[ DEFENSE TEAM PLOTTING ]

[forwardmomentum]

Hey all! Madi/Miles player here; I thought that now that we've got more information (especially considering there was some confusion about what the event actually was at first), it might be good to put everyone's ideas in one post and revisit them and hopefully get some more cohesive discussion going on! Obviously we don't all have to agree on a single thing, especially given the huge variety of people/mindsets on this team, I'll submit whatever we have to the mods at the end of the week, but let's get some more discussion and ideas going on!

I've gone through the defense team thread on the OOC event post and reposted everyone's contributions (with links back) but if I seem to have missed anyone's post please let me know! I'll put Miles & Bel's suggestions at the bottom of this post; Miles has got some Strong Opinions on how to handle this because, like some of the other folks on this team, he was present for the destruction on Caducus Primary. So, have a look at all of this and let's plunge into some discussion! If you/your character has changed mind in light of new information, feel free to make amendments. And if you've got top-levels for your characters at the event, feel free to link them in this post! I'll add a link for Miles's top-level when it's up, if anyone wants to hit him up about this ICly. ANYWAY:

Elle (quixotically) thread
Elle's suggestions amount to making barricades out of anything they can -- there's lots of metal, right??? That'd make decent barricades?/ Setting traps wouldn't be a bad idea, either?

She also suggests that, if it comes to it and negotiations aren't helping, that they work with the offensive team to try to lure as many enemy combatants into an area that they can seal off, and then open the airlocks. Like... Elle doesn't want to kill them, but she doesn't know a lot of other defensive options. She's used to offense being her defense when negotiations go south, she's sorry :(

Something that'll be important, though, is taking advantage of the fact that they know their way around their ship, and the enemies don't.

Arcee (ninjabike) thread
Arcee is all about setting up some choke points and lethal traps in strategic locations in the event of boarding and breech. She also thinks those with no combat experience should be put in the back and run communications and first aid.

She also thinks a good defensible position is needed to be fortified and marked as the fall back point in the event they are boarded. This area would be where the noncoms would go since just because they're assigned a team doesn't mean you should send some poor idiot that's never fought before out into a fight. They can help in other ways.

This also means communicating with the other teams so they don't walk into a trap or barricade when things go pear shape.

Rinzler (notglitching) thread
Rinzler's tendency to contribute may be erratic (initiative and verbalizing are likely to drop noticeably when Clu's paying attention to him), but he'd express the opinion that the best defense is a good killing-all-the-threats-before-they-can-kill-you.

If When that idea is thoroughly shot down, he'd suggest combative tactics primarily oriented around stopping them before they can even make it on the ship. Mine the area between, send out the transporters and all other armed flightcraft to destroy any attempts at docking or shuttle transfer and take out any guns they may have. They can't damage the crew if they can't even access the system properly.

It'll be clear he doesn't see much reason to leave an attacking force like this alive at all, and while he can be nudged into prioritizing protection, he's going to be actively opposed to any attempts at appeasement. All that does is let everyone else know this system is an easy target for exploitation. They're attacking the Moira, and if (for some glitched reason) the users here are opposed to wiping them for it completely, they still need to be made to lose in every way. Not (just) for pride, but for making sure no one else thinks it's a good idea.

Meh Yewll (imaginary_wife) thread
Doc Yewll's going to do everything in her power to create some forcefield locked areas of the ship for safety. So who would be down for creating "Safe Rooms"? I know she'd try to keep them out of Med Bay with the same sort of elements she used for the Hulk's cage.

She'd also be down for trapping intruders.

I also love for her to build stuff with people.

Napoleon Solo (smoothaf) thread
napoleon is strongly of the opinion that they do whatever it takes to survive so kill as many of them as you can if they get boarded

he will also encourage every underhanded trick, rig traps, cutting power and life support to areas, messing with gravity and then sending in like a transformer to pick them off since they'll be unaffected by lack of oxygen and heat

pretending to not be a highly trained spy comes second to not dying

Liquid Snake (saveyourserpent) thread
Liquid isn't going to have any qualms in killing these guys. If they gotta fight, they gotta fight (and he loves a good fight). He's had to deal with unwanted people coming into his shit before (HI SNAKE) and he's also used to working with a team.

An Official Plan should definitely be made but he knows a lot of stuff's going to happen on the fly.

Charlie (springlocking) thread
Charlotte/Charlie here will happily contribute to the least violent ideas for defense. (e.g. making barricades, setting traps, etc.)

She will also happily sneak up on lone enemies and sap 'em with blunt instruments. She's good at that.

Other than that, uh...she's not big on planning aside from "make sure you're prepared for whatever you can think will go wrong," so maybe she'll advocate that? idk? If anyone has any good ideas for what/how she can contribute more/better, lemme know!

Han Solo (straightouttacarbonite) thread
Like a number of others above, Han is in favor of getting rid of their enemies before they get aboard. To that end he'll volunteer to take the Millennium Falcon out, leave it inconspicuously stuck on the side of the Moira, and give 'em hell once it becomes clear that they're gonna have to fight. It's a fast, agile ship with pretty formidable weapons, and it's definitely how he feels he can be most useful in this situation. Likewise, any other free transporters or weapon-equipped private spacecraft should be pressed into service. He'd much rather see a space battle than have a full-on invasion.

Given his experience in this kinda thing he is happy to do as much strategizing / sub command etc as seems reasonable, though I haven't decided whether I want to put him up as a candidate for team leader.

He'd probably ask Lando to fly with him, and they could probably use one or two more people to man weapons systems, if anyone is interested.

Riptide / Aurelia (knaval/diamondslap) thread
OKAY THIS IS A REALLY CHEAP PLOTTING COMMENT but riptide isn't much of an Ideas Guy and was literally built to be a follower, so i'll just OFFER UP THIS 32FT GIANT ROBOT who will basically do whatever as long as it's not like, actively killing the other ship.

aurelia, however, will very vocally want to kill them all and/or get a megaphone and tell them to stop being gigantic wussies and accept that it was natural selection and also kind of funny

Peridot (peridork) thread
FIRST OF ALL, Peridot is VEHEMENTLY against giving Bruce up, THAT IS HER FRIEND, YOU DON'T!!! GIVE FRIENDS UP!!! TO THE TOTALITARIAN LEADER YOU ONCE SWORE YOUR UNDYING ALLEGIANCE TO THE ENEMY!!!

Anyway, Peridot's MAIN reaction is going to be to do this, but barring any backup or retaliation from the captains on that, she'll mostly be itching to set up traps/barricades/strengthening armor and defensive weaponry, rather than trying to like. Get involved in the plan-making discussion, because as far as she's concerned the Cauducians have every right to be angry but she's also not going to roll over and let them kill them all, or take her friend.

She agrees with the idea of protecting non-combatants (especially since she IS one herself), and guarding those in cryo. She's also prioritizing defense of life support/engines because lmao that's what got knocked out on the LAST ship she was on and it ended with her being stranded on an enemy planet.

tl;dr talk less build more, and anyone who harms one hair on Bruce's head has to anSWER TO HER.

Nihlus (beautifulspaceraptor) thread
There's a lot of quiet facepalming at the team arrangements. After that, he opines in.

Regardless of anyone's personal (or lack of personal) opinions on Bruce, the fact of the matter was that they needed scientists like him if they were going to sort out the mess with the Ingress. His work on Ceta's forcefield was was also immediately useful for defense.

The other issue is the fact that he needed to have a reinforced cage built in the cargo bay to hold whatever kind of monster he turned into. Did they really want to push the issue on that front? They could very well bring about another round of the incident that'd caused this entire mess to begin with.

So, Nihlus is going to be backing everyone on reinforcing the ship's defenses. With the fabricator up and running, making parts they need will be relatively easy and they still have a lot of salvage from Del Pascia and various others and sundry that can be converted. Ideally, they prevent the Caudacans from boarding entirely, but if worse comes to worse then he advocates non-lethal traps and misdirections.

These are, after all, the last people left of their world.

And with the increased number of able crew and with the powered number amongst them, they could afford it at any rate. Moira's own crew are priority, but they have enough technical and medical knowledge that they could handle a lot of potential attackers without necessitating lethal force.

Reinforcing any potential entry points such as the windows and airlocks will be priority. Medbay, navigations, engines, tower and gunnery are next on the list. The idea of using holographic Bruce as bait is certainly sound, especially with the Cybertronian holoform tech.

In addition to that, however, they should probably plan out designated areas to keep any knocked-out Caducians. They can even be used for negotiations after or during fights.

Clu (a_perfect_end) thread
Shoring up the walls is good and wholesome fun for the entire crew, but, but, consider!

TRAPS.

They don't even have to be good traps! Given adequate parts and preparation time, the whole fiasco could be solved with a sufficiently large Dremel.

No? Perhaps a tuning fork?

...When this endeavor is justly shot down, he'll sulk a bit, but then commit completely to whatever the team decides.

Frisk (gainedlove) thread
Frisk is going to be exactly useless, and suggest that the ship as a whole, in list of priority:

A: Not hurt any of the Caduceans
B: Try to make friends with them
C: * Flee

They're not very good at the whole 'necessary force' idea.

Miles Vorkosigan & Bel Thorne (forwardmomentum & hellsbel) thread
If defense/escape really becomes the only viable option (and Miles wishes it won't, but he's seen Caducian diplomacy before and they're not very...flexible), a big part of Miles and Bel's approach to defense would be to come up with a non-lethal method of preventing the Caducians from pursuing them. Fending them off so the Moira can escape should be the objective, not to eliminate the enemy. Disabling or mucking up any of their ship's parts or systems -- preferably remotely, but if there are any brave souls up for a spacewalk, raise your hands -- messing with their navigation, their engines, whatever might slow them down enough for the Moirans to run and lose their tail. Because the Caducians are obviously more than one planetary settlement, destroying the ship and slaughtering its crew would be an even bigger political disaster, so Miles and Bel want to avoid loss of life and keep ahead of the Caducians long enough to reach their destination.

Depending how fast the action goes down when the Caducians attempt to board and how much warning or chance to protest the crew has, Bel & Miles would argue that if negotiations break down, the Caducians should be kept off the ship. Defense of airlocks, windows, and outer corridors would come first; non-lethal weapons if possible, but priority goes to the Moirans' lives if the Caducians choose to get violent. Defense of Engineering and Navigation is also crucial -- the ship's weapons, engines, sensors, and life support cannot be allowed to fall into unfriendly hands.

Bel & Miles would ask for someone to monitor the ship's internal cameras and direct the defenders to where they are needed. Assuming there are external cameras that can show the ship from the outside, those should be watched too in case of mines, EVA troops with laser cutters, etc. To minimize loss of life, external threats would only be fired upon if they were attempting an action that would lead to loss of life, such as trying to blow up part of the ship. Attackers who manage to board would be met by military-trained crewpeople, stunned or otherwise incapacitated, and held in a secure area for delivery back to the Caducian ship when it's all over. They would both argue strongly against proactive attempts to kill the Caducians if they can be neutralized without killing; they've suffered enough and there is a moral duty to preserve the lives of such an endangered population.

If the ship is boarded en masse, Bel and Miles recommend placing everyone who can't (or shouldn't) be in combat in the most inaccessible place on the ship, decompressing the outer corridors, and placing military-trained defenders in space armor (or the equivalent, especially crewpeople who can operate in vacuum without a suit) there as the front line, defending the ship's vital systems and the rest of the crew at all costs. Some tactics would depend on what the crew knows about how well the attackers are armed and protected, and how to exploit any weakness in that protection to take them down without killing them. Having a ship full of superpowers could make a difference also; speedsters, teleporters, illusionists, and the like could ambush the Caducians with sedatives or otherwise incapacitate them.

HOO BOY OKAY. I know that is a LOT to read (and I'm still making my second pass at it) but I figured it would be easiest to take in all in one place. I'll put up my top-level for Miles shortly and link it for anyone who wants to tag him, and for discussion purposes, the above plan is still the one Miles & Bel are advocating. Anyway, GO FORTH, FRIENDS, AND DISCUSS

ETA: Miles's event top-level is here!

Comments

HERE IS A COMMENT FOR MILES & BEL'S PLAN

[forwardmomentum]

if you have any comments/questions/further discussion about their plan as outlined above!

[imaginary_wife]

Just expect some hella strong stasis fields for important areas. She won't have a lot of time so it'll have to just be for a few places.

So for interesting strategy sake, outside of the Med Bay I'll say she'll make enough stasis nets to protect three other locations. You guys can pick where.

[saveyourserpent]

Liquid's getting his FOXDIE cured so he's now going to pretty much be sick this whole time and he's going to figuratively die because he can't play a bigger role. now if only he was in charge

He can begrudgingly work some kind of advisory role but really he thinks this whole thing proves the captains really, really, really don't know what they're doing, hmph. Whatever idea the team ends up going with's good enough, wah wah wah, but everyone should play to their strengths.

(he'll probably get at least a little better when everything really hits the fan, though, but he's not sure exactly how long he'll be sick for)

[notglitching]

Rinzler's definitely likely to second Ratchet's issues with the nonlethal thing-- both because it doesn't solve stuff in any long-term sense and because an army of people who can predict your moves before you make them are not enemies to take lightly. Especially when their stated goal is "murder every single person on your side". If the Moira crew is trying to tackle/stun/choke out enemies, and the Caducans are going at them with everything they've got, he doesn't see this ending in anything but a Moira crew massacre.

THAT SAID, his main point of contention with Miles' idea is actually the "don't shoot external threats unless they're blowing up our ship" part. The Moira's transporters are maneuverable and weaponized, and there's a pile of other flightcraft people have acquired too. Whether Miles is focused on preserving the Caducans' lives or the Moira crew's, Rinzler's going to argue that the best plan is not letting them board at all. He sees the ship-fight as the key to defense.

Major points:

• If their weapons systems and spacecraft take out the Moira's weapon systems and spacecraft, they can blow up the Moira without setting foot aboard. Holding back against external threats gets everyone killed all at once which is even worse than holding back up close.
  
• But if the Moira can take out their weapons systems and spacecraft first... any boarding attempt can be shot down in seconds. Plus it'd be easy to disable their ship to force surrender or whatever Miles is going for.
  
• Shooting first (or at least ASAP) is critical to survival when it comes to this scale of attack. If the Moira waits until they shoot on us, we might not have enough guns left to shoot back with.
  
• Killing a few pilots and/or whoever's manning their gunnery is still much less loss of life than is likely in any real up-close fighting.
  
• The Moira's got a good set of crazy skilled pilots who could still try for nonlethal shots (shooting out their fighters' engines or w/e) if the situation allowed?
  

While he doesn't support the "run after" part, he does like Miles' plan of taking out their engines. Rinzler's just of the opinion that the Moira should use its own weapons and ships to do that instead of risking people spacewalking out into their artillery canons. He's not sure even the Moira can resurrect people from that.

[ryuuzaki]

L is not on this team and doesn't belong at this meeting!

However, if there's any functional way for him to have learned about it, up to and including having chosen someone he knows is not on his team to trail after, he will have shown up anyway. (I am so sorry.)

If not challenged (or challenged late), he sits quietly at the back of the room, his hand to his mouth, and listens without contributing or disrupting. He will lean forward a little and seem to be paying more attention when Rinzler's ideas come up.

If challenged, he'll calmly explain that he's interested in everyone else's strategies and capabilities and that he doesn't think the teams have been set up as efficiently as they might have been, and will ask, reasonably politely, to be allowed to sit in. If asked to leave, he'll be reluctant (this is not a competition, it's our lives! etc.), but he'll go quietly.

If asked for a contribution, he will explain that it's not his team and he thinks this team is doing well on its own, but he wanted to be broadly well-informed about the ideas and capabilities of the rest of the crew. He thinks the best strategy will probably turn out to be a combination of the three that are developed.

FINAL COUNTDOWN. I MEAN PLANNING. FINAL PLANNING. THAT.

[forwardmomentum]

since tomorrow's the DEADLINE and I've got a little new info in, I'm just making a new comment and incorporating people's suggestions/contributions thus far into this comment.

First: according to the mods, the ship's scanners are capable of getting a rough layout of the Caducans' ship, so that's one thing we know we can build on. Assessing the ship's layout and identifying points of entry/exit, the best places to teleport, and weaknesses in security, structure, and crew density, as well as whatever offensive and defensive capabilities both interior and exterior, will all be crucial to the success of any attempt to take their ship.

Tiny side note: If your character has an interest in strategy or other military matters, they may have come across a copy of The Komarr Report in the ship's Library, a tactical written by Miles's father. If they've read it, they'll probably see just where Miles gets some of his particular strategic flair from.

To recap the plan thus far:
since being unpredictable is apparently the name of the game here, Miles would be all about running a bunch of interference and diversion tactics (including mucking up/disabling ship systems as previously mentioned) so that they can take the Caducans' ship, with the ultimate goal of taking the Caducans hostage and depositing them on the nearest friendly planet (probably the Collectives). This would involve allowing some of the Caducans to board and allowing them to think they have the upper hand long enough for some of the Moirans to take control of their ship. Miles would propose dividing the crew up into a bunch of teams with different tasks -- set up traps for the boarding party, divert & herd their attacks into dead ends etc, all kinds of misdirection -- dividing people into teams with distinct goals would, theoretically, help prevent the Caducans from guessing what they're really up to.

This would require the help of tech-savvy people in order to muck up the opposing ship's systems and to send out false readouts from the Moira, as well as anyone well versed in guerilla tactics and boarding combat.

Other contributions/suggestions:
- Intentionally disabling some of the Moira's gunnery so that it looks as though the Caducans are already winning
- Using transporters to send Moirans aboard the Caducan ship once enough of them have boarded the Moira
- STILL WITH THE NON-LETHAL WEAPONS, WHERE POSSIBLE: disabling/stunning the boarding party and throwing them in the hold/other secured areas is STRONGLY PREFERRED for political reasons if nothing else, but there is no ban on lethal force. Killing them is NOT the objective, but when it comes down to it, the lives of the Moira's crew take much bigger precedence over the Caducans', because the whole point is to minimize loss of life. Killing cooperating hostages is a big no-no.
- Getting a hold of or interfering with Caducan comm channels to give them a false sense of progress; Irrisia also volunteered Loki for convincing illusions
- Finding ways to distract/divert Caducans from the nav & com area on their ship so the Moirans can take it
- Some collateral will unfortunately be necessary to stage a convincing takeover, such as taking out any smaller attack ships/shuttles that the Caducans have; basically anything to keep them focused on the offensive and not their own defense
- Disguising ship-critical areas; tricking the enemy by "falling back" to non-critical areas during a fight
- Miles is aiming to minimize loss of life, but casualties are likely on both sides, so he'll want people on first aid duty as well; he doesn't want Caducans dying either if they can help it

Basically, close-quarters guerilla tactics with sabotage and careful diversion so that the transporter crew can get a Moiran boarding party to swiftly take over nav & com on the Caducan ship -- there should be a minimum of damage over there too, Miles would prefer a swift and clean takeover if they can. He's also not above forcing their hand by taking important hostages to get the rest to cooperate or any other political cards they can play.

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS:
Rinzler:
1. Protect the ship from anything that could kill it. This means maintain ship superiority at all costs; faking losing is all well and good, but if the Moira's craft can't stay alive, we're back to "everyone dies all at once".
2. Let a limited amount of Caducans onto the Moira. Enough that they feel like they're winning, but not so many that the on-ship crew can't steer, misdirect, and eventually take them down.
3. a) After that, take out their ships. Note that this doesn't have to mean kill (though Rinzler won't stress the nonlethal option as much as Miles might). This stops them from pulling back their people if they realize what's up, and leaves a clear corridor for...
b) ...Moira dropships. A few flightcraft use the cover of the shipfights to fly over as stealthily as they can and drop off the Moira's boarding crew.
(NOTE: techs figure out anything that can be done beforehand to make these ships hard to detect.)
4. Skirmish~! Most of the Moira's craft "fight" their ship-based artillery and keep anything they manage to launch busy. The priority at this point is self-preservation more than damage output; unless shit goes sideways, this fight will mostly be a distraction. Stealth vessels should keep making runs until everyone on the boarding force is dropped.

Soundwave:
Soundwave would be in support of taking their ship, because if they just bust it up a bit and run, they will fix it and come back if they are actually that mad about their planet being blown up. But he's also not in support of non-lethal weapons because the Caducans have made it pretty clear they want to kill them and he's an ass who doesn't care.

HOWEVER, he was the Decepticon communication officer for four million years so he does know some shit. Since he has his magical super hearing and telepathy, he can pretty much 'hear' into any computer system and try to take control of it or get information from it, even across great distances. He can jam most communication signals too.

Tech stuff aside, he turns into an armored car so he can move people around while keeping them not shot up if need be - it would just take some convincing to let a human crawl in him UGH - and he's also a giant robot with a energy canon thing on his shoulder. He knows how to do murder. Or just fighting if you guys wanna be killjoys.

Elle:
Elle would volunteer to be a part of the boarding team. Her Pip-Boy has a local radar on it, so as she goes through the ship, it'd be making a map of the areas around them. Also, first aid/playing combat medic is something she's pretty good at. Again there's the problem of not knowing their anatomy, but this is actually a case where Elle would rather try and be wrong than not try at all.

Daisy:
Daisy is soooo for this. She is kind of multi-useful? Has hand to hand combat training, weapons training and also an expert hacker. And on top of all of this has a power. She can control and manipulate the vibrations around her. (AKA she could more or less open doors without a key, although it can be a bit more violent, she'd have to be extra careful).