Chapter 019: Playing your role

The Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy is a major moderate faction composed of surviving democracies. Its members are typically socially conservative (but not reactionary) and economically liberal (but not progressive), as the more radical democracies typically decided to join either the reactionary Res Publica Christiana or the progressive Equality Front.

The APD sees itself as a proud successor of its identically named ancestor. The first APD was established by the Homeworld democracies (which survived the Days of Fire) in the late 21st Century. It’s also rather common for the modern APD to look even further in search of its roots, including pre-Days of Fire NATO, WW2’s Allies and even WW1’s Entente in its list of spiritual ancestors.

While the APD members see themselves as paragons of virtues and defenders of freedom in a rotten Galaxy, the situation is a bit more complicated. It’s a part of the anti-slavery 19th November Treaty, that also offers a very high standard of life and equality in front of the law. However, the APD countries are also beset by all typical problems of democracies, including the growing influence of NGOs, delayed responses to a crisis, decision making often based on public popularity rather than the end result, and politics changing with every election.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 2, page 127.

***

“You know, I actually didn’t see this coming.” Captain Keller admitted. “That’s going to be the first time in… a while.” Commander Drathari sighed in the background. For some reason the Captain was still out of his normal state of mind, though the effect was either lessening or he got better at acting.

In front of them, the bridge’s main screen displayed the Senla system. It was an unremarkable backwater. The lack of any Garden World was one thing. But here, none of the planets possessed any sort of interesting traits. No alien ruins, no notable natural resources. Merely balls of dirt surrounding a red dwarf. No gas giants, no notable asteroid belts. The few asteroids here and there were all floating alone, making any large-scale mining operation a pointless waste of time.

The system was a part of the Tavian Republic. However, the Republic’s control over the system was limited to placing a small logistic station in the orbit of the third planet and occasionally sending in a destroyer or light cruiser to check if the station was still there. The only real importance of the Senla system was that it was on the outer border of the explored and integrated part of the subsector, meaning that once the Republic grew stronger it could be used as a basis for further expansion.

Of course, things were a bit different right now. Although the station was still there, it wasn’t on its own anymore.

“Summary: One battlecruiser. One heavy cruiser. Two light cruisers. Four destroyers.” Innocent observed. “All ships but the battlecruiser remain unidentified. However, since the battlecruiser has been identified as a Seekers’ Neil deGrasse Tyson-class, I’m willing to risk a bet that the Seekers of Truth recently created a new set of designs. So recently that their new battlecruisers and above are still in construction.”

“That’s the Seekers for you.” The Captain commented, massaging his temples. “Their penchant for plastering names of ancient singularitarians over absolutely everything never changes. Just as their habit of ignoring the fact that ninety nine percent of people they immortalize this way would have preferred to have nothing to do with such a bunch of cartoon techno-villains. Though, what worries me more is that they consider this operation important enough to send their brand new ships here. En masse.” His gaze moved towards the fifth planet on the screen. “Seriously en masse.”

“Summary: One fast battleship. Four battlecruisers, six heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, twelve destroyers.” Innocent listed the second Seekers battlegroup in the system. “Plus three armed transport vessels, and four troop transports. A mix of old and new classes, though the battlecruisers and the fast battleship are uniformly from known Seekers classes. Judging from the size of these troop transports, at least four divisions with heavy equipment. If the standard Seekers’ troop composition didn’t change, this means at least sixty thousand Endless and four hundred Perfects. Plus lots of combat vehicles.”

“It keeps getting better and better.” The Captain shook his head. “That’s the largest scale Seekers’ operation I ever heard of. It’s rare for them to send a battlecruiser anywhere, much less five of them together with a capital ship. When will they notice us?”

“Answer: The group with one battlecruiser in five hours. The other one in five hours and forty-five minutes.” Thankfully, the fourth planet was currently on the opposite end of the system. This offered Captain Keller’s fleet some tactical options. Though, as Commander Drathari concluded, there was only one sane option left.

Quick retreat back to Texia and praying that they won’t follow us. We can’t survive against such firepower.

“Innocent, can you create a believable fake image and voice of Rear Admiral Hao?” The Captain surprised her by not issuing a retreat order immediately.

“Answer: Yes, however there is less than a four percent chance that it will fool them.” Innocent replied. “Seekers are professionals. They probably gave him a list of words he is expected to use in communication to prove it’s truly him. Plus several more words which usage is tantamount to ‘I was taken prisoner’ message. Since neither them nor Hao were stupid enough to write them down, we’re in the dark here.” The tactical officer turned his head towards the captain. “Worried Question: What are you planning?”

“I’m considering using it as a trap.” The captain explained. Commander Drathari tensed. “In short, we pretend that Hao won. They figure out what we’re plotting and order us to join forces with the smaller fleet, as the bigger one would scare us off. Then we take advantage of their belief that they fooled us to casually close the distance between us and them. Then we murder the Seekers’ fleet near the logistic station and make a run towards the opposite edge of the system. At the very least, we need to figure out what their plan is before fleeing the subsector to call for reinforcements.”

“Murder their fleet?” Commander Drathari finally spoke. “And how do you plan to do that?”

“I was always a fan of Admiral Dunecki’s tactics.” The captain responded. “Feint Number Six, and then a Rocket Hammer to knock the battlecruiser out before we get murdered by its artillery. Sounds like a good idea, right?”

“It might work.” Lena evaluated the plan. “Though this depends entirely on how late the enemy figures out the feint. If too late, we’re going to make it. If too early… that battlecruiser will wipe us out. Their technology far exceeds ours.”

She had to agree that Keller’s plan played nicely along the only actual weakness of a battlecruiser.

Battlecruisers were technically the heaviest subclass of cruisers. Much heavier than heavy cruisers. However, they were built to serve as a fusion between a cruiser and a capital ship. This meant that at least some of their armaments were capital ship-grade. Despite that, they were still much smaller than the smallest of the actual capital ships. This meant that they had to cut corners to make everything fit.

Battlecruisers were fast, their punches were deadly… but their armor was pretty similar in thickness to the Echo’s. If only pulling a Rocket Hammer against an enemy whose technology was better wasn’t such a gamble, I’d be all for it.

“Certainly.” Captain Keller nodded. “However, we have four days to prepare. And, if I ask nicely, I’m certain that Innocent will be kind enough to partially negate the technological difference. Ready to tinker with things no man has tinkered with before?”

“Answer: I’m getting paid for overtime, right?”

***

The battle was decided the second Kivanna succeeded in casting the Aquire Undead spell. One of the three bone knights surrounding the necromancer changed sides, freeing Rukh from the need to tank in the middle of their first line.

With the necromancer drawn into a melee with Rukh and the converted bone knight, he was forced to flee. While two swordsmen were running after him, continuously trying to stab him and not giving him enough time to call more minions. Needless to say it didn't take long.

Unfortunately, Rukh decided to show his understanding of roleplay once again. Which happened soon after the last of the non-converted bone knights fell.

“You pitiful fools are fortunate I haven’t grown too tired of your presence, or else you’d have ended up as that necromancer’s next raw materials.” Rukh raised his sword above towards the ceiling. “I only suffer your presence because I’ve yet to meet anyone even close to my equal. With hope, that day will finally come. Though I doubt I will still be in your company when it happens.”

“All right, I’m done.” Christopher said, sheathing his sword. His voice was still trembling a bit. His fight with a bone knight was best summed up as ‘getting repeatedly slammed yet holding his ground’. “Exercise in democracy. Who wants to ban Rukh from roleplaying, raise your hands.” All members of the Recovery Team Eight other than Rukh raised their hands. “This rule comes into effect… immediately.”

“But… but…” Rukh broke as a result.

“Rukh, I get that you are using roleplaying as a way to interact with the world, but have some mercy on us!” Christopher decided to deal the coup de grace. “There’s so much cheese in your texts, France is about to accuse us of stealing their national heritage!” He sounds like an average Virtual according to Tendrik. Which says more about Virtuals than about him.

“Grrr.” Rukh responded with a growl. But in the end, he conceded defeat. “All right.”

“Wait a second.” Tendrik broke the ensuing silence. “Did Rukh actually LISTEN to Christopher or am I hallucinating due to some ‘insanity’ debuff?” A second later, Tiriel hit him with her Restore Mind spell. Judging from the reaction speed, she was already planning to cast it on someone. Perhaps on herself. “Rukh, can you repeat what you just said?”

Once he received the response in the form of yet another growl, Tendrik made his final reply. “Nice. Now the second part of your answer, please.”

“I was there when it happened.” Tiriel said, interrupting Tendrik. Her voice and gesticulations made her sound like some RPG tavern patron who was narrating an important piece of lore to the protagonist. “I was there when Rukh issued a challenge to Christopher. A challenge most dire, dangerous and difficult. Christopher fought Rukh to a standstill, this tie becoming a source of newfound respect in the wolfman’s heart…”

She is an actress now? Cook, paramedic, enviro section worker, soldier, part time psychologist, Longest War champion, noblewoman… full of talents, that one. If she was even a bit of a dick about it instead of being an ever-helpful benevolent fairy, she would border on being a real life Mary Sue. Whoever was responsible for an attempt to recreate tolkienian elves in the real world deserves a medal. And a solid dropkick to the stomach.

“No way. Christopher actually managed to score a hit on Rukh in CQC training?!” Ryan decided to say possibly the most hurtful thing possible. At least to Christopher.

“Yeah, right. Keep dreaming.” The fact that those were Tiriel’s words proved there were things more hurtful than Ryan’s words. “They tied in the cooking contest over Lieutenant Nowak’s handmade cookies. Christopher ate three, though he spit some bits of the first one. Rukh ate three, but made a gross miscalculation and tried to eat the fourth one. Which ended with a dash towards the toilets.” Several of the onlookers started laughing. Including, to Christopher’s honest surprise, Kivanna. Though her laughter was the least loud of them all.

“Tirieeel! How could you tell them all that!” Tiriel’s laughter was borderline malevolent. It’s more Galadriel than Arwen right now. Especially as she always seemed to look a bit galadrielish. “Those who haven’t eaten Lieutenant Nowak’s bitter cookies have no right to criticize me!l”

“You still haven’t told us anything about that mysterious meeting of yours.” Tiriel continued after Christopher finished his little outburst. He responded with a sigh. Internally, as she would probably identify an outward sigh as a sign of weakness. “You know, the one that led to our painful downfall and full party wipe in the Clockwork Halls. Consider this a small payback for your lack of honesty.”

“Yeah, I concur.” Ryan seemed to join the pack of hounds closing in on Christopher’s throat. “Tell us the truth!” Judging from everyone’s attention shifting to the petty officer, Ryan and Tiriel weren’t alone in it.

“That’s not about honesty. It’s about curiosity. And I’m not going to say whom it kills because I do not want to accidentally insult someone who is with us.” Christopher warned, palms in the air. Please, leave the subject. Please.

“Ten confeds he scurried away to write awkward love poems to my mother.” Nekia’s whisper was anything but silent. The resulting chuckles and giggles weren’t silent either.

“Yeah, though I can’t find a good rhyme to ‘torn artery’.” Christopher shrugged with a crooked smile. His attempt to turn everything into a joke worked… but it wasn’t enough to have them drop the subject. “Okay, let it be your way. Lieutenant Commander Innocent wanted to meet me.”

Technically he DID allow me to tell them the truth. Though he insisted on me not doing that unless they wanted to know. How the hell can the Guild keep anything secret when this ship’s one-man counterintelligence service is this LOUSY with security?!

“Father Innocent wanted to meet you?” Tiriel echoed skeptically. Her way of referring to Innocent by his priestly title was almost spooky. Christopher didn’t like being reminded that this crazy alien robot was also a priest. It pushed his willing suspension of disbelief about the weird future he lived in out of the proverbial window.

“Yeah. About my powers.” Christopher nodded, and paused for effect. Now, time for the Big Bang. “You know, he actually flat out told me that he actually is THAT Innocent. The Longest War one.”

What he did was the closest real life equivalent of announcing in Gotham that Bruce Wayne was actually Batman. With the twist that the people who listened to him actually took him seriously, though not unquestioningly.

“What? No no no no. No way.” Tendrik shook his head and hands violently. He spent a lot of time with Innocent on the bridge, and showed the most resistance to the idea. “He’s a berserk, machines can’t be sorcerers.” Tiriel and Nekia nodded in approval.

“Yeah, I thought so too.” Christopher agreed. “Then he levitated me with telekinesis while conjuring a fireball with pyrokinesis and reading my emotions with meta-empathy. This, together with Innocent stating flatly that he is actually a Divine-class sorcerer, has made quite an impact.” How can he be genuinely ok with me telling that to people? “He told me to relay a message to you: you are not allowed to speak of this with anyone, aside from the members of this team.”

For some reason, Innocent was certain that merely telling them is enough to make the secret not spread. I HIGHLY doubt it. Though he also told me what I should do to understand why he is so calm about it. I wasn’t sure how to approach that, though.

I’m going to do that only when I have an occasion. Then again, casually asking Chief Sistonen for a talk face-to-face isn’t easy!

“Wait… what?” Tiriel’s eyebrows jumped halfway up her forehead. For the first time in his life, Christopher saw Tiriel dumbstruck by something. It was an interesting thing to see. It took her quite a while to organize her thoughts enough for even such a basic answer.

“He is a Divine-class sorcerer.” Christopher repeated his statement. “And, actually, he is fairly content in the fact that nobody even considers the option he might be THAT Innocent because of being a berserk. Don’t ask me how he got his powers though.”

“Okaaay, I guess.” Tendrik hesitantly agreed, though he still winced at the thought. “Innocent is crazy enough that this sounds actually believable. Despite being completely crazy.” His words summarized the majority of things that Christopher thus far has learned about people aboard the Echo.

“That’s super cool!” Nekia shouted, eyes wide in enthusiasm. “You think he will tell us details if we ask him?”

“I think he’d rather silence you as to not have his secrets exposed.” Rukh pointed out, glaring Nekia down. He was socially awkward, but not stupid. “I don’t like knowing his true identity, in fact.”

Of course, he didn’t know Innocent. Christopher had only known the robot-priest for a very short while, but it was enough to persuade him that Innocent wasn’t a maniac. A bloodthirsty and potentially merciless religious fundamentalist, certainly. But if he didn’t want the secret to get out, he wouldn’t tell who he was to Christopher to begin with. And if he had to (to teach him about the powers) but still considered silencing him an option, he wouldn’t let him spread the knowledge to other people. To minimize the number of deaths.

“Ok, so… who’s ‘That Innocent’ you’re all talking about?” Ryan asked suddenly, catching all other members of the team off-guard. An orchestra of laughs erupted, save for Ryan and Rukh.

“I’ll tell you details later, it’s a long story.” Tiriel, still bent from laughter, managed to control herself. “For now, let’s just say that he is someone famous. Still, it feels… almost unbelievable.” She stated the obvious. “Why did he want to meet you?”

She is really curious about it, isn’t she? Though I’d probably react the same way if one of my friends was invited to a secret meeting by someone who claims to be a Superman and had a set of supernatural powers to back this claim up.

“Because, apparently, I’m developing into a Divine.” Christopher surprised his team members once again. “And he wants to teach me how to use my power in a way that doesn’t force him to tear me apart limb by limb in order to stop me from developing a god complex and becoming some sort of a demented sorcerous god-emperor.”

“That’s…” Tiriel shook her head, recovering from the shock. “Why didn’t you tell us about it earlier?”

“And what was I supposed to say?” Christopher shot back. He continued mockingly:. “‘Hey, I’m actually a rare type of sorcerer which officially doesn’t even exist, and the Echo’s tactical officer is actually a myth slash superhero’?” He shook his head, sighing. “Besides, he told me to not tell you the truth unless you actually ask for it. If I did against his wishes, Innocent would simply read it from my emotions during our next meeting. Making him into my enemy is the last thing I want.”

Tiriel didn’t look like she was fully persuaded by his explanation. In fact, she was glaring suspiciously at Christopher. For a second or two he was considering whether she was waiting for him to suddenly say he was joking. Then he came to the belief she actually was suspecting some foul play involved. Wrongfully.

It’s almost refreshing to see her wrong about something. Christopher smiled a bit.

“Uhm, can we change the subject?” Nekia interrupted them. “I think we all need some time to process what we heard. We slew Ankhar the Black, so we cleared the dungeon, right?”

Tendrik responded with a laugh. “Oh you poor, little, mistaken catgirl.” Tendrik, to Christopher’s surprise, must have installed some sort of acting skills program into his implants, as his over exaggerated theatrical moves were actually cohesive and fitting. “We are currently in the Dark Halls. Lieutenant Commander Innocent’s magnum opus of a dungeon. We slew merely the first out of seventy-seven mandatory bosses, without counting two hundred fifty-seven optional ones. All of them with detailed backstories and their own quests. To date, the most successful speedrun took more than three hundred hours of gameplay. However, Commander Drathari and her party only took the mandatory bosses, Ankhar the Black is merely the first one out of them.”

I would have said that people in the future need a hobby… if not for the fact that it supposedly IS Innocent’s hobby. So instead I’ll say that he has too much free time.

“Okay, I think it’s time to call it a day.” Christopher decided. “Unless… how far to the next boss?”

“Hmmm…” Tendrik made some mental calculations. “At least one and a half hours? We’ll need to do a lot of exploring and at least two minor sidequests before we manage to finish the next floor. We could try to find an optional side-boss on this floor of the dungeon, but Rotspin is supposedly a massive pain to deal with.”

“Yeah, then let’s get back to the quest giver, collect the reward for slaying the Ankhar, and leave the game.” Christopher suggested.

“Do we have to?” Tendrik complained. Though, with his face looking serious, Christopher instantly knew it wasn't because he was really interested in playing the game. “I mean, with only a few hours left until the battle, I don’t want to think about it.” The often recurring awkward silence was a sure sign of a stressful situation aboard the Echo. It was doubly serious, as everyone knew immediately the cyborg wasn’t referring to their several days-long back-breaking work of transporting mysterious packages from Hercules to Echo.

Christopher winced. He had to step on a landmine, didn’t he?

“Cowards, all of you.” Rukh decided that stepping on a landmine wasn’t enough and started throwing dynamite.

“We should ask the Captain to load Rukh into one of the ship’s MAWs and launch him at the enemy fleet.” Ryan refused to leave the attack unanswered. Before Rukh could retort with something hyper aggressive, Tiriel managed to sneak in her opinion.

“Unfortunately, the Founding Charter of the Confederation of Mankind explicitly forbids usage of cognitohazards as weapons.” Tiriel decided to be brutal. “And combat deployment of something inducing madness and anger in other people with its audio output fulfills the definition of such a war crime.”

Holy shit, people are using COGNITOHAZARDS as a weapon in the future? Someone has to call the SCP Foundation now, there are things out there which can cause madness or alter one’s behaviour merely by being perceived!

Christopher suddenly realized that the Hyperspace he recently swam through was essentially a massive cognitohazard which Mankind was using as its basic means of interstellar travel. It was almost shameful he hadn’t noticed it earlier.

Rukh lunged towards Ryan and Tiriel, but Christopher jumped between them. To his surprise, he was joined a second later by Nekia.

“All right, stand down. All of you.” Christopher commanded emphatically Try to be impartial, Chris. You can do it. Even if leading people seems to be slowly chipping away your sanity. “People react differently to combat, please don’t escalate cultural differences into unneeded arguments. Or at least don’t get physical about them.” He added while glaring Rukh down.

To his surprise, Rukh did stand down. Christopher decided to not try to push the wolfman’s unexpected compliance with his orders any further. Rather than trying to correct the trainee’s behaviour while he was obviously angry, he decided to change the subject.

“So… do we leave the Gates of Infinity?” Christopher shrugged. Just make a decision, people. I do not want to stay here any longer. It’s getting increasingly awkward, and Rukh is still volatile.

The answer he got back was lots of stares. Soon they subsided and were replaced by nods and ‘yes’, though they lacked enthusiasm to back it up.

It was at this moment when Christopher noticed that Kivanna tried to say something. She resigned quickly, though according to the look on her face not because she decided against speaking. Her problems seemed to resurface again.

I hope I don’t mess this up. Here goes nothing.

“Kivanna, do you want to say something?” It startled her. Some of the other team members looking at her startled her more. But with Christopher's reassuring smile (and nothing but curiosity on the other faces) she fought through.

“Y-yes.” She took a deeper breath and steadied herself. “I thought that since this was the first boss we managed to slay, we should celebrate it. Make a joint photo to remember the moment, maybe?”

“That’s actually a great idea!” Christopher replied with a smile on his face. “We’ll wait a few months, then look at the pictures and make fun of what noobs we were.” Christopher could see Rukh moving towards the exit. The wolfman’s moves were sneaky, but not sneaky enough. ”Grab him before he escapes!”

***

Waiting for the battle to start was shockingly boring. In Hyperspace, enemies could emerge suddenly and surprisingly, as the eldritch nature of the dimension rendered visual and electromagnetic sensors useless. EM sensors were blinded by the high background temperature of the Hyperspace, and visual sensors caused cascade errors in programs used to analyze the sensor feed. Using humans or AIs instead was an even worse idea.

Both of those sensors excelled in Realspace. No matter how well insulated, ships were still much warmer than the background. And once you knew someone’s general direction, using the visual sensor (a glorified telescope) let you learn details. Unless someone was using particle shields. Or advanced optical camouflage.

In the end, you could see all enemy ships for days before engagement. In fact, if the enemy wanted to, avoiding engagements was easy. This changed space battles into glorified dance duels, with a chance to devolve into years-long stalemates with the weaker side evading the enemy forces yet keeping them occupied almost indefinitely.

Unless you had a plan to outthink your opponent. But that could easily become a double-edged sword.

The clock counting down to the moment when Echo and its fleet would enter missile range went past the 30 minutes. Captain sighed.

I’d be completely calm now if not for that goddamn ship. Why now? After so many years. I know I should be happy about it, but… there are so many things to do.

“Statement: I think you need to talk with someone.” Innocent appeared out of nowhere, abandoning the tactical officer’s seat. “Reasoning: To kill time before the battle.”

Great.