Page 217: Where is Cloud?

[QuakeIV]

It did seem a little suspicious she was being sent off with far less equipment.

I appreciate that the story seems to incorporate actually being sent off to go die, a lot of stuff wusses out on that and is accordingly less good.

[Cthulhu]

It did seem a little suspicious she was being sent off with far less equipment.

I appreciate that the story seems to incorporate actually being sent off to go die, a lot of stuff wusses out on that and is accordingly less good.

That's the difference between the "western" and "eastern" mindset, since the Loroi strike me to be based on eastern culture for the most part. In the West, it's "do or die", but in the East, it's "die, but do".

[Moon Moth]

Do we know how old Cloud was, and if she left behind any children?

[CrimsonFALKE]

Fair well cloud no worries they'll name the stolen ship after her right?

[G. Janssen]

"We could take one of the dead female Humans out of her casket, put her in the engine room, make it look like she was trying to scuttle the shuttle by blowing up the reactor and got fried to a crisp when she messed up. Fireblade could turn her into barbecue." Charred meat isn't pink or blue, but black. Shells won't be able to tell the difference." Sent Tempo.

"Scuttle the shuttle. That rhymes." Sent Spiral.

"Most of the Humans are already barbecue." Sent Talon. "The Shell's plasma focus saw to that.

"I just finished calculating that this will take too long." Sent Beryl. "Just send the one who cleans the toilets and KRAK."

"I guess you're right." Sent Tempo. "Sorry Cloud. I hate to do this to you one day before your birthday, but I'm afraid your number is up."

"Did you get me a present?" Asked Cloud.

"Yes. I got you a promotion to Warrior rank, starting tomorrow." Answered Tempo.

Cloud sighed. "I knew I should'nt have let them talk me into becoming a Soroin." She took a pistol and marched off.

"Nice, Tempo fell for it. That's one competitor less." Thought Beryl. "Nobody gives hair grooming devices to my Human. Talon is next. That'll teach her to hold hands."

"Beryl, guess who will clean the toilets for the remainder of this trip?" Sent Tempo.

"Well, poop!" Sent Beryl.

"And lots of it!" Sent Spiral.

"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!" Thought Fireblade with a serene expression on her face. But then again, that was what Fireblade usually thought.

Meanwhile Alex, who was blissfully unaware of the conversation, suddenly remembered he had left the stove on before departing on his mission aboard Bellarmine.

Five minutes later the Umiak boarded.

KRAK! Cloud's head exploded when she shot herself..

"Whoah!" Said the first Umiak Cyborg to the second. "Did you see that?"

"Sure did." Said the second. "Got it recorded. Will post it on KlikTube later."

Meanwhile another Umiak placed a "Danger! Slippery when Wet" sign near the chunks of brainmatter that now littered the floor next to Cloud's corpse.

Alex meanwhile wondered why Beryl was firmly holding on to his arm and was aiming her pistol at his spine.

"If I can't have you then nobody will, my dear Alex." Thought Beryl.

[Keklas Rekobah]

I knew I had read the following "Word of God" somewhere.

The Loroi concept of luck holds that a warrior who dies in battle -- even from ancillary causes -- draws misfortune off her comrades and therefore contributes materially to their chances of victory.  As such, it is considered unseemly to overly lament a lost comrade, lest her contributions be minimized. . .

From this, I assume:

• The Highland-7 assault team is about to experience a rash of "good luck" (at least, some of them may believe it), thanks to Cloud.
• None of the Highland-7 team is going to openly mourn Cloud's death, lest they regain their misfortunes and suffer more casualties and/or total defeat.
• If Alex so much as sheds a single tear over Cloud, then he, the TCA, and Humaniti itself will certainly "lose face" in the minds of the Loroi.

[Demarquis]

I wonder who is considered "next" in the expendable sweepstakes? Spiral, probably.

[spacewhale]

I wonder who is considered "next" in the expendable sweepstakes? Spiral, probably.

Pretty much anyone who isn't Enzin, I assume. That said, the cast could be abbreviated (or grow) whenever they reach the first place more exposition occurs and Enzin is sent on the big quest.

[Demarquis]

I think this incident illustrates how the Loroi discomfort with practicing deceit actually makes them crueler than we are. The humane solution here (if I may call it that) would have been to instruct Cloud to allow herself to be captured. Not only would this have possibly spared Cloud's life, but it would have been an opportunity for her to spread disinformation to the enemy. Human militaries have done exactly this.

It does make you wonder if, after all, we would be better off with the Umiak.

[Bamax]

Are you kidding?

Beryl remarked that Cloud's death was quick.

Given how the Umiak are detail oriented, they no doubt would torture cloud for info, saying it will all be over sooner if she complies.

[Demarquis]

So do humans, and we know of myriad ways in which to hack interrogation by torture. The Umiak have no reason to kill her.* Besides, she only has to fool them for a few minutes, and the team is going to take the ship back anyway, and a rescue would not be out of the question. Of course, the whole idea of a small team taking over a large ship without alerting the surrounding fleet and being obliterated is heroic fantasy, but if that sort of thing works in their universe then it would make a good plan.

*Except in so far as she is Loroi, and they are feeling the need for some payback. This may be a case where humans could pull it off better than Loroi could, not only because we can lie like no one's business, but also because we don't have their reputation. I think my plan would work well *on* the Loroi, because it might not even occur to them that the coward they captured and subsequently broke was a put-on to begin with.

[Arioch]

The Loroi fear capture by the Umiak far more than they fear death. They have seen what the Umiak do to prisoners.

I think this incident illustrates how the Loroi discomfort with practicing deceit actually makes them crueler than we are. The humane solution here (if I may call it that) would have been to instruct Cloud to allow herself to be captured. Not only would this have possibly spared Cloud's life, but it would have been an opportunity for her to spread disinformation to the enemy. Human militaries have done exactly this.

It does make you wonder if, after all, we would be better off with the Umiak.

Do you really think that the Umiak would hesitate to sacrifice their own in a similar circumstance?

[Demarquis]

I don't know, to my knowledge you haven't revealed nearly as much about them. If the Umiak torture and/or experiment on all prisoners, then they are kinda stupid. Maybe both sides are equally bad. Either way, my original point still stands, most of us aren't like these people.

'Course, we aren't involved in a war of extermination, either, so there's that.

[Bamax]

I don't know, to my knowledge you haven't revealed nearly as much about them. If the Umiak torture and/or experiment on all prisoners, then they are kinda stupid. Maybe both sides are equally bad. Either way, my original point still stands, most of us aren't like these people.

'Course, we aren't involved in a war of extermination, either, so there's that.

The answer is no.

I am mildly shocked that you say you don't know.

Any cursory reading of the Umiak or the forums and what they did on Seren is all you need to know really about how far they willing to go.

Actually even hard troopers are enough evidence.

Umiak make human plastic surgery and body modification seem like child's play by comparison.


Umiak have lin times past lierally modified some of them to even look like Loroi... though I am skeptical over how effective it even was.

Do you know what that means? Imagine humans conquer an alien bug planet. Since the sentient bugs resist, humans turn to experimenting on each other to look like bugs to infiltrate and sabotage resistance.

Do you realky see that even being on the human agenda? To transform into ugly bugs?

Not likely.

Umiak are less about the me and more about the group... to that extent that undesirable traits are bred out.

I

[QuakeIV]

Yea I mean maybe I dipped more into the available background lore than usual (partly out of desperation shortly after running out of backlog) but the Umiak strategy both makes sense to me and also makes it totally unappealing to be taken prisoner by them.

You could reasonably argue that making it intolerable to be taken prisoner is causing the opposition to fight to the death far more often than they would otherwise. However I think the idea that you could even hope for the enemy to surrender pretty much ever at all is so alien to them that they didn't seriously think that was an option. They seem characteristically like a species that places very low value on the individual, to the extent that the individual would generally pretty much throw its life away at the drop of a hat like blood cells sealing up a break in your skin if the need arose.

If thats your baseline concept of intelligent life then it might take a while to figure out that being compassionate to prisoners (or at least appearing to be) is an actually effective strategy.

[Demarquis]

Ok, I'll take your word for it as regards the Umiak, but also bear in mind that just because they are willing to torture and experiment on prisoners, that doesn't automatically mean that they torture or experiment on all prisoners--if nothing else, there's the expense to consider. I mean the Nazi's did the same thing, but it was the Allies who assigned people to be captured by them, knowing that 99% of the time, you're more or less fine, esp. if you seem cooperative. If the Umiak are really so clueless that they haven't been able to figure out that treating prisoners this way is making their war effort more difficult, then I have to ask how they've managed to last this long.

As a matter of personal choice, considering suicide to be the rational option isn't obvious to me. Put it this way: there is a nearly 100% chance of death from suicide, but it's nearly painless. Capture includes pain, but there is a greater chance of survival. Plus, there is still the rescue option. So I don't think I would choose suicide over capture for myself, nor would I order a subordinate to off themselves in order to cover for the rest of us. Consider also that if it is one's duty to die, then it can also be one's duty to be tortured or disfigured, esp. if this helps deceive the enemy.

Still... so maybe the Umiak are as bad as they are depicted as being, but the Loroi are obviously no angels. So looking for a third option starts to seem more and more desirable.

[avatar576]

I wonder who is considered "next" in the expendable sweepstakes? Spiral, probably.

If anyone else on the Highland crew is going to cash it in, Flint or Reed would be my guess. They're basically redshirts and Soroin are a dime a dozen. Tenoin interceptor pilots, not so much. I'll be somewhat surprised if anyone else we've met dies between here and their next goal. It's a space opera, not a Shakespearean tragedy, after all (we hope).

[spacewhale]

I wonder who is considered "next" in the expendable sweepstakes? Spiral, probably.

Well, Alex *is* a helmsman...

[gaerzi]

I wonder who is considered "next" in the expendable sweepstakes? Spiral, probably.

I'm gonna assume that these four have first grade plot armor and will survive whatever happens:


Talon appears on the cast list, which gives her second-grade plot armor. Not as good as first grade, obviously, as Ellen would point out if she wasn't dead, but still something.

So that leaves Flint, Reed, and Spiral as our candidates for "most likely to get killed next". Flint and Reed are basically redshirts, they have had very little plot relevance or interactions with our main protagonist, they're just there. Perfect fodder for "people die during combat" deaths. Spiral has raised a death flag by being the bearer of the Bad Luck Token That Has Killed All Its Previous Bearers -- if you believe in alien superstitions, that is. Her death would have a greater emotional impact because she is one of the people Alex has gotten to know about, and she's generally friendly and funny, so meta reasons would save her death for a highly dramatic moment.

[Krulle]

Regarding Shoegirl's (Cloud) quick death:
that might be by design too.
If you need to fake that the shuttle is not unmanned, you need someone.
I don't know in how far pain translated into Sanzai and from there into the minds of the other Loroi.
It might be difficult for all Loroi to stay hidden if the Umiak have an operating procedure of inflicting severe pain to early captures, so that others might give their position away through the Sanzai pain they received.

Heck, Earth armies used visible/audible torture to put the other side under time pressure in a hope to help their comrade and end its torture.
And if you want to move and act fast, chances for errors increase.

A quick death for Cloud reduces the risk of the Umiak torturing her to lure the other Loroi out of their positions.