Issue 13 is right here, if you need a refresher.
At the end of #13, Patrons were given the choice to have Cort fire on the Dranglaex fleet, or obey orders. They voted to not fire the starcaster, 51% to 49%.
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Following orders is often a good thing, though.
responsibility will not fall on you. you were just following orders. you arent unaliving civilians or anything.
You are aware, I *HOPE*, of the most infamous example of someone using the “I was just following orders” defense, right?
This case is nothing of the sort, though, if anything, NOT following orders would likely have resulted in casualties on Cort’s side.
And you’re aware, I hope, that many people using that defense got a verdict of not guilty because of it right? Because unless you were the one giving the orders, then yes, it’s either follow the order, or potentially get executed for treason. So very often the defense worked, it usually only failed when the people who were in the position of power tried to use it as a defense.
That’s very much apples to oranges. In the Nuremberg Trials, it was used as a defense against the accusation of criminal actions on the grounds that those actions were ordered by a superior officer. The argument there was that – due to Command Responsibility – the accused bear reduced culpability for the crimes they were directly ordered to commit. And the counter-argument is that those should have been recognized as unlawful orders and rejected as such. That case has absolutely no bearing on Cort’s actions here. Rather than following orders to do something criminal or heinous, Cort here is following… Read more »
Only reduces your guilt if the orders are unlawful orders. The defense doesn’t work if it’s obviously an unlawful order, i.e. if you killed civilians because you were ordered to.
You can use killed or murdered here you dont need to use that dumb phrase everywhere.
When the fear of YouTube demonitization bleeds into reality….
depends on the order, I can’t vouch for other armies but in FDF it is pointed out that while orders should be carried out we can and should ask questionable orders on paper. Mind you we are a conscription based so our way of doing things is different, than the professiinal armies of most of western world.
Also following orders has rarely been accepted as defence, it’s up there with “they had not signed the treaty” and “can’t comit warcrimes against warcriminals”.
Hence the “often”. There’s a point for questioning orders, but this is not it. “Shoot the planet full of orphans” is one, but “don’t shoot our own ships” is not.
Yes. You’re obligated to follow *lawful* orders.
“Go murder that civilian” or “fire at random at our own troops” are *not* lawful orders. Well, in civilized societies, anyway.
At the time, I also voted to stand down. In hindsight, I’m wondering if that was the right decision… hopefully, one day we’ll learn what the alternative story line would have been.
Same here. I wonder if I voted the right way. This one was close.
I think Cort is would be on the Dunning Kruger point of maximum confidence if he’d actually shoot. Realizing that others do have more experience and listening to them is the smart move.
It was the right call. Fall in line, listen to your superior, do not risk destroying other ships in the fleet, even if you could potentially finish the fight right now. Lani is more experienced and has a better vantage point on the risks. If he fires he’ll show himself unreliable. He’s been unreliable before, causing him to become a criminal. A repeat will cause doubt to fall upon him. If you have an unreliable superweapon at your disposal it’ll be better to get it off the battlefield and remove the unreliability if you can. That means chop chop and… Read more »
And they are now free to flee.
Perhaps. But even if Cort had taken the shot, there’s nothing to guarantee he would have been able to prevent that.
Possibly allowing enemy to escape is indeed the downside. The upside is possibly not vaporizing allied ships, staying on better terms with his allies, and/or not being Courtmartialed for irresponsible use of the superweapon against direct orders.
SO is flying into space like that basically damaging the body while having the healign of the starcaster migating the damage at the same time? It seems like a very painfull experience, not so sure Cort really wants to learn that.
In earlier flight she seemed unaffected. However, she’s been shooting at several evocs already. Firing the beam definitely causes harm. Her damage seems consistent with other beam starcasting, though I think beams are only damage starcasting can be seen doing to the user thus far.
Seems like the starcaster punish its bearer in consonant with their actions. You just fly and breath in the void? An action that can be associated to exploring the cosmos, then you are ok, I take care of you. You use me to destruction? Then be conscious of what it suppose in yourself…
Less romantic, a direct relation with how much energy it catalyst 😅
It doesn’t feel like a punishment to me, it simply feels like the result of channeling that much energy. The starcasters were probably designed to be used with a species more resilient to that. Or perhaps there’s supplemental safety gear they’re supposed to have as accessories.
I vaguely recall Nyrah telling Cort, that the starcasters were meant to be used by whatever species created them (Aug?). Only that humans (and other species) have the genetic markers allowing them their use, but they aren’t Aug, so it doesn’t work perfectly (though it might have been about Cort’s body’s reactions when bonding with it).
Or yeah, maybe it’s just about channeling a lot of energy, the prince guy who blew up the planet was knocked out and heavily burned by it, even with the starcaster’s improved healing.
i reckon the flying bit of it would be kinda like star gravity, where the starcaster uses its star as a opposite to the star(s) in the direction the caster wants to go and pulls them along towards that line. and its been said that the starcaster was a tool of creation, so it probably creates its own breathable atmosphere within its field.
This one was one of the closest votes in the Patreon. If I recall correctly, the difference in the vote was about 1.5% more people in favor of following orders. Cort’s frustration there mimicked almost exactly the narrowness of the vote. One of the big points here was that we the voters knew about the Starcaster being in the enemy hands. So there was a large number of people saying to take the shot to try and stop the Caster from getting away, and a large number of people saying there’s no way that would stop the Caster’s loss. Then… Read more »
I think it was the right call. Even with knowing they have a Starcaster, the Dranglaex have lost in this engagement. Taking out one Starcaster and gaining one was of course a boon that is hard to quantify. However, the Dranglaex ships are much more valuable. They do not have the production to make new ships, nor numbers in their favour. They lost a lot, while taking down little. Now they have a Starcaster that still needs training, even if they might have fast track training as a species. They need to run for the foreseeable future, unable to make… Read more »
Honestly, standing down is the right call even with reader knowledge. We have no idea which ship Cort is aiming at, after all. And from a storytelling perspective, it’s quite hard to believe that this decision would actually be given THAT much importance. Most likely best case scenario, Cort takes out a random Dranglaex ship that isn’t actually holding the Starcaster. Worst case, he inflicts heavy friendly fire in the process.
Oh thank god. I was dreading this moment
it is a good thing in this case that he stood down. cort isnt fully trained as a starcaster user, there are to many ally ships in his target zone, and he has never done a firing while in a spacesuit and at that range. all his practice was on a empty world against none moving rocks. yes its possible he could take out the dranglaex ships, but at that range, combined with his lack of practice firing at a extreme range with moving targets and friendly ships in the firing zone, chances are too high he would hit allies.… Read more »
He does have the “Recruit fresh out of boot camp vibe”. Learned which end the mortar comes out of, and now wants to fire everywhere.
I expected that the choice would have been him firing.
Quite interesting it went the other way. :O
I do believe this seems to be a better choice all in all.
Cort is powerful, but he hasn’t managed to contain that power yet.
As it is. It feels that there would have been dire consequences if he fired.
I remember seeing a huge yellow beam at the end of the last issue and thinking the vote must have gone “Fire!” — but on reflection I think him shooting was too risky. He’s powerful but inexperienced and doesn’t listen — the same lesson Analog tried to impart to GameBoy in the ‘Demolition’ arc in the Analog+D-Pad comics.
Also it means a bit of growth for Cort. Maybe.
yay! time to spend three weeks only checking on MWF, then when I finally get used to it being every day, it’ll switch back to MWF uploads!
Daaaaang that was a close vote. o.o
dang, close vote.
Good soldiers follow orders…
That’s a rough decision, but I think he (we?) made the right choice.
I think the patrons made the right call, ultimately. One destroyed ship, even this particularly important one, wouldn’t end the war. What Cort needs now more than a vengeance-fueled alien enemy that seems to have a better tactical head on his shoulders than his more impulsive brother, is to be on the same page as the federation. Right now, both sides are all over the place as far as team cohesion. The one advantage Cort has available to possibly gain though is having proper allies, people he can trust and that trust him. Not taking that shot and endangering allied… Read more »
wow. Close vote. Must have been a hectic counting time.
I feel Cort’s frustration here, but he made the right call.