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First and most important. The official story is that you are holding Corporal Samantha Blanchett and her mech, the S-Betta, hostage. You know this isn't true, but it's keeping her out of trouble.

Now, however, there are no more distractions and sham negotiations, you and the Colonel are both on Auditorium and you have to get this worked out. What do you want to do? She wants to stay, of course, but how do you frame that to the military?

>>47531444
Ask about Moe and what he's planning, then segue into Sam and what she's planning I guess

>>47531444
Purposefully highball then and end up not accepting any terms

>>47531444
Well if the our ship had taken damage during the fight with the Green Skulls maybe we could have gone with she was killed when the ship was struck but I'm pretty sure the shields held during the battle. Maybe Sam's brother could also offer some help?

>>47531444
that's a guy, right?

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Next, you have a damaged Warmouth and a damaged Morgan II in your mechbay. Both are Heavy Striker frames, the Morgan is a bit faster without further modification and the Warmouth is a bit more heavily armored. However, they're both models that tend to be modded and specialized towards certain tasks, Oda's Osano-Wo itself was originally a plain Morgan II before he strapped all that armor on it. You have a few pilots who are worthy of them. What weapons do you want your two Heavy Strikers to specialize in?

>>47531545
Give the Morgan to Richard since its a missile variant and give the Warmouth to Moe since its melee but also give it a gun

>>47531540

Don't be silly.

>>47531567

No, no, you get to redesign them, Thunderbird. It's only a missile variant if you want it to be one.

You can, however, sacrifice the Warmouth to Moe, who will absorb its tasty CP and Colonel Hatsheput's upgrades and return with a completely new mech.

>>47531607
Still give it to Richard and have it speced for him and lets sacrifice the Warmouth then

>>47531444
They have to understand that it's simply strategically disadvantageous for us to let her go. If we have her as a hostage, the military can't simply attack our ship with impunity without risking killing her and destroying the prototype. The moment we let her go, we risk being utterly destroyed.

Not that we're trying to say that don't trust Colonel Hatsheput, of course - she can rest assured of that - but some of her colleagues may decide to take advantage of the situation and capitalize on our present losses to boost their own standings.

Even if she offers Mohammed as a trade (which she'll probably do, reluctantly), that simply isn't enough so compensate for the insurance Sam provides us.

Also, Moe's probably conflicted on returning at this point. Wonder if we can ask him what he wants to do?

>>47531545
How many CP do we have to work with? At the very least, I'd like to install an ASP on one, so we have more in our arsenal to counter Cloaking, which was one of the problems we encountered last fight. Can we make them into combining mecha?

>>47531607
Use the CP to upgrade Moe's mech. Custom mechs tailored for our protege is waaay better than a stock Warmouth

>>47531444
Well, that depends. How does Samantha feel about committing fraud and theft of military property?
Seriously though, her going back is a bad idea due to Fairchild. And we probably shouldn't come clean about the real circumstances of her 'capture'.

>>47531545
Also, which pilots of note do we have that aren't already allocated custom mechs?

Alternatively, can we slave these mechs to the eventual RCS?

>>47531635

Each can be repaired to 150 CP. No combining.

>>47531651

She's willing to do what she must.

>>47531669

Basil Montgomery, who will get stats after seeing what the mech he might pilot looks like.

>>47531738
If we give Richard the Morgan can we give Basil his Master Harpy?

>>47531738
Wong, master harpy's are bluegill & tulwar parts combined right?

>>47531738
I guess he gets a mech so.

I have some vague idea that the master harpy squad were pretty attached to their harpies but I am not sure if that was actually said anywhere.

Guys damn it give Richard the Warmouth, missle-carrying mechs need more armor!
Morgan II is Wong's universe equivalent of a basic gundam mk ii frame given that Oda is piloting a sengoku samurai gundam...so give the Morgan II to Moe, more speed = faster to close in =faster to HACKSLICESLASHCHOPPYCHOP

>>47531818
So scrap the morgan and keep the Warmouth then?

>>47531678
>Each can be repaired to 150 CP
So we've got about 30-40 CP to work with, without sacrificing armor?

Would an ASP and a Long Range, Accuracy +2 (i.e. net WA +0), 10-shot Clip-fed, 9 damage Beam Weapon work? Cost comes out to 31.8 CP plus clips, if I'm not doing my math wrong.

The other can be specced to melee, in case we end up losing Moe.

>No combining.
Why must you crush my dreams so? ;_; :^)

>>47531738
Whatever happened to Catherine Zeta Jones?

>>47531738
well, we dont have a laser crate of our own yet. that might be cool.
>>47531635
>we keep Sam for insurance
>She keeps Moe as a 'sign of good faith'
.Miles can't think of innuendo fast enough

>>47531760

You theoretically could, but Richard's current mech is faster and costs more CP than the Morgan. His Gungnir missile launcher is actually superior to the Morgan's triple Heavy Missile launcher because of their burst effect.

>>47531839
or upgrade it with Moe's master harpy?

>>47531908
The Master Harpy that we don't actually have right now because it's on board the Jaburo, and wouldn't ever want to scrap in-character because it belonged to our late former captain? That Master Harpy?

>>47531818
yeah, but Moe's already getting Military upgrades for free thanks to Operation Cake-eater.
but he and Oda will have matching mechs if we give it to him, so...maybe?
>>47531789
Moe seems to
I doubt Richard and Miles care that much.
If anything they'll find a way to make the Morgan II/Warmouth turn into a jet

Lets sacrifice the warmouth to power up Moe's new mech and make the Morgan a brawler/laser combo since we don't have one of those yet

>>47531931
Ah, right. Point taken.

>>47531853

Moe's legal status is a former member of a PMC, right? His official cover story is he is an 'independent contractor' hired to facilitate communications between the Jaburo crew and the Iron Kestrels.
Sam's cover story, well...won't hold water and the best I can think of is during her captivity she has come to an understanding with Roarke, and ideally is the best person to be a liason officer, although there are a host of problems with that line of reasoning.

>>47531931
I doubt that Roarke would be that upset about turning old man Ozark's bird into something new.
Besides, Ozark's spirit isn't in his mech. Its in our hearts, our livers, and maybe in the Colonels womb but we won't know that for a few months.

>>47531996
>brawler/laser combo
Ideally, we'd have the pilot specialize in one specific type of weapon for maximum efficiency. Unless you'd like to make him a specialized close-range mook-killer with a Wide Angle Beam Weapon, in which case I'd totally be down for that.

>>47532062
I was thinking more close combat with laser pistols built into the mechs fist and rifles built into the palms

>>47532062
Maximum punches works for us but having some back up method of attack is a nice way to prevent some shitbox gimmick mech wrecking you because you are too specialized.

>>47532024
How about the loss of the S-Betta when we blew up the Agaememnon? It was feeding targeting data to Jaburo but failed to get away when Capt Oda blew it up with his Hanabi Missile Strike. Miss Sam was returned to UJCIDF and is now recuperating at the Blanchett estate.

>>47532116

But she won't go back. She's got it bad for Roarke.

>>47532147
Hence "going away" to the Blanchett estate. Nobody has to know she's still with Roarke

>>47532092
I

why

>>47532096
I was not actually suggesting maximum punches. Rather, I thinking of an ASP-equipped artillery piece to support us from afar should we encounter more Cloaked units.

Being specialized doesn't mean you'll get wrecked unless you don't have countermeasures against most common forms of attack. I'd imagine a shield and good MA should be decent insurance for a ranged unit.

>>47532116

This is a solid plan.

>>47532199
Why not

>>47532222
them quads

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>>47532199
I dont know man, even moe is able to shoot people.

Also palm lasers arent that far fetched.

>>47532116
That'll basically hold until we next get use the S-Betta again, since Roarke's basically taken to broadcasting all his battles over the internet.

Granted, the S-Betta is a stealth mech, but it can't remain Cloaked on attacking.

>>47532252
Well now we know what mech the ants pilot.

>>47532222
What would be the point of using Brawling in this case, if you already have lasers everywhere?

>>47532302
To punch people who attack you in close range. Or alternatively to punch people who are trying to shoot you.

>>47532302
In case you run out of ammo plus brawling does good damage

>>47532337
Lasers do not run out of ammo unless you buy that specific drawback. Hopefully you're not short enough on CP that you have to - but in that case, why are you spending even more CP making your fists decent?

Lasers do damage just as well as Brawling, without the drawback of not having the added armor penetration from being a laser.

>>47532335
What prevents you from just shooting them?

>>47531545
Finally made it. Well, an idea I have been working on as a sort of proto type used a modified 0 range Flare missile as a means to blind the enemy, and a stun rod to then beat the bugger down and keep them down. Would make for easier capture of man and machine.

Was also thinking of a smoke screen/beam scatter flak deal of a similar nature to provide cover against the omnipresent beam spam of everything.

>>47532376
They broke your lasers.

>>47532402
If your enemy is competent enough to make successful called shots to your weapons without destroying the rest of your mech, you probably have bigger problems.

>>47532381
I like the idea of a stun rod mech but is that possible? And how would that effect electrical systems?

>>47532414
Might as well be prepared for it. So far everyone we have met has some form of long and short range combat abilities. I can only assume there i a reason for that.

>>47532439
Lasers do not have a minimum range, and can function as both long and short range weapons.

You'd just need an additional shield for incoming attacks.

While it's a cool concept, it requires rather more CP than we have to become mechanically effective.

>>47532421
It's something I have been developing in case we need custom mook mechs. Get a solid weapon, give it the shock option, and then make it so it can damage and shock. For a 8k rod, it's 12 CP.

What the stun does is that the person must roll his body mod and a d10 minus the damage the ks from the stun rod. if they roll below 10, they lose a action. Every 3 below they lose another. It's possible to knock them out or outright kill them if they are unlucky.

>>47532475
Which is grand until your shield gets broken and you got nothing.

Even caesar has his drone thing for long range.

>>47532381
Post it when you're done. It sounds cool.

Any reason you don't want to parry with a beam shield, since you've already invested in Melee? Requiring Missiles, Melee AND Gunnery might spread your pilot rather thin.

>>47532421
It'd make your melee weapon twice as expensive, or thrice if you want the weapon to still deal standard damage rather than shock only.

It's basically what the S-Betta is equipped with.

>>47532504
I'm confused how having a broken shield would be a specific counterargument against specializing in ranged combat as opposed to an argument against having a shitty shield in general.

You're just as screwed without a shield in melee as you are at range. Perhaps more so, since your enemy can make called shots to servos without penalty and focus all the damage on one location.

And yes, a laser-equipped mech will also have armaments for long range. It's called laser.

>>47532552
>You're just as screwed without a shield in melee as you are at range. Perhaps more so, since your enemy can make called shots to servos without penalty and focus all the damage on one location.
Thats the point. What does your range only mech do when someone closes the distance and busts your shield?

>>47532522
The thing is, when the missile is 0 range, there is no real missile score for it. It's more a bomb or mine at that point. For Flares and smokescreens, since you aren't aiming to hit but blind/conceal, they can serve as set ups for combination attacks.

An ASP makes it so you aren't blinded by your own defenses, and at that point you can go with either option. The downside is it lacks a shield due to cost and weight, but for a mid striker with heavy striker legs, I do plan on having it be quite fast.

This one I'm calling the cardinal. Make it red, give it a cross shaped visor, and maybe have it designed and piloted by a trio of Irish Catholics.

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Now that my computer has remembered it isn't a toaster.

By the way, what are you doing with your other hostages?

Between you and Red Siren you have Gretchen, four of her friends, plus nine rookie UJCIDF pilots, six Bluegills, three Pumpkinseeds, four Pumpkinseed IIs, and a Pumpkinseed II Custom. You can buy the mechs Red Siren personally brought down and either scrap them for CP or keep them, as you like. As for the pilots, they would all be willing to join the Iron Kestrels, or you could trade them back to the UJCIDF for money

>>47531607
Sacrifice that Warmouth. Moe a best. Probably too late for my input to matter.

>>47532595
Stay out of charging distance in the first place Failing that, attack him and move away?

Again, I fail to see how this is a situation that a melee mech would be at more of an advantage in than a ranged mech. Either way, your shield is broken and you have no defenses save killing your enemy before he kills you.

>>47532691
Keep them we can always find money, decent pilots not so much

Lets buy the rest that Siren has and scrap them to upgrade the Kaiser some more

>>47532691
Let Gretchen and her friends go for goodwill, maybe do a Life Interest Special, "My dinner with Roarke" at the most romantic spot on auditorium. Heavy on the implied romance.

The rookie pilots - see if they might train up, if not sell them back the the UJCIDF for one credit each. "I'm a pirate, I have to make a living someway, but I personally was MORE than paid by their lovely presence."

Better yet, sell them back PAYING the UJCIDF if we want public opinion points. "I don't want to rob you excessively. Their company was wonderous."

Keep all the mecha, buy the ones from Red Siren, and trick the shit out of the new ones. We're going hardcore - harpies are for corpses.

>>47532691
Could keep Gretchen and her friends as a media crew to keep things honest. I'd say scrap some pumpkin seeds I and IIs for CP and make those bluegills pirate bluegills. The rookie pilots could be ransomed back for money, maybe with a discount to get Moe back if necessary.

>>47532718
You can only move so far and attack at the same time right? Having to constantly move out of range limits the amount of attacks you get to make. Plus you are just straight fucked if they are faster than you. Also you have to account for fighting multiple enemies at the same time.

ALRIGHT YOU GUYS ARGUING ABOUT THE LASERS AND SHIELDS AND FISTS AND WHATNOT.

I HAVE THE SOLUTION.

RANGED PUNCHING.

AKA

PLASMA PROJECTION PUNCHES.
Kinda like how the Flash throws lighting, and how those street fighter guys hadouken.

The Knuckle Kaiser just generates a plasma field around its fists and with the speed of its punches launches the plasma with the speed of an enraged gorilla who has overdosed on PCP and steroid mountain dew gurana red bull cocktail.
That being said, he could also use the plasma fields as an impromptu shield by whipping it out in an arc to catch missles/ablate armor over a small arc.

Am I a genius or what?

>>47532691
Ransom the rookies, they weren't that great anyway. We should probably keep the fancier pumpkinseeds anyway.

>>47532691
let Gretchen go back. we need positive media coverage from the UJCIDF side

>>47532337

Beam weapons by default have infinite ammo. You can give them ammo as a cost-saving measure, but I normally don't bother with it, it just doesn't seem particularly efficient unless it's a hugely expensive weapon.

>>47532816
She did a positive piece on Roarke and Siren if she goes back shes probably going to face some shit from the military, plus Hamon due to her blowing her off

>>47532795
..that is possible actually. Normal melee weapons have this thing called 'entangling', which can sacrifice some Ks for it to have more range. Add it with Handy and you have rocket punches. Well, wired rocket punches.

>>47532839
I'd suggest offering her a position as an embedded reporter. We need the good press.

>>47532839
She is a reporter, they cant exactly court martial her.

Also fuck street sighs, fuck them to death.

>>47532839
He's got a point.

>>47532866
I can get behind that

>>47532874
better than the store front captcha

>>47532778
While you do have to account for fighting multiple enemies, you'll likely also have multiple allies to cover for your weaknesses. Hence, as I said, you'd ideally not be within charging range in the first place.

You can't accelerate to faster than 12 MA in a turn, so, at least for the first turn, he should at most only be as fast as you. Besides, if you expect that to be a concern, why not just put more CP in your thrusters?

>>47532866
It'd be a sign of good faith and would allow her to see a different side of things most reporters wouldn't get a chance to. Its a good idea.

>>47532691
trade the pilots for money, use money to buy Siren's kills. keep the Pumpkinseeds, scrap the bluegills, see if we can make something fancy out of some old harpys.
And trade Gretchen for as well

>>47532903
>>47532880
>>47532866
Get some good press, show off that we're not just pirates, we're people, make sure our side gets out there... I like it.

>>47532841
We have TWO MAD SCIENTISTS on board, seriously, a plasma generator and the tech to protect the fists from the effects until it launches can't be that hard. We could also go with electricity, but any mech/starship worth its salt is highly insulated anyway.

or BEAM KATARS. THAT CAN EXTEND.

And something that can fire like a shotgun at close range like the Altiesen Rise's Claymore launcher from SRW.

>>47532896
Storefront captcha works fine fucking street signs never ever works.

>>47532932
Moe already has beam katars.

>>47532924
What happens when we actually engage in piracy though?

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>>47532795
Sounds like you're talking about this.


I haven't got any complaints about making a versatile multirole mech if it's actually possible - I'm just concerned that it may not be possible to do it effectively with the constraints of pilot skill and CP.

>>47532897
I would rather spend the CP so that I dont have a glaring weakness.

>>47532953
We're nicer than the Green Skulls, and have more flexibility than the military. "Its just cargo, and you're insured. Ah, you're self insured? Ok, we'll leave you a little."

>>47532953
We're already open as pirates, and we've made a policy of capturing people and ransoming them, fighting other soldiers and pirates, etc. It'd be an honest look at things. "Report the truth, what you see." The good and the bad. We're pirates, yes. We kidnap people, capture ships and mechs, etc. But we're also good people. We treat prisoners well, we don't kill without having a reason, we don't go out of our way to be monsters like the Green Skulls, in fact we go out of our way to be decent to our opponents.

>>47532953
We do it in the most photogenic and dashingly roguish way possible, somewhat like Red Siren does, and get good press anyway.

>>47532982
An addition on this. Showing how we treat our prisoners would help with actually taking them. People might fight to the death to avoid being taken prisoners by pirates who could rape, torture, and enslave them. They wouldn't fight for their life and to take ours if they knew they would be getting a cell until they can be ransomed off.

>>47532969
I can understand that, but I am concerned that attempting to build a jack-of-all-trades will make us good at nothing and bad at everything.

That's why we have multiple mechs, so we can specialize to cover for the others' weaknesses.

>>47533007
Your assuming that we'll always have backup

>>47533007
There is a difference between being a jack of all trades and being a mech that has a preference for one form of combat but still has options in another.

>>47532953
then we get high quality footage to post on space youtube?
and a professional sound team for our ransom videos.

>>47532982
>Still nursing slight suspicions, Gretchen decides to engage in Tactical Reporting Action to make sure that we're not actually hiding any mistreatment of prisoners from the cameras
>She stumbles upon us fucking Sam
What happens now?

>>47533002
"Rule one: Get a rep and get it fast. Targets will roll over quicker if you're known as hard but fair."

>>47533049
I'm pretty sure that's about to come out anyway.

>>47533049
Looks like we get a new upgrade

>>47533049
"Samanatha celebrates ties between the Iron Kestrels and the Navy after her speedy recovery."

>>47533049
>Hashput celebrates the confirmation of forbidden love
>Piede Blanchett attempts to sabotage the negotiations by avenging his sister honor
>her other honor

>>47532956

This, by the way, is literally what Naomi's entire weapon system is based on, dual pistols that can form a bubble shield.

>>47533061
Precisely. Ok so there's these super fucking deadly pirates, they wiped out the biggest, baddest fleet in the system. They're after our shit. BUT we know they're not going to do horrible shit to us, and we get a cot, pot, and three square a day until we get ransomed off. So we put up a token fight, see if we can ward them off, but there's no reason to throw our lives away trying to fight them off.

>>47533105
God, soon theirs going to protocols throughout the galaxy if a mech starts playing 80s music just surrender

>>47533024
If we send out a mech knowing its weaknesses without backup or other countermeasures to make up for those weaknesses, we're retarded.

If we send out a mech with backup to make up for its weaknesses, and all that backup gets eliminated, we'd likely be screwed either way.

>>47533032
True. However, ranged weapons can still be used in melee (and some melee weapons at range). Picking such weapons will be far more skill-efficient than diversifying into multiple weapons that require different types of skills.

Hence, my suggestion that a fast mech equipped with a beam weapon and a good shield should be sufficient as a primarily ranged mech.

>>47533126
And the start of that is getting an embedded reporter who will get our good press out there.

>>47533126
>"Sir, I'm picking up communications from the unknown vessel. Sounds like.. music?"
>"..What Genre of music?"
>"80s rock sir! Sounds like.. Queen! It's Queen, sir!"
>"Sweet Gaia.."

>>47532940
really it's the store capthca that gets me. Street sign always works for me.

>>47533094
So she's basically Lockon with the pistols?

>>47533197
Trees and water a best.

>>47533126
"Captain, there's a black mech bearing 320, 12km. It's playing music..."
"Aww, shit, it's Starwind. Ok, comm our surrender. I just hope that...wait, what? Thats '...Baby, one more time! IMPOSTER! Battle stations!"

Meanwhile, 12km and closing...
"Aww, shit, we've been made. Run! RUN!"

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You, like everyone else, have a lot of party to enjoy once the work is over.

Red Siren's Harpies include an unusual number with disaster-relief and colony-repair loadouts, and while people did die from what the First Mate did, most of them survived, and you were able to not just successfully ward off the attack but also destroy the attackers completely.

Of course, you have some people you need to talk to.

>[Samantha first]
>[Gretchen first]
>[Colonel Hatsheput first]

>>47533480
>[Samantha first]

At least my computer problems are fixed for now.

>>47533217

Yes. She's not really for long-distance sniping so much as backup fire and mook control.

>>47533480
Hell, we still don't have a good game plan with Samantha. We can't say "you can't have her." with Moe in the Colonel's dried-up clutches, and we don't want to exchange her. Can we comm Moe to escape? Can we convince the Colonel to defect?

>>47533480
>Samantha

We need to figure shit out. I advise recruiting everything we can and revealing the situation.

>>47533480
>>[Samantha first]
Been a busy day after all, and we want to get our story straight.

Also, we need to talk to Oda about what he found later.

So what's the consensus? Keep Gretchen, ransom the rest, and scrap the less powerful mechs?

Of course, by 'keep', I mean 'offer her the choice between being ransomed and staying on as an attached reporter for exclusive coverage, knowing which option her journalistic pride will lead her to take'.

>>47533480
>[Samantha first]
Find out what she thinks we should do, and what she wants to do.

>>47533480
>[Samantha first]

>>47533480
>Samantha

We need to check in with her before we go through with any plans. I think we should recruit erryone. The Colonel, the Soul guys, all the crew that will join us, and send those who refuse to defect back to where they came from with well wishes.

>>47533542
Recruit Gretchen as our embedded reporter and recruit of ransom off the rest. Scrap the weaker mechs, keep the Pumpkinseeds, IIs and the Custom.

>>47533512
The plan is that the Betta took 'damage' from the Agemonnomnom and Sam would be taking leave on the family estate to 'recover'. She did do her duty after all.

>>47533480
Our problem is we basically want something for nothing. We don't want to give up Sam, but we want Moe. I say we use Gretchen's escort pilots as a package deal for Moe. Leave Sam out of it for now, and hint as a sign of good faith she may be good in a future trade. If Sam can talk her brother into defecting, the Sam situation becomes moot - that should be our first objective.

Hmmm, could we offer to duel him for Sam's freedom? If he loses, we capture him, he's pissed but ok, and we run for it.

>>47533563
Won't work well if we're offering Gretchen the option to stay with us. We're going to need to be (somewhat) open and transparent in that case.

Otherwise, why would Hatsheput take our word for it, and not insist on transporting Sam to her estate herself, since she wouldn't have any means to get there otherwise?

>>47533480
I believe we can return the S-Betta but we move the unique modules to another mech. Then fill it up with a decoy. I guess sam can say she wants to tske a vacation in the Auditorium?

>>47533597
I'd like to bring up >>47531635 again. We can easily play up how disadvantageous it is for us to return Sam. Hatsheput simply cannot offer us anything as valuable as what is basically a guarantee that the UJCIDF can't attack our ship directly.

The question is how to get Moe back. Or if he even wants to come back.

>>47533611
And the minute that she actual gets back to the estate shes going to be thrown in jail for telling military secrets plus whatever else Hamon can throw at her

>>47533639
>military
>taking vacation on a pirate station
NOTHING SUSPICIOUS AT ALL.

>>47533611
This is probably one of the more personal things in general and it would have to depend on Oda's info. If it makes Colonel Christmas Cake suspicious of Fairchild, keep Samantha underwraps and chalking the Betta as destroyed may be a good idea.

After all, we already saw signs of sabotage and someone working with the green skulls to plan the attack. It did not work out, and even Caeser could tell Fairchild had some bad ideas brewing.

>>47533662
My point being that we can't give Sam taking sick leave on her family estate as a cover because it's a terrible cover story that will be instantly exposed, not that we should totally do it because it's a good idea.

>>47533650
I cant see getting to bone ever outweighing moes desire to get stronger.

>>47533691
I know I was just adding that thought to yours

>>47533597
Or we could trade in some of the recruits we captured for Moe. 7 raw recruits for Moe would be a fair trade.

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>>47533693
I think you underestimate the power of t̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶ true love.

>>47533715
This is the best move since the navy will never know they were going to betray them and if we fight them again they might easily defect

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It's hard to find Samantha. She isn't in any of the reveling crowds or at any of the bars, and in the end you're forced to use your PC to contact her.

You find her in a small park. There's a bench swing dangling from the arms of a humongous, twisted olive tree, and she's lazily kicking back and forth with her shiny black shoes as she reads through what looks like the UJCIDF Bounty Computer program, or perhaps some other military function built into her Personal Communicator.

She looks up and smiles at you as you approach. She looks a little tired, and a little stressed, probably more than that if it's actually showing. "You found me." She says softly, lowering her hands but not turning off the PC.

You sit down beside her and nod, "I always seem to."

"I've been going through official UJCIDF records since we won. I've discovered something strange. You beat the First Mate, right? Only...according to our files he died years ago. He was killed in a duel with a man named Bruce Kelly. Their fight had badly damaged an industrial colony, and a patrolling UJCIDF starship was contacted. It arrived before Kelly could escape, and due to his damaged machine they were able to capture him, it was a major feather in General Fairchild's cap back then. The kill was confirmed, too, genetic testing matched with the results of an ace who had been attached to Galbadie's group during the Purging of Mars."

>[What do you want to ask her?]

>>47533730
I think you underestimate the power of wanting to become a gundam.

>>47532956

AWW YEAH MY MAN THAT IS THE SHIT I AM TALKING ABOUT WOO.

PLASMA PROJECTION FISTINNNNGGGGGGGGGGG

>>47533754
Are you implying that t̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶ true love cannot turn Mohammed into a Gundam?

>>47533753
Fuck they're using cloning

Ask her about what she thinks we should do

>>47533753
"Dollar says he's a brain upload. His voice sounded weirdly synthetic, and there's no real way to keep surviving all these insane fights and defeats without some cheat like that."

"Now... I wanted to ask you what you wanted to do here. My plan, so far, is (INSERT PLAN HERE)" We really need to talk the plan out.

I still advocate recruiting the entire crew and team and colonel on the Jaburo.

>>47533779
Yes. Pretty sure you need to go out and kill people.

>>47533789
They have no reason to want to join us right now and they likely wouldn't believe us about Hamon

>>47533789
The majority of them really have no incentive to join us besides a bit of sabotage from an unknown HAH! source and roarke being really cool.

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>>47533796
No, I can confirm that you just need a couple more CP and the guy running your game to be enough of a complete madman to allow Stupid Mecha Tricks.

>>47533753
Ask how things went with her brother for starters. Also bet that he's a brain download or something. Guy liked talking about data... maybe we should get a magnet for him.

Anyways, I still say trade in the 7 recruits for moe so we can get him back safely.

>>47533852
She's probably going to ask for more than that. I'd say start with a handful of the non-significant people we've got captured. When she asks for Sam, explain to her why we simply cannot give her back.

Eventually settle for all our recent captures (excluding Gretchen), the remains of the First Mate's mech (on the condition that they get back to us on the DNA testing) and Moe's phone number.

>>47533852
An Emp might be a good way to fry him. Just hope he's not the new addition to clemmy's squad

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"Maybe he's a brain upload? His voice sounded synthetic, and there's no way I fought him if he was already dead." You scratch your chin, thinking.

Samantha looks up at you, "A brain upload?"

"Well, you know...you somehow preserve someone's brainwaves in digital form and..." Your voice trails off at the way she's staring at you in confusion.

"If that technology exists, we don't have it, but it's a good idea." She pats your hand, and leans on you.

You frown, "I'd say he was cloned, but there wasn't anything organic inside that thing."

She blinks, "Like a giant drone system? You'd have to ask Karen, but that's definitely possible. Breaking the cloning taboo, that's..." She shudders and shakes her head, then suddenly perks up, "Oh, right, Captain Oda wanted me to pass on some information for you while he was still sober. He traced the identity of that transport ship. Apparently, it's a civilian vessel, owned by someone named Lysa Fleur and reported stolen several months ago."

>>47533753
fuck we forgot about Kelly.
"I'm more interested in you right now. How are you doing?"

>>47533903

Forgot my [Continued]

>select all squares with street signs
>it's the back of a truck

>>47533903
Lysa Fleur.. wait. Thats Fairchild's niece! Caeser heard her name when she was talking to Jesus.

>>47533903
Never trust an Idol.

>>47533923
I told you bro. I told you about street signs.

>>47533950

What about our China Girl?

>>47533961
Well, you can't trust pirates either. Since she's a pirate idol, you can trust her!

>>47533961
well she's a self published independent artist now, so its fine

"You know the UJCIDF has Mohammed." You lean back on the bench, looking up at the tree stretching high above.

"That's fine, they can't hold him, he hasn't committed any official crimes...but that isn't always enough. He certainly looks like he's one of your allies after all." She pauses then says hesitantly, "What if you let me go, I put in my resignation through Colonel Hatsheput, and then I rejoin you?"

You find yourself grinning, "We can say the S-Betta was destroyed during the battle. What about your brother, though?"

She shrugs, "He'll make up his own mind, everyone has to. Squad A performed heroically during the battle, fighting off the Green Skulls' mecha. He's due for a medal, they all are, and with that fresh on his record and me being freed on paper, the General might not be able to touch him...officially." She smiles, "But I trust you, whatever you want to do."

>[What do you want to do?]

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>>47534252

Forgot my picture.

>>47534252
>"You mostly, but that plan sounds good too."

>>47534252
Sounds ok I guess.

>>47534252
I still can't see saying the S-Betta was destroyed as a good idea if we're planning on keeping Gretchen on. Otherwise, sure, why not.

I'd also like to give the Jaburo, or at least Pierre, an out from Fairchild's bullshit, if at all possible, though I'm fairly certain it isn't going to be particularly viable.

>>47534291
We only have to pretend until we away from them right now because we are pirates and we dont give a fuck.

>>47534252
Well, it's a good plan honestly, and if need be the 7 recruits could work as well. Resign due to stress, take a vacation 'somewhere', and we'll be on our way.

>>47534252
can that be done while repairs are ongoing?

>>47534302
What's the point of lying about it if we're going to be outed shortly after, especially if we're aiming to advertise ourself as a man of honor and whatever else bullshit PR campaign we're going to do?

>>47534291
well obviously Karen built a second one in our hanger from old bluegills. She wanted a matching mech to solidify their unlikely friendship
>roll for bluff

>>47534291
At this point it's obvious to the the higher ups in the Jaburo that something is up. Keeping the Betta with us is likely a better option than most since they'd know who has it.

Wish we knew the name of the First Mate mech. Could tell us how he got it.

>>47534340
Because the whole reason we are going along with this is so she could talk to her brother and shit.We are fucking pirates,we are going to be killing and robbing people anyway. A little bit of lying to the military wont make much difference.

>>47534342

It's not impossible. The Colonel herself pointed it out earlier that the S-Betta is a higher priority for General Fairchild than for her, and that even if you gave it up you could rebuild it in time from the data in the Rhinehawk's computers.

Actually, now I look at it, the S-Betta has the same servo sizes as the Morgan II and Warmouth, and it even shares the same class of armor with the Warmouth.

>swap S-Betta and Warmouth external armor
>be visibly seen at a distance scrapping the S-Betta-disguised Warmouth
>have Sam fly the Warmouth-disguised S-Betta
Surely this cannot go wrong.

>>47534382
Alright lets say it was scraped in the fight and when we leave we have the mech repainted so it looks like we made a copy

>>47534382
And we did get a payday of scrap.. including a camo unit from the green skulls. It would be possible. Besides, I think losing two camo units would piss off Fairchild, so I'd go for it.

Hold up what we need to do is start finding females who pilot mechs that are just as good as Roarke then pull them full of babies. Then we take over the stars with our new clan of Roarke babbies and become the warlords the galaxy needs!

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"You, mostly, but that plan sounds good too." You smile down at her, and she smiles back.

"R-Roarke! After the party, okay? I'll wear my uniform for you." She winks and kisses your cheek, and the two of you share a laugh and a hug before you have to go back to work.

Next, you head towards a square surrounded by marble columns, where Gretchen is interviewing the members of Squad A, "...Four at once, though? I mean, the ASP recordings are perfectly clear, but still, skewering four Harpies at once is ridiculously precise."

The kid she's interviewing, a teenage boy with glasses you recognize as the pilot of the striped mech, shrugs self-deprecatingly, "I practice a lot."

You wait until she's finished, after all, you have an offer to make her...

>[How do you want to phrase it?]

WHATS UP MY BUTTER CUP!

*THROWS ARM AROUND GRETCHEN*

Sorry about the delays, guys, I have a killer headache that just won't leave me alone.

>>47534509
>How would you like to have a first class seat to the hottest story of the century that is Roarke S. Starwind and his band of lovable Rouges

>>47534509
Simple; access to a side of things she wouldn't normally get a hold of, a way to 'keep things honest' which is rare with media, and a lot of scoops. Beats being paparazzi and she gets to keep her journalistic integrity.

>>47534521
No worries. Its a slower thread by the looks of it. I'll try and finish up a draft of the cardinal while I wait.

>>47534575

Cool! As for what I'm going to do, I'm going to take an hour break, you guys do what you want and chat and all. If I'm able to keep going, we'll do that. If not, let's make it a two-parter and today can be for mech discussion and such.

>>47534509
you want a chance to see how the other side lives? Wont be safe, but I promise it'll be a hell of a story

Since we have time now what are something we should make sure to do in the future?

>>47534740
Find out what happened to the doc and his daughter from suleiman. They survived right?

>>47534777
Ya but they seem to be floating somewhere in space, when we talk to Clemmy we should figure out which direction they went so we can pick them up

>>47534777
Also, confirm Triple-C's fate.

>>47534634
Alright. Got the base blueprint for the cardinal set up. Might have forgot something in the haste and scribling, but it's not bad for a under 150 cp model.

>>47534854
Let me just... actually put the link to it right here. http://pastebin.com/stiu3tsg

>>47534868
If you are going with bird themes what would you do for a mech called the iron kestrel?

>>47534984
Not him, but if I could cut in?

http://pastebin.com/xwcCLkap

>>47534984
Nothing. That name screams 'The Zeong' if I tried that. Ones I am going for so far are both chess and bird based. Cardinal(bishop), Rook, nightingale, Queen Lyre, and Kingfisher.

>>47535016
>nightingale
>knight
Almost got me.

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>>47535042
I can be witty when I wish to be. The rook was going to be a heavy armor/defense model using that battle whip idea I had along with a few options. Wouldn't be able to fly, but it'd be tough.

The cardinal and the base design I had for it, I took from one of my favorite real robot mechs.

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made some more stuff guys.

>>47535013
I keep forgetting mech animals are a thing.

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>>47535102
Just make the jacket the black and its perfect

>tfw can't really contribute anything to the quest

>>47535102
is she wearing gloves?

>>47535102
darken the hands.
right now its just miles sharing the go(damn horrifying)od news

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Why is finding eyepatch redheads so hard?

Godspeed you magnificent bastards

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Last one. Look closely.

>>47535165
oh you lovable bastard

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Im thinking about doing something like this, just a lightweight mech with decent range a a lot of speed

if you mount a heavy cannon on a pod, can you fire it without holding it?

>>47535147
implying Clemmy would use one and not go raw.

That actually fits how I imagine Harpies to be.

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>>47535102
Better?

>>47535217
implying she didn't poke holes in it

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>>47535124
I feel your pain.

>>47535236
Implying the sheer force and friction didn't just break it.

Does anyone know where abouts they put the stuff about mech brawling and brawling related weapons in the rule book? Also if there is a section that mentions if there is any difference between hand held and built in weapons?

Are we building out of the core mekton or is the advanced tech manual fine too?

>>47535269
Check the combat section of the Core Rulebook.

Though I don't recall exactly which section it's mentioned in (the section on arm servos would be a good bet, though), hands may hold a number of spaces' worth of equipment equal to the number of spaces in the arm they're mounted on. Same with weapon mounts. However, they only have one kill, meaning that if an enemy gets lucky with a called shot, you're shit out of luck for wielding that weapon. Built-in weapons are safe from this eventuality, but obviously take more spaces in your mech.

>>47535282
A fair number of the systems used in mechs already in the story (such as the S-Betta's Cloaking suite) are from the ATM, so I'd assume that it's fair game.

>>47535313
>>47535269
hand held weapons don't take up space, so you could hold a gun in your hands while still having a weapons in the arm itself. you can also use both hands, doubling your spaces.

>>47535269
look at pages 98 and 99 in the core book. brawling is there

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Found the note on handheld weapons, for whoever was interested, under the Weapons section of the Core Rulebook.

>>47535458
I spotted it yeah.

Actually stating stuff is hard god damn.

>>47535226
Yes.

>>47534634
Soooo.. is Wong coming back, or did the QM curse claim another soul for it's dice rolls?

>>47535572
Wong probably had an aneurysm trying to stat something mad.

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>>47535475
You start to notice things which make things far more confusing and complicated after a few read-throughs.

>>47535637
Is it in the corebook or is it a case of supplements adding things you need to buy to get rid of penalties they also just invented?

>>47535649
its mostly optional rules, like fuel consumption and bullet travel

>>47535572

No, my headache simply overcame me and I fell asleep for a while. We'll resume tomorrow, sorry for the short session everyone.

>>47535894
It's ok Wong, shit happens.

>>47535894
No need to apologize. I used to get headaches and migraines all the time. Now I just don't sleep. I dunno which is worse.

>>47535226
>>47535110
>>47535124
>>47535138
>>47535147
>>47535165
>>47535246
>>47535894
It's cool man, we were pretty productive in your absence.

How does space work when you are designing a melee weapon that is used in place of a hand? Since I am asking I might as well just make sure the spaces required is equal to the CP is it?

>>47536009

Yes. The required spaces are equal to the cost (unless you apply Space Efficiency, which I like to do to make things fit, reducing the spaces required by 1 for every additional 0.5 CP) and the weight is equal to half the tonnage. Keep in mind, since it's not handheld or a hand servo itself, it takes up actual spaces from the arm but also receives the arm's armor SP as protection if someone scores a crit or called shot on that weapon.

>>47536067
So say its something like roarke's armored thruster fist, is that made to fit with space efficiency? Or have I not read far enough ahead and there is a thing for custom hand servos?

>>47536111

As far as I can tell, being a hand (in other words, having the Handy property) makes a weapon take up just one space. I think the Advanced Technical Manual corrects this somehow and I vaguely recall a passage in some heavily unrelated section saying that your hand has to cost less CP than the spaces in your arm or something, but I don't care, I could always just give the KK some extra CP and automatic Space Efficiency on the ATFs if needed.

The books really aren't specific enough about it.

>>47536738
So its cool if I count a big nasty hand as one space? I was using weapon mating to get it to fit.
One last question if you are still up, how do you work out the kills of damage your weapons take?

>>47536738
As far as I can tell by working backwards from the ATM, the only reason the default Hands and Claws take up one space is because Space Efficiency was spent on them.

For instance, standard Hands are 1 Kill, Handy, Quick weapons, which should cost 0.5*1.5*2 = 1.5 CP, and take up as many spaces. To reduce the space consumption by half a space (if such a thing were even possible) would raise the cost by 0.25 CP to 1.75 CP, which is in line with the unrounded cost continually mentioned in the errata.

Similarly, Claws would take 3 CP and 3 spaces (1*1.5*2.0). Reducing the spaces taken to 1 would increase the price to the listed price of 4 CP.

But yeah, the manual should be clearer about what some of the terminology actually entails.

>>47536908
I believe the kills of a weapon is generally equal to the damage the weapon deals.

>>47537901
Since you are here do you want to take a look at the piece of shit mech I put together?

>>47537973
If you'd like.

>>47538098
http://pastebin.com/2fPLuZra
Design may or may not be changed later. Bonus points if you can guess what it was inspired by/shamelessly copied from.
This is my first time statting something for an RPG. please be gentle

>>47538146
Not being particularly well-versed in mecha myself, it basically looks like a normal humanoid mech with some interesting loadout choices to me. Looks generally fine, other than a few errors here and there, stats-wise:

>Arm: C/S/K 6, 2.5 tons
6 divided by 2 should be 3 tons.
>leg: C/S/K 5, 2 tons
5 divided by 2 should be 2.5 tons.

>Interservo Melee Weapon Link (Grappler Claws, 4 CP)
Judging from the Osano-Wo, an Interservo Link for Melee Weapons requires 7 CP. That part of the rules is somewhat unclear, though.

>Thrusters & Speed: 2 per leg, 4 in the torso. Moves 400 meters per turn in flight, or can run 200m. 15.3 CP.
>Total Weight: 51
Not sure how you get this. 8 Lift Points divided by (51 tons times 0.0375 (for thrusters)) gives you a flight MA of 4.18. Also not sure where the 15.3 CP comes from.

After you've checked these, you may also want to recheck your costs and weight. You'd got 5 spaces per leg and 3 to spare in your head, so you should have potential thrust to spare.

>implying I'm going to be much better
I only started reading through the manuals a couple threads ago.

>>47538320
I got the servo weights from the manuals so I think they are right.
As far as I can understand from that chart and working backwards from the cost for the other mechs 51 tons times 0.0375 gives you the cost of 1 MA so to get MA 8 I multiplied 51 by 0.3. 15.3 CP is what it costs to get it to go that fast.
The Linked melee weapons cost I got straight from the book but I was waiting to see what wong was going to say about that.

>>47538320
>>47538450
But on further examination I see I have fucked up the lift points a bit.

>>47538534
http://pastebin.com/9nb66qXT
Hopefully actually flies now.

SOMEHOW I keep missing the links to the pdfs for Mekton Zeta, even though I'm going through the threads actively looking for them. Can someone do me a kindness and just drop the links?