@BizarroLand Hey, long time, no see! Good to see you back.
This scenario, I like it. Puerto Rico has an awful lot of potential - they didn’t name it “Rich Port” for nothin’ - handicapped by the Jones Act and other US-fedgov mismanagement, and deserves better.
(And especially with the current regime in place, it’s real easy to imagine someone being made… cranky… enough by them that they’d do it just to see the look on Trump’s face when the island starts overtaking the mainland.)
Oh, I guarantee that the one thing they’re not worrying about is harm coming to wandering citizen-shareholders. If they hear about such an attempt happening, the first question the embassy is going to ask is “Okay, did they target an Impatient (1), an Amused (2), or a Cunning (3)?”
The distinction is approximately this, in the aftermath:
- (Which starts and end with an explosive bug-out.) Did they leave a crater, and if so, how big? Okay, get my diplomatic notepaper, and find out how much their insurer wants to sue for.
- (Which involves a heavily armed tactical team being chased through the streets by a laughing madman with a sword[1], slicing bullets out of the air.) Make sure you get the video for my collection.
- (Which starts with someone playing along so that it can end with a empty detention facility with a large, smoldering hole in the side.) Breathe. Breathe. Cannot call head of state of host nation imbecilic shitweasel, and his little minions too. Breathe.
I should perhaps have noted previously that the traditional way to deal with mass-subjugation of populations using basilisk technology (insofar as that is possible: see prior technical note) is to invoke the Outer Janesk Anti-Enslavement Convention and return anyone trying it back to pre-space primitivity with massive orbital bombardments. Hosti sophi generis, don’ch’know.
It’s a lot easier than trying to persuade the entire galaxy to buy a cheap pair of antibasilisk shades from their local Touch-and-Go.
First offense, and one obviously based in idiocy.
They don’t much care for mercy, but they do believe in clemency, and often even complete asshats deserve a second chance.
Not a third, mind (and the Union and the Theomachy wore out the Imperial clemency a long time ago). But a second.
On his way to the embassy, at least once he gets bored. ↩︎