>Last time on Freelance Ghost Quest: You finished your meditation with your psi senses, slept and met with the Protoss again while sleeping. You trained your shooting skills and diplomanced Mittens so it and the rest of the stalkers will leave you and Frontier alone as long as no one else comes to the temple again. You managed to convince Haverdam to accept this by reminding him of the other ruins on the planet.

It’s late enough that Murphy should be back at the machine shop. You figure you’ll pay her a visit and ask her about her progress on the wraith. A short walk later, you find her husband, Tom, working on some piece of machinery at the front of the shop. He greets you as you approach

“Ah, you’re be here for Mariah? She’s in the back, working on that crappy gate mechanism Ethan keeps wrecking.” He continues muttering about them not supposed to be handled with CMC hands when he goes back to work.

As you step into the building, you are greeted with a string of curses and swearing even the drill sergeants you had in your youth would get uncomfortable. Murphy cheers up a considerable amount when she finally notices you. “Oh, hey Arty, how you doing?”

>1. “Arty?”
>2. Ask her about her progress with the wraith.
>3. Ask her about the swearing.
>4. Write in.

>2
+
Artemis but my friends call me "arty"?

>>31645160

>1. “Arty?”
>2. Ask her about her progress with the wraith.

damn, right as I'm heading to bed, good luck fellow anons

>>31645223
>>31645253
Writing.

“Wait, Arty? People call me Arty?”

“Well, Artemis is a bit long to keep calling you, I shortened it to Arty. Why, you don’t like it?”

You hesitate for a moment. “I’m not sure. I’ll think about it. Anyway, I came to check on the wraith. How did it go?”

“Pretty well, all things considered. She’s capable of flying right now, but you won’t really have any improvements until the other parts arrive in two or three days. I must say though, daaaamn that’s a nice ship. Real shame it doesn’t have a cloak field generator. Even without it though, I could just tear that baby down and build her right up again for months. Well, no, I need too many…” And at that point, she devolves into rapid fire jargon again, and aside from the fact that she did what you asked her to and that she’s ecstatic to work on a military piece of hardware like this.

“So erm…” You try to squeeze some words in between her rant. “Thanks for the help.”

>Anything more you want to add in?
>1. Ask her about the rest of the modifications she could do while waiting for parts.
>2. Leave and do something else (specify what).
>3. Write in.

>>31645551
>1. Ask her about the rest of the modifications she could do while waiting for parts.

>>31645608
Writing

You ask Murphy about what she could do to your wraith while she’s waiting for the parts.

“Well, I’m kinda busy until tomorrow with my regular work, and I think the only thing I can do in just a day and with no extra materials is that laser efficiency. I could also order some extra parts if you want me to work on something else, but I doubt they’ll manage to still add it to this delivery so you’d have to wait another week or so.”

>Options:
>Let her improve the laser efficiency (takes a bit more than a day, 100 credits. Lasers will be slightly more powerful)
>Let her order parts so she can reroute power generator to lasers and engines. It takes 3 days in total, and half the work can be done without extra parts, but you won’t be able to use the wraith then until it’s finished. Extra parts will only be delivered in 9 days from now, so Murphy would only start working on it in 7 and a half days. Costs 600 credits. You won’t be able to install a Cloak generator without reversing the chances, which would take more work than this. Effect: Fuel efficiency will be upgraded significantly.

>1. Lasers.
>2. Wait and do generator.
>3. Do both.
>4. Wait for now.

Extra vote: What are you going to do now?
>A. Train something (specify)
>B. Go shopping.
>c. Write in.

>>31645910
>1
>A
train athletics a bit?

>>31645910
>1. Lasers.
>B. Go shopping.

File: Tie.jpg (50 KB, 560x640)

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>>31646002
>>31646019
Tie. Will roll for tiebreaker in 3 minutes if it isn't broken.

Rolled 2

>>31646066
Rolling.
>1 = A: athletics
>2. = B: Shopping.

>>31646002
This I don't think there's much we need to buy right now

>>31646116
Writing for shopping.

>>31646121
my thoughts exactly, but unfortunate timing

>>31646121
then you should have voted, but you can take my spot now as I'm falling asleep on my keyboard

“It would be nice if you could do the lasers for now.”

You pay Murphy for her work, and leave her be. As soon as you turn away, she starts hammering and cursing on the broken keypad she was working on before. You give a quick nod to Tom as you leave.

You head to the marketplace to find some new gear. You’re thinking on stocking up on a bit of extra ammo, considering you used up some on your practice, and might be using some more soon anyway. You’ve also been thinking about getting a computer of some sorts with a hypernet uplink. That way you could look up things and stay up to date on the rest of the galaxy without having to rely on a pub’s television.

>Sorry, forgot to give an update on credits last post:
>You currently have 969 credits.

>1. Restock on ammo (buy until you’re back at 5 extra sets of ammo for both hunting rifle and revolvers, will cost you 16 credits)
>2. Restock and buy extra ammo (specify how much, hunting rifle ammo costs 5 per clip, revolver 3 per set)
>3. Look for a small and cheap computer for sale.
>4. Write in.

>>31646231
>1
>3
>more stuff that you can cook
but not to expensive please, we'll need our money for other stuff

>>31646231
>1
>3
I thought the Adjutants were computers themselves?

>>31646231
>2
>3

We use 2 clips of each in practice, best to stalk up.

>>31646305
Yes, but they don't have a hypernet uplink.It has a pretty big database on a lot of things, mostly military, but to avoid them being hackable remotely, they do not have hypernet access. Almost any computer you buy here will be worthless compared to your adjutant if not for that.

>>31646272
>>31646305
>>31646398
Writing.

>>31646404

could we hardline connect our adjutant to the cheap computer to link it the hypernet when we need it's processing power for data mining and hacking?

You quickly stock up on ammo again. The merchant smiles a lot, and pretends the normal prices are a discount again like last time.

>You now have 953 credits. I realised I didn’t say anything about the cooking materials list time so I’m just gonna give that as a freebie.

After that, you look around to find something hypernet-capable, and while it takes a while to find something selling it, you eventually find a stall that sells electronics. You disregard the weirder gizmos, and look around what options you have for computers.

>1. The V23 super X-ile 1000. For all your gaming needs. Pretty big case, but it looks awesome and sleek. 800 credits.
>2. Handheld PDA. Glorified calculator but it has hypernet access. Comes with a wristband you can attach it to. 100 credits.
>3. Tablet pc. About the size of a modern day average tablet. Decent specs across the board but nothing too fancy. 190 credits.
>4. Nothing for now.

>>31646521
Might be possible. There might be a risk of damaging your gear or your pc though, but if you research it a bit that risk might be lowered, if you're willing to spend time on it.

>>31646543
>2 The PDA please

>>31646543
>2. Handheld PDA. Glorified calculator but it has hypernet access. Comes with a wristband you can attach it to. 100 credits.
Probably find a way to upgrade it later

>>31646543
>3
Tablet PC means we have video. We should ask our mechanic About this at some point.

>>31646543

>3

PDA is probably only worth getting to strip for parts to try giving our Adjutant Hypernet connectivity...

>>31646583
>>31646603
>>31646672
Aww, seems like none of you want to game.

Writing.

>>31646735
>>31646738
Oops. Well, it's before my post, so it counts. Tie. Waiting another 3 minutes for a tie breaker.

Rolled 2

>>31646758
Rolling for it then.
>1 = PDA.
>2 = Tablet.

>>31646829
Tablet it is then. Writing.

>>31646735
We could break the adjutant. Lets hold off.

>>31646574
>>31646521

>data mining and hacking

That doesn't sound very useful in our present setting and with the enemies we will be facing though. I'd keep the option open as an idea what to kill time with after we've dealt with Primus.

You decide the tablet will get the most out of your money. It also has a camera built in, which could prove useful, and it’ll be a fairly regular thing to carry around and do things with should you have to do something in public. Plus it’s still easily tucked away somewhere in your suit.

The young man behind the counter starts babbling and trying to persuade you to buy a slightly better, quite more expensive model, but after a solid eight minutes of talking, you manage to convince him that, no, you won’t be needing the camera with extra pixel-thingies. No, you’re perfectly happy with a lower number of whatever abbreviation that was.

>You now have 763 credits.

>It’s about 3:30 in the afternoon.
>1. Train something (specify)
>2. Use your new pc to find out some more things about the Dominion.
>3. Use your new pc to find out clues to where there might be files on the ghost conditioning.
>4. Write in.

>>31646933
It could be plausible to cook up something so you could plug in and unplug the hypernet node whenever you need it.

>>31646964
>2
>1 Athletics is important for our health

>>31646964

Athletics, maybe with some extra helping of psionics on the move.

In regards to other options, I can imagine how it would go
>Kopruluchan:
>Anonymous: how do I get rid of ghost conditioning
>Anonymous: You can start by introducing metal object into your skull
>Anonymous: Tits or GTFO
>Anonymous: check 'em
>Anonymous: So you are one of the ghosts? Please tell me more, tell me where you're from and what missions you've been on. You can trust me, I'm not a newguy.

>>31646964
Fist, lets use or knowledge of computers to make sure the computer is secure. Clear off the spyware, tape over the camera, that sorry of thing.

>>31646964
>1. Train something (specify)
Body
Then
>2. Use your new pc to find out some more things about the Dominion.

>>31646997
>>31647083
>>31647129
>>31647156
Writing.

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>>31647083
Heh

>>31647172
Also, will take a bit longer since it was basically a unanimous vote to do 1 and 2 after each other.

You take your new pc home for a moment, and fiddle with it a bit. You’ve never had an actual pc before, but you’ve had your fair share of hacking into one. Even if that was physically, and with help of your adjutant, you know more or less what to look for, and make sure it will resist most hacking attempts, and keep if free of malware and viruses. The paranoid in you also makes you tape over the camera, even if it can be physically turned away. The turning mechanism can probably be accessed through the software too, you figure.

Once you’re satisfied with your new security measures, you hide it away in a cupboard and go out into the forest again. Your training site has recovered a bit more, but it seems the trees still take a while to regrow. You can’t find any trace of the bullet holes you left in the trees earlier this morning though.

At first, you train your raw strength. You pick up some smaller boulders and use them as dumbells. That works fine, and the main problem you have is the lack of handholds. After that, you decide to bench press the larger boulder, despite lack of bench. After a short while, you feel like you can gauge your strength a lot better already, and decide to switch to acrobatics and athletics.

The trees around your training spot are fairly low, so you dash through the forest as quickly as you can, jumping over boulders and plants, and under low hanging branches. Here and there, you disturb animals, but they seem to leave you alone and prefer running away from you over attacking. You manage to build up some speed, and once you reach an area with higher trees, you use your speed to fling yourself upwards and climb into the trees. There, you swing from tree to tree, and you get an odd temptation to scream at the top of your lungs. You dismiss it as the adrenaline talking.

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>>31647544
>Forgot my pic. Here it is, one post late.

After a long and exhausting training session, you head back to your home, grabbing something to eat along the way. You would have tried cooking a bit more, but you’re physically spent, and need some food in your stomach as fast as possible. As you eat, you take your tablet out of the cupboards and start looking up a bit on this new Terran Dominion and its new leader, Arcturus Mengsk.

What you find worries you. Or rather, what you don’t find. It seems someone went through a lot of trouble scrubbing Mengsks’ files clean of dirt. You do manage to find something about the Sons of Korhal. You thought you recognised the logo from somewhere. You weren’t actually assigned to those missions, but it was a paramilitary group that had been giving the confederacy a lot of trouble for quite some time.

A lot of people hail him as their saviour from the zerg, and the strong man to put right what the confederacy did wrong, but reading between the lines you quickly figure out that he’s just as bad as they were. After some more browsing, including some not entirely legal abuse of security loopholes, you find some spendings, and are amazed at the amount spent on propaganda already, for a man who’s only been in charge for a few weeks tops. You sincerely hope he’ll never find out about the Omega project.

>It’s about 7:30. Anything you want to do before going to Lisa to continue her training?
>Write in.

>>31647566
Can't think of nothing sooo onwards to Social Links

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>>31647544

>>31647630
Agreed

>>31647566
maybe try and strengthen our mental/mind shields/defense but otherwise I've got nothing

>>31647630

Yeah.

Maybe take a shower before if you haven't taken one offscreen.

>>31647741
>>31647729
>>31647636
>>31647630
Ok, writing.

>>31647746
oh god, we're going to visit a girl just after having sweat like a pig and we're not going to shower...
hope supervisor counts your comment in

You realise the time to go meet with Lisa for her training is drawing close, and go for a quick shower. The last few minutes left are spent doing some mental warm up exercises and thinking on how to advance her skills. You’re fairly sure that with a bit more practice, you could have semi-long range psychic conversations with her, so it might be time to learn her the reverse. The discipline she already got from her past lesson did help with keeping her thoughts for herself, but right now even the weakest psionics could break into her mind.

you’re greeted with a warm smile when you arrive at Lisa’s house, and after some casual talking, which you’re getting increasingly better at, you commence your training.
Initially, it’s basically continuing your conversation but through your telepathic powers. She’s still a bit clumsy when it comes to sending actual speech, and she seems to have a bit of a talent for communicating through images and emotions, though she still seems to give access a bit too freely during said communication.

Now, you believe it’s time to start training her in keeping people out of her mind. You think back to your own lessons, where a senior psionic forcibly broke into your mind while you had to rely on instincts and ingenuity to repel the attacker, because there was no way you could overpower them. It had its merits, but Lisa probably wouldn’t appreciate that.

>>31647979
Saved by the shower

>1. Weaker version of what you went through. Tell her that you will enter her mind (but not read or feel anything, ghosts’ honour) and that she should try and feel what it’s like, and try to repel you. You of course won’t be using your full strength.
>2. Rather be a bit gentler. Let her try and erect a defence first, and attack it and point out the weak spots and what she can improve.
>3. Write in.

>I’ll try to explain the things about the psionics as best as I can. I’m no psion either, and the source material is fairly vague about the subject matter itself. If you have a plan that seems reasonable, I’ll probably accept it.

>>31648006
>2 try to explain how one can defend himself, maybe consider letting her see your memory of that moment?

>>31648006

>2.

Let her put up that wall.

Then try and give her pointers where it's cracking. All zen up on this motherfucker.

>>31648006
>1. Weaker version of what you went through. Tell her that you will enter her mind (but not read or feel anything, ghosts’ honour) and that she should try and feel what it’s like, and try to repel you. You of course won’t be using your full strength.
Eh. What could possibly go wrong

>>31648046
>>31648064
>>31648132
Writing.

You figure the sink-or-swim methods used by your “teachers” are probably not suited for her, and you begin to instruct her on making a mental barrier. It’s a slow start, and she struggles even making a barrier to begin with, but after running her through some mental exercises, she manages to put up some protection.

You glance at it and immediately see several weak points that only need a fraction of your power from before the temple to make it shatter. You don’t though. Instead you instruct her on what and where they are, and apply a tiny bit of pressure to demonstrate. You have to do your absolute best to hold back, or you would break her barrier after all.

She progresses much more slowly, though it’s probably easier to practice this on her own than mental communication. And considering she tried practicing that on her own, you have no doubt she’ll manage a lot better next time you see her.

About halfway through, you get the idea of showing her your own barrier. You guide her through the steps of accessing your own mind, and she finds your defences there ready for her. Using them as a guideline, you manage to better explain some of the concepts behind it and she improves quite a lot, but in the end her actual mental defence is still severely lacking by the time you finish.

She stops you when you’re about to leave though.

“Wait a minute. I’ve been thinking about something. I mean, you’ve been doing this for me, and I haven’t actually done much to repay you, so…”

She pushes some credit chips towards you. A quick glance tells you it’s 200 credits. Not an extraordinary amount, but still not small change.

“I was thinking, 100 per session should be about right, no?” She seems quite nervous, and you get the feeling she didn’t like getting these lessons for free.

>1. Accept the payment, thank her.
>2. Refuse, tell her you don’t need anything for this. She’s helped you out here a lot too.
>3. Write in.

>>31648494
>2 although I wouldn't say no against free dinner

>>31648533

Second.

>>31648494
>2. Refuse, tell her you don’t need anything for this. She’s helped you out here a lot too.
And
>>31648533
This

>>31648533
>>31648584
>>31648623
Writing for smooth ladies man Artemis.

>>31648494
>2
>3
"Lisa, I have more then enough money to live on right now from the expedition and Mittens. It's fine."

“No, that’s ok. I've got more than enough money to live on right now from the expedition and Mittens. It's fine.” You return the credit chips to her. “Though I guess I wouldn’t say no to a dinner.”

Lisa looks uncertain when you give her back the money, but she smiles when you add the dinner part. “Ok, sure. How about… Say, 7 o’ clock tomorrow, here.”

You agree, and when you’re getting ready to leave again, she pulls you into a quick hug.

“Thanks. I mean it.”

When you arrive home, you still feel it’s a bit early to go to bed straight away.

>1. Go to bed anyway, better be well rested.
>2. Look up some more things on your new pc (specify).
>3. Try to look for some more high security sites to break into. You might get lucky with information.
>4. Write in.

>>31648875
Shame we don't have a gaming pc right now,
>2 could we somehow be notified when our family comes along? check on long range radio traffic from the spaceport, that sort of thing?

>>31648875
>1. Go to bed anyway, better be well rested.
I'd say hack but that could draw attention

>>31648875
>2
Check out info on merc groups, specifically ex-dominion tech / hackers. They are probably our best bet into finding more about Ghost Conditioning excluding our 'Family'...

>>31648936
>>31649010
>>31649081
Writing

You go lay in bed, but take along your tablet pc and plug it into the power outlet in the wall. You first check out the spaceport on the planet itself. The system is fairly antiquated and you easily get in. After that, it’s just a matter of setting up an untraceable tap on their communications, and accessing their long range scanners. Anything going in or out of the system, and you’ll be notified.

Once that’s finished, you look into some merc groups. Specifically ex-confederate. You find quite a few fairly easily, but brute force isn’t what you’re looking for. You reason that if you can find some ex-confederate scientists or techs, that might be a step forward in finding something about the ghost conditioning.

Roll me a D20, best of three.

Rolled 17

>>31649197

Rolled 14

>>31649197

dice for the wise and powerful wizards of koprulu-chan

>>31649197

here's hoping we find a Colonel...

Rolled 1

>>31649197

>>31649308
You missed a + there mate.

>>31649343

Critfail, writing.

Rolled 14

>>31649343
oh dear

>>31649343
You know, I had this feeling....

You look through page after page, but don’t find a single thing of interest to you. Marine squadrons, firebats, even some people having siege tanks or wraiths. There seems to be a surplus on ex-military mercs, but what little tech-oriented groups you find don’t seem to be connected to the confederacy in any way that could help you.

You spend more time than you would have liked on it, and with disappointing results. After yet another letdown, you shut down your pc and go to sleep. It takes a while, but you fall asleep eventually.

-Secundus, I’m heeere!-

You wake up sweating, Primus’ voice echoing through your head. You’re almost panicking when you check your pc and find that a massive ship has entered orbit just half an hour ago. Chatter on their coms suggest they’ve been broadcasting a message around the globe ever since they arrived, and you quickly download the message.

“Hello there Secundus!” The recording shows Primus sitting in the captain’s chair of the bridge of the Omega project battlecruiser. “It seems I found you. Now, I would really appreciate it if you came flying to me in my nice new battlecruiser. I’d even appreciate it so much, that I might not systematically bombard every settlement on this planet with my new battlecruiser’s weapons if you come here before the end of the day. Just be sure to put in our family name in your IFF, or you’ll be shot down by my automated defences.”

At this point, Primus stands up and removes his helmet, revealing a face pretty much identical to yours. And he’s grinning maniacally. “Don’t keep me waiting.”

>>31649691

>What do you do.
>1. Panick. Oh god oh god you’re gonna die.
>2. Go to Lisa and explain the situation a bit more.
>3. Try and intercept murphy before she heads to the spaceport to work on your wraith. You won’t be able to fly with it if she’s gonna work on it now.
>4. Write in.

>And that’s it folks. Next thread… probably thursday. I’ll be counting votes for the next opening post.

>>31649709
And archived.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Freelance%20Ghost

Btw guys, some clarification for the hacking earlier. You're being assisted by your Adjutant and you've had to do some during missions yourself. You're not really an expert hacker, but you can do some things. Adjutant guiding you helps, even if it can't directly do it all itself.

>>31649709
>3. Try and intercept murphy before she heads to the spaceport to work on your wraith. You won’t be able to fly with it if she’s gonna work on it now.
Thanks for the thread sup

>>31649709

Cheers for the thread, OP.

Looks like it's showdown time.

>3. Hurry up and catch Murphy before she starts working.

Say goodbye and tell her to relay goodbyes to Lisa and Haverdam in case we don't get back. It was nice meeting them.

Get them psi defenses in shape!

>>31649709
>1
Psychicly do , because we're going to be doing
>3

>>31649709
>3
Is there any way we could notify Lisa "on the fly"?
Guess we never asked her number, classic mistake
Good night guys

>>31649827
O wait, psionics...
>2 in a psionic way, than >3

>>31649805
I've been looking forward to this part for a while now. Kind of also why I went with more time-skipping options for the past 2 threads, because I didn't really have much to fill it with until this got out of the way. So my apologies it's been a bit slower paced lately. I hope this will be sufficient remedy.

>>31649818
Meant >2, not > 1.

When do you think you'll run next, supervisor?

>>31650075

>>31649709
>And that’s it folks. Next thread… probably thursday. I’ll be counting votes for the next opening post.


So yeah, I'm thinking thursday. If not, probably friday.

>>31648936
>be a super soldier with mind powers
>live in a universe with interstellar travel and aliens
>want to sit around and play vidya games

congratulations, you are fa/t g/uy