SPOILER: Post CoG prognostications; Victor as arms buyer

Hi all,

There's no textev for this, but when has that stopped some posters? nudge, nudge

Given Mesa supports all sorts of mercenary outfits and arms dealers, why not take advantage of that for the seccies?

I mean our heroes are almost the classic definition of arms buyers, at least by Mesa's metric; very foreign and very very rich.

Between their almost limitless legal wealth and Anton's computer capabilities, I suspect creating many accounts that at least appear to be honestly there is quite possible, besides whatever tips Dusek & Co might provide.

Given Victor, Yana, Thandi, and Anton apparently have almost unlimited funds, NTM great disguises [Victor can change in several seconds] and the seccies having a lack of heavy weapons, it would seem the solution would be for Victor & Co to start buying some more anti armor missiles, tri-barrels, military pulsars, SAM's both hand held and larger, plasma rifles, military explosives, grenades, mines etc.

Plus anything else lethal anyone can think of?

Aside from a standing joke of an anti-KEW weapon/shield among arms dealers?

Beyond the Brooklyn Bridge type above, what other bad ice breaking type jokes might there be among arms dealers 2000 years in the future?

Besides these, there are the very important non-lethals; such as a field hospital with all the trimmings, communications, surveillance equipment, and armored suits starting with non-military government or commercial deep SAR that ought to be close to powered armor, first responders I assume have UA or better, which again should be easier to obtain than direct military.

Obviously there are going to be security issues, but if almost all the Mesa police organizations are concentrated on the 'Ballroom' terrorist attacks in the four+ days before the assault on the seccies begins, some useful amounts of important items could be acquired.

While the Mesans are going to be keeping tabs on arms dealers, the far more competent Alignment has left, perhaps providing that crucial window during all the confusion.

I suspect there are various sizes and levels of arms dealers on Mesa, with various levels of respectability, trust and legality, with the very top being able to provide everything an army needs including instructors and transport if necessary if the customer can afford it, to bottom feeders who're desperate for anything although they all know far better than to sell to seccies; which thanks to Mesa's registering everybody at birth [though there ought to be some unregistered seccies, even with an immediate death sentence from simple human nature and/or incompetence] which is always checked before a sale.

The top dealers of course would have both Mesan and MAlign agents on the boards and below etc to keep track of everything, with mid and medium outfitters having undercover agents, besides all the MG license rep's, while the low to lowest are checked monthly or biweekly etc, depending on your judgement of the respective authority's competence.

Now they all could be Mesan or MAlign agents or only half etc, as some money laundering operations in the Philippines 50-60 years ago seemed to be, but I doubt it, there just seems too much opportunity for all of them to be government [that being a MAlign agent's cover like Lajos Irvine's of a slave].

I suspect Anton could have identified those worth making deals with, who could have easily delivered to respectable bonded warehouses with properly filled export forms, which Dusek and friends just happen to be silent pardners of, for pickup anywhere from weeks to month's hence without providing further details "for security", all the while paying high rentals that are often typical of arms buyers, while the rented lockers are swiftly but discreetly emptied.

For example, can you see Yana buying 100 or so anti-armor missiles for hunting some dangerous beast(s) or hand held SAM's for some bird/pterosaur somewhere and dozens plasma rifles and or tri-barrels for all of her beaters, one with her name engraved in diamonds of course?

Then getting really ticked off with some crappy fake or substandard junk, demonstrating she knows her stuff and earning quite a discount on say, military pulsars or explosives?

How about Thandi doing the same, only crushing said item in her hand?

Given all the different hair colors [red, black, brown, grey, white, before blue, purple, and orange, even bald] Victor can use, and the different combinations of people with Andrew to vet the gear as real not faked, while Anton's programs isolate, jam or blot the security sensors [face shields etc but the seller doesn't know it], NTM after the current police check vetted whoever.

I will admit I'd expect to see a couple of 'scuffles' when someone either tries to rob, cheat or kill our heroes, and of course failing miserably.

Then there might be the option of buying sub components that haven't been fully assembled, "to get them through very tight security", which could be assembled by an industrial module that Victor or Dusek has access to, assuming one of the other modules Victor brought was an industrial 'fabber' or assembler.

Hey, we're not relying on textev, just 'hints'.

Perhaps Andrew might figure how to improve commercial explosives up to military levels, for making SFF's or EFP's from commercial off-the-shelf items, or adding extra modules to commercial pulsars to bring them up near military capacity, or various types of commercial passive sensors into crude remote targeting units, or adapting various portable power units to unusual purposes, possibly including electromagnetic-forming equipment into NNEMP generators such as an EPFCG [Explosively Pumped Flux Compression Generator] or EDFEG [Explosive Driven Ferro-Electric Generator] etc [I can't list all the potential zappers] all hidden as pillars or power conduits to briefly jam armored suit communications and power or possibly killing turning the suit into a antenna or ground, or discharge a neural whip into the users hand or by igniting 2000-3000 degree pulses in the exterior atmosphere of the corridor that overwhelm the suit's insulation, even if the interior briefly peaks at only 200-300 degrees it'll easily kill the wearer, or filling a corridor with very small fuel particles that would create a thermobaric bomb etc, possibly triggered when the police or PPF try to use a plasma rifle.

Given a fusion powered society, but one also satisfied with factories that might be a century or three nominally out of date, but still efficient and profitable, ie when worked by slaves and or seccies, I suspect there are a vast variety of items that could be weaponized in unusual ways that Andrew with Anton's programs and suggestions might manage.

I may [probably, almost certainly]] have gotten wrong how these could have been used, but it seems there ought to have been quite a variety of commercial electrical equipment that could have quite surprising weapons effects on the police and possibly the PFF, and stolen during the chaos leading up to the OPS etc assault, so please feel free to suggest your own.

I'm not saying they did all these things but they could have done some that would have caused more than a few of the casualties the police and PPF suffered, and thereby bought more time for Anton.

Regarding another thread where I pointed out Anton could have used a db if the Visigoth junction were held by the GA, the said TG CO would have provided it, given a code word as the Mobian in SoF gave Kumalo one of Mike's, especially if he knew Anton personally.

This is hardly intended to be a complete iteration of all the possibilities, rather to suggest some of the potential options and alternatives, which who knows, if they amuse RFC might wind up in the post CoG books.

Looking forward to your contributions,

L

lyonheart wrote:Hi all,

There's no textev for this, but when has that stopped some posters? nudge, nudge

Given Mesa supports all sorts of mercenary outfits and arms dealers, why not take advantage of that for the seccies?

I mean our heroes are almost the classic definition of arms buyers, at least by Mesa's metric; very foreign and very very rich.

Between their almost limitless legal wealth and Anton's computer capabilities, I suspect creating many accounts that at least appear to be honestly there is quite possible, besides whatever tips Dusek & Co might provide.

Given Victor, Yana, Thandi, and Anton apparently have almost unlimited funds, NTM great disguises [Victor can change in several seconds] and the seccies having a lack of heavy weapons, it would seem the solution would be for Victor & Co to start buying some more anti armor missiles, tri-barrels, military pulsars, SAM's both hand held and larger, plasma rifles, military explosives, grenades, mines etc.

Plus anything else lethal anyone can think of?

Aside from a standing joke of an anti-KEW weapon/shield among arms dealers?

Beyond the Brooklyn Bridge type above, what other bad ice breaking type jokes might there be among arms dealers 2000 years in the future?

Besides these, there are the very important non-lethals; such as a field hospital with all the trimmings, communications, surveillance equipment, and armored suits starting with non-military government or commercial deep SAR that ought to be close to powered armor, first responders I assume have UA or better, which again should be easier to obtain than direct military.

Obviously there are going to be security issues, but if almost all the Mesa police organizations are concentrated on the 'Ballroom' terrorist attacks in the four+ days before the assault on the seccies begins, some useful amounts of important items could be acquired.

While the Mesans are going to be keeping tabs on arms dealers, the far more competent Alignment has left, perhaps providing that crucial window during all the confusion.

I suspect there are various sizes and levels of arms dealers on Mesa, with various levels of respectability, trust and legality, with the very top being able to provide everything an army needs including instructors and transport if necessary if the customer can afford it, to bottom feeders who're desperate for anything although they all know far better than to sell to seccies; which thanks to Mesa's registering everybody at birth [though there ought to be some unregistered seccies, even with an immediate death sentence from simple human nature and/or incompetence] which is always checked before a sale.

The top dealers of course would have both Mesan and MAlign agents on the boards and below etc to keep track of everything, with mid and medium outfitters having undercover agents, besides all the MG license rep's, while the low to lowest are checked monthly or biweekly etc, depending on your judgement of the respective authority's competence.

Now they all could be Mesan or MAlign agents or only half etc, as some money laundering operations in the Philippines 50-60 years ago seemed to be, but I doubt it, there just seems too much opportunity for all of them to be government [that being a MAlign agent's cover like Lajos Irvine's of a slave].

I suspect Anton could have identified those worth making deals with, who could have easily delivered to respectable bonded warehouses with properly filled export forms, which Dusek and friends just happen to be silent pardners of, for pickup anywhere from weeks to month's hence without providing further details "for security", all the while paying high rentals that are often typical of arms buyers, while the rented lockers are swiftly but discreetly emptied.

For example, can you see Yana buying 100 or so anti-armor missiles for hunting some dangerous beast(s) or hand held SAM's for some bird/pterosaur somewhere and dozens plasma rifles and or tri-barrels for all of her beaters, one with her name engraved in diamonds of course?

Then getting really ticked off with some crappy fake or substandard junk, demonstrating she knows her stuff and earning quite a discount on say, military pulsars or explosives?

How about Thandi doing the same, only crushing said item in her hand?

Given all the different hair colors [red, black, brown, grey, white, before blue, purple, and orange, even bald] Victor can use, and the different combinations of people with Andrew to vet the gear as real not faked, while Anton's programs isolate, jam or blot the security sensors [face shields etc but the seller doesn't know it], NTM after the current police check vetted whoever.

I will admit I'd expect to see a couple of 'scuffles' when someone either tries to rob, cheat or kill our heroes, and of course failing miserably.

Then there might be the option of buying sub components that haven't been fully assembled, "to get them through very tight security", which could be assembled by an industrial module that Victor or Dusek has access to, assuming one of the other modules Victor brought was an industrial 'fabber' or assembler.

Hey, we're not relying on textev, just 'hints'.

Perhaps Andrew might figure how to improve commercial explosives up to military levels, for making SFF's or EFP's from commercial off-the-shelf items, or adding extra modules to commercial pulsars to bring them up near military capacity, or various types of commercial passive sensors into crude remote targeting units, or adapting various portable power units to unusual purposes, possibly including electromagnetic-forming equipment into NNEMP generators such as an EPFCG [Explosively Pumped Flux Compression Generator] or EDFEG [Explosive Driven Ferro-Electric Generator] etc [I can't list all the potential zappers] all hidden as pillars or power conduits to briefly jam armored suit communications and power or possibly killing turning the suit into a antenna or ground, or discharge a neural whip into the users hand or by igniting 2000-3000 degree pulses in the exterior atmosphere of the corridor that overwhelm the suit's insulation, even if the interior briefly peaks at only 200-300 degrees it'll easily kill the wearer, or filling a corridor with very small fuel particles that would create a thermobaric bomb etc, possibly triggered when the police or PPF try to use a plasma rifle.

Given a fusion powered society, but one also satisfied with factories that might be a century or three nominally out of date, but still efficient and profitable, ie when worked by slaves and or seccies, I suspect there are a vast variety of items that could be weaponized in unusual ways that Andrew with Anton's programs and suggestions might manage.

I may [probably, almost certainly]] have gotten wrong how these could have been used, but it seems there ought to have been quite a variety of commercial electrical equipment that could have quite surprising weapons effects on the police and possibly the PFF, and stolen during the chaos leading up to the OPS etc assault, so please feel free to suggest your own.

I'm not saying they did all these things but they could have done some that would have caused more than a few of the casualties the police and PPF suffered, and thereby bought more time for Anton.

Regarding another thread where I pointed out Anton could have used a db if the Visigoth junction were held by the GA, the said TG CO would have provided it, given a code word as the Mobian in SoF gave Kumalo one of Mike's, especially if he knew Anton personally.

This is hardly intended to be a complete iteration of all the possibilities, rather to suggest some of the potential options and alternatives, which who knows, if they amuse RFC might wind up in the post CoG books.

Looking forward to your contributions,

L

Ah, yes. Let's arm the entire galaxy with a marvelous variety of "heat" and that way we can blow away the entire human race!

Don

Lyonheart, I'm not clear on the purpose of your post. Are you just trying to come up with an alternative history? Because we know none of that actually happened. And there's no point in their trying to do anything like that now that Admiral Henke has arrived.

SWM wrote:Lyonheart, I'm not clear on the purpose of your post. Are you just trying to come up with an alternative history? Because we know none of that actually happened. And there's no point in their trying to do anything like that now that Admiral Henke has arrived.

ditto

Hi SWM,

Evidently I didn't explain it well enough, and the weekend was not the best time to respond so I apologise for that too.

We've seen enough retrospective memories that some future reference to our heroes gabbing what they can, filling in some of the gaps of how they lasted so long as suggested above isn't totally impossible yet.

I have no intention of an alternate history, just exploring ways some things may have been done, such as weaponizing the environmental systems; if you have any ideas, or what some of the other equipment modules Victor brought might have been, what did Anton's computer searches probably find besides the MAlign was leaving, the potential of obtaining more heavy weapons, suits, etc, please share them here, won't you?

For storytelling purposes, the less well armed the seccies are the better.

But knowing that and disregarding the textev, to demonstrate that real imagination is apparently thinking outside the box, unhampered by the rules the author has written, suggests all sorts of opportunities to explore what could be or still might happen in retrospect.

Could more heavy weapons been procured in some fashion?

Given Neue Rostock is a small city of 35,000 people it ought to already have its own hospital, police, water, sanitation, electrical, infrastructure repair units and firefighters, first responders and SAR etc, the latter units equipped with some kind of powered suit, or at least when it was first built in 1576.

So while there may have been suits at one time, the potential for Anton ordering some, attributing it to some other town or city worried about enough in light of all the terrorist attacks, then intercepting the delivery while its in a warehouse Dusek & Co have access to, seems quite possible to me.

Especially suits and training for the fusion power techs and other professionals.

The same for many other critical needs, as I've previously posted.

All of those services were probably initially provided by citizens, if they were provided, yet from seccies and slaves employed in citizens' towers and towns etc, similar services would be expected and/or demanded by seccies, and the gangs would have reason to do their best to accommodate such expectations; such as having a personal janitor 'bot to clean apartments requires robot repairers, or salesmen ["cheaper to get a new one"], etc.

Now how could you weaponize a janitor 'bot?

The evident sensor package could be very useful for recon; probably quietly reporting heat or power sources, but could it also move items, such as mines, explosives, to reposition them, NTM reverse the vacuum to spray nano particles to create a thermobaric atmosphere when the enemy were about to use a plasma rifle?

Are there 'bots' using the ceilings to avoid people, how could such be militarized?

Think people!

Unrestricted ideas are welcome.

What are some clever ways Andrew could booby-trap such a huge potential fortress?

How many balcony landing flats for pinnaces or assault shuttles could be mined then blown after the power's shut down or killing the engines etc, dropping whatever 200-800 meters to wreck or bar an access way at ground level.

We didn't see shuttles being used by the MPP, was that because the seccies now had a lot more SAM's, or had the MPP learned it was too dangerous?

Are there other 'holes' in the 'narration' that might be explained by some 'midnight procurement' by Victor, Yana, Thandi or Andrew?

Given the potential for angry seccies [10% of the population] to ruin the city for citizens deliberately or by ignorance ought to greatly concern the various citizen sanitation and infrastructure departments, such that they quietly see to it the seccies don't cause plagues, cut power to citizen towers or suburbs, ruin the sewers etc, by training, support or payments if all else fails.

How could such have been exploited in Neue Rostock's defense?

What industrial operations, from basic processes to sub component assembly, in the seccies areas could have been 'nationalized' by the gangs for the defensive emergency?

I just think there's a lot more story to tell is all.

L

SWM wrote:Lyonheart, I'm not clear on the purpose of your post. Are you just trying to come up with an alternative history? Because we know none of that actually happened. And there's no point in their trying to do anything like that now that Admiral Henke has arrived.