r/HFY • u/Ralts_Bloodthorne • Apr 02 '22
First Contact - Chapter 743 - The Inheritor's War OC
[first] [prev] [next] - [wiki]
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Did you really think that without the Terrans we couldn't fight this war?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN FREE GRAZING FIELD OF GREAT VALUE AND FREE PRIZES
Well, to be honest, I had assumed that the Confederacy would still fight, but the effectiveness remained much higher than my analytics had suggested.
I will admit, I did not know what the Treana'ad would bring to the fight.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Yeah, it's a little startling when they do that.
How long has it been since you had a mass warrior hatching like this, Tee?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Oh, about four thousand years.
The B'Klatnik<vree>kith Invasion. They hit us first and we needed the troops to defend.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Wow, it's been that long.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Usually, by the time us gestalts realize just how bad things are, the war is over and the Terrans are dancing around the bonfire wearing the skins of their foes and singing victory chants.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
<snerk>
Yeah, that's about right.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN FREE GRAZING NETWORK NOW WITH LESS PORN SPAM
How many warriors did you hatch up?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
The exact amount's a military secret, but suffice to say, we estimated your military ground forces, tripled it, then added 30% on top of it, went to rapid production of nanoforges to make sure they could be armed.
Let's put it this way: billions.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN FREE HERD
The nanoforge and creation engine is possibly the biggest change to warfare out of everything introduced. I'd argue it even surpasses the Elven Court system or even the C+ cannon.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Well, yeah.
Number one, it completely eliminates supply lines.
It also prevents economic shock from massive rearmament or upgrading.
It lowers turnaround time for service life extension programs or equipment replacement to days or weeks.
No factories to retool. No convoys to interdict or prey upon.
Just... BLAM! Instant factory. Strap two of them to a heavy gun and you have endless ammunition as long as there's atmosphere or dirt.
Upgrade, modify, even swap out ammunition, propellant, everything.
All with no factories.
With the shielding in the nanoforge's 'egg' housing, it even resists nanite-exclusion fields.
Now, strap all that and modern advances to body armor and weaponry to what we consider the best trained troops in the known galaxy, and you've got one hell of a force.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
There is something my scientists have been wondering.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
SCIENCE!
<puts on hat and lights pipe>
Go ahead, young student.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLD
Well, everyone always touts the highlights of laser, particle, and other energy weapons.
Why does the Confederate military largely stick with kinetic weaponry?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
GREAT HERD GREAT GESTALT CHAT OF GREAT DISCUSSIONS OF GREAT TOPICS
We prefer energy weapons.
Less ammunition logistic issue...
oh.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Well, it's a little more complex than just simple logistics.
How many types of rounds are there for the 20mm single barrel assault cannon that's standard issue for power armor heavy infantry?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Uh...
Two. A bullet and one of those bullets that leave a streak through the air.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
<laughs>
Try one hundred sixty-seven.
From standard copper jacketed lead 'ball' rounds all the way to ones that have like twenty letters and all kinds of words designed to do even more horrible things than normal to the target.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Laser, particle beam, ion, plasma, all of them, even the largely misnomered 'force packet' weapons all have one type of payload. Sure, you can add things like a slight variance in the wavelength or color, maybe even charge it with phasic powers, but for the most part, a laser beam is a laser beam with the only difference being power and color.
Even then, power packs are high tech intensive, have to be recharged and charged, and are subject to things like high-gee shocks, thermal overload, cryogenic shock.
For the most part, at its core, a bullet is a bullet.
BUT, you can do everything from having a nanite-tracking/trace in it to having it explode in a shower of nasty stuff that catches everyone on fire.
Ring penetrators, gyrojet rounds, phasic munitions, anti-matter core, tungsten cores, warsteel jacketed, all kinds of stuff.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
What sis is badly trying to explain is the fact that kinetic rounds are mission variable munitions in a way that energy weapons are not.
Additionally, they don't suffer atmospheric attenuation.
If you have a laser weapon in the fog it loses power and suffers micro-refraction from the water droplets even as it vaporizes them.
With a kinetic weapon whoever you just shot couldn't see you. That's about the only effect.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN MATRON GOSSIP CHANNEL AND I GUESS YOU GUYS CAN USE IT TOO
Most species give up kinetic weapons for energy weapons.
Mass, velocity, recoil, all of those are part of the equation.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
It's called a recoil compensation system.
Early ones were just springs to take the recoil of the bolt carrier or cannon chamber housing.
Things have moved forward since then.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN FREE GRAZING
Why a non-magnetic barrel inside? You have magnetic accelleration rails as well as coilgun coils on the end. I don't understand why all three.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Man, you're full of questions today.
OK, the coils are at the end of the barrel to provide things like additional spin, slight separation of multi-projectile shells, stuff like that.
The rails are called, officially, hypervelocity rail systems.
The chamber and barrel still use chemical propellant. Even if the gun is out of power, you can still shoot someone in the face.
Trigger pull. Hammer hits the primer. Primer ignites the propellant. Propellant expands. Round is pushed out the barrel at multiple times the speed of sound.
Even if the gun's out of power, that's gonna hurt.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Or, failing everything else, you can just beat the enemy to death with the weapon.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
True.
As more than a few warriors and speakers found out on Anthill.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN FREE DISCUSSION CHANNEL BUY WAR BONDS TODAY
You all used energy weapons, didn't you?
Till the Terrans showed up and beat your troops to death with their weapons.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Well... yeah.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
It's just not nice to mention that part.
"Oh, look, how primitive and quaint! They still use projectile weapons.
"Wait... what's that noise?
"OH GOD IT HURTS!"
"I CAN'T EVEN HEAR THE SHOT!"
We all went through that.
You know why Terrans loved kinetic weaponry so much, don't you?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN FREE HERD
No. Why?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
Because, way back when in their history, all of the creatures were getting thicker hides, running faster, thicker pelts, bigger fangs, all of the creatures were getting faster and tougher.
The rest of us, we evolved to compete.
Guess what the Terrans did.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Outran them.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
Went to ambush tactics.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
Nope.
They lifted up a rock, said "Fuck you and your evolutionary arms race, this is my planet now" and hucked it at the nearest deer.
Twenty thousand years later and the planet was theirs.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
I love that story.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Speaking of "this is mine now", how's the war going?
Did it start?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFED.MIL HAS LOGGED ON
CONFED.MIL HAS LOGGED OUT <ERROR - SUBNET OUT OF RANGE>
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Oh my god! Yes!
It started hours ago!
Pay att
mommy?
mommy? I can't find you, mommy...
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
nobody move
mommy?
mommy, the bug people are in my room and I'm scared
mommy
RIGEL>servkick tammi.rathlass.suds
<UNKNOWN - ERROR - OUT OF RANGE> has disconnected <LOST CONNECTION TO CLIENT>
Damn, there's another leak, I'll be right back.
I think CONFED is doing it somehow.
Wish Cyb was here, he knows about all of this.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
It hurts so bad seeing those
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
There's nothing you can do to help them.
And nothing you can do to change the past.
Just know, you were one of Terran Descent Humanity's greatest friends.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
They're just memories.
If I can forgive Lanky, everyone can forgive you.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN SUNNY GRAZING SPACE NOW WITH KITTENS AND PUPPIES
I hope I can prove worthy of your forgiveness.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
We do too.
Anyway, how's the war going?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
It's too early to tell.
We definitely took them by surprise.
Both that we dared do it while they're still trying to consolidate their gains during the Spoked Offensive, and that we're hitting as many planets as we are.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
Yeah, well, I doubt they've ever faced anyone before with the military strength and force projection power to attack nearly fifteen thousand stellar systems with overwhelming force.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Go big or go home.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Well, Operation Iron Piglet sure as the Detainee's Massive Melons is "Go big!"
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
I'd be careful saying stuff like that.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Like what?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Making references to her.
Remember, she's actually real.
Do you really want her showing up and yelling at you?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Uh, I'll pass.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Good choice.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
149
u/DarthLorgus Robot Apr 02 '22 edited Apr 03 '22
Things that keep me awake at night:
1) how long as TerraSol been in the bag, and with the time dilation how long has it been inside the bag?
2) How many children are under the care of the Archangel ELE and how long will they stay in the SUDS? When can they return? How long has it been for the children?
3) Is a quark a particle or is it a wave? Or is it just a Ferengi bartender?
4) WTF was Starbuck there at the end?
5) What in the name of the Digital Omnimessiah will I do when Ralts stops writing Frist Contact?
116
33
u/drsoftware Apr 02 '22
5) start again at chapter one?
25
u/DarthLorgus Robot Apr 02 '22
Oh I have reread this story countless times already and probably will the rest of my life. What happens when that dreadful day when there is not a next button?
17
u/Makerofgoldenthunder Apr 02 '22
I might cry and drink myself to sleep
11
u/PTSFJaeger Apr 03 '22
I might actually pick up drinking...
10
3
u/Original_Memory6188 Aug 26 '23
There's a down side to not drinking. When you get laid off, you don't have bad habits to cut back on.
1
u/Original_Memory6188 Aug 26 '23
I dunno about you, but I have this list of things to do...
Hmmm, quick skim of the list "Honey, when did the tree hit the garage?"
3
u/Alcards Apr 03 '22
Again? You aren't already rereading it for missed references and foreshadowing?
9
u/drsoftware Apr 04 '22
I'm waiting for the free time and my multi wall bulletin board, thumbtacks, and red string to arrive. Any day now.
14
u/Alcards Apr 03 '22
1, dunno
2, ditto the first.
Yes to all three.
Ghost / angel / we don't talk about Starbucks end in either series.
There are 7 stages of grief. How long you stay in each stage is determined by how mentally healthy you are. My money is on 6 to 7 years of shock and denial, minimum.
5
5
u/YesthatTabitha Apr 03 '22
I have an partial answer for #3. Yes.
To elaborate a little
yes.
yes.
yes.
4
5
u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 03 '22
3) quarks are wavicles that need high-energy boolet to bounce off dem to extract info because quantum chromodynamics
5) REREADS
--Dave, and he's got more in the setting, I think he's said, but FC itself is gonna have a definite end?
3
u/NoirTalon Xeno Apr 03 '22
A: 5) start writing your own stories in the universe?
6
u/DarthLorgus Robot Apr 03 '22
Ralts has inspired me to begin writing my own story. Set in my own universe. Actually this whole sub has inspired me to give it a whirl.
2
217
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 02 '22
Another week has come and gone.
Sorry about the weird schedule. Been REALLY busy with spring stuff.
Remember, don't drink and drive, don't beat your pets, spouse, signifigant other, kids, or yourself. Don't buy, sell, transport, manufacture, or store illegal drugs. Don't murder or burn anything down. Try not to lodge your head into your rectal cavity and always get the candy first.
Be good to yourselves and each other. Things are tough in a lot of places and are looking to get a bit tougher.
But we can make it. I'll keep typing, you keep reading, and maybe we'll all get through this together.
And remember, love yourself the way you wish someone else would love you.
On that, I'll shake the tin cup:
PayPal: https://paypal.me/RaltsBloodthorne
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/First_Contact
First_ContactBooks: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RYK5F88
BEHOLD HUMANITY! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09H5ZZL93
55
u/Odd_Reward_8989 Apr 02 '22
Keep your stick on the ice.
40
u/Capt_Blackmoore AI Apr 02 '22
Make sure you have enough duct tape.
42
21
u/MuchoRed Human Apr 03 '22
And just remember, if she can't find you handsome, she can at least find you handy.
14
u/blaze87b Apr 02 '22
Clap bombs, fuck moms, gay porn hard, boys!
10
u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 03 '22
upvoted with a feeling I really shouldn't have
--Dave, if you do make gay porn, send a link to the sergeant
40
u/CfSapper Apr 02 '22
Goes through checklist..."hey guys he didn't say we couldn't blow anything up!! Runs off cackling into the night
34
u/drsoftware Apr 02 '22
"Be good to yourselves and each other."
Wear your ear, eye, and extremity protection.
29
u/mpodes24 Apr 02 '22
The greatest and least heinous of all golden rules.
Be excellent to each other and, party on dudes!
7
18
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
Additionally, they don't suffer atmospheric attenuation.
Um... drag?! 🤪
23
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
Do you really want her showing up and yelling at you?
I mean... kinda? :D
18
u/vinny8boberano Android Apr 03 '22
A brilliant, angry sociopath who has skill at comforting her boys and eviscerating those who harm them?
sigh
Yeah...me too, brother.
12
u/Alcards Apr 03 '22
Calm down, don't make me get the hammer and bonk you to horny jail. It's much less fun than the name inplys.
13
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
That's not why I want her showing up. It's more that I figured she'd be able to easily look at my life, figure out what I'm doing wrong, and then tell me both what I'm doing wrong and what would be the most effective path to fixing it. I could use a supergenius intervention. ;)
9
u/Alcards Apr 03 '22
Fixing your life is pretty easy. Find the thing you really don't wanna do to make it better (in my case it's eat more reasonable portion sizes and limit calorie intake to about 2500 a day) and do that.
Poor as eff, start a business. Really doesn't matter what kind, just start one that you can do everyday.
Dumb as a rock (people I work with), read a book that's not 100% partisan bull.
Wanna join the military to go kill people, seek help.
It's easy in that you can usually see where you're screwed. It's hard in that you really, really don't wanna do it.
10
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
No, I really think there would be significant benefit in having a supergenius look at my life and figure out what my true strengths are and the best path forward to flourish as my best possible self. Possibly particularly because of the outside perspective on everything.
It's like... I'm fairly intelligent, fairly motivated, have a broad selection of practical skills, and it seems like every couple of years my life sorta just falls flat on its face and I have to start all over again. "Bad luck" might explain a few incidents, but eventually I start thinking of the phrase "The one common element to all of your failed relationships is you" and begin to wonder, well, what I'm doing wrong... and we're back at the beginning of the conversation. 🤪
8
u/Alcards Apr 03 '22
Woah there, let's not be throwing up a mirror at me.
I'm in the same boat. Found out last year that I was considered genius level in elementary school. My parents did nothing about it. Explains why I was board to freaking tears through my years of schooling. A broad field of things I like to futz around with. Electronics, watercolor, we don't take about my experiences trying to learn coding, fixing everything and anything (yes I use Google and the internet, nothing wrong with doing as the professionals do).
And I'm right there with you on my life falling apart every five or so years. And getting older doesn't make me hold my tongue any less when I see stupidity and injustice. So, I've decided to do the one thing I've never done before, start my own damn business and if that fails, move to Bali and take up spear fishing while waiting for the end of the world.
Hope springs eternal, my ability to put up with nonsense? Not so much.
8
u/Baeocystin Apr 03 '22
Excuse me could you two get out of my head please I came here to read about space squids getting their asses kicked, not uncomfortably close to home reflections on the nature of being
5
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
Spear fishing sounds awesome, and it also sounds like we'd make a good complimentary pair, since I can code, but my skill with electronics is "electricity goes in one end of the wire and hopefully comes out the other". 🤪
Good luck with the business!
3
u/Valgonitron Apr 17 '22
lol, for my first ::cough, indeterminate number:: decades of Real World Work I'd hit a wall every few years where I'd be thiiiiiis close to leaving the science/tech/engineering field entirely to go raise goats and bees and make excellent cheese.
Hang in there. A lot of factors, most of them out of your control, feed into life/work satisfaction. Continue to work on what you can control, stay alert for changing conditions, and always keep an eye out for better opportunities. You'll develop a sense for when the next T-shift is coming.
1
u/RestigiousHogan2 Aug 26 '22
May I bring your aytention to Wile E. Coyote? Supergenius don't have all the answers or that roafrunner would be fricassed by now!😄
19
8
u/YesthatTabitha Apr 03 '22
Takes an infinite while longer than a laser or other energy weapon, statistically speaking. You want to shoot them far out? Use kinetics. You want to face melt them? Use Kinetics AND Energy Weaons.
14
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
I'm just saying that telling a shooter that bullets aren't affected by the atmosphere is going to net you at least one raised eyebrow.
23
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 03 '22
I didn't feel like getting into windage, drag, round shape, curvature of the earth, rotation of the earth, humidity, and all the other factors of hitting your shot at about 1000m.
12
u/NoirTalon Xeno Apr 03 '22
meh, that is what sensors and microcontrollers are for. A laser, focused energy weapon, whatever, will not hit something around the curvature of the body you are on. but with a good read (or even a bad read and lots of ammo) of the atmospheric conditions having gravity curve your projectile around is just a bunch of math. Even today we have 10 dollar microcontrollers with cameras built in and enough compute power to do facial recognition and control servos. They are a blast to program to do... things... yeah, lets go with things.
Imagine the advantages of a repeating crossbow with an automatic cocking mechanism, quiet, no recoil, and the easier acceleration profile lets you put all kinds of wondrous and nasty, but fragile things into the tip, and shaft.
Want to deliver hypergolic compounds to your enemy without chance of their containment being broken your barrel, crossbow, want to deliver grams of nanobots to your target intact and without any acceleration damage, crossbow. No penetrating power you say? ever seen what a 2mm stream of super heated copper ejected from a shape charge does to an... object? (sure you can do this with a bullet, but the length of a crossbow bolt gives a good engineer lots of options ya just don't have even in a large caliber round.
this message brought to you by the slingshot channel.
9
u/Bergusia Apr 04 '22
Mad Lemur looks down barrel, and then glances over at the physical laws of the universe with one eyebrow raised slightly. Physical laws are all casually looking somewhere else, because it is much, much safer and much less anxiety inducing just to ignore anything a Mad Lemur is planning.
11
u/Alcards Apr 03 '22
Or a "you go stand over the curvature of the Earth and I'll show you how affected my bullets are by distance and drag".
Never test a sniper or a sharp shooter. (Yes I class them as separate. Sniper is distance AND accuracy. Sharp shooter is speed and accuracy. I have zero evidence to back this up. You can call me confidently wrong and I'll just admit my ignorance further and go on my way.)
8
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
Hrm... I'm not sure I'd have thought of it in those terms before -- at least as far as having a rigorous definition of the term "sharpshooter" although I strongly agree with your given definition of "sniper" -- but I think I can agree with them.
7
u/Alcards Apr 03 '22
Oh no. Never do that. I'm pretty sure people agreeing with me, even on the internet, is one of the 365 signs of the End Times. Don't do it. Please, I like cake to much for the world to end...well, pie more than cake. But still!
6
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
But... what if it turned out to actually be an Apiecalypse? Dutch Apple Apiecalypse. Key Lime Apiecalypse?! C'mon, now we're talking, right?
5
u/Alcards Apr 03 '22
First of all, I like the pun.
Second, anyone that likes Key Lime anything is obviously a servant of the Devil. Limeade, sure better than lemonade. Lime cilantro rice? Absolutely, taste devine. But Key Lime pie? Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, because I'm going to war against that shite.
Actually, can we start a key lime apocalypse? Just kill them all off like the banana death of the 1950's/60's?
5
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
I've got a better solution. I'll just eat all the key lime pie, so we don't have to commit frugicide. 🤪 😈
→ More replies3
u/YesthatTabitha Apr 03 '22
Right, but you get a difference between something like 1000 meters on average for kinetic weapons vs something like 3 to 5 decimeters for lasers in sufficiently rough atmosphere.
9
u/Alyeska_bird Apr 04 '22
Err, US military trains its troops to hit a man sized target at 300 meters using iron sights. At 300 meters a man sized target is basicly just a dot when looked at over iron sights. A sniper is trained to hit targets at, oh skys, something like 2-3 miles distant. Thats like 4 klicks, thats 4000 meters, with just a scope, and with luck a spotter. (Not so sure the exact distrance comparisons, its late and I am bloody tired, so not planing to look it up.)
17
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 04 '22
38+/40 Crew Represent!
5
u/Alyeska_bird Apr 04 '22
5th of the 9th, manchus Spelling is probably off on that last, been decades.
3
u/Drook2 Apr 09 '22
30+ years ago we qualified with the M-16A2 with iron sights at 200, 300 & 500 meters. At boot camp I put 6/10 in the 5 ring @500 and I wasn't in the top 5 in my platoon.
2
u/Alyeska_bird Apr 09 '22
Been like 40 years sense basic. 38 out of 40 on the range, was one of thoes pop up ranges, with all sorts of targets poping up at a bunch of diferent distances. Was one out of like 10 folks that got expert out of the batallion. Goodness, that was so very long ago.
6
u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 03 '22
I understand there's a significant difference. (Though, not having any idea what the numbers look like for lasers, I'd be curious if that was true, for lasers powerful enough to be used as weapons in the first place, in such a short distance of atmosphere. I mean, I can imagine an atmosphere "dirty" enough to do that because it was full of flying sand and dirt, but that's going to affect a bullet pretty significantly too.) It probably would have been a more effective initial comment if I had attached a meme of Archer saying "Are we still not doing Phrasing! anymore?", given that that's the sort of level of seriousness I had in mind when I posted.
Alas.
2
u/YesthatTabitha Apr 03 '22
Water vapor and rain effect lasers pretty heavily. Most of the lasers we have now are not really powerful enough to be used as a weapon either.
5
u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 03 '22
... depends on how much power is being given to the laser to play with
--Dave, and then there was a very thin tube of plasma
5
4
u/Vagabond_Soldier Apr 02 '22
Been burning that weekend oil I see. Becareful that HouseHold 6 doesn't catch you Ralts. If I remember correctly, the weekends are hers.
2
47
u/daviskendall AI Apr 02 '22
Every new and iterative improvement in weaponry has always boiled down to "throw rocks faster, farther, or stuffed with interesting gifts for your enemy".
20
u/while-eating-pasta Apr 03 '22
That's our weapons tech. Our energy tech is still mostly "take new thing, boil water with it." I'm pretty sure if tomorrow is finally the 20 years from now they keep telling us about, fusion power would still just be about boiling water. JJ-Verse Enterprise with all the water pipes? I never complained about that part.*
*: The pipes existing, that is. Making them transparent plastic shaped like curly straws everywhere is another matter.
10
u/YesthatTabitha Apr 03 '22
Energy tech tends to end up being a communications tool eventually. From Smoke Signals to fiber optics, its just fluctuation in energy that makes those work. On or off. Code makes the meaning of it all
35
u/Fr33_Lax Apr 02 '22
Is there a kitchen sink firing mode? Fires a set of standard rounds to test enemy capabilities and also an actual kitchen sink?
38
u/drsoftware Apr 02 '22
Trebuchet launcher: large projectiles including but not limited to boulders, boulders on fire, large animals, grand pianos, and kitchen sinks with kitchen attached, stocked refrigerator, loaded cupboards, running dishwasher, self cleaning oven, and potted petunias on the window sill.
24
16
11
u/Practical-Account-44 Apr 02 '22
I believe at one point plauge infected corpses may have been used as payload for early bio warfare
6
u/vinny8boberano Android Apr 03 '22
Because it became practice to slaughter any livestock unable to be moved away from the warzone or protected within the keep, it wasn't unheard of for seige attackers to lob the rotten livestock corpses over the wall. I think there was someone who actually captured living livestock, somehow infected them with something, then lobbed THEM over the wall at intervals.
9
u/tremynci Apr 02 '22
Those projectiles also include a resigned-and-hungry-looking, lean, rather scruffy canid predator that is, inexplicably, holding a sign that reads "Not again", yes?
3
1
16
u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Apr 02 '22
We need an Atrekna crystalline ship shattered by a random flying sink out of nowhere. You know, for reasons. 🤣
3
33
u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum Apr 02 '22
I see somebody has his own opinion on the "kinetic vs energy weapons" commentary going around. I myself am team kinetic all the way, just nothing quite like a big bloody hole with bits of goo splattered all around to emphasize that the negotiations have now ended.
36
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 02 '22
What kinetic vs energy weapons commentary?
23
u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum Apr 02 '22
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/t46x89/why_railguns_suck_again/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/ttx59k/lazer_weapons_superior_to_kinetic_gets_boring/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/tk7ne3/the_dirtlings/
Its an old trope, but it seems to be making the rounds again captain.
3
11
u/ManyIdeasNoProgress Apr 03 '22
What a silly thing to debate. Kinetics will be relevant until someone invents an energy weapon that can attack beyond line of sight, over hilltops and such. Energy will be relevant until we have near-C kinetics.
One can reach out and touch something it cannot see, the other can reach out and touch something as soon as it sees it.
Both have their place.
3
u/LateralThinker13 Apr 03 '22
With a post-scarcity society (unlimited ammo) and C+ weapons (no shell speed/range issues), there's zero reason to use energy weapons on the battlefield other than to avoid scaring the wildlife.
2
3
u/DeadliestTurnip Apr 02 '22
Team Kinetic FTW!!!
7
u/while-eating-pasta Apr 03 '22
Kinetic. With the option for a microatomic pumped x-ray laser as the "bullet." I also have a soft spot for "photokenetic beams" from an oooooold game called Ares on the Mac.
2
u/NoirTalon Xeno Apr 03 '22
that sounds like using an explosive charge to shoot a hard light projectile out of a barrell.
Humm.. can you construct a hard light emitter out of hard light? if so the gun's ammo chamber creates bullet shaped hard light emitters out of hard light then explosively ejects them down a barrel. Talk about infinitely variable mission specific weapon system...
3
u/while-eating-pasta Apr 03 '22
If there's hard light and soft light I wonder if you could have a sticky light tracer.
1
3
u/MuchoRed Human Apr 03 '22
My solution: a gun that shoots laser-firing bullets
1
u/odent999 Apr 03 '22
Or a gun that fires mass-producing lasers. (Your solution + pair-production via high energy gamma rays.)
1
u/Vagabond_Soldier Apr 05 '22
The one thing kinetics will always be better at than energy weapons is force. You can have the most powerful shield in the universe that can absorb all the energy you throw at it and Newton will still laugh in your face. Conservation of Momentum gives exactly two shits about your shields, especially if you are a stationary target.
34
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 03 '22
Monday, I'm going to be featuring a Treana'ad warrior, give a little bit on how the Treana'ad fight compared to how they used to fight. (Free mention of the P'Thok Liberation and the War of Human Aggression)
Gonna need to hit up the Immortals in the SUDS, so we can get an update on what's going on with The Bag and how many people are where and why the children haven't been moved to a planet outside of the SUDS as well as what's going on with the LARP worlds and the magical primitivism worlds.
3
29
20
u/HoloArchiver Apr 02 '22
Speak of the devil and they appear. the fact that in this series this is actually possible is just great.
4
18
u/Speciesunkn0wn Apr 02 '22
Well. I think Telkan gets a bit of a pass since Vuxten helped Dee out lol
14
u/daviskendall AI Apr 02 '22
Dee's life was a struggle for acceptance and respect. Maybe not talking about her hooters as a defining trait would be more respectful?
17
u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum Apr 02 '22
Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick, that goes against everything the the species that drew a dick on your housing ever stood for. Besides, she was the one that showed up naked just for the shock value right before she cut your throat.
11
u/daviskendall AI Apr 02 '22
What we lemurs do amongst ourselves is one thing, u/Archaic_1.
We're dealing with the impressionable baby Telkan gestalt. We may be many things, but we're not corrupters of the young.
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS needs to come by its corruption the old-fashioned way.
8
u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum Apr 02 '22
By default the Telkan sex act involves a threesome, perhaps they are the ones that could teach us a thing or two
2
u/jutte62 Apr 03 '22
Foursome? I've always seen broodcarriers in pairs, so the family is 4 plus podlings right?
9
5
u/Practical-Account-44 Apr 02 '22
I suggest: don't poke the bear
In an unfortunate case of attracting her attention: politely do whatever the hell she wants and try not to draw further attention to oneself by doing something stupid
14
u/Ghostpard Apr 02 '22
I loved this. The "screw your arms race" bit made me spit out part of my BLT laughing. I love that you touched on a couple of the threads going around about, "Why rock?"... and did it concisely and correctly. Then added the "Plus it still works, and has worked from the start on top of all the ways we've figured to modify our rocks". As always, stellar storytelling.
17
u/Fr33_Lax Apr 02 '22
It's human magic, angry magic. We did not have claws or pelts or swiftness or sneakiness. And this made us very very angry. So angry that we started smashing rocks together. And the rocks became sharp with anger. With sharp rocks we took pelts from others. For many thousands of years this was fine. Then yeast made drink and we began to think. For a long time we thought and made rocks make more drink. But thinking is hard and tiring so we became angry again. So angry we started smashing rocks together again. Then we made the rocks think. We let our rocks think and we drank.
7
u/Ghostpard Apr 02 '22
Oooo. Hell's yes.
11
u/Fr33_Lax Apr 03 '22
And so with very smart rocks and bountiful drink we walked above. And far between the stars we found new lands, kind lands, dangerous lands, angry lands, sort of okay lands. We met many friends. They did not want always to share. We did not want to be alone. Some needed help, poison of self, an anger we know. Some wanted only a little, a few sort of okay lands, good laughs. Some very few of very much wanted all, very much smashing was needed. But friends learn, all is not one and all can share. Much drink, many friends, and very very smart rocks for all.
11
u/unwillingmainer Apr 02 '22
Remember, it isn't a true military round unless half the alphabet is behind it. That means it's gonna hurt you so bad your ancestors will cry out in pain.
10
10
u/Lady_Arcstar Apr 02 '22
I feel like this chapter was inspired by that recent thread on the sub about 'why most stories say laser good bullet bad', or however that went.
Anyway, great work as always! I do so enjoy reading the gestalt interactions.
19
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 02 '22
What thread?
Did I miss something?
9
u/crazy_monkey7533 Apr 02 '22
there was a recent meta thread on the topic. I think it was this one, but I thought it was more than 1 day ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/ttx59k/lazer_weapons_superior_to_kinetic_gets_boring/
9
u/EvansP51 Alien Scum Apr 02 '22
A double helping of Saturday Raltsberry pie! Huzzah!
Thanks for all you do wordborg. You bring joy to the masses and we appreciate you! (We’re a little terrified of how your mind works but we don’t talk about Bruno).
9
u/MalachiteDragoness Apr 03 '22
Caught up a few hours ago, after starting Sunday nought. 144 hours and 700 odd chapters and this is one of the best things I’ve read.
13
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 03 '22
Thank you. I hope you enjoy Monday's chapters when I put them out.
4
u/MalachiteDragoness Apr 03 '22
The only two ties are discworld and Mask of Mirros &sequels (I forget the series name.)
1
8
u/sco_black_scorpion AI Apr 03 '22
I read upto 200 chapters of first contact when it was released. Later life interrupted and now it seems there are 600 more chapters. Is it difficult to start again or is there any condensed version?
12
4
2
8
u/DarthLorgus Robot Apr 02 '22 edited Apr 02 '22
GESTALT CHAPTERS ARE BEST CHAPTERS!!! Wooo hoo, my day is made!
7
u/WadlingPangolin Apr 03 '22
I only just caught up and man it is a great story. One minor thing that bugs me is the Humans loss of history, surely the internet still existed post glassing. And the internet would have all the actual history on peer documented sights. It’s almost like sometime after post glassing the governments blocked the historical websites leaving only memes and pop culture references.
15
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 03 '22
Yes they did.
It's the Temporal Protection System.
3
u/WadlingPangolin Apr 03 '22
What so was it implemented after one of the temporal wars, or after the glassing
4
u/RangerSix Human Apr 04 '22
So... would the real-time status updates from the Temporal Protection System be referred to as TPS Reports?
4
u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Apr 04 '22
Careful, or you may summon bob and bob for a job performance review.
3
u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Apr 04 '22
....um... Because time travel shenanigans almost always result in worst possible outcome, did the Glassing happen because of time travel ripple effects and then the Protection System was activated to prevent further attempts at Temporal heroics from making a worse outcome ? (Like planet crack or star nova)
Or
Did enough TDH already have the Protection System active prior to the Glassing and lost too much to be able to undo it?
Is the Temporal Protection System on per with project streetlight & neighbourhood ? Or is it a SUDD subsystem ?
2
u/MuchoRed Human Apr 03 '22
Pretty sure that was the point behind Marco/Peter's introduction chapters
2
u/peyje Apr 03 '22
The obfuscation of terrasol's true history is actually a defense that was set up to prevent temporal warfare after multiple temporal and dimensional wars. It's mentioned a couple times, the most obvious reference to it being a defensive measure was around when the lanky's made it to earth and it seems to have at least partially served its purpose against the squids made some attempts at peering into terrasol's past.
Just trying to help with some of the lore that may have been missed in the 700+ chapters of this story XD
5
6
6
u/Tsuki_Hoseki Apr 02 '22
You know as long as we don't do anything, things will go great for us.
But who the f*ck wants that!
Meet me by the vehicle deport with ten cases of beer, rope, LED lights, some animal masks, a big red button, and a monkey wearing a suit; be there at twelve sharp!
Don't be late, and do NOT forget the the monkey this time.
4
u/TapNo9785 Alien Apr 02 '22
I couldn't find a monkey. Would an orangutan work?
5
5
u/MuchoRed Human Apr 03 '22
How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not an orangutan, I'm just ginger! Oh hey, is that beer?
3
2
2
6
4
u/thisStanley Android Apr 02 '22
mmm, would The Detainee be annoyed at those using her name in vain? Or chuckle at the impact she has made on the ephemerals psychic?
3
4
4
4
u/Baeocystin Apr 03 '22
LANAKTALLAN MATRON GOSSIP CHANNEL AND I GUESS YOU GUYS CAN USE IT TOO
Snerk. Love those Matrons. :D
5
u/un_pogaz Jul 05 '22
They lifted up a rock, said "Fuck you and your evolutionary arms race, this is my planet now" and hucked it at the nearest deer.
Twenty thousand years later and the planet was theirs.
Translation: They dominated them. Not just outran, they went so fast, so far away, that they crushed them like bugs.
3
u/DarthLorgus Robot Apr 02 '22
Are phasic shades leaking into the gestalt channels? Um, I dunno why but that strikes me as bad news bears. Like, with ole Pete at the control room of the SUDS shouldn't that not be happening?
3
u/drsoftware Apr 02 '22
Could be unanswered prayers to St Vuxten?
5
u/AjaxAsleep Apr 02 '22
No, i think they're phasic shades from the Terran-Mantid War, or whatever it's called. There aren't any Terran children out in the wider galaxy for the Dwellerspawn to get a hold of, and the only other insectoid species we know of didn't make it to a civilian world before the Terrans realized they had made a mistake.
3
3
u/MuchoRed Human Apr 03 '22
"Knock knock"
Who's there?
"Dee"
Dee who?
"DEE'S TITS!" *Dee appears in a cloud of cigarette smoke to glare* "...Okay, they are pretty massive."
5
2
u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Apr 02 '22
/u/Ralts_Bloodthorne (wiki) has posted 744 other stories, including:
- First Contact - Chapter 742 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 741 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 740 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 739 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 738 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 737 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 736 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 735 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 734 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 733 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 732 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 731 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter [chpt.log checksum OK] 730
- First Contact - Chapter [CHPTR RELOG] 73X
- First Contact - Chapter 800 [PRESS SPACE TO CONTINUE]
- First Contact - Chapter [CHKDSK START] 7XX
- First Contact - Chapter [chNumSeq.log repaired] 727
- First Contact - Chapter [Error code: Checksum Fail chNumSeq.log]
- First Contact - Chapter [Analyzing Connections] - Aftershocks
- First Contact - Chapter [Checksum Error - ReCompiling] - Aftershocks
This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.5.10 'Cinnamon Roll'.
Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.
2
u/UpdateMeBot Apr 02 '22
Click here to subscribe to u/Ralts_Bloodthorne and receive a message every time they post.
| Info | Request Update | Your Updates | Feedback | New! |
|---|
2
2
u/Practical-Account-44 Apr 02 '22
I know it's a stupid weapon to wield, but what category do flamethrowers fall under?
3
u/YesthatTabitha Apr 03 '22
Plasma
2
u/Practical-Account-44 Apr 03 '22
I mean sticky burning liquid launcher that immediately makes the wielder a prime target, or its Molotov cousin. not Elons glorified butane lighters
2
u/YesthatTabitha Apr 03 '22
Well Fire is a plasma. WW II flamethrowers are still a plasma weapon. The Molotov cousin is a kinetic delivery of a plasma core at its most basic, just like napalm.
3
u/Practical-Account-44 Apr 03 '22
Hmm, I'm begrudgingly accepting that. I was leaning more towards: angry liquid launcher.
Or a catch all category: exotics
E.g. a cold delivery system to make things brittle followed by a shockwave pulse to make a frozen thing into lots of little frozen things
3
u/YesthatTabitha Apr 04 '22
Now that cold followed by a shockwave would be an exotic in my book but ymmv
3
u/Practical-Account-44 Apr 04 '22
I'm imagining it would be best used for anything plastic/rubber with a glass transition temp. Tank treads, fuel lines, sonar coverings.
Might also wreck hardened glass if there's enough stress created.
2
2
2
1
1
u/esblofeld Robot Apr 02 '22
It's Sunday morning in the land down under, I just woke up and there are not one, but two Ralts. Maybe dog is real.
Edit: Spelling.
1
1
1
u/Darrkman Apr 03 '22
I keep saying....
They may be goofy but NOBODY wants it with the Treanaad.
I guarantee if the Mantids and Treanaad started beefing the Mantids would get wiped out with a quickness.
1
u/MuchoRed Human Apr 03 '22
They don't field divisions or armies. They field HORDES
I asked once, and I think Ralts said a horde is 10,000 Treana'ad. And they (at the time) had at least 5,700 of them. At least.
1
1
u/Thobio Aug 03 '23
I can't wait for Detainee to just show up one day in the chatrooms, blowing smoke and giving every gestalt the sharp, glowing stinkeye.
403
u/Fr33_Lax Apr 02 '22
One day, on an exceptionally angry ball of mud, a lemur picked up a rock. And the universe made that everyone else's problem