Sunday November 19, 2017
Book 18: Mandatory Failure — Part I

Transcript

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, 620 light years away, there is diplomacy happening where none used to...

Razor: Stylus, you're authorized for approach. Bay Four.

NARRATOR: Technically, Stylus of Magificent Compromise is a warship, but by Tausennigan Ob'enn Warlord standards it is tiny and toothless, and makes a mockery of the naming convention for nobler vessels.

NARRATOR: In a system dominated by giant Q-class ships (greater than 999 meters in one or more dimensions) equipped to threat grades of 7 to 9 ("critically dangerous to be around"), poor little Stylus is a 75-meter "X6."

Stylus 1: Thank you, Razor. Your authorizations are the highest honors to which we can aspire.

Razor: We don't seek to honor you. Your vessel should be called "Stump of Insufferable Capitulation."

We allow you here because despite the effortlessness of this endeavor, we have grown weary of winning.

NARRATOR: Razor of Unmitigated Severance, by comparison, is a typical Q8 Ob'enn Superfortress.

NARRATOR: That explosion was not typical.

Stylus 1: Whaaaat?

Did we do that?

Stylus 2: Somebody is bound to think that we did. Let's run away forever.

NARRATOR: It did, however, return diplomatic affairs to the local status quo...