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2016-10-28, 01:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2009
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Seems I was not so far off the mark. It was faulty design that let the being escape.
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2016-10-28, 02:35 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Danita (??) may think the other guy is going from scientist to novelist, but given everything we know, the idea of using a Pa'anuri as a power source actually makes sense. Oisri being a method of creating dark matter entities is explained, the destruction of Uli-Oa makes sense, and it gives a motive for the Pa'anuri attacking the Milky Way, which has been conspicuously absent until now.
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2016-10-28, 06:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2013
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
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2016-10-28, 06:44 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Except they'd already made a deal whereby the Gatekeepers would suppress any attempts at creating teraport technology and force everyone to use their wormgates, so there was no need to attack them (or trick them into destroying the galaxy via a flawed core generator, which is what they actually did). Plus, how does teraporting in the Milky Way hurt Pa'anuri in Andromeda, two million light years away?
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2016-10-28, 07:02 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
It's a little unfortunate that the big reveal that explains ten years of plot is so anti climactic.
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2016-10-28, 07:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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- Goiás, Brazil
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Beyond the machine rebellion, exists the Power Source rebellion.
So, we have proof of a second instance of a Dark Matter Entity appearing or being born from a massively giant Annie Plant. Annie Plants use massive amounts of Gravitics to compress matter into Neutroniun, not unlike some Stars do.
Maybe the DME's are intelligent beings naturally born on certain stars?
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2016-10-28, 08:33 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2009
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2016-10-28, 10:18 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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2016-10-28, 11:37 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Even Danita seems to be annoyed that it took so long to get an explanation.
To be clear, we already knew that Uli-Oa was unusual. All other stockpiles of PTUs had been destroyed far more completely. This provides some additional details about Uli-Oa's destruction.
I don't think they actually were annie plants. The UNS assumed that Oisri was an annie plant, but there was a DME inside, rather than neutrons. I think it seemed similar to an annie plant and the UNS jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Yes, it was just wandering around inside the Milky Way, as far as I know. I don't recall any mention of it originating elsewhere.
I wonder if this is analogous to the trope about civilizations advancing until the create intelligent machines that destroy them. Maybe in this universe, civilizations keep advancing to the point where they start creating and using DMEs that destroy them.Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-28 at 12:02 PM.
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2016-10-28, 04:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
The archive seemed pretty certain that it was AIs that resulted in the deaths of organic life, though, not DMEs? Also, if the Pa'anuri had the power to directly destroy all life in the galaxy, I don't think they'd have been messing around persuading the Gatekeepers to build a faulty core generator.
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2016-10-28, 07:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2013
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Oafans refer to the Pa'anuri as "lightless wind" as I recall? Their AIs are all named after winds.
The Gatekeeper AI's rambling about "Ascegnarok", maybe it wasn't talking about the ascension of immortality suite people, but AIs?
Edit: And Elf channels Tagon's "Never tell me what you can't do as if it's something nobody can do." line without even realizing it.Last edited by Alent; 2016-10-28 at 08:03 PM. Reason: missed possessive case grumble grumble.
My Homebrew A Return to Exile, a homebrew campaign setting.
Under Construction: Skills revamp for the Campaign Setting. I need to make a new index thread.
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2016-10-28, 10:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
As Petey said, the archive was wrong. Also, as far as we know, not even the gatekeepers are advanced enough to be building new Oirsis yet, so we haven't gotten to the sort of situation I was guessing about yet. Anyway, if your enemy can easily be talking into destroying himself for you, why not do it that way even if you could destroy the enemy if you tried?
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2016-10-29, 02:00 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
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2016-10-29, 06:36 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2013
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2016-10-29, 07:04 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
No. The archive's logic was just plain silly. First of all, it didn't understand the observer effect correctly.
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
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2016-10-29, 07:11 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2009
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Genocidal jerks would be much more accurate. The DME tried to kill the entire Milky Way Galaxy even though the Gatekeepers had been keeping their end of the treaty. (and kill species that had done nothing to them) Apparently the DME only consider peace treaties as a time out so they can figure out how to genocide their enemies.
Member of the Giants in the Playground Forum Chapter for the Movement to Reunite Gondwana!
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2016-10-30, 01:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Genocidal jerks would be much more accurate. The DME tried to kill the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
Because gravitic effects from our galaxy can't possibly affect anything that far away? Oh, wait, they can (and do). That's why the Pa'anuri
told the Gate-Keepers they were building the Core Engine for in the first place - to prevent the two's eventual merger.
Oh, but surely that's an event a few billion years in the future, and it's not like there's anything the "Annoying" baryonic life could do to them before that? After all it's impossible to teraport/wormgate all the way to Andromeda.
Except [url=http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-03-29]Wor of God (and not just Petey, or even the narrator) says it WAS before our galaxy was "dropped out" of their universe. That was ultimately their goal, the extinction of life here, being no longer of concern to them, would merely have been a side effect.ChowGuy - The LaChoy Dragon - Servant of the Tiger and disciple of the Wanderer
The Hall of Wonders - HeavenGames Fantasy Role Playing and Creative Writing Forum.
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2016-10-30, 02:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
That footnote basically just says "It's possible to teraport to Andromeda if you use enormous amounts of power". Firstly, until the Pa'anuri taught the Gatekeepers how to make a core generator, who would have the power to spare or the inclination to do so? Secondly, when people actually teraport in, then you can start making plans to destroy them--pre-emptively planning to destroy an entire galaxy just on the offchance somebody in it might develop a technology that hurts you doesn't seem like a great use of resources.
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2016-10-30, 03:13 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2007
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Actually, although I screwed up the quote tags, what the footnote explicitly says "So much power, in fact, that it hasn't been done other than experimentally." Which is to say. it has been done. We just don't know how long ago. It wouldn't surprise me if the primary reason the Gate Keepers were suppressing teraport technology (and ulikely any hint of the ancient Oafan generation technology they gleaned from The Archive) was not merely to protect their monopoly on FTL communication (which we know the Pa'anuri are also capable of) but because they were under treaty obligation to pevent anyone from developing the technology to do so. It also wouldn't surprise me if that's why the Pa'anuri were at war with the in the first plan.
And the only resources they needed to "use" was some [dis]information, and possibly a few "observers" unless the later had planned to ecape through the Zoojack System wormgate. Which we still have no plausible reason for their shepherding other then that was also a treaty obligation on their part,Last edited by ChowGuy; 2016-10-30 at 03:27 AM.
ChowGuy - The LaChoy Dragon - Servant of the Tiger and disciple of the Wanderer
The Hall of Wonders - HeavenGames Fantasy Role Playing and Creative Writing Forum.
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2016-10-30, 03:15 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2009
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Does a world where the Book of 70 Maxims is their bible really care about justice?
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2016-10-30, 06:46 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2013
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Them Suppressing the Teraport was explicitly part of the peace treaty, that is the whole reason they were keeping it under wraps because the Dames and the Gatekeepers were at war however many years ago until the peace treaty was given and the whole core generator trap was created.
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2016-10-30, 08:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Actually, I think Word of God may have been unreliable there. The Gatekeepers obviously had a huge gate set up to terraport between the two galaxies, so it probably had been done non-experimentally, too. In that case, Word of God was probably based on the knowledge Kevyn had available to him, not the absolute truth.
Like ryuplaneswalker, I thought that was established definitively, but I can't remember when or how.Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-30 at 12:20 PM.
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2016-10-30, 11:32 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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2016-10-30, 12:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
OK. I was thinking it was basically the same, except the wormholes were static and therefore the DMEs could avoid them. Come to think of it, though, since the gatekeepers were copying people, maybe the matter entering a gate was destroyed and identical matter was created at the destination gate without anything passing through any wormholes. It's been so long since I thought about the gates, I don't remember much of what we knew about them.
Anyway, it seems that the DMEs had plenty of reasons to want to wipe out life in the Milky Way galaxy.Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-30 at 12:19 PM.
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2016-10-30, 12:28 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2013
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- Bristol, UK
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2016-11-01, 11:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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2016-11-06, 07:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2009
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
Well it's over and there wasn't even any more deaths. And a certain someone has yet ANOTHER pet AI.
SpoilerIf Mutaugh owns the city, doesn't that kinda make her the owner of the how darn place?Member of the Giants in the Playground Forum Chapter for the Movement to Reunite Gondwana!
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2016-11-06, 10:41 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2012
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
SpoilerNo, I don't think so. The city and Uli-Ola are different entities, which both happen to belong to the civil Esspie authorities for similar reasons. They owned the city because they built it. They own Uli-Ola because they discovered it first, and have been in residence on it in excess of anybody else. Murtaugh's ownership of their city does not void their claim to Uli-Ola, and although Murtaugh can theoretically evict them from the city, she cannot remove them from the planet except by use of force, which, though effective, is not a legally-justified method of taking something. If they can continue inhabiting Uli-Ola, their residency claim will never elapse, and given that Esspies are (semi-?)robotic life-forms which don't require atmosphere, I suspect that they could survive without buildings for long enough to build new ones.
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2016-11-06, 11:47 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days
And that's yet another thing that calls into question how many deaths and injuries there needed to be on board Cindercone and Broken Wind. It would be pretty sad if the Toughs didn't have any EMP grenades or similar weapons handy or if they just didn't think to try using anti-electronics weapons against robots, but apparently one of those is true. Of course, that's in addition to all the other ridiculous things the Toughs did (or failed to do) that made them so vulnerable.
The problem may that there may not be any other location at which they could feed off the tree. Who knows? Trying to figure things using logic, as you were doing, isn't particularly helpful in a story that makes as little sense as this one does.
The civilian Esspies intended to (probably) evacuate and give up their claim on Uli-Ola from the very beginning. However, The Wing Commander wanted more. Apparently either Petey isn't going to give them time to receive the three hulls before bombarding the place, or the hulls aren't functional ships that the Esspies could use to evacuate themselves. HT probably hasn't bothered explaining that. In any case, having the Toughs evacuate the Esspies isn't a new idea. That was from six months ago.
I haven't completely gone back to not reading the comic at all, but I'm just reading one week's worth at a time or catching up when the discussion makes me curious now.Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-11-06 at 01:55 PM.
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2016-11-06, 05:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days