Vasiljev's Fan Fiction

[Hobbes]

Who knows? Maybe aliens will have landed by the time the copyright ceases....

[ChronoLegion]

Who knows? Maybe aliens will have landed by the time the copyright ceases....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hehe. Maybe they already have, human... You will be as... umm, what was I talking about?

 

 

On a side note, there is another great work that won't be published here that people in Russia, I personally, liked - Lukyanenko's "Dream Line" trilogy. The race and planet names were taken from Master of Orion (1, I think), but everything else is completely original. There are no Antareans, Orions, or Guardians even mentioned in the books. Basically, the events in the stories take place shortly after the so-called Hazy War, in which the Human Republic and later the Human Empire (historical parallel anyone?) faced off against pretty much every other race in the galaxy. In the end, the humans won the war, which came as a big surprise to the other races, since we are neither the smartest nor the strongest. The humans, along with the Meklar and the Bulrathi, formed the Trinary Alliance, while the other races pretty much kept to themselves. The Psilons - the most advanced race in the galaxy - went into self-isolation and refused any contact with the other races after the war. The Silicoids are bent on the complete balance of the universe but leave the humans alone because they don't screw up the balance (too much). The Alkari, seeing as how their dream of galactic domination has died with the human victory, are preparing to leave the galaxy. The Mrrshans... they aren't really doing much, except make the best wine in the galaxy. Oh, and they are described as foxes instead of felines (probably due to poor-quality graphics of the first game). The Sakkra have been annihilated by the Human Empire after their uncontrollable spawning caused them to invade three human colonies, forcing the Emperor to incinerate those worlds. Their birth rate was deemed too much of a threat to the Empire to leave them alive. As far as I know, the Klackons weren't ever mentioned in the trilogy. The Darlocks turned out to be something very close to the Goa'uld from "Stargate SG-1" - their true forms are snakes that bury into people's spines and overwrite their personalities with their own. That is why they make the best spies/saboteurs in the galaxy, at least until their true nature is discovered by the Imperial Intelligence.

At the end of the War, a company called "aTan" ("anti-Thanatos") which offered (for a hefty price, of course) insurance from death, or resurrection. They'd scan your body and put a neural net in your brain to constantly transmit information. The end of transmission would signal the death of the "client". A new body would be made from the template and brain information uploaded. Only one aTan could only be paid in advance and only for one resurrection in advance.

Emperor Grey took power from the Republican Earth government during the War for their incompetence in military matters. When the events of the trilogy take place, he is still the ruler (due to aTan). He strict laws for the purity of the human race. No inter-species mating, no cloning, no genetic engineering.

The main characters of the book are Kay Dutch (goes by Kay Altos), a professional bodyguard, whose homeplanet was burned after the Sakkra invaded it. One of his greatest dark secrets is that he is a genetically-engineered "super". All of his physical and mental abilities (except psychic) are much greater than that of a normal human. Hell, in the book, he goes one-on-one with two Bulrathi, a Silicoid, and a Meklar (all very strong species). After his supposedly final death (he forgot to pay for his next resurrection), he was resurrected on Terra (for some reason they decided to rename Earth) by the owner of "aTan" Curtis van Curtis (what kind of parents name their kid like that?), who hires him to guard his son Arthur, while he runs an errand for daddy on a fringe planet Grail (Arthur, Grail?). His prize if he succeeds - unlimited free aTan. His punishment in case of failure - eternal torture. Their cover story: a merchant and his son (Kay and Arthur Ovald) have an accident in hyperspace and their ship suffers explosive decompression. They are resurrected on the nearest planet, which is going through a civil war. The way from the aTan local offices to the starport lies through a contested territory. On the way, Kay gets infected with the Doom Virus (I think MOO1 had that). His "son" manages to get him to the starport, where he is questioned by the ISS (Imperial Security Service). After they leave the planet on a luxury liner, the chick in charge of the local ISS office finds out the real identity of the boy and takes off after him with a small team of ISS pros. Her goal is to capture the boy and force him to disclose his father's secrets - how to kill an immortal and how to build an aTan machine. Kay knows that there will be an ISS ship waiting at the liner's next stop, so he books himself and his "son" a passage on a ship-to-surface shuttle that would take them to the closest planet where the ISS won't expect them. However, the shuttle is intercepted by Darlock agents, whose goal is to turn all the passengers into agents. The Darlock take the prisoners to one of their colonies and are about to implement their plan, when the planet is attacked by thousands of Silicoid ships, who take Kay and Arthur aboard to meet with the Foundation of the Silicoid Basis (their emperor). Sedimin (his name is from the game too) threatens to keep prisoner them indefinitely if he doesn't like Arthur's answers. They kick Kay out of the room and, after a while, Sedimin tells him that he no longer believes that Arthur's mission is a threat to the balance, so they are dropped off on Tauri (hmm, I don't remember when exactly the book was written, but the planet name is suspiciously similar to the Goa'uld name for Earth in "Stargate SG-1"). Anyway, while they are resting on this Eden-like planet, the ISS finds them and kidnaps Arthur, while Kay is away on business. Kay's next mission is to rescue him, but for that he needs help. He returns to the planet where his "final" death was registered to find his killer Tommy, who turns out to be Arthur's copy, who remembers nothing of his past life. Kay takes him and goes to see his semi-sister, who is a Godmother of a criminal Family. She heps him get the equipment, intel, and manpower he needs to storm an Imperial space station, where Arthur is being held. They infiltrate the station and free Arthur, whose body is already dying from torture. They escape and head to Grail, making a pit-stop on Ursa (Bulrathi homeworld). When they get to Grail, an Imperial cruiser is waiting for them with the ISS chick on board. They crash into the cruiser's shields and get resurrected on Grail. The ISS chick wants to follow them, but the ship is ordered to return, as the Empire has declared war on the Darlock. She kills her subordinate (not knowing that he didn't buy his next aTan), forcing an Imperial officer to kill her. Kay and the boys head to a Bermuda-Triangle-like area on Grail, where Arthur says they will find the gateway to God. The ISS chick catches up to them, but goes crazy and kills herself, forgetting that she bought her resurrection (which only heals the body, not the mind). Arthur explains that God offered Curtis van Curtis a chance to create a universe to fit his innermost desires (a scary thought), but van Curtis was afraid to make that step and asked for an extension. That is how he got the technology for immortality. His next step is to ask God for the technology to let people leave into their own universes (forever) for a price. Curtis appears by Arthur, and they walk towards the gateway (on water, I might add). Tommy decides to stay with Kay, and they turn around and leave the way they came. Thus ends the first book.

 

If anyone is still awake and is interested, I can summarize the other 2.

[Hobbes]

Since I never played Master of Orion your description reminds me more of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy :mad:

[ChronoLegion]

Since I never played Master of Orion your description reminds me more of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  :mad:

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I wouldn't exactly call HG2G a military sci-fi. You really don't have to know MOO to enjoy the book, although the book is a bit on the adult side, if you catch my drift. There's plenty of action in the book I described but not much humor. The book describes a pretty popular theme of a universe where might makes right.

Once again, due to copyright laws, it will most likely not be translated into English and sold here, unless all the names are changed, at which point they can do whatever the hell they want.

[Hobbes]

I am not saying HG2G is military sci-fi It's just that your description kinda remembers me of the book (and since I've just seen the film...) because of those strange names for alien races and 'Imperial names'

 

I guess this reflects a problem concerning fan fiction: how misleading a discription of it might sound to non-fans because you have no knowledge of the universe on which it is based (or partially based, since it seems to be the case here).

[ChronoLegion]

I am not saying HG2G is military sci-fi It's just that your description kinda remembers me of the book (and since I've just seen the film...) because of those strange names for alien races and 'Imperial names'

 

Hmm. Doesn't do the same for me, but maybe that's because I've read the trilogy twice, so I know exactly what's going on. But, since I've never been good at expressing myself, my descriptions might seem different from whatever I describe.

 

I guess this reflects a problem concerning fan fiction: how misleading a discription of it might sound to non-fans because you have no knowledge of the universe on which it is based (or partially based, since it seems to be the case here).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

True, but, once again, this can be called fan-fiction with a stretch. Replace the race/planet names with something new, and you got yourself an original work. Race descriptions, personalities, and languages were invented by the author. Unlike MOO2, where Silicoids look like rocks with arms, legs, and weapons, in the trilogy, they are big floating columns of rock. They have no identifiable organs (by humans, that is) and move and operate by generating powerful EM fields with their bodies. They speak with each other through the same fields and with other races by vibrating their entire bodies. The book describes their voices as chorus-like. Their original spaceships did not have any externally-mounted engines, unlike most races. Instead, the entire crew joined their EM fields to "manually" accelerate their ship before jumping (apparently hyperdrives are not considered external in the book). After seeing the effectiveness of external drives on human ships, they changed their ship designs to incorporate them.

Bulrathi are overgrown bears with really high-pitched voices (a quirk of evolution). They are as advanced as most other races, but prefer hand-to-hand combat to ranged weapons.

The Meklar (called "Meklons" in the book) started out as reptiles, but then decided to artificially hasten their evolution by replacing most of their bodies with mechanical parts. In one picture in the book, a Meklar is shown to look like an armor-plated reptile about 10 feet in length. They have lightning-fast reflexes and incredible strength. Most of them also have weapons embedded in their bodies, like stunners and plasma cannons. Their leader is called the Perfect One. They actually learned to communicate among themselves by using point-to-point line-of-sight transmissions, which can't be intercepted. They also have speech synthesizers to communicate with other races. Their mechanical bodyparts can also repair themselves when damaged.

The Alkari are birds. As such, they are the best pilots in the galaxy, because they are quite comfortable with 3-dimentional thinking. Their physical strength is lacking, though. Unlike many other races, they prefer smaller, more maneuverable ships to cruisers and battleships. They claim that they were the first race in the galaxy to invent interstellar travel. As such, the galaxy should have been theirs. However, they took too long in expanding their empire, and other races beat them to it. Disappointed, they decide to try out their luck in another galaxy.

The Psilons are barely mentioned until the third book (which is quite short and takes place before the other two). They are highly-advanced. While being physically weak, they respect strength. The only time they take prisoners is when an enemy fights back and actually does some damage to them. Their troopers usually wear power armor, a handful of which can level a city in just a few hours. When they lost the war with the humans, they closed off their area of space and refused all outside contact. The official story is that Curtis van Curtis bought the aTan technology from the Psilons before their self-isolation. Kay Altos finds out that this is not true. Van Curtis also claims that the reason for the one-resurrection-at-a-time rule is that the Psilons demanded that a person use it only one in their lifetime, as they were terrified of immortality. Van Curtis says that he proved to them that a resurrected person is a completely different person and can, therefore, buy another resurrection. The truth is that whenever someone died and was resurrected by mistake at two different places, only one body was fully conscious. The other one was a vegetable. Basically, the book claims that the reason aTan works is that humans have souls (or "psi-factors" as they are called in the book). Some other races do too, like the Mrrshan and Bulrathi (although Bulrathi religion forbids them to use aTan).

During the Hazy War, the humans were ruled by a democratic government. They were losing badly. Then Admiral Grey, who was sent on pretty much a suicide mission, turned his ships around and went back to Earth to demand the surrender of the democratic government. He then established himself as the Emperor, and the tide of war changed. After the Sakkra frogs (who can't control their birth rate) overran the three colonies of the Shedar system (the Three Sisters), the Emperor ordered the planets bombed to hell. After that, the humans proceeded to attack the Sakkra on their own turf and killed them all - the first and only genocide on this scale in galactic history. The Meklar were tricked into surrendering. Some smartass in Imperial intelligence gave them a disinformation that spinach was a vital part of the human diet. They spent years and valuable resources developing a virus whose sole purpose was to annihilate spinach (why they didn't invent a virus to kill humans, I don't know). They then sent fleets of virus bombers to seed human planets with the virus. When the cyborgs finally found out that they've been duped, they were shocked. So shocked that they immediately signed a ceasefire. After the war, the humans allied themselves with the Meklar and Bulrathi, becoming a truly formidable force. Meklar-built ships, crewed by skilled human personnel and containing drop-pods for Bulrathi ground troops.

[ChronoLegion]

Interesting thing I forgot to mention about Vasiljev's XCom fanfiction: the way Chrysalids are explained. At first, they are not deemed major threat since they were usually killed before they had a chance to approach anyone. However, one time a Chrysalid showed how fast they can be by getting close to an XCom operative before any of them could make a shot. Something came out of it and easily punched through the power armor. The nearest operative killed the Chrysalid but was himself attacked by his former comrade. He tried to shoot him, but the shots kept getting absorbed by the zombie. Eventually, after a few shots, the human skin (along with armor) fell off, revealing a new Chrysalid. He managed to kill that one too. According to the XCom scientists in the book, when a Chrysalid implants its egg into a victim, the egg begins to rapidly grow into a full-sized Chrysalid. However, normal bodily energy can only accelerate the process so much. That is why any external energy can be used to further accelerate the process. This means that any weapon (presumebly projectile weapons too) cannot harm a Chrysalid while it's in its growing stage. All they can do is force it to grow more rapidly and, when a fully-mature Chrysalid emerges from the victim's body, it no longer has the ability to absorb energy. Otherwise it would grow old and die with a few shots.

 

Many XCom fans believe that some unknown race genetically engineered/altered all the races present in XCom and TftD. However, the book says that Etherials are the true leaders of the alien bunch. Since they are blind and deaf, they must have some way of knowing what is going on in the environment. For that purpose they use their subject races as their eyes and ears through mind-control.

 

Btw, I'm still not sure of the real shape of the Sectoids/Aquatoids. Some sources they the Sectoids are the originals, while others claim the opposite.

[Hobbes]

Many XCom fans believe that some unknown race genetically engineered/altered all the races present in XCom and TftD. However, the book says that Etherials are the true leaders of the alien bunch. Since they are blind and deaf, they must have some way of knowing what is going on in the environment. For that purpose they use their subject races as their eyes and ears through mind-control.

 

Btw, I'm still not sure of the real shape of the Sectoids/Aquatoids. Some sources they the Sectoids are the originals, while others claim the opposite.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think the main issue regarding the unknown race is the Brain on Mars since there's no explanation of its origin, besides its function of controlling the alien invasion. It is generally assumed that it is an unique being, solely created for the propose of being the 'queen' (or on this case, the 'king'). It could also be possible that it is a species of its own, and thus it would be a logical candidate for that unknown race. However, TFTD kinda leans against this possibility since Aquatoids/Sectoids seem to have a tendency to create very powerful lifeforms to guide their species, such as the case of T'Leth.

If one looks at Interceptor, it states that nearly all races like the Ethereals, Aereons, Psilords and Mutons have been modified to some point, but there's no mention of what is the master race. And if Ethereals are the master race, why did they create the Psilords, since they would seem to be more psi powerful and it would risk having a rebellion by them? I am not supporting either view here but it is one of those issues that both sides can be right, depending on their argumentation.

 

Regarding the Aquatoids/Sectoids, the Aquatoid autopsy states that they are Sectoids adapted for underwater by surgery and implants. But they are also much older than humans, according to the UFOPedia for Aquatoids. So the logical conclusion would be for them to be a branch of the Sectoid species, although it can be remarked that current day Sectoids would different from those from 55 million years ago, and in that case both species would share a common ancestor but be on different branches of the evolutionary tree.

[ChronoLegion]

I think the main issue regarding the unknown race is the Brain on Mars since there's no explanation of its origin, besides its function of controlling the alien invasion. It is generally assumed that it is an unique being, solely created for the propose of being the 'queen' (or on this case, the 'king'). It could also be possible that it is a species of its own, and thus it would be a logical candidate for that unknown race. However, TFTD kinda leans against this possibility since Aquatoids/Sectoids seem to have a tendency to create very powerful lifeforms to guide their species, such as the case of T'Leth.

 

The book actually says that the Brain is in fact a highly-advanced computer, most likely with AI characteristics. Just because it's biological doesn't mean it can't be a computer. We generally think of computers as having silicone chips, wires, etc. Yes, the aliens also seem to use electronic computers in their saucers, bases, and robots. However, those are abacuses (abaci?) compared to the processing power and adaptability of the Brain. We know that a human brain is the most efficient computer known (if you ignore the possibility of other intelligent life on Earth). No reason an alien civilization couldn't create a biological computer to direct something as massive as an invasion of a planet.

 

If one looks at Interceptor, it states that nearly all races like the Ethereals, Aereons, Psilords and Mutons have been modified to some point, but there's no mention of what is the master race. And if Ethereals are the master race, why did they create the Psilords, since they would seem to be more psi powerful and it would risk having a rebellion by them? I am not supporting either view here but it is one of those issues that both sides can be right, depending on their argumentation.

 

Well, the book was written before the Interceptor came out, so one really should look at the book in its own time frame. The Psilords might be more powerful psychically, but they may also be controlled by some reliable method by the Etherials. Another possibility could be that there indeed was a rebellion of the Psilords (maybe after the events of the first game) and the Psilords took control of the whole conglomerate. After all, if something is working, why destroy it? They could've simply switched places in the hierarchy with the Etherials. Hell, if that is true, then it's entirely possible that the whole thing was started out millions of years ago by Sectoids, who themselves were overthrown by one of their former slave races.

 

Regarding the Aquatoids/Sectoids, the Aquatoid autopsy states that they are Sectoids adapted for underwater by surgery and implants. But they are also much older than humans, according to the UFOPedia for Aquatoids. So the logical conclusion would be for them to be a branch of the Sectoid species, although it can be remarked that current day Sectoids would different from those from 55 million years ago, and in that case both species would share a common ancestor but be on different branches of the evolutionary tree.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

True, but some sources claim that Aquatoids are the original evolution and that the Sectoids are an artificial subspecies adapted for interstellar travel. Actually, if all Secoids are indeed clones, then their situation could be similar to that of the Asgard in "Stargate SG-1". In case you don't know, the Asgard are the Roswell Greys who have been visiting Earth for centuries (for peaceful purposes). However, their reproduction is through cloning. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a reproduction. They simply clone the body of a dead Asgard and give him/her/it all the memories of the previous body. While this does grant them some measure of immortality (unless you believe in souls), their population can't grow - they're long ago lost the ability to reproduce naturally (the fun way). However, millennia ago they used to look very similar to humans, except grey and with big eyes. This could be what happened to Sectoids, although I doubt they copy memories. Most likely they just grow them and implant certain tasks in their brains.