I think that's already back there, actually. You guys dropped it off when you first got rescued.

admiralducksauce wrote:

I think that's already back there, actually. You guys dropped it off when you first got rescued.

Cool beans. Let's roll!

Adam's little tidbit about the needleship does raise an important point: how long can they really afford to blockade the orbital gate? Surely, they'll have to give that up at some point, whether for purely practical reasons or because they believe we've already escaped through some hidden piece of cleverness. On the other hand, we must balance that against the chance of getting spotted the longer we hide here and our burning desire to get the hell off Aikoro. Thoughts?

Gatac

I figured that would happen, and I have a plan that capitalizes on that. It's low-risk to us, and not only will it get us out of here, but it'll set up Aikoro for future cooperation with the resistance.

We somehow arrange a meeting (without having the resistance or us directly involved or mentioned) for high-ranking planetary and business officials to discuss the blockade and what to do about it, and then tip off the Turai that the meeting is going down. They'll raid the meeting and probably arrest the lot of them. This, along with other rumors spread around, both far-fetched and plausible, will hit right at their fears of having their planet directly taken over and strip-mined for all its resources. The Imperium will have no choice but to either deal with a full-blown rebellion or pull out immediately.

I'm cool with that.

Gatac

I'm fine with this plan.

Do the two groups have any safe way of communication? I wanted to have Davis at this meeting so I can get a few different plans going, but 600 kilometers is a long way for a sled. Are we picking them up and taking them back to a secure but different location than the Morningstar? Because Davis could meet up with them there.

(Edit: To elaborate, while the ship is flying that grid pattern to keep up appearances, Davis uses that time to interrogate our new friends. After he's done with that, he heads out on the sled and waits for the ship to arrive with the rebellion members.)

I figured the distance involved would give Davis some time to work with his prisoners. And I figured picking up the resistance and moving them would be fine. Also, it's not confining all the suspicious activity to "oh, these canyons here and over here."

The two groups do NOT have a safe form of communication outside using English - and God knows how long before they recognize that as "Homeworlder speak, blast 'em!" Well, scratch that, you've got Morse code transmitted over vox or radio (or flashlight, as seen earlier).

Welcome to a guerilla war against a society with near-panoptic Orwellian surveillance.

That said, because of the trouble with communication, once the resistance are picked up you pretty much have to fly back (or at least over) the Morningstar.

Out of curiosity, what's the relation of time it'll take to rather convolutedly make our way over to the rebels and then to the Morningstar, stopping now and then so everything looks okay when we pick up the rebels vs. amount of time Luis has left before his performance begins to seriously degrade?

Probably 2-3 hours zigzagging flight time to the rebels. The mention of tiredness was just a reminder that you guys should plan some naps in your grandiose plans of world domination.

No mechanical penalties yet, but it would provide a good excuse for any flubbed die rolls from here on out.

Not applicable to the current situation, but I'd like to know a little about those little hover drones. What's their performance like? Are they pretty much only built for floating around close to their owners, or can they cover larger distances at a reasonable speed?

Gatac

Yes, I had this planned in advance, ADS just made it awfully convenient.

The little bodyguard drones? They move at a fast walk or jog most of time, with bursts of speed used to intercept attacks. I'd imagine though besides whatever recognition the drone might do on its own that the owner probably has something on them that acts as a backup IFF/power source (because the drone's ultimate purpose is basically to throw itself into the line of any deadly attack). If your drone wrecks itself, having the power source still intact is cheaper - all you do is go out and get a compatible replacement drone. Maybe it's warranted. I don't know, I haven't thought about that stuff. Assuming there is some sort of broadcast power, at least for the majority of actions, the drone would need to remain within a reasonable radius of its charge.

Okay then. What I was after would really be more of a...high-tech carrier pigeon.

Because I'm getting kinda worried about the tracing/jamming of our comms and we need something innovative to get around that.

Gatac

I see where you're going. For the same size or thereabouts (maybe even a little smaller but not much), you could get some of those hologram-projecting drones like Swims rented in the shadowport to broadcast his wares. Since they're not designed to have armor or bursts of speed or weapons or anything, they could definitely be self-contained. Plus, your message can be delivered in 3d and surround sound.

Why don't we turn ourselves in?

Were they not paying attention to the part where we took down an assault ship with small arms?

CrazyIvan wrote:

Why don't we turn ourselves in?

Were they not paying attention to the part where we took down an assault ship with small arms?

I think the Imperium may often take a policy some conquerers adopt: after a defeat, they offer some enemies a trade: amnesty in exchange for loyal service. In that case, killing the assault ship could almost serve as proof that we know something they'd be interested in. Or at least, that may be how the guy is thinking.

Except that this guy isn't Imperium, he's just a wuss who doesn't know the full picture. However, I do support the "Haven't you noticed we're BADASS?" argument.

Max's exit is brought to you by J.J. Abrams.

Aw, dammit. Davis worked hard on that sled, and now it's just going to get blown up. Dibs on his bunk!