Late March 1998 Responses

From:  Andy Campbell (Urugg)

Hi all! Well, looks like we're in the sauce again. And Urugg definitely owes
Syzygy a beer (It was a great plan! If it had worked, anyway...). Anyway, on
to the matters at hand. Looks like we've got several related problems:

1) We're exposed in the doorway right now. We should either pull back so we
concentrate fire on the ghostsuits as they emerge. Of course, they may just
seal the hatch in that case and this may cut off the route to Dakka. If we
don't pull back, we should get in the room ASAP and seal the hatch behind us -
that way noone can ambush us from behind if the 4 ghostboys have backup out in
the terminal area or elsewhere.

2) Assuming that the ghostboys are sentients or higher level 'bots with
enough brain to understand others (like the folks they're defending), we can
try to either reason with or intimidate them and avoid (hopefully) a mass
brawl in the middle of helpless civilians. Again, I'd say we have two
options:

- the diplomatic approach: we try to talk the ghosts down before they get too
close ("we're not here for you - give up Dakka and no one will be harmed" -
all the while powering up weapons of course should things go bad)

- the "balls to the wall" approach: everybody draw a bead on the helpless
civilians. Those with frag grenades or incendiaries whip 'em out and grab the
pins. Everybody else, level their guns on the refugees. "OK - we can do this
the easy way or the hard way. You four can lay down your weapons, deactivate
your screens and give yourselves up. OR, we will kill every woman and child
in this habitat - and I don't think you'd want that. Sure, you'll take us out
eventually. But not before you are ankle deep in the blood of your own
people." Given that both Tork and I (Urugg) are visibly in Battle Rage, it
should be a convincing argument. Just pray they don't call our bluff, or are
Lvl 2 bots without any higher order logic.

So there's some thoughts. What do you all think?

From:  John Groszkiewicz (Tork)

Kveldulf wrote:
> 
> Hi all! Well, looks like we're in the sauce again. And Urugg definitely owes
> Syzygy a beer (It was a great plan! If it had worked, anyway...). Anyway, on
> to the matters at hand. Looks like we've got several related problems:
> 
> 1) We're exposed in the doorway right now. We should either pull back so we
> concentrate fire on the ghostsuits as they emerge. Of course, they may just
> seal the hatch in that case and this may cut off the route to Dakka. If we
> don't pull back, we should get in the room ASAP and seal the hatch behind us -
> that way noone can ambush us from behind if the 4 ghostboys have backup out in
> the terminal area or elsewhere.

I prefer to pull back. Let them come throught the narrow pass ( door ) to get to us, 
less chance of getting flanked and less chance of knocking off the civilians.

> - the diplomatic approach: we try to talk the ghosts down before they get too
> close ("we're not here for you - give up Dakka and no one will be harmed" -
> all the while powering up weapons of course should things go bad)

Why treat this as "diplomatic", make it an order: "We're here for Dakka! Turn him over 
and no one gets hurt!"

Tork does not want to use threats against unarmed civilians to try and get Dakka. I 
have a feeling there is more going on here than Streel wants us to know about. More 
about this later...

TTFN
John johngroz@velocity.net
----------
"Can't say. Saying would be knowing. Don't know. So, can't say." - Zathrus

From:  Ken Morefield (Zane)

In a message dated 98-03-22 23:41:26 EST, johngroz@velocity.net writes:

<< I prefer to pull back. Let them come throught the narrow pass ( door ) to
get to us, less chance of getting flanked and less chance of knocking off the
civilians.>>

Zane agrees with this approach(or withdraw as it might be called).

<< Tork does not want to use threats against unarmed civilians to try and get
Dakka. I have a feeling there is more going on here than Streel wants us to
know about. More about this later... >>

Zane has some bad feelings about this. " Hey do you guys think we might
not be the good guys this time. This is getting confusing." As a thought
goes through his head-Kare looks good in her environment suit. But its
just a quick thought then he is back to this reallity.

From:  Albin Johnson (Syzygy)

>Zane has some bad feelings about this. " Hey do you guys think we might
>not be the good guys this time. This is getting confusing."

Syzygy begins recalling an ancient movie he'd seen on holovid...something
called 'Demolition Man' where the hero ended up chasing the leader of an
underground society of outcasts yearning to be free of the fascist utopian
society above. Hm.

Syzygy is in agreement that the civilians here are the highest priority.
Even if Syte is the bad guy, which we have reason to doubt after hearing
Streel's almost hysterical insistence on us chasing him, we still can't
rationalize the smallest risk to these helpless people.

(BTW, this is assuming they are real, right? I mean those ripples of
distortion Layne mentioned were localized manifestations of the boogie-men
appearing, right - not evidence of a huge hologram of people. Right?)

Syzygy will back up towards the door. He will strongly urge the others to
follow, coming as close to commanding them as his nature allows. If anyone
shows even the slightest sign of firing at the armored beings he will aim
his gyrojet pistol at _them_ and yell for them to leave.

"Back up, guys. We can't do anything in here with all these people. WE
GOTTA GO NOW - BEFORE SOMETHING SETS THESE GUYS OFF! MOVE!!!" If anyone
in the group seems ready to fire at the armored suits Syzygy will get very
rude, doing whatever it takes to defuse the situation.

What the others don't know is that Syzygy faced this situation once before
- back home when the company he worked for endangered the lives of worker
Vrusk just to strike at pirates that were nearby. The ghosts of all those
workers trapped in the mines when company gunfire on the pirates caused
them to collapse still haunts him today.

Is there any way to block the door open, drawing the beasties out into the
hall? Syzygy will do the following as they scramble for a new plan:

- use his Robotics: Identification skill to determine if the suits are
mechanized or operated by living organisms.

- ready 3 one-kilogram charges of Tornadium D-19 and arm them with
radio-controlled detonators

- use his Technician skill to assess the door's locking mechanism to see if
he can lock it open, then close it again once the boogie-men are through

Just some quick ideas.

As a thought
>goes through his head-Kare looks good in her environment suit. But its
>just a quick thought then he is back to this reallity.

Awright Zane! Syzygy is proud of his room-mate! 'Course both the females
can kick our asses at any time, but what's life without a little excitement
and risk? :)

- your pal AL (Syzygy)

From:  Andy Campbell (Urugg)

Hi all - had a jarring thought today while in the shower (don't know about you
folks, but there and in the can are where I get my best thinking done). So
you can follow the train of thought to its (quite possibly way off)
conclusion, here's what ran though my skull: 

Dakka didn't nix our tangled teammates when they (metaphorically speaking) had
their pants down and he had a good shot at Selson.

We have followed Dakka to Lost Point, a colony shut down by Streel after
attempts to rehabilitate it.

We enter a room full of creaming refugee types with barely enough life support
to breathe (I'm guessing this is where Cimmy suffered brain damage from lack
of O2). In the room are our old buddies, the inviso-thugs. What are they
doing in a room full of starving women and children? The two options I see
are:

the bad option - the inviso-boys were warned of our approach by Dakka as he
fled towards Lost Point. They are here to ambush us. One thing argues
strongly against this - *if* Dakka is pals with the inviso-boys, why wasn't he
using an inviso-field when he came to assassinate Selson??? If I were going
to assassinate a megacorp CEO type, I'd be stealthed out the ass - and I would
sure as hell use an inviso-field if I had one (if I was an ice-cold assassin
as Dakka has been portrayed I'd even kill - even an ally if need be - to get
one if I felt it was mission-critical). Of course Dakka may be just stupid
(unlikely), a newbie to crime and assasination (again unlikely) or wanted to
make it personal and tempt fate (possible, but unlikely). These leads us to
the thought of the day...

Option #2 - Remember the inviso-boys that nailed Syzygy? They left bootprints
that matched experimental Streel black ops prototypes - now who on this
station has access to those sort of toys? Maybe the same guy who obviously
has personal access to monorails, locks on personal quarters, and can dispatch
cargo bots with vital gear without even using any Megacorp lackeys? What if
Syzygy was left alive not out of compassion but because he was the only member
of the team savvy enough to flush out a certain cyber-criminal a certain
Megacorp manager wanted dead for personal reasons? Now that Dakka's been
located, he gets his "expendable off-worlders" (that's us) out of the station
where our elimination would be messy, then has his black-ops pros nail us and
then take out Dakka. Who knows, if need be he can blame our deaths on Dakka
(if he can't make us just "disappear" (fake a shuttle accident then alter our
records, etc.). Why ace us - we'e the only ones who know of Dakka's presence
(with the exception of Capt. Ap-Harrow), and we now know about the Lost Point
survivors penned up in the gulag of the old colony (perhaps on Streel orders
as punishment for their mutiny?). 

If option #1 is true, things are cut-and-dried - we slag Dakka's bullyboys,
find and capture him, and free the Lost Pointers.

If option #2 is true, the "balls to the wall" gambit is right out, as Streel
Black Ops boys wouldn't care one bit if the Lost Pointers get fragged. We
need to kill or incapacitate them as quickly as possible; at least one should
be left alive to interrogate and testify to the truth if need be. Next, we
must ditch our c-coms (I'm sure Streel has built in a back-door to monitor our
comms in this case), hoook up with Dakka, and find out his side of the story.
Then we need to decide how we get off this moon without Streel treating us to
a suitless walk out the airlocks.

So there it is - what do you all think? Wild-eyed speculation or are we a
bunch of Streel patsies ready to star in the Frontier's equivalent of "JFK",
the truth buried by Streel goons?

Sorry if this was a bit incoherent - had to type it up real fast so as not to
miss B5 at 10 : )

Andy / Urugg
(boy, I should have been a conspiracy theorist)

From:  Clark Valentine (Taanik)

Taanik trains ids blaster on the nearest inviso-thug 
but does not fire unless the team is attacked. Id 
also eyes the barium-grenades in his satchel. "Hey, 
guys! Should we use these now?"

From:  John Whitfield (T'Klkk)

>
>
>So there it is - what do you all think? Wild-eyed speculation or are
we a
>bunch of Streel patsies ready to star in the Frontier's equivalent of
"JFK",
>the truth buried by Streel goons?
>

I think you're really starting to scare me! :-)

If your scenario #2 is true, we've been screwed hard....and not in a
good way!

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

-JWW

From:  Albin Johnson (Syzygy)

>>
>>So there it is - what do you all think? Wild-eyed speculation or are
>we a
>>bunch of Streel patsies ready to star in the Frontier's equivalent of
>"JFK",
>>the truth buried by Streel goons?
>>
>
>I think you're really starting to scare me! :-)


Yeah, me too. But you put your finger right on the thought I was having,
hence my reference to the sub-plot in the movie Demolition Man. We may be
being played out as well-intentioned stooges, as you pointed out, but how
can we defuse this situation long enough to find out? I don't want to
cross Streel if we're wrong, and I don't want to risk the lives of the
denizens in Lost Point.

Our best bet is to pull back. We are in no hurry here. Even if Streel is
sending his black ops goons we can't accomplish anything by staying in this
room. Too many bystanders. We need to pull out, find a defendable
position, try to negotiate with the boogie men and/or prepare to cut down
the Streel goons.


>If your scenario #2 is true, we've been screwed hard....and not in a
>good way!

Ouch! I don't wanna know what a good way is! Unless of course you have
something in mind between T'Klkk and Syzygy. (sorry, you left the door open
on that one) >:D

- your pal AL (Syzygy)

From:  John Whitfield (T'Klkk)

>>If your scenario #2 is true, we've been screwed hard....and not in a
>>good way!
>
>Ouch! I don't wanna know what a good way is! Unless of course you
have
>something in mind between T'Klkk and Syzygy. (sorry, you left the door
open
>on that one) >:D
>
>- your pal AL (Syzygy)

Of course the door was open. You wouldn't have it any other way, would
you?
:-)

-JWW