Beowulf BSC Mission Expansion in a Post-SL Galaxy

(COG spoiler)



Beowulf's Biological Survey Corps has basically been fighting a guerilla war against Mesa/Manpower for centuries but hasn't needed to do much to enforce it's ethical code in the rest of the universe. Both because the vast majority of humanity agreed with them and because those who don't are held in check in large part by the SL. Manpower gets away with it because sex slaves and worker slaves aren't a major threat. But just imagine what the reaction of the SL would have been if someone tried to engineer super soldiers! And the SL's influence was pervasive enough that they would find out.

But in a post-SL universe with dozens or hundreds of successor states focused primarily on their own short term survival, the situation is very different. There is no longer a giant omnipotent SL to step on the megalomanic nutcases of the galaxy when they try to engineer super soldiers. And any megalomaniac nutcase who is thinking about "enhancing" his army may well believe that he/she can successfully build it in secret while the rest of the universe is otherwise occupied sorting out the chaos resulting from the collapse of the SL. (And a few non-megalomaniac but extremely desperate leaders may try it as well. Desperation can drive people to consider unethical actions that they would never dream of doing under normal circumstances).

And then there is the fallout from the fall of Mesa. Any Manpower employees off Mesa are now on their own and a significant minority of them may well decide to continue Manpower's profitable activities (discontinuing the unprofitable ones driven by MAlign goals) on planets where their some of their best customers live (Hakim for example). Beowulf could very well be faced with needing to shut down dozens of successor corporations/criminal gangs.

Beowulf of course would be fundamentally opposed to any of these activities. And the best individuals to detect it and chase down those responsible is the highly experienced BSC. So their mission could well expand from fighting Manpower to policing the galaxy for egregious violations of Beowulf's ethical code.

That...is an interesting hypothesis, biochem, and given that there is likely to be a large number of raw but highly motivated volunteers in the near future (literally billions of slaves on Mesa), I could see it happening.

Would at least make for some interesting post-Honor Arc stories.

Hutch wrote:That...is an interesting hypothesis, biochem, and given that there is likely to be a large number of raw but highly motivated volunteers in the near future (literally billions of slaves on Mesa), I could see it happening.

Would at least make for some interesting post-Honor Arc stories.

The only problem with "SupersSoldiers in SPAAAAACE" (tm) is for them to be effective offensively, you need to get them to your target - so you also need a decent to kick butt navy to back them up and transport them. If you have said Navy, it can take the orbitals and justify terms - in which case you don't need "SuperSoldiers in Spaaaace" (tm). So other than covert insertion teams (which could cause considerable havoc) their offensive options are not that great on their own.

Defense is another ball of worms, but another meglomatical ruler can honestly just say "I offered surrender and this is what I got" if their navy was stronger and took the orbitals, and would be justified in wiping the planet clean from orbit - "SuperSoldiers in... planetside" or not...

But it just occured to me another recent Meme which would make the perfect defense. If someone could make a zombie viral switch, It would make the perfect defense system. 1st make the virus with a triger and an off switch. Next infect your population. Enemy invades, your population becomes brain craving zombies. Enemy leaves, you turn it off, surviving population goes back to their lives. Why does this sound like a Mesa concept?

On the subject of Manpower, where are the slaves used up in trade to come from? Torch is gone. Now Mesa is gone. They could set up at Darius, I suppose. But iirc, most Manpower execs weren't inside the onion and Darius is mostly a base for buildind warships. So...does Manpower run out of trading goods?

Don

n7axw wrote:On the subject of Manpower, where are the slaves used up in trade to come from? Torch is gone. Now Mesa is gone. They could set up at Darius, I suppose. But iirc, most Manpower execs weren't inside the onion and Darius is mostly a base for buildind warships. So...does Manpower run out of trading goods?

Don

I seem to remember a reference to an off-planet breeding center somewhere. Don't remember exactly where I saw it.

However, once you knock off the head (Mesa), I'd imagine the tentacles will simply slither apart rather than try to reconstruct a single post-Mesa Manpower Inc. headquartered somewhere else.

The other thing to remember is that having Manpower survive in any form isn't part of the MAlign's plan. They want to get rid of it so the stench evaporates and doesn't foul the master plan. Thinking of that, what will happen to planets like Hakim? Is there a paragraph or two in the MAlign master plan to deal with them?

Wouldn't the BSC logically transition to the intelligence arm of a larger whole targeting the Alignment and all their ilk? I'd expect their job and role to increase without much change or public notice(without a Snowden/Wikileak). Their new role would be intelligence gathering and covert ops but this time backed up with a Fleet willing to respond to the intel they gather. At Least that's my first thought.

n7axw wrote:On the subject of Manpower, where are the slaves used up in trade to come from? Torch is gone. Now Mesa is gone. They could set up at Darius, I suppose. But iirc, most Manpower execs weren't inside the onion and Darius is mostly a base for buildind warships. So...does Manpower run out of trading goods?

Don

It's sort of hard for Manpower execs to keep the company running when those execs are on Mesa which is now under the control of the RMN. I don't think Admiral Henke will permit Manpower to do anything except shut down.