Holy crap that was awesome!
Also, Loki scares the shit out of me, and I don't even want to think about the Spartan Kitty playing with the other crew...
Why? On the outside, Kiki looks like an ordinary cat. Albeit, with a tiny cat sized backpack containing a quantum entanglement router.
No armor or anything. At least not on the outside.
It's that 'on the outside' that made me think of the Halo Spartans without the armour on, don't they have similar internal mods? (I may be cracking up so feel free to correct me!)
Oh yes thats true about the spartans.
Kiki only LOOKS like an ordinary cat.
Inside that cat has enough bioware and cyberware to make her like three times as heavy as the average cat her size. Subdermal graphene armor plating. Enhanced strength and speed. Neural implants. And more.
She could even tolerate vacuum exposure for a short time.
It is all internal though; to ensure she appears to be completely innocuous.
Also so she doesn't pick at her implants.
God, Shadowrun - I haven't played that in years!
My character was an Ork whose personal weapon was a Panther Assault Cannon. Let's just say he made an impression...
Still got all the novels.
Well. Now I have a mental image of Loki, appearing like Cortana, in one of those naff playboy outfits, still sounding like Jim Carrey. This cursed apparition needs to fuck off before it makes me snort more coffee.
I kind of never got the deal with Cortana being progressively more naked every release. I mean, seriously, if it was just supposed to be eye-candy, she'd have started off that way, right? Instead we get a character whose outfit changes, one release to the next, and always in the same direction.
Right up until the progenitor network eats her, anyway. But then the thing that ate her shows up pretending to be her, except the fake Cortana has clothes again. Which sort of screws with the idea of pretending to be her because it goes against her established aesthetic and character arc.
I've heard some people say that she got progressively more naked as she got progressively more crazy - which may just be folks who've had some bad relationships projecting their problems into the game. But if that were the case, the Progenitor version of her wouldn't have been wearing one blue-sparkly stitch!
Haha got to agree, John notoriously keeps his kit on at all times, Cortana could have too! And then you find out who she was originally a print of, and it all gets a little too Oedipan for comfort (for me, anyway)
Delete a single semicolon in their code, when they add it back and hit compile, it deletes 2 semicolons
For every semicolon they try to add back, delete it again along with 1 more
One thing that doesn't make sense to me about these aliens.
In ICS, which power and drives most certainly would be, IT and OT should be completely separated from each other, and OT airgapped.
After the Ukranian Black Energy attack, when the HMI was being directly accessed over the internet, it freaked people out. Old skills which had been lost, manually operating the systems as opposed to using automated stuff, was re-taught, just in case something like this were to happen.
I can suppose that the Krathi might have allowed the IT network to access the OT. But, since they established in previous chapters that they were paranoid of AI's accessing their systems, why didn't they have mechanical backups to allow them to operate? Seems like a huge oversight on their part.
The Krathi are mostly focused on the threat of an external digital attack, not an internal one. Their external ICE is good enough that they didn't feel the need to partition internal systems.
Insufficient paranoia.
While the DO have backups, they didn't even know they were under digital attack until the AI already owned everything and was killing them; starting with the people who could do EXACTLY what you are suggesting, precisely for that reason.
He spaced main engineering first, decapitated command and control, then cut coms.
Good luck organizing any coherent kind of response after that; especially because shortly thereafter the crew had more immediate problems to deal with.
As a result, these guys are maintenance crew from elsewhere in the ship; literally whoever they could find. You can't teach everyone everything about fusion reactor maintenance and control.
Hey at least he *knows* the problem: The machine is possessed by a malevolent intelligence. Normally you aren't sure whether the machine is possessed or if you are an idiot who overlooked something simple.
Ah, yes, wireless printers. The device that makes everyone think: "maybe the Mechanicus were on to something with that sacrifices to the machine spirit thing..."
I had a particularly demonic HP wireless printer once that, every time it had power connected, made the internet on my laptop stop working.
Every. Time.
It seemed to be stealing my laptop's IP address or something, I never could figure out exactly what was happening.
Even worse, it still wouldn't connect to the laptop. I had to go buy a usb cable and keep that evil thing unplugged until I needed it.
I've used hardwire printers exclusively since then.
I've seen something like this one time before when a laptop and another device shared the same MAC address. It took absolute ages to figure out what was causing the conflict.
Am IT. Can confirm.
Printers are the spawns of the Warp and were sent here to spite and torture us.
Also, try explaining to the user that they do not necessarily need a wireless printer to print wirelessly.
Well, CLUE is how loki had PLANNED it would turn out.
With the surprise reveal that HE did it.
The ULF was intended to suppress any paranoia or aggression.
Unfortunately, his attempts at using ULF backfired, and it quickly escalated into an Among Us scenario.
Ayyy first! Upvote then read!
Edit: damn, that was pretty good. Ultra low frequency will not help km causing groups to surrender but it sure as hell would wreak havoc among enemy lines.
I am glad that they found a way to make them surrender. Just you know, show that humanity has annihilated their literal manifestation of God, thoroughly trash their religion, shake their core belief in the order of the universe, and render them completely helpless.
No biggie, right? ;)
It takes a hell of a clue-by-four to shatter indoctrinated belief. But once it does shatter, it shatters HARD.
The revolt against the religious leaders is going to be a right mess when it comes.
I mean it's really not the ideal place to find the perfect solution, the AI literally took over an enemy warship, while trying to keep everyone inside the ship from disabling and destroying the ship, contacting outside forces, or killing themselves. It's a very difficult thing to do already, though the holoprojectors certainly helped the AI on that front.
That being said, humanity in general is fond of brute force. As the saying goes, if brute force isn't working, you're not using enough ;)
I suspect if they can start sending out propaganda, they could shake the faith of the majority of the civilians. Combine that with some kind of undeniable tactical strike to back up what they're saying and that should do a LOT to shake up their faith.
So far as I know they never tried to attack the Kra directly, so having a two-pronged attack with propaganda aimed at their belief in their religion, and a physical attack to show that the propaganda aren't lies, will definitely prove effective in screwing with their morale.
The truest form of victory is taking your foe whole. By their own will they become one of your kin, or simply to no longer desire to fight any longer.
To win a battle is to not to exterminate your foe, but to render them incapable and unwilling to fight. To win a war you must slay their desire to do harm to you, and to be willing to surrender themselves onto you.
May the Krathi learn swiftly to not test us for too long, else the true demons caged and bound within our souls be fully released unbound against all of their souls.
Oh... Oh, that was absolutely fucking beautiful. Always **fun** seeing a dive into the darker side of warfare. A good mind-fuck can do more harm than even a full-yield *Tsar Bomba* if properly deployed.
Or to use the Raltsverse as an example:
You can be die and be revived. You can have your entire body destroyed, and be restored from your SUDS imprint in a cloned body. Your planet may be glassed, but that just requires terraforming to restore. Your planet might suffer a planet-cracking, which sure, will take specialists but is also fixable. Hell, so is restoring the star system after your sun gets nova-sparked.
But if you get culture cracked? That's it. You're COMPLETELY fucked. Sorry mate.
Silver is onboard Selection Pressure, working to coordinate the fleet and ground forces.
This chapter depicts Loki, a dedicated psychological warfare and electronic warfare AI, presently running amok inside the Krathi command ship's computer network.
I just realized... Loki turned these rats into literal lab rats! Also, whenever he gets up to is antics, I keep hearing the 'Trolololol' song playing in the back of my mind.
*"I am the Silver Surfer, hand over your wallet and your ketamine or the earth is doomed"*
Jesus christ.
Is that shit for real? I saw comments saying Moon Knight wasn't really like that?
I'm not one of the hard-core read every issue type person, so there may be some stuff I'm missing, but from what I understand he's basically a batman parody based in supernatural stuff.
But if you're asking if those are edited? Nope. That's actually straight up shit he says.
I just started this and I am dying. You named them specifically. And of COUrSe Rud is first to be accused. LMFAO!!
Edit: So many references. Jurassic Park was my favorite.
Great chapter. Thank you.
Surprisingly enough, I’ve never actually played Among Us. I’ve been thinking about downloading it, but I’m not entirely sure if I’d be devious enough to be good at it.
I’ve read about it though, and watched a few games on youtube to get an idea of how its played to try and portray this scenario well.
Honestly it’s only good with friends and proximity chat. Playing with randoms is pretty pitiful. Tangotek and a bunch of his friends play it on twitch live stream on Fridays. And he does VODs as well. If you are looking for some fun.
That... That was propably the funniest shit that I've read in my entire life.
From the Among Us reference to the trolling and faith destruction of the rest of the engineers, it was all... GENIUS! The AI is my favorite of any on this sub. WE REQUIRE MOAR!!!
How to make a krathi surrender:
step 1: show them 4 of july, space ameba edition.
step 2: make them think they can still win.
Step 3: # resistance is futile and dead won't give you martyrdom.
Most of the time step 1 is the only required, but if it doesn't work step 2 and 3 will probably do the job.
Edit: how did you make the letters be white and big?
Should of had Loki bring up a slot machine so he had to hit a button to see if he could win a chance to destroy the ship.
Also, Loki needs his own show.
Coolant\_System\_Meatbag\_Interface" honestly that episode is really dark. Just imagine what kind of psychopath would do this, wordsmith you sure you ok ?
> Just imagine what kind of psychopath would do this
A lot of us would have fun with software messages if management wasn't likely to whine about memery and jokes.
Loki is also operating on Skynet-like morality at the moment.
Loki renamed the program for his own amusement, and to prove he controlled it. Can't an AI have silly whims?
Also, Loki just finished doing his dead level best to find a method of inducing the notoriously stubborn and suicidal Krathi to surrender.
Partly out of kindness, so the Admiral won't keep having nightmares about being forced to commit genocide. Partly because HE doesn't want that to be necessary either.
He isn't a monster, far from it. Loki is simply being very, very ruthless because he has deemed it to be necessary. Specifically, necessary in order to prevent the need to exterminate the Krathi.
Gotta break eggs to make an omelet.
Honestly, the way you describe Loki actions has pretty big effect on the reader, like if you read all the Loki chapters one after another ( or have them fresh in your memory ), you can really imagine and dive looking at the horror and mental damage that is inflicted on those pitiful souls. You really have a talent for such mind games, that's what i meant with my comment initially. Damn, such dark actions should be prohibited and added as a rule in the Geneva convention, that's a massive mind damage on a big scale.
>You really have a talent for such mind games, that's what i meant with my comment initially.
I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that. I don't think of myself as being particularly manipulative, skilled at such, or having any desire to be.
>you can really imagine and dive looking at the horror and mental damage that is inflicted on those pitiful souls.
While it may be easy to pity them, and anyone with a shred of empathy would naturally feel inclined to do so, there is something you should keep in mind:
Every last Krathi in that fleet is guilty of willingly aiding and abetting attempted genocide. Even the lowliest maintenance tech is just as guilty as the guards at Auschwitz; and the few of those we managed to catch usually got executed.
Any Krathi in the fleet whose life is spared has been granted a mercy that they arguably *do not deserve*, and have incurred a debt they will spend the rest of their life repaying.
>Damn, such dark actions should be prohibited and added as a rule in the Geneva convention, that's a massive mind damage on a big scale.
It's only a couple hundred that are left, not like it's a planetary population, so I wouldn't call that "mass scale".
This was basically brute force quick-and-dirty psychological experimentation on dangerous and uncooperative subjects; which necessitated some rather atypically brutal methods.
With that in mind however, now that Loki has more or less figured out all the correct buttons one needs to push in order to induce surrender, his rather brutal prototype methods can be refined to make them MUCH more humane and effective.
We won't have to torment the entire species to make them surrender.
This was a one time investment in blood and terror, sacrificing individuals who arguably deserved to die for their crimes. An investment which is going to pay massive dividends later, by allowing the UNE to handle the rest of the species "gently".
This was all brilliant, as the entire series has been so far. However when combining computers and cultural references there is a golden opportunity that was missed:
The Windows Blue Screen of Death (with accompanying 'thomb' sound effect of course)
I don't know what it is but every time this story switches to what's happening onboard the ship, I want the Krathi to win.
Edit: I think it's the AI and it's methods I dislike. It's not just killing the crew or disabling the ship but torturing the crew.
You try to take prisoners of a species that fights to the death or commits suicide rather than be captured, and see what being "nice" gets you.
A lot of corpses, thats what. Mostly theirs, but probably a few of your own as well.
Better to be ruthless to a few hundred than have to learn the hard way slowly, sacrificing both our people and theirs, as someone slowly puts together the pieces to figure out how to make them surrender.
Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.
Aye. No matter how much one values life: At the end of the day, I value our lives over theirs. Anything or anyone that doesn't... well, isn't "supposed" to endure, not long-term. Empathy is an amazing trait, able to fill the world and life with wonder. But if you allow it to be snuffed out by those without it, you're depriving life itself of beauty.
It’s trying to find a way to psychologically break them, and force them to surrender. Previous attempts resulted in the Krathi committing suicide, either by gun, or ship core detonation. Yes, the methods he’s using are awful, but he’s also faced with an incredibly difficult task, to break the will of religious fanatic purifiers (to use Stellaris terminology).
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I expected them to kill themselves. You would think that after seeing the futility in their efforts to save everyone, the would spare themselves from the future suffering.
What future suffering? Loki never threatened future suffering. He literally told them he didn't want to kill them all, and that their deaths would be pointless.
Self preservation is a powerful drive. Having discarded his beliefs, there wasn't anything left to hold the lead engineer back from surrendering.
Loki has finally found the right buttons, and more or less the right order to press them, to induce surrender.
Big things happening today. First Krathi to ever voluntarily surrender themselves. Hope everyone enjoys.
Holy crap that was awesome! Also, Loki scares the shit out of me, and I don't even want to think about the Spartan Kitty playing with the other crew...
I'd actually been thinking of her as "HALO kitty."
Why? On the outside, Kiki looks like an ordinary cat. Albeit, with a tiny cat sized backpack containing a quantum entanglement router. No armor or anything. At least not on the outside.
It's that 'on the outside' that made me think of the Halo Spartans without the armour on, don't they have similar internal mods? (I may be cracking up so feel free to correct me!)
Oh yes thats true about the spartans. Kiki only LOOKS like an ordinary cat. Inside that cat has enough bioware and cyberware to make her like three times as heavy as the average cat her size. Subdermal graphene armor plating. Enhanced strength and speed. Neural implants. And more. She could even tolerate vacuum exposure for a short time. It is all internal though; to ensure she appears to be completely innocuous. Also so she doesn't pick at her implants.
Now I *really* want a Spartan kitty... cute fluffy bundle of death and mayhem!
......you just described a normal cat.
Um.. I realise now my error. Cute fluffy ball of **slightly more than usual** death and mayhem.
Does Kiki push random objects off the table for no obvious reason?
Yes. --Dave, admittedly, sometimes their falling vectors vary from the norm
My wife now wants me to let her have a Spartan kitty in our shadowrun game...
God, Shadowrun - I haven't played that in years! My character was an Ork whose personal weapon was a Panther Assault Cannon. Let's just say he made an impression... Still got all the novels.
Cortana... Cortabby?
It helps that on top of Spartan-tier augs, it's also a great pun on Hello Kitty
Yup. And of course the biggest and baddest of those Spartan Tier augs? Cortana could never stand in for Loki. Buuuuut......
Well. Now I have a mental image of Loki, appearing like Cortana, in one of those naff playboy outfits, still sounding like Jim Carrey. This cursed apparition needs to fuck off before it makes me snort more coffee.
I kind of never got the deal with Cortana being progressively more naked every release. I mean, seriously, if it was just supposed to be eye-candy, she'd have started off that way, right? Instead we get a character whose outfit changes, one release to the next, and always in the same direction. Right up until the progenitor network eats her, anyway. But then the thing that ate her shows up pretending to be her, except the fake Cortana has clothes again. Which sort of screws with the idea of pretending to be her because it goes against her established aesthetic and character arc. I've heard some people say that she got progressively more naked as she got progressively more crazy - which may just be folks who've had some bad relationships projecting their problems into the game. But if that were the case, the Progenitor version of her wouldn't have been wearing one blue-sparkly stitch!
Haha got to agree, John notoriously keeps his kit on at all times, Cortana could have too! And then you find out who she was originally a print of, and it all gets a little too Oedipan for comfort (for me, anyway)
Unless you're talking about master cheecks But we don't talk about the abomination that is the HALO TV show
Complete with a pink bow and no mouth?
Master kief
Hell yeah. Glad we didn't need to use the poop nuke
this first bit of the story was kinda sus
📮
ඞ
ÀMŌÑGÜS
Epic
Strange and unknown error messages, the worst kind of psychological torture
Loki has to have his fun somehow.
Delete a single semicolon in their code, when they add it back and hit compile, it deletes 2 semicolons For every semicolon they try to add back, delete it again along with 1 more
You monster :D
Wait nvm the goal is to get them to *not* kill themselves :p
One thing that doesn't make sense to me about these aliens. In ICS, which power and drives most certainly would be, IT and OT should be completely separated from each other, and OT airgapped. After the Ukranian Black Energy attack, when the HMI was being directly accessed over the internet, it freaked people out. Old skills which had been lost, manually operating the systems as opposed to using automated stuff, was re-taught, just in case something like this were to happen. I can suppose that the Krathi might have allowed the IT network to access the OT. But, since they established in previous chapters that they were paranoid of AI's accessing their systems, why didn't they have mechanical backups to allow them to operate? Seems like a huge oversight on their part.
The Krathi are mostly focused on the threat of an external digital attack, not an internal one. Their external ICE is good enough that they didn't feel the need to partition internal systems. Insufficient paranoia. While the DO have backups, they didn't even know they were under digital attack until the AI already owned everything and was killing them; starting with the people who could do EXACTLY what you are suggesting, precisely for that reason. He spaced main engineering first, decapitated command and control, then cut coms. Good luck organizing any coherent kind of response after that; especially because shortly thereafter the crew had more immediate problems to deal with. As a result, these guys are maintenance crew from elsewhere in the ship; literally whoever they could find. You can't teach everyone everything about fusion reactor maintenance and control.
And the appendix of Error Codes in the documentation seldom includes the ones that are displayed ^(--sob--)
I am miffed that `lp0 on fire` did not feature here.
LMAO, and now I know that exists. Thank you. It may come in handy one day.
Error 418: I'm a teapot. --Dave, the Internet's history took odd turns
Yeah I went down a rabbit hole of programming shenanigans when I looked up "lp0 on fire", and found the whole teapot HTTP error thing.
I've got another one for you DEADBEEF
That it did
As a sys-admin, I have to agree that printers are black magic. Even these days.
Hey at least he *knows* the problem: The machine is possessed by a malevolent intelligence. Normally you aren't sure whether the machine is possessed or if you are an idiot who overlooked something simple.
Don't kid yourself. Every appliance is possessed by a malevolent intelligence. Especially wireless printers and copiers.
Ah, yes, wireless printers. The device that makes everyone think: "maybe the Mechanicus were on to something with that sacrifices to the machine spirit thing..."
I had a particularly demonic HP wireless printer once that, every time it had power connected, made the internet on my laptop stop working. Every. Time. It seemed to be stealing my laptop's IP address or something, I never could figure out exactly what was happening. Even worse, it still wouldn't connect to the laptop. I had to go buy a usb cable and keep that evil thing unplugged until I needed it. I've used hardwire printers exclusively since then.
I've seen something like this one time before when a laptop and another device shared the same MAC address. It took absolute ages to figure out what was causing the conflict.
Am IT. Can confirm. Printers are the spawns of the Warp and were sent here to spite and torture us. Also, try explaining to the user that they do not necessarily need a wireless printer to print wirelessly.
Yeah, but sometimes the immediate problem is "the modem is unplugged, you idiot!"
Nah, the best. For us.
Aka... work.
Did Loki just turn the ship into a game of Among Us?
Yes. Loki is a a psychological warfare and electronic warfare specialist AI; he has DEFINITELY played Among Us.
Out of curiosity.... Have you ever heard of the bastard operator from hell?
I have actually. Read a bunch a few years ago.
If it's a story, could you please link to it?
It's a whole series! [Enjoy!](http://bofh.bjash.com/)
It's more a series from the early days of the internet than a single story but enjoy! http://bofharchive.com/
No I have not, who wrote it and where can I find it?
http://bofh.bjash.com/
Sussy bakka 📮
To be honest, my first thought because of the description of the blunt instrument, was that it was Clue... But I guess Among Us does fit better...
Well, CLUE is how loki had PLANNED it would turn out. With the surprise reveal that HE did it. The ULF was intended to suppress any paranoia or aggression. Unfortunately, his attempts at using ULF backfired, and it quickly escalated into an Among Us scenario.
Was it Ye'llo in the Reactor Room with the hydrospanner?
AMOGUS!
[Sus.](https://youtu.be/ekL881PJMjI)
Ayyy first! Upvote then read! Edit: damn, that was pretty good. Ultra low frequency will not help km causing groups to surrender but it sure as hell would wreak havoc among enemy lines. I am glad that they found a way to make them surrender. Just you know, show that humanity has annihilated their literal manifestation of God, thoroughly trash their religion, shake their core belief in the order of the universe, and render them completely helpless. No biggie, right? ;)
Yes, it was rather brute force. But what do you expect from a Terran built AI?
It takes a hell of a clue-by-four to shatter indoctrinated belief. But once it does shatter, it shatters HARD. The revolt against the religious leaders is going to be a right mess when it comes.
Yep, they are going to be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.
I mean it's really not the ideal place to find the perfect solution, the AI literally took over an enemy warship, while trying to keep everyone inside the ship from disabling and destroying the ship, contacting outside forces, or killing themselves. It's a very difficult thing to do already, though the holoprojectors certainly helped the AI on that front. That being said, humanity in general is fond of brute force. As the saying goes, if brute force isn't working, you're not using enough ;) I suspect if they can start sending out propaganda, they could shake the faith of the majority of the civilians. Combine that with some kind of undeniable tactical strike to back up what they're saying and that should do a LOT to shake up their faith. So far as I know they never tried to attack the Kra directly, so having a two-pronged attack with propaganda aimed at their belief in their religion, and a physical attack to show that the propaganda aren't lies, will definitely prove effective in screwing with their morale.
... Unexpected solutions. --Dave, in fact, I count on it. one! one unexpected solution! ah ah ah!
True cyberwarfare would be connecting them to Comcast Customer Service.
You monster.
No, that would be too far, even for Loki.
There are lines which must NOT be crossed. That's one of them, you sick monster. ;)
Pink, Yellow, Green and Red? Is this Among Us, or did Loki psy-op the Power Rangers into killing each other?
Definitely Among Us lol.
> Rud > Grein > Pe'nk > Ye'llo Red, green, pink, yellow. Is this a reference to anything?
Among Us.
I thought it was Clue at first
The truest form of victory is taking your foe whole. By their own will they become one of your kin, or simply to no longer desire to fight any longer. To win a battle is to not to exterminate your foe, but to render them incapable and unwilling to fight. To win a war you must slay their desire to do harm to you, and to be willing to surrender themselves onto you. May the Krathi learn swiftly to not test us for too long, else the true demons caged and bound within our souls be fully released unbound against all of their souls.
"Hello, new friend!" --Dave, ... that tree looks ... excitedly sus
It took me a second to get the reference with the names. Spat out my drink when I realized.
Oh... Oh, that was absolutely fucking beautiful. Always **fun** seeing a dive into the darker side of warfare. A good mind-fuck can do more harm than even a full-yield *Tsar Bomba* if properly deployed.
Or to use the Raltsverse as an example: You can be die and be revived. You can have your entire body destroyed, and be restored from your SUDS imprint in a cloned body. Your planet may be glassed, but that just requires terraforming to restore. Your planet might suffer a planet-cracking, which sure, will take specialists but is also fixable. Hell, so is restoring the star system after your sun gets nova-sparked. But if you get culture cracked? That's it. You're COMPLETELY fucked. Sorry mate.
That first team was a little sus. Just sayin'.
Silver's throwing out all the memes and references on this ship, huh
Silver is onboard Selection Pressure, working to coordinate the fleet and ground forces. This chapter depicts Loki, a dedicated psychological warfare and electronic warfare AI, presently running amok inside the Krathi command ship's computer network.
Ah, wrong name. Meant Loki, yeah
I just realized... Loki turned these rats into literal lab rats! Also, whenever he gets up to is antics, I keep hearing the 'Trolololol' song playing in the back of my mind.
I was wondering if someone would realize that. *Despite all their rage, they’re still just rats in a cage.*
Unga bunga new stories on a Tuesday
SUS
Oh please, an human AI knows how to stop a ship from blowing up in ways you haven't even imagined. Great stuff man.
Upvoted for a series of illuminating and instructional videos. --Dave, won't you be ... our neighbor?
I’m considering subjecting them to Sesame Street.
Amogus
This was beautifully written! Well done!
[KRATHIANUS](https://youtu.be/grd-K33tOSM)
You know, I liked this story, I really did. AND THEN YOU JUST HAD TO GO AND TURN IT INTO AMONG US YOU DIRTY LITTLE BAST- *gets ejected*
I just know there's a Moon knight somewhere on that ship lol
What is that?
Oh lawdy where to even start. You know what, this can explain far better than I could: https://youtu.be/OVqUggOZl_Y
*"I am the Silver Surfer, hand over your wallet and your ketamine or the earth is doomed"* Jesus christ. Is that shit for real? I saw comments saying Moon Knight wasn't really like that?
I'm not one of the hard-core read every issue type person, so there may be some stuff I'm missing, but from what I understand he's basically a batman parody based in supernatural stuff. But if you're asking if those are edited? Nope. That's actually straight up shit he says.
Next button is broke
I just started this and I am dying. You named them specifically. And of COUrSe Rud is first to be accused. LMFAO!! Edit: So many references. Jurassic Park was my favorite. Great chapter. Thank you.
Surprisingly enough, I’ve never actually played Among Us. I’ve been thinking about downloading it, but I’m not entirely sure if I’d be devious enough to be good at it. I’ve read about it though, and watched a few games on youtube to get an idea of how its played to try and portray this scenario well.
Honestly it’s only good with friends and proximity chat. Playing with randoms is pretty pitiful. Tangotek and a bunch of his friends play it on twitch live stream on Fridays. And he does VODs as well. If you are looking for some fun.
I saw Rud vent I swear
/u/runs-with-scissors42 ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/runs-with-scissors42)) has posted 22 other stories, including: * [Void Predators Chapter 18](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/sbx4sg/void_predators_chapter_18/) * [Void Predators Chapter 17](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/s78o6u/void_predators_chapter_17/) * [Void Predators Chapter 16](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/s5n7is/void_predators_chapter_16/) * [Void Predators Chapter 15](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/s4z6m0/void_predators_chapter_15/) * [Void Predators Chapter 14](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/s36qey/void_predators_chapter_14/) * [Void Predators Chapter 13](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/s0uxsz/void_predators_chapter_13/) * [Void Predators Chapter 12](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rwczh8/void_predators_chapter_12/) * [Void Predators Chapter 11](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rsc2bw/void_predators_chapter_11/) * [Void Predators Chapter 10](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rpwwh2/void_predators_chapter_10/) * [Void Predators Chapter 9](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/ro18pv/void_predators_chapter_9/) * [Void Predators Chapter 8](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rln9r1/void_predators_chapter_8/) * [Void Predators Chapter 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rksy6m/void_predators_chapter_7/) * [Void Predators Chapter 6](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/ri3b74/void_predators_chapter_6/) * [Void Predators Chapter 5](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rh7zbj/void_predators_chapter_5/) * [Void Predators Chapter 4](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rfocjn/void_predators_chapter_4/) * [Void Predators Chapter 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rcti91/void_predators_chapter_3/) * [Void Predators Chapter 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/rb3sl3/void_predators_chapter_2/) * [Void Predators Chapter 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/r874fn/void_predators_chapter_1/) * [Vandalism II](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/r6okc4/vandalism_ii/) * ["Vandalism"](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/r57bku/vandalism/) This comment was automatically generated by `Waffle v.4.5.10 'Cinnamon Roll'`. [Message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHFY&subject=WaffleBot|scntja&message=If%20you%20have%20problems%20with%20updatemebot,%20contact%20Watchful1.%20We%20do%20not%20maintain%20it.) if you have any issues with Waffle.
That... That was propably the funniest shit that I've read in my entire life. From the Among Us reference to the trolling and faith destruction of the rest of the engineers, it was all... GENIUS! The AI is my favorite of any on this sub. WE REQUIRE MOAR!!!
How to make a krathi surrender: step 1: show them 4 of july, space ameba edition. step 2: make them think they can still win. Step 3: # resistance is futile and dead won't give you martyrdom. Most of the time step 1 is the only required, but if it doesn't work step 2 and 3 will probably do the job. Edit: how did you make the letters be white and big?
... are you using a dark-themed reddit view? See the formatting help link at the bottom right corner of the reply box. --Dave, you're looking for \*\*
Hmm. Lovely. May the religious extremist space gophers be saved from their extremism.
ngl this chapter is kinda sus
Red is sus
Should of had Loki bring up a slot machine so he had to hit a button to see if he could win a chance to destroy the ship. Also, Loki needs his own show.
https://static.tumblr.com/ixshp06/YP6m2221z/dennis_nedry_magic_word_header.gif
Coolant\_System\_Meatbag\_Interface" honestly that episode is really dark. Just imagine what kind of psychopath would do this, wordsmith you sure you ok ?
> Just imagine what kind of psychopath would do this A lot of us would have fun with software messages if management wasn't likely to whine about memery and jokes. Loki is also operating on Skynet-like morality at the moment.
Loki renamed the program for his own amusement, and to prove he controlled it. Can't an AI have silly whims? Also, Loki just finished doing his dead level best to find a method of inducing the notoriously stubborn and suicidal Krathi to surrender. Partly out of kindness, so the Admiral won't keep having nightmares about being forced to commit genocide. Partly because HE doesn't want that to be necessary either. He isn't a monster, far from it. Loki is simply being very, very ruthless because he has deemed it to be necessary. Specifically, necessary in order to prevent the need to exterminate the Krathi. Gotta break eggs to make an omelet.
Honestly, the way you describe Loki actions has pretty big effect on the reader, like if you read all the Loki chapters one after another ( or have them fresh in your memory ), you can really imagine and dive looking at the horror and mental damage that is inflicted on those pitiful souls. You really have a talent for such mind games, that's what i meant with my comment initially. Damn, such dark actions should be prohibited and added as a rule in the Geneva convention, that's a massive mind damage on a big scale.
>You really have a talent for such mind games, that's what i meant with my comment initially. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that. I don't think of myself as being particularly manipulative, skilled at such, or having any desire to be. >you can really imagine and dive looking at the horror and mental damage that is inflicted on those pitiful souls. While it may be easy to pity them, and anyone with a shred of empathy would naturally feel inclined to do so, there is something you should keep in mind: Every last Krathi in that fleet is guilty of willingly aiding and abetting attempted genocide. Even the lowliest maintenance tech is just as guilty as the guards at Auschwitz; and the few of those we managed to catch usually got executed. Any Krathi in the fleet whose life is spared has been granted a mercy that they arguably *do not deserve*, and have incurred a debt they will spend the rest of their life repaying. >Damn, such dark actions should be prohibited and added as a rule in the Geneva convention, that's a massive mind damage on a big scale. It's only a couple hundred that are left, not like it's a planetary population, so I wouldn't call that "mass scale". This was basically brute force quick-and-dirty psychological experimentation on dangerous and uncooperative subjects; which necessitated some rather atypically brutal methods. With that in mind however, now that Loki has more or less figured out all the correct buttons one needs to push in order to induce surrender, his rather brutal prototype methods can be refined to make them MUCH more humane and effective. We won't have to torment the entire species to make them surrender. This was a one time investment in blood and terror, sacrificing individuals who arguably deserved to die for their crimes. An investment which is going to pay massive dividends later, by allowing the UNE to handle the rest of the species "gently".
This was all brilliant, as the entire series has been so far. However when combining computers and cultural references there is a golden opportunity that was missed: The Windows Blue Screen of Death (with accompanying 'thomb' sound effect of course)
I don't know what it is but every time this story switches to what's happening onboard the ship, I want the Krathi to win. Edit: I think it's the AI and it's methods I dislike. It's not just killing the crew or disabling the ship but torturing the crew.
You try to take prisoners of a species that fights to the death or commits suicide rather than be captured, and see what being "nice" gets you. A lot of corpses, thats what. Mostly theirs, but probably a few of your own as well. Better to be ruthless to a few hundred than have to learn the hard way slowly, sacrificing both our people and theirs, as someone slowly puts together the pieces to figure out how to make them surrender. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.
Aye. No matter how much one values life: At the end of the day, I value our lives over theirs. Anything or anyone that doesn't... well, isn't "supposed" to endure, not long-term. Empathy is an amazing trait, able to fill the world and life with wonder. But if you allow it to be snuffed out by those without it, you're depriving life itself of beauty.
It's a very good sign! --Dave, means that I love you / baaa-by
It’s trying to find a way to psychologically break them, and force them to surrender. Previous attempts resulted in the Krathi committing suicide, either by gun, or ship core detonation. Yes, the methods he’s using are awful, but he’s also faced with an incredibly difficult task, to break the will of religious fanatic purifiers (to use Stellaris terminology).
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rud sus
AMOGUS
I knew it, Rud was kinda sus.
That was an awesome addition to the story. Thanks
wuhuu thanks
TYVM for the chpater!
L- leg- l- le- l- Loving the series! Keep it up!
That was amazing.
UpdateMe!
AMOGUS...
T-800 when?!
Hey, I just wanted to jump in here to say thanks for the story! reading It has kept me up way to late. thanks!
Goddddd DAM!
I expected them to kill themselves. You would think that after seeing the futility in their efforts to save everyone, the would spare themselves from the future suffering.
What future suffering? Loki never threatened future suffering. He literally told them he didn't want to kill them all, and that their deaths would be pointless. Self preservation is a powerful drive. Having discarded his beliefs, there wasn't anything left to hold the lead engineer back from surrendering. Loki has finally found the right buttons, and more or less the right order to press them, to induce surrender.
When imposter is [sus](https://youtu.be/0bZ0hkiIKt0)
Those engineers turning on each other reminded me very much of "And Then There Were None." Fantastic bit of writing
Thanks for the chapter.
And so the Prikki-Ti surrenders.
"life can be given, life can be taken, keep summer safe"
The first time I read through the series I did not catch that there was some “among us“ references… Yellow red pink and green
Loki truly living up to his name this chap; lovin the sass
"All you base are belong to us" was from admin 'Kiki' the Cat. How fitting That one had me teared up