Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
[X] Space the bastards
- [X] Given that they were literally caught in the act by our Marine boarding teams, holding formal courts-martial would be little more than a performance for the record. And given that we have innocent lives to be worried about, there is an overriding concern that clearly justifies summary judgement.
- [X] Given that they were literally caught in the act by our Marine boarding teams, holding formal courts-martial would be little more than a performance for the record. And given that we have innocent lives to be worried about, there is an overriding concern that clearly justifies summary judgement.
Joyousmadman
Well-known member
I had misread the post and had not realized that some of the prisoners would have to stay aboard. As you say, if all that was at stake was time then it would be worthwhile but the trauma to the victims changes that calculus considerably. But the courts martial would not have been for the sake of ceremony, rather precedent, we work hard at ensuring that the balance of power remains in the hands of the crown and that our children grow up right but by the nature of a hereditary monarchy eventually we will get a would be monster on the throne. As the first empress our example has serious weight in how our descendants will and will be expected to act. If time were all that was at risk it would have been imperative that we take the opportunity to establish that the imperial family does not just kill prisoners out of hand, no matter how much they deserve it.
TL;DR: read the update too quick misunderstood the actual situation, thanks for the catch
[X] Space the bastards
Jarow
Well-known member
[X] Space the bastards
From the sounds of things, at no point did they surrender. If they had, I would have argued for court martials solely to encourage people doing that (admittedly there would still be no survivors, but if they surrender they do need some degree of well treatment for that). But with the space them option open, it makes sense to get things over with quickly so we can bring people back to their homes in the NRI quickly (or, for those not from there, a likely easier journey home than from a polity with no jumpships). Guess we could wait and import the freed slaves as our own population, but bringing them home is a lot better diplomatically.
From the sounds of things, at no point did they surrender. If they had, I would have argued for court martials solely to encourage people doing that (admittedly there would still be no survivors, but if they surrender they do need some degree of well treatment for that). But with the space them option open, it makes sense to get things over with quickly so we can bring people back to their homes in the NRI quickly (or, for those not from there, a likely easier journey home than from a polity with no jumpships). Guess we could wait and import the freed slaves as our own population, but bringing them home is a lot better diplomatically.
IceWing_mk1
Well-known member
| [X] | Hold Courts-Martial | You’ll arrive late, but with such a story to tell |
Everybody deserves due process.
Odds are at least 1 person on those ships is a decent person who literally had to chose between join up and get murdered.
Give them an extremely fair trial, listen to the evidence, then hang all the ones who deserve it.
TyrantTriumphant
Well-known member
[X] Space the bastards
Jarow
Well-known member
You need to start the line with a "[X]" for your vote to be counted
Turn 50-NRI - Faster!
Turn 50-NRI - Faster!
In the end you wind up summarily spacing about three quarters of the captured pirates, most of whom were badly injured already. Of the remaining quarter, all of them had explosive collars locked around their necks as involuntary pirate cannon fodder, and only the powerful jammers of HMS Renown had kept the pirates from detonating them. All of these were surviving pilots of the Swarmer-type fighters, and getting them out of their cockpits safely had been… fraught. For one thing, those fighters lacked anything even vaguely resembling an ejection seat, nor did they have any real life support beyond a bottle of compressed oxygen tack welded to the cockpit interior. The pilots themselves had barely adequate g-suits that were not in any way pressure-resistant, nor did they have helmets of any kind. Any breach of the cockpit, no matter how minor, was an instant death sentence, and the cockpits had no armor whatsoever.
So each of the dozen surviving slave-pilots had to be carefully towed into the launch bay by one of the rescue shuttles, the bay repressurized, then crews had to unbolt the canopies and remove the explosive collars from very grateful people.
The three dozen actual pirates? Well, they were cursing up a storm as they were forced into the airlocks, then dumped out into the black. Nobody was at all sorry to see them go.
The remaining two weeks of the journey were rather uncomfortable, as both dropships were packed to the limits of life support by rescued slaves. There were no further incidents, however, and HMS Renown safely arrives in the NRI capital on schedule to a minor media firestorm.
A minor one that turns into an absolute megastorm when news comes out about the defeat of the Pirate force. A force that size is considered a serious threat by the NRI, and the realization that your YACHT was powerful enough to utterly annihilate it without any trouble whatsoever sends shockwaves.
You do get one very unpleasant surprise shortly after landing, when the twins burst into your hotel room. They had just gotten the schedule for the motorsports events and were absolutely livid, as the Romans had ‘helpfully’ scheduled all four race series to run simultaneously rather than sequentially. That meant that since many of the Griffin’s Roost drivers were supposed to race in multiple series that they’d either have to forfeit half of the races completely or race short handed, which would be almost as bad as scoring relies on a point system based on finishing order and cars not present would be scored as zeros.
The Romans are unwilling to change the schedule, leading the twins to some very creative cursing as they divvy up drivers as best they can. Then comes another explosion when it is learned that the Romans had also dedicated a separate set of tracks for the Griffin’s Roost teams to practice on, which were significantly different from the competition tracks thus denying the teams the ability to actually test configurations in practice for the main race. The Roman’s response that this allows both teams to have unlimited practice time does absolutely nothing to ease tempers.
You manage to talk the twins down from their threats to withdraw their teams from the events in protest. Regardless, you are not a happy Empress over this, which you communicate quite firmly to the Romans. The Prefect in charge of all of this is an oily sort of fellow. You don’t believe for a moment his protestations that he’s personally unfamiliar with motorsport, so he had not expected any issues whatsoever and was certainly not intending to unfairly stack the deck.
You’ll remember this.
The Opening Ceremony is an absolute spectacle that lasts almost twice as long as the longest one you’d ever been in back home. You had thought some of those shows had been over the top, and this one makes them all seem restrained and modest. And then the games were on.
You cheer yourself hoarse at the athletics competitions, which wind up with the Griffin’s Roost men dominating the Romans, while the Roman women have a solid victory over the Griffin women. At least here there is absolutely no shenanigans, with excellent sportsmanship on display throughout.
You had been tempted to snub the gymnastics competitions in retaliation for the motorsports shenanigans, but in the end decide to be the better person. And you are damn glad you did.
Yes, the Women’s Gymnastics competition is about as one-sided as you expected, with your girls looking like grade-school kids versus professionals. But then there’s the men’s competition.
At first it seemed like it would go as expected, but your men’s team hangs with the best the Romans have to offer… and then start to pull ahead bit by bit. Tiny little errors, here and there, by the Romans… and near absolute perfection from the Griffin men. The crowd is absolutely stunned as, by the end of the competition, the gold AND silver medals are won by Griffin men.
The team competition? Well, that went more the Romans way, although your athletes did make it closer than the Romans probably expected.
In the midst of all of this you have a series of meetings with the Roman consuls, which are rather friendly. And they have a proposal for you.
Would you be willing to sell them dropships like HMS Renown? Pretty please with a side of look at all these resources and valuable materials they are willing to give you!
In the end you wind up summarily spacing about three quarters of the captured pirates, most of whom were badly injured already. Of the remaining quarter, all of them had explosive collars locked around their necks as involuntary pirate cannon fodder, and only the powerful jammers of HMS Renown had kept the pirates from detonating them. All of these were surviving pilots of the Swarmer-type fighters, and getting them out of their cockpits safely had been… fraught. For one thing, those fighters lacked anything even vaguely resembling an ejection seat, nor did they have any real life support beyond a bottle of compressed oxygen tack welded to the cockpit interior. The pilots themselves had barely adequate g-suits that were not in any way pressure-resistant, nor did they have helmets of any kind. Any breach of the cockpit, no matter how minor, was an instant death sentence, and the cockpits had no armor whatsoever.
So each of the dozen surviving slave-pilots had to be carefully towed into the launch bay by one of the rescue shuttles, the bay repressurized, then crews had to unbolt the canopies and remove the explosive collars from very grateful people.
The three dozen actual pirates? Well, they were cursing up a storm as they were forced into the airlocks, then dumped out into the black. Nobody was at all sorry to see them go.
The remaining two weeks of the journey were rather uncomfortable, as both dropships were packed to the limits of life support by rescued slaves. There were no further incidents, however, and HMS Renown safely arrives in the NRI capital on schedule to a minor media firestorm.
A minor one that turns into an absolute megastorm when news comes out about the defeat of the Pirate force. A force that size is considered a serious threat by the NRI, and the realization that your YACHT was powerful enough to utterly annihilate it without any trouble whatsoever sends shockwaves.
You do get one very unpleasant surprise shortly after landing, when the twins burst into your hotel room. They had just gotten the schedule for the motorsports events and were absolutely livid, as the Romans had ‘helpfully’ scheduled all four race series to run simultaneously rather than sequentially. That meant that since many of the Griffin’s Roost drivers were supposed to race in multiple series that they’d either have to forfeit half of the races completely or race short handed, which would be almost as bad as scoring relies on a point system based on finishing order and cars not present would be scored as zeros.
The Romans are unwilling to change the schedule, leading the twins to some very creative cursing as they divvy up drivers as best they can. Then comes another explosion when it is learned that the Romans had also dedicated a separate set of tracks for the Griffin’s Roost teams to practice on, which were significantly different from the competition tracks thus denying the teams the ability to actually test configurations in practice for the main race. The Roman’s response that this allows both teams to have unlimited practice time does absolutely nothing to ease tempers.
You manage to talk the twins down from their threats to withdraw their teams from the events in protest. Regardless, you are not a happy Empress over this, which you communicate quite firmly to the Romans. The Prefect in charge of all of this is an oily sort of fellow. You don’t believe for a moment his protestations that he’s personally unfamiliar with motorsport, so he had not expected any issues whatsoever and was certainly not intending to unfairly stack the deck.
You’ll remember this.
The Opening Ceremony is an absolute spectacle that lasts almost twice as long as the longest one you’d ever been in back home. You had thought some of those shows had been over the top, and this one makes them all seem restrained and modest. And then the games were on.
You cheer yourself hoarse at the athletics competitions, which wind up with the Griffin’s Roost men dominating the Romans, while the Roman women have a solid victory over the Griffin women. At least here there is absolutely no shenanigans, with excellent sportsmanship on display throughout.
You had been tempted to snub the gymnastics competitions in retaliation for the motorsports shenanigans, but in the end decide to be the better person. And you are damn glad you did.
Yes, the Women’s Gymnastics competition is about as one-sided as you expected, with your girls looking like grade-school kids versus professionals. But then there’s the men’s competition.
At first it seemed like it would go as expected, but your men’s team hangs with the best the Romans have to offer… and then start to pull ahead bit by bit. Tiny little errors, here and there, by the Romans… and near absolute perfection from the Griffin men. The crowd is absolutely stunned as, by the end of the competition, the gold AND silver medals are won by Griffin men.
The team competition? Well, that went more the Romans way, although your athletes did make it closer than the Romans probably expected.
In the midst of all of this you have a series of meetings with the Roman consuls, which are rather friendly. And they have a proposal for you.
Would you be willing to sell them dropships like HMS Renown? Pretty please with a side of look at all these resources and valuable materials they are willing to give you!
| [] | In Principle sure, let’s talk about it |
|
| [] | Sorry, no super parasite warships for you |
|
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
[X] In principle sure, let's talk about it.
[X] In Principle sure, let’s talk about it
- [X] The Queen has entirely too much fun at the look on the consuls' faces when she casually mentions that they'd probably be more interested in the purely military version of said DropShips as opposed to 'our Yacht'.
- [X] The Queen has entirely too much fun at the look on the consuls' faces when she casually mentions that they'd probably be more interested in the purely military version of said DropShips as opposed to 'our Yacht'.
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Hmmmm given we only have one yard currently capable of building the things and we probably want a whole lot of them first they'll have to wait. Also it occurs to me that HMS Enchantress would have probably been a better name for the Royal Yatch. Ah well I guess the Admiralty can have the name for theirs.
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lets spend a bit more time getting to know them before give them something on the level of the Renown, especially as they'd want the advanced technology (like SubCaps) to go with it.
I'd tentatively be ok with giving them something on the level of a Defiant early on or some of the low powered (for us) Dropships we're planning on slowly phasing out.
I'd tentatively be ok with giving them something on the level of a Defiant early on or some of the low powered (for us) Dropships we're planning on slowly phasing out.
Crafter of War
Well-known member
I'm not so comfortable. Yeah, we'll take a relationship hit, but we need all the dropships we can get our hands on right now.
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] In Principle sure, let’s talk about it
Ridli Scott
Well-known member
[X] In Principle sure, let’s talk about it
- [X] The Queen has entirely too much fun at the look on the consuls' faces when she casually mentions that they'd probably be more interested in the purely military version of said DropShips as opposed to 'our Yacht'.
- [X] The Queen has entirely too much fun at the look on the consuls' faces when she casually mentions that they'd probably be more interested in the purely military version of said DropShips as opposed to 'our Yacht'.
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Our glorious Boot overlord said over on discord that its mearly the beginning of discussions we aren't making any committments
Jarow
Well-known member
[X] In Principle sure, let’s talk about it
Whether we can work out a deal or not, I'm uncertain. Especially given manufacturing space, not money, is our main limiter. But at the very least we should talk about it. If nothing else, we should be making sure they have some defenses in case the Dracs find them...
Whether we can work out a deal or not, I'm uncertain. Especially given manufacturing space, not money, is our main limiter. But at the very least we should talk about it. If nothing else, we should be making sure they have some defenses in case the Dracs find them...