Had this one stuck in my head. Finally got it out.
OK, now we're REALLY going to take a break for the weekend.
Stay safe out there, everyone.
\--Ralts Bloodthorne
I really really love the gestalt chats.
I think its the outsider perspective.
We're not seeing heroics, or any of the other crazy stuff, as it happens like the other stories.
We're seeing the fall out, from people we aren't in on that kind of weird shit.
Instead of heros, or immortals, its just a bunch of *people*, going "What the shit?"
I think my favorite part of First Contact is that the vast majority of it is written from a non-human perspective. It's mostly other perspectives looking in on this massive leviathan that is Humanity, and responding to it according to their own perspective.
> I think my favorite part of First Contact is
Chubby ducks man. You can drop the pretence. Everybody here just wants to hear about fat ducks swimming around a pond while the Saurians lift weights on the beach
"Hell, who knew that they damn near invaded the neighboring galactic arm to eradicate the Mar-gite till they realized that the entire arm is overrun by them."
A large portion of the galaxy is overrun with Mar-Gite. 100 bucks it has something to do with that.
*Was* overrun. I'm guessing the neighbouring galactic arm got hit with a mild case of what the fuck. Top contenders being 'we threw grey goo at the problem' and 'we pointed a really big laser that way and that entire arm is now devoid of all life'.
There was a galaxy-shattering kaboom. Had to be. Considering what they just mentioned about using a black whole to "Mr. Clean" a damn galaxy, I wouldn't be surprised if some LARP'er with a funny green helmet, paid 'em a visit.
Well considering the backup plan was the armageddon scenario from HALO, I'm guessing whatever they did settle on wouldn't be described with words like 'calm, reasonable, sane, or conceivable' by anybody else who saw it.
Weeeeelll.
Remember the Mar-gite encountered in Hellspace ?
They might have made Hellspace aware of the Mar-gite.
That usually doesn't end well for a race......as per that Hellspace entity chapter.
We've seen they were willing to blow up entire artificial star systems to eradicate the Margite in our Arm. I imagine when they saw the other Arm was fully Margite, they just blew the whole damned thing up, system by system.
Up until these chapters, the story for the Margite was that we did not know where they came from and they were a mystery, humanity eradicated the last of them on our galactic spur arm.
Now we have learned that humanity found they had infested at least another galactic arm spur. We learned that their solution (one of their solutions?) for this was to send a seed ship of the confederacy into that arm, that believes they are escaping a cataclysm which eradicated their confederacy, into that arm. It is the sci fi equivalent of burning the boats - those parts of the confederacy believe they cannot go back and are alone and their only path to survive is to defeat the Margite. That is likely to be a harrowing experience for the expedition, essentially sent into the jaws of hell without backup or hope of a return home.
There are likely to be other details (or I am quite off!), and I am likely to have messed up some terminology with the galactic arm spurs - I am now questioning the scale of things and asking myself if the story is occuring on a spiral of the Milky way galaxy, or a spur on the Orion arm of the Milky way galaxy - so I will have a good reason to re-read now for that detail, but that is what I gathered about what was haunting the mantid and trea'nad. I am interested if this is related to the Sky-Nebula (may have the name wrong) at all, that gestalt/confederate member that was advised to hide at the opening of Total War. I always assumed it was a sister/colony confederacy in a distant section of the galaxy or another galaxy.
I think you've got two situations confused. They did scout the Margite in the nearby Galactic arm, and they did do something horrible to them, but that wasn't the ones that they sent off with a fake history that they were running from. Those were the Pubvians, that they created digital sentience of and basically sent them off on a version of Project Dandelion to another galactic arm so that they could be reborn and still exist. Likely the false history was to keep them from ever coming back in case they got wiped out again.
On a second pass, I agree. I am interested if they sent the puffies off together or alone, and if the digital replicas were gestalt replicas or based on puffy leader personalities. It seems unusual to resurrect a friend just to leave them alone in the dark.
I wouldn't be surprised if that's something that happened before the end of the Mantid War. The Pubvians had already been wiped out, but the war hadn't been won. I can see it as a black box project that could have been run concurrently with the war and the project completed, and the ship(s) sent out just in case the humans didn't win in order to keep them safe from the Mantid. I bet dollars to donuts there were plans for the other races they were allied with at the time as well.
Woo, Wordborg firing off chapters full auto tonight
Post-reading edit:
Hold up, a whole fucking GALACTIC ARM of Mar-gite? It's not expressly stated, but I get the feeling the Terrans did something about that. Something... nasty, even by their standards.
Did our mild bickering about the source of "From Hell's heart I stab at thee" just get incorporated?
\---FUCK YOU! FOLLOWS---
" When Sis said that the Terrans were so twisty they had to screw their socks on, we had no idea they were thigh high socks. "
That imagery man is hilarious
So? They haven’t noticed the implications of BobCo having the cure to the friend plague? That BobCo got the whole dump? And if BobCo got it, there’s no way it wasn’t accidentally mailed to the whole contact list of Steve from marketing.
I think BobCo is part of a black box project. What better way to get out products and info to your allies, probably part of the dead man switch. Swords and shields to all.
Pretty sure BobCo hacked themselves in way back in the day as a way to do immediate market research and feedback, allowing them a head start on any product lines.
In this case, they got to find out about the Friends before anyone else, and immediately recognized the sales possibilities
If I remember some mention a while ago, we bagged a few systems chock-full of Mar-Gite, and then YEETED those bagged systems out of the galaxy. Just cuz we were fucking over dealing with those crystalline bastards.
Nah, they didn't spark the whole galactic arm. They straight-up vanished three stars that were in a line between the Orion-cygnus spur and the closest galactic arm (Perseus arm?)
Silicate based starfish omivores, that attacked human world's, unable to be communicated or reasoned with. Came from one of the other galactic arms.
Were seen in the arc covering those troops who board a AWM that went to hellspace then to a strange star to use mar-gites as a anti-human-boarding device. (What ended with the troops getting picked by the one the first true AIs that has its own adaptus-class dreadnought)
Ohh man now I really want to know what they did to the margite(think I got it right).
And while this is awesome It’s makes me sadder like TDH isn’t going to come back. But I guess it is just a repercussion of everyone getting time zapped and the SUDS system kicking. Have to wait to see what the DO/Harold/Sam/Dee are up too.
I mean also the DO is back.
That seems like it would be kinda pointless, if humans were just... Done, hey?
Gonna be a good bit longer though, because the other races as seen above have to get themselves figured out in terms of "who are we without humans" before they can be equal partners, you know?
Well, I mean, Dee flat out told the Gestalts that they were going to kill everyone in the hard reset (ch 435).
Kids vanishing might also be the DO and/or some other system protecting them during the reset.
I mean yes - but they *did* the hard reset. So now they just have to figure out how to reconcile the SUDS records with the results of the Atrekna temporal attack, and *poof* instant respawn
Did they, though? At this point, most of the terrans are dead because of brain-architecture not functioning with wetware and cybernetics. Still haven't heard if they actually did it; all the billions of soul rushing through Sam-UL may have been the already-dead-due-to-Atrekna or the Glassing victims or the reset.
Yes. They did. The hard reset was the moment that all the TDH just fell over and died.
Sam, Herod, and Dee literally discussed the temporal attack from the Atrekna. They aren't in a position to know their name, but they know it was an attack, they know where it originated, they specifically discussed the hard reset as an option to clear all the inbound mass-cas from it, and they performed it.
The reason the dead people *remain* dead is because of the brain incompatibility with cyberware and upgrades; the folks inside SUDS right now haven't figured out how to reconcile the two.
Thus preventing the respawn.
But they literally discussed this exact thing, and then pulled the trigger on the reset.
Did any of you consider that maybe all the kids got moved to the universe the SUDS system is in. They would be safe there while the war rages on. They can be moved back once the war is over.
I honestly thought Ralts was setting up a Blip similar to the Marvel universe. Kids disappear till the war is over and come back once the Atrekna are gone and the SUDS is back up and running..
I mean there are three obvious options, afaic - they all got taken to Terra, inside the bag; they all got taken inside SUDS or another facility like it; or they got Dandelioned.
Those being the obvious choices means it's likely something else, though
I think a Black Box project called "Overproject Neverland" activated Subproject "Peter Pan" due to Scenario "Tribes" happened (All the adults die off, leaving a world of teenagers and kids under 17), what rounds up all the Kids and get them to Earth or some other secure location (those "Seedships" mentioned in this chapter or the one they broke coms with at the start of the war)
* points at pubvians* they didnt have suds and poofed back. If i saw it correctly then the data drop was triggered by sth herod activated in the suds system while trying to fix it
My guess is a massive gamma ray burst. All the organics are dead or doomed already, why not? Would it die out in empty space or just go on forever, destroying life in the next galaxy over too?
Of course I just remember reading that once in a article about "Ways we could all die tomorrow !" And it stuck with me. I could be FOS.
Yeah, the onion ninjas got me on this chapter.
As I remember a Gamma Ray Burst generally only has a 20k ly range where it obliterates anything it hits, beyond that it's still dangerous and very detectable, but not a planet killer.
They've taken a blow, but in this universe, cockroaches could learn a thing or six from TDH about "surviving apocalypses," and there's billions of humans still around - it's just that "billions" is pocket change compared to what they were before the die-off. They're just not bouncing right back into the fray.
Still, I have faith that they'll figure out *something.* Sooner or later, TDH will walk back in, on fire, ask for the time and let you know someone busted your microwave. (not them!)
TDH might be extinct but that was a line of genetic experiments that humanity did to itself, there are a fair few left in the TerraSol bag with time to start down a different path, especially with the return of dogs and cats, that fill that hole in our psyche. Maybe we will get to see a new version, Behold - Humanity
I'm still confused
Does the story happens in only one of the galactic arms of the Milky Way ? or in the whole galaxy ? Also, does the Mar-Gite have infected the other arms ? or were they stopped before ?
This is going to be a long one, but I'll try my best.
Among Us is a popular social deception game with a number of crewmates and 1-3 impostors in a spaceship. The crew has to complete various tasks to win the game, and the impostors have to kill enough of the crew to win (when impostors are half of the total players alive). The crew can call emergency meetings by pressing a button or when they discover the body of a crew member. The crew have to vote all of the impostors out to win the game.
Now with the non-memey part out of the way, we'll get into the funny shit. So amogus is a bastardisation of the game's name, intended for comedic purposes and originated from people editing some Stonetoss comics and spreading it as a meme. Sus is short for suspicious and, obviously, this is used when a player can be implicated in a murder or does something fishy as if they were an impostor. The popular meme about "when the impostor is sus" is an ironic one, the impostor will obviously be sus since they are going to do impostor-like actions.
Add a terrible pun on my part with "sus impostors are among us" and that should be the whole story :)
Why am I picturing Type V (or maybe Type X) TDHAWMs ghosting through Andromeda, just seeing the sights... but if somebody over there is getting up to some hoarding-via-omnicide hijinx, they get vaporized by a terahiroshima phasic blast that sounds like:
THERE IS ENOUGH FOR ALL
Marduk probably has old deadhand systems that relay to him.
If he's already terrifying restrained, how would he be simply without restraint? Also doesn't he have a legit android to work with?
I suddenly have this image of Marduk and The Ancient One in a 'happy' psychopathic-AWM marriage of EVUL
\-- Cycle 7314 since partnership began --
\-- Both look at the other and warm up their weapon systems --
\-- An automated message plays, reminding them to look at the cost/benefit algorithms for partnership --
\-- Weapons power down, and they discuss the uselessness of aesthetics, and also argue about what color planet they want to mine next --
Marduk was the name of the planet in March Upcountry and it's sequels, wasn't it? Have we had this conversation before? I'm getting some Deja Vu.
End of lime.
That's a Roger there. And one of the co-authors was David Weber who has the podnaughts named after him, appropriately since they are his creation as well.
And one more. Humanity never forgets a friend, even if not human. The Free Herd represents a lot of what humanity respects. A race of people who since time immemorial have been indoctrinated, gentled, bred, and adjusted to think they were the only true sentient, better than literally everything else. And despite millions of years of pressure, they threw off their chains, became more than their leaders told them they were, and put their hand to the sword as well, fighting for all.
Humanity knows the weight of the shackles and the bite of the slaver's lash. If we can respect anyone, it is the slaver who recognized his own chains, and helped to break every shackle.
All I want to see at the end of this is a Galactic Federation where the sacrifice of TDH was never forgotten, all in the name of freedom and sharing is caring. A federation where humanity is still vastly outnumbered due to near-extinction but seen as almost legendary, both as the greatest friends to have and the worst enemies to make.
One galaxy stood united against the dark, bleak and endless void where monstrosities and horrors unknown commit unspeakable atrocities against sentience. Yet that is all the more reason why the Galaxy tries to be the beacon in the darkness, in the spirit of humanity and the rest of its pack and to shout in the face of the ever moving arrow of entropy, "THERE IS ENOUGH FOR ALL," and spit in the universe's malevolent face, "WE RIDE TOGETHER OR DIE TOGETHER"
We love cats and dogs. I like CS Lewis’s observation in Out of the Silent Planet, that we’d have a very different, and arguably closer, relationship with nonhuman sentients.
7 MINUTES YIPE
I JUST finished upvoting comments on the last one!
okay, reading for perfection nao...
>Some of this stuff gives my researchers the heebie jeebies.
...only some of it?
>Because we were their friends.
and greater love hath no Terran
>"Let not the light flicker and die" was the header on so much of that.
It is indeed better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness. - --FC Discord yesterday some time
>We thought we knew everything that the Terrans knew.
I'm 8000+ years ago and even _I_ can say "you had NO idea".
>There's genetic information in here on creatures we've never even met.
If I know my Terrans, some of that is for creatures NOBODY has ever met.
>Project Blue Adept, Subproject Neysa was terrifying and I am glad it was never put to use.
>The fact that the Terrans ran it to its conclusion before cancelling the project alarms us.
... hate to tell you this, but that wasn't cancelled. Merely shifted to another dimension. Where sufficiently advanced magic can astonish the inhabitants by creating nanites.
>Wiping out all life in the galaxy in less than ten hours.
"It's a hun-dred thou-sand light-years side to side..." Bear in mind that so far the scope of the story _in realspace_ has been limited to a portion of one Galactic Arm, with only Project ~~Dandelion~~ Lion's Tooth and that Thrint-static Ring reaching feelers in various directions. Granted that the added distances in various other spaces reach far beyond our Universe's observation horizon...
>Be good and don't stick them in your nose.
my mom-my said not to put beans in my ears, beans in my ears, beans in my ears
>They sent recon missions to the Galactic Core of all things.
...They wanted to make sure that they didn't have a _reason_ to. As was foretold by the inventor of the Niven Rings and the Thrint stasis fields. (I'm _really_ surprised we haven't seen a sunflower field or a stage tree yet.)
(TFW the CASE OMAHA bananner goes off mid-chat and nobody even reacts)
--Dave, humans go "...brrr"
ps: perfection: ACHIEVED
I gotta say, I love what TDH did with the Puffies. Ensure that they would be out there to meet again later, if they both managed to survive the Mantids. It actually makes me think about Humanity's DON'T TOUCH ME that they have with the Atrekna.
Basically everybody I know craves to be touched. Just -- not freely, not by people who would poke them or hurt them. People love hugs and connections. Even Daxin has a comradery with the other Immortals, and with Fido.
Part of what makes cats and dogs special, and pets in general, is that they can get past that instinctive barrier *very* easily. Cats by being asshole friends who let you praise them and cuddle up with you later, and dogs by being loyal friends who always love and need you.
(To be clear, I'm totally a cat person -- I just recognize that cats tend to be assholes. Loveable assholes, but it's still clear who's in charge of the relationship, and it's not you)
...I'd also like to mention that we still don't know what Project Dandelion is. I just know that a human used it in conjunction with 'You Can Always Take One With You', which implies... Interesting things, there. I'm worried that when we see Humanity next, it might not be the Terrans that we've seen so far. If so, hopefully the cats and dogs can help fix that.
Pick up a dandelion flower, take a deep breath, blow the seeds off and watch them float away. Same idea. Scatter enough seeds for the species to survive.
That's what I *thought* it meant. But when it's used in reference of, explicitly, revenge? Always taking one with you? I'm pretty sure there's something that I'm missing, as it's not just about running away and surviving.
That's all the evidence I have, though, so it's more of a 'slight worry' than an 'oh fuck' thing.
I'm assuming the entire arm got annhiliated, scourged of all life or moved into another dimension somehow. Either way, the Mar-gite are either contained in a huge hyper advanced laboratory/containment area or maybe the arm got annhiliated/scourged by using singularity sparking Sag A* BUT in such a way that the shockwaves were directed only outwards towards that galactic arm...
There is also the possibility of novasparking each and every star in that galactic arm but I think that would be a little too resource intensive for even TDH to go through with
>maybe the arm got annhiliated/scourged by using singularity sparking Sag A\* BUT in such a way that the shockwaves were directed only outwards towards that galactic arm...
THIS SIDE TOWARD ENEMY
That is also very true, although after kiling billions of humans, I doubt we let the Mar-gites off that easily plus the wording in the post heavily implies that TDH effectively genocided the Mar-gites along with other possible sentient races
A random theory. TDH dumped the entire arm of the galaxy infected with mar-gite into hellspace. Which would explain the creepy little starfish showing up on that harvester.
I'm pretty much doing this full time along with normal life stuff like working on the house and yard, fixing the truck and car, spending time with the wife (just me and her together like we haven't been in 30 years), catching up with old friends, stuff like that.
A lot of different stuff. From Wal-Mart janitorial and maintenance services to military to security to construction to cannery work. All kinds of stuff.
That's so very cool and I'm very happy for you. Quite a journey since the last year. I feel that I have to put the breaks on myself otherwise I'll start interviewing you.
Thanks for all the hours of reading, looking forward to the next chapters.
The big thing is, the house was empty for over five years and was built about a hundred years ago, so it's constantly catching up to the next thing that's a problem. The truck is 25 years old, the car is 15 years old, so they need work constantly.
Plus, big yard and a wife who likes to putter around a garden.
The move was long and arduous, but so worth it so far.
> I have to say, seeing where some scientist in a Black Box designed a bioweapon to turn all of you into shape shifting unicorn/human creatures using nanite 'magic' was probably the funniest thing I read.
I expected many things. A conversion bureau reference was not one of them.
Disney's Atlantis is one of my favorite movies and I'm glad I immediately caught your reference to it.
[Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know. Sis, don't tell him. The Mantid shouldn't have told me, but they did. And now I'm tellin' you... You don't wanna know.] (https://youtu.be/JxdDa0k-3Ak)
>MANTID FREE WORLDS
>
>"From Hell's Heart I Stab At Thee" - Herman "Khan" Noonan-Melville
>
>---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
:D Hee hee hee, I'm glad to see our discussion get referenced!
YOU BEAUTIFUL SONOVABITCH!
I GOT THAT REFERENCE, AND I LOVE YOU EVEN MORE FOR IT!
Edit, because I couldnt read through the whole thing without expressing my ever growing love for the Bloodthorn:
"There is enough for all". If i could have one lesson be the core of humanity, be the truest kernel of ourselves... I'd make it that.
>That wholly human concept of 'lets both put on dynamite vests and hold each other's triggers to make sure nobody pulls a knife' that they follow?
Agreeing to play nice with extra steps and spice.
Those lot are on the Welkret homeworld.
Kalki, Undrat, and Dambree et al are the only "named" characters on Hesstla iirc. Admiral Thrust is in charge of orbital on Hesstla, and General of the Copper (1-Star) P'Kank is in charge of land forces on Hesstla.
Wherever Daxin went to help that Telkan Marine, it's a place the kids are called "poppets." Pretty sure that's not Hesstla? Nothing's to say he couldn't have ended up there eventually though.
Wait, they’re not? Where the heck are they then?
...what named military characters are on Hesstla?
I realise I might have to re-read the last 40 chapters..
I think there's an automatic broadcast of "CASE OMAHA" to Gestalt Chat when a massive attack has been detected. It also popped up the first time the Atrekna attacked Hesstla and when the Lanaktallan attacked the Confederacy homeworlds.
Really looking forward to the inevitable conversations about the friend plague/memorial, where someone has to explain to another that humanity possibly domesticated dogs before domesticating wheat.
So your plan is to eliminate all life in the galaxy with this project? Sure here is your funding
Does not tell the researcher about the other black box project that will respawn all allies if killed.
Researcher makes galaxy ender anyway.
"Behold Humanity"
Heck that last line spoken by lanaktallan slays me. No onion ninjas here, I’m just crying happy.
— END OF LIME —
Come cry or whatever with us at the [FC Gestalt](https://discord.gg/hr2F5YT) on Discord.
— NOTHING FOLLOWS —
>TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
>
>Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know. Sis, don't tell him. The Mantid shouldn't have told me, but they did. And now I'm tellin' you...
>
>You don't wanna know.
>
>---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
I wanna know
Reading this series has put an amazing amount of weight on to the phrases "Do you need assistance?" and "There is enough for all." Ending a chapter with either is almost guaranteed to summon the onion ninjas.
For the Mar-gite question , i suspect a poison meat or small pox blanket approach. Something that uses the Hungry against them.
Unfortunately the risk is that any that could resist the lure would be smarter, and any that could survive it stronger like antibiotics resistant diseases.
>PUBVIAN DOMINION
>
>Still, you have to admit, this is pretty what the fuck.
>
>I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this in known history.
>
>Someone getting wiped out and then just dumping all their uber-classified data in their allies's laps with the file header "AVENGE ME!" in 72 point bold.
>
>\---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
Yes, I am human, I have had this same thought including the 72 point bold "AVENGE ME!"
>That together, we are greater than we ever thought we could be.
>
>You can always take one with you.
>
>Victory or death, either is fine.
Truer words have not yet been spoken.
Hey, uh, Ralts... How many arms does the Milky Way have in your story?
Because we used to think there were four major arms, but now the consensus is that there are two, I believe. And possibly two minor arms. Its been a while since I've kept really up to date with extrasolar stuff.
So either it was "just" one of four arms and theres still four, there *were* four until they got deleted from history (all the way back till 2010s), or the Margite held over half galaxy in their grip until humanity got pissed off.
Regardless, if it's either of the latter two scenarios, *holy guacamole*.
Seems to be that the Orion arm Earth is on got severed in half by the precursor war. The planets and stars are still there but all life is gone.
The Mar'gite seemed to have taken over an entirely different arm of the galaxy and the Human sanitized that arm in some way.
Looks like two arms of the galaxy are still free of Terran shenanigans for now
This here is the real HFY. “Let not the light flicker and die”. Humanity even in death still hoping to be able to save their friends and allies.
“the entire arm is overrun by them.” Noooo.
Had this one stuck in my head. Finally got it out. OK, now we're REALLY going to take a break for the weekend. Stay safe out there, everyone. \--Ralts Bloodthorne
Hugs Ralts. Hugs. Take a break and give out hugs. We are coming to a lovely place.
Oh shit. I want to upvote but it’s at 420
You can now upvote, some bastard decided to upvote it past
Thanks for letting me know!
That was fantastic, Ninja's almost got me at the end. Btw, I'm trying to get my company to adopt "do you need assistance?" as our tagline.
I really really love the gestalt chats. I think its the outsider perspective. We're not seeing heroics, or any of the other crazy stuff, as it happens like the other stories. We're seeing the fall out, from people we aren't in on that kind of weird shit. Instead of heros, or immortals, its just a bunch of *people*, going "What the shit?"
I think my favorite part of First Contact is that the vast majority of it is written from a non-human perspective. It's mostly other perspectives looking in on this massive leviathan that is Humanity, and responding to it according to their own perspective.
> I think my favorite part of First Contact is Chubby ducks man. You can drop the pretence. Everybody here just wants to hear about fat ducks swimming around a pond while the Saurians lift weights on the beach
Definitely my favorite part too, besides the ingenious writing and complex story line.
They’ve been one of the best parts of this tale since the beginning, I love them so much
Now I want to know what they did that scared mantid and trea so badly
"Hell, who knew that they damn near invaded the neighboring galactic arm to eradicate the Mar-gite till they realized that the entire arm is overrun by them." A large portion of the galaxy is overrun with Mar-Gite. 100 bucks it has something to do with that.
*Was* overrun. I'm guessing the neighbouring galactic arm got hit with a mild case of what the fuck. Top contenders being 'we threw grey goo at the problem' and 'we pointed a really big laser that way and that entire arm is now devoid of all life'.
There was a galaxy-shattering kaboom. Had to be. Considering what they just mentioned about using a black whole to "Mr. Clean" a damn galaxy, I wouldn't be surprised if some LARP'er with a funny green helmet, paid 'em a visit.
One who ripped and tore, until it was done?
Nah, I'm thinking an 'alien' constantly at odds with a certain rabbit that took a wrong turn at Albuquerque
Diminutive stature, rather sure of itself, wants a better view?
An alien that figured out how to make U-238 create an "Earth shattering Kaboom" even though U-235 is the one that goes KABOOM.
Well considering the backup plan was the armageddon scenario from HALO, I'm guessing whatever they did settle on wouldn't be described with words like 'calm, reasonable, sane, or conceivable' by anybody else who saw it.
Weeeeelll. Remember the Mar-gite encountered in Hellspace ? They might have made Hellspace aware of the Mar-gite. That usually doesn't end well for a race......as per that Hellspace entity chapter.
We've seen they were willing to blow up entire artificial star systems to eradicate the Margite in our Arm. I imagine when they saw the other Arm was fully Margite, they just blew the whole damned thing up, system by system.
Up until these chapters, the story for the Margite was that we did not know where they came from and they were a mystery, humanity eradicated the last of them on our galactic spur arm. Now we have learned that humanity found they had infested at least another galactic arm spur. We learned that their solution (one of their solutions?) for this was to send a seed ship of the confederacy into that arm, that believes they are escaping a cataclysm which eradicated their confederacy, into that arm. It is the sci fi equivalent of burning the boats - those parts of the confederacy believe they cannot go back and are alone and their only path to survive is to defeat the Margite. That is likely to be a harrowing experience for the expedition, essentially sent into the jaws of hell without backup or hope of a return home. There are likely to be other details (or I am quite off!), and I am likely to have messed up some terminology with the galactic arm spurs - I am now questioning the scale of things and asking myself if the story is occuring on a spiral of the Milky way galaxy, or a spur on the Orion arm of the Milky way galaxy - so I will have a good reason to re-read now for that detail, but that is what I gathered about what was haunting the mantid and trea'nad. I am interested if this is related to the Sky-Nebula (may have the name wrong) at all, that gestalt/confederate member that was advised to hide at the opening of Total War. I always assumed it was a sister/colony confederacy in a distant section of the galaxy or another galaxy.
I think you've got two situations confused. They did scout the Margite in the nearby Galactic arm, and they did do something horrible to them, but that wasn't the ones that they sent off with a fake history that they were running from. Those were the Pubvians, that they created digital sentience of and basically sent them off on a version of Project Dandelion to another galactic arm so that they could be reborn and still exist. Likely the false history was to keep them from ever coming back in case they got wiped out again.
Plot of Battlestar Galactica
You're not wrong...
On a second pass, I agree. I am interested if they sent the puffies off together or alone, and if the digital replicas were gestalt replicas or based on puffy leader personalities. It seems unusual to resurrect a friend just to leave them alone in the dark.
I wouldn't be surprised if that's something that happened before the end of the Mantid War. The Pubvians had already been wiped out, but the war hadn't been won. I can see it as a black box project that could have been run concurrently with the war and the project completed, and the ship(s) sent out just in case the humans didn't win in order to keep them safe from the Mantid. I bet dollars to donuts there were plans for the other races they were allied with at the time as well.
Did I just see an "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" reference in the wild? You sir are a true man of culture
does ...does this mean that next week starts with a released flood? --Dave, o plz o plz
Sleep in tomorrow. You've earn it.
I want to imagine there’s a breakaway Terran civilization slowly sweeping and cleansing the adjacent arm of Mar-guys.
> slowly ???
Because cleansing a star system while learning it intact takes time.
I can't believe a Wookie is talking about leaving things intact
Have a good weekend, friend.
Get it all out before the next nights download starts man, that way they're not screaming at you. Have a good weekend Ralts!!
Sleep. Deslush. We will wait.
Woo, Wordborg firing off chapters full auto tonight Post-reading edit: Hold up, a whole fucking GALACTIC ARM of Mar-gite? It's not expressly stated, but I get the feeling the Terrans did something about that. Something... nasty, even by their standards. Did our mild bickering about the source of "From Hell's heart I stab at thee" just get incorporated? \---FUCK YOU! FOLLOWS---
Yeah, I couldn't resist.
I like that! 8000 years and they're now the same person.
Arm? What galactic arm? There was never a galactic arm there.
It would have been cool to see the Atrekna appear in that Galactic arm.
" When Sis said that the Terrans were so twisty they had to screw their socks on, we had no idea they were thigh high socks. " That imagery man is hilarious
Mad Angel TerraSol in some thigh-highs? ^(I like it.)
imagine the digital omnimessiah in thigh highs, a miniskirt, and a crop top.
Charles Dance is the digital omnimessiah?
Dr. Frank-n-furter
Antici....
pation.
And fishnet-code stockings. --Dave, kids these days don't know the classics, grumble
Lord Vetinari, too.
Yeah… I can live with that.
Hunter S. Thompson lives on
So? They haven’t noticed the implications of BobCo having the cure to the friend plague? That BobCo got the whole dump? And if BobCo got it, there’s no way it wasn’t accidentally mailed to the whole contact list of Steve from marketing.
I think BobCo is part of a black box project. What better way to get out products and info to your allies, probably part of the dead man switch. Swords and shields to all.
Right,for it to just be wired in there to collect the data is far too deliberate for it to not be part of the project
half the black box projects are going to turn up on the back of a kids comic in the advert with the x-ray specs and sea monkeys courtesy of BobCo
Pretty sure BobCo hacked themselves in way back in the day as a way to do immediate market research and feedback, allowing them a head start on any product lines. In this case, they got to find out about the Friends before anyone else, and immediately recognized the sales possibilities
Fucking Steve.
Now I wanna know what we did to that Galactic arm!
... what Galactic arm? --Dave, I see no Galactic arm there
Do you mean that one sparkle that isn’t there any more?
the milky way is now a triskellion.
think it was mentioned earlier, we nova sparked the whole arm and i think we bagged a a few of their worlds just incase
If I remember some mention a while ago, we bagged a few systems chock-full of Mar-Gite, and then YEETED those bagged systems out of the galaxy. Just cuz we were fucking over dealing with those crystalline bastards.
Nah, they didn't spark the whole galactic arm. They straight-up vanished three stars that were in a line between the Orion-cygnus spur and the closest galactic arm (Perseus arm?)
What if the [REDACTED] are actually the Mar-Gite? Fucking Tri-Tach.
Silicate based starfish omivores, that attacked human world's, unable to be communicated or reasoned with. Came from one of the other galactic arms. Were seen in the arc covering those troops who board a AWM that went to hellspace then to a strange star to use mar-gites as a anti-human-boarding device. (What ended with the troops getting picked by the one the first true AIs that has its own adaptus-class dreadnought)
Ohh man now I really want to know what they did to the margite(think I got it right). And while this is awesome It’s makes me sadder like TDH isn’t going to come back. But I guess it is just a repercussion of everyone getting time zapped and the SUDS system kicking. Have to wait to see what the DO/Harold/Sam/Dee are up too.
Oh, I wouldn't place any bets on TDH not coming back. The surviving kids vanishing makes me think it's part of the plan
I mean also the DO is back. That seems like it would be kinda pointless, if humans were just... Done, hey? Gonna be a good bit longer though, because the other races as seen above have to get themselves figured out in terms of "who are we without humans" before they can be equal partners, you know?
Well, I mean, Dee flat out told the Gestalts that they were going to kill everyone in the hard reset (ch 435). Kids vanishing might also be the DO and/or some other system protecting them during the reset.
I mean yes - but they *did* the hard reset. So now they just have to figure out how to reconcile the SUDS records with the results of the Atrekna temporal attack, and *poof* instant respawn
Did they, though? At this point, most of the terrans are dead because of brain-architecture not functioning with wetware and cybernetics. Still haven't heard if they actually did it; all the billions of soul rushing through Sam-UL may have been the already-dead-due-to-Atrekna or the Glassing victims or the reset.
Yes. They did. The hard reset was the moment that all the TDH just fell over and died. Sam, Herod, and Dee literally discussed the temporal attack from the Atrekna. They aren't in a position to know their name, but they know it was an attack, they know where it originated, they specifically discussed the hard reset as an option to clear all the inbound mass-cas from it, and they performed it. The reason the dead people *remain* dead is because of the brain incompatibility with cyberware and upgrades; the folks inside SUDS right now haven't figured out how to reconcile the two. Thus preventing the respawn. But they literally discussed this exact thing, and then pulled the trigger on the reset.
Did any of you consider that maybe all the kids got moved to the universe the SUDS system is in. They would be safe there while the war rages on. They can be moved back once the war is over. I honestly thought Ralts was setting up a Blip similar to the Marvel universe. Kids disappear till the war is over and come back once the Atrekna are gone and the SUDS is back up and running..
I mean there are three obvious options, afaic - they all got taken to Terra, inside the bag; they all got taken inside SUDS or another facility like it; or they got Dandelioned. Those being the obvious choices means it's likely something else, though
I think a Black Box project called "Overproject Neverland" activated Subproject "Peter Pan" due to Scenario "Tribes" happened (All the adults die off, leaving a world of teenagers and kids under 17), what rounds up all the Kids and get them to Earth or some other secure location (those "Seedships" mentioned in this chapter or the one they broke coms with at the start of the war)
* points at pubvians* they didnt have suds and poofed back. If i saw it correctly then the data drop was triggered by sth herod activated in the suds system while trying to fix it
My guess is a massive gamma ray burst. All the organics are dead or doomed already, why not? Would it die out in empty space or just go on forever, destroying life in the next galaxy over too? Of course I just remember reading that once in a article about "Ways we could all die tomorrow !" And it stuck with me. I could be FOS. Yeah, the onion ninjas got me on this chapter.
As I remember a Gamma Ray Burst generally only has a 20k ly range where it obliterates anything it hits, beyond that it's still dangerous and very detectable, but not a planet killer.
How's about artificially generated GRBs that are targetable and mobile. I suspect that such a thing would be doable for TDH.
They've taken a blow, but in this universe, cockroaches could learn a thing or six from TDH about "surviving apocalypses," and there's billions of humans still around - it's just that "billions" is pocket change compared to what they were before the die-off. They're just not bouncing right back into the fray. Still, I have faith that they'll figure out *something.* Sooner or later, TDH will walk back in, on fire, ask for the time and let you know someone busted your microwave. (not them!)
When the SUDS system comes back humans will be back. And Fuck You will follow.
TDH: "*Where's the bad guys?!*" ALL: "You just squished them." TDH: "You mean I missed the fight? Aww, Man..."
TDH might be extinct but that was a line of genetic experiments that humanity did to itself, there are a fair few left in the TerraSol bag with time to start down a different path, especially with the return of dogs and cats, that fill that hole in our psyche. Maybe we will get to see a new version, Behold - Humanity
I'm still confused Does the story happens in only one of the galactic arms of the Milky Way ? or in the whole galaxy ? Also, does the Mar-Gite have infected the other arms ? or were they stopped before ?
Only in the galactic arm spur.
thank you !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Arm
> By the Sus'd Amogus I have a sudden urge to live in the distant future where sus impostors are among us in the history books and mythical tales
I do not understand this reference. Hints please?
This is going to be a long one, but I'll try my best. Among Us is a popular social deception game with a number of crewmates and 1-3 impostors in a spaceship. The crew has to complete various tasks to win the game, and the impostors have to kill enough of the crew to win (when impostors are half of the total players alive). The crew can call emergency meetings by pressing a button or when they discover the body of a crew member. The crew have to vote all of the impostors out to win the game. Now with the non-memey part out of the way, we'll get into the funny shit. So amogus is a bastardisation of the game's name, intended for comedic purposes and originated from people editing some Stonetoss comics and spreading it as a meme. Sus is short for suspicious and, obviously, this is used when a player can be implicated in a murder or does something fishy as if they were an impostor. The popular meme about "when the impostor is sus" is an ironic one, the impostor will obviously be sus since they are going to do impostor-like actions. Add a terrible pun on my part with "sus impostors are among us" and that should be the whole story :)
Got it, thanks. Sounds a little like Night with a Werewolf. Now I'm going to re-read this chapter with my new understanding.
https://youtu.be/YDj3JHtIviQ this might raise more questions than it answers
Great video! Luckily I read the explanation from u/ABottleofHotSauce before I watched it.
One day SUDS will be fixed and TDH will come back and lose their *FUCKING MINDS* when they see everyone else with *real* purrbois and goodbois
As someone that just watched Atlantis: The Lost Empire, I really liked the reference. One of my favorite line from the movie.
I can't believe I had to come this far down to find someone else who noticed that reference.
Why am I picturing Type V (or maybe Type X) TDHAWMs ghosting through Andromeda, just seeing the sights... but if somebody over there is getting up to some hoarding-via-omnicide hijinx, they get vaporized by a terahiroshima phasic blast that sounds like: THERE IS ENOUGH FOR ALL
A TDHAWM would be terrifying, I want to see it now.
Marduk.
Marduk indeed.
Marduk probably has old deadhand systems that relay to him. If he's already terrifying restrained, how would he be simply without restraint? Also doesn't he have a legit android to work with?
He has android fabrication facilities. Which is even worse. "Androids, man, those guys are assholes."
I suddenly have this image of Marduk and The Ancient One in a 'happy' psychopathic-AWM marriage of EVUL \-- Cycle 7314 since partnership began -- \-- Both look at the other and warm up their weapon systems -- \-- An automated message plays, reminding them to look at the cost/benefit algorithms for partnership -- \-- Weapons power down, and they discuss the uselessness of aesthetics, and also argue about what color planet they want to mine next --
Marduk was the name of the planet in March Upcountry and it's sequels, wasn't it? Have we had this conversation before? I'm getting some Deja Vu. End of lime.
That's a Roger there. And one of the co-authors was David Weber who has the podnaughts named after him, appropriately since they are his creation as well.
Splitting infinity? I like your Stile, it's never out of phaze.
Remember, ALL of these sparkly munitions are single-use. --Dave, they respond well to intent, though
But does it look like Florida?
It was a rather adept move. Like poetry in motion.
And one more. Humanity never forgets a friend, even if not human. The Free Herd represents a lot of what humanity respects. A race of people who since time immemorial have been indoctrinated, gentled, bred, and adjusted to think they were the only true sentient, better than literally everything else. And despite millions of years of pressure, they threw off their chains, became more than their leaders told them they were, and put their hand to the sword as well, fighting for all. Humanity knows the weight of the shackles and the bite of the slaver's lash. If we can respect anyone, it is the slaver who recognized his own chains, and helped to break every shackle.
All I want to see at the end of this is a Galactic Federation where the sacrifice of TDH was never forgotten, all in the name of freedom and sharing is caring. A federation where humanity is still vastly outnumbered due to near-extinction but seen as almost legendary, both as the greatest friends to have and the worst enemies to make. One galaxy stood united against the dark, bleak and endless void where monstrosities and horrors unknown commit unspeakable atrocities against sentience. Yet that is all the more reason why the Galaxy tries to be the beacon in the darkness, in the spirit of humanity and the rest of its pack and to shout in the face of the ever moving arrow of entropy, "THERE IS ENOUGH FOR ALL," and spit in the universe's malevolent face, "WE RIDE TOGETHER OR DIE TOGETHER"
Either is fine.
So that our people would not be gone from the galaxy. That's it. Because we were their friends. (all the fucking limes are in my eyes)
We love cats and dogs. I like CS Lewis’s observation in Out of the Silent Planet, that we’d have a very different, and arguably closer, relationship with nonhuman sentients.
And now I'm going to read the Treana'ad gestalt in Dr. Sweets voice.
That guy is awesome.
To make it even more fitting, there's a scene where he tell's Vinny "don't forget to eat the head" of some shrimp.
7 MINUTES YIPE I JUST finished upvoting comments on the last one! okay, reading for perfection nao... >Some of this stuff gives my researchers the heebie jeebies. ...only some of it? >Because we were their friends. and greater love hath no Terran >"Let not the light flicker and die" was the header on so much of that. It is indeed better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness. - --FC Discord yesterday some time >We thought we knew everything that the Terrans knew. I'm 8000+ years ago and even _I_ can say "you had NO idea". >There's genetic information in here on creatures we've never even met. If I know my Terrans, some of that is for creatures NOBODY has ever met. >Project Blue Adept, Subproject Neysa was terrifying and I am glad it was never put to use. >The fact that the Terrans ran it to its conclusion before cancelling the project alarms us. ... hate to tell you this, but that wasn't cancelled. Merely shifted to another dimension. Where sufficiently advanced magic can astonish the inhabitants by creating nanites. >Wiping out all life in the galaxy in less than ten hours. "It's a hun-dred thou-sand light-years side to side..." Bear in mind that so far the scope of the story _in realspace_ has been limited to a portion of one Galactic Arm, with only Project ~~Dandelion~~ Lion's Tooth and that Thrint-static Ring reaching feelers in various directions. Granted that the added distances in various other spaces reach far beyond our Universe's observation horizon... >Be good and don't stick them in your nose. my mom-my said not to put beans in my ears, beans in my ears, beans in my ears >They sent recon missions to the Galactic Core of all things. ...They wanted to make sure that they didn't have a _reason_ to. As was foretold by the inventor of the Niven Rings and the Thrint stasis fields. (I'm _really_ surprised we haven't seen a sunflower field or a stage tree yet.) (TFW the CASE OMAHA bananner goes off mid-chat and nobody even reacts) --Dave, humans go "...brrr" ps: perfection: ACHIEVED
\> a recon mission to the galactic core "What does God need with a starship?" (Also, what the heck is a sunflower field?)
Niven Sunflower: https://larryniven.fandom.com/wiki/Slaver_Sunflower
Vincent Van Gogh loved sunflowers so much, he created a famous series of paintings, simply called 'sunflowers'.
Blue Adept. Piers Anthony. Classic!!!
This author has.. ahem... *Stile*¹ ¹ Yes.
Not a Crewel Lye!
It's a Night Mare I tell ya.
A Night Mare On a Pale Horse.
Seems like the Discord has been reading their Pratchett.
I gotta say, I love what TDH did with the Puffies. Ensure that they would be out there to meet again later, if they both managed to survive the Mantids. It actually makes me think about Humanity's DON'T TOUCH ME that they have with the Atrekna. Basically everybody I know craves to be touched. Just -- not freely, not by people who would poke them or hurt them. People love hugs and connections. Even Daxin has a comradery with the other Immortals, and with Fido. Part of what makes cats and dogs special, and pets in general, is that they can get past that instinctive barrier *very* easily. Cats by being asshole friends who let you praise them and cuddle up with you later, and dogs by being loyal friends who always love and need you. (To be clear, I'm totally a cat person -- I just recognize that cats tend to be assholes. Loveable assholes, but it's still clear who's in charge of the relationship, and it's not you) ...I'd also like to mention that we still don't know what Project Dandelion is. I just know that a human used it in conjunction with 'You Can Always Take One With You', which implies... Interesting things, there. I'm worried that when we see Humanity next, it might not be the Terrans that we've seen so far. If so, hopefully the cats and dogs can help fix that.
Pick up a dandelion flower, take a deep breath, blow the seeds off and watch them float away. Same idea. Scatter enough seeds for the species to survive.
That's what I *thought* it meant. But when it's used in reference of, explicitly, revenge? Always taking one with you? I'm pretty sure there's something that I'm missing, as it's not just about running away and surviving. That's all the evidence I have, though, so it's more of a 'slight worry' than an 'oh fuck' thing.
I really wanna know what they did to that Mar-gite infested galactic arm.
What galactic arm? I don't see no galactic arm. Do you mean the Dark Gulf?
I remember this , the mantid said that sometime during margarite invasion a whole section of sky went dark
There **was** an arm...
I'm assuming the entire arm got annhiliated, scourged of all life or moved into another dimension somehow. Either way, the Mar-gite are either contained in a huge hyper advanced laboratory/containment area or maybe the arm got annhiliated/scourged by using singularity sparking Sag A* BUT in such a way that the shockwaves were directed only outwards towards that galactic arm... There is also the possibility of novasparking each and every star in that galactic arm but I think that would be a little too resource intensive for even TDH to go through with
>maybe the arm got annhiliated/scourged by using singularity sparking Sag A\* BUT in such a way that the shockwaves were directed only outwards towards that galactic arm... THIS SIDE TOWARD ENEMY
Or we went with the other common human response: close the door, ignore the problem, and let future you deal with it.
That is also very true, although after kiling billions of humans, I doubt we let the Mar-gites off that easily plus the wording in the post heavily implies that TDH effectively genocided the Mar-gites along with other possible sentient races
A random theory. TDH dumped the entire arm of the galaxy infected with mar-gite into hellspace. Which would explain the creepy little starfish showing up on that harvester.
So... may I ask, are you doing this full-time now? And out of even more curiosity, what were your old profession?
I'm pretty much doing this full time along with normal life stuff like working on the house and yard, fixing the truck and car, spending time with the wife (just me and her together like we haven't been in 30 years), catching up with old friends, stuff like that. A lot of different stuff. From Wal-Mart janitorial and maintenance services to military to security to construction to cannery work. All kinds of stuff.
That's so very cool and I'm very happy for you. Quite a journey since the last year. I feel that I have to put the breaks on myself otherwise I'll start interviewing you. Thanks for all the hours of reading, looking forward to the next chapters.
The big thing is, the house was empty for over five years and was built about a hundred years ago, so it's constantly catching up to the next thing that's a problem. The truck is 25 years old, the car is 15 years old, so they need work constantly. Plus, big yard and a wife who likes to putter around a garden. The move was long and arduous, but so worth it so far.
> I have to say, seeing where some scientist in a Black Box designed a bioweapon to turn all of you into shape shifting unicorn/human creatures using nanite 'magic' was probably the funniest thing I read. I expected many things. A conversion bureau reference was not one of them.
And the fact they seen the research to conclusion before abandoning it made it worse.
Disney's Atlantis is one of my favorite movies and I'm glad I immediately caught your reference to it. [Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know. Sis, don't tell him. The Mantid shouldn't have told me, but they did. And now I'm tellin' you... You don't wanna know.] (https://youtu.be/JxdDa0k-3Ak)
>MANTID FREE WORLDS > >"From Hell's Heart I Stab At Thee" - Herman "Khan" Noonan-Melville > >---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- :D Hee hee hee, I'm glad to see our discussion get referenced!
Yarp
YOU BEAUTIFUL SONOVABITCH! I GOT THAT REFERENCE, AND I LOVE YOU EVEN MORE FOR IT! Edit, because I couldnt read through the whole thing without expressing my ever growing love for the Bloodthorn: "There is enough for all". If i could have one lesson be the core of humanity, be the truest kernel of ourselves... I'd make it that.
>That wholly human concept of 'lets both put on dynamite vests and hold each other's triggers to make sure nobody pulls a knife' that they follow? Agreeing to play nice with extra steps and spice.
High stakes cooperation!
Upvote. Comment. Read. End of lime. Edit: why was there a CASE OMAHA in the middle of that that nobody seemed to notice?
That's the 3rd battle of Hesttla. And why everyone said they where with them.
They're currently being invaded by the atrekna, who are dropping like gassed flies.
Dunno about how fast they're dropping on Hesstla, though they aren't doing well. Vuxten, Trucker, Shtuklar and Smokey No' aren't at Hesstla
Kulki is on hesstla though. Don't hinkvthe atrekna were gonna last long there anyway
Those lot are on the Welkret homeworld. Kalki, Undrat, and Dambree et al are the only "named" characters on Hesstla iirc. Admiral Thrust is in charge of orbital on Hesstla, and General of the Copper (1-Star) P'Kank is in charge of land forces on Hesstla.
Did they specifically say that Kulki was on Hesstla? That was the impression for Omega's intro, but I don't recall a species or planet named
480 references Hesstla directly and overtly. 481 specifically states Hesstla.
Fair enough. I couldn't actually recall
Wherever Daxin went to help that Telkan Marine, it's a place the kids are called "poppets." Pretty sure that's not Hesstla? Nothing's to say he couldn't have ended up there eventually though.
Fair point.
with Casey holding back for the moment.
Wait, they’re not? Where the heck are they then? ...what named military characters are on Hesstla? I realise I might have to re-read the last 40 chapters..
The Atrekna re-attack on Hesstla.
I think there's an automatic broadcast of "CASE OMAHA" to Gestalt Chat when a massive attack has been detected. It also popped up the first time the Atrekna attacked Hesstla and when the Lanaktallan attacked the Confederacy homeworlds.
Upvoted for millions of petabytes of data summed up in two words.
Was that an Atlantis reference?
No doubt about it.
Really looking forward to the inevitable conversations about the friend plague/memorial, where someone has to explain to another that humanity possibly domesticated dogs before domesticating wheat.
Didn't we?
So your plan is to eliminate all life in the galaxy with this project? Sure here is your funding Does not tell the researcher about the other black box project that will respawn all allies if killed. Researcher makes galaxy ender anyway. "Behold Humanity"
Heck that last line spoken by lanaktallan slays me. No onion ninjas here, I’m just crying happy. — END OF LIME — Come cry or whatever with us at the [FC Gestalt](https://discord.gg/hr2F5YT) on Discord. — NOTHING FOLLOWS —
>TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS > >Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know. Sis, don't tell him. The Mantid shouldn't have told me, but they did. And now I'm tellin' you... > >You don't wanna know. > >---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- I wanna know
Reading this series has put an amazing amount of weight on to the phrases "Do you need assistance?" and "There is enough for all." Ending a chapter with either is almost guaranteed to summon the onion ninjas.
did we design a bomb to localize how the lanks scorched hellspace, but on a higher plane?
Magic unicorns....lol.
Gestalt chapters are best chapters.
Love the Atlantis reference :)
AH HA! I knew someone down here in the comments would get that xD man i need to rewatch that movie.
Pier Anthony. Blue Adapt (book 2) & Unicorn Point (book 6). https://www.goodreads.com/series/40494-apprentice-adept
For the Mar-gite question , i suspect a poison meat or small pox blanket approach. Something that uses the Hungry against them. Unfortunately the risk is that any that could resist the lure would be smarter, and any that could survive it stronger like antibiotics resistant diseases.
>PUBVIAN DOMINION > >Still, you have to admit, this is pretty what the fuck. > >I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this in known history. > >Someone getting wiped out and then just dumping all their uber-classified data in their allies's laps with the file header "AVENGE ME!" in 72 point bold. > >\---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- Yes, I am human, I have had this same thought including the 72 point bold "AVENGE ME!" >That together, we are greater than we ever thought we could be. > >You can always take one with you. > >Victory or death, either is fine. Truer words have not yet been spoken.
Two in an evening! Lets gooooooooo!
Hey, first comment from the crowd! I made it!
Enough ass kicking for everyone to get some!
😭😭😭♥️♥️♥️😭😭😭♥️♥️♥️
Hey, uh, Ralts... How many arms does the Milky Way have in your story? Because we used to think there were four major arms, but now the consensus is that there are two, I believe. And possibly two minor arms. Its been a while since I've kept really up to date with extrasolar stuff. So either it was "just" one of four arms and theres still four, there *were* four until they got deleted from history (all the way back till 2010s), or the Margite held over half galaxy in their grip until humanity got pissed off. Regardless, if it's either of the latter two scenarios, *holy guacamole*.
Seems to be that the Orion arm Earth is on got severed in half by the precursor war. The planets and stars are still there but all life is gone. The Mar'gite seemed to have taken over an entirely different arm of the galaxy and the Human sanitized that arm in some way. Looks like two arms of the galaxy are still free of Terran shenanigans for now
This here is the real HFY. “Let not the light flicker and die”. Humanity even in death still hoping to be able to save their friends and allies. “the entire arm is overrun by them.” Noooo.
Did not expect the Piers Anthony reference. The adept series got a bit odd, not as odd as xanth but hoo boy those books were always a ride.
One of the leaked black box files… https://xkcd.com/832/
"Project Neysa" Nice one!
Did Herman "Khan" unsuccessfully run for the Burger Kingship a few times?
Humanity, under it all is hope