LIGHTNOVELONLINE Nova Wars - Chapter 53
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
So, now you're all caught up.
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TERRASOL
So, while I was gone everything went to hell.
Great.
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Well, it's good to have you back too.
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TERRASOL
Sorry, that came out accusatory.
No, we came out ready to fight a war that has been over for forty-thousand years, against a species that has been a staunch ally since before the war that took us out even ended.
Our territory has largely been absorbed by other star nations to the point where our borders are less than six hours via upper hyperspace bands from TerraSol.
On the warfare front we have:
The Mar-gite are back.
You have some psychos hellsparking suns to create a big fence.
You have someone smashing the Ornislap Empire into the dirt.
The Mar-gite apparently brought friends.
Then, on the domestic front, you have:
Technological stagnation. BAD stagnation.
Low popuations
War weariness already
Nihilism
Lack of basic nutriforges and creation engines
Lack of starships
Lack of advanced resources like warsteel
Struggling economies
Bickering between Confederacy member states
On the near border, you have:
The three newcomers fighting each other and trying to drag everyone else into it.
The Gray Ships were routed for the first time in history and you don't know why.
New races that are isolationist
I'd say that you've got some serious problems.
And they're about to get worse.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Oh, joy!
Let's hear it!
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TERRASOL
There's tens, hundreds of billions of Terrans just waiting to... well... respawn for lack of a better word.
We spent the time in The Bag, all fifty years, crash programming war fighting technology.
Your little 'artificial singularity shadow" as a C+ Cannon counter?
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RIGEL
What about it?
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TERRASOL
We figured out how to use that shadow as a targeting solution in less than 4 hours.
It's worse than useless. It actually makes it easier to blow a ship clean out of space.
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RIGEL
There's the TerraSol we all know and love.
"Nice [Object], be a shame if something happened to it."
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TERRASOL
Well, um, this is awkward, by the way.
For everyone but especially for me.
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
What?
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LANAKTALLAN FREE HERD
Why does there appear to be a sudden chill in the air?
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
I'm suddenly nervous.
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TERRASOL
So, the SUDS, right?
You've heard of it, right?
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ALKTAK SOARING WORLDS
Isn't that how you come back from the dead?
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TERRASOL
One way, yeah.
So, you know, we made constant upgrades to it.
A LOT of upgrades, before it was taken offline by the Mantid attack on Earth.
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TUKNA'RN DOCTRINE SPACE
Yes.
We never figured out how you did it.
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TERRASOL
There might have been a teensy weensy little part of the system you weren't aware of.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
We'd heard that there were Treana'ad in there from the Glassing when the records from the War in Heaven were unsealed.
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TERRASOL
Oh, that's nothing.
Um, here, one of you give me the Confederate Citizen System Identification Number for someone who died in an accident in the last 72 hours.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
OK.
Here.
Why?
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TERRASOL
Don't panic.
CHANSERV> TERRASOL+1
NICKSERV> TERRASOL+1 RENAMED TO TELKAN-SUPRISE
OK. Go ahead. You can talk.
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TELKAN-SURPRISE
Wow. This is kind of neat.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Nartu'uvil.
Traumatic Cessation Recovery helped me process and accept that I got killed when someone threw a weight off the top of a skyraker and I happened to be walking down on the street.
I feel pretty good.
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TERRASOL
Ready, sweetie?
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TELKAN-SURPRISE
Ready!
Nice to meet you all!
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CHANSERV> TELKAN_SURPRISE HAS LEFT THE CHAT
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TERRASOL
Check her CCSIN.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
WHAT?
HOW?
SHE'S SITTING IN THE HOSPITAL CLONING WAITING ROOM!
HOW?
SHE WAS DEAD!
THIS IS THE REALLY REAL WORLD! THERE'S NO COMING BACK!
HOW?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
...
There is a Treana'ad Worker who was killed in an industrial accident 5.4 hours ago.
Sitting outside the hospital.
Smoking a cigarette.
Waiting for a cab.
HOW?
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TERRASOL
They solved the problems.
There's some that are insurmountable.
Mainly, the amount of respawns.
Mantid is the lowest with only 1-3, depending on the person.
Lanaktallan are the highest, second only to Terrans, with 5-7 depending on the person.
After each death it takes more and more traumatic cessation counseling to return someone to life.
But, they do get to continue in the Afterlife System even if they can't be respawned.
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RIGEL
And ducks?
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TERRASOL
Rigellian females run at about 3-5 respawns.
Ducks sit at 3 to six.
They also require less counseling and assistance.
But, they largely prefer... well... heaven.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Won't this be a disaster for population metrics?
We're talking people never die.
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TERRASOL
No, they die.
Old age, accident, violence, natural disasters.
They can just respawn now.
We did it.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Why do I feel like on of the Old Gods just came down and said "Hey, we're rewriting the rules. Hang tight!"
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
How long?
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TERRASOL
For the older members?
Well, turned out we solved most of it before the Glassing.
For you newer people?
We solved it while we were in The Bag.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Even us?
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TERRASOL
Yeah.
Even you.
All of you.
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LANKY LANKY YOUR NAME IS FRANKY
Can you opt out?
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
There's that chat name again.
Did anyone catch the name-change?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Don't change the subject.
Can you? Can you opt out?
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TERRASOL
Of course.
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HAMAROOSAN PINCHING FESTIVAL
Do we have to get that SUDS device implanted on our neck?
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TERRASOL
Uh, this is kind of embarassing.
You know the standard Confederate Citizen Datalink?
That pretty much everyone uses.
The one we designed before The Glassing?
The one you haven't really improved on?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
What about it?
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TERRASOL
That's actually what does the SUDS recording.
The brainstem/spine implant is military only. At least, that's how it was originally designed. It's designed to provide uploads during high threat and it can also do a hot upload in less than eight nanoseconds if it detects sudden brain death.
But it's the datalink that does the work.
And the system is turned back on.
Well, it's always been receiving.
There's a LOT of people who went into the SUDS, were given the option to respawn in Afterlife and took it.
They lived their entire lives in Afterlife, then, upon their death, were processed and went into the other Afterlife.
Those, according to the system, aren't allowed to respawn here.
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TUKNA'RN DOCTRINE SPACE
Where, exactly, are they respawning?
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TERRASOL
Afterlife.
I said that.
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TUKNA'RN DOCTRINE SPACE
Yet, you said after they live their lives in Afterlife, they are then moved to Afterlife.
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TERRASOL
Sorry, translator error.
They live in Narkara, the land of the living.
After they die, they are transferred to Krelganta, the land of the spirits.
Once you're in Krelganta, you usually don't come back.
Unless there's something major that goes down.
Like the Detainee pulling you out.
Of course, with the exception of humans, for the most part there is a hardcoded limit on the amount of time that can go by before you can no longer return to, well, the mortal world.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
How long?
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TERRASOL
Standard is less than a decade. Unless you didn't get uploaded until a few centuries after your death due to hardware interrupts.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
So...
Was Vuxten and Brentili'ik real people?
Are they in there?
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TERRASOL
They were real.
They're in here.
And no, the Afterlife system won't release them.
They lived their lives. Full lives.
Afterlife won't release them.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
But they could help us!
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TERRASOL
Help yourself.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
You don't remember, Telkan, but TerraSol isn't going to hand you a magic wand to fix everything or do it for you.
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TERRASOL
Something that has no cost has no value.
Both of them did their parts.
I'm not going to pull them from their Afterlife, separate them in a way you cannot understand, to return them to the mortal world so they can solve problems that mortals should be solving for themselves.
Do it yourself.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Why do you get to make that decision?
Shouldn't it be Telkans?
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HAMAROOSAN PINCHING FESTIVAL
It should be our right to decide who we want to bring back.
As a people.
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TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
Shouldn't we be the ones to decide?
They are our people.
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TERRASOL
They died. After long lives. Tens of thousands of years have gone by here.
It's not your choice.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
What gives you the right to be the one who decides for all of us?
It should be our right.
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TUKNA'RN DOCTRINE SPACE
We will need to ponder this.
The idea of returning the dead to life is a profound one.
We must deliberate with our people until we understand it.
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LANAKTALLAN FREE THOUGHT RANGE
I believe there are rules that we do not understand.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
We could really use the people, if nothing else.
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TERRASOL
To do what?
Throw them in the grinder?
Take them from the Afterlife, basically KILL THEM in the Afterlife, and give them back so you can throw them into the meat grinder?
No.
They have the right of consent.
Informed consent.
And there are rules.
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HAMAROOSAN PINCHING FESTIVAL
Who decided these rules for our people?
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
What gives you the right to make a unilateral decision about our people?
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TERRASOL
What gives me the right?
What gives me the RIGHT?
It's a responsibility! I'm safeguarding trillions, tens of trillions of immortal souls! They are MY responsibilty! Their health, their safety, their lives in the Afterlife, their eternal existence that you can barely imagine!
What gives me the right?
I'll tell you what gives me the fucking right.
Come and take them.
Fortress Sol awaits you.
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
If you doubted that it was TerraSol, what just happened should put those doubts to rest.
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RIGEL
Well, that was exciting.
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ALKTAK SOARING WORLDS
They can't be serious.
Do they really think we'd try to force them through force of arms?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Huh. I'm blocked.
All my PMs are getting is: "YOU ARE BLOCKED FROM CONTACTING THIS USER. PLEASE ENGAGE IN DIRECT LEVEL ZERO DIPLOMATIC PROTOCOLS TO CONTACT THIS USER IN REALSPACE."
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
I'm getting the same thing.
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LANAKTALLAN GALLOPING FIELD OF FREE THOUGHT
Same here.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Wait, they just blocked us?
They can do that?
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
You realize that all of this, us, is running on Terran tech, right?
They made this system.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Surely we moved past what they made.
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HAT WEARING AUNTIE
We don't even know HOW they did it. We don't even know HOW this thing works.
Great, we're going to have to dispatch a diplomatic team to Terra now.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
I don't know why they're being so belligerent.
They know they're only a single stellar system, right?
We're the Confederacy.
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LANAKTALLAN FREE HERD
Ask us how that 'single stellar system' worked out for us.
I get it, you've been feeling muscular since the Mar-gite Resurgence.
But, trust me on this, that isn't just any system.
That's Fortress Sol.
If we couldn't take it, you couldn't get near it.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
We should still get some say.
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GENERATING SECURE CHAT ROOM
HAT JOINED THE CHAT
RIGEL JOINED THE CHAT
TREA JOINED THE CHAT
FRANKY JOINED THE CHAT
SAURIAN HAS JOINED THE CHAT
HAT
Well, that doesn't bode well.
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TREA
You think?
The kids just pissed of TerraSol more than I've ever seen them.
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RIGEL
That isn't Terran Descent Humanity.
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FRANKY
What was it? An inflitrator? An enemy? Wait, was it a Mar-gite?
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TREA
We wish.
No, it's worse.
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SAURIAN
That was definitely Earthlings.
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TREA
Well, the good thing is, they aren't recalling their military forces deployed against the Mar-gite.
The Dead Gods know we need them.
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HAT
They've spent 50 years full of rage and anger.
Then they saw what we let happen to the Confederacy.
To its people.
They're mad.
Real mad.
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RIGEL
They have reason to be.
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FRANKY
For us longer lived or older races, 40K years is nothing.
We still have our records of them in Warm Direct Access Storage.
For the rest, the Terrans are a myth that entropy and age have nibbled away the information about them.
For us older races, it's the Terrans clawing their way out of the grave with a cutting bar between their teeth.
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HAT
We'll send diplomats.
See if we can fix this.
See why they got so angry.
I have a feeling there's more going on than we know.
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well
how interesting
what do you think
i think it was a good thing
they want light and a fire to warm them
but they asked the crazy person with a flame thrower to keep them warm
then got mad when they were told no
i guess we will see
by the way
i see you