The Open Door (megacrossover)

[Academia Nut]

Chapter Sixty-seven: Self Study

Former Captain of the Colonial Military -now demobilized- Kara Thrace sat quietly on top of the corroded, corrugated metal roof of a shack that had seen much better days over fifty years ago before this section of the world was remodelled by forces she didn’t want to think too much about because then she might feel sorry for someone else than her.

She took a long draw on the cigarette, almost savouring her disgust for how much it didn’t taste like fumarella, before she blew it out contemptuously towards the sun setting over the ocean in the distance, the orange light reflecting off the sands of this place.

Gods was this place beautiful, and gods did she hate it.

It wasn’t home. Oh sure, they had the majority of a continent to fill with a few tens of thousands of people and they didn’t really have to talk to their neighbours for a couple of generations if they didn’t want to, but all they had to do was look up. Not only were the stars wrong, but amidst the alien constellations you could see the reflections of their ships and shipyards.

The Galactica was up there somewhere, being pawed over by some abomination.

Taking another draw on her cigarette, Kara reflected on the other, more obnoxious reminders that they were tenants on this world, although a small traitorous part of her pointed out that they would have been like that no matter what they found on Earth. There was the biweekly drop off of supplies, but those guys tended not to look like frakking toasters and usually just made sure their cargo was unloaded and got the list for their next deliver before they took off again. They arrived by boat, so it wasn’t so bad.

It was the fliers that got to her.

Out in the bay where they had been settled there were a few islands that often got aerial transit in an out. The owners had stopped by to be polite once, but they hadn’t been well liked by the Colonials. They were old men who seemed to run small resorts where rich young women came to sunbathe naked on the beaches and then have sex with the owners in an attempt to have their children. Apparently it had to with them being important to the heathen gods of this world, something about killing a monster or something and then later saving a deity… Kara didn’t give a frak; she just thought it was creepy.

Those were the most common irritants, but occasionally a military transport would fly in low over the sea, kicking up sonic booms ten metres off the deck. They were big, ugly birds and were apparently combat transports, usually headed for the interior of this damned continent to do exercises. Normally they diverted around the settlement, such that only the scream of their engines and the crack of the air notified anyone to their presence and passing.

But one time… one time one of them had suffered some of accident though and diverted to their location to pick up water and supplies to treat casualties until a medivac unit arrived.

The bird had landed trailing smoke from one of its engines and a hole blown in its side. Then the doors had rolled open to reveal a bunch of big frakkers the looked like gigantic frakking toasters, right up until they started pulling out the guys suffering from wounds. They were giants wrapped in equally huge armour. It seemed like everything on this world was made big and horrific.

Kara hated them, hated this world, hated the fact that they had saved them and given them everything they wanted: a safe haven far from the wars and conflicts.

And as she sat there slowly hating everything on this planet, she refused to listen to that little niggling voice that told her the reason she hated it was because she was no longer in control. Even in the worst of times, when the shit was flying the worst, she could always take the controls of a ship and be the master of her own destiny, at least in her mind, for a few hours, or a few seconds when she was in the thick of combat.

And she would never admit to herself that maybe… just maybe the freak show monsters that ran this asylum of a planet might just be able to offer her a job flying some of their machines if she swallowed her pride and asked nicely.

But since she was incapable of doing that, of even thinking that some of her fellow Colonials might feel the same way and wish to explore the larger world beyond this coastal desert, she just stewed in her bitterness and hate before she flicked her cigarette to the side, into the sandy dunes before she decided she had better get back to ‘civilization’ before the giant frakking spiders started coming out for the evening.


Ashley sat atop Uluru, gazing up at the stars. After that last battle she had been permitted to take a week off to decompress. The simulation had been significantly worse than initial projections had anticipated and an official apology had been issued, stating that as a junior pilot cadet she should not have been subjected to that sort of scenario.

The only consolation to know that the stars above her held such horrors was that during the debriefing she had discovered why she had been chosen. Some of the full fledged Eva pilots could have taken Scipio in a fight, but that would have been with rather unsubtle means like using long range telekinesis to implode the Bolo’s electronics, which while an effective tactic, wouldn’t really give much training to Scipio. So they had selected the Eva and pilot most likely to just survive the fight with the Bolo, which was Ashley, not because she was the leader amongst the cadets, but because she was the only pilot who used high speed and precog to fight to an extent that would allow her a reasonable chance of dodging Hellbore shots.

Then Scipio had requested she be his training partner, at first perhaps to re-evaluate his tactics, but it seemed to have evolved into some sort of AI analogue to pride that he would eventually overcome her ability to confound him. It was kind of touching.

Unfortunately it had led to Ashley being inserted into a simulation that had originally been intended for Scipio alone because he had requested her as his training partner and the military was curious to see how an Eva and Bolo could work together. The end result was that the mobile oppression barge got thrown in at the last second to move the difficulty up.

Too far up.

Unfortunately, while Ashley had been exposed to neural trauma in excess of what she should have been at her age, her superiors had also been stunned by the simulation data they got. They wanted to run more tests, wanted to try new scenarios and variations. The trouble was that Necrontyr logistics were off the charts. Even if they had numerical parity, which they wouldn’t, if you fought one Necrontyr world you fought all of them so long as their portals were up.

Thus the first strike always had to be against their portal facilities… which tended to be studded with guns. Thus tactics needed to revolve around rapid entrance, massive firepower, and if not a suicide mission, rapid retreat.

There had been some musing about Ashley’s Eva riding atop Scipio using her void shields and AT-field to cover him while he diverted all power to his contra-gravity engines, but it had ultimately been decided that as a long term strategy it wasn’t an efficient use of resources.

Or, as one of the annoyed researchers had pointed out, “We will not gattai the Bolo and the Eva, as such thoughts invariably lead to transformation sequences.”

At which point Scipio chimed in, “You know, Dr. Wronski has been giving me access to entertainment media from your culture and I must admit an affinity for the character called Optimus Prime…”

There had been a long pause before General Scott said, “Send a memo tae th' scoots, see if they can fin' a universe wi' Transformers.”

Ashley had been too busy laughing after that point to consider that if Scipio was used as the template for a new program of Bolo construction he might very well be considered ‘Bolo Prime’.

But while they considered new ideas, Ashley had been given time off… sort of. Officially she was on an ‘low intensity rehabilitation exercise’ but really she had just been given her Eva to faff about the Australian outback for a week to get her nerves back in line after the simulated phase shifted vivisection of her innards. She was well supervised, just from a distance.

So now she looked up at the stars, trying not to fear them, while laying out on her Eva, which she had lying on its stomach atop Uluru, also known as Ayer’s Rock, trying to think of something new.

Because they were going to try out the simulations for the new Bolo load-out soon. While they didn’t have the engineering anywhere close enough to completion, they could simulate an early model of their plans fairly soon. They were replacing the front and rear primary Hellbores with plasma blasters, an act that would give Scipio significantly more flexibility with his weapons, while the escort grade lance battery they were going to replace the central Hellbore with and power via a S3 engine would give him enough firepower to knock small warships out of orbit.

If Ashley wanted to stay competitive with that she would need to evolve. Each Eva and each pilot were grown slowly over time together, becoming fearsome weapons of war with a wide variety of tricks like psychic lightning throwing, acid blood, or the like. Ashley was considered a bit vanilla for the fact that she and her machine just moved quickly and were good at precognition, with some additional stealth aspects. Admittedly they were exceedingly skilled at those two areas, but still…

Getting up, Ashley descended from her Eva’s armoured surface down to the stone of the natural monument, older than even the Necrontyr and their empire. She paced back in forth in the darkness, never tripping not because she had sufficient lighting or good night vision; she just instinctively knew where to put her feet that wouldn’t result in her tripping.

She then paused at that. One of the issues with precognition was that one had to be fast enough to use it. Well… sort of. Technically you just had to get into the proper position at the proper time to perform the proper action; with sufficient precog you could take your time on certain things.

But speed, or more accurately velocity, was just change in position over change in time. The trouble was that in order to change position quickly it required changing velocity with time, as in acceleration, which required force. It was the application of force that was the problem, the limiting factor on movement.

But… but…

Thank you physics class!

The Reavers of Asukhon used miniature teleporters derived from the systems used by the Eldar for their Warp Spiders. Star ships used Warp drives to move between the vast distances of space without actually going through all of the intermediate area and mucking about with relativity and the difficulties imposed by the speed of light.

There was a serious scaling issue involved in that an Eva was too big to mount teleporters but not big enough to mount a Warp drive. There were however weird ways of getting around those limitations, like creating a Sea of Dirac or other, stranger methods.

Scrambling back up her Eva, Ashley pulled herself into her entry plug and then began the start up sequence. Simulations could help evolve an Eva, but actual physical practice took actual activity. Firing up the systems, she shivered with anticipation as her S2 engine came online. Her plasma reactor had been left empty and her plasma blaster taken from her so that she was just running around in a 40 metre tall alien cyborg of doom instead of one armed with a city levelling cannon and nuke eating shields.

Hopping down off the rock, Ashley began expressing her wishes and desires to her Eva. The psychic phenomenon of the AT-field involved a great deal of ‘tricking’ the laws of physics and phase shifting. Lances of Longinus and the derivative technologies used by both humans and the C’tan worked by retuning their phase so as to punch through damn near anything… sort of. Ashley knew from hard to understand lectures that the word ‘phase’ was something of a misnomer, but it was the closest descriptor to what was actually happening.

So would it be possible to move her Eva slightly out of alignment with reality? Or at least move the mass out of alignment, perform a teleportation under the lowered values, and then move back into alignment? She would never know unless she tried it out.


Kara’s mouth was hanging open in surprise and horror at the giant frakking toaster that had just walked up to the city and hers was not the only one staring at the gigantic black armoured robot that towered over the prefabricated buildings.

There was a slight cough and then a loudspeaker said in a voice that sounded incongruously like a teenage girl, “Is this thing on? Is the translator working properly? Huh… looks like it. Ahem… so I’d heard that you guys built point to point FTL drives. Do you think you could help me with a bit of a technical problem I’m having?”

[consequences]

And if they can be fitted to an Eva, they can probably be fitted to a Bolo too.

[barricade]

How come I now have the mental image of the Eva, with Ashley highly pissed off, teleporting above a target. Around 1 mile straight up above a target, and then screaming INAZUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK, on the entire way down even as she's doing additional teleports to dodge shots, as her momementum is kept from each jump.

Followed by' The Pose'.

Also....Eva pilots of the 101st Airborne.

[von Neufeld]

How come I now have the mental image of the Eva, with Ashley highly pissed off, teleporting above a target. Around 1 mile straight up above a target, and then screaming INAZUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK, on the entire way down even as she's doing additional teleports to dodge shots, as her momementum is kept from each jump.

And I have a mental image of Scipio copying Adama and flattening his target with a flaming bolo drop.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Image ... re_(2).jpg

[Jim Starluck]

How come I now have the mental image of the Eva, with Ashley highly pissed off, teleporting above a target. Around 1 mile straight up above a target, and then screaming INAZUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK, on the entire way down even as she's doing additional teleports to dodge shots, as her momementum is kept from each jump.

And I have a mental image of Scipio copying Adama and flattening his target with a flaming bolo drop.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Image ... re_(2).jpg

A still image can't quite convey the sheer awesomeness of it. Try a video.

[LadyTevar]

I don't know what's more wicked... the Combat Drop from Hell... or the idea of an Eva and a Bolo doing something similar.


BTW: the military will be VERY FUCKIN PISSED at Ashley for bothering the Colonials.

[Enigma]

The Bolo should be able to do it with it's contra\anti gravs. One of the Bolos novels I've read had a bolo being able to hover\fly at an altitude of about 6 kilometers.

[Jim Starluck]

The Bolo should be able to do it with it's contra\anti gravs. One of the Bolos novels I've read had a bolo being able to hover\fly at an altitude of about 6 kilometers.

Galactica dropped from rather higher up. One of the officers says "Altitude 99,000, falling like a rock" just after they jump in, but we don't know if they're using meters or feet. Round up to 100,000 for an intended starting altitude, we get either 100 klicks or nearly 19 miles.

I suppose someone could time it, since the planet appears to have Earthlike gravity, and thus determine how far Galactica fell.

[Academia Nut]

The problem isn't that the Bolo can't fly, its that it can't fly with its battlescreens on, which when the enemy infantry can cause damage to a Bolo and the weapons go up from there is a huge issue.

I suppose this chapter was an examination of how people deal with things, how they let their pride handle the strife and challenges in life. You have Starbuck, and you have Ashley. Two hotshot pilots who have discovered that the universe is a scary place and things rarely go according to plan. I'm actually not quite sure where I'm going with this, or where I was starting from, but I at least decided to throw nBSG a bone.

Also, did anyone figure out the owners of the islands?

[Richardson]

I don't know what's more wicked... the Combat Drop from Hell... or the idea of an Eva and a Bolo doing something similar.


BTW: the military will be VERY FUCKIN PISSED at Ashley for bothering the Colonials.

They might also give her a cookie after they're done turning her into doggie treats for thinking of something that should have been immediate 'duh' for them.

[Enigma]

<snip>
Also, did anyone figure out the owners of the islands?

Toji and Kensuke? EDIT: Just a guess since I am currently reading Chapter 9 of TS.

Also, I'd like to see Bolo Prime. A huge Bolo transforming into a robot.

[Pengu1n]

Also, did anyone figure out the owners of the islands?

Grunts. Ramiel. TOW. That's all I'll say.

Edit: Gah, I thought they were JSDF until I went back and found them.

[Enigma]

Also, did anyone figure out the owners of the islands?

Grunts. Ramiel. TOW. That's all I'll say.

Edit: Gah, I thought they were JSDF until I went back and found them.

Ahh those guys, the ones getting the chewing out and then were congratulated?

[LadyTevar]

One thing that we should be thinking about for nBSG -- the hidden Cylons.

There are 4 of the Final Five onboard : Tyrol, Tara, Tigh and Elaine.

Of the 7, there should be a D'ana (news reporter), Cavil (priest), possibly the Black doctor I never remember, and Sharon/Athena, with baby Hera. There is also Head-Six and Baltar

The 4 don't know who they are yet, have no clue they're Cylons.
The FleshForms are not just lightyears, but Dimensions away from the nearest Resurrection Ship, and thus the smart ones are keeping their heads down. They are, however, still a possible threat and definitely spies.

Hera is going to be an interesting case on her own. Will Roslyn once again fake her death, adopting her out, or will she be able to pull that on Earth? We all know the One Rule of the Gods concerning children.

EDIT: Since the EVA is a 'fleshform' in a way, how will the 7 react to it, and it to them?

[Garlak]

I was wondering what had happened to those two guys.

And, heh, looks like some of those "force multipliers" I kept babbling about are getting a use...




Approves of this plan.

[barricade]

I don't know what's more wicked... the Combat Drop from Hell... or the idea of an Eva and a Bolo doing something similar.

Eva using the Bolo to orbital skysurf on the way down?

[Valorie]

To stabilize rapid stop-and-go FTL movement, would Ashley need a retractable rudder or dorsal fin on her Eva? Aside from maintaining balance, in non-Euclidean thermodynamics, enlarged surface area often increases the rate of various chemical reactions such photosynthesis and heat transfer, so a restractable rudder or dorsal fin could incorporate a wide spectrum of functions and abilities.

[Enigma]

I didn't realize that TOD was a sequel to Thousand Shinji mainly because up until a couple of days ago I didn't know there was a fanfic called Thousand Shinji. I've just finished reading it and now would like to do an about face. At first I wanted the nChaos to lose badly and for good but now I am rooting for them to win. Sure let them have some setbacks but in the end I'd like to see them win.

[Skyfox120]

The nids aren't due for 38000 years, and won't be able to home in on the psychic beacons of genestealer cults anyway with the Great Warding.

Actually there IS evidence that the Nid's have visited our galaxy prior to 38000 years ago... its theorized that the Kraken on the Space Wolfs homeworld (and a few other death worlds) are rogue Nid organisms...

[WillowBee]

Ashley and Starbuck forming a mentor-protégé relationship would be either be awesome or catastrophic, maybe a little of both, so I’d love to watch it happen just to see the sparks fly. And if Ashley lets her ride along in her Eva’s entry plug, Starbuck is enough of an adrenaline junkie to get “addicted” to the rush.

One thing that we should be thinking about for nBSG -- the hidden Cylons.
EDIT: Since the EVA is a 'fleshform' in a way, how will the 7 react to it, and it to them?

NeoChaos is likely aware of the Cyclons hidden among the Colonials, but don’t see them as a threat. The Colonials are going to be left to their own devices, for better or for worse, and learning how to deal with spies and conspiracies is an important lesson to learn if they hope to survive on Earth.

As such, the Cyclons are “safe” so long as they remain within Colonial territory and don’t take any direct action against neoChaos.

[Singular Quartet]

I don't know what's more wicked... the Combat Drop from Hell... or the idea of an Eva and a Bolo doing something similar.


BTW: the military will be VERY FUCKIN PISSED at Ashley for bothering the Colonials.

Not if your boss is an omniscient bastard who already knows you're going to bother the colonials.

[Deadpan29]

First, if they are willing to tell scouts to look for a universe with Transformers, does that mean they know events in some universes become the basis of fictional accounts in others?

This might be overboard, even for this fic, but if the scouts find the movie Transformer universe, I can see them either cutting a deal to help fix the all spark if they get to use it on Scipio, or trying to steal it if the locals manage to fix it. (Remember, Chaos, even neoChaos, isn't nice.)

PS: I know I've seen that "We will not gattai the Eva" line before. Was that from Thousand Shinji or did you borrow it from one of the other over-the-top eve fics currently running?

[Robo Jesus]

PS: I know I've seen that "We will not gattai the Eva" line before. Was that from Thousand Shinji or did you borrow it from one of the other over-the-top eve fics currently running?

It's from Shinji and Warhammer40K.

[LadyTevar]

I don't know what's more wicked... the Combat Drop from Hell... or the idea of an Eva and a Bolo doing something similar.


BTW: the military will be VERY FUCKIN PISSED at Ashley for bothering the Colonials.

Not if your boss is an omniscient bastard who already knows you're going to bother the colonials.

which goes back to a thought I had on how little mutations her EVA has... and how she could get better ones through this.

Damn Tzchinji... his plans make my head hurt.

[Singular Quartet]

I don't know what's more wicked... the Combat Drop from Hell... or the idea of an Eva and a Bolo doing something similar.


BTW: the military will be VERY FUCKIN PISSED at Ashley for bothering the Colonials.

Not if your boss is an omniscient bastard who already knows you're going to bother the colonials.

which goes back to a thought I had on how little mutations her EVA has... and how she could get better ones through this.

Damn Tzchinji... his plans make my head hurt.

I have always imagined precogs have aspirin delivered by the pallet.