An entry with a Bang! - A BT roundrobin II

[Trivia Freak]

Originally Posted by JonBerry

I recall from earlier discussion about this inevitable meeting that something mote like an old sword, or fine work of art would be more appropriate. Suggestions? Maybe something historical?

You think you can get around to my idea now?

Y'know, of Takashi Kurita getting that letter from Tennō-sama (天皇さま) of the Kōi (皇位) and sealed with a wax impression of the Kikukamonshō (菊花紋章)?

The end of the letter itself would be stamped, beneath the official signature of the Heika (陛下), with the Tennō-gyoji (天皇御璽).

Ed said Takashi would go apeshit over the implications, and I personall want to see if you can write that scene.

I can't do it 'cuz I'm not Japanese, nor can I write THAT well...

EDIT: As for ideas... I can't help but wonder if an honorary induction into the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum (大勲位菊花章, daikun'i kikkashō) would help, or if it would be as much of an insult as bluepencil said it would be.

[EdBecerra]

Originally Posted by bluepencil

Hm. Looking back on Japanese behavior, 'giri' does demand recompense in gift-giving. It's like raising stakes in poker. Sooner or later someone has to fold in the ante death-spiral.

And the Japanese are champion poker players. Gambling is second nature.

I...

Wait.

Something that can be traced to Japan, yet won't be vulnerable to carbon dating. Something that can be explained - at least at first - as having been taken to the "colony" of Motherload when it was "first settled."

Something with a provenance.

*smiles evilly*

What about a Japanese cherry tree?

The genetics can be traced clearly. It can be proven to have come from a cutting taken from the Emperor's personal garden. Yet, as it's a living thing, carbon dating will only show that it's alive. Heh.

And do exactly that. With the blessings of the Emperor Akihito, a cutting can be taken from the Imperial Garden.

The wording is simple. "It is said that this plant came from a cutting originally taken from the Imperial Garden. It is hoped that this small gift may find a home on Luthien."

Nothing in that statement is actually untrue.

Ed.

[bluepencil]

EDIT: As for ideas... I can't help but wonder if an honorary induction into the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum (大勲位菊花章, daikun'i kikkashō) would help, or if it would be as much of an insult as bluepencil said it would be.

It's -obviously- a fake, and thus a clear insult, unless it arrives with the knowledge that CEarth is the time-displaced Terra. However, Takahashi Kurita is Coordinator of the Draconis Combine, and thus should the Emperor of -Japan- even have any form of authority over him except in some moral value? I'll have to break out the Kurita sourcebook, but it seems Kurita doesn't really claim any authority deriving from the Chrysanthemum Throne since he's not of Imperial Descent but from the Kurita line. I may not be remembering correctly, but in either case he's under no obligation to do whatever the Emperor says. Again, he's a citizen of the Draconis Combine, not the Empire of Japan.

edit:
Let's go with Ed's idea. It fulfills all obligations without going overboard.

[EdBecerra]

Originally Posted by JonBerry

...

Holy frak. That makes so much sense! *writewritewrite*

Improv apartments and what-not that border this park, and people's reactions to how 'Motherloders throw nothing away. Everything has multiple uses.' No wonder their tech is so good!

And turns right around to Remus and what he's observed during his job. He's going to report back that the salvage operations conducted by the GDI are far more important than they originally seemed. He already knows that much of the recovered items are headed back for "Motherload", and they aren't re-appearing. After all, if the GDI was that hard up for 'mechs, why aren't they being salvaged on the spot and re-issued to the Foreign Legion?

Oh, severely damaged mechs wouldn't be used, but it's almost all of the mechs that are vanishing. Even the Hammerhands. That implies something. WHAT it implies... who knows? But something's happening, and given how the GDI's recycling, reusing, and re-purposing along with their demonstrated lostech, there's something deeper happening, even if Remus hasn't discovered it yet.

Ed.

[walkir]

Originally Posted by EdBecerra

And turns right around to Remus and what he's observed during his job. He's going to report back that the salvage operations conducted by the GDI are far more important than they originally seemed.

Even the GDI container hospital (which he might have seen from the inside when one of his coworkers was hurt) fits perfectly into the "secondary use" theme.

[EdBecerra]

Originally Posted by bluepencil

edit:
Let's go with Ed's idea. It fulfills all obligations without going overboard.

Even the cherry trees that line Washington can be clearly traced to their Japanese roots (pun intended.) And the carefully bred and tended trees that ornament the Emperor's personal garden have even more provenance. Trees don't change that much without direct human interference - the ginko tree is still genetically identical to its ancestors thousands of years before, and it would seem, to as far back as the Jurassic Era.

A simple DNA sample would prove the plant's ancestry, and minor differences would be ascribed to the climate of "Motherload."

A cutting from the Imperial Garden, even one separated by centuries, would be a gift of deep meaning. And depending on how he phrases it, Chou can imply that the gift was directly from the hand of the Emperor, yet without a single lie, make it sound like that gift was made to Motherload, centuries ago. Just as the gift was made to Washington, once upon a time.

But DAMN... Colonel Kurita's going to have to be on his toes and be as inscrutable as possible. They're going to analyze every single word he utters for hidden meanings and possible slip-ups that will give them more information on the GDI, the CSN, and Motherload.

Ed.

[Rodon]

Tramp-class Jumpship Minmay
Earth-Moon L1 Point
Earth Space
February 18, 2007

The old jumpship Minmay re-entered Sol space right on time, its newly automated systems transmitting the clearance code to nearby missiles. Azonia stared slightly nervous at the 'Motherload' made display, before a warning message switched from yellow to green before flashing off. The small crew around her seemed to relax almost at once.

“All clamps good, evacuation complete, power shunts confirmed off, and station keeping engine warming up. Ready for separation.” Kim Barnirov called out from her station as she read the displays as the increasingly automated systems did their jobs without her having to lay a finger on a key.

A small orangish haired girl, Shammie Pollone, nodded before speaking a loud into a headset, “Drop ships Eternal Hope and Zen you are cleared for separation.”

Confirmation from those two ships rolled back before Shammie tapped on their docking icons on the touch screen. Faint clanks sounded off to those who knew what to listen for. Shammie looked over at Banessa Laird as she watched for a few moments as the droppers accelerated away, before nodding back at Shammie.

Shammie turned back to her screen, “Prometheus, are you go for separation?”

A voice floated over the airwaves, “Yes, Shammie, lets get going before our 'employers' get annoyed with us by lazing around.”

Shammie glanced back at Azonia with a worried look before replying, “Ok, Claudia, undocking you now.”

A final set of clanks sounded out though the old ship as one of its old companions left it. Virtually gutted of its normal supplies, its cargo bay filled with salvage from Port Krin. Even the Mech Stalls had been left on Antollos, for the remaining mech forces use. The Prometheus and it's cobbled together engine and patched hull started a painfully slow burn back to Earth orbit.

Azonia shook her head as she watched the battered dropper limp painfully away from her ship. “Zak, bring us about into our normal parking area.”

A bead of sweat slipped down Azonia's head as the helms man nodded absently as he started the ship moving away from its entry point, being careful of the recent construction around the area. Not to mention keeping his eyes away from any of the captain.

Banessa shifted in her seat as her sweat built up, pausing for a moment to make sure her bikini was still in place, meant for a gravity environment, not a zero G environment, before working on remapping local space. On the main monitor the local map came up with a set of unidentified icons, as the ship slowly moved out of the jump point. Passing her fingers over the board as the rest of the crew watched. Slowly more points popped up onto the screen as the radar reached out further and received more information.

More monitoring and weapons platforms began to dot the area, but the biggest point of interest was something slowly coming together just outside the jump point. At the current time it was just a crude frame work, but to those who had seen dozens of them, the outline of SL recharging station was clearly visible. Large tanks of reaction mass were already attached to the frame work. Although, as the command line jumpship a distance away from the station showed, it wasn't yet operational. With the jumpship's sail wide open and the engine burning.

As the ship moved out of the jump point area a rather large satellite noticed a new ship coming into its location with the correct IFF signature. A small, low powered laser played over the ship quickly before finding and initializing a connection link. Moments later the local storage buffer was dumping new data into the C-Earth build data systems of the Minmay as it slowly moved into its final position. While data from the jump ship was downloaded back to GDI command center. All of this went on unnoticed by the command crew. Granted, most of their attention was on the new structures in space that the upload contained, which the ships systems correlated with its data.

A squeak of delight from Kim caught the rest of the bridge crews' attention. Except for Zak, who kept his eyes firmly on his station. Azonia simply raised her eye brows at the woman, “Well, what? You found a new boyfriend though that 'Motherload' dating service?”

Blushing at the question, “Hey, just because... Oh, look, the 'Motherloaders' have a shipyard in orbit!” Kim pointed out before she let her mouth cause her to do a round or two of cleaning the hallway with a toothbrush. Shammie was still on the captain's black list for her last response on that issue two weeks ago. Granted, that had been after she had been found encouraging a Japanese Army man from the ship's ten man detachment from the 1st Airborne Brigade. Nor was that soldier's commander happy on his end.

Mostly ignoring Kim's almost comment, except for a flat look, Azonia watched as Kim busied herself opening a small window on the main monitor to show her screen. As she ignored the captain's flat look at her back.

The large flat screen showed a grainy image of a small shipyard in high orbit of the planet. As she stared at it, a thousand thoughts went though her mind, slowly focusing on getting some repair time somehow. From Shammie's squeal of delight, that was likely her thinking too, the Minmay had way to many patches for knocked out heat sinks. Which made it hell during jumps, to the fact that most of the crew owned well worn beach wear to cope with the heat.

“Captain,” Banessa called out, “incoming signal, it looks like mail time.”

Blinking away from the image, Azonia looked at her screen besides her chair as the computers churned though the mess of data. Almost immediately one message popped up for her on her chair's monitor, from Miriya unsurprisingly. Tapping on it, the icon opened up to show her what she feared. One picture showed a beach as Miriya ran past holding some clothing, next picture showed a bared Rick running past missing his swim trunks, another showed a topless Lisa glaring at the camera. Azonia just rubbed the bridge of her nose.

She was friends with those two, nothing more! Would Miriya stop trying to set her up with them. Sure, Rick was Miriya's childhood friend, maybe a bit more than that, but could she stop trying to pimp him and his wife out to her. She needed a love life, she got it, please stop it.

The rest of the crew focused harder on their mail as Azonia seemed to growl from her seat. Her rant on the subject was well known, going something like. That she liked men, but was it her fault that most of them didn't know how to handle a girl with a strong attitude? Roy could handle it quite well, granted, his 'girlfriend' had him on a short leash most of the time. Or his virtually adopted brother, he could handle it well.

Although, Azonia silently hoping that Claudia wouldn't do anything too rash, Roy had been killed, then her dropper repaired, shot down, repaired slightly, and then reduced to a space going hull. No, the past year hadn't been too kind to her.

It took the ship another hour to get in position, and another hour to get the sail and the patches for the heat sinks deployed. Leaving a crew of sweating individuals in soaked though cloths.

three hours later

“Captain,” Banessa quietly called out, “incoming message for you.”

Azonia nodded absently as she accepted the message on her monitor. Lisa's face popped up on screen, “Azonia, is Claudia...” Lisa's face on screen twisted slightly, “Ok, for lack of a better term.”

“No worse than she was, granted, she was getting better, but you know how she gets near any of her 'distant relations.' DAMN IT!!” Azonia started cursing violently at something that Lisa couldn't see, but could guess.

“GDI fleet against Clan?” Lisa guessed, Azonia's was the GDI's best SL fleet tactics expert, which the Clans had likely evolved from. Modified to fit expected Clan weapon ranges, armor, and personalities. Granted, Azonia herself admitted, she had at best a book learning, but that was better than vast majority of even some of the best House experts. Who usually ranked along the lines of learned amateur.

“No, Clan against SL, and I was the SL fleet. Flagship died at range, my fleet is getting torn though like wet paper with that range advantage.” Azonia flinched as a cruiser spewed plasma from a near reactor hit.

“So,” turning away from the main screen as her simulated fleet was torn apart by its AI counter part. “What do you want?

A bit of an update, still working on if I should add some filler for those three hours.

I was going to have the Prometheus become Japan's temp facility for endo-steel, but letting the small shipyard in orbit play with it (repair it) might be a good idea too. Bluepencil, thoughts on it?

Another thing is that I can't justify the amount of modifications to the Minmay to support the four turrets with four LL tucked in the cargo bay. Not to mention that the ship's crippled heat sinks would scream bloody murder at the heat load. Thinking of having Japan attempt to repair a few heat sinks and run out of materials half way (damn, this is a bit bigger than we thought). Put in one turret for testing. Maybe just taking four of the ship's ER LL and put them into the cargo area instead of C-Earth built LLs, maybe replace the ER LL with the LLs from C-Earth in the ship (ER LLs still in turret).

Then slot in Mech stalls for the LAMs with extra fuel tanks so that all the droppers can be used as cargo carriers (replacing one of the small craft bays which should have access to the cargo area).

edit: Problems with modifications is that until C-Earth has the Large shipyard up, its going to be a pain to modify jumpships more indepth than just minor or internal issues.

[HawaiianOnline]

Originally Posted by EdBecerra

A cutting from the Imperial Garden, even one separated by centuries, would be a gift of deep meaning. And depending on how he phrases it, Chou can imply that the gift was directly from the hand of the Emperor, yet without a single lie, make it sound like that gift was made to Motherload, centuries ago. Just as the gift was made to Washington, once upon a time.

This is a very good idea. Does anyone know if any trees from the Imperial Garden survived the Usurper and the Succession Wars? If all the extant tress were exterminated over the centuries, except for a few examples on Luthien in the Coordinator's own gardens, such a gift would be beyond price.

It would also raise all sorts of interesting questions. I suppose that Chou could explain that they were a gift to one of his ancestors from one of the Emperors of Japan before the end of their line.

[bluepencil]

Thanks for the new additions.

It's a JumpShip, Rodon. Not a WarShip. No matter what, it's not going to be capable of any sustained combat. So, why even have it modified to be combat-worthy? Let it carry DropShips with plenty of ASF bays. Although I agree that just in case is a good enough reason, this should therefore apply to all GDI JumpShips.

The simulation battle is interesting, but it seems far too soon for fleet combat trials. Perhaps they should be worrying more about practical battles, such as getting through ASF cover and contested landings. Claudia is a DropShip captain after all. I'm also assuming you're going here with my suggestion that Claudia is from the Combine (ref: her relations bit).

As for Endo Steel, using a DropShip for production is incredibly wasteful, when it could instead be lifting a lot of other things into orbit while waiting around for the production process to complete. However, until the arrival of the shipyard and the Star League Memory Cores, they just had no choice. The Daedalus can now be freed to take up other tasks. The Prometheus can be grounded and refit to serve as a dedicated carrier for LAMs, GMs and such, as the first GDI Marine Corps dropship.

Technically, CSN has taken control of Port Krin, but ONLY Port Krin. Their rule over Antallos is de facto with no one having the ability to contest it or resist the economic opportunities they're bringing to the planet. Is there a physical Embassy for CSN? Isn't the protection of Embassies also historically a duty of the Marines? In any case, I'd like to splice in GM delivery to the Jump bringing TLI to Port Krin. Jon's written about a park in Port Krin from several demolished blocks, so now there's a spot that can be expanded to include a shiny new facility.

[walkir]

Originally Posted by bluepencil

Is there a physical Embassy for CSN?

I mentioned a CSN embassy in the public part of the GDI base in a story post.

[EdBecerra]

Originally Posted by HawaiianOnline

It would also raise all sorts of interesting questions. I suppose that Chou could explain that they were a gift to one of his ancestors from one of the Emperors of Japan before the end of their line.

"They were a gift from the Emperor to the Kurita family."

And they were. A gift from Emperor Akihito to Chou Kurita. Of course, that won't be said. The colonel hasn't lied. The statement is accurate - as far as it goes.

Ed.

[bluepencil]

Goody. May I have a physical description? How big is it? What security forces are guarding it? Is it in a new or old building? If the latter, it may be time to move to a larger, more visually impressive, and more secure site with all the expected CEarth amenities.

[walkir]

Originally Posted by bluepencil

Goody. May I have a physical description? How big is it? What security forces are guarding it? Is it in a new or old building? If the latter, it may be time to move to a larger, more visually impressive, and more secure site with all the expected CEarth amenities.

Nothing that detailed, but I guess it's the biggest existing building in the area next to the place GDI did build the military complex on, with a construction site for a better building somewhere near.

As it's near the military public hospital and the gate to Motherlode-zone, surrounded by CSN/GDI construction sites, security will be very good.

[EdBecerra]

Random, but important thought here, Jon...

Originally Posted by JonBerry

He read it, then read it again. "Holy Shit." A glance at Indra, then a "Sorry, Ambassador."

People tend to curse in their native tongue. If Colonel Kurita lost it that much in front of witnesses, we'd probably hear "Kuso!"

That's always struck me as funny about Japanese... in Japan, the standard scream during sex is "I'm going!", not "I'm coming!"

That could be rather confusing in an inter-racial marriage.

"Where the **** are you going? I'm not finished yet! "

Seriously, his curse needs to be in Japanese. When you lose it, you usually lose it in your milk tongue. Even in Germany, I could never swear in German, unless I thought about it first, and that sort of makes it pointless, unless you're trying to insult someone. My obscenities always came out in English.

Ed.

[EdBecerra]

Originally Posted by Warringer

Make it two years and you got a deal.

And reduce it to K-1 level...

Hmm. I'm not so certain about the time. Look at the table I posted earlier.

In the lower half, it's noted that a K-1 was captured by the Combine in 3029. The K-1B, first Combine built model, is given the service date of 3041 (top half of the table.)

That's eleven twelve years, and that doesn't count the time it took to ship it back to Luthien, and the time it took to get the finished models out to the front lines where Kuritan units put them into service.

Given the tech troubles the Combine had in canon, they either performed a miracle of technical analysis, or the BB is one of those annoying "I don't know how we missed inventing this the first time around!" bits of technology.

Let's say, three to six months to get it back to Luthien. Same amount of time to get it into the field. That meant only ten eleven years to study it AND get it into production.

Granted, the best scientists in the Combine probably had ISF agents standing behind them with whips, and Indrahar standing behind the agents, but still, if we can't do in one year what the Combine required ten eleven years to do, we need to put people with whips behind our OWN slackers.

Hell, the best microchip workers in Japan who aren't working on 'mechs are probably in Intel's vest pocket right now, at the Emperor's personal request, doing their damnedest to get an Earth built K-0 and K-1 finished RIGHT F*CKING NOW.

(The K-0 might not be what we need to communicate with Antallos, but if they can be cranked out like FusionT reactors, they'll be more than welcome aboard the Monitor class system defense ships to give them real-time commo with Earth. Which means they can cover more territory, et cetera... everything within Jovian orbit will be real-time.)

Ed.

[Rodon]

Originally Posted by bluepencil

Thanks for the new additions.

No problem, just trying to grind down some ideas and thoughts.

Originally Posted by bluepencil

It's a JumpShip, Rodon. Not a WarShip. No matter what, it's not going to be capable of any sustained combat. So, why even have it modified to be combat-worthy? Let it carry DropShips with plenty of ASF bays. Although I agree that just in case is a good enough reason, this should therefore apply to all GDI JumpShips.

Its less Warship, than test ship. Its the closest that they have to a Warship, it carries the heaviest armor and is decently armed. Part of the issue is more of the lack of defensive range, keep the enemy away from you as much as you can is the primary thought (until they can refit a LF battery to it).

Likely should refit the Daedalus for ASF duty, given those issues.

Originally Posted by bluepencil

The simulation battle is interesting, but it seems far too soon for fleet combat trials. Perhaps they should be worrying more about practical battles, such as getting through ASF cover and contested landings. Claudia is a DropShip captain after all. I'm also assuming you're going here with my suggestion that Claudia is from the Combine (ref: her relations bit).

They have quite a few dropper captains that have likely done that, but few fleet captains. I should note that Azonia wasn't playing against the GDI, she was more playing it for fun. ... And to see if the current AI builds are close to correct SL Fleet doctrine (she is one of the few people in BT with a good, if very green, understanding of SL Fleet tactics. You have dozens of mech warriors, and a few ASF pilots with tons of experience.

Besides, the current design board is using those AIs to test their ship designs against. Azonia would need to be in orbit to get the latency to run live simulations against the simulated GDI fleet.

You may want Lisa/Claudia running her own simulations against ASF aircover.

As for Claudia, yes, likely fifth or six gen bastard.

Originally Posted by bluepencil

As for Endo Steel, using a DropShip for production is incredibly wasteful, when it could instead be lifting a lot of other things into orbit while waiting around for the production process to complete. However, until the arrival of the shipyard and the Star League Memory Cores, they just had no choice. The Daedalus can now be freed to take up other tasks. The Prometheus can be grounded and refit to serve as a dedicated carrier for LAMs, GMs and such, as the first GDI Marine Corps dropship.

Technically, CSN has taken control of Port Krin, but ONLY Port Krin. Their rule over Antallos is de facto with no one having the ability to contest it or resist the economic opportunities they're bringing to the planet. Is there a physical Embassy for CSN? Isn't the protection of Embassies also historically a duty of the Marines? In any case, I'd like to splice in GM delivery to the Jump bringing TLI to Port Krin. Jon's written about a park in Port Krin from several demolished blocks, so now there's a spot that can be expanded to include a shiny new facility.

On their way to the OWA? "Oh, look Ambassador, look at our pretty new toys."

Lisa: "You've got the restraints for when we get to Krin and 'he' is still there?"

Rick: "Yah, she isn't going to be happy with us."

Lisa: "Better than being on a rampage."

Rick: "I don't think this is what they mean by 'friendship.' Helping her, yes, tying her up, no."

[Typhonis 1]

Ed you could have AID ship the Insulation they use in their domes to Anatollos for the Shipping container homes. Add in solar panels and you can even defray some of the energy needs. A rain catch system would also supplement water needs.

[holyknight]

Originally Posted by EdBecerra

Even the cherry trees that line Washington can be clearly traced to their Japanese roots (pun intended.) And the carefully bred and tended trees that ornament the Emperor's personal garden have even more provenance. Trees don't change that much without direct human interference - the ginko tree is still genetically identical to its ancestors thousands of years before, and it would seem, to as far back as the Jurassic Era.

A simple DNA sample would prove the plant's ancestry, and minor differences would be ascribed to the climate of "Motherload."

A cutting from the Imperial Garden, even one separated by centuries, would be a gift of deep meaning. And depending on how he phrases it, Chou can imply that the gift was directly from the hand of the Emperor, yet without a single lie, make it sound like that gift was made to Motherload, centuries ago. Just as the gift was made to Washington, once upon a time.

But DAMN... Colonel Kurita's going to have to be on his toes and be as inscrutable as possible. They're going to analyze every single word he utters for hidden meanings and possible slip-ups that will give them more information on the GDI, the CSN, and Motherload.

Ed.

Hmm....Methinks that on the small delegation that goes with Chou Kurita, it will include a nice NEC representative called Chester Nomuri, no?

[Panaka]

Originally Posted by holyknight

Hmm....Methinks that on the small delegation that goes with Chou Kurita, it will include a nice NEC representative called Chester Nomuri, no?

If so, the question becomes if he has orders to use his "Japanese sausage" technique to make the secretary of a high ranking member of the coordinator's court "talk".

[Trivia Freak]

Stupid question, perhaps...

Why can't a Black Box and an HPG be combined? Different transmission mediums?

Sorry to waste your time.

[walkir]

Originally Posted by evilauthor

And the reason it's just a modem instead of a full up router is because it's designed to be plugged straight into an existing classified network with minimum fuss. After all, it's only talking to a few other modems in existance and with such a low bit rate, you're not going to see enough message traffic to justify it being its own built in router.

Besides which, any such router would be back on Earth.

I didn't mean an FTL router, just a standard 10/100/1000MB/s Router integrated into the the BBs casing.

[hyzmarca]

Originally Posted by bluepencil

It's -obviously- a fake, and thus a clear insult, unless it arrives with the knowledge that CEarth is the time-displaced Terra. However, Takahashi Kurita is Coordinator of the Draconis Combine, and thus should the Emperor of -Japan- even have any form of authority over him except in some moral value? I'll have to break out the Kurita sourcebook, but it seems Kurita doesn't really claim any authority deriving from the Chrysanthemum Throne since he's not of Imperial Descent but from the Kurita line. I may not be remembering correctly, but in either case he's under no obligation to do whatever the Emperor says. Again, he's a citizen of the Draconis Combine, not the Empire of Japan.

If Takashi is a faithful and observant practitioner of Shinto, then the Emperor's words hold a great deal of moral authority. Given Shinto's prevalence throughout the Combine, the Emperor's words could hold a good deal of social and political sway. The Emperor's authority, traditionally, comes from direct decent from Amaterasu. Demigod>Coordinator.

[bluepencil]

Unfortunately Ego + several Regiments of his own fanatic troops> some deluded pretender on a backwater world

After all, does he start off with the knowledge that IS the authentic Emperor? Even if so, do not underestimate the ability of a human brain to justify things to itself. First off; even if confirmed, it's the Emperor of an entirely different universe. Second, it is the Emperor of a neutered Japan tamed by foreign powers, by Takahashi's perspective. Thus it would be his -duty- to liberate the fallen country and place the Emperor back in his proper position with him as Shogun. Then, perhaps the Emperor may suffer an 'accident'. Even in history, the power of the Japanese Emperor was pretty marginal anyway.

[Knobby]

Just something that popped into my head, last night, but until now I didn't have the free time to do anything with it. I might add it to the main story thread if there's nothing horribly broken, or the non-canon thread if there is.

----------

Mare Fecundiatis
Luna, Sol System
July 7th 2007

Sitting on the lunar mare was one of the shuttles from the dropship that had brought man to this airless world once more. A figure emerged from the craft, clad in a suit not much more complex than those of the first men who stepped onto this alien land. Without sound, save his own breathing, he walked away from the shuttle, in a way that would appear odd to those raised on Earth, if they were watching, but is better suited to a sixth of an Earth gravity.

Stopping far enough from the shuttle that its departure wouldn't disturb the dust, the figure drew a vial of water, taken from the Pacific Ocean, out of a storage pouch. With great care, the figure kneeled down and used his gloved hands to dig a small hole. Into the hole the vial was placed, and with equal care covered back up, now buried in the lunar dust.

He then drew a small pen knife, and used it to pin a shipping tag to the ground next to the burial site. He rose, and stepped back from the spot, snapping off an academy-perfect salute towards the tag before turning to walk back to the shuttle, still in silence. A few minutes later the shuttle departed, leaving only disturbed lunar dust to mark its former presence.

Should someone stumble upon the tag and read it, they would find the following inscription on the blank side:

"Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me die
Glad did I live and gladly die
And I laid me down with a will!

"This be the verse you grave for me:
'Here he lies where he belonged to be
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.'"

On the other side, inscribed is the following, using the spaces allowed for the tag's normal purpose:

Robert Anson Heinlein
Born July 7, 1907
Died May 8, 1988

[walkir]

Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming.