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

[HandofShadows]

Yes, that is interesting. Though Kaff does not see that distinction.

[Kornaki]

Tailor made that distinction too before they woke him up.

[guttering flame]

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Where are these aliens and what are they stealing exactly?

[Rockphed]

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Where are these aliens and what are they stealing exactly?

We don't know either of those answers, but the last time we saw them was here.

[The Glyphstone]

They're probably poking something that shouldn't be poked, and are about to awaken something better left sleeping. We're not going to get much info on them because their narrative role is to die horribly letting the bad thing of the story arc loose..

[Landis963]

They're probably poking something that shouldn't be poked, and are about to awaken something better left sleeping. We're not going to get much info on them because their narrative role is to die horribly letting the bad thing of the story arc loose..

Yeah this. Mainly because the "artifact" they're poking at is the size of a planet, and I can think of only one artifact in the Schlockiverse that fits with its visuals. In addition, that artifact happens to make Pa'anuri. Which means an uncontrolled DaME is going to be set loose, deep in Fleetmind territory. Without warning.

[Grim Portent]

I doubt they'll awaken/create a Pa'anuri, the DMEs are not that big a threat to any space faring power individually since a small fleet with teraport technology and it's derivatives can blitz them.

It'll be something else, either they find some ancient secret that drives us closer to an apocalyptic AI scenario or they find something worse than the Pa'anuri but similarly malevolent.

[WhovianBeast]

Or they just accidentally press the self-destruct button.

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[The Glyphstone]

Stellar Enclosure = Dyson Sphere?

[Wayson]

Stellar Enclosure = Dyson Sphere?

That's what I'm interpreting it as.

Of course, is it REALLY a stellar enclosure? Or is it actually a prison for something like a C'Tan?

[The Glyphstone]

That's what I'm interpreting it as.

Of course, is it REALLY a stellar enclosure? Or is it actually a prison for something like a C'Tan?

Why not both? What sort of thing would you need an entire Dyson sphere to contain (or alternatively, the output of an entire star to power said prison)?

[factotum]

Mainly because the "artifact" they're poking at is the size of a planet, and I can think of only one artifact in the Schlockiverse that fits with its visuals. In addition, that artifact happens to make Pa'anuri. Which means an uncontrolled DaME is going to be set loose, deep in Fleetmind territory. Without warning.

Petey spent an awful lot of power to take Oisri away--so much that he wasn't then able to save Kaff from his self-immolation via warhead. Do you seriously think he's just left it with no overwatch, so any random Joe can come along and have a look? There are only two realistic possibilities here, to my mind: either this *is* Oisri, in which case these guys are actually working for Petey, or it isn't--and the latter seems considerably more likely given what we've just heard in the current strip (Oisri was not a stellar enclosure of any kind).

[Landis963]

Petey spent an awful lot of power to take Oisri away--so much that he wasn't then able to save Kaff from his self-immolation via warhead. Do you seriously think he's just left it with no overwatch, so any random Joe can come along and have a look? There are only two realistic possibilities here, to my mind: either this *is* Oisri, in which case these guys are actually working for Petey, or it isn't--and the latter seems considerably more likely given what we've just heard in the current strip (Oisri was not a stellar enclosure of any kind).

In fairness to past!me, it is not immediately apparent that the artifact is a stellar enclosure (like I said, I presumed it to be planet-sized, not solar-system-sized). So yes, now is not the time to panic.

[Slayn82]

Someone posted a link to Howard's words on the original Kites Fear, and I went to look the previous strip: (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-03-20). I hope Schlock gets back to the Reverend on that one.

[eschmenk]

I doubt they'll awaken/create a Pa'anuri, the DMEs are not that big a threat to any space faring power individually since a small fleet with teraport technology and it's derivatives can blitz them.

It'll be something else, either they find some ancient secret that drives us closer to an apocalyptic AI scenario or they find something worse than the Pa'anuri but similarly malevolent.

Individual DMEs aren't that big of a threat, but as far as we know, the DMEs are what are responsible for periodically destroying all civilization in the galaxy. Something must happen periodically that unleashes a tremendous number of them or makes them very dangerous somehow.

HT tends to reuse his ideas, but often with twists. The Archive that the Toughs captured for Petey thought that the information it contained would destroy the galaxy. The logic the Archive used was ridiculous, but given the way HT reuses his ideas, there is a good chance that the Archive was actually right about some information being extremely dangerous; it just thought so for the wrong reasons and it might have also been wrong about which archive had the dangerous information.

My current guess is that the information temps civilizations into trying something that somehow results in the DME Armageddon. Petey may be immune because he can run enough simulations to figure out what goes wrong. Alternatively, the Gatekeepers may have understood the danger and perhaps Petey learned from them. I'm not sure if this is a Gatekeeper Dyson Sphere or something that goes back to time of the original Oafa, though.

(I'm taking advantage of information of some information that wasn't available when Grim Portent posted.)

[Grim Portent]

One thing that may be worth thinking about is if the Oafan's made the original Pa'anuri birthing tech or if they learned/found it from elsewhere themselves similar to how the Gavs found Oisri.

We may be looking at a Mass Effect style cycle in which each Galactic civilization is at least partly based on prior technology they discover, and none of them properly research it before becoming dependent on technology that births and enslaves Pa'anuri, ultimately leading to their destruction.

[Rockphed]

One thing that may be worth thinking about is if the Oafan's made the original Pa'anuri birthing tech or if they learned/found it from elsewhere themselves similar to how the Gavs found Oisri.

We may be looking at a Mass Effect style cycle in which each Galactic civilization is at least partly based on prior technology they discover, and none of them properly research it before becoming dependent on technology that births and enslaves Pa'anuri, ultimately leading to their destruction.

Yeah, my reaction to the apparent drive to create and enslave pa'anuri was "this is morally wrong and stupid to boot".

[factotum]

Yeah, my reaction to the apparent drive to create and enslave pa'anuri was "this is morally wrong and stupid to boot".

They might not have realised that what they were creating was sentient--they just knew it was a good power source, and only when it broke free and started to attack them did they realise what they'd done. Bit too late to do anything about it by then, of course.

[guttering flame]

They might not have realised that what they were creating was sentient--they just knew it was a good power source, and only when it broke free and started to attack them did they realise what they'd done. Bit too late to do anything about it by then, of course.

Yet in present time one of our mercenaries suggested repeating the technique immediately after learning it was possible.

[factotum]

Yet in present time one of our mercenaries suggested repeating the technique immediately after learning it was possible.

"Our mercenaries" are not exactly the leading edge of morality in the galaxy.

[HandofShadows]

Also they were talking about creating dark matter. That does not mean they were talking about making Dark Matter Entities.

[tonberrian]

So how does Kaff's personnel losses stack up to his ship losses? I think he's ahead on personnel, definitely if nanny-bagging counts, but I'm going to draw the line at Lazarus nanites - nanny-bagging doesn't count as a death, but Lazarus resurrections do if a nanny bag wouldn't be sufficient.

[smuchmuch]

(Counting both the Scrapeyard and TAG twice on the ship count feels a tad unfair)

Someone posted a link to Howard's words on the original Kites Fear, and I went to look the previous strip: (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-03-20). I hope Schlock gets back to the Reverend on that one.

For that matter I do hope Howard himself apreciate the irony

So how does Kaff's personnel losses stack up to his ship losses? I think he's ahead on personnel, definitely if nanny-bagging counts, but I'm going to draw the line at Lazarus nanites - nanny-bagging doesn't count as a death, but Lazarus resurrections do if a nanny bag wouldn't be sufficient.

I'd say lazarus nanites shouldn't count as a death unless the brain was mostly destroyed.
Anyhow, so ar taggon had a very low rate of mortality under his command.

[The Glyphstone]

For that matter I do hope Howard himself apreciate the irony

Is it irony? Or is it absurdly long-cast foreshadowing hidden in the context of a 'joke'?

[keybounce]

I'm going to go with Foreshadowing. Even back then, I think he knew the planned long-term arc of the covenant rebirthing/resurrection technology.

I think he knew what he was doing back in the first year when we saw the magic cryokit. That lead to the whole red-reo nannies, which leads to the whole immortality tech

[NEO|Phyte]

Thinking about it, it's times like this that make me wonder how much readers influence things. We have esch complaining about how the Toughs have been using ships that don't really fit their needs, and now that the toughs have some actual breathing room (and a timeskip), they're getting some purpose-built ships instead of running off of oafan refits.

[eschmenk]

Is it irony? Or is it absurdly long-cast foreshadowing hidden in the context of a 'joke'?

As I said in my previous comment, HT tends to reuse his ideas, but often with twists. I think this is an example of one way in which he does that. I assume he planned to use the idea, but made a quick joke out of it first.

Thinking about it, it's times like this that make me wonder how much readers influence things. We have esch complaining about how the Toughs have been using ships that don't really fit their needs, and now that the toughs have some actual breathing room (and a timeskip), they're getting some purpose-built ships instead of running off of oafan refits.

I hope HT didn't need the readers to tell him that it didn't make sense for the Toughs to keep using ships that weren't appropriate for them. But this isn't the first time since they got Broken Wind and Cindercone where there was a time skip and the Toughs had some breathing room.

[keybounce]

I think HT does read, or at least skim, the forums for his comics. It helps any author to understand what their readers are thinking, and it's not like he has a lot of places to check.

I mean, there's here, there's zoo.nightstar, and ... anyone else got a (probably long) list? :-)

[eschmenk]

I think HT does read, or at least skim, the forums for his comics. It helps any author to understand what their readers are thinking, and it's not like he has a lot of places to check.

I mean, there's here, there's zoo.nightstar, and ... anyone else got a (probably long) list? :-)

There are other types of communication besides forums such as this. He lists a few here. (The nightstar formum is included threre, but it's the only forum.) There are also going to be emails sent directly to him. Also some people might communicate by tweeting at him. There would even be some old-fashioned face-to-face communication at the conversions he attends.

I'm pretty sure that we've seen him correct mistakes rather quickly, which probably means he's getting feedback from somewhere. (He misspelled a French word in one case, IIRC.) That sort of thing may be best handled via email or something like that, though. Also, although this was years ago, IIRC he made it pretty clear that he knew the fans would be happy when he brought Petey back.

Just in case you misunderstood my previous comment, the my point wasn't about HT getting feedback -- my point was that the issue was so obvious, hopefully HT figured it out himself. Assuming he needed to rely upon the readers' feedback would amount to assuming a pretty bad failure on his part.

[factotum]

OK, this is starting to get confusing now. Are we supposed to know who owns the Tzundigo? Why is someone who they apparently know shooting missiles at them?