actually i feel like the brother getting a starcaster will cause more confrontation. its clear they both think they are the chosen and it could cause infighting amongst the Dranglex
I could see their father, the emperor, not wanting him to have the starcaster because he lost a significant number of ships and that’s the more important thing. Starcasters may be the biggest guns you could get in the universe, but if you don’t have the ships necessary to ferry the starcaster user to a location to use it, then they are pretty much useless other than serving as a defensive weapon.
Weapons win a battle, logistics win a war. Devastating super weapons and one-man-armies might clear your opponents out, but if you have any intent to maintain control in an area it will be your rank and file doing the work.
It would seem one brother understands this, and the other thinks himself all-powerful and all-capable with his shiny new prize.
“Maintain control” doesn’t necessarily mean of a population. They might be willing to erase the occasional resource rich/developed planet if it’s too tough of a nut to crack otherwise, or makes a good statement, but they don’t want to destroy every populated planet they come across. They need troops, they need their fleet intact, and they need a supply line. This means occupying, fortifying, and patrolling territories and the routes between. Plus, eradicating “lesser” species may be their end point, but that doesn’t mean they’d ignore the use they can make of them now. Occupying a planet and keeping it… Read more »
This has nothing (directly) to do with Cort. It was explained earlier that Danton and La’Ni were out trying to detect the Dranglaex. (Which led to La’Ni accidentally detecting Cort instead.)
They can’t blame Cort for this. Plenty of pressure they can put on him because of it though.
ChaosSepher
19 hours ago
Wonder if the higher ups will have something to say in hindsight about the orders to Cort about not taking that shot?
They may think that casualties – military casualties – would be acceptable to keep the dranglaex from obtaining another weapon that can wipe out planets and the entire civilian population thereof.
it was definitely the right call to have cort not take that shot. considering he has only practiced on a empty world with unmoving rocks, if he had fired, he would most likely have hit allied forces. assume the starcaster adjusts the beam size based on intent. at that long a range, with so many moving targets and allied ships, and considering his angle was below and to the side, his intent to hit the enemy could have resulted in something like a death star beam going off, large enough to vaporize half the ships in the target area. or… Read more »
IFcort or La’NI had blasted the ship with the starcaster on it, we probably would have seen a explosion equal to a dozen supernovas going off.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume Cort will have a 300m wide beam on this distance. And just because something is in starcaster beam doesn’t mean it’s instantly destroyed/vaporized. More likely the ship fuel/ammo/other stuff exploding would scatter everything that was on the ship before all of that stuff is fully destroyed by the beam.
Also, because he didn’t fire, the Dranglaex still aren’t aware the Federation has another starcaster (at least, not for sure).
Del Cox
18 hours ago
Crappy thing is you just know that if he’d taken the shot, Scott would’ve had Cort blow up a friendly ship or fighter. I imagine no Nat20 situation where he would have hit the lead ship, since it would have stalled the plot.
The Starcasters aren’t really into saving or preventing damage, they only heal it afterwards. And if the wielder is dead (for example, because they died instantly when a bomb went off in their face) there isn’t anything left to heal.
Kas
14 hours ago
“Nyeh!”
Zeqs
14 hours ago
They won the battle, but lost the war.
JozMk.II
9 hours ago
That’s an interesting-looking planet. I wonder if that massive city-scape on the surface is overcrowded with poor people, while the military, the rich, and others of societal and political high-standing live in the orbiting broken-ring-like structures?
Alternatively it could be the other way around! Richies or powerful folks live on the planet ‘normally’ and the non-powerful/poor live and build the ring structure!
I was thinking that the round structure was something like the Death Star where other ships can land. The ring could be for transportation from Point A to Point B anywhere on the spherical structure.
Phire
8 hours ago
At least the lost the weakest starcaster.
I mean did that guy ever do anything useful?
No idea why he was even given a starcaster.
Reso
6 hours ago
So much said, with no words spoken.
Crestlinger
2 hours ago
Finally able to relax with a nice miniature kit still in the box and then This happens.
24
Well they found out they lost a star caster.
Yup. Now the pressure on Cort will only get bigger.
Possibly the lance major as well for not allowing cort to assist and possibly keep the brother from getting away with it
Could be a natural reaction to the cup of Mountain Dew.
Seems like there will be no brothers conflict…
actually i feel like the brother getting a starcaster will cause more confrontation. its clear they both think they are the chosen and it could cause infighting amongst the Dranglex
I could see their father, the emperor, not wanting him to have the starcaster because he lost a significant number of ships and that’s the more important thing. Starcasters may be the biggest guns you could get in the universe, but if you don’t have the ships necessary to ferry the starcaster user to a location to use it, then they are pretty much useless other than serving as a defensive weapon.
“Shardbearers can’t hold ground”
Weapons win a battle, logistics win a war. Devastating super weapons and one-man-armies might clear your opponents out, but if you have any intent to maintain control in an area it will be your rank and file doing the work.
It would seem one brother understands this, and the other thinks himself all-powerful and all-capable with his shiny new prize.
Normally yes but the drangalex seem to choose to eradicate all those who don’t blindly worship them(and probably plan to kill them as well)
“Maintain control” doesn’t necessarily mean of a population. They might be willing to erase the occasional resource rich/developed planet if it’s too tough of a nut to crack otherwise, or makes a good statement, but they don’t want to destroy every populated planet they come across. They need troops, they need their fleet intact, and they need a supply line. This means occupying, fortifying, and patrolling territories and the routes between. Plus, eradicating “lesser” species may be their end point, but that doesn’t mean they’d ignore the use they can make of them now. Occupying a planet and keeping it… Read more »
Why do you say that? That’s something that’s going to take time to occur.
Thumb down.
(Just to clarify, was meant as a bad pun regarding the situation/current Federation mood, not disliking the comic.)
Will Cort be blamed for this? That caster may have only been on a single ship because they were hunting for him.
Then again their spy was always there so it may always have happened eventually.
This has nothing (directly) to do with Cort. It was explained earlier that Danton and La’Ni were out trying to detect the Dranglaex. (Which led to La’Ni accidentally detecting Cort instead.)
They can’t blame Cort for this. Plenty of pressure they can put on him because of it though.
Wonder if the higher ups will have something to say in hindsight about the orders to Cort about not taking that shot?
It was near-undeniably the right call. Casualties were more a certainty than a direct hit.
They may think that casualties – military casualties – would be acceptable to keep the dranglaex from obtaining another weapon that can wipe out planets and the entire civilian population thereof.
it was definitely the right call to have cort not take that shot. considering he has only practiced on a empty world with unmoving rocks, if he had fired, he would most likely have hit allied forces. assume the starcaster adjusts the beam size based on intent. at that long a range, with so many moving targets and allied ships, and considering his angle was below and to the side, his intent to hit the enemy could have resulted in something like a death star beam going off, large enough to vaporize half the ships in the target area. or… Read more »
I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume Cort will have a 300m wide beam on this distance.
And just because something is in starcaster beam doesn’t mean it’s instantly destroyed/vaporized. More likely the ship fuel/ammo/other stuff exploding would scatter everything that was on the ship before all of that stuff is fully destroyed by the beam.
Also, because he didn’t fire, the Dranglaex still aren’t aware the Federation has another starcaster (at least, not for sure).
Crappy thing is you just know that if he’d taken the shot, Scott would’ve had Cort blow up a friendly ship or fighter. I imagine no Nat20 situation where he would have hit the lead ship, since it would have stalled the plot.
It would have been an XCOM 95% shot that probably would have vaporized the female pilot from the last page.
This. There was no true random chance of him taking the shot. It would have been predetermined to go wrong because it’s more interesting story-wise.
I didn’t need destruction for the story, I needed the readers to decide whether Cort was going to follow orders or not.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
why the startcaster didnt save/heal the guy?
The Starcasters aren’t really into saving or preventing damage, they only heal it afterwards. And if the wielder is dead (for example, because they died instantly when a bomb went off in their face) there isn’t anything left to heal.
“Nyeh!”
They won the battle, but lost the war.
That’s an interesting-looking planet. I wonder if that massive city-scape on the surface is overcrowded with poor people, while the military, the rich, and others of societal and political high-standing live in the orbiting broken-ring-like structures?
Alternatively it could be the other way around! Richies or powerful folks live on the planet ‘normally’ and the non-powerful/poor live and build the ring structure!
I was thinking that the round structure was something like the Death Star where other ships can land. The ring could be for transportation from Point A to Point B anywhere on the spherical structure.
At least the lost the weakest starcaster.
I mean did that guy ever do anything useful?
No idea why he was even given a starcaster.
So much said, with no words spoken.
Finally able to relax with a nice miniature kit still in the box and then This happens.