#!/dev/haru

Up until I usurp your throne. I'd try to pass that off as a joke but it isn't and I can't be dishonest.

Then learn both sides. It isn't 'needed', but it's certainly something that can come of it, why would one disavow them of it? Who's to say that that's somehow problematic? Thus, I ask again: What about a particularly sexualized lifestyle is so worrying?

I hope no one is mistaking this calm, quiet analysis and these attempts to expose and discuss clashing mindsets as actual fighting or drama, that would be unfortunate. Rational discourse, yo.

Enjoy the show, I'm here all week or until my attention span wears off.

What if they enjoy it, and other people enjoy it, and it contributes to the overall well-being and self-confidence of those people? And, honestly, what about a particularly sexualized lifestyle is so worrying?

You're missing my point entirely. Adolescence means a different thing to different people. You can't blame someone for not growing up as if your meaning of 'growing up' is the tried-and-true definition, because you still sure as hell have flaws that they may well have gotten over in the same way that they have flaws that you did. It's not worth identifying as a thing, simply a waste of time and a good way to marginalize someone so that it's all that much harder for them to improve.

Everyone is merely a combination of their genetics and their upbringing and experiences. No one is, at the end of the day, responsible for simply not having the mindset or the perspective to understand that it's a thing to be moved past. But that's why we're here to share these things instead of attacking each other for them, no?

Alright, then let's analyze this. What about sexualized clothing actually makes you feel like someone is going to be problematic? What makes it worthy of judgment?

I want to point out that this isn't necessarily the point I'm making and you shouldn't feel threatened by my comments, lest I be misinterpreted and my attempt to help fall flat.

If you want the real talk, here's the real talk. It's not an issue unless you make it one, or in other words, it's your choice to be offended by their choices. It reflects rather poorly on you if you'd judge someone based on their dress choices, especially since it's something that's so... well, irrelevant. Harmless. It hurts no one. If you'd judge someone on something that they do of their own volition that doesn't hurt you or anyone else, that's entirely on you. It's not wrong to feel uncomfortable. That's human. That's fine. However, I recommend you do your absolute best to work through it, because I think it's a legitimate personal flaw if you're letting it affect your opinion of people.

Hell, if I could pull it off I totes would

I'm not necessarily disavowing you of that, but it's kind of silly to judge someone on that and it's something you should probably get into the habit of relaxing yourself about. Sorry, too much real talk?

I do formally apologize on behalf of all those poor folks who suffer from enough confidence to flaunt their bodies. Perhaps I could switch my avatar to something more sexualized for you so you can grow more used to it, would that help? edit: helping

life happened for me (in a small way) and integrity (in a mega huge way) but we are now not dead EXCELSIOR [spoiler=Excerpts, Harutopian Retroactive Tactical Technical Readout Backup Files, printed year 2 PTL] [REDACTED] SECTION 4 Human Weapons (note: sections of this document have been redacted and will become officially available between E4.7.53 and E4.7.137) Among the human arsenal were many different weapons and logistical matériels. Zenith Spacetime Manipulator The Zenith Spacetime Manipulator was a design of the Zenith fleets, releasing a signature of imaginary time that could be locked onto by special systems within Harutopian (and later Integristani) fleet ships. This massively increased the speed of all allied ships on a planet. Later tests (with a total of FOURTY of these and a few smaller versions) would raise a ship to .9999999999997c, at which point it slammed into a mote of dust and was reduced to atomic slurry. Broken Golems [Picture not found] [REDACTED] Found on several planets, these could be (and were) awakened by the Harutopian Army in a (successful) attempt to pacify the burgeoning AI forces, and an eventual assault on their homeworlds. These ships came in many types, but each was a monstrosity of a city-ship, capable of slaying entire fleets all its own. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] SECTION 6 AI Weapons (note: sections of this document have been redacted and will become officially available between E4.7.53 and E4.7.137) [REDACTED] AI Golems The Golemite AI had access to massive city-ships. Coming in many types, these were worth several fleets of threat by themselves, though they had a peculiar weakness to the Armored Warheads deployed often during the later stages of the war. As human intervention was needed to awaken these beasts, the AI could not rebuild them after they were destroyed. AI Raid Engines The Raid Engine was a special terminal that would detect the presence of non-scout, non-AI ships on all nearby planets and send counterattack waves at the perpetrators independent of AI plans. Taking these down would draw the notice of the AI, but not as much as taking a planet. [REDACTED] SECTION 7 AI Progress Reducers During the Second Great AI War, there were several objectives the glorious Harutopian Empire could strike at (in various ways) to hide itself from the watchful eyes of the AI. Data Center The Data Center was a basic bank of information, which tended to include a complete list of known Harutopian (and Integristani) activities. By striking these down, the AI would 'forget' many of the 'transgressions' of the humans, to a point. They were dispersed throughout the galaxy, at least six were confirmed as destroyed after the war. Co-Processor A group of exactly four Co-Processors existed, serving a role very similar to the Data Centers; however, unlike the Data Centers these were connected in a strong loop; if one was destroyed, it would send out a last transmission (through the AI Warp Grid) to apply its data to the other three Co-Processors. This would not only keep the data safe, but would also make the AI that much more wary of the Empire's actions. The information that the humans were targeting the Co-Processors, however, was stored... in the Co-Processors, so when all four were destroyed, not only was all the progress stored in them lost, but so too was any sign that they had ever existed. Superterminal The Superterminal was a dangerous weapon against the AI's data gathering efforts. A remnant of the first war, this was actually a re-purposed 'safety valve' by which the AI's processing capabilities could be directly accessed (and hampered). Abandoned and forgotten by the AI, this would do nothing unless the Empire took control of the world it was on. The AI would immediately notice and send a MASSIVE assault after it, to try to destroy either it or the humans accessing it, so it would have to be protected, but while it was controlled the AI's cumulative 'progress' on noticing our activities would drop rapidly. SECTION 8 AI Homeworlds (note: sections of this document have been redacted and will become officially available between E4.7.53 and E4.7.137) Note: While the AI's Shield Network was up and active, none of the modules nor the command stations of the homeworlds could be damaged. This was proctored by the Shield Generators, connected in four different networks: A-Prime (a strong network, wherein all but one of the generators had to be destroyed), and B, C, and D-Secondary (weak networks, wherein any of the planets in the network had to be destroyed). They could only be destroyed once the host planet was controlled by the Empire, and the warp grid pushed away. Home Command Station The true nerve center of the AI. With all the backups, shields, and planetary defenses, this didn't have to have much of a defense system, so it didn't. Still ensures that no cloaked or undetected ships could exist within several light years of the planet. Home Guard Posts Also immune while the Command Station was immune. These were effectively massive planetary guard posts, with much bigger guns and much nastier effects. Destroying all of these was necessary to render the Home Command Stations targetable. Types found included [REDACTED]

PICK A SIDE, LOUT

Magical.

[spoiler=Audio log, Year 5 Post Tenebras, Date 109. Captain Danger K. Danger of Hacker Lab H.S.S. Wildcard Sunrise]Okay. Hrm. Okay. I get that Harutopian command might've been miffed when I... sorta... hacked all the planet names in the database file they just left sitting on a public directory. I get that! It was for fun, I expected I might get a slap on the wrist... I didn't expect a job offer. In retrospect... I've met the Empress before, one could say; maybe I should've expected this? Didn't think she'd make the decision herself. Guess it pays to have friends in high places. Anyway, order was to move to Elephant Graveyard (ehehehehe) and... apparently some brigade would give me support as I steal designs from their mainframes? "Knowledge Extraction", as it's called... It's a bit formulaic for my style, but I can do it, sure. The mission has just started, and... well, I can't really tell exactly how it's going. I have a military rank, now, but I was assured it was just for bookkeeping... I still have no idea what an ideal space battle looks like? I think we're beating them back. One of the ships is named "H.S.S. Unfeeling God", which... yeah. Anyway, I'm still a tad apprehensive, but the hack itself is going well, which is good. ...and I turn it off by... Official Harutopian Empire Communications Record 94883 Mission Commandant: Lieutenant Colonel Jose "From Couch" Malta Communications Officer: Chief Operator Rae Spectronymous Bosch Involved Party: Mk II Light Flagship Commissar Cathar Strauss Involved Party: Hacker Lab Captain Danger K. Danger [spoiler=CONFIDENTIAL TRANSCRIPT: GRADE 1 PERMISSIONS REQUIRED]Hacker Cpt. Danger K. Danger: Alright. Kdanger here, in position, ready to go. Flagship Cmd. Cathar Strauss: Commissar's Will Brigade, report positions. <Callsign from MK I Fighter pilot> <Callsign from MK I Figther pilot> Cathar: All in position. The mechanical abominations, too? CO Rae Spectronymous Bosch: All Viral Shredders appear to be in position. Cathar: Beautiful. Empress beckons. Give the order. Lt. Col. Jose Malta: Hm, I think I forgot who was in command here... Oh well. Begin operation. Cathar: ONWARD, YOU LOUTS! Kdanger: Alright, seems things are in position. I don't need to stay, since I can maintain the hack from Yoloswag (eheheh), right? Jose: I can't see why not. Pull back. Cathar: Yes. Yes, flee, and leave the shepherd to tend to her sheep. Move those shredders out! Commissar's Will, your flanks protect your betters. Keep my hull clean as it was when you polished it this morning, and that hacking module up and running. Obliterate any ship that moves to claim false glory against our behest. The order is given. <radio silence> Rae: Commander, the Viral Shredders are losing ground. The AI seems to be constantly producing ships, and among them... Spire Railclusters, which are obliterating the virals. Recommend you do not engage, repeat, recommend you do not engage. Cathar: Noted. Hear that, you pigs in human clothing? Your chance for glory has come. Commissar's Will, move out! First one to take out a Railcluster gets their sentence-- their comeuppance for a lifetime of decadence and depravity-- entirely forgiven. Rae: Oh dear... Lieutenant Colonel? Jose: I'm watching. I... I don't think High Command expected anything else. Rae: That's a little disturbing. Jose: I know, right? Cathar: AHAHAHAHA! Look how you fall, as the worthless wretched AI picks you off like flies. Evolve and become better, or watch as your world collapses around you! Rae: ...Permission to end transmission and maintain radio silence? Kdanger: Please. Jose: Agreed. Over and out. Official Harutopian Empire Communications Record 94887 Mission Commandant: Lieutenant Colonel Jose "From Couch" Malta Communications Officer: Chief Operator Rae Spectronymous Bosch Involved Party: Mk II Light Flagship Commissar Cathar Strauss Involved Party: Hacker Lab Captain Danger K. Danger Involved Party: Ad Hoc Captain Ozma Lee [spoiler=CONFIDENTIAL TRANSCRIPT: GRADE 1 PERMISSIONS REQUIRED]CO Rae Spectronymous Bosch: Lieutenant Colonel, the H.S.S. Uncaring God appears to be taking the wormhole back to Yoloswag. The Hacker Module is about halfway done, but nothing else appears to be on Elephant Graveyard. Lt. Col. Jose Malta: Oh, lordy. Okay. Uh... patch her through. Rae: As you wish. Flagship Cmd. Cathar Strauss: Command, I require another... bucket of recruits. Jose: Empress provides... but what happened? Cathar: After you dropped to radio silence, they warped in... many more railclusters. Too many, we were quickly overwhelmed. I require more chaff to oil the gears of war, ensuring that our machinery keeps the AI off the homeworld! Jose: Railclusters? CO, Technical Readout, what's even any good against them? Rae: ...Composite hulls... nothing. Best we can do is send something that resists those railgun clusters... but what? Hacker Cpt. Danger K. Danger: ...Something something might have the answer Rae: Repeat that last? Couldn't quite catch that... Kdanger: I mean, I'm not doing this hacking thing for nothing... Jose: Whoa. Okay. CO, open commlink with the Starship Constructor. <commlink open.> Starcon, I'm sending you plans for a new starship type! Pick up a pilot off the street if you have to, whoever's around, get bodies in these ships, get them complete, and launch! Cathar: And what shall I do?! Even now they warp through the wormhole! Without sheep to slake the hunger, they'll quickly overwhelm the homeworld before you can get your pretty new boats out! Jose: Hate to say it, but... he's right, I guess. Alright, launch the second battalion. Godspeed, H.S.S. Unfeeling God. Cathar: ...excellent. <radio silence> Rae: Unfeeling God is warping back again! Commandant-- Jose: What's the status of the new Plasma Sieges? Starc-- Ozma Lee: Jeez, if only to end all this interrupting... Gotcher Plasma Siege Ships right here, Cap'n. Rae: Lt. Col, the enemy has been pushed into full retreat! Cathar: Good, good.... Remaining Commissar's Will brigade! Swing around to intercept! Annihilate all fleeing ships. Jose: I don't know when we got these... Spider Turrets, but... let's have it, Turrets, focus on downing their engines! Enemy in full retreat, prevent them from getting anything out of this. Focus that cluster of... wow, that's a lot of frigates. Focus on the frigates! Ozma: Roger that, Command. Jose: Okay, I think we can call that a successful operation. Good work, everyone. Cathar: Naturally. And with no worthless louts earning freedom. A victory on all fronts. Jose: ...over and out.

(minor plot post, major one to come later) [spoiler=Audio log, year 5 Post Tenebras, Date 105. Commander Daniel "Deckwood" West, Class V Stealth Battleship H.S.S. Profound Radiance.]Cmd. Daniel "Deckwood" West: Wait, what? I have to record-- why? "For the purposes of understanding your running thought processes and so that we can have a log in case you screw up"? Well, alright, you asked for it. Everyone listening to this log, you have been reported to the Empress herself for wasting your time listening to my logs. That's right, this log was a trap. Voice in the background: Commander... Come on. Deckwood: Whaaaat? I did what it asked. I don't jump through hoops. YOU do it. Voice in the background: ...fine. Take the console. *shuffling* Wep Sp. Ross "DRoSs" West: Weapons Specialist Ross West here, apparently doing the logs for someone useless. Today, we were ordered to move out... to Helm's Deep. We were to take out the tachyon posts that would disable our cloaking... two MK V Stealth Battleships were sent along, us and the H.S.S. Faux Pas. The mission was routine, and initially, we joked, we've had harder missions in the DOOM-class Simulation. Deckwood: To be fair, that was your own fault for buffing that weapon's power instead of fixing its AI! DRoSs: Shut up! Okay, anyway. Normal mission, normal stuff... We were not prepared for-- Don't even say anything, Daniel! --what we'd find. We'd both dropped our cloaks to knock out a small support frigate, when it appeared seemingly out of nowhere, popping out of the wormhole and almost immediately catching us in its tractor beams. DRoSs: Command had warned us that this might happen, but the golems were always described as slow and ponderous... the Black Widow Golem snuck up on us. We couldn't have prepared. DRoSs: The H.S.S. Faux Pas was annihilated immediately, and as our cloaks can't power themselves while such a strong energy source... well, we were caught too. But... Deckwood: Ooh, ooh! I want to tell them this part! DRoSs: Fine. Deckwood: Okay. So, you know how the Stealth Battleship has Radar Dampening? This number means that our hull renders us untargetable... by any unit outside its range. Unfortunately, it also constrains the owner's weapons, so it's generally impossible to fire outside that range (with few exceptions). Well... The Black Widow Golem got a lucky strikeout, and hit us with its tractor beam... ...which, as you know, has a distance farther than our dampening. Tractor beams hold in place, but as long as we dedicate our collector-powered engines to pulling back, we'll always remain this distance from the golem. Now, past that, two things are true: First off, we can just unload our cannons, and the tractor beam will pull the shots right back to our captors, regardless of OUR Radar Dampening... ...and the golem, since it's not piloted by anything, is programmed to move TOWARDS us at all times. We're currently outside the planetary gravity well, so no ship the AI makes will be able to follow. This may be our final update. We are slowly picking away at the golem's armor, and perhaps one day it will be destroyed; but to future generations who might hear this... ... ... ...Worth. DRoSs: Dang it, Daniel!

(Mechanics Post; may be dry) [spoiler=Transcript of Operation Lux, Day 1924 High Command Briefing, heralded by Empress Harudoku] Her Godliness, Empress Harudoku Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, II: Greetings. As per usual, we have some new Captains among us, so I'm going to start off with the usual rundown of our overarching goals. If I hear groaning from the back, this time, I'm going to kick you out the airlock. You know who you are. As you may or may not know, deep scouting intel and some calculations by the tech department have confirmed our chances of destroying the AI directly at zero, given how far they've expanded. Our goals, and the thing holding us back for five years, was that we absolutely needed not to be noticed. We've been more active lately, but... this hasn't changed. They're going to notice us more over time, so we have to do what we can to keep their eyes off of us. Information has trickled down, and by now I'm sure everyone is aware of Commander Jordan Q. Jesus' little jaunt. Thanks to his efforts, we managed to take Amanda Huggenkiss. We were very worried that this would immediately trigger the AI to come and destroy us... but, as it turns out, there was more to think about here. By crippling the AI's data and sensor networks, we can in some way counteract the AI's progress on finding us. We can't just take every world, since these data centers are rare, but whenever we find one, destroying it can cripple their efforts... and since a subroutine was originally programmed into the golemite AI to ensure it had no lasting memory of the external data centers, it won't even 'remember' that we'd done it and do anything to compensate. We believe there may be other ways to do this, but we'll keep you updated as we find out more. What this jaunt has taught us, though, is that we CAN move out and capture important objectives, as long as we don't break too many of the AI's nice toys in the effort. By securing Amanda Huggenkiss, we've obtained back one of our Ship Fabricators. Of course, there are three 'tiers' of basic ships. With a lot of metal and some research, we can manage a mark III version of any ship... but before the war, we had special constructors (built around uncommon sources of radiation and rare asteroids) that could manage a much stronger, mark IV version of any ship we could make a mark III of. While we've not managed to find any of the remaining constructors, there was actually a fifth, top secret type in development... These 'Fabricators', as they came to be called, had to be much more specialized, but created top-tier ships with the most powerful, state-of-the-art equipment, and even immunity to Ion weapons (which, as you know, instantly destroy any ship of an equal mark by overloading its engine signature). This Fabricator is important. With it, we can start building our old Stealth Battleships again... but only the Mark V version. Here's the tech readout. The AI knew. Almost immediately, they sent a warhead out to try to destroy the fabricator. Luckily, we had a defense force ready, and we were able to shoot it down. Unfortunately... all of the fighter pilots involved in shooting it down were caught in the blast. We, of course, respect the sacrifices that our men must make to ensure we have the biggest, best battleships. Regardless, we learned that we could start truly scouting around without alerting the AI, so we began in earnest, producing durable Scout Starships to do so. They're like Integristan's scout drones, but unlike them, they're headed by real, human crews and they don't break in half when something breathes vaguely in their directions. We've regained some perspective as to what we can expect from the AI. It's a rather bitter revelation. To those not in the know, a golem is a massive cityship, built by the Spire race before they were mysteriously purged from the universe. Unfortunately, most of the golems were dormant as we expanded to the rest of the galaxy... but with the advent of some the golemite AI's early routines, we learned how to harness them for ourselves. Every golem is exceedingly powerful and should be approached with extreme caution... ...but on that note, we've learned of one more thing, from the Zenith of all sources, who we recently managed to make contact with again, albeit in deep space. The Zenith Traders, basically the capitalists of the galaxy, have been floating around, trading with the AI (and profiting heavily from it, as I understand.) For a nominal fee (just don't bother asking, I won't tell you how much we paid), we found out that some golems are still dormant, hidden from the AI by some ancient Spire-installed loophole. If we were to capture these planets, and deal with whatever AI presence was on them, well... we could even manage to take a few of them for ourselves. That's all we have for now. It appears the next step is to secure one of the golems, hopefully avoiding the AI's eye and wiping out more data centers. And maybe, just maybe, we can use the Integristani to our advantage, if it comes to that. I'm sure we can all agree that it shouldn't. ...Empress Protects. Dismissed. END OF TRANSCRIPT; Advertisement:BECOME A HARUTOPIAN PILOT! (or someone else in this universe) The Empress Needs You! If you think you have the skill, the luck, the RAW FORCE OF WILL necessary to pilot one of our powerful ships (or be a researcher on one of the science labs we bring to our other planets, or just a normal peasant, or whatever else), leave a name and a preferred role IN THIS THREAD (with however much descriptive fluff as you'd like to type up) and we'll include YOU in our Let's Play!

Official Harutopian Empire Communications Record 93271 Mission Commandant: Lieutenant Colonel Roy "Gekkota" Brogden Communications Officer: Chief Operator Rae Spectronymous Bosch Involved Party: Mk I Light Flagship Commander Jordan Q. Jesus Involved Party: MK II Light Flagship Commander Ether E. Ethereal [spoiler=CONFIDENTIAL TRANSCRIPT: GRADE 2 PERMISSIONS REQUIRED (oops I gave the whole forum grade 2 permissions)]Flagship Cmd. Jordan Jesus: Command, this is Cmd. Jordan of the H.S.S. Pyrrhic Victory, we have a problem, over. CO Rae Spectronymous Bosch: Hang on, patching you through to command... they aren't happy with you, you know. Jordan: And I'm not happy with them! Just let me handle it, over. Rae: We have high-grade transmissions systems, you don't need to end your statements with 'ov--' You know what, never mind. Patched through. Lt. Col. Roy Brogden: Command speaking. Hey, where did you take that ship, anyway? Jordan: Not important. I'm having an issue, here... we blew up a Neinzul Control Cluster, and it was full of... more viral swarmers. Do you read, over? Roy: You don't have to-- Rae: I already tried. Roy: Ahh... Okay, so how is this a problem, aside from the fact that we have nothing defending the homelands now? Jordan: The Neinzul Viral Swarmers encountered our Zenith Viral Shredders, and, well... Rae: Images patching through. We've got a technical readout... ...and a radar image. Jordan: ...Command, they appear to replicating off of each other. This has been going on for two days, I don't know how long this is going to last. Rae: What the...? Roy: Huh? Wow. Well, they can't be gaining any more material on their own, I guess. How many shredders are left? Are yours losing? Jordan: That's a good point... I came here with about 120, and I'm up to... 400, it looks like? Over. *in the background, a smarmy XO shouts "414!"* Over, I said! Roy: You should be overwhelming them, eventually, then... Jordan: We need to take this planet! Empress herself found one of the missing ship fabricators here, and we can't gain control of it if you don't send some backup here to... ugh... to Amanda Hugginkiss... Roy: No can do. Jordan: What?! Certainly you can see the import of this! Ov-- Roy: Jordan, you left us with no defenses back at home. We're fending off an AI Plasma Siege Starship as it is, the home command station is taking some damage. We lost some air pressure. We are in no condition to help you, and it's your own fault. Flagship Cmd. Ether E. Ethereal: Patching in. Perhaps I can help. Roy: Ah, Commander Ether of the... Light Flagship Mk. II, H.S.S. Prognostic Blade? Jordan: Light Flagship... MK II? Wait... *technical readout opening* ... ...She said this was the strongest ship the Empire would ever be able to build! She lied! She... you...! Ether: I can come help, just hang tight. I'm currently out on planet Your Mom, I can be over with a jiffy to support. Jordan: All this horrible nonsense and I'm already being phased out for a new shiptype?! How can this day get any worse?! Mysterious Transmission over all Channels (AI?): Look behind you. Roy: Wait... what? Jordan: Behind...? Wait, who destroyed that Viral Clust-- OH SHIT! Helmsman, hard to port, to the wormhole, hurry! They're-- They're...! Rae: Ma'am... we've... we've lost communication with the H.S.S. Pyrrhic Victory. ...The planet seems to be ready for us to take control, now, though. Roy: ... What a foolish fool. Alright. Ether, we're counting on you now. Ether: Roger. I think we'll have the situation under control. Those bombers are self-attritioning like all Neinzul do. We'll warp through once they're gone. Roy: See to it that you do. Good job not destroying 250,000 scrap worth of important Harutopian Military Hardware, I'll have to look into getting you in command of more boats in the future. Ether: Roger that, Lt. Col. Maintaining radio silence.

Difficulty is 7/7, AI 1 is Golemite, AI 2 is Neinzul/Neinzul. Golems-Hard is confirmed on, but you'll have to wait for future updates to find out more.

(Commence post one, the first half of my half of the first update (say that three times fast. The trick is, it's really easy)! I'll post the second half concurrently with Integrity, in the morning. Those of you who aren't too into the game may want to wait for Integrity's explanatory post before delving into this!) [spoiler=Audio log, year 5 Post Tenebras, Date 93. Commander Jordan Jesus of the Light Starship H.S.S. Pyrrhic Victory.]Five whole years since the AI, well... annihilated everything. We, the remnants of the great Harutopian Empire, got stranded on this terrible, isolated outpost, Planet Yoloswag. WE were the ones who created the Golemnite AI Core, intended to wipe out those dastardly Integristani. WE heralded the doom of our entire race. And what are we doing now that we're in a position to start recovering? Mass-producing ANOTHER AI-controlled army, of course! Order came down from the Empress herself. Now we have these creepy, grey-goo buzzsaws floating around instead of a human fleet to command. How does my TOP TIER Light Starship, the well-earned pinnacle of my work as an XO, use its considerable battle capability to support mindless, unthinking nanoswarms?! Why are we combating the AI... WITH MORE AI?! Command is insane. Report has it, our scout starships have managed to scout out a few of the AI-controlled worlds... and they even think they've spotted some remnant Integristani, in a nearby star system. I was CERTAIN my order would be to crush them. I mean, AI or not, one can't deny these Shredders are pretty good at wiping out human chaff... We'd have clear route to start building up for real. But NO. Pinnacle flagship of the whole fleet, and what do I get to do? Sit at home and protect the command station. Bah. [spoiler=Audio log, Year 5 Post Tenebras, Date 94. Commander Jordan Jesus of the Light Starship H.S.S. Pyrrhic Victory.] Command has moved most of the stronger Viral Shredders out, alone, leaving me with nothing but a pile of junky bolt-cutters to protect the homeworld. First they ignore my counsel on the dangers of using AI, then we don't move out on our SWORN ENEMY... and now I can't even rally anyone to defend the homeworld! The AI has finally noticed us, something about a million buzzsaws flying through their territory? Luckily, the chaff they left seems to have been enough... ...though there was a slightly close call when another starship-- wait... ...That was MY starship! That was the same class and design, and it had the same-- COMMAND TOLD ME I WAS IN CONTROL OF THE PINNACLE OF HUMAN ACHIEVEVMENT! That's it! We're going to take that planet The Empress Exalted was talking about in the previous briefing, something about an 'important fabricator'? I've had enough of defending from this worthless chaff! XO, set a course for planet... *sounds of a map screen turning on* .... ....Amanda Hugginkiss.... Through Traverse Town and... Your Mom?! Has somebody been messing with the map screen?! ...Whatever. Onward, you damn freaks! Set the buzzsaws to come with us. Fuck Command's orders. I know what I'm doing! I'll save humanity myself.

We love you too, kdanger

A vote from an outside source has been added: Spire Maw Neinzul Combat Carrier

STRAYA