Whoever guessed it was the ship with the 3rd Fed caster wins this round.
Gonfrask
7 months ago
Ah…well… seems like the filtration was about the position of other starcaster and the lack of a bigger escort or amy team.
A Federation mistake? Overconfident? sabotage?
Given that the Dranglaex received a missive from their ‘asset’ that gave away the position, I’d go option 3. Probably also a Federation mistake, though how big of one depends on how easy it normally is to get away from unexpected encounters. For example, if they’d just stumbled on the fleet themselves. I’m assuming it usually takes time to set up weapons, get in positions and such, so that typically there’s a viable window to retreat even if you run into an unexpected enemy. Only this time the Dranglaex could warp in much closer than usual and already prepared for… Read more »
Actually, a starcaster with less protection means more maneuverability and stealth
It’s absolutely a risky move, as we can see, but it’d hard to use a starcaster if you announce it’s presence with a massive fleet, not to mention such a thing would alert your enemies to it’s location 24/7
Fair point, but it should still get more than one ship – then, if attacked, in worst case you can sacrifice other ships as the holding/delaying action, while the one with Starcaster jumps away (considering how powerful Starcasters are, that’s a strategically sound move).
RblDiver
7 months ago
I called it!
Mr. X
7 months ago
If you blasted at a starcaster while wearing another starcaster, what would happen? Would the starcaster break? Or would nothing happen?
I mean, technically if it operated like any other type of energy beam in the real world, they would probably pass through each other and both parties would get incinerated, assuming they could even make their shots line up that precisely. But that wouldn’t be very epic from a storytelling perspective.
Is it pure energy with no mass though (like photons)? Or is it superheated plasma actively undergoing fusion?
I’m not 100% sure how the star casters operate, but if it’s plasma then there would be a splashy kind of collision. It’s like it two people shooting water guns with their streams hitting each other. A lot of the particles would be scattered, many at close to a right angle to the collision if they had the same force, but some would get through and a few would even be reflected at the source.
I would say nothing about starcasters is set in stone and even if all of them can do something it seems training can make a big difference for a lot of them.
The Drang’s Starcaster-Bearer is in their version of intensive care and comatose after blowing up a planet like a Death Star. They can’t sense what color their toes are, nevermind a nearby Starcaster.
Yep, but his caster is defiantly drawing power constantly so if this caster bearer could sense them he should be able to sense that caster.
That being said I dont think their starcaster made it back to the fleet yet so it shouldnt even be in the invading fleet anyway but the Lance Major may be able to tell which star is nearest the fleeing Prince, which may be part of how they were doing a good job tracking them after the attack.
the drangleax starcaster bearer was on his own ‘lone ship’ on route back to the fleet when the intel came in. the way I read it, they did not wait for that vessel before intercepting this one. So their bearer wont be on one of these ships.
Unclear. They can probably all do it, but how good they are at it depends on the individual. They can apparently sense the energy of nearby stars shift (and with practice, trace the source of such shifts).
Note that this attack has nothing to do with Starcaster sensing anyway, the only Starcaster here is Dantons. The Dranglaex wielder is still recuperating elsewhere. This attack is led by the non-wielding brother, based on info from their spy.
Danton was not sure it was possible to feel such small differences within a star when a Starcaster was being used. He referred to La’ni who might be able to (and has since shown she can). So it depends on the expertise of the Starcaster to know if another Starcaster is being used.
I assume La’ni her powers of flight and ability to survive in space, as well as hurtle through atmosphere at high speeds, come from the Starcaster. That means she’s able to separate her own Starcasting from another’s. Impressive.
Last edited 7 months ago by Darkhorse
Colin
7 months ago
So, if the Drang get this star caster, how will it affect the story? Weird question, but hear me out. Prior to this there was a “cold” war on the assumption by the federation that each side were matched with the same number of star casters. Would the story go back to that? Personally I don’t think so, but who knows. If the Drang manage to disable the ship and capture/kill all the crew, the federation may not realise there is a Drang asset in their midst. Also, I am assuming that the 2nd brother will want the star caster… Read more »
It definitely wouldn’t be another cold war. The main reason the Dranglaex accepted that stalemate was that they didn’t have the firepower to take on the Federation’s two casters, not actually having two themselves. (Also likely not being at full military strength, since they probably took some losses from the Odrossian war).
They then spent the next century building up forces to make up for that difference, to the point they were now willing to invade despite still being down one Starcaster. Going to a 2v2 would already be more advantageous than how they started this war.
The Dranglaex only didn’t start the regular war before, because they were biding their time, hunting the Odrossian Starcaster that Cort is now wearing.(with the goal of only starting the war when they will have two Starcasters)
When it became clear, that second Starcaster won’t be theirs, they had no reason to hold back anymore (as their goal was always the extermination of all other species).
The same thing would happen, if they actually got their hands on the Odrossian Starcaster.
Meaning, they will have zero reason to go back to the cold war, as that would gain them nothing.
The only thing I don’t understand is why their first move wasn’t against another Starcaster. They could’ve started with this move, taking out an enemy Starcaster and gaining one themselves. What was their first actual move? To kill a leader of the Syndicate by raising a big city. Sure now you got revenge for his failings, but tactically it was an absolute flop. They raised a city that strategically seemed of little importance. No defences were used afaik. Now the whole galaxy knew they were at war and immediately started hunting them down. Psychologically raising the city and killing this… Read more »
I assume this is simply the first time they had an opportunity to do something like this. It should be pretty rare for a Starcaster to be out in the field like this*, and even rarer for it to be within strike range while having the info where to find them. The planet bombing was mostly a free pick to start somewhere, since they were going to war anyway. (with Cort’s Starcaster now in play.)
*It might’ve even only happened since the war started, now there’s an actual reason to send them out to try and detect the Dranglaex fleet.
Super Metal Arm Man
7 months ago
The guy is with the Dranglaex.
Targeting engines, shooting at crafts to DISABLE.
His instant willingness to get out of there.
Heh, even those weird metal(metal?) things at the side of his head – Kelias had similar ones – and a robe…
Francis
7 months ago
Oh God it’s going to be so… *Inaudible noise* if the Dranglaex conveniently capture this Starcaster just as the Federation recruits Cort just to keep the narrative balance
For the first time (mind you, the situation is still developing for non-patreon), and ive been reading Tim’s work since college so, 15 years?, I see Tim take a disappointing shortcut to keep the story going. Nobody in their right mind leaves their two nukes unguarded like this. When he got stuck with Ethan and Lucas narrative, he had the steel balls to just reboot the series instead of taking shortcuts. What started as a voting fun series that could end at anytime like “The Mesocron” turned into an epic saga that he keeps going for years. It took twelve… Read more »
I have to disagree. First of all, this was foreshadowed before the vote about Cort joining the federation. It was made pretty clear in the beginning of this chapter that the Drangalex got some intel about a “thing” traveling alone with no support. There were lots of people who believed that was Cort’s starcaster, it turns out they were partially right. Second, this actually creates a narrative balance that wasn’t there. It’s an intense situation, and there is plenty of story left to tell here. The story wasn’t backed into a corner, and even a 3v1 starcaster difference didn’t spell… Read more »
Ben
7 months ago
Quel’Oran remembers that the last time Cort surrendered, his position was leaked almost instantaneously. This time, he took precautions: he lied about which ship Cort was on, causing the “asset” to report the wrong location.
That seems incredibly unlikely, even if we’re willing to assume whoever leaked this had a way to keep tabs on Cort’s discovery yet no way to track such an obvious and crucial part of said info. You’re suggesting that Quel either deliberately leaked crucial, war-changing information (if he knew about Danton being here), or, out of every ship and place in the universe, he just happened to randomly give the single worst one, even when he could’ve just made up a location for the same effect. Or perhaps the Dranglaex also have spies keeping tabs on other crucial war assets… Read more »
the information leaked wasn’t about Cort or his starcaster. There is a spy in the federation that leaked Danton’s starcaster location specifically for the Dranglaex to go after him.
Kevin Greenbaum
7 months ago
So long as the federation doesn’t lose this caster, I’d say the Dranglaex are in for an unpleasant counter attack. Odds are they went where they knew the federation would be, but I highly doubt they know there’s a starcaster on board without having their own caster available to track it a bit.
VibrantEvolution
7 months ago
Maybe this was a stealth hit ‘n run mission. Bring Danton in, cause some serious damage and go back out. But an infiltrator informed the enemy of the unprotected Starcaster’s location. They might actually not be aware of the Dranglaex knowing about the starcaster being there, which puts them in an even bigger disadvantage here.
Kenju
7 months ago
Part of me is wondering now if the Dranglaex were always going to get a second Starcaster, the only question being which of the three. Cort had three options, Join, Merc, or Run, three options, three Starcasters?
The guy
7 months ago
I would like to start with saying, that I’ve always loved your work. But as of late I find myself disinterested with all that space soap opera and superdweebs balast and longing for some good oldfashion comics about videogames. Can I get that, please?
Rolando
7 months ago
Am I the only one considering the possibility that it’s the DRANGLAEX facing a greater risk here? It honestly sounds like many of you commenting, are assuming the Dranglaex will win this fight and acquire the federation Starcaster. Some of you even talk about the Dranglaex Starcaster as if it were available. But its user is STILL recovering, and probably far away from there. I might be wrong. I might be misreading. And you people do have a point. But I’m thinking: 1) If that federation guy is decently skilled with his Starcaster, he might win the fight by himself.… Read more »
Last edited 7 months ago by Rolando
Pyre
7 months ago
A lot of you are presuming that the leak isn’t wearing a Starcaster right now…..
24
Whoever guessed it was the ship with the 3rd Fed caster wins this round.
Ah…well… seems like the filtration was about the position of other starcaster and the lack of a bigger escort or amy team.
A Federation mistake? Overconfident? sabotage?
Given that the Dranglaex received a missive from their ‘asset’ that gave away the position, I’d go option 3. Probably also a Federation mistake, though how big of one depends on how easy it normally is to get away from unexpected encounters. For example, if they’d just stumbled on the fleet themselves. I’m assuming it usually takes time to set up weapons, get in positions and such, so that typically there’s a viable window to retreat even if you run into an unexpected enemy. Only this time the Dranglaex could warp in much closer than usual and already prepared for… Read more »
Ginourmous Federation Mistake. The starcaster should never be outside anything less powerful than a main battle fleet.
Actually, a starcaster with less protection means more maneuverability and stealth
It’s absolutely a risky move, as we can see, but it’d hard to use a starcaster if you announce it’s presence with a massive fleet, not to mention such a thing would alert your enemies to it’s location 24/7
Fair point, but it should still get more than one ship – then, if attacked, in worst case you can sacrifice other ships as the holding/delaying action, while the one with Starcaster jumps away (considering how powerful Starcasters are, that’s a strategically sound move).
I called it!
If you blasted at a starcaster while wearing another starcaster, what would happen? Would the starcaster break? Or would nothing happen?
The power of a sun smashing into the power of a sun. Remember Iron man 2? Probably something like that.
Thor vs Hulk 😉
I mean, technically if it operated like any other type of energy beam in the real world, they would probably pass through each other and both parties would get incinerated, assuming they could even make their shots line up that precisely. But that wouldn’t be very epic from a storytelling perspective.
Is it pure energy with no mass though (like photons)? Or is it superheated plasma actively undergoing fusion?
I’m not 100% sure how the star casters operate, but if it’s plasma then there would be a splashy kind of collision. It’s like it two people shooting water guns with their streams hitting each other. A lot of the particles would be scattered, many at close to a right angle to the collision if they had the same force, but some would get through and a few would even be reflected at the source.
So not every sstarcaster bearer senses others?
I would say nothing about starcasters is set in stone and even if all of them can do something it seems training can make a big difference for a lot of them.
The Drang’s Starcaster-Bearer is in their version of intensive care and comatose after blowing up a planet like a Death Star. They can’t sense what color their toes are, nevermind a nearby Starcaster.
Yep, but his caster is defiantly drawing power constantly so if this caster bearer could sense them he should be able to sense that caster.
That being said I dont think their starcaster made it back to the fleet yet so it shouldnt even be in the invading fleet anyway but the Lance Major may be able to tell which star is nearest the fleeing Prince, which may be part of how they were doing a good job tracking them after the attack.
the drangleax starcaster bearer was on his own ‘lone ship’ on route back to the fleet when the intel came in. the way I read it, they did not wait for that vessel before intercepting this one. So their bearer wont be on one of these ships.
They might sense it but they’re not communicating that to anyone else at the moment that’s for sure.
Unclear. They can probably all do it, but how good they are at it depends on the individual. They can apparently sense the energy of nearby stars shift (and with practice, trace the source of such shifts).
Note that this attack has nothing to do with Starcaster sensing anyway, the only Starcaster here is Dantons. The Dranglaex wielder is still recuperating elsewhere. This attack is led by the non-wielding brother, based on info from their spy.
Danton was not sure it was possible to feel such small differences within a star when a Starcaster was being used. He referred to La’ni who might be able to (and has since shown she can). So it depends on the expertise of the Starcaster to know if another Starcaster is being used.
I assume La’ni her powers of flight and ability to survive in space, as well as hurtle through atmosphere at high speeds, come from the Starcaster. That means she’s able to separate her own Starcasting from another’s. Impressive.
So, if the Drang get this star caster, how will it affect the story? Weird question, but hear me out. Prior to this there was a “cold” war on the assumption by the federation that each side were matched with the same number of star casters. Would the story go back to that? Personally I don’t think so, but who knows. If the Drang manage to disable the ship and capture/kill all the crew, the federation may not realise there is a Drang asset in their midst. Also, I am assuming that the 2nd brother will want the star caster… Read more »
It definitely wouldn’t be another cold war. The main reason the Dranglaex accepted that stalemate was that they didn’t have the firepower to take on the Federation’s two casters, not actually having two themselves. (Also likely not being at full military strength, since they probably took some losses from the Odrossian war).
They then spent the next century building up forces to make up for that difference, to the point they were now willing to invade despite still being down one Starcaster. Going to a 2v2 would already be more advantageous than how they started this war.
The Dranglaex only didn’t start the regular war before, because they were biding their time, hunting the Odrossian Starcaster that Cort is now wearing.(with the goal of only starting the war when they will have two Starcasters)
When it became clear, that second Starcaster won’t be theirs, they had no reason to hold back anymore (as their goal was always the extermination of all other species).
The same thing would happen, if they actually got their hands on the Odrossian Starcaster.
Meaning, they will have zero reason to go back to the cold war, as that would gain them nothing.
The only thing I don’t understand is why their first move wasn’t against another Starcaster. They could’ve started with this move, taking out an enemy Starcaster and gaining one themselves. What was their first actual move? To kill a leader of the Syndicate by raising a big city. Sure now you got revenge for his failings, but tactically it was an absolute flop. They raised a city that strategically seemed of little importance. No defences were used afaik. Now the whole galaxy knew they were at war and immediately started hunting them down. Psychologically raising the city and killing this… Read more »
I assume this is simply the first time they had an opportunity to do something like this. It should be pretty rare for a Starcaster to be out in the field like this*, and even rarer for it to be within strike range while having the info where to find them. The planet bombing was mostly a free pick to start somewhere, since they were going to war anyway. (with Cort’s Starcaster now in play.)
*It might’ve even only happened since the war started, now there’s an actual reason to send them out to try and detect the Dranglaex fleet.
The guy is with the Dranglaex.
Targeting engines, shooting at crafts to DISABLE.
His instant willingness to get out of there.
Heh, even those weird metal(metal?) things at the side of his head – Kelias had similar ones – and a robe…
Oh God it’s going to be so… *Inaudible noise* if the Dranglaex conveniently capture this Starcaster just as the Federation recruits Cort just to keep the narrative balance
For the first time (mind you, the situation is still developing for non-patreon), and ive been reading Tim’s work since college so, 15 years?, I see Tim take a disappointing shortcut to keep the story going. Nobody in their right mind leaves their two nukes unguarded like this. When he got stuck with Ethan and Lucas narrative, he had the steel balls to just reboot the series instead of taking shortcuts. What started as a voting fun series that could end at anytime like “The Mesocron” turned into an epic saga that he keeps going for years. It took twelve… Read more »
I have to disagree. First of all, this was foreshadowed before the vote about Cort joining the federation. It was made pretty clear in the beginning of this chapter that the Drangalex got some intel about a “thing” traveling alone with no support. There were lots of people who believed that was Cort’s starcaster, it turns out they were partially right. Second, this actually creates a narrative balance that wasn’t there. It’s an intense situation, and there is plenty of story left to tell here. The story wasn’t backed into a corner, and even a 3v1 starcaster difference didn’t spell… Read more »
Quel’Oran remembers that the last time Cort surrendered, his position was leaked almost instantaneously. This time, he took precautions: he lied about which ship Cort was on, causing the “asset” to report the wrong location.
That seems incredibly unlikely, even if we’re willing to assume whoever leaked this had a way to keep tabs on Cort’s discovery yet no way to track such an obvious and crucial part of said info. You’re suggesting that Quel either deliberately leaked crucial, war-changing information (if he knew about Danton being here), or, out of every ship and place in the universe, he just happened to randomly give the single worst one, even when he could’ve just made up a location for the same effect. Or perhaps the Dranglaex also have spies keeping tabs on other crucial war assets… Read more »
the information leaked wasn’t about Cort or his starcaster. There is a spy in the federation that leaked Danton’s starcaster location specifically for the Dranglaex to go after him.
So long as the federation doesn’t lose this caster, I’d say the Dranglaex are in for an unpleasant counter attack. Odds are they went where they knew the federation would be, but I highly doubt they know there’s a starcaster on board without having their own caster available to track it a bit.
Maybe this was a stealth hit ‘n run mission. Bring Danton in, cause some serious damage and go back out. But an infiltrator informed the enemy of the unprotected Starcaster’s location. They might actually not be aware of the Dranglaex knowing about the starcaster being there, which puts them in an even bigger disadvantage here.
Part of me is wondering now if the Dranglaex were always going to get a second Starcaster, the only question being which of the three. Cort had three options, Join, Merc, or Run, three options, three Starcasters?
I would like to start with saying, that I’ve always loved your work. But as of late I find myself disinterested with all that space soap opera and superdweebs balast and longing for some good oldfashion comics about videogames. Can I get that, please?
Am I the only one considering the possibility that it’s the DRANGLAEX facing a greater risk here? It honestly sounds like many of you commenting, are assuming the Dranglaex will win this fight and acquire the federation Starcaster. Some of you even talk about the Dranglaex Starcaster as if it were available. But its user is STILL recovering, and probably far away from there. I might be wrong. I might be misreading. And you people do have a point. But I’m thinking: 1) If that federation guy is decently skilled with his Starcaster, he might win the fight by himself.… Read more »
A lot of you are presuming that the leak isn’t wearing a Starcaster right now…..
Just a possibility.