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Mayu_Zane · 10-23-2017, 11:14 AM

(10-10-2017, 12:08 PM)Hypevosa Wrote: »That said, maybe we could use Keymaster to teleport most/all of the food rather than destroy it? Or maybe get him a large quantity of meat he can consume?

It's all composed of various cells and likely covered in various micororganisms - if that's considered living enough to teleport.

Keymaster: Frozen food unacceptable. Canned, cooked, no. Raw only.

Rainhar: You’re a picky creature.

Keymaster: Your soldiers can just grab the crates and sacks and bring them with you. That is an option.

Your Spec Ops units lock the food store’s doors and barricade them. They add a little note to suggest that it’s some kind of stupid prank done by one of the grunts. Luckily, nobody’s eating yet.

Captain Selev and the rest get to work transporting all of the food out of the store, and into an empty room at HQ. If nothing else, at least there’ll be more variety on the mess hall’s menu.

Time passes, and your soldiers temporarily phase out. When they phase back in and safe at HQ, they tell you that they’re hearing a lot more noises when the fortress is not in its ‘Normal’ state.

You: What do they sound like?

Cpt. Selev: Creaking, metallic noises. Like a hinge with too little oil.

(10-08-2017, 05:02 PM)gloomyMoron Wrote: »So... our options are currently: Assault the base fast and hard or Take out their supplies and siege.

Frankly, I think either path would be interesting so... I'm fine with either, even if I'm slightly more partial to my own idea. <.<

(10-09-2017, 05:51 PM)Ajnin Wrote: »Adding to the siege idea - Drop some radios in the building and have some AI's do some counter-propaganda once the siege starts. Tell them that surrender is an option and we'll treat them with dignity and understanding. We know the grunts never read the AoD.
We'll need to get rid of the Red Note first so that this would be an effective tactic, though.

You: So it’s pretty clear we need to get rid of that Red Note before we can commence with our plans.

Lagantis: What’s the plan? I’m guessing you’re planning some kind of siege since you went to all the trouble of clearing out their rations.

You: Okay, here’s the short version: We’re going to give them a chance to surrender. Then, if they refuse, we’ll wait for the base to phase out and then we’ll send out ten battalions in a show of force.

Lagantis: You’re not going to take out their anti-Enderfist system first?

You: We COULD do that, but we’ve modified the orbital artillery so they can just fire metal rods down below. Don’t you think it’d be more shocking to them if we drop one of those, and they thought it was an Enderfist strike and we’ve fooled them into believing their point-defense isn’t working?

Lagantis: Hmmm. I like it. However, I’d recommend you send Needlefish and aircraft for support.

You: Oh, definitely.

Rainhar: And if things get VERY hairy, we can send troops right into the base in the middle of an attack. More confusion for them.

WEEK 6 DAY 7
17 20 hours

The Red Note has been taken care of. It was hidden inside a desk drawer, one among dozens in the room, but the problem has been solved. Your troops can now safely use their radios. Unfortunately, the Radio Entity’s absence has been noticed, and the Pioneer Base personnel suspect something has happened. Keymaster manages to evacuate the Spec Ops just before the enemy busted through the door.

You commence with Operation Silent Fall.

Your cyberwarfare specialists transmit on the enemy’s frequencies, and your Spec Ops (with the help of Keymaster) drop a few radios inside the base for good measure. The broadcast message, read by Feathers, is as follows:

“Soldiers of Pioneer Base, this is the Saramis Alliance. Surrender peacefully and you will not be harmed. We have you surrounded. You do not see us, but we see you. Do not attempt to find us, for your efforts will be in vain. Walk out of the base without your weapons, and you will not be fired upon. We have taken all your food, you will not last long.”

As the message repeats, some of the enemy soldiers are frantically looking for your forces. They cannot see or hear anything, but they cannot ignore the possibility that the base really is surrounded. They check the food stores, and it’s empty.

At first, they seem united and ready to sally out of the base, but mutiny sparks amongst the lower ranks. They’re tired of living in Pioneer Base, a place that for forty minutes in an hour, every hour, it vanishes into an abyss where they would die if they exited the building.

Then, Professor Veriso makes an announcement:

“All traitors will be eaten!”

Chaos erupts inside. You send Spec Ops to get a better idea of the situation. They teleport into the first floor, back in the food storage room.

It’s a goddamn battle royale in there. Soldiers are shooting at their officers, while a horrible flesh-beast is crawling on the ground. That must be Veriso.

[Image: tajSUhu.jpg]

With all this disorder, it’s impossible to know for sure who is on which side. It looks like social cliques are killing each other, ironically arguing over whether surrender would save more lives or not. Those against surrender are branding the others as cowards, while the rest just want to go home.

Cpt. Selev: Commander, if we let this continue there’s going to be nothing but corpses here. What’s your call?

You currently have four Needlefish artillery submarines on standby, and ten regular army battalions are preparing to use portals.

- Capture enemy soldiers via portal.

- Kill Veriso with grenades.

- Wait, and deal with whoever is left standing.

- Use this opportunity to blow a hole into Veriso’s room and get intel.

- Drop a metal rod from orbit! (12 of 12 remaining)

- Something else.

>_

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Dis_Aster · 10-23-2017, 12:53 PM

Hrm. Can we make a quick move to destroy the Phasemaker, now that things are goin' all crazy and shit? While we're at it... would blowing a hole into Veriso's room via metal rod destroy everything? What if we tried to just drop one straight on him? Would the aftershock of the impact wreck his room? I'd presume 'Yes', though I'm definitely willing to pile on top of things by dropping a metal rod right in the middle of the battle between those two big groups of soldiers, just to see how they react.

Either way my main idea at the moment is to have some Spec Ops destroy the Phasemaker while the base is still in its 'normal' state, then have the others blow an opening into Veriso's room for intel acquisition purposes. While that goes down, launch a metal rod into the middle of the battle of the cliques. Not for the sake of killing anyone, but more for pure shock and awe factor.

Hypevosa · 10-23-2017, 01:20 PM

@Dis I feel we should avoid destroying phase maker if possible due to the intel and possibility that we might run into one again.

I believe Veriso's removal is key here if we want to establish at least transient order and preserve as much life as possible.

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.

I feel like 5 rods in a crosshair pattern would get the point across assuming it doesn't kill him to be pierced in such a fashion.

Also what are the chances we're dealing with those pheromone bots or the worms on Veriso's side? Those may need to be taken care of too.

gloomyMoron · 10-23-2017, 04:20 PM

If piercing him with near-molten metal rods (atmospheric reentry is fucking hot) doesn't kill him, then it is pretty safe to assume that he's in some form of Dominator form and will be a problem to deal with normally OR he is primarily 'goo' and lacks a structural system. So, we gain intel by attempting it, at least.

Well, he's on the first floor and remember that there these things aren't pinpoint accurate. They're fairly accurate considering they have no propulsion system of their own, but there is some variance due to atmospheric interference. If memory serves, they can be off by, like 10 meters? Maybe it was more, but we've since fixed our targeting computers and what not, which I assume was making them less accurate besides just having that virus or whatever it was. So, we might just bury him in rubble, but that itself is fine, even if only temporary. Even just that could change the tide of the fight for those who wish to flee/surrender.

We should obviously have our friendlies move away before doing this.

smuchmuch · 10-23-2017, 05:46 PM

Darn, today was supposed to be a day to make plans and gather intel, not directly launch the assault even if we decided on it. Because here with all our sonic mechs on retrofit, we basicaly attacked when we could use their mobile cover/mass non lethal weapon perfectly.
(I suppose we do gain time on a golbal strategy level what with North strategy being stalling and all but still we should have waited)

Do we have something else that does mass non lethal, "knock them all down and we will sort our own later"? Sonic swaters (I do beeive they use very different sonic weapon but by tricking out the controls maybe ... ?) What about good old tear/barf gas we can just flood into there after we blow the door open ?

I think Veriso, assuming he is not a ful blown dominator yet (whiwh seems sadly quite possible given both his appearance and attitude) can be dealt with with laser fire. If he is a full blown dominator... uh .. that's more complicated. I think this is the exact situation when we can reasonably call on cheet cheet
My oly problem with the metal rods is that it might crush a few 'rebelious' soldiers int he collateral damage and this would impact negatively the ratio of mutiner. Smae if we shoot at veriso and he gets ut of the rubble quick and undamaged. Also it would destroy some of the hovertanks, which would be a god thing if they were occupied but sinc they dodn't seem to be right now.. they look very capturable to me.

Oh and we should have our spec ops make sure no loyalists get their grubby mits to one of those tanks, while they wouldn't be enough to change the outcome of the battle by themselves, they could still inflicts big casualty, genral damage and would very inconvenient to deal with when we're, say, dealing with Verisio
(Also there's sixity of them, and it's a ttech that we dodn't have without being author tech, the more of them we can not blow up and capture intact, the better for obvious resons)

-------------------------------------------------------------
Oh and unrelated to the base assult but this talk of dominator and cheet cheet remnded me... did we recuperate the 'real' seal of cosmic truth from Choas bed and how fr is the reclaiming of monster bodies for author point has gone ?

Hypevosa · 10-24-2017, 01:50 PM

By Veriso's blob on the map he's about the size of 3 tanks side by side and largely stationary - I'm not expecting surgical accuracy from atmosphere but I feel we should be able to hit *that* big a target? What does Hawkeye think as to relative accuracy? They've been described to us as derenginium *shells* not missiles, so I thought they were explosive but otherwise unpropelled and their accuracy was a factor of the cannons themselves having the proper sensor suites to compensate, so the steel rods shouldn't be too much worse.

Also Veriso doesn't seem to be using any terrifying powers which would have made short work of this rebellion, he's just a meat blob that eats, which makes me not feel he's a Dominator form though I am still worried he'd survive. Maybe there's some intel in his lab that could be used to discover what he is and what weaknesses he has?

I'm worried if molten steel rods don't at least pin him due to searing all flesh to themselves, though I wouldn't be too surprised if he survived some how.

~~cmdrcade~~ · 11-02-2017, 02:01 AM

Hmm... Can our spec-ops troopers drive vehicles? If so, why not have them commandeer the hover tanks on the upper level and wreak havoc among the infantry? With a few tanks shooting at them, we might manage to convince the stubborn troops to surrender, and then we can deal with the good doctor in case the orbital strike fails.

At the very least, we should probably keep the base personal away from the tanks if at all possible.

Hypevosa · 11-29-2017, 02:04 PM

@mayu_zane You alive mate?

Mayu_Zane · 11-30-2017, 10:40 PM

(11-29-2017, 02:04 PM)Hypevosa Wrote: »@mayu_zane You alive mate?

(11-17-2017, 12:41 PM)Mayu_Zane Wrote: »Life update: Mom is in intensive care due to a lung infection. I caught it too. I am resting. Mind feels like it’s oozing out of my nose. I need to go sleep now.

I guess I should have mentioned it in my threads. Sorry folks but whatever this is, it's not the common cold and is really aggressive.

Hypevosa · 12-05-2017, 09:08 PM

:( Best of luck, Mayu.

Mayu_Zane · 12-13-2017, 09:22 AM

Thank you very much Hypevosa, I’m better now.

(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.

[Image: 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?

>_

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gloomyMoron · 12-13-2017, 12:15 PM

Quote:We will also begin building bases in Region Two and use our stockpile of nukes to power our manufacturing capabilities.

This just raises so many questions. Nuclear Weapon grade Plutonium is not suitable for use in reactors. In fact, weapons grade plutonium and uranium usually have to be bred from certain types already running reactors. Fusion bombs are even less suited to power generation because they use two isotopes of Hydrogen that, well, fuse. So... I'm assuming that means they're either turning on old reactors (dangerous), using Author tech to "reverse breed" usable fissile material from weapons, or are operating with seriously sub-par reactors that probably aren't incredibly stable (or safe). Also... I don't remember if fusion power was a thing in this universe or not (and even if it is you most likely wouldn't use deuterium and tritium from hydrogen/fusion weapons), which is why I'm not really addressing fusion weapons (I think those nukes are/were fission weapons anyway, if memory serves). Anyway... setting that aside.

I feel... this feels like bait for some trap... but at the same time... we can't afford to ignore it. If they possessed the ability to do this in the first place, why wait until now? It smells fishy as fuck. Also, for supposedly going "asymmetric", they seem to be preparing a pretty straight forward plan there. Armored landing craft and using numbers to blitz an enemy position? I fail to see what is "unconventional" about that. Something else is going on here... and if we can't figure out what before committing our forces, I feel like it could backfire on us. Though, maybe I'm just being paranoid. Again. Like usual. Still... we need to act. I'll need a few days to think on this... or at least not thinking on it just before I was gonna go to bed. I'll come back to this later and see what others think and get my own ducks in a row.

SpoilerShow

Mayu_Zane · 12-13-2017, 12:34 PM

(12-13-2017, 12:15 PM)gloomyMoron Wrote: »Glad to see you're doing okay, Mayu. Didn't want to spam the thread(s) with get well wishes... so... I waited and just hoped for the best.

Hey, thanks for your concern!

SpoilerShow

smuchmuch · 12-13-2017, 04:22 PM

Quote:This just raises so many questions. Nuclear Weapon grade Plutonium is not suitable for use in reactors.

According to the World Nuclear Association site, it's supposedly possible ot use weapon grade uranium and plutonium back into energy generation in Mixed Oxide fuels. It does seem to require some pretty special infrastructure (and I don't quite trust the source to be objective on how efficient the process would be)

Still given the sci fi setting in the future, I could see it being possible. Not to mention it's not like North's administration is all that concerned about safety or polution.

But more likely

Quote:using Author tech to "reverse breed" usable fissile material from weapons

They may not even need that. The cloning chamber in chaos bed could convert any kind of non kinetic energy into organic matter. If the authors are taking a more hands on approach to the conflict (and the whole Courage/Intuder would tend to show it's increasingly the case) t's very much possible this 'tech' could be generalised.

we do know they wanted to take some of vault ghasty missiles so I think fair to assume they have a use for nuclear combustible at the very least

Quote:If they possessed the ability to do this in the first place, why wait until now? It smells fishy as fuck.

It's possible they didn't have the tech for it just yet, or that the authors weren't ready to intervene directly yet. (they're authors, not strategist. and in their 'book' they probably want to create some tension before the denouement, after all)
I mean 'why didn't they use their materials and attack when we were more vulnerable' is honnestly a question that can apply to a lot of their previous 'strategies'.

That said, ...agreed. This smell like bait

I mean even if this was a propaganda message meant for pubic broadcast which would explain why they would't securize it much or use their budging psychic broadcast network, why would they actualy broadcast their plans in so much details ?

It's possible this is just part of the same old bluff of delaying us far from region 1, just a more agressive variation of it. By forcing us to concentrate and attack on region 2 with little preparation, they intend to cause tons of damage (maybe using the aformentioned fissile material to leave dirty bombs traps for example, or pump tons of monsters with cloning chambers) too our troops while something happen in Region 1.
Or come from region 1. Like say for example a massive raid on region 5 or 4

I would agree with Ghuls here. Wait the next day and produce more troops and author forge tech.
At least wait for better intel. We could also send some drones in high altitude to seach for specific pattern. Energy spikes, if we have the tech to look for that, troop moements, that kind of thing ? And maybe drop that SID prototype to get an idea of what is waiting in those factories.
Human spies would be nice but sadly we ddon't have the time to give them a decent cover or nfo to operate in region 2.

And if a threat seems to be real...Rheynar plan is a good one in the cover of night, even if I doubt things will be that simple. But I'd add: launch a distraction assault on the ports at the same time with armed drones and Needlefish artillery.

At the very least we need to produce two or three vigilance sphere (with all the corpses processed for chaos bed we should have enough), and send them (in disguise if possible) with any squad we send there.

Mayu_Zane · 12-21-2017, 10:16 PM

Hi everyone! While I'm working on the next update, you can speculate, discuss, chat and scream over here: https://eagle-time.org/showthread.php?tid=2753

~~LoverIan~~ · 12-24-2017, 05:32 AM

Hrm, is there a way we can teleport a spec-ops team into a less visible area, have them scout out factories for what they can?
A scouting of each factory, in essence.
Furthermore, it's not going to be possible for spec-ops to just steal a core safely and extract, is it?

I entirely agree that this feels like a trap.
We should probably strengthen defenses at home, and one way we could do that is trying to create a civil program. Those who are willing to take the risk can sign up as volunteers for helping stabilize regions 3 4 and 5. Mostly 5 needs the help, honestly. If we can have the most qualified battalion training them when they are not deployed/off-duty, they'll be able to operate as a civilian urban reclaim sort of division.
>Hawkeyes: How open is your schedule for this program? I think you'd be the most qualified at teaching this sort of group when you are free for it.
>Furthermore, can we send out about four seekers and the airblob to cautiously comb and probe region 5? We should probably be keeping up with the civilians still living there, and organizing supply transfers to those willing to work with us in event the CUR concept goes through.

Anyhow if this is a trap we should get a good understanding of it.
>I count 2 airports, and 5 seaports. From our scans how fast would the crafts get to a Region 2 Deployment? What about by sea?
>What strategic strengths and weaknesses are there from what we know already, for choosing a specific region 2 location to start deployment?

gloomyMoron · 12-24-2017, 06:29 AM

We already have a Militia program, as it were. At least, in Region 3. We've yet to assume full control of Region 4, though we do possess enough of it to probably start setting up an interim-government. Region 5... needs more help than military help, so actual civil services programs might help, but we have no control of that area really. We control, maybe, the border region of Region 5.

As for training... we don't need to train people traditionally. We download the information into their head... but that only helps so much until their body develops the muscle memory for things, which the process helps along (if I recall correctly) but yeah. Maybe we can ask Hawkeye if she'd share her knowledge about such things in a memory download to start distributing to the troops, assuming that isn't prying too much.

On the whole... I think I'm fine with other peoples read of what we should do. Which seems to be... Call their bluff? Put up defenses (without pulling forces from other reasons... except maybe Sonic Swatters for air defense) and wait, scout, and prepare for an actual counter-assault. That sounds fine by me.

~~LoverIan~~ · 12-24-2017, 07:17 AM

(12-24-2017, 06:29 AM)gloomyMoron Wrote: »As for training... we don't need to train people traditionally. We download the information into their head... but that only helps so much until their body develops the muscle memory for things, which the process helps along (if I recall correctly) but yeah. Maybe we can ask Hawkeye if she'd share her knowledge about such things in a memory download to start distributing to the troops, assuming that isn't prying too much.

On the whole... I think I'm fine with other peoples read of what we should do. Which seems to be... Call their bluff? Put up defenses (without pulling forces from other reasons... except maybe Sonic Swatters for air defense) and wait, scout, and prepare for an actual counter-assault. That sounds fine by me.

Oh right I forgot about the braintraining in this setting.
But yeah the idea is to recruit people who are out of work into a program that works with handling hazardous materials, recon, and generally helping us clean up regions 4 and 5, but mostly 5....
But if Hawkeyes is willing, she could definitely help us with distributing any information she is willing that would help our troops with the process of capturing the factories.

Mayu_Zane · 01-01-2018, 09:37 AM

SpoilerShow

You: Battalions 1 and 2, I need you to dig in at Region 3’s shoreline. Battalions 3 and 4, you are to defend Region 4 in the event of enemy invasion. I need you all to dig in and if you see any enemies, summon reinforcements. Do not hesitate to call for fire support.

Your troops obey, and begin preparations.

You: Hawkeyes, it looks like we’re going to be getting a lot of ‘guests’ soon. Maybe you’re not willing to give up all your secrets, but can you share with us any information that we can put into our troop training machines?

Hawkeyes: Huh? Oh, the brain-uploaders? Okay, I’ll contribute, but I’ll write the curriculum myself.

You: What’s going to be in it?

Hawkeyes: Trap detection skills, chemical warfare survival, and how to modify weapons to make them… explodey.

You stay in the bridge wait for a move from the enemy, until you finally turn in for the night.

WEEK 7 DAY 1

06 00 hours

You are woken up by the blaring alarm echoing throughout the ship.

Ghulls: ATTENTION! ENEMY TRANSPORT PLANES HEADING TOWARDS OUR TERRITORY! ATTENTION!

Oh no.

You and your husband rush to the bridge. Rainhar is nowhere to be seen.

You: Ghulls, status report! And where the hell is Rainhar?!

Ghulls: Vora, we got dozens of transport aircraft moving towards Regions 3 and 4, one fleet coming from the east and another from the west at the same time! As for Rainhar, I don’t know! I haven’t been able to contact him since I woke up!

Rainhar is gone? How? Why? At a time like this?! You focus on the situation.

You: Attention all air units! Enemy forces are on the way in huge numbers! Jester fighters, form teams of two. One team goes west, the other east. Each team gets a Reaver for support, while the remaining one patrols our territory! Do not let those transport planes reach us!

Your pilots waste no time getting airborne, and fly out to meet the enemy. Cyclops, Talon and Bolt move westwards, while Moonbeam, Raindust and Blender go east. Lovebird patrols your territory’s airspace.

Moonbeam: Commander, this is Moonbeam. We’re seeing a lot of targets, ma’am.

[Image: RoC643J.jpg]

An entire fleet of transports. HQ reports there are sixty units in each fleet. How the hell did they manage to make this many without you noticing?

Lagantis: Vora, I recommend you order all cities under our protection to start mobilizing the City Guards and get all civilians indoors.

You: Right. HQ, the enemy is coming for our territory in vast numbers. Order all City Guards and police forces to start setting up defenses and get all civilians indoors until we announce an all-clear. Anything in the sky that’s not ours, shoot it down.

HQ: Understood, Commander. You’ll be happy to know that Al-Barri Private Police Services have contacted us last night and are already setting up roadblocks in multiple cities. Their SWAT units and Civil Protection units will be helping our militia organize defenses.

You: Very good, HQ. Let’s pray we don’t see a bloodbath today.

HQ: By the way, Commander, your sons are already aware of the situation. We offered them a shuttle to the Enderfist, but they wish to stay and fight if necessary. They are standing guard at HQ.

You: As they should, HQ. They’re soldiers, not princes.

Lagantis: Vora. I’m going down there.

You: Lagan?

Lagantis: Our boys may be soldiers, but they’re still rookies. I’m going to make sure they don’t do anything stupid. You don’t need me up here, and I can do a lot of good on the frontlines. You’ve seen me in action.

You: …All right. Stay safe, muffin.

As General Lagan solemnly leaves the bridge, you’re getting reports from your pilots.

Raindust: Commander, these transport ships are heavily armored! We’ve only managed to take out five and we already need to re-arm!

Talon: Commander, we’re not doing so well on the western side either! We were able to shoot down four but we’re out of ammo!

The transport planes are so tough they need at least three missiles to take one down, and even then some of them actually miss due to the transport craft’s incredible ability to dodge. HQ tells you that all of them are piloted by computers, and the scans of their cargo indicate they’re carrying organic creatures, but it’s difficult to be certain what they are. They’re not equipped with shields, but their armor is beyond anything you’ve seen the enemy use before.

Feathers: These transports are an unpleasant surprise, but I believe this is definitely the work of ‘That Bitch’, the cyborg we’ve been warned about by Linesman. Her programming skills and ability to optimize a machine’s design is exceptional.

Ghulls: Vora, we got about ten minutes before the enemy arrives on our territory! We can manufacture vehicles and robots right now, but we’re not going to get infantry for at least 60 minutes; the FTL transports need that time to get here.

You: Understood.

You can start building units right now, or you can wait until the enemy makes landfall so you’re certain you know what you’re up against… though by that time there may already be casualties.

Where the HELL is Rainhar, though? Did he vanish? You cannot spare time looking for him right now.

Ghulls: Vora, I’ve made a quick summary of the situation.

SITUATION REPORT:

- Cyclops, Talon and Bolt are assigned to halt approaches from the west.
- Moonbeam, Raindust and Blender are designated to defend the east.
- Lovebird the Reaver Gunship is patrolling near HQ.
- There are 56 enemy transports coming from the west, and 55 coming from the east.
- Battalions 1 and 2 are defending Region 3.
- Battalions 3 and 4 are defending Region 4.
- Harix and Malco, your sons, are on call and at their posts at HQ. General Lagantis is on the field to support them if necessary.
- Rainhar Kasar is missing.
- Al-Barri Private Police are assisting City Guards in fortifying the cities and keeping civilians indoors.
- All other units, including your PMCs, are on standby. Keymaster the Portal Wagon will transport them ASAP.
- Brainbeast Radiation Reverser completed! Every infantry unit is fitted with a portable device that will stun Brainbeasts.

WEEK 7 RESOURCE POINTS

Region 3 Raw Minerals Export = 80,000 RP per week
Efficiency Bonus (Civ. Admin.) = 21,000 RP
Infrastructure Bonus = 20,000 RP
Stable Region Bonus = 10,000 RP
Efficient Waterworks = 30,000 RP
Donations from Locals = 2,000 RP
Lagan’s Investments = 100,000 RP
Personal Investments = 10,800 RP
Earth Federation Support = 30,000 RP
Koda Serivi’s Investments = 32,000 RP
Remainder from Last Week = 29,070 RP

Payment for Hawkeyes = -1,000 RP
Payment for City Guards = -200 RP

Total = 363,670 RP

=======
INFANTRY REQUISITION LIST

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OMNI-FACTORY PRODUCTION LIST
(10% discount on all vehicles and buildings due to Improved Generators)

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AERIAL UNITS

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NAVAL UNITS

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RESEARCH PROJECTS YOU CAN BEGIN:

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AUTHOR’S SIGNATURES IN STOCKPILE:
400
(gained from collecting monster carcasses, 500 left to extract in the field)

AUTHOR’S FORGE - UNITS AVAILABLE FOR MANUFACTURING

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>_

Units available:

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gloomyMoron · 01-01-2018, 01:47 PM

This is what this situation feels like: Hell March 2 from Red Alert 2... Only... we're less prepared than America.

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Well... I feel like Sonic units and transport vehicles are going to be essential now. Also, anything that can provide logistics.

My suggested expenditures are:

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10 Battalions
100 APCs (Enough to move a full battalion of troops)
20 Sonic Swatters (I know they're AA, but with some tweaking, we could probably aim them at ground targets)
50 Sonic Mechs (Good infantry substitutes... Ideally, we want at least one... preferably at least 10 for every active battalion, eventually.)
5 Drone Clusters
5 Savior Drones
10 Seeker Drones
5 Skyshadow

5 Cloner Blobs
5 Void Sphere
5 Overmind Armor
1 Usurper Colony
5 Usurper Knights
10 Phantomic Repeaters
1 Sentinel Orb

Dis_Aster · 01-01-2018, 03:38 PM

Okay, wait. I thought we already started every research project in the 'Projects you can begin' section (with the exception of the Laser Urchin) at the start of Week 6. Was there some sort of clerical error or something? I just want to get that cleared up before anyone else starts throwing stuff out there. Best to make sure we have all our options open.

Mind you, even from a preliminary glance, I want to get a pair of BOTA-5s, but I'd rather wait on confirmation before I start throwing unit suggestions around

Dragon Fogel · 01-01-2018, 08:49 PM

I don't think we can just ignore Rainhar's disappearance. What if an assassin was sent for him or something? Or this was a test of some seriously dangerous enemy tech?

We should figure out who we can spare to investigate. Now. If this is a threat, we don't want it striking again at an even worse moment for us.

smuchmuch · 01-01-2018, 09:19 PM

Well look they're fnaly getting serious. I don't think we'll be avoiding casualty this time but we can do our best to fortify.

Allright we have a good RP and AS pool to draw from for building mechanical forces, that'll help, a lot.
Waiting for the troop to desembark is a bad idea, we need to thin the numbers best we can before landing. And we have more than enough of both pools of resouce we an start producing now and have enough to build more later if we're start about it.

That said gloomy, if I may, while I agree with some of your list, I don't agree with it fully. i* feel you'd have have us spent to much just right now

The way I see it

1)First thing first: More mobility. It's alway good. We don't now where thay intend to land their transport but we need to be ready to have fast deployement whereever it may be.

We need another two Portal wagon and let's say about two new skyshadows and ten more Sahela-9 Rapid Combat Vehicle . That'll let us deploy bataillons fairly quickly around the board.

(+1 portal wagon
400-40 AS 360 AS left
+2 skyshadows, + 10 Sahela-9 Rapid Combat Vehicle
363 670 -(2*4500)-(20*450)= 350 170 RP left)

Second is thining as many transports as we can.
This kind of aerial attack is exactly what our sonic swatters should be made for, they're dedicated AA units and I don't think even the faster more dodgy planne ever should be able to dodge a well placed sonic blast. Even if it doesn't penetrate the thck armor, at least it can destabilized them enough for our jester crafts' and Reavers gunship missiles to hit.

We have ten swatters, let's build ten more. We won''t be able to deploy those away fast (maybe skyshadows can help here, I think they can transport vehicles with special hooks, same way they could trnasprt those servers from region 1), sadly but that mean we can afford to risk those we already have it the field knowing we have reserves.

For that matter, lasers should be undogeable bar some author tech shenanigans and armored tra sport sounds just like the kind of thing anti air heavy thermobaric missiles were ùade for so let's add four Blood princes to our anti air forces.
We'll scramble them as soon they're are made.

+4 blood prince, +10 sonic swatters
(354 670-(10*1800)-(4*10800)= 288 970)

We need to be able to destroy any big clumps of enemy troops as soon as they land or are parachuted. So well need to increase our precision bombing runs faculties. Some atillery wouldn't hurt.
4 more Reaver gunships.
10 more hunter drones
Hire 2 BOTA-4 - gunships PMC
Artllery would help. We already have some Solaria artilliry PMc hired, we needd to deploy them to help our bataillons but just to be sure et's build one black hole artillery from the author forge. And 2 void spheres
+4 Reaver gunships, +5 regular hunter drones, +5 lasers hunter dornes
288 970-(4*7200)-(5*2700)-(5*3800)=227670

+2 BOTA-4 PMCS hired
227670-(2*5000)=217670 RP

+1 black hole artillery +2 Void spheres
360-12-60 = 288

Finally we don't know what are on these transports but the risk of Psychic enemies is alway too real and the more dnagerous as we have no hard counter agains tthem. A true invasion of brainbeast could do a number of our trops and civilian populations alike
So I suggest. We build 4 overmind armor, 4 phantom repeaters and 2 safety sphere and give them to one of our three commandar vanguard briguades.
They are to stay at HQ but be ready to move back and forth through portal wagon to any spot where they might be needed to kill psychic enemies

288-(*4*4)-(4*15)-40-20= 152 AS

Finaly independently of the current situation we need to invest:

-in a few more (let say 5) seekers, hey are just too usefull,
-a few more sonich mechs, (10 should do) their versatility make them usefull,
-ten more batiallons (even if they dodn't arrive int ime for this battle, it's still good to have reinforcements inbound)
-and that bionic upgrade research given how much we rely on sonic mechs

217670-10000-(5*900)-6000-20000=177 170

With the author Forge
-A truth extractor
-Another vigilance sphere
152-5-20 = 127

That leave us with a of total with to spend later (weither it'd be in 10 inutes when we have better idea of what we're facing or after the battle.) of:

TL, Dr. version

We buy
10 sonic swatters
10 Sahela-9 Rapid Combat Vehicle
4 blood prince fighters crafts
5 hunter drones
5 laser hunter drones
4 reaver gunships
10 sonic mechs
10 regular bataillons

and with the author forge:
1 Portal wagon
2 Void spheres
1 black hole artillery
3 vigilance sphere
4 phantomatic repeater
4 Overmind armor
A truth extractor
2 Usurper Knight

We hire:
2 BOTA gunships

We research:
Advanced bionic warfare

We have
177 170 RP
and 127 AS
left

Which is more than enough for tactical flexibility and buy extra things later(or even jsut in ten minutes) if needed, like lots more gunships, volcano tanks or usurper knights galore if there are a lot of pyschics.

We scramble the void spheres, BOTa 4 gunships and Bloodprince on the two fronts (two bllodprince, one BOTa, one void sphere per dirrection) and have them destroy as many transport ships as they can alongside our jesters.

We deploy our sonic swaters in clumps to down more transports before they can reach any startegic destination.

We keep our 4 reaver gunship, new hunter drones and one black hole artillery on standby to take out group of enemy troops as soon as they get out of the transports that remain.
Atthispoint we recall our void spheres and the BOTAs and Reavers to help

With our two portal wagons we can teleport our bataillons around to mop up things on ground and defens cities.
We should already have at least one bataillong deployed near any big urvban center or big startegic target.

We have a commander vanguard equiped with 4 phantomatic repeaters and ovrmind armors and acompanied by 2 usuper knights whose role are to deal with psychic commander and brainbeasts.

Because we rely so much on sonic mechs for patrols we really need that bionic upgrade reasearch so might as well spend on it now.
Ten moe bataillons of troops will be inbound as reinforcement.

Quote:Okay, wait. I thought we already started every research project in the 'Projects you can begin' section (with the exception of the Laser Urchin) at the start of Week 6. Was there some sort of clerical error or something? I just want to get that cleared up before anyone else starts throwing stuff out there. Best to make sure we have all our options open.

Or simply, between our ew unit in action, some of the thing we disovered and possiblysome of the data from the region 1 servers we decoded, our R&D people just has new ideas to add to thelist since the last time we had a chance to spend RP.

Quote:I don't think we can just ignore Rainhar's disappearance. What if an assassin was sent for him or something? Or this was a test of some seriously dangerous enemy tech?

We should figure out who we can spare to investigate. Now. If this is a threat, we don't want it striking again at an even worse moment for us.

I have a sneaking suspicion Rheynar was disapointed with our decision not to proactively act and has his own plan set in motion he decided to enact on how own. Let'snot forget that for as mart and harming ans so far pretty agreable he's been, he's still a cocky egotistic asshole sometime. (weither it'll turn out to be a good or bad thing for us.... we'll see)

That said, you have a point, I'm sure we can scramble some of our human spies on the case, its not like they're very usefull aganst an outright invasion. Jsut to make sure they'll have one stealth team if it turns out something need shooting and Kudora can be called as teach support if necessary.

gloomyMoron · 01-02-2018, 10:30 AM

If you think I'm spending too much... maybe I am, but I'm taking this threat seriously. Sonic troops and reliable, mechanical mobility are how we need to fight most of the things Region 1 can drop on us. I... do not actually trust Portal Wagons and most of the "organic" Author tech... the stuff that is more 'mechanical'... is less likely to fuck us. The Portal Wagons though? I'm not keen on having more than the 1 we already have at the moment.

For awhile now, we've been lacking in a good Anti-air option... so spending on Swatters that we can spread out (we have a lot more territory to hold) is a thing I'd advocate, even if we weren't already facing an aerial threat. I also think that Swatters can be rather easily converted into a siege/anti-mob weapon. Add to them, a contingent of sonic mechs to act as anti-infantry cavalry/skirmishers and we've a pretty potent combination.

I'm also not really willing to budge, at the moment, on the 100 SASAPCs. That's enough APCs to move a battalion, on top of the eight we already have that have basically served as VIP injection and extraction units, that should be able to increase our mobility multi-fold without relying solely on "Keymaster". Add in the 5 Skyshadow transports, which increases our air force's utility substantially, and we start to become really mobile and able to deal with threats on multiple fronts quickly.

Those are the things I'm not really willing, at this time, to give up. Though, I too wanted to add some BOTA-4 Mercs. So I'm flexible there.

Also, I think Void Spheres will be invaluable in dealing with Author/Region 1 beasties because they create a black hole that'll suck them up. There will probably be collateral damage from using them, but less than if we let the beasts run wild... so as far as Author Signatures go, I'd greatly prefer to get 5 Void Spheres. A sentinel orb is useful and could accompany a Spec Ops, Spy, or one of our agents. Phantomic Repeaters are obviously useful... 1 per Spec Ops and then 1 for Vora, Rainhar, and Lagaan means I'd want at least 10... preferably more. Honestly... I'm not opposed to, and seriously considered, spending all 400 of our AS on 200 PRs. They counter pretty much everything that Region 1 could send at us. Also, I prioritized Usurper Knights because... anti-psychic and they're a shock troop we can throw at the front lines to increase our pushing power.

As far as Rainhar goes... we should contact his command ship and his adjutants, assuming it is still there. Rainhar is important, but we need to focus on the immediate threat at hand. We can focus on looking for him when those incoming birds are knocked down or, worst case, have deployed their payload and we're dealing with an infestation. It is concerning that he is gone, but it isn't a thing we should be focusing on. We should delegate, and send a message out to Linesman to 'hunt' for Rainhar for us. He'll be able to scour the planet's security cameras and planetary sensors for him while we're focusing on keeping out people safe.

Mayu_Zane · 01-02-2018, 10:31 AM

(01-01-2018, 03:38 PM)Dis_Aster Wrote: »Okay, wait. I thought we already started every research project in the 'Projects you can begin' section (with the exception of the Laser Urchin) at the start of Week 6. Was there some sort of clerical error or something? I just want to get that cleared up before anyone else starts throwing stuff out there. Best to make sure we have all our options open.

Excellent memory, just read through my text files. I will update my post accordingly in a bit. Thanks!