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Post by La Rouge Beret on Nov 29, 2020 10:56:16 GMT
I was playing with my son incorporating plastic soldiers, dinosaurs and aliens. It was a pretty random game & thought how would a time travelling PMC work in practice?
How could a time travelling Private Military company remain covert, yet be known well enough to be engaged for the high paying jobs?
The first obstacle is hiring a collection of former Tier 1 operators, which to my mind would naturally attract attention from several governments. So the boss has to have good political connections, perhaps a former spook himself or an eccentric billionaire. Then still undertake standard PMC work to provide cover for the time travelling work.
Part of me sees the appeal of an isolated site (jungle island in the Caribbean) for the time travelling to occur. But that can be balanced by a 1st world country offering better infrastructure and medical facilities. Perhaps a testing range for weapons and R & D could explain the remote location?
Overall I think the time travelling team would be a much smaller portion of the total workforce.
What do you think?
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Nov 29, 2020 11:12:54 GMT
I was playing with my son incorporating plastic soldiers, dinosaurs and aliens. It was a pretty random game & thought how would a time travelling PMC work in practice? How could a time travelling Private Military company remain covert, yet be known well enough to be engaged for the high paying jobs? Take over a exciting company like the Pinkerton (detective agency) and use that as their cover. |
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Post by La Rouge Beret on Nov 29, 2020 11:25:12 GMT
Solid suggestion mergers and acquisition are a good start. Add in a few shell companies and we're off to the races.
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Zyobot
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Just a time-traveling robot stranded on Earth.
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Post by Zyobot on Nov 29, 2020 14:38:14 GMT
What time periods is this PMC likely to travel to, if I might ask? I’d guess that due to both the variety of dates they’d teleport to and concern over temporal accidents, they’d carry various accoutrements needed to survive anywhere from the Cretaceous Period to the High Middle Ages, and so on and so forth.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Nov 29, 2020 15:13:59 GMT
Interesting ideas. Basically you want a private version of something like the teams from Stargate. A few points come to mind. a) Since its private what is its motivation? Changing historical events, - in which case you have the grandfather paradox problem - finding out what happened to solve historical mysteries - in which case who funds operations - or seeking historical loot that has been rumoured but has disappeared, which could be self-funding. Could you have someone rescued from an historical death and brought to the current time - possibly say by a descendant or fan?
b) Would the machine move only through time or can it send teams to different geographical locations on its own. If not the latter then say a base in the Caribbean say would have the problem of the team, having traveled through time then have to go to the physical location elsewhere on Earth, which might cause problems.
c) If they went more than a few hundred years back in time then you have the issue of things like changes of levels of ground and sea levels. Not much good finding out that 800 years back when you arrive there was a small hill there and your now 50 feet underground! Or simply a building say. Further back and you have more dramatic changes like the ice ages or continental drift. [In the latter case a couple of hundred million years back the rocks that now form the bulk of Britain were about on the equator. If going back that far from a base in Britain would they got to that location or the same latitude and longitude as their starting point?
d) Would agree that the actual teams would be a very small proportion of the total people engaged. You would need very specialised people who could fit in and handle whatever the mission was, which would be different people in different dates & locations in many cases however. Going back to the original Stargate film someone with detailed knowledge of period and culture and a couple of people to provide protection as well as someone for medical support probably.
Steve
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Post by La Rouge Beret on Nov 30, 2020 5:41:19 GMT
The motivation is purely financially based - would you like high value artwork or jewellery that is appropriately dated? How about dinosaur bones.
Hmmm, maybe I'll just write a fanfiction where I'm Cobra Commander and, Cobra gets a actually competent leader. Otherwise I'll write a fanfiction based on Evil Genius...
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Nov 30, 2020 10:29:21 GMT
The motivation is purely financially based - would you like high value artwork or jewellery that is appropriately dated? How about dinosaur bones. Hmmm, maybe I'll just write a fanfiction where I'm Cobra Commander and, Cobra gets a actually competent leader. Otherwise I'll write a fanfiction based on Evil Genius... Cobra Emperor was competent, had it not been for a certain Sargent DNA getting mix in. |
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Nov 30, 2020 15:42:54 GMT
The motivation is purely financially based - would you like high value artwork or jewellery that is appropriately dated? How about dinosaur bones. Hmmm, maybe I'll just write a fanfiction where I'm Cobra Commander and, Cobra gets a actually competent leader. Otherwise I'll write a fanfiction based on Evil Genius...
Actually there might be a problem with that. If their brought back from the past they will look like modern fakes as they won't show signs of aging, fossilisation in the case of the dino bones etc. Would be bloody difficult trying to claim something is a lost Rembrandt say if it looks brand new. Remember reading a short story along those lines when someone brought back from the past some golden coins and the lack of wear meant experts declared them fakes. Unless you having obtained them in the past store them somewhere to be picked up in the present day. Which does mean they do age but risks them being lost through damage to the storage location or people finding it and stealing the goods.
Some things would have intrinsic value, being made up of precious gems or materials say but a lot of items from the past gain value from actually being and looking old.
Steve
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Post by La Rouge Beret on Dec 1, 2020 0:32:06 GMT
The motivation is purely financially based - would you like high value artwork or jewellery that is appropriately dated? How about dinosaur bones. Hmmm, maybe I'll just write a fanfiction where I'm Cobra Commander and, Cobra gets a actually competent leader. Otherwise I'll write a fanfiction based on Evil Genius... Cobra Emperor was competent, had it not been for a certain Sargent DNA getting mix in. I think one of the later Cobra Commanders were competent based on the IDK comics that are on my Kindle, but I agree the Shangri La & Snakepeople cross over were a plot line too far. |
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Post by La Rouge Beret on Dec 1, 2020 0:33:41 GMT
The motivation is purely financially based - would you like high value artwork or jewellery that is appropriately dated? How about dinosaur bones. Hmmm, maybe I'll just write a fanfiction where I'm Cobra Commander and, Cobra gets a actually competent leader. Otherwise I'll write a fanfiction based on Evil Genius...
Actually there might be a problem with that. If their brought back from the past they will look like modern fakes as they won't show signs of aging, fossilisation in the case of the dino bones etc. Would be bloody difficult trying to claim something is a lost Rembrandt say if it looks brand new. Remember reading a short story along those lines when someone brought back from the past some golden coins and the lack of wear meant experts declared them fakes. Unless you having obtained them in the past store them somewhere to be picked up in the present day. Which does mean they do age but risks them being lost through damage to the storage location or people finding it and stealing the goods.
Some things would have intrinsic value, being made up of precious gems or materials say but a lot of items from the past gain value from actually being and looking old.
Steve
Damn you with your science! But good pick up and I'll have to go away & think about it. Although it would still make for a fun scene anyway, after the team goes through all that hard work only to have someone dismiss their work as fraudulent. |
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Post by corbell on Dec 7, 2020 13:20:21 GMT
Actually there might be a problem with that. If their brought back from the past they will look like modern fakes as they won't show signs of aging, fossilisation in the case of the dino bones etc. Would be bloody difficult trying to claim something is a lost Rembrandt say if it looks brand new. Remember reading a short story along those lines when someone brought back from the past some golden coins and the lack of wear meant experts declared them fakes. Unless you having obtained them in the past store them somewhere to be picked up in the present day. Which does mean they do age but risks them being lost through damage to the storage location or people finding it and stealing the goods.
Some things would have intrinsic value, being made up of precious gems or materials say but a lot of items from the past gain value from actually being and looking old.
Steve
Damn you with your science! But good pick up and I'll have to go away & think about it. Although it would still make for a fun scene anyway, after the team goes through all that hard work only to have someone dismiss their work as fraudulent. I recall a couple of years ago, reading about a man walking on his land and finding a cache of gold coins, from over one hundred years ago. They believe the coins were someone's savings, that for some reason he never made it to pick up. Bury gold coins under a good landmark, and arrange to find them later, would work. ONCE. |
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Dec 7, 2020 15:55:22 GMT
Damn you with your science! But good pick up and I'll have to go away & think about it. Although it would still make for a fun scene anyway, after the team goes through all that hard work only to have someone dismiss their work as fraudulent. I recall a couple of years ago, reading about a man walking on his land and finding a cache of gold coins, from over one hundred years ago. They believe the coins were someone's savings, that for some reason he never made it to pick up. Bury gold coins under a good landmark, and arrange to find them later, would work. ONCE.
That was the sort of thing I was thinking of and with items such as gold coins their not going to be affected much by passage of time. However there is still the chance of someone discovering them before you get to them in the present day. [Even if its not reported in the historical records as the discoverer may want to keep his find secret]. Plus you would need to protect against natural events if the area is vulnerable to flooding, earthquakes whatever. Which may not destroy the hoard but could move it.
Its more of an issue with a more fragile item. Say a previously unknown di Vinci painting or some Ming pottery for instance which are more likely to suffer damage.
Its probably the best way to obtain properly aged items from the past but there are always going to be potential risks.
Steve
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Post by oscssw on Dec 7, 2020 16:01:10 GMT
Damn you with your science! But good pick up and I'll have to go away & think about it. Although it would still make for a fun scene anyway, after the team goes through all that hard work only to have someone dismiss their work as fraudulent. I recall a couple of years ago, reading about a man walking on his land and finding a cache of gold coins, from over one hundred years ago. They believe the coins were someone's savings, that for some reason he never made it to pick up. Bury gold coins under a good landmark, and arrange to find them later, would work. ONCE. Oh, that's where I left my cache of pirate booty gold coins! 
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Dec 7, 2020 16:06:59 GMT
I recall a couple of years ago, reading about a man walking on his land and finding a cache of gold coins, from over one hundred years ago. They believe the coins were someone's savings, that for some reason he never made it to pick up. Bury gold coins under a good landmark, and arrange to find them later, would work. ONCE. Oh, that's where I left my cache of pirate booty gold coins!
No you didn't. I got there 1st so their MINE!!  |
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gillan1220
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Post by gillan1220 on Dec 8, 2020 9:16:04 GMT
This reminds me of Guns of the South.
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