With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Mr Zoat · Dec 11, 2022

Doccer said:
Can't his constructs move as fast as he wants them too?

No. Created objects come with certain limitations. Much like how his railguns can't fire as fast as he wants them to but require an electrical charge.

Ngamer11 · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
Because this shield in 'part' of a being with wants and desires of their own, permeating the ship. Which means that I should be able to-

I think that should say "this shield is a 'part'".

Mr Zoat said:
"Identity theft in progress. Four perfect complete."

Mr Zoat said:
"Identity theft in progress. Three perfect complete."

Mr Zoat said:
"Identity theft in progress. Two perfect complete."

Mr Zoat said:
"Identity theft in progress. Twenty three perfect complete."

That should all say 'percent'.

Mr Zoat said:
Because he's not wrong. While doing this has weakened the shields to the point where their guns could damage the ship. But I don't trust Reach ships enough to tolerate them 'danger closing' me, and this ship isn't contributing much to the fight at the moment. New God ships have afford to have fixed position prow weapons because boom tubes allow them to reliably bring them to bear, but that means that their other weapons don't have anything like the power. Or default power, because the New God inside can ramp it up my focusing on it.

That should say 'can'.

Mr Zoat said:
"Identity theft in progress. Forty one perfect complete."

Mr Zoat said:
"Identity theft in progress. Forty seven perfect complete."

Mr Zoat said:
"Identity theft in progress. Fifty nine perfect complete. Sixty five perfect complete."

That should all say 'percent'.

Mr Zoat said:
Turrets rotate and open fire. Not very well, as the ship master is still trying to fight me, but added to the fire of the surviving Reach ships the other New God ship actually starts taking damage. A slightly lucky hit does something to its prow weapon, and its own turrets start to fire only sporadically as part of the power system is penetrated.

I think there should be a comma there, so it should say: 'but added to the fire of the surviving Reach ships,'.

Mr Zoat said:
"Identity theft in progress. Seventy eight perfect complete."

That should say 'percent'.

Mr Zoat said:
"Grayven will scour you from the universe!"

"Perhaps."

"Identity theft complete."

"But not today."

This reminds me of the fake invasion training, only this time, Paul gets to keep his assimilated space ships. How useful will this be Mr Zoat?

Mr Zoat · Dec 11, 2022

Idkusername said:
Mr Zoat you've used 'perfect' instead of 'percent' every time.

Thank you, corrected.

Venustoise · Dec 11, 2022

So does the New Go- uh, Ascend?... Zoat, does this 'ship master' have a name or will OL give him one like he did Gary next chapter.

His interactions with Construct Lanterns are some of my favs

Mr Zoat · Dec 11, 2022

Ngamer11 said:
I think that should say "this shield is a 'part'".
That should say 'can'.

Thank you, corrected.

I think there should be a comma there, so it should say: 'but added to the fire of the surviving Reach ships,'.

No, I think that's okay.

This reminds me of the fake invasion training, only this time, Paul gets to keep his assimilated space ships. How useful will this be Mr Zoat?

Technically, he hasn't assimilated the ship. He assimilated the New God controlling it along with its metaphysical energy networks. It'll be reasonably useful. It's got good guns, a boom tube generator and a decent sublight acceleration.

moralrelativity · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
New God ships have afford

have -> can

Chojin Patriarch · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
1st January 2013
21:37 GMT

I talked it over with Mr. Free once, whether there were any weapons which New Gods are particularly vulnerable to. Turns out that the only thing that he and Barda could think of is weapons using something called 'radion', and that it was only used in a handful of places on Apokolips due to the obvious danger it posed to its rulers. According to them they've never even seen one. I've kept half an eye out for one… Maybe add a radion round to my railgun ammunition varieties? But that does mean that railgun fire probably isn't the best solution here.

Although that would require you to get some of whatever special isotope of 'Radion' is used by the New God-killing weapons. And I imagine that both New Genesis and Apokalips guard the secret of its origin very closely...

I make a ship-scale railgun anyway as I dive, trying to keep one New God ship between me and the other while also making it so that only one facing's worth of guns can target me at once. And as a third factor, trying to ensure that those guns also have the option of shooting Reach ships instead. Because while I am going to try and ensure that they survive, I don't like them enough to actually take undue risks with myself and they're the ones who chose to delay.

Quite a big target, but I expect you're doing that for a reason...

I load a mage slayer, because that should disrupt the magic they use in extending their soul through their defence systems. But that's not where the main attack is going to come from.

I erect a large ablative shield construct.

Ah, going to try something more esoteric as your main thrust, then.

"Last chance?"

A ragged volley of blaster shots fly in my direction, but I'm using the ring to calculate the angle of the ship's turrets and even at this range dodging around them is relatively simple. The volley isn't coordinated, and viffing around it isn't hard. They'll improve, or prioritise me once they've seen me actually do something. These ships weren't involved in the engagement when I faced down Grayven, so they may well not be aware of what I can do.

After all, the guns can only traverse so fast, no matter how they operate. And Lanterns are very small and very agile compared to a ship.

I had wondered if I would be able to destroy the Absolute Dominion by myself. Evading the hyper blaster is easy for any Lantern; it's an anti-capital ship weapon. It's secondaries and flak, enhanced with the strength of Grayven's soul, would be the issue. That and whatever other systems he has, which make it a bit imponderable. But if the main advantage of the ship is its magic aura sustained by its master, well…

I've got a way to deal with that.

And even a tiny threat can take out a vast vessel, given the right attack, or a little luck.

I fire a token mage slayer and then fly towards the closest ship at best available speed. I heartbeat later I fire a second token mage slayer, forcing the ship to point their point defence systems at the tiny projectiles rather than fire them all at me. I grunt quietly as both are melted by the ship's gunnery before I can judge how much effect they actually have. The ones that do fire at me chip away at my shield construct, but point defences are designed to do small amounts of highly accurate damage at my construct is merely mildly ablated.

Still, well done spotting and hitting the projectiles. I assume they're larger than the standard railgun shot...

"Tell me, does Grayven have anti-Lantern protocols for his followers? Because last time I did this to Sparta's fleet-"

Gehh!

Ooh, something unexpected?

That's the shield envelope! Looks like the boundary is a little imprecise, ow! And the-.

Turret-.

Seriously? He skipped across the shield? The other joy of being so small in space combat.

...And suddenly I'm reminded of the Star Trek/X-Men crossover, where Gladiator of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard punched the Enterprise's combat shields...

And damaged them significantly.

Move!

Okay, they spotted that I stopped long enough to point a turret at me, and that's where my shield construct went, but now I'm in a position to actually do what I meant to.

Best not to get distracted, OL. One mistake here and you'll probably be waking up in that backup body above Minosyss.

Because this shield in 'part' of a being with wants and desires of their own, permeating the ship. Which means that I should be able to-

"-Assimilate-"

Oooh, sneaky!

-it just fine.

"Identity theft in progress. Four percent complete."

Good plan. Yoinking a New Ascendant shipmaster, and presumably control of his ship with him. Or her. Whoever.

I feel the strength of the shield, and I feel it weaken almost immediately before the ship master… I assume, realises what I'm doing and pushes back.

"Resistance detected."
My Ship Is My Castle!
"Identity theft in progress. Three percent complete."

Ah, not going to go all OL's way that easily.

Which is fine, because apparently that distracts them enough that they don't order more turrets to fire on me, and I can move enough to avoid the one which hit me the first time. Construct armour can deal with the point defence, which… Yes, they're getting measurably weaker as the ship master focuses on forcing me out of the ship's metaphysique and less on the gunnery.
My Castle Is Inviolable!
"Identity theft in progress. Two percent complete."

Which raises questions about how independent the crew are during this whole situation. And how deeply they subsume themselves to their captain's command.

I feel my self get pushed back a little, as I expected.
I Shall Smite-!
"Consume."

And now their metaphysique isn't just being attacked from my physical location but from everywhere, from itself, the places they believed they were secure, their own mind.

Which would be quite disorienting, certainly. Even more so for someone who's not expecting it, and unlikely to be trained in resisting it.

Respect to them, they don't panic, but they clearly don't know what the correct response is. If there even is one. So their power and influence goes down the Ophidian's gullet and-

"Identity theft in progress. Twenty three percent complete."

Om nom nom. I expect this will be a tasty morsel for Best Snek. You're going to spoil her, OL.

-out of the ship. Out of the New God's soul, too.

The colour of the hull is changing as well, a faint orange glow shimmering through the area covered by the ship's shield.

Which is probably making the other ship very concerned.

"Reach ships, please focus fire on the other New God vessel."

"What fire we have left."

"The alternative is that you take cover behind this one, and I don't think you're that manoeuvrable."

Boy, they can't help complaining about the rescue, can they? You really sure you can't let them take a little more damage, OL? Soften that attitude...

Because he's not wrong. While doing this has weakened the shields to the point where their guns could damage the ship. But I don't trust Reach ships enough to tolerate them 'danger closing' me, and this ship isn't contributing much to the fight at the moment. New God ships have afford to have fixed position prow weapons because boom tubes allow them to reliably bring them to bear, but that means that their other weapons don't have anything like the power. Or default power, because the New God inside can ramp it up my focusing on it.

Yeah, seeing him busy with this might make an enterprising gunner think 'We can take him!'

Usually.

"Identity theft in progress. Forty one percent complete."

"Ship master, strike your colours and I will intern your ship along with theirs."

Because the other option is not pleasant, I hope he realises...

"Never!"

"Identity theft in progress. Forty seven percent complete."

Your choice, kid.

Because wanting something strongly when someone is using desires to eat your soul isn't a clever thing to do.

Another Reach ship is reduced to wreckage, but it's… Reasonably intact, and I see the faint orange glow of survivors trying to reach the escape pods.

A mission kill, but not totally lost. I expect OL can recover them at his leisure once the other New Ascendant ship is dealt with...

"Identity theft in progress. Fifty nine percent complete. Sixty five percent complete."

"Weapon control available."

...Excellent.[/burns]

I want the other ship destroyed.

Turrets rotate and open fire. Not very well, as the ship master is still trying to fight me, but added to the fire of the surviving Reach ships the other New God ship actually starts taking damage. A slightly lucky hit does something to its prow weapon, and its own turrets start to fire only sporadically as part of the power system is penetrated.

Ah, well, then. While the other ship's master is not doubt trying to force it to repair itself (and his crew working on the physical side) that's not good during a live-fire combat...

"You will not-"

"Identity theft in progress. Seventy eight percent complete."

"-triumph!"

Chuckles here ain't too quick on the uptake, is he?

My ship's guns fire again, this time bursting through the target's shields and slamming into the hull.

"I beg to differ. If you yield-."

Looks like the fight's just about done, then...

"Grayven will scour you from the universe!"

"Perhaps."

Though I doubt it'll go anything like Big Gray is planning it to. OL's good like that.

"Identity theft complete."

"But not today."

Well, this will be interesting. We haven't seen him nom a soul like this before. Wonder what'll happen...

Talk about looting. OL never does things by halves, does he? Hopefully it'll go smoothly, though. Not sure we've seen an assimilated New God before in-story, have we? I wonder if the nature of their metaphysique will have any peculiar effects on their Construct Lantern form. And what OL will be able to do and sense through them. Heh, maybe it'll act as a Godspeech hearing aid.

Prince Charon · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
Technically, he hasn't assimilated the ship. He assimilated the New God controlling it along with its metaphysical energy networks. It'll be reasonably useful. It's got good guns, a boom tube generator and a decent sublight acceleration.

Huh. I wonder what that will do to Paul's metaphysique (or his ring's, or both). Will he be able to consciously hear and/or use New God Speech, for example?

Darko · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
I heartbeat later I fire a

"A heartbeat"

Darko · Dec 11, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
Although that would require you to get some of whatever special isotope of 'Radion' is used by the New God-killing weapons. And I imagine that both New Genesis and Apokalips guard the secret of its origin very closely...

They may not even use it on each other.

Mutually assured destruction and all that.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Not sure we've seen an assimilated New God before in-story, have we?

No, but Desaad was branded by renegade.

CTrees · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
because the New God inside can ramp it up my focusing on it.

ramp it up by focusing on it.

Old Knife · Dec 11, 2022

Ohoho. He has eat the soul of a god. That's technically conquest and tyranny.
Welcome to the family.

inglorius · Dec 11, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
Although that would require you to get some of whatever special isotope of 'Radion' is used by the New God-killing weapons. And I imagine that both New Genesis and Apokalips guard the secret of its origin very closely...

Tanagar has it, IIRC: they had shot Grayven with it once.

Mr Zoat · Dec 11, 2022

Darko said:
"A heartbeat"

CTrees said:
ramp it up by focusing on it.

Thank you, corrected.

012345 · Dec 11, 2022

Wonder will this mean that Paul will start using New God bullshit? And finaly not be fucked over any time he faces New Gods/Magic?

Doccer · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
No. Created objects come with certain limitations. Much like how his railguns can't fire as fast as he wants them to but require an electrical charge.

Then they are basically cannon balls on chains so shoot them at velocity? With unconnected chain or enough slack in the chain?

Also did he assimilate the entire ship or the crew? Or just the Ship Master?

Darko · Dec 11, 2022

012345 said:
Wonder will this mean that Paul will start using New God bullshit? And finaly not be fucked over any time he faces New Gods/Magic?

If that's true then Manheim may be in for a surprise.

mastermenthe · Dec 11, 2022

012345 said:
Wonder will this mean that Paul will start using New God bullshit? And finaly not be fucked over any time he faces New Gods/Magic?

Darko said:
If that's true then Manheim may be in for a surprise.

Or make OL more vulnerable to New Godspeech.

Before he was blind by way of being invisible: godspeech passed right thru him like he didn't exist.

Now he might have to start rolling his dice pools against their dice pools, and I don't like the odds.

012345 · Dec 11, 2022

mastermenthe said:
Or make OL more vulnerable to New Godspeech.

Before he was blind by way of being invisible: godspeech passed right thru him like he didn't exist.

Now he might have to start rolling his dice pools against their dice pools, and I don't like the odds.

What? OL could 'hear' Godspeech ever since he got Enlighment. Anti Life didnt work on him exactly because he was Enlighment and now Manheim version on Earth dont work because his Soul isnt conected to Earth thaumsphere but to Ophidan.

Mr Zoat · Dec 11, 2022

Doccer said:
Then they are basically cannon balls on chains so shoot them at velocity? With unconnected chain or enough slack in the chain?

Chain chomps do their damage by biting. Yes, he could make a biting construct, but it would only bite as hard as his ring power allowed. It would be more efficient to built a crushing tool construct than making one.

Unless he could find an actual chain chomp to assimilate.

Also did he assimilate the entire ship or the crew? Or just the Ship Master?

The shipmaster.

Darko said:
If that's true then Manheim may be in for a surprise.

Manheim is quite a lot more powerful than the shipmasters here.

Ganurath · Dec 11, 2022

Paul: "I'm going to try to be better about making moral choices."
Also Paul: assimilates sophont person

crazygrox · Dec 11, 2022

Was interesting, I think this is the first time he's used identity theft on what feels like a large scale. He's usually very discriminating with it, but if the shipmaster wouldn't surrender, there wasn't really any way to avoid hitting the whole crew with whatever he used to take out the ship.

Ohhhh.
He only got the shipmaster. The shields are orange now only because the shipmaster is closely linked to them.

PDV · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
It's secondaries and flak, enhanced with the strength of Grayven's soul, would be the issue.

Either "Its secondaries" or "It's secondaries... that would".

transhumansage · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
"Consume."

i thought only paul's demons could do this. where did he learn to do this himself?

also can paul understand god speech like gravyen!paul can?

FuzzyZergling · Dec 11, 2022

transhumansage said:
i thought only paul's demons could do this. where did he learn to do this himself?

He's been able to turn exotic energy sources into ring charge for a long time now.

Mr Zoat · Dec 11, 2022

PDV said:
Either "Its secondaries" or "It's secondaries... that would".

Thank you, corrected.

transhumansage said:
i thought only paul's demons could do this. where did he learn to do this himself?

Technically, this is the Ophidian doing it. He can do it himself, but he's mindful that if there were side effects he might not be able to fix them.

also can paul understand god speech like gravyen!paul can?

No. It's far less distinct to him. It's like hearing your name coming from somewhere in a crowd and not knowing where or who said it.

Stsword · Dec 11, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
Although that would require you to get some of whatever special isotope of 'Radion' is used by the New God-killing weapons. And I imagine that both New Genesis and Apokalips guard the secret of its origin very closely...

Radion is a theoretical substance aka the Graviscalar, that differentiates from a regular scalar in the 5th dimension.

I personally find that too perfect to not use, although Zoat might feel otherwise, of course.

Mr Zoat · Dec 11, 2022

Stsword said:
Radion is a theoretical substance aka the Graviscalar, that differentiates from a regular scalar in the 5th dimension.

I personally find that too perfect to not use, although Zoat might feel otherwise, of course.

That... Looks interesting? But my knowledge of physics is nothing like good enough to understand the description. Does it actually exist?

Vaermina · Dec 11, 2022

This feels kind of stupid for LePaul.

Like, Grayven might have been able to overlook the attack on his flagship because the Reach were at least partially responsible for it.

But taking his commander's and vessels from him should be something his metaphysics just can't let lie. To the point it would be completely believable that he might just out right switch his first target from The Reach to NEMO.

_The_Bomb · Dec 11, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
That... Looks interesting? But my knowledge of physics is nothing like good enough to understand the description. Does it actually exist?

No. It's an abstraction, a tool to be used to model phenomenon accurately enough to describe, explain, predict, and possibly control what is going on. Scientists don't create models because they are true, they create them because they are useful under specific circumstances. Molecular bonds don't actually exist, but modeling chemicals with them provides accurate enough results to perform vast amounts of chemistry. There are more detailed and accurate models that you would use when greater accuracy is required.

Also, that particular particle is still hypothetical, so there isn't even enough evidence to suggest using it as a model would be useful.

source: I am one year away from a degree in physics.

With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

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