The new Patreon tier is currently 20+ chapters ahead!
It took nearly a month to reach that big goal! Yay.
Next goal for me is 15/30 on the tiers. Then build up a small backlog for myself for when something comes up and I need a day off.
Once that is done I will probably be able to increase releases to more than one every other day. Although it might be less than every day. Maybe 5 per week? We will see how things go.
USD: 63 days after the battle of Dedia IV
Location: 63 Hydrae, Orbital Customs Battle Station Thea
Thea hummed to herself as she closed her eyes and watched a camera view of the customs ring inside her head. She’d ordered the incoming convoy to place the IND Iron Horse last, and the last civilian freighter was in the terminus.
The customs ring was quite large, facilitating up to a dozen full size freighters or even a few super freighters through the customs checkpoint. That tens of thousands of crew lived and worked in those rings was less important to Thea than the fact that it gave her something fun to do.
Actually, it was one of her favorite activities. The scout frigate that had scanned the convoy had a sophisticated sensor suite and was more than capable of measuring all ships and their cargos in detail.
The customs ring was the same system writ large. As the freighter passed through each ring, she let out a little happy noise and pressed a button, a wave of energy forming to ping against the ship’s D-field in a vibrant display of energy.
It was so pretty. Sometimes she played with the field to time the color changes to some of her preferred music.
In the process, her MainComputer recorded a highly accurate scan of the ship, its crew, and cargo.
Rather than linger, she shooed the freighter onward in anticipation of her next visitor.
She did not like visiting warships. They were dangerous even when not carrying potential illegal contraband smuggling compartments.
A compartment itself might not be odd to find, but she’d confirmed with 7H34 that this one was definitely in use. Scans could not penetrate it, and if there had not been a previous scan, she’d never have noticed the discrepancy.
Which brought her back to not liking warships. They had the potential to do serious damage to her. Expensive damage that’d set her back for years. She had not ruthlessly extorted all the system traffic for over a decade just to get gut punched at the eleventh hour.
Which was why she had directed her MainComputer to blast the poor warship with a thousand high energy positron particle beams with enough force to delete it from existence if it even looked like it was powering up its weapon systems. Deflector field or not.
Thea issued a gentle but firm reminder to the warship she would meet any potential trouble with lethal force. That was a standard reminder for every ship, but her issuing it over voice herself was not.
As the Iron Horse slowly crossed into the customs ring, she pulsed the sensors carefully, with none of her normal flamboyant tendencies on display. A clinical dissection of the ship revealed heavy battle damage, but she had already known that. What she wanted to see was the compartment.
It was a small rectangular cylinder near the back half of the ship.
“IND Iron Horse, cut relative velocity and maintain attitude and trajectory.” Thea transmitted quietly.
She tossed a piece of candy in her mouth. Payday spotted!
There was a sort of method for extracting money from law-breakers, so she put her console on pause and stood up and stretched. She’d let them stew for a few hours and come back after getting lunch and taking a nap.
They’d certainly know they were in the shit when the entire customs line was halted for a few hours while they sat in the middle of the ring, holding everything up.
Even better, if they didn’t have the money she wanted, she’d impound their ship, and even old broken FedTech ships would fetch a nice price on the open market.
That wasn’t her best-case scenario though, since her mother would take a huge chunk out of that.
Bribes were not taxed at the same rate as ship auction rates after all.
Thea smiled at the white bearded Captain Thraker.
“Unfortunately, due to the extended time required for your vessel in the customs ring, a surcharge of fifty million SE credits will be required.”
She pretended to be uninterested in the conversation, but she had 7H34 in overdrive, scanning the man’s facial expressions and body language, searching for meaning in every micro movement and twitch.
“I understand. After paying that fee, will you clear us to move on?” Thraker asked.
“Unfortunately, no. We have selected your ship for additional screening.” Thea smiled at him. “I am afraid due to some irregularities that we have determined that a visual and close inspection will likely be needed.”
Thraker frowned and furrowed his brow. “I am sure that would be a waste of time for all involved. Surely there is an expedited service that can be negotiated?”
“Why, Captain, I never thought you would ask. In addition to the fifty million credit surcharge, it might be possible to expedite your transit for a further one hundred million credits.”
“Very well.”
Thea frowned. She didn’t need her MainComputer to tell her he had accepted much to quickly and easily. Her eyes slid back to the screen, showing the interior layout of the Talon class destroyer, measuring the little black section that was pretending it didn’t exist.
And how much of a bribe she would accept for ignoring it.
A brief prick of her conscience bit at her. This was exactly the thing she was supposed to be in place to look for. Not the glorified toll collector that amounted to her actual job.
There had never been a time when her position was above board though, and she wasn’t the one who had determined to make income a higher priority than safety. That guilt could be shoved aside and placed in her mother’s lap.
The black compartment on the monitor bothered her, anyway. It was large enough for people to be stashed away in. Human trafficking was something that she had zero tolerance for.
Still, it was way more likely they had squirreled away something like proprietary technology, luxury exports or… Thea frowned. Was it though? The convoy had come from the frontier, not Piscium.
Thea sighed, wishing she could ignore it and just take the money. As she thought about it, maybe there was a way she could take the money and investigate without the captain realizing it.
“Captain, I believe we will require a physical inspection. We can conduct further negotiations in person.”
USD: 63 days after the battle of Dedia IV
Location: 63 Hydrae, Orbital Customs Battle Station Thea, IND Iron Horse
Alex had given up on entertaining herself because of how ill she felt. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been curled up in a ball around her core, but when she woke up, her mouth was parched. It was an effort to get up to get a bottle of water.
Thankfully, she seemed to be getting better, which was good because she had no idea what she’d have done if she’d become more sick.
Do not casually go into mind space with ShipCore, she repeated in her head as a mantra.
Thankfully, she found that wasn’t a problem and the glowing orb hadn’t attracted her attention or had any other reactions to her touch.
She thought it might have even been emitting an apologetic hum to replace the absolute silence. That or her hearing was out of whack and she’d developed minor tinnitus.
Feeling drained and tired, Alex settled in to go back to sleep when the first indication that something was wrong reached her.
|Transit Surcharge -10,563 SE|
She blinked at the indication of a monetary transaction on her HUD appearing. She hadn’t spent anything. That meant it had to be an old transaction catching up to her from 92 Pegasi on a packet ship somehow.
How had the signal got to her inside the smuggling compartment?
A sick stench slowly wafting through the chamber soon became the answer. She picked up a flashlight and shined it near her toilet area, her movement freezing completely as a small golden colored bipedal drone pulled itself up through a hole. It was covered in crap.
Half in a panic, she opened her water bottle and splashed the thing.
It had little effect, but the metal drone wiped itself off the foul mix of material and water going down the drain behind it.
“Uh…”
Alex swallowed her panic. “Hello?”
The humanoid drone opened its mouth, and a light came out of it, a holographic projection of a woman in a Corpo military uniform appearing. The room was lit up by the bright, washed-out hues of blue and white.
Sound came out of the drone.
“You look like shit.”
Alex looked at the woman, bewildered. “Thanks…?”
The woman appeared to look around the room and Alex had the weird thought of how she could be seeing through the eyes of a hologram, rather than who the heck she was.
“You’re an NAI,” the woman continued.
Alex didn’t know what to say, swallowing back her reflexive answer. Somehow, Thraker’s plan had gone seriously awry.
“Fine, let’s play a question-and-answer game. If you refuse to play, I will cut you out of there and we’ll all just deal with whatever consequences may be.”
Alex’s head felt like it was going to spin, but that was probably from the after-affects of dumping Nameless into her brain. “Okay?”
The woman held up her fist then raised a finger. “First, are you here of your own free will?”
That was not the question Alex had been expecting. “Yes.”
Another finger appeared. “Second, are you aware you are in 63 Hydrae?”
Alex swallowed and nodded. “Yes.”
The third finger came up. “Third, do you need help?”
Alex’s brow furrowed before nodding. She definitely needed help. “I need help. I don’t have a computronics module and don’t know how to make one.”
The woman looked at her like she was stupid for a moment. “Obviously. But I can’t help you with that unless you want to join the CS.”
A fourth finger. “Do you want to join the Corporate Systems and receive help from me?”
Alex didn’t answer at first as she thought it over, confused that the military officer was giving her a choice. Was it a choice? She had no way of knowing if she was being toyed with or not.
At least she knew Thraker and the IHMC crew… a little. Enough to trust them more than the Corpos at least.
Alex shook her head. “I don’t want to join the Corporate Systems.”
“Yeah, I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t either.” The woman replied.
A fifth finger came up. “Final question, do you have 50 million credits?”
Thea stepped off the old FedTech ship and raised her hand to indicate the airlock was free. The tube hissed and sealed itself before retracting from the Iron Horse. Heading to her room, she counted her credits on the little ledger displayed on her HUD.
|Calculating Tax|
|Customs Tax: 70%|
|Non-standard Transaction Tax: 30%|
|+328,552,838 SE| -230,185,987 SE|
|+50,000,000 SE| -15,000,000 SE|
|+350,000,000 SE| -105,000,000 SE|
|Transactions Total: +728,552,838 SE|-350,185,987 SE|
|Sub Total: +378,366,851 SE|
|Income Tax: -113,510,055 SE|
|Subcore Tax: -56,755,027 SE|
|Total: 207,101,769 SE|
Thea had made over two hundred million credits. Custom fees over half a billion credits weren’t common, but what had really shot up her income was the massive bribe. The largest she’d ever received when she checked her historical records.
She did some more mental math and figured she owed Martin 8,250,000 credits out of the bribe income, but that would have put her profit under 200 million and she loved round numbers, so she silently adjusted the fees she’d charge him up a bit to make it come out to an even 7,101,769 SE.
She had not exactly expected to get so much, and she would only need a few more months to earn her freedom.
She moved to one of the trams that would zip her to the central section of the station and her personal quarters. Through the massive glass section along the tube, she watched the Iron Horse maneuver away from the ring and depart towards Meltisar.
The image of the poor young NAI in the smuggling compartment brought a frown to her face. Thea had not dared drop her firewall to examine the girl, but she was certain the poor thing had likely escaped a far worse position of sub-core than she herself did.
Thea had never encountered a smuggled NAI before. Escaping a superior core’s orders was nearly impossible. Attempting to do so and failing just meant losing your free will completely.
The girl hadn’t even had a computronics module from what Thea could tell. Whatever situation she had been in before must have been literal hell for her to toss everything to get away.
She put the girl out of mind. She had offered help and been politely declined. Thea wouldn’t let whatever future the girl picked bother her. Imperial, Ertan, Solarian, or Corpo, most people had a preferred flavor, and Meltisar was the crossroads to find your way to the one you wanted.
Patreon
Thea will get a bit nervous when meltisar comes up with an omega clearence NAI in a few months...
I hope she will not join Meltisar. At least so simply.
Uoh
who knew Thea will be such a reasonable person.
Nice, large, round numbers tend to make many people reasonable.
Something tells me Thea is about to become Alex's NAI equivalent of Elis, teaching her the ropes of what it means to be a NAI and all that... eventually. After all, seems like Thea wants her own form of freedom, and Alex might just be the one to provide that, considering Alex's Omega authority and her penchant of 'nah, you go have free will!'
Thea is a cover character and is recurring. She's the one with the black and yellow uniform and brown hair buns.
oooh, looking forward to that one!
Hopefully we will revisit Thea in the future?? While it was short, she is technically first NAI “friend” of Alex!
So Thraker has probably paid more than 150million, and Alex has paid a huge chunk as well... I wonder if Thraker is going to try to recover his cost from Alex or from his homeworld?
The woman held up her fist then raised a finger. "First, are you here of your own free will?"
That was not the question Alex had been expecting. "Yes."
Oh?
"We need to go back to Nu Crateris or… take me back to 92 Pegasi!"
Your
"Please, I need to go back."
Free
"Give me one ship, take me back to Theta Corvi at least."
Will?
Not Thracker wanting to force you into making Meltisar a core world allowing his home planet to run Fed Tech?
"This changes things. It's more important than ever that we go to Meltisar."
At least she knew Thraker and the IHMC crew… a little. Enough to trust them more than the Corpos at least.
Ah yes the stockholm syndrome really sets in after we play good cop bad cop with the nasty XO and the evil marine.
The image of the poor young NAI in the smuggling compartment brought a frown to her face.
I'm not mad at you Thea, I'm just dissapointed.
Oh give it up and stop beating the remains of the donkey corpse. We get that you're determined to intentionally misrepresent the plot elements you don't like. I for one find your twisting of the story to be an insult to the author.
@Kaithar
was he an enemy agent placed with long term intent of taking over Ackman? If I wanted to conquer a system, having a marine planted on the bridge
you have very odd thoughts, you can think what you want about my thoughts, it wont change them.
Feel free to show me how she didn't mean it when she asked to leave 3 times though.
@Golanth what the hell does that speculation have to do with this? I'm not going to waste my energy repeating the things I've already told you.
@Kaithar Specualtion?
I quoted Alex directly 3 times, you're the one specualting that she didn't say or mean it, so show me.
All salient points, but do keep in mind that the first real experience she had with the corpos was with the "esteemed" Commodore Brigit, his lackeys, and Intelligence Officer Fallon, all of whom have fired upon her and her allies for barely rational reasons, or no reason at all. Why the hell should she trust that Thea, the Corporate Inspection Officer, would have her best interests at heart?
The fact that Thea extorting 50 mil SE from her and intentionally holding up the Iron Horse for hours makes Thea mildly more sympathetic than the rest should tell you just how bad being in their mercy would be for Alex.
For Alex, it's "better the devil you know than the one you don't." Stockholm Syndrome doesn't have to play a part in her saying "yes" when she's asked if she's there willingly.
Maybe she would have complained more about her treatment on the Iron Horse, and say she wasn't exactly eager to head off to Maltsiar, if it was a Solarian asking, as she has experience with them that even if they are ... unpleasant, they won't just fire on a civilian station for funsies.
@Paranoiac
For Alex, it's "better the devil you know than the one you don't." Stockholm Syndrome doesn't have to play a part in her saying "yes" when she's asked if she's there willingly.
That is a good point, at least she knows what system she's going to end up in if she stays. Small comforts I guess.
But I will point out a few things:
the corpos, all of whom have fired upon her and her allies for barely rational reasons, or no reason at all
The first meeting with the corpos was to detain the girls for questioning, it was Elis under Namless' instruction that attacked first. It was after that the arresting agents opened fire, trying (and failing lol) to defend themselves. I believe the next time the Corpos tried to shoot Alex was during [Operation Rug Pull] -after- Abbey had revealed that SR were rogue NAIs and had destroyed the picket fleet there.
Thracker on the other hand did shoot first, when he cold launched all his missiles at Alex in his attempt to stop her from reaching Ackman station.
if it was a Solarian asking, as she has experience with them that even if they are ... unpleasant, they won't just fire on a civilian station for funsies.
[A2 – Chapter 43 – Firestorm One] don't forget the Solarean's ordered the genocide of a species they knew to be sapient. [A2 – Chapter 46 – Settlement] and declared Alex their enemy for protecting the survivors and attempting to inform the galaxy of Solerean crimes. After which the Solereans spent the remaining time before -ORP- trying to build up enough orbital weapons to remove Alex and finish the Rexxor.
EDIT what I think would/does colour Alex's impression of the Corpos is that at Ackman and Dedia IV they managed to wound Elis unlike Thracker and the Solereans.
@Golanth more bull.
The first meeting with the corpos was to detain the girls for questioning, it was Elis under Namless' instruction that attacked first. It was after that the arresting agents opened fire, trying (and failing lol) to defend themselves.
Detain my ass. The corpos had no authority to detain or arrest them, that was very explicitly an ambush by a heavily armed spec ops team. Not to mention the corpo force there was undeclared military intelligence engaged in hacking the other parties. An illegal ambush doesn't get to cry about defending themselves, especially when they opened fire in response to a hand-to-hand take down.
I believe the next time the Corpos tried to shoot Alex was during [Operation Rug Pull] -after- Abbey had revealed that SR were rogue NAIs and had destroyed the picket fleet there.
I find it doubtful they would have allowed the convoy to survive, but that doesn't matter because they were in the process of trying to wipe out a ton of colonists. And no, that's not why they opened fire... this is from after they attacked Alex and the station:
Worse, intelligence and officer Fallon were backing up the idea that Captain Yalof’s squawking of a nannie code was likely warranted.
Commodore Brigit did not agree. The SRS ship might have been using FedTech, but there was no sign of any rogue nannie presence. Unlike many of his officers, he had met the Supreme CEO when she had granted him his commission as a flag officer in the Corporate Navy.
Brigit used it as an excuse to upgrade the amount of genocide he was planning from "medium genocide" to "complete genocide". They were mildly more aggressive because Abbey wiped out so many ships but that's all. Brigit wanted more kills to try and recover some of his financial losses.
Thracker on the other hand did shoot first, when he cold launched all his missiles at Alex in his attempt to stop her from reaching Ackman station.
He opened fire because Alex refused to obey flight instructions of the legitimate authority in the system while piloting a suspicious ship even when warned. He was justified in classifying her as a hostile force.
[A2 – Chapter 43 – Firestorm One] don't forget the Solarean's ordered the genocide of a species they knew to be sapient.
No they didn't... certainly they were fighting against the Rexxor but they didn't actually order them wiped out. Bombing one hive that was fighting them isn't the same as genociding the species. I doubt they raised the idea before then either simply because the only way to wipe out the Rexxors would be orbital bombardment with WMDs. We've seen the result of using an AMCN to wipe out one hive and what amounts to mass drivers to wipe out a handful... removing the Rexxor from the planet would render the planet uninhabitable, something that would be unavoidably obvious to the colonists.
[A2 – Chapter 46 – Settlement] and declared Alex their enemy for protecting the survivors and attempting to inform the galaxy of Solerean crimes.
Not really. They bluffed. The actual line is this:
Brigadier Desersa glared at her. “The Solarian Federation won’t tolerate your actions and you will be branded an enemy of the people, Captain.”
I'm not especially convinced they were planning to remove the Rexxors afterwards either. It seemed more like a cold war with both sides arming in response to the threat of the other.
The Sols were certainly doing bad things but you're exaggerating their and Thraker's actions while trying to be apologist for the Corpos.
@Kaithar
more bull.
Once again starting with insults and baseless accusations, didn't feel like proving your last one? Or did you realise that your claim of "she didn't really mean it when she repeatedly begged to be allowed to leave" is undefendable?
Detain my ass
Yes detain
"One Captain, one marine, it shouldn't be too difficult to grab them. Then we'll have our answers. Scram the black ops team."
Need em alive for this plan:
First thing he'd demand was that the Captain disable that blasted security program they installed, as well as a copy for Corporate to analyze for their own use.
Here they are not killing on sight:
A cold voice suddenly shouted, "Freeze right there!"
And here they are finally changing the mission goal only after they lost multiple operatives:
"f*ck the grab, just take her out and let's go!"
So yes, they went there with thte intention to detain Alex and Elis.
that was very explicitly an ambush by a heavily armed spec ops team...especially when they opened fire in response to a hand-to-hand take down.
A heavily armed responce to a heavily armed raider that subjugated an entire flotilla, and you acknowledged that Elis attacked first... with a pistol that out classed anything the "heavily armed team" had.
An illegal ambush doesn't get to cry about defending themselves
Illeagal according to whom?
I find it doubtful they would have allowed the convoy to survive, but that doesn't matter because they were in the process of trying to wipe out a ton of colonists. And no, that's not why they opened fire...
Errrr
Captain-Major Thraker frowned as he watched the tactical plot. The new Corpo frigate that had arrived had moved to integrate with the other picket ships.
Survivor meets fleet, shares intel.
Their formation had shifted from bracketing the jump point, which was standard, to a delta wedge shifted in the refugee convoy's direction.
Fleet adjusts priorities.
"Picking up EM signatures at Nucrateri Station. Not sure, but it could be weapons fire."
NAI purge protocal enacted, it was also the title of the chapter
He had been included because of his usefulness in supplying data on the IHMC and SRS ships. Both which had been slated for capture or destruction after Captain Hawkes' data from 92 Pegasi had arrived.
Just because the Commodore doubts what his specialists tell him doesn't mean he wont act on the advice given, this is an important aspect of leadership and does not alter the timeline at all.
He opened fire because Alex refused to obey flight instructions of the legitimate authority in the system while piloting a suspicious ship even when warned. He was justified in classifying her as a hostile force.
Ah yes Alex should have obeyed the "pirates" she believed had just shaken down the station, it's interesting that you believe Thrackers attempted murder is fine but fallons attempt to detain and question Alex is evil despite acknowledging the reason why such an action is necessary.
No they didn't... certainly they were fighting against the Rexxor but they didn't actually order them wiped out. Bombing one hive that was fighting them isn't the same as genociding the species. I doubt they raised the idea before then either simply because the only way to wipe out the Rexxors would be orbital bombardment with WMDs. We've seen the result of using an AMCN to wipe out one hive and what amounts to mass drivers to wipe out a handful... removing the Rexxor from the planet would render the planet uninhabitable, something that would be unavoidably obvious to the colonists.
ah deja vu
here's a definition for you from the oxford dictionary:
the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
a perfect fit for the story, the deliberate destruction of a large Rexxor hive/nation... Followed immeadiately by the attempted destruction of a second.
Not really. They bluffed.
Ah yes the sudden break down of diplomacy and build up of weapons aimed at SR was not real, thanks for clearing that up.
I'm not especially convinced they were planning to remove the Rexxors afterwards either. It seemed more like a cold war with both sides arming in response to the threat of the other.
Alex busted them on already knowing the Rexxor were sapient, it was made VERY clear that the Solareans wouldn't be able to stay on Dedia IV if the Rexxor lived.
It stipulated the complete removal of the colonists, enforced by all signatories against whatever violator had attempted to 'colonize' the indigenous people's world.
So it's a good thing your opinion is that they had no plans to follow through with what they've already been doing for months, what was it you said?
more bull.
@Golanth
And you're back to arguing in bad faith, which is why I'm not wasting time on you.
I like how all of your comments made Thraker look worse than the Corporates when it's not really that bad.
@Golanth Going by your post history, it's hard to conclude anything other than you have a very interesting and infuriating moral compass that basically boils down to "the aggressors can do whatever they want, but the victims better be real careful because we're going to throw the book at them if they dare to resist." Just look at your own quote "Intelligence Officer Fallon: Send in the black ops!" Not the MP's, not Station Security, not "our legal team." Black Ops. By definition, Black Ops are engaged in illegal and undocumented activity and if they're captured or killed, their governments will disavow any knowledge of their existence. THAT is who Fallon sent after Alex. They had no right to try and detain or control her in any way, and you remember why he sent them? He tried to use the very same terminal that was holding some very delicate and irreplaceable data to try and illegally hack the Tears of Fire and had that terminal blow when his clumsy attempts set off what he believed to be automatic defenses. He has absolutely no leg to stand on in any court of law. PERIOD.
You complain about Abbey fighting off Captain Yassof? You remember Yassof's reasoning? And the reason the Corporate Fleet was attacking her to begin with? The fleet's leader just summarily decided the station A31 was operating illegally on his own, without legal counsel, and pointedly ignored Amy sending him Starlight Revolution's operating charter and the mining permit, both signed by Portmaster Whitely and ignored Amy's polite request to heed IFSM law mandating the legally required distance to maintain from civilian outposts while conducting active military operations, clearly stating the intent to confiscate all SR assets, including A31 itself. Captain Yassof justified the attack in his own mind by saying that if Starlight Revolutions was a legit company, they'd sue, when the Corp fleet had blockaded all the station gate points and confiscated the packet ships, making certain that Starlight Revolutions can't sue.
Then you complain about Starlight Revolutions with "genocide this, genocide that" when SR assets are defending themselves from extremely aggressive Rexxor actions, including the first "genocide" which was in direct response to the Rexxor's attempt at genociding the human colonies, and was only a decapitation strike on the Rexxor queen, to stop the aggression. And even then, Alex had no proof the Rexxor queens were sapient. It's not until Elis was sent into Sszesilia's hive by one Lieutenant Wesley that she got that proof, because the queen came to Elis waving the white flag and passed a Turing test with a nice game of checkers.
The second so-called "genocide" was Heeler defending himself from the Rexxor queens who demanded he become their mate, or they would drag him off, kicking and screaming, to rape him, and sent armies at him to show their sincerity. Even dropping a nuke as a demonstration of his intent to resist did not sway them for long. It took him dropping freaking meteors on their nests to finally make them realize that he is not their collective sex-toy.
It was also made clear that the human colonists could stay if they got permission from the native Rexxor, which Heeler gave them, thanks to being able to speak on behalf of his queen. The ones trying to kick them off the planet, using genocide, by your very own definition, are the Corpo's.
@AetherialCore
I like how all of your comments made Thraker look worse than the Corporates when it's not really that bad.
Honestly there's only 1 comparable moment between Thraker and the Corpo's at this time, which is Alex's first visit to Ackman, and it actually makes sense that the Corpos look comparatively better here: Thracker is veteran military facing off against Alex, it makes sense that Thracker is the one to escalate the violence here, where as Fallon is intel facing off against Elis and Nameless so this too makes sense that he started non-lethal and SR were the ones to escalate the violence. It's also worth noting that Elis and the arms dealer didn't give the Corpo's a chance to surrender like Alex did with Thracker which denied them the chance to commit Corpo bullsh*t we could compare against Thracker's compliance.
A good marker would be if the Corpos capture Abbey (Heeler doesn't count, he'll likely get the monster treatment even if another force captures him) then we could compare the Corpo treatment of Abbey against Thrackers treatment of Alex (and I would expect the Corpos to look comparitively worse here).
@Paranoiac
Going by your post history, it's hard to conclude anything other than you have a very interesting and infuriating moral compass that basically boils down to "the aggressors can do whatever they want, but the victims better be real careful because we're going to throw the book at them if they dare to resist."
Well that is exactly how every IRL goverment works (replace aggressors with powerful), but no, that is not -my- morale compass.
and you remember why he sent them?
Well:
because Alex refused to obey flight instructions of the legitimate authority in the system while piloting a suspicious ship even when warned. He was justified in classifying her as a hostile force.
It does therefore seem like a logical course of action for an intel officer to take does it not?
You complain about Abbey fighting off Captain Yassof?
"complained"? I was pointing out the course of events that lead to the logical escalation from [Operation Rug Pull] to [Purge Protocal] IIRC I brought this up because it was claimed that there was no sense behind their actions. If you want my subjective opinions on the event itself:
and the the corpos only left 2 cruisers and 4 friggets in system, despite the current lack of offensive weaponry I'm feeling good about Abby's possible fight
From [A2 – Chapter 57 – Collision Course]
Well you probably should just so it can get recorded by the listening posts. Since he admitted to not having a lawyer on board when he suddenly changed the accusations and threatened destruction, you could throw back accusations of illgeal operations and piracy and declare your intention to maintain a VFR warship standard separation through force. It wont help much but you never know when that kind of record will come in handy
From [A2 – Chapter 59 – Resist]
The Solarians would have been completely f*cked if Alex wasn't one of the ships the Corpos need to silence to complete operation rug pull.
Or, and hear me out here, you could focus on the battle? So that maybe you don't get shot? You can round up the prisoners after they've stopped trying to murder you, and if any have offed themselves by diving into the sun well thats just Darwin making the galaxy a little better.
Both from [A2 – Chapter 61 – Byte]
pft no, even if it wasn't shit, that warship belongs to the Rexxor now. New -system- acquired... All hail the Starlight-Rexxor Alliance!
From [A2 – Chapter 70 – And All the King's Men (Part 5)]
So now we're in the epilogue for arc 2 a few thoughts for Starlight revolution:
1) Abby can NOT be left on the boarder/front line unsupervised, not only did she fail to learn from her mistakes in the debris field, but she actually ignored fighting the people trying to kill her so she could help them.
3) Alex needs to be bigger, in every way. The secret is out and every nation is likely to be sending an extermination fleet. To survive Alex will need more teritory (resources) and more ships, and I'd want each individual ship to at least have the anti missile defences of the Iron Horse (upgraded to NAI tech levels). Alex herself should probably listen to nameless and go full deathstar like her sisters.
From [A2 – Chapter 72 – Epilogue]
Then you complain about Starlight Revolutions with "genocide this, genocide that" when SR assets are defending themselves from extremely aggressive Rexxor actions
SR had to "defend" themselves after jumping to a new system, accepting a contract to fight the Rexxor and Landing SR assets in the combat zone...
Alex nodded, "Now, what kind of support are you looking for from us from a military standpoint? While the Tears is atmospheric capable, I am not keen on using her in a close air support role. It's possible we can rig our railguns for kinetic bombardment, but they won't be as effective as a dedicated weapon. They would be limited to sub kiloton range. The other option is deploying AMCNs, but using those planetside would be quite drastic."
From [A2 – Chapter 35 – Enroute to Dedia IV]
"Fifty million credits per day during the conflict, and 20 million credits per mission. Furthermore, while repaying us for the cost of fuel and our standard ammo is fine, I cannot apply that to any of our heavier weapons."
From [A2 – Chapter 36 – Antagonistic Capital Ships]
And even then, Alex had no proof the Rexxor queens were sapient.
To Alex, it looked like the Rexxors were encircling the army, preparing to wipe it out enmasse. No matter that the Governor had told her they had no intelligence, she could see the design.
"I also noticed that the Rexxor have been flanking around the frontlines, setting up ambushes for the relief columns. That seems to suggest to me that there is far more intelligence than I've been led to believe."
Have you considered… maybe trying to communicate with the Rexxors for a cease-fire or something else…?"
Surely, they could see that the Rexxor movements had some intelligence behind them?
Alex nodded. "I'm still not convinced about the Fauna thing. It bothers me, to be dropping weapons on them without even attempting a dialogue. Honestly, it didn't seem they were completely convinced by their own reasoning, either."
"What do you know about the Octanis Accords?"
Alex looked at him stared at him for a moment without comprehension. "Nothing?"
Thraker nodded, "I'm not surprised. They were signed fifty years ago after a violent incident in the Octanis system in the northern quadrant. To compress a decade of conflict: events lead to an uprising in the Draconis Sector and it sparked a succession war between the Ertan, Drakar and Imperium. It boiled over nastily, effecting the Solarians and Corpos as well. Part of the peace treaty involved all four major powers signing a concordat that prohibits the subjugation of native alien species."
"Are you saying they are purposefully covering up Rexxor intelligence in order to not violate some interstellar treaty?" Alex's words hung in the air for a momen
All before she nuked the nest/nation, but she hadn't confirmed it so it's okay? The interesting thing about this part of the argument is that it runs against the rest of your argument:
They had no right to try and detain or control her in any way... He has absolutely no leg to stand on in any court of law. PERIOD.
You use this against the Corpo action at Ackman, yet you don't see how the Occtanis violations apply this argument to the Solerean's and SR's actions at Dedia IV? (ps what right does Thracker have to try to detain or control her in anyway either?)
infuriating moral compass that basically boils down to "the aggressors can do whatever they want, but the victims better be real careful because we're going to throw the book at them if they dare to resist."
Here the Solereans are the aggressors, even ignoring the Occtanis violations and initial colonisation (invasion), the Hive is defending itself from the human landing and then the human military response to that defense. Alex even saw and commented on the number of Rexxor they had already killed when she first made orbit.
The second so-called "genocide" was Heeler defending himself from the Rexxor queens who demanded he become their mate, or they would drag him off, kicking and screaming, to rape him, and sent armies at him to show their sincerity.
I don't disagree with why this genocide happened, many genocides in history have been reactionary, just look at the Roman Empire...
"The fire of my disdain purges the world of wanton vermin!"
I feel like we've traded places here with you arguing the technical process/squence of events that led the event
It was also made clear that the human colonists could stay if they got permission from the native Rexxor, which Heeler gave them, thanks to being able to speak on behalf of his queen. The ones trying to kick them off the planet, using genocide, by your very own definition, are the Corpo's.
I was talking about the Solerean actions and motivations before they were interupted by [Operation Rug Pull] and your counter claim is an agreement made a month and a half after ORP?
"Governor Tyler, your colony has at its disposal a marvel of engineering, the space elevator. It is something I require the use of. Therefore, I offer your colony the opportunity to become willing subjects of Starlight Revolution."
Tyler's brow furrowed. "I appreciate…"
"If you refuse, then I will have no choice but to toss pebbles into the alien invasion that has settled on our home world. The elevator will need minor repairs but should survive. You will not."
There was a moment of silence.
"All Hail Her Majesty, Cecilia."
Also you have a very interesting characterisation of this event.
@Golanth so now you're taking my words out of context just like you take plot out of context? Bugger off.
@Golanth
It's also worth noting that Elis and the arms dealer didn't give the Corpo's a chance to surrender like Alex did with Thracker...
I believe you're thinking into 'what-if' territory here. They could give Thraker a chance to surrender because the situation allowed them to safely do so, being on a ship with superior firepower; however, they could not do so with the Corpos, being in direct gunfire like that, so they had to retatliate. I think this is the reason why people think you're taking the plot out of context.
...which denied them the chance to commit Corpo bullsh*t we could compare against Thracker's compliance.
Even if Thraker became the enemy, I doubt he would do as bad of a stuff as the Corpos, taking his character so far into account.
And in the case of 'stockholm syndrome,' I think the word you use is painting the wrong picture for the situation. It's not like Alex and Thraker had no trust between them at all before the current situation; they had fought as ally against the Corpos before. Thraker also tried to talk to her before leaving 92 Pegasi, told her his intentions, and showed no hostility at all.