The Grays made mention of another planet, much like our old one, where we could settle down and be far away from danger. On it, we could rebuild our civilization in peace and forget about the Aviaks. Many of us went to settle this world, which we named Nova Terra in memory, to start anew. But there were those of us who still remembered Earth and still remember what was done to us. And we thirsted for vengeance.

We were weak; however, and few in number. The Grays had provided whatever help they could, in arms, technology and advice. But they too were inferior to the Aviaks. So we had to improvise. We would steal our enemy’s technology and reverse-engineer it to our own need. This was our ultimate advantage – the ability to adapt whatever we came across. In a way, we were a virus, using their own weaponry and machinery against them. This is the reason I am sitting in an assault frigate two thousand kilometers away from an Aviak cruiser, hidden among the debris of an asteroid belt. To construct our own fleet, we must have the schematics to their FTL engines and navigation systems.
I am part of the Espatiers, the only trained military force that humanity currently fields. Even so, we are not acknowledged officially as such, but instead as pirates and outlaws. There is no reprieve if we are caught; no exchange of prisoners, summary trial and execution is about the best one can hope for. But we are driven by the same thoughts – of revenge, retribution and vengeance. That is why we volunteer.

I strap the belt across my chest tightly. Each of us in the pod is armored with an exoskeleton, built from stolen blueprints, improved by human ingenuity. Our weapons, human-crafted but Aviak-engineered, are specifically designed to destroy our opposition as swiftly as possible. This is our goal. To be launched at the enemy, to board their vessel, to take no prisoners and retrieve whatever we can find. Rinse and repeat. One day, we will have a fleet and men to crew them and we will have our revenge. For now, we kill.


We are aimed at the heart of the enemy vessel, the better to puncture its vital systems and sow disruption among its crew. Our team is only one of several, structured to knock out communications and defensive capabilities before the enemy can react in preparation for the resulting slaughter. The squad leader gives the green light to the gunner and he calculates the correct firing trajectory. A slight deviation and we may sail far past into open space, an easy target for shipboard weapons.

It sounds like a cool premise OP, do you have more?

There is a jolt as we are launched from the frigate, one metal object on a collision course with another at three thousand miles an hour. All that stands between us and being splattered like an organic pancake are the inertial dampeners, also adapted from alien design. We cross the distance between the two ships in the blink of an eye, far too fast for the Aviaks to react. There is another jolt as we impact against its starboard bow, punching a hole through the titanium hull. I pull the bolt back on my weapon as the blast doors slide open, ready to disgorge the pod’s contents into the inner environment of the enemy ship. Fortunately for us, the Aviak homeworld has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, meaning there is no need for rebreather systems. The temperature is a little on the warm side since the Aviaks can not easily generate their own heat and grow sluggish in the cold. We have known this for some time and specifically target their environmental systems to hamper their combat effectiveness.


In my off-time, I have heard news that Nova Terra has flourished greatly in the time since its founding. Its exact location is a highly guarded secret and there are many who have gone to their grave (willingly or not) refusing to divulge its coordinates. However, there are also reports of colony ships heading out to terraform nearby planets, all abundant in resources, especially those needed for war. There is talk of building shipyards and a navy, and best of all, preparing for action against those who wronged us. Fortune willing, I shall be crewing the first human ships to see action among the stars and the first to launch the salvos of our ascendancy to power.

>>12489203
>>12489212
I actually like this. Humans on the down low, still not strong enough to take something on in full force.

More?

Its not really ver HFY to be honest, HFY is when people are being total assholes to other races simply because humans are better, because we need it or just because we can.

That aside it seems like not that bad a story.

Our footsteps echo down the steel corridors as we hurry towards the Captain’s Quarters. We intend to reach it before the enemy can destroy anything of value – as they are wont to do when the battle is lost. Each of us is educated in the enemy’s language and we know the letters for ‘Mess Hall’ when we see them. The squad leader places his ear against the door as the rest of us stack up behind him. He waves his hand horizontally in front of his face, making chopping motions and holding out three fingers. Enemy contact, resistance light, move in on me, he communicates wordlessly. The charge he places on the door blows it off its hinges after three unbearably long seconds. In the smoke and the confusion we charge in, guns held fixed against our shoulders. We have caught them at mealtime. They look at us with understandable confusion as we open fire, bullets ripping and shredding their flesh. When the leader signals for us to stop, there are twenty-six bodies lying on the floor, all very much dead. There is a sudden motion and one of the Aviaks, who had previously been hiding behind a counter, bolts for the exit. Two of us put him down before he makes it halfway across.
Few humans have ever seen an Aviak in person. There are pictures of course, and holo-reels demonizing them, but the truth of the matter is that they are much less imposing than the media makes them out to be. Physically, they are weak. Avian in nature, their bones are hollow and their feathered bodies usually spindly and light. They cannot stand a variety of environments and are severely hampered by any change in condition. In unarmed combat, a human will win, provided he is fit – this has been proven many a time. Their intelligence is a different story, but I have yet to meet one who can outsmart a bullet.

We move on, passing by the crew quarters where another squad is at work, hosing down the area with gunfire and grenades. It is likely we will hear exaggerated tales of their exploits much later in the canteen. Up the staircase we go, on our way to the bridge – in Aviak ships, the Captain’s quarters are directly located next to it. We pass by what seem like propaganda posters, urging the crew to ‘fight for their brood-mothers’ and ‘strive to make their hatchlings proud.’


There has been a great debate about the Aviak culture among our leading sociologists. What sort of race must these beings be if they could destroy another species without warning just to harvest resources? The prevailing belief is that survival of the fittest is the general rule of thumb. If they can take it, they will. Even amongst themselves, they will fight, cheat, and steal anything – including food, land, and mates. For instance, captured Aviaks have been known to turn on their cellmates with little persuasion, just for better treatment and food. A good amount of our intelligence and perspective on their race is obtained through this method. Their society is structured in a harem system, with one male heading flocks of females and doling them out to associates or allies as he pleased. It was a system quite alien to us, but we could understand why they committed the actions they did. In their minds, might made right and our inability to defend ourselves was tantamount to an invitation for destruction. In my mind, it was a game two of us could play.

As we entered the bridge, we could see that these Aviaks were a little more prepared than the flock downstairs. For one, there were more of them than us. Two, they were armed. Our ability to use weapons was limited by the fact there were delicate instruments we did not want destroyed – at least, not until we had finished with our business here. I have said before the Aviak were physically weak. Here was an example in action. Judging by my count, they must have outnumbered us at least three-to-one. The fight was one-sided when it began; it ended as a massacre. Their choice of weapons were often plasma or laser-based, whereas ours were kinetic penetrator slugs. Our armor was specifically designed to render their arms useless, dissipating the incoming bolt’s energy over a body-wide network of capacitors. I saw one raise his rifle at me, fire once, twice, and then I was upon him, powered fist catching him underneath the chin. The exoskeleton we wore multiplied our strength so that we were able to lift heavy machines with a single hand and sprint while carrying hundreds of pounds. My uppercut broke his neck clean through and he flopped lifelessly backwards. I scrambled over the console behind him and threw myself into the emerging melee.

>>12489268
>but I have yet to meet one who can outsmart a bullet.
I see what you did there, and I like it.

A quick survey of the fight’s aftermath illustrated my earlier point. The casualties on the enemy’s side were total, while our only injury was from an overeager private ramming himself (and the Aviak he had in a headlock) into a solid steel bulkhead. The squad leader quickly split us up – directing some to retrieve navigational data, others to download tactical information, and assigning me to retrieve the captain’s files. I found the room off to the side, labeled in the strange pictographs that passed for their language. This was another point of puzzlement among our scientists, that an intelligent species could evolve linguistically without switching to an alphabet, much as if pre-millennia Chinese had become the dominant language of Earth. It made for an unwieldy system of communication as well as data interfacing. Most of all, it became a pain to translate and adapt their technologies to our own operating systems.

With rifle in hand, I slid open the door to claim our spoils of war. There was an older Aviak (the graying feathers was an indication) inside, unarmed and wearing what passed for a dress uniform. He squawked at me, “Who are you? How dare you attack us? Have you any idea who we represent?”

Earlier, I had made the point that few humans had seen a real Aviak. Likewise, few Aviaks had ever seen a human. It made sense; after all, since we had simply been a momentary obstacle in their territorial expansion. Complicate that with the fact our power armor consisted of full face shields, we remained an enigma to survivors (however few there were) of our attacks. The Aviak Naval Command had suspicions that the raids on their ships were human in origin, but definite proof was lacking. Against regulations and better judgment, I removed my helmet, so he could better see his executioner, and watched carefully for his reaction.

>I removed my helmet, so he could better see his executioner, and watched carefully for his reaction.

YES.jpg

Upon catching sight of my features, he went white with fear above the beak, muttering, “No…that’s impossible…” Instantly, my heart grew heavy with rage. He knew what I was! He knew what his people had done to mine and had been complicit in their sins. Their blood was on his hands now. I advanced menacingly, directing him against the wall with my rifle. “Mercy”, he pleaded, noting my stance, “Broodmother’s eggs, have mercy!” I thought of my father, my mother, my sister, and the billions I had never known but lost. I thought of the world I had taken for granted but would never see again. I thought of my life, stolen away from me and never returned. And deep down inside, I knew there could be no mercy. That there was only vengeance, hated, and the debt that needed to be repaid. Every one of us, soldiers, civilians, and humans, would strive for the elimination of our enemies so we could be safe. That was total war – the irreconcilable fact that we would not permit ourselves to lose, that every one of us we would fight to the last for the right to exist. We were a race on the brink of annihilation at war. I looked at him, with great fury and anger, so he would know to tell the Devil to expect many more of his kind on the way, and pulled the trigger.

>>12489274
>There has been a great debate about the Aviak culture among our leading sociologists. What sort of race must these beings be if they could destroy another species without warning just to harvest resources? The prevailing belief is that survival of the fittest is the general rule of thumb. If they can take it, they will. Even amongst themselves, they will fight, cheat, and steal anything – including food, land, and mates. For instance, captured Aviaks have been known to turn on their cellmates with little persuasion, just for better treatment and food. A good amount of our intelligence and perspective on their race is obtained through this method. Their society is structured in a harem system, with one male heading flocks of females and doling them out to associates or allies as he pleased. It was a system quite alien to us, but we could understand why they committed the actions they did. In their minds, might made right and our inability to defend ourselves was tantamount to an invitation for destruction. In my mind, it was a game two of us could play.

My God, man...They're just like us.

Back on the ship, we tallied the results of our expedition. Two casualties, one from enemy fire, the other from overzealous exertion. We would find replacements in the next few days, for there were always men and women eager to sign up for the Espatiers – the Aviaks had already seen to that. We had retrieved valuable information, shipping manifests, convoy routes, and most treasured of all, blueprints to a FTL drive. With it, we could eventually build a fleet to match theirs.
Our little incident would not go unnoticed however. The patrols normally canvassing this route would find a derelict husk floating through space, all hands aboard dead with curiously distinct signs of violence. They would know it was us and demand answers in the Galactic Senate. Our Ambassadors, hand-picked for the express purpose of appeasing the Aviaks, would forcefully deny any links to humanity in general, dismissing our work as that of pirates and outlaws. We would neither be honored nor recognized for our service, not until a free humanity exists, likely long after my lifetime. With dissemination and lies, we will keep our enemies unsuspecting and overconfident. They will think us weak and we shall give them no reason otherwise.

Meanwhile, the Grays have offered to let us build shipyards at Epsilon Eridani, where using the knowledge we have and will have acquired, we can churn out warships of any number and train the personnel to crew them. Already, there are plans for a great flagship, the pinnacle of human and alien technology, to serve as a base for the Espatier Corps. Christened the Prometheus, few would remember the origins of her name, but for every man or woman who worked to keep the great ark of humanity afloat, she would be a representation of their collective efforts. In time, humanity will have to fight, whether we are prepared for it or not. But those who oppose us will find that behind the ready words and easy smiles of our Ambassadors are countlesss men like me and innumerable ships like the Prometheus. Machines made for war.

Tremble, enemies of Man, for Earth and her children behold you. And we find you wanting.

- Taken from the memoirs of Sgt. A Wallenberg, Blood and Thunder: An Account of the Espatier Corps in the Aviak-Human War

also i totally stole the last line it's just too good.

>My God, man...They're just like us.

Actually, Fraboys don't count as humans in most first world nations.

>>12489203
>>12489212
>>12489218
>>12489230
>>12489268
>>12489274
>>12489282
>>12489298
>>12489335
>>12489354
>>12489378
Awesome story OP. Best HFY I've seen in over a year. Screencapping!

>>12489406
Or any nations.

>>12489419

Thanks, I wanted to make humanity not a powerhouse, but a sleeping giant sort of. "Don't fuck with the children of Adam and Eve".

Nice work OP. Kinda sounds like titan AE minus actually fighting back.

“Greetings students.

I remember last lesson that one of you asked me about the inscription on large statue outside.
Does anyone here know what the inscription says?
It is written in a language very different from ours, and translates to:
“REMEMBER US, FOR WE DID NOT GO SILENTLY IN TO THE NIGHT”.

You all know about the Kranthi War. What most people know about the war is that almost half the known galaxy was overrun by the warrior creatures known as the Kranthi, that they took entire races as slaves, that many races were driven to extinction by them, and that it took the combined fleets of the four council races to finally put an end to the Kranthi menace. What not many people know, or for that matter care about, is how that final victory came to be.

If you all would engage the auto-translator devices in your desks, please. “

>>12489464
As the students had donned their devices the professor flicked a switch on his desk and an old recording started playing. What first only sounded like gobbledygook took only a short time for the autotranslators to mold into a language the students knew with almost realtime translation. The voice of the speaker sounded harsh, yet loving and had an undertone of something…special. Something that one could not really put its digit on but it was there.

The voice on the recording took a deep breath and began speaking:
”As you all know we have been at war with the Kranthi for four years now. They struck at our colonies, they struck at our space stations and now they are about to strike here, our most beloved home planet. I now bequest every able-bodied man and woman to take up arms and join us in this, the final battle of the war. You have all heard the rumors and grumblings of the defeatist. That the human race faces extinction and we should lay down our arms to become slaves for the Kranthi.

I will not lie to you troopers; this war is a war we cannot win. Humanity does indeed face extinction. But we will not go silently into the night! I tell you that we will not be forgotten by the pages of time. We will fight on this day! Today we fight not only for our own sake, but for the sake of our loved ones, for the sake of our children! Today we fight for the sake of the entire human race!

We shall not falter. We shall not run. Today, we shall stand united as one against the invaders! We shall fight and die as one people, one race, one united hope! We shall send the Kranthi a message. A message written in the blood of Humans and Kranthi alike! A message that tell the Kranthi the folly of cornering the Human race! Fight on, my brothers and sisters! Fight on for the sake of our entire race!”

>>12489471
The professor flipped the switch to its original position and looked at his students. Most students looked stunned by the recording.

“This, my class, is the last known transmission of one Brigadier General Arcturus Kaine before the beachhead landings of Kranthi warfleet codenamed “Demagog” on the Human homeworld of “Earth”.

Most species could not stand up to the Kranthi and every time one species tried, the Kranthi wiped out that entire race from the galaxy. The humans knew this, yet they stood and fought. What we thought would be a swift massacre of the human race became a long and bloody campaign that drained a large amount of the Kranthi warmachine.
Ultimately the Kranthi were victorious as the humans were dwindling in numbers every day. This was however a turning point in the war, as by their valiant sacrifice the Human race gave the council races enough time to gather the fleet that was to eradicate the Kranthi from the galaxy.

The large statue outside is a statue of a Human soldier in full battle gear, and stands as a reminder of the actions of the human race and their ultimate sacrifice that led to the destruction of the Kranthi.

Until next lesson I want all of you to write an essay with the subject of one extinct race and their contribution to galactic civilization.”

Screencap of OP's story

>>12489448

I was reminded of that too, with humanity's status as stragglers and vagrants. Here, they're relatively better off, they're settled in an area out of the way and with good resources, depending on rate of colonization a formidable human alliance is not out of the question.

excellent work OP. tempted to ask for more from this setting...

That's weird, it's like I'm reading a HFY thread but without any of the suck.

>>12489476
I don't really like this one. It's very well written, but the fact we're extinct at the end I don't like.

But that's just me. Fuck, I get uneasy watching stuff like 2012.

good stuff op. nice little bit from the second writefag also. thanks

>>12489448

Reminds me of homeworld 1. And that is a very good thing.

Hell, I even remember using these little fuckers to steal every piece of alien technology the universe could muster up to throw at the kushan.

>>12489671
dammit. redowloadan' and reinstallan' now

>>12489671
>Kushan

I thought it was the Taidaan?

MAOR non-shit HFY!!

...please?

>>12489567
Yeah, I'm gonna second that. Good job OP

>aliens blow up Earth, shattering the pieces everywhere
>blowing up a planet totally
>god like race with technology that rivals the total power of a sun
>gets curbstomped by a handful of human survivors

Fucking retarded.

At least write some HFY about a believable human-alien conflict.

>>12489419
I wouldn't say the best, but easily in the top three. Beautiful work, OP. Keep it coming!

>>12490982

don't take things into exaggeration

destroying a planet with no space-facing defenses is easy for them, they do it primarily to harvest its resources

The bird people aren't depicted as 'god-like', just voracious and very large in territory and military strength. Humanity doesn't exactly curbstomp them either, this is an ambush in which they don't even engage in a ship to ship battle, it's basically a boarding operation. Basically, the only way humanity can win right now is by attacking unwary merchant/patrol vessels.

Needs MOAR HFY stories! NAOW

>MFW earth was destroyed by an unmanned Aviak mining probe that had a critical logic fault in its lifesign sensors.

>>12490982

This, really. It's well written, but the logical inconsistencies are too glaring for me to look past. Why didn't the cruiser have point defenses? How was their armor so weak that the boarding pods smashed through it without flattening the passengers? If their whole species is based on survival of the fittest, why are they so physically weak? If humanity had so little contact with the Aviaks that it was rare to behold one, how did they manage to decipher plans that were likely written in a different language in addition to using several physical concepts that mankind apparently hadn't mastered yet? Lastly, how is it that humanity knew the entire race was responsible for earth's destruction as opposed to perhaps one corporation or sub-faction within it?

>>12492224

Just gonna say,

I don't think you understand how much energy it takes to blow up a planet.

It's essentially the amount of energy it takes to launch EVERYTHING into deep space.

Consider that it takes more than 2kT tnt equivalent worth of energy to do that to 100 tons. And the world is pretty friggin' heavy.

Given it's mass, the earth's gravitation binding energy works out to 2.24x10^32 joules.

wiki says the sun puts out about 3.34×10^31 joules a day, so blowing up a planet requires as much energy as the sun puts out in 6.7 DAYS. I would call that pretty ridiculous. Just direct a millioth of that energy onto the surface to permanently scour it clean of all life, and then mine it like a normal person. The energy it takes to take the processed products off the surface is clearly small potatoes. Miniscule potatoes. Microscopic in fact.

And lord help you if your ship can be penetrated by a metal pod at 3000mph when there's a whole planet's worth of shit flying about at at least 7 miles/second.

>>12492708
And yet, we don't give a shit.

No one's left, everything is gone. Kharak is burning.

>>12492708
not really. For a space-traveling race, destroying the planet Earth would be pretty easy. You know what the Ring of Fire is, right? the massive area of tectonic instability and volcanic activity? Drill into the mantle of the planet on the other side of the globe, away from it. Start strip-mining out the iron core of the planet, only about 5% should do. Then set off a series of nukes inside the core. The liquid core spins at a different rate than the bulkier outer mantle and crust. Disrupting it would disrupt the earth's ionosphere, and like an unbalanced gyroscope it will spin out of control and shake the planet in half. The hole to get there and the weak-spot on the far side of the globe would both crack and widen. It would only take about a year to split the planet in half, after which friction and tectonic motion would result in those halves fracturing.

And that's not even including the possibility of 0.9C torpedo just ramming the whole planet at the South pole, continuing to the North, coring the planet like an apple. It doesn't have to be a death-star type laser, or an all-at-once explosion, but the planet is destroyable.

Can we, uh, liberate the Aviak females?

This, really. It's well written, but the logical inconsistencies are too glaring for me to look past. Why didn't the cruiser have point defenses?

>>They did, but none rated to target an object at such a high speed.

How was their armor so weak that the boarding pods smashed through it without flattening the passengers?

You're right in that, since I hadn't explained it enough. Part of this story is based on the idea of the Espatier Corps, who were specialized boarding parties designed to penetrate a ship's hull and storm the vessel. The details are still being worked out because I'm trying to come up with a somewhat scientific basis for humans in a pod being able to inject themselves into an enemy ship, kind of like a virus into a host cell, if you get the analogy.

If their whole species is based on survival of the fittest, why are they so physically weak?

>>Think about what he says. He says they are physically weak but their intelligence is very strong. Once off the ground, physical strength matters little. They have superior ranged technology, superior ships, etc. On their own planet, they only had others of their own species to contend with.

If humanity had so little contact with the Aviaks that it was rare to behold one, how did they manage to decipher plans that were likely written in a different language in addition to using several physical concepts that mankind apparently hadn't mastered yet?

>>The majority of humans had never seen an Aviak and thus were never familiar with these concepts. The people who have are in the business of studying and killing them, (Espatiers, Naval Intelligence, etc.) are familiar because they interact with Aviaks and their culture on a regular basis. Note also the Grays were said to have helped them with this. Give mankind's apparent ingenuity for adaptation, it is not inconceivable that their brightest minds, recruited for the purpose of defense, would be able to decipher things, given a few decades.

Lastly, how is it that humanity knew the entire race was responsible for earth's destruction as opposed to perhaps one corporation or sub-faction within it?

How indeed. That is something you should keep in mind, it was not left out unintentionally.

On the flip, consider this, whatever faction there might be, if there exists one, evidently did not consider exterminating the whole of the human race any great deal, so in the narrator's mind, destroying the entirety of the Aviak race, factions be damned, is the only logical choice.

Consider also, the comment he makes on their society. He apparently believes that since their entire culture is structured like this, the sympathizers would be far in the few.

>>Can we, uh, liberate the Aviak females?

I think the main character would probably kill you for that. I have no comments though.

>>12493188
Nothing can bridge our souls' devotion
Fast enough together
As the power proves you right
Right enough to let you begin

>>12489203
I want so see some more Veil of Madness, those where good HFY! stories.

What about a diplomat giving an ambassador a very special gift.

A Bonsai tree

For some reason this completely horrified the ambassador due to cultural differences rather than just growing bonsai trees being seen a "brutal" art the more "peaceful" members of their society practice

>>12494593
I used to wonder why would those crowlike.... "Featheries"(?) be the technologically superior race in that setting.

Crows are fucking smart. Hannibal Lecter smart and they are out to get us.

>>12494715
Yes, VoM was great. I also enjoyed the Telk story.

>>12495098
>>12494715
The VoM follow up was good for a laugh too.

>>12495189
yeah, it was good.

In my min however it would have been much MUCH better if he did the Joker Clapping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwbOg3AwgJM#t=0m55s

>>12493222

Uh, no. It takes that much energy regardless of how you blow up the earth. You could do it slowly by installing a mass driver on the surface and launching dirt into space one bucket at a time until there's nothing left and it would still take that much. Same with accelerating an object into it at sufficient speed.

Fucking up the mantle and core might break up the crust and render the surface uninhabitable, but it's not going to cause the earth to break up. This shit's held together by gravity, not by being a solid object.

I guess you could throw maybe an order of magnitude less energy in and have the earth blown up in a way that it would re-form after a while, but a 10th of an unimaginably huge fuckton is still pretty much an unfathomably huge fuckton. Killing everyone one a planet wouldn't be too hard for a powerful spacefaring race, but actually dismantling stellar objects is a monumental task, and I'm not convinced anyone with the degree of sophistication to do it would be wanting for base matter enough to throw away all that energy.

That said, the story is still the best HFY related original content I've read on /tg/. It's a refreshing change from "Humanity as the scariest mothrfuckin' legendary mercenaries in the galaxy due to extreme ruthlessness, greed, and xenophobia" or "Humanity as peaceful technological society but then someone fucks with them and humanity asspulls a huge space navy", or "humanity as the new kid on the block that gets fucked up but throws wave after wave of their own men at the enemy to overload their pre-set kill counters, horrifying their opponent and eventually winning the day." This has the makings of a legit setitng or story that's actually worth reading.

>>12495664
well you could just assume they did what the Ishimura did in Dead Space and has some manner of device that fucks up gravity

>>12495664
well...


Didn't they just pulled an Ishimura on Earth?

That could explain why there where any survivors at all.

Honestly, that anon is implying it would be inconceivable to destroy the Earth. That is not so. It's happened in sci-fi all the time. It's science fiction for a reason.

>>12495678
>>12495710
>Deadspacemind

>>12495760
I think what he is talking about is how a civilization that can blow up planets can be curbstomped so easily.

If you can make this something other than big bad human dickwaving where they wipe out the enemy because they deserve it and their revenge is so just and right that they all go eat apple pie off their own ballsacs later while waving the New Earthican Flag, I will be impressed and delighted.

>>12495776
>>12495776

>>12495811

Uh, so with magic powers and a weakpoint so glaringly obvious it might as well have been called the "Plot Hole?"

>>12495776

Are they really getting curbstomped? I see a small case of curbstomping under the right conditions, but not what you're talking about.

>>12495869

They will because that's how these stories always go. Personally? I'd like to see something different. Maybe it was the Greys who blew up Earth in an attempt to manipulate humanity into fighting a war for them without losing face in the galactic community, and we ultimately end up committing almost complete genocide on the wrong damn race.

>>12495776

I'm not quite the same anon as
>>12492706
>>12490982

But I'll agree that anyone willing to throw down the sort of energy a mid sized star puts out in a week just to get some iron is probably pretty hot shit.

It's not that it's inconceivable for a planet to get blown up; it's not exactly uncommon in literature, or at least "literature". Shit, in the Star Wars extended universe, there's like a planet killing super-weapon in every other book.

It's just that blowing up planets is a lot harder than it looks. All the nukes in the world during the height of the cold war wouldn't even kill off all human life, let alone all life. The ability to go all Titan AE on a planet in what otherwise seems like a more or less hard scifi setting seems kind of off.

>>12495947

They /are/ hot shit though. They're hot enough to go destroy an entire race and the Galatic Senate hasn't done jackshit about it.

>>12495976

God, it better not wind up like star wars where all the ship weapons are supposed to be like 200 Gigatons of TNT equivalent per shot or some shit but small arms are more or less within an order of magnitude of what you can get today.

>>12496073
To be fair, a handgun that put out 5 gigatons a shot is a bad idea, even if you can scale down your starship cannons to fit in your hand.

Plenty modern guns have more than enough power to kill someone, even if they are wearing modern body armor. They don't need to be significantly more powerful.

bump for VoM

double bump for VoM

Reminds me very much of Greg Bear's novel Anvil of Stars

>detonating the core
That's fucken stupid.

What's VoM?

>>12502063
Veil of Madness.

>>12496973

Well that's just the thing. You really have to give individual combat some hard consideration when even a minor warship can blast oceans and continents off of planets with a single stray blast.

And in a world where nobody has magic energy shielding, the fact that it would be basically impossible to build anything capable of withstanding determined weapons fire even if it's the size of a goddamn moon is going to have all kinds of weird effects on the political climate.

It seems to be a world where weapons so outclass armor that you can throw around the power of a sun but could be damaged by a WW2 battleship cannon, which sounds like a pretty frightening combination.

I've been working on an HFY story for a while. It's kinda long and not particularly well written. I'll post it up here though. Please, hold your flames and contempt until the end.
"All right, younglings. Please scroll to section 73 of your geography files and we'll begin today's lecture." Frux could hear the unvoiced groans in his students' minds, the near-universal response of bored young inds exposed to the beginning of yet another two-hour lecture on Galactic Astrography and History. Their biology teacher had yet to cover his race's innate telepathic talents in their lessons, and until he did, Frux was glad to let the children think him omniscient.

"Now, I've received your informative requests and questions from last night. I'm glad to see at least some of you actively seeking information." If only they knew why the information they sought was banned and deleted from public libraries. But, it is the universal nature of youth to press against the boundaries set by their elders. "I see three requests here about segment 07597. After discussing with the Principal and board of education, I've decided it's time to let you access the encrypted archive and learn why 07597 is officially left blank on all government maps." Frux could feel, virtually TASTE the excitement that arched and rippled through the assembled minds of the younglings before him. A half dozen races enrolled their children in this primary school, but all children feel the same thrill when exposed to the 'forbidden' and 'taboo' knowledge they feel adults hoard away from them.

>>12504072
"Now, class, who can tell me what the races of the Or'thantic and the Trell-Nalruush have in common?"

Frux waited a good three minutes as the class murmered and muttered, trying to determine what he was talking about. Finally, one intrepid youung Calek raised its third tentacle. "Sir... we've never heard of any of them. Do they live in 07597?"

"Close, little one. They used to. They're gone now. All gone. Extinct. This is one of the black secrets of galactic history, younglings. We feel you're old enough to understand the importance of what I'm about to tell you. The galactic Senate has been around for several illenia. You all know this. Member races have joined and secedded, and the original founding races left this galaxy long ago to explore elsewhere. But We've only told you part of the history. We did not always have an open door policy. Long ago, about six of my people's generations ago, when I was but a young polyp myself, the Senate held strict rules for who and what they would accept as member worlds. One day, a new race was discovered. They evolved on the far side of the segment now designated 07597.

>>12504093
Ordinarily, a battery of Senate races would explore the new race, examine them, and determine whether or not to offer them membership. But this race... they were different. They detected us long before we detected them. They had already colonized several nearby star systems and were growing rapidly when a single small craft entered star system Cacendious, the home of the capitol planet for the Senate. Nobody had ever seen its like before. Its drive systems were radically different from what we used. the alloys which composed its hull were crude and simple, but sturdy. Common for young races which had not yet developed molecular compression technology. Much excitement abounded. The ship communicated its desire to land and address the Senate. out of novelty, and to provide a spectacle for the news nets, the Senate agreed. I still remember catching my first glimpse of the occupant on my creche's viewscreen. How odd it looked. Tall and slender, with only four limbs. Its two lower limbs alternated supporting its weight as it bobbed forward down the ramp. It said nothing to the voracious news-hounds and paparazzi which assailed it, and quietly entered the Senate building. Computer, please play audio file S-t-435432545!!K-Hu."

>>12504102

A brief buzz of static squeeled from the aging speakers in the classroom, before a high, nassal sounding voice began streaming a nonsensical language. A quarter-second later, the translator, also caght on record at the time, picked up the speech in the tinny, grating sound of older model electronics. "I bid you greetings, Senators. I represent a young race, known to ourselves as 'Hyoo-Mahns' We have long looked to the stars from our modest home world, hopingto find brothers and equals here. We are overjoyed that you would meet with us. We would like to forally request entrance into your government, pursuant to whatever requirements that may entail. I have been authorized to speak and negotiate for 83 of the 89 ruling governents of Earth and its colony worlds. I hope we can come to an equitable and mutually beneficial agreement." Several moments of quiet murmuring followed before a loud ruckus and hysterical laughter began. Here, the recording ended.

>>12504111

"And that, younglings, was the first and last time any of us have seen a Hyoo-Mahn in the flesh. The Senate laughed at the audacity of the small mammal, to stride into our hallowed halls and presume equality. Some of you might not understand, but it was a different time back then. Tolerance and equality, while admirable, where something earned through years of membership and sacrifice. For an audacious young race to presume equality with all other members of the Senate was a grievous insult.

Frux could feel the questions boiling in their minds, but decided to let them ask aloud anyway. "Yes, Trork?" The Calek fro earlier squirmed slightly. "What happened to the Hyoo-Mahn?" Frux siled "He was sent away. Sent home with a message. Our glorious Senate had decreed that their race, for its presumption, would be denied entrance into the Senate, and denied all benefits of membership in perpetuity."

The younglings gasped. To be forbidden from EVER joining civilized society? Such a punishment seemed harsh even to the young. A small Turu female raise her paw "What did the Hyoo-Mahn mean, '83 of the 89 governments'?"

HFY THREAD! FUCK YEAH!

>>12504123
"A good question, Kint. From what few records we have managed to gather, the Hyoo-Mahns are a fractious lot. Always competing with each other. Their home planet never developed a centralized government. They could never agree on which method of rulership was best. Or theology. Or economics. They couldn't agree on ANYTHING. Even their definitions of what it meant to be a member of their species varied from nation to nation."

"So what happened to the Or'thantic, and the Trell-Nalruush?"

Well, they were member races, long ago, butthey had always been agressive. They thought that, without the protection of embership, the Hyoo-Mahns would be easily defeated and enslaved. A new race with knowledge enough to cross the stars, but without the unifying social structures of Senate races? Such a resource could be exploited. The Trell-Nalruush went first. They scoured the planets in their sector, until they found a single colony world. Only several hundred thousand strong, the colony had no military defenses, no orbital watchers, no garrison save for small peace-keeping operations in the various settlements, never more than twenty strong. the Trell swooped in."

>>12504128

"Their bombers struck without warning, their troops made planet-fall uncontested. They immediately moved to secure power and government facilities. Within a quarter cycle of that planet's day, they had seized the bulk of the planet's burgeoning infrastructure. A quarter-cycle later, their numbers were reduced by half. The colonists fought with all they had. Animal-control weapons, mining tools, even sharpened sticks and rocks. They struck from shadows and at long range. They laid ambushes and whittled away at Trell forces. the Trell were shocked. they had detected no military organization, and their monitoring of the civilian communication grid belied no activity at all. The Hyoo-Mahns simply saw what was happening and collectively acted on the independent level to repel the invaders. The Trell sounded a full retreat. Once withdrawn to their orbiting fleet, they struck a bloody vengeance. They glassed the planet. Nothing remained but cinders and ghosts."

Please just stop Magus.

>>12504137
A hologram flickered into life above Frux's teaching podium "This is a time-lapse recording taken from the bridge of a Trell battleship as it shelled the planet. Notice the population centers are targetted last. This was done to herd the natives into easily contained kill-zones." Ripples of disgust and horror flowed through the bulk of the younglings, and a few motes of wide-eyed awe and respect/desire from the bullies amongst them.

"This was not, however, a repeateable pattern. The next colony the Trell found was larger, and prepared for their arrival. The fleet was crushed in orbit. No survivors. Two solar cycles later, in every Trell-owned system, a single small object appeared from FTL, however the Hyoo-Mahns acheive it. each immediately made for the system's primary point of occupation, before breaking apart. Each object was, in truth, a projectile. Each carried a lethal payload. One slive-like projectile entered the atmosphere of each Trell world. Nobody thought uch of it. Three galactic cycles later, a plague unlike any seen before or since ripped through the Trell population. No antivirus was ever found. Nobody had time. Four hundred and sisty-eight billion sentients, dead. As their flesh literally calcified and strangled them from the inside out, a similar probe appeared in Cacendious. It briefly transmitted a message before self destructing. The message read "We will not tolerate interference. You have made it clear we are not welcome. You, too, are unwelcome in our space. You have been warned."

>>12504144
"For a young race to threaten a Senate member is unheard of. To admit deploying biological weapons, and proceed to threaten the entire senate as a whole? Unthinkable. The Senate debated for cycles. Finally, it was declared that the nearest member body would be tapped to bring this upstart race to justice. The Or'thantic had a long history of military might. They immediately mobilized to field their Grand Armada. Ten thousand battle cruisers, each equipped with weapons still considered cutting edge today."

>>12504155

"The armada had many early victories. this is where the bulk of our knowledge about Hyoo-Mahns comes from. They captured several of the Hyoo-Mahn vessels, though never without significant damage. They took many captives among the civillian populations of the planets they found, but always after intense fighting. If the civillians had troubled the Trell, then their soldiers were like unto demons to the Or'thantic forces. World after world fell, glassed when the Or'thantic realized that they could never win a guerilla war against the savage and cunning Hyoo-Mahns. Our records put the death toll near 12 billion, for the humans. It was not until later that the Or'thantic realized the true brutality of their foe. Propaganda posters captured on human vessels all proclaimed the same essage 'For every life, a world.', often listing those recently slain by the Or'thantic. The Or'thantic armada came to yet another colonized system, Proxima Centauri, by the Hyoo-Mahn designation. And there, the fleet of the Or'thantic, reduced from Ten thousand to 7972, met the Hyoo-Mahn First Colonial Legion. Fifty thousand ships. Each a fraction the size of a Or'thantic cruiser. Each sporting primitive electromagnetic slug cannons and laser arrays. But combined, the agile craft picked apart the Grand Armada. Seven thousand Nine hundred, and Seventy Two vessels entered that system. Six left. The Hyoo-Mahn fleet had shattered the Or'thantic advance.

>>12504161

Soon, Or'thantic weapons began appearing on Hyoo-Mahn vessels. News nets were not as fast in those days as they are now. We did not know about the failure at Proxima Centauri until it was too late to send aid. Small flotillas of vessels began raiding Or'thantic systems. These blows were merely to soften the Or'thantic before the killing stroke. Coordinated, in perfect timing, a flotilla appeared in each Or'thantic system. As one, they orbited each Or'thantic world, and colony, and station. And as one, they released their payloads. Trillions of sentients held their breath as small blue spheres dropped into their atmospheres, or clung to their station hulls. There was no flame. No great explosions. Just gentle thuds. We have few answers to what happened next, but we know this: Each sphere cracked open. Each disgorged a blue mist. All else is inference and supposition. We believe that the blue mist was a weaponized nano-form. Whether biological or mechanical is still debated to this day."

>>12504170
Frux let the magnitude of the atrocity sink in. "The various flotillas blockaded each world, destroying any ship attempting to leave. Hundreds of trillions of lives were snuffed out, eaten alive by the unstoppable nano-plague. You know the laws against devloping such weapons. But since the Hyoo-Mahns had been denied entry to the Republic, we realized that they were not bound by the same laws. Every restriction, every sanction, every embargo we had was meaningless to them. We were at their mercy. There was talk of military action, but fear of similar reprisals stayed our hands. For twelve long cycles, we waited with baited breath. No ship was sighted leaving Hyoo-Mahn space. No messages were received. Gradually, our militaries relaxed. Probes sent into 07597 revealed that the Hyoo-Mahns had spread, recolonizing the worlds they had lost, and settling on the blasted wastelands they had created from the ashes of their foes. Their ships, once clumsy and blocky, now sported elements of Trell and Or'thantic technology. They had cannibalized the best parts of each race's science and melded them with their own sturdy construction. Eventually, they began discovering our remote probes and destroying them, clearly intending to guard their borders well. That was when the Senate declared the entire segment off limits. We placed beacons in all nearby systems, warning all passersby not to enter any deeper into 07597. Official charts of the area were destroyed or hidden.

>>12504182

And the Senate has agreed to leave the that way. Only once has the cordon around 07597 been broken. A young race, very nomadic, ventured into Senate territory from the unexplored reaches on the far side of the galaxy. They insisted that they were on a religious pilgrimage, their entire population enclosed in their massive hab-ships. They made their destination known: A main-sequence yellow star on the far side of 07597, near the edge of the galactic arm. We warned them, repeatedly, not to venture into that segment. They insisted that their gods called to them and demanded they continue. We let them pass. No member of the Skeev was ever seen again. We presume the Hyoo-Mahns destroyed them all, but we have never dared approach them or ask.

>>12504195

Everyone is told the tale of the Hyoo-Mahn when they are old enough to understand the gravity of the situation, and no sooner. There lives in our galaxy a race who thinks nothing of genocide. A race so brutal as to place fear into the hearts of the most ancient of races. They hang there, in the heavens, growing and fighting amongst themselves. They are, in every way, a nest of Firaxan Pirhanna-Wasps. So long as they are undisturbed, they are harmless. In a few short years, you will be graduating and beginning your higher educations and apprenticeships. Many of you, I know, will be enlisting in the Exploration Corps and the military. Please, for the sake of the Senate, remember the lesson of fighting the Hyoo-Mahns. For every Hyoo-mahn life cut short, a world dies."

that's the end. You can commence with the flames and nit-picking now.

>>12504139
is it that bad? Or just too long?

>feoffment? toxiplasma
Thanks, Captcha. I think humanity has a new weapon.

>>12504072
>>12504093
>>12504102
>>12504111
>>12504123
>>12504128
>>12504137
>>12504144
>>12504155
>>12504161
>>12504170
>>12504182
So wait lemme get this straight.
>Humans ask to be part of community, get told to fuck off.
>Humans do so with grace, mind their own business when INVASION FORCE
>Humans go right to war mode, destroying their current enemy and killing their entire species via disease
>Everyone decides that the best idea is to SEND ANOTHER MILITARY FORCE after them.
>Humans switch into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, slaughter their opponents AGAIN

>>12494593

She's magnificent. Time to go and liberate the hell out of 'em.

>>12504222
And then the galaxy realize 'hey, LEAVE THESE FUCKERS THE HELL ALONE'. yes. Humans are willing to do anything and everything in defense of their people, and to avenge their fallen. If left alone, they stay alone and fight each other. When provoked by outside aggression, they unleash undreamt-of hell upon their foes, take what's left of them, and go back to arguing with each other.

>>12504257
Sounds incredibly like orks.

>>12504268
orks are too aggressive. they actively fight everyone. There's nothing isolationist about them.

>Wallenberg

Dem scandinavians man, calm and polite but piss them off and suddenly berserks everywhere.

>>12504283

Vikings are berserkers.

>>12504213
Your writing skills need general improvement, I just don't think you have it in you.

>>12504257
ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS

>>12504297
yeah, I figured. I get good ideas, I think, I just can't translate them well for everyone else. Thanks for your honesty.

>>12504340
I enjoyed reading it.
Worse writers than you have gotten published.

>>12504324
Please see >>12504277

though that reminds me of a story my girlfriend and I were discussing the other day. In ancient times, space-elves and space orcs fought a war. The Orcs found Earth, and immediately took a liking to neanderthals. Rpmitive, bone-headed mammals that smash things they don't like? They're like younger cousins! They left a sizable garrison here. The Space Elves came, destroyed the garrison, and left. The survivors of the garrison took refuge with the neanderthals they had kept as slaves and pets. Eventually, mankind evolves and takes to the stars, to find the war still raging and earth forgotten, but now home to six point five billion highly-advanced half orcs. All modern humans are descended from the original tribes the orcs took refuge in. And now we find a bunch of pansy elves picking on our big brothers?

That was as far as we got with it, but I think it has potential, if anyone wants to pick it up.

>>12504222
from how im looking at it, humanity did the rest of the galaxy a favor by getting rid of the two species that were willing to go full retard and attack a species just becasue they were not a member of the big boys club.

>>12493582
Heresy detected.

>>12504213
I liked it, OPs story was very good too!

>>12504416
Yeah, OP's is brilliant. A little shaky on the technical side, but what sci-fi isn't?

>>12504381
Wouldn't that make us quarterork? Neanderthals mate ith orks, produce halforks, said halforks/neanderthals mate with cro-magnon, makes us.
Anyway, fuck space elves, they are always up to no good.

>>12504213
Well it was enjoyable enough.

>>12504452
I guess. It depends on how many half-orcs bred with pure orcs before adding cro-magnon to the gene pool. Whatever the percentage is, the elves are fucked. You've now got a breed of partial-orc with orc toughness and instincts, and a brain adapted for imagination, intelligence, and creative problem solving. What happens when you remove a race's only biological flaw? You get us.

I hate this new story just because "Hyoo-mans" is how some really annoying furries say it. And it sounds retarded

(unrelated, that's also how people with a Nigerian accent pronounce it. But I'm not going to hold it against them because it works a lot better in the context of a unified accent, and they're certainly not going to type it out that way.)

>>12504213
I actually really enjoyed this writefaggotry, very HFY in my opinion...

>captcha: alintle thought.
>ohyou.jpg

>>12489263

Wrong. Humanity Fuck Yeah just means the story is tinged with triumph of human survivability and ingenuity.

>>12505416

No, that is what it SHOULD be about. What it inevitably turns into is more or less masturbatory LOOK HOW GOOD MY SPECIES IS THAT MAKES ME COOL RIGHT nonsense that is to all intents and purposes the same thing as hypernationalism except built in a way that defies challenge and avoids faggots being called on it.

>>12505461

I agree except it's pretty clear that there's a fair number of people that call shit out.

>>12505461
HFY is the polar opposite of furryism or otherkin but bad for all the same reasons.

damn i love good HFY

This is good.

>>12505364
Thanks

>>12505111
Sorry. Didn't know that's how furverts pronounced things. I'll avoid it in the future. I was just trying to sound out how an alien race with no knowledge of earth's languages would pronounce it.

>All the nukes in the world during the height of the cold war wouldn't even kill off all human life

Detonate one single nuke in the Ionosphere. Bam, we're all dead.

>Nuke in ionosphere wipes out humanity or blows up planet or some such shit.

NO. YOU ARE A MORON. SHUT THE FUCK UP.

>itt: new and original HFY that are actually quite good with low faggotry and no copypastas

I love this thread ;_;

>>12513655
umm.... disrupting the protective ionosphere and exposing us to massive amounts of radiation, bathing the entire world in sterilizing radiant death so that it's stripped clean of life, like Mars? Pretty effective. Some life may survive in the deep ocean, but nothing on the surface would last long.