Ugh, what hit me?
[I'z fink I been seein' Mork stompin' abought. 'E look'd lik' sumwun zogged up 'iz choppa.]
I think that was Gork, 'cause he's coming back! Scamper!
{Wot'z dis? Yoo bean scimpin' on dis 'ere story? Blastfermy! [Wor, dat soundz delisiouse.] Yoo be writin' dis 'ere story, RIGHT... DA ZOG... NOW!}
AHHHH! RUN!
[Ha ha *snort*. Woooor, 'e be fl'in' 'igh!
Da ans'er be ah Memorie, by da whey. Ya squishy, Humie git'z.
An 'eez gon'! Ate ought o' ten, ah say'z!]
07/06/2016
Just done the last English test! Just as I got this chapter back from the wonderful, spectacular;
justreidabook
Update; 08/06/2016
Explanation on the lower gravity difficulties.
Location; Perseus Veil/ Tikkun/ 3rd planet/ Adas
Year; 2181 CE
"So," Ajax sighed, rubbing his temples with one hand that was planted on his forehead. The images of Gautama's and Arathorn's flabbergasted faces reassured him that he was both not hearing it wrong and that he was not the only one to be, well, surprised. A friendly-ish collection of programs that could think independently and grew in intelligence the larger a group of them was. A collection of species, including Humans, living somewhat peacefully together... Ajax could already feel the headache coming at him like a freight train of pain.
Back home, peace had only barely been established between the three factions of Humanity, and now there was only one faction, since all of Humanity was now gathered under the banner of a new 'Galactic Community'. Ajax leaned back into the chair, it was a lot more to take in then he had first thought. This... 'System Alliance', it, and...
He dragged his attention away from his thoughts, bringing himself back to the here and now, which just so happened to be talking with these 'Geth' programs. Simple. Easy. Somewhat relaxing, actually.
"You mean to tell me," Ajax quickly checked the progress of the joint 'Command Hub Alpha' building, "that there are, roughly, thirteen races in this galaxy living peacefully?"
"Correct." the Geth satellite replied, using the speakers that Bane originally used to speak to him.
"And there is no conflict? At all?" Ajax asked, incredulous at the mere prospect of the idea. In his mind, if one race couldn't even stay together, how could thirteen different races stand a chance of doing so? No war? Nothing at all?
"Incorrect. Instances of past inter-species wars include; Rachni Wars, Krogan Rebellions, First Contact War."
Ajax quickly brought up a screen, "Can you transfer the data to this ACU?"
"Confirmed, transferring data... data transfer complete."
Ajax turned to Bane for assistance, "Bane, can you do me a favor and compile the data into important statistics? You should know what I want."
The screen flashed an 'Of course, Field Marshal', before quickly shifting into the required lines doing the overview of the requested 'wars'.
Ajax then turned to the Cybran commander, "Arathorn," he seemed to have snapped out of the trance he had been placed in by the revelation, "Can you compile a overview of the wars that you have data on?"
Arathorn nodded, face reverting to the calculating, cold look from before. "I have access to almost all known wars, I request a link to send the data to these... programs."
A quick swipe of Ajax's fingers swiftly accepted the offer, allowing Arathorn to send the data directly.
As the Geth sorted through the data, and the new experience of lagging from the shear quantity and speed of the download, Ajax returned his attention to the screen. What it showed was most displeasing.
Turning back towards the images of his two companions, he rather incredulously asked, "Do you see this?"
At the shake of their heads, Ajax quickly said, "They claim this," he sent the file, highlighting the 'First Contact War' as he did so, "counted as a war."
Arathorn was the first to reply, while Gautama manually accessed the file, disbelief coloring his voice, "A fortnight? Minimal casualty's? That is classified as nothing more than a majorly prolonged skirmish."
Ajax shook his head slightly, glancing back to the screen to read further, snorting to himself when he came across the 'Krogan Rebellions'. Better, but not quite war material. The only thing that seemed to be of any true significance was this 'Genophage'. He then skimmed across the 'Rachni Wars', paused, went back to the beginning of the file and read through.
Nodding in appreciation, Ajax was briefly pleased by the number of years, but was immensely impressed with the casualty numbers. Three hundred years, definitely better than the few decades of the 'Rebellions', or the mere month of the 'First Contact', casualty's in the billions, thanks to the Krogan reproductive rate. Yes, it was a much better for him to call it a 'War' than the mockery of the word like these people seemed to think it was. Or, at least, for him.
Turning back to the images, he noticed Gautama seemed to have developed a twitch, while Arathorn was paying attention to his screen, peering intently at it with a focus that could only be described as suspicious.
Ignoring both for now, Ajax returned his attention to the monitor, before being interrupted by the Geth programs.
"Query. The 'Infinity War' lasts 1,025 years. Is this information correct?"
Ajax nods as he looks towards the monitor to check the status of his, and his friends, forces. "Yes, it did." He replied, suddenly feeling like he was too old and had seen too much.
"Human genetic engineering has improved average lifespan to multiple centuries. Is this information also correct?"
Ajax panned the screen over to the 'Command Hub Alpha'. It truly was an experimental command hub that was being secretly made by a joint scientist team from all three factions in the Coalition. Ajax had managed to wrangle his way into the spotlight on being their test subject and have the blueprints installed into his ACU. It was genius brought to a whole new level of incredible. By using Quantum Entanglement, a commander could theoretically command units in different systems that also had one of the command hubs, so long as they physically connected their ACU to the 'Hub', rendering it inoperable. A way around this would be to create a carrier to hold a command hub, making it mobile, but that would make it a big target for enemy's, with it being a massive superstructure multiple kilometers in size. Plus, it was a hungry monster that could chew through any commander's economy. To supply the needed resources for the immensely expensive building... it was better not to think about it.
Ajax wanted to growl. They'd started building it when they could. To see if he could patch back into the network and get them off planet. It still wasn't complete, but after two whole days of focusing everything they had on it, they were close. Besides, it wasn't like they really needed it yet anyways. They would take their time, and finish when they were ready.
"Yea, I'm 282 Earth standard years old. Or I was the last time I checked anyways." He pinched a few Engineers and sent them to create a few more power generators. The 'Hub' may not have been needed yet, but it would require a helluva lot more energy when it did come online.
Ajax paused, before turning to the screen, "Bane, does this Earth take the same length of time to complete a year as ours?"
'Yes, although the gravitational pull has been downgraded by 10%'
Ajax sighed to himself, so that was why all the land units were having trouble staying upright, and the air units had to be downgraded. It was only slightly humorous to see the land scouts jumping in the air because of overpowered machinery for the environment. Looks like they'll have to make them slightly weaker, not like they would need any of their usual unit sizes and strengths in this new universe.
The Geth programs quieted down to contemplate the information, before something else distracted them from the conversation.
Captain Elis D'aros was squirming slightly in her seat. She could not believe she was going through with the insane plan that she had propositioned a week earlier to the crews of the seven ships currently under her command.
The Asari had proposed that there was probably something still salvageable within Geth controlled space, and that the small battlegroup would be able to infiltrate the synthetics territory and nab some worthwhile technology before selling it on the black market or to the Quarian Flotilla.
Most of the crew seemed as if they were either not bothered or thought the same as her, which had led to their current course and situation. They'd started from the Omega Nebula, before going to the Pylos Nebula. From there, Captain D'aros had sent her smallest and quietest ship, a Salarian stealth corvette, ahead into the Far Rim, in the middle of three Geth controlled systems. Their job was recon, to say when it was safe to jump in and go to the Perseus Veil.
Surprisingly, there were no Geth in the system, or so the corvette had said, which led to the battlegroup going through one at a time.
Once on the other side, in the middle of Geth space no less, they had collected some stuff that was left on Dholen and Ma-at from the Uprising. It was enough to make the crew courageous enough to attempt the 'next level'.
Going into the Perseus Veil itself.
Which led to their current position, approaching the Mass Relay leading into the Perseus Veil in a slow and attentive pace.
Captain D'aros glanced at the holo-table in the center of the room, surrounded by the specialists keeping the ship active. Still no sign of the Geth. They must be really busy or did't want to bother them. Either option was good enough for her. She didn't care at all why the Geth did if it meant there was less chance of a confrontation... and death, can't forget death.
Her musing was interrupted by her pilot, a Human male by the name of Ewart Bothell. "We're approaching the Relay. 20 seconds 'till jump."
The Captain nodded briskly, "You heard him people, I want us combat ready by then."
Her order was met by the hurried re-checking of an already combat ready cruiser, searches for any malfunctions, and the careful corrections to the small faults in the systems.
D'aros mentally prepared herself for the possibility of a trap by the Geth, readying herself to start issuing orders the second they hit the relay.
"Hitting the Relay in, 3... 2... 1..." the ship lurched gently to signify their passage, "Relay jump complete."
"Weapons... Green!"
"Sensors here, we got something."
The crew tensed, including the Captain, at the Quarian's voice.
"What do we have, Jaal?" D'aros asked, trying to gather her thoughts. It was times like these that she wished she had a Alliance or Hierarchy cruiser, both had holographic protectors in the middle of the bridge, either looking out over the ship or in the middle of it. Instead she was stuck with the Asari cruiser, which meant she had to look at a screen in front of her, detailing the information the ship could sense.
"Two Dreadnoughts within close proximity to Adas." The entire crew tensed further, "Unknown identification, but I can guarantee they're not Geth."
The atmosphere relaxed slightly, enough for D'aros to ask, "Details, Jaal."
"Disk shaped with a hole in the middle. They're eight hundred meters wide in diameter, and a few visible weapons including four missile emplacements and... It's colored white with green stripes?" Some crew-members chortled nervously at the 'details', most of the Humans didn't though, for some reason, "Sorry Captain, that's all the sensors can identify. The material is of an unknown composition, and there might be more weapons hidden inside the Dreadnoughts. Our scanners can't seem to penetrate whatever material their hulls are made of, and energy readings are higher than the average Dreadnought could ever produce during FTL, but they aren't doing anything except sit there and spin."
The pilot piped up, "Let's have a look." D'aros nodded, allowing Ewart to approach Jaal to look at the Dreadnoughts. When he got there, there were a tense few seconds where the pilot took a closer look at the ships, before shaking his head in bemusement. Turning around, he addressed the Captain and the Humans on board, "Classic UFO from the late 20th and the early 21st century's. Only bigger."
The Asari Captain was beginning to loose her patience to nervousness and confusion, "IFF?"
"Unknown." Came the tight response, "We don't know anything about them other than what they look like... I think... either someone's burned away their family fortune, or this could be a first contact situation."
Practically everyone snorted in some way at the statement of the obvious. D'aros only breathed deeply, contemplating on what to do now.
Finally! I am alive!
Hope this is interesting enough for everyone, decided to leave it at a cliffhanger, 'cause, why not?
I would just like to clear up on the fact that the ACU's data-banks have been wiped, most units will have to be built from scratch.
Anyway, I've got another 6 riddles, just to keep you occupied.
I'm the part of a bird that's not in the sky, I can swim in the ocean and remain dry. What am I?
I am perfect, impossible, permanent and guaranteed. What am I?
What loses a head in the morning, but gets it back at night?
What am I?
A cloud was my mother, the wind is my father, my son is the cool stream, and my daughter is the fruit of the land. A rainbow is my bed, the earth my final resting place, what am I?
Aura cadaver, in graveyards we gather. In the living we exist, in your closet we persist. What are we?