There's no way the QM gave us that drawback at chargen just so we can bulldoze over them, or only put a little bit of effort in defeating them.
There's plenty way. The main force is the main problem, and I can see them figuring out magic and possibly get their own savants which could make them harder, but till then we are dealing with the normal guys who aren't any problem.
Woah woah woah woah. Don't try try to blame us for the actions of the aliens. Their modus operandi was NOT to peacefully seek refuge. We know this IC and OOC. They came here for lebensraum against some harmless savages. It turned out a few of the savages had access to technology they really shouldn't have (that's part of our reputation IIRC).
It's not our fault, but that does not mean we should not be the good guys and do it none the less. Choice here is to be either Good or Neutral, and I'm opting for Good.
Lets make it humans. Tons of people are starving, and we are sitting on piles of food. They attack us, because they think there is no way we would share the food. We stop them without any trouble at all (because they are starving, and we have butt loads of tech), do we then give them food so that there is no more problem, or slaughter them all because they attacked us?
They're not looking for mercy.
They aren't looking for it because they think they would never get it. Like I'm not looking to bang Beyonce, there's no way that's going to happen, but if it did I wouldn't turn her down. So it would be up to her to choose whether or not it will happen by choosing whether or not to offer it.
. They're not looking for mercy. When we have completely and totally beat the shit out of them (which you know won't happen over some "scout ships" anyway), then they will ask for peace.
But would they turn it down? Even if they don't think we can beat the shit out of them, we did show off some bad-ass tech, and can show off some more again by teleporting a bunch of troops on board (after we hailed them, for dramatic effect and to hopefully not lead STRAIGHT to shooting), I think this troupe would well get the message that they can't win this fight (whether they could with back-up or not is another question), and then they will be pretty willing to talk.
And supposing they did turn it down, so what? You haven't said what we would lose. I say we offer them the chance to not die each time, and if they turn it down each time, that is THEIR choice, one we GAVE them, not one we made for them.
In which case we will be in a much stronger position in the negotiations and we could make sure they'd stay as a non-threat.
I think it would be more impressive to offer them peace, beat the snot out of them if they refuse, and then offer it again upon the next meeting. And if they refuse again, we just repeat. Until they either are forced to accept, or are all dead. Every time though, the moral obligation and fault is on them COMPLETELY, there isn't even some fractional blame on us.
If we take out those scout ships, those are a couple of less ships the aliens can use against us when the main force arrives.
I wasn't suggesting we let them get away. They are ours now. If they prove amendable, we can send a scout to their main ships and talk with the leadership directly.
Standing idly so we can be the nice guy gives them the opportunity to think things through, improvise and possibly improve on any technology they have.
Improving their own tech isn't a problem. They would have done that anyways. There would only be a problem if they got their hands on ours.
It depends on whether you"ll write now or not. All the votes are very similar to eachother. I'm arguing with
@Trondason over something that doesn't have to do with the vote.
It sorta does. Your vote advises for deploying our troops, jump-starting the hostilities, while mine and Iron's are just to see what they got, and THEN vote what we do in response.
