((Again, how log would it take for them to decide that it is an acceptable risk for a sufficient benefit, then round up the civilians and tying-to-shields equipment--which had to be improvised--and finally tie them to shields and distribute them. All without communications. Somewhere along the line, something is...off.))
In terms of time spans, remember: It's not like the defense team is sitting around and waiting until they see you. Every turn, they're moving, acting, planing and executing actions as well. Even if you just stood still, they'd still be preparing and acting.
((And how many minutes have they had to move, act, plan, and execute these plans? I haven't gotten the feeling that there have been more than 5-10, which seems a bit short to do all of that. Hence my suspicion.
And better paranoid than dead.))
((Mind control amp basically. They aren't ordering the sods, they're outright controlling the sods. It also allows them to take sensory information form them.))
((...New, remember?
Anyways, that means that this shadow walker had to:
1. actually be here;
2. be given permission to command the sods, or be willing to ignore the lack of that permission;
3. determine that the HMRC is not harming civilians, despite managing a dozen sods or more AND despite the HMRC's reputation;
4. decide that the potential benefits of the civilians plan outweigh the risks and likely disciplining;
5. control enough civilians as well as the sods;
6. have the sods and civilians find the materials and assemble the shields; and
7. have the sods reach the team.
A bit less long, but a bit more in the way of assumptions. Overall, still fishy.))
((Urban Executors weren't really supposed to be here, no. We found out that they're here.
((I mean, weren't those the ones Steve mentioned were here, while Shadow Walkers were the ones that
might be here?))
And no, I think regular communications had nothing to do with Sods and their commanders.))
((Then how did they communicate?))
((Like I said, decisions and actions made at the speed of thought. That's the worst case scenario, but ultimately all a Shadow Walker would need is one civilian in our midst and he would be able to tap into pretty much anyone - though not without us noticing, we hope - and he'd know everything he needed. If he achieves full control, as he tried to do with Auron there, he has access to thoughts as well. Between that and the defenders having backup communications, the speed of organization is not surprising at all. And civilians likely let themselves be tied up.))
((Again, they would need to come to the conclusion that we aren't harming civilians and decide that all the risks are worth the
very marginal benefit of forcing the forces to use amps and other precise weapons, if we're not bluffing or something. And, really, that's the core of the thing--somehow, they knew we wouldn't be willing to harm civilians.))
((We disabled the main base communications, but apparently the defenders have the same kind of tech that allows the HMRC to keep contact with Steve - meaning that while we cut off the defenses, anything else that was set up is still functioning.))
((...What was the purpose of what we did, then?))
((2: "Know your enemy", finding out the enemy's goals is the first step to defense. Plus the organochem overrider allows reading of thoughts - no need to interrogate.
3: That would just be observation of our action - like how we went out of our way to keep civilians unharmed, and carted injured ones off the gangway to be treated in the ship. They probably have tiny spy cams set up to watch for this kind of thing.
4: Again, mind control provides ample evidence, and they likely don't care about PR, since they control the media.))
((2. And this thought-reading doesn't detract from the time or attention of the user? And somehow the civvie would have vital or even accurate information?
3. Forgot about the rescue...but even so, weigh this against probably decades of HMRC mass slaughters and you have the rough equivalent of, I dunno, a squad of Nazis avoiding civilian casualties in a synagogue or something--something you would take more than 5 seconds to decide is not a lie.
4. They do?))
((5: So we thought, but we were proven wrong.
((I automatically feel a bit...suspicious of any hypothesis based in large part on "We don't know X wasn't so!"))
6: Again, mind control. An untrained civilian is a mindless sheep to a Shadow Walker. During that mission I mentioned, he got a whole village to zerg-rush some perimeter defense turrets to get them offline and get out. Getting a crowd of civvies to tie themselves to tower shields would be similarly easy, and he only needs line of sight - even through someone else's eyes.))
((Yeah, mind control is one thing I hadn't realized was possible. Incidentally, are these organic amps available from the AM?))
((They don't have to be bound with rope in the first place, plus do recall that this is an industrial complex. They could have cable or chain just lying around in stockpiles.))
((I had thought they were. Also important: These are combat specialists, not industrial or bondage specialists; I'm not sure how the mind control works, or where the supplies are, but that is an additional time sink that reduces the time it took to decide "Okay, these mass murderers are actively avoiding civilian casualties, and it isn't a bluff or anything...probably not going to be negative disciplinary/political/media/whatever fallout...screw it, I'll have the civvies tied to the sods' shields, that should slow 'em down."))
((One correction: I think the guy from Mission 5 wasn't a Shadow Walker. For one, he didn't have a LESHO rifle. I think piecewise said that the guy in Mission 5 was an Urban Executor. Which makes the fact that there's a whole mess of them (and their bigger, meaner Shadow Walker cousins) in this mission all the more alarming.
((Oh. Okay, one obstacle removed.))
((I'd like to point out that, even if you manage to conclusively prove that there was a lot of time to decide in and not much to decide, the details in my original theory were based on a number of assumptions, for instance that there were no mind controllers involved and that the UWM did not control the media and whatnot. Reasonable assumptions, from ignorance, even if untrue.))
Author
Topic: Einsteinian Roulette (Original Thread: Rules, Armory, Misson archive 1-11) (Read 3943388 times)