Milli-Com's hidden agenda..

[Bart Oliver]

I'm reacquainting myself with the original Gerry Finley-Day Rogue Trooper stories.

I've been picking up old progs, specials and monthlies here and there and slowly piecing the anthology together.

There are still huge gaps in the collection and I haven't even begun to look into the Hit series, Friday or Tor Cyan's adventures.

On top of this I've only followed Gordon Rennie's Rogue strips intermittently and the Rogue related threads on the board for about six months.

So maybe I'm raking over old ground here-

But it recently occurred to me that- like the conspiracy theories surrounding Pearl Harbour i.e.: Roosevelt's government having prior knowledge of the Japanese attack- that the top brass in Milli-Com were aware of the impending Quartz Massacre and that they were prepared to sacrifice (almost) the entire GI regiment in order to somehow expose the Traitor General (perhaps even anticipating Rogue's pivotal role) eliminate the mole in their midst and finally turn the tide of the war on Nu Earth in their favour.

Would this make an interesting subtext for a new original Rogue Trooper story or have I missed the boat on this one?

Meaning I'm about to find a story that already covers this..

B.

[Devons Daddy]

the traitor general was the one who informed the norts of the quartz drop . the whole gentic infantry was to have been the trunmp card that the south played to win the stragtically important nu-earth.
the entire war effort suffered after their massacre.
imagine huge numbers of other soliders of rouges abilties,
the norts had seemingly had numerically and equipment superiorty throughout the conflict.

the milli coms whole effort appeared to be willing to allow the mass slaughter of its troops. while the perfected the GIs.

its a great story in all, the hit series loses its way though.and there is one summer specail one off to avoid.( for some reason it was a kind of finish of rouge and the regeneing of the others. THATS SO DIRE ITS SHOULD BE BURNT,

[Bart Oliver]

Hey DD,

I read my post back and I realised that perhaps the Pearl Harbour / Quartz Zone Massacre analogy was probably not the best way of explaining this theory by itself.

I appreciate that it was the Traitor General who leaked the coordinates of the drop.

But say Milli-Com's military intel had been aware of a high-ranking officer passing information to the Norts for some time.

Hence one reason for the Southers' poor fortune during the war so far.

They had their suspicions about the Traitor General but they still couldn't be sure- not until he attempted to pervert the Souther war effort once more.

It just so happened that this time it was the Quartz Zone drop.

The leak confirmed the General's status as traitor but they allowed the drop to take place for a few  reasons-

One, that by allowing the Traitor General to continue to operate (unbeknownst to him) they could eventually isolate him as a threat and use him to feed the Norts false intelligence.

Two,  that hypothetically an entire regiment of GIs could take the planet in a matter of months.
But certain members of Milli-Com's top brass had a vested interest in prolonging the battle for Nu Earth because they also owned shares in off-world arms manufacturers suppling the Souther (and Nortland?) forces. A swift conclusion to the war in that system would mean a down-turn in profits.

And perhaps most controversially three, there was no 'massacre', that the Genetic Infantryman program was not as successful as it might have first appeared (complications with mass-cloning etc.) and that only a fraction of the proposed number of troops could actually be deployed- the rest of the pods carried dummy figures, inferior clones or were just plain empty. Leading the Traitor General and in turn the Norts to believe they had dealt the Southers a crushing blow.

B.

[Bolt-01]

Bart, those theories are GOOD. I especially like the part about the drop being suss in the first place. It would give Rogue serious issues if he found out.

Rotts

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=input&page=thrillviewer&choice=witnesses" target="_blank">A Rogue story wot I drew

[red_lichtie]

1) I understood the reason for the Traitor General turning traitor was his disgust at the whole GI programme

2) I recall reading somewhere that both the Norts and the southers were orginally military arms of giant corporations whose battle to dominate trade had gone military.

3) Interesting.

RL
RL

[Devons Daddy]

great ideas.
 that would add  a whole new layer to the entire story line. and in many was add a sense of majority to the basic future war premise.

these are great plot lines. even if not used for the whole rouge trooper scenario.
a great basis for a new epic war based story line.

i like the ideas as you weave them into rogues world. bu also feel they could stand on there own, with some strong characters.

[Bart Oliver]

++  I understood the reason for the Traitor General turning traitor was his disgust at the whole GI programme ++

Could well have been- I don't remember.

You see I read the original Rogue Trooper first time around at the age of nine. Then gave away the 2000 collection at seventeen.

As I see it the Traitor General turned coat for more than one reason- we could invent some.

++  I recall reading somewhere that both the Norts and the southers were orginally military arms of giant corporations whose battle to dominate trade had gone military ++

Now that I do remember. It's all about routes through the nearby black hole isn't it? However to sustain a war, by it's very nature, creates trade.

The ideas (and more) came straight from watching, sometimes not very good, war / industrial espionage / political documentaries.

What I find interesting isn't so much the times, dates something happened or how fast a P-51 flew or how many rounds a (sp?)Luger holds etc.
It's  the 'how' and the 'why' a historian/program producer believes will make good television;

'..with the benefit of hindsight we can see that..' or '..during interrogation ***** disclosed the whereabouts of..' or '..documents recently discovered reveal that..' etc.

More than anything else it's how nothing is what it seems in retrospect, a new 'truth' is found and (sometimes) in time becomes another accepted history if not the accepted history.

B.