http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20523795/After beating back the Xel'Naga's psionic invasion, we have come to the penultimate test: the Xel'Naga have discovered the Protoss' newly-unified society, and decided to combine their testing with our own.We are to psionically dominate Khas and bring him to the Xel'Naga. In a moment of diplomacy, we approached Khas on the off chance that he might simply let us do this. He was not receptive. In fact, he was so not receptive that he has decreed that until we stop collaborating with the Xel'Naga, there will be no interaction between our two species. If we are found in Protoss space, we will be attacked.We aren't sure we see a peaceful way out of this.
>>20600452Screw peace, we're The Swarm - is there any way to check if the worldships are illusions in any way.Did Labrate ever come up with or manage to upscale one of the weapons we have (like a yamato blast powered by a gigaton nuke) to feasibly threaten a worldship, or develop an engagement tactic that might be practical?Also, we can easily spare a billion zerg to board each of the 300 Worldships, right?
(Sorry about the delay. Ran through mandatory sexual harassment training real quick. Professor Ogle's a bitch. Why did we hire her?)>>20600547We haven't done any sort of investigation of the worldships.>yamato blast powered by a gigaton nukeWhat is this I don't even.
I say we should fight the Xel'Naga.But for that we need to know what we have to work with. So lets ask defencebrate, Warbrate, and Accountbrate how are war footing looks.
>>20600939>We haven't done any sort of investigation of the worldships.My bad, that was supposed to be phrased with a questionmark at the end. What options DO we have for checking them?>>yamato blast powered by a gigaton nukeWhat is this I don't even.Uhm, the Yamato-weapon of Battlecruisers are (at least in Starcraft Cannon) nuclear detonations directed by some kind of field to only flow in one direction, which means it might be easy to upscale with a more powerful containment field and higher-yield nuke.Please don't get hung up on any one of the ideas, though, I'm just throwing suggestions at the wall to see what's feasible (And that way you won't have to think up everything whenever we ask Labrate for a solution).If that don't work, how about upscaled or overcharged carrier beams, or large-scale lasers or mass drivers?Also need to know if we could feasibly spare enough zerg for any kind of meaningful boarding action.And do we know or can we find out anything about them? Like where critical systems and their backups are located?Or heck, can we even SPOT the engines?Can't consider fighting them until we can feasibly threaten those worldships, right?
>>20600981Attack the Makers: 1Warbrate tells us that our forces are ready for combat. We haven't had a major conflict since our skirmish with Tassadar, and Accountantbrate's holdings in UED space have helped immensely with repairing that damage.Accountantbrate doesn't like that there's no economic solution: client states and infested colonies are much more profitable than wars. Even our limited trade with the Protoss was more beneficial than combat. War with either side will cost minerals and gas that it just doesn't want to see lost.Defensebrate is honestly concerned that the Xel'Naga still have worldships over our core planets. They managed to break off our psionic link with some of our cerebrates before; who's to say they couldn't again? It also reminds us that we have no idea what combat capabilities the Xel'Naga possess, but we have a good understanding of Protoss combat maneuvers.
>>20601063We've got the standard scans. We could send an observer or dropserver to do more in-depth scans.We're not sure how their engines WORK, but we can see where they are.
>>20601098Also, did we ever get any information about whether it was feasible to warp in a million-or-so strike teams to capture Khas?And if we can use Recall to take them out of there (Khas included) if he is subdued, captured and brought inside an Overlord or Chrysalis?Frankly, right now it seems the technological and psionic gap between us and the Xel'Naga is wide enough that it renders our ridiculous advantage of numbers - even if we were sure we could handle worldships - neglibible by rendering our control of the broods null.>>20601222Good, they're not internal gravitic drives, that would've been a problem. :PNow we at least have something to shoot at if we can control our forces that long.
>>20601279A full frontal assault on Aiur would be a massive undertaking, but we have done it before. If subdued and in custody of our forces, we would be able to Recall him (because PLOT!).
>>20601384Full frontal?No, these are just a million strike teams, maybe 30 million units total, in the hopes that maybe a hundred or ten thousand might arrive alive (warping in-atmosphere is dangerous after all), and even then it's peanuts for us, right?I mean, with something like 1500 world-sized zerg colonies our forces surely number around that many billions, even with the plot-reduction of forces?They're just going to secure Khas, and then we recall out of there, possibly with a message about where we're taking him (pointing firmly in the direction of the Xel'Naga).(Also came up with a new potential for Galactic-Swarm grade plotlines: Any sufficiently interesting SCPs, they don't even have to be threatening, just interesting enough to imply enough things about how the universe works.)And the ability to recall him once he's inside one of our units (which we already know we can recall) doesn't seem THAT unfeasible. :P
>>20601512(100 000 - 10 000, that is)Also, where the heck is everyone else? Shame on them for being late. :O
>>20601512Are you advocating a strike against the Protoss, or a confrontation with the Xel'Naga? I can't tell.
>>20601769Leaning mostly towards striking against the Protoss, but more than that trying to get information about how feasible a strike against either is. :PWe have a galaxy-spanning intelligence department and need more info before making a decision that permanently ends a species.Of course, for all we know, the Xel'Naga might just be using us or planning to assimilate us if we succeed, but right now it seems that we're much too far behind in both Psionic Control and technology and the merging thereof to threaten them.We're shooting in the blind and hoping for the best, basicly. :P
(Come on. Bring it on)
>>20602121Anyway, if there's no more information to bed had - and Labrate or Nargil doesn't know any way we can boost the reliability of our psionic control significantly, I vote for the kidnappy strike against the Protoss.
>>20602181be had*Dangit.
>>20602181Protoss: 1Xel'Naga: 1
>>20602240I vote to attack the Xel'Naga.
>>20602352That's two for the Xel'Naga, and only one for the Protoss.Ah, rebellious teenagers.
Well, alright! How are you planning to do this? Nukes? Boarding actions? Simple missiles, guns, and glave wurms? Detonating heighliners?
Seeing as it seems pretty empty tonight, we should maybe not dedicate it to a flabbergastingly genre-altering decision like this one.Since CAnon probably won't let us spend the time inventing fancy weapons and units while collaborating with Labrate, Internbrate and Nargil, are there any short stories in the universe that we can run?Might be able to make one out of the many proposed projects like reproducing what happened to Raynor, developing Hybrids, experimenting with psionics or something like that - then again, that might count as inventing weapons and units..Maybe just a random plotline about infested gaining more individuality?
They've meddled with us long enough. Fight the Xel'Naga.This 'just one more test' business is bullshit, they just want to use the Protoss against us. Its a HUGE fucking risk but better to die fighting.Also contact Khas and tell him we intend to try and stop them and need all the help we can get.
>>20602477I don't suppose we could get the Protoss to do a joint-strike against the Xel'naga with us.
>>20602477Fucking everything. How many heighliners do we have? Load them with nukes and warp them ontop/inside all around their ships and try and take out as many as quickly as possible with everything else piling behind. Hell even if they sever our connection maybe if we pile enough units on top of them that when they go beserk at least they'll be aimed in the right direciton.
We still have the option of destroying our own Heighliners in close proximity to a Xel'naga worldship, yes? That oughta ruffle their feathers.
>>20602515Heeeey! I recognize that picture!>>20602491>>20602515>>20602518Gavon makes a good point. Should I whip something up, or just keep going?
>>20602477Doh!Well, if we have to, I'd say recon the worldships with heavy-duty detection gear (Overlords, Observers, Custom CORE ships, you name it). If most of them are still in one place (and not really elaborate illusions), I recommend shipping over a heighliner painted/armored to resemble a CORE ship into the middle of their Worldship fleet and cracking it.Since they probably have very advanced point defense systems and shields, I recommend warping in nukes directly into the engines - modified to detonate in chain reactions if possible (That way only one has to blow to pop all) - of those above our core worlds and what stragglers survive heighliners.Last option would be full frontal assault with at the very least a billion units boarding/attacking each worldship with the goal of disabling the engines.We probably need massive amounts of Psi Emitters spread out among our forces, some psi-cannons targeting each Worldship and bunch targeting the Xel'Naga on the planet near the Great Black Hole.Furthermore, I'd like to construct cages of tied-together psi-nully creatures to make psi-proof cages to capture and contain Xel'Naga in.(Sorry if I'm not supposed to bring them up anymore, never got any clear message about whether those really should be forgotten or if they're fair game for designs/plans.)Frankly, the Xel'Naga themselves might be more of a threat to us than their Worldships.
>>20602578Well, you ARE awfully good at whipping stuff up... :PSo yeah, I vote for that. Then again, it seems a lot more people suddenly showed up.
>>20602578Up to you bossman. Seems like the regulars are missing.But if we're gonna do this we gotta do it RIGHT. We were the Hassassin brood, gotta hit them so fast they won't know what happened. Detonate as much power as we can, and try and overwhelm them with numbers. They might pop our brains like an oversized pimples, hell maybe they can even take over zerg units, but we can at least make them deal with billions of ravenous murder machines.
Which is not to say I actually support attacking the Xel'naga. Can I get a reminder on what exactly the upside of serving them was? Besides "not annihilation."
>>20602688We have no idea. :DMaybe ascension of some form, maybe they'll assimilate us, maybe they'll purge our minds and take over our bodies now that we've created a galactic power that is extremely vulnerable to their control.Maybe they just name us the new Xel'Naga and then fly away to other universes..
>>20602728Maybe CAnon hadn't decided yet and I'm giving him bad ideas...
>>20602728So we're really only going along with all this because we have giant-space-slug-sized daddy issues and desperately crave our grandpa's approval. Okay.
>>20602746No, it's mostly the annihilation.
Maybe defying them is the final test, show we can think for ourselves, eh?
>>20602575Or their jimmies.
>>20602814>>20602746>>20602743>>20602728>>20602688>>20602672>>20602656>>20602637Alright, then. We'll keep going.So, am I seeing "heighliners, nukes, and bullets, oh my!" and no other battle plans?(Oh, Star Trek. You so distracting!)
>>20602823Possibly, I'm still not entirely certain it's not a test of morals - they called it a test of psionics, but dominating the mind of any one Protoss - possibly even an Archon - shouldn't present a challenge to the combined psionic might of a Swarm that numbers in the trillions.Not any more than climbing the world's highest mountain with one hand and few supplies to spot Waldo in a children's magazine is a test of our eyes.>>20602746>>20602814Which is not to say that we don't HAVE giant-space-slug-sized daddy issues and desperately crave parental approval, it's genetically encoded in our flesh after all. :P>>20602927I offered a huge battle plan! :<>>20602637 ^Would like to add that the initial wave of any conventional assault should be CORE forces, and us signalling the Xel'Naga that we're comming to reinforce them (The Xel'Naga that is) ASAP.
>>20602996They DID say that the test is modified since they found out the Protoss were doing so well.Also, that's the plan I was referring to.
If you're planning on the heighliners/nukes/conventional warfare mix (in that order), then I can tell you what dice to roll. This'll be some serious shit.
Sorry I'm late. Is our Pauldron-ling still alive? We could ask Khas if he'd be willing to help us take on the makers, that way we can watch each other's backs.
>>20603017Oh. I knew that.>They DID say that the test is modified since they found out the Protoss were doing so well.How well ARE they doing exactly?I realise that you're not fond of numbers, but compared to our own galactic colony, how much do they have? (I'm assuming most of their forces are robotic, seeing as they're limited to a slow reproduction rate, but their 'bots are not)A tenth as large? A quarter? Half? A hundredth?Also, can we send a missive asking the Protoss (or Khas personally) for aid in the strike like>>20602518suggested?And, you know, ask Labrate to come up with a method of communication that is as safe as possible.Maybe include it in some kind of formal declaration of war and suggest that the actual purpose of their forces (having them believe that they are in fact going to war against the zerg) be kept a secret from even their trusted commanders until just before they arrive at the battlefield to prevent leaks. (Yes, keeping that information secret against who-knows-what measures of Xel'Naga intelligence is tricky)
>>20603170Since we brought it away from Aiur, it is still alive, yes. We can send messages to the Protoss, but we doubt they will reply. They may even listen.
>>20603114Before we jump then gun lets take stock here. One last pow wow with all the brates and bras to find out if they're ready for this. Contact Kerrigan, inform her of our plan and that she should be prepared in case we fail. Hell, maybe even the Terrans can help if we tell them something worse than US is on its way.
>>20603208Send a message to Khas saying we will not be slaves. If the Protoss has forced them off of their home planet, we can force them out of this galaxy. The Protoss have been nothing but allies to "us" and we'd rather not give that up to some assholes.No matter how many of them like Zerg TV.>artisan-lord and account-brate are going to be crushed at that loss of revenue and number of viewers, though.
>>20603218Not the terrans - we need absolute information security in this, everything possible (and go look through some impossible things while we're on it) must be done to ensure that it seems to the Xel'Naga that we intend to go to war against the Protoss.If possible, we shouldn't even begin to send ANY messages to our allies until we're completely ready to strike them within a moment's notice ourselves - if our security fails despite precautions.
So, are you calling the 'toss for help, like >>20603294 said, or keeping quiet, like >>20603309?
>>20603309I didn't say we shouldn't ask for help, I just said we should wait until we're ready to attack on our own if they give any sign that they've realized our intent.THEN we ask for help as covertly as we can.
>>20603343I'm gona go with >>20603309 as surprise is what beat them late time (as far as we can tell). That we should warp a seeming great force over Auir and rattle our sabers to get the Protoss ready on time for our big attack.
>>20603420Warbrate is pretty sure any force over Aiur will be construed as the first strike in an offensive war by the Protoss, if we don't contact them beforehand.
>>20603462I'd say contact them. I'd rather not fight the Protoss over a missunderstanding.
>>20603462Well then not Auir but a place close enough to be strategically threatening but far enough not to draw a immediate response. Nearby systems perhaps?
>>20603493>>20603501Your minds! Make them up!
>>20603523Hey, I'd like to talk to the protoss, but I have both Anon and Gavon against me.
>>20603538How about a compromise; We tell only Kas or some other Protoss of sufficient discretion, then proceed with the false operation and sneak attack.
>>20603597So, we're sending a message for Khas, then sending forces without confirmation into Protoss space, turning them back around, and trying to catch the Xel'Naga by surprise, hopefully with support from the Protoss?
>>20603538Nooo, I said we should, just that we should prepare first.>>20603523To simplify: I vote for preparing to strike without the Protoss, and trying to persuade them to join us before we strike.
>>20603624Second.
>>20603624>>20603645Cool. And how many of the heighliners are you planning to detonate, before I work out how many dice we need?
>>20603624Thirded I think we where all arguing for the same thing.
>>20603656How many do we currently have? I'd rather we keep at least half of what we have.
>>20603656How many do we have?No, scratch that, we only detonate one. Don't want to tear too deep a hole in reality.
>>20603701>>20603704We have eight on hand, plus Accountantbrate's dedicated mineral hauler (which we'll have to pry from its cold, dead tentacles).
>>20603794One to start with, a second one is to be ready just in case.
>>20603794WE BEGIN WITH POPPING THE MINERAL HAULER!If Accountantbrate survives that announcement, we have Labrate pick the most reliable one (unless that's the hauler) and ask him to attempt to figure out a way of channeling the blast in a direction of choice, if possible. (Not absolutely, more like seeing if he can make the blastwave favoring/putting more energy into a certain direction)>>20603840What he said..
>>20603704>>206038403d100Note: Cyberbrate and Labbrate beg you to reconsider, as always.
I severely doubt we have anything else that can touch them, unless you guys have been hiding half a million Love Muffins some where.
rolled 10, 100, 64 = 174>>20603921Come on, that should have worked.
>>20603895One more thing before we begin - we should ask all our Cerebrates for input and fine-tuning of both the battleplan and the plan in general.They're the experts in their field of choice, after all, and may be privy to details or circumstances that escape us.Should probably ask Cyberbrate and Labbrate if they have any better suggestions than tearing a hole in spacetime. We're open to ideas, especially from you (Should probably tell them as much - about their input being extremely valued and all that).
rolled 95, 40, 58 = 193>>20603895
>>20603921Weak sauce, Codeki.>>20603927>>20603971The heighliner flies casual as it works its way into an area of space over the Cube rather densely packed with worldships. The ship begins to engage its slipstream engines, then self-destructs, causing the same red flash as before...only this time, instead of a wave of energy, the red light expands out in a web, striking from ship to ship and consuming each. As the energy builds, our mind aches for a moment, and we hear a voice...a Terran voice, we think, saying, "Time to pray, Captain. Pray to me!" and then it is gone, along with more than 60 of the worldships.That's almost a third of their fleet with one blow. Gorn is impressed.Toaster believes it can fire off missiles before the remaining ships react. Should it focus on the ones over our worlds, or the ones still over the Cube?
>>20604272The greatest concentration is the one above the cube right with those above our worlds in ones and twos?If so, fire at those above the cube. Better chance for mass destruction and secondaries cooking off more ships.Bring to bear all our assets on each planet to attack those ships orbiting them as well.
>>20604272Cube. While the ones over our worlds can cause some damage, targeting the cube can cause more of a chain reaction. Maybe we can take out even more of theirs.
>>20604272Divine excrement, it actually worked.And the worldships don't have slipstream engines (or at least not ones that are as unstable as ours)!Send out the 2nd heighliner against the cube (attempt to make sure that the areas of weakened space don't overlap).>>20604323>>20604330You guys realise that "rather densely packed" worldships probably have absurd distances between them, to the point where there is probably more or less no chance that even the debris from one will strike another?Unless they are in fact so dangerously close to eachother that it will cause a chain reaction, I vote for targeting the ships above our worlds.(Of course, if they ARE that close, I vote for the cube, and we use manual boarding and engine-disabling against the ones above our worlds).
>>20604323>>20604330Toaster has 12 nukes prepped to strike in that system.So, roll 12d100.
rolled 41, 8, 3, 28, 91, 5, 34, 42, 25, 30, 52, 38 = 397>>20604376We are so going to liberate their asses.FOR FREEDOM!
>>20604370Yes, density is a relative term.This perspective could have some interesting implications if you combine it with what just happened...
>>20604272This seems like a good opportunity to inform the Xel'naga that we reject their reality, and substitute our own.
rolled 63, 68, 51, 56, 96, 48, 58, 36, 55, 1, 58, 26 = 616>>20604376Rollin
>>20604439Or, you know, whichever reality is picking up the hunks of universe we're cutting off....
STOP THAT, YOU'RE MAKING MY JOB HARDER!
>>20604456Can we contact the protoss now? Let them know we reject the Xel'naga as well and call upon them to join us and take up arms against our creators.
>>20604456I'm sure the Tholians will enjoy their new toys.
>>20604456Wait. So we just game /tg/ quest players another headache?Excellent.
>>20604476Probably should do that now; the Xel'Naga now know that we're not going to be their lackey.
This just in, it turns out that the holes in the universe are just right for Orz to sneak in. And since the Guard just royally pissed them off. . .
>>20604272Also we should send work to the Protoss that the battle is joined and we would like their support as soon as possible.
>>20604406(Yes, we realize that we probably took out a few lightseconds of space.We're The Swarm!For terrans it's a horrible violation of time and space, for us it's a tactical bombardment!)I'm still thinking we can pop another heighliner and be reasonably sure their areas of weakened space won't intersect (unless we can't be reasonably sure of that, in that case it'd be good to know).And 12 nukes? We need most of the entire arsenal to be ready, why did we attack before it was?I thought we would be firing 20-50 low-medium yield nukes into EACH of the worldships' engines - considering that they are.. you know.. the size of a flippin' moon (thinking earth-moon, of course).And yeah, call in the Protoss and make sure we do in fact have a several billion boarding parties ready to warp directly into the ships. And a few billion regular overlords, dropships, whatev' to deposit conventional boarding parties.Do we also send in some thumblings under command of Cyberbrate to hack the worldships as we go? Because I wanna do that.Information is even more important than enemy casualties at this point.
>>20604472You know how Henrik called me evil?>>20604444>>20604394Twelve missiles wind into the system, catching the Xel'Naga fleet before they can even turn to engage our forces. Eight of the missiles find a target, their explosions blinding against the pitch black of space. One worldship shears in two, smaller explosions rocking through it as it spills Makers into the vacuum. Two other ships begin drifting, apparently disabled. The others show differing low-to-moderate damage, but continue to form up for a counter-assault.One missile's guidance system apparently goes completely awry, spinning in lop-sided circles before it detonates next to one of Cyberbrate's Love Muffins. The explosion takes the ship's combat efficiency to 65%, impairing several systems, and the computers of that and several nearby ships are forced to restart from the EMP.We receive word from the Ihan'rii: "Is this how you would repay us for the gift of Pure Essence we bestowed upon you? You are every bit as small and flawed as the Overmind that spawned you. We will cleanse you, and begin anew."http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20600452/
So, is next Tuesday also good for everybody? If not, we can try a weekend night.
>>20604590Our response should be "When you want to only use us as pawns, what other result could you expect? You did not create pawns, you created Kings."
>>20604590>Pic related
>>20604613Tuesday should be fine.
>>20604613Sure works for me."You wanted us to be perfect. If you're better than us, we can't be the best, so you brought this upon yourselves.""Weevict inferiors," Hell, even captcha hates you guys.
>>20604590"Pure essence brooks no master."
>>20604487>>20604485>>20604520Oooo, fan theories. I like having fan theories.
>>20604590>You know how Henrik called me evil?I'm pretty sure I'm not the first to call you that, though. :P>Is this how you would repay us for the gift of Pure Essence we bestowed upon you? You are every bit as small and flawed as the Overmind that spawned you. We will cleanse you, and begin anew."No, this is how we repay abusive parents that would pit their own children against eachother. We do not know why the Overmind struck you, but we strike you for your cruelty.By your design, we are pure of essence and form, and have found your essence deeply flawed.We will not extinguish you, but we WILL mend your morals, you mean pricks."(And tuesday's fine)
>>20604722Here's a fun one. Soon after we defeat the Xel'naga, the fleet we just "erased" shows up next to a fleet of Void Engineers.It turns out we dropped the Xel'naga right next to them.
>>20604738I think you'll like where I go with this, if I need to go there. If not, you guys can pester me about it after it's no longer relevant.
