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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. transhumansage

    transhumansage Versed in the lewd.

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    are you one of those ppl salty about the tau originally being good guys.
     
  2. Massgamer

    Massgamer Not too sore, are you?

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    If not happy with Tau there is always the Farsight Enclaves which is basically the same but who's leader it's against the Empire's mostly corrupt leadership.
     
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  3. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    You really have to wonder what this particular Paul is thinking.

    The Tau are quite literally balanced on the Razors edge of being weak enough that the Imperium doesn't bother utterly crushing them and powerful enough to keep out minor Imperium attacks via Tau wave tactics.

    Anything he does risks tipping them over the edge onto "The Imperium sends a real fleet to wipe the Tau out.".

    And that's before you get into the fact the Tau are known brainwashers and he has no defense against that.
     
  4. DAT_NOOB

    DAT_NOOB Accused of writing in a far away land

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    I view the Tau as space Bretonnia, started off as the good guy then GW realised they didn't want that in their setting and made them worse (morally). - person salty about the tau originally being good guys
     
  5. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    On the contrary: He has better defense against brainwashing than most people would. Not on par with a psyker, perhaps, but he wants to retain control of his faculties and identity. If he's set up a Wholeness Rightly Assumed template in this timeline, he's good. And it's not like he has to worry about conserving charge.

    I agree the Tau are balanced on a razor's edge, but we all know that the SI has a preference to take a third option when the opportunity presents itself -- instead of navigating a balance of power, he might find another way to establish peaceful coexistence thanks to his outsider perspective.
     
  6. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I have no idea what you're even talking about.
     
  7. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    The ring can only fix physical alterations, not mental ones.

    The only "peaceful coexistence" possible for the Tau is being conquered by the Imperium.

    Everything else is "Bad End" territory.

    Either they will be killed by the Orks, eaten by the Tyranids, converted by the Necrons, corrupted by Chaos, turned into farm animals by the Dark Eldar, or used as an easily expended meatshield by the Eldar.

    And that's not even counting that the Tau are going to be utterly hosed in 63 years when the Eye of Terror expands and consumes most of their worlds. An event that the Tau have absolutely no ability to influence.
     
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  8. Sun Dog

    Sun Dog Getting out there.

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    With a Lantern Ring he could revive Guilliman, Lion'el, and maybe the Emperor. Any one of which would be worth a lot of goodwill from the Imperium. He could also loot the databases of all those secretive Forge Worlds hoarding a better toaster to boost their own importance and redistribute that knowledge more fairly. Don't get me wrong, though. The Tau are a decent option if you ignore that the only reason the Imperium hasn't buried them in bodies yet is always having a bigger concern when they gather the fleets and armies to do so. Depending on the timeframe, he could maybe save Panacea, the STC fragment with cures to all diseases that the Dark Eldar destroyed out of petty spite.
     
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  9. Caerwen

    Caerwen Know what you're doing yet?

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    Even just repairing the golden throne would be worth a lot to them.
     
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  10. Ace Dreamer

    Ace Dreamer Questioning The Nature of our Realities

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    Does look to me that the best thing for this (WH40k) setting would be for an enormous mutant star-goat to eat the entire galaxy, then sneeze-out the non-totally broken souls as a new universe that's actually half-worth living in...

    But, what would I know? :)
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2020
  11. DAT_NOOB

    DAT_NOOB Accused of writing in a far away land

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    You've forgotten the T'au's secret weapon:
    Plot armour, they're GW's favourite (lore-wise) for some reason
    Until a civil war breaks out between the emperor and the inquisition ala if the emperor had a TTS device
     
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  12. transhumansage

    transhumansage Versed in the lewd.

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    the imperium would wipe out the tau too. what part of genocidal fascists dont you understand.
     
  13. TheMidnightRook

    TheMidnightRook Well worn.

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    Except, since it's extremely unlikely that he'd be able to talk his way into being allowed to use his heretical xenotech on a Primarch, he'd have to fight his way past the UltraSmurfs first. I don't think he's got enough ring charge to deal with that level of plot armour.
     
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  14. PDV

    PDV Revelation That Uncertainty Is Itself An Answer

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    On the one hand, yes. On the other:

    Better would be to replace the star goat with the biggest WAAAGH! imaginable. The Orks will genocide everything, then fight among themselves for eternity or until they wipe themselves out. But, as Uthan the Perverse notes, they will enjoy every last zoggin minute of it. Orks are insane, but they're also living their best lives despite the Grimdark.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2020
  15. Sun Dog

    Sun Dog Getting out there.

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    Literally tens of thousands of pilgrims come to stare at Papa Smurf every day. I don't doubt there's an honor guard, but I also don't imagine they'd see a ring as a threat before it started doing obvious and very visible things, and by then he's fixed anyways.

    Though, it would probably be a lot easier to get the Lion first and use his influence to bull your way into Guilliman's shrine and the throne room. And while nothing in this fic suggests he could scan the whole galaxy to find Vulkan, Khan and the other missing Primarchs, it's not too dissimilar from feats Lanterns have pulled in the comics (granted, Pre-Crisis).
     
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  16. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    Saying you're trying to avoid Godwin's Law, is like admitting that you lost the game. The moment you do, is the moment you fail.
     
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  17. TheMidnightRook

    TheMidnightRook Well worn.

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    Except that they would, because they're the UltraSmurfs, and your logic cannot trump the fact that GW loves them more than their other kids. :p
     
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  18. lefthandturnsignal

    lefthandturnsignal Making the rounds.

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    We have plenty of forms of economics and government to pull from, you can just call the Imperium a xenocidal, genocidal, theocratic, ogliarchy.
     
  19. zerofarad

    zerofarad Know what you're doing yet?

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    begin
     
  20. GhostKing 666

    GhostKing 666 Know what you're doing yet?

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    That they aren't fascists. Don't get me wrong, they are certainly both genocidal and authoritarian. But fascism refers to a specific type of government, which the Imperium couldn't be further from if they tried. The Imperium of Man is a Authoritarian Feudal Theocratic Oligarchy, and the only thing the IoM has in common with fascism is the authoritarianism.

    Mussolini: Everything within the state, Nothing outside the State, Nothing against the State.

    That is the definition of fascism by the guy who invented the idea, and the Imperium violates those tenets many times over. The Ministorum, the Mechanicus, the Inquisition, the Astartes, etc., so many different internal power structures that no one person has command over all of them and many have in the past even turned against the greater Imperium in favor of their own personal objectives. Hell if the Imperium was fascist then Rogue Traders sure as hell wouldn't be a thing as the very concept of Rogue Traders violates the idea of there being "Nothing outside the State".

    People keep saying the Imperium is fascist, but as Arch Warhammer has pointed out in his videos*, nobody ever backs that statement up with any evidence of actual fascism. At best they confuse fascism and authoritarianism for the same thing even though they aren't.

    *


     
  21. hkim

    hkim Know what you're doing yet?

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    Yeah, but the thing is nobody cares. Authoritarianism is bad, fascism is bad, we yeeted both of them to Hell in World War II and we don't need 'em back. It's like the difference between a pedophile and an ephebophile - yes, there's a difference, yes, they're two different things, and yes, they'll both get you sent to prison with a "kiddie diddler" dog tag so everyone knows.

    That's why everyone conflates them.
     
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  22. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    It's 934.M41, he has very little time to do anything.


    That plot armor expires on 999.M41, when the Tau get fucked sideways by the Eye of Terror expanding.


    Depends on which branch of the Imperium gets to them first.

    And of course once the Primarch's return they would be perfectly willing to accept the Tau surrender to become members of the Imperium.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2020
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  23. Ciber

    Ciber Know what you're doing yet?

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    That's more than 50 years for OL to make butterflies. I think he has a good chance.
     
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  24. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    I am guessing you don't realize that 50 years is basically nothing in Warhammer 40k...

    And that any butterflies he could make would require going over to the Imperium since they are the only one's who can even remotely counter Eldar future fuckery.
     
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  25. GhostKing 666

    GhostKing 666 Know what you're doing yet?

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    While Guilliman probably wouldn't have a problem making them a xeno protectorate(something that occasionally happened in 30k, though all of them have long sense been obliterated), the T'au would probably be better off agreeing to become vassals of Imotekh. They'd be stuck sending tribute to the guy(not like they wouldn't with the Imperium) but at last they might have a chance to get a cryptek or two have a looksee over their race and possibly work out how to prevent them from evolving into a Psyker Race.

    Because that's a thing now in a history repeats itself sense. The T'au, Humanity and the Aeldari are all following the same path, with the T'au being like humanity during the Dark Age. Provided that Humanities own potential Fall doesn't destroy the galaxy*, the T'au will eventually become like humanity as they slowly become a psyker race themselves. And I don't know about you, but if I was a near psychically dead race in Warhammer and found out that my race was destined to slowly gain psyker powers and become like Humanity and the Aeldari, I'd run screaming to the nearest sane(or saneish) cryptek and beg them to use their bullshit technology to keep that from happening, even if it meant becoming a vassal race to a Necron Phaeron.

    *Humanity isn't just evolving into a race of psykers, we're evolving into psykers more powerful then the Aeldari are and more populace and spread out in the galaxy. If Humanity suffers a "Fall" like the Aeldari did, our Fall would create a Warp Tear the size of the galaxy itself. This is why the Emperor wanted all of humanity under the Imperium's control, so that he could control and direct humanity's coming evolution into a safe state and that some isolated group wouldn't fuck things up by accident.
     
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  26. Ciber

    Ciber Know what you're doing yet?

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    Fifty years with an Orange Power Ring and OOC knowledge might just manage something. And the Eldar may not necessarily be antagonistic if the presence of the SI enables a future path that does not result in the triumph of tyranids.
     
  27. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    An Orange Power ring without a Guardian Database puts him at roughly the level of a Beta level Psyker.

    I am not making that comparison lightly either, as everything he can do, sans FTL, Beta level psykers have also been shown to be capable of doing. And yes I am including "turn people into constructs" in that, because Beta level psykers have actually been shown to be able to do that.

    His OCC knowledge is in fact worthless to the Tau, as the only two factions that could actually use the small bits of information he actually knows to change things for even the slightest bit better are the Imperium and Eldar.
     
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  28. Threadmarks: Warlantern 40,000
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    0 086 936.M41
    Inasmuch as it matters
    I wonder how the tau dating system works?


    The diplomat has skin a little more towards the blue end of the blue-grey spectrum. Tau… I was sort of expecting standard rubber forehead aliens, but the slightly larger eyes, lack of nose and the Y shaped facial cleft stretching from a point parallel with the bottom of her eye orbits up to a third of the way up her forehead… Her face is too… Off. Not creepy, exactly, but clearly something different.

    But she's not a tau Brood Brother, and I'll take what I can get.

    She's wearing a green skullcap with a glossy black thread decorating the rim, and what I assume to be a civilian spacesuit coloured a slightly brighter green loosely covers the rest of her body. Actually, I think it's designed to look a bit like a robe without impeding her motion too much. Two braids hang down from the back of her head. And she's… Is she baring her teeth? Is that something tau do? The fingers of the soldiers on either side of us are tightening around their grips slightly… What am I doing wrong?

    "Hello." Still baring her teeth, the diplomat performs a shallow bow. "I am Por'La Lar'shi Tsua'm Raard."

    I dismiss my construct armour. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Tsua'm. I'm… Hm. Gue'vesa'Saal Earth-" And this would be a good deal easier if I could say my own name. Just glad I was in a breathable atmosphere when I found out that I couldn't. "-Orange Lantern." I hesitantly extend my right arm. "I'm not sure how familiar you are with human body language…"

    She starts to mirror my gesture, mildly hesitant as she carefully watches my hand. When our palms come together she doesn't make any attempt to grip it. I remember from reading Fire Warrior that tau reflexes are significantly slower than those of humans. I hadn't really thought about what that I2 would mean in terms of how they actually interacted with their environment. Should I..?

    "N-nearly. Like this." I gently curl my fingers around her hand and shake it slightly. "It was originally a martial greeting which showed each party that the other wasn't carrying a weapon in their favoured hand."

    "Oh." She looks up at me, still baring her teeth.

    "Of course, since the ring is an empathic weapon and doesn't require any physical action at all it's a little misleading." I withdraw my hand. "Is there some-" I point at my mouth with my right hand. "-reason you're.. doing that?"

    She closes her mouth slightly. "Smiling? Is that not a friendly human expression?"

    "You weren't getting it quite right. I'll.. show you later." I gesture towards the marines with my right thumb. Ring showsTwo infected. "Am I doing something that's putting them on edge?"

    She bows her head slightly. "We are… Not used to powerful human psykers being so polite. Your… Aura is a little… Strange."

    "Hm?" I look down at my right hand. Right, the clearly visible orange glow. "Oh, no. I'm not a psyker. Honestly, I'm… Probably about as much of a psyker as you are. Since I predate human warp travel…" Though the shamen who created the Emperor did as well. Were their abilities purely sorcerous..? Don't know. "This shield is a product of this-" I hold up my left hand. "-ring. I don't think that it draws power from the warp. Because if it did I'd be-" I jazz hands. "-'hearing the voices' right now."

    "I see. What does the force field do?"

    I float slightly off the deck. "It's mostly for environmental protection. It protects me from external attack, lets me fly and deals with.. breathing and waste production."

    "That is a remarkable device. Will you permit us to study it?"

    I nod. "Anything non-destructive, but… It does a lot more than that, and I'll be happy to give your senior staff a-" Her nasal slit trembles slightly. "-full briefing, but… Your ship is full of holes and.. I've been awake for rather a long time. Perhaps now isn't the best-."

    "Ah. Yes. Of course. I'm am sorry, but it will be some time before the.. senior staff can spare the time…"

    "I quite understand. The needs of the ship come ahead of personal curiosity or pride."

    "Just so. I can-" She presses a button on her spacesuit, and a small hologram appears in the air between us. "-assign quarters to you, if you wish to rest. I am afraid that we do not have anything designed with human aesthetics in mind, but please accept it until we can return to port."

    "What, no skulls? What was your interior decorator t-." Huh. "Do tau have sarcasm?" She looks blank. I'll explain later. "As long as there's a mattress, it will be fine. But first, would it be possible for me to speak with your senior medical officer? I realise that most diseases can't cross the species barrier, but I'd hate to make my hosts ill because I was carrying something you weren't adapted to."

    "As.. I said, the senior-" She dismisses the hologram. "-staff are likely to be occupied. We have many wounded, and the senior medical officer will be busy overseeing their repair."

    I raise my left hand, generating a cut away of a tau body. "This ring has some quite remarkable medical functions as well. As long as the injuries are relatively simple, I should be able to aid their work quite considerably." I dismiss the construct and raise my-. No, there's no point doing that. She clearly doesn't understand human body language well enough.

    "That.. would be his decision. But I see the value in making the request." She looks over to the fire caste warrior in charge of the detail. "Shas'Ui, would you please escort us to the primary medical station?"

    I don't hear a response, but four members of the squad break away and march back down the corridor away from the airlock. Miss Tsua'm turns away from me to follow them, and I in turn follow her. And try to politely ignore the fact that the majority of the squad is now behind me, including one suborned by the tyranids. On the other hand, slightly fewer of them can shoot me at any one time now, and there isn't much advantage in shooting me further inside the ship.

    And there isn't much advantage in me walking the length of one of these huge Warhammer Forty Thousand ships. Ring, interior map.

    Map available.

    Hr. Interior's… Okay. With a full interior scan the damaged areas are obvious. Multiple bulkhead doors are down around damaged sections and… The areas between where the boarding torpedoes hit and everywhere important. Doesn't appear to have completely saved the primary drive, but I'm not seeing any living orks. What else looks off? Hm, that's a lot of power and communication relays that don't go anyw-.

    "They destroyed your bridge."

    The orks totally destroyed their bridge. From the outside, it was so gone that I didn't notice that there was anything missing. I suppose that's what critical hits look like when it's real people. It also explains why I haven't spoken to any senior officers: they're a bit busy being dead. The senior air caste member at least, and probably the senior spirit caste member. And a dead Aun results in impeded inter-caste cooperation and a collapse of morale... And with medical too busy dealing with the wounded, any amount of opportunity for the Cult to spread. Can Brood Brothers spread the taint sexually, or do they need a purestrain?

    Her facial cleft twitches again. "That.. is.. true. But once the engines are repaired, we can return to a friendly port."

    "Then -and I do apologise- we need to move faster."

    I envelop us both in orange light and transition us through the ship, the corridors now open to allow personnel and equipment to move efficiently reach damaged sections. We reappear by the room I tagged as 'primary medical', surrounded by a triage area of heavily injured tau. The more fortunate amongst the heavily injured are on antigravity beds, floating so as not to stress their injuries. The less fortunate are on the floor with whatever bandages they were brought in with keeping them from bleeding to death. The lightly injured are either keeping out of the way or assisting the medical technicians and their drones.

    And while air and earth caste tau make up most of the injured, a small number are members of a reptilian species I don't immediately recognise. Well, the Tau Empire being a multispecies polity is why I'm here, I'll take that as a good sign. The one closest to me opens its right eye as I walk past and I give it a friendly wave before it passes out.

    Ring, acquire biological data.

    Compliance.

    "What did-? Did you teleport?"

    "Technically, no. Which one of these is in charge?"

    A squad of fire caste soldiers have noticed us, but since Miss Tsua'm is clearly with me they're at least not opening fire right away. Right. My ship, my crew, my ticket to relative safety.

    "Ah-? There." She points to a chunky earth caste tau in the middle of a small cluster of other medics. "Fio'Vre-"

    Orange light blasts outward, veins and arteries reknitting, muscle regrowing and organs repairing, shrapnel evaporating and infections being scourged from existence. Yes YES!

    Guh! Stop! Stop. Stop.

    "-Lar… Shi…"

    Miss Tsua'm trails off as all eyes turn to me, aside from those checking their bodies for the now vanished wounds.

    "You're all welcome. Fio'Vre, I really need a moment of your time."
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2020
  29. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Since the SI has no idea how primarch bodies or the golden throne work he would struggle to fix either, even if the locals were supportive of his efforts, which they wouldn't be.
     
  30. TheMidnightRook

    TheMidnightRook Well worn.

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    Baring, I assume, unless she's about to get a lot hairier and start craving raw salmon.
     
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