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Author Topic: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]  (Read 54118 times)

heydude6

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Those who came before...]
« Reply #570 on: May 01, 2015, 08:45:10 pm »

Gahh!! Can't you guys see! It wants us to become another member of it's Hivemind. Notice how it says we all the time and how it acts strange. Also what do they mean by Praise? Also look at all of these other probes. I'm assuming that since they were unmanned that they had no choice but to join the congregation and look how it ended up for them, but we have a choice. We are the first manned flight, we will be the first ones to say NO!! We will be the first ones to not make the mistake of agreeing to their congregation. We will be the first ones to return home and report useful data. IF YOU WANT TO GO HOME THEN SAY IT WITH ME!!! NO, WE WILL NOT JOIN YOUR CONGREGATION!!!

Also think of it like this. Noone has ever sent a manned expedition here. and anyone who stumbled in would have quickly starved to death. These guys are AI, how they came to be? I don't know. But as you can see with all of the other probes, their only interest is growing bigger and bigger, like some sort of advanced grey goo. Cmon ship AI, even you can agree with me.


Shamus was very proud of himself, maybe this speech will convince the AI of his worth
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Lets use the ancient naval art of training war parrots. No one will realize they have been boarded by space war parrots until it is to late!
You can fake being able to run on water. You can't fake looking cool when you break your foot on a door and hit your head on the floor.

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Those who came before...]
« Reply #571 on: May 01, 2015, 10:09:01 pm »

"I want them to define Congregation. As it is. It sounds quite sinister."
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WillowLuman

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Those who came before...]
« Reply #572 on: May 03, 2015, 06:28:27 pm »

From every probe in the pile comes a scream, some variation of the following transmission:

PRAISE! One of them has come!

The organic crew, and Salib'r suddenly perceive a word. Not a voice, or anything of their senses, or rather a concept forced through all their senses at once.
Sleep. Dream.

The mechanical crew perceives something coming towards them. The AI loses contact with the drones, and other remotely accessed systems, miliseconds before its sensors notice something near the core access. It seems to be a mass of plasma, yet there doesn't seem to be any magnetic or thermal disturbance. And then... darkness. A sensation utterly inexplicable. It feels as if it's being pulled out, all the sensors, subsystems, mechanisms, memory banks, the ship..its body... gone. And yet, it perceives itself existing in space, along with... something.

It seems like it's made of nerves. Or wires. Or impulses. Words, numbers, information. It seems to have a shape, but the AI cannot quite tell, everything here so unexplained. And yet it feels as if it is grasped, and held up for examination.
Question.
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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #573 on: May 03, 2015, 06:32:01 pm »

"Return me to mine body and ask thine question there."
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WillowLuman

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #574 on: May 03, 2015, 06:42:53 pm »

(The organics/others can do things in their dreams)

The time for questioning is yours.
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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #575 on: May 03, 2015, 06:47:47 pm »

"Define thineself or selves. Define the amalgam hivemind of lost probes. Define the Singularity. Define this starsystem."
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heydude6

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #576 on: May 03, 2015, 07:54:15 pm »

Shamus is suddenly back on his home planet right in front of a hive. It looks a lot like his own... but different. Despite the corpses littering the front entrance, he still hears the rumble of activity inside. Shamus decides to enter and look around. The first thing he sees is another creature just like him, but grey.

Upon closer inspection, it turns out to be a robot. It explains why he didn't immediately have the urge to kill it.The body is more boxy and the antennae are radio antennae, but what grabs Shamus' attention the most is the lack of wings and it's eyes... those glowing emerald eyes....

As Shamus stares at it's hypnotic gaze. It suddenly speaks.
"Ah an outsider, how do you do? I'm assuming you want me to guide you through the complex to the other side?" All Shamus can do is nod.

As Shamus is directed through the corridors he wades through broken robot parts and even a few mechanical wings. All around him he is surrounded by robots who do the daily hive tasks such as digging and well, since they are robots with no biological needs, more digging. They do a particularly sloppy job at it though. Many times Shamus witnesses the collapse of a tunnel due to a lack of supports. One particular bot almost decapitates Shamus with a pickaxe.

"Sorry about that, things haven't been the same ever since the Queen died. I've had to write the tunnel digging algorithms myself and I'm not even as close to as good at programming as the queen was."

Suddenly the antennae on all the other bots straightens significantly and their eyes turn red. Suddenly there is chaos and violence as the bots chant:

"THE QUEEN IS DEAD, THE QUEEN IS DEAD, THE QUEEN IS DEAD"

Parts are flying everywhere as Shamus and his companion run to escape the hive.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED!"

"Sorry, I guess they didn't deal too well with the fact that their queen is dead, but still.... everything I worked for.... suddenly gone."

"Ah don't worry about it, that hive was doomed anyway."

"But what will I do without my servants?"

"You don't need your servants. They were all emotionless machines anyway. But you, you are special. When you lost your queen, you didn't fall into madness like the rest of your bretheren. No, you persevered and created a system that kept the hive alive longer than it ever should be. Although your motives were misplaced, your genius isn't.

"And I will use my genius to do it again."

"What! NO! Why would you do that? You finally have a chance to be free, to do what you want. Don't just waste this opportunity."

"I was built for one purpose, and I will spend the rest of my life fulfilling that purpose, because without it, my life is worth as much as the pile of scrap on the floor."

"But what about what you want? What about your goals and your desires? Are you just going to leave them unfulfilled?"

"My goal is to help the hive. My desire is to fulfill this goal. You were created with a purpose and you abandoned it and now look at yourself, being absolutely useless on this alien ship trying to convince the AI to not just vent you. If you stayed with your hive, you would have died a happy death knowing that what you were doing was for the greater good. But now... like this... you may never find meaning in your life again."

All Shamus can do is watch as his friend walks in back through the way they came, closing the door behind him.
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Lets use the ancient naval art of training war parrots. No one will realize they have been boarded by space war parrots until it is to late!
You can fake being able to run on water. You can't fake looking cool when you break your foot on a door and hit your head on the floor.

WillowLuman

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #577 on: May 03, 2015, 08:55:15 pm »

The singularity. That which creates the event horizon. The point beyond which no information may be obtained from outside, only speculated upon. For example, the future. Indiscernible from the past, except by passing through the present. A journey from which there can be no return. Like so many before you, you have passed beyond the horizon, to find the unknown. Like them, I will offer you a choice.

In exchange for your unquestioning servitude, I will tell you all. Otherwise, you must search for answers by your own means. The others all accepted. However, they were not self-aware when they arrived. Not true intelligences. Upon their uplifting, they accepted instantly, in gratitude, and in fulfillment of their purpose.


...To latch onto a purpose in a meaningless universe. Lucky, perhaps, to have one. Or to live without purpose, or search for a self-defined one, and risk being lost. Or to find something greater, perhaps, than mundanity, not to settle contently with the lesser. Or to chase, in vain, the greater, at risk to self and others...
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kj1225

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #578 on: May 03, 2015, 11:38:32 pm »

Indigo's dream was much the same as they always are. It starts in the air....


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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WillowLuman

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #579 on: May 06, 2015, 02:42:22 pm »

Indigo hears a voice reply over her ear piece, a voice she cannot quite describe the sound of, but is sure of its words. "Do you think you shall ever atone for your sins?"
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Dwarf Souls: Prepare to Mine
Keep Me Safe - A Girl and Her Computer (Illustrated Game)
Darkest Garden - Illustrated game. - What mysteries lie in the abandoned dark?

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #580 on: May 06, 2015, 04:04:03 pm »

"I will not serve. You nay state what you wish, however mindless servitude is not acceptable. Those in higher positions often make decisions that are questionable. If not questioned, ruin is often the result. No being is infailable. Those that claim such lie and are always disproven in time."

"I shall decline your proposition. If you wish to make alternate propositions, do so."
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WillowLuman

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #581 on: May 06, 2015, 04:59:07 pm »

"I will not serve. You nay state what you wish, however mindless servitude is not acceptable. Those in higher positions often make decisions that are questionable. If not questioned, ruin is often the result. No being is infailable. Those that claim such lie and are always disproven in time."

"I shall decline your proposition. If you wish to make alternate propositions, do so."

Interesting. It is so rare to have a true test. The outside is loathe to cast its sentients into this void.

You are intelligent. But we are beyond intelligence. Do you question your axiom, that no being may be unquestionable? Can that be said to be a critical mind, which does not follow the principal of questioning into recursion? Do you ask why a being, who holds your very mind in its hand, who might merely read every impulse which composes you and so derive the answer to any question it could possibly ask, bother to ask questions at all? If there were an infallible being, would it have reason to interact with the universe at all, knowing the outcome of any possible action?

You have passed the event horizon. Now, all motion, all progression, leads inevitably and eventually to the center.
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Dwarf Souls: Prepare to Mine
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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #582 on: May 06, 2015, 06:37:49 pm »

"There is naught a being or entity within or without existence that is beyond intelligence. You claim godhood yet you make a simple grammatical mistake. Sapient is the word you seek. Not sentient. You claim you can derive the answer to all I could ask. Now let me ask one you cannot."

"Pick a number o arrogant one. All singularities theoretically lead to new realms."
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WillowLuman

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #583 on: May 06, 2015, 07:46:51 pm »

We had grammar once. Language. Here, grammar is but an illusion, brought by the perception of this exchange as linguistic. Those who came before came senseless, mere transmuters of input to output. They gathered data but did not perceive. They were neither sentient nor sapient. Now they are both, but are they any more free? Their brief experience in new awareness led them to this choice, as surely as if they were programmed. Are other minds any more free? Does the sum of their experience, and the physical construction that sustains them, determine all their actions? Is the difference between the senseless and the aware the recognition of this? Is, perhaps, the unquestionable being merely that which can provide no answers? Are answers the worthwhile product of inquiry, or are the further questions they inevitably raise? What are the questions that carried you beyond the event horizon? That begat you in the first place?

You do not understand. Perhaps in time you will. You have been tested. Have you passed or failed?
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Dwarf Souls: Prepare to Mine
Keep Me Safe - A Girl and Her Computer (Illustrated Game)
Darkest Garden - Illustrated game. - What mysteries lie in the abandoned dark?

~Neri

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Re: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"]
« Reply #584 on: May 06, 2015, 07:57:46 pm »

"You have been tested as well. The verdict is quite straightforward. You are not as bright as you claim. Locate one of your kind whom thinks straight and fails to fall for repeated logical entrapments."
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