Post by redsycorax on May 1, 2023 4:40:44 GMT
The Justice Alliance of America is the foremost group of metahumans on Earth-500. Often, they confront strangely familiar, yet tellingly different threats to those faced on other alternate Earths. Witness this one, for instance...
++
MALTUS:
Maltus is the closest English equivalent available to the actual name of this world, where pharmaceuticals and prophylactics to regulate pregnancy and childbirth are categorically forbidden. Thus, Maltus has experienced cataclysmic population growth on an almost unprecedented scale. As a consequence, Maltus has begun a period of intensive interstellar expansionism, but even that is not enough to deal with its burgeoning population... and now, it has reached the Earth's solar system...
ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [Realtime Amendment]
JUSTICE ALLIANCE SEABASE:
"What do you mean, they still haven't overthrown their regime?! It's been over ten years since Jose, Diana and I were there and it was bad enough then. They almost killed Diana and they're fanatically misogynist. Surely they must have at least have had some breakaway factions as a consequence of our earlier expedition there?!"
"Sorry, Oliver. I wish that had been the case. Clearly, something went wrong."
"That's putting it mildly, Kal. Jose was able to find a way into the archivists sealed database and we found out that the culprit was a cloner, Mother Juna. We managed to provide a group of dissident Maltusans with the medical technology and distribution networks they needed to overthrow their world's theocratic dictatorship. We had hoped that it would be enough to initiate some resistance and eventually end its population crisis."
"Unfortunately, due to an ancient sarcophagus, three legendary figures arose from the distant Maltusean past- Archor, Quarra and Tzodar. Initially benevolent, they ended up neurologically damaged by their millennia-long suspended animation. They destroyed the resistance that Diana, Jose and Oliver equipped through brainwashing the general population against them and preached an aggressive xenophobic mandate of conquest and slaughter in order to fulfil Maltus' 'manifest destiny' of fecundity and galactic conquest." Superwoman said.
"And tweaked their cloning programme, I see. To produce metasapients." Superman contributed.
"They had help. Look at that image. Can we increase the resolution... there. No doubt about it, it's her. I wondered where she'd disappeared to after the abortive Crime Lord alternate-Earth attack on us. I thought she'd gone into the future. Evidently, she's back, with illicit advanced future technology. With their economy wrecked by their excessive population numbers, there's probably no way the Maltuseans could have developed that on their own."
"Black Rain. What does it mean?"
"An oncoming storm, destroying all in its path."
"Will they restrict themselves to Venus and the larger gas giant satellites?"
"No. They want Earth. They want our prime position in our solar system."
MALTUSEAN FLEET:
Commander Evia Lai sat back in her Tac chair, gazing at the blue-green-brown planet centred within it. She had had to prove herself to get this command and she wasn't about to let it slip away. She lit a cigrarette and coughed until her second in command, the avaricious Hyreis, cleared his throat:
"Your orders, Commander?"
"Has the situation analysis been performed, XO?"
"It has been. There are nearly a centurys worth of cumulative telecommunication from this world and our monitoring and surveillance stations have gained considerable insight into their planetary civilisations and cultures in the process. They have no world government, rudimentary interplanetary travel and fledgling colonies and are limited to sublight spacecraft. They do have a retinue of nuclear fission and fusion weapons within the largest political entities, but it is not equipped for interplanetary conflict- most of their colonial outposts are heavily dependent on their homeworld for their personnel, population and life resources. They would have been utterly vulnerable had it not been for one major obstacle."
"I take it you are referring to the Justice Alliance organisation?"
"Yes, Commander. Despite this world's pre-starflight status, there are several alpha-class metahumans resident here which may represent a serious risk to our fleet. In particular, two Kryptonian survivors, Kalel and Kara Kalel, otherwise known to its native inhabitants as Superman and Superwoman. There is also a member of the Green Lantern Corps resident on this world, Jose Hernandez, who has visited our world before and tried to overthrow its government. There is a hyperspeed adept, the Flash, as well as two magically enhanced beings, Captain Thunder and Lightning Girl. This world also has magic users, including a powerful recent inductee to the Justice Alliance, Quonjurea. Finally, there is a representative of the ancient but technologically advanced matriarchal Amazon civilisation, Princess Diana of Themiscyra, otherwise known as "Wonder Woman."
"Do we have sufficient countermeasures?"
"Superman and Superwoman are vulnerable to kryptonite, the radioactive superheavy debris of their homeworld. However, given that Krypton's planetary system was destroyed by a black hole, little kryptonite is available for utilisation against them. Green Lantern's power ring contains a design flaw rendering it vulnerable to mycorrhizal fungoid vegetation, which has been extinct for generations on Maltus and which our shipboard ecologies do not permit to establish itself, thus we have none available for use against him. The Flash might be apprehended, but is embedded within the Alliance, so any extraction and capture would be highly difficult. We are a rationalist culture, despite the Covenant's supremacy on our world, however. Thus, we have no countermeasures whatsoever against Captain Thunder and Lightning Girl."
"In other words, we are exposed and vulnerable to attack. Thank you, Hyriese. How long do you estimate we have?"
"As long as we keep outside the core worlds of their planetary system, under Galactic Federation law, we are in cisstellar space. We have not initiated hostilities, so we can argue that our presence here is not provocative. If the Alliance attacks us, we are entitled to defend ourselves."
"So we simply wait for them to come to us? Are there any prospects of more amenable and effective countermeasures against these specific metahumans?"
"Our tech teams are working on it, Commander. Have no fear. As formidable as they are, this world shall fall to the Maltusean Empire."
INTERLUDE:
"They need you."
"You don't know what you're asking..."
"I know losing the person you loved broke your heart, but there are other imperatives in life. And one of them is to protect and serve."
"It's not that I don't want to help them. But even given the vaunted fearlessness and determination that I'm supposed to possess, I don't know if I can do this. What if I witness a friend die?"
"We wouldn't ask you if we weren't up against a wall."
"All right, then. It's time, I guess. I knew I couldn't stay away for ever..."
EARTH ORBIT:
"Jose?" Superman said as a familiar figure joined the Justice Alliance away team
"Ollie called in a favour. Although I probably would have come anyway."
"Thank you. Although I know what this must be costing you. We're all here for you, my friend." Superwoman warmly responded.
"I know that, Kara. Everywhere I turn, everywhere I am, he's there. I don't know if I'll ever transcend that."
"Because Kara and I left Krypton as adults, we have memories of all we lost. Believe me, we're haunted sometimes too. Particularly on the day that the black hole consumed Krypton."
"Good to have you back, buddy."
"So what are you doing out here, Archer?"
"To add a random factor into the equation. I suspect the Maltuseans are expecting Kal, Kara, Willie, Bella, Tanaka, J'Onn and you, but not me."
"Oh, I get it. In case we're under their long-term surveillance, say no more."
CISSTELLAR SPACE:
Apart from the Oort Cloud and its haphazard array of stray cometoids and peripheral captures from neighbouring stars' planetary systems, there is nothing in cisstellar space apart from the heliopause, the point at which the Sun's solar wind of charged particles reaches its limit. Except for a Maltusean fleet, and, fast closing, several members of the Justice Alliance of America. And as the lead vessels closed on them, Superman, Captain Thunder and Lightning Girl soared ahead. The two magically enhanced metahumans took the lead in case there were kryptonite or magic-tainted weapons in store. High above the elliptic, Green Arrow steadily aimed his stock of arrows. For there was a particular divergence from other Green Arrows elsewhere in the multiverse in the case of Oliver Two Feathers. As a consequence of his vision quest, he encountered a quiver, bow and array of mystical arrows, as well as the prowess to infallibly and inerrantly aim the emerald and viridian shafts to their targets. He never missed. And as he aimed and fired, he was shielded from the scrutiny of the invading fleet. As the Maltusean fleet began to fall to the Justice Alliance incoming attack, Commander Lai snarled:
"Hyriese! What the shaol is happening to our ships?"
"We are under attack from hyperspeed projectile weapons, Commander."
"You were supposed to be the chief tactical and strategic advisor, XO. Why did you not advise me of this potential threat?"
"Do not blame me for this unforseen contingency, Commander! You should have taken this contingency into account."
[Commander Evia, perhaps you would be interested in the relevant contents of your XO's mind over the current situation?]
[If that's you, Martian, how am I to know whether these are authentic or falsified?]
[Take a close look at Hyriese's physiological responses and EEG readings. And you're a paro-telepath. Surely you must be interested whether or not you can trust your immediate subordinate?]
And then the psionic flow hit her and she blinked and then focused her attention on her treacherous second in command. She drew her personal blaster:
"Hyriese. You are plotting with elements of the High Command to sabotage this mission, purely because you are a member of the Pri'apys misogynist cult and I am the first woman to achieve high command responsibility in the Imperial Fleet."
"How did you- no! I deny it! I deny everything...!"
But at that moment, Batman and Green Lantern's strategic intervention went online, as a time-stamped and verified surveillance and archival record of a very damning conversation between the Pri'apys members of the High Command and Major Hyriese abruptly appeared on the flagship's viewscreen and throughout the fleet. Back on Maltus itself, the non Pri'apys members of the High Command turned on their colleagues and ordered their immediate arrests. However, this was not before the Pri'apys cultists had communicated orders to their fleet co-religionists to immediately rebel and seize control of the force in question. On the flagship, stony-faced at the implications of this betrayal, Commander Evia shot down her mutinous XO where he stood.
"Justice Alliance. I request a ceasefire."
"Go ahead, Commander." Superwoman replied.
"I have had my doubts about this mission, whether or not I was ever intended to succeed. I may have been intended as a scapegoat for its failure and that failure would have served as a coup d'etat. Thank you for verifying my suspicions. I will not pursue the attack on your world. I will not sacrifice my men and women under my command for a fool's errand or as the bearer of a poisoned chalice. Indeed, the communication that I have from Maltus itself indicates that it is now in a state of civil war. My fleet will be returning to Maltus, effective immediately."
"You are a good woman, Commander. Despite our former enmity, you didn't deserve that betrayal. The Alliance is transmitting a range of uninhabited worlds consistent with your physiological needs should the current hostilities on Maltus prove insurmountable."
"And I apologise for what has happened. Thankfully, no-one from your world perished in this endeavour. We are also grateful that your unknown emissary only crippled our stricken vessels and did not take any of my men and womens lives. We will use their emergency FTL drives to abandon this mission and return to our own system."
"Good luck, Commander."
EPILOGUE:
"Jose?"
"I admit it, I've missed you guys. Perhaps it was the immediate response to Hermes' death. I'm not sure. However, this was like old times. All right. I'll rejoin the Alliance."
"Welcome back, Jose. You're an integral element of the Alliance. Never forget that. You have friends here. Hermes was a brave and valiant man and none of us will ever forget him."
"I know that, Kara. It's time to move on, though. Together." And with that, Jose Hernandez crossed the Seabase command centre floor and was embraced by his colleagues as they welcomed Green Lantern back into their ranks.
THE END: [3.30 PM, MAY 14, 2023]
++
MALTUS:
Maltus is the closest English equivalent available to the actual name of this world, where pharmaceuticals and prophylactics to regulate pregnancy and childbirth are categorically forbidden. Thus, Maltus has experienced cataclysmic population growth on an almost unprecedented scale. As a consequence, Maltus has begun a period of intensive interstellar expansionism, but even that is not enough to deal with its burgeoning population... and now, it has reached the Earth's solar system...
ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA [Realtime Amendment]
JUSTICE ALLIANCE SEABASE:
"What do you mean, they still haven't overthrown their regime?! It's been over ten years since Jose, Diana and I were there and it was bad enough then. They almost killed Diana and they're fanatically misogynist. Surely they must have at least have had some breakaway factions as a consequence of our earlier expedition there?!"
"Sorry, Oliver. I wish that had been the case. Clearly, something went wrong."
"That's putting it mildly, Kal. Jose was able to find a way into the archivists sealed database and we found out that the culprit was a cloner, Mother Juna. We managed to provide a group of dissident Maltusans with the medical technology and distribution networks they needed to overthrow their world's theocratic dictatorship. We had hoped that it would be enough to initiate some resistance and eventually end its population crisis."
"Unfortunately, due to an ancient sarcophagus, three legendary figures arose from the distant Maltusean past- Archor, Quarra and Tzodar. Initially benevolent, they ended up neurologically damaged by their millennia-long suspended animation. They destroyed the resistance that Diana, Jose and Oliver equipped through brainwashing the general population against them and preached an aggressive xenophobic mandate of conquest and slaughter in order to fulfil Maltus' 'manifest destiny' of fecundity and galactic conquest." Superwoman said.
"And tweaked their cloning programme, I see. To produce metasapients." Superman contributed.
"They had help. Look at that image. Can we increase the resolution... there. No doubt about it, it's her. I wondered where she'd disappeared to after the abortive Crime Lord alternate-Earth attack on us. I thought she'd gone into the future. Evidently, she's back, with illicit advanced future technology. With their economy wrecked by their excessive population numbers, there's probably no way the Maltuseans could have developed that on their own."
"Black Rain. What does it mean?"
"An oncoming storm, destroying all in its path."
"Will they restrict themselves to Venus and the larger gas giant satellites?"
"No. They want Earth. They want our prime position in our solar system."
MALTUSEAN FLEET:
Commander Evia Lai sat back in her Tac chair, gazing at the blue-green-brown planet centred within it. She had had to prove herself to get this command and she wasn't about to let it slip away. She lit a cigrarette and coughed until her second in command, the avaricious Hyreis, cleared his throat:
"Your orders, Commander?"
"Has the situation analysis been performed, XO?"
"It has been. There are nearly a centurys worth of cumulative telecommunication from this world and our monitoring and surveillance stations have gained considerable insight into their planetary civilisations and cultures in the process. They have no world government, rudimentary interplanetary travel and fledgling colonies and are limited to sublight spacecraft. They do have a retinue of nuclear fission and fusion weapons within the largest political entities, but it is not equipped for interplanetary conflict- most of their colonial outposts are heavily dependent on their homeworld for their personnel, population and life resources. They would have been utterly vulnerable had it not been for one major obstacle."
"I take it you are referring to the Justice Alliance organisation?"
"Yes, Commander. Despite this world's pre-starflight status, there are several alpha-class metahumans resident here which may represent a serious risk to our fleet. In particular, two Kryptonian survivors, Kalel and Kara Kalel, otherwise known to its native inhabitants as Superman and Superwoman. There is also a member of the Green Lantern Corps resident on this world, Jose Hernandez, who has visited our world before and tried to overthrow its government. There is a hyperspeed adept, the Flash, as well as two magically enhanced beings, Captain Thunder and Lightning Girl. This world also has magic users, including a powerful recent inductee to the Justice Alliance, Quonjurea. Finally, there is a representative of the ancient but technologically advanced matriarchal Amazon civilisation, Princess Diana of Themiscyra, otherwise known as "Wonder Woman."
"Do we have sufficient countermeasures?"
"Superman and Superwoman are vulnerable to kryptonite, the radioactive superheavy debris of their homeworld. However, given that Krypton's planetary system was destroyed by a black hole, little kryptonite is available for utilisation against them. Green Lantern's power ring contains a design flaw rendering it vulnerable to mycorrhizal fungoid vegetation, which has been extinct for generations on Maltus and which our shipboard ecologies do not permit to establish itself, thus we have none available for use against him. The Flash might be apprehended, but is embedded within the Alliance, so any extraction and capture would be highly difficult. We are a rationalist culture, despite the Covenant's supremacy on our world, however. Thus, we have no countermeasures whatsoever against Captain Thunder and Lightning Girl."
"In other words, we are exposed and vulnerable to attack. Thank you, Hyriese. How long do you estimate we have?"
"As long as we keep outside the core worlds of their planetary system, under Galactic Federation law, we are in cisstellar space. We have not initiated hostilities, so we can argue that our presence here is not provocative. If the Alliance attacks us, we are entitled to defend ourselves."
"So we simply wait for them to come to us? Are there any prospects of more amenable and effective countermeasures against these specific metahumans?"
"Our tech teams are working on it, Commander. Have no fear. As formidable as they are, this world shall fall to the Maltusean Empire."
INTERLUDE:
"They need you."
"You don't know what you're asking..."
"I know losing the person you loved broke your heart, but there are other imperatives in life. And one of them is to protect and serve."
"It's not that I don't want to help them. But even given the vaunted fearlessness and determination that I'm supposed to possess, I don't know if I can do this. What if I witness a friend die?"
"We wouldn't ask you if we weren't up against a wall."
"All right, then. It's time, I guess. I knew I couldn't stay away for ever..."
EARTH ORBIT:
"Jose?" Superman said as a familiar figure joined the Justice Alliance away team
"Ollie called in a favour. Although I probably would have come anyway."
"Thank you. Although I know what this must be costing you. We're all here for you, my friend." Superwoman warmly responded.
"I know that, Kara. Everywhere I turn, everywhere I am, he's there. I don't know if I'll ever transcend that."
"Because Kara and I left Krypton as adults, we have memories of all we lost. Believe me, we're haunted sometimes too. Particularly on the day that the black hole consumed Krypton."
"Good to have you back, buddy."
"So what are you doing out here, Archer?"
"To add a random factor into the equation. I suspect the Maltuseans are expecting Kal, Kara, Willie, Bella, Tanaka, J'Onn and you, but not me."
"Oh, I get it. In case we're under their long-term surveillance, say no more."
CISSTELLAR SPACE:
Apart from the Oort Cloud and its haphazard array of stray cometoids and peripheral captures from neighbouring stars' planetary systems, there is nothing in cisstellar space apart from the heliopause, the point at which the Sun's solar wind of charged particles reaches its limit. Except for a Maltusean fleet, and, fast closing, several members of the Justice Alliance of America. And as the lead vessels closed on them, Superman, Captain Thunder and Lightning Girl soared ahead. The two magically enhanced metahumans took the lead in case there were kryptonite or magic-tainted weapons in store. High above the elliptic, Green Arrow steadily aimed his stock of arrows. For there was a particular divergence from other Green Arrows elsewhere in the multiverse in the case of Oliver Two Feathers. As a consequence of his vision quest, he encountered a quiver, bow and array of mystical arrows, as well as the prowess to infallibly and inerrantly aim the emerald and viridian shafts to their targets. He never missed. And as he aimed and fired, he was shielded from the scrutiny of the invading fleet. As the Maltusean fleet began to fall to the Justice Alliance incoming attack, Commander Lai snarled:
"Hyriese! What the shaol is happening to our ships?"
"We are under attack from hyperspeed projectile weapons, Commander."
"You were supposed to be the chief tactical and strategic advisor, XO. Why did you not advise me of this potential threat?"
"Do not blame me for this unforseen contingency, Commander! You should have taken this contingency into account."
[Commander Evia, perhaps you would be interested in the relevant contents of your XO's mind over the current situation?]
[If that's you, Martian, how am I to know whether these are authentic or falsified?]
[Take a close look at Hyriese's physiological responses and EEG readings. And you're a paro-telepath. Surely you must be interested whether or not you can trust your immediate subordinate?]
And then the psionic flow hit her and she blinked and then focused her attention on her treacherous second in command. She drew her personal blaster:
"Hyriese. You are plotting with elements of the High Command to sabotage this mission, purely because you are a member of the Pri'apys misogynist cult and I am the first woman to achieve high command responsibility in the Imperial Fleet."
"How did you- no! I deny it! I deny everything...!"
But at that moment, Batman and Green Lantern's strategic intervention went online, as a time-stamped and verified surveillance and archival record of a very damning conversation between the Pri'apys members of the High Command and Major Hyriese abruptly appeared on the flagship's viewscreen and throughout the fleet. Back on Maltus itself, the non Pri'apys members of the High Command turned on their colleagues and ordered their immediate arrests. However, this was not before the Pri'apys cultists had communicated orders to their fleet co-religionists to immediately rebel and seize control of the force in question. On the flagship, stony-faced at the implications of this betrayal, Commander Evia shot down her mutinous XO where he stood.
"Justice Alliance. I request a ceasefire."
"Go ahead, Commander." Superwoman replied.
"I have had my doubts about this mission, whether or not I was ever intended to succeed. I may have been intended as a scapegoat for its failure and that failure would have served as a coup d'etat. Thank you for verifying my suspicions. I will not pursue the attack on your world. I will not sacrifice my men and women under my command for a fool's errand or as the bearer of a poisoned chalice. Indeed, the communication that I have from Maltus itself indicates that it is now in a state of civil war. My fleet will be returning to Maltus, effective immediately."
"You are a good woman, Commander. Despite our former enmity, you didn't deserve that betrayal. The Alliance is transmitting a range of uninhabited worlds consistent with your physiological needs should the current hostilities on Maltus prove insurmountable."
"And I apologise for what has happened. Thankfully, no-one from your world perished in this endeavour. We are also grateful that your unknown emissary only crippled our stricken vessels and did not take any of my men and womens lives. We will use their emergency FTL drives to abandon this mission and return to our own system."
"Good luck, Commander."
EPILOGUE:
"Jose?"
"I admit it, I've missed you guys. Perhaps it was the immediate response to Hermes' death. I'm not sure. However, this was like old times. All right. I'll rejoin the Alliance."
"Welcome back, Jose. You're an integral element of the Alliance. Never forget that. You have friends here. Hermes was a brave and valiant man and none of us will ever forget him."
"I know that, Kara. It's time to move on, though. Together." And with that, Jose Hernandez crossed the Seabase command centre floor and was embraced by his colleagues as they welcomed Green Lantern back into their ranks.
THE END: [3.30 PM, MAY 14, 2023]