Schlock Mercenary III: One million years of crowdsourced kitten videos

[teratorn]

They may be hiding UNS involvement by hiring mercenary fleets. Don't forget also that for some reason a lot of battleplates are close to Earth. They may deploy one of those but only as last resort.

[Gnoman]

Right, I didn't expect that. But isn't TAG a light cruiser? I'd expect a battleship or two to be sent in, and that would be far more difficult.

[ChowGuy]

Right, I didn't expect that. But isn't TAG a light cruiser? I'd expect a battleship or two to be sent in, and that would be far more difficult.

Don't mistake Schlock ship designations for those 20th/21st century Anglo/American types.

Touch-and-Go was a originally a 450 meter Daehremman destroyer, now cut down to perhaps 300 to 350 meters (I don't believe Howard has said exactly), but still within the same size range as either a UNS destroyer (200-400 meter, eg Breya's flagship Athens was a 400 meter destroyer) or a UNS batlleship (eg, the embassy ship Terra Firminator was also about 400 meters.)

Their relative firepower or mission usage is unclear, but the Colonel Pranger (nee Integrity, later TAG) did not seem overly concerned about being fired on by what they mistook for a battleship.

A Schlockiverse cruiser is much smaller. Both the Kitesfear (Dragon class cruiser) and the Serial Peacemaker (modified Ob'enn troop ship but referred to as "cruiser size") were in the 30 to 60 meter range.

Of course, Ceepee was probably a bit more competent then Ennesby.

[NEO|Phyte]

Nothing like a weapon delivery system that manages to be about as horrible as the weapon itself.

[factotum]

Whoever the girl is, she looks like she's dead by the fifth panel--even in comics, human jaws are not designed to open that wide! Scratch her being Krum, in that case.

[Coidzor]

That's what I was thinking...

Mmm, bourbon.

[Rockphed]

This leads me to wonder why the toughs didn't have armor when they started, seeing as both Tagons wore the stuff during the terraforming wars. Maybe Captain Tagon just didn't have the budget for the stuff, and never really got into a position to need it until the stupid food commandos.

[Gnoman]

Don't mistake Schlock ship designations for those 20th/21st century Anglo/American types.

Touch-and-Go was a originally a 450 meter Daehremman destroyer, now cut down to perhaps 300 to 350 meters (I don't believe Howard has said exactly), but still within the same size range as either a UNS destroyer (200-400 meter, eg Breya's flagship Athens was a 400 meter destroyer) or a UNS batlleship (eg, the embassy ship Terra Firminator was also about 400 meters.)

Their relative firepower or mission usage is unclear, but the Colonel Pranger (nee Integrity, later TAG) did not seem overly concerned about being fired on by what they mistook for a battleship.

A Schlockiverse cruiser is much smaller. Both the Kitesfear (Dragon class cruiser) and the Serial Peacemaker (modified Ob'enn troop ship but referred to as "cruiser size") were in the 30 to 60 meter range.

Of course, Ceepee was probably a bit more competent then Ennesby.

That strip suggests that the ship, before being torn in half and rebuilt, wasn't so outclassed by a UNS battleship that it wasn't worth fighting. It does not suggest that they could eliminate even one battleship with the ease that is being displayed in this current fight, especially since NSB readily admits he's not that good at it. Thus, the attack now is not being pressed with the force that I would expect. In other words, it's a trap.

[Rockphed]

That strip suggests that the ship, before being torn in half and rebuilt, wasn't so outclassed by a UNS battleship that it wasn't worth fighting. It does not suggest that they could eliminate even one battleship with the ease that is being displayed in this current fight, especially since NSB readily admits he's not that good at it. Thus, the attack now is not being pressed with the force that I would expect. In other words, it's a trap.

Or the attacking corvette and support were not aware that Tagon's Toughs were defending this installation. Of course, I expect another bee-keeper-with-flamethrower moment when Tagii comes back online.

[Landis963]

Or the attacking corvette and support were not aware that Tagon's Toughs were defending this installation. Of course, I expect another bee-keeper-with-flamethrower moment when Tagii comes back online.

Assuming, of course, that she hasn't gone completely mad from the isolation.

[The Glyphstone]

That would just change the decision of who plays the bees in the analogy.

[Landis963]

Ventura's reaction can mean one of two things. 1) that processing power is drastically important for some reason that we as non-AI-experts can't guess at. 2) the suicide order has gone through. 1 is probably better than 2, if only because it means Ventura is still around to help.

[sihnfahl]

My guess is - it's being consumed by TAGII. She's no longer 'in the ball'... she's literally in the ship...

[BRC]

Remember that one comic we had of "Trapped" Tagii going insane?
I think what Ventura realized is that, when they disconnected Tagii, all they did was shut her off from the ships systems, NOT the processing power. She's got all that processing power, and nothing to do with it. She just realized that, while they've been talking, Tagii has been trapped, alone, in her own mind, for what feels like centuries.

[NEO|Phyte]

2) the suicide order has gone through.

I am not an expert on neurotoxins, but I suspect one that was designed with 'retiring' assets in mind would not result in screaming, but rather instant death, preferably with a side-order of brain trauma to ensure they stay dead.

[Coidzor]

Pretty sure that's her realizing that Tagii has gone rampant and insane due to being improperly shut down.

[memnarch]

Wow.

Uhh..... yeah.

Damn.

[Bulldog Psion]

Um... wow.

[ChowGuy]

It certainly sheds new light on Karl's comment about "If there has to be a sacrifice..." No wonder he's so hard on Kaff "still playing captain"; he's never forgiven him for hesitating. And I expect Kaff's never forgiven himself either and that's why he left active duty.

[factotum]

I agree with ChowGuy there. It certainly explains where the current coolness between Kaff and his father started.

[HandofShadows]

Spoiler

Show

Hey someone that didn't get turned. And an important source of info.

[Douglas]

I wonder why she's still herself. Did she never watch TV, and thus not receive the reprogramming, or is it something less likely to be a one-off, such as being female? I could see a transformation into a male soldier failing due to differences in female physiology.

On the other hand, these appear to be the Laz'r'us nannies which are pretty much super-tech, and they're also the same nannies that made her female in the first place; it would have to be something like an oversight by the programmers or a problem with applying an exactly identical program to everyone, it's certainly not a lack in basic capability.

[Rockphed]

Maybe she is a recent enough gavmogre not to have been rewritten.

[Coidzor]

I wonder why she's still herself. Did she never watch TV, and thus not receive the reprogramming, or is it something less likely to be a one-off, such as being female? I could see a transformation into a male soldier failing due to differences in female physiology.

On the other hand, these appear to be the Laz'r'us nannies which are pretty much super-tech, and they're also the same nannies that made her female in the first place; it would have to be something like an oversight by the programmers or a problem with applying an exactly identical program to everyone, it's certainly not a lack in basic capability.

There was a female gavmogre in the quarantine, IIRC.

I can't remember which gavmogre this was though I seem to recall her being in charge of the one (Bennie?) that squished his own head.

[The Glyphstone]

I think it's more likely she just didn't look at a TV since they started broadcasting the activation signal.

[ChowGuy]

I can't remember which gavmogre this was though I seem to recall her being in charge of the one (Bennie?) that squished his own head.

Danita, she's an excavation engineer.

Maybe she is a recent enough gavmogre not to have been rewritten.

Unlikely, given her reference to "lately, I'm the greeter" I'm inclined to think her initial job being pretty much done, she's now being used to fill in on other duties(*). She may in fact have been among the first personnel on the scene, so escaped whatever corruption Crum/Emm later cooked up.


(*) Typical. We engineers do all the work of figuring out how to get the job done, then some ogre bean-counter comes in and says, "OK, thanks, we'll take it from here."

ETA for smiley, lest I offend some ogre bean-counter

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

"The Magic Word".

I was waiting for someone to suggest they bug out. Red-hack is scary stuff.

So, predictions for the other shoe dropping? How soon will it be till something new emerges that makes leaving difficult or impossible? I'm guessing we'll see it tomorrow, and in 10 days Tagon's team, Elf's team, and Kevyn's team will all aware of it.

[NEO|Phyte]

My prediction: The evac gets interrupted by Krum's plan B.

[Rockphed]

My prediction: The evac gets interrupted by Krum's plan B.

Or Gav negotiates a new contract to retake the base.

[factotum]

It already *is* difficult to evac, IMHO--they have half their team at the bottom of a six-kilometre shaft, and we have no idea if Ennesby's control over the Touch-and-Go's teraports is precise enough to get them out. If they have to fly out then that's going to take time, and that gives opportunities for something else to happen that stops them in their tracks.

Plus, of course, the decision isn't Elf's to make anyway--it's actually up to Kevyn whether they pull out or not.