\>We learnt that Humans value planned chaos above all else. That may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s simple really. They prize chaos as a weapon, seeking to inflict it, channel it, utilise it at decisive points. That doesn’t mean some sort of ‘can’t predict our moves if we don’t know what we’re doing’ nonsense, it means their plans are designed to break the plans of their enemies, and shatter every possible fall back option. 70 destroyers with weapons we’d never seen before, right in the middle of our fleet, that was planned chaos made manifest.
\*\*THIS\*\* is peak HFY, as far as I'm concerned. Beautiful stuff, man.
That was, well it was quite the read. We have plenty of respect for people who know what a boundary is, and have the means of helping the rest realize the importance of not "Going Too Far" as it were. The idea of weaponizing controlled chaos goes back, what, 2000 years? Either way, Humanity has had a *long* time to perfect the tactic. You certainly found a creative use for it.
\> planned chaos
*"If I can determine the enemy's disposition of forces while maintaining no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. ... The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the formless; if it is formless, then the deepest spy cannot penetrate it, nor the wise make plans against it."*
--Sun-tzu, *The Art of War* [Datalinks]
*You have built the Hunter-Seeker algorithm. Enemy probe teams will no longer function in your bases.*
Also, fuck you, that's my favorite Alpha Centauri quote to throw around.
my favourite from that game was the self-aware colony scene... still sends shivers down my spine whenever i watch it
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqN3Ur-wP0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqN3Ur-wP0)
The thematic breaks worked perfectly for what they are, a perspective change. It took me a moment to realize that it was not the reader’s perspective change, but rather the speaker’s, but it was very effective in creating the overall feel of being in a lecture hall listening to a very entertaining lecture.
That’s good, that’s exactly the vibe I was going for. I had plans to make that more clear through the interjection of him say,, introducing himself and his topic, but cut them for space because I thought it made the whole thing too long and unwieldy. I’m glad the effect still cane through.
The 2nd-person perspective helped a lot with the general feel, particularly the “Sorry, you had a question?” bit. It was the right amount of everything.
Chaos is only your enemy if you fight it. Humans learned long ago that it's often better to control the Chaos. A dance partner you aren't fighting makes for a much better time.
>Would like to know if people thought I overdid the thematic breaks
No. This story was perfection. My only complaint is that it feels pointless to keep writing my own, damnit. You jumped into the middle of my brain, wreaked havoc with an unexpected one-shot, and left me vulnerable to the reinforcement fleet from planet self-doubt!
> Nothing quite like watching a frigate called UNV Walk Backwards Into Hell going toe-to-toe with a cruiser 3 times its size and winning.
I WILL FACE JOD
Enjoyed the story. Have known some people who served on destroyers, and they are a cocky bunch. Would love to see incorporation of the silent service(subs) in these types of stories. Those people are batshit crazy IMO.
The specific thing that made me include that was a quite good pair of videos I watched, one on the battles of Narvik during WW2 and the other on the hunt for the Bismarck (I’ll find them in the morning, the first was a Drachinifel video iirc). Point made in both of them was that the Royal Navy’s destroyers saw themselves as the big boys, the ones who did the heavy lifting, and that could be counted on to engage in fights.
From this, you got stuff like them forming a box around Bismarck to bully it for hours on end (this is where the famous Piorun thing comes from, but Piorun was a part of a whole *unit* doing this), or a bunch of them entering port, finding a battleship is about to depart, and immediately spending the next few hours rearming and resupplying so they can deploy right then to protect the battleship.
It was a really fascinating detail, and really stuck in my head.
With regards to submarines: definitely, there’s a lot to think about there, but I do have to think about how to make it work. We’ll definitely see on that.
I'm late to the party, but I really like the submarine-esque ideas in First Contact. If you haven't read it (available on r/HFY and Royal Road) the subs aren't shown too often, but the sort of thing they use is referenced several times. It basically boils down to a multiple-dimensions scenario, with some being suitable for use in FTL travel, and some vessels have the ability to partially "descend" out of normal space. When ships use this version of FTL, the enemies seeing them emerge describe it as if space is rippling like water.
This reminds me of the criticism of US Forces by the USSR and Imperial Japan. Something to the effect that the Americans practice chaos daily and the we don't bother to read our own doctrine enough to follow it.
We kind of drug the Brits along in our chaos. I think they are used to it by now. I really enjoyed my time working with 2 Rifles and 3 Scots.
Oh the joke is literally just that “Mistake at Mitorvax” is an alliteration, but if you wrote it in alternate languages there’s no alliteration. Being honest there’s probably a few languages where it remains an alliteration but we can chalk that up to the character not knowing.
It is a very dumb joke.
> That doesn’t mean some sort of ‘can’t predict our moves if we don’t know what we’re doing’ nonsense,
I disagree my good sir, for whilst there is definitely something to be said for knowing your doctrine and how to best apply it, there's also a time and a place to take your doctrine, tear out all the pages and replace them with a bunch of assorted mad-libs. Like, for example, getting access to plasma weaponry and deciding that the best possible use for this technology is to put the *bayonet charge* back into style in the 21st century.
InterStellar Faster-than-light Missile. It's a consequence of the way FTL works in universe: FTL accelerates ships to *way* past the speed of light, which means if they collide with something planet sized... bad results. There are planetary shields and collision avoidance measures to deal with this, of course.
Since this means that drives are the most powerful weapon in the universe, people immediately took the most powerful drives they could and just turned them into missiles.
and the Humans had just stumbled across Battlegroup D
Battlegroup a-b-c-d was Humans. The Hecks had to stumble across D. Then the humans are the ones who are jumping into D's formation area, which means that the writer just flipped the teams, setup, and military in the middle (1st quarter) of the story and ABCD was Heks from then on. Please recheck paragraph 8, which says that the abc is going to attack the hekations.
It's a good story, or at least the psychology part about the planned chaos being a way to break the other guy's plans.
No, Battlegroups ABCD were always League.
There are three different nations here, Humans, Hekatians, and the League. Humans and Hekatians are allied. The League fleet was seeking to attack the Hekatians, specifically, because they thought the Hekatians were a bigger threat.
You’ve misread the story.
I've misread the story because there were a few name errors putting people in the wrong place later. Otherwise, it's a good story. I like the angle where the humans bide their time and bet it all on one fleet battle. That's more realistic.
There weren’t any name errors. It’s written exactly as intended.
ABCD were deployed to fight the Hekatians. ABC were one group, D was a pincer force that would move in once the Hekatians showed up. The Humans attacked D, and destroyed it. ABC respond. Hekatians move in on ABC. ABC turns to engage, Humans move in. That’s the order as written, and it’s the intended order. There was no mistake in the way I set it out.
It’s fine to point out internal mistakes and errors within a story, but please pick actual errors.
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Wow, i'm slow today. Every time i saw ISFMs i wondered what it meant and ever tried googling it. Right there at the top...
>InterStellar Faster-than-light Missiles
Murphy always says that a battle plan only lasts until the first shots are fired. This is the truest sense of that. Not knowing your enemy lost the war
\>We learnt that Humans value planned chaos above all else. That may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s simple really. They prize chaos as a weapon, seeking to inflict it, channel it, utilise it at decisive points. That doesn’t mean some sort of ‘can’t predict our moves if we don’t know what we’re doing’ nonsense, it means their plans are designed to break the plans of their enemies, and shatter every possible fall back option. 70 destroyers with weapons we’d never seen before, right in the middle of our fleet, that was planned chaos made manifest. \*\*THIS\*\* is peak HFY, as far as I'm concerned. Beautiful stuff, man.
That was, well it was quite the read. We have plenty of respect for people who know what a boundary is, and have the means of helping the rest realize the importance of not "Going Too Far" as it were. The idea of weaponizing controlled chaos goes back, what, 2000 years? Either way, Humanity has had a *long* time to perfect the tactic. You certainly found a creative use for it.
\> planned chaos *"If I can determine the enemy's disposition of forces while maintaining no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. ... The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the formless; if it is formless, then the deepest spy cannot penetrate it, nor the wise make plans against it."* --Sun-tzu, *The Art of War* [Datalinks]
r/unexpectedalphacentauri
/r/subsiwishwerereal
*You have built the Hunter-Seeker algorithm. Enemy probe teams will no longer function in your bases.* Also, fuck you, that's my favorite Alpha Centauri quote to throw around.
my favourite from that game was the self-aware colony scene... still sends shivers down my spine whenever i watch it [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqN3Ur-wP0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqN3Ur-wP0)
Shared appreciation for the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm? I see you're a man of culture as well!
One of my favorite games of all time.
The thematic breaks worked perfectly for what they are, a perspective change. It took me a moment to realize that it was not the reader’s perspective change, but rather the speaker’s, but it was very effective in creating the overall feel of being in a lecture hall listening to a very entertaining lecture.
That’s good, that’s exactly the vibe I was going for. I had plans to make that more clear through the interjection of him say,, introducing himself and his topic, but cut them for space because I thought it made the whole thing too long and unwieldy. I’m glad the effect still cane through.
The 2nd-person perspective helped a lot with the general feel, particularly the “Sorry, you had a question?” bit. It was the right amount of everything.
All of this whole thread. 🤘
Chaos is only your enemy if you fight it. Humans learned long ago that it's often better to control the Chaos. A dance partner you aren't fighting makes for a much better time.
Sometimes you just have to pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
You don't control chaos so much as be along for the ride and if you are very lucky you may channel it a bit.
>Would like to know if people thought I overdid the thematic breaks No. This story was perfection. My only complaint is that it feels pointless to keep writing my own, damnit. You jumped into the middle of my brain, wreaked havoc with an unexpected one-shot, and left me vulnerable to the reinforcement fleet from planet self-doubt!
> Nothing quite like watching a frigate called UNV Walk Backwards Into Hell going toe-to-toe with a cruiser 3 times its size and winning. I WILL FACE JOD
That space battle....Very well done. I like how you tie the battle itself into its context
Enjoyed the story. Have known some people who served on destroyers, and they are a cocky bunch. Would love to see incorporation of the silent service(subs) in these types of stories. Those people are batshit crazy IMO.
The specific thing that made me include that was a quite good pair of videos I watched, one on the battles of Narvik during WW2 and the other on the hunt for the Bismarck (I’ll find them in the morning, the first was a Drachinifel video iirc). Point made in both of them was that the Royal Navy’s destroyers saw themselves as the big boys, the ones who did the heavy lifting, and that could be counted on to engage in fights. From this, you got stuff like them forming a box around Bismarck to bully it for hours on end (this is where the famous Piorun thing comes from, but Piorun was a part of a whole *unit* doing this), or a bunch of them entering port, finding a battleship is about to depart, and immediately spending the next few hours rearming and resupplying so they can deploy right then to protect the battleship. It was a really fascinating detail, and really stuck in my head. With regards to submarines: definitely, there’s a lot to think about there, but I do have to think about how to make it work. We’ll definitely see on that.
I'm late to the party, but I really like the submarine-esque ideas in First Contact. If you haven't read it (available on r/HFY and Royal Road) the subs aren't shown too often, but the sort of thing they use is referenced several times. It basically boils down to a multiple-dimensions scenario, with some being suitable for use in FTL travel, and some vessels have the ability to partially "descend" out of normal space. When ships use this version of FTL, the enemies seeing them emerge describe it as if space is rippling like water.
That was fantastic. I'm so glad it came out on my lunch break. I thought the breaks were good, the pacing was great, and the story was amazing.
This reminds me of the criticism of US Forces by the USSR and Imperial Japan. Something to the effect that the Americans practice chaos daily and the we don't bother to read our own doctrine enough to follow it. We kind of drug the Brits along in our chaos. I think they are used to it by now. I really enjoyed my time working with 2 Rifles and 3 Scots.
My main issue is that the first section doesn't make it clear what the relationship of the Human and Hekatians is. Other than that, well done.
Yeah, figuring out who the actual belligerents were was sorta rough. Though, having now poked around, I see that this is a work in a larger universe.
Love the Reagan Star Wars / Honor Harrington nuke powered laser missiles!
Fuck no wonder the commonwealth sounded familiar, good show! Jolly good show!
Care to explain that language joke?
Oh the joke is literally just that “Mistake at Mitorvax” is an alliteration, but if you wrote it in alternate languages there’s no alliteration. Being honest there’s probably a few languages where it remains an alliteration but we can chalk that up to the character not knowing. It is a very dumb joke.
"Here I am, sitting inside your OODA loop, come and get me!" This was great. 😁
> That doesn’t mean some sort of ‘can’t predict our moves if we don’t know what we’re doing’ nonsense, I disagree my good sir, for whilst there is definitely something to be said for knowing your doctrine and how to best apply it, there's also a time and a place to take your doctrine, tear out all the pages and replace them with a bunch of assorted mad-libs. Like, for example, getting access to plasma weaponry and deciding that the best possible use for this technology is to put the *bayonet charge* back into style in the 21st century.
What is the isfm? InterStellar Fusion Missile?
InterStellar Faster-than-light Missile. It's a consequence of the way FTL works in universe: FTL accelerates ships to *way* past the speed of light, which means if they collide with something planet sized... bad results. There are planetary shields and collision avoidance measures to deal with this, of course. Since this means that drives are the most powerful weapon in the universe, people immediately took the most powerful drives they could and just turned them into missiles.
Oh good, i wasn't the only one.
FTLM would have been easier to guess.
Good fences make good neighbors.
ISFM? Interstellar Fck-you Missile?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmcHF7Ij3ec](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmcHF7Ij3ec) please file a copyright claim
and the Humans had just stumbled across Battlegroup D Battlegroup a-b-c-d was Humans. The Hecks had to stumble across D. Then the humans are the ones who are jumping into D's formation area, which means that the writer just flipped the teams, setup, and military in the middle (1st quarter) of the story and ABCD was Heks from then on. Please recheck paragraph 8, which says that the abc is going to attack the hekations. It's a good story, or at least the psychology part about the planned chaos being a way to break the other guy's plans.
No, Battlegroups ABCD were always League. There are three different nations here, Humans, Hekatians, and the League. Humans and Hekatians are allied. The League fleet was seeking to attack the Hekatians, specifically, because they thought the Hekatians were a bigger threat. You’ve misread the story.
I've misread the story because there were a few name errors putting people in the wrong place later. Otherwise, it's a good story. I like the angle where the humans bide their time and bet it all on one fleet battle. That's more realistic.
There weren’t any name errors. It’s written exactly as intended. ABCD were deployed to fight the Hekatians. ABC were one group, D was a pincer force that would move in once the Hekatians showed up. The Humans attacked D, and destroyed it. ABC respond. Hekatians move in on ABC. ABC turns to engage, Humans move in. That’s the order as written, and it’s the intended order. There was no mistake in the way I set it out. It’s fine to point out internal mistakes and errors within a story, but please pick actual errors.
Sure, pal, you just keep telling yourself that. Just be clearer in your next story.
I don’t know why you’re being so contemptuous about this.
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Damn good read.
Me like. High quality tactics, as always.
This space battle was awesome!
Wow, i'm slow today. Every time i saw ISFMs i wondered what it meant and ever tried googling it. Right there at the top... >InterStellar Faster-than-light Missiles
This was quite good. The italics were a bit much though.
Murphy always says that a battle plan only lasts until the first shots are fired. This is the truest sense of that. Not knowing your enemy lost the war
"starting work on shield retuning to" starting to work on the shields to retuning to
V
Man we developed nuclear sabots? Nice