trope-a-day
Realpolitik: The Ministry of State and Outlands would love to be able to pursue such interests as the Empire has (which generally excludes its private interests, who tend to pursue their own foreign policies) with this much ideology-free pragmatism, but since the Empire is a strongly ideological libertist-technepraxic state, they
bombardment of Firital
HADRAL DINĂŤTAL, FIRITAL (TIFRELLE RING) – Civil war looms today in the nation of DinĂtal, the current “senior power” in the Firital System. The governance of DinĂtal has suffered from a degree of instability over the past four months, since the popular King Terris IV slipped into a coma following a
trope-a-day
Reading Your Rights: Played straight… but not with the same rights. The Empire never got around to finding a reason to prohibit self-incrimination, and while you do have the right to an attorney, you’re supposed to know that (and also, you are obliged to answer questions before he gets
Readings Are Off The Scale: “Off the scale? What sort of second-rate scale are we using around here? Get me a new scale!” Admittedly, it’s not just as simple as “recalibrating”, since devices do have physical limits, but the first reaction of anyone running into this will be to
Ring Dynamics
(Follows on from this.) Vontok System Former Republic Stargate, Maintenance Access Four Probable Technologies Forensic Eschatology Team (subcontracted by Ring Dynamics) “Kanaze, we’ve got a subsumptor amok in fifthspace.” “Shut it down and blacklist that port sequence. We’ll spin up a new sim with the next test set.
trope-a-day
Rape, Pillage and Burn: Happens in various places with various less-disciplined armies, much as it ever does in history (well, probably with less rape, since there are rather more cross-species wars). The Imperial Military Service, on the other hand, is extremely rigorous about averting this particular trope, to the point
trope-a-day
Rape Is A Special Kind of Evil: Not quite played straight; possibly because it’s significantly less common, the eldrae (for example) lacking that peculiar messiness in the human brain where lust and power-lust get tangled up together into a peculiarly vicious kind of squick. It’s slaving, rather, that
military
Self-quoted from a G+ discussion in which the following Rumsfeldian aphorism came up: You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want. It is a truth I think greatly underappreciated (especially by politicians, alas) that unless you have paid the ridiculous-even-by-the-standards-of-US-defense-budgets amount of money
trope-a-day
Ramming Always Works: Mostly averted. At the distances at which most space combat happens, you’re lucky to be able to set a course with accuracy enough to make ramming work, and the other ship has plenty of time to either evade you or explode you. This makes it a
Voniensa Republic
1.1.1: I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. 1.1.2: Relax, will you? It’s just a – 1.2.1: Would you both shut up? I’m trying to record. 1.1.2: Sorry, Ish. What’s your progress? 1.2.1:
trope-a-day
Rainbow Pimp Gear: What, you think every planet has its vegetation/sky/ground the same color? On some planets – say Saturn’s moon, Titan – burnt orange and fuchsia are camouflage colors.
trope-a-day
Racial Remnant: Most notably, the trilateral londian, who are also an unusual case because while the modern Londian Wanderers are clearly descendants, both genetically and culturally, of the elder-race of the same name that used to dominate the Londian Traverse, they don’t know exactly how they ended up that