I keyed on the transceiver. Hope this signal makes it though all the EM clutter up there.
"De Ruyter Actual, This is Engineer Selkirk, I have urgent information... Please respond!"
The airwaves remained silent for an apparent eternity. Finally, the radio crackled into life.
"This is De Ruyter Actual, Primus Oster speaking." An unfamiliar voice said coldly. "What is it?"
"Abort your approach! Your ship is in extreme danger! If you attempt to enter the atmosphere, your ship will be attacked!" I was almost babbling in panic now, but somehow managed to calm down enough to finish what I'd started. "There's... An unknown force on this planet that shot down Aurora as it attempted to land. I don't know who they are, or where they might be. Please, you have to believe me. Don't land here. Abort your landing while you still have time."
"Hello again, Selkirk."
Tomar. Damn him.
"Who said anything about landing? Although I'd like to repay your various affronts personally, I'm afraid that your piece will be removed from the board simply in passing. Not to worry. It will be as quick and merciful as before, which is far more than you deserve. Goodbye, Engineer Selkirk."
I smiled grimly. "Even a lone pawn can win the match, Tomar. I've given you all the warning you will ever need. My conscience is entirely clear on this matter."
Tomar was definitely rattled. I heard his voice take on a brittle edge, in spite of his outward bluster.
"You are finished, Selkirk. If this is another one of your idiotic stratagems calculated to disrupt our operations, you are sadly mistaken. I shall deal with you as the annoying little insect that you are."
"Very well, let those words stand as your epitaph. A lesser man than I would not have bothered to warn you. Find whatever solace you may in that knowledge. Goodbye, Invigilator Tomar."
I shook my head sadly. There was nothing left to say.
De Ruyter was still bearing down, although its descent angle had shallowed to match the atmospheric entry window. Even though the ship appeared ridiculously small against the visible arc of Damocles that lay behind it, I felt a tremor of dread pass through me. De Ruyter carried enough firepower to level a mountain, and if by some remote chance it did manage to make safe planetfall, it would be free to roam wherever its master pleased. I had almost no credible defence against it.
"Eighty seconds to atmospheric entry. De Ruyter onboard weapon systems are fully powered and active in target acquisition mode." JUNO said calmly. "Seventy seconds remaining. Set base Condition Black."
I heaved a weary sigh, closed my eyes, leaned back and put my feet up on the command console.
"Well, looks like it's last drinks all round, mates. Whatever happens, IANTO and JUNO... I'd like to thank you both for making my life here infinitely more bearable. You have done yourselves proud."
Either the frigate will go down and 200 perople get killed, minus 8 that already got eaten by Mr. Ahab. From the 192 reaining probably 191 are simply people. One of them is an a**hole...
Or the frigate makes it and will hunt and very possibly kill Selkirk. They simply outgun him.
Either the frigate will go down and 200 perople get killed, minus 8 that already got eaten by Mr. Ahab. From the 192 reaining probably 191 are simply people. One of them is an a**hole...
Or the frigate makes it and will hunt and very possibly kill Selkirk. They simply outgun him.
I do not like any of these possibilities.
but, Selkirk has the Valkerie Field, which will just infinitely revive him, so he won't really die.
This is getting exciting! But I can't wait to see how selkirk manages to fight of a capital class assault ship by himself. Maybe he will call his homboys, the warpers, to fuck shit up for those torgaljin bastards!
yeah.... I see the de Reuyter getting a nice meaty hole punched in its side..... - question is - will they have escape pods with Valkyrie fields too?
Hadn't thought of that, interesting possible plot twist. The trouble with the Valkyrie field according to one of the earlier chapters is that they have a chance of malfunctioning- it might well turn you inside out or with parts missing, and then repeatedly try and resurrect you afterward until it shuts down or runs out of power. A very nasty way to die...wonder if we'll see this happening.
Why are you writing a story plot? For fun or for the game?
Both, actually.
This story began life as a 2-page log entry. There wasn't any backstory at all to the game at that time, so I thought it would be fun to expand on the idea a little. One hundred and eighteen pages later, there's still a bit more to come.
De Ruyter's descent slowed to a literal crawl. I already had Tomar's attack plan fathomed, and it didn't look good for me. Mass drivers were primarily a ship-killing weapon. Out in The Black, ships could manoeuvre out of range or suddenly jink sideways to avoid being hit. The projectiles themselves were completely inert, usually composed of a dense penetrator core of tungsten or a depleted uranium slug, wrapped in a conductive sheath. A powerful linear accelerator coil provided the propulsive force necessary to drive these projectiles at velocities in excess of Mach 20. A single slug would be capable of gutting a corvette-class ship from stem to stern. No survivors, guaranteed.
Treaties exist to prevent these weapons from being used on planetary targets. I have a strong suspicion that Invigilator Tomar is fully aware of this, but chooses to ignore the fact. I was inclined to feel somewhat philosophical on the matter at this time, especially since I have taken great pains to apply severe torsion to his testes at various stages throughout this unfortunate encounter. However, I feel that my actions were entirely justified at the time. After all, he did kill me.
JUNO was right on the ball. "Alert! De Ruyter weapons fire detected. Current trajectory tracking indicates Reef Base is being targeted. Multiple projectiles inbound. Ten seconds to impact."
Sure enough, there was a fading coronal glow around De Ruyter's mass driver turrets. It seemed like massive overkill on Tomar's part to use both accelerator cannons, particularly since my little collection of submerged beer cans hardly posed much of a challenge to their power. The first salvo of five rounds hammered into the water, flashing it instantly into superheated steam. The massive amount of kinetic energy delivered in that first strike alone would have been more than enough to level Reef Base, but it was apparent that Tomar wanted to make absolutely certain that it was completely obliterated.
De Ruyter fired a total of six such salvos into the area around Reef Base, 'walking' the fall of shot in a tight pattern to ensure a maximum level of devastation was dealt to the base. From my current location in The Broch, I was still able to feel the force of each salvo as it hit. Although I had 500 metres of water and a fairly substantial basalt massif above my head, compared to the meagre 50 metres of depth at Reef Base, I wasn't feeling particularly secure any more. The Broch literally shuddered with each tremendous impact. Every salvo sounded like the hammer of Armageddon.
Most of my smaller bases and outposts had been 'lit up' purposely to attract fire, except Pyramid Rock, of course. Pixieland fell first, rapidly followed by Junkyard and Laputa. I suspect that Tomar may have been deliberately gunning for Pod 5 and the Valkyrie Field after taking out Reef Base, purely for the sake of making a thorough job of it. Going on what I saw on the tactical display and drone coverage, I get a distinct impression that I must have twisted his goolies something fierce.
For some inexplicable reason, the idiot even started bombarding Aurora. I felt a momentary pang of alarm, knowing that if only one stray shot hits the monument, it would be all over for me.
But you know what? Screw it.
Although my dance has been far too short, it's been a merry old time. I'm ready for whatever comes next. But let's get real here. Although it would be a fine thing to stand atop the sail of Ulysses armed with only a Gauss cannon, screaming Celtic defiance in the face of overwhelming odds...
Even at maximum magnification, De Ruyter seemed almost toylike. I could barely make out the harsh, angular lines of its shark-like grey hull. The mass drivers fired once more, their coronal flares blooming dazzlingly against the velvet immensity of the void beyond.
"Captain, De Ruyter has commenced pattern bombardment. Five rounds in each area, overlapping fall of shot as it moves on to the next sector. I have calculated that a single impact within 150 metres of The Broch will exceed current hull overpressure limits by a factor of 65 per cent."
I swore loudly, bolting for the nearest bulkhead door. "Thanks for the heads-up, JUNO. How much time do we have?"
"Assuming that the bombardment pattern remains consistent, no more than ten minutes, Captain."
"Gorram it! There's no way I can secure the whole base in time. What's our current hull integrity?"
"One hundred and seventy-five, Captain. Estimated time for completion of total hull reinforcement to 225 per cent of current rating, one hour, twenty minutes."
IANTO spoke. "Captain, may I offer a suggestion?"
I stopped running, barely halfway down the central corridor. "Okay, but make it very quick, mate."
"Two possible solutions exist, Captain. One involves waiting for the attack to pass inside one of the Cyclops. The submersible will have to be positioned immediately behind the exit iris of its launch tunnel to ensure your survival. Probability of tunnel collapse, 97 per cent. The second solution involves sacrificing all ancillary structures, except for the command module. Remove all transparent surfaces and replace them with reinforcement panels, providing a total hull integrity rating of 280. You must then flood the base completely. Estimated completion time, six minutes."
I hesitated for a second. "Okay. Option Two sounds only slightly less suicidal. We'll go with that."
Halfway through the emergency base refit, JUNO called out. "Captain! The De Ruyter!"
The nearest monitor was on Level Two. I slid down four ladders, losing a fair deal of skin in the process. JUNO had enhanced the image digitally, slightly sacrificing resolution for increased image size. De Ruyter was listing heavily to starboard, hanging lifelessly on the outer fringes of the planet's atmosphere. A gaping, glowing crevasse had been ripped in its portside hull. A massive cloud of debris drifted away from the breach, reaching toward the planet like a skeletal hand.
"Replay all after the last attack, JUNO." I said calmly. Inside, I was shaking myself apart with anger.
De Ruyter fired once more. Milliseconds later, a huge explosion erupted in the frigate's midsection. Forward of the drive nacelles, two small, bright objects ejected from the hull simultaneously, arcing away from the doomed vessel and heading rapidly into deep space. They would continue their own lonely voyage to oblivion, long after De Ruyter had made its final death dive. Minute amounts of antimatter bled off in controlled bursts propelled the heavily shielded containment pods, serving as a crude emergency drive system. It was an entirely automatic safety measure, of course. If those pods had not ejected in time, the entire Alpha Hydrae solar system would have been destroyed.
"Antimatter containment modules. It doesn't matter now. De Ruyter is already finished."
Had to make an account to comment on this amazing story! Glorious work and a glorious affirmation to the arrogance of Tomar. I'm sure they'll run into each other again before long with more entertaining drama. "I told you so" sounds a little too cliche, but still a good slap to Tomar's face!
I can't remember how long I spent staring blankly at that monitor. De Ruyter was slowly tearing itself apart. At random intervals, internal explosions would wrench another huge chunk out its carcass. Soon, its uncontrolled descent would also begin taking its toll. Manannán's tenuous upper atmosphere teased and pulled at the falling vessel faintly, even timidly at first. As the ship fell with ever-increasing speed, atmospheric friction gnawed ravenously at its exposed innards, heating them to thousands of degrees. Soon, all that remained was a hurtling, flaming lance of white-hot fury.
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee;
from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.
Herman Melville - 'Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.'
"No Lifepods at all, JUNO?"
"None were detected, Captain." JUNO replied quietly.
For at least the space of a heartbeat, I fancied that if any Lifepod had made planetfall, it could only be Tomar's. Witness an endless, utterly futile battle of death and resurrection, pitted against each other until Alphard itself grew black and cold. Neither of us would have given an inch in all that time; growing ever more cunning and infinitely more vicious with each new reprisal, bringing increasingly devastating weapons into play until one of us finally cracked the Dragon's Egg, destroying us both. The other side of that same coin saw us lapsing into a more elemental form of savagery, hacking at each other with Stalker teeth until what little remained of our humanity crawled away in abject disgust.
There was no sense of elation. No cause to celebrate. This was not even remotely a victory.
In truth, I felt sickened to the pit of my stomach by the carnage I had recently witnessed.
More to the point: I had caused. Two hundred lives sacrificed for the sake of one man's vanity.
In the balance of things, I was entirely blameless for Aurora's fate. However, I could not say the same for what happened to De Ruyter and her crew. No matter how much I tried to justify my actions at the time, the inescapable truth was that I had provoked Tomar into taking that suicidal course of action. I had humiliated him gravely in the presence of his subordinates, knowing full well that his station in Belter society would not permit him to allow this insult to pass unanswered.
Rather than face JUNO and IANTO while carrying this knowledge, I pleaded exhaustion and retired to my quarters. I suddenly felt a most pressing need to drink myself stupid.
For three full days, I wept, pleaded, howled and raged. My quarters were torn to pieces in a whirlwind of hard liquor, black remorse, endless self-accusation, whining denials and mindless fury.
On the fourth day, JUNO pumped my quarters full of Anesthezine gas.
Selkirk is being a bit hard on himself. Tomar didn't have to turn around and shoot him for no reason, he could've said "Sure, we'll set up this outpost and then we'll bring you home".
I feel bad for the inhabitants of the safe shallows, which are probably a complete wasteland now. And the Warpers already felt the need to defend themselves from a grave misunderstanding as Aurora entered their solar system, but now they've seen humans blatantly attack their homeland. This won't end well.
I agree. While he is certainly involved in the loss of the De Ruyter and her crew, I do not think he is guilty. He did not order the descent, he did not order the bombardment. He *could* have acted differntly after he was "killed" the question is, would it really have led to a different outcome? Tomar seems very one-dimensional in his thinking.
In the end it boild down to the question: "Is it ok to defend your life event if it means that 200 other people get killed, even if the majority of them posed no direct threat to you?"
What concerns me is who thought it was a good idea to carry around that much antimatter....
I mean, what would one even use that for?
On wether or not it was the main characters fault, it seems to me that, even if you know what decision someone is going to make, it is still their decision. Ultimately, Tomar had nothing stopping him from just leaving. He had been warned, but he chose to ignore that. The fact that Selkirk knew that was what would happen does nothing to change that fact that the one responsible is still the one who ordered the ship to attack.
Oh, yeah, I forgot. There are no laser beams. Selkirk analyzed the Aurora and discovered that gallons of seawater were actually warped into the reactor instead.
Selkirk is being a bit hard on himself. Tomar didn't have to turn around and shoot him for no reason, he could've said "Sure, we'll set up this outpost and then we'll bring you home".
I feel bad for the inhabitants of the safe shallows, which are probably a complete wasteland now. And the Warpers already felt the need to defend themselves from a grave misunderstanding as Aurora entered their solar system, but now they've seen humans blatantly attack their homeland. This won't end well.
Well technically the Aurora fire apon the planet with that perfect plot bridge of a miracle that happened with the solar stuff and polar ice caps. I don't think the inhabitants would have shot the Aurora if there had been no attack, even though it wasn't the Aurora's fault.
What concerns me is who thought it was a good idea to carry around that much antimatter....
I mean, what would one even use that for?
Fuel. De Ruyter was equipped with an antimatter/deuterium reaction drive. Kind of important to have some on board.
Antimatter is the quick and dirty way of hitting FTL velocities. Dark matter is considerably more user-friendly.
- Just don't dump 10 cubic metres of seawater into it while the engine's still hot.
Comments
"De Ruyter Actual, This is Engineer Selkirk, I have urgent information... Please respond!"
The airwaves remained silent for an apparent eternity. Finally, the radio crackled into life.
"This is De Ruyter Actual, Primus Oster speaking." An unfamiliar voice said coldly. "What is it?"
"Abort your approach! Your ship is in extreme danger! If you attempt to enter the atmosphere, your ship will be attacked!" I was almost babbling in panic now, but somehow managed to calm down enough to finish what I'd started. "There's... An unknown force on this planet that shot down Aurora as it attempted to land. I don't know who they are, or where they might be. Please, you have to believe me. Don't land here. Abort your landing while you still have time."
"Hello again, Selkirk."
Tomar. Damn him.
"Who said anything about landing? Although I'd like to repay your various affronts personally, I'm afraid that your piece will be removed from the board simply in passing. Not to worry. It will be as quick and merciful as before, which is far more than you deserve. Goodbye, Engineer Selkirk."
I smiled grimly. "Even a lone pawn can win the match, Tomar. I've given you all the warning you will ever need. My conscience is entirely clear on this matter."
Tomar was definitely rattled. I heard his voice take on a brittle edge, in spite of his outward bluster.
"You are finished, Selkirk. If this is another one of your idiotic stratagems calculated to disrupt our operations, you are sadly mistaken. I shall deal with you as the annoying little insect that you are."
"Very well, let those words stand as your epitaph. A lesser man than I would not have bothered to warn you. Find whatever solace you may in that knowledge. Goodbye, Invigilator Tomar."
I shook my head sadly. There was nothing left to say.
De Ruyter was still bearing down, although its descent angle had shallowed to match the atmospheric entry window. Even though the ship appeared ridiculously small against the visible arc of Damocles that lay behind it, I felt a tremor of dread pass through me. De Ruyter carried enough firepower to level a mountain, and if by some remote chance it did manage to make safe planetfall, it would be free to roam wherever its master pleased. I had almost no credible defence against it.
"Eighty seconds to atmospheric entry. De Ruyter onboard weapon systems are fully powered and active in target acquisition mode." JUNO said calmly. "Seventy seconds remaining. Set base Condition Black."
I heaved a weary sigh, closed my eyes, leaned back and put my feet up on the command console.
"Well, looks like it's last drinks all round, mates. Whatever happens, IANTO and JUNO... I'd like to thank you both for making my life here infinitely more bearable. You have done yourselves proud."
EDIT: Bugzapper, did you major twice in cliffhangers?
Either the frigate will go down and 200 perople get killed, minus 8 that already got eaten by Mr. Ahab. From the 192 reaining probably 191 are simply people. One of them is an a**hole...
Or the frigate makes it and will hunt and very possibly kill Selkirk. They simply outgun him.
I do not like any of these possibilities.
Didn't Tomar mention finding it?
Hadn't thought of that, interesting possible plot twist. The trouble with the Valkyrie field according to one of the earlier chapters is that they have a chance of malfunctioning- it might well turn you inside out or with parts missing, and then repeatedly try and resurrect you afterward until it shuts down or runs out of power. A very nasty way to die...wonder if we'll see this happening.
Funny you should mention that. It was the central theme of my doctoral thesis.
I'll have to tell you about it... Sometime.
Both, actually.
This story began life as a 2-page log entry. There wasn't any backstory at all to the game at that time, so I thought it would be fun to expand on the idea a little. One hundred and eighteen pages later, there's still a bit more to come.
Man, I love this game. Warts and all.
Treaties exist to prevent these weapons from being used on planetary targets. I have a strong suspicion that Invigilator Tomar is fully aware of this, but chooses to ignore the fact. I was inclined to feel somewhat philosophical on the matter at this time, especially since I have taken great pains to apply severe torsion to his testes at various stages throughout this unfortunate encounter. However, I feel that my actions were entirely justified at the time. After all, he did kill me.
JUNO was right on the ball. "Alert! De Ruyter weapons fire detected. Current trajectory tracking indicates Reef Base is being targeted. Multiple projectiles inbound. Ten seconds to impact."
Sure enough, there was a fading coronal glow around De Ruyter's mass driver turrets. It seemed like massive overkill on Tomar's part to use both accelerator cannons, particularly since my little collection of submerged beer cans hardly posed much of a challenge to their power. The first salvo of five rounds hammered into the water, flashing it instantly into superheated steam. The massive amount of kinetic energy delivered in that first strike alone would have been more than enough to level Reef Base, but it was apparent that Tomar wanted to make absolutely certain that it was completely obliterated.
De Ruyter fired a total of six such salvos into the area around Reef Base, 'walking' the fall of shot in a tight pattern to ensure a maximum level of devastation was dealt to the base. From my current location in The Broch, I was still able to feel the force of each salvo as it hit. Although I had 500 metres of water and a fairly substantial basalt massif above my head, compared to the meagre 50 metres of depth at Reef Base, I wasn't feeling particularly secure any more. The Broch literally shuddered with each tremendous impact. Every salvo sounded like the hammer of Armageddon.
Most of my smaller bases and outposts had been 'lit up' purposely to attract fire, except Pyramid Rock, of course. Pixieland fell first, rapidly followed by Junkyard and Laputa. I suspect that Tomar may have been deliberately gunning for Pod 5 and the Valkyrie Field after taking out Reef Base, purely for the sake of making a thorough job of it. Going on what I saw on the tactical display and drone coverage, I get a distinct impression that I must have twisted his goolies something fierce.
For some inexplicable reason, the idiot even started bombarding Aurora. I felt a momentary pang of alarm, knowing that if only one stray shot hits the monument, it would be all over for me.
But you know what? Screw it.
Although my dance has been far too short, it's been a merry old time. I'm ready for whatever comes next. But let's get real here. Although it would be a fine thing to stand atop the sail of Ulysses armed with only a Gauss cannon, screaming Celtic defiance in the face of overwhelming odds...
Nope.
"Captain, De Ruyter has commenced pattern bombardment. Five rounds in each area, overlapping fall of shot as it moves on to the next sector. I have calculated that a single impact within 150 metres of The Broch will exceed current hull overpressure limits by a factor of 65 per cent."
I swore loudly, bolting for the nearest bulkhead door. "Thanks for the heads-up, JUNO. How much time do we have?"
"Assuming that the bombardment pattern remains consistent, no more than ten minutes, Captain."
"Gorram it! There's no way I can secure the whole base in time. What's our current hull integrity?"
"One hundred and seventy-five, Captain. Estimated time for completion of total hull reinforcement to 225 per cent of current rating, one hour, twenty minutes."
IANTO spoke. "Captain, may I offer a suggestion?"
I stopped running, barely halfway down the central corridor. "Okay, but make it very quick, mate."
"Two possible solutions exist, Captain. One involves waiting for the attack to pass inside one of the Cyclops. The submersible will have to be positioned immediately behind the exit iris of its launch tunnel to ensure your survival. Probability of tunnel collapse, 97 per cent. The second solution involves sacrificing all ancillary structures, except for the command module. Remove all transparent surfaces and replace them with reinforcement panels, providing a total hull integrity rating of 280. You must then flood the base completely. Estimated completion time, six minutes."
I hesitated for a second. "Okay. Option Two sounds only slightly less suicidal. We'll go with that."
Halfway through the emergency base refit, JUNO called out. "Captain! The De Ruyter!"
The nearest monitor was on Level Two. I slid down four ladders, losing a fair deal of skin in the process. JUNO had enhanced the image digitally, slightly sacrificing resolution for increased image size. De Ruyter was listing heavily to starboard, hanging lifelessly on the outer fringes of the planet's atmosphere. A gaping, glowing crevasse had been ripped in its portside hull. A massive cloud of debris drifted away from the breach, reaching toward the planet like a skeletal hand.
"Replay all after the last attack, JUNO." I said calmly. Inside, I was shaking myself apart with anger.
De Ruyter fired once more. Milliseconds later, a huge explosion erupted in the frigate's midsection. Forward of the drive nacelles, two small, bright objects ejected from the hull simultaneously, arcing away from the doomed vessel and heading rapidly into deep space. They would continue their own lonely voyage to oblivion, long after De Ruyter had made its final death dive. Minute amounts of antimatter bled off in controlled bursts propelled the heavily shielded containment pods, serving as a crude emergency drive system. It was an entirely automatic safety measure, of course. If those pods had not ejected in time, the entire Alpha Hydrae solar system would have been destroyed.
"Antimatter containment modules. It doesn't matter now. De Ruyter is already finished."
Right here. ^
Anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half. Takes a bit of shuffling around occasionally.
from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.
Herman Melville - 'Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.'
"No Lifepods at all, JUNO?"
"None were detected, Captain." JUNO replied quietly.
For at least the space of a heartbeat, I fancied that if any Lifepod had made planetfall, it could only be Tomar's. Witness an endless, utterly futile battle of death and resurrection, pitted against each other until Alphard itself grew black and cold. Neither of us would have given an inch in all that time; growing ever more cunning and infinitely more vicious with each new reprisal, bringing increasingly devastating weapons into play until one of us finally cracked the Dragon's Egg, destroying us both. The other side of that same coin saw us lapsing into a more elemental form of savagery, hacking at each other with Stalker teeth until what little remained of our humanity crawled away in abject disgust.
There was no sense of elation. No cause to celebrate. This was not even remotely a victory.
In truth, I felt sickened to the pit of my stomach by the carnage I had recently witnessed.
More to the point: I had caused. Two hundred lives sacrificed for the sake of one man's vanity.
In the balance of things, I was entirely blameless for Aurora's fate. However, I could not say the same for what happened to De Ruyter and her crew. No matter how much I tried to justify my actions at the time, the inescapable truth was that I had provoked Tomar into taking that suicidal course of action. I had humiliated him gravely in the presence of his subordinates, knowing full well that his station in Belter society would not permit him to allow this insult to pass unanswered.
Rather than face JUNO and IANTO while carrying this knowledge, I pleaded exhaustion and retired to my quarters. I suddenly felt a most pressing need to drink myself stupid.
For three full days, I wept, pleaded, howled and raged. My quarters were torn to pieces in a whirlwind of hard liquor, black remorse, endless self-accusation, whining denials and mindless fury.
On the fourth day, JUNO pumped my quarters full of Anesthezine gas.
On the sixth day, I awoke.
I feel bad for the inhabitants of the safe shallows, which are probably a complete wasteland now. And the Warpers already felt the need to defend themselves from a grave misunderstanding as Aurora entered their solar system, but now they've seen humans blatantly attack their homeland. This won't end well.
In the end it boild down to the question: "Is it ok to defend your life event if it means that 200 other people get killed, even if the majority of them posed no direct threat to you?"
I mean, what would one even use that for?
On wether or not it was the main characters fault, it seems to me that, even if you know what decision someone is going to make, it is still their decision. Ultimately, Tomar had nothing stopping him from just leaving. He had been warned, but he chose to ignore that. The fact that Selkirk knew that was what would happen does nothing to change that fact that the one responsible is still the one who ordered the ship to attack.
shame about the rest of the crew.....
omelettes and eggs and all that.....
Well technically the Aurora fire apon the planet with that perfect plot bridge of a miracle that happened with the solar stuff and polar ice caps. I don't think the inhabitants would have shot the Aurora if there had been no attack, even though it wasn't the Aurora's fault.
Fuel. De Ruyter was equipped with an antimatter/deuterium reaction drive. Kind of important to have some on board.
Antimatter is the quick and dirty way of hitting FTL velocities. Dark matter is considerably more user-friendly.
- Just don't dump 10 cubic metres of seawater into it while the engine's still hot.