TNE Only: What if there was no Virus

[Reban]

Being an audiece with a high Aslan ambassor, I'd bet some Aslan were on the ceremonial guard in the Throne Room that day, but, not expecting truble, I guess they were easily killed by the Ilelish Guard that was already ready.

Again IIRC (till searching for my TD09) in the news reports given on it (as if a newspeople was narrating what he/she sees in live) it specifically talked about seeing Aslan Guard units fighting near the Imperial Palace...

Yes you're right it makes sense in the presence of the Aslan Ambassador.

It says they can be seen fighting on the ground below the Palace and being joined by mobile elements of the Sylean Guard.

Being an 11 regiment force, I'd say more about 2-3 divisional and 1 Corps HQs. But otherways I agree.

Correct, but I was referring to the example given of deploying a "Reinforced Jump Division".

There are lots of force size options ranging from a single battalion to a Corps sized formation or by assigning single regiment to regular army divisions. It makes sense though to plug in regular Imperial Army logistics elements rather than provide them as permanent parts of the Imperial Guard.

 

[savage]

I'd thought of that but that requires a bigger conspiracy.

You'd have to get the ammunition with inert propellant into the supply chain and make sure that nobody requisitions some for a visit to the firing range before the assasination and coup happens.

You could smuggle it in with the help of the Quartermaster but then there's a whole lot of extra ammo sitting there for noisy types to trip over.

If I was the the Quartermaster or Armourer I'd just remove all the firing pins the night before the action is supposed to happen. Its a little harder to spot and easier to explain away. Plus if the loyal Guards get their hands ammo their weapons are still useless.

Of course this only applies to CPR weapons. The reason I brought it up is because there is specific mention of a Household Cavalry trooper having an accident with his SMG and being surprised that there is no bang (the idea of a
"fortuitous" accidental discharge at such a crucial moment )

With lasers yes you could supply power cells with no charge but you'd need to fool the laser's self test or shots remain display somehow.

Gauss weapons are probably easiest to supply inert ammo for as I'd assume magazines are supplied preloaded and sealed. You could supply non conducting darts that can't be affected by the gauss gun's mechanism.

As a guy who works with real and dummy firearms and has to issue blank ammo this minor little plot element just made me go :file_28::file_28::file_28:

I'm glad you caught that. I completely agree. The dummy/inert ammo is a big failure in the story. I wrote that off as a "news" agency assumption. More than likely the mechanisms we're altered, ammo weak, sites off target. If its a correct storyline.

Put another way, if you in the Emperor's Guard, would you let anyone mess with your weapon. Unlikely. I prefer saying that the Dlan Guard took control of the automated defense system in the throne room.

 

[Vargas]

Again, I think a good bit of the setup for the Rebellion story line is meant to be taken at face value so folks can move along to 1120 and doesn't bear up under close scrutiny.

 

[savage]

Again, I think a good bit of the setup for the Rebellion story line is meant to be taken at face value so folks can move along to 1120 and doesn't bear up under close scrutiny.

TD09 contains an adventure with the players involved in the events that transpired during the assassination of the Royal Family. Detailed events during this part of the timeline can add opportunities to challenge the players.

 

[rancke]

Major canon tweaks are needed to explain how no one in the Imperium's crack fighting force noticed that the Quartermaster was issuing them dummy ammunition.

Come to that, why did it puzzle the soldier who dropped his weapon that it didn't fire? Don't they put safeties on guns in the Classic Era?


Hans

 

[aramis]

Come to that, why did it puzzle the soldier who dropped his weapon that it didn't fire? Don't they put safeties on guns in the Classic Era?


Hans

Far easier to co-opt the armorer (or the watch armory guards) to replace the firing pins with ones that will not quite reach, I would think.

 

[mike wightman]

Why would a gauss rifle have a firing pin?

Or an elctrothermal ACR.

Oh yes, I forgot, the elite TL15 Emperor's guards are still using TL6 firearms and ammo

 

[aramis]

Why would a gauss rifle have a firing pin?

Or an elctrothermal ACR.

Oh yes, I forgot, the elite TL15 Emperor's guards are still using TL6 firearms and ammo

THen replace or reprogram the FLU (Firing Logic Unit) to fail during a predesignated time.

"The more they overtake the plumbing, the easier it is to gum up the works!" - Montgomery Scott

 

[mike wightman]

You could use a virus to scramble the electronics within the rifle - there would be a certain symmetry to it

 

[Uxi]

Why would a gauss rifle have a firing pin?

Or an elctrothermal ACR.

Oh yes, I forgot, the elite TL15 Emperor's guards are still using TL6 firearms and ammo

Analogous... could be a fuse or something that effectively serves the same purpose. The technobabble specific isn't as important as a crucial subcomponent that makes it go bang, be it in each individual magazine or cartridge.

All that matters is that it's supposed to diarm the rest of the Guard regiments before the Ilelish Guard... and is discovered by the misfire of a negligent discharge.

 

[Uxi]

Come to that, why did it puzzle the soldier who dropped his weapon that it didn't fire? Don't they put safeties on guns in the Classic Era?

Where are you seeing dropped? Rebellion Sourcebook says bumped a cart. Also says what would normally have earned a reprimand (running in an unsafe condition resulting in a negligent discharge - there is no such thing as an "accidental discharge" amongst the pros).

FWIW, many/most police even if they have a safety (Glocks don't, for example), will run with it in Condition 1 with safety off.

For military types:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTalnzcO0xk

US Marines typically load their own ammunition into magazines but we don't necessarily know the Household Cavalry does the same thing... even so it's specifically said to be a ceremonial submachine gun and probably not ordinary equipment the Household Cavalry uses (though they would be proficient in it, nevertheless, much as Marine Security Guards on embassy duty use different weapons suitable for that environment ( submachineguns, shotguns, etc) than they would in a normal Fleet unit (typically M4 or M16 variants). I envision the analogy being ordinary sabotaged green tip ammunition rather than obviously crimped ends.

 

[rancke]

Where are you seeing dropped? Rebellion Sourcebook says bumped a cart.

I stand corrected. Does it make any difference?


Hans

 

[Uxi]

Nah. Most modern weapons today won't go off by dropping them or bumping... something snagged in the trigger well as a result of an inadvertent collision is a different story and more likely. It's clearly an act of negligence that would have ordinarily earned a reprimand. Most likely a discipline issue rather than a training one, which was the real point.

 

[AndreaV]

My problem with Lucan is he needs to be dead. Who the heck is protecting him?

He's third in line to the throne. He's maybe got some sycophants, but the major movers are expecting Strephon to have a lot of years left and Varian to take over after him. Now Strephon is dead, Varian is dead, Lucan is being accused of murder and dissolving the Moot and pissing off a number of movers just by that and eventually shooting someone in his court and acting generally like a royal lunatic. He is a textbook case for the Cleon-three treatment. (Cleon III, aka Cleon the mad, assassinated 245 after having been found to be a homicidal maniac.) This is a man who by all rights should mysteriously disappear from the picture while official pronouncements of his heroic death in battle play over the hyper-net and the Moot reconvenes to declare a ceasefire.

In an era when half the upper nobility sits on the sidelines while the kinslayer Emperor and the regicide Archduke have it out, where is he finding people so blindly loyal that he doesn't manage to fall to some clever poison or just get stuffed in a sack and given the "man-in-the-iron-mask" treatment one dark night?

Lucan has the huge bonus in the early days in that the most senior noble available (Archduke Tranian) backs him. And by all accounts Tranian is respected enough in the Moot to get him through the early stages. However we won't look into why an Archduke and apparently protege of Strephon didn't know he'd buggered off for a bit.

The more you look at the assassination the more shaky Imperial succession looks. Third in line to the throne allowed to lolly gag about like some decadent playboy, second tier of the power structure denied vital facts.

 

[rancke]

Lucan has the huge bonus in the early days in that the most senior noble available (Archduke Tranian) backs him. And by all accounts Tranian is respected enough in the Moot to get him through the early stages. However we won't look into why an Archduke and apparently protege of Strephon didn't know he'd buggered off for a bit.

I think Tranian did know. He may not have known that Strephon was walkabout at that particular time, but I think he must have been aware of the existence of the doubles. (That's "must" as in "highly implausible that he didn't" not "I can prove he knew").

I think Tranian decided to play kingmaker but that his puppet eventually got out of control.

And when you think about it, how could Lucan possibly not know about the existence of the doubles and thus at least the possibility that Strephon wasn't dead at all? Unless, of course, he knew about the doubles but knew for a fact that the man who had just been killed was the genuine article.


Hans

 

[savage]

I think Tranian did know. He may not have known that Strephon was walkabout at that particular time, but I think he must have been aware of the existence of the doubles. (That's "must" as in "highly implausible that he didn't" not "I can prove he knew").

I think Tranian decided to play kingmaker but that his puppet eventually got out of control.

And when you think about it, how could Lucan possibly not know about the existence of the doubles and thus at least the possibility that Strephon wasn't dead at all? Unless, of course, he knew about the doubles but knew for a fact that the man who had just been killed was the genuine article.


Hans

Lucan sidesteps the Moot.
No reason to assume he does not know about the double but it brings on an interesting situation. He lives in the Palace so that is a step towards him having a clear understanding of the workings of government.

Another twist could be Lucan knows Dulinor will "off" Stephon. However, Lucan is betrayed by Dulinor.

How many people can know Dulinor's plan? His wife, a few dukes?
And how can Lucan be prepared to grab authority?

 

[Chuck Anumia]

I wonder

I wonder if another extension of this thought would turn towards a "Limited" Virus Release?
Sometime in 1128 while the research was nearing completion a group of scientists decided the virus was going to be too powerful to ever be used.
They knew if it was ever used it would destroy all other computer systems it infected and Billions of people would die. Therefore they created within the virus either a kill switch which would instantly disrupt any computer infected and force it to shut down or a backdoor that would allow anyone with the code to override any infected computer.

OR
We eliminate the assassination attempt.

Since Emperor Strephon was never assassinated, the Civil War never occurred. Prince Varian is alive and well and Prince Lucan never descends into madness. Since the Grand Princess is not only alive but has children to succeed her, Varian and Lucan are no longer in the direct line of succession.

In 1116 Varian and Lucan got into a fight over a woman they were both involved with. Strephon summoned the both of them to his presence and discussed the matter in private. Although the substance of the conversation was never revealed, the two princes left the meeting greatly shaken.

In 1117 Lucan announced that he would be attending the Naval Academy, which he entered under a nom de guerre to avoid attracting unwanted attention or favoritism. He is scheduled to graduate in 1121.

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Lucan

 

[aramis]

Where was Tranion archduke of?

 

[whulorigan]

Where was Tranion archduke of?

Archduke Tranian Fierana Minomoru of The Gateway Domain:

- Ley Sector
- Gateway Sector
- Glimmerdrfit Reaches
- Crucis Margin

Effectively the smallest of the 7 Domains.

 

[rancke]

And when you think about it, how could Lucan possibly not know about the existence of the doubles and thus at least the possibility that Strephon wasn't dead at all?

Lucan sidesteps the Moot.

Not at first.

I don't think I managed to get my point across. Having Lucan see that that his uncle, aunt, and cousin have all been killed and thinking that if he kills Varian, he'll be next in line for the throne is quite a different scenario from having him see that his uncle's double has been killed and even if he kills Varian, Strephon is still out there. After all, Lucan can't count on everybody who knows about the clones having been killed or keeping their mouths shut, nor can he count on Strephon acting like a total idiot. Even the possibility that the man killed could be a double ups the risk he'd run if he kills Varian to a whole other level.


Hans