approximately two-hundred and thirty humans in Rigellian Saurian Compact Space, not including LARP worlds, primitive therapy worlds, and those who are, for lack of a better word, anarcho-primitivists.
Those worlds seem to be arming after suffering a casualty rate of 45-80%, but when you're talking about hundreds of millions or even billions of humans, or those crazy bastards from the therapy worlds, you're talking about a whole galaxy of hurt.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Any word on The Bag?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
It's a serious problem.
See, the whole thing is maintained by a set of artificially generated singularities in a complex interwoven orbit around each other.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Right.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Now, to prevent them from being accessed by an enemy, they are then, well, gravitationally 'inverted' so to speak, so they exist in a second extra-dimensional non-euclidean space. The space fills up with 'white matter' protomatter, and the singularities orbit through that, as the white matter isn't effected by gravity force.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
Wait. What?
How does that work?
That's not how it works. That's not how singularities work! How do you 'invert gravity'? That's not how gravity works! And that's not how white matter, which has never been proven to exist, works!
That's not how any of it works!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
>Rigel snickers
MANTID FREE WORLDS
It's pretty simple.
The Terrans figured out how to make it work like that, so it works like that.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
That's not how physics works!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
>Rigel snickers louder
>Pubvia hides a smile
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Well, according to scientific research done by Terran Descent Humanity, you can make it work like that.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HESSTLA CYBERBURROW
That's not right! You can't just TELL the universe how fundamental laws work because you decided they work that way!
Reality doesn't work that way!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
BEHOLD! HUMANITY!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
ALL>Laugh
>Hesstla grumbles
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Anyway, the system is designed so that it can't be opened from the outside without certain steps being taken. It's also designed so that the system can't be just dropped from the inside by a stray EM pulse or by enemy troops gaining access to a few critical systems.
Terran Descent Humanity paranoia in action.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
But now it's turned back around and bitten them on the ass.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Not necessarily.
Observational data suggests that some kind of temporal energy cascade, the same one that seems to have strengthened the evolutionary reversion attack, is currently washing over the TerraSol System's space.
But, the chronotron energy, once it enters the bag, is exposed to white matter filled space, which means the chronotrons begin to vibrate at a different frequency and begin to get expelled from the 'Drawstring' in a geometrically increased rate.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HESSTLA CYBERBURROW
OK... I'm lost.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Do you know what an orange is? Not the color, the Terran fruit.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Man, I could go for some orange creme ice cream.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
That sounds good.
Ooh, I hear an ice cream truck.
Be right back, gonna get the puffies some orange creme sticks.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HESSTLA CYBERBURROW
Yes. We were growing a hybrid here before the
CASE OMAHA CASE OMAHA CASE OMAHA
attack upon our system.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
OK, picture a flat piece of black silk. Now, picture the TerraSol system in the middle. Now, pick up the silk that the edges, so now you have the TerraSol system in a bag. Take an orange and put it in the 'mouth' of the 'bag' you've made.
Now, put a string around the orange, tying the bag to it.
Now, invert the orange peel so the string is on the inside of the orange.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Screw this. I'm going to get ice cream.
PUBVIA! WAIT FOR ME!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
:SYSTEM ALERT: NINE URGENT MESSAGE THREADS TO BE PROCESSED :SYSTEM ALERT:
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
BAH!
Dammit, those alerts scare the crap out of me every time.
I mean, it's not like the messages are for us. It just yells at us like some psychopath getting a cellphone and screaming at the other passengers on the bus that he's going to be talking on the phone.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
No, the pulp of the orange is the white matter. Moving slowly through the white matter pulp are some artificially generated singularities, generated by the string you used to close the bag, moving in a Klemperer rosette orbiting the outside of the orange according to gravitational effects.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
What?
I mean, I understand those are words, and you put them in some kind of order, but I have no idea what you just said!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Ice cream?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
Thanks.
Ooh, root beer vanilla creme.
Thanks.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Trust me, kid. When you're dealing with human 'super-science', ice cream is about all that makes it bearable.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Anyway. Now you can see how it can only be opened from the inside, but that means it can only be opened from the outside.
With the chronotron cascade coming from Lanaktallan Space, thanks to Task Force Reaper, and the chrono-reversion attack on Terran Descent Humanity, the system won't drop the bag because technically TerraSol is still under heavy extinction level assault.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HESSTLA CYBERBURROW
OK, I understand.
I think.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Lemur people broke space and fell in the hole.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HESSTLA CYBERBURROW
OK, see, that I understand.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Trust us, kid, after a while, this becomes just a normal thing when dealing with
FIRST CONTACT ALERT
XENOSPECIES: POSITIVE
TERRAN: NEGATIVE
SPECIES INITIAL DESIGNATION: H'KEK'NTH
FIRST CONTACT ALERT ON [TIME/DATE ERROR]
FIRST CONTACT ALERT
Terrans and...
Wait, what?
QUERY>LOCATION OF FIRST CONTACT
SYSTEM REPLY> COVERTHIC CLUSTER
Uh, does anyone know where the coverthic cluster is?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
No clue.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Nope.
That looks like a saurian name though.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
Never even heard of it.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Damn, the timestamp is corrupted. So's the rest of the data.
Wonder what
SYSTEM ALERT
H'KEK'NTH AGGRESSION ALERT!
SIX (6) PLANETARY ASSAULTS
ALERT LEVEL RAISED TO MAGENTA
it was all about?
Oooh, that doesn't look good.
What do you think
SYSTEM ALERT
H'KEK'NTH 1% LINE ACHIEVED
happened?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Apparently, that.
Do you suppose they got
SYSTEM ALERT! ENGAGEMENT OF HOSTILITIES BY 1% LINE SPECIES
SPECIES DESIGNATION: BREPTILUK
ENGAGING IN XENOCRUSADE
XENOCRUSADE ACCOMPLISHED
MOVING DATA FOR SPECIES: BREPTILUK TO COLD STORAGE
DNA, CULTURAL, SOCIAL, HISTORICAL DATA IS NOW IN COLD STORAGE
END SYSTEM ALERT
Wow, they got their
SYSTEM ALERT! ENGAGEMENT OF HOSTILITIES BY 1% LINE SPECIES
SPECIES DESIGNATION: H'KEK'NTH
SECOND VIOLATION
PLANET CRACKER USE DETECTED
XENOCRUSADE AUTHORIZED
XENOCRUSADE ACCOMPLISHED
MOVING DATA FOR SPECIES: H'KEK'NTH TO COLD STORAGE
DNA, CULTURAL, SOCIAL, HISTORICAL DATA IN NOW IN COLD STORAGE
END SYSTEM ALERT
ass kicked.
OK. When/Where is this happening?
QUERY> LOCATION OF LAST TWO 1% LINES
SYSTEM> INVALID GALACTIC LOCATION. Z, Q^3 COORDINATE ERROR
Great, the system's still borked.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Borked enough it can't give us any data, not borked enough that it isn't running around shouting at us.
SYSTEM ALERT
DIG SETS SYSALER TO +M
Thanks.
Someone keep on eye on the dataflow see what this is all about.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
I'll do it. I've still got old access keys that are authorized.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Wow, these H'Kek'Nth were some real assholes.
They owned about 200 systems. Looks like they made incursions into systems labeled "Human Occupied Space". Lots of glassing, planet crackers, stuff like that.
Real xenophobes.
Looks like the war took almost thirty years before they got 1%'d.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Got a map?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Here.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Let's see if we can get this to line up...
Um... WTF?
What. The. Fuck?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
What? What is it?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
This map makes no sense. I'm comparing it to Milky Way Galaxy cartography and astrography, and it doesn't match up.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Let me try.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Wow. These guys xenocided thirty species before they ran into humans. During the war they tried to xenocide two more.
The universe is a better place with those guys gone.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
I think I found it.
Maybe.
You're not going to like it.
--NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Oh, come on.
Where is it?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
The mid-section of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
What?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
You heard me.
Sis, you OK, you look like you're frothing at the mouth.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
HOW? How did they get out THERE?
WHEN? When did they get there?
WHO? Who is out there? And don't say Terrans or I swear I'll scream.
WHAT? What reason did they have to go there?
WHERE? Where are they located now?
WHY DIDN'T ANY OF US KNOW THIS?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
DIGITAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Don't stroke out, sis. Breathe. Breathe.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Behold! Humanity!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Eat me.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
The two glittering figures stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down. Below them a vast river of glittering data surged and roared through the canyon it had carved in the infrastructure as more and more resources had been added just to handle the dataflow.
Suspended in the glittering 'water' were shapes, forms, likenesses of sleeping humans that swept along the current, surrounded by glittering data.
The two stared for a long moment, then began to move slowly down the steps that had been hewed from solid EPROM bedrock. They were careful, the EPROM steps were slick with .dll fragments and JPG artifacts. Moss of TCP/IP routing addresses, ancient and forgotten codes, coated the walls of the canyon and trickles of ultralinks dripped along the EPROM rock.
Finally they reached the bottom. The dock was worn, ancient, with the pier pilings carved with strange runes and images. On top of each a Terran male sternly stared at the duo with judging eyes, visible only from the neck up.
The frog one moved up, using a thumb to smear away the coating of video compression artifacts from the dataplate beneath one of the busts.
"Vint Cerf ForMemRS," the frog read out loud. He turned to the fox. "Recognize the name?"
The fox shook his head, limping slightly, using his sword to help him along. "No. Impressive facial hair though."
They moved to the end of the 'dock' and looked down.
The water was roaring, surging, foam splashing the dock.
"What do you think it is?" the frog asked.
The fox shook his head, sitting down. "No clue," he answered.
He looked up, into the darkness. He could see 'fireflies' moving around. Code packets, data requests, minor status reports, some cookies.
"Is it just me, or did they expend as much effort to the art of this place as they did to build it?" the frog asked, sitting next to the fox.
"As with function comes form," the fox quoted. He looked around. "This is an ancient, dark, and terrible place."
The frog nodded.
A human hand reached up, over the edge of the dock, slapping onto the 'stone' wetly. A human pulled himself out of the water.
"I..." the human growled, spitting 'water' and the red code of blood. "Will..."
The fox and the frog scooted back slightly from the human.
"Not..." the human heaved itself from the water. It stood up, the code making up its body swirling.
"Die," the human snarled. It slumped slightly, shook its head as if to dispel thoughts, and looked behind the fox and the frog.
"I ain't stayin'," the Terran said. It moved past the duo, without acknowledging their existence, walking toward a second set of steps that moved up the 'cliff' and into the dark. "You can't kill this motherfucker."
The frog and the fox looked at each other, then at the human, was climbing the narrow steps, using hands and feet to slowly ascend the wall.
"Can't... kill... me..." the human growled as it crawled.
The duo looked into the water. Foam swirled around in the water, shapes suggested by the flowing foam.
The duo looked at each other and spoke at the same time.
"It's a SUDS line!"
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