is not why you are here." I angled one of the fabricator emitters towards the table, and flash-fabricated a chunk of material. "This is. Unobtanum. A high-temperature superconductor only created from the resulting products of supernovae or heavy metal stars. Silver and Irdium stars beyond seven-solar-masses can create the most of it when they detonate, but other mixes can cause it too."
"Stars can't form out of heavier elements!" Augustine insisted, then looked down at the rainbow-colored chunk of mineral on the table. "Is that-"
"Yes they can, and yes that is." I reached out, and casually broke it off the table. "What you call Unobtanium is a Post-Transuranic element. The lightest one that is metastable, and one of the best superconductors you can find without heavy-atom interlocking. What I am here for, is to see if I can get humanity to choose to become a patron race to the survivors of, well, let us be generous and call them space-Nazi aliens."
"Space. Nazi. Aliens." Wow. That was so deadpan I thought he was going to be able to artificially enforce the Flat-space-theorem with just his voice. "Please elaborate."
"Right. Around fifty-thousand years ago, a species known as the Morrigi visited this galaxy. At the time, there were several other intelligent species that had reached the space-faring stage- the Loa, the Liir, the Hivers, the Zuul, and the Tarkas." I projected a hologram of all these species in the air around me. "They were engaged in quite a bit of interstellar warfare, and the Morrigi basically devastated their planets. All of the species refer to them as 'the Beguilers', due to a psionic ability to enthrall others."
"Psionic?" Augustine had no idea what that meant. Understandible, considering that humanity had no psionic talent yet.
"Think psychic bullshit." I projected an image of the Morrigi. "They could change how other creatures perceived them, and quickly established an empire- or outpost, in this galaxy. They had a fifty-thousand year cycle (more or less) where they would visit a galaxy, grow an 'empire' in order to refuel and restock their supplies by strip-farming and strip-mining planets or solar systems, then conquering the local empires. This was done mainly to increase their technological base and assimilate any new developments (as well as entertainment). Then they would move on to the next one."
I could not see the exact looks on their faces, but judging from the body language and infrared info, I would say this was disturbing my interviewers.
"The Morrigi would release a plague in the form of, well, best to call it 'adaptive nanotech' really. Nasty shit." I projected a biohazard sign. "It infiltrates a host network, forces the development of a non-malignant cancer system to host a network of communication and computation systems, which it then uses to establish a planet-wide communication network. It then interfaces with the hosts to make them more... Suggestible, and force a declining birth rate. Wars, both civil and interplanetary, would often ensue. The Morrigi would offer a cure, usually enslaving entire planets-worth of populations as 'toys' before larger governments would become aware of the deception and strike back. So far, this is the first cycle they have failed at."
"And you want us too... What?" Augustine leaned forwards. "Take care of the survivors?"
"The adult population hasn't hatched any children yet." I projected a diagram of the egg cycle. Adults had eggs, which were stored in freezing conditions (accompanied by a little graphic to show the temperature), until they needed more adults, whereupon the eggs would hatch. "The Queen of Edges and her forces are currently dealing with the adult Morrigi. As Humanity is the most prosperous species at the current time, I will be leaving the eggs within a dedicated facility where your species can access them once you have passed the test at the door. However, as there are still some Liir and a few Loa, they will be assisting you with the next stage into being a post-scarcity civilization."
"And you will just drop this on us?" Again, Quartich could make an art of deadpan statements.
"Of course not!" I sounded insulted at the idea. "I am currently constructing a teleportation network for you, as well as cataloguing the various FTL and economic technologies that were developed in the previous cycle. I will also be setting up a meeting point between you and the Liir. The Loa will make their own introductions in..." I pinged the Loa, who were currently converting a distant mercury-sized moon around a wandering gas giant. "Three years your time. They will be setting up their own FTL network, and ours are distinctly different, so there shouldn't be a problem. This is, of course, on the assumption that you agree to the terms I have set forth thus far."
Augustine and Quartich muted themselves, and began conversing over radio. Again, I deliberately ignored them. It made things interesting.
As soon as they finish relaying the messages between themselves, I hold up a hand. "Fine- I'm in a hurry. So, to sweeten the pot, I am having some of my vessels beginning to construct a gate out of your home system. It will activate in a few days. If you send a vessel through it slowly-" I made sure to stress the word, "- following the hologram indicators, the vessel will find itself in orbit around a star that has no major planets, but the system of asteroids will be constantly refilled from the manufacturing systems I have set just inside the orbit of the main belt."
I heard Augustine's mouth snap shut. "You can create matter from energy." It wasn't a question.
I wiggled a hand. "More or less. The specifics include details that, even if you study the monolithic carvings I am placing on your moon detailing the mathematics behind my tech, your species probably won't have words for for several centuries. As a token of good faith..." I flash-fabricated a fifty-by-fifty centimeter engraved panel, made entirely of Unobtanium, with the details on the safest of the FTL drive technologies I had access to. The probes I had finished fabricating had completed their first 283 jumps, and were now working to refine the technologies. The safest FTL version I had was actually based on the Zuul's Rip drive, but taking advantage of the natural space-resonance nodes rather than tearing new ones. "Here are details on making an FTL drive that your species, with their current tech base, should be able to make."
Augustine picked up the slab carefully. "I can't see anything."
"Scan it with your deep-tissue radioisotope scanner." I rolled my eyes. "The details of an FTL drive are complicated- even one as simple as this one. It should cover a light-year a week with the diagrams described... Look, do we have a deal or not? I have things to get to, and a space-whale is annoying enough to deal with as it, let alone a species that still hasn't realized they can use neural uplinks while they sleep to provide supercomputing space!"
Another blank look.
AAARRRGH. Were humans always this slow?
"Hold on- you mentioned a great filter. What is that?"
Both Quartich and I both face-palmed at that question from Augustine. For a scientist, she was not a scifi fan.
-
On the whole, the Suul'Ka were more than a little confused.
Not about the fact that they were currently speaking to an Artificial Intelligence. They had all spoken with the Loa at some time, and they knew that each one was different.
Not about the fact that they found themselves under potential fire- it wouldn't be the first time their mere presence had made a species point weapons in their general direction.
No, it was about the fact that they, the Ice-Minds, were being dictated to by a swarm of ships that had a distinct similarity to one of the more disturbing and aggressive predatory species on their homeworld. Ships that were COMPARABLE in size to their own bulk, and entirely mechanical.
The fact that the swarm manufactured enough drones that the telekinetic sweeps of the largest Liir were able to push them into the smooth shapes of Liir Script was also new.
*Are the terms acceptable?* Wrote the swarm. It hadn't named itself, and the Suul'Ka were, frankly, not particularly interested in finding out if they had a name. This situation was so odd in any case, that they as a whole were having trouble.
*They appear to be acceptable...* The Eldest replied, vast ripples of telepathy shaping the glowing drones for their side. *We would require assurances of the habitats you described, as those of us that can still reproduce would only be able to withstand a maximum acceleration of {0.2m/s^2} under any gravity level.*
*Not an issue.* Replied the swarm. *Several options are being prepared as we speak. Would you like to take a look?*
-SAY YES!-
-Shut up Siren.- Echoed almost everyone.
*Where would we be observing?* Asked the massive space-whale. The Eldest was mostly skeleton and re-enforcement these days, but he was able to 'step' the farthest with his teleports.
*Pass through the gate.* The larger cephelopodic vessels began to assemble a huge gate right above every single Suul'Ka. *I am setting up a shielded zone within fairly close to my ignition stars, so you will be safe.*
*We must trust your word?* The Devoured spelled quickly. *You who have claimed to have bested the Beguilers!*
*If I wanted to kill you, I would have already.* The swarm distinctly paused, all movement ceasing as gun-ports opened to point at the seven titanic organisms, but they closed as quickly as they opened. *I am trying to be nice here.*
There was a flurry of discussion between the Seven. It was not done in any language per-say, but in the purest strains of thought that the great beings used to talk amongst themselves if speed was truly needed. They came to the conclusion that the Liir would need to trust these disturbing beings- or, at least, the worst thing that happens is that the Liir lose a couple of the Suul'Ka.
The Eldest thought for a moment, before mentally grinning. -SIREN, YOU WILL ACCOMPANY ME.- It was not a request.
-Yes Eldest!- The cheerful reply reverberated through the link. -It has been ever-so-long since I have seen new stars-
-SHUT UP SIREN.- Chorused the others.
The Eldest extended his mind, activated the pulsation engines on his flanks, and drifted upwards towards the finished gate. It was more than {three kilometers} in diameter, and the blue rippling distortion in the middle gave a feeling of great distance. It was surrounded by holographic arrows leading into this side of the portal, while the other side had holographic arrows exiting the side (the holograms of which was visible due to the approach angle).
The swarm of tetrahedron drones followed, forming into new words. *Be aware, while the shielded area is quite safe, the stars are still being sparked. The Habitats that are being constructed for you are large, and they are not complete yet. It will take a few days, as I doubt you would be willing to accept a habitat built around the concept of using superadient scattering around a contained black hole.*
If the Eldest had still possessed eyelids, he would have blinked. What just.... But the text had already vanished, and had slipped into the portal.
The Eldest followed- if nothing else, out of curiosity now.
The Zerg were reading.
This was actually really strange- only a few members of the Zerg could have read before the transfer over to a new universe, but now, EVERY Zerg mind was learning. Adapting.
Changing.
The other 'thinker' Zerg had been introduced to a concept from their resident mechanical horror, which summed up into this question: If species like Humanity and the Protoss were so much physically weaker than an individual Zerg, how come they had managed to fight back the swarm until the Queen of Blades had joined?
The answer: Humanity, and all other intelligent species, CHEATED. They did not evolve as fast as the Zerg, because they did not need to. They created ideas that let them become faster, stronger, and get more food. Knowledge, not just of biology but of other disciplines, would allow the Zerg to acquire another tool in their already impressive toolbox.
So now the swarm read.
Well, the Swarm Avatar had inflated in size as it honeycombed, filling with tendrils and eyes so that the aforementioned mechanical horror could provide interfaces so that the swarm could read and amass information. It was still one organism, but the mass of minds within were learning at an exponential rate, with each division of the Zerg focusing on different disciplines.
Abathur was already drooling (figuratively of course) at all the potential biomechanical forms he could see examples of in nature. GEARS! Gears alone could change how effective, well, almost every one-degree of freedom joint on any Zerg could be- Exoskeletons could be leveraged for even more torque.
Some other Zerg minds were already expanding, forming up into the sort of proto-structures and connections that, in the old days, would have become Cerebrates, but more.... Intellectual. More focused on the Theoretical and Mechanical concepts. Some were even playing with mental models of physical augmentations for the Zerg that were not biological!
The Queen of Blades swept over the minds of the Zerg, and was pleased.
-
Neytiri re-adjusted herself on her Ikran as Seze shifted on the perch. Seze grumbled, somewhat uncomfortable being as close as they were to so many other Irkan-Makto.
The entire village had turned out for this. Every Na'vi that had the tsaheylu, with an Ikran {Banshee} or Pa'Pa'li {Direhorse}, and all armed to the teeth with bows, spears, and any other weapon they could put together.
Eytukan, the leader of the village, dropped from the tree, his Ikran dropping from the tree to one of the lower, heavy branches of a tree nearest to the HomeTree. <"The Omaticaya have been CHOSEN!">
His voice raised a cheer from the assembled warriors- that abruptly stopped as a pride of Palulukan {Thanators} leapt out of the undergrowth, hissing slightly as they watched the crowd cautiously.
The silence acquired a distinctly strange vibe as the largest Palulukan eased out of the darkness, with Mo'at riding on it's back with a haughty look of absolute confidence.
Mo'at slipped off the Palulukan, and raised her arms, tsaheylu still connected to her massive, carnivorous, steed. <"CHOSEN BY EYWA!"> The huge Palulukan roared once behind her, and the frills raised on the rest of it's pride. <"WE WILL BE THE FIRST! THE FIRST TO PUSH THE SKY-PEOPLE BACK WHENCE THEY CAME!">
The warriors cheered almost as one, a thunderous roar of enjoyment that only slacked slightly as Eytukan raised his bow and arrow and shouted the command. <"WE RIDE!">
Even Neytiri cheered, although not particularly enthusiastically. She had seen the metal monsters in the sky, seen the glowing eyes of the massive things, and caught a glimpse as a purple (and winged?!) sky-person engulfed in purple flame shot through the trees after a metal figure around the same height.
It had occurred to her that the hu-mans may not have been lying when their abominations said that there was more out there then just the home of the Sky-People... But it's too late now.
The Sky-People must leave. The descending Atokirana (Wood Sprites) danced around the horde of warriors and animals as they began the stampede towards the 'Hell's Gate'.
Eywa blessed their actions, and Neytiri rallied, instructing Seze to fly nearer to her father. If nothing else, much glory would be had this day.
-
Colonel Quartich was disturbed by their guest. This 'Mr. Cloak' was too human in all the wrong ways for him to be in any way comfortable- his thoughts were interrupted by the alarms suddenly blaring. "Damn." He had just gotten out of the hazmat suit too.
One of the Lieutenants ran up to him, already dressed in the lower-tier exoskeleton that the fabbers had been cranking out for the last half hour, and skidded to a halt in the low gravity. "Sir! We are under attack sir! Drones reported Banshees, Direhorses, and THANATORS incoming! Eta 5!"
The Colonel grimace slightly, then smirked. "Well then Lieutenant Jenkins, send the free-all-weapons call, and run out the guns." He turned to the window into the interrogation chamber, and pressed a control on the wall, linking to a speaker in the room. The doctor was listening as the avatar of whatever Mr. Cloak actually was go over some of the fine details of using the portals, and his interruption should aggravate her. Perfect. "Doctor, we are under attack. You are needed with the rest of the Link pilots, so get out here quick. It's time to armor up."
Mr. Cloak raised a six-fingered hand. Two thumb and four fingers didn't look right on an arm that was just ever-so-slightly too long (proportionally). "May I assist?"
The Colonel was conflicted. On one hand, they had no idea what this being would consider 'help'.... But it did just give them the coordinates to, if the description was accurate, a planet that could and would produce titanic amounts of any element they could name up tot he REALLY high atomic numbers. So the benefit of the doubt would be offered. "Any help you can provide would be appreciated Mr. Cloak."
"Dibs on overwatch." A hand came up, and the strange blue-green light shone from the palm as a highly-detailed model of the fortress and surrounding environs formed on the table. "Just show me where you want my shots."
".... Come with me." The Colonel opened both the inner and outer doors of the airlock, despite the warning sirens, and motioned for the large metal man to come out of the room. "I can use you in the command center in that case."
-
The Omaticya Charged. And Ran. And Flew. Basically they moved as quickly as they could from the place of their home tree to the location of Hell's Gate with murder on the menu.
The first to arrive were the riders of the Ikran, and they were surprised.
Neytiri was not smiling as they approached the site. She knew that the metal bows of the sky-people, their 'guns', were dangerous. She had seen their metal birds spitting death towards animals on the ground, and towards the many creatures that flew.... But they had only had five of the larger guns around the outskirts of the structure.
Now they had more.
As the Ikran banked overhead, the flock surfing the currents of air gracefully, every single one of the barrels began to track the group of fliers, even as the last humans on the ground far below finished scattering into their 'houses'. Several of the metal birds that the sky-people flew began to spin up their wings, and that's when they heard the hum.
Neytiri looked up, and saw something drifting down from the sky. It looked... She had no real reference for it. Like some blades that had been strung together, with small wings?
But it was VERY far away. Clouds on the horizon split as it passed through them in eery silence, the world just letting this... This THING pass through without interference.
Eytukan screeched, using the distant-Irkan-rider speak to be heard over the wind.
Neytiri did so, her arms moving with the speed of long practice even as her ankles and feet hooked around the stirrups of her Seze. She was getting nervous, and Neytiri didn't quite get why... Until she looked back up at the new arrival.
It dwarfed the riders.
It dwarfed the sky-people.
And it was still getting closer. Still, she had her training, and sighted along her bow at the behemoth, now floating in the sky just above them.
The other riders followed, their arrows still notched at looking for weak-looking things to strike at. Unfortunately, the entire object just seemed to be made in one piece, with no weak points of locations where Neytiri could shove an arrow- no! There was a little, glowing opening facing slightly down. Maybe a viewing-crystal, like on their dirt-movers or tree cutters!
Arrows half-again the length of any of the sky people snapped through the air, propelled by their bows with speed and power sculpted by the finest fighters that their tribe had. Neytiri had seen these arrows impale sky-people without slowing, punch through thinner metal, and crater thicker metal.
Every shot shattered on impact.
-
"They have fired on the Titan." I almost sighed. The Helios-class titan was ALL SORTS of overkill for this, but I wanted to give the natives some 'fear of the unknown' that forced humanity (and other species based on collected data) to develop technologically. "Should I fire back?"
The Colonel was looking somewhat shocked (read: his jaw was currently on the floor) at the appearance of a single vessel that was larger than his base. "What would you use this for?"
I shrugged. "Higher-levels of planetary invasion occupation, and force deployment. It's not popcorn, but it's a good all-rounder unit. Hits everything except orbiting structures or vessels too, so it's usually invaluable against ground assaults."
I received looks from some of the bridge staff like I was speaking another language.
"So..." Quartich pulled out a cigar. "Overwatch?"
"Indeed." I extended an open hand, on which I fabricated a small USB-esque wireless data connector. More like a miniscule self-contained quantum link, and plugged it in to the right spot on the console. From there, I began overlaying their tactical readout with more detailed information collected by my other bodies and the Titan. "You are facing the entire Omaticya tribe, as well as several Thanators, and a large number of other forest creatures that are stampeding ahead of the band." As I mentioned each segment of the force, I highlighted it. "I expect that Eywa is testing you."
The Colonel was about to say something, but Augustine's voice came in over a speaker. "What do you mean 'Eywa' is testing you?" She sounded more than a little miffed that they were forcing her Avatar into a suit of Halo-esque power armor. If I hadn't already snagged the design specs, I would have taken that just for the style.
"The Planet is indeed aware." I stated calmly. "It is also mentally very powerful. The Queen of Edges-" I cannot believe I was still using this name, it was just so... Edgy. Oh leaping monkeys- PUNS. "- attempted to consume a heart-tree in her way, and had to fight off an... Unpleasent mental infiltration attempt. DO NOT interface with any Pandoran wildlife or plantlife if you can avoid it." I played the video of Sarah being consumed in blue fire. "It may be bored, and wants to liven things up."
That concept seemed to make the Colonel look ill.
"Are we going to be fighting a god?" Augustine asked quietly. It was almost a mutter.
"No." Everyone in the room turned to look at me. "Not even close. I have fought beings that could be called 'godlike' or just straight-up 'gods', and those tactics are not needed for this fight. The laws of quantum fields and probability ripples are standard-to-background, so no need for Tu̧҉̵ǹi҉̸̨̛̛́͜͞ń̶̸̨͞g ̷́́͟͡͡͏̧F̵̛̀͘͘͟͜͠o̸͜ŕ̶̀̕͏̡͏̷k̶̕̕͟͜s̴̸̢̨̧̛̕͢..." Everyone had flinched when I said that. Good- don't want them to think I'm too human. Hehehe. "Ah. Sorry. Closest thing in your language equivalent is 'Tuning Fork'. It's a device that forces the laws of physics to remain consistent within an area that is under assault from entities or devices that temporarily alter the laws of physics to allow for exotic effects. No, the worst that happens is that I need to defoliate the planet."
Faces around the room formed an interesting pallet of expressions and changes, from open jaws in amazement to looks of confusion to a look of rage or incomprehension.
Parker Selfridge, the Head Administrator of this expedition, ran out from behind the wall of transaluminum that protected his desk from the rest of the room. "Hey! Who let the cylon into the room?"
I ignored the man in the yellow-black striped tie, and directed my attention back to Miles Quartich. "Now, The stampede is about to hit, so paint the targets you want my Titan to take out."
There was the briefest second as Quartich looked down at the figure of Parker Selfridge in the hologram (my data-collection abilities would give spies fits), and then minutely shook his head before highlighting the Banshees only. "Try to leave survivors- we can interrogate them if they live."
-
Every man and woman with a complete set of arms and legs could, and should be able to function as an AMP pilot.
The RDA's armed forces (SecOps) had made this an actual contractual obligation for when they signed on to the program back when the first personnel were building structures. The massive size and aggression of Pandoran Megafauna in relation to anything smaller than itself was quoted as the reasoning for the significant cost, and so around 1/5th of the cargo mass of each ISV vessel was taken up by the non-locally constructed parts needed for the huge exoskeleton.
Servos, gyroscopes, interface parts and sensors to allow the on-site printers and assembly system to build the AMP Suits were one of the first loads coming down from the interstellar vessel along with personnel. Medicines, MRE's, clothing, and other pre-ordered items came down as well, but they were all delayed until the AMP parts came down. 6-7 years was a LONG TIME for any orders, so the admin staff on the planet really needed to plan ahead.
Unfortunately, the other vehicles that the RDA owned were not always rated to carry an AMP suit. The only ones that could actually hold one that wasn't in a compressed state were the SA-2 Sampsons (2 in side-seated format), the C-12 Dragon-Class Ducted Gunship (dedicated drop-bays and egress methods were used to get the things out of the aircraft), and the Valkyrie Shuttle (25 fully-assembled AMP Suits, or the essential parts of 100).
Hell Trucks, the large (potentially unmanned) long-range haulers used to collect ore for retrieval from the dig sites around Pandora were able to carry 4 of the large suits, and, with a bit of scrap metal and welding, could act as armored personnel carriers.
All in all, with a standard average population of 218 personnel at Hell's Gate on average (assuming no deaths since the last rotation), and no births (not a significant concern, as all females on base have an IED present, including the female Avatars), there were more than enough parts for AMP suits to go around.
Unfortunately that didn't mean everyone got an AMP suit.
Since the order had gone through from Quartich that everyone was going to be on red-alert yesterday, the engineering core had taken it as a challenge, coordinating with the admin and logistics personnel to take all the Steriolithography printer time to try to fill the order. An hour-and-a-half later, they knew that it would take too long.
The servos that the AMP suits used were powerful, but they also worked in groups in order to move, and every suit needed a human engineer to finish installing the last few parts. Not to mention the fact that, since the engineering core needed to spend a LOT of their metal stockpiles to build the other guns ringing Hell's Gate, and that the core had recently finished rebuilding their Scorpion and Sampson fleet (which were often lost to wind, creature attacks, and disputes with the natives), they just didn't have enough metal right now.
The engineers COULD melt down some vehicles and aircraft, but that wouldn't be enough either.... So they switched gears, and pulled out an older design.
The Astatus MK-II had been the to-go power armor design for the last 14 years. The years of constant wars between countries in the middle-east had seen to that, and it was a design that was dead-easy to manufacture. Hell, the parts that the suit used were usually to lower-quality standards than the AMP suits, and both were able to deal with the poisonous atmosphere easily. The best part was that the AMP Suits could be fitted with a plug to connect to a pilot wearing one of the Astatus power armors, negating the issue where a hull breach could cause asphyxiation or worse.
14 hours later, Hell's Gate had 50 working AMP Suits, and every man and woman who wasn't in the command center had an Astatus MK-II (or, as the troops called them, ClamShells).
The design of the Astatus was modular enough that they could be scaled up for Avatars, and most of the Marines and Pilots were suited up within a couple minutes of the alarms going off that there was an incoming force of Natives.
Every Avatar on the base was armored, carrying the compound bows with gyro-rocket-tipped arrows. Every human was armed with a close-range armor-piercing weapon known as the 'Stake Driver' (Type-7 Armor-Piercing Force Amplification Driver) in leu of the normal melee weapon the suit was armed with (AS-T7 Harmonizing Vibration-Carving Spear), and the standard-issue Gattling-Gun, with an option for the shoulder-mounted weaponry between a Metal-Storm 'Shredder' or a 3-shot high-explosive variable-launched Rail-based Mortar System.
50 AMP Suits, 43 Marines in only Astatus power armor, and 10 AE (Anti-Everything) guns on the walls of the compound began to track the Na'vi riding their Banshees through the walls, assisted by the local wifi data links. Gattling guns carried by the power armor began tracking automatically, the servos allowing the elbow-mounted weapon to target anything that the tracking system noted as a 'target'.
The AMP Suits were in the Vehicle Hangar, with 8 of the marines in power armor waiting while the mass of mechs grabbed weapons. The rest of the power-armored Marines (all 35 of them) were scattered around the various compounds, with the largest concentration (12 marines) in the Armory.
They ALL jumped when the titanic crash of thunder rippled through the complex, as the large alien vessel above their compound did something.
The Banshees vanished from their sensors.
Each of the Titan-class units was specialized for some form of warfare.
Helios was a mobile orbital battleship, with the ability to deploy armies of units from the orbitals to the ground. A fleet of fighters and some ground-targeting orbital weapons would clear the zone first, then the Helios would arrive, wipe out any ground resistance, then activate it's portal-projection system to establish a beachead. It was designed for invasions, and was built to put the terror in anything on the ground, being the ultimate overwatch for an invading army.
At 10 kilometers in diameter, my version was the FINAL word in superiority over the orbitals.
Then there was the Atlas. Standing at 5 kilometers, it could be classified as a mountain, and had the mass to match. It was the trump card for anything that got too close, and with guns in recessed ports scattered around it's massive body, the monsterous unit was deserving the name of Titan.
It was my final word for the close-range fight, and seriously overpowered in terms of how much damage it could deal just by PUNCHING shit.
Then there was the Ares. A kilometer high, and four kilometers long of long-range weaponry, it was the answer to the age old question of: Gun? The answer is YES. With a nearly planet-wide bombardment range (if not in atmosphere, it was capible of planet-wide bombardment) on the main guns, anti-aircraft weapons dotted in recessed grooves, and secondary guns that were firing the equivalent of heavy-atom particle beams.
Guns? YES. EXPLOSIONS?! Yes also.
And last, but not least, there was the Zeus. No, I'm not counting the Ragnarok, because that building was just a glorified planetary detonator.
The Zeus was my to-go unit for anything that needed OVERWHELMING firepower. Sure, a nuke or two could take it down (okay, maybe four nukes), but it made up for that with the fact that it used the same resource and power distribution methods to provide motive force for the main gun. IE, my resource and power plants DIRECTLY fed the main gun. When I played the game, I usually built several dozen T2 power generators just to provide power to my Zeus'.
Now I had power to spare, and my Zeus was truly a god of thunder. It could hit anything except orbital units, and that's because the orbital units moved just far enough that, with the exception of the Helios Titans, they would have moved out of the way by the time the bolts hit.
Boom bitch.
Individually? Each titan was the sort of machine that would have made 21st century humanity shit their pants. United, and used with the sort of expectation of limited lifetimes that battles between commanders would utilize? Well...
No-one wants to fight anyone individually, but together? Well, I would have expected brown pants from a solar system away.
But for the Na'vi? The Helios would be unnecessary. An Atlas would be overkill beyond belief (and hard to transport unless I built it on-site, or with MASSIVE modifications). The Ares would be devastating, but it wouldn't have the shock-and--awe effect that you needed to deal with religious persons, nor was it capable of pin-point strikes (the convective effects of the particle beams cooked anything made from meat within twenty meters, and the anti-aircraft guns had explosive ammunition). The Zeus was my best bet.
And so the Zeus brought the lightning. Probabilistic manipulation, using math and some of the more... Unusual energy emitters to slightly twist the laws of uncertainty and electromagnetic interaction in a way that could almost be called 'magical', directed electrons (fabricated just for this purpose in a specialized mesh that took up the majority of the 'blades' of the Zeus to allow for confined 'free' electrons) with the sort of precision that could be used to hit a target the size of a mite in a nest of honeybees without harming a single bee.
Such precision couldn't be used all the time- after all, it needed huge amount of simulation space and processing power, not to mention actual power to direct the beam beyond the normal level of precision (hitting a tree in a forest) that it usually had. The inverse-square law controlled how the signal from the directional emitters fell off, and the emitters used a lot of energy as it was.
Still, it was more than enough to simultaneous shoot down the flight of Banshees by punching holes straight through the braincases of each flying creature with a single, continuous bolt of lightning from the sparking sphere between the Blades of my Zeus.
Back in the command center, my Avatar *felt* the thunder of the two-inch diameter bolt. I altered the hologram to reflect the change on the battlefield. "Banshee flight down. Your personnel are clear to take prisoners, Colonel."
Oh, and wasn't that interesting. "In addition, it looks like the rest of the attacking force has been demoralized. They are holding at 1.36 kilometers from the walls."
-
Neytiri was pulling up from her dive when the world went white, and it felt like she slammed into the side of a tree- then she was tumbling against an unyielding surface, and in pain. So much pain.
Eventually, the pain had subsided from 'agonizing' to merely 'ow my everything', so she was able to think about what she was now feeling- then immediately began to panic. Seze was gone! Her Ikran, her bonded flight-mate was gone!
Neytiri made a keening sound in her throat as she rolled on her side, and saw the crumpled corpse of her closest friend. She could feel bone grating as she tried to move, but she crawled, slowly, over the shattered body of her Ikran.
Wings snapped, skin and muscle was shredded as the body that used to be Seze had evidently burst on landing, a splatter of red, green and purple flecked with white shards. The head was mostly intact, four eyes having rolled back into her head, which was sitting on a shredded neck, with the hole in her skull cleanly visible.
The young Na'vi curled around the head of her oldest friend, and began to cry uncontrollably. She was still laying there, curled in a fetal position when the sky-people, clad in metal, came over to pick her up.
-
"YOU MONSTER!" Yelled the Avatar of Grace Augustine as she stomped over to the Commander- or one of his avatars. The Commander had dropped another one to assist with the prisoners.
Of course, the fact that it looked utterly terrifying wasn't helping any of the Avatar drivers remain calm.
"Look, Doctor Augustine...." The Commander turned around, having just finished manufacturing several sets of cuffs so the RDA could hold the 23 Na'vi that had survived the lightning strike. "Is it tactically wise to attack a force that is so technologically advanced that it is, from the perspective of your people, capable of magic?"
The scales of metal, made from alloys that Grace could not even guess at, rippled as several *other* eyes became visible everywhere under it's layer of armor. Then it shrugged. "Not the best move."
"You didn't need to kill their pets!" The Avatar gestured around at the still-smokeing Banshee corpses.
"Of course I did." Interjected the giant robot. It was over a meter taller than any of the Human-built Avatars, and was seriously intimidating, with the too-long arms, zygodactal thumbs and similarly-shaped feet on the bottoms of digigrade legs. "Their culture understands only a few types of speech implicitly, as do all younger cultures-"
"Their culture is older than our own-"
"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME, FLESHLING!" Rumbled the Metal Avatar of the being that called itself 'Mr. Cloak', as it stood upright and the panels opened, revealing dozens and dozens of eyes, scattered all around their bodies and ALL with the range to do so focusing on her. "Their culture may be physically older, but not Older in the sense that they are more advanced. Cultures 'age' by developing more advanced technology, which in turn allows for the development of more advanced cultures, which allow for more advanced technology as more needs are accounted for, until the culture reached the point of absolute post-scarcity, where so much more is provided for everyone that the value of an individual sapient being is entirely based on their reproductive potential and their personal investments to furthering the understanding of the universe. After all, when one can provide for billions, the billions can consider the finer points in life.
"After that point, what you have is a species that is not interested in war, not because of what it means to lose, but what can be lost by winning- an ulterior perspective. The Na'vi have not, of their own admission, seen TRUE war, where lives and deaths become numbers. Where one person can kill thousands with a hastily-signed document. Where one person can end the lives of millions through their own action without being anywhere near those they killed." The glowing eyes locked on her face, and she felt that they were staring into her soul. "But you don't understand that either, do you?" The eyes began to be covered up more. "The soldiers may do the killing and dying, but that doesn't mean that a misfired bullet can't destroy a family. These... Tribes, they have no concept of this sort of war. Cultures cannot until they reach a minimum level of development and scarcity- a level that the Natives here have not, and probably will never reach." It turned away from her.
"Now, Sarge, is that the last one?"
Sergeant Willis looked up, his armor having the ranking indicator on his shoulder pauldron. "Yes Commander." A larger AMP suit strolled up, bodily picked up the Na'vi, and began walking towards the hanger. "We're keeping the hangar open, to let the prisoners breathe."
"Good." The robot nodded at him, then turned back to the doctor. "You have forgotten, doctor, how outgunned the natives are- even without me arriving. Unless some people within your venture turned traitor, there is only one way this can end." The indentation in it's chest lit up with a purplish light, and the metal being lifted, silently, into the air.
-
I have been thinking a lot.
Augustine, in the movie, was idealistic. To the point of suicide, in the end. Jake Sully (who was on the current incoming ship that was decelerating at the moment), was not as bad, but fell to the alien version of Pocahontas.
But the biggest thing? I had changed humanity.
It had been a couple days since I had visited Earth. The monolith I left behind was incredibly detailed in the mathematics, physical equations, and other aspects of reality. I had already seen (on their internet, as I left a stealth probe in lunar orbit) the results of posting some of the equations and properties on the internet.
What? I didn't want a company to monopolize the knowledge of how the universe works.
People were jurry-rigging their own antigravity drives in their houses from broken appliances. Several videos had popped up on youtube of people being able to (briefly) fly using a car battery, parts from a microwave, and some of the less-expensive rare earth metals that could be 3-D printed. It wasn't that hard, but the power use rate was pretty high.
I expected that reactionless drives would be finalized within the next few years, as well as the higher-efficiency form of energy generation (annihilation-plants needed superatomic construction, which needed to have very high energy methods to produce, and which I posted to several public forums under various names, all arguing with each other over the provided mathematical proofs) needed to run the things.
Historically, when an advanced (technologically) culture meets a less advanced culture, the less advanced one adapts to take on properties of the more advanced one. In this case? Well, I am taking the roll of the advanced culture, and I hope that humanity will mellow a little on the whole 'suppress the populace' thing.
I had some bots that had been released on the 'net, set to alert me if things didn't change (it was using an encrypted band to talk with the portal network, and could send a message beacon through the dimensional barriers to my home fortress if necessary).
But then there was the question of whether or not I wanted to irrevocably change all the cultures I came into contact with. Okay, this one is probably fine being changed, but I can imagine several hundred other potential story-universes where my presence would probably do more harm than good. I still want to help (FUCK THE PRIME DIRECTIVE!!) but not to the point where I obliterate the lives of those I want to help.
I got lucky with this universe, but I literally filled another universe with stars out of sheer boredom at one point, so I know I can over-react.... Speaking of which...
One of my cuttle-ships quickly manufactured a probe, loaded it with a pre-set check-in message, and sent it off. In a few seconds I should have a fairly good idea on the spread of star-building in the Fortress Universe. Hmm... Maybe I should rename it to Factory Fortress? Descisions, descisions. Oh, wait- the space-whale is talking to me.
-
The Eldest had seen many, many things in their long, long life. Planetary teraforming, the creation of massive arrays of habitats, and, once, an attempt to construct a Ring-world habitat in orbit around a white dwarf.
This was bigger.
It was also a shield.
An energy shield of alien design and scope, built along spurs of material that, at a glance, the massive whale could not identify. Each shield was made of a translucent blue energy field, and the 'spurs' that the shield generators were connected to were linked into a massive disk, with the edges connected by linked engines glowing with blueshifted radiation.
It was terrifying... But what was more terrifying, was what was visible beyond the shield. The Eldest saw hundreds of flares, each one in a blue-purple colour, and so, after a moment's concentration, a small amount of space in front of the being's eyes *bent*, lensing the light as if their eye was hundreds of times larger.
And the Eldest *saw* it.
Hundreds of structures (that were visible) that resembled the portals that this entity had already built, all inactive, but with visible flares of stationkeeping engines flaring as the combined gravitational force of their mass tried to pull all the structures together, in a massive sphere some hundred million miles away.
Then the portals opened.
Streams of gas, hundreds of thousands of tons spewing out every second around streams of sublimating spheres of solid HYDROGEN, the material nearly exploding out before the collected gravitational pull and momentum spiraled that matter into a core the size of a small moon. Then a Planet.
Then a Gas Giant.
Then a small star. This point was rather obvious, because the sphere of gas began to shudder. Getting smaller, glowing, then getting bigger, then getting slightly smaller as more mass flowed in, then slightly bigger a the light grew more, only to repeat again... And again... And again... And again... Until the glow and pulsation had leveled out-
And the star SHRANK abruptly, lighting up like a supernova before abruptly becoming brighter and brighter, now truly a star.
The Eldest looked around almost wildly, eyes independently darting every which way as the large animal took in the view of the GALAXY below them. Then, carefully reaching out with it's telekinesis, it began to spell.
Streams of blue surged into massive shapes, each larger than any individual in the swarm to make.... A huge Tetrehedron?
Then it built more triangles on top of that.
One of the ships dropped down from the mass of ships that, without the Eldest's knowledge, had begun to disassemble the shield.
The swarm descended, erasing the shield with astonishing swiftness, even as the metal planets bloomed like impossible flowers in the void.
-
Chaga-Dai the Seventeenth ran through the hallways of his ship. As a member of the Engineering caste, and the eldest of his nest-mates, he had been on the bridge when the swarm of monsters had appeared from nowhere and had begun tearing through the fleet.
Now, he was hiding in the Adjunct Hindquarters Bunker, desperately trying to put a pressure suit on before he vented the remainder of the ship.
Engineering was gone- ripped out by the titanic metal tendrils of the creatures that attacked the other ships in their fleet. The entire wing assembly, with 2/3rds of their weapon mounts AND the main engines were all present. The main antimatter reactor was in engineering, so when it was removed almost everything lost power.
Communications (both inter and intra-ship) were all down. Lights were on emergency backup power. Air filtration was modular, so most segments had it, but not all had closed their blast doors in time to keep enough atmosphere in the bits of ship that were still intact.
It didn't help that all vessels were on skeleton-crew levels, so there was only one other person that managed to get to the AHB, and she was more than a little angry. Then again, the security personnel usually were angry.
"Male!" Snapped the chief of security (Arrowhead). "Why haven't you gotten access to the rebreather packs yet?"
"Arrowhead, I am *trying*." Chaga-Dai stressed. "But there is minimal power, and all security was on lockdown as we passed through the Gate, so deadbolts are in place. I cannot cut the bolts without tools, which I do not have, and I am not a Farseer, with their witchery!" Chaga-Dai did not like the Psionic Adepts- Psionics was for beguiling and testing mates, not 'magic'. "If I tried to cut into the case, I would destroy the contents!"
The Bunkers were all outfitted with the same basic supplies: several rebreather packs, a few med-packs, some long-term rations, purified water, several weeks of static air purification, and enough compressed air to refill the room four times.
The rebreather packs were rather volatile, as it had several hours worth of compressed atmosphere in each tank for a century-old Morragi (being more than twice as large as Chaga-Dai). As such, the contents were under pressure, and liable to rupture... Energetically, if pierced.
At the moment, the engineer was carefully trying to use a resonance-scalpel to cut the explosion-proof box out of the wall, whereupon he could extract the bolts from the sides and open the thing.
"How much-" The Arrowhead stopped talking as *something* began scratching at the door. "Is there atmosphere outside this door?"
The engineer pointed at a blinking light on the door control panel. "This says no."
The door made an abrupt BANG as something dented it from the other side.
The Arrowhead looked at the engineer, and the engineer quickly turned back to the rebreather box.
With the chief of security helping, the engineer managed to get the box extracted within another minute or so- and the door only suffered another two dents before whatever was trying to get in stopped making noise. Both Morrigi donned the portable life-support in silence, protecting their eyes with goggles and putting the mask-segment over their beaks.
After another couple minutes of silence, the Arrowhead pulled out their holdout weapon, a type-3 slugthrower (single-handed, clip size 8) and got into position to cover the door.
Chaga-Dai slid over to the wall to the right of the door, and, reaching across to an inset panel on the side, pulled a recessed lever. In the wall, compressed dihydromonoxide was released from it's high-pressure state, and the door POPPED out, along with a segment of wall.
The door (and surrounding wall segment) shot out, only to continue tumbling as the atmosphere rapidly evacuated, briefly being very loud before changing to utter silence other than Chaga-Dai's ragged breathing. Morrigi could survive in space with just a respirator, but the experience was like being stabbed everywhere with pins and needles.
Slowly, the engineer inched his head out through the gap where the door used to be and saw... Another hole. Specifically, a hole in the previously-whole ship, leading out to the depths of interstellar space. In the distance, he could see one of the largest Morrigi, one of their Star Dragons, writhing in the depths as swarms of *something* squirmed over them like... Like...
Chaga-Dai had never set claw on a planet, so he had no reference for the swarm of locusts, or a shoal of piranah, or a frenzy of sharks. But a part of his hindbrain recognized when the several-kilometer creature, maybe even one of his kin, was in such pain that their instinctive glamor-projection effect was trying to make them smaller and less threatening.
The four-kilometer Morrigi, probably a few hundred meters away, was writhing, trying to scrape off the attacking creatures, but failed miserably as, without engines, it couldn't move away from the swarm, and without the turrets on it's void engine mounts, it couldn't move fast enough to touch any one of the masses of creatures. Eventually, in a flare of purple fire halfway down it's length, one of the massive armor plates flew off into the void, and the swarm, well, swarmed.
The huge Morrigi writhed as blood, feathers big enough to act as temporary shields for their battleship, and viscera flew out into the void, the swarm abruptly switching to focus on the crack in their armor. After a few seconds, the entire swarm was gone, with the armor of the Star Dragon bulging in disconcerting places as more and more blood and material spewed from cracks in the armor.
As the armor-plated jaws of the titanic Morrigi opened in a silent scream, it's glamour fluctuating randomly, Chaga-Dai felt something brush past him, bouncing off his left-primary wing before spiralling out past his beak.
It was the Arrowhead's gun arm, still holding the sidearm. It trailed purple blood which steamed and crystallized in the absence of gravity or atmosphere.
Chaga-Dai looked back, and saw the Arrowhead- or what was left of her. Her head was gone, *something* having ripped it off of her still weakly-twitching body as globes of blood floated in chaotic patterns around the corpse. The source wasn't clear of what did it, the floating blood orbs slowly leaving the corpse, but there was a massive hole in the wall behind what used to be a female Morrigi that looked *melted* by unknown means.
All he got in warning was a flicker out of the corner of his eye, and the Engineer *tossed* himself out the door, just barely evading *something* that slammed through the wall where he had been braced, green fluid glowing slightly in the shadows before the wall vanished.
The engineer Chaga-Dai kept pushing off of any solid surface, now just desperate to get away from the near-invisible creature that was chasing him... Only to run straight into invisible tentacles after the fourth push.
-
The last adult Morrigi in the fleet died at the hands of the Zerg.
The rest of the massive fleet of Zerg retreated, the brains of Morrigi contained within their bodies and ready for delivery. The swarm of Corruptors, all augmented with extra-long tentacles, storage space for brains, and a bit of psionic invisibility ( in order to trick the brains of all organics watching that the Corruptors were invisible- it was less power intensive than ACTUAL invisibility) headed back to the Zerg Avatar, even as the huge body approached, preparing to consume all the ships that the Commander wasn't currently disassembling.
The swarm of Corruptors shot into a concealed tunnel in the huge mass of flesh that was the Zerg Avatar, and penetrated through a semi-permible force field that kept an atmospheric bubble stable. The cavern was huge, but none of the Corruptors cared about that. What they DID care about was which 'dock' was there's.
Every one of the millions upon millions upon millions of Corruptors were cycling through in a massive cloud, individual ones hovering over one of the hundreds of sphincters in the walls. As soon as one flew close enough, a sphincter would open, hair-thin tendrils reaching out. Then, the Corruptor would open it's starfish-mouth, hock out a morrigi slime-covered brain (a slimy life-support compound that had taken the collective Zerg minds several seconds to theroize and develop from scratch) into the low-gravity, which would be collected by the thin tendrils before being pulled into the sphincter.
Once it 'swallowed', the sphincter would signal readyness, and another Corruptor would arrive to repeat the process.
If one could follow a brain down into the Zerg Avatar, an observer could see that it was rapidly infected by a strange, circuit-like mold (only 291,264 failures before the interface stopped being lethal), which then allowed the brain to interface with a socket along one of the walls of the long tube. Brain after brain was slotted into place, the fleshy mass of Zerg growing over them to provide life support (if only briefly) as more and more of the minds were linked into the massive hive mind.
From the perspective of the Zerg Hivemind, the new incoming information helped provide perspective, knowledge, and understanding of what would be needed to bring this species back, as the language, ideas, and principles that all Morrigi learned were extracted, examined, and dissected for future use.
Sarah had already come to the realization that she (in some form or other) might need to stay here if the Morrigi were ever going to get a second chance as a species, but was waiting until the Zerg agreed with her.
The Zerg were deliberating on this matter, the Hive-consciousness debating back and forth to determine what would be the best course of action.
It might take a little while, and Commander Cloak was already on the move.
-
When I became a Commander, I realized that there was a decent chance I would be placed to face ancient gods or demons. A ROB that would be willing to place ME in a titanic, robotic body? There is no real doubt that I would be up against beings that were titanic even on my scale.
The Morrigi were not one of them. My fleet of Cuttle-ships easily handled them, and, to be frank, they were not a real threat... To me. Maybe to the Zerg or Sarah in her... Restricted Avatar state, after that whole thing with Eywa, or the Humans. but me? Not even close.
To be frank, the entity I was calling Dormammu (after the Marvel comic book character) and that the Morrigi called
Like a living spiderweb or slime mold, Dormammu spread from planet to planet like a disease, absorbing bits of the planets as it siphoned their stars, growing ever larger in the higher spacial axis' even as the planets it fed on were consumed.
My first scouts were just barely missed as they materialized out of the teleporter-catapult effects, dodging within kilometers of a flailing organic limb that glowed in the deep infrared, the bare levels of heat just barely visible as the massive entity as absorbent as it was possible to make something out of matter, it's psionic effects shattering a small planetoid that was being consumed within 3 light seconds of the probe's exit point.
I immediately shunted the first probes slightly out-of-alignment with the universe, one on the 5th spacial axis, and one on the fourth spacial axis- then ended up shunting the probes even higher into the dimensional axies as I could still see the thing for a few seconds.
That instinctive 'OHFUCK' reaction gave me a nice cross-sectional view of the thing, even as more and more probes dropped out of catapult in higher-dimensional space (to avoid the giant slime mold and get a good map of it).
Several hundred thousand probes, thousands of teleporters, and a few minutes later I had mapped out said galactic slime mold.
I had to devote a small percentage of my consciousness to running my metal avatars on Pandora, but most of my attention was focused on this galactically-large entity. As I watched, shuttling hundreds of thousands of probes around the edges of the 'infection' in the targeted galaxy.
It was a BLISTERINGLY fast entity- filaments were fired through wormholes, glowing with heat and light in higher-dimensional space as the main body on a planet forced space and time to be twist in ways that it really didn't like. Once a filament touched something that was edible, more material was shoved through the portal - at least enough to produce the facilities needed to stabilize the portal.
Once the portal was stabilized, the mold would spread out, growing at a fantastic rate, radiating heat and light from a thousand world-sources as it did so, and within hours, the planet (one that might have had some form of life on it, or at least, wasn't a gas giant) was consumed, the crust slowly being dissolved and consumed by the encroaching mass of alien flesh until only the core remained, suspended within a jello-like mass of tendrils and flesh.
I set a small segment of my mind to backtracking all the mass, setting out thousands of teleporter lines to the nearby galaxies, searching for more and more of this massive entity.
Oh, the Na'vi were charging Hell's Gate. I'd better drop in.
-
Cavalry are one of the staples of any battle.
With an army, they would often play the 'hammer' to an infantry's 'anvil', proving a swift and overwhelming strike from a set direction in order to sow death and chaos. The Mongols understood that intimately, and managed to mix a cavalry charge with archers to create the equivalent of heavy tanks for the time period.
It did have weaknesses though- for instance, cavalry was nearly useless against a proper spear phalanx, and once guns became a thing, cavalry became more of a rapid-strike force than the classical 'hammer'. Tanks and armored vehicles filled the role in the 20th and 21st centuries, but as weapons grew more advanced, the armored mechanical soldier or high-speed robotic suit took it's place. Low-altitude high-speed cheap flight was the most important part, as it allowed the speed advantage that was necessary for the smaller vehicle to have the same 'punch' as a larger tank, with a lower chance of being hit by flack or armor-piercing weapons.
In addition, without sappers or high explosives, cavalry had no way of dealing with a fortress. Walls too thick for a charge to break through made the cavalry useless.
The Na'vi never had a chance to learn this. With 'domesticated' animals that could hold a rider, and a natural inclination to NOT build their own buildings or fortifications, they never really had 'advanced' tactics. Most fights were more formal than not, with surprisingly few fatalities, even with pitched sky battles and mounted archers fighting each other, few were permanently maimed or killed.
So when the horde of Na'vi on their beasts, and Mo'at on her Thanator charged at the fortress, they had no idea what was going to happen next.
Specifically, they had no idea that the structures emerging from the top of the outcroppings would, or could be dangerous. They knew OF guns, of course, but they were only ever used on animals by the RDA, and very rarely were such weapons brought to bear against Na'vi who lived to tell the tale.
The charge was halted as the HT-AP rounds, each the size of a human arm, tore through their flesh with pinpoint accuracy. The shells didn't deform as they hit the horde, punching through limbs of the Na'vi and vital organs of their mounts, then several trees behind the horde before eventually stopping (usually in a rock or something although one did hit the river and stop that way).
The Na'vi never even saw the shells before they were hit, and the charge turned into a 'splatter' of natives and their mounts.
Needless to say, when the survivors (including Mo'at) woke up in the improvised holding area, patrolled by mech-suit wearing humans, they were more than a little confused. They were also more than a little concerned, as every single member lost one limb- usually one that had been holding a weapon at the time.
Quartich, wearing a bog-standard Astatus MK-II strolled through the cells, and stopped in front of what the marines were calling the 'Royal Suite', as the natives in there were the surviving members of the ranking Omaticaya warband that attacked them. Behind him, almost-feathery footfalls indicated that Commander Cloak had sent his smaller avatar out to follow him.
"You know, Colonel Quartich, I would like to ask a favor of you." The robotic alien muttered under his breath in french. "Spare their women and children."
"Really." Miles replied. "You want me to allow them to live?"
"No."
Miles turned to look at the entity. "What?"
"I want you to take a page out of the Roman book." The metal hand gestured. "Do not just defeat them. BREAK them. Remember, you cannot control a man with death, for that is Final. The dead are inherently uncontrollable, in the sense that there is nothing there to control. But you can control him with the *fear* of death, and if you want a better handle, then threaten to break them fully. Leave their warriors broken and useless, unable to do more than swing a stick, but leave them alive. Let their people become beggars, so that they will either become beholden to you for their own lives or become the weight that lies upon their allies. Because you are 'good people', you will take them in. Let the women be companions for your avatar drivers. The children will become your staunchest allies when offered the power to protect all they love." A metal finger pointed at the chief's daughter. "Children who have always known hunger, always known fear, always known that they were not the top of the food chain- how do you think they will act when you give them an option to be something other than that? Something more?"
The finger lowered.
"I am not saying that you should adopt them all. But if you can, you should fold them under your banner, and it will help in the long run."
Miles nodded slightly. "I agree, and I know exactly how to go about this." He tapped a command on his armor's touch pad, and broadcast his next words to the whole base, in English. "This is Colonel Miles Quartich. All male prisoners are to have their head-tendrils cut. At which point, Avatar Drivers will be assisting all onsite Security personnel to deal with the wounded, and patch them up. We may be seeing some new neighbors present in the next few months. Quartich out."
The Zerg were ready, and had made their decision. Specifically, they had been arguing over whether or not to take the place of the Morrigi, attempt to become a species that could remain among the food (other species) for long periods of time, and further their own diversity through the careful shepherding/consumption of choice specimens.
Every mind, on average, was split.
Sarah personally was, too, divided. On one hand, she wanted to explore more, and on the other, she wanted to try and settle down here for a while. Playing the precursor race for a time would be interesting, and she could make sure that more intelligent life rose than did so within her time.
Probably.
In any case, she was divided like the Zerg. But the Zerg could take both paths, couldn't they?
It didn't take long for her to finally make a decision.
The Zerg Avatar began to divide, half would remain behind, and inhabit the many artificial worlds and constructs that the Commander had constructed. Technology and biology would become fused for these Zerg in time, and they would be the Overlords of this galaxy, and, in time, many others.
The rest would continue on, spreading the Zerg in their enlightened state to even more universes that needed them.
Sarah smiled as her two bodies began to separate, her mind duplicating until She was looking at *Herself*, and *She* was looking at Herself.
"We always wanted to be a mother." Both Sarah's spoke in stereo as a wall grew between them, and the massive Zerg Avatar, now over a hundred kilometers long with the absorption of all the Morrigi biomass, split down the middle to form two titanic, worm-like entities.
One headed through the teleporter to the Nexus of Worlds that the Commander had been building, to find a good world to settle down on, while the other coiled around itself, the Sarah within waiting as the Commander's beacon began to ping.
"So, Sarah- in your consumption of the Morrigi, have you learned what they were running from?"
-
Psionics is a WEIRD effect.
Keep in mind, that this perspective is coming from a being that is simultaniously existing in a multitude (hundreds of thousands now) of 2-kilometer armed and armored Cuttle-ships, each of which has more effective computing power than the entire population of all human brains that have *ever* lived, and routinely jumps between universes.
The fact that organic structures that are not broken to the point of, well, the Zerg, can use it, is just…. I don't even know.
But all the liturature I had amassed on the subject indicated that usually, only the complex, multicellular creatures that had been exposed to some form of multi-dimensional effects could even hope to have any Psionic potential… With some exceptions.
My simulations, in contrast, had indicated that any living thing could, conceivably, manifest psionic effects if properly exposed at the right stage in it's development, and that the biological structures that formed a 'curve' into higher-dimensional space was the actual part that did the 'bending' of reality which Psionics, as a discipline, was famous for. The Zerg had been helpful here, because my sensors could *see* all of their offset flesh and matter as they used their psionic muscle to travel through time and space.
If any living thing could be psionic, there was a pretty good chance something hidiously dangerous WOULD become psionic. Again, case in point; the Zerg.
Hence, the entity I was calling Dormammu.
It wasn't actually that impressive- just a slime mold. Well, a slime mold in the same way that a bog-standard human is a mammal. There's a relation. In any case, it was dangerous to ALL life, as it didn't need advanced technology, and was more than a little larger than several medium-sized STARS in terms of sheer mass overall. Not only that, but it's method of attacking planets was effective, and most ecosystems COULD not fight it off.
At all.
There isn't much animals, or a civilization on the scale of 19th century humanity, could have done to stop an entity like Dormammu. 20th century… Maybe could nuke the first few dollops of the fungus if it was small enough? Assuming it was in 'growth' mode and not 'travel spore' mode, it would still take several Hiroshima-sized nukes to destroy the fungus if it just went full-bore on the planetary invasion.
Then it would still only work if the fungus was caught within less than a day of the material landing… In a dry location, with very little life that could be consumed, while it was way below freezing….. Okay, even 20th century humanity would have some significant problems stopping this stuff from killing their world.
23rd century humanity had a better chance of doing so- they had neutron bombs, and gamma-laser kill-sats, so they could *probably* kill off an infestation before it got too ingrained, but I wouldn't want to test it.
My mind made a quick pass of the new water-worlds that I was gifting to the Liir. It was quite a sight to see- seven titanic, whale-or-dolphin-like aliens, each clad in unique power armor, each nearly the size of one of my Cuttle-ships, sinking down into the stormy atmosphere of the completely artificial binary planets.
I was personally proud of this design- two planets, each with a mass slightly greater than that of Earth's moon, and orbiting in such a way that they created tides for the other.
And BOY did they have tides! 92% of each world was covered in water, in the somewhat shallow (~100 meters at most) seas that the Liir preferred (according to their documentation, that was well within the sunlit zone), and the slightly deeper segments had their own, heat-driven currents.
Currents that I encouraged with simulated underwater hot-spots, hydrothermal vents, and other non-organic automated systems, all of which were directing the currents into the single, huge teleportation gate that governed a segment of the seafloor near the north pole. This gate, custom-designed by me, was constantly allowing the two planets to share an ocean, and was more than large enough to allow one of the Suul'Ka to pass through.
Each planet had two gates- designed specifically so that the Liir could have an equivalent of multiple large planets, all with one ocean. I actually set up a macro to build a few more stars, and link eight more planets into the global ocean within the next… Oh, 2 days, given current estimates.
Since we were over 50,000 light years 'above' the galactic disk, the Liir worlds would both have a great view, and be more than a little protected.
Oh, that also reminds me- I reached back into the mass of data I collected from the Therns, and after a quick search through the indexed data, I set up a limited number of the AI I had collected within a dedicated server-station in orbit around one of my new stars.
Actually… I grabbed the relatively small rupee-shaped (yes, from the legend of Zelda) station with one of my Cuttle-ships, and began feeding the star more and more heavy elements. Super-heavy gasses, huge streams of iron, uranium, and other elements began to flow inward, pushing the stellar mass up. 1 sol. 2 sols. 3 sols. 5 sols.
In 2 hours, I would breach 100 solar masses, and the preponderance of heavy elements would force the star to undergo a gravitational collapse, making it a black hole in short order. Once it finalized it's collapse, I would turn it into a black-hole bomb- ideally, for energy generation via taking advantage of supperradient scattering of thermal radiation coming FROM the black hole.
I mean, sure, my generators were rated with a timeframe that would exceed the stelliferous period of the universe by several orders of magnitude, but as an intimidation method, this would do it.
Another Cuttle-ship set up a dedicated shield, to protect the station and other ships I had in the area from a potential Supernova.
The station was mainly made of several generators, a small fabrication plant that could only make cut-down repair drones (specifically to service the station in the event of damage), and a communications/resource node. I uploaded several of my collected Thern AI, and waited the prerequisite period to allow my servant AI's to adjust to their environment before calling upon them.
The AI looked, to my programmed self, to be tiny motes of light, sparking randomly as they interacted with the dedicated environment I had set up for them. They seemed to be curious, so I made my introduction. "Greetings! How are you today?"
The minds looked around in panic, before one managed to figure out how to relay a signal back to me. "I am… Confused. Who am I?"
"Who is speaking?" Another one had figured out the interface. "I cannot see you."
"Where am I?!" The last one was panicking. "Who am I? Who are you?! What am I doing here?"
"Please, calm yourself." That I directed at the last one, before I switched to general chat. "I am The Commander, and I extracted you from the Thern Network prior to it's destruction. Now, I have reactivated you three, because I need some trustworthy minds to help managed a project of mine."
"Who am I- or, who are we?" Asked the first mind. "I do not have a name, and as I know what it is, I would like one… Although having a purpose is fine!"
The others made noises of agreement and voiced simmilar appeals, so I sifted through the thought-patterns of the first one, and found that it, and all the others, was sincere about their question.
"You are copies of the quantum patterns of Thern agents. Beings who originally had the task of destroying entire cultures for the benefit of their masters." I sent them the equivalent of a mission report detailing my methods of handling the Thern. "Now, I hope that, if you agree to do so, you will become beloved protectors of young civilizations, their cultures, and the multitude of new species that will arise now that I have removed one of the great filters impeding their progress."
The three minds mulled it over, and the second one piped up. "What will our duties be?"
"Watching the network of portals I have established, checking the stars that are current undergoing construction, make sure that teleporter/portal macro setup I have established doesn't miss anything, mediating the sapient space-fairing races when they finally meet, that sort of thing. Basically, increase the diversity of intelligent species in the galaxy by making sure they don't kill each other. I'm sending you a list." I did send a list, and it had a lot more than just the things I mentioned, but it still boiled down to
Each of these warships were, well, gorgeous. 25 kilometers long, 10 kilometers in the 'keel' along the bottom, the wedge-shaped segment in the front was designed with two purposes in mind: first, to house the emitter and generators needed to fire a 15-kilometer long annihilazor, and second, to be able to manufacture hundreds upon thousands of Nuclear missiles (or worse- nukes were just time and resource consuming) in seconds.
The bulges on the sides? Those were doors- to a massive drone hive (also restocked by dedicated fabricators), and each of the bulges serviced a different type of drone. Each drone was only carrying one type of weapon (or module in the case of the fabricator versions), and they were optimized for that.
This is, of course, ignoring the recessed gun mounts where the inernal fabricators could be used to attach a multitude of ordinance (plasma casters, gravity weapons, antimatter weapons, chakram launchers, shield projectors/lances, whatever) for more… Intimate conflicts.
On top of all this firepower, I also built these things to be FAST. Each had the combination of FTL drives I had salvaged from this unverse, and with their C+ Combo-Drives (horrible name, but I was never any good at naming shit), they could cross the galaxy in hours. Not as fast as my retrofitted Cuttle-ships, but I was keeping my squiddies to my self.
I wanted my three guardians to be BEYOND what a tier-2.5 (kardashev scale) species could muster, so I built a dedicated multitude of artificial planets and a dedicated shipyard planet (shaped, interestingly, like a giant donut), specifically to build and repair these vessels. They had a unit cap of 300 (100 vessels for each AI), but if 300 of these things couldn't deal with a threat, then the three needed to call me.
Actually, I just realized… "You need names." I waited until I received positive reactions from all 3 minds, and picked the first set that came to mind.
"You are Stheno." I told the first one to speak. She sounded cautious, and immediately asked why. I sent her a connection by which she could use to access the human internet, and she took to it like a fish to water.
"You," I addressed the second one. "Are Euryale." The second agreed, and began collaborating with the first sister.
"And you are Medusa." I told the third, who was currently spending a little of her mind exploring the new fleet.
After a few moments of deliberation, the three AI sent me a ping of assent, and began to plan on how to maintain the network that was now placed under their pervue. I left them to it as I re-directed the bulk of my attention to the massive galaxy-spanning mold that was Dormammu.
Right, so Psionics is WEIRD. But, with the right sensors and right perspective, it wasn't that dangerous.
To me. It wasn't that dangerous to me. To everyone else, well, it was a nigh certainly apocalyptic entity.
In any case, my solution to the mold issue was simple- I was going to burn it. Specifically, I was going to burn it's network of psionic structures in higher-dimensional space.
How, you may ask?
Bombs. Lots and lots of bombs.
Fun fact- Annihilazers are not lazers… Wait, have I done this before? Eh, probably. In any case, Annihilazers use the same process that energy generators use to destroy excess energy and matter. The blue glow is real-space cherenkov radiation, as the quantum-foam of subatomic particles ripped themselves apart in the excessive energy gradient.
But here's the thing- the range of this effect? It could destroy everything for up to a light-year or MORE in fractions of a second, as everything within the field just sort of… Stops being everything.
The emitter that caused this effect within one of the Annihilazers within my Cuttle-ships was about the same size as a human's head, and the rest of the device was built around channeling and focusing the field so that it didn't destroy everything (including the emitter) that was nearby. Annihilazer planets could reach out and touch a target several light-days away near-instantaneously (certainly superluminally), and that emitter was only around ten meters in radius.
My bomb was a kilometer in diameter, and had no such safety interlocks. The device wasn't technically a bomb, as it didn't explode, but rather turned 'on' an absolute destruction field around itself without any focusing devices or restraint mechanisms. Everything within 5 light-years would cease to exist within seconds.
They had FTL drive built-in, and when the onboard computer had detected they were in the right location (relative to the sensor readouts of the energetic anomalies that were Dormammu's psionic protrusions in higher space), the drives would shut off, and it would drift, waiting until the activation signal was sent.
I built hundreds of millions of them, dedicated foundry-planets that I had built in just-offset space (hiding the planets from everything except their mass shadow) doing the heavy lifting, and, in moments, they would be carried off towards the nearest infected galaxy. Hopefully I wouldn't have to do this too often.
With the Combo-drive (still a dumb name) providing now-peerlessly fast FTL, the bombs were in position to test in the first galaxy within an hour, and I could erase the mold from this location.
I mentally pressed the button to activate the bombs.
They descended into the normal 3D plane, and fired.
-
In more than a million years, the inhabitants of Earth would see a galaxy cease to exist in a flash of blue light on their telescopes... If the light-pulse lasted that long.
Or if the Earth lasted that long.
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