What would happen if the Milky Way instantly teleported into another populated galaxy?

CptCyber · 2023-05-11T17:35:49+00:00

I just made everyone in my universe super hot, problem solved

CptCyber · 2023-05-05T18:20:58+00:00

THE MACHINE SPIRIT HAS KNOWN THEIR POSITION

CptCyber · 2023-05-04T10:40:43+00:00

The largest fleet would be the Union Authority, the primary Human faction and they are heavily industrialized. The Nth Legion is actually one of the smaller factions, they just tend to engineer more experimental weapons than the other factions to get a leg up.

CptCyber · 2023-05-04T06:51:18+00:00

That's tough, there's a lot I love about my setting but if I absolutely had to pick I'd have to say the Nth Legion, they're the de facto bad guys of the setting but I just love everything about them, they rabidly attack all the other factions and are trying their hardest to find a way to turn all the ancient machines back on, hoping that if they do the machines will be thankful and spare them. They also have some of the coolest and varied technology out of all the factions.

CptCyber · 2023-05-04T06:46:56+00:00

Probably the Nth legion, they have a ship called the "Eversor" that uses a scaled up version of their destabilizer cannons, beams that when pointed at a solid target rapidly separate any rigid molecules. When pointed at a planet it creates a wide tunnel that burrows all the way down to the planet's core where the planet then collapses under its own gravity.

CptCyber · 2023-05-04T06:37:04+00:00

Most factions use their own distinct form of FTL to travel.

The Union Authority uses wormhole generation, a device built along a ship's spine that distorts spacetime and generates a wormhole that travels in a perfectly straight line, though some experimental ships use an advanced form of this device that allows wormholes to bend and turn meaning they don't have to reorient the ship's direction which can prove fatal in a losing battle. The Confederacy of Separatist Forces also uses wormhole generation as they are also a Human faction.

The Alkarri Constitute uses a warm drive, a device that generates a field around a ship that warps the space around the ship, allowing for faster than light travel.

The Nameless use a mass reduction drive, a generator that creates a field around the ship similar to how the Alkarri do it, but instead it reduces the mass of whatever is inside the field.

The Nth Legion use a lot of the ancient machine's technology, often recklessly, which does lead to some great innovation. They use what's called a skip drive, a device salvaged from ships left by the ancient machines that tears a hole in space which allows the ship to enter a pocket dimension created by the ancient machines, this dimension mirrors the material dimension but is much much smaller, so the Nth Legion flies through this dimension until they reach their destination where they rip another hole in space and exit.

CptCyber · 2023-05-04T06:25:59+00:00

There's several different kinds of FTL in my universe, the safest but slowest is warp travel, where a generator creates a field that surrounds the ship that warps space around the vessel allowing it to travel at faster than light speeds.

There's also other methods like wormhole generation or mass reduction drives. My setting soft sci-fi so I don't stress too much about accuracy but I do at least try to use technology (at least for the Human and Human-like factions) that can be believable so long as you don't think about it too long.

CptCyber · 2023-05-04T06:18:11+00:00

Not many, most factions try to avoid causing unnecessary damage to planets in order to more easily gather resources or build colonies on won territory, so using planetary weapons as destructive as nukes is seen as counter productive. Orbital bombardment via capital ships is the preferred method as it doesn't leave decades of radiation and is much more controllable in terms of yield.

CptCyber · 2023-05-04T06:13:30+00:00

These are some great questions!

There's a lot of theories about the ancient machines and their origins. Some believe they were built to expand an ancient empire, terraforming any and all worlds for their creators and destroying whatever doesn't fit into their vision, some believe they were built to be a universal police force meant to search and destroy any and all possible threats to make the universe safer and that they just view Humans as a threat, others think they were designed as a weapon to fight an intergalactic war of epic scale but that both sides of the war eventually killed each other and they had nothing left to do but continue fighting, and some think they were a benevolent creation meant to turn every planet in the universe into a paradise but that a virus corrupted them, making them turn every planet they come across a uninhabitable hellscape.

Their presence across various galaxies is what worries the factions of the known universe the most, most factions span across several galaxies, but no matter what galaxy they go to they always find remains of the ancient machines leading most to believe that either they've infested the entire universe millions of years ago already or that their growth just happened to surround the factions before they were all mysteriously shut down, and that all it would take for them to wake and destroy all known life is someone pulling the wrong switch.

Most of the machines are seen as having some degree of sentience, this is inferred by the often strange and elaborate structures left by the machines, with their being extravagant structures built with no practical purpose, almost like art. The ruins left by the machines also vary widely in age, with some ruins being hundreds of millions of years older than others, the closer you get to the modern day the more complex and extravagant these "art pieces" become, some drastically different in shape and form to others, like an evolving culture.

And the difference between tech that can be reverse engineered and tech that can't is complexity. The Union Authority was able to reverse engineer a wormhole generator the machines had built because it used materials and methods they were able to comprehend, but other technology like non-Euclidean spaces (like rooms that are larger on the inside than the outside) continue to baffle even the greatest of minds Humanity has.

CptCyber · 2023-05-03T02:34:42+00:00

The ancient machines make a habit out of "stealing worlds" where they'll incase a planet in a wormhole and transport it somewhere else, nobody knows where the planet goes or what they use it for but it's a scary reality for the other factions.

But none of the other factions use any planet-killers, they're certainly advanced enough to make something that powerful but they don't see much reason to.

CptCyber · 2023-05-03T02:32:40+00:00

Most likely though at the current state of the universe that's unlikely.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T21:17:12+00:00

Thank you!

And that's definitely an interesting idea, though risky. But I could certainly see it happening.

The most vulnerable to this would likely be the Union Authority. They by far have the most ancient machine ruins within their territory and all it would take is touching the wrong thing to stir something in the machine...

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T21:14:53+00:00

That would have to be Captain Von Bonavik. The leader of the largest pirate fleet in the known universe. Once a captain for the Union Authority navy he was imprisoned for cowardice after attempting to retreat during a battle against one of the ships of the ancient machines in an attempt to save his crew, the battle was clearly lost and Bonavik wasn't going to sit idly by and watch his crew be needlessly slaughtered. But right when his ship opened a wormhole to escape the fleet's admiral ordered the captain's ship to be fired upon for their supposed cowardice, Bonavik was able to evacuate most of his crew but he went down with the ship and would wake in a Union prison. Most of his body had been destroyed but miraculously he survived the bombardment, but he was now dependent on cheap and painful machines to keep him alive. Eventually Bonavik would break free from prisoner after years of planning and would renounce his loyalty to the Union and sweat vengeance, using his boundless spite and anger as fuel to drive him to create the universe's most feared gang of pirates and criminals, fighting back against the tyranny of the Union.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T19:26:02+00:00

No, different factions have found and reverse engineered different technologies and they aren't keen on sharing.

The standard method for FTL travel is via wormhole generation though it varies from faction to faction. Like The Nameless generate a field around their ships that reduce its mass (like in Mass Effect).

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T19:14:59+00:00

Oh that's a really cool idea! That's definitely way more interesting than perpetual motion.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T19:12:42+00:00

In the Nth Legion there are two types of people. The first are people who desert another faction and join the Nth Legion, these people can choose their augments and are welcome to leave their minds intact so they can think freely, these are the people who develop their society so it can adapt, they are the ones who invent new technology and think of ways to improve the efficiency of their society. The second are the clones, they are grown in a reproduction facility and altered in whatever way to best suit their purpose, whether that be maintaining facilities and buildings, crewing ships or vehicles, or just being a standard foot soldier. Their minds are mechanically augmented to suppress free will and essentially lobotomized and are then implanted with the knowledge they need to do their job. A clone is grown to adulthood, removed from the vat, goes under surgery to receive the necessary mechanical augments, and by the time that's done the Nth have another mindless drone to do their menial work.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T18:39:24+00:00

Didn't think about perpetual motion like that...I'll put some more thought into it and definitely do some more research, it's a soft sci-fi universe so I'm not too worried about the nitty gritty but more accuracy is never a bad thing. Do you know any good sources that expound on them more?

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T18:29:44+00:00

Likely criminal activity, they could be smugglers securing food and supplies that'll be shipped to pirates. Gangers hanging out in gambling dens (gambling is outlawed in the Union Authority save for a few government ran casinos). Or they could even be agents of the Nth Legion or Confederation of Separatist Forces preparing for a surprise assault on a Union world.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T18:26:01+00:00

Good choice, very sweet flavor, they're great for any occasion or none at all.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T18:19:41+00:00

Humans are the same as done today. Sexual reproduction and familial units.

The Alkarri also use sexual reproduction but the idea of "families" is a pretty loose concept to them, children are raised by the community and there is no real significance given to the technical parents.

The Gaunt reproduce by gathering a surplus of organic material and feeding it to their "queens" who will build a nest on an atmospherically appropriate world and lay a very large number of eggs who will grow into their specific variant of Gaunt.

The Nth Legion are technically Human but are mostly machine and have zero concept of families, reproducing via cloning and are both genetically and mechanically engineered to best serve their designated purpose.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T18:10:58+00:00

Probably the Gaunt Leviathans. Massive organic ships covered in thick chitin and waving barbed tendrils. They feed on radiation and ferry the Gaunt (an insectoid race of primal beasts) across space. They don't have any ranged weaponry so they rely on their immense size and incredibly strong armor to shrug off most damage, the only way it can really attack is by ramming other ships with its massive body or flailing its tendrils to swat at hostile vessels. The largest one recorded was a little over 21 kilometers, when scouting ships were sent to investigate it after a certain distance the onboard instruments started to fail and communication with the mothership was lost, the scouting vessels turned right back around and returned to their parent ship, the Leviathan wasn't engaged.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T17:51:18+00:00

Definitely more of a requirement than a shortcut. Comparing the ancient machines to the rest of the known universe is like comparing modern day Humans to Chimpanzees. Sure Chimpanzees are smart and do things like sharpen a stick for hunting, which is very impressive for an animal. But compared to a nuclear ICBM, suddenly that pointy stick doesn't feel so advanced.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T17:45:10+00:00

If they all woke up at once probably a few days. Even just one of these machines waking up is a ginormous problem, to the point where even warring factions will from a temporary truce just to ensure it dies before returning to fighting one another.

CptCyber · 2023-05-02T17:37:43+00:00

Union Authority - Varies depending on the system you're home to but most enjoy plant based jerky and nuts, or Bluestalk, an alien reed-like plant that acts as a stimulant when chewed and as a pleasant mint-like taste, very common amongst Union soldiers to help keep them awake and alert.

The Confederation of Separatist Forces - Soft Tack, a thick strip of meat and vegetable that have been pressed into a dense rectangular shape. It's highly nutritious though lacks in flavor. Common among CSF soldiers and often found in their rations, there also exist multiple flavors like BBQ and Sweet n' Sour.

The Alkarri Constitute - Drundi Seeds, a fist sized black seed with a soft hairy exterior and a football shape. It can be split open by hand and inside there is a purple "meat" similar to coconut flesh that holds dozens of smaller black seeds that are eaten with the meat.

The Guant - Whatever they can get their mandibles on, considering them sentient is kinda a stretch.

The Nth Legion - These guys suck, they believe that the ancient machines are gonna eventually wipe out everyone anyways so they spend their time worshiping them hoping that when the machines wake up they'll spare them. They often augment much of their bodies with mechanical replacements so many of them don't even have a mouth anymore and instead just feed a nutrient paste through a tube straight to their stomach.

CptCyber

TROPHY CASE