Tag Archives: Spraghentz

Plan B – Chapter 13

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Lytaxin
Erob’s Combat Practice Grounds

In which Jason has somebody Val Con needs to talk to.

There are some interesting resonances in the various reactions to the captured Yxtrang. The Yxtrang collectively have done some undeniably unpleasant things, but the way Emrith Tiazan dehumanizes the captive, calling him “it” and “that thing”, has unpleasant echoes of several instances when less sympathetic Liadens have applied the same attitude to Terrans. I’m also reminded of Val Con’s remark to Miri, way back near the beginning of Agent of Change, that it’s more useful to think and speak of particulars — “Val Con”, “Miri”, “Edger” — than groups like “‘the Liadens’, ‘the Clutch’, ‘the humans’, or even ‘the Yxtrang’.” Of course, in this case, Val Con has a head start in that he’s already met and spoken with an individual Yxtrang — but then again, the fact that he even attempted such a conversation is a sign he already held that attitude.

I also note that all the way through, Jase is referring to the prisoner as a person as if that’s an entirely uncontroversial thing. As a merc, I expect he’s had experience at distinguishing individual soldiers from the armies they serve, and remembering that the former are people no matter what inhuman things the latter do. But from from what we’ve seen of him, I kind of think he might in any case have been the kind of person who assumes people are people until they prove otherwise.

Plan B – Chapters 7 & 8

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14th Conquest Corps
Lytaxin

Liad: Department of Interior Command Headquarters

In which Nelirikk No-Troop sympathizes with a squirrel, and Lytaxin is defended by a ship orbiting Waymart.

I’m getting the idea that the Yxtrang are very concerned with saving face, to the point that they insist on appearing effective even at the expense of actual effectiveness: their response to making an error, here as at the end of Agent of Change, is to cover it up, even if that means nobody gets to learn from the situation and avoid future errors. When Nelirikk offers unsolicted advice — which, worse, turns out to be correct after the General ignores it — the General is more concerned about having his authority undermined than about finding out what other advice Nelirikk might be able to offer. And, as Nelirikk himself notes, the whole thing might have been avoided if the Yxtrang Command had chosen to learn from his previous encounter with a Liaden Scout, instead of shoving that under the carpet too.

(And then there’s the incidental business of Over-Technician Akrant, whose career is ruined because his carelessness ruined the General’s big entrance, even though the big entrance was, as far as I can see, entirely ceremonial and made no actual difference to the progress of the campaign.)

That’s an interesting detail about Yxtrang high command being situated at “Temp Headquarters”. I wonder if it’s genuinely temporary, or if by now it’s become settled and retains the name only by tradition.

It didn’t occur to me the first time it was mentioned, but here is the Department of the Interior sending Tyl Von sig’Alda out in a ship that frequently if not continually reports its status back to Headquarters by pin-beam — and, as we have been recently reminded, pin-beam is generally regarded as expensive and only for use in particularly important circumstances. So that says something about the Department’s priorities, even if the pin-beam beacon is just another of the special accoutrements attaching to sig’Alda’s special mission, like the deputy badge and the code phrase. (If all the Department’s ships are similarly equipped, that says something else again.)