Schlock Mercenary III: One million years of crowdsourced kitten videos

[Spamotron]

So no way to stop Osirii from activating. This is the point where the battleplate shows up to set up a TAD so they can't just cut and run.

Last time something like this happened the Tunguska got to experience the wrath of the Paanurri first hand. I wonder what Howard's got in mind so this doesn't feel like a repeat.

[Landis963]

So no way to stop Osirii from activating. This is the point where the battleplate shows up to set up a TAD so they can't just cut and run.

Last time something like this happened the Tunguska got to experience the wrath of the Paanurri first hand. I wonder what Howard's got in mind so this doesn't feel like a repeat.

Oisri itself screws with Teraports, remember? What Tagon & co. need to do is to counteract the stopgap TAD so that Ennesby can 'port them out unmolested.

[Tavar]

You know, I wonder if the Human government has any redeeming features. Because, so far, I can't think of one.

[Landis963]

You know, I wonder if the Human government has any redeeming features. Because, so far, I can't think of one.

I don't believe any have been shown "on-screen." However, I suspect this is a bit of confirmation bias, or that one fallacy where we only get to see one image of the UNS. However, the fact that so many different facets (Xinchub, that one UNS official in Resident Mad Scientist who got immediately spaced by Petey, Xinchub, Xinchub again, DeHaans & co., Haluska, the "Blonde Harridan" whose name escapes me) reflect the same image does make my claim a little suspect. Of course, having Para say that, to her department, the Toughs are "not the enemy" does imply that there are (if not more moral) more sympathetic divisions of the UNS. But that's one line, from an exposed spy, whose priority number one will be to make herself and her employer very sympathetic in the Toughs' eyes, which means salt shaker HO!

[factotum]

Healing fast...so she's definitely got the nannies, then, even if they don't appear to have "turned" her yet.

[2xMachina]

Who's suspecting option 1? She's nanny boosted up the wazoo till she hears stray vibrations.

[NEO|Phyte]

Who's suspecting option 1? She's nanny boosted up the wazoo till she hears stray vibrations.

A possibility, but consider that the gavmogre that found her claimed to have normal hearing. Which I suppose doesn't rule out the possibility that his hearing boosts were parts that weren't properly loaded.

[guttering flame]

Weren't they talking to her earlier? The toughs are notoriously bad at using their accessories. They simply never learned how to turn off their loud speakers.

[Rockphed]

Weren't they talking to her earlier? The toughs are notoriously bad at using their accessories. They simply never learned how to turn off their loud speakers.

No, they wanted to hear her reaction. They don't want her turning in to a killing machine on their watch.

[guttering flame]

What is she anyway? A counterplant by the internal intelligence dudes against the military gals?

[Cikomyr]

What is she anyway? A counterplant by the internal intelligence dudes against the military gals?

If I had to guess, simply a case of the nanites partly malfunctionning

[teratorn]

Are we sure she really is a gav? She might be working for the same side as Para.

[Rockphed]

Are we sure she really is a gav? She might be working for the same side as Para.

Well, she might be someone whose brain was rewritten to think they were a Gav.

[teratorn]

Well, she might be someone whose brain was rewritten to think they were a Gav.

My guess is that some side captured the real Danita and put their own agent there. Maybe Petey did it, he has access to this kind of technology.

[factotum]

Whoever did that can't be Petey, because Petey is competent. I mean, seriously--you put an agent in there who lets herself get captured by the first Gavmogre who comes along? Does not compute.

[Cikomyr]

Whoever did that can't be Petey, because Petey is competent. I mean, seriously--you put an agent in there who lets herself get captured by the first Gavmogre who comes along? Does not compute.

However, Petey himself isn't omnipotent either. He maybe had not way of knowing what was going to happen, and this is merely an emergency backup plan.

Kind of seeding a multitude of small backdoor agents without any firm ideas of what their ultimate purpose will be, but they can be used as resource when the chips are down.

[teratorn]

Whoever did that can't be Petey, because Petey is competent. I mean, seriously--you put an agent in there who lets herself get captured by the first Gavmogre who comes along? Does not compute.

She is still alive long after hostilities started. Petey knew who would be providing the muscle, he just needed observers.

We don't know that many players. Either Petey or Breya should be involved in this.

[The Glyphstone]

Solid-state biological digestive byproduct, meet electric rotary air displacement unit. Electric rotary air displacement unit, prepare to meet solid-state biological digestive byproduct.

[PhallicWarrior]

Boy, it's a good thing the author decided not to stick us with a pants-wettingly terrifying storyline in honor of halloween. That would have been scary.


Except oh no wait, this just means he can give us scary things ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO THANKSGIVING.

[Tavar]

Hmm. This seems a bad idea: those involved should know that Tagi was locked out of the system, quite possible with the processor power. And that this could result in an insane AI or worse. So why they then mess with stuff that could let this thing loose?

[tyckspoon]

Hmm. This seems a bad idea: those involved should know that Tagi was locked out of the system, quite possible with the processor power. And that this could result in an insane AI or worse. So why they then mess with stuff that could let this thing loose?

Because there's a severe information disconnect going on between Kevyn and Para, who would realize what is about to happen, and Ennesby and Thurl, who respectively are busy trying to control the ship with insufficient processing power and who doesn't actually know that much about robotics and computers (and who probably would not believe anything that was identified as information coming from Para right now anyway.)

(Ennesby would probably be aware of what a Bad Idea he's looking at in that 'locked door' if he was fully informed, but I don't think he was actually briefed on the specifics of what happened. He was just told "we had to take Tagii out of the control loop, ship's yours, good luck.")

[factotum]

Because there's a severe information disconnect going on between Kevyn and Para, who would realize what is about to happen

Para already does realise--she said quite a few strips ago that Tagii was either insane or dead (it was when Ennesby said he could find the systems, but not the processing power to run them). I have no idea why Kevyn didn't immediately follow up and ask he what she was talking about at the time...

[Cikomyr]

You know, there are few things that genuinely scare me in this webcomic.

But thinking that Tagi has been locked in there for an eternity, becoming one crazy superhorror... I don't know, I find it scary as hell.

Makes you wonder about the whole "sealed evil in a can", what if the creatures weren't evil when they were locked in there?

[BannedInSchool]

Ah, even if they knew the danger they'd probably still have to open it because they're screwed now anyway, no?

[factotum]

Ah, even if they knew the danger they'd probably still have to open it because they're screwed now anyway, no?

Not immediately, no. There's no attack currently coming in and they've all decided to evacuate anyway, so as long as they have enough control to port out (and they don't have to port very far--a dozen light-years would probably be far enough to avoid the problem) they can spend as much time as they like clearing Tagii out of the processing systems before letting Ennesby open the door.

[Shadowtraveler]

This reminds me of a scene in the game The White Chamber. There's a computer you have to put a code in at one part in the game. If you enter it before you're given the code however, a zombified face shows up on screen and the words "Not Yet" appear.

[Ravens_cry]

Tagii . . .

[Fjolnir]

Looks like the doctor is compromised...

[Tavar]

Huh? The Doctor hasn't been in the strips for some time. If you're referring to the disarming that occurred, that was Elf, not the doctor.

[hajo]

Huh? The Doctor hasn't been in the strips for some time.

Dr. Bunnigus was ordered to retreat just 3 days ago.
So, Elf should get first aid shortly...