Results 241 to 270 of 1489
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2018-09-15, 11:18 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2017
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2018-09-16, 10:56 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
- Location
- Bristol, UK
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
It sounds like they've taken control of the remaining ships, including a lot of long gun corvettes. Putzho was talking about how many long guns they had last week. The book title itself references maxim 69, "Sometimes rank is a function of firepower".
The Oafan who took control of the station, then killed and uploaded everyone in the prologue was the big librarian who got resurrected a few books back (contrary to the instructions encoded in his soul-foil). The AI he took control from may also have been the xeno-archaeologist from https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2018-07-27. Iafa wasn't present in the prologue.Last edited by lesser_minion; 2018-09-16 at 10:57 AM.
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2018-09-16, 11:48 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- The Lakes
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
I think most of us are referring to this:
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2018-05-27
(A sequence that also establishes that Chinook's madness now is a result of running on the system Iafa designed to hide from its own guilt.)It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2018-09-16, 12:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
- Location
- Bristol, UK
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
People appear to be conflating the original murder-upload that left the Oafans extinct in meat-space with what Iafa did.
The prologue to this book shows the murder-upload, and we can see that Iafa isn't present: the two people responsible are called Mnelalae (who appears to be the xeno-archaeologist from before) and Yaeyoefui.
It seems like Iafa came after the Oafans were already extinct in real-space, and "imprisoned" them by confining them to the hardware that Putzho found.
All of that said, I don't know whether or not we know what Iafa was like ten million years ago, so it's still possible that Mnelalae really is the same person. Iafa remade himself when they were reactivating Breath Weapon, and the previous incarnation was implied to be female.Last edited by lesser_minion; 2018-09-16 at 04:06 PM.
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2018-09-16, 05:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
T'kkkuts Afa might have called itself something different when it was still sane.
Edit: Something else I found in an archive dive is Karl's shirt. I'm trying to figure out how "Failure is mandatory" relates to "A little trust goes a long way."
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2018-09-16, 08:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- In the mind.
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
If you want a OotS style Touhou avatar, send me a request.
Steam name: memnarch. Same avatar.
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2018-09-16, 10:33 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
M70
!=#30
... I don't get it?
Which ones are 70 and 30 again? Wasn't 70 "Failure is a given, how you respond to it is what matters"?Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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2018-09-17, 12:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
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2018-09-18, 01:05 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
OK, so the Oafans have found a supposedly hidden UNS battleplate--wonder if that means that Breath Weapon has a tracking device aboard? And presumably they're just there to retrieve the ship and the Toughs can go hang, given the way this plotline has been unfolding.
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2018-09-18, 07:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Probably. I wonder about what other mission the battleplate is on that it is running dark.
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2018-09-18, 08:05 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
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2018-09-18, 08:27 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2009
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Well they really didn't know who was firing off the shots. And hiding like there are still means that the ani plants are still up and running so it wouldn't hide them from the DM.
I suspect that the Ofans will (politely) grab the ship saying it was theirs/stolen property and leave the Toughs hanging and the UNS "displeased".Member of the Giants in the Playground Forum Chapter for the Movement to Reunite Gondwana!
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2018-09-18, 09:02 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- The Lakes
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
How this plays out is going to turn my opinion of the reawakened Oafans.
If they're here to grab this ship and leave the Toughs and embassy staff in a lurch, then they're just another "powerful idiot" faction.
If they're here to free up the ship and crew so that the Toughs can carry out the contract they (the Oafans) have with the Toughs that's been referenced by Tagon, then at least they're not total idiots.Last edited by Max_Killjoy; 2018-09-18 at 12:31 PM.
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2018-09-18, 12:29 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
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2018-09-19, 02:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
OK, this no longer seems likely to just be a "retrieve our stuff" mission, because they wouldn't need to send 15,000+ ships to do that...
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2018-09-19, 04:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
It seems suited when they are retrieving their stuff from the largest ship in the U.N.S. What's a retrieval mission without making sure you can handle things just in case people don't want to give you your stuff? The line in the last panel leads me to believe they would prefer to accomplish their mission (no matter what it is) without fighting.
Last edited by Lizard Lord; 2018-09-19 at 04:21 AM.
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2018-09-19, 04:56 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
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2018-09-19, 10:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- Maryland
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
In reference to this?
28. If the price of collateral damage is high enough, you might be able to get paid for bringing ammunition home with you.Avatar by Glasswhistle
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2018-09-19, 11:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- The Lakes
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2018-09-19, 03:20 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2017
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2018-09-19, 08:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Now the Oafans are just showing off.
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2018-09-19, 08:34 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- USA
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
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2018-09-19, 08:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
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2018-09-19, 09:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- USA
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Great. How about, "Our fortune is built on the inaccessibility of PTU's. We found the ancient oafans secret methods of production that let them make it so efficiently/quickly. But to effectively combat the EDMB in Andromeda, we have to release it to the galaxy without patenting it. Again. Thus crashing the market for PTUs and rending ourselves dirt poor again." Heck lean into and full lampshade it with comparisons to Kevin releasing both the teraport and teraport denial systems for free. At least then it's consistent with past behavior even if it's self-derivative.
Or let the gate keepers go full production using their instant creation wormhole tech and render the Tough's fortune irrelevant that way. Or Petey gets the Osiris non-sentient slave labor farm going. But then I suppose we can't have half-assed arbitrary resource scarcity stories.
Or shake the crew up again and make it clear that the people who are staying are here because they like the life not the monetary benefits.
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2018-09-19, 09:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Or at least say "The Oafans have a cultural taboo against grave robbers, and since they have thousands of longguns, we might want to keep them happy" rather than "We're obviously thieves who now need to return what was never ours".
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2018-09-19, 09:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
That's kind of like saying "This rich man won't be angry that I just stole his car because he has plenty of money to buy another one!". While I agree that the current plotline with the Oafans classing the ships the Toughs took as "theft" is cobblers, it's not because "it was only a small proportion of their fleet, they can afford to do without them".
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2018-09-20, 04:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2004
- Location
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/...kmercenary.com
It's not just you! www.schlockmercenary.com looks down from here.Hark! An avatar drawn by Kate Beaton!
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2018-09-20, 05:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
It was definitely up when I did my normal morning comic binge about three hours ago.
[EDIT] Update from Howard on Twitter: "Good morning. Site is down, I'm on the road, and the tech is in New Zealand. We'll figure something out, but it's gonna take a bit of time."Last edited by factotum; 2018-09-20 at 10:03 AM.
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2018-09-20, 12:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- USA
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Alternatively, it's comparable to the U.S. Navy sending out 1-3 modern carrier battle groups to reclaim 3 dinghys off WWII aircraft carrier that had been left floating in the Pacific for the last 80 years. Or Toyota headquarters sending an army to repossess three cars that the idiot son who took over his dad's dealership gave away to his friends without reading the fine print. Or Bill Gates personally hunting down someone who pirated a copy of Word 2013. Analogies aren't perfect, the whole situation is patently absurd for a whole lot of reasons.
Forgetting even normative arguments about like : Do the toughs deserve a reward for saving them? Is letting a few (possibly hundreds) of ships go a worthwhile investment in good relations with the existing galactic civilization? Etc. 3 out of 15,000 isn't even rounding error. Th oafans probably lost more than that accidentally parking too close to a star that was going to go supernova 5,000 years ago, thinking "eh we'll move in 3000 years or so".
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2018-09-20, 01:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
I'm personally thinking that the "Brute Force" approach is for something else. Possibly, to deal with the inevitable retreat into darkness that the Long Gun presents for all civilizations, Oafans are countering it with keeping an absolute list of everything everywhere in the galaxy that they'll publish and keep updated. Dragging everyone into the light by force, so-to-speak, and preserving galactic civilization.
An approach entirely contrary to the All-Star which chooses to hide and aggregate.