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>>1387570
Which makes it all the more surprising when you comm Arc Ukumari--your only immediate support on this mission--and hear yourself say the words.

“Start shooting, Arc.”

“Danger close,” she replies in humorless jest. “Get to cover.”

“I’ll try,” you reply, cutting the line. You’ll try.

Ahead of you looms Collide--of all your enemies, he has rapidly made himself among the most imposing, shrugging off the best of your best. Supporting him are a gaggle of DNA Mimics, custom upgraded mavericks with the powers of some of their fallen champions.

You’re backed up by a couple of spiked wheels and warthog-themed military go-karts, with the collective brainpower of your best friend while drunk.

You think to yourself that said best friend would support this next move. “Swarm the fucker,” you order the mechaniloids.

They immediately comply, ramping and roaring and dogpiling in on Collide from all sides. He turns and slams a giant fist into one of the spiked wheels, pulping it into a slightly pointy crescent, before grabbing the sparking remains and hurling it your way. You roll to the side and dash, narrowly avoiding another barrage from the ice-shooting Mimics at Collide’s back. You fire back on the run, but a glowing energy shield sails right on through your firing lane and ablates your fire harmlessly.

You ignore it all, barreling on ahead as far as you can. You hear a single heavy footfall and the whine of building jet exhaust--that giant fucking bug isn’t planning on letting you go that easily.

So far on this mission, you’ve been frozen, stabbed, tackled (at the same time), and blown up. The one silver blessing to all the abuse you’ve been taking is that your capacitor charge is through the roof--and good thing, too, you need every bit of it.

You outstrip the chaotic scuffle behind you as you pour charge into your dash, lunging ahead at breakneck speed for the crater and your one shot at getting out of this alive. Above you, the sky is turning a threatening and unnatural purple-grey, and you can feel ionization dance across the air as distant pinpricks of luminous blue blossom into extra suns over battle-hazed Algeria.

Despite being tailor-built to absorb electricity, you’re more than ready to take Ukumari at her word when she told you it was none of the kind you want.

Inside the crater, you barely take the split-second to pick out--civilian hostage victim turned maverick turned hunter turned victim once again--and grab him by the scruff, plucking him from the hole he’s quite literally curled up to die in.

“I’m sorry,” he wheezes brokenly. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” you mutter, before you turn and hurl him down into the tunnel he was digging for you, backed by the force of your Mass Shriver. His wail of anguish and shock disappears with him as he echoes down the tunnel, and you turn back to the battlefield--

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>>1387574
And Collide is right on top of you again, those massive hibeam horns slashing in to finish what they started a minute ago.

Energy still crackling through your system and lance in one hand, you move more through a lack of options than anything else. Mass Shriver still fading, you kick it back on again, arm conduits blazing bright as your other hand finds the hilt of the lance on your swing--

And with a hellish crackle of blade on blade, your boots bite through the battered earth, Collide dragging you further and further back as his boosters snap and snarl like wolves at his back…

And finally, at the end of a new forty-foot-long trench dug by your heels, the two of you come to a halt, his horns cooling and revealing, for once, genuine surprise on the brutal maverick’s face.

He leaps back heavily as you power through your swing, clipping him with the outermost edge of the lance and drawing another bright flicker from his shields. He comes down hunkered and defensive, re-appraising you.

A Crash Roader destroys itself slamming into his back and he hunches down one shoulder on the impact, giving you another chance to make a break for the tunnel. The air smells like iron and ozone, the sky now an unreal, spreading neon as Ukumari’s ordnance streaks in.

The firestorm erupts. Plasma blooms across the battlefield like lazily-glowing bubbles, neon bright and arcing from place to place. The Mimics dive for any shelter they can find, and you leap back as a bolt crashes between you and Collide. Once again, he simply goes hull-down, actually taking a knee and bearing his back to the barrage rather than engage.

You--well, anyone built to channel lightning must also be able to handle the heat that arises as a natural byproduct from it. You’re resistant, certainly, but not immune--and as you feel your battered legs melting into the molten glass earth, your shields flickering perilously dim, even this far from the epicenter. You feel heat that moves through you as if you’re not there as you grit your teeth, praying that by the time the firing disappears, you haven’t gone with it.

Finally, it’s over. The sky lightens to a smoky, earthen gray over the ground, now a thin layer of shiny glass in the midday sun. The clouds swirl around the center of impact, ash and soot and smoke blown away from the epicenter and slowly dissipating.

And then the smoke turns red.

Your gut lurches as a strong gale thins the fog of war enough to see a wall of dozens--at least--of those observer drones from before, luminous eyes piercing through the fog, ringed around you in the air from all sides. OPAL chimes in your ear as you hear distant thunder.

>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lo…

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>>1387576
Collide sees them too, turning back to look at his own crew--two or three Reploids staggering back to their feet, nowhere near as hardy as either of you, and you’re on death’s door as it is.

“STAY AWAY,” someone shrieks on all channels, “FROM MY CHILDREN!”

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry--!”

Pulling a look of absolute disgust, Collide comms back on the same frequency, voice calm--but annoyance unmistakeable. “Mortarphant. It’s in hand. Stop.”

She screams another hellish wail on all frequencies as OPAL begins warning you about what you already know.

>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
>Take a parting shot at Collide--you need to, if you want to keep him back long enough to have a chance at a getaway.
>Other?

>>1387580
Hit the tunnel and do NOT stop running.

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>>1387580
>Take a parting shot at Collide--you need to, if you want to keep him back long enough to have a chance at a getaway.

Well hell, with a clear built-in advisory warning like that...

We have a few Wrenades left, right? Huck one at him and then burn everything to GTFO.

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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
>Don't stop even if Collide follows you in.
>Because he's dead if he's caught out, too, and he knows it.

>That being said, keep the saetosbird fuckyou jet ready

>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

>>1387580
>>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

RunawayrunawayRUNAWAY!!

Blackout the entrance after we pass by. That'll at least ensure that Earth Commanders can't come after us easily.

Well it was a fun quest whilst it lasted.

>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
Maybe put some ordinance in the ceiling as we go by, make us hard to follow. I want out more than I want away from Collide, but I sure as shit want away from Collide.

>>1387580

>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

WE HAVE NO LEGS SO WE GOTTA RUN!

We can't finish the guy, so why botter with a parting shot?

>>1387680
>We can't finish the guy, so why botter with a parting shot?

The idea with a parting shot is to make it something with enough oomph it slows him down from being able to follow us into the tunnel before the world explodes.

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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it

Hate to be that guy but...

>>1387570
Also yeah, time to GTFO.

>>1387684
Our body is wrecked, is just too risky. And we don't have enough power. He took a discharge that would kill us and keep standing.

>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

It's time to let the world burn in your wake. (and by that I mean let's burn all charge to the ground while we get outta dodge)

>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
wow, if mortarphant is THIS crazy over the observers, could we actually play the long game?

Destroy observers here and there, bait out full barrages, and hide back in tunnels trying to sap through her supplies faster than they are refueled. If nothing else, her full attention means that the other forces aren't worrying about mortarphant right now.

>>1387580
>Other?

Namely, both. If they option to run away isn't already composed entirely of raikousen, I propose blowing the battery to make it so in order to make up for the time lost hitting Collide with a heavy assault. This will be costly, but it would be very nice if Collide got caught in the explosions and we didn't. This is an opportunity to effectively hit him with an attack stronger than anything we're normally packing.

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>>1387580
Get the fuck out of there, Jesus Christ GO

>>1387740

Let's me do a little recap for ya *"You are what’s left of maverick hunter Anode, A-rank, and this may be it for you."*

*You’re resistant, certainly, but not immune--and as you feel your battered legs melting into the molten glass earth, your shields flickering perilously dim, even this far from the epicenter. You feel heat that moves through you as if you’re not there as you grit your teeth, praying that by the time the firing disappears, you haven’t gone with it.*

You still think that we can even afford that parting shock? Our legs are barely working!

>>1387856
https://youtu.be/L1BDM1oBRJ8?t=12

>>1387898
Precisely

>>1387898
Give him the stick DOOOON'T GIVE HIM THE STICK

>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
Cant fight if we're dead.

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>>1387898
>>1387916
It occurs to me that is very literally this vote.

>>1387740

This, but shoot whatever the fuck we have with the most recoil backwards at Collide.

So, would ya'll say this mission has gone pretty much completely tits up?

>>1388059
The Paridae do seem particularly vertical today.

>>1388059
I wouldn't say that, the Mavericks have run out of civilians to kill and are resorting to friendly fire.

>>1388059
We're alive, not everyone we know is dead, Collide had to show himself, and at least one of the satelite bases is down, with the way to another clear.

It's not THAT bad, assuming we can survive to get back to safety.

>>1388147
Personally, I'm goncerned we don't have enough shields left to safely challenge Mortarphant.

From what we've seen so far, there's an alright chance Collide will give up and go home after this next bombardment, and that we can avoid the artillery long enough to disable the remaining bases and reach Mortarphant, who is so bad at melee that it lowers her threat level, without taking another hit. Problem is, our shields are low enough that we can't AFFORD to take another hit, and Mortarphant's idea of melee might be to fire off a shell at point blank or something.
Someone mentioned calling in Templar being an option last thread?

>>1388204
Someone did raise that, and if it was an option I'd vote for it, but Gopher said in about as many words that he wouldn't let Templar out on the field unless we're incapacitated. I'm not counting on it.

>>1388204
>>1388228
Maybe if we get back to the base they can hook us up with a quick field repair.

>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
Am I too late to vote to Not Die?

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>>1388297
Maybe, but I think free access to a Sub-Tank is still above our pay grade.

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>>1388366
Maybe a fresh Ride Chaser or some more sharp wheels to clear out the mines? After thoroughly apologizing to India, of course.

>>1388366
Considering the last time we got to use one, we were basically sworn to secrecy, I don't think they'll have one. But maybe they've got some spare energy capsules or something lying around...?

>>1388204
Hence why is a good thing we recovered the Misericorde. We have to armor break her and then hit her weak point.

But with our legs busted, it will be very hard.

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>>1388438
A VWES recharge, at least?

>>1387580
>“STAY AWAY,” someone shrieks on all channels, “FROM MY CHILDREN!”

Ahhhhhh. I think perhaps I get it, now. I'd wondered if she was making chunky elephantillery mechaniloids as surrogates for her sister.

Not quite, apparently. But close.

Now I'm not sure if I should be feeling guilty about us going after the satellite bases first, before engaging Mortarphant. I think I could use some moral guidance.

Hey, Cain Labs, just as a hypothetical, how do you think I should feel about robot infanticide? Not recreationally, I mean. Just when it's for practical purposes.

>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

Also, Mass Shriver is an awesome upgrade.

>>1388512
And people thought it was completely useless.

>>1387580
>Tunnnnnneeeeeeelllllllllllll go go go

>>1388461
that's one fucked up looking leg

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>>1388438
Now that I think about it, I wonder just how many reploids can absorb energy capsules. How does that work in MHQ?

I mean, We can simulate drunkenness and taste finely-crafted beer, but we just never had the opportunity to eat an energy capsule on-camera. We haven't been presented with proof that we CAN'T pick up and use mechaniloid energy cores(?) lying around, but... this game has been going on since 2012, and to my knowledge we've never actually seen it happen, among anyone.

Can we get a Word of God on this?

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>>1388967
Thinking more about it... game-wise, we've only ever seen X, Zero, Axl, and the playable Navigators in X8 exhibit ad-hoc energy restoration by picking up components remaining from destroyed enemies.

Could it be a rare trait among reploids?

>>1388975
>>1388967
maybe the most powerful and unique thing about E-tanks is that everyone can use them. As in, it's not the same for pretty much every other type of recovery.

That would certainly be a good reason for why healing cyber elves were so valuable.

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>>1388967
>>1388975
Word of God is that it's a thing in universe, but that it relies on the LIFE cell inside the target remaining intact and being collected before automatic powerdown.

In-setting, it’s far more rare than it is in the games and not generally something worth looking for. In games, it’s simple quality of life. Anode in particular is a fast mover who hits hard and doesn’t, generally, slow his roll. His weapons usually aren’t the type to leave an intact core to collect, and he wouldn’t be advised to spend his time looking for them anyway. It could, in story, happen.

Here’s the big but:

To pre-empt the inevitable question of why Anode has never seen it once, it’s because narratively, health drops open up an enormous world of problems. To pull back the curtain a bit, adding such a gamelike element would be cumbersome. It’d be doable, certainly, roll for an item drop per each applicable dead mechaniloid, or start scripting power-ups into the story. But the former introduces randomness that will kill narrative (imagine the most tense battles except you lucked into a full health refill a minute earlier), or it starts demanding “expected” drops, which we have to account for you having to maintain the balance.

All in all, though, it would just completely kill the tension. Even if we’re obviously not going to let you do the tried and true Megaman thing of “scroll the same enemies back onscreen to farm health,” I feel like it does more harm than good and even beyond the difficulties I stated above, I feel like the story would venture too far into the games and away from being a story. At the very least, it would be a very different kind of story.

That said.

If people wanted--really, really wanted--to have item drops brought into MHQ, we could do it.

>>1389024
Personally I'm fine with not having the item drops, it's a bit creepy if you really think about it, even more so than using enemy data to make weapons out of dead mavs.

I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to finding one at SOME point, just as a plot point or something, but I don't want it to be a regular thing.

>>1389024
I think it would make sense in the context of finding a supply cache, or if the target was explicitly a supply line in the first place.

The real question is whether any of those kinds of resources are compatible as VWES energy.

>>1389038
That would be a WEAPON cell.

>>1389041
Yeah, but the resources we would find, say, here in mortarphant's stage, would be more like physical rockets right? Or are they indeed WEAPON cell compatible energy capsules?

Unless we get very lucky in dismantling those DNA mimics, I'm guessing it's not going to be easy to refill VWES ammo.

>>1389044
Ahh, that's what you meant.

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>>1389044
WEAPON cell ammunition is like a universal ammo resource in a video game. WEAPON, functionally, is a slaved replicator that configures a single output with near-perfect efficiency. IE, Metal Man had infinite Metal Blades. It's what he was built around. Contrariwise, most core systems for a missile Reploid will be fabricating those weapons, be they solid projectiles, exploding shells, or even missiles. Launch Octopus had no worries about running out of torpedoes, and even if he "shot the works" they'd replenish in the course of the fight, rather than need days of rearmament and resupply.

VWES is a more adaptive, but costly, means of using WEAPON cell energy to produce a templated effect. Because the cell isn't configured to that weapon, you do not get infinite ammunition from it, but each entity has its own reservoir when configured in the VWES.

>>1389049
this should probably be in the wiki.

>>1389051
It will be.

>>1389049
Didn't Ukumari say the weapon that could charge Anode's capacitor only had 8 shots?

>>1389095
That's her secondary weapon, yes. Specialist equipment (see Saetos's javelin-feathers) aren't always governed by WEAPON. He had a finite quantity of those, so each one lost required rebuilding, which he could not do in the span of that mission.

>>1389098
Dumb question and completely irrelevant to the situation, but we haven't done much with our position as rangemaster. Are we actually meant to be providing training/dealing with paperwork/upkeep/etc, or are we just assumed to be doing all that in the background?

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>>1389109
A bit of both. You can think of developing your Beret squad as an offshoot of your range duties, and continued time and investment will strengthen both them and you.

Hint: Anode's buster accuracy is actually pretty goddamned sharp for a spray-and-pray configuration. There's a reason for that.

>>1389115
speaking of this, whenever we do see anode training someone on the range it usually involves melee. Have the 4th's rank and file shown any notable improvements in their hand to hand or in anything since we toke over or should we focus on training them more if we live past this if to do nothing more then to try and curve off our growing PTSD?

>>1389115
>There's a reason for that.
Well, now I'm paranoid.

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>>1389126
No such thing as too much training.

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>>1389126
It's more been for Anode's benefit than theirs--like Em told you when you squad trained the Berets, in their current operational role melee skill is about "getting out of melee, or surviving in it." On that front, they're certainly better than your average Beret, but they need time and drill to really show big results.

You CAN change that, if you want to. Hell, Anode's next session with Em is likely going to be to try to teach him the basics of trying to stay in melee and actually duke it out, instead of just going for lone hits.

>>1389132
so that's just one more reason not to die

...How's their aim though? At some point I do want to make good with our promise to Indy of making her into a ground pounder and I figure dragging her to the range and easing her in with the range would be a good idea. Or hell if we could ever get Em to get over himself we could have him help us teach her how to fight up close and have her help us teach him how to shoot straight... You think offering Em a chance to beat on Indy with no conscience would be enough for us to convince him to actually work on his aim as a trade off?

>>1389152
I don't recall ever promising to turn her into a groundpounder. Aside from that, she can probably kick our ass when it comes to skill alone, maybe moreso now that she has ultra-endo to make up for any lack of physical capabilities.

>>1389162
she said she'd turn us into a pilot and in return we promised to turn her into a ground pounder right before we went and did the lockon hound mission way back when.

>>1389172
Skimmed through both threads on that mission, plus the one preceding it, can't find a thing.

>>1389127
No need to be. I'm pretty sure HC is just saying we got a passive accuracy boost by choosing Rangemaster as our specialization, way back when.

>>1389127
I think he means it is because we spend time on the range more than we see with the stuff we control Anode for as a sort of passive buff for the job.

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>>1389024
Nah, no need to complicate matters. It just struck me as a lore question with a knowable answer.

>Tunnel. NOW. Burn as much charge as is necessary to get there.

>>1389132
We need to train the Berets, do we have a sword user? A demonman? A sniper and a tank? Maybe we should get a field medic.

I didn't want us to have a team, but since we do we better do the job well.

The problem is money. We are facing very dangerous enemies with a pay cut, we don't get free upgrades like X does or we are a Badass like Zero. And some enemies we don't even get pay for!

Oh and the guy currently being The Maverick Hunters Boss might be either a clone or in the side of the bad guys

>>1389024

I'm happy either way. Both sides have their ups and downs, but I trust your decision on it.

That said, I thought we actually *did* find one once. Granted, it's possible we were playing as Flares or Emerald at the time, so you're still right about Anode not seeing one.

It was either around that period, or when we were doing the hostage mission with X. Or I'm imagining it.

>>1389610
> demonman

Present!

>>1389640
You hardly count as "man". Now, if we needed a demonbeast or a demondemon, then you'd be in your area of expertise.

>>1389659

Demonking, I think.

>>1389640
My favorite part of this is that I read the intended and not the typo at first, and now my mental image of Cain Labs is a black, Scottish cyclops.

>>1389610
>demonman
I get that you meant "demoman" but now I can't stop thinking about having a Steel Beret specialize in psychological warfare

>>1389666
Pretty sure that's Flak, he seems like he could break someone's brain with a little effort.

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>>1389610
>swordman
You have Emerald. Your only better teacher would be Rezador, and he can't be bothered educating "disposables."

Your Berets have standard issue lobeam sabers. They aren't built or trained for melee engagement. You might get one to adopt that, but right now the idea of handing one a hibeam and declaring him your "squad melee specialist" is like trying to make a fish your aerial bombardment expert.

The demoman role can/will eventually be filled by Flak, so please drop it and maybe smother it a little. The demonman role is filled by Cain Labs, and, occasionally, Hunter Command.

You're not going to be able to get a field medic. You have a squad of four, not a division. Maybe if you start doing more administrative/strategic command.

"Pay cut" the jury's out on.

>>1389669
That or Susan being really, really depressing.

>>1389674
>trying to make a fish your aerial bombardment expert.
Why are you so racist against Soar Salmon?

>>1389674
Speaking of field medic-y stuff, is there any kind of first-aid/engineering training we can do that would allow us to better pick out possible weak-points, capabilities and the like based on their build/appearance? Or any other kind of specific short-term training that the Hunters recommend for general combat use?

And far more importantly, does Susan remember he nearly spilled his drunken backstory to Anode?

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>>1389696
For Anode, the best thing for that is the school of hard knocks.

And yes, he does.

>>1389711
>And yes, he does.
OH BOY

Get drunk, nearly spill your Super-Secret Origin, demand to know how much your boss makes, and bitch about pay and inequality to him. Our next interaction sure will be fun, presuming we survive!

>>1389696
Wouldn't a upgrade to our already bullshit scanner that let's us see some invisible people cover that?

Mmm, a detect energy kind of radar would be useful. No matter how bullshit a Phantom is, he or she is dealing the weight and space issues, so it can be completely invisible or hide it's energy signature, but not both. Having both types of shielding would add too much weight.

>>1389728
We have no idea how good the OPAL system is, which would be helpful to know. Better than infantry sensors obviously, at least somewhere on par with a recon expert's. There's a great deal of leeway in there, and we don't know specifically what's lacking, either. Plus Stylist was still able to overcharge his system to hide at the end, not to mention making us see those potholes, so it's obviously not completely infallible.

>>1389746
That's because our mental shielding is shit. Remember when we had someone talk into our mind?

>>1389764
Beams Nautiller of Maverick Hunter R&D. He was using a proprietary ultra-science wavelength or something since regular comms were out. I think any mental shielding available to us would have been irrelevant against it.

>>1389764
If you mean during the G-rank mission, that happened to Emerald too, and he's had four extra years and a far-larger upgrade-expenditure than us. I doubt we'll be keeping Philosophers off our private comms any time soon. That said, I doubt that kind of security has anything to do with OPAL sensors or the like.

And just seen Scarab's post, yeah, forgot about Nautiller. Again, very specific circumstance.

>>1389787
>>1389764
Do you mean the text only option hunters seem to be equipped with in case of damage or silent coordination? Because we were able to do that with Em and Flares.

>>1389793
>and a far-larger upgrade-expenditure than us
>Emerald
>upgrades
do you even read this quest?

>>1389799
No, I mean...

>You look back at your own dismayed face in that soulless red optic. "Um. Yeah. You're--Commander Nautiler."

>"Ah, yes, you remember. Good. However, the situation does not warrant relaxing our security clearance protocols. I can assure you we're quite secure here now. Isn't that right, Thesis?"

>You hear faint, strangled yelling through the communicator.

>Something in that makes your brain go a little numb and fuzzy--but then something clicks. "Wait, if you have comms--"

>"16th's personal shortwave only, I'm afraid," Nautiler interrupts, just a touch of annoyance in his otherwise wholly lofty, unconcerned tone.

>>1389820
He doesn't spend it on armour or his buster, sure, but some of it has to go on sensors and the like. He can't spend it ALL on sabers and beer. ... Right?

I want to believe.

>>1389799
We should have the option to turn it off if we want, or next time we will be spammed during a mission.

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>>1389850
All of Em's upgrades have gone into beam sabers or handheld equipment. He has the same specs as the day he was built.

>>1389857
All Reploids have standard countermeasures against that sort of thing baked in. You can close channels but distraction/DDoS/headscrewy stuff is mitigated.

Aside from specialists in those fields.

>>1389850
Some of it went to super redundancies that make him ridiculously hardy despite low armor, if that helps. The rest....well, yeah, sabers and beer. Though again, I say we invest in making a toy he cannot refuse for how shiny and new and stabby it is, like a kusari gama or other reach weapon.

>>1389867
Even the redundant systems from...I want to say Rock Zombie off the top of my head?

>>1389867
>All of Em's upgrades have gone into beam sabers or handheld equipment. He has the same specs as the day he was built.
The fuck.

He'd better have been built with absolute top-of-the-line sensors and shit (despite being an infantry prototype, so unlikely) then, because he's years out of date. I'm sure Schwarz was delighted with his priorities!

>>1389875
Forgot about the redundancies, at least there's those - but seriously, has he never had a surprise stealth-based Maverick crop up? I know he's big on leaving massive, exploitable weaknesses anyway, but damn if I don't want Anode to smack him upside the head.

>>1389867

So next guy will spam us with adds? Good to know.

And whi bets someone besides that darn Fox will play with our sences like it was the Twilight Zone?

>>1389904
Emerald has honed his neurosis into a razor edge. He hauled himself from a C all the way to A on sabers and skill alone. If he'd just get over his issues and modernize his components he could hit SA easy.

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>>1389884
Rock Zombie gave him the Hertzbalger. Em was built as an up-done mass production prototype. Same armoring, shielding, and weaponry, just prettied up a bit--smaller hands to show off the engineering prowess to make articulation at that scale, removable helmet/hair beneath, and after the proof of concept performed, on paper, identically to the production model they intended to create, they just filled out the rest of the base chassis with redundancies.

>>1389904
Nope! His most advanced system is the Secondary Subprocessor.

>>1389904
He's been hunting for six years. He's seen a lot more bad days than Anode has, and he's still kicking.

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>>1389926
This is, after all, a guy who got thrown under a heavy cargo convoy by a turtle about ten times his mass and then came back by crashing a ride chaser through the window.

>>1389919
Exactly, IF he'd just upgrade his armour (and possibly some other parts he's been neglecting). I figured it was just his armour holding him back and making the lack of ranged capabilities, but the fact that a PHANTOM could probably amble along and gank him from behind with ease is somewhat concerning. When he was blinded, he still needed Anode to tell him when Chaff Weasel was coming for him, so he hasn't got other senses improved to make up for it.

Are stealthed Mavericks really all that uncommon that he hasn't had to worry about them in all this time?

>>1389926
Huh, thought it was four years. In any case, I'm still bewildered at the lack of anti-stealth capabilities. Time to drown my confusion in alcohol.

>>1389943

Actually he will gank himself since he is going suicidal on missions with a guy who hates his guts.

But it looks like Making an intervention and sent the girls to talk to him before he does something really stupid isn't in the plans so...

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This is a topic I'm not sure about. Should we bother picking up Schwarz crusade of trying to get Em to upgrade? He is more skilled then us, more experience, and those Sabers are grand. I feel like it would behoove us to at least find some way to get Em to upgrade that doesn't involve violence, but I wonder if it's truly worth the effort. If only to ensure he doesn't kick it, I guess.

>>1389969
Trying to get him to upgrade will just get him to back off from us, so not a good plan. Maaaybe there's some way to convince him it's his own idea, or that it's the only way to get him promoted and thus access to whatever's classified regarding Diamond's death, but that would require a lot of manipulation that I'm not sure Anode is any good at.

>>1389985
Not getting him to upgrade, just have him talk with India and the other firls so he stops being a suicidal little shit like he has been since he lost someone.

Is so hard to have an Intervention?

Really if we do not that soon Em will kill himself because before at least he wanted to live.

>>1389985
>>1389969

Unless we find some silver VWES to get through his shield of angst, I figure once his datedness drops him down to B he'll either snap out of it or go all the way off the deep end.

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>>1389962
>>1389969
>>1389985
>>1389998
>>1390004
I'd like an attempted intervention after this elephant gets stuffed.

There's also Schwarz's sidequest -- maybe we can drag Em along on that and talk as we go. I know it's unlocked, but is that something we have to specifically vote for starting, or will there be a prompt when it's ready?

>>1390038
Sidequest? You mean Old Dog, Old Tricks?

Look, I am reasonably certain the easiest way forward with upgrades and Em is to disguise them as swords. Or sharp, pointy objects-like seeing if there is a Mav specialized in ceratanium throwing blades you could get slaved into a sort of shuriken sidepouch.

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>>1390039
I mean the one that was unlocked when we picked him, "The Ghost," out of the "//signal trace fail" lineup several missions ago.

>>1390066
>armour made entirely out of blades
>sensors that can detect and analyse any saber within 500m
>buster that doesn't just create sabers but actively fires them long-distance

Perfect.

>>1390075
Was that actually a sidequest, or just information? We can't actually do anything about it unless we start trying to send more messages to Mystery Sender.

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>>1390075
That one's a backstory mission, not a current operation.

>>1390086
Anyway. What would have happened if Anode died in season one final? Would the Quest have ended?

>>1390086
Right, which is why I wonder how we can access it. We the audience/players know it's unlocked, but how can Anode pick it as a thing to investigate?

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>>1390096
I'd probably take some time off, poll the readers for whether they want to roll a new character, continue as an existing one, or the like, and then try to keep going. Same for if Anode dies today.

>>1390102
Just need to have the readerbase up and pick a time. Admittedly with the long spaces between threads, people may be too heavily disincentivized to go for a backstory mission. I may need to just offer it up as something Anode encounters down the line.

>>1390117
I'm pretty sure most of us could be convinced to take a thread or two off for a Schwarz or Emerald background mission. Presuming we're not at a cliffhanger with Anode, anyway.

>>1390083
The trick there is see what he is comfortable with. Like his Tumult gauntlet-is there a way to make that a full on energy shield, for example, that could catch incoming fire in a pinch? Or the Gaff Centipede he hunted could be made into something like the tension coils, swing around and have crazy wuxia fights. Just gotta play to his sensibilities a bit, I think.

>>1390130
So once this mission is done then?

>>1390173
Tumult gauntlet and bondage master? Sure, why not?

>>1390184
Well, we'll be dead before the mission is over, so I guess there'll be a good reason for a break before our new character.

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>>1390184
>>1390190
Even now there is hope for Anode!

>>1390117
Oh, speaking of, HC, what is Em doing with his data from hunts, currently? Just wondering if we can pitch ideas for some of them.

>>1390217
All "free" data has been currently utilized. We can purchase copies of all old data save for Saetos.

>>1390234
Woops. Misread that.

>>1390217
Depends. I'll have it come up next time you talk to him. If, when, survive, etc.

Also, gonna write a thing, just getting ready.

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>>1387619
>>1387624
>>1387672
>>1387680
>>1387687
>>1387736
>>1387739
>>1387936
>>1388300
>>1388512
>>1388689
>>1389569
You don’t hesitate for a moment. While Collide is looking at his own battered team (yours having been pounded to scrap), you boost directly for the tunnel at speed. Glass spiderweb-shatters in your wake as you burn capacitor, streaking directly for the crater--somehow now the most intact thing in creation--the ground beneath you already rumbling with the first detonations of falling bombs.

At the last instant you’re snapped backwards by a massive hand closing over your arm as you pass, your boots yanking themselves up from under you as Collide snares you from behind. You twist in his grip just in time for his fist to slam into your chest, sending you hurtling down the tunnel.

Your shields don’t even go off--by the time you’re conscious enough to notice, you realize that you’d probably be dead if they had. Your chest has been caved in, the armor buckled inward. The spike on your pauldron has snapped clean off on something, lost to who knows where. Somewhere in your flight, you crashed into--and through--Sabomole, who you see curled up beside you, now stone silent, rocking back and forth in a ball.

Behind you, the distant light from the mouth of the tunnel flashes with impact after impact, the ground shuddering through your back. You can barely hear it for the noise, and you can barely move. With effort, you haul yourself upright as you dimly recognize that amid the flash and thunder of Mortarphant’s artillery, the light at the end of the tunnel is quite literally getting closer, Collide smashing aside handfuls of earth and rock with his bare hands.

You raise your buster, already sizing up a battle you’ve lost--nowhere to move, nowhere to dodge, you can run through the tunnel but in the best case you arrive at another enemy base…

...And he stops, with a scoff of disgust and rage as another blast erupts behind him, casting his shadow down across the two of you.

“Enough. We’re done.”

Collide turns, looking back at you coldly over one massive shoulder, ignoring the bombardment falling like rain above him, even as his shields flash and strobe in a bath of hellfire.

“She’s all yours, Livewire.”

And with that, the maverick who had you dead to rights simply walks away.

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>>1390683
-----

It’s been three hours, your internal clock tells you.

Three hours sitting in a hole with a catatonic mole--the entrance having been bombarded closed ages ago--knowing that only ignorance and insanity have kept you alive so far. The entire time, Mortarphant has not stopped firing. Every now and then you swear you feel something from beneath you, or freeze up as a blast is perilously loud or close--and then you relax, knowing that you’d be dead before you had time to panic.

Finally, though, it seems to be abating. Mortarphant’s lost interest. In the dark, you don’t dare try to examine yourself, knowing the damage you’re dealing with is all kinds of not good.

You twitch again when your comms crackle--the first signal to get in or out this whole time.

“Captain?”

You haul yourself upright, with difficulty. “Templar?”

“The very same. I’m near at hand.”

Sure enough, a moment later, and light cracks through from the sky. Templar--looking a little battered himself, but none the worse for it--peers down at you cautiously, seeing the whimpering Sabomole next to you, flinching away from the light like a vampire.

“He did true yeoman’s work. Is he… quite well?”

You just shake your head. Templar doesn’t need to hear much more, slowly clambering down after you with surprising care from the giant.

“What you are about to observe, keep mum,” He says carefully. Setting his massive, flanged mace down, he kneels beside you and holds a wide hand to your crumpled chestplate. You feel a thrum of electricity, but your capacitors don’t move.

Instead, your shielding flickers faintly in the dark, and slowly and steadily brightens.

“Strictly speaking, I cannot do this,” he says good-naturedly, and then, as an afterthought: “Shh.”

“Holy shit,” you mutter, faintly disbelieving.

It’s both a familiar and strange feeling--it’s almost like lying in a recharger bed, and you feel a sort of pall of tiredness that made you slow and stiff slowly ebb away. It’s alien but welcome, and for a moment, for a blessed change, it feels like something didn’t go wrong this mission.

He smiles, perhaps at your surprise. “The Heart of Mercy. Classified, of course. The Weissritter would rather not let it be advertised more broadly than their ranks. There would be… questions raised, and rightly so.”

You snort at that, remembering a day not so long ago you got grilled mercilessly about making sure your capacitors could never, ever do exactly this. Right now, maybe it’s the stress finally uncorking, maybe it’s the near-miss with death, maybe it’s the absurdity, maybe it’s just that you’re talking to the god damn anti-Collide right now, but this is the funniest fucking thing you’ve seen in weeks. “No shit.”

“None.”

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>>1390694
It takes him a few minutes--nowhere near the speed or power of a sub tank, but slowly, he replenishes your straining LIFE cell, refilling your shields. Your electrical senses combine with the overall feeling of relaxation it imparts, giving you a sort of distant focus as the internal warnings and alerts fade away, one by one. You can feel the energy as it passes along, heading where it needs to go, and despite the difficulty moving from the damaged armor, you feel… alive again.

“Where do we stand, Captain?” He finally asks.

You grimace as he removes his hand--but sure enough, you’re back in action and (almost) in order.

“We have two satellite bases standing, Mortarphant, and we need to get Sabomole out of here.” Sabomole… poor bastard. “Is Arc okay?”

“The Fifteenth is well, all accounted for,” he replies. “In truth they held much more concern for you.”

“How about the disposition up there, what’s it like?” You ask.

“Increased patrols,” Templar replies slow and even--god, he really is the anti-Collide. After three hours of whimpering and bombshells, you could listen to him talk for hours. “And some sporadic rain,” he adds with a tap of his scorched arm plate. “Sir Gopher let me off my leash, with some haranguing from the upper ranks, upon the sole condition that I not engage in any battle in the field today.” He taps a massive finger to his nose. “T’would be a shame if battle finds me, yes?”

A shame for them, you’re sure. “Were there any--did you see any Reploid variants with special weapons?” You ask. “I ran into a guy named Collide.”

“Aptly named,” he observes, gesturing vaguely at your pulped chassis.

“Yeah. He had some custom models backing him up--they shot ice, there were Hoganmer with some kind of coil weapon and Tumult Shells.”

He makes a contemplative, rumbling noise in the back of his throat. Sabomole flinches. “A valuable sum of intelligence. But no, none.”

With Collide, and the Mimics gone… you might just have a chance at getting this done. But there’s too much ground to cover. Templar is too slow to risk getting caught out for a prolonged bombardment. You do have the tunnel running to the second base… and you seem to recall having a Drimole stationed there, waiting patiently for orders that never came.

Plan your next move from each of these options, majority in each field wins, not majority combination because I don’t want to be here until doomsday:

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>Take the tunnel and hit the far base.

ANODE:
>Bring Sabomole back yourself. You’ll have to hit the nearer of the two satellites.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.

>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.

>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.

>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.

>>1390701
Not dead! Woo!

Let Templar take Sabo away. He's out of his depth and there is no point risking Templar's cover overly much. And lets sit on the charge bit a while longer.

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>>1390701
Well shit.

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

Partnering with a healtank is the best thing for the poor guy right now.

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

They're not liable to see that coming.

ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

Fuck you, third satellite base. One less thing to worry about.

>>1390701
Do we still have our armor breaking sword?

>>1390788
Rolling with the bugmans on this one.

>>1390701

>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

The quick-charge would be nice, but I'm really not big on the idea of going after mortarphant with a base still intact.

>>1390701

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

>Use your misericorde on the elephant girl armor if you still have it.

ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

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>>1390701
>TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
I for one am truly happy the Weissritter exists right now

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
If Ukumari hits the base and then beams out with Sufferingmole and new best husbando, Mortarphant will be trying to attack a whole lot of nothing right after having lost all her support.

>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
tunnel safe, tunnel good. Sabomole safe in tunnel....but I feel off about using Templar for the main mission. Why the FUCK did Collide just leave?

>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
if we we blow up some more observer drones near the base, will Mortarphant blow up her own base?


Now, speculation about Collide: I'm thinking that with Mass Shriver, that tunnel situation was actually in our favor. His main ram relies on those scissor things, and we could GOFAST through them to misericorde, or just use the range of the Lance to get him first and Mass Shriver into a skewer.

>>1390791
Pretty sure we do. It did squat against Collide, but we didn't lose it.

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>>1390791
You do. You got headbonked before you had a chance to stab him with it.

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>>1390893
>Why the FUCK did Collide just leave?
Mavericks aren't a monolithic faction. It's a reasonable bet at this stage that Collide isn't viral, and whatever reasoning he has for being on their side, Mortarphant just pissed him off to the point he's willing to let us retire her.

That or Sabomole has the King Engine and it finally kicked in.

>>1390893
>Why the FUCK did Collide just leave?
Would you want to be around Mortarphant any more than you absolutely had to? And when you're dealing with Mortarphant, "around" is a subjective thing.

>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.

>>1390909
Good, because that big girl armor would be a pain otherwise.

>>1390968
>big girl armor
For you
But I don't think armor's going to be such a big factor in that fight. Maybe that's what's holding her back from being S-class, sort of like Em.

>>1390893
>>1390939
Maybe he knew she'd keep shelling for three hours and he had a show he didn't want to miss.

>>1390952
And you know our legs are still shit right? We did not get any mechanical repairs, just the equivalent of an energy tank or two.

Oh and our chest is still a mess.

>>1390998
the legs were fucked up by ice, right? That should have melted.

The melting into glass part.....I HOPE that's only cosmetic.

Since I'm a bit confused from the last update, can you clarify what exactly is the Heart of Mercy and what it's doing that your capacitors can't?

>>1390987
Considering that we were told that she BOMBS HERSELF, nope, her armor is no joke. Also Maverick, we don't know what black market upgrades she got.

Are you new to this quest? Because Intel has rarely been 100% correct for us.

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>>1391011
You remember how Anode was told he can never ever have a means of self-sufficiency and battlefield healing? You remember how even knowledge of the existence of sub tanks is classified and kept to high-rank, valuable officers in need-to-know situations?

Heart of Mercy just let Templar refill your shields--IE, heal you--and upended all those rules.

>>1391011
It is recharging our LIFE cell aka health bar. It is similar in function to a subtank, but not as quick.

>>1391030
And unlike the games, it does not repair us. So is a shitty idea to risk our life for the mole when we have A DAMN HEALER THAT CAN DO IT FOR US!

Man, Sabomole is gonna need almost as much therapy as us when this is over.

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>>1391056
We should give him our therapist's number.

yes I know

>>1391063

Oh yeah, for sure, that dude was great.

TEMPLAR
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

ANODE
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

ARTILLERY
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

>>1391056
>>1391063
>>1391083
>Hey Anode, when's your next therapy appoin-

>MY THERAPIST IS DEEAAAAAAAAD!!!

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>>1391129
Jesus christ, why haven't I thought of that gag?

>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.

>>1391159
You mean the gag that has been going for several threads now?

Yes I am blind to sarcasm, why do you ask?

"Due to the money cuts, our new brand therapist is a chatbot."

>>1391225
No, no that exact one. That exact phrase, you fool. Do you even huckleberry?

>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
I assume this means the Coastal Battery? Since heading back with Sabomole would take us back past the Cliff Battery.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.
That's a tough choice, but I'd rather dodge the Cliff Battery's missile bombardment on a full charge, than try to engage Mortarphant without Arc's assistance. We still have some Chaff rockets to spare, I think. We may need to save some for the fight on the mesa.

Can we take advantage of this break in the enemy intelligence? Somehow advertise that we were killed in the bombardment without surprising Arc when we need that jolt?

>>1390701

Throw one more one the consensus pile.

>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.

This mission may be FUBAR, but we'll be damned if we make Templar do anything that can't be plausibly denied, and escorting a civilian out of an active combat zone takes priority. Save artillery until we need it.

We needed the new guy to come save us, the mission briefing is going to suck on this one.

>>1392151
It's hardly Anode's fault a blatant S-rank maverick operative koolaid man'd his way into the mission.

>>1392305
Also

>Collide
>Koolaid

His name works on multiple levels. I'm hoping that was intentional.

>>1390701
>>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

>ANODE:
>>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

>ARTILLERY:
>>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

we're going to drink ourselves silly after this mission aren't we?

>>1392762
Somebody's going to be drinking once this is all said and done.

Whether that'll be us, or whether it'll be Em pourin' one out for his niggas, remains to be seen

>>1392762
>>1392771
I actually think that we shouldn't make a habit of drinking our cares away. Maybe we should get a new therapist.

>>1392783
I support this

>>1392783

Thirded

>>1392783
I kind of meant that more as a joke as I'm sure we'll being in the medical ward for about a week after this mission. Hell we're almost taking as much damage as we did when we fought wallaby whatever the fuck his name was. The one were we though we could become the super laser by draining it's batter.

>>1392792
To be fair, we DID become the super laser

so Hunter Command/Cain Labs

How'd we do on our first solo S fight? Because I'm guessing we scored a solid D. And if that guy wasn't an S class or higher then we really need to get our ass in gear.

>>1392783
Fourthed.

>>1392804
Frankly, walking away from an overclassed fight at all is pretty good, even if the only reason that is is that the guy opted to not finish us.

>>1393035
It's a good thing we didn't take a parting shot - might've pissed him off enough to come in after us further.

>>1393040
On the other hand, it might have been enough to have him get caught in the rain, and maybe he would have melted.

>>1393045
Oh I doubt it very much, anything we hucked at him likely only would've stalled him by fractions of a second.

>>1393049
Yeah I doubt it too, just saying. We couldn't do much but it does seem like it wouldn't have taken much either.

>>1393045
I think it would have resulted in us getting our first solid hit on him. Not from the rain since he would be blocking, but on his body from a wrenade or something.

It wouldn't be worth it.

>>1393045
He was out in the rain though. He was blatantly ignoring it while he dug his way towards us until he got bored.

Is there a proper technique for using Mass Shriver to snap objects with our bare hands? Gigantic scissors, artillery barrels, plane wings....

>>1393216
We should get ourselves a nice solid physical melee weapon that we can whip out to use with the Mass Shriver. Like, a hammer or something.

>>1393218
man, that flamberge really WAS great.

But it was the speed of the thing that I wanted to focus on. Any swinging weapon will have a bit of windup and more importantly need solid footing. I was hoping for something we could do while climbing or midair, and quickly.

>>1393218
Can you hear it?

The collective wail of Solstrike Saber supporters

>>1393276
solstrike saber REALLY doesn't need mass shriver.

It's just that 2 of the last few missions would have really appreciated the fuckeverything sword, which in retrospect I concede was a good point.

>>1393276
>>1393222
Neither of those are physical you ninnies, they're beam sabers, which don't benefit much from applied force so much as they burn shit.

I'm talking about a solid ceratanium weapon, or whatever Wren's blades were made out of.

>>1393306
See, when you say "solid", I think "Buster Sword."

>>1393320
Well I'm not talking about a gaseous weapon here anon

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>>1393320
Also if you're gonna use a weapon like that you'd need to commit to it and use it near-exclusively since you'd barely have hand economy to use anything else. Pic related.

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>>1393337
Anode is tall enough that he could sheathe it across his back. Or you could get a smaller one-handed weapon.

Solid alloy weapons of several stripes are an option, but you'd need to leave the lance at home when you use it unless you devise it to be out-of-the-way enough.

I already thought of a solution for that, actually. It's a specialized shoulder rack based off of that one Vile-style shoulder turret we could have got that holds the sword for us, the lifts it above our shoulder for us to grab when we need it.

>>1389049
Wait, I thought that when Em was pondering fucking over his buster to make it shoot sabers, he said he'd cram in a WEAPON cell but only have limited ammo.
Would that be because making sabers would be fuck-off difficult, or just because he'd lack the talent to make it a proper WEAPON entity instead of a VWES system that only shot one stupid thing?

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>>1393346
It'd be a ghetto VWES, yeah. Remember, Em doesn't have a VWES at all.

>>1393348
So it's entirely plausible that somebody competent could put an infinite sword gun in his arm, possibly even his non-buster arm, and he was instead contemplating ripping out his only ranged weapon to have like three shots of sword.

Only fucking Em.

Pity we can't use some kind of pseudo-science gravitic fuckery to make a small weapon heavier.

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>>1393357
Well, it's more that if he was going to be doing anything (which he wouldn't, you know him), he may as well put the real estate to better use. Like an actual VWES, which he could then create a swordgun fabricator for.

When he's less tetchy, ask him about upgrade ideas sometime. Schwarz almost got him to budge.

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>>1393339
Could always go for something integrated, like an elbow spike, or we could even do a Kars-style extendable arm blade

>>1393343
Something like that seems like it'd slow us down a bit.

>>1393368
Maybe add a pointy thing to the other end of the lance?

>>1393377
Hey, now that's a thought. Though I don't know if the haft of our lance is sturdy enough for full physical stresses especially when using mass shriver.

>>1393377
Would likely fuck up the Ascent Buster.

>>1393401
I forgot we could do the blade couching thing

>>1393401
Arrest Buster, but yeah, it probably would.

How are we going to take on Collide when we see him again in the future? Getting through his armor is clearly a nonoption, unless we... I don't know. Add Mortarphant's weapon data to the wrenades somehow?

>>1393418
He's weak to the jumpjet

>>1390701

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

>>1393427
Okay, he's "weak" to it. But that can't really mean much when he's an S-class lightning glacier. We need more to our game than that one trick. What else have we got?

Schwarz would tell us to fight smarter, so we know Collide has damn near invulnerable armor, moves like a bat out of hell, and hits harder than we can. What else have we got on him?

Oh yeah.

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

ARTILLERY:
>Tell Ukumari to wait for your mark, and then begin melting the next one of Mortarphant's "babies." We'll use this to distract her when we're in close with her.

>>1393439
His ranged game kind of sucks, doesn't it? He's got busters that don't hit all that hard and that sickle thing that's really predictable after the first time you see it.

>>1393455

I guess we could try to get our hands on some sort of ranged fire elemental attack, but I'm a little skeptical of trying to pick up one specific weapon to use against a foe that we don't even know for certain we'll run into again. Depends on how much it'd cost us I guess. Of course, maybe we could integrate it into one of the weapons we already have. Like somehow turning the T.Coil into a flaming extendable whip.

Can OPAL see through our own Blackout chaff? If it can't, what would it take to get that mod?

>>1393455
Counterpoint, he's able to catch Anode during a raikousen. If he wants to play the melee game, he gets to play the melee game.
He also may have god only knows what VWES entities and god only knows what hidden tricks.

>>1393514
He might have plenty of unknown tricks, but it would be pretty hard to plan around them.

When we get back to the 4th, can we hit up the simulator? It would be nice to, but I really think we can't keep going at this mission-based velocity without doing some extracurricular training. Even Em's doing it.

>>1393535
so run the sigma simulation until we can actually put up a good fight?

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>>1393469
Not while you're in the cloud. The flak is a sensor-baffle. OPAL is a detector, not a sigint countersuite.

>>1393563
That'd be a while.

A long while.

>>1392305
>>1392313
...10 points for this. Koolaid for the win.

>>1393218
Do you know anyone who specializes in hammers?

>>1393514
I'm sorry, I'm not god. I'm the other one.

>>1393563
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO0kbcwz22A&t=1m

>>1393306
Just get a strap to carry a giant spiked ball around, and attach ziplines to it to use as a ball and chain whenever needed.

>>1393306
It's cohered plasma, which basically acts as a solid in the context of a sword.

The Solstrike Saber, hell, even the Ascent Lance, both benefit greatly from the mass shriver.

>>1393418
Solstrike Saber, if it's still an option. I think it is, just a very expensive one.

There was an implication that his shielding was weak to fire, in which case the Sword of Fuck You would be his hard counter. Even if that's not the case, I'm certain there is a gimmick to it.

>>1393805
It's not.

>>1393815
FUCK

Were our tension coils ever able cut shit clean through like Jagwire's? Are they still sharp at all?

>>1393824
they're still sharp, remember how wolfspider diced himself when we used them to catch him.

>>1393563
Why don't we start with Tanker Tigershark? ;)

Can the simulator run more than one enemy at a time? Could we choose to fight against, say, Em and Frog at once?

>>1393439
This is kind of our big problem; even with Wrenades we still have no dependable solid fuck-you offense. Mass Shriver seems like it fills some of that but it costs charge, our capacitor at high levels certainly fulfills that function but we nearly never have a high charge because a lot of our mobility relies on it, jumpjets have a cooldown and misericorde has a huge fucking cooldown.

We need to find a way to add more oomph but I just don't see it.

>>1393874
That's actually likely a really goddamn terrible idea if (when) Anode fights Tanker Tigershark.

I was thinking "why don't hunters train on sim data for mavericks they're about to hunt". And I concluded that, since mavericks self-modify, it wouldn't be a huge help. You'd know and be ready for all their old tricks and old patterns, but utterly unprepared for their new tricks and new patterns. Which, if they caught on, would get hunters killed.

I'd say stick to confirmed retired mavs. There's got to be a bunch of melee/armor SAs in the archive.

>>1393874

We would get stomped so hard fighting Em and Frog at the same time. Beyond that, most hunters don't have their data in the simulator. Somebody thought that it might not be the best idea to allow hunters, essentially all of whom could potentially turn traitor, to practice fighting fighting their comrades over and over again until they're really, really, Really good at it.

>>1393914
We can get the data from the Fox. So the data exists somehow in the Black Market. Also they have a simulation of X...

>>1393946

X (and also Zero unless I'm mistaken) specifically allowed the sim to be released. While I grant you, we probably could get black-market sims from Fox, do you really think it'd be a good idea to go acquiring the sims for our best friend and our former boss so we can fight them over and over again with no risk to our self? Especially since it's been like, what, a month tops since the whole Doppler thing.

>>1393991
Em sim been around for so long it was one of Fox generics. We could ask I guess?

And why we would want to fight Frog? Em is the one who always kicks our ass. Frog never fought against us.

>>1393835
But remember that time we let Zero climb one of them? That was kind of a dick move.

>>1394010
He's SA. If he can't safely climb a murderously sharp cable that he wasn't informed was murderously sharp, then he can turn in his coat.

>>1394010
Zero doesn't strike me as being someone who would particularly care about grabbing a razor wire.

>>1393418
Mix Mortarphant and Moloch. Moloch is literally mentioned as being designed for anti armor purposes. Alternately, book a powerful fire Mav and see if we cannot get Em to make our own flambard

>>1394004

I don't think a hunter has to be around for all that long before bits of their data end up on the black market. After all, there's already modded mavs with Tumult Shell launchers, and we've had that for... a couple of in-game months?

Also I'm not the one who first put forth the idea of fighting a Frog sim, that was
>>1393874

Personally I think getting sims of any of our fellow hunters, or even asking for them, is an exceptionally bad idea because it makes us seem like a very transparent maverick. If we want to practice fighting using sims, we should just look up some old mele-focused mavs and/or try out the zero sim. Though that second option probably won't really do us much good since I think we'd probably just get diced into little pieces before we could actually learn/practice anything.

>>1393353
Tech just hasn't advanced far enough.

Em was pretty much taking about making Marino's Elemental Star/Comet/Stella throwing weapons from Command Mission.

>>1394036
The guys with tumult shell, hell any of the mimics, are more likely because Seven stole all the DNA data from HC when he revealed himself.

As for Collide, we have to consider we may not have his counter yet. Really, same goes for all of them. Also Saetos pack may just be really god damn strong instead of his weakness.

>>1394059
>As for Collide, we have to consider we may not have his counter yet.

I suspect Collide, the Squid and the rest of the Phantoms might be part of our next 8 (i.e. MHQ3) targets and we are just getting introduced to them early.

>>1394036
Well considering that we spar with Em, asking for his Sim would be reasonable. If he says no that's it. Not to mention that it would give us extra hours of training if he says yes.

>>1394112
Or it might be like the guys in X2 who had Zero parts...

I actually have an interesting simulator idea for training, but I'm not sure if it's even possible.
What about running through a Classic Megaman Boss Rush? Beating all the robot masters would have to be a decent challenge, even with that big tech gap. Maybe even fight the original Megaman. That would, of course, require sim data of them.

>>1394059

Some very valid points made.

>>1394119

I think if we want to spar with Em we should just ask him to spar with us. Bear in mind that us asking him for a sim could be taken as us asking for a way to spar with him without having to bother talking to him.

Regardless, if you guys want to ask for sims feel free, I certainly seem to be in the minority here.

Wait.
Wait wait wait.

We should do our own sim, 2v1.

>>1394166

That... is actually really clever. I approve.

>>1394141
Animal imagery (i.e. Squid and Beetle) does not really fit the style of those types of bosses.

Violen, Serges, Agile, Bit, Byte, Dynamo and High Max are all humanoids.
>>1394154
Are you familiar with the Cutman fight in X8? Its a silly fight with even unupgraded characters.

>>1394154
Asked ages ago, apparently the tech gap really is that big that we trivialize everything, including the skull bosses

>>1394166
we gonna get skewered by our own misericorde a lot.

Let's do it.

>>1394154
>>1394166

I'm down for both of these, plus Terapin and Wren. I'm just goddamn tired of finding the extra bosses and getting our asses handed to us on a silver platter.

We didn't survive Stylist or Collide because we were good enough, we survived because they had other priorities. That's bullshit. At the rate we're going, our next extra boss will be our last.

>>1394237
Does that include Megaman himself? Bass & Treble?

>>1394210
Violen was some sort of bulldog pig thing

>>1394272
We had Sylist so on the ropes he had to call Sabomole to distract us, and then we made that backfire. Collide may have let us live, but Stylist ran.

>>1394286
That it does. At this point, they are basically outdated mechaniloids. Really, really outdated mechaniloids.

>>1394210
So it would work best as a zerg rush?

>>1394361
A zerg rush can be effective. A robot master rush would be a shooting gallery to an A rank.

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Had to do some housework that turned into a barbecue grill transportation adventure, so no update tonight. Sorry, folks.

>>1394682
I too am eager to defeat Men of Magnut, Nuutlu and Shato (and more)

Hope the adventure with the grill went well (and ended with using said grill)

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>>1393320
>>1393337

I heard someone once told emerald he didn't have the mass to use a solid alloy sword.

Once.

>>1395027
In my defense, I never actually said that. Also, nice art.

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Anyone know what this is missing?

>>1395593
Dead therapists? Robot Satan?

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>>1395149
is indeed nice art. Not mine, but still nice.

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>>1395606
Added.