Good Evening Cerebrate.

File: 1352772932947.gif-(120 KB, 60x56, SCV.gif)

>>21555966
Howdy.

>>21555916
>Reinforcements have arrived
Good.

Then signal Warbrate to begin forming the Love Muffins into attack formation around Khas. We must make sure that he lives; we need his influence on the Protoss.

Labrate is to get ready to take control of some Overlords once the battle is joined, in order to assemble the prototype psi-weapon we discussed last time.

>>21555916
Hot drop-o-clock?

>>21556313
You recall how things are coming out of warp around here, right?

I mean, I try not to keep you guys from doing stupid things, so you can make that order, but...

>>21556343
What? No, we are NOT using warp travel here.
You said the reinforcements arrived, yes? So we can use sub-light engines to move into position and attack, correct?

>>21556367
Yes. That you can do.

I was under the impression that hot dropping meant warping in, which would be inadvisable.

>>21556418

Bum rush time, then.

File: 1352774733144.jpg-(23 KB, 704x396, macrossF_07_01.jpg)

>>21556343
It was more of a "Suddenly reinforcements, and lasers everywhere" statement. Or do our Muffins have missiles? They probably do, so it's also Macross.

>>21556451
Okely-dokely, neighborino.

6d100!

>>21556418
Yes, so have Warbrate bring the Love Muffins into formation with the remnants of our forces, and with Khas.

Confer with Khas, if we should call for the Xel'Naga's surrender, as per protocol; or simply launch the attack.

Rolled 70, 80, 74, 24, 4, 12 = 264

>>21556507
MISSILES!

Rolled 96, 55, 77, 82, 55, 39 = 404

>>21556507
Attack!

Rolled 52, 17, 6, 83, 45, 30 = 233

>>21556507

>>21556534
>>21556529
>>21556528
Did we win? Stalemate? Is Khas dead yet?

>>21556528
>>21556529
(Xel'Naga are not going out without a fight, apparently.)

The Love Muffins form around Khas and, along with the Zerg forces left from the previous fight, plunge into combat. Cyberbrate, its full cybernetic consciousness engaged and assisted by the Protoss warrior, brings down a worldship. And another. And another. All told, six of the remaining worldships are destroyed. The Xel'Naga make us pay for every craft, though, as more than half of our combined fleet is incinerated by their weapons.

Khas urges us to strike again, and destroy these mortal gods who threaten all that we have built.

>>21556559
Sorry. Distracted.

>>21556699

Do it, but shield Khas.

He cannot be allowed to die here.

>>21556699
Then let us together put an end to those that would turn brother against brother!
All old gods die!

>>21556699
They lost 60%, we lost 50%. I like those odds.

>>21556743
>>21556751
>>21556809
Oh, I forgot to put in the last part:

Labbrate is extremely frustrated while foraging for supplies to its crystal weapon. While most of the parts are here, one or two vital components simply elude us. We will have to try again.

>>21556851
Labbrate, keep looking!

>>21556851

Make it so, then.

>>21556851
Use an allen wrench>

>>21556977
You can *never* find an allen wrench when you need one. It's a law of nature.

>>21556912
>>21556909
Another 6d100, then.

Rolled 36, 74, 73, 74, 28, 26 = 311

>>21557107
Allen Wrenches are the answer!

Rolled 63, 57, 34, 10, 23, 59 = 246

>>21557107

Kill all Xel'Naga

Rolled 96, 32, 53, 88, 6, 73 = 348

>>21557107
For the Swarm!

Rolled 93, 19, 41, 37, 93, 62 = 345

>>21557107
Love Muffins go ALPHA strike

>>21557128
>>21557132
(Let's bro down, bro!)

Khas describes this moment as "glorious," and it's hard to disagree. We soar into battle, and the final worldships in this system are crushed, beaten, broken, and left desolate in our wake. Fire and fury flows through the sky, and soon, all is quiet.

In the aftermath, Labbrate happily informs us that the crystal weapon is complete, and ready. The bird screeches and begins to move away from the Cube.

>>21557455
Do things to the bird! Preferably when it's not right next to the crystal.

FIRE EVERYTHING (the crystal weapon) AT THE BIRD THING! IT'LL EAT US. I HAVE A ODD FEELING THAT IT CAN DO THAT!

>>21557455
Labbrate! Target the bird with the psi-weapon!
Warn Khas of the danger, and move Love Muffins between Khas and the bird!

>>21557485
>>21557488
>>21557510
QUICK! 3d20!

Rolled 18, 18, 12 = 48

>>21557595

BURNING

Rolled 1, 6, 4 = 11

>>21557595

Rolled 15, 13, 3 = 31

>>21557595
Rolling

>>21557628
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I just blew up that part of the universe didn't I.

>>21557638
Only a little bit.

>>21557622
>>21557628
The bird begins flying away from the Cube, toward open space, and Labbrate fires the weapon. Unfortunately, something was wrong; the crystals were out of alignment, or the power was unstable, or somebody forgot to modify the phase variance. Who knows? What we do know is that the weapon does not fire a blast of psionic energy that eradicates the bird, but rather releases a wave of EM interference that forces every Love Muffin in the system into shutdown. Cyberbrate will take a full day to get them back online!

Thankfully, no serious damage occurs to the craft.

(Because your damage roll was also shit. Silver lining. Sadly, roll 1d100 for a quick uh-oh possibility)

Rolled 79

>>21557754

rolling

Rolled 76

Better be good!

>>21557761
>>21557779
The universe is smaller.

>>21557761
>>21557779
Whew. Missed it by 8. In the clear, for now.

Labbrate insists that it can fix the problem and fire again before the bird leaves the system. Should we give it another go?

>>21557831
Yes. But this time, use a stable power source and align the crystals and modify the phase variance.

>>21557831
Yeppers

Rolled 7

>>21557831

Can our ship recover in time to attack the bird?

>>21557850
Slightly difficult when we're basically strapping together parts from exploded Protoss ships, but it'll try.

3d20 to fire again, by the way.

Rolled 13, 2, 16 = 31

SCREW YOU BIRD!

Rolled 7, 1, 14 = 22

>>21557965

Rolled 8, 19, 6 = 33

>>21557965
Die birdie.

Rolled 3, 4, 16 = 23

>>21557965
pew pew fire

>>21558009
>>21557997
>>21557992
>>21557981
Look at me and my incapability to arrive at a maritime vessel at a designated rime.

Rolled 5, 5, 1 = 11

>>21558043
It's never too late to fire large experimental weapons repeatedly for fun.

>>21557981
>>21557992
(Everybody thank Codeki for this)

Quickly attaching some hopefully more reliable parts from the debris, Labbrate calibrates its makeshift weapon, aims, and fires at the birdlike entity. The creature wavers, shrieks in agony or some facsimile thereof, and renews its flight. Labbrate doesn't hesitate; it fires again. The entity shrieks again, and explodes in a blinding flash.

As it ceases to exist, we gain a brief flash of its purpose: it was not so much a weapon as a life pod: it carried the psionic essences of every fallen Xel'Naga, and was created to hide in the depths of space for a long period of time before reviving the race, a sort of backup program for the species that would allow them to wait out the entire lifespan of whatever enemies had destroyed them.

Apparently, their life pod was not secured against the eventuality of the Swarm.

The Xel'Naga have no back-up plan left.

>>21558207

Hooray Zerg!

We should probably see if Khas saw what we saw, and explain if he doesn't already know. Then shuttle him back to his people. After seeing what we did today, he'll probably be favorably disposed toward us in the future.

Then we muck about with the huge glowing crystal and see what exactly we can do with it while he's recuperating on Aiur.

>>21558207
So that counts as passing their test, right? We brought Khas here and conclusively proved we're better than them and everything.

Rolled 6, 5, 5 = 16

>>21558207

Victory Victory Victory

Flash news program to the the protectorate. Allow their defence forces to standdown.

Time to secure the area and dive into the workings of their worldships.

>>21558263
>>21558268

Nargil is incredibly excited to get underway in reviving Father.

Citybrate and Artisanlord would like to throw a parade on Tarsonis.

>>21558207
Well, let's help Khas out of the exclusion zone. Then I'm thinking a ticket tape parade on Aiur. And while we do that we use the giant crystal cube to revive Dad.

>>21558207
Congratulate and thank Khas for assisting in securing the future of our two races.
Ham up how crucial his help was, and that alone, neither Zerg or Protoss could have defeated the Makers.
But together, we have surpassed our Progenitors, and are now at the cusp of a new era.

Have Artisanlord go over our the speech before we give it to Khas. This is going to be great footage for the movie when it comes out.

Render aid to Khas as he leaves the system using sublight until it's safe to warp.

Meanwhile, we must examine the Crystal Cube, get our prize of a Worldship back for study, and rebuild our forces.

>>21558263
Good point, we should make a note to have Artisanlord say that in the film version. Not sure why he wants to do it as kung-fu movie set in New Gettysburg.

>>21558311
Not sure why you -wouldn't- want that.

>>21558308
Roll 1d100 one last time, to see whether PLOTshit happens, or CRAZYshit happens.

Rolled 60

>>21558429
>>21558429
Come on Nat 1!

Rolled 62

>>21558429
Success for the Swarm!

Rolled 20

>>21558429
But it's a period kung-fu drama set in New Gettysburg. They didn't even have a period like 789 AD Jerusalem, and that's what's confusing me.

Rolled 35

>>21558429

Rolling for stuff.

File: 1352783162562.jpg-(20 KB, 833x151, PORTENT.jpg)

>>21558488
Well, since New Gettysburg is a smoldering ruin, it's a time period with a pretty definite ending date...

>>21558437
>>21558449
Indeed. I'm almost disappointed, except the part where I'm not.

Internbrate has a sudden, and irrevocable feeling of complete dread. It is sure that something absolutely terrible is about to happen.

>>21558590
Terrible things are always happening. Every time we defeat an enemy a worse one shows up straight away. It's not a big deal, lighten up internbrate.

>>21558590
Suddenly, the return of the Cockalisks.

>>21558590

Be specific, Internbrate. Terrible as in "holy shit we're all about to die in a most painful manner" terrible, or "we've attracted something's attention and it's coming this way right now", or "we're about to be betrayed in the most terrible way possible?"

Rolled 8, 16, 20 = 44

>>21558590

Par for the course.

Lets see whats up.

I'm almost tempted to see what makes Internbrate tick. What if we could isolate this spider sense gene?

>>21558590
We've got so many projects going on, we can't tell which one will cause us harm, Internbrate.
We need a little more clarity in your predictions.

Put the Swarm on high alert.
Increase Zerg production to rebuild our forces.

>>21558606
>>21558627
>>21558641
>>21558645
>>21558647
Any specific things you want to do right this second?

>>21558693
Contact Kerrigan. Let her know that the Xel'Naga have been taken care of.

Then escort Khas away from this system.

Finally increase unit production to rebuild the Swarm.

>>21558693
Warp a bunch of Love Muffins at the source of the distortion?

>>21558718
>>21558710
Alright then.

Roll 1d100 for initial ouch.

Rolled 61

>>21558760
Yay! Ouchies!

Rolled 79

>>21558760
Dammit, what now?

>>21558778
>>21558781
Warbrate is just telling us that it would like permission to keep guards around the Cube and to consolidate forces with Defensebrate to keep all of our colonies on full alert in case some Xel'Naga managed to escape the purge in the confusion, when its fears are completely and immediately confirmed.

Seven Xel'Naga worldships appear in a flash of light over Xenta, their weapons primed, and begin firing on our defenses before we're even sure what just happened.

That's all well and good, but it's not the part that worries us. What worries us is that the ships' inhabitants bring their psionic weight immediately to bear on us. The terrible squealing pain of a Xel'Naga psionic attack tears at our thoughts again.

We feel rage, betrayal, and desperation. We see glimpses of them watching the battle from the dark space between systems. We feel the dark cloud of extinction weighing on...is it them, or us? Perhaps both.

>>21558960
PUSH BACK. WE BEAT THEM ONCE, WE CAN DO IT AGAIN.

Get those Lovemuffins here immediately. And as many of the other space capable Zerg as possible. They can warp here since here is decent.

>>21558990
You might recall that when we beat them before, we couldn't communicate with our Broods at all during the struggle.

So it is now. Our cerebrates are on their own, and likely in agony. They cannot survive on their own.

>>21558960
"Hey, we already did this test."
Silly Xel'naga got mixed up.

>>21559029
The last time this happened, we fired our psi-cannons in order to push back against the Xel'Naga.

We must attempt to reach out and fire the psi-cannons!

>>21559054
(I don't think they're so much interested in making us subservient this time as in hot, vengeful murder)

>>21559058
If Labbrate does this, it may be less effective. We destroyed most of the psi-cannons.

>>21559133
>hot, vengeful murder
Well in that case they still got mixed up. It's their fault they're dead because they were such arrogant dicks and provoked the swarm, therefore if they want vengeance they should kill themselves.

>>21559133
We just need enough to reach out to Toasty. We're going to nuke the shit out of them.

>>21559133
We need to alleviate the pressure enough to get a message to Toaster, to have him launch as much of the nuclear arsenal he can at the coordinates of the worldships.

>>21559167
>>21559184
>>21559156
Let's toss, uh, *counts* 5d100 for this round.

Rolled 32, 85, 27, 5, 99 = 248

NUKES EVERYWHERE!

Rolled 75, 75, 57, 91, 31 = 329

Come on Toaster, we need this!

Rolled 43, 35, 38, 71, 44 = 231

>>21559250
Come through for us, Toaster!

>>21559264
>>21559306
Real quick, roll up 4d20.

Rolled 19, 20, 12, 1 = 52

If you say so, boss

Rolled 2, 2, 18, 16 = 38

>>21559371

Rolled 3, 9, 14, 5 = 31

>>21559371
4d20 smoke weed erry day

>>21559264
>>21559306
We struggle furiously against the intrusive minds, and manage to push them nearly halfway back from the inroads they've made into our thoughts. There is still pain, but less.

>>21559382
>>21559387
We are incredibly relieved to feel some kind of strength coming from outside, projected into us in short, powerful bursts. We suspect that Labbrate is using the heighliners to bolster our psionic energies.

We hope that's the case, anyway. It's possible that a cerebrate is bolstering our energies by sacrificing its own...

>>21559499
Toaster! Launch the nukes!

>>21559521
Toaster can't hear you, but I'm sure if it could, it would respond with some kind of cry of pain as it slowly dies without a central consciousness to sustain it.

File: 1352787978479.jpg-(46 KB, 1278x540, Fire EVERYTHING!.jpg)

>>21559499
Did our command get through to Toaster?

>>21559540
What do we have available to us? Are we able to contact any forces or Cerebrates?

Or are we limited to trying to fighting against the Xel'Naga purely by thought?

>>21559540
Can it cry onto the big red button that launches the nukes?

File: 1352788953751.png-(9 KB, 311x143, Accountantbrate.png)

>>21559542
See >>21559540

>>21559559
So long as the Xel'Naga are invading our thoughts, we cannot command our broods. Some of the cerebrates may muster their strength and act on their own, but their actions will be limited, and their resolve thin as they begin to hemorrhage from the lack of a governing consciousness.

If we manage to push the Xel'Naga out, or even to turn the tables and begin pushing into their own minds, we will be able to start regaining contact with our cerebrates, and we can take our place at the center of the Swarm.

Our Eye is blinded, but we may yet see again...

Next week. We may yet see again next week. And it may be a pretty huge battle that may have a serious chance to kill you, your cerebrates, or both.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/21555916/

Accountantbrate is always relevant.

>>21559670
See you next week, Cerebrate.

We really need to come up with some kind of fail-safe AI system that will activate in these kinds of situations.
Either that, or trust in our Terran dependents to come to our rescue.

File: 1352789288921.jpg-(32 KB, 718x262, Penny Arcade Poker Face.jpg)

>>21559701
As always, this is how I react whenever you guys contemplate designing an AI.

I wonder what the requirements are to have Lord Licorice get all the threads into a single snazzy thread collection, like Dorf Quest or Frost Giant Quest.

I also wonder why I haven't gone to bed. I blame the Internet.

>>21559831

You say internet, I bet you mean porn