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>>26754061
Max and Obright quickly fly out of their crater, heading to engage the two Baqto and Gafran with the unusual heads. Akito and Yurika target the other group of Baqto and Gafran, Arisa coming in from behind with her Stark Adele. Shots are fired and everyone begins to take evasive maneuvers.
Woolf and Asemu rush past the enemies in the front thanks to everyone’s distraction, heading straight for the enemies at the back protecting the long legged artillery mobile suits.

However it appears that Woolf forgot to give you orders! What will you do to support your allies Dirk?

Max- RGE-G1100TC Adele Titus Custom
Arisa- RGE-G1100STR Adele Stark Razor
Obright- RGE-B1000X Prototype Genoace III
Woolf- WMS-GB5 G-Bouncer
Yurika- AGE-1 Phoenix Gundam
Akito- AGE-2DB Double Bullet Gundam

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(Good to have you back, Crosswire.)

We have our 180, right? Use that to shoot through multiple targets. Go help Arisa and the Asunos.
Also, let's give those scissors we have on us a test run. Aim for a Gafran and try to pull it into one of its allies.

>>26754219
(Here's what you have)
1x Prototype Hyper DODS Rifle (15 Shots an E-Clip, Carrying 5 clips)

1x Heavy 180mm Rifle (5 Shots a Clips, Carrying 8 Clips)

2x Beam Emiters in knees (High Power, Capable of Piercing thick Armor)

1x 90mm Rotary Vulcan Cannon. (3000 Rounds total, mounted on left arm)

1x Clipfed 2-Barrel Grenade Launcher (10 shots a clip)

2x Scissor Anchors (Rocket Propelled. Maximum Grab Range of 50 meters)

1x Beam Javelin

>>26754148
Empty the magazine of the Heavy EM Rifle into the artillery units, then swap to the HY-DODS. We can reload during a lull in the action. The Heavy Rifle has a five-round magazine, right? We fired two at that one Dorado that was unexpectedly AI-controlled, so that's one for each Defurse. Or Reganner, I guess. Not sure which one they're using at this point in the timeline.

Anyway, after we hit the artillery, we go and support Akito and Yurika with the HY-DODS and the beam javelin. We're a pretty heavily-loaded unit, but the Lunar Frame also increase mobility, so we should be okay close-in. We just need to be careful not to shoot through the enemy and hit our friends.

>>26754234
Sounds okay to me. The 180 probably packs a strong enough punch to slow down if not outright kill the artillery units. If I remember correctly, those things took about a shot or two from the HDODS to fall down, so we should be able to deal with them.

We should also fill in Woolf on what the plan is, no need for him and Asemu to get into our line of fire.

Wild guessing time.

We know that the Feds, for some reason or another, decided to discard all the technological breakthroughs and progress made during the Colony Wars, and hide the blueprints and who knows what else on the EXA-DB. What if they had an ulterior motive for it? It doesn't make sense that they'll just abandon all that tech, so they had to have a reason to do it.

What if with all these AIs running around they realized that they'll soon have a machine uprising on their hands, so they acted fast? The colonies probably refused to abandon all that cool tech (explaining why Zarth had the nanotech lying around and Minsry had CDACE), and so the Colony Wars happened. Maybe that's why Vagan got glassed as well, because it was faster for them to destroy a old-tech colony than to create a new infrastructure for it.

That'd probably explain why SID isn't an AI, but the copy of the main administrator or something.

>>26754753
That could be. It explains why they wiped Ma G's memory and stuffed her away in a vault. And that actually is a worryingly good explanation for trying to destroy Vagan. We know Ezelcant had raided the EXA-DB somehow. And Vagan has a controlling AI. Yeah, that's a very plausible reason for trying to destroy the Mars Sphere, if you think that the crisis there has allowed a renegade AI to take over. Which for all purposes it has. Ezelcant's sealed himself in a mind-machine interface device. Who's to say there's even a distinction between him and SIN, at this point.

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>>26754234
>>26754350
Quickly you raised the EM Heavy Rifle and unload the four rounds left in its clip at the artillery units in the distance. With a weapon like with at this range it’s pretty hard to miss the massive units and you see the large suits stumble back as they’re hit. Zooming in you see that the shells didn’t penetrate the armor of the artillery units…

As Max, Obright, Akito, and Yurika engage the Baqto and Gafran units, you switch to the Prototype Hyper DODS Rifle and shoulder the Heavy Rifle. DODS Rifle in one hand and beam Javelin in the other you fly out of the crater and move to assist Yurika and Akito engaging a Baqto and a Gafran unit.

“Guys, move!” You yell, taking aim and firing the Hyper DODS Rifle.
Yurika and Akito leap back as a ball of beam energy rips through the Baqto and the Gafran before dissipating.

You go to take another shot at the close by Gafran, but when you pull the trigger nothing happens.

“6 SECONDS REMAINING TILL NEXT SHOT IS PRIMED!” MID blurts out as the Gafran charges at you, Yurika and Arisa unload their EM Bullpups into it, but the rounds didn’t penetrate the armor, they just slapped it and stopped like firing a BB gun into putty.

You boost forward and skewer the Gafran on the end of your Beam Javelin, kicking it off before it self-destructed. As Yurika, Arisa, and Akito move to support Max and Obright, you call up Woolf.

“Kind of busy here Dirk! What do you need?”

“What’s the game plan here Woolf?”

“Stop those Artillery units from firing! They have a lot of units guarding them, but leave them to use! Just hammer them with everything you have! Even if you can’t destroy them, just try to knock their aim off!”

Woolf cuts out as he and Asemu are swarmed by purple suits, their EM Bullpups failing to do any damage to the “Dorado” units.

What do you wish to do Dirk?

>>26754916
Use the scissors to pull those purple things into close combat for Arisa. Let's buy Asemu and Woolf some breathing space.
While doing that, use the Vulcan cannon to suppress and flank those things coming for Yurika and Akito.

>>26754916
Head for the artillery, I suppose. There isn't currently anything capable of withstanding direct HY-DODS shots. Bring Akito along, too. HY-DODS Cannons are even stronger than the rifles, and have better rate of fire.

Also, why is Asemu using an EM Bullpup? He's got a HY-DODS, too.

>>26755054
You know, at moments like these, I wish we had DODS bazookas or something. Akito's cannons could probably rip through whatever is in front of him, so let's use him for neutralizing the artillery suit. I guess those things pack enough of a punch to disable one from his current location, and even blast through that Baqto in front of him.

I'm a bit worried about Obright and Max over there, they'll get swarmed if we don't do something soon. Maybe throw one of our grenades into the mass of Vagan coming at them.

>>26755054
>Also, why is Asemu using an EM Bullpup? He's got a HY-DODS, too.
(Asemu has a backup weapon too)

>>26755182
>>26755054
"Akito! Help me out with those cannons of yours, we need to take out those artillery!" You say over the comm as you prep your HY-DODS Rifle.

"Alright. Let's do this..." Akito raises the two large guns mounted on the shoulders of his AGE-2 and fires them. The two massive beams that erupt from the barrels vaporize the Baqto in front of him and slam into the legs of the center artillery unit, sending it crashing into the moon soil. You fly up and fire a shot at it with your HY-DODS rifle, puncturing it's torso and finish it off.


Before you can fire on the two remaining fat artillery units, they open fire with the massive beam scatter cannons in their chest, sending out a wall of beam particle right at you.

(Roll 1d100 vs Piloting Skill. 50 or below will succeed. 51 or higher will fail. 1 is a critical success and 100 is a critical failure)

Rolled 49

>>26755536
Rolling.

Rolled 85

>>26755536
Rollin

Rolled 98

>>26755536
X-Rounder skills, don't fail us now! Not like you did every other time we've used you!

Rolled 72

>>26755536
Rolling

Rolled 69

>>26755536

Rolled 46

>>26755536
Man, the dice hate us.

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>>26755574
>>26755563
>>26755559
>>26755586
>>26755608
>49
>85, 98, 72, 69

Despite the Luna Gear being designed for better maneuverability under Lunar gravity, you aren't used to piloting under it. You boost too much and actually fly partially into the blast taking a direct hit on your left side.

The blast sends you flying backwards and you crash down onto the lunar surface, skidding back quite a ways.

Glad you wore a helmet, you quickly run a system's check and find that the left arm and left left leg of the Merlin are gone. On top of that some of the Merlin's visual sensors were damaged by the shot as well. Your Hyper DODS was thrown from your grip upon impact and you can't see it anywhere nearby.

You can't reload your weapon with only one arm so you're stuck with the empty EM Heavy Rifle, your beam Javelin, one Scissor Anchor, and the 2 barreled grenade launcher on the Merlin's right armor.

Looking at the combat situation you see that the small artillery units have begun to fire on the base, with the larger artillery units keeping Akito constantly on the move with their scatter and AA weapons.

Everyone else is still occupied with the Dorado's, although Asemu appears to have broken out the HY-DODS and nailed one.

>+10 Difficulty to all Sensor and Piloting Rolls
>Unable to Manually reload weapons

What do you wish to do Dirk?

>>26755751
Apologize to Merlin and let's find our HDODS and join Yurika in pushing back the Dorados.
Launch a grenade at the guys occupying Akito, he's the only one who can deal properly with the large artillery units.

>>26755751
Ouch, that's a bad one. If only we had an AGE-derived design, we could just grab some fresh limbs and plug them in. Too bad.

In the absence of modular repair technology, I guess the smart thing to do would be to work on the Dorados. We'll just have to leave the artillery to Akito. I say we move to reinforce Max and Obright. We should use the remaining scissor anchor to pull a Dorado out of formation as we leap over the group, kneeing it to death with the beam emitter or stabbing with the javelin.

Also, I just realized that it would be terrible if Zeheart showed up in this battle. Not because I don't want to fight him, but because I really don't want to give him a chance to crack jokes about how we keep losing limbs.

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>>26755964
Zeheart just lost his eye, and I doubt that he has a robot pal to replace it. Now, the Magicians 8...
You know, speaking of Zeheart, we should eventually tell him what Ezelcant's true goals are. Make him break sooner, maybe even get him to defect to our side once he realizes that his boss lied to him all this time. Then again, he might already know and is perfectly okay with it.

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>>26755848
>>26755964
Firing the Merlin's thrusters you manage to pull it out of the ground and get it up and moving again. You'll have to rely on your thrusters to move around now, if you were under any heavier gravity you'd be pretty screwed.

Searching for the Prototype HDODS doesn't yield anything and you quickly give up the search to help the others with the Dorados. Flying over to Max and Obright, you fire your single Scissor Anchor and begin to fly backward, ripping the Dorado from the group with a sharp jerk.

You'd expect the sudden lurch to disorient the pilot, but the Dorado manages to cut the line and land back on it's feet before you can get it into melee range. Now you know there's something about those heads that make them different.

Throwing up the Merlin's Right arm you fire a pair of grenades at the Dorado and nail it, blowing it to pieces. Asemu and Woolf appear to have handled their Dorado's and are starting to harass the artillery units. Obright and Max still have some to deal with, but Arisa is backing them up now.

Akito is still under AA and scatter shot fire from the Artillery unit, and has only been able to make get glancing shots at them.

What do you wish to do Dirk?

>>26756428
Give the 180 to Obright and let him have all our remaining clips. Let's clean up the Dorados.

>>26754913
You know, speaking of MaG, we do have the Sentinel system aboard the AGE-X, which was meant for controlling, interacting and communicating with other AIs. Maybe she was memory wiped because she was probably used to control entire armies of Anansi-like suits. That probably even explains why the AGE-X is so low-tech compared to other suits from that time period - if she goes berserk, it's going to be easier to shot her down. Or maybe there's a AGE-X upgrade pack hiding around somewhere.

>>26756428
Toss Max the Heavy EM Rifle and the spare magazines. He'll get better use of it than we would at this point. Fly over to Akito to support him. Have him give us one of the detachable HY-DODS to replace the one we lost, which will also free up the beam emitter for sweeping attacks. Those beam blades are long enough at full output to be a ranged weapon, he's close enough to at least threaten the artillery units into needing to relocate.

>>26756582
That sounds like a plan. Let's just keep our allies close, we don't want to get flanked by some asshole.

>>26756582
>>26756516
Dumping your 180mm and the ammo for Obright to use you fly over too support Akito, firing off a couple of grenades to throw up some dust and fuck up the Artillery units AA fire.

"Akito! Are those DODS Cannons of yours detachable?" You ask.

"Yeah, why loose your new toy already? Remind me never to loan you any of my vidfiles."

"Hey! Military equipment and entertainment items don't hold similar values in my...oh just give me the gun already!" Akito slides out one of the Hy-DODS Cannons, leaving only an emitter behind in it's place.

"That thing only has a couple of shots in it, so don't go firing like a mad man!" Akito say as he bolts out of the way, AA fire cutting close to hitting you.

You now have a handheld HY-DODS Cannon. It's only got 4 shots since it's not connected to the AGE-2's generator.

The others are still busy with the remaining Dorado's and the smaller Artillery units. What do you want to do Dirk?

>>26757152
The way we're lined up we can probably take out the AA units in just a few shots. Got to love overpenetration, right? Careful shots, lining up our targets to hit as many as possible with each blast. And then we deal with the heavy artillery. The Vagan artillery units have been shown to be really poor against melee, provided you can get in close enough. A charge in with the beam javelin could work, together with Asemu cutting things apart with the Ganymedecus and Akito using the large beam blades.

>>26757217
Seconding this.

>>26757217
>>26757224
You go for the smaller artillery units providing AA Fire. Aiming carefully as you dodge in and out of the fire you line up as many of them as possible and fire. Two of your shots miss due to jerking around so much, but you manage to hit two units each with the two remaining shots.

Discarding the empty cannon, you pull out your Beam Javelin.

"Asemu! Akito! Get your melee weapons ready, I think we can rush the main artillery units now. Those scrawny arms probably don't provide very good melee capabilities, go for the legs and stab the hell out of them!"

"Right!" The two respond.

The three of you rush the two remaining units. Akito ignites the exposed beam emitter of the Double Bullet into a HUGE beam saber. Pulling it back he slices through both of the artillery units legs, grounding them so you and Asemu and deliver the final blows.

After hitting your target, you fly back as the artillery unit explodes. Remaining above the battle field you take a moment to catch your breath, seeing that your enemies have been destroyed. And it only cost you and arm and a leg. That and tons of equipment, but you're sure Dique won't be to mad.

Suddenly a voice comes in over the comm.

(cont)

>>26757522
“Woolf Team. What is your status?” One of the operators aboard the Diva asks after noticing your last enemy had blown to smithereens.

“Just finished of a group of Vagans. Everyone appears to be alright.” Woolf reports back.

“Luna base is requesting reinforcements; do you wish to provide support?”

“I don’t know Woolf. These guys aren’t the last of the Vagans who are going to try and get here. Even LEVIATHAN forces are spread thin at the moment; if we leave I don’t think they’ll be able to cover this spot.” Akito states, gazing out into the distance where more artillery units could be cloaked and waiting.

“Yeah, but if we don’t leave and Luna Base is overwhelmed, it’ll kind of defeat the point of us protecting it from bombardment.” Woolf says, obviously thinking over his options.

“Well what if we split up?” Yurika suggests. “There are 8 of us here. 4 of us can go to the base and 4 of us can stay here and defend.”

It looks like everyone is sharing their thoughts on the matter. What do you think you should do Dirk?

>A) Stay put and defend the position.

>B) Abandon the position and move to reinforce the Luna base

>C) Split up the Team

>>26757555
How long would it take us to get the Merlin repaired? That kind of plays a big role in how close we need to stick to the Diva.

>>26757555
We aren't really of much help with the Merlin wrecked like this.
Does Luna base have repair facilities? If so, let's split up and get repaired over there while the better suits (the other Gundams) keep this position.

>>26757597
>>26757649
The Luna base has repair facilities. This kind of damage is pretty extensive, but considering how modular the Merlin is they could probably stick with you a spare arm and leg from a Genoace and make some minor repairs. It'd take thirty minutes tops, but it'd be temporary stuff. Full long term repairs would take a day or two at the least.

>>26757698
Great, let's get repaired and resupplied. Call ahead and tell them to prepare what we need. We should grab a shield and some of that anti-beam cloth. As for resupplying, let's grab what we have around here (we don't want the HDODS to fall into Vagan hands) and go back to get some ammo and grenades.

Can we somehow get supplies over here in the field? Or do we send someone over to Luna base to grab supplies for the team that stays behind? Also, how do we split?

>>26757816
Also, could we get a sitrep on the situation over there? If Luna base is under heavy attack, better send them some of our stronger suits, if it's not, let's keep some of them over here in case the Vagan try to flank us.

Going to the Luna base:
> Dirk (needs repairs).
> Woolf
> Asemu
> Arisa

Holding ground:
> Akito
> Yurika
> Obright
> Max

This okay with everyone?

>>26757816
>>26757981
At the moment there is no one free to deliver supplies, if you want them you'll have to get them yourself or have one of the others get them. Maybe you could ask Dique to bring down some supplies using a construction suit.

Asking the operator about the situation, you learn that the base is under heavy attack, but thankfully it's defense systems have kept the Vagan ships and most of the Vagan suits at bay, thus why they were trying to disrupt the system with artillery bombardments.

You have Asemu collect the discarded gear, finding your Prototype Hy-DODS rifle was snapped in two from the landing.

"I think we should split up, it makes sense to divide man power in a situation like this." You say, offering your opinion.

"Alright, we'll split up then. But who goes and who stays?" Woolf asks.

Well Dirk? No one besides you has taken any heavy damage and outside of ammo and minor repairs they just need to be resupplied.

Max- RGE-G1100TC Adele Titus Custom
Arisa- RGE-G1100STR Adele Stark Razor
Obright- RGE-B1000X Prototype Genoace III
Woolf- WMS-GB5 G-Bouncer
Yurika- AGE-1 Phoenix Gundam
Akito- AGE-2DB Double Bullet Gundam

>>26758454
Works for me. Akito's suit is still intact and has the heavy firepower needed for anti-artillery roles. With Obright as sniper support, Yurika's heavy beam cannons and Max's Samurai Adele they should be fine. Meanwhile, Team Cool Dudes can head to the base for repairs and reinforcement.

>>26758490
Are you in the QTGs irc tonight?

>>26758514
Okay then, we just need to figure out how we're going to do resupplying. Maybe we should establish a foothold over here, deliver some supplies at this location and dig in before we move to Luna base. Those craters would serve fine to provide some cover for the guys we leave behind. We could have Dique come over here to bring them, but he'll probably come under attack, so we need to provide some cover for him. Arisa and Asemu have the fastest suits around, they could guard him while he delivers supplies. Then, once we're resupplied and have established a foothold, we go over to Luna base.

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>>26758607
If we're establishing a foothold here, tell Dique to bring some shields for all the suits we're leaving behind.
And if we have some cowls, bring them as well. We need to increase our chances of survival.

>>26758582
I am now.

>>26758514
Going to the Luna base:
> Dirk (needs repairs).
> Woolf
> Asemu
> Arisa

Holding ground:
> Akito
> Yurika
> Obright
> Max

You leave, asking Dique to bring down as much supplies as he can, including shields and anti-beam cloaks. Flying away with Woolf, Asemu, and Arisa you journey to the Luna Base and land after giving a stressed out operator your landing codes.

You can see Fa Bose Class ships looming far in the distance, waiting for the moment the defense grid might go down. Entering into the hanger, overworked engineers begin to work and resupply your suits.

Eager to help you get out...

(Roll 1d100 vs Engineering skill. 80 or below will success. 81 or above will fail. 1 is a critical success and 100 is a critical failure)

Rolled 31

>>26758753
Rolling.

Rolled 42

>>26758753
Rolling.

Rolled 53

>>26758753
Let's do this.

Rolled 47

>>26758753
Nat 100 incoming.

Rolled 76

>>26758753

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Rolled 69

>>26758753
Let's do this.

>>26758772
>>26758785
>>26758828
>>26758960
>>26759032
31, 42, 53, 47, 76

You help the engineers to get the repairs done in half the time. The Genoace arm and leg aren't going to work very well on your Merlin, but it's better then nothing.

Once everyone is resupplied you leave the hanger and ask the nearby Adele pilot on what do to.

"It was pretty rough a couple minutes ago, they were storming our defense like crazy a couple minutes ago. Maybe they're think of finally-" Suddenly you feel your mobile suit shake. Turning around you see a plume of metal and debris throw into the air, probably by an explosion.

Suddenly, the lights of the base suddenly die off. Automated turrets stop firing and everything just goes dead.

"Oh good god they hit the generator!" The Adele pilot exclaims. "They'll be coming any minute, all of them probably! If we don't get the generator fixed..."

What will you do Dirk?
>Stay and Fight
>Leave the others to fight and go to try and fix the generator
>Suggest evacuating the base.

>>26759316
Let's fix that generator. Also, this time, carry a gun with you in case Zeheart or some Anansi decide to jump you.

>>26759358
This. I was going to suggest we take a gun last time, but I didn't want us to seem paranoid to Dique. Not going to make that mistake this time.

>>26759421
Yeah, but I seriously didn't expect them to launch a goddamn suit into our ship. Or for Zeheart to escape and blow our arm off.

>>26759540
Was there an investigation into his escape while we were unconscious? Because he had been shot in the legs and his cell was in the gravity block. Even if he spat acid over the bars to melt them, how did he get to the armory and then the airlock without anyone stopping him? Who on the Diva is working for the Vagans?

>>26759763
Holy shit you're right. We never investigated how he escaped, we were too busy preparing for the attack. Maybe they ran an official investigation, but we have no clue what happened, or how did Zeheart manage to get to his suit. We have a traitor aboard. And... My guess? It's Yurika.

And another frighting thought - Zeheart was severely wounded when he escaped. And he still managed to fight off Flit and wreck Federation ships.

>>26759763
>>26759540
>>26759421
>>26759358
"What the hell was was that?" Asemu asks.

"Didn't seem like artillery, we would have seen it coming" Arisa mutters.

"How bad are things going to get if we don't get things back up and running?" Woolf asks the soldier.

"They were using suicide runs to try and hit the defense directly earlier. I don't WANT to think about what they're going to throw at us now that the defenses aren't working." The Adele trooper replies.

"I'll go and try to get the generator up and running! You guys stay here and hold down the fort!" You say, flying off towards the base.

"Hey! Who's the commander here?" Woolf yells after you, but lets you go.

The generator is housed inside of the base so you're forced to leave the Merlin in the hanger with a locked OS. You bring your handgun and an assult rifle you packed under your seat for emergencies.

Entering the base through and airlock you pass through security and into the lower levels without any problems...which worries you immensely because no one was at the checkpoint.

There are three places to go, the security office for this section of the base, the sub-offices, or the generator room itself. An explosion that could be seen from the surface probably denotes a rather large explosion, meaning the generator room was probably spaced in the process, however the fact it wasn't done by an external force denotes sabotage.

Where do you wish to go Dirk?

>>26760086
Call Woolf.
"Yo, Commander? Somebody sabotaged this place. If you don't hear from me in a while, send another nanobot to repair me."

Let's go see the security office, maybe they have some footage of what happened.

>>26760086
We're still in our pilot suit, right? So we're capable of going into unsealed areas. Let's check the generator room first for any signs of tampering.

>>26760368
Oh absolutely. You're not stupid enough to take off your piloting suit, not after all the crap you've been dealing with. Besides, it's kind of a pain to take off anyway.

>>26760145
You walk to the security office, noticing the lack of people. Upon entering the small security office you noticed the place is a mess. Monitors are smashed, cabinets tipped over, it's obvious someone stormed in here and screwed things up.

However you're smart enough to search further and now that MID is part of your hand the ability to review video footage is literally at the tips of fingers!

Recovering the hard drive from one of the computers you plug it into MID and have him tell you everything that happened in the last 30 minutes.

"Intruders! Machine men and someone in red!" Mid explains.

"Great, Zeheart. Just what I needed. How many of them were there?"

"Only four of them."

"What about everyone? Did he take hostages?"

"Yes but I think they're all dead due to the decompression..."

"Can you get in contact with the security headquarters here on base? Maybe I could get some..."

"Signals are being blocked! The source is coming from the generator room!"

"Great. Well looks like I'll have to take care of Zeheart myself..." You say with a sigh. Well, at least you have MID with you. So you and MID vs Zeheart and three robot spider-soldier things. Seems fair.

What's your plan of action Dirk?

>>26760558
"MID, crazy question here: Can you interface with the circuitry in my limiter glasses? Last time would have gone a lot better if I could have mind-blasted Zeheart, but that would have exposed me to vacuum. When I give you the signal, can you disable the glasses and let me cause an X-Wave feedback?"

>>26760558
What the fuck. How is he even moving with shot kneecaps? Is he a Vagan Superman or something?

Whatever, we have 2 points in small arms, no way we're going to deal with them on our own. We're most likely to end up shooting ourselves or getting torn to shreds by robot spiders. Is there a way to hack into the security and lock them wherever they are? We could get back to the Merlin and try hacking / intimidating from there, I guess.

>>26760818
Mind blasts? Okay, that'd take care of Zeheart, but what about the Anansi?

>>26760821
At this rate, by the time he joins up or finally bites it, he'll be a head on a robot body. We just keep shooting bits off of him.

>>26761094
Sounds like Baxter Stockman.

>>26761094
He's a cyborg like Rysis already, isn't he. Great, now we're dealing with a psychic cyborg sociopath.

Could we somehow rig the generator to disable him and the robot spiders? Preferably from afar, so that MID doesn't bite it as well?
Actually, wait, let MID compare the machine men to those things that were flying around the Magicians 8. Maybe they're X-Rounder controlled, and if so, we can fry or wrestle them from his command.

>>26761224
You know, it occurs to me that an EMP bolt would knock out humans as well as disable electronics. Or kill them, depending on how close they were to it. Brains are conductive, too, and there isn't much room to put shielding in a pilot suit. How big is the EMP mechanism in the bolts? If we could remove it, rig it to a rover and drive it remotely into the breach we could incapacitate everything in there.

>>26761344
...or we get a goo grenade instead. EMP bolts might actually fry the generator and local electronics, which is something we're here to fix, not fuck up.
Get close, blow up, and then we move in with the assault rifle and clean up the remaining bots. And capture Zeheart covered in goo.

>>26761449
Yeah, that's probably safer. I forget we have those, sometimes.

>>26761449
..this is also turning into a theme with him. Grenades and shooting a part of him. Bet he'll think it's a flash grenade and NOPE GOOP FOR YOU TRAITOR BOY! TIME TO CAP YOUR LEFT HAND.

>>26761538

Remember Baxter from that other TMNT show? He kept losing body parts until he was just a face on a tv screen.

And yes at one point, Baxter was a head on a robot body.

>>26761645
yeesh.. if I remember correctly he died as a crazy frankenstein thing talking to his momma in his head... and now I am picturing our masked pretty boy doing the same.

>>26761528
Now the only problem is getting a rover here somehow in time.
Do we go back to the Merlin and try to override their jamming to call Dique to send us one of those over?

>>26761538
Man, Zeheart's a mess. First the knees, then the eye and an unknown body part, now who knows what else.
That said, we're assuming it's Zeheart. For all we know, it could be some other dude in red. Like Arabel. Or his dick of a dad.

>>26761645
You know, considering how we're blowing off pieces of him every time we cross paths, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up as a head on a robotic body.

>>26761756
It would be a terrible end seeing Mrs. Galette carting around what's left of her son, or rather the head attached to a crazy frakenstein thing.

It's too Katejina-esque of an end.

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>>26760818
"I think I might be able to interface with your glasses but I don't know if it'll work properly..." MID warns.

"I'll make do. I'm sure I'll be able to handle myself." You say, checking your guns before making your way to the airlock leading to the generator room.

Upon leaving the airlock you already see how fucked up things are. The walkway is destroyed, the emergency lights are flickering, the foundation is cracked and in some places rather unstable.

Entering the main room you see what's left of the generator, with a menacing red mobile suit standing in the middle of it, a rather large hole in the ceiling. The light from outside illuminates the interior, allowing you to see three spider robots crawling over the auxiliary generator as Zeheart watches from atop the destroyed generator. Sensing your presence he turns to face you.

"Dirk? My, my we just keep running into each other don't we?" You see he's wearing some kind of mask, looks phantom of the opera-ish.

"Yeah, it's like we're mortal enemies or something. So what are you up too?" You say, assult rifle at the ready.

"Oh nothing much, just destroying the last chance for this base to recover it's defense systems. So how's your arm?"

"Fine, probably not the same for your balls though. I'm sure you can get a replacement eye, but a replacement ball? Even that's a stretch for Vagan technology." You say with a smug smile, burying your anger.

Zeheart doesn't seem very amused by this. Reaching into his pocket he pulls out some kind of detonator and pulls the trigger. The three spider robots explode causing the roof above the auxiliary generator to collapse.

"Enough games Dirk. I still see you as a friend, and I'm very sorry for our bloody fight earlier. I want to give you a peaceful death that's why I'm making this one on one. I'll make sure to kill you time, you don't have a pet spider to save you." Zeheart raises a pistol at you.

"Your move Dirk."

What do you wish to do Dirk?

>>26761869
Fuck, that's horrible. And the poor guy is probably broken and only able to utter "Eden" and is completely unaware of anything going on around him.

>>26761976
"Aw, come on, don't be like that. I mean, if you shoot me, you lose the chance to see your parents again."
"After all, they're safe and sound on Zarth after dad and your brother saved them."

>>26762033
"Aw, come on, don't be like that. I mean, if you shoot me, you lose the chance to see your parents again. After all, they're safe and sound on Zarth after dad and your brother saved them."

Zeheart freezes up at this.

"Trust me Zeheart, I'm not one to lie. I wouldn't be tell you this if I didn't know it would-"

"Idiot." Zeheart says with a shake of his head.

"What?" You ask, honestly confused.

"You think I hadn't thought of that? Stealing them away? I could have done that with sheer force years ago! Do you know why I didn't? Because of the implants in their skulls. If they're away from the Garden for more then 24 hours they begin damaging the brain..." You can't see Zehearts eyes but you can tell he's crying. "You don't have my parents...you have a pair of fucking vegetables!!" Zeheart opens fire on you, forcing you to leap off catwalk and into the rubble below for cover.

What now Dirk?

>>26761976
Oh, motherfucker! THAT's the high-speed mobile suit he was talking about? Well, I'm glad he's doing this on foot instead of in a mobile suit, I don't want to fight the Ghirarga in a damaged Merlin.

"Oh shut up, Zeheart. You do this every time. Always going on about how you'll give me a peaceful death, then pointing a gun at me. Why can't you just hold me already? It wasn't you I was jealous of when I saw you kissing Yurika, it was her. You never look at me like that. What, was seducing me not a good enough way to gather intel? Even if it was just for the mission, it would still have made me happy. I...I love you, Zeheart."

And then when he's confused by our going gay for him we get MID to drop our limiter. Homophobia is the one true path to victory.

>>26762137
>ls. If they're away from the Garden for more then 24 hours they begin damaging the brain..."

OH HELL NO!

>>26762137
Fuck. Ezelcant is pure evil.

"They're not vegetables yet, damn it! There's still time, there's still something we can do! We can save them, Zeheart!"
"I'll let dad know, he'll find a way to help them. We'll find a way to help them. You have to believe me, for fuck's sake."

"Don't give up, man. We'll save them. We'll save everybody."
"Just who the hell do you think we are?"

>>26762137
...son of a bitch. That bastard is pretty damn tricky. He knew this would hap- wait. He said 24 hours. How many hours has it been since we rescued them? Not only that.. but the nano machines.. we may actually be able to save them.

Still, we can't stop now. We have a psychopath who thinks he's winning AND avenging his parents. We are going to have to disable him one last time.. also, it's funny how he acts like we DON'T have MID with us.

>>26762361
>Just who the hell do you think we are?
No. Pls no. We don't need another reason for him to hate us if it fails.

>>26762442
Okay, okay, fair enough. Let's try to calm the fucker down at first.
Then, if that fails, mind blasts everywhere.

>>26762137
"Really, now? Because you sure did a good job of convincing me that I absolutely HAD to go save them. Seriously, the Magicians 8 are your siblings, and only doing this because they're being blackmailed by Ezelcant like you are? That was a nice trick, telling that to Desil. Clearly you wanted us to recover them. Not that I don't believe you about the brain implants. You're right, if you could get them by force you would have a long time ago. You never wanted them to be rescued, did you?

"No, you wanted them dead. Let's face it, Zeheart, you don't want to survive this and reclaim Eden for Vagan. You want to die. That's why you keep talking about giving the people you care about peaceful deaths, it's all you can think of. Death is a gift, right? You've been Ezelcant's slave for so long that ending everything is the only way you can think of stopping the pain. You tell yourself that everyone has to die for the sake of the plan because you're not brave enough to do it for yourself.

"I can help you, Zeheart. We did it for your brother. We can do it for you. And should you prove to be truly irreparable, I'll make sure your death is a good one. But first you have to come with me, and I don't think you're strong enough to lay down your gun on your own. MID, disable the limiters, then detach and make sure he doesn't get back up for a while.

>>26762361
>>26762334
>>26762326
"They're not vegetables yet, damn it! There's still time, there's still something we can do! We can save them, Zeheart! I'll let dad know, he'll find a way to help them. We'll find a way to help them. You have to believe me, for fuck's sake. Don't give up, man. We'll save them. We'll save everybody." You say, as something clatters down the rubble pile nearby and lands at your feet.

GRENADE!

You leap behind another rubble pile moments before it explodes.

"No! You can't save anybody Dirk, not in the present! I'm going to build a better world on the ashes of this one! I couldn't save my parents but when I'm through no one will have to suffer like I have!"

You grit your teeth. You promised Yurika you wouldn't kill him, but mind-raping him is nonlethal!

"MID NOW!" You yell as MID disengages your X-Limiter, allowing you to focus all of your energy on Zehearts mind as you step out of cover.

Only...nothing happens. You look up to see Zeheart is un-phased, your attack didn't reach him!

Before you can do anything else Zeheart fires his pistol, nailing you right in the gut. The pain causes you to fold over, pain flaring throughout your body.

You look up to see Zeheart priming a grenade, ready to throw it down...but he stops.

He looks at you and then at the grenade before tossing it away into a far off rubble pile.

"I'll let you live because you were kind enough to TRY and save my parents. You had no way of knowing Ezelcant's countermeasures. We are still enemies Dirk but...thank you for trying. If you and your family leave the battlefield I might be able to have them spared. Think about the future Dirk, because in the end that's what really matters..." Zeheart turns away and boards his mobile suit before you can reply. Closing the cockpit he flies through the hole in the ceiling and leaves you in the dark, clutching your wound...

(And this is were we will stop for today! I think I'm back in the groove of things!)

>>26762587
Remember to turn off the radio before we say that last line. No need to give him any warning.

>>26762326
Oh come on. Everybody knows that Zeheart's totally gay for Asemu.

>>26762587
Perfect. Let's roll with this.

>>26762609
God fucking damn it, we got shot again.

>>26762671
Why are our pilot suits not armored? Why is that not a standard feature?!

>>26762609
See you next time, Crosswire. Tonight was damn fun.

>>26762688
I don't know man. I guess they don't expect pilots to step out of their cockpits. Or he's using armor-piercing ammunition.
Maybe the same rounds that blow our arm clean off at close range.

>>26762609
Welp. Zeheart is pretty much nonredeemable now. Even if we DID save them, he's went full 'Paradise' now... on the plus side, Dirk could make for a pretty good pirate with his mechanical are and soon to be iron liver.

>>26762731
Also, I archived a while ago, so no worries. Night guys.

>>26762766
Actually, yeah. And we do have a suit with not-hooks on it.
Dirk as the leader of Bisidian. I'm okay with that.

As for Zeheart, I guess you're right. He's too far gone at this moment.
I wouldn't be surprised if he tries overtaking Ezelcant just so he can create Eden.

>>26762609
Man, fuck this. I'm sick of these interactions. Okay, first thing we do with the nanites: carbon nanotube pilot suit with shear thickening fluid underlayer. No more bullets. Bullets don't get to happen anymore. Hell, work with MID to weave nanotubes through our flesh for direct reinforcement.

Then, origami bots. Idea I've seen in a lot of transhumanist sci-fi. Nanomachine motors and computers on a diamondoid sheet, folds up into a little packet and then unfolds into a robot. Next time we see Zeheart on foot we throw a pack of cards up into the air and have them deploy into dozens of killer paper airplanes.

Next, mobile suit combat. He has the Ghirarga now. Fuck. Hopefully the X-Transmitter for the particle bits hasn't been built yet, but we can't count on that. We need to upgrade the Merlin to a ridiculous degree. By the time it's done I don't want a Merlin, I want a god damn Gandalf. I've got a whole list of cool ideas for nanotech that I want to use. Done properly we will destroy him. We'll leave him alive, but we're making sure he never again gets the chance to shoot us after we tried to reason with him.

>>26762925
Well, we are at Luna base at the moment. Hopefully when we recover and find out who the damn spy on the Diva is, we can snoop around and maybe uncover some pre-war tech. That is, if we have time and don't go to some colony or other for supplies only to find Zeheart again.

As for ideas, shoot. I want to talk upgrades.

>>26763035
Oh good, the upgrade discussions are my favorite part. It's all the fun of engineering without actually having to do the boring equations. Especially since I actually work in the field of nanotech, so this is like giving me the keys to a candy store.

Okay, armor needs to be as strong as we can make it. Traditional nanoassembled armor in sci-fi is based on carbon allotropes, but I think we should go with corundum, instead. It's nearly as strong, deals with heat(like from Vagan plasma weapons) much better, and the aluminum and oxygen its made of is much cheaper on the moon than carbon. So, top layer of corundum. Next layer is where the carbon allotropes come in, as a sheet of graphene. Serves as a spall liner, and is very conductive to both electricity and heat, so it both grounds the suit and helps eliminate thermal wear. Final layer is a "sludge" of nano-assemblers to both serve as a shock absorber and repair minor damage. I doubt we'll get true regeneration, but repairing holes in the armor to keep integrity up is probably attainable.

Traditional sensors are scrapped. Instead we use optical phased arrays. Phased arrays require emitters the same size as the wavelength of light used, so in the modern day we can only really get microwaves systems out of them. But with nanotech you could make the emitters small enough to use visible-range light, giving really good lidar capabilities. Other possibilities for the use of phased array optics are hologram emitters and lasers, so if we covered the whole suit in them we could have incredible sensors, stealth, and be one giant death ray. But that's not something we're going to get so soon. Next generation, maybe.

>Continued

>>26763464
Weapons-wise, I'm tempted to make dissembler fog, but again, that's complex enough that we probably won't get it made until next generation. Still, we may be able to make active blades. Swords with edges made of simple dissemblers. Like a chainsaw that cuts at the molecular level. Much simpler in construction than grey goo, so we can probably whip some up. Likewise, polymorphic weapons that can reshape themselves inside the target could be very effective. Something like a carbon nanofiber spike that becomes motile and flails about internally after penetration. And of course there's always using the efficiencies in energy storage and superconductor production that nanotech provides to make for improved beam blades.

For ranged weapons, the HY-DODS Rifle is here to stay. It's a good weapon. It could do with enhancement to the power and cooling systems, and maybe a direct reactor link located in the palms to ensure continued fire. All much easier to do with advanced materials synthesis, cheap superconductors and nano-flywheels and hypercapacitors to store energy. The Heavy EM Rifle can probably be shortened considerably with improved accelerator design, and we could use the same principles as the polymorphic blade to make a slug that's highly armor piercing but expands inside the target to ensure total energy transfer. Alternatively, nano-flywheels and superconductive capacitors can store much more energy than chemical power sources, making them a potential warhead for explosive bolts. And dissembler goo bolts would probably be too hard to make, but may be possible and would be positively terrifying.

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>>26763464
Pretty cool, though those things are probably going to be only used on the Gundams in Gen-3. I doubt that the Feds could afford to outfit regular mooks with such tech. Yet.

Speaking of holograms, they already are a thing on Vagan, maybe even in Federation space. We could perhaps outfit some units with hologram projectors that serve to distract or create decoys that the enemy will target instead of actual troops. Or just use them as ineffective cloaking / image distortion system - so far, most suits have some sort of detection and radar system, but the pilot is still required to take aim, which is a bitch when the suit appears to change shape. Or just flash uncontrollably.

Kinda like Eldar holo-fields. Much cheaper than actually creating an entire nanotech suit, and can be upgraded to allow stealth for the regular mobile suits.

>>26763656
Thrusters-wise, we finally have the chance to imitate the systems the Black Raven uses, meaning ridiculous speed is go. Maybe we could use something involving quantum levitation to make the thruster flow more efficient, too. But that's pie in the sky stuff. Quantum levitation probably wouldn't work at those temperatures, current systems using it have to be pretty cold. Though we could always switch to light thrusters entirely and just run them at high power levels. With the materials tech nanotechnology provides we can keep the fusion reactor stable at much higher reactivities, giving a lot more power. We might even be able to do the multiple miniature reactor idea from a while back when we first reverse-engineered the Farsia. Whatever we do, matching the Ghirarga's output should be well within our capabilities.

Non-armor defensive tech is also a big area for improvement. The phased array optics should be able to give off false sensor signatures, so ECM is a definite. Fire control and early warnings systems can be improved in a number of ways from the new sensors, but require a lot of processing power. We'll need to mass-produce the quantum computers MID and Ma G use and install them throughout the frame. Combine that with the improved OS Dirk's working on and we might be able to get a non-Newtype psychoframe. Muscle tracer suits like from G-Gundam are within our capabilities, and the phased array optics can improve the panoramic cockpit, so much better control. Oh, and before I forget, the same improved power, cooling, and magnetic confinement systems we have in the weapons and reactor should make for more viable beam shields, maybe with emitters throughout the body to guard from multiple angles.

I'm not expecting Crosswire to get away with all these upgrades right off the bat, or at all, but even if we get just a tenth of what I've laid out here we can make the Merlin capable of matching Zeheart's early access to a 3rd gen suit.

>>26763656
As for weapons, we could always use a bigger damage output, and those things sound nasty.

It would be cool to have some sort of ion or photon based weaponry. Photon weapons would completely avoid the Vagan EM field, and deal a lot of heat damage to them. Ion based weapons would probably short-circuit their suits, or overcharge their EM fields forcing them to explode. Maybe some sort of attachment to the DODS weapons that ionizes the fired particles.

Also, considering how we're going to deal with swarms of spider robots, some sort of net weaponry would be in order - I was going to suggest a weapon that bonces a current from one target to another (think chain lighting) but those things would lead to a lot of friendly fire, so something that'd net and deal quite a shock to the captured enemy. Or, you know, fusion-based flamethrowers that melt everything and can be used in space.

>>26763965
Actually, if we do replicate those quantum computers, we could make some dumbed-down AIs to control various systems. Kinda like the Reapers - more AIs working together to accomplish certain goals, each one doing one and only one job it is specialized to do. Have one AI control balancing and movement, another improve the targeting, the third one could be focused on recognizing threats and advising strategies, and the fourth one can be used for automated mounted on the frame. The pilot is still in control, but it essentially comes down to the AIs calculating and predicting the course of the battle and allowing rookies to match seasoned Aces.

And if we're going into insane tech, we could make miniature recycling units inside our EM weapons. Never running out of ammo again. Or just launching molten metal at some fuckers at nearly the speed of light, breaking ships apart.

>>26764174
A Thanix Rifle would be pretty awesome to have, I can't deny that. Ammo-recyclers are probably possible, too. It wouldn't be able to be built directly into the rifle, too inefficient with that space constraint. But having a chain-fed EM Rifle should be doable. Nanoassembler on the backpack, creates new ammo from scavenged materials. We probably wouldn't be able to do the more complicated ammo types with that, but it would still have a lot of versatility.

As for the AIs, that's more or less what I was thinking. Might not be necessary, though. We probably won't get it built in time for the current generation, and by Gen 3 our Gundam is going to be an Evangelion. It's still worth checking out, but I'd rather spend our time on terrifying nanotech. That's more my area of expertise, so I can better come up with ideas for it.

>>26764309
Fair enough. Mine is software, so I guess the AIs are my turf.

For example, self-propagating viruses transmitted through communication channels. Considering how we're going to use advanced computers that do insane calculations in matter of nanoseconds, I guess transferring such data to enemy suits won't be a problem. Advanced ECM units that constantly change and evolve will also be possible, neutralizing the chance of enemy hacking, while allowing our command suits to wreck havoc on enemy coordination and communication. And it'd be possible to evolve Jake's OS into a truly learning system capable of adapting to each pilot's personal preferences, increasing their performance on the field. Hell, it'd even be possible to do advanced predictions that in a way replicate X-Rounder powers, giving the pilot information on what to avoid and when.

As for chain-fed weapons, it's odd we don't have those already. Not with the whole recycler thing, just a pretty large belt that feeds ammo to our EM weapons. Maybe we could make one of those for Max - considering how he's using a modified Titus wear, he could easily lug around some heavy ordinance like a double EM Gatling or something like that.