Schlock Mercenary V: You're Missing Something Wonderful

[PhallicWarrior]

How exactly would Red-REO be corrupted, and how did Captain Polar Bear interposing his arm stop that?

[Yaktan]

Presumably if the entire body is vaporized the backup will be rather hard to use. It seems to me that there was a big explosion, which vaporized her head, but her body was not completely vaporized since some of the blast was used up getting through the giant bear arm.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

How exactly would Red-REO be corrupted, and how did Captain Polar Bear interposing his arm stop that?

Fire, since anything mechanical (i.e. shrapnel, gravy guns) wouldn't hurt RED nanostructures very much. Plasma would work too.

[HandofShadows]

Fire, since anything mechanical (i.e. shrapnel, gravy guns) wouldn't hurt RED nanostructures very much. Plasma would work too.

Or not being able to find all the pieces.

[guttering flame]

I had the impression they were a bit more efficient and their data storage has a lot of redundancy so that one scrap of skin tissue would contain all the data necessary to completely reconstruct the person. Isn't the whole purpose of these nanobots to give you immortality no matter how much damage you suffer? If you lose a year of your life from losing your head and your upraised hand it doesn't sound like such a great technology.

[NEO|Phyte]

I had the impression they were a bit more efficient and their data storage has a lot of redundancy so that one scrap of skin tissue would contain all the data necessary to completely reconstruct the person. Isn't the whole purpose of these nanobots to give you immortality no matter how much damage you suffer? If you lose a year of your life from losing your head and your upraised hand it doesn't sound like such a great technology.

It could be some of the data storage efficiency got lost in the deweaponization process for some reason. That or the average mind has a /lot/ of data to store.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I had the impression they were a bit more efficient and their data storage has a lot of redundancy so that one scrap of skin tissue would contain all the data necessary to completely reconstruct the person. Isn't the whole purpose of these nanobots to give you immortality no matter how much damage you suffer? If you lose a year of your life from losing your head and your upraised hand it doesn't sound like such a great technology.

Schlock is nothing but a redundant pile of back-up brain tissue, and even him can loose bits of memories if his body gets damaged enough. Humans, who need to use the rest of their bodies for functions other than memory back-up, won't have nearly as much "free space" left once regular liver, lung, hair growth functions, etc. are accounted for. Therefore, the nanites do their best, but can't back-up the entire brain.

(I wouldn't get too nit-picky about the physics of it, or the available storage space. Them's the rules the author has chosen to ensure death continues to loom over the main characters).

Grey Wolf

[Radar]

However efficient those nannies would be, there are still two words that would mean the end of life for anyone: monoatomic vapor.

[halfeye]

Schlock is nothing but a redundant pile of back-up brain tissue, and even him can loose bits of memories if his body gets damaged enough. Humans, who need to use the rest of their bodies for functions other than memory back-up, won't have nearly as much "free space" left once regular liver, lung, hair growth functions, etc. are accounted for. Therefore, the nanites do their best, but can't back-up the entire brain.

(I wouldn't get too nit-picky about the physics of it, or the available storage space. Them's the rules the author has chosen to ensure death continues to loom over the main characters).

Grey Wolf

I would think the best plan would be something like a hologram, where when you lose bits, the whole thing gets fuzzier, but you don't lose any of the main features. As you say, for story reasons that may not be what happens.

[Godskook]

Spoilers for A Feast of Crows

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She actually comes back to life near the end of A Feast of Crows. Dondarrion gave her his Flame-life so he could finally die for good.

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What he said doesn't actually spoil what you're talking about, speaking as someone who's progressed far enough to watch Lady Stark die, but not read far enough to know she's coming back. His was a spoiler that only went up to the red wedding in Storm of Swords.

[factotum]

Interesting. Looks like Bala-Amin and Captain Landon aren't fully aware of how powerful the nannies the Toughs have in them are, judging from their reaction to the news about Murtaugh being alive.

[Cikomyr]

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What he said doesn't actually spoil what you're talking about, speaking as someone who's progressed far enough to watch Lady Stark die, but not read far enough to know she's coming back. His was a spoiler that only went up to the red wedding in Storm of Swords.

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Yes, but he was naming Cathelyn as an example of "a character who dies and doesnt come back".

Which is definety NOT the case anymore. In fact, Cathelyn is a rather impressive exception

[halfeye]

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Yes, but he was naming Cathelyn as an example of "a character who dies and doesnt come back".

Which is definety NOT the case anymore. In fact, Cathelyn is a rather impressive exception

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Actually, that is exactly what I was getting at. She is a counter example to Ned, she is dead but active.

[Mando Knight]

Interesting. Looks like Bala-Amin and Captain Landon aren't fully aware of how powerful the nannies the Toughs have in them are, judging from their reaction to the news about Murtaugh being alive.

Humanity was mortal mere weeks prior. Give them a couple centuries, they'll get used to it.

[factotum]

Something about this situation has got me confused now. We know from the last couple of strips that Murtaugh got killed by Kowalski's "going-away present". However, in the strip from 29th March, we see Murtaugh alive and well aboard the battleplate Popigai, six hours after Kowalski has been captured. How does that work?

[guttering flame]

Something about this situation has got me confused now. We know from the last couple of strips that Murtaugh got killed by Kowalski's "going-away present". However, in the strip from 29th March, we see Murtaugh alive and well aboard the battleplate Popigai, six hours after Kowalski has been captured. How does that work?

He booby-trapped his rooms before he left?

[Discus-Spinner]

He booby-trapped his rooms before he left?

I'd assume exactly that, and guessed it earlier. Kowalski was whimsical, but with a mean streak a mile wide. Booby-trapping bits of the battleplate, to disrupt and confuse potential pursuers or just because, would be 100% in character.

[Alent]

Something about this situation has got me confused now. We know from the last couple of strips that Murtaugh got killed by Kowalski's "going-away present". However, in the strip from 29th March, we see Murtaugh alive and well aboard the battleplate Popigai, six hours after Kowalski has been captured. How does that work?

The confusion comes from Admiral Emm's specific ship not really being named yet as it hasn't been finished yet. However, the AI answers to Gus, which would mean the battleplate is intended to be a second Tunguska, to replace the one lost in Zoojack. The Popigai seems to be both Bala-Amin's new ride and the ship used to transport them to the Tunguska, where they're throwing a Boarding Party, and one would assume that Murtaugh's demise was an "Explosive Revelation".

The part that's baffling to me is the Tunguska/Jumpstar Prime is a Triangle, and I thought they were negotiating for a Penta-class. Am I just brainfarting on geometry in my sleepiness?

[Gnoman]

The part that's baffling to me is the Tunguska/Jumpstar Prime is a Triangle, and I thought they were negotiating for a Penta-class. Am I just brainfarting on geometry in my sleepiness?

We don't know that the Jumpstar Prime is a Triangle, for one thing. The only hull shot we have is here, which doesn't give us enough to say for certainty that there aren't two more annie-plants just outside of the field of view.

Second, they wanted the fabber capacity of a penta-class plate. It is entirely plausible that you could cram that into a triangle if you pulled a lot of the extremely heavy gravitics and/or weapons, which would make a lot of sense from the UNS point of view - better to lose an undersized and obsolescent ship than a new model, and better not to give a largely unknown new galactic power quite so much warship. From the Oafan side, they weren't buying a warship, they were buying a factory, so they don't care so much about how well their factory can shoot things.

[Cikomyr]

I have read the entire story from the beginning and..

Do you feel that its no longer Schlock Mercenary?

Its Schlock Standing Oafan Military

Its Schlock Galactiv Power Brokers

[The Glyphstone]

They're still mercenaries - taking money to break things and kill people. The stakes they operate on have gone up immensely since the beginning, but that's just plot progression (and maybe a bit of Cerberus Syndrome).

[Bulldog Psion]

I have read the entire story from the beginning and..

Do you feel that its no longer Schlock Mercenary?

Its Schlock Standing Oafan Military

Its Schlock Galactiv Power Brokers

Well, it certainly has a lot less of that "freewheeling adventure" feel to it, I'd agree.

And I suppose that's why the timing of the "Planet Mercenary" (argh) RPG is what it is -- "get that exciting new-neutronium smell back with your own adventures!" etc. etc.

[ryuplaneswalker]

I have read the entire story from the beginning and..

Do you feel that its no longer Schlock Mercenary?

Its Schlock Standing Oafan Military

Its Schlock Galactiv Power Brokers

They are still Mercenaries, they are just competent enough to have been hired by Really Rich clientel, who have payed them in technology that gives them the ability to more or less be a standing military.

Tagon's Toughs have effectively grown from "Firefly" level one ship, small group..to "Atlas Corp" well armed levels, mostly out of necessity of the enemies they have made along the way of the plot, else they would be under the thumb of every Emm and Xinub that show up to screw them.

[Marnath]

We don't know that the Jumpstar Prime is a Triangle, for one thing. The only hull shot we have is here, which doesn't give us enough to say for certainty that there aren't two more annie-plants just outside of the field of view.

Well, there is this view. There are three plates in that shot, all of them triangles.

[Cikomyr]

STOP

Time-out!

Captain Andreyasn?!

Kevyn has been promoted?! What is he Captain of?!

[thorgrim29]

Captain of Science!

[memnarch]

STOP

Time-out!

Captain Andreyasn?!

Kevyn has been promoted?! What is he Captain of?!

Cindercone. You can see the lightning bolts.

[factotum]

Cindercone. You can see the lightning bolts.

Also, the Toughs are more of a ground-based force than a naval one, so a captain doesn't need to be in command of a ship--Murtaugh still seems to be a captain despite having lost her command, for instance.

[ryuplaneswalker]

STOP

Time-out!

Captain Andreyasn?!

Kevyn has been promoted?! What is he Captain of?!

Oh, only 11 Years ago at this point.

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If I did not do that, someone else would have

[Landis963]

Oh, only 11 Years ago at this point.

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If I did not do that, someone else would have

Well, that was during an alternate timeline that didn't survive the Core war. In the timeline where Kevyn prime was warned about Tagon's death, he hadn't been promoted to Captain yet.