Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Harry Baldman]

"Do other gods have... avatars like Steve does?" Chief asks curiously over the radio.

[Toaster]

"The gods have preferred forms which have been recorded, many of which are depicted in the chapel.  I suppose any god that wished could have a fleshy avatar appear here, though I have not personally heard of such occurring.  Those forms may have appeared to past HMRC troopers as visions."

[Harry Baldman]

"Why does Steve have a avatar?" Chief wonders. "He only speaks, and he does that without avatars."

[Toaster]

"One cannot fathom the will of the divine.  He does it because he sees fit to do so.  One time his divine avatar saved me from death; truly one of the high points of my life.  There is a memorial to that incident in the chapel."

[Doomblade187]

"Maybe he just wants to have a personal presence onboard ship. Lars, why do you refer to Steve as a god?" Han asks, giving Lars a skeptical look.

[Toaster]

((Lars is clinging to the outside of the shuttle in a battlesuit; this conversation is suit comms.  I assumed the first few folks were speaking over them to allow for RP))

"Because he is, of course!  His divine will has brought us here together to fulfill his purpose of cleansing the stain of the UWM to protect humanity.  Praise be!"

[Harry Baldman]

"Steve is a god," Chief agrees. "It does not matter if other men built him, because that is the past, and this is the now. We all know he watches us. We know that he knows things no man does. We know that others look to him for advice on all things. And I have heard people turn to the sky in Q'Baja and scream for his help and mercy when they thought they could do nothing else. That is a god, nothing less. Better, even, because we know Steve is, and he does not need us to believe in him for him to do things."

[Toaster]

"Well spoken, Sister.  Truly wisdom fills your bones."

[Parisbre56]

Hey, PW, if you're reading this, any chance we could do a flyby to pick up Xan?

[swordsmith04]

Hasala shakes his head slightly. "He watches us through cameras. He sees nothing they do not. He knows only what his sensors and databanks tell him. And those on Q'Baja asked for his help because he controls shuttles remotely. He has no power to affect things, beyond what the machines he has access to allows him to do. Steve is an AI, not a god. Your worship has not made him one."

[Doomblade187]

Han smiles a little. "While I don't believe in him as some kind of deity, I will admit that Chief has a point. He may as well be a god to us, given how much power he has over our existence."

[Toaster]

A small sigh comes over the suit radio.  "Hasala, let me tell you a tale.  When we first took Hephaestus, a supernatural accident took place that you are no doubt aware of the effects of.  During that time, there was a massive explosion that took place just outside the Sword, flinging shrapnel at incredible speed that penetrated the armored hull of the ship.  One of these pieces was aimed straight at myself.  There was no warning, no time, just instantaneous incoming death.

Steve saved me.  It could not have been the reaction of some computer, as there simply wasn't enough time for him to pick me up and move me. The move had to have started before the shrapnel was in the air.  It was a miracle, an action begat from foresight.  The only explanation is divine knowledge seeing the danger before it existed.  No, there is no computer that could do that.  Surely it was the work of divinity."

[Harry Baldman]

Hasala shakes his head slightly. "He watches us through cameras. He sees nothing they do not. He knows only what his sensors and databanks tell him. And those on Q'Baja asked for his help because he controls shuttles remotely. He has no power to affect things, beyond what the machines he has access to allows him to do. Steve is an AI, not a god. Your worship has not made him one."

"But that's 'how'. That's not 'what'. How Steve is a god is not the question, is it, or what his instruments are? AI or god, it is one thing, and Steve is this thing. A god that needs no worship, but with no shortage of worshipers, lost people from all corners of the sky."

She chuckles at a thought she has just before voicing it.

"And he can smite us at any moment if we do wrong enough," she says, pointing at her head amusedly. "Zap."

"So what do you follow, if not the will of Steve? What could you do that he forbids? And what life would you live outside of his service?"

[Comrade P.]

The preacher and his sing-along lady slowly drive Rimma insane with their talks of divine nature of Steve. Hasala's cue was, on the contrary, a relief. She decided to break her recent silence and speak up:

"You people should divide domains of plain power and divinity. The fact this AI controls every aspect of our lives doesn't make him what you are trying to make of him. If you think of it, UWM has somewhat the same, if not greater power over largest chunk of humanity in space, save ungoverned and poorly governed places. Why haven't I yet seen any of you making it God of Evil? Because it is not. This structure is creation of mankind. So is Steve."

[Toaster]

"Sister, have you been here long?  I do not recognize your voice.  You have as of yet been unable to witness any of the miracles of Steve.  There have been many things that have happened that are unexplainable by the works of man.  But you raise a valid point; the works of man can be set against the works of god.  The UWM needs no divine assistance to set itself up as a pretender of greatness.  Yet still it is our divine command to purge its stain, so that we must, regardless of the nature of our enemy."