Author Topic: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues  (Read 11942 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline SF-Junky

  • 29
  • Bread can mold, what can you do?
(SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
When I played Tenebra the other day, I realized that I do not have much interest in spending too much time in the dreamscape between the missions and wanted to go on with the campaign. Unfortunately you cannot go back and read dialogue from previous dreamscape Sessions once you have moved on – and if that possibility exists I don’t know about it. So I was checking FRED and there I was thinking that others might face the same issue. So here we go.

To the Great Makers of this great campaign: I hope it is not too much of a problem when I post this in here. :)

L = Laporte
K = Kovacs
V = Vidaura
F = Falconer
A = Al-Da’wa
T = Thorn
H = Hammer of Light
G = Gaian Effort


First Session (after Icarus)

Quote from: opening dialogue
L: Oh look, a dream that's not in the Indus briefing room. How marvelously...lucid.
K: She's in. We see her.
V: Welcome to the dreamscape, Laporte. Subconscious affiliation and resource pooling, courtesy of CASSANDRA.
L: Wow. I guess those implants weren't just for diagnostics, were they? This is...a shared dream?
F: There's a lot to learn here, Laporte. Lot of secrets. Don't get in over your head.

Quote from: Falconer
L: So you're the dream of a woman named Falconer? Very lyrical.
F: That's me. Soul of a poet. Listen: if it were up to me you wouldn't be here.
L: If it were up to me I wouldn't be here either. I'd be painting the Carthage on my fighter's nose. But it's not up to us.
F: And that's why I don't want you. You're locked in the past. I've read your diaries, and you spend too much time thinking about inevitability. Not enough about taking control.
F: Get your knife into the wound of the now, Laporte, and then I can fly with you.
L: You're flying with me whether you like it or not. That's inevitable. As for living up to your creepy knife metaphors - we'll find out.
F (random 1): Come back when you've proven yourself.
F (random 2): I don't have anything to say to you.
F (random 3): Don't piss me off, neophyte.
F (random 4): This isn't your Ubuntu playpen. I'm not here to talk about your feelings.
F (extra tidbit): Vidaura told me all about your sad, sad little story. Why don't you go cry on her?

Quote from: Kovacs
L: I guess I better get used to dreaming you, Kovacs. Do you see this place as a bunch of ships too?
K: No. I didn't make myself in the cockpit. You did. It's where you were born.
L: Tell me about the dreamscape. I don't fall for pseudo-mystical telepathic communion crap. I want specs.
K: I don't know how it works. I know what it's for. We share our skills, our fears, our suspicions - the things you can't speak. Gives our analysts data, gives the operators a chance to come home alive.
L: Who was nuts enough to try this? Who was the first one to pack his skull with metal and link up?
K: Fifty years ago the pilot who saved the world told Elder Mandho about visions of an ancient race and the purpose of the Shivans. They figured there had to be science behind it...it's called the Nagari process. So here we are.
K (random 1): Let's see what you've got to offer.
K (random 2): I've seen a lot of newcomers and not a lot of survivors. Be careful.
K (random 3): Nervous? Good. You need to fly nervous.
K (random 4): Forget your shields. Forget your armor. When you're out there, you need to be invisible.
K (extra tidbit): The three of us are...close in ways you can't understand yet. But we'll give you a chance.

Quote from: Vidaura
V: Welcome to Wonderland. I was afraid you'd never make it out of the Red Room.
L: You were 'afraid'? Are you from First Fleet or something?
V: The Fedayeen aren't a demolition squad, Laporte. We get inside people's heads. Enemy and friend. If you need to talk about Simms –
L: Leave that outside, pilot. I don't carry my baggage with me, and you don't get to inspect it.
V: You can't escape cause and effect. The past determines the future. You're the most important weapons system on your ship. If you want to diagnose your faults...here I am.
L: I've had enough of talking and thinking. When you see a problem with my actions in the field, then we talk. For now, stay out of my head.
V (random 1): I'll be here.
V (random 2): Take care of yourself, Laporte.
V (random 3): You're ready when you're ready.
V (random 4): Sorry if I came across as smug.
V (random 5): Grief causes stress. Stress slows you down. Keep it in mind.
V (extra tidbit): Did you know that one of your Fedayeen comrades is a convicted killer?

Quote from: Al-Da’wa
L: Al-Da'wa. That's a name with an ugly history. Will I get some answers before I put my life on the line for you?
A: We have answers. Some of them are even true. What are your questions?
L: I want to know the status of Captain Lorna Simms.
A: I can't tell you. Either because I don't know, or because I know and I don't want you to know. Is that true enough for you?
L: You're not entitled to my respect, Al-Da'wa - you don't even have a rank. As far as I'm concerned you need to earn my trust if you want me to perform. Lying and obfuscating isn't going to do that.
A: Your self-sufficiency is admirable. This is not a hierarchy; we are all our own. But for now you must be patient. Once you've proven yourself in your first operation I can tell you more.
L: At least tell me who you people really are. When you recruited me, you said 'last remnants of mankind's collective past' - what does that mean? I hear rumors about Fedayeen excess, but this seems like more than a death squad.
A: We are a moral contingency, a way to put the castoffs of Ubuntu to good use. And beyond that, we are the inheritors of the Galactic Terran Intelligence's darkest and most devastating secret. This is an old, old order, Laporte...but we change with the times.
A: When you complete your first task, speak to your wingmen. They will show you their understanding of things.
A (random 1): You could be a powerful asset if you can set aside your Ubuntu past.
A (random 2): You grew up in an ethical paradise. We ask you to give up your place to defend it.
A (random 3): Historians will condemn us, but we guarantee that history WILL continue.
A (random 4): The Fedayeen exist for times like these.
A (extra tidbit): You were present in the Nagari network even before you received your implants. Remarkable. Your grief helped lead us to your ship.

Quote from: Thorn
L: Thorn. Do you people change your names to make sure you sound tough? Are there any Fedayeen named something like, uh, Lovejoy?
T: Three of them. Two closely related.
L: ...you're an intel spook, aren't you?
T: If you make it to Operator, then I'm your analyst. I'll be planning your ops and briefing you. I've already sent a message introducing myself, you'll get it when you wake. For now, I can brief you on the dreamscape.
L: This...construct...just stretches my credibility. I understand that it's some kind of networked dream, shared through those implants we've all got. But the bandwidth required is astronomical. You'd need a central hub with incredible power, and a network with next to no latency.
T: It's worse than you know. The dreamscape is feeding skills, cognitive schema and personal understanding to every connected Fedayeen. We use it to share our most basic talents, things you can't teach. The neural structures are immensely complex. It's a lot of data.
L: So what's the trick? How do you pull this off when the Ubuntu mainframes struggle with five-year economic projections?
T: The dreamscape is hosted on CASSANDRA, the Masyaf's special computational asset. The transmission methodology is called Nagari. GTI discovered it during the Great War, and a certain rebel Tev admiral perfected an artificial version. We developed our own method, but it's based on the human Nagari capacity, and his...wasn't.
L: Wait. Human capacity? I'm sorry, but I don't buy that for one second.
T: It's not a natural ability. It's artificially induced by an external source. There's a case on Earth right now who was exposed from birth...the things done to his brain look almost like abuse. He's a remarkable person, but he frightens me.
L: Oh my god.
T: You want to share, Laporte? I'm getting some emotional bleed.
L: Not yet. I think I might understand something, but...I need to be sure.
T (random 1): There are a lot of analysts. I'm one of the high-functioning ones.
T (random 2): We have a tap into the Elders' main simulation farm. They don't command us, but we...cooperate.
T (random 3): Al-Da'wa is the only commander I know who can match Steele.
T (random 4): You saw how crippled Fleet is by Ubuntu ethics. We're at the opposite extreme.
T (extra tidbit): The Nagari process isn't activated in all humans. It's strongest in the spiritual...and in the psychotic or sociopathic.

Quote from: awakening dialogue
A: Laporte, before you go, I want to update you on a transaction we've accomplished.
L: News about Simms?
A: No. We've secured the information you left in your FleetNet personal cache. The schematics you received from the Hammer of Light operative on the Pesedjet are ours now.
L: ...the Hammer? Those fanatics wiped out in Operation Templar? I really don't think that transmission was from –
A: There is a secret history here, Laporte, one that explains a great deal about this war. The Hammer of Light went underground after Templar...deep underground. We made contact with their agents in Alpha Centauri via subluminal signal while the GTVA itself classified our transmissions as politically dangerous. The Hammer is our trump card inside the Alliance.
L: So we work with terrorists now. No better than the Gefs. Is that what we've stooped to?
A: We acknowledge the moral issues inherent in this alliance. But human survival is at stake. Victory comes first.
L: You're the second one to tell me that and I'm still not sure I believe it.
A: The schematics we claimed from the Pesedjet will help illuminate the scale of this conflict. You must be patient - and in the meantime, utterly, unflinchingly ruthless. Brace yourself for ugly work.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2014, 02:48:38 am by Darius »

 

Offline SF-Junky

  • 29
  • Bread can mold, what can you do?
Re: Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Second Session (after Nothing is True)

Quote from: Falconer
L: What's the verdict, Falconer? How's my now-stabbing?
F: Har de har har. I'm not sold yet. Killing aliens you've never met face-to-face? Easy. But you flinched when those Fleet fighters jumped in.
L: If I get the job done, why do you care? So I flinch, so I waste a nanosecond on remorse. What's it to you?
F: It means you've still got your humanity caught in the gears. It means that if the stakes were higher, you'd break. Could you have killed a whole squadron? A cruiser?
L: If I needed to? If it was kill them, or lose the war? ...yes. Now are you going to ask me to like it?
F: Kovacs wouldn't. Vidaura wouldn't. But me? Yeah, I think you should like it. Everybody should enjoy what they do.
F (random 1): Are you going to condemn me for being honest? Am I going to care?
F (random 2): Crazy is another word for 'uncomfortably effective'.
F (random 3): You're good. But you need a wider comfort zone.
F (random 4): You're wondering why I like killing? Why do you like breathing? It's necessary.
F (extra tidbit): I love it when you let yourself go. Mourn those pilots all you want, but if you keep slipping the kind of grins you did when you were thinking about all those dead Tevs - yeah, I could tell - I'm gonna enjoy your company.

Quote from: Kovacs
L: Kovacs. Hard to work a word loose from you. Asleep or awake.
K: I'm from the marksman school of conversation. But here: welcome to the Fedayeen. That sortie went well. We clicked.
L: Looking at the training clocks for you three, turn rate, reaction time and trigger latency are all pretty close to the human max. What's your secret?
K: Ten thousand hours, good genes. and this place. We've each got the muscle memories and skill sets of three crack pilots...it bleeds together here.
L: So what else bleeds? I don't want to - this might sound cold, but - I don't want to care. I don't want to start dreaming your hopes and fears.
K: If it gets rounds on target, and on the right target, I'm willing to risk some heartbreak. Trust me: give a tragedy a few years, and it's just a big, ugly scar.
K (random 1): A pilot at your level is worth a frigate.
K (random 2): Fedayeen take only the critical jobs. Miss a shot, you could lose the war. That's pressure.
K (random 3): Never get into a dogfight. Take your shot and get out.
K (random 4): Those Vasudans were underequipped and underprepared. Second line.
K (extra tidbit): Whether or not you want to care, you need to take care of your body. If you need a spotter, Vidaura or I can provide.

Quote from: Vidaura
V: Missions like that convoy raid do a lot more than simple mechanical damage.
L: Maybe. Maybe the best way to handle the damage is to seal it off. Compartmentalize and ignore.
V: You'll be flying a cockpit if you try to keep that up for too long. Come on, Laporte. Leverage your assets here.
L: Vidaura, I had my time to grieve. I lost my squadron and my closest...I don't know what she was. But now I'm in a position to hit back.
V: That's not a long-term strategy. Either you win, you die, or you fail. What do you do when you hit the end of your list?
L: Falconer tells me I need to spend more time in the now. So here I am.
V: Al-Da'wa has long term plans for you, Laporte. You're a vital asset, and not because you're some kind of 'chosen one'. My job is to keep you mission-ready.
V (random 1): You're a weapons system. Maintain yourself.
V (random 2): Believe it or not, but I do care. Being genuine has its utility.
V (random 3): We may be a gang of psychopaths, but that doesn't mean we're all jerks.
V (random 4): You're bunking with us. We can hear you in your sleep. Hard to hide that kind of pain.
V (random 5): Burying your grief can be effective. I won't deny it.
V (extra tidbit): Al-Da'wa has long term plans for you, Laporte. You're a vital asset, and not because you're some kind of 'chosen one'. My job is to keep you mission-ready.
 

Quote from: Al-Da’wa
L: So I'm Fedayeen now. 'If I'm Fedayeen, I've always been Fedayeen.' Should I be proud?
A: You should be satisfied. It means you'll make a difference. And while we're discussing what you feel, operator, I have nothing new to tell you about Captain Simms.
L: Maybe you can explain why Kovacs told me that man in the shower was you.
A: You will see many people claiming to be Al-Da'wa aboard Masyaf. Putting a single face to the name is hardly a priority now. Let's discuss strategy.
L: I'll admit, the Bellwether op impressed me. We splashed the convoy, killed a few thousand Tev personnel, convinced the Tevs it was their Gef allies who did it, and planted a hint that the Federation tried to stop it. Worthy of Steele.
A: The Bellwether pilots were critical to Steele's OrBat. He'll spend another few days shuttling pilots in by more secure routes and reworking plans to handle the loss.
L: When, exactly, is he going to hit Earth? In what force? First Fleet is strategically intact and Second Fleet is only bloodied. What's Steele's trick this time around?
A: Projections give us two weeks at the outside. CASSANDRA believes he plans to take Earth by main force, nullifying the Eris and Toutatis with shock jumps. It's the Navy's bomber corps that has him worried. He needs good pilots flying screen. We killed a lot of his pilots in the Bellwether raid.
A: It's also my understanding that we are on the verge of locating the mole that betrayed Elder Taudigani and the Wargods. Be ready to fly.
A (random 1): Admiral Recamai's outrage is hampering Steele's attack preparations.
A (random 2): You may feel that the accomplishments of the Wargods were futile. But the Agincourt's loss is still slowing him.
A (random 3): Killing those three Ridwan pilots was difficult, I understand. But it was necessary.
A (random 4): Dozens of other Fedayeen sorties are ongoing at this moment.
A (extra tidbit): CASSANDRA is poring over reams of DNI data from your brain. Your visions are the key to a greater design.

Quote from: Thorn
L: Look, I need to ask, given all the crap you know about me. Do you know about Ken? Can you explain Ken?
T: Yes, we know, and...no, not quite.
L: How do you know? Tell me.
T: Vicmouth, the psychologist who screened you back on the Solaris, was a Council operative. His findings led us to bug your personal communications. We intercepted your letter to Mandho about the Ken manifestation.
L: Ever since I was a child I've been visited by this...personality. Not just in dreams. It manifests itself in combat, in the mess hall, any time, anywhere. It's inside my head and it clearly has an agenda of its own.
T: Your schizophrenic symptoms led us to believe it was just a combination of Nagari sensitivity and auditory hallucination. An unusual reaction to Nagari intrusions into your brain. But when we realized the magnitude of Nagari traffic directed at you, we suspected more.
L: I didn't even know about Nagari until I visited this dreamscape. Now I'm starting to think there really is something contacting me.
T: Nagari is not some magical kind of telepathy. It's a form of direct, neurally induced communication using quantum pulses. The effects are probabilistic and nonlocal, which means that once the link is established, communication is instantaneous across any distance. It's like the mechanism used by the Alliance Kayser weapon, or ETAK.
L: And you told me it was induced in humans by an external source.
T: That's right. Nagari capability requires a quantum computer of some kind, probably with access to subspace. The human brain lacks that kind of capability, but that doesn't mean we can't serve as...receivers, of a sort. Triggering neural activity is a lot easier than blasting through hull like the Kayser does.
L: So I'm networked to something else.
T: Yes. Whatever this Ken entity is, it exists in a network elsewhere.
L: So I'm not hallucinating. I'm being manipulated.
T (random 1): Believe me, CASSANDRA is all over your DNI data.
T (random 2): We're going to figure out what's going on inside your head.
T (random 3): Aken Bosch built an artificial Nagari machine. That was ETAK.
T (random 4): Some of us believe the Shivans use Nagari as a hunting sense.
T (extra tidbit): Al-Da'wa believes that understanding the Nagari process will let us figure out Shivan behavior.

Quote from: Hammer of Light
L: Uh. Hello? You're...what are you, and why are you in this place?
H: I represent the Hammer of Light. Our Nagari expertise is sufficient to interface with the Fedayeen dreamscape.
L: You're...the entire Hammer of Light? You're an apocalyptic Shivan death cult?
H: I am one of many. The nature of the Hammer has changed with the years. We are not the militia we once were. Even the GTVI has not grasped our spread.
L: Al-Da'wa already told me that the Hammer of Light wasn't wiped out after Operation Templar after all. How did you survive, and what can you offer the Federation?
H: Very direct, Terran. The Hammer resurgence began after Capella, when it became clear that the Shivans could never be defeated.  Tens of thousands of the faithful have infiltrated the Vasudan Medjai, and others have entered Terran ranks as reactor specialists.
L: So you've got a network already in place in the Alliance. I can see how Al-Da'wa would be interested. But why would you want to help the Federation? What do we have to do with your prophecies?
H: We are the enemies of your enemies. Has that not always been enough? But if you will forgive the words of a fanatic: we know that the end times are upon us. At this very hour, both of our races are being judged, and this war will usher in the apocalypse.
H: This is the moment we have prepared for. The ancient ones that visited us in our infancy told us that we would need to submit to judgment, without resistance or protest. And so we shall.
L: That doesn't seem like any kind of answer to me.
H (random 1): Only the people of Vasuda could keep something so vast so secret for so long.
H (random 2): We have devised a language of our own, hidden within the greater Vasudan tongues.
H (random 3): We understand that Capella was a warning. Telling us that we were being judged.
H (random 4): What will the Security Council do when the faceless, mindless, merciless Destroyer comes for them?
H (extra tidbit): Many Vasudan ships have been lost to navigational accidents. Much wealth was misplaced in accounting errors. Entire shipyard components were...misrouted. The prosperity of the Imperium leaves room for many things to live.
« Last Edit: October 05, 2013, 02:22:29 am by SF-Junky »

 

Offline SF-Junky

  • 29
  • Bread can mold, what can you do?
Re: Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Third Session (after Everything is Permitted)

Quote from: Falconer
L: I killed an Elder. I even enjoyed it, I think. Thought you'd be proud.
F: You really don't get it, do you? You may be Al-Da'wa's golden girl, but I'm wondering if you really belong with the Fedayeen at all.
L: What the **** is your problem, Falconer? I assassinate one of my childhood heroes, I come here looking for the good in it, and that's what you've got?
F: Yeah. Thought so. Probe your enjoyment and it's just angst underneath. That's my problem, Laporte: 'childhood heroes', 'looking for the good in it'. You're still caught in the past.
L: Falconer, if anyone here is unfit for the Fedayeen it's you. You cross the line from necessary brutality to savagery. Professionally and personally.
F: I've always said the benefits of bloodlust scale faster than the cost in collateral damage. You're never going to learn that, are you?
L: I damn well hope I never do.
F (random 1): What, did I hurt your feelings?
F (random 2): If this compromises your performance, it just proves my point.
F (random 3): I'm sure Vidaura can give you a hug.
F (random 4): What's wrong, flower girl? You wanted my approval?
F (extra tidbit): There's still Ubuntu in you. Still this maddening, insane concern for what other people think and feel. We are vectors in a machine! Your job is to apply force!

Quote from: Kovacs
L: Kovacs, I can't wait to tell you about this last sortie.
K: I heard. Needle right in the heart of the beast. Where'd you get the ice water transfusion to pull that off?
L: At least they didn't ask me to fly into the Atreus' fighterbay, right?
K: ****, that takes me back. That memory's in the dreamscape somewhere if you ever want to go over it.
L: So I splash an Elder and here I am giggling about it. I must be getting some bleed from Falconer.
K: You're doing what you have to do to survive. That's who we are. We take the steps before us.
K (random 1): Henriksson thought she was doing what was right. I respect that.
K (random 2): Traitors have their reasons. But I think it was the wrong call.
K (random 3): I wonder what secrets she had...the Elders haven't shared.
K (random 4): Two successful ops. You're going to see a lot more respect in praxis.
K (extra tidbit): This is the first time Steele's faced an opponent with the subtlety and initiative to match him. I wonder how he's handling it.

Quote from: Vidaura
V: Are you going to try to tell me that what you did with Henriksson was easy?
L: No. But it wasn't hard, either. She was a target, I had a mission. Fear and doubt, those you leave at home.
V: And now you're back home and they're waiting to greet you. Laporte, let's be realistic: your hormone assays are full of cortisol spikes. You can't keep this kind of intensity up.
L: I bow to neurochemistry. Now what do you want me to do about? CASSANDRA's already chewing out plans for my next sortie.
V: There are simple behavioral triggers to bleed stress. I'd say exercise, but you've got the angry gym bug already. Meditation's good if you can stomach it. Talk to other people. Whatever you need.
L: All right, all right. Hard data wins the day. If you think my performance in the field is at risk, I'll ease up. So, Isadore, when we wake up - fun's on you.
V (random 1): The data's been clear since World War II. Keep anyone in front line combat and inevitably they break.
V (random 2): Any Fedayeen wing needs to be a self-regulating cell. We each target different aspects of mission performance.
V (random 3): I know you don't want to get close. Given your history I don't blame you.
V (random 4): Masyaf's a big ship. We've got a lot of options. They're not all going to feel badass, but so it goes.
V (random 5): Falconer and Kovacs both went through this same kind of adjustment, you know.
V (extra tidbit): Laporte, have you considered that the performance rewards of opening up might outweigh the costs in grief? Could the Wargods have gone so far without that esprit de corps? Come on. Let us see to what you need.

Quote from: Al-Da’wa
L: Treachery in the Council of Elders. I wish it didn't make so much sense.
A: The Fedayeen have been aware for some time now that the Elders are...fracturing. This war was utterly unanticipated, and it threatens humanity's future.
L: This comes up again and again and still I don't see why. The war's bad, but not extinction-bad.
A: The pilot that led the attack on the Lucifer came to Earth with a wealth of information on Shivan behavior. GTI intelligence bore his visions out. The Elders inherited this data.
L: So what, the Shivans are drawn to conflict? That's a theory I've heard, but it's not one I buy. The Ancients subjugated entire species before the Shivans wiped them out.
A: The Shivans are an enigma. It's their counterparts that are of concern to us. Their psychology is more centralized, and more...transparent. We can assign stimulus/response networks to them.
L: Counterparts? I'm not sure I follow. Look, if mankind is under threat of external invasion...I'm the last one who'd advocate surrender, but doesn't living come before winning this war?
A: The Council of Elders believe - and I agree - that we have underestimated the intelligence capabilities of the external threats we face. They can understand our societies, and act to engineer them towards an unknown purpose. The Council believes that we are being watched and measured for potential.
A: If the Federation falls to the Alliance, the Council is convinced that the result will be human extinction, whether now or in a thousand years.
A (random 1): The Shivans and whatever structure they may be embedded in are hideously alien and complex.
A (random 2): The Council has always had plans to handle or even ameliorate the threat of Shivan invasion. They are now in jeopardy.
A (random 3): Many of the Council's best projections end in human extinction. There is only a narrow course to survival.
A (random 4): CASSANDRA is developing a plan to get firm intelligence on external threats. You will play a key role.
A (extra tidbit): Why did the Shivans destroy Capella? What happened to Admiral Aken Bosch? Why did Shivan behavior change between the First and Second Incursions? We need answers to these questions.

Quote from: Thorn
L: Any progress on figuring out what's happening inside my head?
T: We're still factoring your neural data against GTI records.
L: All right, Thorn, how's the war?
T: Second Fleet has been busy heading off attacks on Mars. The Tevs have a new strategy. They sortie squadrons through the node from Delta Serpentis, jump them straight to Mars, then move them back through the node.
L: A full intersystem jump before combat? They can't have much fuel left for actual time over the target. They must be topping off after the jump...is there any way for us to get pressure directly on the node?
T: Admiral Calder is interested in doing just that. He's been reaching out to us for a joint op. Refuses to go through the Council, so mostly his people just yell at anyone who seems vaguely Fedayeen.
L: Hahaha! Calder. Still soldiering on after all this...he's down to, what, a destroyer and three frigates?
T: More or less. A few cruisers. But he's not giving up, and Admiral Netreba is still supporting him where he can. He keeps Steele on his toes and his pilots are veteran going on elite...if also utterly exhausted.
L: I always liked Calder. Soul of a warrior.
T: He still has the Toutatis in fighting shape, and he still has strike bomber wings. Between the destroyer and the Durgas, he could do significant damage if we could get him into the right place. The problem is forcing the Tevs into an error..
L: Use Lopez. She's too caring. That makes her predictable.
T: The same trick twice? Do you really think she'd take the bait?
L: Forget bait. All we have to do is force her to choose between her ship and the lives of her comrades.
T (random 1): That idea, about Lopez...the analysts agree, she's a weak link.
T (random 2): Lopez is a superb field commander, but too connected to her crews..
T (random 3): There are signs that our framing of the Gefs during the Bellwether attack has paid off.
T (random 4): We need to reverse the strategic momentum.
T (extra tidbit): Do you know about the Alliance's secret motive for declaring war? No? Then I shouldn't tell you. It's a complex situation out there.

Quote from: Hammer of Light
L: Straight yes-no answer, please. Did you transmit schematics to me from the Pesedjet?
H: Captain Apries is an agent of the Hammer. He was empowered to gift you with an important tool.
L: Thank you. Your directness is refreshing. Now what were the schematics for? What was that mathematical database that came with them?
H: You are asking the wrong question. What you should wonder is why you were chosen to receive them, and how it was that Captain Apries identified you.
L: Okay, I'll bite. How could a Vasudan logistics ship captain have possibly identified me after arranging to have his own ship waylaid? How would he know I'd respond?
H: The Pesedjet incident was a fortunate happenstance. He, or another Hammer agent, would have found you sooner or later, somewhere in Sol. As for why you were chosen, Terran: do you believe in precognition?
L: I don't 'believe' in it, no. I know that it's physically impossible. But I do believe in simulation, and in simulation sufficiently advanced to foretell events yet to come.
H: I admire the precision of your language. You think as a Vasudan would. But what if I were to tell you that many Vasudans have glimpsed the future? Not by any special organ or aptitude, but because they were touched by an alien force?
H: There are minds in this galaxy whose summed capacity for thought exceeds all the Terrans and Vasudans that have ever lived. If they were to gift us with their simulations...would they not be like unto prophecy?
L: So you're saying that...one of you saw me?
H (random 1): What you see as prophecy and mysticism, we see as scientific truth.
H (random 2): Even Emperor Khonsu the Second recognizes the Vasudan talent for foresight.
H (random 3): Is prophecy merely advanced projection? Perhaps. It is immaterial.
H (random 4): We, as a species, treasure history and the past. The future is only history yet unrevealed.
H (extra tidbit): You have been conditioned by centuries of skepticism to treat any claim of precognition as suspect. But the foundation of consciousness is the ability to predict. Any advanced life would by nature outstrip us in this regard.

 

Offline SF-Junky

  • 29
  • Bread can mold, what can you do?
Re: Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Fourth Session (after One Future)

Quote from: Falconer
L: Another loose end tied up. Tied up the way I wanted. You owe me an apology.
F: You're right. I do. I've been thinking, and I wonder if you're the answer to a very old question.
L: So you're another convert to the notion that I'm not just insane? Not just hearing things?
F: This isn't about Nagari. It's about the nature of Fedayeen morality. I've always argued that we need to be perfect killers to do our jobs. And a perfect killer can't have a past. Just the now.
L: So the woman of action, the one who sneered at introspection and philosophy - you're actually an intellectual? You startle me, Falconer.
F: Shut up, flower girl. Here's the truth I think I see in you. You're an algorithm. Everything that gets put into you, love, hate, despair, hope? It all just makes you a better killer.
F: Don't you see? If your past doesn't scar you, there's no need to shut off your humanity. You can experience pain, remorse, regret, and still be trusted to do the job.
L: I don't know what you're trying to tell me. But I'm glad we're back to icy glares instead of outright hostility.
F (random 1): Let me make it simple: you're a psychopath who can still function as a human.
F (random 2): Every action is the vector sum of your history. I thought that was dead weight.
F (random 3): If you can look at your past as data instead of thrust...that's powerful.
F (random 4): I thought the past was a chain, full of fairy tale morality and guilt. Maybe it's not.
F (extra tidbit): We're starting to feel that you're, in a way, the synthesis of the three of us.

Quote from: Kovacs
L: That last op was a pretty impressive piece of strategic threat reduction.
K: Getting Kostadin Cell out from under the Federation's feet will free up resources. It's a victory any way I look at it.
L: I've had this feeling that losing this war means human extinction. I've had it for a long time. Al-Da'wa seems to share the feeling.
K: By 'feeling' you mean 'creepy voice in your head', right? Secret's out. There's probably a CASSANDRA division working on your DNI data 24-7.
L: But why? How can the Federation be so important to the future of the human race? We can't stop the Shivans with economic incentives.
K: Al-Da'wa has a plan to find out. Your Nagari symptoms are unique. We're going to leverage that.
K (random 1): I don't know anything more right now.
K (random 2): Nagari doesn't usually manifest as a coherent voice. At first we thought it was an interaction with a brain disease.
K (random 3): There are a lot of other Gef habitats out there. Let's hope none of them take this as a declaration of war.
K (random 4): The Gefs are more advanced than you'd think. Kostadin Cell was hardline conservative.
K (extra tidbit): The first Nagari cases manifested well before Riviera Station. GTI thought they were Shivan intrusions. We're not so sure...

Quote from: Vidaura
V: Doesn't really feel like you just made a call about the fate of tens of thousands of lives, does it?
L: It was a choice that had to be made. I hope I made the right one. Now don't make me think about it, please. I'm past second thoughts and somewhere into sixths by now..
V: Fair's fair. As first sorties go, yours have been weighty. I've been involved in habitat takedowns before, but those were usually military workshops or intrusion ballistics. Not primaries.
L: It's funny. Back in Fleet the Fedayeen were just a dark murmur. Now I'm here and we...we do laundry, we scrub things, we bunk. Three-quarters banality and a quarter ultraviolence.
V: That's the way it always is. Until CASSANDRA starts flying our ships, the core strategic element will be the human being. So I keep them functioning. Aligned, calibrated, on target.
L: So you were here before Kovacs and Falconer, weren't you? Maybe some day you'll have to tell me about who they were before. Thanks for talking, Vidaura. You make a difference.
V (random 1): I like that face you make when you're concentrating.
V (random 2): We should play basketball again. Got our asses kicked, but hey.
V (random 3): Do you like board games? Kind of out of the blue, but someone has a bunch...
V (random 4): Falconer has this theory that you're immune to PTSD. I certainly think you've made something out of your grief.
V (random 5): People say the Fedayeen don't suffer morale failure. Maybe. But leave no variable uncontrolled.
V (extra tidbit): On a personal level...I'm glad to see you opening up again. You're going to need to make some hard decisions. I don't want you driven by revenge alone.

Quote from: Al-Da’wa
L: So the Gaian Effort raids we've been beating back all these years were just Kostadin Cell?
A: There are other cells that raid the Federation. Greenleaf and Bloody March. But the majority of Gef cells have splintered away from the late MacDuff's agenda.
L: Doesn't it bother you to have a gang of comet-dwelling, radically posthuman spacefarers living on your doorstep?
A: The Council of Elders believes that the posthuman wing of the Gaian Effort represents insurance for human survival. Even if our worlds are lost, the Gefs may survive and spread.
L: They have to know that the Tevs will clamp down on them if they retake Sol. Can we pull them into the war on our side?
A: This is a possibility that was explored. Federation Intelligence traded weapons to many cells, including Kostadin, in exchange for military effort. But they were unreliable and ultimately treacherous.
L: Maybe with Kostadin out of the way we can reach the more distant cells and convince them of the threat. But it's not enough, is it? Damn it, how do we win this war?
A: The Council has an end-state contingency that will achieve what they call a conditional victory. I'm not privy to the details. Henriksson was. But from the moment the 14th arrived, the Council has been playing a long game. They want to win this fight without abandoning Ubuntu principles.
A: I begged them for the chance to jump Ainsarii through the node and antimatter bomb Beta Aquilae on the first day of the war. But they will not go to the lengths I will.
A (random 1): I wish we had been given a free hand from the first hours of the conflict.
A (random 2): The moral ambiguities of the GTVA's position, the intentions behind its invasion, are irrelevant.
A (random 3): Were I concerned with principle instead of ends, I would still oppose the GTVA. Unilateral pre-emptive invasion is wasteful.
A (random 4): The Alliance believes it can manage the Shivan threat with military force. Their own history exposes the lie.
A (extra tidbit): Even now I wonder...how does the Council plan to win the war when they consider military victory a failure? What kind of success could possibly satisfy their standards?

Quote from: Thorn
L: It's starting to feel like we're making real progress here.
T: Second Fleet lost a frigate yesterday and the Tevs nuked Phobos Surveillance Command.
L: Then it's time to kill more Tevs.
T: Al-Da'wa is meeting with Admiral Calder today. They're planning a joint op which may allow us to inflict serious damage. One of the biggest blows of the war, if all goes well.
L: Make sure I'm in on it. Do your analysts have any idea what the target will be? The Carthage hasn't been pulled out of theater...too badly damaged to transit the node.
T: Yes, we have an idea. And no, you don't get to know. I'm busy factoring the repercussions of your decision at the Kostadin habitat into our thirty-year plan for the Gefs. Their responsiveness is going to change.
L: I did what I felt was appropriate. Hey, Thorn, why don't you and the other analyst geeks ever come out of your little fortress? I just see you at briefings.
T: CASSANDRA is a demanding mistress. We're the heart of the Fedayeen in more ways than one. What's important is that we get you the intelligence and mission profiles you need to do your job. If you've been paying any attention you know the stakes of this war are high.
L: Where do the Fedayeen come from, anyway? I hear these things.
T: You can believe the legends if you like. I'm not sure I do. But Nagari interference in human behavior goes back a long way...before we even met the Shivans. Maybe somebody got worried about it even back before we had spaceflight.
L: Aliens screwing with us. I liked it better when the Shivans just glassed planets.
T: The Nagari heavylifting, someone else handles that. Open question as to who's more dangerous.
L: Let me know when you've got something solid on that big op. And let's hope the Imperieuse doesn't turn up this time.
T (random 1): The Imperieuse is busy playing deterrent to the Eris.
T (random 2): The Hood is holding Artemis Station right now.
T (random 3): The Carthage is in dock, being worked up after Saturn. She was too badly damaged to make the node transit.
T (random 4): Fighter engagements near Mars have been fierce. Another class of pilots mostly dead.
T (extra tidbit): Admiral Steele...the man nearly died at the hands of the Shivans. He came back from that fight changed. Makes you wonder what he picked up out there, doesn't it?

Quote from: Hammer of Light
L: These viral weapons you've supplied are getting a lot of use. Tell me more.
H: Many of our engineers worked on the software used to operate Alliance warships. Vulnerabilities were discovered. Backdoors were emplaced.
L: It's my understanding that shipboard systems are both encrypted and hardened against outside input. How do you get around that?
H: Any complex system can be cracked, Terran. Especially when our agents in the design teams leave vulnerabilities in the sensor or COM software.
L: So far we've managed to disable gas miner safeties, shut down AWACS, and crash battlenets. What else can you do?
H: Alliance systems are already immune to the viral weapons we have deployed so far. Only two varieties remain - Set 771 and Set 845. One is meant to cripple sentry neural net AIs, the other to hamper shipboard fire control.
L: So our genie's out of wishes. Fair enough. Your supply of intelligence alone is still enough to justify this alliance.
H: That, too, may be coming to an end. Steele has given his GTVI contacts broad authority to hunt down and purge our agents. Ironically, Admiral Recamai's intervention is the only thing that has saved our network. He distrusts Steele.
H: But this is the price we pay. Your Federation is of no interest to us, but you, Terran, you are pivotal to our design. A chosen one, if you favor such terms...or simply a shatterpoint.
L: I'm no chosen one and I don't believe in destiny. Things happen because we make them happen.
H (random 1): Whether you view yourself as acting out a destiny or shaping your own path, you are critical.
H (random 2): Your Elders and your CASSANDRA simulate the future. So do we.
H (random 3): he waits in the cooling ruin for a daughter made out of war
H (random 4): We spent many lives discovering what happened to Samuel Bei. He, too, is an instrument of fate.
H (extra tidbit): Can you not see the grand design? Do you not understand the games that have been played with our species since before we even had the written word? We were candidates for a great purpose. We have failed, and so we must burn!

Quote from: Gaian Effort (a)
L: Huh. Did a Gef tumble down the rabbit hole into our little menagerie?
G: Kostadin. MacDuff gone. The dinosaurs extinct. All those people free at last. All that sickness and filth uncaged and needy –
Ged: She's dreaming. Not aware of us at all. I'm here to listen. Gather intel on Gef reactions to your last mission.
L: I thought the dreamscape required implants. Networking protocols.
Ged: She's a second-generation posthuman. Greenfly cell. Cloned, engineered, and augmented for cometary life. Her brain is designed for networking...and by some accident or experiment, she's Nagari capable. We can hear her.
G: Buntu spared them. The little baselines crowded in like rats. Backwards. Primitive. Might have been mercy to kill - no! No! Not their fault.
G: Buntu spared Kostadin. Saved Kostadin. Could be we're as wrong of as them as they are of us? Could be. Different destinies. Different species. But maybe not enemies.
L: Greenfly...I used to think the Gefs were all like Kostadin. Eco-crazed cultists. But they've been out there in the cold so long...she makes me wonder how much the rest of them have changed.
G (random 1): We'll be like seeds. A dandelion sky. Out into the dark.
G (random 2): Foundries. Vats. Kind of the same. Make the ships. Make me.
G (random 3): They're born under skies. Skies too poor of stars.
G (random 4): Greenfly isn't Greenleaf. Greenfly isn't Greenleaf. They don't know that. Do they know that?
G (extra tidbit): I saw Hephaestus. I saw the others. The foundries make the ships and the ships go out and make the foundries and we ride the comets out, everywhere...no subspace. No limits. They'll envy us...

Quote from: Gaian Effort (b)
L: Huh. Did a Gef tumble down the rabbit hole into our little menagerie?
G: MacDuff dead. Kostadin dead. Dinosaurs extinct. Blood. Ash. Genocide. The habitats, the nurseries - burnt. Buntu burnt everything.
Ged: She's dreaming. Not aware of us at all. I'm here to listen. Gather intel on Gef reactions to your last mission
L: I thought the dreamscape required implants. Networking protocols.
Ged: She's a second-generation posthuman. Greenfly cell. Cloned, engineered, and augmented for cometary life. Her brain is designed for networking...and by some accident or experiment, she's Nagari capable. We can hear her.
G: They'd do it to us. Speciation. Competition. They'll burn us next. Run, then - so much space - so much cold to hide in. Cold won't stop the fire. Strike first –
G: Burn them. Burn them like they burnt Kostadin. No! Wasteful. Waste of heterogeneity. Run. Don't trust them. Never trust them.
L: She's angry about what happened. She doesn't understand what was at stake...or maybe she doesn't care. Maybe Earth is just like an old house to her. To all of Greenfly.
G (random 1): To them all Gefs are Kostadin and all Kostadins are rats and rats get the torch.
G (random 2): Spare them! Spare them! It was MacDuff! It wasn't them! No - spare them!
G (random 3): They don't know us. Don't know our might. What we can do - to them - to ourselves -
G (random 4): How could you bear that light, that star? Walking naked under it...burning skin, cells, genes...like they burnt Kostadin. Like they want to burn us.
G (extra tidbit): I saw Hephaestus. I saw the others. The foundries make the ships and the ships go out and make the foundries and we ride the comets out, everywhere...no subspace. No limits. They won't find us.

 

Offline SF-Junky

  • 29
  • Bread can mold, what can you do?
Re: Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Fifth Session (after Her Finest Hour)

Quote from: Falconer
L: Oh look, a dream that's not in the Indus briefing room. How marvelously...lucid.
F: You don't have PTSD. That's the key. Don't you get it? You can watch a thousand comrades and lovers die, and it'll never cripple you. It just...forges you. Makes you better.
L: Rumor has it that Al-Da'wa is ready to show me exactly what's been happening in my head all these years. Something to do with the Hammer of Light schematics.
F: Exactly. If you think your visions aren't somehow tied to your ability to uncouple from your traumas and act as you see necessary for human survival, then you're the fool I thought you were.
L: So which came first, then? Did Ken come to me because I learned to step free of my past? Or did he teach me how to do it?
F: Maybe a little of both. If what he's planning works, maybe you can ask the thing itself.
F: If it goes wrong, well...Laporte, you're a good Fedayeen. A good asset. You are what humanity needs.
L: You're mad, Falconer. But you're a quick shot and good cover. Watch the beams.
F (random 1): Sorry about attacking Olympus Mons last game. The survival of humanity demanded it. And you roll a lot of twos.
F (random 2): I don't strangle kittens, Laporte. Was that unclear?
F (random 3): Relax. I'm not going to go all gushy on you.
F (random 4): You kept the good parts of Ubuntu and stepped past the bad.
F (extra tidbit): You're one of us now, Laporte. I don't just mean the Fedayeen. Falconer, Kovacs and I go way back. We won't forget you.

Quote from: Kovacs
L: Finally! Twenty months and finally we get one of their destroyers!
K: It was a victory only the Fedayeen could have accomplished. Stealth assets, perfect battlefield intel going in, and a dead-accurate psych assessment.
L: I suppose it's too much to hope that Steele's aura of invincibility back home will be tarnished.
K: There'll be fallout. It won't matter. The people holding his reins are smart enough to know that it was Lopez's error, not his.
L: How long until he hits Earth? How much more does he need? We're still playing for time. Still on the defensive.
K: Al-Da'wa's Nagari op is ready to roll. Maybe we can figure out what we need to do to win this thing.
K (random 1): I've got to admit, that fight was a hell of a rush.
K (random 2): I hear Admiral Calder is taken with your abilities.
K (random 3): For an emotionally gutted Second Fleet refugee, you've really stepped up.
K (random 4): I respect the choice you made.
K (extra tidbit): If you want to celebrate the Carthage, meet the three of us down by the port armory, ship's 1950.

Quote from: Vidaura
V: I told you that you'd have hard decisions to make. Was I right? Was the Carthage call agony?
L: What's done is done. I'm at peace with it. I feel like I'm made out of the bones and ash of the people I've killed, but I'm at peace with it.
V: You make snap calls about ten thousand lives, you brush away the dying as ants, but when you smile I still see a human being down there. You are the Fedayeen ideal, Laporte.
L: Is that what you people wanted to make me into? You, Falconer, Kovacs...the counselor, the berserker, the warrior...are you each an angle?
V: There are reasons Kovacs is the way he is. Choices he had to make. Falconer...there's no buried angst, no trauma there. She's just that way. Always has been.
L: Nothing for yourself? Vidaura, for all your gentle quiet...I've started to wonder where you learned to get into heads like this.
V: I was a serial killer. I like to think the people I killed needed to die. The Fedayeen just formalized the job.
V: That's what we do. Make monsters into weapons. I think it was just what you needed.
V (random 1): This next op will be pivotal.
V (random 2): I can't imagine the anguish Admiral Lopez must have felt.
V (random 3): People think empathy and compassion impair killing. I suppose it's true for most.
V (random 4): Kovacs came to us, Falconer we found. I was taken from prison.
V (random 5): What we've accomplished in the past few sorties will buy the Federation time. If only we knew what the Elders were planning...
V (extra tidbit): I like you. You are a remarkable...human being, that I wouldn't be sure of. But you are a remarkable person.

Quote from: Al-Da’wa
L: Steele just lost his best field commander and a quarter of his destroyers. He can't ignore that.
A: He can't. And I will acknowledge that this is a significant victory, a striking blow. But it is not everything we need...not even with Calder's wings harassing the node.
L: Don't tell me. Steele was planning to lose the Carthage all along. It's some kind of...political ploy.
A: Not entirely untrue. He never wanted to lose that ship, but its loss will convince the Alliance to pull more destroyers away from their Shivan watch. The Vengeance and Phoenicia, we expect.
L: They won't be able to fuel and supply those ships on their Sol infrastructure alone. Moving them in means Steele has to move soon.
A: I expect Steele's final attack within 11 days. Before it comes we must have the intelligence we need to determine how we will act in the last days of the war. And I am afraid that you are the only asset we have to obtain it.
L: Me. I know that you think my visions are connecting me to forces outside of Sol, but without some kind of clear signal, some network or specimen...what can we learn?
A: Your mind has been entered and shaped by the actions of an alien intelligence. They used nonlocal quantum phenomena to induce activity directly in your neural structures. The process is not...entirely one-way. The hope is to use a technique developed on Jupiter to crack the Nagari signal and extract the information we need from your...dream companions.
A: Your mind will serve as the entry point for an intrusion into the Nagari network. We will learn all we can of its masters, and their intentions for humanity.
A (random 1): Your questions about my identity will soon be answered.
A (random 2): Do not be lulled by mysticism. What has been done to your mind is the act of a calculating observer.
A (random 3): GTVA flight officer Samuel Bei Cheow Keng was shaped from childhood by the same Nagari process that has touched you.
A (random 4): CASSANDRA will provide the processing and signals intelligence firepower we need for this operation.
A (extra tidbit): You may be surprised to learn why there are so many faces of al-Da'wa. I ask that you take the revelation...in stride.

Quote from: Thorn
L: I'm getting the sense this next op involves CASSANDRA and my brain.
T: You're right. I can try to give you the details, as simple as I can..
L: I'd appreciate it. Go ahead.
T: We've completed analysis of the DNI data gathered from your hallucination during patrol over Earth. We can see the impact of Nagari signals on your mind in real time.
L: Look, I know you think I'm hooked into some kind of...greater design here, but this whole Nagari business still makes me edgy. In this one case, I'd rather be crazy than right.
T: Tough. If Ken exists elsewhere, as a real entity, and you can speak to him, he must accept input from your brain. Any system that accepts input can be cracked. We're going to hack Ken - use your brain to get inside.
L: And pull whatever information he has? Like what the hell he is? All right. Tell me about the hardware.
T: CASSANDRA is the only computational system in human space powerful enough to handle this. We need to give you an advantage in the Nagari connection, enough to force your own requests down the information flow back to the host. To do that we need the transmitter design HoL gave you, and we need GTI data on Nagari...but we lost it at Jupiter.
L: So let's go get it back.
T: That's the plan. Once we have the transmitter design, the GTI Nagari data, and real-time mapping of your brain, we're going to send you in. You'll get whatever data you can out of the computational space Ken exists in.
L: What is it, though? Just some box on a Shivan shelf somewhere? That's absurd.
T: I imagine it's...something like CASSANDRA. Which is not absurd. And which I can't describe here.
L: Fine. My brain is ready and willing to serve as part of this run. But I need to know everything going in.
T (random 1): We tracked the GTI Nagari data to a storm platform in the Jovian atmosphere.
T (random 2): SOC has been hunting for this data. GTVI is still researching ETAK.
T (random 3): The Hammer of Light transmitter you received will be part of our run.
T (random 4): The Hammer believes that the Shivans use the Nagari process to seek out the sinful.
T (extra tidbit): Even the Ancients believed that the Shivans didn't attack blindly. They had some kind of methodology, a target selection heuristic. We have to learn what it is.

Quote from: Hammer of Light
L: Word from the analysts has it that your network in Sol is being reamed.
H: We have lost most of the faithful in Sol. The purge is spreading through the rest of the Alliance.
L: I disagree with your organization's principles, but I appreciate the sacrifices you've made. Hey - what's the climate like in the Alliance right now?
H: This war has been fiercely divisive on the Terran worlds. Again and again the General Terran Assembly cries that the Federation is a theocratic cabal not unlike the Hammer of Light. Only half believe them.
L: I'm surprised civil war hasn't broken out. Another Neo-Terran uprising.
H: Civil discontent is massive. Without support from a charismatic military leader, it will not erupt into true war. The war in Sol has rallied as many behind the Alliance banner as it has driven away.
L: Sheep. Herds and herds of sheep. You couldn't pull that kind of propaganda on an Ubuntu populace.
H: Perhaps that is part of what they are afraid of. A citizenry that does not respond to the tools of government. That cannot be rallied, en masse, by fear. They need a biddable population to face the Shivans.
H: The fumblings of human government are ultimately irrelevant. The destroyers will return to purge all sin from the tomb of space. We are trespassers, we are insects, and our time is nearly over.
L: No...red ants, black ants...somehow some of us can be saved.
H (random 1): Do not assign motives or mind to the destroyers. They are singular, eternal.
H (random 2): The ancient ones understood that their crime was sin.
H (random 3): he waits in the cooling ruin for a daughter made out of war
H (random 4): Our hubris and our self-centered monomania lead us to believe that the Shivans must have goals, desires, fears, objectives. Abandon these things. Abandon meaning.
H (extra tidbit): What purpose can be assigned to the Shivans except that of the wildfire? Do they in their infinite vigilance guarantee that all life will have its own short span, and then, as is proper, a clean death?

Quote from: Gaian Effort (a)
L: Operator. How's our unwitting guest?
G: Dolphins. Vector savvy. Capable. Could have brought dolphins. Tide's rising. Ride it out. Could have written poems for each other...leaving soon. Leaving suns and Shivans. Leaving dolphins.
Ged: She's not dreaming much of substance. Her broadcasts into the Nagari manifold are intermittent. I think she's at peace.
L: She sounds so young...I'm glad someone's sleeping easy.

Quote from: Gaian Effort (b+)
L: Operator. How's our unwitting guest?
G: They let them go...they had them and used them and let them go. Why let them go? Why let them run home? Did they know they'd burn that home? Did they hope they wouldn't have to?
Ged: She's still obsessing over the attack on Kostadin Cell. She learned about something we did. An act of mercy. It's confused her.
L: It's a greyscale universe. If she wants easy consistency, she'd better move someplace else.

Quote from: Gaian Effort (b-)
L: Operator. How's our unwitting guest?
G: Was there some other way? Something they could have done? Was genocide the easy way out? Maybe they always take the easy way. The efficient way. Maybe for them it's pest control.
Ged: She's still obessing over the attack on Kostadin. She's upset. Furious. It consumes her.
L: Strange to think that someone built for survival wouldn't understand. There are always casualties. There's always a price.

Quote from: Gaian Effort
Ged (random 1): It's possible that she's a Gef experiment in Nagari technology.
Ged (random 2): The fundamental Nagari protocols are Turing-compatible. We have a limited grasp of them.
Ged (random 3): Kostadin was powerful and conservative. With them out of the picture, Greenfly may be in a position to unite a new, radically transhuman Gef power bloc.
Ged (random 4): Gef infighting is constant and damaging. Their societies are fragile, dependent on artificial wombs and precious technology.
Ged (extra tidbit): Do you ever think about Nagari? What it means? A technology made to interface sentient minds across a subspace manifold...it's the kind of thing I imagine a powerful civilization building. To bind themselves together.

  

Offline MatthTheGeek

  • Captain Obvious
  • 212
  • Frenchie McFrenchface
Re: Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
I hope it is not too much of a problem when I post this in here. :)
Why would it be a problem to post stuff that is readily available ? :)
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

Mod management tools     -     Wiki stuff!     -     Help us help you

666maslo666: Releasing a finished product is not a good thing! It is a modern fad.

SpardaSon21: it seems like you exist in a permanent state of half-joking misanthropy

Axem: when you put it like that, i sound like an insane person

bigchunk1: it's not retarded it's american!
bigchunk1: ...

batwota: steele's maneuvering for the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: you mispelled grâce
Awaesaar: grace
batwota: oh right :P
Darius: ah!
Darius: yes, i like that
MatthTheGeek: the way you just spelled it it means fat
Awaesaar: +accent I forgot how to keyboard
MatthTheGeek: or grease
Darius: the killing fat!
Axem: jabba does the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: XD
Axem: bring me solo and a cookie

 

Offline SF-Junky

  • 29
  • Bread can mold, what can you do?
Re: Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Well, maybe you would've disliked the idea of having tons of ingame text in the forums. Its some 60,000 characters, after all. My Bachelor thesis in politics is some 73,000 characters long. :eek2: :D

 

Offline Darius

  • Moderator
  • 211
Re: Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
This is a great idea. Sticked for easy referencing.

 

Offline An4ximandros

  • 210
  • Transabyssal metastatic event
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Quote
L: At least they didn't ask me to fly into the Atreus' fighterbay, right?
K: ****, that takes me back. That memory's in the dreamscape somewhere if you ever want to go over it.
Does that mean what I think it means?

Also, thanks for the thread!

 

Offline Husker

  • 27
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Quote
L: At least they didn't ask me to fly into the Atreus' fighterbay, right?
K: ****, that takes me back. That memory's in the dreamscape somewhere if you ever want to go over it.
Does that mean what I think it means?

Also, thanks for the thread!
Does that mean? Somehow Kovacs was Alpha 1?!?!? Mind. Blown.

 

Offline MatthTheGeek

  • Captain Obvious
  • 212
  • Frenchie McFrenchface
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Probably means that Alpha 1, or someone that debriefed Alpha 1, was connected to CASSANDRA at some point.
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

Mod management tools     -     Wiki stuff!     -     Help us help you

666maslo666: Releasing a finished product is not a good thing! It is a modern fad.

SpardaSon21: it seems like you exist in a permanent state of half-joking misanthropy

Axem: when you put it like that, i sound like an insane person

bigchunk1: it's not retarded it's american!
bigchunk1: ...

batwota: steele's maneuvering for the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: you mispelled grâce
Awaesaar: grace
batwota: oh right :P
Darius: ah!
Darius: yes, i like that
MatthTheGeek: the way you just spelled it it means fat
Awaesaar: +accent I forgot how to keyboard
MatthTheGeek: or grease
Darius: the killing fat!
Axem: jabba does the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: XD
Axem: bring me solo and a cookie

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

  • 211
  • The Cthulhu programmer himself!
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Or possibly even someone who gave the order, or just watched a recording made of the mission. It could be someone only very tangentially related to Alpha 1.

On the other hand, I thought references were made to Alpha 1 starting the Fedayeen in the first place.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline An4ximandros

  • 210
  • Transabyssal metastatic event
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Interestingly, Kovacs is Hungarian (from Slavic) for forger... :nervous:

 

Offline SF-Junky

  • 29
  • Bread can mold, what can you do?
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Kovacs seems to know very much about the Fedayeen, more than Vidaura and Falconer. He seems to be a lot wiser than the other two. So you probably could interpret this as him being Alpha 1 from FS1. Though I never thought about that. I always interpreted the line so that he had made a covert mission before in which he had to check out the Atreus' fighterbay. :)

 

Offline An4ximandros

  • 210
  • Transabyssal metastatic event
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
I would actually go for that if it hadn't been said right after the assassination mission where the Atreus is guarding the space station.

 

Offline Hellstryker

  • waffles
  • 210
    • Skype
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Kovacs seems to know very much about the Fedayeen, more than Vidaura and Falconer. He seems to be a lot wiser than the other two. So you probably could interpret this as him being Alpha 1 from FS1.

Alpha 1 is Laporte's dad.

No, really.

 

Offline rubixcube

  • best username ever
  • 28
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Kovacs seems to know very much about the Fedayeen, more than Vidaura and Falconer. He seems to be a lot wiser than the other two. So you probably could interpret this as him being Alpha 1 from FS1.

Alpha 1 is Laporte's dad.

No, really.

Is that supposed to be a joke? Where did you get that idea? Although I suppose it is possible.
Stuff

 

Offline The Jovian

  • 23
  • I'm the Jovian.
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Kovacs seems to know very much about the Fedayeen, more than Vidaura and Falconer. He seems to be a lot wiser than the other two. So you probably could interpret this as him being Alpha 1 from FS1. Though I never thought about that. I always interpreted the line so that he had made a covert mission before in which he had to check out the Atreus' fighterbay. :)

Kovacs would have to be at least 70 years old for him to be FS1's Alpha 1, so that theory can go out the window. My guess is that FS1's Alpha 1 was one of the early Fedayeen and the first to use CASSANDRA, and that Kovacs simply experienced the memory.

 
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
Al'dawa swaps bodies on a regular basis. Fedayeen pilots might do the same, but less frequently.

If you're a warship commander (which I think Al'dawa is?) that is not a physically stressful job. Any reasonably healthy human body will do the job. Al'dawa might need to swap bodies on a regular basis, to prevent people from recognizing his/her face.

Space pilots, on the other hand, probably pull a lot more G's. It's more strenuous. Being more physically fit correlates directly to better performance in the field. Also, there's no need to swap bodies other than aging past prime, or perhaps physical injury. Also, the list of physically compatible body-swap candidates is probably smaller.

Kovacs actually could be FS1 Alpha One.
"Obviously the meson bomb is a form of cat-toast-device, with the buttered toast inverted, so that the cat and toast both fly in the direction of gravity much faster than expected. By introducing artificial gravity, a pair of cat-toast perpetual motion accelerator units can be made to collide with one another, and they produce an unimaginably devastating explosion. Both cats are named 'Meson'."

 - Wikileaks 2383

 

Offline QuakeIV

  • 29
  • test
Re: (SPOILERS) Tenebra: Dreamscape Dialogues
I had kindof assumed Al'Dawa was more than one at once.  My vague understanding is he isn't conventionally human in any particular fashion.