The Gift Of Mercy
!MESSAGE BEGINS
We made a mistake. That is the simple, undeniable truth of the matter, however painful it might be. The flaw was not in our Observatories, for those machines were as perfect as we could make, and they showed us only the unfiltered light of truth. The flaw was not in the Predictor, for it is a device of pure, infallible logic, turning raw data into meaningful information without the taint of emotion or bias. No, the flaw was within us, the Orchestrators of this disaster, the sentients who thought themselves beyond such failings. We are responsible.
It began a short while ago, as these things are measured, less than 6^6 Deeli ago, though I suspect our systems of measure will mean very little by the time anyone receives this transmission. We detected faint radio signals from a blossoming intelligence 2^14 Deelis outward from the Galactic Core, as photons travel. At first crude and unstructured, these leaking broadcasts quickly grew in complexity and strength, as did the messages they carried. Through our Observatories we watched a world of strife and violence, populated by a barbaric race of short-lived, fast breeding vermin. They were brutal and uncultured things which stabbed and shot and burned each other with no regard for life or purpose. Even their concepts of Art spoke of conflict and pain. They divided themselves according to some bizarre cultural patterns and set their every industry to cause of death.
They terrified us, but we were older and wiser and so very far away, so we did not fret. Then we watched them split the atom and breach the heavens within the breadth of one of their single, short generations, and we began to worry. When they began actively transmitting messages and greetings into space, we felt fear and horror. Their transmissions promised peace and camaraderie to any who were listening, but we had watched them for too long to buy into such transparent deceptions. They knew we were out here, and they were coming for us.
The Orchestrators consulted the Predictor, and the output was dire. They would multiply and grow and flood out of their home system like some uncountable tide of Devourer worms, consuming all that lay in their path. It might take 6^8 Deelis, but they would destroy us if left unchecked. With aching carapaces we decided to act, and sealed our fate.
The Gift of Mercy was 8^4 strides long with a mouth 2/4 that in diameter, filled with many 4^4 weights of machinery, fuel, and ballast. It would push itself up to 2/8th of light speed with its onboard fuel, and then begin to consume interstellar Primary Element 2/2 to feed its unlimited acceleration. It would be traveling at nearly light speed when it hit. They would never see it coming. Its launch was a day of mourning, celebration, and reflection. The horror of the act we had committed weighted heavily upon us all; the necessity of our crime did little to comfort us.
The Gift had barely cleared the outer cometary halo when the mistake was realized, but it was too late. The Gift could not be caught, could not be recalled or diverted from its path. The architects and work crews, horrified at the awful power of the thing upon which they labored, had quietly self-terminated in droves, walking unshielded into radiation zones, neglecting proper null pressure safety or simple ceasing their nutrient consumption until their metabolic functions stopped. The appalling cost in lives had forced the Orchestrators to streamline the Gift’s design and construction. There had been no time for the design or implementation of anything beyond the simple, massive engines and the stabilizing systems. We could only watch in shame and horror as the light of genocide faded into infrared against the distant void.
They grew, and they changed, in a handful of lifetimes they abolished war, abandoned their violent tendencies and turned themselves to the grand purposes of life and Art. We watched them remake first themselves, and then their world. Their frail, soft bodies gave way to gleaming metals and plastics, they unified their people through an omnipresent communications grid and produced Art of such power and emotion, the likes of which the Galaxy has never seen before. Or again, because of us.
They converted their home world into a paradise (by their standards) and many 10^6s of them poured out into the surrounding system with a rapidity and vigor that we could only envy. With bodies built to survive every environment from the day lit surface of their innermost world, to the atmosphere of their largest gas giant and the cold void in-between, they set out to sculpt their system into something beautiful. At first we thought them simple miners, stripping the rocky planets and moons for vital resources, but then we began to see the purpose to their constructions, the artworks carved into every surface, and traced across the system in glittering lights and dancing fusion trails. And still, our terrible Gift approached.
They had less than 2^2 Deeli to see it, following so closely on the tail of its own light. In that time, oh so brief even by their fleeting lives, more than 10^10 sentients prepared for death. Lovers exchanged last words, separated by worlds and the tyranny of light speed. Their planetside engineers worked frantically to build sufficient transmission infrastructure to upload the countless masses with the necessary neural modifications, while those above dumped lifetimes of music and literature from their databanks to make room for passengers. Those lacking the required hardware or the time to acquire it consigned themselves to death, lashed out in fear and pain, or simply went about their lives as best they could under the circumstances.
The Gift arrived suddenly, the light of its impact visible in our skies, shining bright and cruel even to the unaugmented ocular receptor. We watched and we wept for our victims, dead so many Deelis before the light of their doom had even reached us. Many 6^4s of those who had been directly or even tangentially involved in the creation of the Gift sealed their spiracles with paste as a final penance for the small roles they had played in this atrocity. The light dimmed, the dust cleared, and our Observatories refocused upon the place where their shining blue world had once hung in the void, and found only dust and the pale gleam of an orphaned moon, wrapped in a thin, burning wisp of atmosphere that had once belonged to its parent.
Radiation and relativistic shrapnel had wiped out much of the inner system, and continent sized chunks of molten rock carried screaming ghosts outward at interstellar escape velocities, damned to wander the great void for an eternity. The damage was apocalyptic, but not complete, from the shadows of the outer worlds, tiny points of light emerged, thousands of fusion trails of single ships and world ships and everything in between, many 10^6s of survivors in flesh and steel and memory banks, ready to rebuild. For a few moments we felt relief, even joy, and we were filled with the hope that their culture and Art would survive the terrible blow we had dealt them. Then came the message, tightly focused at our star, transmitted simultaneously by hundreds of their ships.
“We know you are out there, and we are coming for you.”
!MESSAGE ENDS
I read this on /x/, and it was damn amazing.
Nothing’s changed since then, thank you for putting it on Creepypasta.
Simply amazing. Up there with Asimov and Clarke. Best non-published work I have ever read.
I liked it. But the concept of Deelis ruined it for me. It was a bit unsatisfying. Overall, it left me with the word ‘wow’ which could go many different ways.
That was damn good… damn good.
Ill admit it, I squeed at the end. I actually made the traditional fangirl sound.
This was phenominal.
Hey this was great. I really liked this one and it seemed very well thought out and kept me hooked until the very end. Nice.
this was great, not necessarily creepy, but great and well-written. It’s a fine piece of writing.
Hmmm… very rare it is that you see a Sci-Fi pasta, and yet here we are.
We seem to be getting a lot of good pasta lately (beginning with Dust, continuing with Faces in the Storm, and now this). Hopefully the trend continues.
Up until the end, I just thought of it as an average run-of-the-mill sci fi story. But DAYUM the ending was great! Totally made it perfect :]
Granted, it still doesn’t read very much like a creepypasta to me. Loved it anyways
I liked it, the irony of causing exactly what they were trying to avoid was delicious.
good. damn aliens. D:<
Hewlyie Shit that was awesome o:
Wow….I’m guessing that the things that the narrator was talking about were future humans? But anyway, that WAS very very good.
fucking loved it.
is it just me, or does this seem like the halo games? The gift of mercy sounds like the forerunner juggernaut, the people were living peacefully, then they were destroyed so the came back and killed all of the covenant, with the aliens sounding a fair bit like the covenant themselves.
Minds blown, bricks shat.
That was a sad story… The weird measurements were distracting, but otherwise it was great. Not creepy, but an amazing story. I look forward to more like this.
Though I wouldn’t go so far as to compare it to Asimov.
THEN WHO WAS ALIENS?
Such an advanced race can’t reduce fractions? >.>
Great work, though. One of the best stories I’ve ever read.
At first, I was prepared to be hit with an epic amount of terrible from this story, but as it progressed, I found myself liking it more and more. By the time it reached the third-to-last paragraph, I was loving it. Very well written, and very intriguing.
Although, I am in agreement with “Comment Leaver” about the ‘Deelis’ measurement. It was rather hard to keep up with trying to even remotely understand that, which soft of caused random hiccups in the story. If perhaps a simpler extraterrestrial measurement had been used then it would have been simpler to read through.
Still a good one though. A very good one.
The poor bug people, they didn’t know
I’m assuming I can call them that, because they mention both carapaces and spiracles.
Shades of Heinlein, but still very original.
THEN WHO WAS DEELI?
Fantastic. A great read. The only bumps in the road was the gratuitous weird numbering system. We get it – they are alien. They do things differently.
Wow at first I thought it was just going to have a crappy end like “the planet we fired on was called Earth”, but no, it actually became something original, not just some generic piece of crap. I would love to see more like this.
I rather enjoyed this.
They should make a book outta this.
Not very creepy…
But so moving. Reminded me of a book from the Strugazki-brothers. (Y’know? The guys who wrote “Roadside Picknick? The book S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is based on?)
Awesome, apocalyptic and hopeless. Great job! I want more from OP.
Don’t fucking make up words. Jesus Christ. If the message is translated into English, then it should be delivered completely in English. And the number system you were using does exist in our mathematics. You were just using it incorrectly. You are not Lewis Caroll, and even his writing sucked because of his stupid, fictional words.
Besides that, though, this is creepypasta. Not dramatic-sci-fi-pasta. This wasn’t creepy at all.
It was very well-written, but the reasoning of the alien creators for destroying the human race was horrible – war is a big deal in human history, but so is peace. I’m not just talking about modern times, either. Often enough, we don’t just go to war for pointless reasons – we want something that we “need.”
And so, more and more have we been understanding that peace and diplomacy is the better way to maintain one’s own resources while still gaining another’s. So, I think the alien’s were just a bit too hasty, even for their concept of time, in deciding to obliterate the human race.
And, also? The whole idea of them not placing a self-destruct function within their weapon is just down-right careless.
Over all, though, it was a good story that could just use some more development to create an air of truly higher intelligence on the aliens’ part.
I couldn’t get into it.
I’m not a fan of sci-fi, and things like “2^14 Deelis” or whatever, it just turns me off to a story.
Sorry, it was a miss on me.
FUCK YEAH HUMANITY
BLOW UP OUR PLANET, AND WE’LL COME KICK YOUR ASSES
A particularly tasty pasta. Commendably done. The Deelis were a bit distracting, but eventually I just started ignoring it and mentally converted it into lightyears or something. Aside from that, it was very nice. =D
Wow. That was bloody brilliant. Not very creepy- but brilliant all the same.
I honestly don’t get how everyone thought that was so good. I mean, it’s decent, but it’s just boring, tries too hard and has a pretty predictable ending…
Wow, damn that was good!
Absolutely amazing. I don’t understand how Snowdens shat his pants over this. Really, so OP may have used some measuring unit you didn’t understand, get over it and appreciate it for what it is. Absolutely amazing.
Deelis, and peaceful perfectly good aliens (I always find the idea of wonderful and perfect aliens species that have never done anything wrong to be very unconvincing, and irritating) made it a little unconvincing, but it was still pretty awesome.
Quite a god streak we have going, seriously
this one was very brilliant and just immersive, well done
This is the only pasta Ive read twice on purpose. I love it.
*GLEE*
This is my new favorite pasta.
The alien measurements used didn’t bother me the least, they only added to the realistic feel of the story. And the last line did what every last line in every pasta should do – wrap up the story and send chills up the reader’s spine.
Sweet! Loved it. It wasn’t… like the rest on here…. I mean, it didn’t make any chills go down my spine. But it’s well written and I like the irony. Let’s keep up the good pastas!
I love this. It’s awesome. Admittedly, the Deelies and “x to the power of y” was kind of annoying, but otherwise I loved it.
Yew know, if yew’d talked wif Gai Kao, yew cuddav saved loads on that ‘Goiant Alien Spayce-Bomb’ insurance…
The premise is similar to “The Killing Star”, by Pellegrino and Zebrowski. Nice reads, both.
not a creepypasta in the traditional sense, but left me very impressed.
Good stuff
ok, that’s not bad.
time for a scifipasta section?
I hope the humans fucked them up good. great story. and nothing wrong with the measuring system, if you used meters or feet the ppl who are having a problem with it now would be like omg aliens know how to measure in meters?
Meh, it was alright. It would suck if that actually happened.
Snowdens, “deelis” may be some form of distance not translatable to human standard due to lack of information. It’s like converting from centimeters to inches or vice versa except you are missing the 2.54 part of the equation.
i for one can’t fucking wait until my body is half metal and half plastic.
unless it’s that cheap chinese plastic.
OH MY GAWD THEY’RE COMING
This was a great story. I really liked it
I think the creepiness is meant to come from the idea that we’re being watched and whilst we carelessly go about our actions we’re being judged, and not in a good way.
It’s the kind of creepiness you need to think about to get I guess.
I was also lost by the deelis though. i ended up just glossing over them as the rest of the story made it clear roughly when things were happening and how fast.
Absolutely brilliant story though, well done
Asimov-like..not shit brix but just awesome!
Loved it, wasn’t creepy, but good.
DISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS
Definately a welcome change of pace after reading the the one about the abandoned warehouse/restaurant. Damn good show!
The “deeli” thing and the scientific-ish notation was…odd considering what was being conveyed, I kinda understood those parts, but I quite liked it overall.
Not the creepiest thing, but it was very well written and I quite liked the concept behind it.
The “deeli” thing and the scientific-ish notation was…odd considering what was being conveyed, I kinda understood those parts, but I quite liked it overall.
Not the creepiest thing, but it was very well written and I quite liked the concept behind it.
This is why I read creepypastas ;-;
That was not creepy at all. Not one bit. And the constant x^y talk was very confusing at first.
However, this has got to be one of the most amazing stories I have ever read, in my entire life.
“Yeah, you destroyed our homeworld. That’s fine, but we know you did it, and we can pinpoint the origin. In your final days, you will wish you had built a bigger bomb, because now, mother fucker we’re going to show you human revenge on a scale that will put the nightmares in your final days to shame.”
Great job on this story, despite the lack of creepy.
The idea of another type of measurement was good, but am I the only one who noticed that Deelis seem to be a measure of both distance AND time? That kinda bugged me. Otherwise, good pasta.
Great story…
I hated the exponential notation that went along with Deelis. However, Greek fatalism meets scifi. I love it!
Now I want a sequel about the humans genociding their foresight-less asses. <_<
Wondorous very good pasta
Apple Juice, in our system, light years is both a measure of distance and time. Not that odd that some other species would have a similar item.
Wow, that was really good. one of the best non-published Sci-Fi Horror (if you consider it such) stories I’ve ever read.
THEN WHO WAS PLANET?!
Twitch, you are incredibly unamusing
Good pastaaaaa!
This was great!
Especially the last “OK, NOW you’re fucked!” line.
Ok, I really HAVE to ask : WHO WROTE THIS MASTERPIECE? I really need to know, cause I think this oughta be published…
I’m Planning on making a short story collection, and whoever wrote this, i’d like your permission to publish this…
nice turn around
I’m kind of confused.
Science fiction confuses me…
Anyways, just to check.
Basically, future humans sent something to a distant planet that killed part of the human population.
And then it came back, threatening to kill them or something?
Shan – Aliens on a distant star send humanity a huge, unstoppable bomb because they feared that humans would spread their primitive violence among the stars. Unfortunately, the bomb has no recall feature or self-destruct mechanism. After witnessing humanity change and become a peaceful, art-loving species, the aliens heavily regret ever preempting on us. Earth gets destroyed, humans get pissed and let the aliens know that they’re coming for them. The aliens essentially cause what they were trying to avoid.
This story was sorta sad. Humans were becoming friendly, and the aliens just ruined that inadvertently. What are they going to say once the humans find them? “We sent that bomb before you became friendly”? Not quite creepy, but it’s a great sci-fi story.
Wow. That’s all I can say, and I don’t mean that in a good way. This was one of the most complicated stories I have ever read on this site, and it wasn’t a good one.
I just read this for the millionth time and it still took my breath away, even with the Deeli thing. I still shiver at that last line.
LOVE just L-O-V-E
Truly spectacular pasta
Ender’s Game much? Still wonderful, I loved it and have bookmarked it.
I am familiar with the situation these creatures face.
Extrapolations of potential or alternative scenarios are most useful for interpretation of data.
Thank you for the reminder.
Two of Seven Gates are Open.
Not quite sure why this one is categorized under murder and death instead of creatures and beings but this is truly spectacular nonetheless
The only thing I can say is that while you were very careful to use exponents, at the very end you slipped back into hundreds and thousands instead. Otherwise, very good.
I thought the “2^4 deelis” alien measurements speak was appropriate. Guys, this is an ALIEN language, not everything is going to translate perfectly. Ever heard of Engrish? And that’s just trying to translate one human language to another!
Hello,
I’d like to get in touch with the writer of this story for a business proposition. Please email me at hamilton.cleverdon@gmail.com. Thanks!
Scary… what do all these numbers mean?
I barely got through the third paragraph without getting paranoid.
…6^6… 2^4… Predictors and Castrators…logic…
Death is at my door…or is that my math teacher? The Horror!!
for a second i was afraid the author assumed we had not figured out it was earth and that would be the twist ending, thank god i was wrong
very good, i always love the self-fulfilling prophesy thing
we should have regifted it, imo.
That was really good… one of the best I’ve seen. But seriously, they should be able to reduce fractions.
Uh oh. Don’t piss off the humans.
That……was…EPIC!!!!!!
I’d like to come in contact with the writer of this piece. I would very much enjoy translating the story into an animated film. If anyone knows the writer, if YOU”RE the writer, please contact me at mrs_devil_theory@hotmail.com
the brilliance here is astounding, but the weird numbering system almost killed it for me. if you’re going to go to the trouble of translating an alien language which may have absolutely no linguistic parallels whatsoever with ours, but you won’t bother to convert their math, which is the one language that is a universal constant? lrn2 everything, and stop thinking that leaving integral parts of a story unexplained or in this case, entirely absent, adds suspense. done properly, it may, but this case just causes headaches, so stop. however, the story is otherwise pure brilliance in it’s concentated form, almost excessively imaginative, and even somewhat philosophical. 9/10 for sheer awesomeness, but you lose one point for that one clarity issue. the author obviously has potential leaking out his every orifice, and i suggest he place this in a portfolio, think up something just as brilliant, but with more length potential, and write a full size book. i know for sure that i would read it.
After finishing this pasta, i was left with goosebumps for like 5 seconds. This one is so so so very beautiful (bias from humanity-type pasta much? But i don’t care).
It was very nicely written. The ending was like -BAM-. It was all there.
The numbering system (like some commenters are talking about) just added to the story if they regarded it as simply an alien numeric system. No need to convert to human system. Why would the aliens do that anyway? The point is in their mistake, not in the clarity of distance.
Also, i have to come back to the ending.
It captured a very strong side of humanity: revenge.
Chilling & beautiful. Props to you for writing this.
@anonymoose, “..the author obviously has potential leaking out his every orifice…” lol
I almost cried when I realized what was going on near the end. When they saw their culture evolve into all these amazing and artistic things and not being able to realize in time to stop the genocide, I got all teary eyed and almost cried.
DON’T MESS WITH EARTH!
Rofl, aliens made a big mistake XD humans can hold a HUGE grudge…. bloddeh extraterestrials…. (or however you spell it)
that was amazing
DUN DUN DUUUUNNN!!!
loved the way that the aliens not only wiped out the humans (most of them) but also kind of reset their behavior to the COMING FOR YOU etc.
like that saying; world war 1 was fought with guns, world war 2 was fought with tanks, but world war 3 will be fought with sticks and stones.
all i can say is WOW. 10/10.
Very difficult for me to get on board, had to read it 4 times to comprehend it.Didn’t like the weird numbers, but I absolutely loved the rest. Earth gon kick some ass.
<3
I loved it. The only part I didn’t like was the Deelis, because if something else was used (or is, if this is rewritten) there could be another entire story told. For example, if the alien species was one that lived in the Andromeda galaxy, you could give an entirely new perspective on how they watched humanity grow.
fuck yeah humanity
those aliens are DICKS i hope we rape their asses good
Humanity!
FUCK YEAH!
On the way to pwn some mother-fucking aliens!
Humanity!
FUCK YEAH!
Why’d you destroy all our planets?
Aliens, your lives are through,
‘Cos now you have to answer to:
Humanity!
FUCK YEAH!
On the way to get some mother-fucking vengence!
I highly approve of this pasta. Distracting measurements, but otherwise quite excellent.
It took me 4^7 Deelis to read through this story, and I had to block my spiracles with paste after having done so. Load of trash, doesn’t deserve to be on this website.
Wow. That was great.
Eat shit, YYV.
Is a “Deeli” a measurement of time, or space? I mean, these aliens are worse than Han Solo! “I MADE DA KESSEL RUN IN LESS DEN 12 PARSECZ HURR DURR”
sucks.
great, Great, GREAT story.
Certainly amongst the best unpublished work I\’ve ever read – would love to read more from this author!
A sidenote re:Deelis, which seem to confuse a lot of people:
There\’s no problem with it being used to measure both time and distance, if a standardized speed is employed – which is the case (\"as photons travel\", i.e. the speed of light).
I\’m quite suprised to see that no one has done so before (or at least no one posted that?), so just out of curiosity, I did some quick calculations: Since the author was nice enough to provide a point to start (distance between the destroyed planet and galactic core) and assuming that the story deals in fact with earth, which wikipedia has at ~27.000 lightyears from our galactic core, 1 Deeli should work out to be ~ 1,648 lightyears (or, strictly speaking: just years).
working with this rough estimate, I get:
\"It began a short while ago, as these things are measured, less than 6^6 Deeli ago\" -> 76.887 years
\"It might take 6^8 Deelis, but they would destroy us if left unchecked\" -> 2.767.922 years
\"They had less than 2^2 Deeli to see\" -> 6,6 years
Just to get a feeling for the timescales
Hahaha, those Deelis or whatever they’re called are screwed now. I kinda feel bad for them. They send our doom, we change, they like the new us, we go boom, they’re sad, then we say that we’re coming for them. It’s awesome!
I really didn’t understand the time stuff, but I failed math, so no big deal.
RogerG: That kind of killed the story a bit =/
Icalasari: I somewhat agree & that’s why I thought for a while about whether to post it, or not.
In the end, I think the author *must* have put the info to convert deelis into years into the story absolutely deliberately & even made it very easy, so I considered it fair game. Anyone reading my comment must have already read the story and felt it’s impact, so while my comment might take away some of the mystery, I think it gives a glimpse as to how much thought the author put into the story (e.g. the large timescales at which advanced civilizations plan, the enormity of the evacuation attempts of humanity having little more time than a blink of an eye, etc).
In the end, for me the story did gain, not lose…
RogerG: you have some great timing. I was just going to post something very similar with the calculations.
damn amazing. with one foul blow they reversed centuries of evolution and enlightenment. hope they get fucked over. bastards.
The only thing I have to say. Piss us off and see what we build hahahahaha.
om nom nom. good pasta.
mess with us and we’ll fly out and kick your asses.
thats right you alien bastards! be afraid!
Was posted in a deep space thread on /v/ yesterday. Tried to find it to show my roommate and after googling forever, this was the only place that had it. Can’t believe its not published.