Artisanlord's new cinematic endeavor, Koprulucraft, is a metafictional success!

>>14973676
Okay, work with Warbrate to put together an attack plan.

Now that our nuclear stockpile is readied, we'll use the nukes to blow several safe attack vectors clean of detector satellites. VoidGate will undoubtedly try to nuke them all, so we'll blow the holes, do a few Warp insertions with expendable troops, and wait for VoidGate's nuclear counterattack to die down.

Now, were we able to get attack vectors of VoidGate's planetary defense super plasma cannons, and calculate safe flight corridors?

>>14973891
Aside from knowing that at least one of the things has been completed, we have no information on them.

Warbrate suggests sending nuclear missiles in to clear corridors of satellites, and then using the corridors to bring in cloaked troops to attack the planet directly.

Gorn suggests flooding the system with scourge, who will disable satellites as our overlords move inward and reveal them, then using Nuke World to scour the entire surface. It suggests following that with a ground invasion. You know, just in case.

>>14973891
We'll need to assume that any safe zones we create with our initial nuclear volley will be targeted by VoidGate for a nuclear counterattack.
The same goes for any flight paths that avoid being targeted by those planetary defense plasma cannons.

Is there any way to generate false warp signatures, or to build lots of cheap warp drives with cloaks, so that it looks like a large swarm has warped in right behind our first nuclear strike, and can be used as a decoy?

>>14973972
Would it delay us much if we were to build up a large number of overlords who we would warp into the system all at once to find out where the detector satellites are located?

Combining Gorn's and Warbrate's plans, we would have a synchronized attack plan. We would use nukes to clear several safe attack corridors with a simultaneous warping in of these expendable, non-cloaked Overlords to find the locations of all of the detectors. Mere moments afterwards, our Scourge would warp in to destroy the detector network and our cloaked forces will then arrive.

>>14974055
Both Gorn and Warbrate are confused as to why we would use both nukes and scourge, instead of one or the other. They argue a little over which is the better idea.

>>14974082
I can't remember, did you say that we could use Scourge against ground targets and structures, or are they still a strictly anti-air unit?

>>14974118
Anti-air only.

>>14974082
I wanted to mount a coordinated strike using the Scourge and expendable Overlords to wipe out the detector network while the nukes stomped a safe path to the planet and could begin orbital bombardment. I'm hoping that pure mass and a powerful first strike will weaken VoidGate's ability to counterattack.

Hey Cerebrate, besides the Terminators and VG's space battleships and cruisers, have we seen any VG fighter craft, the equivalent of Wraiths and Mutalisks? I'm wondering if that's a tactical niche we can exploit.

Also, what intel do we have on VoidGate space defense assets, besides the supposed 3 super plasma cannons, the detector network, and lots of conventional surface-to-orbit missiles?

>>14974181
Actually, we've seen no spacecraft at all. The satellite network and the missiles are the only things we've seen come out of the atmosphere.

>>14974193
That's kind of worrying...I wonder if VoidGate might have taken a page from our book and cloaked it's entire space fleet.
Bring this possibility up with Gorn and Warbrate, and propose a new plan:
We initially go with Gorn's plan; we warp in expendable Overlords and Scourge to destroy the VoidGate detector network.
VoidGate will undoubtedly respond by firing missiles and, hopefully, firing its super plasma cannons.
That will be Warbrate's cue to jam 30 nukes each down the barrels of those plasma defense batteries once he has a firing solution.
Once those defense batteries have been silenced, we nuke the planet surface, and then warp the rest of our forces into orbit. We will then engage in landing operations and finish off with a ground invasion. VoidGate has undoubtedly built a labyrinthine underground complex. We need to capture its weapons technology, and pinpoint important sub-systems for orbital bombardment.

>>14974257
Warbrate reminds us that we've been watching the planet with overlords since before the satellite network was up and running. If there were any ships cloaked here, we would have seen them.

Alright. We've got one vote for starting off with scourge. Is this our plan?

>>14974295

One more for scourge, let's get this show on the road.

Nothing? No opinions?

>>14974295

Sounds like a good idea. Let's go with it.


Also, how large are cloak generators? Would it be possible to create a specific strain of zerg that's essentially a set of wings and a brain for a cloak generator and its power supply?

>>14974426
(Like a scourge with a cloaking device?)
>>14974420
(Yay! Votes!)

Overlords and scourge spill into the system by the thousands. The scourge, under Gorn's control, shave away satellites wave by wave. Missiles wind up, destroying scourge as they move, but they barely make a dent. As Gorn's scourge reach a hemisphere of cleared airspace, it announces that it probably won't have enough scourge to completely remove the rest of the satellites.

We're a little shocked at how Gorn went about this. Warbrate thinks it's a terrible waste. Either way, almost exactly 50% of the planet is completely exposed.

What shall we strike with, next?

>>14974517
Hmm....the plasma cannons didn't fire?
Ominous.

Anyway, send in cloaked overlords to get into orbit and begin scanning the planet for targets.
Have Warbrate use nukes to create a sanitized landing zone, and begin warping in our forces. Keep the big guns back, though. I want to see if we can get VoidGate to launch it's own nukes now, or fire it's plasma cannons, at less valuable targets, like just mutalisk squadrons.

>>14974517
>>14974426

Yeah, kind of like a scourge-observer. If successful, we could potentially cut the cost of producing dropbservers since we can presumably create organic matter at a lesser price than smelting/molding metal. Maybe not the most drastic redesign, but Accountantbrate might grumble a bit less about it.

>VoidGate planet thing

Send an exploratory force of some expendable overlords and several mutalisks. Have them spot for potential areas that could be nuked.

Then send in the nukes.

>>14974558
>>14974588
Nuke it: 1
Expendible diversions: 1

You want me to make the decision?

>>14974604
Let's send in a diversionary force.
No sense wasting nukes when we can get our targets to paint themselves for us.

>>14974709
Two votes is enough, I suppose.

Squads of mutalisks enter the system, and are met with small-scale nuclear blasts. Kilotons, not the mega- or gigaton blasts we're used to from VoidGate. Still, it is enough to slaughter most of them. After three or four waves, we detect three VoidGate ships breaking out of the atmosphere and cloaking.

We move overlords nearby, but as soon as they get within visual range, short photon blasts from the ships kill them. Warbrate is confused, as VoidGate has never used numbers this small, nor have any of its ships ever used photon cannons.

>>14974784

VoidGate has been doing its homework on Protoss technology, or we've encountered something that has a vested interest in seeing VoidGate survive and shows up as VoidGate ships.

In either case, let's light up the planet. Send in waves of scourge first to try to disable possible ships. Also send in some more overlords to detect.

>>14974824
Gorn is currently directing our scourge to destroy the rest of the detector satellites, though it will probably run out of scourge before it runs out of targets.

Do we want to divert them to find these ships?

>>14974784
>>14974824
Second the motion to attempt capture or salvage of these new VoidGate model ships.

Also, I believe now would be a good time to begin nuking the planet.

>>14974885

On second thought, just launch our nukes.

Send more expendable aerospace units to keep the ships busy/disable them. We may need to get a ground force down on the planet if our scourge cannot fully disable all of the detector satellites.

>>14974885
Let's send in a combined force of mutalisks and overlords to attempt to disable these new VoidGate ships for capture. Have Gorn keep at tearing away the detector network.

And yes, launch nukes to clear away a landing zone, and send in our forces for a surface attack.

>>14974893
>>14974824
Our first missiles enter the system, leaving their exhaust trails as they bear down toward the planet. However, before they can reach their targets, more of VoidGate's low-yield missiles fly up and detonate nearby our missiles, disabling them. It seems that VoidGate is using the small missiles as a point-defense system.

Gorn diverts scourge to our search for the cloaked ships. After destroying one with little resistance, we notice something troubling: more cloaked satellites. VoidGate's conventional missiles return to their pattern of shooting down our overlords whenever they come within range of a satellite.

>>14974995

How densely packed are those satellites? Could an angled Yamato cannon blast destroy/disable a significant amount of them at a long enough range? It might be a bit more efficient than sending waves upon waves of scourge to crash into them.

>>14975070
They are closer together than the previous generation was. It's possible that a battlecruiser could take them all out with a few shots, were an overlord to be close enough to help with targeting.

>>14974995

Also, would it be possible to send mutalisk escorts for our nukes to shoot down those smaller missiles? Maybe even a few experimental corsairs/valkyries to act as anti-point defense units for our nukes? The Corsair pulse blasts and/or the Valkyrie curtain of missiles might do the trick.

>>14975094

We have lots of scourge, don't we? Gorn's going to crash them into the satellites anyhow. Perhaps we can triangulate the area that the satellites are in by having Gorn direct the scourge in a certain formation such that we can discern the shape of the satellite cluster.

>>14975106
Shooting down a missile while in flight like that is very difficult. Shooting one down before it closes enough to put our craft in the blast radius is even more difficult. Nevermind that our missiles tend to move faster than most of our air units.

We can try, but we will probably lose a lot of units in the attempt.

We could send in decoys with those nukes, yea.
Just similar missiles, but without warheads.

>>14975177
>>14975163

This. Let's send in duds that could pass for nuclear ordinance.

rolled 78 = 78

Move to a debris field.

Encase a drone in hardened material, then insert them into a rock. Repeat as necessary.

Bombard planet with drone rocks.

By sheer force of numbers, overwhelm the defences, and engage orbital defences from the land.

As soon as there is a gap in their network, send fleet in to reinforce position.

Overwhelm defenders and consume the world.

>>14975197
>>14975177
...To what end?

>>14975219

Presumably so that the real nukes will pass on through the screen of point defense fire while the decoy nukes eat up all of VG's point defense ammo.

>>14975219
We were able to clear 50% of the orbital defenses from the planet; were we not able to identify the planetary defense plasma cannon that VoidGate had been building?
It had been building 3, so I would have thought our chances good that we could have found at least one to nuke.

>>14975243
(Ah. I guess I'm a little dense tonight)

Trying again, we double the number of nukes, but quadruple the number of missiles. Our duds fly randomly intermixed with our real ordnance.

As before, VoidGate fires missiles to intercept ours, but unlike last time, there are decoys, and many more missiles. To VoidGate's credit, most of our barrage is destroyed, but several of our nukes (and, comically, several of the duds) reach their targets. Eleven mushroom clouds bloom on the surface, causing devastation.

Above, the overlords are encountering more detector satellites than before. Gorn thinks the cloaked ships are dropping them.

>>14975339

Do we have anything like some sorta scanner relay that we could use to temporarily knock out those cloaks? Or some sort of device that can at least temporarily reveal them?

>>14975339
Guys, I think it's time to use some nukes to pound a safe corridor through the tightening detector noose, and start landing some ground troops, as well as tracking down and destroying those detector-laying ships.

>>14975379
You mean like the Scanner add-on for a Terran Command HQ? I think we have a few, but the problem would be landing it on the surface and deploying it. And of course, once it's on the surface, it would become targetable by VoidGate's nukes.

>>14975388

Then we should do so.

Let's get some ground troops down on the ground. Maybe even try to get a subterranean base up and running. Find a cave system somewhere, get some zerg in there and generally be zergy and very hard to clear out.

>>14975379
>>14975402
Brullant does have a small moon (more of a captured asteroid, really, but it's in orbit, so it's technically a moon), which could hold a command center. It's well within VoidGate's firing range, though.

>>14975388
Sounds like a good idea, but what's the plan to make it happen?

>>14975460
>Sounds like a good idea, but what's the plan to make it happen?
The plan is to fire nukes along a vector like Warbrate had originally planned, to create a safe path for our forces to warp in and then travel to the planet surface.
Have our forces come in close behind our nukes, to take advantage of their blasts disrupting any missiles launched by VoidGate in response.

Also, let's set up a command center on that moon. It might still get nuked, but maybe we'll be able to get a sensor sweep done before it gets turned to rubble.

>>14975527

Seconding.

>>14975527
The first few missiles are shot down, but after a dozen shots, VoidGate quits firing its missiles. We quickly clear a vector to the surface. While the area is still hot with radiation, we send our ground force-filled overlords through. As they begin traveling down the pipe, Toaster lands a command center on Brullant's moon, and begins constructing the comsat station.

Non-nuclear missiles continue to destroy our overlords as they encounter more satellites. Gorn has pulled most of them back, only moving a few forward to test the slowly-growing satellite network.

>>14975597
With the number of missiles that have been fired by VoidGate, have we been able to trace their trajectories back and find their launch sites?
If we can, I want to get those nuked so we can start getting some ships in orbit.

>>14975664
The conventional missiles, or the nuclear ones?

We've traced both, but Warbrate thoroughly suggests that we not waste nukes splitting our attack.

>>14975597

How's our force composition look like?

Is it more of a force of bruisers/attack units, or could we possibly set up a staging point for hatching more zerg on the planet?

>>14975731
It is primarily an attack force, but a couple of drones are in the mix, as well. We've been caught off-guard a lot by VoidGate recently, and Warbrate didn't like the idea of taking chances.

Toaster is happy to inform us that the comsat station is ready to go when we are.

>>14975691
>>14975758
Trace and take out the nuclear missile silos. They're the ones that could wipe out our entire attack force in just a few seconds, so they get priority.

Also, have the comsat begin sensor sweeps to find those detector-laying ships and have them taken care of.

>>14975812

Seconding.

If we have any spare scourge leftover that weren't sent with Gorn's attack force, could we possibly try to warp them directly on top of where VoidGate's satellite-laying ships are? It's ridiculously unsafe, but having scourge warp inside those ships at random and explode as a result of trying to fuse with solid matter could be significantly more effective than bombarding them from the outside. Maybe even overlords packed to the gills with the also ridiculously explosive infested terran variant could work!

>>14975812
We launch another barrage, backed by more duds, at the silos that have been launching VoidGate's nuclear arsenal. One missile is fired in defense, disabling two of ours and one dud. We are a little perplexed, but it doesn't particularly matter. We rain nuclear hell on those silos, and there is nothing left.

Toaster begins doing sweeps, for the cloaked ships, behind which Gorn sends scourge to deal with any satellites that are revealed. There's a whole lot of nothing for a full battery charge cycle, but once it is recharged, we find one of the ships on the first shot. Gorn's theory is confirmed as the ship is actively dropping satellites before the scourge swarm into it, blowing the ship to scrap. That leaves one more out there.

Our now slightly-irradiated ground force-laden overlords enter the atmosphere of Brullant. What sort of area should we look for as a landing zone?

>>14975873
Let's play to their disadvantage. Drop the troops off in area's with plenty of natural cover. Any forests or crag-y areas will let us get in close and remove their range advantage.

>>14975942
This planet has been under VoidGate's control for months, that we know about. It's been under a full military production footing for as long as we've been watching it. We doubt there's a planet left alive on the whole planet.

>>14975873

Perhaps we could also search for subterranean areas to establish a base in. We haven't had much luck storming the VoidGate buildings form the front entrance; perhaps burrowing into them might play a bit more in our favor.

>>14975942
But isn't that the opposite of what we want to do? We're the ones who hold the high ground (orbital assets), and VoidGate has been busy turning this planet into Vietnam.

I think we should look for large heat blooms, to find VoidGate's cooling systems, and land near those. If it tries to simply nuke us, it'll only succeed in destroying its own cooling systems.

>>14976005

It might have already learned to fortify its heat-sink operations, but it's still a very vulnerable point.

Scan the large bodies of water on the planet, try to see if we can detect any structures that may be heat sinks. I'm not sure how aquatically inclined our units are, but they can probably passably damage the heat sinks to compromise VG's computing.

>>14976005
>>14976043
After a bit of scanning, we discover only one notable heat bloom on the surface, under a large body of water. On the coast of this body of water is a large, hardened structure sporting a pair of massive surface-to-air cannon. Cyberbrate confirms that it matches the design specifications for VoidGate's weapon.

Hmm, i assume thats where the heat sinks are. Can we neutralise the defense and nuke the ever living crap outta it?

>>14976094

Can those guns possibly aim downward from their emplacements and start laying into ground units?

If we swarm them per usual tactics, we'll undoubtedly be bogged down in terminators coming in from every available area on the planet. Would it be possible for our units to burrow down into the ground and dig their way past the huge twin cannons? Or perhaps even destabilize the foundation of the emplacement enough to tumble it over?

>>14976094
Surface-to-Air?
I think then that we should land our forces well beyond the horizon of those cannons, and then roll forward with a ground attack.
Once we knock out the anti-air defenses, we can damage the heatsink; that should lower the efficiency of VoidGate considerably.

>>14976208
>>14976183
>>14976169
Two for ground forces, and one for nuking it. What's the plan, man?

>>14976301
The plan for ground forces is to attempt burrowing and traveling underground, trying to destabilize the foundation of those plasma cannons if possible.
Otherwise, it's to close the distance, and then get in close where the plasma cannons can't hit our ground troops, and disable them. Once disabled, we'll warp in aerospace assets (mutalisks, guardians) to pound the heatsink.

Ground troops should land well outside the engagement envelope of the plasma cannons, of course.

>>14976301

VoidGate stopped launching its point defense missiles a while ago. This either means that it has run out of ammo (unlikely), or that it realized that we were merely nuking at random to secure a landing zone. It may be saving its remaining point defense missiles for the nuclear salvo that it knows that we will inevitably use to either neutralize its heat sinks or to destroy the huge cannons that we've identified.

I am voting for a burrowing option with our ground forces. Zerg are good at digging, and a good amount of hard ground should protect us from most of any missile strikes that VG can dish out, nuclear or no. We can close the distance or possibly even make the cannons collapse on the ground they're built on if we're lucky.

>>14976340
Our forces disgorge from their overlords, and begin assaulting the cannon. Androids spill out of the structure, firing on us. Thankfully, this wide open space is much better than the previous, crowded hallways for deploying our ultralisks, which tear through the machines like...well, like a 5-ton mass of hardened carapace and spikes through man-sized robots. Despite the obvious utility of ground firing capability, the cannon makes no move to turn toward the combat.

In space, Toaster has located the final cloaked ship, still dropping satellites. As soon as scourge begin to turn toward it, a complement of nuclear missiles wing out from it. The explosions are jarring, and take most of our remaining scourge, but enough make it through to destroy the craft.

>>14976425
Use mutalisk squadrons and the comsat to clean up the remaining satellites; try to capture a few for Labbrate to study later.

Once they orbital paths have been cleared of detectors, we can get our cloaked capital ships into orbit for orbital bombardment.

Though anyone else getting a bad feeling about how...passive, VoidGate is being?

>>14976545

VoidGate probably knew that we would go after its cannons. It might have something nasty stored up as a contingency with those cannons. Either that, or those cannons may be a decoy and the real threat is elsewhere.

>>14976545
Cleanup operations begin in space, though conventional missiles continue to fire on our forces whenever they are within sight of VoidGate's satellites. Thankfully, we have mutalisks to spare. We are fresh out of scourge, though.

On the surface, our forces continue to hammer their way through VoidGate's androids, but there is no end of them in sight. Even with our ultralisks' superior badassery, they are taking damage. One of them is sure to fall soon.

At home, in front of his computer, Cerebrate Anon yawns. It's pretty late, and Zerg Quest has had a disappointingly low turnout this week. He pushes the Go! button on sup/tg/. Brullant can wait for next time, and then the Swarm can take on the Protoss, Kingston, or the UED, who may or may not be controlled by Dyles and his horrible psychic tadpole...things.

See you guys on the first!

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14973676/

>>14976545

It may be saving those cannons for obvious reasons of messing up orbital bombardment thingies. Those detector satellites may act as spotters for the surface-to-air cannons. We might want to continue our ground force assault if this is the case.

I guess with VoidGate's imminent destruction, I can tell you the weakness I kept hinting at.

You guys kept getting all paranoid about VoidGate's self-destruct capabilities, but Arnold made a big deal in the movies about not being able to self-terminate. There was never a self-destruct risk. If there were, it would have blown you sky-high several times, now...notably at the Aleman station.

And probably on Dagobah. I was thinking about having bunches of Terminators rush Cyberbrate, because they shouldn't have all been destroyed just because the planet itself shut down, but it seemed like that would have just been nitpicking on my part. No worries.

>>14976685
Oh, I thought the prohibition against self-termination was something built into Terminators by Skynet, and that Skynet itself had no such prohibition.

Alright, Cerebrate, see you on the first.

>>14976705
Hard to tell, since our only exposure to Skynet is through the terminators.

Seems like a stupid thing to build into the thing if it's not already an inextricable part of your programming...you know, what with the possibility that the Resistance might, say, capture two or three of your top agents, reprogram them, and send them into the past to fuck up your last-ditch efforts to kill John Conner.

That old song and dance.