Page 189: GO AWAY!

[danuis]

What does 'altering and booby trapping' entail? Something like the "Homo Jihadi" [sic] of Orion's Arm? Or walking virus bags something akin out of Nurgle subterfuge?

[Arioch]

What does 'altering and booby trapping' entail? Something like the "Homo Jihadi" [sic] of Orion's Arm? Or walking virus bags something akin out of Nurgle subterfuge?

Basically, imagine the worst body horror movie you've ever seen. Umiak agents (badly) disguised as Loroi, Loroi captives implanted with explosive or biological weapons, and altered or fabricated Loroi meat puppets just designed to demoralize the enemy by pulling "The Thing" moves when no one expects it.

The Umiak "tricks" that Tempo refers to have variously been surgically altered Umiak, surgically and/or mentally altered captured Loroi, or gene-tailored Loroi variants that were artificially conceived, birthed and raised from childhood by the Umiak.

the Umiak have had Loroi prisoners since the start of the war (25 years by this point), and they have studied them and interrogated them and pulled them apart and put them back together in about as many ways as you can possibly imagine. By this point, the Umiak know almost as much as the Loroi do about how telepathy works -- which to say, not very much. But they also know by this point nearly everything there is to know about Loroi biology, and it's well within the capabilities of Umiak technology to alter or to even grow their own Loroi. They have certainly done so in the past, and many times, as Tempo alludes to on page 56. A number of the refugees recovered from Seren and other recaptured planets had been tampered with or were outright constructs.

Although these attempts have angered the Loroi greatly, the Loroi have pretty effective tools to deal with them. Medical scanners can easily detect mechanical and surgical alterations, and telepathic probing gives a good chance to detect psychological tampering. Even so, the simpler safeguard is that (with a few notable exceptions) no one who has been under Umiak influence will ever again be allowed within a mile of anything sensitive. (With this in mind, I think you can see why some of the Loroi are very nervous about Alex. They don't know where he came from or where he's been, and he's immune to the telepathic probing that would prove that he's not an Umiak agent.)

[Mk_C]

even grow their own Loroi

I missed that part before.

That presents another disturbing implication - while they lack the expertise and probably lag way behind in amps, there's little stopping Umiak from eventually obtaining their own Hierarchy-grown and raised Farseers with capabilities close to those of the originals. Time keeps working against the Union. Even before the current offensive fell on their heads, they already needed a game-changer, and they needed it badly.

[Arioch]

That presents another disturbing implication - while they lack the expertise and probably lag way behind in amps, there's little stopping Umiak from eventually obtaining their own Hierarchy-grown and raised Farseers with capabilities close to those of the originals. Time keeps working against the Union. Even before the current offensive fell on their heads, they already needed a game-changer, and they needed it badly.

There are three elements that go into making a "Farsensing Device", and while the existence of Loroi Farsensing capability is common knowledge, details about these elements are not. I expect Umiak intelligence has probably interrogated enough Loroi by now to have a good idea of what these elements are, and they have probably recovered enough wreckage of Loroi flagships to know what the amplifiers look like, but I doubt very much that they have recovered a live Farseer or anyone who knows details about the third element much less how to synthesize it.

But I do agree with your overall assessment that the Union is running out of time.

[Ithekro]

On the issue of Humanity glassing a world:

Give us time and an enemy...we'll come up with something over the top if given a long enough war.

[Mk_C]

details about the third element much less how to synthesize it.

Ooooooooooooooooooh! I wonder what that could be! Is it drugs? I bet it's hardcore, extremely psychoactive, mind-wrecking drugs. Serves to explain why Farseers have a short shelf life.

What do you think, guys? Have our favourite vanilla blueberries been strategically applying brain-melting dope for military recon purposes all this time? Or could it be something more simple that I'm overlooking?

[GeoModder]

Humanity hasn't as yet glassed a planet...

To be fair, we haven't as yet had the opportunity,

It sounds like they've had the opportunity with the Aldea crisis. Things simply didn't come that far.

[boldilocks]

What does 'altering and booby trapping' entail? Something like the "Homo Jihadi" [sic] of Orion's Arm? Or walking virus bags something akin out of Nurgle subterfuge?

Basically, imagine the worst body horror movie you've ever seen. Umiak agents (badly) disguised as Loroi, Loroi captives implanted with explosive or biological weapons, and altered or fabricated Loroi meat puppets just designed to demoralize the enemy by pulling "The Thing" moves when no one expects it.

"How do you do, fellow disgusting bipeds?"

[dragoongfa]

Humanity hasn't as yet glassed a planet...

To be fair, we haven't as yet had the opportunity,

It sounds like they've had the opportunity with the Aldea crisis. Things simply didn't come that far.

You glass a planet either out of spite or because you really hate the fuckers calling it home and you aren't in position to take it from them. The Aldea crisis probably was a minor, by relative standards, dispute of which colonial settlement has authority where.

[GeoModder]

Well, it caused the establishment of the TCA's fleet.
And at least one of the actors in said dispute, the Martian Yinghuo nation, has a reputation for outspoken agression.

[Arioch]

I think it is a prudent policy not to glass a planet that you live on.

[SVlad]

but I doubt very much that they have recovered a live Farseer or anyone who knows details about the third element much less how to synthesize it.

She who controls the spice controls the universe!

[Mk_C]

She who controls the spice controls the universe!

Not since the God-Emperor of Shellkind has bred a strain of shells invisible to prescience she doesn't.

[danuis]

What does 'altering and booby trapping' entail? Something like the "Homo Jihadi" [sic] of Orion's Arm? Or walking virus bags something akin out of Nurgle subterfuge?

Basically, imagine the worst body horror movie you've ever seen. Umiak agents (badly) disguised as Loroi, Loroi captives implanted with explosive or biological weapons, and altered or fabricated Loroi meat puppets just designed to demoralize the enemy by pulling "The Thing" moves when no one expects it.

The Umiak "tricks" that Tempo refers to have variously been surgically altered Umiak, surgically and/or mentally altered captured Loroi, or gene-tailored Loroi variants that were artificially conceived, birthed and raised from childhood by the Umiak.

the Umiak have had Loroi prisoners since the start of the war (25 years by this point), and they have studied them and interrogated them and pulled them apart and put them back together in about as many ways as you can possibly imagine. By this point, the Umiak know almost as much as the Loroi do about how telepathy works -- which to say, not very much. But they also know by this point nearly everything there is to know about Loroi biology, and it's well within the capabilities of Umiak technology to alter or to even grow their own Loroi. They have certainly done so in the past, and many times, as Tempo alludes to on page 56. A number of the refugees recovered from Seren and other recaptured planets had been tampered with or were outright constructs.

Although these attempts have angered the Loroi greatly, the Loroi have pretty effective tools to deal with them. Medical scanners can easily detect mechanical and surgical alterations, and telepathic probing gives a good chance to detect psychological tampering. Even so, the simpler safeguard is that (with a few notable exceptions) no one who has been under Umiak influence will ever again be allowed within a mile of anything sensitive. (With this in mind, I think you can see why some of the Loroi are very nervous about Alex. They don't know where he came from or where he's been, and he's immune to the telepathic probing that would prove that he's not an Umiak agent.)

That sounds...bloody awesome, I would hope and love to see Umiak Loroi. That body horror-thing stuff is my jam.

[Dan Wyatt]

Dunno if I should ask in this thread, but when will we get the next page? Is this webcomic weekly of bi-weekly?

[Mithramuse]

The comic is... sporadic, may be the best way to put it? You can see the update history on the main page, since Arioch puts the date with each; there have been 20 pages in 2020 thus far, so averaging to 2/month, but you can see there is a large gap from 13 July to 21 September. These things happen. It's a good comic, worth sticking around for.

--Mithramuse

[spacewhale]

Chapter 4 is where things get crazy.

[kyosanim]

Chapter 4 is where things get crazy.

That must be 10 years from now, we aren't even in chapter 3.

[DCR]

Chapter 4 is where things get crazy.

That must be 10 years from now, we aren't even in chapter 3.

Talk like that gonna make me sad, my guy.

[spacewhale]

I feel like we're nearing chapter 3, the nights get longer, colder (in this hemisphere), something in the wind tells me so.