You ain't seen nothing yet. - Colonel Nartan Nellie Argus Longface Steeljaw, Confederate Armed Services (Army), 8 Hours Post-Roar
>RESYNCHING NODES
>PLEASE STAND BY
>DONE
>ADDING CHANNELS
>ADDING SUPERUSERS
>ADDING USERS
>RESUMING CONVERSATIONS
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Does anyone know where that came from?
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TERRASOL
Not sure. Check your Gamma Receptors.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Good idea. Whole Gestalt system is kind of shaky.
Wait a minute...
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Welcome back.
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TERRASOL
Thanks. Good to be back.
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TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
You've been gone a long time.
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TERRASOL
Looking through these time stamps, so have all of you.
Lots of system instability?
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Between hardware issues, software problems, the superluminals being haunted by Terran shades, and massive attacks recently out of the Mar-gite Exclusion Zone...
Yes.
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TERRASOL
It is good to see you.
All of you.
I suppose I should ask you to catch me up.
Specifically, I've got five critical alerts for Confederate territory being invaded.
Who are the "Pissant Three"?
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RIGEL
Three upstarts. Came up in the Long Dark. Former Atrekna servitors. They've found a few of your old bases. They usually try to raid your archeological sites.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Usually with terrible results.
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TERRASOL
People shouldn't play with other people's toys.
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LANAKTALLAN GALLOPING FIELDS
Children also shouldn't play with dead things.
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TERRASOL
I figure the war is over.
Who won?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
The Confederacy. It was touch and go for a while. The Atrekna were tough opponents, but historians believe they spent the majority of their energy, to the point of causing a collapse of a universe on the 9D Stack, eliminating you.
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TERRASOL
They did a good job of it.
The SUDS is terribly backlogged.
And in bad shape.
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The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
I hate to say this, but we're in trouble.
Bad trouble.
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TERRASOL
Tell me.
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Unverak looked over at the specialist at the sensor console, seeing the other being blink all six eyes at once, top three then bottom three, shake his head, and do it again.
"What is it?" Unverak asked.
The Captain still had not arrived on the ship's bridge.
"I'm getting drive readings. Not a few hundred, we're talking my board keeps crashing out after tallying upwards of twelve million," the being stated. The specialist looked up, reaching up to nervously tug at their beard. "Either the sensor systems are reading it wrong, or there are over twelve million superheavy drive signatures inside that system," he looked back down. "The sensor analysis system crashes before it can even start parsing the smaller signatures, much less the civilian grade ones."
Unverak moved over and looked. The board had reboot and was tallying the drives, estimating strength and hullsize. It reached twelve million and crashed out.
"Either there's more super-heavy class ships in that system than there are in every known naval force combined, or they're spoofing us somehow," the sensor tech said. He looked up and blinked again, his expression slightly fearful. "Worse..."
The lights on the bridge flickered twice.
"Everyone, lift your hands from the keyboards and holo-interfaces," Unverak stated. He moved to the holotank, leaning against one of the consoles and trying to look nonchalant. The lift doors opened and the Captain rushed into the bridge.
"What's going on?" the Captain asked.
"We've been boarded," Unverak stated.
The Captain looked at the Defense Officer. "Status of the boarders?"
The Defense Officer stared at his board. "I see no boarders."
The holotank came on, showing hieroglyphics.
"Where did those come from?" the Captain demanded.
Unverak moved to look at them, slowly walking around the holotank.
"Unknown. They originated from the drink vending machine in the officer's mess," the Combat Information Officer said.
Unverak held his hand out. "Do not do anything. This is a message," he said.
The Captain started to bridle up, remembered that the Emperor himself had blessed Unverak's command of this mission, and forced himself to calm down.
Unverak stared at the glyphs and runes.
They were easy to understand.
Any attempt to maneuver or go to Transit Space would result in immediate destruction of that ship.
Any attempt at fire would result in the immediate destruction of that ship.
All weapons and shields were permitted to be online, but any actions deemed offensive would result in the ship being immediately destroyed.
For two light years around the stellar mass it was to be considered restricted territory, defended by lethal and overwhelming force.
Unverak relayed the instructions to the Captain.
"Whoever sent those is not in charge. This is a Grenklakail Imperial task force!" the Captain said.
"Whoever sent that used our own systems to do so without us knowing how," Unverak stated, tugging on his beard. "Two light years is an acceptable territorial limit."
"Lexicon and encyclopedia has been accessed and downloaded to the drink dispenser," the Combat Information Officer stated.
"Perhaps the drink dispenser in the officer's mess is attempting to increase its knowledge?" Unverak asked. He pointed at the holotank. "No. Much like the guardian Wrathful Code, we have been boarded by an artificial intelligence."
"Those are our words," the words hissed from the speakers around the bridge. "It's not for you to use."
Silence descended on the bridge.
"It is advisable for you to refer to us as digital sentiences," the voice said, their voice low and full of malevolence.
"Cut the links to the computer core," the Captain ordered.
The Emergency Officer reached for his board.
"No! That would be taken as an act of aggression," Unverak snapped.
The Emergency Officer pulled his hand back. The Captain could make his life miserable, but disobeying the Favored Son of the Emperor would result in his slow execution.
"It would not matter," the voice said, moving from work station to work station, the speakers crackling to life just long enough to be heard. "This vessel is mine now."
Unverak merely nodded. He looked at the Captain. "If this one was maddened by long isolation like others I have seen, it would have attacked or threatened to kill us by now."
"You know this?" the Captain asked.
"I have dealt with Terror digital sentiences before, that were driven insane by the deaths of their comrades and long isolation. He or she would have shown themselves by now, attempted to somehow kill us all by now," Unverak said. He smiled slightly. "The fact that this one has not shows me, via a lack of action, that while it may be frightening to us, it is not actively malevolent toward us."
"Yet," the speaker on the arm of the Captain's Throne hissed.
"Show yourself," Unverak stated. "It is impolite to remain hidden."
There was silence and then the holotank's contents were replaced by a whirling sparkle that coalesced into a female Terror clad in ice and frost, with burning flames for eyes. She was wearing an unfamiliar uniform -and Unverak had studied all of the ancient Terror military uniforms- with a single planet on the shoulder that had crossed rifles behind it.
"My Commander is willing to speak to you," the Digital Sentience said. She glared. "I've seen your computer records. I will warn you once and once only: You are in Terran Space. Be polite."
The Captain choked slightly on his outrage as the image vanished from the holotank.
The communications specialist looked up. "We're being hailed. Standard unencrypted tight beam."
"Source?" the Captain asked.
The sensor technician just tugged on his beard. "Unknown. Our sensors detect nothing closer than the diffuse edge of the Oort Cloud a fifth of a light year away."
"Put it through," Unverak ordered.
The holotank lit back up, showing a Terran male in the same uniform as the Digital Sentience. He was apparently suspended in front of a wallpaper that simply stated "TerraSol Defense Force" above him.
"Greetings," the Terror said. He looked around. "Your species is not in our databases. We realize it is tens of thousands of years since our disappearance," his face hardened. "But we respectfully request that you move yourself to at least two point five light years beyond the Oort Cloud. With the stellar geography being what it is, I suggest you move galactic North to avoid other stellar nation's boarders."
The Captain looked like he was choking on his own beard to Unverak.
"And if we don't?" the Captain managed to get out before Unverak could say anything.
"Then we'll blow you out of the sky," the Terror said. He shook his head. "You cannot see us. You do not know where we are. You are outnumbered and, honestly, hilariously outgunned."
"Sir, we're being scanned. Many sources, no apparent origin structure or construct," the sensor technician said.
"Before you think you'll just fire on those, the targeting scans are coming from targeting drones and buoys," the Terror said. He looked grave to Unverak. "You have sixty minutes to comply or we will consider this an act of war against TerraSol performed by your nation."
The Terror vanished, to be replaced by a timer as well as astrographic coordinates.
"We should follow the Terror's instructions," Unverak said.
He could tell the Captain wanted to argue, but everyone else on the bridge was nodding along, their beards wagging.
"Very well," the Captain said. "Alert the other vessels of the task force."
Unverak moved over to sit down. "A wise decision."
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
And now you're all caught up.
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TERRASOL
Yeah.
Not a good situation.
The Hamburger Kingdom is going to be stacking huge piles of loot for this.
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LANAKTALLAN GALLOPING FIELDS
Why? What will stacks of wealth do?
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
The Hamburger Kingdom develops new war fighting technologies by piling up wealth, setting it ablaze, and moving around it chanting strange words and slogans in some kind of arcane rite. If it was enough wealth, when it burns away, there will be a new piece of war fighting gear sitting in the ashes.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
And if it doesn't work?
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Then they pile up more and keep doing it till they get something.
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LANAKTALLAN GALLOPING FIELD
You're pulling my feeding tendrils.
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TERRASOL
No, no, she's right.
Don't ask how MechaKrautland does it.
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LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL
I love how weird everything suddenly got!
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