Xalphox

This as I am sure everyone is aware has been a very messy situation. It involves two admins and two XAs (myself included). Given that, we've taken the unprecedented decision to review the appeal as an entire XA team rather than simply assigning an individual XA to arbitrate, and I'm writing this up on behalf of everyone. I want to apologize ahead of time: this is almost legalese. The reason for this is that these appeals form a binding precedent that we use to inform decision making in the future: in other words, these set a precedent. Here are the facts as we understand them: 1. Crozier, Archer's character, was deeply emotionally invested in Marceline Voyna, who he considered to be his protegé. 2. Crozier believed an attempt on Voyna's life (a fragging in other terms) had been orchestrated by Dawes. 3. Archer asked me and Deckers whether we agreed with the grounds for him to PK Dawes explaining that he planned to kill them if the incident was swept under the rug. We agreed, on the face of it, that it was legitimate reason to want to PK Dawes. 4. Crozier was then led to believe that the MI CO and leadership had decided to sweep the incident under the carpet. 5. At the end of Deckers' campaign, whilst surrounded by and in full view of at least 3 other troopers, Crozier raised his rifle and shot Dawes in the back of the head twice. He was quickly gunned down by the two troopers. The quality of roleplay was farcical, using a singular /me (that wasn't even /me'd). 6. There was an hour long delay whilst the admin team tried to contend with the matter at hand. 7. I eventually got ingame and asked the roleplay to be redone; once again, Dawes was killed. 8. Archer subsequently resigned from the admin team. There are four tests for a PvP PK to be valid: Were me and Deckers right to have approved the PK? Firstly we want to address whether it was right for me and Deckers to "approve" the PKs: (1) as a team, we have agreed that speaking to XAs actually constitutes seeking non-binding advice ("hey do you think this would be OK"), the rules as above still apply to "approved PKs", and "approved PKs" can still be subject to a successful appeal based on the four rules not being found to have been met: this is necessary as the nature of an "approved PK" means it hasn't happened yet and how the actual PK was implemented is of material importance; (2) we agreed that it is reasonable for XAs to take requests at face value and that it would be an undue burden to expect XAs to proactively look into the substance of all PK requests before they have happened: an attempted PK may never happen, the situation could change drastically between seeking approval and implementing a PK, and that fits with the way our PK system is set up (in that it's designed to allow within reason anybody to PK anybody else at any time and instead determine validity afterwards). (3) we weren't aware of the circumstances under which the PK would take place (namely Crozier effectively sacrificing himself for her). (4) in light of this, the team agreed that me and Deckers were not at fault. Was the PK valid? The justification is legitimate: it would be reasonable for a X to want to kill Y if they thought Y was trying to kill X's close friend (or in this case protegé). However, under the circumstances, we do not think it is plausible that Crozier shared a strong enough bond with Voyna to merit the sort of blind passion that it would take to warrant an attack on a superior in full view of other troopers he no doubt understood would lead to his own apprehension and/or death (the one justification we could think for this is if Crozier thought the MI were on his side, however there was nothing to suggest this, and during conversations with Archer afterwards he did not attempt to justify Crozier's decision by suggesting that this was mistakenly the case). Absent either of these, on the balance of probabilities, we think Archer likely failed to roleplay a realistic sense of self-preservation, especially as he had plenty of other opportunity to murder Dawes in a manner that wouldn't immediately earn him two shots to the back of the head. We could validate this by reviewing the roleplay between Voyna and Crozier in detail and making our own assessment as to whether a reasonable person would have formed a strong enough bond to merit this kind of reaction, but it would be an extremely arduous task involving reviewing tens of hours of roleplay and thousands of individual lines, and given we have found other faults with this PK, we found that it would be purely academic to pursue this further and thus a waste of time. The character in question was a Sergeant who had been played for over 20 hours over the past month and therefore we do not feel he met the traditional definition of a throwaway character. However Archer's decision to immediately leave the admin team (and quite possibly the server) adds another angle to this: the purpose of this rule is to ensure that a PKer is equally invested in their character as the PKee (and therefore have a commensurate amount to lose should the attempt fail). A strong argument could be made that Archer intended to leave the server immediately after the PK, which would mean he was not equally invested in his character, as further evidenced by his overt willingness to sacrifice him. Therefore whilst there isn't specific evidence that this was Archer's plan, and I think it likely wasn't, we think there is reason to suggest that Crozier was, for all intents and purposes, a throwaway character. In terms of good faith, in the absence of evidence of specific bad faith, good faith must be assumed and people must be afforded the benefit of the doubt. However, the incompetent way in which it was originally implemented constituted a fundamental lack of respect for the gravity of the situation (& towards Ryan) and therefore feel it was, at best, rude, at worst, constituted genuine bad faith. Finally, we discussed amongst ourselves the unsafe and abuseable precedent it would set if we were to accept the PK. Per the "get out of jail clause" post put in #staff-logs on May 24th, "[...] none of [these rules] should be considered binding on the XA team who can totally disregard this or anything if they deem it to be ultimately in the community's best interests." and think this is an appropriate first time to invoke this: XAs should to reverse PKs if they feel that they are manifestly unsafe or are likely to lead to a perverse and unintended outcome. Lessons to be learnt Because of the delay imposed to the ordinary flow of the roleplay for the wider server, it was difficult to justify voiding the situation entirely for the XA team; instead, the PK should have been swiftly re-roleplayed (because it had already happened - and not continuing would have given Ryan an unfair advantage who would obviously by now be aware that Crozier was seeking to kill him) and arbitrated in a forum appeal. Result We've found four reasons, each of which could feasibly bring into question the validity of this PK. In light of this, the appeal is sustained and the PK is reversed. Crozier's PK is also reversed. After discussions with Ryan, we have agreed to replace Crozier with a generic trooper and to impart a temporary injury on Dawes so as to affect everyone else's roleplay and character development as little as possible. Appendix I'm really concerned at the behaviour of some members of the community who seemed to think this was some sort of perverse popularity contest: understand that threatening to quit made absolutely no bearing on this decision whatsoever. Losing players over this situation would be unfortunate but no where near as unfortunate as it would be surrendering our integrity to the populist ebb and flow. Players popular or otherwise should rest assured knowing should they ever feel a need to appeal a PK or anything else they can rely on the admin team to deliver a fair and just verdict regardless of who they are. Ask yourself: do you really want to be subject to a system that worked any other way?

He's a fun character to play. @Bav gets it worse on Tidbit tbf. For my own reputation I should add I've actually cybered several times. It's just the nature of the character to be grotesque.

I'm not going to air our dirty laundry but the crux of it is that this the way this is structured was meant to address consistent twin complaints from the playerbase over the years - (1) "there is not enough cohesion between individual events", (2) "the SSTRP timeline is railroaded and players/command figures should dictate what we do and where we go". It's been noted that it hasn't worked out and a decision was resolved amongst the executive team as of last Monday to enact a plan that brings us back into the Federation swiftly - the first step of this process took place over the course of my last mission, where I re-introduced Aqua's Colonel Rivera. However I do want the fleet bridge simulator to at least be on the horizon before we step into a new chapter - this should be within the next couple of weeks, Queen's birthday list withstanding. The plan moving forward is that overall direction for the server will once again be set by me (as it was until this current arc) with the advice, council and guidance of my staff and of other key stakeholders. Noting that this pertains to an active storyline, and for the sake of not spoiling it, this is all I plan to say on the topic.

keep talking shit and pallas gets hit again motherfucker

Hi So with the finale tonight, we are now officially fugitives from Federal justice. This is a peculiar arrangement for a Starship Troopers server however this affords us the opportunity to build an engaging narrative without being hampered by the invulnerability that having the backing of a monolithic and near all-powerful Federation. It also means we can now The way things will work from here-in is that the MI and Fleet leadership will submit a weekly plan and a committee of us (primarily XAs right now) will determine the effect and consequences of said plan and instruct and advise the admin team on what sort of events to run that week. Leadership characters are no longer bound by Federal law, however their actions may lead to later IC consequences. They will no longer automatically receive any form of plot armour (however PK requests still need to go through the proper channels).

Sorry to contradict but cutting out the "two admins" exemption because it wouldn't be hard to convince two admins around.

TUESDAY APRIL 16 2299 LARSEN TO FACE JUSTICE General Larsen, the war hero turned accused murderer, has formally been charged, and has arrived on Iskander to face a court-martial, or so the federal authorities announced last night. A military intelligence spokesman announced the following, "Following the death of a 19-year old active duty infantryman here in Iskander in February of this year, General Brian Charles Larsen has been indicted on a single charge of second-degree murder, although there are several other active investigations into a number of other unexplained deaths. General Larsen surrendered himself to federal authorities here on Iskander at roughly midday today. Noting the severe and capital nature of the offence, General Larsen will face a 5-officer general court-martial as soon as one can be convened. General Larsen may be a war hero, but no man is above the law, and justice must be served." It seems however that members of the public do not feel so strongly. A poll in this paper of our readers showed support for the General at 40-34, in support. Fig 1. a poll of our readers (14 April, 2298) The Sky Marshal's office refused to issue a statement. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Sirs, I am deeply concerned with media's hounding of Brian Larsen, a good, honest man who I had the honour of serving with. There is no finer public servant than General Larsen, and this political hit job, I fear solely designed to divert attention away from the Sky Marshal's appalling premiership, is most profoundly unfair, disgusting and dangerous. If General Larsen is found guilty the Sky Marshal will not only personally be betraying the man who propelled her into high office to begin with; indeed the whole-Federation will be collectively betraying the General. Colonel Jim 'Jimmy' Marsher (Ret.) ---- Dear Sirs, I served under the butcher, Larsen, and I must say I am delighted to hear that he is finally facing his comeuppance. There is no punishment fit for a monster like Larsen. May he rot in hell. Anonymous The Iskander Herald is a registered third party news vendor, authorized under docket number 161, and protected under section (6)(2) of the Iskander Accords, which permits a limited number of approved third party organisations the right to publish news independent of the Federal state. Any complaints should be directed to the Regulation of Press Committee, Federal Council, ISK SW1A 1AA

Unhidden

unhidden

SUNDAY APRIL 14 2299 GENERAL LARSEN RECORDED SHOOTING TROOPER A tape emerged today showing General Brian C. Larsen, the war hero renowned for his successes during the Progenitor war and the civil unrest that plagued much of 2297-2298, shooting a Mobile Infantry trooper extrajudicially during off time whilst on Iskander earlier this year. Furthermore, it appears this is not the first time this has happened. Sources indicate this is at least the seventh incident where the General has been suspected of partaking in extrajudicial executions. General Larsen nor the Sky Marshal's office could not be reached for comment. General Larsen is a notoriously enigmatic and press-shy figure, however, this newspaper has managed to piece the following together: he was born in 2240, in Newcastle, Terra, enlisting with the 49th Mobile Infantry in 2258. He married his childhood sweetheart, Laura, in 2260. During the first Battle of Klendathu in 2269, he was paralysed from the waist down and was medically discharged with full benefits. His marriage broke down shortly after, and in 2271, he and Laura divorced; Laura would go on to re-marry. The General struggled with private life, dropping out of college and holding numerous jobs over a three year period between 2271 and 2273, however through vigorous physical therapy regained use of his legs in 2274 and re-enlisted shortly afterwards, again back into the 49th Mobile Infantry. A year later however the entire 49th barring him and three others were slaughtered during Operation March to Victory. He was subsequently reassigned to the 59th. By 2278, Larsen had reached the rank of Sergeant. However, during a routine counter-separatism deployment on Hesperus which at the time was going through a prolonged period of unrest, Larsen and his commanding officer, Lieutenant F. B. Xavier, were captured by separatist forces. Larsen was subject to torture, and, when recovered in 2280, was found to be missing at least two toes. Lieutenant Xavier's dismembered head was left in a school playground later that year; his body was never recovered. Larsen continued to serve with the 59th; in 2282, he was nominated for officer candidate school (OCS). He passed with high marks, taking command of the 49th as a Third Lieutenant. However, this deployment ended in disaster after 98% of his platoon were killed. This marks Larsen's first recorded encounter with the law, where he was stripped of his commission and demoted to Sergeant following a court-martial for misbehaviour before the enemy and failure to obey order or regulation. He was reassigned to the 112th Mobile Infantry, where he would serve as Platoon Sergeant until 2286. He would have no less than five further encounters with the law on an array of assault and cruelty charges during that period. He was nominated again for OCS in 2287, though this time enjoyed more success, and eventually would become a Second Lieutenant and commanding officer of the 112th "Larsen's Lobsters". His career - and with it a steady accumulation of both accolades and further accusations of impropriety - continued to progress, making Captain in 2292, Major two years later in 2294, and Lieutenant-Colonel in 2295. A verified account offered by an anonymous source suggests that in November of 2296, a Federation Marine (John Pembridge) disappeared under suspicious circumstances following an altercation with the then-Lieutenant-Colonel. Corporal Pembridge was seen last with the Lieutenant-Colonel whilst on an operation; shortly thereafter, Pembridge disappeared. His body nor whereabouts were never recovered. The coroner recorded an official verdict of unexplained death in 2297. He was promoted to Colonel in February of 2297, and was present for the Battle of Terra Neue that marked humanity's first encounter with the Progenitors and ended in the destruction of his home-ship of 20 years, the UCF 117 Audie Murphy. He would receive an MI cross for valour during the battle after he led the evacuation effort that would eventually save three thousand souls from the clutch of the Progenitors, and was promoted to Brigadier General. General Larsen would be present with the 112th at the Battle of Terra, again leading the effort against the Progenitors, however would fail to hold the homeworld thanks to the perfidy of disgraced Sky Marshal John Hudson. Shortly after he would go on to escape the Sanctuary Massacre, where Admiral Erin O'Brien murdered a third of the Federal Council and attempted a military coup against the rightful leaders of the Federation, an act that would go on to instigate the Civil War of 2297. Larsen would go on to play a pivotal role in the Civil War, taking part in many of the key battles that would eventually lead to Coalition victory in the summer of 2298. Larsen was present for the signing of the Iskander accords. Following this, he was promoted to full General, and given command over the effort to retake Earth and defeat the Progenitors, which he would eventually achieve with the help of renowned Federation scientist Dr. Przemek Lubomierz, and Hero of the Federation-winning Captain Sebastian Bently, who with the 112th would go on to destroy the Progenitor Ark. The Iskander Herald is a registered third party news vendor, authorized under docket number 161, and protected under section (6)(2) of the Iskander Accords, which permits a limited number of approved third party organisations the right to publish news independent of the Federal state. Any complaints should be directed to the Regulation of Press Committee, Federal Council, ISK SW1A 1AA

SATURDAY APRIL 13 2299 WROCLAW SHAMES WAR HERO Former interior minister turned Ortiz arch-nemesis Vladimir Wroclaw today accused decorated war hero General Brian C. Larsen, who was instrumental in the Federation's victories in both the Progenitor War and the Civil War of 2297, of a litany of crimes including murder, and accused the Sky Marshal of orchestrating an elaborate cover-up in defence of the four-star General. The renegade politician announced these explosive accusations during a session in Council today, exploiting a centuries-old archaic privilege conferred on councillors that grants them immunity from any liability for anything said whilst in council. The Sky Marshal, who was not present, issued a statement denying the accusations, asserting that the government was absolutely committed to the rule of law, decrying Wroclaw's abuse of process and issuing a counter-claim that Wroclaw was simply looking to drum up support as his poll numbers show a significant slump following his sacking as Interior Minister. This couldn't come at a worse time however for the beleaguered Sky Marshal, who is currently struggling to hold together an increasingly fragile coalition, facing attacks not only from her coalition partners but also within her own National party. More on this story to follow. The Iskander Herald is a registered third party news vendor, authorized under docket number 161, and protected under section (6)(2) of the Iskander Accords, which permits a limited number of approved third party organisations the right to publish news independent of the Federal state. Any complaints should be directed to the Regulation of Press Committee, Federal Council, ISK SW1A 1AA

@Hicks @Argon @Mighty Mouse @Admyral Joe

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