2: All Tanked Up

[local terminal, tra. @n4.30.16.5703] xROU Killing Time oCCU Mjolnir Recon 54 I had hoped to give you a gentle wakeup, with a briefing on the war situation and a chance to meet most of the human and drone crew. Unfortunately, a little something has come up. It seems that the allies of the Idirans, the Homomdans, have been conducting covert operations along our route, and they suprised and attacked me a few days' travel from our destination. I have been flooded with Homomdan Standard and War Drones, and my internal defenses are having trouble holding them off. Most of my drones have been pulled out of your path; you're free to shoot any drones that move, but try not to kill any humans. Standard Drones are small, ovoid, floating things with a small miltipurpose weapon on their underside; they are either non-sentient (controlled by AI cores), or extensions of the Homomdan Mind-equivalent (I'll call it a mind from now on, but it's not really a proper Mind, although it's effectively the same) aboard the enemy ship. War Drones are large (a bit bigger than you), dark, and blocky; they carry moderate firepower and armor, but they're not quite as tough as they look... just don't stand too close to a dying one. Like before, the War Drones almost universally contain a semi-sentient AI core instead of a Mind/Drone intelligence. Once you clear out your immediate area, I'll teleport you to the place with the most enemy infiltration; find another terminal in that area. Unfortunately, since I was caught by suprise, the only weapon I have immediately available is an old projectile weapon; it doesn't work in vacuum, and the rifling field is rather poor, but it should be enough to take out anything that's boarded me. It can also fire Displacer Bombs, teleporting small explosives forwards to detonate inside a target. All in all, a more efficient version of your old Assault Rifle. By the way, don't bother using your old pistols or your fists; you're playing with the big boys now, and those are peashooters. Good thing the Ethics Gradient gave you that effector, eh? Now go, and hurry! Make sure you kill everything that's boarded me!

[local terminal, tra. @n4.30.18.9001] xROU Killing Time oCCU Mjolnir Recon 54 Things are going well; you have destroyed most of the invaders in my maintenance area, and the other defenders are rallying elsewhere. Finish off the enemy Drones in this area, then return here.

[local terminal, tra. @n4.30.19.2311] xROU Killing Time oCCU Mjolnir Recon 54 Your job is almost done; unfortunately, the one remaining invaded area is the human-access (I will call the humainoid members of the Culture "humans" for your benefit) maintenance area. When the attack began, all the Drones were fast enough to evacuate it, but some humans remain. I tried setting up some fields to seal off strategic locations, but there are a large number of War Drones in the area, and I don't know how long the humans can hold out with only their laser pistols. Ready that laser rifle I Displaced in to you, and get going. Just try to let as few humans as possible die, okay? Don't forget, though, natives of the Culture are a bit stronger and tougher than real humans, although their armament is proportionally weaker than the humans employed by Durandal.

<memory access opened. initial topic: grid> •The Grid The Grid is an energy field that exists between the various universes within Reality. The engines used by the Culture are Grid-based, accelerating ships by creating a field that pushes against the Grid. Grid weapons (known as Grid-Fire Impulsers) pull a small amount of Grid energy into our universe, allowing great destructive power for the hardware size and the energy expenditure. Current theory st <manual interrupt accepted> <new topic entered: reality> •Reality "Reality" with a capital R is the term used for the collection of universes that constitutes everything. The conceptual description of Reality is best done by analogy. Reality is <manual interrupt accepted> <new subtopic entered: analogy> •Reality-Analogy Consider a theoretical planet where the inhabitants are all one atom tall, effectively two-dimensional. Eventually, as this species evolved, they would develop vehicles fast enough to take them all the way around their planet, and come right back to the point they started from. More likely, they would be able to work this out from theory. Either way, they would realize that their universe was closed and curved, and that a third dimension existed. Being familiar with the concept of circles, they would probably name the shape of their universe a "hypercircle" rather than inventing a new word. The three-dimensional people would, of course, call it a sphere. This situation applies to three-dimensional people as well. <manual interrupt accepted> <summary requested> Our universe is a four-dimensional "bubble," inside a larger universe, and with smaller, younger universes within, like an onion's skin; all of them constantly growing in four dimensions. This is known as Reality. Advanced mathematical complications involve seven dimensions and a giant torus on which our universe is a circle, contained in and containing other nested tori, with implications of whole populations of such meta-Realities. <manual interrupt accepted> <new topic entered: reality> •Reality "Reality" with a capital R is the term used for the collection of universes that constitutes everything. The conceptual description of Reality is best done by analogy. Reality is an onion-like hypersphere of universes, with the Grid separating each one from the other. As Reality is constantly expanding, new universes are constantly being formed, and the ability to travel freely from one universe to another would allow a non-aging sentience (i.e. a Mind) to literally live forever, even beyond the end of their home universe. In addition, inter-universe travel would allow the molding of new universes to the will of whatever sentience claims it. Unfortunately, the power to travel through the multiverse farther than one layer of the Grid in each direction sti+%l^#&x~- <ERROR ERROR ERROR-- data feed canceled>