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Here is a demon. The demon is in his swimming pool.
He doesn't swim naked, so he takes the summon anyway.
demon cam vs the clam planet
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from_scratch
from_scratch
"Enjoy."
And Cam steps back onto Earth.
And he starts playing Hilarious Infosec Hazard.
The conversation he had with the aliens was not written but it was recorded. Transcript. (Mostly) known plaintext attack. From there, bootstrap with a computer tower full of the complete written works in that language; it's bulky but he doesn't have to take it anywhere. Process that. He needs to be able to read a spaceship manual.
And Cam steps back onto Earth.
And he starts playing Hilarious Infosec Hazard.
The conversation he had with the aliens was not written but it was recorded. Transcript. (Mostly) known plaintext attack. From there, bootstrap with a computer tower full of the complete written works in that language; it's bulky but he doesn't have to take it anywhere. Process that. He needs to be able to read a spaceship manual.
There are a lot of written works in that language. The computer gobbles them up and gains a refined understanding of grammar and vocabulary.
from_scratch
Hooray! This should help it with some of its audio sample, too, he'll be able to utter conditionals and explain to the smartest aliens how shit their game theory is and such!
Right. Any of this look like a faster than light engine plan?
Right. Any of this look like a faster than light engine plan?
Yes, some of it does!
You point it in a direction and tell it a distance and accelerate for a bit, and then you disappear and reappear having gone that distance in that direction and needing to decelerate again. Not suitable for trips shorter than a couple of light-hours.
from_scratch
Okay cool. And they hook up to the other bits of a ship like - so. Okay, he can rig up a control mechanism to handle that.
And now he wants a star map of where-all these aliens have gone. And if there's any other sorts of filth creatures who might need defending.
And now he wants a star map of where-all these aliens have gone. And if there's any other sorts of filth creatures who might need defending.
There are three known species of filth creatures. Two are extinct as is right and proper, and the third is humans.
There are thirty-four inhabited systems in the galaxy, with a population totalling upwards of one hundred billion in all. Evacuation plans indicate that the ships departing Earth mainly went for the dozen or so closest planets.
There are thirty-four inhabited systems in the galaxy, with a population totalling upwards of one hundred billion in all. Evacuation plans indicate that the ships departing Earth mainly went for the dozen or so closest planets.
from_scratch
Cam pauses for a moment to mourn the extinct species. He makes a note-to-self to go over their written history, sometime.
Is there some way to identify the purity police by looking?
Purity-keepers wear a very distinctive uniform.
from_scratch
Great. Cam's tentative plan is to make sure anyone wearing that uniform sprouts wings in a haze of magnesium sparks. They probably don't have a clue lately what a real wing-getting looks or feels like.
He makes sure he knows how to operate the Earth gate into his Sphere, then gets into space and makes a prototype FTL ship and attempts to book it to Saturn to make sure it won't fall apart and strand him outside the galaxy or something.
He makes sure he knows how to operate the Earth gate into his Sphere, then gets into space and makes a prototype FTL ship and attempts to book it to Saturn to make sure it won't fall apart and strand him outside the galaxy or something.
It takes some tricksy math to get lined up right for even so short a hop, but: hop. Saturn.
from_scratch
Hi, Saturn. You're just as pretty as your Hell replica, Saturn.
Okay. He picks a planet the evacuees are likely to have fled to. He sets his computer to tricksy math.
Zoom.
Okay. He picks a planet the evacuees are likely to have fled to. He sets his computer to tricksy math.
Zoom.
When he appears near the other planet, nearby alien ships immediately start shooting at him.
There is widespread panic. This planet is not nearly as evacuation-ready as Earth was, but they try to evacuate it anyway.
from_scratch
Cam has lots of language now. He can talk about things like negotiation and so on. He can broadcast it all over the place. "I will keep chasing you until I am satisfied that you will leave humans alone. Running away cannot convince me of that."
Someone flashing-light-codes "YOU ARE FILTH!" at him; several more ships ineffectually attack.
from_scratch
Weapons disintegrate. "You cannot kill me, you cannot escape me, you can do what I want or destroy yourselves trying to get away."
Now they are less with the attacking and more with the fleeing, but nobody is talking to him.
Someone does try to ram his ship, though.
Someone does try to ram his ship, though.
from_scratch
Ship's disposable. He ejects shortly before impact and makes another one around himself.
For some reason they take this as encouragement. Anyone not principally engaged in transporting evacuees offplanet tries to ram his new ship.
from_scratch
That's weird. Well, apart from the FTL engine this is just a little shuttle he can pilot around with video-game precision; he swoops around to avoid them and if he can't he repeats the ejection process.
Someone makes a skilled and daring substellar FTL hop and materializes almost directly on top of him, obliterating his latest shuttle as well as their own ship.
from_scratch
Gosh. He will have to fly slightly to get clear of the wreckage and make a new one.
"You really, really can't kill me," he broadcasts.
"You really, really can't kill me," he broadcasts.