Blackmail, such an ugly word but such an efficient incentive to stellar performances. Wheels within wheels, a riddle, wrapped in a puzzle and packaged within a conundrum.
Plus with Kinetic strikes you can announce at Latitude so and so and Longitude such and such at 08:39:15 this morning you will receive a little package from your friendly neighborhood green cheese salesman. With a carefully calculated weight they are damn near impossible to hit with missiles and only the luckiest air to air shot would get it, again due to size.
Fpr more info on howkineticweapons work check the link.
Well you don't have to be as worried about precision with a rock either. If you want, you can target a building, or a bigger rock for the city, or an even bigger rock for the state... or a honking BIG rock for the continent. :-D
Actually Stormwinf its not size but speed that determines the destructiveness of the kinetic missile. The only place size plays in is to be sure you start with one that will have a 50lb payload and at the right velocity the shockwave and heat will level your target.
Sorry Dragonrider. I wasn't thinking of just the little loads. :-D I was thinking of asteroids. Put a small pusher engine on it to steer it and let gravity do your work for you. :-)
Understand toss an asteroid in at several million lbs you don't need speed the damn thing is a size queen. I was thinking a railgun throwing rocks from Luna a metal band around the rock to make use of the mag induction coils for initial launch and guidance throw it fast enough and it bores straight in on target.
And yet she doesn't seem too bothered by this fact. Miraiko seems to be confident that she is in control of the situation. Now whether she is in FACT in control, remains to be seen. :-D
@jamie59 the nice thing about blackmail in a closed system such as Nova Roma once you start to bite back,you find out exactly what the term Deadmans Switch means.
Blackmail is a very dangerous business. I see it as a game of patience and ruthless action. All it takes is a single mistake to set that house of cards on fire.
I don't know if it was an 'accident' or not. Miraiko used the word, SPITE. Sounds like he tried to rough her up (probably when she didn't do what he wanted) and wound up killing her. :-p
Wonder what kind of hatchet-man he is though. The original meaning, someone that used an axe in the military (probably not :-D). An assassin, that is possible... or someone that handles the unpleasant tasks of a business (typically firings and the like).
I could see him in either of the latter two roles. The fact he hasn't tried to rub out Miraiko though means either he knows he is outclassed or he is in the unpleasant side of management.
It was intended more in the latter sense. It was the best shorthand I could come up with for "the guy who gets all the good test subjects and research materials for Setorius, does exactly what he's told without qualm or comment, and disposes of various messes". This is the dude who's got the right connections and leverage to apply pressure to acquire something or make something go away. The same things that make him valuable to Setorius make him valuable to anyone else who gets sufficient leverage against him. He's usually careful to avoid doing anything that someone else might be able to use as leverage, but mistakes happen.
A good person for Miraiko (and you too, by extension? :-D) to get her hooks into. Probably even better than Setorius, as he operates out of the limelight more. Probably doesn't get the scrutiny that his boss does.
Probably those who know him and what he does fear him more than Setorius. He can make people disappear in the middle of the night. His boss has channels to go through, just like in Soviet Russia Beria was feared and respected but his NKVD Bully Boys in civilian clothes scared the unholy pee ouut o people. They were the ones who knocked open the door at night. In Soviet Russia Door knocks on YOU!!!
And apparently Luna can be VERY scary. Even Nova Roma apparently doesn't want to piss them off. :-)
You'd have to do similar math to get your hypothetical cannon into the correct orbit to hit your target, anyway.
Fpr more info on howkineticweapons work check the link.
is in control* and has her covered - and that _is_ reassuring...* Erm, make that is mostly in control...
i tend to prefer flamethrowers, but that may just be me. :)
I wonder why he killed that little Luna girl - and who was she?
*hugs Miraiko*
... he took it .. badly.
Wonder what kind of hatchet-man he is though. The original meaning, someone that used an axe in the military (probably not :-D). An assassin, that is possible... or someone that handles the unpleasant tasks of a business (typically firings and the like).
I could see him in either of the latter two roles. The fact he hasn't tried to rub out Miraiko though means either he knows he is outclassed or he is in the unpleasant side of management.
A good person for Miraiko (and you too, by extension? :-D) to get her hooks into. Probably even better than Setorius, as he operates out of the limelight more. Probably doesn't get the scrutiny that his boss does.
Just look how scared he is ! :D
Awesome, not only did I get away with it, but Dragonrider and Marcus paid for it.
Score!