|
|
| Author |
Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 0 post(s) |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
137
   |
Posted - 2013.07.28 16:52:00 -
[1] - Quote
Fae-haan,
Your reasons for doing this are clear, and yet, respectfully, I must ask that you reconsider.
The Dragonfly is a useful tool; I have no criticism, here, to offer. The 'Toxin,' however....
Our task, Fae-haan, is not and must not be to batter down the will of individual targets. Your opponents, for the most part, are just mercenaries fulfilling their contracts. Clone soldiers have no consistent, bound loyalties for the most part; most of us wander through our existences in a sort of haze, inconstant as fog.
Even if you should happen to face a true, ideological enemy of the State, and even should you manage to batter down that enemy's will to fight you, the rewards on offer are not based on loyalty: a mercenary will promptly appear. With matters in their present state, you are punishing a fellow infomorph-- torturing a colleague-- merely for being a tool of an opposing power, and the purpose of doing so appears to be merely to drive that colleague into early retirement.
There will be more, many more, of us to come. Recent figures indicate gradually-accelerating recruitment. You will not be able to stem the tide-- you'll only succeed in torturing those who may be fighting beside you tomorrow, or the day after.
We are tools, Fae-haan, weapons. Our purpose is to achieve objectives on behalf of those who employ us. The target is not the soldier in front of you, but the entity employing that soldier, the hand that wields that weapon. Those enemies are organizations; you can cause them pain by serving your employer's interests and defeating the opposing force.
The only reason to strike at the weapon is to get it out of your way so that you can cut your opponent. Our work mustn't become personal, or it will destroy us all the more quickly. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
138
|
Posted - 2013.07.29 05:23:00 -
[2] - Quote
Your selection of those two pieces of equipment has nothing to do with each coming as a fully-licensed blueprint allowing unlimited production and being available only as a set, Fae-haan?
I'd appreciate it if you could transcribe the data on the 'Toxin' assault rifle, incidentally; I don't own the production rights (I favor the 'Exile'), and have been wondering how they managed to make plasma fire more toxic and painful than it already is.
Galm Fae wrote:Kirjuun, you are a psychologist, correct?
That is my position within Dead Six. It's odd, though; I have the position because I have a keen interest in the topic and a certain amount of history and practical experience dealing with infomorphs. I am no scientist, however. If there were the equivalents of biologists, botanists, or zoologists for the infomorph mind, I would be a naturalist, at most-- a knowledgeable and interested amateur.
It seems that not too many formally trained psychologists become clone soldiers, though perhaps some retired clone soldiers will one day be psychologists.
Quote:I'm sure I don't need to tell you that in our lifestyle, individuals with your profession are greatly valued and respected. For that exact reason, I am also somewhat disappointed that you don't see this as it truly is; a kindness.
Respectfully, Fae-haan, if our work is a blight, then you may be correct: it may be kinder to encourage retirement. However, it is not yet clear whether this is so.
It is possible that our state, and our availability, only encourage war. It is possible that our durable, if somewhat macabre, existences, in insulating us from death, remove one of the great limiters on war.
It is possible that we will commit atrocities, as the capsuleers do, out of detachment and cold uncaring. It is also possible that we will do so for our own, distinct reasons.
But it is also possible that we will commit fewer. We have little reason to fear for our lives, which may suit us well (with appropriate training) to dealing with potentially-hostile civilian populations. We could be the guardians the news feeds seem to want us to be.
To do that, we would probably need to develop an instrumentalist view of our role, a clear enough sense of purpose and duty to maintain our sense of place, identity, and responsibility even through repeated trauma: a code, of sorts, similar to those common to soldiers of many nations.
Possible? In the absence of an overarching, disciplining structure, perhaps not, but I suspect that those of us who do not develop such a code (personal or otherwise) will not remain in this profession for long. Without reinforcement, the mind is apt to be pummeled to a pulp through repeated trauma (death is plenty unpleasant with or without 'Toxin' weapons, as are many of our other experiences. The Amarr gave us a distinctly mixed blessing in the drop uplink). Our career durations are likely to be short, on average, at least at first.
In time, we may have a positive role to play. It is difficult to judge from here. For good or ill, Fae-haan, I am content to play my part in that. There is work to be done.
Until we know what our role will be, it would be kind of you not to make that work harder than it needs to be. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
139
|
Posted - 2013.07.29 07:24:00 -
[3] - Quote
Galm Fae wrote:As to the inner workings of the weapon, the description is rather vague. Trade secrets and all that I am sure. What it does make clear is that the plasma discharged from the rifle has a compound of contaminants and impurities that frazzle nanites something fierce, effectively causing the same effect as the doped slugs of the SMG with the added benefit of granting the victim what I can only assume is instant leukemia. Not that individuals die of the cancer. Typically their clone goes into failure much sooner than that. The process is fascinating to observe on a man who has just shot one of your comrads, that much is sure.
Ah.
... Ugh. So that's why it feels so blasted similar.
Quote:Any hope of that died on Caldari Prime. The empyreans launched a war that rages to this day at an insurmountable cost. CONCORD has remained powerless to stop them, just as they were powerless to stop the spread of the technology that births us. And now, we have Caldari Prime in ruin, all at the hands of a coordinated strike of eggers and their immortal puppets. We will always be slaves to the capsuleers. It is a stoic outlook, but not many acts have occurred in this universe that inspire hope. At least, not as long as we continue down this route.
Many hands brought us Caldari Prime. The Gallente, who took it from you; Tibus Heth, who took it back; Tibus Heth, who posted the Shiigeru in orbit ...
... you know, scratch that? From the point where Heth-hnolku placed that titan in low orbit over the planet, it was, if not inevitable, then highly foreseeable that the Shiigeru would kiss Caldari soil. It was mostly a matter of time and will. The "coordinated strike" would have been regular Gallente military if the capsuleers had not been available, likely to the exact same outcome.
For good or ill, Caldari Prime is not a war zone any longer, soldier.
Quote:Understand, when I say "keep back the tide," I don't want the enemy to retire. At least, I don't expect them to. I just want them to leave. To pick themselves off whatever damn planet I am fighting for and just go home. The fewer reasons a soldier has to fight, the less I have to watch my friends die.
I've never left a contract just because I was killed by a 'Toxin' weapon. It's bad, but little worse than passing through a drop uplink. Most of my hatred for the blasted things is just how unnecessary they are. Uplinks, at least, have an excuse for making my nerve endings inform me that I've caught on fire from head to toe.
Quote:... Then again... Maybe that is the whole point of our creation. Guardians, humph.
The Empires would see us put on lunchboxes for children as superhuman protectors. For their sake, I hope it never comes to that.
Perhaps they would, at that-- and, I agree, we would not deserve it. We are not heroes. We're more like a historical experiment.
Capsuleers often have large fan clubs. I dare hope we will remain a little more understated in our public relations.
At core, we were created to be weapons, even more specifically than the capsuleers were. A sword in its master's hand is, indeed, a guardian of a sort. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
144
|
Posted - 2013.07.30 14:00:00 -
[4] - Quote
I admire your honesty, Fae-haan, and your humility. May I learn from your example.
Thank you. |
|
|
| |
|