Sea of Stars - OOC III

[Blarghy]

First of all, why in the unholy Warp would we have an NPC do the sniping when we've got Hannabel? By all means, give rifles to some of the officer Rings too, but I see no reason to keep our best shooter out of the fight. If she's worried about being recognized while the rest of us are being murdered, then give her a mask, or a scarf and a wide-brimmed hat or something. If she's unwilling to even be in the same room with the Stalker, then Kennoch definitely won't want to come along and stick out his own neck. No one has said that Hannabel wouldn't be doing this herself, but Anika has thus far only mentioned...

we can post actual snipers, and armsmen who can shoot well enough to do the job honestly?'

...so I just want to be clear and urge that we put the professional on sniper duty.

Second, I vote the observation dome. My biggest worry here is that Alia is going to run off and set up her own ambush, or regroup with her aunt and launch a proper war against us if we can't contain her, as per Destro's clear warning:

but there were plenty of avenues of escape, including whatever shuttle she arrived on, and if the Stalker slipped into the maintenance areas, they would be hard pressed to catch her again.

I strongly suggest that we don't let her leave until we've either secured an agreement or chopped her up into tiny pieces. Lack of ground-level cover in the dome is unfortunate, but I think we're all basically gonna be cowering behind Macharius anyway if this turns violent, and if he goes down, then I don't think it really matters after that. By all our information so far, the Stalker is a melee fighter, and a speedy one to boot, so she's just gonna run at each of her enemies to slice us up one by one. Hunching down behind a potted plant in the arboretum won't save us.

And finally, am I the only one concerned that Galimina seems to think there will be a day when she can act openly, in plain view of all humanity?

That information cannot leave the ship, not yet. I am not prepared.

Maybe somebody should follow up on this, and ask her what her long-term plan is.