[Obdigore]

Spoiler

So it was taking the minds of the ships it was taking over and not just destroying them or whatever, which is what I assumed it was doing.

PS, I love

Spoiler

when he describes the 1 warship attacking the older fleet of warships, and scanning them all and trying to find the leader and whatnot, then letting them go after destroying a couple, scanning everything to see what is going on and what is wrong with him (if anything), then it mentions the entire thing took 8 miliseconds.

[Illuyankas]

Spoiler

The Sleeper Service's idea about it mirroring what the observers were doing was correct - the Elench or whatever were going around assimilating and being assimilated, so it assimilated them. The Culture stood back and watched, so it did the same. The SS approached it at Warp Factor Fuck You, and it reciprocated.

And yeah, that bit rocked.

[Obdigore]

Ahh I see. I caught that ... that is what the excession was doing, but I didn't put it together with the ships that approached.

Warp Factor Fuck You is one of my favorite phrases ever now.

Thank you for the help Illy, and I will try to remember later: You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Illuyankas again

[caladanbrood]

I agree with that last bit about the timing. It's awesome how he slips in little details like that

[Yellow]

Aye, and the bit near the beginning where...

Spoiler

...the drone wakes up in the middle of space, does its diagnostics, and is freaked out by the fact that it was unconscious for nearly a second.

I love Excession. One of my favourite books.