[Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror (Completed)

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Tamri
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Tamri »

dragoongfa
1) How this is about people here!? Whether at our place even though mantises - Loroi on them too would look like? Too much "gladiolus" here. If Soya understood mechanism of telepathy - what to do Loroi humanlike? It is simply not rational, if not stupid. Even primitive robots, we all try to do like himself, and here we are talking about the kind that will be side-by-side with them to fight, perhaps, centuries. Ergonomics where? And if they do not understand - why Loroi did from us are very different, which in the history of the results of preliminary experiments, which ran in the theory and how sideways here and do all the other Loroi in particular, especially if they are only a "stage of the experiment?" One assumption is the other, and none gives a coherent picture than "because gladiolus".

Unless Soya do not like us - then part of the picture becomes clearer, but there is a bunch of new questions.

2) Option, also adjusted: it is not the past for Alex Lotai, but almost burned his brains. In any case, the hypothesis of universal psionic talent is anyway not dock. Because otherwise he could ignore the rest at least when his paw - because the "bridge". People, Loroi, other alien - all. And not just one particular telepath, under specific conditions.

3) The maturation of an organism does not depend on its complexity - only on development mechanisms. But considering the physical parameters of Loroi, unless their digestion and energy storage mechanisms were not recycled overhaul - obviously not the case, and they had used some other principle. Agreed.

4) Nevertheless, a lot of them to form an army of them, and even mediocre amplifiers psychokinesis could turn into a threat. And each of them is in the fight of tens, if not hundreds Barsam. Where is the point?

Combat Drone, if the base is not protected against EMP and attempts to break the enemy, and not having a program of battery life - useless cans, designers who need to drown in the toilet. In addition, control of the swarm can be carried out with the surface, and a powerful short-range transmitter to jam as much more complicated.
dragoongfa wrote: Are you serious about this?

There is so much wrong to the assumption that a soldier has to be just smart enough to follow orders that I cannot even begin to form an answer. Especially the kind of soldier that has to operate tech heavy equipment.
Yes, I am quite serious. Of course, mental retardation in the army do not take, but even that would cope with modern technology (which is incomparably more complex than even the weapons of the SWW, not to mention earlier times) Soldier great mind is not necessary, important skills and training. A former soldier from the required minimum at all - the ability to lift a spear, a bow and pull system to keep. Classes are challenging, but the mind is not particularly demanding. A commander may well be a clever 3-5 hundred soldiers, lack of mental discipline subordinate to compensate. Since then much has changed, but the basic principles remain. Actually, as humans. Capitation intelligence is needed in all sorts of special forces, intelligence, military engineers, and with the bulk of the demand is low. In this case, given that all these places are clearly occupied by someone else, the potential "meat" very sophisticated and flexible mind, and should not be different.

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dragoongfa
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

1) I don't understand anything of this.

2) According to the word of god: Fireblade and the other two Teidars used telekinesis to suffocate Alex, they didn't use telepathy at all.

3) Humans and Loroi are physically almost identical. I worked with that.

4) Then ask the Soians why they thought that it would be a good idea to create the Loroi at the first place if you don't believe that they couldn't use someone else to police them.

Drones are the easiest things to spoof with modern Electronic Warfare, the Iranians practically highjacked a state of the art Stealth drone that the Americans were using to spy on them. At advanced tech levels the whole concept of relying on drones for anything besides base intelligence gathering becomes stupid.

As for the soldiers and the need for intelligence, there is a famous unattributedquote that has been true for millennia:

"Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates."
- F.E. Adcock, British classical scholar

If the rank and file is unable to show free thinking and unable to take the initiative in low level combat then they will lose all of the firefights. You need smart sergeants and you need smart troopers if you are to have a proper war machine.

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Siber
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Siber »

I'm having trouble understanding 1) as well, but it seems to be questioning why the Loroi should look so human, and rejecting the rule of cool as a reason. So going from that assumption...

I think the creation of the Loroi most likely went something along these lines.
  1. The Soia are very good at bioengineering. They're good enough to alter a species to use significantly different biochemistry.
  2. Despite this mastery, evolution on a galactic scale can still produce useful novelty, and reproducing these useful features from scratch is impractical.
  3. The Soia use engineering to uplift new peoples for their empire. If these new people are slaves or equals is impossible to say from the information available.
  4. The uplifts are adapted to a common preferred biochemistry for convenience and efficiency. If everyone can eat the same food, logistics are easier.
  5. Each uplift brings something unique to the empire, but overlap is possible. Loroi and Barsam could both be alternate options for a warrior race. They could even be rivals, produced by different Soia factions. Or their original purposes could be completely different in one or both cases, and they adapted to war after the fall.
  6. Humanity has a special quality, most likely a partially developed psi ability, that the Soia recognized. The Loroi were created based on humanity for that reason.
Honestly the only particularly improbable part of this chain of events is the second point for me, but not so improbable that I consider it a problem.

In thinking about this I had a related thought that I don't think I've seen proposed before... the Soia had technology that interacted in some ways with psi, and the Loroi have some kind of cultural aversion to cybernetics. What if the Loroi weren't a warrior race, but an organ farm? Loroi mature, have some kids, then get harvested to have their brains stuck in communications relays and the like for an empire that can manipulate psi but not recreate it outside of a Loroi/human brain. It's nasty, but with the right culture the benefits of FTL communication could be seen as worth it. The cultural aversion to cybernetics, assuming it isn't a more recent occurance due to the war with the umiak, could be a distant echo of that horror.
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Grayhome
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Grayhome »

The Barsam worship the Soia as gods, maybe they created sentient life forms to worship themselves. Look at it from a religious angle.

Krulle
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Krulle »

Siber wrote:2. Despite this mastery, evolution on a galactic scale can still produce useful novelty, and reproducing these useful features from scratch is impractical.
[...]
Honestly the only particularly improbable part of this chain of events is the second point for me, but not so improbable that I consider it a problem.
It could well be that the Soian found it impossible to calculate what can be achieved.
I mean recombining genes, or creating artificial ones isn't that different, if you know what the end result must be.
But going from a desired result (e.g. superior psi abilities) and not even knowing they exist makes it very hard to calculate or guess the correct order of molecules you need to combine.
Having a template makes this much easier.
Vote for Outsider on TWC: Image
charred steppes, borders of territories: page 59,
jump-map of local stars: page 121, larger map in Loroi: page 118,
System view Leido Crossroads: page 123, after the battle page 195

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Siber
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Siber »

@Greyhome: That's possible, but it really seems like a situation that could arise even if that wasn't the Soia's intent.

@Krulle: Hm, it seems that what I meant to say isn't... really in my post. I'll try again.

What I find improbable is not that evolution can produce novelty, but that they can preserve the novelty while changing out the biochemistry. I've no applicable expertise, but as a fan of sci-fi who has done some reading after being annoyed by how lots of sci-fi treats biotech, it'd be my assumption that any change on that level would probably invalidate important portions of the rest of the genome, and by the time you fixed everything you probably don't have a smaller task than just recreating the desired qualities from scratch elsewhere. And that probably wouldn't make Loroi that look quite so appealing to the human eye.

But that is just my intuition talking mostly.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
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Krulle
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Krulle »

I agree, I find it unlikely too, but who knows what the reasons might be.
Possibly the nervous system works best this way (positioning of nerve knots, ...) to preserve the desired features, thus the general body form is necessary.
But the biochemistry of collecting food and processing it isn't affecting the nervous system ...

Possibly our nerves are the antennas, and because they are positioned like this we have a broad antenna and PSI capabilities/blocking...
Whereas different body forms may deliver less efficient antennas.

This is all speculation, as with all Sci-Fi it is fiction, and not scientific.
Many things seems totally bollocks to me as an engineer, but how would a medieval knight look at our guns?
He would try to explain it away with better materials and a micro-catapult being inside the gun which accelerated the bullet, as he does not know how explosives work....
We don't know how certain basic elements of our reality interact, so we do not know what else is possible...

That is also why I love reading Sci-Fi.
Reach for the stars.
Vote for Outsider on TWC: Image
charred steppes, borders of territories: page 59,
jump-map of local stars: page 121, larger map in Loroi: page 118,
System view Leido Crossroads: page 123, after the battle page 195

Tamri
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Tamri »

Siber,
Yes, the question was: why Soya having described possible, it chose a design rather than a more ergonomic settings for yourself. I'm sorry that I can't explain to clearer knowledge of the language is not enough.

Arguments accepted. About the same biochemistry in principle it is self-evident, but the rest of the argument convincing. In fact - we don't know their own culture and scientific ethics. It is possible that they have a tradition to keep bioconstructs similarities with prototypes, as a reminder of their ancestors to give them an idea. Just convincing version of a study about the different lines of military types, in order to understand which option is preferable, or to have a backup in case the primary will misfire. However, we don't know their social system that would be able to say anything for sure. Can constructs have been as productive members of society, as are the Soya or may have been disenfranchised slaves with the stigma of "born in a test tube," whose life was only through mindless ministry and death.
dragoongfa wrote: "Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates."
- F.E. Adcock, British classical scholar
This statement says only that those who are planning the strategy and fighting do not participate in it themselves, but instead others die. If the commander is talented and charismatic, the whole army can hold on him alone - Alexander the Great is a good example. From his subordinates don't need a genius comparable or particularly sophisticated mind - rather proficiency and diligence. Officers will only cell circuit in the chain of command. Of course, the higher the level of technology, the greater the ingenuity required of the soldier. But sagacity, as history shows, easily coexists with stupidity, and a sharp mind - with limitations. So, everything is simple and feasible. It would be the desire.

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dragoongfa
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Chapter 18, part 3

It was obvious that the Mizol’s intention was to fully humiliate her. She started by deciding, on her own accord, to give Silverspear’s regenerator to the humans and now she was having her be a part of this ‘good will’ charade that she and the human captain came up with. First he would visit Silverspear as if a Union warship, even at its unsalvageable state, is some sort of tourist attraction. Darkwing didn’t like it but it was part of the deal that the Mizol struck with the aliens and as thus she didn’t have any choice on the matter.

The human seemed pleased to be there, despite the fact that large segments of the ship were too damaged and open to vacuum. To Darkwing’s dismay the bridge was still accessible and she hated every moment that the alien was there to witness her failure. Thankfully they didn’t linger there long, there wasn’t much to see with all the damaged system and the human seemed eager to move on for some reason despite the fact that a ship’s bridge is the most critical part of the ship.

He did have questions though, an endless amount of them as a matter of fact but the Listel answered them all. Their endless jabbering had managed to give Darkwing a headache long before they boarded the human shuttle that would take her and the Listel to the human ship for her part of the ‘goodwill visits’. She found the whole concept stupid and a waste of everyone’s time considering the circumstances but the human asked for it and since their mission hinged on their goodwill she couldn’t say no. If only he and the Listel would just stop talking.

“I think that I understand now; close proximity to each other is not only uncomfortable but also causes telepathic interference which makes telepathic communications problematic, especially when the proximity is close enough for numerous accidental ‘touchings’. So the larger spaces on your ship are a necessity to maintain proper telepathic communications and not just for comfort.” The human captain, George Asteios, said once he finally realized this basic fact.

“Indeed that’s it. As I already said, when the Loroi gather in large numbers to complete a task they create what is best described as a telepathic network; Loroi warriors are trained to use this network for the near instantaneous and precise transmission of orders that is far quicker and more efficient than any known technological means. In our experience Loroi warriors have far superior coordination capabilities due to this telepathic ability.” The Listel added.

“It makes sense now, such a degree of coordination will result in enhanced efficiency in several mission critical aspects of running a ship and I know that superior crews are able to do more with less ships.” The human commented.

“There is a lot of pride in the fact that we Loroi have always been outnumbered in space, sometimes even outgunned, but we have always emerged victorious from all wars we have fought.” The Listel added.

“Captain, we are touching down on Matveyev’s shuttle bay.” The human pilot, another of their abnormal males; announced in Trade through the shuttle’s intercom as they felt the soft landing.

“Nice landing…” Captain Asteios commented as he stood up. “Please follow me.”

“Of course.” The Listel acknowledged and Darkwing didn’t see a reason to do so as well as she stood up. The human glanced at her for a moment before leading both of them into the shuttle’s airlock.

The outer airlock door opened just a moment after the inner one closed behind them as there was no need to cycle the atmosphere. The air that it let in was acrid, metallic and carried with it the unmistakable smell of welding. A lone human was waiting for them; Commander Albert Summers, Matveyev’s second in command who stood at attention as if waiting for his Captain to step out of the shuttle before speaking.

“Matveyev arriving!” The Commander bellowed as he offered some short of salute with his right hand and at that moment the sound of a bell ringing four times was clearly heard above the usual noises of an active shuttle bay.

“I have arrived.” Captain Asteios replied and returned the salute.

“Nothing new to report.”

“Carry on commander.” At that the commander turned on the spot and walked away.

“Captain Asteios, why are you and your crew talking in Trade instead of your own language?” Darkwing asked as she observed the recently and somewhat hastily repaired shuttle bay that just looked antiquated in her eyes.

“As a gesture of politeness to our guests.” The human captain replied as a matter of fact and she couldn’t help but think of it as a base trick intending to misdirect them but she didn’t say anything about that.

“What was the purpose of the greeting your second in command offered?” She asked again, partly to change the subject and partly out of curiosity.

“It’s a tradition from the time our ships were seaborn. The bell ringing signals when the Captain leaves and boards the ship. When the Captain does so, the officer left in charge must be present in order to announce the fact to those present.” The explanation surprised her because the Loroi were doing something similar but only through telepathy.

“Why did he say ‘Matveyev arriving’ and not ‘Captain arriving’?” Darkwing asked again.

“Because the Captain of the ship adopts its name until relieved of their command.” Captain Asteios replied but he only managed to confuse her. “It’s a tradition meant to highlight the fact that the Captain is the absolute authority as to the running of the ship and any and all events that happen aboard. I am Matveyev’s Captain, there is nothing aboard her that I am not aware of and no action is taken by Matveyev or her crew unless I or the officer I left in charge in my absence ordered so. I am responsible for the ship and everyone aboard it. The Captain adopting the ship’s name in official ceremonies is meant to highlight this simple fact.”

“But as captain you are subordinate to others and as such you cannot have absolute authority on this ship when a superior is aboard.” Darkwing pointed out from her own experience.

“Flag officers may outrank me but they have no say as to how I run my ship. They know that they should not order my crew on how to do their job, if they have any complaints or suggestions they should bring them only to me and I will decide what’s best for the ship.” Captain Asteios explained.

“And if the admiralty put someone aboard who has superseding authority?” Darkwing asked, remembering how the Mizol got their free reign due to their pet Emperor.

“Then I would resign my command as any subversion of my authority is such a manner is unacceptable. There is the precedence of having intelligence officers give highly classified orders in person after the ship has left port but everything was always done by holding the authority of the Captains and Fleet commanders in question as sacrosanct.”

“That’s an admirable way of doing things.” Darkwing commented, lamenting the fact that even such a backward species got this right when the Loroi couldn’t for a variety of reasons.

“Now if you will please follow me, I would like to start your tour by showing you the accommodations that you and your crew will be using while we transport you to the rendezvous point. As a scout ship we don’t have much space but we believe that things will be tolerable for you and your crew.” Captain Asteios said as he gestured them to follow him down a corridor.

“The warriors won’t have a problem adapting to the tight quarters considering the circumstances but many will be restless from not being able to do anything for 23 days.” Darkwing replied as she and Listel Sulfur followed their host.

“As I already told the Mizol Torimor, we don’t need help with running our ship despite the loses we took and its somewhat of a taboo for the host to have his guests work. However our Scout Ships do have a rich entertainment media library for morale reasons, much of the most concurrent media were deleted for safety concerns before we departed but we may be able to adapt much of the remaining media to Trade.” Captain Asteios replied. “I understand that due to the cultural differences the media in question will be alien to Loroi but there are many interactive war games and many movies about historical and legendary battles that should draw some attention.”

“Warriors need entertainment or one risks having them find their own ways to entertain themselves.” Darkwing commented.

“Indeed.” Captain Asteios agreed. “I would also like to ask if the Mizol Torimor has informed you about the weapons issue?”

“She has and your wants are reasonable. As such we will store all personal weapons and amplifiers in a lockbox that will be at your marine’s care. The personal weapons my warriors want to take with them are personal mementos, gifts from their mothers and heirlooms from our dead that will be given to their children when they come of age. They are mostly knives and a few laspistols but they are cherished.” Darkwing replied.

“I understand and I assure you that no one is going to fiddle with them until they are returned to you.” The human captain said reassuringly.

“That will be appreciated.” Darkwing replied. “If I may ask, what does your ship’s name mean?”

“I take it that the Mizol Torimor told you about my name?” The human asked.

“She mentioned it.”

“Figures…” The human said with a chuckle and paused for thought before continuing. “Matveyev is a family name and I don’t know if it has a meaning in Russian, the language from which it is derived from. The ship itself was named so in order to honor Arkadiy Matveyev, one of the pioneering Scout Corps explorers. He was a man of few words, who got things done without much fanfare or politicking; an explorer who wanted nothing else than to be in space and uncover its secrets.” He chuckled again at that. “It’s funny but he never believed that he had done enough for the honor of having a ship named after him, so he was a little unconventional at the ship’s christening ceremony. Instead of having a speech written down he just took out a list with all of the noteworthy Matveyevs he could find in the historical archives. There were dozens of names in that list and he went through all of the names and noteworthy things that they had accomplished. First there was a statesman who was a close confidant to the Russian Emperor and led the Russian Imperial guard, after that it was his son who was a distinguished diplomat and the reason behind the first instance of state recognized diplomatic immunity. Many warriors, including two pilots that were posthumously granted the title of ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ for their actions during world war 2, many artists, athletes, artisans and scientists. His name was last and when he finished reading he first looked at the assembled audience and then at the ship before saying ‘This ship is not named Matveyev because of me, it’s named Matveyev because it will be just one more name in this damn list.’”

Chapter 18, part 4: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 896#p22896
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dragoongfa
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

A short part, the next one may end up even shorter and I will post it when it's ready.

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Grayhome
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Grayhome »

Loving these speedily delivered chapters! Awesome work, as always.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Krulle »

SpoilerShow
dragoongfa wrote:Chapter 18, part 3

It was obvious that the Mizol’s intended to fully humiliate her. She started by deciding, on her own accord, to give the humans Silverspear’s regenerator and now she was having her be a part of this ‘good will’ charade that she and the human captain came up with. First he would visit Silverspear, as if a Union warship, even at its unsalvageable state, is some short of tourist attraction. Darkwing didn’t like it but it was part of the deal that the Mizol struck with the aliens and as thus she didn’t have any choice on the matter.
Two possible corrections here: "as such", or "thus".... I'll leave it up to you, but "as thus" just sounds.... But that may be my non-native English speaking mind.

[...]

He did have questions though, an endless amount of them as a matter of fact but the Listel answered them all. Their endless jabbering had managed to give Darkwing a headache long before they boarded the human shuttle that would bring her and the Listel to the human ship for her part of the ‘goodwill visits’. She found the whole concept stupid and a waste of everyone’s time considering the circumstances but the human asked for it and since their mission hinged on their goodwill she couldn’t say no. If only he and the Listel would just stop talking.

[...]

“Matveyev arriving!” The Commander bellowed as he offered some short of salute with his right hand and at that moment the sound of a bell ringing four times was clearly heard above the usual noises of an active shuttle bay.

[...]

“Now if you will please follow me, I would like to start your tour by showing you the accommodations that you and your crew will be using while we transport you to the rendezvous point. As a scout ship we don’t have much space but we believe that things will be tolerable for you and your crew.” Captain Asteios said as he gestured them to follow hism down a corridor.

[...]

“Figures…” The human said with a chuckle and paused for thought before continuing. “Matveyev is a family name and I don’t know if it has a meaning in Russian, the language from which it is derived from. The ship itself was named so to honor Arkadiy Matveyev, one of the pioneering Scout Corps explorers. He was a man of few words, who got things done without much fanfare or politicking; an explorer who wanted nothing else than to be in space and uncover its secrets.” He chuckled again at that. “It’s funny but he never believed that he had done enough for the honor of having a ship named after him, so he was a little unconventional at the ship’s christening ceremony. Instead of having a speech written down he just took out a list with all of the noteworthy Matveyevs he could find in the historical archives. There were dozens of names in that list and he went through all of the names and noteworthy thinkgs that they had accomplished. First there was a statesman who was a close confidant to the Russian Emperor and led the Russian Imperial guard, after that it was his son who was the distinguished diplomat who was the reason behind the first instance of state recognized diplomatic immunity. Many warriors, including two pilots that were posthumously granted the title of ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ for their actions during world war 2, many artists, athletes, artisans and scientists. His name was last and when he finished reading he first looked at the assembled audience and then at the ship before saying ‘This ship is not named Matveyev because of me, it’s named Matveyev because it will be just one more name in this damn list.’”
I like this part very much.
The interaction between the Loroi and Humans, a short show of how different we are culturally.

Thank you, once again.
I hope I will be able to read many more of your stories.

And I personally think, that if Outsider ever gets printed, this story would make a very nice gift to be added as an extra. If by then your elements do not contradict canon elements in an obvious way.

I like your story so much, that I really need to remind myself that some of the elements you used are not canon (yet).
Vote for Outsider on TWC: Image
charred steppes, borders of territories: page 59,
jump-map of local stars: page 121, larger map in Loroi: page 118,
System view Leido Crossroads: page 123, after the battle page 195

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dragoongfa
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Chapter 18, part 4:

As Matveyev approached the jump point Captain Asteios couldn’t get out of his mind the fact that he had forgotten something important but couldn’t figure out what that was. They hadn’t forgotten anyone, all 58 Loroi survivors were aboard and the bodies of Matveyev’s 13 crew members were safely stored in the freezer. The physical evidence of the whole incident had been covered as best as they could in the little time they had available, the Loroi ship was scuttled by its crew who used their remaining antimatter missiles to do so while the Umiak ship had been buried by having all three shuttles divert a number of asteroids in order to cover it; no Umiak would find anything unless they knew exactly where to look at and since they would have to search a few dozen star systems the odds of them finding the ship were astronomically low even if they were able to divert a fleet for the search and rescue of a ship that could have suffered a number of fates; including being lost due to a misjump, the ever present danger of modern star travel.

The equipment they took from the Umiak ship was also safely stowed aboard accompanied by the Loroi regenerator which was part of the deal for taking the survivors to the rendezvous point. Torimor Shadowcloud had also provided the data necessary for them to get to the rendezvous without running into an Umiak ship while she and Listel Sininran Sulfur were busy writing down information about the Loroi Union and the equipment they had taken from the Umiak ship; Shadowcloud had also given them a set of coordinates near the Loroi border for a staged ‘first contact’ in a few months’ time, in case another scout hadn’t made contact already, so it wasn’t that either. Nothing mission related came in mind so he checked the ship's status again.

All systems were green and there was always someone on the lookout for the Umiak malware so it wasn’t that either. He found what he was looking for when he opened up the star charts to double check the data; the automatically assigned alphanumerical name of the system they were still in stuck out like a sore thumb, with the note ‘nothing seems appropriate’ written right below it.
He erased the note and pondered if he should write a temporary name or leave it as is since anything about this mission would be classified to high heaven, including the temporary names for each and every star systems that Matveyev passed through. It was meaningless but he couldn’t help but feel that he should write down something anyway.

Pondering about a name he couldn’t help but remember the instance in which Torimor Shadowcloud realized that humans were predominantly right handed while the Loroi were left handed. She initially got the impression that humans were ambidextrous because of how Lieutenant Allerberger wore his weapon holster on the left side and was dexterous with both hands but the marine was the usual left handed exception and became ambidextrous through training in order to apply for AST training and thus join the TCA Marine Corps.

Inverted but nearly identical, like a mirror image… Can I use that? He thought and simply shrugged since the whole gesture was meaningless to begin with. An unseen weight was lifted from his shoulders as he named the system Mirror before coming up with an explanatory note he thought no one but him and his crew will ever read.

Chapter 19, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 950#p22950
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by dragoongfa »

Chapter 18 is now official done with.

One more chapter plus an epilogue left.

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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Absalom »

dragoongfa wrote:Drones are the easiest things to spoof with modern Electronic Warfare, the Iranians practically highjacked a state of the art Stealth drone that the Americans were using to spy on them.
If it's the case I'm thinking of, then actually they took advantage of an unencrypted data stream. The recent stuff is semi-autonomous, and they have been paying attention to the security issue.
Siber wrote:What I find improbable is not that evolution can produce novelty, but that they can preserve the novelty while changing out the biochemistry. I've no applicable expertise, but as a fan of sci-fi who has done some reading after being annoyed by how lots of sci-fi treats biotech, it'd be my assumption that any change on that level would probably invalidate important portions of the rest of the genome, and by the time you fixed everything you probably don't have a smaller task than just recreating the desired qualities from scratch elsewhere. And that probably wouldn't make Loroi that look quite so appealing to the human eye.

But that is just my intuition talking mostly.
Soia documentation on the subject is not known to exist, and it is not known when it happened: are you certain that they really preserved what interested them, especially the first time around? There were enough surviving Loroi for three viable populations, they might have been a test run, but they were at least in late beta stage, not alpha.
Tamri wrote:
dragoongfa wrote: "Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates."
- F.E. Adcock, British classical scholar
This statement says only that those who are planning the strategy and fighting do not participate in it themselves, but instead others die.
Actually, the meaning is that choices made on the battlefield by those closest to the action most often decide the course of the battle. This is less true today, but in heavy fighting it is still the truth. You can certainly use troops without autonomy to win wars, but the Soviet experience in WW2 demonstrates that this is not particularly efficient.

Jack
Posts: 61
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2016 6:59 am

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Jack »

Absalom wrote:You can certainly use troops without autonomy to win wars, but the Soviet experience in WW2 demonstrates that this is not particularly efficient.
Explain your thoughts, please?

Krulle
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Krulle »

SpoilerShow
dragoongfa wrote:Chapter 18, part 4:

[...]

All systems were green and there was always someone on the lookout for the Umiak malware so it wasn’t that either. He found what he was looking for when he opened up the star charts to double check the data; the automatically assigned alphanumerical name sticking out like a sore thumb, with the note ‘nothing seems appropriate’ right below it.
He erased the note and pondered if he should write a temporary name or leave it as is since anything about this mission would be classified to high heaven, including the temporary names for each and every star systems that Matveyev passed through. It was meaningless but he couldn’t help but feel that he should write down something anyway.
Another one I like.
Mirror is an apt name, IMHO.

Again, thank You for sharing!
Vote for Outsider on TWC: Image
charred steppes, borders of territories: page 59,
jump-map of local stars: page 121, larger map in Loroi: page 118,
System view Leido Crossroads: page 123, after the battle page 195

Absalom
Posts: 718
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Absalom »

Jack wrote:
Absalom wrote:You can certainly use troops without autonomy to win wars, but the Soviet experience in WW2 demonstrates that this is not particularly efficient.
Explain your thoughts, please?
If soldiers do everything according to orders instead of adapting the orders to the immediate situation, casualties and fatalities rise. It's important for soldiers to obtain the goal of the campaign or battle, but it's equally important that they adapt their techniques to the situation without forcing officers to get involved, since that comes with meaningful time delays, thereby allowing the enemy to take advantage of your army's slow reactions.

This was one of the targets of American planning for wars against the Soviet Union: crippling the Soviet Army by destroying the channels of communication required for Soviet military groups to take action. Correspondingly, the American military at the time (and to some extent probably today too, due to the recent urban combat in Iraq) intentionally attempted to make itself resistant (or even immune if possible) to the same sort of attack, by allocating planning responsibilities for an operation to the same units that the actual operation itself was allocated to.

It also provides a way to give officers training, by giving them experience with all of the levels of combat in sequence.

And yes, I can think of some possible reasons for the use of poorly trained soldiers by the Soviets in WW2: I have read some mention of the poor quality of Russian artillery strikes in WW2 and the reasons behind it, after all.

Jack
Posts: 61
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2016 6:59 am

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by Jack »

Action, right from the point of view of a soldier and the unit may be wrong in terms of the overall strategy.

The US military plans against the Soviet Union began with 200 nuclear bombs in 1946 and 1960 reached 10,000 strategic warheads and one unit of tactical nuclear weapons in every Soviet tank platoon in the Western Group of Forces of the USSR. Then it became clear that our planet is too small for an all-out nuclear war, and all the plans outright war between the US and the Soviet Union after 1970. - ritual dances and "mind games.".

JQBogus
Posts: 157
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Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Post by JQBogus »

A command culture that is too 'top down' is likely to really reduce or eliminate an army's ability to exploit transient opportunities.

Also, as Absalom was intimating, a military culture that has too much permission seeking is pretty vulnerable to disruptions of its command structure. Can't ask permission, won't do anything.

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