A Call to... Arms - Page 127

[orion1836]

The thirst for blue space elf romcom is strong.

Any chance of just going the Light Novel route Arioch? Then use the sales money for an artist to do the comic, or rely on the LN sales to concentrate fully on a comic version. Interest in an animated series could spring from the LN alone.

Do you want another Monster Musume? Because that's how you get another Monster Musume.

[CrimsonFALKE]

Well given Beryl's xenophilia wouldn't be safe to assume her romantic interests could be based on something different?

Last time this came up I was able to turn up the text of the xenophilia disadvantage as defined in GURPS. I can't find it again, but from memory it was along the lines of you have to pass a willpower test or assume that anyone exotic to you wants to talk to you extensively about their exoticness, contrary to any evidence. It means you talk the ear off anyone new, not automatically that you want to bone all the aliens.

Of course, the sheets shouldn't be treated perfect representations of their character, but I think this still bears mentioning.

True but what I meant was that she develops feelings on a different path than what a normal Loroi relationship would be. I think that maybe with her xenophilia and the intamcy they have clearly begun developing something could happen.

[SVlad]

Because they don't want to tip the Loroi off they have the ability to evade farseers just yet. Everytime they commit a group of farseer-invisible Umiak they have to wipe out *all* Loroi engaged - every single one - or intelligence of the new Umiak development would make it back to Loroi command. Protecting intelligence by way of killing everyone that sees it is a valid strategy in this universe because intelligence only travels at the speed of ships - not light. We know that this has worked in multiple engagements so far because they passed through multiple farseer checkpoints and still got an ambush off, so not a single ship from earlier farseer systems made it over to the next one.

Shouldn't Loroi detect their farseer outpost just vanish in this case ?

[GeoModder]

As far as I understand the Farseer ability, they don't have to be explitedly at the frontline(s), so I wonder why the talk about 'Farseer outposts' comes up here.
I reckon the checkpoints Beryl was talking about are just regular patrols in the systems beyond Rallis, on which the Umiak somehow got the jump on.

A question about location detection by Farseers: Does a Farseer on a given location only detect the direction of a given alien group of signatures, and needs to trianguate in cooperation with Farseers stationed in other star systems to determine distance, or can a single Farseer detect both direction and distance of such a group of alien signatures.

[inxsi]

So for the next bit of cultural sharing, will Beryl explain about skin to skin and other touching and Alex discuss the human superstition of jinxing it?

[icekatze]

hi hi

To follow what GeoModder said, it is also my understanding that farseers are located at the place where the information needs to be to make a decision. Strike groups may have farseers onboard in order to give them up-to-date intel on where enemy fleets are, and farseers may be back at base in order to send fleets out. It doesn't do any good to have them on the border, because even though they can detect things at light years away, whoever they're telling about it needs to be in the same place they are.

Farseers, not farshouters.

[SVlad]

Anyway, shouldn't Loroi farseers, wherever they are, detect the vanish of regular loroi at outposts?

[dragoongfa]

Depends if the outposts are automated or not. Having personnel creates a whole range of issues, ranging from regular supply runs, to personnel rotation, to having to have warships posted to keep said personnel safe if not from the enemy then from themselves as knowing that there is no backup for you coming in case of trouble creates an other whole range of personnel issues.

Having an automated outpost that holds and sends FTL drone ships to carry a message is the best counter from having to spend a lot more resources for having manned outposts that essentially are the same thing. With an automated system in place there will be two issues to be addressed, maintenance and electronic warfare. Maintaining an automated network is relatively straightforward and could be done with a couple of ships that would check on each outpost every month or so but countering electronic warfare is not so easy.

If someone knows how to hack the systems then the whole network is useless. I think that this is where Beryl's comment about the outposts comes in play. The outlying outposts in the unlikely avenues of attack are all automated and rely on FTL drone ships and light speed burst transmissions after each jump to send a message. If such a network becomes infiltrated then the Loroi suddenly become half blind in any potential attacks through such a point of approach. For someone without Farseers this would be a huge liability but the Loroi do have Farseers who would have detected an assault force taking the long way around anyway.

EDIT: Thinking about it, I think that this is a hint that the Historians have helped the Umiak, if the outposts are automated then they are the only ones with the know how to hack them without triggering an alarm.

[Chekist_Felix]

Anyway, shouldn't Loroi farseers, wherever they are, detect the vanish of regular loroi at outposts?

Outpost probably wasn't numerous enough in personnel to be detectable by farseer.

[dragoongfa]

Anyway, shouldn't Loroi farseers, wherever they are, detect the vanish of regular loroi at outposts?

Outpost probably wasn't numerous enough in personnel to be detectable by farseer.

IIRC word of God is that if there is a single mind in a whole star system then farseers are sensitive enough to detect it.

[novius]

EDIT - Long term though? Alex never goes home. Beryl asks Tempo to work in a rider in the eventual treaty with Humanity that appoints Alex as a 'long term liaison' permanently assigned to Loroi space.

I hope I'm wrong, but Talon and Spiral seem to be in the perfect spot for a tragic death. The law of conservation of characters I mentioned earlier runs both ways. There's enough to them to make the audience like and care for the characters, but they're not part of the main group. Losing Reed or Shoegirl (Cloud?) wouldn't have much emotional impact if Arioch wanted to punch up the stakes, but the pilots? Yeah... here's hoping they become part of the main group.

I see about the same thing. Hooking up with Tempo, the self-assigned counterpart to him in the sense of diplomatic liaison? Bad call, both sides would call his (and her) professionalism into question. Beryl on the other hand would seem a much more palatable choice, perhaps one that would be even sort-of encouraged on the Loroi side, for her to do her job as a Listel and get a .. ahem .. deeper insight into human society and customs. Though... that could be giving her too much honors - granting her exclusive access to a specific male, alien or not.

About Talon and Spiral, though... I get the same feeling. Talon's interaction with Alex may have been a storytelling device to make Alex show that Loroi do have similar values of companionship than humans do, which counts for much when being on the front lines. With that 'job' done, and giving the two pilots an idea that the pink alien is of worth to the Loroi in general, they may very well be off to a suicide run. Perhaps even right after transferring Alex to the Clearbrook to distract the Umiak squad in pursuit, expending the very last of their fuel to bring the shuttle onto a vector away from the Clearbrook.

Come to think of it, I'm reminded of The Cold Equations, fuel situation and all that.

[dragoongfa]

EDIT - Long term though? Alex never goes home. Beryl asks Tempo to work in a rider in the eventual treaty with Humanity that appoints Alex as a 'long term liaison' permanently assigned to Loroi space.

I hope I'm wrong, but Talon and Spiral seem to be in the perfect spot for a tragic death. The law of conservation of characters I mentioned earlier runs both ways. There's enough to them to make the audience like and care for the characters, but they're not part of the main group. Losing Reed or Shoegirl (Cloud?) wouldn't have much emotional impact if Arioch wanted to punch up the stakes, but the pilots? Yeah... here's hoping they become part of the main group.

I see about the same thing. Hooking up with Tempo, the self-assigned counterpart to him in the sense of diplomatic liaison? Bad call, both sides would call his (and her) professionalism into question. Beryl on the other hand would seem a much more palatable choice, perhaps one that would be even sort-of encouraged on the Loroi side, for her to do her job as a Listel and get a .. ahem .. deeper insight into human society and customs. Though... that could be giving her too much honors - granting her exclusive access to a specific male, alien or not.

About Talon and Spiral, though... I get the same feeling. Talon's interaction with Alex may have been a storytelling device to make Alex show that Loroi do have similar values of companionship than humans do, which counts for much when being on the front lines. With that 'job' done, and giving the two pilots an idea that the pink alien is of worth to the Loroi in general, they may very well be off to a suicide run. Perhaps even right after transferring Alex to the Clearbrook to distract the Umiak squad in pursuit, expending the very last of their fuel to bring the shuttle onto a vector away from the Clearbrook.

Come to think of it, I'm reminded of The Cold Equations, fuel situation and all that.

Autopilot is a thing, wasting two trained pilots in a job that can be done by a machine is beyond stupid.

[Arioch]

Autopilot is a thing, wasting two trained pilots in a job that can be done by a machine is beyond stupid.

As in today's commercial aircraft (which are flown almost entirely by autopilot), the pilots are there for when things go wrong. Trusting the lives of important passengers to the vagaries of AI decision making would be truly "beyond stupid."

[entity2636]

Did I unintentionally spread the rumor that the outposts beyond Rallis were farseer outposts? Because I don't remember saying so, still I'm being quoted on it

Anyway, farseers are very rare and their ability to detect lifeforms over many light years (and also communicate with them under certain conditions, as far as I understood from the Insider how Deinari loroi rediscovered the other two populations) an extremely valuable strategic asset for the Loroi Intelligence, therefore I strongly doubt they would be stationed on remote god forsaken outposts in no man's land, listening posts or border checkpoints. It would be too big of a risk the outpost could be raided and the farseer captured. They are stationed on starbases sufficiently deep inside friendly territory where they can be adequately protected. We can't know for sure if farseers are normally posted on fleet and strike group flagships, but there is at least one serving aboard the Tempest. Tempo confirmed it herself, but that may be an exception.

Depends if the outposts are automated or not.

***

If someone knows how to hack the systems then the whole network is useless. I think that this is where Beryl's comment about the outposts comes in play. The outlying outposts in the unlikely avenues of attack are all automated and rely on FTL drone ships and light speed burst transmissions after each jump to send a message. If such a network becomes infiltrated then the Loroi suddenly become half blind in any potential attacks through such a point of approach. For someone without Farseers this would be a huge liability but the Loroi do have Farseers who would have detected an assault force taking the long way around anyway.

EDIT: Thinking about it, I think that this is a hint that the Historians have helped the Umiak, if the outposts are automated then they are the only ones with the know how to hack them without triggering an alarm.

This is pretty much the same situation as discussed earlier - why don't the loroi use jump capable drones or unmanned warships - anything automated is very vulnerable to EW and the umiak are supposed to be experts in all sorts of IT, including EW. They would hack anything automated and take it with them or turn against the loroi with ease. The historians, on the other hand, apparently don't use simple automated/drone ships, but rather unmanned ships run by VI or true AI when they don't want to fly themselves. Should be much safer against EW and as flexible as a live pilot in unexpected situations.

No, I tend to believe the outposts Beryl refers to were manned (by the Neridi, btw, we are in the Neridi part of the Union) and were either somehow bypassed by the umiak fleet, or destroyed by them. Probably the first, because if the outposts were destroyed, at least one courier vessel should be able to make it out and alarm the rest, or it would surely raise farseer alarms.... UNLESS noone was farseeing in that direction.....?

Then again, we don't know what new intel Stillstorm received when docked at Leido, and we also don't know if her onboard farseer told her anything about "suspicious activities" around Rallis. May very well be the case and she put two and two together when the umiak entered Leido.

[entity2636]

Come to think of it, I'm reminded of The Cold Equations, fuel situation and all that.

Umm... You mean let's jettison Cloud and the other purple-haired greenshirt?

You two, I have a very important mission for you, a mission of utmost importance for the Loroi Union. If you succeed, you will be heroes. I need you to stand here in this airlock. There. Alright, warriors! For the Union! *airlock cycles*

[dragoongfa]

Autopilot is a thing, wasting two trained pilots in a job that can be done by a machine is beyond stupid.

As in today's commercial aircraft (which are flown almost entirely by autopilot), the pilots are there for when things go wrong. Trusting the lives of important passengers to the vagaries of AI decision making would be truly "beyond stupid."

I was talking about the whole 'a pilot sacrifices herself as a decoy target certain to die' angle not in having pilots for a regularly scheduled flight, my thinking was like this:

There is no need to have a pilot aboard to do that, especially if the shuttle is terminally low on fuel at the first place.
Once the VIP is delivered and the shuttle has served its use then its next use could certainly be a decoy, launching it and sending it away from the VIP as a decoy target is the natural reaction but with the limited amount of fuel there is no room for fancy maneuvers at the first place.
If the shuttle is to serve as a decoy it would have to be plausible that someone important is still onboard and that someone has taken a route to safety away from the incoming hostiles. Launching the shuttle towards a safe haven at maximum acceleration and away from an incoming force is the only way to make it a plausible decoy, a commander wouldn't waste time and resources in an active battlefield to catch and capture/destroy the shuttle if they don't believe that someone important enough is aboard.
Having the shuttle broadcast calls for help from a 'high ranking' officer as it speeds away from the enemy should be enough in order to trick the Umiak commander to divert some of their units on it. This doesn't require someone to be aboard the shuttle to happen, Tempo could make a couple of recordings for this. First the call for help and then a 'final broadcast' requesting pickup due to engine trouble as the shuttle runs out of fuel and continues moving on momentum alone.
At no point do I see a plausible reason as to why a pilot is needed for a decoy, the autopilot should be more than able to handle the simple navigation solution of a long burst away from the enemy and then the onboard computer could handle the necessary broadcasts after they were recorded.

[novius]

That was about my thinking, too. An AI might not be convincing enough to throw any Umiak squadron off of the trail of the real prize - it could very much be that they decide that a pilot needs to be there to make the ruse convincing... and remote controlling the shuttle would either introduce too much lag or could be picked up on.

Or, if the situation warrants it, that they heroically decide to give their lives for the Union and set the shuttle on ramming course...

Anyway, did someone else get the impression that the Umiak know very well that the Loroi picked up something very important from the Bellarmine and they are intent on getting their claws on it? It isn't just an Umiak task force picking fights - they are on the way to blockade the system. That way, a drifting, powered down shuttle would clue them in that their prize isn't on board any longer.

And anyone staying behind on the shuttle to make the ruse convincing would be well aware that they might not leave the system alive. Or, given the fuel situation, any moderately safe port of call before they're out of juice.

[dragoongfa]

There is no way for the Umiak to know if someone is actually onboard a shuttle at the first place, not without telepathy or a pseudo sciency 'life signs' detector. The shuttle running away while yelling for help and then calling for pickup after running out of fuel would look the same whether a pilot was onboard or not.

[novius]

Given that the Umiak manage to stay hidden from their Farseers now - could the Loroi place a bet on that the Umiak didn't pick up other tricks as well, like, having counterparts to Farseers on their side? Because, if they do, they'd easily pick up if the shuttle is piloted rather than AI or remote controlled.

Yet another possible reason why they might decide that they do need a pilot on the shuttle, at the very least.

In a storytelling perspective, that would make sort of sense as well. Alexander did see death amongst his own people - up close, during the destruction of the Bellarmine, amongst the Loroi, in a rather remote fashion while watching the video feeds and tactical display on the Tempest.

What he didn't see so far is a Loroi he came to personally know and sort-of befriend going on a mission she'd in all certainty never come back from. That would be a turning point for him.... so far, the Loroi-Umiak war was sort of an abstract concept to him - his ship was destroyed by 'an enemy' he never came face-to-face with, but an experience like this would definitely make it a personal matter, too, and forge an even stronger empathic bond with these aliens.

But, telling the story, that's Arioch's domain. Just saying that I wouldn't be all too surprised to see a character death at this point.

[novius]

Just asking. Does anyone else get the impression that a whole bucketload of Umiak is in hot pursuit or preparing for a pincer movement?

• Six divisions encountered at Sala-128, two jumps out of Leido crossroads and in a position to maybe cut off an escape counter-spinwards if they'd manage to break through towards Azimol.
• "The Stray" (two or three divisions, judging from the comment that six were "more than twice the size") having followed Strike Group 51 all the jumps from Naam.
• And now four divisions and more arriving from spinwards through Rallis jump point intent on blocking any way out.

To me it looks like the Umiak do know that Strike Group 51 picked up something (not necessarily someone) valuable from the Bellarmine wreck and are hell-bent on not letting the Loroi get away with it.