I’d like to post a fanfic here, but I’m a complete rook on the forum. Any protocols, conventions or guidelines I need to follow? It’ll only be one or two one-shots. Don’t expect anything epic or profound. I’m still going through the all the background material, so I’m expecting someone to say that you covered all this five years ago.
I usually post on Archive Of Our Own. Anyone else post there? On this forum it is sometimes difficult to separate the chapters from the comments.
[Fanfiction] Independence
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Sturzkampf
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Re: [Fanfiction] Independence
Pretty simple, if it's fan created keep it in fan works. If there are specific guidelines I don't know where they are either, otherwise it's whatever you wanna do. I'd suggest if you want to keep comments separate make a post specifically for comments. Kinda like how you see RPs separated into in-char and out of char.
Good luck !
Good luck !
Re: [Fanfiction] Independence
In other forums I saw fan fictions which link in a post to the next chapter so that one can read the story and easily skip the comments.
But if you're doing one-shots(*) anyway, just keep to one thread per story, and it won't matter much...
(*) I interpret "one-shot" as meaning posted in one go/one post.
But if you're doing one-shots(*) anyway, just keep to one thread per story, and it won't matter much...
(*) I interpret "one-shot" as meaning posted in one go/one post.
-
Sturzkampf
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:32 pm
- Location: Detached, in Albia's Service
- Contact:
Re: [Fanfiction] Independence
Earth's Leaders must make an impossible decision. How can they maximise the chances of humanity surviving the war between the Loroi and the Umiak?
SpoilerShow
“Y’ WANT US TO DO WHAT?!”
The President of the Terran Colonial Authority leaned back in his chair and smiled at the Governor of Alpha’s outburst. In these difficult times, you had to take the little moments of pleasure when you could. After all the effort to set up this meeting in Proxima orbit aboard the Victory with his fellow governors he felt he deserved to savour the moment. Getting Alpha on his feet and shouting was all too easy, but he took a certain enjoyment in timing his announcement just right so that the Governor of Esperanza choked and sprayed the Colonial Fleet’s idea of coffee out through both her nostrils.
“I want the colonies to rebel,” he explained as though he were asking them to pass the salt. “To declare independence, break free from your oppressors on the home world. If it’s not too much trouble.”
“’AVE Y’ GONE RAVIN’ MAD?” demanded Alpha, still on his feet and showing no sign of calming down. He was a large man, with a red face and a habit of ranting.
“No, not in the least.”
“Why do you want us break away?” asked the Prime Minister of Aldea, who alone seemed unperturbed by the proposal. She steepled her fingers and scrutinised the President with her best poker face. Her colonial colleagues were wild frontiersmen, pushing back the boundaries of humanity, working at the limits to prepare inhospitable worlds for those who would come after. She was in charge of a mining operation on a planetary scale and had no time for childish emotional outbursts; they didn’t have an entry on the spreadsheet. “With two hostile enemy fleets on our doorstep, now is the time for us to stand together, not to split apart. We must stay neutral. Even supply both sides. Preferably in return for some of their hardware and knowledge. Perhaps even offer to act as mediator. The potential financial and technology rewards are immense.”
“Dream on,” snapped Esperanza, waving away an aide making ineffectual attempts to mop up the spilt coffee. “Neither of the alien races will recognise neutrality. We’ve got to pick a side, or we’ll be attacked by both of them.”
Alpha reluctantly sat back down.
“Who’re we goin’ with? ‘eard from the Scout Corps yet?” The President shrugged.
“No. Unless anyone has arrived at Esperanza?”
“We’d heard nothing.”
“I hear the Umiak will treat us no better than slaves,” said Aldea.
“I ‘eard these Laurielee…”
“Loroi.”
“…wha’ever, are a group consciousness. A race o’ drones sharin’ a single mind that ‘ate individuality an’ see outsiders like us as no more ‘n resources to be exploited an’ consumed.”
“I’ve heard that they are some kind of brain-devouring Stanleyian squids,” added Esperanza. “The mere sight of one is enough to drive a man insane.”
The President held up his hand before his colleagues’ imaginations got completely out of hand.
“In fact, we know nothing of the Loroi, other than the fact that they are telepaths and have technology equivalent to the Umiak – that’s at least two levels in advance of us – and they have no qualms about committing genocide Anyway, whichever side we chose, we can hardly base our decision simply on their physical appearance.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait for the Scout ships to return so we can pick the winners?” asked Aldea.
“Perhaps. But there is still a risk. Imagine we were a band of primitives caught up in the Second Great War. Had we been asked to pick the winning side in, say, May 1942 after the fall of Singapore and the Philippines, with the Allies being pushed back in the Middle East and Russia, it would have been obvious to pick the Axis side. Yet within eighteen months the tide of the war had turned, and we would have ended up on the losing side after all.”
“Hm. Perhaps it would be better to choose the side that treats its conquered enemies the worse.”
“Wha’?” Alpha was on the verge of shouting again. Aldea turned to him and explained patiently, as though she were talking to a child.
“If we win, all well and good. If we lose, we get better treatment than if we’d been on the other side and lost.”
“Oh right. I don’ suppose, tha’ we could, y’ know, join the aliens who got right on their side?”
The other governors looked at him incredulously. Esperanza sniggered.
“Not only is that a luxury we can’t afford,” replied the President, “what is ‘right’ from their alien standpoint will probably make no sense to us. Anyway, according to the Orgus, for all the aliens’ advanced science, this is no more than an old-fashioned turf war between two expanding empires. What began as a border dispute escalated into a war which has decimated a hundred worlds. For the Umiak and the Loroi, their hatred fuelled by twenty-five solar years of total war, this is a fight to the death. For each side the only acceptable outcome is the total annihilation of the other.”
“And I take it any allied races on the losing side can expect no mercy from the victors,” added Aldea. “We have to make a decision, soon, based on almost no information, and if we get it wrong humanity will be finished.”
“Yes and no,” said the President, anxious to get the meeting back on track. “That’s where your declaration of independence comes in.”
“Go on. You’re dying to tell us your wonderful plan. Explain it before you burst.”
“What you must do is secede from Earth. Declare yourself an independent confederation of planets.”
“Absurd!” exclaimed Esperanza. “We’re completely reliant on supplies from Earth and you know it.”
“That’s why you’ll appeal for help to one of the alien races.”
“Which one?”
The President shrugged. “Take your pick. We’ve already agreed they both sound appalling and we’ve no idea which one is going to win. Then of course Earth will contact the other lot and side with them.”
“But that’ll put us on different sides in the war!” Alpha was on his feet again. “We’ll be fightin’ against each other! One o’ us’ll be destroyed!”
“Yes, but the other will survive. You see?” The President could see from the expressions on their faces that they were beginning to see.
“If we pick the wrong side, humanity will be annihilated. But if we divide ourselves, humanity can fight on both sides. And one side at least can survive.”
“What about Mars?” asked Aldea.
“Oh, they’ll stay with us. Home system and all that.” Esperanza scowled at the President.
“But who gets the Colonial Fleet? Earth I expect. We won’t stand a chance in any fight.”
“Oh, that’s largely irrelevant. From what the Orgus have told use the colonial fleet is insignificant in both size and power compared to the Loroi and Umiak navies. Take this ship we’re in, the Victory. The shiniest, most powerful, most advanced battleship ever produced on Earth, packed with all the latest technology we’ve er… acquired from our new friends. And she’ll be no match for an enemy destroyer, never mind one of their capital ships.”
He indicated a painting of a wooden man-o-war in full sail on the wall of the conference room.
“In a battle, the Victory would be as much use as her namesake pitched against twentieth century iron-hulled battleships. The only use our alien allies might find for the Colonial Fleet will be depleting the enemy’s ammunition stocks.”
Although he would at admit it to no-one, the President was not enjoying his voyage on the Colonial Fleet’s new flagship. He kept telling himself that the Victory was the latest, fastest battleship in the fleet; nothing could go wrong. But at night he lay awake, remembering that the ship was full of alien technology that humanity still didn’t entirely understand, that this was her first voyage outside the Sol system and that her every component had been supplied by the lowest bidder.
“But we can’t just ‘declare independence’ like that,” protested Alpha. “We aren’t some old school dictators who can order all our separate colonies and nation states to do what we say.”
“Yet,” said Esperanza quietly under her breath.
“It will be your job to be Heroes of the Revolution and lead your People to Freedom,” explained the President. “There’s plenty of examples from history. The home country expends vast resources to set up a colony, and then when they want a return on their investment, there’s always a bunch of unscrupulous colonials on the make, ready to grab all that power and wealth for themselves. You know the sort of thing: ‘They may take away your lives, but they’ll never take my freedom!’, ‘Man is born free but everywhere is in chains!’, ‘Give me liberty or give me death!’”
Aldea raised a cynical eyebrow.
“Not sure that last one will be suitable for use with our new overlords, whoever they will be, but I take your point.”
“A lot of your colonists have sold their labour for the privilege of a new start on the frontier. They’ll support your move to independence because it will clear their debts as a stroke. Anyway, it will be up to you to guide your people along the path of freedom. How you unite all your disparate factions is up to you. You’ve all attained your current positions because that’s what you’re good at!”
“I’ll get pushback,” mused Alpha. “It’ll be messy.” The President did not like the way he seemed to a look forward to a fight, but this was not the time to quibble.
“Nothing you can’t handle I’m sure. And your new allies will doubtlessly help you keep control once they arrive. Earth will give you a helping hand to get the revolution started. Lots of new taxes, pointless regulations and red tape, restrictions, on travel, manufacture and movements of goods…”
“Nothing new there then,” muttered Esperanza.
“Yes, well, of course it will all be ‘temporary measures’ in aid of the emergency situation. We’ll give you plenty of material to work with.”
“Even for the side that wins, humanity is going to find it tough,” said Aldea. “Ironic that just when we’ve learned to live without oppressing most of the world’s population a bunch of monsters with advanced technology and the ethics of an Egyptian pharaoh turn up and drag us right back to where we started. How can they still be so morally bankrupt?”
The President thought it time to move on.
“We’ve got some plans I’d like to share with you on how the situation might be managed.” He indicated to the ensign assigned to assist the meeting. The way he surreptitiously watched her as she handed out a secure data pad to each of the governors would have earned him a fifteen-minute harangue and a night sleeping on the sofa had his wife been there to see it. Contrary to what you might expect, the sight made him feel sick to the pit of his stomach. This was why he hated what he had to do. The ensign was young, intelligent, dedicated, talented, hardworking, enthusiastic and, let’s face it, smoking hot. In all probability within two years, possibly less, she would be dead, together with thousands like her. And their deaths would be as a direct result of his decisions. It was such a waste of the best of humanity. In all probability he would be dead too, and although he didn’t relish the prospect, at least he had lived his life, he’d been far luckier than he’d deserved and it wasn’t as though humanity would not be able to carry on without him. He just hoped that when people did start to die, he’d be responsible for saving more than he killed.
Once he’d given his fellow governors a chance to work out how to operate their pads (the helpful ensign had to show Alpha where the ‘ON’ button was), he pulled himself together and focused on the job in hand.
“Our treatment by either of our new ‘allies’ is indeed likely to be harsh, whether we are fighting as humanity united or as two divided camps. We do have some ideas on how we might overcome these problems.”
“Which is?” The President felt that Aldea at least was starting to warm to his plan.
“Prove to these aliens that we have something to offer them. Show them that humanity is so resourceful, innovative and dedicated to their cause that we’re more useful to them alive than we are dead. We’ll adopt Mondarev’s Plan B.”
“The what now?” asked Alpha.
The President sighed. Why were these colonials so woefully ignorant of the Classics?
“Mondarev’s Plan B. Be helpful. Be patient. Be there. We may not have the hardware or the technical know-how, but we have plenty of expertise in combat. Hand to hand fighting isn’t much different if you’re armed with a stone axe or a plasma javelin, and God knows, humanity has more than enough experience of that. And we’re innovative and adaptable. The Orgus tell us that although the Loroi and the Umiak are technologically superior, they’ve advanced much slower than us. We can provide the innovation and insight to develop their technology far faster than the enemy, give them the edge they need, if they are willing to share of course.”
Aldea gave a cynical smile. She could tell where this was going.
“So, we learn all their secrets. Bring ourselves up to their level. You think that will work?”
“As I see it, it’s the only chance we’ve got. Who knows? If we can raise ourselves to their level, one day we may be able to declare our independence for real.”
Aldea frowned. “It occurs to me that when humanity is free again, we will be remembered as the people who took humanity into slavery. The ones who collaborated with the enemy. We’ll all be damned.”
Esperanza gave a humourless laugh. “Like the philosopher said, it’s a small enough price to pay for immortality.”
“If humanity remembers me as the greatest traitor who ever lived,” said the President, “then at least there will be humanity, and I am fine with that.”
“You’ve given us a lot to think about,” said Esperanza. “We’ll have to discuss this at home before we decide.”
“Don’t take too long. We’ve probably got a year. Maybe two.”
“Question is, which side should the colonies pick?” asked Alpha.
Aldea shrugged.
“How can we decide? Both sides are barbarians.”
“How about this?” Esperanza fished in her pocket and brought out a small silver metal disk about 3 cm in diameter and held it out for the others to see. The profile of some long-dead king was embossed on one side, an archaic heraldic device on the other.
“This is called a half-crown. It’s an old family heirloom. My father brought it with him from Earth as a memento of home when he came out here. People used them as bargaining tokens, before proper ecash was invented. They also used them for decision making. What do you say?”
She flicked the coin into the air…
“Heads we take the Loroi, tails we take the Umiak…”
The President of the Terran Colonial Authority leaned back in his chair and smiled at the Governor of Alpha’s outburst. In these difficult times, you had to take the little moments of pleasure when you could. After all the effort to set up this meeting in Proxima orbit aboard the Victory with his fellow governors he felt he deserved to savour the moment. Getting Alpha on his feet and shouting was all too easy, but he took a certain enjoyment in timing his announcement just right so that the Governor of Esperanza choked and sprayed the Colonial Fleet’s idea of coffee out through both her nostrils.
“I want the colonies to rebel,” he explained as though he were asking them to pass the salt. “To declare independence, break free from your oppressors on the home world. If it’s not too much trouble.”
“’AVE Y’ GONE RAVIN’ MAD?” demanded Alpha, still on his feet and showing no sign of calming down. He was a large man, with a red face and a habit of ranting.
“No, not in the least.”
“Why do you want us break away?” asked the Prime Minister of Aldea, who alone seemed unperturbed by the proposal. She steepled her fingers and scrutinised the President with her best poker face. Her colonial colleagues were wild frontiersmen, pushing back the boundaries of humanity, working at the limits to prepare inhospitable worlds for those who would come after. She was in charge of a mining operation on a planetary scale and had no time for childish emotional outbursts; they didn’t have an entry on the spreadsheet. “With two hostile enemy fleets on our doorstep, now is the time for us to stand together, not to split apart. We must stay neutral. Even supply both sides. Preferably in return for some of their hardware and knowledge. Perhaps even offer to act as mediator. The potential financial and technology rewards are immense.”
“Dream on,” snapped Esperanza, waving away an aide making ineffectual attempts to mop up the spilt coffee. “Neither of the alien races will recognise neutrality. We’ve got to pick a side, or we’ll be attacked by both of them.”
Alpha reluctantly sat back down.
“Who’re we goin’ with? ‘eard from the Scout Corps yet?” The President shrugged.
“No. Unless anyone has arrived at Esperanza?”
“We’d heard nothing.”
“I hear the Umiak will treat us no better than slaves,” said Aldea.
“I ‘eard these Laurielee…”
“Loroi.”
“…wha’ever, are a group consciousness. A race o’ drones sharin’ a single mind that ‘ate individuality an’ see outsiders like us as no more ‘n resources to be exploited an’ consumed.”
“I’ve heard that they are some kind of brain-devouring Stanleyian squids,” added Esperanza. “The mere sight of one is enough to drive a man insane.”
The President held up his hand before his colleagues’ imaginations got completely out of hand.
“In fact, we know nothing of the Loroi, other than the fact that they are telepaths and have technology equivalent to the Umiak – that’s at least two levels in advance of us – and they have no qualms about committing genocide Anyway, whichever side we chose, we can hardly base our decision simply on their physical appearance.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait for the Scout ships to return so we can pick the winners?” asked Aldea.
“Perhaps. But there is still a risk. Imagine we were a band of primitives caught up in the Second Great War. Had we been asked to pick the winning side in, say, May 1942 after the fall of Singapore and the Philippines, with the Allies being pushed back in the Middle East and Russia, it would have been obvious to pick the Axis side. Yet within eighteen months the tide of the war had turned, and we would have ended up on the losing side after all.”
“Hm. Perhaps it would be better to choose the side that treats its conquered enemies the worse.”
“Wha’?” Alpha was on the verge of shouting again. Aldea turned to him and explained patiently, as though she were talking to a child.
“If we win, all well and good. If we lose, we get better treatment than if we’d been on the other side and lost.”
“Oh right. I don’ suppose, tha’ we could, y’ know, join the aliens who got right on their side?”
The other governors looked at him incredulously. Esperanza sniggered.
“Not only is that a luxury we can’t afford,” replied the President, “what is ‘right’ from their alien standpoint will probably make no sense to us. Anyway, according to the Orgus, for all the aliens’ advanced science, this is no more than an old-fashioned turf war between two expanding empires. What began as a border dispute escalated into a war which has decimated a hundred worlds. For the Umiak and the Loroi, their hatred fuelled by twenty-five solar years of total war, this is a fight to the death. For each side the only acceptable outcome is the total annihilation of the other.”
“And I take it any allied races on the losing side can expect no mercy from the victors,” added Aldea. “We have to make a decision, soon, based on almost no information, and if we get it wrong humanity will be finished.”
“Yes and no,” said the President, anxious to get the meeting back on track. “That’s where your declaration of independence comes in.”
“Go on. You’re dying to tell us your wonderful plan. Explain it before you burst.”
“What you must do is secede from Earth. Declare yourself an independent confederation of planets.”
“Absurd!” exclaimed Esperanza. “We’re completely reliant on supplies from Earth and you know it.”
“That’s why you’ll appeal for help to one of the alien races.”
“Which one?”
The President shrugged. “Take your pick. We’ve already agreed they both sound appalling and we’ve no idea which one is going to win. Then of course Earth will contact the other lot and side with them.”
“But that’ll put us on different sides in the war!” Alpha was on his feet again. “We’ll be fightin’ against each other! One o’ us’ll be destroyed!”
“Yes, but the other will survive. You see?” The President could see from the expressions on their faces that they were beginning to see.
“If we pick the wrong side, humanity will be annihilated. But if we divide ourselves, humanity can fight on both sides. And one side at least can survive.”
“What about Mars?” asked Aldea.
“Oh, they’ll stay with us. Home system and all that.” Esperanza scowled at the President.
“But who gets the Colonial Fleet? Earth I expect. We won’t stand a chance in any fight.”
“Oh, that’s largely irrelevant. From what the Orgus have told use the colonial fleet is insignificant in both size and power compared to the Loroi and Umiak navies. Take this ship we’re in, the Victory. The shiniest, most powerful, most advanced battleship ever produced on Earth, packed with all the latest technology we’ve er… acquired from our new friends. And she’ll be no match for an enemy destroyer, never mind one of their capital ships.”
He indicated a painting of a wooden man-o-war in full sail on the wall of the conference room.
“In a battle, the Victory would be as much use as her namesake pitched against twentieth century iron-hulled battleships. The only use our alien allies might find for the Colonial Fleet will be depleting the enemy’s ammunition stocks.”
Although he would at admit it to no-one, the President was not enjoying his voyage on the Colonial Fleet’s new flagship. He kept telling himself that the Victory was the latest, fastest battleship in the fleet; nothing could go wrong. But at night he lay awake, remembering that the ship was full of alien technology that humanity still didn’t entirely understand, that this was her first voyage outside the Sol system and that her every component had been supplied by the lowest bidder.
“But we can’t just ‘declare independence’ like that,” protested Alpha. “We aren’t some old school dictators who can order all our separate colonies and nation states to do what we say.”
“Yet,” said Esperanza quietly under her breath.
“It will be your job to be Heroes of the Revolution and lead your People to Freedom,” explained the President. “There’s plenty of examples from history. The home country expends vast resources to set up a colony, and then when they want a return on their investment, there’s always a bunch of unscrupulous colonials on the make, ready to grab all that power and wealth for themselves. You know the sort of thing: ‘They may take away your lives, but they’ll never take my freedom!’, ‘Man is born free but everywhere is in chains!’, ‘Give me liberty or give me death!’”
Aldea raised a cynical eyebrow.
“Not sure that last one will be suitable for use with our new overlords, whoever they will be, but I take your point.”
“A lot of your colonists have sold their labour for the privilege of a new start on the frontier. They’ll support your move to independence because it will clear their debts as a stroke. Anyway, it will be up to you to guide your people along the path of freedom. How you unite all your disparate factions is up to you. You’ve all attained your current positions because that’s what you’re good at!”
“I’ll get pushback,” mused Alpha. “It’ll be messy.” The President did not like the way he seemed to a look forward to a fight, but this was not the time to quibble.
“Nothing you can’t handle I’m sure. And your new allies will doubtlessly help you keep control once they arrive. Earth will give you a helping hand to get the revolution started. Lots of new taxes, pointless regulations and red tape, restrictions, on travel, manufacture and movements of goods…”
“Nothing new there then,” muttered Esperanza.
“Yes, well, of course it will all be ‘temporary measures’ in aid of the emergency situation. We’ll give you plenty of material to work with.”
“Even for the side that wins, humanity is going to find it tough,” said Aldea. “Ironic that just when we’ve learned to live without oppressing most of the world’s population a bunch of monsters with advanced technology and the ethics of an Egyptian pharaoh turn up and drag us right back to where we started. How can they still be so morally bankrupt?”
The President thought it time to move on.
“We’ve got some plans I’d like to share with you on how the situation might be managed.” He indicated to the ensign assigned to assist the meeting. The way he surreptitiously watched her as she handed out a secure data pad to each of the governors would have earned him a fifteen-minute harangue and a night sleeping on the sofa had his wife been there to see it. Contrary to what you might expect, the sight made him feel sick to the pit of his stomach. This was why he hated what he had to do. The ensign was young, intelligent, dedicated, talented, hardworking, enthusiastic and, let’s face it, smoking hot. In all probability within two years, possibly less, she would be dead, together with thousands like her. And their deaths would be as a direct result of his decisions. It was such a waste of the best of humanity. In all probability he would be dead too, and although he didn’t relish the prospect, at least he had lived his life, he’d been far luckier than he’d deserved and it wasn’t as though humanity would not be able to carry on without him. He just hoped that when people did start to die, he’d be responsible for saving more than he killed.
Once he’d given his fellow governors a chance to work out how to operate their pads (the helpful ensign had to show Alpha where the ‘ON’ button was), he pulled himself together and focused on the job in hand.
“Our treatment by either of our new ‘allies’ is indeed likely to be harsh, whether we are fighting as humanity united or as two divided camps. We do have some ideas on how we might overcome these problems.”
“Which is?” The President felt that Aldea at least was starting to warm to his plan.
“Prove to these aliens that we have something to offer them. Show them that humanity is so resourceful, innovative and dedicated to their cause that we’re more useful to them alive than we are dead. We’ll adopt Mondarev’s Plan B.”
“The what now?” asked Alpha.
The President sighed. Why were these colonials so woefully ignorant of the Classics?
“Mondarev’s Plan B. Be helpful. Be patient. Be there. We may not have the hardware or the technical know-how, but we have plenty of expertise in combat. Hand to hand fighting isn’t much different if you’re armed with a stone axe or a plasma javelin, and God knows, humanity has more than enough experience of that. And we’re innovative and adaptable. The Orgus tell us that although the Loroi and the Umiak are technologically superior, they’ve advanced much slower than us. We can provide the innovation and insight to develop their technology far faster than the enemy, give them the edge they need, if they are willing to share of course.”
Aldea gave a cynical smile. She could tell where this was going.
“So, we learn all their secrets. Bring ourselves up to their level. You think that will work?”
“As I see it, it’s the only chance we’ve got. Who knows? If we can raise ourselves to their level, one day we may be able to declare our independence for real.”
Aldea frowned. “It occurs to me that when humanity is free again, we will be remembered as the people who took humanity into slavery. The ones who collaborated with the enemy. We’ll all be damned.”
Esperanza gave a humourless laugh. “Like the philosopher said, it’s a small enough price to pay for immortality.”
“If humanity remembers me as the greatest traitor who ever lived,” said the President, “then at least there will be humanity, and I am fine with that.”
“You’ve given us a lot to think about,” said Esperanza. “We’ll have to discuss this at home before we decide.”
“Don’t take too long. We’ve probably got a year. Maybe two.”
“Question is, which side should the colonies pick?” asked Alpha.
Aldea shrugged.
“How can we decide? Both sides are barbarians.”
“How about this?” Esperanza fished in her pocket and brought out a small silver metal disk about 3 cm in diameter and held it out for the others to see. The profile of some long-dead king was embossed on one side, an archaic heraldic device on the other.
“This is called a half-crown. It’s an old family heirloom. My father brought it with him from Earth as a memento of home when he came out here. People used them as bargaining tokens, before proper ecash was invented. They also used them for decision making. What do you say?”
She flicked the coin into the air…
“Heads we take the Loroi, tails we take the Umiak…”
Re: [Fanfiction] Independence
Nice.
Split Humanity, so that a small part might survive.
basically denying the other half to live at all, or become slaves of those who appear in Human territories first.
I wonder if the alien races will even accept that Humans exist as factions, and would not automagically stand together int he face of external threats.
Split Humanity, so that a small part might survive.
basically denying the other half to live at all, or become slaves of those who appear in Human territories first.
I wonder if the alien races will even accept that Humans exist as factions, and would not automagically stand together int he face of external threats.
-
Sturzkampf
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:32 pm
- Location: Detached, in Albia's Service
- Contact:
Re: [Fanfiction] Independence
I'm not convinced it would work, but it seems as likely a strategy for humanity to survive as an other, and hopefully it's five minutes diversion during lockdown. Alliance with a weaker tribe to give you a toe-hold in enemy territory and allies against the stronger tribes you want to conquer goes back at least as far as Julius Caesar. I've always thought that if aliens wanted to invade earth, they shouldn't make the traditional direct assault on Washington, but secretly ally with a poor third-world country, preferably one with a suitably authoritarian regime and a chip on its shoulder, and build a power base from there, increasing the technology, wealth and power of the country in small steps, while building up your army ready for the full-scale assault, to be led by your human cannon fodder allies, naturally.
Re: [Fanfiction] Independence
If you want Earth to be in a usable scale, yes, that's the way to go.
But someone having the technology to bridge the voiding gulf between stars will very likely have technology to destroy the habitability of Earth from a distance Human weapons can only reach with decades preparation.
Even if the just drop some stones with extremely high velocity on Earth while they decelerate....
Or aim the braking plume of high power engines directly on Earth should eliminate our satellite-based communications.
They will most likely use Earth as a replenishing station to refill their ressources before they move off again towards the next target. And therefore won't care about collateral damages when strip-mining Earth for anything they want.
Exception: they are refugees and wish to build a new home here and need our cooperation for that.
But that means we need to know their true reason they fled.
Did they flee from an interstellar war?
Or did they cause a Gaian collapse on their own planet?
But someone having the technology to bridge the voiding gulf between stars will very likely have technology to destroy the habitability of Earth from a distance Human weapons can only reach with decades preparation.
Even if the just drop some stones with extremely high velocity on Earth while they decelerate....
Or aim the braking plume of high power engines directly on Earth should eliminate our satellite-based communications.
They will most likely use Earth as a replenishing station to refill their ressources before they move off again towards the next target. And therefore won't care about collateral damages when strip-mining Earth for anything they want.
Exception: they are refugees and wish to build a new home here and need our cooperation for that.
But that means we need to know their true reason they fled.
Did they flee from an interstellar war?
Or did they cause a Gaian collapse on their own planet?
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Sturzkampf
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Re: [Fanfiction] Independence
In all the best alien invasion movies, the aliens always turn up in a huge fleet of flying saucers able to cross interstellar space with ease. But what if interstellar travel was at the limit of their technology, and they have few very expensive ships that find it difficult to make the crossing? In that case, establish a base with a friendly tribe, where you can slowly build up your forces and also assess the threat from the more powerful nations, using your new allies as proxies to gradually increase their influence? And what if you've seen how these intelligent apes run things and realise that they are really not fit to be in charge of a tea trolley, let alone an entire planet. Clearly it is time to take charge for their own good. In the end force will be necessary to take control, but you want to do it with as little loss of life and damage to infrastructure possible. After all, you're here to guide them along the path to civilisation and enlightenment.
Not the case for the Loroi or the Umiak of course.
Not the case for the Loroi or the Umiak of course.
Re: [Fanfiction] Independence
IF they come out of altruistic motives, the costs to their economy will be small, thus the ships doing the travel will be more than capable of doing so.
IF they come out of need for a new place to live, yes, they need a foothold, then playing the factions of Humanity against each other will be part of the game.
IF they come because it's their life-style to fly across the stars, they will use our planet to restock their supplies, and won't care much about our infrastructure. They'll be parasites that will enslave us and stay as long is necessary to strip mine all they need. Keeping our infrastructure intact will be beneficial to them, but not a requirement. The costs of running the fleet will be lower anyway while in orbit, especially since they will grab what they need.
IF they come out of need for a new place to live, yes, they need a foothold, then playing the factions of Humanity against each other will be part of the game.
IF they come because it's their life-style to fly across the stars, they will use our planet to restock their supplies, and won't care much about our infrastructure. They'll be parasites that will enslave us and stay as long is necessary to strip mine all they need. Keeping our infrastructure intact will be beneficial to them, but not a requirement. The costs of running the fleet will be lower anyway while in orbit, especially since they will grab what they need.