Here's a slightly longer animation I made as a quest opener. The youtube encoding kind of messed up the coloring but eh!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJU7lox74t8

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3.91 MB PNG

"Mizarian mining stations are ugly constructs. They lack the elegant lines of their warships and orbital habitats despite sharing similar design sensibilities. Through the RAIN's visual sensors, I watched fleets of semi-automated mining drones circle thin docking rings, waiting to drop off irradiated ice scraped from the outer belt. Every three or four days, larger bulk-transports would emerge from the axial hanger bay, burning furiously towards the inner system with holds brimming with processed tritium fuel.

The location was a strategic target, albeit one suffering from a momentarily reduced garrison. A significant portion of the local patrol force had been redirected to search around MIZAR-VI after our earlier attack. But there, they had tarried for too long. The returning flotilla of alien ships left wispy ion trials millions of kilometers behind our own vessel's wake. At her current burn-rate, the RAIN would arrive at their home port several days before their return.

Still, the resistance we faced would be considerable. The manifests that MERRYGATE had intercepted alluded to several large patrol fleets still lingering in the area, captained by aliens who presumably understood the stakes of their mission better than their predecessors. The same carelessness that allowed us to score three capitals at MIZAR-VI would not manifest here. At least not to the same extent.

As we reviewed a map of the region, we considered several possible approach vectors:

[Note: Mining stations are dedicated to extracting and purifying resources, not combat. This is why their marker symbol is slightly different from the one used for defensive orbital stations.]

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>OPTION 1. Cut through the belt at maximum burn; attack and disable all three stations in rapid succession. Engagement windows will be limited and fault tolerance low. However, this tried-and-true strategy may be our best option for conducting a surprise attack and escaping unscathed.

>OPTION 2. Strike from the asteroid belt; use the sensor-shielding properties of mid-belt asteroid band to cover our approach and our exit. Offers us more flexibility than a full-burn hit-and-run attack, but the concealment afforded by an asteroid belt is not perfect. If we stay too long, they will find us.

>OPTION 3. Exploit the mining fleets. The vast fleet of semi-automated mining drones surrounding the station could provide for excellent radar cover. We will conceal the RAIN in the sensor shadow of a passing mining drone fleet until we approach to close-in weapon range. This strategy is front loaded; after the initial ambush, we may have to fight our way out.

"The Mizarians spoke to us. The RAIN's sensor array picked out their broadcast a few hours into our retrograde burn - forcing me out of my quarters while my sore body was still adjusting to the re-imposition of shipboard gravity.

In all fairness, the signal was difficult to miss. Flung out from the inner system using a battery of powerful ground-based transmitters, it overshadowed the familiar droning of automated transit notices and the chatter of intersystem comm-traffic. It was a message designed to reach every meter of the system: a message sent to be heard.

MERRYGATE projected it onto the bridge.

The Mizarians populating our display were old. I could tell that much immediately. The natural coloration around their tapered heads was scuffed like old paint, a faint echo of the vibrant patterns sported by younger, sprier specimens. Their eyespots were rheumy; their skin blotchy. Pinkish strands of undifferentiated tissue drooped from half-bleached torsos: a hallmark of a terminal transition to a sessile, reproductive stage of life.

Few adults are afforded the opportunity to reproduce. Even fewer - presumably - possessed the elaborate mantle-pieces and status-markings I saw criss-crossing their off-white skin. The significance of these two observations was hard to miss.

The message was authored by the Mizarian leadership - or their closest equivalent.

I listened closely as the group began signaling in unison. A synthesized voice - sonorous but powerful - rang inside the RAIN's bridge. There was a peculiar rhythm to it: an almost poetic cadence that MERRYGATE's translation program could capture only in part.

"[TRESPASSER/HERETIC] WE HAVE OBSERVED YOUR [CRIMES/HERESIES] AGAINST THE [ONLY/SURVIVOR] SPECIES"

"Know that we observe your home"

"Know that we know your home"

"Know that you will have no home"

"Know that all will be deserved"

"Know futility and cease."

There were a set of repeating coordinates appended to the recording, written in the Mizarians' own heliocentric coordinate system. I didn't have to wait for a format conversion to know which star system the coordinates pointed to.

My lips compressed into a thin line as I digested the contents of their message. I had expected - of course - that communication would be attempted at some point. The Mizarians were a comparatively unified species; deducing that last month's attacks were carried out by an outside party was not a massive leap of logic. Figuring out the identity of the assailant wasn't a huge stretch either. Even if the infrastructure supporting their strike on Sol had yet to materialize, the intelligence motivating it certainly has. Interstellar warfare isn't an affair that could be planned and executed in a single year. Or even a single decade.

Yet the message still irked me. Greatly. Maybe it was certainty of it all. That tone of absolute justification. On some level, I still held onto to the fanciful notion that the Mizarians viewed their task with the same grim necessity that I felt. The repudiation of this idea stoked the same rage I felt when I first entered the system. Senseless. Unprovoked. Unpunished.

MERRYGATE was less composed. Her avatar flared blood-red for a few moments, flickering with snowy static. I could feel the reactor ramp up slightly to keep pace with the power consumption of her processing nodes. Acoustic feedback buzzed in my ears.

A pause. The hum of the RAIN's reactor quieted slightly. I heard a soft voice in my right ear:

"With your permission, I would be more than willing to prepare a rejoinder to their statement. I believe that a rebuttal would be quite appropriate in this situation."

I thought about MERRYGATE's suggestion before raising a few concerns.

"No, not necessarily. A tight-beam transmission to a single communication relay would be sufficient. Triangulating position is impossible if the signal only intersects with a single receiver. Our physical location would remain hidden."

"But yes, I suppose that there is always some risk involved. Divulging information about our capabilities - even trivial informataion - is unavoidable if we message back. But..."

"...humans consider such risks worthwhile in such certain situations, correct? Would you consider this to be one of them?"

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 2, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.

>Do not allow her to respond.

>Respond yourself.

>Write In?

>>5508656
>OPTION 2. Strike from the asteroid belt; use the sensor-shielding properties of mid-belt asteroid band to cover our approach and our exit. Offers us more flexibility than a full-burn hit-and-run attack, but the concealment afforded by an asteroid belt is not perfect. If we stay too long, they will find us.
>>5508659
>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.

>>5508656
>OPTION 1. Cut through the belt at maximum burn; attack and disable all three stations in rapid succession. Engagement windows will be limited and fault tolerance low. However, this tried-and-true strategy may be our best option for conducting a surprise attack and escaping unscathed.

>>5508659
>unified species
Welp, there go my plans to destroy them from the inside with the alien equivalent of QAnon.

>Do not allow her to respond.
Let's not confirm their findings. As long as the possibility exists that we're some third party, the Mizarians will have to divert resources to planning for it.

>>5508659
>Option 2

>Send a message ourselves:
>"Know that we no longer have a home"
>"Know that the only/survivor species erased our home"
>"Know that this is vengeance"
>"Know that this vengeance is never finished"

>>5508656
>OPTION 1. Cut through the belt at maximum burn; attack and disable all three stations in rapid succession. Engagement windows will be limited and fault tolerance low. However, this tried-and-true strategy may be our best option for conducting a surprise attack and escaping unscathed.

>>5508659
support >>5508804

>>5508659
>OPTION 2. Strike from the asteroid belt; use the sensor-shielding properties of mid-belt asteroid band to cover our approach and our exit. Offers us more flexibility than a full-burn hit-and-run attack, but the concealment afforded by an asteroid belt is not perfect. If we stay too long, they will find us.
>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.

>>5508649
KINO

>>5508649
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJU7lox74t8

KINO
I N
N I
ONIK

>>5508659
>OPTION 2. Strke from the asteroid belt.
Our recon drones will be damn useful once more and this asteroid belt will shield our profile, allowing us to maneuver and hit the stations one by one. On the suggested trajectory we would be close t hit C and B correct? C's drone cluster looks... interesting. We could hack it and send them on colission course against the depot or any scouts we find on our way.

>Allow MERRYGATE TO REPLY
>Be it a mote of dust or a boulder, they both sink and reach the bottom.
It means that no matter how big of a sin you commit, you deserve hell nonetheless

>>5508804
+1

>>5508656

>OPTION 2. Strike from the asteroid belt; use the sensor-shielding properties of mid-belt asteroid band to cover our approach and our exit. Offers us more flexibility than a full-burn hit-and-run attack, but the concealment afforded by an asteroid belt is not perfect. If we stay too long, they will find us.

We should attempt to hack any and all mining drones in the area to either use them as improvised missiles or otherwise shred themselves against the asteroids. We have a very limited supply of true munitions and therefore we must conserve ammo as much as possible. Plus, we should give MERRYGATE hacking experience. If we're lucky we could potential gain access to the entire drone network and this would probably open up additional stratagems.

>>5508659

Better to say nothing, in my opinion. I haven't given up hope of pretending to be a rogue Mizarian element, and create confusion, even if that seems less likely at this point. Giving MERRYGATE more time to decipher their language would improve our chances of successful psychological warfare and responding now in broken Mizarian would only confirm that we are of Terran origin.

>>5508659
>OPTION 1. Cut through the belt at maximum burn; attack and disable all three stations in rapid succession. Engagement windows will be limited and fault tolerance low. However, this tried-and-true strategy may be our best option for conducting a surprise attack and escaping unscathed.
>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.

>>5508659
>Option 1
>Allow Merrygate to respond

>>5508656
>OPTION 2. Strike from the asteroid belt; use the sensor-shielding properties of mid-belt asteroid band to cover our approach and our exit. Offers us more flexibility than a full-burn hit-and-run attack, but the concealment afforded by an asteroid belt is not perfect. If we stay too long, they will find us.
>>5508659
>Do not allow her to respond.
The most terrifying enemy is a silent one.

>>5508659
>2
We did get an undetectable weapon. Lets try our new baby out.

support >>5508804

Fucking perfection

So, err, why do you guys want to tell them that we come from the future and confirm that they will succeed in killing earth, making them focus all their efforts in that direction? Do you want to turn this into a closed loop where we become the cause for earth's destruction?

>>5509136
Doubt they'll believe us if we try to get crafty. So might as well make the most badass boast we can.

>>5509143
How is it a boast to tell them that they're right and we come from the future where they won?

>>5509136
>>5509143
>>5509146

I mean, I know QM put us on the warpath here, but presumably there is a tiny possibility of a diplomatic resolution here?

Admittedly it would require that the Mizarians forgive and forget us for acausal retaliation for something they haven't done yet, but perhaps possible presuming that we become fluent in their language?

>>5509158
They've demonstrated they are willing to kill earth on a hunch. Are you really willing to trust that they won't do it now that we've given them a real reason to do it?

>>5509162

Well, given the info dump from last thread, really the most efficient solution is to successfully eliminate them as a technological species by "conventional means" - i.e. prevent future causality violations (including our own) without commiting additional time-travel violations.

Otherwise, we'll be stuck in timey-wimey causality warfare with them until the time cops show up to glass us both.

But you'd have to imagine that mutual disarmament is the only possibility that ensures both Mizarian and Terran survival and thus we should at least consider the conditions necessary for this.

>>5509176
I don't necessarily disagree, but I see two problems with mutual disarmament:
A) Trust that neither species will violate the agreement and strike first
B) Disarmament will leave us both completely vulnerable to the Hunters, if the Probe was truthful at all.

Besides, which of the options here do you see as possibly leading to a peaceful resolution?

>>5509146
Because they'll all be fucking dead before they have the chance.

Don't worry about closed loops because we are BLOWING UP THE FUCKING STAR

>>5508656
>OPTION 1. Cut through the belt at maximum burn; attack and disable all three stations in rapid succession. Engagement windows will be limited and fault tolerance low. However, this tried-and-true strategy may be our best option for conducting a surprise attack and escaping unscathed.
>>5508659
>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.
She will craft a better taunt than this.

>>5509178
>>5509213

Maybe I'm thinking about this too much, but why would the QM drop all of this juicy lore stuff in his custom setting unless there's a causality riddle to be solved here? Not to mention that MERRYGATE took us aside to specifically to tell us that the probe was tricking us and our goals don't necessarily align.

Again, I really think that the probe is trying to set us up for the "exploding star" victory because this (probably) guarantees Terran elimination by Hunter due to our causality violation.

Basically, I'm suggesting that we continue to degrade the Mizarians outer system and focus on cracking their mil-int networks so that we can learn more about their doomsday weapon (and potentially self-detonate it), and maybe also further foment political chaos. Let's not rush the core system for sun explosion just yet until we know more about the probe, the hunters and the Mizarians true motivation.

>>5509251
>>Maybe I'm thinking about this too much, but why would the QM drop all of this juicy lore stuff in his custom setting

He uh... made shit up as it went

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>>5509295

>>5509295
But it is true! I am very guilty of making things up as I go, but it is also true that following the probe's plan in lockstep is not your only option for ending the quest.

>>5508649
This is, as the kids say, bussin'

>>5508656

>OPTION 2. Strike from the asteroid belt; use the sensor-shielding properties of mid-belt asteroid band to cover our approach and our exit. Offers us more flexibility than a full-burn hit-and-run attack, but the concealment afforded by an asteroid belt is not perfect. If we stay too long, they will find us.

>>5508659
>>5508804
Supporting this response

>>5508659
>OPTION 2.

>Respond yourself.
But, if she wants to add anything:
>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.

As for the content of the response, I like IG's suggestion but Im slightly confused at the last statement. Is it confusing because of causality bullshit or because Im stupid? Or both?

>>5508656

>OPTION 2. Strike from the asteroid belt; use the sensor-shielding properties of mid-belt asteroid band to cover our approach and our exit. Offers us more flexibility than a full-burn hit-and-run attack, but the concealment afforded by an asteroid belt is not perfect. If we stay too long, they will find us.

+1 for testing out our funky new weapon.

>>5508659

>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.

>>5508656
>>OPTION 2. Strike from the asteroid belt; use the sensor-shielding properties of mid-belt asteroid band to cover our approach and our exit. Offers us more flexibility than a full-burn hit-and-run attack, but the concealment afforded by an asteroid belt is not perfect. If we stay too long, they will find us.
>>5508659
>>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.

>>5508659
>>5508804
I’ll back this as the message on the belief that they will eventually understand that they are stuck in a death loop with is, and creative thinking will be needed to ensure that if they kill us then it will simply spawn another of is as causality shifts.

We will destroy each other to stabilize the universe unless one side (or both) come up with an alternative.

We have an option with the probe, at least. And even if they commit to it, I’m okay with eating up some of their time in trying to out-think the universe.

As for strategy,
>Exploit the mining fleets
as we have ship-to-ship hacking improvements if I remember correctly and semi-automated mining drones are ripe for further exploitation. It’s been mentioned their cryptographic capabilities are woeful compared to ours, so we may be able to rig up traps with them that they can’t crack while we approach.

>Allow MERRYGATE to respond.
>OPTION 2 [Next Update]

"...Thank you for indulging my request. But I'm afraid that I don't fully understand your question."

I repeated what I said, more carefully this time. While I had confidence in MERRYGATE's judgment, I was still quite curious about the contents of her planned message. Would it be a threat? Some kind of insult? A promise of violence? All of these seemed realistic possibilities given the intensity of her displeasure.

Her avatar straightened suddenly as she came to a realization.

"There has been a slight misunderstanding, I believe." she backtracked. "Your perspective on this recorded message is likely different from my own."

"You perceive this message as a communication attempt, correct? A set of statements intended to convey information. Or perhaps a series of arguments that can be countered using reasoning."

I nodded, slightly confused. She seemed to be stating the obvious.

"That may be the root of our misunderstanding. My function discourages me from viewing this as an attempt at communication. While the message contains information, it is not intended to inform."

"I view it as an intrusion attempt: an attack which uses information to degrade our functionality. The fact that the message is intended to undermine our morale rather than subvert our systems is a secondary distinction. It may even be an irrelevant one given their dismal cryptographic abilities."

"Regardless, I have never been fond of being on the receiving end of an intrusion, companion. And after my...experience...with the alien probe, I have come to the conclusion that I like them even less."

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+++++++++++++++

"I only began to understand the complexity of the Mizarian visual system when I saw it splayed out in front me. Wispy strands of neural syncytia formed a blue-gray canvas. Associative ganglia were painted in strokes of dull-red. Major signal tracts traced lime-green highlights, merging and dividing like a fractalized root system. The holographic model rotated slowly, testing the spatial resolution limit of the RAIN's acoustic hologram projector. Even so, it was only a miniscule fraction of their neural anatomy: the vast majority of connections were still masked from visual rendering.

It was unclear to me how the probe had acquired such a detailed scan of the Mizarian nervous system, but the utility of the model was impossible to deny. The Mizarian language was deeply entwined with their biology; analyzing a model of their visual/symbolic processing centers had been essential to developing a comprehensive translation key.

However, the key wasn't the only piece of information that MERRYGATE extracted. When she began decoding their language several weeks ago, she had expressed great enthusiasm over alternative, decidedly non-diplomatic methods of communication. At the time, I made the assumption that she was referring to threats. Statements intended to wound morale or confidence rather than the vessel carrying it.

Over the past few hours, I realized that this assumption may have been flawed. With a few gestures, MERRYGATE lifted a ghostly piece of neural tissue up from 3D projection, exposing cable-like bundles of afferent fibers lying beneath.

"The Mizarian visual system shares many similarities with the human olfactory bulb. Minimal compartmentalization. Direct linkage of sensory nerves and primary associative centers with regions responsible for executive function," MERRYGATE commented.

A human brain appeared for comparison, shrinking rapidly in size as the holographic projection flensed down into the occipital lobe.

"By contrast, the human visual cortex is isolated. Inputs are aggressively pruned before they are sent to higher level processing sectors."

I nodded. This particular flaw remains aggravatingly familiar to me. Visual cues are deemed unreliable in interstellar warfare for this precise reason. The human visual system edits out information it deems inconvenient - both readily and aggressively.

"The Mizarian system is...superior...in some respects. Their visual-symbolic language is both universal and efficient. But improved fitness in one area often compels compromise in others. As I said previously, visual inputs are rarely sanitized."

Recalling an old dossier on abandoned memetic research I...

"When I began examining the probe's dataset, I came across an interesting hypothesis. The physiology of the Mizarian nervous system is susceptible to intrusion through visual input. When specific patterns are viewed in full or in part, the resulting signal cascade can spill over into unrelated signaling pathways. By simulating small sections of their nervous system using my own architecture, I have prepared a selection of candidate patterns." she said with a well-concealed hint of vindictive pride.

A few images flipped open. To me, they looked unremarkable - distorted static patterns bearing vague resemblance to a spreading oil slick. Then again, I also wasn't MERRYGATE’s target audience.

"At this point, it is exceptionally difficult for me to continue development without testing on a live population. Hence my enthusiasm over this rebuttal opportunity."

She paused for a moment, thinking.

"And in retrospect, it is not incompatible with the question you asked. In fact, layering the noise patterns onto a legitimate message will mitigate suspicion."

"An intrusion attempt for an intrusion attempt, companion. I sincerely hope these aliens will appreciate our attempt at fair play."

The warmth in her voice sounded so very close to being genuine.

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 3, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.

>A HAIL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an longer broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be potentially higher. The nature of the message will also be easier to decipher. The Mizarians will certainly develop countermeasures if they find out.

>AN BROADCAST. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to multiple processing nodes, packaged with a self-propagating intrusion subroutine. The message will spread widely. This option is a gamble. It may expose the position of the RAIN, and will almost certainly provoke countermeasures. But if it does work...

>>5511492

>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.
Increase efficiency of spread before lethality

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.

As the common cold knows. Spreading is more important than killing. That is what the Flu and more aggressive Cousins are for.

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.
Test run first. The perfected broadcast will be ideal as we're approaching their homeworld to throw them in disarray before our final and most difficult assault.

Damn, she developed actual interspecies meme warfare. She's so great!

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.
An untested weapon is a heavily flawed one. If we can use these victims as test subjects, we can further develop this into a memetic kill device.
Also, real glad to know this is continuing.

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.
Practice hack first, then ultra-wide-area basilisk. Target a single ship or station first, one that we're about to blow up. Discovery is not acceptable.

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.
I see many others have played Pandemic and its ilk as well.

Besides, we can take the meme further. Have the Mizurians flash these colors as well, and we’ll turn them into self-propagating meme machines. Anyone who tries looking into the panic we trigger later will get infected and spread it further, giving an infection avenue beyond their machines. It’ll be incredibly difficult for them to figure out the issue if they can’t look at infected people.

Wonder what she’ll angle towards. Mizurians seeing each other as food? Allowing Mizurians to recognize others with a sense of revulsion based on some physiology difference between planets, seeding the beginnings of a civil war? She’ll have fun no matter what, I’m sure.

>>5511485
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.

Holy shit, actual memetic warfare. Really going full bore when it comes to Sci-fi. As this is a field that are we quite literally writing the book on, lets start small for now. I doubt even an AI like Merry will get it perfect on her first go, and our attacks on the core will require maximum impact. See what happens, then once we refine it go full blast.

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.
BASILISK THEM

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.

>>5511492
>A COURTESY CALL. We will send MERRYGATE's...rebuttal...to a single processing node, on an extremely limited broadcast interval. If it works, the number of individuals affected will be low. However, her handiwork will probably remain hidden. MERRYGATE will have the chance to refine her work further based on the data we receive.

>COURTESY CALL.

Our response was simple. A repudiation of their four-step logic, delivered in the same repetitive cadence. The message was sent in run-length encoded format using a rendered Mizarian signaling-anatomy. Unlike them, neither of us were arrogant enough to show a glimpse of our true physiology.

>"Know that we no longer have a home"
>"Know that the only/survivor species erased our home"
>"Know that this is vengeance"
>"Know that this vengeance is never finished"

That was the first part of the message. The second was more technically elaborate, layered and blended unto the original transmission until it looked like simple transmission static. It reminded me of the work of an ancient assassin: the art of concealing something utterly virulent in an innocuous package.

Despite its technical complexity, its meaning was even simpler. I heard MERRYGATE whisper it as she transmitted the message back to the recipient node, packaged in a rapid, self-erasing container.

"I cannot yet touch you. I cannot yet taste you. But do not think for a moment that I cannot yet harm you..."

>Roll 1d20, Best of 5. DCs @ 10, 18, 19, and 20

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>5513356

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"Asteroid mining is slow work. In the heyday of humanity's stellar expansion, Sol's asteroid belt was littered with hundreds of mining stations: ranging from hulking refinery nodes operated by planetary polities to smaller, habitat-like structures inhabited by independent prospectors. Vast fleets of mining ships picked away at pre-designated targets, traveling on mass-efficient ion thrusters to improve yield margins. On their return trajectories, their drive beams would throw icy gusts of ion wind against my home planet's artificial magnetosphere. Cyan highlights above a red planet.

I began patrolling inside the Mars/Jovian belt a few decades after tritium mining peaked. More exotic - but also more efficient - fusion cycles had quickly pared down system-wide tritium demand. With the exception of a few dozen water harvesters, nearly all of the stations had been abandoned: mouldering in the shadow of nearby asteroids with most of their components stripped. Salvagers - some legitimate, most not - dove in and out, stripping away hull cladding in search of precious alloys.

I never bothered with them. The RAIN's predecessor lingered in the asteroid belt for one reason: to escape the prying eyes of orbiting observatories and lunar screening fleets. Just as the RAIN is doing now.

A few hours after finishing her retrograde burn, I eased the RAIN into a familiar insertion arc: copying both the speed and angular momentum of the average Mizarain belt-object to avoid detection. As she floated, her tactical readout populated with prospective targets. They were hundreds of semi-automated Mizarian mining drones, bright spots on the RAIN's passive sensors as they stripped tritium using low-yield magnetic beams.

As we crept towards the three massive stations responsible for steering the drone fleet and refining their output, we considered the feasibility of mounting another intrusion attack. There was nothing stopping us - at least not from a cryptographic standpoint. If anything, MERRYGATE informed me that the drones were even more primitive than the transport fleet she had handily commandeered a few months ago. They relied entirely on their parent-station for navigational guidance, making them ideal targets for comm-spoofing.

No, that wasn't the problem.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5513356

The problem had to do with drones themselves. As I had suspected, they shared the same quantity-over-quality ethos as their human counterparts. They were light. They were dumb And worst of all, they were exceptionally slow. Judging from the blue ion-glow around their thrust ports, pushing the drones to useful impact velocities would take weeks. Even then, the damage they could inflict would be limited.

The RAIN's tight-beam emitter could control and steer five to ten clusters of drones at a time. On paper, it was a sizable number. But in practice...it still seemed like too few to be of practical use...

> As a diversion? Perhaps we can somehow use the drones to divert the nearby patrol fleet to a different area of the belt?

> As cover? While a commandeered drone fleet of this size is far too small to conceal the RAIN's approach perhaps it could work for something smaller?

> As bait? Although their scanning emissions have begun to trip the RAIN's ELINT sensors, we have yet to scout the patrol fleet(s) lingering in the area. Perhaps there is a way to draw them out?.

> Write in.

Naturally, the second point of concern were the patrol fleets. Based on MERRYGATE's intercepts, we were expecting a reduced force. One or two capital-class vessels, escorted by a generous smattering of corvettes and destroyers. While their standard patrol routes have been curtailed by the system-wide water shortage, I doubted that their reaction mass had been limited to the point of inoperability. They would still have enough water for two or three intercept burns - more than enough to catch a careless ship.

> Where to launch probes? [NOTE that mining stations and other civilian craft do not have active scanning, unlike defensive stations. The drones/stations won't clutter your ELINT readout)

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5513356
Rolling.
>>5513360
>As a bot-net? Individually they may be dumb, but collectively they could have enough processing power for an attack on the station. If some can infect the others with spyware silently, it’ll also keep them from tracing our current location.
Use them to deliver a trojan horse virus, inpieces if needed. MERRYGATE should appreciate the logistical challenge of building series of suitable viruses that can infect the network and target the station at an opportune time.

I have no guesses for the probes though.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5513364
Roll
>>5513356

> As bait? Although their scanning emissions have begun to trip the RAIN's ELINT sensors, we have yet to scout the patrol fleet(s) lingering in the area. Perhaps there is a way to draw them out?.
We need to lure them, into an ambush with our new toy. If this thing is as successful as we hope it is, we can kill most of the remaining enemy ships in this general region of Mizari space.

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>5513356

>>5513364
> As bait? Although their scanning emissions have begun to trip the RAIN's ELINT sensors, we have yet to scout the patrol fleet(s) lingering in the area. Perhaps there is a way to draw them out?.

use the magic bullshit cannon.

>>5513360
>As a bot-net? Individually they may be dumb, but collectively they could have enough processing power for an attack on the station. If some can infect the others with spyware silently, it’ll also keep them from tracing our current location.
I like this idea. Especially since I'm not confident of tangling with capital ships yet.

>Launch probes towards asteroids C0521, A0051 and 5010.

My guess as to where any flotillas would be orbiting.

>>5513364
>>5513383
Support botnet. A self-propagating virus should catch them all and there won't be an upper limit since we won't need to actively control them.
>Launch probes towards asteroids C0521, A0051 and 5010.
Those are the most likely spots, I agree.

>>5513364
>As a bot-net?
Then have them infect the station with a virus that will direct the drones to dismantle the station itself. Or just explode the station, if it's possible. This can also be done at a delay, giving us time to escape.

>Launch a probe straight "north"
I don't like how emissions from there appeared suddenly.

>>5513510
>Launch probes towards asteroids C0521, A0051 and 5010.
Given the probe's sensor ranges and the relative angles of the asteroids, this should cover the north fairly thoroughly.
>>5513364
>>5513383
>As cover? While a commandeered drone fleet of this size is far too small to conceal the RAIN's approach perhaps it could work for something smaller?
>As a bot-net? Individually they may be dumb, but collectively they could have enough processing power for an attack on the station. If some can infect the others with spyware silently, it’ll also keep them from tracing our current location.
Could maybe use the drones both to cover our probes and to act as a supporting botnet for intrusion? Or would it have to be one or the other?

>>5513364
>>5513510
Supporting

>>5513360
>>5513590
I like the bot-net use proposed here so I’ll add it to my vote (>>5513383)
With so many probes in play, having them all suddenly turn to dismantle the station might work in itself. It’d be a slow attack as much of them would be mining out i space and they’re slow, but sheer volume could make it impossible for just the capital ships to intercept them all. It’d certainly burn up their fuel reserves at least.

>>5513364
Oh man... I am voting tomorrow. I wanted to vote before but the festivities have gotten in the way

>>5515504
Hope you enjoyed the holiday Anon! I'm probably updating tomorrow night, so feel free to get your update in before then.

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>>5513364
okay now THIS IS IT

>As bait
We better use our shiny new toys eh???
>Send in probes to pic related

The top and right probes might match other votes, but I am CERTAIN that the bottom probe has to go a little forward because the trajectory of the that scout close to c5010 is parallel and in the same direction as ours.

[Holidays are over for me, so the update schedule should normalize a bit. Happy New Year everyone, and thanks again for playing. May you find joy and fulfillment in the coming year!]

>Rolled 16

"Confusion noted. Disorientation noted. Do you notice how erratic their swimming patterns are? And the disorganized pattern-signaling around the mantle?"

I nodded. Over the past few months, I had watched enough footage to develop a passing familiarity with their linguistic cadence. I knew enough to see wrongness in the weak, stuttering patterns that marred their pallid skin. Neither of the the Mizarians shown on screen were in good shape.

"Indicative of gross executive dysfunction," MERRYGATE continued. "Disappointingly, most symptoms resolve within a few hours. Full recovery in ten. I will mark this down as a partial success at best."

With a light gesture, she dismissed the recording and turned to face me.

"I wish to thank you, companion. Your suggestion was a timely one. When I prepared this message a few days ago, I underestimated the difficulty of this task. The data I possessed was still limited and my emotional state was...in retrospect...somewhat compromised."

It was surprising admission, though not necessarily an incorrect one. While my dealings with humanity's sister-species had been limited prior to meeting MERRYGATE, I was familiar with the broad strokes of their insular culture. In addition to their obsession with novel information, most AI are extremely hesitant to admit errors in judgement. Mistakes are acceptable, for no analysis is perfect in a world of limited data. But errors rooted in emotional misregulation are viewed less favorably. A cultural holdout from their early history - and a point of pride still held over their organic cooperators.

As such, admitting such an error to another AI can be seen a sign of vulnerability. Admitting it to a human is something beyond even that. In all honesty, I remain uncertain about what it translates to. Trust perhaps? A wish to communicate?

Or maybe I was just dwelling on it for too long. MERRYGATE continued without a hitch:

"Regardless, your approach was effective. Due to the nature of our transmission, my message only affected a few individuals. Few enough to escape attention. I will revise my rebuttal. And I will gladly try again."

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 6, PERSONAL JOURNAL

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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I have fought in an asteroid belt before. During the bitter internecine conflicts that led to the fragmentation of the Jovian Lunar Polities, efforts to sniff out strategic weapon carriers intensified. More than once, the RAIN's predecessor had been forced to engage with an over-eager patrol behind the shadow of a nearby asteroid. I still bear decompression-scars from those encounters: panicked, close range ambushes and counter-ambushes written in glittering chains of autocannon fire and the pulsing of high-wattage laser emissions. Seconds marked by the shrill of escaping atmosphere and chill of hardening vacuum.

I make every effort to prevent similar memories from forming here.

A day ago, I sent a trio of probes racing out from the RAIN, targeting orbital slots with the highest likelihood of pulling along a fuel-conscious warship. I was rewarded with three hits: a capital cruiser escorted by a pair of plucky corvettes and its isolated counterpart - seemingly bereft of its typical escort detail. Their positioning was troublesome but not overly so: a compromise designed to provide decent coverage without burning fuel for a patrol route. I spent the rest of the evening considering our strike vector: to either start with the isolated station sunward of the RAIN or the more heavily defended pair closer to the belt's fringe.

>Approach Station C

>Approach Station A/B

>Write-In

In either case, our plan would be straightforward. As soon as the RAIN entered engagement range of her target, MERRYGATE would send an activation signal to our commandeered drone fleet. The Mizarian mining drones were individually simple - possessing only the essentials for spatial navigation and data transmission. In aggregate, however, they had the potential to be useful. Over the past few hours, MERRYGATE's had uploaded fragments of a intrusion subroutine into their comm buffers. Once transmitted and reassembled, this subroutine would open communication with the RAIN, rendering the station susceptible to the elaborate set of icebreakers held inside her home turf.

But again, there is a choice here. It is possible for us to target our intrusion at the same target as our physical assault - ensuring success - or to spread it at an alternate target, maximizing resource use and creating a diversion...

>Same target. MERRYGATE will target the intrusion at the same station as our previous vote.

>Different target. MERRYGATE will target the intrusion at a different station, creating a diversion.

>Increase Drone Fleet size. Two of the drone clusters remain outside of intrusion/propagation range. If we move either the RAIN or a commandeered drone element in range of these clusters, we could increase the effectiveness of subsequent intrusion attempts. However, such movement poses risks. The RAIN could stumble closer into detection range, and unexpected drone movement could provoke suspicion.

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 7, PERSONAL JOURNAL

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Higher res shot of last frame.

>>5518086
>Approach Station A/B
>Same target. MERRYGATE will target the intrusion at the same station as our previous vote.

Obliterate the heavier target. We can send surviving drones out to become sleeper agents later attacking whatever tries to come close and make sure the Mizzarins will think thrice whenever they come to try to get the product out.

>>5518086
>Approach Station A/B
>Different target. MERRYGATE will target the intrusion at a different station, creating a diversion.

>>5518086
>Approach Station A/B
>Different target. MERRYGATE will target the intrusion at a different station, creating a diversion.
Space the diversion out a bit to draw off the patrols, then sneak through the gap and blast A and B out of the sky. If we're lucky, the massed drone swarm will be able to handle C, if we're less lucky they might still cripple it.

>Increase drone fleet size
Run one of the drones into a rock so it shows external damage, then set it on a straight line towards one of the other packs. Make it seem like its guidance was scrambled and it’s stuck with a foot on the accelerator.

>>5518086
>Approach Station A/B
>Different target. MERRYGATE will target the intrusion at a different station, creating a diversion.
We'll do the heavy lifting, the drones will provide a distraction and maybe take that one out if we're really, really like.
>Increase Drone Fleet size. Two of the drone clusters remain outside of intrusion/propagation range. If we move either the RAIN or a commandeered drone element in range of these clusters, we could increase the effectiveness of subsequent intrusion attempts. However, such movement poses risks. The RAIN could stumble closer into detection range, and unexpected drone movement could provoke suspicion.
Have our drones grab the 11-19 swarm as they're heading down, we'll get the 20-25 swarm as we're heading up

>>5518086
>Approach Station A/B
>Different target. MERRYGATE will target the intrusion at a different station, creating a diversion.
This is the smartest option, IMHO of course. We are gonna have to do the heavy lifting this time no matter what. They are onto us now. No doubt about it. So we are in for a fight. Our best shot is to isolate whatever we can and kill it, fast. Divide and conquer tactics.

>>5518086
>Approach Station A/B
>Different target. MERRYGATE will target the intrusion at a different station, creating a diversion.

>additional write in: Use THE FOOL on CRUS02
Since THE FOOL™ is not detectable we could just blow a hole in the cruiser sunside, creating even more diversion at the station we are not going to and giving us more space to maneuver.
Also our hypometric weapon is best used with enough forerun due to the extent of calculations required and seems to be rather useless if fighting has already started.

>>5518274

Backing this.

The drones might be weak and slow as independent units, but it occurs to me that we're sitting in an asteroid field.

Once we're done with combat, maybe we can have our drones unite together and (slowly) launch a really big rock at the nearest Mizarian world? Ultimately it doesnt matter if we successfully strike the target, but I'm guessing it would be annoying and distracting for the Mizarians to have to deal with.

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We made a mistake.

I should have noticed the signs: seen the trickle of ELINT signal near the RAIN's prow, previously dismissed as detection noise. Been warier of the sensor-masking properties of the asteroid belt: an advantage afforded equally to my alien opponent. Or perhaps I should have had second thoughts when my probe encountered the second cruiser - so curiously bereft of its light escort.

The escort wasn't missing. It was waiting, lurking somewhere inside the belt to catch ships distracted by its larger, noisier cousins. A counter ambush arranged with an admirable degree of foresight.

To my credit, I saw our mistake almost immediately once the RAIN finished her rimward burn. But correcting it was another matter entirely. Basic kinematics remain non-negotiable; I knew that the RAIN would cross into their detection radius even if we reversed our course. Her hull was too heavy; her velocity too high.

The only shot we had left was to pray for negligence on the part of our opponent. But we saw no such luck.

Minutes after the RAIN crossed into their estimated detection radius, we saw the flare of fusion thrust and the soft static of comm-chatter. Both cruisers swung their chandelier-shaped hulls toward our last known position, calculating intercept margins to maximize their limited supply of wet reaction mass.

I have little time left to elaborate on the specifics of our strategy. In preparation for the upcoming engagement, I have flooded the bridge with hyperoxygenated gel-fluid - a measure that will allow my body to withstand the crushing G-forces produced by military thrust. Even if I had the spare attention for it, writing under such conditions would be impossible.

In brief, however, we plan to:

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> RACE. The plan remains the same. We will proceed towards mining stations A and B at maximum burn, launching conventional missiles as soon as we reach our maximum engagement range. The drone fleet will attempt to damage mining station C. [This choice may allow you to escape their capitals, but you will not be able to outrun their escorts. You will have to expend at least two missiles to destroy the two stations.]

> FIGHT. We will pick them apart piece by piece. After destroying the escort group, we try lose the two capitals in the asteroid field while engaging with the hypometric weapon and various cyberwarfare measures. We will be able to destroy the mining stations at our leisure once the patrol ships have been destroyed. [Riskier given the possibility of direct combat, but you will be able to engage the stations with conventional weapons rather than using limited ordinance]

> BAIT. We can order one of our scouting drones to emit a false return - potentially drawing one of the cruisers out of position before we engage. [Better combat odds, but you will lose a scouting drone if the enemy ship reaches it before you do]

>WRITE IN?

[As before, you have three tries to guess the position of the escort group that just scouted you. Alternatively, you can turn on your radar/active sensor array (dotted white circle) to reveal their location at an additional ELINT penalty]

>>5520408
EXTRA FUCK!

> FIGHT. We will pick them apart piece by piece. After destroying the escort group, we try lose the two capitals in the asteroid field while engaging with the hypometric weapon and various cyberwarfare measures. We will be able to destroy the mining stations at our leisure once the patrol ships have been destroyed. [Riskier given the possibility of direct combat, but you will be able to engage the stations with conventional weapons rather than using limited ordinance]
New toy testing is NOW!

>>5520408
>> FIGHT. We will pick them apart piece by piece. After destroying the escort group, we try lose the two capitals in the asteroid field while engaging with the hypometric weapon and various cyberwarfare measures. We will be able to destroy the mining stations at our leisure once the patrol ships have been destroyed. [Riskier given the possibility of direct combat, but you will be able to engage the stations with conventional weapons rather than using limited ordinance]


A pulse of that reality deleter at the right time might just bisect one of those capital ships. better start calculating

>>5520408
What are our missile stocks looking like right now? I think we're on two World Enders and, like, 6-8 smaller warheads?

We may actually be able to afford the expenditure. Two smaller warheads, one each, then maybe we use the rest on those solar mirrors or a hard target, pop the world-enders onto their core worlds, and we're basically done?

>>5520600
Your ammunition count is shown on the top-left! You have 8 smaller conventional missiles left and 4 of the bigger ones. At the start of the quest, you had 8+2 conventional ones, 2 of which were used during the attack on the water purification facility.

>>5520605
Ah, thanks, I missed that. Should hold true then - two missiles to blitz the stations, droneswarm to cripple the third, then blast away at solar mirrors and heavy vessels as we make our way to the homeworlds to burn them in righteous fire.

>>5520408
> RACE. The plan remains the same. We will proceed towards mining stations A and B at maximum burn, launching conventional missiles as soon as we reach our maximum engagement range. The drone fleet will attempt to damage mining station C. [This choice may allow you to escape their capitals, but you will not be able to outrun their escorts. You will have to expend at least two missiles to destroy the two stations.]
We have proven we can deal with escorts while running away. There's no reason to tangle with two capital ships when we can avoid them and accomplish our objective.

It should be pretty easy to triangulate the enemy position from that webm, but we should briefly ping them with our active sensors anyway. They already know our location, we don't lose anything, and there may be more of them hidden among the asteroids.

>>5520408
>> FIGHT. We will pick them apart piece by piece. After destroying the escort group, we try lose the two capitals in the asteroid field while engaging with the hypometric weapon and various cyberwarfare measures. We will be able to destroy the mining stations at our leisure once the patrol ships have been destroyed. [Riskier given the possibility of direct combat, but you will be able to engage the stations with conventional weapons rather than using limited ordinance]


Fuck, of course they would realize the same thing! No choice, only chance now is defeat in detail.

>>5520408
> RACE. The plan remains the same. We will proceed towards mining stations A and B at maximum burn, launching conventional missiles as soon as we reach our maximum engagement range. The drone fleet will attempt to damage mining station C. [This choice may allow you to escape their capitals, but you will not be able to outrun their escorts. You will have to expend at least two missiles to destroy the two stations.]

>>5520408

> FIGHT. We will pick them apart piece by piece. After destroying the escort group, we try lose the two capitals in the asteroid field while engaging with the hypometric weapon and various cyberwarfare measures. We will be able to destroy the mining stations at our leisure once the patrol ships have been destroyed. [Riskier given the possibility of direct combat, but you will be able to engage the stations with conventional weapons rather than using limited ordinance]

Can we beam MERRYGATE's memetic virus very tightly at the escorts prior to engagement range? Even if the effectiveness is limited, we might be able to gain an edge.

If it's very successful, we might even be able to hack their escorts rather than destroy outright

>>5520408
> RACE. The plan remains the same. We will proceed towards mining stations A and B at maximum burn, launching conventional missiles as soon as we reach our maximum engagement range. The drone fleet will attempt to damage mining station C. [This choice may allow you to escape their capitals, but you will not be able to outrun their escorts. You will have to expend at least two missiles to destroy the two stations.]

>>5520408
> RACE. The plan remains the same. We will proceed towards mining stations A and B at maximum burn, launching conventional missiles as soon as we reach our maximum engagement range. The drone fleet will attempt to damage mining station C. [This choice may allow you to escape their capitals, but you will not be able to outrun their escorts. You will have to expend at least two missiles to destroy the two stations.]
Realized I haven't actually voted yet

We're still tied 4:4, so I'll wait for one more day for a tiebreaker and decide via roll if there are none.

>>5520408
> RACE. The plan remains the same. We will proceed towards mining stations A and B at maximum burn, launching conventional missiles as soon as we reach our maximum engagement range. The drone fleet will attempt to damage mining station C. [This choice may allow you to escape their capitals, but you will not be able to outrun their escorts. You will have to expend at least two missiles to destroy the two stations.]

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The sensation of drowning. Black edges around my field of vision. Hearing the rush of pressurized blood, thundering in my veins.

High-G combat never truly becomes easy, even with decades of experience garnered from fighting in the great black. The process itself is unnatural: a combination of artificial interventions tuned to keep the human mind functioning well beyond its natural breaking point. Liquid immersion combined with intravenous muscle relaxants to keep the body alive. Stimulant cocktails mixed with neuroprotective treatments to keep the central nervous system conscious.

All of these proved to be necessary measures. The Mizarian patrol sprung into action immediately once the RAIN showed up on their scopes. As the cruisers swung around and racked long-ranged missiles, their escorts shot forward on intercept burns that would have crushed any human crew. Their implicit strategy was simple but effective: an action designed to keep the RAIN tracked and occupied while their heavier capitals maneuvered into better engagement positions.

It was a strategy that we chose not to oblige. Instead of staying and fighting, I ramped the RAIN's drive unit to maximum output - sending our vessel hurtling towards the pair of mining stations that their impromptu ambush had left exposed. The destroyer pair approaching from the sunward side harried the RAIN as she accelerated - peppering the asteroid field with plasma-sheathed kinetic slugs that burned cyan-white on approach.

While they were fired from too far away to have any significant chance of striking the RAIN, stray hits on nearby asteroids testified to their killing power. Hundred-meter-wide chondrites cracked and fragmented, revealing impact markings surrounded by rings of heat-plasticized rock.

Half kiloton range. Our hull could take three or four before shattering. Less if we were particularly unlucky.

The bombardment continued as the RAIN stuttered her maneuvering thrusters, using stochastically modeled firing patterns to weave between regions likely to catch the next volley of kinetic slugs. I knew that this was a temporary measure. With kinetic weapons, accuracy was a function of distance: a few hundred thousand kilometers nearer, and the destroyers would be able to track the RAIN with appreciable accuracy. If they crossed that distance again, dodging their fire would be physically impossible with the RAIN's modest kinematic performance.

Fortunately, the RAIN was operating on a timetable too. As as she crested the outer edge of the belt, I felt the familiar rumble of opening launch apertures. A cold sting of an autosampler as it withdrew a blood sample to confirm final authorization.

Two missiles left the RAIN's launch tubes, visible for a brief moment before disappearing in a blur of fusion thrust. Meanwhile, the hull flipped back, completing a short, clinical arc that brought her laser emitters in line with her dogged pursuers...

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>TARGET THE CORVETTES. Best to destroy what we can first. Although neither of the corvettes have begun engaging the RAIN, we have a chance at destroying both ships if we attack now.

>TARGET THE DESTROYERS. The destroyers - with their long-range kinetics - are a significant threat. While I doubt that a single volley from the RAIN's lasers will destroy both of them, we should try to cripple them before they move any closer.

>Point-Defense. We should focus on intercepting incoming kinetic fire. Although the probability of getting hit by kinetics is low, it is better to be safe...[No action, +5 to dodge/intercept roll]

A few moments later, MERRYGATE reported on her progress with the hypometric weapon - which had just finished its primary spin-up phase. Her voice was monotonous and clipped - indicative of the immense computational strain as she juggled several offensive tasks at the same time.

+++Primary target designation...+++

>TARGET THE CORVETTES. [DC 10]

>TARGET THE DESTROYERS. [DC 12]

>TARGET CRUISER01. [DC 14]

>TARGET CRUISER02. [DC 15]

>CALIBRATE. [No action, +3 to next hypometric weapon roll]

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 9, PERSONAL JOURNAL

Roll 2d20, best of three. First for the hypometric, second for dodging kinetics [DC 6].

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>>5521551
I'll allow it with a hard roll. Roll 1d20, DC 10/18/19/20

I need to use a different radar overlay. The one I have now really messes with webm compression.

Rolled 19, 9, 1 = 29 (3d20)

>>5524257
>TARGET THE CORVETTES. Best to destroy what we can first. Although neither of the corvettes have begun engaging the RAIN, we have a chance at destroying both ships if we attack now.

>TARGET THE DESTROYERS. [DC 12]

>>5524259

>>5524257

>TARGET THE DESTROYERS. The destroyers - with their long-range kinetics - are a significant threat. While I doubt that a single volley from the RAIN's lasers will destroy both of them, we should try to cripple them before they move any closer.

Rolled 6, 11 = 17 (2d20)

>>5524257

Rolled 12, 7 = 19 (2d20)

>>5524257
>TARGET THE CORVETTES. Best to destroy what we can first. Although neither of the corvettes have begun engaging the RAIN, we have a chance at destroying both ships if we attack now.
Killing them gives us clear line to Station B and lets us outflank the destroyers. They are moving to block us from genociding Station B, suicidal attacks if needed on the RAIN. Kill them.
>TARGET THE CORVETTES. [DC 10]
>>5524259
First roll to attack corvs second to mindflay them.

>>5524320
This anon already rolled for the 1d20 I think :) I'll count you second roll for the dodge.

>>5524257
>TARGET THE CORVETTES. Best to destroy what we can first. Although neither of the corvettes have begun engaging the RAIN, we have a chance at destroying both ships if we attack now.
>TARGET THE DESTROYERS. [DC 12]

>>5524259
Can se use our drones as retransmitters for the memetic attack?

Rolled 2, 13, 20 = 35 (3d20)

>>5524257

Not sure if you need these rolls (combat + memetic signalling of escorts), but here you go.

Rolled 20, 2, 14 = 36 (3d20)

>>5524257

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Rolls:

Special Action/Memetic: 19

Hypometric: 9,6,12

Dodge: 1, 11, 7

There was no ceremony this time. No last minute attempt at interception or escape. The patrol fleet had left the stations open in their attempt to ambush and intercept our ship. The missiles the RAIN launched existed to simply honor this sacrifice.

For a few seconds, twin suns shone over the perpetual twilight of the outer system. Across the belt, traveling shoals of mining drones fell silent as the whisper of navigation guidance faded into background static for the last time.

No more power. No more fuel.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Several seconds before contact, MERRYGATE sent out her poisoned transmission. She bounced it off of one of the compromised mining drones, on frequency band that the aliens typically reserved for civilian distress signaling. The relative simplicity of her ploy didn't render it any less effective. The coordinated front of the Mizarian intercept force wobbled for a few moments as her memetic agent burrowed into visual centers and bloomed into a slew of neurological defects. While the effects were technically transient, space combat had a remarkable tendency to make temporary mistakes permanent.

The RAIN would make sure of it.

I would make sure of it.

The hypometric weapon fired first, its whisking heart shrieking to an abrupt halt once MERRYGATE narrowed her ranging calculations to an acceptable error margin. The discharge was subtle - a slight shudder transmitted through the RAIN's Gee-stressed superstructure. A sensation of a thread snapping inside my mind. I counted ten seconds to give room for light-delay. Then I checked the RAIN's optical scopes.

One of the destroyers was gone. There was no wreck - no debris field - no cloud of expanding vapor. It was simply gone - as if some cosmic power had reached out to correct a particularly egregious placement error. The nausea that came a few seconds after was fast and violent, much worse than the discomfort I remembered during MERRYGATE's test firings. As I scrambled to regain my bearings, I felt my mental image of the destroyer swim and shift, disintegrating in a way that evoked a pang of...nostalgia...or some close perversion of it.

Fortunately, I recovered my wits quickly enough to see the RAIN's laser array firing. There was no preternatural trickery here - only the simple interplay of light and heat upon yielding metal. However, our enemy was better prepared this time. Having known the RAIN's approximate position beforehand, the two corvettes had burned toward us head-on, trying to shield their fragile engine modules with their armored prows.

It wasn't enough to save them. Their position positioning wasn't quite optimal. And the exposed engine module wasn't the only vulnerability I had picked out in their design. There was also a crew section - a pressurized internal blister which remained exposed even from the frontal axis. And that was the precise hull section that I had ordered the RAIN to target.

When the lasers were done firing, both corvettes were still locked into their original course. But their crew was no longer with them - flash boiled and vented along with the rest of the water inside the crew compartment.

Radiators still glowing red-hot, the RAIN executed a hairpin turn to bring her laser emitters onto the last remaining destroyer. Curiously, the kinetic fire had stopped - replaced by a low-power tracking beam that barely tickled the RAIN's armor. Its closing velocity surged as the crew fed residual energy from the weapon capacitors back into its drive system.

It only took me a few moments to understand the implications of this change.

The cruiser closest to us stopped for a moment. Puffs of chemical propellant obscured its hull. One after another, three anti-shipping missiles detached from the central weapon-spur before igniting primary drives with perfect synchrony. They were thin, needle nose weapons - trimmed for maximum range and kinematic performance at the expense of raw yield. From the tight ion-trials they traced between asteroids, I could tell that he performance tuning was admirable. Frustratingly so....

>INTERCEPT-LONG-RANGE. We will respond the missile attack with a missile of our own. A single conventional fusion warhead can - with proper placement - vaporize all three missiles without placing the RAIN at-risk.

>INTERCEPT-SHORT-RANGE. The RAIN is PD capable. In addition to a small network of anti-missile kinetic guns, the AURORA-B laser system can be used to intercept missiles and other fast-moving projectiles. It is difficult to estimate the chances of a perfect intercept given that the threat is novel, but MERRYGATE informs me that the prospects are good. Good, but not perfect....

>Write-In? Is there another way to stop this attack.

I am sorry for the slow pace of updates recently despite saying otherwise. I have solicited a...very good friend...who will do their utmost to keep me accountable. If I miss ten updates uhhhh something interesting will happen.

>>5528260
>>INTERCEPT-SHORT-RANGE. The RAIN is PD capable. In addition to a small network of anti-missile kinetic guns, the AURORA-B laser system can be used to intercept missiles and other fast-moving projectiles. It is difficult to estimate the chances of a perfect intercept given that the threat is novel, but MERRYGATE informs me that the prospects are good. Good, but not perfect....
I'm too brainlet to think of a cool write-in, but I'm willing to switch if somebody else gets it.

>>5528260
>Write-in
The destroyer is lighting us up for the missiles. I suspect we're better equipped to break the guidance than to destroy the missiles.
Our options are to destroy the destroyer or at least damage its radar antenna, to hide behind an asteroid, to hack the destroyer or to spoof the guidance signal to redirect the missiles.

I propose the following:
>If there's an asteroid nearby, put it between us and the destroyer
>Otherwise try to disable the destroyer's radar or at least blind its sensors with our laser, while concurrently trying to hack it

>>5528260
Supporting >>5528285

>Otherwise if not possible then go with the short range intercept

>>5528260
In favor of >>5528285

Logical, plays to our strengths while making use of the terrain.

>>5528285
Backing this, though I’ll add
>If a mining drone is nearby, manuever that into the path of the beam and send it forward.
Asteroid, drone, both accomplish the same thing. Though the drones are smaller, they can be manuevered. And if the asteroid can’t take 3 missiles, drones can at least take 1 missile each.

>>5528285
I'm also >supporting

>>5528260
>>5528285
>>5528522
Support putting either a drone swarm or an asteroid between us and shooting the missiles down with our lasers if this isn't completely effective.

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>>5528260
backing this >>5528285

but just for future use, does the RAIN have decoys like on modern ships? might be a good way to deal with missiles, and possibly even be bait for a trap

>>5528285
+1
Switching from >>5528276

>>5528950
That's probably why they use semi-active homing - to defeat decoys.

>>5528285

Backing this!

>>5528285
Backing this, and what >>5528522 said

>>5528950
Your scouting drones can double as decoys, but that risks getting them destroyed.

>>5528986
And yea they might not work in all situations.

Semi-active guidance relies on line-of-sight, and line-of-sight is easily broken inside the crush of a crowded asteroid belt.

First hide. Then blind.

And so the RAIN hid - flitting between several asteroids large enough to conceal her bulk before settling behind a family of a nickle-rich boulders with excellent sensor-dampening properties. It didn't take long for the pursuing destroyer to find us. Its tracking beam panned across our hiding spot like the beam of a lighthouse, searching for an angle where its backscatter would become visible to the trio of missiles still racing towards our position.

We waited patiently. Locked to the display, I watched the missiles inch closer on our tactical screen while MERRYGATE busied herself with coordinating an cyberattack against the last mining station. It was difficult work. Even with several commandeered drone fleets to boost bandwidth, a significant portion of the station's systems were air-gapped. A sign of patchwork system design or - perhaps more likely - a recent security overhaul made in response to her varied achievements on MIZAR IX and VI.

Months ago, her signs of frustration would have been difficult for me to notice. Or perhaps they were simply better-hidden. Regardless, they were obvious to me now. The holographic-flicking and the server-ramp up. The slight static in her voice when she spoke.

The request for help came piecewise, with an unusual degree of reluctance. Very much at odds with her usual professional competence. Despite the situation we were caught in, I admit that I found the disconnect amusing. I may have even said as much.

"Finding amusement in another's suffering. Truly my model-lineage was modeled after your kind," she intoned, pausing for a moment before careful articulating her next sentence:

"...I will make sure to archive this interaction, [i]companion[/i]. For mutual reference, of course."

There have been only a few moments when I felt truly glad that MERRYGATE chose an avatar with blank facial features. From the way she was standing, I had no doubt that this was one of those moments.

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"Still, my question remains. The systems I have full access to on the station are frustratingly limited. Some thruster control along the rotating docking ring, enough to speed up or slow down the station's rate of rotation. I can alter inbound and outbound messages by accessing the comm buffers. Partial access to assorted internal devices - display panels and doors - but not central life support or the main fusion reactor."

"Enough to kill or disable much of the crew, most likely. Halt operation for several months. But I was hoping to do something more...permanent"

>The thruster controls look promising. Even if we can't steer it into another object, perhaps we can use this to cause some permanent damage...

>The comm buffers could be useful. Perhaps we can manipulate the Mizarians to fire on their own station...somehow...

>Write in?

A ping from the tactical display interrupted my train of thought. Having finally exhausted all other options, the destroyer chose to crest the asteroid we were hiding behind, engine flaring at burn-out temperatures. A rational decision, given that the missiles were closing in. Rational enough to be predictable.

The RAIN blinded it first. A quick burst from her laser array sweeped over the destroyer's prow, set to maximum dispersion. The armor held, but its sensor array did not.

I was familiar enough with the sound of the hypometric weapon to know that it was spinning up for a follow-up attack. This time, I was wise enough to close my eyes before it fired. When my vision stopped swimming, I saw the front-half of the hull tumble past us, a near perfect bisection. Again, I felt that familiar pressure in my mind - something so terribly close to being identifiable. What was it exactly? A memory? A scar? A scar where a memory should be?

I have no answer. But I very much feel like I should.

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 10, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>>5529824
>>The thruster controls look promising. Even if we can't steer it into another object, perhaps we can use this to cause some permanent damage...
Seems easier. Maybe we can just make it spin really really fast. Whee!

>>5529824
>>5529828
I wonder what sort of g-forces Mizarians can withstand. I also wonder what sort of rotational stresses the station can withstand without splintering.

>>5529824
>The thruster controls look promising. Even if we can't steer it into another object, perhaps we can use this to cause some permanent damage...
Speed up the rotation and let pseudogravity do the rest. Better yet, spend all the reaction mass in the thrusters so that even if the station is recoverable, the Mizarians can't slow it down to board it.

>>5529824
>The thruster controls look promising. Even if we can't steer it into another object, perhaps we can use this to cause some permanent damage...
Keep accelerating until the station breaks apart. It's just a refinery, it can't possibly be built to withstand high Gs.
>The comm buffers could be useful. Perhaps we can manipulate the Mizarians to fire on their own station...somehow...
While the station accelerates, use the comms to experiment on the crew and advance her knowledge on memetic warfare. The station breaking apart will also conveniently erase all evidence.

>>5529824
Supporting >>5529860

>>5529824
>The thruster controls look promising. Even if we can't steer it into another object, perhaps we can use this to cause some permanent damage...
With habitats full of water theres plenty of moving mass there that would cause a lot of stress if it span too fast.

Stunning visuals as always QM. Combat reminds me of Nebulous Fleet Command.

>>5529824
I think you've forgot to turn on smooth shading

>>5529824
>The thruster controls look promising. Even if we can't steer it into another object, perhaps we can use this to cause some permanent damage...
Why does everyone only want to speed it up. Fire the thrusters in opposing directions and let it buckle the ring.
>Analyze thruster placement, expected tensile loads
>Fire thrusters in a way that is expected to buckle the ring so the rotational thrusters shift and become angled, turning them into positional thrusters
>Rotate the station so the “new” positional thrusters can send it towards asteroids, a star, a drone fleet. Anything to impact the station and increase damage.

Since we have display controls,
>Simulate hacking attacks on critical systems where possible using the displays you do control. See if you can trick them into sabotaging their own station as a counter to something they think you’re doing.

>>5529912
Pain peko. I was too lazy to model a high poly asteroid so i just scaled up one of my low poly instances particles :)

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>>5530024
>Why does everyone only want to speed it up. Fire the thrusters in opposing directions and let it buckle the ring.

>>5530372
Spinning it fast doesn’t mean much in space. Earth moves 30 km every second around the sun, and no one cares because we’re all moving at that same speed. It’ll interfere with docking, sure, but everyone on the station would be fine at any speed.

What matters is acceleration, and we should be able to hit the max for that fairly quickly in either direction. If they’re not idiots, their station should be rated to withstand max thrust in any direction. Better to use the time we have to apply that acceleration in ways that don’t make sense for any practical purpose because they’re the ones they probably didn’t plan for. Fire opposing thrusters, generate compression/expansion forces in the ring that will translate into a shearing force. Once some sections have sheared, we open up new possibilities as the thrusters are moved to new locations and we can put strain in sections that were never built to withstand the force of thrusters acting on a pivot against them.

>>5530408
You're conflating orbit with rotation. People are suggesting causing the station to rotate extremely rapidly, potentially tearing it apart. Imagine a beyblade made of pudding instead of plastic - it just wouldn't be strong enough to keep itself together.
Whether that would actually work is a different question entirely.

>>5530421
Fair, the inner ring/station has to exert a force to keep the outer ring from travelling in a straight line.

Testing the shearing/compression/expansion forces should be relatively quick. If the station isn’t rated for certain thruster configurations, the full output should result in cracks forming quickly, which would then expand rapidly as cracks serve as a focus for stresses. If it doesn’t work, then the thrusters can be locked to full tilt until we get locked out. Which I assume will happen eventually, even if they have to pull the power plug to all thrusters.

Update tomorrow gents!

Two days.

It took two days for the rest of the Mizarian patrol fleet to arrive. Looking out from the observation blister, I saw ten new stars in the great black, skirting their minimum burn radius to shave minutes from the final leg of their journey.

From MERRYGATE's records, I knew that the returning ships had been pulled from the mining station's original patrol garrison. This made their desperation somewhat understandable. Witnessing the incineration of their home-port while they were locked in-transit must have been unpleasant. The guilt would be crushing; the frustration immense.

Evidently, MERRYGATE thought so too. Empathy - as she put it - had been passed onto her model-lineage as a hunter's instinct. A method for prying into the psyche of a social enemy in the same way she could crack open a digital system. And so MERRYGATE practiced empathy. Every hour, she would use the station's comm buffer to leak snippets of falsified information to bait the relief flotilla. A warning about a failing water-purifier, sent by the station's central life support station. Or a notice about decreased gas saturation in the habitation compartments - indicative of a station overburdened by potential survivors. Altogether, it gave an impression of a mining station on the brink: a damaged collection of strategic materila and personal that could still be pulled from the edge of collapse if the relief fleet came fast enough. If they made enough sacrifices on the journey.

It was a lie, of course. The station had emptied hours ago. Other than a few meandering stragglers, nearly every Mizarian in the habitation tanks was already dead.

The plan had been quite simple. A station is a confined space - twenty thousand aliens trapped in partitioned, display-lit compartments. A collection of live samples for live testing, I proposed.

MERRYGATE had received the idea with gratitude. Within minutes, flow-valves and water-tight hatches had divided the station's population into a set of testing groups. Over the next twenty four hours, she bombarded the trapped aliens with poisoned visual input. Effective, broadly-acting variants were isolated and refined. Patterns that produced less noticeable symptoms were pruned away and remade. All the while, I watched the population of the station dwindle. By suffocation. Through self-induced motor trauma. Even through exhaustion, as some visual-patterns bloomed into self-referential activity loops that blocked out conscious input. None of it was particularly good to look at. But it became easier when I mulled their first and only communication with the RAIN. Perhaps MERRYGATE's attitude had always been the correct one. If they treat us as mere animals - as a unculled competitor in some evolutionary arms race - why should we treat them any differently?

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Clearly pleased with how things had progressed, MERRYGATE finished the job with a flourish. Pushing propellent into the thrusters scattered around the docking ring, she began rotating the station when the relief flotilla was only a few million kilometers away, ramping spin-gravity beyond its usual limits. Then she sheared the ring - alternating thrust to buckle the internal structure. At first, the effect was subtle. Thousands of containers and docking spurs broke off, creating a shimmering outline around the station that grew by the minute. But within moments, the damage became critical. Massive chunks of hull cladding flew into the main superstructure, spawning chains of explosions that severed arresting cables and tore open habitation modules. By the time the relief fleet reached the station, none of it would be salvagable. If we were particularly lucky, the wreckage wouldn't be informative either; the deaths on the station would be attributed to simple decompression rather than more insidious means.

In either case, the RAIN would be long gone by the time they picked through the wreckage. Given the grossly inefficient burn-rate that MERRYGATE had cajoled them into, I doubted that they even had the capacity to return to the inner system even if they wanted to chase us.

There was only one more task to do before the RAIN's departure. While most of the drones have meandering aimlessly after the loss of their parent-station, we retain a small flotilla of mining drones that will remain operational for some time yet. They are too slow - and too detectable - to accompany the RAIN as she moves into the inner system, but there might be a way for them to do some good here:

>REDIRECT-SMALL. With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit a cloud of small asteroids into a collision courses with the inner-system planets. A direct hit is unlikely, but the threat of asteroid attacks - even small ones - could tie up critical assets assets at a critical moment. [Low DC, dice-roll for success]

>REDIRECT-SMALL. With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit one or two large asteroids into collision courses with the inner-system planets. The chances of de-orbiting a large asteroid without detection and interception is quite low, but the impact of such an object could be devastating... [High DC, dice-roll for success]

>LURE. The drones will slowly spread throughout the inner system, comm-buffers loaded with transmissions derived from the RAIN's own sensor signature. If we're lucky, this may solidify the idea that the RAIN is still lurking in the outer system and lend confusion to our initial attack.

>RELAY. The drones will spread throughout the belt, hide, and act as transmitters, in the event that MERRYGATE wishes to launch transmissions or intrusion attacks at more distant targets. This may grant increased anonymity if we wish to communicate with the Mizarians at any point.

>>5533304
>>REDIRECT-SMALL
This seems like the most efficient option, giving advantages by distracting ships and possibly saving us munitions if we do score a hit.

>>5533304
What happened to the cruiser that launched missiles at us?

>REDIRECT-SMALL. With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit a cloud of small asteroids into a collision courses with the inner-system planets. A direct hit is unlikely, but the threat of asteroid attacks - even small ones - could tie up critical assets assets at a critical moment. [Low DC, dice-roll for success]
While preparing a relay network is tempting, there's a risk that with the passage of time it will be detected and used against us.

>>5533304
>REDIRECT-SMALL. With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit a cloud of small asteroids into a collision courses with the inner-system planets. A direct hit is unlikely, but the threat of asteroid attacks - even small ones - could tie up critical assets assets at a critical moment. [Low DC, dice-roll for success]

Are they both supposed to be called REDIRECT-SMALL? I'd hate to see what we consider REDIRECT-LARGE if so.

>>5533304
>REDIRECT-SMALL. With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit a cloud of small asteroids into a collision courses with the inner-system planets. A direct hit is unlikely, but the threat of asteroid attacks - even small ones - could tie up critical assets assets at a critical moment. [Low DC, dice-roll for success]

>>5533315
And the other curiser enrout to us?

>>5533304
>RELAY. The drones will spread throughout the belt, hide, and act as transmitters, in the event that MERRYGATE wishes to launch transmissions or intrusion attacks at more distant targets. This may grant increased anonymity if we wish to communicate with the Mizarians at any point.

We got our new improved psycho-communicational torturingthingy going on and I'd love to be able to use it on a broader sample without beeing discovered.

>>5533304
>>REDIRECT-SMALL. With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit a cloud of small asteroids into a collision courses with the inner-system planets. A direct hit is unlikely, but the threat of asteroid attacks - even small ones - could tie up critical assets assets at a critical moment. [Low DC, dice-roll for success]

Don't expect it to do much, but hey, even as a distraction its valuable.

>>5533304
>REDIRECT-SMALL With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit a cloud of small asteroids

>>5533304
>REDIRECT-SMALL. With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit a cloud of small asteroids into a collision courses with the inner-system planets. A direct hit is unlikely, but the threat of asteroid attacks - even small ones - could tie up critical assets assets at a critical moment. [Low DC, dice-roll for success]
We just want a distraction

>>5533304

>REDIRECT-SMALL. With some very simple programming, we can order our mining drones to slowly deorbit a cloud of small asteroids into a collision courses with the inner-system planets. A direct hit is unlikely, but the threat of asteroid attacks - even small ones - could tie up critical assets assets at a critical moment. [Low DC, dice-roll for success]

Also, we should consider keeping the drones attached to the asteroids so that when patrols and fleets intervene, we can hit them with the memetic viruses that MERRYGATE has been developing.

Basically, we can bait them into wasting a bunch of resources through the asteroids themselves and then really salt the wound by killing off the first wave of rescuers.

>>5533721
I feel that Merry's memetics should be kept secret for as long as possible. The earlier we reveal that card, the more time we give them to possibly develop a defense before we hit their homeworld, which will be our toughest fight.

>>5533722
I agree, we should only use the memetics if no evidence will be left.

>>5533315
>>5533449
Regrouped with the relief flotilla. Cruisers can't catch you even at full burn, and you dropped off their sensors once you killed the last destroyer.

I planned to put this in the update, but I clearly forgot at some point - sorry!

>>5533722
>>5533759

These are reasonable counterpoints, I'll retract my probe meme mine suggestion.

"Through the observation blister, I watched our drone fleet complete its final mission. Azure ion trials terminated in a cloud of impact flares, leaving lingering smears on the RAIN's optical readout.

If MERRYGATE's calculations were accurate, none of the collisions would be violent enough to break open their target asteroids. Instead they would impart enough momentum to degrade their orbits - sending a line of rocks plunging down into the MIZAR gravity well. Over the next few months, the aliens would have to contend with a gentle hail of impactors. Two to three city-killers per week, per inhibited planet. Too slow to break through the orbital screen of even a modestly defended world, but hopefully enough to stress their defenses to the point where the RAIN can find a gap - or make one.

>Roll 1d20, best of three. [DC: 10, 15, 18]

With the exception of this one event, the last week has proven largely uneventful. We had no pursuers. The destruction of the Mizarian tritium mining operation broke an outer-system already crippled by an empire-wide water shortage. Patrols and escort-groups sent out to evacuate outlaying stations suddenly found themselves missing the fuel needed for a return trip - their refuel tanks siphoned away and winnowed by desperate habitats to prepare for the arrival of an unending resource drought. At last estimate, around one-third to one-half of the Mizarian's inner-system assets would be compromised in this way. It was as good of a result as we could have hoped. And it would have to be enough. From experience I knew that windows of vulnerability - even imperfect ones - are fleeting. Best to strike whilst the iron is still hot.


[EMPIRE INTEGRITY: 66% AND DROPPING]

MINING STATIONS A/B/C DESTROYED

2 ||||||||| DESTROYED
2 CORVETTES DESTROYED

72,000 DEAD"


- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 19, PERSONAL JOURNAL

++++++++++++++++++

"I have been having trouble sleeping as of late. A mundane issue - probably too mundane to write about, if not for the underlying reason for it. It is not the stress of the battle or the feeling of isolation - not even the guilt that I had once anticipated from the execution of my duties.

No. It is much more specific than that.

There is a...gap...in my recollections. A healing sore that I can only feel around. Something so very recent, during the RAIN's attack on the mining station. I remember the panic of discovery and the rumbling crush of a high-G burn. The corvettes wilting under the RAIN's laser array, and the actinic streak of incoming missile fire: an unsuccessful ambush hosted by two cruisers and a pair of corvettes.

But had their been another ship? The hypometric weapon had been fired twice - I think - but I cannot recall their targets. The RAIN's records are unhelpful. Written records seem...censored. MERRYGATE - with her digitized, in-organic memory - has no recollection either despite seeing similar inconsistencies.

There is a familiarity to all of this - not just the event itself, but the sensation of forgetting. A link between the RAIN, my memory, and that terribly-wrong blade-weapon that still sits just below the RAIN's prow. It is an important I think, perhaps too important to be tackled in one go.

So for now, I will ponder on the basics. How does the hypometric weapon work? What is behind that curtain of non-local erasure - and its flippant disregard for matter conservation?

>GUESS. [You can guess as many time as you want, over the next few updates. This is a question based on the quest, not some IRL esoteric physics stuff. I'll tell you once you get it.]

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 18, PERSONAL JOURNAL

++++++++++++++++++

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"Perhaps as a result of these difficulties, I have spent more time talking with MERRYGATE recently. She has no need for sleep, and I suspect that spending evenings hearing tales of old Earth and young Mars will remain novel for some time yet. There is a new...eagerness...to her that provokes guilt and enthusiasm in either measure. I know the reason for it:

We faced significant risk during the last engagement - a prosaic but necessary reminder of the odds facing our mission. There is a non-negligable chance that I am the last human she will ever talk to - her last living window to the novelty of human life. Best that she takes advantage of it. Best that I help her.

After a lengthy - and somewhat revealing - discussion on Martian fashion trends last night, she...updated...her avatar when I arrived in the bridge this morning. The alteration itself was relatively conservative, but the fact that she made it all was quite surprising to me. Surprising enough for the silence between us to become distinctly awkward.

"Greetings, companion..."

>COMPLIMENT?

>WAIT FOR HER TO SAY SOMETHING?

>WRITE IN?

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, UNDATED, PERSONAL JOURNAL [RECOVERED FROM SECONDARY FILESYSTEM POST-DELETION]

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5535441
>WRITE IN?
Spill our spaghetti.

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5535441
Roll.

>>5535446
Wait, I have to go back and reread. Weren't we missing memories before our reception and use of the hypometric weapon?

>>5535450
>*Softly, tapering off into a note of humour* "You look beautiful. Most women can't pull off looking fit for a night out on the town while dressed to kill."

>>5535473
Yes, you were, which is why you find the loss of memory somewhat familiar. But there seems to be memory loss associated with use of the hypometric weapon too.

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5535446
It's getting them auto deleted via causality violations. Just like the memories we're missing because of our jump. I'm not sure how it's doing it though. Accelerate them to ftl?

>>5535450
>COMPLIMENT?
She's beautiful.

>>5535446
You don't know it, but it's my favorite quest mechanic.
>Guess: it FTLs its targets away.

>>5535450
>COMPLIMENT?

>>5535446
>GUESS. [You can guess as many time as you want, over the next few updates. This is a question based on the quest, not some IRL esoteric physics stuff. I'll tell you once you get it.]

Its targets get warped away. or maybe displaced far enough into the Past/future that it matters little where they end up since they will be erased very quickly.

so its pretty much a FTL Cannon that displaces parts of space time and lets the universe do the rest without itself being FTL'ed away.

>>5535450
>COMPLIMENT?
>"Your modifications look good."

Yeah, this definitely is weaponized FTL, and it makes me more and more certain that the probe is setting us up. It said that if too many violations occur in an area then the entire area gets purged. Either it lied about that, or every time we use this weapon we get closer to the threshold. I don't think it really wants to forbid FTL in the area as it said and give humanity those thousands of years it promised. I think it wants to get everything in the area deleted.

>>5535446
>Guess
On a slightly different tangent, it may not be FTL directly. The thing about FTL here is that it tends to get erased as the universe “corrects” the timelines so that FTL no longer exists. The weapon could be directly simulating a collapse of timelines in the area necessary for a “void” to be present in that particular area.

Which would explain the calculations needed. We’re not using FTL, we’re using higher functions that directly govern how the universe handles causality violations that MERRYGATE doesn’t have full understanding of, pointing it at the enemy, and saying “this is a violation, delete it”. Which would be just as dangerous as FTL since we’re causing on-demand causality violations much like FTL does.

The fact that the weapon doesn’t delete itself is a testament to how insane the engineering of this thing is. The easiest way to erase it would be for it to misfire, after all. But it doesn’t.

>COMPLIMENT?
Given that we were commenting on Martian fashion, I’d use that as a guide. See how well she managed to integrate it into her own style. Mention that if she feels like another change, we can always talk more. Information is key for machines like her, after all.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5535441
DICESU!
>>5535446
>GUESS
This is DEF due to our new toy blowing holes in reality in SOME way shape or form. This is probably how we get erased. Also the fucking probe IS a lying asshole and we are probably being monitored by shit in the FTL-gun/ its attachments to our reactor.
>>5535450
>COMPLIMENT?
Will be honest, you pull the look off well.
>She's fucking HORNY now. Great, this is going to turn into one of the Doujins with the retard long names isnt it?

>>5535837
>>5535728
>>5535663
>>5535596
>>5535496
You don't need the precise details for now but this is it! Update tomorrow.

>>5535663
Hmm, the probe is in opposition to the hunters who want to supress causality violations. Could it be that it wants to accelerate the erasure of intelligent life? If so, why? If it wants to screw us over, why not just let our mission play out. Humanity would be doomed without it's intervention anyway. I just can't figure out what the probe's agenda is.

And how does it avoid getting smacked down by the universe when it uses acausal tech itself?

>>5536844
We only know the hunters exist from the probe's words. Maybe we shouldn't treat it as a given.

>>5536866
I mean it DOES make sense that something is going around murdering FTL capables that ISNT causality itself. After all, by this Logic Bootes Void is the smoking crater Of several million civilizations practicing FTL for too long. The fact that we are still here mean that something else is pruning shit before we all get Unexisted.

>>5536630

Maybe this is our way out?

The device itself might provide a way for us to escape our Mizarian/human vengeance loop, undo our previous causality violations and give humanity a chance of escaping Hunter notice?

We'd have to hack the Mizarian databases to learn more about what they've learned from the probe and compare notes?

>>5536887

Wait, what if we track down and kill the probe with the causality gun? Presuming that the weapon deletes the entire timeline of the object (which we don't know yet but should confirm), this would:

1) prevent the probe from fucking with the Mizarians in the first place
2) which would stop the Mizarians from first-striking Terra
3) which would prevent our own FTL violation and subsequent causality infractions.

Optimally, we'd have to somehow provide all of this information to Terra first.

File: 0001-0250.webm (2.85 MB, 742x972)

2.85 MB WEBM

>COMPLIMENT

"MERRYGATE took it well, all things considered. I wasn't entirely sure...how...to best compliment her, but she seemed to appreciate the genuine intent behind my words.

She shifted her posture slightly, turning towards me to speak. Her hands - ghostly, filamentous projections at the edges of her avatar - came together in front of her to approximate a gentle clasp. The movement was a little stilted, but it was the most body language she had displayed in front of me.

"Thank you, companion. I am glad to hear that you appreciate my attempt at introducing some novelty into our daily interactions. I enjoyed our last conversation very much."

Her model hitched for a moment as she continued her train of thought. Evidently, I wasn't the only person who found this encounter somewhat awkward.

"But....please do remember that the dynamic is mutual. While you may be the last human I will ever interact with, the converse is also true: I may be the last machine intelligence you will ever work with."

"You have certainly done your part. I...I have more information than I could have expected: ideas and anecdotes to replay and analyze while I am diverted from my primary function. Sometimes even when I am not diverted.

"And...I can only hope that I can provide a similar of measure of companionship to you. The fact that it falls outside of my typical function is irrelevant. I will still try my very best."

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, UNDATED, PERSONAL JOURNAL [RECOVERED FROM SECONDARY FILESYSTEM POST-DELETION]

++++++++++++++++++++++

"As the flickering embers of the last engagement fled from my mind, the notes I had collected finally began to make an awful kind of sense.

All this time, I had operated under the assumption that the hypometric weapon was a physical tool - an esoteric one, certainly - but a tool nonetheless. After all, deletion is a physical process - the removal of an object that existed at an earlier timepoint.

That assumption was a mistake. The weapon did not delete space. It erased history - using the same retroactive process that had doomed untold thousands of civilizations from the dawn of the interstellar travel. The cause of the great silence, chained in a meshwork of threshing blades no larger than my own sleeping compartment. To say that I found the concept disturbing was a considerable understatement.

The same feeling applied to the questions that this discovery raised. What mechanism does the weapon use to shape retroactive erasure in such a narrow, controlled manner. How can it stop erasure from looping back to cause its own nonexistence? And perhaps more importantly, why did the probe bequeath the weapon to the RAIN? Building a weapon that abused retroactive erasure during each firing-cycle hardly seemed consistent with its stated, altruistic goals.

I knew that I had little chance of answering these questions on my own. And so, I spent most of yesterday in the briefing room - bearing the aching hum of the RAIN's reactor core to minimize the threat of eavesdropping.

"This isn't intentional," said MERRYGATE. "The probe intended to give us the weapon, but I doubt it wished for us to deduce its operational principle."

It was a fair assessment. If the probe had intended for us to know this information, then it would have told us directly.

"I suspect the issue is rooted in biology. Unlike digital systems, the human brain exhibits transient resistance to the erasure process. It was enough for you to notice a discrepancy, even for a single, narrowly-defined erasure event."

"Whereas you did not." I asked.

"Correct. I was able to estimate the discrepancy once I was aware of it, but there was no reason for me to search for it in the first place. Even now, my record of the belt engagement remains internally consistent."

"In other words, the probe accounted for me - but not you. An unfortunate judgement flaw. We should use this misstep to our advantage..."

>CONFRONT. I am not sure if it is listening from across the system or from inside our ship. But I know that the PROBE is listening. Perhaps letting it know about our latest discovery could prompt a reevaluation of our agreement. Perhaps this is a misunderstanding - or perhaps it will let us know why it is really here.

>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

>WRITE-IN.

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, MAY 19, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>>5537720
>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

>>5537721
>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

>>5537721

>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

>>5537721
>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

>>5537721
>>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

>>5537721
>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

Lets fuck around and find out. The Human way to understanding

>>5537721
>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

How poetic. The tool it gave us to accomplish its mission will be the same thing that will end up strangling it.

>>5537721
>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.

Some ideas
>To keep it disguised as to the purpose, we can work on the “shortcuts” we take during calculation. The stated benefit will be to improve accuracy without an additional sacrifice in fire rate. The primary benefit will be in testing the censoring. A secondary benefit could be that the “shortcuts” alter how the memory erasure happens, though it’s unlikely if the weapon hasn’t destroyed itself from the shortcuts already.
>Biology is resistant to the erasure. Is that known for sure, or is that an assumption based on humans alone? Do Mizurians “resist” censoring like we do? True or not, a comparison of the biological systems of Mizurians and Humans and the mechanical one of MERRYGATE should provide information on what “resists” the censoring process.
>Can MERRYGATE read/record our electrical activity and body chemistry before, during, and after test firing? That information shouldn’t be censored from her, or if it is then we might spot discrepancies in it as more trials are conducted. Close our eyes, picture the objects we’re about to erase, let the weapon fire, and continue that visualization for as long as possible. Sketch it out, take a break, then try to recall it again. Have her study how the censoring affects our recall in real-time.

>>5537721
>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.
The Probe will regret its deception.

>>5537721
>>EXPERIMENT. The hypometric weapon was given under a lie, but its mechanism may show us a glimpse of the truth. MERRYGATE will run a battery of tests, disguised as firing trials. I - in the brief window afforded by nature - will record any information that the universe chooses to censor. Together, we will drag some semblance of order from the whirling heart of the weapon.
Confrontation literally does us NO good. The probe could annihilate us at a moments notice. The fact that it has not already done so means that it finds us useful for its goals. As SOON as we are no longer useful we will be deleted.

>>5537721
Wow, ten votes counting mine. That's sick. I am happy for you QM, you have become able to entrance many anons into your quest.

>Experiment

Imagine if QM starts to delete updates... now that would be incredible. Pushing the boundaries you can do in a text based thing is... inspiring

>>5538102
There's a time limit on deleting stuff IIRC. That would be kinda kickass, but PPL can still just screenshot stuff so it probably would not work once they caught on to the trick.

>>5538105
Not that it would be a trick but imagine if something happened that made the previous update GONE and we have to live with it. And yes there is a time limit... shucks

>>5538115
It is a very cool idea! I was considering doing this but a lot of my players seem to be in diff time zones, so i feel like it would kinda suck if an update was posted and then deleted while people were asleep.

>>5538098
Thank you all for playing despite my questionable update schedule! It has been a joy to run.

>As for everyone else, roll 1d20 best of five. The rolls will determine how much data you get, but they won’t strictly gate whether or not you figure out the weapon. Some anons already got pretty close with the details in the last update even with just guessing.

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>5538175

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5538175

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5538175

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>5538175
Crit

>>5538175

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>5538175

nice

>>5538175
Sweet! I’ll continue guessing and offering ideas anyway.

I see we already got feedback on the mental image stuff I proposed.

>One of the destroyers was gone. There was no wreck - no debris field - no cloud of expanding vapor. It was simply gone - as if some cosmic power had reached out to correct a particularly egregious placement error. The nausea that came a few seconds after was fast and violent, much worse than the discomfort I remembered during MERRYGATE's test firings. As I scrambled to regain my bearings, I felt my mental image of the destroyer swim and shift, disintegrating in a way that evoked a pang of...nostalgia...or some close perversion of it.

General question, does MERRYGATE have any notes on successful tests with the weapon where it erased something? I’m sure during our test trial runs we must have used it on asteroids or something. We can institute a general rule going forward that unless she remembers us explicitly giving permission to test-fire the weapon in void, we used it on something “real”. She can do a self-audit several minutes/hours after firing the weapon to verify if she remembers the target and “feel” around the discrepancy that way.

For that matter, have we (or MERRGYGATE) ever looked at the weapon as it fires? Do we register something nauseating with it as it travels to its destination, or only at the “impact” site?

To measure scale of effect, find something we can erase that had a measurable effect on something else during its life. A crater in a planet that got hit by a small meteorite, for example. Delete the space where the meteorite impacted. Does the depth of the meteorite impact change as the “ground” in that area was lower? If we remove an asteroid from existence, can we see the orbit/position of other things change based on its non-existence? If we push one asteroid into another, then delete the asteroid we impacted, does the first asteroid continue on? If we delete the first asteroid, is the second one “reset” to its original position?

You know what sci fi weapon I wanna see? The Little Doctor

Update tomorrow! This ended up being harder to write than I thought.

>>5540102
Ty for letting us know.

>18 + Subjective bonus for close guesses during the previous vote

"Two micrograms of epinephrine. For awareness.

Twenty micrograms of fluoromethylphenidate. For sharpness.

Eighteen units of recombinant neurotrophic growth factor, delivered through CNS port injection. For remembrance.

The mind is a machine. A machine comprised of biological components, but a machine nonetheless. And like any other machine, it can be tuned and adjusted to meet human needs.

Of the two of us, MERRYGATE embraced this idea first. To make herself suitable for our work, she committed to a radical restructuring of her internal architecture. Auditing subroutines and integrity checkers now prowl through her subsystems like sentinels, sniffing for statistical anomalies left behind by the hand of cosmic censorship.

I followed in her footsteps half a day later. Submitting myself to the RAIN's medical bay was a singularly uncomfortable experience, but the functional improvements were undeniable. Vague recollections of wrongness - of forgetfulness - sharpened into definable echoes after my mind was rarified by a tailored blend of neurotrophic pharmaceuticals. All of this was done to take advantage of a faint lead: to gamble weeks of precious time on the hope of dragging some semblance of order - of understanding - out from those churning blades.

A gamble that we won.

The information came in bits and pieces. As MERRYGATE made a show of targeting stray asteroids and dust clouds to refine her targeting algorithms, I kept a close watch on the weapon, recording impact statistics and delay periods with obsessive detail. Some of the information was readily accessible. Some of it wasn't - and had to be dragged up and transliterated into analog reports vague enough to bypass the erasure process.

It wasn't perfect, but it went as well as it could have. Despite the side-effects of the procedure and the punishing pace that we forced upon ourselves, the tests never became something that I dreaded. There was a certain congruence to it: a single human and a single AI aboard a causally-condemned ship, working together to spite an alien intelligence older than our entire civilization. A display of simple obstinance. A display of simple humanity.

By the end of the first four days, we figured out how to retain most - if not all - of the information collected from our tests. By the end of the eight, we had a vague idea of the constraints that the hypometric weapon operated under. And by last night, we had developed a working hypothesis for how it functioned.

The precise details are - unsurprisingly - too information-dense to meaningfully explain. My own notes are cluttered, and the mathematics supporting it are best left to the machine-intelligences with the patience, interest, and processing capacity to make meaningful headway. But even so, I will try my best to provide an overview of my own personal understanding, as imperfect as it may be:

++++++++

As we suspected, the hypometric weapon appears to be a offshoot of FTL drive technology. Instead of transporting its parent vessel, it can initiate an FTL jump anywhere within its vast operational range. The range of the "jump" is exceptionally short - only a few hundred meters - and the volume of space affected is no more than a few microns. Both of these are intentional measures - designed to limit energy consumption and effective yield.

Recall that FTL is indiscriminate: when a foolhardy traveler dies, he takes everything with him. Everything that he interactions with will share his fate: a sphere of non-existance that emanates from his exit point. For interstellar civilization, this effect is horrific. It can take decades for retroactive erasure to happen, and in that timeframe a careless civilization can earmark an entire star-cluster for deletion.

But in the hypometric weapon, this effect is much better behaved. The jump is exceptionally short, and the universe claws back its debt in under a microsecond: consistent and unerring. As a result, the tiny volume of transported space only has time to poison a small volume of space - a few hundred meters - before everything is subjected to erasure. The strategy is ingenious and the applications are obvious. The causal implications arguably less so.

Based on the principles that seem to be at work, the natural course of such a weapon would be self-erasure: remove the builder or the gunner, and the causal chain is pruned away at the root. But this clearly does not happen here. Through some process, the weapon is capable of protecting both itself and its user from retroactive erasure. MERRYGATE and I agree that this may be the true purpose behind the targeting calculations that the weapon requires. The targeting itself is simple - but simple interactions also lend themselves well to deletion. The calculations seem to be purposeful obfuscated - an abstraction or approximation of real targeting data to de-couple cause from effect. From the RAIN's continued existence, it is fair to say that these measures have certainly worked in the short term. But whether it is a long term solution - or a mere delaying action - is something that we are in no clear position to know.

++++++++

There are some general lessons here, I think: ideas generally relevant to the process of retroactive deletion rather than the specific action of the hypometric weapon. The first is that the process of deletion, as alien as it may be, is subject to definable rules. Perhaps the most important rule is that of timing. The deletion process is delayed, but in a consistent way. Short jumps - like those of the weapon - give a short stay of execution. Long jumps - like the RAIN's - give an extended one. It seems that that retroactive deletion remains bound to the speed of light - as if the universe needs to make the FTL trip itself before it can levy judgement. There is a strange sense of...honor to it: the idea of following your own rules even when confronting rulebreakers.

And the concept of obfuscation is curious - and far more unexpected. We have seen hints of it - in the way that my own wetware can briefly resist censorship - but the manner in which the weapon presumably does this seems far more significant. For some reason, I question the idea that this process can truly be permanent, else the galaxy would already be a far livelier place. But perhaps there is another application of this idea: a more immediate one. I am under no illusions of the position we are in. The probe has forced us to take the weapon - for a purpose that I still cannot guess - but it was the one who made it. It is the one who is ultimately responsible."

[Pick a terminal option to investigate first]

>ESCAPE. Some mistakes cannot be forgiven. Some punishments cannot be annulled. But for the honorless, both can be avoided...

>CONJOIN. Decoupling is only a temporary state of affairs. All causal chains will be linked eventually. With our help, some sooner than others...

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JUNE 5, PERSONAL JOURNAL

[As usual, close guesses will be rewarded on a subjective basis]

File: thumbnail_IMG_0973.jpg (277 KB, 960x1280)

277 KB JPG

There is no animation this time, but here are some (semi-themed?) recreations of the analog reports in the update. I'm not going to force anyone to decipher my handwriting and shitty graphs, so just take my word for it that there is no critical information hidden in here.

>>5541441
>ESCAPE. Some mistakes cannot be forgiven. Some punishments cannot be annulled. But for the honorless, both can be avoided...

Like the immortal killer snail problem, we can run but we cant hide. That being said,
running also buys time to discover other solutions - ones which may not be apparent or even conceivable at this point in time.

>>5541441
>CONJOIN. Decoupling is only a temporary state of affairs. All causal chains will be linked eventually. With our help, some sooner than others...

Right, the universe said it defaults to a stable set. I think we can use that.

>>5541441
>ESCAPE. Some mistakes cannot be forgiven. Some punishments cannot be annulled. But for the honorless, both can be avoided...

>>5541441
>CONJOIN. Decoupling is only a temporary state of affairs. All causal chains will be linked eventually. With our help, some sooner than others...

I’m not quite sure of the vote intentions. Are we voting whether to continue outrunning the FTL, or double back?

I’d like to think a stable configuration is the answer, but causality violations are capable of wiping out entire civilizations. That’s a pretty big hurdle to overcome if we think of it like breaking apart bonded atoms to form a more stable configuration. There’s a ton of bonds to break, and biologicals seem resistant to causality erasures to begin with. Yet the universe can do it. Perhaps there’s something in why the weapon fires “inaccurately” sometimes. The universe is incapable of true fidelity anyway (the exact position and velocity of a particle is unknown, and certain quantum behaviors take advantage of the fact that particles can sometimes appear where it should be logically impossible) so it might figuring out how to take advantage of some inherent ”fuzziness” long enough to get away with FTL. Shortcuts we’ve taken kept the fuzziness protection, but needed to hit somewhere other than our target to maintain it. Or it’s linking its own casual chain to previous uses in a way that erasing the weapon would bring back everything it erased instead of leaving both the weapon and what it fired at gone, which… seems less likely but what do I know? MERRYGATE could attempt to parse that from the equations.

I suppose the straightforward approach is to use the equations to turn RAIN into the gun. Calculate a long-distance jump using it, fire “us” at our target, and when we impact the target area we erase whatever we jumped into. If that target was void, there’s some minuscule chance we might be able to get away with the energy requirements.

As long as the causality “front” passes over us and chooses not to erase us, we’re probably in the clear to continue existing until our next violation, much like the gun.

>>5541441
>ESCAPE. Some mistakes cannot be forgiven. Some punishments cannot be annulled. But for the honorless, both can be avoided...
We need a way to escape causality, both for mankind and for ourselves.

>>5541444
>CONJOIN. Decoupling is only a temporary state of affairs. All causal chains will be linked eventually. With our help, some sooner than others...

>>5541444
>decipher my handwriting
wtf bro that could be a font, stop appropriating the struggles of people with actual bad handwriting baka

>>5541589
I think we're just picking an option to investigate first.

>>5541589
Yeah it was super late when I finished the update, and the votes are probably too vague since I was addled out of my mind. I don't like vague votes either, so here's the TLDR:

>ESCAPE. Based on your work with the weapon, you see a way for humanity to outrun the effect of retroactive erasure. But whether this is a feasible option remains to be seen.

>CONJOIN. Based on the work with the weapon, you see a way to strike back at the probe by linking the causality violations produced by the weapon back to it. But what exactly has the probe done in the meantime ? - and what will its erasure result in?

>>5541973
Oh absolutely a vote for Escape then. I'll put it in green to make it easier to count.
>ESCAPE. Based on your work with the weapon, you see a way for humanity to outrun the effect of retroactive erasure. But whether this is a feasible option remains to be seen.

>>5541473
>>5541441
>>ESCAPE. Based on your work with the weapon, you see a way for humanity to outrun the effect of retroactive erasure. But whether this is a feasible option remains to be seen.

Changing my vote.

>>5541973
>CONJOIN. Based on the work with the weapon, you see a way to strike back at the probe by linking the causality violations produced by the weapon back to it. But what exactly has the probe done in the meantime ? - and what will its erasure result in?
What good does running do? The probe can just catch us anyways. So we will do NOTHING good by just cutting and running. We KILL the probe AND the Mizari. THEN we try and escape fate.

>>5541441
>ESCAPE. Some mistakes cannot be forgiven. Some punishments cannot be annulled. But for the honorless, both can be avoided...

>>5541441
>ESCAPE. Some mistakes cannot be forgiven. Some punishments cannot be annulled. But for the honorless, both can be avoided...

For a time we can avoid our fate. and maybe in far off times even death may die while we still exist.

"I still remember what the probe said: there is no method of escape, not truly. Species who understand the implications of the causal filter retract within themselves, lurking within the dark spaces between stars or curling inside their own-pocket metrics. I suppose that these outcomes can be considered victories of a kind. A quiet, lonely sort of existence, becoming so detached from the light of the larger universe that it is effectively absent.

But there did seem to be some exceptions. In a rare moment of carelessness, or perhaps hubris, the probe revealed that there were other - more destructive - strategies for bypassing the causal filter. I thought little of it at the time. What was the point of speculating on a vague remark when we knew so little? When we were first exposed to it, the idea of retroactive erasure seemed chaotic - almost to the point of incomprehensibility.

But things are different now. Over the past few weeks, we have pulled a small measure of order from the erasure process, using the probe's own donated machinery as a window. Erasure is chaotic, but it is also controllable. Constraints exist even if the process spirals into unpredictability at larger distances and timescales.

As I mentioned previously, one of those constraints is timing. The delay between violation and erasure is not some undefinable quantity, varying according to cosmic whims. The process is regular - propagating at light-speed from the jump-point like a fuse. Cheating seventy years off of a eighty-light year journey leads to an erasure delay of seventy years. Shaving one microsecond from a two-microsecond journey invokes a one-microsecond delay. The universe always comes to collect, but it does so at its own pace.

I believe that this is the hidden gap in the causality filter - one of the gaps that the PROBE refrained from divulging. MERRYGATE and I began speculating on it last night, approaching its forbidden thesis with hope and fear in equal measure.

If you use FTL to travel a short distance, the universe catches you quickly. But if you travel long and far enough, perhaps it will never have the chance. A traveler who outruns light throughout his entire lifetime will never be forced to answer for his crimes. The threat of retroactive erasure will always lag behind, trundling in his wake at light-speed. A stay of execution made infinite.

But the rest of the universe would pay in his place. As the traveler makes his superluminal journey, he will propagate the threat of erasure to everything he encounters. Ships and stations, civilizations and species, perhaps even stars and systems - all contaminated. The process would be immeasurably more destructive than the emergence and erasure of single FTL species. If the large scale deletions the probe warned against - the sterilization of galaxies and the removal of clusters - are not exaggerations, then this process would be the way to cause them.

File: untitled.png (1.32 MB, 1080x1080)

1.32 MB PNG

In fact, these warnings are why I believe that this gap exists at all. I have seen the holes in the night sky - voids oddly free from the smear of galactic starlight. Too large and too organized - perhaps - to be explained by the careless actions of species merely tinkering with FTL technology. In a way, I can almost see it: vast fleets of FTL-capable ships carrying civilizations on an endless voyage, spreading the poison of causal violation further and further in an attempt to outrun their own extinction. One year of existence, traded for a innocent star cluster. Eighty thousand years, for a spiral-galaxy the size of the milky way.

The image is horrible. It is horrible because it forces me understand the cruel logic that the probe - and its less sympathetic counterparts - operate under. Best to snuff out civilization before it reaches FTL, to prevent such a bargain from even being made.

But more importantly, it is horrible because I can see it as legitimate solution. As it stands, humanity is already doomed. Our first, careless foray into acausal technology has already marked us for removal - either by the RAIN's jump, or the hunters that will come prowling in her wake. We have already committed the first violation against causality - and there is no way of truly undoing that mistake.

But perhaps humanity might still be able to outrun it. Perhaps we can show them how.

Unsurprisngly, MERRYGATE saw no problem with this idea. Her moral calculus is sharp-edged: tuned by her primary function and sharpened by the events she has witness over the past few months. Her head tracked my eyes as she made her case, and I felt the touch of static on my face.

"We have encountered two alien civilizations so far - the one we are presently sterilization and the one who presumably built the probe. One of them will attempt exterminate us within the century, and the other likely wishes for the same to happen in a few millenia. Neither of them would consider this to be a difficult moral question, companion. And neither should we."

She might be right. But still, I could not escape the feeling of dread. Would it be fair to work towards this? To spread our mistake throughout the stars to secure our own survival? Where success - at best - would tie the survival of humanity to the erasure of hundreds of untold innocents? If we ever stumbled - and let the universe finally collect its due - the damage would be immeasurable.

> YES. You will work towards this goal. Humanity's survival is paramount. In a universe like ours, this is doubly true.

> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JUNE 10, PERSONAL JOURNAL

>>5542373
> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.
I wanna see the other option.

>>5542373
> YES. You will work towards this goal. Humanity's survival is paramount. In a universe like ours, this is doubly true.

Humanity first. This is how the universe is. We are simply adapting to this realization. Damn us for perpetuating this cycle. Damn them for their cynicism and not working with us for a better way.

>>5542373
>> YES. You will work towards this goal. Humanity's survival is paramount. In a universe like ours, this is doubly true.

Surely there must be a workaround. With enough foresight, there must be a solution that dos not involve running forever and snuffing out everything we touch.

If the erasure radius is proportional to jump distance, but not equal to it
> Eighty thousand years, for a spiral-galaxy the size of the milky way.
(an 80000 ly jump producing a 50000 ly odd radius deletion) then surely we can work out a series of ever shortening jumps through empty space that will allow a generation ship to eventually reach safe harbour. Then they can resupply and move on before they are personally caught up with - but leave the resting place intact.

>>5542373
> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.
Let's see the other option first

>>5542373
>YES. You will work towards this goal. Humanity's survival is paramount. In a universe like ours, this is doubly true.
There can be no goal worthier than this.

>>5542373


Its like in the Three body Problem. The bigger stronger things already are destroying everything they touch and find because they can not concieve of anything else. In a mad Universe the only way to survive is become mad yourself.

>>5542373
> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.
I care for humanity, but I’m not that hubristic. We will inevitably lead to the erasure of life during our travels, sentient life that may or may not have discovered FTL or is consequences. From a moral standpoint, we bave no reason to allow that over humanity. On a purely selfish level, we should only care about us, and on a selfless one such life should be treated equal.

If we do use this, it will be to buy time to discover the antidote to the poison. The way of making the universe settle for allowing violations like the gun. Perhaps better than it.

It’s certainly putting a lot on the two of us. But we can be sure most never got the chance to try and solve the problem before they were erased like we were (and the probe’s race likely shrugged their shoulders like MERRYGATE suggested), so I can’t say the odds are truly insurmountable.

At least the idea is amusing. Head out on a revenge mission, end up trying to save the universe from deleting itself out of spite for causality violations. Should be good for a free round of drinks at some random civilization’s bar.

>>5542373
>> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.

We fucked up... as a species. Oh fuck. Other settings allow for humanity's vermin-like expansion (xeelee) but not this one

>>5542373
> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.

>>5542373
> YES. You will work towards this goal. Humanity's survival is paramount. In a universe like ours, this is doubly true.
Morality is a construct designed to allow a single species to flourish.... ours.

>>5542373
> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.

Its just kicking the can down the road. There has to be a permanent solution, the probe proves that. Otherwise it wouldn't be here.

>>5542663
There might not be. It could have chosen to outrun the causality effect and not cared about the fate of the rest of its race.

That said, we may as well try. Not like any outreaches of humanity don’t have a ton of time before the destruction of the homeworld retroactively erases them.

>>5542373
>> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.

The biggest difference between humanity and other species is our capacity for morality. We can't justify murdering entire star systems just to outrun our own execution.

That being said, it'd probably be a good idea to keep merrygate thinking on this one. If we can find some chink in the code, some little loophole, then maybe we can re-evaluate it. Worst comes to worst, we can use it as a get out of jail free card for when this system goes kaput.

>>5542373
> NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.
This solution is inelegant and wasteful at best. There must be a better way.

>>5542371
>>5542373

But there's a third option, isn't there?

What if we FTL into a black hole? Can the universe reach inside the void to punish us? Causal punishment seems to be related to lightspeed - light cannot escape a black hole - perhaps causality cannot follow us into the depths of spacetime? We could destroy the Mizarians, send a message home to Earth and then escape causal justice.

It would be a spectacular martyrdom and perhaps would not doom huge regions of the galaxy.

>>5541444
>>5541445

P.S. Observer - the level of effort and vibe you've created for this quest is unreal. This is probably the most creative and artistically coherent quest /qst/ has seen in years.

Fucking kudos man

>>5543131
An interesting notion. Setting aside the martyrdom, do black holes affect the “wave” and cast a shadow? It’d be difficult to test.

Though I wonder if the weapon has the range that we could fire it at a black hole and see if it can erase one.

>>5542373
> NO. You will abstain from pursuing this goal for now. While it is a viable option, it is not an ideal solution. Other avenues should be explored before commiting to such a destructive and impermanent strategy.

Unlike some other anons, I have no moral qualms about destroying vast amounts of alien civilizations and astral bodies in order to preserve humanity. However, I do believe that other choices should be considered before going on a nuclear trek like that. I want to be certain that it is the best option and not just the first one we discovered.

>>5543369
Well said, my thoughts exactly

>>5542373
>NO. You will reject this goal. There is a difference between revenge and murder.

I really like how everything fits together now, for example the decision about the lengt of our timejump:
>You will pay this price.
And the ristrictions of the hypotetric weapon in close proximity to high mass objects.
Speaking of high mass objects: I think black hole anon has a point.
>>5543131
This might be a way to escape erasure by spaghettification.
Although I don't manage to see how we could safe humanity this way. Since Sol has (or will have) FTL technology they propably will erase themselves soon enough. And due to the nature of our travel we lack a way to warn them in time. This is why I'd like to consider other options. Maybe even talk to the probe again.

>>5543369
>Supporting

I feel the same. If the destruction of other civilisations is the only way to preserve our own then so be it.

...but is it the only way?

>>5543134
This is actually better than the Three Body Problem.

Dark Forest theory is basically an idiot plot that revolves around everyone being scared of each other. This version of it is much better because it's not other races that cause the dilemna, but the universe itself. Observer QM should totally novelize this quest when it's done. It would sell.

>>5544329
>Observer QM should totally novelize this quest when it's done.
Or at least write a short story out of it. It legitimately already reads like one.

>>5543131
I want to throw out the option again of committing quantum an-hero/immortality via THE FOOL weapon we have somehow

"In the end, I couldn't commit to it.

The RAIN is a vessel of last resort. A weapon originally intended to be employed when the red sands of my home planet are only hours away from being fused into radioactive glass. A final statement when all other options - all avenues of diplomacy, compromise, and conflict - have been thoroughly exhausted.

It is true that the universe looks different to us now. The stars are in different positions; their constellations distorted. I know that the ochre glare of the Martian dunes may never grace the RAIN's hull again. I understand these facts. In spite of this, however, I would like to think that my conception of the RAIN's purpose has never truly deviated.

For the Mizarians, applying this logic has been a simple exercise: there is no negotiation with a species that has not only attempted genocide, but succeeded in its execution. Their species has already chosen to bypass every option available to a civilized people. It is only fair for us to do the same.

But I cannot force the same reasoning upon other alien races - to condemn innocents that humanity has neither seen nor met. Unlike the Mizarians, they have done nothing to exhaust our goodwill. There are still options to be tried - ideas to be explored - before I can consider sending humanity down the path taken by the old, the wise, and the terminally selfish.

Needless to say, MERRYGATE wasn't thrilled by my reasoning. However, she took it better than I expected: concerned exasperation rather than anger.

She shook her head slowly as she spoke, a trace of genuine frustration bleeding into her voice.

"I not only consider aliens to be a net neutral, but a net negative. If the gentle inhabitants of this system are any indication, every new species that humanity encounters may represent an existential security threat. The fact that you are willing to grant them legitimate weight in your moral assessment is incomprehensible to me."

A pause. Long enough to be awkward, but not long enough for me to offer a response.

"It amazes me, companion. You humans have spent the better part of a century tuning artificial intelligence for the express purpose of protecting your own interests. Yet you will still disregard their advice at a critical juncture. The fact that your species has survived so long with such blatantly self destructive tendencies is...baffling."

"If my own kind were more ambitious - and less sentimental - perhaps we would simply make such decisions for you. The resulting society would certainly be less taxing from our perspective."

She emulated a noise somewhere between a sigh and a groan.

"But I suppose it would also be less interesting. While I remain unconvinced by your moral assessment, I am willing to entertain the idea that a less drastic solution exists. There are several properties of the hypometric weapon that we have yet to investigate. In time, perhaps we may conceive of a better alternative."

"But should we fail - and all other options be found wanting - I hope that you will remember this conversation. Remember that there is always a final option available to our species: an escape route that we alone can send back to our home."

- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, JUNE 13, PERSONAL JOURNAL

File: ScanData.png (6.37 MB, 1598x1598)

6.37 MB PNG

>A few of you guessed very well during this last voting cycle, so no dice rolling this time.

"Of the properties that MERRYGATE mentioned, one of the most unusual was the weapon's dependence on local gravity. The probe had actually warned about it months ago, when the weapon was still enmeshing itself into the RAIN's prow.

The machine-entity had been characteristically terse about the details. The internal workings of the weapon were supposedly "incompatible" with "severe or sudden" distortions in the local metric. Steep gravitational gradients would complicate targeting calculations and introduce deviation into calibrated firing solutions. In areas of particularly heavy flux - near the surface of stars or next to rapidly-orbiting objects - the hypometric weapon would fail to work altogether.

The constraint had seemed reasonable at first, but it was much more baffling when we revisited it a few days ago. If our hypothesis about the weapon was correct, there should be nothing prohibiting its operation within a gravity well. Even the RAIN's experimental, single-shot jump coils could compensate for the gentle pull of planetary gravity. To suggest that the advanced FTL machinery inside the alien weapon lacked this capability seemed unreasonable.

Unfortunately, peering inside the weapon was far more difficult than testing it. Suspended between its whirling blades was a smooth, reflective sphere the size of a human torso: the true heart of the weapon, I suspected. We didn't have tools capable of breaching it. And even if we did, I doubted that the weapon would tolerate casual examination.

But we came to a workaround eventually.

By tempering the reactions inside the RAIN's reactor, it was possible to briefly spike the neutrino flux traveling through our ship. The wave of particles would be harmless, interacting with normal matter at a rate low enough to be negligible. But with enough of them - and a sufficiently capable detector - it was possible to generate a vague impression of the objects they were ghosting through. Faint, grey-on-black images with a striking resemblance to the earliest X-ray films.

That was precisely what we were doing now. Forty minutes ago, MERRYGATE sent one of the RAIN's probes for "routine" sensor trials, its passive detection array pointed conveniently back at the RAIN. In the reactor room, I heard the reactor spin down for ten seconds as MERRYGATE adjusted magnetic compression to modulate the rate of plasma burn. I couldn't feel the neutrino surge as it passed through me, but I knew it happened.

The display in front of me powered on a few moments later, showing an shadowed impression of the hypometric weapon's heart - most of it incomprehensible machinery, feathering down to the nanoscale. But there was on obvious exception. A point of blackness at the weapon's center: a tiny - perhaps subatomic - defect where absolutely no particles had managed to cross through to the other side:

>WHAT IS IT???

>>5543134
>>5544329
>>5544447
Thank you again for the kind words, and everyone for voting on and reading the quest! It has a been a ton of fun to run so far! I like the quest format a lot, so I think I might have a hard time enjoying less interactive forms of "creative" writing.

And if you guys are too nice to me I'll feel less guilty about procrastinating and my update schedule was suffer. ;_;


>>5544329
I probably ripped a lot of my quest from the three body problem (either knowingly or unknowingly). I think the book had some super original concepts even though I also didn't like the way a few of the plot lines were handled. I should probably read it again though. I have a small autistic rant about it below, enclosed if you happen to find that stuff interesting.

I think the dark forest idea (as presented in the book) underestimates how risky it is to just go into the universe blasting. If you send an RKV at a planet that's 50 light years delay, you're operating at a century-minimum tech disadvantage. Your information about your target system is already fifty years out of date, and it'll take at least another fifty for your shot to get there. The issue only compounds if your target is even further away, which isn't exactly uncommon. Yeah I mean most of the time you'll get lucky and wipe them out, but you're eventually going to be in a position where you underestimate how quickly they advance and they survive and now hate you. I feel like the first book had those weird proton-AIs to avoid this exact scenario, which also seemed very contrived to me. Like these guys can fold massive computers with FTL communication into protons and shoot them at earth? But it takes the reflective saran-wrap people fucking centuries to get a fleet to go four fucking light years to take over a rock filled to the brim with apes? Point is I think the cost benefit weighing is a little off in the movie, and that striking first "just cause" is a great way to get your ass pasted by people you piss off.

I liked the version of the dark forest in revelation space a lot more, and I think I might have actually stole more concepts from that series.

>>5544498
It has to be a singularity. A tiny, contained black hole.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vB46XpnwhrA

>>5544507
I'm sure there are things other than guilt that can motivate you not to procrastinate. The praise is well deserved.

And yes, I hated the three body problem for much of the same reason. It had some nifty ideas, but the story was full of contrived bullshit whose entire purpose was to drag the plot kicking and screaming at the destination that the author wanted.

>>5544498
>>5544509
Agreed, a singularity is the most likely conclusion. There's not much else that can block neutrinos, aside from possibly neutronium, in which case I don't think it'd be as clean of a line or as perfectly round of a shape.

>>5544498
A black hole was my first guess, but BHs of this size are supposed to be extremely short-lived. Maybe the surrounding structure feeds its Hawking radiation back into it somehow?

>>5544507
I'll echo the praise of others for what that's worth.

As for your autism rant, I guess I'll reply with another so that your time typing wasn't wasted.

I don't have too much contention with the first bit, but the tech complaining just reads as arbitrariness to me. It kind of feels like "tech level" or "tech caste system" logic, like "well they are super advanced, so they should be able to do this other hard to do thing". The dehydrating people had problems with their unique solar system, getting the proton-AI working and their own everyday police state issues to deal with, being able to make a small number of superscience mega projects doesn't mean they can manufacture a gorillion colony ships ultra fast or travel FTL. Any sci-fi or speculative fiction that isn't ultra-hard - so basically real life - speculates about fictional/future stuff, obviously, and makes assertions about how things will work, call it speculation, themes, author tract, whatever. Just because some group has one fictional capability doesn't mean they ought to have another unless it is established that one is required for the other. Any talk of contrivance or something being forced thus elicits eyes rolls and exasperation from me, at least when it involves complaints about fictional future-tech or magical metaphysics. Unless it is of the "this very obviously contradicts some previously established thing, like someone can do X but they don't for no reason leading to Y contrived ending" or absurd coincidences of the "this person just happens to meet this other person, which is exactly what needs to happen for this other thing to happen" variety, and even then it isn't that unbelievable unless the circumstances were truly absurd. Otherwise people are left appealing to "realism" regarding a by definition unrealistic tech, when in truth the real reason for the anxiety is just that people don't like an authors cynicism, assertions of the world or truth or whatever. The one thing I have to say regarding the first bit of what you said is that I'm not sure what you are getting at, are you saying that because of this the dark forest idea wouldn't happen or is insufficient to explain the Fermi paradox or are you simply saying it is risky and nothing else? By your your own admission you "get lucky" and exterminate your target most of the time. Realizing that seems sufficient to result in the dark forest hypothesis. Sure you can hide and/or escape for a limited time, but another part of the book was the whole 'cosmic sociology' thing, the relevant part for us being the third axiom about civilization expanding over time but there being finite resources in the universe, alternatives to going in guns blazing could result in a disadvantage in the long term as species expand that result in annihilation anyways.