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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Reader mode
My guess is that this will have negative effects on the Crown Imperium via sanctions from the GLC. Oswin's "great victory" will bite him in the ass, maybe via sciencell. If not, I could see the GLC prohibiting trade with their empire, denying them their expansion and maybe other punishments. Hope this doesn't strain Paul's relationships with the various powers in Vega.
 
Right. Conventional fleet not a one-shot WMD.
in a perfect world there'll be heads rolling for the collateral damage- the alledged portal tech sounds like a justification born of partial intelligence by someone looking for Pr/Glory-or someone sweating bullets in a panic about destroying blackmail material/incriminating info- there's no way In Tiamat's CENSORED that initial containment required this.... sloppy, unprofessional mess- THiS is a waste of a perfectly repurposeable planet with existent infrastructure, and a priceless trove of scientific and engineering data that would be morally/diplomatically unfeasable to Aquire through normal methods...

as HK-47 would say, dealing with a threat like this calls for precision, skill, ART- the resource loss is akin to blowing up a Derilict in Sword of the Stars instead of just shooting its handful of turrets off to disarm it (netting a large global research output bonus in a 4X- significant leg up)

.... and given how triggerhappy the fleet was, I wonder how many captives took friendly fire directly....
 
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Mr Zoat said:
A smaller flotilla have hulls decorated with the design that shows their membership of the Jovial Marauders.
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*to the Jovial Marauders

Mr Zoat said:
energy weapon hits will disburse through
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*disperse

Mr Zoat said:
"I will speak to you once this operation is over."

She looks mildly puzzled, but turns and flies her charges away.
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I wonder if he's going to invite her to visit Earth. If Hal Jordan is training a recruit, it would be fitting for Paul to meet them with a recruit of his own.
 
Mr Zoat said:
I put them in. Then I get told to take them out because I use them wrong.
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That's what she said!
No, no that's a terrible joke. Let me try again.

Sadly, English grammar is a bit more picky than the spider queen...
No, too lowbrow.

It's like linguistic hokey pokey!
No, that sucks too.

Fuck it.
 
Mr Zoat said:
"I'm troubled by it in the sense that it represents a sub-optimal resolution, and one that could easily have been avoided if someone had called me. Based on the force available to you I recognise that it wasn't a terrible solution."

Komand'r looks pleased, though Blake merely looks thoughtful.
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I guess some of them thought he wouldn't agree with killing the Psions. He's actually miffed about how they did it. Hopefully this will cause them to let him know the next time they do something this massive and important so that he could help and offer his advice.

Komand'r is probably happy that someone she respects agrees with this while Blake might be thinking that more lives could have been saved if they let Paul in the loop earlier. Hope the Guardians don't blame Paul for this mess and only lay it on the Crown Imperium.
 
Messy...

If you've got Time Scoop tech this seems a good situation to consider using it... Any slip-ups will be neatly hidden in the magma... Just need replacement biomass for any slaves 'saved', and plenty of data storage for all the info acquired. Or, if you (just) want to be humanitarian, just use the scoop process to acquire the souls of the slaves as they die, so they can be relocated to somewhere without psions.
 
Maaan. This is...suboptimal.

I fully expect Paul to punish Kori and Komand'r for this. Maybe even take away their rings for a time.

I get that the Psions were 95% dickbags that no one is going to miss...but Lanterns under Paul's nominal command just aided in the commitment of total genocide, and couldn't be bothered to give him so much as a phone call.

Genocide is the kind of thing you pass up the chain of command.

Edit: Also, while I might be getting those numbers wrong, there were a considerable amount of children who could have yet been raised to not be evil little alien Mengeles. But instead of taking any amount of care of planning, they went straight for the brutish planet-melting option. Yeah, fuck everyone involved in making this decision.
 
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So the culprits were... everyone and their dog! I must admit, I wasn't expecting for Adam Blake (and Komand'r as well, I guess) to be so proactive; I mean, wanting to destroy the Psions and the Citadel's allies, of course, but managing to get almost everyone together playing ball to attack the Psions?

I assumed Blake would be recuperating first, trying to catch up second and then being a space hero for Tamaran and some other people. Building a grand alliance to destroy the Psions and the Gordanians (because I think that operation should be part of all of this as well), never crossed my mind that he would think of that.

I do feel sorry for the collateral damage victims, plus the information lost, and I get why the Illustres is (and I myself would be) pissed, but at the same time... he did stop paying any kind of attention to the Vega Systems, no "report to me anything significant" to Kom and Kori, no "I should check, even from afar, the Psions and Gordanians", no "here's a special communicator, Amalak, Jarko, Queen, if you would like my opinion or to say something", nothing at all. No wonder he got all blindsided by this.
 
Senevri said:
Kori and Koma were there. Komand'r hung on the command bridge while Koriand'r was getting shot at by friendly fire. Not cool.
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Perhaps, but can't really say it's not in-character, even with SI-based character development.

I'd just like to echo several posters' disbelief about no one getting in contact with Paragon about this, Koriand'r being the most egregious (and the princesses should also be reporting to Vril Dox ll); plus his inability to sense this happening sooner- the Vega forces conceivably know about his empathy and could block it with Kallista's magic but I'd assume that would be apparent. I'm also confused as to what was going on with all the fires in Emana if an inter-planetary peace had been reached (unless individual planets' sovereignty is always upheld and no one else intervenes)- how much of everything this episode was a sham, and how were they pulling it off? Any decently intelligent plan would have involved postponing the attack till Paragon left again- though misleading the man who saved half of you from death or worse and who almost single-handedly destroyed the Citadel (and this before he has a Lantern Corps) doesn't suggest much intelligence or integrity- I'm more irritated by the lack of the former than the latter though, since this course of action is quite plausible in a situation like Vega (perhaps Paragon should have revisited Vega sooner instead of hanging around commissioning an Earth video game about it).


I'd also expect the Psions to have some last-ditch attempt to contact the Green Lantern Corps, or some last-resort mad scientist WMD that would make attacking them like this a really bad idea- I believe they were involved in trapping Adam Blake in the first place so I'd imagine they should be able to counter him (which may conceivably still happen, since the elite and thus maddest-scientist Psions are still alive for now). Though the lack of such options in Renegade's final attack on the Wombworld means they don't have such things for some reason. I believe most slaves and civilians also died in Renegade's attack on the Wombworld, since I can't recall any mention of rescue operations, so the material situations seem roughly similar- it's the lack of intention, knowledge and possibly competence that separates the Paragon from the Renegade in this instance (It's similar to my earlier observations about Paragon having a wider scope of more diffuse positive effect than Renegade's area-focused intense impact, likely due to the former's enlightenment and the latter's lack of such enlightenment coupled with his metaphysical nature as a god of conquest).


I'm fine with the general thrust of this storyline- horrible, wasteful things can and do happen in a power vacuum to ex-oppressors, and bystander/civilian casualties will generally still happen or even increase. Paragon's actions in Vega mirror those of the DCAU Justice League in the Crime Syndicate (the episode demonstrating the poor aftermath happened soon before this, so that's good narrative set-up) and his own League- righteous face-punching of the bad guys and not really dealing with the fallout. Though I'm more lenient on him since he did leave apparently loyal and moral (at least with Koriand'r) subordinate Lanterns in the area (which also makes me wonder if King My'andr or the Blades of Alstair knew about this). I anticipate an expulsion of them from the Corps (his smiles and positive treatment of Koriand'r's small-scale actions- which apparently would have been suicidal without Paragon's intervention- would make a punishment for their large-scale actions have more emotional impact).

I just have logical issues about how this plan continued unchanged when Paragon was in the system, and as mentioned the lack of contacting him in prior months from anybody.
 
Mr Zoat said:
Komand'r looks pleased, though Blake merely looks thoughtful.
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Blackfire was on one of the ships that was firing at her sister as she attempted rescue efforts?
I know Starfire can be a bit dumb, and I can see her trying to mount a last minute rescue and maybe getting herself killed, but Blackfire seems remarkably unconcerned.

Given her canon characterisation, i hope Paul takes a good long look at her desires, to see if 'murder my sister' is anywhere on the list.
It wouldn't suprise me at all if she was the one who suggested not telling Paul, and then that starfire fly into the line of fire.
 
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DrThoth said:
I'd also expect the Psions to have some last-ditch attempt to contact the Green Lantern Corps, or some last-resort mad scientist WMD that would make attacking them like this a really bad idea- I believe they were involved in trapping Adam Blake in the first place so I'd imagine they should be able to counter him (which may conceivably still happen, since the elite and thus maddest-scientist Psions are still alive for now).
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They still have the technology, but it only became practical to deploy it during the attack on Citadel Complex as the Tamaranian fleet withdrew. Now that he knows about it using it is much harder.
Though the lack of such options in Renegade's final attack on the Wombworld means they don't have such things for some reason. I believe most slaves and civilians also died in Renegade's attack on the Wombworld
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Psion civilians, yes. Slaves, no. Not only did he make a point of rescuing at least one detention centre's worth himself, but he deployed hundreds of Lanterns whose duties included freeing the psions' victims.
 
Chaoswind said:
All of them save a handful... Did you miss the update?

The fleet killed everyone.
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What I was thinking was how many were knowing shots directly at area's they knew contained captives, and how many were just within splash radius of other targets- it's mostly a semantic question, but it does help build a picture of what the commanders/gunners were thinking/planning
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
The first alien Starman (Mikaal Tomaz being the second). Did that question earlier remind you of him?
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unlikely, Mr Zoat usually has at least a half dozen chapters ready to go as buffer. This chapter had probably been ready to go for a week or more.

If we can recall that a character exists, Zoat certainly can and plan for them.
 
Norgarth said:
unlikely, Mr Zoat usually has at least a half dozen chapters ready to go as buffer. This chapter had probably been ready to go for a week or more.

If we can recall that a character exists, Zoat certainly can and plan for them.
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Eh... While I've got quite a few chapters stored up... When I get a bit stuck for what to do next, I write something for the 1st of April episode. And I wrote three parts that ended up not fitting in and so will be the start of the episode after next. My actual now-buffer isn't all that long.
 
Massgamer said:
I still don't understand why seemingly everyone in Vega thought they couldn't tell Paul or ask for his help on this matter. He needs to discipline the sisters, who are his subordinates, why they didn't tell him anything either.
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By leaving for 4+ months and not even bothering to follow up once via coms Paul, an outsider to begin with, effectively removed himself from the chain of consideration and command.
 
Vaermina said:
By leaving for 4+ months and not even bothering to follow up once via coms Paul, an outsider to begin with, effectively removed himself from the chain of consideration and command.
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Except the sisters are literally in his chain of command as long as they have rings, and genocide should be something you should mention to your boss beforehand
 
Ardy said:
Except the sisters are literally in his chain of command as long as they have rings, and genocide should be something you should mention to your boss beforehand
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Sort of. The Green Lantern Corps has a very loose chain of command. Lanterns are expected to deal with things in their Sector without referring it upwards all that much. The Orange Lanterns on Maltus don't work like that, but there isn't an established tradition for the ones the SI recruits.
 
Ah yes. the space police have come to check the disturbance. The open market is going to re-learn that it lives by the sufferance of the green men upstairs.

Incoming back hand of Justice!
 
I can get OL being irritated from the simple fact that they planned this whole operation to intentionally exclude him rather than just a consequence of it being so small potatoes it got overlooked. There should be some form of consequence atleast for the two sisters cause while he may allow his Lanterns freedom to focus on what they truly want I think its common sense that glassing a planet with the aid of a fleet and TK FTL is a detail upper management needs to know. The GLC coming to Vega territory seems like a nice logical consequence that an ambitious admiral probable did not consider.
 
Jiggity-Jig (part 21)
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    • 9th February
    Who even cares?

    "Hey, Orange."

    I continue staring moodily at the clouds of Karna as they sail beneath me.

    Guy sits down next to me on the lump of defence satellite hull I dragged here from the Wombworld. I suppose that we may as well call it something else, now. I'll vote for 'Sheol' if anyone bothers talking to me about it.

    "Kind of a shitty way t' end tha day, huh?"

    "It's only midday. If I can stop the karnans and gordanians killing each other I'll…"

    I'll what?

    "I won't feel completely terrible about it."

    "'least it wasn't tha Queen causin' trouble."

    "You ever.. have a planet killed on your watch?"

    "Well…" He shrugs. "When you're on tha Honor Guard, every planet's parta yer watch."

    I turn my head and glare at him for a moment.

    "Had a crazy AI turn a planet inta paperclips one time. I mean, we evacuated it before it killed everyone, but I still got a ringside seat at a whole world getting' 'maximised'."

    "To be clear, I don't care about the psions dying at all. They were every bit as bad as the citadelians."

    "Yeah? What about their kids?"

    "Psions are vat-grown from tailored genes. Then they get raised by other psions. As a technique it's not-. It wasn't quite as reliable as what the citadelians did, but it was pretty close. That isn't like the gordanians, where they're just 'martial' and 'aggressive'. There aren't any non-mad scientist psions any more than there were non-warrior citadelians."

    I turn fully to face him, crossing my legs as I do so.

    "The Guardians changed their minds that quickly?"

    He nods. "Logic, right. No point holdin' up yer end of tha treaty when tha other guys 're all dead."

    "Did the 'New Vega Alliance' okay it?"

    "They didn't complain too loud."

    "Is someone going to kick Gretti into doing his job, or is Green Man handling it himself?"

    "Wouldn't mind kickin' Gretti, but with tha Vega Alliance workin' on the pirate problem… Or, y'know, not causin' it so much, I'm not sure he needs help."

    "I could have helped them do this better."

    "Yeah."

    "Dox would have loved training our Lanterns against the psion defences."

    "Kinda cold."

    "The psion civilisation was evil, but it was a relatively small and contained evil. I'd rather we discover the problems with our training here than against the Reach." I exhale. "If they'd actually talked to me, I'd have been delighted that they'd-."

    I feel an impulse from down below.

    "Excuse me."

    I send a tether down, then yank, a surprised karnan woman with a simple laser weapon appearing in front of me.

    "Put the gun down."

    "Wh-? What?"

    "The gun you were about to fire. Put it-."

    She focuses on me. "You're protecting them? After what they did to my family, to my-."

    "I'm protecting the ceasefire that is preventing millions more people dying. Once Karna is at peace, you are free to pursue your personal vendettas without my intervention, but until then I will not let you make the situation worse. Now put down the gun."

    She hesitates, then releases it and I let it float away into the void.

    "Thank you."

    A flash of orange and she reappears at ground level.

    "Ah, that they'd sorted things out without me."

    "That was new."

    "Only good thing about this trip. I knew Blake was intelligent, but-."

    "No, I meant grabbin' people off the ground like that. How'd you pick up on that, anyway?"

    "I can search large groups for particular desires. You should be able to do something similar."

    "Heh. Nice." He idly looks down at the planet before returning his attention to me. "So what you got goin' on next?"

    "I'm making sure this bit goes alright, then I'm… Going back to Earth. I'm going to try putting Doctor Roquette in touch with Leonard Snart, she was having problems setting up cold fields for her nanofabricator… Unless you think there's something else I'm missing?"

    "Nah. 'less you think there is?"

    "They're working together more or less rationally. I could stick my oar in, but I'm not feeling any pressing need to." I shake my head. "Would you mind looking after this for a few minutes? I need to go and talk to Koriand'r."

    Guy nods. "Think I can handle that. Keep tha kitties from shootin' the crocs, right?"

    "Close enough."

    I step out

    and reappear on Changraylyn, a handful of grey-skinned melted-waxwork-looking locals looking around before they go back to ignoring me.

    "Lantern Koriand'r, do you have a moment?"

    The priest she was talking to bows and then walks away, leaving Koriand'r and I alone.

    "You are unhappy."

    "Yes, yes I am."

    She nods solemnly, walking closer and… Hugging me? I instinctively hug back, but I'm.. not sure why she's doing th-.

    "I used my ring to find as many of the psions' prisoners as I could, even as the fleet began firing upon the planet. It showed me them dying whenever their cells were hit." She sniffs. "I was not skilled enough to save even a fraction-."

    "And that's why I'm annoyed. Koriand'r, why didn't you call for aid?"

    "You gave us these rings and charged us with protecting this region. I did not want to let you down further by calling for help."

    "Koriand'r, I don't care about that. And neither should you. What matters is creating a decent civilisation, providing succour to the good and making sure that the bad can't hurt the good. The whole reason why we have a Corps is so that the parts which are faced with more opposition, the parts which are having a hard time, can get help from the rest. You feel bad calling for help? Lantern Ragnar would feel that he was being lazy because he missed out on the fight. This job doesn't just require that we put our bodies on the line, but sometimes our pride as well because the outcome for the people in our care is what matters most."

    I pull back slightly, looking her full in the face.

    "Do you understand?"

    She nods. "Yes."

    "Okay. Now then, since the 'New Vega Alliance' has things planned out so well, where can I make myself useful?"
     
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