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[Rosen_Ritter_1]

don't think so , I think the Loroi will be quite thorough in their distruction of the Bell even if they were in a hurry.

But even this leaves evidence behind. I´m pretty sure the Umiak can analyze that there´s something strange going on.
Mixing up the debris with Loroilitter would make a terran ship more undetectable.

Except by now the Umiak have clearly been able to observe a non Loroi wreckage that they're guarding tooth and nail. So at the very least they know about the wreckage. Though I don't think they'd need to do any debris mixups. They just need to take a giant bomb, load it onto any huge chunks of the Bell left over and blow it up.

[manticore7]

ah call me crazy, but there seems to be somthing different about Beryl's dialouge since the last time I read it. the one where shes talking about sg 51 kill ratio

[icekatze]

hi hi

She had previously said something about how they thought nothing of losing entire fleets, but that seems to have been toned down a bit to be more in line with what just happened I guess.

[Arioch]

I reworded Beryl's dialogue in the second panel, but she says pretty much the same thing.

[manticore7]

ok good,I'm glad I'm not going crazy

[Serkr Team]

don't think so , I think the Loroi will be quite thorough in their distruction of the Bell even if they were in a hurry.

But even this leaves evidence behind. I´m pretty sure the Umiak can analyze that there´s something strange going on.
Mixing up the debris with Loroilitter would make a terran ship more undetectable.

Except by now the Umiak have clearly been able to observe a non Loroi wreckage that they're guarding tooth and nail. So at the very least they know about the wreckage. Though I don't think they'd need to do any debris mixups. They just need to take a giant bomb, load it onto any huge chunks of the Bell left over and blow it up.

So far as can be seen Bellarmine is pretty thouroughly wrecked, any technical knowledge the Umiak could gain from the wreck in it's current state is probably very limited. And if they do get it what's the problem? They find an antiquaited ship made of non-loroi/umiak metal and a few funky looking cadavers floating around. Worst case scenario they discover the existence of humanity, which by this point is pretty unavoidable.

This is assuming it wasn't the Buggers* that smoked poor old Bell in the first place.

*See what I did there?

Oh almost forgot: I'm unsure why but I really really dig the Umiak shp designs. Maybe it's the bug theme, or the way the heavies look like a pair of lats and shoulders cruising space. They look very bulky and muscular, kudos Arioch.

[dfacto]

This is assuming it wasn't the Buggers* that smoked poor old Bell in the first place.

No worries then, the Little Doctor will sort them out.

[Rosen_Ritter_1]

But even this leaves evidence behind. I´m pretty sure the Umiak can analyze that there´s something strange going on.
Mixing up the debris with Loroilitter would make a terran ship more undetectable.

Except by now the Umiak have clearly been able to observe a non Loroi wreckage that they're guarding tooth and nail. So at the very least they know about the wreckage. Though I don't think they'd need to do any debris mixups. They just need to take a giant bomb, load it onto any huge chunks of the Bell left over and blow it up.

So far as can be seen Bellarmine is pretty thouroughly wrecked, any technical knowledge the Umiak could gain from the wreck in it's current state is probably very limited. And if they do get it what's the problem? They find an antiquaited ship made of non-loroi/umiak metal and a few funky looking cadavers floating around. Worst case scenario they discover the existence of humanity, which by this point is pretty unavoidable.

This is assuming it wasn't the Buggers* that smoked poor old Bell in the first place.

*See what I did there?

Oh almost forgot: I'm unsure why but I really really dig the Umiak shp designs. Maybe it's the bug theme, or the way the heavies look like a pair of lats and shoulders cruising space. They look very bulky and muscular, kudos Arioch.

Well the Loroi made a point that so far they weren't able to find the Bells black box. If the Umiak were able to secure the vessel, they'd have more time to pick the wreck apart and find such a system, which COULD directly point them to earth. So destroying any sizable remains is probably within their best interest, if for no other reason to delay the Umiak finding earth.

[fredgiblet]

which COULD directly point them to earth

I doubt the mission planners would be that careless.

[Voitan]

This is assuming it wasn't the Buggers* that smoked poor old Bell in the first place.

Oh I'm most sure it wasn't them, as well.

As Jardin said, his people will keep on coming and coming, until they're [the baddies] HISTORY.

See what Arioch did there?

It's a good thing a certain emissary wasn't there to hear the playback of Jardin's recorded message, or they'd think the Humans were just as psychic, if not more so than the Loroi, to detect artificial life forms of all things.

[sunphoenix]

Don't you know? As far as Larry Niven is concerned... 'humans are breed for luck!'

[Rosen_Ritter_1]

I doubt the mission planners would be that careless.

Does Stillstorm? Because planning your course of action based on the assumption that the dudes who just got themselves blown up wandering into a warzone AREN'T careless sounds a bit silly.

[CptWinters]

I doubt the mission planners would be that careless.

Does Stillstorm? Because planning your course of action based on the assumption that the dudes who just got themselves blown up wandering into a warzone AREN'T careless sounds a bit silly.

It's called an ambush, and it doesn't mean the Bellarmine was careless. Hell, the two other Loroi strike groups that went into this system had the exact same thing happen to them. I'm sure that as the Loroi salvage teams have been picking through the wreckage, they've been making preparations to destroy it should SG 51 have to retreat. That doesn't mean that Stillstorm thinks the Humans incompetent, she's just being prudent.

[fredgiblet]

In addition to CptWinters, there's 2 main possibilities, either Alex is a plant or he isn't, if he is then the black box isn't important anyway since it will only contain lies, if he is we move to split 2.

In split 2 there's three choices, either we knew exactly where to go, we had a good idea of where to go or we had a vague idea of where to go. The first possibility means that we are incompetent since we knew where to go and ended up in Na'am instead, however it's also the least likely and this is made fairly obvious by the fact that the Loroi don't know the Orgus which makes it highly likely that the Orgus don't have clear maps of Loroi space. The other two options don't mean we are incompetent, just unlucky.

Stillstorm has already made it clear she thinks Alex isn't legit and it's likely that she understands that we had very little chance of having a clear idea of where we would need to go to avoid getting shot at. Granted total destruction is still preferable since there's no telling if there's some minor widget onboard that revolutionizes the Umiak war machine, but I doubt that Stills is worried about the Umiak finding Earth first at all, much less concerned about the 'Bell leading them there.

[NOMAD]

Stillstorm has already made it clear she thinks Alex isn't legit and it's likely that she understands that we had very little chance of having a clear idea of where we would need to go to avoid getting shot at. Granted total destruction is still preferable since there's no telling if there's some minor widget onboard that revolutionizes the Umiak war machine, but I doubt that Stills is worried about the Umiak finding Earth first at all, much less concerned about the 'Bell leading them there.

Well stillstorm might not be as strategic in her outlook and more tactical thinking ( as say tempo, which I gather is thinking a few move ahead), as well as the whole Loroi male "angle" involved with alex and tempo's interference with operation on her ship ( again in regards to alexs current status amongst the loroi).

yet, IIRC, this war is at a stalemate that both sides are trying to break ( IE through back door system or flanking FLT jump points, both of which earths 6 colonies could provide).

[Rosen_Ritter_1]

It's called an ambush, and it doesn't mean the Bellarmine was careless. Hell, the two other Loroi strike groups that went into this system had the exact same thing happen to them. I'm sure that as the Loroi salvage teams have been picking through the wreckage, they've been making preparations to destroy it should SG 51 have to retreat. That doesn't mean that Stillstorm thinks the Humans incompetent, she's just being prudent.

She's just taking a course of action that works on the presumption that the Humans don't know how to secure the navigation data on their ship from being recovered by hostiles post wreck.

Also, her whole "Doesn't look like a warrior" line doesn't exactly give me the impression that she holds much respect for the humans. She probably DOES think they're pretty stupid, because she's a crazy xenophobic cat lady.

Well stillstorm might not be as strategic in her outlook and more tactical thinking ( as say tempo, which I gather is thinking a few move ahead), as well as the whole Loroi male "angle" involved with alex and tempo's interference with operation on her ship ( again in regards to alexs current status amongst the loroi).

That would be another reason to assume Stillstorm thinks that Jardin and by extension all other humans are idiots.

She's like a cranky old man making bad jokes about woman drivers.

[CptWinters]

She's just taking a course of action that works on the presumption that the Humans don't know how to secure the navigation data on their ship from being recovered by hostiles post wreck.

There is no presumption about Human capability required to explain Stillstorm's actions. She's being thorough, and making absolutely, positively sure that the Umiak will not gain any information from any wreckage they can salvage. This has nothing to do with the Humans: she'd do the same thing if it was a Loroi ship.

[sunphoenix]

Honestly I get the feel from Stillstorm's that her mistrust of of Jardin... specifically is that he apparently can't be forcefully Mid Probed with any conclusive result! I don't think the Loroi have ever run across a race so resistant to their mind scanning. This unnerves her as she cannot be certain that Jardin, and humans by extention are not some elaborate Umiak plot to get infiltrator among their numbers. She may still be holding onto the idea that Jardi and the 'human' corpses of the Bell wreak are merely some kind of genetically altered Loroi vat grown by the Umiak to be used as the perfect spies.

I think she is still waiting for the 'other shoe to drop' with regards to this "ruse" of the wrecked human ship and this one convienant survivor of an unknown race.

[Wintermute]

I don't think the Loroi have ever run across a race so resistant to their mind scanning.

I believe they have in the past, they're just exceedingly rare.

[Mjolnir]

I think she is still waiting for the 'other shoe to drop' with regards to this "ruse" of the wrecked human ship and this one convienant survivor of an unknown race.

I think the Loroi can be reasonably sure he's no Umiak plant specifically because of this. They barely recovered one survivor, and very nearly were left with nothing but some bodies and scraps of wreckage.

I think Stillstorm mistrusts him entirely because he's a disconcertingly Loroi-like alien (and telepathically unreadable on top of that), not due to any suspicion of him being an Umiak plant. She may be insulting humanity's prowess as warriors specifically because she's concerned that they will be like Loroi in that regard (due to their physical similarities), and will pose a serious second threat at a time when the Loroi are more than occupied with the Umiak...she's provoking him to see how he responds. And probably coordinating constantly with Tempo.