25 replies to this topic

[izchan]

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I don't think u need to make the extra inteligent race thing for the part of earth no biomass thing.

I have another idea on that, even though the biomass is strong, it is still an alient invader in earths environment, so like so many intrusions before that befelled earth, earth life has adapted the biomass as a way of leaving and slowing intergrated the biomass into its structure. Due to this, the biomass slowly loose control over the part that was intergrated. You can almost say that earth created its own biomass ... ... as it does follow the same pattern. But the intergration is slow and tedios. At first the biomass did not bother about the lost of "skin" space but slowly it will become a plague. Plus, the biomass never touched the sea. It was only availble on exposed land areas. There is always the sea that can bring this intergration to fruit.

I love the idea of the 50 year old war. I think it is a probable arc in the whole AM story line.

As I said before, your work does not need to be faithful to Altairs version of aftershock. Who knows, maybe after they read ur work, they might just adapt it over and use it ... ...

I am really restless in waiting for your new piece.
Buzz me if you really need any help. I would love to participate in this (mainly due to my lack of talent in completing any of my novels) I hope I can help you in yours instead.

Maybe the force be with you.

[Accounting Troll]

I've been thinking about a slightly more plausible explanation for the weakness of the Biomass than the ancient civilisation explanation.  According to the game, there is a dormant area of the human brain that is connected with psionics.  What if some survivors had this part of the brain stimulated by the telepathic emissions of the Biomass and the repulsor bases?  The result is that some mutants are natural telepaths, and they don't require the implants and mechanical devices being used by the Reticulans and unmutated humans.  The presence of several dozen natural telepaths in a community would weaken and maybe even repulse the biomass.

Farming must be possible because you can see moss and wild grass in one of the screenshots released by Altar.  I imagine that small communities would get by on farming and fishing.  There would be ocassional bartering between communities.  If there is a bad harvest, raiding for food could become a serious problem.  Our modern cities would become convenient sources of raw materials in the same way that an abandoned medieval castle was often robbed of stone.  Maybe some of the biomass fronds would be a good subsitute for wood and twine.

BTW, I really like reading your thoughts about the storyline.

[izchan]

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the psi natural theory is a good idea, but I don't think it could work without having time of growth put in. To in effect, push the bisomass away in such scale would really require psi abilities that are far stronger than any human being. The repulsor generator is a huge facilty and it has quite a advantage in do this, with its constant repulsing effect, that takes alot of power.

If there were such a community, that means that the "natural" repulsors will have to be in a more or less in a commatize state during the period of repulsing the biomass, so that all its mental energy is focused. And these individuals will need to be a size of say 10 to 20 which can repulse an area of, a kilometer radius or less. Giving them enough area to farm and settle in. Plus, the "naturals" will need to be relieved of their duty from time to time, as the work will drain them of all their physical strengths as well as the mental stress they will be feeling from figthing such a large foe.

But still I love the repulsors idea, maybe something like this, with the combine interference of the biomass and the repulsors, in time, mutation to the flora and fauna (which includes the humans) around the repulsor devices starts to have the ability to "counter" the effects of the biomass, though the success rate is 50-50 depending on the circumstances and very short ranged, about a few feet from the these mutantion. Yet due to this, small patches of biomass area starts to emerged. Observing this trend, more and more human survivors of the biomass concragate around these nodes.

At first, the assumption was that the repulsors generators were pushing the biomass back, but after a period of time, it was observed to be not entirely so. Apparently, some part of the earth has a higher rate of pushing the biomass back compared to others. Further investigation showed that the areas which the repulsors with better pushing rate, had small settlements leaving at the edge of the average repulsing sphere. The fauna in those areas too were slightly different, mostly trees of smaller size and bushes, alot of bushes.

Farming communities formed and simple agriculture societies began. The goods farmed were wheat, rice or potato, in which grew in abundance which suffered no apparent physical affect from being so near the biomass compared to the other faunas in other areas.

As time passed, the fauna living in those area too were showing off these abilities though to a smaller effect. Yet a patterns starts to show, the larger the community, the more the biomass moves back. The other pattern is that the bushes growing in the area is the most succesful plant in pushing the biomass back. It takes time again, but it is as if the bushes is taking over the area in which the biomass is retreating from. And due to that, the community start to gain more land to farm. There is a balance that needs to be controled, as reclaming needs to be regulated as there needs to be a certain amount of density in order to achieve the repulsing effect that is needed to push the biomass away.

Yet even with the combine "ability" of the fauna and flora, the reclaming eventually came to a stand still as the balance of power was achieved.

If seen from the sky, the biomass will still cover the entire land area, but one will see pockets of holes emerging near the coast lines as well as rivers.

To use the naturals as a way to begin the fight I think is a good idea, but to say that they are the reasons to end the biomass threat to me is not likely to happend. Based on the pattern of life on earth, I believe that the biomass will eventually be just integrated into the normal flows of evalution on earth, yet they will never be dominant for long. As the new breeds of fauna and floras come to being and addept to the biomasses charactheristics as well as its weaknesses.

The biomass is too much as bully to earth, and like all bullies, they will be put in place eventually through time.

How do you like my explanations? Thanks for the praise, I am an analyst at profesion so I tend to look at things in all other angles, even the imposible ones.

Tell me what you think?

[Accounting Troll]

Sorry I've taken a few days to reply - there's a lot more factors I have to deal with for this story.

I've been thinking about your opinions on the competition between Earth flora and the Biomass, and I don't think that even the mutations are necessary.  All life forms including the Biomass need energy to live.  If the Biomass gets its energy from sunlight the way most plants do, then it will be directly competing with the crops sown by the survivors for light and if it loses it will simply die back in the area.  I've had quite a few missions in the Biomass, and I haven't seen much that can compete with grasses for light.

The Biomass transgenants must have some means of telling the difference between humans, Reticulans and other transgenants.  As there seems to be a telepathic link between the transgenants and the Biomass, the Biomass transgenants are probably able to sense the presence of human minds telepathically.  This creates a need for some kind of small, easily constructed device that blocks this sense, allowing survivors and Laputan visitors to be in the Biomass without being attacked.

The storyline that Altar came up with about the Laputa being destroyed, so the survivors head for the apparently empty Reticulan space settlement seems too complicated.  It seems more likely that in 2053 the rebel Laputans will take over their settlement intact, and that the Reticulan settlement is blown up in an earlier war, perhaps against the rebel Cyborgs or the Old Grey fleet or even the Laputans - even a corrupt and opressive government can sometimes make the right choice.

The renegade Reticulans made their offer at a time when the Biomass project was on the verge of collapsing, so I'm planning for them to cheerfully betray the treaty when it suits them.

[izchan]

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I think you have a point there, about the biomass being telepathically linked to its charges, as the biomass is a sentient being. Which concurs with the idea of a "repulsor", rather than repulsing or pushing back the biomass, it is merely, making the biomass ignoring the area in which the waves are transmitted. Thus creating an illusion of the waves pushing the biomass back. When the biomass ignores an area, that part of the biomass will slowly die of for lack of food or something.

which brings us to the next topic. an area of which is biomass free. If the earth flora is too fragile as a competitor, then what if there is a part of the earth, that emits a "repulsing" wave naturally, due to the composition of the rocks. Something natural and not man made.

The survivors will have to rely heavily on natural resources, as the capability to built new things, were more or less stopped. Those that are usable are in military hands. So what is left to those poor unfortunate souls?

As for the settlement thing, I like your idea. If you based it that way, you will have more characther growth, tension, drama and ideology.

I really hope to read your new work soon.

again, contact me if you need my help.

[Sabreur]

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