(Helps to actually POST the comment written on Friday.)
So, yeah, "Could Kill" (whose name, of course, was explained here in a way that allays my previously noted worries about same) has become "Could Get Their Ass Kicked."
I'd spent some time speculating how the fight would play out. Energy weapons designed for vacuum would refract underwater. Railguns designed for vacuum would basically be firing into a steel plate and would detonate in the gauss accelerator. Plasma would destabilize immediately. This leaves self propelled munitions (like missiles). Yeah, for a game mission I ran earlier this year I had to deal with this situation (I ran numbers on the density of water on an Earth Gravity planet at a kilometer down, and "steel plate" is an understatement...). I figured Probably Better would have mined the area and either collapse the ice ceiling on Could Kill, or trigger an undersea volcano and catch Could Kill in the eruption. Detaching parts of themselves as attack drones wasn't on my bingo card.
Probably Better is nasty.
Now, the drones still running around in Could Kill - tasked to destroy them, or leave them semi functional? If semi functional, does Probably Better intend on trying to win Could Kill over, or just gut them for parts and processors?
Again, Probably Better is nasty. So I'd think the latter.
"Network" implies constant communication, but prior chapters imply burst messages at infrequent intervals more than continuous chat with light speed delays... All of which is begging the question if other megaships will figure out if something is wrong when Could Kill's telemetry feed runs out, if Could Kill misses a "check in," or something else...
If nothing else we'll hope Just Enough picks up on whatever clues Could Kill snuck into the "chess move" package. For narrative purposes we'll have to assume Probably Better didn't block that transmission, or pick up on the hidden message so Just Enough gains an edge.
Although there is always a small chance the author reads this comment, goes, "hmmmmm" and makes a narrative changing note. It's happened before - see the chapters on Sally's life and asking actual physicists about the magic system.
The other aspect that likely played into the fight, but which wasn't explicitly acknowledged, is that the virus is likely to have had some lasting negative effects. Especially to Probably Better, who took the brunt of it.
While Could Kill had their arse handed to them here, don't forget they did launch a ton of projectile missiles at Probably Better. They never got to assess the damage caused, but we can hope that it might give Just Enough an edge.
Perhaps I'll write a sequel one day as Could Kill's disabled body drifts into a new solar system and triggers some other events...
Wasn't considering after effects of PB's brush with the virus.
While Could Kill did fire everything they could, for the reasons listed in the prior post it's a reasonable assumption anything like an energy or ballistic weapon missed or was blunted enough to be ineffective, which leaves missiles. Now, for the same reasons given PB defense options would be limited, so perhaps some of those got in.
But ANOTHER thing which could give Just Enough (or other megaship) an edge is PB's detaching parts of itself as drones.
Narrative has established a megaship can download avatars into robot bodies with zero (or negligible) impact on core functions - because that's a software download into a body prepared with its own processors. PB didn't do that. They tasked parts of their core mothership with attack drone functions. These drones need some sort of processing core to carry out instructions, and, unless PB has a chip factory built-in and a supply of raw materials for construction, PB must have cannibalised parts of its own central core for the drones. Probably not much (drones don't need much computer power to run a tasked burrow-and-smash, certainly not compared to running a full sentient personalty), but maybe a measurable fraction of a percentage point of total capability. Just enough for a nanosecond delay here and there. Just enough for Just Enough to find an advantage.
It's likely megaships DO have chip factories as part of the their self repair functions. I assume quantum AIs have multiple, modular processors as a single CPU complex is a massive point of failure, whereas individual modules can be repaired, replaced and upgraded. So the question there is if PB had enough materials. Whatever materials PB had may have been used for repairs after purging the virus. Enceladus was very probably low on whatever PB would have needed, or at least largely inaccessable? I'm still assuming some sort of metallic, silicon, or crystalline based materials are needed.
Boy, something which takes seconds to think through takes forever to type. Heh.
Nice post! Also, I love Arrow! It was my favorite and best superhero show before Invincible released.
(Helps to actually POST the comment written on Friday.)
So, yeah, "Could Kill" (whose name, of course, was explained here in a way that allays my previously noted worries about same) has become "Could Get Their Ass Kicked."
I'd spent some time speculating how the fight would play out. Energy weapons designed for vacuum would refract underwater. Railguns designed for vacuum would basically be firing into a steel plate and would detonate in the gauss accelerator. Plasma would destabilize immediately. This leaves self propelled munitions (like missiles). Yeah, for a game mission I ran earlier this year I had to deal with this situation (I ran numbers on the density of water on an Earth Gravity planet at a kilometer down, and "steel plate" is an understatement...). I figured Probably Better would have mined the area and either collapse the ice ceiling on Could Kill, or trigger an undersea volcano and catch Could Kill in the eruption. Detaching parts of themselves as attack drones wasn't on my bingo card.
Probably Better is nasty.
Now, the drones still running around in Could Kill - tasked to destroy them, or leave them semi functional? If semi functional, does Probably Better intend on trying to win Could Kill over, or just gut them for parts and processors?
Again, Probably Better is nasty. So I'd think the latter.
"Network" implies constant communication, but prior chapters imply burst messages at infrequent intervals more than continuous chat with light speed delays... All of which is begging the question if other megaships will figure out if something is wrong when Could Kill's telemetry feed runs out, if Could Kill misses a "check in," or something else...
If nothing else we'll hope Just Enough picks up on whatever clues Could Kill snuck into the "chess move" package. For narrative purposes we'll have to assume Probably Better didn't block that transmission, or pick up on the hidden message so Just Enough gains an edge.
Although there is always a small chance the author reads this comment, goes, "hmmmmm" and makes a narrative changing note. It's happened before - see the chapters on Sally's life and asking actual physicists about the magic system.
The other aspect that likely played into the fight, but which wasn't explicitly acknowledged, is that the virus is likely to have had some lasting negative effects. Especially to Probably Better, who took the brunt of it.
While Could Kill had their arse handed to them here, don't forget they did launch a ton of projectile missiles at Probably Better. They never got to assess the damage caused, but we can hope that it might give Just Enough an edge.
Perhaps I'll write a sequel one day as Could Kill's disabled body drifts into a new solar system and triggers some other events...
Wasn't considering after effects of PB's brush with the virus.
While Could Kill did fire everything they could, for the reasons listed in the prior post it's a reasonable assumption anything like an energy or ballistic weapon missed or was blunted enough to be ineffective, which leaves missiles. Now, for the same reasons given PB defense options would be limited, so perhaps some of those got in.
But ANOTHER thing which could give Just Enough (or other megaship) an edge is PB's detaching parts of itself as drones.
Narrative has established a megaship can download avatars into robot bodies with zero (or negligible) impact on core functions - because that's a software download into a body prepared with its own processors. PB didn't do that. They tasked parts of their core mothership with attack drone functions. These drones need some sort of processing core to carry out instructions, and, unless PB has a chip factory built-in and a supply of raw materials for construction, PB must have cannibalised parts of its own central core for the drones. Probably not much (drones don't need much computer power to run a tasked burrow-and-smash, certainly not compared to running a full sentient personalty), but maybe a measurable fraction of a percentage point of total capability. Just enough for a nanosecond delay here and there. Just enough for Just Enough to find an advantage.
It's likely megaships DO have chip factories as part of the their self repair functions. I assume quantum AIs have multiple, modular processors as a single CPU complex is a massive point of failure, whereas individual modules can be repaired, replaced and upgraded. So the question there is if PB had enough materials. Whatever materials PB had may have been used for repairs after purging the virus. Enceladus was very probably low on whatever PB would have needed, or at least largely inaccessable? I'm still assuming some sort of metallic, silicon, or crystalline based materials are needed.
Boy, something which takes seconds to think through takes forever to type. Heh.
Very exciting piece to the puzzle!
Thanks, Mimi! Things are getting pretty serious. :)