Free League Publishing Announce Alien: The Roleplaying Game

[Xenomrph]

He tried to and got met rightly with "Who cares?"

No he didn't, he got met with "this is under military jurisdiction, you have no authority here". They don't say they don't care he's in charge, they flat out say he's not in charge.

Which is pretty explicitly saying WY has no substantial influence over them.

To be fair, it's not like the RPG says WY owns the military like SM is claiming. He's literally complaining about things the RPG doesn't say.

Merely that, as co-financiers (in an undisclosed capacity), WY can call in favors (in an undisclosed capacity). I suspect that capacity is intentionally left up to the discretion of the GM.

It's like the idiocy of Burke having to smuggle the Aliens through quarantine. "Hehe I'm so clever smuggling dangerous organisms past a quarantine body that my employers pay for."

See also "Hehe we pay for the marines, but we're going to spend our own money on our own soldiers to go to Fiorina".

1. We don't know that Burke actually intended to covertly smuggle anything, that was Ripley's theory. He obviously intended Bishop transport the facehuggers in plain sight.

2. By that logic, why didn't Burke use their PMCs for Hadley's Hope?
Marines leave a paper trail, they clearly didn't want that with Fury 161.

[SiL]

It's not blatantly false, it's blatantly true and Ripley's response signifies that, but you're right in that the statement that it's under military jurisdiction's also made.

Nobody says who cares. Nobody for a moment takes Burke's direction seriously. He has no authority in the situation at all, which is the whole point of saying it's under military jurisdiction - it's explicitly establishing a line between WY's authority and the military's.

2. By that logic, why didn't Burke use their PMCs for Hadley's Hope?
Marines leave a paper trail, they clearly didn't want that with Fury 161.

You're the one saying Burke was in charge and stacking the deck, you tell us Why wouldn't he use PMCs instead of he was calling all the shots?

[BlueMarsalis79]

They pretty much do they all but say so outright they don't care what he thinks, whether he's actually got tangible authority in any official or unofficial capacity or not, being my main point as I already mentioned the statement regarding military jurisdiction beforehand.

[Xenomrph]

2. By that logic, why didn't Burke use their PMCs for Hadley's Hope?
Marines leave a paper trail, they clearly didn't want that with Fury 161.

You're the one saying Burke was in charge and stacking the deck, you tell us Why wouldn't he use PMCs instead of he was calling all the shots?

That's the point, they have access to PMCs and warships in the third movie but don't use them in the second.
Why don't they use them in the second? Because their control isn't absolute when other parties are involved. Why do they use them in the third? Because they did have control, and marines leave a paper trail. The point is there's an explanation for why they wouldn't use Marines even if WY could use them with impunity (and the RPG doesn't say they can).

[SiL]

They pretty much do they all but say so outright they don't care what he thinks, whether he's actually got tangible authority in any official or unofficial capacity or not, being my main point as I already mentioned the statement regarding military jurisdiction beforehand.

They don't care what he thinks because he has no authority, not in spite of whether he does or not. He tried to act like he had the authority to authorize nuking the site and they put him in his place. The film is pretty clear - WY is not in control of the situation.

[BlueMarsalis79]

I never said as much though.

[Xenomrph]

For those interested, both the CMTM (pages 144 and 146) and WYR (page 86) say the Company had leverage over the USCM and either imply or flat out state that Burke picked Gorman on purpose.

Granted this isn't the movie, the point is that it's not like the RPG pioneered the idea.

[BlueMarsalis79]

TY Xeno.

[Local Trouble]

If I were writing the bio for Gorman, I'd say his daddy was a moderately powerful exec at the company, but generally regarded by the corps as a dickhead with a silver spoon (and a corncob) up his ass.  Burke then pulled some strings with a USCM colonel that was in the company's pocket and got him assigned to the mission as a favor to Gorman Sr.

Yeah, I read a lot into Burke's line: "You had your chance, Gorman!"

[SiL]

Gorman conspiracies getting you down?

Keep them in check using Occam Brand Razors!

[Xenomrph]

That's a good line 

[kwisatz]

At least we know with certainty who's pulling the strings on this forum

[SM]

He's reprogramming Bishop for Consensus Mode (TM) as we speak.

[kwisatz]

Hehe

[Local Trouble]

It wouldn't surprise me if Burke managed to pull strings with some dirty marine colonel over coke and hookers to get Gorman assigned to the mission.

Worth quoting to include the coke and hookers in the scenario.

That said, I wouldn't just assert that such a thing actually did happen.  It's just speculation.