>>32718644
You see the telltale rainbow of the railgun's activation and the Gun Sweepers activate their rear engines to hold their TSFs steady.

The constant stream of fire resembles a laser more than it does bullets. The gate before you is quickly torn apart, as is the second gate. The shots continue deep into the cavern, but miss the BETA Superior at the far end. You'll have to do this the hard way, but the hard way is still easy.

"Lucerne vanguard, we're heading in," your flight lead says. "Pick your targets and don't take any chances."

You've done the Original Hive simulations so many times that you've run through them in your dreams. You activate your engines and fly towards the writhing mass of tentacles ahead.

>Go for the main body. Your particle cannon will take it down with enough shots.
>Engage the tentacles. The railguns will be ready to fire again in a few minutes.

>>32718649
>>Go for the main body. Your particle cannon will take it down with enough shots.

>>32718649
>Go for the main body. Your particle cannon will take it down with enough shots.

Those railguns would have been nice to have in our last hive battle. I don't see what it could hurt to try and take this BETA down before the Gun Sweepers are ready to fire again.

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>>32718649
>Go for the main body. Your particle cannon will take it down with enough shots.

>>32718649
>>Go for the main body. Your particle cannon will take it down with enough shots.

>>32718649
Your flight lead didn't give you a specific target to go for, so you have free reign. You might as well think big.

Your engine doesn't have the protection of a full Rutherford field, but it does have thrust vectoring and amazing acceleration, especially in a low-gravity environment. You weave around the incoming tentacles, keeping one eye on your HUD to keep track of your squadmates. Humanity hasn't suffered a single loss since the beginning of the Second Lunar War and you don't want to break that record because of friendly fire of all things.

You slip out of the web of tentacles and come out around the alien. Before more tentacles emerge, you have a few seconds to hit it with your particle cannon.

>(roll 1d20)

Rolled 11

>>32719126

Rolled 1

>>32719126
try not to die.

Rolled 10

>>32719126
Rolling

Rolled 19

>>32719172

Ya blew it

>>32719172
Simulations are nothing like the real thing. R.I.P. Alice.

a one negates the highest roll if i recall, and the second highest roll was still a 10. we screwed up but not catastrophically.

>>32719126
Your particle cannons make a few mildly impressive dents in the creature's side. You really, really miss the impressive explosions you usually get when you fire it.

More tentacles shoot out of the BETA, but before you need to dodge, the Gun Sweepers fire again.

The BETA is torn apart by their fire. Bits of flesh and globs of alien blood float about and slowly drift towards the ground.

All things considered, it's incredibly disappointing, nothing like the recordings you saw of humanity's assault on Kashgar.

"Mission complete," your squadron leader says. "Everyone, return to base."

You turn away from the BETA corpse and return to your formation.

>(cont.)

>>32719312
This dice system uses 1s as success negations, not as critical failures, which means that 1 makes us taking the 10 instead of the 11.

Would've been a bigger swing if the rolls had been better and/or more disparate, but in this case it's not such a gigantic deal at all.

>>32719389
The docking clamps secure your Galatine and you head to the locker room to get changed along with the rest of Lucerne's female pilots. On your wait there, you catch an RAF squadron heading out for a scouting mission. Your sister Diana's a head of the pack. She slows down a little as you approach.

"Welcome back, Alice," she says. "How was the big assassination mission?"

"Anti-climactic," you say. "The simulations were more impressive."

Diana laughs.

"I guess it's more intimidating when you don't have railguns and particle cannons to do most of the work," she says. "You should check in with dad. I think Edward is somewhere around here for work as well."

"I'll have a look around later," you say. "My schedule is cleared for a while anyway."

"All right, I'll see if I can join you once I'm done," Diana says. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure these nuggets don't trip on a crater."

"Good luck!"

>(cont.)

>>32719416
You rejoin the rest of your squadron and Natalie, your flight lead, strikes up a conversation.

"Someone you know," she asks.

"My older sister," you say. "She's with the RAF."

"Ah, I've got a younger brother planetside," she says. "He's still a few years shy of getting drafted, but with the way things are going, I'm hoping the draft will be rescinded entirely before he's of age. Do you have other siblings?"

>"Don't worry about the draft. Odds are, your brother would end up in the reconstruction effort anyway."
>"I have a few other older siblings."
>"Four brothers, six sisters. I'm the youngest."

>>32719443
>>"Four brothers, six sisters. I'm the youngest."

>>32719443
>>"Four brothers, six sisters. I'm the youngest."

Jesus Christ

>>32719443
>>"Four brothers, six sisters. I'm the youngest."

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>>32719443

>"Four brothers, six sisters. I'm the youngest."

>>32719443
>>"Four brothers, six sisters. I'm the youngest."

"the plan was for 9 kids, but there was a pair of twins in there"

>>32719443

One shy of a full soccer team, how disappointing.

>>32719443
>>"Don't worry about the draft. Odds are, your brother would end up in the reconstruction effort anyway."
If we're already comfortable with pushing back off-planet, it means Earth's mostly clear and the reconstruction effort is definitely going to be a big deal.

And given the prior response about 3-4 kids each, there's no way the answer isn't going to be the last one.

>>32719516
This'd require triplets, since she's not counting herself among her siblings. And Alice would need to be one of those triplets, or else they would've been able to compensate if they really focused on the whole family planning thing. (Which I doubt sincerely.)

>>32719542
>>32719556

Welp, never mind, guess they got a full team in there somehow!

>>32719443
"Four brothers, six sisters," you say. "I'm the youngest."

"Oh, so the Brigadier does get around," Natalie says.

"It's not like that," you say, shaking your head. "Especially with the war. No matter how busy my parents were, there was always someone looking after us at home."

"Well, he's not the only one," Natalie says. "Heard about the guy in Japan who ended up dating four sisters?"

"Everyone has to make sacrifices for the sake of humanity's future."

You leave the locker room and enter the space station's main complex. Now that the artificial gravity system has been figured out, it's a lot easier to move around, and civilian shops and restaurants are opening up to make people feel more at home. If the five-year development plan actually works out, this place will turn into an actual city.

After all, it needs to be able to support human life in the long term if it's going to be the launching point of humanity's Martian operations.

>Visit your father. At this hour, he should be off the clock.
>Visit your mother. At this hour, she *should* be off the clock, but someone usually needs to drag her out of the office.
>Look around for Edward. It's been a while since you've seen your brother.

>>32719695
>>Visit your mother. At this hour, she *should* be off the clock, but someone usually needs to drag her out of the office.

>>32719695
>>Visit your mother. At this hour, she *should* be off the clock, but someone usually needs to drag her out of the office.

I must know

>>32719695
>>Visit your mother. At this hour, she *should* be off the clock, but someone usually needs to drag her out of the office.

>>32719695
>>Visit your mother. At this hour, she *should* be off the clock, but someone usually needs to drag her out of the office.

Mary?

> "Heard about the guy in Japan who ended up dating four sisters?"

Takeru?

I thought his harem was doubled that maybe even double digits

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>>32719695

>Visit your mother. At this hour, she *should* be off the clock, but someone usually needs to drag her out of the office.
FYI the 4 sisters are the ones in the front

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>>32719695
>"Well, he's not the only one," Natalie says. "Heard about the guy in Japan who ended up dating four sisters?"

>"Everyone has to make sacrifices for the sake of humanity's future."
What tremendous bravery.

>>32719760
Four sisters probably means the Isumis.

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>>32719695
You decide to visit your mother. She's been overworking herself putting the Space Forces together and while you know she's up to it, she isn't as young as she used to be.

You walk towards the centre of the station, where the military offices are located and take a lift up to the command centre. The marines on duty salute as you enter and silently let you through. Technically, you're not supposed to just wander around here, but your security clearance is high enough that your presence isn't caused for concern and it's not the first time you had to drag your mother back home.

You reach your mother's office and pause before knocking on the door.

'Lieutenant General Vivian Reber'

Well, that promotion went by quickly. Just this morning the plaque had Major General written on it.

You loudly knock on the door twice.

"Enter."

You swing the door open and enter your mother's office.

"Hello, mom," you say. "Are you at least getting paid for your overtime?"

Your mother looks up from her computer and smiles.

"Alice, welcome back," she says. "Congratulations on your success."

"And congratulations on your promotion," you say as you pull yourself a chair.

"Yes, it came in just as you came back from your mission," Vivian says. "Since the moon's BETA Superior has been eliminated, the U.N. has decided to start planning the Martian operations, so my duties have been expanded."

Your mother's in her early fifties, but aside from a few grey hairs and wrinkles, she still looks like. A TSF pilot's life isn't easy, but it does encourage one to stay fit, even the ones who end up piloting a chair because they were too good at their job.

>(cont.)

>>32720015
"In any case, you're done with work for today, even if I have to drag you out of here," you say.

"Fine, fine." Your mother unceremoniously tosses her documents into a drawer and shuts her computer down. "What did you have in mind?"

>"I heard Edward was around. Wanna go spy on him?"
>"How about family night with dad? I heard a high-class restaurant opened next to the officer's club."

>>32720034
>>"I heard Edward was around. Wanna go spy on him?"

>>32720034
>"I heard Edward was around. Wanna go spy on him?"

>>32720034
>>"I heard Edward was around. Wanna go spy on him?"

save dad for last

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>>32720034
>"How about family night with dad? I heard a high-class restaurant opened next to the officer's club."

>>32720034
"I heard Edward was around," you say. "Wanna go spy on him?"

Your mother stares at you. And stares. And stares. And *stares*.

"What? It'll be fun!"

"Alice, what have I told you about blowing your brother's cover?" Your mother raises an eyebrow in the judgmental motherly way.

"Oh, don't make such a big deal out of it," you say. "Besides, aren't you curious?"

"I'm getting reports on his current assignments, so not really," Vivian says. "But it has been a while since we did something fun together and I suppose I could keep an eye on him for Elaine while he's here. Let's go."

You follow your mother to the civilian quarters and the two of you look around for your brother. Most of the floor space is still empty, so there aren't many places for him to go. Of course, there aren't many places for you to hide either.

You make your way to the tea shops and wait.

"All right, now I'm starting to feel irritated," Vivian says. "I should be able to find my step-son on my own station."

"I suppose he wasn't lying about being good at his job." You shrug.

"Hello, ladies." You and your mother both yelp and your brother smoothly settles in next to you. "You two look like you're waiting for someone."

He's wearing his usual business attire, a black two-piece suit with no tie and a cocky smile. He's probably got two sidearms and a full set of cutlery hidden on him.

>"Where the hell did you come from?"
>"Hello, Edward. Done picking up women?"

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>>32720383
>"Hello, Edward. Done picking up women?"

>>32720383


"Where the hell did you come from? You weren't picking up women again, were you?"

>>32720383
>>"Hello, Edward. Done picking up women?

Like father like son

>>32720383
>>"Hello, Edward. Done picking up women?"

>>32720383
Damn it. Lost my trip.

>>32720383
"Hello, Edward," you say. "Done picking up women?"

"Oh, I don't do that anymore," he says. "Permanently, I mean. I met this nice girl from the Takamura household when I was in Japan. Once I'm back planetside, I'm taking her to England to meet mother."

You and your mother stare at him. Then at Edward. Then at each other again. Then back at Edward.

"How the hell did you manage that?" Vivian asks. "Aren't the Takamuras vassals on one of the regent families? I don't think they marry foreigners lightly."

"British charm," Edward says, shrugging. "Besides, Japan and England have been building stronger diplomatic ties since humanity took Kashgar, and political marriages are still fairly common there."

"Did you remember to file the proper paperwork with MI6," you ask.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Then he turns to Vivian. "How's father doing?"

"He's planning some new orbital weapon with Mary," your mother says. "Assuming it works, it'll make the Martian operations."

You lean back and sigh. While Edward does travel a lot as the heir apparent to the Countess de Grey, it's a poorly-kept family secret that it's just his non-official cover with MI6. You don't think he'd marry someone just because the government told him to, but...

>Don't let him change the subject. This is serious.
>Let it go. Edward wouldn't get married because of his job.

>>32720870
>>Don't let him change the subject. This is serious.

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>>32720870
>Let it go. Edward wouldn't get married because of his job.

That better not be Yui.

>>32720870
>>Don't let him change the subject. This is serious.

>>32720870
>Don't let him change the subject. This is serious.

>>32720967
It very much better not be.

>>32720870
>>Don't let him change the subject. This is serious.
Why not, if nto tease him about it.

Why not yui?

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>>32721078
Yui is my waifu.

>>32721095
I like Yui too but wasn't the main guy in unlmited Yui's step brother and did he date the hot russain chick

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>>32721112
I think you crossed the streams Anon. Yui is from Total Eclipse not Unlimited. And I still bit pissed over the whole VN fiasco but hopefully the PC version will alleviate it.

>>32721206
Oh right Total Eclipse, I forgot about that.

And yeah it was kind of a dick move but then again I like the hot russain

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>>32721206
I wouldn't call what they did alleviating in any way.

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>>32721261
I was more leaning towards the problem about the story. But anyway Cryska is a sweetheart too.
The ending bothered me because of how bittersweet it was and how several other Anons pointed out how it was really similar towards Gundam Zeta. Also Cryska is also my waifu but harem endings never real pan out in Muvluv due to SUFFERING.

>>32721338
I wouldn't know much about gundam, trying to skim through the series but still on the original.

I like Cryska too

>>32720870
You sigh and lean in towards Edward.

"Look, Edward," you say. "We both know that if you get married because of your job, your mother will kill you, and then Lynette and Victoria will defile your grave. If it's personal, I don't have any reason to complain, but I'm not going to sit here and watch you ruin your life."

Your brother looks at you without blinking.

"I am madly in love with this Yuuki," he says. "I am semi-seriously considering marriage. This has absolutely nothing to do with my work."

You can't tell if he's telling the truth or not - he would be a terrible spy if you could - but he seems serious and your mother doesn't say anything.

"Good," you say. "Now let's go find dad have dinner."

>(cont.)

>>32721375
Your father is in the R&D department, along with Mary. He's also rubbing his head and nursing a very empty bottle of scotch. Mary, meanwhile, is arguing with someone through a computer screen. He greets you with a smile and a light wave of his hand.

"Another conference call with Kouzuki?" Vivian asks.

"The third one this week," he says. He downs his current shot and stands, looking hale and dignified despite his age. "But orbital lasers made out of pressurized hydrogen detonations can wait. Are we going out for dinner?"

"I don't even want to think about how that would work," you say. "But yes, we are heading out for dinner. Assuming Mary's done with her tirade. Oh, and Edward has a new girlfriend."

Your brother tenses and only just barely manages to keep the look of horror on his face from becoming too obvious. Your father's mouth just curves into a slight smile.

"I look forward to meeting her," he says.

"I'm going to visit her once I'm planetside and then we'll go and visit mother," Edward said. "I suppose if you're also there..."

"I should be," your father says. "Mary as well. We still have some work to do here, but we'll be heading back to England in a few weeks. Honestly, it's about time I retired from the military. Elaine could use our help to manage the estate and at this point, I could probably do more good working on the reconstruction effort."

>(cont.)

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>>32721368
Pic related about the Gundam bit.

>>32721398
"You can't leave me quite yet." Mary walks in from behind your father and gently kisses his cheek. "We still have more work to do on that orbital laser, and Vivian would be so terribly lonely without us."

"I'll manage," Vivian says. "I'll have more flag officers here soon anyway, and once the Space Force hits its stride, I'll need to make regular reports to the U.N. Staying here would be too impractical."

"As much as I enjoy hearing about your retirement plans, we should get going," you say.

>The officer's club has decent food and with two generals, it won't be hard to smuggle Edward in.
>Look around the restaurants and try to find a nice one.
>Look around the restaurants and try to find a cheap one with an interesting menu.

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>>32721422
>Look around the restaurants and try to find a nice one.

>>32721422
>>Look around the restaurants and try to find a cheap one with an interesting menu.

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>>32721408
>that third panel
>mfw "translators" pull this shit

>>32721422
>>The officer's club has decent food and with two generals, it won't be hard to smuggle Edward in.

Looks like a three-way tie. Next vote calls it. Doesn't matter if you've already voted.

>>32721422
>>The officer's club has decent food and with two generals, it won't be hard to smuggle Edward in.

>>32721422
You decide to go to the officers' club. It's got the best food and wine on the base and while civilians aren't allowed, you've got a Brigadier and Lieutenant General with you. The door staff would have to be suicidal to try and keep Edward out.

On your way there, Edward chats about his girlfriend. She's a TSF pilot - they're called eishi in Japan - who was responsible for his security detail why he was meeting the shogun to discuss Japan's new model of railgun. It took her a few days to warm up to him, but his keen wit apparently won him over. He's suspiciously vague about the subject.

The five of you sit at a booth and order food and wine. The steaks are synthetic, but the wine is real and that's the part that matters the most.

>Ask about Isabelle and the twins.
>Ask about Erich.
>Ask about Stephanie and Jennifer.

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>>32721919
>Ask about Erich.

>>32721919
>>Ask about Isabelle and the twins.

>>32721919
>Ask about Isabelle and the twins.

>>32721919
>Ask about Isabelle and the twins.

You sure that's not Yui?

>>32721919
You take a bite of your steak and look to Mary.

"How are Isabelle and the twins doing?"

"Isabelle's working on the terraforming project," Mary says. "There's a lot of ravaged Earth that needs to be reclaimed from the BETA and we've only just started."

The last BETA Hive fall just four months ago, but there's been very little progress on undoing the damage the BETA caused during the last several decades. Most of the resources had to be invested in the military, but now that humanity is no longer badly pressed, terraforming projects have been included in the reconstruction effort. In a few more years, you might be able to enjoy real food regularly.

"And how are Alfred and Johan?"

"Vivian would know more about them than I do," Mary says. "They've been training for space carrier operations, but they haven't been able to contact me much."

"It's mostly simulations for now," Vivian says. "Deploying orbital drops, coordinating bombardments, extraction plans, that sort of thing. Alfred and Johan have been both doing quite well, from what I understand."

"I just hope we can figure out the bombardments soon," your father says. "Mars shouldn't have lasers, but I don't want to see anyone land there until we have a way to clear the surface from orbit."

>"What about Erich?"
>"What about Stephanie and Jennifer?"

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>>32722343
>"What about Stephanie and Jennifer?"

>>32722343
>>"What about Erich?"

>>32722343
>>"What about Stephanie and Jennifer?"

>>32722343
Your eldest brother either has eight court-martials lined up in his schedule, or 12 medal ceremonies. Either way, it's best not to ask your parents about him. Instead, you ask about your sisters.

"Have either of you heard from Jennifer and Stephanie?"

"Jennifer is still helping Victoria and Lynette with rebuilding Europe's economy." Surprisingly, the answer comes from Edward. "They're thinking about exporting G-element reactor technology to the States soon. Stephanie is experimenting with different policing models, trying to find one that works best. A lot of refugees are thinking about coming back home to Europe, but there's still not much space available, so things are... delicate."

"I'm not going to ask why you know that," you say.

"Neither am I," your father says.

You spend the rest of the evening talking about the plans for the Martian operation and the development of the space station. It'll need to become a proper city soon to accommodate the space forces and make them feel at home, and that means bringing a lot of people up. Finding people willing to abandon the Earth to live in space is not easy.

Afterwards, Vivian and Mary return to their room, while Edward goes off to wherever he's staying. Your father, however, asks you to stay longer.

"Let's go for a walk," he says.

>Go by the hangar.
>Go by the observatory.

>>32722643
Goddamn tripcode...

>>32722643
>>Go by the observatory.

>>32722643
>Go by the observatory.

>>32722643
>Go by the hangar.

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>>32722643
>Go by the observatory.

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>>32722643
You go by the observatory. Below you, you can see the Earth. It was impressive the first time you saw it from orbit, but these days it looks oddly normal. You must be getting used to this place.

Your father stands besides you for several minutes and silently watches the Earth spin.

"Alice," he says. "Would you inherit Merlin?"

It takes you a moment to actually process what your father says. He hasn't been in active combat in over a decade, but he still uses his Excalibur regularly for training exercises and to test new weapons.

Besides, Erich and Diana are both older than you and more experienced pilots.

"Erich has already awakened his Galatine to a full artificial intelligence; he's retraining for the Excalibur right now," your father says, as if reading your thoughts. "And Diana flies middle guard, while you're vanguard. You need an Excalibur more than she does. What do you say?"

>"Yes."
>"No."

>>32722937
>>"Yes."

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>>32722937
>"Yes."

>>32722937
>>"Yes."

>>32722937
>>"Yes."

"Is he clean? I rather not go inside the cockpit where I might have been conceived?"

>>32722937
>"Yes."

>>32722937
>>yes

"how does Merlin feel about this?"

>>32722937
"Yes," you say. "I'll take care of Merlin."

"Good!" Your father clasps your shoulder and then nods towards the Earth. "My war started down there, but it's over now, or at least the hard part is. It's your war now. Just remember that you can always walk away and make a home for yourself down there. You don't have to carry our burdens."

"Thank you, father. I'll remember that."

Your father leaves, but you stay behind to gaze at the Earth. Thirty years ago, the fate of humanity was uncertain. People were desperate. People were afraid. If the slightest thing had gone wrong, humanity would have perished and there would have been no one left to remember.

Today, people still remember the names of those who fought and those who died. They remember the mistakes. They remember the victories. They remember, but they don't know.

And that's why you're up here, fighting over the moon and then over Mars. So that people can remember the horrors of the BETA without having to live them.

>>32723164
And that's it for the epilogue and for Muv Luv Royal Quest. I talked about most of my insights last time, so I won't be rehashing them.

Grifter Quest will start Friday at 7PM EST. It will be an episodic quest set in something at least resembling the real world. The main character is a thief who cons people out of their loot, money or secrets depending on the mark. If you're interested, I'll see you then.

'Night folks.

>>32723248
Won't be there, but I hope to be there for the next one.

Good luck.

>>32723248

Congrats on a successful finish, will be there your next quest.

>>32723248
Thanks for the fun ride.

>>32723248
Thanks for the fun ride RC.

will your next quest have adorable and hot waifu's?

>>32723248
Before you go can you tell what Hall is doing with his life?

>>32723248
Thanks for the quest. Now what will I do every Wednesday and Sunday afternoon?

>>32723248
Sounds interesting enough.

This whole thing was pretty fun, even if it was a little low-threat for the universe it took place in. I mean, we lost what, two or three faceless grunts (that we made joking attempts to characterize OOC to try and make ourselves feel worse about it, but still) and that's it? That, and any given group of die rolls just seemed opaque enough that it seemed hard to connect the results to their impetuses.

That's not exactly criticism that carries over to a new quest, though (setting threat level/mass combat mechanics likely won't be an issue in a relatively modern one-(con-)man show), so keep on keeping on.

>>32723725
>This whole thing was pretty fun, even if it was a little low-threat for the universe it took place in. I mean, we lost what, two or three faceless grunts (that we made joking attempts to characterize OOC to try and make ourselves feel worse about it, but still) and that's it? That, and any given group of die rolls just seemed opaque enough that it seemed hard to connect the results to their impetuses.
I'd honestly say I preferred the way RC handled the 'lethality' of the source material in this quest, was much more enjoyable than the grimderp shit of the games.

>>32723765
I don't mean I thought he should've killed everyone off in the end-run, just that I kind of expected it to be reflected more in the atmosphere of the quest. Even so much as mentioning casualties from other divisions every now and again after missions would've gone a long way to highlighting the fact that things are actually really bad out there, and our continued survival is primarily because we're very good at our job.

The only time it really managed to come through was in the bit after the US bombed the hive when everyone was feeling well and truly dejected, but even that was more about a loss of faith in their fellow man than anything else. (Though I do think that whole incident was handled pretty well.)

It just seemed like it'd be difficult for anyone who wasn't already familiar with the scale of the conflict to get a grip on how bad it actually was.

>>32723980
I dunno, I've seen very little of the source material, never played the games and it came across plenty clear