Schlock Mercenary V: You're Missing Something Wonderful

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I know I practically only post here when I feel I'm missing something, but we do not know what happened to Murtaugh, right? Last we saw her, she seemed to be more together than now, so I'm guessing this is a noodle incident, but can't imagine why we didn't get to see it, or when it could have happened.

GW

[NEO|Phyte]

I know I practically only post here when I feel I'm missing something, but we do not know what happened to Murtaugh, right? Last we saw her, she seemed to be more together than now, so I'm guessing this is a noodle incident, but can't imagine why we didn't get to see it, or when it could have happened.

GW

My initial thought would be from taking the battleplate, but looking back, it sounds like they didn't have to do any of the heavy lifting, just take ownership once it's been swept. So I have no clue, unless they missed some particularly nasty surprises in the sweeping.

[memnarch]

I know I practically only post here when I feel I'm missing something, but we do not know what happened to Murtaugh, right? Last we saw her, she seemed to be more together than now, so I'm guessing this is a noodle incident, but can't imagine why we didn't get to see it, or when it could have happened.

GW

New book, so no, we don't know what happened to Murtaugh.

[Mando Knight]

Yeah, there's a story between the stories... it's going to get told eventually, though it might be awhile before we get there.

[Alent]

My initial thought would be from taking the battleplate, but looking back, it sounds like they didn't have to do any of the heavy lifting, just take ownership once it's been swept. So I have no clue, unless they missed some particularly nasty surprises in the sweeping.

We appear to have missed a very interesting Morokweng Mk2 raid between the end of the last book and the start of this one.

[HandofShadows]

I think it's interesting to show that Schlock is far from the psychopath that many people think he is. He truly DOES care.

[smuchmuch]

About the handfull of people he consider 'friends' or has respect for, yes he cares. The rest he will happily eat alive without a second though.

[Godskook]

I think it's interesting to show that Schlock is far from the psychopath that many people think he is. He truly DOES care.

In as much as someone on the internet can diagnose psychopathy, looking at Schlock through the Triarchic model, he presents with absurd levels of boldness(he eats nannites and chemical baths for fun, base-jumps in hard vacuum without precaution, and picks fights with anything, threat-wise), similar levels of disinhibition(Just read the last few weeks of comics), and an above average meanness(although here, we find that he's not really that far off the charts). He's a psychopath alright, just a loyal one.

[guttering flame]

Can we really blame him? His species doesn't really have rigid individuality. What does it matter if you're shot dead? You will be distributed among the of species-you and be wiser next time species-you pulls off such a stunt. The important thing is to live a thrill-filled life that will create STRONG MEMORIES that will live on forever in your species-you. The rest of the gallaxy with their quaint all consuming individualism and this 'moral' thingy are just weird.

[halfeye]

Can we really blame him? His species doesn't really have rigid individuality. What does it matter if you're shot dead? You will be distributed among the of species-you and be wiser next time species-you pulls off such a stunt. The important thing is to live a thrill-filled life that will create STRONG MEMORIES that will live on forever in your species-you. The rest of the gallaxy with their quaint all consuming individualism and this 'moral' thingy are just weird.

Except he refused a memory swap with the amorphs at the circus apparently on the grounds that they didn't have his security clearances, which is definitely strange, and probably puts Schlock in an anomalous position.

[HandofShadows]

In as much as someone on the internet can diagnose psychopathy, looking at Schlock through the Triarchic model, he presents with absurd levels of boldness(he eats nannites and chemical baths for fun, base-jumps in hard vacuum without precaution, and picks fights with anything, threat-wise), similar levels of disinhibition(Just read the last few weeks of comics), and an above average meanness(although here, we find that he's not really that far off the charts). He's a psychopath alright, just a loyal one.

Your applying human rules and standards to something that is very NOT human. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-05-04 "Schlock is far more alien than 99% of the sapient life you will ever meet".

[NEO|Phyte]

Except he refused a memory swap with the amorphs at the circus apparently on the grounds that they didn't have his security clearances, which is definitely strange, and probably puts Schlock in an anomalous position.

They were on an undercover mission, memory swapping would have broken his cover, and as he pointed out when 'Chelle suggested it, putting lies in the memory swap is (to an amorph, at least) disgusting.

[factotum]

OK, so Murtaugh was in bits due to a bomb. Set by who, and where? Hopefully we'll stick with this little tete-a-tete between Schlock and her rather than switching away.

[Alent]

OK, so Murtaugh was in bits due to a bomb. Set by who, and where? Hopefully we'll stick with this little tete-a-tete between Schlock and her rather than switching away.

Even if we don't find out for a while, it's still nice just to get a subtle confirmation that the toughs do have the longevity treatment.

[Godskook]

Your applying human rules and standards to something that is very NOT human. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-05-04 "Schlock is far more alien than 99% of the sapient life you will ever meet".

Sure, but so is anyone who's using the term psychopath on Schlock.

Even if we don't find out for a while, it's still nice just to get a subtle confirmation that the toughs do have the longevity treatment.

Doesn't confirm anything unless they first suggest that Murtaugh's brain didn't survive intact. Otherwise, its a rather standard injury that Toughs have been coming back from since very early days, with varying difficulties on the quality of recovery based on current gear available.

[Discus-Spinner]

OK, so Murtaugh was in bits due to a bomb. Set by who, and where? Hopefully we'll stick with this little tete-a-tete between Schlock and her rather than switching away.

Obvious guess, though I'm not assuming anything; that battleplate needed sweeping and cleaning up, and it would be quite in character for one or two of the previous occupants to lave a booby trap as a housewarming gift.

[Alent]

Doesn't confirm anything unless they first suggest that Murtaugh's brain didn't survive intact. Otherwise, its a rather standard injury that Toughs have been coming back from since very early days, with varying difficulties on the quality of recovery based on current gear available.

My recollection is that Schlock doesn't normally say "You were dead" when people are alive in a nanniebag, and usually the toughs are awake for regrowing the rest of themselves when they go through the usual dismemberment routine. Just the fact she didn't wake up for four days is a break from pattern by itself.

[Marnath]

My recollection is that Schlock doesn't normally say "You were dead" when people are alive in a nanniebag, and usually the toughs are awake for regrowing the rest of themselves when they go through the usual dismemberment routine. Just the fact she didn't wake up for four days is a break from pattern by itself.

Usually the entire head survives though. It is not inconceivable that you could bag the back two thirds or so without the face that went with it and still have enough to make a person again.

[Godskook]

My recollection is that Schlock doesn't normally say "You were dead" when people are alive in a nanniebag, and usually the toughs are awake for regrowing the rest of themselves when they go through the usual dismemberment routine. Just the fact she didn't wake up for four days is a break from pattern by itself.

That's a nuance I didn't see the first time around, but given that it's schlock, I'm still holding to the "not confirmation" line, although I'll grant you that it is suggestive.

[Landis963]

I just noticed that you can see the first letters of "Jumpstar Prime" on the new battleplate here.

[NEO|Phyte]

My recollection is that Schlock doesn't normally say "You were dead" when people are alive in a nanniebag, and usually the toughs are awake for regrowing the rest of themselves when they go through the usual dismemberment routine. Just the fact she didn't wake up for four days is a break from pattern by itself.

Given the level of technology involved, I suspect that being 'merely' dead isn't near as permanent as it is for us, so long as the brain survives. Though given the number of bits Murtaugh was in, there may well still be some brain shenanigans in the deweaponized laz'r'us, (assuming it got applied to her offscreen).

[PhantomFox]

...random question. What's the upper limit on size for something that you can terraport? Has it been stated? Now I'm imagining terraporting entire planets to use as missile weapons.

[NEO|Phyte]

...random question. What's the upper limit on size for something that you can terraport? Has it been stated? Now I'm imagining terraporting entire planets to use as missile weapons.

Not stated to my knowledge, but I suspect that you would need Petey levels of power to terraport something that size, and that's WITHOUT brute-forcing through TAD.

[Foeofthelance]

Teraporting uses the mass of the object being teleported as a power source. The problem would be closer to what they did to Credomar; making sure everything ends up in the right place at the right time. Otherwise, you'd just end up missing a mountain or two that got used as fuel.

[Landis963]

Teraporting uses the mass of the object being teleported as a power source. The problem would be closer to what they did to Credomar; making sure everything ends up in the right place at the right time. Otherwise, you'd just end up missing a mountain or two that got used as fuel.

Or you'd end up with everyone and everything looking like Swiss cheese or something (). Wasn't there a bug/feature near the start of teraport development that used random atoms as fuel instead of specified objects? (I know that was immediately tossed out for comedy value, but still)

[Kornaki]

Or you'd end up with everyone and everything looking like Swiss cheese or something (). Wasn't there a bug/feature near the start of teraport development that used random atoms as fuel instead of specified objects? (I know that was immediately tossed out for comedy value, but still)

Has it ever been stated that it doesn't do that now?

[Douglas]

Has it ever been stated that it doesn't do that now?

Yes, later versions of the teraport take their energy from designated fuel. I'm not sure if that's been specifically mentioned in-comic, but there is at least one author's note about it somewhere.

[Godskook]

Teraporting uses the mass of the object being teleported as a power source. The problem would be closer to what they did to Credomar; making sure everything ends up in the right place at the right time. Otherwise, you'd just end up missing a mountain or two that got used as fuel.

I could've sworn they phased out that particular technology in later versions, but can't recall when or if it was mentioned for sure.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Or you'd end up with everyone and everything looking like Swiss cheese or something (). Wasn't there a bug/feature near the start of teraport development that used random atoms as fuel instead of specified objects? (I know that was immediately tossed out for comedy value, but still)

Not particularly Relevant though, sure you lose a hunk of mass but what would you want to terraport a planet for? only two good reasons for it One, Evacuation..which at this point it is probably easier to build something like the can of sky rather than to port a whole planet into a new orbit..because that would have a thousand different difficulties to it.

The other, losing a bit off mass is okay...because your goal is to take a planet..and throw it into another planet, it is basically the Ultimate WMD if you have enough power to do it....

OH GOD DON'T LET THE DARK MATTER ALIENS GET THAT IDEA.

[Godskook]

OH GOD DON'T LET THE DARK MATTER ALIENS GET THAT IDEA.

Isn't this that idea: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2006-04-02