Originally Posted by
Battlegrinder
Last week I posted an examination of Scorn military hardware and tactics, as well as an examination of the SL plot, In both posts I alluded to the wider Scorn military strategy and goals, but elected to discuss it a later time. It’s later.
After TMF’s (The Mysterious Figure) plan to destroy the UC shipyard and devastate the UC military was foiled, the Scorn likely pushed their timetable up for the invasion of Voleria. A key factor in that decision was likely the fact that TMF blew his cover during the battle for the shipyard, and that the UC was likely aware that they were not alone in the universe. The UC would likely start reinforcing its colonies with additional troops and secure its facilities (and given that Voleria was heavily fortified despite nominally being a peaceful colony, the UC apparently did just that), which would make the Scorn’s planned attacks much harder. In all likelihood, the Voleria assault was much more rushed and slapdash than most people assume.
As for why Voleria was targeted, there is not enough evidence to make an informed guess. The most likely reason is that Voleria’s location made it strategically important. I’d guess that Voleria was either located close to Scorn-held worlds that made assaulting it either, or was close enough to vital UC resources that it made a useful staging area. Of course, given that the Scorn appear to be religiously motivated, their true motives may be different. Voleria might be a sacred place to them, or part of the “Prophecy” mentioned in STS promotional material. Like I said, there is not enough information to make an informed guess.
Leaving the aside the question of why Voleria was targeted, the next issue is addressing what the Scorn’s objective was. This time, there’s enough information floating around to create a theory. Given that the Scorn deviated from their standard airborne hit-and-run tactics on Voleria and instead deployed fixed defense s and fortified in depth, they clearly had an objective beyond “kill all the humans”. As all their defenses were arraigned around the mineshaft that lead to the underground chamber that housed the Beacon, it’s reasonable to assume that said Beacon was the focus of the campaign. But what is the Beacon?
For starters, the Beacon is currently one of the few true mysteries of SL, as very little information regarding its function exists. However, the few scraps we do have shed some light on the issue. First, the Beacon was being manipulated by Scorn Priestesses, who have also been observed to accompany mind-controlled UC soldiers. Secondly, at certain points during the fight the player will drop to their knees, with the status effect “mind controlled” displayed. The boss (really need to look up her name at some point) appears to be responsible, but since neither of the other two Scorn bosses have possessed that ability, it’s likely that the mind control effect is not an innate Scorn ability. I believe that she was merely using the Beacon’s own abilities, not her own. Third, Dr. Herbert was mind control just by touching the Beacon. All these facts lead to one conclusion: The Beacon is a mind control device. As Scorn likely possessed mind control technology other the Beacon (as was used my TMF during his operations), the Beacon likely represents a certain, specialized device. I believe that the Beacon is a large-scale mind control device, designed to rapidly bend as many people as possible to the Scorn cause. This in turn suggests a possible reason it was brought to Voleria.
The Scorn plan may have been to draw as many UC and mercenary troops to Voleria as possible, then use the Beacon to brainwash them all at once (I would guess that the Beacon works by overwriting the victims own mind with the mind of Scorn, like changing a computer from Windows to Apple OS). This theory suggest that Voleria was actually a huge victory for the UC, as the capture of the Beacon completely derailed the Scorn’s war plans and forced them to start playing it by ear. If the Scorn had turn the UC forces sent to Voleria, they would have had a huge army, one that could then be sent back to UC space to wreak havoc behind the lines, conduct sabotage, and (if enough high-ranking personal were brainwashed) to deliberately derail the UC’s defensive effort. Instead, the Scorn have been forced to fight a long, conventional war.
The Scorn efforts to recover the Beacon was likely less about retrieving a powerful weapon (awe-inspiring as it may be, the Beacon seems to take a considerable amount of time to “arm”, and would have little military value once the knowledge of Scorn mind-control tech became widely known in the aftermath of Voleria) and more about preventing the UC from figuring out how the Beacon worked, as such knowledge would A) let them counter Scorn mind control, and B) let them use the Beacon or similar devices against the Scorn. In fact, the Scorn generally make an effort to prevent their military hardware from failing into the wrong hands (such as when they stripped gear off of fallen comrades in Voleria, as mentioned in one of the quests), so their actions regarding the Beacon make sense, especially since they managed to almost destroy the UCS Blackstar as part of the attempt to recover it. Again, it’s also possible, and in fact likely, that the Beacon is some kind of Scorn Religious artifact (like a less face-melty Ark of the Covenant), and if so, they would likely go to almost any length to retrieve it.
The Scorn’s post-Voleria strategy appears to mirror the one used by the British during many of their wars: hit the enemy everywhere, in smallish raids and sap his strength. The UC can’t defend everywhere, while the Scorn can pick and choose their targets. The terrain and conditions on Numa Prime were already well known to the Scorn (and they also had the remnants of the TMF’s squatter army to call upon), and Tarasa was apparently lightly defended, and since some of the quests from the expansion refer to plans to rebuild, Tarasa was/is important to UC interests in some way. The Scorn’s continued use of these tactics will force the UC to spread itself thin trying to defend everywhere, or force them to abandon and evacuate many colonies in order to concentrate military units across a smaller perimeter. On Tarasa, the Scorn added a twist to their hit and run attacks by pulling out their own troops but leaving a horde of Vular behind. The Tarasa attack deprived the UC of a strategic colony and forced the UC to spend lives and time retaking it, and leaving the Vular behind meant the Scorn could extract a heavy cost from the UC while risking none of their own troops (plus forcing the UC to station a larger garrison once the colony is secured, to fend off the Vular that survived the counter-attack and to guard against future Scorn attacks).
Currently, the Scorn seem to have a decisive strategic advantage in the war, though the UC may have a strong tactical advantage (since UC military units seem to be much better equipped than Scorn units). While attempts to predict the Scorn’s next move are hampered by the fact that we don’t understand much about the Scorn or their motives, the strategy they’re using suggest that the most likely course of action will be to continue harassing the UC, while making a small number of large scale attacks against vital targets. I’ll examine the UC’s possible responses at a later time.
