Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

[Silent Hunter]

Is this the right place to ask if there are any active Planet Mercenary games round here?

[The Glyphstone]

No, this is for the webcomic. You'd want to look in the Finding Players section.

[Rockphed]

Is this the right place to ask if there are any active Planet Mercenary games round here?

In addition to the Glyphstone's modly advice, there was a thread about Planet Mercenary in the other RPG section, but it might be past reviving.

Back on Topic

Personally, I found the most annoying thing about the opening of this book was the footnotes. That said, I am glad that we are seeing the planet-ship flyers again.

[factotum]

We've seen these guys before? Where? I don't remember?

[JavaScribe]

We've seen these guys before? Where? I don't remember?

It's their fault there aren't any dinosaurs anymore.

[Max_Killjoy]

In addition to the Glyphstone's modly advice, there was a thread about Planet Mercenary in the other RPG section, but it might be past reviving.

It's linked in my sig - not sure if I could bump it myself without breaking the rules.

I haven't been able to get a group together myself, but it might help others.

[halfeye]

Note: Though controversial, the use of the word "meanwhile" to turn flashbacks into simple scene changes remains a viable solution for narratives already suffering from a surfeit of prologues.

It's actually referring to the previous book, which started with four prologues, but it does also seem like a decent sideswipe at Erfworld.

[factotum]

It's their fault there aren't any dinosaurs anymore.

Ah, a one-off strip from five months ago? Sounds about right, no wonder I forgot about them. Although, now I'm thinking about it--they seem to be travelling sublight, which is odd for any advanced spacefaring race in the Schlock universe. Trying to avoid the attention of the Pa'anuri?

[Onyavar]

Ah, a one-off strip from five months ago? Sounds about right, no wonder I forgot about them. Although, now I'm thinking about it--they seem to be travelling sublight, which is odd for any advanced spacefaring race in the Schlock universe. Trying to avoid the attention of the Pa'anuri?

Well of course. That is the story outline that Tayler has had telegraphed in this prologue. Another reason why I wasn't too enthusiastic here. All that has happened so far is that Petey is going to need holing up himself just like all the precursors. Of which we know the All-Star, the Hrathi, the pre-Hrathi (these two recent comics) and the Oafan. Somewhere between them are the Fsherlganni, the Bradicor and possibly the keepers of oisri. Who built Zoojack?

So either Petey is going to hide too, or the Toughs or himself discover an alternative which allows destroying the paanuri

[Lizard Lord]

Well of course. That is the story outline that Tayler has had telegraphed in this prologue. Another reason why I wasn't too enthusiastic here. All that has happened so far is that Petey is going to need holing up himself just like all the precursors. Of which we know the All-Star, the Hrathi, the pre-Hrathi (these two recent comics) and the Oafan. Somewhere between them are the Fsherlganni, the Bradicor and possibly the keepers of oisri. Who built Zoojack?

So either Petey is going to hide too, or the Toughs or himself discover an alternative which allows destroying the paanuri

Petey is already hiding.

[sihnfahl]

Petey is already hiding.

No, he's obfuscating his location to the Andromedans so they can't target him. Other folks in the Milky Way have a means of contacting him.

Iafa and the All Star folks made sure NOBODY knew where they were.

[factotum]

I think today's strip implies quite heavily that these guys don't *have* FTL tech at all, not that they're choosing not to use it. Which is odd.

[HandofShadows]

I think today's strip implies quite heavily that these guys don't *have* FTL tech at all, not that they're choosing not to use it. Which is odd.

No, they have FTL. They just obsoletely refuse to use it (probably in fear that the DMB would find them). The probe that picked up the message from Earth is hypernet capable.

[Rockphed]

No, they have FTL. They just obsoletely refuse to use it (probably in fear that the DMB would find them). The probe that picked up the message from Earth is hypernet capable.

They have FTL communications, not necessarily FTL transport. Now, I would assume that an 8 million year old probe either has local manufacturing and a 2-way communication suite or has some way to have spare parts shipped in FTL, but that is my rational take on the universe. I suspect that people who fly planet sized space ships through the comet halos of alien stars have different thought processes.

[HandofShadows]

They have FTL communications, not necessarily FTL transport. Now, I would assume that an 8 million year old probe either has local manufacturing and a 2-way communication suite or has some way to have spare parts shipped in FTL, but that is my rational take on the universe. I suspect that people who fly planet sized space ships through the comet halos of alien stars have different thought processes.

Do you think a civilization capable of flying a planet and that has FTL communication would NOT develop FTL travel? The only use for FTL communications is to communicate with someone at interstellar distances. You only develop FTL communications to communicate with your FTL ships or interstellar colonies. No FTL ships no reason to develop FTL communications. Also it has been shown that teraport tech in not that hard once a certain tech level has been achieved and people capable of flying planets have clearly gone way past that level. These people are hiding just like the Ofans and One Star did and running away at the same time.

[Max_Killjoy]

To me, there's another element of tension in this strip... the immediate reaction of "you have to help, you caused the problem, don't let that civilization be wiped out" vs the reality that this is the past, and if they do help, the history of Earth changes and humans never exist.

[Xanyo]

Do you think a civilization capable of flying a planet and that has FTL communication would NOT develop FTL travel? The only use for FTL communications is to communicate with someone at interstellar distances. You only develop FTL communications to communicate with your FTL ships or interstellar colonies. No FTL ships no reason to develop FTL communications. Also it has been shown that teraport tech in not that hard once a certain tech level has been achieved and people capable of flying planets have clearly gone way past that level. These people are hiding just like the Ofans and One Star did and running away at the same time.

Off the top of my head, the setting of Ender's Game and the other related books has FTL comms but not FTL travel, I think. It may have been close to light speed, as it invoked relativity.

[Willie the Duck]

Do you think a civilization capable of flying a planet and that has FTL communication would NOT develop FTL travel? The only use for FTL communications is to communicate with someone at interstellar distances. You only develop FTL communications to communicate with your FTL ships or interstellar colonies. No FTL ships no reason to develop FTL communications. Also it has been shown that teraport tech in not that hard once a certain tech level has been achieved and people capable of flying planets have clearly gone way past that level. These people are hiding just like the Ofans and One Star did and running away at the same time.

If you figure out how to do FTL communication, but not FTL travel, you would still use the FTL communication. I mean, you still want to share culture with your far-flung culture-members whom you will never meet in life.

I think the real questions would be: 1) even if that culture has FTL travel, does that ship?, and 2) does that guy mean they are powerless to help because they literally cannot do anything, or is he saying that they dare not risk doing something for fear of alerting the DMEs (the later seems more likely, else why is the other guy even saying anything?).

[Onyavar]

My take on this "73-65M years ago" series is that these guys purposefully chose to not use FTL travel. Why should they, anyway? We don't know their setup (virtual or biological life; immortality or generation ship), but they have reached and surpassed the Teraport+Annieplant stadium of civilization. Once they realized that the DaMEs (Pa'anuri) lurk out there, they went dark themselves.

Spoiler: Plot stuff

Show

According to the prologue, there were also the Hrathi (54M years ago), who probably referred to the 73-65M civ in their prologue, which means that they had just started their "dark exile" in that era. And the Oafans, 12M years ago, who lasted physically until 10M years ago. Also, there is the AllStar, which is 3161M years old.

As I see it, the Pa'anuri are hurt by Teraports, and Annieplants are a nuisance too. Whenever a baryon civilization uses these techs (either everywhere and too much, or even specifically against them), they go and eliminate these civs like a pest.
That was the reason why the F'Sherl-Ganni made a pact with them and created the galaxy-wide wormhole civ, which lasted 100.000 years. Then, the Fleetmind and the Anti-Buuthandi-alliance voided that pact, went to war with the Pa'anuri and drove them out of the Milkyway. To which the Pa'anuri now reacted. They are raining death on all running Annie plants in the Milkyway, starting with the worst offender (Petey). After all, he evicted them out of the galaxy, he started a guerilla warfare against them in Andromeda, and then changed the course of the Milky Way to ram the galaxies together. Now, the Pa'anuri have started to deploy their anti-baryonic weaponry, and all galactic civilizations that don't go dark to shelter themselves are doomed.

Now, I can imagine several approaches: You can go dark on your own (the 73-65Ms here(?), the Oafans), or together with other sapient species (the AllStar, or the Fleetmind). You can remain stationary (the FleetMind, the Oafans) or you can set a flight course through the galaxy (the AllStar) or even the universe (the 73-65Ms here seem to have left the Galaxy). Valid strategies can be to hide forever (the Oafans and the AllStar try that), or fighting back (like Petey still tries, but without much success it seems).

The 73-65Ms here could have several interesting strategies that are not about hiding: They could be running away (in hope to survive long enough that they can colonize a Pa'anuri-free galaxy far far away) or they could be running towards Andromeda. A civilization of their power could have created a hundred planet-sized "bullets" to transport warfare materiel to the enemy. Let's assume 3% of light speed (already relativistic, but manageable), and they could be pretty close to Andromeda "today". Or they didn't get very far at all and their story ends in 65M ago as a failed lesson for xenoarcheologists.

I'm curious about the Hrathi. I guess they will appear in this story again soon, probably as another scary example of a (failed?) lesson.
We can safely say that the Oafans ARE a failed lesson. Yes, they survived, but they sank into obscurity until they were rescued by the Toughs. Another ten million years and they would have be gone forever, I guess.
Oh, and there are the Bradicor. I don't know how they fit into the timeline (can someone dig out relevant strips?), but what I remember, the Bradicor are another failed lesson.

In the next strip, my guess is that blue-guy will act without approval, try to help the dinosaurs, but the result will be catastrophic for him and his entire sphere. So he can't ask for forgiveness.

[HandofShadows]

You did great except this:

Then, the Fleetmind and the Anti-Buuthandi-alliance voided that pact, went to war with the Pa'anuri and drove them out of the Milkyway.

The Pa'anuri were the ones that restarted the war when they tricked Buuthandi into building the Core Project which when activated would destroy the entire Milky Way.

[Rockphed]

The Pa'anuri were the ones that restarted the war when they tricked Buuthandi the F'shrl-Ganni into building the Core Project which when activated would destroy the entire Milky Way.

Well, the Core Project actually is a massive generator and drive; it is the source of Petey's current god-like power. It just can be turned into a bomb by Dark Matter monsters.

[JavaScribe]

Spoiler: Plot stuff

Show

We can safely say that the Oafans ARE a failed lesson. Yes, they survived, but they sank into obscurity until they were rescued by the Toughs. Another ten million years and they would have be gone forever, I guess.
Oh, and there are the Bradicor. I don't know how they fit into the timeline (can someone dig out relevant strips?), but what I remember, the Bradicor are another failed lesson.

The Bradicor's mistake was making all of themselves immortal with flawed technology that drove them into violent senility unless they crippled their minds or digitized themselves. The ones that chose the latter destroyed themselves in war. I don't think they ever developed FTL travel. I guess they lost the ability to reproduce too?

I'm wondering what happened to the Oafans. They did hide, and that apparently still wasn't enough. Is there some threat that can detect non-digitized life above a certain level of intelligence and wipe it out?

[RowenMorland]

The Bradicor's mistake was making all of themselves immortal with flawed technology that drove them into violent senility unless they crippled their minds or digitized themselves. The ones that chose the latter destroyed themselves in war. I don't think they ever developed FTL travel. I guess they lost the ability to reproduce too?

I'm wondering what happened to the Oafans. They did hide, and that apparently still wasn't enough. Is there some threat that can detect non-digitized life above a certain level of intelligence and wipe it out?

Petey theorised that the Pa'anuri might have baryonic allies in order to have an Andromeda Core Project, and to have what are presumably annie plant based intergalactic Long Guns. There was also that planet which hatched or held a Pa'anuri.


It seems a lot like the Pa'anuri are just the dragons of some other civilisation either originating in Andromeda or the Milky Way that has been trying to keep all other civilisations down for however long. If they've been operating on that scale and have enough patience they can probably infiltrate the current civilisation's network of information sharing, which is why the All Star had to hide any information of itself from current MW civs. It might also be why the Oafans needed to be digitised since they lost their agency to leave their hiding place, or to have interactions outside of it. They were no longer in a position to ask for forgiveness.


It wouldn't shock me if the Pa'anuri or whoever is responsible for them also shifts through extremely complete and long term galactic reconnaissance to find leads on civilisations that have gone dark, just watching for odd planetary movements, and then leaking that information to current exploration teams for them to go and check it out and inadvertently acquire targets for them.

[factotum]

OK, today's strip confirms these guys have teraport capability, so scratch the "no FTL" theory.

[Willie the Duck]

OK, today's strip confirms these guys have teraport capability, so scratch the "no FTL" theory.

Very much. And guy on left was being truthful (based on the knowledge they had) that there was nothing they could do (rather than they just didn't dare do so).

[Xanyo]

It seems likely they were out of the galaxy, which is why they would need a high power teraport cage at the other point.

[factotum]

It seems likely they were out of the galaxy, which is why they would need a high power teraport cage at the other point.

It said in Sunday's strip that "We are a LONG way from the galactic plane". The person saying that was thinking that would mean they would be unlikely to find intelligent life, and the background of all these panels is showing a distinct lack of stars, so I'd say it's a racing certainty they're outside the galaxy.

[Onyavar]

Now that scene with Liz Lefèvre is really going somewhere, with that Deep History conference. I expect at least twenty Gavs, and at least three more flashbacks to "millions of years ago" in this chapter.

Also, it just hit me that Liz has been around for more than eight years now. Wow.

[Rockphed]

Also, it just hit me that Liz has been around for more than eight years now. Wow.

In 44 days, it will have been 9 years.

Edit: Though, technically, the first time Nick tried to get a kiss off her went poorly.

[Max_Killjoy]

Kaff -- I don't think you meant it the way it sounds, but the way it sounds is why you don't ask it that way.