The Gateway: Lords of Thunder Wars, or the Vegetarian Conquests

[Nathan Brazil]

Yes. Being an FTL phenomena in itself does not invalidate observation of the Wave from the Longbow projects. Other data can be gleaned. Im not going to get into the psionic component since I have less to go on.

Even at our TL we can detect planets with much smaller radio telescopes. They are certainly STL. As the theory goes, with a larger aperture you can detect fainter signals thus retrieving more info. At the TL involved, I think Longbow could detect minute fluctuations in the line of the Wave, say a distant planet's radio transmissions or simply its output dropping off for unspecified reasons (civilizations falling). Maybe a better visual of a planet itself than stars that fluctuate when odd blobs of light pass in front of them. Or even more detail say continents, space battles. Finally, better than the Hubble Deep Field scan years back, Longbow is concentrating on a smaller area of space than the Hubble did. Rather a smaller real area, not whole back end of the universe. A portion of the economies of 11,000 worlds for a budget and no slacking off since it is sort of a military/defense project. Finally an observation period of almost 200 years by the time Strephon went on his trip to the sky show in 1116.

And that is just with the technologies and phenomena we understand and speculate on at TL 7-8.

 

[Grav_Moped]

It probably does invalidate it. Any of the lightspeed-limited information Longbow could collect will be from a temporal wavefront behind the FTL Wave. The farther away it looks, the older the information it is receiving.

Lightspeed-limited sensors will not provide any warning.

Actually, hold that for a moment. It might detect a pattern of long-term advance plans for evacuation and disaster response occurring well ahead of the Wave, because news of the Wave can travel at Jump speeds, but it can't see the phenomenon itself or its effects on civilization until it arrives.

 

[Spinward Flow]

It probably does invalidate it.

An aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound will arrive before the sonic boom traveling at the speed of sound in the wake of the aircraft.

An Empress Wave travelling faster than FTL will arrive before the light speed EM radiation from devastated star systems in the wake of the Wave.

Supersonic arrives before the boom.
FTL arrives before the light from that distance.

I'm failing to see how this concept is difficult to grasp.

 

[Grav_Moped]

An aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound will arrive before the sonic boom traveling at the speed of sound in the wake of the aircraft.

An Empress Wave travelling faster than FTL will arrive before the light speed EM radiation from devastated star systems in the wake of the Wave.

Supersonic arrives before the boom.
FTL arrives before the light from that distance.

I'm failing to see how this concept is difficult to grasp.

The news of the Wave travels faster than the Wave does. You can't see the Wave or what it does, but you can see the preparations made by worlds many parsecs ahead of its arrival. You might not know why they're assembling a fleet capable of flash-colonizing half a sector at once, but you see that happening.

 

[GypsyComet]

Yeskoth Corporate - Traveller

wiki.travellerrpg.com

They're in my crosshairs for thought experiments, at the very least.

 

[GypsyComet]

Virus itself can be thought of as sort of wave, radiating as a (very) imperfect ring from Celetron. It also destroys information and observers, though slower speeds and less well than the Wave.

Virus is frequently moving much faster than the Wave, but is dependent on ship traffic. That means Virus runs into the edges of civilization and stops, probably long enough to burn itself out in most cases. This helps bring the strains that discover other motivations into dominance.

Virus at top speed is moving ~300 times faster than the Wave, which takes a year to cross a hex. During its initial spread, Virus moves at a parsec a week at its slowest, making it 52 times faster than the Wave. But Virus has to work at killing people since it isn't a field effect like the Wave.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Virus at top speed is moving ~300 times faster than the Wave, which takes a year to cross a hex. During its initial spread, Virus moves at a parsec a week at its slowest, making it 52 times faster than the Wave. But Virus has to work at killing people since it isn't a field effect like the Wave.

I told you I am an imperfect writer. But That's the main point I am always trying to with regards to retaining the previously written history. At the speeds involved, the fields of Virus and the Wave collide along the line of Gnoellighz - Trenchans Sector row 16-17 in 1132 or so. Give or take since Virus has to work at destruction. Ships go in, but they don't come out. Virus burns out as non-suicidal ones find a lack of infrastructure to repair themselves. But the sum of those is silence.

So why not My Little Ponies of Death?

 

[Grav_Moped]

My Little Ponies of Death -- Xenocide is Magic™

 

[Spinward Flow]

So why not My Little Ponies of Death?

Because the more horrifying possibility is My Little Ponies of Borg.
The K'Kree "merge" with Virus in a cybernetic symbiosis of xenocidal fanaticism.

Could even borrow a theme from Doctor Who's Cybermen ... "You will be Upgraded" conjoined with "You will be Made Like Us" ... and the transformation becomes one that isn't voluntary.

For additional inspiration beyond that simplistic outline, I would refer you to the original Star Trek episode of "The Changeling" for what can happen when "One takes Purpose from the Other" and then synthesizes a "new purpose" from the components of previous beliefs and instructions.

My Little Ponies of Borg.
Just even thinking about it is rather horrifying.

 

[GypsyComet]

I told you I am an imperfect writer. But That's the main point I am always trying to with regards to retaining the previously written history. At the speeds involved, the fields of Virus and the Wave collide along the line of Gnoellighz - Trenchans Sector row 16-17 in 1132 or so. Give or take since Virus has to work at destruction. Ships go in, but they don't come out. Virus burns out as non-suicidal ones find a lack of infrastructure to repair themselves. But the sum of those is silence.

So why not My Little Ponies of Death?

Yes, the sector line that sees Virus and Wave in quick succession in 1130-1131 or so is probably a wasteland, though Virus penetration past the Wave line will slow quickly due to a years long drop in traffic. That suggests that more patient strains dominate from the start once you get coreward of the Wave line.

My theory for K'kree space is that while the highest leadership knows the Wave is coming due to aberrant behavior (aka exploration) by some K'kree and/or their more mobile clients out into the Koog and surreptitious recon of the Vargr trailing edge, they won't inform their subordinates much beyond Kirur while they work on the problem. No solution is available to the mass of the K'kree, unfortunately, and the Wave takes them without warning after the Virus robs them of even the smallest tools for mitigation.

The Wave taking out what's left of Kirur helps the Dominate by removing the most powerful moderating voice.

 

[GypsyComet]

Because the more horrifying possibility is My Little Ponies of Borg.
The K'Kree "merge" with Virus in a cybernetic symbiosis of xenocidal fanaticism.

Could even borrow a theme from Doctor Who's Cybermen ... "You will be Upgraded" conjoined with "You will be Made Like Us" ... and the transformation becomes one that isn't voluntary.

Borged up K'kree are already a thing. Dave Nilsen planned it, and there is art to support it. While the Dominate runs the show with the happy assistance of the high command Patriarchs, the masses are fed into the Crusade grinder. The wounded are drugged up and encased in armor to continue to serve. Those odd K'kree-like floating robots in some of the TNE art aren't robots...

 

[Spinward Flow]

The wounded are drugged up and encased in armor to continue to serve.

Considering the original K'Kree psychological problem with being enclosed (vacc suits, small craft, etc.) that kind of "imprisonment" into enforced solitary confinement must drive the affected K'Kree quite insane, trapped ALONE in their shells.

Brings new meaning to cannon fodder ... who WANT to die ...

 

[GypsyComet]

Considering the original K'Kree psychological problem with being enclosed (vacc suits, small craft, etc.) that kind of "imprisonment" into enforced solitary confinement must drive the affected K'Kree quite insane, trapped ALONE in their shells.

Brings new meaning to cannon fodder ... who WANT to die ...

The Lords of Thunder were already conducting solitude experiments, apparently. This just accelerated the "useful" results.
The end of the Hiver-K'kree War illustrates that the K'kree are more psychologically flexible than they want to believe they are. The Patriarchs are more aware of this, but know that their society would shatter if such things were allowed. It is, IMO, why there are some client states that are managed by other species, and some that are essentially exile camps.

 

[Condottiere]

My Brittle Pony - Fiendship is Tragic

 

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

Apparently, Robot Chicken forsees the Far Future.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Apparently, Robot Chicken forsees the Far Future.

Hey, no ponies until page 10!

Oh, right, wrong comment section. Have at it.

 

[Condottiere]

There are cyberponies, though I forget if that's more or less original, or parodied from another franchise.

 

[Spinward Flow]

They're not cyberponies.
They're Cryptoponies ... harbingers of the Bitcredit Cowpocalypse!

All moo.
Moo.

 

[Condottiere]

My Brittle Pony

episode one: Where's the beef?

 

[Spinward Flow]

My Brittle Pony

episode one: Where's the beef?

Episode Two: The Peanut Butter Bad Batch