Mesan Genies outside the Onion

ThinksMarkedly wrote:
Not exactly. I'm not referring to arrogant people. The Solarians aboard their ships were technically-skilled people who could operate a 40th century warship powered by a fusion reactor and using gravity-manipulation fields. No one there was stupid. In fact, the average Solarian spacer was probably better educated than the average Peep one, given what we know of how the PN conducted maintenance and repairs. More so of StateSec ships.

But my point is that any military force worthy of its name in the 21st century, not to say in the 30th or 40th, invests a considerable amount of money in training its soldiers to operate high-tech equipment. You don't get 17-year-olds drafted and send two of them with a single rifle like the Soviets did at Stalingrad. We also know that the supersoldiers of the Final War were facing other types of enemies, including drones/remote piloted weapons.

So no, they were not dumb. Selected or engineered for a purpose, yes. And with considerable blind spots in their thinking, as we've seen with the male Scrags in Crown of Slaves.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Not exactly. I'm not referring to arrogant people. The Solarians aboard their ships were technically-skilled people who could operate a 40th century warship powered by a fusion reactor and using gravity-manipulation fields. No one there was stupid. In fact, the average Solarian spacer was probably better educated than the average Peep one, given what we know of how the PN conducted maintenance and repairs. More so of StateSec ships.

But my point is that any military force worthy of its name in the 21st century, not to say in the 30th or 40th, invests a considerable amount of money in training its soldiers to operate high-tech equipment. You don't get 17-year-olds drafted and send two of them with a single rifle like the Soviets did at Stalingrad. We also know that the supersoldiers of the Final War were facing other types of enemies, including drones/remote piloted weapons.

So no, they were not dumb. Selected or engineered for a purpose, yes. And with considerable blind spots in their thinking, as we've seen with the male Scrags in Crown of Slaves.

Louis R wrote:Ummm... IIRC, the Scrags _are_ the "supersoldiers". Or what remains of them, at any rate

tlb wrote:I believe there were others, so extreme that they could not reproduce and were all tube babies. I think they revolted to gain control of the reproduction centers.

It is not exactly that the scrags are dumb, more that they are uneducated; because of social isolation.

tlb wrote:I believe there were others, so extreme that they could not reproduce and were all tube babies. I think they revolted to gain control of the reproduction centers.

It is not exactly that the scrags are dumb, more that they are uneducated; because of social isolation.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Right, but I also suspect they also had glaring limitations in their intelligence, or still inherited some form of conditioning like herd mentality. When we met them, the male and female scrags had split because of the males' decision to join the Masadans trying to kidnap Princess Ruth. Meanwhile, the females all decided to follow Thandi Palane.

Garth 2 wrote:The real question, is how much control is the MA going to keep on these "genies" whilst it hiding from the GA?
Are the going to start "breeding in a round" and loose the "advantages" that the LRPB have given them as their genes mix with the "normal" populations

tlb wrote: The same thing is true of the "lost" Alpha lines; if those progeny are now fighting against the Malign, then any genetic advantage is a net loss.

tlb wrote:
Anyway, I do not think the Scrags were the ultimate super soldiers in that war. Instead it was the ones that could not reproduce.

tlb wrote: The same thing is true of the "lost" Alpha lines; if those progeny are now fighting against the Malign, then any genetic advantage is a net loss.

SharkHunter wrote:That is a brilliant observation. If there's one group that would hate the Detweiler plan more than Beowulf, it would be Mesan citizens who suffered the culls, controls, etc. So any "left behind lines" -- could be a ripe source against their former masters...

But fighting under whose banner? My thoughts... Torch. Your thoughts?

tlb wrote:But you are right that those people, left behind on Mesa, that say they were always opposed to the business of Manpower would be a resource. However they could also include agents of the Malign. I think, but am not sure, that Mesa might be administered with Torch input.