Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

[keybounce]

Battleship, or Battlesuit?

[factotum]

There are lots of F'sherl-Ganni around -- at least 45billion -- and at least some of them will think they can make a separate peace.

Why would that be more likely among the F'Sherl-Ganni than any other species? If anything, it would be *less* likely, because they were tricked by the Pa'anuri and thus ought to be unlikely to trust them again. The only reason they had any dealings with the Pa'anuri in the first place was because they believed it was the only way to save the Milky Way from destruction--they're not some sort of evil for the lulz race who worked with them for nefarious reasons.

[HandofShadows]

I find Elf's expression on this page more than a little worrisome.

[HouseRules]

Joke Elf hated Petey for naming her project before she gets to name it.

[Windscion]

Why would that be more likely among the F'Sherl-Ganni than any other species?

Simply because, unlike the other species, they probably have some idea how to contact them.

[NEO|Phyte]

OK, I found this annoying when they did it in 2010--a gas giant cannot become a star. If you somehow managed to compress it enough for fusion to start, it would blow itself apart because it doesn't have enough gravity to counteract the pressure from the fusion reaction.

Unless the thing that kickstarted the fusion reaction was actively holding it at fusion pressures.

[factotum]

Unless the thing that kickstarted the fusion reaction was actively holding it at fusion pressures.

And that looks like that's what was happening. Kudos to Howard for actually explaining it!

[Wayson]

I see where this is going. "We had to kill the galaxy in order to save it."

[HandofShadows]

Interesting. The battleship/power suit is still functional. Or at least it's shields are since the blast is clearly being deflected on this page. I wonder if that can be of use.

[Radar]

Interesting. The battleship/power suit is still functional. Or at least it's shields are since the blast is clearly being deflected on this page. I wonder if that can be of use.

Quite possibly it can be investigated for new technologies as well as to research targeted counters for subsequent battles.

[factotum]

Given how close it is to the pseudonova, I would be astonished if it survives for long, even if its shields are still intact--there's a heck of a lot of energy being released here.

[halfeye]

Given how close it is to the pseudonova, I would be astonished if it survives for long, even if its shields are still intact--there's a heck of a lot of energy being released here.

There's a heck of a lot of energy, but compared to a real supernova, or even a nova, not that much. There won't be anything after the initial few seconds of blast.

[Wayson]

There won't be anything after the initial few seconds of blast.

Likely literally.

[halfeye]

Likely literally.

Planets will be fine, 99.9 of the mass of a planet is over five miles below the surface. Stuff on the nearside of planets will be roasted. Stuff on the far side of planets will probably be hit with some severe atmospheric effects, on the exact centre of the far side that might or might not be that much, some of the atmosphere is going to get blown clear away, if the air pressure drops significantly as a result that will be bad.

[Willie the Duck]

Planets will be fine, 99.9 of the mass of a planet is over five miles below the surface. Stuff on the nearside of planets will be roasted. Stuff on the far side of planets will probably be hit with some severe atmospheric effects, on the exact centre of the far side that might or might not be that much, some of the atmosphere is going to get blown clear away, if the air pressure drops significantly as a result that will be bad.

Living beings, however, are known to be rather fragile to even short term (and, at the cosmic level, really quite small) fluctuations in pressure and temperature.

However, the comic seems to be playing this relatively straight -- there is a slow moving blast front moving towards the planet that probably can be dealt with by the technology the assembled militaries have to offer, and the thing they fear the most right now is a planetwide civilian panic.

[DeTess]

However, the comic seems to be playing this relatively straight -- there is a slow moving blast front moving towards the planet that probably can be dealt with by the technology the assembled militaries have to offer, and the thing they fear the most right now is a planetwide civilian panic.

I'd agree on how manageable the issue is, if Pete hadn't just put a soul-stealing gun up as a mantlepiece. That gun needs to be fired, and we've just been shown a likely target.

[Max_Killjoy]

I'd agree on how manageable the issue is, if Pete hadn't just put a soul-stealing gun up as a mantlepiece. That gun needs to be fired, and we've just been shown a likely target.

Here's hoping for the nearly-always-needed subversion of Chekhov's "law".

[Grim Portent]

Yeah, if he used it right now it'd feel rather rushed imo.

This is a relatively slow, low scale situation that could be sorted out by teraporting a planetary shield like the ones he uses in Andromeda in to protect the planet until the problem passes, or by mass teraporting the population out. Even if it takes some time to turn off the TAD fields I can't imagine it would take 50 hours to do so.

[Xanyo]

Perhaps Petey is asking for a decision concerning firing on the TAD facilities. Which may result in friendly casualties.

[factotum]

Perhaps Petey is asking for a decision concerning firing on the TAD facilities. Which may result in friendly casualties.

Um, of course he's asking about that? I honestly can't think of any other interpretation of events.

[Kornaki]

Spoiler

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Grim, it's troubling because every data point we have says this will be used to commit a form of genocide, even if you didn't intend to when you started.

Maybe a better combination of facts to help convince you:

Petey thinks one of the more likely explanations for why the Galaxy keeps going extinct if sapient species is the ai goes crazy and kills everyone.

We have two examples of ai killing (for some definition of killing) everyone using this tool.

Petey says "oh, but they probably had a good reason for doing that. I want it too"

Kevyn.... Builds it for him? Is he not informed of how other people have used this?

You don't even need a crazy ai, just one that has slightly different morals. In the black hole bomb event if Petey had this available would he have risked everything trying to stop it or just slurp up the whole Galaxy then GTFO of there.

Kind of called it?

[HandofShadows]

Spoiler

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Kind of called it?

Yes and no. For one thing he asked first. Also he has the help of someone on the receiving end before. They all think it's the only thing that will work, not that it's one of many other options and this one is easiest for them.

[Kornaki]

Yes and no. For one thing he asked first. Also he has the help of someone on the receiving end before. They all think it's the only thing that will work, not that it's one of many other options and this one is easiest for them.

Spoiler

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I don't agree with this at all.

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2019-05-29

The admiral thought they had a lot of time before the planet gets destroyed. Petey's only concern is that people were going to riot out of panic. And the narrator claims that rioting had begun, but people have rioted before in history without teraporting them out of their body being the best option. Besides, he could have probably ended the riots by just teraporting the rioters whole bodies away.

The person they ask permission from doesn't really have the authority to give it, and also didn't know what he was going to do. The way I read the last couple of pages is the ais go out and do a bunch of stuff, and the meat people are either struggling to keep up with them or just burying their heads in the sand.

[Grim Portent]

Yeah I really don't see why they didn't just teraport the people away, not like empty habitable areas to plop them in are scarce in the galaxy. Would take a while to get them sorted out, but they'd still be alive and safe with less invasive measures having been taken.

[The Glyphstone]

Maybe this is meant to reflect Petey's power starvation? It takes less teraport-energy to move people's minds than their bodies or something? I dunno.

[DeTess]

Maybe this is meant to reflect Petey's power starvation? It takes less teraport-energy to move people's minds than their bodies or something? I dunno.

That might actually be the issue here. It could also very well be that Petey had to choose between 'teraport these people bodily, and let another 3 paanuri incursions through to target other places' and 'teraport only their souls, and hold off other incoming incursions'. It should be noted that apparently 300 billion people lived in that planet, which is a pretty massive amount of people to have to resettle'.

[Grim Portent]

It might be something to do with his power issues, but I can't help but feel this is an incompetent version of what LOTA did on Credomar. Granted LOTA had more time to work with, but they managed to teraport an entire city down to the foundations onto a habitable planet, Petey has several hundred or thousands times the processing power and resources and can't boot up a few annie plants to 'port people into safe places with a two day window to do so?

Or hell, fire up those old teraports that destroyed minute amounts of the mass of the thing being 'ported if power's an issue. I still find it weird they moved from using those to only using one's powered by dedicated energy feedstock.

[halfeye]

It might be something to do with his power issues, but I can't help but feel this is an incompetent version of what LOTA did on Credomar. Granted LOTA had more time to work with, but they managed to teraport an entire city down to the foundations onto a habitable planet, Petey has several hundred or thousands times the processing power and resources and can't boot up a few annie plants to 'port people into safe places with a two day window to do so?

Or hell, fire up those old teraports that destroyed minute amounts of the mass of the thing being 'ported if power's an issue. I still find it weird they moved from using those to only using one's powered by dedicated energy feedstock.

There's a difference between the two days for the particles, and the four minutes for the light. The light is going to be the big issue, when you think that a lot of it is going to be in gamma, x-ray and heat wavelengths.

[factotum]

Why is everyone automatically assuming Petey did this? If anything, I would say the finger of suspicion ought to be pointing at the Oafa, considering (a) they were the ones asking for the locations of the TAD systems and (b) the reference to this being both a very old and very new teraport system.

[Battleship789]

Why is everyone automatically assuming Petey did this? If anything, I would say the finger of suspicion ought to be pointing at the Oafa, considering (a) they were the ones asking for the locations of the TAD systems and (b) the reference to this being both a very old and very new teraport system.

Because it basically has to be Petey? The "very old and very new" line refers to the fact that the All Star (or whatever it was called) used the technology previously (and started a pan-galactic war), while Petey is the only one with access to the technology, via Kevyn. (The all star has the technology too, but I don't think they are willing to use it again.) The Oafans remove the TADs because they can attack inside a TAD field without needing overwhelming force via the long guns, while Petey takes care of the rescuing.