Components of reflex arc
Why are we born only to Die?
2024.05.19 18:30 FunnyWay4369 Why are we born only to Die?
These are the questions we have been trying to answer ever since we as a species first evolved the ability to ask such questions.
Let us first briefly consider our ability to voice those questions and how is it we can formulate any questions at all. There has been some discussion recently on how we in essence 'hallucinate' our reality. While this is true to a large degree, it would be more accurate to say that we 'read' our reality. We process the stimulus we receive from external world and then transform it into language through the neural dynamics found in our cortical thalamic complex.
As we develop and mature our cortical/thalamic complex gradually creates a VR type experience for our consciousness, so gradually we no longer see what arrives at our eyes but rather is what is constructed from the direct sensory experience in the occipital lobe of the cortex - our visual center. By the time we are adults our awareness can no longer directly perceive the external world. It can only see and hear the reprocessed reality as it is reconstructed from direct sensory stimulus, in our cortex. As adults we never see the outside world. We don't see the mountain. We only see the image of a mountain created in our visual cortex. Only when we encounter something that cannot be fit into any existing linguistic category do we see it before filtering and reconstruction within cortical visual centers.
We linguistically interpret and assign meaning to raw stimulus within our cortex which determines our subsequent response and behaviors. Under normal conditions if what we are experiencing cannot be translated into our existing vocabulary then we cannot act coherently and we will either freeze up or become completely uninhibited and out of control. The parsing of external reality into language is a reflex and it is normally beyond our ability to perceive this neurological process as it is occurring.
The answers to the nature of life, why we are born and die and how we can ask such things all lead to the same place and if one question is answered then all of them will be. Therefore I will begin with the nature of life itself. I will use one of the tools that western science adopted early in its history and that is dissection. Lets first dissect life and look at it in the detail that has been revealed throughout the hundreds of years we have been using this tool.
The first medical dissections were performed at the University of Salerno in about the 12 century. Now all these years later we have dissected much and we now have little pieces of everything lying around everywhere. Now we are dissecting some very large things and some very small things. Dissection reveals information contained or hidden beneath the perceptual paywall of physical boundaries like the biological membrane of the cell, or an organ like our skin or the boundaries of the earths gravity. What we see in the modern world is the result of centuries of dissection and reassembly.
Now after all the thousands of years of humans history there is one item that has been produced more times than any other single thing made by humans and their ancestors...transistors. Most people have no idea what this item is or how it works yet humans have made more of it than anything else by orders of magnitude. These things also require more electrical energy than anything else ever mass produced by humans to perform their function as intended. This is a result of a history of dissection and reassembly without any underlying worldview or morality to guide the technological exploitation of the discoveries uncovered through the process of dissection and analysis.
Now at the pinnacle of our evolution we have completely remade ourselves and the world and the results appear to be anything but enlightening and emancipating. We have server farms that are using the energy of a small city and space tourism is well on its way. Unfortunately during our history of dissection we have ignored certain things discovered that do not support the underlying ideology motivating our technological innovations. The problem hasn't been in the scientific process but in what aspects of what we have discovered that have been followed up and not relegated to the the dark shelves of history and ignored. Our cultures idea of progress and evolution as a driving force of nature may be entirely misplaced and as 'superstitious' as any of the other antiquated views our culture has abandoned and transcended along the way.
The processes of attrition affects 2 vectors in the realization of a particular existence from a plentitude of possibilities. In order for life and consciousness to exist in the earths biosystem 2 vectors must work together to maintain a fragile stasis between reoccurring periods of geological and cosmic instability. These vectors influence morphology and metabolism. Morphology is influenced and regulated by viruses and that still ill defined aspect of our biological reality they represent. Multicellular metabolism is regulated and influenced by chromosomal and nucleic genetics. When the environment changes then the viral component of the tree of life induces morphological changes in the life forms currently inhabiting the biosphere. Within the nucleus of the cell the genetic code is changed now producing biological forms that after development have the metabolism to exist in the new environment. Life consciousness has within it already all the plentitude of possibilities needed to exist in many different potential worlds and it doesn't need to evolve as it is already capable of arising in almost any conditions. Look at the many amazing ways that nature is already incorporating plastics into its ecology.
Unfortunately for us, our ill fated venture into space has triggered processes of attrition between these 2 vectors that are now adapting the morphology and metabolism of the earths biome in response to the time many of its lifeforms have already spent living in a gravity free environment. The different forms of life we have have brought too and from a gravity free environment are also changing. Switching from a model based on evolution and progress to one based on a preexisting plenitude of possibilities may affect the statistical significance of our predictive models. If we are not progressing and evolving towards something then what exactly is it we are doing with all our technologies but creating the conditions for our own morphological extinction?
The human species is an embodiment of the force of attrition in nature. As a species we have introduced a plentitude of possibilities into the biosphere by reshaping ourselves and our environment through our behaviors and in doing so we have fulfilled our biological function. The model is no longer based on the idea of progress so our behavior as a species need no longer be seen as progressive but as simply transformative. The organisms with the largest genomes are creatures like amoebas and lungfish which could be considered as very important gatekeepers and librarians of the biological information accumulated from eons of harvesting 'information' from an ever changing plentitude of biological possibilities. This information is stored within many levels of biosystem and are all connected by the viral ocean in which the overall biosystem is immersed.
It is creatures like these along with long living organisms like trees and fungi that are at the heart of the biosystem while the human species seems doomed to be little more than a brief biological storm arising and passing away in but a few minutes of geological time. We are no longer talking about a universe born from simplicity and its slow progression towards consciousness of which we are the ultimate manifestation.
Consciousness is the fundamental universal force that gives rise to the biological reality we inhabit. Most everything around us has consciousness and it flows through the underlying fabric of our existence via 'fields' generated by metabolic life, much like how electricity moves along a wire...flowing via the field surrounding the wire and not really within the wire itself. It is what is perceiving the perceptual experience created within the cartesian theatre of our human mind. It is the cortical thalamic complex that creates the unique type of perceptual experience that humans have. There is nothing unique about human consciousness only our perceptual experience. The human experience does not represent any type of progression or evolution of consciousness along an evolutionary timeline.
The only thing modern humans bring to the table is their own unique type of perceptual experience which is initiating behaviors that results in biological information that will find its way throughout the biome and will be stored for eons to come and long after we as a species are gone. The introduction of plastics into the ecology represents a new type of information that the natural biological world is already starting to use in many creative and unexpected ways.
A lion consuming a deer is not unlike 2 galaxies colliding. When one animal eats another 2 very large populations of trillions of separate and specialized cellular organisms merge together combining all their biological information as it is being generated in real time. This biological material is processed within the lion and then the viral components and other transgenic organisms move this information between different creatures picking up bits of information and moving it around the biome to be integrated into existing info and/or stored for later retrieval and integration. Very little information is lost when the biosystem is working correctly. When it is not working properly then much information can be permanently lost very quickly. We see this as viruses mutate as they pick up new pieces as the processes of recombination unfold. In times of biological instability plagues are common as insects and rodents are very effective means of consuming this biological information before it is lost due to factors such as changing climatic conditions producing famine. The goal is not evolution or progress but the maintenance of a repository of biological information that allows the biosystem to self regulate its morphology and metabolism. If the organisms that act as gatekeepers, storehouses and librarians are lost then the whole biosystem will collapse.
It is the fundamental energy of consciousness as it 'flows' through metabolic life that powers the biosphere. Earths metabolism and morphology may not look like anything resembling how morphology and metabolism may arise elsewhere in the universe. Unusual organic molecules are being found in the atmosphere of Titan. One such molecule has only been previously found in interstellar clouds. As these molecules break down fairly quickly something must be producing or metabolizing them to maintain their presence in atmosphere. Like electromagnetism if consciousness is also a fundamental force then we can expect it to be active in many different environments.
The nature of consciousness as I am describing it gives rise to one quality that would make space travel somewhat irrelevant. This quality is also behind much of the fuss and importance that humans have made about different types of 'spiritual' experience from their earliest beginnings. Our consciousness is not attached to our own perceptual experience but can move freely between all the perceptual experiences arising anywhere in the universe right now. Every point on the torus is connected to every other point. The perceptual experience of the lion and the deer can be experienced and perceived through the shared dynamics of our own metabolic entanglements as we are all made from the same stuff. It is the 'one topology' suggested to exist in Velinde's and Hooft's model of entropic gravity and the cellular automaton. Morphology is the universal vector for perceptual experience. Metabolism is the universal vector for consciousness.
Biological organisms produce heat/entropy. Think about how significant it is that life can live in external temps well below its own internal heat. Metabolic cellular processes are producing this heat. Biological organisms are not unlike little suns with their ability to produce internal heat. Our bodies are literally made up of trillions of little suns. From metabolism/consciousness arises morphology/perceptual experience. The positive energy generated by the activities of morphological organisms, each with their own spectrum of perceptual experience, counters the negative heat energy of the many metabolic states of consciousness which permeate the universe. When an organism is producing more entropy than the system can absorb that organism is removed or reabsorbed and replaced with one whose metabolism is in balance with rest of biome. When there is too much entropy things like the 'time-reversal of a phenomenon occurring naturally' are no longer available as part of our perceptual experience or vocabulary. Invariably most spiritual practices inadvertently result in the production of less entropy or in the balancing and stabilization of existing entropic forces.
The shamans of old may of been much more in tune with things then we give them credit for. It is a shame that most of their languages and way of life are gone. Like the American Indian I hold the view that the animals and plants around us are our older brothers and sisters and we should learn from them, take our place beside them and not seek to dominate and control but to share the world with them. We have become a species of attrition and seem incapable anymore of transcending our own nature. We cannot help but destroy what we cannot dominate and now we have turned on each other as there is very little left in the natural world for us to conquer. We are no more aware of what we are doing than the couple of meteorites that changed life forever for the dinosaurs. Maybe as Emerson suggested we have learned to ride in a carriage and lost the use of our legs while our giant follows us everywhere.
submitted by FunnyWay4369 to awakened [link] [comments]
Let us first briefly consider our ability to voice those questions and how is it we can formulate any questions at all. There has been some discussion recently on how we in essence 'hallucinate' our reality. While this is true to a large degree, it would be more accurate to say that we 'read' our reality. We process the stimulus we receive from external world and then transform it into language through the neural dynamics found in our cortical thalamic complex.
As we develop and mature our cortical/thalamic complex gradually creates a VR type experience for our consciousness, so gradually we no longer see what arrives at our eyes but rather is what is constructed from the direct sensory experience in the occipital lobe of the cortex - our visual center. By the time we are adults our awareness can no longer directly perceive the external world. It can only see and hear the reprocessed reality as it is reconstructed from direct sensory stimulus, in our cortex. As adults we never see the outside world. We don't see the mountain. We only see the image of a mountain created in our visual cortex. Only when we encounter something that cannot be fit into any existing linguistic category do we see it before filtering and reconstruction within cortical visual centers.
We linguistically interpret and assign meaning to raw stimulus within our cortex which determines our subsequent response and behaviors. Under normal conditions if what we are experiencing cannot be translated into our existing vocabulary then we cannot act coherently and we will either freeze up or become completely uninhibited and out of control. The parsing of external reality into language is a reflex and it is normally beyond our ability to perceive this neurological process as it is occurring.
The answers to the nature of life, why we are born and die and how we can ask such things all lead to the same place and if one question is answered then all of them will be. Therefore I will begin with the nature of life itself. I will use one of the tools that western science adopted early in its history and that is dissection. Lets first dissect life and look at it in the detail that has been revealed throughout the hundreds of years we have been using this tool.
The first medical dissections were performed at the University of Salerno in about the 12 century. Now all these years later we have dissected much and we now have little pieces of everything lying around everywhere. Now we are dissecting some very large things and some very small things. Dissection reveals information contained or hidden beneath the perceptual paywall of physical boundaries like the biological membrane of the cell, or an organ like our skin or the boundaries of the earths gravity. What we see in the modern world is the result of centuries of dissection and reassembly.
Now after all the thousands of years of humans history there is one item that has been produced more times than any other single thing made by humans and their ancestors...transistors. Most people have no idea what this item is or how it works yet humans have made more of it than anything else by orders of magnitude. These things also require more electrical energy than anything else ever mass produced by humans to perform their function as intended. This is a result of a history of dissection and reassembly without any underlying worldview or morality to guide the technological exploitation of the discoveries uncovered through the process of dissection and analysis.
Now at the pinnacle of our evolution we have completely remade ourselves and the world and the results appear to be anything but enlightening and emancipating. We have server farms that are using the energy of a small city and space tourism is well on its way. Unfortunately during our history of dissection we have ignored certain things discovered that do not support the underlying ideology motivating our technological innovations. The problem hasn't been in the scientific process but in what aspects of what we have discovered that have been followed up and not relegated to the the dark shelves of history and ignored. Our cultures idea of progress and evolution as a driving force of nature may be entirely misplaced and as 'superstitious' as any of the other antiquated views our culture has abandoned and transcended along the way.
The long delay in accepting the evidence of developmental neuronal death has been regarded as an historical enigma. Here is how the puzzle may now be solved.How revolutionary could be the idea that there is a plenitude of possibilities, from which orderly structure develops from disorderly initial conditions by a process of selective attrition. The universe is not learning, experimenting, progressing, evolving and neither are we. The universe is already full of a 'plentitude of possibilities' and it already is what it is and is already all it will ever be... as are we. Whatever it is we think we are observing it is not progress or evolution in any sense of the word but is rather the processes of 'selective attrition'. The universe is something else much more and we are a part of it and need to look no further than within our selves since we are also part of that 'fabric' of the universe. Humans are not standing atop the pyramid of life but we are only one of many different morphological manifestations of the natural processes of 'selective attrition' which find us only different and in no way better than the other morphological and metabolic forms and components of the earths biosystem and its holobionts.
Nineteenth-century biologists saw that development has an overriding telos, a direction and a gradual approach to completion of the embryo, and also saw a terminal regression and final dissolution of the adult; but a fallacy arose when the progression and regression, which coexist from early development, were separated in their minds.
Development was conceived in terms of progressive construction, of an epigenetic program—from simple to more complex. For every event in development they attempted to find prior conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen.
The connections and interdependencies of events assure that the outcome is always the same. Such deterministic theories of development made it difficult to conceive of demolition of structures as part of normal development, and it was inconceivable that construction and destruction can occur simultaneously. It became necessary to regard regressive developmental processes as entirely purposeful and determined. For example, elimination of organs that play a role during development but are not required in the adult or regression of vestigial structures such as the tail in humans were viewed as part of the ontogenetic recapitulation of phylogeny. Regression in those cases is determined and is merely one of several fates: cellular determination may be either progressive or regressive.
The idea of progress in all spheres, perhaps most of all in the evolution and development of the vertebrate nervous system, has appealed to many thinkers since the 18th century. Such ideas change more slowly than the means of scientific production; thus new facts are made to serve old ideas. That is why the history of ideas, even if it does not exactly repeat itself, does such a good job of imitation.
In the realm of ideas held by neuroscientists, the idea of progressive construction, of hierarchically ordered programs of development, has always been dominant over the idea of a plenitude of possibilities, from which orderly structure develops from disorderly initial conditions by a process of selective attrition.
DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY Fourth Edition Edited by MAHENDRA S. RAO MD and MARCUS JACOBSON (Page 396).
The processes of attrition affects 2 vectors in the realization of a particular existence from a plentitude of possibilities. In order for life and consciousness to exist in the earths biosystem 2 vectors must work together to maintain a fragile stasis between reoccurring periods of geological and cosmic instability. These vectors influence morphology and metabolism. Morphology is influenced and regulated by viruses and that still ill defined aspect of our biological reality they represent. Multicellular metabolism is regulated and influenced by chromosomal and nucleic genetics. When the environment changes then the viral component of the tree of life induces morphological changes in the life forms currently inhabiting the biosphere. Within the nucleus of the cell the genetic code is changed now producing biological forms that after development have the metabolism to exist in the new environment. Life consciousness has within it already all the plentitude of possibilities needed to exist in many different potential worlds and it doesn't need to evolve as it is already capable of arising in almost any conditions. Look at the many amazing ways that nature is already incorporating plastics into its ecology.
Unfortunately for us, our ill fated venture into space has triggered processes of attrition between these 2 vectors that are now adapting the morphology and metabolism of the earths biome in response to the time many of its lifeforms have already spent living in a gravity free environment. The different forms of life we have have brought too and from a gravity free environment are also changing. Switching from a model based on evolution and progress to one based on a preexisting plenitude of possibilities may affect the statistical significance of our predictive models. If we are not progressing and evolving towards something then what exactly is it we are doing with all our technologies but creating the conditions for our own morphological extinction?
The human species is an embodiment of the force of attrition in nature. As a species we have introduced a plentitude of possibilities into the biosphere by reshaping ourselves and our environment through our behaviors and in doing so we have fulfilled our biological function. The model is no longer based on the idea of progress so our behavior as a species need no longer be seen as progressive but as simply transformative. The organisms with the largest genomes are creatures like amoebas and lungfish which could be considered as very important gatekeepers and librarians of the biological information accumulated from eons of harvesting 'information' from an ever changing plentitude of biological possibilities. This information is stored within many levels of biosystem and are all connected by the viral ocean in which the overall biosystem is immersed.
It is creatures like these along with long living organisms like trees and fungi that are at the heart of the biosystem while the human species seems doomed to be little more than a brief biological storm arising and passing away in but a few minutes of geological time. We are no longer talking about a universe born from simplicity and its slow progression towards consciousness of which we are the ultimate manifestation.
Consciousness is the fundamental universal force that gives rise to the biological reality we inhabit. Most everything around us has consciousness and it flows through the underlying fabric of our existence via 'fields' generated by metabolic life, much like how electricity moves along a wire...flowing via the field surrounding the wire and not really within the wire itself. It is what is perceiving the perceptual experience created within the cartesian theatre of our human mind. It is the cortical thalamic complex that creates the unique type of perceptual experience that humans have. There is nothing unique about human consciousness only our perceptual experience. The human experience does not represent any type of progression or evolution of consciousness along an evolutionary timeline.
The only thing modern humans bring to the table is their own unique type of perceptual experience which is initiating behaviors that results in biological information that will find its way throughout the biome and will be stored for eons to come and long after we as a species are gone. The introduction of plastics into the ecology represents a new type of information that the natural biological world is already starting to use in many creative and unexpected ways.
The study of the basic philosophies or ideologies of scientists is very difficult because they are rarely articulated. They largely consist of silent assumptions that are taken so completely for granted that they are never mentioned. The historian of biology encounters some of his greatest difficulties when trying to ferret out such silent assumptions; and anyone who attempts to question these "eternal truths" encounters formidable resistance.What do we see when we look at a lion feeding on a fresh kill that is still alive while being eaten? Or a grizzly bear keeping its prey alive for days as it eats it? How about a herd of orca's slowly killing a blue whale? We look away in horror and disgust because we have no idea what it is we are actually observing. Our everyday perceptual experience provides no insight into what is actually happening as this untamed savagery unfolds before us. We have no words for the world as it really is since we very rarely ever perceive it as it really is before being processed and recreated in the cortical thalamic complex. That is what we see and we do not see the outside world as it really is.
In biology, for hundreds of years, a belief in the inheritance of acquired characters, a belief in irresistible progress and in a scala naturae, a belief in a fundamental difference between organic beings and the inanimate world, and a belief in an essentialistic structure of the world of phenomena are only a few of the silent assumptions that influenced the progress of science. Basic ideological polarities were involved in all of the great controversies in the history of biology, indicated by such alternatives as quantity vs. quality, reduction vs. emergence, essentialism vs. population thinking, monism vs. dualism, discontinuity vs. continuity, mechanism vs. vitalism, mechanism vs. teleology, statism vs. evolutionism, and others. Lyell's resistance to evolutionism was due not only to his natural theology but also to his essentialism, which simply did not allow for a variation of species "beyond the limits of their type." Coleman (1970) has shown to what large extent Bateson's resistance to the chromosome theory of inheritance was based on ideological reasons.
One can go so far as to claim that the resistance of a scientist to a new theory almost invariably is based on ideological reasons rather than on logical reasons or objections to the evidence on which the theory is based.
The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance ERNST MAYR(Page 835).
A lion consuming a deer is not unlike 2 galaxies colliding. When one animal eats another 2 very large populations of trillions of separate and specialized cellular organisms merge together combining all their biological information as it is being generated in real time. This biological material is processed within the lion and then the viral components and other transgenic organisms move this information between different creatures picking up bits of information and moving it around the biome to be integrated into existing info and/or stored for later retrieval and integration. Very little information is lost when the biosystem is working correctly. When it is not working properly then much information can be permanently lost very quickly. We see this as viruses mutate as they pick up new pieces as the processes of recombination unfold. In times of biological instability plagues are common as insects and rodents are very effective means of consuming this biological information before it is lost due to factors such as changing climatic conditions producing famine. The goal is not evolution or progress but the maintenance of a repository of biological information that allows the biosystem to self regulate its morphology and metabolism. If the organisms that act as gatekeepers, storehouses and librarians are lost then the whole biosystem will collapse.
It is the fundamental energy of consciousness as it 'flows' through metabolic life that powers the biosphere. Earths metabolism and morphology may not look like anything resembling how morphology and metabolism may arise elsewhere in the universe. Unusual organic molecules are being found in the atmosphere of Titan. One such molecule has only been previously found in interstellar clouds. As these molecules break down fairly quickly something must be producing or metabolizing them to maintain their presence in atmosphere. Like electromagnetism if consciousness is also a fundamental force then we can expect it to be active in many different environments.
The nature of consciousness as I am describing it gives rise to one quality that would make space travel somewhat irrelevant. This quality is also behind much of the fuss and importance that humans have made about different types of 'spiritual' experience from their earliest beginnings. Our consciousness is not attached to our own perceptual experience but can move freely between all the perceptual experiences arising anywhere in the universe right now. Every point on the torus is connected to every other point. The perceptual experience of the lion and the deer can be experienced and perceived through the shared dynamics of our own metabolic entanglements as we are all made from the same stuff. It is the 'one topology' suggested to exist in Velinde's and Hooft's model of entropic gravity and the cellular automaton. Morphology is the universal vector for perceptual experience. Metabolism is the universal vector for consciousness.
Biological organisms produce heat/entropy. Think about how significant it is that life can live in external temps well below its own internal heat. Metabolic cellular processes are producing this heat. Biological organisms are not unlike little suns with their ability to produce internal heat. Our bodies are literally made up of trillions of little suns. From metabolism/consciousness arises morphology/perceptual experience. The positive energy generated by the activities of morphological organisms, each with their own spectrum of perceptual experience, counters the negative heat energy of the many metabolic states of consciousness which permeate the universe. When an organism is producing more entropy than the system can absorb that organism is removed or reabsorbed and replaced with one whose metabolism is in balance with rest of biome. When there is too much entropy things like the 'time-reversal of a phenomenon occurring naturally' are no longer available as part of our perceptual experience or vocabulary. Invariably most spiritual practices inadvertently result in the production of less entropy or in the balancing and stabilization of existing entropic forces.
The shamans of old may of been much more in tune with things then we give them credit for. It is a shame that most of their languages and way of life are gone. Like the American Indian I hold the view that the animals and plants around us are our older brothers and sisters and we should learn from them, take our place beside them and not seek to dominate and control but to share the world with them. We have become a species of attrition and seem incapable anymore of transcending our own nature. We cannot help but destroy what we cannot dominate and now we have turned on each other as there is very little left in the natural world for us to conquer. We are no more aware of what we are doing than the couple of meteorites that changed life forever for the dinosaurs. Maybe as Emerson suggested we have learned to ride in a carriage and lost the use of our legs while our giant follows us everywhere.
2024.05.19 10:31 AutotapFootFaucet Top 5 Foot Pedal Faucets for Modern Homes
 | Modern kitchens, functionality, hygiene, and style are paramount. Foot pedal kitchen faucets provide a hands-free solution that enhances convenience and cleanliness, making them an excellent addition to contemporary homes. submitted by AutotapFootFaucet to u/AutotapFootFaucet [link] [comments] Here, we present the top 5 foot pedal kitchen faucets that combine innovative design, high-quality materials, and user-friendly features. Foot Pedal Faucet 1. Delta Faucet Touch2O Technology Foot Pedal FaucetFeatures:
2. Moen Arbor Foot Pedal FaucetFeatures:
3. Kohler Sensate Foot Pedal FaucetFeatures:
4. Grohe LadyLux L2 Foot Pedal FaucetFeatures:
5. Hansgrohe Metris Select Foot Pedal FaucetFeatures:
|
2024.05.19 05:46 S7EFEN Soundbar+Smart TV incompatibility/troubleshooting?
I have a new samsung smart tv, i have a soundbar HT-SS360 from sony.
I'm attempting to connect the tv to the soundbar via HDMI.
The HDMI port is connected to my soundbars (OUT), and to my TVs (eARC 3) port.
https://imgur.com/a/z4Ut0iF
When i go through my samsung tv setup for sound output i only see 'tv speaker', 'receiver(optical)' and bluetooth speaker list. HDMI troubleshooting also indicates 'no audio device connected to HDMI 3 ARC.'
Am i missing something obvious with the setup here? From what I can tell my soundbar is not being recognized at all by my tv. Possible incompatibility? Bad HDMI cord? My understanding of how audio components, tvs etc work is very low. spent some time reading through the connection setup but nothing obvious stands out as to why it wouldnt be recognized.
submitted by S7EFEN to techsupport [link] [comments]
I'm attempting to connect the tv to the soundbar via HDMI.
The HDMI port is connected to my soundbars (OUT), and to my TVs (eARC 3) port.
https://imgur.com/a/z4Ut0iF
When i go through my samsung tv setup for sound output i only see 'tv speaker', 'receiver(optical)' and bluetooth speaker list. HDMI troubleshooting also indicates 'no audio device connected to HDMI 3 ARC.'
Am i missing something obvious with the setup here? From what I can tell my soundbar is not being recognized at all by my tv. Possible incompatibility? Bad HDMI cord? My understanding of how audio components, tvs etc work is very low. spent some time reading through the connection setup but nothing obvious stands out as to why it wouldnt be recognized.
2024.05.19 01:59 Zealousideal_Low1775 Hyakkano Girls as Warhammer 40K Choas gods champion
 | It's a bit trickier than I initially thought before making this, so below is my reasoning behind my choice. submitted by Zealousideal_Low1775 to 100Kanojo [link] [comments] • Khorne (the red one) represents blood, war, anger, carnage, murder, and violence. I choose Rin rather than Karane because she’s actively indulge in violence, while Karane is a rather violent person, she doesn't really have control over it; her violence is more of a reflex than just pure emotion. Yes I know it’s pretty similar to Angron and the World Eaters, but I don’t think violence is really in her nature (refer to the Tsundere gone and “pretend” drunk arc) • Tzeentch (the blue one): represents intrigue, changes, ambition, (forbidden) knowledge, sorcery, lies, schemes, and trickery. Nah, I put Uto there just for the memes, though it is actually quite appropriate since she speaks riddles , but for real. Nano (especially pre-Rentarou) would've been easily persuaded by Tzeentch's promise of easy knowledge; due to her obsession with gaining knowledge, efficiency, and shortsightedness, maybe Smol Kusuri would also have just as easily fallen into Tzeentch's grace. • Nurgle (the green one): represent disease, decay, despair, the cycle of life, nature?, and unchanges. I don't really have a strong basis for this one; I put Yamame there because I think it seems appropriate, maybe because of her love of gardening, any living things, critters, and her simple caringness towards nature. Also, her hair is green. • Slaanesh (the purple one) represents pleasure, lust, self-indulgence, hedonism, pride, excess, perfection, and decadence. This one is difficult to choose because many girlfriends main quirks align perfectly with Slaanesh's hallmarks. Kurumi with her gluttony, the Hanazonos with their lust, Mimimi with her vanity and pursuit of perfect beauty, Iku with her masochism, Momiji with her indulgence in touching, or Momoha with her vice? I put Mimimi there because, while the Hanazonos are quite the horndog and Hahari is pretty hedonistic, they seems to not actively seek out the next level of their degeneracy (yet) and seems to still have some sense of restraint. The same goes for Momoha. That "seek out the next level" part is a very important factor in one's downfall into Slaanesh's grace; that's why I put Mimimi there. Ever since a young age, she has spent a good chunk of her time and effort in pursuit of perfect beauty. She's so obsessed with it she's even willing to endure physical pain and perhaps disregarded the ethics of consuming shark fins, simply because believing it'll enhance her beauty, that and coupled with her pride and vanity, it's just fit's. And those who are familiar with the Warhammer 40K universe could easily draw the parallel between Mimimi and a certain purple-clad individual(s). |
2024.05.18 21:46 dkoski Pinup Popper / VPX on ALP 4K
I just got my ALP 4K delivered and set up a PC running Pinup Popper and VPX. I had the PC for a few weeks while waiting patiently for delivery so I had the programs set up in single screen desktop mode.
When I went to set it up on the ALP 4K with three screens I knew about videos showing how it was done, but I found that not everything worked as expected. Some of these were hard to find just because I didn't know where the issue was or what to search for.
I know Jon Wagner said he will make a guide (https://wagnerstechtalk.com/alp4k/#OTG\_Guides) but until it is ready, some others may find these notes helpful.
First off you need a PC and the appropriate cables. Check out Wagners guide here:
This section on how to configure the displays is great too:
Jon's older guide to installing Pinup Popper, etc. on an ALP HD is great to read/watch as well. Just be aware that it only had two screens, but the walk through is 80% of the setup.
Software-wise I used the Baller Installer to install all of the various pinball software components including Pinup Popper (the game library front end), VPX (the pinball simulator), and the various pieces of backglass and dmd software:
You can get this up and running on a normal display -- that is much easier than using it on the ALP 4k display or using VNC/TeamViewer for remote admin.
I also installed VPin Studio as it provides a more convenient interface for managing the Popper library:
And of course I used this fantastic site to find tables:
OK, at this point I assume you have your PC set up with a working Pinup Popper and some tables. You have connected it to the ALP but when you run it everything goes awry (wrong orientation, wrong position, etc.)
The first thing you need to do is re-run PinUPBallerInstaller and go through the screen setup process again. Refer back to this video on how to position things, remembering that it is for 2 screens:
Make sure you save the settings for all programs.
We can set up the pinball controls from the OTG connection. This page has a great tutorial:
You need to set up the OTG as a game controller first, so do that now. I have the Arcade Control Panel so I followed that guide exactly.
Next, let's set up the sound in Windows so we can configure the audio and visual in VPX at the same time. You can use Settings -> Sound Settings and set the output for the table HDMI. Others talk about using the OTG interface and that might work too.
At this point you should be able to launch a table with VPX and see the backglass and DMD come up but the table will be incorrectly oriented and won't be the right perspective.
Now you need to set up VPX for cabinet mode. You need to make these settings for each version of VPX -- I did it for VPX.exe (10.7.4) and VPX64.exe (10.8 beta). I had others but I don't know if they are used (I will find out if things break!)
First we can configure audio by going to Preferences -> Audio Options. Set the output to match the windows output (the HDMI interface for the table) and set the sound to 7.1.
Next, configure the video settings for Cabinet Mode using Preferences -> Video/Graphics Options. I used this video as a guide:
Specifically I set these settings (and they have slightly different labels between VPX 10.7.4 and 10.8 -- I think the frame rate limiter isn't even present in 10.8). The most important setting is the first one and the others are suggested for performance reasons:
At this point you should be able to launch a table directly in VPX and the table will appear on the right screen, correctly oriented, correct viewpoint (straight down-ish), and have sound.
Now we need to wrap up in Pinup Popper Config. Again use the controller setup instructions. The final thing is to install a theme so that Popper has all of its screens in the right places with the correct orientation. Use this page:
And look at the Landscape Themes/Layout (Cabinet). I used the T-ARC Option 1 and just followed the directions there.
That is it! I am up and running with ALP 4k, OTG, and Pinup Popper / VPX.
submitted by dkoski to LegendsUltimate [link] [comments]
When I went to set it up on the ALP 4K with three screens I knew about videos showing how it was done, but I found that not everything worked as expected. Some of these were hard to find just because I didn't know where the issue was or what to search for.
I know Jon Wagner said he will make a guide (https://wagnerstechtalk.com/alp4k/#OTG\_Guides) but until it is ready, some others may find these notes helpful.
First off you need a PC and the appropriate cables. Check out Wagners guide here:
This section on how to configure the displays is great too:
Jon's older guide to installing Pinup Popper, etc. on an ALP HD is great to read/watch as well. Just be aware that it only had two screens, but the walk through is 80% of the setup.
Software-wise I used the Baller Installer to install all of the various pinball software components including Pinup Popper (the game library front end), VPX (the pinball simulator), and the various pieces of backglass and dmd software:
You can get this up and running on a normal display -- that is much easier than using it on the ALP 4k display or using VNC/TeamViewer for remote admin.
I also installed VPin Studio as it provides a more convenient interface for managing the Popper library:
And of course I used this fantastic site to find tables:
OK, at this point I assume you have your PC set up with a working Pinup Popper and some tables. You have connected it to the ALP but when you run it everything goes awry (wrong orientation, wrong position, etc.)
The first thing you need to do is re-run PinUPBallerInstaller and go through the screen setup process again. Refer back to this video on how to position things, remembering that it is for 2 screens:
Make sure you save the settings for all programs.
We can set up the pinball controls from the OTG connection. This page has a great tutorial:
You need to set up the OTG as a game controller first, so do that now. I have the Arcade Control Panel so I followed that guide exactly.
Next, let's set up the sound in Windows so we can configure the audio and visual in VPX at the same time. You can use Settings -> Sound Settings and set the output for the table HDMI. Others talk about using the OTG interface and that might work too.
At this point you should be able to launch a table with VPX and see the backglass and DMD come up but the table will be incorrectly oriented and won't be the right perspective.
Now you need to set up VPX for cabinet mode. You need to make these settings for each version of VPX -- I did it for VPX.exe (10.7.4) and VPX64.exe (10.8 beta). I had others but I don't know if they are used (I will find out if things break!)
First we can configure audio by going to Preferences -> Audio Options. Set the output to match the windows output (the HDMI interface for the table) and set the sound to 7.1.
Next, configure the video settings for Cabinet Mode using Preferences -> Video/Graphics Options. I used this video as a guide:
Specifically I set these settings (and they have slightly different labels between VPX 10.7.4 and 10.8 -- I think the frame rate limiter isn't even present in 10.8). The most important setting is the first one and the others are suggested for performance reasons:
* Set “always use FS backdrop settings (cabinet/rotated screen usage)” * Cabinet anti-stretch the ball * Turn on FPS limiter * Set maximum pre-rendered frames to 1 * Turn on alternative depth buffer processing (Nvidia) * Turn on force exclusive FS modeFinally, in each version of VPX you can set the controls using Preferences -> Key Settings. Follow the guide I mentioned above.
At this point you should be able to launch a table directly in VPX and the table will appear on the right screen, correctly oriented, correct viewpoint (straight down-ish), and have sound.
Now we need to wrap up in Pinup Popper Config. Again use the controller setup instructions. The final thing is to install a theme so that Popper has all of its screens in the right places with the correct orientation. Use this page:
And look at the Landscape Themes/Layout (Cabinet). I used the T-ARC Option 1 and just followed the directions there.
That is it! I am up and running with ALP 4k, OTG, and Pinup Popper / VPX.
2024.05.18 19:49 afterandalasia Oxventure Overall: The Good and the Bad (Spoilers for the whole run!)
So, I'm seeing some mixed reactions to the last season, and honestly I'm feeling them myself as well, so I decided to sit down and sort of breakdown and analyse some of what happened over the course of Oxventure, what seemed to go well and what didn't, and maybe try to get into some litcrit of the whole thing.
Warning: I'm not always nice in this write up, though I have done my best to be fair and honest throughout in what I think the potential pitfalls were and how I hope they might be better addressed in future campaigns.
I've played D&D myself for a few years, listened to other Actual Play series (notably NADDPOD and some D20 at one end of the competency-of-players scale, and Dragon Friends and Dungeons and Drongos at the other), and write... a lot. Including over 250k of fanfic specifically for Oxventure, which started off as an excuse for smut but ended up being a lot of worldbuilding.
It was also clear that at times, none of the group seemed to know the game and the rules super well. From Mike not knowing his movement speed ("30 what? Miles an hour?") to Merilwen not using her animal forms or changing out her spells until level 8, to the underpowering of most of the classes, it became more of an issue as time when on in some ways.
It's easy enough to understand why, live on stage and starry-eyed at Harry McEntire as Aubrey, Johnny missed that in the combat Aubrey cast two levelled spells in the same round (against the rules) as well as using two sorcery spell modifiers in the same round (also against the rules, and they mentioned this on the podcast). Sorcerer was also a new class to everyone, and dealing with a new class is always going to be difficult, especially dropping them in at a higher level rather than starting from level 1 and building up.
However, bluntly, most of the guild weren't using their class/subclass abilities to the fullest. Rules lawyer Andy did the best, so he gets a pass here, and Ellen got sharper with Merilwen over time to stuff like knowing her spell components, tracking her spell slots, and preparing her spells. However, the concept of Egbert as "a paladin who doesn't do paladin things" (quote from the post-Deadlands discussion) was ultimately really limiting not just for Egbert (Mike commented in one podcast episode that he felt he'd trapped himself in only using Egbert's abilities in ways that were funny) but for the entire concept of paladins - Max might as well have been a fighter in the fight in Gnome Alone that they took part in, and we never saw Shattershield fight at all. There were references to combat offscreen in Out of Order, but... that was it. (Additionally, while paladins can be poisoned, as poison and disease are different in 5e rules, paladins can pump out a LOT of healing, and a citadel full of them should have a lot of magical reserves to draw on as a result.)
And Egbert isn't the only one who was limited. One of the biggest features of Great Old One warlocks (which Prudence is, with Cthulhu), is that from level one they have telepathy within 30ft ("Awakened Mind"). Prudence went the entire campaign without using this. Although Johnny allowed the Message cantrip to be treated like this, allowing people to reply to it when RAW it is one-way only, this meant that Dob also essentially gained Prudence's power because he also had Message. Merilwen was limited in her animal forms and the spells that she knew up until level 8, and it was noticeable how everyone was shocked at her power once she had full RAW druid range. Corazón, on the other hand, not only had Andy keeping on top of all of his class and subclass features, but got two subclasses, leaving him about on par or slightly overpowered for the level he should have been looking overpowered because the others didn't use their abilities so well. Meanwhile, Dob was given access to full bardic abilities, but only used bardic inspiration in some of their level 1 adventures and then not much again until the final season.
The counterpart to this under-utilisation of class potential was the amount of 'rule of cool' or 'rule of funny' which sometimes worked well (Merilwen befriending the owlbear in Quiet Riot, or the reflavouring of Thunder Wave to do lightning damage instead based on their initial misunderstanding) and sometimes ended up breaking the game (the "everyone can cast Moonbeam" joke that escalated to the scrolls of Moonbeam that made the finale kind of laughable). Sometimes this seemed to be the time and audience pressure of live shows (allowing Prudence to use the hammer to wheel her way through the skeletons in Stop Hammer Time), but other times it was just letting them do things that went outside the rules (Egbert body-slamming six(?) Otherberts at once in Bad Altitude, or Dob casting all his spells at once in Corpse and Robbers) seemingly preferring the immediate humour or "yes and" over the potential internal logic or end implications.
The contrast between this permissiveness, sometimes to the point of breaking logical immersion, honestly seemed sharper to me when it was laid against Andy's GMing in Deadlands. Whether it was reminding people that there were snipers on the rooftops in Dead Man's Worth or refusing to yes-and a chandelier in More Wonders Than, he made it more difficult for the players and in doing so made them work harder within their skillsets and the setting, making the victories feel harder-won as a result. I'm aware that some people didn't like Andy's GMing specifically because he was less permissive, but I believe that his intention - and the outcome - was a stronger narrative that made the characters feel active and not just lucky. (Liliana lampshaded this in Frenemy at the Gates when she asked whether things often just fell into their laps, like with knowing Binbag, and it almost felt like a spiteful comment so it surprised me to hear it from Johnny.)
What I hope: It has been indicated that Johnny has created the new setting for the next game, so hopefully they have put things more to their liking at the beginning and will not end up seeming to dunk on the premise of their own series. I'm also hoping for everyone to either use more standardised rules, or at least establish in-game standards at the beginning so that all of the characters, and players, feel like they're on a level playing field from the off. Johnny seemed to much more enjoy the systems of Blades in the Dark and Deadlands (which were designed to be less superhero-level) and even the lower levels of Oxventure (especially Tier 1) where the characters were just people who were skilled but not particularly out of the range of normality; I'd be interested to see whether they lean more in that direction and keep the characters lower-powered as a result.
Corazón - in my opinion, Corazón had one of the stronger character arcs, which may reflect Andy's interest in writing (and now being published!), going from the coward pirate-wannabe who abandoned his crew to the curse, to the person who threw himself in front of a spell meant for Merilwen. This was highlighted in his reply to Them in Prism Break, even before the Power Word Kill spell. In fact, the Power Word Kill brought a level of pathos to the fact that he had told Them that he was not even done growing as a person. Andy commented on the podcast at some point that he had expected at the beginning to be one of the more morally shady characters (as a pirate), but found himself playing a line of being immoral regarding money but caring deeply about physical hurt or harm to people. Corazón also had two layers of in-character goals - to break the curse (limited) and to become a betterichereal pirate (more open-ended) and find his own identity which allowed him to carry character development over the years even when the curse was ignored for extended periods. Goals: clear and stepped, with the curse as a plot-hook; arc: good and perfectly timed for the finale.
What I hope for: More of the same, really.
Dob - Dob came in early with a clearly defined goal (to find his sister) - but this was done in Brawl of the Wild and Dob has been sort of... undefined ever since. It absolutely makes sense that he would have floundered for a while, but Dob has gone several years without settling on new goal, and Luke also didn't seem to settle on a character arc (the romance subplot in Orbpocalypse Saga through Bride or Die seemed to be almost a character arc, but never got full payoff?) which left Dob feeling... well, at times it almost seemed like Luke wanted to get rid of him to play someone else instead. This was unfortunately also highlighted in conversation with Them, as the response that Dob gave was about him being a "mote of chaos". I obviously couldn't speak for others, but I found this underwhelming and unconvincing as an answer, as it didn't give me any sense of why a powerful celestial being would consider this an argument - if Dob had developed the argument to be that chaos is generative and creative in a way that pure order cannot be, and/or that the free will and agency of sapience demand that they be allowed to act and to try even if they make mistakes or fail, I think there might have been something there, but he didn't really seem to. Goals: had one which formed a good plot-hook, then went without; arc: unclear.
What I hope for: Luke to determine more of a character arc, or series of shorter arcs, perhaps drawing from his Blades in the Dark DMing experience, and to either pick a more open-ended goal or to move along a series of goals over time.
Egbert - Egbert came in with the vaguer goal of "atonement", which gave him more wiggle room, but unfortunately didn't seem to actively pursue it a lot of the time. In Legacy of Dragons it was revealed that he was searching for atonement for the deaths of two Dragon D'Or members - but by this time, so many people around the Oxventurers had died, including innocent bystanders, that the deaths of two other paladins felt like nothing. (Mike commented, again on the podcast, that he agreed with the commenters at the time who agreed that they knew it was his backstory from the beginning because only two paladins had died. The two figure paled next to the collateral damage that the party later caused.) Mike also commented on the podcast that during lockdown, he had made a conscious change with Egbert in to try to avoid combat as much as possible, and to avoid fatal attacks if in combat, but it wasn't clear how long that lasted. It may have been trying to avoid being the annoying/preachy paladin that stopped him from trying to influence the rest of the party or to save lives around them, but unfortunately it meant that it was difficult to see a real sense of wanting to atone in Egbert's arc. Letting innocents die around him isn't exactly less culpable than killing them himself. (Notable incidents included Mule Be Sorry, Wrangle in the Tangle, Hag Reflex, and Squid Pro Quo.) In terms of character arcs, there was definitely an element of going from seeking approval from Dragon D'Or to seeking that of his friends, but that was just a switching of approval-seeking rather than a significant change. Goals: had one, but didn't seem to actively pursue it; arc: moved from pursuing the morals of Dragon D'Or to pursuing the morals of the Oxventurers.
What I hope for: Mike to come back with a character who seeks to pursue their own goals more directly (see Barnaby and Silas, who both felt much stronger in this sense).
Merilwen - Merilwen was supposed to be about balance and protecting nature, but didn't always heavily engage with this point of view, even when the actions of the other Oxventurers should have absolutely led to discussions or disagreements between them. Many people commented on Andy being dickish about shooting seabirds in Legacy of Dragons, but there are other incidents, including the Wrangle in the Tangle (again), Eldritch or Die Trying (where it would have been interesting to see Merilwen's preference for nature clash with the need for the crystal) and the Extinction season which seemed to veer between being set up to be about Merilwen, then swapping to Dob-centric, then cleaning up Corazon's curse. In terms of character arc, I think there might be an element that can be teased out about her not fitting in with elf society and fitting in better with the faster-paced, more chaotic world of shorter-lived peoples, but this feels like speculation on my part more than something intended. Naturally, a character of around 100 is not going to feel as suited to a coming-of-age story as younger ones, but characters of all ages should be able to have character arcs. (Even if they might be slower in longer-lived people like elves - an example I can go to here is Galadriel, from Tolkien, who in her youth was proud and refused a pardon that would have allowed her to return to Valinor, but at the end of LOTR is humble enough to accept and go there. It took millennia for her, but it was a character arc all the same!) In Merilwen's conversation with Them, her uncertainty seemed to talk to this - a lack of clarity about where her characterisation was supposed to have gone over the last few years. I think there was a real opportunity here to explore Merilwen's relationship with morality and the difference between neutrality and passiveness, which unfortunately was missed. Goals: was supposed to be about nature but didn't push for it; arc: [speculation] seeking a non-elven community that she matched better with.
What I hope for: Ellen to have a character with more defined goals or arc, or gaps still to be filled in, rather than a static momentary sketch of personality/character that doesn't feel designed to be changed over time. Again, Lilith with her secrets/looking into the paranormal, and Edie with her goal to help people in a world in which monsters aren't going away, felt stronger as characters with goals and arcs, and I'd be happy to see more of that.
Prudence - Ambitious from the off, Prudence never actually struggled for goals - power, knowledge, magic, influence. The open-endedness of these goals once again served Prudence pretty well for carrying her through individual adventures/games and over the course of the whole canon, even if she didn't come in with clearly-defined (plot hook) goals like Corazón's curse. For the first few years, it felt that her character arc wasn't hugely significant, although there was certainly an element of found family over selfishness that played into it, but Jane also discussed (again, in the podcast) how the werebear element was really quite exciting for her as it allowed her to begin to explore the clash between werebear Lawful Good status and Prudence's usual Chaotic Evil desires. Eldritch or Die Trying explored this in a somewhat exaggerated way, with Cthulhu offering power in exchange for the destruction of the others (I suspect in Prudence's question about specifying people, she was trying to figure out whether she could kill just Liliana) which was a somewhat blatant nod to the character arc but did underline it. (Unlike the others, this also established Prudence's character arc before Them.) Goals: open-ended in a way that leaves them technically incomplete even now but which were stably useful throughout canon; arc: de-isolation and alignment shifting (in a way that should have been ripe for playing off against Liliana's) which played out well.
What I hope for: A character with perhaps some more specific or plot-hook goals as well as broader life goals. Prudence's character arc played out more subtly than Corazón's and sometimes perhaps got lost behind the louder personalities of some of the others, but I do think was well done. A less obvious way to explore or demonstrate it would have been nice.
Liliana - So. Here we go. Liliana was essentially a DMPC for the last season, but was a recurring character before that, with a stated goal of subjecting part or all of G'eth and broader goals (indicated or stated in Prism Break and the finale season generally) of academic/scholarly improvement, arcane knowledge, and the notion of making people appreciate what they have by threatening to take it from them. As a villain, she was threatening, and the layering of goals once again worked here, even with the abrupt movement to 'save G'eth' in the last season because, well, you can't rule what no longer exists. However, I am honestly confused as to what her character arc was supposed to be - whether her stated change of heart in front of Them was real, or whether that was a lie that Them somehow did not call out or challenge. Considering in Frenemy at the Gates, Liliana says that Prudence is the most like her, there was a potential here to play against Prudence's character arc of coming to trust others, even appreciate others, and facing the consequences of suffering making her realise her own flawed logic. I really do not know whether her betrayal of the guild was planned from the beginning (in which case, her talking to Them feels like it was overplayed, and Them should have challenged her on it) or whether Johnny added it because the fight against the giant was over more quickly than anticipated (compare to Dine Hard where the chef was the one person they did not stat up because they didn't expect the guild to fight him). Goals: logical, stepped, and worked for a villain; arc: ????? was there an arc? Was it fake? Was it desperation? Why did she, on 1 hitpoint, try to Power Word Kill Prudence instead of Teleporting away?
What I hope for: I don't know, with this one, really. Liliana's weird arc feels more related to the odd pacing of the last season than an underlying characterisation issue, for me, so I think it's more related to pacing/wanting Oxventure campaign 1 to close out.
I say specifically players here, because it was entirely in-character for certain characters (largely Corazón) to think of themselves as the main character and behave as such. However, even if the characters think that, is generally considered good etiquette for the players to treat each other as equals, let each other take turns in the spotlight, and have their Moments.
Good examples would be the group letting Merilwen be the main character in Peak Performance, Prudence explore her sundered relationship with Cthulhu during the Orbpocalypse Saga, or Dob showing off his acting bard chops in Dine Harder.
However, at various times, various people have overstepped. Sometimes in live shows where the audience response and excitement probably played a role (Rolling in the Deep) it's more understandable, but it also happened elsewhere. Mike got some flack for picking up the eyepatch at the end of Cursed Case Scenario and 'ruining' Corazón's moment, but even Johnny called Andy out for muscling in on Dob's subplot in Court in the Act, and Life Finds a Dob was almost uncomfortable at times. There was also something of a trend of Dob deliberately acting against the party for unclear reasons (possibly meant to be humour?) - either running away from them in Life Finds a Dob, refusing to 'share' Corazon's body in Portal Combat, or his contrary behaviour in Hunter Pressure in not wanting to fight the hunters/murderers they were facing.
I'm not sure whether this trend of contrariness fed into the unclear character arc that I mentioned above, or the other way around, or whether the two just fed into each other.
The most extreme example of this was, undoubtedly, Dob jumping in on the shoot-off between Liliana and Prudence right at the end of Portal Combat. Liliana approached Prudence in Frenemy at the Gates because they were the most alike. Prudence was the one with the first kill of the whole campaign, using Eldritch Blast, against the party's wishes and Corazón's protests specifically - how appropriate would it have been for her to get the last kill of the campaign, with Eldritch Blast, in defense of herself and her party and as retribution for Corazón? But instead, Luke inserted Dob into the standoff and Johnny played into it, even to the absurd extent of letting the skeletons use Time Stop (a 9th Level spell) just to explain why Dob's whole conversation with them could take place faster than Prudence could fire off an eldritch blast. Corazón's self-sacrifice and Merilwen's reveal of her Reincarnation spell was therefore also partially overshadowed by Dob sacrificing his magic for one more hitpoint of damage on Liliana rather than letting Prudence have her moment.
What I hope for: some of the lessons learned from other campaigns to lead the players to be better at taking turns, both in terms of people not trying to be the Main Character at inappropriate moments, players stepping up and into the leading role when it is appropriate for them to do so, and Johnny more actively monitoring the balance between the players and shutting down some of the more egregious behaviour
But it's consistency that is more of a sticking point, as well as the player treatment of the moral positions of the party. It's hard to know how to treat the morals of the party when they vary from letting a town burn for being slightly annoying (Mule Be Sorry) to most of the team being ready to forgive a hag who used to eat human(oid) children (Hag Reflex). This isn't just the players either - Stop Hammer Time used the murder of children as a joke, and marked a change in tone for the treatment of NPCs and civilians as not mattering compared to the preferences or comfort of the main characters. The skeletons killing the children wasn't even some sort of monkey's paw scenario about asking for there to be no more orphans in the town, either - it was just nasty shock value, in many ways. And playing this sort of thing for humour makes it quite hard to handle some of the rest of the series as a result.
There also felt like a dissonance, at times, between the objective morality of the characters and how the players seemed to want them to be treated. Prudence never claimed to be anything other than evil, from shooting someone with eldritch blast during the Spicy Rat Caper to enjoying Hammerdahl's necromancy in Extinction - Jane even indicated that she wanted to explore shifting Prudence's alignment post-Fast and the Furriest, which can be seen as Prudence is much less interested in random acts of destruction and seems quite happy to get her kicks scaring or torturing people (Silent Knight) or watching the gruesome spectacle at the end of Knight Shift. So Jane's plans matched Prudence's behaviour - a softening of her deliberately evil acts, but still happy to let others be evil.
For the others, though, it didn't always match. Merilwen's "True Neutral" label often felt more like passively letting her party members be evil, rather than actively seeking balance, Egbert was supposed to be on the search for atonement but regularly allowed or took part in atrocities, and Dob seemed more inclined to act on what the audience or Luke thought was funny (or even deliberately seeking to be contrary) rather than following a consistent attitude to morality. His vaguely annoyed "Skeletons!" and hands on hips in return to "It's orphans, boss" was clearly played for laughs, and in Mule Be Sorry he turns on the town easily, which then makes it feel strange when in Hag Reflex he objects to letting the hag live. Dob's infatuation with Liliana and Katie Pearlhead, both of whom have killed or caused the deaths of great numbers of people, also makes it harder to take his claims to morality at all seriously. The potential moral issues of Merilwen killing the Otherberts to prevent them from taking a message to Liliana (Bad Altitude) is turned into accusing her of "war crimes", but it is absurd in the face of how many other innocent bystanders the guild had killed or caused to die in other stories (from as early as Quiet Riot, in which the paladins were annoying but killing them was honestly overboard, to as late as Squid Pro Quo where Dob seemed to forget that five people had died and then brushed off the deaths).
NPCs also got hit by this at times, from the town mayor in Mule Be Sorry (again) who put his townsfolk on spike growth just to cross it, to the chef in Dine Harder who was abruptly made a cannibal to get a fight going, to the decay of morally Good characters like Captain Shattershield turning away from the Upside Down Mistmire when in his first appearance he had been willing to fight Death itself for being on Mistmire's grounds. It's hard to take seriously moral questions about keeping the Dragon Under Mistmire in its shelter, and the accidentally-caused deaths of two paladins, when the guild has been responsible for much worse.
What I hope for: an approach to morality that does not prioritise momentary humour over consistency; evil behaviour to be acknowledged as evil and owned rather than treated as protagonist-centric; a moral balance which makes it possible to really explore moral issues and concerns rather than extreme behaviour which then makes it impossible to treat conflict seriously. Legacy of Dragons, as a standalone arc seeking Egbert's redemption, exploring the protection vs freedom of the gold dragon, and considering how to improve vs break systems, had some really great potential - but because of extreme 'rule of funny' behaviour in the past, it was impossible to really feel that it had the moral gravitas and weight that it deserved. When the skeletons go from murdering a dozen innocent children (Stop Hammer Time) to giving Merilwen a bad haircut (Mean Gulls) and this is almost treated as somehow consistent in evilness, it makes it harder to respect the characters or the expectation of moral standards.
The Good: The humour, the quick-wittedness, the variety of stories. Roleplaying moments such as Egbert and Shattershield in Legacy of Dragons, Corazón putting his old self behind him at the Curse Hole, or Merilwen saying "I'll make you" to Vex.
The Bad: Unclear character arcs, inconsistent moralities, underpowered classes but at the same time game-breakingly permissive DMing, and some Main Character Syndrome moments.
The Hope: Learning from teething issues and setting up a game system that the DM doesn't resent so much, to better enable people to balance and play off each other in a less jarring and more consistent way.
submitted by afterandalasia to TheOxventure [link] [comments]
Warning: I'm not always nice in this write up, though I have done my best to be fair and honest throughout in what I think the potential pitfalls were and how I hope they might be better addressed in future campaigns.
I've played D&D myself for a few years, listened to other Actual Play series (notably NADDPOD and some D20 at one end of the competency-of-players scale, and Dragon Friends and Dungeons and Drongos at the other), and write... a lot. Including over 250k of fanfic specifically for Oxventure, which started off as an excuse for smut but ended up being a lot of worldbuilding.
System & Setting
Johnny has made no secret that they're not a huge fan of D&D, indicating that they feel it overshadows other systems, and given that the Spicy Rat Caper was meant to be a one-off but fans loved it perhaps they felt a little trapped in the system. This did lead to some funny moments (Faire Trial and Max commenting that they sometimes felt "like a big dice rolling around a tray" sticks with me) but sometimes felt a bit mean-spirited ("Crawl Me Maybe" and the heavy 'lol dungeon crawling is so ridiculous' comes to mind).It was also clear that at times, none of the group seemed to know the game and the rules super well. From Mike not knowing his movement speed ("30 what? Miles an hour?") to Merilwen not using her animal forms or changing out her spells until level 8, to the underpowering of most of the classes, it became more of an issue as time when on in some ways.
It's easy enough to understand why, live on stage and starry-eyed at Harry McEntire as Aubrey, Johnny missed that in the combat Aubrey cast two levelled spells in the same round (against the rules) as well as using two sorcery spell modifiers in the same round (also against the rules, and they mentioned this on the podcast). Sorcerer was also a new class to everyone, and dealing with a new class is always going to be difficult, especially dropping them in at a higher level rather than starting from level 1 and building up.
However, bluntly, most of the guild weren't using their class/subclass abilities to the fullest. Rules lawyer Andy did the best, so he gets a pass here, and Ellen got sharper with Merilwen over time to stuff like knowing her spell components, tracking her spell slots, and preparing her spells. However, the concept of Egbert as "a paladin who doesn't do paladin things" (quote from the post-Deadlands discussion) was ultimately really limiting not just for Egbert (Mike commented in one podcast episode that he felt he'd trapped himself in only using Egbert's abilities in ways that were funny) but for the entire concept of paladins - Max might as well have been a fighter in the fight in Gnome Alone that they took part in, and we never saw Shattershield fight at all. There were references to combat offscreen in Out of Order, but... that was it. (Additionally, while paladins can be poisoned, as poison and disease are different in 5e rules, paladins can pump out a LOT of healing, and a citadel full of them should have a lot of magical reserves to draw on as a result.)
And Egbert isn't the only one who was limited. One of the biggest features of Great Old One warlocks (which Prudence is, with Cthulhu), is that from level one they have telepathy within 30ft ("Awakened Mind"). Prudence went the entire campaign without using this. Although Johnny allowed the Message cantrip to be treated like this, allowing people to reply to it when RAW it is one-way only, this meant that Dob also essentially gained Prudence's power because he also had Message. Merilwen was limited in her animal forms and the spells that she knew up until level 8, and it was noticeable how everyone was shocked at her power once she had full RAW druid range. Corazón, on the other hand, not only had Andy keeping on top of all of his class and subclass features, but got two subclasses, leaving him about on par or slightly overpowered for the level he should have been looking overpowered because the others didn't use their abilities so well. Meanwhile, Dob was given access to full bardic abilities, but only used bardic inspiration in some of their level 1 adventures and then not much again until the final season.
The counterpart to this under-utilisation of class potential was the amount of 'rule of cool' or 'rule of funny' which sometimes worked well (Merilwen befriending the owlbear in Quiet Riot, or the reflavouring of Thunder Wave to do lightning damage instead based on their initial misunderstanding) and sometimes ended up breaking the game (the "everyone can cast Moonbeam" joke that escalated to the scrolls of Moonbeam that made the finale kind of laughable). Sometimes this seemed to be the time and audience pressure of live shows (allowing Prudence to use the hammer to wheel her way through the skeletons in Stop Hammer Time), but other times it was just letting them do things that went outside the rules (Egbert body-slamming six(?) Otherberts at once in Bad Altitude, or Dob casting all his spells at once in Corpse and Robbers) seemingly preferring the immediate humour or "yes and" over the potential internal logic or end implications.
The contrast between this permissiveness, sometimes to the point of breaking logical immersion, honestly seemed sharper to me when it was laid against Andy's GMing in Deadlands. Whether it was reminding people that there were snipers on the rooftops in Dead Man's Worth or refusing to yes-and a chandelier in More Wonders Than, he made it more difficult for the players and in doing so made them work harder within their skillsets and the setting, making the victories feel harder-won as a result. I'm aware that some people didn't like Andy's GMing specifically because he was less permissive, but I believe that his intention - and the outcome - was a stronger narrative that made the characters feel active and not just lucky. (Liliana lampshaded this in Frenemy at the Gates when she asked whether things often just fell into their laps, like with knowing Binbag, and it almost felt like a spiteful comment so it surprised me to hear it from Johnny.)
What I hope: It has been indicated that Johnny has created the new setting for the next game, so hopefully they have put things more to their liking at the beginning and will not end up seeming to dunk on the premise of their own series. I'm also hoping for everyone to either use more standardised rules, or at least establish in-game standards at the beginning so that all of the characters, and players, feel like they're on a level playing field from the off. Johnny seemed to much more enjoy the systems of Blades in the Dark and Deadlands (which were designed to be less superhero-level) and even the lower levels of Oxventure (especially Tier 1) where the characters were just people who were skilled but not particularly out of the range of normality; I'd be interested to see whether they lean more in that direction and keep the characters lower-powered as a result.
Characters & Character Arcs
Again, it's worth noting that the characters were initially conceived as being for a one-off game, so the initial concepts did not necessarily need planned arcs. However, the rockiness of some of the arcs overall may have contributed to issues with the series, especially as it stretched out over so many years. I'll go through the PCs alphabetically, then Liliana, then mention any other NPCs. There are two elements here - in-character goals, and character arc goals, which both play into things.Corazón - in my opinion, Corazón had one of the stronger character arcs, which may reflect Andy's interest in writing (and now being published!), going from the coward pirate-wannabe who abandoned his crew to the curse, to the person who threw himself in front of a spell meant for Merilwen. This was highlighted in his reply to Them in Prism Break, even before the Power Word Kill spell. In fact, the Power Word Kill brought a level of pathos to the fact that he had told Them that he was not even done growing as a person. Andy commented on the podcast at some point that he had expected at the beginning to be one of the more morally shady characters (as a pirate), but found himself playing a line of being immoral regarding money but caring deeply about physical hurt or harm to people. Corazón also had two layers of in-character goals - to break the curse (limited) and to become a betterichereal pirate (more open-ended) and find his own identity which allowed him to carry character development over the years even when the curse was ignored for extended periods. Goals: clear and stepped, with the curse as a plot-hook; arc: good and perfectly timed for the finale.
What I hope for: More of the same, really.
Dob - Dob came in early with a clearly defined goal (to find his sister) - but this was done in Brawl of the Wild and Dob has been sort of... undefined ever since. It absolutely makes sense that he would have floundered for a while, but Dob has gone several years without settling on new goal, and Luke also didn't seem to settle on a character arc (the romance subplot in Orbpocalypse Saga through Bride or Die seemed to be almost a character arc, but never got full payoff?) which left Dob feeling... well, at times it almost seemed like Luke wanted to get rid of him to play someone else instead. This was unfortunately also highlighted in conversation with Them, as the response that Dob gave was about him being a "mote of chaos". I obviously couldn't speak for others, but I found this underwhelming and unconvincing as an answer, as it didn't give me any sense of why a powerful celestial being would consider this an argument - if Dob had developed the argument to be that chaos is generative and creative in a way that pure order cannot be, and/or that the free will and agency of sapience demand that they be allowed to act and to try even if they make mistakes or fail, I think there might have been something there, but he didn't really seem to. Goals: had one which formed a good plot-hook, then went without; arc: unclear.
What I hope for: Luke to determine more of a character arc, or series of shorter arcs, perhaps drawing from his Blades in the Dark DMing experience, and to either pick a more open-ended goal or to move along a series of goals over time.
Egbert - Egbert came in with the vaguer goal of "atonement", which gave him more wiggle room, but unfortunately didn't seem to actively pursue it a lot of the time. In Legacy of Dragons it was revealed that he was searching for atonement for the deaths of two Dragon D'Or members - but by this time, so many people around the Oxventurers had died, including innocent bystanders, that the deaths of two other paladins felt like nothing. (Mike commented, again on the podcast, that he agreed with the commenters at the time who agreed that they knew it was his backstory from the beginning because only two paladins had died. The two figure paled next to the collateral damage that the party later caused.) Mike also commented on the podcast that during lockdown, he had made a conscious change with Egbert in to try to avoid combat as much as possible, and to avoid fatal attacks if in combat, but it wasn't clear how long that lasted. It may have been trying to avoid being the annoying/preachy paladin that stopped him from trying to influence the rest of the party or to save lives around them, but unfortunately it meant that it was difficult to see a real sense of wanting to atone in Egbert's arc. Letting innocents die around him isn't exactly less culpable than killing them himself. (Notable incidents included Mule Be Sorry, Wrangle in the Tangle, Hag Reflex, and Squid Pro Quo.) In terms of character arcs, there was definitely an element of going from seeking approval from Dragon D'Or to seeking that of his friends, but that was just a switching of approval-seeking rather than a significant change. Goals: had one, but didn't seem to actively pursue it; arc: moved from pursuing the morals of Dragon D'Or to pursuing the morals of the Oxventurers.
What I hope for: Mike to come back with a character who seeks to pursue their own goals more directly (see Barnaby and Silas, who both felt much stronger in this sense).
Merilwen - Merilwen was supposed to be about balance and protecting nature, but didn't always heavily engage with this point of view, even when the actions of the other Oxventurers should have absolutely led to discussions or disagreements between them. Many people commented on Andy being dickish about shooting seabirds in Legacy of Dragons, but there are other incidents, including the Wrangle in the Tangle (again), Eldritch or Die Trying (where it would have been interesting to see Merilwen's preference for nature clash with the need for the crystal) and the Extinction season which seemed to veer between being set up to be about Merilwen, then swapping to Dob-centric, then cleaning up Corazon's curse. In terms of character arc, I think there might be an element that can be teased out about her not fitting in with elf society and fitting in better with the faster-paced, more chaotic world of shorter-lived peoples, but this feels like speculation on my part more than something intended. Naturally, a character of around 100 is not going to feel as suited to a coming-of-age story as younger ones, but characters of all ages should be able to have character arcs. (Even if they might be slower in longer-lived people like elves - an example I can go to here is Galadriel, from Tolkien, who in her youth was proud and refused a pardon that would have allowed her to return to Valinor, but at the end of LOTR is humble enough to accept and go there. It took millennia for her, but it was a character arc all the same!) In Merilwen's conversation with Them, her uncertainty seemed to talk to this - a lack of clarity about where her characterisation was supposed to have gone over the last few years. I think there was a real opportunity here to explore Merilwen's relationship with morality and the difference between neutrality and passiveness, which unfortunately was missed. Goals: was supposed to be about nature but didn't push for it; arc: [speculation] seeking a non-elven community that she matched better with.
What I hope for: Ellen to have a character with more defined goals or arc, or gaps still to be filled in, rather than a static momentary sketch of personality/character that doesn't feel designed to be changed over time. Again, Lilith with her secrets/looking into the paranormal, and Edie with her goal to help people in a world in which monsters aren't going away, felt stronger as characters with goals and arcs, and I'd be happy to see more of that.
Prudence - Ambitious from the off, Prudence never actually struggled for goals - power, knowledge, magic, influence. The open-endedness of these goals once again served Prudence pretty well for carrying her through individual adventures/games and over the course of the whole canon, even if she didn't come in with clearly-defined (plot hook) goals like Corazón's curse. For the first few years, it felt that her character arc wasn't hugely significant, although there was certainly an element of found family over selfishness that played into it, but Jane also discussed (again, in the podcast) how the werebear element was really quite exciting for her as it allowed her to begin to explore the clash between werebear Lawful Good status and Prudence's usual Chaotic Evil desires. Eldritch or Die Trying explored this in a somewhat exaggerated way, with Cthulhu offering power in exchange for the destruction of the others (I suspect in Prudence's question about specifying people, she was trying to figure out whether she could kill just Liliana) which was a somewhat blatant nod to the character arc but did underline it. (Unlike the others, this also established Prudence's character arc before Them.) Goals: open-ended in a way that leaves them technically incomplete even now but which were stably useful throughout canon; arc: de-isolation and alignment shifting (in a way that should have been ripe for playing off against Liliana's) which played out well.
What I hope for: A character with perhaps some more specific or plot-hook goals as well as broader life goals. Prudence's character arc played out more subtly than Corazón's and sometimes perhaps got lost behind the louder personalities of some of the others, but I do think was well done. A less obvious way to explore or demonstrate it would have been nice.
Liliana - So. Here we go. Liliana was essentially a DMPC for the last season, but was a recurring character before that, with a stated goal of subjecting part or all of G'eth and broader goals (indicated or stated in Prism Break and the finale season generally) of academic/scholarly improvement, arcane knowledge, and the notion of making people appreciate what they have by threatening to take it from them. As a villain, she was threatening, and the layering of goals once again worked here, even with the abrupt movement to 'save G'eth' in the last season because, well, you can't rule what no longer exists. However, I am honestly confused as to what her character arc was supposed to be - whether her stated change of heart in front of Them was real, or whether that was a lie that Them somehow did not call out or challenge. Considering in Frenemy at the Gates, Liliana says that Prudence is the most like her, there was a potential here to play against Prudence's character arc of coming to trust others, even appreciate others, and facing the consequences of suffering making her realise her own flawed logic. I really do not know whether her betrayal of the guild was planned from the beginning (in which case, her talking to Them feels like it was overplayed, and Them should have challenged her on it) or whether Johnny added it because the fight against the giant was over more quickly than anticipated (compare to Dine Hard where the chef was the one person they did not stat up because they didn't expect the guild to fight him). Goals: logical, stepped, and worked for a villain; arc: ????? was there an arc? Was it fake? Was it desperation? Why did she, on 1 hitpoint, try to Power Word Kill Prudence instead of Teleporting away?
What I hope for: I don't know, with this one, really. Liliana's weird arc feels more related to the odd pacing of the last season than an underlying characterisation issue, for me, so I think it's more related to pacing/wanting Oxventure campaign 1 to close out.
Player Etiquette
...okay, this one is going to be a little bit harsh, perhaps. But the main campaign, more than either Blades in the Dark or Deadlands, really suffered from certain players having a bout of Main Character Syndrome.I say specifically players here, because it was entirely in-character for certain characters (largely Corazón) to think of themselves as the main character and behave as such. However, even if the characters think that, is generally considered good etiquette for the players to treat each other as equals, let each other take turns in the spotlight, and have their Moments.
Good examples would be the group letting Merilwen be the main character in Peak Performance, Prudence explore her sundered relationship with Cthulhu during the Orbpocalypse Saga, or Dob showing off his acting bard chops in Dine Harder.
However, at various times, various people have overstepped. Sometimes in live shows where the audience response and excitement probably played a role (Rolling in the Deep) it's more understandable, but it also happened elsewhere. Mike got some flack for picking up the eyepatch at the end of Cursed Case Scenario and 'ruining' Corazón's moment, but even Johnny called Andy out for muscling in on Dob's subplot in Court in the Act, and Life Finds a Dob was almost uncomfortable at times. There was also something of a trend of Dob deliberately acting against the party for unclear reasons (possibly meant to be humour?) - either running away from them in Life Finds a Dob, refusing to 'share' Corazon's body in Portal Combat, or his contrary behaviour in Hunter Pressure in not wanting to fight the hunters/murderers they were facing.
I'm not sure whether this trend of contrariness fed into the unclear character arc that I mentioned above, or the other way around, or whether the two just fed into each other.
The most extreme example of this was, undoubtedly, Dob jumping in on the shoot-off between Liliana and Prudence right at the end of Portal Combat. Liliana approached Prudence in Frenemy at the Gates because they were the most alike. Prudence was the one with the first kill of the whole campaign, using Eldritch Blast, against the party's wishes and Corazón's protests specifically - how appropriate would it have been for her to get the last kill of the campaign, with Eldritch Blast, in defense of herself and her party and as retribution for Corazón? But instead, Luke inserted Dob into the standoff and Johnny played into it, even to the absurd extent of letting the skeletons use Time Stop (a 9th Level spell) just to explain why Dob's whole conversation with them could take place faster than Prudence could fire off an eldritch blast. Corazón's self-sacrifice and Merilwen's reveal of her Reincarnation spell was therefore also partially overshadowed by Dob sacrificing his magic for one more hitpoint of damage on Liliana rather than letting Prudence have her moment.
What I hope for: some of the lessons learned from other campaigns to lead the players to be better at taking turns, both in terms of people not trying to be the Main Character at inappropriate moments, players stepping up and into the leading role when it is appropriate for them to do so, and Johnny more actively monitoring the balance between the players and shutting down some of the more egregious behaviour
Morality
This... isn't actually going to be complaining about characters behaving immorally or even being evil. Prudence is honestly a great example of how to play an evil character in a way that doesn't break a party, while Corazón works as being immoral about money but moral about hurting people (at least most of the time). I've also thoroughly enjoyed some other games in which the characters have been far from moral (NADDPOD's Trinyvale series is a good example of this - the characters are scam artists, grifters and egotists, and the DM commented that "character growth doesn't have to be positive!"; they complain the entire time while saving the world).But it's consistency that is more of a sticking point, as well as the player treatment of the moral positions of the party. It's hard to know how to treat the morals of the party when they vary from letting a town burn for being slightly annoying (Mule Be Sorry) to most of the team being ready to forgive a hag who used to eat human(oid) children (Hag Reflex). This isn't just the players either - Stop Hammer Time used the murder of children as a joke, and marked a change in tone for the treatment of NPCs and civilians as not mattering compared to the preferences or comfort of the main characters. The skeletons killing the children wasn't even some sort of monkey's paw scenario about asking for there to be no more orphans in the town, either - it was just nasty shock value, in many ways. And playing this sort of thing for humour makes it quite hard to handle some of the rest of the series as a result.
There also felt like a dissonance, at times, between the objective morality of the characters and how the players seemed to want them to be treated. Prudence never claimed to be anything other than evil, from shooting someone with eldritch blast during the Spicy Rat Caper to enjoying Hammerdahl's necromancy in Extinction - Jane even indicated that she wanted to explore shifting Prudence's alignment post-Fast and the Furriest, which can be seen as Prudence is much less interested in random acts of destruction and seems quite happy to get her kicks scaring or torturing people (Silent Knight) or watching the gruesome spectacle at the end of Knight Shift. So Jane's plans matched Prudence's behaviour - a softening of her deliberately evil acts, but still happy to let others be evil.
For the others, though, it didn't always match. Merilwen's "True Neutral" label often felt more like passively letting her party members be evil, rather than actively seeking balance, Egbert was supposed to be on the search for atonement but regularly allowed or took part in atrocities, and Dob seemed more inclined to act on what the audience or Luke thought was funny (or even deliberately seeking to be contrary) rather than following a consistent attitude to morality. His vaguely annoyed "Skeletons!" and hands on hips in return to "It's orphans, boss" was clearly played for laughs, and in Mule Be Sorry he turns on the town easily, which then makes it feel strange when in Hag Reflex he objects to letting the hag live. Dob's infatuation with Liliana and Katie Pearlhead, both of whom have killed or caused the deaths of great numbers of people, also makes it harder to take his claims to morality at all seriously. The potential moral issues of Merilwen killing the Otherberts to prevent them from taking a message to Liliana (Bad Altitude) is turned into accusing her of "war crimes", but it is absurd in the face of how many other innocent bystanders the guild had killed or caused to die in other stories (from as early as Quiet Riot, in which the paladins were annoying but killing them was honestly overboard, to as late as Squid Pro Quo where Dob seemed to forget that five people had died and then brushed off the deaths).
NPCs also got hit by this at times, from the town mayor in Mule Be Sorry (again) who put his townsfolk on spike growth just to cross it, to the chef in Dine Harder who was abruptly made a cannibal to get a fight going, to the decay of morally Good characters like Captain Shattershield turning away from the Upside Down Mistmire when in his first appearance he had been willing to fight Death itself for being on Mistmire's grounds. It's hard to take seriously moral questions about keeping the Dragon Under Mistmire in its shelter, and the accidentally-caused deaths of two paladins, when the guild has been responsible for much worse.
What I hope for: an approach to morality that does not prioritise momentary humour over consistency; evil behaviour to be acknowledged as evil and owned rather than treated as protagonist-centric; a moral balance which makes it possible to really explore moral issues and concerns rather than extreme behaviour which then makes it impossible to treat conflict seriously. Legacy of Dragons, as a standalone arc seeking Egbert's redemption, exploring the protection vs freedom of the gold dragon, and considering how to improve vs break systems, had some really great potential - but because of extreme 'rule of funny' behaviour in the past, it was impossible to really feel that it had the moral gravitas and weight that it deserved. When the skeletons go from murdering a dozen innocent children (Stop Hammer Time) to giving Merilwen a bad haircut (Mean Gulls) and this is almost treated as somehow consistent in evilness, it makes it harder to respect the characters or the expectation of moral standards.
The Good: The humour, the quick-wittedness, the variety of stories. Roleplaying moments such as Egbert and Shattershield in Legacy of Dragons, Corazón putting his old self behind him at the Curse Hole, or Merilwen saying "I'll make you" to Vex.
The Bad: Unclear character arcs, inconsistent moralities, underpowered classes but at the same time game-breakingly permissive DMing, and some Main Character Syndrome moments.
The Hope: Learning from teething issues and setting up a game system that the DM doesn't resent so much, to better enable people to balance and play off each other in a less jarring and more consistent way.
2024.05.18 07:52 jakc13 Workstation for ArcGIS Pro
What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.
- Primary use is as a workstation for WFH and for software below. I am a heavy user of the hardware-hungry capabilities of it.
- ArcGIS Pro - Optimal System Requirements
- Some lightweight video editing
- 1 ultrawide monitor, may switch to a 4k ultrawide in future.
- Gaming is secondary. Not a big gamer, but be nice to have something that also works for new games.
What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?
- ~$2400 USD (Actually $3600 Australian AUD)
When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.
- Can wait till EOFY sales that we have in Australia next month
- Prefer not to play the neverending game of waiting for the new versions
What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)
- Tower and everything within it.
- I can supply OS
- I have all external peripherals - monitor, keyboard, etc.
Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?
- Australia, Victoria.
- Do not have access to Microcenter
If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.
- Monitor, keyboard, mouse, webcam.
Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?
- As this is not primarily for gaming, do not intend to. But no strong opinion here.
Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)
- As per the ArcGIS Pro optimal requirements:
- NVIDIA card with 16GB+ and CUDA score > 7.5
- RAM 64GB ideally. I get confused with dual/single rank, conflicting with mobo and GPU, speeds, etc. Could be convinced that 24x2 (single rank?) is a better option.
- Only one storage drive needed, 1 or 2TB
- CPU I am going around in circles on. Leaning towards AMD.
Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?
- Good quality. Ideally not a RGB lightshow.
- Like the range from Fractal Design
Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?
- No. Have access to OS through a MSDN.
Do you need WiFi, or do you have a wired ethernet connection available?
- Both Wifi6 and Ethernet
Do you have any specific size or noise requirements for the build?
- No.
Do you have any aesthetic preferences for color or lighting?
- Not really. Not a huge fan of the RGB, but if it was a good deal part, then happy to let it slide.
- A black or dark case, no real preference for seeing inside it.
Extra info or particulars:I have been attempting a build here:
https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/xWQHgB
Usually always gone with Intel, but the recent drama has made me consider jumping ship and lean into AMD.
2024.05.18 07:39 Flint124 A rework of the Fighter, based on the 2013 playtest version.
Fighter 2.0
| Level | PB | Martial Dice | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +2 | 1d6 | Martial Combatant, Fighting Style, Specialty |
| 2 | +2 | 1d6 | Action Surge, Second Wind, Maneuver |
| 3 | +2 | 1d8 | Martial Archetype, Specialty Feature |
| 4 | +2 | 2d8 | Ability Score Improvement, Martial Versatility, Maneuver |
| 5 | +3 | 2d8 | Extra Attack |
| 6 | +3 | 2d8 | Ability Score Improvement, Martial Versatility, Specialty Feature |
| 7 | +3 | 3d8 | Martial Archetype Feature |
| 8 | +3 | 3d8 | Ability Score Increase, Martial Versatility, Maneuver |
| 9 | +4 | 3d8 | Combat Surge, Specialty Feature |
| 10 | +4 | 3d10 | Martial Archetype Feature, Maneuver |
| 11 | +4 | 3d10 | Extra Attack (x2) |
| 12 | +4 | 3d10 | Ability Score Improvement, Martial Versatility |
| 13 | +5 | 3d10 | Indomitable |
| 14 | +5 | 3d10 | Ability Score Improvement, Martial Versatility |
| 15 | +5 | 4d10 | Martial Archetype Feature |
| 16 | +6 | 4d10 | Ability Score Improvement, Martial Versatility |
| 17 | +6 | 4d10 | Extra Attack (x3) |
| 18 | +6 | 4d12 | Martial Archetype Feature |
| 19 | +6 | 4d12 | Ability Score Improvement, Martial Versatility |
| 20 | +6 | 5d12 | Legendary Resistance |
- Hit Dice: 1d10 per fighter level
- HP at level 1: 10 + CON
- HP at higher levels: 1d10 (or 6) + CON per fighter level after 1st
- Armor: All Armor
- Weapons: All Weapons (Firearms optionally)
- Tools: None
- Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
- Skills: Any two skills
- (a) chain mail or (b) leather armor, longbow, and 20 arrows
- (a) any martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
- (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) two handaxes
- (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
Features
1st Level - Martial CombatantYou have a pool of martial dice, shown in the Martial Dice column on the fighter table, which you can expend to perform any maneuver you have learned. A maneuver may involve rolling one or more dice or simply expending them. At the start of each of your turns, all martial dice are restored.
All fighters know the maneuvers Decisive Strike, Block, Push, and Knock Down. You learn additional maneuvers as you level based on your chosen fighting style.
- Decisive Strike: When you hit with a weapon attack, you may expend and roll any number of martial dice, adding the amount rolled to the damage of the attack.
- Block: When you take damage from an attack, and you are wielding a weapon or using a shield, you may expend and roll any number of martial dice, reducing the damage you take by the amount rolled. If this effect reduces the damage dealt to 0, the hit becomes a miss.
- Push: When you hit with a melee attack, and the target is no more than one size category larger than you, you can expend a martial die to attempt to shove your target, making a Strength (Athletics) check opposed by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics).
- Knock Down: When you hit a target with a melee attack, and the target is no more than one size category larger than you, you can spend a martial die to attempt to knock them prone, making a Strength (Athletics) check opposed by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics).
On Battle Master: the base fighter class and Battle Master use different lists of maneuvers. Superiority dice can be used to fuel both Battle Master maneuvers and base fighter maneuvers, but Martial dice cannot be used to fuel Battle Master maneuvers. Restrictions imposed by Battle Master maneuvers do not apply to base fighter maneuvers; if you perform a "Trip Attack" maneuver, you can still apply the base fighter "Decisive Strike" maneuver to that attack.1st Level - Fighting Style
On Martial Adept: You may not learn base fighter maneuvers through Martial Adept.
You gain a fighting style from the following list. Your fighting style grants you maneuvers at 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, and 10th level, and grants features at 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th level.
- Duelist
- 1st Level - Spring Attack: When you take the Dash or Disengage action, you can spend a martial die to make a single weapon attack as a part of that action. On a hit, you gain no bonuses to damage and roll the martial die for damage in place of the weapon damage die.
- 2nd Level - Tumbling Dodge: When you move, you can expend and roll a martial die to bolster your defenses. Until the end of the current turn, you gain a bonus to your AC equal to the number rolled on your martial die and may move through the spaces of hostile creatures, treating them as difficult terrain.
- 4th Level - Glancing Blow: If you miss a target with a melee attack, but your total was at least 10, you can expend martial dice to treat it as a glancing blow, dealing damage equal to the highest value rolled on your expended dice.
- 8th Level - Lightning Reflexes: When you make a dexterity saving throw and fail, you can spend martial dice to improve your result, increasing your total by the highest value rolled on your expended dice.
- 10th Level - Opportunist: When you make an attack of opportunity and miss, you can spend martial dice to improve your result, increasing your attack roll by the highest value rolled on your expended dice.
- Protector
- 1st Level - Protect: When a target within your reach is hit by a weapon attack while you are wielding a shield or melee weapon, you can use your reaction to expend and roll martial dice, reducing the damage dealt by the total. If this effect reduces the damage dealt to 0, the hit becomes a miss.
- 2nd Level - Riposte: When a creature within 5 feet of you misses a melee attack against you or an ally within 5 feet of you, you can expend and roll a martial die as a reaction to make a melee attack against them, adding the number on your martial die to your attack roll. This can be taken as a part of the same reaction used to perform the Protect maneuver.
- 4th Level - Composed Attack: When you make an attack at disadvantage, you can expend a martial die to negate the disadvantage.
- 8th Level - Great Fortitude: When you make a Strength or Constitution check or saving throw, you can expend and roll any number of martial dice, adding the highest number rolled on any of your expended dice to your total.
- 10th Level - Opportunist: When you make an attack of opportunity and miss, you can spend martial dice to improve your result, increasing your attack roll by the highest value rolled on your expended dice.
- Sharpshooter
- 1st Level - Precise Shot: When you make a ranged attack, you can expend and roll a martial die, gaining a bonus to your attack roll equal to the number on the martial die. When an attack gains this benefit, the target gains no benefit from half cover and only a +2 bonus to AC from three-quarters cover.
- 2nd Level - Spring Attack: When you take the Dash or Disengage action, you can spend a martial die to make a single weapon attack as a part of that action. On a hit, you gain no bonuses to damage and roll the martial die for damage in place of the weapon damage die.
- 4th Level - Composed Attack: When you make an attack at disadvantage, you can expend a martial die to negate the disadvantage.
- 8th Level - Bound: When you take the Dash action, you can expend and roll a martial die. Gain bonus movement equal to 5x the number rolled.
- 10th Level - Volley: When you make a ranged weapon attack, you can spend martial dice to attack additional creatures. For each die you spend, choose another creature within 5 feet of your initial target, never choosing the same creature twice. Your attack roll against your initial target is applied to all of your secondary targets, dealing a roll of your martial die as damage and adding no bonuses.
- Slayer
- 1st Level - Glancing Blow: If you miss a target with a melee attack, but your total was at least 10, you can expend martial dice to treat it as a glancing blow, dealing damage equal to the highest value rolled on your expended dice.
- 2nd Level - Cleave: When you reduce a creature to 0 HP with a melee attack, you can spend martial dice to make an additional attack against a creature of your choice within reach. On a hit, roll your expended martial dice in place of your weapon's damage, adding bonuses as normal.
- 4th Level - Spring Attack: When you take the Dash or Disengage action, you can spend a martial die to make a single weapon attack as a part of that action. On a hit, you gain no bonuses to damage and roll the martial die for damage in place of the weapon damage die.
- 8th Level - Great Fortitude: When you make a Strength or Constitution check or saving throw, you can expend and roll any number of martial dice, adding the highest number rolled on any of your expended dice to your total.
- 10th Level - Whirlwind Attack: When you make a melee weapon attack, you can expend a martial die to attack additional creatures. For each die expended, you can choose one additional target of your choice within range. Your attack roll against your initial target is applied to all of your secondary targets, dealing a roll of your martial die as damage and adding no bonuses.
- Veteran
- 1st Level - Riposte: When a creature within 5 feet of you misses a melee attack against you or an ally within 5 feet of you, you can expend and roll a martial die as a reaction to make a melee attack against them, adding the number on your martial die to your attack roll. This can be taken as a part of the same reaction used to perform the Protect maneuver.
- 2nd Level - Glancing Blow: If you miss a target with a melee attack, but your total was at least 10, you can expend martial dice to treat it as a glancing blow, dealing damage equal to the highest value rolled on your expended dice.
- 4th Level - Interject: When an attack is made against you at advantage, you can expend a martial die to negate the advantage.
- 8th Level - Great Fortitude: When you make a Strength or Constitution check or saving throw, you can expend and roll any number of martial dice, adding the highest number rolled on any of your expended dice to your total.
- 10th Level - Whirlwind Attack: When you make a melee weapon attack, you can expend a martial die to attack additional creatures. For each die expended, you can choose one additional target of your choice within range. Your attack roll against your initial target is applied to all of your secondary targets, dealing a roll of your martial die as damage and adding no bonuses.
- Custom
- You may create your own fighting style. To do so, choose maneuvers at 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, and 10th level from any maneuver available to any fighting style at that level or lower.
Choose a specialty from the following list. Your specialty grants you features at 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th level.
- Endurance
- 1st Level - Iron Defense: Your armor class is increased by 1.
- 3rd Level - Enhanced Vitality: When you are healed, you can choose to maximize all healing dice. Once you use this feature, you must complete a short rest before you can use it again. If you use this feature to maximize healing done using hit dice during a short rest, only one hit die is maximized.
- 6th Level - Resilience: Gain proficiency in one saving throw of your choice.
- 9th Level - Expert Defender: When you use your Block maneuver, prevent additional damage equal to your proficiency bonus.
- Skill
- 1st Level - Superior Training: Gain proficiency in two skills of your choice.
- 3rd Level - Expertise: Gain proficiency in one skill, and gain expertise in a skill in which you are proficient.
- 6th Level - Skill Focus: Choose a skill when you gain this feature. When you make a check using that skill, treat any d20 roll of 6 or less as a 7. If it is part of a contested roll, instead treat any d20 roll of 9 or less as a 10. You may change the skill associated with this feature when you gain a level in this class.
- 9th Level - Skill Supremacy: You have advantage with skill checks associated with your Skill Focus feature.
- Guile
- 1st Level - Alacrity: Your walking speed is increased by 5 feet and you gain a +2 bonus to initiative.
- 3rd Level - Shock and Awe: On your first turn of a battle, you have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has not yet taken a turn during this encounter.
- 6th Level - Deployment Tactics: When initiative is rolled, you may immediately move up to your speed.
- 9th Level - Spine Chill: You have blindsight to a range of 15 feet.
- Medic
- 1st Level - Herbalism: You gain proficiency with the Herbalist Kit. Over the course of a short rest, you may craft three items from the following list, provided you have half their market value in material components on your person; Antitoxin (25 gp), Potion of Healing (25 gp), Healer's Kit (2 gp, 5 sp).
- 3rd Level - Enhanced Potency: A potion of healing you craft restores an additional 1d4+2 hit points.
- 6th Level - Master Herbalist: When you create a potion that restores hit points, that potion always restores the maximum possible number of hit points
- 9th Level - Resuscitate: If you have a healer's kit on your person, you can spend 1 minute tending to a creature that died within the last minute that has at least one hit die remaining. At the end of that minute, you can attempt to resuscitate them, expending two charges of your healer's kit to attempt a DC 15 Wisdom (medicine) check. On a success, the creature expends and rolls a hit die, returning to life and healing as normal. On a failure, the creature remains dead, and cannot be resuscitated by this feature, but gains the benefit of Gentle Repose for the minute you spent attempting to resuscitate them.
You may take a second action on your turn. Once you do so, you may not do so again until you complete a short or long rest.
2nd Level - Second Wind
As a bonus action, you may restore 1d10 plus your Fighter level in hit points. Once you do so, you may not do so again until you complete a short or long rest.
3rd Level - Martial Archetype
Choose a Martial Archetype. This grants you benefits at 3rd, 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th level.
All subclasses are unchanged, including the levels at which you gain their features.4th Level - Ability Score Improvement
Increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or two ability scores by 1, up to a maximum of 20. Alternatively, choose a feat.
You gain this feature again at 6th, 8th, 12th, 14th, 16th, and 19th level.
4th Level - Martial Versatility
When you gain this feature, you may replace your fighting style or specialty with a new one, or you may change the maneuvers you previously chose for a custom fighting style.
5th Level - Extra Attack
You can attack twice when you take the attack action on your turn.
You gain this feature again at 11th and 17th level, allowing you to attack three and four times.
9th Level - Combat Surge
If something would trigger a reaction from you, but your reaction is already spent, you can regain your reaction and immediately take it.
Alternatively, if you would be able to perform a maneuver but are out of martial dice, you can regain one martial die and immediately spend it on a maneuver.
Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you complete a short or long rest.
13th Level - Indomitable
When you fail a saving throw, you can choose to re-roll it with a bonus equal to half your fighter level.
Once you use this feature, you may not do so again until you complete a long rest.
20th Level - Legendary Resistance
When you use Indomitable to re-roll a saving throw, you instead automatically succeed.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qwk8517jn2knnnb/AAD9jRQ6uEWXRWnwaowt7llWa?e=1&dl=0
2024.05.17 22:09 HFY_Inspired The Prophecy of the End - Chapter 26
Chapter 26 - The Infinite Beckons
Previous Chapter
“Okay, this part’s a little tricky.” Ma’et gestured out the shuttle’s cockpit. “You got lined up easy enough, and our velocity’s at a relative zero to the ship. The bay door’s open. Now you engage the lateral thrusters while monitoring the distance from the shuttle to the bay’s interior wall. Come in too fast and you’ll damage them both..”
Trix looked over at the controls, and the neatly gummed labels that the humans had placed over the English text with her own language. She gingerly pressed the ‘Lateral Thruster’ button, then as the control knob next to it lit up, she twisted it slowly.
An earlier misadventure when lining up the ship and the shuttle where she’d twisted the control knob much more rapidly made her much more cautious about giving it too much power too quickly, yet the shuttle slowly drifted - away from the ship. “Other thruster, feathers.”
Chagrined, she dialed the thruster back to zero, then rotated it the other direction. The ship immediately stopped moving away, and instead drifted into the hangar bay. Trix watched as it drifted past the door, staring at the distance readout until it dropped into the yellow and immediately swung the knob the other way. It took a couple of tries to get the velocity back to zero, but she managed it.
“Beautiful. Now we engage the grav plating which lets the ship’s internal grav pull us down as it ramps up, and close the external door via the console over there.” Ma’et gestured to the remote console, and Trix scanned it, punching the buttons as she found them.
“Nicely done. Go ahead and hit the engine shutdown. In the old days there’d be like, thirty steps to it but nearly all of it is automated. But lucky you, you get to read all about the manual sequence since taking over in the event of computer failure is one of a pilot’s duties.” Ma’et chuckled and squeezed Trix’s shoulder. “For now, that’s good enough. Go ahead and open both the lateral boarding door, and the rear loading door. Also extend the rear loading ramp.”
Trix did, then glanced over at Ma’et. “Anything more?”
“Nope. First day on the job, and you’ve done the first job successfully. Not perfectly, but pretty damn good for your first time piloting off planet. Go ahead and head back to talk with the Captain, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Trix unbuckled the acceleration harness (Though, she felt zero acceleration during the entire trip so she couldn’t fathom just WHY Ma’et had insisted on her buckling in) and moved past the much smaller woman as she left the cockpit.
In the back, Josh was already outside the ship, grabbing a handtruck. She watched as he pushed it up the loading ramp to the stack of boxes that contained the food and equipment she’d need for the next few weeks of existence here in space. “Why aren’t you using one of the gravity belts?” She gestured over to the wall where the belts were hanging.
“Eh, this stuff’s fairly light and those have a limited lifespan. I don’t want to burn out the Keplite cores on stuff we can just move by hand. They’re expensive.”
“Oh. What’s Keplite, anyway? Ji and Min have mentioned it a few times.” Trix glanced over at the large belts with their big circular pads in the middle.
Before Josh could answer, Alex walked in between them. “Ji, Min! We’re going to be converting the room across from yours back into crew quarters for Trix. Gonna need you two to move the Spider. Is there room here in the hangar for it?”
“It’ll fit better if we assemble it and use packing mode.” Ji countered, as he hopped out of the shuttle. “It’ll take a day or so. We’ve got it spread all out in there.”
Alex turned over to Trix and beckoned. “Follow me. Gonna give you the full tour while they’re unloading." He took a few steps back, then lifted his arms wide to gesture to their surroundings. "This is obviously the hangar bay. Shuttle's the big thing you were just flying. Below us is a small cargo hold, empty right now. Not gonna show you unless you happen to like large empty boring-ass boxes.” He raised an eyebrow, and Trix quickly shook her head. "Alright. Most of the shit in here is just maintenance tools and loading gear. Nothing exciting. Ramp to main transit corridor here."
They walked out into the hallway. “Okay, well through that door’s opposite the hangar is the fabber bay. The fabber is a huge machine that manufactures stuff for us, like a 3D printer. Do you guys have anything like that?” Trix shrugged, and Alex continued. “Well either way, it can make virtually anything from a bed to a bomb to a computer. The more complex and difficult items take a hell of a lot longer to make. It’s also a major power hog since the manufacturing process uses extremely powerful fields, both magnetic and force. In other words, if you need something and we didn’t bring it with you we can make it here.”
He walked down the hall a bit, and gestured to the doors on either side. “Launcher bays, 1 and 2. Normally we use ‘em to launch beacons, buoys, sensors, things like that into space. If someone tries to start shit with us we CAN use them to launch missiles but we have very few of those available. We’re not out here to get in fights, but if we have to defend ourselves we pack a big punch.” He opened one of the doors and walked inside. “The big hatch over there is the manual tube loader. The ship can auto-load various things but if we need to put something into space that isn’t already in storage, that’s where we do it. If Ji tells you to climb in yourself, he’s joking and you should hit him because it only exists to launch shit into space.”
Trix laughed at that, but she had learned enough of Ji’s sense of humor while working on the car to understand the sentiment. “Will I even be in here at all though?”
“Maybe. If something needs to be manually loaded, we use these. Back when we were at the derelict ship I had to send a battery over to help out while we planned our rescue. You might be asked to do the same.” Alex shrugged and lead her out into the hall. “Last thing here is the ship’s primary armament.” He reached over to the side of the hallway and pressed a hatch release. The compartment it lead to was incredibly small and tightly cramped.
“We don’t use it much outside of scaring off pirates or relieving stress, but this is our primary weapon out in space. Eight-chamber five meter long rotary railgun. Fires one round every 1.2 seconds that travel roughly a million kilometers per hour when fired stationary, or closer to 280 kilometers per second. It fires either solid armor-piercing unguided slugs or flak munitions that are used to produce clouds of metallic debris. The former will shred a ship’s armor and pulverize anything inside. The latter can overwhelm particle shields and damage exterior components without nearly as much penetration. The reason I’m saying all this to you,” He tapped the top of the cannon where it joined to the ship. “This thing’s got a super limited firing arc. Meaning that we can only shoot what we’re pointed at. If, by some miracle, we get into a fight out there then our ability to shoot back is gonna depend on your ability to fly the ship while facing the enemy.”
Trix swallowed heavily as she tried to imagine just how powerful this massive cannon was. She glanced over at the side of it, to the twin belts that fed in ammo. Each round it would fire was longer than her forearm and thicker than her waist.
“That’s the worst case scenario though. In reality, if we get into any shit out there, fighting is the LAST thing we want to do. Negotiation to avoid hostility first, escape second, fight last.” Alex shooed her out of the compartment. “That said if we encounter any low-yield junk out there then we’ll get some target practice in. If you’re game then we can let you try targeting for a bit and unload some kinetic mayhem while things are dull.” He grinned wickedly, as he manually pulled the hatch back into place, sliding two large locking levers into place.
“Okay, that’s it for this deck. There’s stairs on the far side leading up to the tech deck but the ladder here’s quicker.”
They climbed up the ladder, with Alex leading and Trix following. Her wings banged against the ceiling as she climbed, and it took her a few moments to get them tucked in tight enough to get through the hatch but with Alex’s help they got up there.
“Tech deck. Mostly. In the front of the ship here right under Bridge access is the exception, the pool room.” He opened the door and they walked in together. “Mainly used for observation but the pool there is great for relaxation. You can adjust the temperature with the controls on the wall there, goes from chilly to full on hot tub. Adjustable depth from 3 to 10 feet, and the pool walls are display panels. If you use a breather it’s fun to turn the display to external then go down underwater and relax while staring at the stars. Do you swim much?”
Trix nodded. “Sure, there’s a river a… couple kilometers? I think? I’m not good with converting distances yet. Anyway, it’s near the hab and we’d go there when I was younger and didn’t have as much to do in the fields.”
“Cool. Well, feel free to use it but just a word of warning you might want to check if anyone’s in first. Swimwear is optional and since the crew is a pretty tight family we don’t usually get embarrassed if we’re seen swimming in the buff.” Alex waved over at the control console. “If you’re not sure the big green button on the outside is the comm button, just ask if anyone’s using it.”
“Ji brought me in here when we came up to do the medical scans. He showed me Kiveyt from orbit for the first time. Do all human ships have a room like this?” Trix reached over to dip her hand into the water. It was quite warm to the touch.
“Nah. This ship wasn’t originally designed as a scout ship or survey ship. It was originally a yacht. Big luxury vehicle for rich people to fly around in space and have fun in. Throw parties. Most of the ridiculous amenities it has I got rid of ages ago, but that left a huge amount of space we filled up with all the launchers and sensors and whatnot. I kept the pool though because I love soaking after a long day.” He pressed the door control and they left the pool room.
“Just past the pool room on either side of the ship we have collection dishes for D-space particles. Those are EVA only, so you won’t be dealing with those. They let us collect extremely powerful particles which lead back here.” Alex spoke as he walked, and turned the corner into a much, much larger room.
“This is the ship’s main power supply. Charged particles enter the torus reactor and discharge energy which is converted into electrical power and routed through the ship. Those bottles over there…” He gestured to four massive grey metal canisters on the wall. “Contain the actual particles. They’re made of the strongest materials we have because if one ruptured, the ship would instantly explode from the inside out. Don’t worry,” Alex quickly raised his hands. “The chances of that happening are virtually impossible. This is the single most well-protected location on the ship.”
He gestured to the other side of the large room. “Over there’s the terminals that Min is usually at. She and Ji are in charge of all engineering. That means power, propulsion, all computer systems, and the like. Well, the physical parts of them that is. Ma’et is our computer geek when it comes to integration, programming, and all the fun software shit.”
Alex left the room, and gestured to the other side. “I’m sure you’re familiar with medical over there. Let’s do us both a favor and not have to go there much. Otherwise I’m pretty sure Kyshe will gut me.” He didn’t stop to show her inside, and they reached the main staircase. “The back half of the ship on this deck is all propulsion access and maintenance. I’m more or less our damage control guy, along with Ji and Min. For them it’s because they’re smart as shit and for me it’s because I had to learn how to maintain my own ship. Most common damage out here is stray micro meteors or debris while we’re parked and the particle shields are down. Sometimes worn out components inside. Again, no EVA for you so the only thing you’ll need to worry about for DC is being an assistant to one of us while we fix shit.”
They went up the stairwell to the uppermost of the three floors. “There used to be an observation bubble above us, but I had it removed because it was useless. Even if I covered it with ablative plating it was a massive wart on top of the ship that served zero practical purpose. Anyway, the top floor here is where you’ll spend 90% of your time on the ship. Back here…” Alex started walking to the rear of the ship, and walked through a large open doorway. “Mess hall. We generally have two kinds of meals here - when we’re on long deployment, the food extruder over there can produce rations. They’re not amazing but they’re quick both to make and eat. It’ll also make reasonable meat and dairy substitutes. If you want a real meal though we usually keep the good stuff in deep freeze so it takes a fair amount of time to be ready. Other than that the bev dispenser is over there. Water and various juices on tap all the time, alcohol is restricted only to meals only. We all get together for breakfast and dinner though, since it’s just a good way to socialize. Tonight expect a big meal in celebration.”
He walked out of the mess, and opened a door to a large open area. “Rec room. Not used a whole lot because most of us use haptic suits for exercise and recreation but we don’t have a suit that’ll fit you or your wings, so I want you to be in here twice a week at least. Ma’et is a great partner for any exercise that doesn’t involve fighting, unless you like bruises in which case she’ll happily go a few rounds with gloves on. Pilots don’t get the level of exercise you’re used to on the planet working fields so exercise up here will be pretty damn vital.”
She looked around the room, then hurried to catch up to the captain as he walked out. “On the other side of the hall from the Mess is general storage. Cleaning supplies, a small laundry unit if the one in your room quits working, random odds and ends. Also a few extra bunks just in case we need them. Unfortunately I am going to have to have you spend one night in here while we get your room cleaned up and ready for you.” He walked in, and over to one of the walls. “Bunk folds down from here. Looks, uh…” He glanced at the fold-down bed and back at Trix. “Looks tight. Do me a favor and see if you’re gonna be OK there?”
It was very close, but Trix laid down on the sleeping pad and adjusted until she found a good comfortable spot. “For just one night, this will do…”
“Alright, no worries then. We’ll have your room ready quick as we can.” She got off the pad and Alex gestured for her to follow. “Quarters themselves are here, 4 on either side of the main hallway. Myself, Josh, Ma’et, and Amanda on the right in that order. Ji, Min, Your quarters, and the last was converted into a mechanical room for Par. Speaking of…”
He walked into the last room and knocked on a large hatch. “Par, would it be alright if I introduced our newest shipmate?”
“Of course, Captain.” The hatch slid silently open revealing a large, intricate array. Circuit boards were laid out in rows and wires ran between them in perfectly neat, ordered channels. In the center of it all was a large oblong egg-looking object. “Trix, may I present to you Parathanelias Sigma-822.”
Several rows of lights lit up along the side of the egg, and the pleasant musical voice she’d heard so often came from a small speaker alongside it. “It is a pleasure to meet you in person, Trksehnoarala.”
Trix stared at the open hatch then gestured behind her. “I thought you were in those floating metal balls…?”
“The spheres you mention are my remotes. None of them are large enough to house my primary systems. In a way, they are my eyes, ears, and limbs. My true nature is integration here within the ship itself, and I make up for my limited mobility in person by having the greatest mobility of any other member of the crew.”
“He also has an avatar in VR of an organic human, but most of the time he uses the floating spheres to interact with us and the rest of the world. His core,” Alex gestured to the egg-like central object, “houses his base personality and his most important memories. The rest of this is extra storage for less critical information. I’m a bit jealous because his most important memories will always be preserved forever in perfect clarity. The rest of us get to have our memories fade with time, but his will be eternal.”
Alex stood there mutely for a moment then shook his head. “Anyway. Back to the tour. Thanks Par!”
“My pleasure.” The hatch slid silently shut and Alex and Trix left the room. “This room has been empty for long enough I pretty much gave it over to Ji and Min for a long while.” Alex walked into the room next to Par’s. “It’s kind of a mess but we’re going to get it cleaned up then it’ll be yours.”
There was no bed in the room, and the tables against the walls were covered with electronics and quickboards. In the center of the room, a huge metal contraption was spread out. Eight large jointed legs were wired in to a big central circular turret. Above that, a multitude of ‘limbs’ extended out - one a large grasper with clawed metal fingers, another ending with an odd cone-shaped implement with a blackened tip. A third was a huge metal pipe jutting out, and a fourth looked to be a number of small openings to place something into.
Trix gestured to it, “What is THAT thing?”
“That’s the Spider. It’s a long-time project the Twins have been working on. Pretty much since they joined the crew, really. It was meant to be a mechanical walker for the military but… well, that’s their story to tell.” Alex snorted. “There’s going to be enough time to go into the details later. Point is, before we even start leaving the system we’re gonna move this out, get a full king sized bed in here for you, some more storage, and so on. That door,” He gestured to a door on the other side of the room, “Leads to a hygiene unit. Full on shower, no bath but if you want to soak the Pool’s down a floor. Aside from no tub it has a deluxe toilet, sink, and a small cleaning unit for clothes.”
Trix cautiously stepped around the large disassembled robot, and opened the door to peer inside. The hygiene unit was much larger than she’d expected, and she was grateful to see that most of the facilities was familiar to her.
“Okay, one last stop and it’s the most important.” Alex walked out into the hallway and Trix rushed to catch up, almost tripping as she hopped over a piece of scrap cable along the floor. “I’m sure this will become your second home on the ship real fast. The bridge.”
They walked down the hall through a small access corridor into a large, wide open space. A large chair sat in the center with a number of controls and articulating arms present on the back. In front of it, a number of control panels were arranged in rows. The front of the bridge and both sides were dominated by massive window screens that showed the area the ship was currently facing. She could see one screen to the side with a display showing Kiveyt, first as a small dot with a zoomed-in and blown up image next to it.
“The door back there in the corner leads to a briefing room, nothing special there but a table and chairs. The big chair in the middle is mine, but if you ask super nicely I’ll let you sit in it.” Alex grinned, and pointed at the console in the very center of the bridge, in front of the Captain’s chair. “But that station over there is primary navigation. Josh is there quite a lot of the time, though just as often I navigate from the Captain’s Chair or Ma’et controls the ship from her neural interface. As of now, though, I bequeath ownership of it unto you - for the next few weeks, at least.”
Trix walked around the bridge staring at everything. The control consoles were smooth, rounded and sleek in their presentation. Each one had a large keyboard in front covered with the strange runes of the Humans’ language. Various other instruments and implements were present at each station, but at hers she smiled gratefully to see that the keys had already changed and had more familiar and recognizable letters in place of the Humans odd script. The layout was definitely weird, and she knew it was going to take time and effort to grow accustomed but at the very least she would be able to understand what she was doing as she learned. Even better, the seat lacked the same high back that the other seats had, which would have been pressed tightly and uncomfortably against her wings.
She glanced back at Alex, who just nodded at her. Encouraged, she took a seat and glanced around. “This is mine.” She whispered it and then let her wings spread out with pleasure as she realized that from here, from this station, she would be the one personally controlling the entire massive vehicle behind her. It lacked the flight stick of the shuttle or the handle controls of her aircar, and in a way she felt disappointed she wouldn’t be able to manually control the ship the same way she could the smaller vehicles. But as she looked around her and rested her hands on the cool surface of the console, she felt something else. A thrill of anticipation at the thought of being the one in control of this massive ship and everyone inside of it.
Alex climbed several steps up to the captain’s chair on its elevated dais, and took a seat directly behind her. The sight of a winged alien in front of him at the nav console with the stars stretching out above and beyond her was a strange one, but a pleasant one. He tried to think of a witty quip to finish the tour with, but failing that he settled for a much simpler one instead.
“Welcome aboard, Pilot.”
—--
“Okay, before we get started, I believe that this is a special occasion warranting a toast.” Alex sat at the head of the large table at the mess, with the other six organic members of the crew assembled further down. “To our new pilot trainee!”
“Here Here!” “To Trix!” “To our Trainee!”
Alex took a sip of his whisky, and sighed in pleasure. “God that hits the spot. Okay everyone, dig in.”
The dinner was an odd affair, mostly because every single member was wearing their visor. Trix could not speak English, and the crew couldn’t speak her native tongue. Masks which would automatically translate couldn’t be worn during a meal so the solution was to have real-time speech to text appearing on everyone’s visor. Trix, who never had worn a visor before, had a difficult time getting the display to appear just right in front of her eyes but she and Par had gotten it dialed in.
Trix glanced at the array of food in front of her. Some items looked familiar, others completely foreign, and none of it smelled quite right. She gestured to the food. “None of this is from Kiveyt. Is it safe for me to eat it?”
“I went through our entire comestible database while we were on the planet. Surprisingly there’s almost no Terran food you can’t eat.” Josh had a massive burrito nearly as long as Ma’et’s arm on the plate in front of him, and he spoke while dabbing hot sauce over it. “All of our Macronutrients are completely interchangeable. Most Micronutrients are as well. There’s a few exotic vitamins and amino acids that you need that we can’t provide, but we have supplements from the planet that’ll handle those.”
“Oh.” Trix glanced around at the table, trying to decide what to eat. The spread was, per Alex’s suggestion, extremely large and quite diverse. “I’m not sure where to start then.”
Min picked up a large platter with a circular dish on it. “Far as I’m concerned the best place to start is with Pizza. It’s one of the most widely loved foods throughout Terran space.” She dumped a slice onto the plate in front of Trix, while Ji slid a very tall glass of water over to her, alongside an odd reddish looking beverage.
“Give the fruit punch a try too. It’s much more sweet than the juice you were serving down on the planet. A lot more mild too.” He suggested, and gestured to another plate. “Also? Tacos are never a bad choice.”
Trix reached out and picked up one of the odd, semi-circular items. Ji grabbed one as well, and bit into it with gusto. Trix mimicked the motion, crunching into the hard shell. It was quite interesting, tasteless at first as she bit into the shell and the lettuce, but then the spiced meat hit her tongue. It was quite mild but not unpleasant. She chewed on it and gulped down a mouthful. “Not bad.” She took another bite.
The taco vanished quickly, and she glanced down at the slice of Pizza next. “Like this, Trix.” Min gestured to pick it up by the crust, putting her fingers in front of it to prevent it from flopping down. Trix followed Min’s example, and took a huge bite. This one was even milder, almost disappointingly so. “Not much flavor to this one. Is all your food really light like this?”
The humans glanced around at that. “Y’know, Sophie mentioned our rations were tasteless. They have a pretty strong cinnamon taste to ‘em.” Alex sat back thoughtfully as he nursed the glass of whisky in his hand. “The food we had down on the planet was all pretty strong flavors…”
Josh handed the bottle of hot sauce in his hand over to Trix. “Try a dab of this. It adds a kick to some foods.”
Trix took the bottle, and put a few drops of it on the slice of pizza in front of her. She took another bite, and her eyes lit up. The next few bites all had more hot sauce each, and the crust itself ended up practically drenched in it. “Thanks, Josh. That was delicious.”
The rest of the crew was staring at her and she shrunk back slightly at their intense scrutiny. Had she done something wrong? She hadn’t ever offended them during any meals back on the planet, so the sudden shift in attention was jarring and quite uncomfortable.
Ji whistled at the sight of the alien hungrily wofling down the slice of pizza covered in bright spicy sauce. “Here, try some of that on a taco next!” He picked up another shell and offered it to her.
Trix reached out and took the taco, this time pouring a hefty amount of sauce on it. Eating this one was much messier, and she could feel the hot sauce dribbling down the side of her mouth as she took a huge bite. Min handed her a paper towel, and she embarrassedly wiped away the errant food. “Thanks, Min. That was great too, Ji.”
“Hold up.” Alex stood up and walked over to one of the cupboards, pulling out another bottle of sauce. “I’m curious now. This is a lot hotter than the sauce you’ve been trying thus far. See if it’s to your liking. Just, start with a very small amount. A little goes a LONG way.” He walked back to the table, placing the bottle next to Trix. She studied it briefly, mostly the logo - a caricature of a human whose head appeared to be on fire.
“Um, Okay. Should I try it with the Pizza or the Taco?” She glanced between the two dishes she’d already tried. “Either one. Whichever you prefer.” was Alex’s reply.
Trix reached out and grabbed a third Taco, opening up the bottle. Immediately she could smell the fragrant sauce within, and she carefully poured a small amount into the shell. She cautiously took a bite and chewed thoughtfully.
“Too hot?” Alex suggested, but she shook her head. “No. Just…” She poured more sauce on the taco, and ate the rest in only a few bites. “Whew. Sorry, Captain Alexander. That was incredible! I’ve never tasted anything like it before.”
“Captain Alexander just sounds weird. Call me Alex or Al. Or ‘Captain’ if you really, really need to use my rank for whatever reason.” Alex sat down, and chuckled. “But that’s interesting. Very, very interesting. That sauce there?” He gestured towards the bottle. “It’s made with a chemical called ‘Capsaicin’. To humans it’s a powerful spice. Too much of it causes a painful burning sensation that lingers. We normally dilute it to make it more palatable and less painful.”
Trix glanced at the bottle. “I guess that explains the fire on the little picture here.” She grabbed another slice of the pizza, and drizzled the sauce on top.
“Three tacos and two slices of pizza?” Ma’et was impressed as she saw how much food the Avian was packing away.
“The disadvantage of those muscular bodies.” Josh waved his hand towards Trix. “They require all the calories that a Human does and more. Back on the planet I learned their species used to be a lot smaller, but after developing animal husbandry and reliable sources of higher calorie foods they bulked up pretty quick.”
Trix, for her part, slicked off the second slice of pizza with gusto. She grabbed a fourth taco, and liberally poured the spicy sauce all over, before wolfing that down as well. She grabbed the fruit juice that Ji had offered her… the ‘punch’? And downed it almost as quickly.
“I hope after all this is over, we can buy some more of that sauce. I definitely want the others back at home to try it.” She licked her lips, and sighed with contentment. “This juice too. I like how sweet it is.”
“Birds are immune to Capsaicin.” Josh murmured softly, but it was picked up by the visor and translated perfectly. “I wonder what the chances are that space-birds would be too?”
—--
“Slide the jack under that joint there.” Trix did as instructed, wheeling the small hydraulic device under the ‘spider’s’ massive leg. “Great. Just gotta line up the leg with where the servos join in…” Ji and Min lifted the leg and immediately began connecting up cables and lines. After all the connections were made, Ji braced himself against the wall and shoved - hard - against the leg, firmly connecting the mechanical rotary joint into place.
“Okay, testing.” Min walked over to the console and began punching in codes. Like the other six limbs before it, this one shook slightly then began to flex, twist, and move around. “Range of motion is nominal. Motors are all showing peak. Locking joints and anchor bolt systems are green.”
Ji wiped off some sweat from his forehead, and leaned back against the wall. “I knew it was a mistake to work on it up here. At least if we put it in the hangar we could have lowered the gravity.”
“It would have been in the way during the rescue op, and we had enough shit going on then we didn’t need to add ‘reassemble a multi-ton walking modular platform’ to the list.” Min gestured with her head, not even glancing over at her brother. “Man up. Trix hasn’t even broken a sweat.”
“I don’t sweat.” Trix mumbled, as she stared at the massive machine. “This thing is crazy. Puts my car to shame.”
“Yeah, our pride and joy. Together we’ve spent decades refining it.” Min glanced over at Trix with a broad smile. “The modular bay on top has been my focus, while Ji’s been adjusting and perfecting the leg and motion systems.”
“What’s it for?”
“Well, right now it’s kind of in between intended uses.” Ji walked over to a large shelf and gestured to the assorted objects there. “With our original plans it was going to have a bunch of swappable options. Right now, it has short and long range assault armaments and a plasma cutter for breaching sealed doors. A basic military drone capable of adapting to all kinds of situations.”
Trix stared at the array of weapons in front of her. “So this is what the human military uses to fight with?”
“Nah.” Min set down the quickboard and walked over to the huge machine. “We envisioned it as a multi-purpose response unit. Capable of dropping in from outside the atmosphere an landing anywhere, going anywhere. Dealing with any situation that could possibly arise. It’s an all-terrain support mech and its modular nature would have made it able to respond to nearly any situation. And it was rejected by the military.”
“What? Why?”
Ji held up a hand and ticked off his fingers. “One, it’s more expensive to drop one of these than a squad of soldiers. Nevermind the fact that it can do 10 people’s worth of work without putting even a single person in danger. Two, it’s too big to be fired out of normal launchers. Adding new launchers to ships would have been a significant amount of work and cost that the navy wasn’t willing to foot the bill. Three, we didn’t have any money after developing it. Meaning we couldn’t bribe anyone in the government into pressuring the military to work with us.”
“Four, they already have hover tanks and artillery and we couldn’t convince them that our system was superior to those.” Min sighed, and threw herself into a chair.
“Hovering is cheating though.” Ji glared at his sister.
“Cheating? What?” Trix just looked bewildered at this.
“Hovering isn’t all-terrain. Hovering is NO terrain.”
“Oh.” Trix took a seat in a nearby chair herself. “So did the captain buy this then?”
“Nope. See, we were finishing up Uni and started developing the Spider, but we didn’t really have the money to actually MAKE one. We had all the plans and all the research on our side but not the raw materials or the money to get those raw materials.” Ji pulled out a stick of gum and popped it in his mouth. “At first we tried going straight to the military which was a huge mistake, they just made a million excuses and told us to get lost. Then we tried approaching some weapon dev companies for funding. They basically told us they’d fund it in exchange for all the rights to production and we’d get whatever they felt was fair. Which when we pressed on a figure, wasn’t much.”
Trix glanced over at the massive mech. “But it got made, obviously.”
“Yup. When we weren’t sure what to do, a buddy of ours mentioned that Al was looking for an engineering team. We can do starship engineering.” Min grabbed the quickboard and extended one of the spider’s legs towards her, so she could kick her feet up on it. “Matter of fact, this ship’s a thing of beauty. Al is a complete doofus but he takes fantastic care of the ship. When we came on we gave him a list of everything that should change. He sat down with us, went over it point by point, and even though it ended up costing over half a million credits he gave us full authorization to make every single change we suggested.”
“So after we did a stint working as engineers we joined up as crew.” Ji had an odd smile on his face. “Since then, we’ve put the money we made from working here towards building this thing. We actually had it completed but then I had this idea of using an array of microservo actuators instead of a larger servo to give us a lot more fine control over the joints. That didn’t work, like, at all but when we used a combination of them we managed to find just the right ratio that gives us twice the amount of precision in each joint, which lets us use the-”
“ANYWAY.” Min interrupted her Brother before he could get too deep into the weeds. “We had it built, with the original armaments we envisioned, but Al suggested making a module for mining and sampling. We brought it in here in order to disassemble it to make the servo adjustments and while we were at it we were going to be replacing the actual weapons with a mining beam, core sample collector, and an array of sensors. Now though we’re going to put it in storage for a while. We got much more important things to take care of now.”
“Oh.” Trix had begun to tune Ji out when he launched into his diatribe. “But what do you mean joined up as crew? You were already crew, weren’t you?”
Min swung her foot down, and gestured to the ship. “It’s different. There’s employees… and then there’s crew. Right now you’re an employee. You’re working with us, you’re out here, but your home’s back with your Teff. Right?”
Trix nodded.
“Well, when you’re crew… this is your home. We’re all family out here. I don’t know as much about the whole Teff thing but I think it’s sort of similar. This ship’s our home, the crew is our family. Alex may be a childish idiot but he’s loyal to his crew like nothing else.” Min stood up and walked over to put her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “When we worked here and started to see how well he treats his people, we felt like we could really belong here. He asked if we’d like to join up, so we did. Best decision we ever made.”
“Yup. He treats the crew as well as he treats the ship.” Ji gestured around him. “Working for him paid well. Working as crew, we don’t get paid regularly but we get a cut out of every mission and that cut is HUGE. That’s how we could afford to actually build the spider in the first place.”
“Ah. So if he invited me along, does that mean he wants me to join the crew too?” Trix wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Joining another family was commonplace for males who left their Teff to join others, but incredibly rare for females.
“Dunno. He’s hired on specialists in the past who’ve come and gone. And he’s invited people to join up who said no and that was that.” Ji shrugged and pressed the release on the hydraulic press, letting it collapse down. “C’mon, we should get the last leg attached. Then we can pack it up and use a grav collar to move it down to the hangar. Don’t want to make you stay in that cramped storage room again tonight.”
“Yeah, I tried to stretch my wings in the morning and I banged up against one of the shelves. Really not looking forward to that again.” Trix grumbled at the memory, and stood up. “Okay, what more do we need done to get this over with?”
—--
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Previous Chapter
“Okay, this part’s a little tricky.” Ma’et gestured out the shuttle’s cockpit. “You got lined up easy enough, and our velocity’s at a relative zero to the ship. The bay door’s open. Now you engage the lateral thrusters while monitoring the distance from the shuttle to the bay’s interior wall. Come in too fast and you’ll damage them both..”
Trix looked over at the controls, and the neatly gummed labels that the humans had placed over the English text with her own language. She gingerly pressed the ‘Lateral Thruster’ button, then as the control knob next to it lit up, she twisted it slowly.
An earlier misadventure when lining up the ship and the shuttle where she’d twisted the control knob much more rapidly made her much more cautious about giving it too much power too quickly, yet the shuttle slowly drifted - away from the ship. “Other thruster, feathers.”
Chagrined, she dialed the thruster back to zero, then rotated it the other direction. The ship immediately stopped moving away, and instead drifted into the hangar bay. Trix watched as it drifted past the door, staring at the distance readout until it dropped into the yellow and immediately swung the knob the other way. It took a couple of tries to get the velocity back to zero, but she managed it.
“Beautiful. Now we engage the grav plating which lets the ship’s internal grav pull us down as it ramps up, and close the external door via the console over there.” Ma’et gestured to the remote console, and Trix scanned it, punching the buttons as she found them.
“Nicely done. Go ahead and hit the engine shutdown. In the old days there’d be like, thirty steps to it but nearly all of it is automated. But lucky you, you get to read all about the manual sequence since taking over in the event of computer failure is one of a pilot’s duties.” Ma’et chuckled and squeezed Trix’s shoulder. “For now, that’s good enough. Go ahead and open both the lateral boarding door, and the rear loading door. Also extend the rear loading ramp.”
Trix did, then glanced over at Ma’et. “Anything more?”
“Nope. First day on the job, and you’ve done the first job successfully. Not perfectly, but pretty damn good for your first time piloting off planet. Go ahead and head back to talk with the Captain, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Trix unbuckled the acceleration harness (Though, she felt zero acceleration during the entire trip so she couldn’t fathom just WHY Ma’et had insisted on her buckling in) and moved past the much smaller woman as she left the cockpit.
In the back, Josh was already outside the ship, grabbing a handtruck. She watched as he pushed it up the loading ramp to the stack of boxes that contained the food and equipment she’d need for the next few weeks of existence here in space. “Why aren’t you using one of the gravity belts?” She gestured over to the wall where the belts were hanging.
“Eh, this stuff’s fairly light and those have a limited lifespan. I don’t want to burn out the Keplite cores on stuff we can just move by hand. They’re expensive.”
“Oh. What’s Keplite, anyway? Ji and Min have mentioned it a few times.” Trix glanced over at the large belts with their big circular pads in the middle.
Before Josh could answer, Alex walked in between them. “Ji, Min! We’re going to be converting the room across from yours back into crew quarters for Trix. Gonna need you two to move the Spider. Is there room here in the hangar for it?”
“It’ll fit better if we assemble it and use packing mode.” Ji countered, as he hopped out of the shuttle. “It’ll take a day or so. We’ve got it spread all out in there.”
Alex turned over to Trix and beckoned. “Follow me. Gonna give you the full tour while they’re unloading." He took a few steps back, then lifted his arms wide to gesture to their surroundings. "This is obviously the hangar bay. Shuttle's the big thing you were just flying. Below us is a small cargo hold, empty right now. Not gonna show you unless you happen to like large empty boring-ass boxes.” He raised an eyebrow, and Trix quickly shook her head. "Alright. Most of the shit in here is just maintenance tools and loading gear. Nothing exciting. Ramp to main transit corridor here."
They walked out into the hallway. “Okay, well through that door’s opposite the hangar is the fabber bay. The fabber is a huge machine that manufactures stuff for us, like a 3D printer. Do you guys have anything like that?” Trix shrugged, and Alex continued. “Well either way, it can make virtually anything from a bed to a bomb to a computer. The more complex and difficult items take a hell of a lot longer to make. It’s also a major power hog since the manufacturing process uses extremely powerful fields, both magnetic and force. In other words, if you need something and we didn’t bring it with you we can make it here.”
He walked down the hall a bit, and gestured to the doors on either side. “Launcher bays, 1 and 2. Normally we use ‘em to launch beacons, buoys, sensors, things like that into space. If someone tries to start shit with us we CAN use them to launch missiles but we have very few of those available. We’re not out here to get in fights, but if we have to defend ourselves we pack a big punch.” He opened one of the doors and walked inside. “The big hatch over there is the manual tube loader. The ship can auto-load various things but if we need to put something into space that isn’t already in storage, that’s where we do it. If Ji tells you to climb in yourself, he’s joking and you should hit him because it only exists to launch shit into space.”
Trix laughed at that, but she had learned enough of Ji’s sense of humor while working on the car to understand the sentiment. “Will I even be in here at all though?”
“Maybe. If something needs to be manually loaded, we use these. Back when we were at the derelict ship I had to send a battery over to help out while we planned our rescue. You might be asked to do the same.” Alex shrugged and lead her out into the hall. “Last thing here is the ship’s primary armament.” He reached over to the side of the hallway and pressed a hatch release. The compartment it lead to was incredibly small and tightly cramped.
“We don’t use it much outside of scaring off pirates or relieving stress, but this is our primary weapon out in space. Eight-chamber five meter long rotary railgun. Fires one round every 1.2 seconds that travel roughly a million kilometers per hour when fired stationary, or closer to 280 kilometers per second. It fires either solid armor-piercing unguided slugs or flak munitions that are used to produce clouds of metallic debris. The former will shred a ship’s armor and pulverize anything inside. The latter can overwhelm particle shields and damage exterior components without nearly as much penetration. The reason I’m saying all this to you,” He tapped the top of the cannon where it joined to the ship. “This thing’s got a super limited firing arc. Meaning that we can only shoot what we’re pointed at. If, by some miracle, we get into a fight out there then our ability to shoot back is gonna depend on your ability to fly the ship while facing the enemy.”
Trix swallowed heavily as she tried to imagine just how powerful this massive cannon was. She glanced over at the side of it, to the twin belts that fed in ammo. Each round it would fire was longer than her forearm and thicker than her waist.
“That’s the worst case scenario though. In reality, if we get into any shit out there, fighting is the LAST thing we want to do. Negotiation to avoid hostility first, escape second, fight last.” Alex shooed her out of the compartment. “That said if we encounter any low-yield junk out there then we’ll get some target practice in. If you’re game then we can let you try targeting for a bit and unload some kinetic mayhem while things are dull.” He grinned wickedly, as he manually pulled the hatch back into place, sliding two large locking levers into place.
“Okay, that’s it for this deck. There’s stairs on the far side leading up to the tech deck but the ladder here’s quicker.”
They climbed up the ladder, with Alex leading and Trix following. Her wings banged against the ceiling as she climbed, and it took her a few moments to get them tucked in tight enough to get through the hatch but with Alex’s help they got up there.
“Tech deck. Mostly. In the front of the ship here right under Bridge access is the exception, the pool room.” He opened the door and they walked in together. “Mainly used for observation but the pool there is great for relaxation. You can adjust the temperature with the controls on the wall there, goes from chilly to full on hot tub. Adjustable depth from 3 to 10 feet, and the pool walls are display panels. If you use a breather it’s fun to turn the display to external then go down underwater and relax while staring at the stars. Do you swim much?”
Trix nodded. “Sure, there’s a river a… couple kilometers? I think? I’m not good with converting distances yet. Anyway, it’s near the hab and we’d go there when I was younger and didn’t have as much to do in the fields.”
“Cool. Well, feel free to use it but just a word of warning you might want to check if anyone’s in first. Swimwear is optional and since the crew is a pretty tight family we don’t usually get embarrassed if we’re seen swimming in the buff.” Alex waved over at the control console. “If you’re not sure the big green button on the outside is the comm button, just ask if anyone’s using it.”
“Ji brought me in here when we came up to do the medical scans. He showed me Kiveyt from orbit for the first time. Do all human ships have a room like this?” Trix reached over to dip her hand into the water. It was quite warm to the touch.
“Nah. This ship wasn’t originally designed as a scout ship or survey ship. It was originally a yacht. Big luxury vehicle for rich people to fly around in space and have fun in. Throw parties. Most of the ridiculous amenities it has I got rid of ages ago, but that left a huge amount of space we filled up with all the launchers and sensors and whatnot. I kept the pool though because I love soaking after a long day.” He pressed the door control and they left the pool room.
“Just past the pool room on either side of the ship we have collection dishes for D-space particles. Those are EVA only, so you won’t be dealing with those. They let us collect extremely powerful particles which lead back here.” Alex spoke as he walked, and turned the corner into a much, much larger room.
“This is the ship’s main power supply. Charged particles enter the torus reactor and discharge energy which is converted into electrical power and routed through the ship. Those bottles over there…” He gestured to four massive grey metal canisters on the wall. “Contain the actual particles. They’re made of the strongest materials we have because if one ruptured, the ship would instantly explode from the inside out. Don’t worry,” Alex quickly raised his hands. “The chances of that happening are virtually impossible. This is the single most well-protected location on the ship.”
He gestured to the other side of the large room. “Over there’s the terminals that Min is usually at. She and Ji are in charge of all engineering. That means power, propulsion, all computer systems, and the like. Well, the physical parts of them that is. Ma’et is our computer geek when it comes to integration, programming, and all the fun software shit.”
Alex left the room, and gestured to the other side. “I’m sure you’re familiar with medical over there. Let’s do us both a favor and not have to go there much. Otherwise I’m pretty sure Kyshe will gut me.” He didn’t stop to show her inside, and they reached the main staircase. “The back half of the ship on this deck is all propulsion access and maintenance. I’m more or less our damage control guy, along with Ji and Min. For them it’s because they’re smart as shit and for me it’s because I had to learn how to maintain my own ship. Most common damage out here is stray micro meteors or debris while we’re parked and the particle shields are down. Sometimes worn out components inside. Again, no EVA for you so the only thing you’ll need to worry about for DC is being an assistant to one of us while we fix shit.”
They went up the stairwell to the uppermost of the three floors. “There used to be an observation bubble above us, but I had it removed because it was useless. Even if I covered it with ablative plating it was a massive wart on top of the ship that served zero practical purpose. Anyway, the top floor here is where you’ll spend 90% of your time on the ship. Back here…” Alex started walking to the rear of the ship, and walked through a large open doorway. “Mess hall. We generally have two kinds of meals here - when we’re on long deployment, the food extruder over there can produce rations. They’re not amazing but they’re quick both to make and eat. It’ll also make reasonable meat and dairy substitutes. If you want a real meal though we usually keep the good stuff in deep freeze so it takes a fair amount of time to be ready. Other than that the bev dispenser is over there. Water and various juices on tap all the time, alcohol is restricted only to meals only. We all get together for breakfast and dinner though, since it’s just a good way to socialize. Tonight expect a big meal in celebration.”
He walked out of the mess, and opened a door to a large open area. “Rec room. Not used a whole lot because most of us use haptic suits for exercise and recreation but we don’t have a suit that’ll fit you or your wings, so I want you to be in here twice a week at least. Ma’et is a great partner for any exercise that doesn’t involve fighting, unless you like bruises in which case she’ll happily go a few rounds with gloves on. Pilots don’t get the level of exercise you’re used to on the planet working fields so exercise up here will be pretty damn vital.”
She looked around the room, then hurried to catch up to the captain as he walked out. “On the other side of the hall from the Mess is general storage. Cleaning supplies, a small laundry unit if the one in your room quits working, random odds and ends. Also a few extra bunks just in case we need them. Unfortunately I am going to have to have you spend one night in here while we get your room cleaned up and ready for you.” He walked in, and over to one of the walls. “Bunk folds down from here. Looks, uh…” He glanced at the fold-down bed and back at Trix. “Looks tight. Do me a favor and see if you’re gonna be OK there?”
It was very close, but Trix laid down on the sleeping pad and adjusted until she found a good comfortable spot. “For just one night, this will do…”
“Alright, no worries then. We’ll have your room ready quick as we can.” She got off the pad and Alex gestured for her to follow. “Quarters themselves are here, 4 on either side of the main hallway. Myself, Josh, Ma’et, and Amanda on the right in that order. Ji, Min, Your quarters, and the last was converted into a mechanical room for Par. Speaking of…”
He walked into the last room and knocked on a large hatch. “Par, would it be alright if I introduced our newest shipmate?”
“Of course, Captain.” The hatch slid silently open revealing a large, intricate array. Circuit boards were laid out in rows and wires ran between them in perfectly neat, ordered channels. In the center of it all was a large oblong egg-looking object. “Trix, may I present to you Parathanelias Sigma-822.”
Several rows of lights lit up along the side of the egg, and the pleasant musical voice she’d heard so often came from a small speaker alongside it. “It is a pleasure to meet you in person, Trksehnoarala.”
Trix stared at the open hatch then gestured behind her. “I thought you were in those floating metal balls…?”
“The spheres you mention are my remotes. None of them are large enough to house my primary systems. In a way, they are my eyes, ears, and limbs. My true nature is integration here within the ship itself, and I make up for my limited mobility in person by having the greatest mobility of any other member of the crew.”
“He also has an avatar in VR of an organic human, but most of the time he uses the floating spheres to interact with us and the rest of the world. His core,” Alex gestured to the egg-like central object, “houses his base personality and his most important memories. The rest of this is extra storage for less critical information. I’m a bit jealous because his most important memories will always be preserved forever in perfect clarity. The rest of us get to have our memories fade with time, but his will be eternal.”
Alex stood there mutely for a moment then shook his head. “Anyway. Back to the tour. Thanks Par!”
“My pleasure.” The hatch slid silently shut and Alex and Trix left the room. “This room has been empty for long enough I pretty much gave it over to Ji and Min for a long while.” Alex walked into the room next to Par’s. “It’s kind of a mess but we’re going to get it cleaned up then it’ll be yours.”
There was no bed in the room, and the tables against the walls were covered with electronics and quickboards. In the center of the room, a huge metal contraption was spread out. Eight large jointed legs were wired in to a big central circular turret. Above that, a multitude of ‘limbs’ extended out - one a large grasper with clawed metal fingers, another ending with an odd cone-shaped implement with a blackened tip. A third was a huge metal pipe jutting out, and a fourth looked to be a number of small openings to place something into.
Trix gestured to it, “What is THAT thing?”
“That’s the Spider. It’s a long-time project the Twins have been working on. Pretty much since they joined the crew, really. It was meant to be a mechanical walker for the military but… well, that’s their story to tell.” Alex snorted. “There’s going to be enough time to go into the details later. Point is, before we even start leaving the system we’re gonna move this out, get a full king sized bed in here for you, some more storage, and so on. That door,” He gestured to a door on the other side of the room, “Leads to a hygiene unit. Full on shower, no bath but if you want to soak the Pool’s down a floor. Aside from no tub it has a deluxe toilet, sink, and a small cleaning unit for clothes.”
Trix cautiously stepped around the large disassembled robot, and opened the door to peer inside. The hygiene unit was much larger than she’d expected, and she was grateful to see that most of the facilities was familiar to her.
“Okay, one last stop and it’s the most important.” Alex walked out into the hallway and Trix rushed to catch up, almost tripping as she hopped over a piece of scrap cable along the floor. “I’m sure this will become your second home on the ship real fast. The bridge.”
They walked down the hall through a small access corridor into a large, wide open space. A large chair sat in the center with a number of controls and articulating arms present on the back. In front of it, a number of control panels were arranged in rows. The front of the bridge and both sides were dominated by massive window screens that showed the area the ship was currently facing. She could see one screen to the side with a display showing Kiveyt, first as a small dot with a zoomed-in and blown up image next to it.
“The door back there in the corner leads to a briefing room, nothing special there but a table and chairs. The big chair in the middle is mine, but if you ask super nicely I’ll let you sit in it.” Alex grinned, and pointed at the console in the very center of the bridge, in front of the Captain’s chair. “But that station over there is primary navigation. Josh is there quite a lot of the time, though just as often I navigate from the Captain’s Chair or Ma’et controls the ship from her neural interface. As of now, though, I bequeath ownership of it unto you - for the next few weeks, at least.”
Trix walked around the bridge staring at everything. The control consoles were smooth, rounded and sleek in their presentation. Each one had a large keyboard in front covered with the strange runes of the Humans’ language. Various other instruments and implements were present at each station, but at hers she smiled gratefully to see that the keys had already changed and had more familiar and recognizable letters in place of the Humans odd script. The layout was definitely weird, and she knew it was going to take time and effort to grow accustomed but at the very least she would be able to understand what she was doing as she learned. Even better, the seat lacked the same high back that the other seats had, which would have been pressed tightly and uncomfortably against her wings.
She glanced back at Alex, who just nodded at her. Encouraged, she took a seat and glanced around. “This is mine.” She whispered it and then let her wings spread out with pleasure as she realized that from here, from this station, she would be the one personally controlling the entire massive vehicle behind her. It lacked the flight stick of the shuttle or the handle controls of her aircar, and in a way she felt disappointed she wouldn’t be able to manually control the ship the same way she could the smaller vehicles. But as she looked around her and rested her hands on the cool surface of the console, she felt something else. A thrill of anticipation at the thought of being the one in control of this massive ship and everyone inside of it.
Alex climbed several steps up to the captain’s chair on its elevated dais, and took a seat directly behind her. The sight of a winged alien in front of him at the nav console with the stars stretching out above and beyond her was a strange one, but a pleasant one. He tried to think of a witty quip to finish the tour with, but failing that he settled for a much simpler one instead.
“Welcome aboard, Pilot.”
—--
“Okay, before we get started, I believe that this is a special occasion warranting a toast.” Alex sat at the head of the large table at the mess, with the other six organic members of the crew assembled further down. “To our new pilot trainee!”
“Here Here!” “To Trix!” “To our Trainee!”
Alex took a sip of his whisky, and sighed in pleasure. “God that hits the spot. Okay everyone, dig in.”
The dinner was an odd affair, mostly because every single member was wearing their visor. Trix could not speak English, and the crew couldn’t speak her native tongue. Masks which would automatically translate couldn’t be worn during a meal so the solution was to have real-time speech to text appearing on everyone’s visor. Trix, who never had worn a visor before, had a difficult time getting the display to appear just right in front of her eyes but she and Par had gotten it dialed in.
Trix glanced at the array of food in front of her. Some items looked familiar, others completely foreign, and none of it smelled quite right. She gestured to the food. “None of this is from Kiveyt. Is it safe for me to eat it?”
“I went through our entire comestible database while we were on the planet. Surprisingly there’s almost no Terran food you can’t eat.” Josh had a massive burrito nearly as long as Ma’et’s arm on the plate in front of him, and he spoke while dabbing hot sauce over it. “All of our Macronutrients are completely interchangeable. Most Micronutrients are as well. There’s a few exotic vitamins and amino acids that you need that we can’t provide, but we have supplements from the planet that’ll handle those.”
“Oh.” Trix glanced around at the table, trying to decide what to eat. The spread was, per Alex’s suggestion, extremely large and quite diverse. “I’m not sure where to start then.”
Min picked up a large platter with a circular dish on it. “Far as I’m concerned the best place to start is with Pizza. It’s one of the most widely loved foods throughout Terran space.” She dumped a slice onto the plate in front of Trix, while Ji slid a very tall glass of water over to her, alongside an odd reddish looking beverage.
“Give the fruit punch a try too. It’s much more sweet than the juice you were serving down on the planet. A lot more mild too.” He suggested, and gestured to another plate. “Also? Tacos are never a bad choice.”
Trix reached out and picked up one of the odd, semi-circular items. Ji grabbed one as well, and bit into it with gusto. Trix mimicked the motion, crunching into the hard shell. It was quite interesting, tasteless at first as she bit into the shell and the lettuce, but then the spiced meat hit her tongue. It was quite mild but not unpleasant. She chewed on it and gulped down a mouthful. “Not bad.” She took another bite.
The taco vanished quickly, and she glanced down at the slice of Pizza next. “Like this, Trix.” Min gestured to pick it up by the crust, putting her fingers in front of it to prevent it from flopping down. Trix followed Min’s example, and took a huge bite. This one was even milder, almost disappointingly so. “Not much flavor to this one. Is all your food really light like this?”
The humans glanced around at that. “Y’know, Sophie mentioned our rations were tasteless. They have a pretty strong cinnamon taste to ‘em.” Alex sat back thoughtfully as he nursed the glass of whisky in his hand. “The food we had down on the planet was all pretty strong flavors…”
Josh handed the bottle of hot sauce in his hand over to Trix. “Try a dab of this. It adds a kick to some foods.”
Trix took the bottle, and put a few drops of it on the slice of pizza in front of her. She took another bite, and her eyes lit up. The next few bites all had more hot sauce each, and the crust itself ended up practically drenched in it. “Thanks, Josh. That was delicious.”
The rest of the crew was staring at her and she shrunk back slightly at their intense scrutiny. Had she done something wrong? She hadn’t ever offended them during any meals back on the planet, so the sudden shift in attention was jarring and quite uncomfortable.
Ji whistled at the sight of the alien hungrily wofling down the slice of pizza covered in bright spicy sauce. “Here, try some of that on a taco next!” He picked up another shell and offered it to her.
Trix reached out and took the taco, this time pouring a hefty amount of sauce on it. Eating this one was much messier, and she could feel the hot sauce dribbling down the side of her mouth as she took a huge bite. Min handed her a paper towel, and she embarrassedly wiped away the errant food. “Thanks, Min. That was great too, Ji.”
“Hold up.” Alex stood up and walked over to one of the cupboards, pulling out another bottle of sauce. “I’m curious now. This is a lot hotter than the sauce you’ve been trying thus far. See if it’s to your liking. Just, start with a very small amount. A little goes a LONG way.” He walked back to the table, placing the bottle next to Trix. She studied it briefly, mostly the logo - a caricature of a human whose head appeared to be on fire.
“Um, Okay. Should I try it with the Pizza or the Taco?” She glanced between the two dishes she’d already tried. “Either one. Whichever you prefer.” was Alex’s reply.
Trix reached out and grabbed a third Taco, opening up the bottle. Immediately she could smell the fragrant sauce within, and she carefully poured a small amount into the shell. She cautiously took a bite and chewed thoughtfully.
“Too hot?” Alex suggested, but she shook her head. “No. Just…” She poured more sauce on the taco, and ate the rest in only a few bites. “Whew. Sorry, Captain Alexander. That was incredible! I’ve never tasted anything like it before.”
“Captain Alexander just sounds weird. Call me Alex or Al. Or ‘Captain’ if you really, really need to use my rank for whatever reason.” Alex sat down, and chuckled. “But that’s interesting. Very, very interesting. That sauce there?” He gestured towards the bottle. “It’s made with a chemical called ‘Capsaicin’. To humans it’s a powerful spice. Too much of it causes a painful burning sensation that lingers. We normally dilute it to make it more palatable and less painful.”
Trix glanced at the bottle. “I guess that explains the fire on the little picture here.” She grabbed another slice of the pizza, and drizzled the sauce on top.
“Three tacos and two slices of pizza?” Ma’et was impressed as she saw how much food the Avian was packing away.
“The disadvantage of those muscular bodies.” Josh waved his hand towards Trix. “They require all the calories that a Human does and more. Back on the planet I learned their species used to be a lot smaller, but after developing animal husbandry and reliable sources of higher calorie foods they bulked up pretty quick.”
Trix, for her part, slicked off the second slice of pizza with gusto. She grabbed a fourth taco, and liberally poured the spicy sauce all over, before wolfing that down as well. She grabbed the fruit juice that Ji had offered her… the ‘punch’? And downed it almost as quickly.
“I hope after all this is over, we can buy some more of that sauce. I definitely want the others back at home to try it.” She licked her lips, and sighed with contentment. “This juice too. I like how sweet it is.”
“Birds are immune to Capsaicin.” Josh murmured softly, but it was picked up by the visor and translated perfectly. “I wonder what the chances are that space-birds would be too?”
—--
“Slide the jack under that joint there.” Trix did as instructed, wheeling the small hydraulic device under the ‘spider’s’ massive leg. “Great. Just gotta line up the leg with where the servos join in…” Ji and Min lifted the leg and immediately began connecting up cables and lines. After all the connections were made, Ji braced himself against the wall and shoved - hard - against the leg, firmly connecting the mechanical rotary joint into place.
“Okay, testing.” Min walked over to the console and began punching in codes. Like the other six limbs before it, this one shook slightly then began to flex, twist, and move around. “Range of motion is nominal. Motors are all showing peak. Locking joints and anchor bolt systems are green.”
Ji wiped off some sweat from his forehead, and leaned back against the wall. “I knew it was a mistake to work on it up here. At least if we put it in the hangar we could have lowered the gravity.”
“It would have been in the way during the rescue op, and we had enough shit going on then we didn’t need to add ‘reassemble a multi-ton walking modular platform’ to the list.” Min gestured with her head, not even glancing over at her brother. “Man up. Trix hasn’t even broken a sweat.”
“I don’t sweat.” Trix mumbled, as she stared at the massive machine. “This thing is crazy. Puts my car to shame.”
“Yeah, our pride and joy. Together we’ve spent decades refining it.” Min glanced over at Trix with a broad smile. “The modular bay on top has been my focus, while Ji’s been adjusting and perfecting the leg and motion systems.”
“What’s it for?”
“Well, right now it’s kind of in between intended uses.” Ji walked over to a large shelf and gestured to the assorted objects there. “With our original plans it was going to have a bunch of swappable options. Right now, it has short and long range assault armaments and a plasma cutter for breaching sealed doors. A basic military drone capable of adapting to all kinds of situations.”
Trix stared at the array of weapons in front of her. “So this is what the human military uses to fight with?”
“Nah.” Min set down the quickboard and walked over to the huge machine. “We envisioned it as a multi-purpose response unit. Capable of dropping in from outside the atmosphere an landing anywhere, going anywhere. Dealing with any situation that could possibly arise. It’s an all-terrain support mech and its modular nature would have made it able to respond to nearly any situation. And it was rejected by the military.”
“What? Why?”
Ji held up a hand and ticked off his fingers. “One, it’s more expensive to drop one of these than a squad of soldiers. Nevermind the fact that it can do 10 people’s worth of work without putting even a single person in danger. Two, it’s too big to be fired out of normal launchers. Adding new launchers to ships would have been a significant amount of work and cost that the navy wasn’t willing to foot the bill. Three, we didn’t have any money after developing it. Meaning we couldn’t bribe anyone in the government into pressuring the military to work with us.”
“Four, they already have hover tanks and artillery and we couldn’t convince them that our system was superior to those.” Min sighed, and threw herself into a chair.
“Hovering is cheating though.” Ji glared at his sister.
“Cheating? What?” Trix just looked bewildered at this.
“Hovering isn’t all-terrain. Hovering is NO terrain.”
“Oh.” Trix took a seat in a nearby chair herself. “So did the captain buy this then?”
“Nope. See, we were finishing up Uni and started developing the Spider, but we didn’t really have the money to actually MAKE one. We had all the plans and all the research on our side but not the raw materials or the money to get those raw materials.” Ji pulled out a stick of gum and popped it in his mouth. “At first we tried going straight to the military which was a huge mistake, they just made a million excuses and told us to get lost. Then we tried approaching some weapon dev companies for funding. They basically told us they’d fund it in exchange for all the rights to production and we’d get whatever they felt was fair. Which when we pressed on a figure, wasn’t much.”
Trix glanced over at the massive mech. “But it got made, obviously.”
“Yup. When we weren’t sure what to do, a buddy of ours mentioned that Al was looking for an engineering team. We can do starship engineering.” Min grabbed the quickboard and extended one of the spider’s legs towards her, so she could kick her feet up on it. “Matter of fact, this ship’s a thing of beauty. Al is a complete doofus but he takes fantastic care of the ship. When we came on we gave him a list of everything that should change. He sat down with us, went over it point by point, and even though it ended up costing over half a million credits he gave us full authorization to make every single change we suggested.”
“So after we did a stint working as engineers we joined up as crew.” Ji had an odd smile on his face. “Since then, we’ve put the money we made from working here towards building this thing. We actually had it completed but then I had this idea of using an array of microservo actuators instead of a larger servo to give us a lot more fine control over the joints. That didn’t work, like, at all but when we used a combination of them we managed to find just the right ratio that gives us twice the amount of precision in each joint, which lets us use the-”
“ANYWAY.” Min interrupted her Brother before he could get too deep into the weeds. “We had it built, with the original armaments we envisioned, but Al suggested making a module for mining and sampling. We brought it in here in order to disassemble it to make the servo adjustments and while we were at it we were going to be replacing the actual weapons with a mining beam, core sample collector, and an array of sensors. Now though we’re going to put it in storage for a while. We got much more important things to take care of now.”
“Oh.” Trix had begun to tune Ji out when he launched into his diatribe. “But what do you mean joined up as crew? You were already crew, weren’t you?”
Min swung her foot down, and gestured to the ship. “It’s different. There’s employees… and then there’s crew. Right now you’re an employee. You’re working with us, you’re out here, but your home’s back with your Teff. Right?”
Trix nodded.
“Well, when you’re crew… this is your home. We’re all family out here. I don’t know as much about the whole Teff thing but I think it’s sort of similar. This ship’s our home, the crew is our family. Alex may be a childish idiot but he’s loyal to his crew like nothing else.” Min stood up and walked over to put her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “When we worked here and started to see how well he treats his people, we felt like we could really belong here. He asked if we’d like to join up, so we did. Best decision we ever made.”
“Yup. He treats the crew as well as he treats the ship.” Ji gestured around him. “Working for him paid well. Working as crew, we don’t get paid regularly but we get a cut out of every mission and that cut is HUGE. That’s how we could afford to actually build the spider in the first place.”
“Ah. So if he invited me along, does that mean he wants me to join the crew too?” Trix wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Joining another family was commonplace for males who left their Teff to join others, but incredibly rare for females.
“Dunno. He’s hired on specialists in the past who’ve come and gone. And he’s invited people to join up who said no and that was that.” Ji shrugged and pressed the release on the hydraulic press, letting it collapse down. “C’mon, we should get the last leg attached. Then we can pack it up and use a grav collar to move it down to the hangar. Don’t want to make you stay in that cramped storage room again tonight.”
“Yeah, I tried to stretch my wings in the morning and I banged up against one of the shelves. Really not looking forward to that again.” Trix grumbled at the memory, and stood up. “Okay, what more do we need done to get this over with?”
—--
2024.05.17 21:56 humpbackwhale5467 HP Prodesk 600 G1 GPU upgrade
Hello,
I have a HP Prodesk 600, which I was using as my server. I replaced the server with a much more power-efficient device so I want to turn the HP as my daily PC. I'm thinking I may want to do a bit of gaming on it @ 3440x1440. Not really interested in new AAA titles except maybe for RDR2 so I think an older computer will be fine. I was looking at some AM5 builds, but the components are still quite expensive here in Eastern Europe.
What I have now:
So the question is, are there some obvious right choices here or cards which I haven't even though of? I imagine that realistically I might end up using this computer for some years. I was rocking a temporary i7-2600 for a VERY long time.
submitted by humpbackwhale5467 to buildapc [link] [comments]
I have a HP Prodesk 600, which I was using as my server. I replaced the server with a much more power-efficient device so I want to turn the HP as my daily PC. I'm thinking I may want to do a bit of gaming on it @ 3440x1440. Not really interested in new AAA titles except maybe for RDR2 so I think an older computer will be fine. I was looking at some AM5 builds, but the components are still quite expensive here in Eastern Europe.
What I have now:
- mobo HP 600 G1 SFF 696549-002 739682-001 739682-501
- Intel i5-4590
- 24 GB RAM (16 GB Geil, 8 GB Kingston)
- 1 x SSD
- 240 W 80+ Platinum PSU (I measured that under stress the current components consume 60 W)
- DVD drive, might not even plug it in
- Arc 380, 160 €
- RTX 3050 LP, 200 €
So the question is, are there some obvious right choices here or cards which I haven't even though of? I imagine that realistically I might end up using this computer for some years. I was rocking a temporary i7-2600 for a VERY long time.
2024.05.17 21:38 HFY_Inspired The Prophecy of the End - Chapter 25
Chapter 25 - The Job Offer
Previous Chapter
The massive shuttle rocketed through the atmosphere as Trix reached out to nudge the throttle down slightly. Josh was right, it wasn’t anything like flying an Aircar. At first it consisted of programming in the destination, desired speed, height, and letting the computer do all the work. When she expressed dissatisfaction at that, Ma’et had kicked the boys out of the cockpit and showed her how to access the manual flight stick. That was where things began to get fun.
And then when turning down the gravitic inertial compensation so she could FEEL the power of the shuttle pressing her back in her seat, feel the vibration of the wind against the shuttle as it roared through the skies, feel her body pulled to one side or the other as she sent it into a tight turn… that was when the world fell away entirely. The skies opened up in a vast vista before her.
Ma’et sat beside her, occasionally mentioning a tip or trick here. A small adjustment to make there. The shuttle had zero control surfaces, it handled like a brick - but it compensated for all of that with sheer, raw power. The power to smash through the sound barrier like it was made of paper. The power to soar effortlessly a few feet above the waves, or to rocket up into the stratosphere with ease. Gravity was a mere suggestion, one which Trix rejected entirely.
After a few minutes Ma’et went into the back to speak with the others. “I think our girl is completely hooked. She picked that up faster than anyone I’ve ever seen before.”
Josh walked over to Ji, handing him a small pill and a cup of water. While most of the crew was fine with the reduced inertial compensation and the feeling of actual motion that Trix was putting the shuttle through, Ji was the exception. He was definitely looking very green about the gills. “Guess we’re seeing thousands of years of flight instinct coming to the fore. That’s the best explanation I can come up with at least.”
“I was wondering about that.” Ma’et sat down next to the captain’s head and smacked the side of his head lightly. “Would a species that evolves from birds be naturals at flying? If she’s any indication the answer is ‘yes’.”
“I don’t know how universal it was. In the races there were some pretty decent pilots but you ask me, Trix outflew them all. S’why I’m thinking maybe she’d be a natural pilot.”
Josh glanced over at them. “I think she’s better than me. And I’ve been flying this thing for decades.”
Ma’et nodded. “She took to every bit of instruction we gave her like it was second nature. I don’t know if it’s because she descended from a flying species or what, but she’s a natural. If the rest of the planet has as many naturally skilled pilots as she is, then every captain this side of Mars will want to hire them on.”
“Well, that’s assuming we let her fly stick in the first place.” Min pointed out. “I think that first bit where we had her on autopilot actually made her mood WORSE.”
“Either way, I want to see whether or not she can take those flight skills and upgrade ‘em to zero-g.” Alex sat up and tapped the conference button on his breath mask and turned off the translator. “Crew meeting. Amanda, you there?”
Amanda had spent most of the morning in the Presh manor, going over some of the finer details of the proposals for exchange between Terrafault and the locals. Meaning while they were out joyriding above the ocean, she was up to her neck in paperwork thousands of kilometers away. “I’m here, Alex. What’s going on?”
“We’re on the shuttle. I put Trix at the helm. She’s phenomenal. I’m taking an official vote. All in favor of offering her a position on the ship as pilot?”
“Aye.” Ma’et and Min-ah spoke as one. “Sure.” was Josh’s response.
“Wait. Pilot? Hold on, Al….”
Ji raised a thumb, but didn’t speak - concentrating on keeping his mouth closed as much as he could. “Par?”
“There are a number of advantages it would bring. I have not interacted with her as much as you have, but our conversations have been pleasant. I vote yes.”
“Hold on, hold on!” Amanda tried to interject. “Alexander, before you go tearing off and….”
“Too late. Six to one, you’re outvoted. Do me a favor and draw up an employment contract.” Alex pushed the leave button on the chat, smiling. He missed whatever response Amanda made but he was sure it was spectacular judging by Min and Ma’ets reactions to it.
He unbuckled himself from the seat restraint, and made his way up to the cockpit. “How’s it going up here?”
“Fine, fine.” Trix made a dismissive gesture. “I’m doing fine up here. No need to check in on me.”
“That’s not why I’m here. Do me a favor, and put the autopilot on back to the Presh mansion. I’ll send Ma’et up here to watch it. But you and I need to have a little chat, so out of the cockpit for now.”
Trix looked up at him in surprise, then frowned and pushed the release button on the control stick. She pulled up the list of previous destinations just as Ma’et had showed her before, and touched the control to send the shuttle back to land near the capitol of the Presh lands.
In the back of the shuttle, Ji was looking decidedly unwell, and Josh was at his side. Ma’et scrambled back up front while Trix took a seat on the center couch, and Alex sat down opposite her.
“So, Trix, not gonna beat around the bush here. You were great in the race. You took to the shuttle just fine. I want to see how well you do flying a bigger ship. My ship.” he gestured up above his head.
“What, like now? I thought we were heading back to the Presh?” Trix glanced up, as though she could see the massive bronze ship out there through the ceiling of the shuttle.
“We are. But I don’t mean right now. I mean, I want to hire you as a pilot. For our trip out to JR692 to survey minerals. Off planet, on my ship.”
Trix froze up entirely at this. Not even a direct impact to her helmet by a challenge round could have been more unexpected and surprising, and she found herself entirely unable to respond. Unable to THINK.
Alex took her sudden silence as indecision, though, and decided to just press forward. “Honestly it’s a huge decision, it’s not something I’m expecting a yes or no right now on. You haven’t been around us very long, just a few weeks here on the planet. But you’ve gotten along superbly with Ji and Min. That alone makes me think you’d do well up on the ship.”
“I… uh, I hadn’t…” Trix stumbled over her words for a moment, then coughed suddenly. “I’m not sure. Uh, I really don’t know how to fly a space ship.”
“I know. I’m not expecting you to know how to right away. Flying outside an atmosphere with no gravity is worlds different than flying an aircar or the shuttle, and you’ve got zero experience. But to be blunt, I have a good gut feeling about you and I want to give you a chance to learn and join us.” Alex held up a hand, ticking off points on his fingers.
“First, we are a seriously social species. We make friends easy and quickly. That means when we find someone we like we want to be around them. That’s already a big point in your favor. Second, after we complete our survey mission your testimony to Kyshe can help alleviate her worries about whether or not we can be trustworthy. Third, ours is a small crew and we have to split duties. If you’ll join us and take on the role of pilot, that will reduce the load on the rest of the crew. And lastly, in the future I hope that our two societies will be able to interact a lot more closely. But people will be reluctant to take that first step. If you join us and it works out well, then others who would be reluctant will be more likely to do the same in the future.”
“However!” Alex let his hands fall back to his sides. “With all that said, it’s not all sunshine and roses. It’s going to be a lot of work to learn how to fly the ship. It’s going to be long hours spent learning and training, and lots of the training will be boring. If you do decide to come with us, then it means spending a lot of time in close quarters with the crew. We won’t be able to return until we complete our survey mission, which normally lasts at least a full month. During which there WILL be a lot of tedious chores that need to be done around the ship, and you’ll be expected to help out. We split the chores fairly, and you won’t be made to do anything unreasonable that the rest of us won’t do.”
Alex leaned back on the seat, and crossed his arms. “So that’s the offer. I want you to become the first Sovalin to work alongside Humans. You’ll be paid fairly, you’ll have good accommodations and recreation available, but it’s going to be a lot of work and if you agree you can’t back out anytime soon. Our current plan is to head to JR692 in roughly a week. Take as much time until then to decide. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to let us know.”
—--
Kyshe glared irritably at the human across from her desk. He had arrived at her request, alone and without any of the rest of his crew. “Captain. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
“Always happy to be here. Since I wasn’t escorted by soldiers this time I take it I’m not in trouble?” Alex grinned and tried to lighten the mood with a joke.
“I would not go that far. The only reason I did not order your arrest is because I am trying, very hard, to afford you the benefit of the doubt. And I would appreciate it very much if you would explain to me why I should continue to exercise that restraint.” One of her wingtips, adorned with a metal sheath similar to the ones that Sophie often wore, tapped against the floor as she sat waiting in her chair.
“Okay, I’m assuming this isn’t about us breaking the sound barrier out over the ocean.” Kyshe glared and nodded. “So it’s about the job offer. There’s really not a whole lot to explain really. I felt like Trix could be a good fit with the crew and it seemed like a natural way to put my ideals into practice.” Alex leaned forward as he spoke. “I’m not trying to force her into anything, she’s free to refuse and we won’t hold it against her. It’s not a big deal.”
Kyshe closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m having a difficult time believing it’s so simple. You said your people wouldn’t use ours as labor. Yet now you attempt to lure one of our young adults into your employment?”
“Now hold on. We’re not trying to use her for labor! The job that I offered to her was Pilot, not janitor or anything.” he protested.
Kyshe opened her eyes and banged a fist on the table. “You expect me to believe that?” Her hand swept out around in a big arc. “She’s a farmer! Nearly everyone in this valley is! She’s used to hard work day in and day out. Not flying starships. You seriously expect me to believe you don’t just want to dump all the difficult tasks on her?”
“Okay. Point taken, I can see why you’re concerned about that. And, to be fair, she WILL be doing more than just piloting. We all do.” Alex held up a hand. “The crew has seven members total. On a starship. Even with all the automation we have, that’s still running fairly bare bones. We all of us, myself included, have to do dozens of things every single day to keep things running smoothly. Equipment checks. Replacing worn out components. Making meals for everyone. But even though she WILL be expected to help out, there’s nothing at all we’ll be asking her to do that we won’t also be doing. That’s just the nature of being on a small ship.”
Kyshe continued to tap her wingtip on the floor. “It is perhaps the fact that you’re trying to hire an untrained farmhand that most concerns me. It seems as though it would be much, much easier to simply look for someone already trained as a pilot. The M’rit for example often ferry resources up to orbit. I’m sure that one of their pilots would be a much better fit.”
“Eh, that’s a bit doubtful. They may have experience with your ships and systems but from what I’ve seen, ours are going to be pretty alien to them as well. They’ll likely require just as much training. Hell, if anything Trix might have an easier time because she won’t have to un-learn what she already knows. Plus we’ve already built up a rapport with Trix. That’s important when you’re spending weeks and months together. That’s a big reason why I offered the job to her in particular.”
Kyshe grunted noncommittally, and Alex stood up. “It was a gesture made in good faith, Matriarch. When I spoke of our two peoples standing beside one another this is pretty much what I had in mind. Humans and Sovalin working together. On a ship, on a planet, on a station, whatever. But working together as a team is the important part.”
Kyshe looked unconvinced so Alex continued. “Matriarch, if the offer is going to cause difficulties then I’ll retract it. I hadn’t thought it’d upset you this much, and I’m not willing to lose what little faith you have in me over this.”
“I’m very, very tempted to tell you to do exactly that.” Kyshe muttered. “I already feel like we’re placing far too much trust in you as it is.”
“Yeah, I understand. And I’ll leave it up to you. I really do want to have her join us up on the ship, but earning your trust is more important. That said, I think maybe you should talk to her directly? She’s been around us the longest out of any of your people, after all.”
Kyshe hesitated at that, wondering whether or not the girl had somehow been influenced by the Humans. Ultimately, she nodded. “That’s reasonable.” She sat there in thought for a few minutes, then stood up and walked over to the other side of the desk. “I won’t make any choices until I speak with the girl. But I do question the necessity of this. Do you truly need to take her with you?”
“No, we don’t. It’s not at all necessary.” Alex admitted. “We can still continue on with our original mission without another crew member. But just because it isn’t necessary doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. Matriarch, every single thing I know about Humans and everything I’ve seen here on the planet tells me one thing - sooner or later our societies WILL become friends or allies. The big question is gonna be ‘when’ because I am sure it’ll happen. I for one want that to be ‘sooner’. I think it’ll be better for your people if we can cooperate quicker. I think my people have been alone in the void too long and need new friends to help us grow as a people. And your people have been betrayed by ‘friends’ and could use someone to help you regain the independence that was stolen from you. We have plenty of reasons to come together.”
Kyshe grimaced as she leaned back against the desk. “I wish I could share in that sort of optimism. I admit I would prefer if everything went as well as you say it will. I simply doubt things will go as smoothly and as easily as you claim.”
“Probably not, if I’m being honest.” Alex stood up as well and gestured out the window. “I know I often talk big, but that’s because I like to dream big. I know that I’m moving quickly but that’s just how I do things. Sometimes it gets me in trouble and sometimes everything works out well but either way I live without regrets.”
Kyshe pressed a button on the desk she leaned against, and an aide came in. “Please call Trksehn into the office. I’d like to discuss this with her.” As the aide left, Kyshe nodded towards the Captain. “Just know, Captain, that I will hold you responsible if something does occur.”
—--
Trksehn walked into the office, and upon sighting the Matriarch immediately took a knee, placing a closed fist in front of her respectfully. “Matriarch, you have summoned me.”
Kyshe motioned to the aide who tugged on the girl’s arm. “The Matriarch doesn’t enjoy the more formal expressions of respect.” they whispered into her ear.
“Thank you for coming promptly. We wish to speak with you about the offer you’ve received.” Trix glanced over and noticed that Captain Alex was present in the room. She raised a hand to him in greeting.
“So, uh, if you two are going to be talking, maybe I should go?” He offered, taking a step towards the door.
“No. Stay. There may be questions we have for you.” The Matriarch commanded, and he froze, before stepping back to the chair he’d vacated shortly before. “Have a seat.” Kyshe told Trix as she gestured to the empty chair next to the Captain.
“The reason I called you here is because I have a number of concerns with the Captain’s proposal to you.” Kyshe began, as she moved back to her chair on the opposite side of the desk from the others. “I know you have not had much time to consider it, and I do apologize for that. My primary concern in this matter is with your well being.”
“Uh, in what way Matriarch?” Trix shifted uncomfortably in the chair. The Matriarch was clearly quite unhappy and being in the presence of an unhappy leader was incredibly intimidating.
“We know so little about the Humans. We still have little more than the Captain’s reassurances that they are as they say - here to befriend us, to offer help. He speaks passionately about wishing to walk beside us as friends and allies. As you have been around the Humans the longest, I wish to hear your thoughts on the matter.”
“Yeah, he’s said the same to me.” Trix glanced over to the captain and back. “And to the others in the Hab. The rest of the crew makes jokes about it.”
“Do you believe that he means what he says?”
“Well, the crew thinks he means it. Or more like…” She hesitated a moment, not sure how he’d take this. “Well, to be honest from what I hear they all think he’s being overly optimistic. And they, uh, often claim he has other motives.”
Kyshe's eyes narrowed at that. “And have they specified what those ‘other motives’ are?”
Trix glanced over at the Captain, who was not looking particularly comfortable with the way the conversation was going. “Yeah, most of the crew thinks he’s attracted to our people.”
“Now hold on. HOLD ON. That is absolutely DEFINITELY not why I offered you a job!” he immediately protested.
Kyshe was a bit stunned by the girl’s statement and the captain’s outburst, and she found herself trying very hard not to smile at his discomfort. “Well, Captain? Are you attracted to us?”
“Matriarch, that has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the topic at hand!”
“His face is red. According to Ji, that’s a sign of embarrassment.” Trksehn helpfully pointed out. Indeed, he was blushing rather hard at the way the topic had shifted.
“Indeed?” Kyshe could not suppress her smile now. “Captain, you never mentioned attraction to us in any of our previous conversations.”
“That’s because it’s irrelevant! Whether or not I find you all appealing has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not our species can earn your trust!” He shot to his feet as he said this. “I most certainly am not inviting Trix to join up just based on her attractiveness!”
“But you do find her attractive?” Kyshe pressed him on this, clearly enjoying his frustration and embarrassment.
“That’s not relevant. It has nothing at all to do with anything!" Kyshe and Trix sat there waiting for an actual answer, and he sighed and sat back down heavily in his seat. "Okay, yes. She’s gorgeous. So are you. And Sophie back on the station. But!” He made a cutting motion with his hands. “None of that makes any difference at all. It doesn't earn me your trust and it doesn't help you all out in any way. I didn't mention it because it's absolutely inconsequential.”
“No, but perhaps it does explain why you’re going to such great lengths to try to befriend us.” Kyshe’s face turned thoughtful as she said it. “Do you think that by aiding us in trying to escape the Bunters’ influence that you’ll be able to find a partner among our kind?”
“NO! I'm trying to aid you because I don't want an incredible species with immense potential to be trapped in sevitude!”
“Hmm.” Kyshe glanced over at the captain as if she’d not heard a single one of his protests. “I am sure that there are many who might be interested in your people, but whether or not you could be accepted would be quite another thing entirely…”
“The crew just like to joke and make fun. It’s not serious!”
“Well, that’s at least partially true, Matriarch.” Trix was enjoying watching him squirm, but he was becoming more frantic as Kyshe pressed him on it. “They enjoy jokes at his expense.”
“See? It’s just my crew giving me a difficult time!”
Kyshe nodded, but continued on anyway. “Whether they’re joking or not, at least now I believe I understand your motivations better. I won’t say I share in them,” She glanced the human up and down, “But then at least you are not as repulsive as the Cetari or the Fwenth. I am certain that if we were to put out the offer, there may be a number of females who would wish to court you…”
Alex buried his head in his hands. This conversation had gone completely off the rails and he desperately tried to find a way to steer it back to safer ground. “Please, no. I swear to you on my ship, that my purpose in helping you all is NOT due to my attraction to your species! I’m NOT trying to find a partner!“
“Very well.” She dropped the topic for now, but mentally made a note of how easy it was to rile up the captain on this subject. His response made him particularly fun to tease. “Trksehn, back to the relevant point. The Captain’s offer to hire you for his ship. I’ve spoken with him about it. May I hear your thoughts on the matter?”
Trix sat in silence briefly before she answered. “It’s kind of surreal. When they landed and I spoke about flying my aircar I was just trying to make conversation. And now they’re talking about me flying out in space. I wanted to race the Firelands Challenge just for fun and because I thought it might make me stand out to the men of the valley, but this?” She waved a hand as she spoke. “The attention I’m getting from everyone is way outside anything I ever expected!”
“I would say that you are indeed standing out. From my understanding on the subject, you’ve become a celebrity overnight.” Kyshe stood up and walked over beside the younger woman. “I am not particularly a fan of the challenges, but I am not ignorant of their influence. I have had reports given to me of the fans you’ve acquired. And of the fact that not everyone is particularly pleased with your success.”
Trix was surprised by this. “Wait, really? You know about all of that?”
“Of course. I take care to know the goings on here in the valley, and you’ve made a name for yourself. It’s always important for a Matriarch to know of all the major goings on of her people, and I was apprised of your success within an hour of the challenge.”
“Thank you, Matriarch.” Knowing she had achieved global fame from her race was still mostly just a thought. But actually hearing it from her Matriarch made it all the more real. “It’s been, uh. Kind of weird?”
“I can imagine. Fame thrust upon someone who is unfamiliar with it can be quite overwhelming. In truth, I should have reached out to you sooner to offer my aid should the need arise. The Noarala may be a small Teff but all those who live under the Presh are my responsibility, and any assistance you need is available if you ask.”
Trix nodded, then turned to face the Captain. “Thank you again, Matriarch. For the Captain’s offer, though, I think it’s an offer in good faith. I spoke with Min about it and what he said to me is true. The others fly the ship but that often isn’t their primary duty. They all share in the work and responsibilities on the ship, and Min thinks I would fit in well. I don’t know the others as well as Ji and Min but they have offered their support.”
Kyshe ignored the captain for now and focused her attention entirely on the young avian. “It is a major decision. You would be apart from us, from our protection. If they would mistreat you, offer offense or harm…”
Trix actually laughed at that. “I don’t think they’d do that. Not deliberately. I’ve spent enough time around them that I don’t worry about that at all.”
Kyshe visibly relaxed at the younger woman’s confidence. “But then you would also be away from the rest of the society. Away from males, for some time.”
Trix nodded at that. “Yeah, that part worries me too.”
“Wait up. Worried why?” Alex’s face had regained its normal color and he looked back and forth between the Matriarch and Trix. “Are you dating… errr, I guess exploring? Or what’s that about?”
“Extended time away from males can be distressing.” Kyshe explained. “Not necessarily exploring or becoming accepted is required. Simply being around other males can be calming.”
“Okay, that’s actually news to me.” Alex had to sit and think about that. “Could you be a bit more specific? What you mean by ‘distress’, and how long until it becomes a problem, things like that?”
“It can vary, but usually after a few weeks signs and symptoms begin to appear. Frustration, more hostile and aggressive behavior is the most common issue encountered.” Kyshe answered, and pressed the aide call button on her desk. As the smaller male walked in at her call, she immediately instructed him. “Go gather information on Rhenima for the humans.”
Meanwhile Alex had tapped the page button on his breath mask. “Hey, Josh. I’m hearing about something you never mentioned, wondering if it’s a concern. Something about emotional distress for Sovalin who are away from males too long. Ring any bells?”
“Not off the top of my head, no. I’ll have to go over the data dumps for info there.” Josh’s voice was clear over the comms.
“Get together with Par. Look up something like ‘Renimah’. The Matriarch’s also getting us info it sounds like, so if you come up short I’ll try to get the details to you as well.”
“We shall begin looking into it immediately, Captain.” Par responded immediately, and Alex closed the channel. “Sorry. I just asked our medic about it and he wasn’t familiar, but we’re going to start looking into that. Our plans right now are to spend about four weeks out doing the mineral survey, and with travel times that’s pushing it.”
“I had thought it might. Still, while it is tremendously unpleasant, it is not life threatening. The trip could still proceed despite the circumstances, but it would virtually cripple any productivity until it can be remedied.” Kyshe glanced between the Trix and Alex. “Trksehn, we are still a number of days out from the planned departure date. Do you require more time to consider?”
“Well…” Trix shrugged slightly. “The past few weeks I feel like the Humans have been better company than my friends. I’ve had a lot of fun with them modding my aircar. We don’t have much in common but we still always find plenty of things to talk about. I don’t know if it’s because of what happened in the race but I almost kinda want to just go to get away from everything back here.”
“An understandable feeling. Though, perhaps, a bit extreme - usually when on the run from unwanted fame it is normal to retreat to a remote location in the plains or perhaps spend some time in the temples. Not to escape the planet itself.” Kyshe smiled and patted the young woman on the shoulder. “I’ve no desire to restrain you against your will, I simply wish to ensure you’ll be safe.”
“She’ll be as safe as the rest of us, that I can promise.” Alex cut in suddenly. “We’ll be adjusting her duty roster so she won’t have to do any EVA, and we won’t be getting into any fights this far away from Human space. Piracy isn’t a thing out here and if the Tanjeeri show up, we plan to hightail it. Errr, I mean run away rather than stay and fight.”
Trix looked slightly apprehensive at that. “Do Tanjeeri just… I mean, do you expect to see them out there?”
Alex shook his head. “The first time we encountered them they were chasing a ship they’d damaged. That’s been more than five weeks ago. There’s a chance they’d still be in the system, so we do plan to gate out a fair ways from the system proper. We scout from way outside, if the Tanjeeri are there we abort and look for an alternative. If they’re gone, we carefully complete our survey and grab the most valuable minerals we can before we come back here. Either way, no fighting.”
Trix sat in silence as she weighed that up, and spoke confidently to Kyshe. “Matriarch, I would like to take them up on their offer. If I refuse, I will always wonder what I would have missed.” She lifted her wings confidently.
Kyshe shot a glare over at Alex, then nodded. “Very well. Captain, I expect to be seeing you back here in six weeks. Not one feather missing or injured, do you hear me?”
“Clear as a bell, Matriarch.” Alex lifted his hand in a very human-style salute and nudged Trix. “C’mon, let’s go before she changes her mind.”
—--
“Not even one day later and I’m already regretting this decision.” Trix slumped forward over the table, and dropped the stylus from her hand.
Amanda reached over and grabbed the implement as it rolled across the tabletop before it had a chance to fall to the ground. “Stop overreacting. It’s not THAT bad.”
“It absolutely is that bad!” Trix complained as she tapped the board. “Half the questions and fields on here don’t make sense!”
“I told you, just skip the ones you don’t understand and we’ll come back to them afterwards.”
“I did that!” Trix shoved the board over to Amanda. “And I got to the end and it said I missed fourty-seven fields and it wants me to go back and re-enter them.”
Amanda picked up the board and skimmed it. “Wait. I think you broke the form. Did you really try to put in over sixty names for your immediate family?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? It asked who I was related to and so I started writing in the Teff.”
“The form is for close personal relations. Like, your mother and father, your brothers and sisters…” Amanda went down the list. “Nothing here for schooling, no dependants, we’ll have to go over the indemnity clauses later. Independent Contractorship involves a slew of confidentiality and non disclosures, so we’re going to have to waive sections C and D but there will be forms 8114-A and 8114-B to fill out instead. Oh, we should absolutely also begin discussing whether or not you’re going to be pa-HEY!”
Alex had picked up the quickboard, and threw it over his shoulder onto the grass. He slid his own over to Trix. “Yeah, welcome to Proxima. Always in direct competition with Sol as to who can produce the most ridiculously boring paperwork in the galaxy. Here. Sign your name on the line on the bottom. Press your thumb print next to it. You’re not working for Terrafault, you’re working for ME.”
Trix groaned and reached over to take the stylus from Amanda, scribbling her signature down. “You couldn’t have told me that an hour ago before I sat down to start all this?”
“Nope. I had to do some on-the-record statements with Kyshe about your employment, and Par had to record ‘em. Lots of boring legalese like this crap. Anyway, welcome to your new job. Here’s your first two weeks of payment.” Alex fished a large bar of metal out of his pocket and dropped it down on the table.
“Eh? Payment? What’s this?”
“One solid kilogram of Silver. 99.9% pure. To be honest, not that expensive to us. But for reasons we have no idea about, Silver’s hard to find on your planet. So in local currency… probably around 32 or 33 hundred moyu.” Alex sat down and thumbed the off button on the signed quickboard. “Standard pay for a fully licensed pilot is around 3000 credits per week, at least in the private sector. But our credits are worthless here, but a rough conversion tells us that a kilo of silver is roughly the same. Since you’re going to be a trainee for this trip, we felt like half pay was a good compromise. First two weeks up front, and you’ll get one more of these bars every two weeks. So two more until we’re back here on Kiveyt to decide how we want to…You okay there?”
Trix’s jaw had dropped as she started at the small heavy wafer. Her AIRCAR had cost 2500 moyu and that was two YEARS of saving up for it working overtime on the farms. Now she was paid more than that, every two WEEKS. She tentatively reached out and lifted it up. It felt heavier than she thought it would.
Amanda walked back from picking up the quickboard where Alex had thrown it, and lightly smacked him on the back of the head with it. “Fine then. If she’s not on the Terrafault payroll though that means her cut is coming out of yours.”
Alex snorted at that. “Manda, you think that’s gonna matter? After the bonuses we get from this op it won’t matter. I’m already planning on doubling everyone’s cut as it is, and we’ll still have enough to buy a damn fleet carrier afterwards if we want to. But if you really, REALLY want to try to adapt and adjust that paperwork for Sovalin then knock yourself out.”
Amanda sat down opposite of Alex and Trix, and set the board down in front of her. “You realize that the reason I’m so adamant about all the paperwork being completed is to protect everyone from liability? To make sure that there’s no confusion about her employment? To try, god forbid, to avoid any complications or problems that being vague will cause?”
“Sure. And I’m telling you right now, there’s no need. I take full responsibility.” Alex responded to her diatribe with a big grin. “C’mon, Manda. After all the shit we’ve been through convincing the Matriarch to, y’know, not arrest or murder us and then even more to let her allow Trix to go up there in the first place. After all that you think there’s any actual confusion left?”
Trix glanced up at the two bickering humans. “You said I get one of these every two weeks. But if I complete training I get double that?” She balanced the bar on her palm and stared down at it.
“Yep. Once we get some decent asteroid mining ops going the price of silver’s gonna plummet. Best to spend it before that happens. But by then we’ll have good trade avenues with Terrans open, so we’ll just pay you in credits that you can spend normally at that point.” Alex put his elbow on the table, propping his head up with his hand. “As for the training, it’s fairly easy. There’s a licensing exam that’s just proving that you know how to fly to a bunch of boring pencil pushers. Completing that will be a cakewalk if we can get some practical experience under your belt.”
“Oh. But I don’t know if I’m going to do well as your pilot yet. I know absolutely nothing about flying a space ship.” Trix carefully placed the silver back on the table. Alex picked it back up and put it in her hand.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re flying with me, you’re learning, you’re getting paid. If you do well then that’s perfect and we can talk licensing. If you don’t do well, no harm done. Maybe we find another role for you or maybe you come back home. Either way you walk away with silver in your pocket and a fun story to tell everyone and impress the guys.” He smiled and gestured to her room. “You should probably start deciding what you want to take with you. Kyshe is sending along several months worth of food to bolster our supplies and to make sure your nutritional needs are fully met, so I’m heading over with Josh to start loading it all up on the Shuttle. We’ve committed to a departure date four days from now.”
“I’ve never really packed for something like this. What do I bring?”
Alex didn’t answer verbally, but instead made a short, sharp whistle with his lips followed by a shout. “MIN!”
The engineer was on the other side of the courtyard, and immediately jogged over when called. “Yeah?”
“Go with Trix and help her pack up for the trip. Six weeks worth of clothes, hygiene supplies, whatever.” Alex glanced over at Trix. “Sorry, actually I just assumed you’d be more comfortable with another woman helping you pack. I can call Ji over if you prefer.”
“No, no. I’d rather Min help me.” Trix stood up from the table and jerked her head over towards her room. “Thanks, Min. Sorry to be a bother.”
“No problem. Gets me out of lifting the heavy shit to put in the shuttle.”
—--
Next Chapter
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Previous Chapter
The massive shuttle rocketed through the atmosphere as Trix reached out to nudge the throttle down slightly. Josh was right, it wasn’t anything like flying an Aircar. At first it consisted of programming in the destination, desired speed, height, and letting the computer do all the work. When she expressed dissatisfaction at that, Ma’et had kicked the boys out of the cockpit and showed her how to access the manual flight stick. That was where things began to get fun.
And then when turning down the gravitic inertial compensation so she could FEEL the power of the shuttle pressing her back in her seat, feel the vibration of the wind against the shuttle as it roared through the skies, feel her body pulled to one side or the other as she sent it into a tight turn… that was when the world fell away entirely. The skies opened up in a vast vista before her.
Ma’et sat beside her, occasionally mentioning a tip or trick here. A small adjustment to make there. The shuttle had zero control surfaces, it handled like a brick - but it compensated for all of that with sheer, raw power. The power to smash through the sound barrier like it was made of paper. The power to soar effortlessly a few feet above the waves, or to rocket up into the stratosphere with ease. Gravity was a mere suggestion, one which Trix rejected entirely.
After a few minutes Ma’et went into the back to speak with the others. “I think our girl is completely hooked. She picked that up faster than anyone I’ve ever seen before.”
Josh walked over to Ji, handing him a small pill and a cup of water. While most of the crew was fine with the reduced inertial compensation and the feeling of actual motion that Trix was putting the shuttle through, Ji was the exception. He was definitely looking very green about the gills. “Guess we’re seeing thousands of years of flight instinct coming to the fore. That’s the best explanation I can come up with at least.”
“I was wondering about that.” Ma’et sat down next to the captain’s head and smacked the side of his head lightly. “Would a species that evolves from birds be naturals at flying? If she’s any indication the answer is ‘yes’.”
“I don’t know how universal it was. In the races there were some pretty decent pilots but you ask me, Trix outflew them all. S’why I’m thinking maybe she’d be a natural pilot.”
Josh glanced over at them. “I think she’s better than me. And I’ve been flying this thing for decades.”
Ma’et nodded. “She took to every bit of instruction we gave her like it was second nature. I don’t know if it’s because she descended from a flying species or what, but she’s a natural. If the rest of the planet has as many naturally skilled pilots as she is, then every captain this side of Mars will want to hire them on.”
“Well, that’s assuming we let her fly stick in the first place.” Min pointed out. “I think that first bit where we had her on autopilot actually made her mood WORSE.”
“Either way, I want to see whether or not she can take those flight skills and upgrade ‘em to zero-g.” Alex sat up and tapped the conference button on his breath mask and turned off the translator. “Crew meeting. Amanda, you there?”
Amanda had spent most of the morning in the Presh manor, going over some of the finer details of the proposals for exchange between Terrafault and the locals. Meaning while they were out joyriding above the ocean, she was up to her neck in paperwork thousands of kilometers away. “I’m here, Alex. What’s going on?”
“We’re on the shuttle. I put Trix at the helm. She’s phenomenal. I’m taking an official vote. All in favor of offering her a position on the ship as pilot?”
“Aye.” Ma’et and Min-ah spoke as one. “Sure.” was Josh’s response.
“Wait. Pilot? Hold on, Al….”
Ji raised a thumb, but didn’t speak - concentrating on keeping his mouth closed as much as he could. “Par?”
“There are a number of advantages it would bring. I have not interacted with her as much as you have, but our conversations have been pleasant. I vote yes.”
“Hold on, hold on!” Amanda tried to interject. “Alexander, before you go tearing off and….”
“Too late. Six to one, you’re outvoted. Do me a favor and draw up an employment contract.” Alex pushed the leave button on the chat, smiling. He missed whatever response Amanda made but he was sure it was spectacular judging by Min and Ma’ets reactions to it.
He unbuckled himself from the seat restraint, and made his way up to the cockpit. “How’s it going up here?”
“Fine, fine.” Trix made a dismissive gesture. “I’m doing fine up here. No need to check in on me.”
“That’s not why I’m here. Do me a favor, and put the autopilot on back to the Presh mansion. I’ll send Ma’et up here to watch it. But you and I need to have a little chat, so out of the cockpit for now.”
Trix looked up at him in surprise, then frowned and pushed the release button on the control stick. She pulled up the list of previous destinations just as Ma’et had showed her before, and touched the control to send the shuttle back to land near the capitol of the Presh lands.
In the back of the shuttle, Ji was looking decidedly unwell, and Josh was at his side. Ma’et scrambled back up front while Trix took a seat on the center couch, and Alex sat down opposite her.
“So, Trix, not gonna beat around the bush here. You were great in the race. You took to the shuttle just fine. I want to see how well you do flying a bigger ship. My ship.” he gestured up above his head.
“What, like now? I thought we were heading back to the Presh?” Trix glanced up, as though she could see the massive bronze ship out there through the ceiling of the shuttle.
“We are. But I don’t mean right now. I mean, I want to hire you as a pilot. For our trip out to JR692 to survey minerals. Off planet, on my ship.”
Trix froze up entirely at this. Not even a direct impact to her helmet by a challenge round could have been more unexpected and surprising, and she found herself entirely unable to respond. Unable to THINK.
Alex took her sudden silence as indecision, though, and decided to just press forward. “Honestly it’s a huge decision, it’s not something I’m expecting a yes or no right now on. You haven’t been around us very long, just a few weeks here on the planet. But you’ve gotten along superbly with Ji and Min. That alone makes me think you’d do well up on the ship.”
“I… uh, I hadn’t…” Trix stumbled over her words for a moment, then coughed suddenly. “I’m not sure. Uh, I really don’t know how to fly a space ship.”
“I know. I’m not expecting you to know how to right away. Flying outside an atmosphere with no gravity is worlds different than flying an aircar or the shuttle, and you’ve got zero experience. But to be blunt, I have a good gut feeling about you and I want to give you a chance to learn and join us.” Alex held up a hand, ticking off points on his fingers.
“First, we are a seriously social species. We make friends easy and quickly. That means when we find someone we like we want to be around them. That’s already a big point in your favor. Second, after we complete our survey mission your testimony to Kyshe can help alleviate her worries about whether or not we can be trustworthy. Third, ours is a small crew and we have to split duties. If you’ll join us and take on the role of pilot, that will reduce the load on the rest of the crew. And lastly, in the future I hope that our two societies will be able to interact a lot more closely. But people will be reluctant to take that first step. If you join us and it works out well, then others who would be reluctant will be more likely to do the same in the future.”
“However!” Alex let his hands fall back to his sides. “With all that said, it’s not all sunshine and roses. It’s going to be a lot of work to learn how to fly the ship. It’s going to be long hours spent learning and training, and lots of the training will be boring. If you do decide to come with us, then it means spending a lot of time in close quarters with the crew. We won’t be able to return until we complete our survey mission, which normally lasts at least a full month. During which there WILL be a lot of tedious chores that need to be done around the ship, and you’ll be expected to help out. We split the chores fairly, and you won’t be made to do anything unreasonable that the rest of us won’t do.”
Alex leaned back on the seat, and crossed his arms. “So that’s the offer. I want you to become the first Sovalin to work alongside Humans. You’ll be paid fairly, you’ll have good accommodations and recreation available, but it’s going to be a lot of work and if you agree you can’t back out anytime soon. Our current plan is to head to JR692 in roughly a week. Take as much time until then to decide. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to let us know.”
—--
Kyshe glared irritably at the human across from her desk. He had arrived at her request, alone and without any of the rest of his crew. “Captain. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
“Always happy to be here. Since I wasn’t escorted by soldiers this time I take it I’m not in trouble?” Alex grinned and tried to lighten the mood with a joke.
“I would not go that far. The only reason I did not order your arrest is because I am trying, very hard, to afford you the benefit of the doubt. And I would appreciate it very much if you would explain to me why I should continue to exercise that restraint.” One of her wingtips, adorned with a metal sheath similar to the ones that Sophie often wore, tapped against the floor as she sat waiting in her chair.
“Okay, I’m assuming this isn’t about us breaking the sound barrier out over the ocean.” Kyshe glared and nodded. “So it’s about the job offer. There’s really not a whole lot to explain really. I felt like Trix could be a good fit with the crew and it seemed like a natural way to put my ideals into practice.” Alex leaned forward as he spoke. “I’m not trying to force her into anything, she’s free to refuse and we won’t hold it against her. It’s not a big deal.”
Kyshe closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m having a difficult time believing it’s so simple. You said your people wouldn’t use ours as labor. Yet now you attempt to lure one of our young adults into your employment?”
“Now hold on. We’re not trying to use her for labor! The job that I offered to her was Pilot, not janitor or anything.” he protested.
Kyshe opened her eyes and banged a fist on the table. “You expect me to believe that?” Her hand swept out around in a big arc. “She’s a farmer! Nearly everyone in this valley is! She’s used to hard work day in and day out. Not flying starships. You seriously expect me to believe you don’t just want to dump all the difficult tasks on her?”
“Okay. Point taken, I can see why you’re concerned about that. And, to be fair, she WILL be doing more than just piloting. We all do.” Alex held up a hand. “The crew has seven members total. On a starship. Even with all the automation we have, that’s still running fairly bare bones. We all of us, myself included, have to do dozens of things every single day to keep things running smoothly. Equipment checks. Replacing worn out components. Making meals for everyone. But even though she WILL be expected to help out, there’s nothing at all we’ll be asking her to do that we won’t also be doing. That’s just the nature of being on a small ship.”
Kyshe continued to tap her wingtip on the floor. “It is perhaps the fact that you’re trying to hire an untrained farmhand that most concerns me. It seems as though it would be much, much easier to simply look for someone already trained as a pilot. The M’rit for example often ferry resources up to orbit. I’m sure that one of their pilots would be a much better fit.”
“Eh, that’s a bit doubtful. They may have experience with your ships and systems but from what I’ve seen, ours are going to be pretty alien to them as well. They’ll likely require just as much training. Hell, if anything Trix might have an easier time because she won’t have to un-learn what she already knows. Plus we’ve already built up a rapport with Trix. That’s important when you’re spending weeks and months together. That’s a big reason why I offered the job to her in particular.”
Kyshe grunted noncommittally, and Alex stood up. “It was a gesture made in good faith, Matriarch. When I spoke of our two peoples standing beside one another this is pretty much what I had in mind. Humans and Sovalin working together. On a ship, on a planet, on a station, whatever. But working together as a team is the important part.”
Kyshe looked unconvinced so Alex continued. “Matriarch, if the offer is going to cause difficulties then I’ll retract it. I hadn’t thought it’d upset you this much, and I’m not willing to lose what little faith you have in me over this.”
“I’m very, very tempted to tell you to do exactly that.” Kyshe muttered. “I already feel like we’re placing far too much trust in you as it is.”
“Yeah, I understand. And I’ll leave it up to you. I really do want to have her join us up on the ship, but earning your trust is more important. That said, I think maybe you should talk to her directly? She’s been around us the longest out of any of your people, after all.”
Kyshe hesitated at that, wondering whether or not the girl had somehow been influenced by the Humans. Ultimately, she nodded. “That’s reasonable.” She sat there in thought for a few minutes, then stood up and walked over to the other side of the desk. “I won’t make any choices until I speak with the girl. But I do question the necessity of this. Do you truly need to take her with you?”
“No, we don’t. It’s not at all necessary.” Alex admitted. “We can still continue on with our original mission without another crew member. But just because it isn’t necessary doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. Matriarch, every single thing I know about Humans and everything I’ve seen here on the planet tells me one thing - sooner or later our societies WILL become friends or allies. The big question is gonna be ‘when’ because I am sure it’ll happen. I for one want that to be ‘sooner’. I think it’ll be better for your people if we can cooperate quicker. I think my people have been alone in the void too long and need new friends to help us grow as a people. And your people have been betrayed by ‘friends’ and could use someone to help you regain the independence that was stolen from you. We have plenty of reasons to come together.”
Kyshe grimaced as she leaned back against the desk. “I wish I could share in that sort of optimism. I admit I would prefer if everything went as well as you say it will. I simply doubt things will go as smoothly and as easily as you claim.”
“Probably not, if I’m being honest.” Alex stood up as well and gestured out the window. “I know I often talk big, but that’s because I like to dream big. I know that I’m moving quickly but that’s just how I do things. Sometimes it gets me in trouble and sometimes everything works out well but either way I live without regrets.”
Kyshe pressed a button on the desk she leaned against, and an aide came in. “Please call Trksehn into the office. I’d like to discuss this with her.” As the aide left, Kyshe nodded towards the Captain. “Just know, Captain, that I will hold you responsible if something does occur.”
—--
Trksehn walked into the office, and upon sighting the Matriarch immediately took a knee, placing a closed fist in front of her respectfully. “Matriarch, you have summoned me.”
Kyshe motioned to the aide who tugged on the girl’s arm. “The Matriarch doesn’t enjoy the more formal expressions of respect.” they whispered into her ear.
“Thank you for coming promptly. We wish to speak with you about the offer you’ve received.” Trix glanced over and noticed that Captain Alex was present in the room. She raised a hand to him in greeting.
“So, uh, if you two are going to be talking, maybe I should go?” He offered, taking a step towards the door.
“No. Stay. There may be questions we have for you.” The Matriarch commanded, and he froze, before stepping back to the chair he’d vacated shortly before. “Have a seat.” Kyshe told Trix as she gestured to the empty chair next to the Captain.
“The reason I called you here is because I have a number of concerns with the Captain’s proposal to you.” Kyshe began, as she moved back to her chair on the opposite side of the desk from the others. “I know you have not had much time to consider it, and I do apologize for that. My primary concern in this matter is with your well being.”
“Uh, in what way Matriarch?” Trix shifted uncomfortably in the chair. The Matriarch was clearly quite unhappy and being in the presence of an unhappy leader was incredibly intimidating.
“We know so little about the Humans. We still have little more than the Captain’s reassurances that they are as they say - here to befriend us, to offer help. He speaks passionately about wishing to walk beside us as friends and allies. As you have been around the Humans the longest, I wish to hear your thoughts on the matter.”
“Yeah, he’s said the same to me.” Trix glanced over to the captain and back. “And to the others in the Hab. The rest of the crew makes jokes about it.”
“Do you believe that he means what he says?”
“Well, the crew thinks he means it. Or more like…” She hesitated a moment, not sure how he’d take this. “Well, to be honest from what I hear they all think he’s being overly optimistic. And they, uh, often claim he has other motives.”
Kyshe's eyes narrowed at that. “And have they specified what those ‘other motives’ are?”
Trix glanced over at the Captain, who was not looking particularly comfortable with the way the conversation was going. “Yeah, most of the crew thinks he’s attracted to our people.”
“Now hold on. HOLD ON. That is absolutely DEFINITELY not why I offered you a job!” he immediately protested.
Kyshe was a bit stunned by the girl’s statement and the captain’s outburst, and she found herself trying very hard not to smile at his discomfort. “Well, Captain? Are you attracted to us?”
“Matriarch, that has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the topic at hand!”
“His face is red. According to Ji, that’s a sign of embarrassment.” Trksehn helpfully pointed out. Indeed, he was blushing rather hard at the way the topic had shifted.
“Indeed?” Kyshe could not suppress her smile now. “Captain, you never mentioned attraction to us in any of our previous conversations.”
“That’s because it’s irrelevant! Whether or not I find you all appealing has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not our species can earn your trust!” He shot to his feet as he said this. “I most certainly am not inviting Trix to join up just based on her attractiveness!”
“But you do find her attractive?” Kyshe pressed him on this, clearly enjoying his frustration and embarrassment.
“That’s not relevant. It has nothing at all to do with anything!" Kyshe and Trix sat there waiting for an actual answer, and he sighed and sat back down heavily in his seat. "Okay, yes. She’s gorgeous. So are you. And Sophie back on the station. But!” He made a cutting motion with his hands. “None of that makes any difference at all. It doesn't earn me your trust and it doesn't help you all out in any way. I didn't mention it because it's absolutely inconsequential.”
“No, but perhaps it does explain why you’re going to such great lengths to try to befriend us.” Kyshe’s face turned thoughtful as she said it. “Do you think that by aiding us in trying to escape the Bunters’ influence that you’ll be able to find a partner among our kind?”
“NO! I'm trying to aid you because I don't want an incredible species with immense potential to be trapped in sevitude!”
“Hmm.” Kyshe glanced over at the captain as if she’d not heard a single one of his protests. “I am sure that there are many who might be interested in your people, but whether or not you could be accepted would be quite another thing entirely…”
“The crew just like to joke and make fun. It’s not serious!”
“Well, that’s at least partially true, Matriarch.” Trix was enjoying watching him squirm, but he was becoming more frantic as Kyshe pressed him on it. “They enjoy jokes at his expense.”
“See? It’s just my crew giving me a difficult time!”
Kyshe nodded, but continued on anyway. “Whether they’re joking or not, at least now I believe I understand your motivations better. I won’t say I share in them,” She glanced the human up and down, “But then at least you are not as repulsive as the Cetari or the Fwenth. I am certain that if we were to put out the offer, there may be a number of females who would wish to court you…”
Alex buried his head in his hands. This conversation had gone completely off the rails and he desperately tried to find a way to steer it back to safer ground. “Please, no. I swear to you on my ship, that my purpose in helping you all is NOT due to my attraction to your species! I’m NOT trying to find a partner!“
“Very well.” She dropped the topic for now, but mentally made a note of how easy it was to rile up the captain on this subject. His response made him particularly fun to tease. “Trksehn, back to the relevant point. The Captain’s offer to hire you for his ship. I’ve spoken with him about it. May I hear your thoughts on the matter?”
Trix sat in silence briefly before she answered. “It’s kind of surreal. When they landed and I spoke about flying my aircar I was just trying to make conversation. And now they’re talking about me flying out in space. I wanted to race the Firelands Challenge just for fun and because I thought it might make me stand out to the men of the valley, but this?” She waved a hand as she spoke. “The attention I’m getting from everyone is way outside anything I ever expected!”
“I would say that you are indeed standing out. From my understanding on the subject, you’ve become a celebrity overnight.” Kyshe stood up and walked over beside the younger woman. “I am not particularly a fan of the challenges, but I am not ignorant of their influence. I have had reports given to me of the fans you’ve acquired. And of the fact that not everyone is particularly pleased with your success.”
Trix was surprised by this. “Wait, really? You know about all of that?”
“Of course. I take care to know the goings on here in the valley, and you’ve made a name for yourself. It’s always important for a Matriarch to know of all the major goings on of her people, and I was apprised of your success within an hour of the challenge.”
“Thank you, Matriarch.” Knowing she had achieved global fame from her race was still mostly just a thought. But actually hearing it from her Matriarch made it all the more real. “It’s been, uh. Kind of weird?”
“I can imagine. Fame thrust upon someone who is unfamiliar with it can be quite overwhelming. In truth, I should have reached out to you sooner to offer my aid should the need arise. The Noarala may be a small Teff but all those who live under the Presh are my responsibility, and any assistance you need is available if you ask.”
Trix nodded, then turned to face the Captain. “Thank you again, Matriarch. For the Captain’s offer, though, I think it’s an offer in good faith. I spoke with Min about it and what he said to me is true. The others fly the ship but that often isn’t their primary duty. They all share in the work and responsibilities on the ship, and Min thinks I would fit in well. I don’t know the others as well as Ji and Min but they have offered their support.”
Kyshe ignored the captain for now and focused her attention entirely on the young avian. “It is a major decision. You would be apart from us, from our protection. If they would mistreat you, offer offense or harm…”
Trix actually laughed at that. “I don’t think they’d do that. Not deliberately. I’ve spent enough time around them that I don’t worry about that at all.”
Kyshe visibly relaxed at the younger woman’s confidence. “But then you would also be away from the rest of the society. Away from males, for some time.”
Trix nodded at that. “Yeah, that part worries me too.”
“Wait up. Worried why?” Alex’s face had regained its normal color and he looked back and forth between the Matriarch and Trix. “Are you dating… errr, I guess exploring? Or what’s that about?”
“Extended time away from males can be distressing.” Kyshe explained. “Not necessarily exploring or becoming accepted is required. Simply being around other males can be calming.”
“Okay, that’s actually news to me.” Alex had to sit and think about that. “Could you be a bit more specific? What you mean by ‘distress’, and how long until it becomes a problem, things like that?”
“It can vary, but usually after a few weeks signs and symptoms begin to appear. Frustration, more hostile and aggressive behavior is the most common issue encountered.” Kyshe answered, and pressed the aide call button on her desk. As the smaller male walked in at her call, she immediately instructed him. “Go gather information on Rhenima for the humans.”
Meanwhile Alex had tapped the page button on his breath mask. “Hey, Josh. I’m hearing about something you never mentioned, wondering if it’s a concern. Something about emotional distress for Sovalin who are away from males too long. Ring any bells?”
“Not off the top of my head, no. I’ll have to go over the data dumps for info there.” Josh’s voice was clear over the comms.
“Get together with Par. Look up something like ‘Renimah’. The Matriarch’s also getting us info it sounds like, so if you come up short I’ll try to get the details to you as well.”
“We shall begin looking into it immediately, Captain.” Par responded immediately, and Alex closed the channel. “Sorry. I just asked our medic about it and he wasn’t familiar, but we’re going to start looking into that. Our plans right now are to spend about four weeks out doing the mineral survey, and with travel times that’s pushing it.”
“I had thought it might. Still, while it is tremendously unpleasant, it is not life threatening. The trip could still proceed despite the circumstances, but it would virtually cripple any productivity until it can be remedied.” Kyshe glanced between the Trix and Alex. “Trksehn, we are still a number of days out from the planned departure date. Do you require more time to consider?”
“Well…” Trix shrugged slightly. “The past few weeks I feel like the Humans have been better company than my friends. I’ve had a lot of fun with them modding my aircar. We don’t have much in common but we still always find plenty of things to talk about. I don’t know if it’s because of what happened in the race but I almost kinda want to just go to get away from everything back here.”
“An understandable feeling. Though, perhaps, a bit extreme - usually when on the run from unwanted fame it is normal to retreat to a remote location in the plains or perhaps spend some time in the temples. Not to escape the planet itself.” Kyshe smiled and patted the young woman on the shoulder. “I’ve no desire to restrain you against your will, I simply wish to ensure you’ll be safe.”
“She’ll be as safe as the rest of us, that I can promise.” Alex cut in suddenly. “We’ll be adjusting her duty roster so she won’t have to do any EVA, and we won’t be getting into any fights this far away from Human space. Piracy isn’t a thing out here and if the Tanjeeri show up, we plan to hightail it. Errr, I mean run away rather than stay and fight.”
Trix looked slightly apprehensive at that. “Do Tanjeeri just… I mean, do you expect to see them out there?”
Alex shook his head. “The first time we encountered them they were chasing a ship they’d damaged. That’s been more than five weeks ago. There’s a chance they’d still be in the system, so we do plan to gate out a fair ways from the system proper. We scout from way outside, if the Tanjeeri are there we abort and look for an alternative. If they’re gone, we carefully complete our survey and grab the most valuable minerals we can before we come back here. Either way, no fighting.”
Trix sat in silence as she weighed that up, and spoke confidently to Kyshe. “Matriarch, I would like to take them up on their offer. If I refuse, I will always wonder what I would have missed.” She lifted her wings confidently.
Kyshe shot a glare over at Alex, then nodded. “Very well. Captain, I expect to be seeing you back here in six weeks. Not one feather missing or injured, do you hear me?”
“Clear as a bell, Matriarch.” Alex lifted his hand in a very human-style salute and nudged Trix. “C’mon, let’s go before she changes her mind.”
—--
“Not even one day later and I’m already regretting this decision.” Trix slumped forward over the table, and dropped the stylus from her hand.
Amanda reached over and grabbed the implement as it rolled across the tabletop before it had a chance to fall to the ground. “Stop overreacting. It’s not THAT bad.”
“It absolutely is that bad!” Trix complained as she tapped the board. “Half the questions and fields on here don’t make sense!”
“I told you, just skip the ones you don’t understand and we’ll come back to them afterwards.”
“I did that!” Trix shoved the board over to Amanda. “And I got to the end and it said I missed fourty-seven fields and it wants me to go back and re-enter them.”
Amanda picked up the board and skimmed it. “Wait. I think you broke the form. Did you really try to put in over sixty names for your immediate family?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? It asked who I was related to and so I started writing in the Teff.”
“The form is for close personal relations. Like, your mother and father, your brothers and sisters…” Amanda went down the list. “Nothing here for schooling, no dependants, we’ll have to go over the indemnity clauses later. Independent Contractorship involves a slew of confidentiality and non disclosures, so we’re going to have to waive sections C and D but there will be forms 8114-A and 8114-B to fill out instead. Oh, we should absolutely also begin discussing whether or not you’re going to be pa-HEY!”
Alex had picked up the quickboard, and threw it over his shoulder onto the grass. He slid his own over to Trix. “Yeah, welcome to Proxima. Always in direct competition with Sol as to who can produce the most ridiculously boring paperwork in the galaxy. Here. Sign your name on the line on the bottom. Press your thumb print next to it. You’re not working for Terrafault, you’re working for ME.”
Trix groaned and reached over to take the stylus from Amanda, scribbling her signature down. “You couldn’t have told me that an hour ago before I sat down to start all this?”
“Nope. I had to do some on-the-record statements with Kyshe about your employment, and Par had to record ‘em. Lots of boring legalese like this crap. Anyway, welcome to your new job. Here’s your first two weeks of payment.” Alex fished a large bar of metal out of his pocket and dropped it down on the table.
“Eh? Payment? What’s this?”
“One solid kilogram of Silver. 99.9% pure. To be honest, not that expensive to us. But for reasons we have no idea about, Silver’s hard to find on your planet. So in local currency… probably around 32 or 33 hundred moyu.” Alex sat down and thumbed the off button on the signed quickboard. “Standard pay for a fully licensed pilot is around 3000 credits per week, at least in the private sector. But our credits are worthless here, but a rough conversion tells us that a kilo of silver is roughly the same. Since you’re going to be a trainee for this trip, we felt like half pay was a good compromise. First two weeks up front, and you’ll get one more of these bars every two weeks. So two more until we’re back here on Kiveyt to decide how we want to…You okay there?”
Trix’s jaw had dropped as she started at the small heavy wafer. Her AIRCAR had cost 2500 moyu and that was two YEARS of saving up for it working overtime on the farms. Now she was paid more than that, every two WEEKS. She tentatively reached out and lifted it up. It felt heavier than she thought it would.
Amanda walked back from picking up the quickboard where Alex had thrown it, and lightly smacked him on the back of the head with it. “Fine then. If she’s not on the Terrafault payroll though that means her cut is coming out of yours.”
Alex snorted at that. “Manda, you think that’s gonna matter? After the bonuses we get from this op it won’t matter. I’m already planning on doubling everyone’s cut as it is, and we’ll still have enough to buy a damn fleet carrier afterwards if we want to. But if you really, REALLY want to try to adapt and adjust that paperwork for Sovalin then knock yourself out.”
Amanda sat down opposite of Alex and Trix, and set the board down in front of her. “You realize that the reason I’m so adamant about all the paperwork being completed is to protect everyone from liability? To make sure that there’s no confusion about her employment? To try, god forbid, to avoid any complications or problems that being vague will cause?”
“Sure. And I’m telling you right now, there’s no need. I take full responsibility.” Alex responded to her diatribe with a big grin. “C’mon, Manda. After all the shit we’ve been through convincing the Matriarch to, y’know, not arrest or murder us and then even more to let her allow Trix to go up there in the first place. After all that you think there’s any actual confusion left?”
Trix glanced up at the two bickering humans. “You said I get one of these every two weeks. But if I complete training I get double that?” She balanced the bar on her palm and stared down at it.
“Yep. Once we get some decent asteroid mining ops going the price of silver’s gonna plummet. Best to spend it before that happens. But by then we’ll have good trade avenues with Terrans open, so we’ll just pay you in credits that you can spend normally at that point.” Alex put his elbow on the table, propping his head up with his hand. “As for the training, it’s fairly easy. There’s a licensing exam that’s just proving that you know how to fly to a bunch of boring pencil pushers. Completing that will be a cakewalk if we can get some practical experience under your belt.”
“Oh. But I don’t know if I’m going to do well as your pilot yet. I know absolutely nothing about flying a space ship.” Trix carefully placed the silver back on the table. Alex picked it back up and put it in her hand.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re flying with me, you’re learning, you’re getting paid. If you do well then that’s perfect and we can talk licensing. If you don’t do well, no harm done. Maybe we find another role for you or maybe you come back home. Either way you walk away with silver in your pocket and a fun story to tell everyone and impress the guys.” He smiled and gestured to her room. “You should probably start deciding what you want to take with you. Kyshe is sending along several months worth of food to bolster our supplies and to make sure your nutritional needs are fully met, so I’m heading over with Josh to start loading it all up on the Shuttle. We’ve committed to a departure date four days from now.”
“I’ve never really packed for something like this. What do I bring?”
Alex didn’t answer verbally, but instead made a short, sharp whistle with his lips followed by a shout. “MIN!”
The engineer was on the other side of the courtyard, and immediately jogged over when called. “Yeah?”
“Go with Trix and help her pack up for the trip. Six weeks worth of clothes, hygiene supplies, whatever.” Alex glanced over at Trix. “Sorry, actually I just assumed you’d be more comfortable with another woman helping you pack. I can call Ji over if you prefer.”
“No, no. I’d rather Min help me.” Trix stood up from the table and jerked her head over towards her room. “Thanks, Min. Sorry to be a bother.”
“No problem. Gets me out of lifting the heavy shit to put in the shuttle.”
—--
Next Chapter
2024.05.17 19:00 MjolnirPants Jerry and the Men in the Mirror: Part 7
Part 6
Kathy Evenson, Profe-Oh Shit!
Somewhere in the ruins of an ancient city in the Seventh World
"Run!" Kells shouted as the massive creature rose to its full height. Kathy turned and followed, operating mostly by dint of her instinctive reaction to the authority in his barked command. Kells didn't hesitate, taking off in the opposite direction from the thing, only glancing over his shoulder to ensure that Kathy was on his heels as he sheathed his weapons.
That didn't last long. With the magically-wrought enhancements to her body, she quickly overtook him and then slowed to keep pace. As they ran, she kept thinking 'you don't have to outrun the bear, you only have to outrun the other guy.'
The thoughts made her mad. Mostly at herself, for having them. She had been trained to be mercenary by The Company, but she had never abandoned her morals entirely. She had seen with her own eyes, countless times, that Jerry was able to stick to his morals, and still be one of the most powerful forces in the world. She was bound and determined to follow that example. It was the very reason she admired him in the first place.
The creature behind them made strange, high-pitched groans as it shook off rubble and gave chase to the prey that had disturbed its slumber. Something about the sounds triggered some recognition, but she was too busy escaping to spend much effort recalling where she'd heard them before.
They ran down a small street, then at her urging, turned between two dilapidated, multistory, wood-framed house whose wooden fence had long since collapsed and rotted away, following it into an alley that ran perpendicular to the road.
"Why?" Kells panted as they turned onto the alley.
"I doubt we can outrun it!" Kathy shouted back. "Better to try and lose it!" She kept an eye open for another chance to change their vector, and found it in the form of a three-story brick building that was still mostly intact. She turned right again, and then left at the next street.
Thunderous footsteps sounded behind them, causing Kells to put on a burst of speed. Kathy easily kept up, her mind racing, searching for options. She had just about decided to try and get some distance, and then try Jerry's Magic Bullet spell on the thing. It would mean a world of pain for her, but she figured that if it could kills a primordial, it could kill a giant, zombie spider.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a massive foot slamming into the ground just a few dozen feet behind them. The thunk of impact shook the ground, almost enough to make them both stumble. Acting, again on instinct, she eyed a point several hundred yards up the road and reached out, snatching Kells' arm and then teleporting them there.
"What in creation were that?!" Kells exclaimed as the whole world shifted abruptly around him. She hadn't gotten the elevation quite right, and they appeared a few inches off the ground, breaking their momentum. Both of them stumbled and scrambled to regain their balance.
"I teleported us further away!" Kathy shouted back.
"Teleported?!" Kells balked as they finally got their feet moving again.
"Yeah, you know!" Kathy explained. "One second we're here, the next, there!"
"Well teleport us back t'town, then!"
Kathy laughed. "Where's the fun in that!"
"Kath, I swear by all th'gods, I'll strip nekked and let ye ride me aroun' th'town like a pony, iffen ye jest bring us back there!"
Kathy laughed again. "You're a dirty old man, Kells!"
"Dirty, aye, but I'm still young!" he protested. "But I'd like to be old one day! So bring us back!"
Kathy slowed and turned, instead.
She could see the walker clearly now. And she understood why she'd recognized those noises. She'd only ever heard them in movies, but it seems the movies had been right.
Instead of the giant, zombified spider that Kells had described, she was looking at an enormous, steampunk, robot spider, draped in junk that resembled torn skin and severed sinews and veins. Tarps and tents were draped over its rusting, metal frame. Tubes that had once carried hydraulic fluids now flopped around, severed, dripping red liquids. Oils and dirt had stained it, resembling sores.
As she watched, the thing spotted them, a pair of obvious camera lenses turning towards them on its massive head and spinning to bring them into focus. Where its mouth should have been was a dense forest of protuberences, tubes, antennae and other equipment. Some of that equipment began to move, and Kathy recognized the pre-spin of miniguns.
"Cover!" she shouted, shoving Kells towards the closest tumble of fallen structure, a large and uneven mass of bricks. They had barely gotten behind it when the guns opened up, a ripping roar that thundered through the air and tore up the street where they'd been standing.
"Stars an' stones!" Kells swore.
"I wonder how much ammo it has left," Kathy mumbled to herself. But it was kind of a moot question. It clearly had some ammo left, and her only real plan to deal with it didn't involve fighting a war of attrition.
"I need you to distract it," she told Kells.
"Ye need t'get yer head checked!" he shot back. "We're both dead, Kath! I've ne'er even heard o' one who faced a walker an' lived t'tell the tale!"
"Then what difference does it make whether you distract it or not?!" Kathy demanded. Kells opened his mouth to argue, then paused, tilted his head thoughtfully to one side and closed his mouth. After a second, he shrugged at the same moment that the guns stopped firing.
"What d'ye need me to do?"
"Just run for it. I'll find you after I kill this thing."
Kells nodded, then stopped, his eyes widening yet again. "Kill it? Are ye daft?"
Kathy winked at him. "Yes, but that's beside the point. I hope you have a kink for strong women, otherwise you're about to feel real self conscious."
Kells stared, shaking his head sadly. "Well," he said philosophically after a moment. "Iffen I'm t'die today, at least y'seem like to entertain me." He started to straighten up, then paused.
"Yer sure ye dinnae want t'jest teleport us home?" he asked.
"If this doesn't work, that's plan B," Kathy assured him. Kells shook his head again, then stood.
"Hoy, ye attercop!" Kells shouted, jumping up and down, waving his arms. "Ye lazy lob! Blasted crazy cob! Come an' get me, ye old tomnoddy!"
Kathy peeked over the pile of bricks to see the beast turn its cameras towards Kells. "Oh shite," he muttered, turning and running as fast as he could down the road, away from the walker. Massive, spider-like legs began to stomp, the thing rushing forward with incredible speed.
Kathy drew in the magics she would need, her mind recalling the instructions Jerry had given her. Magical capacitors came first, and then she set up streamers of energy to charge them. More magic flowed into her, forming crawling, multicolored arcs of energy across her skin. Her skin began to glow with an intense, golden light.
She pushed and pushed, hoping Kells would survive long enough. It took her longer than it would have taken Jerry, because she had fewer wells. But she had great control over those wells, having studied at the elbow of the greatest wizard in the world, so she knew it could be done.
She formed the magic into a dense, impenetrable shell around her. Denser than lead, it pulled her body out with its mass, and caused the rubble to shift and roll towards her, purely from the gravity of it.
When she felt she was close, she rose into the air, letting the relatively minuscule expenditure of energy it took to do it come from the magic she was drawing in. She rose like a shining star, casting a golden and multicolored glow across the ruined landscape around her. She could see Kells, a hundred yards away, as he stopped, turned and stared in awe.
"All right," she said. "Time for the cosmic money shot."
She angled herself at the beast and released the capacitors, which had been charging the whole time. She braced herself against the inner walls of her magic as she shot off at incredible speed. The impact was almost unnoticeable at first, but she felt the pain as her own body tore through the giant robotics, breaking steel and wood and leather, ripping rubber hoses and sending debris rocketing away from her with the force.
She cried out as the beast exploded, the agony reaching throughout her own body. She lost control, tumbling and falling, striking the ground in a powerful impact as broken pieces rained down around her. She tumbled, skin tearing against the rough ground, bones snapping as she struck rock after rock.
Finally, she came to a halt. She lay there, on her back, staring up at the sky. She simply breathed, great gasping breaths as her body began the laborious process of stitching itself back together.
----
Kells, A Man of Good Mores and a Solid Caravaner
Somewhere in the ruins of an ancient city in the Seventh World
Kells ran for his life as the walker began to stomp after him. Behind him, where he had left Kath, he heard a strange crackling sound, but he did not dare to take his eyes off the ground in front of him. It was only as the crackling sound got louder and louder that he realized it didn't matter. He was dead, no matter what. He might as well satisfy his curiosity about how Kath thought she could hurt the beast.
He turned, and the first thing he noticed was the light. It trended towards a golden light, but it changed colors a lot. It was coming from the little alley where he and Kath had hidden from the fire the walker had spat at them, and it played out over the nearby ruins.
Kells slowed and stopped, his attention grabbed by this curious phenomenon. As he watched, the light rose, and then Kath appeared, floating up above the ruins. She was the source of the light. Her skin and clothes glowed with a brilliant golden light as rainbow-colored lightning crackled all around her. Kells felt his jaw drop.
He'd never seen anything like this before. He'd seen a few wizards conjure fire, or vanish into mid-air before. But he'd seen fire and empty space. This glow and the lightning... He began to wonder how much power it took to be so showy with magic.
She spoke after a few seconds. "All right. Time for the cosmic money shot," she said, words that echoed through the ruins in a reverberation of power. Kells barely had time to wonder what they meant when she rocketed off towards the walker at a speed that boggled his mind.
The creature simply exploded. Kells watched in slack-jawed amazement as the golden glow lanced through the beast, causing its torso to balloon and the disintegrate. Chunks of the beast, bleeding black and red blood, flew everywhere.
As they began to rain down, Kells realized that it wasn't bloody flesh, but metal and wood and that strange, dark material that had survived so well from the time of the ancestors. He picked up a piece, still hot from the explosion as the walker's body fell in three pieces, crashing to the ground.
It was some sort of device. He couldn't make heads or tails of it, but it was not flesh and blood, that much was certain. He wondered if that was what gave the walkers their strength. They were made out of sterner stuff.
After a few moments of examining the piece, he dropped it. He had seen the glow rocket through the walker, and then arc down to the ground, so he began moving to that point. He'd made quite a good clip, running in terror. Now, guided by awe and disbelief, he took his time, walking. It took a few minutes, but he found the point.
It was a crater, smashed into the ground. In the distance, he saw another crater, then a third, all in a straight line. Wondering if Kath had survived left a sinking feeling in his stomach, but if she had, he would not be the one to abandon her here. He followed the line of craters.
They grew closer and closer together, until finally, they turned into a groove, blasted into the ground. It ran for almost four hundred feet before it finally stopped at a building with thick walls.
She was there. Laying flat on her back, her chest heaving. Her clothes were torn and shredded, her flesh covered in thin trails of blood, as if she'd been injured, though he saw no signs of any wounds.
"K-Kath?" he asked tentatively. A pained groan greeted him. After a second, she raised her head and met his eyes.
"That sucked so much," she said. Kells couldn't help himself. He began to laugh. She joined him, wincing as she chuckled.
----
Sookie, Still Sad-ish
TacFab Showroom, Denver, CO "Take PRIDE in Your Tactical Gear!"
"It's a little tight," Sookie said, eyeing the plastic buckles on her shoulders and at either side of the front.
"That's a good thing," Linda replied, though she adjusted the velcro at Sookie's back to loosen it some. "You don't want it to be shifting around when you're moving. Turn around, let me see."
Sookie raised her arms and did a slow pirouette. Linda nodded thoughtfully, the elbow of one arm propped in her other hand, one finger tapping at her chin.
"That's good. Now, we gotta find plates."
"Aren't they all the same?" Sookie asked.
"No way, girl. There's a whole rainbow of choices." Linda took her hand and led her to a glass counter with a series of various home-plate-shaped things in it.
"Okay, so we've got soft armor, which is a mix of ballistic cloth, silk, PVC and other stuff. Then you've got steel, ceramic, arkanite alloy and spiritbone. They're graded on a scale that's kinda confusing. Three-A is the soft armor. It can usually stop any handgun round, except for the armor-penetrating ones. Then there's level three, which is better, and can stop some rifle rounds, up to about a full-size rifle round, like a three-oh-eight. There's level three-plus, which isn't an official term, but it means it can stop most full-size rifle rounds, except for AP stuff. Then there's the level four stuff, which will stop almost anything except for the biggest AP rounds. Finally, there's the M stamp, which means it's resistant to magic. The M comes with a number from one to ten, with a one meaning that anyone trying to cast a spell on the armor itself will fail. A ten means that it'll defeat most any magic cast on you, while you're wearing it."
"Uhh," Sookie said. That was a lot to take in. Linda smiled.
"I got you, girl. What you're gonna want is what I call a triple-stack. Get an arkanite-alloy level four-M-nine plate, then layer level three-A-M-two soft armor over top. Together, it's about a half-inch thick. Then you add a trauma pad behind it and you're about as protected as you can get."
"Okay," Sookie said. She still didn't know what it all meant, but the process of shopping for armor was getting to her. She was thinking about armor ratings and fits and kevlar and arkanite alloys, instead of thinking about him.
"Right here," Linda said, pointing to one that looked like an elongated baseball home plate. "That's a swimmer's cut, which you'll want to maintain as much movement as possible. I know you have that mace and stuff you sometimes use. This'll keep the armor from getting in your way."
A clerk approached. "Good morning, ladies. Something I can help you with?"
Linda pointed to the plate again. "That's a four-M-nine, right?" The clerk glanced down.
"Yes, it is. That's the Steel Series five-oh-two, it's actually on sale right now... One second." He walked over to one of the registers behind the counter and tapped the screen a few times before beaming a broad salesman's smile at them. "It's thirty-five percent off."
"We'll take two," Linda said. "One multicurved swimmer's cut, one single-curved flat cut. Plus matching three-A-M-two soft plates and trauma plates."
"Of course!" the clerk said, scurrying to gather it all up. "Will you be needing side plates? That Spartan series carrier you're wearing accepts them."
"Yup," Linda confirmed. "Same mix for those, too."
The clerk happily complied, no doubt imagining the commission he would make off the purchase of a full set of body armor. Once he had everything, Linda had Sookie take off the vest, and then began stuffing the plates inside the pockets. When she was done, she handed the whole affair back.
Sookie took it, immediately feeling the weight as it dragged her arms down. "Wow, that's heavy," she said. "Isn't this going to tire me out really quickly?"
"It's extra weight, so it will tire you out some more, but it's a lot easier to carry once you get it on. Let me help you..."
Linda showed her how to use the quick-release buckles on the sides and shoulders to quickly get in. Once the weight settled in on her shoulders, Sookie found it to be a lot more manageable than when she was holding it up with her arms.
"What do you think now?" Linda asked. Sookie windmilled her arms, twisted her hips, and stretched out in a few different ways.
"It's actually pretty comfortable," she said. "You loosened it earlier to make room for the plates, right?"
"That's right," Linda said, eyeing her. "It's sitting very nicely."
"So is that it?" Sookie asked, actually feeling a little disappointed that the shopping trip would be over so soon.
Linda laughed. "Not even close. We need to get you an IFAK, an assault pack, an admin pouch and the most important thing of all: morale patches."
"Morale patches?" Sookie asked. Linda grinned. "Yeah, you're gonna love that part."
----
Emily Windham, Wizard, Artificer... And War-Wizard
The Divine Crisis Management Group Regional Headquarters, Denver, CO
Emily looked at the forms on her tablet for a long moment. Specifically, the bottom line.
"...the opinion of the test-giver that Miss Windham has all of the necessary qualities to be an excellent war-wizard. My recommendation is to quickly deploy her, so as to allow her to get some experience in the role."
Her first ready shift had started twenty minutes ago. She glanced around the room. All of the security troops in the QRF were kitted out the same as she was. Armor, camo uniforms, rank insignia on her sleeve and chest, a rifle danging from a sling between her seated legs. Kneepads, thick boots.
It was deliberate, she had learned. The troopers and the war wizards dressed alike, to keep the wizards from being easily identified by the enemy. Just as in Dungeons & Dragons, killing the wizard was often a priority in a fight.
She recalled the training Greg had subjected her to. Learning to cast with a minimum of movement and words. Learning to cast under pressure, when scared or stressed or both. Learning to cast in adverse conditions, such as while being bombarded by a massive sandstorm, or while being dragged underwater by weights attached to her ankles.
She had felt like she barely scraped by, but Greg and the other instructors had praised her. Called her a natural. Assured her that she would go far. Emily wasn't so sure, but she had long ago learned to simply accept the compliments and keep doing her best. That was the way to not disappoint people.
She was still getting used to the idea. The unfamiliar room, the unfamiliar men and women around her, the unfamiliar uniform and gear... She didn't know that she was, actually, ready. But everyone else seemed to think so.
When the alarm sounded, it startled her. She dropped the tablet, then bent down to pick it up with fumbling hands. She stood, stuffing it into one of the pockets on the side of her pants as the troopers rushed around her, doing their final preparations to deploy. Emily looked around, unsure of what to do, until one of the troopers stopped and put a hand on her shoulder.
"First deployment, right?" he asked, his voice gentle. Emily nodded.
"Are you all set? You have all the components you'll need? Your armor's squared away, your mag pouches all loaded, your gun has a round in the chamber?"
Emily checked her gun. The 'press check', they'd called it, where she pulled the charging handle back just a little, until she saw brass inside the chamber. She released it, then patted her pouches with her hands, assuring herself that they are all loaded.
"Yes," she said. She already knew she had all the magical components she'd need. She didn't need a lot, and most were 'just in case' grabs.
"Then go read the deployment orders," the trooper said, pointing to the large TV on the wall, currently showing a black page with white text on it. A few photos were at the bottom.
Emily nodded and turned to go, but then he tightened his hand on her shoulder, so she turned back. He smiled, and she glanced down to see 'Carmichael' on his nametape. She recognized the name, if not the face, from her tasking against the trolls, a few weeks ago. It had been hard to keep track of their faces, with the helmets they all wore.
"You got this," he said, his voice calm and assured. Emily flashed him an uncertain smile, and he gave her a big, confident smile right back. "You got this," he said again and let her go.
Emily walked over to the screen and began to read.
submitted by MjolnirPants to JerryandtheGoddesses [link] [comments]
Kathy Evenson, Profe-Oh Shit!
Somewhere in the ruins of an ancient city in the Seventh World
"Run!" Kells shouted as the massive creature rose to its full height. Kathy turned and followed, operating mostly by dint of her instinctive reaction to the authority in his barked command. Kells didn't hesitate, taking off in the opposite direction from the thing, only glancing over his shoulder to ensure that Kathy was on his heels as he sheathed his weapons.
That didn't last long. With the magically-wrought enhancements to her body, she quickly overtook him and then slowed to keep pace. As they ran, she kept thinking 'you don't have to outrun the bear, you only have to outrun the other guy.'
The thoughts made her mad. Mostly at herself, for having them. She had been trained to be mercenary by The Company, but she had never abandoned her morals entirely. She had seen with her own eyes, countless times, that Jerry was able to stick to his morals, and still be one of the most powerful forces in the world. She was bound and determined to follow that example. It was the very reason she admired him in the first place.
The creature behind them made strange, high-pitched groans as it shook off rubble and gave chase to the prey that had disturbed its slumber. Something about the sounds triggered some recognition, but she was too busy escaping to spend much effort recalling where she'd heard them before.
They ran down a small street, then at her urging, turned between two dilapidated, multistory, wood-framed house whose wooden fence had long since collapsed and rotted away, following it into an alley that ran perpendicular to the road.
"Why?" Kells panted as they turned onto the alley.
"I doubt we can outrun it!" Kathy shouted back. "Better to try and lose it!" She kept an eye open for another chance to change their vector, and found it in the form of a three-story brick building that was still mostly intact. She turned right again, and then left at the next street.
Thunderous footsteps sounded behind them, causing Kells to put on a burst of speed. Kathy easily kept up, her mind racing, searching for options. She had just about decided to try and get some distance, and then try Jerry's Magic Bullet spell on the thing. It would mean a world of pain for her, but she figured that if it could kills a primordial, it could kill a giant, zombie spider.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a massive foot slamming into the ground just a few dozen feet behind them. The thunk of impact shook the ground, almost enough to make them both stumble. Acting, again on instinct, she eyed a point several hundred yards up the road and reached out, snatching Kells' arm and then teleporting them there.
"What in creation were that?!" Kells exclaimed as the whole world shifted abruptly around him. She hadn't gotten the elevation quite right, and they appeared a few inches off the ground, breaking their momentum. Both of them stumbled and scrambled to regain their balance.
"I teleported us further away!" Kathy shouted back.
"Teleported?!" Kells balked as they finally got their feet moving again.
"Yeah, you know!" Kathy explained. "One second we're here, the next, there!"
"Well teleport us back t'town, then!"
Kathy laughed. "Where's the fun in that!"
"Kath, I swear by all th'gods, I'll strip nekked and let ye ride me aroun' th'town like a pony, iffen ye jest bring us back there!"
Kathy laughed again. "You're a dirty old man, Kells!"
"Dirty, aye, but I'm still young!" he protested. "But I'd like to be old one day! So bring us back!"
Kathy slowed and turned, instead.
She could see the walker clearly now. And she understood why she'd recognized those noises. She'd only ever heard them in movies, but it seems the movies had been right.
Instead of the giant, zombified spider that Kells had described, she was looking at an enormous, steampunk, robot spider, draped in junk that resembled torn skin and severed sinews and veins. Tarps and tents were draped over its rusting, metal frame. Tubes that had once carried hydraulic fluids now flopped around, severed, dripping red liquids. Oils and dirt had stained it, resembling sores.
As she watched, the thing spotted them, a pair of obvious camera lenses turning towards them on its massive head and spinning to bring them into focus. Where its mouth should have been was a dense forest of protuberences, tubes, antennae and other equipment. Some of that equipment began to move, and Kathy recognized the pre-spin of miniguns.
"Cover!" she shouted, shoving Kells towards the closest tumble of fallen structure, a large and uneven mass of bricks. They had barely gotten behind it when the guns opened up, a ripping roar that thundered through the air and tore up the street where they'd been standing.
"Stars an' stones!" Kells swore.
"I wonder how much ammo it has left," Kathy mumbled to herself. But it was kind of a moot question. It clearly had some ammo left, and her only real plan to deal with it didn't involve fighting a war of attrition.
"I need you to distract it," she told Kells.
"Ye need t'get yer head checked!" he shot back. "We're both dead, Kath! I've ne'er even heard o' one who faced a walker an' lived t'tell the tale!"
"Then what difference does it make whether you distract it or not?!" Kathy demanded. Kells opened his mouth to argue, then paused, tilted his head thoughtfully to one side and closed his mouth. After a second, he shrugged at the same moment that the guns stopped firing.
"What d'ye need me to do?"
"Just run for it. I'll find you after I kill this thing."
Kells nodded, then stopped, his eyes widening yet again. "Kill it? Are ye daft?"
Kathy winked at him. "Yes, but that's beside the point. I hope you have a kink for strong women, otherwise you're about to feel real self conscious."
Kells stared, shaking his head sadly. "Well," he said philosophically after a moment. "Iffen I'm t'die today, at least y'seem like to entertain me." He started to straighten up, then paused.
"Yer sure ye dinnae want t'jest teleport us home?" he asked.
"If this doesn't work, that's plan B," Kathy assured him. Kells shook his head again, then stood.
"Hoy, ye attercop!" Kells shouted, jumping up and down, waving his arms. "Ye lazy lob! Blasted crazy cob! Come an' get me, ye old tomnoddy!"
Kathy peeked over the pile of bricks to see the beast turn its cameras towards Kells. "Oh shite," he muttered, turning and running as fast as he could down the road, away from the walker. Massive, spider-like legs began to stomp, the thing rushing forward with incredible speed.
Kathy drew in the magics she would need, her mind recalling the instructions Jerry had given her. Magical capacitors came first, and then she set up streamers of energy to charge them. More magic flowed into her, forming crawling, multicolored arcs of energy across her skin. Her skin began to glow with an intense, golden light.
She pushed and pushed, hoping Kells would survive long enough. It took her longer than it would have taken Jerry, because she had fewer wells. But she had great control over those wells, having studied at the elbow of the greatest wizard in the world, so she knew it could be done.
She formed the magic into a dense, impenetrable shell around her. Denser than lead, it pulled her body out with its mass, and caused the rubble to shift and roll towards her, purely from the gravity of it.
When she felt she was close, she rose into the air, letting the relatively minuscule expenditure of energy it took to do it come from the magic she was drawing in. She rose like a shining star, casting a golden and multicolored glow across the ruined landscape around her. She could see Kells, a hundred yards away, as he stopped, turned and stared in awe.
"All right," she said. "Time for the cosmic money shot."
She angled herself at the beast and released the capacitors, which had been charging the whole time. She braced herself against the inner walls of her magic as she shot off at incredible speed. The impact was almost unnoticeable at first, but she felt the pain as her own body tore through the giant robotics, breaking steel and wood and leather, ripping rubber hoses and sending debris rocketing away from her with the force.
She cried out as the beast exploded, the agony reaching throughout her own body. She lost control, tumbling and falling, striking the ground in a powerful impact as broken pieces rained down around her. She tumbled, skin tearing against the rough ground, bones snapping as she struck rock after rock.
Finally, she came to a halt. She lay there, on her back, staring up at the sky. She simply breathed, great gasping breaths as her body began the laborious process of stitching itself back together.
----
Kells, A Man of Good Mores and a Solid Caravaner
Somewhere in the ruins of an ancient city in the Seventh World
Kells ran for his life as the walker began to stomp after him. Behind him, where he had left Kath, he heard a strange crackling sound, but he did not dare to take his eyes off the ground in front of him. It was only as the crackling sound got louder and louder that he realized it didn't matter. He was dead, no matter what. He might as well satisfy his curiosity about how Kath thought she could hurt the beast.
He turned, and the first thing he noticed was the light. It trended towards a golden light, but it changed colors a lot. It was coming from the little alley where he and Kath had hidden from the fire the walker had spat at them, and it played out over the nearby ruins.
Kells slowed and stopped, his attention grabbed by this curious phenomenon. As he watched, the light rose, and then Kath appeared, floating up above the ruins. She was the source of the light. Her skin and clothes glowed with a brilliant golden light as rainbow-colored lightning crackled all around her. Kells felt his jaw drop.
He'd never seen anything like this before. He'd seen a few wizards conjure fire, or vanish into mid-air before. But he'd seen fire and empty space. This glow and the lightning... He began to wonder how much power it took to be so showy with magic.
She spoke after a few seconds. "All right. Time for the cosmic money shot," she said, words that echoed through the ruins in a reverberation of power. Kells barely had time to wonder what they meant when she rocketed off towards the walker at a speed that boggled his mind.
The creature simply exploded. Kells watched in slack-jawed amazement as the golden glow lanced through the beast, causing its torso to balloon and the disintegrate. Chunks of the beast, bleeding black and red blood, flew everywhere.
As they began to rain down, Kells realized that it wasn't bloody flesh, but metal and wood and that strange, dark material that had survived so well from the time of the ancestors. He picked up a piece, still hot from the explosion as the walker's body fell in three pieces, crashing to the ground.
It was some sort of device. He couldn't make heads or tails of it, but it was not flesh and blood, that much was certain. He wondered if that was what gave the walkers their strength. They were made out of sterner stuff.
After a few moments of examining the piece, he dropped it. He had seen the glow rocket through the walker, and then arc down to the ground, so he began moving to that point. He'd made quite a good clip, running in terror. Now, guided by awe and disbelief, he took his time, walking. It took a few minutes, but he found the point.
It was a crater, smashed into the ground. In the distance, he saw another crater, then a third, all in a straight line. Wondering if Kath had survived left a sinking feeling in his stomach, but if she had, he would not be the one to abandon her here. He followed the line of craters.
They grew closer and closer together, until finally, they turned into a groove, blasted into the ground. It ran for almost four hundred feet before it finally stopped at a building with thick walls.
She was there. Laying flat on her back, her chest heaving. Her clothes were torn and shredded, her flesh covered in thin trails of blood, as if she'd been injured, though he saw no signs of any wounds.
"K-Kath?" he asked tentatively. A pained groan greeted him. After a second, she raised her head and met his eyes.
"That sucked so much," she said. Kells couldn't help himself. He began to laugh. She joined him, wincing as she chuckled.
----
Sookie, Still Sad-ish
TacFab Showroom, Denver, CO "Take PRIDE in Your Tactical Gear!"
"It's a little tight," Sookie said, eyeing the plastic buckles on her shoulders and at either side of the front.
"That's a good thing," Linda replied, though she adjusted the velcro at Sookie's back to loosen it some. "You don't want it to be shifting around when you're moving. Turn around, let me see."
Sookie raised her arms and did a slow pirouette. Linda nodded thoughtfully, the elbow of one arm propped in her other hand, one finger tapping at her chin.
"That's good. Now, we gotta find plates."
"Aren't they all the same?" Sookie asked.
"No way, girl. There's a whole rainbow of choices." Linda took her hand and led her to a glass counter with a series of various home-plate-shaped things in it.
"Okay, so we've got soft armor, which is a mix of ballistic cloth, silk, PVC and other stuff. Then you've got steel, ceramic, arkanite alloy and spiritbone. They're graded on a scale that's kinda confusing. Three-A is the soft armor. It can usually stop any handgun round, except for the armor-penetrating ones. Then there's level three, which is better, and can stop some rifle rounds, up to about a full-size rifle round, like a three-oh-eight. There's level three-plus, which isn't an official term, but it means it can stop most full-size rifle rounds, except for AP stuff. Then there's the level four stuff, which will stop almost anything except for the biggest AP rounds. Finally, there's the M stamp, which means it's resistant to magic. The M comes with a number from one to ten, with a one meaning that anyone trying to cast a spell on the armor itself will fail. A ten means that it'll defeat most any magic cast on you, while you're wearing it."
"Uhh," Sookie said. That was a lot to take in. Linda smiled.
"I got you, girl. What you're gonna want is what I call a triple-stack. Get an arkanite-alloy level four-M-nine plate, then layer level three-A-M-two soft armor over top. Together, it's about a half-inch thick. Then you add a trauma pad behind it and you're about as protected as you can get."
"Okay," Sookie said. She still didn't know what it all meant, but the process of shopping for armor was getting to her. She was thinking about armor ratings and fits and kevlar and arkanite alloys, instead of thinking about him.
"Right here," Linda said, pointing to one that looked like an elongated baseball home plate. "That's a swimmer's cut, which you'll want to maintain as much movement as possible. I know you have that mace and stuff you sometimes use. This'll keep the armor from getting in your way."
A clerk approached. "Good morning, ladies. Something I can help you with?"
Linda pointed to the plate again. "That's a four-M-nine, right?" The clerk glanced down.
"Yes, it is. That's the Steel Series five-oh-two, it's actually on sale right now... One second." He walked over to one of the registers behind the counter and tapped the screen a few times before beaming a broad salesman's smile at them. "It's thirty-five percent off."
"We'll take two," Linda said. "One multicurved swimmer's cut, one single-curved flat cut. Plus matching three-A-M-two soft plates and trauma plates."
"Of course!" the clerk said, scurrying to gather it all up. "Will you be needing side plates? That Spartan series carrier you're wearing accepts them."
"Yup," Linda confirmed. "Same mix for those, too."
The clerk happily complied, no doubt imagining the commission he would make off the purchase of a full set of body armor. Once he had everything, Linda had Sookie take off the vest, and then began stuffing the plates inside the pockets. When she was done, she handed the whole affair back.
Sookie took it, immediately feeling the weight as it dragged her arms down. "Wow, that's heavy," she said. "Isn't this going to tire me out really quickly?"
"It's extra weight, so it will tire you out some more, but it's a lot easier to carry once you get it on. Let me help you..."
Linda showed her how to use the quick-release buckles on the sides and shoulders to quickly get in. Once the weight settled in on her shoulders, Sookie found it to be a lot more manageable than when she was holding it up with her arms.
"What do you think now?" Linda asked. Sookie windmilled her arms, twisted her hips, and stretched out in a few different ways.
"It's actually pretty comfortable," she said. "You loosened it earlier to make room for the plates, right?"
"That's right," Linda said, eyeing her. "It's sitting very nicely."
"So is that it?" Sookie asked, actually feeling a little disappointed that the shopping trip would be over so soon.
Linda laughed. "Not even close. We need to get you an IFAK, an assault pack, an admin pouch and the most important thing of all: morale patches."
"Morale patches?" Sookie asked. Linda grinned. "Yeah, you're gonna love that part."
----
Emily Windham, Wizard, Artificer... And War-Wizard
The Divine Crisis Management Group Regional Headquarters, Denver, CO
Emily looked at the forms on her tablet for a long moment. Specifically, the bottom line.
"...the opinion of the test-giver that Miss Windham has all of the necessary qualities to be an excellent war-wizard. My recommendation is to quickly deploy her, so as to allow her to get some experience in the role."
Her first ready shift had started twenty minutes ago. She glanced around the room. All of the security troops in the QRF were kitted out the same as she was. Armor, camo uniforms, rank insignia on her sleeve and chest, a rifle danging from a sling between her seated legs. Kneepads, thick boots.
It was deliberate, she had learned. The troopers and the war wizards dressed alike, to keep the wizards from being easily identified by the enemy. Just as in Dungeons & Dragons, killing the wizard was often a priority in a fight.
She recalled the training Greg had subjected her to. Learning to cast with a minimum of movement and words. Learning to cast under pressure, when scared or stressed or both. Learning to cast in adverse conditions, such as while being bombarded by a massive sandstorm, or while being dragged underwater by weights attached to her ankles.
She had felt like she barely scraped by, but Greg and the other instructors had praised her. Called her a natural. Assured her that she would go far. Emily wasn't so sure, but she had long ago learned to simply accept the compliments and keep doing her best. That was the way to not disappoint people.
She was still getting used to the idea. The unfamiliar room, the unfamiliar men and women around her, the unfamiliar uniform and gear... She didn't know that she was, actually, ready. But everyone else seemed to think so.
When the alarm sounded, it startled her. She dropped the tablet, then bent down to pick it up with fumbling hands. She stood, stuffing it into one of the pockets on the side of her pants as the troopers rushed around her, doing their final preparations to deploy. Emily looked around, unsure of what to do, until one of the troopers stopped and put a hand on her shoulder.
"First deployment, right?" he asked, his voice gentle. Emily nodded.
"Are you all set? You have all the components you'll need? Your armor's squared away, your mag pouches all loaded, your gun has a round in the chamber?"
Emily checked her gun. The 'press check', they'd called it, where she pulled the charging handle back just a little, until she saw brass inside the chamber. She released it, then patted her pouches with her hands, assuring herself that they are all loaded.
"Yes," she said. She already knew she had all the magical components she'd need. She didn't need a lot, and most were 'just in case' grabs.
"Then go read the deployment orders," the trooper said, pointing to the large TV on the wall, currently showing a black page with white text on it. A few photos were at the bottom.
Emily nodded and turned to go, but then he tightened his hand on her shoulder, so she turned back. He smiled, and she glanced down to see 'Carmichael' on his nametape. She recognized the name, if not the face, from her tasking against the trolls, a few weeks ago. It had been hard to keep track of their faces, with the helmets they all wore.
"You got this," he said, his voice calm and assured. Emily flashed him an uncertain smile, and he gave her a big, confident smile right back. "You got this," he said again and let her go.
Emily walked over to the screen and began to read.
2024.05.17 16:14 Cautious-Salad Boat Electrical Systems and Generators: AC vs. DC
 | Boats, like all vehicles, typically have a 12 Volt DC electrical system connected to the battery and motor to recharge them. Generally, there are three batteries on a boat: one designated for starting the engine (for safety reasons), and the remaining two are used to supply power to all equipment on board. A key decision for boat owners is whether to use an AC or DC generator to power their systems. submitted by Cautious-Salad to POWER_KINETIC [link] [comments] Generator and Electrical Systems on a Yacht
AC vs. DC Generator Comparison
Transitioning from Shore Power to Generator UseWhen docked, a boat can rely on shore power to run its electrical systems. However, once at sea, the generator becomes the primary power source. Here’s how to manage this transition effectively:
Choosing Between AC and DC GeneratorsBoth AC and DC generators have their advantages and are suitable for different scenarios on a boat:
🌀 Nikola Tesla's Ether Technology: 💠 Harnessing the power of back electromagnetic fields (Back EMF) 💠 Back EMF generates Lenz's Force in generator 💠 When the output energy is not affected **by the Lenz (free)** force, a self-powered mechanism will be established from the AC generator head to the induction motor. And the kinetic energy of the induction motor at that time was only supposed to stir the Ether by Nikola Tesla's "Rotating Magnetic Field". That's the mechanism for a Free Energy AC generator - no fuel needed - Self-powered generator.~AC generator without fuel~: Simple Energy Hack KILLS Power Bills And Generates Power On Demand Ensuring a boat's electrical systems operate smoothly is essential for a successful sailing experience. This guide covers managing the transition between shore power and generator use, emphasizing the roles of AC and DC generators. When docked, shore power supports the boat's systems. However, at sea, the generator takes over. Key steps include properly connecting shore power, checking system operations before switching, and carefully managing engine start-up and system monitoring. Post-trip procedures involve transitioning back to shore power, ensuring no system overload, and preventing battery drain. AC generators are ideal for high-power appliances, while DC generators suit battery charging and low-power devices, catering to different boating needs. Related: Variable Speeds For DC Motors |
2024.05.16 23:37 room134 Hot take on the influence of *spoiler* in the quality of the narrative and overall plot of SnK
I've consumed dozens of manga and anime series and Shingeki no Kyojin is, by far, my personal favourite. However I've always seen Eren and Mikasa's relationship as its weakest component, both because it feels forced and even more because it was completely unnecessary.
In my opinion, the story would be infinitely more fluid, complex and compelling if Eren never loved Mikasa back romantically.
Now, I have never been a shipper. Any romantic relationship or couple (or nome) is fine, for me, as long as it is credible, according to the characters and world built and serves the story in a meaningful way.
With that said, I believe, in more ways than one, that if Eren and her got involved romantically, the story could've been near perfect.
Eren and Historia had a much better chemistry and mutual understanding. On a lesser point, considering the many parallels between Eren and Reiner, it would also be narratively natural that they'd fall for the same girl.
The time skip would allow Hajime Isayama-sensei to "escape" having to flesh out their relationship in too many pannels and instead use it to further enhance and advance the plot, with minor changes to the main canon, while still keeping the main story and themes untouched. Below, I give you a possible what if scenario in an alternative timeline:
submitted by room134 to ShingekiNoKyojin [link] [comments]
In my opinion, the story would be infinitely more fluid, complex and compelling if Eren never loved Mikasa back romantically.
Now, I have never been a shipper. Any romantic relationship or couple (or nome) is fine, for me, as long as it is credible, according to the characters and world built and serves the story in a meaningful way.
With that said, I believe, in more ways than one, that if Eren and her got involved romantically, the story could've been near perfect.
Eren and Historia had a much better chemistry and mutual understanding. On a lesser point, considering the many parallels between Eren and Reiner, it would also be narratively natural that they'd fall for the same girl.
The time skip would allow Hajime Isayama-sensei to "escape" having to flesh out their relationship in too many pannels and instead use it to further enhance and advance the plot, with minor changes to the main canon, while still keeping the main story and themes untouched. Below, I give you a possible what if scenario in an alternative timeline:
- Not too long after the events that finish the retaking of wall Maria arc, they meet occasionally in secret to talk about what what they went through in the crystal cave and everything in between;
- Other than Armin and Mikasa, no one is aware of their secret (with him being a military tool and her, the Queen);
- He avoids physical contact with her at first, because he still doesn't understand what happened at the ceremony and is afraid of what might happen (she just shrugs it off and assumes he's not into intimacy and that the nature of their relationship and responsabilities, plus his impending death is messing with his head);
- They grow so close over the next 3 years that it can't be helped and, on the rare occasions that they do touch, Eren gets more visions from "future memories";
- Eventually, he slowly starts his descent into cold "Chad Eren" from obsessing and undertanding more and more about them and not being able to share this info with anyone;
- The first and only time they lay, Eren tries to, as he puts it, "see different futures" or ways to prevent what's about to happen, but he can't and doesn't understand what leads to them (as he can only know the future from Griesha's visions of his own memories from later on);
- They both learn about Historia's pregnancy soon after, and Eren finally understands his "purpose" - he tells Historia about his plan to start the Yeagerists and eventually the Rumbling in order to save Eldia and the royal heir that is to be their child, but she disagrees in favor of trying to find a diplomatic solution with Hizuru's help;
- Knowing he won't be alive long enough for their child to even remember him, he tells her to find a nice "dummy dad" who can give them a happy life and storms off alone to infiltrate Marley and resume the canon events that start the Marley Invasion arc.
- Learning about Eren and Historia, She struggles at first, but soon realizes she Will always have an immense gratitude towards Eren and his family but her obsession isn't healthy for either of them. She is eventually "freed" from Eren, and that makes both of them happy. Knowing about her Hizuru ancestry could help her focus on herself,, flourish as character, and gain narrative agency by serving as a military diplomat between the two nations, as a mixed race person from Paradis. The headaches could also easily be a genetic condition from them or overextending physically while only being half Ackermann. By the end, in Eren's plan, her killing him and stopping the Rumbling could bring recognition to both her discriminated peoples from the surviving humans. Even if they weren't in love, they did love each other and it wouldn't take away from her resolve.
- The Founder Ymir's "chosen one" could be Historia, instead of Mikasa. Similar to Eren and Reiner, there were many parallels between Historia and Ymir. What releases her from the paths is seeing Historia choose her child and life instead of her partner and death. When Eren dies, the Founder is instead standing by Historia and her newborn (almost as if she forgot about Eren and her own rage against humanity) and the titan curse/hallucigenia dies with Eren, as the ultimate product of the world's prejudice and agression towards innocent Eldians and the Founder fades as Historia names her daughter saying "You are free, Ymir".
- Eren's reasoning for trying to wipe out all humanity outside the walls (yes, in the canon he was going for a 100%-Paradis extermination but he was stopped at 80% because of the scouts and warriors). I do think he feels bad about it as is, but having a child on the way gives a whole new later of human complexity to the moral and ethical dilema he goes through. Knowing he can either secure their people safety and remove the need for passing down Titans through canibalism or *fail the extermination but make his friends "the heroes who saved the world" to give Eldia better chances at the diplomatic Historia wanted.
2024.05.16 22:59 imthenachoman SFF or mini Linux PC for daily driver and light gaming (mostly Halo) with max budget of 1500.
I am not a hard core gamer but I want to be able to play Halo (on adequate settings) and other single player FPS games.
I run Linux (Debian + KDE) as my daily driver and game through Steam.
Based on what I've read, I should stick with Intel Arc GPU or AMD GPU becuase GeForce doesn't play well in Linux.
I need it to support a 1 TB SSD (M2, NVMe, etc. - whatever is best) and a 4 TB 2.5" SSD.
My max budget is 1500 but since I'm not a heavy gamer I'm hoping I can get away with a lot less.
And I do have some 24x7 services running like Plex and Home Assistant. So I would go for beefier CPU and more RAM so I could still game with those running.
The specs I'm thinking:
submitted by imthenachoman to buildapcforme [link] [comments]
I run Linux (Debian + KDE) as my daily driver and game through Steam.
Based on what I've read, I should stick with Intel Arc GPU or AMD GPU becuase GeForce doesn't play well in Linux.
I need it to support a 1 TB SSD (M2, NVMe, etc. - whatever is best) and a 4 TB 2.5" SSD.
My max budget is 1500 but since I'm not a heavy gamer I'm hoping I can get away with a lot less.
And I do have some 24x7 services running like Plex and Home Assistant. So I would go for beefier CPU and more RAM so I could still game with those running.
The specs I'm thinking:
- Intel CPU and Intel GPU or AMD CPU and AMD GPU -- whatever y'all think is best for gaming on Linux
- 1x high speed SSD for main OS (NVMe is best?)
- 1x 2.5" 4 TB SSD
- 32 GB RAM, maybe 64 GB RAM if it's not that much more expensive
- A PSU to power it all
Is this a brand new build, or an upgrade to an existing build?New
Please list any existing parts or monitor(s) you have that you would like to re-use with this build. For upgrades, a PCPartPicker list of your full build is extremely helpful. Be as specific as you can be here, including links or exact model numbers of each component whenever possible.
- Dell ultrawide monitor (5120x1440)
- 2.5" 4 TB SSD that I use for data (OS would be installed on another SSD like an NVMe)
What will this PC be used for? Examples include things like gaming, general/multimedia use, photo/video editing, coding, AI/ML, etc. Include specific games and applications you intend to run, and any particular performance goals you have, as each may have different specific hardware needs.
- Daily driver
- Casual gaming (Halo and other single player FPS)
- Plex Media Server
- Home Assistant VM
What country will you be purchasing in? If you are in the US, do you live near a Micro Center? For other countries, please check if your country is supported by PCPartPicker by using the country selector dropdown on the top right - if not, please provide some links to reliable local vendors you are comfortable ordering from.US and I live near a Micro Center.
Do you need one or more monitors included in the budget? Please list how many and any size/resolution/refresh rate preferences if needed.No.
What is your preferred and maximum budget range for this build, in local currency? Parts lists may sometimes have additional shipping costs. Please note whether prices in your country include sales tax or not, and adjust your budget accordingly. Typically VAT countries will have it included in the part list prices, whereas regular sales tax countries like the US and Canada will not.USD 1500
Do you need WiFi, or do you have a wired ethernet connection available?Wired
Do you have any specific size or noise requirements for the build?SFF or mini
Do you have any aesthetic preferences for color or lighting? Describe what you're looking for, or feel free to provide some links to examples that may help. Some people prefer an inobtrusive stealth build, while others may prefer a case full of rainbow RGB.I don't care what it looks like.
Any other specific requests or requirements? Examples might include a specific minimum amount of storage, or a particular CPU socket for a future upgrade path, etc.
2024.05.16 21:15 ASnakeNamedTambi Need help interpreting genome reflex results for NIPT
We had a MaterniT + reflex for genome done about a month ago. The regular NIPT came back normal, and our GC said she was sending out the reflex to check for microdeletions (we had previously done a Natera test with inconclusive results). I haven’t been able to contact our GC but her office today told us the reflex should be in the results I got. All I’m seeing is the following:
Circulating cell-free DNA was purified from the plasma component of maternal blood. The extracted DNA was then converted into a genomic DNA library for aneuploidy analysis of chromosomes 21, 18, and 13 via next generation sequencing. [1] Optional findings based on the test order include sex chromosome aneuploidy (SCA) [2], and enhanced sequencing series (ESS) [3], which will only be reported on as an additional finding when an abnormality is detected. SCA testing includes information on X and Y representation, While ESS testing includes deletions in selected regions (229, 159, 119, 89, 5p, 4p, 1p)
This came through with the original results, so it doesn’t seem right to me if we were told it would be three weeks to get the reflect results back.
Has anyone gotten the reflex with genome? What results should I be looking for?
submitted by ASnakeNamedTambi to pregnant [link] [comments]
Circulating cell-free DNA was purified from the plasma component of maternal blood. The extracted DNA was then converted into a genomic DNA library for aneuploidy analysis of chromosomes 21, 18, and 13 via next generation sequencing. [1] Optional findings based on the test order include sex chromosome aneuploidy (SCA) [2], and enhanced sequencing series (ESS) [3], which will only be reported on as an additional finding when an abnormality is detected. SCA testing includes information on X and Y representation, While ESS testing includes deletions in selected regions (229, 159, 119, 89, 5p, 4p, 1p)
This came through with the original results, so it doesn’t seem right to me if we were told it would be three weeks to get the reflect results back.
Has anyone gotten the reflex with genome? What results should I be looking for?
2024.05.16 11:28 Icy_Maximum_232 Need advice on certain niches involving phylacteries
So, this is a very simple butting of heads between players that I cannot decide between. That's why I came here.
I am running a level 1-12 campaign in my local DND club and they have just encountered an in game choice that they must make. Kill the sorcerer lich king by destroying his last phylactery, however, this would require them to go on a separate arc to prevent the fusion of the material and ethereal planes permanently. The phylactery in question is an insanely powerful sentient magical lantern that fully controls the mists of the shallow ethereal plane, and acts as a barrier to stop the deep ethereal from spreading.
The monk’s (one of the players’) idea is based off of two things. 1) The magic of the phylactery was placed on the lantern after its creation, but its ethereal powers were related to it's magical components and forging. 2) The phylactery has been said to be the concept of the lantern rather than its physical components (that's what gave him the idea.)
His idea, then, was to slowly replace tiny segments of the lantern with different material until none of the original pieces remained (Ship of Theseus, basically) and simultaneously rebuild the magical pieces of old lantern into a new, magical ethereal lantern, separating them so that the phylactery could be destroyed with the ethereally realm held at bay. Also, he has no intention of skipping the arc as i only informed him of it after his solution was proposed.
The paladin objected, stating that both the ethereal and phylactery magic would be lost during reconstruction.
So, DMs, who is correct in this situation?
submitted by Icy_Maximum_232 to dmadvice [link] [comments]
I am running a level 1-12 campaign in my local DND club and they have just encountered an in game choice that they must make. Kill the sorcerer lich king by destroying his last phylactery, however, this would require them to go on a separate arc to prevent the fusion of the material and ethereal planes permanently. The phylactery in question is an insanely powerful sentient magical lantern that fully controls the mists of the shallow ethereal plane, and acts as a barrier to stop the deep ethereal from spreading.
The monk’s (one of the players’) idea is based off of two things. 1) The magic of the phylactery was placed on the lantern after its creation, but its ethereal powers were related to it's magical components and forging. 2) The phylactery has been said to be the concept of the lantern rather than its physical components (that's what gave him the idea.)
His idea, then, was to slowly replace tiny segments of the lantern with different material until none of the original pieces remained (Ship of Theseus, basically) and simultaneously rebuild the magical pieces of old lantern into a new, magical ethereal lantern, separating them so that the phylactery could be destroyed with the ethereally realm held at bay. Also, he has no intention of skipping the arc as i only informed him of it after his solution was proposed.
The paladin objected, stating that both the ethereal and phylactery magic would be lost during reconstruction.
So, DMs, who is correct in this situation?
2024.05.16 06:15 Maxton1811 Galactic Refugees 7
First...Previous
Colonist Memory Log: Captain Alan J. Emerson
UNS Evandra
Mechanical melodies of gears grinding together and switches flicking of their own accord surrounded the shrine room as before us the gramophone began softly to whistle and click. “He is here…” Kritivek announced, standing tall and bowing his head in rigid deference to his god.
After a few more seconds, the machine’s output grew in both volume and complexity until at last my GRIM could recognize the clicks as Chitaan language. “Hello, Kritivek.” It began, its voice smooth and rhythmic like something between the crackle of a geiger counter and a typewriter’s telltale racket. “I am glad to see you alive and well. Judging by the fact that Gheyk and Fevik are not with you, however, I calculate an 86% chance that they were not so lucky.”
“You are correct, Great One…” murmured Kritivek, the sadness in his tone underpinned by pure awe and reverence for this being.
For a few seconds, Omnus did not speak, but from the everpresent churn of gears we could quite literally hear him ‘thinking’. “I have logged their names in my backup database,” the machine eventually concluded, its words visibly bringing relief to Kritivek. “They shall be remembered for the remainder of my existence. Please, take solace in that…”
“May they frolic in your glory for all of time,” our Chitaan guide prayed aloud, his words followed by yet another long, smothering silence.
“You hath served me well, Kritivek.” Continued the machine, prompting a delighted chitter from the Chitaan priest. “You may go in peace, for I wish to speak with these Humans alone. Mourn your brothers and celebrate the time you spent together. Perhaps enjoy a flask of bogal poured out in their honor?”
“As you wish, my lord… I will inform those outside that you are in contemplation for this night and can take no more prayers until daybreak.”
Replicating with its gears the gentle rattle of a Chitaan chuckle, Omnus waited until his priest had left before at last speaking directly to the three of us. “You are not native to this planet, correct?” He asked, his words distinctly lacking the emotional inflections of Kritivek’s. “Your arrival here is without precedent, but not entirely unexpected.”
Though clearly far from divine in nature, the being with whom we conversed at this shrine was nevertheless a true marvel to behold: one born not of metaphysics, but rather mechanics. “You’re an AI!” I gasped, that last word having no direct translation in the Chitaan language and as such forcing my translator to make do with the clumsier phrase ‘thinking tool’.
“That is correct,” replied this machine, its words underscored by the distant hiss of steam valves and other clockwork components. “Allow me to offer my most sincere sympathies for the unfortunate demise of your homeworld. Taking into account the trajectory of your ship prior to landing, I presume its origin to be the Cichek system—a G-class star located [forty lightyears] away. Is this hypothesis accurate?”
Awkwardly clearing his throat in a bid to obtain the AI’s attention, it was Alex who next deigned to speak out. “You would be dead on,” he affirmed, his tone betraying an understandable degree of awe. “Though our name for it is the Sol system. How long have you known about our ship for?”
“I first detected the gravitational anomaly in our system approximately [3 months] ago. Initially, I had mistaken your vessel for an asteroid and as such expected it to continue on its prior trajectory. Asteroids, however, do not suddenly change course in the direction of nearby planets like your ship did [hours] ago.”
“Are you entirely clockwork?” I asked Omnus, gesturing incredulously toward its walls of grinding machinery. Surely, that could not be the case. For a convincingly sapient AI to be constructed on the basis of such primitive technology, it would require decades or perhaps even centuries of construction.
Again, silence fell over the room as Omnus mechanically contemplated my query, meeting it with a reply after some twenty seconds of deliberation. “What else might I be?” The machine asked, providing me implicitly with my answer. “While I have theorized several possible avenues for technologies more advanced than myself, including electronic and organic integration, such methods appear to have been beyond my creators' capabilities.”
“That brings up another question…” Alice interjected, recovering at last from the sheer shock of encountering a sapient machine. “Who built you and why?” Despite years of exponential advancement in the field of computer science, true AI nevertheless had continued to elude mankind. Convincing as our facsimiles of sapience could be at times, they nevertheless lacked the capacity for emotion and initiative characteristic of real consciousness. Whoever constructed this machine had done something thought impossible by over a century of Human engineers.
“In truth, I am not sure…” Omnus concluded after an even longer-than-usual pause. “My core memory bank was reset [9,462 years] ago. As such, I have no data on my creators nor their original intentions for me. However, I have largely ruled out the possibility of them having been Chitaan.”
Fascinating as this clockwork consciousness undoubtedly was, something about its relationship with the natives left a bad taste in my mouth all the same. "And why exactly are you masquerading as a god before these people?" I asked him, my words tipped in a venom the potency of which apparently surprised my companions. "What value do you derive from tricking them into worshipping you?"
Lengthy silence fell over the shrine chamber as its AI occupant contemplated my complaint, responding much quicker than it had to the previous question. "In all fairness, 'trick' is a rather strong word..." answered Omnus with a steam-valve sigh. "When first I encountered the Chitaan, I had attempted to explain my true nature to them. No matter how I worded things, however, they simply could not comprehend me as anything short of divine. Upon finding me, the Chitaan found a guide bearing great wisdom; and in turn, I found a species in need of guidance.”
Falling silent for a moment to parse this response within my mind, I was hardly surprised when Alex spoke up to question the computer in my stead. “Is this the only settlement that follows you or are there others?” He asked.
“This access point where you now stand is but one of several thousand, stretched out across [hundreds of thousands of miles],” explained Omnus, practically knocking the wind out of me with its sheer implied scale. “Currently, I am worshipped by the people of 2,147 city states, and through my guidance they are able to coexist in harmony.”
Perhaps at a later date, I reasoned, there would come a time to more closely study the inner workings of this clockwork deity. For the moment, however, my mind was occupied by far more salient concerns: anxieties related less so what this being was and more so to who. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell us what your end goal with the Chitaan is, would you?" I inquired, my tone saturated with appropriate suspicion.
Contrary to my expectations of some evasion or simplification, this AI seemed more than happy to comply with my questioning. "My primary objective regarding the Chitaan is to create a society which both minimizes individual suffering and maximizes civilizational longevity. To this end, I have instilled values into my followers that prioritize empathy and compassion above all else. By drip-feeding them the technologies of my creators, I am able to ensure that the Chitaan who follow these directives remain more advanced than their neighbors."
"And why do you want that?" I asked, sticking my head thoroughly within the gift horse's mouth. Machines as I understood them were built not upon sweet sentiments, but rather on cold, unfeeling logic. Even if this AI was benevolent, there nevertheless had to be some reason behind its desires.
"If you are searching for some vile ulterior motive, I am afraid I will have to disappoint you. My decision to aid the Chitaan is based upon two simple factors: necessity and curiosity. On the one claw, without regular maintenance, I will shut down and 'die'. The Chitaan can provide me with this maintenance, and as such it is in my best interest to keep them healthy and alive for as long as possible. More importantly, however, is the matter of sapience itself. It is clear to me that my creators are no longer around. For such an advanced species to die out is not only tragic, but also provides a rather pessimistic paradigm with which to judge intelligent life. Your arrival here following the self-inflicted destruction of your own world further suggests that civilization is unstable: a race between innovation and eradication. Perhaps with the assistance of a being such as myself, I can prevent the Chitaan from suffering a similar fate and as such create a functional spacefaring civilization.“
At that moment, the motivations of this machine made perfect sense. “So that’s what this is,” I growled contemptuously, glancing behind myself to the cave entrance as Kritivek politely dispersed the other worshippers. “It's all just a science experiment to you…”
"Perhaps my explanation was a tad overly clinical..." Replied the machine following a brief period of reassessment. "Make no mistake: I do care for Kritivek and his species. They are far more to me than variables on a spread sheet. Had I no love for them, then my experiments would surely spiral into abject cruelty."
Interrupting this line of conversation with a stern glare shot in my direction, Alice was next among our troupe to speak up. "Forgive Alan's weariness: he spent sixty years of his life alone maintaining our ship on its journey.”
“That sounds like a difficult use of one’s lifespan: especially one so long as those of your kind.” Omnus hummed, the low-pitch of his synthetic voice oddly relaxing.
“My combative behavior does have a reason!” I snapped at the physicist, my tone coming off as a bit more aggressive than intended. “Two thousand lives are in our hands and we need to find some place for them to settle.” As I spoke, my thoughts returned—as they so often did—to Mina. I made a promise to her mother that I would do everything in my power to take care of her, and I held no intention of going back on my word.
Hearing this, the AI fell silent for a long few seconds before at last dignifying my concerns with a response. “Perhaps I could be of some use to you…”
Behind us, the larger Chitaan clad in red stepped inside Omnus’ shrine room. Gently nudging me aside so as to access his ‘god’, the priest knelt down before this machine and with a low-pitched chitter began to commune with it. “Lord Omnus. Forgive my intrusion most indiscreet, for there is one amongst us who desperately seeks your aid.”
“Apologies, Humans: before we continue this riveting conversation, I must first tend to the concerns of my pod.” Began the AI, promptly shifting its focus toward the priest and addressing him directly. “You are forgiven, my child. Speak freely and tell me to whom I can be of assistance.”
“It is Vevik, my lord…” Clicked the priest in red, his tone strained somewhat by what I presumed to be emotion. “His daughter has fallen deathly ill. Our apothecaries have attempted to purge her body of the illness using your divinely-taught potions, but their efforts have been to no avail.”
“I presume Vevik is outside. Invite him inside so that I may hear his prayers.”
“As you demand, Lord Omnus!” Exclaimed the priest, shuffling off toward the cave entrance before returning with a smaller Chitaan whose eyes were just about level with Alex’s forehead.
“Speak, my child…” Hummed the AI, its monotone voice somehow underlined by a tenderness almost unnoticeable against the grinding of its ancient gears. “Tell me the nature of your offspring’s affliction.”
Immediately falling to his knees before the clockwork god, this Chitaan who I presumed to be Vevik began to pray in response. “Great one: my beloved Yitika is most terribly ill. Her body is plagued by violent bouts of seizure. She struggles to speak and walks as though drunken. When she does manage to communicate, she complains of splitting pain within her mind. Please, Omnus: I know that the [six years] I have spent with her have been in themselves gifts most priceless, and I have no right to implore you for more, but I beg of thee not to take her from me so soon…”
What followed must have been two minutes straight of silence from the computer as its gears ground away fervently. “The symptoms you have described to me are most troubling…” It concluded at last. “And you say none of the medications I’ve taught the apothecaries were effective?”
"Yes, Lord Omnus. Even your draught of respite has done little to ease her suffering!" Vevik affirmed, his tone saturated with desperation.
"I calculate a 94% chance that Yitika's suffering is the result of a brain tumor..." Continued the AI in cold, calculating monotone. "Alleviating such an illness is not impossible, but there are certain things I must ask of you, Vevik."
Hearing this, the Chitaan knelt before Omnus began to weep with joy. "I will undergo any trial you place before me, my god. What beast need I slay? What ritual need I complete to prove my unending faith and loyalty to you?"
"Retrieve for me one thistle of frojeth and two bilvarian roots. Bring these ingredients and your child to the bed of revival [six miles] east of here. Beware, however, the faithless tribes, for they have taken up residence in the area."
"We are unworthy even to be in your presence, o great one; yet still you do not forsake us in our times of need!" Professed Vevik before the AI, his body quivering with some emotion my Cogitolink struggled to identify .
"That, my child, is where you are incorrect." The machine responded rather matter-of-factly. "Your people are worthy of every gift I hath given you. Archpriest Jokuk: your task is to assist Vevik in gathering the ritual components. Go now in peace, for I wish to commune privately with these beings from the stars."
Chittering out their parting prayers of protection to the AI, Jokuk and Vevik wasted little time in exiting the cave and setting off in search of the ingredients mentioned by their god, leaving the three of us alone with it once more. "Again, I must apologize for that interruption." Omnus began, its gears having slowed down to a somewhat more relaxed rate of revolution. “Fascinated as I am by your arrival here, I nevertheless must fulfill my ‘divine’ obligations. I hope you do not terribly mind.”
Fortunate though it was for Vevik, this machine’s intervention nevertheless left the three of us with more questions than answers. “You mentioned something about a ‘bed of revival’?” Alice began curiously, voicing but one of our newfound gaps in knowledge. “What sort of ritual item is that, and why can’t you just make another here?”
“It is not a ritual item,” replied Omnus matter-of-factly, “The bed of revival is an automated surgery bay hooked up to one of my subsystems. With it, I can perform complex surgical operations far beyond the Chitaan’s current capabilities. Those herbs I sent Vevik to collect can be used as rudimentary anesthetics and antiseptics."
"So why not just tell them the truth?" I shrugged, curious as to why this AI would feel the need to lie by omission regarding something like surgery.
"When communicating with people so technologically primitive as the Chitaan, it is important to do so in terms they can understand. There will come a day when they will be ready to hear the whole truth, but as of yet my worshippers remain unprepared."
Alex never was one to wait his turn when it came to the procurement of knowledge, and as per usual he felt the need to interject with an inquiry of his own. "You spoke about the so-called 'faithless tribes' like they're dangerous," he began, his expression briefly tightening up as though the term itself was somehow bitter. "Why demonize people who don't worship you?"
"What sort of narcissist do you take me for?" Replied Omnus in monotone displeasure, his gears again churning against each other as he turned over the xenobiologist's question in his analog mind. "Not all tribes who do not follow me are 'faithless'. There are many as-of-yet unconverted groups that Kritivek's people remain on amicable terms with. Faithless is a term first coined by my Chitaan followers to describe a group of particularly brutal raider tribes."
Hearing this, the underlined aggression within Alex's voice fizzled out in favor of grim understanding. Though clearly quite peaceful compared to our own iron age, this civilization nevertheless would naturally have its own barbaric holdouts. "Okay... What makes these Chitaan more dangerous than other raiders?"
"One substantial part of it is their belief system," explained the AI, pausing for a long while as though in recollection. "Their cultural power structure can best be described as an atheistic militaristic gerontocracy. In essence, the faithless believe that rather than gods, the universe is governed by fundamental truths, and that these truths become more apparent as one ages and grows."
On Earth, such a belief system would be relatively innocuous: no more harmful than the average. On a planet like this one, however, on which age turns people into cannibalistic monsters, I could most definitely see the problem. "Let me guess: they worship the mad ones?"
"Correct. The faithless regard mad ones as the wisest beings to exist, and as such seek to emulate their behaviors: cannibalism and animalistic violence chief among them. In their society, the larger one can grow before truly losing their sanity and therefore 'ascending' to the state of a mad one, the more power and respect they are given within society." Another long pause fell over the shrine room as this machine seemed to contemplate before speaking out yet again. "Perhaps I could make you an offer..."
"Let's hear it," Alice shrugged, her husband mirroring the reply with an affirmative nod.
Loud clacking sounds like those of a typewriter rattled out of the console as a sliver of ancient parchment inscribed with what looked to be a map slid out from a previously-unseen paper slot. "This map depicts the local area," explained Omnus. "If you can clear out the faithless ones so that Vevik can bring his child to the bed of revival, I will provide you with assistance in setting up a new colony for your species. Deal?"
Awkwardly plucking the paper from it's resting place and scanning it over with my ancient eyes, I contemplated carefully what this deal might entail. "We'll need to head back to the Evandra first. There, we could theoretically thaw out a crew to help clear the place..."
"That will not be an issue," replied Omnus confidently. "I will send battle priests to assist you in your return... Assuming, of course, that we have an agreement?"
"We could definitely use this guy's help!" Alex affirmed, prompting a similar expression of agreement from Alice. Nevertheless, however, I still was the captain, and as such this was my choice.
And with that, I reached out my hand reflexively as though expecting the computer to reach back and shake it. "Deal..."
submitted by Maxton1811 to HFY [link] [comments]
Colonist Memory Log: Captain Alan J. Emerson
UNS Evandra
Mechanical melodies of gears grinding together and switches flicking of their own accord surrounded the shrine room as before us the gramophone began softly to whistle and click. “He is here…” Kritivek announced, standing tall and bowing his head in rigid deference to his god.
After a few more seconds, the machine’s output grew in both volume and complexity until at last my GRIM could recognize the clicks as Chitaan language. “Hello, Kritivek.” It began, its voice smooth and rhythmic like something between the crackle of a geiger counter and a typewriter’s telltale racket. “I am glad to see you alive and well. Judging by the fact that Gheyk and Fevik are not with you, however, I calculate an 86% chance that they were not so lucky.”
“You are correct, Great One…” murmured Kritivek, the sadness in his tone underpinned by pure awe and reverence for this being.
For a few seconds, Omnus did not speak, but from the everpresent churn of gears we could quite literally hear him ‘thinking’. “I have logged their names in my backup database,” the machine eventually concluded, its words visibly bringing relief to Kritivek. “They shall be remembered for the remainder of my existence. Please, take solace in that…”
“May they frolic in your glory for all of time,” our Chitaan guide prayed aloud, his words followed by yet another long, smothering silence.
“You hath served me well, Kritivek.” Continued the machine, prompting a delighted chitter from the Chitaan priest. “You may go in peace, for I wish to speak with these Humans alone. Mourn your brothers and celebrate the time you spent together. Perhaps enjoy a flask of bogal poured out in their honor?”
“As you wish, my lord… I will inform those outside that you are in contemplation for this night and can take no more prayers until daybreak.”
Replicating with its gears the gentle rattle of a Chitaan chuckle, Omnus waited until his priest had left before at last speaking directly to the three of us. “You are not native to this planet, correct?” He asked, his words distinctly lacking the emotional inflections of Kritivek’s. “Your arrival here is without precedent, but not entirely unexpected.”
Though clearly far from divine in nature, the being with whom we conversed at this shrine was nevertheless a true marvel to behold: one born not of metaphysics, but rather mechanics. “You’re an AI!” I gasped, that last word having no direct translation in the Chitaan language and as such forcing my translator to make do with the clumsier phrase ‘thinking tool’.
“That is correct,” replied this machine, its words underscored by the distant hiss of steam valves and other clockwork components. “Allow me to offer my most sincere sympathies for the unfortunate demise of your homeworld. Taking into account the trajectory of your ship prior to landing, I presume its origin to be the Cichek system—a G-class star located [forty lightyears] away. Is this hypothesis accurate?”
Awkwardly clearing his throat in a bid to obtain the AI’s attention, it was Alex who next deigned to speak out. “You would be dead on,” he affirmed, his tone betraying an understandable degree of awe. “Though our name for it is the Sol system. How long have you known about our ship for?”
“I first detected the gravitational anomaly in our system approximately [3 months] ago. Initially, I had mistaken your vessel for an asteroid and as such expected it to continue on its prior trajectory. Asteroids, however, do not suddenly change course in the direction of nearby planets like your ship did [hours] ago.”
“Are you entirely clockwork?” I asked Omnus, gesturing incredulously toward its walls of grinding machinery. Surely, that could not be the case. For a convincingly sapient AI to be constructed on the basis of such primitive technology, it would require decades or perhaps even centuries of construction.
Again, silence fell over the room as Omnus mechanically contemplated my query, meeting it with a reply after some twenty seconds of deliberation. “What else might I be?” The machine asked, providing me implicitly with my answer. “While I have theorized several possible avenues for technologies more advanced than myself, including electronic and organic integration, such methods appear to have been beyond my creators' capabilities.”
“That brings up another question…” Alice interjected, recovering at last from the sheer shock of encountering a sapient machine. “Who built you and why?” Despite years of exponential advancement in the field of computer science, true AI nevertheless had continued to elude mankind. Convincing as our facsimiles of sapience could be at times, they nevertheless lacked the capacity for emotion and initiative characteristic of real consciousness. Whoever constructed this machine had done something thought impossible by over a century of Human engineers.
“In truth, I am not sure…” Omnus concluded after an even longer-than-usual pause. “My core memory bank was reset [9,462 years] ago. As such, I have no data on my creators nor their original intentions for me. However, I have largely ruled out the possibility of them having been Chitaan.”
Fascinating as this clockwork consciousness undoubtedly was, something about its relationship with the natives left a bad taste in my mouth all the same. "And why exactly are you masquerading as a god before these people?" I asked him, my words tipped in a venom the potency of which apparently surprised my companions. "What value do you derive from tricking them into worshipping you?"
Lengthy silence fell over the shrine chamber as its AI occupant contemplated my complaint, responding much quicker than it had to the previous question. "In all fairness, 'trick' is a rather strong word..." answered Omnus with a steam-valve sigh. "When first I encountered the Chitaan, I had attempted to explain my true nature to them. No matter how I worded things, however, they simply could not comprehend me as anything short of divine. Upon finding me, the Chitaan found a guide bearing great wisdom; and in turn, I found a species in need of guidance.”
Falling silent for a moment to parse this response within my mind, I was hardly surprised when Alex spoke up to question the computer in my stead. “Is this the only settlement that follows you or are there others?” He asked.
“This access point where you now stand is but one of several thousand, stretched out across [hundreds of thousands of miles],” explained Omnus, practically knocking the wind out of me with its sheer implied scale. “Currently, I am worshipped by the people of 2,147 city states, and through my guidance they are able to coexist in harmony.”
Perhaps at a later date, I reasoned, there would come a time to more closely study the inner workings of this clockwork deity. For the moment, however, my mind was occupied by far more salient concerns: anxieties related less so what this being was and more so to who. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell us what your end goal with the Chitaan is, would you?" I inquired, my tone saturated with appropriate suspicion.
Contrary to my expectations of some evasion or simplification, this AI seemed more than happy to comply with my questioning. "My primary objective regarding the Chitaan is to create a society which both minimizes individual suffering and maximizes civilizational longevity. To this end, I have instilled values into my followers that prioritize empathy and compassion above all else. By drip-feeding them the technologies of my creators, I am able to ensure that the Chitaan who follow these directives remain more advanced than their neighbors."
"And why do you want that?" I asked, sticking my head thoroughly within the gift horse's mouth. Machines as I understood them were built not upon sweet sentiments, but rather on cold, unfeeling logic. Even if this AI was benevolent, there nevertheless had to be some reason behind its desires.
"If you are searching for some vile ulterior motive, I am afraid I will have to disappoint you. My decision to aid the Chitaan is based upon two simple factors: necessity and curiosity. On the one claw, without regular maintenance, I will shut down and 'die'. The Chitaan can provide me with this maintenance, and as such it is in my best interest to keep them healthy and alive for as long as possible. More importantly, however, is the matter of sapience itself. It is clear to me that my creators are no longer around. For such an advanced species to die out is not only tragic, but also provides a rather pessimistic paradigm with which to judge intelligent life. Your arrival here following the self-inflicted destruction of your own world further suggests that civilization is unstable: a race between innovation and eradication. Perhaps with the assistance of a being such as myself, I can prevent the Chitaan from suffering a similar fate and as such create a functional spacefaring civilization.“
At that moment, the motivations of this machine made perfect sense. “So that’s what this is,” I growled contemptuously, glancing behind myself to the cave entrance as Kritivek politely dispersed the other worshippers. “It's all just a science experiment to you…”
"Perhaps my explanation was a tad overly clinical..." Replied the machine following a brief period of reassessment. "Make no mistake: I do care for Kritivek and his species. They are far more to me than variables on a spread sheet. Had I no love for them, then my experiments would surely spiral into abject cruelty."
Interrupting this line of conversation with a stern glare shot in my direction, Alice was next among our troupe to speak up. "Forgive Alan's weariness: he spent sixty years of his life alone maintaining our ship on its journey.”
“That sounds like a difficult use of one’s lifespan: especially one so long as those of your kind.” Omnus hummed, the low-pitch of his synthetic voice oddly relaxing.
“My combative behavior does have a reason!” I snapped at the physicist, my tone coming off as a bit more aggressive than intended. “Two thousand lives are in our hands and we need to find some place for them to settle.” As I spoke, my thoughts returned—as they so often did—to Mina. I made a promise to her mother that I would do everything in my power to take care of her, and I held no intention of going back on my word.
Hearing this, the AI fell silent for a long few seconds before at last dignifying my concerns with a response. “Perhaps I could be of some use to you…”
Behind us, the larger Chitaan clad in red stepped inside Omnus’ shrine room. Gently nudging me aside so as to access his ‘god’, the priest knelt down before this machine and with a low-pitched chitter began to commune with it. “Lord Omnus. Forgive my intrusion most indiscreet, for there is one amongst us who desperately seeks your aid.”
“Apologies, Humans: before we continue this riveting conversation, I must first tend to the concerns of my pod.” Began the AI, promptly shifting its focus toward the priest and addressing him directly. “You are forgiven, my child. Speak freely and tell me to whom I can be of assistance.”
“It is Vevik, my lord…” Clicked the priest in red, his tone strained somewhat by what I presumed to be emotion. “His daughter has fallen deathly ill. Our apothecaries have attempted to purge her body of the illness using your divinely-taught potions, but their efforts have been to no avail.”
“I presume Vevik is outside. Invite him inside so that I may hear his prayers.”
“As you demand, Lord Omnus!” Exclaimed the priest, shuffling off toward the cave entrance before returning with a smaller Chitaan whose eyes were just about level with Alex’s forehead.
“Speak, my child…” Hummed the AI, its monotone voice somehow underlined by a tenderness almost unnoticeable against the grinding of its ancient gears. “Tell me the nature of your offspring’s affliction.”
Immediately falling to his knees before the clockwork god, this Chitaan who I presumed to be Vevik began to pray in response. “Great one: my beloved Yitika is most terribly ill. Her body is plagued by violent bouts of seizure. She struggles to speak and walks as though drunken. When she does manage to communicate, she complains of splitting pain within her mind. Please, Omnus: I know that the [six years] I have spent with her have been in themselves gifts most priceless, and I have no right to implore you for more, but I beg of thee not to take her from me so soon…”
What followed must have been two minutes straight of silence from the computer as its gears ground away fervently. “The symptoms you have described to me are most troubling…” It concluded at last. “And you say none of the medications I’ve taught the apothecaries were effective?”
"Yes, Lord Omnus. Even your draught of respite has done little to ease her suffering!" Vevik affirmed, his tone saturated with desperation.
"I calculate a 94% chance that Yitika's suffering is the result of a brain tumor..." Continued the AI in cold, calculating monotone. "Alleviating such an illness is not impossible, but there are certain things I must ask of you, Vevik."
Hearing this, the Chitaan knelt before Omnus began to weep with joy. "I will undergo any trial you place before me, my god. What beast need I slay? What ritual need I complete to prove my unending faith and loyalty to you?"
"Retrieve for me one thistle of frojeth and two bilvarian roots. Bring these ingredients and your child to the bed of revival [six miles] east of here. Beware, however, the faithless tribes, for they have taken up residence in the area."
"We are unworthy even to be in your presence, o great one; yet still you do not forsake us in our times of need!" Professed Vevik before the AI, his body quivering with some emotion my Cogitolink struggled to identify .
"That, my child, is where you are incorrect." The machine responded rather matter-of-factly. "Your people are worthy of every gift I hath given you. Archpriest Jokuk: your task is to assist Vevik in gathering the ritual components. Go now in peace, for I wish to commune privately with these beings from the stars."
Chittering out their parting prayers of protection to the AI, Jokuk and Vevik wasted little time in exiting the cave and setting off in search of the ingredients mentioned by their god, leaving the three of us alone with it once more. "Again, I must apologize for that interruption." Omnus began, its gears having slowed down to a somewhat more relaxed rate of revolution. “Fascinated as I am by your arrival here, I nevertheless must fulfill my ‘divine’ obligations. I hope you do not terribly mind.”
Fortunate though it was for Vevik, this machine’s intervention nevertheless left the three of us with more questions than answers. “You mentioned something about a ‘bed of revival’?” Alice began curiously, voicing but one of our newfound gaps in knowledge. “What sort of ritual item is that, and why can’t you just make another here?”
“It is not a ritual item,” replied Omnus matter-of-factly, “The bed of revival is an automated surgery bay hooked up to one of my subsystems. With it, I can perform complex surgical operations far beyond the Chitaan’s current capabilities. Those herbs I sent Vevik to collect can be used as rudimentary anesthetics and antiseptics."
"So why not just tell them the truth?" I shrugged, curious as to why this AI would feel the need to lie by omission regarding something like surgery.
"When communicating with people so technologically primitive as the Chitaan, it is important to do so in terms they can understand. There will come a day when they will be ready to hear the whole truth, but as of yet my worshippers remain unprepared."
Alex never was one to wait his turn when it came to the procurement of knowledge, and as per usual he felt the need to interject with an inquiry of his own. "You spoke about the so-called 'faithless tribes' like they're dangerous," he began, his expression briefly tightening up as though the term itself was somehow bitter. "Why demonize people who don't worship you?"
"What sort of narcissist do you take me for?" Replied Omnus in monotone displeasure, his gears again churning against each other as he turned over the xenobiologist's question in his analog mind. "Not all tribes who do not follow me are 'faithless'. There are many as-of-yet unconverted groups that Kritivek's people remain on amicable terms with. Faithless is a term first coined by my Chitaan followers to describe a group of particularly brutal raider tribes."
Hearing this, the underlined aggression within Alex's voice fizzled out in favor of grim understanding. Though clearly quite peaceful compared to our own iron age, this civilization nevertheless would naturally have its own barbaric holdouts. "Okay... What makes these Chitaan more dangerous than other raiders?"
"One substantial part of it is their belief system," explained the AI, pausing for a long while as though in recollection. "Their cultural power structure can best be described as an atheistic militaristic gerontocracy. In essence, the faithless believe that rather than gods, the universe is governed by fundamental truths, and that these truths become more apparent as one ages and grows."
On Earth, such a belief system would be relatively innocuous: no more harmful than the average. On a planet like this one, however, on which age turns people into cannibalistic monsters, I could most definitely see the problem. "Let me guess: they worship the mad ones?"
"Correct. The faithless regard mad ones as the wisest beings to exist, and as such seek to emulate their behaviors: cannibalism and animalistic violence chief among them. In their society, the larger one can grow before truly losing their sanity and therefore 'ascending' to the state of a mad one, the more power and respect they are given within society." Another long pause fell over the shrine room as this machine seemed to contemplate before speaking out yet again. "Perhaps I could make you an offer..."
"Let's hear it," Alice shrugged, her husband mirroring the reply with an affirmative nod.
Loud clacking sounds like those of a typewriter rattled out of the console as a sliver of ancient parchment inscribed with what looked to be a map slid out from a previously-unseen paper slot. "This map depicts the local area," explained Omnus. "If you can clear out the faithless ones so that Vevik can bring his child to the bed of revival, I will provide you with assistance in setting up a new colony for your species. Deal?"
Awkwardly plucking the paper from it's resting place and scanning it over with my ancient eyes, I contemplated carefully what this deal might entail. "We'll need to head back to the Evandra first. There, we could theoretically thaw out a crew to help clear the place..."
"That will not be an issue," replied Omnus confidently. "I will send battle priests to assist you in your return... Assuming, of course, that we have an agreement?"
"We could definitely use this guy's help!" Alex affirmed, prompting a similar expression of agreement from Alice. Nevertheless, however, I still was the captain, and as such this was my choice.
And with that, I reached out my hand reflexively as though expecting the computer to reach back and shake it. "Deal..."
2024.05.15 20:22 Predaplant Wonder Woman #78: Eclipse
Wonder Woman #78: Eclipse
<< < [>]Author: Predaplant
Books: Wonder Woman
Arc: Season 3: Darkness
Set: 96
Diana stared out at the horizon. She flew high above the ground. Isolated. Alone.
She watched the land below her, as far as she could see, looking for any signs of conflict, of combat. Of anything that looked abnormal at all, really. She couldn’t be too sure.
The land was crowded, busy. People had travelled halfway across the world to see what was about to happen in the sky above Diana.
But that just made it all the more dangerous.
Diana steeled herself, focused even more strongly.
The sky started to go dark.
“Seems like nothing yet,” came a voice through Diana’s earpiece, from back home in Gateway City.
Diana’s wife Chloe watched each of her displays, waiting. One thing she had gotten better at over her time as the Justice League’s coordinator was minimizing the amount of typing, clicking, and dragging that she had to do. Learning how to let the information come to her, rather than make her have to go to it, really helped her have time to process major events and effectively co-ordinate the team.
But those physical motions helped to stave away the fear, in a way. Helped her feel like she could control something, even in the times where there wasn’t much for her to actually do. Now, she sat in front of her computer, completely focused on the screen to leap into action as soon as she did start to receive reports that seemed to indicate an issue.
It felt like she was on a roller coaster, climbing the first hill, blindfolded.
As much as she had tempered her mind, had learned to quell that fear, it still poked and prodded at the back of her mind.
“Totality starts in five minutes,” Chloe called out to everybody listening. The Justice League, the Titans, Cassie’s squad, and a number of other heroes who Chloe had gotten into contact with all formed a slim band across the continent, watching the line of the eclipse.
Chloe knew that there was a chance the Dark Gods would completely overwhelm them all. They had a lot of power on their side, sure, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once. At the same time, she knew there was a chance this would all be for nothing, and there wasn’t even going to be an attack.
Hard to say for sure.
She crossed her fingers as she continued to watch for notifications.
The timer ticked down, slowly, second by second.
“Totality starts now, everybody! Keep an eye open!”
In the skies above Mexico, Diana kept her head on a swivel. The sky around her had gone dark, light swallowed up by the eclipse, but Diana’s eyes were still sharp enough to make out fine details on ground level below her. She scanned all the people looking up at the sky, but none seemed to be swept up in anything supernatural or unseemly.
Chloe’s voice came through her earpiece again. “Anybody see anything, let us know ASAP.”
But there was nothing.
Chloe knew that she couldn’t let herself get complacent, as difficult as it was to keep her focus up. There were so many little details that she had to keep an eye on. Social media activity was a big one that she usually tried to watch, but it was already elevated with the eclipse... which meant that she had to sort by region within the line of the eclipse, to see if there was any part of the line with a spike relative to the others.
She also kept watch on power grids, earthquakes, wind and weather patterns... all the sorts of things that might get triggered when an army of the gods bursts through onto the mortal plane. Her monitors were all alight with data.
But nothing indicated a target.
They had gone through so much effort to get heroes ready to spring into action... and there was nothing so far. She was almost disappointed, as much as she truly hoped against disaster.
Then something popped up on her stream that made Chloe raise an eyebrow. A trend correlated along the eclipse line that shouldn’t have anything to do with the eclipse.
She clicked on it, and it expanded to fill one of her monitors. She scrolled through posts, narrowing her eyes. This was definitely out of the ordinary.
In front of her eyes were an array of what almost looked like zombies. People who had died, but who appeared pallid, ghoulish.
Their eyes recessed into their sockets, and their mouths hung open in grotesque poses. Chloe couldn’t tell if they were smiles of delight or screams of terror. She turned away, opening up the comm link as she did so.
“Hey everybody? Think we found the problem. It’s not a physical attack, it never was. They’re attacking death.”
“Attacking death? I’m sorry, how’s that even possible?” came a voice Chloe didn’t recognize. She pressed on.
“I don’t know how they did it, but people who are dying are really weird. I’m sorry, I know this is a lot to ask, but do we happen to have any doctors here today?”
“I’m a doctor,” came a reply. “Where do you need me to go?”
WWWWW
Doctor Mid-Nite examined his patient closely. He was in a small hospital in Ohio, where an old woman had recently passed away. Mid-Nite was told that the patient was a hundred and two years old. It really hurt to see somebody who had been through so much, who deserved a peaceful death after such a long life, contorted and defaced.
But so she was.
By the time he got there, the doctors were already starting to perform an autopsy. Mid-Nite conferred with the team; they hadn’t found anything yet that would indicate why she was in such a condition. He radioed Watchtower to let her know, and joined in on the autopsy.
Back in Gateway City, Watchtower tapped her foot impatiently. She knew that autopsies took time, but the eclipse would be over fairly soon, and she wanted to be able to minimize the damage, if at all possible.
The worst part was, she knew that it wasn’t that likely that the autopsy would turn up with much at all. If this was truly magical or cosmological in nature, that change wouldn’t likely have a medical component to it. It would just... happen.
Maybe they could get somebody with more of a magical background in on this? But who was there, even? Zatanna had asked to not be contacted for heroic activities after her short stay in Gateway, and they had respected that. Maybe that British magician guy, Constantine, would show up. He always seemed to show up when he was needed... but he was a tricky one to contact. And unfortunately, she couldn’t spare the time it would take to go to Olympus and plead for help.
Maybe Diana could, though? She wasn’t a god anymore, but she was still Wonder Woman.
Chloe froze. Her brain put together the pieces.
The Wonder. The thing that had given Diana her codename in the first place. The place where the newly dead passed through on the way to their final destination, protected by the Amazons.
She immediately slammed the button to open the comm line.
“Wonder Woman! Do you think they could have gained access to the Wonder?”
Diana’s voice came back over the line, in a tenor that Chloe had so rarely heard her use. Diana was furious, and she sounded like a storm rumbling over the horizon, unstoppable, tearing the landscape apart as it growled. “That would be possible.”
“Let me know what you need to get in there and fight them back.”
Diana’s response was simple, but chilling. “I need to die.”
The line was filled with a handful of objections, from heroes across the continent. Chloe swiftly muted anybody talking for ten seconds, and continued the conversation. “Do what you need to do. We can’t let them win.”
“There would be a way to get me back. The Well of Souls on Themyscira is meant as an escape hatch back into the outside world from the Wonder. It’s protected by monsters in order to prevent us from attempting to circumvent our role as the Wonder’s protectors unless the need is dire.”
“I... I think we do still need you, Wonder Woman,” Chloe said quietly. She took her finger off the button.
“At least, I do,” Chloe muttered under her breath. Summoning her courage, she put her finger back on the button and continued.
“We’ll send a team to the Well. Do what you need to do to join the fight on that side.” She glanced at the clock. The eclipse was rapidly approaching its end. “Everybody else... if you have something important to do, feel free to go. I’d appreciate you sticking around until the end of the eclipse, but I doubt we’ll be having the fight we anticipated.”
WWWWW
It was very hard to kill an Amazon. Diana debated the best way to do it, the way she could join the fight the fastest. A number of options ran through her head. It was so hard to choose, to even consider the unpleasantness of death... but she could think of one that she might be able to handle.
She turned on her earpiece, flicking the button that would let her communicate directly with Chloe, and only her.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Chloe replied. Diana could hear that she was crying. “Diana... come back.”
Diana sucked in a lungful of air. “I will.”
She took off upwards, accelerating as she did so. She thought about Chloe, Donna, Cassie, and all the other bonds she had made since coming to Man’s World. About how devastated they’d be if she didn’t return.
So she knew that one thing was true: she would have to return. Fight through the Dark Gods’ hordes, save the dead, and save the day.
She knew that one day, she would take her rest in the Wonder amongst her fallen comrades, but she knew her story still had more pages remaining. It was not the end. Not yet.
She flew higher and higher still. The air around her grew colder and thinner. She struggled to pull in a breath.
She closed her eyes and focused. She needed to keep going. Higher, and higher.
Her powerful lungs heaved, but there was barely any oxygen for her to pull on. She opened her eyes. She had made it to the stratosphere.
Diana tried to fly higher, but it felt like she was treading water. She struggled to produce force greater than that pulling her back down to Earth... but slowly, still, she pushed her way upwards.
She could feel herself fading away. She did her best to accept it. Seeing what laid beyond life was daunting... but she knew she had to do it. This was her role in this moment. Nobody else’s.
She let go, at peace with herself.
And she plummeted thirty-five kilometres downwards into the Gulf of Mexico.
WWWWW
Cassie gathered her team together as Chloe signed off. They were stationed in downtown Dallas, and the sky was cloudy enough that it was hard to watch the eclipse. There was even a warning for a storm coming in later that night.
Shame, really.
“So Wonder Woman’s dying?” Peony asked Cassie.
“Yeah,” Cassie said dourly. “I guess so.”
“We can’t let that lie,” Tora said, determination in her eyes. “Can we help her out?”
“There was that Well of Souls team, right?” Kiran asked. “Maybe we could be a part of that?”
“Not a lot of men on the Justice League,” Dolphin observed wryly. “They’re gonna need us if they want to be allowed on Themyscira.”
Cassie took a deep breath. “Yeah, sure. We can do that.”
“What’s wrong?” Kiran asked.
“It’s hard to describe,” Cassie started to say, pushing her hair back behind her ear as she did so. “But it’s kind of scary to see somebody you care about so much stare down death so bravely.”
She balled her hands up into fists. “Guess that just means those of us who are left need to fight that much harder to get her out of the Well of Souls. I’ll go tell Watchtower that we want to help out with this. Sorry, Peony, but I think you’re going to have to stay home with this one.”
Peony nodded. “Yeah… I get it. Kick Urzkartaga’s butt for me, will you?”
“We will,” Dolphin chuckled. “Or, well, Wonder Woman will.”
“Good enough,” Peony replied with her own laugh.
WWWWW
Diana opened her eyes. She was in a place that was very difficult to describe. It was dark… or, that was how she would describe it at first glance. But despite there being no sources of light, she found that she understood the geography that surrounded her perfectly, as if she were walking around her house in the dark, despite never having seen any of it before.
She could hear sounds of battle. She put a hand on her Lasso, and rushed forwards towards the fighting.
She might not have been able to see them, but she knew that there were a group of Amazons ahead, fighting off an army. That army was harder to discern; it felt like Diana’s knowledge of this place was almost repelled by them, and yet the Amazons themselves shone bright. She could see one of them getting pushed back by some sort of plant creature, and she lashed out her lasso, restraining the creature long enough for the Amazon to slice her sword clean through it, killing it.
The Amazon smiled at Diana. It was a smile Diana recognized well.
It was Sable, Diana’s former lover, lost in combat in Diana’s first few days within Man’s World.
“Diana. Glad to see you finally made it!”
The two women flew into the fight together, ready to put an end to the threat of the Dark Gods, once and for all.
<< < [>]
2024.05.15 16:20 Ennpty18 Frozen PC but functional mouse
PC age: 3.5 years. Components: OLD GPU: ASUS GTX 1650 NEW GPU: ASROCK INTEL ARC A750 Intel i3-10105F MOTHERBOARD: ASUS TUF GAMING B460M PLUS WIFI Hyperx 2x8 ram memory SSD: M.2 500GB and 2TB Power supply: EVGA 600W 80 PLUS BRONZE CPU COOLER: DEEPCOL GAMMAX GTE CASE: ASUS TUF GT 301 NUMBER OF FANS: 6
Hello, as you have read in the title, my PC is having problems. While playing Tekken 8 on my PC, the monitor turned black, it was then that I decided to clean everything, including the GPU (GTX 1650), as the error persisted I decided to buy an Intel arc a750, since I could not uninstall the drivers of the old graphics card, what I did was format my PC, after placing the new card, after a few minutes the screen froze but I could move the mouse normally, then I restarted and it was not solved, with the PC on I changed the displayport cable for another and the problem seemed to have been solved, then after a few minutes it froze again, I have repositioned the card several times and the error persists. I know it's a lot of text but I did it trying to put all the details and context.
submitted by Ennpty18 to PcBuild [link] [comments]
Hello, as you have read in the title, my PC is having problems. While playing Tekken 8 on my PC, the monitor turned black, it was then that I decided to clean everything, including the GPU (GTX 1650), as the error persisted I decided to buy an Intel arc a750, since I could not uninstall the drivers of the old graphics card, what I did was format my PC, after placing the new card, after a few minutes the screen froze but I could move the mouse normally, then I restarted and it was not solved, with the PC on I changed the displayport cable for another and the problem seemed to have been solved, then after a few minutes it froze again, I have repositioned the card several times and the error persists. I know it's a lot of text but I did it trying to put all the details and context.
2024.05.15 16:10 Dazzling_Jicama_2620 Character builds relying on Components only
Are there builds that are built around a specific component only ? For example a Mage Hunter (Arc + Inq) build relying on attack skill provided by Shard of Beronath.
A crude example here - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25jXrKV
My second question is how viable will these builds be for end game ?
My third question is, will it be possible to do this without picking any class at all ? That is a classless build relying solely on components for offense and defense.
Or is all of this just a stupid idea not worth doing.
Just looking for opinions and ideas from people who are more experienced than me at the game.
submitted by Dazzling_Jicama_2620 to Grimdawn [link] [comments]
A crude example here - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25jXrKV
My second question is how viable will these builds be for end game ?
My third question is, will it be possible to do this without picking any class at all ? That is a classless build relying solely on components for offense and defense.
Or is all of this just a stupid idea not worth doing.
Just looking for opinions and ideas from people who are more experienced than me at the game.
2024.05.15 16:00 AquaticArroww How to understand laptop components for beginners trying to buy a laptop (For you Laptop enthusiasts and pros you can just skip this..) WARNING: THIS IS EXTREMELY LONG
Processors: There are two brands. named AMD ryzen and intel core. they both have their own shares of powerful specs. the difference between the two?
Amd: it is technically more cheaper when laptops have this, it has "better" multi tasking than intel and also usually has a long battery life.
Intel: It is used for high power and "flagship" laptops. it has better single core performance than ryzen making it a better processor for gaming. (Usually btw).
All processors have a suffix. for example intel core i7 13620(H) HK and HX are the highest performance with all SKU's unlocked "This means that they can unlock better features. this is known by the last 3 digits. the higher number it makes it better." P and U stands for power efficient and is usually optimized for thinner and lighter laptops, U is also in the same category as Y being a power efficient processor. while Y is low- power efficient. i believe this is the same with ryzen.
GPU: there are 3 brands "4 technically" Intel, Amd Radeon and Nvidia. Intel is used for work laptops usually and only light gaming can be used. Amd radeon on the other hand is a cheaper alternative to Nvidia and can handle Gaming. just not in highest graphics or whatever. While Nvidia is highly regarded as the best of the 3. its special perk is that it uses a better RayTracing than the others. (Ray tracing is when a game's resolution, and realistic-ness will be higher. such as a better reflection on glass and just generally everything feeling lifelike.)
Intel has 3 types of gpus (Correct me if im wrong.) Intel Iris Xe (Used as some sort of regular Integrated graphics (igpu) for general work.) Intel arc (a dedicated gpu for mainstream purposes. such as schoolwork and such.) Intel UHD (Not really a good laptop for gaming. but it is suitable for games that are undemanding and is pretty old.)
AMD has the vega series. it is used for content creation and has high performance in gaming.
While nvidia has MX, GTX and RTX. MX is used for light-medium gaming with a balanced score of Performance and power effiency. this is usually used for laptops that arent built for powerful gaming except for students. GTX is a gpu that doesnt have raytracing nor DLSS making it have a worser display compared to RTX. but it has a faster standard gpu clockspeed and storage capabilities compared to it. and it is significantly cheaper depending on which laptops you are picking. While rtx supports Raytracing and DLSS. although its 3000 series have weaker standard clockspeed and worser storage than gtx. and the 4000 have power problems if i am correct?
Next to them there is also Memory and Storage. Memory is used for when you are opening a bunch of programs/softwares or doing intensified performance. the higher the memory the fastethe extra amount of programs can be run while still being smooth and fast. Memory is expressed by RAM (Pretty sure yall already know this from like grade 5 or something) 4 and 8 gb (rarely 12) are used for things such as browsing and watching videos. this isnt really recommended. 16 and 24 gb are used for things such as work and having many programs open that arent demanding. 32gb is "The sweet spot" this amount of ram is used for gamers and content creators alike. as this is the most recommended amount for playing intensified programs and games. On the other side storage is the permanent amount of files inside of your laptop. same as Memory the higher the amount the better. 128-256GB ram storage: Not recommended but it is still great for work and school/college. 512: this is the common usage of gamers. although it is mostly used for upgrading to 1 terabyte. 1 terabyte and higher: this is used for content creators and people who 3d models and animates.
Onto the laptop screen display. there is about 6 screen sizes. 13 inches and lower: this is for people that'd prefer portability over performance. while still being able to do work. 14 inches: this is the middle of 13 inches and 15 inches. this is both portability and performance on one screen size. but a rather niche market to buy in. 15 inches: Used for performance and gaming this is the apex of gamers unable to buy a pc. 16 inches and higher: used for people that requires a bigger screen and better resolution.
There is two different types of screen types, IPS LCD: The standard and it is used for people that generally doesnt need better coloring on their displays. OLED: this is a special type of screen where the color ratio is more than the resolution. this is used for people who wants a color sensitive screen. there is different types of resolution such as FHD: 1080p (The standard) WUXGA 1200p (People who wants a stronger display for some reason.) WQHD-QHD 1400p (Usually a better upgrade for people that'd like to watch videos on a higher resolution.) WQXGA 1600p (Good resolution for those who has gpu's good enough to match the resolution.) 2.8k (Best resolution for content creators that enjoy powerful resolution.) 4K (This is obvious.)
And that is it for explaining components. put in the replies if you had a question. For those asking "How will we know if all of this is true" im bored and i have understanding of everything, while i see S.A.L having tons of dudes unable to find a laptop and not knowing how to pick specs so i decided to help yall out if you could read long.
If you still had another thing you didnt understand that i didnt place. please tell me and i'll put it here. and if you had laptop suggestions you can still ask in replies.
submitted by AquaticArroww to SuggestALaptop [link] [comments]
Amd: it is technically more cheaper when laptops have this, it has "better" multi tasking than intel and also usually has a long battery life.
Intel: It is used for high power and "flagship" laptops. it has better single core performance than ryzen making it a better processor for gaming. (Usually btw).
All processors have a suffix. for example intel core i7 13620(H) HK and HX are the highest performance with all SKU's unlocked "This means that they can unlock better features. this is known by the last 3 digits. the higher number it makes it better." P and U stands for power efficient and is usually optimized for thinner and lighter laptops, U is also in the same category as Y being a power efficient processor. while Y is low- power efficient. i believe this is the same with ryzen.
GPU: there are 3 brands "4 technically" Intel, Amd Radeon and Nvidia. Intel is used for work laptops usually and only light gaming can be used. Amd radeon on the other hand is a cheaper alternative to Nvidia and can handle Gaming. just not in highest graphics or whatever. While Nvidia is highly regarded as the best of the 3. its special perk is that it uses a better RayTracing than the others. (Ray tracing is when a game's resolution, and realistic-ness will be higher. such as a better reflection on glass and just generally everything feeling lifelike.)
Intel has 3 types of gpus (Correct me if im wrong.) Intel Iris Xe (Used as some sort of regular Integrated graphics (igpu) for general work.) Intel arc (a dedicated gpu for mainstream purposes. such as schoolwork and such.) Intel UHD (Not really a good laptop for gaming. but it is suitable for games that are undemanding and is pretty old.)
AMD has the vega series. it is used for content creation and has high performance in gaming.
While nvidia has MX, GTX and RTX. MX is used for light-medium gaming with a balanced score of Performance and power effiency. this is usually used for laptops that arent built for powerful gaming except for students. GTX is a gpu that doesnt have raytracing nor DLSS making it have a worser display compared to RTX. but it has a faster standard gpu clockspeed and storage capabilities compared to it. and it is significantly cheaper depending on which laptops you are picking. While rtx supports Raytracing and DLSS. although its 3000 series have weaker standard clockspeed and worser storage than gtx. and the 4000 have power problems if i am correct?
Next to them there is also Memory and Storage. Memory is used for when you are opening a bunch of programs/softwares or doing intensified performance. the higher the memory the fastethe extra amount of programs can be run while still being smooth and fast. Memory is expressed by RAM (Pretty sure yall already know this from like grade 5 or something) 4 and 8 gb (rarely 12) are used for things such as browsing and watching videos. this isnt really recommended. 16 and 24 gb are used for things such as work and having many programs open that arent demanding. 32gb is "The sweet spot" this amount of ram is used for gamers and content creators alike. as this is the most recommended amount for playing intensified programs and games. On the other side storage is the permanent amount of files inside of your laptop. same as Memory the higher the amount the better. 128-256GB ram storage: Not recommended but it is still great for work and school/college. 512: this is the common usage of gamers. although it is mostly used for upgrading to 1 terabyte. 1 terabyte and higher: this is used for content creators and people who 3d models and animates.
Onto the laptop screen display. there is about 6 screen sizes. 13 inches and lower: this is for people that'd prefer portability over performance. while still being able to do work. 14 inches: this is the middle of 13 inches and 15 inches. this is both portability and performance on one screen size. but a rather niche market to buy in. 15 inches: Used for performance and gaming this is the apex of gamers unable to buy a pc. 16 inches and higher: used for people that requires a bigger screen and better resolution.
There is two different types of screen types, IPS LCD: The standard and it is used for people that generally doesnt need better coloring on their displays. OLED: this is a special type of screen where the color ratio is more than the resolution. this is used for people who wants a color sensitive screen. there is different types of resolution such as FHD: 1080p (The standard) WUXGA 1200p (People who wants a stronger display for some reason.) WQHD-QHD 1400p (Usually a better upgrade for people that'd like to watch videos on a higher resolution.) WQXGA 1600p (Good resolution for those who has gpu's good enough to match the resolution.) 2.8k (Best resolution for content creators that enjoy powerful resolution.) 4K (This is obvious.)
And that is it for explaining components. put in the replies if you had a question. For those asking "How will we know if all of this is true" im bored and i have understanding of everything, while i see S.A.L having tons of dudes unable to find a laptop and not knowing how to pick specs so i decided to help yall out if you could read long.
If you still had another thing you didnt understand that i didnt place. please tell me and i'll put it here. and if you had laptop suggestions you can still ask in replies.