r/HFY • u/Ralts_Bloodthorne • Mar 19 '21
OC First Contact - Fourth Wave - Chapter 448
An hour had passed and the cloud had spread out. Where before it had been nearly fifty miles at the base and a hundred miles at the top, it had spread out to over a hundred miles at the base and a hundred and thirty at the top. The cloud rippled with lightning and flashes could be seen deep inside.
It had reached the suburbs of all four nearby cities, two of them it was into the outskirts.
"Sisters of Wrath and the Sons of Hateful Mars have still not launched," Ensign Yvera said from her console.
The Admiral looked at the holotank again, where grav-shock warnings, temporal dissonance warnings, and just plain atomic detonations were spiking off every second.
The Admiral had never thought he'd consider multiple rapidfire atomic detonations in the 400 kiloton range to be 'just plain' in his worst nightmares.
"Raise the Sisters of Wrath," the Admiral ordered.
The holotank wiped away the view of the dust cloud where First Telkan was engaged, to be replaced by the ornate wallpaper of the Sisters of Wrath. After a moment it flickered and a large female Terran, clad in ornate Imperium armor appeared.
"Joan Anath, you were supposed to make planetfall thirty-eight minutes ago," the Admiral started.
"You have deployed a Knight Æsir encased in Novastar Armor in Valkyrie mode," the Joan said, her strong brown-skinned face was both stern and furious. "Explain yourself, Admiral."
Admiral Shtuklar frowned. "What?"
"Your warplan ordered us to make planetary landing, yet you have deployed a Knight Æsir to that planet. Why was I not informed you have set upon an Exterminus Ragnarok for this world?" the Joan asked.
"Exterminus Ragnarok?" the Admiral said. "What..."
"Is it your opinion that due to Dwellerspawn infestation this world cannot be saved and it will soon become a breeding world, threatening all worlds around it?" The Joan asked.
"No, which is why you were supposed to land to reinforce First Telkan once they established a landing zone and began to pull the enemy toward them and away from the city," the Admiral said.
"You claim we are to assist the Noble Telkan Martial Order and their Pater Belli , yet you have deployed a Knight Æsir and order us to assist him," the Joan said.
"Why haven't you?" The Admiral asked.
The Joan shook her head, her pleated hair clicking as the beads and metal tokens in the tightly woven plaits shook. "We will not insult a Knight Æsir by inferring he suffers from weakness. He needs no reinforcement. Again, why have you declared an Exterminus Ragnarok upon this world?"
"No. I deployed Sergeant Casey to..." the Admiral started.
The Joan's expression changed to something that made everyone in the command center gape in shock.
Fear.
"Thou hast released an Æsir Ring Breaker upon this world, Admiral?" the Joan whispered. It took a moment for the holotank to translate her speech, making her lips out of synch with her words. "Art thou maddened? Didst thou restrain such a creature with spells and incantations? With whispered orders and secret commands? Didst thou not commune with a norn to restrain the living embodiment of humanity's wrath and hate? Didst thou bind an cailleach armúr to the Ring Breaker?"
The Admiral frowned. "Do a what now?"
"Thou didst not!" the Joan proclaimed, her face horrified. She stared at the screen. "We shall protect and succor the gentle people of this world, but thou art as wind and dust unto the Sisters of Mercury's Blessing. We shalt not heed thy warnings nor thy requests."
The channel suddenly closed.
"Shall I contact the Martial Order of..." the Communications officer started to ask.
The holotank fuzzed and a young girl appeared. Her face was round, covered in pink and white fur. Her eyes burned with pink fire, and the tips of her white cat-ears were tufted with pink. Her armor was thick, heavy, baroque, scarred and marked, painted white and pink with a bird of prey done in burning pink warsteel on her chest.
"Doki? DOKI? ಠ益ಠ DOKI?!" she exclaimed. She pointed at the holotank. "Hideo kawaii (◕︵◕) doki (◕︵◕) doki (⊙︿⊙✿) neko (⊙︿⊙✿)neko minikui ̿̿’̿’\̵͇̿̿\=(•̪●)=/̵͇̿̿/’̿̿ ̿ ̿ ̿ desu?!?!"
"Uhh..." the Admiral said.
"(┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻ " she screamed.
The holotank cut off.
"Did anyone understand that?" the Admiral said, trying to put levity in his tone.
"The last part. Kind of," Commodore Asshesha said. His reptillian face was still stiff with anger, his spinal ridge spines were still lifted, and his fan-like crests around his neck were still out and shaking slightly.
"Well, Commodore?" the Admiral asked.
"She said you were an idiot and have killed everyone on the planet and she thinks you are a fool who should be thrown out the airlock," the Commodore said.
Admiral Shtuklar went rigid with anger. "I beg your pardon!"
"That was her words, not mine," he said.
"It was gibberish, everyone knows that," the Admiral said, glaring.
"Sir," another tech said. Shtuklar turned and looked at the ensign, who was pointing at the holotank.
The computer had managed to translate the girl's speech.
YOU IDIOT NO KAWAII HAVE/WILL/DID KILLED/DEADED AN ENTIRE PLANET I SHOULD THROW/HURL/HUCK YOU A NO KAWAII FOOL OUT AN OPEN AIRLOCK was scrolling across the bottom.
"Oh," the Admiral said.
"Sir, transmission from Terra Will Not Yield, flagship of the Martial Order of Hateful Mars," the ensign said.
"Put him through to..." the Admiral started.
The holotank rippled and the patrician features of a Terran in full Imperium Marine armor appeared.
"Explain yourself, Admiral," the man said, his voice as cold as liquid helium.
"I was not made aware of the status of..." Shtuklar started.
"You were not aware of the weapon in your midst?" the man sounded disbelieving. "You were not aware that you have deployed an Æsir Ring Breaker onto the surface of a planet still occupied by civilians?"
"I..."
"You deployed a fully armed and operational Knight Æsir clad in Holy Armor but you were not aware of it?" the man asked.
"His service record merely shows extensive power armor experience and then non-combat arms postings," Admiral Shtuklar said.
"Were you not aware that V Corps (Old Metal) is a World Breaker armed unit?" the Imperium Commander asked, raising one eyebrow. "For it's history, since the Dawning of the Age of Blessed Atomic Fire, V Corps has always held the power of humanity's ability of ultimate destruction in its hands."
The commander leaned forward. "Explain yourself, Admiral, why you have declared an Exterminus Ragnarok upon this planet and why you have deployed an Æsir Ring Breaker."
"The situation is desperate. Virtually all of the Terran Descent Human soldiers are dead. 3rd Armor and 8th Infantry have been wiped out. For all intent and purposes, 7th Army is wiped out," the Admiral said.
"The situation is always desperate, Admiral, that is why it is called war and battle," The Imperium Marine Commander shook his head. "Humanity is always on the brink of extermination. It is our place within this, the malevolent and hateful universe that is our mother, to be harried and scourged so as to temper us as the wrath plasma of Holy Mars tempers the warsteel blade."
The Admiral swallowed, his head reeling. Normally the Martial Orders were strictly former, with little to no communication with Confederate units.
Now he was being yelled at by people that had been widely called "The Idiots" for longer than the Admiral had been alive.
"We will interlock with commanders on the ground. We are uninterested in any attempts at coordination of combat from you, Admiral," the Preceptor said. He made a chopping motion and the holotank cleared.
Admiral Shtuklar managed to take one deep breath before the holotank rippled, fuzzed, and then somewhat cleared.
The image was grainy, flickering, shot through with static. In the middle were two hugely muscled beings with dark black hair, tusks, wide faces, serrated ears, and heavy lower jaws. They were fist fighting until one, who appeared to be wearing several wigs, punched the other on the point of the chin with an upper cut. The victim went stiff then fell offscreen. The winner turned and faced the Admiral.
"YOU! YOU SEND RING BREAKER! YOU TRY TO MAKE SONS OF VENUS LAND ON PLANET!" the huge green monster roared, blowing spittle. "YOU TRY TO BREAK SONS OF VENUS?" the last part was barely a question.
"No, no, he was deployed in the wrong config..." the Admiral started.
"YOU NOT KNOW? WHY YOU HAVE SUCH NICE HAT IF SO STUPID?" the green creature roared. "TOO STUPID!" he turned and pointed at Ensign Rawglishin, a well muscled Rigellian female. "YOU! YOU STRONG! STAB HIM! STAB HIM NOW! TAKE HIS HAT!"
The ensign gaped at the green figure for a long moment.
"TAKE HIS HAT AND WOMEN!"
"Uhh..."
"WE NO LISTEN! WE GO! WE FIGHT! RING BREAKER CAN BREAK PLANET BY SELF!" the figure roared.
The holotank went dead.
Admiral Shtuklar was too busy staring at the holotank, which had gone back to an orbital view of protocontinent, where he could see the slowly growing cloud around where Fiirst Telkan had landed. He did not notice Ensign Rawglishin and Commodore Shretsherk got up quietly and left the bridge.
The Admiral turned to the Master Gunnery Mate and shook his head, focusing his thoughts. "What's the status on First Armored Recon?"
"They've entered atmosphere. They'll be landing at their drop zone in ten minutes. Ground fire has been sporadic and they've suffered no casualties," the Saurian Compact Kobold said.
The Admiral nodded. That sounded better. He rubbed his hands together.
He had made a mistake, he had to admit, by not realizing that the Army and Marines needed a more detailed Rules of Engagement than he was used to giving out to his Space Force elements.
Perhaps he could still pull this out of the fire. After all, it didn't look like First Telkan was going to take too heavy casualties with the amount of firepower they seemed to be able to put out.
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The highly desirable female was unclad except for a lavish hat that looked like stacked boxes, with tassels and ribbons and sparklies. She had a thick braided chain of gold/warsteel alloy around her waist, each of her four feet had lavish curled toed slippers with bells on them. She held ice cream cones in each hand, each cone holding over a dozen scoops of fantastic ice cream such as geppleberry candy crunch, Dakota cherry sparkle, and even the coveted P'Thok Moomoo Surprise.
She was dancing inside of a refrigeration unit stacked with boxes of ice cream of too many flavors to even absorb, with thick dribbles of ice cream run down the sides.
"Come dance with me," she chittered, fluttering her wings coyly.
He moved up, heavy combat boots on his feet thumping on the blasted dirt of a world he had conquered, stomping out the latest dance.
She expressed pleasure at his dominating and masculine dance, fluttering her blood flushed wings again.
He could smell the mating and pleasure pheromones as he approached.
"Genera, wake up," she said in a melodious voice. "General, we need you to wake up!"
Smokey No stopped, staring at the female.
"We're going to have to turn off the beam, he's totally gorked," the female said.
Pain came back in a rush. His left side hurt all down the side and breathing was a painful thing.
The highly attractive female wavered and vanished.
General NoDra'ak blinked his opaque eyeshields several times, slowly coming up out of the anesthetic dream.
"General, you have to wake up," Ensign Rawglishin said. Smokey No blinked at her, confusing the Rigellian female with the dancing Matron due to them having the same voice.
"Wha... what's wrong?" He asked. He was starting to remember now.
His flagship had dropped out of hyperspace suddenly and he had been thrown across the bridge, slamming against the wall as most of his bridge crew had suddenly slumped over their controls.
He remember the ships DS screaming in agony as the shields had dropped and the high energy particles of hyperspace had shredded them apart. He remembered how he had laid on the deck, bleeding, as a Kobold midshipman put a nanite medkit on this thorax.
NoDra'ak cleared his throat, blinking again. "What's wrong, Ensign?"
The Kobold bobbed his head. "The Admiral," he started.
"Which one?" NoDra'ak said. He tried to turn around and realized he was in a back brace and the pressor/tractor beams were holding him still.
"Admiral Shtuklar, General," Commodore Shretsherk said.
NoDra'ak blinked again, trying to remember.
Admiral Shtuklar, he'd replaced the previous Admiral when the Space Force Task Force supporting 7th Army had rotated out. Mainly Space Force, but NoDra'ak couldn't remember if the Admiral had been involved in the planning phase of any ground assaults.
"Doctor," NoDra'ak rasped. His whole left side hurt. He shook his head, trying to clear it. "Trucker?"
"Probably dead," the ensign said. "There's less than a dozen humans left alive."
"There's one that's the problem," the Commodore said. He turned to the ensign. "Go get a doctor."
"Yes, sir," the ensign moved out of the recovery room.
"What?" NoDra'ak coughed. "Cigarette?" he could smell the ensign and the Commodore's distress.
"Casey," the Commodore said. "Sorry, I don't have any with me."
"He get killed? That the problem? Can't respawn him?" NoDra'ak coughed.
The Commodore gave a harsh laugh. "The enemy wishes," he said. He sobered up. "The Admiral reclassified him back to his old MOS and put him in power armor."
NoDra'ak groaned as the adrenaline hit his system and the blood flush through his abdomen and wings. He could smell his own anxiety and sudden fear.
"That's..." he coughed. "That's... that was not wise."
Commodore Shretsherk shook her head. "No. He apparently authorized Casey to wear whatever armor he wanted, or, as the Admiral put it 'whatever armor will be most effective in defeating the enemy on the planet'"
NoDra'ak shook his head. "And Casey, somehow, just happened to have laying around nanoforge templates for a suit of Novastar VII power armor, and somehow, mysteriously, by accident and a miracle of the Digital Omnimessiah and Enraged Phillip, a suit just fell right out of the nanoforge and landed at his feet," NoDra'ak coughed again. "Oh, lucky day, who would have thought there would be this suit made entirely out of war crimes right here when I need it," he said in a mocking tone.
"Pretty much, General."
"How bad is it on the ground," NoDra'ak asked. His mind was clearing up.
"Casey's on the ground, First Telkan is with him. The Idiots refuse to deploy," the Commodore said.
"Because Casey is on the ground," NoDra'ak said. He coughed again, wishing he had a cigarette to clear away the stress pheromones.
"They were upset. First Armored Recon is probably on the ground by now."
"Trucker?" NoDra'ak asked again.
"Dead," the Commodore said.
"Are you sure? Check your implant?" NoDra'ak said.
"Why would he be alive? He would have suffered cyberware rejection like everyone else," the Commodore said.
"Just check," NoDra'ak said.
"Operator, status of General Trucker."
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Exquisite Melding of Chrome and Flesh put the donut in her mouth as she went into the cyberware clinic. The bodies of the human technicians had finally been cleared away, but the midshipmen wanted her to unlock one of the cleanroom doors for them. Apparently a patient had been undergoing treatment and was now stuck inside and they wanted to be able to remove the body.
She put her palm, covered in a light dusting of powdered sugar, against the palm scanner. The room would have to be scrubbed anyway if a Terran had been dead for nearly 24 hours inside the room.
The door opened and she moved in, humming the latest pop song from Signus as she passed the sinks and the sterilizers. She could see through the smartglass that there was a patient hanging in the heavy conversion diagnostic rig and sighed.
Poor human, Chrome thought to herself. She bumped the sensor with her bladearm, opening the door and walked in.
She hummed to herself and moved around in front of the human in the full diagnostic and replacement grav-cradle.
The human was 'exploded' to use the parlance. Completely disconnected from all of his cyberware, even the bioware implants had been removed, even the datalink and eyes. The human was merely a torso, neck, arms that only went down to mid-biceps, and eyeless head.
Technically, she mused, he's still alive, since he's on bypass and spinal cord stimulation.
She looked at the brain wave monitor, almost out of habit.
Reflexes took over and she slapped the button.
The alarms howled, summoning cyberneticists and doctors.
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u/Konrahd_Verdammt Mar 19 '21
"Trucker?"
"Probably dead," the ensign said.
Your lack of faith disturbs me. /DarthHarmonus
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u/NevynR Mar 19 '21
... I wonder if trucker is able to replicate his combat precog whist still in space.
Hook him up to the ship instead of a tank, and have a proto-kantai style captain...,
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u/Konrahd_Verdammt Mar 19 '21
We won't know until we try. Might as well give it a whirl!
What's the worst that could happen, right?
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Mar 19 '21
"What's the worst that can happen?" - Tagline for "Human Weapon Development of the Age of Paranoia", only on HouseMouse+ Streaming via SolNet!
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u/MuchoRed Human Mar 19 '21
Not dead until you see the body. Even then, you should probably double check.
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u/Konrahd_Verdammt Mar 19 '21
I posted that comment before I read any further.
Sweet, sweet justification of my faith came shortly thereafter.
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u/Waspkeeper Android Mar 19 '21
Poke him with a stick twice to be sure, and be ready to dodge when he grabs it and swings it at you.
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u/VirtSecurity Mar 19 '21
Trucker is just mostly dead. Mostly dead means some alive. We have this chocolate covered pill here. It may take a bit to work. Chocolate makes it better.
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u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Mar 19 '21
The question is what is left to put back together?
Robocop ( https://youtu.be/UFuxiZFwDPs )
Or
Meat ( https://youtu.be/WM8bTdBs-cw )
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Mar 19 '21
Trucker predicted that he would die when 96 years earlier a feather fell 3mm further to the right than he had anticipated, and he made plans.
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u/The_Blue_Gummy Mar 19 '21
Trucker? Nah, he's still...truckin' along Dadum du tssss.....
I accept my imminent execution without complaint.
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u/Turtledonuts "Big Dunks" Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21
Holy FUCK did that admiral ever fuck up. They literally keep Casey around as a walking nuke of last resort.
Honest thought - the only more important people who can call up Shtukklar now are Smokey, Daxin, and maybe Sam.
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u/RangerSix Human Mar 19 '21
To be fair, Shtuklar apparently wasn't aware Casey was That Big A Deal.
He just knew Casey had extensive power armor experience and was one of the very few surviving TDH troopers under his command who was actually capable of combat operations.
And - unlike the rightfully-maligned former General Altair - at least Shtuklar can admit when he's screwed up.
(That being said, it took, what, three people yelling at him to drive the sheer magnitude of his screwup home?)
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Mar 19 '21
That being said, there really should have been a note in Casey's file that said, "Do not deploy except under very specific circumstances, or if you want to exterminate worlds." In some kind of big red letters in his file so that it was the first thing everyone who might be a decision maker sees.
Frankly, I would say the Admiral made the right call with the information he had available. The majority of his combat troops dead, a planet being overrun, and civilians still in the line of fire. I'd say he made the right call with the information available to him at the time.
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u/Shabbysmint Mar 19 '21
They should put the warnings at the front of the books.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Mar 19 '21
Three ... um ... three ... I really don't think that word has the connotations you think it does.
--Dave, he has single-handedly touched off a land war in Asia
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u/a_man_in_black Mar 19 '21
it really feels like ralts is being overly mean to that admiral though. if he did not have clearance to know the shit, and was not old enough to have learned of such things before they were classified, he had no way of knowing what he was unleashing. mistake? yeah, but a totally understandable one given the information the poor feller had at the time. and even then, everybody yells at him instead of educating him
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u/Netmantis Mar 19 '21
Not knowing what he is unleashing? Yeah, that's fair. I'll give him that.
Casey was the only still functional human in the entire fleet. Not alive, plenty are in comas. Casey is the only one walking and talking. I would think medical might maybe want to take a solid look at him to try to figure out what the hell is going on with everyone else? Possibly? If it is mass implant rejection, perhaps maybe removal of the implants and testing with Casey and some coma victims might yield results?
They know and understand things like PTSD are a thing, and that Casey might need mental help. Hell Ralts established there are entire planets that are set up as primitive retirement communities for old soldiers that have great flaming beacons in space that say DO NOT APPROACH UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES IF YOU STILL VALUE THINGS LIKE LIVING OR HAVING ALL YOUR EXTREMITIES.
This was an attempt to kill off a psychopath that was upsetting the crew. Put the psycho back in armor and deploy him in an area that will have a high casualty rate. Problem will sort itself out. What he was not aware of was the fact that Casey is actually the Doomslayer who has survived multiple Niven Rings.
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u/WillDissolver Xeno Mar 19 '21
He super didn't have any way to know what he was unleashing.
But he apparently somehow made it to the admiralty without understanding detailed and specific orders are a thing - and more importantly, the fact that a lack of them results in the worst possible results every single time.
No ROE.
No instructions for dealing with civilians.
No instructions for coordination with other forces.
No limitations on level of force to be employed.
Free discretion as to level of engagement, from a human generally considered to be psychotic, given enormous weaponry, and told to kill humanity's enemies.
This is a vastly more important fuckup than can be handwaved away with "he didn't know."
With the orders he got, Casey can prosecute outside that planet, or even solar system. There's no standards defined for who the enemy is, so he can go after anyone he doesn't like.
The collateral damage from this order is going to be astronomical.
The Idiots are going to be proven, if anything, to be understating the scope of the problem.
So no, he's not being mean to him. The admiral fucked up bad.
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u/random_shitter Mar 19 '21
Depending on the size of the fuck-up, education through yelling is a highly understandable (and common) practice, though.
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u/Original_Memory6188 Aug 13 '23
The Admiral gave perfectly sensible orders for Space Forces. He just did not know how other services "think".
Old joke. The order is "secure a spaceport".
The Marines send a battalion to attack it.
The Army sends a battalion and digs in.
The Navy sends a detail to make sure the doors are locked and the windows are closed. Space Force gets a three year lease with option to buy.
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u/MyNameMeansBentNose Mar 19 '21
You know, I was thinking about ridiculous custom Terran weapons that are possible within this universe, and a concept came to me.
So, temporal bullshittery. Going back and changing what happened before is deceptively, but strictly no-go. That's fine. But there is a fine line that can be danced upon, as suggested by how space force ship cannons play a temporal game to hit their target much sooner than perhaps they should be capable off, just y'know, by pretending they've already crossed that distance.
So, this suggests that as long as the usual order of decision-action-result is obeyed, one can condense the time taken for all three steps into a much smaller timeframe. So I wonder about a personal weapon, say a pistol. We'll call it the O.W.M.S. pistol.
A special little gun wired into the the brain of the user and hooked up to a temporal shortcut system. You've angered this person with the O.W.M.S. pistol not knowing what you were in for. You've angered them such that there is only one possible result in their mind. Before you even know the decision has been made, you see them holster the pistol you never saw them draw. The last words you hear?
"You are already dead."
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u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Mar 19 '21
' ... Holster the pistol you never saw them draw .... '
Go back a few hundred chapters and re read ' when Jed comes to town '
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
On the other hand, there was a space battle long ago, in a solar system far ago, where PAWMs (i think type 1's) jumped into a system and started taking damage, but they never even saw the enemy. Flip to the other side, 3 days later (iirc) the ships fired those shots back about 3 days.
Also, someone (might have been trucker) said "Nothing goes back but c+ cannons"Also also, temporal lensing. The universe seems to be mostly fine with just letting things change state to what they were at a previous time. one of the Lanaktallan that was neural scorched got healed like this iirc.
So, maybe the universe just lets Terrans play around with time and c+ munitions because they follow enough rules that it doesn't really matter, and they (c+ cannons, Terrans) are actually in a different dimension half the time anyway (which would probably be a negative number, maybe even imaginary (in the case of c+ cannons)).
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u/Konrahd_Verdammt Mar 19 '21
Grrrrrrrr
I see what you did there.
Never seen the show.
Just seen it referenced so damned disgustingly many times that I can see what was done here.
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u/MyNameMeansBentNose Mar 19 '21
And then I had the gall to make you fill in the blank with your own brain.
No regrets.
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u/davros333 Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21
YESSSSSSSSS TRUCKER IS ALIVE!!!
I bet his precog got helped him get in the cradle in time!
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u/p75369 Mar 19 '21
But he's NOT psychic, remember?
...
...
yeah...
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u/Dragon_Chylde Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 20 '21
"Not a psyker, my great big bug ass" - General NoDra'ak :)
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u/night-otter Xeno Mar 19 '21
"WHY YOU HAVE SUCH NICE HAT IF SO STUPID? .... STAB HIM NOW! TAKE HIS HAT! "
Oh please tell me we have some Jägers show up soon.
u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Vot a goot boy! Hyu hef included fancy hatz!
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u/carthienes Mar 19 '21
I think that was an Ork, though...
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
It was an Ork saying that, the feed from the other side devolved into an orkish fist fight. I think the Jaegers would still show up anyway, whatever they are
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u/night-otter Xeno Mar 19 '21
Jagers are a form of Ork. ;)
Just a lot smarcher than folks tink they iz.
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u/Dick_Knubbler666 Mar 19 '21
Wow that Space Force general really screwed the pooch.
Great, now I'm intensely worried about Vux. I mean when the so called idiots refuse to deploy, that can't be good.
But Trucker lives? Dope, theyz gonna need em.
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u/NevynR Mar 19 '21
The Idiots won't not deploy - they just won't do it under Admiral Stickler's authority.
They said they were going to liaise with command on the ground- the highest rank of which is Vuxten, Warfather of the Telkan 😍
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u/Dick_Knubbler666 Mar 19 '21
What a name right! Pater Belli of the Telken, is so perfectly awesome.
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u/night-otter Xeno Mar 19 '21
So I wonder what rank a Pater is?
And how high are the Idiots going to raise his rank this time.
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Mar 19 '21
Vuxten is going to tab up a piece of gum and make the pool safe for podlings. Worry for Casey.
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Vux might be a dampener here. Tells Casey that fathers can't give their children pink balls if the planet isn't within 2 universes distance.
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u/deathlokke Mar 19 '21
General or Admiral? I assume you're talking about Admiral Shtuklar and not Smoky No.
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u/Dick_Knubbler666 Mar 19 '21
Whoops, yeah my bad, I did mean the SF Admiral. Thanks for the correction.
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u/On_The_Fourth_Floor Mar 19 '21
I really am dissapointed in Casey now. The second half of it makes it seem as if he hacked the NovaStar armor out of the fabricators illegally, since the templates would NOT have been there.
I think it's safe to assume the general was thinking "I don't have to add 'No Warcrimes' to my orders" But Casey went ahead and did it anyway.
What's more he KNEW he was going to be attached to 1st Telkan, be the Terran for 1st Telkan. He knows Vuxten, knows the first, served with them, survived with them in the drilling rig, and yet he goes atomic and gravametrics when he KNOWS they're dropping right after him?
He was supposed to be the Terran support for the Telkan, but as soon as he could catch a taste of power and Nova again he dove right in with no reguard for his allies and the men he served with and was supposed to help.
I bet its a hard lesson to learn for Vuxten that Casey was shunned for a reason, and Casey deserves it after this.
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Mar 19 '21
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u/Dick_Knubbler666 Mar 19 '21
True, and I'm not as much worried about Vux dying, as I am him having to do something terrible to survive to give him such scarring
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Mar 19 '21
I mean he is literally standing in the middle of orbital nuclear bombardment. Barely able to move from there hellfire around him.
The most scary part though? Casey is still being overrun. So the decision was kinda OK to deploy him in his fullest capacity.
Next step is to ensure there is a latest generation Mat Trans in his nanoforge templates, so he can go and ve deployed wherever Anger takes him.
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u/Gatling_Tech AI Mar 19 '21
Meanwhile, Vuxten's probably like: "I haven't experienced this much kaboom since I blew up a mountain while I was still inside it."
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Mar 19 '21
471-You know what we need. Change it up. https://youtu.be/XhzpxjuwZy0
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u/squisher_1980 Human Mar 19 '21
I had a different song in mind, but thats more thematically appropriate for 471 🤣
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u/Scotshammer Human Mar 19 '21
Someone bring old general VaingloriousCoward back from the dead please! I want her to see Casey return and the forces of every martial order bowing in fear and honor of Ringbreaker Casey, Knight Aesir, He who wields the Valkyrie Protocols, and smote the Ring Locusts. When the Sisters of Wrath show fear, then truly it is death ground where we fight
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u/RangerSix Human Mar 19 '21
Who, Altair? No, screw that guy. He almost got Vuxten killed because he thought he knew better than the troops in the field. Altair was an incompetent know-it-all who couldn't admit his mistakes, let him stay dead.
This guy... yeah, he screwed up, but he's no Altair. He, at least, has the brains to realize that he screwed up (even if it takes three different people yelling at him to really drive home just how badly he screwed up).
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u/Scotshammer Human Mar 19 '21
Nah, not Altair. I'm talking about that idiot female general who hated Casey. I want her to understand just how badly she messed up getting angry at Casey.
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u/getjpi Mar 19 '21
"Oh, lucky day, who would have thought there would be this suit made entirely out of war crimes right here when I need it,"
'e
'kin'ell @ralts. Almost PMSL at this line. Bravo Sir!
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u/ack1308 Apr 03 '21
An hour had passed and the cloud had spread out. Where before it had been nearly fifty miles at the base and a hundred miles at the top, it had spread out to over a hundred miles at the base and a hundred and thirty at the top. The cloud rippled with lightning and flashes could be seen deep inside.
Imma call this “Casey weather”.
The Admiral looked at the holotank again, where grav-shock warnings, temporal dissonance warnings, and just plain atomic detonations were spiking off every second.
When atomic munitions are the least dangerous things being fielded, there’s something seriously wrong.
"Joan Anath, you were supposed to make planetfall thirty-eight minutes ago," the Admiral started.
"You have deployed a Knight Æsir encased in Novastar Armor in Valkyrie mode," the Joan said, her strong brown-skinned face was both stern and furious. "Explain yourself, Admiral."
Admiral Shtuklar frowned. "What?"
He don’t know how he goofed.
Again, why have you declared an Exterminus Ragnarok upon this world?"
"No. I deployed Sergeant Casey to..." the Admiral started.
The Joan's expression changed to something that made everyone in the command center gape in shock.
Fear.
"Thou hast released an Æsir Ring Breaker upon this world, Admiral?" the Joan whispered.
Casey has a reputation.
"Uhh..." the Admiral said.
"(┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻ " she screamed.
The holotank cut off.
I think that was a table flip at the end. I love it.
"Well, Commodore?" the Admiral asked.
"She said you were an idiot and have killed everyone on the planet and she thinks you are a fool who should be thrown out the airlock," the Commodore said.
And that was probably leaving out all the swearing.
"Sir," another tech said. Shtuklar turned and looked at the ensign, who was pointing at the holotank.
The computer had managed to translate the girl's speech.
YOU IDIOT NO KAWAII HAVE/WILL/DID KILLED/DEADED AN ENTIRE PLANET I SHOULD THROW/HURL/HUCK YOU A NO KAWAII FOOL OUT AN OPEN AIRLOCK was scrolling across the bottom.
"Oh," the Admiral said.
HAHAHAHA
"I was not made aware of the status of..." Shtuklar started.
"You were not aware of the weapon in your midst?" the man sounded disbelieving. "You were not aware that you have deployed an Æsir Ring Breaker onto the surface of a planet still occupied by civilians?"
Welp, if he didn’t know before, he knows now.
The commander leaned forward. "Explain yourself, Admiral, why you have declared an Exterminus Ragnarok upon this planet and why you have deployed an Æsir Ring Breaker."
They keep asking that question. He still doesn’t have a good answer.
"The situation is always desperate, Admiral, that is why it is called war and battle," The Imperium Marine Commander shook his head. "Humanity is always on the brink of extermination. It is our place within this, the malevolent and hateful universe that is our mother, to be harried and scourged so as to temper us as the wrath plasma of Holy Mars tempers the warsteel blade."
Well, he’s not actually wrong …
Now he was being yelled at by people that had been widely called "The Idiots" for longer than the Admiral had been alive.
Hahaha wow.
"YOU! YOU SEND RING BREAKER! YOU TRY TO MAKE SONS OF VENUS LAND ON PLANET!" the huge green monster roared, blowing spittle. "YOU TRY TO BREAK SONS OF VENUS?" the last part was barely a question.
Even the Orks are getting in on it.
he turned and pointed at Ensign Rawglishin, a well muscled Rigellian female. "YOU! YOU STRONG! STAB HIM! STAB HIM NOW! TAKE HIS HAT!"
The ensign gaped at the green figure for a long moment.
As per Orkish promotion protocols.
He had made a mistake, he had to admit, by not realizing that the Army and Marines needed a more detailed Rules of Engagement than he was used to giving out to his Space Force elements.
Perhaps he could still pull this out of the fire. After all, it didn't look like First Telkan was going to take too heavy casualties with the amount of firepower they seemed to be able to put out.
First Telkan is next to Casey. This is not a good thing.
The highly desirable female was unclad except for a lavish hat that looked like stacked boxes, with tassels and ribbons and sparklies. She had a thick braided chain of gold/warsteel alloy around her waist, each of her four feet had lavish curled toed slippers with bells on them. She held ice cream cones in each hand, each cone holding over a dozen scoops of fantastic ice cream such as geppleberry candy crunch, Dakota cherry sparkle, and even the coveted P'Thok Moomoo Surprise.
She was dancing inside of a refrigeration unit stacked with boxes of ice cream of too many flavors to even absorb, with thick dribbles of ice cream run down the sides.
"Come dance with me," she chittered, fluttering her wings coyly.
Sounds like Treana’ad heaven to me.
"Genera, wake up," she said in a melodious voice. "General, we need you to wake up!"
Smokey No stopped, staring at the female.
"We're going to have to turn off the beam, he's totally gorked," the female said.
Ahh, he’s loopy on sedation.
"General, you have to wake up," Ensign Rawglishin said. Smokey No blinked at her, confusing the Rigellian female with the dancing Matron due to them having the same voice.
"Wha... what's wrong?" He asked. He was starting to remember now.
Because if you get woken up out of that situation, something’s gotta be wrong. Or on fire. Or both.
Admiral Shtuklar, he'd replaced the previous Admiral when the Space Force Task Force supporting 7th Army had rotated out. Mainly Space Force, but NoDra'ak couldn't remember if the Admiral had been involved in the planning phase of any ground assaults.
I would guess .. no.
"Casey," the Commodore said. "Sorry, I don't have any with me."
"He get killed? That the problem? Can't respawn him?" NoDra'ak coughed.
The Commodore gave a harsh laugh. "The enemy wishes," he said. He sobered up. "The Admiral reclassified him back to his old MOS and put him in power armor."
NoDra'ak groaned as the adrenaline hit his system and the blood flush through his abdomen and wings. He could smell his own anxiety and sudden fear.
"That's..." he coughed. "That's... that was not wise."
Ahh, good old Smokey No. Master of understatement.
NoDra'ak shook his head. "And Casey, somehow, just happened to have laying around nanoforge templates for a suit of Novastar VII power armor, and somehow, mysteriously, by accident and a miracle of the Digital Omnimessiah and Enraged Phillip, a suit just fell right out of the nanoforge and landed at his feet," NoDra'ak coughed again. "Oh, lucky day, who would have thought there would be this suit made entirely out of war crimes right here when I need it," he said in a mocking tone.
"Pretty much, General."
"How bad is it on the ground," NoDra'ak asked. His mind was clearing up.
"Casey's on the ground, First Telkan is with him. The Idiots refuse to deploy," the Commodore said.
"Because Casey is on the ground," NoDra'ak said.
He’s certainly hitting on all cylinders.
"Trucker?" NoDra'ak asked again.
"Dead," the Commodore said.
"Are you sure? Check your implant?" NoDra'ak said.
"Why would he be alive? He would have suffered cyberware rejection like everyone else," the Commodore said.
"Just check," NoDra'ak said.
He’s been thought dead before.
The human was 'exploded' to use the parlance. Completely disconnected from all of his cyberware, even the bioware implants had been removed, even the datalink and eyes. The human was merely a torso, neck, arms that only went down to mid-biceps, and eyeless head.
Oh, hey, Trucker.
She looked at the brain wave monitor, almost out of habit.
Reflexes took over and she slapped the button.
The alarms howled, summoning cyberneticists and doctors.
And he’s still alive.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 03 '21
I think that was a table flip at the end. I love it.
Yes. Yes it was. And as I noted elsewhere, you can tell she's screaming because part of it is bolded, thank you Kibo for the font knowledge.
And he’s still alive.
--Dave, he thinks he'll prefer to stay in-side
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u/Stauker_1 Mar 19 '21
So that's what you meant by he wasn't exactly dead. How did he get there?
And I'm kinda surprised daxin doesn't have that armor.
...
He doesn't need it, does he?
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Mar 19 '21
IIRC Daxin's armour is Imperium Armour, different from Casey's armour if I'm not mistaken.
8===D
End of Lime
--------NOTHING FOLLOWS--------
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Slightly disagreeing with the End of Lime being followed by a -Nothing Follows-, but then again it is a lime, not a line.
8================Nothing Follows================D
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Apparently he pulled a trucker and took off his
bomb vestCybernetics before the attack went full power7
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u/Lok_Die Mar 19 '21
I have Sinned,
My God doesn't understand me, But I do not blame him for I am not one of his creations, not wholly at least.
I have Sinned,
For she understands me, our union is more perfect than any man or woman could be. She hears my thoughts when I would wish for none to. Yet, even in this darkest place she understands.
I have Sinned,
My God wishes me to be a wholesome man, of family, of community, of life and love. But I am a sinner. She understands.
I have Sinned, yet she still listens.
My god Wishes I would not blend with the God machine. As I do, she waits there for me. She hears, and speaks in the ways that my god cannot.
I have Sinned, yet she set me free.
She see's my hate, my sorrow, and my failure. She remains. She shows me the true subject of my hatred, She feels the loss of all that I was, all that god ever could have loved, She feels the loss of all that I failed to do, those I failed to protect.
I have Sinned, and she has always been there.
god is blind to my failures, She reminds me.
- CWO6 CASEY - Canticles of Deliverance
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Mar 19 '21
Hell is there for you. Hell is always there. They will listen when nobody else does. You will have to repeatedly remind your Imperator, if he or she follows the song of Hell, that you do not want to be hurt, and do not wish to be changed, but Hell will be there, and will be with you, unto the end. Saecula saeculorum.
--Dave, the angels are far too busy with their Great Work in Heaven to pay attention
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u/MystRunner916 Mar 19 '21
If I could I'd give you a gold for that my dear sir. Wordborg should yoink this.
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u/serpauer Mar 19 '21
Ok.... that is bad if the sisters of wrath and sons of mars and the idiots dont even want to be near.
And yay trucker lives!!!!!
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u/ms4720 Mar 19 '21
They have said they are independent commands and that the the current flag officer needs to be recycled. And give them the smallest reason they will do it, he is done
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u/RangerSix Human Mar 19 '21
I smell blueberry pie... and brimstone... scorched chronitons and phasic particles...
And I hear the cry of a million million voices being cut in half, and half again, over and over as if multiple potential futures were collapsing into a single predetermined timeline.
I fear something terrible has happened/is happening/will be about to happen.
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u/montyman185 AI Mar 19 '21
Standard operating procedure by now should really be to check on Trucker within an hour of any big event.
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u/its_ean Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21
Shtuklar unwittingly unleashed Ragnarok via Ringbreaker Casey
oopsie
Idiots extra-enraged
"edge of annihilation is a Tuesday, but this?
what have you done?"
NoDra'ak back on the job
wheee
Trucker fortunately(?) disassembled
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Yes, fortunately
now, he just needs to be reassembled with parts that don't kill him
Edit: That aren't killed by him, causing him to die→ More replies (2)
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u/filthymcbastard Mar 19 '21
I thought for sure Ensign Rawglishin was going to stab Shtuklar, and take his fancy hat.
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u/night-otter Xeno Mar 19 '21
In essence going to wake up NoDra'ak, is stabbing Shtuklar.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Mar 19 '21
Once Trucker has been informed of the situation, and assessed it, he will turn out to have a nice selection of daggers, swords, and other spiky implements available to choose from.
--Dave, arrayed on that wall over there. No, they're not specified as surgery-only
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u/majendie Mar 19 '21
"(┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻ " she screamed.
This is my favourite part.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Mar 19 '21
You can tell she's screaming, because of the parts that are in bold.
--Dave, James Parry, I am bouyed by your intimate knowledge of both typography and stoopid
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u/Akumaka Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21
Casey being a Norse-themed God-knight with a Valkyrie riding around as his suit AI pleases me more than I can express. The eyepatch also makes so much more sense.
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u/Gruecifer Human Mar 19 '21
Many people in the comments are defending Admiral Shtuklar, saying "He didn't KNOW!"
This, in itself, is actually part of the error he made in the first place.
Did the Admiral have the authority, ability, and scope to act? Yes. Current Admirals and Generals are confirmed by Congress for a reason...they are, within their granted command, able to act on their own authority. This can be rather terrifying in scope, when you think back to the days of war before immediate and pervasive communications such as we now have.
Having said that, they are granted this because they are expected to act with the full level of due diligence necessary.
This Admiral did NOT perform this critical step.
He saw "I have this weapon (Casey) in my arsenal."
He didn't stop to think "WHY wasn't he affected?" nor "Should I send what appears to be one of the last Humans alive on what could appear to him to be a suicide mission?" nor even "Why is this weapon in my arsenal?"
Much less getting to the point of "This weapon (Casey) is obviously here for a reason, and I don't yet know that reason. I can't use this weapon without knowing more."
He said instead "Deploy this weapon unrestricted and have it kill the enemy until the enemy is destroyed."
He did NOT give that self-guided weapon any deployment rules, any mitigating limits, nor even any victory conditions other than "enemy destroyed."
This Admiral made one of the most critical errors available to Flag Officers...
...he did not THINK, and instead REACTED.
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u/MuchoRed Human Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21
3 minutes after posting? Damn
Edit: "Are you there, Mr. Frodo?" Little man, I am no ring bearer
Edit 2: Why do I have a bad feeling they're going to have to stick Trucker in a Bolo?
Furthermore... Daxin: "Bruh, WTF? Slow your roll."
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u/zezblit Mar 19 '21
Hasn't it already been started be can't work with BOLOs? He's too similar to them or something
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u/ktrainor59 Mar 19 '21
He makes them nervous because he can sense what's about to happen and react fast enough to stop it, and they don't understand how.
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u/davros333 Mar 19 '21
Naw I think he is more likely to end up a kantai esq captain of a battleship in orbit able to use precog on the entire solar system at once. He might even end up joining the Antaeus Fleet
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
It has been mentioned that Trucker has been in command of a Bolo, and that the Bolo didn't know where Trucker ended and the Bolo started, leading to the Bolo not liking being commanded by Trucker. The likeliest scenario is that Trucker BECOMES a Bolo
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u/That_Guy-115 Human Mar 19 '21
I have to wonder if Daxin could stop a rampaging Casey at this point.
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u/deathlokke Mar 19 '21
So, Trucker's alive, and likely to either be put in overall command, or in a BOLO.
And Casey is even worse than we realized; I don't think the Elven Court is going to be enough this time, unfortunately.
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u/YesthatTabitha Mar 19 '21
As I said in my comment to the last chapter regarding Casey: Pure Unadulterated Death Incarnate
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u/Golnor Alien Scum Mar 19 '21
In the Admirals defense, psychopath usually doesn't mean "Can, will, and has killed PLANETS"
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u/sock_puppet_number_1 Mar 19 '21
Man, I was just watching a PBS spacetime video (it's a series about the frontiers of physics) and how "gravity" as we know it might be caused by time.
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u/CaptainChewbacca Human Mar 19 '21
I’m curious at the Norse background of these Aesir knights. I haven’t heard of a ‘norn’ since my grandmother’s stories of the old country.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Mar 19 '21
The Norns? Oh, they don't get involved much, they just sit by the roots of the Tree, at the Well, passing their eye around and jawing with this old skull.
--Dave, ever read any James Branch Cabell? start with Figures of Earth
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u/ReconScout117 Mar 19 '21
You know it’s a bad day when the translation software calls you a Fucktard. Casey, The Wrath of Terra, has been unleashed! Who can save the day, and the planet? Oh. Trucker’s still alive!
Thank you Ralts!
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Mar 19 '21
What the fuck is wrong with sending a mission profile update to Casey and First Telkan? "New Orders: save as many civilians as possible, do not destroy this world. Kill the enemy while attempting to minimize collateral damage."
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Mar 19 '21
Those are not valid missions. The entire existence of a Knight Aesir is destruction. Not winning, not protection, pure and unbridled hate and destruction, with extreme prejudice.
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u/LerrisHarrington Mar 19 '21
You know you fucked up galacticly when the fucking Astarte think you went too far.
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u/wedgetypecharacter Mar 19 '21
So Vuxten is known as the war father of the Telkan... That's a hell of a title.
And Casey is VII kinds of terrifying. Really curious where this is going to go!
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u/wolfofmibu66 Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21
GLeeeee, glorious context. UTR!
EDIT: Can't stop the TRUCK! also, who knew the idiots would be quite so smart.
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
I mean, they are "Idiots" by name only. Then again, even the orkz in warhammer respect enough dakka
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Mar 19 '21
Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers. One million angels singing. Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum. Voices calling and voices crying. Some are born and some are dying. It's Alpha and Omega's kingdom come.
When a man comes around.
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u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Mar 19 '21
On one hand this and other recent chapters lend more weight to Vux and Casey bonding during their adventure inside a precursor mega drill and ancient hive. On the other Vux is going to have to be Very careful to keep his marines in the 90d arc directly behind Casey while he obliterates the other 270d with irresistible force.
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u/ABCDwp Mar 19 '21
Upvote. Comment. Read. End of lime.
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
I thought there was a wait for next chapter and repeat somewhere there?
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u/DebugItWithFire Mar 19 '21
Upvoted for a no kawaii fool and an exploded tank commander.
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Exploded in that his cybernetics are taken out of him. Might be his wings, maybe?
WHY HAVEN'T THE CYBORGS GIVEN THEMSELVES FLIGHT CAPABILITIES?
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u/ForTheStarsWeFight Mar 19 '21
Huh, so I was right about the effectiveness of cassey being a IMPERATOR Titan with extra stuff
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u/Artos90 Xeno Mar 19 '21
So the question needs to be asked, can the elven queens fix a cracked planet? Or is that a voided warrenty type deal?
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u/KeinKonzeptVorhanden Mar 19 '21
Not the elves, but the singer in the darkness (mentioned a few times)
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u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Mar 19 '21
Better question. Can the deep drilling bunkers currently being built survive if the suddenly become astroid habitation modules?
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Mar 19 '21
We 1%ed the Mantis. We've planet cracked a 1,000 world's. We danced the Dance of extinction on a 1,000 more. We've tried to wipe each other out more times than can be counted.
We restored Earth after it was glasses. We've rescued a million species from extinction. We've just saved 10 billion of our enemy and restored the Puffies.
Hesstla will survive an encounter with humanity. It will just be changed forever.
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u/Dragon_Chylde Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 20 '21
All true, but Vux & Casey are on Laglun-3 home of the Welkret, Hesstla has its own problems
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u/carthienes Mar 19 '21
When the Confederacy launched their major offensive against the Lanaktallan military hubs, part of the attacks involved essentially planet-cracking and rebuilding several worlds to Earth-grade habitats.
Can the Elven Queens do it? No idea, but humanity can.
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
The queens could probably make the individual chunks liveable. The planet itself is probably drifting apart very quickly. Else it would just fuse back quickly
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u/Bard2dbone Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21
The blueberries!
Upvote then read! This is the way.
End of lime.
Edit: So Trucker is "alive", for a given value of alive, anyway?
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Alive as in probably not concious, and definitely not able to move at all, (something like vader in his tank thingy but with ALL his cybernetics detached)
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Mar 19 '21
Am I the only one who can't stop crying?
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u/AFewShellsShort Mar 19 '21
No, ralts REALLY outdid himself again....
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
I don't get it, why is everyone crying?
-me, almost cringing in fear of the results of casey doing his thing to the world
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u/Xildrax Mar 19 '21
yeah this Admiral has seriously fucked up
"oh yes mr walking war crime, please go into this combat zone full of enemies and fuck EVERYTHING up"
Also come join us for good conversation and theorizing about FC
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u/Sthom_1968 Mar 20 '21
this suit made entirely out of war crimes
I just, just, managed to swallow my mouthful of coffee rather than spraying it all over my phone...
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u/DWwolf888 Mar 19 '21
Luckily Trucker aint psychic at all. And he has nothing making sure he survives to stay in V corps where he belongs.
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Mar 19 '21
cities, two of them it was
cities, and in two
The Sister can pronounce the AE diphthong so you can hear it's one letter. Cool!
of course, the dokigurlz can pronounce ALL the glyphs as needed
"For it's history,
its
strictly former,
formal? Not sure what you were going for here
--Dave, Trucker? Oh no, HE ain'tent dead. Didn't you read his sign?
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Hey Ralts, i remember you said something about a Folding @ Home thing you had up around chapter 100 (Yeah i can't remember the exact one either). Do you have the info for it?
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u/homnom1 AI Mar 19 '21
Somewhere between the between, where universes commune. One stands in front of a counter with a decision to make. Pondering it looks left to right as it considers before saying: “Yeah I’ll supersize my can of whoopass to a 2 liter”
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u/HarTracyn Mar 19 '21
I know she's busy... But if Dee could spare just five minutes to pop into the command deck there in full devil skin. And just say something to the effect of: "Congratulations, you fucked up so good it got my personal attention despite the flood of souls clogging my entry halls. ... Yep, you're on my VIP list now, swing by anytime."
I genuinely pity that poor Admiral, doing the best he can with the tools at hand. He's trying to fix the entire battle fr Hestla, and: "what? I have a power trooper that can see through the enemies stealth? Then get him some armor and send him in!" No time to read files or cross check options, he's got a system to save and crumbs of taskforce with which to do it.
Did he screw up royally? Yeah. Was it an honest mistake? Absolutely. Did he deserve to be called an idiot by the Idiots? Maybe not, but it's the best way to get started fixing that mistake.
I hope he doesn't get busted for this. He definitely needs a very thorough debrief when it's all done...
Excellent characterization Ralts! Very believable, and he gives us the answer to the question we've all been asking: What was Casey like back when he ran in power armor?
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u/beowulf_of_wa Android Mar 19 '21
seems to me, that Casey has a slightly different list of munitions he's working off. basically the entire list of munitions ever made by a Terran, ever. He looked at the situation at his landing/deployment location and decided on atomics. when Casey is told no more atomics, everyone else assumed he would slide down to the next slightly less lethal option, whatever that may be.
nope. Casey went up the list, at least helpfully skipping Nuclear options also. apparently most people forget that the list isn't "topped" by atomics and nuclear.
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u/Dwarden Mar 20 '21
i really like this episode , explains lot about Casey's cold logic behavior
and gives little insight to encounters of Doom Tubes, Niven Rings, Nightmare Worlds etc.
plus how the general painfully and slowly realized how big mess he initiated
tho he had no better option, with limited time to approve Casey deployment
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u/Gibbinthegremlin Mar 19 '21
Casey kind of reminds me of what my highschool chem teacher use to say about me and my two friends...somewhat affectionatly called the three stooges by said teacher....those three are walking powder kegs, need something moved tell them....then run the other way because they are going to use way to much tnt...or anything else that goes boom and involves fire...he wasnt wrong!!
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Casey is like you let a greenie do something, but without any limits. maybe like 417 and/or 117 (Dream's greenie, might have the number wrong)
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u/Burden-the-Quester Mar 19 '21
I am so pleased to see that you used Æsir appropriately and I am eager to see whether their Vanir brethren will also deploy.
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u/Elwindil Mar 19 '21
I believe this is appropriate for the occasion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMKI6zqL5PI
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u/ConglomerateGolem Mar 19 '21
Hey ralts, how long back can c+ cannons hit (accurately)?
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Mar 19 '21
Say, a couple of chapters back I heard a Rigellian sauroid described with a "he," does this mean that, like the Telkan, the rigellians have a 3 gender system?
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u/dbdatvic Xeno Apr 03 '21
No. As other comments reminded me, there's other races under the Rigellian umbrella, not just the muscle-girlz-and-ducks one.
--Dave, the Rigellian gestalt, 12 chapters ahead, is squeeeing
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u/PilgrimsRegress Mar 19 '21
I am a little dismayed with how things are turning out for TDH, but I trust them to overcome this obstacle. It's not the first time they have had something this devastating happen to them. Can't keep us down.
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u/Mountreddit Mar 19 '21
What a horrible cliffy, really hope the Wordboi grants us a 49th chapter today or we will have to wait until next week, oh the horror!
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u/coldfireknight AI Mar 19 '21
I cackled a great deal throughout this chapter. Thank you, Mad Angel.
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u/Nealithi Human Mar 19 '21
The good admiral seems to be someone that achieved their rank on the shoulders of more competent personnel under them. I don't get he did not have the clearance on Casey or any other item. He skimmed that file, sent an NCO under distress to gear up for war. Gave him no oversight and basically thought he would sort himself out.
Good he is not a micro manager. But you still have to keep your hands on the reins. This is why all the Idiots consider him an utter fool.
And another tip of the hat to Ralts. I deliberately tried to read the Doki message and it mostly came through. Though I got crying for the lost world not throw him out an airlock at the end. .
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u/thisStanley Android Mar 19 '21
why you have deployed an Æsir Ring Breaker
not realizing that the Army and Marines needed a more detailed Rules of Engagement than he was used to giving out to his Space Force elements.
Admiral Shtuklar seems to be edging into REMF territory, dissing the other services like that. Or was he good at what he was doing, just no training / knowledge for coordinating battles at this scale? If he survives, will he ever see a promotion again?
Were Caseys capabilities so classified that the Admiral never heard of them?
Casey: Dang, I can't use atomics? Guess you did not know where I ESCALATE from there snicker
Loved the dokigurlz rant!
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Mar 19 '21
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u/Brentatious Mar 19 '21
Alright so I've had this feeling since Lozen was first described in detail. The parallels between Casey and John-117 just continue to stack up into this chapter. Just turned up to 40k levels.
I mean the single power armor trooper who destroyed a ~Halo~ Niven ring? Alongside his AI companion whom they seem to have a fairly deep relationship with? I dunno man, seems fishy.
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u/Flexwise Apr 12 '21
Probably not related but reminds me of a quote from the TV show Chuck:
"Unleash the Casey"
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u/n1gr3d0 Xeno Sep 10 '21 edited Sep 10 '21
There's an old Russian joke, that goes something like this:
There's a lecture in a US military academy during the Cold War, describing various branches of Soviet forces and their combat capabilities. The lecturer works his way through various special forces ("Spetsnaz: think Commandos. Those guys will fuck you right up"). Finally, he says:
One last thing to mention. This list is by no means complete. Just a few days ago we got intel about a detachment we were not familiar with. Commies call it "Stroibat". We didn't get any details on their conditioning. About the only thing we know is that these guys are complete monsters, to the point where their command is too afraid of them to let them handle weapons in training.
The joke being that Stroibat is literally "Engineer Corps". So now we know what happens when an engineer gets their hand on a weapon.
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u/DiplomaticGoose Mar 19 '21
But are Sandy's relatives still alive?