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Crazyeyes24
Sep 14, 2014

Your good vision is your fatal weakness!
50% don't give a poo poo, and we can promise to the other 50% that we will be VERY careful to only target people with guns with our nukes.
Not our fault if civilians stand next to them. Let's do it.

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Affi
Dec 18, 2005

Break bread wit the enemy

X GON GIVE IT TO YA
I'm all for killing the crap out of capitalists but there are good hard working future Martian citizens on those rocks.

Crazyeyes24
Sep 14, 2014

Your good vision is your fatal weakness!
And we thank them for their sacrifice in furthering Martian freedom to the Saturn system.

Dr. Snark
Oct 15, 2012

I'M SORRY, OK!? I admit I've made some mistakes, and Jones has clearly paid for them.
...
But ma'am! Jones' only crime was looking at the wrong files!
...
I beg of you, don't ship away Jones, he has a wife and kids!

-United Nations Intelligence Service

sniper4625 posted:

We're fanatics, No? They tried to strike at our very survivability as a planet, I'm sure jingoism is at a peak.

Speaking of jingoism:

A speech by current commanding officer Snark on the commencement of Operation Sherman.

(Max props to Cryo for voicing this and HiHo ChiRo for audio cleanup and properly uplifting BGM)

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

That's an excelent piece of work, thanks everyone!

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!



8 April, 1433hrs

The frigates launch a sweep of the Neptune system.


Elsewhere two likely targets are identified for Operation Vengence. The marines set out to capture them.


Over at Swift Tuttle the assault force begins loading again, it will take 12 hours to get everyone on board

9 April, 0148hrs

The slower IC ships set off while the rest of the fleet waits for CL Naomi to be repaired.

10 April, 0717hrs


A day passes without much to report. Prancer and Surprise intercept their target for operation Vengeance, an enormous 120kt civillian ship.

The Marines board and secure the vessel swiftly before any distress call can be made. However to their horror the modular cargo ship is shipping workers to Titania rather than being rigged for fuel transport! 250,000 souls in cryostasis!



The Marines report they can rig the ship using warheads from Prancer and the modular nature of the freighter means its possible to have the cryo containers detatch before the detonation but odds are a significant number of the frozen workers would be caught up in the disaster.

:siren:Goons, go or no-go on Operation Vengeance in light of this?:siren:

Saros fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Jul 22, 2017

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

Change of plans for Operation Vengeance, we now have hostages!

Send the ship to Triton. Maybe we have some VIPs onboard that the IC might actually care about.


Nevermind!

HiHo ChiRho fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Jul 22, 2017

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

Nobody important travels in cryosleep im afraid. Important people have fast liners that flit about to take them places. Sending it to Triton is tricky as Uranus is in the way and they would notice it deviating from its course and probably respond.

If Operation Vengeance goes as planned it could cripple the Titania docks and stop export of Spice Sorium from Uranus for a decent amount of time. This would put the hurt on the IC financially and if combined with a sucessful Saturn operation would leave only Jupiter as a source of fuel for them. This sort of disaster could bring them to the table and may even prod Terra into action as the flow of fuel is threatened.

Oh and some other good news I forgot:


Global warming is good my friends!

Saros fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Jul 22, 2017

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
What percentage of the total IC population does this represent?

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!


IC major settlements.

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
Is there any way to remove the pods before setting up the plan? I guess then there's the problem with what to do with them...

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

You could release them early to minimise casualties but the IC would notice and probably realise what was up reducing the odds of a successful operation.

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
OK. Just wanted to get that info out there. I have a pretty good idea from recent posts how this is going to go down, but I just wanted to check. :v:

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

We must abort, lest we debase ourselves to the savagery the IC commit. No need to rush our vengeance. changed vote, see below.

HiHo ChiRho fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Jul 22, 2017

Mukaikubo
Mar 14, 2006

"You treat her like a lady... and she'll always bring you home."
I recommend an Abort Mission.

Dr. Snark
Oct 15, 2012

I'M SORRY, OK!? I admit I've made some mistakes, and Jones has clearly paid for them.
...
But ma'am! Jones' only crime was looking at the wrong files!
...
I beg of you, don't ship away Jones, he has a wife and kids!

-United Nations Intelligence Service

Do not use that vessel for the operation. If I'm reading the map right there's a Gilles-class ship relatively close to it that the marines can capture instead. Now that we actually have an idea of what ship to capture we can take over a far less controversial target.

If that's an option at this stage of course.

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
Hey, if we don't stuff this ship with bombs for max warcrimes, what can we do with it? Where could we just unload 250k people that would be beneficial for us or at least not so detrimental that it outweighs the disadvantage inflicted on IC by taking them away?

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

Well I guess depending on how long the cargo filled with people in cryo stasis last being dumped, we could dump the colonists, fill the ship up with explosives and Fanatic Martian Marines to continue the delivery with care straight to the Titania colony. Then have something of ours try and smuggle the colonists to freedom at Triton.

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

HiHo ChiRho posted:

Well I guess depending on how long the cargo filled with people in cryo stasis last being dumped, we could dump the colonists, fill the ship up with explosives and Fanatic Martian Marines to continue the delivery with care straight to the Titania colony. Then have something of ours try and smuggle the colonists to freedom at Triton.

This is perfectly doable. However the cryo units are self contained pods that attach to the ships cargo spine, something like so:



So when the ship shows up at Titania the IC will notice its missing all its cargo and be rather suspicious. At that point you'd just have to charge the ship for the station and hope they didn't manage to disable it before it impacts.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


I'm gonna have to say abort. If Saturn goes well, the fuel from Uranus is gonna be almost entirely blockaded anyways, and killing hundreds of thousands of people to maybe gently caress up their docks isn't worth it. Even beyond the ideology, from a purely pragmatic standpoint it's not worth it. Corpses can't pay taxes or mine sorium, that's a quarter of a million prospective Martian citizens waiting to be liberated from their chains we just captured, not a bomb. Still useful, just in a different way.

Cathode Raymond
Dec 30, 2015

My antenna is telling me that you're probably wrong about this.
Soiled Meat
I would feel better about it if these cryodudes were IC execs but if they're strictly ordinary people I can't really get behind killing even a few thousand of them, and it sounds like if we detach the pods we lower our chance of success and endanger the marines.

It pains me to have to vote anti-hardliner even in this one instance but we must abort.

CoffeeQaddaffi
Mar 20, 2009
They're already frozen so introducing them to the cold embrace of space isn't going to do much. Keep on target.

OwlFancier
Aug 22, 2013

I vote to nick the ship and the people on it. Send them somewhere useful. Find some other way that doesn't involve murdering massive numbers of civilians. Abort.

LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords

Full Abort, let the colonists go. We don't want to make the same mistake the Germans made with the Lusitania.

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

Actually changing my vote again - Just divert the ship to a direction that is something extremely inconvenient for the IC. It should be a nice distraction from Plan Sherman, and maybe keep the IC fleet out of Titania for a bit.

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

Agreed, abort. Freeze dried people make terrible shrapnel anyway.

Fray
Oct 22, 2010

Abort. There will be other freighters, and if Sherman goes well then destroying the Titania docks is kind of redundant anyway. And I'd rather do it with a freighter going to Jupiter instead. Let's send the ship off somewhere that will be annoying for the IC to get them back.

Also, where are Whipple and Comas Sola right now?

Fray fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Jul 22, 2017

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd
A vote to proceed with the plan would be wasted, so might as well send the ship off on the most inconvenient vector

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


Excerpt from today's front page article on Spuzzfeed

Lakshmi Tupper posted:

Where the Hell is Everybody?
Lakshmi Tupper


"Humanity seems to have a bright future, i.e., a non-trivial chance of expanding to fill the universe with lasting life. But the fact that space near us seems dead now tells us that any given piece of dead matter faces an astronomically low chance of begating such a future. There thus exists a great filter between death and expanding lasting life, and humanity faces the ominous question: how far along this filter are we?” -Robin Hanson, “The Great Filter


Fifty years later, Hanson’s analysis seems more accurate than ever. The only intelligent life we’ve ever known has constantly adapted and improved its technology to fill every geographic and economic niche imaginable. Previously stable populations have consistently expanded to fill newly opened frontiers, inevitably expanding to fill all available space and maximize available resources. In a few short decades, they’ve colonized their solar system, and dream of the stars. They continue to expand, and it doesn’t look like they’re stopping any time soon.

Only being able to study ourselves gives us a rather insufficient sample size, but based on the data we do have, intelligent life should be rapidly expanding across the universe. Modern TNE engines can easily push up to 3% of the speed of light, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s theoretically possible with these materials. It stands to reason that any civilization with a head start of even just centuries should be flitting about amongst the stars, eating their fill of the cosmos and laughing at our primitive attempts to do the same. But, well, they aren’t. In the immortal words of Enrico Fermi, “where is everybody?”

Apparently, they’re all hanging out on Pluto. I’m sure everyone and their cat has heard that sensational LBN report by now. It’s completely unconfirmed, of course, and with every passing day that the promised paper fails to materialize it looks more and more like a hoax. You do have to admit that the sudden communications lockdown of the outpost there and strange signals coming out of the place are suspicious as hell, though. Whatever the truth is, it’s sure gotten me thinking.

Lando131
Jul 27, 2006

This is one way to find scum...

Saros posted:

The Marines board and secure the vessel swiftly before any distress call can be made. However to their horror the modular cargo ship is shipping workers to Titania rather than being rigged for fuel transport! 250,000 souls in cryostasis!



The Marines report they can rig the ship using warheads from Prancer and the modular nature of the freighter means its possible to have the cryo containers detatch before the detonation but odds are a significant number of the frozen workers would be caught up in the disaster.

:siren:Goons, go or no-go on Operation Vengeance in light of this?:siren:

While it could be debated whether the citizen employees of the IC are as responsible for the actions of their government as those in a democracy, in this the argument is moot. While this ship would undoubtedly slip past IC defenses the fact is the Earthers would not forgive the use of such a vessel as a weapon of war. It is one thing to attack a legitimate target and cause civilian casualties, but it is entirely another to attack using civilians themselves. Such an act might even draw Earth into the war against us.

I have no doubt of the ability of our brave men and women to defeat the likes of the IC and the Earthers in a two front war, but it would be far too costly- both for us and for Mars itself. I would not needlessly subject our future Eden to further nuclear fire. Our progress has been set back enough.

While I must agree not to use the colony ship as a weapon I am not overly concerned. The ease with which it was captured makes it clear recovering a more suitable transport should be a simple matter for our crack operatives.

pthighs
Jun 21, 2013

Pillbug
Abort

FourCartridge
Apr 30, 2015
Trow another one into the Abort count. As much as I loathe crossing the warcrimes line, I'm morbidly curious to see their reaction when they step out into Martian territory.

koolkevz666
Aug 22, 2015
drat it people, the IC already killed many of our own people and you are crying tears over theirs? Pathetic!!! You all care more for the cries of the IC women and children than you do for our own who demand vengeance for the attacks on our own citizens. We should use this rare opportunity to strike back. Rig the transport with explosives and sail it straight into the heart of the IC positions in orbit of Titania. We shall tear these IC fools to pieces with their own equipment. They will regret attacking our people!!

LostCosmonaut
Feb 15, 2014

Abort, the possible blowback isn't worth it.

Dirt5o8
Nov 6, 2008

EUGENE? Where's my fuckin' money, Eugene?
Abort (the colonists)

Pash
Sep 10, 2009

The First of the Adorable Dead

HiHo ChiRho posted:

Actually changing my vote again - Just divert the ship to a direction that is something extremely inconvenient for the IC. It should be a nice distraction from Plan Sherman, and maybe keep the IC fleet out of Titania for a bit.

This!

Jack2142
Jul 17, 2014

Shitposting in Seattle

I am deeply concerned over the implications of killing the colonists so I am abstaining.

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Jack2142 posted:

I am deeply concerned over the implications of killing the colonists so I am abstaining.

Whatever Space McCain.

Abort and send the ship to Earth or somewhere inconvenient? :v:

AmyL
Aug 8, 2013


Black Thursday was a disaster, plain and simple.
We lost too many good people, too many planes.
We can't let that kind of tragedy happen again.
Voting abort. Leave them alone.

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Ferrovanadium
Mar 22, 2013

APEX PREDATOR

-MOST AMMUNITION EXPENDED ON CIVILIANS 2015-PRESENT
-WORST KDR VS CIVILIANS 2015-PRESENT

As much as I want to scare the hell out of the IC by burning everything we can get our hands on, we need to avoid getting Earth mad at us right now. I'm positive killing those passengers could come back to bite us. Voting send the ship off on an inconvenient vector.

e: my title does not back me up here but oh well

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