>>15668867
Zeonquest Fuck Yeah!

Okay, let's check out the message.

Also, did we ever get that new suit for Rance?

Any word on the status of those peace talks?

Second.

Let me guess.
"Ghiren has laz0r"
"Go kill laz0r"
"thx"

>>15668881
From the end of last session, the general idea came down to the following decision tree:
As for which suit to have built, and who to give it to, I think it depends on:
1. can we get the EWAC to fit on a Gelgoog Jaeger.
2. Do either Option or Rance prefer the Gelgoog or not.
a. If both don't prefer it, we get a Gyan Krieger, and I guess give it to Rance since Option's already used to the Galbaldi.
b. If Rance likes the Gelgoog Jaeger, get him the Gelgoog Jaeger.
c. If Rance likes the Galbaldi, as Option if he like Gyan or Gelgoog, and give him the one he wants.

MESSAGE BEGINS

"Commander David Lister (ZC, KCx2, OoM) you are ordered to form part of an enlarged honour-guard force for the upcoming high-level capstone talks between the Federation and both factions of Zeon. These talks will take place over a Lasercomm conference at an undisclosed location. Whilst this will largely be a ceremonial duty, there will nevertheless be a legitmate security role that you will be required to fulfill.
Your full orders, as well as the location of these talks will be relayed to you via secure post. These orders are expected to come unto effect by the end of this afternoon Dec 30."

Well, so far it looks like the other shoe isn't dropping. Now you're really worried about it.

Remind me what year this is again? Any idea when the Kaempfer Prototypes go into production?

>>15668963

I get the feeling we're going to spend a good amount of time listening to weapons complaning about the lack of firing time. Also, I wonder who exactly we're going to cover for here?

(And it's a damn shame that we've taken peace as "that uncomfortable pause between killing each other". Go go PTSD.)

>>15668994
0079.

>>15668963
going in anything but fully prepared for these talks would be foolish. Let's get loaded out

Haha, you don't employ an infamous special ops force like the Nachtmaren as an "honor guard" unless some serious shit is going down behind the scenes...

>>15668963
Okay, so Rance and Option have had 4 days to try out the Galbaldi and the Gelgoog.
Have they decided which suits they prefer, in the context of the decision tree from >>15668923
I want Rance in a new suit and some time to train in it before we arrive at these talks.

I'm just going to go have my dinner know okay?

>>15669046
Alright.
Please give us an answer on the Rance-Option New Suit Question when you get back, though.

>glimpse the end of the war

>UPGRADE OUR MOBILE SUITS!

Seriously people, keep your eye on the prize.

and the prize is peace, not mobile suit upgrades.

>>15669311
We were already going to do this last week, it just got bogged down in determining who would get what suit.
Just because the war is almost over, doesn't mean we shouldn't prepare just in case.
We know that Gihren is a crazy motherfucker, and he might try another Jupiter Ghost at the peace talks. We need to stay ready.

>>15669082
>>15669038
>>15669019
>>15668923
>>15668881
Seconded, all of these.

>>15669311
Peace talks have this nasty tendancy of breaking down. Especially when ONE of the parties likes to lob nuclear warheads at everybody.
Pic related, it's what we dont want to happen if somebody starts shooting.

>>15669082
>>15669552

If I had the time or skill, I would so shoop that macro into something appropriate.

Okay, after dickering about in what few Gelgoog and Galbadi models you have available, Rance eventually opts for the quicker and more nimble Galbady whilst Option goes for the tougher Gelgoog.
Option is continuing to try and work on his recon skills, and although it's not the sort of thing that happens overnight, his current combat experience in that capacity has helped him a lot.

Later that day your hardcopy orders arrive. It largely reiterates what you already know, although at least know it reveals that the final round of talks will take place at the space fortress A-Boa-Qu.

Hmmm. Not really the most neutral place in the world. You can only assume it was supposed to be a show of good faith. Also, it probably will enable the feds and Legitimists to swoop on any war-criminals before they can make their end run to Axis.

Well, those who haven't already had the sense to do that in some way or form. It's probably the reason why near as much the entire Grenada fleet is going to be present as well as numerous other ace groups.
You don't see the Death Wasps being mentioned in lineup, you hope they didn't buy it at Solomon...
All of the big names are expected to be present, Degwin, Revil and Kycilla, with Dozle communicating from Solomon. Only Garma is expected to be not taking part in the talks for obvious reasons.

Your orders are to join up with the Grenada fleet as soon as possible.

YOUR ORDERS?
ANY LAST MINUTE REQUESTS FROM PEZUN?
ANY FURTHER INFORMATION YOU WANT?

>>15669552
Oh, since we're short 2 pilots now, should we try to get 2 more people attached to our unit?
It would be nice if we could get another MA pilot, since we're lacking one now.

>>15669679
Load up on ammo and explosives, just in case.
Make sure that Elaine's Heavy Gatling has plenty of ammo so she can do her Heavy Weapons Guy impression.

Also, are there any two spare pilots we could request from Pezun to fill out our unit? Just some people on temporary loan.
Wouldn't want to appear at a formal function with an understrength unit.

>>15669679
>ANY FURTHER INFORMATION YOU WANT?
I dont believe we know in character what happened to the Trojan horse yet. Last we'd heard it was blockaded at Von Braun.

>ANY LAST MINUTE REQUESTS FROM PEZUN?
Some kind of heavy missile that would be effective for blasting larger numbers of mirrors should we need to face the Fed Solar weapon again.

>>15669752
>What happened to White Base
Finding out what happened to it in-character would be nice.

>Anti-mirror weapon
Oh yeah! Seconded!

>>15669723
>>15669752
All of these.
Then we plot a course to rendezvous with the Grenada Fleet.

>>15669752
>I dont believe we know in character what happened to the Trojan horse yet. Last we'd heard it was blockaded at Von Braun.

To the best of your knowledge it still is. In fact you remember hearing somewhere recently that it STAYING there was part of the ceasefire agreement. All scuttlebutt admittedly, but you're pretty sure Grenada would have started making pretty loud noises if THAT ship had started causing trouble.

>Some kind of heavy missile that would be effective for blasting larger numbers of mirrors should we need to face the Fed Solar weapon again.

Whilst Anit-Solar Ray systems ARE in development, mass production beyond one off prototypes is being handled by Solomon, obviously. At this point, there have been no signs that the array has been moved from it's location, although grainy long range imaging indicates that work is being done to it. Most likely repairing the damage you did.

Current ideas seem pretty scetchy some kind of ship-launched missile based on the cracker grenade has been proprosed but at the moment things are still in the prototype stage. Also, for it to be effective would requre a level mass production that Zeons funds aren't capable of covering, nevermind how you'd deliver the weapon.
The best defence at this point seems to be "find something big and heat resistant and hide behind it."
Simple shielding or Beam Chaff is woefully insufficient for the amount of energy the weapon puts out, only big giant asteroids provide the cover needed.

>>15669910
Okay, then can we go over the two items from here: >>15669723

Then, I think that's it and it's time for us to rendezvous with the Grenada Fleet.

>>15669910
In that case I'll settle for some tungsten rods/kinetic penetrators.

>>15669971
I don't know if that would do us any good.
Considering the sheer number of mirrors, the number of missiles we'd have to be packing in order to make any kind of noticeable drop in performance would mean filling up the OH with nothing BUT missiles.

CHECK UP ON BERNIE

>>15670210
Pretty sure we did that last update, with Nell even.

>>15669910
Of course, a far more reliable way to deal with the Solar System is to gank it while it's being built.

It's an enormous array of mirrors; now that we know what one looks like, recognizing one that's under construction shouldn't be all that difficult.

You go looking for replacement pilots to fill out your roster... replacement isn't quite the right word. New pilots sounds better.

You give the orders to the rest of the unit to begin making ready to depart to Grenada whislt you go through Pezun's active duty roster to see if there's anyone you can poach from there. They've been working with you for the last four days anyway, mostly helping you organise traffic, damaged ships from Solomon that can't get the repair space in Solomon itself in the main.

It doesn't take long for Strauss to realise what you're up to.

"Look, if you want, I can attatch myself to your unit as an "observer" for the prototype evaluation teams, lord knows there's enough prototypical stuff in your unit already."

"Don't you technically outrank me thought?" you ask.

"I'm sure there's some kind of precedent for this. Besides, special independant corps means independant you know. Also, you take me on, and I've got a couple of good ideas over who to take with us for your second slot."

"But, what about the security detail here?"

"There's a couple of guy's I know who want a shot at command, might as well give them the chance."

DO YOU TAKE STRAUSSES OFFER?

>>15670230
Can I get a HELL YEAH?

Onwards to the Grenada Fleet!

We have to get something done one of these threads.

>>15670230
>>15670238
Hell Yeah!
Take Strauss up on his offer.

>>15669910
Time to cover ourselves in mirror and counter solar ray their solar ray, also look out if any of the abandonned colony went missing... in case gihren try to use the fact that everyone is at one place to drop it on earth...

>>15670230
YesYesYesYEEEEEES. We need all the help we can get, especially since shit is about hit the fan

>>15670238
I think I'll have to give a HELL YEAH!

Should we hide a copy of the Hard Drive somewhere in Pezun? Just in case something happens to the main one mind you.

>>15670307
Might be good, but where would we hide it?
And being a copy, it won't be as useful as evidence in court.

>>15670230
Take him up on his offer.

>>15670324
>>15670307

You could leave it on Pezun.

>>15670307
If there isn't any kind of tamper-resistance that would prevent the hard drive from being copied, let's create a copy and hide it in a supply closet.

>>15670437
Yeah, but we specifically want a second copy, in case something happens to the original. That's what we're afraid of.
So, can we safely create a copy, and leave it at Pezun? If so, let's do it.

>>15670468

Once the data was unencrypted with the help of your Flannigan techs, copying it became possible. You create a copy of the incriminating data and decide to leave it on Pezun just in case.

Quick question, do you want to just leave it in your office (in a safe box obviously) or do you want to entrust Calvin with it? His time to discharge is coming up though.

>>15670525
Calvin, and tell that if anything happen to us he should find a way to deliver it to Ramba Ral. Or our family they'll know what to do with it.

>>15670525
Calvin, and have him hide it in the form of a glass eye.

>>15670525
Hand it over to Calvin, and if anything happens to us, to give it to Ramba Ral, or failing that, our parents.

>>15670608
>have him hide it in the form of a glass eye.
That would be awesome if it can be done.
Apologised, can we do this?

>>15670659

Or a pair of sunglasses.

(Hey, if it works for Char Anzable...)

>>15670608
>>15670567
>>15670613

>Glass Eye of secrets and lies

Oh god that is a little retarded but a lot awesome. I'm doing it.

You have the workshop make up a special "glass" eye designed to hold a small data-chip inside without being spotted. You then go and see Calvin and brief him about his "special duty."

"So, let me get this straight." He states afterwards.

"You want me to use this glass eye, because inside it is important stuff you can't tell anybody about, and if anything should happen to you, I'm to turn this in to Ramba Ral?"

"That's about it yeah."

"And you aren't going to tell me what's on it?"

"Less you know the better, really." you assure him.

"Well, it's nice to be a contributing member of the team again..." he mumbles.

You slap him on the back.

"That's the spirit. No stay out of trouble, and EMP blasts."

>>15670876
With one issue sorted you return to find Strauss transferring his old Galbady into your ship, behind him is another man. At first you think it's some kind of haloween costume, you then realise that no, that man is literally covered from head downwards in bandages. Well, underneath his flight suit anyway.

You manage to get Strausses attention.

"Who the hell is that guy?" you ask the obvious question.

"His names Tony Mettle. He took a direct hit to his mobile suit during the evacutation of California, an internal fuel line ruptured into the cockpit, and then one of his monitors sparked. He's been in the hospital until a week ago when he started working on simulators, he was going to be cleared for flight duty tommorow when the bandages come off. He's still got the skills, although he doesn't talk much. He's really the best pilot I've got available to me here. No offence to the other guys, but this guy nearly got into Midnight Fenrir."

Well, never let it be said that the Nachtmaren Unit wasn't full of it's reccommended amount of freaks and mavericks.
You decide that Strauss probably knows what he's doing and watch as the guy loads up a Rick-Dom II.

Luckily by this point, the rest of the unit is ready to depart, so you finish your last minute checks and board the Outer Heaven.

You tell Mauser that you're onboard, and a few minutes later you feel the ship begin it's undocking.

You're still waiting for that other shoe.

>>15670879
He looks like this, doesn't he.

>>15670945
>>15670879
Or alternatively, like this.

>>15670879
I wonder if we have the time to do any practice with Tony, and getting Rance and Option used to their new suits.

So what's this guy Tony's specialty? Long-range fire? Or is he a Jack-of-all-trades?

>>15670945
Yes..... YES!!!

>>15670945
>Cast in the name of God. Ye' not guilty.
>Big O! It's Showtime!

>>15671063

You forgot the music bro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbq4Sg-EYIc

The journey to Grenada is uneventful. It feels like the calm before the storm to you.

The new guy, Tony, doesn't really want to talk. Strauss tells you that his vocal cords took some partial schorching. He CAN talk, but he doesn't really like to do it all that much. Hopefully despite that he's still able to be a team player.

Meanwhile, you pass the time by giving the mobile suits a full wash and a wax. You ARE technically on Honour Guard duty again.
Of course back when you were with Garma, there was a whole team of people to do this for you, now you have to do it yourself.

It's amazing just how much space dust manages to get itself into nooks and crannies when your operating in a vacuum. It's also kind of wierd how the dirt will sometimes just stop when it get's to a recently replaced component or piece of armour.
The waxing and buffing is the hardest part, even with the extra-large motorized buffing machines.
The entire engineering team and yourselves pitch in, and by the end you've got everything shining and gleaming.

Which is going to bite you in the ass if you actually get into combat.

You ask if the ship itself is getting a polish. Masuer tells you to get stuffed. You're on honour guard, not a full-blown concourse competition.

The Grenada fleet is out in force when you finally arrive. It is of course much smaller after the battle of Orbital 01, but it's still an impressive sight of tens of ships, several of them battleships, including the Great Degwin, Degwin Zabi's own flagship.

>>15671206
>Hang out alongside the Great Degwin

>>15671206
Signal the fleet, ask where we're supposed to go.

You approach the fleet, as you do so you get a priority one message from Kycillia's flagship.

"Welcome Nachtmaren. With your arrival, the honour-guard fleet is finally complete. We will be making for A-Boa-Qu at roughly 5am tommorow. You will be relayed your personal orders shortly"

Curt and to the point, Kycillia breaks contact. The laser comm message that follows gives more precise orders. You will be operating on the outer patrol ring, it will be your job to respond to any suspicious activity whilst the peace talks are underway.

>>15671336
Well, not much we can do about that. Have the Outer Heaven move to our assigned position.
If anything's going to happen, it'll probably be tomorrow. Let's get some rest.

>>15671336
>You will be operating on the outer patrol ring, it will be your job to respond to any suspicious activity whilst the peace talks are underway.

Oh boy! Oh boy! Let's get looking for suspicious stuff! It's too bad we didnt haul a recon zaku along. We've got room for 1 more suit in the MA section.

>>15671388

C'mon. Do you WANT that pilot to be the almost-traditional "IT'S A GUNDAM" bitch before exploding messily? Zeon can't afford to lose pilots that way!

(Besides, we have better recon units than most Zakus.)

>>15671336
Yeah, so, there's not much that we can realistically do here, Apologised.
You might as well have us get to A Boa Qua, and we can deploy into our patrol area.

>>15671422

You rest fitfully, fully expecting the alarm sirens to go off at any minute. The next morning, the ship makes off for A Boa Qu. It's been a while since you've seen the Space Fortress, and even then it's your first time seeing it this close.

Most of your training was done on the Moon and at Side 3. The arrival of the other two fleets is no less impressive as yours. The federation congingent in overly large, an obvious tactic in intimidation. You count at least four Trojan Horse class vessels, most probably their total number of that class remaining, as well as over 50 standard ships. This probably represents the vast bulk of their space fleet.

In a way, it's a show of good faith that they aren't going to stage a suprise attack on Solomon whilst the talks go on.
On the other hand, since we basically invited them in this close to Side 3, why would they need to?

The Loyalist faction, whilst smaller in ships, those ships certainly aren't smaller. Two massive Dolos supercarriers are present in the fleet, dwarfing the smaller battleships surrounding it.

It's clear that one way or another, the war's going to end today. Your only hope is that it doesn't end in people going "fuck the antarctica treaty" and nuking what's left of the human race.

At 10:30 am Zeon Time, Revil officially starts the talks over the lasercomm network, and you get to work on your patrol route.

The first hour of your patrol goes quietly, however about twenty minutes later your pick up a shuttle making it's way through a debris field, most probably trying to avoid detection.

After you and your team corner it and force it to give up it's credentials, it reveals that it's carrying former Rear-Admiral Grey Doenitz. He practically begs for you to let him go on his way. His stated destination is apparently Side-6, but you suspect Axis is more likely. You aren't aware of any outstanding arrest order for the Rear-Admiral, but he WAS a high ranking member of Gihren's clique before that faction fell out of favour in a big way.

YOUR ORDERS?

>>15671622

is each fleet maintaining individual patrols/comms?

or are the patrols sharing a mutual comm channel just in case?

>>15671667
Legally, we can't arrest him or anything, if there's no warrants.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't call this in.
Call up whoever we're supposed to contact in either A Boa Qua or the Grenada Fleet, and tell them that we've got the rear-admiral here, and what we should do with him.

>>15671667

I vote we detain him on the OH for now, unless he has orders to be transfering his command/self to his destination.

On the honor of Lord Garma, no harm to come to him while in our care.

If he can't see the sense in these actions, he's welcome to open fire on our suits, though.

Report the find to the proper command structure.

>>15671751

Seconded.

>>15671716
I'm in agreement. Let our superiors decide what to do with him.

>>15671751
Thirded.

>>15671716
Or should we try to do both of these?

>>15671751

You order him to dock the small shuttle in the MA bay of your ship, and for him to be detained until later.

You watch the vesell carefully for any suspicious activity whilst this happens. When it doesn't you exhale and get back to your patrol route.
You check the current tactical net. It seems that Dolos 2 began to remanouver it's position for some reason. Kycillia's personal squadron noted it and repositioned itself as a possible counter to any sort of offensive rush.
Some federation elements are noted to have done the same. The Analysts are saying it's probably just posturing or defensive repositio
>Colony Laser states that IMA CHARGING MAH LAZER
-ning.

Wait, what was that.

You frantically scan the horizon, trying to spot the threat you know to be out there. You open a line straight into the tactical network and hope nobody stops to asks questions when you state in a voice that is urgent but far calmer than you feel:
"Unknown superweapon detected! All units evasive manouvers!"

God, if your wrong about this then there's going to be hell to pay, but you'd fucking take that option if it com
>Colony Laser: IMA FIRING MAH LAZER!
es.
Where, where, where, whe... there!

And then your screen goes white and the tactical network is filled with short lived screams.

'Ah...' you think to yourself.
'...there's that other shoe."

TO BE CONTINUED

>Colony Laser proclaims: SHOOP SHOOP DA WHOOP

>>15672041

"Incoming from Stonehenge!"

"What the fuck are you talking about List-AHHHHH!"

>>15672041
That fucking other shoe.
Are we going to get any omake this week?

>>15672094

Oh man, I miss decent Ace Combat games.

>>15672094
Wouldn't Excalibur be more accurate, what with it being a chemical laser?

Or Megalith, seeing as this is the last gasp of a group of die-hards?

>>15672142

... can we team up with a feddie ms team that has a blue ribbon insignia and do some sort of crazy death star run on a Dolos?

PLEASE?

>>15672041
Time to rally the troops and counter attack, or do the job the white base should be doing.

Also that colony laser man

>>15672159

Stonehenge was more fun and you know it.

>>15672126

--OMAKE--

It should not be possible to hack the secure channel that the Zeon tactical-net existed on. Whilst admittedly the data held on it was hardly ever top secret, it was neverthless the more unvarnished truth that Zeon as a whole preferred for the civilians not to hear about.

Somehow, despite this, during the Tactical Updates report for the 30th of December, someone had managed to insert the following sentence in bold capitals right in the middle of a sentence on fire control discipline and how it related to beam weapons.

IF SOMEONE TELLS YOU HE HAS SEEN A SUPERWEAPON AND WANTS YOU TO SCATTER THEN IT WOULD BE BEST FOR YOU TO SCATTER FIRST THEN ASK QUESTIONS. ESPECIALLY IF THAT SOMEONE IS A NEWTYPE.

The message was traced to have been inserted as part of a backdoor program that embedded itself into any text message that was sent to a high enough amount of terminals, of which the Tactical Updates most certainly qualified. This program was inserted through a stand alone system in the medical bay of Pezun. This hard-link it transpired, had been modified to take wireless signals through the communications buffer of the station.
This signal, although difficult to trace was eventually found and traced back to the a nurses station in the Flanagan institute. CCTV eventually revealed that the most likely culprit was one of the test subject, one Nell Dyland. This was largely confirmed by her putting a piece of paper with the words YES IT WAS ME up to the camera, somehow this was not noticed until the investigative team found it.

By which point Nell Dyland had already escaped the facility.

>>15672142

No kidding. the new one looks to be garbage.

"we wanted to get everything closer!" Son of a fuck. It was great the way it WAS, I don't want some bullshit guns at 50 meters at mach 2 crap. I don't want "mash button to evade" garbage.

*sigh* good games are getting hard to find, these days, it seems.

>>15672254
Oh Nell~

>>15672254
Oh Nell, you little darling you.
I hope some of those people actually did what was on the Tactical Update.

>>15672297

Be fair, the problem with AC6 was that the maps were way too large.

But switching to RW locales doesn't interest me at all. I liked this fictional world with real world planes that we had going on. It was nice, refreshing to see a game where america doesn't save the day and is always right for a change.

>>15672315

i agree with the RW locales bit, but i loved the AC6 maps. I just wish that finishing objective B first might have helped objective A or C's units by flanking targets there.

>>15672392

My favourite was probably 5, and if X had been on anything but a PSP it would have owned. That game had EVERYTHING, multiple boss-fights, shout outs to the old PS1 games, fairly massive selection of planes, branching campaign options. If only other Ace Combat games could be like that...

>>15672409

5 was excellent, really. The game's superplane kinda blew, compared to the Wyvern in 4, but it seemed like they were trying to tone down superplanes a bunch between games.

As for settings... meh. I don't care, though I swear to GOD if this turns out to be "call of duty: IN PLANES" I'm going to be fucking pissed. Mechanically, though, I'm not exactly excited for this one, after some of the interviews. I mean, I know AC isn't exactly realistic, but it's fun for what it is, and it's not like it has 10,000 copycat games so it's not over saturated.

Oh well. This is why I Don't really mess with console games anymore. Between dwarf fort and Civ4 mods, why bother.

>>15672041

Had to be done.