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

[Onyavar]

Yes you can: you can go somewhere where there are no cameras you don't control, and turn off yours.

GW

Which means to turn off not only cameras, but all Hypernet-capable devices.

He's not trying to get out of range or hide. He thinks the Kitty Nation wants to shoot him so he wants to go where they won't care about him anymore.

Okay, that makes sense. We the readers know more than the protagonists.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Which means to turn off not only cameras, but all Hypernet-capable devices.

Yes, that's what I meant. But it would give them the month they need to laz their fallen back to life, and possibly come up with a plan of action. Retreating when under attack when you can't do anything about taking further massive damage is not "madness" on Tagon's part.

GW

[factotum]

Galactic war ensues as every government that was attacked launches retaliatory or defensive strikes on their local worst enemy/ expansion target they want an excuse to attack.

Galactic war has happened already in the strip and it hasn't resulted in the extermination of all life, so I think there has to be more to it than that.

[tyckspoon]

Galactic war has happened already in the strip and it hasn't resulted in the extermination of all life, so I think there has to be more to it than that.

Previous galactic wars (in this cycle) did not involve the Long Guns. There was not the capability to arbitrarily destroy any target you can define the location of. Teraport had that possibility, but the defense against it was released before everybody could figure out how to weaponize it in that respect. There's a reason the All-Star minds referred to the Long Gun as, IIRC, the 'End Guns.'

[Wayson]

Previous galactic wars (in this cycle) did not involve the Long Guns. There was not the capability to arbitrarily destroy any target you can define the location of. Teraport had that possibility, but the defense against it was released before everybody could figure out how to weaponize it in that respect. There's a reason the All-Star minds referred to the Long Gun as, IIRC, the 'End Guns.'

This. Being able to fire on any target, instantaneously, from anywhere? That's the stuff of apocalypses. There's no delay for cooler heads to prevail, or for more data to come out.

Chinook isn't going to go after the Toughs, she's going to go after the people she thinks are after the Toughs. I see things spiraling out of control quickly once Long Guns start being deployed en masse.

[JavaScribe]

Petey said that he can't think of anyone he knows of with long guns and a reason to use them like this. Chinook's sanity is questionable. Maybe all the previous blasts were already her doing.

[Wayson]

Petey said that he can't think of anyone he knows of with long guns and a reason to use them like this. Chinook's sanity is questionable. Maybe all the previous blasts were already her doing.

If she's editing her memories constantly, she could be responsible and never know the truth.

[factotum]

If she's editing her memories constantly, she could be responsible and never know the truth.

Or she might be fully aware of what actually happened and is fabricating an excuse to go after Petey. Question is, what's her motive for doing that? That's what we're missing right now, and I don't think "She's insane so anything goes" is a good enough reason.

[Doran]

WHY was she put in charge of Can of Sky again?

[PraetorDragoon]

WHY was she put in charge of Can of Sky again?

Lack of other options.

[factotum]

As I recall, she was originally sent in to negotiate with the supposedly even more insane AI of the can full of sky. When he decided to pilot Broken Wind she just kind of got left in there by default.

[Max_Killjoy]

This seems really straightforward... I can't help thinking we're missing something still.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

This seems really straightforward... I can't help thinking we're missing something still.

Today's installment makes everything even more too straightforward. An AI installed in a can full of sky worth of alien servers thinks you can suppress technology by shooting all the current copies and being done with it. Yeah. A few days ago I was willing to hand out a let handed compliment that TAG is ironically the most human of the big AI's, but she's really just still crazy isn't she?

[Onyavar]

She should start with the mysterious attacker. As she probably doesn't know who it is and where they store the guns, she will start with the UNS and Petey.
If petey is smart enough, he either manage to calm her down in the next few comics, or he destroys the self proclaimed "soiled goddess of windy plumbing". Let's hope he knows where all her copies are.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Petey is smart, but not the best at dealing with the rare problem he didn't seen coming. And somehow it seems he didn't see this coming. Since Kevin isn't around I think our new friend from the Allstar might be going to solve this one.

[Xanyo]

I'm hoping that Putzho eventually manages to contact the AllStar. There were some fun characters there, and it would be interesting to see the AllStar actually take some risks to help save civilization.
Although, if I were in the Schlockverse at this time, I would get Petey's help in building a Zero Dawn station in a secluded location, stocking it with annies, fabbers, cloning rigs, and gestalt, including Laz 5s. As a contingency - if civilization is destroyed, the Zero Dawn station will allow me to partially restore it.

[Doran]

As I recall, she was originally sent in to negotiate with the supposedly even more insane AI of the can full of sky. When he decided to pilot Broken Wind she just kind of got left in there by default.

But Ennesby, as irritating as he is, would be by FAR a better option.

[Xanyo]

Ennesby didn't want to risk playing Trojan. Tagii was the one on the operational side of the firewall, and T'kutts Afa moved out. Leaving, as we've seen, the newly rechristened and not completely stable Chinook.

So, good news! We have an explanation for Chinook's relapse! Bad news! We have an explanation for Chinook's relapse!

Maybe Iafa could manage to talk some sense into her. Although, I consider Petey's most prudent action here to be an invasive rewrite. That, or a forced eviction from the station's systems, replacing her with a member of the fleetmind; recommend Athens. Chinook may have long guns, but Petey almost certainly has Ennesby's rudimentary understanding of the ancient systems, refined and backed by enough computing power to smash one station's firewall. Ennesby and Tagii weren't strong enough to do battle with an angry god, but the Fleetmind is.

Tl;dr Petey should hack Chinook now. And then he can focus on finding the shooter.

[Max_Killjoy]

Chinook is backed up with ludicrous redundancy... hopefully she can be restored from one of those without the memory edits.

[runeghost]

Today's installment makes everything even more too straightforward. An AI installed in a can full of sky worth of alien servers thinks you can suppress technology by shooting all the current copies and being done with it. Yeah. A few days ago I was willing to hand out a let handed compliment that TAG is ironically the most human of the big AI's, but she's really just still crazy isn't she?

At this point (and after this most recent strip) my money is on:

Spoiler: Theory on our perp

Show

Chinook / Tag being the one who Long-gunned Maxim 39. Thurl, Para and Kevyn (and maybe Ennesby) were just too tempting, so she took the shot. (After all, they could be restored from backup, so she wasn't really killing anyone, just.. releasing some stress.) And she doubtless then felt guilty and awful over her lapse of control, and immediately deleted the memory.

[geoduck]

At this point (and after this most recent strip) my money is on:

Spoiler: Theory on our perp

Show

Chinook / Tag being the one who Long-gunned Maxim 39. Thurl, Para and Kevyn (and maybe Ennesby) were just too tempting, so she took the shot. (After all, they could be restored from backup, so she wasn't really killing anyone, just.. releasing some stress.) And she doubtless then felt guilty and awful over her lapse of control, and immediately deleted the memory.

No. Unless

Spoiler

Show

she's the one who's been longgunning everybody for some reason. Whoever shot the Maxim followed the pattern established by the other incidents.

[Wayson]

I'm still in the camp of 'Chinook is behind all the Long Gun attacks and will be the one who ends the current civilization cycle'. Been in it since 2 Dec 2017.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

No. Unless

Spoiler

Show

she's the one who's been longgunning everybody for some reason. Whoever shot the Maxim followed the pattern established by the other incidents.

Could be a nice twist. Whoever is behind it, I think someone is going to try to lure them out in the open sometime soon. Maybe measure angles of impact and then try to register vessels teraporting out of the line-shaped area the shot could have originated from? Is that a thing, or can the guns shoot around corners outside of normal space (similar to how a teraport can change the speed of whatever it's teraporting)? If anyone has the resources to do this it's Petey, the mistress of crazy and plumbing or the guy who will save the universe by being in it might have to supply the idea though. Maybe even Kevyn ones he's back up on his feet.

[NEO|Phyte]

Could be a nice twist. Whoever is behind it, I think someone is going to try to lure them out in the open sometime soon. Maybe measure angles of impact and then try to register vessels teraporting out of the line-shaped area the shot could have originated from? Is that a thing, or can the guns shoot around corners outside of normal space (similar to how a teraport can change the speed of whatever it's teraporting)? If anyone has the resources to do this it's Petey, the mistress of crazy and plumbing or the guy who will save the universe by being in it might have to supply the idea though. Maybe even Kevyn ones he's back up on his feet.

To my knowledge, nothing about Long Guns require the gun to be pointed towards the target.

[factotum]

To my knowledge, nothing about Long Guns require the gun to be pointed towards the target.

Really? All the long guns we've seen fire a very obvious beam, the only difference is that the beam gets transported to its destination via a wormhole rather than firing directly. I don't think we've ever seen an indication that the beam's direction can also be changed by the wormhole? So, triangulating back the directions of the fire would work--except that the gun might be thousands of light-years from the target, so even a tiny error in measuring its angle would result in a huge error in distance at the other end. Even with Schlock technology, finding someone who explicitly doesn't want to be found in a globe several light-years across is going to be a problem.

[Knaight]

Really? All the long guns we've seen fire a very obvious beam, the only difference is that the beam gets transported to its destination via a wormhole rather than firing directly. I don't think we've ever seen an indication that the beam's direction can also be changed by the wormhole? So, triangulating back the directions of the fire would work--except that the gun might be thousands of light-years from the target, so even a tiny error in measuring its angle would result in a huge error in distance at the other end. Even with Schlock technology, finding someone who explicitly doesn't want to be found in a globe several light-years across is going to be a problem.

There's no real reason to think that wormholes generally conserve direction for things that go through them, and a few good reasons to think they don't (the gatekeeper clones).

[HandofShadows]

At this point (and after this most recent strip) my money is on:

Spoiler: Theory on our perp

Show

Chinook / Tag being the one who Long-gunned Maxim 39. Thurl, Para and Kevyn (and maybe Ennesby) were just too tempting, so she took the shot. (After all, they could be restored from backup, so she wasn't really killing anyone, just.. releasing some stress.) And she doubtless then felt guilty and awful over her lapse of control, and immediately deleted the memory.

Spoiler

Show

Unless Chinook has a multipule personality disorder I don't see how this would work.

[Dexam]

Today's comic:

Begun, the Code Wars have!</yoda_voice>

[Xanyo]

To hopefully resolve the directional debate: During the debacle at Dom Atlantis, they required two points to fire along. As they were able to make a guess for the points, they must needs have had a a wide range of angles to choose from. A long gun can place it's shot anywhere. It need not be oriented. LOTA was hardly designed to rotate, now was it?

As for the present strip: invasive hack. As I said would likely be Petey's best option. Even with the massively redundant backups - no, especially with. I doubt she's already edited the backups.

[guttering flame]

The debris could contain trace elements from the long gun shot origin point. If different species build different versions of the Long Gun it's possible to conclude who shot it and even which long gun they used. Also galaxy wide sensor net might detect simultaneous energy flares at the ends of the log gun shot.