Primal Conundrum

PROJECT INERTIA

The premise would be easier to buy into if it wasn't such a massive thing done by the government, since I can't picture any way that the actions described here wouldn't result in civil wars around the globe that could only end with the governments who did this being dissolved. If the initial time-lock happened after humanity was already colonizing space, then a rogue faction could have abducted colonists from a wide variety of places, or even colony ships which would be written off as the victim of disaster but with their actual fates unknown.

As the premise stands now, there would be too much dissent, including among those that the governments would be relying on to try and keep the peace. Short of having an army of literally brainwashed enforcers, they would be overthrown by everyone, including the very people they would be counting on to quell dissent.

Starships: The Infinity

We're gonna need to start getting some responses from Soloman here, we've got a couple characters now with pending questions.

Starships: The Infinity

Jack nodded. "Alright, let's get the heavy dropship gassed up. If it does turn out that we have to deploy into a hot area, we need that option available." She turned her attention towards Brian. "You read the Captain's dossier? I'd be happier if he was fresh out of college, from what I can tell he got grandfathered into his job because of the guy training him." She paused for a moment to blow a strand of hair out of her face. "A guy who got killed, so in my eyes the fact that he learned from that person doesn't mean all that much. That's exactly why I want to keep you safe, as long as we're working under this yahoo's orders, there's a good chance some of us are coming back injured. I don't think he has any clue what he's doing."

She rolled her eyes as her biomechanically enhanced senses picked up on the captain's response, before activating her comm to Soloman again. "People are gonna call 'em like they see 'em, so if you want respect start acting in a way that deserves it. Now I'm asking you again, what moons or stations are we landing on? I need to know what kind of gravity and terrain to expect, since there's obviously no way we're landing on a Jovian planet." She turned off her comm. She sorely wanted to continue and tear a strip off her new CO, but so far he had only SOUNDED extremely incompetent, and until he actually proved that fact there wasn't a lot she could do. Taking a deep breath, she looked around the briefing room.

"Other than fueling the heavy dropship, I want a quick overview of the med bay so that we know what options we have if someone gets hurt." She looked pointedly at Brian. "I don't want to find out at the last second that we don't have the tools to properly fuse a broken bone or anything. From what I know of this class of ship, I expect it to be fully stocked, but with a captain like this I want a second opinion from someone who actually knows what they're doing." Looking around at the ragtag group before her, she gave a stern nod.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in the cargo bay setting up my weaponry. Keep me informed of any updates. Dismissed." Ducking her head, she turned and walked out of the briefing room before once again opening a comm to Soloman. "I'm also going to need an ETA on our arrival at whatever Uranus facility we're headed to, whenever you could kindly answer any of my mission-relevant, important questions that you're so far ignoring."

Starships: The Infinity

She grinned, not in a sarcastic or mean way, but actually seeming relieved. "Good. I realize it doesn't feel like you'll be doing as much, but you'll be a lot more useful to us there than on the frontlines." She crouched down in front of him, bringing herself to eye level. "Don't get me wrong, what you do is useful, but that's exactly why I'm trying to keep you safe. If someone gets hurt, we're going to need you, and you can do a lot more good when you're not filled with bullet holes. What we need is a doctor, someone to patch us up, not another grunt running around and getting shot at." She stood up, giving him a sincere smile. "Let us go and get hurt. It's our job to take the stupid risks, and if we didn't have people like you waiting to put us back together we would have lost a lot more people by now. Let's face facts, our captain?" she nodded her head in the direction that Soloman had walked off towards. "he seems like an idiot. I don't expect that we'll be getting good orders, so there's a good chance that he'll put us in situations where we wind up injured. As long as he's running the show, I need to know that there's SOMEONE kept in reserve who has their head on right. It's not so much if, but WHEN we get hurt, we're going to need someone on hand who knows how to put all the parts back in the right places."

She leaned backwards, flexing her back, the movement somewhat incongruous with her mechanical form. "I know it probably feels like you're sitting on the sidelines, but the best thing you can do to help is to stay safe and be ready if we need medical attention. From what I read of your dossier, your strength really is focused on medicine and healing, and so it only makes sense to play to that. People like you? You could very well save more lives than any of us soldiers, but only if you're alive to do it."

Starships: The Infinity

She turned her gaze to him. "First up, if we're going to be 50 miles from the touchdown point, we'll just move the shuttle. Second, if you take a bad hit we have NOBODY to patch you up. You wanna save lives? You'll have an easier time doing it if you're not dead. You think your training as a medic is going to be enough to keep you safe out there?" She walked forward, towering over him. "I was a trained soldier with field experience before they blew me into bloody chunks and our techs put me back together in this thing." She knocked on her chest for emphasis, the metal thunking sound filling the room. "We don't have the luxury of having backup medics, so until that changes I'm not putting you at more risk than I need to. If you can't follow that order and stay on the shuttle, then you can stay here on the ship. You're no good to anybody dead, and I'd rather trained soldiers who know the risks go down there as opposed to some hot-headed kid with more enthusiasm than sense." She shifted her weight on her hips and crossed her arms.

"So which is it gonna be, are you gonna stay on the shuttle like you're told, or am I gonna have to leave you here on the ship?"

Starships: The Infinity

Jack just tossed the earpiece back to him. "Don't need it. All my comm hardware is built in. Keep your trinkets." She smirked a bit as he left, presumably off to go do whatever it was that self-important blowhards did to earn their keep. Taking a deep breath, she looked around at the group still in the room.

"Well, that briefing told us a lot, just not much about the mission. Still, there are things we can do to prepare for it, as best we can. First up, if I'm going to be leading the team, I need to know what equipment we have and that it's working right. I'd like a status report on any shuttles or interceptors we might have, along with their weapons, armor, flight specs, the like. If we're running bodyguard for a convoy, then we might have to use them if we encounter any problems while en route. Beyond that, while I don't think support staff is going to have to fight at all, it would still be a good idea to keep a weapon handy just in case something DOES go FUBAR. I'm not talking a pocket knife people, carry a gun." Pausing to think, she turned to Brian.

"If we need to go planetside, you're coming along and you're waiting in the shuttle, unless they've got tissue paper for armor. We don't need you getting shot, but we need you handy if someone needs immediate attention. Now, last question I had but didn't get a chance to ask..." with a mental command that her neural implants reacted to, she opened a comm to Soloman.

"Since I'm really doubting that we're going to try to land on a couple of gas giants, would you care to tell us what moon or satellite of Jupiter we're headed to, and which moon or satellite of Uranus we're going to be dropping the ammo off at?"

Starships: The Infinity

Jack rolled her eyes at the captain who was increasingly sounding like a wannabe Drill Sergeant. "Take it down a notch, Commander. If we need ground support or extraction, that's where I come in. Leave the medic somewhere safe, I can drag any injured personnel back to safety where we DON'T risk having a hole blown through the skull of our support staff. We have one medical officer from what I saw of the unit roster, if sparky there gets critically wounded there's not gonna be anyone to patch him up."

Putting her hands on her knees, she rose to her full standing height. "Besides, we're still in Earth controlled space. Even if we DO run into hostiles, there's no way they'll have the numbers to pose a serious threat. We can just shell any exposed targets with the ship's guns, and we have enough ground firepower to dig them out of any bunkers they might somehow have set up. Unless there's some gaping hole in our intel, there's no reason to expect heavy resistance." She fixed Soloman with an unamused stare. "At least, nowhere near heavy enough to put support staff in the line of fire."

Starships: The Infinity

Jack shifted her weight, causing the crate beneath her to creak in protest. When she opened her mouth to speak, her voice had a slightly synthetic edge to it that implied some level of cybernetic assistance to her voice, but even that couldn't mask the distinctive rasp that only a smoker's voice would have. "Experimental stealth tech on a high end warship, all for an ammo drop? There's either something more that we aren't being briefed on here, or else someone idiot in the brass thinks we're a freighter because this is some shit use of materiel if I've ever seen one. Though to be fair..." she looked around the room, her face the very picture of unimpressedness. "...I've seen forests that are less green than some of the faces here, they could probably do with a gimmie mission so they can decide if they'd rather run home or not before things get serious."

Starships: The Infinity

The earth-shaking sound of metal on metal footsteps warned of Jacqueline's arrival long before she came into sight. She had already been busy around the lower levels of the ship for some time, helping to move and install the large upright docking cradle that served as her necessary alternative to a bed. With her massive frame, there was no bunk that could fit her, and even if there was the regular diagnostics and maintenance required by her suit was most easily dealt with during a normal sleep cycle. Since such a thing couldn't fit into the crew quarters, a small section of the cargo hold had been cordoned off to function as her domicile. What it lacked in privacy it more than made up for in functionality, as the cargo hold was one of the relatively few places on the ship where she never had to worry about damaging the roof by raising her arms too high.

When she arrived at the briefing room, she had to duck slightly to fit in through the doorway. Her suit's integrated helmet was inactive, revealing her heavily scarred face and messily tied-back hair. The suit itself was blocky and industrial looking in a way that only military hardware was, and combined with her size she almost looked like one of her parents was an actual tank. Looking around, her one good eye passed over the available seating to rest on some crates left in the corner—crates that looked sturdy enough that they wouldn't just crumple under her weight. Walking over, she eased herself into a sitting position, bringing her head to eye-level with the rest of the room's occupants. Drumming her fingers on her knee with one hand, she scrutinized the rest of the crew that had so far shown up.

The War Over Driahn Peaks (High Fantasy)

<Snipped quote by Primal Conundrum>

OK, but how is what he does horrific to himself? Surely, even with an alien mindset, he must have done something he finds abhorrent or trying.

@reddy

Has The Joker done things that he finds abhorrent? Not really, he's a psychopath. Such minds do exist.

Anyway, I think we've established I'm not a good fit for this RP, so I'll head out.