the thing is, I never quite know how to respond to comments like sropike's- it makes me feel quite embarrassed and that I really have to get the next bit just right. And on something vaguely like a schedule.
I don't like the most common definition of sanity I keep coming across, which is essentially that of being appropriate to the situation, of fitting in and being well adjusted- as a practical definition, as an "is", of what actually happens it's coherent and consistent enough, but as a "should" it's disastrously conformist and places a much higher premium on security than on individuality.
"Well adjusted" could be translated as 'has given up trying to make the world a better place'- which is bad enough, but in Palpatine's New Order? There are circumstances in which being a misfit is basically a badge of honour.
Then there's a whole complicated tangle about war, stress, humour as survival mechanism, ingroups and outgroups- but behaviour like this is another reason there should be more things wrong on a daily basis.
(And there are plenty of misfits for worse reasons, too.)
Sending the droids- presumably a relatively small section of First Watch's astromechs- there are about four thousand droids in each rotation, they're constantly busy but switch to primary responsibility when their watch comes on- assuming there are only a couple of dozen actually responsible, basically posting them to Hoth and watching the Alliance base come apart- the timing's questionable. Might not be enough time to get them through the pipeline.
There is a graffitti incident coming up, though. Not quite involving a smiley face on the side of DSII, but close.
Hull 721, plot arc the second
Moderator: LadyTevar
-
Eleventh Century Remnant
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2361
- Joined: 2006-11-20 06:52am
- Location: Scotland
-
Simon_Jester
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 30165
- Joined: 2009-05-23 07:29pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
I view it a little differently. The most common definition of sanity- it's not whether you are adjusted to the situation, it's whether you can cope with the situation without pain. Or at least without pain caused by inner mental friction, without obvious chafing between your psyche and your surroundings.
The blatant mental illnesses, the chafing's on one's surroundings, not so much oneself, because one has been reduced to a jagged, spiky soul that damages things that touch it too closely. The less obvious ones like depression and OCD, the chafing's all on the inside.
A person who's still trying to change their environment but isn't tortured by it- that's a sane reformer, and the sane ones are usually the most successful ones, even if they get a lot of mileage out of leading the less fortunate cases.
The obvious problem with shipping the droids to Hoth is that they don't know where it is. If they knew, it'd make more sense to post them a torpedo warhead wrapped up in a bow... although the results would probably be less interesting to everyone except Aldrem.
The blatant mental illnesses, the chafing's on one's surroundings, not so much oneself, because one has been reduced to a jagged, spiky soul that damages things that touch it too closely. The less obvious ones like depression and OCD, the chafing's all on the inside.
A person who's still trying to change their environment but isn't tortured by it- that's a sane reformer, and the sane ones are usually the most successful ones, even if they get a lot of mileage out of leading the less fortunate cases.
The obvious problem with shipping the droids to Hoth is that they don't know where it is. If they knew, it'd make more sense to post them a torpedo warhead wrapped up in a bow... although the results would probably be less interesting to everyone except Aldrem.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
-
Vianca
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 311
- Joined: 2006-01-20 08:00am
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Remnant, you go from one end of the line, might I remind you that crimimals usealy ARE well adjusted as well?
How else could they act criminal?
As for other groups of well adjusted, look into politics, those guys are worse then the criminals themself in the normal way of things.
You could say that they are TOO WELL adjusted.
Look at the Euro, my money become 2.2 times less worth, same for my payment from my job, taxes went from 7.5 to 9%.
All the while the prices of stuff stayed the same, but O no, that was impossible.
And now those GREEDY bastaards are complaining that they don't have enough money to keep everything running as it should and are selling militairy equiptment to who ever wants it.
What the F#,&$>?($< have they been doing?????
Filling their own bank accounts???
The whole economical crisis can be lay at the foot of the euro, if people can't live on the same feet without borrowing and borrowing is promoted as a part of you culture, what do you get?
Ad in that the banks had to search for other ways to replace income of money exchange and you get the whole stock-crap that was a drup to many for the bucket.
Remember Al-Capone?
He is one of the fathers of modern crime thanks to a anti-alcohol law.
Ad in that if the euro falls, you can expect euro countries to attack each other for their gold reserves, just so they can re-introduce their own munt with enough gold backing it up.
Sorry for my rant, couldn't help myself.
On another note, this one of the things that is probably happening in the background of Star Wars as well, just way slower thanks to the many planets.
There usealy is a galactic war before a money crisis can arise, because of this.
How else could they act criminal?
As for other groups of well adjusted, look into politics, those guys are worse then the criminals themself in the normal way of things.
You could say that they are TOO WELL adjusted.
Look at the Euro, my money become 2.2 times less worth, same for my payment from my job, taxes went from 7.5 to 9%.
All the while the prices of stuff stayed the same, but O no, that was impossible.
And now those GREEDY bastaards are complaining that they don't have enough money to keep everything running as it should and are selling militairy equiptment to who ever wants it.
What the F#,&$>?($< have they been doing?????
Filling their own bank accounts???
The whole economical crisis can be lay at the foot of the euro, if people can't live on the same feet without borrowing and borrowing is promoted as a part of you culture, what do you get?
Ad in that the banks had to search for other ways to replace income of money exchange and you get the whole stock-crap that was a drup to many for the bucket.
Remember Al-Capone?
He is one of the fathers of modern crime thanks to a anti-alcohol law.
Ad in that if the euro falls, you can expect euro countries to attack each other for their gold reserves, just so they can re-introduce their own munt with enough gold backing it up.
Sorry for my rant, couldn't help myself.
On another note, this one of the things that is probably happening in the background of Star Wars as well, just way slower thanks to the many planets.
There usealy is a galactic war before a money crisis can arise, because of this.
Nothing like the present.
-
Simon_Jester
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 30165
- Joined: 2009-05-23 07:29pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
A striking number of criminals come from the maladjusted, people with issues from their youth who think that force and theft are the best ways to solve their problems. It's a rare (and usually pretty rich) criminal who is entirely sane, who has made a conscious decision to break the rules and who applies the full planning power of an intelligent person to that end.Vianca wrote:Remnant, you go from one end of the line, might I remind you that crimimals usealy ARE well adjusted as well?
How else could they act criminal?...
Sorry for my rant, couldn't help myself.
On another note, this one of the things that is probably happening in the background of Star Wars as well, just way slower thanks to the many planets. There usealy is a galactic war before a money crisis can arise, because of this.
As to the rest- Vianca, I'm not sure how sober you were when you posted that, but in any case you might want to reconsider the bit in your last paragraph. Star Wars isn't written as an allegory for post-2008 economics. And if we look at the version of it portrayed in ECR's fiction... there's honestly no reason for true economic crashes to exist in recognizable form. The matter-and-energy economy is so productive that supplying the necessities of life is a trivial task; the only real obstacle is going to be housing on long-developed planets.
Social necessities are harder; the main difference between the core and fringe worlds may be the level of organization and governmental competence that local administration puts into keeping the populace educated, organized, and... sane.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
-
Vianca
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 311
- Joined: 2006-01-20 08:00am
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
No Jester, they ain´t there yet.
Now the World Devastator might be quite close to what you mean, since it can recreate the gasses needed for the ships it produces.
But everything else is industrial production based economy, but when ever a economic crash is about to come, you can start a new frontier to hold it off by creating a new market.....
At in that wars are usealy good in cleaning up any depts a country has, by literaly blasting the knowledge of this dept sky-high or stealing your enemy his money...
And no, I wasn´t completely comparing it to 2008-economics, just the ones the Dark Ages and such times.
They did go to war in order to restore their economy before it could dive to much.
Basicaly, I´m saying that they managed to hold a economic crisis off by wars and starting up new frontiers.
There is a reason behind Palpatines madness, he is spending quite a lot.
Hey look, is that a bird?
Now the World Devastator might be quite close to what you mean, since it can recreate the gasses needed for the ships it produces.
But everything else is industrial production based economy, but when ever a economic crash is about to come, you can start a new frontier to hold it off by creating a new market.....
At in that wars are usealy good in cleaning up any depts a country has, by literaly blasting the knowledge of this dept sky-high or stealing your enemy his money...
And no, I wasn´t completely comparing it to 2008-economics, just the ones the Dark Ages and such times.
They did go to war in order to restore their economy before it could dive to much.
Basicaly, I´m saying that they managed to hold a economic crisis off by wars and starting up new frontiers.
There is a reason behind Palpatines madness, he is spending quite a lot.
Hey look, is that a bird?
Nothing like the present.
-
Eleventh Century Remnant
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2361
- Joined: 2006-11-20 06:52am
- Location: Scotland
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Hm. Dealing with even my local council and its' arms, I am painfully familiar with the feeling that Vianca expresses that those in charge are crooks, liars and thieves and that "the system" is fundamentally broken and being run by the enemy. Which is probably overstating the case for me, here, at the moment. I know it's worse elsewhere- like where it sounds like you are, Vianca- vastly worse elsewhen, which considering the trends is somehow not comforting at all. Jagged, spiky, chafing on the inside? (looks in mirror.)
On galactic economics- I think the relevant posts have actually been disappeared, but I remember having this argument, and coming to the conclusion that the average citizen of the GFFA simply does not live remotely like a citizen of a society with that kind of energy budget;
that there are huge quantities of little better than modern day first worlders out there, shading all the way down to theoretically sentient primitives living in caves and trees, on whom there is not even the dimmest shadow of the energy budget required to create the fleets and superweapons that answer to Coruscant.
The conclusion I ended up coming to was that the Republic was a place of vast inequalities and very nearly no information flow to illuminate these, that there was no meaningful drive to eradicate inequality and shape a better future at all and possibly efforts being made to sustain it, that for very many people on very many planets- possibly an absolute majority of them- the high end economy was nonexistent or at least nonpresent, and the necessities of life were a serious problem.
There is a huge spread of possibility, of which I believe- and find it more interesting to write as if- the top end exists, but I have to acknowledge the bottom as well- and necessarily many layers in between.
Bribery would be good here, it's affordable, but the main plot- type reason against it is that Palpatine and the sort of being he chooses as lieutenants and subordinates, very few of them are the giving kind. (There are inequalities in there that would make good story- stuff, remind me to get round to it.)
This is one explanation for the disparity between ground and space, incidentally; starfighters and things- they're built to the space economy. Megatons' worth of heat per second, landscapes melting, all that frazz. AT- somethings, repulsortanks, things used on people face to face- they're on people scale, from much further down the energy economy.
On galactic economics- I think the relevant posts have actually been disappeared, but I remember having this argument, and coming to the conclusion that the average citizen of the GFFA simply does not live remotely like a citizen of a society with that kind of energy budget;
that there are huge quantities of little better than modern day first worlders out there, shading all the way down to theoretically sentient primitives living in caves and trees, on whom there is not even the dimmest shadow of the energy budget required to create the fleets and superweapons that answer to Coruscant.
The conclusion I ended up coming to was that the Republic was a place of vast inequalities and very nearly no information flow to illuminate these, that there was no meaningful drive to eradicate inequality and shape a better future at all and possibly efforts being made to sustain it, that for very many people on very many planets- possibly an absolute majority of them- the high end economy was nonexistent or at least nonpresent, and the necessities of life were a serious problem.
There is a huge spread of possibility, of which I believe- and find it more interesting to write as if- the top end exists, but I have to acknowledge the bottom as well- and necessarily many layers in between.
Bribery would be good here, it's affordable, but the main plot- type reason against it is that Palpatine and the sort of being he chooses as lieutenants and subordinates, very few of them are the giving kind. (There are inequalities in there that would make good story- stuff, remind me to get round to it.)
This is one explanation for the disparity between ground and space, incidentally; starfighters and things- they're built to the space economy. Megatons' worth of heat per second, landscapes melting, all that frazz. AT- somethings, repulsortanks, things used on people face to face- they're on people scale, from much further down the energy economy.
-
Vianca
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 311
- Joined: 2006-01-20 08:00am
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
And worse thing is that I live in one of the better countries to boot.Eleventh Century Remnant wrote:Hm. Dealing with even my local council and its' arms, I am painfully familiar with the feeling that Vianca expresses that those in charge are crooks, liars and thieves and that "the system" is fundamentally broken and being run by the enemy. Which is probably overstating the case for me, here, at the moment. I know it's worse elsewhere- like where it sounds like you are, Vianca- vastly worse elsewhen, which considering the trends is somehow not comforting at all. Jagged, spiky, chafing on the inside? (looks in mirror.)
Says something about the system, nea?
It´s all hidden under a thin layer of paint, so casual eyes won´t spot it.
The worse the countries get, the more honest they are about those under-the-table deals.
It´s kinda
up-side-down, don´t you say?Nothing like the present.
-
Simon_Jester
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 30165
- Joined: 2009-05-23 07:29pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Well, don't fancy yourself the only one. Taking your current events with a dash of perspective- ought to be classified as a type of bitters.Eleventh Century Remnant wrote: Jagged, spiky, chafing on the inside? (looks in mirror.)
Yes. From my perspective that's the Rim. But people living as modern day first worlders- that really is a comfortable existence, you don't NEED more energy than that to be as comfortable and long-lived as any sentient being can really comprehend.On galactic economics- I think the relevant posts have actually been disappeared, but I remember having this argument, and coming to the conclusion that the average citizen of the GFFA simply does not live remotely like a citizen of a society with that kind of energy budget;
that there are huge quantities of little better than modern day first worlders out there, shading all the way down to theoretically sentient primitives living in caves and trees, on whom there is not even the dimmest shadow of the energy budget required to create the fleets and superweapons that answer to Coruscant.
I mean, try answering the question like this. What would you, personally, do with ten times more per capita energy consumption? A Third Worlder could answer that: "Get a dishwasher." You and I can't. We've hit demand saturation.
The catch is that with the space economy even existing at all, the typical civilized planet will be one where necessities are such a trivial fraction of the overall output of civilization that you can't starve the masses- because any ham-handed idiot in political opposition would be able to rearrange things so they wouldn't starve, and make the appropriate promises, and thus take over from you. This is why you never see anyone running for office on a platform of "abolish running water;" it's not burdensome to have it and we all know it'd be burdensome to NOT have it.
Food, electricity, fuel, material goods of many kinds, these things are simply not going to be a problem because it's so stupidly easy to supply them in Star Wars that not even a government can do it wrong. Or afford to do it wrong.
On the other hand, some of the quasi-necessities of modern life don't scale well with energy output. Housing gets expensive in a crowded world. Medical care requires skilled labor- doctors or men to build the medical droids. Education, likewise, skilled labor. Increasing total civilization energy production by an order of magnitude doesn't fix those problems, so those things remain relatively expensive.
That may be the dividing line between highly developed Core worlds (which have the infrastructure in place, and the prestige to command whatever it takes, to get the skilled labor) and the less-developed but still civilized ones (which, like the modern First World, only manage to supply those things imperfectly or in fits and starts).
There are probably practical reasons why the ground-scale economy is lower energy. It's not safe to make it more energetic. Batteries that store gigajoules of energy are not very safe for household applications, given that improper disposal of one may result in it blowing up like the Scampton gate guard and taking half of town with it. Wall outlets that can deliver several hundred amps at 120 V (or dozens of amps at thousands of volts) are asking for trouble.This is one explanation for the disparity between ground and space, incidentally; starfighters and things- they're built to the space economy. Megatons' worth of heat per second, landscapes melting, all that frazz. AT- somethings, repulsortanks, things used on people face to face- they're on people scale, from much further down the energy economy.
Thus, it's almost inevitable that 99.99...% of per capita energy consumption in Star Wars goes to industrial processes, heavy communications equipment, and star travel. Because THOSE are the applications where the typical energy-using process has a neutrino radiator bolted to it. Your stovetop does not.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
-
Eleventh Century Remnant
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2361
- Joined: 2006-11-20 06:52am
- Location: Scotland
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
First world problems and others are far worse off, I know; winter is just not my favourite time, and at the end of one year and the start of another- well, there are reasons why most cultures have a big party around about the time of the equinox, they need it.
Anyway, I think that's optimism on the subject of the Republic, assuming that it's being led and managed by intelligent, competent people who actually care- which would be nice if it was true, but I think really isn't warranted by the official history or most of the backstories; the Republic only seems to act effectively and to grow when it's actively challenged or under the control of maniacs, the rest of the time it seems to act to preserve the galaxy in a state that seems to be good- which is factionalised and regionalised, uneven and unexploited. Failure to prevent the citizens exploiting one another, on the other hand, does exist.
If anything I'd call the general government of the Galactic Republic degenerate- Jeffersonian, a system intended to be of but not on the people, a weak central authority whose greatest responsibility is to keep itself weak reserving just enough strength to prevent a rival authority, and second to that act as arbiter and central court; devolving over time into what you have left of that kind of system after it has been bureaucratised, fossilised, and the means have become the ends.
There is a world- cited as an example of industrial capability- on which Palpatine did abolish water- actually as a punishment; Gholondreine- beta was stripped of its' hydrosphere for insufficient zeal in adapting to the new order. Positive needs being met certainly could and should occur, but it seems demand- led; it's the people tapping into the galactic economy rather than it comeing to them. Or something.
Oh, I did cross- post part of this, the plot strand about Lennart's daughter, over on tf.n- just to see what kind of reception it got, it seemed the most tf.n'ish bit of it all- and what was the first comment I got? A gripe about typesetting. I hate typesetting. It haunts and pesters me and causes me to lose my temper on an accelerated basis. I don't think I'm welcome over there and I may not go back.
Anyway, I think that's optimism on the subject of the Republic, assuming that it's being led and managed by intelligent, competent people who actually care- which would be nice if it was true, but I think really isn't warranted by the official history or most of the backstories; the Republic only seems to act effectively and to grow when it's actively challenged or under the control of maniacs, the rest of the time it seems to act to preserve the galaxy in a state that seems to be good- which is factionalised and regionalised, uneven and unexploited. Failure to prevent the citizens exploiting one another, on the other hand, does exist.
If anything I'd call the general government of the Galactic Republic degenerate- Jeffersonian, a system intended to be of but not on the people, a weak central authority whose greatest responsibility is to keep itself weak reserving just enough strength to prevent a rival authority, and second to that act as arbiter and central court; devolving over time into what you have left of that kind of system after it has been bureaucratised, fossilised, and the means have become the ends.
There is a world- cited as an example of industrial capability- on which Palpatine did abolish water- actually as a punishment; Gholondreine- beta was stripped of its' hydrosphere for insufficient zeal in adapting to the new order. Positive needs being met certainly could and should occur, but it seems demand- led; it's the people tapping into the galactic economy rather than it comeing to them. Or something.
Oh, I did cross- post part of this, the plot strand about Lennart's daughter, over on tf.n- just to see what kind of reception it got, it seemed the most tf.n'ish bit of it all- and what was the first comment I got? A gripe about typesetting. I hate typesetting. It haunts and pesters me and causes me to lose my temper on an accelerated basis. I don't think I'm welcome over there and I may not go back.
-
Simon_Jester
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 30165
- Joined: 2009-05-23 07:29pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
I'm not talking about the Republic, it's problems aren't really relevant to this issue. Voting citizens of a Core world aren't going to tolerate the electrical grid failing, not when it is that easy to provide countless gigawatts of electricity to keep the light on. Things like that aren't a Republic-level problem, they're handled by planetary and local governments. The Republic being a shambolic mess is largely irrelevant.Eleventh Century Remnant wrote:First world problems and others are far worse off, I know; winter is just not my favourite time, and at the end of one year and the start of another- well, there are reasons why most cultures have a big party around about the time of the equinox, they need it.
Anyway, I think that's optimism on the subject of the Republic...
The Empire means the citizens aren't voting anymore, but the Empire still needs some minimal "trains run on time" level of economic efficiency just to function- a Moff who screws that up isn't worth much as a Moff.
There are huge peripheral areas where this breaks down- where local governance isn't up to par, the economic resources available aren't mobilized effectively, and where people might SOMEHOW be in danger of starving without the government screwing up unthinkably badly. In the extreme limiting case you get places like Tatooine- an anarchic rockball ruled by crime lords, where obviously civic infrastructure is weak to nonexistent.
That is a Republic-level problem. But I'd argue that the typical citizen of the galaxy is skewed away from the periphery, not least because the ecumenopoli have populations big enough to swallow a thousand Tatooines apiece and barely notice.
Heh, yes.There is a world- cited as an example of industrial capability- on which Palpatine did abolish water- actually as a punishment; Gholondreine- beta was stripped of its' hydrosphere for insufficient zeal in adapting to the new order. Positive needs being met certainly could and should occur, but it seems demand- led; it's the people tapping into the galactic economy rather than it comeing to them. Or something.
What I mean is, more generally, the galactic economy is so big that it's almost impossible to avoid it being tapped to supply basic needs. Which is arguably what "post-scarcity" would really look like. We wouldn't all eat 10000 calories a day just because that much food was available- we'd burst. We wouldn't all use ten thousand megawatt-hours of electricity per capita just because it was available- likewise.
That alone explains the 'ground economy' being so different in scale from the 'space economy;' the space economy has almost unthinkably vast reserves of production capacity compared to the ground economy's demands.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
-
Eleventh Century Remnant
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2361
- Joined: 2006-11-20 06:52am
- Location: Scotland
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Some more flying and shooting.
hull 721 arc 2 ch 27
On the bridge, the system map was up, although the datalinks were down; it was being updated by messages carried on datapads from the small craft control centre, and the evolving situation edited in with a graphics program. Somebody- Lennart had been beaten to it by one of the comtechs- had already asked if this was what Thrawn had meant by the art of war.
As hard as they were working, lag was inevitable, and what was happening was far behind the decision curve- the captain had long since concluded that it would be dangerous to attempt to make decisions on the basis of what was being shown, but it was good practise if they had to do it properly later, and the frantic scramble to make it work was getting the bridge team to think laterally and work around each other.
Not that they had much to intervene with. Ship wasn't really combat ready, Nerveless wasn't anywhere near combat ready yet- in mechanically as good order as could be expected from a crew that were that far off the standard, the crew were the problem. Tender wasn't a combatant, period.
What's left in Nerveless' and the tender's small craft pools? Might as well make it an all hands operation- they couldn't be as completely unready as their parent ships were. Would only be in time for a hypothetical phase 2, though.
What in stang were the free traders thinking- why was there even a phase one? This had gone very sour, very quickly, in a way that could do with an explanation. 'Tell the air group this isn't a landing first and foremost any more, it's a space battle, abort the landing and regroup for combat. Anyone who just wants to run, let them- monitor and scan, record vectors for future pursuit but drop the active resisters first.'
Epsilon One was wondering the same thing. What are they all thinking, she had to wonder looking at the multiplying cloud of hostile light and medium freighters. Could this be a sensor artifact, blips caused by rogue criteria; unless this really is the rectal passage of the universe they can't all have warrants out on them, and even if they did could they all be stupid enough to be behaving in a manner that amounts to jumping up and down and saying "shoot me shoot me"?
Some of them were in range already; count off her section of the sky, identify and cue the fire control system of her heavy fighter in on the chosen target set and start generating predictions, manoeuvre for the best shooting aspect, kick the powerplant into generation mode for the guns, look round to see if the squadron were where she left them, com raid leader with one word; 'Shoot?' and look down at the intruments.
I don't need an automatic pilot, Franjia thought, I already am one. Endless re- reading of the manual paid off. This is still a freakish situation though. 'Epsilon One to Heavy Six Zero, criteria check- suggest narrowing of definition of 'Hostile' to class one offence or known rebsymp.'
That probably did come across as cheek, but this was ridiculous- there hadn't been this many rogue free traders at the Battle of Nar Shaddaa. That had been a farce and a kriffup for many reasons, most of which didn't apply here- inappropriate and half hearted commitment of second line attack units, Imperial command backstabbing had paralysed the force even before the attack plan had been sold out; it had been a bloody shambles.
We're better off in that there should be less backstabbing at the tactical level anyway, and I don't think there's a plan solid enough to sell out. There has to be something wrong with our definition of 'enemy' though.
Shulmar was looking at the spread of hostile blips with horror himself- not anticipating defeat, not yet, but the deadweight odds had passed through fair fight to end up well against them. If there was sufficient tactical skill among the rebel scum, this could get interestingly disastrous, but they would have to be improbably good for that. Political defeat was staring him in the face though, if they had to take out this many of the trade hub's support craft.
Possible to say that was what they got, deserved to get, for employing shady freelancers with dubious sympathies, but the howls of protest would reach high enough to get the attention of the people whose pockets these slime lined- which, well, there was such a thing as having too much opposition.
The target criteria and, ah, kriff. 'Heavy Six Zero to all, targets are confirmed, repeat confirmed. That is the number who have outstanding category one warrants or known rebel sympathies. Weapons free and good hunting.'
In large parts of the expansion regions and beyond, Franjia thought, shooting the sheriff wasn't a song title, it was a popular hobby; armed resistance to the law did qualify as a category one offence, and those were the ones they were picking up on. Next thing that happens is that the only a little guilty and the temporarily innocent get dragged in in support of their friends, and we find ourselves facing five hundred or so of the damned things.
Most targeting systems didn't, her modified starship fire control could give her an overview of who had guide beams locked onto what; she pointed on and designated a cluster of red blips, claiming them. 'Epsilon, attack by flights, A,' picking and pinging one, highlighting it for their fire control gear, 'B, C.' doing the same for the other two. 'Break and attack.'
Sent them off; didn't need to accelerate into the attack herself, not with the long guns- just pick, point on, and put a six round burst at what any sensible person would call long range into a Ghtroc freighter that looked like a cubist turtle and hadn't realised it needed to start dodging yet.
First shot hit and redlined the shielding, second punched through but not cleanly, splattered over the left hand side of the thing which started to melt and glow; third bolt hit the right hand side with enough force to crush and scatter, send jagged pieces tumbling away, fourth actually missed- overcorrecting for the thing ceasing acceleration- the fifth hit something solid enough to take all the force of the bolt, and it was an explosion of two halves, molten blobs of wreckage on one side and shattered splinters on the other; the sixth just made the debris glitter.
Retribution, she thought- there weren't many ways to get into penal code category one that didn't actually earn that death sentence. The Imperial codes in general had very few problems with false negatives and under- valuing of offences; much more the other way round. On the other hand the public were worse, a surprisingly large number of people didn't feel that shooting at TIE fighters constituted a crime.
Whose turn on the receiving end next? B flight had popped the Barloz medium freighter she had sent them after- expended a torpedo to do it, to distract the thing's defensive turrets so the fighters had a clear strafing run, it worked, it would be an extravagance on most light freighter targets but on a medium it was fair enough. Ordnance expenditure wasn't likely to be at the top of anyone's worry list today anyway.
A flight hadn't quite done with theirs, and were laying in with combined laser and ion fire to get the shields down faster, it was an antique StarFeld Zigma- 12, which was taking a hell of a lot of punishment before going boom. C flight had ionised their target, and then put one precise laser bolt through the ion engine reaction mass reserve. 'Zhered, what was that about?'
'Scum just tried to bluff his way out by claiming to be a dependent transfer flight with a hold full of women and children. Lifeform scan almost fooled us, but we went in for a closer look- mothers and youngsters all right, ewe and lamb nerf. A sick scam like that deserved a slow, nasty way out.' Which it would be; if the heavy metal toxicity from the ionizates didn't get them the radiation would.
'All right, I'll stand by that.' Franjia agreed. 'Shame about the nerf though. That's not how you're supposed to cook them. Switch target- mark.' put the finger of death on an older Corellian ship, an HT- series. They must have pretty good mechanics to be running this diverse an assortment of craft, she thought- and I would never have come out with that crack about Nerf if I hadn't been spending time with Aron.
It's exactly the sort of cruel, callous joke he would- but then again, as he keeps reminding me, who shot who? I was in a terrible state then, psychic stress and physical strain and moral collapse all piling up on each other. Wasn't exactly a positive seduction either- he more or less persuaded me that if I had lost it badly enough to start shooting at my own side then I needed someone to hang on to.
That table at the reception, he claims that we screwed on top of it mainly as a distraction to stop me attempting to throttle him. Strangely I actually believe him on that part.
Easier to figure out why he's attracted to that- thrillseeker, adrenalin junkie, enjoys the challenge to his mortality- than it is to understand why it is that I'm playing it for him. When it comes to our so called relationship, I think it's basically an exchange of illusions; I play that part for him so he plays the part for me that I need.
Which is essentially that of an animal, in the moral than the physical sense- even if that's hardly a bad thing. I want someone who isn't burdened by the abstract quandaries, who has the reflexive, instinctive moral approach of a member of the pack. Which to be fair he isn't, really, any more than I am a natural murderer- and if he doesn't understand that and is subconsciously offering himself up to me as something to practise on, he's even further round the bend than I am.
Back to work. A flight had found a second target on their own anyway, a barge tug with a long string of cargo containers, but had been unable to finish paralysing it because another ship- a Hyrotii light freighter with a nasty long- blaster setup- had moved to support; they both tagged up as rebsymp, take if possible.
Well, attempt to do so anyway. Even with a sledgehammer it was possible to only break one bone at a time. Lock up and track both of them, a shot at each- missed the Hyrotii the first time and had to squeeze the trigger again, got it with the second bolt- pop the shields and give the ionisers a chance they didn't need to be pointed at twice.
Both of them shut down and started tumbling, switch modes to skyscan- clashing mental gears in the process; thinking, I desperately need a backseater or an astromech to manage this thing's avionics- who was it who joked that sensor/interceptor officers were like seeing eye pittin, everyone who needs one should have one? Like to see them try to do this, ideally without a spacesuit.
At the end of the switch- wrangling she had a fair sky survey, and it was looking not too bad to be honest- depending on how much energy and courage the smugglers had left. The deadweight was with them, if they had the nerve and the leaders left to use it.
They didn't have a plan, either, and they were suffering for it- some individuals looked at what of a a wide, rolling battle they could make sense of and found a worthwhile objective, there, a pair of YT's moving to engage a trio of stormtrooper transports, that would be a likely loss; move over to support, then-
and totally miss the modified star yacht on a fast, tangential pass taking a long shot. Beep, ping, crunch as the alarms went off in so much confusion and demanding attention to so many different places she only had time to shove the stick to a corner and hope.
That was bloody stupid, she thought, caught daydreaming- spinning and weaving and trying to avoid the fire control lock long enough for the rest of her flight to do something about it. For the moment just thrash it, thought would come later.
A flight did round on it, and blasted it or tried to- those things were ridiculously fast, could outrun and out- turn line TIEs, which gave them a big speed if not agility edge over the Starwing. It could run and fight at the same time too, having a turret. Her element leader squirted a torpedo at it which might be able to catch it, certainly made it honour the threat and take it's guns off her.
That was all she needed to stabilise out of her spiral evasion turn and point on, nail it with a pair of turbolaser bolts. Couldn't outrun that. Odd reaction as the relatively heavy shields took it but the relatively thin hull they were bolted to didn't, dished in under the impact; the engines misfired for a beat and the torpedo chasing the yacht used that time to catch up.
About a second after it had gone foom, her datalink finally got back to her and informed her there was a bounty on that ship. Just as well under the circumstances that it was for "dead or alive."
'Good- stay with me, we'll try to make this work as a flight.' Three hats on; she was the squadron leader obviously, she was A flight lead, and she was first element A flight lead, and had to think on four levels at once, so much that she quite understood why the usual TIE leader's choice was "sod it, let's kill something."
Another mark against this airframe. Doesn't handle like- can't formate properly with- a line Starwing. Just have to do what we can because we are running out of room for mistakes and experiments. Find, reacquire, steer towards that YT she had been after earlier.
Damn this sensor rig; it could tell her everything she wanted to know, but did so in such an arse- about, subdivided, menu- ridden way that when the heat was on she had no time to ask it the right questions. Well, there may be droids going spare for it soon, and one on a punishment detail would be entirely appropriate for her. Power management needs oversight too. Peak workload is probably equivalent to about 2.8 people.
If we actually got paid by heart rate, she thought, then I could probably get about that much. I don't show it, I'm proud of not showing it, but kriff I feel it. What were B and C flights chasing?
B were after a something or other- sensor returns were hazy, but that in itself was enough to reveal it was using some kind of masking rig that was illegal enough in itself to make it a legitimate target. It had thought it couldn't be seen, they had let it think that, lured it in and lit it up.
C flight were engaged in antimissile work, trying to shoot orbital station launched rockets off a pair of shuttles, the rockets themselves were crude, improvised, kitbashed things with mining explosive heads and homing systems rigged out of geophysics gear, the interceptions were easy enough but the fact that such things had been made, and made ready, at all-
A com call routed to all squadron leaders from the Group- level link; 'There's a pattern here, most of the local firms have a handful of rotten apples, but Splundig, I'm only seeing two of their craft that are not showing hostile. The ship is rooting through to see if they are in fact a Rebel front company. It looks like it from the smorgasbord of scum they have flying for them.'
Colourful turns of phrase from the new commander air group aside, it would make things immensely easier if they were- it would turn this from a disruption of trade that costs important people money into an action to suppress Rebel infiltration- that had undoubtedly occurred to Shulmar which was why he was being optimistic about it.
Franjia knew now far more than she had ever wanted to about Imperial politics, and had a more cynical approach. That it's being a Rebel front company was just too good to be true, and any attempt to declare and prove them so would backfire- the reality probably being that they were cheap enough to hire anyone, no questions asked, and make the accuser look like a rebs- under- the- bed paranoid hysteric.
She had had a lot of opportunities to practise her cynicism lately. The business of Adannan's personal shuttle had come back to haunt her, and apparently a decision had been made; she had been unjudicially and informally tried, at such a high level it had probably taken no more than a couple of seconds of their time, and the verdict had been death by enemy.
She would be kept on a never- ending- well, otherwise neverending- tour; no transfer, no rest, no leave would be approved, she would be bureaucratically denied all opportunities to move on from her place and post until she burnt out and lost her edge, and one of the rebs or renegades finally managed to get her.
For a moment she had been tempted to say "I accept", on the grounds that it would likely make no actual difference, but she decided that would simply spoil the Captain's fun in subverting it. He had been- well, if she could notice in the middle of being told something like that, he was obviously quite badly stressed himself.
There had been two YT's. One was still in sight and closing on the transports, the other had moved out on the flank and was hunting the hunters, closing on them; she spotlighted it as a target. Second element lobbed a torpedo each out ahead of it's base course and programmed to turn onto a head on intercept;
it tried to drift and strafe past them, having too much way on to change direction instantly- its' fire came from a turret with three long- barrelled medium lasers, looked suspiciously like those from an X- wing with a slightly beefed up cooling shroud.
As a hint, she thought, that is simply overdoing it; they were effective and dangerous- forced her wingman to break off an attack run and start weaving, started zeroing in on her, then the torpedoes arrived.
Shape had quite a lot to do with survivability; a small ship like a fighter, if it could present a shallow angled deflector to the torpedoes- something the Starwing's designers had relegated to a secondary consideration, dammit- could ride the energy surge and let itself be pushed aside, roll with the force of the blow and absorb little of it.
Flying saucer with knobs on YT's could do that too, a lot of the time, but not if the torp came in right on one of the axes- came in flat. In that case it would eat the entire force of the blast, and standard B torpedoes were corvette killers- overkill for a tramp freighter.
The YT was the least impressive detonation, two brilliant cones of light and an orange-pale fireball, kaboom kaboom pop. The transport flight had turned head on to the second one and were playing the game of chicken, streaming laser and ion fire at it, trying to twist out of the way of it's own ribbons of fire, taking hits and damage; the other YT had it's shields oriented towards them.
One transport's cockpit module melted and blew apart as the Starwings caught up and opened on the YT, pounding it's engines; bursting green flares succeeded and outshone by blue- white ion escape and the oddly chemical look of burning durasteel; it tumbled, no threat- but one of the transports was disabled.
'Fly guard positions for a moment, I need time to do cockpit work. Keep them off me for a few seconds.' She asked of her flight.
'What them? There's nothing in a light second.' Her wingman reported. Not entirely reassuringly.
'Getting a decent sky survey out of this-' she bit back a barrage of unprofessional swearwords- 'overcomplex and underdeveloped scan matrix is why I need a few seconds' peace.' she snapped back, but it was fair enough.
The results were interesting, too. Veren Porphyr V-i, the innermost and largest moon that the shoal of hostiles had come up from, had a remarkable stretch of clear sky around and reaching away from it, that the red blips were haring down- and most of the wing and the better armed small craft around or on vectors converging on their illusory road to freedom.
There were several indelicate expressions she could have used to describe that image, but she passed over them as being likely to breach com security. Let's see who the first idiot daft enough to blurt out "they've stuck their genitals right into the rancor trap" actually is, though.
How likely is it that there's anyone listening? Were they simply a convoy of everyone for themselves really, or was there a tactician in charge, someone playing the same role as whatwashisname, Calrissian, had at Nar Shaddaa, someone with an overview and a vision?
If there is, they're playing it extremely cool, so cool it looks indistinguishable from their falling right into the ambush.
The most distant Imperial units, furthest out of position and vector to converge on them, were the people who had gone off chasing hares of their own- her lot, Beta, Zeta, Delta. Shulmar seemed to know what he wanted though- 'Epsilon, stay wide, keep chasing the strays.'
The other formations away from the main flood of blips were presumably getting similar orders. What was actually left? Mostly orange- officially amber but who cared- yellow and green blips. All the locals were at least yellow, which translated as dubious. Blue would be a friendly noncombatant, and there were precious few of those.
Where were the remaining reds? One had sensibly, as soon as the shooting started, spooled up the drives and was probably uncatchable- certainly by anyone who wanted to get out there and get back in time to be useful. It was an older YT- series, somewhere between the thousand and the mark twelve-fifty; that made it much odder- effective survival-oriented behaviour from someone flying a YT? Take a drive print for later analysis.
There was another red that was actually being quite helpful- from their point of view, anyway. Not survival oriented at all. Strange little thing, a light freighter sized wedge that the databanks called a long obsolete KDY type, Shallowmon or Salmon or something- retro style anyway, with modern gubbins inside the shell.
It was turning back, apparently to try to rescue two orange blips. Of course they don't know what our threat assessments are, she thought. If the wedge thinks those two oranges are in danger from us, then they may be worth a closer look.
I wonder why, she went on to ponder. What private tragedy am I about to cause? Lovers, estranged, and reconciling in the face of tyranny and death (me)? Siblings? Old rivals, deep in years- long economic duel that they're not going to allow anyone else to get in the way of seeing how it ends, not even the law? Drinking buddies?
Might find out if intel does a good enough job of sifting the wreckage. The one with the red blip- I have his file and the reason for the red is that he has a nasty habit of shooting at customs patrols. How cheaply should you hold your life? Surely someone with something to live for has a stronger obligation to at least attempt survival?
The fleeing orange blips were a rare Sienar light freighter, looked more like a stripped down gunship than anything else, the other a blobby SoroSuub thing that had the appearance of a bunch of particularly depressed bubbles.
Any fighter threat there might have been in the area was long gone, devoured by Alpha and Delta. Nothing else, those who hadn't been worth catching had run. Keep to the plan, don't start hot- dogging it now. There may even be time to do it by the book.
'Light freighter KR524F648, you have an outstanding category one offence. Surrender or die. Two seconds.' Not much time, but it was two seconds more than the book required- intended really to provoke a snap judgement. If they weren't going to come quietly, best know it quickly.
Count one, watch the energy spike as the thing powered up weapons, listen to the click of the channel opening that undoubtedly was going to signal some kind of message of defiance, pull the trigger on two.
The rest of the flight did the same. The thing had good glancing angles, but nothing was perfect- four sets of bolts ripped into it and dilated it into a carrot- shaped fireball.
Two screams from the orange blips, one of them gurgly, amphibian- which would have made sense if it had been coming from the SoroSuub ship, but it wasn't- the other female, leonine, from the KDY.
A bestial love triangle, Franjia thought but wouldn't bother to say. Unfair to the non- human, and ignorant of the cause and effect loop involved- they're officially discriminated against, they become angry at that as who would not, some become infuriated enough to rise up, fight back, meet the challenge-
...which is exactly what someone who genuinely believes "that which does not kill me only makes me stronger" would do. Beat and beast them until they find the courage to fight back. Palpatine doesn't hate aliens at all, probably fonder of them than he is of his own species. He's simply subjecting them to the love of a sadist.
One orange blip chose not to take the challenge; curved away disconsolately; the other, raised shields and activated fire control. That earned a red mark. The flight of Starwings rounded on it, and it reacted like someone who knew what they were doing.
Banked and rolled to present their turret and went into a drunkard's walk, simulating random bursts of thrust in random direction, jinking and bobbing- never truly random, though, impossible to avoid patterns. Why it was still called a drunkard's walk despite the insult involved; only semi- chaotic.
Franjia recognised some of the evasion patterns. That thing's being flown by an ex bomber pilot, probably ARC-170s. Old school. Republican loyalist, hates what the galaxy's become? Whatever the reason, he was shooting at her.
I have to stop having these moments of magnanimity, she thought, diving and corkscrewing out of a shoal of orange-red laser fire. What's the standard move for one of those old sleds in a situation like this? assume he he'll default to it- and that means we do this.
The flight starburst on command, heading out in different directions to turn to bear and converge on the light freighter- and now it gets to be a matter of timing and expectation, because I know what's supposed to come after that. The book move is to break into the claw, get between the converging fighters and try to follow one out of the manoeuvre and kill it, reduce the odds.
As long as he's thinking slowly enough that he doesn't realise that we know that too, or has enough hate that he isn't thinking straight- and there it is, there are the trails of fire, damn that was close; realised he couldn't get away with ramming something as big as a Starwing as easily as brushing aside a TIE.
Rolled round after Epsilon Three, who went full evasive and bought time for the rest of the flight to bear on and shoot. Textbook. The engines blew, and the explosion rolled forward, eating the cockpit.
Which is one solution to personal tragedy, although a fairly extreme one. The other orange blip was heading for hyperspace, and there was only the main event left now; easily visible from the orbit of the outermost moon, a column of blue and green flashes as the main concentration came under swirling, cyclonic attack.
Head in that direction to rejoin the group and pick up what was left of the pieces, anyway. Strategically- if it works, and I'll be horrified if it doesn't, she thought- what have we gained? This won't be a viable route out for the Alliance any more. It'll also have tipped them of that we're coming, as if they weren't aware already.
Of course, now we have to hold the system and- hm. Interesting. That looks like Veren Porphyr V-i has a red caret round the entire moon. Now they join the rebellion. Wonderful. 'Epsilon, regroup on me and follow me to the innermost moon. They're likely going to need something bombed.'
hull 721 arc 2 ch 27
On the bridge, the system map was up, although the datalinks were down; it was being updated by messages carried on datapads from the small craft control centre, and the evolving situation edited in with a graphics program. Somebody- Lennart had been beaten to it by one of the comtechs- had already asked if this was what Thrawn had meant by the art of war.
As hard as they were working, lag was inevitable, and what was happening was far behind the decision curve- the captain had long since concluded that it would be dangerous to attempt to make decisions on the basis of what was being shown, but it was good practise if they had to do it properly later, and the frantic scramble to make it work was getting the bridge team to think laterally and work around each other.
Not that they had much to intervene with. Ship wasn't really combat ready, Nerveless wasn't anywhere near combat ready yet- in mechanically as good order as could be expected from a crew that were that far off the standard, the crew were the problem. Tender wasn't a combatant, period.
What's left in Nerveless' and the tender's small craft pools? Might as well make it an all hands operation- they couldn't be as completely unready as their parent ships were. Would only be in time for a hypothetical phase 2, though.
What in stang were the free traders thinking- why was there even a phase one? This had gone very sour, very quickly, in a way that could do with an explanation. 'Tell the air group this isn't a landing first and foremost any more, it's a space battle, abort the landing and regroup for combat. Anyone who just wants to run, let them- monitor and scan, record vectors for future pursuit but drop the active resisters first.'
Epsilon One was wondering the same thing. What are they all thinking, she had to wonder looking at the multiplying cloud of hostile light and medium freighters. Could this be a sensor artifact, blips caused by rogue criteria; unless this really is the rectal passage of the universe they can't all have warrants out on them, and even if they did could they all be stupid enough to be behaving in a manner that amounts to jumping up and down and saying "shoot me shoot me"?
Some of them were in range already; count off her section of the sky, identify and cue the fire control system of her heavy fighter in on the chosen target set and start generating predictions, manoeuvre for the best shooting aspect, kick the powerplant into generation mode for the guns, look round to see if the squadron were where she left them, com raid leader with one word; 'Shoot?' and look down at the intruments.
I don't need an automatic pilot, Franjia thought, I already am one. Endless re- reading of the manual paid off. This is still a freakish situation though. 'Epsilon One to Heavy Six Zero, criteria check- suggest narrowing of definition of 'Hostile' to class one offence or known rebsymp.'
That probably did come across as cheek, but this was ridiculous- there hadn't been this many rogue free traders at the Battle of Nar Shaddaa. That had been a farce and a kriffup for many reasons, most of which didn't apply here- inappropriate and half hearted commitment of second line attack units, Imperial command backstabbing had paralysed the force even before the attack plan had been sold out; it had been a bloody shambles.
We're better off in that there should be less backstabbing at the tactical level anyway, and I don't think there's a plan solid enough to sell out. There has to be something wrong with our definition of 'enemy' though.
Shulmar was looking at the spread of hostile blips with horror himself- not anticipating defeat, not yet, but the deadweight odds had passed through fair fight to end up well against them. If there was sufficient tactical skill among the rebel scum, this could get interestingly disastrous, but they would have to be improbably good for that. Political defeat was staring him in the face though, if they had to take out this many of the trade hub's support craft.
Possible to say that was what they got, deserved to get, for employing shady freelancers with dubious sympathies, but the howls of protest would reach high enough to get the attention of the people whose pockets these slime lined- which, well, there was such a thing as having too much opposition.
The target criteria and, ah, kriff. 'Heavy Six Zero to all, targets are confirmed, repeat confirmed. That is the number who have outstanding category one warrants or known rebel sympathies. Weapons free and good hunting.'
In large parts of the expansion regions and beyond, Franjia thought, shooting the sheriff wasn't a song title, it was a popular hobby; armed resistance to the law did qualify as a category one offence, and those were the ones they were picking up on. Next thing that happens is that the only a little guilty and the temporarily innocent get dragged in in support of their friends, and we find ourselves facing five hundred or so of the damned things.
Most targeting systems didn't, her modified starship fire control could give her an overview of who had guide beams locked onto what; she pointed on and designated a cluster of red blips, claiming them. 'Epsilon, attack by flights, A,' picking and pinging one, highlighting it for their fire control gear, 'B, C.' doing the same for the other two. 'Break and attack.'
Sent them off; didn't need to accelerate into the attack herself, not with the long guns- just pick, point on, and put a six round burst at what any sensible person would call long range into a Ghtroc freighter that looked like a cubist turtle and hadn't realised it needed to start dodging yet.
First shot hit and redlined the shielding, second punched through but not cleanly, splattered over the left hand side of the thing which started to melt and glow; third bolt hit the right hand side with enough force to crush and scatter, send jagged pieces tumbling away, fourth actually missed- overcorrecting for the thing ceasing acceleration- the fifth hit something solid enough to take all the force of the bolt, and it was an explosion of two halves, molten blobs of wreckage on one side and shattered splinters on the other; the sixth just made the debris glitter.
Retribution, she thought- there weren't many ways to get into penal code category one that didn't actually earn that death sentence. The Imperial codes in general had very few problems with false negatives and under- valuing of offences; much more the other way round. On the other hand the public were worse, a surprisingly large number of people didn't feel that shooting at TIE fighters constituted a crime.
Whose turn on the receiving end next? B flight had popped the Barloz medium freighter she had sent them after- expended a torpedo to do it, to distract the thing's defensive turrets so the fighters had a clear strafing run, it worked, it would be an extravagance on most light freighter targets but on a medium it was fair enough. Ordnance expenditure wasn't likely to be at the top of anyone's worry list today anyway.
A flight hadn't quite done with theirs, and were laying in with combined laser and ion fire to get the shields down faster, it was an antique StarFeld Zigma- 12, which was taking a hell of a lot of punishment before going boom. C flight had ionised their target, and then put one precise laser bolt through the ion engine reaction mass reserve. 'Zhered, what was that about?'
'Scum just tried to bluff his way out by claiming to be a dependent transfer flight with a hold full of women and children. Lifeform scan almost fooled us, but we went in for a closer look- mothers and youngsters all right, ewe and lamb nerf. A sick scam like that deserved a slow, nasty way out.' Which it would be; if the heavy metal toxicity from the ionizates didn't get them the radiation would.
'All right, I'll stand by that.' Franjia agreed. 'Shame about the nerf though. That's not how you're supposed to cook them. Switch target- mark.' put the finger of death on an older Corellian ship, an HT- series. They must have pretty good mechanics to be running this diverse an assortment of craft, she thought- and I would never have come out with that crack about Nerf if I hadn't been spending time with Aron.
It's exactly the sort of cruel, callous joke he would- but then again, as he keeps reminding me, who shot who? I was in a terrible state then, psychic stress and physical strain and moral collapse all piling up on each other. Wasn't exactly a positive seduction either- he more or less persuaded me that if I had lost it badly enough to start shooting at my own side then I needed someone to hang on to.
That table at the reception, he claims that we screwed on top of it mainly as a distraction to stop me attempting to throttle him. Strangely I actually believe him on that part.
Easier to figure out why he's attracted to that- thrillseeker, adrenalin junkie, enjoys the challenge to his mortality- than it is to understand why it is that I'm playing it for him. When it comes to our so called relationship, I think it's basically an exchange of illusions; I play that part for him so he plays the part for me that I need.
Which is essentially that of an animal, in the moral than the physical sense- even if that's hardly a bad thing. I want someone who isn't burdened by the abstract quandaries, who has the reflexive, instinctive moral approach of a member of the pack. Which to be fair he isn't, really, any more than I am a natural murderer- and if he doesn't understand that and is subconsciously offering himself up to me as something to practise on, he's even further round the bend than I am.
Back to work. A flight had found a second target on their own anyway, a barge tug with a long string of cargo containers, but had been unable to finish paralysing it because another ship- a Hyrotii light freighter with a nasty long- blaster setup- had moved to support; they both tagged up as rebsymp, take if possible.
Well, attempt to do so anyway. Even with a sledgehammer it was possible to only break one bone at a time. Lock up and track both of them, a shot at each- missed the Hyrotii the first time and had to squeeze the trigger again, got it with the second bolt- pop the shields and give the ionisers a chance they didn't need to be pointed at twice.
Both of them shut down and started tumbling, switch modes to skyscan- clashing mental gears in the process; thinking, I desperately need a backseater or an astromech to manage this thing's avionics- who was it who joked that sensor/interceptor officers were like seeing eye pittin, everyone who needs one should have one? Like to see them try to do this, ideally without a spacesuit.
At the end of the switch- wrangling she had a fair sky survey, and it was looking not too bad to be honest- depending on how much energy and courage the smugglers had left. The deadweight was with them, if they had the nerve and the leaders left to use it.
They didn't have a plan, either, and they were suffering for it- some individuals looked at what of a a wide, rolling battle they could make sense of and found a worthwhile objective, there, a pair of YT's moving to engage a trio of stormtrooper transports, that would be a likely loss; move over to support, then-
and totally miss the modified star yacht on a fast, tangential pass taking a long shot. Beep, ping, crunch as the alarms went off in so much confusion and demanding attention to so many different places she only had time to shove the stick to a corner and hope.
That was bloody stupid, she thought, caught daydreaming- spinning and weaving and trying to avoid the fire control lock long enough for the rest of her flight to do something about it. For the moment just thrash it, thought would come later.
A flight did round on it, and blasted it or tried to- those things were ridiculously fast, could outrun and out- turn line TIEs, which gave them a big speed if not agility edge over the Starwing. It could run and fight at the same time too, having a turret. Her element leader squirted a torpedo at it which might be able to catch it, certainly made it honour the threat and take it's guns off her.
That was all she needed to stabilise out of her spiral evasion turn and point on, nail it with a pair of turbolaser bolts. Couldn't outrun that. Odd reaction as the relatively heavy shields took it but the relatively thin hull they were bolted to didn't, dished in under the impact; the engines misfired for a beat and the torpedo chasing the yacht used that time to catch up.
About a second after it had gone foom, her datalink finally got back to her and informed her there was a bounty on that ship. Just as well under the circumstances that it was for "dead or alive."
'Good- stay with me, we'll try to make this work as a flight.' Three hats on; she was the squadron leader obviously, she was A flight lead, and she was first element A flight lead, and had to think on four levels at once, so much that she quite understood why the usual TIE leader's choice was "sod it, let's kill something."
Another mark against this airframe. Doesn't handle like- can't formate properly with- a line Starwing. Just have to do what we can because we are running out of room for mistakes and experiments. Find, reacquire, steer towards that YT she had been after earlier.
Damn this sensor rig; it could tell her everything she wanted to know, but did so in such an arse- about, subdivided, menu- ridden way that when the heat was on she had no time to ask it the right questions. Well, there may be droids going spare for it soon, and one on a punishment detail would be entirely appropriate for her. Power management needs oversight too. Peak workload is probably equivalent to about 2.8 people.
If we actually got paid by heart rate, she thought, then I could probably get about that much. I don't show it, I'm proud of not showing it, but kriff I feel it. What were B and C flights chasing?
B were after a something or other- sensor returns were hazy, but that in itself was enough to reveal it was using some kind of masking rig that was illegal enough in itself to make it a legitimate target. It had thought it couldn't be seen, they had let it think that, lured it in and lit it up.
C flight were engaged in antimissile work, trying to shoot orbital station launched rockets off a pair of shuttles, the rockets themselves were crude, improvised, kitbashed things with mining explosive heads and homing systems rigged out of geophysics gear, the interceptions were easy enough but the fact that such things had been made, and made ready, at all-
A com call routed to all squadron leaders from the Group- level link; 'There's a pattern here, most of the local firms have a handful of rotten apples, but Splundig, I'm only seeing two of their craft that are not showing hostile. The ship is rooting through to see if they are in fact a Rebel front company. It looks like it from the smorgasbord of scum they have flying for them.'
Colourful turns of phrase from the new commander air group aside, it would make things immensely easier if they were- it would turn this from a disruption of trade that costs important people money into an action to suppress Rebel infiltration- that had undoubtedly occurred to Shulmar which was why he was being optimistic about it.
Franjia knew now far more than she had ever wanted to about Imperial politics, and had a more cynical approach. That it's being a Rebel front company was just too good to be true, and any attempt to declare and prove them so would backfire- the reality probably being that they were cheap enough to hire anyone, no questions asked, and make the accuser look like a rebs- under- the- bed paranoid hysteric.
She had had a lot of opportunities to practise her cynicism lately. The business of Adannan's personal shuttle had come back to haunt her, and apparently a decision had been made; she had been unjudicially and informally tried, at such a high level it had probably taken no more than a couple of seconds of their time, and the verdict had been death by enemy.
She would be kept on a never- ending- well, otherwise neverending- tour; no transfer, no rest, no leave would be approved, she would be bureaucratically denied all opportunities to move on from her place and post until she burnt out and lost her edge, and one of the rebs or renegades finally managed to get her.
For a moment she had been tempted to say "I accept", on the grounds that it would likely make no actual difference, but she decided that would simply spoil the Captain's fun in subverting it. He had been- well, if she could notice in the middle of being told something like that, he was obviously quite badly stressed himself.
There had been two YT's. One was still in sight and closing on the transports, the other had moved out on the flank and was hunting the hunters, closing on them; she spotlighted it as a target. Second element lobbed a torpedo each out ahead of it's base course and programmed to turn onto a head on intercept;
it tried to drift and strafe past them, having too much way on to change direction instantly- its' fire came from a turret with three long- barrelled medium lasers, looked suspiciously like those from an X- wing with a slightly beefed up cooling shroud.
As a hint, she thought, that is simply overdoing it; they were effective and dangerous- forced her wingman to break off an attack run and start weaving, started zeroing in on her, then the torpedoes arrived.
Shape had quite a lot to do with survivability; a small ship like a fighter, if it could present a shallow angled deflector to the torpedoes- something the Starwing's designers had relegated to a secondary consideration, dammit- could ride the energy surge and let itself be pushed aside, roll with the force of the blow and absorb little of it.
Flying saucer with knobs on YT's could do that too, a lot of the time, but not if the torp came in right on one of the axes- came in flat. In that case it would eat the entire force of the blast, and standard B torpedoes were corvette killers- overkill for a tramp freighter.
The YT was the least impressive detonation, two brilliant cones of light and an orange-pale fireball, kaboom kaboom pop. The transport flight had turned head on to the second one and were playing the game of chicken, streaming laser and ion fire at it, trying to twist out of the way of it's own ribbons of fire, taking hits and damage; the other YT had it's shields oriented towards them.
One transport's cockpit module melted and blew apart as the Starwings caught up and opened on the YT, pounding it's engines; bursting green flares succeeded and outshone by blue- white ion escape and the oddly chemical look of burning durasteel; it tumbled, no threat- but one of the transports was disabled.
'Fly guard positions for a moment, I need time to do cockpit work. Keep them off me for a few seconds.' She asked of her flight.
'What them? There's nothing in a light second.' Her wingman reported. Not entirely reassuringly.
'Getting a decent sky survey out of this-' she bit back a barrage of unprofessional swearwords- 'overcomplex and underdeveloped scan matrix is why I need a few seconds' peace.' she snapped back, but it was fair enough.
The results were interesting, too. Veren Porphyr V-i, the innermost and largest moon that the shoal of hostiles had come up from, had a remarkable stretch of clear sky around and reaching away from it, that the red blips were haring down- and most of the wing and the better armed small craft around or on vectors converging on their illusory road to freedom.
There were several indelicate expressions she could have used to describe that image, but she passed over them as being likely to breach com security. Let's see who the first idiot daft enough to blurt out "they've stuck their genitals right into the rancor trap" actually is, though.
How likely is it that there's anyone listening? Were they simply a convoy of everyone for themselves really, or was there a tactician in charge, someone playing the same role as whatwashisname, Calrissian, had at Nar Shaddaa, someone with an overview and a vision?
If there is, they're playing it extremely cool, so cool it looks indistinguishable from their falling right into the ambush.
The most distant Imperial units, furthest out of position and vector to converge on them, were the people who had gone off chasing hares of their own- her lot, Beta, Zeta, Delta. Shulmar seemed to know what he wanted though- 'Epsilon, stay wide, keep chasing the strays.'
The other formations away from the main flood of blips were presumably getting similar orders. What was actually left? Mostly orange- officially amber but who cared- yellow and green blips. All the locals were at least yellow, which translated as dubious. Blue would be a friendly noncombatant, and there were precious few of those.
Where were the remaining reds? One had sensibly, as soon as the shooting started, spooled up the drives and was probably uncatchable- certainly by anyone who wanted to get out there and get back in time to be useful. It was an older YT- series, somewhere between the thousand and the mark twelve-fifty; that made it much odder- effective survival-oriented behaviour from someone flying a YT? Take a drive print for later analysis.
There was another red that was actually being quite helpful- from their point of view, anyway. Not survival oriented at all. Strange little thing, a light freighter sized wedge that the databanks called a long obsolete KDY type, Shallowmon or Salmon or something- retro style anyway, with modern gubbins inside the shell.
It was turning back, apparently to try to rescue two orange blips. Of course they don't know what our threat assessments are, she thought. If the wedge thinks those two oranges are in danger from us, then they may be worth a closer look.
I wonder why, she went on to ponder. What private tragedy am I about to cause? Lovers, estranged, and reconciling in the face of tyranny and death (me)? Siblings? Old rivals, deep in years- long economic duel that they're not going to allow anyone else to get in the way of seeing how it ends, not even the law? Drinking buddies?
Might find out if intel does a good enough job of sifting the wreckage. The one with the red blip- I have his file and the reason for the red is that he has a nasty habit of shooting at customs patrols. How cheaply should you hold your life? Surely someone with something to live for has a stronger obligation to at least attempt survival?
The fleeing orange blips were a rare Sienar light freighter, looked more like a stripped down gunship than anything else, the other a blobby SoroSuub thing that had the appearance of a bunch of particularly depressed bubbles.
Any fighter threat there might have been in the area was long gone, devoured by Alpha and Delta. Nothing else, those who hadn't been worth catching had run. Keep to the plan, don't start hot- dogging it now. There may even be time to do it by the book.
'Light freighter KR524F648, you have an outstanding category one offence. Surrender or die. Two seconds.' Not much time, but it was two seconds more than the book required- intended really to provoke a snap judgement. If they weren't going to come quietly, best know it quickly.
Count one, watch the energy spike as the thing powered up weapons, listen to the click of the channel opening that undoubtedly was going to signal some kind of message of defiance, pull the trigger on two.
The rest of the flight did the same. The thing had good glancing angles, but nothing was perfect- four sets of bolts ripped into it and dilated it into a carrot- shaped fireball.
Two screams from the orange blips, one of them gurgly, amphibian- which would have made sense if it had been coming from the SoroSuub ship, but it wasn't- the other female, leonine, from the KDY.
A bestial love triangle, Franjia thought but wouldn't bother to say. Unfair to the non- human, and ignorant of the cause and effect loop involved- they're officially discriminated against, they become angry at that as who would not, some become infuriated enough to rise up, fight back, meet the challenge-
...which is exactly what someone who genuinely believes "that which does not kill me only makes me stronger" would do. Beat and beast them until they find the courage to fight back. Palpatine doesn't hate aliens at all, probably fonder of them than he is of his own species. He's simply subjecting them to the love of a sadist.
One orange blip chose not to take the challenge; curved away disconsolately; the other, raised shields and activated fire control. That earned a red mark. The flight of Starwings rounded on it, and it reacted like someone who knew what they were doing.
Banked and rolled to present their turret and went into a drunkard's walk, simulating random bursts of thrust in random direction, jinking and bobbing- never truly random, though, impossible to avoid patterns. Why it was still called a drunkard's walk despite the insult involved; only semi- chaotic.
Franjia recognised some of the evasion patterns. That thing's being flown by an ex bomber pilot, probably ARC-170s. Old school. Republican loyalist, hates what the galaxy's become? Whatever the reason, he was shooting at her.
I have to stop having these moments of magnanimity, she thought, diving and corkscrewing out of a shoal of orange-red laser fire. What's the standard move for one of those old sleds in a situation like this? assume he he'll default to it- and that means we do this.
The flight starburst on command, heading out in different directions to turn to bear and converge on the light freighter- and now it gets to be a matter of timing and expectation, because I know what's supposed to come after that. The book move is to break into the claw, get between the converging fighters and try to follow one out of the manoeuvre and kill it, reduce the odds.
As long as he's thinking slowly enough that he doesn't realise that we know that too, or has enough hate that he isn't thinking straight- and there it is, there are the trails of fire, damn that was close; realised he couldn't get away with ramming something as big as a Starwing as easily as brushing aside a TIE.
Rolled round after Epsilon Three, who went full evasive and bought time for the rest of the flight to bear on and shoot. Textbook. The engines blew, and the explosion rolled forward, eating the cockpit.
Which is one solution to personal tragedy, although a fairly extreme one. The other orange blip was heading for hyperspace, and there was only the main event left now; easily visible from the orbit of the outermost moon, a column of blue and green flashes as the main concentration came under swirling, cyclonic attack.
Head in that direction to rejoin the group and pick up what was left of the pieces, anyway. Strategically- if it works, and I'll be horrified if it doesn't, she thought- what have we gained? This won't be a viable route out for the Alliance any more. It'll also have tipped them of that we're coming, as if they weren't aware already.
Of course, now we have to hold the system and- hm. Interesting. That looks like Veren Porphyr V-i has a red caret round the entire moon. Now they join the rebellion. Wonderful. 'Epsilon, regroup on me and follow me to the innermost moon. They're likely going to need something bombed.'
The only purpose in my still being here is the stories and the people who come to read them. About all else, I no longer care.
-
kbird
- Redshirt
- Posts: 11
- Joined: 2013-02-09 01:46pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Great as usual.
-
Vianca
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 311
- Joined: 2006-01-20 08:00am
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Yeah, must be hard to keep this lvl of co-ordinated chaos going on all the time in some form or shape.
Good chapter, Remnant.
Good chapter, Remnant.
Nothing like the present.
-
Esquire
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 1583
- Joined: 2011-11-16 11:20pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
How exactly people deal with all the chaos of a space battle isn't something that's addressed often enough. Thanks for stepping up to the plate!
“Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-
Eleventh Century Remnant
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2361
- Joined: 2006-11-20 06:52am
- Location: Scotland
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Thank you all for your confidence, but that wasn't as bad as it could have been- the sheer open size of it, think of the battle as being fought out across the equivalent of the Jovian moon system here in Sol, helped.
One minor technical- tactical point; neither side seems to have fully rediscovered the principle of GCI and AWACS, although with flight coordinators on capital ships present the Empire comes closest. Jamming may preclude this to some degree, but it seems it looks to me that the Rebellion relies on individual initiative and skill, and the Empire relies on structure and system. Which side does win is obvious- but it wasn't the one that should have, given the approach.
A proper fighter on fighter, close quarters melee, could be much worse. Have to write one again soon.
kbird- first comment? Thanks, hello, and don't neglect the rest of the board.
One minor technical- tactical point; neither side seems to have fully rediscovered the principle of GCI and AWACS, although with flight coordinators on capital ships present the Empire comes closest. Jamming may preclude this to some degree, but it seems it looks to me that the Rebellion relies on individual initiative and skill, and the Empire relies on structure and system. Which side does win is obvious- but it wasn't the one that should have, given the approach.
A proper fighter on fighter, close quarters melee, could be much worse. Have to write one again soon.
kbird- first comment? Thanks, hello, and don't neglect the rest of the board.
-
Simon_Jester
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 30165
- Joined: 2009-05-23 07:29pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
The Empire's problem is that while it's got structure and system, it's warped: the sheer brutalism of it makes it ineffective. The point of such a system is that controlling fighters at the high level is its own job separate from actually knowing how to fly one- if you don't make the controllers good at their job, they cease to be a force multiplier.
When the controller tells your entire fighter group NOT to scramble because thirty snubfighters aren't a threat and [kaboom]... having ship-based control of the fighter element is not doing you any favors.
When the controller tells your entire fighter group NOT to scramble because thirty snubfighters aren't a threat and [kaboom]... having ship-based control of the fighter element is not doing you any favors.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
-
kbird
- Redshirt
- Posts: 11
- Joined: 2013-02-09 01:46pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Heh, yeah. Long time lurker here. Love all your work.
Gotta agree with Esquire though. Love the chaos. Gives the whole thing a feel too few sci-fi writers can match.
Gotta agree with Esquire though. Love the chaos. Gives the whole thing a feel too few sci-fi writers can match.
-
InsaneTD
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 667
- Joined: 2010-07-13 12:10am
- Location: South Australia
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
I'd say the lack of AWACS is from the firepower and the range of the egagements means the AWACS will be too far away and the sensor picture will be out of date, or it will be a primary target if in closer. Having the flight controllers on a capital ship do the job helps and would work for the Empire as majority of their fighters are too short ranged to leave. Doesn' work so well for the rebels because they normally do raids, so they don't have anything bigger then a snub, maybe a tramp, in the area. Tramps are big enough to be targets for anti-capital ship mounts to target so won't last long if it was doing AWACS work.
-
Eleventh Century Remnant
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2361
- Joined: 2006-11-20 06:52am
- Location: Scotland
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Obviously there are still a few bugs to be worked out of the system, nothing's perfect after all...
Kor Alric Adannan and Lennart had this argument back in chapter 30 or so of the first arc, anyway, talking about discipline and initiative and authority, things like that. Taking the respective sides and positions that might be expected, with varying degrees of insincerity.
Problem doesn't occur on the technical- tactical level, it occurs on the political- on the counter- productive, self destructive nature of the New Order, and its' zero tolerance attitude to initiative and insubordination.
Of which, more later.
Kor Alric Adannan and Lennart had this argument back in chapter 30 or so of the first arc, anyway, talking about discipline and initiative and authority, things like that. Taking the respective sides and positions that might be expected, with varying degrees of insincerity.
Problem doesn't occur on the technical- tactical level, it occurs on the political- on the counter- productive, self destructive nature of the New Order, and its' zero tolerance attitude to initiative and insubordination.
Of which, more later.
-
Andras
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 575
- Joined: 2002-07-08 10:27am
- Location: Waldorf, MD
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Franjia is in a bad spot. She's flying a platform that requires more then the usual amount of attention and care, but she is also trying to run the squadron at the same time. They might need to have one of the flight leaders take tactical control of the squadron more often to let her run and gun with the PulsarWing.
It'll take her away from shooting, but putting in a second seat and letting another pilot fly the Pulsar Wing would let her run the squadron more effectively. With a second set of full controls she can take over the PulsarWing as desired.
It'll take her away from shooting, but putting in a second seat and letting another pilot fly the Pulsar Wing would let her run the squadron more effectively. With a second set of full controls she can take over the PulsarWing as desired.
-
InsaneTD
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 667
- Joined: 2010-07-13 12:10am
- Location: South Australia
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Would there be enough room in the space frame? I think a droid brain with basic evasive routines as an autopilot that can also assist in running the reactor. Would probably be easier to find the room for.
-
Andras
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 575
- Joined: 2002-07-08 10:27am
- Location: Waldorf, MD
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
They should be able to lengthen the nose a meter or so to fit in the second seat.
Here's a quick copy an dpaste to show what I mean.
The missile launchers are not extended, but they got caught in the C&P when I lengthened the side view
Here's a quick copy an dpaste to show what I mean.
The missile launchers are not extended, but they got caught in the C&P when I lengthened the side view
-
Simon_Jester
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 30165
- Joined: 2009-05-23 07:29pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
I agree, capital ships (or ground stations) are the logical place to handle fighter control from in Star Wars; the exact idea of AWACS does not transfer well at all, while handling a ship's fighter wing's flight ops from the ship itself works.InsaneTD wrote:I'd say the lack of AWACS is from the firepower and the range of the egagements means the AWACS will be too far away and the sensor picture will be out of date, or it will be a primary target if in closer. Having the flight controllers on a capital ship do the job helps and would work for the Empire as majority of their fighters are too short ranged to leave. Doesn' work so well for the rebels because they normally do raids, so they don't have anything bigger then a snub, maybe a tramp, in the area. Tramps are big enough to be targets for anti-capital ship mounts to target so won't last long if it was doing AWACS work.
I agree. The political system which imposes structure on Imperial fighter tactics is the problem, not the idea of structured tactics itself. But that political attitude is disastrously, ruinously bad- the weakness it imposes means it wouldn't last more than a year or two in open warfare with a peer competitor, and really only lasted about ten against a ragtag rebellion.* To make matters worse, the political poisons are most powerful in the strategic forces, those which are most carefully vetted and judged by their adherence to the regime's ideal.Eleventh Century Remnant wrote:Obviously there are still a few bugs to be worked out of the system, nothing's perfect after all...
Kor Alric Adannan and Lennart had this argument back in chapter 30 or so of the first arc, anyway, talking about discipline and initiative and authority, things like that. Taking the respective sides and positions that might be expected, with varying degrees of insincerity.
Problem doesn't occur on the technical- tactical level, it occurs on the political- on the counter- productive, self destructive nature of the New Order, and its' zero tolerance attitude to initiative and insubordination.
Of which, more later.
No surprise, then, that the Rebels get some of their most lopsided victories against the strategic forces. Thirty snubfighters against seven thousand, and the seven thousand lose because they were ordered out of battle by a nincompoop.
Hoth... well, Hoth was managed at least semi-competently, assuming we don't artificially run down the performance of the AT-AT below its in-setting quality or anything. There, the main problem with the plan was Vader's desire to take Luke alive, and the way it overrode all the normal military arguments in favor of just pummeling the rebels into submission. Also the general crappiness of Ozzel's response to the situation- apparently jumping out too close to the planet to avoid detection, but too far away to launch a surprise alpha strike**.
And Endor? I can't think of obvious examples off the top of my head, but- I'm sure there's some instance of sheer command inflexibility being a problem for the Imperials there. The main screwup was failure to leave enough troops guarding the bunker to stop the rebels from getting in behind them when the Imperial main body moved off to clear out the Ewoks from the neighborhood. Would be interesting to hear ECR's take on how that battle went down, come to think of it.
Another problem at Endor, command inflexibility- blowing up the Second Death Star and Executor allowed the rebels to overpower what was still a greatly superior fleet. An ambitious and capable man who took over in the wake of the disaster might well have been able to nip the New Republic in the bud even then... but no such men were present or in position to salvage the situation.
*From, what, a few years before Yavin, until a few years after the Emperor died, at which point the wheels were really coming off.
**Though Vader might have ruled out the latter, since it would have probably killed Luke...
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
-
Scottish Ninja
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 964
- Joined: 2007-02-26 06:39pm
- Location: Not Scotland, that's for sure
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
My personal take on the ground part of Endor is that Vader was totally in on it - he wanted to at least give the Rebels the chance to succeed, partly for Luke's sake, partly for the opportunity of taking down Palpatine. Vader knew that the Tydirium was carrying a load of rebel commandos - and personally cleared it to land, rather than ordering them to come aboard Executor - the logical choice if he simply wanted to capture Luke. Vader's orders to the garrison can even make sense - all he has to say is "Intelligence from captured Rebels suggests that they will try diversionary attacks away from the main complex; make sure its defense is not weakened to strengthen the perimeter." Particularly after Vader's conversation with Luke right after Luke turns himself in - I feel like that had a much bigger effect on Vader than he was willing to admit at the time.And Endor? I can't think of obvious examples off the top of my head, but- I'm sure there's some instance of sheer command inflexibility being a problem for the Imperials there. The main screwup was failure to leave enough troops guarding the bunker to stop the rebels from getting in behind them when the Imperial main body moved off to clear out the Ewoks from the neighborhood. Would be interesting to hear ECR's take on how that battle went down, come to think of it.
"If the capsule explodes, heroes of the Zenobian Onion will still rain upon us. Literally!" - Shroom
Cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov (deceased, rain), Cosmonaut Petr Petrovich Petrov, Unnamed MASA Engineer, and Unnamed Zenobian Engineerski in Let's play: BARIS
Captain, MFS Robber Baron, PRFYNAFBTFC - "Absolute Corruption Powers Absolutely"
-
Simon_Jester
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 30165
- Joined: 2009-05-23 07:29pm
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Believable- but I was thinking more about the stormtroopers' tactics. What was going on under those white helmets, how did the battle turn into the weird melee it became?
Personally I don't think the Ewoks did nearly as well as they were made out to have; once the Imperials got past the immediate zone of carefully prepared traps, the Ewoks were being slaughtered, and it was only Chewie being able to hijack a walking antitank platform that turned the tide of a battle the Ewoks were losing very badly.
Personally I don't think the Ewoks did nearly as well as they were made out to have; once the Imperials got past the immediate zone of carefully prepared traps, the Ewoks were being slaughtered, and it was only Chewie being able to hijack a walking antitank platform that turned the tide of a battle the Ewoks were losing very badly.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov