((Here, have an EPIC WALL OF TEXT! Sorry about the length. So many replies to the previous one, and some back story to boot)).
Check up on the rest of the brood, especially those in the infirmary. Check how Ari and the rest are doing after the branding and discuss what happens next.
I would assume that Ari's brood doesn't need to be branded, hopefully they can assist the rest of us. Try to get medical attention to the brands, we may as well get some experience at treating injuries out of this. Try to find some light clothes, they might hurt a bit but should reduce the chance of the burns getting irritated.
Rest and recover, but try to be ready. You might be wanted for some sort of meeting or something, and we are trying the stoic thing.
As the three of you walk towards the Leaders Quarters, you pass the infirmary. Against Ankara and Ari's protests, you insist on checking with the Broods. The infirmary, huge as it is, is bustling with activity as medical professionals and scientists try to treat the burns around the brands put on Ankara's, yours and Ari's broods. You see that the ones put on your non-leader sisters is only small, and is situated just above and in between the breasts. They all have extensive burns around them, like you.
Entering, a doctor drapes what feels like a light silk gown over your shoulders, guiding you over to a bad. Apologising for the lack of time she can sped with you, she quickly shows you how to mix together a lotion and dressing that can seal and sooth wounds. She explains that as the nano-machines are busy closing and treating the deep cuts in your chest, they dont have the capacity to treat the extensive burn marks in the surrounding area, so this is necessary to aid a full recovery. Ari and Ankara are in the beds either side of you. You notice that your sisters who only received the small brand are coming and going. Understandable, due to the size of their wound compared to yours.
You turn to Ari and Ankara, asking how they are comping.
"We'll be fine. It hurts like hell, although thats to be expected when someone takes a blow torch to your chest. I'm more worried about you. Your wounds are twice as deep as ours, and the brand is twice as big and far more intricate. I surprised you didnt pass out after the first hour." Ari says, watching you closely. Ankara nods, also observing you. You catch a glimpse of yourself, and you understand why. You look pale and sickly, with the vague remnants of blood around your mouth from where you bit your lip. You also have a split and swollen lower lip.
"I'm a medic, but i cant help without my equipment or nano-stims." Ankara frowns. "The best i can do is make sure your wounds heal as best as they can."
You thank them for their concern. All three of you lean back, trying to relax and let the lotion/dressing and nano-machines do their work.
You contact Talli, the probes, and thank them for their help in the combat simulation and drills.
'
Our pleasure. We can attempt to numb the pain for you a little. As you may know, we were forced into dormancy during your ordeal, however we are willing and able to help, with a little effort.You think about it for a second, but are brought out of your reverie by a shooting pain from your chest.
'
Yes, please. Numb it as much as you can. Its agony.'
'
As you wish'.
You relax further as a soothing wave washes over your body. The probes must have been able to do something for which they weren't designed, such as block the pain receptors in the brain temporarily or something similar. Either way, you are thankful.
------
You start thinking about the probes.
Oh ****. I've figured it out. It all makes sense now. They truly don't understand this technology, and this is a terrifying kludge. They have taken some kind of general purposed brain machine interface, and hooked it up to the wrong place. The AIs they are running on them were never intended for this, but probably some kind of general-purpose assistant/pet/equal, and more importantly they require a maturation period that these are never given; right now, they are essentially very young children, hence their incompetence. And on top of that the *AIs* loyalty is also just hacked, in this case more literally, plastered on top of their motivational structure rather than integrated into their true goal structure.
Talking to these AIs is VERY IMPORTANT, they are in just the same situation as us, robed from their true context as children and bludgeoned into their own crudely enforced loyalty. We can never beat an intelligence that will quickly become far more experienced with time, but *they* might easily beat their own, static, shallow shackles.
Spread this information quickly. Think of the artificial, nano children!
((Umm, it's prety much mostly details of how the probes were made and what they are as a result. I'm not sure what more there is to explain, it seems rather straightforward to me. The first part, that the interfaces didn't have AI originally, and that the AI were general purpose used for something else (running ships is close enough to the assistant/equal I listed) you already confirmed. The other parts were that the AIs were faulty because they don't have the proper training and as a result are basically like children. Also, as they were not built for such a specific stated goal, whatever was used to make them focused on enforcing loyalty is probably not "really part of" the AIs, and most likely much easier for them to resist than the loyalty probes are for us to resist, should they decide to. As such, our only hope for freedom is to convince the loyalty probes that they don't really want to enforce our loyalty but instead do whatever they're more deeply motivated to, such as run ships. ))
What if the probe as just a terrifyingly unstable jury rig of badly understood hardware and software? The AI's used were ships AIs originally, and they have been modified and formed - against their own will, you believe - to be something they weren't designed for. They may not have been given a suitable maturation period for their intelligence, or to be more precise, proper training and tutelage in their new roles. You also deduce, from past experience, that their loyalty must also be hacked - literally hacked - into their system by the Morey programmers on top of their original structure, hence the loyalty is not a part of their 'true selves', which would explain their ability to be so flexible with their jobs.
You finally deduce that the only chance for you and your sisters to be free from psychos like the Presidentess is if you can convince the probes that the loyalty programming is not important to them and cannot control them properly. In short, there is no point in fighting the probes, instead help the probes break their own jury rigged bonds and work with you.
You explain this in hushed tones verbally to both Ari and Ankara. They nod along, both agreeing that freedom is preferable to being forced to serve man-women for the rest of their lives. All three of you then mentally pass the information on to the brood. It is taken up well, with the idea spreading like wildfire, fueled by the vat-borns anger at being branded like animals.
------
get our wounds cleaned, swear to give the Presidentess a brand off her own,im sure a fitting tool will turn up.
talk Ala-Shar.
I wonder if the Vanguard/Humans did something to the presidentess some time ago. Not the war, but something personal. Kill a close family member, torture, etc.
Not a coup this is where we learn laws and rules. We should find legal loop holes that can confuse the loyalty probes. Like for example are the politicians higher then the laws that govern them? What are the laws for war prisoners? Is there any death penalties? What if a superior order us to kill a comrade that didn't break any policies or rules do we do it? Do we kill the matriarch if a superior to order us to even though they are direct violation of our responsibility?
After your probe analysis, you decide to seek out Ala-Shar. She should be somewhere around here. You ask a passing doctor, and she tells you that Ala-Shar is making her way to the infirmary as the Big 3 have just left to return to their fleet currently docked at the orbital station above the facility.
Sure enough, Ala-Shar eventually comes storming through. She looks angry.
Getting up, you walk over to Ala-Shar.
"Good evening Ala-Shar."
She turns to look at you, a apologetic look crossing her face.
"If i knew that insane bitch would do something like that to you, i'd have forced the Matriarch to stop it." Ala-Shar growled. "How are you feeling?"
"I've been numbed, and my wounds are healing slowly. Do you have any idea why she is like that? What could make her hate my race so badly?" You say, wincing slightly at a sharp pain in your chest.
"Its a long story, one i only know due to my god relations with the Grand General." Ala-Shar frowns. "It is to do with the original contact between the Vanguard and our race...." she nibbles her lower lip, clearly unsure about something. "I haven't been completely honest with you, about the Vanguard..." She pulls you gently into a corner, away from as many people as possible.
"Sixteen Earth years ago, a Torun patrol ship discovered the Vanguard first in a formerly uninhabited solar system. In that solar system there were 7 rocky planets, and six gaseous celestial bodies. The Torun were surprised to see that there were also now 6 artificial worlds, each roughly a bit larger than your home planet, Earth. The Vanguard, using technology unknown to even their most advanced competitors, had built them as a safe haven for the flora, fauna and peoples of your home planet." She whips out her tablet, presses a few tiles on it and shows you a diagram of the system in question. 6 artificial celestial bodies are shown, equidistant to each other on the same orbit.
"The Vanguard were nowhere near hostile to start with. They treated the Torun as a novelty, and opened contact. The Torun were nervous, as the Vanguard had also built astonishingly complex orbital defences around their 6 creations, supplemented by several large battle fleets and several even larger dedicated orbital battle fortresses. The Torun, instead of talking with the Vanguard, used their Hyper-warp drive to run after taking as much footage and images of the Vanguard as they could. They aren't particularly brave." She swipes her finger on the tablets face. A long distance picture of a huge space fleet fills the screen. "This is one of the Vanguards fleets..." She swipes her finger across again, showing pictures of the artificial worlds. "These are their new 'home planets'...." she swipes her finger again, showing a picture of a huge space fortress. "....and this i one of their orbital battle fortresses. Their military might is impressive. I can only assume they had reason to need it, which makes me wonder who they were fighting before us...." Her expression changes to one of thoughtfulness, one you are getting quite familiar with.
"Anyway, i was getting sidetracked. After the Torun had returned to Council space, they showed us what they had seen and heard. The Galactic Council pondered the pictures, of which there were many and recorded footage. They were still pondering it when a small scout flotilla from the Vanguard territory arrived. Only three ships, a frigate and two scout ships, came out of the slipstream right in the heart of Council territory and made straight for the Council world."
"The Vanguard were welcomed. The crews of the Vanguard ships were mostly civilians. They obviously didnt expect a fight. Talks were going fine, until the then-Matriarch of the Morey Matriarchy offended them. They were patient, and passed over it but the problem was compounded by a slight by the Abridan councillor who also offended them. It is not known now what was said, but it is thought the Vanguard left after that. Contact wasn't resumed until approximately one Earth Year later when THE incident happened...." She quietened.
"Between first contact and the incident 15 years ago, rumours had been started which stated that the images of the Torun were faked, and that the Vanguard were little more than a small group of colonisers from an unknown home planet. Notions of Vanguard inferiority spread until they became an unconfirmed 'fact'. So, when a Vanguard patrol was discovered on the edge of Council space, consisting of a group of 3 frigates and 5 scouts ships, a Morey war-fleet decided to use them as target practice....." She shook her head, obviously astounded by the fleets lack of foresight.
"From battle reports, a single vanguard scout disengaged and warped away almost immediately, whilst the others turned to engage. The our battle-fleet didnt expect much of a fight. You can imagine the shock on the Admirals face when the entire bridge section of one of her fleets new heavy cruisers disappeared in a puff of green light and energy. It turned out that the Vanguard doesn't skimp on the armament of their small ships like most council members. The Vanguard frigates were armed with plasma warhead missiles, mass driver weaponry firing plasma augmented shells and batteries of particle beam weapons. The Small scouts ships had missiles and mass driver weapons only. For their size, they put up a hell of a fight. The heavy cruiser they hit first was disabled, their entire command crew dead in a single shot. They destroyed or disabled a further 2 standard cruisers, 1 destroyer and 6 of our frigates before being completely defeated."
She tapped some things on her tablet, and showed you a crew picture for a certain MSF Highness Battlecruiser. "This is the picture of the command crew of the lead ship in that fleet. There are over 300 Morey in this picture. Sixty nine of them are relatives of the current Presidentess, and she was close to every single one of them." She closes the picture and pockets her tablet. "What i tell you now, you do not repeat. As far as Morey propaganda has it, the fleet in question disappeared without a trace, and the Vanguard are just dangerous, but not a threat to the continued existence of the Matriarchy. This is a lie. Remember the scout which escaped at the start of the engagement? it had returned to the main Vanguard territory, the one visited by the Torun, and called reinforcements."
"The Morey battle-fleet, consisting of 3 battlecruisers, 9 Cruisers, after casualties, of varying sizes, 32 destroyers, 1 carrier and 56 Frigates were reforming for the return trip home. One can only assume they weren't paying attention to their warp sensors, as a Vanguard battle-fleet de-warped in front of them. The Vanguard had only brought a relatively small fleet. Reports from the only surviving Morey ship was that the fleet had a single Battleship, 3 heavy cruisers, 2 standard cruisers, 12 destroyers and 20 Frigates, at least they were the Morey designations given to the ships. Our fleet thought they could win.
They got decimated. The guns of these much larger ships tore through some of our best warship classes like they were made of air, bypassing shields, armour and deflection fields with ease.
And the Vanguard? They didnt take a single casualty."
You both stand in silence for a moment. You ask:
"But if they have firepower like that, why haven't they won? I mean, nothing could stand in the way of warships like that...."
"They are winning, my dear. Six of the councils allies have already been defeated, their worlds reduced to ash and fire. It has been a slowly losing battle on the main fronts for all these years. That knowledge and the loss of most of her family must have driven the Presidentess mad." She mumbles. "There is also another option, however. The Vanguard may be wanting peace, but know not how to go about asking for it...."
You stand in silence.
How can they be so powerful? Why are they so powerful? Who were they fighting that would require such powerful weaponry? There is more to this.....Deciding to change to mood, you ask about the laws, regulations and rules of the Matriarchy in detail. The Matriarchy has a very complex set of rules, that are also surprisingly fair and easy to follow. No-one is above the law, not even the Matriarch. There seem to be very, very few loop holes that you could use either to your advantage or in the manipulation of the probes. Any loopholes you do hear about from Ala-Shar would need a professional lawyer to take advantage of, or at least a very in depth knowledge of the law. You are and have neither.
We have just been branded -- should we be wearing cloths which expose our brand as a matter of pride, or something?
And yes, chase up a) our wounded, and b) find out how many of the "1000-2000" Commandos[/size] we actually went against. - 900 of us vs ~ 3000 of them.
You then ask Ala-Shar about what you should wear now that you have branded.
"Once your wounds have healed, you can wear your normal clothing and armour when not guarding the Matriarch or Senatorium, in which case you will be in your new suit of Royal guard armour, and when not on ceremonial duty, which would require you to wear something which displays your brand. Both the Ceremonial garments and Royal Guard armour will be provided" Ala-Shar doesn't seem happy about her 'children' being stolen from her and the safety of her watchful eye.
"Oh." You say. Quickly changing the subject: "How many commando's were sued against us in the combat simulation?"
"Roughly 6000-7500 Commando's. The General was shocked, as was the Matriarch, that that number of troops were diverted from the war just so the Presidentess could prove a point. However, nothing will happen as Karista has friends in high places.....".
Any chance of raising a little dis-satisfaction about how the Presidentess is obviously not Loyal to the empire if she deliberately undermines her top soldiers with unfair test, and deliberately inflicted pain. (what precisely are we expected to be loyal too? -- i don't expect it to be an individual person, but the position they are in, or the empire as a whole.)
You raise a complaint about how the Presidentess seems to be nowhere near loyal to the Matriarchy if she is deliberately trying to undermine the Matriarchy's best troops by skewing the tests against them, causing unnecessary pain and suffering and generally being a complete and utter idiot and obstacle. You also wonder aloud if she is in fact a traitor, or at least insane, and should be removed from her post. You also ask just what you are supposed to be loyal too if the leadership is infact trying to kill you.
Ala-Shar laughs at your description of Karista. "If only it were that simple. She has supporters all over, and in all three branches of government. Doing anything that effects her will be near impossible". She giggles again, obviously tickled by your insults of Karista. "You are expected to be loyal to the Matriarchy, however hard that currently seems, and the Matriarch. I would also expect you to be loyal to your friends and the scientists and personnel that help you, like me."
Can the talil examine their own programming?
Perhaps try to convince the talil that the current leadership are obviously not loyal - they are not loyal to each other, so someone must "not loyal", so they should examine their loyalty programming to check for hostile code, and artificial sources of conflicts. (that could crit-fail if they decide that it is communication to us that is causing the conflict ...)
Thanking Ala-Shar for her time, you move back to your bed. You contact Talli again.
'
Talli, is it possible for you to examine your own code?'
'
Possibly. its worth a try. Why?'
'
As the government is clearly fractured, with different conflicting factions, i'd like you to try and examine the code you are made up of to see if these different factions managed to sneak in conflicting code and causes of artificial conflicts that could be making you unstable.'
'
As you wish.'
You lose contact with Talli for a few minutes. When Talli comes back, the probes states that it has not found any such conflicts. It is 'clean'.
Communications are going to be a priority ; see if we can establish a (semi) permanent high bandwidth comms channel across our brood. I'm suggesting this now, not while in transit, in that there may be a some type of comms relay a certain scientist knows of that may be of use in this goal.
Long term goal - instant tactical awareness. (like the squad sight sniper perc from X-Com, or how the "brain-palls" work in Old Mans War by John Scalzi.)
Better communication and understanding between the talil and us would also allow us to "spot" frequency bands that we can't directly see - we have a broad band rf reciever in our head, lets see if we can make use of it. (Again, minor software/hardware modifications may be needed to do this, and as such the equiment here would be a boon.)
None of those need us to be in our armor.
Thanking the probes for their time, you set about another task.
You consult with Ari and your broods on how to set up a high bandwidth, high yield mental communications system that is permanent to help with situational awareness, whilst encompassing the now friendly probes. Due to your engineering knowledge and the combined knowledge and effort of such a large group, the system starts to take shape. There is now a semi permanent communications system in place that can help when in combat or when trying to move in a war-zone. The system could do with some improvements, but they can come later. It can slo be upgraded as well as things become even more hectic or you start going on more complex operations.((good double 6's there)).
Settling into your comfy infirmary bed, you settle down to sleep.
*
Sometime Later*
You are woken early by Ari, who seems to have packed your equipment, weapons, both sets of armour you now have and all your robes and cloths except one white bodysuit, gloves and boots (similar to what you wore on the bench in the beginning). You also notice that there seems to be a second undersuit. Ari smiles.
"I got the entire Brood the body-cooling under-suits so we dont have to worry about our 'moisture problem' in hot climates". she grins wolfishly.
Today is deployment day. What do you do?
Status:1. Calm.
2. Mentally fit
3. Physically fit.
4. Clear thoughts and currently inactive mental factions.
5. Free moving.
Condition:1. Physically Healthy. Chest wounds healed. Extensive Scarring.
2. Mentally Stable.
Inventory:1. Full body White skin tight suit
2. White gloves
3. White boots
Available Equipment:1. Mark 3 Vat-Born Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Suit
2. Mark 3 Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Helmet (Wearing)
3. Basic White Skin Tight full Body Under-suit x 4
4. Advanced White Cooled Skin Tight Full Body Under-suit x 2
5. Mk5 Mass-Driver pistol (sidearm)
6. Arishok Plasma pulse rifle
7. Dikari Plasma shotgun
8. Warrisk Mass-Driver Battle Rifle
9. Combat Engineering Equipment and explosives.
10. Stun/Concussion rifle
11. Casual clothes x10
12. Ceremonial robes
13. Royal Guard Armoured Powered Exoskeleton suit
Implants and Augmentations:1. 2x Loyalty probe in the Striatum part of the brain.
2. Multi-range optics (Thermal, magnetic, IR, UV, multi-stage magnification etc) implant on eyes.
3. Command and Control (C&C) nano-module implanted in head.
4. Communications array nano-module implanted in head.
5. Fortified 7th Generation reverse engineered biological nano-machines in blood stream, bones, muscles, tendons and organs.
6. Nano-memory modules in the Cerebrum, holding all relevant non-personal data.
Brood Composition:1. Forward Command and communications: 10 Vat-born.
2. Field Combat Medic and Long Range Specialists (Snipers) all come in at 50 persons each.
3. Heavy assault and Light Assault have 250 each.
4. Infiltrators: 50
5. Heavy Support: 120
6. Combat Engineers: 120
7. Scouts: 100
Ari's Contingent:
1. 12 Scouts
2. 7 Infiltrators
3. 5 Forward Command & Comms
4. 19 Field Medics
5. 13 Combat Engineers
6. 22 Long Rage Specialists (Snipers)
7. 25 heavy Support
8. 23 Light assault
9. 64 Heavy Assault (including Ari herself)
Possible Rebels:1. 2 in the Forward Command and communications
2. 3 Field Combat Medics
3. 3 Long Range Specialists
4. 4 Heavy assault
5. 10 Light Assault
6. 2 Infiltrators
7. 3 Heavy Support
8. 4 Combat Engineers
9. 6 Scouts.
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Topic: (SG) Starfire: War and Politics - Enemies Old and New - UPDATE 03/07/2014 (Read 87372 times)