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Reminder: Suptg link in OP has been changed. Old link will allow people to vote on /tg/ threads but not /qst/ threads. New link is the other way around.

With you away from Rioja your advisors and key commanders are looking after your holdings.

Knight Captain Katherine Drake is your fleet's Wing Commander and is the acting commander of Rioja's fleet.

Knight Captain Kim Yu Chung is seeing to defense and recovery efforts across the rest of the Relay.

Uyi Rna is the General of your Army and is growing increasingly popular among the troops thanks to your support. Consequently this has strengthened your relations with the General and his Knights. The troops know you're looking out for them.

Wiremu Tama is the Admiral of your Fleet. He's been busy helping to restore the Fleet's starfighter losses and those of the PDF.

Fadila Saqqaf is your leading diplomatic adviser. She has wisely sent a small diplomatic team to support you which were picked up after your stop in the capital.

C.F. Vanderwal is a former House Erid noble now serving with your intelligence division as part of his parole. He's probably up to something sneaky and/or sinister that will help you out.

Chide Dlam'ard, the Governor of Rioja has kept the local economy afloat and is now working on continued expansion of the cities.

Knight Commander Myrish Avun, while not really one of your advisors, is currently in the capital conducting talks with Count Jerik. If successful it should result in her elevation to Baron of one of the Worlds in the Smuggler's Run.
The planet of Magdalena, which is in the Relay but not in the Run itself, could probably use a Baron more urgently. It would also give the House a better chance if Avun turned against you later. Still the Knight Commander defected for a reason and they're dead set on returning to the Run.

Your old nemesis Matyáš Fox is still kicking around it seems. The demoted Knight Leituenant was tasked with escorting Avun to the capital. After some deliberation you decided not to have him assassinated as it might have reflected badly on Avun.
If he gives you a reason though you're totally going to have him killed.

And I have to leave for work because my boss all of a sudden needs me to come in. Fuck this fucking shit!
Back close to 9PM EST

>Buy a couple of those ships/promote to the House?
also
>Karbos wants to get rid of old Frigates. Offer Bombard refit?

>>838213
>Buy a couple of those ships/promote to the House?
Yes. If only for testing to see how they fair.

>Karbos wants to get rid of old Frigates. Offer Bombard refit?
Yeeees. Time to spread the terror that is the Bombard class. Still think we should see about updating it with it's own hull instead of retrofitting it from another base hull.

Don't suppose you can tell your boss to fuck off when he tells you to come in for unscheduled work? In nicer words obviously.

>>838213

For House and Salvage!

See ya when you return.

Why not do both? Get a few LRBSs in exchange for the refit. If they are up for it of course.

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>>838213
>Uyi Rna is the General of your Army and is growing increasingly popular among the troops thanks to your support. Consequently this has strengthened your relations with the General and his Knights. The troops know you're looking out for them.
Nice. We should try to do the same for Tama and his pilots.

>Buy a couple of those ships/promote to the House?
I wouldn't mind getting a flight of these for testing purposes. Or whatever is the smallest tactical unit for battleships.

>Karbos wants to get rid of old Frigates. Offer Bombard refit?
Ask our diplomats first.

I hope you'll earn at least a nice bonus for coming in on short notice.

>Uyi Rna
>Rna
They're everywhere. I bet Daska's already a grandparent.

>>838213
>Wiremu Tama is the Admiral of your Fleet. He's been busy helping to restore the Fleet's starfighter losses and those of the PDF.

Once again, we should see about getting in touch with Baron Archivald to see what we can do about our Starfighter situation. Mostly to build links with an established Baron, partially so he can help us bone his nephew.

>Karbos wants to get rid of old Frigates. Offer Bombard refit?

I really want to say yes, but could you remind me again what this would be?

>Buy a couple of those ships/promote to the House?

Uh, hell yes. We gotta come up with both a way to use them as an anti-raiding response ship, as well as tactics to counter them that don't use Grrav Well generators.

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>>838424
>but could you remind me again what this would be

It's the flying plasma cannon with frigate parts glued to it.
http://houseanddominion.wikia.com/wiki/Bombard_Class

For house and salvage?

>>838462
Oh. I thought it was the "Fuck You" torpedo boat from earlier.

Mehhhhhhhh, doesn't our Deci already kind of fill that role?

>>838672
>doesn't our Deci already kind of fill that role

Not really, I think.

The bombard refit is kinda like giving medieval peasants crossbows. Everybody already has tons of peasants/frigates that are pretty useless in serious combat. If you give them crossbows/plasma cannons, they suddenly can hurt pretty much everything from a distance, while the only things they need to do to be effective in combat is to aim decently, and not break formation or run away.

Compared to that the siege Deci is more like a self-propelled artillery piece that can be built without requiring an actual tank factory.

One design tries to upgrade an obsolete ship to be competitive and possibly give poorly trained crews a chance to be used for something on the battlefield that doesn't involve dying, while the other tries to reduce the infrastructure required to produce and field proper siege weapons.

Would anybody be interested in a few of the ships being modeled in Battleships Forever?

>>838672
Decis hold larger ones. These are smaller ones carrying LD plasma.

>>839051
What?
What's battleships forever?

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>>838291
The person I got called in to cover is probably getting fired. I already lost a full shift this past Saturday because medical reasons.

>>838295
Trade refit for ships? Might be an option, we'll see.

>>838303
>We should try to do the same for Tama and his pilots.
You've agreed to his plan sending out some escort carriers to do raiding. That's a start.

>I wouldn't mind getting a flight of these for testing purposes.

>They're everywhere.
If the 3(?) you've met means everywhere that must say something about the number of Reynards.

One of Alex's very much civilian siblings are on Rioja now btw.

>>838424
>see about getting in touch with Baron Archivald to see what we can do about our Starfighter situation.
He think you're using too many drones.

>could you remind me again what this would be?
>>838799
I was thinking of it more as putting a GAU-8 on an F-4 Phantom.

Kharbos has their new modular hull assault corvette/Frigate which is kind of like the F-18 family by comparison.

>>839051
I was never the greatest with it.

>>839051
That is to say, go for it if you want.

>>838672
>>839111
The Deci is fitted with a light siege weapon. It has long range but low dps. The ship itself is slow and is better suited to supporting larger vessels like the Forbearance.

The Bombard uses a range boosted LD plasma cannon. It can't compete with a siege weapon for range but its dps is better. Being built on the frame of a combat frigate its mobility is better than the Deci. It's not able to keep up with newer attack ships but can match pace with the best battleships and battlecruisers.

>I thought it was the "Fuck You" torpedo boat from earlier.
The Aries stealth ship that carries a bunch of heavy torpedoes?

>>839127
I think Sonia ran into a Rna in a different House. I wanted to check that on 4plebs but then I realized I'd have to search through two foolfuuka archive pages and suptg. That's probably just me remembering things incorrectly.

Also, random dumb ideas:
We should retake the knight errant planet for the ruling house, the one the attack on started the civil war.

We should have some bio engineers shrink down a proper shark to 20-30cm, make it breathe air, rewrite its instincts to act like a dog, and augment its body with tiny repulsors so it can swim in air. If people like them we could even start selling them as pets.

>>839051
I'd give them a try.

>>839211
>The Aries stealth ship that carries a bunch of heavy torpedoes?
I think he is talking about the Torpedo bot with blocks of hundreds of disposable one shot torpedo launchers for maximum torpedo spam in as little time as possible for the cheapest amount possible.

>We should have some bio engineers shrink down a proper shark to 20-30cm, make it breathe air, rewrite its instincts to act like a dog, and augment its body with tiny repulsors so it can swim in air. If people like them we could even start selling them as pets.
Decompress or just make it tiny? Because I would totally dig a 2 ton great white shark the size of a Corgi that swims in the air. Weaponized pets.

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>>839127
>He think you're using too many drones.
Expanding on this because I posted too early and wasn't finished with that thought.

If you want to get good with starfighters, care about them but be prepared to make the hard decisions. Following that line of thought you need manned fighters if only so that you have pilots survivors that are intimately familiar with starfighter tactics. Not so surprising when you consider his history as a starfighter pilot himself.

I don't know if that helps you at all. It does not mean get rid of all your drones.

>>839234
>I think Sonia ran into a Rna in a different House.
Entirely possible.

>Also, random dumb ideas:
>We should retake the knight errant planet for the ruling house
There are 3 dwarf galaxies to the SE of Nasidum space. A section there is listed as annexed by House Nasidum. That's where you want to go.

>bio engineers shrink down a proper shark to 20-30cm
>>839343
>2 ton great white shark the size of a Corgi that swims in the air.
That couldn't possibly go wrong I'm sure.

>>839409
>That couldn't possibly go wrong I'm sure.
A 30cm^3 cube of lead weighs around 300kg, even one made of osmium wouldn't break 600kg.

>There are 3 dwarf galaxies to the SE of Nasidum space. A section there is listed as annexed by House Nasidum. That's where you want to go.
It would directly help Helios forces in the area, return some space to the influence of the current ruling house, and indirectly take pressure off ber'helum froces in the large galaxy nearby. There are probably worse places to start.

Other idea: Anonymously attend a few town hall meetings on Rioja once we're back. With the limited democratic setup of J-D something like that or an equivalent to it should probably exist.

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If the shark thing comes back in full force I'm going to have a post-quest epilogue where Sonia briefly goes crazy and builds a shark themed space city.

>>839540
>inb4 semi-regular shark madness becomes common in all of Sonia's descendants.

>>839540

As funny as it would be for it to come back. I think another anon had the right of it. It was fun but might be good to just let it be a side interest.

>>839540
We could probably have the people who write programs for Sonia's holoplex chain produce a shark simulator. If we use that mind/machine interface used on corvettes, power armor, or to interface with vista, it would probably be a horrifying experience considering how alien the senses of a shark would be to a human being and the general environment they live in beyond the first 50-100m of depth.

>>839343
Yeah. Torpedo spam I'm all for. Especially if we're opening a torpedo factory. Make torpedoes, sell them and our spam boats to houses.

>>839409
Is it possible to purchase and resell cloning rights to exceptional starfighters? Like, maybe you're with one house now, but we could buy the cloning contract off them so that when they die they work for our house instead?

>>839540
We should build an aquatic/space themed shark amusement park. Detailing our many adventures, and sell it as a retro experience as opposed to holo-booths.

We could have a competition for bio-designers to create artistic shark versions of classic ship designs and experimental/unique ship designs.

And also use it to scout for talent.

Also tiny sharks.

>>839729
Swim or Die: Shark Simulator

>>839753
>cloning rights to exceptional starfighters?
Not unless the pilot in question agrees to it. Otherwise that's high level talks between Houses. Most agreements are made for the same House they served with before being cloned, though they can certainly retire later and join someone else.
There are always concerns that a House might try to acquire top skilled clones from multiple sources. This could leads to concerns about a clone led uprising.

A trio of the LRBS II's will be picked up for the House to look at. Given the size of the bill they can take care of the funds for it this time.

Did you want to try to acquire some of the Frigates as surplus so that you can refit them into Bombards for later sale?
Would you rather offer to sell refit packages?
Or another option?

The diplomats will do their best to work out a suitable deal.

>>839846
I think it would make sense to make this decision depending on whether our shipyards, or our plasma production facilities have more free capacity. If our shipyards are all busy, offer the upgrade kits, if they aren't, do the refit in our shipyards and expand plasma cannon production even more while work on the hulls is getting done.

>>839933
The yards in the Run are currently full and will be for some time. The House does have refit yards in the Homeworlds available though who knows if they'll stay that way with current campaigns.
Likewise Plasma weapon production in the Run has not yet returned to full output. The gun range upgrades should still be at or near full production.

If you bought mothballed ships from Kharbos they could always sit in reserve until there is capacity to refit them. On the other hand that would delay the return of investment.

>>840051
Using the yards in the homeworlds until they're needed for something else seems like a decent idea. We can reevaluate the situation when that happens.

>>839846
Hrm. So, we can record and recreate peoples mind states.

Could we create limited VR simulations of people using holobooths? Kind of a step-down from AI that are only active when the simulators are running?

Then there's no concern about clone led uprisings.

As for the Bombard frigates, Ehhhhhhh.

I'm skeptical about their economy given the cost of building and maintaining Plasma weapons in the field, as well as their suitability in larger fleet engagements. Seems to me like they would have high attrition rates, quickly dropping groups of them below effective levels.

I honestly think it might be better to focus on selling refit packages for now, and then working on building a mobile specialized refit ship that could spend time behind Neeran lines to refit captured and civilian frigates and such into Bombard configurations.

We have better manufacturing options, better ships to put Plasma cannons onto that won't get obliterated if the enemy has any siege weapon capability.

>>839846
Also, what are the crew requirements for a Bombard Frigate? The role it seems to be filling is similar to the Neeran Ball Corvette, which are "disposable" corvettes with a crew of 3 to mitigate losses. With corvettes being smaller but still having 80-90 crew, and the frigates being refits and not purpose built, I'm concerned that the loss in manpower is going to be unpopular.

>>840175
>Could we create limited VR simulations of people using holobooths?
I'll have to consider this when I don't have a week long ringing headache and a cold to contend with.

>Seems to me like they would have high attrition rates
The two wings of them you deployed did alright. Though they tended to stay back and fire from range as they were intended for.

Moving on.

Your GE contact has sent along data on another Aries facility. It's not clear what it's for but the facility is located on a heavily populated world, buried underground beneath an arcology.

The planet is currently under Ruling House jurisdiction but they're in the process of pulling their troops. It seems they have plans to reform a minor House in the area with the help of local governors. One that would act as a suitably loyal vassal state. Dangerous if the locals turn against them later but their forces are needed elsewhere.

You could investigate yourself (with or without permission) and therefore get first crack at any good salvage.
You could also turn over the location to the Ruling House of the local Governor for a cut of the find.

[ ] Investigate yourself (keep allies in the loop as planned)
[ ] Investigate yourself, without permission to keep it secret
[ ] Turn over location to Ruling House
[ ] Turn over location to Governor

>>840264
[x] Investigate yourself (keep allies in the loop as planned)

>>840264
Investigate with permission.

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>>840264
And forgot my picture.

Stopping for for the night. Will run tomorrow until I need to leave for work at 3:30 pm. I probably won't be able to resume after that until monday or tuesday. Due to people probably getting fired my schedule which was supposed to be up today is not available.

When I find out my schedule I'll post in thread and on the twitter when I'll be resuming. I may drop in to answer questions if I'm not completely out of it from cold, headaches or whatever. I did consider just cancelling this again but I've done that too many times already.

>>840264
>[X] Investigate yourself (keep allies in the loop as planned)

>>839511
>>839409
Retaking the Knight Errant planet sounds like a solid idea for one of our War Goals for the Civil War.

>>840264
>[X] Investigate yourself (keep allies in the loop as planned)

>>839127
The "new" sprite packs really help things. I'll see what I can do.
>>840314
>[x] Investigate yourself (keep allies in the loop as planned)

>>840264
>The two wings of them you deployed did alright. Though they tended to stay back and fire from range as they were intended for.

Hrm. I'll have to look that up. Man, I hope you keep getting better. Anything that anonymous people can do to cheer you up? Do . . . Do you want a 4x steam game?

>>840264
> [ ] Investigate yourself (keep allies in the loop as planned)

Looting, yay! Could we possibly use it as a honey-pot for disaffected locals or possible Aries 5th columnists?

>>840262
>what are the crew requirements for a Bombard Frigate?
Bombard Frigate
Emergency Minimum crew 5 (If anything breaks you're in trouble)
Skeleton crew level 20
Normal operational crew 250-350

Attack Corvette
Emergency Minimum crew 4
Skeleton crew level 11
Normal operational crew 75-90

Assault Corvette
Emergency Minimum crew 1
Skeleton crew level 3
Normal operational crew 3-20

>The role it seems to be filling is similar to the Neeran Ball Corvette, which are "disposable" corvettes with a crew of 3 to mitigate losses.
It was meant to be more of a scaled down Centurion by the anons who suggested it.

Most Houses in the Dominion can generally afford to take some personnel losses. As other anons have pointed out the assault corvette may not require many crew but they need to be really good at their jobs.

>>840768
>Do you want a 4x steam game?
Oh god, that would result in me running H&D a lot less. Thanks for the offer though. I'll get better when I get better, not much to be done about it. Sure wish this cold would go away though.

Looks like we're investigating ourselves and letting our allies know what we're up to. Is Sonia visiting the planet?
If so choose your loadout!


* = Current Default

"Recon" Light Power Armor *

"Matryoshka" Reynard Custom, Medium Power Armor *
-Medium PA Jumpjets*
-Shoulder/backpack plasma weapon
-Custom forearm HF-Blade* (Right)
-Reinforced Boarding Shield
-Reinforced Boarding Shield Version 2.3 (mass drivers, micro RPG's)

Phased Plasma Channel Discharge Gauntlet (Lighning gun)
Energy Converter (Reveals cloaked enemies)

HF-Blade *
Plasma pistol Mk 1b *
Plasma pistol Mk 7B
Smart Grapple

Plasma Anti-tank Gun
Shallan Fusion Gun
Plasma Blaster
4 barrel Box Missile launcher
Heavy MG

X-Ray laser+GL
Sniper Rifle+ (20mm)
Mass Driver Rifle / Reynard Custom+ *
Reynard Rifle M+ (Mass production RSS Mass driver Rifle)
Reynard Rifle L+ (Cheap stripped down version)
SRL Mass Driver Rifle
Phase rifle*
Silenced Carbine+
Shotgun+ (Grenades, AP Slug, Flechettes, Incendiaries, other)
Forearm MG+
Forearm GL

+ = Can fire splinter ammo

>Grenades
High explosives
Frag grenades
Stunpulse grenades*
Flashbangs
Half moon (Breaching charge)*
Claymore mines
GP mine
Shard Missiles (x2-4 with Medium PA Jumpjets)

Rovinar search drone
Medical stasis field *

Or you can go with a preset: Recon (max stealth) or Jump Jet (Jetstream)

>>841893
Hell yes we're going.
Max stealth but change our plasma pistol to the 7B

>>841906
Actually let's go with
"Recon" Light Power Armor
Energy Converter (Reveals cloaked enemies)
HF-Blade *
Plasma pistol Mk 7B
Mass Driver Rifle / Reynard Custom+ *
Stunpulse grenades*
Half moon (Breaching charge)*
Medical stasis field *

>>841893
"Recon" Light Power Armor
HF-Blade
Plasma pistol Mk 1b
Smart Grapple
Mass Driver Rifle / Reynard Custom+
Phase rifle
Stunpulse grenades
Half moon
Medical stasis field
Rovinar search drone

>>841914
>>841941
Anyone else?

>>841951
Maybe mention you're continuing on twitter?

>>838201
FOR HOUSE AND DOMINION

>Saw TSTG tweet he had to go to work
>no update on the wiki

Damn, I did not realise the thread was up. Might want to tweet it.

Also, related to the Ber'helum Gravity Well? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugelblitz_(astrophysics)

>>841972
Oh, I never linked the thread... shit.

>>841893
>[x] "Recon" Light Power Armor

>[x] Lightning gun

>[x] Plasma Pistol Mk 1
>[x] Plasma Pistol Mk 7B

>[x] Reynard Custom+

>[x] Stunpulse grenades
>[x] Half moon

Oh man, we should look at making a multi-function grenade. Something like a Phase weapon cell that can be overcharged for a HE/Frag effect, lowered for a stun/flashbang, and directed for a breaching charge.

I just took a look at the archive and we're coming up on 5 years of quest.
Is there anything you want as thanks TSTG? A bideo game? Commissioned art? Running this consistently for that long, wow, I didn't realise how much time had passed.

Can we at least bring a phase pistol. Going without a stun option that isn't a grenade doesn't seem particularly smart to me.

Didn't know you were running since there was no link on the wiki, give me a bit to catch up

>>842017
This is a good point.

>>841893
Guess I just have this Steam Key for "Distant Worlds: Univers" kicking around then.

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"Recon" Light Power Armor
HF-Blade

Plasma Pistol Mk 7B
Mass Driver Rifle / Reynard Custom+
Backup pulse pistol
Stunpulse grenades*
Half moon (Breaching charge)*

Smart Grapple
Medical stasis field

Looks like we're going with this. Fairly average loadout for you guys.

Your LST and a pair of shuttles descend to the surface after getting permission to land. What you find is concerning. The arcology itself has been built up more than the original specs called for and you can spot manufacturing blocks extending into into the surrounding barren plains. Atmospheric conditions are better than Rioja at least in terms of visibility but levels of dangerous airborne toxins are higher. Landing pads and bays are surrounded by atmospheric containment fields to keep the bad air out.

"Was this planet habitable?" you ask.

Rufaro shakes her head. "Barely. The stripmining isn't helping matters."

Getting in contact with the local authorities you find out that the underground facility in question is in an area of the city that is worse than Mike's home town at its low point. There are tunnels and access shafts that should get you there but they're in disrepair. If there's another way in it must be hidden.

Some of the tunnels may be large enough for a shuttle but it'll be tight. An aerocar or repulsor jetbike would be small enough but you'd have to get hold of armored ones.
Or you could hike in either with your Recon teams or with additional troops.

[ ] Assault Shuttles
[ ] Aerocar
[ ] Repulsor jetbike
[ ] Hike in (Recon team)
[ ] Hike in (Additional troops)

>>842081
Recon goes for a hike while backup gets their hands on armored aerocars.

>>842081
>[x] Hike in (Recon team)

>Atmospheric conditions are better than Rioja at least in terms of visibility but levels of dangerous airborne toxins are higher.
If the new house works out, we might be able to sell them something to make the planet habitable again once they're doing stripmining it.

>>842081
>[x] Repulsor jetbike

>>842081
> Getting in contact with the local authorities you find out that the underground facility in question is in an area of the city that is worse than Mike's home town at its low point.

Let's pose as mercenaries! We offer our services to two different gangs to clean the other ones out. Say that we know about the Aries base and want to loot it before it's secured, but we need to get through to it first.

We lead them to ambush each other, then we turn on the gangs and have a third one come in to seize the territory in exchange for us not dropping a literal fucking army on them. We arm the third gang and give them enough financial backing to stabilize the area after we leave, and take credit for personally pacifying the worst part of the planet.

> Atmospheric conditions are better than Rioja at least in terms of visibility but levels of dangerous airborne toxins are higher. Landing pads and bays are surrounded by atmospheric containment fields to keep the bad air out.

> "Was this planet habitable?" you ask.

> Rufaro shakes her head. "Barely. The stripmining isn't helping matters."

Good thing we happen to have some experience with these matters! Maybe we can offer to set the gang that takes control up with jobs terraforming that shit, or keeping up protection of the city. Give them some official legitimacy.

Still, just make sure they know that if they want to ask "You and what army" that we actually have one of those. A couple, really.

> MFW nobody will want this plan

> MFW I'm just saying, Distant Worlds: Universe, new 4x game, could be useful for inspiration and decompressing from running the quest.

>>842142
That seems incredibly risky when compared to just infiltrating the compound, stealing every last scrap of intel and then bringing in the cavalry to steal the whole damn place.

>>842155
Why fight a gang when you can get someone else to?

By supporting a third Gang, we also help out by stabilizing a rough part of the neighborhood, get some good PR, and have influence on a RH world that could be useful down the line.

Additionally, if we support the third Gang, we get a bunch of civilians that can watch the Aries base for us and let us know if anyone else comes snooping around.

The whole "help out with the environmental disaster" is also good PR for us personally, good PR for our Terraforming interests, and a long term tie to the planet that is easily excusable as a charitable/PR act so the RH doesn't get pissy about us having some fingers in the pie there.

>>842155
>>842166

I just want to point out, >>840264

> The planet is currently under Ruling House jurisdiction but they're in the process of pulling their troops. It seems they have plans to reform a minor House in the area with the help of local governors. One that would act as a suitably loyal vassal state. Dangerous if the locals turn against them later but their forces are needed elsewhere.

Having our Troops go in heavy handed could be counter productive. Go hard and create a power vacuum and then fill it so that by the time people look around all they see is us helping out, not "attacking" "civilians" which the Gangs are.

>>842166
>Why fight a gang when you can get someone else to?
It's not a gang it's an aries facility.

>By supporting a third Gang, we also help out by stabilizing a rough part of the neighborhood, get some good PR, and have influence on a RH world that could be useful down the line.
I really don't care about this random planet that's going to become vassal #2691 for the RH.

>Additionally, if we support the third Gang, we get a bunch of civilians that can watch the Aries base for us and let us know if anyone else comes snooping around.
There isn't going to be a Aries base after we're done.

>>842173
The RH already knows we're operating here and would have mentioned if they believed it would be detrimental to them if we were to go in loud.

>>842142
>We offer our services to two different gangs to clean the other ones out.
This could take awhile and will slow your investigation.

>>842186
>There isn't going to be a Aries base after we're done.
Pretty much this. Because you've shared the data with your allies it is no longer a hidden base. It is one that lots of people now know about.

Looks like Recon teams are hiking in. The rest of your people will try to get hold of some smaller vehicles.

Unless anyone else wants to support a gangland reclamation plan?

>>842222
Fuck why not. Well, I'll support seeing if it's actually feasible first.

>>842222
Actually, can't we just pay off whatever gangs we need to? We're fucking rich anyways.

>>842186
Why fight at all?

>>842081
>Aries facility
>Unknown use
>Nanite attackers used some kind of Aries stealth LST

We should make it policy to bring the Energy Converter with us wherever we go, it's proven to keep us safe from radiation and halt the spread of nanites.

Laying out the plan the Marines get to work looking for vehicles to get hold of. You, Rufaro and Valeri will be joined by another 3 of your Recon personnel promoted from the Commando teams.

Everyone packs additional supplies needed to keep you in the field if necessary for a few days. Extra fuel for your suit reactors is a thing you rarely need but it may be useful if there's too much power draw from the new pistol. If it's an issue it can still be switched over to conventional mode and act like your old pistol. There's enough spare fuel cells for your pistol to last you through most situations.
Your bodyguards each pack a set of com relay beacons that should let your people track your progress.

Team two secures an old service lift that should go down most of the way into the lowest parts of the city. They suggest riding on top of the cab just in case you run into problems.

"A little paranoid?" you joke.

"No sir. If the lift fails or it's been sabotaged to drop at lower levels we can use smart grapples to bail out more quickly."

>>842245
>>842254
Heads up that this will mean revealing yourselves to any gangs that may be present.

Let's see how far you can get before running into trouble.

Roll 1d100

Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>842284
rolling bones

Rolled 9 (1d100)

>>842284
Good. I want the Gangs to know we're coming, because we can talk first then.

>>842286
All the way to base and they forgot to lock the front door?

>>842284
We informed our allies of our plans anyways, wish I had thought to mention talking to the local authorities before going in about what to expect from the area.

If it really is that bad of a place, people are going to notice us anyways. In places like this, everyone has some sort of connection to a gang.

Rolled 37 (1d100)

>>842284
whoops might as well roll.

>>842257
I wanted the Gangs to fight to a) draw them away from the Aries base, b) get any civilians to stay out of it like any sensible person would when there's a gang war going on, and c) provide cover and a distraction for us going into the base because I thought we didn't tell anyone what we were doing, and finally d) so that we could come in "officially" afterwards to "assist in pacifying" the violence and get some good PR along with having an excuse to be there and to lock the area down in case we can't just run off with the loot from the base.

Oh, also making it easier for our picked Gang to consolidate the area and pick up the pieces.

The British strategy, pick one warlord and prop him up to enforce order.

>>842361
A sound strategy, but one that really applies more to areas that you plan to occupy.

We're just here to steal shit from Ares.

>>842361
>a) draw them away from the Aries base
I seriously want to see the gang that is going to attack several military transports.
>b) get any civilians to stay out of it like any sensible person would when there's a gang war going on
Why would a secret base be open enough for civilians to be in danger?
>c) provide cover and a distraction for us going into the base because I thought we didn't tell anyone what we were doing
The recon team is literally invisible and a secure military location wouldn't have lower security because of problems outside.
>d) so that we could come in "officially" afterwards to "assist in pacifying" the violence and get some good PR along with having an excuse to be there and to lock the area down in case we can't just run off with the loot from the base.
The situations in which we can't just take the loot from the base are pretty much limited to "Surprise planetary scale rebel/neeran invasion" or "everything is already destroyed"
>Oh, also making it easier for our picked Gang to consolidate the area and pick up the pieces.
We really don't need to give our political enemies more ammunition by being associated with gang members on a RH planet.

>>842404
Actually some of my points could be invalid if the gangs turn out to be fronts for a rebel faction that is planning to take over the planet. That would certainly make infiltrating the base harder or easier depending who they're aligned with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57t3oFw9nVw

The lift descends into the depths. It's not fast but considerably faster than the alternatives.

"Did anyone grab intel reports on the lower levels?

The reader of second team, Pangbourne, speaks up.
"There was very little available sir. This lift track has been used a few times in the past year in the lower levels but there are no operational sensors below surface depth. PDF and police haven't made an active attempt to go down as deep as we are since the start of the war.
The last time a group tried to enter the lower regions in force people got out of their way. Later they worked to cut off the troops supply lines forcing a retreat."

"So they know how to fight on their home turf." you conclude.

"There were roughly 50 gangs in the levels just above ground ten years ago. The few probes to make it further reported less activity deeper below the surface."

The lift continues down, passing tunnels into the bedrock. Sensors show that air quality isn't dropping as bad as you expected though it can't be healthy long term. Rufaro thinks there may be air scrubbing bacteria present.
More than a kilometer below ground the lift halts due to an obstruction. Part of a wall has collapsed and broken pipes now jut out into the shaft.

"This is deeper than I expected us to reach sir. One of the gangs must have repaired sections higher up."

"Gangs or Aries?" you question.

This elicits a shrug from the other team leader.
"We have next to no intel down here but shouldn't be far from the facility in question."

Valeri reports movement on sonar and motion sensors.
"I'm not reading anything on Sonar." reports one of the commandos.
"Maybe elf sonar is better?" asks a squad mate.

"Movement seems to be around our level. Not reading anything below but that might be out of range."

[ ] Proceed through populated area
[ ] Use the emergency ladders/grapples to reach the bottom

See you guys, have to head out!

>>842404
>I seriously want to see the gang that is going to attack several military transports.

That's why we would be offering to help both gangs. Tell them that we heard some soldiers were going try and set themselves up so we're here to stop them. Without our help, they'll get wiped out.

> Why would a secret base be open enough for civilians to be in danger?

They're in danger because they don't know the base is there, and it's more for our secrecy than our safety. The danger comes from the gangs fighting.

> The recon team is literally invisible and a secure military location wouldn't have lower security because of problems outside.

The cover and distraction is for the locals, as much as it is for the military base. The guys not in the recon team aren't invisible either.

> The situations in which we can't just take the loot from the base are pretty much limited to "Surprise planetary scale rebel/neeran invasion" or "everything is already destroyed"

Surprisingly, Gangs tend to steal stuff. I'd like to avoid both that and having to take any responsibility for shooting people to prevent it. They're always a good boy who didn't do anything, was just curious and checking it out.

> We really don't need to give our political enemies more ammunition by being associated with gang members on a RH planet.

It's not associating with Gang members if we legitimize them and give them jobs. We already did it once on Mikes homeworld, remember? Then we can spin it as both doing the RH a favour to ease transition while they're withdrawing from the planet, as well as being Humanitarian, and employing the strategies we already used before to good use.

It also keeps control of the base in our hands and not our allies.

>>842432
>[ ] Use the emergency ladders/grapples to reach the bottom

Fuck it. If we aren't dealing with the gangs we might as well just avoid them. I'm sure the easy way isn't trapped.

Or that a high tech companies secret base probably doesn't have detection methods for recon armour holofields.

>>842432

> [ ] Proceed through populated area

Get the recon guys to do a snatch and interrogate on someone. Find out what's the deal down here.

>>842433
changing>>842452
to >>842449
more intel is good.

>>842433
I'll change >>842444 to >>842449 as well then.

Maybe we'll find another way into the base, or narrow down where it is. Do we know where it is already?

>>842449
Just make sure we snatch someone we don't mind killing.

Leaving someone to be found tied up or stunned will just make our lives miserable. Better to snatch someone that can be shanked to look like a murder.

>>842558
Dude, what the fuck. Seriously.

>>842558
Good point.

>>842565

We're behind enemy lines in an unknown urban environment hiding an enemy base with unknown tech and personnel.

Intel is valuable to us, but not if it alerts the enemy. The only way to hide a possible interrogation is to kill the target afterwards and make it look like an average murder/robbery, in this case.

>>842558
Murdering civilians is something we haven't done in quite a while, and there's the added bonus of alienating Rufaro. I'm absolutely in favor of this.

>>842592
Are you being sarcastic? Well. I'm against this.

I mean by all means let's grab someone we don't mind killing, but let's not kill for no reason.

>>842586
No, that's not the problem I have. Especially since we could probably just grab a gangbanger in the middle of a robbery or a rape or something.

I'm saying that they're valuable mine clearing personnel.

>>843456
Fuck guys. Fine. But we don't tell anyone that's our plan from the beginning okay?

>>843554
Pfft. Like I have time to worry about that shit when Rokos Basilisk is a thing.

>>843554
tldr

>>843438
>Are you being sarcastic? Well. I'm against this.
Yes. I'm against it as well. It's terribly out of character for Sonia.

>>842432
Just so we're clear, I am against outright killing whoever we grab.

Like I said, maybe we can work with the Gangs. Offer to help them stabilize the tunnels and such, and offer to employ them.

Talk about how well it worked on Mikes planet.

We still don't know if we're going to actually be able to evacuate whatever we find in the Aries base, we might have to set up a longer operation there. Heck, I don't see why we aren't just outright capturing and holding the base anyways. Want not waste not.

Given the problems the government has had in the past, I'd like to at least not burn any bridges. Definitely don't want to destabilize the situation or piss off the locals right when the RH is withdrawing troops.

>>842432
Hey its me. >>843438

Phone posting now since I'm at work.

Since it seems the consensus is actually to not be a CE objectivist, I just want to point out I still support talking to the Gangs. Maybe the guys who repaired the tunnels if it turns out a gang did it.

I mean, we could always just assassinate the other gang leaders if they won't toe the line. It could be fun, a throwback to our youth. Remember learning to use the Grapples?

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>>842432
>[ ] Use the emergency ladders/grapples to reach the bottom
Let's stay away from civilians we don't want dead, yeah?
Also, my shot at a Dominion Class Battlecruiser is below.

>>838201
test

second test

>>843827
Do a Bombard!
With realistic plasma cannon!
I remember all the tricks people used to do with the ship maker to get interesting weapon combos. One of those scattershot cannons firing 1000 shots with no spread would look like a plasma beam right?

>>843711
To me, it sounds like the gangs down in this section are Ares fronts or Ares allies.

I'm getting Space Mosul vibes.

>>843976
Does anybody have a picture of a Bombard that I can work with?

>>844075
From what?

There's pretty much no evidence of that so far.

I could see them having one gang in their pockets, sure.

Still not a problem though. Because we're the new game in town, we have the guns, we have the cash.

Like shit, you think Gangbangers are going to be willing to die for Aries? At worst they'll just try to come in and pick off the remains if we suffer enough damage to make it feasible, or try to drive us off to loot the Aries base.

At best, we say "Hey, you guys want to join the winning team? How about you show us a back-way in, and instead of just using you as a front we help you make your neighborhood a decent place and fix shit up. Also we can call down an actual army to clear this place if we have to, or send Special Forces in to kill you in your sleep if you want to throw down. You might not know me, but I can be *really* petty and murderous when it isn't politically inconvenient.

>>844122
>From what?

>>842432
>The reader of second team, Pangbourne, speaks up.
>"There was very little available sir. This lift track has been used a few times in the past year in the lower levels but there are no operational sensors below surface depth. PDF and police haven't made an active attempt to go down as deep as we are since the start of the war.
>The last time a group tried to enter the lower regions in force people got out of their way. Later they worked to cut off the troops supply lines forcing a retreat."


it very much gives the vibes of what the Iraqis are dealing with in Mosul. You go in and the enemy blends in, then ambushes where you are weak.

Plus, if I were Ares protecting a secret base I'd use 'gangs' as a front in this case. Drive off the usual cops/pdf patrols and you're basically a secret empire.

>>844162
Do you have no idea what slums and projects are like?

That's why I said we should stabilize the Gang situation with applied force and investment to get them on our side.

As for Aries employing Gangs, that's usually a pretty shitty plan for a secret base. Loose Lips Sink Ships Anon. Keep your Opsec up.

Far more likely they pay protection to whoever is around the base and pretend to be residents, or maybe drug dealers and they "move" stuff for a Gang or something.

Then work behind the scenes to keep the area destabilized to keep the gangs busy and the area too hot for cops.

Trust me, places like this don't need any extra incentive to attack cops.

The problem is definitely the same as terrorism though. The people live there, it's their homes, and everyone is connected to the Gangs somehow. Also poor as shit, so they'd be cutting the supply lines by stealing shit anyways. But you can't just go in and kill everyone on suspicion of Gang affiliation because they live there.

I mean, you CAN, but that's the sort of thing that causes problems down the road.

>>844337
Again, I don't quite get why you care about 'down the road'?

This isn't our planet, and frankly what will the RH or some newly formed House care if we kill some gang members or Ares affiliates in lawless slums?

We're here to bust the Ares facility and deal them a blow, not win hearts and minds.

>>844542
Well. For one thing "busting" the Aries facility might not be the best choice. I mean, we don't know what's there yet or if we can move it out quickly or if it will take time.

Second of all, Aries picked that place for a facility for a reason, it might be valuable in and of itself.

Third, while the RH owns the planet it never hurts to have a sympathetic segment of the population on your allies planet - especially given the nature of the dominion and the possibility still of BH taking on the RH after.

Fourth, the RH IS still our ally, and helping them out with a small problem is how you build good will and get your name out there.

Fifth, speaking of getting our name out there, we ARE trying to raise our profile. Philanthropy is a status marker among nobles. Going somewhere, pulling sneaky operative operations, and leaving a place MORE stable then when we came looks pretty good for us not being a maverick like some people in our house might try to call us.

Sixth the planet is a good potential client for our terraforming services, and if those services provide jobs and prosperity it makes us more attractive to sign with. Once again, tying back into making us look competent and responsible.

We are a Viscount now. We have to seize political opportunities, or create them.

Also money money money and sweet secret base loot. Do you know what you do when the best stuff is nailed to the floor? You steal the house. And if we have a working relationship with the locals it gives us leverage to be the ones operating the base and repurposing it. Free secret base!

Finally, it is kind of the right thing to do. You know, don't walk by garbage on the ground just because it isn't in your house. Pick it up and throw it out.

>>844542
To clarify why the RH might care,

> The planet is currently under Ruling House jurisdiction but they're in the process of pulling their troops. It seems they have plans to reform a minor House in the area with the help of local governors. One that would act as a suitably loyal vassal state. Dangerous if the locals turn against them later but their forces are needed elsewhere.

Pretty much they don't plan on having much of a presence here shortly. So who cares if we kill some gangers in a slum?

A big ass underground slum capable of resisting forced intrusion?

Well, first of all their friends and family will probably be pissed. And those places have a sense of community you know? Outsiders coming in and wrecking shit pissed them off.

I don't see anybody really being happy with us risking turning popular opinion in a place that would be extremely difficult to weed out rebels or spies.

>>844765
>And if we have a working relationship with the locals it gives us leverage to be the ones operating the base and repurposing it. Free secret base!
You seem to believe the locals can do anything against a massive military force.
We're not the police nor are we working with a few hundred people. We command a fleet of ships with thousands of marines in friendly territory that has tens of thousands of troops.

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>>845808
> We're not the police nor are we working with a few hundred people. We command a fleet of ships with thousands of marines in friendly territory that has tens of thousands of troops.

Uh. That's exactly WHY we should try to work with the nobles. Turns out soldiers are actually shit at policing. Like I said, we can't really go in and just kill everyone who lives there. At best we can kill the leaders and destabilize the area.

But without local support, re-stabilizing it will be pretty much impossible. We would be dealing with constant attacks.

Also, once again our Allies and our own house will be pissed if we Cowboy this and make shit worse for the transition. After all, we sure aren't interested in stationing more soldiers than we have to here. If the RH would even let us and not kick us off the planet before we cause more damage to the stability of the planets society.

We're playing ball in someone else's house. Let's not act like we don't answer to anyone. We have enough trouble within our own house as being seen as a Maverick and I would like to try and fix that, or at least not make it worse.

Why are you so opposed to a diplomatic solution?

We can still prop up a strongman Gang even if we don't hire out to other gangs to infiltrate. Honestly I just wanted to get paid three times. Once by the gangs as mercenaries, once by the Gang we prop up (in the form of support and adhering to certain guidelines for keeping the peace after we leave) and hopefully a third time when we sell terraforming gear to the Governor as a political gesture to the new House as well as providing employment to the Tunnel Slum residents.

Hey, maybe we could have gotten paid four times if we got a commendation or something from the RH for easing the transition.

Possibly five if we end up salvaging the Aries base.

Getting paid five times to do a job we had to so anyways. Boo yah.

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>>845836
It's not really that unreasonable of a plan.

>>845836
>Uh. That's exactly WHY we should try to work with the nobles. Turns out soldiers are actually shit at policing. Like I said, we can't really go in and just kill everyone who lives there. At best we can kill the leaders and destabilize the area.
It's a good thing we're not here to bring order to this world or even spending more than a week on the planet.

>But without local support, re-stabilizing it will be pretty much impossible. We would be dealing with constant attacks.
We're not here to re-stabilize the area

>Also, once again our Allies and our own house will be pissed if we Cowboy this and make shit worse for the transition. After all, we sure aren't interested in stationing more soldiers than we have to here. If the RH would even let us and not kick us off the planet before we cause more damage to the stability of the planets society.
Again we're not here to maintain order. We're here to take out an Aries base that happens to be located in gangland

>We're playing ball in someone else's house. Let's not act like we don't answer to anyone. We have enough trouble within our own house as being seen as a Maverick and I would like to try and fix that, or at least not make it worse.
This would actually be a good point if this planet was under JD jurisdiction

>Why are you so opposed to a diplomatic solution?
Because the diplomatic solutions is going to take time that we don't have since we've already told the local government that is almost certainly compromised to some extent.

>We can still prop up a strongman Gang even if we don't hire out to other gangs to infiltrate. Honestly I just wanted to get paid three times. Once by the gangs as mercenaries, once by the Gang we prop up (in the form of support and adhering to certain guidelines for keeping the peace after we leave) and hopefully a third time when we sell terraforming gear to the Governor as a political gesture to the new House as well as providing employment to the Tunnel Slum residents.
The money we'd get would be literal pocket change to us. A few million at best.

We're not going to be spending more than a few hours to a few days here.

>>845844
Uh. We don't know if we'll have to spend more time here or not depending on what we find at the base.

And, as much as you claim it's "not our job" as a Viscount shut like this actually IS our job. Building and maintaining relations with our allies is kind of an important thing now.

While I personally think we should take the opportunity to improve the situation here, at the very least we should not do exactly the opposite of what we were told and make the situation more unstable.

Do you remember how long it took to fix the fall out from fucking up out relations with Helios? Like, that almost fucked us since they could have decided not to come help us defend the run.

As well, having a presence on a planet that's going to be a new house is a pretty valuable opportunity to reassure them that we will actually support them and that they're not conquered but actually better off being our allies.

We aren't bringing order to the whole world, just taking the opportunity to stabilize a bad part of it and make some money doing so.

I can tell you aren't good with money either, because while a couple million isn't much compared to our total wealth, it's still a couple million dollars.

Anyways, the political payoff is more valuable than the money.

Especially since, once again, I have to remind you that there are factions within our house that are against us and one of their ways of discrediting us is by claiming we're politically unfit and a loose cannon.

As well, remember that despite our personal preference for BH, we talked to the Earl and our house owes a lot to the RH and the other nobles and the Earl himself aren't comfortable with cooling our relations with the RH.

So. If we can help out our Allies by stabilizing and aiding in growing the economy of the new house, which will help out the RH since they don't want to leave a bunch of assets here to keep the planet pacified, it'll help us out both by earning us reputation personally to other nobles, help us out by increasing our houses standings with our allies, and help us with our reputation within the house.

We aren't a commando. We're a noble, and a goddamn Viscount at that.

If people think we're unable to make this happen that's one thing. But trying to claim it's not our job or that we won't see a return on it in both money and political capital is just ignorant of what our position is.

We don't have to pacify the world. We just have to at the least not make a fucking mess of a powderkeg of a giant Slum, and if the opportunity to gain some credibility and build connections is there why not take it?

Why rven in the event we do end up having to choose sides with BH against the ruling house later on, helping get the planet stabilized for the new House being formed could mean the difference in who they support since they'll remember the RH pulled out but we went out of our way to help them.

>>845844
> Because the diplomatic solutions is going to take time that we don't have since we've already told the local government that is almost certainly compromised to some extent.

Yeah and getting the local population on our side wouldn't help out a ton with that? Better to have them inside pissing out.

Side note, if Aries IS providing them with money or materiel that's another reason to invest on job creation, to replace the source of income. Losing an industry in places like that can hit people pretty hard since they often do t have the resources to move away or change their situation.

And it also never hurts to have factions in your Allies that owe you and can lobby for you if necessary or even provide 5th column support.

If we can transition the Slum to a RSS Company town then we could have a large voice in the decisions the new House makes later on.

Once again, that shot is our job now. We're actually blowing off our real job to go play Commando. We literally have people for that, and they do damn good work.

>>845855
>Uh. We don't know if we'll have to spend more time here or not depending on what we find at the base.
We're here to take down an enemy base that's all. If we find intel that suggests something weird is going on we send it to the RH and let the local government take care of it instead of taking matters into our own hands.

>While I personally think we should take the opportunity to improve the situation here, at the very least we should not do exactly the opposite of what we were told and make the situation more unstable.
We have not been told anything of the sort.

>We aren't bringing order to the whole world, just taking the opportunity to stabilize a bad part of it and make some money doing so.
If we actually wanted to do it right we'd be spending weeks to months in here doing something of dubious value for a future minor house that is already a vassal.

>I can tell you aren't good with money either, because while a couple million isn't much compared to our total wealth, it's still a couple million dollars.
How long are you willing to work for half a dollar? A day? An hour? A few seconds?

>Especially since, once again, I have to remind you that there are factions within our house that are against us and one of their ways of discrediting us is by claiming we're politically unfit and a loose cannon.
And getting involved with gangs in a RH owned planet by literally promoting them to official peacekeepers wouldn't result in us being branded as a loose cannon?

>>845864
>Yeah and getting the local population on our side wouldn't help out a ton with that? Better to have them inside pissing out.
It would not unless the local populace can turn back time. The clock started ticking the moment we called the local officials and when Aries finds out the location is compromised they're going to destroy everything of value on site. We quite literally don't have time to do anything other than take over the facility as quickly and stealthily as possible.

>Once again, that shot is our job now. We're actually blowing off our real job to go play Commando. We literally have people for that, and they do damn good work.
Actually we have people to do the diplomatic shit too and they're even better compared to us than our SF are compared to us.

>>842432
[ ] Use the emergency ladders/grapples to reach the bottom

Don't really want to read about two guys arguing over a planet no one cares about or really wants. So let's not over think this and just get going.

>>845907
I feel everything has already been said on both sides so I won't be continuing anyways. Sorry if it annoyed anyone.

Just how large are fighters?
Anything capable of mounting torpedoes would have to be at least 40m in size from nose to tail and even then they'd look pretty silly.

>>845925
Wiki says between 5 - 20m

>>845891
Ignoring the fact that a) We're on site and they aren't, and b) getting our diplomatic team to always politic for us undermines our authority and brings into question whether or not we're competent for our rank.

Sorry if I come off as abrasive. I like to argue and I'm kind of high as balls.

I just feel we've been bit in the ads a lot by our lack of building political capital.

Also I get frustrated when we don't take a moment to talk to the guys before shooting. I mean, we can always make the offer and if they say no then shooting is still on the table.

>Sonia, what do you mean you instrumented a whole gang/citizen uprising that burned down an Arcologynjust to get to a single Aries cleaning post

>>846216
>Sonia, what do you mean you shirked your duties as a viscount to play at being a commando and unnecessarily risk your life in a clusterfuck of an urban environment instead of getting your highly trained professionals to do it on your behalf?

>>846250
>Viscount Reynard, you are hereby summoned to appear before Count Jerik and the Council to explain why the RH is complaining that you are building a peasant army to undermine their plans.

>>846250
The moment someone tries to force us to not do something because Sonya has capable lackeys to do it for her is also the day she'll retire.

>>846261
Pretty sure "Gainful employment while aiding an ally in rebuilding their world" is pretty far off from "peasant army" bud.

>>846216
Do you honestly think the RH & Governor would be upset if the Hive burnt itself down and they didn't have to take any blame for it?

That's like, normal ending. Good ending is us taking out the opposition to our Strong Man, propping them up as a legitimate "Security Company" and providing jobs to raise the standard of living.

Once again, we have literally done this before.

Honestly we have enough resources to make this fucking easy peasy.

And honestly? Guess what chump, the safety of a fucking Viscount is actually worth more than the Hive.

>>846250
Buddy has it right. We're getting up to the point where we're almost obligated to stop doing this shit. Hell, we've had to forgo special ops missions already multiple times.

Which, from a game standpoint I realize is frustrating because I honestly enjoy Solid Shark Sonia the most.

But maybe, just fucking maybe people could stop crying "But I don't want to do politics!" and let those of us who want to engage the game on that level do so.

>>846288
You do know that's actually happened many times in the quest, both for diplomatic reasons (because we are bad at that) and for Special Ops (because although we are good at that, we have an obligation to not lose a Viscount of JD, and to be at least present for C&C of engagements and available to handle things like negotiations because while our diplomats can advise us they can't act in our stead. That's how Nobility works bro.)

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>>846250
>>846216
Hey guys, remember the Golden rule of realpolitik.

So long as we don't fuck it up we're good.

> MFW it's another antimatter refining plant. Or nanites.

>>846357
>>846288
Hey guys, how about we sneak in and take put the base first, then talk to the gangs AND RH about helping them out with the Arcology.

Throwing money at shit hasn't let us down yet.

>>843776
And my ID has changed again. Yay phones.

I'm still for doing a quick meet up with whatever Gang is in our way to buy them off and help us infiltrate.

>>846450
Yeah that sounds reasonable. That way we don't have any time constraints and can just delegate the job to someone after the initial groundwork is done and a new Aries target pops up.

>>846461
This one I disagree with. Every minute we spend not taking out that base increases the chance we lose any intel held in there.

>>846471
Haste makes waste though. Taking the time to properly infiltrate and make sure we have our retreat covered and that the Gangs don't let them know we're coming is definitely something worth considering.

Hey, we can split our forces up yeah?

I suppose we could go to the Gangs while our SF proceed without us. Being, you know, kind of of a big deal and the person authorized to make agreements politically and the dude with the cash, it would make sense.

>>846471
Honestly dude, the planet is on lockdown and conquered, I feel most of the sensitive info has been trashed already. We're probably going to want to capture people who got stuck in the bunker for interrogation. Might be handy to have the Gangs willing to help us catch them for a reward instead of helping them escape, don't you think?

>>846496
No Anon. We can't talk to people we are bad at that. Intel only comes in file folders or disks that we run over to pick up. Sometimes there's a hacking minigame.

>>846471
agreed.

Plus, I suspect we've passed the legit Dominion gangs and are probably dealing with Ares pocket goons or outright ununiformed Ares forces this deep down.

>>846513
Well that's why we're grabbing someone for interrogation, so we can see what's going on.

Gangs, goons, whatever we'll buy them out. Not like the goons aren't in the same position as the Gangs. A free chance to walk away and make a new life, or be a fugitive that Aries considers a disposable asset. I mean, maybe they'll she'll out for a risky attempt to smuggle them off the planet even though we already know there's an Aries presence. And once we hit the bunker they'll probably figure out we found them.

What the fuck is going on in this thread? What are you people doing? Do any of you have any chill at all?

We haven't even seen the base yet, why are we defaulting to kidnapping and murder? Why is that even necessary, Sonia's Recon Armor has holographic projectors, can't we just look like a resident and see what we can hear? Something about an area where nobody comes back from, or a nearby shadowy base. Kidnapping isn't necessary.

Why are we assuming everyone here's from Aries? Why aren't we making sure they are? Assumptions are bad.

Why are we talking about burning the arcology with all of people in it or taking over security of it? We've been on the planet for a couple hours, tops, and 90% of that was riding an elevator. Why can't we just see what happens and how things are instead of jumping to all these conclusions?

>>846532
>we're grabbing someone for interrogation

You know, I think everyone agrees with that. Then we got into some crazy spiraling arguement over nothing because I suggested we grab someone that we were willing to kill, in order to have the option of killing them to preserve our concealment here. Our team is invisible, but interactions are the best way to alert people that we are here. Especially if the person we interrogate is able to tell others 'guys in power armor (or invisible) wanted information'

>>846492
But taking too long will practically guarantee that the base will be alerted to our existence pretty much voiding the point of trying to infiltrate the base. On one hand yes it would be safer to take our time but we need to take a risk for potentially greater rewards.

>>846496
How do you figure this planet is conquered? All we know about this planet is that it's pretty much just a Hive world and that the RH is planning to form a new house with this place as one of its starting planets.
>>846505
That's what we brought the pulse pistol for!
People are just sneakier data storage devices.
>>846551
It's called shadowrunning and it's a common pastime among fa/tg/uys.
We create these incredibly complex plans that at some point no longer even address the original problems while others feed into this paranoia by pointing out how it's all going to go down in flames.

>>846427
>remember the Golden rule of realpolitik.
Kill your enemies and make sure no one finds out?

>>846590
It's not really stealing if they didn't need it anyways.

>>846587
This isn't shadowrunning. Shadowrunning is making super complex plans that deal with a problem in a roundabout way. This is just spewing out whatever idea you have without thinking it through then arguing to death about it instead of actually considering if you're wrong. Like the kidnapping, I proved why we didn't need to default to murdering some poor random guy in half a sentence. We can do that if Sonia can't find information from going undercover.

Half the shit people posted after TSTG left amounts to "No, that's stupid and you're wrong" and the other guy saying the exact same thing back.

>>846551
Well, I wanted to get paid 5 times for doing something I'll admit and wrote a more complicated plan at first.

But I do feel that we should at least see if we can turn the Gangs into asset.

Like I said, they might be able to tell us a better way to infiltrate, or help us do it. And at the least we can buy them off to not help Aries.

I'm pretty confident in that, we're the game in town and regardless of what happens our team are the guys they're going to have to deal with after this is over.

Assumptions are running rampant. Like buddy thinking they somehow know we're coming.

>>846567
Yeah, but cold blooded murder isn't really necessary. We have a whole special forces strike team in addition to our recon guys, we can handle holding him until it's over.

And talking to the Gang leaders gets rid of the concern of people snitching on us.

Finally, I wanted to toss in some sort of fair deal because there's an opportunity for us to invest in Terraforming here, and we might as well get two birds with one stone and offer to work with the Hive residents to bring some income to the area. That means also dealing with the Gangs since they're the de-facto authority.

Setting up the Gang fight was the plan I came up with too slowly before we greenlit going in and didn't have time to lay any groundwork for it.

>>846617
Hey, I'm flexible with trimming the plan down.

Reach out to the Gangs to secure the surrounding area. Take advantage of a business opportunity. Curry favour with our allies by enacting it in a way that provides stability to the new house.

And like >>846450 put out there, we can do the last two afterwards.

>>846587
I just don't think were on THAT strict of a clock, and there's more risk from charging in headfirst than there is from securing our approach. Which will also be our retreat if there is an unpleasant surprise waiting for us at the base.

> How do you figure this planet is conquered? All we know about this planet is that it's pretty much just a Hive world and that the RH is planning to form a new house with this place as one of its starting planets.

Dude. Read the Thread. The Ruling House is pulling out it's forces because they've conquered the planet and they're needed elsewhere.

That's why our Advisor pointed out that it's risky if something happens to destabilize the situation and cause the local population to rebel.

You guys ever think Sonia stubs her toe and blames the Neeran simply by reflex?

>>846587
It seems like your main issue is a conflict with>>846532 regarding time management.

I have to say, why are you so sure they already know we're coming? Why do you think they have a mole in the government, given that this is essentially a Black Ops so it's unlikely we informed anyone except the RH and the Governor of the planet.

>>846643
Nah. She blames Fox, and has a quick moment of concern that it could be Vanderwal.

>>846617
>>846587


Hey, how do you feel about my compromise to split up and have someone investigate/negotiate with the Gangs in the Hive while the rest of our forces move ahead?

>>846658
I think we should wait until we've seen the state of the place and do what we came to do before doing stuff like that. Like I said, we spent 90% of our time on the planet in an elevator and haven't even seen the Aires base. Now's not the time to run around doing random shit.

>>846646
Because I'd try to get moles inside the local government, police and military as well as monitoring their traffic if I were ordered to maintain a secret bases security. Can't forget that we didn't exactly enter the system in a stealth ship so anyone monitoring the traffic would notice that someone irregular has shown up.
So paranoia mostly.

>>846643
Nah, other way around.

Neeran stub their toes and blame Sonia by reflex. Especially when that toe stubbing results in rear area stations exploding.


>>846646
Look at the last installation we went after. It had a (badly flawed) system in place to deal with unexpected visits. (unfreezing a guy that felt screwed already).

If we're inside the base ASAP, we have options like negotiating with any sleepers or attempting to disable things like ticking clocks.

If we're outside, we risk defenses coming online and making everything deadly for us and our people.

Getting in and at least assessing the target seems prudent. More so if we can outright secure/neutralize it.


>>846636
>That's why our Advisor pointed out that it's risky if something happens to destabilize the situation and cause the local population to rebel.

Like a hidden Ares sleeper base stirring things up? Or a gang war effectively installing a warlord the RH or new House would have to deal with? (Possibly angering them, as their power base is those Traditionalists that hate us?)

>>846636
>That's why our Advisor pointed out that it's risky if something happens to destabilize the situation and cause the local population to rebel.
I can't seem to find this. Was it last thread?

>>846722


>>840264
>The planet is currently under Ruling House jurisdiction but they're in the process of pulling their troops. It seems they have plans to reform a minor House in the area with the help of local governors. One that would act as a suitably loyal vassal state. Dangerous if the locals turn against them later but their forces are needed elsewhere.

>>846728
Thought that was just about the inherent risk about making a new house.

>>846738
easily applies to both, actually.

These Ares bases are without doubt meant to remain hidden until a counter-offensive is ready. The question with this one is how they plan to use it? 'peasant' uprisings? Or to infiltrate the new government?

Oh damn, I wonder if this could be a cloning facility?

>>846707
Except this is a top secret mission, in an occupation and transitional government. I mean, when would they have had time to do this, considering the Governing Body is from the Ruling House.

You're actually shadowrunning harder than I am.

> Or a gang war effectively installing a warlord the RH or new House would have to deal with? (Possibly angering them, as their power base is those Traditionalists that hate us?)

Legitimizing a de facto governing body and integrating them into the system, while providing assistance to improve their community and tie them closer to us is a lot different from creating a warlord.

I mean, that's pretty much the Dominion model with Houses and such.

And even then, the main concern is stability. Especially if you're an American, after Irag you should understand that Strong Man government systems tend to be quite stable so long as they don't face too much external pressure from overwhelming sources.

Like, we don't live in a democracy.

You could also look at the British Empire and see how effective it was for them.

The trick is to take the next step and build close economic ties to create dependency, and then try to integrate them into the system by getting them involved in the decision making process and granting franchise.

I mean, the place is currently an anarchic shithole where dissidents and 5th columns could easily hide and law enforcement is impossible even when done in force.

>>846757
I thought there was just the one hidden base? Although the possibility of more does give us more reason to help stabilize the Arcology to make it harder for them to hide.

The fact that the RH isn't doing this is yet another example of them not taking care of their garden.

>>846766

You've made clear that you favor the gang consolidation.

Now how would we react if say Fox did this on Rioja? Because that would probably be how the RH/Traditionalists would see Reynard's pick of gang warlord (before their objections over raising what is likely a lower class to any sort of position of power)

>>846778
There is 1 base on this planet.

But we know there are multiple Ares facilities hidden among the RH's recent gains/reclaims. (see the antimatter facility). They're all part of something.

>>846766
I'm assuming our enemy is competent enough to get at least low level access to the temporary governments systems. I mean the RH certainly haven't had the time or motivation to vet every single noble, bureucrat, pencil pusher or IT guy of the planets old government just in case there might be a super secret base on the planet.

>>846790
I'm willing to go with >>846450 where we do the consolidating afterwards and work with the RH and Governor to do it.

Doesn't keep us from negotiating with them to to help us out against Aries though. We still have a bunch of money as I recall, and we can just promise to advocate for the plan to consolidate and legitimize their current de facto rule of the Hive.

And as for the Terraforming, that's through our own private company anyways and I'm pretty sure we could offer to give them consideration when we build it to see that it helps employ people from the Hive and improve the place.

>>846807
Low level access sure, but I don't think they would know about our strike force.

See, if we had taken more time initially to scout the place out we could have dealt with concerns about that by using lobbying to provide Terraforming services as a cover story.

It's not like dealing with a Gang or two are going to be drawn out negotiaions.

And like I said, we aren't alone, we can go do that while our highly trained and competent strike force continues on to scout and meet up to support them later.

>>846847
>And as for the Terraforming, that's through our own private company anyways and I'm pretty sure we could offer to give them consideration when we build it to see that it helps employ people from the Hive and improve the place.

Did we ever get confirmation on what way we went with that Terraforming Tech argument? Anyway, something for later if not.

All I wanted was to just want to loot some Aries base and maybe pop a few dudes with our new plasma pistol.

>>846908
Yeah, but we're a Viscount now.

TTSG warned us politics were going to play a larger part in the game as we moved up the ladder.

Personally I've stopped enjoying the space battles so much as it's gotten less strategic and more tactical.

Doesn't mean I'm going to try and keep us from doing them.

Hell, my favourite part is playing Commando. But honestly at this point our involvement is more a vanity than anything else.

That's why we're the best choice to go talk to the Gangs. First because we're not a regular part of the team anyways, second because we are the one with Authority to make promises regarding investing in the Hive and Terraforming, and authorizing payments.

As well having a Viscount show up puts a certain amount of weight into the situation that should make them more willing to negotiate with us and have confidence that we're negotiating in good faith.

Responsibility sucks.

>>846878
We own something like 5% in the Harmen terraforming corporation which is huge for someone outside the Harmen family, and we got advanced terraforming equipment which freed up older models which we've already been using to help fix environments damaged by the war.

So while we aren't "sole owners" we do have quite a bit of influence since the advanced terraforming equipment we own outright.

>>846951
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KJamzD0KntE

>>846969

That is what I'm wondering. Was that ever confirmed? The other ideas floated around had merit (I suggested 1, so bias) and also opened up potential options for us.

>>847065
Pretty sure it was confirmed and we've already put the equipment to use.

>>842432
Time for bed! I vote

> Capture and interrogate

And if it is possible

> Split the party. Go negotiate with the Gang(s) to provide Intel and maybe backup or at least stay out of our way while the recon team scouts and the special forces guys get in position.

We can deal with everything else after the raid.

>>846790
>before their objections over raising what is likely a lower class to any sort of position of power

Just re-reading and I noticed you put this here.

Dude, they're already in a position of power. And we aren't putting "a lower class" into power, we're installing a public servant with some unique privileges regarding administration of the Hive or something like that, who will be responsible for running the Hive and maintaining order in exchange for support developing its economy and funding to be able to actually enforce order and improve the infrastructure.

I mean, they'll pretty much be civil servants.

Do you think that the Dominion doesn't have any public officials that aren't nobles? Promote the Gang Leader to the Middle Class and we aren't even breaking the Knights code, notably stricter than that of a significant number of houses such as our own for example, about not moving up more than one class per generation.

Thanks for bringing that up though, it's a valid concern to be addressed. I would be interested to hear if you have any other concerns or suggestions for alternatives to making the Gang Leader a Civic Authority with a certain degree of autonomy within the Hive.

File: 1478038921501.png (19 KB, 160x186)

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>Sonia, sell those torpedoes to the pirates so we can track them!
>Sorry, I blew up one of their super heavies instead.
>Sonia, please help us prevent that new heavy crusier design!
>Sorry, I promoted the design to everybody who was willing to speak about it.
>Sonia, please infiltrate that Aries base.
>Sorry, I got kinda stuck reoganizing the power structure of your lower class areas.

>>847852
Pretty sure we're infiltrating the base and then helping to stabilize and revitalize a lawless area of the city that presents a risk.

And making some money on the side.

>>847852
>Sonia, be careful who you give these Artifacts to. I'm dead now, so I can't bail you out or give you any sage advice.
>Yeah here's how to make system killing Victory Torps
>Also here's how to turbocharge your plasma weapons

I'm sure everything will be fire. Helios deathrays will be fun until we have to fight them at least.

>>848139
I really hope the wizard's still around.

What the fudge

>>847852
You know you've lost the argument when you resort to meme smugging

>>848365
I think Anon is just pointing out Sonia's wild instability as a form of humor.

>>848516
Point. He was sarcastic earlier about murder

Okay so it looks like things happened while I was away.
A lot of it seemingly retreading the same points, though this tends to happen when there isn't a lot of information available.

From the looks of things there's a split between going through the populated area, trying to find someone to capture and interrogate, and using the ladders.

Since I am not able to resume tonight let's at least get this survey up to get a direction. The link is up on twitter and will be on the wiki page.

surveymonkey com/r/ 8SR88QC

>>846450
>Hey guys, how about we sneak in and take put the base first, then talk to the gangs AND RH about helping them out with the Arcology.
Nothing stopping you from doing so after the fact. This is just a vote on what you're doing right away.

Migraines are back and I need to be up early again so I have to get off the computer. See you Monday!

I want to steal AI nanites and overwrite them with Versa

File: Fuck son calm down.jpg (85 KB, 1600x900)

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As a fellow I know from Minnesota once said: Fuck Snow.

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>>855345
Fuck I love living in Alberta and getting 20C in November.

I mean, not today, but like on Friday.

Today is only like 7C

>>855353
It was 25 C here 3 days ago.

You stare off down the tunnels leading towards the more populated areas wondering who or what might be living down here. It could be gangs, refugees, wild animals, you're admittedly curious.

"Sir, your orders?" Valeri prompts you.

You shake your head to clear it.

"Our priority is the Aries facility. We should get there as quickly as possible to see if we'll need help to circumvent its defenses. Ladders."

Each team takes a different emergency ladder, checking on the way down to be certain they won't fail. Pangbourne suggest everyone keep their smart grapples ready should the ladder supports give way. They don't appear to be damaged as a result of the shaft's structural collapse, but that could easily prove false if the underlying material is sub-par. If that's the case even the smart grapple might not be of much use.

This triggers a momentary flashback to Tourta where your grapple came loose and nearly killed you. It's enough to make your knees ache despite the numerous medical checks done on them in the years since.

Second team is forced to change ladders part way down due to damage but are quick to make up lost time. Later your team has to jump a section where the ladder has been intentionally removed. The metal creaks with signs of fatigue but is otherwise fine.

Towards the bottom you hear the sound of water. The bottom of the shaft is flooded, though there doesn't seem to be much damage. By the time you're approaching water level you've spotted the source of the sound. A small stream is flowing past the open lift entrance.

"Can we get through here?"

"It looks good sir. The stream is only knee deep and two meters wide."

Crossing to the door and then fording the stream both teams stop inside cross connecting tunnel. All the tunnels seem to have a ditch cut into either side to drain water.

"This tunnel is newer, or has seen more recent maintenance." Observes one of the commandos.

Checking for direction it seems that the facility is up hill from here. Weapons at the ready both teams begin moving towards the objective.

A few hundred meters later you encounter sets of cargo doors have closed off the tunnel. A good indication you're headed in the right direction. There are controls you could use or hack to open them but that might give away your approach. Alternatively you could try smaller side passages to circumvent them but it looks quite wet. That might make your suits more visible.

[ ] Open the doors
[ ] Hack doors
[ ] Side passage

>>855453
>[ ] Hack doors
Don't know about you guys but it feels like if they have this door here to block the way but there are side passages then maybe that could be used to walk around it then that's probably what they would want us to do. Like we walk around the big ass door only to run into mines or the like.

>>855486
Roll 1d100

Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>855498
rollan

Rolled 13 (1d100)

>>855498
>>855499
Well then

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>855498

"Hack the doors."

Everyone spreads out trying to take up positions to fire through the doorway once it opens. There is little cover available if anything should be on the other side of those doors. You'll still be invisible which should give you an advantage.

"Disabling the alarms." Announces the team specialist shortly before the doors open.
Farther down the tunnel you spot a pair of sentry guns mounted in the ceiling. They have power but it doesn't look like they're actively scanning for intruders. It looks like there are more doors ahead.

"I should be able to take out additional door defenses the same way sir."

"Good job. Let's move."

Do you want to knock out the disabled turrets so they can't pose a threat to any friendlies following you? Or would you rather leave them in place?

>>855551
Do we have any explosives on us we can denote remotely? It might be best to leave the turrets in place until our reinforcements arrive.

>>855563
I agree with this sentiment. No reason to destroy them at this moment as that would probably mean increased risk of detection.

>>855551
Halfmoons with remote detonators.
Start placing tight beams too.

>>855563
>>855551
Yeah let's do this.

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>>855563
Yes.
>>855569
Those can work too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqUi2L7641I

You send a message back through the com relay that you've planted charges on several sentry guns. You or the Marines should be able to detonate them if they cause trouble later. Passing through two more doors you make sure the rid the defenses in a similar manner before pressing on.

A final door reveals the source of the water you've been encountering. A cavern that is half submerged by a lake seems to be the connecting point for several underground streams. Crystal formations fill much of the space immediately above, some jutting up out of the water. It looks like a few crystal pillars have been crushed to make room for a road extending through the cavern.

"Some of these pillars are unstable." Rufaro warns. "I think this cavern was completely submerged at one point."

"The tunnels we came through are old and have only been fixed up recently." Valeri states.

"Crystals like this can grow over a few centuries if conditions are right. It's possible it was abandoned for a long time."

While beautiful, sight seeing isn't on the itinerary. "Rock collecting can wait until later."

Passing the lake you reach a second smaller cavern and spot another door. This one looks brand new and four much sturdier looking automated turrets are placed near it. Micro phase cannons and pulse lasers by the looks of it, enough to pose a threat to small vehicles.

"Movement."
Pangbourne marks three waypoints above you among some of the smaller crystal pillars. You don't get a good look but your suit sensors tentatively identify four contacts as Aries infantry support drones.

Your orders?

>>855671
How likely are they to detect either us or the com relays?
I'd recommend trying to avoid and gain access to droid control inside the base.

>>855671
Are they moving? We could just wait for them to pass.

>"Rock collecting can wait until later."
Remember to bring some for Sonia's brother.

>>855671
Can we bypass them or hack the turrets? I'd prefer to remain silent for as long as possible.

>>855671
Could we topple crystal pillars onto them and use that to draw the drones into an ambush?

Or is that running a risk of collapsing the cave?

You take cover and go over your options.
"Estimates on their sensor resolution?"

Valeri quickly ID's the turrets. "They're just surplus models used on IFV's, they won't see us. The drones are a wildcard."

The others agree. If they're like the infantry Drones you've operated previously they could be outfitted with just about anything, and that includes high powered scanners that might cut through your camo. Second team has newer suits and camo systems acquired thanks to jobs with Helios. Theirs might not be as vulnerable to newer scanners.
As for coms they should be secure.

You start bouncing ideas off the others.

"Any chance of hacking those turrets?"
"Not from outside."
Well was worth a shot.

"Any pattern to their movement?"
"Not sure yet sir."
"If there is we could wait until they're out of position then make a run for the door."

It would still be a lot of open ground to cover and would only take one turning back. IF they have good enough scanners.

"Rufaro, could we topple crystal pillars onto them and use that to draw the drones into an ambush? Or is that running a risk of collapsing the cave?"

She looks over the cave structure. "That... might be possible. This cave should be sturdy enough."

[ ] Try to take out the drones
[ ] Avoid the drones
[ ] Create a distraction

>>855777
>[x] Avoid the drones

>>855777
[ ] Avoid the drones

>>855777
[x] Avoid the Drones

"We need to avoid those drones."

There looks to be two routes. Staying low has a slightly higher chance of detection but will let you move more quickly, limiting the time you're in the open.
Or you could go high, using the crystal formations to get into position where the drones are less likely to see you. This will take longer and if it takes too long the drones might move.

[ ] Low Road (Roll 2d100)
[ ] High Road (Roll 3d100)
[ ] Let's split up gang (Roll 4d100)

Rolled 61, 49 = 110 (2d100)

>>855859
>[ ] Low Road (Roll 2d100)
rolls for days

Rolled 8, 87 = 95 (2d100)

>>855859
Here we go

Rolled 1, 76 = 77 (2d100)

>>855859
>[x] Low Road (Roll 2d100)
Use your shark powers Sonia!

Should I just roll the last one as well or does anyone else want the honor?

>>855919
>Rolled 1
Seems like we can't breathe when not moving. Sorry, took the shark thing too far.

>http://houseanddominion.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Dreadnought
Are the wrecks of these ships still around?
Is it supposed to look like a tazer?

>>856030
Considering what they were built for I can imagine they ran a current through the ramming prow to further increase the chance of disabling their target.

Moving cover to cover both teams try to stay low to avoid the drones while getting to the door as quickly as possible.

Half way there Rufaro's camo system flickers for half a second before returning to normal. The IFV turrets light up and begin traversing, searching for a target but unable to find one. Team two reaches the doors behind the turrets a few seconds before you do.

"Additional drone movement."
"Hide behind the turrets!"

Taking cover you track the moment of the drones repositioning to get better readings of Rufaro's last detected position. A close call but it looks like you're good. The team's intrusion expert get's to work on the door controls.

It takes eight tense minutes, occasionally hiding from drone scans, to crack the codes on the doors. Vehicle sized blast doors retract to reveal a scanning grid. This will absolutely detect your presence if crossed.

"Can you shut it down?"
"Not from here. I'm downloading a map that will let us quickly reach a security station to shut everything down."

Pangbourne has a plan. "We hit the scanner with explosives and run for the security station before the drones can get down here to chase us."

"We could also disable the IFV turrets with breaching charges." Adds Valeri "But that would leave the facility defenseless later."

>Your orders?

>>856068
>>Your orders?
Are there any other entry points? Does the scanning grid lose effectiveness when something else passes through at the same time? We could try to damage one of the drones with a bit of crystal, and then move through when it enters the base for repairs.

>>856068
Is there any spot where one could "mine" past the grid with say a plasma pistol?

>>856086
>Are there any other entry points?
None that are showing up currently but the facility data available is limited.
>Does the scanning grid lose effectiveness when something else passes through at the same time?
No. They were designed to detect Neeran spies and people with active camo. You could pass as many objects as there is space to fit them through the doors and it would be able to detect all of them.
>We could try to damage one of the drones with a bit of crystal, and then move through when it enters the base for repairs.
It's an option, though if they go through the main door the chances of detection will remain the same.

>>856107
>Is there any spot where one could "mine" past the grid with say a plasma pistol?
That will take some time, a lot of ammo and will probably attract the drones.

>>856132
>None that are showing up currently but the facility data available is limited.
Can we make a hole somewhere without getting caught?

>>856068
Rush the security station. We got 6 guys in power armour. We should be able to do it before the security can properly respond.

>>856132
Yeah rushing sounds the most viable.

>>856144
>Can we make a hole somewhere without getting caught?
Blasting through crystalline rock will be detected by sonar. Your suits make you invisible to light and sound, and can't do the same for earth shattering explosions.

>>856145
>>856162
Leave the big turrets alone or blow them up too?

>>856167
Same deal as the previous set.
Explosives and remote detonators.
If we can't take control may as well destroy them from a safe distance.

>>856167
>Leave the big turrets alone or blow them up too?
Make them go boom.

Well at least on the upside you don't put milspec detection grids on refueling stations.

Note to self:
Test out our energy manipulator against detection grids.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>856171
>>856175

>>856030
No.
Meta: Their wrecks and the wrecks of every Dominion ship disabled fighting them in their last battle fell into a star. It is not a celebrated victory.

>>856171
You and the others set explosives and breaching charges on weak points in the turrets, making sure you can remote detonate them if need be. Loading up the map data on your HUD all six of you get ready to rush for the security room.

HF-blade and plasma pistol are close at hand. The others have a mix of weapons, breaching charges or the remote detonators ready to go. You make a note to yourself to test these security fields for weaknesses in the future.

Roll 6d100

Rolled 76, 13, 17, 58, 72, 31 = 267 (6d100)

>>856262
ah I missed this.

Rolled 59, 75, 92, 9, 60, 34 = 329 (6d100)

>>856262
Rolling bones

>>856210
It was a real dumb move not to bring it with us anyway.

Rolled 76, 39, 3, 2, 67, 15 = 202 (6d100)

>>856262
>No.
Awwww.
We could try to use grab them with the FA portal thing before they're destroyed by the star. Nobody would miss them anyway. I'm sure the time cops won't mind.

>Roll 6d100
Rolling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1KaXH5LoLo

"On my mark."

Sending the signal the six of you burst through the scanning field running full out. Your camouflage instantly fails and an icon pops up in your HUD counting down the time for a system restart. Two anti-personnel turrets descend from the ceiling farther ahead and are popped by your plasma pistol before they can fire.

You can hear the two lower IFV turrets outside rotating to fire through the doorway. There is just enough time for your and your bodyguards to reach a side passage and duck into cover before they open fire.
Team two does much the same on the other side of the hallway, though one of them is a bit too slow. Pulse laser fire lights up the side of their armor before they can dive out of the way. You can see the glow off the armor where it's superheated.

"Get it off! Get it off me!" your explosives specialist screams, trying frantically to bail out of her armor to escape the heat bleeding through it.

"Leave in on!" Valeri counters. "Stun her if you have to, but leave it on. You'll just get burned worse otherwise."

Tearing your eyes away from the scene you and Rufaro make for the security controls. It's too late to blow the turrets now. No point. The sooner the defenses are down the sooner you can help with first aid.

Rufaro reaches the door and only wastes a second trying to open it.
"Locked!"

You're right behind her with a breaching charge and both of your turn away from the blast as it blows out the door. Checking the entrance neither of you see signs of contacts or movement.
"Clear!"
"Clear."

With your camo system back up you keep watch while Rufaro plugs in a hacking module. it has some difficulty at first but soon is able to break through the encryption and unlock the base defenses for you.

"Disabling turrets. Reassigning drones."
"Does this base have a medbay?" you ask.
"It should. Hang on, I'm checking for stasis tubes first... Looks like the base is completely automated. No life signs other than ours and we're not reading anymore."

After ensuring that there's no secret self destruct counting down your help get your wounded trooper to the medbay. After hitting them with as much coolant as the med kits are carrying that is.

With that out of the way you send off a quick update to the other teams that the site is secure.

"So what is this place? You don't put milspec detection grids on refueling stations."

Your team members look through the available systems eventually leading you to the control room.
"Looks like a standard black box facility sir. The outer most sections are connected to the control room while the innermost are cut off. Less chance of data theft which means it's probably R&D."

Open it up? Or would you rather wait for reinforcements?

>>856417
Hmm what are the chances the earlier alarm triggered autodestruct of at least the data storage inside the lab?
Yeah I want to open that bad boy up

>>856417
[X] Reinforcements

And bring the converter down too if it won't take too long, just in case.

>>856417
>You don't put milspec detection grids on refueling stations
>milspec detection grids
Dibs! We need to test these on tons of stuff.

>Open it up? Or would you rather wait for reinforcements?
Ask our computer specialist. What do they recommend? Could waiting cause us to lose data?

>>856417
Open it up. I don't want to risk a data purge. Can we repurpose the base defenses to read us as friendlies?

>>856417
> [X] Reinforcements

>>856430
Just saying, if we're going to loot things like detection grids we're going to have to probably deal with the locals one way or the other.

>>856446
I dunno. Seems like this facility can be accessed pretty easily with that lift we took.

>>856451
You want to carry it out by hand? A sensor grid?

>>856425
>Hmm what are the chances the earlier alarm triggered autodestruct of at least the data storage inside the lab?
Possible? It's sealed off from communications in or out though.

>>856430
>Dibs! We need to test these on tons of stuff.
You first encountered them aboard a navigator station as part of your bank heist. The Zeus has hundreds of them but they're an easier to bypass model. Most high security facilities operated by your House have them somewhere its just taking time for them to be added.

>Ask our computer specialist. What do they recommend? Could waiting cause us to lose data?
"Anything that might have been done has already happened. I don't think it will make much difference."

>>856431
>Can we repurpose the base defenses to read us as friendlies?
Yes, already done.

>>856462
Wait for reinforcements then.

>>856462
>its just taking time for them to be added.
Sonia should start a factory for them.

>"Anything that might have been done has already happened. I don't think it will make much difference."
Let's take a peek in that case.

With defenses under control the Marines make their way down to you with smaller vehicles though the detours necessary take quite awhile. Even with the lift you took out of the way they wouldn't have been able to get past the broken pipes blocking off that shaft.
The government can't authorize any demolition or engineering work on it until they can send a team down to inspect the surrounding area. In other words they'll stand back and shout encouragement while you deal with it.

Nearly a day of delays later they arrive and report in.
"Sorry for the delay sir. If we knew it was going to be this bad we would have brought in a salvage tug with cutting gear. No casualties on the way down but the vehicles have taken some damage and it might be best to find another way back up. The gangs just below surface level are troublesome. I wouldn't be surprised if they're out of control due to overpopulation problems."

If childbirth restrictions are not in place at the lower levels that could be a serious problem for the local government. That can wait.

The Faraday cage around the facility is opened once teams are prepped for worst case scenarios. Once connected to the base datanet it doesn't take long to find out what they've been working on.

"R&D for vehicle mounted drop chutes. The Neeran use these, several companies have been working to reverse engineer them. With them a shuttle doesn't need to land or rope down troops, it can just slow down long enough for everyone to bail out and the special tractor beams cushion their descent and landing."

"This would be perfect for covert insertion of our commando and recon teams." comments. Pangbourne.

"Did they finish development?" you ask.

"Yes sir. Most of the research material looks like it left when they evacuated the base staff. The remaining personnel were switching it over to manufacturing. There are two small scale production lines capable of building the system."

You also find information on how they were getting cargo and personnel out of here. A hidden underwater dock 50km from the city located in an abandoned mine. The tunnel you approached through continues to slope down slightly until it reaches the connecting lakes. Uncomfortable but passable.

You only have 2 production lines available but the data is easy enough to use to duplicate them. Who gets them?

Select 2
[ ] You
[ ] Ruling House
[ ] Governor / newly formed House
[ ] Take one for yourself but later gift to... (Ber'helum? Helios?)

>>856574
>[ ] You
>[ ] Ruling House
Easy enough choice
also I'm pretty sure one of my captcha images was a "massage" parlor

>>856574
>[X] You
>[X] Ruling House

We get one for capturing it. RH gets the other one because this is their world after all.

It will make a nice addition for our Black Ops forces.

>>856574
>[x] You
>[x] Ruling House

The new House gets the base and other random stuff inside.

Considering the rather lengthy discussion about fixing the lower class areas on the planet: What's the governer and upcoming house like?

>>856574
> [ ] You
> [ ] Ruling House

It will make the more conservative faction relieved to see us maintaining the RH alliance instead of continuing to force just the BH side.

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343 KB JPG

Just saw this in the eclipse phase general. Would something like this work with the neural interface used by PA?

>>856606
>What's the governer and upcoming house like?
Old Guard established nobility to a fault. Much like a lot of the Ruling House power base.

Which brings us to the next polarising issue: Do you plan to search the areas around and above the facility?