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Ok, I definitely did NOT see that coming.

dfacto wrote:Ok, I definitely did NOT see that coming.

Me either. I kinda just stared at the screen. Are the Umiak fighting someone else too?

Wow. This should be interesting.

Umiak: Sooo... uhhh... I'm guessing you're ALSO defending a human scout wreck?

Nice twist. But I'm distracted from it by how painfully pretty umiak ships are. So good.

I don't think they're fighting anyone else, at least, not in the Naam system (no idea what's on the other side of Umiak space though...)

I think its just saying that the Umiak Hierarchy wants to communicate with the 'Enemy forces' (the Loroi) using the trade bandwidths (probably employed for trading comms in the pre-war period).

Kikitik-27-Tikakh-Tikkikit is probably its name/designator.

That Umiak bridge looks a bit imrovised, too. Sloppy engineering.

Is that shell-dude tatooed? Right in the face?

Also, it´s apparently not just the presence of heavies that caused tempos expression, but the obviously abnormal request for contact.

TheUnforsaken wrote:I think its just saying that the Umiak Hierarchy wants to communicate with the 'Enemy forces' (the Loroi) using the trade bandwidths (probably employed for trading comms in the pre-war period).

So, did they do their math that there´s maybe a survivor in the hands of the loroi, and they´re starting to seed mistrust?
Worse, do they have captured humans also?

I was wondering if they were going to get a chance to evacuate the dead ships.

I did some reading of the background - awesome work by Master Francis here. A very interesting alien creature society described there. most impressed and warmly excitied. I felt like going off and finding some SF to read and devour as that little taste just really excited me about the possibilities of all those alien cultures out there. The language stack concept is very interesting, a race of beings that think like a program in layered statements of meaning, variables and associations.

In any case, the concept of an ultraheavy ship was magnificent given the scale of the ships that we have encountered. What would an xenophobic chitenous layered logic race do that, when clearly outgunning, out weighing and out classing an enemy , results in thier opening communication channels.

The only thing I can think of is that they are ... asking for help?

awesome ... the enemy known is truly more trustworthy than the enemy unknown.

First:

Second: Very well done Arioch ( gives the masteo a standing ovation).

third: Well well I guess tempo going to be busy in the next few frames. I wonder what the Umiak want to talk about (CAN't WAIT TO SEE) sry a little too excited. The line of "talking to enemies" lines is interesting, especially given the Umiak more humble traits when their are individuals as according to the updated insider guide. Just a random though, will Umiak eventually talk to Alex ?

Also I just hope the umiak commander isn't stalling to get more fleets into flanking position.

We have a message for humaniti, "All your Base are Belong to Us." They said you would know what it means.

Also is that a bar code on the Umiak's head?

Now for all them ideas swirling about in my head about how this fight'll go down I must confess this is the last outcome I was expecting.

Question is what could they want? And is this kind of communications typical or the rarefied sort? My hope is, is that the Umiak got in contact with the other scout vessels before hand off-screen and now they're toting a crew of good ol' mankind. That outta shake things up.

This Umiak assault fleet has TEN super heavies. It sounds like the 51st are WAY out of their weight range at this moment (Is it normal for regular Umiak assault forces to have this many heavy assets?). I guess since they were dealing with aliens, the Umiak REALLY wanted to make sure that the Loroi were actually trying to actively defend the Bell. So that previous wave (despite how awe inspiring it was to Alex) was really just a recon milk run.



The Umiak attempt at communication might be a bit surprising, but it really shouldn't be. The Umiak presumably want to gain access to any survivors from the Terran ship, and are realizing now (probably after getting a closer look at the Bell's damage) that any surviving humans are probably all aboard the Loroi ships. This presents a problem, since disabling a warship enough to board it with Hard Troops to *rescue* Alex will be exceptionally difficult. More so the risk of him being killed in the ensuing fire fight inside the ship, all hanging under the threat the Good Captain Still Storm might just decide to blow the entire ship up at any time.

I'm guessing that's why the Umiak are displaying their much larger formation (with THIRTY heavies) out in full view for the 51st to gawk at. Maybe the idea is that they can convince the Loroi for some access with human survivors in exchange for not coming after them with their full might.*

*though one still does get the feeling that the Umiak know that this bigger than just finding the random scout ship of some 3rd party race. Cause Tempo is certainly surprised the Umiak even bothered with communications.

Something comes to mind here:

Umiak: "Oh, a human! Just FYI but humanity made contact with us two weeks ago and decided to join us. Chao."

Every Loroi glares at Alex in unison.

Alex: "Oh.... fudge."

The plot thickens.

This theme song seemed immediately appropriate for the last panel: Path of Now and Forever.

You know a theory I've been pondering is that it may not be related to Alex at all. Sure you've got an alien debris field way out in space that ain't no one seen before but more than that you do have a particuarly infamous strike fleet with a particuarly infamous commander, Still storm.

One of the chief missions of both sigint and humit are the tracking of foreign divisions and battalions, finding out where they're stationed, with what kind of support, what kind of supply. Hell just are snuffing of Bin Laden this past month goes to show that we'll take time to take out one man. I imagine the same is true of both the Loroi and the Umiak.

This might all be a clever trap meant to knock off still storm. Perhaps that ship that was already observing the battle upon the bell's arrival was the ship meant to come out of no where and put a cap in that woman's proverbial ass.

Edit: Course why they're openin communications might derail this theory unless they're going the chivalric route though that doesn't seem to be a part of their culture but who knows?

My first thought on the contact attempt:



But it begs the question how rare those communication attempts were during the cause of the war. Would this be the first one in say 15 years, after the current stalemate was more or less established?

I noticed the (super)heavies in the first 2 panels don't seem to have gunboats tethered. Wonder if those are accelerating out of sight as the communication attempt is made and plan to come in from another angle. Hence the picture I linked.