Page 208: All aboard!!!

[CrimsonFALKE]

There are cameras inside the hangar, right?
How can none of other bugs see Tempo?

I've been wondering about all that since the whole boarding sequence started. No remote cameras, no drones, no failsafes for the cyborgs? Illusions only work against living brains, not AIs.

Anyway, I think all those sounds are made by shoe girl Cloud, who already exterminated half the Umiak crew with her mighty weapon, the shoe. I mean they are essentially bugs, right?

Why haven't the loroi seen it sooner build a giant fucking shoe and smack clicky click 27 and all it's kind back to their Mars knock off world!

[Krulle]

numbers.
The Loroi are struggling with their numbers, while the Umiak seems to be less restricted by that.


Also, the Loroi do seem to be somewhat tired of the war to me (despite being a warrior culture).
They've retreated to defensive positions, while the Umiak continue to run against the defensive walls, and continue expanding on other borders, which will ultimately cause more ressources to be available to run against the Loroi wall.

[Snoofman]

numbers.
The Loroi are struggling with their numbers, while the Umiak seems to be less restricted by that.


Also, the Loroi do seem to be somewhat tired of the war to me (despite being a warrior culture).
They've retreated to defensive positions, while the Umiak continue to run against the defensive walls, and continue expanding on other borders, which will ultimately cause more ressources to be available to run against the Loroi wall.

But surely the Umiak are going through their own problems and struggles. Which could explain why they don't throw everything they have against the Loroi. Sure the Umiak may be a bigger empire and have (seemingly) overpowered their client races, but their strike groups get shredded by veteran groups no matter how many ships they hurl at the Loroi. They may have a larger military and industrial infrastructure, but just reading about the Umiak's way of life and civilisation makes it sound all so unsustainable.

[Krulle]

A planet's resources go a long way, especially if you don't care much about sustainability...

[geok1ng]

Production focused civs are OP at 4x games since at least MoO2 UNITOLs. Umiaks survived the Semoset incursion and will eventually grind it out a win unless something unexpected happens. Historians are a tech level ahead of them, which makes it kind like a MoO3 scenario, which, BTW, i should revist since i never managed to beat the game

[Cthulhu]

But surely the Umiak are going through their own problems and struggles. Which could explain why they don't throw everything they have against the Loroi. Sure the Umiak may be a bigger empire and have (seemingly) overpowered their client races, but their strike groups get shredded by veteran groups no matter how many ships they hurl at the Loroi. They may have a larger military and industrial infrastructure, but just reading about the Umiak's way of life and civilization makes it sound all so unsustainable.

Well, seeing their breakthrough at Leido, it's quite possible that their raider fleets were merely distractions, the first step in a grand plan. Considering that even though they managed to repel the Semoset Incursion and to obliterate Sunfalls fleet, they could not immediately mount a counterattack. With their fleets depleted, they could not use that perfect opportunity and crush the retreating, demoralized Loroi. Instead, they had to prepare for a new campaign with a new strategy.

Let's see, first disperse the Loroi fleets with bait, meaning detectable raider groups, small enough to be manageable, big enough not to be underestimated. Maintain an equilibrium, where the struggling Loroi have to send a majority of their newly produced ships to the strike groups only for them to be destroyed bit by bit, but not all of them at once. Mass your forces while hiding them from farsight, especially the seemingly rare superheavies. Continue this standoff for a bit until the Loroi have accustomed themselves to it and then some more until they grow weary of this senseless, repetitive slaughter, with no end or victory in sight. Now bring in the secret weapon, the Fleet Lotai. Break the equilibrium all of a sudden, surprise them a couple of times with an counterambush, inflict serious casualties they haven't seen for some time, undermine the faith in their trump card, the Farseer network. Then, when they are distracted, confused and weakened, before they can reorganize their fleets or their battle doctrine, penetrate their defences with a truly massive incursion.

This plan was apparently pursuited for quite a while and by the time they met the Stray, it was already in its final phase. This enabled Kikitik to tell them about it in order to taunt them a bit, since the Loroi had no way of stopping or even affecting it at that point. Let's see if Alex can at least help our protagonists to throw a monkey wrench in there.

[RedDwarfIV]

I wonder if a ship can do more damage firing its weapons from the inside?

I wouldn't be surprised if the hangar was armoured on the inside, since the doors are going to be a weak spot.

[DCR]

Why would Beryl point the gun at Alex?
Something's not right!

Bang bang that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down
- Nancy Sinatra, Bang, Bang

Better dead Jardin then enemy in a final war know there's a(nother) way to nullify your greatest weapon of war.

Beryl is the worst girl confirmed!

Situation reversed? I have gun in spine of the cute blue space elf, and finger tensed on the trigger. My species > not my species' feelings.

[boldilocks]

She's just trying to keep him calm. "Don't worry, guy, I'm here for you and I've got this gun to keep you safe. Or shoot you if they find us, so you won't get tortured. You know, either one."

[Dan Wyatt]

Bang bang that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down
- Nancy Sinatra, Bang, Bang

Better dead Jardin then enemy in a final war know there's a(nother) way to nullify your greatest weapon of war.

Beryl is the worst girl confirmed!

Situation reversed? I have gun in spine of the cute blue space elf, and finger tensed on the trigger. My species > not my species' feelings.

You know very well what's going to happen next

[Bamax]

Yes, I've read their GURPS sheets, but aren't those abilites on the level of a targeted jamming device? Would that not simply destroy or disable Umiak sensors, for example. I don't think this level can actually override or re-route the signals, showing the boarder an empty hallway. Some cameras suddenly going offline or being filled with static? Quite suspicious, I would say.

P.S.: eh, I think I should stop with that nitpicking (a bad habit of mine, sorry) and concentrate on my writing. Maybe its the Historian AI hacking the Umiak, otherwise the Loroi would've been in deep trouble by now.

Clearly I overlooked Tempo's powerset.

Being a PK telekinetic is not her greatest power per se. It's when she uses multiple types of powers at once, and worse yet it seems she has area of effect powers.


Put simply..... Tempo can fry machines or turn them off all around her. Or turn them on.

Nothing a Umiak cyborg can do about it really... other than sniping her beyond her AOE range, which can be hard if you cannot see her if she is using illusion powerset which she also has.

Long story short... some scifi works use technobabble (star trek) or space magic (star wars).

Some Loroi though... are literally walking, talking, plot devices.

Does not hurt that they are pretty.


The Umiak may take out a few Loroi, just to drive home the Umiak threat to the reader. But the Loroi WILL prevail here I predict.

During all this silence the Loroi are silently telepathically communicating with each other telling each other exactly what to do when the time comes.

The Umiak onboard won't have that advantage... since between Tempo and Fireblade, their comms could easily go dark. And what they do hear can be false.

Wanna know what's REALLY bad?

Tempo knows the Umiak language!

While I seriously doubt she would try mouthing it, there is literally nothing stopping her and Fireblade from making a Umiak say anything they want him to say.


On further review, I think the plan was to herd the Umiak to that room with Tempo and Fireblade.

The laser krak sound just sent the Umiak their way to investigate. All is going according to plan.

The Loroi have set a trap and the Umiak walked into it.

This is Chekov's gun. Do not think the Loroi do not intend to use their guns.

They are just waiting for the right time.

Silently thinking out loud like all Loroi do. It's a real tactical super power they have.

Close combat against groups of hiding Loroi is kind of suicidal affair... more so when superhuman Loroi who would give superheroes a run for their money problems.

Serious problems.

[Dan Wyatt]

Maybe the laser shot was to allow the boarding party to don their space suit, which can be controlled by Tempo with her power.

[Ithekro]

Haven't really tried a MoO3 game in a while...the game was kind of broken from what I remember. But its been a long time since I tried a serious game, and while I have it with the Wargaming package deal with their version of MoO, I've not sat down to figure out how to play it again. I always liked the original MoO better than MoO2 because of just how huge you can make your fleet and that you could eventually send the majority of your warship production to hub systems to form fleets of death and destruction (I didn't use Doom Stars much). MoO2 had more limits on fleet size, but I remember beating the Antarians a few times. Was able to do that again when the Wargaming version added a DLC that put in MoO2 races and victory conditions.

If the Loroi can gain control of a Umiak ship, they will have a way out of the system....or at least a way to get to the transport and get them out of the system before the Umiak blow up their captured ship.

[Bamax]

Haven't really tried a MoO3 game in a while...the game was kind of broken from what I remember. But its been a long time since I tried a serious game, and while I have it with the Wargaming package deal with their version of MoO, I've not sat down to figure out how to play it again. I always liked the original MoO better than MoO2 because of just how huge you can make your fleet and that you could eventually send the majority of your warship production to hub systems to form fleets of death and destruction (I didn't use Doom Stars much). MoO2 had more limits on fleet size, but I remember beating the Antarians a few times. Was able to do that again when the Wargaming version added a DLC that put in MoO2 races and victory conditions.

If the Loroi can gain control of a Umiak ship, they will have a way out of the system....or at least a way to get to the transport and get them out of the system before the Umiak blow up their captured ship.

Loroi want to win the war. Alex safety is second to that.

They likely hope to find out whatever Lotai Umiak are using onboard and turn the tide of the war.

Tempo thinks that way.

[Krulle]

The laser krak sound just sent the Umiak their way to investigate. All is going according to plan.

I think any laser causes the lightning "krak" sound, so we do not know if it was a Loroi or an Umiak laser firing.


Furthermore, regarding a pistol close to Alex: It is still unconfirmed that Alex is not an Umiak device.
Combined with the Loroi unability to "read" him, they should be very wary of what he might do in critical situations.

Because from the Loroi point of view, Alex may be a test for infiltration of Loroi, and the Umiak are there trying to extradite him, for the after-mission talk, what went well with the spy mission, and where they can improve for the next insertions.


So, yes, I would keep Alex close, and ready to kill him anytime, although Fireblade's ability to do so is just keeping him in a line-of-sight.
Beryl is jut a fallback trigger.

[Snoofman]

The laser krak sound just sent the Umiak their way to investigate. All is going according to plan.

I think any laser causes the lightning "krak" sound, so we do not know if it was a Loroi or an Umiak laser firing.


Furthermore, regarding a pistol close to Alex: It is still unconfirmed that Alex is not an Umiak device.
Combined with the Loroi unability to "read" him, they should be very wary of what he might do in critical situations.

Because from the Loroi point of view, Alex may be a test for infiltration of Loroi, and the Umiak are there trying to extradite him, for the after-mission talk, what went well with the spy mission, and where they can improve for the next insertions.


So, yes, I would keep Alex close, and ready to kill him anytime, although Fireblade's ability to do so is just keeping him in a line-of-sight.
Beryl is jut a fallback trigger.

Then the Historian may not be lying after all. Alex may very well be in grave mortal danger so long as he stays with the Loroi.

[Krulle]

He is right, but we don't know what their agenda is.

Maybe the operate according to "Divide et Impera", keeping both sides strong enough to continuously spend their ressources on each other, but going nowhere, and intervening only to recreate the balance.

And Alex may pertube that balance.... Depending on how the Loroi society and their allies take the proof of Lotai existing (and thus that the Loroi tactic is not fail-safe), and that the Loroi have a template species themselves.

[Bamax]

He is right, but we don't know what their agenda is.

Maybe the operate according to "Divide et Impera", keeping both sides strong enough to continuously spend their ressources on each other, but going nowhere, and intervening only to recreate the balance.

And Alex may pertube that balance.... Depending on how the Loroi society and their allies take the proof of Lotai existing (and thus that the Loroi tactic is not fail-safe), and that the Loroi have a template species themselves.

I am certain the Historian has an agenda of his own... epecially since his very name implies he knows history better than the Loroi and keeps plenty secrets to himself as well.

While I am not sure he can be fully trusted with Alex safety either, one thing is certain...the Historian does not want either the Loroi or the Umiak to get Alex.

I doubt he is working with the Barsam.

And given how advanced Historians are, it would only be a matter of hacking or even sweeping in with one of their ships to 'rescue' Alex.

All I know is Historians do not trust or much like the Loroi or the Umiak.

Probably views them as bastard children, not living up to their full potential.

After all, the Loroi are in beta, were not even finished to be what they were supposed to be... which I am betting the historians either know or have a good idea of.

[Dan Wyatt]

After all, the Loroi are in beta, were not even finished to be what they were supposed to be... which I am betting the historians either know or have a good idea of.

I don't think the Loroi were a beta version, more like the final product version before the soia-lirons got wiped out.
If your theory is the case, we'll see some uber-godmode space elves in our next life.

[dragoongfa]

After all, the Loroi are in beta, were not even finished to be what they were supposed to be... which I am betting the historians either know or have a good idea of.

I don't think the Loroi were a beta version, more like the final product version before the soia-lirons got wiped out.
If your theory is the case, we'll see some uber-godmode space elves in our next life.

The 'Beta' or early build theory coincides with what we know about the Loroi abilities and the vast discrepancies between 'power levers'. Loroi telepathy has a baseline that all Loroi are able to meet but their power ranges far too much for it to be intended, you can't have Loroi who can only send and receive telepathic message over the distance of a couple of dozen meters and then have a large enough minority that can sense lifeforms in interstellar distances when amplified. Some with psychokinetic capabilities which are rare by themselves; some psychokinetics can barely move a pen while others can easily crush cars.

This could be explained by an evolutionary path but the Loroi are an artificial creation who have not exhibited a significant enough evolutionary drift the past 250.000 years (since the Loroi from all three sister worlds are still the same species, with only minor phenotype differences).

Add in the other unique but perhaps troublesome traits (extreme longevity, fast early maturation, any issues that the males may have) that the other Soia Liron species don't have and one will start to think that perhaps this is not the finalized 'product' that the Soia had in mind.