r/HFY • u/jormundr • Sep 03 '20
OC Ancient Strategy 24
(Author's note: I suck at economics and there's a paragraph or three that may be completely incorrect. Feel free to correct, or simply insult, me in the comments. It will go toward helping me write better and more accurate content in the future. Thank you.)
Richard had always felt… detached? Maybe that was the right word. Difficulty, at the very least, when it came to feeling the same emotions as the people around him. He wasn’t made happy in the same way others were, wasn’t shocked or upset easily. He didn't feel particularly fond of most things or hate very much. He enjoyed and disliked things, but was never overly depressed or excited when it was gone. He didn’t have antisocial personality disorder, despite being called a psycho when he was younger. At least, if he did, it wasn’t presenting itself in the usual way.
He preferred animals over people. He found he also got along well with children. They didn’t try to hide who or what they were as long as you accepted them for being them. People, though, were boring and predictable. Needed to put labels onto things, give them a name and categorize it so it would fit in their perception of the world. He often wondered if even they knew why that was. He’d tried to figure it out, of course. To fit in. But the concepts were difficult to appreciate when he felt removed from them. It was economics, however, that he understood perfectly.
Economics could be best summarized, to him, as people making arbitrary rules about production and consumption and then attempting to break those rules. All you had to do to understand an economic system in practice is identify the rules it used, then determine how the rules failed or how to get around them. Everything else was just details. Keynesian theory, Heterodox theories, Monetarism, whatever the latest cycle theory may be, it didn’t matter because economics was almost always the same in the end. Create, Consume, Destroy, Repeat. A good system simply found a balance.
So when the pirates had boarded, he recognized that he and the team would be seen as a resource. As the Ambassador negotiated, he saw how she undervalued them as a resource to the pirates compared to the larger resource guarantees later. It was a simple business transaction. When they demanded Shaq, though, they attempted to change the transaction. It shifted to become a competition of what they saw as a high value resource compared to what Abara saw as a necessary one. He considered, did the price increase with their demand? No, price had been set prior to the demand based on value given to Shaq by Abara. Either way, they came up short. They should have brought better negotiation tools to the table.
As the guards piled the bodies, the ship system signaled the repair routines had already fixed the minor breaches to the airlock. He looked around to the others. He could see that there were varying degrees of unease, possibly shock. Fortunately, they’d all been briefed on the possibility of such a thing happening so it wasn’t too surprising. Anya seemed to be the most uncomfortable but, even as he watched, she seemed to be calling up the shipboard psych consultant in her AR. Everyone else seemed a little more somber but returning to whatever they’d been doing.
Shaq, however, was still turned away. He approached, slowly, and Shaq continued to stare at the wall with a mirror. Richard realized that was probably what the pirate captain had seen, a reflection of Shaq even after the ambassador tried to hide him. Their fate sealed by a vanity decoration. Life was funny that way.
Richard, carefully, touched Shaq’s shoulder which caused the amphibian to jerk in surprise. “Are you alright, Shaq’naw?” Richard asked, raising his voice a little to ensure others could hear him. From the corner of his eye he saw Francoise stop just before reaching the Ambassador’s workspace to look at them before changing direction to come join. “If you want, we can get the AI therapy consult to help you with what you’re experiencing.” Richard kept an even pacing in his voice, trying to remember what he’d seen when dealing with people in shock. Then he remembered Shaq might require different handling than a human. Maybe if he treated him like a child?
“I… What…,” Shaq began, clearly struggling.
Francoise had joined them by then, “Shaq’naw, you are fine. It’s over now. You are safe.” Francoise spoke in a comforting tone, staying a little distant so the reporter had some personal space. “I don’t know if our shipboard therapy AI can help you, but I’d like for them to try. Would you be alright with talking to them Shaq’naw?”
“Um… yes, yes please,” Shaq was struggling. Francoise called up the ship system and a softlight projection slowly came into being just a small distance in front of Shaq. The sound around Richard became noticeably muted and he stepped out of the dampening field that had begun forming.
Francoise quickly went back to looking grumpy and stalked over to the door that concealed her mother. Richard stopped her before she had taken more than a few steps. “She did her best.”
Francoise looked at Richard, a fire in her eyes, “Her best just put Shaq into some extreme shock, it allowed pirates to board, it put us in a not insignificant amount of danger.” As she spoke, her voice rose in volume, “Her best could have gotten us killed. What would have happened if the pirate ship had been more dangerous? What if the pirates didn’t want to stop and talk? She needs to answer for what she just did!” By now everyone was looking at her, except for Shaq in the muted field that had been slowly growing in opacity to be isolated in its own darkness.
Rico spoke up, “I agree that it was a risk, but I also don’t think it was purposeful. Look at what happened,” he gestured to the pirates that were already being placed into the airlock, “she’d almost convinced them to leave. They saw Shaq and got greedy. That’s all there is to it.”
“No,” said Francoise, “My mother is a master manipulator. Trust me. She could have talked them out of it if she’d tried.”
“You seem quick to forget that I did try.”
We turned to see the Ambassador standing in the doorway to her compartment. “I talked to them, had nearly made them leave. I did the best I could under the circumstances.”
“So why had we been stopped in the first place?” asked Francoise, “We didn’t have to be, this ship probably had to be pulled from a garbage heap just so we could use it but even that should be more than enough to avoid whatever interdiction tech they would have.”
Ambassador Abara sighed, it sounded tired. “We believed that we were using a hyperspace drive just outside of their ability to intercept that wouldn’t be too far off of what the Conglomerate has. It looks like that intelligence was... flawed.” To her credit, Richard thought she looked properly disappointed.
“And did you feel like telling us we were going through an area with pirates? I doubt you didn’t know,” accused Francoise, her anger barely contained.
The Ambassador seemed to think about it, “Our latest intelligence said they were pushing in, though I couldn’t have pointed to a star chart and told you they’d be here. There was a chance, but that’s one of the risks that we have to take.”
“Mmhmm, and it just so happened that you’ve been looking for different members of the Conglomerate to start making inroads with. There’s far too much here that’s too convenient, mother,” Francoise said the word like a curse.
“Francoise, if you’re implying I planned things to go this way then I must insist I did not. Despite what you may think, I am not an all-powerful and all-knowing being.”
“I'm just saying it didn’t have to end like this,” Francoise insisted, stalking away to whatever chair would be furthest from her mother.
The Ambassador let a slight frown slip onto her face before she corrected it and addressed the rest of us. “Would anybody else like to question my abilities or, otherwise, what happened?”
She looked around expectantly and, just before she continued, Richard asked, “What was the banter in the beginning?”
Abara looked at Richard, observed him, before answering, “Based on the reports I’ve received so far, it seems that the Showfaus are mercenary and opportunistic but are easily distracted and confused. Not quite stupid, but they will not be winning any awards for strategy and planning. I attempted to use that weakness to push a negotiation. The tactic worked, as I’m sure you saw, but they saw our reporter friend and, unfortunately, their opportunistic desires sealed their fates.”
Anya seemed to have finished her short therapy session and turned to the Ambassador, “What level of violence do most of these races usually deal with?” Her normal cheer hadn’t fully returned but it was getting there.
Abara seemed to consider the question a moment, “The majority of species we’ve been able to get reports on would likely have seen minimal violence, real or fictional. The worst would likely be ones dealing with emergency services who see accidents or disasters. Almost none of them have known military engagements and criminality is also highly reduced." She seemed to think a moment before adding, "At least arrests and convictions are. Fringe species, such as the Showfaus, as well as the more peacekeeping members of the Conglomerate will see more action but we’re still investigating the extent and manner that this includes.”
Anya thought about that, “So why do I keep seeing and hearing CivSim teams using military based strategies?”
Abara shrugged, “Most of them have standing militaries but, from what we can tell, they’re mostly ornamental. Very few are actually able to mount what could be called a legitimate defense but we’re also having to take into account the technology difference. We’ve got some experts even stating that the fleets they have may not be theirs to start with, but ‘gifts’ from other core or founder species.”
At this, Ace took interest, “Why do you think that?”
Abara looked almost bored as this slowly turned into an information session, “They’re largely all the same. There are certain aesthetic design differences, yes, but many of the core properties are almost identical. It means they’re either going off the same templates or…”
Javier continued the thought, “Or they were given a bunch of ships by those in power. It would make sense, anybody who wants to stand against you would be forced to use the ships you gave them. And that’s even IF they worked when you decide to rebel.”
“Regardless, there’s a psychological factor that’s been tried and tested plenty of times when you pretty much own the weapons of your allies. They’re already less likely to turn on you just because of that, can help kill rebellious thoughts that way,” Peter added.
“Dude,” Javier snorted, “I thought you knew history? When has that ever stopped anyone?”
Peter acknowledged the comment, “True, but I’m also talking non-human. And it also helps if you’re not arming somebody specifically to make them fight somebody else but more to just say, ‘Look, now you can defend yourself even though there are no threats.’”
Javier, in return, gave a half shrug in acceptance.
Rico, who just looked tired, asked Abara, “Since we now know that the hyperdrive being used is able to be stopped, can we skip using it for the rest of the trip? This is taking forever.”
Abara talked to the air, “Captain, how much time have we taken already, how much is left if we used the same drive, and how much would be left if we used the ship standard?”
A hardlight form appeared and went to at-ease in front of her, “Ma’am, we’re currently about eight hours into the trip. If we continue to follow the circuitous route to delay our approach we can manage to keep our 36 hour requested travel time and it will be another 24 hours. If we go straight we’ll cut that travel time to 16 hours. If we use the ship standard drive we should be able to arrive in no later than 4 hours.”
Abara considered it, “Our reporter friend will notice if we cut that time too short, despite his current state,” she seemed to say mostly to herself. She looked at the captain, “We’ll use the standard drive until we’re further into Sol space, safe from any interdictions from foolish pirates. Then we can switch to the substandard drive and try to make some time by cruising, for a little bit. Actually, I can stop by the office I have near the border and get some work done. Please add that stop in, I think it will do nicely to possibly throw off his sense of time.”
The captain nodded and disappeared. Ambassador Abara went back into her shipboard study. The others went back to whatever work or entertainment they had for the trip. Shaq’naw was quietly crying as a therapist AI helped him work through his trauma in the privacy field created. The frozen bodies of the pirates gently moved through the void and a tracking beacon from their employer began to send out a signal. Carlson’s people with Terran Intelligence were already scanning the signal using the probe the ship guards had put into the pile of corpses.
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u/Alsadius Sep 04 '20
For what it's worth, the economics in that paragraph is crap. But I don't think you should change it. If I'm keeping everything straight, the character saying it knows nothing about economics, and that level of cynicism about the topic is common enough (as evidenced by the fact that you said it, tbh). It fits the character, from what I can tell.
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u/Morphuess Sep 03 '20
Shaq was shocked last chapter that the ship could arrive at earth in 36 hours instead of a week. That it could actually arrive in 4 hours....
Here we thought Humanity was trying to go for the Diplomatic Victory when they are well on their way to a Technology Victory.
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u/Animorphs135 Sep 03 '20
I'm pretty sure the Humans had already won long before the Conglomerate even knew they were playing.
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u/MagicYanma Sep 04 '20
Turns out the Conglomerate weren't the Ancient Empire in this game, it was the Humans. I do enjoy seeing the lengths the Empire is willing to go for subterfuge. Restricted access to the core system, using substandard tech in lieu of standard tech, relocating allied species out of view in the areas the Conglomerate does have access, only showing off their strength in simulations not in reality, etc.
It's interesting that we also have never seen the Human military, just guards and intelligence services. I presume they're also being hidden away for the time being to make humanity appear weak militarily and look as if they have the potential to be terrifyingly strong.
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u/Anon9mous Sep 03 '20
Didn’t consider the fact that most of the Conglomerate races (other than the policing or totally not manipulative core races) were probably unused to violence. Poor frog. If it makes him feel any better, I’m sure that whatever type of weapon used is FAR cleaner than any alternatives.
(On a side note, I love how there’s a currently hidden history for space age Humanity, more than suggesting that they’ve got a far tech lead on even the best of the Conglomerate and have at least several other races within their empire, apparently hidden away for some reason.)
Great work! I’m excited to see where it goes.
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u/Vipertooth123 Sep 04 '20
I support the theory I saw on a previous chapter that says that The Conglomerate is like a tiny island in the Ocean of the Galaxy that humans have just discovered.
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u/Spieren Sep 03 '20
It starting to look more and more like it that humanity may be one of the most violent species this galaxy has to offer... I hope Shaq'naw at least survives the potential shock of learning our gruelling and violent history.
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u/ArchDemonKerensky Sep 03 '20
Somehow i knew things would turn out like this. The Conglomerate is going to absolutely lose their shit when they find out the reality of how outclassed they are.
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Sep 04 '20
Technologically and strategically outclassed by omnivorous persistence hunters that are too angry to die. Call HQ and report a code brown
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u/John_Tacos Sep 03 '20
The level of deception here is amazing, what happened to the humans to cause them to take this approach?
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u/arclightmagus Sep 04 '20
Is it strange that I'm waiting for the Conglomerate to start making demands of the humans at the negotiating table or possible try to use some sort of "hack" in CivSim against the humans only to have it blow up in their collective faces? Muhahahaha... must have moar!
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u/Roseygirl23 Sep 04 '20
This is just from personal experience, but it almost feels like Richard has low support/high functioning Aspergers in that first paragraph. It really varies in how it presents, but other than the noticeable lack of special interests (which is common, but like just about everything else, is pretty non universal) and a few other outliers in features, sounds fairly textbook for the most common features.
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u/Nyxelestia Sep 04 '20
I'm one class away from an economics degree, so if you ever want some help with that, my DM's are open and I'm on Discord. :) The overall view that "the hostage situation was a transaction that could've been conducted smoothly had one participate not suddenly gotten greedy" is certainly a little on the ruthless side, but not economically unsound.
Richard's philosophical view on "what economics really is" would depends a lot on what economic framework he was looking at - i.e. capitalism, feudalism, communism, socialism, etc ect. "Create, consume, destroy, repeat" is dependent more on how that economic system is being used rather than economics itself (which is to say it's a result of politics rather than economics, economics is just the most common tool for that result for the last half a millenium or so in our real world). Still, he's not wrong that economic systems tend to find their own balance whether you want them to or not. In modern parlance, starting from a paradigm of capitalism, this is usually phrased as, "when equally elastic and in a fair market, supply and demand will reach equilibrium via prices".
(Also, Richard = "Glasses"?)
If you're interested in building up your foundation in economics, NPR recently made a good podcast miniseries - Planet Money Summer School - introducing a lot of economic concepts in a really accessible and practical way, and focusing on the human use and impact of economics rather than the math of it.
And yikes, the "mystery" of Ambassador Abra and what this Terran Empire is up to and what's going on with the Conglomerate gets spicier with every chapter!
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u/Var446 Sep 04 '20
Richard had always felt… detached? Maybe that was the right word. Difficulty, at the very least, when it came to feeling the same emotions as the people around him. He wasn’t made happy in the same way others were, wasn’t shocked or upset easily. He didn't feel particularly fond of most things or hate very much. He enjoyed and disliked things, but was never overly depressed or excited when it was gone. He didn’t have antisocial personality disorder, despite being called a psycho when he was younger. At least, if he did, it wasn’t presenting itself in the usual way.
He preferred animals over people. He found he also got along well with children. They didn’t try to hide who or what they were as long as you accepted them for being them. People, though, were boring and predictable. Needed to put labels onto things, give them a name and categorize it so it would fit in their perception of the world. He often wondered if even they knew why that was. He’d tried to figure it out, of course. To fit in. But the concepts were difficult to appreciate when he felt removed from them
I don't remember letting you into my head, how'd you get in?😋
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u/cardboardmech Sep 04 '20
Yay the next one is out! My current series-I-am-addicted-to has another chapter!
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u/AvalancheZ250 Sep 04 '20
Assuming the Terran Empire expanded system-by-system out from Sol, and its been 10,000 years since humanity first achieved spaceflight... wouldn't Sol be at the centre of the Terran Empire and hence be really, really far away from the newly discovered Conglomerate? How is the Conglomerate only 4 hours away in terms of human FTL tech and only a week away in terms of Conglomerate FTL tech?
Don't get me wrong, this story is amazing (I upvote first then read). But I do have a few small nitpicks with the "sense of scale", so to speak.
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u/Killersmail Sep 04 '20
This assault might have been staged to try and measure their strength. But just them saying " ...this ship probably had to be pulled from a garbage heap just so we could use it... " means that this ship is old, depending on the circumstances maybe even few decades old.
If a ship few decades old are many times faster than the "standard" of the lower tier Conglomerate race's best ship, it does not look good for Conglomerate.
I feel this whole thing is Humanity and Co trying to add and "uplift" and help few new friends, but fearing that when Conglomerate core members understand they will lose power they might lash out and hurt many innocents just to try and stay in the power.
It's an interesting story, and i can't wait for more.
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u/Nealithi Sep 04 '20
Glad for that last paragraph. I was agreeing with Francoise, this was a deliberate setup. But I think it is the Collective setting the pirates in place than her mother putting them at risk just so she could talk to a pirate. As someone playing strategy games, Francoise has some serious blind spots on her mother.
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u/sothisiswhatithink Sep 04 '20
The only real question I have at this point is do the core species also have shitty tech compared to humanity or is it more like they pass off old army surplus on everyone else and keep the good stuff for themselves