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From: Jinxie (Jinx999@hotmail.vega.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Winnipeg
I really, really hope we're dealing with a panicky reporter here, because the worst case scenario - according to Wikipedia, the US army practices the execution of hostages (10 for every man lost) to discourage attacks. And the situations moving too fast to read through the books (the price of which has gone through the roof).
Speaking of which, we'll never be able to keep copies out of our (hopefully temporary) guest's hands.
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From: "Donald Antonio" (Dontonio@familyaffair.org)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re:Operational Planning
Gentlemen. I realize that I might not have been the most ...
welcome addition to your little coffee klatch, but even I cant
ignore the fact that most of my own... family connections
have suddenly vanished and been replaced by people who seem to
be more than a few canolis short of a dessert plate.
Accordingly, I am offering the full support of my own modest
organization to assist in these efforts any way we can. In
addition, I will be dispatching my own 'Goop' specialist to
the convention as my personal representative and contribution
to the effort. He's a good man, but he does seem to have...
anger management issues at times. Just keep him away from
Kohran. Things tend to go boom around him as well (Not
intentionally, of course) and that could wind up being like
accidentally assembling to sub critcal masses.
May I also point out that while we have seen what this...
"crakerpot" feels, we dont know just how the average Johnny
on the street feels about life under this joker. Rather than
a flat out invasion, maybe subversion? As it happens I have
a very substantial sub group for whom smuggling people and
material into such an area would be just another day at the
office?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
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From: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
Why Christopher, don't you trust me? I'm hurt.
--Fnord
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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From: Chris Marsden (rockhound@greenwood.us)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
I trust you exactly as much as Roosevelt trusted Stalin.
Fortunately you're more worthy of it than he was.
Stay that way.
--
Chris Marsden
Greenwood State
"... that government of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish from this Earth."
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
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From: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
We can sit here all day reminding ourselves how much we *hate* each other but we don't have the time.
Attempts to contact the Philadelphia gov't are ongoing. Even if we have to piggyback on the Canadians or use messenger weasels, we'll get through in the next 72 hours. Be ready within 24 hours of that to rendezvous at Earth-Luna L2 & proceed downstairs.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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From: MSGT Lufy Starleaf (lufy.starleaf@gss.fen)
To: Chris Marsden (rockhound@greenwood.us)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: Winnipeg
To summarize the hurt feelings of the 191USA commander
on the scene: "help, help, I'm being repressed!".
Lieutenant Castleton, the negotiator you sent down with us,
is still talking to them, but that seems to be a good summary
of what they have to say. The Yank CO, a Major Abernathy, is
apparently very upset by the idea that Canadians can get
along perfectly well without his tanks to keep them away from
dangerous ideas like freedom and not being Americans if they
don't want to be. I'm trying very hard to keep this one
particular Canadian Foreign Affairs guy away from him, the
fellow's a rabid Free Quebecoise and even the RCMP guys are
looking like they'd rather be able to send him away.
So far, there hasn't been much more in the way of shooting.
Trying to keep it that way,
--
Asskicker Supreme
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
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OOC: So here's a little snippet that I was working on last night before the thread fucking exploded. Less email, more narrative and based on an earlier email.
November 23, 2016
Korolev Air Force Base
Officer's Housing
Quote:To: "Gen. Mal Fnord, VVS" (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subject: Re: EMERGENCY CONVENTION
> Second, keep the warriors bottled up. Turtledove stories aren't my cup of tea, but Kagome tells me that this particular series of his was up there with the Draka stories for unpleasantness. Gen. Fnord, I want you to head this part of the operation. Mr. Marsden, Mr. Rhodes, please assist Gen. Fnord with this.
No, that list of people isn't a coincidence. Yes, my daughter does keep me in the loop, unlike some people. But considering I kept the grimoires secret from you, fair's fair.
Let me know how much kaboomite you need. I'll try to keep Bob from dropping rocks on our new neighbors.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
Your problem, Noah, is that you have a tendency to gloat too much.
The thought flashed through Mal's mind as he read the latest email to hit his queue. He the turned his gaze from the computer to contemplate said daughter. (Who also happened to be Mal's apprentice, accomplice and girlfriend, but that's largely beside the point.)
Sora, for her part, was busy repairing and hardening the fried DQS sensor on her workbench. Mal held the look for a few seconds, then realizing that Sora was engrossed in her work, cleared his throat.
Sora looked up. "Hm, did you say something, honey?" Mal turned the screen around so Sora could look at it. She scanned the message, her cheeks pinked a little. "Oh. Um, yeah. Are you mad?"
Mal thought about that, then discarded that with an internal shrug. "No, love, I'm not. It was sneaky, underhanded, an end run around authority and exactly what I would've done in your shoes. So no, I'm not mad. In fact," he pitched his voice in a twisted mock-Palpatine, "your training is progressing nicely, my young apprentice."
"Thank you, my master," intoned Sora. In a more normal tone of voice, she continued, "I was worried that you might be duplicating effort, and since Noah's good at handling that, I figured I'd get him in the loop."
"He's right that we shouldn't divide our forces, but then that's what FIREFALL's for – militarily at least." Mal shrugged. "Still, I'm worried that Noah's got too much invested in chasing a white whale to look at the bigger picture here."
"What, you don't think we'll ever find them?"
Mal sighed. "I think it's probable that we'll find One-Ninety-One, and even establish contact. Maybe set up some kind of, I don't know, universal bridge that'll let people move freely between the two worlds. But reverse the effect? That's like asking us to put a man on Pandora using only Congreve rockets. I don't think it can be done, even with handwavium."
Sora tsk'd. "Such pessimism."
"I know, we've pulled miracles out of our hats before," Mal smiled wanly. "I just don't see us waving a magic wand and just... fixing things, y'know? Even if we can, it'll take years. Decades, possibly. So we've got to play the hand we're dealt."
"I'm sure we'll come up with something," Sora replied confidently. "Even if it takes us years, Kohran and A.C. and Dee and Indiana and even the Professor are working on a solution. That's a lot of mental firepower. They'll figure it out."
"And you, of course."
"Of course. I'm not as inventive as they are," Sora allowed, "but if they give me the blueprints, I can build it."
Mal nodded. "While you're busy making the mysterious forces of the cosmos your bitch, I'll take care of the hard stuff downstairs. If we are stuck with these guys for the long haul, then we ought to engage in a little spring cleaning." He gave Sora a look. "I hope you won't be too mad if I drag you away from the workstation every now and then if I need somebody to play adjutant, hm?"
Sora looked thoughtful. "Wee~lll," she said, "I suppose that would be alright now and then. You might have to... negotiate, though."
"Negotiate, huh?"
"Oh yes. Dare I say, they'll have to be... involved negotiations." Sora bit the inside of her cheek to keep from completely losing the innocent expression on her face.
"Well then, my dear, shall be begin negotiating?"
"Thought you'd never ask."
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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05-27-2010, 10:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-17-2017, 11:11 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
From: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
> I still recommend that we send Benjamin down to dicker with Featherston;
> It's a low-probability event, but we should at least take a shot at it before throwing hardware around.
We'd be happy to shuttle Ben or whoever ends up approaching Featherston in the Corners -- you
know, the carrot *and* the stick both visible.
-- Bob
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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05-27-2010, 11:02 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-17-2017, 11:12 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
Subject: Re: Information which may be useful in the current situation
To: "Noah Scott" (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
From: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Noah, something that occurred to me which might be useful. Did the girls include the engineering
details for Mirai's Mol unit in their gift package? If so, get it to your researchers *now*, if you
haven't already beaten me to the idea. That thing is 50% of a dimensional gate all by itself, and
it's hardtech. For all we know, it just needs more than a watch battery to power it in order to go
past forming a pocket dimension and into punching a hole into a different one altogether.
-- Bob
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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From: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
> We'd be happy to shuttle Ben or whoever ends up approaching
> Featherston in the Corners -- you know, the carrot *and* the stick
> both visible.
I'm a little leery of putting noncombatants right into the middle of a potential crossfire like that. Yeah, I *know* that the CSA isn't likely to have anything that can hurt the Corners in one throw, but they do have a shitload of arty and the station makes for a nice fat target. A massed strike could very well crack the hull or spring the seals.
--MF
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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To: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
From: A.C. Peters (rock_doc@prometheus_forge.fen)
CC: "The Jason" (the_jason@yggdrasil.fen)
Date: 23/11/2016
Subject: Re: EMERGENCY CONVENTION
> Folks, I trust that all of you will be attending. I was serious when I said we can't duplicate our efforts.
Sorry about delay. Hair been Blue Supergiant, no sleep. Will be there. Compos Mentis, Kas'll slap me.
A.C., can't talk - CREATING.
To: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
From: Greenpeace Crolis (dryad@prometheus_forge.fen)
CC: "The Jason" (the_jason@yggdrasil.fen)
Date: 23/11/2016
Subject: Re: EMERGENCY CONVENTION
Sorry about that guys. A.C.'s been grabbed by the Inspiration, and is quite frankly scaring us (as of this email, the Forge is the number two Interwave node in the System. A.C. took about four hours to put it together, leaping into Drones like the Happy Fun Ball). I don't think she'll be sleeping for a while. Kasumi and Andy will probably get her calmed down for the Convention activities, but expect her to be bouncing back and forth to the Stallion as things progress.
Regards,
Greenpeace.
From: Eddie (tinman@prometheus_forge.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: 23/11/2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
> > We'd be happy to shuttle Ben or whoever ends up approaching
> > Featherston in the Corners -- you know, the carrot *and* the stick
> > both visible.
>
> I'm a little leery of putting noncombatants right into the middle of a potential
> crossfire like that. Yeah, I *know* that the CSA isn't likely to have anything that
> can hurt the Corners in one throw, but they do have a shitload of arty and the station
> makes for a nice fat target. A massed strike could very well crack the hull or spring
> the seals.
I have a full squadron of Woodsman UCAVEDI's available for screening duties if we need them.
--Eddie
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(OOC: One scene I can't believe I didn't post much earlier in the thread, then back to the emails...)
Main Operations
Stellvia
00:03 19 November 2016
"Report."
The shift duty officer swiveled her display so that Noah could see it. "Three minutes ago, the DQS sensor went off."
"Damn. Where in the station is the incursion?"
"It isn't in the station at all, sir. It appears to be on Earth."
Noah went pale. "For that sensor to pick up an event that far away... how big an incursion was it? Get Miyuri and Takami in here - I need our best observer and our best traffic analyst in here, looking at everything 'Daneside." He sat down and unlocked his private workstation. "Safety, set up a conference call. I need to talk to the Federation President, General Solo, Queen Serenity, Mal, the Jason, and A.C. all at once..."
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 24, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
> So on that note, who wants to go meet the neighbors?
Not me. General Solo, Queen Serenity, and I are staying up here, out of the reach of the CSA. Just in case. (Besides, nothing the three of us have available right now is as intimidating as even a Gagarin-class bird, let alone one of the really big Fenships. While we all know what the Epsilon Blade can do, Featherston doesn't. If we really want an intimidating flyover, though, Yggdrasil is the ship to use. Is it airworthy, or is it just confined to space operations?)
I strongly suggest that anybody who heads Down takes a bodyguard team along. There's no way the CSA is going to ignore our presence, and they don't sound like they follow the Geneva Conventions.
I also suggest (not as strongly) a visit to the replacement US by the Miranda, showing that we have the resources to build a big ship for purely peaceful scientific purposes.
>> She can't be the entirety of the FIREFALL operational staff, though;
>> we're going to need more experts working alongside her.
> What else do they need in the way of experts, Noah? We've got folks who want to contribute
> something outside of our research and development efforts.
Mal will know better than I would, Bob.
Now if you'll excuse me, Yayoi, Leda, and I have a Convention to organize on a moment's notice - we have to keep everyone else Up here at least partly in the loop. Please route all further communications to me through Takami for the next few days.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"In any confrontation, your goal must be to win. There is no sense in pursuing a confrontation in a way that will leave you or your cause worse off than when it began." - J.D Salinger, March 1999
Subject: Re: Information which may be useful in the current situation
To: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
Date: November 26, 2016
> Something to consider -- an AI coupled with a body capable of detecting, tapping
> and controlling mana may well be able to use its greater processing speed to
> shortcut that. I had once started to write a story, oh, twenty-five years or so ago,
> about an AI mainframe that learned how to do magic; the gendankenexperiments
> I did to work out what it might be capable of both impressed and frightened me.
> You've had amazing luck with AIs in the past -- maybe with a sample of mage-
> active DNA you can quicken one who won't need the lengthy training time a
> meat-person would.
Excellent idea, and what I'm hearing at this Convention makes me want to try it. I'm going to try something unusual that, if it works, will get us a mage prodigy quickly - I've hired the character's seiyuu to help with the job. (And if it works incredibly well, that prodigy might even be StrikerS class because of another of that actress' roles... but I'm not holding my breath for that.)
> Noah, something that occurred to me which might be useful. Did the girls
> include the engineering details for Mirai's Mol unit in their gift
> package? If so, get it to your researchers *now*, if you haven't already
> beaten me to the idea. That thing is 50% of a dimensional gate all by
> itself, and it's hardtech. For all we know, it just needs more than a
> watch battery to power it in order to go past forming a pocket dimension
> and into punching a hole into a different one altogether.
It's there, and so is Legion's ship tech. Unfortunately, Kohran says the tech is so far beyond what we have now that it'll be faster training the mages. (One would think a Burroughs drive would be simple to build. One would be wrong.)
But if I can get every single Mad in Fenspace together and working in the same direction, I'll release the plans to them. Maybe we can get something useful inside of a decade.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"In any confrontation, your goal must be to win. There is no sense in pursuing a confrontation in a way that will leave you or your cause worse off than when it began." - J.D Salinger, March 1999
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
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OOC: Should we start a seperate thread for the convention?
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Nah, keeping it all in one thread ought to keep the momentum going, even if it gets a little confusing. Not that it isn't confusing already anyway.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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From: Jeph Antilles (lordandmaster@jmc.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 26, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
Holy frak, I go on vacation, and get called back when things got really hairy. I've got most of the JMC fleet all gathered up, which is part of why I've been quiet up to now, although thanks to Mal for getting me linked into the mailing list. We're short two Midgets right now, both of them were dirtside in the US when the shift happened, but the rest are ready as hellfire to do serious heavy lifting for the cause. We'll be to the Convention come hell or high water, too.
Also, we're offering Starbug 2 up as a potential mobile command center. She's set up more to deal with television show production requirements, but we've occasionally pressed her into service for larger coordination jobs, like the second housing lift, so hopefully this is a resource to be used. Starbug 1 is also available for courier duty, just say the word. Nene and Geo are also more than willing to get more involved than pushing terminals here, so if you need 'em, all you have to do is ask.
BTW, yes, I still have family in the US, my parents still haven't followed through with their relocation decision. Myk was also visiting his family, so he's currently among the missing as well. My biomod's kicked in so bad I woke up girl this morning, which NEVER happens. We need to get this solved, and solved like SOON.
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
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blackaeronaut Wrote:OOC: Should we start a seperate thread for the convention? M Fnord Wrote:Nah, keeping it all in one thread ought to keep the momentum going, even if it gets a little confusing. Not that it isn't confusing already anyway. Besides, the convention is a sideshow to show people that The SMOF Are Doing Something About This. All the real work is being done on the FIREFALL list.
(Noah's getting better at PR...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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ECSNorway Wrote:I'm trying very hard to keep this one
particular Canadian State Department guy away from him, the
fellow's a rabid Free Quebecoise OOC: If you're going to speak Canadian, you have to mind the shibboleths...
- http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/international/index.aspx, not State.
- He's a Quebecois; she's a Quebecoise. For either gender, "Free" is assumed.
[/i]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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OOC: I have *no* idea where this'll end up, but I do intend to use this somewhere in the story. It's not everyday that lightning strikes and lets you write a Badass Boast that references Willy Wonka and Optimus Prime in the same paragraph. 
(in reply to the classic "Who *are* you people?" question, somebody says...)
“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams. We're the ones who saw the future coming faster and faster until one day all we had to do was jump and we could fly. We're the kids who grew up on comic books and pulp novels and still believe that good triumphs over evil and that power and money can't stop that. We fight for justice, love and the right of all sentient beings to live free.
“We are the Fen, and we are coming.”
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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robkelk Wrote:ECSNorway Wrote:I'm trying very hard to keep this one
particular Canadian State Department guy away from him, the
fellow's a rabid Free Quebecoise
OOC: If you're going to speak Canadian, you have to mind the shibboleths...
- Foreign Affairs, not State.
- He's a Quebecois; she's a Quebecoise. For either gender, "Free" is assumed.
[/i] Noted. Reference #1 corrected. Lufy is polite to the government entity in question. Reference #2 left in place. Lufy has no respect for the individual representative of said government.
--
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[ooc] Quick, what date was it 191 side? Cause if it's 1941, Featherston is all set to go: Operation Blackbeard [the start of WWII hostilities in North America] starts on June 22, 1941 AD [TL 191.]
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
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Foxboy Wrote:[ooc] Quick, what date was it 191 side? Cause if it's 1941, Featherston is all set to go: Operation Blackbeard [the start of WWII hostilities in North America] starts on June 22, 1941 AD [TL 191.] 1940. He's got a year left to go.
ETA: 'Course, nothing says he can't get freaked out by all the batshit insane stuff suddenly happening and launch the campaign a little early.
In which case we can have a great old-fashioned Southern-style necktie party for him.
--
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From: Jinxie (Jinx999@hotmail.vega.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Economics
OK, O got the message asking about the economic effect of this mess and I'll try to summarise. You'll get a fuller report later, but it'll have a lot of technical verbiage, guesses and speculation. (and arguments about the free market and socialism, to no body's great surprise.)
First, the US dollar is currently in freefall and US government bonds are worth zip. If your savings were in these nice safe investments, you're in deep trouble. Guess what the Chinese government used to invest in? I'm diversified (and never was American), so only took a moderate hit, but some friends are in trouble. A lot of share prices are falling fast as well, even those of non US companies. I expect to see a lot of people investing in gold and precious metals soon, and keeping it in their house when they realise this could happen to anywhere. Speaking of which, I've seen some bets being made that we'll lose Africa for the Draka version, so I'm not going to be getting a restful night's sleep soon.
Second, nobody knows what'll happen to the rest of the world economy, I've seen predictions varying from total collapse to merely a nasty recession, depending on how flexible and adaptable people think it is. My personally guess is that it'll be nasty, but survivable, our "worst depressions" were nothing to the Great Depression, our economic system is a lot more resilient than it was then.
Third, can anyone tell me how self sufficient the 191 US and CSA are? Because they'll have a hell of a time trading with the rest of the world. They basically don't have ANYTHING that can compete at all with the modern world. IIRC, the US was still using draft animals on farms during WWII. They don't have the hugely efficient industrial farms of our US (economically efficient, we don't have time to argue agricultural policy here). They don't have the marketing skills to compete in the organic food market, and I don't think people will be buying much luxury goods atm. They don't have any high tech exports (and the market for classic autos and the like is driven by their rarity and the fact that nobody was making any more), or vast hordes of sweatshop labourers willing to work for a pittance. They don't even have modern efficient mines (remember that the cost of raw materials has been falling over time). And nobody is going to make long term investments in somewhere that might disappear at any time (we hope). This will eventually change, but that'd take years.
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05-28-2010, 10:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-17-2017, 11:18 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
From: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen) said:
> I'm a little leery of putting noncombatants right into the middle of a potential
> crossfire like that.
That's already taken care of. We have arrangements in place to house the kids
off the Corners in the event of something like this.
> Yeah, I *know* that the CSA isn't likely to have anything
> that can hurt the Corners in one throw, but they do have a shitload of arty and
> the station makes for a nice fat target. A massed strike could very well crack
> the hull or spring the seals.
General, I don't think you quite understand. We're not a standard fenship. We
don't have a hull or seals in the sense that you're thinking of. Our dome is essentially
one solid piece of the silicon equivalent of diamond, and our underside is *3/8ths of
a mile* of *solid bedrock*. And we run on a spindizzy. I'm sure you know what
that is and does, but if you don't, check out James Blish's "Cities in Flight". The
upshot of this is, we are guaranteed to be invulnerable to anything up to a good-
sized nuke, and Peg's brother Dave -- he's the doctor of physics -- is pretty sure
we could fly through a multimegaton blast and not scratch the dome.
We'd make a perfect battlestar or something if the damned 'wave would let us
actually attach weapons. Apparently it's a quirk we didn't know about before now --
any weapon bigger than a handgun that is affixed to the Corners simply stops working.
And we're too slow to ram anything. So about the only thing we *can* do is hover
over hostiles at any altitude down to 0 inches, as needed. I respectfully request, sir,
that you let us do that when it would have the best effect.
-- Bob Schroeck, not-the-captain
From: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
CC: Eddie (tinman@prometheus_forge.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Operational Planning
> I have a full squadron of Woodsman UCAVEDI's available for screening duties if we need them.
We will never turn down helpful firepower. Thank you!
-- Bob
From: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
To: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: Researchers and experts
Mal -- We've got a goodly supply of hard-science and engineering types who *aren't*
part of the mage-training who are willing and eager to contribute to the not-yet-war
effort. Who should they talk to in your organization? Alternately, have your HR
people just send their wishlist to "everyone@ourtown.fen" and we'll see what we can
do for you, okay?
-- Bob
From: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
To: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
Date: November 26, 2016
Subj: Re: Information which may be useful in the current situation
> Excellent idea, and what I'm hearing at this Convention makes me want
> to try it. I'm going to try something unusual that, if it works, will
> get us a mage prodigy quickly - I've hired the character's seiyuu to
> help with the job. (And if it works incredibly well, that prodigy
> might even be StrikerS class because of another of that actress'
> roles... but I'm not holding my breath for that.)
Whew. I almost want to be there to watch, but the last thing you need
is a useless tourist. Good luck and keep me posted on how it works out.
> > Noah, something that occurred to me which might be useful. Did the girls
> > include the engineering details for Mirai's Mol unit in their gift
> > package?
> It's there, and so is Legion's ship tech. Unfortunately, Kohran says the
> tech is so far beyond what we have now that it'll be faster training the
> mages. (One would think a Burroughs drive would be simple to build. One
> would be wrong.)
Mm. Yeah, I suppose. The basics of the Burroughs drive are simple
enough -- force a gyroscope to precess in a direction outside of 3-space.
But precisely-controlling that precession to the degree that's needed for
navigation, yeah, I can see how that would be a bit hard to accomplish
with SOTA technology and techniques in a space smaller than a barn.
No cheating with waved support systems is possible?
I'm more confused by the Mol unit -- the tech level in "Moldiver" doesn't
*look* unrecognizably beyond ours; it's almost as though the tech curve
flattened after their turn of the 20th-21st century. Weird.
> But if I can get every single Mad in Fenspace together and working in
> the same direction,
Okay, you do that, and I'll herd the cats.
> I'll release the plans to them. Maybe we can get something useful
> inside of a decade.
I'm starting to worry that it might take us even longer to solve this.
-- Bob
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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OOC: Time to move the story ahead a little, methinks.
From: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 24, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Visting Hours Are Now Open
We just received word from our consulate in Ottawa: the US government has agreed to meet with representatives from the Convention. Not twenty minutes after the announcement President Featherston was on the air requesting - well, demanding - that we send people to Richmond as well, "in order to prevent the Yankees from poisoning their minds against us."
Nice guy, that Featherston. Very humble.
Anyway, let's get our diplomatic teams together and get moving. Since nobody else has jumped up, I'll head the group going to the US. Since Christopher doesn't want me out of his sight he'll be coming along for the ride too. This promises to be so much fun, it really does. We'll be using GCU LAIKA (NCC-104) as our baseship.
(Noah: Are any of the Graces currently available & can be pulled off rotation quickly? Laika's equipped to piggyback a shuttle, and we might earn some goodwill if they see a spacecraft with the Stars & Stripes accompanying a Convention vessel.)
As for the CSA group, I still want Rhodes to lead off (and Ben for the love of Xenu please *say* something, one way or the other) and he can pick the rest of his team.
Bob, I'm not *happy* about it - I don't *like* the idea of risking one of Fenspace's jewels in a potential conflict zone, theoretically invulnerable or no - but I agree that we're going to need to get our Commodore Perry on when it comes to the Confederates. SP GROVER'S CORNERS (GEO-25429) will act as baseship for the CSA delegation. Make it flashy. Just for fuck's sake be *careful*, alright?
Both basecraft have full Interwave relay capability and a full holopresence suite, so nobody in the main groups will miss the Convention.
Let's get our people assembled and on the ground. Time's a-wasting.
--Fnord
***
From: Mal (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
To: Ben (blackrider@roughriders.fen)
Date: November 24, 2016
Subj: Your mission, should you choose to accept it
Ben, got a side job for you if you decide to take the CSA diplomatic mission.
I don't expect that the Richmond mission will be long or frutiful, so on your way back I want you to ditch the Corners and hit Salt Lake City. Find somebody who's got some sort of (non-US) authority over the locals and bring them back to Odyssey. The Mormons are, if not key, then at least one ace I want to remove from Featherston's sleeve. Plus any and all data you can suck up on an overflight of the CSA will be of great value.
Naturally, if you or any of your people should be captured, etc. Not that this is likely to happen, mind you, but still.
--Mal
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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05-28-2010, 11:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-17-2017, 11:22 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
From: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
To: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
CC: Ben Rhodes (aeronaut@roughriders.fen)
Date: November 24, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re: Visting Hours Are Now Open
Mal, I'm presuming Ben's going to have special instructions. That's fine, I
don't care what they are. Just as long as he knows to give me a heads-up
so I can help him if I need to.
> I don't *like* the idea of risking one of Fenspace's jewels in a potential
> conflict zone
Well, thank you. We love you, too.
> but I agree that we're going to need to get our Commodore Perry on when it
> comes to the Confederates. SP GROVER'S CORNERS (GEO-25429) will act
> as baseship for the CSA delegation. Make it flashy.
I think we can do that easily, even without adding special effects. We're
probably going to be even more outlandish and alien to them than we would
be to natives of *our* 1940s. In fact, I'd like to play that up, do the whole
Clarke's Third Law thing. "Oh, this little ship? Me and my friends whipped it
up in our spare time a few years ago. Oh, you're still using propeller-driven
aircraft? How quaint." Serious mind-screw, make them feel like primitives
meeting gods. (Not that that's *very* far from the truth, I just want to
exaggerate and emphasize it.)
If you're cool with it.
> Just for fuck's sake be *careful*, alright?
Sir, yes, sir!
-- Bob
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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