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

[Steelplaza]

Not that Paul is under any formal requirement to issue explanations for calling upon the Ophidian, but I am sure even Dox would understand "preventing the destruction of three inhabited planets". Even at the scale of the Reach War, that is a serious disaster.

 

[Ardy]

I would like to take this moment to call back to the earlier visit to Thanagar in Wing and Dagger, where he specifically told Thanagar that HE DID NOT WANT TO FIGHT THE SEVEN DEVILS, the fact that cultists were able to to start feeding a sun to one of them is pretty high on the list of things Paul should be pissed with Thanagar about, making it (along with Zoat's comments) more likely Hyathis is going to end up in charge of Thanagar soon, or at least the new agreement will be heavily in her favor.

 

[Signaller]

Outside the limits of Thanagar's thaumosphere, how much of a problem do the Devils actually pose? Where do they fit on the spectrum Reach-Apokolips-Dominion-Spiders?

Oh, and how's Vulcan doing?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Outside the limits of Thanagar's thaumosphere, how much of a problem do the Devils actually pose? Where do they fit on the spectrum Reach-Apokolips-Dominion-Spiders?

Click to shrink...

Their cults are relatively small, and they have no significant fleet. Of the Seven Devils, Onimar Synn is the strongest, and he's sub-Darkseid dangerous. By which I mean that he has to rip your soul out and eat it rather than just look at you in order to kill you.

Oh, and how's Vulcan doing?

Click to shrink...

His workshop's about ready and he's looking forwards to a full and productive work schedule.

 

[BartlettMagic]

His workshop's about ready and he's looking forwards to a full and productive work schedule.

Click to shrink...

does the citizenry know of Vulcan's true nature? i'm just wondering if, once he's into full production, the masses may start putting enough faith into Vulcan that he may get powered up enough to take on the Seven Devils himself. or, at the very least, establish himself as a verified alternative and start really sinking his thaumic roots into Thanagar.

 

[NightmareWarden]

It sounds like this system's star has been shaken out of its passivity, and might become a major spirit for all of the worlds in its orbit. I'm not sure if the quantity of the energy it received is significant.

 

[Mr Zoat]

does the citizenry know of Vulcan's true nature?

Click to shrink...

The regular citizens don't know there's a Vulcan.

I'm just wondering if, once he's into full production, the masses may start putting enough faith into Vulcan that he may get powered up enough to take on the Seven Devils himself. or, at the very least, establish himself as a verified alternative and start really sinking his thaumic roots into Thanagar.

Click to shrink...

Oh, he's not on Thanagar. Too risky. They put him on one of the colonies.

 

[Steelplaza]

Now I regret not posting my original thought on the conclusion to all this many updates ago.

Organian Peace Treaty.

The original Star Trek series had an episode where the Federation and the Klingon Empire were on the verge of war. A powerful species of energy beings, the Organians, told them enough of this shit, we are not permitting a war.

The question is if Paragon can actually demonstrate sufficient power to enforce this and make it stick.

 

[Vaermina]

When you have the power of a cosmic being at your disposal, the previous rules of the universe start becoming suggestions.

Heck, the first time Paul merged with the Ophidian he actually created Nth Metal, so he does have previous history of being able to manipulate it.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, but that was merging with the Ophidian not jumping into the holden and doing the soul snake thing.

 

[PDV]

Huh, the tone of this one is quite different to other entries written from the Ophidian's perspective. The older/newer parts language hasn't been used before. Not discounting others' comments about how this will temporarily impact the whole OLC, but I'm specifically wondering about Illustres Xor.

Click to shrink...

I'd guess it's about her having a broader understanding of avarice now that Xor is tied closely and the OLC is big. But I don't remember how big the corps was last time Snek and Agent bonded.

 

[Ryumancer]

It sounds like this system's star has been shaken out of its passivity, and might become a major spirit for all of the worlds in its orbit. I'm not sure if the quantity of the energy it received is significant.

Click to shrink...

The energy it received belonged to itself in the first place, before it was stolen by the device and then retrieved by the Ophidian. It's not going to increase the overall energy of the star's spirit. Might still make the spirit less passive though, yes.

 

[NightmareWarden]

The energy it received belonged to itself in the first place, before it was stolen by the device and then retrieved by the Ophidian. It's not going to increase the overall energy of the star's spirit. Might still make the spirit less passive though, yes.

Click to shrink...

Wasn't that energy empowered by the gong tech and the essence of Onimar Synn, so he could absorb the souls? Sounds like the energy was converted beyond what normal hydrogen can manage. The matter left behind in the sun is the same, but the spirit itself might have received a useful tool from the exotic power the Ophidian returned to them from Onimar's grasp.

 

[Darko]

Yeah, but that was merging with the Ophidian not jumping into the holden and doing the soul snake thing.

Click to shrink...

So you just forgot that his thoughts became like they usually are when he's merged?

I really shouldn't be surprised.

 

[Prince Charon]

Looks like OL has finally been pushed to the point he'll actually do something about this little feud. My guess is he'll be flying down to Altair, grabbing Hyathis by the scruff of the neck then repeating the process for the High Mor. Then it's a matter of sitting them down and telling them to sort their shit out properly...

Click to shrink...

The classic Golden Age Superman solution. I was going to ask if OL had seem Capaldi-Doc's speech about war and the need to sit down and talk (forgot the episode name, but he was talking to Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and a Zygon who looked like Clara), but I think he diverges from the writer several years too early for that, and even if the show still exists on Earth-16 (which I'm not sure about) it wouldn't have gotten that far yet.

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th September 2013
11:17 GMT

I look down on Mosteel as their hangar doors open ponderously.

I told my-. Former team mates. Friends, that when I played Tiberian Sun I liked to capture every building I could with engineers, and that I considered just levelling a base with artillery to be wasteful. And that's a good approach for policing. When you're policing, you want to take the person you're trying to arrest alive. You want everyone to see justice being done. And not every crime really warrants execution. And even when you're fighting someone who clearly does warrant execution, precision is the order of the day.

I've never really developed strategic attack patterns. Or rather, attacks suitable to causing strategic scale damage. The satellites I threw at those Spider Guild cities came closest, and even there the death toll wasn't that big. Air Marshal Harris would have laughed at me.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Mosteel command. Close the doors."

Kromm's face appears over my ring. Ah, I hadn't realised that branding someone let them do that. "Since you've foiled our plan to burn our enemies to death, we are obliged to take a defensive posture-."

I form a singularity projector, point it down and fire, playing it back and forth across the interior of the hangar. I'm not trying to cut the planet in half, I don't extend the singularity that far, but ships of all sizes are cut to pieces. And as the matter is compressed, radiation well in excess of what the Mosteelians can absorb blasts out. Ships and people not directly hit are irradiated, burning, melting, exploding and bursting.

Once the hangar is ninety five percent mission killed, I deactivate the beam. But I maintain the construct.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Mosteel command. Close the remaining doors."

And then I start flying towards the next closest, construct in tow. I don't transition, because I want to give them a minute or so to actually give the orders and because I want to keep the construct in existence as a very visible sign that there's nothing preventing me doing the exact same thing again and again until I run out of targets.

With the interdiction fields still up, the thanagarians have sent reconnaissance ships towards Mosteel, presumably in an attempt to confirm my version of events. They won't get here for a little while. The main fleet took a moment to restore its formation, and then continued on its path towards Alstair.

The Alstair fleet is holding back behind the spore clouds. I suspect that Hyathis would like to take the ships more or less in one piece, because there's not much point in conquering Thanagar only for someone else to take most of its territory when it turns out that you can't defend it. She's not sending anything in my direction, but that's probably because she's getting a pretty good idea what's going on via her plant-based spies.

And there's the next hangar entrance, fully open.

I point the construct down and-

"Wait! We're-!"

-fire, repeating my action at the first hangar. Capital ships which probably took years to build fall apart and suffer internal explosions, their crews dying-.

"We're closing them!"

I turn off the beam, and wait. Now, I didn't hit the mechanism on this hangar, so there shouldn't be anything preventing them…

There we go. It's closing. And the ring says…

They're all closing. Good. I

step out before

appearing just in front of Kromm.

"We-."

I suck the orange light out of him, wisps rising from his torso and being drawn back into my ring. He has a moment during which what's happened hits him without the filter of my brand, and he grasps his head in a display of overwhelming despair.

I grab him with a construct, form a crumbler ram around us and then fly upwards, the ceiling and the mountain above it decaying to nothing as we head for space by the shortest route.

Once we're free of the planet, I set course for the thanagarian fleet and warp, the interdiction field generators closest to us exploding.

Transmit.

Compliance.

"I would like to speak to the commanding admiral."

A moment's delay, and then-.

"Orange Lantern. I assume that you are the reason why we can move."

"And the reason why the sun isn't going to turn into a red giant in real time."

"Then you have the Empire's thanks, and mine as well. But now I think it is best that you leave."

"No."

"If you intend to side with Hyathis-."

"No, not that either. I've just decided to enforce peace here." I float Kromm up to a slightly more visible position. "This is Kromm, ruler of Mosteel. Are your sensors good enough to see him?"

"…yes."

"He's the one who oversaw the subversion of your orbital weapon systems and nearly killed me. He's also the one who was in charge of the project to destroy the system. I'm sending you the details now. Of particular note was the presence of a Seven Devils cultist amongst the people building the device they put in the sun, which was mostly made of Nth metal."

"That will be reviewed in full, and appropriate measures taken. But my orders regarding this system are still clear."

"If that's your final word..?"

"It is. Please-."

I generate a beam singularity projector construct and fire it directly at him.

The ship visibly bends, the plasma screen and Nth metal trying to resist the overwhelming power of the attack. And because I'm still holding back, they just lose the bridge and surrounding sections.

Every command carrier comes to full alert and starts disgorging whatever attack craft they had ready to go out of their hangar doors immediately.

"Orange Lantern to commanding vice admiral. You have eleven more carriers. Do you want to make it ten?"

I wave my right hand and generate thirty point defence constructs, tracking all of the attack craft and shining a weak orange light on each of them to make sure that they know it.

"I could eliminate your attack craft first, if you like. I imagine that you've read Lantern Dul's reports on my abilities. She has not seen all that I can do. I fight Reach fleets alone and you are nothing like as advanced. I am declaring this conflict over. You will comply or you will die."

"So you are siding with Hyathis."

"No, I'm giving her this ultimatum next. But she's clearly prepared for you, and in my estimation she's more likely to be able to win than you are. This is me saving the rest of your lives. Ten seconds to effective range."

…

I don't want to kill all of them, but if-.

"We will hold station while I… Request clarification of my orders."

"Good. I'll have the treaty for you to sign in ten minutes."

 

[Z000]

finally the boot

sometime, stupid people need the extra thick padding to the butt

 

[Khettien]

"I will fight to the death for my cause!"

"Well, if you insist."

 

[BR549]

Delenn would approve.

Ten seconds to affective range."

Click to shrink...

'effective'

"Good. I'll have the treaty for you to sigh in ten minutes."

Click to shrink...

'sign', although I'm sure there'll be plenty of sighing, too.

 

[Agumentic]

Hard to say how stable any supposed arrangement is going to be, but at the very least everyone in question will probably think again before attracting Paul's attention to the system.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

8th September 2013
11:17 GMT

I look down on Mosteel as their hangar doors open ponderously.

Click to shrink...

Ah, planning to take their ships into the fray, eh? Or at least guard their borders now that their sun isn't going to do that for them. So, then, OL. Just how much 'big dick' energy are you going to put into quelling this tomfoolery?

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

I told my-. Former team mates. Friends, that when I played Tiberian Sun I liked to capture every building I could with engineers, and that I considered just levelling a base with artillery to be wasteful. And that's a good approach for policing. When you're policing, you want to take the person you're trying to arrest alive. You want everyone to see justice being done. And not every crime really warrants execution. And even when you're fighting someone who clearly does warrant execution, precision is the order of the day.

Click to shrink...

Getting to use the enemy's equipment against them is also a fun option with a capture strategy. I foresee Kromm not being in charge much longer, though...

I've never really developed strategic attack patterns. Or rather, attacks suitable to causing strategic scale damage. The satellites I threw at those Spider Guild cities came closest, and even there the death toll wasn't that big. Air Marshal Harris would have laughed at me.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Mosteel command. Close the doors."

Kromm's face appears over my ring. Ah, I hadn't realised that branding someone let them do that. "Since you've foiled our plan to burn our enemies to death, we are obliged to take a defensive posture-."

Click to shrink...

Always learnign new tricks about the Orange Lights, eh, OL?

I form a singularity projector, point it down and fire, playing it back and forth across the interior of the hangar. I'm not trying to cut the planet in half, I don't extend the singularity that far, but ships of all sizes are cut to pieces. And as the matter is compressed, radiation well in excess of what the Mosteelians can absorb blasts out. Ships and people not directly hit are irradiated, burning, melting, exploding and bursting.

Click to shrink...

Ouch. That's a big amount of war materiel and personnel just erased. OL isn't fucking around today.

Once the hangar is ninety five percent mission killed, I deactivate the beam. But I maintain the construct.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Mosteel command. Close the remaining doors."

Click to shrink...

I imagine a few of the system operators in the other hangars are swallowing nervously right now.

And then I start flying towards the next closest, construct in tow. I don't transition, because I want to give them a minute or so to actually give the orders and because I want to keep the construct in existence as a very visible sign that there's nothing preventing me doing the exact same thing again and again until I run out of targets.

Click to shrink...

Which I expect is sending a very clear message to the Mosteelians: "I am done playing nice."

With the interdiction fields still up, the thanagarians have sent reconnaissance ships towards Mosteel, presumably in an attempt to confirm my version of events. They won't get here for a little while. The main fleet took a moment to restore its formation, and then continued on its path towards Alstair.

Click to shrink...

They'll be dealt with shortly.

The Alstair fleet is holding back behind the spore clouds. I suspect that Hyathis would like to take the ships more or less in one piece, because there's not much point in conquering Thanagar only for someone else to take most of its territory when it turns out that you can't defend it. She's not sending anything in my direction, but that's probably because she's getting a pretty good idea what's going on via her plant-based spies.

Click to shrink...

And is probably smiling to herself about you 'supporting' her. I suspect that will change shortly.

And there's the next hangar entrance, fully open.

I point the construct down and-

"Wait! We're-!"

Click to shrink...

Sorry, boys, you were told.

-fire, repeating my action at the first hangar. Capital ships which probably took years to build fall apart and suffer internal explosions, their crews dying-.

"We're closing them!"

Click to shrink...

The work of years annihilated in moments. Yeah, that's going to be a scene repeated with each party to this war very soon.

I turn off the beam, and wait. Now, I didn't hit the mechanism on this hangar, so there shouldn't be anything preventing them…

There we go. It's closing. And the ring says…

Click to shrink...

Good, they're being sensible. Finally.

They're all closing. Good. I

step out before

appearing just in front of Kromm.

Click to shrink...

Now for their leader. I doubt he was solely responsible for all this, but an example must be made...

"We-."

I suck the orange light out of him, wisps rising from his torso and being drawn back into my ring. He has a moment during which what's happened hits him without the filter of my brand, and he grasps his head in a display of overwhelming despair.

Click to shrink...

Indeed... What might well be years of work unravelled by one mad man with a Ring.

I grab him with a construct, form a crumbler ram around it and then fly upwards, the ceiling and the mountain above it decaying to nothing as we head for space by the shortest route.

Once we're free of the planet, I set course for the thanagarian fleet and warp, the interdiction field generators closed to us exploding.

Click to shrink...

Oooh, just throwing power at them until they fail, eh?

Transmit.

Compliance.

"I would like to speak to the commanding admiral."

Click to shrink...

I expect they'll be putting him straight through, if Command has updated them.

A moment's delay, and then-.

"Orange Lantern. I assume that you are the reason why we can move."

Click to shrink...

Somehow, I don't think they're going to enjoy this chat, whatever they might think is going to happen.

"And the reason why the sun isn't going to turn into a red giant in real time."

"Then you have the Empire's thanks, and mine as well. But now I think it is best that you leave."

Click to shrink...

Ah. You have chosen poorly.

"No."

"If you intend to side with Hyathis-."

Click to shrink...

Ooh, thinking too small, admiral.

"No, not that either. I've just decided to enforce peace here." I float Kromm up to a slightly more visible position. "This is Kromm, ruler of Mosteel. Are your sensors good enough to see him?"

"…yes."

Click to shrink...

Enforcing it in a way the Greenies can't because they have to live with the results...

"He's the one who oversaw the subversion of your orbital weapon systems and nearly killed me. He's also the one who was in charge of the project to destroy the system. I'm sending you the details now. Of particular note was the presence of a Seven Devils cultist amongst the people building the device they put in the sun, which was mostly made of Nth metal."

Click to shrink...

And that being confirmed is going to make more than a few folks in their High Command sweat.

"That will be reviewed in full, and appropriate measures taken. But my orders regarding this system are still clear."

"If that's your final word..?"

Click to shrink...

Well, then, OL will have to take it up with your replacement, then...

"It is. Please-."

I generate a beam singularity projector construct and fire it directly at him.

Click to shrink...

...Sadly, you won't get to see the results of your bullheadedness, Admiral.

The ship visibly bends, the plasma screen and Nth metal trying to resist the overwhelming power of the attack. And because I'm still holding back, they just lose the bridge and surrounding sections.

Every command carrier comes to full alert and starts disgorging whatever attack craft they had ready to go out of their hangar doors immediately.

Click to shrink...

Oh, look. Skeet.

"Orange Lantern to commanding vice admiral. You have eleven more carriers. Do you want to make it ten?"

I wave my right hand and generate thirty point defence constructs, tracking all of the attack craft and shining a weak orange light on each of them to make sure that they know it.

Click to shrink...

Go on, just give him a reason...

"I could eliminate your attack craft first, if you like. I imagine that you've read Lantern Dul's reports on my abilities. She has not seen all that I can do. I fight Reach fleets alone and you are nothing like as advanced. I am declaring this conflict over. You will comply or you will die."

Click to shrink...

And High Command flopsweats..

"So you are siding with Hyathis."

"No, I'm giving her this ultimatum next. But she's clearly prepared for you, and in my estimation she's more likely to be able to win than you are. This is me saving the rest of your lives. Ten seconds to effective range."

Click to shrink...

A backhanded sort of compassion, given how many people he just killed to get his point across. They better appreciate this.

…

I don't want to kill all of them, but if-.

Click to shrink...

Massive waste of resources, really.

"We will hold station while I… Request clarification of my orders."

"Good. I'll have the treaty for you to sign in ten minutes."

Click to shrink...

Finally, someone sees sense on the Thanagarian side. I bet they get executed for it later, knowing their High Command.

So... Just all the 'big dick' energy then. Which might be the only way to knock some sense into their thick heads and show that this war is over. He might feel bad about it later, but in the heat of the moment, there's a certain satisfying comfort in getting these idiots to stop wasting lives. Now, to see if the other Antaerean polities have the same level of comprehension.

 

[Slake Mothman]

Wow. I've been following WTR for over a decade, and I don't think I've ever, ever seen Paul with so few fucks to give. I guess getting caught in the middle of a multi-civilizational blood feud culminating with one player trying to blow up a sun really tries one's patience. Hopefully he can wag his finger at these idiots hard enough that they don't try to genocide each other for another few years.

 

[Alan975]

Yes! For once you've fed us exactly what I wanted!

Not to say that anything so far hasn't been good eatin' -except maybe the beginning of the fallout world, never really liked anything related to that beyond the first few hours of fallout 4 with infinite nukes- but for a good while I've gotten quite bored of Paragon.

 

[Silverias]

Interesting to see the singularity generator actually work.

 

[Darko]

I grab him with a construct, form a crumbler ram around is and then fly upwards

Click to shrink...

"around us"

generators closed to us exploding.

Click to shrink...

"closest to us"

"That will be reviewed in full, and appropriate measures take

Click to shrink...

"taken"

 

[WereDragon]

8th September 2013
11:17 GMT

Click to shrink...

"I tried being nice. I tried being reasonable and diplomatic. That hasn't worked so now we do this the face-punching way."

Ten internet cookies says Hyathis will not need to be shot before agreeing to peace.
Fire each that the other local planets will need a personal demonstration that Paul's patience is exhausted and that he considers them part of the problem.

 

[Ngamer11]

I form a singularity projector, point it down and fire, playing it back and forth across the interior of the hangar. I'm not trying to cut the planet in half, I don't extend the singularity that far, but ships of all sizes are cut to pieces. And as the matter is compressed, radiation well in excess of what the Mosteelians can absorb blasts out. Ships and people not directly hit are irradiated, burning, melting, exploding and bursting.

Once the hangar is ninety five percent mission killed, I deactivate the beam. But I maintain the construct.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Mosteel command. Close the remaining doors."

Click to shrink...

I love it when Paul decides he's had enough and stops playing nice.

I suck the orange light out of him, wisps rising from his torso and being drawn back into my ring. He has a moment during which what's happened hits him without the filter of my brand, and he grasps his head in a display of overwhelming despair.

Click to shrink...

About what I expected.

"That will be reviewed in full, and appropriate measures take. But my orders regarding this system are still clear."

"If that's your final word..?"

"It is. Please-."

I generate a beam singularity projector construct and fire it directly at him.

The ship visibly bends, the plasma screen and Nth metal trying to resist the overwhelming power of the attack. And because I'm still holding back, they just lose the bridge and surrounding sections.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, Paul doesn't feel like being diplomatic right now.

"I could eliminate your attack craft first, if you like. I imagine that you've read Lantern Dul's reports on my abilities. She has not seen all that I can do. I fight Reach fleets alone and you are nothing like as advanced. I am declaring this conflict over. You will comply or you will die."

"So you are siding with Hyathis."

"No, I'm giving her this ultimatum next. But she's clearly prepared for you, and in my estimation she's more likely to be able to win than you are. This is me saving the rest of your lives. Ten seconds to affective range."

…

I don't want to kill all of them, but if-.

"We will hold station while I… Request clarification of my orders."

"Good. I'll have the treaty for you to sigh in ten minutes."

Click to shrink...

Good to see Paul won't have to kill more thanagarians. I do hope we'll see Hawkman and Hawkwoman confront Paul about this though.

 

[Mr Zoat]

'effective'
'sign', although I'm sure there'll be plenty of sighing, too.

Click to shrink...

"around us"
"closest to us"
"taken"

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

Good to see Paul won't have to kill more thanagarians.

Click to shrink...

Steady on.

 

[Duke Long]

Kromm's face appears over my ring. Ah, I hadn't realised that branding someone let them do that. "Since you've foiled our plan to burn our enemies to death, we are obliged to take a defensive posture-."

Click to shrink...

That's neat. I guess he just hasn't ever tried ring comms with a branded person before. Which does match my memory.

Interesting to see the singularity generator actually work.

Click to shrink...

Actually, I did an analysis a while ago and this result is unsurprising. The singularity projector has a perfect track record against spacecraft and static installations. It only becomes unreliable when used against humanoids.

 

[Ngamer11]

Steady on.

Click to shrink...

I meant for the moment. I'm sure he'll have to kill Seven Devil cultists in the future, especially after he foiled one of Onimar Synn's plans.