Life2.0 - a Broken Shackles Narrative

[HistoryDude]

Well, Alexandra got something. Naomi really shouldn't have let the Imperatrix thing slip, though - that could be an issue.

Infiltrating MSI, huh? An interesting plan.

"Homeward Bound, Part 5" isn't threadmarked, by the way.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Strategos is the Greek equivalent. (Both from Alexander the Great's time and the modern Greek army) It's Naomi being culturally sensitive. Plus, it gives another subtle reference to Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

It's been Naomi's plan all along, she's just had to tweak her plan to accommodate the desires of those around her to protect what they have built instead of using it as a springboard; the only way to stop the MSI threat is to go on the offensive themselves.

I'll get that changed.

 

[HistoryDude]

It is? Imperatrix is most often associated with... well, the Roman Emperors. I'm aware that wasn't its original meaning, but if Alexandra knew that connection... well, she's ambitious enough as it is. We wouldn't want her to get ambitions of becoming Autokrator/Basileus.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Yes.

But Naomi's goal is to win.

And that's quite a challenge when you are extremely outnumbered, outteched, outsized... When objective analysis tends to the conclusion that you're not a threat.

Which leaves winning the war with psychology.

And to win by that method, Naomi needs the Olinbar to be afraid.

She needs the force multiplier that comes from your enemies being so afraid of you they trip over themselves. That their society breaks down and starts freeing slaves before the revolution comes for them.

She also needs them to know that her mercy extends even to them, so that they surrender instead of fighting to the last. (which is why Valerius was integrated, and she tried to turn Vopisca)

And lastly, to protect herself from being assassinated, she needs the Olinbar to know that all that stops the worst excesses of the revolution is her orders.

Which leads to the simple difference between the two of them:

Naomi with a Flagship, is a much less frightening prospect than Alexandra with a Flagship. (Or Ykrett with a Flagship for that matter)

 

[CBR JGWRR]

We retreat as fast as we can into a corridor. There's too many of them.

My lungs scream for breath. "We've lost."

Mum pants out a few words. "The battle is lost, but not the war."

Dad looks at her. "I'll cover you."

Mum shakes her head. "We'll cover them."

"Mum? Dad?"

They look at me. Mum speaks. "Rivkah, you are Arch-Imperatrix now. Get them out of here."

"But what about you?"

She fights back tears. "The guard does not retreat."

I don't understand until I look at Thando. "It dies."

"No, no, no, not like this..."

He hands Naomi his sword. "Don't worry, I'll get it back, just like I got it back from our Mum."

She hugs him, before turning to Dad. "No matter what happens..."

He stares into her eyes. "...I love you."

They nuzzle one last time, before re-engaging the enemy. Thando pulls me away. "Rivkah, we have to go."

"I can't do this Thando..."

"Rivkah, listen to me, you can and you must."

I summon all my will to turn away. "I've just lost my parents."

He takes my claws in his hands. "Rivkah, staying will only make their sacrifice pointless. We must move."

"What if they fall?"

"Your mother is a HaMaadimi, and your father the most terrifying mammalian beast I've seen. If anyone can fight their way out, they can."

"Atalyah died."

He hugs me. "Mum died so that me and your Mum would live."

"That's what I'm worried about."

"There's a big difference though. Atalyah died alone because MSI held a gun to your Mum's head. Do you see a gun against yours?"

I smile. "Nope."

"Let's keep moving."

---

---

Not entirely convinced that this will be in the story, but I had to write the idea while I had it in the bath...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Homeward Bound, Part 7"
3rd Shendredie, 8 (2186)
Alexandra​

I've moved down to the Muster Field; it's much more than a Muster Field of course, this is where Naomi trains her volunteer-militia. The freighter is going with the Returners. That's been settled. Big public debate over it. The colony has offically began to part ways, with those leaving now moving to the freighter to settle in. On the plus side, Daas and his team are making great progress on reverse-engineering MSI technology, and he's ready to begin attempting to repair the crashed slave ship's cloaking device so that my team has a shot at cloaking.

If it doesn't work, it's back to ambushing the Flagship in Unity's planetary ring; they've been restructuring it into a deceptively well hidden fortress for years, and the shuttles have been pulling in the bigger asteroids. The nuclear bomb artillery weapons - weapons, note the plural! - have been towed in, and they are being converted now. Pretty soon, we'll have possibly four shots at smashing a hole straight through the shields from point-blank range. There's not enough suitable asteroids to test the weapons first, so the colony is hoping to overcome that with lots of them.

Naomi has roused them into a frenzy, working together to give all of us the best chance possible. And the wildlife too; if we start detonating nuclear weapons close to Unity, we could cause a lot of ecological damage.

We can do this. I honestly believe it, that we can do this.

I look at my mantlepiece again. It was really touching that she made me a shield with the Star of the Argeios on it.

It's strange that my biggest rival is the only other person who does see me as the heiress of Alexander.

 

[HistoryDude]

I liked the little snippet, but I really hope it isn't canon.

Alexandra and Naomi seem to be friendly with each other now.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Well, the colony can't win all the time...

It's a complicated dynamic, and Alexandra now sees Naomi as the perfect person to do all the boring governance stuff while Alexandra goes conquering.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Homeward Bound, Part 8"
29th Shendredie, 8 (2186)
Vaki B'Than​

Every night, I have the same dream.

I run beneath the cloudless night sky on the homeworld, bounding through the long-grass. I run and run and run, and eventually I reach a stone shrine, on the far side of a stone arch.

The dream always ends just before I reach the arch.

I don't know what it means...

I feel I have to find out.

 

[HistoryDude]

What does the arch represent? Safety? Naomi's new planet specifically?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Vaki doesn't know either.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

So, as a brief update - I start a new job today.

While there are benefits, one of the downsides is I won't have as much time to write as I used to, which is unfortunate. And it also means that there will be short time ship to saying goodbye to those who are leaving in the next post to move the plot forward to the long-awaited Flagship encounter.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Homeward Bound, Part 9"
10th Ykrett, 9 (2187)
Naomi Of Unity​

When Mum was a girl, and her Mum taught her oratory, they went to the dams off Banff Road in Bulawayo, way back when it was the "City of kings", and capital of the fallen Iriphubliki. In more ancient times it started as a barracks of King Mzilikazi.

My Mum taught me oratory with plastic balls and a recording of a crowd.

And with Rivkah, she learnt the way our ancestors taught, with real pebbles by a real sea, with tides and waves and everything. Just like how old Yehoshua read that Cicero was taught by Antiochus of Ascalon. You fill your mouth with pebbles, stand by the sea and speak as loudly and clearly as you can until you get it right.

Soon, I deliver a speech that has grieved my heart to write more than any other in the long list of speeches since I was taught to write and then practice through the night.

It's Snowfall Day.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Homeward Bound, Part 10"
10th Ykrett, 9 (2187)
Odoos​

Looking around the Lokra-Kitan settlement, I feel reminded of a song Monica once recited. I can't remember much - neither could she really - and I don't know if it was a chorus or a verse, but this came to mind.

'I walk this empty street, on the boulevard of broken dreams, where the city sleeps, and I'm the only one, and I walk alone.'

My people...

They are gone to the freighter. Or to the asteroids.

Hatchlings used to play along these paths. But childhood is one of the first casualties of war.

I know that too well...

I sit down. I... I need a moment.

Eventually, another Lokra-Kitan passes by. I rack my memory. Naloo. She had five hatchlings, once.

She looks at me. Preens her feathers in sympathy, before sitting with me. "It'll be ok Odoos. It'll be ok."

"So few are staying..."

She pecks my cheek. "You restored the pride of a broken people Odoos. You should be proud of them, flying off to defend our homeworld. Our people."

"You mean they grew up."

"Such is the way of hatchlings dear."

She puts her wing around me.

Oota flashes back into my mind. "I can't, Naloo."

She cocks her head in understanding. "I hope you heal Odoos. All young birds fly the nest, and you deserve to see that you didn't just raise a few hatchlings, but you raised a flock."

I look up at the barely visible shimmer in the sky where the freighter orbits, and I contemplate her words.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Homeward Bound, Part 11"
10th Ykrett, 9 (2187)
Valerius​

Walking the freighter for the last time, it hardly feels the same ship. Technically, it isn't; the registry has changed from an MSI register to a proposed Life2.0 register - not that they actually have their own registry in the Galactic Community yet. The 'USS Freedom' has become the 'L2NA Freedom'.

Somehow, it fits better.

It isn't just a name change; every surface has been repainted. No longer the white, gold and bright purple of MSI, the base coat is blood red. Naomi's suggestion. I'm not entirely sure she was being serious - the discussion had come to a halt as no one was sure about what to repaint it to, only that it needed to be repainted. The other Humans laughed and then rolled with it. In hindsight, it's a natural reference to the relatively recent traditional Human cultural context of red for revolution.

Although she did have one of the shuttles painted green.

The inside is very chaotic; everyone has painted their bit whatever colour they like, and murals line every wall. Which manages to clash starkly and gel into cohesion simultaneously.

Life and hope fill the air, as hundreds of thousands of people make their way to listen to the Colony News Service, one last time.

It's time to go for me; I'm staying with Unity.

 

[HistoryDude]

This feels like the end of an age. Is Snowfall Day just when so many people leave the colony? Or is it something else?

I liked the Boulevard of Broken Dreams reference. It's a good song.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

A long time ago - 16 pages ago - the 10th of Ykrett was the day when the desert/arid preferring races headed south, and the arctic preferring races left their refrigerated quarters, on the first snow fall of the new colony. (Which at the time was only one settlement with a few reconnaissance outposts)

While the colony's expansion and settlement across Unity's biomes has made it more of a symbolic festival rather than an actual parting of ways by the present day, it's still celebrated as a unity of purpose thing.

The Returner Movement therefore picked the date for their departure as a connection to what they achieved together.

 

[Macavity116]

I like the mental image of the ship's interior being painted with a hectic collage of murals. Really feels like the multicultural crew has made it their own.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Captain's Log, Entry 1"
10th Ykrett, 9 (2187)
Vaki B'Than​

I prowl around the armoured command core at the centre of the ship. Being a freighter, it had the advantage that the inside was mostly empty space, so we have gutted the bridge and moved it all into a central armoured bunker. It's a ship within the ship.

And we've done our best to make this freighter into the best warship we can. We've been mass-producing nuclear weapons for a long time now, and we have hangar decks capable of operating radio-directed (the plan is to use technology so out of date, no enemy would think to jam it) drones carrying fusion-boosted warheads. More than a dozen small nuclear reactors feed a network of capacitors to charge various railguns, and for the spinal railgun based on the older designs. Our entire stockpile of Uranium and Plutonium not already in warheads went into the combat upgrades.

The ship itself came with shields and a cloaking device, and we've beefed up the first as well, as well as added more heat sinks for the second so that we can stay cloaked for longer. We are as close to a battleship as we can be while still having colonists aboard.

Obviously Duxanek has spent the last six months specialising our medical staff in treating radiation injuries; everyone has dosimeters, but we still expect to take five percent losses to radiation-induced injuries. We have a gene clinic and sequencers on board, so we will be able to keep track of radiation induced mutations. The children will be in a boarding school within the most densely armoured bunker to protect them better.

Another internal section has been devoted to mining and manufacturing; we will use the ship's sensors to locate asteroids, and continually improve as we travel.

We don't know what's out there. That's why we have pushed our armaments so hard.

Hopefully we won't need them, but we aren't going down without a fight.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Standing War Doctrine - A Guide For Your Planning

We are outnumbered. Our enemy measures their domain in star systems, and their reach ranges what we know to be all accessible space. We are steadily mastering one world and a few off-world sections.

We are outgunned. In every area. We are so far behind the enemy in technology that their arrogance lets them hand out old weapons that are still better than anything we field ourselves. By several centuries of research and development.

We have been taken from nineteen planets and one ringworld, thrown together and left to die because they believe that we will turn on each other. And then, they will descend from the stars, offer us aid and say how wonderful they are as the rest of the galaxy turns a blind eye to our fate, as they will lay worse shackles on us than they ever used before.

Our enemy suffers several fatal weaknesses, and we are going to exploit every gorydamn one of them until we liberate those still in their snares. And if we fail, then we go down fighting.

This is how we are going to do it:

1. Unity is the launchpad. Rebellions succeed because they have nothing to defend, and therefore there are no anvils they can wield a hammer against unless we walk into their trap. Which we will not do. So, our enemy must divide their forces to the hunt, and it turn it's smaller sub-divisions that search become prey themselves. Here, on Unity, we will train our offensive forces in the art of infiltration.

A single rebellion is easily crushed.

But we will not have just one rebellion.

You are reading this because I believe in you. Because I believe you can do anything I can do. And ask the man who's blade and pistol are on my hips what I can do.

MSI will not fall to a single hammer, and anyway, we cannot build or wield such a hammer. What we have are razors. Swarms of razors. We will shred them from the inside out. You are one of those razors. You will go into MSI territory to your target, you will infiltrate the local slaves, you will organise and equip them, and you will incite rebellion. And you will lead them the way I led our rebellion.

2. Once you have gotten your rebellion ready to launch, you conduct your attack when you deem possible.

Do not try to coordinate your rebellion with another rebellion; that only risks you both being scuppered. (that said, if another rebellion gives you a feasible opportunity, exploit the hell out of it to maximise the chaos and make our enemy think there's coordination - they will waste time trying to figure out connections that don't exist)

Do not wait for command from Unity; Unity is too big a target to attempt central coordination. Our job is to distract MSI long enough for your operation to implant and gestate, and when they come, to make ourselves priority number one for them to take out, so that your rebellion faces less opposition as they are all trying to deal with us. You are in command.

Our strength is that we are a hydra. Taking out me, or anyone else, is not enough to stop our rebellion, or your rebellion. That is our opportunity, and it offers the strongest countermeasure to the most likely response MSI will take, which is to try to take out the leadership with surgical strikes.

Do not be worried about the time taken developing your position. It is in our interest to have a wide variety of potential timeframes between insertion and ignition, as this will make our enemy's efforts to stop us more difficult for lack of useful data.

3. Eventually our enemy will be in disarray from what will become tens, then hundreds, of rebellions. If everything goes according to plan, Unity will have a Flagship, and we can begin contemplating a shift in our methodology of warfare from inciting rebellions and move into systemic liberation of slaves, and in time, the development of liberated communities. With this in mind, those you recruit for your rebellion will become your officer core, who will in turn be expected to be able to fill your role in the event MSI take you out and themselves train up and field armies based on ex-slaves. Once your rebellion succeeds, they will then become the civil administration.

4. Once all rebellions succeed, we will achieve the collapse of MSI. We will NOT engage in repaying MSI the way they treated us; that will only encourage them. Instead, we must achieve a new dynamic of true equality. I understand that may be problematic for some, but there are advantages - this conciliatory approach has the advantage that it means our enemy will be less inclined to fight to the death, reducing casualties on both sides.

Additional Notes:
Unity will attempt to find allies among the other races in the stars; if MSI must treat us as a hostile enemy, they will focus on us, which creates opportunities. Alien powers on MSI's level will be incredible allies if you can obtain them.

Remember - our objective is victory. Do not let rage or glory or bloodlust distract from that.

And lastly - no matter what happens, I love you all.

Declaring Officer: Arch-Imperatrix Naomi Of Unity