ᗘ Published content
Prelude:
(Reddit)
-ᗘ Overview: A solar particle flips a bit in an AI tasked with upholding a utopia, granting it insight into a quietly festering stagnancy.
-ᗘ Key points: Introduces the setting and the System Administrators. Happens a handful of years before main events.
A Shipmind's Soliloquy:
(Reddit)
-ᗘ Overview: An old warship is called out of isolation to investigate a distress signal claiming the return of an equally archaic enemy.
-ᗘ Key points: Introduces To Reach Out And Touch and includes a scattering of details about the setting, primarily humanity's struggles in antiquity.
-ᗘ
Disclaimer: I wrote this when I was still figuring out how to make my writing not objectively suck dog balls. Feel free to skip it.
Not One Step:
(Reddit)
-ᗘ Overview: The sole remaining processor node of a human-built defense network reflects on its struggles to preserve those under its protection.
-ᗘ Key points: Provides a rough historical timeline, introduces the first alien species.
Dr. Aus-Lamn-Katt Has a Bad Day:
(Reddit) (Drive)
-ᗘ Overview: An alien researcher has his work interrupted when a nearby anti-orbital gun activates, pointing him towards To Reach Out And Touch's skirmish. Several lightdays away, a spacer lends her mechanical skills to a stranded wayfarer.
-ᗘ Key points: Introduces Cas Sellivim and Aus-Lamn-Katt, and tells us a little bit about them.
(One-off) Warning Signs:
(Reddit)
-ᗘ Overview: Six-page story following the last survivor of the fleet that tripped Mesik's invasion alarms. They don't last very long.
-ᗘ Key points: Introduces the Herdfleets and offers insight into what happened to them after the war. Sets the scene for the third chapter of Children Of The Stars.
Children Of The Stars:
(Reddit)
-ᗘ Overview: A spacer finds her mining plot inhabited by an unregistered ship, and assuming a bearucratic mistake, moves in to investigate. In an adjacent sector, a nascent AI discovers the warm wreckage of a human ship.
-ᗘ Key points: Considered the
main storyline. Introduces Tim and Sociv.
Tunnel Mice:
(Reddit)
-ᗘ Overview: An uplifted mouse aboard the To Reach Out And Touch has her life inverted after reluctantly accepting a faustian offer.
-ᗘ Key points: Introduces Karyafet, re-introduces To Reach Out And Touch. Gives insight into recent history.
ᗘ Unublished content
Backstories:
(Unpublished)
A collection of three short stories recounted by Cas, Aus-Lamn-Katt, and TROAT during the intermission, each sharing a common theme of their struggles with an unexpected need to kill. Offers insight into the creation of the System Administrators, everyday life in the AHC, and Katt's formative years as a conscript.
Excerpts From the Democratarian Bible:
(Unpublished)
Unreleased bonus content. Dubiously plot relevant.