Jet Fighter (part 4)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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31st December 2012
15:42 GMT -5
"Nice to hear from you, Controller Hinon."
"What. Did. You. Do?
"Summoning the Ophidian into myself caused a group of New Gods to go directly to their secondary objective instead of visiting Mount Justice. This… Indirectly contributed to them being captured and imprisoned on Apokolips. That led to the human who masterminded the Earth-end of the fight being turned into some sort of avatar of Darkseid, and he's just Anti-Lifed the entire planet Earth."
"… Ah."
"Given what's buried in the Earth, that's obviously really bad. The problem is that while I'm familiar with normal Anti-Life broadcasters, there doesn't appear to be any equivalent thing in use at the moment. My current theory is that Mannheim -that's the avatar's original name- has done something clever to use the thaumosphere itself as the broadcast medium."
"What is the current state of your species?"
"It doesn't.. look like the death toll is too high, at the moment. I'd say… There are…" Atlantis has a total population of about twenty million, plus Kahndaq's eighty million... If we assume that their shielding is completely successful… "Let's say a hundred million definitely free, an unknown number at least in the thousands fully Justified and everyone else suffering from something like clinical depression."
"Fleet elements?"
I look around.
"Nothing yet. Since I'm still active I could attack fleet elements myself. I can't do that on the ground due to a lack of targets and the fact that the 'enemy army' are effectively hostages."
"Other New Gods?"
"If you mean 'Apokoliptians', I haven't seen any Elite so far. There's a giant god-robot in Washington but that's about it as far as direct support. Aside from some giant insectoids we've already killed."
I send her an image of my scans of the thing. She nods.
"A last hurrah for the insectoids, and a field test for the robot."
"I don't think it's worth calling in any Lanterns, but-."
"Good, because we can't. Dox has actually been trying to get hold of you."
"Oh? Ah, why?"
"Oh, a combination of factors. Most importantly, the Reach appear to have authorised the deployment of one of their inner circle fleets. Possibly more."
I frown. "We weren't expecting them to do that for.. months. Deploying one of their inner circle fleets when their core isn't threatened is contrary to their Writ. They're religious about following their Writ."
"It appears that your Reach-shadow has decided that it made them too predictable. We don't have a copy of their Writ that we could trust to be completely accurate. It may well be that there are exceptions that we don't know about."
"Can we.. cope with it?"
"Dox's estimates say 'yes', but we will take considerable damage doing so, and it will undermine the confidence of our affiliates. If they deploy a second fleet, we won't. Maltus will survive, but that will be all."
"Their inner circle fleets aren't unlimited. There are reasons why they don't deploy those."
"Yes, it appears that for some reason they don't think that Apokolips will take advantage of their distraction to remove them as competition. And of course other galactic powers are content to let us take our swing at them without offering aid."
"And we can't take a strike force past their lines while their rear is less defended?"
"That's part of why Dox is so eager to get you back. Or, he's ordering you back, I should say."
Darn. Objectively, that's the right choice. Five billion or so on Earth versus hundreds of billions who've thrown their lot in with the organisation I created explicitly to fight this war.
But…
"Am I needed right away?"
"That depends on what you consider to be the limits of 'needed'."
"Are the Reach about to capture any inhabited world?"
"Not… Immediately. I would say that you have approximately two Earth days until that world where you saved the young of their entire species is returned to Reach control."
"So realistically I've got about a day."
"Every moment you delay is a moment where our allies die unnecessarily, but if 'people I actually know getting hurt' is your definition of 'needed', then yes."
"I need all data we have on the Anti-Life. All the records. Everything on Darkseid, including anything we've 'acquired' from the Guardians and Green Lanterns. Because actually, due to… A certain thing being stored here, it actually might be worse if Earth falls than if Maltus falls."
She considers, but she knows that I'm right.
"Are they actually looking for it?"
"Not as far as I've seen. And we've got a man with a direct-ish line to it and he hasn't noticed anything."
"Then the simplest solution would be to move it."
"Are Maltusians immune to the Anti-Life Equation?"
She hesitates before responding.
"Not… Entirely."
"Given how powerful your species are, and how you're ageless, I don't think that exposing any of you is a good idea."
"You will have our data. And I will hold my nose and reach out to our cousins. Will your people survive?"
"If we can work out what we're supposed to be hitting, sure. This might well cause the final collapse of our current social order and I might still end up evacuating the planet, if only temporarily. But I believe that we'll win in the end."
"One day, Illustres. Do what you can for the humans."
"One more thing. Do we know where any of the other Central Power Batteries or Light Fountains are?"
"I'm not aware of any besides Orange and Green even existing. Unless the Zamarons have finally found something to act as the core of their Violet Central Power Battery. I will check in with them as well. What are you planning?"
"Using the White Light to purge the Earth's thaumosphere."
She thinks for a moment.
"We were never able to firmly determine the White Light's limits. It was too alien to our mindset, even in those days. And we had no contemporary contact with the Anti-Life Equation at all. I will not veto your attempt, but I strongly suggest that you be mindful of your more immediate problems."
I nod.
"Then I will expect you tomorrow. Relaying data now."
15:42 GMT -5
"Nice to hear from you, Controller Hinon."
"What. Did. You. Do?
"Summoning the Ophidian into myself caused a group of New Gods to go directly to their secondary objective instead of visiting Mount Justice. This… Indirectly contributed to them being captured and imprisoned on Apokolips. That led to the human who masterminded the Earth-end of the fight being turned into some sort of avatar of Darkseid, and he's just Anti-Lifed the entire planet Earth."
"… Ah."
"Given what's buried in the Earth, that's obviously really bad. The problem is that while I'm familiar with normal Anti-Life broadcasters, there doesn't appear to be any equivalent thing in use at the moment. My current theory is that Mannheim -that's the avatar's original name- has done something clever to use the thaumosphere itself as the broadcast medium."
"What is the current state of your species?"
"It doesn't.. look like the death toll is too high, at the moment. I'd say… There are…" Atlantis has a total population of about twenty million, plus Kahndaq's eighty million... If we assume that their shielding is completely successful… "Let's say a hundred million definitely free, an unknown number at least in the thousands fully Justified and everyone else suffering from something like clinical depression."
"Fleet elements?"
I look around.
"Nothing yet. Since I'm still active I could attack fleet elements myself. I can't do that on the ground due to a lack of targets and the fact that the 'enemy army' are effectively hostages."
"Other New Gods?"
"If you mean 'Apokoliptians', I haven't seen any Elite so far. There's a giant god-robot in Washington but that's about it as far as direct support. Aside from some giant insectoids we've already killed."
I send her an image of my scans of the thing. She nods.
"A last hurrah for the insectoids, and a field test for the robot."
"I don't think it's worth calling in any Lanterns, but-."
"Good, because we can't. Dox has actually been trying to get hold of you."
"Oh? Ah, why?"
"Oh, a combination of factors. Most importantly, the Reach appear to have authorised the deployment of one of their inner circle fleets. Possibly more."
I frown. "We weren't expecting them to do that for.. months. Deploying one of their inner circle fleets when their core isn't threatened is contrary to their Writ. They're religious about following their Writ."
"It appears that your Reach-shadow has decided that it made them too predictable. We don't have a copy of their Writ that we could trust to be completely accurate. It may well be that there are exceptions that we don't know about."
"Can we.. cope with it?"
"Dox's estimates say 'yes', but we will take considerable damage doing so, and it will undermine the confidence of our affiliates. If they deploy a second fleet, we won't. Maltus will survive, but that will be all."
"Their inner circle fleets aren't unlimited. There are reasons why they don't deploy those."
"Yes, it appears that for some reason they don't think that Apokolips will take advantage of their distraction to remove them as competition. And of course other galactic powers are content to let us take our swing at them without offering aid."
"And we can't take a strike force past their lines while their rear is less defended?"
"That's part of why Dox is so eager to get you back. Or, he's ordering you back, I should say."
Darn. Objectively, that's the right choice. Five billion or so on Earth versus hundreds of billions who've thrown their lot in with the organisation I created explicitly to fight this war.
But…
"Am I needed right away?"
"That depends on what you consider to be the limits of 'needed'."
"Are the Reach about to capture any inhabited world?"
"Not… Immediately. I would say that you have approximately two Earth days until that world where you saved the young of their entire species is returned to Reach control."
"So realistically I've got about a day."
"Every moment you delay is a moment where our allies die unnecessarily, but if 'people I actually know getting hurt' is your definition of 'needed', then yes."
"I need all data we have on the Anti-Life. All the records. Everything on Darkseid, including anything we've 'acquired' from the Guardians and Green Lanterns. Because actually, due to… A certain thing being stored here, it actually might be worse if Earth falls than if Maltus falls."
She considers, but she knows that I'm right.
"Are they actually looking for it?"
"Not as far as I've seen. And we've got a man with a direct-ish line to it and he hasn't noticed anything."
"Then the simplest solution would be to move it."
"Are Maltusians immune to the Anti-Life Equation?"
She hesitates before responding.
"Not… Entirely."
"Given how powerful your species are, and how you're ageless, I don't think that exposing any of you is a good idea."
"You will have our data. And I will hold my nose and reach out to our cousins. Will your people survive?"
"If we can work out what we're supposed to be hitting, sure. This might well cause the final collapse of our current social order and I might still end up evacuating the planet, if only temporarily. But I believe that we'll win in the end."
"One day, Illustres. Do what you can for the humans."
"One more thing. Do we know where any of the other Central Power Batteries or Light Fountains are?"
"I'm not aware of any besides Orange and Green even existing. Unless the Zamarons have finally found something to act as the core of their Violet Central Power Battery. I will check in with them as well. What are you planning?"
"Using the White Light to purge the Earth's thaumosphere."
She thinks for a moment.
"We were never able to firmly determine the White Light's limits. It was too alien to our mindset, even in those days. And we had no contemporary contact with the Anti-Life Equation at all. I will not veto your attempt, but I strongly suggest that you be mindful of your more immediate problems."
I nod.
"Then I will expect you tomorrow. Relaying data now."
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