SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread III

[Shroom Man 777]

What an excellent article, Force Lord. The Bragulan Ministry of Truth awards the Central Times the Braglitzer Prize for the journalistic truthiness of its news.

[Force Lord]

Let's see how long people buy it.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Let's see how long people buy it.

WHo was that fellow in the 2nd or 1st game who employed these tricks I wonder...

[Force Lord]

Er, what do you mean Fin?

[Simon_Jester]

For that matter, unless the Karlacks sent along one of their six "World Eater" class flagships (I doubt it), nothing in their fleet will be all that much more dangerous than the Prussians' capital ships one on one.

Luckily for us we never fight one on one. We fight dirty.I thought the whole Swarm thing would be a good indication as to our preferred tactics.

Amusingly, your ships, designed for swarm tactics, occupy roughly the same weight classes as the Prussian ships, which nominally aren't.

Of course, I'm not laughing too hard, since mine are within shouting distance of his...

Let's see how long people buy it.

What, the article? The Technocracy is going to infer that Enduvos was killed in a coup, but they're not sure how to interpret it, so they're playing it cautious until they figure out how the new government's going to behave.

[Force Lord]

Well, any government is going to be suspicious of what's happened. But how fast they can learn the truth?

[PeZook]

I don't know...after five minutes of thinking?

"Oh he was tinkering with a plasma rifle and it blew up in his face"

It's about as plausible as saying he had an accident when cleaning his pistol and shot himself six times in the chest

[Force Lord]

Ah. I guess I made it too easy. But then, I'm still learning.

EDIT: Ah, come on. No lip service about "We express our condolences" while you privately think otherwise?

[Shroom Man 777]

No, no, it's good. I like that it's a bit tongue-in-cheeky and funny. It's got humors and I like that.

It's like that scene in the Simpsons movie where Chief Wiggum catches that Mafia Don disposing a body bag.

"I'm simply getting rid of my... yard trimmings."



EDIT:

Goddamn it! Guys! Remember the OLD GAME!

Man. Prime Minister Shroom. What a guy.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, any government is going to be suspicious of what's happened. But how fast they can learn the truth?

Who cares what the truth is? We just want to know what the new government's policies are going to be, and if we can continue peaceful relations with them.

Honestly, the full truth would make our view of the Centrality improve, because we like governments that show the ability to weed out erratic unreliable idiots in their own ranks. We'd prefer someone with a more... peaceful means of doing this, of course, but we can cope with someone who makes smart decisions better than with someone who makes dumb ones.

No Umerian will shed a tear for Enduvos.

[Force Lord]

Another filler post, this time post-coup.

[Simon_Jester]

EDIT: Scene was written with reference to the following portions of the movie Pulp Fiction: here and here.

Man. Chernov did NOT like the Prussians fucking with him

DOES DOCTOR MAXIM CHERNOV LOOK LIKE A BITCH?!

THEN WHY DID YOU FUCK HIM LIKE A BITCH?!

I couldn't resist. I... I wrote the scene.

Now, as I say in the disclaimer at the beginning of the post: This is NOT canon! It is wrong, for the following reasons:

-This is NOT what Fourth Battlecruiser Division has been sent to Prussia to do.
-It's out of character for the men involved.
-It's out of character for the national policy.
-No such incident involving Shroomarcos has occured.
-To the best of my knowledge, no star system of the name "Neu Obersaltzkügelpfalz" even EXISTS.
-It's physically impossible to do what they're doing using a hyperdrive.
-Shipboard power plants don't work that way, nor does midspace refueling.
-Our torpedoes aren't that hard-hitting.
-Our Mk. XIV particle guns aren't (quite) that hard-hitting.
-I'm not sure we could do the towing thing.

In short, it's wrong in many, many particulars.

It's not accurate at all, AT ALL, but I can't help myself, I've been contaminated by the Shroominess! It's this, or scribble crazy stuff all over the walls of my room at home, and that would make my landlord upset.

---

However, it bears reflecting on that Admiral Lisiewicz does actually have enough firepower at his disposal to do something like this: mass his division, charge into a modestly defended star system, blow up several hundred points of warships, and leave a, ah, message of this sort. More realistically, he'd suffer major losses and damage to his ships. He might well be caught by enemy reinforcements and have his entire command wiped out. And even if he managed to survive, he'd be court-martialled and shot on his return home for doing it in peacetime.

But he could do it.

[Shroom Man 777]

That was beautiful.

[Simon_Jester]

Edited second part to reflect the results of Lisiewicz's real operational plan.

[PeZook]

Heee hee...Juliusz Lisiewicz

[Simon_Jester]

Heee hee...Juliusz Lisiewicz

PeZook, if there's something unintentionally funny, could you please PM me? I really tried to come up with a name that wasn't a joke, because I'm actually trying to construct a future society that draws people from a wide cultural background.

Granted I should probably just randomly mix and match names in that case, but I like the image of a nation that isn't just Onecountry IN SPACE! The way so many of the other ones in my neck of the woods are...

[PeZook]

No, man, it was spot on. Juliusz = Julius

And Lisiewicz = Fox (well, not exactly, something like 'clever as a fox'), by the way. Fits the character, and especially his mission, great

[Simon_Jester]

He was Antoni Lisiewicz first. He became Antoni Juliusz Lisiewicz after Shroom's joke, because I needed a "Jules" to make the joke work.

(Yes, selection of both "Juliusz" and "Lisiewicz" was deliberate. I just wasn't sure if I'd accidentally named him after a famous Polish serial killer or something, and I'm having a bad day so I assumed the worst).

The same goes for the selection of Vice Admiral Quirino's first name: he didn't have one at first.

[Shroom Man 777]

Fin:

Elysian slavery is reserved for barbarian POWs and criminals, whose jail time is composed of subservience instead of rotting in a cell. One could also work as a slave, which is basically like a filipina maid or overseas foreign worker. Elysian "slave" or "helot" doesn't mean Pendleton style slaves. It can either mean criminals serving time by serving people, or it can mean menial labor workers. An Elysian would consider modern day workers at McDonalds, and stuff like janitors and septic tank cleaners, to be "slaves".

Elysian "slave" = poor person doing crappy jobs.

Look at me justify and make contrived whatevers so I don't get Pendletoned.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Fin:

Elysian slavery is reserved for barbarian POWs and criminals, whose jail time is composed of subservience instead of rotting in a cell. One could also work as a slave, which is basically like a filipina maid or overseas foreign worker. Elysian "slave" or "helot" doesn't mean Pendleton style slaves. It can either mean criminals serving time by serving people, or it can mean menial labor workers. An Elysian would consider modern day workers at McDonalds, and stuff like janitors and septic tank cleaners, to be "slaves".

Elysian "slave" = poor person doing crappy jobs.

Look at me justify and make contrived whatevers so I don't get Pendletoned.

No no. The Imperium sees use for the bodies of Elysium as Space Marines.

They can serve their eternal penance in the service of the God Emperor.

[Siege]

You should use them as Penal Legions instead.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

You should use them as Penal Legions instead.

Space Marine compatible humans are a rarity to be treasured.

And they forget who they were anyway, after the indoctrination process.

[Simon_Jester]

A grand project for Belisarius Komnenos: the reconquest of the Western Coreward Roman Empire!

What could possibly go wrong?

In any case, Vice Admiral Quirino is going to have to think very fast on his feet. Fortunately, for a number of reasons, not all of which Admiral Lisiewicz quite fully grasps, Quirino was a good choice for this mission...

[Force Lord]

I decided to take up your mediation deal, Simon. It won't come up until I've finished the Datton storyline, however.

[Simon_Jester]

Just as well if it's delayed; I've got a fair number of balls to juggle right now.

EDIT: Cultural note: When Vice Admiral Quirino says "priority gamma," it means "I need to see you, but finish any short-term duties you need to do first." Beta would be "you have about a minute to wrap it up," and alpha would be "drop whatever you are doing, no matter what, and come here this instant." Delta, in contrast, is "schedule an appointment."

Basically, Umerians would find it almost impossible to understand the idea of a leader who expects all his subordinates to be instantly available at all times, regardless of the urgency of what he wants them to do. That would be a strong indicator of incompetence on his end: either he's not giving them enough work that they sometimes can't afford to drop it lightly, or he's too stupid to grasp that they are doing work that they can't afford to drop lightly.

At priority alpha it's assumed to be important enough to override anything else, and nothing stops officers from using priority alpha whenever they see fit. But at the lower degrees of priority, juniors are permitted a bit of initiative in deciding whether to finish some important short-term task.

Obviously, the ones who misuse this initiative don't get far...