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

[MagnumForce]

Always fun to see the Reach get wrecked, hope we get more of that for some time and it doesnt go to shot any time soon.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Can't tell exactly what it's armed with without using active sensors...
...of which there aren't any in this galaxy...

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Neruz]

How different are the Tau in this story? Like are the ethereals mind controlling their subjects, and stuff?

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Ethereal mind influencing hormones are canon, though the exact extent of the influence is debatable.

 

[Mr Zoat]

How different are the Tau in this story? Like are the ethereals mind controlling their subjects, and stuff?

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Basically, if you read the novel Fire Warrior, it's like that. Other tau calm down around them and are inclined to listen to what they say, but the Ethereals believe in the Greater Good just as much as the others and don't gainsay O's in their own fields.

 

[Duke Long]

29th April 2013
13:09 GMT

I keep my environmental shield under my power armour and engage my full stealth suite the instant I appear in the Reach system. Looking around with passive sensors and empathic vision shows… There's a large space station at the LaGrange point closest to the target planet.

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'Lagrange'? But that's just based on a quick search.

 

[Mr Zoat]

'Lagrange'? But that's just based on a quick search.

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Ardy]

Getting more and more worried an effigy is going to get killed deep in reach space, and they won't be able to recover his biological remains before retreating so the reach start reverse engineering vitrumite bullshit

 

[rdfox]

Ah, yes. One reason most science fiction space combat takes place at knife-fight ranges. Too far and light-speed lag becomes a factor...

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Interesting trivia note: Starting back around 1990, Star Trek actually started not only lampshading this, but giving what is, frankly, a very good in-universe pair of justifications for it. Starting with the TNG Technical Manual, they explained that phasers were a speed-of-light weapon and thus limited to an effective range of one light-second (or about the distance from the Earth to the Moon), not by parallax spread of the pencil beams causing their effective power to drop off to ineffectual levels at that range, but by the fact that an enemy that's maneuvering evasively is going to be making random movements--truly random, not following a predictable pattern--at random short intervals, and if the travel time is more than about one second, even the best targeting computer with predictive algorithms won't be able to keep the beam on target, so scoring hits at ranges of more than one light second is essentially impossible. (This also explains why, ever since, phasers haven't been used while at warp speed--a lightspeed weapon is pretty useless when you're moving FTL, after all.)

Meanwhile, photon torpedoes (and, later, quantum torpedoes) are... complex, yet it still justifies knife-fight range for them. They are self-propelled, self-guided weapons that use a subspace "sustainer" engine to power and steer them; this engine isn't a full warp drive and they can't go superluminal when fired at sublight speeds, but they can maintain a slowly decaying superluminal speed when fired at warp speed. More importantly, this engine requires matter and antimatter to power it... which is drawn from the torpedo's warhead. The further the torpedo has to go (and the more it has to maneuver) to reach its target, the smaller the burst will be when the warhead is triggered, so they have a limit on their maximum effective range, too. (Sadly, it's not a consistant limit--even in-universe, it varies with the speed you're going when you fire it and the direction of travel. After all, if you're fleeing someone at Warp 9 and they're pursuing at Warp 9.2, and you fire a torpedo aft at them, all the torpedo really needs to do is drop out of warp and then make relatively small maneuvers to let the other guy plow into it at a few thousand times the speed of light, with minimal propellant usage, so the range would be drawn as an ellipsoid around the firing ship with the radius at each theta angle varying with the speed of the ship at firing, the speed of the target, and the amount of maneuvering the torpedo has to make to reach that point.) So firing them at close range not only makes hitting easier, it makes them hit harder, too.

As a trivia note, the maximum theoretical yield of a TNG-era photon torpedo warhead, based on the TNG Tech Manual's quoted reactant mass of deuterium and antideuterium, works out to about 70 megatons if the magnetic containment fields are set for the optimum mix and thus complete annihilation of the reactant mass... which is a setting that the manual notes is actually prohibited for operational use by a number of interstellar strategic arms limitations treaties. Compare this to the 57 megaton yield that the largest nuclear weapon ever fired (the Tsar Bomba) had, the 100 megaton yield it was designed for (it was fired at reduced power for a "clean" test with minimized fallout, for both environmental and propaganda purposes), and the 1,000 megaton yield of the largest nuke ever devised, the Gigaton Bomb that US designers had roughly sketched out (though they didn't complete the design to a buildable state) as a next step in "one-upping" the Soviets in the Cold War. (The Gigaton Bomb was not going to be a deliverable weapon; the mass of fission and fusion fuel required meant that it would have basically just been a one-off dick enlarger, constructed in situ for the test. Even the Tsar Bomba was only barely deliverable as a weapon, and too large to be economically viable against any target that wasn't New York City, Chicago, or Los Angeles. The only plausible use case for a Gigaton Bomb would be in a doomsday machine of the sort described in Dr. Strangelove, with all the same negatives that the movie pointed out. This, combined with the ongoing Limited Test Ban Treaty negotiations that were going to result in a treaty that would make it impossible to actually conduct a Gigaton Bomb test and thus making it pointless to actually construct, resulted in its cancellation well before the design progressed far beyond the "back of a napkin" feasibility study phase.)

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
13:14 GMT

Now, those ships will be transmitting. There's a definite advantage in pulling out in an effort to keep them ignorant. Throwing a few qwa-bolts at any of the remaining ships might have also been an idea, if it was possible to bring them here. But perhaps some other weapon to imply qwardian involvement? Goodness knows that with the civil strife they're going through, plenty of Weaponers will be reaching out, either to trade or grab.

Given what happened to Varnathon, probably grab.

I doubt that the Reach would question either how qwardians got here or why they attacked. They know who they are, and they… Must know about the internal strife, if only because their qwa matter suppliers aren't answering the space-phone-.

Oh, the Effigies are moving. Looks like they've decided to destroy the main space station as well. Should be within their abilities, and their route takes them through the heavier ships.

Reinforcements…

There's a certain added alertness beginning to spread. The Reach are reasonably free with access to combat data, but it isn't all that practical to share what they're deploying against in real time with everyone. So I suspect that the commanding admiral-equivalent is watching what's happening right now while their subordinates get everything organised. The individual members of crew won't know exactly what they're jumping into…

A-hh… The interdiction fields around the edge of the system have switched. That's… Going to boost Reach faster than light drives, interesting. You'd have to surround… Which they do, this far inside their space… Bit of a risk, though I suppose they assume that if the enemy is already attacking and the interdiction fields closer to the border are still functioning then it shouldn't really be a problem…

The station isn't bothering to send out manned fighters, but it is dumping drones. Optical scans show… Some are weapon drones, but a majority are sensor drones. They think that the most important thing they can do is gather data. I could step closer and destroy the drones, but… Other than my presence there isn't anything to link them to N.E.M.O., but…

I don't know exactly how Jevek has been recruiting, but there's no such thing as an absolute secret in this war. Both sides have good data sharing and analytics. It might be nice to stop them getting good images, but if they were capable of understanding Controller-level bioengineering they'd be doing a lot better in the war than they are.

Though… Is Scarab phasing combatable with the modifications? What would they need in the way of tissue samples to clone or adapt the bio-modifications? As far as I know they can't make rings…

No, I should leave Mr. Wyck to it. Nothing critical is going to be lost, and my relationship with him and his improvement as a squad leader are more important. I think. If an Effigy-Scarab turns up in a few months boy is there going to be egg on my face.

The drones evaporate as they get closer, Effigies weaving around to get the largest number possible with their matter disruption abilities. Drones are dying, the ones that are shooting doing no damage that I can see. And not just no significant damage, none at all. Gun drones aren't exactly the Reach's most powerful weapon, but they're taking a lot of fire.

So I guess that red stuff isn't clothing. Martian clothing isn't anything like that resilient. It's… Their altered skin. Which means that either they've got some specific shapeshifting, or they've given up sexual function. And I'm not sure if they can eat, because I'm not seeing any way for them to excrete. Maybe their molecular disruption ability deals with that? Bloody tough, though. My power armour would be getting abraded by now if I were there. And they're not really doing the sort of frenetic auto-viffing that a Lantern can do.

No Scarabs yet.

The drone swarm is being whittled down, and-.

I wince as one of the Effigies takes a direct hit from one of the larger warship's main guns. For a moment I can't see-. There they are, checking themselves for wounds… And realising that they're fine, sighting the ship and-.

And that's one ship down. No subtlety at all, just accelerating far faster than the others are and flying through the ship. Shields and armour either not engaged or far too weak.

I mentally revise my estimations of their abilities upwards.

Kryptonian level? Can't be sure. The only kryptonian I've seen go all-out with brute strength was Nam-Ek, and he wasn't really focused. Or attacking hardened targets. Kind of… Interesting how the ship's sagging in the middle. I think he disrupted its insides, and the continued uneven acceleration is causing it to push itself apart. So their strength doesn't need them to focus their telekinesis.

The other ships react, moving away from each other. Against Lanterns they'd combine their smaller weapons to create zones in which Lanterns couldn't fly without getting hit by something, and where constructs would be destroyed almost immediately. But with Effigies that doesn't work. The smaller guns do nothing, but their flight paths are easier to predict. So they're saving their time and aiming their big guns, because even if it isn't enough it's still their best chance. Man-sized targets with low emissions aren't the easiest target to hit with slow-traverse guns, so my respect goes to their gunnery as well their commander.

But even as the last of the attack drones overload their drives and make suicide attacks in an attempt to hem the Effigies in, most of their shots still miss. The ones that hit don't really do anything. Even a direct hit to the face barely disorientates them, and that's probably something they can train themselves out of.

Nothing exotic from the Reach. Which makes sense. This is a military facility, but it's not vital, on a front line or a weapons development facility-.

Mr. van Wyck is pointing and the Effigy squad splits up to destroy the ships. They're doing that rather than push on to the station, which… Is an interesting choice. They should know that the ships can't hurt them, and that's something that I should feed back to him about. And… Yeah. The ships don't have any other tricks. Once an Effigy gets their hands on them, it's only-.

One ship erupts in a colossal explosion, detonating its entire fuel store in an attempt to kill the Effigy killing it. That's not something that's easy to make happen. Ships are laid out not to explode, but if they started the moment that they detected the intruders… I don't think we have to worry about the others doing the same thing, though if it actually does anything-.

No, the Effigy is stunned but otherwise uninjured, and Mr. van Wyck darts in to check on them as the rest of the ships come apart. Still the station to...

Several members of the squad turn away and vanish.

Go. Okay? A couple hang around to finish off the ships that still have some power and crew, and then they… Head for the border as well at maximum speed. Mr. van Wyck is helping… Ah, they're waking up. They-.

"Okay, we're pulling out. Do you need anything else?"

Use their faster than light travel to fly back to me.

"No, thank you, that's perfectly fine. Good work." He doesn't look completely sure on that score. "You hit your targets. We can do a full feedback session on our side of the border."

"Right. You coming with?"

"I want to stay here and see how long it takes their backup to arrive. I'll follow you afterwards."

"Alright. Baez, you need any help?"

The other Effigy pushes his squad leader off, and I can't see any injuries on him. "No, sir, I'm fine. Just a bit of a shock. Let's get going."

Mr. van Wyck nods, but waits until Baez accelerates away before following him himself.

With them gone I switch to active scans, taking in every detail of the wrecked ships and slips. The station dispatching recovery vessels towards the wrecks, and the ships from the outer parts of the system making it in-system and clearly not really being sure what to do. After a short delay they head for where the slips used to be, presumably to get a closer look at the damage.

It's another eight minutes until the reinforcement fleet arrives, and then it's time to

go.

 

[Ngamer11]

No, I should leave Mr. Wyck to it. Nothing critical is going to be lost, and my relationship with him and his improvement as a squad leader are more important. I think. If a Effigy-Scarab turns up in a few months boy is there going to be egg on my face.

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That should say 'an'.

 

[Mr Zoat]

That should say 'an'.

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Whenever Possible]

I assume their costumes are whatever material Viltrumites use for their clothing. If Omniman's costume could survive that laser satellite strike, I'm sure it could handle Reach gun drones.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

29th April 2013
13:14 GMT

Now, those ships will be transmitting. There's a definite advantage in pulling out in an effort to keep them ignorant. Throwing a few qwa-bolts at any of the remaining ships might have also been an idea, if it was possible to bring them here. But perhaps some other weapon to imply qwardian involvement? Goodness knows that with the civil strife they're going through, plenty of Weaponers will be reaching out, either to trade or grab.

Click to shrink...

With any luck, the Reach will attribute this to a peculiar form of Qwardian terrorist attack. Especially if OL hasn't really gone 'hot'. and Orange Light signatures could betaken as some sort of exotic observer drone or the like.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Given what happened to Varnathon, probably grab.

I doubt that the Reach would question either how qwardians got here or why they attacked. They know who they are, and they… Must know about the internal strife, if only because their qwa matter suppliers aren't answering the space-phone-.

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Though what reason they could have to stage an attack deep in Reach space might be a handy source of confusion. Unless they decide 'some sort of new weapon test, perhaps.'

Oh, the Effigies are moving. Looks like they've decided to destroy the main space station as well. Should be within their abilities, and their route takes them through the heavier ships.

Reinforcements…

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If anything, they'd probably be best of using the ships as bludgeons. assuming they have the strength to start slinging them about, anyway.

There's a certain added alertness beginning to spread. The Reach are reasonably free with access to combat data, but it isn't all that practical to share what they're deploying against in real time with everyone. So I suspect that the commanding admiral-equivalent is watching what's happening right now while their subordinates get everything organised. The individual members of crew won't know exactly what they're jumping into…

Click to shrink...

And they're probably well-drilled enough to handle most circumstances without oversight.

A-hh… The interdiction fields around the edge of the system have switched. That's… Going to boost Reach faster than light drives, interesting. You'd have to surround… Which they do, this far inside their space… Bit of a risk, though I suppose they assume that if the enemy is already attacking and the interdiction fields closer to the border are still functioning then it shouldn't really be a problem…

Click to shrink...

And if they got any scans as the Effigy team went in, they'd know they're not using Reach FTL. So making it easier to get allies in-system won't help the attackers escape.

The station isn't bothering to send out manned fighters, but it is dumping drones. Optical scans show… Some are weapon drones, but a majority are sensor drones. They think that the most important thing they can do is gather data. I could step closer and destroy the drones, but… Other than my presence there isn't anything to link them to N.E.M.O., but…

Click to shrink...

Sensible, though I doubt they're going to be able to get much sense of it other than 'unusually dense biology' and 'seemingly super-reachian levels of physical ability'. Maybe 'exotic energy projection ability.'

I don't know exactly how Jevek has been recruiting, but there's no such thing as an absolute secret in this war. Both sides have good data sharing and analytics. It might be nice to stop them getting good images, but if they were capable of understanding Controller-level bioengineering they'd be doing a lot better in the war than they are.

Click to shrink...

And with most of the Effigy enhancements being internal and genetic, there isn't much of the way in clues in their external appearance.

Though… Is Scarab phasing combatable with the modifications? What would they need in the way of tissue samples to clone or adapt the bio-modifications? As far as I know they can't make rings…

No, I should leave Mr. Wyck to it. Nothing critical is going to be lost, and my relationship with him and his improvement as a squad leader are more important. I think. If an Effigy-Scarab turns up in a few months boy is there going to be egg on my face.

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If that happens, Jevek is going to be the one in the biggest trouble.

The drones evaporate as they get closer, Effigies weaving around to get the largest number possible with their matter disruption abilities. Drones are dying, the ones that are shooting doing no damage that I can see. And not just no significant damage, none at all. Gun drones aren't exactly the Reach's most powerful weapon, but they're taking a lot of fire.

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There's that viltrumite durability.

So I guess that red stuff isn't clothing. Martian clothing isn't anything like that resilient. It's… Their altered skin. Which means that either they've got some specific shapeshifting, or they've given up sexual function. And I'm not sure if they can eat, because I'm not seeing any way for them to excrete. Maybe their molecular disruption ability deals with that? Bloody tough, though. My power armour would be getting abraded by now if I were there. And they're not really doing the sort of frenetic auto-viffing that a Lantern can do.

Click to shrink...

Or, like kryptonians, any kind of close-range forcefield protects their dangly bits, if they have any, as well as the clothign covering them...

No Scarabs yet.

The drone swarm is being whittled down, and-.

I wince as one of the Effigies takes a direct hit from one of the larger warship's main guns. For a moment I can't see-. There they are, checking themselves for wounds… And realising that they're fine, sighting the ship and-.

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Grinning evilly? I know I would be if I tanked a heavy cruiser's cannon like that. Once the 'holy shit, that just happened!' shock wore off.

And that's one ship down. No subtlety at all, just accelerating far faster than the others are and flying through the ship. Shields and armour either not engaged or far too weak.

I mentally revise my estimations of their abilities upwards.

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As well you should. The Reach will probably be worrying about that now once they see this data.

Kryptonian level? Can't be sure. The only kryptonian I've seen go all-out with brute strength was Nam-Ek, and he wasn't really focused. Or attacking hardened targets. Kind of… Interesting how the ship's sagging in the middle. I think he disrupted its insides, and the continued uneven acceleration is causing it to push itself apart. So their strength doesn't need them to focus their telekinesis.

Click to shrink...

Probably smashed a main structural spar. The equivalent of a keel.

The other ships react, moving away from each other. Against Lanterns they'd combine their smaller weapons to create zones in which Lanterns couldn't fly without getting hit by something, and where constructs would be destroyed almost immediately. But with Effigies that doesn't work. The smaller guns do nothing, but their flight paths are easier to predict. So they're saving their time and aiming their big guns, because even if it isn't enough it's still their best chance. Man-sized targets with low emissions aren't the easiest target to hit with slow-traverse guns, so my respect goes to their gunnery as well their commander.

Click to shrink...

What's the bet they're overriding the lock-on system and eyeballing it? Lead their target a little, with any lag it'll splash on them.

But even as the last of the attack drones overload their drives and make suicide attacks in an attempt to hem the Effigies in, most of their shots still miss. The ones that hit don't really do anything. Even a direct hit to the face barely disorientates them, and that's probably something they can train themselves out of.

Nothing exotic from the Reach. Which makes sense. This is a military facility, but it's not vital, on a front line or a weapons development facility-.

Click to shrink...

Now, if they were attacking some exotic research facility, they'd likely be dropping the fun stuff on them.

Mr. van Wyck is pointing and the Effigy squad splits up to destroy the ships. They're doing that rather than push on to the station, which… Is an interesting choice. They should know that the ships can't hurt them, and that's something that I should feed back to him about. And… Yeah. The ships don't have any other tricks. Once an Effigy gets their hands on them, it's only-.

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Probably realising they've bitten off a little more than they could chew. Smash a few more ships to cover their retreat, and...

One ship erupts in a colossal explosion, detonating its entire fuel store in an attempt to kill the Effigy killing it. That's not something that's easy to make happen. Ships are laid out not to explode, but if they started the moment that they detected the intruders… I don't think we have to worry about the others doing the same thing, though if it actually does anything-.

Click to shrink...

It won't. Any smart onlooker could see that coming.

No, the Effigy is stunned but otherwise uninjured, and Mr. van Wyck darts in to check on them as the rest of the ships come apart. Still the station to...

Several members of the squad turn away and vanish.

Click to shrink...

Super-luminal hops out of the combat zone? a risky reveal, but if it's needed to ensure a safe withdrawal...

Go. Okay? A couple hang around to finish off the ships that still have some power and crew, and then they… Head for the border as well at maximum speed. Mr. van Wyck is helping… Ah, they're waking up. They-.

"Okay, we're pulling out. Do you need anything else?"

Click to shrink...

Joy of relying on light-speed observation. By the time you saw them jump, they were nearly landing on you.

Use their faster than light travel to fly back to me.

"No, thank you, that's perfectly fine. Good work." He doesn't look completely sure on that score. "You hit your targets. We can do a full feedback session on our side of the border."

Click to shrink...

Because while a dozen or so humanoids are not easy to spot in space, they did see which way you ran. So unless they change course a couple of time before leaving the system, the enemy will get vectors.

"Right. You coming with?"

"I want to stay here and see how long it takes their backup to arrive. I'll follow you afterwards."

Click to shrink...

Not like he had to worry about travel time, after all.

"Alright. Baez, you need any help?"

The other Effigy pushes his squad leader off, and I can't see any injuries on him. "No, sir, I'm fine. Just a bit of a shock. Let's get going."

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If he took any, they'd already have healed up. Jevek went all out on the Effigy project, didn't he?

Mr. van Wyck nods, but waits until Baez accelerates away before following him himself.

With them gone I switch to active scans, taking in every detail of the wrecked ships and slips. The station dispatching recovery vessels towards the wrecks, and the ships from the outer parts of the system making it in-system and clearly not really being sure what to do. After a short delay they head for where the slips used to be, presumably to get a closer look at the damage.

Click to shrink...

Let's hope the Reach are too busy looking at the carnage to notice that ping.

It's another eight minutes until the reinforcement fleet arrives, and then it's time to

go.

Click to shrink...

Right, time to shepherd the rookies home. Then comes the debrief.

Not an unsuccessful exercise, though they made plenty of errors, and showed off a little more of their capabilities than they should have. Getting caught by the fireball, for instance, will give the Reach a good read on their durability and what it'll take to actually hurt them the next time they run into an Effigy. Though their primary response will probably be 'call in a Scarab.'

 

[Neruz]

Not an unsuccessful exercise, though they made plenty of errors, and showed off a little more of their capabilities than they should have. Getting caught by the fireball, for instance, will give the Reach a good read on their durability and what it'll take to actually hurt them the next time they run into an Effigy. Though their primary response will probably be 'call in a Scarab.'

Click to shrink...

I don't think its actually possible to harm an Effigy with conventional physical attacks, IIRC the only thing they're vulnerable to is water.

So they only thing they should have learned from the explosion is that explosions definitely don't work.

 

[Chaoswind]

With any luck, the Reach will attribute this to a peculiar form of Qwardian terrorist attack. Especially if OL hasn't really gone 'hot'. and Orange Light signatures could betaken as some sort of exotic observer drone or the like.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Though what reason they could have to stage an attack deep in Reach space might be a handy source of confusion. Unless they decide 'some sort of new weapon test, perhaps.'


If anything, they'd probably be best of using the ships as bludgeons. assuming they have the strength to start slinging them about, anyway.


And they're probably well-drilled enough to handle most circumstances without oversight.


And if they got any scans as the Effigy team went in, they'd know they're not using Reach FTL. So making it easier to get allies in-system won't help the attackers escape.


Sensible, though I doubt they're going to be able to get much sense of it other than 'unusually dense biology' and 'seemingly super-reachian levels of physical ability'. Maybe 'exotic energy projection ability.'


And with most of the Effigy enhancements being internal and genetic, there isn't much of the way in clues in their external appearance.


If that happens, Jevek is going to be the one in the biggest trouble.


There's that viltrumite durability.


Or, like kryptonians, any kind of close-range forcefield protects their dangly bits, if they have any, as well as the clothign covering them...


Grinning evilly? I know I would be if I tanked a heavy cruiser's cannon like that. Once the 'holy shit, that just happened!' shock wore off.


As well you should. The Reach will probably be worrying about that now once they see this data.


Probably smashed a main structural spar. The equivalent of a keel.


What's the bet they're overriding the lock-on system and eyeballing it? Lead their target a little, with any lag it'll splash on them.


Now, if they were attacking some exotic research facility, they'd likely be dropping the fun stuff on them.


Probably realising they've bitten off a little more than they could chew. Smash a few more ships to cover their retreat, and...


It won't. Any smart onlooker could see that coming.


Super-luminal hops out of the combat zone? a risky reveal, but if it's needed to ensure a safe withdrawal...


Joy of relying on light-speed observation. By the time you saw them jump, they were nearly landing on you.


Because while a dozen or so humanoids are not easy to spot in space, they did see which way you ran. So unless they change course a couple of time before leaving the system, the enemy will get vectors.


Not like he had to worry about travel time, after all.


If he took any, they'd already have healed up. Jevek went all out on the Effigy project, didn't he?


Let's hope the Reach are too busy looking at the carnage to notice that ping.


Right, time to shepherd the rookies home. Then comes the debrief.

Not an unsuccessful exercise, though they made plenty of errors, and showed off a little more of their capabilities than they should have. Getting caught by the fireball, for instance, will give the Reach a good read on their durability and what it'll take to actually hurt them the next time they run into an Effigy. Though their primary response will probably be 'call in a Scarab.'

Click to shrink...

I mean Effigy has already battled smaller ship, Scarabs and aided the NEMO military grunts in combat in multiple periphery encounters, so the Reach should already have him in their database, Paul is being extremely optimistic that the Reach won't just compare the optic scans with their backed database of known NEMO assets. The new upgrades didn't significantly change how the guy looks after all.


The new effigy group and their expanded capabilities will be a shock, but their affiliation to NEMO is pretty much already confirmed.

 

[Darko]

individual members of crew

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"of the crew"

 

[Silverias]

"of the crew"

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I think that can be correct too

 

[Mr Zoat]

I mean Effigy has already battled smaller ship, Scarabs and aided the NEMO military grunts in combat in multiple periphery encounters, so the Reach should already have him in their database, Paul is being extremely optimistic that the Reach won't just compare the optic scans with their backed database of known NEMO assets. The new upgrades didn't significantly change how the guy looks after all.


The new effigy group and their expanded capabilities will be a shock, but their affiliation to NEMO is pretty much already confirmed.

Click to shrink...

If you read carefully, you'll see that when Mr. van Wyck attacked those Reach ships Jevek personally accompanied the attack and prevented any transmissions. He did that each time, though more to prevent his project making him look bad than out of strategic concerns.

 

[Steelplaza]

I wonder if they can finagle the comms issue by making a unit that goes inside the mouth. You know, clamps in behind a tooth or something (for those that have them). That should protect it from most outside attacks, though it would still have to deal with Effigy acceleration.

 

[Lord Ernest]

I don't think its actually possible to harm an Effigy with conventional physical attacks, IIRC the only thing they're vulnerable to is water.

So they only thing they should have learned from the explosion is that explosions definitely don't work.

Click to shrink...

If his powers were actually pyrokinesis as in canon, he would probably be vulnerable to water and low temperatures. But here it's telekinesis and shapeshifting, the "fire" is just matter disruption, so I don't think he has that canon-weakness.

Also, while extremely powerful, their strength and toughness is Viltrumite-based and Jevek mentioned that it's probably tied to their strength of will, so there probably is an upper limit to their physical resistance and strength.

 

[Darko]

If his powers were actually pyrokinesis as in canon, he would probably be vulnerable to water and low temperatures. But here it's telekinesis and shapeshifting, the "fire" is just matter disruption, so I don't think he has that canon-weakness.

Also, while extremely powerful, their strength and toughness is Viltrumite-based and Jevek mentioned that it's probably tied to their strength of will, so there probably is an upper limit to their physical resistance and strength.

Click to shrink...

And we have seen Viltrumites getting hurt and injured.

 

[Mr Zoat]

April 29th, 2013
Half an hour after we got back

I can't fucking stop twitching.

I was-. I mean, I expected to be nervous before, because… I've never been in charge… In command of… Anyone before. Legion officers took me seriously because I'm good at wrecking stuff, but I wasn't giving them orders. Or taking them, really. I just found whoever of them was running things and we talked things out. Or they asked me to do something and I did it, but they didn't order me to do it.

Anyway.

I thought I'd be nervous during the mission, but actually? Even when things weren't going quite right, I wasn't really worse than annoyed.

Can't believe that no one thought that we couldn't talk to each other.

But now? When the Illustres said that he'd 'like a quick word' and I'm thinking about everything that went wrong? I mean, 'a quick word'! What the fuck does that mean? I don't speak British! Does he want to tell me what he thought of it? Did he think it went well? We got all the objectives-. No, fuck, does he think it went badly? On his first big fight with the Reach he shielded the whole fleet from Grayven on his own! While singing! We were so bad at destroying their docks that we had to throw them at the planet and hope that worked!

No. He doesn't have any authority over me! I can explain things to the Controller and-.

"Mister-"

FUCK!

"-van Wyck?"

He looks… Like he's worried-? Like-.

FUCK! He's psychic! He can-.

Can you hear this?

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah! Yeah? I mean, mostly, heh."

Stop it. Even if he's just going to shout at me, the others-.

"So I think that went pretty well."

Oh.

And he's smiling. Okay! That's… That's weird.

"So I thought we could go over how you thought that went, then when you debrief your squad you'll have responses and solutions planned."

Ah. Oh, yeah, that-. Wait. Is he being helpful or is he being sarcastic? His accent-. I can't tell. I think he just speaks like that, so… Good?

"Good?"

"No mission ever goes perfectly, but this was meant as a shakedown mission so we could spot problems before you got deployed somewhere vital."

Does he mean actual-perfectly or shit-perfectly? Agh! I can't tell!

"Like..?"

"Well, what did you think?"

"I…" I suck at these questions. Every job interview-. Like, what are you supposed to say when someone asked what your worst thing is? "I… Well, we couldn't really talk to each other."

He nods. "Yes, I noticed you spotting that and coordinating the others. Good work."

It sounds so sarcastic but I don't think he means it like that!

"I don't know exactly how your ability works. Is there some sort of communications gear you could wear?"

Alright stop. Think. I tried radios and things like that, but my matter disruption tended to wreck it. But if I don't use that as much now I'm strong. I can just… Punch stuff. But if I do that and the headset-. Or whatever, isn't tough enough-.

"I don't think so. We mostly fight, like… Close up. If I fly though a ship, or melt things, then…"

Thank you God he nods.

"I assume that Controller Jevek isn't going to include a telepathy upgrade, or… Anything like that?"

The Controller doesn't tell me stuff like-.

"He hasn't mentioned it."

Good answer. Good answer.

"What sort of range can you normally speak?"

I've never tested it. Most of my missions only really involved me, and when I wanted to coordinate I could just fly up to someone. What's the longest distance..?

"About two hundred yards."

"Okay. Do you think you could bring some sort of drone with you? Something you could just use as a relay and dump off before you started fighting?"

Oh yeah, that could work. Have to be pretty small, but if we all had one and they were designed to talk to each other… The Legion engineering department could probably stick a basic one together, couldn't they?

"It could be set to self-destruct, or if we only made it with technology the Reach already have then we could just leave it there."

Okay, that's… Yeah, that would actually be helpful. Not being able to talk to each other was fucking stupid. People in the World War Two could do that.

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Did you notice anything else?"

Okay, that was… Yeah.

"We couldn't destroy the docks. Not completely. Wreck them, yeah, but we had to… Throw them at the planet."

I watch him-. He's nodding?

"I did the same thing when I attacked the Citadel Complex. It's not a bad way to destroy something big. Since there's no atmosphere in space a lot of things that would usually destroy everything around them don't. But… Can you Effigies combine your disruption power?"

"Like..?"

"Make it do more by working together? Green Lanterns can combine their efforts to make bigger constructs. Doesn't really work with.. Orange Lanterns, and I haven't seen enough Martians do what you can do to know if it works in the same way."

I thought they'd add up, but I didn't get the guys to try it out. Can't hurt to check, I guess.

Hey, this isn't so bad.

"Now, ah… The only other thing I noticed is that you didn't have any way to monitor neighbouring systems for incoming reinforcements. The only way I could think of to counter that would be to board one of the Reach monitoring stations and use their sensors, but that might be a little impractical."

No, I think a couple of the guys have computer skills. Weird alien computers don't mean anything to me, but there have to be some people around to understand them.

"Okay, that's all I've got. Was there anything you wanted to ask?"

"No. Ah. Thanks. This is… Helpful."

 

[Bigking321]

Huh.

Maybe this won't end in a gigantic fight over a miscommunication or anything.

I hope...

 

[Darko]

Ah. Oh, yeah, that-. Wait. Is he being helpful or is he being sarcastic? His accent-. I can't tell. I think he just speaks like that, so… Good

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I remember an episode of Human Resources where the Shame Wizard gives someone advice and they walk away, and he's then telling them that he was serious and it only sounded sarcastic because of his British accent.

Something you could just as a relay and dump

Click to shrink...

"use as a relay"

 

[Mr Zoat]

"use as a relay"

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

Wait, is this guy the Martin that was banished from Earth way back? The pornstar?

 

[Ngamer11]

Wait, is this guy the Martin that was banished from Earth way back? The pornstar?

Click to shrink...

No. He's Effigy Prime. The first person Jevek modified with Burning Martian DNA.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

April 29th, 2013
Half an hour after we got back

I can't fucking stop twitching.

I was-. I mean, I expected to be nervous before, because… I've never been in charge… In command of… Anyone before. Legion officers took me seriously because I'm good at wrecking stuff, but I wasn't giving them orders. Or taking them, really. I just found whoever of them was running things and we talked things out. Or they asked me to do something and I did it, but they didn't order me to do it.

Click to shrink...

Part of that is the comedown off the adrenaline high, part of it is the mental shock of 'holy shit, we pulled that off and lived!' And no small part of it is that you did this, Marty. You led them successfully. Not without problems, but none of you died. So that's a clear win for the project.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Anyway.

I thought I'd be nervous during the mission, but actually? Even when things weren't going quite right, I wasn't really worse than annoyed.

Can't believe that no one thought that we couldn't talk to each other.

Click to shrink...

Bet Jevek didn't even consider that no, they wouldn't just magically know what each other was planning.

But now? When the Illustres said that he'd 'like a quick word' and I'm thinking about everything that went wrong? I mean, 'a quick word'! What the fuck does that mean? I don't speak British! Does he want to tell me what he thought of it? Did he think it went well? We got all the objectives-. No, fuck, does he think it went badly? On his first big fight with the Reach he shielded the whole fleet from Grayven on his own! While singing! We were so bad at destroying their docks that we had to throw them at the planet and hope that worked!

Click to shrink...

Heh. Stressing over the big dog wanting to talk to him, and panicking over whether it's good or bad. That is such a first-time leader thing.

No. He doesn't have any authority over me! I can explain things to the Controller and-.

"Mister-"

Click to shrink...

Whoops, no time for that, Marty.

FUCK!

"-van Wyck?"

Click to shrink...

Now, once you peel yourself off the ceiling, maybe hope you didn't say that out loud.

He looks… Like he's worried-? Like-.

FUCK! He's psychic! He can-.

Can you hear this?

Click to shrink...

Not that kind of psychic.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah! Yeah? I mean, mostly, heh."

Click to shrink...

And OL's just seeing 'first-time jitters' in a rookie leader.

Stop it. Even if he's just going to shout at me, the others-.

"So I think that went pretty well."

Click to shrink...

I mean, if it makes you better, he could shout. You'd have to ask, though.

Oh.

And he's smiling. Okay! That's… That's weird.

Click to shrink...

There's your nerves again, Marty. Things went well, you did well, nothing to panic about.

"So I thought we could go over how you thought that went, then when you debrief your squad you'll have responses and solutions planned."

Ah. Oh, yeah, that-. Wait. Is he being helpful or is he being sarcastic? His accent-. I can't tell. I think he just speaks like that, so… Good?

Click to shrink...

That's just being British, yes. They have a wonderful talent for sounding like they're making fun of you. In a different way to the French, though...

"Good?"

"No mission ever goes perfectly, but this was meant as a shakedown mission so we could spot problems before you got deployed somewhere vital."

Click to shrink...

And OL knows how 'not perfect' missions go, let him tell you what.

Does he mean actual-perfectly or shit-perfectly? Agh! I can't tell!

"Like..?"

Click to shrink...

Dude. Breathe. Gently, in case you have super-breath or something. Man, he needs a drink, I suspect.

"Well, what did you think?"

"I…" I suck at these questions. Every job interview-. Like, what are you supposed to say when someone asked what your worst thing is? "I… Well, we couldn't really talk to each other."

Click to shrink...

Good, off to a good start. You'll get used to this in no time, Marty.

He nods. "Yes, I noticed you spotting that and coordinating the others. Good work."

It sounds so sarcastic but I don't think he means it like that!

Click to shrink...

Kind of amusing that OL can make an honest compliment sounds like anything but.

"I don't know exactly how your ability works. Is there some sort of communications gear you could wear?"

Alright stop. Think. I tried radios and things like that, but my matter disruption tended to wreck it. But if I don't use that as much now I'm strong. I can just… Punch stuff. But if I do that and the headset-. Or whatever, isn't tough enough-.

Click to shrink...

You're thinking too externally. Can something be fitted inside their bodies? Is that even possible with the Viltrumite enhancements? Would their super-durable flesh block radio signals? Quantum-Entangled comm-links, perhaps?

"I don't think so. We mostly fight, like… Close up. If I fly though a ship, or melt things, then…"

Thank you God he nods.

Click to shrink...

That's one thing they did do well.

"I assume that Controller Jevek isn't going to include a telepathy upgrade, or… Anything like that?"

The Controller doesn't tell me stuff like-.

Click to shrink...

Of course not, it would bias his experiment.

"He hasn't mentioned it."

Good answer. Good answer.

Click to shrink...

Heh. Something to definitely think about checking with Jevek, though. Especially since he likely has samples of Fallout Earth's psionics-inducing tech by now.

"What sort of range can you normally speak?"

I've never tested it. Most of my missions only really involved me, and when I wanted to coordinate I could just fly up to someone. What's the longest distance..?

Click to shrink...

Something work training with the team. Is it consistent, or does each vary in their ability to broadcast?

"About two hundred yards."

"Okay. Do you think you could bring some sort of drone with you? Something you could just use as a relay and dump off before you started fighting?"

Click to shrink...

It's have to be small and agile enough not to get damaged by their powers in transit or in combat.

Oh yeah, that could work. Have to be pretty small, but if we all had one and they were designed to talk to each other… The Legion engineering department could probably stick a basic one together, couldn't they?

"It could be set to self-destruct, or if we only made it with technology the Reach already have then we could just leave it there."

Click to shrink...

Rules out entangled comms, then. but if it's a cheap throwaway...

Okay, that's… Yeah, that would actually be helpful. Not being able to talk to each other was fucking stupid. People in the Second World War would do that.

"That sounds like a good idea."

Click to shrink...

Heck, even in more recent eras. One lucky bullet to a walkie-talkie and bam, you're out of contact.

"Did you notice anything else?"

Okay, that was… Yeah.

"We couldn't destroy the docks. Not completely. Wreck them, yeah, but we had to… Throw them at the planet."

Click to shrink...

True. They lack large-scale destructive options. At best, they're reusable kinetic torpedoes.

I watch him-. He's nodding?

"I did the same thing when I attacked the Citadel Complex. It's not a bad way to destroy something big. Since there's no atmosphere in space a lot of things that would usually destroy everything around them don't. But… Can you Effigies combine your disruption power?"

Click to shrink...

Ooh, that's a clever idea.

"Like..?"

"Make it do more by working together? Green Lanterns can combine their efforts to make bigger constructs. Doesn't really work with.. Orange Lanterns, and I haven't seen enough Martians do what you can do to know if it works in the same way."

Click to shrink...

Huh. To be fair, none of the Effigy team ever really showed any kind of coordinated combination attacks. Making the reusable torpedo comparison even more apt.

I thought they'd add up, but I didn't get the guys to try it out. Can't hurt to check, I guess.

Hey, this isn't so bad.

Click to shrink...

See? This is leadership. Thinking about the things you need to work on in future.

"Now, ah… The only other thing I noticed is that you didn't have any way to monitor neighbouring systems for incoming reinforcements. The only way I could think of to counter that would be to board one of the Reach monitoring stations and use their sensors, but that might be a little impractical."

No, I think a couple of the guys have computer skills. Weird alien computers don't mean anything to me, but there have to be some people around to understand them.

Click to shrink...

The problem is that removes that person from the battlefield as a combat asset. If they're sitting in a station on lookout, they can't be out there smashing things, and at this stage, that seems to be Jevek's sole measure of usefulness.

"Okay, that's all I've got. Was there anything you wanted to ask?"

"No. Ah. Thanks. This is… Helpful."

Click to shrink...

In more ways than one.

Well, Marty went from near-panic and floundering to moderately-competent and calm very quickly. Amazing what having someone who knows this stuff to talk to does for a guy. Still, he's got a lot to learn yet about command, and I shudder to imagine how he handles losing his first squadmate. Pity Jevek doesn't seem to care much about their emotional stability.

 

[Signaller]

Huh, surprised there wasn't even a single letter in yellow there. Does that mean that whatever Jevek has done has blunted his emotional range?

 

[Darko]

You're thinking too externally. Can something be fitted inside their bodies? Is that even possible with the Viltrumite enhancements? Would their super-durable flesh block radio signals? Quantum-Entangled comm-links, perhaps?

Click to shrink...

If they still have Martian DNA in them then they may have the potential for developing telepathy.

Assuming it's possible with their new addition of Viltrumite DNA.

Plus it may be possible that if they develop more Martian abilities then they'll turn into Burning Martians.

Which means that the universe will now have to face a bunch of psychotic, violent, Kryptonian-level monsters.