Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

[Willie the Duck]

You missed the link that NEO|Phyte posted to This Strip above. The selfstream has been a concept for a long time. And as shown here removing a selfstream causes immediate and irreversible brain death.

You are correct. I had missed that this particular form of copy/transit/immortality had been deployed previously.

That was the point I tried to make: there was no new concept introduced recently - what Kevyn was studying and Petey teraporting was the selfstream. The previous technology to do that (used by Emm and Kowalski) was simply more clunky and could not be used remotely. Whether there is some immortal soul or not is not really a part of the current happenings. Even the fact that a selfstream of an organic being can be ported to a computer was also well established (Thurl and all the other people brought back from Laz-5 dead, Oafans, Allstar inhabitants).

There have been numerous types of personal backup, including gate-cloning and copying ones' memories into ones skin. In previous instances, it was seen (by those that cared,) as not necessarily being the same person. If nothing else, there has been a change in discussion and faming. Kevyn, of all people, (albeit alt-Kevyn, who has a slightly different perspective) using the term soul, is ground breaking in terms of how in-universe people are thinking of it, regardless of it there is any actual difference.

[Radar]

There have been numerous types of personal backup, including gate-cloning and copying ones' memories into ones skin. In previous instances, it was seen (by those that cared,) as not necessarily being the same person. If nothing else, there has been a change in discussion and faming. Kevyn, of all people, (albeit alt-Kevyn, who has a slightly different perspective) using the term soul, is ground breaking in terms of how in-universe people are thinking of it, regardless of it there is any actual difference.

I think it is still more of a change in technology than anything else. Those backups were exactly just memories stored somewhere and left inert. As Schlock pointed out a new him could be made out of them whether he died or not. Aside from Emm and Kowalski there were other instances of selfstream transport tech (if less obvious) with the virtual world for freshly revived people before they get their new bodies. In those cases new copies were made from the backups and after that the selfstream was ported from the computer to the new biological vessel.

The perspective on Lazarus nannies an external memory storage did not change. It is true that the word "soul" did not appear before in those discussions, but I did not feel that it shifted anything significant in the viewpoint presented by the characters.

[Wayson]

So... the fact that Petey has to SEND a fleet is pretty ominous. He had multiple fleets operating in Andromeda for years. Presumably they’re all dead, despite being armed with cutting edge equipment. That’s... that’s bad.

[Max_Killjoy]

So... the fact that Petey has to SEND a fleet is pretty ominous. He had multiple fleets operating in Andromeda for years. Presumably they’re all dead, despite being armed with cutting edge equipment. That’s... that’s bad.

There are fleets, and then there are fleets.

[Kornaki]

I'm just glad we're going to get a mission for the toughs for the first time in about three years.

[factotum]

He had multiple fleets operating in Andromeda for years.

Did he? The only reference I can remember to Petey actually doing anything in Andromeda was when he deployed some sort of sun shield to save the water-dwelling people. Is there a citation for your claim?

[Radar]

Did he? The only reference I can remember to Petey actually doing anything in Andromeda was when he deployed some sort of sun shield to save the water-dwelling people. Is there a citation for your claim?

The others were not shown directly - just mentioned here for example.

As for why he needs to teraport a whole new fleet, the previous ones were not exactly equiped to wage an all-out war. They could secure some foot-holds, but not much more. Not sure, how would they fare against those new battle-suits frankly. For a frontal assult you need both higher numbers and the latest technological advancements.

[factotum]

OK, so the mercs just got teraported to Andromeda. Hope Petey also remembered to 'port some stuff they might need, like *ships*!

[HorizonWalker]

Did Petey, at no point in the past several years he's had agents in Andromeda, just never get around to building shipyards? Petey, who began his tenure as a Fleetmind by building his own fleet from scratch?

Frankly, I'm disappointed in him.

[Kornaki]

Did Petey, at no point in the past several years he's had agents in Andromeda, just never get around to building shipyards? Petey, who began his tenure as a Fleetmind by building his own fleet from scratch?

Frankly, I'm disappointed in him.

I'm confused, why do you think this?

[factotum]

I'm confused, why do you think this?

Yeah, didn't Petey become the Fleetmind by linking up with a whole load of already existing ships from the other powers?

[halfeye]

OK, so the mercs just got teraported to Andromeda. Hope Petey also remembered to 'port some stuff they might need, like *ships*!

I think it might be just Schlock that went. If I remember rightly, he doesn't even need a spacesuit so long as he's near enough to a star to stay warm. What Schlock can do by himself is unclear to me, but it's not as if the Toughs could do much more.

[HorizonWalker]

I'm confused, why do you think this?

Click this link and start reading forward. At that point, he's an AI with control over a large fleet of ships- as far as I'm concerned, that makes him a Fleetmind. Petey even agrees with me in this comic here.

My point is, Petey's built up an entire navy from a single fabber before. He knows how it's done. He knows it can work. Why hasn't he done that again in Andromeda?

[tyckspoon]

My point is, Petey's built up an entire navy from a single fabber before. He knows how it's done. He knows it can work. Why hasn't he done that again in Andromeda?

Difficulty: Do it without using annie plants as your primary energy source, because firing up a foundry in Andromeda with those is only going to result in it exploding from a long-gun shot.

[HorizonWalker]

Difficulty: Do it without using annie plants as your primary energy source, because firing up a foundry in Andromeda with those is only going to result in it exploding from a long-gun shot.

Petey's fielded annie plant-powered fleets in Andromeda before. Remember the Tohdfraugs?

[factotum]

Petey's fielded annie plant-powered fleets in Andromeda before. Remember the Tohdfraugs?

And those fleets no longer exist, apparently. What do you think happened to them? You don't imagine they got blown out of space by the Pa'anuri, do you? What would prevent the same happening to Petey's newly deployed fabber fleet?

On an unrelated note: today's strip proves it's not just Schlock being teraported to Andromeda.

[Kornaki]

It's not obvious to me how the toughs will avoid getting killed the same way Petey's other fleets apparently got killed. I think it's obviously true that Petey could have been defeated in force despite his best efforts, what with the paanuri fighting on their home turf and also having a bigger galactic core generator than Petey does. But how the toughs can single handedly change the balance is not obvious to me.

I somewhat suspect Howard forgot Petey already had sent troops to Andromeda.

[HandofShadows]

Firepower isn't what the Toughs are about. The Toughs survive because some of them think so far out of the box it's ridiculous. The Toughs are going to cause a massive amount of trouble and that will allow Petey and the Milky Way to regain some initiative.

[Max_Killjoy]

We know nothing about what happened to Petey's other various assets in Andromeda. Any statement about the condition of his assets there at this point is pure speculation.

Consider for a moment that the Toughs aren't being teraported into space, they're being teraported into either a building or a vessel.

[NEO|Phyte]

Further thought on Andromeda assets: Petey hasn't set up any local fabrication equipment because he hasn't needed to. He had the core generator, he had his capacitors, if he needed materiel over there, he could pop it over. Now that the situation has changed, assuming Petey isn't crazy enough to trust the Toughs as-is, they're probably gonna have a hardware offshoot along that's gonna start the proverbial robolution.

[Drascin]

Firepower isn't what the Toughs are about. The Toughs survive because some of them think so far out of the box it's ridiculous. The Toughs are going to cause a massive amount of trouble and that will allow Petey and the Milky Way to regain some initiative.

Also, there's the fact that Tagon's Toughs have proven to be a force multiplier noticeably beyond their small size (with Petey specifically calling out that "normally, any force small enough to go undetected would also be small enough to be insufficient"), and also that Petey actually trusts Tagon, which is more than pretty much any other captain in the Milky Way can say.

[gbs5009]

Further thought on Andromeda assets: Petey hasn't set up any local fabrication equipment because he hasn't needed to. He had the core generator, he had his capacitors, if he needed materiel over there, he could pop it over. Now that the situation has changed, assuming Petey isn't crazy enough to trust the Toughs as-is, they're probably gonna have a hardware offshoot along that's gonna start the proverbial robolution.

While he may have had the capability, the energy costs seem prohibitive enough that I imagine he set up local manufacturing as quickly as he was able (which, for Petey, would be quite quickly).

[Windscion]

... also that Petey actually trusts Tagon, which is more than pretty much any other captain in the Milky Way can say.

Trusts Tagon? To do what?
Answer: He trust Kaff to make trouble, and has wisely decided to let him create trouble for someone else.

[HouseRules]

I don't love intergallactic missions.

So he does not hate them.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

So he does not hate them.

That's not how logic works. Or English

Grey Wolf

[factotum]

So, apparently the book just starting now will be the last one in the main Schlock Mercenary plotline...we might be at story's end within a year (real time). Going to be interesting to see how Howard wraps this all up--let's hope he doesn't do what he's done a couple of times and just resolve everything off-panel and then go straight to the epilogue!

[Max_Killjoy]

So, apparently the book just starting now will be the last one in the main Schlock Mercenary plotline...we might be at story's end within a year (real time). Going to be interesting to see how Howard wraps this all up--let's hope he doesn't do what he's done a couple of times and just resolve everything off-panel and then go straight to the epilogue!

I've known this was coming for a while, and there have been times when you can feel the deadline or the underlying desire to get to it compressing the storytelling.

[lord_khaine]

It has been an extremely long and bumpy ride.
But yes. While its a bit nostalgic to have an end in sight, oh god i have read it about ½ my life?
Then it is also about time. The plot have expanded and twisted so far from the original storyline that only a minority of the original cast members are still alive.
And i do think its a good time for Howard to end things, and prepare a new story.

[Wayson]

Part of the journey is the end, I guess.

I was trying to run through a list of characters from the current arc that I'd miss, and it drove home (as lord_khaine notes) how many have shuffled off the stage or the mortal coil. Onward and outward to new horizons, I guess.

[halfeye]

There will be a collected Schlock Mercenary, I presume it will be expensive, but perhaps worth it.