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>>46263830
A navigator chimes in your ear just a moment later. "Stand by. I'm connecting you to the Seventh Air Cavalry," she says, voice clipped.

A moment later, matched with the ping on your comms, a signal comes into the command room. You patch it through, and a figure you saw at the memorial winks onscreen.

"Captain Anode?" She asks, voice soft but to the point. "Stillwater Phasian. I will be sortieing with you on this mission."

You nod. She looks to the side for a moment and whispers something to someone offscreen.

"We will reconvene in several minutes. We must decide what we can commit."

"Likewise," you nod, breaking the connection just as Gopher comes in at a businesslike stride.

"Picked the bird?" He asks.

"Glutton for punishment," you shrug. "She's keeping a lot of military assets tied up."

Swinging a chair around and falling into it, he starts punching something into the console. "Tied up, nothing. She's butchering them. They're going on almost a week of uninterrupted combat and she hasn't showed any signs of slowing down."

"What do casualties look like?" you ask.

"Bad. Last report was four figures--and that's just civilian." You wince. "Yeah. She landed in eastern Meurthe-et-Moselle, clipped Pont-à-Mousson. Most of the civs caught it there, before the army even had a chance to mobilize. She's been driving East ever since."

"Does she have a target?"

"Whatever morsel they dangle in front of her," Gopher says, looking up at you sharply. "You remember she was an S, right?"

You nod grimly. "What's the French army on the ground look like?"

"Meat," Gopher replies. "They're bringing in everything they can, but it's impossible to pin her down and she prioritizes living, breathing targets. Reploids on the ground have reported that they actually have to attack her a few times to draw her attention if there's someone else to kill. Of course, then she kills them."

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>>46263839
You look at the map, describing the swath of destruction she's carving across Europe. "Why is she going East?"

"That would be the Germans. They're putting their own contingent up, most of the human infantry after the first couple of days have been theirs. They're trying to lure her further out into the rural parts while they evacuate everything around her."

Closer to Germany, too, you note. Oof. "That's one way to patch up an old grudge."

"She's somewhere in Bas-Rhin--they had time to evac ahead of her and they've got her chewing up soldiers instead of civilians. They're trying to get her someplace rural, probably so they can drop something bigger on her."

You size it all up--and then turn to your own hard decisions. Seventh and Fourth were the units hardest hit--Phasian alone is a serious commitment, let alone any assets that might come with her, if they can even be spared. The Fourth lost a lot of its heavy support and ground-holding capability--and more personally, anyone you bring along is going to be dealing with close quarters action in a meat grinder. With a hopelessly superior opponent, no less.

>Take no contingent. Ask Gopher if he can be ready to turn one around for you on short notice.
>Try to focus on support over personnel--ride chasers and indirect assets and the like.
>The mission comes first. Take a contingent of Berets.

>>46263844
>Try to focus on support over personnel--ride chasers and indirect assets and the like.
Mobility and support will likely be more useful than direct armies considering her specialties. As the report says, they only really get killed if they attack a few times.

>>46263844

>Try to focus on support over personnel--ride chasers and indirect assets and the like

>>46263844
>>Try to focus on support over personnel--ride chasers and indirect assets and the like.
Sup HC, oh what a happy day to be stuck in the house sick

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>>46263944
G'mornin'!

So, this thread is gonna be a little weird. Most notably, Team Jerkass is in town and wants to go see a movie. I'll probably end tonight's thread a little early to go do that, and then resume tomorrow. As always it depends on how much there is to go through, but this is... a bit of a nonstandard mission.

>>46263894
As a side note, a little bit of strategy for when things are still slow; As Gopher said, Wren is a fallen S. While her body is downgraded, along with higher brain functions, her instincts and combat skill are still good. She is going to be very dangerous in melee, no questions asked.

The shells are worthless for this Operation due to how big a range she has, her abilities, and her melee specialty. Coils and Nades can weaken and trip her up with a few smart moves while the lock on hunter and flak can serve as a long range way to draw her attention.

Our goal should be to stay mobile against her if possible. Hit and run, build up a charge, then take her down once she focuses on us. She's Saetos light for all intents and purposes and we should be ready to expect the worse.

..we do have that battery don't we?

>>46263986
You do have the battery. And yeah, it will be a good idea to figure out what VWES to bring in for this.

>>46263844
>Try to focus on support over personnel--ride chasers and indirect assets and the like.

>>46264004
Good. Are traps/decoys possible load out we can bring? I figure something that 'looks' like a human would be useful for hunter missions against more feral mavericks.

>>46263839
Captcha crashed Chrome and then my PC. Hello!
>Try to focus on support over personnel--ride chasers and indirect assets and the like.
Indirect will be the way to go on this one.

>>46264034
Nothing you'd have on hand. Hunter missions don't typically need decoys of human beings for their work.

You could get Deploy to field an equipment drop s, maybe some heavy guns for the soldiers. Some indirect support mechaniloids could also work, some additional recon out in the field, and maybe a ride chaser.

Were I newer to the structure of these threads, I'd have voiced my tactical vote earlier.

tl;dr: Wren was equally the right and wrong one to pick second.

We've been told that the training wheels are off, that Anode can die, therefore it's vital to play to the big picture. Neutralizing Wren plays to one big picture but not another.

The biggest surface threat is Yamatoad, make no mistake, and his force will only increase over time. Saving him for later makes him worse, but also gives us the resources to take him down easier.

Wren is wrecking France. Getting France in our debt will be very useful in approaching Mortarphant, who must surely be taken out before Yamatoad. It's the same deal with Sabomole; he's undermining Germany, and getting Germany behind us will be exactly as useful. We can build a situation in which we assault North Africa with two countries who know a thing or two about that.

Since we're hitting Wren now -- since we're playing it that way -- let's do Sabomole next before even thinking of Mortarphant -> Yamatoad.

However, that route only empowers what I feel may be the deadliest encounter for Anode personally. (cont'd)

>>46264117
That can work. I'd say some explosives as well as a oh shit button, but that along with the option we picked can give us what we need as opposed to more meat to the grinder.

>>46264166
Stellar Atlantica is a singer. Her strength is, literally, her stage.

Right now she is sitting underneath the Maverick Navy off Malta, fortifying her concert hall base -- a base designed and built to be wired directly to her control -- with a captured laser expert. As Yamatoad's navy increases, the higher the wall between us and her grows, and the more sophisticated her defenses will become.

Both she and Yamatoad were as weak as they were going to get when the game started. The difference is that, without a shipyard and naval forces to manage, she can spend 100% of her time preparing her base with her genius hostage (who I will just bet is Izzy Glow).

Were it me, sitting with a console controller in my hand, pondering an Enemy Select screen on my TV with the same intel we had going in, I'd have hit her first. Yes, that would mean an underwater approach without the 6th's support, but it -would- mean an underwater approach straight past one lightly-prepared force and into the heart of an unprepared enemy.

I fear nothing more in this game than Anode's eighth Maverick being Stellar Atlantica. I envision a nightmare of Quick Man force beams blazing around the concert hall and boiling out of the sea. With Yamatoad's navy growing, it may already be too late.

So, for lack of a decapitation strike, let's make ABSOLUTELY SURE we are prepared for her, which means getting the 6th's support by neutralizing Yamatoad first.

Wren > Sabomole > Mortarphant > Yamatoad > Atlantica.

Gibbon and Moloch can go hang unless they start doing something tactically vital.

>>46263986
Speaking of the wires, how cost-effective would it be to have directed anchor points?

Things like latching them onto rockets, slow VWES projectiles or ride chasers to create more angles to trip with.

>>46264273
I mostly agree, graverend sounds like he'll tear up a lot of buildings, but he can't get much WORSE.

Still concerned about Atlantica or Gibbon acting as sources of the Maverick Virus if we leave them too long.

MHQ, yes!

>>46263844
>Try to focus on support over personnel--ride chasers and indirect assets and the like

Not willing to risk the Berets on this one. Can we call them in to help with evacuations once we're on the ground and see what's happening?

>>46264277
Could be doable, but we also use them for such purposes to begin with. Still, moving erratically will help us quite a bit.

>>46264273
Yes, I agree with you on Stella being the most difficult. She was always going to be such since to safely get to her you need two to pass other mavericks, each with a S rank quality. Anode is probably going to be the safest bet for that mission if it is death lasers thanks to his energy absorption and mobility, not to mention the heavy weaponry yamatoad and mortarphant use.

However, do not forget we need to think of our survival as well. If possible I would have preferred to go after gibbon before wren since his abilities are a natural counter to her, but that did not come to pass. Besides, for all we know Gibbon could be working intel/supply command for the other units. Taking him out could put the others in disarray.

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>>46263894
>>46263899
>>46263944
>>46264026
>>46264048
>>46264418
You mull it over. “What can we call up for indirect assets?”

“Not fielding a team?” Gopher asks.

“Nah. If this is already a meat grinder, a few more bodies aren’t going to do much good. And we can’t really afford to lose much else.” You wonder if that’s your own concern just convincing you of the fact, but it seems reasonable in your head.

He nods. “Just remember, that means it’s your ass in the fire.”

“Yeah, I know. So, what do we have?”

Gopher taps the console. “I can get a little more Recon presence--we’ve got a passive team of Link Riders forming a perimeter around her--a very wide one,” he adds. “I’ll get another team in there.”

“What about hunter weapons? We’re going to have some better stuff for harder targets, yeah?”

“Not necessarily, but definitely better for a mobile heavy hitter. I’ll see if Depoy can hook us up with anything.”

“Thinking I’m going to take a ride chaser. India can take it out of my hide later.” If there’s a later.

Gopher rubs his chin as he pulls something up. “Authorized. Seventh’s report just came in--it’s just Phasian, but they’re also advising some French air assets. They’ve got some fighters in the area getting ready for some low passes, and they have a few ‘loid deploying carrier variants. The air’s pretty tied up.”

Air Cavalry’s signal chimes onscreen, and Gopher pulls it up. Phasian awaits. “I am ready when you are, Captain,” she says.

“Let’s strategize a bit, while we can,” you say. “What’s the game plan?”

“Wren’s mobility is the key,” Phasian replies. “I intend to force her to ground so that you and the army can inflict some lasting damage.”

“Do you think you can win that fight?” Gopher asks bluntly.

She pauses. “No. But I don’t have to. I just need to last.”

>Choose VWES loadout.

>>46264464
Shields are out. They are too slow and useless against her loadout. Flak, Lockon Hunter, Wires for mobility and the highball skipper for a quick explosive.

If we work well, we could possibly hitch a ride on a aircraft or flying support with our wires.

>>46264464
Lockon Hunter
Highball Skipper
Blackout Rockets
Coils

>>46264536
As for strategy, why not bounce her between us? Lock on hunter and blackout rockets can serve to support Phasian, while she can support us from above when she notices us? If she has to keep switching between land and air, it will only make things harder for her.

>>46264536
Seconding.

>>46264547
All of these.

Good day.

>>46264720
Hi, Satan!

Time to prepare for deaths.

>>46264464

>46264547
Seems reasonable.

>>46264720
Doooooom!

>>46264464
....what do we HAVE, again?

>>46264795
A large movie collection and incurable insanity. Our victory is assured.

>>46264737
Oh come now, it's not like last time you faced a high threat class avian Maverick there was any kind of mass destruction and getting piledriven into the hands of Lifesavers who don't have your back this time.

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>>46264795
For VWES, five entries.
Blackout Rocket: 8 shots. Dumbfire rockets that explode into sensor-disorienting shrapnel chaff.
Tension Coil: 32 shots. Braided coil with blades within. Has been upgraded for mobility with wrist bracket mount wire spools motorized for ziplining.
Lockon Hunter: 16 shots. Variable-penetration sniping laser that can be half or doublecharged (1x/2x base ammo cost per shot type)
Highball Skipper: 16 shots. Fast-moving grenades with various movement types depending on whether they're traveling on water or air.
Tumult Shell: 16 shots. Slow-moving energy shield projectile that counters energy weapon fire.

Choose any 4.

>>46264795
In general? We are sturdy, mobile, and versatile with a good mix of abilities. Our experience is low, but we aren't horrible either. Really, while we are likely unable to outrun wren, the wires and sheer mobility we can dish out will likely save our ass.

Also we need to fight dirty. Like a lot.

>>46264851
yeah, I don't see a reason to not go with >>46264547

>>46264851
I cast my vote with this >>46264547

>>46264273

I mostly agree with these thoughts, except to say that the Wren mission has a certain immediacy to it as well since every time we are putting it off is hundreds more causualties, many civilian. It is hard to argue that we are protecting lives when we ignoring something like Wren.

>>46265071
Can't save anyone if we are dead, and any of these threats could cost thousands upon thousands of lives. The issue isn't 'who goes first to maximize the lives we save' but 'who goes first so we can deal with all threats to save as many as we can.'

If we do wren last, lots of people would be dead. But if we die to Wren now, then not only do those people die, but also the people who suffer from the other mavericks.

>>46265071
>>46265117
Right, this season is a game of weighted worsts.

At least I believe doing Foxfire first was the second-best choice after Atlantica. High-value captured asset and a useful passive scan ability. Also knocks out her possible synergy with other threats.

>>46265221
Right now intel is probably the most valuable thing to keep safe and also an important target to hit. If we are lucky, Rho may be able to give us information on Stellar's stage before we head in since she is apparently built for that weird digital space stuff.

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>>46264536
>>46264547
>>46264586
>>46264691
>>46264745
>>46264878
>>46265069
You adjust your loadout and check your ammo counters, making sure they're topped up. Tumult Shells are slow, and more to the point, designed around energy weapons. Wren sounds like she's a bit more up-close-and-personal than that.

“Ready on our end,” you declare, double-checking your gear.

“Then I will see you shortly,” Phasian replies primly, and the line cuts.

“Treat her like an S,” is all Gopher tells you as you step onto the pad.

A moment later, and you find yourself in a bustling, bristling military encampment. You immediately remember the Himalayas, the bite of cold wind on your face replaced by the gnawing dread in the back of your head, remembering the first time you took on an opponent of this caliber. As you step off, Phasian fills the space you just vacated, a tall, green-clad avian model with a long blade and scabbard on her hip, one hand resting upon it at the wrist.

A human man--mid thirties, you expect, in slightly battered German military uniform gives you a salute. Worn over the camouflage is a similarly-painted vest and helmet, scuffed and scratched plating with the arms free and the shoulders uncovered.. Beside him, a Reploid in white armor gilt with ornate, vinelike green crests gives an almost casual nod. “Captains,” he says, his accented English rolling slow, smooth, and lazy.” “Enchanté. Lieutenant 20 Blanc. My compatriot is… I suppose Major, now, Lucas Sommer.” The human nods, and you return his salute.

“What’s the situation?” You ask.

“Waiting on that now,” Sommer replies, his voice a brusque and clipped answer to the slow, almost sensuous drawl of his French counterpart.

“Rouge should be back any moment,” Blanc adds. “In the meantime, here is our disposition. In command is Capitaine Rosé, currently afield. The good Major is in charge of the German forces, mostly infantry.”

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>>46265472
“Tunneling maverick has been collapsing highways and bridges,” Lucas adds.

“More is on the way, but regardless, we are very grateful for the German presence here. For a change,” he adds, with a good-natured wink at you.

>What have you got for armor, weapons, mechaniloids?
>”You suppose” Major now? Do I want to know?
>Other?

>>46265483
>>What have you got for armor, weapons, mechaniloids?
>Other?
Combat reports, attack patterns, any places where we can juice up our energy reserves and any tactical points we can use. It's obvious what wren does and we can focus on that AFTER setting up the bird trap.

Treat her like an S and be ready for a hell of a fight and heavy losses.

>>46265483
>I heard Wren is very focused on....organic.... targets. How many support vehicles do you have?

>>46265483
>What have you got for armor, weapons, mechaniloids?
>Just how bad is it in Germany? That guy's on my list of options.

>>46265553
This.

>>46265553
This, pretty much.

So, who's ready for a murderbird?

>>46266161
What, another one?

>>46266161

what is with you and overpowered bird mavericks?

>>46266161
Been there, done that.

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>>46266219
This one's all me, actually.

>>46266219
>>46266230
Sometimes it's not so easy to figure out which things Cain Labs is behind...

So anyone willing to bet wren might have a deathwish? If the virus actually loosened its grip on her so she could be convincingly "reformed" she got a taste of being sane again before having that ripped away from her. There may be just enofgh of her left to understand what's she's become. It would explain why she's going on a rampage rather than coordinating with the rest of the mavericks

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>>46266230
Can confirm that Wren the murderbirb is 100% HC, having participated in the game she originally spawned from. HC does not go halfway when he decides to do a thing.

>>46266256
The Black Death? World War II? The fourth Indiana Jones movie?

>>46266434
I object to that last one.

>>46266443

That's fair.

>>46266489
He didn't say he wasn't behind it, just that he objects to being called out on it. I think we now know who to blame...

>>46266509

Everyone is allowed to make mistakes.
Except for us, because it will totally kill Anode.

>>46266604
Indeed!

>>46265483
Basically, >>46265553 with any other useful tidbits we can learn about the others going in with us mainly. I'd be curious to know any hints from Phasian about what we could be in for as well or quirks we could exploit.

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>>46265553
>>46265565
>>46265738
>>46265758
>>46265829
You decide you can put together the pieces well enough on ‘Major’ Lucas. “What do we have available?”

Blanc shrugs. “A few skimmers, the odd heavy vehicle. They don’t catch her interest, and if they do, they don’t slow her down much. We’ve found it’s best to stay mobile. She chases if you run.”

Lovely. “Anything heavier?”

“TSVs--think like full-body ride armors,” he explains. “A few air-drop heavy platforms. We’re rolling in some artillery, but we haven’t had a good window to open fire, and we want to hold them in reserve so she doesn’t simply pull them apart as soon as they’re in place.”

“We’ve also tapped some mechaniloids,” Lucas adds. “We have some containment and mobile artillery frames--a bit slow, and the trappers don’t do much more than annoy her for a second.”

“We do have a considerable air force, but her predilections aside, Wren is still a superior aerial combatant,” Blanc adds. “Nonetheless, we have some Tubamail-S MMC/Fs. Mechaniloid Minifabricator Carrier/Fighters.”

“Jet that launches bird drones?” You ask.

“Just so. We had heli variants that would, in theory, be better suited to this mission, but...”

“Wren happened,” Lucas says blankly.

“Ah.”

Blanc nods. “We have some classified heavy mechaniloid support on the way--I’m hoping Rouge will be bringing good news on that front.”

Phasian breaks her silence, reminding you of her tacit presence. “And the infantry?”

“What about us?” Sommer shrugs. “We’re the only thing she cares about, so we’re out there, dusting off playbooks from museums for this.”

“We haven’t seen casualties like this for over a hundred years,” Blanc agrees, his calm and relaxed demeanor wavering just a hint. “Militaries have moved beyond the economy of numbers.”

“Had,” the human corrects.

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>>46266972
“Any reports on Wren’s behavior? Anyplace we can secure a tactical advantage?”

“Yes, and no,” Blanc responds. “With her focusing on the infantry, we’ve been able to set up mechaniloid surveillance to get an accurate picture of her tactics.”

“Such as they are,” adds another voice, this one belonging to a woman. You turn to see a Reploid, very much the twin to Blanc, this one clad in deep burgundy armor with the same green detailing. Blanc’s eyes light up when she arrives, striding forward and giving her a brief kiss.

“Uh?”

“Ah, yes, Captain. My ‘sister’ and superior officer, 20 Rouge.”

“Uh.”

“They love doing that,” Lucas explains, unflappable. “It passes the time.”

“Hardly true ‘siblings,’ given we were manufactured,” Rouge offers. “I guess by your reaction you were acclimated by humans?”

“Yyyyyes,” you reply. Phasian shakes her head as you press on. “So, recordings of Wren?”

“Ah, yes,” Rouge says, voice twinkling with amusement at your discomfort. “She flies low, looks for targets, and dives. She vastly prefers closing to melee with those knives, but when pressed with strong opposition has fired off wind blasts laced with ceratanium.”

“Ow.”

“Quite. Unfortunately, the terrain is of her choosing, when and where she pleases. She cannot be caught, pinned down, suppressed, or surrounded. We can and have lured her into traps, but each time she’s simply broken the perimeter and gone on her merry way.”

“So, in short,” Phasian says, voice still soft. “She is too swift to be caught by your heaviest weapons, and what can catch her is ineffective.”

“That’s about the size of it,” Lucas agrees.

>Launch a probing strike. Sortie alongside the infantry, feel her out.
>Go in with an air attack and provide support. Maybe you can do some damage while she’s airborne.
>Spearhead a heavy ground assault. If you can get her commit, you can do a lot of damage.
>Other?

>>46266998
>Spearhead a heavy ground assault. If you can get her commit, you can do a lot of damage.
There's no way she can ignore that. Challenging her in the air is asking for trouble, and she doesn't commit to traps, considering she can just walk all over them.

>>46266998
>>Go in with an air attack and provide support. Maybe you can do some damage while she’s airborne.
Do make sure someone can catch us if it goes pear shaped

>>46266998
>Spearhead a heavy ground assault. If you can get her commit, you can do a lot of damage.

Probing gets you knives. Air attack is already established as untenable.

>>46266998

I'd argue for
>Spearhead a heavy ground assault.

I feel like she won't come to ground unless she's got a ton of targets to attempt to murder but at the same time, that also means there's a ton of targets to attempt to murder right there for her. We're not going to be great in the air (especially with only a little practice and probing strikes will take time away from doing actual damage). If we can get her close enough to the ground to hit her fast and hard, it sounds like the most plausible option.

>>46266998
>>Go in with an air attack and provide support. Maybe you can do some damage while she’s airborne.

>>46266998

>Spearhead a heavy ground assault. If you can get her commit, you can do a lot of damage.

While I hate the idea of hard engaging with limited intel on her abilities and approach, I'm not comfortable with spending the lives required to gain that intel and we don't fly.

>>46266998
go in with the air support and assist from the ground. going in heavy will just slaughter everyone with those tornados. keep mobile and do not let her choose the battleground.

>>46267245
Oh come now, what's a few dead Frenchmen.

This entire mission is completely unbelievable. Why haven't all but a few of the French surrendered or run away to eat cheese and cry? 0/10 for characterization, absolutely disgusted.

>>46267527

Are you giving advice that we should take, or are you giving us advice that you know we won't take because we don't trust you?

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>>46267852
He is being himself, that's all there really is to it.

>Reploids on the ground have reported that they actually have to attack her a few times to draw her attention if there's someone else to kill.

Do we have realistic human training dummies? I'd imagine so, since hunters have to do training for hostage situations and CPR and shit.

We know Wren will preferentially target humans, above other tactical considerations. Let's think like wily here and set a deadly trap.

>>46267916
Not even remotely realistic enough to fool Wren, no.

>>46267916
>Let's think like wily here and set a deadly trap.
Let's buy some birdseed and a cardboard box, we'll be done in no time.

>>46268174
No no, like Wily, so we must put skull motifs on EVERYTHING. The cardboard box must look like a skull. The individual birdseeds much be carved into little skulls. Everything.

>>46268288
Can we go back to that museum and steal a robot master to be our minion?

Presuming Flak wouldn't be willing to dress up as one, obviously.

>>46268366
dress all our berets up as robot masters, new mandatory dress code

>>46268579
Then we need to get endo and crazy Wily hair an a mustache. Then again, I get the feeling thats probably akin to dressing up as Hitler and the SS in a way.

>>46268036
She still goes after tanks and armored vehicles, right? There has to be some way to exploit her predictability.

>>46268615
She does, but only when there's a lack of other choice targets, and they can't hold her attention for long before she just breaks off and leaves.

>>46268611
Wily did nothing wrong

>>46268703
Dr.Light pushed him too far, all the blame rests with him

I dont suppose theres any nearby urban areas we can engage her in, so we can use the buildings as cover and coil anchors?

>>46268839
We're currently in French countryside, I'm pretty sure.

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>>46268948

>>46268948
>Anode is thirsty for Foxfire
uh

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>>46268948
She looks like she's in an 80s cardio VHS.

>>46268948
Good god, I think I may have laughed so loud I woke up someone in Bangladesh

>>46268948
Okay, who gave Foxfire access to the internet again?

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>>46269020
The best part is, if anyone on this earth would have a teeshirt that declares "Naked," it would be Foxfire.

Cain Labs is going to fucking murder us all.

>>46268948
Anode is wearing suspenders.

>>46269082
This was worth dying for...

>>46269111
Foxfire's right hand is backwards. Em has bigget hips than Foxfire. This image is a goldmine on its own.

>>46269082
Don't mind him. His waifu a shit. A shit!

>>46269137
>Em has bigget hips than Foxfire
More room to attach sabers. I vote to make it canon!

Considering officers have maybe two years from activation to joining the Hunters, you'd think they'd have more training.

>>46266998
>Spearhead a heavy ground assault. If you can get her commit, you can do a lot of damage.

>>46264316
Never underestimate HC and Cain with a thorny devil.

Also, hey HC, hi Cain Labs. How's it going?

>>46266998
>Spearhead a heavy ground assault. If you can get her commit, you can do a lot of damage.

Can't see anything else to do, unfortunately.

I hope this isn't a "Which arm do you want to cut off?" sort of mission.

>>46269411
Howdy, howdy.

Not bad, a bit distracted because a big mattress foundation I ordered finally came in and now I need to wrestle the damn thing into position.

>>46269082

isn't saying Cain Labs is going to kill us all kinda like saying the sky is blue?

>>46269790
and water is wet.

schwarz died for your sins

>>46270338
If you believe that Schwarz is dead I have a bridge to sell you...

Because he's not dead, he's theirs.

>>46270610
Alternately, these are events that may yet to come that we have failed to prevent. Things like Wolfgang getting put down.

>>46270610

just because something is puppeting his body dos'nt mean he's not dead.

>>46270610
corpsehund

>>46270666
I suppose so. On the other hand I don't really see a way for us to do much more than we already are. In the grand scheme of things we're just one plucky A rank.

>>46270700
>>46270712
You make a good point. 'Schwarz' is definitely dead.

>>46270666
>Wolfgang
Mozart, nooooooo!!

>>46270802
God damn spellcheck. Meant Blizzard Wolfang.

I am caught firmly between refusing to believe that Schwartzhund is dead and thinking that naratively, he was part of our training wheels, which are now gone.

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>>46270934

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>>46269779
Update: This is not a mattress foundation. This is a maverick. Cain Labs did this. Send help.

>>46270934
Most importantly, who inherited all his cash? The Lifesaver fund? Em? Max?

>>46271030
No Navigators are available for this mission. Please try again later.

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>>46271030

>>46270610
That shit is going to end up going down like the ending to Metal Gear Solid 3.

If Anode ever finds himself in a field of flowers, he should be extremely afraid.

Wait, we do have one option for a human decoy badass enough to survive without it being a suicide mission, but so human that even Wren won't be able to tell on first sight.

>Call in a favor from Grach, and get his help making a killzone.

>>46271269
Wren prefers volume of targets, not necessarily quality.

Rolled 86 (1d100)

>>46271218

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>>46271247
There is no way that wouldn't happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CbFAZ2ztlE

>>46271269
He would probably appreciate the idea of filling the area with blow up dolls from a hundred raided sex shops I was considering pitching to act as more distractions, too...

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Okay, the mattress foundation is slain. Good Christ, RIP my dignity.

I'm going to take a moment to collect myself before I go depart with Team Jerkass to see that movie. I'll be back late tonight or tomorrow--and either way, there will be MHQ tomorrow. Don't feel too obliged to bump the thread, we can always make a new one if we have to.

>>46271618
Have fun!

>>46271618
Happy to hear about tomorrow, thanks for running today, and what movie?

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So has anyone got some storytimes, or should we just let this sink away and have a fresh thread for tomorrow?

>>46273687
I could try, though I rarely feel like I do my PCs justice. Let's see...
Well, there's Steam Shenlong vs King Kraken in a robo kaiju smackdown (quick), Lockdown Oni's Mousehunt, Pandora and the Hunt for the Majestic Exploding Duck, Carolina on base, Nephilim in Vienna which ended in the molestation of Dash Dodo, Hammer's Wild Goose Chase. Alternately, one that would be the horrible truth of Blare's blackout and romp through Vienna with Madhouse Crucifer during the fighting.

>>46273687
I've got one if Charge doesn't feel like writing something up.

>>46274747
Go ahead and share yours, since I need to get a few other things handled first.

>>46274798
Aight, coming up then.

Deployments always came with a certain degree of nerves. I mean, I'm beaming out to somewhere I've never been, usually somewhere I've never heard of, where there tends to be a fairly significant force of mavericks hell bent on ripping me and the other members of my squad to sparking shreds. I think it'd be more worrisome if they didn't make me nervous.

Granted, this insertion was a bit different. We were teleporting to a nearby site then tunneling in with the help of our squad’s newest addition, Tremor Warthog. He seemed like a solid enough guy, if a bit loud; apparently his vocal systems had been constructed to alert miners of cave-ins and other potential hazards. Given that he was the one who was boring the tunnel, he was to be first out of the hole. I was second.

We had gotten our coordinates from satellite photos of the island. Originally a small resort, it had been occupied by Mavericks during the off season and they'd fortified it pretty considerably. Intel was spotty, so we really didn't know what we had tunneled into, beyond that we'd come up through the floor of a small out-building.

Tremor's drill punched through the floor with a grinding roar, and he quickly disappeared out of the hole bellowing, and I quote, "PREPARE FOR THE HAMMER OF JUSTICE!" I ignored it and concerned myself with getting out of the tunnel, glancing around and rushing at the first hostile I saw, a Hoganmer. In my peripheral vision I could see Tremor barreling drill first through a wall, taking a Diskboy and another Hoganmer with him. I focused my attention on my own target. The Hoganmer, in a display of remarkable agility, ducked sideways and sprang into a roll, planting his shield into the ground and curling out of my reach as my EAS carried me through a window in the building’s back wall.

Outside it was bright and sunny, the cheerful atmosphere oddly conflicting with the shouts and bangs of a budding conflict. We had come up in a corner of the island; about ten meters from the wall of the building there was a sheer drop into the crystalline blue ocean waters below. Glancing over my shoulder I spotted Tremor who had just barely managed to stop his charge in time to avoid going right over the edge; the Hoganmer and Diskboy he'd taken with him were nowhere to be seen.

Knowing that the rest of my squad would be hot on my heals, I didn't bother turning around to deal with the hostiles who were still inside the building. Instead I activated my EAS and headed eastward along the cliff, keeping well away from the walls of the building to avoid any potential friendly fire. Sure enough, as I passed the corner, two bright blue, crescent-shaped waves sliced their way out of the wall of the building, dissipating soon after, leaving only scorched holes in their wake. That would be the handiwork of Yojimbo, one of the most serious and focused hunters I’d run across, and almost certainly the most so within our squad. He’d had a custom saber designed and built using DNA from one of the mavericks our squad had previously retired; the result was a weapon capable of projecting a highly lethal blade-wave for an impressive distance.

I turned the corner and headed north, between the building from which I’d just emerged and a small man-made river, ducking and throwing a punch at an Earth Commander which had been lurking in ambush. The punch whiffed, but so did the earth commander's shot, sizzling into the grass a bit to my left. I could hear the pounding hoofbeats of my CO, Reflector Cataphract, thundering along behind me, and pressed ahead towards an exposed Mettool, leaving the Earth Commander to her. The Mettool took a punch and immediately shorted, its electronics fizzling into a useless mass of slag just as a fox-hole of traitorous Steel Berets across the river began unleashing their busters at me.

Skidding to a halt, I ducked, attempting to avoid their fire, but succeeding only in catching it with my face as opposed to my chest. Thankfully, the berets were stock, and the combination of my armor and shielding reduced their damage nothing more than a stinging annoyance. I grinned and triggered my EAS again, launching myself most of the way across the river between me and the berets, just as Cat burned a hole neatly through the Earth Commander, her laser hissing off into the distance. The Berets, to their credit and my chagrin, had the presence of mind to drop a smoke grenade at their own feet, obscuring them as I loped forward, fists up, lo-knuckles buzzing.

As it turns out, diving into a smoke-screen when your enemies know you're coming isn't actually the best plan of action. I barreled into the haze, swinging at an indistinct shadow which ducked lithely out of the way, back into the fox-hole, just as I felt something small and heavy bounce off the back of my head.

For the record, grenades are LOUD when they explode right next to you.

The noise was so intense that it registered as a pressure-fluctuation as opposed to an actual sound. Luckily, my mitigation hardware protected me from the worst of the shrapnel, but the shock-wave staggered me and rattled things that were never meant to rattle.

I stumbled forward through the smoke and paused for a second as my balance wavered and a static-filled snippet of conversation made its way through the hissing of my scrambled comms, "'-ing hell is it coming from?! Check the tree!' 'No, It's not there, I already di-Augh!'" I shook my head, drawing myself back to reality. Berets. Traitor Berets. Dropped smoke, nailed me with a grenade. I swiveled and started forward into an unsteady jog, systems still fuzzy from the explosion. The smoke grenade was hissing loudly somewhere to my left; I ducked down, snagging it from the rubble strewn ground, and lobbed it into the center of the little river.

The increase in visibility was almost instantaneous. Whipping around, I saw that one Beret had abandoned the cover of the fox-hole and was standing a couple of meters in front of me and to my left, his expression a rictus of shock and dismay as the cover of his smoke grenade disappeared. A quick glance over my shoulder told me that the other had popped back up less than a meter away in the hole and was steadying his buster on its lip, lining up sights on my back.

Unfortunately for the beret aiming at me, I was faster. Whirling and pushing hard off the ground, I pistoned a fist into his chest, carving a molten, sparking divot through his armor as I dove for the cover of the fox-hole. "-T HIM! SHOOT HIM FOR GODS SAKES, HE'S JUST A BLOODY BERET!" blared through the static in my comms as I triggered my EAS, popping back up over the rim of the fox-hole and smashing a fist entirely through the other beret's arm at the shoulder, dropping him. I glanced around, noting for the first time that there were two Mets a few meters to the south, one of which had already ducked under its helmet, the other preparing to fire off a shot at me. "'Erm... no offense Jonesy.' '... none taken lieutenant.'" continued the comms, the static fading out as my autorepair returned them to working order.

I dealt with the vulnerable Met before glancing around to make sure there was nothing I’d missed, ignoring the one that had already ducked. I could pound on that helmet all day without getting anywhere, and the rest of my squad needed me. Starting back towards the fight, I looked up just in time to see Tremor let out an earth-shaking shout of "GERONIMOOOOOOO!!” as he launched himself off a raised area of rocks, smashing into the trunk of a tree and felling it with a resounding series of creaking snaps. A split-second before his impact, a smoke grenade went off somewhere within the branches, obscuring my view as I headed back towards the fray.

A couple of footsteps later, my comms switched on again, "Gonna need to make tracks - not doing so good." It was Yojimbo, a rarity given his tendency towards silence during combat. I kept moving forward; regardless of whether anyone was injured, I'm spec'd for close-quarters fighting. I could do the most good at the front. After a couple of seconds my comms came on again, directed at someone else, "Right, take over here, I’m falling back now - not terribly interested in dying today."

I grimaced and hurried on, changing my jog into a sprint, maxing out my movement systems as I activated my comms. "I'm south east, been delayed a bit by some Berets, but I have that wrapped up, so head this way." I replied, already reaching back to undo the latch on my pack.

There was a frustrated bellow and Tremor barreled out of the smoke, charging forward to take Yojimbo's place at the front. The swordsman came careening back through a tall stand of grass, slashing out waves in all directions and destroying the concealment of the enemy Berets who were hiding there. Ducking a charged shot and hitting his EAS, Yojimbo launched himself forward toward me while Jonesy, our stealth specialist, de-cloaked and moved in with a punishing barrage of plasma, occupying the revealed berets' attention and letting Tremor pass them unmolested.

With the others holding the front, Yojimbo and I skidded to a halt next to the recently felled tree. He hadn't been exaggerating about the damage; most of his formerly-golden armor was scorched and what wasn’t had gashes in it that were a couple of centimeters deep each. Worse than that, his left arm, though apparently still functional, had a jagged piece of shrapnel sticking out of it. The left side of his back had an oblong blackened dent about the size of a beer can, and his left leg had a small hole all the way through it.

"Mortars." he stated flatly, by way of explanation, as I started work. I did what I could, patching the holes in his armor, quick-bonding a few wires back together in his arm and leg, then heating the dent in his back to pop it out before giving him a hand up. Yojimbo glanced over himself, shook out his arm, tested his leg and nodded before turning and activating his EAS, boosting out with me trailing slightly behind.

By then, the smoke had cleared out of the tree, and the fighting moved on farther away from us. I was surprised not to see any evidence of a body as I glanced over. Apparently Tremor hadn't gotten whoever he was after there. Up ahead, BQW10050, or Bee as she preferred to be called, was taking on a Rabbit Ride-armor. She was doing pretty good too, buzzing furiously, both sets of arms an angry blur as her twin beam sabers carved furrow after furrow into its armored frame.

Canada, our red and white alcoholic-moonlighting-as-a-weapons-platform, had opened up on a fox-hole with two berets and a notor banger using her custom built 20 mm Gatling gun. They didn't stand a chance. The hail of APCR reduced them to so much thoroughly perforated scrap in maybe a second and a half.

There was a shrieking sound and I looked back towards Bee just in time to see the ride-armor collapse to one side, its arm coming down in one final sweep, managing to catch her on the way as it folded, rideloid operator bounding free. Bee took the blow well but she had never been intended to trade damage, and the Rabbit-ride's spikes left a trio of gashes through her plating down her side and onto her abdomen. She buzzed backwards, giggling madly, zipping out to the end of her range before firing off a pair of magnetically charged stinger-flechettes. One sank into the rideloid pilot's side, its flared, rose-like base carving a sparking divot into him as it did so, while the other embedded itself in a nearby rush roader, shattering one of its optics crystals.

My comms buzzed (somewhat literally, in fact) with Bee’s voice, "I'm not feeling zzzo great, really took a beating from that Ride Armor. Wanna kizzzz it better, Cat? - Haha. Rubble, you mind patching me up?"

"Roger, I'm already on my way." I replied, passing Cat who was smiling faintly, even as she lined up a laser shot on one of the numerous notor bangers who were peppering us with mortar fire.

Pounding forward and pulling out the tools I’d so recently put away, I watched nervously as Bee fell back from the worst of the fighting. The rest of the squad did their job though, occupying the enemy’s attention and giving Bee the window she needed to disengage cleanly. Once more I skidded to a halt, kneeling as Bee lit on the ground in front of me, turning so as to give me better access to her injuries.

Bee has the rare ability to maintain cheer under virtually any circumstances, and her repairs were no exception. She chatted animatedly about something or other even as I was welding her armor back together. I can’t say I was really listening.

"Hold still a moment Bee, this may sting." I realized it a fraction of a second after the words left me. "Erm. Hurt. A bit. I mean. Sorry."

Bee quirked an eyebrow at me, "Rubble, the only thing that zzzztung wazzz that pun."

I winced inwardly, attempting to maintain my concentration despite the acutely embarrassing verbal slip, "N-not intentional there."

Tremor launched himself upward in my peripheral vision, coming down hammer first on an enemy beret, flattening the unfortunate soldier and knocking his companions back with the force of the blow. I twitched my ears. Focus. Not the time to take in the sights.

Bee’s screen displayed a large grin as I finished and she twisted to the side, looking over my handiwork as as I stowed my tools back in my pack. She nodded approvingly before hopping back into the air and taking off to re-join the fray. I kicked on my EAS and accelerated forward, finally approaching the front line of fighting which had moved into the buildings of the resort's "town."

Hopping over a low wall surrounding the town’s strip-like garden, I activated my comms. "Yojimbo, can you deal with that nest on the roof? north east of your position? I'll take out those Berets in the middle of the street there."

Yojimbo's reply was a near-instantaneous "Sure."

Suddenly another voice crackled through my comms, "I've got the Berets Rubble." It was Hunter Pogona, playing to her strengths, as usual, and lining up sights from some far-off vantage point. "There's a notor banger on the roof to the north west, you can take it and support Tremor, he already headed that way. Head north then wait for my mark to jump for the roof so I don't hit you accidentally."

"Got it." I commed back, wondering where, precisely, Pogona was. Sprinting forward, I glanced to my side just in time to see Yojimbo smash through the window of the building under the roof I’d asked him to take out. About a second later, several saber-waves sliced skyward through the roof, a chain of explosions indicating the nest was gone. Well. That was resourceful.

I slowed as I approached the Berets on the road who wheeled to face me, already leveling their busters. There was a frozen instant in which I wondered distractedly if I was about to gain several new scars before the air crackled with the distinctive report of a railgun's hypersonic payload.

"OK!" commed Pogona at seemingly the same instant as one of the berets jerked sideways into his companion, fouling his aim, a hole bored entirely through his chest. "Jump, Rubble!" I complied, jamming my EAS to full and leaping for the roof of the building Hunter had indicated.

Now, jumping a bit over three meters onto a flat roof might not sound all that challenging for a reploid. Most of us can jump that high one way or another, especially if we're using an EAS. The tricky bit is the fact that you can't see where you're landing when you jump up onto a roof until you're more than half way through your arc. Also a lot of roofs have a layer of tar covering them, and then a layer of gravel on top of the tar to protect it from the UV of a bright sunny day. It extends the life of the structure dramatically. It also has the potential to act like a layer of ball-bearings when a six hundred pound mutos wolf lands on them with a significant amount of momentum. I suppose the point I'm trying to make here is that, despite several factors acting against me, I did not in fact fall on my face. However close I may have come.

Regaining my balance, I rushed forward to the notor banger. The little mechaniloid whirled to face me, it's barrel re-angling, trying to line up a shot. Unfortunately for the notor banger, artillery isn't meant to aim down, and I'm significantly faster than I look. I sunk a fist entirely through the thing's 'face', wiping out its core and spilling ordinance onto the roof.

Keeping my momentum, I continued forward, jumping down off the building and landing on the other side where Tremor was already preparing to charge a pair of road attackers. I looked past him and felt my optics widen as my mind registered what I was seeing. Two of the enormous, bumblebee-like mechanaloids called spy copters were revving up, already in the process of deploying. I stood frozen for an instant before snapping back to reality, lurching into a jog back towards the rest of my squad.

Glancing back, I saw that the spy copters were airborne. One of them looked like it was about to strafe Tremor, while the other appeared to be following me. I snarled my defiance and skidded around the corner of the building who's roof I’d just cleared, the rest of my squad coming back into view. Fine. I had support now. If the spy copter wanted me, it could come get some.

I prepped my EAS, waiting a moment for the ‘copter to catch up. The thing was already firing by the time it rounded the corner, clipping me as I released my EAS, launching myself straight up. The spy copter had evidently not been expecting this, and lurched sideways in an effort to avoid collision. It needn't have bothered. Despite my efforts, my jump had been ill-timed, and I missed by nearly a full meter, my hands failing utterly to find any part of the enormous mechanaloid as I sailed skyward.

The absurdity of what I was doing hit me at the apex of my jump, as the ‘Copter’s rotors passed beneath me. I had used my EAS in a way that it had never been intended, as a jump booster, in hopes that I might grab and bring down a mechanaloid that had to be at least twenty times my size. Not only that, said mechanaloid wasn't even touching the ground, so there was nothing for me to lever against its strength.

My train of thought was interrupted by two things which happened at almost exactly the same time. First, Canada fired off several flak rounds into the underside of the spy copter, and second, I landed, belly first, on its abdomen-shaped munitions bay, the magnets in my palms snapping on and granting me a firm grip. I grinned fiercely, ignoring the voice of reason which had started screaming incoherently in the back of my mind. There was no time to second-guess myself. In another few seconds, the spy copter would head forward and start strafing my squadmates, and I'd be damned if it happened on my watch.

I squirmed forward under the spinning blades and plunged a fist into the copter's rotor. Upon reflection, this may not have been the sanest thing I have ever done. The rotor screeched and disintegrated under my fist, blades warping as their housing wobbled. Blades that were inches above my head. The tips of which which were whizzing by at just under Mach one. Oops.

I had just enough time to reflect that I may have mis-calculated before they slammed into my back, disintegrating on impact. I won't mince words. It hurt. It would have hurt significantly worse but for the merciful happenstance that they hit on the most heavily protected portion of my body, where my armor was layered in semi-cosmetic plates designed to mimic the thick tufts of fur on the shoulders of an actual wolf. I rolled with the force of the blow, not that I had much say in the matter, and found myself sliding forward towards the “head” of the ‘Copter as it careened, out of control, towards the ground.

I saw it coming, but there was nothing I could do. With a booming, echoing crash that jarred everything in my body, the mechaniloid landed on me. The shock of the impact rattled me hard enough that my sensor inputs blinked with white noise for an instant before coming back online, bringing with them a half dozen winking damage indicators. I lay still under the weight of the ruined Spy Copter for a moment, thinking absently that, despite the damage I had incurred, I was in remarkably good shape given what I’d just done.

>>46274249
Im curious to hear your take on Oni's mission.

Somewhere back behind the building I heard Bee’s voice, shrill over the sound of battle, “WILL YOU BLEND?!” There was a short burst of fire, then the sound of tearing metal before “MAV SMOKE! DON’T BREATHE THIS!!!” I shook my head and started dragging myself out from under the Spy Copter, grinning fiercely. I’d survived. What I’d done might have been incredibly stupid, yes, but how many could say that they’d grappled a goddamn helicopter and lived to tell of it? Not very many I was guessing.

My left leg didn’t feel quite right. I glanced down and, with an odd sense of detachment, noted that there was a jagged piece of shrapnel sticking out of the armor. I loped over to some flower boxes which had been set up around the front of a nearby building, vaulted over them and unceremoniously tore the shrapnel out of my leg. Ow. Not detached enough.

Luckily, my repair skills weren’t solely for others, and I found it surprisingly easy patch the hole in my armor left by the shrapnel and heat-out a few other miscellaneous dents and dings I’d accrued during the crash. Painful, but easy. I stood and looked around; the fighting seemed to be over for the moment.

Canada was staring at me, her expression incredulous “... You need a shield. Like me.”

“I have a shield” I replied, “I just don't get the time to activate it that often."

“You need a shield more like mine then.”

I shrugged “Mine can cover more than just me. Originally it was supposed to help me deal with falling debris, unexpected explosions, that sort of thing. In case I ran into some unpleasantness inside any of those structurally unsound buildings us search and rescue people are so fond of.” I shrugged “Hunters re-purposed it easily enough. It’s more of a backup anyway.”

Canada shook her head and started off to the north, checking for hostiles we might have missed. I stood and surveyed the damage inflicted on the resort for a moment before opening comms to the squad, “Anybody need repairs before our targets show up? Things seem quiet now so I figure it’d be a good time.”

There was a few seconds before a Tremor’s booming laugh sounded over my comms, “IF YOU WANT TO THEN YOU ARE WELCOME! IT'S ONLY BEEN A FEW DOZEN EXPLOSIONS OR SO.”

I chuckled wryly, comming back: “Day in the life here pal. What’s your position? I’ll come to you.”

Tremor was on the roof of a building a bit to my north east, but I had no trouble finding the enormous reploid. “Arright, sit down and hold still.” I ordered in my best lifesaver voice, gaining the roof. “This’ll only take a moment.” His repairs were surprisingly routine. Apparently he’d been built with taking the blast waves from explosions specifically in mind, since despite all the soot from shells and grenades, he’d taken less damage than I had.

I'd just finished tending to Tremor's wounds when there was a shrieking sound, like some unimaginably large artillery, then something dead-black and tear-drop shaped streaked out of the sky, hammering into the earth of the courtyard behind me. The impact blew a small crater into the soft soil and kicked up a considerable amount of dust, obscuring the details as the substance of the teardrop dissipated like smoke, but it wasn't difficult to guess what would come next. The real battle was about to begin.

It, um, occurs to me that this is a long-ass story. I have the rest, so if people wan't I'll go ahead and post it, but otherwise I sort of feel like I'm taking up a lot of thread. (Also this is a fairly natural stopping place so there's that)

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>>46275707
Well, I'm back, and I have to type up a fairly massive heft of update (fuck you, mattress foundation), so if you want to take up more thread real estate, you'll get no complaints from me.

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Oh hey, the story's going up.

>>46275646
I launched myself from the roof, activating my EAS as I hit the ground. Somewhere behind me I could hear Canada and Tremor doing the same, and my peripherals showed me that Yojimbo was also headed towards the impact site. As I ran the dust began to settle and out of the crater stepped our two primary targets: Desantnik Magpie and Warpstar Griffon.

Magpie was shorter than me, a roughly human sized reploid with a light peach and grey-green color scheme that incorporated several large, blue optical gems. Whatever his stature lacked in intimidation value was more than made up for by the expression on his face, which I can only really describe as eager hatred. That and the how he took two steps out of the crater and literally vanished in front of my eyes.

Warpstar, on the other hand, was a huge, deep grey griffon mutos. The file I’d read had physical specifications, but reading statistics just never quite seems to convey precisely how angry five meters of mechanized death can look when it’s staring across a battle decimated resort town at you.

>>46277817
Despite his size, Warpstar lost no time in flinging himself aloft, saying something that was lost to me in the shriek of his wings’ massive thrusters. There was an odd, hissing ring as he wreathed himself in a strange substance that looked vaguely like a thundercloud filled with soot. Which then abruptly expanded with a coughing boom, covering the entire battle field.

Visibility plummeted as seething darkness swallowed everything farther away than about fifteen meters. I pounded forward, Tremor and Yojimbo at either side, heading for where Warpstar had disappeared. Magpie was nowhere to be seen.

I heard, rather than saw, one of Hunter’s railgun shots hit, along with grunt of pain from somewhere in front of me that I guessed was Warpstar. Then a bit of shadow soared down out of the darkened sky and clocked me in the face as I rocketed forward. The sensation was odd, less force and more heat, like opening an oven while it’s in the middle of baking something, only a thousand times more intense. I lurched sideways, unable to alter my course on such short notice, and barely managed to avoid tripping and going down as Warpstar passed me, the shadowy darkness in which he had cloaked himself condensing onto his wings and boiling off.

Skidding to a halt, I whipped around and primed one of my kinetic rockets, targeting my now somewhat abruptly visible assailant as he sped towards Tremor, hoping that the impact would stun Warpstar before he had time to do any damage. I was too slow to stop him though, and my squadmate paid the price, Warpstar’s raking talons inflicting a trio of brutal gashes into Tremor’s armored back with a squeal of tearing metal.

>>46277877
My comms buzzed to life with Bee’s voice as Tremor stumbled forward under the force of the impact, “Anyone have vizzzual on Warpstar?”

“Yeah, I see him,” I replied as a searing, electric blue beam blasted past me from somewhere to the south and caught Warpstar in the hip. I faltered, staring around for the source of the attack as the haze covering the battlefield to winked and danced for an instant, offering a glimpse of the battlefield in its entirety. Seeing nothing, I shook my head and focused my attention back on warpstar, continuing in my comms, “He’s north and a little west of the middle of that courtyard they came down in. Careful about approaching, I’m not sure exactly what it is he’s outfitted with, but those shadows can hurt.”

Distractions over, I ignited the rocket, its thrust shoving me back a half-step with a satisfying ‘WHUMP’ as it accelerated towards Warpstar like a jet-propelled sledgehammer.

He turned at the sound, his optics widening fractionally before the rocket hammered into his forehead, knocking him flat onto his back, expression stunned. He recovered quickly though, rolling to the side as Jonesy de-cloaked a few meters to my right and leveled his VWES at the mav, generating another of the electric blue beams and carving a molten line into the asphalt where the mav had been lying half a second before. Warpstar wasn’t lucky twice though and Hunter’s railgun punched a small, molten hole clean through in his armor and into the road beneath him.

“Status, everyone?” chimed Bee in my comms as Tremor dug in his toes, preparing to charge the downed Warpstar.

There was a quick chorus of ‘All good’ variants before Canada’s voice came through, clipped and precise, “Being engaged in CQC.”

There was a micropause in the comms before Bee asked brightly, “You need zzzzome help? I don’t think you're made for Clozzze quarterzzz!"

The comms continued, but I blocked it out, focusing on Warpstar who had just kipped up ten feet straight into the air, dodging Tremor’s charge by mere centimeters. The shadowy fog abruptly writhed and sped towards Warpstar, coalescing onto him and boiling off with a hiss, leaving the field brightly lit with sunlight again. An instant later, more of the substance foamed out from the cracks in his wings, wreathing him in wispy shadow as he charged forward into Cat, who had crept up in the shadows.

I pounded towards the pair, already queuing up another rocket as Warpstar traded blows with my commanding officer, taking another hit from Hunter’s railgun as they fought. “Cat, Duck left!” I shouted, skidding to a halt and firing the rocket. She dodged, not even bothering to look as my ordinance sailed over her shoulder, streaking towards its target. This time Warpstar was ready though and blocked it with crossed arms, keeping his balance and sneering contemptuously at me as he resumed trading blows with Cat. At least my CO was giving nearly as good as she got. I gritted my teeth and primed another rocket, preparing to fire over her shoulder again as Jonesy cut loose with another of his beams, missing entirely.

Warpstar broke from the melee as my rocket’s thruster ignited, backpedaling and slamming a hand upward into it as he foamed out more shadowy mist from his wings, covering the battle field again and wreathing himself in the darker mist which I had come to recognize as an area attack. I jerked into motion, zipping towards him with the use of my EAS in the hopes of anticipating a downward feint. The sizzling sting of Warpstar’s haze was my only reward; I missed entirely, passing harmlessly underneath him. Bee swooped down abruptly from above, diving past warpstar and lashing out with blinding speed only to find all of her attacks parried aside.

>>46277936
Before I could turn around, Warpstar spun towards me, braced, and unloaded four shots from his decidedly non-standard buster into my back at point blank range. I’ve had my armor get slagged by something heat based once before; granted, that time my mind was occupied with other matters. I remember the feeling though, and doubt I’ll ever get used to it. It isn’t quite like any other type of damage that I’ve experienced. It hurts, obviously, but the sensation is more than just pain. There’s a fundamental sense of wrongness which comes with feeling liquefied rivulets of your own chassis running down your back.

Yelping in pain, I staggered forward and whipped back around to face Warpstar, feeling and hearing several of the overlapping armor plates on my back come loose and clatter to the ground as I did so. I lurched towards him, activating my EAS and jumping, trying desperately to bring him down in a grapple, but he turned at the last moment, using my momentum against me and shaking loose the tenuous grip I’d managed on his leg. I landed in a groaning heap. At least I’d gotten close enough to see the extent of the injures Cat had given him in their melee trades. Despite the apparent fact that he was still fully functional, Warpstar had definitely seen better days.

>>46277995
Lurching back to my feet as Hunter punched another hole in Warpstar with her railgun, I decided to back off. I’d taken significant damage and I wasn’t about to serve myself up on a platter for the maverick bastard. The way things stood, defending himself from Bee and Cat was taking up all of Warpstar’s attention, I was no longer on his radar. Kicking on my EAS and dodging south, I tried to angle for a clear shot with my ice needles, the only ranged system I had aside from the rockets, my supply of which was now exhausted. I wished I’d had more of them. Given my aim, a self-guided projectile was pretty much the only chance I had of hitting him.

It hardly mattered though, Warpstar moved before I so much as had the chance to line up sights on him. Sensing that the fight was going badly, he dodged east, a little over three meters, right next to where I would have been standing had I not moved. He whirled to face the pursuing Cat and Bee-

Then he exploded into shadow.

>>46278024
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that shadows exploded out of him. A thirty foot wide sphere of his burning, misty darkness screamed out from his form, enveloping Cat and Bee as they attempted to dodge backward out of the way. Even though the shadows I could immediately see the damage that he was inflicting. This attack was an order of magnitude more devastating than anything we’d witnessed previously. I wheeled and fired my needles into the darkness, but I could only just make out Cat and Bee, to say nothing of Warpstar, and I missed.

Cat and Bee were doing good just to keep their feet in the maelstrom of seething darkness and I was spent, watching helplessly, waiting for my systems to re-charge as my squadmates’ armor blackened and began to disintegrate. Cat took a heavy step forward, hefted her lance and slammed it into something I couldn’t see. The shadows persisted.

Jonesy decloaked from the roof of a building twenty or so meters away and fired a rocket into the flailing mist. I could see it impact warpstar from behind, the brief flash of light illuminating him hovering, arms outstretched, gaze directed skyward, expression enraptured. He hardly seemed to notice the flames cascading over his shoulder and side.

>>46278024
There was a moment in which I genuinely thought Cat and Bee were going to retire, both of them, right in front of me, and there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The feeling in my chest wasn’t a new pain, but I dearly hope I don’t live so long as to feel it ever again.

Engrossed as I was in Cat and Bee’s plight, I didn’t notice when Jonesy swapped out his VWES to some sort of grenade. I noticed the explosion though. A brilliant corona of light bloomed from just a few centimeters to the side of Warpstar’s head and sliced through his darkness, illuminating the battlefield in a stark white light before disappearing, taking his shadows with it. For a microsecond, nothing happened, then there was a deep thrumming sound that I felt as much as heard, and the shock wave from the grenade reversed itself, folding in on Warpstar and crumpling him into so much scrap.

Warpstar wasn’t the only one caught in the blast though. Cat had been within striking distance of him as the grenade went off, and while she managed to avoid the worst of the out-flowing blast, the implosion caught her off guard. She let out a scream of pain and defiance as the G-force wrenched her towards Warpstar’s collapsing frame, yanking her right arm out straight, then simply tearing it off with a shriek of protesting metal.

>>46278086
For a moment all I could do was stare. Stare and thank God, or Fate, or X, whoever it was that had been responsible for my friends survival. Then my brain kicked back into motion and the fact that Cat had just lost an arm registered fully. I rushed forward, skidding to a halt on my knees as she sank slowly to the ground. “Cat?!” I half shouted, “Can I take a look at that? Pretty sure we shouldn’t wait for you to get back to the lifesavers on this one!”

Cat tilted sideways, lowering herself onto her side as Bee buzzed up to my shoulder, her voice flat with worry, chipper demeanor stripped away under the combined stress of her own grievous injuries and her concern over Cat’s terrible condition. “Juzzzzt do it Rubble. Zzzzhe took even more of a beating than I did. I doubt you’ll get much in the way of an anzzzzwer out of her.”

My CO let out a soft sound of pain as she slipped, falling the rest of the way onto her side, and the movement jarred her.

“Gonna interpret that as consent then!” I said, likely a bit louder than was entirely necessary, and started ripping my tools out of their carry case, starting in on the ruined joint of Cat’s shoulder, where her arm used to be attached.

>>46278121
I worked. Time didn’t matter. Hunter appeared at my side, assisting me with the repairs. Somewhere in the distance I heard Tremor loudly insisting that he was A rank, but I tuned it out. There, at that moment, keeping Cat from getting worse was the only thing that mattered to me in the slightest. I don’t know how long I’d been at it before Tremor rumbled up behind me, belting out with his customary enthusiasm, “I HAVE ONE OF THE MAVERICKS IN CUSTODY. ARE WE READY TO ROLL OUT OF HERE?”

I glanced over my shoulder and did a double-take. He was holding Desatnik Magpie by the waist, in much the way that one might hold onto an incredibly over-sized bottle of beer. Had Cat and Bee not been so near to death I might have actually found the picture humorous. As things were… I probably could have reacted better.

“GET THAT FUCKING THING AWAY FROM OUR WOUNDED” I screamed, the outright wrath in my voice surprising even me with its intensity.

>>46278148
Tremor blinked, stunned for an instant, before his face darkened and he boomed out, “I APPRECIATE YOUR LACK OF FAITH IN MY HANDLING, BUT I ASSURE YOU, HE IS ONE FIRM GRIP AWAY FROM BECOMING A COLLECTION OF BIRD MAN SHAPED PARTS.”

“FUCK OFF TREMOR” chimed in Bee in much the same tone as I’d just used. There was a moment of stony silence before she glanced down away from him with a light cough, "Zzzorry, I didn’t mean that."

Yojimbo strolled over, looking none the worse for wear, regarded us evenly and said “Just the same, you should get that trash out of here.”

Magpie glowered at all of us, but said nothing, and Tremor lumbered off, “I’LL BE BRINGING HIM BACK TO BASE, THE REST OF YOU CAN FOLLOW WHENEVER YOU’RE READY.”

I turned wordlessly back to Cat, working in angry silence. Fuming at myself for failing to do better, being a part of the factors which had allowed this to happen. Fuming at Tremor for bringing a maverick, and one known for killing people in their beds at that, anywhere near our wounded. Fuming at the world for being this way, necessitating sacrifices like Cat’s and worse.

>>46278184
After another indeterminate amount of time, I leaned back from Cat. She wasn’t repaired. Not really. You can’t field-repair destroyed limbs back onto someone; the best you can do is help them work around the wound. Cat stood shakily, but at least she could make it to her feet. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Bee.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do for the little flier. The fact of the matter was that the damages were so widespread and so even that virtually the only thing left to do was to replace about ninety percent of her armor, and I simply didn’t have the supplies on hand for that. I spent a few minutes helping mitigate the damage and reduce the pain it was undoubtedly causing, trying to make sure her condition didn’t worsen on the trek back to the medbay, and we beamed out a moment after Yojimbo commed in and notified the unit that our Lifesavers would need to make ready for heavy injuries.

Victory.

Huzzah.

>>46275556
Alright then. First off, to introduce the star, Lockdown Oni. A design from the 16th, he is designed as having a heavy focus on creating forcefields and locking down enemy movement, his Jigoku Impact being a device that expands a hardlight shield out from it's position over range, creating a large barrier that lasts a couple rounds that can be used as cover. Lockdown Cuff lets him shoot a kind of "sticky" energy, where when it hits a foe it can then either drag them into another enemy and lock the two together, or stick them to terrain. In this hunt, he is playing the part of the active Warden of Hunter Command prison cells, who is escorting the captive Raining Vulture back to her cell, the maverick being rather quiet. When asked, she says that she did it to make the hurting stop. That is, until the two stumble upon frozen OS Tyrs in the middle of Command.

>>46280633
Inspecting the bodies, Vulture actively terrified of the idea that a maverick may be loose with them, Oni calls it in. This gets the attention of Rho herself, who by review of the data leading up to the assault, currently captive mavericks, and MO, determines the assailant to likely be one Axe Mouse, a reploid rodent with a penchant for stealth, an axe about as tall as Oni's frame, and a specially designed crystallization goop that hurts light armored enemies and just freezes anything else, likely here to free his brother, one Chaos Iguana, whose specialty was causing nearby systems to go through sudden energy spikes and drops without rhyme or reason, or by focusing on an ally give them a power boost. Vulture shows that the goop can be broken by medical systems rather easily, freeing the Tyrs up and letting them head off, opting to stay with Oni and help because to be frank, she felt safer on his side than in a cell if someone was going to be setting mavericks loose. Rushing down the hallway, the prison set on lockdown by Oni's request, the two eventually come across more recently frozen Tyrs, alongside eight modded hoganmer former prisoners who had been freed to act as a distraction by a large fiery beam axe cleaving through their cell doors, sent to try and start a prison riot. Given a chance to surrender, they instead finally pry a pair of guns off the frozen Tyrs, their force split between trying to keep Oni and the assisting Vulture at bay, Oni battering people apart with relative ease, though getting some injuries from the newly armed foes, dispatching one after another of the captures with blows from a beam tetsubo. The squad of hoganmers crushed in decent time by Oni and his captive, many of which were taken alive, the last of them actually breaking through the cell to potentially gain new allies to hide behind, only for a large fist to crush their skull. Out of the cell gazes a giant of a tortoise, armor removed by the Savers.

>>46281955
So my namesake joins them on their hunt, having little love for mavericks as they had cost him a sibling, and with guidance to the proper cell, they actually make headway in their mouse hunt as luck continues to favor Oni, them coming across a lightly cursing mouse just as he cuts open another cell, revealing what happens when you breed a forklift and a silverback gorilla. As the two sides square off (and Mouse decides, in likely good sense on his part, that fuck this noise he was going to leg it), Oni takes the first move, laying down a barrier with the Jigoku Impact. Tortoise charges forward, as does the gorilla, both slamming into the wall at the same time, Tortoise keeping the gorilla from now having a wall to beat them with as Vulture moves in behind him, using the larger reploid as cover even as Oni gets close enough for a small game of toss the tiny guy. Or, well, tiny in comparison to a gigantic turtle. So Oni goes flying over the fight he was gearing up to really take part in, skidding to a stop just outside the gorilla's old cell, firing a Lockdown Cuff at Axe Mouse, who nimbly dodges out of the way. Also quotes Dante's Inferno. To be more specific, “Hope not ever to see Heaven. I have come to lead you to the other shore; into eternal darkness; into fire and into ice". Rather classy of him, I thought, personally. Anyway, the mouse is freaking out, trying to freeze Oni in his crystal shot, but Oni being able to easily shrug that off, then just trying to turn tail and flee only to get caught in another cuff. Realizing he has been cornered like the rat he is, Mouse decides to throw down, finally swinging at the "devil looking wannabe" as he called Oni, cutting into him twice before he gets beam spikes to the shoulder from the tetsubo, followed by melting his knee with another set of the spikes. Knowing he would likely die this day, he decides to go down swinging at least, knowing that he would be found a natural mav.

>>46282904
From there, it is merely a foregone conclusion, Oni battering his foe's defenses aside as he vainly tries parrying with the axe blade, then breaks him down, piece by piece, ending by slamming the head into the torso. Likely having been let in by an infiltrator they knew, death was likely seen as inevitable at that point.
Returning to the other fray, Oni sees Vulture with limbs broken, Tortoise missing an eye, and a gorilla flying through the air with notable rents but still far too operational for anyone's liking. Oni, tired of these motherfucking mavericks in his motherfucking prison, launches the gorilla back into his cell with a Jigoku Impact, sending them flying back, Charge slamming the cell door back down on the ape to get welded down until someone can be bothered to let the monkey out of that cage. The threat done, the prison is brought off lockdown, a mass of Berets and OS Tyrs, as well as lifesavers behind them and a few Officers, enter, Charge and Vulture surrendering once again to Hunter captivity, but allowed repairs and an amiable relationship with the new guards sweeping the area for any other potential break ins or escapees. Chances of parole in the next few days going up dramatically-as well as joining the Hunters. Also, Vulture's brother, Negative Snowhare visited with his other siblings on his day off after this lockdown, but that's a different story.
As for Oni? He went to get repairs at the 14th, Labyrinth Minotaur relieving him of duty, and reported in for goodies, prying a doof of a Ram out of the ceiling, and talking tech with a corgi.

HC is dead, post Maverick porn.

>>46285263
That's why he's dead, Cain got him for >>46268948

>>46285296
I, for one, welcome our new eldritch monstrosity overlord.

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>>46285263
This is the closest thing I've got

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>>46285263

>>46285411
>filename

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Hot wireplay action! All actors under 3 years of activation!

Rolled 2 (1d6)

Hunter Command is
1-2: still writing
3-4: asleep
5: dead at Cain Labs' hands/tentacles/claws
6: upgrading Wren's design to G-class

Rolled 663 (1d1000)

>>46285877
More like:
>Hunter Command is
>1-999: Busy
>1000: Writing

>>46285439
Anon das gay
>>46285877
I'd imagine he's sleeping

Rolled 532 (1d1000)

>>46285916
Cain Labs is
1-999: preparing for Anode's death in this thread
1000: feasting on sacrifices from his cultists

>>46263839
> They're going on almost a week of uninterrupted combat
How long ago did HQ get fucked over? I thought it was only a few days.

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>>46285439
Good morning, folks. Stand by, moving slow and there's some sort of thing about a guy and a stick and a rock today.

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>>46286510
Morning HC.

>>46286510
Welcome back

If Emerald's doing It's Not Easy Being Green, we need to work out which song we'll be singing at Frog's leaving party.

>>46286967
HELLO MY BABY

>>46286967
something by MC Hammer?

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>>46267082
>>46267142
>>46267150
>>46269306
>>46269537
“Let’s go in hard,” you decide. “If she’s on the ground, let’s keep it that way.”

“We’ve tried this,” Lucas points out, voice neutral. “Once we have a chance to do some real damage she breaks off.”

“I’ll get her attention and hold it.”

Rouge actually laughs. “Boldly said, Captain, but believe me when I say you do not want it. But we will support.”

“It will be a good opportunity to actually hit her, if he can,” Blanc replies. “It’s not as if we want for guns, merely the means to lever them.”

Phasian nods. “Can you catch her, Captain?”

“Probably not,” you admit. “But I can move pretty fast and hit from far out. With everything else that should get her down.”

“Then I will be ready to assist you.”

A chime in your ear announces a shipment, a moment before a large crate marked with hunter insignia beams in, loaded for bear with weapons. ‘Courtesy of 3rd Deploy,’ it reads.

Lucas examines one, lifting a long, cumbersome looking plasma repeater from the top of the stack. Some similarly handheld rocket launchers and what looks like a pod of cluster-fire micromissiles gleam with new gunmetal shine. “I’ll get some of my specialists on these,” he says quietly.

“Then I will see to our vehicles,” Blanc says, brimming with carefully polite impatience to go.

“And I our mechaniloids,” Rouge adds, the two breaking in separate directions.

Ten more minutes finds you standing at the back of a Chariot troop skimmer, effectively an upsized ride chaser with a hover-platform that rapidly re-orients itself to horizontal, allowing rapid handling. Two dozen German soldiers--Lucas sitting at the nearest end of the bench--wait behind you, with Phasian standing opposite.

>>46287064
Can't Touch This could work.

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>>46287080
It’s here that the morale shock really hits you. All of these men--some younger, some older--have this look on their face. Not quite pure fear, but a dread, an inescapable dread, as they know they’re being ferried cheerfully to what, for the last few days, has been certain death. Resigned expressions, grim resolve and tightly-clamped lips. One man drums his foot with a machine-gun-rhythm, his rifle resting against his shoulder. Even Major Sommer, who has so far seemed unflappable, looks outwardly the same aside from barely moving an inch, not so much as swaying with each turn the skimmer platform takes.

“There will be a lot of EM ordnance in the air,” warns Rouge in your comms. “I’m told this is more of an issue for you, Miss Phasian?”

“I will be mindful,” she replies quietly.

The first sign you’re getting close is the faint traces of activity your OPAL sensor is picking up. Target locks, lanes of fire, reports of military weapons fire. They flash one, two, ten, thirty, fifty fire warnings.

You pass another vehicle, just like this one, turned on its side, the gyroscopic core turning slowly and uselessly, completely severed from the platform, embedded in French soil with a smooth cleft cut out of it. Around it…

“That was the day before yesterday,” Lucas says behind you quietly. “We managed to get their bodies back this morning.”

The pockmarked ground serves as a silent testimony of what you’re getting into, and soon the ground is littered with wrecks, discarded guns, shrapnel, damaged equipment.

And then the screams start.

“Remember,” Lucas says coolly, over the deaths. “Staggered formation. You know what she does when you bunch up.”

“Support on standby,” Blanc comms. “On your go, Captain.”
>Draw her attention first. You can take it.
>Get her to commit to an assault and blindside her.

>>46287093
>Draw her attention first. You can take it.
I know it's the stupid option, but still. Let's see if the chaff can surprise her.

>>46287093
>Get her to commit to an assault and blindside her.
Something tells me the first strike is going to make a lot of difference.

Wait - how is Wren getting charged? If she's been fighting for a week, shouldn't she be running low by now?

>>46287093
>Draw her attention first. You can take it.

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>>46287154
Makes you wonder what we'd be walking into if she was at full charge, doesn't it?

>>46287182
>finally kill Wren after an intense battle
>hundreds more are dead
>her body shows she only had 30mins charge left when we started fighting
>oops

>>46287093
>Get her to commit to an assault and blindside her.
Going in hard means going in hard.

>>46287093
>Get her to commit to an assault and blindside her.
Treat her like a S-class. There will be plenty of time for her to kick the ever loving shit out of us later in the fight.

Don't forget to offer her a chance to surrender

>>46287420
>Don't forget to offer her a chance to surrender
u wot m8

>>46287093
>Get her to commit to an assault and blindside her.
Bird of prey type mav. That first strike is going to hurt the most and will likely have built up momentum. Flak and lock on hunter can help with that.

>>46287093
>Get her to commit to an assault and blindside her.

>>46287812
and they all look like blood thirsty killers of men. ESPECIALLY the one on that thorny plant and the blue one.

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>>46287707
>Bird of prey type mav
To be clear, these are some wrens.

>>46287829
(Deleted the .png version because lolfilesize.)

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>>46287829
They are also proficient with the quarterstaff, as seen here.

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>>46287924
death approaches

>>46287924
truely our most dangerous foe yet. She will be able to fight us evenly in a pole fight. Also, why are the majority of Anode's horrible experiences flying creatures? Does the sky itself hate him?

>>46288150
Our season end boss - THE SKY.

>>46288150
>Also, why are the majority of Anode's horrible experiences flying creatures?

It turns out that when you can't fly, it sucks to fight things that can.

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>>46288074
Viens par là, mon pote.

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>>46287147
>>46287386
>>46287420
>>46287707
>>46287754
“We’re going for max damage on this,” you say. “Phasian and I pack some pretty heavy punch, so we’ll hit her when she attacks. What gets her attention?”

“We do,” Lucas replies calmly, before standing up to move to the back of the skimmer bed and slam his fist into the divider wall to the cabin. “Bring us in, swing around.”

“Infantry to get her attention, armor to box her in, we come in and flank,” you tell Phasian. She nods and steps off the skimmer.

“Stay down when you go down,” Lucas is telling his men. “She’ll catch you if you run.”

Knowing, somewhere deep down, you probably just consigned all of them to their deaths, you turn away to avoid visibly flinching at that, hopping off the back of the skimmer yourself.

The sounds get closer--you pick up the high-frequency whine of beam blades slicing through the air, a staccato burst that comes faster than you would have thought possible. You turn and watch the transport go. It turns a slow, lazy arc…

And then punches into high speed, drifting around hard as a tracer of green and pink blurs right past it.

The vehicle stabilizes as Wren pivots on her heel, wings snapping out of her forearms to fan out as her claws dig in and carve a furrow through French soil, turning her momentum around and springboarding her right after the Chariot. The men in the back open fire, a small firestorm of plasma kicking up plumes as she bears down.

“All teams, go!” You hear yourself shout, sprinting after the whirlwind streak, cycling to your Lockon Hunter.

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>>46288399
The ground thunders as impacts from above rain down, a shrieking meteor rain of metal as what look like falling fortresses plunging to earth. A half-second after landing, gunports and fortifications unfurl into an armored platform, plasma turrets opening up on Wren from all sides. Mechaniloids rise from ports in the tops, energy shields a smaller mirror of the ones locking into place on the defenses.

From around a hill two small hovering gun emplacements rise, each crewed by a three man team, missiles streaming out with a shrill whistle, contrails tracing lines back until they vanish into an airburst with a pair of sonic booms.

“Gaulois dropping in ten!” Rouge calls. “Blanc?”

“ARMADA coming in, Phasian, keep back until the guns cycle!”

His words are almost drowned out by the drone of sustained energy beams, splashing across Wren’s back as crackling blue-white pulses rain down like mortars from atop a ridge nearby.

“I’ve got a flatbed coming in with three Cannon Drivers,” a third voice calls. “Stall her until they get there!”

Wren is at the center of what looks like a blizzard of crisscrossing shots, burning across her wings, strays clipping her as her shields flicker. She wobbles in flight under thunderous impacts, the massed fire boiling away the terrain around her as she moves, dipping and weaving.

Completely unfazed.

There’s a cry of “bail bail bail--” before she disappears into the back of the skimmer, a moment of unearthly silence in the turmoil--

And then havoc.

Gunfire spills out in all directions, stray shots tearing through the canvas roof of the Chariot bay, before bright flashes of neon energy flicker-flash through the rips in the cover.

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>>46288414
“Blow the pins blow the pins--” the call dissolves into frantic German as the screams redouble--you dash after, trying to find an ideal position, but they’re moving too quickly, even as a small explosion chains up from the back of the transport and the whole skimmer bed lists, balancer damaged. Two men leap from the back as the entire top blows off like a canopy ejector seat, revealing blood and death and carnage within.

In slow motion you see Major Lucas throw a man from the flatbed, a moment before Wren streaks past him, his arm separating from his body and describing a neat arc as he starts to fall backwards. In that split-second, his pistol snaps up and hits something inside, and the entire back of the truck blows, swallowing him and the maverick in the blast.

You don’t see where he lands, because a moment later Wren bursts out of the fireball, streamers of smoke and fire trailing from her wingtips, rocketing up to that hill with the missile launchers. They cycle and fire again, and Wren doesn’t seem to dodge so much as she twitches, the hypersonic missiles blurring past uselessly. The second crew has time to jump out as she butchers the first, pinning them to their platform and shearing them into gurgling ribbons. She jumps down as another volley of EMPs cascade around her--she vanishes in another flash, only the screams and a single panicked shot from a sidearm marking her.

This time, you see where she’s going, rising into the air and plunging as she bears down on the heavy entrenched platform, coming straight on. You switch to the coils and snag the side of the thing yourself, ziplining and, for a moment, keeping pace enough with the maverick that you can make out her armor, the angular neon blades on her forearms, the daggers held in each hand.

The eyes, clear but unfocused, more a machine than a person.

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>>46288429
She impacts just an instant before you do, a horrible screech of metal announcing her tearing into the side of the turret, ignoring the swarming mechaniloids that try to entrap her. She pulls a man out, thrashing and kicking, and unceremoniously slashes his throat with the back of her elbow, dropping him at her feet as yet more gunfire burns off her chest from within. She drifts back on her wings almost lightly, raising an arm and releasing a pulse of wind--you hear the peal of metal on metal and a chorus of wet, heavy splashes as anything and anyone left inside is cored and turned into gibbets of meat.

In that eyeblink, you raise your buster and fire.

You anchor her with a coil, mostly for lack of anything else equipped, and feel it latch on against her shoulder. She barely seems to notice, twisting around and darting ahead, the line going taut with a snap and yanking you a step after her. You make another split decision, holding the zipline in the spooling bracket on your wrist, the motor whining under the strain--but Wren slows.

You have maybe a half a second to hit her with something. Anything.
>Lockon Hunter. Go for damage.
>Another coil. Try to slow her to let the artillery pour in.
>Other?

>>46288441
How much charge do we have?

>>46288441
>Another coil. Try to slow her to let the artillery pour in.
tie her up, we have to slow this bitch down.

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>>46288185
TWEET TWEET MOTHERFUCKER

>>46288441
Coil. We need to buy both the army and ourselves time to get out of the way. Mobility is going to be the biggest issue and if our line breaks now then we will be in trouble anyways.

>>46288441
Coil the bitch.

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>>46288441
>>Another coil. Try to slow her to let the artillery pour in.

Depending on how her prioritizing works, it could turn out that merely slowing her down doesn't distract her enough from her murderfrenzy to turn around and slap our shit.

That said, make sure we have a plan to disengage in case she decides to sever our coils at the shoulder.

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>>46288441
>Lockon Hunter. Go for damage.
Let's see her dodge that. Artillery's done squat so far, and would hit us harder than her.

>>46288441
I'm thinking that the order we need to do this is:

>Damage mobility, force Wren to deal with new variables to fly properly
>Blackout for sensor blocking, reduce reaction window for varied terrain
>Pile on the coils

>>46288531
Don't forget
>cry a lot

>>46288462
Not much. You could hit her with a decently solid whack, but it'd drain your reserves and you could hit equivalently with another weapon.

>>46288556
don't worry, it's there
When the Blackouts hit, nobody will see you crying

>>46288569
Off topic, why can't we power our dash with our LIFE cell as well as with our charge?

Guys, don't forget Emerald just drilled us on disengaging fast. This might be a solid hint as to how we're meant to win this one.

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>>46288612
Separate systems for a reason. Anode could pretty easily C. Capacitor himself to death if they were linked up.

>>46288631
So we need to find someone fairly dumb to rig it up for us. Gotcha.

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>>46288630
Disengaging now would be unwise. She's aware we exist, and how often has anyone tagged her? We have her attention. That's step one.

>>46288441
Hit her with a Lockon, aim for the eyes.

>>46288441
Lockon

We have the chance, we should take it. He'll just cut the wires, he's got blades fucking everywhere.

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>>46288737
>He

could we hit her wings with the lockon shot or is the lockon shot going to be more of a snap shot where we're just aiming for the center of mass and hope for the best. I mean with our eye upgrades I feel like we might actually be able to aim our shot.

>>46288441
>Another coil. Try to slow her to let the artillery pour in.
Dont stop at 2. do as many as we can in about 4 seconds, then peg her with the Blackout Rocket.
That should at least keep her confused long enough to prevent a few casualties while the artillery comes in.

>>46288774
I don't think the sensor upgrade improves our aiming, does it?

>>46288441
>Another coil. Try to slow her to let the artillery pour in.
Keeping her down is our best shot

>>46288779
Im thinking, given how shes acting, the Blackouts are ONLY going to be helpful for preventing her from going after other targets, so we should try to use them that way.

>>46288779
>>46288829
considering how long Wren's been doing this, I think she'd be able to operate blind, running completely on memory.

That's why we should damage mobility before even considering Blackout, so that there are things she'll need to do that aren't pre-calculated to compensate.

>>46288952
I dont think thats a fair assumption to make. and we dont have a more reliable way to immobilize her anyway, so im not sure what the point is.

>>46289091
Damage a wing or a booster or something. Cause an imbalance.

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>>46289222
Dear God. Thread canceled, because you've killed me by vivisecting my sides.

>>46289222
Oh man, I can't wait for the upgrade fight from this one.

>>46289222
The upgrades image is a little understated...

>>46288441
>HOGTIE

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>>46289253
I'm gonna vote for arm blades.
>>46289358
You're right, it actually goes a little bit more like:

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>>46289222
>>46289253
>>46289381
There is only one option.

>>46289423
Fuckin' drillbirb

>>46289381
We can't have arm blades, Em will cry with jealousy.

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>>46289489
"If you want them, Em, you should've lobbied to take her instead."

>>46289880
Which reminds me.

If one of the upgrade options is some kind of flying, we trade that with Em, so he can revenge better.

>>46290059
No go. It would remind him too much of Diamond, and Em is very stubbornly himself. He fights as he wants to (which is the ground-type of the trinity), or not at all.

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>>46288464
>>46288495
>>46288507
>>46288508
>>46288779
It’s a moment that lasts an age. Pull the coil loose on the tank. Level your buster, straight in line with your shoulder. Coil.

She saws through the first with a single move, but you’re already dropping it and firing another. The third sings out while the first falls, the second going taut. The motors grind.

You pull. She pulls. Another blur, both go slack. You fire two more and yank. She falters a step.

Her head swivels up. Her eyes fix on you.

The cables go slack.

You tumble back too late by a mile, the maverick on top of you, knives already streaking in. You feel your shielding pulse just from her shoulder as she barrels in--then the bite.

You fire another cable, windmilling your arm to snare her up, tangle anything you can catch. She rolls her shoulder, the backs of her wings gnawing and sawing against the braided coil, the strands snapping like violin strings. Her other arm twitches again and you feel another burning sting. The sound hits you, a snap and a sizzle.

Her arm crosses as yours falls to your side, reaching for your knife. She sees it, her eyes flitting back and forth as you tumble back. A sudden jab of deeper pain explodes in your arm as she pins your shoulder with her knife, driving it into the base. Your reaction is instinctive, channeling your capacitors as your shoulderblades touch the earth.

There’s a crackle, the bright flash like a bursting bomb and then a horrible, wrong pop as something inside your shoulder pops. A chain of small explosions run up your arm as you lose all feeling in it. Wren is pulling the knife away, an arc of electricity jumping from you to it to her. The back of your helmet hits the ground and bounces.

She fairly well flies back, diminishing from your world on outstretched wings, lightning still coursing over her armor, her hands coming to the ready again, rounding out a final motion in another slice somewhere in your midsection.

She lunges.

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>>46290210
A sound like a hollow wooden clunk, and Wren is ringed in gold.

Phasian streaks in, her blade to one side, the emptied emplacement screeching and howling as a blade of nothing cuts through it, pulling away laden with a thin furrow of the platform’s scratched plating suspended by the hilt. She swings it down as Wren lashes out, a half-dozen angry lines blooming on the energy cage spun around her. Mechaniloids swarm, trying to find a window to press their own shields into the barriers, attempting to blindly execute their programming.

Phasian’s sword-of-tank swings, her barriers seeming to melt away in her passage, slicing into Wren’s side and taking a piece of her plating, adding it to that trapped matter in the blade’s field. The blade comes up, around, and down. Wren’s eyes break from yours, turning to Phasian. Her knife arcs, knocking the second stroke aside. Phasian sidesteps as Wren lunges through the gap, stumbled again by the Barrier Attacker drones refilling the hole in the barrier.

You find yourself on the ground and realize you need to move. Your shoulder doesn’t budge, dead at your side, fingers frozen mid-draw, your knife resting right where it did on your hip.

A sound like tumbling glass and the shield cage goes down, shattered from a storm as Phasian and Wren dance within it--Phasian leaps back from a shouted warning you can’t quite make out, a moment before another contact plasma beam scores across Wren’s armor. She lunges away, wings snapping out as she weaves past Phasian’s next swing. The ground thuds with nearby impacts. New guns, guns you don’t recognize, guns you can’t see, open up. You hear the beam knives buzzing through something else out of view.

“How--” You hear someone say. “How long did I hold her for?”

“Twelve seconds,” Phasian says, a moment before the world rushes back in to catch up with you.

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>>46290225
Your arm is wrecked, completely unresponsive. The pain hits an instant later--your midsection is laced with a crisscross of superheated streaks, the armor cooling from white to red, paint boiled away.

“Captain, can you hear me?” One of the French officers--the one you didn’t recognize before. “Do we press or disengage?”

“She won’t stay much longer unless we make her,” adds Blanc. “We have more inbound.”

“We can regroup, save them for another push,” Rouge adds.

>?

How much damage has she got? Negligible?

Holy shit did we fuck that up.

>>46290339
Happy Easter.

>>46290310
Oh you hit her square in the lifebar, definitely... but nowhere near as hard as she hit you.

>>46290235
how bad do we look and how bad is wren?

If we did as much damage as we took I say we push before she can run away and waste everything we've thrown into this attack.

Wonder if Lockon would have worked better.

Where does she get her repairs? Does she have some form of regeneration or power-generation built-in? Like, how did she not "starve" in the last week?

Right now, my instincts are telling me to regroup, but pressing the attack while she's wounded could finish this sooner.

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>>46290235
Blew it with not using Lockon. Okay then...

Press on.

If we regroup and bring in the inbound, that gives her both a chance to escape and another first strike advantage -- and she is made of first strike. It may be better that she hits us when we're slightly more ready, which ain't now, but keeping her in one location and not razoring everyone at range is Step One of winning this.

So press with what we have and then press with whatever's inbound when it gets here. Press press press.

(She knows we have coils now and only one arm, so there's that to consider.)

>>46290515
>Blew it with not using Lockon.
Just because one option got us a thrashing doesn't mean the other wouldn't have. This isn't a Give Yourself Goosebumps, we don't have a magical one true path that lets us zero damage buster duel all our bosses

>>46290339
I voted for the lockons.

>>46290235
Ok, answer me this: do we still have our VWES or was that in the arm that went? (or do we have VWES in both arms, I'm fuzzy on this.)

>>46290235
>>46290488
If we press, we need to be smarter. Flak and hunter while keeping mobile. Use flak to deny her chances of breaking off before the artillery arrives and our charge to keep mobile and disengaging. Use everything and anything to make it difficult for her to back off.

>>46290579
We have a single VWES that links to both arms, I don't know if we've ever been told/shown where the actual VWES itself sits.

>>46290579
our other arm should still be good but I'm guessing our cqc is going to suffer the most from having a busted arm.

>>46290235
Press on.

Part of her side is now unarmoured, we can maybe aim for that. We gave chaff - how is she at fighting blind? Can we pull up specs from Navigation regarding her abilities and how much longer she can run for? Remember what Em said about hitting fast and getting out - maybe alternate attacking with Phasian perhaps, in a keep away game. Hitting her eyes would be good if possible, she seems to focus on precision strikes and finesse.

>>46289880
Didn't he try though? Just that he got shot down for being only melee?

>>46290235
I say we push it now. Get her with flak and force her down once more.

>>46290452
Well let's see here...

Wren took some shield damage, you saw them flicker, which means you've cost her some energy. Phasian did actual physical damage to her, which is good. You've accomplished nothing significant in terms of impeding her or damaging her capabilities, though.

Anode, on the other hand... well, the other hand's not on. You've also got severe midsection damage that will NOT survive a second attack like that and your shields have been virtually halved.

>>46290427
>Happy Easter.
Happy Easter to you too, you sadistic sod.

>>46290651
keep distance, got it. time to make use of all that "cool shit" elm said we should give a try.

>>46290541
Certainly! Getting answered with a thrashing was a given. The difference was how much we could hurt her before that, and I'm not confident that a Lockon that close would have done less than what Phasian dealt to her thanks to the twelve seconds we bought. But she's still hurt and we're not dead, so it'll have to do.

>>46290632
"Yes commander but you don't understand. ARM BLADES. EMERALD NEED."

>>46290651
Looks like we just went from Main Tank to Ranged DPS.

>>46290698
Yeah I'm thinking so. It's sounding like we'll pretty much die if she gets in another hit like that, and we still have our lockons.

>>46290235
I'm thinking we regroup and try to lure her back in before putting a few holes through her. Try to deal some damage that actually impairs her functionality a bit.

>>46290698
Right.
We can't risk a melee engagement in this shape; lucky for us, Lockon is also not a bad sniping tool, and we got blackouts as well for some control.

So probably press on, but while keeping that in mind.

>>46290698
Sounds good.

>>46290235
>chaff her
>hit her with lockons where Phasian damaged her

Rolled 55 (1d100)

Our likelihood of dying this thread.

>>46291029
that sounds about right actually.

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>46291035
And if we somehow survive this, our chances of dying NEXT thread, likely in some hideously embarrassing way, causing Emerald to swear vengeance (again) and becoming the MC of the next quest.

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>>46291092
>Emerald as the protagonist
>making my toddler-ass donut steel the main character on 4chan

Dear god, I already feel weird about the one-off threads as him.

Also, stand by for a long, possibly eternal delay on updates today. I need to get my daily workout in and get ready for Jesus Day festivities.

...Also, all of you should ask Cain Labs about how he has bears to cross. He'll love it, trust me.

>>46291219
If we change MC when Anode dies I'd rather pick up as Cath or Grach

>>46291219
Do what you gotta. Me, I'm just waiting for the Official(tm) image of Hurricane Wren to drop.

>>46291259
>we play as wellesley
>entire quest is bitching at idiots over comms

>>46291259
Anode won't die. He'll grow to be as terrifying as the bastard lovechild of Schwarz and Wren. Maybe.

Suppose it would be funnier to make him go Maverick when he's at the top of his game...

>>46292289
Yes please!

...buuuut I'd still much rather kill him very dead right now.

>>46292371
No thank you!

>>46292371
Better dead than mav.

>>46292459
I've seen dead Mavericks, I can have my cake and beat it too.

>>46292459
We can't die or go Mav until we've punched both Seven and Rezador in the face.

>>46293282
This.

>>46293282
Nothing stopping us from going crazy mav and doing it anyways.

>>46293282
Even as a mav we'd still kill Seven at first chance

>>46293389
Well, we've already got the 'crazy' part down...

anode as a maverick would be kinda terrifying. He's a really clever generalist who has a lot of tricks to let him punch outside of his weight class, so an assured takedown would mean either tying up a lot of high end assets, or risking a high class hunter.

fortunately our GM's have too much class to pull a suddenly you're a marvik on us, so if we get infected it will be because we did something stupid, same as if we get killed.

>>46293898
>really clever
We're a tactical dipshit. Hopefully that's just due to inexperience, but at the moment we can get our asses kicked by a solid B, let alone an A or S.

Apart from our general combat training, we really need to hit the books or find a willing, experienced Hunter to shadow on missions and learn from, presuming we manage to survive Wren.

>>46293970
>We're a tactical dipshit.
I blame that on the fact that we usually go about a month or more between threads and as such tend to forget upgrades and advice we were taught in our downtime.

>>46294077
Pretty much this

>>46294077
>"Captain Anode, what upgrades are you going to take on this mission?"
>"Hold on, I can't remember what ones I have."
>"Demote this moron."

>>46294077
I blame it on the fact that we're a character being piloted by a squabbling hivemind that doesn't have consistent active members through a whole thread, let alone the full story.

This way is more fun, though.

>>46294077
Can someone make a pastebin with all our abilities/upgrades/weapons? It'd save people asking every thread.

>>46294164
Somewhere around thread 70 Anode will be diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and hilarity will ensue. Is our therapist even alive?

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>>46294164
I've had the thread open all day just to provide that consistency, but sadly HC was eaten by a major holiday.

>>46294282
He was eaten by a lot more than that. It takes a lot more than the inconsistent festival celebrating a sanctimonious undead political firebrand who can escape from under a rock to stop HC.

>>46294379
Did I see mention of Hunter Command and a Patreon somewhere, a while back? Maybe I'm imagining things.

>>46293970
>at the moment we can get our asses kicked by a solid B
A B with a prototype weapon system that to my knowledge was not included in her dossier, in an environment very much playing to her personal strengths. Contextless threat grades alone are not everything.

You know who else is a B?
X.

>>46294477
>You know who else is a B? X.
The only reply I can give to that is a long, deep sigh of suffering.

>>46294472
Subject came up, it's probably not going to happen, but who knows? Maybe someday.

>>46294180
All the VWES stuff is up there in this thread alone, but I don't even know all the stuff you can do with Anode's charge.