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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Mr Zoat, Jan 27, 2019.

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  1. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    Needs a full stop.
    to -> the
    spit the gunships out almost directly out of the -> spit out the gunships almost directly out of the
    That's an impressive display. I wonder if OL's going to destroy the fleet before he goes?
     
  2. Ej190

    Ej190 Making the rounds.

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    How monstrous. How... Efficient.

    I suppose the Reach ISN'T as stupid evil and we thought they were.
     
  3. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    ...Some sort of religious obligation they felt needed to be done? Rather enthusiastic over-mining? They didn't like the view? Unfortunately, there's none left to ask about it...

    That suggests a very thorough sort of aggressive combat doctrine. As in: Leave no enemy alive as you pass. And I suppose big conical gunboats wouldn't be all that agile...

    Hmm... A very drone-focused methodology. Presumably they were very attached to their lives, and refused to risk them in direct assaults... Let's hope there's nothing unexpected to deal with.

    Problem is what changes the Reach have wrought upon them. Which might not be so obvious.

    So, cannon-fodder to be thrown at an enemy without concern for their survival. I suspect most of these remnant fleets will be like that...

    Just as long as you can identify the Reach-made changes and try to revert them to original specs. That would be a nasty surprise...

    A response to the scan? Random drill? Some sort of long-term avoidance routine? Who knows?

    So the drones are basically fabbed and spat out the door in combat? I bet there's a huge stockpile of raw materials sitting in the holds... Still, hardly worth keeping them intact for that...

    To be fair, a pangolin-like species of humanoid would likely be broadly built. Now, to see how much data security they have...

    And there we have it: Massive data security. Wow. I'm impressed at the level of compartmentalisation.

    Not likely to find some juluuni mechanics sitting around shooting the breeze. Especially after a short FTL hop like that.

    For all we know, they keep individual personnel teams isolated in combat. Would be one way to minimise potential blue-on-blue incidents... Especially not knowing how their instincts affect their combat behaviour.

    ...So they're little more than meat robots, dutifully carrying out their orders for the Reach masters? That's downright evil in its utilitarianism... Then again, he's only looking at Desires, not their full psyche... I doubt things are much better off for the other lights in them.

    Maybe the higher ranks are more independent? Or at least more able to deal with situations outside their 'programming'?

    So they're operated remotely, ordered about via long-range transmissions? Perhaps you can find the system that receives them and learn the specs to give them some bad orders? Also, what an offensive-sounding alarm... Sounds like someone hacking up a lung.

    Heh. Set the remnant fleets scurrying about in pre-programmed responses that leave them wildly out of position? Would be amusing to imagine the frustration of their Reach managers.

    Hmm... Looks like a nuke on a deadman's switch? That's one way to clean out boarding parties, especially if it's laden with the nastier radiation bands. We've already got a good idea of what they think of the crew's value...

    Looting time. Yoink!

    See if these ones are any more intelligent. At the least, they'd have to be more capable of reacting to unusual situations.

    So, the juluuni have been rendered into little more than cogs in the Reach war machine? What's the bet ships from fleets like these are used as privateers to harass polities the Reach want to scare into an alliance? There'd have to be some reason to not simply render them down for raw materials, after all...
     
  4. Queshire

    Queshire Not too sore, are you?

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    Harry Potter's been on my mind lately. I imagine the process these guys went through could also produce something like what we see with the House Elfs there. SPEW was a joke because house elfs were legitimately happy and enthusiastic about their station. Except for Dobby trying to change things was distressing for them.

    Imagine if OL got the interview he wanted but instead of acting like brain chipped drones they act like a house elf would if asked about wizarding society?
     
  5. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  6. Z3r0Sama

    Z3r0Sama Not too sore, are you?

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    Renegade managed to sweet talk his motherbox that genociding the Psions was perfectly acceptable course if action. It might be a waifu at this point.
     
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  7. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    In the spoiler box page there was August 25th written above the link for this chapter.

    I think you may want to rewrite this, since that guy that Paul talked to a couple of chapters ago was mentioned as joining the Darkstars.

    maybe 'along, Orange'

    'their fleet'

    Except potentially finding a solution on how to break the Reach's indoctrination methods.

    I don't think you're being too harsh on them.

    If anything you were too easy on them.

    I'm reminded of that scene in DS9 where that young Jem'Hadar bowed to Odo after seeing what he was, even though he tried to attack him moments ago.

    maybe 'Mercy use their' remove 'to'
     
  8. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Or just plain old stupidity.

    Or greed, if strip-mining was somehow more profitable

    Your hopes won't be met.

    An offensive sounding alarm to alert the crew of a offending party on the ship.

    Or who knows, maybe they actually like the sound.

    I'm reminded of a Stargate SG1 episode where a bit of alien music is played.

    To the humans it sounds horrible, but to the aliens it belonged to it was apparently very pleasing.

    They could also be using them as propaganda to show that they don't exterminate species and that those under them are happy.
     
  9. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    I think he said they were like the love child of Granny Goodness and Desaad.

    If that's true then it's easy to see why the Box wouldn't be so bothered by the idea.
     
  10. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    Wrong species. Threllian isn't juluuni.
     
  11. Rafin

    Rafin Not too sore, are you?

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    Why would those two be better at doing something like that than the Illustress? It can't be personal computational capacity, because nothing forces you to actually read/absorb all the info you scan for instead of insta-dumping it or even creating a closed data packet on the ring for later use or sharing.
     
  12. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Then why was he hopeful if it wasn't his species, it felt like it was?

    Did he think that there may be more species the Reach haven't exterminated, even though the only one they know about are the Juluuni?
     
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  13. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Maybe because they're both much, much bigger than Paul and that can somehow affect the outcome.
     
  14. Agumentic

    Agumentic Not too sore, are you?

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    Because they know about more species that Juluuni, including Threllian's.
     
  15. rkyeun

    rkyeun Cabbitus Maximus

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    And then when he takes that ship's computer core back out of subspace, it also registers tampering and nukes.
     
  16. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    In this thread, or in Praise of Eros?
     
  17. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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  18. Hell's Razer

    Hell's Razer Passive Member

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    Obligatory MST3K Mantra disclaimer.
    That aside, I see two solutions for this to allow them to survive having flattened their homeworld: weather-control tech, or REALLY impressive enclosed habitats. Because the kind of havoc on the weather patterns of a planet this kind of strip mining would cause is something I cant even guess.
    ... They are DRILLS. Their combat ships are drill shaped. Because they are low depth burrowers so of course the best way to breach a settlement's defenses would be to start digging.
     
  19. NightmareWarden

    NightmareWarden Versed in the lewd.

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    It sounds like The Reach (THOSE FIENDS!) destroyed a Spiral Race.

    This mustn’t stand!
     
  20. Rafin

    Rafin Not too sore, are you?

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    That sounds like completely baseless speculation with no indicating priors.
     
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  21. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    It's not a matter of size. It's a matter of having brains designed for extreme range remote detection.
     
  22. lars

    lars Avid reader

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    I'm currently rereading the story from the start, but has Grayven reconnected with Jade after the falling out In "Last Supper"?
     
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  23. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    He met her again when he and Will, the clone Roy, were looking for the original Roy, and she helped them.

    He has her working for him, but I don't think they've really talked all that much.
     
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2021
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  24. Michael Vonica

    Michael Vonica Know what you're doing yet?

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    I was wondering, just how big is reach space? I know it's really, really big, but is it like the size of a space sector big? I think Mr Zoat mentioned this before. And as for the universe as a whole, how big is that? And in DC, is it the case that the source wall surrounds the entire universe? How many galaxies fit in there? Some some things I was wondering.
     
  25. Someguy Somewhere

    Someguy Somewhere The Critical Fumbler

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    Zoat's Mentioned briefly in the past that The Guardians consider the Milky Way Galaxy and parts of other near by galaxies as their turf, and cover those with assigned space sectors for Green Lanterns. So I'd figure that the old guardians treat the Local Group to be their lawn, and tell folks to get off it.

    While they have the 2 Lanterns per sector rule, I don't think Zoat's using the 3600 sectors in total number from some DC lore (I Think the lore idea there was the guardians see the universe as round with Oa at it's center, so just split it by degrees and give everyone a 1 Degree wedge shaped slice of 10 sectors for each of those).

    Aside from Sector Lanterns, there are Honour Guard members that have specific duties, such as regions of interest to watch over, or particular jobs to perform on behalf of the corps.

    Reach space has been described as increasing in size by several times it's pre Green Lantern War state. Since it seems to take up a patch of at least several space sectors (by what ever scale the Guardians use for determining those) .


    As for the size of the DC universe....I think Deathbattle took a crack or 2 at scaling that when calculating speed of some folks (Dr Fate's helm going from one end to the other a few times) . And their number was much larger then the 'best guess' that we have for the Real Life Observable Universe.
     
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  26. Threadmarks: Onslaught (part 13)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    25th August 2012
    00:44 GMT


    Desire suppression and grab.

    Juluuni officers fight weakly due to their training, but there's no passion to their actions as they're pulled across the bridge to me and stuck in a construct constraint box. I take a fraction of a second to send an interrogation command to the ship's computer, triggering its self-destruct.

    "…of the Restitution, report in. If you do not respond, you-"

    Singularity beam.

    "-will be considered-"

    I swing the beam in a low arc, space distorting as it slices through the ship's interior and out into space. Lights in the lower part flicker and die as I replace the projector with a construct jack and shove the two parts of the ship away from each other like an angry pearl inside a mussel.

    Situational awareness, ring. And interdiction field.

    Compliance.

    The ships are manoeuvring, spreading out and-. Huh, they can eject their gunship production modules. That lets them flush their stores faster, but… They can't make more. And it looks like that's an emergency action that can't be easily reversed, creating a critical weakness in their hull. On the other hand, against most Lanterns it's probably the best thing they can do. There are now a lot of flak turrets out there.

    Let's do something about that.

    Positron beams, track and rapid fire.

    Two weapon constructs appear just in front of me, aiming through the growing gap between hull fragments with their containment vessels glowing purple. Rays leap out, each one existing so briefly that the human eye can't truly see them but firing so quickly that there's a purple haze to the air. The positron beam doesn't convey a lot of antimatter and compared to a true lightspeed weapon it's somewhat slow, but the gunships are unshielded and close enough and predictable enough that every shot is a kill. Really, I'm just trying to lure out any Scarab Warriors who are on-site and feeling-

    I feel it as half the fleet tries to jump out. They disengage their drives in good order when they realise that that isn't going to be happening.

    -lucky. They aren't used to being weaker than their opponents. It's not just me: in all other encounters with Orange Lanterns where the Lantern has lived to report back, the Scarab Warrior has stubbornly refused to quit the field. Oh, they'll evade an attack or fall back in the face of numbers, but they just refuse to give up. I wonder if it's a programming error?

    The battleships turn, accelerating away from me at their best sublight speed. While they do that the cruisers cluster closer, trying to line their guns up through the gap in the hull to get a clear shot at me. Not a terrible idea by any means, though the prow-mounted guns of the battleships mean that they can't add their fire to the attack while moving away from me.

    Incoming message.

    I reform my singularity beam projector and aim it at one of the more on the ball battleships that is firing at the upper portion of my 'shell' as it turns.

    Play it.

    I fire, cutting a plane through its main drive and reaction mass reservoir. No explosion, because I'm using a gravity weapon, but as I send a positron beam that way… Yes, there we go. The battleship massing goodness knows how many tonnes jerks in space at the force of the detonation, the hull coming apart from the inside.

    "Illustres, you are still alive."

    I recognise that voice.

    "And you're out of qwa-matter. Good effort, though."

    I aim and fire the singularity beam through the hull covering me, cutting through the battleship furthest away from me. I don't want them to think they can escape. I want them to stick around and try fighting me, because if I have to chase after them it'll waste my time. Shots from the cruisers are sporadically hitting my construct armour and the positron beams aren't doing anything to their shields.

    "Your construct defences are impressive. I will have to use a bigger bomb next time."

    A scything motion from the singularity beam and the cruisers aren't quite so aggressive any more. Given all of the options that a power ring grants its user, I feel that I'm being a little boring here. But… Well, when one form of attack is virtually always superior in effect and there's no way that you can cow the enemy into submission with a more showy attack… It just makes sense.

    "No, no, the qwa-matter worked. The problem is that I'm immortal."

    Now, do they have enough free will to work out that there must be a reason why I'm staying in one place? Oh, ring, acquire genetic scans of everyone in the region.

    Compliance.

    "That seems unlikely."

    "And yet, here we are."

    I replace the jack construct with an oversized clamp construct and push, lifting that half of the ship off me to give myself a better angle. Usually, I'd request an opponent's surrender by now. Or they'd offer it.

    "You've got data on qwa-matter explosions and construct defences. You know that there's no way I blocked that."

    But there's only so many times you can have someone suicide bomb your prisoner handling units before you learn not to do that. Still, it would be interesting to see how much freedom their admiral has, and the additional biological samples could be useful.

    "Orange Lantern Illustres to surviving juluuni vessels. Power down your engines and surrender, or I will destroy you."

    The next shot with my singularity beam goes through the bridge of the crippled cruisers. Two lucky effectives in that class left, and a few dozen gunships who dodged behind something.

    "True to the Writ we live. True to the Writ-"

    Track transmission and fire.

    Compliance.

    "-we-."

    That battleship gets cut in half lengthwise.

    "Die, yes. Anyone else?"

    Mildly interesting, though. The Reach don't usually perform that sort of indoctrination. Loyalty to the Reach as a political entity, yes, but they don't share their religion with aliens.

    The battleships open fire en masse, the ship around me still intact enough to block most of the opening barrage. I swing-.

    A small bolt of energy hits me in the faceplate, and I turn to see that… Huh, okay, I'm impressed. A couple of juluuni marines made it this far, breaching the bridge and getting a shot off. My positron beams-.

    [​IMG]

    No.

    My railgun shots cripple their arms and legs, then I grab their weapons and destroy them before shoving the marines into my containment unit. They earned that.

    But no one's surrendering. And looking at their desires, no one is even considering it.

    Singularities all round it is, then.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2021
  27. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    I can't even remember the last time we saw a Paragon option from Paul. Anyone remember?
     
  28. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Or the Reach view surrendering as being dishonorable and consider dying in combat a good way to die.

    The Reach guy Paul talked to before he was blown up by qwa-matter.

    And we all know that someone is going to complain that you are.

    'in one'

    Religious zealotry.

    Wonderful.

    'gets cut in'

    Maybe they're trying something new.

    This could be their sick idea of integrating species instead of exterminating them.

    A singularity for you! And a singularity for you! Everybody gets a singularity!
     
  29. Grimnar

    Grimnar Versed in the lewd.

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    Why, why, WHY THE FUCK?????????

    OL has offically gone full SuperHero Retarded. He's literally giving his enemies, people he's gone out of his way to make war against, options to cripple or kill him.

    Because he wants to brag. He's literally just braggging away his biggest trump cards.

    What the fuck is this?
     
  30. BlueMangoAdea

    BlueMangoAdea Alive. For now.

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    What advantage does it even give the Reach to tell them that he’s immortal? You are overreacting.
     
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