[Phantom Hoover]

It seems to be more some kind of ARG.

[An4ximandros]

EDIT: Okay, gave stuff a read.

Deff. linked to AoA and the transitional event mentioned in UT. (Could the shivans and vishnans have the ability to kill off universes? or push healthy ones away form others that might kill them off through a destructive influence? [example: the ancient genocidal empire start jumping into alternate ones]

This is exciting! I wonder what we can come up with...

[Damage]

Bonus points for being an ARG (apparently) discussing the ramifications of alternate realities' creation and/or destruction.

[redsniper]

Ok look, I need to get this down on the boards before I forget. I can make a more coherent post later I just... need to get the idea out.

The document declassified in this thread seems to be dealing a lot with parallel universes, or "manifolds" in this case. It seems like NNSI got their data from the 14th battle group's adventures in AoA. (or from the Transcend? who may actually be BP canon?? idk if his appearance was just an homage or literally canon to the setting, I mean I figured Mr. Snuggles was just a joke...).

Anyhow the main thing catching my eye at first was the references to manifold necrosis. There seems to be a lot of references to the universe dying in BP. The shivan communications seen in nagari-space in UT2 make reference to inflammation and ontovoric events impending. The techroom description for the Great Darkness raises the question of, if humans and vasudans and such can arise... then where the hell is everyone else? Did they die out? Are we just flukes? It doesn't make sense.

In light of this tone in the aforementioned document, I raised the question in IRC: why do we even care about the fate of Laporte or the UEF or even all of intelligent life in OUR universe, if they can just bugger off to some other universe if things go sour. Not that they have the tech to do so, just that parallel universes are firmly within the narrative possibility of the BP setting. And the gentle hinting from a dev in response was along the lines of "why didn't someone from a happy peaceful universe go and rescue the Sanctuary?" Let that sink in for a bit...

It's pretty well supported by now (or at least heavily implied) that the 14th BG's trip to the Sanctuary universe was orchestrated by the Vishnans. And they got their fifty years after the fact. With the destruction of Capella and now war in Sol, "our" universe isn't exactly a happy one. Couldn't they have tapped someone else to save the Sanctuary? Clearly not. So... what if that means ours IS the best universe? That with all the manifold necrosis and ontovoric acataleptic events we're aware of, every other outcome is worse? I think this raises the stakes dramatically.

Consider the Dawn War and references to the cosmos being "burned clean." Think about our manifold being "traumatically isolated." I'm speculating that the horrible destruction alluded to in the past wasn't limited to just our universe, but was in fact some kind of multiversal purge of all life, with the Great Darkness being it's actual manifestation. Something that finds you and kills you just by thinking about it. Something that automatically and by definition prevents intelligence from occurring at all. And now the Vishnans and maybe the Shivans too have isolated our universe to try and protect it.

Furthermore the document talks a lot about "loss of isotropy." If you don't know "isotropic" basically means "the same in all directions," which is how the universe actually is IRL, as far as we know. The laws of physics and structure of the universe are the same everywhere. There's no center or edge. There's nowhere with more gravity or matter or whatever, it's all about the same on large scales. So but what if it wasn't? If this lack of isotropy is just in some unseen subspatial dimension for story purposes, then that's all well and good, and it's some cool technobabble. But what if it's literally implying that the Milky Way, or even just GTVA territory is unique out of the WHOLE UNIVERSE?

Where I'm going with this is: our universe and potentially just our little sliver of space is THE LAST STAND FOR ALL LIFE EVERYWHERE FOREVER!!!!

Sleep tight.

[SmashMonkey]

Btw, is the "Red Asset" comparable in any way to CASSANDRA?

[Luis Dias]

I'm afraid to report that all information herein documented is classified omega 9.9, which means that all eyes who have seen them must be terminated. We apologize for the inconvenience.

[perihelion]

Peripherally, SNRI teleonomic analysis of structures in the Lanieakea supercluster suggest the presence of an engineered object of unprecedented magnitude. Unfortunately, neither the funding nor manpower for further analysis of this signal has yet determined itself necessary.

Is this a reference to the Great Attractor?  Wut.  You guys are saying you found Bolder's Ring???

[SmashMonkey]

Btw, is the "Red Asset" comparable in any way to CASSANDRA?

Found the answer to my question:

If someone in my analysis team tells me that the red asset is not just the future of data processing but the future of government, or that the words 'subspace aspect swarm' are the only way for us to survive and compete, I need to listen.

Subspace aspect swarm implies a hive-mind much like Al-Dawa or Ken. And "red" could imply that they are using a Shivan body just like how CASSANDRA does. But it also seems that they're making projections for what it can do rather than discussing what it already has done. On the other hand, the Feds have already constructed a hive-mind using it (Al-Dawa).

In other words, seems that CASSANDRA is well ahead by far of whatever system the Tevs have.

Thought 2:

Its become clear from the leaked intel that GTI also posses the ability to pick up on Nagari communications. If the Feds considered Ken's brief interactions with Laporte to be huge prior to her time with Fed Intel - imagine just how powerful the signal must have been from Laporte's entry into the Shivan Nagari network.

Would be interesting to know the GTI reaction to that signal - besides them crapping their pants....

[The Dagger]

I'm wondering... if the universes split occurred recently... could that be Capella? Maybe Bosch signal was not only heard by Shivans but by the Great Darkness as well. In that case, Shivans might have decided to get hold of the device and blow the star to separate our current universe from an infected manifold. Hence why Fedayeen and GTVI playing with Nagari stuff is so sensitive.
Also, I'm not sold on the Vishnans just wanting to save the Sanctuary crew. If they brought them to our reality, they have a purpose (other than helping with the indoctrination of Bei). There are nagari sensitives in there, from a universe who might be compromise by the GD... they look dangerous to me.

[Phantom Hoover]

It wasn't recently, it was 5 billion years ago.

[The Dagger]

It wasn't recently, it was 5 billion years ago.

It says "[...] until a time, tau-break, within the past several billion years (present inclusive)." It may have been recent. Unless I'm missing another quote.

[Phantom Hoover]

It's in UT2. 5x10^9

[Scotty]

Tau-break isn't an isolated occurrence.  It has happened dozens if not millions of times, and the GTVA is aware of a multitude of other eventualities.  Some of them align much closer than others.  Tau-break for the Sanctuary occurred during the attack on the Lucifer.

[Phantom Hoover]

I dunno, tau-break definitely sounds singular to me. Especially given the coincidence with the event mentioned in UT2.

[AdmiralRalwood]

I interpreted that as each individual universe having its own tau-break.

[Scotty]

Tau-break is singular because each alternate only has one tau-break with this eventuality.

[Phantom Hoover]

"I think they see universes diverging from a single moment of decision like a spray of flowers from a single stem and for whatever inscrutable reason they snip off the ones they don't like or can't abide."

From relay3.

[Scotty]

Stems can have buds at different points along the length.

[Phantom Hoover]

'diverging from a single moment of decision'

[AdmiralRalwood]

Are you really trying to say that there is only one moment of decision in the entire history of the universe?

Note the repeated usage of the word "single" to refer to "moment of decision" and "stem", when plants (can) have many stems. The usage is not literal; which is to say, it does not mean "the only moment of decision that matters".