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Tangent128 from Virginia Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
#226: Dec 18th 2009 at 12:33:20 PM

Didn't Petey briefly teraport Breya to Andromeda at some point?

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?
Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
we must dissent (it/they)
#227: Dec 18th 2009 at 8:47:57 PM

Indeed he did, to visit Planet Wet.

My question is, how effective is this superweapon against Dark Matter Entities? It doesn't appear to be gravitically based, only (possibly) gravitically carried.

ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO
Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#228: Dec 19th 2009 at 12:01:40 AM

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20091219.html

I'm stupefied. It was there all along, but we missed it. Yes, the UNS as we've seen it is definitely prone to such actions, and yes, sufficiently powerful A.I.s in Schlockverse are both able and eager to carry out such seemingly excessive plots given cause, and yes, it makes sense that Lota would see this as cause. No Petey, no supervillain Lota, no dark matter entities.

One problem: If that was really all he was interested in, couldn't he have just sat on the evacuation system until such a time as it would be necessary to use it? I suppose maybe he was worried about the bureaucracy of the UNS; even in the most extreme emergency they should be able to spare the time it'd take to teraport everyone out (a fraction of a second), but they'd just swoop in with teraport interdiction fields on and he might have trouble getting to speak to someone with the authority to turn them off before they fired the thing.

Kilyle Since: Jan, 2001
#229: Dec 19th 2009 at 5:09:38 AM

Given how fast they have "swept in with teraport interdiction fields" in other parts of this webcomic, I'm gonna go with "better safe than sorry" here. I'd love to think that sitting on a hair-trigger teraport was a good idea, because it's definitely the sort of thing I'd be doing... but yeah, no dice.

On the other hand, I wonder how this speaks for Lota's future justifications of actions. If "a slight but nonzero chance that X might happen" is enough for Lota to take such drastic actions, then how far might he go to "protect" everyone, anyway? Hope it doesn't get close to that anti-cheeseburger thing (the Knight Templar fast food problem: "That cheeseburger might kill you via clogged arteries! I cannot allow you to consume it" - as seen in Darkwing Duck).

Still, my faith in Lota is largely borne out. If he does eventually go the Darth Lota route, it'll be because he's trying to do the right thing a little too extremely. Just not the supervillain type, and I'm glad.

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#230: Dec 19th 2009 at 8:48:49 AM

Funny that Kevyn is making the logical fallacy there. LOTA didn't say that the weapon causes the situation. He's simply stating a correlation: a new superweapon is followed by a situation where someone decides that that weapon must be used. The situation may or may not arise whether the new weapon is there or not, but if you have both a new superweapon and a situation, the probability that the Generals will decide that the weapon must be used to solve the situation does approach 1.

edited 19th Dec '09 8:49:00 AM by Madrugada

Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#231: Dec 19th 2009 at 11:56:32 AM

Well Kevyn is a fallible little meatbag.

TeChameleon Since: Jan, 2001
#232: Dec 20th 2009 at 1:17:21 AM

*snort* So Lota did have a good reason for them to be along after all...

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#233: Dec 20th 2009 at 9:13:55 AM

Hey, names are important. You got something awesome like a hyperspace death ray, it needs a good name.

Haven Planescape Hijack Since: Jan, 2001
Planescape Hijack
#234: Dec 21st 2009 at 1:16:57 AM

Brickman: That's an interesting idea. Kevyn would probably not argue with any plan that involves getting that thing out of the galaxy. I'm not sure it'd work though—wasn't the idea of the teraport not working outside this galaxy that it relied on the specific shape of the galaxy? It might just take some recalibration to make it work in another one, but it might also be impossible.

If I recall correctly, the reason is that it just took way too much energy to teraport to Andromeda from the Milky Way (found the relevant footnote: "It just requires enormous amounts of power to open the requisite wormholes through the tiny hyperspatial volumes represented by those thin filaments of spiderweb. So much power, in fact, that it hasn't been done other than experimentally"). So hyperspace between galaxies was too "thin" to squeeze through without using a lot of power to "widen" it, but once inside Andromeda it seems like hyperspace is the same.

So the death ray would probably work, yeah.

Sunday's strip: And then Lota was a death ray.

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#235: Dec 21st 2009 at 11:25:38 PM

It's just as well that they're running away]: The Toughs seem to be really bad at working for the UNS (at least if you consider "making their employers happy" part of being good employees).

Track record:

  • Installed Lota, a megalomaniac AI, as new king of Credomar, rather than any of the existing forces there.
  • Helped Lunesby, a fugitive AI with a head for governing, escape from her pursuers, who probably had UNS backing.
  • Helped Lota, still a megalomaniac AI likely still on bad terms with the UNS, bring a UNS superweapon up to usable condition and steal it for his own ends, depositing an entire city's population on a backwater planet.

The only thing they've done since going on UNS payroll that didn't piss off the UNS is repairing their ship, and I think they got the UNS to foot the bill for that.

Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#237: Dec 29th 2009 at 8:44:48 PM

Considering I hadn't figured it out yet, I'm gonna have to give Tagon points for being smarter than he looks.

Also: ANOTHER TIME LOOP! Now that we know what's at stake once we rejoin the present I seriously hope this one's shorter than the last two. Though it's possible that this one will tie into what happened to the clone and the General.

PS: Out of respect for the respect Howard Taylor has given clones in this story, I refuse to use any monikers like "clone!Kevyn". He is not some alternate flavor of Kevyn, he's another person who happens to be pretty similar to Kevyn and happens to share his name.

Haven Planescape Hijack Since: Jan, 2001
Planescape Hijack
#238: Dec 30th 2009 at 8:02:05 PM

Heh.

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
Kilyle Since: Jan, 2001
#239: Jan 1st 2010 at 6:35:58 AM

If he's to be a person we can discuss without too much confusion, he needs a name; and if "clone" is not to be his primary attribute, I expect that means "the clone" isn't it.

Shall we call him Kevvyn?

Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
we must dissent (it/they)
#240: Jan 1st 2010 at 1:46:31 PM

Timothy Zahn spells the names of clones with a duplicate of a vowel that doesn't affect the pronunciation, so I'd go with Kevyyn.

ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO
Treblain Not An Avatar Since: Nov, 2012
Not An Avatar
#241: Jan 1st 2010 at 2:10:13 PM

Just caught up on the last week or so.

Thoughts:

  • The chronology of this storyline is really confusing me. I'm sure that's intentional.
  • After what happened with LOTA, I think of every robot in this comic as a potential world-conquering megalomaniac. So even Tailor-Bot is unsettling me a little when the focus shifts to him.
  • It feels kind of weird that thanks to time travel, we, the readers, know General Tagon much better than the characters do.
  • YOUR CLONE HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY NINJAS! ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO RESCUE YOUR CLONE?

We're not just men of science, we're men of TROPE!
TeChameleon Since: Jan, 2001
#242: Jan 1st 2010 at 3:09:54 PM

I have to admit, I absolutely freaking love it when one of the Toughs comments on someone else' lack of subtlety. You know there's collateral damage when even the infamous space mercs notice it.

  • —> Thurl: "Whoever took him was not subtle."
  • —> Kevyn: "Broken Furniture?"
  • —> Thurl: "Craters."

Now that's a story hook.

edited 1st Jan '10 3:10:07 PM by TeChameleon

KnightofL-sama from The Sea of Chaos Since: Sep, 2009
#243: Jan 2nd 2010 at 12:43:14 AM

Remember Kevyn carries a tank killer grenade and an AM bomb on his shoulders (and it was his alternate timeline version who revealed this). I wouldn't be certain it was the kidnappers who were making the craters.

Welcome to the Sea of Chaos
Kilyle Since: Jan, 2001
#244: Jan 3rd 2010 at 6:13:08 AM

Yes, this comic is nothing if not good at making us tune in next week.

Story hooks are its bread and butter. Engaging characters would be the jam. I guess that leaves worldgalaxymaking as the relaxing tea that makes the... yeah, okay, this metaphor has gone on long enough.

LarryD Incognito Since: Jan, 2001
Incognito
#245: Jan 7th 2010 at 7:30:03 PM

Bad ROE (Rules of Engagement). I've been wondering just what their timid, wimpy employer rep expects of them. Look intimidating, and hope that's enough?

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. — George S. Patton
Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#246: Jan 7th 2010 at 7:44:05 PM

I feel like I've missed a page somewhere. Why does this guy think he needs protection?

Haven Planescape Hijack Since: Jan, 2001
Planescape Hijack
#247: Jan 7th 2010 at 7:47:21 PM

Well, it is just mall security (IIRC), presumably they think letting them have weapons would probably be more trouble than it's worth. Of course, that raises the question of why they're hiring the Toughs in the first place. Extreme Genre Blindness, UNS plot, or maybe they just assume that the soldier boosts and power armor will be enough for them to deal with even armed attackers without causing too much collateral damage (almost reasonable, except, again: the Toughs).

edited 7th Jan '10 7:47:42 PM by Haven

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
LarryD Incognito Since: Jan, 2001
Incognito
#248: Jan 7th 2010 at 8:25:27 PM

I feel like I've missed a page somewhere. Why does this guy think he needs protection?

You haven't missed it, Brickman, that bit of exposition hasn't happened yet. I've been wondering that myself, especially since the Toughs scare him.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. — George S. Patton
Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#249: Jan 7th 2010 at 8:54:51 PM

It's plainly obvious that their employer, at the least, has no idea of either how the toughs work or what they're capable of, armed or unarmed. Whether Tagon was already aware that they were weaponless and had decided that they could handle it anyways is to be revealed.

Also, note that this may not be a big mission on the surface. Schlock's team, after all, was officially hired to help with a police investigation, and Kevyn's team was hired as a mechanic and manual labor. They're taking whatever jobs are in the area while the ship's fixed up. Maybe this guy was just looking for ordinary security, and has the budget for ordinary security, but they took it anyways since the alternative was sitting on their asses.

LarryD Incognito Since: Jan, 2001
Incognito
#250: Jan 8th 2010 at 9:22:07 PM

Heh, "I don't think that it means what you want it to mean."

"We can take away his side arm, but that only makes him more likely to punch something." And their employer is clueless about the implications of a 12 megaPascal punch.

And we have a name at last, "Mr. Aliss"

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. — George S. Patton

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