Chapter XVII
“Are you sure that you want to see to this personally, My Queen?” Gath asked hesitantly. “You have not yet fully recovered from your wounds, and I would not have you trot into harm's way,” the rather stocky changeling drone said.
“I am sure, Swarm Leader. This is the most important event in the history of The Hive, and more importantly, the history of the entire planet. Everything we have strode for, everything we have built, and every life we have hatched under these sands will be for naught if we cannot weather the coming storm,” Chrysalis said calmly.
“Yes, but what if these aliens and their pony allies try to seek vengeance on us for our attempted coup? Or what if they come for less honorably reasons than what they claim?” Gath pointed out. “At least allow me to meet them before they reach us, to ensure their peaceful intentions.”
Chrysalis didn't seem to hear him, though, and was instead lost in her own thoughts. “I had honestly tried to forget that this day would come,” she said wistfully. “My mother had warned me, not to mention that the great Matriarchs from the past had tried to warn me as well. I had ignored them, of course. I was tired of living in the shadows, scraping a thankless existence off of the scraps of other species. I suppose it is my punishment for my hubris that the prophecy is fulfilled during my reign.”
There was a profound silence that followed this pronouncement as Gath tried to make sense of his Queen's ramblings. However, before he could finish his contemplations, a loud roaring sound broke the silence, causing the assembled changelings to glance up in terror as a sleek, black pod shot through the air overhead. It hovered for a little bit above a nearby sand dune, then gently touched down, throwing up a dust storm around it.
“It is still not too late, they have not yet reached the oasis. We can still take them by surprise without them even setting foot on this sacred place,” Gath urged his Queen, baring his fangs as the strange craft's door opened.
“You will do no such thing. These visitors, and their pony allies, are not to be harmed,” Chrysalis snapped, her eyes glowing dangerously as she glared at the overzealous drone. “To harm them is to bring about my wrath, and need I remind you what happened to the drones that chose to rebel after the failed coup?”
Gath gulped awkwardly as he backed down. “I apologize, My Queen. I spoke out of turn, and for that I am prepared to face my punishment.”
“I have no desire to punish such a loyal warrior, just remember where to direct your wrath. These visitors are not our enemies, nor are the ponies, though they will not treat us like it after what happened at Canterlot,” Chrysalis said dismissively. She then let out a sigh of regret, rubbing her forehead with her hoof as she did so. “It was folly in me to attempt to change our status as guardians of the shadows, and for that I must pay the price. That must come later, though. First, we must survive the coming onslaught.”
Further conversation came to a halt, however, when the delegates exited the strange craft.
“By the Matriarchs, what are they?” Gath hissed at the sight of the approaching aliens and their pony allies.
Their apparent leader was a tall, fur-less biped who's face was covered in scars. It had a strange, brown tuft of hair similar to a pony's mane on the top of its head, as well as two much smaller tufts directly above its eyes. Its skin was an extremely light, beige color that was tinged with various shades of pink here and there, as well as other blemishes that were too numerous to mention. It wore a deep blue uniform with gold trim, while on its right breast pocket it wore some sort of insignia depicting a set of wings. On one shoulder, Chrysalis could see a patch depicting a blue and green sphere covered in a grid-like pattern, while on his other shoulder it wore a patch showing a flaming primate skull flanked by a pair of black wings.
To the left of the alien hominid was a dark blue dust pony. Dust ponies were one of the three pony races that belonged to the Night Tribes; a group of ponies that bore cat-like eyes, fangs, and a usually more muted color palate. Dust ponies differed from their bat pony and starlight pony cousins in the fact that they lacked both wings and horns, more closely resembling earth ponies in their appearance.
The dust pony wore royal, dark blue armor with bat-like motifs, easily marking him as one of Luna's Night Sentinels. The style of his armor declared him as an airship captain, though, rather than part of the Night Sentinel's regular forces. This was strange, because this particular role was usually filled by unicorns or pegasus ponies; never before had she seen this armor worn by a dust pony.
Behind the pair were two more of Princess Luna's Night Sentinels, as well as two more of the alien visitors. The ponies weren't anything special, just a thestral and a starlight pony: a bat-winged Night Tribe pegasus pony, and a unicorn who possessed a sharp, curved horn instead of the more common, straight, spiral horns of their Day Tribe cousins. Both were dressed in a manner similar to their captain, though clearly lacking the airship style in their armor. All in all, nothing that she hadn't seen before, though it was odd that the two princesses had sent Night Sentinels instead of Solar Guard.
It was the other two visitors that had caught her eye, and had given her drones cause for alarm.
They were huge, looking nothing short of two large, bipedal golems. In their large, metal hands, they gripped heavy, intimidating weapons that faintly reminded her of a wizard's staff, due to the glowing crystal at the end. She could tell that they were not golems, however, because of the clearly living face that stared out from the open face-plate of the armor. One was that of some kind of green-furred, monkey-like creature, while the other was that of a gray wolf. Their armor was incredibly imposing, covered in skull-like motifs, and what she assumed were death threats written in other languages. She felt an unpleasant shiver travel up her back as she watched the six creatures approach, and not for the first time did she deliberate the wisdom of her actions.
"You cannot back down now, too much is at stake."
Though the voice did steel her mind a bit, she still had to suppress a gulp as the imposing party approached.
As expected, the Princesses of the Sun and Moon do not show, Chrysalis observed nervously to herself. She was attempting to distract herself from her growing fear, but it didn't seem to be working. Of course, had they known that I was to meet them myself, Celestia would have insisted on being here. Somehow, this doesn't comfort me in the slightest...
* * *
The small pod roared as it set down near the small oasis, its grav discs shutting off with an audible whine as the pod powered down. “Are you sure this is the place?” Captain Hale asked as he nervously gazed out over the arid landscape.
“I'm positive. This is the Valley of Kings. It's a sacred spot for both the Saddle Arabians and the Changlings. Both have used it as neutral ground when parleying in the past, as both species are loathe to bring conflict here,” Captain Breeze answered as he readjusted his helmet.
“Why is this spot so sacred to them?” Captain Hale asked curiously, though secretly he was struggling to not groan at the horse pun that Captain Breeze just dropped. Again, he wondered whether or not his translation matrix was working properly, and why on earth it had decided to translate the name of an entire empire into a horse-related pun.
That, and the fact that the name translated into something that sounded incredibly similar to Saudi Arabia, an ancient geographical location back on Hale's home planet of earth. There are so many similarities here, it just boggles the mind... Hale thought to himself.
“Several reasons, actually,” Knight Breeze answered, breaking Hale from his reverie. “Apparently this was the site where an ancient Saddle Arabian prince fell in love with a changeling nymph, as the stories go. I'm not too familiar with the specifics myself, but it is the main reason why the Saddle Arabians refuse to hunt down and drive out the Changeling Hive that infests the desert.”
“Is that so? So we're guaranteed safety while we're here?” Hale asked nervously.
“With changelings I cannot guarantee anything except for deceit...” Breeze answered with disdain. “As I've said, I'm not too familiar on the specifics. They have historically avoided all conflict here, so I believe that they really just want to talk.”
“Good, because I'd rather not start a war with something else that can control minds,” Hale said nervously.
“You don't have to worry about that. From the descriptions that you've given us, as well as the information given by Miss Sparkle, I would conclude that changeling mind control is not only easier to spot, but easier to avoid as well. They cannot just take you over like how these 'Dridune' do; rather, they have to hit you with the spell first. The spell has a clear visual and audible clue that can be dodged, not to mention that it can also be blocked by most metals. Also, they won't be able to mentally control you from a distance; they have to be close enough to be able to give you vocal commands,” Captain Breeze reassured Hale.
Blocked by most metals, eh? Hale thought as he rubbed his forehead. “What are the visual and audible clues?” he asked, relief bleeding into his voice.
“Oh, don't worry, you won't be able to miss it,” Captain Breeze said as he fumbled with the buckle holding him in place.
“What's that supposed to mean? How will my men be able to dodge it if we don't even know what we're looking for?” Hale asked incredulously.
“Well, I don't know about the kind of place you're from, but from where I come from, if someone tries to shoot green lasers at me, I'd try to get out of harm's way,” Captain Breeze said with a sardonic grin.
“Huh...” Hale said as he reached over and unbuckled the gray pony. “One last thing, are you sure that this is all that we need?” he asked as he threw a sweeping gesture towards the pod's other inhabitants.
While Hale had brought up this point before, it was still one that he felt needed addressing. They had only brought a single unicorn by the name of Lieutenant Nova Burst, as well as a single pegasus named Sergeant Fair Weather. As for the non-pony crew, Knight Breeze had insisted on only two other members. Hale had selected a Simiate Sergeant by the name of Calavad, as well as a Wolofor Battlemaster named Ki'yun. Despite this being a diplomatic mission, Captain Breeze had insisted that they wore full battle armor, claiming that it was customary when meeting with a hostile nation.
That being said, both the sergeant and the battlemaster cut imposing figures in their powered assault armor, and not for the first time Hale wondered at the wisdom of such a show of force. At the same time, however, knowing that these creatures could control minds made him also wonder whether or not he should have brought more.
Knight Breeze just nodded at this. “I'm sure. We're just a diplomatic party, we're not here to start a war, we're just here to see what they want.”
This was true, though Hale had to wonder at this custom of sending warriors to negotiate when dealing with a hostile nation. While it was true that Hale looked the part of a diplomat, he really felt that someone more qualified should be here instead of him. Unluckily for him, however, everyone more competent than him were tied down elsewhere, or were not in the system at all. The Alliance forces that had come were a defensive force; they hadn't brought a diplomatic party, simply because Admiral Zelgius had judged that there wasn't enough time to scrounge one together.
That being said, Hale still had one trick up his sleeve, or more precisely, in his head. His nature as a cyborg allowed him to receive instruction from his superiors during even the most hectic firefights, despite the fact that he wore neither an antenna or speaker. Receiving orders during a diplomatic discussion? That would be a cakewalk in comparison.
“Anything I should be on the lookout for? For example, are there any customs that I shouldn't step on?” Hale asked as he opened the shuttle's door.
“You don't have to worry about that sort of thing. The changelings will be expecting a certain amount of hostility, as well as ignorance to their ways. Changelings rarely let outsiders into their hive, let alone tell them whether or not it is impolite to bow or not. They usually adopt to the customs of whomever they are parleying with, rather than expect others to adopt to theirs. Since you're a new species to them, they will be just as lost as you will be, so we'll actually have the advantage here,” Knight Breeze said with a grin.
Captain Hale nodded as he led the party out of the craft. “Anything else I should know about them?” he asked.
“Not really. Other than what we've told you on the way here, very little is known about the changelings. Evidence suggests that their civilization is very old, though, so I would expect a bit of arrogance and disdain,” Lieutenant Burst cut in as she stepped out of the craft.
Well, might as well get this over with, then, Hale said as he strode towards the oasis.
The strange group entered the oasis with no issues, easily catching sight of the group they were supposed to meet. However, as soon as they came into view of the assembled changelings, Knight Breeze and his subordinates froze in their tracks.
“What's wrong, Knight?” Hale asked curiously.
“We. Are. Screwed,” Knight Breeze whispered quietly to Hale. “That isn't a representative like we originally thought, that is their Queen. I wasn't in the throne room during the coup, but I have heard stories. She's ruthless, calculating and clever. We should have brought one of the Princesses with us to negotiate, otherwise I don't see any hope of us escaping here alive...”
As the Queen and her entourage approached the party, Hale took this opportunity to examine the changelings up close. The drones (at least, he assumed that they were drones, based on Captain Breeze's description) were shorter than the average pony, though they made up for that by looking twice as vicious. Inch long fangs protruded from the tops of their mouths, while a sweeping, curved horn similar to Lieutenant Burst's graced their foreheads. Their bodies were covered in a shiny black chitin, except on their back where it formed a single, dark blue shell from which their insectoid, ragged wings grew. Their eyes were a light, solid blue color, lacking both iris and pupil, giving them a soulless glare that quite unnerved Hale. These traits, as well as their hole covered legs, ragged ears, neck frills and tail gave them a distinctly menacing, alien, predator vibe that Hale found hard to shake.
There were ten drones in all, all surrounding their Queen in a protective fashion, all ready and rearing for a fight. Hale sincerely hoped that it wouldn't come to that.
The Queen herself was quite the imposing sight to behold. She was similar to her drones, but at the same time completely different. Her shiny black chitin was like theirs, as was her hole covered legs, and ragged, insectoid wings.
However, that was where the similarities ended.
She was much taller than any of the drones, easily towering over the others by a good two feet. Her mane and tail didn't appear to be hair in the traditional sense. In fact, Hale was having a hard time nailing down precisely what the turquoise substance was. It was long and stringy like hair, yet at the same time it seemed to want to stick together and act like a non-Newtonian substance. Her horn was a twisted, gnarled thing that jutted out from her forehead, while just above that was some sort of black crown thing with blue, gem-like objects sitting on the end of each of the spikes. The reason Hale was having difficulty describing it as a crown was because it honestly looked like some kind of weird growth coming out of the top of her head, rather than something she was wearing. Around her belly was a band of blue, while on her back was a much brighter blue shell then that of her drones.
However, as much as all of these differences made her stand out amongst her drones, they paled in comparison to her eyes.
Her eyes had irises and pupils, just like a humans' eyes. However, unlike a human, her eyes had two, differently shaded green irises, one encircling the other, while at their center sat catlike pupils that seemed to glow with a predatory gleam.
The Changeling Queen stopped just shy of twelve feet from Hale and his crew, then waved a single, dismissive hoof towards her drones. They began chattering to her in some kind of incomprehensible language, to which Hale leaned down towards Captain Breeze in confusion. “Do you understand any of that?”
“Not a single word. But whatever she's planning, the drones don't like it in the slightest,” Captain Breeze answered.
The Queen just snapped at the assembled drones, her eyes glowing green as her patience reached its limits. They immediately backed down, their heads bowed in submission towards their ruler as they withdrew from around her. She then stepped forward until she was six feet in front of Hale, her eyes searching his face, almost as if she was looking for answers.
Her front legs then buckled, and the Queen of the Changelings fell into what was unmistakably a bow.
“Welcome noble Star Warrior, foe to the Willslayer. My home, my lands, and my changelings are yours to command. Use us wisely,” she said, pointedly ignoring the stunned silence from the drones behind her.
Gkkk...kk... Squeeeee!
am glad to see a new chapter and hope to see more soon. :P keep up the good work ^_^
Or of much actually going on this chapter. 95% was exposition and descriptions of beings the readers already know, namingly the Lings and humans. Your audience is already highly familiar with the show, so we know what changelings look like, and you've already described humans/other aliens before. You could have shaved off more than 1/2 of their description and still be perfectly fine since your not adding anything to it.
The dust ponies and the other guy is fine, since we've never seen them until now. But you really don't need to list every detail every time they meet someone new, it gets repetitive and ends up making me skip ahead until something actually happens.
I'm going to list this as a filler chapter since all that really happened was the changeling saying hi to the aliens... and that's really about it outside of some minor worldbuilding.
5522722 I apologize, I'll try to do better next time. It was the first time that the changelings appeared, so they kind of needed to be described, despite the fact that all of you already know what they look like. However, none of you has seen the Alliance's space marines yet, and both they and the night tribe ponies needed to be described.
As for Hale, I tried to keep his description to the bare bones minimum, so as not to clutter the chapter. Thank you for your input, though. I'm already working on a much meatier story chapter, so be on the lookout for it.
That ending...
Time to spend the next few hours pacing while trying to think of what will happen next.
5522822
If this was a non-fanfiction and 100% your own creation then i would agree with you because your depiction of changelings could be any number of things. However, because this is a fanfiction you're A: using a race that we as fans of MLP already know what they look like. B: you're not altering their appearance in any way from their TV show depiction.
the key point i was trying to demonstrate is that your being highly redundant to the point where there is little substance to a 3k+ word chapter. One can argue it's better to have too much than too little, but i digress.
you have to keep in mind who your audience is, and write accordingly. Any time something new or unique to your story should be described, yes, but only if your audience hasn't seen it before. You have a habit of describing every race during an encounter which can cause people to just skip whole sections to get back to the scene itself. I was guilty of such stuff before, believe me, just take a step back sometimes and put yourself in a reader's shoes and as: does that really need to be there?
The characters are not your audience, we are. that is what you have to remember.
5522935 Thanks for the advice man. I'll keep that in mind.
Isn't Knight Breeze supposed to be like... a professional, or something? What kind of professional just declares "yup, we're fucked" at the first unexpected development?
This chapter was okay, I guess. I don't think I have anything else to say about it. I didn't notice any typos.
5523432 Yes, he is a professional. but imagine, if you will, that you are a professional soldier, and that you have someone you admire, respect, adore, and maybe even revere.
Now, imagine that this person that you respect and adore controls the sun.
Now imagine that this person is brought low by what is essentially a giant cockroach. Then imagine that you are thrown against that cockroach unexpectedly.
What we have here, is one of those very rare moments where Knight Breeze's mask has cracked, and he has been overtaken by panic for a moment. He is quick to recover, but not before he expresses his panic to Hale and the others. He is actually extremely professional here, in the fact that he doesn't run and continues to press forward despite his growing fear. His mask only cracks for a second, and he is very quick to recover.
Thanks for pointing that out, though!
Interesting set of relative values there. To the humans and their allies, the ponies represent an amazing new power. To Knight Breeze (and supposedly most ponies) the changeling queen is an ultimate terror--but to the changeling queen, the Dridune "Willslayer" is so fearsome she will set aside her own authority (and conceit) to serve with anyone who provides even the hope of mere survival. To the ponies and the humans, this could make the Dridune appear even more horrific.
On the other hand/paw/hoof, it appears that the changelings have fought the Dridune in the past, and at least some managed to escape. Maybe they remember a few tricks.
Uses us wisely,”
->use us
5525312 Thanks for the catch! already taken care of!
Your story is literally the Hitler of fanfiction!
5525420 Bro, why you gotta be hating on something you helped with?
5525595 I was bored.
5525601 I figured as much. I'm already writing the next chapter, so FYI.
An old civilization, known for deceit and acting from the shadows. not too surprised at this. doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. I love seeing the changelings as the good guys. just remember, the only good squid is a dead squid.
Alright. I finally finished. Time to...
REVIEW
I hereby award this story a 7.5/10. And here's why:
This story is a blast, first of all. It's a nice, great space opera in the classic sense, with high stakes and all the culture clash you know and love from the genre. Also, you play around nicely with it, like how the equestrian soldiers immediately settled on the obsolescence of their own tactics. Depending on how you play the cognitive dissonance between their technology and their genre savvy, you could have a real gem that could make this story stand out.
Now for the not quite so good. You hit the cliches a little hard in this one. The bad aliens are hideous, and the good aliens are for the most part your standard mix of fantasy furries. I'm not really seeing any hortas, vorlons, or other examples of wildly non-anthropomorphic species, which is a shame. Even with bipeds, you could have done them more velociraptor style, or avian.
I also find the dominance of mind control a little weak, given that space travel generally opens up a ton of extremely lethal low tech options. With little more than a computer, an engine, some math and some patience, you can easily send lethal cascades of rocks sailing at your enemies. Time it right, you could swat every one of their habitable worlds at once with relativistic rock-death, then just watch as their warships flounder around, deprived of the empire that fed them and the families they fought for. Just to be safe, build some world-ships then blow up EVERY habitable planet you know of. Then just pick a direction and run like heck until they all starve to death.
5527007 Thank you for your constructive criticism, though there are reasons why the Alliance can't just orbitally bombard the Dridune's planets.
The main reason is the Psynet created by the Dridune's planetjackers.
With these planetjackers, they have an omnipresent awareness of everything entering and leaving its field of effect, including things that might be cloaked. This allows the planet's defenses to lock on and destroy anything that comes into range with unparalleled speed, breaking up each rock to such a size that it will just burn up in the atmosphere. The Dridune also have a lot of ships, which they would use to quickly find the source of such an assault.
In fact, the Alliance has tried the rock thing before, and it has failed. When Zelgius said that those planets were impossible to retake, he wasn't kidding.
The Alliance also does not have the tech needed to blow up stars, so that is also not an option.
As for the running like heck option, the Dridune already own quite a few worlds. To starve them out would take longer then the Alliance could survive on these world-ships that you suggest.
I will concede the fact that my range of alien species isn't exactly original. This is my very first scifi fic, and as such, I wasn't as skilled in creating new and interesting races as I am now. I've had more experience since then, and if you would like an example, please read my other scifi fic, What I've Become.
As for the hideous nature of the bad guys, that is actually a very very important plot point. The reason why they are evil and ugly is coming up, so stay tuned!
Will we see cameos of the Krin and Quzin races among the alliance?
5528200 Not the Quzin, no. One of the main features of the Quzin is that they are a magical race, and taking that out of them would be too damaging to their identity. So no Quzin.
There will be a Krin cameo, though.
Just a word of advice, maybe try to have more going on in the chapter. I realize there was some discussion and exposition between the characters, but most of the chapter seemed to be drawn-out descriptions. I guess people have said this already, but... yeah.
5528901 Yeah, sorry about that. I'm already working on the next one, and there is a lot more happening in it already.
5527064
Okay, so, I did some math. (And yes, that's never a good sign.) I'm sure you're familiar with the old equation K=1/2 MV^2, or the kinetic energy equation as its best known. This gives a nice rough estimate of how much whoopass is present in any moving object. Admittedly, forces like friction and overpenetration play a factor, but the equation will serve to demonstrate a simple point.
So, to start us off, let's look at a hefty asteroid. Working off a lovely wikipedia article I found, I discovered that a 1000m diameter asteroid going 17km/s yields about 46,300 megatons of impact force. The threshold for nuclear winter has been estimated at 10,000 megatons. So already you've nuclear wintered a planet 4 times over, and then some. But, obviously, a one kilometer asteroid is nothing to scoff at. However, 17km/s *is* something to scoff at in stellar terms. It's phenomenally slow.
So, I started looking at how fast we can go. Based on studies of nuclear pulse propulsion, it's been estimated that with today's technology, we could build a nuclear pulse ship capable of reaching 13,411km/s, or 4.5% the speed of light. It wouldn't necessarily do it quickly, but it could.
So, in order to achieve our planet killer asteroid impact, using our nuclear pulse engine, we would set the kinetic energy of one object to the kinetic energy of the other. Cancelling out, we basically wind up with (M1)*(V1)^2=(M2)*(V2)^2. Now, shuffling variables a little more, we get (M1)=(M2)*(V2)^2/(V1)^2, where M1 is the mass of our desired projectile, and M2 is the mass of our asteroid. If we set M2 to 1, then M1 becomes the ratio of size we would need to get the same impact energy. The result? In order to get the impact energy of a one kilometer asteroid, we would need a projectile with a mass of....
0.00000161 times the planet killer. For reference, the mass of Deimos, a 12km diameter asteroid (Way way larger since volume expands at a cube rate), is about 1.4762 × 10^15 kg. That's really heavy. Running with the conversion, that means in order to get Deimos hitting the planet, (which would be even disgustingly more overkill than the planet killer) we'd need an object about 2,615,251 tons.
For reference again, the biggest ship we've ever built as a species had a deadweight tonnage of 555,000 tons. So, about 5 of these. And that's for stupid overkill.
This is honestly totally doable for one planet, seeing as we ourselves built 4 of the darn things. Add on the fact that this number is already based on stupid Deimos overkill, which is overkill on top of an asteroid that was already about 4 times bigger than we needed, and chances are we could use one ship to pull this off, if that.
And this is all with tech that was around in 1980.
Now, yes, planetary defenses could intercept, sure. But not really. You mentioned that the planetjackers could feel out to about the orbit of a moon. Alright, so, at 384,400km, traveling at 13411km/s our projectile would pass through the detection area in about...
28 seconds.
They would have 28 seconds to destroy it, and that's reasonable for automated defenses! Except for one problem: they would have to annihilate it. Smashing it to pieces would not solve their problem. It would in fact make it worse, turning a bullet that might punch through the planet survivable, into a shotgun blast that would tear it apart. Think of it like trying to cut a bullet in midair. Sure, you could, but that means the two halves still punch through you. In short, they'd have 28 seconds to make five supertankers worth of mass disappear from existence.
But wait! Not only that, but we're dealing with a projectile, not a bomb or a ship. The object you throw at them doesn't have to be hollow, or filled with easily explodable bits. It can literally be a gigantic hunk of armor plate. Tanks are hard enough to kill, but if you had a tank-sized brick of solid armor, no internals? You couldn't NUKE that thing out of existence. Sure as hell not in 28 seconds. You couldn't even reasonably get it off-course in that span of time.
So, we've got an instant-planet-kill weapon that, while by no means cheap, is pretty darn affordable in terms of materials and manpower, considering you're absolutely obliterating a planet literally millions of times larger. The loss in infrastructure alone would pay you back a hundred fold. Best of all, you get going that fast, you aren't stopping. Give it just enough fuel and no way to slow down, and even if it was controlled (not that it would even have to be crewed) it couldn't stop anyway.
Anyway, in summary, it would be easy to produce planet-killer weapons from planets in a 2-1 ratio. Each planet builds 2 or so, launches them. Put the champagne on ice, let it age a bit, then pop off the corks: you just set in motion galaxy wide genocide. Enjoy the sad glories given to you by an entropic universe.
Yeah, physics takes a lot of the fun/honor/dignity out of space war. Kind of like nukes did.
Edit: Just did the math assuming a tanker going 4.5% speed of light. Got just under 24,000 megatons. So yeah, one tanker would nuclear winter a planet.
5529019 I'm going to preempt Knight Breeze right now, and give you a no bs answer that will likely get him mad at me. Knight Breeze and I are personal friends, and I have helped him a bit with this story. I know science fiction very well. My father is a junkie, and I absorbed a lot of the stuff he was reading/watching. I know quite a lot about the genre. What he is writing here is very basic space opera. What you most beautifully described would be part of hard Scifi. Knight Breezes' story has extremely little science in it, going for what fits the story over what is actually possible. what I am about to tell you will probably piss him off, but he didn't even know anti matter was real before I informed him on the subject.
I've actually studied the theory as to what space warfare could be like, and I have even looked into actual government plans for it. When I write science fiction I try to make it fairly realistic. Knight Breeze and I have actually gotten into arguments that got pretty heated over things pertaining to scientific realism in this story.
As someone who enjoys hard science fiction I have had to swallow my pride, and accept what this story is. Fantasy. I understand how difficult it can be to watch/read/listen to space opera, and not get upset about scientific things. I can't watch star trek anymore because of how unrealistic it is. I hope this doesn't come off as harsh, but if the lack of proper scientific laws, and theory bother you than perhaps this is not the kind of story you should read. I know my father would not be able to stand this story. Honestly I hope to be able to get Knight Breeze to add a little more realism in to the story . *laughs at irony of trying to introduce realism into a story about multicolored talking equines*
5529110 Oh! I'm not annoyed by it. I grant that it's space opera and that there's a place for great naval battles filled with lasers and lightsabers and boarding parties. Honestly, part of the reason I got on it is that I often find truth stranger than fiction, and that amuses me.
By the end, I was honestly curious just how destructive a nuclear pulse supertanker was. I bought it up because I thought it at least bore addressing as a point of curiosity, and not in the spirit of "No, you did this wrong!" Because he didn't. It's part of the genre, and honestly makes for better storytelling in a lot of cases.
In short, I just hope I got people to thinking about the wierdness of space combat, and the possibilities that are out there. The story's the story. If we didn't handwave some stuff, we couldn't write sci-fi at all.
5529187 Okay. I was worried because I have been grilled by hard scifi fans over stupid little things. I once met a Dr. Who fan who said they hated star wars because it was unrealistic, and unscientific. As I said before I have helped Knight Breeze out quite a bit with the story, and there are some things coming up I think you might enjoy.
5529019 Yeah, I hear what you're saying, and I respect that. You are obviously very intelligent, and I actually do have a reason why they would be able to deflect/redirect an asteroid that size.
Mainly, it has to do with fleet patrols, the size of the object you just hurled, and transportation.
With a asteroid of that size, The Dridune would be able to see it coming lightyears away. There is no possible way (save magic) to cloak something of that size and mass. The Dridune would then be given plenty of time to not only spot that thing, but to also: 1: Create a Hyperspace tear in front of the asteroid, flinging it harmlessly into another dimension. 2: change its trajectory enough to miss the planet. or 3: blow that sucker up. The Dridune have enough ships to constantly patrol their region of space, especially around their planets. This is mainly the reason why the Dridune have been taking so long to take over the Alliance. They are not only attacking and taking worlds, but also constantly defending themselves from assaults such as these. And since each world they take adds a world that is completely willing to be subjugated, this means that their fleet strength and military forces are not hampered with things like rebel uprisings, and is, in fact, strengthened by each planet they take.
5529187 Good to know! Also, as a fellow hard sci-fi buff, might I suggest you check out Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages on Steam? That game had some of the most unique ideas regarding FTL travel and similar concepts that I've ever seen. When they first explained how FTL worked in their world, I was immediately like "Wow! That's really original! I have never seen that before!"
5529211 Bro, don't worry about it. I ain't even mad. Yes, there are some things that I am ignorant about. Yes, I couldn't think my way out of a paper bag. But I'm not here to do that. I'm here to tell an interesting and compelling story.
It's kind of why I accepted your help in the first place: to tell me when to stop with my BS. So thank you for continuing with me, despite the fact that this is more 'soft scifi' than you would like.
5529232 Yeah, FTL travel does tend to mess up physics based weaponry in most cases. I grant your in-universe point.
Still, it's been nice to debate. Reminds me why I enjoy writing Sci-fi in the first place. Thank you.
5529301 Np. I'm glad you enjoyed our discussion as much as I have!
5523937
But what rubs me the wrong way about this is that he doesn't seem panicked, but actually quite calm as he makes this statement. If he had conveyed a real sense of loosing his cool I don't think I would have seen any issue.
5530095 I apologize if I didn't make him seem panicked enough, but I've always designed Knight Breeze to be hiding behind several masks. Its part of his character that he never lets anyone see the real pony underneath, always hiding behind a number of different persona.
The fact that he showed this much is the same thing as a scream of abject terror for him. It showed a crack in his mask, revealing for a very, very brief moment the real pony underneath.
I apologize if this rubbed you the wrong way, but that is also part of his character. He's supposed to be fake, and often rubs people who can see through that kind of thing the wrong way. Applejack would see right through him, and would hate his guts.
Nice. I feel a lot of backstory, legend spinning, and awesomeness coming. with hugs. probably. please?
One critique: you need to make these chapters a little longer. it seems like barely a taste, and it's gone. you could stretch it a little.