Political retribution would be fun, but any investigation would reveal it as such. #2
#2
Yeah, I have a feeling this one is going to be much less contested.
#2
The game is on sale until Friday if any of you can’t wait for the next turn.
Whoops!
#2
And we have another unanimous decision with all 2’s, which means we’re going to leave the field blank.
No change in stats.
As lefty as Mark is, you don’t think he qualifies as “advocating the overthrow of the government.” You leave the field black and move on.
The form then asks you to list all the “foreign nationals” with whom you have a “close and continuing” relationship, and their nationalities. You gather that a foreign national is someone who is not a citizen of the United States.
- Call Mark the reporter to find out whether he is a U.S. citizen.
- State that I know no foreign nationals and move on.
- I call Major Rogers and complain that I shouldn’t need to fill out this form.
We shoulda let Arachne do this or something, man. What a drag!
2. State that I know no foreign nationals and move on.
More like “Choice of Bureaucracy,” am I right guys?
#2
Haha I wonder if there’ll come a point where we have to file our taxes too.
2
That makes another unanimous decision, then. We’re going with 2: State that I know no foreign nationals and move on.
No change in stats.
You state that you know no foreign nationals and finish the form.
You submit the form, and your prevailing emotion is…
- Disquiet. The questions seem unreasonably paranoid.
- Fear. There are apparently more spies and anarchists in this world than I thought.
- Relief that these stupid questions are done.
#3. Play it cool, folks, play it cool.
Psh, try more like “Hunger; ‘Arachne, go shoot me someone to eat’.”
Oh wait, we haven’t quite hit that level of crazy-evil just yet.
In that case,
3. Relief that these stupid questions are done.
3.
Also in for 3!
3 it is! Relief that these stupid questions are done.
Stats:
31-year-old Sarah Connor
Humanity: 10%
Gender: Female
Fame: Internationally Famous
Wealth: Disposable Income
Romance: none
Arachne
Autonomy: Singular
Military: Singular +
Empathy: Stable
Grace: Buggy
Relationships
Professor Ziegler (Bad): 18%
Elly (Bad): 28%
Josh (Good): 59%
Mark (Bad): 34%
Juliet (Good): 55%
Silas (Bad): 28%
President Irons (Good): 55%
World Power Balance
China: 61% US: 39%
You’d think wartime would be exciting. When do we get to shoot stuff?
Major Rogers informs you that the next stage of the application process for Top Secret clearance is a polygraph test. Having been entirely truthful in your application, you see no reason not to give the same answers in the polygraph test. You pass.
In a few weeks’ time, and email tells you that you are awarded a Top Secret clearance. You scan the restrictions. Apparently, you can no longer publish anything about your area of expertise, nor leave the country, without first asking for the government’s permission. That is sort of the opposite of the James Bond lifestyle you’d imagined, but in practice, you’ve never been one to get out much, so perhaps this is all right.
Achievement: Cleared - Got a Top Secret clearance
You attend a classified briefing at the same laboratory where you met with Major Rogers before, where some Air Force intelligence officers share with you, and a room full of other invited engineers, what they know about the Chinese robots. To be honest, you expected something a little sexier than these highly detailer technical specs, but they should help your own robots exploit the other robots’ weaknesses.
Many attendees leave, and a further session details the current weaknesses in the drones currently employed by the government. Unfortunately, this information is practically worthless to you, since you plan on supplying better robots anyway; but you supposeit will be marginally useful to know what existing technology you can build on. Meanwhile, the speakers caution that now that you know these facts, you will be a target for enemy intelligence efforts. On the whole, government secrets appear to be like the secrets of family members: more a burden than a privilege.
“All right, enough of the boring stuff,” says the speaker, a man in an airman’s uniform whom you think was introduced as a colonel. “I have a surprise for you.”
The speaker starts a video that appears to be a drone’s view of a scrubby countryside. You estimate from the latitude and longitude readout in the corner that this is probably the southeastern part of China. There is a targeting reticule in the center of the drone’s field of vision.
“This is a live video feed from a drone on a ‘capture or kill’ mission,” the colonel narrates. “We still call it that, even though it’s never ‘capture,’ because hey - when was it ever ‘capture’?”
You make a mental note that the military’s ‘capture or kill’ directives appear to be really just lip service even for their human soldiers, and your robots will not be expected to really ‘capture.’ This should let your robots focus more on pure firepower - which you suppose is very logical.
The video comes upon a small house near a river. Five men run out as the drone approaches, and the targeting reticule begins to swerve and track the men. They scatter, and the reticule follows one in particular.
“Xi Chao, high-ranking party member and military hawk, out taking some R and R,” the colonel narrates. “But little does he know he’s about to RIP.” There’s a polite chuckle from the audience.
What do you do as you watch the targeting reticule close in upon this man?
- I can’t look. I shut my eyes.
- I watch with interest - it should help me develop better robots.
- I walk out. I’m not going to be a part of this.
Can we take notes? I take notes. #2
Hope there’s a slow-mo replay after the fact!
2. I watch with interest - it should help me develop better robots.
fireemoji.jpg
2. I watch with interest - it should help me develop better robots.
Is there any doubt?
#2.
I mean once you start , ahem, silencing critics forcibly, do you really think that you would flinch at watching performance videos for your killbots?