Life2.0 - a Broken Shackles Narrative

[Macavity116]

The real question is if Appia can find the supporters and allies required to build a new political system that has staying power. There's always a chance this could fall apart as soon as Appia is removed from the picture, voluntarily or otherwise.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Counseling"
27th Hoggagha,10 (2189)
Buri Of Unity​

I lay my wife on the couch. She giggles as I put on a white coat and glasses.

I nuzzle her. "Do you remember when I said I wanted to be part of your healing?"

Her eyes light up. "Ooh, are we doing a doctor-patient roleplay game?"

"Not exactly." I wave around the room, focusing on the bookcase. "I realised that you needed a little more help."

She reads the covers. "Psychiatric papers, psychology papers, diagnostic assessments..." She looks at me. "Are you suggesting that I'm a little bit crazy?"

"Would you deny it?"

She stays still. "No." She thinks about it more. She sighs. "You're right, I do need help."

"So, relax. Let your husband counsel you."

She smiles, and stretches out. "I'm ready. I mean, I probably need an actual professional..."

I lean over her. "Naomi, when I said I wanted to be involved in your healing, at first I was only thinking about how Gaius hurt you. But as I downloaded more information into my bones and set them to contemplating you, I realised that there were things we have to talk through."

"Where do you want to start?"

"I want to talk through why you like to be tied up."

"Why?"

"Naomi, I have no problem with you wanting to have me dominate you while you are tied up. If you really enjoy it, I'll tie you up and have my way with you every night." I stand. She smiles. "I literally redesigned my genitalia for you after Gillian said 'boning someone' was a euphemism for sex, and I thought a manhood made of bone would appeal to you."

"It does." She blushes as she interrupts me.

"But being serious, I don't want you to be bringing practices that helped you survive as a Companionship Asset into our marriage uness they truly are what you want."

She looks at me. "Honestly Buri, it's hard to know what is actually 'me' in how I respond..."

"I know. Take the being tied up thing. We've walked through your memories together, and I know that it began as a means of making yourself more desirable by being willing to be had in ways that appeal to men like Gaius."

"It did." She takes a deep breath. "It was... I mean... Promise you won't judge me."

"Would I?"

She looks at me. "You're right, I'm sorry. You wouldn't. I'm just... I expect people to put me down over being an ex-Companionship Asset. Because of things like this..."

"Because you chose to offer yourself as a Submissive?"

"Exactly. You get more clients if you are willing to be... Had that way. I..."

She starts crying. I hug her. "It's ok Naomi. I will always love you."

"Buri... If I was to say I honestly never want to have sex again, how would you feel?"

"Relieved."

"Relieved?"

I point down. "How do Human men put up with this thing getting in the way all the time?"

"To be fair, it isn't meant to be erect all the time... But I do understand."

"So, as all this thing is for is your enjoyment, if you never want to use it again, I'll get rid of it immediately."

"Don't. I was just picking the most extreme example... I do like it." She looks so conflicted. "I... What I like about being tied up is that it makes me feel like I'm not responsible for what is happening to me. I'm just an object in the hands of whoever is using me."

"How does that make you feel when it's me?"

"I feel safe with you. Safe in a way I have never felt with anyone else. Safe enough to stay present."

"And with anyone else?"

"It helps me disassociate. It helps me... Disconnect from my body, what's happening to me. It means it doesn't hurt as much."

"Why do you do this?"

She slumps. "Buri... You are a wonderful and caring lover. Always have been, right back to our very first time."

I smile. "It was fun. Tasty too."

She giggles. "You had to carry me out the room. And that's the difference, you love me, and I know when we make love, all that motivates you is my happiness. But back when I was a Companionship Asset, I was... Was..."

She takes a few minutes. I gently prod her. "You were?"

"I was just a realistic masturbation tool. A realistic masturbation tool who made the right noises to soothe the ego of her abusers. And letting myself be tied up and used as one made it easier to cope with just being a masturbation tool. As well as that, it excited the clients, and that meant it was over sooner."

"And presumably got you repeat clients?"

"Yes."

"It's a survival thing."

"Yeah... I hated my life."

"Do you want it now?"

"I'm... So used to it."

I nuzzle her. "Do you want it?"

"I didn't at first. But then I found out that I had you waiting for me, and... It's a completely different experience."

"What exactly is different?"

"One, you love me, and you only do it because I suggested it. Two, you are... Look, I mean this in the best way, but you make me feel like I'm your prey."

"And you find that erotic?"

"Well... I mean..." She sighs. "Yes. Buri, you'll always be my Tarzan."

I run the name through my compubones. I smile. "That's sweet."

"Plus... Well, you are..."

I find an interesting comparison. "More like King Kong?"

She laughs. "Let's face it, I'd totally be willing for you to carry me to the top of a skyscraper."

She laughs more as I beat my chest. A buzzer sounds. "Sorry Naomi, that's your hour up."

"Could we have an extra session?"

I smile. Then leap on her.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

The real question is if Appia can find the supporters and allies required to build a new political system that has staying power. There's always a chance this could fall apart as soon as Appia is removed from the picture, voluntarily or otherwise.

Well, she's got an opportunity to exert influence to stack the deck in her favour as Sharpbeak comes closer.

 

[Macavity116]

Watching Naomi and Buri talk this out has given me cavities. Buri's patient therapist persona an Naomi playing along was so sweet.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

They are such a sweet couple. They have been so much fun to write over the last year and a bit; part of me wants to do a sequel where it's just Naomi and Buri traveling the galaxy together...

I mean, they've got access to relativistic velocity starships, and every eighty odd years they just get back in the Engenerator vats and have another month or so like this one. They could go anywhere.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"The Conference, Part 4"
27th Hoggagha, 10 (2189)
Rivkah Of Unity​

Appia descends. I make my way to the lectern for my opening speech.

As I was writing my speech, I had to pick whether I was going to be playing tough or playing nice. Eventually I settled on playing nice. It's tricky wearing a full-length dress, especially with the extra detailing and fabric that tries to make me look a little less intimidating. Even with Tela's coaching - her Human husband loves seeing her in dresses, so I asked her to help me - I'm still careful. Hopefully it looks dignified and refined. I do like the sequins though, they're shiny.

Eventually, I begin my address. "Good morning everyone. I am Rivkah Of Unity, daughter of the Human woman Naomi, and the Xenayan man Buri. You may know me."

Some do. For many in the audience I'm the first Xenayan they've seen, and well... I think they're looking at my horns, sabres and claws. Others who know what happened with the Flagship and the fleet are also nervous. "Life2.0 began out of a slave transport. While I'm sure you've heard more about us for defeating Gaius and Gnaea, and therefore you're all aware of what we can do. How we broke your fleet when Gnaea told us to bend or break. I don't doubt that some of you are worried that we're going to go on the offensive."

I look at Appia. "I'm sure my counterpart in MSI has relied on these fears to stabilise her position."

Appia smirks. We did agree I could lean on that. "Appia is many things. She used my Mum as a Companionship Asset before my Mum was sent to the docks, and well, as will come as no surprise, she has tried to get in my Mum's panties several times since her ascension to CEO of MSI." I rest my hands on my hips like Mum does. "She's even asked to get into mine."

Appia laughs first. I let it settle down. I invite her up, and take her hand, our dresses matching. "Her release of her Companionship Assets - which we can verify as several have applied for asylum with us - is the mark of a truly reformed woman. The rest is geopolitics that I'm sure all of you are smart enough to figure out - given a choice between Appia and Septima, we would always choose Appia. So, this woman has our support."

She heads back down the steps. I wait for her to sit. "With matters of where we stand right now, our military alliance against the uprising of Skrand and Septima, settled, I want to move onto the subject of the future. If all we have is an alliance based on dealing with a mutual threat, then the absence in victory of that threat could lead to a breakdown of our alliance. I do not want that. Being a child on Unity, I grew up afraid that one day people would descend from the stars and capture me and my family. I don't want my children to go through that fear. This is an opportunity for us all to define and build a better world for us and our children."

 

[Macavity116]

It's tricky wearing a full-length dress, especially with the extra detailing and fabric that tries to make me look a little less intimidating.

Emphasis on *tries.*

I think they're looking at my horns, sabres and claws. Others who know what happened with the Flagship and the fleet are also nervous.

My point stands. Rivkah is just a naturally occurring -20 to Willpower wherever she goes.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Emphasis on *tries.*

Just a little bit.

My point stands. Rivkah is just a naturally occurring -20 to Willpower wherever she goes.

And that's just Rivkah; Buri has yet to reveal his other tweaks yet.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Predator"
27th Hoggagha, 10 (2189)
Buri Of Unity​

I stay upwind of my prey. It's a healthy adult female, and I'm hungry. Trivially easy now that my compubones are linked to my fur to tell exactly what the wind is doing.

I stalk her through the undergrowth, matching my movements to hers. We pass a small pool of water, and I stop to test this new "structural coloration" camouflage where I can see myself. My fur restructures dynamically to display the incoming light on the opposite side of my body. Takes quite a lot of compubone processing, but I'm almost invisible.

Apart from teeth and eyes anyway. Still, it's enough to give me an edge. I switch my sight to thermal, then I return to stalking the prey. She lays in the long grass, unaware of me, a nice yellow and red glow in my otherwise blue vision.

I wait.

She stirs as the clouds part above, and moves. I follow her across the meadow.

My mind brings up targeting information from optics and radar.

Carefully, carefully, I sneak.

Fifty metres.

Twenty metres.

Ten.

A little drool as I savour the anticipation of feasting.

Two.

One.

My re-designed neck tenses, and my jaws slam shut like a vice.

"Buri! That's my tail!"​

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"The Conference, Part 5"
27th Hoggagha, 10 (2189)
Odoos​

My brother stands, and walks to the lectern.

He's hesitant. Shuffles around, trying to avoid showing his missing wing.

"Trust. Trust is an essential part of any cooperation. My people trusted MSI to enlighten us to bring us to the galaxy. Instead, we were enslaved. And when we did as all slaves should, you crushed us. So it takes all the trust I have to stand here. All my trust to ignore my natural view that this conference is a waste of time that will only whitewash what MSI has done in the past. It's time to earn that trust."

He turns, weary from his long conflict. Each step is slow as he carries the pain of a people for the watching worlds. He crashes into his seat, and leans to me. "I hope this isn't going to be a complete waste of time."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"The Sinews Of War, Part 1"
27th Hoggagha, 10 (2189)
Thando HaMaadimi​

"What you are about to see, is classified military material."

One sentence is enough to make me prefer dealing with my sister. Nothing in Life2.0's weapon labs is classified, it's much more fun.

He looks like he doesn't like me either. I am glad Rivkah let me come to this, listening to him rant about me was so worth it.

The Olinbari officer plays the footage. From a distance, the immense space-fairing dragon is furiously trying to swat flies around it. The viewpoint changes to an onboard from one of the strikecraft as they surgically take the dragon apart, blasting scales off while zipping between lightning discharges from the dragon, before unloading bombs into gaps in the scales. Eventually the dragon flees.

"That was Sharpbeak's doing, twenty five years ago when an Ether Drake bred by the Naylnoids for the Last Great War happened upon MSI space. Skrand Sharpbeak is a galaxy-wide famed figure who prior to the Last Great War established such an effective reputation that the Fruguliad Empire named him 'Shield Of The Empire' in response to his successes while a mercenary in their employ. During the War, he was hired by the Naylnoids to command their Ether Drakes. The Arishkan attempted to assassinate him more than a hundred times. The Prikki had a bit more success by trapping him in the Gateway Network; they managed to shut the Network's supra-spatial connection while he was in transit. Then wiped the floor with the exhausted Arishkan and Naylnoid fleets. We freed him when we managed to reactivate the Gateways in our space, and in gratitude he joined us. We helped him repair his ship, and in return he is in charge of any situation where we meet a hostile civilisation beyond the Pre-FTLs and pirates we usually face. There are several consequences of note for planning our strategy."

I don't like the way his voice soured. "How bad are they?"

Appia sighs. "What Atrius means there is no plan for MSI to counter Sharpbeak."

"What kind of idiot doesn't have a plan for when their top Commander goes rogue?" I glance at Rivkah. "I'd bet my ships that Sis has several plans she's discussed with her daughter in case I go rogue."

Rivkah smiles. "Uncle Thando is right. Surely it is an obvious flaw?"

Appia looks at me. "Well... It's like this. So, most of the time, MSI's navy is a fairly dull but prestigious post that you put on your CV for when you want to move into other leadership positions, particularly armaments and shipwright Subsidiaries to enjoy the kickbacks. In terms of real action, we get pirates and the odd Lokra-Kitan type blowup. Our massive technology advantage is usually enough that we get the result we want. Skrand is... Well, it took the Prikki and the Arishkan working together to bring him down. He employs his own supply chain from resource extraction to ship-building to weapons development to crew and officer training... We basically give his fortified star system a black budget and make his developments an open secret to warn off anyone major getting involved with us."

Rivkah looks at her. "He's responsible for the wormholes and the attacks on the Prikki Sentry Arrays, isn't he?"

"Yes. Three quick surgical strikes and he knocked out the capability of the Prikki to carry out their offensive. Set them back months."

None of this is good. "So, he is basically able to operate completely independently, has even better tech than you, has better crews, better officers, better plans..."

Appia sighs. "And a lot of public support too. More than me... The Chisudai reckon I'm a bad investment."

Rivkah looks at her. "Who are they?"

"A more benevolent MSI uplifted these tree-dwelling mammalians centuries ago. Being nocturnal and rather good at mathematics, we trained them to run night shift accountancy. They took off from there as bankers, stockbrokers, loansharks, lawyers... They own a planet-wide city now."

"Swapped one jungle for another then."

"Not really, FabbiCorp developed special tree-derived skyscrapers for them. Started with a barren hunk of rock, shipped the atmosphere in, seeded the trees by orbital droppod. But that's beside the point. The point is that the financiers we'd borrow from to fund the hiring of mercenaries want higher repayment terms to offset the possibility of us losing."

Oh great. "So, given you've skipped your own internal funds... How much debt are you in?"

She sighs. "We've used leverage appropriate to peacetime long-term growth financial contexts, and therefore our credit availablity is somewhat less than ideal for entering a war." She bites her lip.

Rivkah looks at me. "What does she mean? Just a little debt, right?"

I look at her. "Nope."

 

[HistoryDude]

Buri and Naomi are great.

When did Appia try to have sex with Rivkah? I don't remember that...

The Sharpbeak thing is horrible. This is why you don't rely on mercenaries to run your empire's defense - even mercenaries that you thought were loyal!

How much debt is MSI in? And what kind of repayment are their creditors expecting? Just money?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Buri and Naomi are great.

They are honestly my favourite married couple I've written.

When did Appia try to have sex with Rivkah? I don't remember that...

Rivkah's referring to the scene where Appia makes a drunken pass at her that she quickly shuts down.

The Sharpbeak thing is horrible. This is why you don't rely on mercenaries to run your empire's defense - even mercenaries that you thought were loyal!

Sharpbeak's loyalty isn't in question; he's just loyal to the Traditionalist faction within MSI, not Appia's Reformer faction.

How much debt is MSI in? And what kind of repayment are their creditors expecting? Just money?

It's not quite as bad as present day Earth nations; we're completely screwed as our fiat currencies are loaned out by private central banks at interest, and therefore the debt can never be repaid without totally crashing our economies and surrendering owned outright assets.

But, they've gotten themselves involved in all the usual corporate debt options - borrowing loans against assets, issuing bonds, borrowing against corporate credit rating, borrowing against non-preferred MSI shares (the ones that don't give the special Shareholder status) and a huge amount of borrowing against speculative developments based on the economic returns of enlightened Pre-FTLs.

Energy Credits mostly, but some are loans against specific assets.

On the plus side, the banks and baliffs they owe money to are enlightened Pre-FTLs who made it successfully, so there's some loyalty and favours that can be called in on to ease the situation.

But overall, MSI's situation is rather like looking up at circling vultures.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"The Sinews Of War, Part 2"
27th Hoggagha, 10 (2189)
Rivkah Of Unity​

I call my best engineer. "Daas. I need options for weapons for taking out enemy strikecraft."

"I'd need more details Rivkah."

Skrand Sharpbeak relies on strikecraft. Apparently, they're really good strikecraft too. Good enough Appia reckons that a straightforward strikecraft fight isn't going to end well."

"Well, that rules out one option... What are their defences like?"

"They have shields."

"What kind?"

"Anti-directed energy weapon ones."

"We've got the Kinetic Drones. And with the new metastable chemical rockets we've been developing, they don't do too badly."

"Are they enough?"

"Depends. What kind of propulsion systems do these strikecraft use?"

"Impulse thrusters with zero-point reactors."

He sits thoughtfully. "So, that's functionally unlimited delta-v."

"Yeah."

"Our drones aren't going to cut it. Flak turrets are a possibility."

"The only limit to their agility is the pilots. Apparently they make use of hideously expensive technologies no one else puts into strikecraft to make them so good. I worry flak might miss..."

"Maybe we'll have to use directed energy weapons then. The casaba howlitzer program could do it."

"But, the shields..."

"We might well be able to overwhelm them. I expect they are rated for dealing with flash irradiance and not a casaba howlitzer."

I sigh. "Humans and their weapons programs. Do you think they're compensating for something?"

He waits a little bit. "Maybe. Ask Appia for energy absorption limits for the shielding. If they work on the assumption of anything less than terajoule impacts, we can deal with them fairly inexpensively by gutting our Harrier missile program and loading those nukes into casaba howlitzers. It's a project we've been working on, but the yield is rather low. But, if the shields can take petajoules, we will need alternatives. Until we can put some numbers to blast through, we can't work out what will and won't work."

"How many Harriers are ready for conversion?"

"It's more like the 12m pulse units, the Harrier is a delivery vehicle, hold on..." There's a wait. "

"What's the biggest casaba howlitzer we've got?"

"The Holocron has got ones up to megaton yield in stock; they're basically the same as a pulse unit for a pusher-plate, only we're using plastics instead of Tungsten. The problem is what happens if we need to use lots of them to swat a single strikecraft."

"Thank you Daas."

I close one call, now it's Appia's turn. The big question running through my mind is simple. Which is cheaper; Skrand's strikecraft, or the casaba howlitzers to blast them out the sky with?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

At this point, we are now deep into the point where we are now using Stellaris technologies, rather than Children Of A Dead Earth technologies. Which means finding a way to accomodate the first in the second. Given Stellaris is a soft-scifi setting and CoaDE and Life2.0 to date have been at the harder end, this means finding a way to put real numbers on Stellaris' numbers.

I will state my expectation before I start; the primary comparison between the two is Fission vs Antimatter. Zero-Point reactors, while discussed in the narrative, we simply don't know enough about them to estimate the power extractable, as can be gathered from reading the literature on that subject. If you use antimatter the way Life2.0 uses ~1kt nukes, then antimatter offers more than a thousand times the power output, and therefore, it should be a no-contest in favour of the advanced technology. This has been alluded to in the narrative for both Life2.0 and the Holocron wanting to establish massive solar power facilities to make particle accelerators that turn solar power into antimatter via pair production and capture.

As a result, this piece could have some significant impacts on the narrative.

---

Let's start with a statement - this kind of analysis is obviously challenging, as Stellaris is designed precisely to confound this kind of hard analysis. How far you want to agree with it or disagree with it is up to you, and I'll state outright I'm accepting a result as a "close" match if it's on the same order of magnitude.

Stellaris has three kinds of reactor that we can put workable numbers on; Fission, Fusion and Antimatter. These range from 75/100/170 Power up to 550/720/1250 Power between Corvettes and Battleships. These are roughly seven times more powerful as the hull size increases.

So, how does Power equate to an actual GW per ship rate?

Short answer is... Not reasonably. Real world numbers indicate the reasonable power outputs of those three reactors are both 10^6W to 10^9W range for the first two, fusion ahead in principle as more fusion reactions can take place in a given volume than fission reactions, although they are fairly similar on actual energy released, but we don't know for sure until we actually make a working fusion reactor to get the volume/mass proportions right. Antimatter-matter is reasonably projected into the 10^16W range based on reacting 1kg of antimatter with 1kg of normal matter, but we really can only speculate on the constructions of reactors for antimatter.

Stellaris, well, we can begin with by looking at the Power/Alloy ratio to compare the three types to each other. Straight away, Stellaris is fudging the numbers for comparison's sake; antimatter should be 100x as powerful at least, but is only 0.2 Power/Alloy better than Fission. Being kind, we'd say the designers are operating low output antimatter reactors to avoid their ships exploding in the event of containment failure.

In CoaDE, well, I've got a wide selection of Crew-Safe fission reactors putting out from 10kW to 30GW, with the 30GW massing 60 something tons. And frankly, I'd mount any of them in a "Corvette" depending on the role of the ship in question. The intended behaviour is probably not that obviously, but it's safe to say any Life2.0 ship with a crew on board is getting a ~1GW reactor, with bigger warships getting multiples of that reactor.

So, while acknowledging the bork factor here, we could say 1GW for a Corvette, and multiples of that for a Battleship. So, plugging the 7x factor from Stellaris back in, is 7-8GW for a battleship reasonable in CoaDE? Yeah, I'd go with that. If we're being really thorough we'd allow 10GW, as that's what the biggest CoaDE laser is allowed to use, but the radiator mass becomes extremely punishing if you do use a laser that powerful.

What about components? How much power do stuff like shields take, for example?

Well, CoaDE doesn't model Electromagnetic Deflectors, but the numbers we've got for electromagnetic deflectors put ~10^12J to establish a safe shield with superconductors for a multi-kiloton ship. What a combat-orientated shield would need - as opposed to something that stops radiation and the interstellar medium - is harder to say, but we can reasonably say it'll probably want more power and a stronger bulkhead mount.

Stellaris has basic Small-sized Deflectors taking 15 Power, while Hyper Shields take 45 Power, up to 60 and 180 Power for Large-sized ones. Cross-referencing this via the Fission Reactors discussed earlier by comparison to a 75 Power Corvette Reactor and extrapolating from the Regen, Shield HP and Power amounts relative to a Fission Reactor would put shield total energies around the 10^11J to 10^13J, with charging inputs around 10^9W. This does stack up.

Weapons?

Lasers offer an interesting comparison for Red, Blue and UV lasers, as CoaDE models all three. Stellaris Power for them varies from 5 Power for a Small Red Laser to 51 Power for a Large UV Laser. Cross-referencing again via a 75 Power Corvette Reactor, and we see that the lasers are quite comparable indeed at 10^6W to 10^9W. Kinetics match up in a fairly consistent state too, as they also offer damage outputs in the 10^6 to 10^9W bounds. They are actually more potent than CoaDE offers, but that is mainly because CoaDE caps power drawn by railguns to only 1GW, not 10GW like lasers are allowed.

Missiles are another area of direct comparison. In CoaDE, missiles are either detonating high yield nukes to flash the enemy with, or, trying to hit the enemy ship with conventional explosive warheads. Stellaris matches this with fission, fusion, antimatter, quantum and marauder following the first approach as the damage done is nowhere near high enough to actually be hitting the enemy ship with even low megaton yield fission warheads; the damage per missile is broadly equivalent to the kinetic and laser damage options, which implies flash damage energy outputs comparable to CoaDE estimates. Swarmer missiles fulfil the second role of CoaDE's missiles, matching up more effectively in Stellaris.

What all of this means is that Life2.0 are actually in a surprisingly comparable state of readiness. Their ships aren't as good, but equally, their ships are also much simpler and cheaper to build, which is narratively important.

What Life2.0 lacks is a means of punching above their weight; Skrand's strikecraft are a real menace, and they need a way to blow up those carriers before they launch their strikecraft. The real world answer is a megaton Casaba Howlitzer, and therefore, as Life2.0 has been investigating ~1kt Casabas for years, is a natural step-up.

Is there a match for a megaton Casaba Howlitzer in Stellaris? The closest is the Titan-mount Perdition Beam, which requires 500 Power and delivers 5000 to 10,000 damage. These are broadly consistent with a 10^10W power input, and 10^13 to 10^14J damage to target. Based on extrapolating from the design of the 400m Orion with it's 38.5t pulse unit, the power is consistent with the kind of kinetic energy to get the pulse unit to a safe detonation distance, while the damage is also consistent with a megaton yield Casaba Howlitzer.

---

So, the big question; what does this mean for our protagonists?

Well, if you were starting to get worried Naomi and friends weren't going to be riding atom bombs to victory now that they aren't using Orions as much...

Don't be.​

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Scarlet Seven"
27th Hoggagha, 10 (2189)
Elizabeth Herminton​

I smooth my dress. Appia was worried for me when I told her what I wanted, but she stuck to her word. She is introducing me to Sophia Dexcius. I've only just found out her surname... Sophia I could sort of see, but what Human would be 'Dexius'?

I get my answer as Appia returns with another Olinbari woman and a Human woman. Appia smiles to me, then looks at the other Olinbari woman. "Sophia, this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, meet Sophia Dexcius, or Scarlet Six."

We run our eyes over each other. Her armour has seen battle, that's for sure. She wears numerous weapons, and polished crimson insignia. One of which is a skull with crossbones arranged as a symbol of Venus.

She settles on my eyes. "Appia tells me you were her favourite."

"I was."

"I've heard her side. What makes you want to be a Scarlet?"

"Appia saw reason. A lot of the others won't. I feel like I have had a safe life for a Companionship Asset, and I guess part of me has survivors guilt. I want to do my part. May I ask why an Olinbari woman leads Companionship Assets?"

Sophia looks at the other woman. "Clarissa here found me on the Vulcan. Pointed a gun to my face until the other Companionship Assets made her understand. Then she put a gun in my hand. Scarlet Leader and Scarlet One trusted me and put me on the team, and Biter One made me lead after Scarlet Leader was honourably discharged."

Appia smiles. "You know them better as Gillian Veres, Naomi Of Unity and the seven foot tall monster who spoke after me this morning."

I smile. "Am I in?"

Sophia looks at Appia. "Do you vouch for her?"

Appia nods. "Yes."

"Do you trust her?"

"Yes."

"Give her your gun." Appia moves to her right side, draws the pistol off her hip.

I smile, and look at her crotch. After all, I know where she keeps her spare. "Surely you should give me the one that isn't biometrically linked?"

Appia smiles as she slips her backup out the slash of her dress into my hand.

Sophia looks at me. "Welcome to the Scarlets. You're on the next ship out to Unity."

 

[Macavity116]

I have to give props to your devotion to putting numbers on something that really doesn't want numbers on it. Although attempting to reconcile CoaDE tech with Stellaris tech is a fascinating thought experiment I did not see coming. In my own crossovers, I just opted to dispense with as much Stellaris tech as possible in favor of only using Homeworld tech.

if you were starting to get worried Naomi and friends weren't going to be riding atom bombs to victory now that they aren't using Orions as much...

Don't be.​

I swear, if I had the money, I would hire an artist to paint Naomi riding a nuke through the air, Slim Pickens-style:

Also...

Achievement unlocked!
Flight of the Valkyries: Win a mission with an all-female squad.

So, does this mean Elizabeth Herminton is getting a promotion to minor character? I get the feeling you're setting up a "newer generation" of Scarlets to fight in the next action instead of re-using the previous squad.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

It's more that I'm trying to cross-reference Stellaris and Real Life using CoaDE as one of the best models for that which is available to civilians. It does have a few issues - e.g. the fact that Orion, Excalibur and the Casabas aren't modelled (the guy wanted to include them, and did try to include Orion as it's got the most declassified, but some of the mathematics he needed are still classified and he opted not to include them as a result rather than fudge it) but it's still unrivalled for the depth of simulation.

Well, Naomi's atom bomb would be going up rather than down.

Scarlet Leader is out of the game; with her husband back, she chooses to rekindle her life as best she can now she's a double above knee amputee with severe nerve damage making conventional prosthetics not an option.

Scarlet One is out by process of being in a vat of green stuff; her and Buri are sidelined when Rivkah's armada burns for war. (Which is when the big uniform roll-out is sufficiently achieved that the last scene before people and battle droids* start loading up on the ships is the inspection you want to see)

Between them, there's some shoes to fill, and Sophia is expanding the Scarlets. How much training Elizabeth is going to do between now and her baptism of fire is a lot less than what the other Scarlets had, but she isn't alone as Sophia reshapes the unit from being an elite special forces team not quite a squad in number up to a company sized formation by letting in the girls who didn't make Gillian's recruitment standards. (stopping at a company for running out of Companionship Assets on Unity)

The Scarlets here are being an example of the transition from the ad hoc formations intended for asymmetric operations within a guerilla warfare mindset of Naomi, into a professional fighting force that can go toe to toe with MSI under Rivkah.

Elizabeth herself - Elizabeth is our point of view for the teenager on Omaha Beach.

---

* Note - for what is coming, Neumanns count as people.

 

[HistoryDude]

Who will be the new Scarlet Leader in the field? Sophia?

I do like how this is going.

I was amused by Rivkah's crack at humanity and their weapons.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Scarlet Leader as a callsign still refers to Gillian Veres, as she's still around in a non-combat role supporting Leonardo. If they want Sophia, they call Scarlet Six.