srwug_alpha_rp | (no subject)

[1]

Resnick is in the library, poring over the footage from ~~So Long, Buddy~~ the battle with the Beastmen and Waco's Rangers. He's not paying attention to the Beastmen though. He knows what their deal is, or at least thinks he does. He's trying to puzzle out instead why Waco's Rangers were disguised as clanners. Although he has a deep feeling in his gut that the Rangers are up to something deeply dishonorable (to be fair, he has that feeling about a lot of people), he can't figure out what exactly it is. The holo-projection catches a 'Summoner' (clearly not actually a Clan mech, but a Spheroid one thinly disguised) taking a shot to the shoulder. The 'missile rack' (here revealed as a giant painted log) falls off and.

"Freeze frame."

Yes, it's an Orion after all.

"Those savashri mercenaries dare to use The Great Father's own mech! But for what..."

He is unaware that the Orion is actually pretty common in the service of the Free Worlds League, that nation not being in the path of the Clan juggernaut.

[2]

It's holo-news time in the common room and he's about to get the answer to his questions. The news jingle plays and the newscasters shuffle their papers and make frowny faces.

"In our top story today, several military bases and cities were attacked by mobile suits only seen in the Earth Sphere once before. These mobile suits claimed to be from 'Clan Wolf'. Popularly known as the 'Dog Tribe', these are the same mobile suits that fought the 'Jade Falcons' three months ago. They did not discriminate between combatants and noncombatants. The death toll, of both civilians and soldiers, is in the thousands. Here is live footage of one such attack. We warn you that this footage depicts graphic violence and is not suited for children or those sensitive."

The broadcast cuts to a home recording, showing a huge mech looming over a crumbling, slummy neighborhood. Painted prominently on its side is the snarling wolf's head symbol of that Clan. At first it appears to be a Timber Wolf, one of the top frontline Clan ominimechs. Yet careful inspection will show that the arms don't articulate. It's actually a disguised Catapult, not that the broadcasters seem able to tell. Nor the terrified civilians, for that matter, as they boil out of their houses just before flights of LRMs slam into them and they collapse as if they were made of no more than cards. The torso mounted lasers flash out, incinerating many of those who tried to flee. There are constant screams, people praying and wetting themselves. It's not a pretty picture.

The external speakers of the mech cut on with a squeal. The voice that comes out is a passable imitation of the haughty clanner accent, though if you're familiar with English dialects and very observant you might notice that its culturally Texan origins aren't entirely covered up.

"Such is the justice of Kerensky we have visited upon the barbarians of the Earth Sphere!"

The footage then cuts off, showing a world map with several flashing red dots. The newscaster continues in voice-over.

"These are the sites where the attacks took place. The numbers next to them indicate the estimated number of casualties, where they are known. Phelan Kell, who claims to be the 'Khan', or warrior-chief of Clan Wolf has denied that these mobile suits belong to him and released the following statement to the press..."

Resnick looks like he's about to blow a gasket.

[OOC: If you want your home nation's cities or bases to have been attacked, feel free. Kors, feel free to NPC Phelan's press statement as well.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Which means she has media contacts. News and entertainment are closer than you'd think in the Earth Sphere. And her family are politicians, I think.

What you need isn't just allies among politicians. You need the people telling the world what's going on around them to be saying good things about you. As it is, something sensational like this is like throwing them raw meat.

"Do they not have information broadcasts that will correct their misconceptions?"

Oh, the poor naive thing.

Not... reliable ones. I mean, some people do. Lots of places don't, or they have reliable and unreliable ones, and more people watch the unreliable ones because they're more interesting.

And even the serious, official stuff isn't totally accurate all the time. There's a lot of stuff about the colonies that gets reported in Britannia that'd never show up in the Federation, for example.

"...I see. We may be in more danger than I thought." From most people he'd dismiss it as poppycock, but Laura had been his guide to Terran culture since he'd arrived. "Besides contacting our allies, what do you think we should do?"

Well, I mean, I don't really know much about it. The best thing to do is probably to find someone who does, and get their advice.

But... I do think you should probably have someone in charge of all this, if you don't already. Politics and PR are full of dirty fighting. Even if you don't want to pull any tricks, you need to be ready for when others do.

...If you want, I can see if Frank's old team have any contacts left from SECT. We had to worry about how the public saw us, a lot of the time...

[Of course, many of the people involved in that side of the operation were probably Ascender operatives in the end... but it's not like everyone who works in marketing is evil, right?]

"Aff, that would be good. Your explanations are, as always, appreciated. I hope you are aware of how helpful your...interpretation has been to us since we arrived here."

The broadcast switched to Phelan's press statement. It might be noticeable that Phelan Kell doesn't look exactly like the leader of a Clan. In fact he's kindof...short. But underestimating him for that would be stupid, as Resnick's own hero, Vlad Ward, can attest.

[Laura colours a little.]

Well it's not like it does anyone any good if you get in trouble because you don't know how things work. That's just as true for the whole Clan on Earth as it was for you on the Chalice.

[Not that she exactly managed to keep Resnick out of trouble, for that matter...]

That's the Khan?

My Trothkin Can Not Possibly Be This Cute, Quineg? Well he's a lot better off than if he'd never known her, even if he does sometimes ignore her advice when he think it'll serve his ambitions.

"Aff. He came to us as a bondsman from an Inner Sphere mercenary unit."

You could probably make a lot out of that. He adopted the Clan way of life. The Clan accepted him. It makes you seem less like scary conquerors or barbarians.

...If you play it right. It could also seem like you brainwash captives and don't have good leaders of your own.

You did kind of appear out of nowhere and conquer a chunk of the planet. It's going to be... uphill for you.

Do you really not have policies for dealing with captured worlds? Ones that keep the civilians from hating you?

"Aff. However I am a Warrior. Crafting speeches is not my specialty. Perhaps we will need to create some form of...permanent position...one who is tasked with making our speech and ways seem palatable to the Earth Sphere at large..."

Congratulations! You just invented the profession of Public Relations! Achievement Unlocked: Kerensky Is Rolling In His Grave That Someone Is Getting Paid For That.

"Such a Merchant-" He's thinking of them as such because entertainers are a subcaste of them. "-would have to be trained by you, of course." He's not even flattering her at this point, he simply trusts very few other people to do the job. He then rubs his chin in thought to answer her question.

"In our Occupation Zone, we assigned everyone nominally to a caste and forbid the use of surnames on official documents but otherwise left things mostly as they were. No doubt this was due to Ulric Kerensky anticipating our exile years in advance...Normally we would have forcibly integrated the Domepoli, but Adette requested they be left to govern themselves, with our Warriors serving as defense force in exchange for their maintaining those garrisons. This proved a wise choice in the long run."

It's a measure of his regard for her that he curbed his ambition for conquest on her say-so. Of course, this ambition also reflects his origins as a young Crusader punk, which still show through despite his change of heart.

Edited 2013-03-04 22:02 (UTC)

That's - I really wouldn't know where to start! You need an expert for this sort of thing, I just - I only know what they told me back in SECT for dealing with reporters, and what you pick up just from following the news...

[Laura looks a little panicked. There's having the Clan treating her like a mascot or little sister, and then there's suddenly being responsible for their terrible, terrible image problem.]

That doesn't sound like it'd make you very popular...

Did the different Clans occupy many planets like that, before you came here?

"There are no experts in regards to the Clans. We are outside of their experience. Only the Khan, Adette Kistler, Madeline Caine and you have sufficient experience with us and only you are both not consumed by your duties at all times, though I would not diminish their importance, and sufficiently...diplomatic, quiaff?" He grinned, proud of that. The Clans represented an Outside Context Problem for the Earth Sphere, albeit one of several.

He thought back to his experiences with other Clans, in their OZs. "Aff, with our and the Diamond Shark occupations representing the most liberal and the Steel Vipers and Smoke Jaguars as the strictest."

Edited 2013-03-10 08:55 (UTC)

Well, if you find someone who understands PR I can help them understand the Clans, I suppose... I just don't know about training someone from the Clan in PR. ["Diplomatic" is one way to put it for Mad, certainly. She smiles a little at that in spite of the nervousness the rest of the conversation is creating.]

And how well do the civilians usually respond to your tactics? Or are these Clan worlds going back and forth, not ones where you're completely new?

"I think you have found we can learn, quiaff?" He smiled, thinking of himself there, though he hadn't learned nearly as much as he thought he had.

"Generally we have had few problems with the civilians themselves, though Ymir insurgents sometimes disguised themselves as such. Certainly we had fewer such problems than the Smoke Jaguars." That they could be both had honestly not occurred to him. "There are advantages to being one of our civilians. As long as you are willing to work, you will always be guaranteed healthcare and the necessities of life and you will not be subject to collateral fire, nor...what is the word...conscription." Indeed, the concept of conscription was absurd to a Clansman. "And we give no preference to nobles over peasants, men over women or any race over another." All that had been replaced by Caste and trueborn/freeborn discrimination.