“Got a minute, Mindy?”
Mindy Park looked up from her SatCom monitor to see Randall Carter, the Mars meteorologist, leaning over her cubicle wall. “Maybe,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Well, first, what are you working on?”
Mindy pointed to her monitor, where dozens of photos of the upper reaches of Mawrth Vallis sat displayed overlapping one another. “Sirius 8 is about to enter a really bad part of Mawrth Vallis,” she said. “I’ve been working out detailed notes for Johanssen to sysop Watney through it all. Of course the conditions on the ground will probably be totally different, but maybe it’ll help some.”
“Have you been monitoring the dust storm?” Randall asked.
“Not really,” Mindy said. “I’ve had the satellites taking detailed photos about one orbit before they pass over Sirius 8. Those photos get forwarded to you automatically. I’ve been too busy with planning Watney’s route to watch the weather.” It didn’t take much brainpower to make the deduction which followed. “It’s got worse, hasn’t it?”
“Yes and no,” Randall said. “The storm’s stopped moving- that is, its center is stationary. But it’s beginning to grow. Not quickly, not like the global storms Mars has sometimes. But a normal Mars storm should either stay more or less the same or blow up into a global event in a matter of days. This storm’s been stable for weeks. So why is it blowing up now?”
Mindy looked at the screen full of satellite photos. “You mean, besides the universe in general and Mars in particular just hating Mark Watney and-or the ponies?”
“That isn’t so funny,” Randall said. “A couple of my coworkers are talking like that lately. And I’m about to go to Dr. Kapoor and give him a report that absolutely can’t have those words in it.”
“I don’t think I was joking.” She looked at the photos again. “Do we tell them to backtrack to the Hab?”
“Not my decision.”
“Your recommendation?”
“At this point, if Dr. Kapoor asks, I’ll say we’re still go,” Randall replied. “The rover’s already far enough from the Hab that the return isn’t guaranteed if the storm does blow up. And turning around now is a scrub for any rescue by Hermes or anything else we can launch for over three years. Right now the edges of the storm are survivable, and we can navigate them around the edges. But I’ll tell you something,” he sighed, “I’d love for them to be turning due south right now.”
“Can’t do it,” Mindy said. “Climbing out of Mawrth is just barely possible for them now- maybe. But the ground west of Trouvalot Crater is full of craters and small valleys- absolutely treacherous. They can’t turn south until they’re east of Trouvalot. The terrain on that side is more forgiving. Will the storm hit them in four sols?”
“No,” Randal admitted. “But at the current rate of growth, it won’t be long after. We need them to turn south as soon as they can do it safely.”
“Right,” Mindy sighed. “Let me finish this, and then I’ll begin work on a route due south from Trouvalot.”
[ominous lightning effects]
FINALLY they've noticed.
And 'absolutely cannot have those words in it' is horrible policy that gets people killed when dealing with unknown magic. They're too locked into their old ways of thinking.
Hmm Honestly? Going back to the cave and waiting out for equestria's rescue might be the best bet. They'd get cherries eventually, and I doubt it would take three years for Twilight & Co. to get to them. Enchanting more crystals as batteries would allow for a near perpetual magical field some months down the line too.
On the other hand we wouldn't get the drama, so there's that
Is Mars the driving force of this storm, or magic?
If It's Mars as the driving force, then yes it's trying to kill them, again.
If it's Magic, what exactly is the will of Magic up to at this point?
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Admittedly, it's quite a leap for Terran scientists and engineers to throw out hundreds of years of experience driven by empirical data and solid theoretical underpinnings and accept that Mars might have moved from being passively hostile to actively vicious.
9137074
I'm at least assuming it's Mars, using every bit of loose magic it can scrape together.
Actually I've been wondering. Suppose more life starts up on Mars, or there's just the tiny little trickle form the cave. Would that be enough to eventually cause problems, or would the local genii/spren/whatever-we're-calling-them eat it before it got to Mars itself?
Does Mars live in the storms?
Driving through rocks sounds like something they could use Maud Pie's help with, but I guess she's pretty out of reach for NASA at the moment.
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That's true. And in their job they're actively trained to avoid anthropomorphizing things, so you'll have less of the casual superstition people like me have. But still...
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Don't forget the
BWOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM
sound from Inception.
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NO. Don't even think that. The Storm Father is the last thing they need right now.
9137119
But...but...
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No Everstorms!
Storm you say
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Yup, already started on that! I'm stunned at how good the author is with only a fraction of the followers he has! He's a dedicated and experienced author! We're lucky to have him!
Glim Glam gets struck by Martian lightning and is finally made an alicorn.
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Or became Glimmering Starlightning.
Actually, Ascension is the worst possible way of future for them now. Because Ascension cannot be cancelled, but can be broken. And do not forget about spacesuits, they will be torn the exact moment somecreature Ascented.
Randall Carter?
Bet he was called Randolph during his school days
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Well, it's definitely dark...cadence gets killed in either that one or the sequel, but I wouldn't call it super dark and certainly not grimderp.
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Actually she's alive as of the latest chapters. She was being used as a psychic battery for an alien weapon.
9137252 What's grimderp?
9137323
"Grimderp" is basically when an author tries to write "grimdark" but lacks the necessary skill to pull it off.
Here are some other people's explanations:
I generally consider it to be an instance of my broader term, "suffering porn". (ie. Fiction where there isn't a good reason for the characters to be kicked around like they are... the author just gets off on (or thinks their audience gets off on) seeing the characters suffer.)
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.. Eh no she doesn't, but she is horrifically injured when they find her
9137360 Oh right, I always called it 'torture porn'. Gratuitous abuse for the sake of drama rather than any plot-led or character-led reason.
and the shew has drooped, time to buckle down things are going to get bumpy.
9137360
Like Batman Verses Superman?
But, but, Superman already went Dark and Edgy just on cigarettes. I dont care, I want to be a God and force my ideals by being the person that enforces Crab Bucket on everyone else. Like Our Town.
Because MLP is happy and hopeful for the future, just like Star Trek, according to apparent monetisation movies, TV series etc, it has to go, because of course it isnt realistic unlike nihilistic enforcement by those who dont want anyone else to be happy if they aint.
If the storm centre is now stationary, is it the polar opposite side of the planet to the Cave Farm, where the ambient magical field, tiny though it is, is being drawn away by the Farm and so by the hairy sphere principle is creating a zero or even negative field effect, pulling the level below ambient so giving an amplifying effect to the chaos aspect of the magic field? I hope it doesnt suddenly exceed a given inversion threshold and cause a sudden magic chaos cascade failiure. I wouldnt like to be on a Mars with Chaos Genesis wave front in effect.
This line is absolute gold.
Oh Bk.
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Give it a shot. It's got its dark bits, but that's not the focus of the story.
They are there to show the reality of the world in which the story is set.
I enjoyed it, and I'm not a fan of "dark" fiction either. And have never even played XCOM.
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No what now?
9137643
look at a globe. Now imagine a storm-wall made of hurricanes that stretches from one pole to the other. Now imagine this storm system never wanes or dies, but instead slowly orbits the planet ad infinitum. Now imagine the thing is possessed by a grumpier, older, and far less reasonable version of Zeus.
That's the Everstorm.
9137651
Yikes
9137577
There are two reasons I don't use "torture porn".
First, it reduces the utility of the word "torture" to classify anything where "the author is torturing their character" as torture.
Second, "torture porn" already has a fairly widely used meaning.
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If you don't mind a bit of darkness, it's very good indeed. An excellent pony-on-earth story, and a wonderful showing of Twilight in an unfamiliar situation. It does a very good job of balancing Twilight's optimistic views with the frankly grim outlook of X-com without letting either overpower the other.
It does have some bad moments, a few scenes that are honestly heart wrenching. But it speaks to the skill of the author and the quality of the story that said moments have the impact that they do. After all, if tragedy strikes and the audience never blinks, the author hasn't done a very good job, have they?
I fully recommend this story, in fact, I'm feeling inspired to go read it again myself! Have a good day, yes?
Eh, just call it the Ares Hypothesis. Like Gaia, only with malice aforethought.
The terraforming is triggering too early!
I had a think: a big think.
What does this story mean for Changeling Space Program?
I figure that the advent (Is that a word? Advent.) of humans would put a pretty drastic change of pace for the ‘fast and loose’ style of Changeling Rocketry.
I’ll read whatever you put intro by of me Kris, your one of the best authors on this site!
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I still think MArs isn't so much actively trying to get them but instead sleep-grumbling and grousing at random (much like myself until I am properly caffeinated in the morning). Best example is a hibernating bear, a big one. Poke it with some magic to wake it up and see what happens to the tiny little bugs driving a tiny rover across it. As long as the paw doesn't slap down on their location with a SPLAT, or the bear roll over on top of them, they should be ok...
Considering what we saw Mars get hit with recently the rover is going to have power issues.
9137134
Too Late?
Pathfinder already has a spren, yes?
And the cave, the hab, MARS!
Mars gonna shiv ya.
The evil Mars ghosts are gathering their power! Somebody call the Ghostbusters!
teaser-trailer.com/wp-content/uploads/Ghostbusters-Movie-2016-1.jpg
No... no, not them.
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You must mean these guys
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/91/The_Ghost_Busters_%28TV_series%29_cast_photo.jpg/250px-The_Ghost_Busters_%28TV_series%29_cast_photo.jpg
Or these guys:
static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/FilmationsGhostBusters.jpg
Sensible, yea
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In this story, Mars puts me in mind of Caradhras, the Redhorn, from the LOTR books. Unlike the movies, where Saruman whips up a storm to force the Fellowship into Moria, it's the mountain itself. Given Dragonfly's dream, I'd say the evidence points towards active hostility, when conditions allow. Specifically, magic being released into the Martian environment. (Note: I'm commenting while at this chapter in my first read-through of The Maretian.)
Even if the Planet for some reason was self aware and dont want 'guest' why denied itself life and magic?
Traumatic depopulating?
Hope they make it all
Fuck Mars with a Snickers... I Twix it all the way to Milkiway...