Original Fiction Tintagel
- Thread starter bintananth
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bintananth
behind a desk
No.
It's going to be vignettes of Terrans being dumb until they figure out they picked a fight they can't win. The Llyrian attitude about what they got dragged into could be summed up with "sigh, not this shit again".
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Part 16: Observations
bintananth
behind a desk
A/N: Ambassador Tamara is from an as-yet-to-be-named neutral society
Ambassador Tamara watched the news of the Earth-Shalmaneseer war with interest.
The Terrans were reporting great victories and no setbacks. The Shalmaneseer were also reporting victories and weren't announcing defeats.
He knew someone was lying.
The star systems the battles took place in were all in Shalmaneseer space and, as time went on, getting ever closer to the Shalmaneseer homeworld.
One report caught his attention. Or rather it was an off-hand mention of a captured Terran warship which caught his attention.
His brother had been on a freighter in SM-18 the day before the ship was captured. When he called and pressed his brother for information he was told that the convoy included six odd-looking alien ships, five of which peeled away from the convoy a day before the jump to SM-18 and rejoined the convoy the day after it jumped out of SM-18. The sixth refuelled the ship he was on.
Tamara had figured out, through a combination of unofficial off-the-record back-channels and the battle locations in the censored official news broadcasts that the Shalmaneseer were losing, badly.
Neutral shipping through Shalmaneseer space was also getting attacked by the Terrans. This was irritating practically every other society in the Galaxy.
He knew that several socities were considering a declaration of war on Earth. Several others were considering declaring war on one more societies who do declare war on Earth as a way to settle old unresolved grudges.
The last time tensions were this high practically every spacefaring race got dragged into a devastating Galaxy-wide war which resulted in the extinction of dozens of them. All over something so stupid no one remembers what started it.
This time the fight started because a human mining company set up shop in a Shalmaneseer star system without permission, tried to claim it for Earth, and called on the Terran military to protect them when the Shalmaneseer objected to this.
As far as Tamara could guess at least one neutral society had gotten involved and was clandestinely helping the Shalmaneseer. This struck him as odd because the Shalmaneseer, in his experience, were very xenophobic and merely tolerate aliens passing through their space.
Ambassador Tamara watched the news of the Earth-Shalmaneseer war with interest.
The Terrans were reporting great victories and no setbacks. The Shalmaneseer were also reporting victories and weren't announcing defeats.
He knew someone was lying.
The star systems the battles took place in were all in Shalmaneseer space and, as time went on, getting ever closer to the Shalmaneseer homeworld.
One report caught his attention. Or rather it was an off-hand mention of a captured Terran warship which caught his attention.
His brother had been on a freighter in SM-18 the day before the ship was captured. When he called and pressed his brother for information he was told that the convoy included six odd-looking alien ships, five of which peeled away from the convoy a day before the jump to SM-18 and rejoined the convoy the day after it jumped out of SM-18. The sixth refuelled the ship he was on.
Tamara had figured out, through a combination of unofficial off-the-record back-channels and the battle locations in the censored official news broadcasts that the Shalmaneseer were losing, badly.
Neutral shipping through Shalmaneseer space was also getting attacked by the Terrans. This was irritating practically every other society in the Galaxy.
He knew that several socities were considering a declaration of war on Earth. Several others were considering declaring war on one more societies who do declare war on Earth as a way to settle old unresolved grudges.
The last time tensions were this high practically every spacefaring race got dragged into a devastating Galaxy-wide war which resulted in the extinction of dozens of them. All over something so stupid no one remembers what started it.
This time the fight started because a human mining company set up shop in a Shalmaneseer star system without permission, tried to claim it for Earth, and called on the Terran military to protect them when the Shalmaneseer objected to this.
As far as Tamara could guess at least one neutral society had gotten involved and was clandestinely helping the Shalmaneseer. This struck him as odd because the Shalmaneseer, in his experience, were very xenophobic and merely tolerate aliens passing through their space.
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Part 17: Target Practice
bintananth
behind a desk
Sol System, near the Jupiter-Sun L5 Lagrange point:
Rear Admiral Wilcox hadn't been in space for years - short trips to and from the Moon excepted - but this was important. A top secret weapons test of something faster-than-light with enough range to hit a Llyrian starship at the low end of the ranges they used.
The upper end? He didn't even want to guess what that might be.
Preliminary tests had already been done and the FTL launcher works with a solid slug of osmium. It was now time to test the shells.
Wilcox knew the accuracy would be atrocious because human sensors were only light speed, as were practically everyone else's. His intelligence sources, untrustworthy on the best of days and flat out wrong most of the time, told him that even the Llyrians don't have reliable FTL sensors.
He'd read the after-action reports and knew that was bullshit. Some of them indicated the Llyrians were capable of blinding a skittish fly from the opposite side of a star using just a thrown grain of sand while leaving everything but the fly's optic nerves uninjured before the fly even knew it was in danger.
"Admiral, targets are selected, sensors are in place, and the weapon is green."
"Proceed."
"Aye sir, proceeding."
"And Lieutenant, you have the deck."
"Aye sir. I have the deck."
Wilcox thought to himself, "I hope this works."
Rear Admiral Wilcox hadn't been in space for years - short trips to and from the Moon excepted - but this was important. A top secret weapons test of something faster-than-light with enough range to hit a Llyrian starship at the low end of the ranges they used.
The upper end? He didn't even want to guess what that might be.
Preliminary tests had already been done and the FTL launcher works with a solid slug of osmium. It was now time to test the shells.
Wilcox knew the accuracy would be atrocious because human sensors were only light speed, as were practically everyone else's. His intelligence sources, untrustworthy on the best of days and flat out wrong most of the time, told him that even the Llyrians don't have reliable FTL sensors.
He'd read the after-action reports and knew that was bullshit. Some of them indicated the Llyrians were capable of blinding a skittish fly from the opposite side of a star using just a thrown grain of sand while leaving everything but the fly's optic nerves uninjured before the fly even knew it was in danger.
"Admiral, targets are selected, sensors are in place, and the weapon is green."
"Proceed."
"Aye sir, proceeding."
"And Lieutenant, you have the deck."
"Aye sir. I have the deck."
Wilcox thought to himself, "I hope this works."
And after next lost battle/with zero Llyrians loses,as always/ they would politely ask humans :
could you bring another of yours big secret weapons ? we have a lot of old missiles ,and it would be cheaper for us to use them on you then decomissioned it .
bintananth
behind a desk
Naw.
Once this is operational humanity will have a weapons system the Llyrians will actually have to respect. Not because it's good, but because human ships and warheads are so large that even one hit from this is something they can't just shrug off and ignore.
Remember: Llyrian warships are tiny.
Indeed.But still loss of one would hurt Llyrians less then humans theirs.Unless Llyrians are weak in numbers.How many of them is compare to humans?
P.S are Llyrian&others alien species,or all people in space are variants of homo sapiens,like in ST ?
bintananth
behind a desk
Replacing a ship would be easy. The Llyrians have entire fleets mothballed, some of which they've forgotten about. Getting a crew together is harder because they're really spread out.
Spacefaring alien species are generally obligate bipedal tetrapod vertebrates with very dextrous hands (like us) because it's a very good body plan for using complex or delicate tools, but it's not universal and that's where the similarities end.
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So,no hot space alien babes for our brave soldiers.Snif,snif.
Jokes aside - when Llyrans undarstandt that they could lost in long turn,what they would do ? surrender,or use some bioweapons on humans ? i remember some old sci fi story when aliens made humans able to have children only one year in 20 year period.
bintananth
behind a desk
If the Llyrians really wanted to they could exterminate humanity without inflicting any collateral damage. They're that powerful.
They're also lazy and prefer to be left alone.
Humanity made the mistake of waking them up from a figurative mid-afternoon nap and they're, shall we say, a bit grumpy at the moment.
Part 18: Warning
bintananth
behind a desk
Earth, Brussels, Belgium
Ambasador Caytaya had arranged for another very secret meeting with General Volske at the behest of his government.
He was to introduce the human to a Llyrian. When he was told he'd need to do that his bowels emptied themselves because, as far as he knew, a Llyrian had never openly contacted his civilization before.
He was not looking forward to this because he had no clue how a Llyrian could be in Humanity's capital without being detected and would greet him along the way because he had no idea what one would look like.
While walking towards the meeting place along the park path he was told to use he was stopped by a seemingly average looking human who introduced herself as Junior Captain Lindiwe.
She explained her appearance as nothing but make-up and sensor tricks to disguse her ears and bodily functions.
Ambassador Caytaya had no reason to dispute her since she was exactly where he was told she'd be.
When the two reached the bench General Volske was sitting on the introductions were far more pleasant than could be expected from two people on opposite sides of a war who weren't there to negociate a truce.
They spoke of things like family, friends, home, and hearth for about an hour before Lindiwe got down to business.
"We are aware of your recent FTL weapons tests."
She handed General Volske ... something. Before he could respond she continued with, "Your weapon can hit and damage our ships, so we must respect it. The chances of you doing so, however, are vanishingly miniscule. Here's our analysis and I would suggest your species discontinue the particular line of FTL weapons you have prototypes for."
As Lindiwe got up to leave she turned to General Volske and said "Every known species, but one, to go down the path you're on blew up their home star and went extinct shortly after. One of the shockwaves created the nebula your home star system was born in long before the star I call home started shining."
What Lindiwe did not say was that the Llyrians are the only known exception to extinction.
Ambasador Caytaya had arranged for another very secret meeting with General Volske at the behest of his government.
He was to introduce the human to a Llyrian. When he was told he'd need to do that his bowels emptied themselves because, as far as he knew, a Llyrian had never openly contacted his civilization before.
He was not looking forward to this because he had no clue how a Llyrian could be in Humanity's capital without being detected and would greet him along the way because he had no idea what one would look like.
While walking towards the meeting place along the park path he was told to use he was stopped by a seemingly average looking human who introduced herself as Junior Captain Lindiwe.
She explained her appearance as nothing but make-up and sensor tricks to disguse her ears and bodily functions.
Ambassador Caytaya had no reason to dispute her since she was exactly where he was told she'd be.
When the two reached the bench General Volske was sitting on the introductions were far more pleasant than could be expected from two people on opposite sides of a war who weren't there to negociate a truce.
They spoke of things like family, friends, home, and hearth for about an hour before Lindiwe got down to business.
"We are aware of your recent FTL weapons tests."
She handed General Volske ... something. Before he could respond she continued with, "Your weapon can hit and damage our ships, so we must respect it. The chances of you doing so, however, are vanishingly miniscule. Here's our analysis and I would suggest your species discontinue the particular line of FTL weapons you have prototypes for."
As Lindiwe got up to leave she turned to General Volske and said "Every known species, but one, to go down the path you're on blew up their home star and went extinct shortly after. One of the shockwaves created the nebula your home star system was born in long before the star I call home started shining."
What Lindiwe did not say was that the Llyrians are the only known exception to extinction.
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bintananth
behind a desk
Part 19: Below Decks
bintananth
behind a desk
"What do you think?" asked Crewman Sarah.
"About what?" was the grumpy reply from the bunk just below his.
"The Llyrians and what the've done to our ships. The rumours can't possibly be true. Can they?"
"They're probably lies." came the reply from Crewman Jones.
"What makes you think so?"
"They wouldn't tell us such outrageous things if they weren't lies."
"But ..." Sarah trailed off for a moment before continuing. "Their ships are smaller than our shuttles and we've never fired on one."
"That's a lie."
"No, it's not. I work in stores. When the Calypso went into spacedock for repairs all of her ammunition was either unloaded by the dockworkers or fired before she got hit."
"Just a fluke." said Jones as he rolled over in his bunk.
"Then what about the others? Not a single one fired a shell or missile after it took damage from one of those mystery ships."
"Go back to sleep. You're imagining things." said Jones.
"No, I'm not!" Sarah huffed as he turned in his bunk.
"About what?" was the grumpy reply from the bunk just below his.
"The Llyrians and what the've done to our ships. The rumours can't possibly be true. Can they?"
"They're probably lies." came the reply from Crewman Jones.
"What makes you think so?"
"They wouldn't tell us such outrageous things if they weren't lies."
"But ..." Sarah trailed off for a moment before continuing. "Their ships are smaller than our shuttles and we've never fired on one."
"That's a lie."
"No, it's not. I work in stores. When the Calypso went into spacedock for repairs all of her ammunition was either unloaded by the dockworkers or fired before she got hit."
"Just a fluke." said Jones as he rolled over in his bunk.
"Then what about the others? Not a single one fired a shell or missile after it took damage from one of those mystery ships."
"Go back to sleep. You're imagining things." said Jones.
"No, I'm not!" Sarah huffed as he turned in his bunk.
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Ship Information
bintananth
behind a desk
Ship sizes and capabilites:
TSS Calypso: about the same size as a B5 Earth Alliance Omega-class Destroyer or Mimbari Sharlin-class Warcruiser (44,000,000tons)
Shalmaneseer Corvette: About the same size as a B5 Whitestar (85,000tons)
Space Shuttle Orbiter: (78tons, dry)
The largest Llyrian Battleships are about 3/4 the size of a Whitestar. Most are 1/2 to 1/4. Llyrian frigates, fully fueled, are about 10-12 times as massive as the Space Shuttle.
The Shalmaneseer or Terrans could go toe-to-toe with the Shadows or Vorlons (but not both at the same time) and expect to win due to the vastly longer effective weapons ranges this setting has (theirs is about 8-10 light-seconds, max).
A Llyrian frigate could disable a Shadow or Vorlon planet killer threatening Earth with one FTL missile "right in the down under" while about 1/3 of the way to Venus when the two planets are at closest approach. A Llyrian battleship could destroy one while more than half of the way there and about a minute later someone on Earth would notice that the sky got slightly brighter for a few seconds due to reactor waste heat catching up with the resonance cannons.
Ranges are measured in light-seconds for a reason and the Moon is only 1.28 light-seconds away.
The obsolete FTL surface-to-space missile which merely disabled the TSS Calypso was fired from further away than the Earth is from the Sun.
TSS Calypso: about the same size as a B5 Earth Alliance Omega-class Destroyer or Mimbari Sharlin-class Warcruiser (44,000,000tons)
Shalmaneseer Corvette: About the same size as a B5 Whitestar (85,000tons)
Space Shuttle Orbiter: (78tons, dry)
The largest Llyrian Battleships are about 3/4 the size of a Whitestar. Most are 1/2 to 1/4. Llyrian frigates, fully fueled, are about 10-12 times as massive as the Space Shuttle.
The Shalmaneseer or Terrans could go toe-to-toe with the Shadows or Vorlons (but not both at the same time) and expect to win due to the vastly longer effective weapons ranges this setting has (theirs is about 8-10 light-seconds, max).
A Llyrian frigate could disable a Shadow or Vorlon planet killer threatening Earth with one FTL missile "right in the down under" while about 1/3 of the way to Venus when the two planets are at closest approach. A Llyrian battleship could destroy one while more than half of the way there and about a minute later someone on Earth would notice that the sky got slightly brighter for a few seconds due to reactor waste heat catching up with the resonance cannons.
Ranges are measured in light-seconds for a reason and the Moon is only 1.28 light-seconds away.
The obsolete FTL surface-to-space missile which merely disabled the TSS Calypso was fired from further away than the Earth is from the Sun.
I read few books in Honor Harrington series - and space brits fighting space french for 20 years made them capable of wiping out bigger human navy almost without loses,becouse 20 years of evolution during combat
Llyrians probable would be still capable of wiping out humans for some time - but what if they do not invent new stuff,and humans continue so for next 200 years ?
They should finish off humans now,when it is still easy.
Llyrians probable would be still capable of wiping out humans for some time - but what if they do not invent new stuff,and humans continue so for next 200 years ?
They should finish off humans now,when it is still easy.
bintananth
behind a desk
Llyrians v. Humans wouldn't be the space french and the space british duking it out. It would be the Royal Navy of 1918 going "Are you serious?" in response to getting attacked by this:
commons.wikimedia.org
File:Giseh Sonnenbarke 07.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
commons.wikimedia.org
For now and next 100 years.But if human keep developing new stuff,and Llyrian use old one,they gradualy achieve situation when human could hurt them.Llyrians v. Humans wouldn't be the space french and the space british duking it out. It would be the Royal Navy of 1918 going "Are you serious?" in response to getting attacked by this:
File:Giseh Sonnenbarke 07.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
That is why they should destroy humanity.And i do not how without genocide.
Just made human elite wokes full of Joe Bidens and Kamala copies.