MaximusRex - Staff Report: Enforcement Action Taken - Backsea
What’s your BYOND key:
MaximusRex
Round ID:
N/A, Time of Note: 06-19-23 6:18
Your character name:
Alan Takanibu
Their BYOND key:
Backsea
What are you reporting?:
Enforcement Action Taken
Description of the incident:
On a round of Kutjevo, I spawned as a Freelancer with the objective to ransack the Alamayer. I was hyped. Hostile Freelancer ERTs are my favorite ERT to get, and it looked like we had a good team. Conferring with our warlord, we devised a plan of attack and docked portside on the Alamayer. As my team was piling out, I stayed before for a moment to see if I can set up some defences to prevent our shuttle from being hijacked. As I’m riffling around in my inventory and checking character skills, I hear the dropship door open. In walked an entire team of WY Chemgoons, a synth in PMC gear, and two marines. I’m caught with my pants down, separated from my team, and totally surrounded and outgunned…so I play it cool. I greet them and lie, saying we’re here to help, and that my team lead is currently moving in to assist the ship. Trying not to panic, I discretely try to alert my team leader over radio that we have guests on the dropship, and try to think of a plan on how not to get murdered and let my whole team get stranded to die.
At some point in the interaction, one of the marines and the synth leave the dropship. This left just the chemgoons, myself, and a singular marine named Ryker Prescott. Apparently the Chemteam was waiting on their leader, and the tense seconds were ticking by. Ryker then approached me with an offer: 2,500 dollars to get him the hell off the Alamayer, no strings attached. Realizing he might be my only chance to survive this, I agree, and tell him to sit tight and be ready. Very shortly after, the WY Security team leader enters the dropship with the ultimate prize: a dead queen, killed by the Goons. At the same time, the team leader realizes that Ryker and I are NOT WY, and order us off the shuttle. I curtly tell the WY leader “Mr. Goon, this is MY shuttle.” Ryker pipes up, saying that he’s not going anywhere. I feel the tensions rising and my Freelancers are nowhere in sight. With that, the WY leader punches the shuttle and the fight begins. Weapons are drawn instantly and the WY Goonsquad rounds on Ryker. I seize my chances to retake control of the situation, and in the ensuing firefight, Ryker and I team up and mopped the floor with the whole goonsquad. As the shuttle docks at the ERT station, I compliment Ryker on his skills and tell him that I’m heading back to grab my team. I successfully recover my whole squad, and we take off into the sunset with fat loot and aforementioned PMC Synth and DCC as further hostages/recruits/scrap metal.
It was during the post-round RP with Ryker and our gaggle that I was pinged by Backsea, and asked why I was friendly towards Ryker. Backsea insisted that since my ERT was hostile, I was not allowed to be friendly at all with the marine faction, and that I was going to receive an LRP note for shooting the Goons/teaming up with the marines. Nowhere in the past conventions, current rules, or any guidelines does it have a clause about hostile freelancers being forced to shoot marines on sight or preventing alliances. In fact, after explaining the circumstances, I even was able to copy/paste the ERT spawn blurb to Backsea to show this:
"“You are a Freelancer Mercenary!
You started off in the Neroid Sector as a colonist seeking work at one of the established colonies.
The withdrawl of United American forces in the early 2180s, the system fell into disarray.
Taking up arms as a mercenary, the Freelancers have become a powerful force of order in the system.
While they are motivated primarily by money, many colonists see the Freelancers as the main forces of order in the Neroid Sector.
Despite this, you have been tasked to ransack the USS Almayer and kill anyone who gets in your way.
Any UPP, CLF or WY forces also responding are to be considered neutral parties unless proven hostile.
Objectives: Ransack the USS Almayer and kill anyone who gets in your way. Do what your Captain says. Ensure your survival at all costs.”
The above tells me that I’m here to pillage the ship for all it’s value, keep myself and my team alive, and that I’m free to shoot anyone who tries to stop us. “Ransack”, by the Merriam Webster Dictionary definition, is defined as:
“ransack \RAN-sak\ verb. 1 : to look through thoroughly in often a rough way. 2 : to search through and steal from in a forceful and damaging way : plunder.”
That is exactly what my team, myself, and Ryker did. I kept cool and bided by time against a superior threat, my team actually managed to haul a kings bounty out of an overrun ship, and Ryker was just trying to survive. The WY Chemgoons were actively trying to steal the Freelancer shuttle and were a direct threat to myself and Ryker that warranted lethal force. Hell, since I’m hostile, I could have shot them and Ryker for no reason at all if I felt it’d make me even a penny. I was fully in the right to kill the Chemgoons to defend myself and my shuttle, Ryker 100% paid for and earned his ride home, and there doesn’t exist a rule or precedence that says otherwise. The natural flow of the situation was a beautiful IC storyline, and some of the best RP I’ve had on CM in a long time. And after all that, Backsea still decided to note me with the following:
“LRP - after a discussion i had with a player about siding with marines to steal a DS i did agree that i could see where they were coming from with roleplay however im deeming this LRP due to them choosing to kill another player, when a similar situation arised, it felt like cherry picking of a situation.”
I don’t know if Backsea was actively deceived by another players ahelp or was just misinterpreting the situation, but the note is totally off base. What happened was the exact opposite of “Low Roleplay”, it was a cinematic escape where a team of essentially ragtag pirates beat all odds and made off into the sunset with a grand haul. I’d like for my note to be removed, any notes against Ryker be removed, and that’s it. I’m not holding any grudge against Backsea, I know you guys work hard to keep the server running.
EDIT: Another thing I realize I glanced over: The note says that I “stole” a dropship, when in actuality, it was the dropship I spawned and deployed with. There must be some confusion there, and maybe what prompted Backsea to write said note.
Evidence:
Firefight Part 1 - https://i.imgur.com/dnjv7Sa.png
Firefight Part 2 - https://i.imgur.com/kNyR0X5.png
Firefight Part 3 - https://i.imgur.com/dEVRgjx.png
Note - https://i.imgur.com/iXFWTnd.png
https://i.imgur.com/AiHJV7c.png - Evidence proving my team did in fact accomplish their RP goal
