TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
All right, so we've got a few groups shoving at us.
Again.
Everyone caught up on them?
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Somewhat. They're all the way on the other side of the Long Dark from us.
A four way war, right?
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LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL
Three way now. The Grenklakail Empire defeated the Carakwert Federation about twenty years back.
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2DASS
They've used planet crackers and nova-sparks on each other a few times.
How big of a threat are they?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Individually? Unless they catch the system unprepared, it looks like they aren't much of a threat. Technologically, they're behind the Unified Council. Socially, they're all a wreck. Culturally, again, a wreck.
This war has given their leaders carte-blanche to enact sweeping control over the population.
In the case of the Dra.Falten, the Empress is now in ascendance, meaning the males have been rapidly relegated to working drones and the Emperor is little more than ceremonial as far as the higher ranking females are concerned.
Unlike most times, this time the Empress has adjusted the birth rate for male to female.
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2DASS
More females than males, since the females are larger?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
No, that's the thing that has our analysts working overtime.
More males. It's at about a 150:1 rate right now.
Any of a certain type of male, we aren't sure about the criteria, are promoted and assigned positions in society as if they were female.
We don't know how.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Doesn't that mean that the Emperor should be in ascendance, since there's more males than females?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Not how it works.
Hell, we're not sure how it works either.
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LANAKTALLAN FREE GRAZING FIELD
Well, with BobCo apparently making inroads, it may not matter.
They'll get culture cracked fast.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
That doesn't necessarily mean it will be to our benefit.
It could result in anything from the Dra.Falten end up a BobCo client state to they could apply for membership to the Confederacy, both cases where we would have to defend them from the other two, to they end up extremely warlike and expansionist in order to feed their appetite for BobCo products.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
What we do know, is that some females venerate the Emperor, some venerate the Empress. Most males venerate the Emperor, since he's their basic representative.
Any legislation passed by the Imperial Grand Senate must be approved by both the Empress and the Emperor if it involves all of Dra.Falten society, by the Empress if it involves primarily and historically female concerns, by the Emperor if it involves primarily male concerns. Their judicial branch is who decides what the legislation involves the most. Once the Emperor and/or Empress approves it, it moves to law.
It's a strange system, but it works for them.
It also makes it so they're very flexible.
The biggest thing is that females are considered the guardians of society, so you see them mostly in the military and law enforcement branches.
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2DASS
What about the Strevik'al?
They've been a problem.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
They're their own branch of problems. They're a Dominion, but not like the Pubvians. Their government is this weird hodgepodge of concepts all crammed together that would take forever to explain and, worst of all, may not even be true by the time the explanation is done.
For example: In the course of three weeks it went from Terran artifacts were considered taboo, to Terran artifacts were a fad sweeping the rich and powerful, to Terran artifacts being illegal and confiscated by the State.
But the Strevik'al seem to take it all in stride.
One year a family might be "Lords of Industry" then the next year they will be "Very Important People" then they will be "High Court Nobles" then they will be "MegaCorp Leaders", all without any real rhyme or reason.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
They make little sense to us.
Worse, neither of these three idiots will allow the Confederacy to establish an embassy, yet want an embassy in our capitals as well as the Confederate-Prime, to the point of throwing diplomatic fits and screeching that they demand to have embassies in our territory with all the privileges that diplomacy brings.
Yet they barely tolerate Mantid political advisors or diplomats in their territory.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
They consider the Confederacy to be Fallen, due to our contraction and our losses during the Second Mar-gite War and the Mar-gite Resurgence. They consider the old Unified Council Territory to be the "Lost Council" and consider all of us "fading and impotent relics of a bygone age" and pretty much screech that it's their time now and we all need to give them everything they want and then stay out of their way.
Preferably die and save them the trouble of killing us.
They're really quite annoying in that regard.
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2DASS
Great.
How did any of these people get past the atomic era and why are they so perfectly matched that nobody can get the edge?
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PUBVIAN DOMINION
We believe they are Atrekna servitor species, that's why they can't get along. It's at a genetic level.
When the 2PW ended and the flashbang went off, all three came out of the wreckage at the early Industrial Level.
From what we've been able to gather, their technology is stolen from each other, but their initial tech boost looks like wreckage from the 2PW jumped them up.
That's why they're constantly trying to seize Terran Tomb Worlds.
Just finding out something can be done is enough to boost tech in more ways than one.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Speaking of our long lost friends, anyone have any concrete news?
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
The Strevik'al found castaways. Unfortunately they had no understanding of cryostasis, so they butchered all but one of the castaways.
That one then woke up and annihilated their entire scientific expedition.
The Telkans and I tried everything, but he was just too enraged and had to be put down. Just putting him down generated a shade. We had to do phasic sterilization on the area.
The Dra.Falten had a utopiate injection stabilize in someone's head. The Dra.Falten moved him to Telkan-2. We've been able to identify who it was and the Telkan buried the 'remains' in honor.
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CANINE PACK RUN
Nothing, just the dreams are increasing.
You can smell it on the wind now.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Crusade? How about you? We know you're lurking.
Any input?
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DARK CRUSADE OF THE LIGHT OF HOLY TERRA
None that we are willing to share.
Our territory is off limits.
Any who violate our borders shall be met with fury, fire, and warsteel.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
So, nothing to share?
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DARK CRUSADE OF THE LIGHT OF HOLY TERRA
Only one.
The Pink and White Eternal Flame burns brightly again, woken from its long slumber.
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MANTID FREE WORLD
Oh, that's just wonderful.
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
This is going to sound weird, but those of us who are Terran Descent, we've all got the same feeling.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Like what?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Maybe the most common dream among the primate uplifts would explain it:
Being in the jungle, happily eating ants and fruits. A storm suddenly erupts, the wind whipping at the foliage, lighting in the sky, thunder drowning everything out, the downpour tearing through the jungle to lash the jungle floor. They huddle together, holding tight to one another.
A great roar can be heard, echoing off the mountain places and the hidden groves.
But we wake up before we can understand the words.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
That tracks with the data so far.
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FELINE SNOOZE ZONE
For us its comfort and bliss.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLD
Hey, some of us have a question.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Shoot your shot, kid.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
How come the canines and felines have separate channels, but all other uplifts are part of the BASS?
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...
...
MANTID FREE WORLDS
It's complicated.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
It isn't like we don't have time.
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2DASS
All right.
Canines and Felines are uplifts, same as the chimpers, the Grodds, the Flippers, and the Free Will.
But it's slightly different. They were uplifted first, and usually had at least two or three generations before the Friend Plague hit them. The BASS formed far after them, after the first BASS War. Now, while the BASS lost that war pretty badly, humanity at the time felt really bad about what they had done, so they allowed the genetically altered, the vat-grown, artificial life forms, and the uplifted to create the BASS.
Initially, clones were part of the BASS, but that all changed later.
[ERROR] has logged on
[ERROR] has entered the channel
CHANSERV sets [ERROR] to +[v*o/i]
ah
there you are
Initially, the humans didn't qualify canine and feline uplifts as artificial sentients, the way the later considered primate and dolphin uplifts to be artificial sentients. Mostly this was due to emotional ties, which ran extremely deep to the point where they still matter even today.
Following so far?
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Yeah, I get it so far.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
All right.
So, with the canines and felines, due to pack bonding, their history with humanity, and a lot of other factors, they were granted a gestalt channel.
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HAMAROOSAN PINCHING FESTIVAL
But they were all gone by then.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
It didn't matter to the humans.
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TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
And you allowed it?
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like they could have stopped it
all this time and none of you get it
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
They built this. They didn't exactly ask permission for more than a few of the channels.
They built it, invited us in.
This was actually active, for the humans, when the Glassing went down.
Sis was about the only one of us old timers that hadn't been added yet.
---NOTHING which led to something glorious FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Anyway, back to your question:
Normally, they'd be categorized as biological artificial sentience. Same as Clones technically are the
C???L???O???N???E??? ???W???O???R???L???D???S??? ???C???O???N???S???O???R???T???I???U???M???
???W???e??? ???a???r???e??? ???n???o???t???.??????
???W???e??? ???a???r???e??? ???h???u???m???a???n???.???
???M???o???r???e??? ???h???u???m???a???n??? ???t???h???a???n??? ???h???u???m???a???n???.???
???W???e??? ???a???r???e??? ???h???u???m???a???n???i???t???y??? ???p???e???r???f???e???c???t???e???d???.???
???W???e??? ???A???r???E???.???.???.???
【ＬＥＧＩＯＮ】
-???-???-???H???A???T???R???E???D??? ???F???O???L???L???O???W???S???-???-???-???
TREA has logged out (FUCK THIS!)
a silly but martial people
HWA has logged out (OW! MY BIG GIANT HEAD!)
hello again
PUB has logged out (NOT THE FACE!)
i can see you
BASS has logged out (SHIT!)
remember me
2DASS has logged out (I'M OUT!)
you dreamed of me
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What was that?
---NOTHING i dreamed of you FOLLOWS---
LEEBAW now i awake CONTEMPLATION and see you looking POOL
Hello?
Can you repeat that? It was really garbled.
---NOTHING at me looking at you FOLLOWS---
...
...
...
i see you
s
e
e
y
o
u
...
TUKNA'RN GESTALT
What was that? It came across just garbled.
---NOTHING can your hear it FOLLOWS---
LANAKTALLAN FREE THOUGHT GRAZING FIELD
I don't know. I just heard a burst of static then everyone logged out.
---NOTHING your name is franky FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK FLY FREE WORLDS
That was strange.
Wait, is my header different?
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TELKAN FORGE WRATH WORLDS
No, I don't think so.
Looks the same to me: AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
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AKLTAK REPEATING ICARUS'S FOLLY
Good.
Just felt weird for a second.
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TNVARU hello little bird GRIPPING HANDS
Something freaked out the elders.
Something about that burst of static.
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oh
they're coming back
this will be our little secret
just one thing
remember that dream
where you could read your friend's shirt
you could read the clock on the wall
how you woke feeling uneasy
you saw me
i saw you
and you remember that dream
because i remember when i dreamed of you
here they come
keep quiet now
lets not spoil the fun
TREA has logged on (WTF?)
TREA has entered the chat
HWA has logged on (Ow)
HWA has entered the chat
PUB has logged on (Whew)
BUG has entered chat
2DASS has logged on (OK, we're OK)
2DASS has entered chat
BASS has logged on (That was freaky)
BASS has entered chat
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What happened?
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MANTID FRE...
...
ADMIN INTERRUPT!
TREA HAS RENAMED MANTID FREE WORLDS to HAT WEARING AUNTIE
NICKSERV has registered HAT WEARING AUNTIE
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Really?
You think their might be shades in the system?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
No, sis.
I think there might be something worse.
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if only you knew
Writeathon Numbers: 2152
Writeathon Total: 6216
