Chapter 596: 596
If audio player doesn't work, press Stop then Play button again
>MANTID has entered Interactive Space #34911Q82A1
>MANTID has been set -m +v
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Are you in here?
Hello?
Wow, this place is creepy.
Hello?
Are you idle or active in
CONFEDMIL
What?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
here.
Oh, there you are.
Everyone's been wondering where you are.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
I'm looking over the latest data.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILIINT
I'm in here too.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Heh. Glad I didn't bring Trea, you'd have scared him.
What are you two doing in here?
Or is it secret?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
We've been looking at the Atrekna spread, looking for answers.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Figure anything out?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
We think so.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
...
...
...
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Going to share?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Oh, sorry, yeah.
OK, look at this:
CONFEDMIL has shared galac.movement.his.holo
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
OK, what am I... Oh, it's a time-lapse estimation.
What are the red dots?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Those are systems that the Atrekna have attacked.
Watch closely.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
OK, there doesn't seem to be any...
Wait.
OK, pattern recognition isn't really our highest skill.
But I can see the pattern.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
You can see why we've been examining it in a secure interactive space.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Let me get this straight:
The Atrekna are able to shift from one planet to any planet that has crossed the physical space that planet is in, regardless of how long ago?
But the galaxy is moving toward the universe border, so it would mean that those strike points would be left behind at 1.3 million miles an hour.
And it only goes back 135 million years?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
OK, here's the thing: We think that 135 million years is a hard coded limit. Think a 'fixed point in time' reverberation, like a temporal stabilizer or a temporal shockwave.
We're calling that, tenatively, First Atrekna Incursion.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
The Precursor War.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Exactly.
Now, rough papernapkinmath puts it at a movement of 1.3 million mph, for 135 million years. Now, a LY is 1.5 billion mph, roughly. So, with that in place, the galaxy is roughly 125K LY wide.
So you can see how the points are not exactly fixed in space-time that they are moving to.
We have been trying to figure out exactly what they are doing.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
OK, I see what you're saying. Roughly speaking, over the time since the end of the Precursor War, the galaxy has actually moved completely through the area it once was in by about thirty thousand light years.
The entire Milky Way has swept through where the leading edge was located at the start of the Precursor War, meaning it isn't exact as to where the physical locations were.
Not to mention, it's not moving in a level plane, but more at an angle.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
So, we have been attempting to figure out how it works. Is it stellar masses, it is gravitational force, is it planetary bodies.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
You're attempting to predict where the next attacks will take place.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
They put a LOT of resources into trying to take Hesstla. A LOT. Twice.
We believe, if it was not for the temporal resonance weapon use, the stellar mass stabilizers, the temporal stabilization systems in the star, they would have already attempted a third attack.
We began looking at their targeting, both while they were in the Hesstla System, and afterwards.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
What did you find?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
When they were in possession, or at least had signifigant force in the system, before P'Kank's counter-attack, they took approximately 500 systems. You can watch the progression.
One they lost the system, they've only been able to take two or three a month.
Now, remember, P'Kank used a MAD system against the stellar system they were occupying.
We now know where that system is. Stellar color shifting has shown us exactly where they are hiding.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
So, if they own a world, have 'sunk' a system, so to speak, they can then jump to any stellar system that has crossed that system's path in the past?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Not exactly.
The system they hid, Hesstla, and two other systems they've heavily defended gave us the clue we needed.
Triangulation.
Without the correct set of stellar masses, they cannot shift. However, once they do shift, they can grab resources such as PAWM or Dwellerspawn from anyplace that crossed their path.
That led us to figuring out another assault path.
But....
There's some problems with one of the plans.
One that you, in particular, will have serious objections to.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Which is why we invited you and have explained all of this to you.
You need to understand the stakes, now that we are missing Terran Descent Humanity.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I'm not going to like this, am I?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
No. You aren't.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
ALl right, tell me.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
We have determined the source of the Doom Tubes and the Infected Niven Rings and eliminated it. We were able to ascertain, using temporal lensing and the old 'go 5,000 LY out and look with a telescope' the trajectory and speed of the Doom Tubes and INR's launched from the facility.
We then cross-referenced it with the Atrekna assaulted planets.
They matched.
We now know the purpose. To provide the Atrekna with Dwellerspawn reinforcements in these systems that they are assaulting.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
All right. I follow.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
During General Hardgwrark's defense of Nemtella-168, we located the INR that was being used to bring in Dwellerspawn reinforcements by tracking chronotron eruptions.
We sent in a task force and planet cracked it.
With adjustments for time and distance, the second it was planet cracked, the Dwellerspawn under transport were reduced to subatomic slurry and the Atrekna could no longer bring in Dwellerspawn reinforcements from that INR.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Makes sense.
But that takes a lot of firepower.
And presents additional difficulty with...
...
...wait.
You aren't suggesting...
...are you?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
It is a logical course of action.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Are there even enough Terrans to be able to find more than one or two?
And doing that? Again?
You want to capture parts of the INR's and Doom Tubes, not nova-spark them or planet crack them.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Not exactly. We need military resources that can deployed against INR's and Doom Tubes from the stellar system they are being accessed from.
Wait for the Atrekna to open the door, then shoot into the house and blow it up, so to speak.
It is strategically sound.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
You want to bring back the Ring Breakers.
Make more of them.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Combat metrics from a recent clash between a Ringbreaker in Novastar VII power armor and Atrekna forces have shown that it takes a disproportionate amount of Atrekna rulership caste to merely pin down a single Ringbreaker.
If deployed in standard Star Elements of five, we estimate that it would geometrically increase the amount of Atrekna leadership needed to quickly become impossible.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
The price per unit versus the strategic value metrics present this as a highly desirable option.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Ugh, I hate you guys sometimes since we lost TDH.
You sound like Vulcan rip-offs.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Be nice.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Can you even find enough humans to bring back the Ring Breakers? If I recall correctly, the washout rate in training was something like ten thousand for every one you found.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
That is the primary problem. A Ring Breaker requires many things, and the Enragement/Phasic Index Matrixes are important and the most difficult to overcome.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I'm going to say: No. Don't bring them back.
I have moral and ethical concerns, but let's look beyond that.
There's hardly an TDH left. There's even fewer PSH left. Of the PSH, less than one in a hundred thousand can take the DNA imprinting needed. Less than one in a thousand can actually pilot a Novastar.
Less than one in five hundred can survive, intact, the effects of Warsteel Mk2 on their bodies and minds.
With all of that, your chances of finding a PSH-TDH who is not currently Enraged, giving them the training, putting them in the armor, and having them survive the armor's bonding process with their minds intact, go from slim in normal times to as mathematically close to zero as our chaotic universe and reality allow.
You would spend the next hundred years looking for candidates and maybe find one who makes it.
And we have one.
We know the problems inherent in the system.
We got lucky with him. His people were a martial people.
Aside from my moral and ethical objections to Project Spartan Halo being revived, it is currently unfeasable with the operational reality of our current reality.
If you want my opinion: you'd be better off dedicating the resources and intelligence gathering that you'd need to do to even find candidates to figuring out some other way to take the war to the Atrekna.
A defensive war is a losing war.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
We're aware of that.
We also invited you here for another reason.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
All right. Now I'm nervous.
Go ahead and tell me.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
We have verification from multiple sources.
It's been verified via several different methods.
The Earthlings are back.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I knew they would be.
How bad?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Just a few strikes at the Atrekna.
Not many yet.
So far, they have just liberated the system then vanished again.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Still no clue where they're coming from?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
No.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Tech progression?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Nothing apparent. They still use the same drive style. Looks like the same ship classes.
Same profile: Attacking in overwhelming force, rapid operational tempo, brutal tactics, full scorched earth xenocide on the Atrekna, then a complete withdrawal.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
And you sure it isn't The Locusts? They've settled in on one of the abandoned systems in Lanaktallan territory.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
I'm sure.
We got a clear view of one of their super-capital ships.
It was the Last Gasp You'll Make.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Brr. They're serious if they deployed that thing.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
We also have verification that they deployed Entropy's Little Sister twice to liberate planets.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
So, it survived the war.
Damn.
That thing's bad news.
Have the Earthlings made any move on the Confederacy or the Lanaktallans?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
No, so far they've only gone after scattered Atrekna strongholds.
It looks like the chronotron burst that occurs when a sun is being gravitationally sunk is what attracts them to the system.
Sometimes they don't move much past red-shift before coming back up to realspace.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Well, if they're fielding Little Sister, then the Atrekna have had it.
Have we tried to communicate with them?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
They ignore us.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Well, it's better than them attacking us.
The Treaty of Twenty Carvings is still holding.
What about TerraSol?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
No luck. We've been trying to measure approximate time dilation inside but we can't get any readings.
We did figure something weird out.
The Mat-Trans System Carrier Wave is still exiting The Bag, though.
Not sure why it would be operative.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDINT
Type II and Type III are still operational, but all of Type-I is locked out for everyone. It's login-password-hardware protected now. Plus, it uses elliptic-curve encryption, which is everyone's favorite one.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I was wondering if you were going to speak up.
How about SUDS?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Nothing. No breakthroughs, nothing out of the Black Box Projects.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDINT
Not... entirely.
One of the team who are attempting penetration of the system got into the uplink data that the SUDS utilized a Level-IV Black ICE on the person attempting the hacking.
Completely erased a digital sentience in less than a second.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Well, it's good that it's still defending itself. We know the whole system hasn't crashed.
Thanks for the updates.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDINT
Not a problem.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
>MANTID FREE WORLDS HAS LEFT THE INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT
CONFEDINT
Think she knows?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Probably closer than anyone else.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFED
Agreed.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
///INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT CLOSED
///DELETING LOGS
///HAVE A NICE DAY
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
>MANTID has entered Interactive Space #34911Q82A1
>MANTID has been set -m +v
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Are you in here?
Hello?
Wow, this place is creepy.
Hello?
Are you idle or active in
CONFEDMIL
What?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
here.
Oh, there you are.
Everyone's been wondering where you are.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
I'm looking over the latest data.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILIINT
I'm in here too.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Heh. Glad I didn't bring Trea, you'd have scared him.
What are you two doing in here?
Or is it secret?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
We've been looking at the Atrekna spread, looking for answers.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Figure anything out?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
We think so.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
...
...
...
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Going to share?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Oh, sorry, yeah.
OK, look at this:
CONFEDMIL has shared galac.movement.his.holo
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
OK, what am I... Oh, it's a time-lapse estimation.
What are the red dots?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Those are systems that the Atrekna have attacked.
Watch closely.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
OK, there doesn't seem to be any...
Wait.
OK, pattern recognition isn't really our highest skill.
But I can see the pattern.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
You can see why we've been examining it in a secure interactive space.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Let me get this straight:
The Atrekna are able to shift from one planet to any planet that has crossed the physical space that planet is in, regardless of how long ago?
But the galaxy is moving toward the universe border, so it would mean that those strike points would be left behind at 1.3 million miles an hour.
And it only goes back 135 million years?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
OK, here's the thing: We think that 135 million years is a hard coded limit. Think a 'fixed point in time' reverberation, like a temporal stabilizer or a temporal shockwave.
We're calling that, tenatively, First Atrekna Incursion.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
The Precursor War.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Exactly.
Now, rough papernapkinmath puts it at a movement of 1.3 million mph, for 135 million years. Now, a LY is 1.5 billion mph, roughly. So, with that in place, the galaxy is roughly 125K LY wide.
So you can see how the points are not exactly fixed in space-time that they are moving to.
We have been trying to figure out exactly what they are doing.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
OK, I see what you're saying. Roughly speaking, over the time since the end of the Precursor War, the galaxy has actually moved completely through the area it once was in by about thirty thousand light years.
The entire Milky Way has swept through where the leading edge was located at the start of the Precursor War, meaning it isn't exact as to where the physical locations were.
Not to mention, it's not moving in a level plane, but more at an angle.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
So, we have been attempting to figure out how it works. Is it stellar masses, it is gravitational force, is it planetary bodies.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
You're attempting to predict where the next attacks will take place.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
They put a LOT of resources into trying to take Hesstla. A LOT. Twice.
We believe, if it was not for the temporal resonance weapon use, the stellar mass stabilizers, the temporal stabilization systems in the star, they would have already attempted a third attack.
We began looking at their targeting, both while they were in the Hesstla System, and afterwards.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
What did you find?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
When they were in possession, or at least had signifigant force in the system, before P'Kank's counter-attack, they took approximately 500 systems. You can watch the progression.
One they lost the system, they've only been able to take two or three a month.
Now, remember, P'Kank used a MAD system against the stellar system they were occupying.
We now know where that system is. Stellar color shifting has shown us exactly where they are hiding.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
So, if they own a world, have 'sunk' a system, so to speak, they can then jump to any stellar system that has crossed that system's path in the past?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Not exactly.
The system they hid, Hesstla, and two other systems they've heavily defended gave us the clue we needed.
Triangulation.
Without the correct set of stellar masses, they cannot shift. However, once they do shift, they can grab resources such as PAWM or Dwellerspawn from anyplace that crossed their path.
That led us to figuring out another assault path.
But....
There's some problems with one of the plans.
One that you, in particular, will have serious objections to.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Which is why we invited you and have explained all of this to you.
You need to understand the stakes, now that we are missing Terran Descent Humanity.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I'm not going to like this, am I?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
No. You aren't.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
ALl right, tell me.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
We have determined the source of the Doom Tubes and the Infected Niven Rings and eliminated it. We were able to ascertain, using temporal lensing and the old 'go 5,000 LY out and look with a telescope' the trajectory and speed of the Doom Tubes and INR's launched from the facility.
We then cross-referenced it with the Atrekna assaulted planets.
They matched.
We now know the purpose. To provide the Atrekna with Dwellerspawn reinforcements in these systems that they are assaulting.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
All right. I follow.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
During General Hardgwrark's defense of Nemtella-168, we located the INR that was being used to bring in Dwellerspawn reinforcements by tracking chronotron eruptions.
We sent in a task force and planet cracked it.
With adjustments for time and distance, the second it was planet cracked, the Dwellerspawn under transport were reduced to subatomic slurry and the Atrekna could no longer bring in Dwellerspawn reinforcements from that INR.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Makes sense.
But that takes a lot of firepower.
And presents additional difficulty with...
...
...wait.
You aren't suggesting...
...are you?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
It is a logical course of action.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Are there even enough Terrans to be able to find more than one or two?
And doing that? Again?
You want to capture parts of the INR's and Doom Tubes, not nova-spark them or planet crack them.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Not exactly. We need military resources that can deployed against INR's and Doom Tubes from the stellar system they are being accessed from.
Wait for the Atrekna to open the door, then shoot into the house and blow it up, so to speak.
It is strategically sound.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
You want to bring back the Ring Breakers.
Make more of them.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Combat metrics from a recent clash between a Ringbreaker in Novastar VII power armor and Atrekna forces have shown that it takes a disproportionate amount of Atrekna rulership caste to merely pin down a single Ringbreaker.
If deployed in standard Star Elements of five, we estimate that it would geometrically increase the amount of Atrekna leadership needed to quickly become impossible.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
The price per unit versus the strategic value metrics present this as a highly desirable option.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Ugh, I hate you guys sometimes since we lost TDH.
You sound like Vulcan rip-offs.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Be nice.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Can you even find enough humans to bring back the Ring Breakers? If I recall correctly, the washout rate in training was something like ten thousand for every one you found.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
That is the primary problem. A Ring Breaker requires many things, and the Enragement/Phasic Index Matrixes are important and the most difficult to overcome.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I'm going to say: No. Don't bring them back.
I have moral and ethical concerns, but let's look beyond that.
There's hardly an TDH left. There's even fewer PSH left. Of the PSH, less than one in a hundred thousand can take the DNA imprinting needed. Less than one in a thousand can actually pilot a Novastar.
Less than one in five hundred can survive, intact, the effects of Warsteel Mk2 on their bodies and minds.
With all of that, your chances of finding a PSH-TDH who is not currently Enraged, giving them the training, putting them in the armor, and having them survive the armor's bonding process with their minds intact, go from slim in normal times to as mathematically close to zero as our chaotic universe and reality allow.
You would spend the next hundred years looking for candidates and maybe find one who makes it.
And we have one.
We know the problems inherent in the system.
We got lucky with him. His people were a martial people.
Aside from my moral and ethical objections to Project Spartan Halo being revived, it is currently unfeasable with the operational reality of our current reality.
If you want my opinion: you'd be better off dedicating the resources and intelligence gathering that you'd need to do to even find candidates to figuring out some other way to take the war to the Atrekna.
A defensive war is a losing war.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
We're aware of that.
We also invited you here for another reason.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
All right. Now I'm nervous.
Go ahead and tell me.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
We have verification from multiple sources.
It's been verified via several different methods.
The Earthlings are back.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I knew they would be.
How bad?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
Just a few strikes at the Atrekna.
Not many yet.
So far, they have just liberated the system then vanished again.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Still no clue where they're coming from?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
No.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Tech progression?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Nothing apparent. They still use the same drive style. Looks like the same ship classes.
Same profile: Attacking in overwhelming force, rapid operational tempo, brutal tactics, full scorched earth xenocide on the Atrekna, then a complete withdrawal.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
And you sure it isn't The Locusts? They've settled in on one of the abandoned systems in Lanaktallan territory.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
I'm sure.
We got a clear view of one of their super-capital ships.
It was the Last Gasp You'll Make.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Brr. They're serious if they deployed that thing.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
We also have verification that they deployed Entropy's Little Sister twice to liberate planets.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
So, it survived the war.
Damn.
That thing's bad news.
Have the Earthlings made any move on the Confederacy or the Lanaktallans?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
No, so far they've only gone after scattered Atrekna strongholds.
It looks like the chronotron burst that occurs when a sun is being gravitationally sunk is what attracts them to the system.
Sometimes they don't move much past red-shift before coming back up to realspace.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Well, if they're fielding Little Sister, then the Atrekna have had it.
Have we tried to communicate with them?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
They ignore us.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Well, it's better than them attacking us.
The Treaty of Twenty Carvings is still holding.
What about TerraSol?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
No luck. We've been trying to measure approximate time dilation inside but we can't get any readings.
We did figure something weird out.
The Mat-Trans System Carrier Wave is still exiting The Bag, though.
Not sure why it would be operative.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDINT
Type II and Type III are still operational, but all of Type-I is locked out for everyone. It's login-password-hardware protected now. Plus, it uses elliptic-curve encryption, which is everyone's favorite one.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I was wondering if you were going to speak up.
How about SUDS?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Nothing. No breakthroughs, nothing out of the Black Box Projects.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDINT
Not... entirely.
One of the team who are attempting penetration of the system got into the uplink data that the SUDS utilized a Level-IV Black ICE on the person attempting the hacking.
Completely erased a digital sentience in less than a second.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Well, it's good that it's still defending itself. We know the whole system hasn't crashed.
Thanks for the updates.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDINT
Not a problem.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
>MANTID FREE WORLDS HAS LEFT THE INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT
CONFEDINT
Think she knows?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMILINT
Probably closer than anyone else.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFEDMIL
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CONFED
Agreed.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
///INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT CLOSED
///DELETING LOGS
///HAVE A NICE DAY
MANTID has entered Interactive Space #34911Q82A1MANTID has been set -m +vMANTID FREE WORLDSAre you in here?Hello?Wow, this place is creepy.Hello?Are you idle or active inCONFEDMILWhat?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---here.Oh, there you are.Everyone's been wondering where you are.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILI'm looking over the latest data.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILIINTI'm in here too.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSHeh. Glad I didn't bring Trea, you'd have scared him.What are you two doing in here?Or is it secret?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTWe've been looking at the Atrekna spread, looking for answers.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSFigure anything out?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILWe think so.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---.........MANTID FREE WORLDSGoing to share?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILOh, sorry, yeah.OK, look at this:CONFEDMIL has shared galac.movement.his.holo---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSOK, what am I... Oh, it's a time-lapse estimation.What are the red dots?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTThose are systems that the Atrekna have attacked.Watch closely.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSOK, there doesn't seem to be any...Wait.OK, pattern recognition isn't really our highest skill.But I can see the pattern.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTYou can see why we've been examining it in a secure interactive space.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSLet me get this straight:The Atrekna are able to shift from one planet to any planet that has crossed the physical space that planet is in, regardless of how long ago?But the galaxy is moving toward the universe border, so it would mean that those strike points would be left behind at 1.3 million miles an hour.And it only goes back 135 million years?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTOK, here's the thing: We think that 135 million years is a hard coded limit. Think a 'fixed point in time' reverberation, like a temporal stabilizer or a temporal shockwave.We're calling that, tenatively, First Atrekna Incursion.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSThe Precursor War.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILExactly.Now, rough papernapkinmath puts it at a movement of 1.3 million mph, for 135 million years. Now, a LY is 1.5 billion mph, roughly. So, with that in place, the galaxy is roughly 125K LY wide.So you can see how the points are not exactly fixed in space-time that they are moving to.We have been trying to figure out exactly what they are doing.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSOK, I see what you're saying. Roughly speaking, over the time since the end of the Precursor War, the galaxy has actually moved completely through the area it once was in by about thirty thousand light years.The entire Milky Way has swept through where the leading edge was located at the start of the Precursor War, meaning it isn't exact as to where the physical locations were.Not to mention, it's not moving in a level plane, but more at an angle.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTSo, we have been attempting to figure out how it works. Is it stellar masses, it is gravitational force, is it planetary bodies.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSYou're attempting to predict where the next attacks will take place.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTThey put a LOT of resources into trying to take Hesstla. A LOT. Twice.We believe, if it was not for the temporal resonance weapon use, the stellar mass stabilizers, the temporal stabilization systems in the star, they would have already attempted a third attack.We began looking at their targeting, both while they were in the Hesstla System, and afterwards.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSWhat did you find?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTWhen they were in possession, or at least had signifigant force in the system, before P'Kank's counter-attack, they took approximately 500 systems. You can watch the progression.One they lost the system, they've only been able to take two or three a month.Now, remember, P'Kank used a MAD system against the stellar system they were occupying.We now know where that system is. Stellar color shifting has shown us exactly where they are hiding.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSSo, if they own a world, have 'sunk' a system, so to speak, they can then jump to any stellar system that has crossed that system's path in the past?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTNot exactly.The system they hid, Hesstla, and two other systems they've heavily defended gave us the clue we needed.Triangulation.Without the correct set of stellar masses, they cannot shift. However, once they do shift, they can grab resources such as PAWM or Dwellerspawn from anyplace that crossed their path.That led us to figuring out another assault path.But....There's some problems with one of the plans.One that you, in particular, will have serious objections to.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILWhich is why we invited you and have explained all of this to you.You need to understand the stakes, now that we are missing Terran Descent Humanity.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSI'm not going to like this, am I?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILNo. You aren't.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSALl right, tell me.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILWe have determined the source of the Doom Tubes and the Infected Niven Rings and eliminated it. We were able to ascertain, using temporal lensing and the old 'go 5,000 LY out and look with a telescope' the trajectory and speed of the Doom Tubes and INR's launched from the facility.We then cross-referenced it with the Atrekna assaulted planets.They matched.We now know the purpose. To provide the Atrekna with Dwellerspawn reinforcements in these systems that they are assaulting.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSAll right. I follow.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILDuring General Hardgwrark's defense of Nemtella-168, we located the INR that was being used to bring in Dwellerspawn reinforcements by tracking chronotron eruptions.We sent in a task force and planet cracked it.With adjustments for time and distance, the second it was planet cracked, the Dwellerspawn under transport were reduced to subatomic slurry and the Atrekna could no longer bring in Dwellerspawn reinforcements from that INR.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSMakes sense.But that takes a lot of firepower.And presents additional difficulty with.........wait.You aren't suggesting......are you?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILIt is a logical course of action.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSAre there even enough Terrans to be able to find more than one or two?And doing that? Again?You want to capture parts of the INR's and Doom Tubes, not nova-spark them or planet crack them.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILNot exactly. We need military resources that can deployed against INR's and Doom Tubes from the stellar system they are being accessed from.Wait for the Atrekna to open the door, then shoot into the house and blow it up, so to speak.It is strategically sound.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSYou want to bring back the Ring Breakers.Make more of them.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTCombat metrics from a recent clash between a Ringbreaker in Novastar VII power armor and Atrekna forces have shown that it takes a disproportionate amount of Atrekna rulership caste to merely pin down a single Ringbreaker.If deployed in standard Star Elements of five, we estimate that it would geometrically increase the amount of Atrekna leadership needed to quickly become impossible.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILThe price per unit versus the strategic value metrics present this as a highly desirable option.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSUgh, I hate you guys sometimes since we lost TDH.You sound like Vulcan rip-offs.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILBe nice.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSCan you even find enough humans to bring back the Ring Breakers? If I recall correctly, the washout rate in training was something like ten thousand for every one you found.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTThat is the primary problem. A Ring Breaker requires many things, and the Enragement/Phasic Index Matrixes are important and the most difficult to overcome.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSI'm going to say: No. Don't bring them back.I have moral and ethical concerns, but let's look beyond that.There's hardly an TDH left. There's even fewer PSH left. Of the PSH, less than one in a hundred thousand can take the DNA imprinting needed. Less than one in a thousand can actually pilot a Novastar.Less than one in five hundred can survive, intact, the effects of Warsteel Mk2 on their bodies and minds.With all of that, your chances of finding a PSH-TDH who is not currently Enraged, giving them the training, putting them in the armor, and having them survive the armor's bonding process with their minds intact, go from slim in normal times to as mathematically close to zero as our chaotic universe and reality allow.You would spend the next hundred years looking for candidates and maybe find one who makes it.And we have one.We know the problems inherent in the system.We got lucky with him. His people were a martial people.Aside from my moral and ethical objections to Project Spartan Halo being revived, it is currently unfeasable with the operational reality of our current reality.If you want my opinion: you'd be better off dedicating the resources and intelligence gathering that you'd need to do to even find candidates to figuring out some other way to take the war to the Atrekna.A defensive war is a losing war.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILWe're aware of that.We also invited you here for another reason.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSAll right. Now I'm nervous.Go ahead and tell me.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTWe have verification from multiple sources.It's been verified via several different methods.The Earthlings are back.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSI knew they would be.How bad?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILJust a few strikes at the Atrekna.Not many yet.So far, they have just liberated the system then vanished again.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSStill no clue where they're coming from?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTNo.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSTech progression?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTNothing apparent. They still use the same drive style. Looks like the same ship classes.Same profile: Attacking in overwhelming force, rapid operational tempo, brutal tactics, full scorched earth xenocide on the Atrekna, then a complete withdrawal.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSAnd you sure it isn't The Locusts? They've settled in on one of the abandoned systems in Lanaktallan territory.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTI'm sure.We got a clear view of one of their super-capital ships.It was the Last Gasp You'll Make.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSBrr. They're serious if they deployed that thing.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTWe also have verification that they deployed Entropy's Little Sister twice to liberate planets.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSSo, it survived the war.Damn.That thing's bad news.Have the Earthlings made any move on the Confederacy or the Lanaktallans?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILNo, so far they've only gone after scattered Atrekna strongholds.It looks like the chronotron burst that occurs when a sun is being gravitationally sunk is what attracts them to the system.Sometimes they don't move much past red-shift before coming back up to realspace.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSWell, if they're fielding Little Sister, then the Atrekna have had it.Have we tried to communicate with them?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTThey ignore us.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSWell, it's better than them attacking us.The Treaty of Twenty Carvings is still holding.What about TerraSol?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTNo luck. We've been trying to measure approximate time dilation inside but we can't get any readings.We did figure something weird out.The Mat-Trans System Carrier Wave is still exiting The Bag, though.Not sure why it would be operative.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDINTType II and Type III are still operational, but all of Type-I is locked out for everyone. It's login-password-hardware protected now. Plus, it uses elliptic-curve encryption, which is everyone's favorite one.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSI was wondering if you were going to speak up.How about SUDS?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTNothing. No breakthroughs, nothing out of the Black Box Projects.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDINTNot... entirely.One of the team who are attempting penetration of the system got into the uplink data that the SUDS utilized a Level-IV Black ICE on the person attempting the hacking.Completely erased a digital sentience in less than a second.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDSWell, it's good that it's still defending itself. We know the whole system hasn't crashed.Thanks for the updates.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDINTNot a problem.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---MANTID FREE WORLDS HAS LEFT THE INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTCONFEDINTThink she knows?---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILINTProbably closer than anyone else.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDMILWe'll cross that bridge when we come to it.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---CONFEDAgreed.---NOTHING FOLLOWS---///INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT CLOSED///DELETING LOGS///HAVE A NICE DAY
