With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Darko]

I mean, it's an effective shape. Streamlined, mostly, sloped and curved armour to ensure glancing hits and gives a good aesthetic overall. I presume the vaugely earth-like shapes of the insects are a case of convergent evolution...

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At least the ships look better than the Apokaliptian vessels from YJ.

Seriously I know Darkseid has an ego, but having his face on the ships?

But how will they hit him on Earth? And why would you want them to shoot Will Harper (The clone Roy,) anyway?

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Because he's an asshole.

Granted the Light probably made him that way, so shoot the Light.

I bet he's been getting that feeling a lot around the other Corps members. His people must be a cutthroat lot. Assuming that attitude is normal.

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I think he's just a run of the mill sociopath, albeit one that can wield a ring.

...Know what?

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His own desires.

Hey, if he knows he's a sadistic asshole, more power to him

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I don't think that's wise.

 

[BlueMangoAdea]

I don't think that's wise.

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I mean, if a person is a sadistic asshole regardless, I would prefer that person to be aware of the fact and consider it when they make their decisions.

 

[Darko]

I mean, if a person is a sadistic asshole regardless, I would prefer that person to be aware of the fact and consider it when they make their decisions.

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Yeah, but giving more power to them, specifically ring power in this case, seems like a bad idea.

 

[BlueMangoAdea]

Yeah, but giving more power to them, specifically ring power in this case, seems like a bad idea.

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The phrase "more power to [someone]" does not mean literally giving them more power. It is a phrase used to show one's approval. In this specific case,

Hey, if he knows he's a sadistic asshole, more power to him. Might make for a good step on the path to enlightenment,

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CP is approving the self-awareness of the sadistic asshole.

 

[Darko]

The phrase "more power to [someone]" does not mean literally giving them more power. It is a phrase used to show one's approval. In this specific case,

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I know that, but when Chojin said it I kinda thought it meant more ring power.

 

[webxro]

Hey, I have a weird question, I was re-reading the thingie to mark some stuff for something else, and I don't seem to recall what happened to the rest of the paragon citadelians. Any chance for them to show up with some anti-lantern weapons they still have in stock and back up the Reach
? Or with a few very bitter and vengeful Psions ?

 

[Darko]

Hey, I have a weird question, I was re-reading the thingie to mark some stuff for something else, and I don't seem to recall what happened to the rest of the paragon citadelians. Any chance for them to show up with some anti-lantern weapons they still have in stock and back up the Reach
? Or with a few very bitter and vengeful Psions ?

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Paragon mind controlled hundreds of them and later on only a dozen were left and the others were executed.

Some of them did escape, but they were either hunted down by Kori, Kom or the Vega Alliance by now.

There probably aren't that many left if they're still alive.

 

[Cherico]

I almost felt sorry for them then I remembered its the reach so I brought out the popcorn instead.

 

[webxro]

Paragon mind controlled hundreds of them and later on only a dozen were left and the others were executed.

Some of them did escape, but they were either hunted down by Kori, Kom or the Vega Alliance by now.

There probably aren't that many left if they're still alive.

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No, I mean in one chapter they offhandedly mention that those that didn't get killed during the citadel complex destruction just vanished. I don't have any scraped version to quote the exact line, but I read that yesterday and todays chapter somehow got me thinking.

 

[Darko]

No, I mean in one chapter they offhandedly mention that those that didn't get killed during the citadel complex destruction just vanished. I don't have any scraped version to quote the exact line, but I read that yesterday and todays chapter somehow got me thinking.

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High chance that they were hunted down by Kori, Kom and the rest of Vega after that.

Still maybe we'll see them again in the future.

 

[Handlewithcare]

Velus is at least a useful monster.

Not much of a compliment, but then Paul is all about rehabilitation, right?

 

[Xmaster3000]

This latest segment reminded me that Paul is good at leading warbands.

 

[Pez]

it will certainly make it easier for Jade to visit Earth.

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Has she visited at all? I was under the impression that Paul was doing all the traveling, because she can't exactly charter s ship to fly her all the way to Earth, while he can just teleport.

Also, are we going to see Artemis's debriefing with Batman after this battle is over?

Edit: added

This latest segment reminded me that Paul is good at leading warbands.

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Actually, I disagree. He doesn't really know the capabilities of his troops. He's knows these aren't the best trained Lanterns, and is just trusting that they've been trained enough to react how he would given the situation. I could understand that if the OLC has been around for awhile, and he'd know from experience what every OL was capable of after training, but he really doesn't, and nothing in the story indicates that.

Everything in this battle is going well, so far, which is good, but it could easily have gone the other way. You don't fight an important battle based on faith. It's bad enough Vox had Paul do something mission critical that he'd never done before, without even discussing it with him. Now Paul is just continuing to just go with the flow, unless he used his ring to review their training records off screen with it being mentioned to the readers.

 

[Grek]

Honestly, Velus seems like one of the first sort of psychological profiles Dox would think to try. He's recruiting people as operators of yearning-based superweapons, and he wants those operators to use the superweapons to kill a whole bunch of Reach. Getting a guy who 100% always down to kill literally anything and offering him the superweapon contingent on him killing only stuff that you're OK with dying just seems like an obvious approach to try.

 

[Jirachi]

huma
Ideally, they might want to do a ~simultaneous attack using Honden-ported Controllers - In principle, it seems like a squad of Central Power Battery Bonded Controllers could probably traverse safely through the Honden while being dragged along by Hinon - or perhaps even move themselves, and it seems like Controller's ought to be able to do well against a fleet, considering what we've seen of lanterns so far.

 

[frommerman]

The SI, in story, has said he doesn't want a Lantern Corps of psychopaths. He doesn't want a legion of monsters only obsessed with the destruction of the Reach.

It's FINE if that's their main desire, if that's their drive, but they need reasons, wants, to not go Orange Light crazy while all of that is happening.

The SI should never have stopped recruiting or trainings the OLC. (Which are apparently his main jobs in it outside of leading them in the field? Even though he hasn't ever once trained to lead lanterns or with leading Orange Lanterns...ever?) These kinds of 'It's fine if I die I just want revenge' Lanterns are a product of the SI not doing his job and just going back to Earth for SO much of the OLC's inception.

EDIT: If I haven't made it clear: This is a failing on the SI's part for not continuing his recruiting through the Honden and training all of the Orange Lanterns.

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We're seeing the cross-section of the corps which gets sent on a possible suicide mission deep into enemy territory. Of course they're going to be psychopaths.

But we know for a fact that this isn't the only kind of lantern Dox has recruited. For instance, that Clicker whose whole thing was defending the hive. Not entirely neuronormative, but not dangerous or a psychopath at all.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

Interesting to see Lanterns using their rings to cause various effects. I was honestly expecting them all to bust out Crumbler tech.

Seriously I know Darkseid has an ego, but having his face on the ships?

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The man wants to replace the will of every thing in the entire universe with his own Will. That's ego beyond ego.

Velus is at least a useful monster.

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If you have monstrous urges, and yet channel them for good/in positive ways....is that not a plus?

 

[FreeGod]

Velus is at least a useful monster.

Not much of a compliment, but then Paul is all about rehabilitation, right?

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I don't know about rehabilitation Paul does have limited time, but the galaxy is unlikely to run out of even worse monsters to point Velus at.

 

[Vaermina]

I hope they had a strike team disable the planetary suicide charges before hand.

Otherwise there are going to be a lot of dead bodies resulting from this.

 

[Stsword]

The man wants to replace the will of every thing in the entire universe with his own Will. That's ego beyond ego.

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Actually it's probably overcompensation.

Darkseid was and is terrified of his father. And for good reason, generally his father makes Darkseid look like a sweet faced little girl trying to sell you some thin mint cookies.

Darkseid grew up with his older brother being the favorite, the crown prince.

Darkseid's mother? Had his wife killed, because Darkseid loved her and she made him happy, and Helga wanted Darkseid with a hole in his soul he'd futilely try to fill with vengeance and power.

Although, as ever, that might not apply here in Zoat's version...

 

[Old Knife]

And there it goes, the beam of antiplasma flying past us to ruin someone's day in a million years

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Wouldn't the beam dissipate/ diffuse to the point of uselessness by then?

 

[Darko]

Actually it's probably overcompensation.

Darkseid was and is terrified of his father. And for good reason, generally his father makes Darkseid look like a sweet faced little girl trying to sell you some thin mint cookies.

Darkseid grew up with his older brother being the favorite, the crown prince.

Darkseid's mother? Had his wife killed, because Darkseid loved her and she made him happy, and Helga wanted Darkseid with a hole in his soul he'd futilely try to fill with vengeance and power.

Although, as ever, that might not apply here in Zoat's version...

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Actually I think they do.

It was mentioned that Desaad killed Suli on Heggra's orders, and Darkseid told renegade that he gained the understanding for using a part of the AL Equation, specifically the one he infected renegade with, from that incident.

So you're not wrong.

 

[Coda]

It's as if humans had ships shaped like monkeys.

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I mean... Gundams?

zhe's probably confident in his abilities

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Missed fixing the "his"

Wouldn't the beam dissipate/ diffuse to the point of uselessness by then?

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I mean, it'll get ablated by the hydrogen in the interstellar medium along the way, but that's still a lot of energy and not a lot of matter to block it, and the fact that it's a beam in the first place means there's some sort of exotic effect containing it -- a plasma left to its own devices will immediately begin dissipating as it's made of charged ions that mutually repel each other.

Given the exotic containment, my guess is that it's more likely to cool down over time from blackbody radiation. Without knowing more about the technology, it's hard to predict what it'll condense to once it stops having enough energy to be plasma... but it won't stop being antimatter.

 

[Vaermina]

Wouldn't the beam dissipate/ diffuse to the point of uselessness by then?

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In nearly all cases, yes.

Of course, there's also the question of why anybody would use antimatter plasma as a weapon instead of just a straight up positron or electron near light speed particle beam in the first place.

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Having Antimatter as a Plasma means it can be magnetically bottled away from Normal Matter, unlike an uncharged lump would be. Antimatter Plasma would be more easy to deal with if the firing system as well, giving it less of a chance to react with local mass. simply release it outside the hull with a directional magnetic field to repel the charged plasma. The fact that it's Plasma is secondary to the payload of antimatter itself, and is simply the method of delivery.

Still, it's a pretty indiscriminate weapon considering average hydrogen density in deep space. Even if it does disperse it'll still have some energetic reactions further down the line.....most anti matter weapons would be.

Star Trek usually gets a pass on their 'photon' torpedoes being antimatter because they keep equal parts matter and antimatter and aim for local annihilation and conversion, along with the extra mass of the torpedo, to cover any loose antimatter after a detonation. Still crazy, but since their own power generation for federation ships are antimatter already, it's fairly easy for them to take some from the onboard stores as they have it 'on tap'

Reminds me of the old stardestroyer.net rants, where 'imperial intelligence' captures the court preceding for the designer of the Galaxy Class, on the various horrors of engineering it demonstrates.

I will state that having thought about it over the last few minutes, the Romulans using micro singularities for their power generation actually sounds safer. All a unstable singularity will do is evaporate al-la Hawking radiation, rather then have the containment fail leading to anti matter detonation.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Wouldn't the beam dissipate/ diffuse to the point of uselessness by then?

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It doesn't take a lot of antimatter to ruin someone's day.

Missed fixing the "his"

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd July 2012
10:47 GMT -5

The defence fleet reorientates as the four of us grow steadily closer. I don't think that they honestly believe that we're the main attack; Reach ships are known to be able to kill Lanterns, and I see they've reactivated some of the older models and sent them to the Reserve Fleet we're currently facing.

Not that the old ships are worse than the more recently constructed ones. Far from it. Rather, they're optimised for fighting Lanterns, targets they stopped needing to specialise against once their war with the Green Lantern Corps ended. Ships whose forward deployment might have been taken by the Guardians as an indication that they were thinking about fighting Lanterns again. Those things are ships that the Orange Lantern Corps has run training exercises about; they don't try and kill Lanterns with direct fire. They usually have some small direct fire weapons for coup de grâce shots, but their primary armaments are things like spatial disruptors which can cover huge volumes of space, or telepathic weapons which interfere with a Lantern's focus and so their ability to create and maintain constructs.

A few ships try firing on us, but the sheer volume of space that they're trying to cover means that there's next to no chance of them scoring a hit. I spot two drone carriers launch their cargoes in our directions, but since they're forced to travel at sublight speeds they won't be in effective weapons range until long after we overtake our quarry. If that's all they can do…

"Illustres to Clarissi. Reach fleet doesn't appear to have long range FTL weapons."

"Obviously. Empathic results?"

"Crew well motivated and sure of themselves. They know that they're unlikely to survive, but they believe that they can cripple us. I can't see anything related to a clever strategy or concealed allies."

"Scarabs?"

"They're blocking me, so they're probably-."

"Understood."

The connection fades. Well, alright, naturally he's paying attention to the only active combat currently taking place. But if he's done an analysis on the weapons the defenders are actually using, couldn't he have shared that with us? He's a far better analyst than me.

"So..?" Velus flies a little closer. "Are you planning on fighting..?"

"Ideally, I won't. Dox has me here for two reasons, but it would be far better for Orange Lanterns who aren't me to get experience in real combat with their rings against our primary enemy."

"Oh? Well, we got two minutes until we're in effective attack range… So?"

"We will lose battles during this war. That is practically unavoidable. But this is a fight we're supposed to win, to spur on our allies and potential allies. Losing here is unacceptable. If something strange happens and all other forces we're bringing to bear aren't enough, it's my job to ensure a victory."

"Because you're a super-Lantern."

"I'm not sure that I'm the most powerful Lantern in the universe, but I'm either number one or number two. It.. being understood that raw power isn't the only measure of ability. To the best of my knowledge the Reach don't have anything I can't defeat, but me having to do so would prove that Dox's preparations have been essentially useless. That's bad, politically."

"If you say so. What's the other reason?"

"My usual job. If an Orange Lantern goes crazy, it's my job to disarm them."

"You had to do that before?"

"A couple of times. Larfleeze was my first. The others were easier."

"Crazy Orange Lanterns are supposed to get real powerful."

"As I said, power isn't the only measure of ability. Clarissi Dox isn't all that powerful, but his understanding of weapons and technology means that he can do more with it. You heard about my fight with Lantern Ragnar?"

"He tells everyone. I think he's proud of it. Do you think you'll need to do something like that here?"

"No. I'm just insurance. But I'm trying to stay close to the most worrisome cases."

"Huh. Yeah, I guess that's fair. But all the targets in this system are military, aren't they?"

"If you can't identify targets-"

All four of us evade as a.. relatively weak gravity wave erupts outwards from the drive of our quarry. They appear to have accepted that they're not going to escape. Quite clever, really; their ship isn't designed to be able to do that and they must have reengineered the thing in flight without losing acceleration.

"-then you shouldn't be in the field."

But that sacrifice in acceleration for a desperation attack means that we're getting into attack range. Brobranbrak's ring glows brilliantly, then I'm surprised that zhe turns zhe's head away from the target to glance at me. Then zhe forms a… Crumbler ram construct and throws it towards the Reach ship.

"Well done. But-."

The ship begins to twist, and the moment it can bring any of its guns to bear it fires at the construct. Brobranbrak winces, but the construct collapses.

"-all Reach ships have weapons precise enough to snipe constructs. You need-."

"I do not need you to explain it to me."

Zhe reforms the ram and adds an outer shield before launching it again. I've felt like that before; the lesson is obvious and a person of reasonable intelligence can work it out without a tutor drawing particular attention to it. And zhe might have wanted to weigh up the ship's flak capacities for zheself. I shouldn't assume that Lantern Brobranbrak allowed zhe's contempt for aliens to influence zhe's decision.

So it's good that I don't have to assume things, and I could just check and confirm that's why. Still, I'll call it a win if zhe's abilities are improved by the event. No real need to labour the point.

The Reach ship fires again, but Lantern Brobranbrak remembers to have zhe's construct evade so that the shield only needs to take a couple of hits before slamming into the ship's shield envelope. The shield flares as the smart control system tries to respond to the thing that's hitting it before-. It's gone, and the ram carries on to punch a hole in the hull beneath.

Worth knowing. For a ship this size, smart shielding is the most efficient form of defence. But the standard 'neutral' defence is essentially an unusually efficient plasma shield, and crumber technology goes right through that.

Guns around the area struck lose power and some atmosphere vents, but that-.

There's a flare of light from inside the ship, and its motion becomes less controlled. Most ships that size don't focus on internal defences beyond teleport jammers, on the assumption that if the shields and armour have been breached then the ship's doomed anyway. Sticking a fission bomb is usually more than enough to wreck them from inside.

Quick check…

"Kill confirmed."

I check the system. The L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet is well inside the system, and will be coming within-.

I feel a new-. A cluster of new lights enter the system on another vector. Not reading L.E.G.I.O.N. transponders. If they're Reach ships-.

"Clarissi to Illustres. Return to the fleet at once."

"Acknowledged. Returning now."

 

[Coda]

might have been taking by the Guardians

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taken

 

[HatsAreHats]

Man this guy's a grade A dumbass. I know orange madness isn't exactly conducive to intelligent thought but Larfleeze could be pretty clever even through the haze.

 

[Darko]

been taking by the Guardians

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'taken'

their ship isn't design to be able

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'designed'

adds a outer shield

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maybe 'adds an'

I shouldn't assume that Lantern Brobranbrak allowed zhe's contempt for aliens to influence zhe's decision.

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Somehow I think it was influenced by his hate for aliens.

So it's good that I don't have to assume things, and I could just check and confirm that's why.

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Called it.

Most ships that side

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maybe 'that size'

that it the shields and armour

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'that if'