Page 224: Optimistic Way Of Looking At Things

[QuakeIV]

[Urist]

Always glad to get a new page!

Question, though: What makes the Loroi think that the Umiak wouldn't investigate anything about one of their ships in the formation suddenly ceasing to follow orders/keep formation? I could see if, say, Tempo was on the radio doing her best Han Solo "We're all good down here, how are you?" impression, but if as mentioned in #223 she didn't grab *all* of the Umiak codes then presumably the boarding team can't actually maneuver the ship. Wouldn't the Umiak send at least a gunboat or so over to investigate?

Also, if I'm not mistaken, by its silhouette the Umiak ship looks to be a 'Type-KTKh Fast Cruiser', which would mean that it was a fairly-significant fleet combatant that just fell out of formation.

Was there something explained about this that I missed?

[Moon Moth]

Maybe Tempo's got the comm officer mind-slaved?

Also: this doesn't look good for Reed.

[D-503]

"Moving OUTSIDE the hull"?
Uhm, not good. Even if they belong to this ship, this certainly doesn´t get unnoticed on other ships...

[projekcja]

I'm a bit confused by the sequence of events. Why repressurize when the hardtroops are outside the hull?
When the interior is in vacuum, the hardtroops can make a hole anywhere and get inside to fight off the intruders. After repressurizing any hole will result in explosive decompression, and the only way in is through airlocks - making entry points predictable and easier to defend.

Regarding losing connection with Spiral's engineering team - the connection was through Senzai, so the only thing that can disrupt the connection is if Spiral died or lost consciousness, right?

[dragoongfa]

I'm a bit confused by the sequence of events. Why repressurize when the hardtroops are outside the hull?
When the interior is in vacuum, the hardtroops can make a hole anywhere and get inside to fight off the intruders. After repressurizing any hole will result in explosive decompression, and the only way in is through airlocks - making entry points predictable and easier to defend.

The most probable intent of the hard troops is to scuttle the ship; as such they do want to be able to cause as much damage as possible to render it incapable of either combat or movement. Repressurizing a ship means the return of Oxygen which means the ability to light things on fire if everything else fails, considering that one of the potential targets is the armory that Alex is in then a fire here is an extreme threat for the ship.

[Krulle]

Regarding losing connection with Spiral's engineering team - the connection was through Senzai, so the only thing that can disrupt the connection is if Spiral died or lost consciousness, right?

Telepathy damping field technology?

[GeoModder]

Regarding losing connection with Spiral's engineering team - the connection was through Senzai, so the only thing that can disrupt the connection is if Spiral died or lost consciousness, right?

Telepathy damping field technology?

Then it should already be portable, and accessable by low-ranking Umiak. Since most likely the bridge and its crew are either dead or under the thrall of Tempo, that doesn't sound likely.

[QuakeIV]

Kindof seems like normally whatever the hardtroops are carrying wouldn't be able to penetrate a warship's armor from the outside anyways, so their entry points would be fairly limited regardless.

[DevilDalek]

Maybe they are trying to over pressurise the compartment to deal with them?

[Urist]

If the Umiak are filling the compartment with near-pure oxygen, then that by itself is extremely explosive and just the slightest spark would make for a very big boom.

Now, while I would normally assume that an 'ordnance storage facility' would be like an internal magazine that was a good ways away from the outer hull, it's possible that that what Beryl meant was more like 'launcher-feed magazine' that would be near the outer hull. In that case, it would be plausible that there's either a maintenance hatch nearby *or* a manual override on the outer hull to open the covers over the launch racks (for maintenance or crew safety reasons).

[CrimsonFALKE]

The hard troops are on the outside of the ship and coming inside. Holy shit, those guys are absolute units. I wonder why the bugs don't fire torpedoes loaded with them at the Loroi ships and capture the vessels if they can handle the vacuum of space. I wonder do the Hardtroops pull their weight when on ships by working on exterior repair? I know marines on navy ships have duty ops assigned where they aid the ship's crew in all sorts of tasks.

[Bamax]

I think often the greatest fear of the unknown, since once a threat is known well enough you will have the opportunity to deal with it.

Which are heroes will soon enough.

I reckon Beryl is probably telepathically screaming to Fireblade right now while Fireblade is like <I know, stay alive, I'm coming!>

[QuakeIV]

Yeah on that note, assuming thats a hardtrooper coming, does anyone know if their crummy little blasters are up to this? I don't think it was clarified if the weapons they have can actually reliably penetrate hardtroop power armor.

[icekatze]

hi hi

If I remember right, the average Loroi telepathy has about 100 meter range. Not sure how big the ship they're on is, but hopefully Spiral is still in once piece.

[Bamax]

Tissues. Get. Sorry.

[Bamax]

Yeah on that note, assuming thats a hardtrooper coming, does anyone know if their crummy little blasters are up to this? I don't think it was clarified if the weapons they have can actually reliably penetrate hardtroop power armor.

Beryl has blaster rifle, and if the Loroi ship beam weapons are any indication (better than Umiak blasters for effective sniping range), I am betting their little blasters may look cute but are also the kind of thing that is akin almost to a star trek disruptor pistol

Meaning you have... a beam weapon with bazooka like damage.... maybe?

[QuakeIV]

Maybe, clearly its possible, its a sci fi setting so the relative effectiveness of personal protection vs how much is required to overcome it is pretty much up to the license of the author. I don't remember seeing anything about this specific situation in the extras.

[sunphoenix]

All will be explained ... eventually... patron pages already address this. But now here comes some action ~ been waiting to see it in color! This will be Spectacular!!

[D-503]

Beryl has blaster rifle, and if the Loroi ship beam weapons are any indication (better than Umiak blasters for effective sniping range), I am betting their little blasters may look cute but are also the kind of thing that is akin almost to a star trek disruptor pistol

Meaning you have... a beam weapon with bazooka like damage.... maybe?

Beryl instructed Alex on page 214 to leave the power setting at 4 out of 8. Maybe NOW he can go full throttle...

(i have sort of a MiB-flashback, when Agent J (Will Smith) was visibly sulky over his tiny pistol (the "noisy cricket"), until he fired it a bit later... )