[MatthTheGeek]

On the topic of the brother thing, he also needs your room because he's going to use it as an office to start a home business in order to feed your family when the economic crash he knows is coming happens. He needs the resources your room offers in order to protect the entire family.

He needs the resources for feeding HIS side of the family. If he didn't came crashing in your room and pushing you in the face YOU wouldn't have any problem feeding YOUR side of the family in the first place. And you would have been more than happy to negotiate for said resources if he was willing to ask nicely.

[Crybertrance]

Yup they probably would, but asking nicely doesn't involve going all beam-free-all on the first ship you encounter.

[LordPomposity]

When you were quite young, you and your brother got on the wrong side of the Russian mafia. You both split up and went into hiding, and you haven't heard from either your brother or the Russians for several decades. In the meantime, you've gotten married and had several kids, and you've been very successful in your career.

One day, your brother shows up covered in Neo-Nazi tattoos with five chicks he's knocked up and the twenty or so kids he's had between them. He says that he's been one step ahead of the Ruskies ever since you parted company, and he needs some place to hide and money to support his family. You're not thrilled with what he's turned into (and you're more than a little angry that he's probably led the Russian mafia to your family), but he's still your brother, so you're about to offer to let him hide out in the basement and write him a check for a couple thousand dollars. You can afford it.

But before you can do either of those, he pulls a gun on you and demands all your money. You and your family can still live in one of your walk-in closets and he'll give you food, but the house is his. You can't be a Unitarian anymore, and you have to start voting Republican. On the plus side, if the Russians follow him to your home, he'll combine your money with his to fight them off!

Well, this doesn't sound so great, and you're also kind of wondering how he plans to fight off the entire Russian mafia. You're a pretty peaceful guy, but you recognize that not everyone is like you, so you've got a shotgun for home defense. You use it to repulse his initial attempt to take your house by storm, but he shoots a couple of your kids in the process. Then he goes two houses down the block and starts shooting people in there. He takes over their house, fortifies it, and starts using it as a forward base in his attempt to take over your place (which he still wants because it's nicer).

You call the police, but your brother pays them off and tells them that you started the whole thing. They aren't willing to storm your house for him, but they'll give him some of their SWAT team's equipment. You and your next-door neighbor, plus a few survivors from the house your brother took over, get together to fight him off.

It doesn't go so well, and your brother burns down your garage and shoots you and your wife, inflicting massive damage on your house (which I guess he still wants or something?) before your schizophrenic daughter barely drives him off. It's all in her hands now.

[BlasterNT]

Win. 

[Drogoth]

When you were quite young, you and your brother got on the wrong side of the Russian mafia. You both split up and went into hiding, and you haven't heard from either your brother or the Russians for several decades. In the meantime, you've gotten married and had several kids, and you've been very successful in your career.

One day, your brother shows up covered in Neo-Nazi tattoos with five chicks he's knocked up and the twenty or so kids he's had between them. He says that he's been one step ahead of the Ruskies ever since you parted company, and he needs some place to hide and money to support his family. You're not thrilled with what he's turned into (and you're more than a little angry that he's probably led the Russian mafia to your family), but he's still your brother, so you're about to offer to let him hide out in the basement and write him a check for a couple thousand dollars. You can afford it.

But before you can do either of those, he pulls a gun on you and demands all your money. You and your family can still live in one of your walk-in closets and he'll give you food, but the house is his. You can't be a Unitarian anymore, and you have to start voting Republican. On the plus side, if the Russians follow him to your home, he'll combine your money with his to fight them off!

Well, this doesn't sound so great, and you're also kind of wondering how he plans to fight off the entire Russian mafia. You're a pretty peaceful guy, but you recognize that not everyone is like you, so you've got a shotgun for home defense. You use it to repulse his initial attempt to take your house by storm, but he shoots a couple of your kids in the process. Then he goes two houses down the block and starts shooting people in there. He takes over their house, fortifies it, and starts using it as a forward base in his attempt to take over your place (which he still wants because it's nicer).

You call the police, but your brother pays them off and tells them that you started the whole thing. They aren't willing to storm your house for him, but they'll give him some of their SWAT team's equipment. You and your next-door neighbor, plus a few survivors from the house your brother took over, get together to fight him off.

It doesn't go so well, and your brother burns down your garage and shoots you and your wife, inflicting massive damage on your house (which I guess he still wants or something?) before your schizophrenic daughter barely drives him off. It's all in her hands now.

Except that your getaway driver all those years ago, the famous Alpha 1 who then disapeared without a trace, warned you that no matter how well you hid, the Russians could be back, crazy brother or no. The showdown with the Russians was coming either way, and your brother is convinced that you weren't prepared for it, having not faced the same challenges as him

[Vip]

Possibly the best summary of BP I've ever seen

[QuakeIV]

Look at it this way its like humanity was split in two by a giant war with aliens and one half is safe from the aliens and becomes a bunch of hippies while the other half has to fight to survive and oh wait

[Aesaar]

Look at it this way its like humanity was split in two by a giant war with aliens and one half is safe from the aliens and becomes a bunch of hippies while the other half has to fight to survive and oh wait

Come on, that's nothing like BP!

[SSJDiVaD]

awesome description of BP WiH

And all along, you recognized that you could never drive your brother off through brute force. You haven't stocked enough shotgun rounds defeat all his kids, and his superior weaponry allows him to lay down more suppressing fire than you could hope to match. Your schizophrenic daughter wouldn't trust you, so she went off to join your neighbours' attempt to fight off your brother.

Unfortunately, many of your neighbours got pinned down and annihilated during an attack on your brother, leaving your daughter stranded and badly dehydrated without shade in the bright sunlight.

Meanwhile, you're trying to come up with some secret plan that will drive off your brother for good, and possibly the Russian Mafia.

[QuakeIV]

awesome description of BP WiH

And all along, you recognized that you could never drive your brother off through brute force. You haven't stocked enough shotgun rounds defeat all his kids, and his superior weaponry allows him to lay down more suppressing fire than you could hope to match. Your schizophrenic daughter wouldn't trust you, so she went off to join your neighbours' attempt to fight off your brother.

Unfortunately, many of your neighbours got pinned down and annihilated during an attack on your brother, leaving your daughter stranded and badly dehydrated without shade in the bright sunlight.

Meanwhile, you're trying to come up with some secret plan that will drive off your brother for good, and possibly the Russian Mafia.

Or just tell the mafia where the brother is and then run like hell.

[Klaustrophobia]

ok i think the analogy is dead now.

[qwadtep]

ok i think the analogy is dead now.

Is it? I'm still following.

[headdie]

there is some strange **** being passed around the halls of HLP atm 

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Well, ever since I saw judgefloro, nothing that happens around here surprises me.

[SaltyWaffles]

deus ex machinates

well not so much

I have my own criticisms, but Battuta is totally right on this one. There are a lot of subtle hints about the Imperiouse when you look back. Especially that one (or two) about that rogue SOC mission where the fighters and transports came from a completely unknown location, and how several strike craft raids by the GTVA couldn't be vectored to or from a known location...which is the fleet carrier-destroyer Imperiouse.

The bigger problem is that the UEF bet everything on the indirect words of ONE source in the GTVA. ONE. And everyone in the UEF knows what Steele is like and how unpredictable he is, and how he does the impossible on occasion.

[niffiwan]

I'd have thought that if Steele wanted his ace in the hole to remain hidden he would have forbidden flight ops (excluding the CAP).  Good point on the rogue SOC squad though.

[Medve]

I'm curious if we'll ever discover who that source was. Steele had control over intelligence, and much like in a game of chess, he planned ahead to use that advantage to full effect, that is to draw out the Wargods and shatter them. Steele's a genius (almost Kane-like) leading the UEF by the nose in every aspect. He only gives the enemy a small victory to make it later into a crushing defeat.

He's a great character, and the GTVA has a superior military, but that grants them no sympathy from me. I know the UEF comes off as incompetent (and I'm pretty sure that's intended), and that's one of the reasons some people like the GTVA better. It's easy to fight a war and roll over the enemy in every single battle when your side has 5x the enemy fleetpower. I don't think there was a single mission where I could say "Yes, if I did something different, I'd definitely have won" (not using knowledge you gain during and after the mission of course).

[Scotty]

The thread "Conversations from War in Heaven" strongly hints at the source being Admiral Thea Carey, formerly of the GTD Temeraire, Terran 14th Battlegroup.

[MatthTheGeek]

Yes. It's nearly to be considered as confirmed by now.

[Medve]

Oh cool, I'll check it out, thanks!

EDIT: Now I'm curious how they made her into a double agent of sorts. Answers spawn more questions it seems. It's a shame she got caught, I wonder what'll happen to her.