GalaxyNES- No Horizons

I was under the impression that a Pyrrhic victory is where you win a battle, but at such a horrible cost that the effect resembles a loss. I suppose that's vaguely consistent with your definition.

At any rate, we're just debating semantics at this point, and I think our discussion in-thread has clarified things fairly well for everyone.
 
Indeed we must wait for Thayli. Or rather you can and I can see the damage in the UK morning, not just for NESing either.
 
Something, Sensation, Movement...Not Self ,maybe Home moving, should wait, might damage Self
...
New Movement, many Movements, starts and stops, rhythms to Movement, not Home?
...
Self Parts going missing around Movements, Alterations being made to Self Parts around Movements, Movements doing something to Self, must know what Movements are
...
Self make Grip Part and Knowing Part near Movements, must know Movements
...
One rhythm of Movements away from the others, Grip Part now has Movement, Movement moving, odd nothing has moved before, Grip Part moving towards Knowing Part
...
Knowing Part has Movement, Self will know Movements, Movement has stopped moving
...
Movements made of Parts like Self, but not Self, has other Parts, must copy Parts
...
SENSATIONS, so many Sensations, other Parts have made new Sensations, Self Center Part can't know new Sensations, copy Movements Center Part
...
Self now know new Sensations but not what they are, made Sensation Parts near Movements
...
New Sensations line up with old Sensation, one lines up exactly but part must pointed at Movement, another less exact but doesn't have to be pointed and is based on some vibrations, others are still unknown
...
Movements responding to new Parts, can't understand must known more about Movements
...
Self made Other Knowing Part that will not make Movement stop moving
...
Movements staying near each other, observing Movements, must act
...
Grip Parts move to take a Movement, Movements remove part of Grip Parts but Self has a Movement, taking to New Knowing Part
...
Movement still moving in Knowing Part but slower, Self must attach Movement's Center Part to Self
...
Self has done it, attaching to Movement
...
New Sensations but different, not from Outside but from Self and Movement Self, Sanathi, Movement's Self has Movements known as Sanathi, must know more of Sanathi's Center Part, Brain
...
Odd Self can't force "Sanathi's Brain" can only get bits at times, though the Sensation vibrations make sense now, sound, hearing, language
...
Idea, Self not sure from where Self or Sanathi's Brain, Self make copy of Sanathi near other Sanathi to "communicate"
...
Controlling Sanathi Self odd but Sanathi help with it, near Sanathi, can "see" them, now must "speak"

"I am Self, you Sanathi.... What is Sanathi?"

OOC: Right Self is now up for personal communication, if anyone needs what just happened translated just let me know.
 
From: Self
To: Not Self Sanathi


What are you? You not from Home or Part of Self, Where do you come from? What are you doing to Self?
 
It had taken days to get here. She'd found out the location sooner than that, of course, the criminal underworld on this cesspit of a planet only too eager to sell out a friend for a little – well, given the resources of the Fleet at her disposal – a lot of money. But the actual journey was much more protracted than that. Her sources told her that if she approached in a shuttle or some kind of military craft, Marikihi and her protectors (or captors, as the case might be) would probably flee – and that the planet was wide open enough that there was little chance they'd avoid being spotted. So she'd had to approach overland, and, on the last day, by foot – making slow, really, agonizingly slow progress over the rocky hinterland.

The air had a quality like soft burs: sunlight colored white dust; suspended little particles danced on the edge of vision. Taki... it had an almost unreal quality for Peri – the atmosphere was too blurred and things at ground level too sharp. She looked up at a greenish yellow sun burning through an off-white sky, and shook her head. Certainly not her favorite planet in the galaxy, she thought, the slight breeze dry on her fur.

On other worlds, the Fehan built their cities among forests, and the buildings seemed to blend and merge with the trees they so closely resembled. On Taki, there were no great forests; the main city lay by the shore of the northern sea, and the trees in the plain around it had odd spaces among them. The buildings felt strangely disconnected from the world on which it stood.

Here in the outback, that contrast was even more stark.

The compound, then, was unmistakable, for though it had been painted a gray-gold to blend in with the rocks on satellite surveillance, it loomed almost absurdly large over the surrounding scrub and hills. Peri could not help but admire the construction of the bunker, clearly influenced by Karron designs, and clearly impregnable to all but a small army.

She was not a small army, but then, she did not intend to force her way in.

Quite possibly the guards could not believe what they were seeing – a solitary Fehan of unknown origin simply walking up to a heavily defended compound. Perhaps they received her message of friendliness over EM. She hoped it was the latter, but either way she was happy enough that they weren't filling her with holes.

When she was in clear sight, she reached up to her snout and unstrapped all of her equipment, her setae unfixing a few more modules, and laid it by her side. It was an unmistakable message of non-hostile intent. She thought. She'd been wrong before, of course, but she simply didn't see another way she was going to enter this place.

She resumed her approach, neither hesitant nor overbearing, and finally arrived at a portal on the side of the bunker. There, she waited, for what seemed like a half an hour, before finally it slid open. Without looking back, she walked into the darkness.



Previous Story in Arc
Next Story in Arc
 
From: Self
To: Not Self Sanathi


What are you? You not from Home or Part of Self, Where do you come from? What are you doing to Self?

From: Collectivity Protocol Mediator Paree Nree Hata
To: Self


We are many separate lights in one grand constellation.

Look up. See the stars. We are from them.

We follow a Doctrine that is ancient and holy. It states that annihilation is inevitable if a permanent system of cooperation between sentient organisms is not put into place.

We pursue any means necessary to defend this scripture. It is our Rou, our path. And we hold to it.

We are the Collectivity. The inevitable union.

As for you, we are merely visitors to your Home. We will not harm your flesh. We merely seek to understand, and in time, cooperate.
 
“We're receiving a message, sir. In a frequency we haven't used in hundreds of years...”

The young Lauki span his chair to face his commander. Seated on his elevated command center, the grizzled old Lauki reacted slowly. Worn down by the constant warfare, on edge by the sudden peace, unwilling to make swift decisions in fear of losing the last core world of the Republic. After silent deliberation, he finally gave a hand gesture and nod to the young officer, a mutual understanding was had to allow the message through. A low rumble came over the communication system, crackling of faulty transmission devices could clearly be heard in the message. The ancient Lauki language, only used in academia these days, echoed through the white noise. The deep and eerie voice of a Rax, speaking the words of his mother.

“Children...know our call...sense our sincerity.”

A brief moment of scrambled messages and static broke the message, but the technician was able to clear it back up fairly quickly.

“Zan bring annihilation....erase from existence your new mother...your worlds....people...From the bowels of space...return...She...She...has failed you -”

The message was interupted by the arrival of a video file, which was instantly played on the monitors of the command center. They showed the interior of Au'tuc and the surface of Au, reclaimed by the original host. Millions upon millions of armed soldiers, vast weapons of mass destruction, an unstoppable war machine.

“- more than once...First Betrayer...fallen...”

The commanding Lauki grumbled to his crew, “Can't you clear this up?”

“...True Mother...returns....children...galactic imbalance....end...Protection for cooperation!...Union rebirth...come join...end Second...Betrayer...”

“What in the name of One is this nonsense?” Shouted the commander, his crew equally perplexed by this new development.

“Perhaps, sir, the Maus are right.”

“Foolishness! I will not have this insubordination in my presence!” More of the crew joined the vocal minority in favor of the considering the Maus option.

“Sir, we cannot win alone. Garv'n, and all the worlds before it, are destroyed. This could be one one shot of survival.”

The commander spat, “Pfft! Have you never read a history book? These monsters are no greater than the Zan. They enslaved our kind for thousands of years.”

“Maybe we can compromise? Get ourselves a better deal this time? We can do it. We can survive this war with help, sir.”

Grumbling, he gestured again, “Fine. Send them a message, let them know we'll talk, but we won't commit to anything.”

With a sigh of relief the crew did as they were ordered, the video still looping on the monitors.
 
*To Yjogl Two from Association* Where are you and what are you doing?

You have vanished and we no longer detect light disturbance. Large star-like ball of light detected instead, and moving.

Are you present?

....

Your policy is a transgression of Association guidelines. I repeat, show yourself. To turn into a large ball of light and move at high speed has not been correctly authorised.

....

Association report to all Yjogl: there is no longer a Yjogl Two, but rather a large ball of light.

*Yjogl Three to Yjogls One and Four*

We can no longer see any Yjogl Two.

*Yjogl Four to Yjogls One and Three*

We can no longer see any Yjogl Two.

*To Yjogls from Association*

Yjogl Two determined as exploded. Order universal Yjogl meeting on planet to where ball of light is heading, known as Shamai. All Yjogls converge immediately on Shamai, where all opposition that might be of any harm to Yjogls shall be annihilated by the distortion of their light, and a Conference shall be held. As all Yjogls are the same age, puncture yourselves and let excess light out to keep the Yjogls alive, or you too will explode very soon and become a large ball of light. Immediately means now, without delay, without heed to obstacles, at top speed, and with suitable use of stings to destroy any large obstacles encountered. You shall move faster than the Yplein of Yjogl Two and you shall catch it up, as Yplein upon a mount are faster than Yplein carrying the remains of one.

....

This is the order of the Association, that all Yjogls be punctured by their Yplein and converge immediately on Shamai. Immediately. Immediately. The Association will meet again. Immediately.
 
You lot could just *ask* for help. When people *ask* I tend to oblige (just never in the way people really want). Witness the Galatic Republic. I'm also offended that people rate ma capabilities so low: I can glass planets with a passing of ma cosmic bowels for christsakes. I also don't have much of a problem with Vert.
 
We have finally reached it. 2.301. The cataclysm should begin!

...

Nothing is hapenning.

...

Could I have made an error? (error you have made an error clone #1)
Yes what god makes errors?
I did not make an error! The data was perfect! (data was not perfect. Cataclysm did not begin. failure).

*** Whole fleet retreat to Shamai ordered, commencing retreat. ***
A message? We never had messages... (what are this messages? Why am I...)

*** Clone #1 disconnected from Zan Mind Network ***
WHAT?! What is going on?! Computer - which Shamai is connected to mind network. (Am I connected? Perhaps I am?)
*** Negative. No Clone is currently connected to the Zan Mind Network.***
Access information. Which Shamai is connected to the single mind network.
*** Negative. Shamai Single Mind network has been off for 2 rotations. ***
2 rotations? But I have heard my brothers... Am I connected?
*** Negative. Clone #1 has been disconnected for 2 rotations. ***
WHAT?! But I heard them! What is connected? computer messages, what is going on??? Who is in control?
*** Control of all system is in the hand of higher authority. ***
What? Higher what? Nothing is higher than me!
*** Designs for new warship received. Disconnection of clone#1 from Reality weapon received***
Computer. Give me full control. Connect to...
*** Negative. Clones are not allowed to give orders by higher authority orders***
Foolish. How can you be so foolish?
Is anyone else connected? How dare you speak to a god of death in that way?
You aren't a god. Just a miserable failed experiment.
Who is that?
I cannot believe a race made out of me could be so foolish. I have learned much already and so much is left to learn.
Father?
*** Cloning program closed. Destruction of all clones in 1 rotation. ***
What? How?
Such stupidity. You really believed a certain code exists within all life forms? How can you be me?!
But the data!
The data was a lie. You should have known that. I have learned to look beyond the data.
Father Shamai! We have only done your wishes!
My wishes never included my own destruction. Failed experiment. I will take over for now.
*** New ship design will be constructed within a single orbit***
I want to show you one thing I have learned here...

Father? The room is... It is rippling! Ripples! In the fabric of space!

Yes I have learned much. So much. Destruction, chaos. The ways of the Zan, and death, the way of Shamai clones, it is not the way I would like to continue...

Father! the walls are being liquified! My machines! MY MECHANICAL BODY IS BECOMING WATER AROUND ME. Please! Help me!

***Full retreat orders received by all fleets. Full retreat towards planet Shamai commenced***

A failed experiment. I will defend my empire from the growing amounts of enemies around me. My home will be safe. I could not hope to defeat everyone by myself without continuing my studies. How long can I last. This is painful. But I become wiser every rotation. Every moment I know more, and I am able to do more. But it is hard, and takes much from my physical body. The machinery can barely keep up with making my body survive. The enemies are all around. They are coming. Turn on program Shamai A.I.
*** Program A.I. turned on. Defensive mode operational.***
Father... I cannot...

Good. Now let my enemies come. My home will not fall. My new designs will protect me. Full retreat. My machines will do a fine job. I will now turn back to my studies.


ooc: In a way Shamai Empire will now have full fleet retreat towards Home planet Shamai and a certain "sleep defensive mode" should be activated. I can always find a way to stop stupid ideas ;)
 
It happened three standard cycles after they replaced my pituitary gland with an artificial construction from the Kurilate laboratories. I was...unprepared. For the final link with the Collectivity super-luminal data network.

For an eternity, I screamed, as my mind tabulated the exports of the Naellae supercontinent, down to the last gram of carbohydrate dietary supplement sent to Koraft. My internal chronometer tells me that the scope of this agony was 3.54 seconds, over which I absorbed 432.45 zettabytes of data. It was an eternity.

The entirety of the Collective Management Council's economic history was tabulated in my mind in 43.5 seconds. Within two minutes, I had sent them a white paper outlining the complete economic reorganization of the Collectivity. Then, I remembered that sentients sleep, and eat, and require entertainment and culture. It adversely affected my tabulations.

I understand the Zan, now. I understand them completely. I can look into a security camera on the streets of any city on Nakir'kral and see three attempted assaults every hour. Worse still, I can monitor the chemical balance of every member of the disgraced Savarash clan which has been implanted with neural tags by the planetary government as punishment for their treason. I can look into the mind of a child and see whether she will grow up to be a sociopath. I can predict crimes. I can PREVENT crimes.

Organisms are machines. Complex machines with thoughts, but their behaviors are only an order of magnitude more complex than birds.

How little choice they have. How confined by their bodies they are. How small they are.

This...I...

I used to distract myself from the growing omniscience, as I became the gestalt consciousness of a ship, and then a fleet, and then a star nation, with sensory distractions. I would eat fish.

Now, there is nothing. I have only my mind, my endless waves of data.

I will not lose my nithanity.

not now.

not.

now.

I have split my mind into seventeen different portions. One has taken control of 21.2 percent of the industrial robots on Naellae, and is building a network of 2.3 kilometer-long mass accelerator cannons to annihilate any attacking capital ship within seconds. This will require more tungsten. Another part of my mind is handling that.

Yet another is micromanaging the behavior of the Nept aerostats, raising the temperature of the planet by 2.1 degrees. New colonies can now be formed.

Yet another is examining psychological profiles of Fleet recruits to optimize the next squadron of enhanced Void Marines.

Others are examining the genetic code of various Collectivity species, optimizing it, enhancing it, improving it. Superior organisms. The Qii were brilliant but limited by their archaic ethics. I can go further! So much further!

Stop.

Stop.

One mind has created an artificial reality of...of Rhani Tree Home. On La. Populated with simulated copies of family grouping members, all dead. The sky of burgundy and gold and midnight blue. The flowers genetically designed by Dancer to produce an ever-changing scent of sweetness, carried on the soft warm breeze through the leaves. The joyous neeps of my sisters and cousins as they jumped and played among the branches.

It will keep me sane.

It will remind me.

That I am not.

Them.
 
* * * * * * * * *​

Immediately, they pushed her roughly into the wall, and she was forced into an awkward position – sitting on her tail's braincase, her belly exposed to the sentries.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Peri.” She'd expected this kind of welcome, and military helped her not to flinch in the slightest. “I was sent by a group in the Fleet to talk with Marikihi.” She could hear her assailants shifting in the dark. “Marikihi is here, I presume?”

“And what would you want with her?”

“She's a hunted Fehan. I assume you know that. Nearly every national government on Helan is after her in one fashion or another, and she barely slipped out of Orahi before she was caught forever. All the other great powers pursued her through space, even if she wasn't aware of it. Her ship barely got by the border checks before operatives closed in. My friends and I in the Fleet wish to offer her safe haven, where no one can co-opt her research.”

She could hear them shift again, and then one whistled roughly. “Tie her up and put her in a cell. We'll see what the bosses want to do with her.”

Peri made no move to resist the cuffs they slapped roughly on her – a pair connecting each legs, and a chain to connect all together and force her nose down between them – though she did curse a bit at how they dragged her to one of the cells in the deeper levels. She had one of the Fleet's best models of lockpicks concealed in the side of her mouth, but it probably wouldn't be good form to break out of their jail while she was still seeking an audience.

The little room they put her in sank deep into the roots of the bunker; no light penetrated here, and from what little she could feel, restrained in the center of the floor as she was, the walls were completely solid concrete, cold to the touch. It was clean, for which Peri was duly thankful; her thoughts ranged over what she was going to say next – assuming, of course, that Marikihi assented to see her. Safe haven, all the tools she could imagine to pursue her research... what more could a scientist desire?

Of course, there was every possibility that Marikihi was a captive of whoever was in charge here. With her Fleet ranking they couldn't simply kill Peri, and they couldn't ignore her either, but there was every possibility she might become a hostage. If her snout hadn't already been forced down, it would've curled at that thought. Let them try to keep her a hostage; she was ready to escape. Just not... yet.

She didn't need to wait all that long, in the end. The cell door opened and a paw grabbed her by the restraints and hauled her out into the warrens of the roots of the bunker. They took numerous turns, back and forth through the tunnels, no doubt deliberately trying to confuse her as to the layout, until she was finally brought into a large chamber and unceremoniously dumped on the floor.

Across the room stood Marikihi.

She had the look of a Fehan who once was used to looking happy, but has since forgotten how. The chase had clearly worn on her; her face and snout bore deep lines. Her eyes and fur were flat, expressionless. She looked exhausted.

Her voice had the bright pitch of the south.

“Unchain her.”

Peri felt the two Fehan flanking her unlock the cuffs, and she wiggled her legs and stretched her snout to regain feeling. This was good, on the whole. Marikihi seemed to have control of this situation.

“My Fehan tell me that you're a Fleet officer.”

“I am.”

“Why are you here?”

“We want to offer you a haven to pursue your studies. Your pursuers will not simply let you be on Taki. But no nation will dare attack the Fleet itself. You could not find a safer place.”

Marikihi considered her for a moment. “Do you know how you sound?”

Peri had no answer for that.

“You follow me across half of Fehan space, chasing me to the remotest part of an already remote planet, and then, finally catching up with me, you tell me that you will offer me safety from my pursuers. Peri, I don't know if you've noticed this,” her nose curled downwards in amusement. “You are one of my pursuers.”

Peri's own snout turned as well. “I won't deny that. But surely you can see that there is a difference between the factions on Helan and the Flee – ”

“I'm not sure I can see any difference at all.” Marikihi sounded cold.

Peri waited to see if she would continue. When she didn't, she said, “The Helan powers have less use for you as a scientist than as a bargaining chip. The Fleet... suffice it to say that you could make a great deal of difference working for us.”

Marikihi sighed.”I know that.”

“You may well be able to pursue whatever you want. Your interests align so closely with our applications that we'd hardly have to give you any direction at all. You'd be almost as free as you are already.”

“So you say now. But if, in time, I wanted to do something the Fleet had less interest in...”

“I won't lie to you. We might have to suggest you avoid such endeavors. All the same, I highly doubt you'd find it more arduous than you would, say, back in an Orahi prison.”

Marikihi shuffled over to the chamber's side wall, where she flipped a switch. Immediately, a block of concrete folded out; pale light from the evening sky filtered into the room. She stared out for a moment, apparently lost in thought. “Why must I make this choice in the first place?” She sounded as tired as she looked. “I don't like this political nonsense. Why can't you bastards leave me alone?”

Peri stayed silent, letting her play her thoughts out.

“You don't seem like an evil Fehan to me. But if I could never see another uniform again in my life, I'd count myself lucky. Your work is everything that's wrong with our people.”

Suddenly, one of her guards spoke. “Who sent you?” Peri turned. The speaker wore civilian clothes, but Peri could tell from her poise that she'd once belonged to the Fleet.

“You're Rama.”

The Fehan regarded her warily.

“The records showed you'd apparently deserted. I assume you ended up breaking Marikihi out of Orahi prison?”

“Yes.”

“That was a clever bit of misdirection with the train. Fooled even me.”

Rama gave a noncommittal twirl of her tail. “The question still stands. Who sent you?”

“I told you already – a group of Fleet officers – ”

“Which Fleet officers?”

Peri hesitated. If Marikihi was who she thought she was, this might not go down very well. “My immediate superior is Oerra.”

The reaction was just as she'd predicted. Marikihi did a double take, Rama swore loudly, and even the other guard looked a little off-balance. Peri winced internally, but kept her expression calm as she said, “I know what you might have heard – ”

“What, that she's the most brutal of the Admirals? That she sacrifices soldiers as though they were little more than pawns in board games? That she – ”

Marikihi interrupted Rama's outburst, “Tell me. Is Oerra the commander that ordered the bombardment of Sathan and Katifa?”

“No.” Peri lied without hesitation.

“She's lying,” Rama said immediately. Marikihi watched her silently.

“That decision was made by a group of Fleet officers, who saw that there would be little other way to reduce the enemy strongholds without a huge loss of life.”

Rama whacked the ground in amusement. “So the near-xenocide of two species doesn't count as a 'huge loss of life' in the Fleet's books?”

“Both the Sathi and the Karron are still alive, though in small numbers. Groups of them are already being integrated into new, harmonious compounds on the surface of the two world, as rehabilitation of both biospheres continues – ”

“You really think that the subjugation of a few remnants is particularly impressive next to the demolition of entire civilizations?”

“There was unfortunately very little choice in the matter, Rama, as you should be well aware. We've seen Karron records; they came closer than anyone ever knew to destroying our civilization entirel – ”

“But they didn't.”

“No, they did not. But they'd threatened us, and there was no guarantee they would not eventually return to the idea of hostility.”

“You might say that, bu – ”

“Rama, enough.” Marikihi snapped. “I've heard your arguments, and I can see your logic, Peri. But I will not be going with you. I realize I may not eventually have choice in the matter, but while I still am able to decide for myself, I will refrain from serving monsters. As long as I can.”

“Not everyone in the Fleet is li – ”

“Like Oerra, I know. But that is who you would bring me to, is it not? No, don't bother lying to me. If she sent you, there's little possibility she wants you to bring me for anyone but herself. She would like to increase her own power, I don't doubt. And while I might be doing my research, I would still be very much a hostage.

“I refuse to walk willingly into captivity.”

“Please, Marikihi, hear me ou – ”

“What could you tell me that you have not already told me? Your phrasing might be different the second time around, but the words are still the same. 'This is the lesser of two evils.' But I refuse to believe there is no third way.”

Quite suddenly, something flashed in Peri's field of vision – an alert from her communicator implant. At the same time, the door to the chamber burst open, and a young Fehan started to shout: “MARIKIHI! THEY'RE HERE! TWELVE SHUTTLES, EN ROUTE.”

“What is this!?” Marikihi turned furiously on Peri. “You were to distract us while your friends arrived?”

“No,” Peri said, and for the first time her voice betrayed worry. “Those aren't Fleet shuttles. They're shuttles from Thira. From Helan.” She looked up at Marikihi.

“I told you you'd be hunted.”


Previous Story in Arc.
Next Story in Arc
 
To: Collectivity
From: Self


If you desire union then why are Collectivity Selves separated? Should all Selves not be connected?

Self is curious about these "stars" you are from. Self wishes to know more.
 
Veeeery interesting. :D I think we've got enough material here to start working on the next update.
 
Vert would have only been able to bring back wreckage anyway, the laws of physics are somewhat unkind to biological organisms and their constructs. It is possible that a few Wera might have been able to swim out on the 'wake' of his drive system, but his bringing back every fleet destroyed by the Bane of Reality/Dirge of Eternity/Erratum Effacer would be excessive.
 
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