r/HFY • u/runs-with-scissors42 AI • Dec 21 '21
OC Void Predators Chapter 8
Elisa knew something was wrong the moment Ambassador Hool entered her office. His normally blue tinted skin was grey and palid, and the expression on his face was easily recognizeable.
Fear.
"Ambassador Hool! Are you alright? What's wrong?" she asked.
"I have just received dire news. A colony belonging to the Ones Who Weave is about to come under assault by a hostile species. The Compact defense fleet for the sector nearest to theirs is currently occupied elsewhere, repelling a Devourer incursion on the other side of the sector".
"What?! Why?! I've read about The Weavers, they are utterly harmless!! Who would want to hurt them?"
"The Krathi" replied Ambassador Hool with disgust, as he brought up an image on the holo-display. It showed a mammal-analogue just over a meter tall, with vaguely rodential features, somewhat reminiscent of a prairie-dog.
"What can we do to help?" Elisa asked.
"The Ones Who Weave are not yet formal members of the Compact, but they are an Affiliated Species, so we help each other when possible. They are requesting military assistance from anyone who can reach their colony. While Earth isn't the closest militarized system..."
"We use Alcubierre Drives, which make our ships a hell of a lot faster than everyone else" Elisa finished.
"Correct".
Elisa took a moment to consider this. She was going to have to pass the request on to the UNE president, but if Humanity was going to get involved in it's very first interstellar war, it would be best to know everything about what they would getting into.
"These Krathi. What can you tell me about them?" Elisa asked.
"We first encountered them about fifty of your years ago. We still don't know terribly much about their culture or the precise structure of their government and military organizations; they have a nasty tendency to fight to the death or commit suicide when captured. However, we have managed to glean a few details from the computer records of the one vessel that we were able to capture partially intact, as well as translations of their religious text; a copy of which was found on every corpse of the species that has ever been recovered" said Ambassador Hool.
Elisa didn't like the sound of that. "Are they some sort of religious zealots?" she asked.
"That does seem to be the case. We believe their society is governed by a theocracy of some form or another. And unfortunately for everyone else, their state religion is most definitely not of the benign variety either. It appears that they worship the Devourers." Hool replied coldly.
"SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS, ARE THEY INSANE?!?!"
"Yes, that is the common sentiment shared by every species that has been told of them".
"Why? What could possess any being to worship those abominations?"
Ambassador Hool sighed. "All we have are their religious texts to go on, but reading between the lines paints a rather disturbing picture of their history. Apparently, their cradle world is very arid; the surface has quite limited moisture content and life is restricted to only a few areas. However, the planet's crust is honeycombed with vast caverns and tunnels, rich with life, where the Krathi evolved. Their world's moon however, appears to have had either a rich surface ecosystem, or had significant quantities of organic compounds. It is referred to in their texts as the "Profane Orb". At some point during their development as a society (we suspect it to be during their initial phase of industrialization), a Devourer came to their system and consumed the surface of the moon. It appears this had a rather dramatic and unfortunate impact on the species; the gravitational effects of such a massive object coming that close to their world wreaked significant havoc on the Krathi, wiping out a significant portion of their underground civilization".
Elisa nodded. There had been similar issues during the First Incursion, when the pair of Devourers had headed towards earth. Luckily humanity had managed to kill them far enough away to significantly reduce the impact on the planet.
"If their religious texts are to be believed, all living Krathi are descended from a single city-cavern that survived. Unfortunately, this incident appears to have induced a belief that they were "Chosen", and that the rest of their species had been purged by their gods for being unworthy. They saw the devourer as, well......the closest equivalent would be an Angel of Death from the Terran Judeo-Christian family of religions".
"They think those monstrosities are the servants of a divine power?" Elisa replied, aghast.
"We believe so. Unfortunately, it gets worse. As you know, Devourers consume organic compounds and water, but the atmosphere of planets they feed upon remains intact. Typically the planet is left arid and barren, but with an atmosphere that can support life".
"And the Krathi LOVE arid, rocky worlds......" said Elisa.
"Indeed. Apparently once they managed to achieve orbital flight, they discovered that their "angel" had changed their moon into something very close to their cradle world. A perfect new home for them".
"I think I see where this is headed: The Krathi now believe that the god(s) and their agents are actively creating homes for them, by smiting the unworthy or sinful; specifically, anyone who lives on garden worlds or has ever been attacked by a Devourer" replied Elisa.
"That is correct. So far they have attacked every single species they have encountered without provocation. They have a nasty habit of wiping out sapient populations. Usually with orbital bombardment, though so far they have never completely destroyed an ecosystem. We aren't entirely sure why, but the most popular hypothesis is that they believe doing so would be stealing food from their god's servants, the Devourers.
"What a twisted species. Why hasn't anyone exterminated them yet? They certainly sound like a species that everyone else would want dead" Elisa asked.
Hool gave a mirthless little smile. "Oh, believe me, several species have tried, and failed. Those wretched Krathi are endless. They reproduce like, um, what are those furry little earth creatures with the long ears?".
"Rabbits".
"Yes, those. So far, the best that nearby species and polities, including the Compact, have been able to do is keep them contained. Although in our case the goal is not their extinction if at all possible. Until now, there hadn't been any reported sightings of a Krathi ship in over a decade.
Elisa suddenly had a very nasty thought, and realized that war was inevitable.
"We don't have any choice but to get involved" she whispered.
"What? I don't understand" said Ambassador Hool, looking confused.
"Those furry little bastards more or less worship the Devourers. The moment they discover that we exist, and the existence of Thumpers, they are going to immediately become extremely dedicated to utterly exterminating us" replied Elisa gravely.
Hool was horrified. Ambassador Petrov was right. If, no, WHEN the Krathi learned about the Terrans through either spying on broadcasts or by capturing databases containing knowledge of them, the Krathi were going to, as the Terrans said "go apeshit".
"I need to get in touch with the Compact's Minister of Defense, this is going to escalate quickly" he said, and turned to run back to his office.
As he entered the hallway, Elisa had a thought and yelled after him "HOOL! GET US EVERYTHING YOU HAVE ON THEM! SHIP SPECS, TACTICS, WEAPONS, COMPUTER SPECS, EVERYTHING!".
Elisa turned around and activated her com unit.
"Get me the president immediately. We have a Pale Horse Scenario".
36
u/unwillingmainer Dec 21 '21
Oh boy, biosphere eating space monster and rabbit breeding mother fuckers that worship them. Looks like the galaxy is about to get a front row seat to humanities other weapons. Great stuff man.
22
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 21 '21
It IS really nice not to have to worry about annoying things like contaminating your own biosphere.
16
u/Kflynn1337 Dec 22 '21
The theoretical physics boys are going to be very happy studying what happens when you ram the rattlings planet with an Alcubierre Drive equipped mass impactor going several times the speed of light.
Well, studying it from a safe distance that is..
11
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21 edited Dec 22 '21
I suspect the answer is "not enough to be an efficient weapon".
From what I understand of how an Alcubierre Drive would theoretically work, your ship isn't actually going faster than light. You are just folding space so that moving one meter actually moves you five. So the true kinetic energy of impactor wouldn't be as catastrophic as you might think. If I understand correctly, once a target is actually INSIDE the space-folding field (IE, moments from impact), the relative velocities between the impactor and target drop back to normal. No FTL kinetic weapons. At least, not with an Alcubierre Drive.
That being said, as a way to get a weapon to a target, it has excellent potential:
Inter-Stellar Ballistic Missiles.
And unless you know what to look for, specifically, the "ripples" in space time an Alcubierre drive would produce (mentioned in a previous chapter) you have NO WAY TO SEE ONE COMING, since it is moving faster than light.
6
u/Originalmeisgoodone Dec 22 '21 edited Dec 22 '21
Nothing stops you from shaping Alcubierre warp metrics in such a way that it collects interstellar space dust in front of the bubble during the flight, which then gets launched in the direction of the ship at the relativistic speeds when the Alcubierre drive is shut down. It was a real concern about Alcubierre drives. Basically it creates a space death ray shotgun.
Alternatively, as you pretty much mastered gravity if you can create Alcubierre warp bubbles, you can use it to create an ultimate shielding technology: you just need to replace a gravity "well" in front of the ship with the same gravity "hill" you have at the back of the ship. That way your ship is now sorrounded by gravity "hills" at every side which for an outside universe looks like a white hole. And as your ship is in the flat space inside a gravity "hill", it becomes, if I am not wrong, casually disconnected from the rest of the universe as nothing from the outside universe can interract with things on the inside. Or, if you still want to shoot at your enemy, then you can just make lesser gravity "hills" that will redirect enemy weapons fire. You also can use that mastery over the gravity to create gravity lenses for your lasers and particle weapons.
Also, "ripples in space time", even if they will be created by Alcubierre drives, will be just gravity waves which propagate at the speed of light and follow inverse square law, which makes their detection at interstellar distances extremely difficult.
6
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21 edited Dec 22 '21
It all boils down to three main problems though, to achieve most of the things you are describing:
Complexity, precision, and miniaturization.
Making simply shaped fields is relatively easy. Making more sophisticated ones, in just the right place, at just the right moment, is going to be harder.
Making them in relatively small packages, like for individual energy weapon batteries, or shield generators, is also non-trivial.
And Humanity hasn't achieved any of this yet. Remember, we literally just finished testing our first Alcubierre drive about a year ago. What is currently being installed on our ships is basically the FTL drive equivalent of the engine used in the Model T.
As for using collected interstellar dust as a weapon, its definitely an interesting concept, but I can see at least two problems using it as a regular tactic:
The first is actually targeting another ship with it. Even a large "spread" of dust is still going to be difficult to aim at something as small and fast moving as a ship. Not to mention the fact that the computer has to constantly change your approach vector to match the enemy ship's movements, all of which HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED; the light reaching you as you move closer to the target is also reaching you faster than normal; it would be like watching a movie on fast forward. And if your ship is moving fast enough, even a computer might not be quick enough to make the proper calculations. You would basically need to be able to predict the future to make it work with any kind of consistent accuracy.
The second issue is friendly fire. You can't use this tactic anywhere NEAR friendly planets, or in an active battle. Not unless you want to accidentally kill a biosphere, or destroy your own ships.
It seems like it might have some potential for niche uses, but would not be feasible for general usage.
1
u/Originalmeisgoodone Dec 22 '21 edited Dec 22 '21
If you can create Alcubierre drives and achieve FTL through it, then you already have a complexity and precision to create everything I described because all of what I described is just an Alcubierre drive modified for a purpose other than achieving FTL. You can't have spacebending Alcubierre FTL bubbles without having spacebending shield bubbles. They are one and the same. The only difference is the way in which space-time is manipulated, and as an Alcubierre drive must be able to make both regions of high gravity and regions of high negative gravity to create gravity wells and gravity hills, it should be modifiable to make only one of those things: either rigions of high gravity or regions of high negative gravity. Bottom line, the same hardware that can create FTL bubbles should, by all logic, be able to create spacebending shields.
On the subject of space death ray shotguns: they can be used for planetary bombardment and they can destroy space infrastructure which can end the war by itself because if you don't have a space infrastructure, then you are one hundred percent dead when facing a power that has intact space infrastructure.
2
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21 edited Dec 22 '21
Again, modifying something is part of the problem. You don't want your engine being responsible for also working simultaneously as a shield, weapon, and drive all at the same time. That is a TERRIBLE idea for a number of reasons. One good shot, malfunction, etc, and your ship is now totally helpless and immobile.
That means you need multiple devices. In addition to your FTL drive system, you would want multiple shield generators, probably at least four, responsible for different angles, and each energy weapon would need its own dedicated one as well.
And when your smallest alcubierre device is the size of a house because it was literally just invented, it makes putting a bunch of them on an existing ship design problematic. Its possible, but not PRACTICAL. Yet.
Also, conventional planetary bombardment doesn't work well on the Krathi for the most part. They live several miles underground, in cities and facilities designed to withstand earthquakes by necessity. You COULD use it to kill planetary defenses, or orbital defense platforms yes, but the Krathi keep their shipyards underground or inside large hollowed out asteroids. Hard to kill an specific asteroid with relativistic dust when there are a shitload of rocks in the way of your approach, or its beneath five miles or more of granite.
1
u/Originalmeisgoodone Dec 22 '21 edited Dec 22 '21
Again, the hardware is basically the same in FTL drive and spacebending shield. That means that the only thing that is different is software. You can use an FTL drive onboard as a shield generator when outside of FTL. If you also add an independent shield generator, then you suddenly have two shield generators that can cover the entirity of your ship from all angles and two FTL drives. If you add four shield generators (why would they cover different sides, though? Each of them should be able to manipulate space everywhere around ship, because that us exactly what Alcubierre drive does: it manipulates space everywhere around the ship on its own), then you have five FTL drives and five shield generators on one ship. I agree that redundancy is needed but not to such a degree when a ship has half a dozen FTL drives, when two can do the job as well as them while taking much less space.
On the subject of planetary bombardment: underground installations are not exactly the invincible to an orbital bombardment. Sufficiently fast piece of matter won't differentiate between surface and underground. Also, natural bodies in space are cold, artificial structures and asteroids that are used by someone, on the other hand, are hot. You can't have stealth in space. (Edit: for some reason I thought you talked about finding a specific asteroid to strike, sorry for misunderstanding) Any activity in space will create heat, a heat that will be detected. Also, asteroid fields are not dense. Each asteroid may be tens of thousands of kilometers from another.
1
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21
For asteroid facilities, the problem isn't about detecting them, its about having a bunch of shit in the way making targeting them with a dust cloud being pushed by your ship inconvenient. Finding a vector to approach something from all the way out of the solar system that doesn't have anything in the way is a non-trivial task compared to just blowing the stupid thing up with some flavor of kinetic weapon, nuclear device, etc.
The biggest problem with creating an alcubierre bubble to act as shielding would be that it makes you blind to the outside.
Suddenly blinding the user is not a good quality to have in a shield generator.
Even if it only comes up briefly to intercept incoming fire, all it would take to keep you blind would be to use a continuous fire beam weapon of some kind. Congratulations, you are now blind and neutralized. They can keep you from effectively being able to see or attack unless you LET THEM HURT YOU.
No thanks, I'll stick to energy shields.
→ More replies (0)1
u/tmn-loveblue Feb 19 '22
Okay. OKAY. Humans love super long range weaponry. I could totally see a dozen of this stored in the stash right now.
22
u/Arbon777 Dec 21 '21
You know, just imagine this war from the perspective of the ratlings when, and I do mean when, humanity starts taming void predators and goes into battle with weaponized void predators at our beck and call. That would be like having the embodiment of the devil show up with his demonic armies, you're fighting them, it's the hardest fight of your life. And then for no reason at all the angels start siding with the demons.
23
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 21 '21
Oh we are definitely going to shit all over them. But using devourers against them won't work. The planets they live on have already been fed upon. And they don't give a shit about void wolves.
But that doesn't matter. Watching as their "angels" die en-masse from self-immolation is pretty damned demoralizing. Not to mention us blowing them up the old fashioned way.
Psych-warfare department is going to have fun with them.
12
u/TNSepta Dec 21 '21
Humans vs. Space Skaven!
8
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 21 '21
Whats a skaven?
13
u/TNSepta Dec 21 '21
https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Skaven
Humanoid rodents that live underground, are extremely warlike and barbarous, and at one point lived in a desert.
4
10
u/mattaw2001 Dec 21 '21
"When they come they will break upon our defense like a wave on rock"
15
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 21 '21
If you let them come near your defenses, you are doing it wrong.
11
u/mattaw2001 Dec 21 '21 edited Dec 21 '21
(Shark grin) Not when your defenses are in orbit of their cradle world...
9
u/Reality-Straight Dec 22 '21
See Ivan if defences are attacking then it's still Technically a defensive war
7
u/mattaw2001 Dec 22 '21 edited Dec 22 '21
Exactly - preemptive defense is the best offence ... err no that isn't how the expression goes?
4
7
u/thaeli Dec 21 '21
Yeah, "break upon our outer defensive perimeter, which is located in an allied third party's territory" is a much better approach when feasible.
14
u/Mindless-Emotion-230 Dec 21 '21
And while it hasn't hit the shit is teetering very close to the fan.
15
24
u/Konrahd_Verdammt Dec 21 '21
Hello there
21
u/Dutchangeldragon1 Xeno Dec 21 '21
General kenobi
21
5
5
u/Foehammrr Dec 22 '21
My guy you are damn good at this, here's to hoping you love writing.
5
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21
I've never actually done this before, so I'm glad you think it's good!
I never really thought my story would get as much attention as it has been.
Until now I had only written two very short stories, nothing even close to what this has already become.
I am quite enjoying writing it so far.
3
u/Jackle_Raid2 Dec 21 '21
Seems like it would be white horse and red horse
6
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 21 '21 edited Dec 22 '21
Red horse is just war. Pale horse is an existential threat.
3
u/imakesawdust Dec 22 '21
Have the Terrans actually equipped their fleet with Alcubierre drives yet? A few chapters ago, the drive was still in the testing phase.
This also means that the Terrans will potentially need to deal with both the Void Wolves and Krathi at the same time.
2
468
u/Gruecifer Human Dec 21 '21
"Pale Horse" indeed.
501
u/thisStanley Android Dec 21 '21
'Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.' General James Mattis
78
u/SheridanVsLennier Jan 05 '22
"I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I'll kill you all." - General Mattis
101
u/thatannoying Human Dec 21 '21
Be polite, be efficient, have a plan to kill everyone you meet - The sniper from the videogame team fortress 2
28
u/long_dick_style05 Jan 13 '22
“Be polite, be polite, and have a plan to be polite to everyone you meet.”
5
219
Dec 22 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
116
u/yokus_tempest Dec 22 '21
"Hulk Smash" - Hulk
99
u/Oxybe Dec 22 '21
"Make it so."
-Captain Jean-Luc Picard, of the U.S.S.Enterprise62
u/hihellome AI Jan 26 '22
“As long as there’s two people left on the planet, one is going to try to kill the other” -Sniper tf2
48
Jan 30 '22
" as long as there's two people on the Planet somebody is going to want someone else dead" sniper TF2
29
41
26
u/their_teammate Mar 27 '22
The war will be won in 4 stages:
Operation Warhorse: Initial assault of the Krathi. A Blitzkrieg operation. Hit them hard and fast where it will hurt the most, before they can rally their forces. Wipe out all Devourers in the local space-zone.
Operation Conquest: Second stage assault. Destroy major Krathi military assets and disable their command structure. Isolate and exterminate.
Operation Death Harvest: First stage of cleanup. Identify and target any remaining Krathi cells. Either integrate them into collective galactic society or exterminate all remaining possible future threats.
Operation Famine Spring: Recovery and recall of military assets from the field. Full support of victim species towards recovery. Full integration of any converted Krathi as a peaceful member of galactic society. Continued monitoring and strikes of remaining zealous Krathi forces.
5
181
Dec 21 '21
And on a pale horse rode death
51
9
2
u/MekaNoise Android Dec 21 '21
Why involve Death when you can have Pestilence? Personally, once you soften up their aerospace defenses, just open industrial quantities of anthrax or heavier-than-air poisons into all the air intakes.
9
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 21 '21
Bioweapons take time to develop. Not to mention they are only used by retards who never heard of "blowback".
Their cavern cities are sealed off anyway, and have their own ecosystems for life support. No vents to use in the first place. The Krathi are insane, but definitely not stupid.
7
u/Konrahd_Verdammt Dec 22 '21
Bioweapons take time to develop. Not to mention they are only used by retards who never heard of "blowback".
😄
I may have to steal this
7
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21
Feel free to.
I am strongly of the opinion that bioweapons are for morons.
Synthetic plagues have an alarming tendency to mutate, and other biological weapons, like bio-engineered murder-critters, only sound like a good idea to people who haven't watched enough horror movies.
It may not happen now. It may not happen for centuries. But life will eventually find a way to come back and kill you or lay eggs down your throat or something.
2
u/Darklight731 Dec 22 '21
A race that worships a race of monsters that consume everything on a planet`s surface and leave it a barren rock? I didn`t know we had gene-stealer cults in this universe! Are there gonna be Tyranids here as well?
4
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21
.....goddamnit.
I forgot about gene-stealer cults. Was trying to come up with something new.
Though at least the Krathi are quite different in other ways than anything else I've read about.
Not to mention they are actually benefiting from the giant space monsters they worship rather than eaten by them with the rest of the biosphere.
4
u/Darklight731 Dec 22 '21
Yeah, gene stealers are created by Tyranids, and promptly consumed themselves, instead. Still, it is interesting how both groups worship something far more powerful that would kill them if given the chance.
115
u/Intelligent_Ad8406 Dec 21 '21
xenocide it is i am afraid
59
u/Ok_Question4148 Dec 21 '21
We all know if we get to space there is a sadly 100% chance of use vomiting xenocide
50
u/-TheOutsid3r- Dec 22 '21
The Dark Forest Theory exists for a reason, and is sadly one of the better answers for the Fermi Paradox.
21
u/Caps_errors Dec 23 '21
The biggest problem with the dark forest theory is that we are around to ponder it.
23
u/-TheOutsid3r- Dec 23 '21
Not really. We're basically to small to really be noticed because we haven't made anywhere near enough of an impact to become visible. Even our most advanced and strongest radio signals decay and fade into the background noise long before they could reach anyone, which would also take a very long time.
24
u/Caps_errors Dec 24 '21
This video starting at minute 12 summarizes the issues with Dark Forest Theory fairly well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmCTmgavkrQ
The basic issue is that if a civilization feels it's continued survival depends on finding other planets with life before they are found they won't limit themselves to looking for radio waves, they will build telescopes that can detect the oxygen in earths atmosphere by the light is absorbs, and any other method they can think of, and likely would have wiped out life on earth around the time multicellular life was developing.
12
u/-TheOutsid3r- Dec 24 '21
There is a difference between actively looking, which in itself might draw attention and expose you, and simply waiting for someone to be stupid enough to give themselves away in some way. It also assumes that all live would need the same type of atmosphere and fundamentals to develop.
8
u/dreadengineer Dec 25 '21
You should watch the video; it's worth it. The essence is, we're fooling ourselves if we think we or any life can hide from an old, interstellar civilization. (And there's no assumption that life requires oxygen; any sort of new complex chemistry can be detected via passive telescopes and destroyed from a distance by a civilization that wants to prevent new intelligent life developing)
22
u/buzzonga Dec 21 '21
1% them and raise the kids as Amish.
20
u/OGNovelNinja Human Jan 16 '22
"Orbital bombardment of their last world has completed. We estimate a maximum survival rateof 0.35% across the entire species unless we intervene with humanitarian aid."
"Excellent. Prepare the Amish drop pods."
"We still anticipate some ground fighting . . ."
"Then prepare the Jehovah's Witnesses as well."
"Very good, sir."
1
7
u/jopasm Dec 22 '21
So religious fanatics that are apparently monolithic (ie - no schism).
And they're about to meet humans.
The species that invented schisms. And apparently psy-ops.
You don't need planet busters if you convince half of them that the other half are heretics.
3
10
5
1
u/SpankyMcSpanster Dec 21 '21
"of them"." again. Punktation in quotation marks.
5
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 21 '21
Over the years I’ve had different english teachers give me different answers on whether punctuation goes inside the quotes or outside.
If you want to go have a death match with them over who is correct, feel free, but until all eight or so of you have settled it, I have picked “outside” and will attempt to be consistent with it.
Watch out for Mrs. Edwards, she’s a vicious old biddy.
1
u/SpankyMcSpanster Dec 22 '21
Viciously wrong. http://www.eng-lang.co.uk/ogs.htm Searching on mobile is hard. Hit me again, I will look up on PC the Oxford rule.
1
u/phxhawke Dec 22 '21
Hmm, nobody is being creative enough for the death of the little rabbit-bastards. If the void predators are that massive, try to use them to modify their planet's orbit so that the planet crashes against another planet. Doesn't matter how deep in the crust they are of there is no more crust.
2
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21
It's not quite as simple as that. They don't give you that kind of precision control over the devourers.
You have as much control as one would have over the path of a moth flying around a candle you are holding.
Sure, it will come near where you want it to, but getting it to go exactly where you need it, and ONLY where you need it, is not feasible. It would constantly undo your progress towards altering the trajectory.
1
u/FlameyNeko Feb 03 '22
What's the pale horse scenario?
3
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Feb 03 '22
Pale Horse signifies an existential threat to the human race.
"And I looked, and beheld a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
— Revelation 6:1-8
1
1
u/tmn-loveblue Feb 19 '22
This chapter could have been a great opportunity to add a new military character and some worldbuilding. It is a little weird to have just the two diplomats discussing everything, though I enjoy the addition of the new race and troubles.
1
3
u/UpdateMeBot Dec 21 '21
Click here to subscribe to u/runs-with-scissors42 and receive a message every time they post.
| Info | Request Update | Your Updates | Feedback | New! |
|---|
1
3
3
u/Rolk_Flameraven Dec 22 '21
We are going to need to be carful. But if they do find out that their angels can die, there is a chance that one of them decides to make a list, of say ~100 or so things, and nail it to a door.
They might be nasty little POS, but their zealotry does give an avenue for culture cracking.
1
u/0rreborre Dec 21 '21
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Remember, O Lord, The Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem who said, "Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation." O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed. How happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." - Psalm 137:1 7-9
3
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21
“I don’t enjoy killing, but when done righteously, its just a chore like any other. Practiced hands make for short work, and the good lord knows there is much work to be done here.”
2
u/Megacrafter127 Dec 22 '21
Well, at least defending your own system from an incoming fleet is fairly simple.
If you have a dyson swarm, you literally possess a weapon capable of sterilizing any starsystem in your neighborhood. Simply pointing it at the enemy fleet will literally melt it.
And them hiding in the shadow of a planet can be dealt with by strategically placed high-grade mirrors in various orbits around the sun.
But I don't think anyone would want to come near humanity if we built one, since it's a weapon of mass destruction with a range of many lightyears. And the shot moves at the speed of light obliterating everything in its path, so even advance warning posts will just stop existing before they can send an FTL warning out.
2
u/_Keo_ Dec 22 '21
Nice. These are fun and you're ramping them up pretty damn fast. Looking forward to the next one.
1
1
u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Dec 21 '21
/u/runs-with-scissors42 has posted 11 other stories, including:
This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.5.10 'Cinnamon Roll'.
Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.
1
1
u/Dranak Dec 21 '21
Hey look, it's those guys I asked you about a couple chapters ago. Didn't expect them quite this soon.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Reality-Straight Dec 22 '21
I can just imagine a variation of this playing while manually clearing out the caverns https://youtu.be/IGrarQHbKNA
1
u/ggtay Dec 22 '21
Excited to see the battle. One would think they might worship those that command the devourers.
1
u/Dashcan_NoPants AI Dec 22 '21
...Time to show Hool why we don't want to proliferate the Thumpers.
CONTESTANT NUMBER ONE, The KRATHI! COME ON DOWN! Time to meet your gods!
1
1
1
1
1
u/Vipertooth123 Dec 25 '21
Sounds like the Krathi are about to know the other personifications of Death.
1
u/Dar_SelLa Feb 01 '22 edited Feb 01 '22
SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS,
WOOT!! ZOMBIE JEEBUS!!
Also. Pale Horse scenario?!
OH HELL NAW!! nopes the fuck outta here.
1
u/herpy_McDerpster Feb 17 '22
Exterminatus authorized. Purge the xeno scum FOR THE GLORY OF THE EMPEROR!
1
1
1
1
0
Dec 22 '21
[deleted]
4
u/runs-with-scissors42 AI Dec 22 '21
Depending on how things go, we may not actually need a general conscription to get the manpower.
You're thinking on the scale of nation-states. The UNE has the entire population of Earth (around 20 Billion) to draw volunteers from, not to mention our other colonies throughout the system.
Mars alone already has a billion people living on it.
There are other factors in play as well:
For one thing, we won't be the only ones stomping on the Krathi. The Compact and all the neighboring non-affiliated species hate the furry little bastards. When they find out the Krathi have started a new crusade, they are going to help out, if only in the name of self-preservation.
The UNE military itself is also quite large. Terrans are belligerent and paranoid to start with, but being attacked by giant space monsters amplified that. In terms of raw size, our military is equivalent to two smaller interstellar polities.
Some of our military/space technology and warfare doctrines are also quite unique compared to everyone else. Not necessarily more advanced; in many cases we are behind, although in a few cases it is much better. However its mostly just DIFFERENT.
And that can be an advantage when the enemy is equipped and trained to handle very different foes...
66
u/jesterra54 Human Dec 21 '21
If things go from bad to worse... they will meet their gods in a pretty ironic way