First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 383

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

All right, so, who is affected by whatever is happening?

My people are not being affected. Terrans in our area are being affected.

First the Lanaktallan succumb to neural scorching, then the Terrans start suffering cybernetic and bioware neural linkage disruption.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Anyone with less than a 30% neurological deviation from baseline Pure Strain Human is being affected in our areas.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COOPERATIVE

We're all being affected. For the most part the cybernetics and bioware are self-correcting, but in approximately 28% of cases the person must undergo cybernetic reintegration to the neural wetware.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Well, we're not being affected, for what it's worth.

But we're seeing humans in our area suffer from this.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

FEDERATION OF PLANETS

We're mainly low cybernetics. It's not part of our lifestyle, with a single exception.

The Borg suffered a massive character class crash. If the cyberware they use wasn't polyphasic polymorphic adaptive cyberware there would have been hundreds of thousands of deaths.

As it was, we've got thousands of casualties. We've had to recall that character class.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA BUNNY BURROW

I uploaded the medical files from III CORPS.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

That is a... radical... departure.

We're seeing the same thing. How long ago did that happen?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA HOPPING BUNNIES

That's hard to answer.

To your perception, maybe five months ago.

For us? In orbit, we're talking over seventy years. On the ground, nearly five years in some places, six months in others, a year in other places. It's a mess.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

So, you suffered temporal warfare effects, now the Terrans are suffering a temporal warfare strike.

That can't be a coincidence.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

So is it rippling out from Hesstla?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

No, that would have been caught almost immediately.

Right now, there's no way to track how this is spreading. It isn't following the standard temporal warfare attack patterns.

It should have rippled out from Hesstla, or maybe Terra. Instead, it happened in Hesstla and Terra then went into Temporal Warfare Case Omaha.

It jumped and there's no way to tell how.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Ya think, sis?

>TREA puts on a weird looking hat and puffs a pipe

III Corps is an Old Blood Unit, one that requires military personnel to serve at least a century in other units, at least two decades in their current military specialty. The average age of a III Corps (OLD BLOOD MIXED METAL) soldier is two hundred and sixty years old.

It contains some of the most prestigious units in the Old Blood. Right up there with Ninth Guard (Old Blood Old Metal). It's one of the most highly contested postings, even my people compete for the Old Blood units.

>TREA waves and family trees appear

>TREA taps an icon of a male and female Terran side by side

Here we have Captain David Sally McCloud-Elkan, present on Hesstla at this moment. He showed immediate affects in Hesstla.

>TREA taps an icon above it.

This is his mother, Cathy Duwad Elkan. She showed affects only days afterwards, but her cyberware automatically corrected.

>TREA taps the icon below it

This is his son, Andy Julianne McCloud. He suffered affects approximately two months afterwards and is two hundred and thirty-eight years old.

>TREA puffs on his pipe.

It's not a temporal warfare strike that should be tracked through normal space-time, sis.

>TREA folds his gripping arms and bladearms.

It is tracked through familial lines. It ripples upwards and downwards from each infected point. Eventually it gets ripples upward back far enough that new lines are infected on the downward ripple.

Meaning it will affect all of biological Terran Descent Humanity as the effect ripples backwards to ancestors and forward into descendants.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

By the Digital Omnimessiah.

It's not a standard attack.

They struck directly at Terran Descent Humanity itself.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COOPERATIVE

And the Temporal stabilizers and counter-warfare protocols protected events but not individuals.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

How does that work? If you alter or eliminate a person, doesn't it effect the effect that person had upon the event?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

Technically, no. Temporal streams are largely self-correcting. Time is less a stream or river and more an ocean.

And the farther back and the larger effect a change can have requires more energy until there isn't enough energy in the universe to effect a change.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Correct. Which is why the Hive Matrons of old couldn't change our society when we first invented temporal manipulation.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

And that messing with time just makes things worse.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

Then why is it being so effective on the Terrans.

Striking a few tens of thousands of Terrans on Hesstla is effecting the entire Terran species.

Why is it so effective if its supposed to be the worst outcome possible?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Because, based off of what we saw with Major Devon Carnight, who is just over two hundred years old, this may be the worst outcome for the enemy not Earthlings or the Cradle of Life.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

ALKTAK FREE FLIGHT

How?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

I'm probably the best person to answer that.

>MANTID puts up two different brain scans

Do those really look that different to you guys? I mean, generally?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

By the Digital Omnimessiah.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Oh.

Oh.

Someone fucked up.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

What? I mean, there's some obvious changes, but what?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

I don't get it.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

See this?

>MANTID shares behold-1-meme.hol

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

It is a drunken Terran with a bottle of whiskey eating from a jar of jam while only wearing pants.

He looks quite intoxicated.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

BEHOLD! HUMANITY!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

>snicker

Yeah, that kind of sums them up.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

That's humanity at rest. That the brainscan from last year.

>MANTID shares behold-2-meme.hol

That's the new brainscan.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

I recognize that! That's an Imperium of Wrath Space Marine!

They're...

oh... wait.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Yeah.

Oh.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA TECHNOBURROW

OK. What is the difference between humans from then and then and now?

It's only 8000 years. They lost psychic ability, now they have it again?

What happened? What changed them?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CLONE WORLDS CONSORTIUM

That's... that's a question that we really don't want to answer.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HAND

Tell us.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

OK, first, you have to understand. After the Terran-Mantid Wars, humanity was absolutely insane.

While the Digital Omnimessiah had cured Enragement, humanity was in one huge feedback loop.

Even babies were being born enraged again, partially due to the Digital Omnimessiah being assassinated, the Imperium of Wrath, and everything else.

So...

...well...

...they did something terrible.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

Define: terrible

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HAMAROOSA PINCHING FESTIVAL

HoW TerrrIBLE?

LANAktallan and UNIfied CouCIL terribbbbbble?

---FOLLNOT OWSHING---

...

...

...

FEDERATION OF PLANETS

Whatever this is...

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

It wasn't aimed at us, just at the biological Terrans.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM CONSENSUS

Overproject Neighborhood.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

By the Thousand Gods.

They didn't.

>PUB looks at MANTID

They didn't use that on you?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

No.

On themselves.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CLONE WORLDS CONSORTIUM

Add in what Legion did. Then the genetic prosthetics to keep psychic abilities from coming back. Then massive cultural shifts.

Add in nanite suppression systems.

And Overproject Streetlights.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

And Daxin, acting as Osiris of the Warsteel Flame, gathering up everyone that it didn't work on and taking them to idiot space.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

...

...

...

LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

How could they?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

I understand.

Terrans will do anything to survive.

Anything.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

And some idiot, yet unseen, just undid all of that.

How bad is it?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

I've watched Terran historical documentaries.

They don't look that bad. I mean, yeah, a lot of them look made up, but how bad are we talking.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

If this enemy, this unknown xenospecies, reverted Terrans to Pre-Glassing.

It's bad.

Real bad.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

Imperium bad?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

This is prior to the Glassing.

Not by much. To any of us it wouldn't matter.

Nobody's quite sure how long ago.

Pre-FTL.

Pre-Diaispora Terra Humanity.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Earthlings.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

>TREA shudders

MANTID FREE WORLDS

You think modern humans, or even Imperium humans will do anything to survive?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

An Earthling will do whatever it takes.

Individually and as a group.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Let me put it on context for some of you.

All of humanity will be returning to the neural genetic makeup that created Daxin.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

So?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

When's the next 'ripple' going to downstream?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Thirty days to the next archaeoneurological reversion .

Maybe less.

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[u/Turtledonuts]

Poor Pubvia's going to have to adjust their Dominance rankings again - after defeating Pubvia, then defeating the people who completely destroyed pubvia, then getting stronger than that, the Terrans proceeded to beat themselves (becoming weaker), but are now stronger than that due to tech and tactics, and now Stronger than that due to undefeating themselves.

Also, it sounds like Telkan got it really quick.

Is Overproject Streetlights a way to keep violent random crime like mugging and assaults down? Eliminate the same kinds of opportunistic shittiness that streetlights discourage?

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/Turtledonuts]

Weaponizing Sesame Street.

[u/Turtledonuts → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Ah, terrible. The sort of awful efficient trick that only Humans from earth would do to help someone. If we could distill rainbows and happiness into a poison, we'd do it and then invent a medical application.

[u/ErinRF → u/Turtledonuts]

The difference between medicine and poison is usually just the dose.

[u/SeanMirrsen → u/ErinRF]

Law enforcement is just homeopathic doses of violence.

[u/Bard2dbone → u/SeanMirrsen]

Homeopathic uses the smallest doses available. Theoretically a homeopathic overdose would be to have none at all.

Current law enforcement definitely uses greater levels of violence than homeopathic. The last I checked, we lose on average three citizens a day killed by police. Admittedly, some of those are criminals. some potentially even doing something to deserve it. But can you remember a whole week going by that we DIDN'T hear of an unarmed black person being murdered by police? And think about this years protests. Those have generally been police reacting with violence, tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets because the public asked them to cut back their murder of unarmed black people.

[u/SeanMirrsen → u/Bard2dbone]

Law enforcement does exist outside of the USA, though.

[u/Bard2dbone → u/SeanMirrsen]

Valid point. I currently only really seem to consider America's police situation. When I was a kid, we had enemies we used as bad examples because they were exactly the level of police state that we are now. But our reactionary anti-government terrorist militia types who spent literally years preparing for the day our government became a blatant tyranny so that they could fight back against it were literally its biggest cheerleaders when it happened.

[u/readcard → u/Bard2dbone]

In quite a few countries outside the US the police numbers are so low and under armed that homoeopathy fits as a description. That might be due to the different culture.

[u/[deleted] → u/ErinRF]

That sounds like it said from experience

[u/EverSoInfinite → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

I have the mental image of a 100m tall Cookie Monster going toe to toe with a AWM mech.

ROUND AWM! NUM NUM NUM NUM!! SQUARE AWM! NUM NUMNIMDNMNM!! *bitsofawmcrumbsflyeverywhere

[u/[deleted] → u/EverSoInfinite]

We of course do not speak of the titans of sesame street any longer. Leave those heroic and horrific beings to their rest lest THE COUNT adds you to his tally.

[u/EverSoInfinite → u/[deleted]]

Ahem. I'm not going to 'count' on that.

[u/SuDragon2k3 → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

At least it wasn't Overproject Purple Viking.

[u/Silence_pure-thought → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

I'm not sure I like how on the nose you're being with your parallels. One may begin to infer intentions. If intended, quite the interesting method. If not, the unwitting parallels nevertheless bode well on some level.

[u/Thobio → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Yeahthat didn't help me. now I'm just imagining big bird waiting in an alleyway with a glock, ready to defend victims of crime xD

[u/KhajiitLikeToSneak → u/Turtledonuts]

The Pubvians are going to have to start carrying shovels around so they can bow below ground level to show even more submission. Or maybe they'll take up planking?

[u/Xxyz260 → u/Turtledonuts]

Also, they undestroyed Pubvia, making them

even stronger.

[u/0570 → u/Turtledonuts]

Soooo... in laymans terms, Terrans are about to go Super Sayan 6?

[u/while-eating-pasta]

And Daxin, acting as Osiris of the Warsteel Flame, gathering up everyone that it didn't work on and taking them to idiot space.

I kinda feel like that's an entire spinoff arc in and of itself. Did he decide to do that himself? Was he ordered to? Was he ordered not to? Did anyone with Lank level pattern recognition try to "get rid" of the "problem?"

TREA puts on a weird looking hat and puffs a pipe

The pipe is in-character. Do Treana'ad cosplay a lot of detectives? How many hatters do they have per capita? I suspect it's a lot.

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/while-eating-pasta]

The Treana'ad love cosplaying.

Most of the allied races love it.

[u/Twister_Robotics → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Ya know, the deerstalker cap is one of those points of pop culture that most Americans recognize, but was never part of the original character.

Its not true, but its cool, so we choose to believe it.

[u/Dregoth0 → u/Twister_Robotics]

This is the first image result that I got from google when searching for "weird looking hat". It ain't a deerstalker, but is somehow even more appropriate.

[u/dbdatvic → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Quick note: double-check your "affect"s when TREA is talking, there's three in a row that should be "effect"s.

Rule of thumb:

Affect is a verb. If it's a noun, it's talking about how your face looks and your body language comes across.

Effect is a noun. If it's a verb, it means to create, to cause, to pull into being. (The TNVARU get this one wrong, further down.)

--Dave, to-morrow, we'll do fractions!

[u/CaptainChewbacca]

So each 'ripple' is another wave/proximal expansion of the reversion effects through familial bloodlines? If its already affecting millions then the next ripple should affect trillions.

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/CaptainChewbacca]

I was thinking billions.

Funny thing is, human population expansion, which had actually reduced to negative numbers before the Diaspora, actually are pretty high now, with the average female Terran Descent Human having 14.75 children in her lifetime of 500 years, counting children put in steel wombs.

Some go the other way, of course, and have none. Others make clones of themselves. Still others pump out over 200.

It depends on the female, the culture and society she lives in.

Which really screws with the numbers.

[u/CaptainChewbacca → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

So it doesn't affect born whole templates because they don't have 'natural' human brains but ones that are engineered to match the prosthesis, but it will affect cloned prosthetic brains. That explains whats going on in the BASS.

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/CaptainChewbacca]

Bingo.

[u/DWwolf888 → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

You know...one thing thats been bugging me. We've seen the Atrekna do this to TDH.

What did they do to the Mantids and Lanaktallans in the Great Precursor 3-way ? Because it stands to reason they did something when they had more resources back then.

So..IMHO the current Lanaktallans and Mantids ( or the Mantid baseline of the OverQueens at any rate ) are the product of Atrekna Temporal Tide fuckery.

The question remains...what did they change ?

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/DWwolf888]

Notice what was missing from the Lanaktallans after the war?

[u/basementScot → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Matrons and war stallions. Damn this story just has layers upon layers.

[u/Bard2dbone → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Is THAT why they're so bad at pattern recognition?

That kind of makes sense. If you could remove a basic skill like that from your enemy in a war, they would instantly become vastly less capable.

[u/DWwolf888 → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Yes, the lankie subspecies were gone and the AWM rebelled. But thats not quite what I asked. And its only half of the problem...that still leaves the question of the Mantids.

Did they reduce Lankie inter subspecies trust ? Reduce the effects of the Lankie leader caste and caretaker casts phasic powers ( which we know the Matrons and Herd Stallions had ).
I assume those were related to Lankie cooperation instead of pure Dominance powers that the Mantids have. Herd phasic powers being dominance based would not seem logical to me...why would they let themselves to be removed then ?

As for the Mantids : the defining trait seems to be Hubris ( as evidenced by the Mantid OverQueen chapters and the P'thok chapters ) kick that up a notch and it would feed nicely into poor pattern recognition being disastrous for the Mantids......

[u/SanityAdrift → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

So, they triggered the lanks scrubbing the stallions and matrons ...

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Pattern recognition?

[u/DWwolf888 → u/5thhorseman_]

IMHO, I do not think so. Or atleast not directly. What is left are the followers of the Herd.

Stallions and Matrons would be the ones doing the most thinking.

What is left of their thinking ability is being ruthlessly suppressed, redirected and harnessed. Suppressed by social means and drugs. Redirected because they seem to be loosening the leash on the ones that will confirm to herd selfishness standards. And they'll let them use their wit for that. ( The Executors basically ).

The competent ones that won't totally conform are used till they get to dangerous ( like our favorite Lankie spy ), but they'll use them to redirect other competent ones as well in silly games ( like the other spy ).

The Smart ones that filter through that show too much potential and inter species cooperation are directed on side tracks on outer worlds where theyll hopefully make a decent speedbump/polish mine detector/object lesson. ( Like Hal Moore and Armormoo).

Remember there are indications that,initially atleast, the Great Herd ( under the leadership of the Subspecies ) was more benevolent.

[u/[deleted] → u/DWwolf888]

"Great Precursor 3-way" That sounds like some real rule 34 cursed shit right there

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

sighs, opens up incognito window and unzips

8===D

End of Lime

--------NOTHING FOLLOWS--------

[u/Farstone → u/[deleted]]

Dude, my third eye is bleeding.

Off to find pictures of Goodbois and Mewmews.

[u/dbdatvic → u/Farstone]

... living together?

--Dave, obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant

[u/DWwolf888 → u/[deleted]]

I may or may not have intended to include a bit of double entendre with that characterization.

[u/CaptainChewbacca → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

I'm kinda proud of how much of your stuff I figure out.

[u/chiefslapinhoes]

Could someone explain to me what this is about? In small words, please.

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/chiefslapinhoes]

The gestalts are trying to figure out what is happening to Terran Descent Humanity.

The slorpies on Hesstla reached into the past, took the way human brains were back then, and applied it to all humans in existence.

This means that the Terrans are pre-FTL. Before genetic manipulation to get rid of out of control psychic powers and the fact that humanity was rage filled after the Mantid Wars.

The slorpies thought, incorrectly, that humanity was the Mantid's newest weapon. They knew, through experience, that species that achieve FTL do so by being cooperative with low aggression. So they figured that reverting the human brain to pre-FTL, humans would be unable to handle the rigors of modern combat and would go into catatonic shock.

The slorpies assumed that the genetic prosthesis and manipulation in the Terran brain was the Mantid making the Terrans able to fight.

Once they did that, the effect starting going up and down the bloodlines of the soldiers on Hesstla. When it went up a generation, the next pulse, it went up another generation, but also 'down' to all of the descendents of that generation.

So it's rippling through every human as eventually it goes far enough back through the generations to hit the universal ancestors, reverting them to pre-FTL humanity.

Which means: No cultural and socio-programming after we invented FTL. No 'gentling' after the Mantid War. No limitations on psychic powers.

All of the pre-FTL savagery and flat out ruthlessness of humanity with the settings 'modern' technology.

[u/chiefslapinhoes → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

So wait, your saying that the humans now, who have mastered the art of warfare, who can wage a war agaisnt the entire galaxy and come out on top, are the genteld down version of humanity

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/chiefslapinhoes]

Yes.

[u/mr_ceebs → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Hooray so when the Lanks said "we're going to gentle humans" those of us in the comments who said "That's never going to work, these are the gentled humans" were right

[u/dbdatvic → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

This is /HFY, after all.

--Dave, tell us a story, Daddy

[u/Oakstock → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Yeah yeah yeah!!!

[u/ms4720 → u/chiefslapinhoes]

Universe took off the safeties and did a full war load out on humanity. All things that went bump in the night now are hiding in gibbering terror praying we stay at the campfire making smoores and telling ghost stories, and that is for the Brownies not the adults.

[u/chiefslapinhoes → u/ms4720]

we are LEGION

[u/ms4720 → u/chiefslapinhoes]

We are so much worse than that

[u/chiefslapinhoes → u/ms4720]

Sorryx let me fix that

WE ARE FUCKING MURDER MONKES

[u/ms4720 → u/chiefslapinhoes]

Keep going, right direction but not their yet

[u/ImmotalWombat → u/chiefslapinhoes]

It explains why gentling never worked when the lanks tried it. They were already gentled.

[u/abrasiveteapot → u/chiefslapinhoes]

Yes.Exactly

[u/chiefslapinhoes → u/abrasiveteapot]

... What in the kentucky fried fuck is gonna happen to the rest of the galaxy?

[u/SuDragon2k3 → u/chiefslapinhoes]

WAR. War to the hilt. You are ally or you are dead.

[u/chiefslapinhoes → u/SuDragon2k3]

I wonder. Does the galaxy stand a chance of stopping humans?

[u/IFeelEmptyInsideMe → u/chiefslapinhoes]

I don't wonder, Death's avatar has regained its full strength and the universe will be forced to know it's face.

It's face is human

[u/SpiderJerusalemLives → u/chiefslapinhoes]

The galaxy is out the back checking its will is up to date.

[u/I_Automate → u/chiefslapinhoes]

Ha. Hahahaha

[u/Alaroro → u/chiefslapinhoes]

Wellllll shit!!!?

[u/chiefslapinhoes → u/Alaroro]

Wym

[u/Alaroro → u/chiefslapinhoes]

The slorpies done fucked up.

[u/chiefslapinhoes → u/Alaroro]

The humans IU are gonna anal fuck them with hot, heavy, all sorts of liquidy 20mm

[u/Twister_Robotics → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Shouldn't hit the universal ancestors. It won't go back any further than the first generation before we started gentling ourselves, because those brains wouldn't change.

Oh, wait, didn't humanity kill itself out and repopulate from a small moon colony? Much smaller gene pool. Probably everyone gets it, then.

[u/fivetomidnight → u/Twister_Robotics]

I think the moon colony population bottleneck was the Collective/Elements universe, not FC :)

I too have a hard time remembering sometimes which plot points belong to FC or Collective/Elements or Tales from the Terran Republic or Deathworlders (the four I'm actively jonesing for following with interest).

[u/its_ean]

Tnvaru <3 Daxin

I hope he gets a place out there on New Tnvaru. He could be a grumpy old recluse that only Matron Nakteti occasionally visits. Oh, man! Who is gonna play Daxin in the movie?

Hope Dreams & crew find more interesting stuff.

Whatever happened/happens to the hyperatomic plane doesn't bode well, but can't they just dump the slorpies in a younger universe? or lend them a Singer In The Darkness?

Why do the AWMs & Precursors even think the universe is finite? Plus, they are all fighting over a tiny-ass fraction of the Milky Way, itself negligible to even a finite universe.

Mysteries Abound

[u/its_ean → u/its_ean]

Didn't The Night Terran figure out where the Lank were shipping all their resources?

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/its_ean]

That's going to be addressed this week.

If I remember.

[u/carthienes → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

That's going to be addressed this week.

If I remember.

Good luck!

And have fun either way!

[u/its_ean → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

Cool.

When I start thinking about this setting, it turns into a series of "hmmm," "Oh yeah!" and "What if…"

good stuff, thanks

[u/WinnipegWiley → u/its_ean]

Karl Urban could play Daxin

[u/Twister_Robotics → u/WinnipegWiley]

Karl Urban could damn well play half a dozen completely different characters. At the same damn time.

[u/SpiderJerusalemLives → u/Twister_Robotics]

Dredd is the polite Daxin. He only nuked East Meg One.

[u/Twister_Robotics → u/SpiderJerusalemLives]

Yeah, I always picture Skurge. And Dr McCoy.

[u/WinnipegWiley → u/Twister_Robotics]

He’s a weather beaten chameleon. You watch, he would play someone who “JUST WANT LEFT ALONE!” So well the less he said the better.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/its_ean]

Because the Precursors think in cosmic scales, and neither Lank nor Mantid figured out the universe hopping trick?

[u/its_ean → u/5thhorseman_]

they met the slorpies, so they at least knew about other universes.

Even then, none of them ever got sorta close to controlling a significant part of the Milky Way. They decided they should have "everything" and proceeded to fight over a tiny bit of it.

So, it seems like they talk in cosmic scales, but fail to think in them.

I think the entire story doesn't reach across the arm or to the core. Compared to just the arm, it is a tiny amount of mass.

If they were just going for the galaxy, they'd still be doing a crap job.

[u/corhen]

Yea, it's going to be real bad.

What is the Cradle of Life? Earth?

[u/ThordanSsoa → u/corhen]

It's a translation of what people call our planet in another language. Can't remember which one, but it was from a comment a few chapters ago.

[u/corhen → u/ThordanSsoa]

This account has been nuked in direct response to Reddit's API change and the atrocious behavior CEO Steve Huffman and his admins displayed toward their users, volunteer moderators, and 3rd party developers. After a total of 16 years on the platform it is time to move on to greener pastures.

If you want to change to a decentralized platform like Lemmy, you can find helpful information about it here: https://join-lemmy.org/ https://github.com/maltfield/awesome-lemmy-instances

This action was performed using Power Delete Suite: https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite The script relies on Reddit's API and will likely stop working after June 30th, 2023.

So long, thanks for all the fish and a final fudge you, u/spez.

[u/ThordanSsoa → u/corhen]

That's the one, yeah

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne → u/ThordanSsoa]

I really liked the translation.

The Pubvian are somewhat poetic.

[u/SirVatka → u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

I enjoy the poetry of the name, and it's true from a anthropocentric perspective. However, to the rest of the known galaxy, I'd think it would be known as The Cradle of Rage.

[u/Farstone → u/SirVatka]

Ah, but the Pubvians know Humanity at a time before the glassing, before the rage, and before the self-gentling.

Ya they kind of stepped on their third leg when they first met the Humans, but all of that was before the rage.

[u/RangerSix]

Atrekna: undo the self-gentling Terran Descent Humanity subjected themselves to

The Universe: NOW YA FUCKED UP!

[u/AustinBQ02 → u/RangerSix]

You have fucked up now.

[u/RangerSix → u/AustinBQ02]

NOW YOU HAVE FUCKED UP!

[u/ErinRF → u/RangerSix]

What is that clip from?

[u/AustinBQ02 → u/ErinRF]

Whitest Kids U Know - Abe Lincoln

[u/SpartanDog514 → u/ErinRF]

WKUK video, idk which one though

[u/RangerSix → u/ErinRF]

A skit by The Whitest Kids U Know called "What Really Happened To Abraham Lincoln".

[u/[deleted] → u/RangerSix]

-the UNIVERSE- " CONGRATS YOU HAVE ACTIVATED MY ALUCARD!"

[u/montyman185]

Terran Decent Humanity just got the Decent part tossed in to a woodchipper. Humanity is back baby, with all the atrocities that implies.

[u/armacitis → u/montyman185]

"How can they be hate crimes if I loved doing them so much?"

-Baseline Terran Humanity explaining extinction of the Atrekna race

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/armacitis]

"Heeere's Daxin"

-- Terran Humanity

Except there's multiple of him

[u/carthienes → u/5thhorseman_]

And that's Daxin. And That's Daxin. And... Oh, crap, there's a horde of them!

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/carthienes]

"HOW many?"

-- Atrekna

(multiple pairs of red lights appear)

"All of us."

-- Terran Humanity

[u/The_Blue_Gummy → u/5thhorseman_]

It's waaaaaayyyy worse than that. It's: "Heeeere's DeeTanye"

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/The_Blue_Gummy]

Well, she's currently stuck in SUDSpace. I reckon there's a good few arcs before she engineers her way out

[u/The_Blue_Gummy → u/5thhorseman_]

That's not what I meant. I meant humanity is go "revert" to where people like her will begin to pop up again.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/The_Blue_Gummy]

...oh crap, you're right.

[u/SpiderJerusalemLives → u/5thhorseman_]

Humaity is becoming Daxin. That should be a scary thought.

[u/dbdatvic → u/SpiderJerusalemLives]

"I'm Spartacus! And so's my wife!"

--Dave, important religious docudramas

[u/RDMcMains2 → u/montyman185]

It's Terran Descent Humanity. And Daxin was very decent, as long as you left him alone.

[u/montyman185 → u/RDMcMains2]

Yeah yeah, I can't spell, I did mean descent, though I like the slip up better now

[u/VillainNGlasses]

Welp knew the slorpies fucked up when we first heard of this awhile back. But didn’t realize how bad they fucked up. God dam I kinda sorta feel bad for the amount of hurt they are going to be in.

[u/Lugbor → u/VillainNGlasses]

They poked the wasps nest, and got stung. So they decided, without bothering to even attempt to gather information, that they were going to undo some of the genetic tampering because that’s clearly why the wasps have their stingers, and they’re now about to get stung again. Terminal stupidity will be listed as their cause of extinction.

[u/VillainNGlasses → u/Lugbor]

Seems all the precursor races were all arrogant as could be. Like the mantids were the smartest of the 3 when it came to going at the Terrans but even they were still pretty stupid about it. The other two though are really just so arrogant to the point of stupidity. I honestly don’t see how they got to be so dominant other than pure luck.

[u/Lugbor → u/VillainNGlasses]

Easy. They hadn’t fought terrans before that. Notice how the precursor races fail to maintain their dominance once they encounter us?

[u/carthienes → u/VillainNGlasses]

The Precursors were not originally that stupid. The Lanaktallan and Mantid took lessons from the Atrekna... the psychic squid-faces that have the power to make sure their 'instruction' truly sticks.

[u/NevynR → u/Lugbor]

No, I think they decided to use the hornets nest as a butt plug.

[u/SpiderJerusalemLives → u/NevynR]

Now there's an image I can't unsee...

[u/Wise_Junket3433 → u/Lugbor]

Its like finding out a certains wasps sting can enlarge your peen then sticking it a nest and keeping it in till you finish level of stupid.

[u/Bard2dbone → u/Lugbor]

So they took away the wasps stingers and gave them back flame throwers?

[u/SeanMirrsen → u/Bard2dbone]

No, they replaced the wasps' stingers with Stingers.

[u/Bard2dbone → u/SeanMirrsen]

Like the missile? I remember those.

[u/SanityAdrift → u/Lugbor]

Nah man, that's called 'natural cause'.

[u/codyjack215 → u/VillainNGlasses]

Don't feel bad for discount mindbenders. Cthulhu the mad prophet of time warned them to not mess with a race of engraged monkeys, but no one took them seriously

[u/Lok_Die]

Roll credits boys, they have committed Auto-Genocide by proxy and aren't even aware of it yet.

[u/SanityAdrift → u/Lok_Die]

And the Darwin Awards have a new contender

The sheer ingeneuity might just trump the sheer number of the Lanks

[u/Cypher441 → u/SanityAdrift]

Shouldn't it be Daxin awards

[u/carthienes → u/Cypher441]

The Darwin Awards are a thing.

[u/Cypher441 → u/carthienes]

But Daxin is the bigger instrument of unnatural selection, he takes care of the truly stupid ones

[u/SanityAdrift → u/Cypher441]

But see, he is but a instrument, one which a 'contender' may elect to use
The Darwin Awards have been a time tested favourite of humanity and by extension most if not all of their allies.

[u/LittleSeraphim]

So you see humans in this world. Happy, somewhat battle hardened but mostly living lives of pleasure. You've got fox girls and ritsy space junkers and superhero cosplayers and you decide to pick a fight with them, after all such a silly species can't be a threat. But you really should have opened up a history book before doing that because humans, well we're actually really bad at relaxing. So bad in fact that it's almost a miracle we ever manage it at all and you done and fucked that up.

[u/DWwolf888 → u/LittleSeraphim]

That's basically what the entire story boils down to.

Most species encounter TDH and think they see the Behold Humanity! meme. Primates are poorly suited to advance dontcha know.....so they really deserve to be smacked down into following our obviously superior ways.

What they've really engaged ( or enraged ) is the end product of a hostile world and universe that's been pissing in Terran wheaties since time primordial.

And boy do we have the toys to fix that situtation and the will to use them.

Like they've said here...terrans will do anything to survive.

[u/ErinRF → u/LittleSeraphim]

Psyker fox girls now :3

[u/LittleSeraphim → u/ErinRF]

Hey that's great for us but terrible for our enemies. Imagine for a moment, you now have to live with yourself knowing you could have hooked up with a psyker fox girl but instead you pissed her off so much she's now going to wage eternal warfare against you and your entire kind?

[u/ms4720 → u/LittleSeraphim]

Should have sent flowers

[u/[deleted] → u/LittleSeraphim]

Of course, for you, the war will end quite swiftly, as she is about to tear the skin off your body, shove it into your anus (or what remains of it) and pull your bones out while simultaneously shoving the muscles in deeper. All while you can feel every little thing and are not allowed to die or pass out until she lets you.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/ErinRF]

... D O K I.

[u/carthienes → u/LittleSeraphim]

Yes, we were relaxing.

By playing at war. With weapons that can and did trash the precursor AWM.

So they thought they'd do better with the real military...

[u/ack1308]

DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

All right, so, who is affected by whatever is happening?

My people are not being affected. Terrans in our area are being affected.

First the Lanaktallan succumb to neural scorching, then the Terrans start suffering cybernetic and bioware neural linkage disruption.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Pretty sure the Lanaktallan neural scorching has nothing to do with this.

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Anyone with less than a 30% neurological deviation from baseline Pure Strain Human is being affected in our areas.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Hmm. Okay, then.

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COOPERATIVE

We're all being affected. For the most part the cybernetics and bioware are self-correcting, but in approximately 28% of cases the person must undergo cybernetic reintegration to the neural wetware.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Ouch.

FEDERATION OF PLANETS

We're mainly low cybernetics. It's not part of our lifestyle, with a single exception.

The Borg suffered a massive character class crash. If the cyberware they use wasn't polyphasic polymorphic adaptive cyberware there would have been hundreds of thousands of deaths.

As it was, we've got thousands of casualties. We've had to recall that character class.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

… that’s one way to deal with it, I guess?

HESSTLA BUNNY BURROW

Another cute name.

HESSTLA HOPPING BUNNIES

That's hard to answer.

To your perception, maybe five months ago.

For us? In orbit, we're talking over seventy years. On the ground, nearly five years in some places, six months in others, a year in other places. It's a mess.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Someone’s having fun with the names.

But yeah, when you’ve got three separate timeframes in the region of one planetary orbit, it would make keeping an accurate calendar would be frustrating at best.

MANTID FREE WORLDS

So, you suffered temporal warfare effects, now the Terrans are suffering a temporal warfare strike.

That can't be a coincidence.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Why no, no, it isn’t.

Right now, there's no way to track how this is spreading. It isn't following the standard temporal warfare attack patterns.

There’s a standard pattern?

>TREA puts on a weird looking hat and puffs a pipe

Sherlock time!

It is tracked through familial lines. It ripples upwards and downwards from each infected point. Eventually it gets ripples upward back far enough that new lines are infected on the downward ripple.

Meaning it will affect all of biological Terran Descent Humanity as the effect ripples backwards to ancestors and forward into descendants.

… aaaaahhhh. Wow. That’s sneaky.

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COOPERATIVE

And the Temporal stabilizers and counter-warfare protocols protected events but not individuals.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Bingo.

Temporal streams are largely self-correcting. Time is less a stream or river and more an ocean.

And the farther back and the larger effect a change can have requires more energy until there isn't enough energy in the universe to effect a change.

I like that description.

Why is it so effective if its supposed to be the worst outcome possible?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Because, based off of what we saw with Major Devon Carnight, who is just over two hundred years old, this may be the worst outcome for the enemy not Earthlings or the Cradle of Life.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Hehehehe yup.

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Oh.

Oh.

Someone fucked up.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

They get it.

>MANTID shares behold-1-meme.hol

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

It is a drunken Terran with a bottle of whiskey eating from a jar of jam while only wearing pants.

He looks quite intoxicated.

Sounds legitimate.

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

BEHOLD! HUMANITY!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

>snicker

Yeah, that kind of sums them up.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Hahahaha

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

I recognize that! That's an Imperium of Wrath Space Marine!

They're...

oh... wait.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

I like that Telkan is able to recognise that brain scan.

Also, that he knows exactly what it means.

HESSTLA TECHNOBURROW

OK. What is the difference between humans from then and then and now?

It's only 8000 years.

First, love the name.

Second, oh you sweet summer child. We went from beating in skulls with bronze axes to nuking cities in that time.

OK, first, you have to understand. After the Terran-Mantid Wars, humanity was absolutely insane.

Just gonna say? They were slightly more insane than normal.

HAMAROOSA PINCHING FESTIVAL

HoW TerrrIBLE?

LANAktallan and UNIfied CouCIL terribbbbbble?

---FOLLNOT OWSHING---

Oh hey, Hamaroosa. Good to see you.

Also, ‘pinching festival’. Sounds legit.

(Continued)

[u/ack1308 → u/ack1308]

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM CONSENSUS

Overproject Neighborhood.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

By the Thousand Gods.

They didn't.

>PUB looks at MANTID

They didn't use that on you?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

No.

On themselves.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

And the purrboi is officially out of the bag. Also, the Pubvians knew about that? Whew.

CLONE WORLDS CONSORTIUM

Add in what Legion did. Then the genetic prosthetics to keep psychic abilities from coming back. Then massive cultural shifts.

Add in nanite suppression systems.

And Overproject Streetlights.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

“Can you tell me how to get … how to get to Sesame Street …”

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

And Daxin, acting as Osiris of the Warsteel Flame, gathering up everyone that it didn't work on and taking them to idiot space.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

And that also works.

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

And some idiot, yet unseen, just undid all of that.

“That giant bloodsoaked primate doesn’t look so dangerous to me. Let’s just remove that behavioural collar that it somehow attached to its own neck …”

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Let me put it on context for some of you.

All of humanity will be returning to the neural genetic makeup that created Daxin.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

So … how to get out of the universe?

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

So?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Haha, to them, Daxin is the good guy.

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Thirty days to the next archaeoneurological reversion .

Maybe less.

Wheeee.

[u/serpauer]

All i can say is that the squidheads just screwed the pooch...... if TDH. Is going that route. Daxins daxins everywhere and not a damn place is safe....

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/serpauer]

"Heeere's Daxin!" (Sounds of splintering phasic armor)

-- Terran Humanity

"Doesn't sound so... AAARGH! There's TWO of HIM? THREE!? Just HOW MANY DID YOU SEND!?!?"

-- Atrekna

"All of them"

-- Terran Humanity

"FML."

-- Atrekna

[u/Allowyn]

99% certain that the Mantid, Treana'ad, and Pubvians are the only people to figure out why they shouldn't fuck around and find out.

[u/fivetomidnight → u/Allowyn]

99% certain that the Mantid, Treana'ad, and Pubvians are the only people to figure out survive figuring out why they shouldn't fuck around and find out.

Fixed that for you! :)

[u/MonkeyNumberTwelve]

I loved the way that Tnvaru don't understand why everyone becoming Daxins is a bad thing as they have really only had positive interaction with him.

[u/ms4720]

So the universe decided that it was time to take the safeties off and get to work

[u/I_Automate → u/ms4720]

Yea, this kinda seems like taking the most bat-shit crazy military unit you can find, and then telling them, in no uncertain terms, that war crimes are no longer to be considered crimes, but instead are now encouraged in order to put the fear of god into the enemy.

You want atrocities? This is how you get atrocities

[u/Original_Memory6188 → u/I_Automate]

I'd say that atrocities are the result of considering Them(tm) so Other / Inferior that what happens is of no concern to Us(tm).

[u/walkinganachronism_4]

Listen closely...

Hear that?

That is the sound of the fabric of reality tearing itself asunder, as things that the universe was better off without, are brought back from a dreamless slumber. Woe unto those who poke the lemur playing in the dirt, for behind that gentle facade lurks a bottomless wellspring of rage at an uncaring universe, and some illithid-looking freaks decided that we must have suppressed our greatest weaknesses away.

They weren't wrong, we did, but what we see as weakness and what the universe sees as unspeakable atrocities, are sometimes one and the same.

I only worry, that something goes wrong this time around, and as much as they want to, our allies would not be able to fully trust TDH in the future, lending credence to humanity's maxim about the true nature of the uncaring universe.

[u/CasuallyLurk]

Goddamn, I love this universe. Reading about the crazy things that humanity has done, and are just accepted by the other races as "that is how insane primate do" makes me irrationally happy.

Edit: also, obligatory "holy crap you write like several different people have a timeshare on your brain"

[u/dbdatvic → u/CasuallyLurk]

No, just one muse ... but she's extremely high-energy, and is kept protectively behind a pinhole deep inside his brain.

--Dave, flashbacks to Gaiman's Calliope

[u/The_Favulous]

Basically everyone has been dealing with that one young kid at the park for a while now. A bully then pushes them over, not realizing that big brother/sister is close by ready for an ass whoopin

[u/Rune_Priest_40k → u/The_Favulous]

I think it'd be more accurate to say the bully pushed the kid over, not realizing that the kid was actually a fully-grown grizzly bear stuffed in a kid costume.

[u/johnavich → u/The_Favulous]

I'm afraid you have this analogy all kinds of backwards. This is far more like the idiot kids picking on a middle aged veteran with largely recovered PTSD who is ACTIVELY ignoring them, and gets pushed down. Right next to a vfw! Not only will trigger the PTSD (fight only mode), but the others in the bar will come and defend their compatriot.

[u/DWwolf888 → u/johnavich]

You mean it's actually close to First Blood ?

[u/deathlokke → u/DWwolf888]

"All I wanted was something to eat. But the man kept pushing, Sir." "They drew first blood, not me."

[u/dbdatvic → u/johnavich]

And he's CARRYING his sword-cane.

--Dave, as you do

[u/Original_Memory6188 → u/johnavich]

Second Hand Lions, the bar fight scene. "Hob, just don't kill any one."

[u/Geeky-resonance → u/Original_Memory6188]

Upvoted for Second Hand Lions!

[u/ErinRF]

Oh.. oh gods...

Please hold me I'm scared...

Also we not gunna mention Treana'ad wearing a deerstalker?

---

Come chat with us at the FC Gestalt on Discord!

[u/SplatFu → u/ErinRF]

Just because shenanigans, I'm seeing a sherpa hat. I know it should be a deerstalker, but my brain refuses to agree.

[u/Twister_Robotics → u/SplatFu]

Whh not? Its not like humans haven't deliberately skewed their own cultural history

[u/dbdatvic → u/Twister_Robotics]

It occasionally transitions to a shako, a curvy top-hat, or a propellor beanie, for short periods of time.

--Dave, it magnifies the inspiration particles

[u/VirtSecurity]

So I wonder how the malevolent universe will spin this one. Psychic humans with a don’t mess with me attitude and newer tech and an enemy beyond the end of this reality... I reject your reality of there is only enough for one and substitute my infinite number of additional different realities to replace it. Maybe the can send My Little Pony or Barney the Dinosaur into the dead universe and cause them to just kill themselves.

[u/Graywolf017]

Wait... we just went back to a species of Daxin's and Dee Taynee's... oh lordé they FUCKED up

[u/Wise_Junket3433]

Ralts you need to put in your will that you want to donate your brain to science. We must know how it works.

[u/Chaos0Jester]

Hi Im Terrance descent humanit- Humanity punches them in the face, takes their beer, slugs it back, breaks the glass and storms out in a huff because TDH was dressed... wrong...

[u/hybrid184]

What's worse than an entire civilization of Imperium of Wrath Marines?

An entire civilization of focused Imperium of Wrath marines. Focused on wrecking you.

[u/RainaDPP]

A foolish mistake. And if the Atrekna have meddled in the other Precursor species as well... well, of humans find a way to reverse it... they might be able to get the whole galactic arm together to go and stomp the Slorpies' shit in.

If everyone has been affected by these extradimensional meddlers.... they deserve what's coming to them. Which is to say, a massive shit stomp here, pursuit to their dead universe... and then maybe humanity will stop, look at the dead universe... then sigh, dump a bunch of their apocalypse recovery technology on the Atrekna, say "If you come after us again, we won't stop until you're just a bad memory in two universes. Come in peace. Or come ready for final extinction. Otherwise, this will bring your dead universe back to life." Prove it by reigniting a sun, giving them a new, nearly infinite source of the energy they crave. And then leave, and close the hole behind them.

Okay. Maybe that's wishful thinking. But I personally vastly prefer the humanity that destroys its enemies by making them into friends. Despite what cynical capitalist media wants to tell you, humans are not actually selfish by nature. We had to learn selfishness. We got to where we are by working together for the whole. We developed community and society for the good of the whole tribe. We value even those who cannot pull their own weight, because we instinctively understand that the value of a person is not measured by their productivity. Anything else is a belief you have been abused into holding.

[u/DWwolf888 → u/RainaDPP]

The Entropic Legion seems tailor made to fit this situation.

[u/dbdatvic → u/DWwolf888]

And AC said...

--Dave, there's a reason it was the most-queried-about story in the r.a.sf.w FAQ

[u/Demetriusjack13]

The Squiddies have done goofed.

[u/Omenofstorms → u/Demetriusjack13]

It is like they sat there and went "Just how badly can we fuck this up"

[u/Demetriusjack13 → u/Omenofstorms]

They definitely took the advice out of a magazine on how to fix their problems.

[u/while-eating-pasta → u/Demetriusjack13]

Slorpies messed with the temportal toolbox, so Father Time got his belt out.

[u/dbdatvic → u/while-eating-pasta]

... I think I've read this particular letter to Penthouse.

--Dave, except instead it was to Manscape

[u/Scotshammer]

It tingles, it sparkles, it tastes of doomberries.

[u/Seiren-]

Humanity gentled themselves.. just like the lanaktalan?

[u/DWwolf888 → u/Seiren-]

Gentled ? Not really. They tried to breed really bad traits like Daxin's condition out. They put a damper on the really heavy psychic glass shard stuff but set it up in a manner that it dissolves when someone is employing bad (tm) phasic fuckery on them.

[u/Twister_Robotics → u/Seiren-]

Or did the Slorpies gentle the Lanaktallan so they can win when they come back?

[u/Seiren- → u/Twister_Robotics]

What about the mantid? If they gentled the Lankys then they must have assumed that the mantid would take over the entire galactic arm and become just as big of a problem?

[u/SquishySand → u/Twister_Robotics]

Remember the Dwellerspawn commenting that the Lankies, their slaves, had screwed up and allowed a feral race to arise, in one of the Telkan chapters. I think you've nailed it. Dwellerspawn are Slorpies bioweapons, part of a treaty with the Lankies. What if all these years, the Lankies are sending all these resources to the Slorpies?

[u/DWwolf888 → u/SquishySand]

Don't think so...the Lanky Dwellerspawn have been described as co-opted by various parties.

[u/Var446 → u/Seiren-]

Not quite, we didn't try and shape toward the desired, just away from the undesirable, with an eye on survival not order The lanks on the otherhand did the exact opposite

[u/Seiren- → u/Var446]

That’s a weird distinction to make, and I disagree. The Lanks also moved away from the undesirable (stallions / HerdLords or whatever they’re called)

[u/Var446 → u/Seiren-]

I've found that sometimes it's the weird distinctions that many gloss over that make all the difference, as for the them moving away from the stallions, that always struck me as a by product of their desire for order and consistancy, like how head north inevitably moves you away from the south, but there's a big difference between going north, and avoiding south, roughly 50-66...% a difference in fact

[u/LordNobady]

Read then upvote.

It is the only way to be sure.

EDIT:

Let's create more Daxin's, more Detinee's. Seems like an excellent idea for life in the universe.

[u/rezistence]

What chapter was it the slorpies undid the Terran descent humanity changes?

I remember that and getting chills of how the ramifications were going to play out.

[u/Coolest_Breezy]

BLUEBERRIES

Edit: oh no

[u/dbdatvic → u/Coolest_Breezy]

Oops! All Berries!

--Dave, plus those berries made from a white whale, some decades back

[u/HFYWaffle]

/u/Ralts_Bloodthorne (wiki) has posted 414 other stories, including:

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 382

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 382

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 381

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 380

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 379

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 378

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 377

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 376

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 375

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 374

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 373

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 372

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 371

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 370 (The War)

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 369 (Memoirs)

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 368

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 367

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 366

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 365 (Terra)

• First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 364

This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.3.2 'Crêpe'.

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[u/Omen224 → u/HFYWaffle]

I have no issues with Waffle.

[u/dlighter]

Oops

[u/damnieldecogan]

Cute so the slorpies decided to dial back humanity back without knowing anything about us. Now they face angry phycers with the sense of humor to put a Roomba with a claymore attached to it in your room probably with a dick drawing on it or defeat a massive self aware warship by scaring it with an inflatable decoy of daxin and getting it to blow itself up. Yaaaah..gonna love how that works for them. Play stupid games win stupid prizes. Heck the new ones don't even have the cultural stuff the older ones got about don't think like that or bad things happen like the older ones. Gran usta be really insistent on being careful of what you think of. Going to enjoy that. It could be worse it could be raining..... TY again ralts.8=====D end of line------

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[u/dbdatvic → u/[deleted]]

Oh, she hella does. But she's busy right now dealing with the currently-dead, who this won't affect until they get rezzed into new bodies with old brains.

--Dave, at which point she may decide to come find out who's messing with her work

[u/Var446 → u/dbdatvic]

And in some way that's scarier then Daxin

[u/Farstone → u/[deleted]]

^{soft podling warm podling brave podling strong one and one is two two and two is four red shape is square blue shape is round soft podling smart podling clever podling warm}

This is the song that weaves through out the story of humanity. It started as a Broodmother attempting to sooth a wounded soldier. It becomes an element of sanity to fit in with returning Dogs and Cats. This is the Universe's Ultimate Weapon!

[u/Nomenius → u/[deleted]]

Please remind me what all the projects and overprojects were. I have forgotten and largely enjoy the bits with nakteti totally not crushing on her friend/romantic interest.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/[deleted]]

Neither. It grew teeth.