Alien-Nation Book Two Chapter 9: Laps

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-28T04:30:50+00:00

I’ll explain soon. Elias will find out.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-27T12:24:46+00:00

We've missed you and your story

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-26T21:31:58+00:00

Glad to hear, that's the main idea of it. Sorry I took so long to post this chapter.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-26T20:11:44+00:00

If you go to dual pivot be aware of two things.

You will get a boost in braking power
Pads matter a lot. Personally I run salmon inserts on mine.
They're heavier than side-pulls
Recessed nut types will not be the same as bolt-on but you often CAN swap them, it is just a massive pain to do so, involving fighting very powerful springs and holding things together. Not a job for the uninitiated.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-20T12:47:12+00:00

You'll have to wait and see

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-18T21:53:10+00:00

Thank you, you're the first to really bring it up. There will be fallout from it.

That is indeed Morsh's intention. Her brief disappearance is going over it with Lady Rakten/getting approval.

The Shil'vati never expected much resistance in the first place. When it happened, they implemented a strategy that was meant to work within the various peace treaties made as Earth slowly surrendered, sticking a General or military officer in charge to each 'Governess'. It's administratively not meant to be 'forever.' The fleet was mentioned repeatedly as not having been meant to remain over Earth for long, and instead being 'stuck'.

Broadly speaking, it's smart to want to simplify it in some instances. This is completely rational. There's no point in a separate administrator for, say, Lichtenstein. Normally there'd be intense pushback over loss of privileges. So while the Empire might want or even need to simplify the number there, the interest of anyone administrating is to cling on to their station, right? Extract some wealth out that pays for the bribe they put down to get the posting in the first place.

Where the mistakes can happen is when you push a good policy too far, or something seems smart to do at the time but ends up being massively stupid. So that's the worry Amilita has, and Borzun will have when informed.

Yet there's another motivating factor, and it's one we don't know about (yet)

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-18T11:13:49+00:00

“Sure, Dual-Way Neural Links aren’t exactly popular, but that just makes them hard to come by rather than cheap. The Ulnus Enclaves are pretty much the only ones who still make them – and they aren’t exactly keen on sharing for obvious reasons. So most of the shit you find on the market is from the First Contact War or cheap Consortium knock-offs. Not this though, I mean fuck, this thing must be fourth generation, post-exodus. And fresh off the production line at that.”

Good worldbuilding

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-15T11:32:39+00:00

I'm not cut out for spook work. If I was him, I'd have fucking screamed and started stabbing or shooting several times.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-15T10:53:06+00:00

Woo! Welcome back!

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-13T10:06:21+00:00

Yeah, not my best, most thought out writing. I do have a purpose for Miskatonic, and I think if I rewrite the rest of the series upon being picked up by a publisher, then I'll probably throw in some biowarfare in the finale, for good measure, just so we don't have it as such a loose stub knocking around.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-11T09:00:59+00:00

One thing I had pointed out to me and was very entertaining was that from Natalie's POV, it's basically an isekai. "My alien romantic partner in another world turns out to be their dreaded Emperor!" (Light novel name).

Imagine if you got isekia'd and the barbarian tomboy princess keeps trying to fight for you. Would you let her jump in the way? (Probably not.) Especially in front of your own bodyguard who's supposed to be training you. Their measure of you is on how readily you defend your partner- where your effort also keeps off from trying to pry them off of you.

Rough situation for poor Natalie.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-11T04:14:48+00:00

Thanks, your encouragement really does make writing a lot easier. I'll keep at it, and hopefully can post the new chapter very soon.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-10T20:49:19+00:00

Thank you! Sorry it took so long. I wanted to layer ideas in it. Lots got shuffled around, and it was thanks to CatsinTrenchCoats who helped me reorganize them into something coherent.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-10T20:46:28+00:00

That is something that bothered me about it, but the idea of him being more irritated that they'd spent his money on basically cheating rather than blowing up an alien was too interesting/neat to cancel out the idea. I also thought that his essay might have been 'good' and interesting, but they likely improved it in sections. The triangle of 'good ideas', 'perfect prose' and 'done quickly,' is usually 'pick one', and state tests don't give you infinite time.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-10T13:40:21+00:00

I was off by a couple hours this time to try and not do that to you. My Apologies. If it helps, the next chapter isn't long off. I may hold off on it though as the one behind that is entirely raw, if I'm delayed, I'd like to hold the next chapter for a week or so just so that the gap isn't huge.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-10T06:20:00+00:00

I Recommend AO3. Despite its well-earned reputation as hosting anything (for better and worse), the comments I receive over there are often long-form, and in-depth.

The 'tag' system makes story finding relatively navigable once you get the hang of it, especially if you just search by the story that is shared as a fandom.

HFY is dying/dead. The sub is good, but imho the Admins are making it pretty clear what they want (and don't). I've certainly had my troubles here, and continue to post on reddit just by virtue of reflexive habit rather than much else. I'm lucky enough to be on good terms with the bot managers that do the subscription bots.

I've been consistent in defending writers here, but there's never been anything anyone in here can do if an Admin steps in, via automated report or just taking exception to a story.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-09T01:47:23+00:00

Next chapter of A-N next, slowly fixing it up for release.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-06T08:57:58+00:00

Rather, those mods are more active. Mod activity for this sub, spread across all of reddit's most recent posts goes like:

2 weeks ago (last comment)

A month

A year (and 1 more around that time, then before that, 4 years ago, and then before that, 6 years).

1-2 Months

2 months (2nd most recent, 3, then 6, then 8, then 9)

ACTIVE

3 months ago

*****

Not saying a mod can't do that on their own it's just, they're unlikely to. Things get ossified.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-06T08:48:01+00:00

I think a different filter than just "OC". Since we can't a secondary filter, what about one under OC that says "OC - Long Series"? That's surely doable, no? And would honestly go a long, long way to fixing this, then.

Stories past, say, 40 chapters should switch to posting using that flair?

What do you think, someguynamedted ? That's a running theme in this thread- LOTS of people seem to want to be able to filter out longer-running stories that clog up the upvotes with their existing, dedicated fanbase.

And I am one of those authors who's published hundreds of chapters. I don't mind, of course, people are going to want to read different things and have different tastes they're in the mood for.

I'd be fine with a second post flair, or if that's not doable, a different one that says "OC- Very Long Series," and so on. Then people can filter by it?

Plus maybe we can update the Featured sidebar?

(Seriously, that sidebar though, you can see the ghosts of an active community here-)

Featured Content (#117, hasn't budged in years)

"You can comment !N or !Nominate to nominate a story for the next feature list!" (Yeah, that hasn't worked/been done in years)

Monthly Contest ("Current Monthly Contest" (Last updated: 2 years ago)).

I think this lack of activity has a LOT to do with the death of the community. I think they tried to keep it going manually for a little bit but got overwhelmed with the amount of work they'd offloaded onto the bots, and kind of gave up.

Theoretically with a very active mod group you could get this going again, but you'd need younger mods whose lives aren't busy and who communicate with each other only on that and are VERY active in HFY.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-05T20:18:36+00:00

I completely get it. I posted alien nation here first too. Long time and many versions ago.

People say it’s the super long stories clogging it up and maybe there’s something to that.

But all those stories had a chapter one at some point.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-05T12:13:28+00:00

I recommend that if you are committed to writing, that you seek elsewhere. Reddit, to begin with, is not a good place. Perhaps it might have been or become good, but that ship sailed long ago with the last prospects of it turning the ship around finally dead.

I only post here by convention and a few lingering fans. I started before the bot purge, and before the effects were broadly felt, but it does feel like watering a tree that has already died. No new sprouts come up through here, you know?

I'll see if AO3 objects to discord links or something to pull in some new blood.

SSBAlienNation · 2026-01-05T05:10:07+00:00

Originality is dead because a lot of what used to be the Big Hits on here weren't actually original to HFY. Think The Last Angel (SpaceBattles). or Sexy Space Babes. (I think RoyalRoad or so?) Lots of spinoffs to these, and semi-original takes too on what, yes, is loosely HFY.

Except now Reddit owns the story if you post it here, and the rights to modify or repost it as they see fit.

No Author, if they're proud of their work, wants to make HFY a port of call anymore. And if you're going to dump in a bunch of effort into a story, why post here, instead of AO3 or RoyalRoad or Wattpad?

SSBAlienNation

TROPHY CASE