[Report This]Date: August 05 2022 2:24 AM Title: Amber – a different training.
I see the last update was 9 years ago.
It's a shame this great story will never be finished.
I just hope the author makes a comeback someday.
Date: November 30 2014 1:20 PM Title: Intro - how it all came about.
Just read the whole story in a week 10/10, it's well writted, I like the way you turn the story, it's not like others where they beat around the bush about the description part, ecetera. Here, all the characters are "alive" if I put it that way, even the "micros".
But it seems you abandon the story since the last update was last year, it's sad :(
Date: April 02 2014 10:15 AM Title: Intro - how it all came about.
I just wanted to stay I have been enjoying your story and I hope you continue this series soon.
I really like the perspectives offered by both the 'caretakers' and the 'micros'. I feel it draws the reader into understanding the world a whole lot better. This also makes the story a very enjoyable read.
I don't know where this story will head towards, but I hope there is a lot more coming and soon. I'm hoping for more direct interaction between the 'caretakers' and the 'micros', too.
Author's Response: Thanks for the warm words, it means a lot.
As for the continuation - definitely, and preferably sooner than later.. but hard to say when exactly. I guess I am having problems with writing.. and other things, including the meaning life in general as well. In any case - don't worry, I will surely finish it. In time.
And when it comes to the 'direct' interaction.. well, it is virtually impossible to have anything even resembling that, due to the sheer size difference.
Except the caretakers killing the micros, of course. And, yes, I refer to that one micro in particular.
Date: November 18 2013 1:16 PM Title: Amber – a different training.
Amber is such a pathetic little person. All she really cares about in the end is having “fun” with her micros. All her plans depend on her micro’s develop to a point where she can use some of them to snort up her nose, or pleasure herself, or whatever else she’s thinking about in that simple mind of hers. And I can’t even blame her since she was raised to think that way, which makes it even sadder.
I think being immigrated was the best thing that could have happened to Rachel. She may not be living in a paradise but it has to be better than living with crazy women trying to play goddess at the end of the world.
Author's Response: Basically.
I mean.. life is not just black and white, so any complex enough fiction should reflex that to some extent. Of course it is only natural for us humans to try and simplify what we perceive, categorize it and associate with stereotypes - so we can deal with it, comprehend it. Not to get too metaphysical, lets just hope for things to get better in uTopia. Will it? We will have to see for ourselves...
As for the immigration, I wouldn't go as far as the best thing. While it certainly enabled her to experience a different.. perspective on things, if You will, and maybe become somewhat isolated from others, it also introduced a multitude of problems and dangers. So again, agreed but we should not oversimplify.
[Report This]Date: November 18 2013 8:50 AM Title: Intro - how it all came about.
Glad to see you back Gerald! This story has been a long-time favorite of mine, and its awesome to see this back.
Author's Response: Thanks and I just really needed a break - sorry it turned out to be a bit longer than I have originally anticipated. But now it is time to finish it and I would love to manage it without further delays.
[Report This]Date: November 17 2013 1:08 PM Title: Intro - how it all came about.
Really awesome to see this story back! I was worried, haha.
Very interesting insight into Crawford and the gang. He is basically working from the perspective of "nation-state morality": trust no one, have a plan for every contingency, use every resource available. Makes sense since he is ultimately responsible for the lives of everyone in the zone. Meanwhile Kate is perceiving all this interaction as genuine at a personal level...
It makes total sense for this to happen when one person gets such power. Really curious to see where this goes.
Author's Response: Thanks and as I keep mentioning, You shouldn't be :)
As for "Crawford and the gang": basically, yes - but You have to remember it is so much bigger than just them. I mean, each chamber is enormous and Kate's has so many people in it... Gary mentioned a couple details in both chapters told from his perspective, but he knows only a fraction of what was be going on - and even then recalls only bits and pieces of it.
And I hope it will only get more interesting from here - I mean, so far it was mostly preparing the stage and explaining the motives of all involved parties. When You think about it, hardly anything happened - she hasn't even killed Gary yet...
Date: November 17 2013 7:20 AM Title: Interlude – behind the scenes.
Uh, wow... I thought this story had joined the pile of great giantess stories that was never finished. Glad to see this continuing.
Author's Response: Oh, come on.. I did promise I would see it through, now didn't I? And I am glad to see somebody is still reading it!
[Report This]Date: August 15 2013 12:31 AM Title: Intro - how it all came about.
This is the most brilliant story I have ever read.
The setting is phenomenal.
Almost all conceptual masterpieces have weak plots and characters, but uTopia is a stellar exception with both an intriguing plot and interesting characters which we watch develop.
I find myself wishing I could see more backstory, dwell on the perspective differences between the micros and the Caretakers, and watch the plot develop. In short, I wish there was more of everything. My favorite is definitely the backtsory (in particular, Chapter 1 or Rachel's recollections of 'The Failure').
Thank you very much for posting this, and for continuing to produce such amazing work.
Please continue working on this masterpiece. The pace the plot is developing is perfect - this is one of the most fascinating worlds I have ever seen imagined, and I the more time we explore it the better.
BRAVO!!!
Author's Response: Huge thanks for the appreciation and that's just what I have been trying to accomplish. I delights me to see how You liked all ingredients of the story. I can only hope that the continuation will also appeal to Your taste and manage not to disappoint (although I must admit such review sets the bar pretty high).
Sadly, I had a number of "distractions" in the last couple months, but I have no plans to abandon this story - in fact, the next couple chapters are almost finished.. almost...
[Report This]Date: July 09 2013 10:30 PM Title: Kate – big yet powerless.
Yeah man, I can imagine how much of a bitch it must be to try to have someone THAT big have any sort of interaction without killing anybody. Im having enough trouble myself, and my tinies are much bigger! I feel like this forces the story to boil into a myriad of conversations, but you actually handled this chapter pretty well...I think that now that Ratchel is tiny you have a main character for the tiny-side of things, and its really helping this story along. I also love that you're trying to get normal people into this in some way, and I loved the part with the cute little six year old...I understand Kates pain, especially after seeing that cute little girl, in thinking about all the people she killed and how many cute little six year olds's lives she must have ended in her ignorance.
Things are getting a bit more interesting, but I also feel like a great portion of this chapter was spent on people chattering about things the audience doesn't understand. If you wanted to show us how frustrated Kate must feel during the conversations where things go over her head, well good job. But Im not gonna lie, i find myself unintentionally skimming over that, then having to go back and re-read it thinking that it must be important somewhere later on in the story. I feel like these concepts should be more simplified or they should be explained AS they are need by the plot and not just sprinkled in the conversations: that ends up confusing people, namely me...
Author's Response:
Well, the next chapter is an interlude and we'll see some of Gary's thoughts - among other things. I wouldn't call Rachel the "main" little person - not now and not even when Gary dies - she's just.. Rachel. Also, I think You underestimate the emotional significance of that little girl, it was mostly missed by Kate as well, but.. I mean... her father was trusting enough to actually bring his child so close to menacing giantess, who is is still dangerous to them - a simple unaware movement of her hand, such as stretching out, could have killed all those people. She hasn't even thought about that - but they surely must have. An even more important detail is how the girl "corrected" her daddy. Seriously... this particular picture of an honest and simple child ignoring the monstrous size difference is so sweet, that without the lemon of Kate's worries, I would puke...
There's plenty of things that haven't been fully explained - some of them will be soon, some others will be much later and the rest will hardly be mentioned at all. I wanted to show how the world is far more complex than we have heard so far - I mean.. the facility is the pinnacle of centuries of human engineering... Even though there's a lot of questions and uncertainty, the most important fact remains that Rachel was immigrated and they need to figure out what to next. But enough spoilers! It's bad enough that I mentioned that Gary will die a couple times already...
Anyway, it has a nice side-effect that it emphasizes Kate's simplicity - she calls it "ignorance", but we all know it's not that bad (or is it?).
As for the re-reading, I think (hope? I don't know...) that going through the story carefully once should be enough to understand the core topics - and there will be many clarifications later on. Frankly, some subtle details were left for anyone who decides to re-read it once it's complete and see what really happened in various moments. I don't know, just a random attempt to make the story somewhat deeper, perhaps... I know the desire to understand everything while reading, but the world doesn't work like that and why would one assume that a complex story should? :>
And thanks for Your thoughts!
[Report This]Date: July 09 2013 9:50 PM Title: Intro - how it all came about.
Yay, another Kate chapter! This one was very touching. I continue to be amazed at how well-crafted and unique your giga interactions are.
I totally understand that working with a such an extreme size ratio would be frustrating, but it also opens up some doors as well - I say this as someone who is normally not a fan of giga at all. You are very good at playing with this sort of overwhelming difference and communicating the magnitude of it, particularly in the recent Kate chapters and Nicole's little extermination.
Keep it up!
Author's Response:
Thanks!
Well, most of gigas out there are basically emotionless and primitively monstrous - that's why I figured to use this particular setting from my favourites.
And I sure will!
[Report This]Date: July 09 2013 4:25 PM Title: Kate – big yet powerless.
I understand the immense guilt Kate must feel because of what she has done in the past, even though it technically wasn’t her fault. The thing that annoys me, and it’s not really a complaint, is that you were so close with ending this chapter on a good note, instead of a bitter-sweet one with Kate breaking down in her room at the end. You may feel like you’re running out of ideas about how the gigas can interact with the micro humans, but Kate’s zone coming together to reassure her was great and using the monitor they set up to see the individual people was a nice touch, it made me smile.
Finally good to know what the 3/5ths rule meant and how it came to be. While Erica may be the mastermind behind the current way uTopia is ran, the way Rachel explained it made it seem like another party was involved with how the facility starting opening up to them once the 3/5ths rule was laid down. Maybe things will be made clear since Rachel can brainstorm with the former caretakers in Kate’s zone. It amused me that Erica wasn’t adept with technology before the shutdown happened. A century with nothing to do but read would make anyone smart. I wonder how Nicole is going to take being seen in a lesser light than Kate now.
Also I don’t mind long chapters, it’s usually worth the wait.
Author's Response:
The ending was mainly to emphasize that she is still basically just a teenager - who was put in this extremely difficult position... It was only what, two weeks earlier that she even discovered that millions of actual human lives (rather than just dots) depend on her - and the weight of what it really means hit her again. The guilt was the main driving factor in that particular situation, but there's much more going on in her head (like, she obviously wants to kill Gary). And when it comes to running out of ideas - this kind of interaction feels superficial, that's all I'm saying.
Yeah, a lot of things are yet to happen!
The way how You mention "usually worth the wait" suggests that this may somehow not necessarily be the case :>
Date: June 28 2013 3:49 PM Title: Amber – gift and aid.
I'm still reading this. Gadget pretty much explained how I was feeling regarding the last two chapters. Mainly just waiting the meat of the plot to resume.
Author's Response: Well, technically it never really started - Kate's discoveries and Rachel's plight are necessary building blocks in the foundation to facilitate and navigate the events to come - but so were many other things. And thanks for bearing with me - I hope You will not be disappointed in the end (I mean, when Kate turns evil and kills...).
Date: June 27 2013 8:55 PM Title: Amber – gift and aid.
I do love this story but I have some criticisms with the way its structured and the way its told, these things are my humble opinions though, so dont take them too seriously...
Firstly, Im hoping for some action in the next chapter. By action I dont mean like killing or a grand adventure I just mean things happening. I kind of understand what your going for, its like your seeing things from multiple points of view, but to me the only real time this story moves significantly forward is during a Kate or Interlude chapter.
The Nichole and Amber chapters are spent with them just trying to catch up to what the reader already knows from the other chapters. Im guessing that at some point their gonna figure things out and Nichole and Amber are going to be part of the driving force behind the plot, but at the moment not only are they not really interesting/likable characters (my opintion BTW), they merely spend the majority of their time re-iterating and analyzing what happened in a previous chapter in their own heads; their perspectives dont really drive the plot forward...
They, themselves DO drive the plot forward but most of the time it is during one of the Kate chapters when the reader isnt being given a full access pass to everything they are thinking. Basically they work better as 3rd person characters in my opinion. Maybe you want to show the perspective of someone completely oblivious to the caretaker system? Well both of them are oblivious, so you really dont need to have two chapters dedicated to showing this.
Overall thought, the story definitely one of the greats in my book, its just that I think it could be told better if it had less padding/filler halting the story's progression, there is really no reason why we the readers need to fully comprehend what is going on in their pretty little heads to this extent.
My two cents anyway, just some friendly critique.
Author's Response: I truly appreciate the feedback - I feared it might be even worse, up to the point that readers might complain about the sweeping boredom and even giving up on the story entirely (the latter may still be happening, since there wouldn't be any feedback from such disappointed people).
The original plan contained much more character diversity, they had three distinct plot lines - which were interconnected, but mostly independent from each other. After the script changes (before the ch9) it's basically a single story (with side-characters popping in and out) and I was even considering skipping the N&A chapters partly/entirely - but I felt they would feel too shallow if I did so. But keeping their perspectives leaves them in a peculiar position for several chapters - suspended in their own ignorance in contrast with Kate's revelations. If their stories were told earlier, they may have been more emotional or interesting - but there we go...
When it comes to Nicole and Amber "being part of the driving force behind the plot" - they already are, we will learn later how it would have happened differently if it wasn't for them (although it wasn't their conscious intent, of course), but we will start to understand more in the next two chapters (it was already hinted, but will be properly explained) - perhaps the level of detail on them will start making more sense then?
Also, I understand a lot of the descriptions feels like they're just retelling/rethinking the earlier events, there are still things happening around them - and I felt that before we jump into real events and the finale, it is important to at least fully describe the three main characters motives (the original plan aimed to also explain other mothers and some firsts, which would be _much_ longer - and I realized it might be too much for me to write, even besides its other.. disadvantages).
I understand the desire to see how this ends (and don't worry, we'll get there :>), but I really wanted to at least try to explain it comprehensively - after all, dry events are almost meaningless... the script listing all events has like two pages for the entire story (not to mention that explaining what happened so far would require only several sentences...). It's only with the girls observations and motivations that their actions start to make some sense and we can relate to them (of course it is fiction and all that, but I hope they seem reliable enough for that). Even if we disagree with what is happening or wish they would act differently - which probably happens a lot with Amber/Nicole. Also - their ignorance may make them look similarly, but their motivations are completely different and that may guide their further actions in different ways, even though they currently had fun together carelessly - in contrast with Kate's understanding what is going on.
With all that in mind, I will try to speed up the progression (but the next chapter is ugh.. 7k and counting), perhaps shorten the next bundle a bit - I had eight mostly static chapters planned (20-27) to understand the stage before moving onto the more important things. Maybe it would be better if I had published the entire story at once, as there would be no wait period between the chapters (it worked very well in that Big Sky story - I really recommend it, BTW).
I don't know - again, huge thanks for the advices and please do let me know if - and whenever - it feels boring or too long, dragging, etc.
[Report This]Date: June 25 2013 7:53 PM Title: Nicole – request and reunion.
I like chapter 29.
Author's Response: Yeah, me too - it really shows the emotions and experiences of those firsts, while touching on some mothers plans and exposing parts of the Erica's...
Wait a minute - You meant the 19th chapter, didn't you!
[Report This]Date: June 24 2013 8:24 PM Title: Nicole – favor and confession.
Excellent story. Great amount of content and detail without being too trivial and fantastic character individuality.
I enjoy the thought provocative political aspects and power struggles here; an absolutely superb and unique read.
Author's Response: Huge thanks for reassuring that there are people out there who are able to understand a more complex story.
I guess my only concern right now is for any future chapters not to come short of the high expectations :>
[Report This]Date: June 16 2013 10:38 PM Title: Interlude – the small perspective.
Rachel shrinks and the plot thickens! Its scary to think that Kate could be next on that list, and none of the other Gigas are truly caring of micros so basically its game over for them if Kate gets shrunk...or you know turns evil or something (thanks for that thought Mr. subtle) >=(...Anyway, im actually starting to like Crawford somewhat, he seems like a big softy at heart, so far anyway. Maybe you can kill off Gary, MAYBE.
And something else I gotta give you props for, THANK YOU for using spacing properly...I wouldn't be able to read chapters THIS long without that, although you might be using a little too much spacing for my taste and Im not gonna lie, sometimes it makes me skim around instead of reading. Maybe thats why I was fudging up some details in previous reviews I've done.
Dont worry though I try to read this at least twice now, I feel like this story is complex enough to warrant that. Im not much of a reader as you can probably tell, this website probably consists of like 80% of my weekly reading...so yeah.
Great story! Im still reading this and trying to not be intimidated by the huge chapters you write *relatively speaking to other stories on this site of course*. Good luck with this and I'll be on the lookout for updates!
Author's Response: Well, as I mentioned - the chapter where Gary's story ends is fixed and... it's coming. And it's hungry! (for anybody who played DS3:A)
As for Crawford - obviously "a cutey" was an oversimplification, but then in a way one could.. I mean, considering the enormity of the task that he was given... But more details on that will come as well.
On spacing: I find it a sort of uneasy balance between readability, technical limitations and attempts to emphasize certain aspects of the narration. I'm also still developing my writing style (I mean, it's the first story after all - not as an excuse, just.. it takes time, apparently :>) and I sometimes feel like.. a lot could be better - for instance - definitely too many dashes.. and dots... Not to mention the grammatical constructs not necessarily being the friendliest by far. But.. having to read it twice? Am I making it too complicated? I don't know - perhaps I should go back and clarify/review/simplify some descriptions?
When it comes to the chapter's length - I know, generally I'm trying to squeeze them in closer to 3k words rather than 13k.. but... Actually, I'll better write a couple words on that in a few chapters, right now it would be impractical or would give away too much. For now I can admit that much of that was caused by the naive idea I had at the beginning to arrange the chapters in bundles of 3+1 - it seemed nice and easy, but over time caused many problems and overgrowth anomalies (I mean.. many stories are shorter than 13k words, not to mention 18k... and I appreciate the patience :>), hopefully I may be able to keep it down in the future.
But anyway - huge thanks for the suggestions and all compliments!
Date: June 16 2013 1:15 PM Title: Interlude – the small perspective.
What I find rather interesting here is the way she was apparently 'downsized' or rather, how we don't really know at this point the mechanics behind it in more detail.
It seems like anywhere within the zones the system can differentiate between 'objects', rescaling them at will and no further notice.
( Though I am doubtful about how healthy such a process would be for a living breathing thing and the accuracy sends off warning flags for me )
Overall this chapter does well on immersing the reader more into the situation the humans are facing, as with previous giantess centric chapters there is a sort of detached way in how we are presented their world, but I am guessing this is partially on purpose.
Another angle this entire thing might be leading at is that the entire first chapter is in fact a red herring, but that is just a wild guess
Best regards,
fizzle
Author's Response: Just a couple days ago You were complaining that the super-advanced civilization could have figured out a way to contact the girls - and now the immigration is unbelievable :> ?
More seriously - yes, the whole dilation field is basically the least realistic part of the story, I mentioned in the intro how they were originally meant to only help with the sculpting/terraforming (hence various troubles with dilation and de-dilation - which mostly affect the people inside rather than the caretakers). The basic idea is that anything without wristcom will get quickly dilated uncontrollably, but Rachel was moved just like all the people before the shutdown. Well, maybe not exactly like them, but at least using the same trick with the field (also suggested in the intro). Some more explanations are planned much later, but obviously it all is entirely speculative - if such technology existed, we wouldn't be reading such stories, but rather.. well, you can imagine :>
Detached - not partially but completely on purpose. How could the others care about some dots?
When it comes to herrings, the readers should never know how the events will turn out - some sidekicks like that are there just for distraction and others are actually quite meaningful. So far two of three characters from seemingly unrelated stories of the fifth chapter resurfaced and impacted the plot a lot, for instance. You never know what are the results of the Rachel's paranoia... although she seemed more reasonable towards the end, I think.
[Report This]Date: June 16 2013 11:08 AM Title: Intro - how it all came about.
Rachel being 'immigrated' is a really interesting move, especially with her being placed in Kate's zone. Maybe 'they' really don't suspect anything? At this point I think it's clear that everyone is teetering on the edge of disaster - Kate is basically a massive single point of failure and if she is ever found out then everyone is doomed. I think she might have to take the risk to try to bring in Amber as an ally. After all, there are a lot of smart people who 'trained' her and could help her figure out how to proceed.
I'm not certain about how much Rachel stayed hidden, but Amber would recognize Rachel, wouldn't she? The big screen and Rachel together could make a pretty compelling case, at least as a sort of emergency fallback if other methods don't work.
Finally, after that last encounter, let's just hope Rachel doesn't somehow drop out of contact. That could be very bad for everyone.
This story is awesome, it has a really unique angle on such a common premise. It's clear that you've put a lot of thought into it.
Author's Response: Thanks for all the warm words - it really means a lot.
As for the story and twists - I hope it only gets better. Some of Your presumptions and guesses are correct - others aren't and some perhaps could be if the situation played out differently, but lets see what the characters think for themselves :>
I don't want to comment it in more detail, since it could give away too much - Gary's death in the next chapter (well, 24th actually) is one thing, but this would be worse. I appreciate the careful reading and all thought put into the possibilities, we'll see how the plot unfolds - I hope I will be able to link everything properly, but please let me know if anything seems unclear or questionable.
Date: June 14 2013 1:56 PM Title: Nicole – request and reunion.
This is probably one of the most interesting chapters so far in regards to what feeling it can invoke in the reader. Reading this chapter and its depiction of the often seen 'giantess on city' motive it incited a certain feeling of wrongness while reading it, a queasiness in the pit of your stomach. And all the same you wouldn't stop reading.
It showcases elements that are often downplayed in favor of focusing on the sexy parts involved in such an event and honestly at one point made me question why do I even enjoy this.
I get the feeling you are trying to portrait a deconstruction of the usual mega/giga gts scenario.
PS: I think the contact formular is broken, I tried writing you but it seems the message never arrived. Though your own message went through to my email adress.
I wouldn't mind talking a bit further about story mechanics but I am uncertain how to contact you besides using this site.
Author's Response: Well, it is not about deconstruction of the genre, just.. focusing on different parts of how wrong everything they are doing is with realistic and emotional analysis. I guess it could be called this way then. The saddest part was of course the POV, where I was indeed trying to make the reader feel just how terrible such behaviour can be - but.. wasn't the ch5 even worse? It got a bit crazy at times, although.. it seemed much scarier to me.
When it comes to other stories - usually writers only depict the events and it doesn't seem that bad - although it makes the giantesses actions often seem shallow. I was trying to portray both sides - most of the caretakers is ignorant, but the people, well... it's definitely not "shallow" for them at all.
In any case - I'm happy that at least one person understand what I've been trying to accomplish (I'm not sure about the other reviewers) and thanks again!
Date: June 11 2013 4:03 PM Title: Intro - how it all came about.
Hello!
I really like the story so far and it's very refreshing to see someone trying to tell an actual story without the fetish elements overshadowing/derailing the underlying plot.
At the same time I have trouble with some of the core concepts being used in this story. The entire shrinking process for one I think is a rather weak link when trying to weave a believable setting with relatively giant woman.
It makes me think, why can't a human civilization that essentially 'rapes' physics, disregards the conversation of mass not find another solution for survival. With the implied tech level required to achieve such feats there should have been other options.
This also loops back into how I find it hard to believe that the humans would just endure the treatment of the caretakers, they still have the knowledge of this 'super' civilization at their disposal that made the aforementioned feat even possible.
I just think, with the caretakers still being human and not some kind of invincible race of giants with an entirely alien physiology, it would still be very much within their capabilities to oppose the giant females, especially with their technological level.
I could easily see the same scenario taking a different course, that after the initial 'playtime' of the mothers that there would be sudden casualities. With the giantess essentially being confronted with a highly intelligent and very angry virus/humanity.
Another thing to wonder about is why they haven't tried reversing their 'shrunken' state to end this madness.
Author's Response: Thanks for the warm words - I was hoping some people would also enjoy a story with elements of porn rather than the reverse.
When it comes to ending the madness.. well, they did try to undo it - excerpt from the intro:
But in most places, civilization survived and people more or less peacefully tried to undo the effects of the Failure, as they called it - to get out from a multitude of traps they suddenly found themselves in. They quickly learned it is simply impossible to get out. Without access to NS-aTM-PDFG controls, the electro-magnetic field was like an impenetrable wall - strong enough to deflect or destroy anything even normal sized and they were thousands of times "smaller". Which created another impassable obstacle - in order to return to normal world, they would have to supply thousands of times the energy of their mass, to properly de-compress the space. It was simply hopeless.
Of course a bit more is mentioned in later chapters (the review is on 1st, so I assume You haven't gotten much further yet) and the full explanation of what really happened is also coming - but it would spoil the fun of learning about it if I told it beforehand.
The main idea for how the humanity became trapped is simply: they tried to escape the assembler apocalypse destroying the outside world by hiding in this compressed space, which somehow now confines the people inside while empowering the "caretakers" to do anything they want.
The civilization wasn't "super" - for instance they weren't able to fix or even properly manage the problems caused by the assemblers. Just normal people with more advanced tools.
When it comes to the opposition - well, the communications are all down - and they have no idea what is happening anywhere else. Zones were hit hard by the transportation shutdown.. some managed to survive relatively undamaged, but the restrictions reinforced by the NS-aTM-PDFGs make it impossible to rebuild fully - fusion and assemblers don't work inside and they can only use the materials available in the zones already (and they weren't planned t have any significant amounts of rare metals... or uranium, for instance? - nobody assumed the Failure would happen...). As I think I mentioned in the intro already - and also expanded later - in order to get inside the chambers, the caretakers need to be surrounded by a special deflection field, which would stop most kinds of attacks. And of course... ten thousand times is a unimaginable difference of scale - especially that the compression field also makes the physics play in the caretakers favour... being in an enclave of normal space, they can do things that would be literally impossible for even incredibly advanced civilization - for instance comfortably moving at dozens of times the speed of sound. The whole de-dilation mechanics is also scary.
More explanations on the reasons for all this will follow, but I find this setting to be entirely physically and logically plausible - and I spent a long time figuring out the realistic details. If You feel that I may have missed something or maybe that I haven't explained everything properly - please make sure to let me know! (by another review or simply contacting (there's a little [Contact] action on the viewuser.php page, since You seem to have created the account yesterday :> )).