Schlock Mercenary III: One million years of crowdsourced kitten videos

[factotum]

Wow, Bristlecone got pretty beat up there--you can see why Tagon wanted to remove the gold coffins himself rather than let the enemy do it!

[Mando Knight]

Para, being a robotics/AI expert by trade, forgot to calculate that a 250 meter jump is less problematic in spin-generated "gravity" in a hollow ship with the interior radius of... 250 meters.

Especially when you're Tagon, and employ mercenaries from species with above-human strength.

[factotum]

Especially when you're Tagon, and employ mercenaries from species with above-human strength.

Even the humans in Tagon's squad have above-human strength due to their blood nannies, don't forget. I did like his put-down at the end, though: "Never tell me what *you* can't do as if it's something *nobody* can do." He's got Para's number for sure!

[tonberrian]

What's the tattoo on Tagon's shoulder? Have we seen it before? It's weird because it isn't in Saturday's strip.

[Mobius Twist]

Tagon's tattoo background: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-08-09

Tagon's tattoo hearkens back to his time in the infantry among the Oatmeal Peacekeepers on Celeschul. It's a cereal bowl with a spoon sticking out of it, and it's framed by a pair of olive branches.

You might be thinking that an eagle or a dragon would be a more appropriate symbol to emblazon the arm of a warrior like Kaff Tagon. What you'd be forgetting is that the symbol is not nearly so important as what it stands for. That bowl and spoon represent The Oatmeal Peacekeepers, who are an elite unit, skilled in the arts of war, disciplined in the keeping of peace, and fully able to feed you your heart with a spoon should you unwisely persist in making fun of the one on their arms.

[memnarch]

"Good bye Schlock!"

[happyman]

...Why do I get the feeling we've just stumbled onto the most important discovery so far?

So, anyone think the station itself is actually sapient? Or just the swarm? And just how intelligent is it?

[ryuplaneswalker]

It is smart enough to seemingly understand that Schlock was communicating, which raises the question of how they were not smart enough to understand they were under attack..

[Lizard Lord]

It is smart enough to seemingly understand that Schlock was communicating, which raises the question of how they were not smart enough to understand they were under attack..

Maybe they didn't care. To organize themselves like that as a form of communicating so quickly could mean they are a hivemind. In turn it is possible that could mean they don't value individual lives all that much. Schlock was only hitting a couple at a time so they may have figured that he would stop soon enough and knew they could lose more if they pursued.


This is 100% on the spot speculation mind you.

[Brance_a_Lot]

I'm pretty sure it's saying "Live Long and Prosper."

[Cikomyr]

It is smart enough to seemingly understand that Schlock was communicating, which raises the question of how they were not smart enough to understand they were under attack..

Do you care if a toenail gets nibbed?

It's obviously a collective intelligence.


Agreed that's it's pretty.. shocking relevation

[factotum]

Agree with the consensus here--it's an intelligent hive mind which didn't care about losing two or three individuals. If they'd lobbed a high explosive into the middle and taken out a few hundred it might have sat up and taken notice.

[Loreweaver15]

It could be that they figured out that Schlock didn't know what was going on and thought he would be attacked.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Do you care if a toenail gets nibbed?

It's obviously a collective intelligence.


Agreed that's it's pretty.. shocking relevation

Depending on the method of it gettind nibbed? Yes, yes I do.

I am fairly certain that someone cutting my toenail with a beam of doom would at least register as not very friendly.

[HandofShadows]

Jaw drops for everyone!

[Rockphed]

While I agree that the swarm doing schlock impressions is awesome, I think that this whole book has been doing a good job of building up to awesome moments and revelations.

Does anybody wish to continue the bellyaching about this story being slow?

[ryuplaneswalker]

If I might take a moment to Bellyache a bit not about the slowness of the Arc >.> but about the constant abuse Tagon has taken this story line.

[happyman]

Actually, I thought the story was a bit slow when it was getting started.

I'm not complaining now, though. It turns out, some stories need time to simmer before they're properly finished.

[Mando Knight]

but about the constant abuse Tagon has taken this story line.

That's like 90% of the story lines. They tend to spend about 335 strips of exposition or getting beat up for about 30 of fighting back successfully, and generally not consecutive strips, either.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Well I mean...taking crap that he doesn't directly deserve, like the crack about "not being smart enough to write down procedures for this very specific situation" was incredibly unfair, there are 4 of the most senior toughs in this squad here they should all know what to do in a situation like this.

If anyone should be taking crap here it is Pel since he is an officer and doesn't know the Standard Operating procedures.


Edit : And I do not mean abuse as in "losing fights" I mean abuse as in personal insults at his competence by people who have just joined the crew.

[factotum]

Edit : And I do not mean abuse as in "losing fights" I mean abuse as in personal insults at his competence by people who have just joined the crew.

Major Whatsername has an agenda, don't forget--I think she'd rather like to be leading the Toughs herself, and sowing doubt about the competency of the existing commander is a good way of going about that.

[Cikomyr]

Well I mean...taking crap that he doesn't directly deserve, like the crack about "not being smart enough to write down procedures for this very specific situation" was incredibly unfair, there are 4 of the most senior toughs in this squad here they should all know what to do in a situation like this.

If anyone should be taking crap here it is Pel since he is an officer and doesn't know the Standard Operating procedures.


Edit : And I do not mean abuse as in "losing fights" I mean abuse as in personal insults at his competence by people who have just joined the crew.

The point is that there is no "Procedure". The Tough's chain of command puts a lot of emphasis on "make the decision based on what you see, we will sort things later", less on following procedures that may or may not apply to the situation.

It's also part of the Pirates' code:

A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on.


In more than one occasion, we have seen examples of a superior officer deferring to their subordinates who seemed to know more. Hell; it's Tagon's Modus Operandi. About 80% of the time, he knows less about what's going on than his subordinates.

[HandofShadows]

Militarialy speaking that level of flexibility is what makes for good effective miltaries. (So long as you have competent people. And Tagon has been teaching his troops to think for themselves for a long time now.) Militaries that are stuck with top down leadership are in trouble when things hit the fan. And in combat, it's ALWAYS hitting the fan.

[Cikomyr]

Militarialy speaking that level of flexibility is what makes for good effective miltaries. (So long as you have competent people. And Tagon has been teaching his troops to think for themselves for a long time now.) Militaries that are stuck with top down leadership are in trouble when things hit the fan. And in combat, it's ALWAYS hitting the fan.

Except that certain procedures is usually a good thing to have for mishaps you can predict to happen. Especially in a run-of-the-mill military force, where you have rough idea of the sort of troubles you will encounter.

The Toughs just happen to go into... weirder and weirder situations, which requires a different approach every time. They need much, much more flexibility in a local CO's authority than ye average military. A vanilla military officer (Which I believe the newbie is) wouldn't be prepared for that degree of... flexibility.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Major Whatsername has an agenda, don't forget--I think she'd rather like to be leading the Toughs herself, and sowing doubt about the competency of the existing commander is a good way of going about that.

Then she is talking to the wrong person...doesn't Schlock still have near majority shareholding in the company?

[Cikomyr]

Then she is talking to the wrong person...doesn't Schlock still have near majority shareholding in the company?

Nah. He sold them back a long time ago

[ryuplaneswalker]

Then Tagon has majority shares now?

I think that would make taking over much harder, also..going WAY back to the start of the comic. Why did Tagon take his company public anyways?

[Cikomyr]

Then Tagon has majority shares now?

I think that would make taking over much harder, also..going WAY back to the start of the comic. Why did Tagon take his company public anyways?

No idea

but the comic started out with his company being bought out by Freya's interests for the sole purpose of being a commercialization catalyst for the Teraport.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Yeah I know that, that is why I asked about Tagon getting bought out, for that to happen Tagon either agreed to Freya buying him or he put his Merc Company on the stock market.

[factotum]

Yeah I know that, that is why I asked about Tagon getting bought out, for that to happen Tagon either agreed to Freya buying him or he put his Merc Company on the stock market.

It was a hostile takeover, we know that much, so the second option is more likely than the first.