After three years, Luna's almost become used to human incursions. The chaos, the open attempts at invasion, the innocent lost souls along with those looking to cleanse the entire planet of pony presence... it may never be routine, but the weariness of it has turned into something of a daily grind.
But that's for humans. The newest incursion isn't human at all. And all it wants to is bring LAW and order to Equestria and the nations beyond.
Whether anypony likes it or not.
(Part of the CDA series. Now has a TVTropes page and character sheet. New edits welcome.)
Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.
Chapters (1)
This looks really interesting. I've got no knowledge of the other source but from this it certainly seems on the dystopian side of things.
And it seemed that Phil Foglio made such *nice* NPCs for the Buck Goddot series...
thugdome.com/images/foglio/_anim_winslow.gif
Suddenly, The Winslow!
Which makes me wonder how it works in the Foglio-verse when humans immigrate to planets dominated by other species. If the Law Machines follow the humans, presumably the laws the humans vote for are only applied to the _humans_, or no alien species would ever let a human being set foot on their soil. (Of course, I have no idea if this is actually the case or not: I cannot remember if the issue of humans living on alien dominated planets ever came up in the comics).
Similarly, if the aliens were allowed to vote for laws for humans, that would quite eliminate the elements of fairness in the law machine's program, so one would assume only humans would be allowed to vote.
And on a human-settled planet, do aliens who immigrate there have to follow human laws?
Having the Ponies vote for laws that apply equally to them and the humans seems like malfunctioning to me, regardless of how many humans have moved deliberately to Equestria.
6112608
He'd probably get along well with Gummy.
Was this how the Law Machines worked in the Buck Godot series? It's been a while since I read it and I only really recall the bit about how New Hong Kong got around them; implying that they work within the regions of pre-existing law.
(Though, come to think of it, I don't believe there was any interaction with them and non-human worlds.)
6112440
It's from Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire.
Dystopian aspects, sure; but it's always felt more space-pulp action-adventure to me.
This is the first appearance of a law machine that I can easily recall and locate, though I think there may've been a mention of them somewhere in the first few stories of the series.
Here's the start, I strongly recommend it.
The only thing worse than a Law Machine: an insane Law Machine....
not really a fan of the CDA series but I like your work so I read this.
Has anyone ever tried passing the law 'Law machines are illegal"?
6112900
As I recall the comic, each person was allowed one vote on the laws during there lives. Once a certain amount of votes had been reached, a new level of law was enforced.
As for New Hong Kong, a hacker breached the system and introduced the law; There will be no law on New Hong Kong (he was arrested by the Law Machines and never seen again).
IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA, DON'T VOTE!!!
Well, not only was this this an intriguing story, but now I have a new comic strip to read. Win/Win, really...
6113291
The Law Machines have a pre-arranged list. No laws proposed by the inhabitants are allowed, the exception being New Hong Kong where a hacker got into the system (whereabouts now unknown).
It's been a while since I read Buck Godot. I didn't realize the intended crossover until Tess's description.
In any case... yeah, this is going to require a creative solution. I have no doubt that Luna will be able find one, but I have no idea what it's going to be.
(And then there's that other incursion, with what seems to be some kind of worldwaking version of the Joker. Yikes.)
After seeing the announcement that this story was going to be forthcoming I went back and re-read Buck Godot: Zap Gun For Hire to refresh myself on how the Law Machines worked. After doing so I was curious as to how you were going to play this, as it could probably have very easily been told "Not a Human World, we reject them when they try to come here."
It being damaged and not thinking right is a good choice.
However you're really going to have to swing this weapon, since there's only one thing in the whole Buck Godot universe that we know can hurt a Law Machine. And I'm kinda hoping that's what it actually is because that'd be awesome but I'm guessing it's going to be something else, mayhaps some stolen tech from a lower number ranked race.
I need to get back to work on my own stories, I've got one for the CDA... .
6113469
Actually the Law Machines took away the hacker for the crime of interfering with the Law, but they didn't do anything to stop the law he inserted from being voted on and passed "There will be no new laws on New Hong Kong"
6112900
I'm not sure where I put the copy, but as I recall from the First Buck Godot trade, the way the second great check on humanity works is that whenever humans colonize a new planet, the first thing they do is create a communications network and link it with the galactic com systems. At which point the Law arrives and uses the planetary com system to set themselves up. Technically in the series there's no voting booths because everyone can just use basic communications to vote anytime and from anywhere.
As a fan of the Buck Godot series, I'd really love to read this...
...but I'm sorry, love, I have to ask: do you have any commitment to actually finishing what you've started, this time? Because your record to date is not at all promising, and I really don't care to start reading yet another story that you're just going to abandon halfway through.
6115562
It's not loss of interest. It's loss of functional writing environment and computer capability to allow writing at all. I can barely get through my morning mail without multiple crashes. (In this case, that still means at least one.) It's kind of a problem. The only solution is a new system. And I'm months away.
But as said, I'm one complaint away from permanent banning. I can always file the complaint myself.
Seriously… why do we have no Delete My Own Account Button?
( I ran out of time last night and had promised to put something up by Friday. So it goes. I had hoped for three parts at most. Reset to zero.)
6115701
Hmmmm. Hardware or software problem?
6121714
Mostly software, but I suspect part of that is simply aging hardware which can't run the programs all that well -- there's evidence, and in large quantities. At this point, my solution is to deliberately crash the hanging systems and try to work with what's left (not always possible because with a true freeze, I can't reach them), then hope to hang on until full replacement is possible. Currently, most likely pace and scenario which doesn't involve summoning disasters through attempting to budget a major purchase -- some of you just winced -- that's November.
6121742
Ah, that's hopeful. For a software-only problem, if you like, I could show you how to get a almost-certainly functional, crash-free system suitable for fanficcing up and running with no hard drive wipes at the total cost of a bit of a learning curve, one CD-sized download (I don't know how much you're paying for your data), one blank CD, and one CD-writer (I'm kind of hoping you have the CD-writer drive already - if not, you can make do with a suitably large blank USB memory stick instead).
6121791
I have the programming skills of a rock falling on a keyboard.
...no, scratch that. There's a chance of having a rock randomly bounce along the right sequence.
And as said, it's an old system. There are things it genuinely can't run, and that number's only going to go up. I appreciate the offer, but... I can pretty much guarantee my inability to act on it. Thankee regardless.
6122032
You don't need much in the way of programming skills. You'd just need to go to the Knoppix download page, download the ISO file, write it to CD using your favourite CD-writing software (any CD-writing software will handle ISO files, the only tricky part will be not letting the computer crash partway through the write) and then boot off the CD (which is often as simple as leaving it in the drive and rebooting; in case it'snot, there are a few options that can be tweaked, but in general Knoppix is pretty good at what it does) to get a probably crash-free system. The best part is, Knoppix is an oldish system, so it should work just fine on oldish hardware.
...that's where the learning curve comes in. It'll be a probably crash-free Linux system, which is different to Windows in more than a few ways. But it comes with word processors and stuff, and you can get back to your old system at any point by shutting down, removing the CD, and booting up again. (You might want a USB stick to save stuff to).
6122032
6122160
I would second this, and say, further, that--well, it depends a lot on what writing tools you prefer. But at least at the level of desktop-oriented distributions you will have tools available to you far exceeding vi or vim. Though they'll be there too, if you're weird.
OpenOffice/LibreOffice is available for Linux with a desktop GUI. There are also umpty million text editors in Linux, ranging from the miniscule and stripped-down like nano (the new flavor of an old favorite called pico) to bloody enormous like Emacs, to GUI-only and Notepad-ish like gedit, to primitive, user-hostile stuff like vi.
And yes, a carefully selected Linux distribution can run surprisingly well on older hardware.
If you want to give the matter greater consideration, I recommend the "Newbie's Linux Manual," by one Laurence Hunter. Where it is distribution-specific it leans towards Red Hat--specifically, 1990s Red Hat. Most of the content is 15-20 years old, but then again, most of the content pertains to command-line sysadmin stuff that mostly hasn't changed that much.
tl;dr yes, Linux is a practical alternative, and most distributions by default will come with an assortment of tools installed by default that will include things like word processors, web browsers, etc.
Also,
Luna! Luna! Luna of the CDA!
It's a man's life in the Canterlot Deportation Agency!
...That's not the Joker, is it?
Is that the Joker from the universe where good and evil is flipped?
Its not likely, but it's the closest thing I can think of, and to be honest if that isn’t a thing it should be a thing.
Hunger Games! First reference I got on the first try! I'm still embarrassed I missed Songbird...
Oh yeah, looking forward to more of this.
Jack?
... Did Luna make friends with The Ebon Dragon?
You know, after doing some more reading on The Law Machine.
This seems like the kind of thing one might expect to see inside a closed gate community 60-70 years from now. Hell, I'm sure some people would love to have one now.
And I know I'm a little late to the show here, but I'm surprised that people are so offended by you and your work that you have so many complaints filed against you. . . Maybe I'm reading things wrong if I'm not getting offended by it...
Very confusing for someone unfamiliar with CDA or Buck Godot.
6112900
No, it's not quite how it works in the canonical Buck Godot stories. I presume Estee is diverging from that canon for the same reason he diverges from MLP's - to turn the setting into more of a Crapsack World, for the purposes of social commentary on the sorry state of our reality.
In the original stories, the Lawgiver list contains only 21 laws, the first of which is automatically active and forbids interference with the Law, while the remaining 20 "covered major crimes already considered illegal by most planetary governments". Any human can only vote once in their life, with the user number they were issued at birth. Laws are not activated by an absolute number of votes that can accumulate over centuries, but by a (unknown, possibly variable) proportion of the population voting "yes", and they cannot be rescinded. The Law Machines operate on all worlds in "humanspace", i.e. planets that are owned/controlled by humanity. The disturbing fact that anyone who gets arrested is never seen again is indeed canonical. The text of the "Herodotus Complex" claims that the Law Machines "have never been wrong" about a crime being committed, but that's an in-universe source and should therefore be taken as gospel (i.e. unsubstantiated hearsay).
By extending the Law list to 32 entries of increasing pettiness, introducing the accumulation of votes over time, allowing people to vote on multiple planets, and creating a wandering population of "Restrictors" to mirror the Freemovers, Estee shifts the Law Machines from a peremptory but (arguably) mostly benign power to a dystopian dictatorship.
CCC
I am a Baby Boomer. When my father was born, there was literally NO Such Thing As Science Fiction. Gernsbeck had neither printed the 1st issue of Amazing nor invented the word Scientifiction There were only Scientific Romances.
When I was a kid, electric typewriters were cutting edge technology & people were selling stories about using slide rules to navigate starships. (For example, Heinlein's Starman Jones had a major plot point that they lost their book of logarithm tables & couldn't navigate without it)
In short YOUR definition of "not much computer skills" & MY definition of "not much computer skills" are not quite the same.
Estee I vaguely remember the Buck Godot stuff back in the 70s. Foglio (?) did the artwork & I loved it
6478011 If I recall, the accumulation of votes over time was in the original. And you have to admit that, if littering and even more petty things were included in the Law, there would indeed be a very organized and proactive faction determined to get every law enacted- indeed, there probably is one even in baseline Gallimaufry.
That said, it's worth remembering that the Law was created because of humanity "rediscovering" slavery. It was intended by the creator to be the perfect, infallible and merciless public morality, all the better to offset the generally amoral but good-humored nature of the series' main protagonist.
Has anyone actually spoken with Phil about the concept of Regulators?
7476063
I had to look this up, since I wasn't 100% sure of the sequence anymore, but according to the collection "Buck Godot - Zap Gun for Hire", the practice of contacting and enslaving-in-all-but-name of pre-spaceflight civilisations by human trading companies led to the first of the "great checks" on humanity, namely the complete vanishing of an entire trading fleet and the prohibition of contacting any low-tech civilisations, announced by Lord Thezmothete. The imposition of the Law Machines was the second great check, and happened in response to a senseless war of annihilation between humans in one system. As I understand it from context, the other sapient races could understand fighting wars to achieve a goal or advantage, but prosecuting a global war of extermination just to kill the other guys was plain incomprehensible to them as a concept and marked humanity as fundamentally different (as in "There's something wrong with those humans").
It's not stated that this was the goal of the Law Machines, but The Herodotus Complex states that they caused human political systems to shift from structures of power and force into "service-oriented bureaucracies" in line with the rest of the Gallimaufry. The usual unspoken rule "Laws only apply to the little people" suddenly no longer existed and the very politicians who had initially publicly applauded the Law Machines for their services started to actually get arrested for their own crimes. It must have come as a bit of a shock to them.
Still hoping this will update someday. And that well get a guest appearance by Buck as well. Woo!
Well then, this is going to be very interesting if you can do more of it. I really find myself interested in this setting and kind of want to do a couple bits in it.
Came here from TVTropes to see if anyone gave more info on Jack... But, no. Well, this is interesting! ... And so, Shadowfell is the Pony Term, or something introduced by someone from the Forgotten Realms, perhaps...
8264629
Just wanted to say: this one will be finished, and soon. If I'm picking this series back up, I have an obligation to complete this piece.
I'd forgot that 'Jack' had already been introduced in this story.
8264632
Glad to hear it.
I've a long-standing fondness for the Foglios and their work and this story has been at the back of my mind since I first read it.
no
Hmm... Could you block off voting, by going into vote, then stalling as long as possible?
Some of the people might have powers that could work on it??
Presumably people survived this... If Soul Survivor is after this story...
Where is New Cynosure located, in relation to Ponyville and Canterlot? ... Was it ever stated?
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Now just gotta figure out what the tropes are, for Jack and Johanna's appearances here...
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And just saw the short description! That's so funny!
8264632 Not that I'm lurking around, stalking the comments or anything....
Good to see all the people who still remember Buck Godot and his universe. I have no doubt that this is how the Law Machines would be with just the smallest of changes. Disappearing humans always seemed like a very scary "solution"...