I am surprised. I would not have expected a voice print to even have worked to stand Noctis down, although in thinking on it, it might be only momentary until she assesses it.
The interrogation of these 'hostiles' should be interesting.
Noctis uses "Regent Maxus". Does this mean he has now been confirmed by the Senate? That's much quicker than I thought they would act, given the discord we saw before.
I forgive Noctis the pun, intentional or not, as it adds extra enjoyment to the dialogue. (Translation: I snickered). I also like the numerous angles; I get a good sense of the space.
Well there were command codes in there so that makes sense. They'd need a way to disseminate orders if the official lines of communication are unavailable (emergency) or too overt (spies). A 'stand down' with the right codes would work (temporarily) even without faking the voice print.
Of course things like protecting the imperial family are so fundamental that an override probably couldn't come through anything short of a direct in-person order from the emperor.
It does make sense until you realize that Noctis knows Decimus is dead, and under what circumstances. It also stands to reason that Maxus would have immediately eliminated his command codes, as Noctis affirms.
as i sed ,, there were 3, that could give orders to a Cassian ,, an 2 are dead.. (dicmus & Kali) the 3rd is very limited,, tech/doc. only while being repaired..
an Maxus (had),, but only if it was military related..
an Now,, only Noctis controls the Cassians.. unless Maxus was/is promoted to regent (acting throne.) .. an sorta Acantha, cuz Noctis gave her that power...
agree, acting on own,, "I think" (until told otherwise.) that to cover her @$$ , she will use "Acting on Regents Orders."... to NOT let every one know that she IS a free agent, till some one is appointed to the throne...
Having Noctis do *anything* based on Decimus' recorded voice print when she knows already that Decimus is dead, implies that there are some circumstances in which Nova Roma planned to give her legitimate orders using those codes after Decimus was dead. IOW, we're seeing an effect that was something someone in Nova Roma was relying on - quite possibly someone with a very legitimate requirement.
It stands to reason that after Decimus died, the Cassians might have been on a rampage. He might, after all, give an order in his last hour or so that would need countermanding and then, on account of being dead, be unable to countermand it. Considering the "contingencies" he set up, his leaving behind an order that might need countermanding is not just a hypothetical scenario, but an absolute fact.
If Deck was dead and the Cassians were on a rampage on his orders, a means of getting them to stand down before the casualties started multiplying would be a very needful thing.
So this capacity might even have been built into the Cassians' inhibitors by a wiser ruler back when they were made, activated by the fact that right now there's no Imperator/Imperatrix, and Deck's voice was the 'default' setting not because he'd set it but because he was the most recent Imperator.
Okay, I can envision that, inasmuch as there might be a realistic need for a stand-down order. I have a harder time with a 'help kidnap Acantha and Lynn' order, in the event of Decimus' demise. One might argue that it was a 'get the Princess to safety, in such and such place' order being used nefariously off label, but Noctis saw through it, because she knew Maxus had wiped the codes. In any event, it seems that whoever is behind it has somewhat stale intel, but someone high enough to be able to get the codes. Makes me wonder if it's someone from Decimus' Blue Shell Crew.
Thing is I don't think there was *EVER* an interpretation of that order that would have allowed 'help kidnap Acantha' as an interpretation. As Noctis says on this page, the only thing someone could ever have used it to order her to do would be stand down - It would be a way to cancel some order that had put her on an endless rampage she'd otherwise be unable to stop, that would end up with literally every human being in Nova Roma dead.
Ah, I think I (finally) understand your position here, that the only pre-recorded directive Noctis would accept under any circumstance would be to stand down. That's pretty much what Noctis said, but it could be conditional. What I'm trying to figure out is whether there were any other canned directives with a purpose that would, under the right conditions, be obeyed. She says that kidnapping was out of the question, but doesn't elaborate. If there are no recorded directives beyond 'stand down' that she would have obeyed, that makes our would be kidnappers more grotesquely stupid and/or underinformed than they would be if they were able to somehow pervert another order she might have obeyed. Since she makes mention of the fact that Maxus had wiped the codes, it muddies the water as to if, how many, and what sort of possible additional orders she may have had in her lexicon.
I suppose it would be wise for Acantha to ask Noctis to list all such directives - either today, or when she is installed as imperatrix - preferably both, because there is the possibility of things that she'd have to be imperatrix to command Noctis to tell her about.
It probably would NOT be wise, however, for her to do so where New Troy security, and Centcomm, are listening.
"Having Noctis do *anything* based on Decimus' recorded voice print when she knows already that Decimus is dead, implies that there are some circumstances in which Nova Roma planned to give her legitimate orders using those codes after Decimus was dead."
Recorded voice prints only work if the person's access is active. Maxus or Acantha, for example, could record a message to relay certain instructions to Noctis, since their access is active.
Thank you. That makes sense with what Noctis said. Even if she would know that Decimus' was dead, and his access terminated, she still has the option of obeying a stand-down order, for the good of Nova Roma. I mean she would probably treat it more as a suggestion, but she would recognize a good idea when she sees it. One scenario might be the one Morituri suggested, where Decimus sends the Cassians off on a rampage as a final spiteful order just before his oh-so-timely demise.
It was a storytelling/wording serendipitous event, but it fit right in. When Acantha called her on it, she could have said, deadpan, "You wanted me to have fun, Princess. :D
Decimus loyalits would likely be trying to distance themselves as far as possible from him unless they think they can find someone else to take his place that won't be a little upset with their prior loyalties.
Acantha loyalists will be trying desperately to curry favour with her and/or Maxus, along with most of the former douchimus loyalists of course, but as in all politics the vast majority of the Senators will remain loyal only to themselves and Acantha has been around long enough, and supposedly groomed for her turn on the throne, to know that and expect it.
Some might even attempt to convince Maxus to make a move to elevate himself from Regent to Imperator, but I suspect that would be a bad move and he really isn't interested to begin with.
From what we've seen of the Senators so far, they're the usual bunch of back-stabbing or bored elites who see this as a game rather than anything for the good of the people, some maybe, but the rest are in it for themselves...and then there's Setorius...the machinations of others amuses him and while he might be tempted to let it continue just to see if he's correct in predicting what will happen next. he prefers the city quiet and intact plus he's pragmatic enough to know that pissing off New Troy much longer is, I can't remember just how he put it, but along the lines of "glowing craters don't make good hospitals" and he puts his research above all else.
Setorius' exact comment was "...a situation that may lead to having all of our patients die in a nuclear firestorm would certainly constitute a serious public health emergency."
yet another piece of precision prose from our wonderful wordsmith :)
I'm not inclined to think Setorius is behind this. He seems more the sort to use existing circumstances to his advantage. I'd be more persuaded if story related canon regarding Lynn's eggs hadn't been revised. ;)
I don't think he's 'behind' anything, except possibly taking a few Senators down a peg or two for amusement's sake and to keep them from overstepping their boundaries...
I was setting him aside as a player in his own right, not part of or dependent on any others and he doesn't seem to be the kind to attempt to weasel himself into the good graces of any ruler anyhow, the 'church' stands alone and apart (except for budgets) although he does seem to prefer Acantha over douchimus, for good and logical reasons.
although....remembering who's creating/writing this, absolutely nothing is impossible...it's almost like they're deliberately trying to keep us from predicting the storyline years down the road ;)
So his royal douchiness can't walk the walk anymore but he can still talk the talk...
I was wondering how anyone would expect anyone as professionally paranoid as a Cassian, and particularly Noctis, to believe she was receiving orders from someone she knew for a fact to be so deceased his ghost was still smoking.
His lingering 'command codes' should have caused no more than a momentary 'wtf' ? before being dismissed as rescinded and irrelevant and the source tracked for immediate investigation...which it was :)
I'd assume that confirming Acantha as 'crown princess apparent' and Maxus as Regent would have taken mere minutes and they'd have been in an 'acting capacity' the second douchebag ignited. In the society we see Nova Roma portrayed as, there's no place for a power vacuum, not even for an hour, you don't cancel the entire war because one of the generals dies, the next in the chain of command takes over immediately, and there had to have been a contingency plan in place for provisional promotions. ie:
Nova Roma Constitution
Section LVII
Unexpected Death or Incapacitation of Imperator/Imperatrix
Para XII (i)(b)
(i) "In the event of the death or incapacitation of the current Ruler, the next surviving member of the Royal Family in the line of succession shall immediately and without delay assume His or Her place in a provisional capacity, with full authority, until verified by proper procedures and protocols.
(ii)In the event that the next in line to the throne is underage, then the person previously designated to act as Regent will immediately and without delay assume that position until such time as the successor becomes eligible to rule in their own right or the Regency is shifted to a subsequent regent.
(iii)should the person previously designated as Regent not be available then the General of the Army will assume provisional command, with full authority, until such time as a confirmed Royal successor or Regent is determined."
(iv)In the event that no surviving member of the Royal family exists or can be located, then the General of the Army shall assume that position pending the determination of a successor.
(v) in the event that the General of the Army is unable to assume command, the next in the chain of command shall immediately wnd without delay assume the position of 'acting Imperator/Imperatrix' pending review.
(vi)In the event that no successor can be determined through seniority or position, 'Omnis Vir Enim Sui'.
Nova Roma may be a comparitively brutal society but it's very effective, this isn't the first time they've had an unexpected regicide.
I'll just fall back on my original postulation...
A) Gutters ain't all that bright.
B) People who hire gutters aren't any brighter
What we can look forward to now is just how fast these two gutters turn into songbirds and where that leads...should be a fun five or six years chasing that down :)
There's the possibility that this was a test using disposable test equipment to see if the concept was valid if someone did obtain functional codes, but the list of people who would actually have twatwaffle's codes would be very slim, given that his paranoia was only outdone by his ego.
and we do see Maxus appointing Noctis as the new Cassian Princeps while bits of douchey are literally still drifting down the hallway and Noctis' immediate appointing of Tennyo as 'acting princeps' while she goes to New Troy with Acantha, so the succession protocol must be very quick, especially if there are witnesses to the necessity of implementing it. Communication at that level seems to be built in, or it's like Star Trek where all you have to do is speak to the ceiling and whoever you're addressing hears it..it definitely works that way with Cent-Comm in NT and it seems Nova Roma isn't far behind in that regard.
Cassians, at least, have an internal comm system that allows them to talk to each other and I'd be very surprised if key Senators didn't have Cassians assigned to them personally, willingly or not.
Maxus does appoint Noctis, but I'm not sure how that works if he hasn't yet officially been named Regent. The Nova Roman military, and the Cassians are two separate branches, as I understand it.
Probably so. They all hold acting positions pending Senate confirmation. If Maxus were confirmed Regent, he would probably have authority to make Noctis' Princeps position permanent, and so on. As General, he likely couldn't.
I wouldn't be surprised if Malati and Nox had 'encouraged' all the champagne bottlers in Nova Roma to use their 'special' corks, all fitted with tiny remote fired charges to pop every cork in town once douchimus's heart stopped ;)
As I understand it an analogy would be something like, The Cassians as the Marines, the regular enlisted as the Army, and Maxus as Secretary of Defense. He'd be the highest military official in Nova Roma and simultaneously at the lowest rank capable of giving both branches orders.
But then you have the complication of the Cassians being answerable to the Imperator and Royal Family at a higher priority than to Maxus, and the blue-shelled 'palace guard' who were answerable to the Imperator and not to Maxus.
And after that you have the complication of the blue-shells answerable to Deck being deployed along with regular army troops (and in command of them apparently) answerable to Maxus, and you have to conclude that the Nova Roma chain of military command was pretty fucked-up and inter-branch rivalries would be capable of paralyzing the place.
I see the Cassians as operating outside of the military.
Yes, they do have a military capability, as Feelie illustrates most capably, but they're not organized into platoons or companies, I'd say they were closer to GRU or KGB or Statspolizi being responsible primarily for internal security, counter-intelligence, conter-terrorism but also being trained and capable of leading military units if required to, or as we saw in Feelies' case if they piss enough or the wrong people off ;)
The devildogs are going to hate this, but as I see it, the primary job of the NSMCB* is as infantry capable of amphibious ops, with their own air support and surface vessels to support that role, but still a type of infantry first and foremost, after all "every Marine is a Rifleman first".
The Army is more land-oriented but still have some amphibious capability, same thing really, just different doctrines and equipment. The Marines are more of a 'rapid reaction force' with more seaborne transport.
We have to remember that Nova Roma isn't Rome or the US and it doesn't work the same way as either of them, it's set thousands of years in the future and while the culture may be based on ancient Rome, it's not exactly the same, it just translates that way as the creators have portrayed it. Given the geographic area as is today, and I live in the middle of it ;) I'd have expected a Scottish or possibly French setting but this works too and we have no idea what influences will come about in the next few millenia...and for all we know it's a 'parallel universe' to begin with ;)
The 'blueshirts' are or were douchimus' personal guard, mostly unreformed criminals and thugs who were blindly obediant to him (as long as he paid them and let them indulge their twisted preferences).
The 'redshirts' seem to be mostly the regular army, with a few of douchimus's apointees in the ranks as we saw in the customs bay
Maxus has his own personal force and I assume Acantha does too although douchimus undoubtedly had more than a few of his own planted in hers.
Nova Roma's chains of command were complicated by douchimus' insanity and aren't really comparable to any current Western military layout but Maxus could control most of them, just not enough to prevent an attempt on him, all it takes is a few to coup :)
as a Jarhead,, what i hate is the Marines is like the Blue shirts.. the potus can sent Marines anywhere in the world.. the potus only has to answer to senate/congress after the fact...
Cassians,, you forgot CIA... more like the Vietnam era,, all the black bag / wet work stuff..
Acantha did not have a 'force' dikmus would not allow it,, she only got one near the end...
coup.. only reason no coup, was dikmus's suicide plan,,.. reminder,, Maxus took dikmus to the mat, cuz he attacked the girls...
Have you ever watched the old British series "waiting for g-d" ? if not, why not ?
I can see some parallels between characters you might find interesting
Along with some general and not so general snarkiness ;)
Is that 'codes' as in specific cyphers, frequency sequences and encryptions applicable only to douchimus ? or actual code words such as "blue wagon" for "stand down" ? Or most likely both ?
As I understand it, cyphers and encryptions can be broken if enough computational power is thrown at them, actual codes on the other hand, especially ones where the same word has a different meaning each time it's used in a transmission, need a specific key to decipher otherwise they're just an exercise in decrypting random words...which pretty much sums up His Terminal Crispiness' ravings at the best of times ;)
Exactly, and His Royal Douchiness would have had his codes flagged as 'rescinded' virtually instantaneously, Tennyo handled communications and is the acting Princeps at the moment so I'm surprised even a 'stand down' order using his voiceprint/codes would be given the slightest bit of attention other than a "where did you get that ?" response at the pointy end of a power sword gripped in a pale but steady hand ;) I can see Noctis playing along as she did and would be surprised if she hadn't taken the opportunity to see what was going on, but her saying she would have accepted a 'stand down' command from a dead man without question is sort of mystifying...unless it's simply 'stand down long enough to verify this order'
That's kind of what I was alluding to above; Noctis, I would think, is constantly aware of the chain of command in most cases. She is aware that Decimus' codes have been wiped. Because of that, she technically should accept NO orders (even to stand down) purported to come from him.
Tennyo would have been just as aware of the chain of command, since it was she who revoked the promotion of the one douchimus tried to make lord general over Maxus, seems that order was a little out of line, even for the Imperator..as she could have said, although Malati would have been better to say it, "the chain of command is the chain I beat you with until you understand who's in command"..although a very large blade worked just as well in a pinch ;)
Noctis has the most subtle, dry, brilliant humour of any of the Cassians that we've seen. Most times the people around her either don't catch on or they have to do a double take and since she shows virtually no expression at all they're left wondering if she said it on purpose...a girl after my own heart...just skip using the sword to get to it.
It sounds like Noctis wouldn't have been affected by the voice commands even for the duration of the first sentence. Perhaps she was thinking something like ... Someone is trying to hack me. I don't have enough information to identify who, and if I do anything to show that the attempt failed they will try something else. Best to play along and set a trap for them.
So these gutters, possibly, didn't know Decimus was dead? The instant he's gone, nothing in his own voice is credible of belief so orders won't work.
In the words of another character in a different comic... "Sometimes I hear voices. Sometimes the voices tell me to kill people. When that happens, I tell those voices to fuck off."
Another observation: Trying to subvert the will of a sentient android by force or compulsion is a MAJOR offense in New Troy.
So between the attempted abduction, screwing with the camera and data feeds from the park, and trying to activate Noctis' built-in inhibitor, I think these guys have managed to go from zero to the three-strikes rule in a single day.
Oh yes, I'd imagine Cent-Comm will be very miffed, very miffed indeed...she will most likely speak to them quite harshly, she might have them repaint the benches in the park to atone for their sins, or maybe even go without dessert for their last meals.
There are actually two puns there. One even more subtle and somewhat obscure. The hint is: I'd be hacked, too, if someone played recordings of Decimus at me. :)
You mean the way she's hacked off at the way they did a horrible hack job trying to hack her using a method which would have raised her hackles if she was organic?
I read that as Sitrep: current status is polygram 5
with Sitrep being "Situation Report follows"
Thinking about the reason for using 'polygram' as a status prefix...'condition 5' or 'Defcon 5' today is the lowest alert or readiness level, who knows what there is this far in the future.
The only things that come to mind for 'polygram' are a multisided 2-dimensional figure, a lie detector trace and the Movie company but then again, sometimes a code word is just a code word and doesn't need to mean anything or is a better code word if it doesn't relate to the topic under discussion :)
Probably gonna super regret asking but chuckles and his merry band of soon to wish they were murderturd poop......what legally can happen to them on new troy?
If they piss CentComm off ? probably anything our creatrixes can come up with ;)
I get the feeling Pinky could give douchimus lessons if she thinks her city is threatened, and kidnapping one of the main functionary's daughter...again...not to mention a visiting dignitary under her explicit protection, is pretty far up on the 'this is a threat' list
legally = all kinds of nastiness... and not the good kind for pinky.. so...
see that imaginary hole over there (points).. bout a mile under that,, an a couple yards to the left... is where they are going...
..penguin making flipper motions.. "You saw Nothing.!" .. sinks in to the ground..
to be honest...who exactly is going to wave a finger in CentComm's face and say "bad AI, no....." hmm what would or could one try to withhold from a virtually omnipotent, almost omniscient AIS fully capable of levelling a continent if they choose to?
There's only one thing that could be withheld that would make any difference: energy. That said, actually being able to accomplish it would be an entirely different matter. ;)
Yes, and if Aeneas' setup is any indication, she has plenty of fusion and probably anti-matter plants all safely buried right in and beside her server room where no human can get at them and serviced solely by maintenance bots she has the only command links to...and probably a backup server nobody is aware of.
Well it depends. If you want it to be impossible, (for reasons) then sure, it's impossible. Otherwise, the robots themselves need maintenance, and parts, and a supply chain, and robots are programmable, and configurable. Datalinks can be added or changed. Unless there are also raw material, and refinement facilities for literally hundreds of material types, fabrication and machining centers, . . . in essence all the needed facilities to go from raw materials to finished products, there has to be interaction with 'Outside' . . . :D
ok .. what i meant was,, if it went to court .. all kinds of nasty loopholes,, an accusations..
an who would make accusations at Pinky,, the senate,, " if you knew there was a threat why did you let them walk in there..? and sending a black angel for just 2 people .!! what were you thinking.!! "
..withhold from Pinky.. not a D@mm thing.. she already had it.. she invited "you" here to set up a "Safe " place.. now she plays nice so every one is happy (("air quotes')).. just a reminder.. Pinky was planning to make New Rome, a parking lot (smoking crater) IF they killed Lynn..
I just had an interesting thought (I know, I know... took me long enough)
There is a live virtual feed going on in the park right now, and everything that was said in this conversation has been broadcast and is readily accessible on the (Intrasolar?) web for anyone to review.
It is now public knowledge that Princess Acantha is in New Troy, and is up and about. It is also now public knowledge that it may be possible to get a Cassian to stand down (as well as a list as long as an average datachasers comment page of other information that can now be gleaned by this conversation now that the live feed is no longer being interfered with).
I see several agents from multiple Secret Service depts, or their equivalents, quietly having stress attacks right about now
I wonder. They might have been on until here, In panel 2, where one of our kidnappers says "O'right, blinders on. Let's do the dance". She activated her device, and it says Virtual Image Override Activated. After that point no one presumably saw anything. We don't know when or if the virtual feed was restored. My guess would be that once the action started, CentComm would have kept the feed off. My bottom line guess would be that viewers might have seen their arrival, but not much else.
that's a good point, megados, and entirely possible. unfortunately, it's also possible Cent may have also decided to restore the feed right away to give an object lesson of what happens to people who try to pull crap in her city. kinda like broadcasting car chases...
if true, I wonder how many would be felons cringed at "Hey Cella, does Unnghhh mean I surrender?"
The "nnn" meant "I surrender" the "ungh" meant "please, intimidating yet stylishly armoured pink haired lady, don't hit me again and I'll co-operate fully with the law" ;)
@megados: what makes me think that at least some of this was live is that there's a virtual image stamp in frames 3 (Mostly hidden by Lynn), 4, and 6.
If that is a virtual stamp, then probably only the aftermath was broadcast live (ie this page), but enough was said on this page that is (or should be) classified to cause concern. Although they could also be holographic placard, but that seems like a needless waste of energy when a stone placard would suffice just as well
Looking at it in the previous pages, that seems to be exactly what it is, a holographic 'historical site' sign, you can see several of them spaced around the central area of the park in some frames. A nice touch by the artist/writer, or whoever came up with it.
I can't deny the possibility. In panels 1 and 2, there are a blue light bar, and a blue light panel respectively. The virtual placard shows up in many of the panels, along with a couple of blue light bars of the same hue. I'm not sure what to make of the relationship. As the angle changes, it's relationship with the background remains constant, and along with the color match, has me thinking that it's an on-site holographic sign. I admit it could go either way, though.
Ol' rapeface, he moved too fast
And now his arm's stuck in a cast
Lucky he wasn't kicked in the stones
For tryin' to honk on Feelie's Boobies
Ba da da da da da da, Feelie's boobies
Found this big mech, gold and glowin'
My men are all dead and my guts were showin'
Jordan and Ivy had a spare body
But why does it have these great big Boobies ?
Ba da da da da da da, Fuckin' boobies
Hrist and Astraea
came to get me
I'm cranky and vengeful and I fell asleep ?
Dreamed of officer Dan searchin' my cavities
But what the FUCK is
Lusty Bunny ?
The interrogation of these 'hostiles' should be interesting.
Noctis uses "Regent Maxus". Does this mean he has now been confirmed by the Senate? That's much quicker than I thought they would act, given the discord we saw before.
I forgive Noctis the pun, intentional or not, as it adds extra enjoyment to the dialogue. (Translation: I snickered). I also like the numerous angles; I get a good sense of the space.
Of course things like protecting the imperial family are so fundamental that an override probably couldn't come through anything short of a direct in-person order from the emperor.
an Maxus (had),, but only if it was military related..
an Now,, only Noctis controls the Cassians.. unless Maxus was/is promoted to regent (acting throne.) .. an sorta Acantha, cuz Noctis gave her that power...
It stands to reason that after Decimus died, the Cassians might have been on a rampage. He might, after all, give an order in his last hour or so that would need countermanding and then, on account of being dead, be unable to countermand it. Considering the "contingencies" he set up, his leaving behind an order that might need countermanding is not just a hypothetical scenario, but an absolute fact.
If Deck was dead and the Cassians were on a rampage on his orders, a means of getting them to stand down before the casualties started multiplying would be a very needful thing.
So this capacity might even have been built into the Cassians' inhibitors by a wiser ruler back when they were made, activated by the fact that right now there's no Imperator/Imperatrix, and Deck's voice was the 'default' setting not because he'd set it but because he was the most recent Imperator.
It's a bit of a stretch, but I'll go with it.
It probably would NOT be wise, however, for her to do so where New Troy security, and Centcomm, are listening.
Recorded voice prints only work if the person's access is active. Maxus or Acantha, for example, could record a message to relay certain instructions to Noctis, since their access is active.
Glad to see you're feeling better
Edit: sorry that pun flew right over my head... =S
...can somebody please point it out to me? Thank you.
(non native speaker here...)
Either they underestimated Max or there was another objective behind the plan.
Acantha loyalists will be trying desperately to curry favour with her and/or Maxus, along with most of the former douchimus loyalists of course, but as in all politics the vast majority of the Senators will remain loyal only to themselves and Acantha has been around long enough, and supposedly groomed for her turn on the throne, to know that and expect it.
Some might even attempt to convince Maxus to make a move to elevate himself from Regent to Imperator, but I suspect that would be a bad move and he really isn't interested to begin with.
From what we've seen of the Senators so far, they're the usual bunch of back-stabbing or bored elites who see this as a game rather than anything for the good of the people, some maybe, but the rest are in it for themselves...and then there's Setorius...the machinations of others amuses him and while he might be tempted to let it continue just to see if he's correct in predicting what will happen next. he prefers the city quiet and intact plus he's pragmatic enough to know that pissing off New Troy much longer is, I can't remember just how he put it, but along the lines of "glowing craters don't make good hospitals" and he puts his research above all else.
yet another piece of precision prose from our wonderful wordsmith :)
I was setting him aside as a player in his own right, not part of or dependent on any others and he doesn't seem to be the kind to attempt to weasel himself into the good graces of any ruler anyhow, the 'church' stands alone and apart (except for budgets) although he does seem to prefer Acantha over douchimus, for good and logical reasons.
I was wondering how anyone would expect anyone as professionally paranoid as a Cassian, and particularly Noctis, to believe she was receiving orders from someone she knew for a fact to be so deceased his ghost was still smoking.
His lingering 'command codes' should have caused no more than a momentary 'wtf' ? before being dismissed as rescinded and irrelevant and the source tracked for immediate investigation...which it was :)
I'd assume that confirming Acantha as 'crown princess apparent' and Maxus as Regent would have taken mere minutes and they'd have been in an 'acting capacity' the second douchebag ignited. In the society we see Nova Roma portrayed as, there's no place for a power vacuum, not even for an hour, you don't cancel the entire war because one of the generals dies, the next in the chain of command takes over immediately, and there had to have been a contingency plan in place for provisional promotions. ie:
Nova Roma Constitution
Section LVII
Unexpected Death or Incapacitation of Imperator/Imperatrix
Para XII (i)(b)
(i) "In the event of the death or incapacitation of the current Ruler, the next surviving member of the Royal Family in the line of succession shall immediately and without delay assume His or Her place in a provisional capacity, with full authority, until verified by proper procedures and protocols.
(ii)In the event that the next in line to the throne is underage, then the person previously designated to act as Regent will immediately and without delay assume that position until such time as the successor becomes eligible to rule in their own right or the Regency is shifted to a subsequent regent.
(iii)should the person previously designated as Regent not be available then the General of the Army will assume provisional command, with full authority, until such time as a confirmed Royal successor or Regent is determined."
(iv)In the event that no surviving member of the Royal family exists or can be located, then the General of the Army shall assume that position pending the determination of a successor.
(v) in the event that the General of the Army is unable to assume command, the next in the chain of command shall immediately wnd without delay assume the position of 'acting Imperator/Imperatrix' pending review.
(vi)In the event that no successor can be determined through seniority or position, 'Omnis Vir Enim Sui'.
Nova Roma may be a comparitively brutal society but it's very effective, this isn't the first time they've had an unexpected regicide.
I'll just fall back on my original postulation...
A) Gutters ain't all that bright.
B) People who hire gutters aren't any brighter
What we can look forward to now is just how fast these two gutters turn into songbirds and where that leads...should be a fun five or six years chasing that down :)
There's the possibility that this was a test using disposable test equipment to see if the concept was valid if someone did obtain functional codes, but the list of people who would actually have twatwaffle's codes would be very slim, given that his paranoia was only outdone by his ego.
Cassians, at least, have an internal comm system that allows them to talk to each other and I'd be very surprised if key Senators didn't have Cassians assigned to them personally, willingly or not.
But then you have the complication of the Cassians being answerable to the Imperator and Royal Family at a higher priority than to Maxus, and the blue-shelled 'palace guard' who were answerable to the Imperator and not to Maxus.
And after that you have the complication of the blue-shells answerable to Deck being deployed along with regular army troops (and in command of them apparently) answerable to Maxus, and you have to conclude that the Nova Roma chain of military command was pretty fucked-up and inter-branch rivalries would be capable of paralyzing the place.
Yes, they do have a military capability, as Feelie illustrates most capably, but they're not organized into platoons or companies, I'd say they were closer to GRU or KGB or Statspolizi being responsible primarily for internal security, counter-intelligence, conter-terrorism but also being trained and capable of leading military units if required to, or as we saw in Feelies' case if they piss enough or the wrong people off ;)
The devildogs are going to hate this, but as I see it, the primary job of the NSMCB* is as infantry capable of amphibious ops, with their own air support and surface vessels to support that role, but still a type of infantry first and foremost, after all "every Marine is a Rifleman first".
The Army is more land-oriented but still have some amphibious capability, same thing really, just different doctrines and equipment. The Marines are more of a 'rapid reaction force' with more seaborne transport.
We have to remember that Nova Roma isn't Rome or the US and it doesn't work the same way as either of them, it's set thousands of years in the future and while the culture may be based on ancient Rome, it's not exactly the same, it just translates that way as the creators have portrayed it. Given the geographic area as is today, and I live in the middle of it ;) I'd have expected a Scottish or possibly French setting but this works too and we have no idea what influences will come about in the next few millenia...and for all we know it's a 'parallel universe' to begin with ;)
The 'blueshirts' are or were douchimus' personal guard, mostly unreformed criminals and thugs who were blindly obediant to him (as long as he paid them and let them indulge their twisted preferences).
The 'redshirts' seem to be mostly the regular army, with a few of douchimus's apointees in the ranks as we saw in the customs bay
Maxus has his own personal force and I assume Acantha does too although douchimus undoubtedly had more than a few of his own planted in hers.
Nova Roma's chains of command were complicated by douchimus' insanity and aren't really comparable to any current Western military layout but Maxus could control most of them, just not enough to prevent an attempt on him, all it takes is a few to coup :)
*NSMCB = 'Nited States Mureen Corps, Boy ;)
Cassians,, you forgot CIA... more like the Vietnam era,, all the black bag / wet work stuff..
Acantha did not have a 'force' dikmus would not allow it,, she only got one near the end...
coup.. only reason no coup, was dikmus's suicide plan,,.. reminder,, Maxus took dikmus to the mat, cuz he attacked the girls...
The KGB,GRU,NKPD etc., operated pretty much completely outside of civilian control...
Have you ever watched the old British series "waiting for g-d" ? if not, why not ?
I can see some parallels between characters you might find interesting
Along with some general and not so general snarkiness ;)
As I understand it, cyphers and encryptions can be broken if enough computational power is thrown at them, actual codes on the other hand, especially ones where the same word has a different meaning each time it's used in a transmission, need a specific key to decipher otherwise they're just an exercise in decrypting random words...which pretty much sums up His Terminal Crispiness' ravings at the best of times ;)
Directive: Stand down; Authorization, recognize Decimus alpha blue.
. . . so you'd have voice recognition, and the code words would change on a regular basis.
Wait Nocts made a pun? WOW!
In the words of another character in a different comic... "Sometimes I hear voices. Sometimes the voices tell me to kill people. When that happens, I tell those voices to fuck off."
I channel Robin Williams on occasion ;)
for a pretty much exact example...
*standing around at work, all chairs occupied*
*talk to self just loudly enough to be heard*
normal voice: "I'm hungry"
different 'voice': "no you're not
different 'voice': "yes he is"
different 'voice': "both of you shut up and let him talk"
I got a chair :)
So between the attempted abduction, screwing with the camera and data feeds from the park, and trying to activate Noctis' built-in inhibitor, I think these guys have managed to go from zero to the three-strikes rule in a single day.
All the Judges on the other hand, they would be quite miffed.
Every time she farts, she inhales a little bit harder ?
I read that as Sitrep: current status is polygram 5
with Sitrep being "Situation Report follows"
Thinking about the reason for using 'polygram' as a status prefix...'condition 5' or 'Defcon 5' today is the lowest alert or readiness level, who knows what there is this far in the future.
The only things that come to mind for 'polygram' are a multisided 2-dimensional figure, a lie detector trace and the Movie company but then again, sometimes a code word is just a code word and doesn't need to mean anything or is a better code word if it doesn't relate to the topic under discussion :)
I get the feeling Pinky could give douchimus lessons if she thinks her city is threatened, and kidnapping one of the main functionary's daughter...again...not to mention a visiting dignitary under her explicit protection, is pretty far up on the 'this is a threat' list
see that imaginary hole over there (points).. bout a mile under that,, an a couple yards to the left... is where they are going...
..penguin making flipper motions.. "You saw Nothing.!" .. sinks in to the ground..
an who would make accusations at Pinky,, the senate,, " if you knew there was a threat why did you let them walk in there..? and sending a black angel for just 2 people .!! what were you thinking.!! "
..withhold from Pinky.. not a D@mm thing.. she already had it.. she invited "you" here to set up a "Safe " place.. now she plays nice so every one is happy (("air quotes')).. just a reminder.. Pinky was planning to make New Rome, a parking lot (smoking crater) IF they killed Lynn..
There is a live virtual feed going on in the park right now, and everything that was said in this conversation has been broadcast and is readily accessible on the (Intrasolar?) web for anyone to review.
It is now public knowledge that Princess Acantha is in New Troy, and is up and about. It is also now public knowledge that it may be possible to get a Cassian to stand down (as well as a list as long as an average datachasers comment page of other information that can now be gleaned by this conversation now that the live feed is no longer being interfered with).
I see several agents from multiple Secret Service depts, or their equivalents, quietly having stress attacks right about now
if true, I wonder how many would be felons cringed at "Hey Cella, does Unnghhh mean I surrender?"
The important thing is that she said "please".
If that is a virtual stamp, then probably only the aftermath was broadcast live (ie this page), but enough was said on this page that is (or should be) classified to cause concern. Although they could also be holographic placard, but that seems like a needless waste of energy when a stone placard would suffice just as well
"Founder's Park"
something..something...numbers...might be open hours
"General Clearance"
Have pity...
little different arrangement on the tune too, I like this one better
Feelie's Groovy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvlW4bEjB5A
Ol' rapeface, he moved too fast
And now his arm's stuck in a cast
Lucky he wasn't kicked in the stones
For tryin' to honk on Feelie's Boobies
Ba da da da da da da, Feelie's boobies
Found this big mech, gold and glowin'
My men are all dead and my guts were showin'
Jordan and Ivy had a spare body
But why does it have these great big Boobies ?
Ba da da da da da da, Fuckin' boobies
Hrist and Astraea
came to get me
I'm cranky and vengeful and I fell asleep ?
Dreamed of officer Dan searchin' my cavities
But what the FUCK is
Lusty Bunny ?
Ba da da da da da da, it's not funny...
If nothing else, just to make sure CeCi's barcode hasn't changed ;)
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Vote!