PaRARGdox 180
You have to be kidding me…: As you may remember, the Rarg did drop a little “this is why we REALLY hate you” message into the brains of the survivors just before the end of the world – see pages 7.153-154 . Hm. Wonder how that changes things.
Oh yeah… and Sista Superior might find her rampage [see, for example, pages 7.49, 7.60-62, 7.95-96, page 7.103 and 7.156-157] cut short this time…????
Patrons: Apologies for the lack of updates, that should change over the next 3-4 weeks… hoping for a lot of new content. Page 181 up soon…
Next update: Apologies, end of work year capers have interrupted my ability to get sat down and Magellan… getting back on track with updates now…December 26, 2022: “Glass half…”???
Looks like we might have to go *back* down the rabbit hole :/
Does Kaycee believe the Rarg are thought to be unrelenting berzerkers because no one has tried the right way to get them to relent? I mean, good on her for considering (comparitively) nonviolent outcomes, but your time is limited, the stakes are high, and killing them would at least buy Earth some breathing space. Charisma is, strangely, the reasonable voice here.
Yes I kind of agree – it seems sort of over-the-top to try to be kind to someone who is trying to genocide/planetcide your species and plant, affectively and efficiently I must add.
If you can easily defeat them, I can see using kid gloves, this does not seem to be the case. Furthermore charisma does not seem to be calling for a genocide against Rarg, just not pulling punches.
To be fair, if they only tell you why they’re pissed off just before they destroy your planet, it might be that no one has ever been able to work out how to reason with them til now…
This. The Rarg are apparently very intelligent (understands and effectively utilizes advanced tech that they just got their hands on) but rather stupid (not inventing new stuff).
Apparently it never occurred to the Rarg that other species might leave them alone if other species were informed that this gas giant is full of babies.
Charisma, there is a very big difference between revenge and murder. Any of your teachers will tell you, that attacking with either in mind is a big no go. (Unfortunately, this will count for Olaf too, even if it’s for everyone’s safety)
It strikes me as odd how much push-back there seems to be in accepting that this story can have messaging about being thoughtful to motivations, even from hostile parties.
This shit matters.
What exactly makes odd that people are tired from the same message being forced into them from so many places?
Note that I was complaining about this already when it started to seem it’s going to this direction, so it’s no suprise I’m on Charisma’s side. Rarg DESTROYED WHOLE CIVILIZATION (and it probably wasn’t the first one). It’s not just something they seem to do, they ALREADY DID IT. Just not wiping out their whole civilization is a show of restrain.
Also, what exactly is the message supposed to be? “If you are good, you must allow evil to destroy you completely?” Is suicide on species level only good option? … actually, seems that some ecological activists totally believe that. Well, what about if THEY committed the suicide and left ME ALIVE?
… sorry but yes, this is not safe topic to discuss.
Maybe the message is that if you don’t want violence, tell people what your upset about first, not after already committing revenge – i.e. it is the Rarg that are an example of how not to behave.
Not everything is about good and bad, and nothing worth discussing is a binary option. Sometimes it is about navigating the sliding scale between more and less violent, more and less stupid, more and less pointless et.c.
Please check the thread above.
Obvious solution: Turn over the actual responsible parties to the Rarg immediately.
They didn’t even ASKED. What makes you think they will listen to your offer?
You still have to at least try. After that, well…
The actual responsible parties got Rarg’d a couple days ago. Unless you mean to turn over the Earthside members of Prometheus… but even if Force Magellan were willing to sacrifice them, the Rarg consider Magellan to be responsible, due to the technology being primarily from two former Magellan researchers. Well, they consider Earth as a whole to be responsible, hence them destroying it in the aborted timeline, but in particular Magellan (hence them targeting the island).
MAYBE they can figure out some sort of peaceful solution, but that’s typically not an option against the Rarg – once they’re triggered they basically attack-attack-attack until one side or the other doesn’t exist anymore.
The obvious solution is to use telepaths to tell the Rarg something like this: “The people who killed your children are the ones you already killed. They were thieves who stole the technology from us, and we had no part in it, so it would not be justice for you to kill anyone else. You are in the wrong for entering our planetary system in secret without asking our permission first. And we will do what we must to protect the lives of our people… please don’t make us have to kill any of you.”
The Rarg are kind of crazy by human standards but they are sane by their own. There has to be a way to phrase the above message in a way that would make sense to the Rarg.
And Magellan has to try to find the peaceful solution where nobody else has to die. Before, they didn’t have their powers and could only fight using lethal force; now, with Epoch and others at full strength, they can possibly defeat the Rarg in a fight without having to kill them all. If they can put a credible threat immediately, such as demonstrating that they can punch a hole in the Rarg ship, maybe the Rarg might rethink their plans. As I said, Magellan has to try.
P.S. May I just add that I have really been enjoying this storyline.
They already scoured the minds of the people they killed. They should know full well that those humans were doing something they probably should not have been doing by human standards AND that they had no idea anything lived there to kill in the first place. When they are in rage mode, they are known to not be rational about stuff like this anymore, if they ever were.
The Magellan folks have to try. They don’t have to succeed.
If they try to talk the Rarg down, and the Rarg insist on trying to destroy the Earth, they will do whatever is necessary to stop the Rarg.
But they have to try.
Besides, not only is it the right thing to do, but slaughtering all the Rarg is likely to cause additional Rarg attacks in future. It could literally spiral into all-out interstellar war with no ending short of all Rarg dead or all humans dead.
As long as they don’t stop trying to protect themselves while they communicate. The Rarg appear unlikely to slow down in their attack no matter what words or thoughts are flung at them.
Yeah, try to communicate and avoid dying.
For once I agree with Charisma. Time to go Onni Man on their asses.
Warlock Drake: “You don’t seem to understand. Earth isn’t yours to destroy.”
The problem is the backstory we’ve gotten on the Rarg is of a race that is single-minded and genocidale. It is literally Earth or the Rarg. The heroes have been written into a corner where genocide against the Rarg is not just justifiable but a required condition for long-term human survival.
Even if Earth resists this Rarg attack, even if Magellan Island is capable of doing diplomacy enough to halt the Rarg attack and they leave, it doesn’t matter. It was never a matter of *if* the Rarg will attack Earth, it was only ever a matter of *when*.
For the safety of the Earth, the Rarg have to be evicted from the Solar System with enough violence to insure that A) they never want to return or B) the location of the Solar System is lost in the violence. Preferably both.
Rich possible irony: Nobody outside Prometheus knew there were Rarg at Jupiter. Prometheus’ immoral blunders that provoked an early Rarg attack on Earth may well have saved the world.
If I know Kaycee, her plan is strategic, not (merely) based on ethics. She wants the solution that works; that’s the kind of thinker she is.
Yeah, she’s more pragmatic than idealistic, I think.
As much as I’d prefer a peaceful solution, how can you do that to an enemy that blindsides you and you the only way to pull off a counter attack is by essentially save-scumming (gamer term)?
They don’t send envoys they swarm en masse like a hive of angry wasps. Have you ever tried to “reason” with wasps? or bees? No. You smoke the hive but since i don’t see “smoking them” as an option here…
The Rarg need to be taught that messing with Earth is a death wish. “You mess with us, YOU die.” Peace through strength, not wimpy diplomats.
The problem with “peace through strength” is that it doesn’t last. And from my point of view it is not quite peace, it can very easily be a cold war. Peace through understanding not only carries almost zero risk of a cold war, it has a way higher chance to last. Especially if it is reasonably documented.
How do you take account for that? They seem very intent on exterminating the entire planet with no consideration for any forms of life. Unless you have some guaranteed means of making yourself understood, a peaceful solution would be something of an ass-pull.
For sure. But is it not rather often the case that the best solution possible is something ridiculously unlikely yet miraculously possible? I mean, not just in fiction, but even in life!
Only if the people involved are open to communication and negotiation. If one or both sides say “We can negotiate, as long as you give us everything we ask for” what’s the point?. The Rarg are going to destroy the planet with countless billions who are completely not responsible and those who are responsible are already dead. The Rarg, being a telepathic species, should be aware of this, therefor, what hope of a peaceful settlement can there be?
Part of the issue, I suspect, is that the Rarg -are- a telepathic species. The concept of individual responsibility is probably incredibly foreign and alien to them. If they treat a whole hive-cluster as a single unit/individual, then the death of their babies means the destruction of earth is equivalent. The whole “eye for an eye” thing.
Only a guess, of course. Grace is a thoughtful author, so I imagine she’s given this quite a bit of planning and consideration.