[META] Season Zero Reiver Management

[Ace Dreamer]

Prior to SOS-Con, close to the end of Season Zero, what would you do if you'd collected a load of reivers who'd tried to kill and/or kidnapp and/or rob you?  (Add hi-jacking and rape threats to your taste.)
Where would you go in Fenspace and who would you ask for help?
And, who might be prepared to help you get information out of them, with minimum bending of the Geneva Convention?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Rakhasa]

The independent police departments in the main settlements:

Marduk will have its City Watch, and before the creation of Space Patrol it will deal with all crimes in its area.

Inspector Natsuko Aki built the Helium Police Department, so that's a second place.

The Wizards will have the DMLE.

I don't know of more police departamens, but logically the rest of the cities (specially Kandor itself) and the big factions will have one.

There is also The Watch, the discworld faction, with does not deal in actual police work, but its name may confuse to someone who is not aware of fen groups; since they area also the "gossip" faction, the confusion will not be a problem, because they will know who to contact.

[Dartz]

Airlock?

/black humour

Kandor might be a better bet.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[Ace Dreamer]

The independent police departments in the main settlements:

Marduk will have its City Watch, and before the creation of Space Patrol it will deal with all crimes in its area.

Inspector Natsuko Aki built the Helium Police Department, so that's a second place.

The Wizards will have the DMLE.

I don't know of more police departamens, but logically the rest of the cities (specially Kandor itself) and the big factions will have one.

There is also The Watch, the discworld faction, with does not deal in actual police work, but its name may confuse to someone who is not aware of fen groups; since they area also the "gossip" faction, the confusion will not be a problem, because they will know who to contact.

Dartz wrote:

---

Airlock?

/black humour

Kandor might be a better bet.

Dead people are more difficult to extract information from, any way except by forensics...
Kandor looks like the best bet, particularly since the bus has been operating out of there.
As Kandor is a Supers city, should it logically have some provision for dealing with criminals?
(And, I'd like to know what the Home For Wayward Catgirls is about... (assuming it exists Dec 2011))
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[robkelk]

Dead people are more difficult to extract information from, any way except by forensics...
Kandor looks like the best bet, particularly since the bus has been operating out of there.
As Kandor is a Supers city, should it logically have some provision for dealing with criminals?

I would expect so, yes.

And sice the bus if from Kandor, the law-enforcement agency there can argue that they have jurisdiction. (There will be quite a lot of arguments about jurisdiction - who has it, and where are the places that nobody has it - before Kandor-Con, and they won't all go away until the Space Patrol is founded.)

(And, I'd like to know what the Home For Wayward Catgirls is about... (assuming it exists Dec 2011))

So would 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

[Ace Dreamer]

How about...

The Phantom Zone Projector

This puts those it is pointed at into an immaterial form, which cannot interact with reality and can only see and comunicate with other phantoms. Only the projector can return them.

In actuality the bodies of the prisoners are in a suspended animation state, and their mind stimulated into a dream-like awareness, hooked into a virtual reality which simulates the real world well enough for dreaming minds to find it credible. Various mind fuzzing and holographic tricks are used to make it look like a projector is in use.

This device gets people off the street, and with a suitably designed, secret, automated facility, is probably cheaper than keeping them locked-up. They may also age at a reduced rate. They may even heal existing medical problems. If you find there's been wrongful imprissonment, they can be 'returned' (difficult if they're executed).

Downside is that there is no education or attempts at reform, little mental stimulation, and not even as much control over life as conventional imprisonment would allow. Suicide is likely near impossible. There can be no visiting of prisoners. If the secret gets out there may be a media uproar (but, the Phantom Zone was presumably accepted in the first place...).
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[HRogge]

And, I'd like to know what the Home For Wayward Catgirls is about... (assuming it exists Dec 2011)

Catgirls (as the general perception) turned partly from "curiosity" to "poor victims" during the Boskone War... but I hope this will change (partly by CI's influence) to "accepted part of Fenspace" in Season 2.

[Rakhasa]

As CI get more visible, it is likely.

Well, chances are that it will change from "poor victims" to "mad scientists who like things that go BOOM", but this is fenspace, so that's not a bad reputation.

[HRogge]

As CI get more visible, it is likely.

Well, chances are that it will change from "poor victims" to "mad scientists who like things that go BOOM", but this is fenspace, so that's not a bad reputation.

If that happens, a MAJOR goal of CI is accomplished.

[Ace Dreamer]

The Vault - 27/Jul/2012

This appears on the surface to be quite a conventional prison, run on quite enlightened grounds. Prisoners are expected to find good use for their time, in exercise, work or study; suitably qualified inmates can also teach. There is ubiquitous surveillence, but that isn't too surprising in a prison. The Vault is made up of a number of Annexes, distributed around in geographically separate locations, which are all tied togther so with a bit of admin work prisoners can interact.

If fact, this is all a virtual environment, running at just about real world quality. The bodies of the inmates are in a protective and regenerative suspended animation state, and their minds are stimulated to a conscious state, though running a bit slower than real time. The staff are AIs, running multiple instances, each with individual characters. Except the Warden, who runs the place. The underlying system is based on the "Metaverse" virtual world.

Non-AIs can be hooked-up to the system, to visit or interact with the inmates; teaching might be done this way. Some inmates may work in gardens, or on (simulated) external projects. If needed, inmates may be released, though all undergo a "medical examinaton" on leaving, where they are awoken back to real life. The process on entering The Vault isn't dissimilar. The various parts of The Vault, the Annexes, are tied together by a net of FTL communicators (the 'very difficult to find the end-points' variety).

Quite major efforts are made to ensure that inmates benefit from their confinement.  The aim is that they leave at least as healthy as they arrived. And, no longer criminals.  While physical activity may not give full benefit, research shows rehearsal of activities does improve them. Mental activity will have much clearer long-term effects.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[robkelk]

The Vault sounds better than the Phantom Zone Projector, in my humble opinion...
--
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

[HRogge]

Are the position of the Vaults secret? If yes, connecting them all with FTL might give their position away.

[Ace Dreamer]

The Vault sounds better than the Phantom Zone Projector, in my humble opinion...

One reason the PZP was mentioned is that it is the sort of thing traditionalist Supers would propose.  And, they would probably think themselves as being 'liberal' in doing so.  Superman was quite willing to use a PZP over a very long period, and he was the classic "Code Against Killing" (a 'Champions!' RPG reference) superhero.  A PZP is also a far more automated system, with little concern about the inmates.
"The Vault" is something which has, like quite a lot of other super prisons, failed in the classic source for superhero material, the comics.  But, the comics have the meta problem of either writing supers out of future stories for extended periods or having a "walk-in, walk-out" prison that is very, very, far from escape-proof.
Nothing is escape-proof, but a prison in the Fenspace setting could be made really quite secure, with tiger teams (including AIs) working hard to find its weaknesses, both from the inside, and the outside.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Ace Dreamer]

Are the position of the Vaults secret? If yes, connecting them all with FTL might give their position away.

Some varieties of FTL tell you nothing about the location of the transmitters or receivers; it's to do with the physics of their design (you might be able to tell they were within a certain radius, by measuring the propagation time, but the radius would likely be at least light-minutes).  It would be smart to use something like that if you are hiding the locations of the Annexes, as one part of the protection for The Vault.
One reason for connecting them is it prevents the "single point of failure" that would occur if you had all the inmates in the same location, allowing a mass breakout, probably given external help - far too common in the source material.
Edit: original text altered to make it clearer they've thought about this problem.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind