(C) Andrey Kazakov
Author's presentation
Novella-introduction to the game
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│ ──────═══ RETURN TO HOME 4 ═══─────── │
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The heavy fighter of the "Land a runner" class, subclass "Hardest," exited hyperspace near the small planet Tiosina. The nuclear turbines fired a reverse thrust, and after gliding a few meters by inertia, it came to a halt. The matte-black hull of the fighter shimmered slightly with the rays of the white dwarf star Enel, which generously bestowed streams of photons to the eight lively planets of this system. The fighter slightly turned towards the star, and a golden emblem flared up on the lower part of its fuselage: against the silhouette of the planet Des, a flash of lightning and a sheaf of wheat. Beneath the emblem, three inscriptions were engraved in copper: "DES Confederation," just below - "DDS of DES 8'th elite division," and the type of ship "BLACK STAR-18 sl-3214." In the cockpit of the ship, a man sat in a semi-dreamy state, waiting for the onboard computer to reboot the program after the intergalactic transition. The silence and half-darkness in the cockpit were disturbed only by the red indicators of the four working hard drives, which quietly rustled. Finally, the indicators went out, and a pleasant female voice in Hekto-lostnyan language announced:
- Set des rules has ran...
Raifus (that was the pilot's name) activated the Russian localizer:
- System installed.
Holding the control stick with one hand, the pilot directed the ship towards the star. The armored giant obediently turned and, slowly gaining speed, moved towards the white dwarf.
- Attention! The temperature outside exceeds the permissible norm!
Raifus activated the BKS-protection and a few other devices. The ship immediately changed: it bristled (a net, assembled at the quark level, rose above all parts of the hull at a distance of 1-2 mm, reflecting energy from the atomic-BKS hull), and from below, in front of the docking platform, two electrodes and collector converters emerged. When the ship approached very close to the star, the onboard computer emitted a signal, and a green inscription "Fuel scoops generator on" blinked on the console.
Raifus directed the ship towards the nearest prominence, monitoring the fuel gauge. The windshield quickly darkened until the computer reported the activation of the multivisor. Finally, the fighter reached the fiery tentacle of the star and began greedily siphoning energy from it. Explosions roared around the ship. Streams of plasma, erupting from the very heart of the massive nuclear reactor, cascaded down the hull, but it steadfastly maneuvered like a small boat in a raging, stormy ocean, avoiding the fiery messengers of the underworld on the waves of plasma.
- Attention! Processor error! - the computer announced in the same calm, pleasant female voice, and at that moment a fireball erupted from the prominence and struck the upper part of the right wing. The ship was violently shaken, spun around, and hurled into the fiery abyss like a lonely autumn leaf in a hurricane. Fragments of the shattered BKS-protection struck the windshield.
- Warning: damage to the right protection system at norm "zero" - 30%! - the computer quickly leveled the ship and led it to a safe zone. Here, Raifus recalled that the support program for the "Fuel scoops generator" system was designed for a more powerful computer, which had to be replaced with an ordinary 100z.spu laptop after a hardware virus hit the old machine, and therefore the 1h processors were simply emulated, leading to a loss of synchronization! Cursing, Raifus steered the ship to a safe distance, calculating how much more expensive the repair of the protection would be compared to the synthesized fuel (the Ministry of Defense of the DES Confederation did not support such things - repairs would have to be at his own expense!) Unsatisfied with the outcome, he waited for the ship's tanks to fill up and sent the ship towards the planet Tiosina using the J-engines. As he approached the planet, the ship's hull had already cooled down. Now Raifus admired the view of the green-blue planet, which occupied almost the entire windshield. Soon the radar detected a station. The planet Tiosina was not heavily populated and was almost self-sufficient, so there were far fewer trading ships here than in other systems. But this time there were none at all! Finally, the station came into view. It was an old Coriolis-70. A tangle of repair ships swirled around it. The station was surrounded by a squadron of police Vipers and 7367 Kotiks. Above the entrance to the station, a red sign flashed indicating a docking prohibition.
- DDSWM8-NS234567127 requests permission to dock. - Raifus reported to the station.
- DDSWM8...27 denied docking! The station is in repair mode. Docking is being conducted with a military space platform in the "Delta" zone. Coordinates...
That was on the other side of the planet - Raifus was late for his duty. He would have to fly to the platform without stopping at home. He informed the computer of the course, and the ship headed towards the platform.
It was the last day of my duty! I wasn't exactly an "officer-supervisor" (that was what they called the navigators of space stations or platforms, correcting ship dockings, movements, defense systems, etc.), but our 8th elite division was undergoing reorganization in this galaxy. Most of the officers had gone on leave, and here, as luck would have it, a drunken trader "finished off" the 70th Coriolis, which already needed repairs. The government asked our brigadier general for help, and he sent an old MICROTETRIS class platform of the STAR WARRIOR type here along with "international" replacement groups of humans and Targons, which we were very unhappy about. But, as they say, you can't go against the higher-ups, especially since I was promised a month of additional leave for this. I had already submitted a report for six months, for those four years while our division stormed the Larnostian fortifications in the DQ-19 galaxy. We returned as "victors." Now we were waiting for the delivery of the latest technology.
We (I and my partner Lyz Nyluf) had been stuck here for the 4th hour. During that time, we had docked 6 trading and 3 military ships. Now everything was quiet. The control room was unbearably hot. During the previous duty (the Targons were on duty), the air conditioner broke down. Naturally, no one intended to fix it (you have to be clever enough to stuff five 128-bit microprocessors into an air conditioner, and such that no one produces anymore (it seemed that the now-defunct company "iNTEL" used to indulge in this), and we were compensated with a box of warm "COCA-COLA." Moreover, the previous duty was with Targons, and they constantly ran the air hydrator so that the whole room became damp, and there was such a stench that I almost threw up! Now we were slowly getting used to it. Well, it was nothing, just two hours left, this was the last duty, and we didn't care anymore. I sat in the main operator's chair, stripped to the waist, and alternately monitored the computer, radar, and my partner, who was nearby in the position that involved monitoring the platform's status and defense system. He was currently busy - fiddling with a screwdriver in the hydrator. Finally, he extracted the motherboard from it and examined it with dissatisfaction. I noticed six 1z optical processors on the board and several hyperlines, which were easily replaceable. Finally, Lyz's face lit up; he carefully pulled one microchip from the panel and showed it to me:
- Do you know WHAT this is?!
- Hyperline.
- No-o-o! This is not an ordinary hyperline; this is OUTSIDE-82523-GCH18! Relaxation problems (from Hekto-lostnyan "revalla," meaning "not working"), that's what hackers called compatibility) 19%!
- You mean nothing but this optron can be put here?
- Exactly!
- Revenge!
- Revenge! - we high-fived.
Lyz took out a knife and carefully ran it along the data bus, then inserted the microchip back in, and then I generously doused it with COCA-COLA from the last can. After the board was installed in the hydrator, Lyz said:
- Don't you think it's become dry in here?
- Yes, - I replied, draining the condensed water from the keyboard connected to the server. Saying, "We need to turn on the hydrator," Lyz pressed the button. There was an explosion, and thousands of glass shards from the former microchip embedded themselves in the plastic casing of the air hydrator; steam poured from the box - COCA-COLA saved the day: there was no fire.
- Not good. - said Lyz.
- Not good. - I repeated, seeing the message on the monitor "Run time error. System halted." (Apparently, the central computer of the platform and the hydrator with the air conditioner were powered by the same Local power source.) But I felt a bit relieved seeing the information about the testing processors and the memory they addressed. Less than a second later, the redundancy circuit connected. The testing window shrank to a third of its size and moved to the upper right corner of the monitor. When all 65536 1h processors and their addressed memory of 2^512 Gb (in less than 30 seconds) were tested, the main circuit connected. No one noticed the incident. While we were "having fun," the geographical probing device (simply radar or geozondograph) detected two spaceships within the platform's limits. The computer immediately identified them. The first was Moury-h19 with VT-confederation identifiers, the second, a bit further away, was the military fighter Kotik-5З5sl18, known as the eighteenth black star. Strangely, this machine was registered to our 8th elite division, and we had not yet received new technology. I knew for sure that it was not the higher-ups...
The first to make contact was Moury:
- Base-central, vs-619n requests permission for emergency landing. We are in distress, leading nuclear turbine failure, there are injured! Power consumption 379 lis.
The ship was moving quite fast. As military personnel, we rarely contacted foreign ships and counting systems (to be more precise, we mostly saw foreign ships in the crosshairs), so I asked Lyz:
- How much is a lis in bodj?
- I don't know, - Lyz replied, hurriedly flipping through the reference book, but neither the computer nor the reference book was familiar with this counting system, - it seems, 50-60 thousand.
- Is he out of his mind?! Docking platforms can withstand a maximum of 250 kilobodj, power receivers even less!
- Board vt-619, I prohibit emergency landing. Docking at platform "gamma 20." Power consumption one hundred kilobodj.
- Are you guys completely nuts? With a blown reactor, we can barely squeeze out 15, and you're asking for a hundred!
I looked sternly at Lyz.
- Well, maybe the other way around.
- Alright, board... Enter through the power receiver, the path is clear, power consumption 300 lis.
The pilot tried to argue, but I disconnected him, informing the computer about the upcoming docking.
. . .
Raifus was irritated. The coordinates he received from the station were mixed up: instead of dx.. dy.. dz.. he was given dz.. dy.. dx! He was almost late for duty, meaning he wouldn't have time to go to the cafeteria. Finally, he spotted the familiar platform. The multi-ton machine hung heavily over the planet, completely motionless, and friendly blinked its navigation lights. The radar detected a trading ship. It was the first to approach for docking. Raifus's mood soured completely when the docking nodes of the station lit up with "Lock off" signals, meaning the central computer of the platform could only dock one ship at a time! "What a mess," thought Raifus, "the first day in the 8th division after transferring from the 5th with a promotion, and I'm late! I need to request an emergency docking."
. . .
Moury slowly approached the power receiver. Apparently, 300 lis was too little, but neither Lyz nor I were in a hurry. Finally, the fighter made contact:
- BLACK STAR 18 demands an emergency docking. The priority tale is 12. Board number...
Now he messed up! He reported the "tale" before we requested it! Of course, if we were some kind of Coriolis, Dodo, or, worse, Aikos, we would have rushed to dock him, trampling over everyone else, but we had a military space platform - priority 20! If it weren't for the air conditioner and the previous duty of the Targons, he would have been lucky, but we couldn't miss such a chance. Someone had to take it out on. Lyz looked at me in surprise:
- What audacity! We're saving poor fish (Moury-19 belonged to the Pruly from the Ocean - a civilization living in water), and he's demanding!
In the communication channel with Moury, curses mixed with pleas to increase the docking speed could be heard.
- BLACK STAR 18, emergency docking canceled, priority tale 20. Docking is conducted in the order of queue at the power receiver.
The computer docked the ships. We had 10 minutes left; we gathered and waited for the shift to arrive. The video camera at the approach to the control room showed three people: the first was our temporary commander - brigadier captain Timbrek Nastrov, the second, the well-known bore technician-cybernetic lieutenant Dmitry Gusev, and the third was someone neither Lyz nor I knew. He was, like me, a brigadier lieutenant, but for some reason in the parade uniform of long-haul pilots with a DEADLY rating patch. Dmitry and the lieutenant were carrying packs of "COCA-COLA."
- What is he dressed up for? - Lyz asked.
- Yeah, it was a nice uniform. - I said, wiping sweat with a towel. Lyz hadn't caught on yet. - BLACK STAR 18, we prohibit emergency landing.
- A-a-a, got it! - Lyz artificially induced overload in the elevator leading to the control room so that only one person could go up. The captain went up. Then discreetly, the elevator was completely disabled (actually, our 8th division was considered the most hospitable). The replacements had to walk. We quickly handed over the matters to the brigadier captain and abruptly left.
There was still an hour until the passenger ship's departure. All things were already packed; I took a shower and changed into civilian clothes. Now I had to head to the planet Soury, where I would wait for the order to go on leave, and in the meantime, I needed to accept a batch of new heavy fighters. I hadn't been to Earth for five years. It was spring in Europe, the end of April. I envisioned a birch grove with grass just sprouting, only just unfurling its leaves. My nostalgic reverie was interrupted by a message about the start of boarding. The ship I was to fly on resembled the "Anaconda," which was produced in the VT-confederation, but the hull bore the logo of the Tagonda Ltd. company. Among the passengers were some sectarians, cruising under the motto (written in the Loransky language) "Freedom and equality for all life forms," but their belongings were carried by their "servants," i.e., slaves. Slavery was prohibited in the Confederation. Planets where it existed were not even given a first level. In particularly severe cases, troops were deployed there. But the Loran sectarians had arranged things in such a way that it was impossible to complain; nothing could be done - democracy. Entering the cabin, I immediately took a window seat and pulled out my notebook. I intended to enroll in premier courses, and for that, I needed to at least come up with some program. Right now, I was debugging a game (in other words, a multiprocessor system based on OSI needed to be known from top to bottom: the competition was 1200 people for a spot!) One of the sectarians sat down next to me.
The passenger ship slowly pulled away from the docking node and headed towards the hyperjump starting point. A police escort ship quickly followed behind it. The pre-launch countdown began. A simultaneous salvo from the nuclear turbines, and the two ships instantly dissolved into the darkness of space.
Ten hours of hyperspace! To this day, the government has not revealed the secret of the Thompson-Kergeim turbines, while the heavy fighter covers the same distance in 10 seconds! The service on the ship was excellent; breakfast was served right after takeoff, pleasant music played, and multivisors were above every seat. After breakfast, my neighbor called for a "servant," who brought him a computer. It was a thing! I had only seen such a thing in pictures: a fully protected MF-line on 200h chips! Complete separation of modes on microprocessors - if it weren't for the danger of hackers, this machine could be set up as a server on a "tree" type network for an entire galaxy, 8-dimensional memory, and a hardware-implemented system of recursive task division! The motherboard didn't fit into the notebook's casing and was mounted in a portable minitaur. I immediately felt respect for the sectarian - a cool coder! I would need to save my salary for such a thing for 10-15 years, not eat, not drink, work as a supervisor, and take bribes. But as soon as he turned on the computer, I realized: it's from the series "money is there - brains are not needed." It all started with sequential testing (i.e., one processor tests all the others and their memory instead of each testing its own area, dividing into several (each CPU had 64k registers of type PC)) and without activated turbo modes. This threatened to take half an hour, but after 10 minutes the sectarian got tired of waiting. He began to bang his claws on the table and loudly curse in Loransky. Finally, a "servant" came running, he pressed the turbo mode buttons, first getting a whack on the back of the head. A minute later, the test finished. The sectarian ordered, as I could understand, to set him up with a cool game. The "servant" said there was a good game "DOOM," which ran under an IBM emulator. They searched the catalog for the emulator for a long time. It turned out to be the file "ibm.usr." They had to reboot the computer four times. Finally, the long-awaited inscription appeared:
"IBM -EMULATOR, (C) Kotik software."
(ibm.usr /type [286,386,486,586,Pentium, Pentium pro,786,886])" (the last one was a joke from the company and was needed to roughly know how many thousands of computers could be emulated simultaneously), and they were thrown back into DOS again. After launching the emulator several times and receiving the same requirement for mode input, the sectarian characterized the company "Kotik software" in unflattering terms. Apparently, entering the mode or launching the same "DOOM," but specifically for the MF-line in virtual reality using the multivisor, which, as mentioned earlier, was above every seat, was not meant to be, so the "servant" finally managed to launch "sextris." The pieces fell so slowly and were so uncooperative that they didn't want to fill the bottom row in the glass. Finally, the sectarian got tired of desperately trying to beat the previously set record of 2 points. He pulled a nail from his pocket and began to dig in his ear, looking at the shimmering "GAME OVER" message in ten billion colors. The sectarian gathered all his spiritual energy, the energy of his ancestors, and launched the game again. The powers of his ancestors came to his aid, and the computer managed to land four straight sticks. But the last one got caught so badly on the vertically standing second that... it just wouldn't go further. The sectarian pulled the nail from his ear and, taking the keyboard by the edge, began to pound it, using the opposite corner of the keyboard against the table. But the nail, apparently, had no intention of fitting into the aluminum tabletop. Finally, the plastic casing of the keyboard cracked. The sectarian, making sure no one had seen the incident (I pretended to be asleep), turned off the computer. How it all ended, I never found out because I actually fell asleep.
I woke up from a light jolt: the passenger ship had exited hyperspace 250 kilometers from the Dodo station and was now slowly moving towards it. There was a traffic jam near the entrance to the station. Some trader on a Sudjeak-5 (apparently wanting to show off) was trying to unfurl his sail right at the station's exit. Miscalculating, he snagged the sail on the station's framework, and now his "wet" buddy on Moury was attempting to pull him out of there, having snagged Sudjeak with a rope. Nearby, two police Sound de viper officers were nervously twitching. A regular nuclear turbine couldn't handle the BKS-frame of the sail. The futile tugging of the Sadjik led nowhere. Finally, the "Musical Vipers" sang their death melody, firing a salvo of explosive lasers at Sadjik's sail. His buddy dragged the remains of the ship back into the station. The traffic jam quickly dissipated. First, three of our fighters entered without waiting in line, then a Python and some Targon cargo ship, and then our ship proceeded to dock.
It was the third day of my stay on Soury. There was practically no work here. The order for leave had not yet arrived, and I, being the head of the material department, had to ensure the acceptance of new technology, drive it into the hangar, and show it to no one. Yesterday, the platform arrived, and it was unloaded. Now the technicians were checking the fighters, installing the operating system on the new invasion cyborgs... In short, they were dealing with rather boring tasks, and I went fishing. The lake was located near the military base. Whether there was fish here was unknown to anyone. Everyone I asked looked at me in surprise and asked why I didn't just go to the store and get it for free. (In the DES confederation, there was almost communism in this regard, i.e., the state covered food expenses, excluding exotic items, for all citizens of the confederation with a "tale" greater than zero. That was 97 percent of the population.) Apparently, there were no fish in the lake, as there were no bites in two hours. Suddenly, my computer notified me of a call. Blocking the transmission of images, I answered the call. It was the boss.
- Where are you? What’s wrong with your image? Report to my office immediately!
- The video scanner crashed on the computer. I'll be there shortly. - I replied, gathering my fishing rods. I quickly tossed them into the car and drove to the base.
Such a call did not promise anything good, but I secretly hoped that the order for leave had arrived. I reached the base in 10 minutes and immediately headed to the boss's office. His face showed no emotion. He gestured for me to sit in the chair. Silence reigned. It was clear he was about to deliver some not-so-pleasant news.
- I submitted your documents to the Ministry of Defense of the Confederation with a recommendation for promotion and for enrollment in the premier courses.
- Thank you! - I began, but he interrupted me with an ironic smile:
- That was almost all the good news. Simultaneously, a report was sent regarding your leave request. And here is the response... The Ministry of Defense's order arrived, signed by the president himself with the correction from the Minister of Defense: "Recommendations will be accepted in the case of a successful operation to capture three planets with a rogue computer and the combat robots under its command. In this case, the leave request is denied."
Of course, a direct path to university with grades is cool, but leave! Yes, though the matter is worth the leave. Passing the courses, if lucky, then receiving the first level, and that means a fivefold salary increase. They would give me a personal fighter, and I would become a big shot right away. But that is IF the operation goes successfully.
- Specifically, what do I need to do? - I asked.
- Wait, an officer will come and tell you everything.
A man in military uniform, quite old and sun-faded but in very good condition, entered the office. It was impossible to determine his rank; the epaulettes bore the inscription "some," meaning he had permission for non-disclosure of rank. The same inscription was on the award certificate, given and belonging to the division. On the right pocket of the tunic was the silhouette of a sign that had once been there, indicating a rating. It was a bird with a series of letters inscribed on it, meaning "ELITE SUPER." The only thing that really gave information about the person was the emblem on his right sleeve, indicating his affiliation with the "computer" troops. I recognized him immediately. It was Vasliy Hakningem - legends were made about him. I had heard that he received the highest rank of Generalissimo of the Confederation. But then there was an impossible mission that he failed to complete in time. It was said that he commanded the 3rd elite division at the time and was supposed to destroy the remnants of Rullis's army - the emperor of the Rallo fan Empire. Due to intelligence errors, it was discovered too late that Rullis's troops outnumbered ours by 72 times. Vasliy then ordered a retreat and led a guerrilla war instead of a frontal assault. Weakening Rullis, he conducted a rapid offensive. With his destruction, he was a month late, after which Vasliy was demoted to brigadier captain. What rank he had now was known only to the initiated.
- Let's go to the video hall; I will familiarize you with the details.
We entered a hall with a huge crystalline monitor. Vasliy inserted a quasi-photon disk into the computer, turned on the picture, and began to explain the details of the operation. The roots of its backstory went back to the first inter-tetrahedral war. (For some reason, the cluster of galaxies was called a tetrahedron, apparently because the galaxies in the cluster where the planet Des was located resembled the vertices of a pyramid.) The "madness" of the computer manifested itself towards the end of the war, and no one ventured there until, finally, control over the planets became strategically important.
The first tetrahedral war was initiated by the space state of Alenov, whose origins and culture remain unknown to this day. As a result of the war, their civilization was destroyed. The Alenov began a large-scale invasion of the Commonwealth of civilizations, which included many empires (in particular, Targonda) and confederations (including the DES confederation, the multi-confederation of free planets, etc.). They waged war against the entire Commonwealth simultaneously. Fighting was already taking place on the territory of the DES confederation and Targonda. The DES was urgently studying enemy fighters. Using their technologies, they had almost assembled the first Black Star. Moreover, by that time, a new system for the computers OS OSLI 0.1 had been written. For the first time in history, it was possible to install the mathematical model of Linz artificial intelligence on a computer. The Confederation was preparing to give a rematch, but Targonda announced at the Commonwealth council the existence of powerful weapons effective in temporally stable worlds (i.e., time alteration is a constant), which our universe then was. The weapon was based on destabilizing time intervals, which dealt a severe blow to enemy technology. Furthermore, it was assumed that destabilization would prevent the use of the hyper-transition method that the Alenov had. In fear of the Alenov, despite the warnings from the DES confederation about an impending ecological disaster, the Commonwealth voted "FOR".
The weapon did not have the expected effect, but the ecology of space was severely disrupted. Many planets drifted off their orbits, and most of them perished. Areas of hyper-accelerated and hyper-slowed time appeared. Hyper-transition was impossible across the boundaries of these areas. Ships were crushed when approaching the boundaries. The Alenov's advance was not halted by this. Then the DES confederation began an offensive against the Alenov forces, using new technology and systems. It was said that the computer won that war. A year later, the Confederation's bombers were already dropping nuclear charges on the Alenov's home planet. They did not engage in negotiations, and within a few months, the Alenov civilization was destroyed.
In a similar temporal "bubble," the galaxy A-37 found itself. This galaxy housed some colonies of the confederation. The main route to these colonies lay through the separately located star Evtz. There are two planets around the star, one of which has a moon. The planets were revived by the company "Rafatex." There are bases of the type Micromir-69 on the planets. The moon is fully revived. After the galaxy A-37 was cut off from the outside world, naturally, no one intended to use generation ships; the need for these planets had disappeared. The last space platform directed to the planets with food and equipment crashed against the temporal barrier. However, there is an opinion that it was intercepted by robot ships subordinate to the enraged computer. A reconnaissance robot sent to the star brought information that all biologically intelligent life on the planets had been destroyed. We delayed the assault on the planets, as they say, until the last moment. The fact is that our scientists conducted an analysis and built a forecast about the retreat of the temporal barrier from the galaxy A-37 in just a year. The reconnaissance robot returned from there two days ago. The confederation colonies remained loyal to us and increased during this time. But they are being attacked by fleets of the Toristag empire. The Toristoid empire claimed the entire galaxy as its own, justifying this with its supposed historical control over it. The council of civilizations abstained, which implies that the aggression of Toristag against our colonies will not be condemned. Similarly, in the event of an invasion by the Toristoids, no one will oppose the start of a war for the complete capture of the galaxy. Now about the legitimacy of our actions. Having analyzed historical facts and information obtained through computer troops (or simply hackers) who dug through the data banks of Toristag until their server blocked access channels, we managed to establish that the Toristoids indeed originate from this galaxy but cannot claim complete dominance there. They owned only two planets there, which they abandoned due to an ecological disaster and the mistakes of their scientists who incorrectly predicted the rapid demise of galaxy A-37. On a generation ship, they flew to the neighboring galaxy A-38, where they achieved a high level of development. The re-colonization of galaxy A-37 was conducted parallel to ours and was halted after the first inter-tetrahedral war.
Galaxy A-38, fully owned by Toristag, is in a more advantageous position to support the invasion of A-37 than our territories. To support our colonies, we need a staging base for the rapid transfer of troops to galaxy A-37. The Evtz system is perfectly suited for this base. At the moment, a mad computer is operating there.
Why can't we transfer troops there and are forced to urgently send a small unit? There are two reasons for this. The first is that yesterday the Toristoids declared at the council of civilizations that we are irrationally using these planets and demanded their transfer to them. Although our potential allows us to fight against the entire council of civilizations and there is a high probability that we would win. But we are the peaceful side and must consider the council. We stated that the planets are fully controlled, but the council of civilizations decided to send a commission there. Transferring a large number of troops would raise suspicion. The second reason, stemming from the first, is that over these two days, a wave-like decaying transition of time from hyper-accelerated to hyper-slowed is occurring. You will manage to reach the planets. Your task is to capture these planets as soon as possible, but due to the complexity of the task, you have almost no time limit. Unfortunately, we do not have time to provide you with new technology. The one your division received is in a conserved state. You have at your disposal a space mini-platform, with two UPPV-28 invasion support landing pads attached to it, with two hundred light robots on each. In addition, each landing pad has two factories for their production and for the production of autonomous armored machines based on the K-202 tank.
Vasliy's story was interrupted by the entry of three officers into the room. Two were humans, and one was a Targon. I noticed a tattoo on the Targon's neck that read "Korik commandos." This was the last Targon division that held out the longest against the advance of the confederation forces in the "two-month" war. At that time, Targonda joined the confederation. The confederation forces, consisting of four elite divisions, took Targonda in two months. However, it is rumored that a hero on an old Cobra MK-4 took out their main bases and the main landing pad, but I personally have little faith in these tales. Then there were several uprisings that were brutally suppressed. The last one was crushed by the Targon battalion of the confederation. At the moment, for the Targons, the concepts of "DES confederation" and "Targonda" are synonymous. The consciousness that they are citizens of the most powerful state union completely dispels thoughts of independence.
Among the people who entered, I recognized one. It was the brigade lieutenant whom I docked during the last duty. The second was a girl in the uniform of a junior lieutenant of the confederation medical troops. I wonder what she is doing this evening?
- And this is your team. - Vasliy said, - Second command officer Raifus Linz. His task is to eliminate the space fleet subordinate to the enraged computer and provide air support.
We shook hands.
- Your doctor and cybernetic technician is Liza Silems. Programmer, cybernetic technician - Un Tsor. They have been briefed on their main tasks. You have two hours to prepare. Goodbye. - With these words, Vasliy left the room.
Two hours later, we gathered at the military base spaceport, threw our belongings into the familiar heavy fighter, and Raifus led it to the platform.
. . .
The space mini-platform was located not far from the planet. Everything that followed happened very quickly. The platform was given a course, and we immediately made a hyper-transition. During the two hours of hyper-transition, I managed to study all the available information about the enemy: the task ahead was not an easy one.
The defense from space was weak, so Raifus quickly did his job: The computer's space fleet was destroyed, now only my work remained.
to be continued...
ACTUALLY, THE PROCESS OF "CLEANING" THE PLANETS OF THE TECHNIQUES SUBORDINATE TO THE ENRAGED COMPUTER AND THE COMPUTER ITSELF CONSTITUTES THE PLOT OF THE PROGRAM "Return to home " part 4.
"Road into hell"
Now, on to the main thing...
Brief description of the game:
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1. A computer with 128MB of RAM or more and a disk drive is required for operation.
2. The program size is 512KB (2000 sectors). There is an introductory cartoon!
3. The game is an arcade first-person shooter (i.e., similar to DOOM, but in nature :-) ) with elements of strategy. (When creating the game, it was planned to be arcade-strategic, but the arcade level practically "overshadowed" the strategy :-( ). The image is 6-plane, with perspective! It contains 3 levels, with different graphics settings: forest, jungle, taiga.
The main idea, the goal of the game:
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You need to destroy enemy bases with robots or factories for their production on 3 planets. You have a universal invasion landing pad, 200 robots, and 10 tanks at your disposal. In addition, there are factories for assembling robots from spare parts.
What the strategy consists of: to destroy the enemy base, you need to use the support of YOUR robots. In doing so, you will have to regulate production, modes of operation, and monitor their armament for the most effective use.
AFTER DESTROYING THE ENEMY BASE, IT IS NECESSARY TO COLLECT THE REMAINS - FOR THE SUBSEQUENT ASSEMBLY OF ROBOTS FROM THEM.
Remember, without support, it is unlikely that you will be able to destroy the enemy base.
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Contents of the publication: Adventurer #06
- Presentation
This is an introduction novel for the game Return to Home 4, featuring space battles and a narrative about pilot Raifus navigating challenges in a military context.
- Presentation
The article presents K.KAV software's new game 'DEATH WORLDS: TORISTAG INVADERS RETURN TO HOME 5', a real-time strategy continuation of 'RTHЧ'. Players will battle against competitors on resource-rich planets while managing technology and military forces. The game's projected release is between late spring and summer of 1997.
- System Software Updates for ZX Spectrum - Котов А.В.
The article reviews various software updates and utilities for ZX Spectrum, highlighting their features, usability, and performance. It provides insight into programming tools, disk management, and database applications. The tone blends critique and personal experience to inform readers about the latest developments in Spectrum software.
- Overview of ZX Spectrum Software
The article provides a comprehensive overview of new software for ZX Spectrum, highlighting various games, their features, and recommendations for players.
- Interface
Discussion of the ZX Spectrum's interface issues and user frustrations with compatibility and modern enhancements. The author critiques the push for users to modify their machines for non-standard features and expresses dissatisfaction with current trends. Reflection on the future of the ZX Spectrum and the need for a more vibrant community involvement.
- Interface
The article discusses feedback from readers regarding games and programming tools for ZX Spectrum. It includes cheat codes for a game, opinions on assemblers, and insights into user preferences for computing. Various reader inquiries about games and software are also addressed.
- Interface
The article discusses issues surrounding the OVER FILE GROUP, a game developer known for mail-order sales, and the impact on user trust in software distribution. It also raises the question of whether to transition the magazine to 128K ONLY, seeking reader feedback. The piece reflects on the importance of user support for maintaining a trusted gaming community.
- Interface
The article discusses recent news in the ZX Spectrum community, including game development updates, personal news about developers, and local happenings in the Rybinsk and Yaroslavl areas.
- Presentation
The article presents new software releases by SURDAKAR GROUP, including a demo of ROAD FIGHTER and updates on FONT EDITOR and RAY DISK MONITOR.
- Promotion of Adventure Games
The article provides a detailed analysis of the adventure games 'APOLLO' and 'ЧУЖОЙ', evaluating their gameplay, challenges, and shortcomings in design.
- Ottyag
Discussion of computer slang and its impact on modern language, highlighting humorous interactions among users.
- Оттяг
The article presents a humorous collection of absurd lists, including reasons for dinosaur extinction, alternative names for Robinson Crusoe's Friday, and more.
- Ottyag
The article presents a test for aspiring demo makers, assessing their skills and commitment to demo creation on the ZX Spectrum. It evaluates their approaches to music, graphics, effects, and their overall engagement with the demo scene. Results determine their standing from novice to expert in the demoscene community.
- What Not to Say or Do When Drunk
The article provides humorous advice on what to avoid saying or doing when drunk, based on personal anecdotes. It emphasizes the consequences of poor decisions and offers cautionary tips. The content is lighthearted and reflects on typical drunken behaviors and their repercussions.
- Friendship Quiz
The article presents a humorous quiz about friendship, evaluating how friends would react in various social scenarios, culminating in a scoring system to assess the depth of one’s friendships.
- Ottag
Статья представляет собой сборник китайских пословиц с юмористическим подтекстом, отражающих различные аспекты жизни и отношений. Она сочетает в себе элементы сатиры и легкого фольклора, используя ироничные наблюдения о человеческом поведении. Текст включает в себя аллюзии на сексуальность, настольные игры и религиозные вопросы.
- Оттяг
Статья представляет собой пародийное евангелие, где события жизни Иисуса Христа изображаются в неформальном и юмористическом ключе.
- Experience Sharing
The article provides a detailed guide on creating a complete disk version of a program for ZX Spectrum, including code examples and practical advice.
- Experience Exchange
The article provides a comparative analysis of the PC and Amiga platforms, highlighting their respective advantages and disadvantages based on personal experience.
- Experience Exchange
The article discusses the existence and behavior of computer viruses on the ZX Spectrum, particularly the BASIC file infecting virus known as 'Drunken Djinn', first seen in the game Last Battle.
- Code Protection Methods
The article discusses various methods of software code protection, detailing techniques like inversion masking, obfuscation, P-code, cryptographic algorithms, and the use of ISR. Each method is evaluated for effectiveness and application, particularly within the ZX Spectrum environment. The author invites further information and collaboration on information security methods.
- Anniversary
The article celebrates the sixth issue of 'ADVENTURER,' marking one year since the founding of the AURYN group. It reflects on the past year for the Speccy community, including the emergence of new programs and the first demomakers' gathering in the CIS. The author expresses hope for the future of Speccy and encourages readers to support and promote the platform.
- Anniversary
Article celebrates the 15th anniversary of the Spectrum, reflecting on its enduring legacy and recent developments in hardware and software.
- Novella
The article narrates a novella centered on a covert mission involving a programmer named Gerald O'Brien, who is hired by a drug lord called Swede to infiltrate a rival's computer network, leading to a thrilling sequence of espionage and violence.
- Contest
The article discusses a contest related to ZX Spectrum, showcasing submissions and participants' creativity.
- Advertisement
The article is an advertisement section in Adventurer #06, inviting hackers, programmers, artists, and musicians to contribute to the ZX Spectrum community. It outlines collaboration opportunities, offers specific requirements for software submissions, and includes contact information for advertising and game distribution. Additionally, it promotes a range of ZX Spectrum software and services available across various cities.
