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So... the CA are evil, right?

Discussion in 'Combined Army' started by Varsovian, Sep 2, 2020.

  1. Savnock

    Savnock Nerfherder

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    I've been hoping to see some Exrah in a merc faction at some point too. Like maybe one with some stolen voodoo tech.

    Great concept, a few lousy minis and outside the everyone-looks-like-a-bodybuilder aesthetic though sadly so they got axed. I hope they return in some form.

    BTW, anyone got an old Caskuda you want to sell?
     
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  2. Stiopa

    Stiopa Trust The Fuckhead

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    Exrah weren't eradicated as a species, CA simply eliminated that one group that got too... industrious. In Shas place I'd engineer a faux civil war, with "traitors" wanting to leave EI or defect to human side, and "loyalists" almost succeeding in stopping them, with only one larger ship managing to escape. This way they'd engineer a further evolutionary split, and allow one group to diversify their survival bets - without giving EI a reason to destroy them as a species. Which it'd be disinclined to do in the first place, since Shas serve a much more important role in CA than Exrah did.

    And if Shas defectors would contact humanity and ask for a safe passage and/or a nesting place in exchange for intelligence on EI and military assistance to prove that they're relatively trustworthy, do you really think that human factions would turn them down? They might do so oficially, but I'm sure that off the record they'd just love to jump at the opportunity.

    This plot does have its holes, but I think it's more believable than some of the developments we've seen over the years.

    Another interesting sectorial would be Sygmaa/Tohaa NA2, with defectors from both sides trying to create a faction that wouldn't be manipulated or used by its masters.
     
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  3. tox

    tox SorriBarai
    Warcor

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    District 9 feeling intensifies...
     
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  4. Stiopa

    Stiopa Trust The Fuckhead

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    I kinda doubt Shas would allow themselves to be "policed" the way D9 aliens did. The latter were mostly worker caste.
     
  5. SpectralOwl

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    @Stiopa -
    The issue is that I doubt the Shas could pull one over the EI, from both a practical and thematic perspective. Any organised effort would be easily detected by the EI since it is the Combined Army network, and would notice such subversive material or the reduction in data traffic from hundreds of agents eschewing its use to spread such material. The EI would bomb the "loyalists" to ash, send the full might of the Umbra after the traitors, kill everyone involved with the idea, scour their genetic records from the registries as a message to the rest and place the next-highest Shas in the chain of command in charge, maybe under a Morat to add insult to injury.

    From a more story-oriented perspective, the EI plays the same role as Lovecraft's Old Ones. It's an inscrutable, truly alien intelligence with enough power to destroy all of man's works effortlessly if it ever becomes more than vaguely curious about us, and knowing about this would break almost anyone. Even so much as delaying a single part of its plan requires a heroic effort and leaves those involved forever changed, as shown by Defiance. Allowing an alien faction to just up sticks from the heart of EI power and wander off into a contested war zone cheapens all of that.

    Even if they managed this, approaching human powers would get them sent to camps of varying comfort as POWs at best and vivissected for tech insights at worst. Humanity considers the whole species an enemy and simply wouldn't let them roam about as an armed military power we could play as, though they may survive as a solo agent or part of the Submondo underworld.

    The EI's reach isn't infinite though, and enough infiltrators personally going traitor could allow them to get some cloning infrastructure going. You'd still have the problem of them not being visibly Shas (they'd have to exist in hiding), but the culture and tech could stick around.

    However, as you said, any or all of this would still be more believable than some of what we've seen in the past. Here's hoping that if CB takes the idea they at least do it justice.
     
  6. Stiopa

    Stiopa Trust The Fuckhead

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    @SpectralOwl let's take into account two things; our understanding and takes on fluff might be different from CB's, and regardless, if they'll think about an idea that they deem cool and fitting for the setting they won't allow fluff to stand in their way. Fluff can always be bent, retconned, new stuff might get added and change the perspective...
     
  7. Varsovian

    Varsovian Well-Known Member

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    Wait, the Umbra are all sepsitorized? Where was all of that revealed?

    Now, don't badmouth the ascension potential of Morats, yo! What if, in an ironic story twist, it's them who ascend in the end? ;)
     
  8. colbrook

    colbrook Grenade Delivery Specialist

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    In the RPG book, the Umbra were an escaped slave race so genocidal, so mad with rage against all other sentient life that the EI deemed them too dangerous to exist.

    Though the EI were aware of legends of the Umbra's bloodthirsty reputation, when they finally found them the Umbra had been forced to put themselves into stasis to avoid a genetic kill switch (after wiping out all intelligent life in their galactic neighbourhood of course) the EI realised they'd never submit so installed cybernetics that would link the Umbra directly to the EI, in the same way that was done to the Ur, essentially over-writing their consciousness with that of the EI.

    This nearly went badly, the EI came very close to being overwhelmed by the Umbra's bloody anger against all sentient life. But it survived and can now boast about bringing the galaxy's most dangerous civilisation to heel.
     
    #108 colbrook, Sep 16, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2020
  9. Varsovian

    Varsovian Well-Known Member

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    Hmmmm. And this is 100% canon?
     
  10. colbrook

    colbrook Grenade Delivery Specialist

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    Yep, all the RPG books are vetted by Gutier.

    Bear in mind that most of the CombArmy aren't aware of this, let alone their enemies, so from most civ's point of view the Umbra willingly took a knee to the EI.
     
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  11. Daireann

    Daireann Well-Known Member

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    Now I am a little worried about EI.
    Some Sigmaa are worried about their umbra allies.

    I mean, was it absolutely harmful to connect with umbra? This is the question.
     
    #111 Daireann, Sep 18, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2020
  12. Devil_Tiger

    Devil_Tiger Your Friendly Neighborhood Asura

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    That's not because two things technically fit the same legal definition that they are even remotely moral equivalents. Scale do matter.
     
  13. AdmiralJCJF

    AdmiralJCJF Heart of the Hyperpower

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    There's a lot of people talking about the Omn, who clearly have no idea what they are talking about.

    I suggest reading the PanOceania expansion for the Modiphius RPG, it demonstrates how accurate that statement is.
     
  14. Sabin76

    Sabin76 Well-Known Member

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    For a different perspective on the motivations of an undeniably more powerful civilization(s) and how it might differ from our lived moral experiences, I'd suggest The Dark Forest (second book of the Three-Body series). Frankly, it was my least favorite of the trilogy (it was pretty slow compared to the first), but I found the premise rather interesting.
     
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