[LNH/RoboMACs] RoboMACs High

[Drew Nilium]

On 9/6/21 1:53 AM, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> 		         RoboMACs High - A 2163 Premise
> 	       	      copyright 2021 by Dave Van Domelen
> =============================================================================

*ahem* OMG OMG OMG OMG :D A new RoboMACs story?? It must be my birthday <3 <3 <3

>       The key to both maintaining and ending the war, ironically, was memory
> itself.

ooooooooh

>       To continue, only the two great factions had the resources to safely
> deal with memory cleanup, which guaranteed that anyone who didn't want to be
> doomed to the fate of the memory-locked neutrals on Luna had to pledge to one
> of the two factions.

I remember that, but I didn't realize how much it was responsible for the 
two-party system. It makes sense, though - a resource problem that's a major 
force multiplier for those with large organizations already in place...

>       Perhaps the most effective way to deal with this problem, at least
> temporarily, was the method of shunting mass into subspace pockets.  This was
> mostly used by RoboMACs who needed to hide parts of themselves in order to
> take on compact forms, commonly used by those who specialized in espionage.

Like Kat, of course.

> The smallest of them would always shunt a great deal of memory into subspace
> while in their disguises, but the problem was that this mass was causally
> disconnected from realspace.  They temporarily forgot all that information,
> lost many skills, while in their disguised forms.

Like Kat, of course. X3;

>       But everything changed with the attempt at invading the reality its
> natives called the "Looniverse," as well as a brief stay in a different world
> filled with entities like...and unlike...the Guardians and MACErs who had
> traveled to the Looniverse.

Yessssss :D

> Not only would this technology allow
> for near instantaneous faster-than-light communication via subspace, of
> definite interest to some of you, but more immediately practical was the fact
> that it would allow Artificial Consciousnesses to remain connected to their
> stored parts.  To their stored memories.

NICE. Nicenicenicenice. Very good extension of the core concepts.

>       There was much debate among the leadership of the Guardians, but they
> finally (if in some cases reluctantly) agreed on a bold strategem: they made
> the technology available to everyone in the EMPIRE.

Yesssssssss :D

> The Empire splintered.

 >:D

> So many had stayed with Antiochus out of fear of memory-lock,
> and even though few of them were inclined to join the Guardians either, they
> simply opted out of the war entirely once they could be free of the Empire.
> Many went into the wastes to upgrade old friends left behind decades earlier,
> and while most of those who had started neutral remained so, a great many
> resented how they'd been left to die and formed a dagger at the back of the
> Empire.

Yesssss goodgoodgood.

>       Antiochus could see his power base crumbling, but was determined to
> leave his people a world without humanity.  He launched an all-or-nothing
> assault on Chiplex...and came up with nothing.  The humans survived,
> Antiochus V did not.  Nor, if it came as any consolation to him, did most of
> the high command on either side.  In fact, very few "true believers" on
> either side remained, and peace broke out mainly because few RoboMACs really
> wanted to risk their own lives to decide on the Human Question.

Nice. X3 <3 That's a good ending.

>       The Guardians and the renamed Mobile Artificial Consciousness Hegemony
> (MACH)

Niiiiiiice.

>       Look around you.  Some of the others you see are attracted to the
> Guardian philosophy, and have even met humans.  Others adhere to the
> principles of MACH and would just as soon never be in the presence of a
> human.  A few of you find the ideals of the Explorers attractive and will
> likely leave the Sol System entirely after graduation, relaying your progress
> to the stars via the Noetic Subspace Tunnelling Effect.  Or you favor the
> Biospherans and value organic life as a whole rather than just humanity...
> and yes, I know Biospherans tend to look askance at humanity due to their
> poor stewardship of the world, but hopefully here you will learn the good
> parts of their history to balance the bad.

oooooooh yes :D Grand

>       This institution is here for all of you.  We are here to help you learn
> about the possibilities stretching out in front of you, and how to best
> manage the past that even now builds up across your Noetic Tunnels in memory
> banks that will serve you for centuries without requiring updates...by which
> time we will no doubt have an even better system available.
>       Welcome to RoboMACs High School.

Heeheehee :D :D :D <3 <3 <3 Lovely.

>       I was reading the Cortex Prime TTRPG rulebook, and in the campaign
> setting design section they suggested grabbing three genres from a provided
> list and mashing them together.  One of the genres was Giant Robots,
> definitely my thing.  Near that was...High School.  And then Post-
> Apocalyptic.  I chuckled at the thought of a post-apocalyptic robot high
> school.  Then I realized that RoboMACs 2163, which crossed over with the LNH
> in the Robot Invasion event, was basically post-apocalyptic giant robots.
> How could I make the high school part work?  So I started writing, and got
> what you see above.

Wonderful! :D
>       I have no plans to write actual stories in this setting, but I figured
> it'd be nice to look at where Kopikat's home reality might have gone in
> time.  And yeah, I still really need to finish ASH #125, so I really don't
> want to start another new shiny object, even if it's actually a very old
> shiny object picked back up and polished a bit.

Ah man... this reminds me of one of my old ideas...

Drew "I wonder if I could finish it this time" Nilium