To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
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We are kinda only in this position in the first place because you shut down any suggestion about advising the president about trying a different approach when she asked for our opinion in the first place... In my eyes the reason this turned into war preparation in the first place is because players like you argued it was the only possible solution in the first place which resulted in us getting a pretty heavy handed ultimatum and very little idea how to feasibly implement it.
Which by the way made this a very unfun part of the quest to me since stumbling into a massive galactic conflict like this is in my eyes either a sign of massive incompetence of the Federation and Arkadian authorities or simply bad storytelling...
Edit:
Plus stuff like this happens in RL too. In most cases you try to solve a crisis/situation via talks as long as possible, often even after the violence has started. Because even a bad compromise is often better than a full on war.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
YAAAAY PAGE 1701 SOMEONE ELSE NOTICED TOO!!!
I don't know if anyone cares, but I am formally declaring Ask Eddie Leslie and Ask 'Dreams' Enterprise to be a thing.
Anyone who wants to direct questions towards Commodore Leslie or my version of the spirit of Enterprise for the next 24 hours or so, gets the funniest/heartwarmingest/best answers my sometimes-deranged brain and often-erratic muse can devise.
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
The president was asking us how we would prosecute a war. We answered to the best of our ability, and didn't offer unsolicited advice in areas outside our purview. We've let the FDS do their thing, have tried to aid them on several occasions, and in general have done all we can as head of Starfleet under normal circumstances to prevent their conflict. Now that we're in a SOE we have more authority, so we are in a position to shape things that would usually be out of our hands. Trying to blame this on Briefvoice is disingenuous.
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Do you think any of the other ships are like you?
The thing is that pointing out the difficulties with such a war as well as possible alternatives would have been entirely within our purview. It is what any competent chief of staff/minister of defence win RL would have done and it is certainly what the head of semi-civilian organization with a focus on exploration and dealing with aliens should have done.
I don't think you quite understand the Arcadian situation. The Federation is trying to tell the Arcadian Empire how to run its country, and if they yield here why, the Federation might decide they don't like house Bene, or any of the other Houses they haven't smashed yet, or some other excuse to extort more from the Empire.
This is a feudal nation, they are used to this sort of politics, especially politics where one starts with one demand and over time keeps pushing until something pushes back. That's how they grow their own power. The Federation is weird to them because while the Arcadians would keep pushing, the Federation would heed the treaties unless provoked once more. For this reason and the ones I mentioned in the previous post, they cannot yield here. Especially since they believe that either they win, or the Federation will eventually destroy the mentat system.
After all, that's what they'd do, and defang their foe in that manner.
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
If we'd been asked that, maybe. That was the president asking us what we would need in the event of war, not asking us for advice on how to prevent war. You can't blame people for voting for the only answer that was actually related to the question asked.
And a feudal nation would also used to talking to their component nobles on the side. The Emperor rules at their pleasure. Side-talks are more productive in a feudal society than in a modern one. If one noble house drags their feet on sending ships to the Emperor or starts mentat reforms on the side or gains a massive advantage over the others by importing safe computers, then the entire situation is made much easier. Even if we do have to fight the Emperor.
If it weren't for the fact that we are attacking a defining pillar of their society, this would be true. And even if this does succeed, at minimum house Ix will rebel.
I think a realistic outcome is that one or two houses rebel, either in defense of their mentat use or on our side. The Bene for example, may be the type who would flee a sinking ship if they thought they could come out on top.
But even in that case, it's still better than a general war with the Licori united against us, because in that case we have no hope of imposing our will on them even if we win.
Full Mentats have demonstrated such a lack of care for others that has made their three closest neighbours all sit up and go NO.
At this time, I at least am not aware of any issues that can be traced back to partial Mentats.
Are the Mentats that all the Nobles have whispering in their ears full or partial? Are these Mentats truly loyal to the Houses they are supposed to be serving?
No evidence speculation, just limited OOC knowledge and inspired by certain paranoid character pieces - this is all a massive ploy by House Bene of Gesseria to reshape their society, limiting if not outright purging House Kortennon of Gammon and House Ixira of Ixaria, while bringing House Tartresis of Calamar to the leadership position, leaving Bene as the quiet (and real) power behind the throne.
At this time, I at least am not aware of any issues that can be traced back to partial Mentats.
Are the Mentats that all the Nobles have whispering in their ears full or partial? Are these Mentats truly loyal to the Houses they are supposed to be serving?
No evidence speculation, just limited OOC knowledge and inspired by certain paranoid character pieces - this is all a massive ploy by House Bene of Gesseria to reshape their society, limiting if not outright purging House Kortennon of Gammon and House Ixira of Ixaria, while bringing House Tartresis of Calamar to the leadership position, leaving Bene as the quiet (and real) power behind the throne.
Yeah, it seems the problem is with the full mentat process. That it's accepted to go full mentat independently explains why we see fully crazy rogue mentats. It seems very much akin to their earlier problem with AIs - the systems to make full mentats are just not properly controlled.
ClawClawBite
Mad Engineering!
- Location
- Seattle, WA
Dear Dream Enterprise:
What can you tell me about Captain Robert April?
As noted in the previous game post; nope.
Mentats are loyal to the pursuit of knowledge, and the pursuit of knowledge alone. A House is merely where they get their resources from.
Jenny
anonymous user
- Location
- maryland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Is it too soon for a USS Kirk? What names would you like to see on Starfleet ships?
o:< "What did you think of Trager and her captain?"
Also, why didn't Nash see you with antennae, the way that Samhaya sees you as a lion?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Enterprise:
[preens, tries to smile shyly but fails the 'shyly' part hard] "Well, I wouldn't want to toot my own horn too loudly, especially since strictly speaking I haven't had one in about three hundred years, buut... Oh. That's not what you meant. I get it now." [smiles] "Of course they are! Think about it. Why wouldn't they be?"
Leslie:
"I half think Michel's pal Q, the one who acts like Trelane's grownup cousin with the weird sense of humor, yanked their planets over close to us as soon as we started getting handle on the damn Gaeni, that's what I think. The gods of space delight to- uh, rain on us, yeah, 'rain,' that's the word I meant to use. Yeah. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we're going to have to blast some of the crazy out of them one way or the other. And make their scientists go around with Vulcan minders. Seriously, Vulcans. Mentats. They deserve each other."
Enterprise:
"I think Sam and Nash should cut loose and go exploring right into the heart of the Licori empire. We can dodge a few patrols, um... maybe not dodge one or two..." [looks faintly embarrassed, as if caught indulging in a guilty pleasure] "Anyway. We find the upright and noble alien lord, probably these Tartresis fellows in the briefing packet, I bet they're fun! But then there's some kind of big misunderstanding and his bunch are in terrible danger, and they probably don't trust us, so we have a few brilliant improvisational moments and save the day, and now everything looks a lot brighter and we know the Licori aren't just a big wall of mad scientists. I hope Sam gets to give a speech. She's really good at speeches. I think with a little more practice she may be better than Jim, and Jim's better than anyone I've ever met. She won't convince them all but maybe she'll convince someone."
[thinks] "I'm sorry if that all sounded kind of flippant, but when you've saved the world enough times, it starts to be less of a tense crisis thing. More of an exciting adventure; you can't keep doing it if you aren't having fun. I'll be disappointed if it blows up into a major war, but that would be, uh... I'm not supposed to say this, but that would be kind of exciting too, as long as nobody does anything really loathsome. I bet Sapok can teach them a thing or two about applied astrophysics they thought we wouldn't know!" [shuffles foot]
"Okay, I probably wasn't supposed to get like that. Fleet gets a little stuffier every year. Anyway, changing the subject! Well, obviously... [eyes get faintly misty and more diffusely shiny] I am really, really happy to have Nash back. Buuut... [eyes narrow] Nash had better not go and give poor Sam the same sidelining treatment Will got when Jim came back. Will deserved better than that, and so does she. Also, Licori ships are really weird. And I don't remember T'Mir being this quiet and scary. I like her, but she worries me a little."
Enterprise:
"Captain April was very much a father to his crew. A good father. Scholarly. Peaceable man, but a lot better in a fight than you'd expect from listening to him talk. A bit scatter-brained sometimes, but in spite of that, he knew me better than I did, and he did a lot to get me into shape for some of the things that happened with Chris and Jim. A bit like Scotty did, actually, but from the goldshirt-eye view instead of the red. He and Doctor Poole were just adorable together. They spent most of my first cruise trying to pretend they weren't one tense moment from confessing their love. They got married later." [smiles]
[I'm merging these: S_J]
Eddie Leslie:
"Yeah, I think it's too soon. Though I wouldn't complain if it happens one of these days. Maybe even before I kick the bucket; there's a hell of a lot more centenarians around than there used to be. And, huh. Well, I'd like to see some of the good old names come back. I don't like what they've been doing with the Miranda and Centaur names lately; it means we get fewer of the old ones back into circulation. There's just something about a ship with a name that means something, one with a legacy to live up to."
[Leslie is quiet for a minute]
"We should have a Constellation again. Farragut, Discovery, Yorktown, Columbia, Potemkin. I know, I know, they're Earth names. But they really meant something, once. I'm all for bringing in the Vulcans and Andorians and such, too- it's a damn good thing we have a Seleya and a Docana. Wouldn't mind seeing the Amarki and the other new crowds join in too. They've been off to a good start; I hear the Amarki have been naming spaceships Salnas since it was some novelist writing pulps about three kids and an improbably competent scientist flying to the moon in a rebuilt mail rocket, back around the time they invented atomics."
Enterprise:
"Trager's a brave girl trying to pretend she's not even one little bit out of her depth in the deep night. I like her. I like Penelya, too. She reminds me a lot of, hm, what's your security clearance? Okay, okay, sorry, jeez! Anyway, she reminds me a lot of Charvanek. A lot." [smiles slyly] "Now, Penelya wound up getting hit with a slow burn instead of a fast one, but I think they have a lot in common, don't you? They'd both have made pretty good captains, in another life. I like them."
Enterprise:
"Well, hm." [thinks for a minute] "I suppose... Nash was in love with me ..." [blush] "so she saw me as someone she could love- a shen or a woman, depending on how your universal translator works. But I'm from Earth. So she saw me as a woman from Earth. Sam sees me as a big strong noble thing, so she saw me as a big strong noble thing- a talking creature. But I'm still from Earth. So she saw me as a creature from Earth- a lion. In her gut, she already half thought lions should be able to talk, anyway."
EDIT:
OH HEY EVERYONE! I just realized something!
If we go by Memory Beta's version, Rachel Garrett should be graduating from the Academy round about now, like literally this year, maybe. Anyone want to bring her aboard a ship?
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Not necessarily:
I suspect taking steps to arrange diplomacy on a massive scale is one of several ways to resolve this crisis. Another way might be to cooperate with the Gaeni scientific community in researching the 'artificial core collapse' techniques and methods of detecting and countering them - technobabble is traditional for Star Trek. Option Three is to seek an overt military solution, possibly in conjunction with the minor powers already in conflict with the Arcadian government.
Any of these could conceivably satisfy our overall objective of neutralizing the threat posed by hazardous experiments, assuming the game master considers them to be valid approaches.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Enterprise:
"Aaron..." [deep breath] "You know there's a lot to be said for the direct approach. Even if you are a silly intel boy at heart. But if you must ask..." [smiles indulgently] "I will say that she's got more of a sense of humor than you think. But she's also got dignity you could bend duranium bars around, so use your head."
"Aaron..." [deep breath] "You know there's a lot to be said for the direct approach. Even if you are a silly intel boy at heart. But if you must ask..." [smiles indulgently] "I will say that she's got more of a sense of humor than you think. But she's also got dignity you could bend duranium bars around, so use your head."
- Location
- Patriarchova
So it seems like the Licori are an unjustifiably proud people who have these illusions of unity and advancement and being a grand empire, and that's why we're having trouble negotiating with them as individual houses.
It seems like the best option for us is to take that away from them. Show them indisputable proof that all around them there are insterstellar societies many times larger and more powerful than them, and some of them (like the Romulans/Vulcans/Rigellians) much older. Show them how much happier and richer our people are than theirs.
In particular, make sure they understand that every single spacefaring society besides theirs has managed to figure out how to build computers that don't go crazy and kill everyone. Make them feel like the stupid, slow kid in the back of the class who can't figure out basic arithmetic while everyone else is starting multiplication. Convince them that they can't do anything right, all their ideas are bad, and that its a wonder they've even survived this long. Make it clear that their cut price alternative - mutants who die out in ten years and can't be trusted to not randomly blow up inhabited star systems - has made them the luaghingstock of every single other race who knows about them.
When their self esteem has been completely broken and they're too busy crying and cutting themselves to do dangerous experiments, we can declare victory.
DRUNKPOSTING LEILA WOOOOOOO
It seems like the best option for us is to take that away from them. Show them indisputable proof that all around them there are insterstellar societies many times larger and more powerful than them, and some of them (like the Romulans/Vulcans/Rigellians) much older. Show them how much happier and richer our people are than theirs.
In particular, make sure they understand that every single spacefaring society besides theirs has managed to figure out how to build computers that don't go crazy and kill everyone. Make them feel like the stupid, slow kid in the back of the class who can't figure out basic arithmetic while everyone else is starting multiplication. Convince them that they can't do anything right, all their ideas are bad, and that its a wonder they've even survived this long. Make it clear that their cut price alternative - mutants who die out in ten years and can't be trusted to not randomly blow up inhabited star systems - has made them the luaghingstock of every single other race who knows about them.
When their self esteem has been completely broken and they're too busy crying and cutting themselves to do dangerous experiments, we can declare victory.
DRUNKPOSTING LEILA WOOOOOOO
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Seems a bit overkill to me ....
- Location
- Patriarchova
No no overkill is when we ship in Betazoid and Vulcan projection-empath pairs to shoot depression rays at key public figures as they're being exposed to the propaganda.
That's an actual thing in show canon btw. The episode "Sarek," and probably others that I can't think of just now.
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another innocent soul corrupted by lucifer's water
You'll very rarely find a Wolf drunknpost because the first thing to go when the Devil's elixir flows through me is the ability to control fine motor functions
Edit: also, like Sarek, MY EMOTIONS