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    Eldritch Horror in the Playground Moderator
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    Default Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    This is the thread to discuss Howard Tayler's webcomic, Schlock Mercenary.

    Previous thread here.

    Robo fairies in power armor are trying to hijack the Tough's indescribably valuable fleet. Petey is teraporting planets around for unknown purposes. Captain Tagon is making a very tough decision. And Schlock is growing a conscience. Other stuff happens, but mostly everyone just talks about what's going on instead. Same Schlock Time, same Schlock Channel.
    Last edited by The Glyphstone; 2016-10-08 at 06:20 PM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by eschmenk View Post
    While I'm at it, I disagree with this. The AIs think non-intuitively all the time. There is nothing rational about Enesby's love of puns, for example.
    On the contrary, it makes perfect sense for Ennesby in particular. Keep in mind he was originally designed as the AI behind a virtual boys band, the New Sync Boys, NSB. So large parts of his core programming were devoted to language functions useful for commercial songwriting, and that definitely includes wordplay -- puns, portmanteaus, rhymes and alliterations are all useful there.

    On the other hand, an AI grown to control and operate a spaceship would focus less on wordplay and theatrics and more on preserving structural integrity and the safety of the crew and passengers. (For a warship, add combat maneuvers, enemy detection, and all types of countermeasures and counter-countermeasures and so on.) Ennesby likes wordplay because it's something that was originally useful to him, so he was grown to like it.

    Also, intuitive thought and rational thought are not the same thing, they're in fact mostly opposite (rational thought is reasoned, whereas an intuition is something where you are not consciously aware of how exactly you came to that thought). So pointing out a behavior you deem irrational as an example of non-intuitive thought is not really a cogent argument.
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    Petey is once again teraporting planets around for unknown purposes.
    Once again?

    FWIW, reasons I was angry at Broken Wind:

    1) The previous update, especially the joke, but also the fact that it talked about Kaff failing to realize something while ignoring the fact that didn't realize it either and it had less of an excuse, made it seem like a complete jackass.

    2) I blame Broken Wind as much for Kaff's death as I blame Kevyn. It's inexcusable that it had no STS missiles ready in the middle of a battle. I would think it would be SOP that it would have missiles on some sort of hot standby when away on missions and especially to not get some ready in the middle of a battle seems absurd. Yes, it didn't know that it would have anything to shoot at, but it also didn't know that it wouldn't.

    A few other potential targets for STS missiles:
    • The Esspies might have tried to use Gift Horse to ram Broken Wind.
    • The Toughs might have somehow learned where the Esspies were teraporting from.
    • Cindercone might have needed an STS missile fired at it, either to repeat McConger's trick or to simply blast a location the Esspies had seized.
    • The Esspies might have had small ships hidden in the hollow TPU noodles or larger ones hidden under the ocean.
    • The Esspies might have had something very valuable that Karl of Kaff could have threatened to destroy if they didn't cease their attack.
    • Other things?


    The fact that McCogner managed to get his STS missile ready in a timely manner makes Broken Wind's failure look worse, if that's possible.

    The one possibility of making this a moot point wrt Kaff's death would have been if there had been no path to get the missiles from their launch bays (where the live missiles would have been) to where the Esspies were. I had rationalized that, even though it made little sense, maybe their weren't any hatches near the fabbers. The current update makes it rather clear that there are quite a few. Basically, then, the update reopened the whole issue of Broken Wind's inexcusable failure leading to Kaff's death and took away the last chance that Broken Wind wasn't one of those responsible for it.

    3) Any reminder about Broken Wind's responsibility in Kaff's death is also a reminder of how stupid it was for the Toughs to be flying around in Broken Wind and Cindercone in the first place. (I've vented about that elsewhere.)

    4) When I read the previous update, given how things have been lately, I anticipated that none of the characters in the comic would be smart enough to think of using water to help cool down Broken Wind. It was actually a pleasant surprise that Flinders did. But obviously Broken Wind didn't. I could live with that and, despite my reaction, I think the current update is much better than some of the other recent ones, but there is too much attached baggage for me to agree that it's "comic gold." And since I had already thought of water and steam explosions the day before, the joke wasn't as fresh as it would have been otherwise and that makes a big difference toward how funny jokes seem. I do agree that Broken Wind's facial expression was well done, though.

    I think I'm so annoyed at the characters' apparent stupidity because it's a symptom of bigger problems. Basically, HT isn't bothering to come up with ways for them to behave that would be more intelligent and the readers are expected to just go along with it. For example, the Toughs are stupidly flying around in ships that people would want to steal (even though they could easily afford better ships that wouldn't have that problem) so that HT doesn't have to bother coming up with a different reason for the Toughs to be attacked whenever he wants that to happen. That really annoys me. I guess there is at least a couple of problems with these sorts of things.

    1) I have trouble believing that HT can't see the problems with his stories. He's good at evaluating other stories and he's done much better in the past, so how could he not see the problems in his stories? He would criticize a movie that was as bad as what he's writing (there is no way the current book would cross his "Threshold of Disappointment" as a movie), so it seems like laziness for him to not do better.

    2) I can't help but feel like he's insulting the readers' intelligence. It's almost as if he's saying, "I think you are too dumb to notice how stupid the story is getting and how many holes there are in the story."

    Quote Originally Posted by Gez View Post
    Also, intuitive thought and rational thought are not the same thing, they're in fact mostly opposite (rational thought is reasoned, whereas an intuition is something where you are not consciously aware of how exactly you came to that thought). So pointing out a behavior you deem irrational as an example of non-intuitive thought is not really a cogent argument.
    Yes, I should have said "intuitively," not "non-intuitively." I said the exact opposite of what I meant. Sorry about that. (Unfortunately, I can't edit the comment, probably because the thread is locked.)

    The point I was trying to make still stands. They AIs often think as intuitively as everyone else. The may not go about it in the same way, but somehow they make decisions that seem as intuitive as what humans do.
    Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-08 at 03:56 PM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Okay, Credomar was technically a space station, not a planet.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by eschmenk View Post
    The fact that McCogner managed to get his STS missile ready in a timely manner makes Broken Wind's failure look worse, if that's possible.
    Mac had an entire missile, Kaff grabbed a warhead from the ship's munitions. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that when your bomb comes with a propulsion system, it's a bit easier to not be at ground zero getting it where you want it to explode.
    Man this thing was full of outdated stuff.
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    Okay, Credomar was technically a space station, not a planet.
    Did Petey ever move Credomar? I remember Lota doing that, but I'm not sure that Petey even knows where it is. I had to double-check the wiki to make sure I was correctly remembering what Credomar was, so I could easily be forgetting something, though.

    Quote Originally Posted by NEO|Phyte View Post
    Mac had an entire missile, Kaff grabbed a warhead from the ship's munitions. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that when your bomb comes with a propulsion system, it's a bit easier to not be at ground zero getting it where you want it to explode.
    I wasn't talking about the warhead Kaff grabbed.

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    Eldritch Horror in the Playground Moderator
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Nope, you're right again. It was Lota, not Petey.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by NEO|Phyte View Post
    Mac had an entire missile, Kaff grabbed a warhead from the ship's munitions.
    Something just occurred to me about that. Why couldn't Kaff have ordered Broken Wind to teraport that warhead as near to the Esspies as possible and then set it off? Why did he have to run it manually in there? Did I miss something saying the Esspies had set up their own TAD?

    As for today's strip. I think I've mentioned before how silly it is that everyone apparently knows where Uli-Oa is and have decided to come after it now Oisri has been snatched away from them. Do none of these galactic powers have enough ships to send them after two targets at once? The UNS were perfectly willing to trade away a *battleplate* for the sake of an 8km-wide ball of PTUs, yet they can't be bothered to send one after a planet-sized chunk of the same material?
    Last edited by factotum; 2016-10-09 at 02:14 AM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Such fine tuned tereports are something the ship didn't have proper equipment for. The people going after Osir are likely more the "black bag" folks and the operations are not quiet "official" and so they have limited forces. The U.N.S. was a bit more official so it had more resources (And a better reason than pure greed). The .4c rock that came in could not be targeted accurately because of the nano coating on it. People only knew it was there because of it's gravity which likely isn't enough to get an accurate targeting solution with and No Ships were in range (It was well inside the defense zone when it was detected.) Also the UNS forces are there at the behest of Petey.
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Something just occurred to me about that. Why couldn't Kaff have ordered Broken Wind to teraport that warhead as near to the Esspies as possible and then set it off? Why did he have to run it manually in there? Did I miss something saying the Esspies had set up their own TAD?
    Nothing said that the Esspies set up their own TAD, but I just assumed that they boarders brought portable TADs with them. Obviously they wouldn't want Toughs teraporting into their rear or just teraporting in a weapon. We saw the damage Captain Landon's (name?) group did when it used the teraport cage to get into the Esspies' rear on Cindercone.

    That said, I wonder why Broken Wind couldn't have used gravity to move the warhead. If some ship (I can't remember which) had the fine control to move bullets [EDIT: paintballs(?)], why couldn't Broken Wind move warheads? And if it couldn't use gravity, why wouldn't it have some bots like the ones that moved the baffles on board Cindercone? I guess we're just not supposed to think of things like that?

    Of course, the biggest question would be why didn't Broken Wind have some missiles already assembled and ready to fire given that it was in a battle where it might have needed to fire them quickly?

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    As for today's strip. I think I've mentioned before how silly it is that everyone apparently knows where Uli-Oa is and have decided to come after it now Oisri has been snatched away from them. Do none of these galactic powers have enough ships to send them after two targets at once? The UNS were perfectly willing to trade away a *battleplate* for the sake of an 8km-wide ball of PTUs, yet they can't be bothered to send one after a planet-sized chunk of the same material?
    Yes, it does seem pretty silly, although some civilizations may have heard about Uli-Oa later than others and it can take large bureaucratic organizations a long time to make decisions. OTOH, dictatorial governments can make decisions quickly. HT is making it look as if all governments thought, "We can't get ORSI! What do we do now?", then they all took about the same amount of time to decide to try to capture Uli-Oa, then arrived at about the same time. The UNS just happened to beat them thanks to Petey.

    In the UNS's defense, though, part of the reason it was at ORSI was because the wreckage of Morqueng (sp?) was there. But given that Morqueng crashed there, it's surprising that they didn't arrive first and have that area secure before everyone else arrived. That wold have been well before they could have heard of Uli-Oa. Maybe the DME caused problems? But if they brought enough forces to deal with the DME, unless they took huge losses, they should have been able to dominate anyone else who arrived. (I'm sure this is far beyond anything we are supposed to think of.)

    Quote Originally Posted by HandofShadows View Post
    Such fine tuned tereports are something the ship didn't have proper equipment for.
    Why would you say that? We saw Ebbie being teraported into medical, which I think was aboard Cindercone or Broken Wind. Do you have a link that shows that they have only crude teraport equipment? If they do, that's just one more inexcusable failure on the part of the Toughs. They are super rich. Why wouldn't they buy and install decent equipment on their ships?
    Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-09 at 12:10 PM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Wasn't it explained that Iafa was locked out of fine-manipulation of onboard gravitics for 'security' reasons, I.e. they were afraid she would go bonkers again and kill them all?

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Or the fairies could have brought along a mobile TAD.

    This as well.

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    Wasn't it explained that Iafa was locked out of fine-manipulation of onboard gravitics for 'security' reasons, I.e. they were afraid she would go bonkers again and kill them all?
    Last edited by HandofShadows; 2016-10-09 at 09:59 AM.
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    Wasn't it explained that Iafa was locked out of fine-manipulation of onboard gravitics for 'security' reasons, I.e. they were afraid she would go bonkers again and kill them all?
    No, I don't thinks so. I could easily be forgetting something, but I don't remember that. I thought she went directly from KILL THEM ALL to hiding inside Enesby to taking over the can of sky where she automatically had control over robotic long gun ships that could easily wipe out entire civilizations. I don't recall any limitations being put on her in the can of sky and don't think she had any crewed ships after her crazy phase. Also, a ship's AI could plaster everyone on board up against bulkheads simply by providing no internal gravitics while they accelerated the ship, so I don't see how locking out fine control of gravitics would help much. Granted, if a crazy ship's AI wanted to keep the ship's china and glassware while killing the crew, the ship's AI might have a little trouble figuring out how to do that without fine control.
    Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-09 at 01:11 PM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-08-25

    I knew it was stated somewhere. It's not said why, but she is 'locked out of the ability to weaponize internal gravity, for security reasons'.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-08-25

    I knew it was stated somewhere. It's not said why, but she is 'locked out of the ability to weaponize internal gravity, for security reasons'.
    I didn't even remember that AI was called "Iafa" I was thinking of the one back in the can of sky.

    It would seem odd that the restriction would have prevented it from moving the warhead, though. That wouldn't be a matter of weaponizing the gravitics, except in a very indirect way. The restriction must be pretty general if the restriction prevented it from doing that.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    It's not completely unreasonable though, for someone as paranoid as Tagon can be, to just flatly prohbit any sort of offensive use of gravitics internal to the ship, even indirectly like moving munitions around. Even if that would still leave many ways for a crazy AI to kill its crew, it'd make him feel safer.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    New comic: A French lesson! Not necessarily a correct one, though. Does anyone know if the spelling is correct? [EDIT: Spelling has been fixed.]

    The UNS is station keeping, rather than helping a friendly vessel that's in distress? Did the UNS send other ships to help? (I kind of hope not; I would like to see how much damage the steam explosions would cause, but I'm afraid we won't get to see that.)
    Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-10 at 08:04 AM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by eschmenk View Post
    The UNS is station keeping, rather than helping a friendly vessel that's in distress? Did the UNS send other ships to help?
    We've got no evidence that the Toughs actually told the Manicouagan about their problem--maybe that's what Petey is here to talk about?

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    We've got no evidence that the Toughs actually told the Manicouagan about their problem--maybe that's what Petey is here to talk about?
    Kaff told the Admiral that Cindercone had been boarded by hostile Ebbies and I think the Admiral saw Kaff learn that Broken Wind was boarded, too, at the same time. It would seem to be a bit ridiculous if the ships hadn't been broadcasting updates in addition to that. Why make Petey do what you could do yourself? Normally, in scifi one expects space ships to imitate current day surface ships, which do broadcast messages if they get in trouble and need help. Before this update, I had thought that the UNS ships were flying through the Toughs' TAD field and still too far out and to be able to help. I don't know why Karl wouldn't have sent them the codes to terraport in so they could help repel the boarders, but I was willing to overlook that. Since the Ebbies had also attacked and stolen a UNS ship, the UNS would have had plenty of motivation to help. (The Ebbies might have brought portable TADs with them, which might have kept UNS ships from porting right next to the Tough's ships or there might be some other way to rationalize it not working, though.) But if the Manicouagan is station-keeping, it's already through the Tough's TAD field and it's not trying to go anywhere.

    I suppose another possibility is that there was a time skip and Broken Wind's heat problems have already been resolved. Or, as I already said, it could be that some UNS ships are helping, but Manicouagan isn't one of them.

    So far, it also seems odd that we haven't seen more signs that the UNS is concerned about what happened to Gift Horse. Perhaps Bala-Amin was hunting for Captain Landon because she wanted him involved in chasing it down, but other than that, we haven't seen the UNS do anything. (Since Landon's help wasn't authorized, I'm not counting it.) Granted, they could have been doing things that we haven't learned about yet.

    BTW, the French spelling error was corrected overnight. Originally, it was, "Mon Dieux" IIRC.
    Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-10 at 09:32 AM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    We've got no evidence that the Toughs actually told the Manicouagan about their problem--maybe that's what Petey is here to talk about?
    They did tell Petey?

    I think Petey has something else on his mind, though so far I have no idea what that might be.
    Last edited by halfeye; 2016-10-10 at 11:40 AM.
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    There is much more talking these days

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    BTW, another thing that seems very weird it that there hasn't been any signs that the UNS is concerned that the ships just arrived might be boarded by the Esspies. How would they know that the Esspies don't have the ability to teraport through TAD fields, or have super-stealthy ships that you can't detect even when along side. They should be trying to figure out how the Esspies boarded Broken Wind, Cindercone and Gift Horse so they can make sure it doesn't happen to them. Maybe they should even be planning to neutralize the Esspies so they won't have to worry about fighting a war on two fronts. I doubt they know that the civilian Esspies are clueless, but even if they do, they still should be worrying about the military Esspies doing something.

    Quote Originally Posted by halfeye View Post
    They did tell Petey?

    I think Petey has something else on his mind, though so far I have no idea what exactly that might be.
    Well, they did tell him about what Kaff was doing, so Petey would have known much of it. Beyond that, Petey has a way of finding things out. I'm pretty sure he knows everything that goes on in the Admiral's TAC room, for example. (If he's there now, he can probably also be there when the Admiral doesn't see him.) However, I think Petey is probably there to talk about something else, too.

    ADDED:
    Just as some guesses, maybe the scientists finally learned something very significant and they (and the information they learned) need to be rescued? (I would hope that Cindercone would still be able to do that much, but maybe not.) Maybe Petey knows the information and thinks the Admiral needs to know it, too, for military reasons. Maybe Petey has figured out how to use the Esspies to help defend their planet and needs the UNS to cooperate, despite what the Wing Commander just did. Maybe one of the big fish the Orangutan was hoping to catch got cooked, so the battleplate may as well grab it and serve it for dinner? More seriously, the Orangutan was hoping for a big sonar pulse from the impactor hitting the planet, and maybe the sonar equipment spotted something very important, so the "Petey learned something of military significance" seems to be the most likely idea to me.

    I'm expecting the current book to end pretty quickly. Cindercone is damaged and can't fight at all and Broken Wind is badly damaged, so there wouldn't seem to be any reason for them to remain where they are. I would expect both the them to grab the remaining scientists if possible and flee back to the can of sky for repairs. (Unfortunately, I don't think there is much of a chance that they would be replaced.) The Toughs have lost too many named characters to be a very effective fighting force for a while, so I'm expecting the next chapter to be about them recuperating and repairing and talking and talking and talking some more. That would probably be the first chapter in the next book.

    ----------

    Tuesday's comic: Yet more delay in finding out what Petey wants. To some extent it's so bad it's good, but there isn't enough to it to be all that funny.
    Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-11 at 09:34 AM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    So how did the fleet fighting over Oisri learn about Uli-Oa? I thought it was known only to the Espererin and the Toughs.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Wednesday's comic: Petey ignores the fact that the UNS would have to control the wealth before they could share it. If the Esspies can infest the PTUs that would be stolen, and a bunch of Esspies want to hold onto the PTUs, they might be a rather large problem. (IIRC, the civilian Esspie leader was willing to pack up and leave if given the three PTU ships, but not the Wing Commander. Now I doubt the Esspies will get the three ships, so they all might fight for the PTUs at Uli-Oa. The three ships weren't delivered, were they?)

    Thursday's comic: Didn't the Admiral complain about Petey meddling in Monday's comic? Now he's suggesting that Petey does more meddling? Why can't he decide if he likes Petey's meddling or not?

    But you know what, it's so great that Breya became the Secretary General so that this admiral who can't comb his hair makes huge policy decisions without her input (or input from anyone else who might have succeeded her).

    Quote Originally Posted by JavaScribe View Post
    So how did the fleet fighting over Oisri learn about Uli-Oa? I thought it was known only to the Espererin and the Toughs.
    All of the characters have assumed that the scientists were not going to keep it a secret and everyone would quickly find out. The Toughs were talking as if a huge war was inevitable all along. That's why, as factotum and I have already said, it seems like a big plot hole that there weren't already others attempting to reach Uli-Oa before the UNS did. Why did all the combatants wait until ORSI wasn't available? Odds of getting a significant piece of ORSI was very low given that there was so much other competition, so why not switch to the alternative?
    Last edited by eschmenk; 2016-10-12 at 09:17 PM.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    I'm almost dead certain the admiral is being sarcastic here.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    I'm almost dead certain the admiral is being sarcastic here.
    Maybe, but to me it doesn't work any better as sarcasm. Petey just did it and would probably do it again. If the other person can respond very reasonably, "OK, I'll do that," any sarcasm isn't going to be very effective. He'd have to be so ridiculously stupid that he doesn't know that Petey could do it.

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    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Personally I think something that couldn't be predicted is going to happen. Probably something to do with the control module that they were pinging for when the relativistic object hit. Petey's estimate on the worth of Uli-Oa is going to be a vast underestimate.
    The name is "tonberrian", even when it begins a sentence. It's magic, I ain't gotta 'splain why.

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by tonberrian View Post
    Personally I think something that couldn't be predicted is going to happen. Probably something to do with the control module that they were pinging for when the relativistic object hit. Petey's estimate on the worth of Uli-Oa is going to be a vast underestimate.
    I think so too, except I'd say that it can be predicted, at least vaguely. As I said before, I think there is a good chance that the sonar pulse from the impactor hitting the planet is going to reveal something important. Remember the orangutan scientist was excited about what the sonar pulse was going to reveal, although he may have been hoping to find where the big fish were at if the fishing joke is part of the story. In any case, I think they may get a good image of the control module from the pulse and learn more about it. And yes, figuring out how to make the PTUs would be more valuable than the PTUs themselves (Teach a man to fish vs. give a man a fish) so I expect the control module would help them do that somehow. Maybe it would be a control module for a huge anni plant required to make the PTUs, for example.

    Normally Cindercone and Broken Wind should return back to the can of sky for repairs, but perhaps they will realize that the control module is so important that they will stay and try to retrieve it or study it or something before it can be destroyed in the upcoming war.

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    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    Quote Originally Posted by eschmenk View Post
    Maybe, but to me it doesn't work any better as sarcasm. Petey just did it and would probably do it again. If the other person can respond very reasonably, "OK, I'll do that," any sarcasm isn't going to be very effective. He'd have to be so ridiculously stupid that he doesn't know that Petey could do it.
    He knows Petey can do it and he is expressing annoyance at Petey wasting his time instead of just doing whatever he is going to do. If god is going to act he should just do it instead of reprimanding everyone for not being as good as god for doing it.

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    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

    The koala god is losing his patience with the Admiral, seems. But then, the loss of a friend hits all of us. I feel I can cut Petey a little slack for being curt.

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