Signal Boost: Protocol D · 4:53am Jan 14th, 2015
Here's a story which has slipped under nearly everybody's radar:
Humanity is finally reaching out beyond the solar system in search of habitable planets. A disaster aboard the SSC Quasar causes the crew to abandon it, fleeing in the escape ships. Now, after years in stasis, the escape ships crash on an unknown world.
Lieutenant Cassandra Campbell's plans were simple: find the other crashed ships, search for survivors, and try to find a way to get a distress signal back to Earth in hopes of a rescue. Not long after her arrival, one of the consoles in her ship starts flashing ‘Protocol D’ in large, red letters. Now she has to figure out what it means, while trying to cooperate with the local citizens.
If you like sci-fi based pony/human first-contact stories, and language barriers, and political intrigue, and an unusual protagonist, you'll like this one. It's criminally underrated, in my opinion.
Go read it.
Also, the next chapter of OPP will be out this week, barring a massive internet outage on my end, or the zombie apocalypse.
I concur. Topaz's story is a good read (though I might be a little biased being a buddy and all!)
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I came across it quite by accident, and just got hooked. It's the kind of first-contact story I love the most.
Tell me more. I mean, she's a former popsiclenaut on a distant planet of friendly ponies, but how is she unusual compared to similar stories?
I mean, my RiL bar is pretty low, but I want to know what made this aspect stand out since it's the most intriguing of that list to me.
Do NOT tempt the god Murphy, for he is fickle and enjoys challenges.
Added it!
Female, which already isn't that common, and she's got an artificial leg and artificial eye. There are a couple more things, but I don't want to give too much away.
I guess, in a nutshell, if you liked Arrow 18, Misunderstandings, A Voice Among the Strangers, or even CSI/OPP, you'll probably like this one.
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Not nearly as common as it should be.
Yeah it's definately a good one. Managed to find it back when it first published, been watching and reading ever since.
It stands for Protocol D'awwwww.
Don't you dare joke about zombie apocalypsi! Or is it apocolypsus? Or apocalypodes?
You dismiss them now, but just you wait. They know what you're thinking... just waiting for you to let your guard down.
Also, good to hear about OPP. And I'll check that story out. After I get done playing myself in a zombie apocalypse RPG.
Don't jinx it.
Oh look, its on my RiL. Might as well bump it to the top, seeing how I tend to get to them a year and a half later.
I got dat protocol right here.
*zip*
Couldn't help myself.
Glad to see someone I follow to make a blog post about this story!
Just go read it!
(But i still have to read the last two chapter
)
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It's 'apocalypsepspseseses'.
Oh , wow. Thank you, Admiral Biscuit. I had no idea you liked it enough to promote it to your followers. I don't really know what else to say other than thank you again.
I started reading this on your recommendation and after 2 chapters I'm disappointed. :/
In first chapter characters behaved like idiots, in second; science and technobabble explanations sucked and the sheer f*** stupidity of "space rocks" deserves special mention in facepalm gallery.
I have had Protocol D on my read list for awhile. On your recommendation I bumped it to the top and read it over an evening.
It's good. Once I got past the flashback I couldn't walk away. Now all I can do it patiently wait for updates.
Same here - it's been in the Read It Later queue for weeks, dangit!
Oh, well, sleep is overrated, anyway...
2722727 I'm in the same boat, but I suffered it til the end. I must say though, that the clunkiness of the story and stupidity of the characters does smooth out as the story moves along, and it does get pretty interesting down the line. Believe me, I let the writer know what's wrong with it. As should you.
Most of the problems with it are bad. Bad enough that I would've dropped it like a bad joke at chapter 2, if the good Admiral hadn't gone out of his was to recommend it. But I have to say, if anything in that fic won me over, it was the portrayal of Celestia. She's my best pony, and to me, a very simple character to understand. But so many writers just fail miserably at her, and this one did a good job... so...
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I know, I know. That's why I didn't give a specific day.
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I've got one series with a female human, at least.
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If you know of any other good HiE first contact stories, let me know. I'm a sucker for the genre, and I know I haven't found them all. :derpytongue:
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I know the feel. 500 RiL, I don't know how many updates I'm behind on.
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Sleep is for the weak! Why, just this morning, I woke up with my cell-phone by my head, the latest chapter of Just Passing Through half-read.
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Glad to! When I see something I like, and which I assume my readers (who I presume like what I like) will like, I'm more than willing to promote it.
2725626 Yeah I'm a major sucker for the genre myself. That's what really drew me to CSI and OPP.
I've definitely seen all 3 categories around here, the good, the bad, and the "good lord my eyes are bleeding!"
There is one pops to mind that I don't see on your favorites shelf (well 2 but it's a continuation.)
What I've become It's still an ongoing story in the sequal but has an interesting twist to the cause of contact. At the moment it is just contact with 1 human but has potential to go full first contact at some point in the future of the story. It also has some language barrier elements as well.
If I think of others I'll drop a line. But looks like we've pretty much found a lot of the same ones so far
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Added to RiL. I've seen it before, but I haven't read it yet.
2725684 I thought he did a good job on that story. I am liking the sequel also.
2724279 I admit, after it being pointed out by several people, that I have made some... mistakes. Mistakes I didn't realize were as bad as they were until pointed out. Part of it I blame on my own writing ability. I don't seem to have conveyed my thoughts and ideas properly. I may, go back and do some tweaking in the future so its not as... cringeworthy in some spots. But, only if I can figure out a way to do it where it won't modify later chapters, or at least not modify anything major. Mostly, I think I messed up the ponies reasoning for why the MC might only be at the intelligence of say, Angel Bunny, at first. I have a few ideas on how I can, but not sure if they will work.
2725949 Well, I never claimed to be perfect, either.
I think you can gloss over a lot of problems with ease, without changing the storyline. The hardest problem to deal with, I'd say, is the whole intelligence misconception. I'd say have the ponies should start off leaning strongly towards the side of sapient creature, and then after Cassie wakes up (she already acts like an animal, unreasonable and shouting and throwing shit), then they all start to wonder, and gradually, ever so slightly, leaning towards the other direction. Just have some of them mention that she doesn't appear to speak any language. As it stands, she actually doesn't make any real attempts at communication (presumably because of her phobia), so it would be easy to see how the ponies might think she's a dumb animal. After she escapes the hospital, that entire issue stops being a 'thing' in the story anyway. At least, so far. It wouldn't really make any sense for ponies in direct social contact with Cassie, henceforth, to have any doubts about her being smart. If for no better reason than that Padlock would say so.
Reading the first chapter, I am not very impressed. Though I agree that the genre of first contact is an under-appreciated art, this particular story reads more like a speech than a tale. All the characters, even inside their thoughts, list everything they are about to do and go into dull details about their surroundings.
If there is a fic from this genre that I could choose, it would be Dark Nebula's "Lazarus: The Rise of Man"
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Oh? Have a bucket of 'em. I have an entire bookshelf for sci fi
Voidrunner
-A bit clunky, and some questionable actions by the crew, but the explosions are nice. Nice character interactions, too. Cheats with the whole language thing with an AI translator
Foal Necromancer
-Dead, not technically first contact, though it comes bloody close before it died. Twist: the human comes from DnD basically, and actually lower tech than the ponies
One Pony's curse....
-Sorta kinda first contact, since it hasn't actually happened yet. I'm also his personal fanboy and editor, so I take every chance I get at promoting him.
Retired to Equestria
-Dead because the author refuses to respond to his readers, despite my pleadings. Damien, the main character, is bloody hilarious though.
Voyage's End
-Implied first contact, at any rate. Hasn't gone further than "Hi"
Falling Stars
-Mechwarrior. Its ok.
Thessalonica Legacy
-One of the earliest sci fi's I read, and holds a special place in my heart. Also Mechwarrior, but less combat heavy.
Project Sunflower
-Just in case
First Contact is Magic
-Its Eakin.
Sufficiently Advanced
-Haven't actually lifted off from good ol' Earth, but I have access to his notes, and I promise it worth watching. Though I'm technically a fanboy.
Stardust
-Twilight meets XCOM
Outside the Reaching Sky
-Read this, dammit. One of the first space operas, and besides the questionable character development in the middle, it is still a satisfying read.
Arrow 18
-You have this. Right? Right?!