RE: Art of Domination Thread 04
12-13-2017, 09:22 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-13-2017, 09:24 AM by Mayu_Zane.)
Thank you very much Hypevosa, I’m better now.
Keymaster expresses disgust. Whatever Veriso is made of, his meat is, according to Keymaster, toxic. Something about antibodies?
You order your soldiers to exfiltrate, and you order a Metal-Rod Strike on the base with the intent to intimidate Veriso.
Gunnery Chief Bukti: Rod on the way, Commander!
The pillar slams right through the base’s defenses and walls, and a massive explosion follows!
Gunnery Chief Bukti: Commander, enemy structure is collapsing! We can see casualties!
Uh oh. The rod did more damage than you thought it would.
Ghulls: Vora, Seeker drones indicate that many enemy soldiers are fleeing!
You: Any sign of Veriso?
Ghulls: His life-sign is gone. He must have died from the impact.
Meanwhile, enemy chatter is bursting with activity.
???: WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR POINT DEFENSE?!
???: I DON’T KNOW! JUST RUN! RUN!
???: THIS WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!
You quickly order your battalions to use Keymaster and appear on the field just outside Pioneer Base. After some initial confusion, the enemy’s soldiers are captured without much resistance, though a few of them went down shooting.
The operation ends with Pioneer Base in ruins, but still phasing in and out, which means the Phasemaker is still working.
Thirty minutes pass. You have a LOT of prisoners now.
Ghulls: After-action report, Vora. No casualties on our side, estimated 300 to 400 loyalist troops dead and 100 wounded. All hovertanks destroyed due to structural collapse. Veriso confirmed dead, his remains are being recovered for autopsy. Cyber-Warfare Specialists from Battalion 4 are combing the ruins for intel. We’re working on recovering the Phasemaker too, along with whatever’s left of their anti-Darangium point-defense system. Speaking of which, our metal rod strike? It was actually off the mark; the enemy’s automated defenses shot at our payload and that made it veer a little bit off-course.
You: So instead of missing Veriso, it just landed right on top of him.
Ghulls: Yeah.
Rainhar: Now that’s a little ironic. Killed by his own system.
It will be another day before you can get a report from R&D about everything your soldiers managed to recover, and there are thousands of prisoners for HQ to process and interrogate.
You prepare to rest, when suddenly a broadcast coming from Region One is intercepted by your Cyberwarfare division over at HQ. Linesman and Kuroda manage to decipher it. It’s an audio speech by Robert North, still pretending to be the president. Feathers and Francoise verify it is safe for organics to hear, and share the transmission:
Feathers: There is something strange about this speech. The voice and intonations are all correct, they match with Robert North, but the tone is different. Calmer, colder, less fiery than what me and Francoise have heard from him in the past. He might be under the influence of an Author acting directly through him, but we cannot confirm.
You: Ghulls, I need eyes on Regions 1 and 2. We need to send Seeker drones and find out what the hell are they doing on the other side of the planet!
Ghulls: Right away!
An hour passes, and after your drones carefully recon what they can without risking getting shot down, HQ compiles all the data and reports in.
HQ: Commander, the enemy has built small but sophisticated factories all across Regions 1 and 2. Region 1 also has basic airports and seaports, with several vehicles we’ve never seen before. Judging from the designs, they’re meant to move extremely fast while carrying heavy armor. Transports with no outside weapons but massive payloads.
Lagantis: They’re planning an assault. A surge on our territory, with updated weapons. Sounds like they’re really committing to an offensive strategy.
HQ: There’s more. Keymaster can’t send anyone into Region 1.
You: What? Why?
HQ: Keymaster says there’s a powerful psychic presence hiding underground and it’s interfering with Keymaster’s ability to create portals. It shuts them down immediately as soon as one opens. We tried sending an animal onto the mainland, but it just bounced back.
Rainhar: There goes that plan I’ve been percolating in my head. The one where we just send explosives right into their labs.
Feathers: This psychic presence could in fact be an Author, using humanoid form. We do not know enough yet.
Lagantis: So HQ, we can’t send anything inland using Keymaster. What about the shoreline?
HQ: About a few meters away from the coasts is not blocked from us, General. We could still send divers, if we wished.
You: What do we know about the new factories?
HQ: They are all protected using some sort of anti-air missile defense system and a laser-based point-defense system. They each have miniature nuclear reactors as a power source, with about 30 soldiers defending armed with laser rifles. No sign of any monsters or vehicles on guard.
You can see a strategic map of Regions 1 and 2, updated with the new airports, seaports and factories.
![[Image: iIV4UzY.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/iIV4UzY.jpg)
You ask your trusted allies for advice.
Lagantis: We should send in Spec Ops to sabotage the airports before any of those planes take off and at the same time move our troops to dig in and defend the coastlines at Regions 3 and 4.
Rainhar: I say we ought to teleport 3 battalions to Region 2, and then move southwards. Capture a factory or two, then use them ourselves. Whatever it is they’re upgrading their troops with, we should get a piece of it.
Feathers: Send in tanks and Grenda to assault the factories in Region 2. Secure the factories with battalions of regular army troops supported by Commander’s Vanguards in case they get ambushed.
Rainhar: Hey, that’s basically my idea.
Feathers: You did not include armored units.
Rainhar: Yeah, yeah, whatever.
Ghulls: Uh, this might not be a popular suggestion but maybe we should wait until tomorrow and build new units to make a proper counter-assault force?
You ponder what to do.
The enemy could be aware of your Portal Wagon, Keymaster, if there is some kind of psychic defense in place. That means there’s a chance these juicy targets could be protected by hidden traps or weapons. Seeker drones didn’t find anything like that, but… maybe you should use a more cautious approach than a direct attack on the ports or factories. Maybe you should send in human spies.
Tomorrow is the start of Week 7, when you’ll receive the resources necessary to manufacture new units. The enemy could be attacking your territory before you have a chance to build, though.
What do you do?
>_
Units available:
(10-23-2017, 01:20 PM)Hypevosa Wrote: »How fast does keymaster consume raw meat? Because veriso is *literally* a giant pile of raw meat, and so he could be portaled through and instantaneously consumed if Keymaster just absorbs the stuff quickly enough (and if keymaster doesn't get full quickly)
Assuming that wouldn't work, I feel like a few giant metal rods from the sky piercing Veriso would be a very grand gesture to go towards bolstering the morale of those who'd want to leave, and go a long way to removing the reservations of those who just don't want to be eaten.
Keymaster expresses disgust. Whatever Veriso is made of, his meat is, according to Keymaster, toxic. Something about antibodies?
You order your soldiers to exfiltrate, and you order a Metal-Rod Strike on the base with the intent to intimidate Veriso.
Gunnery Chief Bukti: Rod on the way, Commander!
The pillar slams right through the base’s defenses and walls, and a massive explosion follows!
Gunnery Chief Bukti: Commander, enemy structure is collapsing! We can see casualties!
Uh oh. The rod did more damage than you thought it would.
Ghulls: Vora, Seeker drones indicate that many enemy soldiers are fleeing!
You: Any sign of Veriso?
Ghulls: His life-sign is gone. He must have died from the impact.
Meanwhile, enemy chatter is bursting with activity.
???: WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR POINT DEFENSE?!
???: I DON’T KNOW! JUST RUN! RUN!
???: THIS WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!
You quickly order your battalions to use Keymaster and appear on the field just outside Pioneer Base. After some initial confusion, the enemy’s soldiers are captured without much resistance, though a few of them went down shooting.
The operation ends with Pioneer Base in ruins, but still phasing in and out, which means the Phasemaker is still working.
Thirty minutes pass. You have a LOT of prisoners now.
Ghulls: After-action report, Vora. No casualties on our side, estimated 300 to 400 loyalist troops dead and 100 wounded. All hovertanks destroyed due to structural collapse. Veriso confirmed dead, his remains are being recovered for autopsy. Cyber-Warfare Specialists from Battalion 4 are combing the ruins for intel. We’re working on recovering the Phasemaker too, along with whatever’s left of their anti-Darangium point-defense system. Speaking of which, our metal rod strike? It was actually off the mark; the enemy’s automated defenses shot at our payload and that made it veer a little bit off-course.
You: So instead of missing Veriso, it just landed right on top of him.
Ghulls: Yeah.
Rainhar: Now that’s a little ironic. Killed by his own system.
It will be another day before you can get a report from R&D about everything your soldiers managed to recover, and there are thousands of prisoners for HQ to process and interrogate.
You prepare to rest, when suddenly a broadcast coming from Region One is intercepted by your Cyberwarfare division over at HQ. Linesman and Kuroda manage to decipher it. It’s an audio speech by Robert North, still pretending to be the president. Feathers and Francoise verify it is safe for organics to hear, and share the transmission:
Quote:Hello, my fellow citizens of Manava, formerly Planet-117. I know some of you ask, what hope do we have of winning this war? Our enemy has been enjoying victory after victory over our forces. Everywhere they strike, they have never been repelled. Everywhere we stand guard, we are beaten.
I have been listening to my advisors. A drastic change is necessary. We need to be more mobile. Standing still and digging in only makes us targets. Forbidding our forces from retreating only costs us our lives. I was a fool to think we could fight them in a conventional war.
So we are changing. The strategy has shifted. I have approved a new strategy, a new doctrine. First, we must modernize our military. We are using weapons centuries old in design. I thought the gifts from the Authors would be enough to compensate, but I can see the flaw in that kind of thinking.
We must press every advantage if we are to win and drive the aliens back into outer space. We will upgrade our equipment using our factories. We will also begin building bases in Region Two and use our stockpile of nukes to power our manufacturing capabilities.
We will also amp the pressure. We will commit to constant, unrelenting strikes on our enemy’s positions. The occupiers will know no rest. We will no longer rely on stationary defenses and we will not wait for perfect results from R&D before we deploy new forces. After all, we have seen how our ‘perfected’ creations and inventions fall in real combat. We will learn by doing.
We will send spies. Infiltrators. Saboteurs. They will never stop coming.
We know of our foe’s capabilities. We know they are listening to this. It does not matter. We already started building factories and re-training our troops. Even now, we have brigades ready to fight a new battle against the occupiers.
Feathers: There is something strange about this speech. The voice and intonations are all correct, they match with Robert North, but the tone is different. Calmer, colder, less fiery than what me and Francoise have heard from him in the past. He might be under the influence of an Author acting directly through him, but we cannot confirm.
You: Ghulls, I need eyes on Regions 1 and 2. We need to send Seeker drones and find out what the hell are they doing on the other side of the planet!
Ghulls: Right away!
An hour passes, and after your drones carefully recon what they can without risking getting shot down, HQ compiles all the data and reports in.
HQ: Commander, the enemy has built small but sophisticated factories all across Regions 1 and 2. Region 1 also has basic airports and seaports, with several vehicles we’ve never seen before. Judging from the designs, they’re meant to move extremely fast while carrying heavy armor. Transports with no outside weapons but massive payloads.
Lagantis: They’re planning an assault. A surge on our territory, with updated weapons. Sounds like they’re really committing to an offensive strategy.
HQ: There’s more. Keymaster can’t send anyone into Region 1.
You: What? Why?
HQ: Keymaster says there’s a powerful psychic presence hiding underground and it’s interfering with Keymaster’s ability to create portals. It shuts them down immediately as soon as one opens. We tried sending an animal onto the mainland, but it just bounced back.
Rainhar: There goes that plan I’ve been percolating in my head. The one where we just send explosives right into their labs.
Feathers: This psychic presence could in fact be an Author, using humanoid form. We do not know enough yet.
Lagantis: So HQ, we can’t send anything inland using Keymaster. What about the shoreline?
HQ: About a few meters away from the coasts is not blocked from us, General. We could still send divers, if we wished.
You: What do we know about the new factories?
HQ: They are all protected using some sort of anti-air missile defense system and a laser-based point-defense system. They each have miniature nuclear reactors as a power source, with about 30 soldiers defending armed with laser rifles. No sign of any monsters or vehicles on guard.
You can see a strategic map of Regions 1 and 2, updated with the new airports, seaports and factories.
You ask your trusted allies for advice.
Lagantis: We should send in Spec Ops to sabotage the airports before any of those planes take off and at the same time move our troops to dig in and defend the coastlines at Regions 3 and 4.
Rainhar: I say we ought to teleport 3 battalions to Region 2, and then move southwards. Capture a factory or two, then use them ourselves. Whatever it is they’re upgrading their troops with, we should get a piece of it.
Feathers: Send in tanks and Grenda to assault the factories in Region 2. Secure the factories with battalions of regular army troops supported by Commander’s Vanguards in case they get ambushed.
Rainhar: Hey, that’s basically my idea.
Feathers: You did not include armored units.
Rainhar: Yeah, yeah, whatever.
Ghulls: Uh, this might not be a popular suggestion but maybe we should wait until tomorrow and build new units to make a proper counter-assault force?
You ponder what to do.
The enemy could be aware of your Portal Wagon, Keymaster, if there is some kind of psychic defense in place. That means there’s a chance these juicy targets could be protected by hidden traps or weapons. Seeker drones didn’t find anything like that, but… maybe you should use a more cautious approach than a direct attack on the ports or factories. Maybe you should send in human spies.
Tomorrow is the start of Week 7, when you’ll receive the resources necessary to manufacture new units. The enemy could be attacking your territory before you have a chance to build, though.
What do you do?
>_
Units available: