Board Thread:Off-Topic Activities/@comment-26336673-20190309082746/@comment-29191679-20190313170320



 Okay... It's ready for testing again.

'''Alpha stands in a temporary control room inside a massive machine, surrounding a supermassive black hole. His machine is by no means complete; at this point, it only consists of a frame, with all the necessary components for the basic functions of the machine. His intention was to make sure that all the necessary stuff worked properly before building the outer parts of this machine. Right now, he is testing those functions.'''

 All siphons active... Core is functioning... Energy output is being distributed as intended... Perfect. Let's see if it works this time.

'''Alpha types "Wing_Battleship" into the console in front of him. The correct schematics for the ship appear on the screen. He taps the "Add to Queue" button, and the schematics are moved to a file containing all the ships that are about to be produced. Alpha opens that file, moves the ship to a specific location, taps the "Generate" button on the screen, and enters a password.'''

'''A beam of light erupts from the black hole at the center of the machine, towards the hole in the top of it. At the same time, three beams of light appear from the three pillars (referred to as Assemblers by the system) next to the hole to stop it, turning it into a ball of light. The three Assemblers now rotate around the hole, and the ball of light begins to turn into a ring, which starts to expand towards the edge of the hole.'''

'''The ring of light disappears once it touches the edge of the hole, ten seconds after it appeared, and the Assemblers stop spinning. The Wing Battleship has appeared in the location Alpha had specified earlier.'''

 It's passed the first construction test. Now, for the second one.

'''Alpha types "Wing_Battleship" into the console, repeating the same steps as before. This time, he also adds "Imperial_Striker" and "Mine_Layer" to the file, and copies them several times before starting the machine. Once the ten-second process completes, the fleet appears there, in the exact locations that were specified.'''

 Second construction test is successful.

'''Alpha types "test_megaship_1" into the console, and it generates the schematics for the skeleton and outer hull of a massive ship. When it is placed inside the file, it appears with a message: "Note: The creation process must run [5] times for this ship to be completed." Alpha dismisses the message and sends the ship to be created.'''

'''The creation process runs. As expected, upon completing the first time, it restarts, and builds the next section of the ship.'''

'''As the fourth iteration of the creation process is underway, the control room begins to shake for a few moments. A warning appears on the screen: "Error: Assembler 3 reports major damage. Construction process has been terminated." An asteroid has struck one of the three Assemblers and caused it to malfunction.'''

 ...

 ...Okay, this thing needs to be given armor before it can be tested further.

'''Alpha shuts off the rest of the construction modules in the machine, and watches as they all power down. The Orbital Stabilizers and Gravity Field Neutralizers stay active, though, because they're the only things keeping the machine from falling into the black hole.'''

'''While the project seemed to be in relatively early stages of development, the stuff that had been created so far took up most of the hard work. Once it is finished, the only things left to add will be the outer shielding and the interior (which will mostly be used for maintenance, although it will still be heavily guarded).'''



Meanwhile...

'''The RSIF is still performing normal operations, including routine surveys of the multiverse to search for any major incidents. Planets that are associated with the other heroes are monitored more closely than others, for they are the ones where villains will likely strike next.'''

The RSIF Starfarer, a Lance-class Frigate, is in orbit around Citopia when the crew detects a large amount of drop pods entering the area.

 New contacts entering the area.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-6103> "New contacts"? Is that all the information it's giving you?

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-4257> Yep. Unknown type, unknown faction. Visual observation suggests that they are drop pods.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-4257> If they are drop pods, their current speed suggests that they'll reach the ground within the next minute.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-6103> Should we take the safe option and just destroy them?

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-4257> I agree. Let's... Wait, they've gone out of range of all our weapons. Tell the ground teams to watch for these drop pods.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-6103> Alright.

XVII-6103 begins broadcasting to all RSIF ground forces in or near Citopia.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-6103> This is a message to all RSIF ground teams in or around the city of Citopia. There are unknown drop pods approaching the city. If you see these drop pods, your orders are to reach their landing zone and, if they turn out to be hostile, destroy them.

XVII-6103 stops broadcasting.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-4257> The drop pods will hit the planet in 13 seconds. Let's hope for the best.

About a minute passes before the RSIF Starfarer receives a response from the ground teams.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-5912> This is XVII-5912 to the RSIF Starfarer. The drop pods you warned us about are indeed hostile. We are attacking the enemy forces now.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-6103> What faction did they belong to?

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-5912> We're unable to confirm, but the drop pods contained these dark, stickman-like entities with white eyes.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-6103> Understood.

XVII-5192 closes its communications, while XVII-6103 and XVII-4257 discuss what to do now.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-6103> They're definitely hostile... and they're attacking the specific city that many of the heroes are in.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-4257> ...This could be the beginning of another attack.

XVII-4257 immediately contacts Omega.

<span style="color:orange;text-shadow:0px 0px 1px orange, 1px 1px 1px gray, 1px 1px 1px gray"><MiniFox XVII-4257> This is XVII-4257. Citopia is under attack. The invaders are from an unknown faction, but all the evidence we have suggests that this may be the beginning of another war.

<span style="color:#606060;text-shadow:1px 1px 0px #ff7c00, 1px 1px 1px #ff7c00;"><Omega> ...I guess it's time, then.