The door doesn't open.
That's just odd. It could easily be a malfunction, and is arguably more likely- which makes more sense: malfunction, or that the people in the elevator suddenly realized there's an ambush right before the door opened, and hit "close door"?
If they're aware that there are people in the elevator, they would be listening for the people inside...and would hence notice any kind of funny business they were up to if it involved loud tools.
And besides, this is a pretty fancy, well-maintained ship. I've been in far older, worse-maintained elevators, and they've all worked fine (albeit some smelled funny). Plus, if your arguments are to be believed, they seem to be aware we're here. Yeah..."the people inside caught on or never intended to exit normally" doesn't seem so improbable.
They have ears. What else would we be doing with a cutting thing? (One that wasn't cutting the door.)
Since when does Space Magic make noise?
Since space magic was used to do noisy things. And since space magic was used to do things that would
set off alarms.
And since for the love of the HMRC Pantheon,
don't kill us all with space magic!
...Then don't we need to face them anyways?
Of course we do. But you were arguing that running off would be ineffective (an argument I never actually made). So, I argued against it, 'cause you were wrong.
No...I really wasn't. We don't have anywhere to run
to.
Assuming that the people ordering the sods around are idiots and that the sods are the only thing there, yes.
"Hey, Bill, take Sods A1-5 and lock down the northern elevator."
"'Kay boss."
...
"Okay sods, shoot anyone who comes out of that elevator."
I would say exactly that and not think twice about it. Does that mean I'm an idiot?
No, just that you shouldn't be left in command of sods. And probably not normal soldiers, to be honest.
And sods should have standing orders of "kill anyone who tries to kill you".
or if there are turrets like there have been anywhere else of moderate importance, we'd be as screwed coming from the elevator as the wall.
Presumably, considering the fact that previous turrets haven't elicited a "bad vibe", whatever's behind the door is worse.
...And "worse" means "easier to deal with"?
But even if it is something worse, why just go "Oh, well, that plan isn't guaranteed to save us. Let's just do something that is likely to get us killed no matter what the ambush is."
It's as likely to kill us either way. Might as well go with the option that doesn't limit our movement and keep us where the enemy knows where we are while we wait for a hole to be cut/melted in a wall.
Arguable, since you'd have one person completely unable to prepare for anything. And you're assuming that they don't have an override command. (And a properly-commanded sod is a universal override command.)
Uh, how is a sod an override command for an elevator door?
By breaking it.
And why would they be likely to have an override command in case the elevator door doesn't open, and be able to use it in the next ten seconds of the elevator arriving? How paranoid are these people?
They're the UWM, and more specifically the UWM military. And their ship presumably has a central computer, capable of handling little things like screwing with doors to screw invaders.
If they're told to. And what kind of commander would simultaneously be so stupid not to account for something that basic (if hare-brained), and yet so capable to get promoted to a sod command position?
Why do you assume a sod command position is anything important? They're tools, like the gauss rifles other crewmen were using. The only thing you need to be allowed to use them is trust.
Why would "They might come through the ceiling" be on your list of obvious, basic things to account for?
"They might do something we don't expect" is something anyone commanding more than their own two hands
needs to understand. Hell, most basic soldiers understand it! Why are you assuming the UWM is so suicidally incompetent?
...Are you implying that pointing out obstacles to our continued survival somehow makes them more likely to die? Because that's all I'm doing.
HAHA No. You're arguing that keeping the elevator door closed instead of opening it directly into an ambush is a worse idea.
Alright. We're trapped in an elevator. We have literally no ability to move anywhere without taking lots of time, just standing about, not aware of what's going on outside, quite possibly being roasted or dripped in hot metal thanks to the efforts of our team.
How is this better than seeing what we're up against and possibly being able to slip past them to elsewhere, and definitely being able to start dealing with them before they deploy whatever methods they have of disposing of us?
Assuming that it works the way you think it does. And there's no reason to assume that.
True. However, there's no reason to assume that it doesn't work like that.
Does "The Most-Crap Rule" mean anything to you?
It's entirely possible (and Occam-compliant) that the "universal amp" used by amp specialists is a bunch of other amps, all piled into one brain. This would also explain why they're not for sale--they don't technically exist.
Except it's not possible. You can only have three amps in your head, max. And it's limited by the surface area of your brain, so unless you're schizophrenic the limit isn't increasing.
Exactly. Which is why you need to screw around with the brain to add more amps. Which is why amp specialists have important chunks of brain disabled or missing. Which is why amp specialists need life support.
Plus, is it not occam compliant to assume that all amps follow the same rules for being combined, rather than each one having different rules for being combined with any particular amp? One of those options seems way less complex to me.
The problem is, we see
one example of a combined amp--one where the two functions are very, very similar. The "simplicity" of that is more than accounted for by the complexity of explanations for both a lack of other amp combinations and explanations for why amp specialists don't just have a universal amp and maybe a decomp and that's it.