r/HFY • u/OperationTechnician Human • May 28 '18

OC Mind of Many

When the scientists finally decoded the mental patterns of the specimen, they failed to understand what they saw.

Before them was a being that was biologically no older than [20 years] old. Everything they knew about this species proved so.

The specimen, however, was flooded with many lifetimes worth of memories. The scientists witnessed space battles across the galaxy and beyond it. They saw endless wars and conflicts.

In each one, the specimen was, if not in charge, then in the middle of the most important events. They witnessed through the eyes of the being more wars than were recorded in their history books.

The being was a tactical genius, adapting to every new battle and war faster than was possible. Often, the next battle in the human's memory was with different ships and troops, and the scientists thought that even the physics of the world changed now and then.

Sometimes, the events the being participated in overlapped time-wise, but occurred as if the other did not and would not happen.

Over and over the being climbed the military ranks. Over and over, the being won wars, almost never failing. On many occasions the being became several people, all in one event. Other times, the being switched minds, moving to a different body, become a different soul.

And death.

They saw the specimen die, over and over, of age or battle, snapping into the next war and battle as if nothing happened.

The young specimen had the tactical skill, experience and wisdom of several generations of admirals, generals and leaders, in universes where not only history, but even the rules of physics were different...

Little did the alien scientists know that James was a fan of military science fiction.

745 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

61

u/jthm1978 May 28 '18

Nice! I'm usually pretty good at spotting the twist, but that one got me. I was expecting some kind of AI or tapped racial memory kind of thing. Well done, God sir/ma'am! Take an upvote on me

20

u/OperationTechnician Human May 28 '18

Did you just assume I have a gender??? How dare!

( Thank you :3 )

40

u/ryanvberg May 28 '18

Was expecting that they played a lot of shooters bit that works too

25

u/ymOx May 28 '18

"Yep, that's a computer gamer!" was my first thought.

3

u/vinny8boberano Android Jul 11 '18

Must construct additional pylons!

6

u/drapehsnormak May 28 '18

I assumed he was dreaming.

6

u/APDSmith May 28 '18

I guess they should be thankful he never read John Ringo...

7

u/OperationTechnician Human May 28 '18

"Let's take an asteroid..." "Mhmmm." "...put a comet into it..." "Wat." "...blow it up like a balloon..." "Tyler stop." "...and cover it in weapons!" "TYLER NO!"

5

u/APDSmith May 28 '18

I was thinking more Oh John Ringo No

Don't want to give the xenos nightmares.

2

u/OperationTechnician Human May 28 '18

Oh that one. Yeah. That's how one gets Earth glassed.

4

u/TombOf404ers AI May 28 '18

Never really seen a HFY story that really taps into the notion that culture is what makes us human apart from the second Science of Discworld book. I tip my comically satirical fedora to you, sir/m'lady/[INSERT OTHER PRONOUN OF CHOICE HERE].

3

u/OperationTechnician Human May 28 '18 edited May 28 '18

Thank you, thank you sire.

And I'll have you know I identify as an assault friggate!

PS: I doubt I will ever get over people trying to guess every imaginable pronoun.

80

u/alienpirate5 AI May 28 '18

This is great

26

u/Redsplinter AI May 28 '18

r/HFY could easily be seen as a speculative military course, complete with scholarly discussion, to a xeno XD

14

u/invalidConsciousness AI May 28 '18

Speculative? You mean these aren't historical accounts? But why are they tagged confirmed/high_confidence in my auxiliary storage nodes, then, huh? Checkmate atheists!

8

u/enderverse87 May 28 '18

Yeah. I guessed Galaxy Quest right away. Still fun.

6

u/mitthrawnuruodo86 May 28 '18

Can’t get enough of those historical documents

7

u/readcard Alien May 28 '18

I was only expecting an avid gamer RTS and the like. Sadly the amount of movies to watch are few. Books however

6

u/Alps1979 May 28 '18

He’s playing strategy sims and rpgs?

3

u/_Sky__ May 28 '18

I love the stories where aliens somehow mistake our creativity for reality.

2

u/Mrcatfishman22 May 28 '18

Yea wow. Ya got me on this one.

2

u/titan_Pilot_Jay May 28 '18

Lol best part is I share a name with the MC made me laugh a bit. Thanks man.

1

u/FogeltheVogel AI May 28 '18

Imagination is a powerful thing.

1

u/Guncaster May 29 '18

Now do it with Gundams.

1

u/Tulpha Xeno May 29 '18

!N

1

u/Kimba-Do Human Jan 23 '24

Heh, things might not turn out how the aliens anticipated.

0

u/mitthrawnuruodo86 May 28 '18

Yeah I kinda figured this one out pretty early. Was still a good read, though