Page 222: Take Care What You Choose For Cover

[Demarquis]

That ...
Gives me
a) the creeps.
b) the feeling that the Umiak may have an anti-detection device on board, and that there is one hiding very close by.
And that ultimately Alex will be the one finding "it", showing the Loroi they've become too reliant on their telepathic ability, when he prevents "It" from shooting Beryl in the back.

I'm in your camp--you can see a camera, and do something about it. You can't see the Loroi, but the Loroi can see you (all of them). What makes Fireblade so dangerous isn't her psychokinesis (is it any more dangerous than a machine gun or an auto grenade launcher would be in the same circumstances?), but her foreknowledge. She's already planning your death before you even know she's there.

[Arioch]

Even so, as far as I'm aware there's nobody left guarding the hangar bay. Perhaps there's a certain shuttle there of which the reactor can be overloaded?

I don't think the Umiak would know how to do that on short notice, but I'll admit I hadn't thought about that.

[Bamax]

Even so, as far as I'm aware there's nobody left guarding the hangar bay. Perhaps there's a certain shuttle there of which the reactor can be overloaded?

I don't think the Umiak would know how to do that on short notice, but I'll admit I hadn't thought about that.

Unless fuel type A does not easily detonate by shooting or setting it on fire that is.

Type A must be more reliable and safee than metallic hydrogen or antimatter, otherwise no one would use it.

[Arioch]

Unless fuel type A does not easily detonate by shooting or setting it on fire that is.

My point is that the typical Umiak soldier is probably not intimately familiar with the technical details of any particular Loroi shuttle.

There's also not much fuel left in the shuttle, but I guess it wouldn't require very much to make an explosion.

[Bamax]

Unless fuel type A does not easily detonate by shooting or setting it on fire that is.

My point is that the typical Umiak soldier is probably not intimately familiar with the technical details of any particular Loroi shuttle.

There's also not much fuel left in the shuttle, but I guess it wouldn't require very much to make an explosion.

Well.. in the interests of the Umiak winning... their only real chance here, which we already know they won't take because even Arioch did not consider it, is for one their hard troopers to walk around and blast any and everything near were the ship's engine nozzles are against the walls. You do not need to know the inner workings of a vessel to know it's fuel supply cannot be terribly far away from the main enginee.

What I would do if I were a forward thinking, albeit sucidal Umiak hard trooper trying to win.

[Arioch]

Well.. in the interests of the Umiak winning... their only real chance here, which we already know they won't take because even Arioch did not consider it, is for one their hard troopers to walk around and blast any and everything near were the ship's engine nozzles are against the walls. You do not need to know the inner workings of a vessel to know it's fuel supply cannot be terribly far away from the main enginee.

What I would do if I were a forward thinking, albeit sucidal Umiak hard trooper trying to win.

The issue as I mentioned is timeliness... whether they could accomplish the objective before Fireblade shows up. It's not a terrible idea, but they have a better idea.

[icekatze]

hi hi

Dang, the lighting is just so good. Do you use references for the backgrounds, or maybe a 3d model as a guideline? Either way, really impressive. The dynamic between lines and highlight lines is so seamless.

[Arioch]

Do you use references for the backgrounds, or maybe a 3d model as a guideline?

Yes, I use a mixture of photos and 3D renders for reference.

[Bamax]

Well.. in the interests of the Umiak winning... their only real chance here, which we already know they won't take because even Arioch did not consider it, is for one their hard troopers to walk around and blast any and everything near were the ship's engine nozzles are against the walls. You do not need to know the inner workings of a vessel to know it's fuel supply cannot be terribly far away from the main enginee.

What I would do if I were a forward thinking, albeit sucidal Umiak hard trooper trying to win.

The issue as I mentioned is timeliness... whether they could accomplish the objective before Fireblade shows up. It's not a terrible idea, but they have a better idea.

That does not bode well for our heroes then. The Umiak sound like they prepared just for this scenario, whereas the Loroi are more relying on their Loroi superpowers than any actual planning for tye situation they now find themselves in.

[Bamax]

Since Loroi have all areas of any importance, I expect a massive 10 to 1 outnumbered assault on all of them by Umiak. The Loroi will run out of ammo/gun energy before the Umiak do, so the only chance Loroi have is either neutralizing or killing them all.

[entity2636]

Even so, as far as I'm aware there's nobody left guarding the hangar bay. Perhaps there's a certain shuttle there of which the reactor can be overloaded?

I don't think the Umiak would know how to do that on short notice, but I'll admit I hadn't thought about that.

You can still implement it even at the stage the draft pages on your Patreon are at If something can go wrong, it will go wrong and a little extra havoc is always good

[Arioch]

You can still implement it even at the stage the draft pages on your Patreon are at If something can go wrong, it will go wrong and a little extra havoc is always good

I think what the Umiak actually do makes more sense both logically and narratively. The Umiak don't have any way to know that the shuttle isn't guarded, or whether it still has enough fuel to set off, or exactly how to do that.

SpoilerShow

And having them attack where Alex isn't means that the readers don't see it and it doesn't directly impact the protagonist.

[Bamax]

You can still implement it even at the stage the draft pages on your Patreon are at If something can go wrong, it will go wrong and a little extra havoc is always good

I think what the Umiak actually do makes more sense both logically and narratively. The Umiak don't have any way to know that the shuttle isn't guarded, or whether it still has enough fuel to set off, or exactly how to do that.

SpoilerShow

And having them attack where Alex isn't means that the readers don't see it and it doesn't directly impact the protagonist.

So Umiak are doing what Loroi would probably do if roles were reversed... they know the their ship has munitions that explode and exactly where to... so it is the KISS approach and drown the Loroi with suppressive fire and numbers.

[Highlord]

How 'bout you just don't intend to have a firefight in the MAGAZINE, Beryl?

Ordnance Storage is not "oh, good hiding spot" it's "we need to GTFO right now."

You can still implement it even at the stage the draft pages on your Patreon are at If something can go wrong, it will go wrong and a little extra havoc is always good

I think what the Umiak actually do makes more sense both logically and narratively. The Umiak don't have any way to know that the shuttle isn't guarded, or whether it still has enough fuel to set off, or exactly how to do that.

SpoilerShow

And having them attack where Alex isn't means that the readers don't see it and it doesn't directly impact the protagonist.

So Umiak are doing what Loroi would probably do if roles were reversed... they know the their ship has munitions that explode and exactly where to... so it is the KISS approach and drown the Loroi with suppressive fire and numbers.

For the record, this is what real-life Marines on ships would be doing. Well, not the "drown them in numbers" part, but pinning them with suppressive fire and flanking through other corridors. I imagine Loroi would be doing the same if the positions were reversed.

Shipboard fighting is like a chess game, in that all the moves are already known and it comes down to who counters what and balls to the wall one intends to be. It's why Marines are completely insane. They live for this shit.

Probably a good thing Alex's ship was non-military, and that he's never had crayons in his diet, otherwise he'd be grinning like a shark right now.

[avatar576]

How 'bout you just don't intend to have a firefight in the MAGAZINE, Beryl?

Ordnance Storage is not "oh, good hiding spot" it's "we need to GTFO right now."

They are not in the torpedo magazine to hide. They are there to secure it.

[Paul]

"We Loroi... can sense the presence of minds near to us."

I'm guessing that hide-and-seek isn't a really popular game for Loroi children!

[Jagged]

That brings up an important point - why is Beryl so sure the area is clear just because she can't sense minds, might there not be automated or robotic defences without minds?

Would you put automated weaponry... in the place where you store your torpedoes?

The way you have written them makes them sound like they would absolutely be up for sacrificing troops or scuttling a ship where a ship has been over run.

[Demarquis]

Beryl should check for self-destruct charges. Maybe she is.

[Arioch]

While Umiak crews won't hesitate to die in the line of duty, they're not eager to die or obsessed with death. What they are obsessed with is efficiency. Boarding actions are fairly rare, so the loss rate of having ships taken by enemy boarders is probably much less than the loss rate would be from ships randomly exploding due to mishaps with pre-prepared suicide measures. I think as a general rule the primary concern for security aboard a military vessel is your own crew, rather than enemy intrusion.

[Moon Moth]

Is there any particular advantage that the Loroi would gain from capturing this Umiak ship intact?

I'm assuming no, because the conflict is big enough and has been going on for long enough that each side should have working examples of all major enemy technology, just from scavenging after battles where they won. And the bottleneck is in reverse-engineering and mass-producing the technology. Although, granted that the Loroi have the Historians providing technology that's too advanced for the Loroi to reproduce, perhaps Umiak technology might be more comprehensible, being designed by a civilization closer in tech level (and perhaps not deliberately made incomprehensible)?

And given how different the Loroi and Umiak are, and the difficulties translating between their languages, I'm guessing that Loroi using a captured Umiak ship for infiltration would be basically impossible, unless it happened to come with a few mind-controlled Umiak crew as well?