Chapter 426: 426
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
You down here?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Yes. What is it that you desire?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Wow. I've never been down this far.
So that's the Sleeping Ones? Brrr. It looks like one of those movies with thousands of ghosts moving around behind a clear barrier.
Creepy.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
There's nothing to fear. They can't hear you or see you, you can't reach them.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
So, we're really far down here. What is this place?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Backbone of the entire system before it disappears.
See that ripple at the end of our 'corridor'?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Yeah. The line just ends there?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
For us, yes. But the data enters and exits that ripple. It goes somewhere else before it comes back out and spreads across the SolNet.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What are these cables?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Gestalt channels.
Yours is the black and tan striped one.
TerraSol is the one encased in smokey black glass.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
So what are you doing?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Activating a non-TerraSol gestalt for Terran Descent Humanity outside the bag.
There's five thousand planets that right now are cut off from the gestalts and SolNet until I can get a gestalt and SolNet channel hooked up for Terran Descent Humanity.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
You mean for the last year the Terrans haven't had any communication with anyone else?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Not through SolNet or the Gestalts.
They've been using hypercom, needlecast, and subspace transmission.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What about the CONFED gestalt?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Have you heard him say anything in six months?
He hit the wall from data time/date stamp and was taken offline.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
For six months none of us have had any idea what Terran Descent Humanity is doing on over 1,500 worlds?
Why didn't the same system that added us, the Leebaw, the Akltak, the Hamoorsans, the Tnvaru just add a new human channel?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Five thousand worlds, not fifteen hundred.
It's not that simple with the Terrans. You have to opt in and can opt out. That and a lot of worlds have their gestalt channels burnt out in defiance of the Senate or the Imperium or the Fourth Republic or what have you.
I'm trying to figure out how to lay down a new gestalt channel without the system automatically adding a new species.
Because I tried laying down a gestalt channel and probably surprised the hell out of everyone.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Scared the hell out of the Treana'ad, that's for sure.
Mantid's trying to coax them through the initial disorientation.
But seeing a Lanaktallan "FREE HERD GESTALT" pop up was startling.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
I'll bet.
OK. I think I've got the overrides, the filters, and everything set up.
These filters are the important part. There's certain Terran emotional systems we don't want you guys exposed to.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Like rage?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
No. More like lust/arousal. Unmodified humans are pretty much 'in heat' so to speak at all...
wait...
wait a second...
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Unmodified!
That's what's going wrong.
How could I have been so stupid!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
I don't get it.
What?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
It's so obvious.
They are unmodified Terrans.
At a neural level, they aren't modern Terran Descent Humans!
They're Terrans.
Humans.
Earthlings.
Go back up and keep an eye out. Give me a shout if this works.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
All right.
>TELKAN FORGE WORLDS have cloned to GENERAL CHAT
WELCOME TO GENERAL CHAT
PLEASE DON'T FEED THE LEEBAWIANS
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
and then we ended up with a dozen channels, all yelling at each other.
Oh, hey, kid, did you find him?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Was he down in the lower channels?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Yeah. I'm kind of straddling both channels.
How's our newest member?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TLATSEG DERD EERF
.driew si sihT.
-NO-ING-T-FO-WS-LL----
MANTID FREE WORLDS
You'll get it. It just takes some getting used
//////////
back off those ships out of the resonance zone or you're going to
raising the taxes again? come on
strike strike strike stike
and add on the gravity defying tits because i want them to look good for this skin
because the Confederacy is dead and gone we're on our own out here and
surrender or we land troops
go where no man has gone before
ring a ding ding baby the game was rigged from the start
i got a slippery wormhole for that dong if you know what I mean and I think you do
took out Terra and we're probably next
a military conscription draft are you crazy nobody's done one of those in six thousand years
aw man i just got this body how i like it and i have to reskin?
/////////
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I think I'm gonna hurl
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
WARNING! EXPOSURE TO UNFILTERED TERRAN DESCENT HUMANS DETECTED! WARNING!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
urk
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL
Holy crap! That was incredible! DO IT AGAIN!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
MULIT-CHANNEL BROADCAST>IT'S COMING THROUGH UNFILTERED
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
/////////
ADDING IN MARTIAL LAW PROTOCOLS
LOAD COMBINE MILITARY PROTOCOLS
LOAD IMPERIUM EMOTIONAL FILTERS
LOAD FIFTH REPUBLIC MATRIXES
soft dolly warm dolly yummy snack tasty juice good podling warm podling safe podling love and hugs and snuggles and love warm podling safe podling happy podling
COMPILING EMOTIONAL DATA - DONE
COMPILING OPINION DATA - DONE
COMPILING HEALTH AND WELFARE DATA - DONE
COMPILING LEADERSHIP MATRIX - DONE
>>>BOOTSTRAPPING HUMAN GESTALT
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Hold onto your panties.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HUMAN GESTALT
Wow. This feels weird.
And totally illegal I didn't consent to this.
We're at war, dumbass, your right of consent stops about the line of my right not to get planet cracked
We wish to revoke consent.
How about I land troops and you can revoke consent to a 10mm MAW round?
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE HAS LOGGED ON
Did it work?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
We're at war, TerraSol is gone. The Confederacy is borderline gone. You can't stand on the sidelines and expect not to be involved.
I refuse to get involved. It's my right to withdraw consent. The Right of Consent is one of the foundations of the Confederacy.
THE CONFEDERACY IS AT WAR, YOU IDIOTS!
That doesn't mean my people are at war. Maybe if some diplomacy was tried instead of the Confederate standard of push a gun in people's faces we wouldn't be at war.
So you'll just wait for them to gentle you on the sidelines, I take it?
There's no reason for them to try to gentle us, we didn't do anything to them.
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Kind of.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
So you'd rather be like the Talmonous Cluster and just let the Lanks or the Dwellerspawn roll over us? No. You don't get to opt out of a fight for our very survival.
This fight violates my ethics, I refuse to take part or have it fought in my name.
IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT!
I'm sure if you explain very nicely to the Dwellerspawn about your ethics and you don't wish to be devoured in your name they'll listen very patiently before eating you.
You're one of those assholes who said we should just feed a couple billion more people to the Mar-gite, aren't you?
DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
THAT'S ENOUGH!
Cyb, see if you can collapse the gestalt further.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
Once they're done there what makes you think they won't do to us what they did to Terra?
The Lanaktallan Gentling theory is just a conspiracy theory. Nobody's monstrous enough to do that.
OH MY GOD SHUT UP!
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Hang on.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
>
>>
>>>GESTALT CHANNEL MELDING COMPLETE
HUMAN GESTALT
Oh, woah. That was... weird. Why does it feel like there's two of me?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Technically, there is. There's something weird happening to Terran Descent Human brains. They're being reverted to pre-Glassing patterning and genetics.
Only a third of Terran Descent Humanity is unaffected and that's why you feel weird.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HUMAN GESTALT
OK, what did I miss?
We're badly fragmented. We've got a dozen civil wars going on.
Everyone says the Confederacy has had it.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
GESTALT OF THE FREE HERD WHO WILL NOT BE TOLD WHERE TO GRAZE OR HOW TO SPEAK
Here am I.
Learning.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Yeah, that's what about a third of Terran worlds are saying.
It's weird. The Confederacy is ALL of us. Just the loss of you humans doesn't mean the Confederacy dissolves for the rest of us.
We kind of get a say.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HUMAN GESTALT
There's been a lot of anti-Confederacy sentiment since the Mar-gite War.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Yeah, well, human space took the majority of the Mar-gite attacks when
day is playtime sing with broodmommy dance with broodmommy play with broodmommy square is neat and circle is funny and triangle in happy one leewbaw two leebaw red leebaw blue leebaw swim and dance and run and play broodmommy will play with you all day
they hit the galactic stub and started.
Wow, that's back again.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HUMAN GESTALT
What is it?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLD
Broodcarrier psychic signal got intertwined with the system. We hadn't heard it since...
since...
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Since TerraSol got locked up.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
So the signal is being repeated by humans?
Weird.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Not too weird. You know, without the protections put down on the human mind after the Human/Mantid War, a lot of psychically sensitive species are going to be
ALERT! OMNIQUEEN PSYCHIC SIGNAL DETECTED! ALERT!
Uh-oh.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
You down here?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Yes. What is it that you desire?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Wow. I've never been down this far.
So that's the Sleeping Ones? Brrr. It looks like one of those movies with thousands of ghosts moving around behind a clear barrier.
Creepy.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
There's nothing to fear. They can't hear you or see you, you can't reach them.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
So, we're really far down here. What is this place?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Backbone of the entire system before it disappears.
See that ripple at the end of our 'corridor'?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Yeah. The line just ends there?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
For us, yes. But the data enters and exits that ripple. It goes somewhere else before it comes back out and spreads across the SolNet.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What are these cables?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Gestalt channels.
Yours is the black and tan striped one.
TerraSol is the one encased in smokey black glass.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
So what are you doing?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Activating a non-TerraSol gestalt for Terran Descent Humanity outside the bag.
There's five thousand planets that right now are cut off from the gestalts and SolNet until I can get a gestalt and SolNet channel hooked up for Terran Descent Humanity.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
You mean for the last year the Terrans haven't had any communication with anyone else?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Not through SolNet or the Gestalts.
They've been using hypercom, needlecast, and subspace transmission.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What about the CONFED gestalt?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Have you heard him say anything in six months?
He hit the wall from data time/date stamp and was taken offline.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
For six months none of us have had any idea what Terran Descent Humanity is doing on over 1,500 worlds?
Why didn't the same system that added us, the Leebaw, the Akltak, the Hamoorsans, the Tnvaru just add a new human channel?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Five thousand worlds, not fifteen hundred.
It's not that simple with the Terrans. You have to opt in and can opt out. That and a lot of worlds have their gestalt channels burnt out in defiance of the Senate or the Imperium or the Fourth Republic or what have you.
I'm trying to figure out how to lay down a new gestalt channel without the system automatically adding a new species.
Because I tried laying down a gestalt channel and probably surprised the hell out of everyone.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Scared the hell out of the Treana'ad, that's for sure.
Mantid's trying to coax them through the initial disorientation.
But seeing a Lanaktallan "FREE HERD GESTALT" pop up was startling.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
I'll bet.
OK. I think I've got the overrides, the filters, and everything set up.
These filters are the important part. There's certain Terran emotional systems we don't want you guys exposed to.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Like rage?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
No. More like lust/arousal. Unmodified humans are pretty much 'in heat' so to speak at all...
wait...
wait a second...
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Unmodified!
That's what's going wrong.
How could I have been so stupid!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
I don't get it.
What?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
It's so obvious.
They are unmodified Terrans.
At a neural level, they aren't modern Terran Descent Humans!
They're Terrans.
Humans.
Earthlings.
Go back up and keep an eye out. Give me a shout if this works.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
All right.
>TELKAN FORGE WORLDS have cloned to GENERAL CHAT
WELCOME TO GENERAL CHAT
PLEASE DON'T FEED THE LEEBAWIANS
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
and then we ended up with a dozen channels, all yelling at each other.
Oh, hey, kid, did you find him?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Was he down in the lower channels?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Yeah. I'm kind of straddling both channels.
How's our newest member?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TLATSEG DERD EERF
.driew si sihT.
-NO-ING-T-FO-WS-LL----
MANTID FREE WORLDS
You'll get it. It just takes some getting used
//////////
back off those ships out of the resonance zone or you're going to
raising the taxes again? come on
strike strike strike stike
and add on the gravity defying tits because i want them to look good for this skin
because the Confederacy is dead and gone we're on our own out here and
surrender or we land troops
go where no man has gone before
ring a ding ding baby the game was rigged from the start
i got a slippery wormhole for that dong if you know what I mean and I think you do
took out Terra and we're probably next
a military conscription draft are you crazy nobody's done one of those in six thousand years
aw man i just got this body how i like it and i have to reskin?
/////////
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I think I'm gonna hurl
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
WARNING! EXPOSURE TO UNFILTERED TERRAN DESCENT HUMANS DETECTED! WARNING!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
urk
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL
Holy crap! That was incredible! DO IT AGAIN!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
MULIT-CHANNEL BROADCAST>IT'S COMING THROUGH UNFILTERED
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
/////////
ADDING IN MARTIAL LAW PROTOCOLS
LOAD COMBINE MILITARY PROTOCOLS
LOAD IMPERIUM EMOTIONAL FILTERS
LOAD FIFTH REPUBLIC MATRIXES
soft dolly warm dolly yummy snack tasty juice good podling warm podling safe podling love and hugs and snuggles and love warm podling safe podling happy podling
COMPILING EMOTIONAL DATA - DONE
COMPILING OPINION DATA - DONE
COMPILING HEALTH AND WELFARE DATA - DONE
COMPILING LEADERSHIP MATRIX - DONE
>>>BOOTSTRAPPING HUMAN GESTALT
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Hold onto your panties.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HUMAN GESTALT
Wow. This feels weird.
And totally illegal I didn't consent to this.
We're at war, dumbass, your right of consent stops about the line of my right not to get planet cracked
We wish to revoke consent.
How about I land troops and you can revoke consent to a 10mm MAW round?
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE HAS LOGGED ON
Did it work?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
We're at war, TerraSol is gone. The Confederacy is borderline gone. You can't stand on the sidelines and expect not to be involved.
I refuse to get involved. It's my right to withdraw consent. The Right of Consent is one of the foundations of the Confederacy.
THE CONFEDERACY IS AT WAR, YOU IDIOTS!
That doesn't mean my people are at war. Maybe if some diplomacy was tried instead of the Confederate standard of push a gun in people's faces we wouldn't be at war.
So you'll just wait for them to gentle you on the sidelines, I take it?
There's no reason for them to try to gentle us, we didn't do anything to them.
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Kind of.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
So you'd rather be like the Talmonous Cluster and just let the Lanks or the Dwellerspawn roll over us? No. You don't get to opt out of a fight for our very survival.
This fight violates my ethics, I refuse to take part or have it fought in my name.
IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT!
I'm sure if you explain very nicely to the Dwellerspawn about your ethics and you don't wish to be devoured in your name they'll listen very patiently before eating you.
You're one of those assholes who said we should just feed a couple billion more people to the Mar-gite, aren't you?
DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
THAT'S ENOUGH!
Cyb, see if you can collapse the gestalt further.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
Once they're done there what makes you think they won't do to us what they did to Terra?
The Lanaktallan Gentling theory is just a conspiracy theory. Nobody's monstrous enough to do that.
OH MY GOD SHUT UP!
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Hang on.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
>
>>
>>>GESTALT CHANNEL MELDING COMPLETE
HUMAN GESTALT
Oh, woah. That was... weird. Why does it feel like there's two of me?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE
Technically, there is. There's something weird happening to Terran Descent Human brains. They're being reverted to pre-Glassing patterning and genetics.
Only a third of Terran Descent Humanity is unaffected and that's why you feel weird.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HUMAN GESTALT
OK, what did I miss?
We're badly fragmented. We've got a dozen civil wars going on.
Everyone says the Confederacy has had it.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
GESTALT OF THE FREE HERD WHO WILL NOT BE TOLD WHERE TO GRAZE OR HOW TO SPEAK
Here am I.
Learning.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Yeah, that's what about a third of Terran worlds are saying.
It's weird. The Confederacy is ALL of us. Just the loss of you humans doesn't mean the Confederacy dissolves for the rest of us.
We kind of get a say.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HUMAN GESTALT
There's been a lot of anti-Confederacy sentiment since the Mar-gite War.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Yeah, well, human space took the majority of the Mar-gite attacks when
day is playtime sing with broodmommy dance with broodmommy play with broodmommy square is neat and circle is funny and triangle in happy one leewbaw two leebaw red leebaw blue leebaw swim and dance and run and play broodmommy will play with you all day
they hit the galactic stub and started.
Wow, that's back again.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HUMAN GESTALT
What is it?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLD
Broodcarrier psychic signal got intertwined with the system. We hadn't heard it since...
since...
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Since TerraSol got locked up.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
So the signal is being repeated by humans?
Weird.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Not too weird. You know, without the protections put down on the human mind after the Human/Mantid War, a lot of psychically sensitive species are going to be
ALERT! OMNIQUEEN PSYCHIC SIGNAL DETECTED! ALERT!
Uh-oh.
TELKAN FORGE WORLDSYou down here?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEYes. What is it that you desire?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSWow. I've never been down this far.So that's the Sleeping Ones? Brrr. It looks like one of those movies with thousands of ghosts moving around behind a clear barrier.Creepy.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEThere's nothing to fear. They can't hear you or see you, you can't reach them.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSSo, we're really far down here. What is this place?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEBackbone of the entire system before it disappears.See that ripple at the end of our 'corridor'?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSYeah. The line just ends there?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEFor us, yes. But the data enters and exits that ripple. It goes somewhere else before it comes back out and spreads across the SolNet.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSWhat are these cables?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEGestalt channels.Yours is the black and tan striped one.TerraSol is the one encased in smokey black glass.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSSo what are you doing?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEActivating a non-TerraSol gestalt for Terran Descent Humanity outside the bag.There's five thousand planets that right now are cut off from the gestalts and SolNet until I can get a gestalt and SolNet channel hooked up for Terran Descent Humanity.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSYou mean for the last year the Terrans haven't had any communication with anyone else?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVENot through SolNet or the Gestalts.They've been using hypercom, needlecast, and subspace transmission.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSWhat about the CONFED gestalt?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEHave you heard him say anything in six months?He hit the wall from data time/date stamp and was taken offline.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSFor six months none of us have had any idea what Terran Descent Humanity is doing on over 1,500 worlds?Why didn't the same system that added us, the Leebaw, the Akltak, the Hamoorsans, the Tnvaru just add a new human channel?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEFive thousand worlds, not fifteen hundred.It's not that simple with the Terrans. You have to opt in and can opt out. That and a lot of worlds have their gestalt channels burnt out in defiance of the Senate or the Imperium or the Fourth Republic or what have you.I'm trying to figure out how to lay down a new gestalt channel without the system automatically adding a new species.Because I tried laying down a gestalt channel and probably surprised the hell out of everyone.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSScared the hell out of the Treana'ad, that's for sure.Mantid's trying to coax them through the initial disorientation.But seeing a Lanaktallan "FREE HERD GESTALT" pop up was startling.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEI'll bet.OK. I think I've got the overrides, the filters, and everything set up.These filters are the important part. There's certain Terran emotional systems we don't want you guys exposed to.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSLike rage?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVENo. More like lust/arousal. Unmodified humans are pretty much 'in heat' so to speak at all...wait...wait a second...---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSWhat?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEUnmodified!That's what's going wrong.How could I have been so stupid!---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSI don't get it.What?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEIt's so obvious.They are unmodified Terrans.At a neural level, they aren't modern Terran Descent Humans!They're Terrans.Humans.Earthlings.Go back up and keep an eye out. Give me a shout if this works.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSAll right.TELKAN FORGE WORLDS have cloned to GENERAL CHATWELCOME TO GENERAL CHATPLEASE DON'T FEED THE LEEBAWIANSTREANA'AD HIVE WORLDSand then we ended up with a dozen channels, all yelling at each other.Oh, hey, kid, did you find him?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSWas he down in the lower channels?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSYeah. I'm kind of straddling both channels.How's our newest member?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TLATSEG DERD EERF.driew si sihT.-NO-ING-T-FO-WS-LL----MANTID FREE WORLDSYou'll get it. It just takes some getting used//////////back off those ships out of the resonance zone or you're going toraising the taxes again? come onstrike strike strike stikeand add on the gravity defying tits because i want them to look good for this skinbecause the Confederacy is dead and gone we're on our own out here andsurrender or we land troopsgo where no man has gone beforering a ding ding baby the game was rigged from the starti got a slippery wormhole for that dong if you know what I mean and I think you dotook out Terra and we're probably nexta military conscription draft are you crazy nobody's done one of those in six thousand yearsaw man i just got this body how i like it and i have to reskin?/////////MANTID FREE WORLDSI think I'm gonna hurl---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDSWARNING! EXPOSURE TO UNFILTERED TERRAN DESCENT HUMANS DETECTED! WARNING!---NOTHING FOLLOWS---PUBVIAN DOMINIONurk---NOTHING FOLLOWS---LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOLHoly crap! That was incredible! DO IT AGAIN!---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDSMULIT-CHANNEL BROADCASTIT'S COMING THROUGH UNFILTERED---NOTHING FOLLOWS---/////////ADDING IN MARTIAL LAW PROTOCOLSLOAD COMBINE MILITARY PROTOCOLSLOAD IMPERIUM EMOTIONAL FILTERSLOAD FIFTH REPUBLIC MATRIXESsoft dolly warm dolly yummy snack tasty juice good podling warm podling safe podling love and hugs and snuggles and love warm podling safe podling happy podlingCOMPILING EMOTIONAL DATA - DONECOMPILING OPINION DATA - DONECOMPILING HEALTH AND WELFARE DATA - DONECOMPILING LEADERSHIP MATRIX - DONEBOOTSTRAPPING HUMAN GESTALTMANTID FREE WORLDSHold onto your panties.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---HUMAN GESTALTWow. This feels weird.And totally illegal I didn't consent to this.We're at war, dumbass, your right of consent stops about the line of my right not to get planet crackedWe wish to revoke consent.How about I land troops and you can revoke consent to a 10mm MAW round?CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE HAS LOGGED ONDid it work?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---We're at war, TerraSol is gone. The Confederacy is borderline gone. You can't stand on the sidelines and expect not to be involved.I refuse to get involved. It's my right to withdraw consent. The Right of Consent is one of the foundations of the Confederacy.THE CONFEDERACY IS AT WAR, YOU IDIOTS!That doesn't mean my people are at war. Maybe if some diplomacy was tried instead of the Confederate standard of push a gun in people's faces we wouldn't be at war.So you'll just wait for them to gentle you on the sidelines, I take it?There's no reason for them to try to gentle us, we didn't do anything to them.MANTID FREE WORLDSKind of.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---So you'd rather be like the Talmonous Cluster and just let the Lanks or the Dwellerspawn roll over us? No. You don't get to opt out of a fight for our very survival.This fight violates my ethics, I refuse to take part or have it fought in my name.IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT!I'm sure if you explain very nicely to the Dwellerspawn about your ethics and you don't wish to be devoured in your name they'll listen very patiently before eating you.You're one of those assholes who said we should just feed a couple billion more people to the Mar-gite, aren't you?DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMSTHAT'S ENOUGH!Cyb, see if you can collapse the gestalt further.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---Once they're done there what makes you think they won't do to us what they did to Terra?The Lanaktallan Gentling theory is just a conspiracy theory. Nobody's monstrous enough to do that.OH MY GOD SHUT UP!CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVEHang on.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---GESTALT CHANNEL MELDING COMPLETEHUMAN GESTALTOh, woah. That was... weird. Why does it feel like there's two of me?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVETechnically, there is. There's something weird happening to Terran Descent Human brains. They're being reverted to pre-Glassing patterning and genetics.Only a third of Terran Descent Humanity is unaffected and that's why you feel weird.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---HUMAN GESTALTOK, what did I miss?We're badly fragmented. We've got a dozen civil wars going on.Everyone says the Confederacy has had it.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---GESTALT OF THE FREE HERD WHO WILL NOT BE TOLD WHERE TO GRAZE OR HOW TO SPEAKHere am I.Learning.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSYeah, that's what about a third of Terran worlds are saying.It's weird. The Confederacy is ALL of us. Just the loss of you humans doesn't mean the Confederacy dissolves for the rest of us.We kind of get a say.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---HUMAN GESTALTThere's been a lot of anti-Confederacy sentiment since the Mar-gite War.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDSYeah, well, human space took the majority of the Mar-gite attacks whenday is playtime sing with broodmommy dance with broodmommy play with broodmommy square is neat and circle is funny and triangle in happy one leewbaw two leebaw red leebaw blue leebaw swim and dance and run and play broodmommy will play with you all daythey hit the galactic stub and started.Wow, that's back again.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---HUMAN GESTALTWhat is it?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TELKAN FORGE WORLDBroodcarrier psychic signal got intertwined with the system. We hadn't heard it since...since...---NOTHING FOLLOWS---BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMSSince TerraSol got locked up.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDSSo the signal is being repeated by humans?Weird.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSNot too weird. You know, without the protections put down on the human mind after the Human/Mantid War, a lot of psychically sensitive species are going to beALERT! OMNIQUEEN PSYCHIC SIGNAL DETECTED! ALERT!Uh-oh.
