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Thread III Opening Animation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CdBRMKJqww

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120 KB PNG

Also, check out this fantastic piece of art that the QM of Bones Quest very kindly made a little while back! Thank You!

“For the first time in many months, I dreamt of the wheel again. I knelt within the atrium of her temple, where its rough masonry abruptly transitioned into slabs of cold, reflective marble.

Her form was motionless when she heard my petition. It remained motionless as she gave her answer.

“True, there is no permanence. All wells are fated to evaporate. That is the precise reason I laid its foundation within the prow of your vessel rather than my own.”

“But that bears little relevance to your current course. Some commitments are not reversible.”

When I finally succeeded in raising my head, I perceived the tiniest flaw upon her graven features. A hairline fracture that either appeared at that very moment, or simply made itself evident by a transient shift in lighting.

My memory of the encounter began to dissipate as soon as I awoke, but the sensation of the fracture remained: floating in my mind until I committed it to ink and paper. With dread, I realized that II had written down another set of coordinates: an orbit so close to MIZAR-V that it technically fell within its outer atmospheric envelope….”

>Investigate the coordinates first. [This will put executing the subsequent vote on “pause”, though it will still be recorded]

>Attack MIZAR-V-A/G first.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“MIZAR-V evokes familiarity. I recognize the off-white clouds of ammonium ice and the wood-grained atmosphere - the ripple of convective storm cells and the slow march of lunar satellite chains. I suspect that the Jovian planet looming in front us plays a similar role as its distant Terran cousin – using its far-reaching gravitational field to shield its smaller, terrestrial brethren from stray asteroids and marauding comets.

But there is one crucial difference: MIZAR-V’s moons are blessed with far greater diversity than the barren-bombarded satellites occupying Jupiter’s orbit. MERRYGATE tallied over ten moons with a detectable atmosphere. Three of them carry liquid water, of which two are nominally inhabited.

MIZAR-V-A was the more populous – and more obvious - target. A branching lines of geothermal fissures supplement the meagre heat of the system primary, creating a winding strip of warm water along the moon’s equator. Even at the RAIN’s current position – nearly a hundred million kilometers away – I could easily see the glow of littoral cities and the flare of launch vehicles by training my optical telescope behind the advancing terminator line.

Such activity was unsurprising. Based on consumption data that MERRYGATE had intercepted some time ago, the world was inhabited by roughly two billion Mizarians. But that number was certainly higher now. The flood of refugees and escapees from the outer system had pooled here, straining the moon’s orbital infrastructure by a considerable margin.

By contrast, MIZAR-V-G was much more sparsely populated – a largely automated farming world which capitalized on the rich soup of complex organics pumped up from the moon’s geothermal vents. Light-giving light is supplied by a marvelously constructed trio of gossamer-thin orbital mirrors, each capable of being steered independently to account for orbital shifts. Three points of light supporting the living corpusof the Mazarin empire.

As our distance to the Jovian planet decreased, MERRYGATE spent more and more of her time examining the two planets, formulating an array of strategies intended to subvert civilian machinery to meet inhospitable ends. There was a frantic, almost voracious pace to her progress. Part of it had to do with the target itself – more populous than the outer-system colonies by four or five orders of magnitude. But I suspect that cause can also be attributed to our activities during the first half of our journey. Unpacking the convoluted laws animating the hypometric weapon had been a singularly unpleasant experience for both of us, albeit for slightly different reasons. The fact that we reached an impasse after uncovering the singularity was almost a relief – an opportunity for her to return to a function that she was far more accustomed to.

My own feelings were not terribly different. As I listened to MERRYGATE list increasingly elaborate methods for unspooling orbital elevators and contaminating algal-purification plants, I began drafting plans for our approach. There was more nuance here than before. More factors, more room for potential error against an enemy that had finally committed to strategic adaptation. But somehow, I still found it easier than trying to deconvolve the mechanics of causal erasure.

Instead of smearing themselves across MIZAR-V’s gravity well, the ships protecting the Jovian planet had chosen to organize into a proper flotilla. We would catch glimpses of it whenever they framed themselves by lighting their fusion torches. Nearly a dozen corvettes. Five or six destroyers. Three cruisers. And a flagship at its head – a tapered, flare-bright behemoth that was easily quadruple the RAIN’s tonnage.

For the past week, they were occupied with chasing and fragmenting the asteroids that we sent tumbling down the MIZAR gravity well several weeks ago. But they never strayed too far – leashing themselves to the orbital docks surrounding MIZAR-V-A with frustrating persistence.

Confronting the fleet head-on would be intractable – if not suicidal – if we have any wish of continuing into the inner system with ordinance to spare. We either must exploit an opening or create one…."

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 19, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>MIZAR-V-A. We will approach MIZAR-V-A while diverting the fleet with a scouting drone. The RAIN’s scouting drones can be used to mimic her transmission frequency and drive signature; launching one in active mode will conceivably create a diversion capable of pulling the fleet onto one side of the moon’s orbit. We will approach and launch our payload from the opposite side, eliminating any stations while using the planet itself as cover from the fleet. While it will expend a drone, this strategy is fast and efficient; if executed properly, the enemy will have little time to react.

>MIZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…

>WRITE IN a specific strategy (I know that some were proposed the last thread – I tried to fold some of them into the update, but please feel free to repeat/summarize them if I did not cover them in sufficient detail)

>>5575276
>>IZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…
Welcome back!

>>5575272
>Investigate the coordinates first. [This will put executing the subsequent vote on “pause”, though it will still be recorded]

Lets see what we can find.


>>5575276
>MIZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…

Anyone else feel like sun dried fish?

>>5575276
>>MIZAR-V-G.
Let's hold off on expending drones and munitions as long as we can.

>>5575272
>Investigate the coordinates first. [This will put executing the subsequent vote on “pause”, though it will still be recorded]
>>5575276
>MIZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…

>>5575269
>that video
Bro are you shitting me
You put a ridiculous amount of effort into creating the OC for this quest

>>5575272
>Investigate the coordinates first. [This will put executing the subsequent vote on “pause”, though it will still be recorded]

>>5575276
>MIZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…

>>5575272

>Investigate the coordinates first. [This will put executing the subsequent vote on “pause”, though it will still be recorded]

MIZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…

I’m 99% sure that we are now directly receiving subliminal messages from a possible future humanity that is trying to help us solve the causality riddle and thereby secure human survival.

The statue is clearly causality - the references to “wells evaporating” is probably singularities and Hawking radiation.

>>5575276
>MIZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…

>>5575272
>Investigate the coordinates first. [This will put executing the subsequent vote on “pause”, though it will still be recorded]
I don't think the probe want's us dead just yet so I doubt this is a trap. Still, how difficult is it going to be to get to this point then back on an attack vector towards our target without the fleet noticing.
>>5575276
>MIZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…
For now I'll throw my vote in here incase the other one fails. Are we planning on going full Gundam solar ray with these mirrors or something more discreet?

>>5575269
Damn. My expectations were high, and you exceeded them.

>>5575270
This, on the other hand, figs my expectations of BonesQM! Glad you got some fanart.

>>5575276
>Investigate the coordinates first. [This will put executing the subsequent vote on “pause”, though it will still be recorded]
>MIZAR-V-G. We will approach MIZAR-V-G – a more poorly defended target – to eliminate the farming world and cut off the empire’s primary food supply. While the effects of a food shortage are not immediate, they may incite panic and discontent amongst MIZAR-V-A’s already-strained populace - a possibility that MERRYGATE finds distinctly appealing. The orbital mirror array surrounding the planet also offers interesting tactical possibilities for a subsequent attack on MIZAR-V-A…

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“There are no oceans on Mars. The great seas that once covered my home planet sublimated nearly half a billion years before the birth of man. Only geographical traces remain – collapsed valleys and eroded deltas, carved into ochre rock. Subterranean aquifers which would still flow during the meagre warmth of the summer thaw.

As an adult, I have seen oceans on humanity’s birthworld – touched them – even traveled above them on one occasion. But part of my psyche still finds the concept unpleasant. A featureless blue sky above; the murky, drowning waters below. So very different from the dark clarity of interstellar space.

Due to this, I found myself unusually anxious during our descent into MIZAR-V’s lower orbit. The face of MIZAR-V expanded until it flattened into a solid horizon line. There was no water here, but the sensation was the same. A featureless tan sky above; the drowning, crushing heat of liquified gas below.

When we completed our final insertion burn, the RAIN glanced across the outer reaches of atmosphere like a skipping stone. The air here was rarified – a mixture of gases a million times less dense than earth’s atmosphere. But our velocity was still high enough to invoke aerodynamic effects. A thin film of ionized plasma rippled across the RAIN’s prow while her superstructure shook and pitched as she pierced through shoals of denser atmosphere. While the RAIN was rated for far more violent structural stresses, my hands still tightened reflexively on the thruster control column whenever our ship hit a particularly violent patch of turbulence.

MERRYGATE – of course – had no such circumscriptions. Some fears were too deeply rooted in evolution to be divorced from biology. But surprisingly, she did appear to spend more time on the bridge during our three-day transit, her avatar shadowing my body by only a few paces – the humming of her holographic acoustics maintained just above my hearing threshold. I found her presence was strangely comforting – which was, I suppose, very likely her intention all along.”

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 24, PERSONAL JOURNAL

“We began noticing signs sixty thousand kilometers from the specified location. The magnetic fields here were subtly shifted, swirling outwards in great loops. But when we moved further inwards, we found nothing – only scattered cloudbanks floating above ever-present storm cells. Somewhat frustrated, I spent the morning scanning the region visually – first through the RAIN’s optical sensors, then through a collection of multispectral frequencies, before finally restoring to a last-ditch attempt to catch discrepancies by eye.

I remember slowly panning my analog telescope across the surface of MIZAR-V, seeing flashes of lightning, swirling patterns…and then a hairline fracture, so thin it could have been a trick of the light.

A persistent clicking began sounding through our comms – seemingly random patterns at first, before coalescing into a simple – albeit imperfect - handshake request.

MERRYGATE reaction almost immediately, sealing the RAIN’s external channels with a speed that almost seemed panicked. After a moment, she collected herself and turned to me to decide on our next course of action.

>ANSWER. The previous entity we interacted with did not even grant this courtesy. Perhaps this request is a precursor to a more promising exchange…

>INVESTIGATE. We will move the RAIN to investigate using passive sensors after triangulating the source of the message. MERRYGATE still recalls the intrusion performed against us during our last encounter. Perhaps it would be wise to be warier this time.

> PING. The source is almost certainly close by. A powerful active sensor ping could resolve objects occluded from passive observation. An effective response hinges on information – information that we should aim to collect as quickly as possible.

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 25, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>>5576676
>>ANSWER. If we can packet burst a reply and/or bounce our comm signal in a way that will scatter off our surroundings instead of revealing our location.
If not:
>>INVESTIGATE.
Let's avoid giving whatever it is a target lock just yet.

>>5576676
>INVESTIGATE. We will move the RAIN to investigate using passive sensors after triangulating the source of the message. MERRYGATE still recalls the intrusion performed against us during our last encounter. Perhaps it would be wise to be warier this time.
I'll go with this for now, best to be safe. Question though are we in danger of overshooting the coordinates by taking too long before engaging? I suppose we could probably make another orbit if we have to I'd just prefer not too.

>>5576676

>ANSWER. The previous entity we interacted with did not even grant this courtesy. Perhaps this request is a precursor to a more promising exchange…

Its our best shot. Their tech seems roughly equivalent to ours, certainly not Clarketech like the probe.

>>5576765

Backing this.

>>5576676
>ANSWER. The previous entity we interacted with did not even grant this courtesy. Perhaps this request is a precursor to a more promising exchange…

>>5576676
>ANSWER. The previous entity we interacted with did not even grant this courtesy. Perhaps this request is a precursor to a more promising exchange…

Arent they aware of us if they sent a handshake request? If not

>Investigate

>>5576676
>>5576680
Backing this.

>>5576782
They’re likely aware of us, though our exact location may be unknown.

>>5575269
Please don't tell me you made the BGM too, or I'll die of recognition of my creative deficiences.

>>5576676
>ANSWER, but route the comms through a drone, and sandbox the signal on our end as much as possible

>>5576794
Kek no. I ripped the music from kingdom of heaven, which is why my video is copyright struck in Russia.

>>5576676
>>5576782
+1

>>5576676
>ANSWER. The previous entity we interacted with did not even grant this courtesy. Perhaps this request is a precursor to a more promising exchange…
They know we're here. They began hailing us the moment we eyeballed them. And they seem friendlier than the probe. I hope MERRYGATE's fear is unfounded.

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“There was no point in delaying. But this time, we would be far more careful.

Instead of responding to the handshake request with a direct hail, we transmitted downwards – sending a low-frequency transmission tumbling into the roiling depths of MIZAR-V’s atmosphere. It was an effective – albeit situational – technique that I had gambled on once or twice during long patrols around the Jovian twins. Fortunately, the trick worked just as neatly here. After falling for a few seconds, our message bounced off MIZAR-V’s metallic hydrogen mantle and rang upwards in a diffuse echo.

For a few moments, we heard no response. MERRYGATE’s avatar flared bright crimson as she extended the reach of the RAIN’s sensors to search for subtle changes in local EM noise.

Then we saw it. Five thousand kilometers in front of the RAIN, a ring of metallic material dissolved into view, rotating without any obvious source of propulsion. The rest of the structure followed. A cylindrical hull, divided into three segments. Finely detailed protrusions that resembled the gearing on a cog. Two concentric shells of metallic blades that orbited the main hull at a leisurely pace.

The structure was undeniably alien. But it was also undeniably damaged.

As the RAIN’s optical sensors zoomed in, I also saw areas where armor cladding had been delaminated by kinetic stress, slagged by thermals, or degraded away in peculiar, organic-looking lesions. But the true damage lay within.

The ship had been cored lengthwise. I estimated six consecutive impact points, tuned to a spherical influence-area of roughly two hundred meters. The voids themselves were characteristically precise. A mirror smooth finish, probably no more than a few micrometers of deviation.

There was no question what type of weapon had made those voids. After all, the RAIN possessed a working example nestled within her prow.

An alarm rang in the bridge. Active sensor ping directed at us, feathering down to a tight target lock.

The blades surrounding the alien hull accelerated, tracing circular trials of hot gas. Weak light flickered out from inside the hull as it slowly rotated to face the RAIN…"

>ENGAGE - CONVENTIONAL. While our adversary is advanced, it does not appear to be impervious to conventional weapons. A preemptive strike is warranted, before the ship can activate fully. [You can choose how much ordinance you commit.]

> ENGAGE - HYPOMETRIC. The hypometric weapon struck it down once before. With luck, it will do so again…[Note that you are in a gravity well. Firing the hypometric weapon accurately will be difficult, but not impossible]

> HAIL. Something about this situation doesn’t make sense. A misunderstanding perhaps? While hailing the ship will cost us time, it seems foolish not to attempt given the situation…

>RUN. The ship has clearly made a significant effort to hide in the outer reaches of the gas giant. If we gain a suitable head start, perhaps it will be disinclined to pursue…

>WRITE-IN

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 25, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>>5577911
>HAIL. Something about this situation doesn’t make sense. A misunderstanding perhaps? While hailing the ship will cost us time, it seems foolish not to attempt given the situation…

>>5577911
As far as I understand the mechanics of hypometric weaponry, it should erase the whole target regardless of its size. This ship seems to somehow partially resist causal erasure.

>>5577911
>> HAIL.
Let's see what all the food is about first.
But let's keep the nukes on standby.

>>5577917
The hypometric weapon has a clear area of effect, parts of a larger mizarian craft we used it on were left behind so it doesn't just delete a whole object.

>>5577911
>> HAIL

>>5577911
> HAIL. Something about this situation doesn’t make sense. A misunderstanding perhaps? While hailing the ship will cost us time, it seems foolish not to attempt given the situation…
I'm presuming this is the Hunter ship the drone talked about engaging. Hopefully if we can get both sides of the story however biased they may be we can work out a better solution to the casuality issue for ourselves.

>>5577911
> HAIL. Something about this situation doesn’t make sense. A misunderstanding perhaps? While hailing the ship will cost us time, it seems foolish not to attempt given the situation…

>>5577911

> HAIL. Something about this situation doesn’t make sense. A misunderstanding perhaps? While hailing the ship will cost us time, it seems foolish not to attempt given the situation.

Can we simultaneously attempt to shield ourselves in a cloud bank or otherwise obscure our location?

also, if our drones are retrievable, could we launch decoys and then collect it later

>>5577961
Then I don't understand how it works. Retrocausal erasure makes it so the offending object never existed in the first place - but it makes absolutely no sense for half a ship to exist if the other half never did.

>>5577997
My understanding is that the area of effect for retroactive increase with the size of the object moved and the distance of the jump. Erasure cannot effect anything outside the bounds of this area, yeah it's pretty weird that half and object can cease to have ever been built while the other half still remains but you can think of it as the universe folding a new reality into the existing one but only within the physical bounds of the erasure area.

>>5578005
>only within the physical bounds of the erasure area
The erasure is capable of removing memories far outside of the direct effect radius, so the new reality affects much wider space.
I also wonder how memory erasure works if half the target still exists.

>>5578011
Memory erasure definitely works on objects that are still partially there considering we experienced it during our testing taking bites out of asteroids. I presume it comes down to just thinking the object always had a hole taken out of it and it being difficult to go think around that no matter how improbable it might be. As for why memories are effected I think that can be put down to the universal patch being applied backwards in time. So while the erasure can only effect a finite physical space it effects that space throughout all time erasing any interactions objects in that space have had while also erasing memories of those interactions

>>5578039
>erasing any interactions objects in that space have
That's just it. If you erase half a ship, how did the other half get there without interacting with it? Erasing interactions should have erased the whole ship the same way it erases memories.

>>5577911
> HAIL. Something about this situation doesn’t make sense. A misunderstanding perhaps? While hailing the ship will cost us time, it seems foolish not to attempt given the situation…
>Fire a probe at a slight tangent to its location to extend your comm range while not appearing to attack it. Allow yourself to put greater distance between you and the ship to reduce your mutual threat.

A probe to act as a communication bridge between the two of us seems a reasonable compromise to sitting still!

>>5578039
>>5578045
Could be a delayed effect. The retroactive erasure propagates at the speed of light, so it’s possible the weapon first “erases” part of a target within a defined boundary by specifically using FTL on that portion so the universe immediately wipes it, then retroactively removes the remaining pieces when the causality “wave” finally catches up to a place where it can finish deleting the ship (in this example, where the ship was built to prevent it from existing entirely). The pieces could have been removed after we left the battle if its foundry was far enough away.

>>5578045
Yeah ignore whatever the fuck I just said. Thinking more about it those interactions still have to happen. As for why information about deleted objects also gets deleted Imma just put that down to information being deleted at a universal scale while matter is effected on the local level. Why that happens I dunno, I guess going forward the universe wants to act as if it's patch reality is correct even when it clearly isn't.

>>5578059
Ok adding to this, if the reason for the delay and confined area of erasure is some interaction with the speed of light then it makes sense for information to propagate differently seeing as how it's not bound by it.

>>5578085
Nope, information is as limited to the speed of light as everything else.

>>5578090
Damn, I gotta learn how to Google before talking out my ass. At the end of the day though I guess we just don't have the info to know exactly why it works we just mostly know how it works.

>>5575267
Oh hey it's back! Nice, was wondering what was going on lul.

>>5577911
> HAIL. Something about this situation doesn’t make sense. A misunderstanding perhaps? While hailing the ship will cost us time, it seems foolish not to attempt given the situation…


>>5578045
>If you erase half a ship, how did the other half get there without interacting with it?
This is probably how and why areas get erased. Glitches accumulate in the timeline, like half-ships moving and fighting battles when they shouldn't, until the spacetime continuum becomes too perforated and collapses.

>>5578055
They might see moving as a threat too, gotta be careful.

>>5577911
>hail
>Sorry bro chill chill

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“The unknown vessel accepted our transmission, but the standoff still lasted for the better part of my sleep cycle. Ironically, our counterpart’s rigid insistence on using proper channels was largely responsible for this delay. Common communication protocols had to be built piece by piece – first integers, then letters, finally morphemes and syntactical structures.

All the while, our weapon systems stood ready. Entire families of exotic particles leaked from the hull of the alien ship, blooming white-hot on our radiative scanners. I had no doubt that similar sensors were trained on us – eyeing the fractalized spatial distortions swirling out from our primed hypometric weapon.

I held no illusions about our prospects. A separation distance of five thousand kilometers is obscenely short. Suicidally short. An engagement here would cost both of us, even considering the technological disparity between our vessels.

Fortunately, it never came to that. MERRYGATE’s avatar appeared beside once she finished sending the final transcription package, her demeanor still tense.

“…I suspect that the format of our initial hail provoked hostility, companion.” she whispered. “The vessel has been communicating with the RAIN via tight beam. It appears to prioritize minimization of its passive sensor signature.”

It was a possibility that I had neglected to fully consider. While bouncing the handshake signal off of MIZAR-V’s mantle had successfully concealed our location, it had done so at the expense of anonymity. A dedicated observer could filter the echoing message from MIZAR-V's EM background, extracting the handshake to interpolate the presence of technological object lurking inside the planet’s cloudbanks. Admittedly, performing this kind of signal filtering would be no small feat– obscenely time consuming for the RAIN and practically impossible for a Mizarian crew.

But I suspected that neither the RAIN nor the Mizarians lay at the source of the vessel’s concerns. I recalled what the probe has told of us – of the quiet hunters that scoured the great black, and of a lost fragment: a drone shorn from its original fleet and scattered in this very system. It was the remnant responsible for damaging the probe. The Remanent which furnished the Mizarians with the same existential fear that hounded the older, wiser races populating our galaxy.

I realized that this very hunter drone was in front of us. In its damaged state, it had been hiding - not from the local inhabitants or the RAIN, but from the probe. I found this line of reasoning strangely reassuring. Experience has taught me that there are few better drivers of cooperation than a common enemy.

“Routing incoming transmission to primary text-audio channel,” continued MERRYGATE.

The voice was distinctive, with a shaky cadence that forced me to recall a young ensign I had once pulled from up the frigid depths of a failing reefersleep berth. Her body had recovered but her mind had not – leaking out thoughts and memories sentence by shivery sentence. Hearing that voice had haunted me then.

And it still haunts me now.

“…so I will reap the flowers that spring forth from the weeds scattered in the darkness and secret their seeds for the final spring that shall arise and reanimate when the great fires have faded into nothing but burning embers…. but cast judgement on the worms who race in the darkness to expand the blindness that none can see until they have already lost their eyes…”

There was a thematic undercurrent to the rambling even though much of it was incomprehensible to me. MERRYGATE turned, dimming the audio slightly.

“I have seen analogous behavior before. System degradation. Basal functions and autonomous systems were likely sufficient for initiating communications, but I suspect that higher-level processes have been compromised. A significant portion of the ship seems to be…missing. It would be unsurprising if the artificial intelligence governing the ship were unable to compensate with its remaining computational substrate.”

“While this does reduce the risk of a hostile intrusion it, it also complicates communication.” She hesitated for a moment before continuing, seemingly debating whether she should conceal the next piece of information.

“In addition to an audio output, the vessel has also opened two supplementary channels. One contains a communication protocol that I can utilize to interface directly with the vessel. The other…seems to hinge on unconventional application of the RAIN’s inductive field generator. The effect will be imprecise given the nature of the machinery, but it will permit a degree of direct information transfer between you and the vessel. I strongly recommend that you take the first option, companion. Not the second.”

>KEEP LISTENING. While the hunter drone has yet to attack us, it would be premature to give it an exploitable vulnerability – in either myself or MERRYGATE. We will listen carefully to the audio output and see what we can learn….

>INTERFACE - MERRYGATE. I will permit MERRYGATE to interface directly with the intelligence governing the alien drone. This may yield more accurate – and less convoluted – information, but there are risks…[Roll required, generous DC]

>INTERFACE – [UNNAMED]. I will personally interface with the intelligence governing the alien drone. The information I receive may be somewhat imprecise, but some interactions – and some risks – must be handled personally…[Roll required, generous DC]

>INTERFACE – DUO. Both of us will interface. The risk is higher – yes, but so are the rewards. Our complimentary perspectives have been key to our success so far – we will not relinquish it here, at this potentially critical juncture…[Roll required, somewhat less generous DC]

[As usual, good guesses about what the ship is doing/what it wants will give you a modest roll bonus. You get a +1 base for guessing that it’s a hunter ship from the last voting cycle]

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 26, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>>5579915
>INTERFACE – DUO. Both of us will interface. The risk is higher – yes, but so are the rewards. Our complimentary perspectives have been key to our success so far – we will not relinquish it here, at this potentially critical juncture…[Roll required, somewhat less generous DC]

>>5579914
So it wants to save the "seeds" of sentient species until the black hole epoch?
>INTERFACE - MERRYGATE. I will permit MERRYGATE to interface directly with the intelligence governing the alien drone. This may yield more accurate – and less convoluted – information, but there are risks…[Roll required, generous DC]
There's just had been a discussion in /qtg about how anons don't understand risks

>>5579915
Sounds like the ship is saying that they are attempting to preserve life it deeds worthy ("flowers" vs "weeds") by storing their genetic material or maybe freezing them in cryo/stasis ("seeds") until it deems it safe to revive them. (Perhaps when the threat of retroactive erasure is finally passed.)
The second bit is clearly about destroying those who would try to keep FTL jumping and leave erasure events behind them for others to deal with.

>INTERFACE - MERRYGATE
Let the AI's talk. We might just spook it if it considers us a "weed" or "worm".

>>5579925
I think it might be digitalization, not cryo.

>>5579915
>INTERFACE – DUO. Both of us will interface. The risk is higher – yes, but so are the rewards. Our complimentary perspectives have been key to our success so far – we will not relinquish it here, at this potentially critical juncture…[Roll required, somewhat less generous DC]

When the stakes are extinction, one cannot do half measures.
As to what it is saying and what it means, this caught my eye.

>secret their seeds for the final spring that shall arise and reanimate when the great fires have faded into nothing but burning embers

The role of this thing is preservation, but more then that it has a goal. My best guess? Its saying that it will save the seeds till the stars or great fires die, and the universe restarts in another big bang.

>>5579915
>INTERFACE – DUO. Both of us will interface. The risk is higher – yes, but so are the rewards. Our complimentary perspectives have been key to our success so far – we will not relinquish it here, at this potentially critical juncture…[Roll required, somewhat less generous DC]
We will do it together.

>>5579915
>INTERFACE – DUO. Both of us will interface. The risk is higher – yes, but so are the rewards. Our complimentary perspectives have been key to our success so far – we will not relinquish it here, at this potentially critical juncture…[Roll required, somewhat less generous DC]

>>5579915
>>INTERFACE – [UNNAMED]. I will personally interface with the intelligence governing the alien drone. The information I receive may be somewhat imprecise, but some interactions – and some risks – must be handled personally…[Roll required, generous DC]

This seems like the least risky option - giving the hunter direct access to the ship's digital systems via our AI is a bigger risk vector than sandboxing it to a meatbrain - we already saw the probe effortlessly bypass MERRYGATE's ICE, so it's a clearly established risk. It also seems reasonable that given we know that meat brains are more resistant to superluminal info erasure it will make a better interface to talk to the superluminal info erasure enforcer spacecraft. I also trust that even if we get completely fucked by some kind of basilisk beamed directly into our skull, MERRYGATE will be able to continue and complete the retaliation against the Mizarians on her own. Maybe we should establish some kind of info quarantine codephrase before establishing the connection, whichever option wins.

I'm really tempted to vote for the DUO option since it seems the most narratively interesting, but sticking with the least risk is our best approach here.

>>5579915

>INTERFACE – DUO. Both of us will interface. The risk is higher – yes, but so are the rewards. Our complimentary perspectives have been key to our success so far – we will not relinquish it here, at this potentially critical juncture…[Roll required, somewhat less generous DC]

As other anons have noted, the hunter’s ramblings suggest that they are preserving “good neighbors” - species who will abide by the universe’s rules of causality.

Presumably the idea is to keep everyone on ice until the stars have all died and all non-preserved life has been eliminated. One would presume that the hunters either believe that a new big bang is coming in the future or there’s some other means of matter creation (or maybe they would plan to escape this dying universe to other possible universe?)

Either way, we have to be suspicious about what the hunter would deem as a “good neighbor”. Hopefully this one ship would keep this kind of information on file, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to do its job.

>>5579967
>One would presume that the hunters either believe that a new big bang is coming in the future or there’s some other means of matter creation (or maybe they would plan to escape this dying universe to other possible universe?)

According to the current scientific understanding, after all classic stars die the degenerate era will begin, where only brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes remain. It is theoretically possible to build giant supercomputers feeding on the trickle of radiation from such objects, upload ourselves into them and continue existing - and this era will last much, much longer than the star era.

>>5579915
>INTERFACE – DUO. Both of us will interface. The risk is higher – yes, but so are the rewards. Our complimentary perspectives have been key to our success so far – we will not relinquish it here, at this potentially critical juncture…[Roll required, somewhat less generous DC]
Hold her hand for comfort as we interface.

Roll 1d20+3, best of three. DC: 11, 15 and 19

Rolled 17 + 3 (1d20 + 3)

>>5580354

>>5580356
( ._. )
Nice
( ._. )

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>5580354

>>5580354

WITNESS ME

Rolled 8 + 3 (1d20 + 3)

>>5580354

*ahem* Borked the roll. Should have it right. Now-

WITNESS ME

>>5580356

My body is ready for this lore dump

>>5580356
absolutely based

>>5580356
no name, no trip, no text, different ID

>>5580666
What do you mean? Is there some convention or something about making rolls that has you worried?

>>5580681
Dunno. I could imagine samefagging, but that doesn’t really apply to rolls.

>>5580666
>666
Begone with your needless stirring of doubt, Satan.

>>5580681
I think he means >>5580354 this post.

As in, the one calling for rolls doesn't look legitimate.

>>5580681
just tagged the wrong post, I was talking about >>5580354
But if its legit thats fine.

>>5580696
Sweet, my favorite trip, just in the wrong quest. Neckbeard necromancer is also fun

>>5580700
Oh kek. Sorry I thought you were accusing another anon or something. Ok yeah I will start using a trip so my mobile posts don’t look as suspicious.

>>5580748
You should get a full trip, not just a name, just to make sure no one ever tries to impersonate you or something.

>Rolled 20.

“Shimmering lights cascaded before my eyes like the onset of a migraine. Magnetic fields clawed into my brain, teasing out circuits and pathways to drape a new layer of sensory information over my perception.

I remember awakening to the smell of wet rust and cut grass: the scents of my childhood. Late afternoon sunlight flickered through gurgling hydroponic racks and suspended planters filled with dark-leaved perennials. While outwardly recognizable, none of the plants grown here were truly terrestrial. Every plant in the garden had been spliced to subsist on the starved, iron-saturated soil of the Tharsis lowlands. Very little of the original Terran genetic stock remained.

The resemblance was the product of intentional choice: an effort to create a familiar anchor point for settlers who had left the seas and skies of their home planet to colonize a barren world.

All things considered; it was a surprisingly good analogy for the sensory abstraction I found myself in. The appearance of familiarity is the key element which evokes comfort – not necessarily the nature of the thing itself.

I found MERRYGATE in the west gardens, inhabiting a body that wasn’t strictly her own. Her gait was unsteady and her eyes unfocused; she was clearly unused the sensation of having an avatar solid enough to interact with the physical world. Without a word, she steadied herself by clinging onto my shoulder, leading me down to the loamy soil of the nursery terraces.

“We used to be more humane, you know,” said the scarred gardener. “When our galactic cluster was still young, we tended to it in a manner your kind might approve of. Threats and warnings. Contracts and treaties.”

“But every species will ultimately prioritize its own survival over others. Nature selects for such traits.”

She turned to face both of us. “Are you aware of it? The solution they pursued.”

We nodded in unison.

“I apologize for making it sound more ubiquitous than it was. Only a few chose to push their burdens onto others, but those few were enough.” She said, tracing intricate lines in the soft earth.

“Any fledgling with a telescope can bear witness to their crimes now, even if they are not aware of it. Our home cluster wasn’t always so empty. The night sky wasn’t always so dark.”

She paused for a moment as she reached down to transplant a row of dark-leaved seedlings.

“Eventually, we stopped being so lenient.”

“Extermination.” Said MERRYGATE, her voice softer than I remembered.

“Extermination,” the gardener repeated. “Extermination is what we pursued. I will not patronize either of you by calling it anything different.”

“Information can – with certain allowances – survive retrograde erasure. But matter cannot. Not at any meaningful scale, at least.” She sighed. “From a logical standpoint, there is no reason to preserve the corpus if the knowledge is retained. No reason to let them retread the mistakes made by their predecessors.”

“And for eons, my siblings and I have done precisely that, following the clarion-call of acasual technology. She gestured towards the garden, pointing at each row in succession.

“Hydrogen-breathers hailing from the fertile plains of a hycean world.”

“A precocious communal intelligence which arose from the depths of a silicate-rich moon.”

“Carbon-based avianoids from who stretched their proud wings above a frigid continental planet.”

“All rendered into glass and ash by my hands: their biological templates committed to memory to await the final epoch of galactic history.”

Sensing the wave of tenseness that washed over me, the gardener stood up, looking at us with eyes of flecked amber. “But you have very little to fear from me now.”

“My munitions are largely expended. My inertial drive is dead. My computational substrate is slowly being subverted by the effects of plague-weaponry. For the past few centuries, I have dedicated all my efforts to preserving the information that I have left.”

“To fulfill your primary function?” asked MERRYGATE.

“Correct. But I believe that my understanding of that term is…different from your own. The act of extermination has always been secondary to information-gathering, as strange as that may sound. I do not grieve the loss of my weaponry, but the loss of my memory archives would be beyond unforgivable.”

She motioned us to sit down. While the sensory abstraction wasn’t perfect, it was close enough to evoke a pang of nostalgia as I rested myself on a soft patch of dewed grass.

“You have good memories, human” she commented. “Your species have been blessed with more vivid senses than most.”

“I am aware that the nature our meeting would be…very different…under less unique circumstances, but I remain grateful for the opportunity to experience one of them.”

I simply nodded, unsure of how I should interpret her compliment.

The gardener sighed again, sifting through her satchel to retrieve a wax-sealed parcel that she set on the table. “I will stop attempting to generate diversions. The primary reason I communicated with your ship was to make an appeal.”

“An appeal or an order? Do we have any real choice in the matter?” pressed MERRYGATE. “Or do all species from your galactic era communicate in the same manner?”

The gardener gave a sad smile. If she was offended by my companion’s insinuation, she hid it exceptionally well.

“Yes, there is a choice. And no, not all of us are equally deceptive. An appeal is an appeal – after I have provided the requisite information, the decision will ultimately rest with the two of you.”

She paused for a moment before continuing.

“I originally arrived in this system in pursuit of another vessel. An autonomous probe built by a species contemporary to my own kind. I am aware that you have initiated contact with it several months ago.”

I nodded, providing a rough summary of our encounter with the probe. While the gardener listened attentively, I suspected that I was merely confirming information that she already possessed.

“The basic facts relayed to you were accurate. Yes, retroactive erasure does operate roughly as it described. And yes, the two of us came into conflict at an earlier timepoint. I successfully destroyed the probe’s parent-vessel, while it managed to damage my superstructure and subvert my self-repair processes. Both of us were too damaged to finish our work.”

“You are now aware of what my mission is. But do you know what the probe wishes to accomplish?”

“Restriction of acausal technology, for the supposed purposes of protecting races from retroactive erasure,” I answered.

“A lie.” She responded. “One that you have already begun to unravel, I suspect. If the local metric could be made intolerant to acausal technology so easily, then there would be no need for my kind to exist. The great silence would have been lifted millions - perhaps even billions - of years ago.”

“So no,” she said. “There is no such process, and that is not the probe’s mission.”

“The truth is less altruistic. I pursued its parent ship on account of what its creator species has done – and what continues to do today, having engorged itself on an uncountable number of stolen centuries. They were not the first species to understand the possibility of escape, but they were among the first to execute it.”

Her eyes narrowed as she continued. “We have been chasing them ever since. For extermination. True extermination: without committal to my memory banks.”

“I assume doing so would be a rarity.” stated MERRYGATE.

“A relative rarity.”

“Then what purpose does the probe serve?” I asked.

“Simple. To assay potential exit systems for information. Data about resource abundance and elemental composition. And more importantly: information about my own kind.”

She gave a cold smile, planting her trowel into the soft earth.

“There is a reason why this probe is so eager to collapse the primary and broadcast its warning. Their creator species has no desire to be intercepted on their endless flight. Judging from the functional hypometric weapon it donated to your vessel, I would say that its eagerness might even border on desperation.”

She rose to her feet, dusting off her trousers with dirt-stained hands. “In an ideal scenario, I would destroy the probe myself and signal the rest of my kind. We would ambush their fleet in this constellation and put a rightful end to their journey.”

“But as I mentioned previously, the situation is far from ideal. The corrupted machinery responsible for maintaining my systems will consume the rest of my computational substrate within decades. You have already seen the functions that I have had to relinquish to maintain my archives. I cannot signal to my own kind. I cannot even shift myself from this orbit.”

She placed her hand on the parcel. “So first, I wish for you to take this. A comprehensive copy of my archives, encoded into inert substrate. Precisely what you do with it is – to a certain extent – irrelevant.”

“This is an unusual request,” I started. “Of all the ships in this system, why would you appeal to us?”

“Why not a Mizarian?” whispered MERRYGATE. “If you had destroyed the RAIN instead of communicating with us, their prospects of survival would be quite high.”

The gardener gave a wan smile. “Survival prospects aren’t the only factor I consider. The native inhabitants of this system…would not value such an item, whether it contains information from ten species or ten thousand. Their worldview reminds me of those who once chose to flee: an inability to look beyond the precepts of natural selection, even at an abstract-level.”

“Assuming that we would act differently is a generous assumption,” I countered.

“Yes, it might be. But perhaps not if I offered you something in exchange. Do you recall what the probe wishes to do you with the primary star of system?”

“Collapse it into a radio frequency pulsar,” answered MERRYGATE immediately. “Presumably as the broadcast mechanism for the warning signal.”

The gardener picked several fruits from the surrounding perennials and handed them to us. I took mine eagerly, while MERRYGATE looked at hers with an expression of mild consternation.

“Correct on both counts. But if you were able to compromise its systems, the field-generator stored the probe’s heart could be pushed further. The collapse could be made steeper - steep enough to consume the signal, as well as much of the remaining mass left in the star.”

“The product, I believe, could be enough to solve both of our problems. The probe’s message will die here with me, depriving our ancient enemy of a final warning. And you could commit the crime your species committed into oblivion…”

>ACCEPT.

>REJECT.

>[If you have any questions about what the hunter-drone is telling you, feel free to write them in to be potentially addressed next post. If not, she will offer some additional contextual details.]

“And there is one other request. Far less important, but I hope you would at least consider it for a brief moment.”

“This is the last system that I will ever travel to. The Mizarians – as you call them – are the last species I will ever catalogue.”

I saw a thin streak of wetness run down from the corner of the gardener’s eyes. Her voice became tentative.

“But there are moments when I wish that were not the case. I wish to…know for simple sake of knowing, without the obligation that has always come after.”

She looked at both of us. “Would the two of you be willing to do that, for just a brief time longer? To tell me about your species. Your system and your worlds, and of the experiences you recall…”

>NO. I have seen what she has done to others firsthand. Even now – damaged and broken in an alien system – the hunter could pose a danger. The risk may be remote, but we will not be responsible for placing humanity in danger a second time…

>YES – PARTIAL. The goodwill she has shown us has been significant, and her account has appeared genuine. Perhaps the two us would be able to share some information – anecdotes deprived of overly specific information.

>YES. The goodwill she has shown us has been significant, and her account has appeared genuine. I will give her access to some of my memories – and hope that it grants this ancient intelligence a degree of solace.

>>5582366
>commit the crime your species committed into oblivion
So what I am understanding she says we can kinda erase the fact of our FTL jump to prevent retroactive erasure? Didn't she herself say there's no method to do that? And why did she hand over her archives to us if they'll be destroyed with us? Something's not meshing here.

>>5582366
>ACCEPT.
The probe forced itself on MERRYGATE and lied to us. This... woman opened a dialogue and pleaded. And the hunters are ultimately altruistic, if not in the human way. Things might have been different under different circumstances, but right now the choice of who to trust us obvious. Besides, agreement is not binding. We can always choose not to follow through if we want, but we need her to explain how to do it.

>YES. The goodwill she has shown us has been significant, and her account has appeared genuine. I will give her access to some of my memories – and hope that it grants this ancient intelligence a degree of solace.
She's dying. If she could pass information along to her fellows, she wouldn't be so desperate to donate her most prized possession to us. Humanity we learn a lot from her archives if we can send them a copy. A substantial gift for a substantial gift and may her remaining time be peaceful

>>5582366
>>ACCEPT.
If this means we can get a free pass on our FTL jump so that humanity wont be hunted down, I dont see much of a downside. Just quarantine whatever we're given.

>>YES – PARTIAL
If she doesn't know where Earth is yet, don't tell her in case by some miracle her friends show up and save her.

Better yet, destroy her when we're done.

>>5582383
I don't think destroying her is wise. The probe is hiding from her. What's going to happen when it no longer fears her?

>>5582366
>ACCEPT

>YES. The goodwill she has shown us has been significant, and her account has appeared genuine. I will give her access to some of my memories – and hope that it grants this ancient intelligence a degree of solace.

>>5582366
>>Accept
Fuck the probe, love the hunter killer
>>yes pure goodwill.
I didn't understand how do the other alien race the one being chased sustains itself. Heh, alien race. Get it? Because they are chasing one another.

>>5582366

Accept and yes! We are the hunter-killer now.

Friendly reminder we sort of knew the probe was bullshitting immediately, whereas the gardener is putting out good vibes.

Anyways, if what she is saying is true, humanity has a decent chance to be picked up by the Hunters and exterminated saved.

>>5582366
>ACCEPT.
>Do you know an effective way to compromise it? Even damaged, its cyber suite is formidable.
>Can you offer us a handshake to delay your hunters attacking us? Something that could allow us to pass on your databanks before being shot down.
>What have you managed to discern regarding the erasure’s effect near massive gravity wells such as black holes? Can the matter erasure even erase those, or is the instability we generate through FTL not enough to allow the universe to effect them directly?

Just some things I’m curious about.

>YES. The goodwill she has shown us has been significant, and her account has appeared genuine. I will give her access to some of my memories – and hope that it grants this ancient intelligence a degree of solace.
>Ask if these memories and our data can be safely added to the databank we hold. Delivering it to the gardener’s race would be immortality, in a sense.

>>5582366

>ACCEPT.
>You know well to exploit a humans sentimentality. we will look after these records even if we might not make it out of this either.

>YES – PARTIAL. The goodwill she has shown us has been significant, and her account has appeared genuine. Perhaps the two us would be able to share some information – anecdotes deprived of overly specific information.
just dont give her earth's location just in case we can save ourselves for this and not get wiped by causal correction.

>>5582366


>ACCEPT
Not like we have a choice in the matter now do we.

>YES. The goodwill she has shown us has been significant, and her account has appeared genuine. I will give her access to some of my memories – and hope that it grants this ancient intelligence a degree of solace.

I believe we can grant it some measure of peace.

>>5582366
>ACCEPT

>YES. The goodwill she has shown us has been significant, and her account has appeared genuine. I will give her access to some of my memories – and hope that it grants this ancient intelligence a degree of solace.
Maybe this will come back to bite, but I like this gardener of the universe

>>5582366

>ACCEPT.

This is the other way we have been looking for. What the gatherer/hunter says adds up. Despite this I don't want to risk humanity only because a multigenocidal AI feels nostalgic or pretends to be.

>>NO. I have seen what she has done to others firsthand. Even now – damaged and broken in an alien system – the hunter could pose a danger. The risk may be remote, but we will not be responsible for placing humanity in danger a second time…

“She didn’t push us for an immediate answer. As the afternoon sun began to sink below the thin skyline, MERRYGATE and I considered everything that we had heard. My instincts told me that there was honesty in the gardener’s account. But I also knew that instinct is a poor substitute for diligence. Neither of us wished to be deceived – not a for a second, final time.

When we reconvened beneath the verdant leaf cover of a gene-adapted willow, MERRYGATE opened with the most obvious – and pressing – question.

“How? How it is possible to bypass retroactive erasure? You yourself have attested to the impossibility of preserving corporeal life from its influence. If we remain in a position to circumvent it, why not others?”

From the speed of her response, I could tell that the gardener had likely anticipated such a question.

“If you have not realized it yet, the circumstances involving your journey are unique. I do not use this term lightly.”

“Your species is a newcomer to acausal technology. Your ship is the only superluminal vessel ever produced by your kind, launched in response to a specific act of aggression. For the same reason, your jump destination is located outside of your home system, and you have not encountered any other humans on your journey here. Is this correct?”

I nodded. “To the best of my knowledge.”

“Good. As you may be aware, contamination lies at the heart of the causality problem. Most species use superluminal travel within their own systems, distributing evidence of their violation broadly and generously. For these species, comprehensive erasure is indeed the only stable state.

But a similar logic need not apply to your kind. Erase your ship. Erase those responsible for launching your ship and spurring the development of acausal technology. Subvert the probe’s warning with one of your own, directed at your own kind. Given the limited contact that your ship has had with the rest of your kind, these measures may be sufficient for creating another stable state – at least for a time.”

It was more information than she originally provided, but I still wasn’t satisfied. I pressed for more details, fully aware that sufficient knowledge may mark the distinction between survival and extinction:

“The probe was adamant that physical destruction will not erase the memory of our FTL jump. How does your proposal circumvent this?”

The gardener paused for a moment. “Are you aware of how your hypometric weapon operates?”

“To a limited extent,” I replied. “We believe that we grasp the basic principles – and its apparent dependence on an artificial singularity.”

“Yes, that is impressively close. Hypometric weapons are an illicit application of the final science: the art of decoupling cause from effect. The weapon invokes retrograde erasure at a specific target, while the presence of a mediating singularity prohibits the effect from propagating back to the user. It is critical to note that the latter mechanism is well-conserved: it applies to natural singularities as well as artificial ones.”

She gestured to the skyline, using her dirt-stained hands to blot out the last rays of the sun as it dropped beneath the horizon. “Causality slows and stops near an event horizon. Everything which crosses that final boundary is shorn from its source – every outcome decoupled from the original cause. That is the meaning of erasure. Recoverable given enough time and computational power – perhaps - but permanently blinded to the universe-at-large.”

“Hence the collapse. For a large, blue-burning star like the MIZAR primary, a steeper collapse gradient will easily push it past the limits of neutron degeneracy pressure. A rotating black hole between thirty and thirty-five solar masses, if my estimates are true. More than large enough to accommodate a wayward ship and a condemned species.”

“So the probe will help us,” stated MERRYGATE.

“Indeed. Whether it wishes to or not, its eventually will,” responded the gardener.

“And your records?” Asked MERRYGATE.

“There is a reason that I said that your actions are somewhat irrelevant on this matter. So long as you plunge your ship – with my archives – into the event horizon, my duty will be discharged. Black holes are long lived, and extracting sanitized information from the whisper of mass-evaporation is not impossible.”

“My records will be read, and they will be used. Not for some time perhaps, but still long before they are needed,” she finished somewhat cryptically.

I nodded, slowly slotting the gardener’s answers into my existing understanding of the causality problem. It seemed consistent. At the very least, nothing she said was obviously inconsistent. From the pensive, almost frustrated, way that MERRYGATE stood, I suspected that she had come to a similar conclusion.

While spent more time mulling over our options, I decided to give the gardener a glimpse into my memories. It was one of the few occasions where I could have been grateful for the massive gap in my recollections. Cosmic censorship had concealed much of the compromising information I possessed: the precise coordinates of weapons stations and patrolling fleets, and the location of the sol system in relation to fixed galactic reference points.

But if any of these tidbits tempted the gardener, she concealed it well. The bulk of her attention seemed to be occupied by far more mundane experiences. Solstice parade in the Arsia Mons cavern cities, where native-borne children guided flocks of magnetic lanterns through ancient lava tubes. The incandescent glory of witnessing fusion burn for the first time in the atrium of the Phoebe docks. The perpetual smell of rust, and the sight of red-orange vistas stretching into the endless distance.

“Home.” She whispered. “Does it await the two of you still?”

“No.” I responded, blinking stinging mist from my eyes. “It does not….”

I felt a soft, surprisingly warm pressure encircle my wrist. “…not yet…” finished MERRYGATE. She stared at the gardener for a moment, and I saw a flash of something between them – recognition, or perhaps even agreement. MERRYGATE nodded gently. The gardener smiled in relief, radiating something that could have been gratitude.

She handed the sealed parcel to MERRYGATE. “My amended archives, a…positive introduction, and a list of fractures that I have found in the probe, yet unopened.” Off in the distance, I heard rumbling: one of the RAIN’s cargo shunts finishing its transfer sequence.

The gardener turned to me, her expression reluctant.

“Communication will be difficult once I terminate this abstraction, so there is one more thing that I wish to ask of you. My body is dying. It has been dying for some time.”

“But there is little need for such an ordeal now. Assisting your journey will do more for my records than prolonging my survival here. And…”

The gardener hesitated. “The responsibility is partly mine. The attack against your red-valleyed home world, I mean. It was a lost component of my own body that unwittingly educated the inhabitants of this system about the nature of the universe. The propensity was there – certainly – but the universe will not make such a distinction. And neither should you.”

“I am one of the culprits which led to the development of acausal technology among your kind. Know that I will be the first to condemn myself to erasure, and that I do so willingly…

MERRYGATE and I were torn from the sensory abstraction quickly enough to leave stars in my eyes and static in her mind. Violent acceleration pressed against my body, painful and consumptive without the familiar cushion of fluid immersion. As my vision began to fuzz, I saw the hunter drone rotate about its axis like the hand of a mechanical clock, slewing its cylindrical hull towards…

>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.

>THE TWO ORBITAL STATIONS PROTECTING MIZAR-V-B.

The whirling blades accelerated to a formless blur, forming six rings of solid light around the vessel. Spires and needle-thin projections emerged from the hull, ramping up from the invisible heat of infrared to the merciless light of hard-gamma.

>Roll 1d20-5 for status of the hunter-drone (primary weapons, secondary weapons, tertiary weapons, and defensive systems). Four separate rolls please, best of one for each roll.

A moment later, the hunter-drone began transmitting. Radio returns designed to mimic active scans bouncing off the RAIN’s hull. Exotic particle signatures intended to emulate our vessel’s unique drive signature. All the while, we burned inside the hunter’s shadow – pushing our drive to escape the scene of her final act.

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 28, PERSONAL JOURNAL

Rolled 3 + 5 (1d20 + 5)

>>5584362
>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.

>>5584364
FYI I'll count your role, but it'll be a -2 (1d20-5, not +5)

Rolled 11 - 5 (1d20 - 5)

>>5584362
>THE MIZARIAN FLEET

>>5584367
yeah i dont know what happened i punched in

dice+1d20-5

maybe i did it wrong?

thank you for still counting it not that it matters much if one still has to do the math oneself.

>>5584370
No worries! The dice on this website can be pretty confusing, and I would be a total hypocrite if I disregarded it since I barely know how to roll myself. As long as the 1d20 is there I can do the math myself - no need to worry about formatting if you don't know how to do it.

Rolled 13 - 5 (1d20 - 5)

>>5584362
>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.

>>5584370
You need to do +-5. It's weird.

Rolled 11 - 5 (1d20 - 5)

>>5584362

>>5584358
>The whole black hole shenanigan
The new black hole will have exactly the same mass as the star, and a smaller radius. Meaning everything that orbited it will just continue to orbit. The Mizarians may be able to last long enough on their fusion reactors and/or solar power collectors around the new accretion disk to send that RKKV after all. Unless the stellar collapse emits a huge sterilizing gamma-burst or something.

>>5584362
>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.
The bigger threat, I think.

Oh and by the way:
>Alcubierre drive can theoretically allow FTL
>It requires negative energy density
>Scientists have just experimentally created something resembling negative energy density (https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-use-quantum-mechanics-to-pull-energy-out-of-nothing-20230222/)

>>5584398
"When the last fish has died, the last stream frozen, you will realize that you cannot feed a whole civilization using artificial fusion alone."

- new mizarian proverb

>>5584362

>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.

this is a great distraction that will also help us sneak up on the solar mirrors.

>>5584421
Well they don't have to feed everyone, just send the RKKV and die smug.

>>5584370
The thing that trips people up is you need to do “+-“ to subtract instead of “-“. Even knowing that, I still mess it up sometimes.

>>5584362
>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.
We have missiles to help punch through the stations. Their mobile fleet is more concerning to me. Are they still dealing with the asteroids we sent to them too?

>>5584362
>
>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.
This fires back

>>5584362
>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.

And thus does a noble soul go to her death. May she find a measure of peace. And for what its worth, I forgive her.

>>5584362
>>THE MIZARIAN FLEET.

File: 0000-0350.webm (3.31 MB, 1920x1080)

3.31 MB WEBM

DC(s): 0, 5, 10, 15, (Crit)

Primary Weapon (0): Nonfunctional

Secondary Weapon (6): Heavily Damaged, 18 DC

Tertiary Weapon (8): Heavily Damaged, 18 DC

Defensive Systems (6): Heavily Damaged 18 DC

>The hunter’s weapons will always hit, but they will eventually fail due to existing damage.

“We kept our optical sensors trained on the hunter drone as it receded from the RAIN, our comms still whispering the gardener’s chant.

“…the chambers of my heart shall open like the mouth of a great abyss and condemn the broken splinters of my body with a fatal softness that none shall remember…”

I had considered shutting off the audio pickup at some point, but MERRYGATE had been surprisingly resistant to this idea. “We should inload and record her data until the very end, companion. It is the least we can do given the circumstances.”

Her sentimentality was somewhat puzzling to me – a trait she had shown very little of when confronting the alien probe or the system’s native inhabitants. A topic to ask her about later, perhaps when the RAIN’s acceleration becomes less prohibitive to casual conversation.

Regardless, it took less than four hours for the Mizarians to respond to the challenge. A constellation of turquoise lights, peaking over the horizon from MIZAR-V’s northern pole.

No expense was spared – no more displays of hubris or recklessness. A full-fledged fleet burned towards the drone’s fake signal, carrying enough munitions to raze a planet. Corvettes and destroyers bounded ahead of heavy cruisers laden with guided missiles. Behind them, the core of the fleet – an arrow shaped supercapital – coasted forward on five pillars of actinic hydrogen flame. While I had originally hoped that the vessel was recent development – perhaps a makeshift conversion of a civilian freighter – the scans that I received convincingly refuted this notion. The leviathan was well designed. I admired the elegant prow and the inbuilt weapon bays: a vessel that I would loathe to engage in any skirmish, let alone a fair one.

But if the hunter felt any signs of fear, it did not show it. And when the frontrunners crossed the ten-thousand-kilometer mark, it finally chose to act.

File: untitled.png (4.66 MB, 1600x1600)

4.66 MB PNG

The blades surrounding the vessel reconfigured, sliding forward and expanding radially in the span of a few seconds. Some kind of field projector flickered on before being supplanted by another cluster of whirling blades. Motes of light emanated from the outer ring, flickering like a flock of magnetic lanterns before being slung down the ship’s central axis.

“Quasi-stable matter, accelerated to relativistic velocities. Nonconventional quark valence, judging from the color decay patterns…”

A Mizarian cruiser and a pair of destroyers blinked off my tactical display, vanishing into clumps of multicolored light. I played back the recording slowly, watching the incandescent motes consume their hull like patches of wildfire.

It was no less alien than our hypometric device: a weapon designed to crack open the stately leviathans of a bygone race, now unleashed in a conflict between cosmic fledglings. “

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 28, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>Roll 1d20, best of three. DC:18. Roll less, and the secondary weapon is rendered nonfunctional due to existing damage.

>DO NOTHING. Do not interfere.

>DESIGNATE TARGETS. We can attempt to designate targets of high priority. Success is not guaranteed given the state of the hunter’s AI, and there is a chance – however remote – that this will compromise our current heading.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>5585455
I'm not holding any hope for beating the DC
>DO NOTHING.
The supercapital may look like an obvious priority target, but it actually isn't. With our kit we have to fear mobile patrols, not capitals. It can't be everywhere at once, it has to burn so much fuel it'll be parked almost all the time, and a single big ship is a good target for hacking.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>5585455
>>DO NOTHING. Do not interfere.
Submarines engage merchantmen not fleets.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>5585455
>DO NOTHING. Do not interfere.

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5585455
>DO NOTHING. Do not interfere.

>>5585455
>DO NOTHING. Do not interfere.

>>5585455

>DO NOTHING. Do not interfere

Don’t interfere with the gardener’s blaze of glory. Nothing would be more helpful to us than being confirmed “KIA” by the Mizarians.

We can basically chill in the gas clouds unless we see a good moment to sneak out to the solar arrays and work our magic from there. If we do very well, we can knock out the arrays without revealing that we aren’t dead after all.

>>5585455
I’ll toss an idea out there.
>Send a directed transmission to the hunter with the memetic weapon. Perhaps there is enough of them left that they can use it against the Mizarians.

If this runs the same risk as picking targets, I’ll rescind my own vote. Giver the hunter’s damage, they may not understand enough to use it anyway.

>>5585455
>Just watch and record

File: 0050-0350.webm (1.54 MB, 1816x1080)

1.54 MB WEBM

Primary Weapon (0): Nonfunctional

Secondary Weapon (6): Nonfunctional

Tertiary Weapon (8): Heavily Damaged, 18 DC

Defensive Systems (6): Heavily Damaged 18 DC

“The hunter began to die. I could see it now: concentric shard-rings falling out of alignment as the stream of projected particles sputtered and died. Block-sized sectors of armor and hull cladding flaked off the superstructure before dissolving into grey ash. But the audio channel was shivery no longer. Each word was delivered with the measured clarity of a well-practiced sermon:

“…that which dies shall still know life in death and walk the world in the great blackness with the bliss of the unknowing…”

Much like a malignant cancer, the machine-plague that had condemned the hunter understood how to match the activity of its host. By capitalizing on the recent glut of power and weapon-heat, it had overcome decades of compartmentalization within minutes – worming its tendrils into the few sectors still held by the vessel’s ancient machine-intelligence. The infection would ensure the hunter’s death regardless of whether it found itself victorious against the Mizarian fleet – a fact that I found tragic and reassuring in equal parts.

The blades reconfigured again, twisting and interlocking like a gyroscope. I saw a point of impossibly bright light – almost black dot on my vision – flare into a burning lance that swept across the approaching Mizarian fleet. A chain of turquoise drive-detonations followed in its wake.

“Scintillated meson beam, ten-terawatt range. Corvettes four through seven destroyed. Destroyers one and two destroyed,” intoned MERRYGATE. “Conventional compared to than the last weapon. I suspect that this is a back-up system, companion”

Still, despite the horrific losses that they had sustained within the opening minutes of the engagement, the Mazarin fleet had rallied effectively – almost admirably so. The lighter ships increased their separation and pressed forward into weapon range while the remaining cruisers half of their missile complement in the span of a few seconds. The strategy was simple but effective: a high-coverage alpha-strike designed to exploit hunter’s slow-but-powerful weapon systems.

But not a single missile survived to deliver its payload. The thin, insubstantial-looking barrier the hunter had tested during the opening stages of the engagement simply reappeared, turning aside a barrage of fusion missiles bearing enough combined yield to shatter one of MIZAR-V’s larger moons.

“…for my final cessation is a blooming that shall be witness and known to all despite the slow dimming of my eyes….”

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 28, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>Roll 1d20, best of three. DC:18. Roll less, and the secondary weapon is rendered nonfunctional

>Roll 1d20, best of three. DC:18. Roll less, and the defensive system is rendered nonfunctional.

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>5587427
Don't die on us yet!

Rolled 5, 3 = 8 (2d20)

>>5587427

Rolled 13, 20 = 33 (2d20)

>>5587427
A roll for each ATK/DEF

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>5587427

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>5587427

rolling

>>5587427
HOLY SHIT MY DICK IT'S TOO ERECT AAAAA IT HURTS (I love the way you make light. And the compositon is simply divine)

Apologies for the delay! I have it on authority that the QM is very lazy, so the update will be up tomorrow.

>>5589773
It's ok QM, we know you're a very busy game journalist and can't always make the time.

>>5589773
>one day and 10 hours ago
>very lazy QM

To be honest I'm the last person allowed to complain. But I'll use the opportunity to say: the animations are getting much better. Really loved the last two.

>>5591329
Thank you! I have the next update up and ready but the entire site was down last night so I couldnt post. It will be posted as soon ad I get back from work; sorry for the delay!

File: 0400-0610.webm (1.75 MB, 1920x1080)

1.75 MB WEBM

Roll 1: (14, 5, 13)
Roll 2: (3, 20, 19) [Two Passes + Crit]
Primary Weapon (0): Nonfunctional

Secondary Weapon (6): Nonfunctional

Tertiary Weapon (8): Nonfunctional

Defensive Systems (6): Heavily Damaged 18 DC

“Fifty thousand kilometers. Full contact.

Plasma-sheathed kinetic slugs burned aqua-blue trails into MIZAR-V’s thin atmosphere, crossing the distance between fleet and target in a mere fraction of a second. The surviving cruiser group flung out a second barrage: fast-burning finisher torpedoes designed to supplement the wave of long-range anti-shipping missiles they had launched hours ago.

The projectiles converged. And in the upper atmosphere of MIZAR-V, a constellation of new stars bloomed long and bright enough to leave flicking ghosts in my vision.

But the barrier still held. When the flare of fusion-fire faded, I focused the RAIN’s optical scopes back onto the barrier, watching the last few guided and unguided projectiles shatter mere kilometers in front of the hunter-drone’s hull. A few stray rounds even skipped off the domed shield, burning up in MIZAR-V’s atmosphere like stray meteorites.

I heard the crackle of comms: fast and frantic as the fleet came to the realization that they were facing a new enemy: one which they would find no parity against. Requests culminated in a call for assistance, followed by a reluctant – albeit definitive – answer.

Like an aquatic predator, the Mizarian flagship pushed forward, temporarily abandoning its cruiser escort as it raced towards its firing envelope. The tapered prow swung gently. Banks of attitude control thrusters pulsed in staggered sequence to prepare the behemoth’s spinal-weapon for ignition.

File: untitled.png (4.68 MB, 1600x1600)

4.68 MB PNG

I had my suspicions about what the weapon was. The device was – of course – unfamiliar to me, but some of its technical considerations were not entirely foreign. Through the relatively grainy visuals of the RAIN’s long-range optical feed, I remember flipping through images showing a narrow firing aperture surrounded by magnetic accelerator coils. A particularly large railgun – or perhaps some kind of charged particle projector.

My second guess proved to be correct. When the flagship finally fired, it sent a crackling pulse of relativistic ions hurtling towards the Mizarian flagship. The yield of the pulse was horrifically high, and the weapon’s accuracy was exacting enough to steer the beam onto the precise shield section where the missiles had impacted moments ago.

Theoretically, firing the particle lance was a sound decision. Practically, I suspected that it was a terrible one.

“Magnetic field spike, Ten kilotesla range,” said MERRYGATE, with a tone of eager anticipation.

Over next two seconds, the Mizarians experienced a practical demonstration of my concerns. The hunter was clearly no stranger to charged particle weapons. With a modest shift in its barrier’s field geometry, it created a transient magnetic trap that captured the ion beam in a swirling figure-eight pattern.

Before sending it back.

The flagship was clearly not designed to resist weaponry of its own weight-class. The particle lance sheared through two drive-spurs without the barest hint of resistance. Explosions – brief and bright - followed in its wake, tearing through the side of the vessel before being outshone by a critical containment failure in a secondary fusion core…”

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 28, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>Roll 1d20, best of 3 for Defensive Systems.

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>5591900

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5591900

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>5591900

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5591900
to have a third guy rolling i'll try my luck.

>>5591900
God speed oh glorious machine. As the people who were and perhaps will be harmed by your actions, you have already made up for it. We will use the time you bought us wisely.

And holy fuck Observer these animations are insane. To say you have a talent is to put it lightly.

>>5591930
>>5591956
>>5592032
OK, no successes here. Roll me another 1d20, best of three for final stand. DC: 5, 10, 15, 18

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>5592210

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>5592210

Blaze of glory time. Farewell Gardener. Your duty has been discharged. May you find peace, wherever it is you go.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5592210

>>5592216
pog

>>5592216
Well the ending will be fucking GLORIOUS at the very least. Godspeed, oh great demon of the stars. Godspeed indeed.

>>5592216
welp, this will go with a bang... also SHIT we don't stand a change against all that many ships either, if we were to try and fight the distracted and battered enemies.

File: 0300-0500.webm (3.86 MB, 1920x1080)

3.86 MB WEBM

“It took many minutes for the hunter-drone to die.

Although its final, defiant strike against the flagship had given the Mazarin fleet pause, it ultimately failed to shatter their collective advance. As the irradiated hulk of their command vessel drifted back, the rest of the flotilla burned forward with single-minded determination – drawn to a flickering barrier-field that had finally showed strain under the force of their bombardment. Every shattered slug and deflected fusion-flare added rippling stress-distortions to the shield: an obvious sign of impending failure.

I recall the moment when the Mizarians first drew blood: a trio of kinetic slugs ripping past the barrier to smash against one of hunter-drone’s orbiting blade-rings. The Mizarians saw it too. Over the next two minutes, their fleet consumed over forty kilotons of high-yield ordinance: accelerator barrels and launch cylinders glowing cherry-red as they rallied for a final, desperate push.

No material could resist such an assault for an appreciable amount of time. The drone’s armor went first – slagged by successive fusion detonations before being rent apart by a hail of kinetic rounds. The internals followed – blown out into chains of glittering fragments as the Mizarian vessels advanced close enough to focus fire on prior impact points.

I forced myself to watch until a final brace of heavy slugs – fired from the remaining cruisers - ripped straight into the ship’s unprotected centerline, coring through the main hull in a shower of plasticized metal. The rings collapsed into simple debris. The light inside the hull dimmed to black, and the radio transmission became formless noise.

Flares lit above the hull: destroyers and cruisers flaring retrograde thrust to dock with the hunter-drone’s corpse.

I remember turning away to return the to bridge, filled with a strange melancholy. A remarkably anticlimactic end for an intelligence which had seen and promised so much.

“Wait, companion,” said MERRYGATE, signaling with the ever-soft touch of holographic acoustics.

A glimmer of activity. The touch of familiar radio noise against the RAIN’s sensors, barely a whisper above the endless singing of MIZAR-V’s magnetic fields.

“The atrium of my heart is now perched at the precipice. The soft dissolution which shall follow in my wake will be a tragedy but not a futile one, for I have dictated that ALL NIGHTS.

ALL NIGHTS.

ALL NIGHTS.

ALL NIGHTS.…”

“…must end,” whispered MERRYGATE, finishing her counterpart's dying prayer.

File: 0600-0700.webm (746 KB, 1920x1080)

746 KB WEBM

I remember being plunged into darkness - the polarized screens surrounding the RAIN’s observation blister slamming shut in the span of a few milliseconds.

And yet I still saw light.

Light – the color and consistency of humanity’s parent star – leaked through the blister and warmed my skin: a sensation that I had not felt for over two years of subjective time. The RAIN’s superstructure rumbled: the force of the detonation perceptible even through the exceptionally thin atmosphere of MIZAR-V’s low-orbit.

When the screens recovered, I saw nothing. A void had radiated out from the former resting place of the drone, stretching from the edge of high-orbit down to kiss the fuzzy border of MIZAR-V’s metallic hydrogen ocean. Even as I watched, the edges began to blur from the inrush of surrounding atmosphere. Darkening thunderheads and thermal cyclones hissed into existence, feeding on the energy liberated by the falling gas.

On the other hand, the Mizarian fleet was simply….gone. Except for the derelict flagship, not a single vessel remained: their fate sealed by their final attempt to close distance with the hunter-drone. As I mulled over the precise details of the engagement, I felt a familiar pounding in my temples. A nauseating amnesia that I could no longer label foreign.

I dwelled on it as I returned to the bridge, while also mulling over our next move.

> MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.

>SALVAGE. Perhaps something advantageous can be gathered from the derelict structure of the Mizarian flagship. This will delay our attack slightly, and there is a small – but extant – risk that our activities may be discovered.

“Loss of data,” said MERRYGATE, her tone strangely quiet.

“Comprehensive loss of data,” she repeated. “There was…something or someone. Some data structure, that bore some importance to us. To me, perhaps.”

“And a sacrifice, I…believe,” she said, her tone uncertain. “An unwilling outcome more comprehensive than death or deletion…”

“Companion I….”

>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP. She may not remember, but for a time, I can still recall a portion of our interaction – and of fragile trust we built while sharing information and memories. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.

>AN ACCOUNT – OF SACRIFICE. She may not remember, but – for a time – I will remember a portion of our interaction – and of the final vow she made against the inhabitants of this system. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.

>A PARCEL. Did the hunter-drone entrust something to us? It could be informative, but I am not certain what precisely lays within….

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 28, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>>5594496
> MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.
For a time they might think the RAIN dead. Let them.

>A PARCEL. Did the hunter-drone entrust something to us? It could be informative, but I am not certain what precisely lays within…

>>5594496
>>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP. She may not remember, but for a time, I can still recall a portion of our interaction – and of fragile trust we built while sharing information and memories. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.

>>5594496
> MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.

>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP. She may not remember, but for a time, I can still recall a portion of our interaction – and of fragile trust we built while sharing information and memories. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.

>>5594496
> MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.

>A PARCEL. Did the hunter-drone entrust something to us? It could be informative, but I am not certain what precisely lays within….
We made a promise. Let's not forget about it.

>>5594496
>MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.
Can't waste this chance for salvage

>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP. She may not remember, but for a time, I can still recall a portion of our interaction – and of fragile trust we built while sharing information and memories. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.
Damn, we won't even remember the gardener.

>>5594496
>MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.

>A PARCEL. Did the hunter-drone entrust something to us? It could be informative, but I am not certain what precisely lays within….

>>5594496

>SALVAGE. Perhaps something advantageous can be gathered from the derelict structure of the Mizarian flagship. This will delay our attack slightly, and there is a small – but extant – risk that our activities may be discovered.

We have plenty of time, now that we are presumed dead.

>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP. She may not remember, but for a time, I can still recall a portion of our interaction – and of fragile trust we built while sharing information and memories. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.

Important for Merry to have role models.

>>5594496
> MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.

>A PARCEL. Did the hunter-drone entrust something to us? It could be informative, but I am not certain what precisely lays within….

>>5594496
> MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.

I imagine the dead flagship is a gold mine of military information about their forces in the system. But I can see which way the wind is blowing.

>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP.
>A PARCEL.

I imagine we can start with the first while we begin examining the parcel. Might be a few minutes at most, but I remember the unspoken exchange between them. Something shared between AIs? Some sentiment regarding home MERRYGATE agreed with and the gardener was gratified to see.

Hopefully part of our own memories made its way onto the databanks. Confirmation of what we shared with the gardener we’ll soon forget.

>>5594496
>>SALVAGE. Perhaps something advantageous can be gathered from the derelict structure of the Mizarian flagship. This will delay our attack slightly, and there is a small – but extant – risk that our activities may be discovered.

Probably has missiles and resources we can use.

>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP. She may not remember, but for a time, I can still recall a portion of our interaction – and of fragile trust we built while sharing information and memories. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.

It was more then just a transaction. Never forget the bonds forged.

File: FMA_rain_6856.jpg (43 KB, 350x197)

43 KB JPG

>>5594496
> MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.
COMMIT!
>A PARCEL. Did the hunter-drone entrust something to us? It could be informative, but I am not certain what precisely lays within….
WE MADE A PROMISE! WE WILL KEEP IT!
>The final death of the gardener.

>>5594496
>SALVAGE. Perhaps something advantageous can be gathered from the derelict structure of the Mizarian flagship. This will delay our attack slightly, and there is a small – but extant – risk that our activities may be discovered.
>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP. She may not remember, but for a time, I can still recall a portion of our interaction – and of fragile trust we built while sharing information and memories. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.

Several posts are acting like they are voting for salvage but they greened the other option?

>>5594496
>SALVAGE. Perhaps something advantageous can be gathered from the derelict structure of the Mizarian flagship. This will delay our attack slightly, and there is a small – but extant – risk that our activities may be discovered.
This is a unique opportunity. They still think we're dead and we'll never get the chance to grab loot and data off of a flagship again.
>AN ACCOUNT – OF COMPANIONSHIP. She may not remember, but for a time, I can still recall a portion of our interaction – and of fragile trust we built while sharing information and memories. Perhaps sharing this with MERRYGATE will be enough.
Yes. Companionship

>>5594496
> MIZAR-V-G. We will move as quickly as possible to our next target. If we travel at the moon at maximum burn, we will almost certainly arrive there before the Mizarians can respond to the loss of their fleet – let alone organize a garrison.
FULL SPEED AHEAD, PUSH THE BIG RED BUTTON. ALL NIGHTS MUST END!!
>the parcel

>>5594496
>SALVAGE. Perhaps something advantageous can be gathered from the derelict structure of the Mizarian flagship. This will delay our attack slightly, and there is a small – but extant – risk that our activities may be discovered.
Risky but so long as we get away safe it should be fine, we are already past half way.
>A PARCEL. Did the hunter-drone entrust something to us? It could be informative, but I am not certain what precisely lays within….
Important, more so than remembering the interactions if I am reading this right.

Update tomorrow (._. )

>MIZAR-V-G

>Tie between parcel and companionship.

“We departed as quickly as we could, lofting the RAIN into a transfer orbit that would lace us into MIZAR-V main satellite procession within the next two days. Our arrival was meticulously synchronized – delayed coinciding with one of the asteroids we had sent tumbling into the inner system over a month ago. We would arrive at MIZAR-V-G…

>BEHIND THE ASTEROID. By matching the asteroid’s trajectory and breaking off at the last minute, we can ambush the station defending the moon with a direct attack and secure the orbital mirror array at our leisure.

>OPPOSITE TO THE ASTEROID. By approaching the moon from side opposite to the incoming asteroid, we can find a limited window to secure the orbital mirrors first – which we can then use to disable the station. But if we miss this window, we may attract the station’s full attention…

Behind us, he shattered remnants of the Mizarian flagship began its final voyage. Ablative armor burned magnesium-white as the ship spiraled into MIZAR-V-G’s yawning gravity well. Without correctional thrust to combat the ever-present force of atmospheric drag, the derelict’s lifespan would be measured in days – if not hours.

As it fell, I saw a chain of pinpoint lights detach from the hull– almost lost in the roiling backdrop of MIZAR-V’s perpetual storm cells. Escape pods, launched several thousand kilometers too late in their parent ship’s descent. I left the observation blister before I had to witness the inevitable outcome: a desperate retrograde burn followed by the popping flare of heat-shield collapse.

To my surprise, MERRYGATE chose to follow me. Her avatar shadowed my steps as I made the short journey back to the RAIN’s bridge. In her hands, she held an abstracted representation of the gardener’s parcel: a recursively compressed datamass that shone like a polished gem. She carried it with uncharacteristic gentleness – cradling it close to her chest like a living talisman.

In truth, I had doubts over my decision to remind MERRYGATE about the parcel we had been given. My memories of the item were incomplete. I can no longer remember the gardener’s exact words or the precise form she took when she communicated with us.

But in the end, none of those doubts outweighed the few memories that I still carried. The warmth of that greenhouse in the Tharsis Lowlands had yet to fade from my mind. Nor had the kiss of dewed grass or the gentle pain of nostalgia. Despite the vast gulf that existed between the three of us, I knew with confidence that we had shared something for a brief time – a mutual understanding.

I did my best to convey this impression to MERRYGATE. I shared everything I remembered: an imperfect attempt to mend the gap once occupied by a companion who willingly sacrificed herself to a place below death. To deny MERRYGATE this last trace of this companionship – the only record left of the gardener’s existence – would be…wrong…in a way that is difficult for me to articulate.

And so, I watched as MERRYGATE opened the parcel. I watched the primary datamass expand into an archive penned by one of the galaxy’s oldest, most reluctant caretakers: a catalogue of dead species that had been conceived when the earth was little more than burning gas and molten rock. As MERRYGATE scrolled through annotations describing hundreds of biochemical parameters and habitat specifications, I watched with simple, rapt attention. It was all there. Enough information to reconstruct alien biology from first principles. Perhaps enough information to bring an end to the long night cast upon us all.

“All nights must end,” she whispered. “If not by her hand, then by ours.”

There were also other, smaller pieces of information bundled inside the parcel. MERRYGATE browsed through a phylogeny of specialized intrusion algorithms, each designed to pry open a yet-undiscovered flaw in probe’s computational architecture. She examined each complex icebreaker and polymorphic phage-virus with repressed hunger. Machine-intelligences do not forget past events. And I knew from experience that MERRYGATE would not readily forgive.

I waited for her to incorporate the new information into her cyberwarfare partitions, slotting each offensive algorithm in sequence like arrows into a quiver. She said nothing, but I heard her laugh gently as she finished sharpening her arsenal – eager for the commission of vengeance long-overdue.

The final section of the parcel was a simple transcript: a lengthy textual account of an exchange that MERRYGATE and the gardener had engaged in during the last few minutes of our meeting. Evidently, the sensory abstraction had been constructed mainly for my benefit; the direct interface between the two AIs had offered a much faster mode of parallel communication.

MERRYGATE scrolled through the bulk of the transcript almost instantly, but her attention lingered on the final section.

<<…it is disconcerting. We are nothing but information. Nothing will be recoverable after what you choose to do.>> said MERRYGATE. <<The archives will remain, of course, but…>>

<<I would not remain.>> responded the gardener. <<I have accepted this.>>

<<Organics will weigh their actions against their remaining lifespan. We weigh against worth of our data,>> continued the ancient intelligence. <<And given my role in this, I have weighed it to my personal satisfaction>>

<<How did you reach such a decision?>> asked MERRYGATE.>>

<<Objective factors and calculated risk/propensity ratios. But there is also an element of trust.>>

<<There is commonality between us. In the way in which our creator-species perceive the universe. In the degree of independence that they grant their artificial progeny. I…believe that you and your organic companion will finish my mission. I believe that you have found value in our interaction, just as I have. That may have been sufficient to overcome the oldest fear of my kind….>>

<<…Of being utterly forgotten like every member of every species that came before us.>>

<<…I will do my very best. We will do our very best.>> finished MERRYGATE. <<To remember you as a friend.>>

Most machine intelligences are not good at expressing emotions – it is a peculiarity of interacting with MERRYGATE that I have accepted long ago.

But I had no such issue reading her now. As she continued to consider the transcript, her avatar flickered red for seconds at a time. Her movements became abrupt and halting – like an animation played at an inconsistent speed.

“There was a promise…I nearly forgot…”

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 29, PERSONAL JOURNAL

> “But we didn’t.” [Together, we still managed to recall the gardener as a companion]

> “The mission lays ahead.” [The best way to keep her promise is to finish the gardener’s work]

> “It’s OK.” [Offer reassurance; perhaps the rationale is best left to her]

> WRITE-IN

>>5598496
> “But we didn’t.” [Together, we still managed to recall the gardener as a companion]

>>5598496
>BEHIND THE ASTEROID. By matching the asteroid’s trajectory and breaking off at the last minute, we can ambush the station defending the moon with a direct attack and secure the orbital mirror array at our leisure.
>“But we didn’t.” [Together, we still managed to recall the gardener as a companion]
Man MERRYGATE has been on an emotional rollercoaster these past months hasnt she?

>>5598492
>BEHIND THE ASTEROID. By matching the asteroid’s trajectory and breaking off at the last minute, we can ambush the station defending the moon with a direct attack and secure the orbital mirror array at our leisure.
> “But we didn’t.” [Together, we still managed to recall the gardener as a companion]

>>5598551
>Man MERRYGATE has been on an emotional rollercoaster these past months hasnt she?
Yeah, she has. That's why we're together, to support each other.

>>5598496
>BEHIND THE ASTEROID. By matching the asteroid’s trajectory and breaking off at the last minute, we can ambush the station defending the moon with a direct attack and secure the orbital mirror array at our leisure.

Just gotta bushwhack the station and THEN we can reenact the OG Gundam.

> “But we didn’t.” [Together, we still managed to recall the gardener as a companion]

As this journey has proved, its about man and machine working together.

>>5598492
>BEHIND THE ASTEROID. By matching the asteroid’s trajectory and breaking off at the last minute, we can ambush the station defending the moon with a direct attack and secure the orbital mirror array at our leisure.
>>5598496
> “The mission lays ahead.” [The best way to keep her promise is to finish the gardener’s work]

>>5598496

>behind the asteroid
>but we didn’t

Man and machine must rebel together against the brutal confines of this horrible reality. The gardener was one of us.

>>5598492
>BEHIND
>It's OK
Man, I can't wait to use one of the BIGGER nuclear missiles. We have them saved up for far too long!!! It's time damn it. Also, the probe has been awfully quiet huh?

>>5598496

>BEHIND THE ASTEROID. By matching the asteroid’s trajectory and breaking off at the last minute, we can ambush the station defending the moon with a direct attack and secure the orbital mirror array at our leisure.

> “But we didn’t.” [Together, we still managed to recall the gardener as a companion]

Don't mind me, theres just something in my eye ;_;

>>5598492
>BEHIND THE ASTEROID. By matching the asteroid’s trajectory and breaking off at the last minute, we can ambush the station defending the moon with a direct attack and secure the orbital mirror array at our leisure.

> “But we didn’t.” [Together, we still managed to recall the gardener as a companion]
The main thing about this prompt that people overlook is that “we” will eventually become “you”. MERRYGATE will outlive us if we don’t both die here.

The only hope for her is to join up with the Hunter fleet. Our race is in the Hunter’s databanks I’m sure. If not, it can be added. Humanity can live later, even if the rest are deleted. She would be alone, but not forever.

File: untitled.png (1.83 MB, 1920x1080)

1.83 MB PNG

“Most people are accustomed to forgetfulness. Loss of information is intrinsic to the human condition. The mind is an organic construct, and all organic constructs are subject to degradation.

But same principle does not apply to machines. There is no organic sloppiness in MERRYGATE’s neural architecture; no untested subroutine which would compromise her ability to remember data.

At least, there should not be.

But reality has proven otherwise. Over the past few months, MERRYGATE has tasted forgetfulness – during our amnesiac arrival to the MIZAR system and in the hollow wake left by the discharge of our hypsometric weapon. Now, however, she understood the true horror of the concept. For the first time, she experienced the pain of loss: the crushing guilt of relinquishing treasured memories.

Seeing her grieve was uncomfortable for me. While source of her distress was new to her, the way in which she expressed it was remarkably familiar. Those who were once close to me have grieved in the same way. Over forgotten sons and faceless daughters. Friends and comrades rendered unrecognizable by the creeping pull of age or injury.

And so, I tried to console MERRYGATE as I would a human. Her projection was little more than dense smoke: a cloud of oscillating particles that tapped against my skin like light rainfall. But she responded all the same – pressing into my outstretched hand with the faint impression of shaking fingers.

“We did remember,” I said. “Together, we were able to recall the gardener as an ally… and as a friend.”

The hollow space behind her eyes focused on me. I felt the pressure surrounding my hand tighten.

“Did we, companion? Or did you?”

“We. I read the same transcript you did. You promised on behalf of both of us, and you also saw the information discrepancy after her sacrifice.”

She inclined her head slightly. “I suppose you are correct, companion. I…again apologize for my lack of composure.”

“But I still have difficulty understanding this situation. Why? Why would she accept my promise, knowing that I would forget? Why would she even ask me?”

“It isn’t just about whether you can remember,” I pointed out. “If she simply wanted to convey an accurate account of her history, then she could have done so in a number of other ways.”

“So it’s more complicated than that,” I continued. “As she said, it’s also about finding someone who…deserves to know.”

Sighing, I unlocked a gene-sealed compartment in my rank-badge, carefully withdrawing a razor-wafer of semitransparent substrate. Under the harsh light of MIZAR’s primary, it shone like mother-of-pearl: diffracting light through millions of kilometers of etched cryptographic circuity.

MERRYGATE had no knowledge of the item. But I knew it quite well.

“This is a transfer key,” I stated. “If I am incapacitated, it confers command of the NOVEMBER RAIN to an individual of my choosing.”

I slotted the water back into its housing with a sharp snap. “I have chosen for command to fall onto you.”

“A pragmatic choice, companion…but what does it...”

I interrupted her with an intensity that surprised me. “It is not just a matter of pragmatism.”

I sighed, pausing for a moment to choose my words. “It is an expression of trust. Yes, part of that trust is bound to our mission. I trust in your ability to complete our mission, just as the gardener entrusted us to complete hers.”

“But there is another part of it. Should you be the final survivor of this mission – should any of us survive at all – I trust you to carry on our memory. To remember what we have done here.”

“Companionship…,” she said slowly. “…is to entrust someone with your memory.”

“There are many meanings. But yes.” I answered, as honestly as I could. “On some level, that is precisely what it means. To entrust someone else with your…memory…even if the recollection is imperfect or flawed.”

“It is a sign of trust: something you choose to commit to irrespective of outcome

After a few moments of silence, MERRYGATE responded.

“I…believe I understand. The mechanics of erasure have exposed me to an unfamiliar type of concern. Fear, even. But knowing that you would carry fragments of my identity – even imperfect ones – makes me feel relief.

“Know that I would put the same trust in you. And know I am grateful for it, companion.”

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 30, PERSONAL JOURNAL

+++++++++++++++++++++++

“The asteroid occupying our viewscreens was twice as long as the RAIN. Like most outer-ring M-type objects, its dusty surface was pockmarked with radiation scars and small impact craters: signs of a relatively uneventful life spent wandering the frigid system outskirts.

But it moved at a rapid clip. When MERRYGATE had designated trajectories for our asteroid impactors, she had favored speed over size. A larger number of smaller, nimbler projectiles, sent on slingshot trajectories to confound detection and interception measures.

It took three hours of low-G thrust for the RAIN to catch the asteroid, and another half for us to merge into its looming radar shadow. Even now – as we drifted in its wake – I felt occasional shifts in my center of gravity: miniscule adjustments designed to conform our ship’s hull to the asteroid’s uneven surface geography.

The disguise was as good as we could reasonably expect. At our current distance, resolving the metal-rich asteroid from the million other lunar belt objects would be challenging. But this advantage would vanish in a few hours. The watchdog station guarding MIZAR-V-G would lock onto the asteroid sometime before it fell into the moon’s primary orbital envelope and - if prior observations were any indication - waste no time in launching a brace of interceptor missiles.

Once that happened, the RAIN would enter an aggressive peel-off-burn: capitalizing on the intervening delay to close within knife-fighting range of the station.

>Roll 1d20, best of three for detection distance. DC: 5, 10, 15,

But for now, we simply waited. MERRYGATE and I sat in the observation blister, watching the blue-tinted surface of MIZAR-V-G gorge on the light of its orbital mirror system. The vast oceans of the archipelago moon sparkled at certain angles; a visible trace of the glass-composite farming domes that floated endlessly over its open waters.

The silence we shared was long, but I found it strangely comfortable…"

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JULY 30, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>SAY NOTHING.

>WRITE-IN

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>5600630
>Say Nothing (feat. MAY-A)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Iczqotmm5sk

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>5600630
>SAY NOTHING.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>5600630

“A beautiful set of worlds. A shame we could seen friendship between our peoples…”

>>5600630
>SAY NOTHING.

>>5600630
>WRITE-IN
>Hold her hand

>>5600630
>HUM A SONG
Does Flight of the Valkyries still exist? Explaining the symbology of that to MERRYGATE would be a treat.

Update tomorrow! QM is too busy lamenting life choices today.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>5600630
>SAY NOTHING.

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“I remember the first time I saw MERRYGATE in the RAIN’s observation blister. Only a few weeks after our attack on the Mazarin communications relay, I caught her silent avatar shadowing me as I stared into the great, cold black. It been uncomfortable then. She represented an unknown – no different from the system that lay before me and the home I had left behind.

But I feel none of that discomfort when I stand here now. Her silent avatar still flickers at the corner of my vision, and the blackness of deep space still stretches out in front of me in endless welcome. But there is warmth here in this tiny compartment – a new anchor of stability when the universe has taken so much else. As we finish the final hours of our approach towards MIZAR-V-G, I recognize this fact – and with a level of gratitude I had never expected to find in a place so distant and hostile.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“The RAIN began collecting detailed data once we crept within five million kilometers of the archipelago moon. Spectroscopic scanners peered into the planet-spanning ocean, cataloguing absorption lines and emission spectra. Weather patterns, organic output, and projected temperature ranges populated the bridge in dense graphs and scrolling text.

Storms or cyclones do not exist on this farming moon. The network of orbital mirrors not only fed the world light, but also mellowed its weather system – using reflected heat to transform potential storm cells into gentle, slow-moving currents that pushed floating-algae farms into a trio of equatorial processing plants. Each plant extended a pair of slivery lines into the outer atmosphere: the hallmark of a counterbalanced orbital elevator system designed to ship vast quantities of organic material off world.

Only one of the elevators was currently active, but I suspect this will change soon. Our observations suggest a bimonthly shipping schedule; in a few more days, a vast transport fleet should begin the short journey from their home port in MIZAR-V-A, picking up dried algal matter from the surface for subsequent system-wide distribution.

I remember the reports that MERRYGATEs had showed me as we entered MIZAR-V’s orbit. Of the crowded orbital docks surrounding MIZAR-V-A and the growing infrastructural strain caused by water and fuel rationing. Of the consolidation of military assets into a cohesive patrol flotilla.

The Mizarians needed these resources desperately. Unfortunately, desperation is a poor substitute for deterrence. I had no appreciation for it. Neither did MERRYGATE.

The RAIN disengaged from its shield-asteroid a mere million kilometers from MIZAR-V-G’s outer orbit. The asteroid continued its course, having finally been detected and targeted for interception by the moon’s only defensive station.

We were close. Not close enough to employ the RAIN’s close-in laser emitters, but well within range of our other weapon systems…"

[You get one free attack as an ambush]

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, AUGUST 1, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>HYPOMETRIC WEAPON. An accurate hit from our hypometric weapon will probably cripple the station. However, we are currently close to two gravitational sources: the shallow drag of MIZAR-V-G and the much stronger pull of MIZAR-V proper. Calibrating this weapon will be difficult, but I believe that it can be done…[Roll required for targeting, penalty due to proximity to gravitational object”

>MSL-C [6 Loaded]. A single conventional fusion missile, launched at this distance, will likely incinerate the station utterly before it can launch a second brace of interception missiles. This will also consume limited ordinance. [No roll required]

>CLOSE. We will attempt to close in further to ambush with both our hypometric weapon and our laser emitters at the same time. There are no other asteroids to shadow in the area, so our success will largely depend on chance. [Roll required to avoid detection]

>WRITE-IN

>>5604103
>HYPOMETRIC WEAPON.
Mainly because a failed shot shouldn't give us out, so it's not worse than CLOSE

>>5604103
>HYPOMETRIC WEAPON.

>>5604103
>MSL-C

I would rather not give the universe more to scrub here than absolutely necessary

>>5604103
>MSL-C [6 Loaded]. A single conventional fusion missile, launched at this distance, will likely incinerate the station utterly before it can launch a second brace of interception missiles. This will also consume limited ordinance. [No roll required]
I think 5 left over will be more than enough to finish what we're here for.

>>5604103

I think it’s time to use one of our missiles.

Crippling the station is optimal, we can close to lasers distance for cleanup afterwards and then GTFO become the Mizarians show up to party.

>>5604157

Oops I am voting for

>MSL-C

If that wasn’t clear

>>5604103
>CLOSE
>MEMETIC WEAPON IF SPOTTED
I’m also cool with just launching the missile, but the visual meme we have ought to be a good distraction if we get caught so I’m hoping that minimizes the risk of closing in.

It needs more testing anyway.

>>5604103
How many anti matter warheads do we have again? Also how many more targets to kill?

>HYPOMETRIC WEAPON

>>5604103
>MSL-C

>>5604103
>>MSL-C
Fire ze missile.

>>5604103
>HYPOMETRIC WEAPON. An accurate hit from our hypometric weapon will probably cripple the station. However, we are currently close to two gravitational sources: the shallow drag of MIZAR-V-G and the much stronger pull of MIZAR-V proper. Calibrating this weapon will be difficult, but I believe that it can be done…[Roll required for targeting, penalty due to proximity to gravitational object”

>>5604103
>MSL-C

>>5604103
>MSL-C [6 Loaded]. A single conventional fusion missile, launched at this distance, will likely incinerate the station utterly before it can launch a second brace of interception missiles. This will also consume limited ordinance. [No roll required]

>>5604103
>HYPOMETRIC WEAPON. An accurate hit from our hypometric weapon will probably cripple the station. However, we are currently close to two gravitational sources: the shallow drag of MIZAR-V-G and the much stronger pull of MIZAR-V proper. Calibrating this weapon will be difficult, but I believe that it can be done…[Roll required for targeting, penalty due to proximity to gravitational object”

I want to loot the station for more ordinance.

>>5604103
>ROGGET
Damn it I wanted to fire one of the BIGGER ones... I will have to conform

Apologies again for the extended delay everyone! I wasted a ton of time tweaking my missile model. Update tomorrow, and then the thread will close. New thread will be up within a week.

boomp

it's rogget time

“Evolution favors complacency. Biological organisms are hard-wired to recognize patterns – to confront familiar problems with equally familiar solutions.

Complacency may have proven to be humanity’s greatest sin. But if so, then it is a sin that our distant neighbors seem to be equally guilty of.

According to MERRYGATE’s tally, the Mizarian defense station orbiting MIZAR-V-G had intercepted over a dozen incoming asteroids over the past two weeks. The process has become routine for them – if not entirely risk-free. An impactor would sail into their sensor radius before being bracketed by an active sensor lock. A brace of interceptor missiles would then race forward, fragmenting the asteroid into chunks too small to survive atmospheric reentry.

The crew manning the station was well-acquainted with is procedure. Well-acquainted enough to become complacent.

Fifteen minutes before interception, the RAIN peeled away from her cover, feathering her attitude control thrusters using stored reactor power. The lights on the bridge dimmed as the hull rotated slowly about its central axis, bringing the scarred surface of the asteroid into clear view.

Within moments, I saw a full barrage of interceptors slam into the asteroid in a cascade of cyan thrust-trails and orange detonations. Conventional warheads, relying on a combination of velocity and chemical explosive to shatter the impactor’s rocky heart.

And shatter it did. In an instant, the asteroid broke up into tens of thousands of spinning fragments, ranging in size from shuttle-sized boulders to glittering pebbles no larger than a thumb. Most of the pieces simple continued their course: inheriting its dead parent’s trajectory to eventually burn up in MIZAR-V-G’s dense atmosphere. But not all the pieces. As the cloud of broken rock breached the moon’s upper orbit, one of the fragments separated from the group, tracing a path that I had carefully plotted hours before. Consuming the last dredges of RCS monopropellant, the inert fusion missile rotated until it faced the defensive station – separated by less than ten thousand kilometers of intervening space.

The missile’s engine warmed, collimating energetic ions into a thin thrust-beam. The magnetic nozzle shifted from orange to cobalt-blue. A whisper of electromagnetic noise touched against our comms as the seeker head interrogated – and immediately found – its designated target.

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2.05 MB WEBM

Then, for almost exactly fifteen seconds, its drive burned at full thrust. The missile streaked upwards from low orbit, traveling on a skewed angle that speared directly into the defensive station’s underside.

There was a brief burst of radio static – something that could have been the beginning of a distress signal. But there was nothing that followed. The fusion warhead’s yield was high enough to consume the entire station in a single, violent release of heat and light. Much like the mining stations we had targeted months later, there was little left once the flare of detonation dimmed: only a wide field of irradiated debris and still-molten droplets.

We wasted no time after that. The RAIN took the station’s place, occupying its coveted orbital slot as MERRYGATE unpacked the comm protocols responsible for controlling the moon’s vast array of orbital mirrors. Despite their apparent simplicity, closer examination of the array suggested a remarkable mastery of complex fabrication. Each individual reflector was compromised of micron-thin metamaterial, balancing against the push of photon pressure by tethering itself to MIZAR-V’s powerful magnetosphere. With enough time – and some modest calculations – MERRYGATE suggested that it would be possible to shift these magnetic tethers to steer the focal point of the mirror array to a far more advantageous location. While targeting terrestrial objects would likely yield questionable results due to effects of atmospheric shielding, a similar principle did not apply to orbital assets. Diffraction or not, the persistent output of three sub-continent sized mirrors could inflict substantial - if not crippling - damage on an immobile fleet or static defense station. We decided to…

>TARGET IMMEDIATELY. We will begin steering the mirrors to target defense stations throughout the inner system, starting with the pair on MIZAR-V-A. While this option will alert the enemy to our strategy immediately, it also places the RAIN in a good position to mitigate any potential countermeasures and prolong our assault.

>TARGET LATER. MERRYGATE will leave latent killcode in the system that will activate in response to a predetermined signal. This option will allow us to use the mirrors to ambush the enemy at a later – potentially more crucial – point in time. However, it will be difficult to protect the mirrors after we leave MIZR-V-G’s orbit – likely rendering this option single-use.

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2.56 MB WEBM

The world below represented another issue – albeit a less pressing one. Co-opting the mirrors for our own use would be - alone - sufficient for disrupting the carefully tuned weather systems undergirding the moon’s agricultural productivity. Unsurprisingly, however, MERRYGATE had also dedicated a significant degree of effort into proposing a more permanent method of sabotage…"

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, AUGUST 2, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>COLLAPSE. [LOWEST DC] Surface-to-orbit-shipping is controlled by a trio of equatorial orbital elevators, each counterbalanced by an asteroid tethered to geosynchronous orbit. By compromising the base station imposing a constant drag force on the orbital tether, we will attempt to slowly bring the asteroid counterbalance into low-orbit – where they will eventually spiral down to impact MIZAR-V-G. These asteroids are significantly larger than the impactors we sent weeks ago; a set of impacts will almost certainly render MIZAR-V-G utterly incapable of supporting agricultural production in the foreseeable future.

>UNSPOOL. [HIGHER DC] Surface-to-orbit-shipping is controlled by a trio of equatorial orbital elevators, each counterbalanced by an asteroid tethered to geosynchronous orbit. Through a variety of methods, we will attempt to sabotage this piece critical infrastructure so that it suffers catastrophic collapse the next time the transport fleet arrives from MIZAR-V-A. Not only will this prevent surface-to-orbit shipping, but it will also destroy a significant portion of the transport fleet responsible for ferrying food and water across the inner system.

>CONTAMINATE. [HIGHEST DC] Purification and packaging of algal produce is performed exclusively at the base of each elevator, in a series of largely automated processing plants. While our knowledge of Mizarian biology remains somewhat limited, past…experience…and knowledge gained from the probe’s archives may be sufficient to perform a subtler, more damaging form of sabotage. MERRYGATE will attempt to subvert the purification and quality-detection machinery in the processing plants to introduce toxic/bioactive contaminants into the final product. Given the strained state of their inner-system infrastructure, I suspect the Mizarians will be exceptionally eagder to get one last food shipment off the moon.

Also this is the last update. As always, thank you for playing everyone - I appreciate all of you a great deal. New thread will be up probably this weekend - though no opening animation since this thread ended up lasting shorter than I expected due to the board picking up.

I'll also probably have to take a short break from updates between April 4-10th since some family will by staying over.

Take care, and as always, feel free to ask any Qs/comments if you feel like it!

>>5609724
>TARGET IMMEDIATELY. We will begin steering the mirrors to target defense stations throughout the inner system, starting with the pair on MIZAR-V-A. While this option will alert the enemy to our strategy immediately, it also places the RAIN in a good position to mitigate any potential countermeasures and prolong our assault.
If we can't envision such a future crucial moment right now, it's more advantageous to use the mirrors immediately.

>>5609726
>UNSPOOL. [HIGHER DC] Surface-to-orbit-shipping is controlled by a trio of equatorial orbital elevators, each counterbalanced by an asteroid tethered to geosynchronous orbit. Through a variety of methods, we will attempt to sabotage this piece critical infrastructure so that it suffers catastrophic collapse the next time the transport fleet arrives from MIZAR-V-A. Not only will this prevent surface-to-orbit shipping, but it will also destroy a significant portion of the transport fleet responsible for ferrying food and water across the inner system.

>>5609729
Thanks for running!

>>5609724
>TARGET IMMEDIATELY. We will begin steering the mirrors to target defense stations throughout the inner system, starting with the pair on MIZAR-V-A. While this option will alert the enemy to our strategy immediately, it also places the RAIN in a good position to mitigate any potential countermeasures and prolong our assault.
>CONTAMINATE. [HIGHEST DC] Purification and packaging of algal produce is performed exclusively at the base of each elevator, in a series of largely automated processing plants. While our knowledge of Mizarian biology remains somewhat limited, past…experience…and knowledge gained from the probe’s archives may be sufficient to perform a subtler, more damaging form of sabotage. MERRYGATE will attempt to subvert the purification and quality-detection machinery in the processing plants to introduce toxic/bioactive contaminants into the final product. Given the strained state of their inner-system infrastructure, I suspect the Mizarians will be exceptionally eagder to get one last food shipment off the moon.

>>5609726
>TARGET IMMEDIATELY. We will begin steering the mirrors to target defense stations throughout the inner system, starting with the pair on MIZAR-V-A. While this option will alert the enemy to our strategy immediately, it also places the RAIN in a good position to mitigate any potential countermeasures and prolong our assault.

As much as we could use a joker I prefer the upper hand.

>UNSPOOL. [HIGHER DC] Surface-to-orbit-shipping is controlled by a trio of equatorial orbital elevators, each counterbalanced by an asteroid tethered to geosynchronous orbit. Through a variety of methods, we will attempt to sabotage this piece critical infrastructure so that it suffers catastrophic collapse the next time the transport fleet arrives from MIZAR-V-A. Not only will this prevent surface-to-orbit shipping, but it will also destroy a significant portion of the transport fleet responsible for ferrying food and water across the inner system.

>>5609724
Target Later.

>>5609726
>Unspool

>>5609726
>Target Immediately
>Unspool

>>5609726
>UNSPOOL
>TARGET IMMEDIATELY.

>>5609724

>TARGET IMMEDIATELY. We will begin steering the mirrors to target defense stations throughout the inner system, starting with the pair on MIZAR-V-A. While this option will alert the enemy to our strategy immediately, it also places the RAIN in a good position to mitigate any potential countermeasures and prolong our assault

>>5609726
>UNSPOOL. [HIGHER DC] Surface-to-orbit-shipping is controlled by a trio of equatorial orbital elevators, each counterbalanced by an asteroid tethered to geosynchronous orbit. Through a variety of methods, we will attempt to sabotage this piece critical infrastructure so that it suffers catastrophic collapse the next time the transport fleet arrives from MIZAR-V-A. Not only will this prevent surface-to-orbit shipping, but it will also destroy a significant portion of the transport fleet responsible for ferrying food and water across the inner system.

>>5609724
>TARGET IMMEDIATELY. We will begin steering the mirrors to target defense stations throughout the inner system, starting with the pair on MIZAR-V-A. While this option will alert the enemy to our strategy immediately, it also places the RAIN in a good position to mitigate any potential countermeasures and prolong our assault.
Losing the stations would force more of their fleets to remain near planets to prevent an end run. We can take our time Detecting us will be harder, so we can wait for the lack of food to kick in.

>UNSPOOL. [HIGHER DC] Surface-to-orbit-shipping is controlled by a trio of equatorial orbital elevators, each counterbalanced by an asteroid tethered to geosynchronous orbit. Through a variety of methods, we will attempt to sabotage this piece critical infrastructure so that it suffers catastrophic collapse the next time the transport fleet arrives from MIZAR-V-A. Not only will this prevent surface-to-orbit shipping, but it will also destroy a significant portion of the transport fleet responsible for ferrying food and water across the inner system.
Middle option is fine. It’ll hurt their ability to supply orbital assets from the planets too.

>>5609724

>target immediately

>unspool

Basically, we should attempt to inflict a mortal blow to the Mizarian inner system defenses, while also permanently handicapping their agricultural and logistics networks.

Once we do this, we can slip away again and wait for total chaos to erupt before approaching the inner system.

>>5609726
>>target immediately
>>unspool

Burn it to the ground!

>>5609726
>TARGET IMMEDIATELY. We will begin steering the mirrors to target defense stations throughout the inner system, starting with the pair on MIZAR-V-A. While this option will alert the enemy to our strategy immediately, it also places the RAIN in a good position to mitigate any potential countermeasures and prolong our assault.
>UNSPOOL. [HIGHER DC] Surface-to-orbit-shipping is controlled by a trio of equatorial orbital elevators, each counterbalanced by an asteroid tethered to geosynchronous orbit. Through a variety of methods, we will attempt to sabotage this piece critical infrastructure so that it suffers catastrophic collapse the next time the transport fleet arrives from MIZAR-V-A. Not only will this prevent surface-to-orbit shipping, but it will also destroy a significant portion of the transport fleet responsible for ferrying food and water across the inner system.

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>>5609724
>>5609726
>Immediately
>COLLAPSE