Max has a mind that is above average as the devious duo has already told us. Now we are seeing that mind at work.
The cassians are basically always in communication with each other. Can he use her to feed false information to them? I would not put this past him! Like say, the Cassian raid was successful and they killed him?
He could even use her to get tactical and location information on them to move his own forces to interdict or entrap engaged or unengaged Cassians in order to prevent their effective interference in what is about to happen.
I suspect that Dolly and Nox may be having an eventful discussion shortly!
Noctis already knows Malati and Hrist failed in there mission. so thats not really a viable option. as far as feeding them false info .. Max knows this.
Well, July 4th is coming up so probably steak and cheetos. The beer is optional of course.
Sorry, lost my train of thought there!
Max has a source of insider info and someone who may actually tap into the Cassian communications for him. From that he will be able to have an insight into what they are doing that may be the real game changer here. Oh yeah, and the ability to feed false info, though that will really work only once.
I work a 12 hour shift on the 4th... the closest I'm gonna come to that is microwaved HotDogs and overpriced chips.
The insider info is potentially a game changer, but the question would be can Hrist access that information without being detected by the other Cassians... that could put a little wrinkle in the plan.
Never liked Karma. It seems very nice on the surface, right up until the point where you have to tell a young kid that, according to Karma, they totally deserved that lethal disease they got.
That said, Decimus could use a bit of bad karma, and Dolly is delivering!
It would seem that Prince Douchebag has committed crimes against the state. Since the State is Law, theoretically he could be charged, arrested and imprisoned. He'll either go down fighting with his Praetorian Guard or run like a scared rabbit. It would be poetic justice to let his subjects get ahold of him and tear him into celebratory confetti.
Ya know, I really think you oughta start stealing from Fallout 3, Terri. It just seems.. Odd to me, seeing Androids with sparks ANd blood. I'd suggest one or the other, like how Harkness is an Android, but if you kill him, it looks entirely human. Syntheticness.
Hrist does have more biological parts than others. shes one of the latest of the cassian generations. and all "androids" use a o2 bearing carrier fluid and its dyed red normally.
As Rose pointed out on two pages previous, the sparks are not real:
Quote: "The lightning arcs are a visual representation for the reader's convenience. They don't actually happen from an in-universe perspective."
I guess that makes it similar to annotations like "Bang" or "Biff", or an exclamation point to convey surprise.
The level of thought and detail put into the technology of Datachasers is impressive. Check out the Tech Page.
Correct me if I'm wrong:
See how Ceci looks without skin? Notice the muscles: "syrex fiber muscle, bio compatible". Most require oxygen and have organs for digesting food for nutrients and energy. I do wonder how much electricity an android uses as they do have cybernetic-type eyes and other parts. But aside from combat models with built-in weapons (such as Ceci's plasma caster), I haven't seen evidence to suggest they use a lot. (Teedee, too, had built-in weapons that, apparently, overloaded her old body's power core when she used them?)
That said, New Troy has different models of androids. Dolly's old chassis was a very old model and seemed much, much less organic. But it seems all of them have organic synth-brains. (It was noted, though, that Luna's medical androids have positronic brains.)
The Casians, however, were made by Nova Roma to serve their own needs. As readers, we don't know as much about them.
yeah the sparks for the inhibitor are a "reader" effect - in retrospect I should have used a different effect :P as for the tech pages .. I may have to do one on the Cassians soon :D
True, catt. Maxus isn't going to take any longer than needed; however, he is going to gather information that will allow him the BEST chance of succeeding on his mission.
That's both the seasoned fighter and the sound tactical mind of a capable general showing, really.
He doesn't just blindly charge into things. He'll gather at least the basic necessary information first and try to come up with a plan.
It might put him into action with some delay, but it will save oh so much time later on. And drastically increase his changes of success to boot.
Well, it's not the Terry Pratchett werewolf. While she did get "kidnapped" by robbers (from a police bar even), not much planning was done about it. Heck, noone even tried to save the robbers from her!
There might have been some werewolves in the "Something from the Nightside" series too, but I think they got eaten .. by a demonic car.
Okay, I actually had to look up the name. I couldn't remember. Benedict?
Didn't find any of the books at home. I guess I had borrowed it from a friend. Too long since and I read quite a lot. So I forgot the details. But the quote (among some other things) stuck.
I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Lynn is mostly-human (uncommonly so for a New Troy resident), and likely would not be fast enough to drop Nox even if she did have the markswoman experience to make a hit at the appropriate range.
Yep Lynn is pretty much all human what few mods she does arent of significance, namely a Memory chip ( common item its like a internal notebook so you don't forget things. and a Datajack implant to access devices and the info net.. and - However due to who Lynn is Dolly has drilled her in basic self defense , Taser blade, and shes been drilled with small pistols and such. So yes she can arm and fire laser pistols and some projectile weapons. shes a ok shot with a laser pistol.
@Dragonrider two issues with that, the tram has just been taken by Nigel and his Christmas suit - unless there are multiple cars. Second, Lynn is not carrying the gun...Acantha is. Frankly I'm not sure who I hope to reach them first. I have a sad feeling about the guy in the red suit protecting them.
If Nigel is very very lucky the AI will ID Nigel as the person who attacked the prince before stopping him in ways that three larger caliber holes were not able to accomplish. I mean Lynn still thinks hes a corpsicle in the morgue. The AI can ID him perhaps based on gait and data from the ring. That may be a stretch given that. I suspect that Lynn will pull his bacon fat out of the fire.
Remember that Kyle is wearing a stealth suit. It is entirely possible that he will get to his destination and start working without Aeneas ever spotting him.
I agree with you about Acantha's personal guard though. I've been seeing vultures flying over his head ever since he got appointed to this post.
If Acantha were there and there was not a specific death order then yes. Acantha could countermand the order. However .. Due to Nox's current orders Acantha is a Null command giver until she is under guard. she cant give any commands about herself or Lynn
Acantha (and now Lynn as well, I think) is Aeneas' only friend in the whole wide world. And they probably told him what drekhead tried to do. So, 'person who tried to attack friend's attempted rapist' = potential ally, if not possible friend. Of course, his control over the defense systems and such is horribly shaky until he can get repairs made...
Duty; until he's dead or replaced decimal point-head is still nominally someone the Cassians are supposed to protect. If someone that pointed a gun at him, and is supposed to be dead, gets spotted alive and 'up to something' I'd expect there to be a compulsion to do something about that.
Or I missed it.
If the question is why Aeneas would attempt to kill Kyle instead of a Cassian (either might potentially happen now, come to think of it) the answer is: He's still a human Aeneas doesn't know, attempting to fiddle with stuff (and the parts that would be considered Aeneas itself). Why didn't Aeneas kill Acantha? Because she was an unarmed little girl and he felt un-threatened, and bored. Kyle's very much armed with the ability to do things to Aeneas if he gets the right access, and unknown other devices and technology besides. Aeneas would have to be much more curious or trusting than cautious to let Kyle get anywhere near that access.
and that is why Kyle is wearing a E-war suit.. if everything goes right.. he Aeneas will never know hes there until Kyle starts working .. and Kyle knows the first thing he needs to do is KEEP Aeneas from turning him into a fine white ash..
Question one. HEy Centcomm mind if I open the outer ailock door on the airlock I Just shoves Anon Coward here into without a spacesuit...he said he wanted to go out an get some air.
Okay, hypothetical situation: Decimus finds someone annoying, and he wants to deal with that somehow. Does he:
1) Ask the person to stop;
2) Ignore them and concentrate on something else or someone else more important, or;
3) Have a hissy fit over it and try to get someone to kill them?
It really depends on how important they are and if he can get away with bullying them or terrorizing them.. Max was never afraid of him. and well .. bullying max is a exerciser in futility. Deck is downright afraid of Max now.
Ah, oil on troubled water: Sorry for trying to force enlightenment on someone that doesn't want it in your space.
I'm kinda surprised that Decimus never had someone tell him that a sign of maturity and personal strength is the ability to avoid being enraged at things that don't matter and accept others criticizing him (and even mocking him) with grace when there's little good that can come from being vindictive, though. Or did they and it just never took?
The trick is to not let him fall too far, and make sure he survives the fall. Thus, he can fall again another day, after some time in the regeneration tank ofcourse..
Unless you foresee a way to cure his crazy that makes him so much of a nutjob that he's effectively stupid and a danger to many... why would you want to protect him from his own suicidal tendencies? Limit the collateral damage and unnecessary other harm, sure, I'm all for that. We should recognize a person's right to commit suicide though, under the right circumstances: Such as when they are sane and rationally decide that life just isn't for them, or harmful enough we would be better off if they exercised that right.
I cant say exactly how the tech works but Hrists suit has a high reflectivity level and high specular level its what gives it a plastic shiny look :D if you were to feel it - it would feel kinda soft and slickery .. like vinyl
Here is a thought. Since H'rist will STILL follow Maxus's orders, would it NOT be possible for him to simply ORDER Nox and Noctis to stand down? After all his attempted Execution was botched, but his authority was NEVER Rescinded. Going by the literal interpretation of the orders, Nox and Noctis cannot trouble themselves with killing a General since it was someone else's job to do so.
as long as the princes Current orders are unfinished they can not countermand the order period so unless the prince himself OR Kali changes them - everyone is kinda boned .. IF they are unable to finish or complete their orders then they can accept new ones .. it also depends on the priority of the mission in question. Hrist is no longer bound due to her damage.
Could Maxus word lawyer and say they are to Detain and Hold in a safe place of Maxus's choosing, until Kali or Prince Jerkweed relieves them of the duty?
That COULD be one way around the explicitness of the orders.
Also remember Nox is a sadist. She HATES Humans with a unbridled passion and relishes any chance to hurt them. for those that hated Malati Nox will make her look like a freaking Saint of goodness :D
From everything I have read, both from the story and the comments, here are my deductions, and the reasoning behind them:
- The cassians have a hard coded directive to protect the Crown (stated), NOT a specific individual (derived consequence, it cannot be both).
- Kali is the leader of the Cassians (stated) and can give them any directive which do not countermand the directive mentioned above (logical consequence).
- Kali CAN accept directives from the Princess (seen in the story).
- Should there be opposite directives from the Crown (as in the Prince versus the Princess), I deduce from elements of the story that Kali has a old primary directive (highest priority) to accept the directives which serves New Roma best, and therefore effectively pick a side in case of an expressed conflict within the Crown.
This would fully account for Kali's reaction during the gun incident.
It has also been noted a few times that the Prince is NOT acting in the best interest of New Roma, and the current assassination orders proves it.
So, based on all this, I deduce that the moment the Princes places order contrary to the Prince order, and heard by Kali (or the moment such order is reported to her), Kali will set herself and all Cassians loose against the Prince and anyone attempting to defend him.
I also suspect that Kali has bugged the Princes to be instantly aware of such order (logical deduction, probability > 99.99%).
I tried to correct a few typos on this long text (which I only saw after validating), to find then that edit mode was only accepted after a login.
I then tried to register to do so, to find out that is not possible: the registration page does not scroll down, while the required inputs and any validation go below the bottom of the page in full screen mode (laptop, max resolution 1366x768).
I think you can scroll and resize the website .. or use the page in windowed mode.thats what i do on my tablet. as for your deductions confirming or denying some would give spoilers but I do like the way you think.. all i will say is that Acantha is very good at finding bugs and disabling them. she learned from her brother how to be paranoid about her privacy.
What I recall from Kali's thoughts in the dinner was pre-gun, and it was that if Maxus pulled out Decimus' spine that she'd have to try to kill him and hoped that Acantha (as successor to the crown and now only living Livius) would order her to stop.
I saw that more as a transfer of authority with Decimus' death rather than Acantha having any ability to countermand Kali. I also agree with the assessment of in-comic Cent-Comm that if Kali had the freedom, she would've corrected Decimus' behavior (lethally corrected or not being up in the air) long before now.
So I think it's a safe conclusion that Acantha cannot order Kali to act for the good of New Rome in a way that countermands Decimus. Acantha wouldd be doing it all over the place by now if she could, and Kali would probably point out opportunities (at least after the fact) if she wasn't doing it enough.
You are correct .. Acantha can not countermand a order given by Deck as of yet !
(( remember you can get a free comic fury account and edit posts and stuff ! and even get cool things like subscriptions and follow all the comics I make and stuff :D ))
the other issue is her age.. until she is recognized by roma as decks successor She cant give anyone orders.(( Offcially )) So no Cassian is required to listen to her in any form. Kali is a special case due to her placement as Royal guardian.
However most of the cassians and a lot of the standard Roman troops would follow her because she is well liked.
Yeah, I never sign up for accounts to comment, just don't comment when they're required. I do appreciate that Comic Fury doesn't ask for an e-mail that I have to fill in garbage for, though.
I did definitely make at least one typo in the above (name swap said "countermand Kali" rather than "countermand Decimus" jumped out at me almost immediately after hitting post) but I just consider that part and parcel with free form thoughts for comments. Ignoring extra proofreading and editing stages is part of the relaxing part of passtime versus work for me.
Yep. I don't read through the comments here as often, though, so don't comment as much.
Took me a bit but I made my obligatory two passes through the archives so Datachasers & Luna Star are now on my list of webcomics I'm both following and caught up on.
That was a major turning point, I'm thinking.
The cassians are basically always in communication with each other. Can he use her to feed false information to them? I would not put this past him! Like say, the Cassian raid was successful and they killed him?
He could even use her to get tactical and location information on them to move his own forces to interdict or entrap engaged or unengaged Cassians in order to prevent their effective interference in what is about to happen.
I suspect that Dolly and Nox may be having an eventful discussion shortly!
,.. much sad!
Sorry, lost my train of thought there!
Max has a source of insider info and someone who may actually tap into the Cassian communications for him. From that he will be able to have an insight into what they are doing that may be the real game changer here. Oh yeah, and the ability to feed false info, though that will really work only once.
The insider info is potentially a game changer, but the question would be can Hrist access that information without being detected by the other Cassians... that could put a little wrinkle in the plan.
Well, the sun tryed to kill us with warmth, but apart from that. XD
Our national holiday isn't until 1st of August.
That said, Decimus could use a bit of bad karma, and Dolly is delivering!
Quote: "The lightning arcs are a visual representation for the reader's convenience. They don't actually happen from an in-universe perspective."
I guess that makes it similar to annotations like "Bang" or "Biff", or an exclamation point to convey surprise.
The level of thought and detail put into the technology of Datachasers is impressive. Check out the Tech Page.
Correct me if I'm wrong:
See how Ceci looks without skin? Notice the muscles: "syrex fiber muscle, bio compatible". Most require oxygen and have organs for digesting food for nutrients and energy. I do wonder how much electricity an android uses as they do have cybernetic-type eyes and other parts. But aside from combat models with built-in weapons (such as Ceci's plasma caster), I haven't seen evidence to suggest they use a lot. (Teedee, too, had built-in weapons that, apparently, overloaded her old body's power core when she used them?)
That said, New Troy has different models of androids. Dolly's old chassis was a very old model and seemed much, much less organic. But it seems all of them have organic synth-brains. (It was noted, though, that Luna's medical androids have positronic brains.)
The Casians, however, were made by Nova Roma to serve their own needs. As readers, we don't know as much about them.
There is a time to talk and a time to act. :-)
He doesn't just blindly charge into things. He'll gather at least the basic necessary information first and try to come up with a plan.
It might put him into action with some delay, but it will save oh so much time later on. And drastically increase his changes of success to boot.
Points for anyone who gets the reference! :D
There might have been some werewolves in the "Something from the Nightside" series too, but I think they got eaten .. by a demonic car.
A werewolf stripper once said about him during an introduction: "Rumor is that he has a last name, but like Prince, he doesn't use it!"
Didn't find any of the books at home. I guess I had borrowed it from a friend. Too long since and I read quite a lot. So I forgot the details. But the quote (among some other things) stuck.
Book 12 in the series promises to be very interesting...
If Nigel is very very lucky the AI will ID Nigel as the person who attacked the prince before stopping him in ways that three larger caliber holes were not able to accomplish. I mean Lynn still thinks hes a corpsicle in the morgue. The AI can ID him perhaps based on gait and data from the ring. That may be a stretch given that. I suspect that Lynn will pull his bacon fat out of the fire.
I agree with you about Acantha's personal guard though. I've been seeing vultures flying over his head ever since he got appointed to this post.
Not that he doesn't have cause, but I don't expect him to welcome anyone with open arms.
... or count his heartbeats.
If the question is why Aeneas would attempt to kill Kyle instead of a Cassian (either might potentially happen now, come to think of it) the answer is: He's still a human Aeneas doesn't know, attempting to fiddle with stuff (and the parts that would be considered Aeneas itself). Why didn't Aeneas kill Acantha? Because she was an unarmed little girl and he felt un-threatened, and bored. Kyle's very much armed with the ability to do things to Aeneas if he gets the right access, and unknown other devices and technology besides. Aeneas would have to be much more curious or trusting than cautious to let Kyle get anywhere near that access.
And Acantha and Lynn have already taken a car to Aeneas's facility.
https://youtu.be/A45xqLHccRo
Side question: Are anymore Q and A's planned?
Q: Are anymore Q and A's planned?
A: Yes, those pants really make your ass look fat.
Eh? Eh? Feel free to ask questions, I can promise to answer a completely different question than the one you asked. :)
1) Ask the person to stop;
2) Ignore them and concentrate on something else or someone else more important, or;
3) Have a hissy fit over it and try to get someone to kill them?
What would Decimus do?
I'm kinda surprised that Decimus never had someone tell him that a sign of maturity and personal strength is the ability to avoid being enraged at things that don't matter and accept others criticizing him (and even mocking him) with grace when there's little good that can come from being vindictive, though. Or did they and it just never took?
Shoot DEci he stay dead
*sage nod*
All we really know about her is that she hates Decimus, and she's got a sadistic streak a mile wide.
Pro tip.. Nox may give small children nightmares.
Could Maxus word lawyer and say they are to Detain and Hold in a safe place of Maxus's choosing, until Kali or Prince Jerkweed relieves them of the duty?
That COULD be one way around the explicitness of the orders.
Will we even know the FULL extent of Prince Jerweed's contingencies?
And the actions he has to do to avert them?
- The cassians have a hard coded directive to protect the Crown (stated), NOT a specific individual (derived consequence, it cannot be both).
- Kali is the leader of the Cassians (stated) and can give them any directive which do not countermand the directive mentioned above (logical consequence).
- Kali CAN accept directives from the Princess (seen in the story).
- Should there be opposite directives from the Crown (as in the Prince versus the Princess), I deduce from elements of the story that Kali has a old primary directive (highest priority) to accept the directives which serves New Roma best, and therefore effectively pick a side in case of an expressed conflict within the Crown.
This would fully account for Kali's reaction during the gun incident.
It has also been noted a few times that the Prince is NOT acting in the best interest of New Roma, and the current assassination orders proves it.
So, based on all this, I deduce that the moment the Princes places order contrary to the Prince order, and heard by Kali (or the moment such order is reported to her), Kali will set herself and all Cassians loose against the Prince and anyone attempting to defend him.
I also suspect that Kali has bugged the Princes to be instantly aware of such order (logical deduction, probability > 99.99%).
I then tried to register to do so, to find out that is not possible: the registration page does not scroll down, while the required inputs and any validation go below the bottom of the page in full screen mode (laptop, max resolution 1366x768).
I saw that more as a transfer of authority with Decimus' death rather than Acantha having any ability to countermand Kali. I also agree with the assessment of in-comic Cent-Comm that if Kali had the freedom, she would've corrected Decimus' behavior (lethally corrected or not being up in the air) long before now.
So I think it's a safe conclusion that Acantha cannot order Kali to act for the good of New Rome in a way that countermands Decimus. Acantha wouldd be doing it all over the place by now if she could, and Kali would probably point out opportunities (at least after the fact) if she wasn't doing it enough.
(( remember you can get a free comic fury account and edit posts and stuff ! and even get cool things like subscriptions and follow all the comics I make and stuff :D ))
However most of the cassians and a lot of the standard Roman troops would follow her because she is well liked.
I did definitely make at least one typo in the above (name swap said "countermand Kali" rather than "countermand Decimus" jumped out at me almost immediately after hitting post) but I just consider that part and parcel with free form thoughts for comments. Ignoring extra proofreading and editing stages is part of the relaxing part of passtime versus work for me.
Took me a bit but I made my obligatory two passes through the archives so Datachasers & Luna Star are now on my list of webcomics I'm both following and caught up on.
"And why should we provide [assistance] to you?"
"Because I have a pretty face, and am looking like a lost puppy..."
;-)