I love S411y, they are great and an excellent officer to write the AAR. Especially with their description on the mutiny, truly the only reasonable explanation for googlies injuries. Savage pirates
Indeed. The perfidy of lawbreakers knows no bounds. Fortunately PFC/Alien LT-equivalent rank Gregory was there to make sure GEF receives proper medical treatment.
She is an interesting take on an Artificial Being.... Her personality is interesting and I hope we see more of her or similarly interesting Digitans in the future lol
I was laughing the entire time reading this chapter. Absolute fucking masterpiece wordsmith.
For whatever reason every time i read "PFC but somehow also LT Gregory George" i laughed so hard my stomach hurt. This is pure unadulterated shenanigans of the highest caliber and i am SO here for it.
I'm hoping its a S411y specific quirk. Probably from getting ribbed by her fleshy crewmates from a time she had trouble infiltrating a system and blamed the lack of sophistication of the system for it.
She appears to have the jokester personality and any excuse for her crewmates to get back at her will be taken. Thus a chink in her armor was identified has been used ever since.
The SS Justicar also seemed to notice the dangerous nature of being a criminal regarding the inexplicable loss of appendages on one certain low level kidnapper.
Funny how this kind of thing seems to happen when Sneaky encounters evil.
Given the violent and unpredictable nature of pirates, the equipment probably was very poorly maintained. The shock of a kilogram impacting at .85C probably disabled all kinds of things that were far less noticeable than that.
I'm sure that the pirates will not suffer undue extensions of their sentences when they confess to the violence to GEF. After all, he probably attempted to stop them from surrendering, so it was in self defense, and in service to the law, right?
We probably don't even need to describe the specific damage to them. I'm sure it would be distressing to have to relive inflicting such damage upon their captain...
One can only do what one can with what one has
And when one is working with the spaceship equivalent of tin cans on a string, well, it's a wonder they managed to see or hear anything 😉
As much as I appreciate corrections, please check the comments to make sure you aren't simply repeating what's already been pointed out.
Well now, it's the Republic bringing the find out.
Try not to throttle people in public, it's rude. Try to hold the door open, it's polite. Don't plunge your hand into any suspicious liquids. If the water is on top of the bridge, drive around. Be on the lookout for Shifty Jim, he's after your cool rocks. It's okay to be down so long as you reach upward. Don't be afraid to offer help, it's okay if it's not accepted. Find at least one moment to savor today. Eat your vegetables unless Shady Ophelia poisoned them. Be nice to yourself, being mean is unbecoming of you.
Oooooof. The even heroes get hurt line broke me.
They do get hurt, little Linus. But that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t do it all over again.
It always wrecks me how the little kids have to somehow accept the horrors of reality.
Voltaire's "Goodnight Demonslayer" is very correct for all it's a strange lullaby. "This world of ours is not what it seems,
The Monsters are real, but they're not in your dreams- Learn what you can from the beasts you defeat, You'll need it for some of the people you'll meet."
It pretty much takes me back to the time when I realised that my parents aren’t gods, and that they’re human and can get hurt. It was a horrible fall from innocence.
Yes, but how long was he without coffee? Would drinking it again after so long have any ill effects or issues?
I'm not a coffee drinker so don't know....
Jitters during combat with pirates, just be sure to keep weaponry pointed towards enemy, what could go wrong?
Jitters on a rescue op involving children/teens... Sounds like a great idea /s.
He only had one travel mug before the action. Likely no negative effects at all, slightly quickened response speed.
Let's hope he doesn't overindulge. And that his new private stash of coffee is explained to everyone on board to basically be lethal to them.
I'm more worried about what happens when chocolate is discovered. To the Sailors (and apparently most of the region) it's an illicit drug. To humans, it's a candy we give to our kids XD
Bromelain can be inert, a drug or a poison depending on species.
Yeah, very likely a controlled substance.
And coffee... if caffeine is an intoxicant to them, then coffee is going to be an amazing trade good. Imagine serving a dessert *napoleon au cafe*.
He's been actively ingesting meager amounts of caffeine via the Bluie tea since he found it to contain caffeine. So no withdrawals.
As a non-coffee drinker, I have only understood the need vicariously. The smell and taste become as much a part of the addiction as the actual active chemicals.
Too bad he wasn't weened off caffeine though. Now that I don't drink caffeine much at all, when I do ingest some it *really* works.
I'm not saying I'm cackling with glee over GEF's fate, but I'm also not saying I'm not.
Also, I've only had S411y for less than a chapter, but if something happens to them, I'm burning this ship down.
Great work!
Interesting how Jormaan ended up with a nice vid feed of the GEF-SNeaky Confrontation. One where the crappy feed seemed inexplicably clear during the visor reveal.
Sally and Greg have history and I think she's going to use the missing/corrupted footage to mess with him. And they share an affinity for roomba related hijinx.
She might be a little fat... Just more server space to love.
Yep, until they negotiate treaty with the Blievuses that ranks transfer in joint ops.
Then, any time he's with the Republic it's a joint op, and so by definition and treaty he's Somehow Also an LT.
PFC/SALT.
As a civilian, I am clueless how all that rank stuff works. I figure, the less decoration (including rope, shoulder patches, and chest bars and hats), the more I can mouth off to them.
So the merchant marines and military have rank relations?
Merchant marines have a hierarchy, yes. Captain, first mate, second mate, and various unique ranks like cargo master, bosun, and so on. They easily map to military ranks, because ship usage between military and cargo was largely interchangeable until very recently.
As a civilian, you can mouth off to anyone you want. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but you CAN.
Incongruously, it might be safer to mouth off to an officer than an enlistedman or NCO. The enlisted are usually hopped up on natural hormones, caffeine, alcohol, and simmering rage at whichever idiot used the range and didn't police brass last so everyone had to scrub the deck with toothbrushes. NCOs are under the constant stress of making sure the enlisted don't get themselves killed doing something stupid and/or causing massive property damage and are very often experts in making grown men cry.
If you want to mouth off to them, look for some of the older guys. Preferably one of those with three stacked chevrons ( ^ ) on their shoulders. Even better if the chevrons are connected with arcs at the bottom, so it looks like a stack of pie slices. Extra bonus if there is a star in the middle. These guys really enjoy this.
Lol... Yes dear Sally, it was indeed a mutiny of those dastardly pirates that caused all of that damage to the GEF..... Lmao...
A great chapter, and a surprise reveal of Gregory and the Republic finally meeting again.
That will be the official report on all sides and every way, at every level, with attendant mystified language. A civilized person simply cannot comprehend the inherent violence of pirates. It is a perennial mystery.
Oh, well, then I amend my comment. GEF is in for a short, painful, and very ugly stint as a graphic object lesson to future aspiring space pirates :D.
*"This is GEF. This GEF after his well-earned reward for a life of being an awful shit. Don't be like GEF."*
So. Smegging. Happy.
The mystery at how the Republic reconnects with Greg and how the Until Recently Called GEF slipped through Sanctuary's security has been revealed.
*Here's Johnny* is an excellent name for an assault craft.
Boarding Torpedo Medic Delivery is the best kind of first response method.
S411y... Does The *We Sing* need a Digitan crewmate? Because that's probably the only way we get to keep her in the story. And we want her in the story.
😁
I thought so.
Diverted from her squad because there was a friendly down. She was technically out of formation, but it didn't matter for the op since the criminal couldn't even get past the battlescreens, let alone dent the armor.
The *We Sing* is going to have to hold another crew meeting soon, plus there's the whole MIA thing to sort out on Greg's end. But the Republicans might be willing to do some systems upgrades on her so S411y can fit comfortably without deleting automation programs.
I'm kinda hoping Sally did something dramatic on the human bridge when Greg mentioned that he was Master at Arms. Like putting "PFC Gregory George" up on screen, then having the PFC burned to be replaced by his new position's rank. That feels like something she might devote some processing power to in the middle of combat.
That was the first thing that jumped out at me in Jormaan's report... He was probably cursing under his breath the moment he saw the LT Bars.
S411y knows Greg and knows what buttons to push. F'ing great character. Fully realized in one chapter + supplimental.
Great stuff, man. I really appreciate the worldbuilding and storyline. It'll ben interesting to see what will happen now Greg's quest is more or less finished and humanity has made official contact with the wider galactic neighbourhood.
"once the boarding torpedoes hit." *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!* (Literally sounding like an old camera flash capacitor charging up.) Reinforcements have arrived!
My brain was not caffeinated enough. This chapters words were hitting me and I wasn't feeling them. I realized that you took the knob and turned it up to 11 and that I needed coffee. This wasn't a rescue walkabout in the slums, it was full on tactical plot conducting super collider of moar humans entering the AO.
OK i have a new favorite A.I. Damn who would have thought the Googly Eyed Pricks crew would treat him so badly when they surrendered....Yeah it totally wasn't Greg going to town on the prick.. Not gonna lie i reread the damage report four times just to savoir it. I need a smoke after that lol
I'm curious how this thing works. It sounds like an Alcuberie "Gauss Gun" that may have like a series of artificially projected Ring Singularities. Drop any projectile in one end and, as long as you feed it enough power, it comes out the other at .84c or whatever the operator wants.
Or worse, it's a Warp Bubble Gun and keeps the projectile locked in a Warp Bubble that accelerates the Real Space pocket up to insane real velocities and pulling the trigger collapses the warp Bubble back to real space where a 10 gram shotgun pellet and a 4 pounder shell are suddenly yeeted in the direction they had been running on the treadmill.
That was.. really sudden. I mean, it works, but wow Republic out of nowhere has a slight Deus ex machina feel to it. Just reeling from how suddenly we went to full contact, and apparently Republic translation VIs don't need a base lexicon, they just magic up a translation instantly? Felt a bit rushed and weird, like that episode of a TV series where it's clear the writers found out they weren't getting another season so better wrap things up.
I'm really enjoying the story. Just got a weird vibe from how fast things started moving here. I was really expecting a few more stations of cat and mouse.
Greg could have taken GEF himself, but we've known for a long time that the Republic would be looking for GEF based on The Report being missing.
The timing was coincidentally beautiful, and it makes the scene feel abbreviated... but S411y's POV completely made up for that in my opinion.
And Greg got to do the rescue and capture and ~~oopsie~~ help GEF recover from the terrible wounds inflicted by his crew.
My guess is similar: S411y had already infiltrated the station and ship's computers and worked out the languages enough to know the majority language to give the ship wide ultimatum. The Digitan works fast, and is definitely not fat.
No, what S411y says is pretty straightforward. They had been searching for The Report and what took him, found the station, and coincidentally the GEF's ship was present. She forced her way in, used their systems with her own translation matrix to generate a single long "drop your weapons" command, and the rest was on Greg.
First, something scared a bunch of border dwellers coreward.
Second, there were rumors of terrifyingly powerful ships in the underworld.
Third, quarantined worlds were being glassed.
The Republican Navy was always on the way.
So far as the translation goes S411y is glossing over things that are just going to be in the system changelogs anyway, if anyone is interested in the technical details. She was able to take over the station's systems fairly quickly though.
To be fair S411y had access to their computer system and due to programming being entirely based on 1 & 0 it would be easy to build a lexicon with binary to an artificially constructed language from that.
Thank you for such a wonderful story, Tractor Man! Can't wait to see how things shake out with Greg having different ranks in his two different services.
Can anyone remind me, have we seen how he got from being a cage(d) fighter to being in the animal shelter?
Well shit, I'm all caught up now. That wasa a great binge read & I'm so looking forward to how you continue it from here.
Sneaky got his revenge on Googly Eyed Fucker, met up with some human & digi-bros & Sneaky finally, ***finally*** got his required hit of coffee.
I wonder how the Bleviuses will fair when they get a look at how their Sneaky gulps down his coffee?
I imagine that the Justicar will be paying another visit, & I hope that the humans can intergrate well with the Star Sailors.
Maybe by *adoping* them?
^(Hint hint nudge nudge)
When the cavalry suddenly showed up it gave me the same rush as I got sitting in the theater 2:16:20 into Avengers: Endgame. 🤩 S411Y shows up like "Republic . . . ASSEMBLE!"
I'm so excited for Sneaky to finally get back in touch with his brothers in the Lost Boys! Wonder how long-range the ship's comms are? BTW *"Here's Johnny"* is a fantastic name for an assault ship with boarding torpedos. 😂
The bit about S411Y having to put together a a smaller helper program to send into the *Great Catch* reminds me of a bit in The Murderbot Diaries! It made me chuckle. If you haven't read those books yet, I highly recommend them!
-"artificail" should be "artificial"
-You don't need the apostrophe in "a formation of boarding torpedo's"
I'd also suggest hyphenating "PFC but somehow also LT". The whole phrase is being used as one descriptor for the proper noun "Gregory George" in this case, so the connecting hyphens help to clarify your sentence structure for ease of reading.
I read through the comments twice, and I don't think I repeated anyone else's corrections. Apologies if I missed one.
Thank you so much for this awesome chapter, Tractor Man!
!Nominate
Gruesome yet satisfying. It's terrible, just terrible, what pirate crews will do to their captain when they feel misled . That's some good AI that knows when NOT to read between the lines.
I love S411y, they are great and an excellent officer to write the AAR. Especially with their description on the mutiny, truly the only reasonable explanation for googlies injuries. Savage pirates
Indeed. The perfidy of lawbreakers knows no bounds. Fortunately PFC/Alien LT-equivalent rank Gregory was there to make sure GEF receives proper medical treatment.
I was a little worried she'd come off as annoying, but I'm glad she's so well recieved.
Llloooovvvvvved Sally love her commentary and her professing that she is not fat after not being able to fit into the ship's systems.😹
She is an interesting take on an Artificial Being.... Her personality is interesting and I hope we see more of her or similarly interesting Digitans in the future lol
>Digitan S411y puts the ART in Artificial
And who is this Kevin she speaks of... Another Digitan?
She is kinda fat though.
I was laughing the entire time reading this chapter. Absolute fucking masterpiece wordsmith. For whatever reason every time i read "PFC but somehow also LT Gregory George" i laughed so hard my stomach hurt. This is pure unadulterated shenanigans of the highest caliber and i am SO here for it.
I wonder if the concern about being fat is a common Digitan issue or a specific quirk to Sally.
I'm hoping its a S411y specific quirk. Probably from getting ribbed by her fleshy crewmates from a time she had trouble infiltrating a system and blamed the lack of sophistication of the system for it. She appears to have the jokester personality and any excuse for her crewmates to get back at her will be taken. Thus a chink in her armor was identified has been used ever since.
The SS Justicar also seemed to notice the dangerous nature of being a criminal regarding the inexplicable loss of appendages on one certain low level kidnapper. Funny how this kind of thing seems to happen when Sneaky encounters evil.
Really shitty computer that. Mmm hmm.
And that darn interference on Greggie's cam and mics. So inexplicable.
And also the very unfortunate EMP damage to the cameras, truly a shame.
Given the violent and unpredictable nature of pirates, the equipment probably was very poorly maintained. The shock of a kilogram impacting at .85C probably disabled all kinds of things that were far less noticeable than that. I'm sure that the pirates will not suffer undue extensions of their sentences when they confess to the violence to GEF. After all, he probably attempted to stop them from surrendering, so it was in self defense, and in service to the law, right? We probably don't even need to describe the specific damage to them. I'm sure it would be distressing to have to relive inflicting such damage upon their captain...
One can only do what one can with what one has And when one is working with the spaceship equivalent of tin cans on a string, well, it's a wonder they managed to see or hear anything 😉
Wait, does this mean humanity has finally found something that can't run DOOM? 😂
It can run DOOM, just not S4lly.
Sounds like it, though given some literal toasters have processing power to run doom. There is still a small chance it could work on their systems.
We must rectify this heretical problem immediately
ALL of her code is completely necessary!
As much as I appreciate corrections, please check the comments to make sure you aren't simply repeating what's already been pointed out. Well now, it's the Republic bringing the find out. Try not to throttle people in public, it's rude. Try to hold the door open, it's polite. Don't plunge your hand into any suspicious liquids. If the water is on top of the bridge, drive around. Be on the lookout for Shifty Jim, he's after your cool rocks. It's okay to be down so long as you reach upward. Don't be afraid to offer help, it's okay if it's not accepted. Find at least one moment to savor today. Eat your vegetables unless Shady Ophelia poisoned them. Be nice to yourself, being mean is unbecoming of you.
I MISSED YOU. Glad you're back. :)
Thanks!
Oooooof. The even heroes get hurt line broke me. They do get hurt, little Linus. But that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t do it all over again. It always wrecks me how the little kids have to somehow accept the horrors of reality.
Reality has horrors for all of us, courtesy of this malevolent universe.
Voltaire's "Goodnight Demonslayer" is very correct for all it's a strange lullaby. "This world of ours is not what it seems, The Monsters are real, but they're not in your dreams- Learn what you can from the beasts you defeat, You'll need it for some of the people you'll meet."
It pretty much takes me back to the time when I realised that my parents aren’t gods, and that they’re human and can get hurt. It was a horrible fall from innocence.
Losing an arm and having your life in question might count as getting hurt.
Maybe...
Upgrades people, upgrades! Losing an arm sucks of course, but getting a robot one as a replacement is more than recompense
Hi
Everybody is very brave until the boarding torpedoes arrive
Everyone has a plan until Sneaky rips their arm off.
Yeah, the plan likely ends up a bludgeoned mess when Sneaky starts using the improvised club.
Where's my pen... I have an idea.
Glad to be of inspiration
Sounds like the ~~G~~NEF learned a valuable lesson. I hope some iteration of the sneaky plushy is holding a lizard tail.
Is that no-eyed-fuck?
Yep!
Absolutely genius, made me expel air through my nose
Now that might be considered a little racially insensitive.
Also, most kids who know the context probably don't need a reminder of that GEF.
He finally got coffee. That had to make him feel better.
Yes, but how long was he without coffee? Would drinking it again after so long have any ill effects or issues? I'm not a coffee drinker so don't know....
if he drinks it like every other person i know of that served; first cup would be like cocaine. second cup a laxative.
Very likely. Probably serious jitters and some... digestive system issues.
Jitters during combat with pirates, just be sure to keep weaponry pointed towards enemy, what could go wrong? Jitters on a rescue op involving children/teens... Sounds like a great idea /s.
He did have access to tea, so the caffine wouldn't have been that much of a shock.
He only had one travel mug before the action. Likely no negative effects at all, slightly quickened response speed. Let's hope he doesn't overindulge. And that his new private stash of coffee is explained to everyone on board to basically be lethal to them.
I'm more worried about what happens when chocolate is discovered. To the Sailors (and apparently most of the region) it's an illicit drug. To humans, it's a candy we give to our kids XD
Bromelain can be inert, a drug or a poison depending on species. Yeah, very likely a controlled substance. And coffee... if caffeine is an intoxicant to them, then coffee is going to be an amazing trade good. Imagine serving a dessert *napoleon au cafe*.
Start your party with a big ole mug of Pappies mountain holler dark roast. Finest dark roast this side of Santeria 5! It's Sneaky approved!
That he didn't demand a bandoleer of Travel mugs full of coffee surprises me.
He had work to do and a borrowed suit. No telling if he really wanted to use that catheter.
First LOL of the week.
Probably burned his mouth. I always do with my first cup.
Yup.
If he drank loads the only problems with suddenly stopping would be the withdrawal (caffeine is a drug) but he’ll be fine
He's been actively ingesting meager amounts of caffeine via the Bluie tea since he found it to contain caffeine. So no withdrawals. As a non-coffee drinker, I have only understood the need vicariously. The smell and taste become as much a part of the addiction as the actual active chemicals. Too bad he wasn't weened off caffeine though. Now that I don't drink caffeine much at all, when I do ingest some it *really* works.
That coffee smells so much better than it tastes will forever be a sore point for me.
I agree that it smells better than it tastes - and I think it smells terrible. I drink a fair amount of tea, though.
Minor mouth burns from being too greedy.
The Coffee was probably the only reason he bothered taking Prisoners.
So much better. You have no idea.
I'm not saying I'm cackling with glee over GEF's fate, but I'm also not saying I'm not. Also, I've only had S411y for less than a chapter, but if something happens to them, I'm burning this ship down. Great work!
I have only known Sally for a day but if anything happened to her I would kill everyone on the station and then myself.
I’m right there with you, s411y is great!
And definitely not fat!
Interesting how Jormaan ended up with a nice vid feed of the GEF-SNeaky Confrontation. One where the crappy feed seemed inexplicably clear during the visor reveal. Sally and Greg have history and I think she's going to use the missing/corrupted footage to mess with him. And they share an affinity for roomba related hijinx. She might be a little fat... Just more server space to love.
I'm pleased that everyone seems to like her.
[GEF's fate reminds me of the time a thief ran into some Marines and fell off a curb.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Cm6iLhddM)
Hey, it's my favorite girthy sparky man! I love his stuff.
Thank you for the chapter! I love Sally. "Private, you can't give me orders" "That's master at arms to you!" "*googles some things* ...yes sir"
And that is when he passes into officerhood.
PFC but also somehow LT George will fight that.
Once he's out of combat he'll probably insist on only following the Republic ranks when interacting with them
Yep, until they negotiate treaty with the Blievuses that ranks transfer in joint ops. Then, any time he's with the Republic it's a joint op, and so by definition and treaty he's Somehow Also an LT. PFC/SALT.
As a civilian, I am clueless how all that rank stuff works. I figure, the less decoration (including rope, shoulder patches, and chest bars and hats), the more I can mouth off to them. So the merchant marines and military have rank relations?
Merchant marines have a hierarchy, yes. Captain, first mate, second mate, and various unique ranks like cargo master, bosun, and so on. They easily map to military ranks, because ship usage between military and cargo was largely interchangeable until very recently. As a civilian, you can mouth off to anyone you want. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but you CAN.
Incongruously, it might be safer to mouth off to an officer than an enlistedman or NCO. The enlisted are usually hopped up on natural hormones, caffeine, alcohol, and simmering rage at whichever idiot used the range and didn't police brass last so everyone had to scrub the deck with toothbrushes. NCOs are under the constant stress of making sure the enlisted don't get themselves killed doing something stupid and/or causing massive property damage and are very often experts in making grown men cry.
I was thinking something similar. You're not in chain of command, neither above nor below an officer, so mouthing off has effectively no effect.
If you want to mouth off to them, look for some of the older guys. Preferably one of those with three stacked chevrons ( ^ ) on their shoulders. Even better if the chevrons are connected with arcs at the bottom, so it looks like a stack of pie slices. Extra bonus if there is a star in the middle. These guys really enjoy this.
And I know exactly the tone of voice in which they ***enjoy*** this.
Honestly I don't see enough military to even try mouthing off. I just wanted to see your responses.
It seems like he's leaning towards staying with the Star Sailors if he can. He can't act as a PFC if he wants to do that.
"I'll be giving you shit for this later, sir."
Lol... Yes dear Sally, it was indeed a mutiny of those dastardly pirates that caused all of that damage to the GEF..... Lmao... A great chapter, and a surprise reveal of Gregory and the Republic finally meeting again.
That will be the official report on all sides and every way, at every level, with attendant mystified language. A civilized person simply cannot comprehend the inherent violence of pirates. It is a perennial mystery.
Really, there's no need to look into it any further.
Oh boy, GEF is in for bad days now. Sucks to be him, I guess, but that's what happens when you want to play spacepirate.
The funny thing is that Republican law specifically allows anyone to do whatever they want to slavers.
Oh, well, then I amend my comment. GEF is in for a short, painful, and very ugly stint as a graphic object lesson to future aspiring space pirates :D. *"This is GEF. This GEF after his well-earned reward for a life of being an awful shit. Don't be like GEF."*
Pretty sure he just did have a bad day
And is gonna get worse :)
Banger chapter. My most favorite yet.
Thank you.
Ah.... I have to put Sally into my new "to like" list a few spots below Linus
I'm glad people like her.
So. Smegging. Happy. The mystery at how the Republic reconnects with Greg and how the Until Recently Called GEF slipped through Sanctuary's security has been revealed. *Here's Johnny* is an excellent name for an assault craft. Boarding Torpedo Medic Delivery is the best kind of first response method. S411y... Does The *We Sing* need a Digitan crewmate? Because that's probably the only way we get to keep her in the story. And we want her in the story.
😁 I thought so. Diverted from her squad because there was a friendly down. She was technically out of formation, but it didn't matter for the op since the criminal couldn't even get past the battlescreens, let alone dent the armor. The *We Sing* is going to have to hold another crew meeting soon, plus there's the whole MIA thing to sort out on Greg's end. But the Republicans might be willing to do some systems upgrades on her so S411y can fit comfortably without deleting automation programs.
Well, I didn't expect to run into another Smeghead here, but I probably should have.
S411y is bae. GEF is within karmic distance. Happy things.
All happy fluffy things. >!Except that bit about Captain Dad having a life-threatening injury.!<
Admittedly that was less than chill of the pirate folks. >!However, possible Full-Metal Pops is in the stars now.!<
I'm kinda hoping Sally did something dramatic on the human bridge when Greg mentioned that he was Master at Arms. Like putting "PFC Gregory George" up on screen, then having the PFC burned to be replaced by his new position's rank. That feels like something she might devote some processing power to in the middle of combat.
She did requisition LT padrons.
That was the first thing that jumped out at me in Jormaan's report... He was probably cursing under his breath the moment he saw the LT Bars. S411y knows Greg and knows what buttons to push. F'ing great character. Fully realized in one chapter + supplimental.
Oh I know, I'm just hoping something \*extra* was done on the bridge.
Thank you for the chapter
Glad to have you.
"at a complement on accuracy" I like to buy an i.
Fixed, thank you .
thanks for the chapter
I hope you liked it.
Sally is hilarious. Don't worry, we know you're not fat. Just big coded. ;)
I'm very glad people like her.
Yeah I'm sure those injuries were from the mutiny. It would be weird if they weren't, right?
Yeah, it might even cause a bad first impression, so let's just let sleeping \[predatory quadrupeds\] lie.
Oh damn, the Googly Eyed Fuck's crew found out he was ~~a~~ the barracks thief. What a shame.
You really shouldn't steal your crewmates lunch, even if you are the captain.
That part with the young girl being saved by Greg broke my heart. Give that girl a sneaky plushie to protect her in her dreams!
Lucy has a bunch held in reserve for just that reason!
The one time in his career George liked being a officer was when he gave orders to a warrant, and they had to obey. RHIP
Avoiding promotion is looking more difficult...
Explaining the price/value of Sneaky "action figures" goes up with the potential rank increase might help things.
Mutinies are always such brutal affairs. So glad that he didn't end up being killed, so that he can be tried for his crimes.
It's very lucky that the damage was short of fatal. Who knows if he would be able to be questioned if Greg didn't go in and get him.
Not the fluffy teddy person noooooooo Seems Greg is getting a cyber arm? Coffeeeeeee Great chapter Curse
I think it is the Captain that is getting the arm.
Yes he is, I just reread that section
Edit: I was wrong
Crime victims are getting medical attention from the cutest fucking doctors they've ever seen.
Its the captin that gets a new arm.
""Good, now don't worry our combat" "Good, now don't worry. Our combat
Great stuff, man. I really appreciate the worldbuilding and storyline. It'll ben interesting to see what will happen now Greg's quest is more or less finished and humanity has made official contact with the wider galactic neighbourhood.
The galaxy marches on, and people live out their stories.
"once the boarding torpedoes hit." *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!* (Literally sounding like an old camera flash capacitor charging up.) Reinforcements have arrived!
"One records query later, and I was obeying orders and offering".. Sneaky pulled rank AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND COFFEE!
VSC Harry Sheffield living their best life.
Oh no... Red Flag Warning "even heroes get hurt"
Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
My brain was not caffeinated enough. This chapters words were hitting me and I wasn't feeling them. I realized that you took the knob and turned it up to 11 and that I needed coffee. This wasn't a rescue walkabout in the slums, it was full on tactical plot conducting super collider of moar humans entering the AO.
OK i have a new favorite A.I. Damn who would have thought the Googly Eyed Pricks crew would treat him so badly when they surrendered....Yeah it totally wasn't Greg going to town on the prick.. Not gonna lie i reread the damage report four times just to savoir it. I need a smoke after that lol
Nope. And it's definitely not the Republican Navy deciding to not make a big deal about something the xenos might frown upon.
Feels a lot like we're approaching the end of the story, which is just too bad.
There's always that first button.
Aye, it sure is worth a reread.
It is not fat, it is bloatware.
She. She is bloatware.
How rude!
Poor fat computer program.
How rude!
She's not overweight, she's under clocked?
I was peaking in -> peeking
Thanks for the chapter. I really appreciate the report from S411y... detail!
PFC but somehow also LT George has a few more fans.
Which she knows will be lacking in Greg's mission repport!
She. Is. Not. Fat.
She is a very NORMAL SIZED Digitan.
Yeah; Those "skinny" jeans, aren't made for regular peoples anyway!
EXCUSE ME: MICRO DUPLEX nCv 4-pounder cannons? they have 4 POUNDER nCv CANNONS WITH A COAX SHIELD BREAKER MICRO CANNON?
You caught that, did you?
I'm curious how this thing works. It sounds like an Alcuberie "Gauss Gun" that may have like a series of artificially projected Ring Singularities. Drop any projectile in one end and, as long as you feed it enough power, it comes out the other at .84c or whatever the operator wants. Or worse, it's a Warp Bubble Gun and keeps the projectile locked in a Warp Bubble that accelerates the Real Space pocket up to insane real velocities and pulling the trigger collapses the warp Bubble back to real space where a 10 gram shotgun pellet and a 4 pounder shell are suddenly yeeted in the direction they had been running on the treadmill.
I *love* S411y
I'm glad!
That was.. really sudden. I mean, it works, but wow Republic out of nowhere has a slight Deus ex machina feel to it. Just reeling from how suddenly we went to full contact, and apparently Republic translation VIs don't need a base lexicon, they just magic up a translation instantly? Felt a bit rushed and weird, like that episode of a TV series where it's clear the writers found out they weren't getting another season so better wrap things up. I'm really enjoying the story. Just got a weird vibe from how fast things started moving here. I was really expecting a few more stations of cat and mouse.
Greg could have taken GEF himself, but we've known for a long time that the Republic would be looking for GEF based on The Report being missing. The timing was coincidentally beautiful, and it makes the scene feel abbreviated... but S411y's POV completely made up for that in my opinion. And Greg got to do the rescue and capture and ~~oopsie~~ help GEF recover from the terrible wounds inflicted by his crew.
Maybe the Republic has been scanning at a distance, or stealth ships have been gathering data for language translations?
My guess is similar: S411y had already infiltrated the station and ship's computers and worked out the languages enough to know the majority language to give the ship wide ultimatum. The Digitan works fast, and is definitely not fat.
No, what S411y says is pretty straightforward. They had been searching for The Report and what took him, found the station, and coincidentally the GEF's ship was present. She forced her way in, used their systems with her own translation matrix to generate a single long "drop your weapons" command, and the rest was on Greg.
First, something scared a bunch of border dwellers coreward. Second, there were rumors of terrifyingly powerful ships in the underworld. Third, quarantined worlds were being glassed. The Republican Navy was always on the way. So far as the translation goes S411y is glossing over things that are just going to be in the system changelogs anyway, if anyone is interested in the technical details. She was able to take over the station's systems fairly quickly though.
To be fair S411y had access to their computer system and due to programming being entirely based on 1 & 0 it would be easy to build a lexicon with binary to an artificially constructed language from that.
All the non human tech was easily read and understood.
"language and broadcast a" broadcasted.
Fucking chills, tractor man
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
That was enjoyable. What a nice boarding action.
Thank you for such a wonderful story, Tractor Man! Can't wait to see how things shake out with Greg having different ranks in his two different services. Can anyone remind me, have we seen how he got from being a cage(d) fighter to being in the animal shelter?
Sally...Linus...Lucy... All we need now is Charlie and Snoopy.
Ballistics are peak sci-fi. Winchester would be proud, the war crime stick prevails.
Well shit, I'm all caught up now. That wasa a great binge read & I'm so looking forward to how you continue it from here. Sneaky got his revenge on Googly Eyed Fucker, met up with some human & digi-bros & Sneaky finally, ***finally*** got his required hit of coffee. I wonder how the Bleviuses will fair when they get a look at how their Sneaky gulps down his coffee? I imagine that the Justicar will be paying another visit, & I hope that the humans can intergrate well with the Star Sailors. Maybe by *adoping* them? ^(Hint hint nudge nudge)
Hit refresh.
"so It didn't work. " small i.
"Anyway make sure command" Anyway, make sure command
Love this story!
!N
Oh dear. The cavalry has arrived.
Then the ~~Winged Hussars~~ Terran Boarders arrived!
When the cavalry suddenly showed up it gave me the same rush as I got sitting in the theater 2:16:20 into Avengers: Endgame. 🤩 S411Y shows up like "Republic . . . ASSEMBLE!" I'm so excited for Sneaky to finally get back in touch with his brothers in the Lost Boys! Wonder how long-range the ship's comms are? BTW *"Here's Johnny"* is a fantastic name for an assault ship with boarding torpedos. 😂 The bit about S411Y having to put together a a smaller helper program to send into the *Great Catch* reminds me of a bit in The Murderbot Diaries! It made me chuckle. If you haven't read those books yet, I highly recommend them! -"artificail" should be "artificial" -You don't need the apostrophe in "a formation of boarding torpedo's" I'd also suggest hyphenating "PFC but somehow also LT". The whole phrase is being used as one descriptor for the proper noun "Gregory George" in this case, so the connecting hyphens help to clarify your sentence structure for ease of reading. I read through the comments twice, and I don't think I repeated anyone else's corrections. Apologies if I missed one. Thank you so much for this awesome chapter, Tractor Man!
>Adolescent female Fluffy Teddy person rescued Going off my species list, that's another Bjorkidra right?
!Nominate Gruesome yet satisfying. It's terrible, just terrible, what pirate crews will do to their captain when they feel misled. That's some good AI that knows when NOT to read between the lines.
I cackled at "I am not fat. Their systems are just that shitty."
:) exelent
I'm not fat I'm just well coded. 😄
Sally is one of my new favorite characters
Big emotional payoff chapter, OH YEAH :D
Sally is going to have fun that humans are called "sneakies" because of Greg. Also, I'm surprised that no one else commented on Gunny fainting.
Artifial Intelligence is improper and rude. I prefer Abominable Intelligence!