>>1586663
>trying to trick you into killing him if he goes bonkers

That's the kind of thing a crazy person does. Time to kill.

File: Emerald.jpg (741 KB, 1452x1350)

741 KB JPG

“I know what you’re trying to do.”

He flinches. “I’m sorry.”

“Em, this is fucked up. If you’re gonna ask me to kill you if you lose it, the least you can do is ask me straight.”

“I’m sorry. But--”

You hold up a hand sharply. “We’ve got an audience. We’ll talk about this later.”

“I don’t care!” He snaps, and for a moment you’re taken aback. “I do not fucking care! I have to know that--you think that India or Gopher or anyone gives a shit about me? You’re the only one I have. I can’t trust anyone else.”

You rub your temples. “Christ, Em.”

“Look. I’m sorry, okay? I really am. I don’t like being a bundle of neuroses. But I can’t… I can’t be one of them.” He takes a breath, curling and uncurling his fists as he stares intensely into the ground. “No matter what else… I can’t be that. I’m not afraid of dying. Not anymore.”

“That’s the fucking problem,” you reply sourly. “How about me, asshole? How about your sister?”

“I know, but--god damn it, how do I make you get this?”

“Save it.”

He goes to respond, and for a few moments you can see him trying to puzzle out whatever magical combination of words he thinks will get you on board with the Suicidal Lima Bean plan.

“...I’ll do it,” you say quietly.

His eyes widen. “What?”

“If you go mav, I’ll handle it.”

All at once, the bowstring tension vanishes, and without it propping him up, Em practically buckles. “Thank you.”

You hold up a hand again. “Not so fast, jackass. I have conditions. First off, you need to quit this death or glory bullshit. I’m doing this to try to keep you alive.”

His slumped shoulders waggle in something approximating a shrug. “I’ve been trying, man. I’ll… Fuck, I don’t know. Try more harder better good.”

You snort. “You do that. And two--you’re reaaaally not gonna like this--I’m playing the upgrade card.”

He doesn’t go roaring back to razor-wire tense, but he goes very, very still, practically frozen except for his eyes. “I can’t do that.”

You resist a dismissive shrug. “Then I can’t be your murder-buddy.”

Emerald takes a long breath through his nose and closes his eyes tightly. “...I can’t. Not until you can beat me. You can’t even take me right now, with nothing.”

“You know if you do flip your shit, you’re not going to care about upgrades.”

He chuckles darkly. “Probably. Which is why anything I do now is giving Shitter Em a head start I don’t want him to have.”

“I’m not giving up on this, Em. That’s my condition.”

He gives you a rather miserable smile. “I know. Okay, you win. But not yet. Not until I know you can do the job.”

>Sorry, Em. Deal’s off.
>Shoot him in the face.
>Other?

>>1586665
>>Shoot him in the face.
Morning Hunter Command

File: Anode introduces Em to a (...).png (20 KB, 364x838)

20 KB PNG

>>1586665
>Other?
Let out a rather short length of cable and give him the ol' locker room towel snap technique

>>1586665
>Other
If you get them now I'm better accustomed to them for later and we'll be able to run the Sim for scenario training.

Sup HC, first time in a while catching you early

>Schwarz told me my ranged defense game is fucking on point, and we have the rock paper scissors thing going on for a reason. But if you're really fucking worried about beating me at what's apparently my specialty, make it some sort of zappy gun because I'm literally designed to get shot in the back by those.

>>1586665
>Shoot him in the face.
>WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, JOB'S DONE. GET ARMOR.

>>1586665
"Hey Em."
"Yeah?"
>prep Blackout Rockets
"Guess what I have."
>empty the VWES on him

File: upgradechat.png (351 KB, 634x349)

351 KB PNG

>Other?

Just pay the fucking in-app charges, ain't got time for this upgrading armor shit

>>1586665
>Shoot him in the face.

Because Mavericks don't play by the rules, he wants you to fight him as if he was a Mav? Then he gets it.

>>1586665
>Shoot him in the face.
It's what friends do

>>1586665
>Shoot him in the face.

"I just imagined you as motherfucking Seven for a second."

>>1586674
>But if you're really fucking worried about beating me at what's apparently my specialty, make it some sort of zappy gun because I'm literally designed to get shot in the back by those.

That does sound like a good idea. We really should mention that. Electric weapons in general won't do him good against Anode.

>>1586700
Let's make him do an electric saber.

>>1586702
He already has one.

>>1586665
>Have you ever considered that upgrades could make it EASIER for me to k-......fight you?

File: commissar smiley.gif (2 KB, 64x24)

2 KB GIF

>>1586665
>Shoot him in the face.
it's for your own good

>>1586713
Not really, Em with an armor worth a damn would be a very hard fight.

>>1586730
I meant something more like >>1586674

integrated systems take up upgrade space, are hard to remove, and will slow him down. So we just make the benefits they're SUPPOSED to provide and turn them into advantages for anode.

>>1586733
And Maverick Em would just hit Anode with a fuckton of ice sabers.

>>1586735
I don't know what your point is.

Are you voting to just say no?

>>1586735

Yeah but if he builds fewer ice sabers as a hunter because he's working on his range game, then he'll have fewer ice sabers as a maverick

>>1586665
>Shoot him in the face.
We're on the road to bringing Em back from the brink. Shooting him in the face is just one more step on that long road.

>>1586665
>Shoot him in the face
>And between the legs.

>>1586765
>Kick him in the teeth
>Kick him in the grill
>Kick YOU in the grill
>rrahrahrharhahr

File: X reads through the upgra(...).png (1.2 MB, 1279x911)

1.2 MB PNG

>>1586713
>>1586730
>>1586733
>>1586735
>>1586737
>>1586740

File: Emerald runs typical op.gif (404 KB, 251x200)

404 KB GIF

>>1586669
>>1586679
>>1586690
>>1586696
>>1586697
>>1586699
>>1586718
>>1586761
… Fine. If that’s how he wants to play it.

His blade snaps up and deflects your Lockon Hunter just as fast as you can fire. He lunges forward as you spring back, firing a blackout rocket at your feet to stall his advance.

https://youtu.be/zZHbuhVtGPs

Em lunges over the cloud as it blooms, hitting the ground and dashing beneath a Wrenade. You fire another as you bolt to the side, throwing in a Raikousen to get on his flank and gain distance. He turns on his heel and sprints after, undeterred by a cascade of rapid-fire plasma. You wait until he’s nearly on you again--he’s fast--before switching to another point-blank pair of blackouts, one down, one forward, dashing back to gain ground.

In the instant of momentum, you barely register the chain of movements--another jump, as you try to windmill your arms back to firing position, Em twisting in flight to plant his heel on the side of the airborne rocket and actually kick off it, sailing over the blossoming flak beneath him.

What you DO register, very, very clearly, are Em’s eyes, wide and sharp, twitching from place to place as they rake across the featureless battlefield, the projectiles, your arms, you, before they vanish behind a glowing crescent of plasma.

Em’s thrown knife scores across your buster as you fire, knocking your Wrenade off-course. You fire another--leading too hard, as he predicts the shot and slows on his landing, crouching and springing off to the side as you fill the air with plasma again. He pivots again and launches forward at speed again, hand cocked back to draw as he finally closes to melee.

You fire a coil past him and zipline, channeling into your capacitors as you go, suddenly alight with electricity. You miss him clean, sending fire behind you to ward him off--he doesn’t pursue, rolling and recollecting his knife, coming up in a crouch, one hand resting over his shoulder hilt.

You got away clean--almost, you remind yourself, eyeing the digitized “damage” on your left arm--and size him up again in that scant second of respite. You didn’t need to use your boosters that time, but you spent an awful lot of ammo. Supply attrition works a lot harder against you than him, and you both know it. Even handing you all the keys to killing him, Em isn’t making this easy for you.

>?

File: Protoamused.jpg (45 KB, 565x450)

45 KB JPG

>>1586805
You just fucking killed me dead with that one. Oh god, yes.

>>1586810
we could set a chaff cloud between us and him to hide where we point the lockon, but that's hella telegraphed and he'll have 3 directions to dodge.

If he tries to get in close, we should have the lance out and actually use the conduit function for once. Electricity with range is the only thing more accurate than Lockon, even if all Em needs to do is move backward. So we fire a wrenade at the same time.

Here's hoping there's no saber tricks to ground electricity

>>1586890
another one, fire a T. Coil past Em, but instead of dashing forward, strafe so that the T. Coil moves towards him. If he tries to cut the coil, he might not be able to angle his sabers to both cut it and block a Lockon. If he jumps over, aim something based on his trajectory, wrenade or blackout. If it's blackout, we've got a shot at lockon not being predicted.

>>1586810
Buster shots. He might have trouble blocking or avoiding a whole lot of them at once. Dash or raikousen towards him while firing, being ready to break off or at least duck quickly if it looks like he'll turn his block into a counter. If you can combo into a shell or jumpjet that's good too.

>>1586810
Use ELECTRICITY on GREEN BEAN

>>1586810
Less attempted direct hits, more shooting shell drivers at his feet. Chip away at him.

I can't remember, can we hold the lance while firing with one hand? Might be more convenient than trying to draw it when he closes in.

We should use the lance more. Em's advice is good.

>“You know how you zone with your guns? Zone with your lance. It’s big, you’re sturdy. A better move would have been to draw into a wide swing, angle down for a two-hand grip on the return for either a thrust or back into a guard. I’d have gotten past you anyway, but you’d have avoided one or two of the hits and stayed in it.”

It needs to be used with something else, though, the skill gap here is just too large. Shriver, obviously, but I was thinking the boosters could be used to make another dodge past him, only to Shiver the lance into a vicious backhand?

Keeping a Flak cloud close to our right or left could help narrow his dodging options if we're in melee. Then again, he isn't dodging around much, just doing the gymnastic contortionist thing while advancing forward a lot. Maybe it would help?

>>1586909
>If he tries to cut the coil, he might not be able to angle his sabers to both cut it and block a Lockon.
VWES only does one thing at a time. It can't fire both simultaneously.

>>1586909
One more for the road. Charge into him with regular dash and the lance. Swing the lance to zone, then jumpjet into him to change directions quickly. While this is happening, launch a T. Coil in a different direction to and use it to change directions again, followed by a raikousen lance charge and a blackout aimed at the floor. If we have shell driver equipped, now's the time to slam it on the ground and get away. But it looks like we don't.

>>1586959
we have 2 busters. This is not the first time we've fired different weapons with them

File: better luck next time, Anode.png (288 KB, 309x531)

288 KB PNG

>>1586965
Can I get a citation on that? Because if I ever wrote that, I hecked up pretty bad. Of course, with the way I've been fucking up lately I wouldn't be surprised if I had.

>>1586983
have I been misreading combat scenes all this time, then? Since you didn't say anything about using different speed weapons to trip up Em's timing, I assumed they were being fired simultaneously. Same with most other fights where rapidfire is involved.

>>1586990
You can fire the busters at will, but you can't equip two separate VWES at once.

>>1586994
fuck.

that is all.

>>1586994
News to me.

>>1586810

>Sandwich him between our explosives and our lance. If he gets too close, drop a wrenade or chaff at our feet and force him to play chicken--we can take it and he can't, so he'll either have to commit, in which case we can play roshambo dps race with Mass Shriver and/or a discharge (esp. with chaff); or he'll back off, in which case we can back off too and either rinse and repeat or harry him with more ranged attacks. And if it's a wrenade we can kick it at him. before it blows up on us.

>>1586994
I knew this. I don't remember ever firing two different VWES at once. I may vaguely remember switching quickly, but not true double-trouble.

We've done a quick one-two punch with double-buster lockons before (in the fight against mac).

Useless because lockons can't even scratch a chump like mac, but still something anode did.

>>1587042
The problem is that firing two different VWES weapons at once isn't possible, we can dual wield a single one alright (or was it just the lockons that could do that)

>>1586810
Keep using chaff and busters to keep him at bay, study how he dodges and then tag him with a T Coil when we get a chance. Then activate Mass Shriver and swing the little bastard into a wall.

If he gets in close again, drop a Wrenade at our own feet, it only takes one to kill him and we should be able to tank it

File: Axl frags his commanding (...).png (223 KB, 685x774)

223 KB PNG

>>1587092
Firing two of the same weapon is fine--busters, VWES, whatever.

Firing a mix set of two weapons at once is not. That's what I'm referring to when I say if I ever wrote that, I made a mistake.

Emerald is barely clearing the clouds, right?

Next time he does that use the cloud as a big-ass conductor and zap him.

File: Anode dismisses art class.jpg (344 KB, 2202x1700)

344 KB JPG

>>1586810
You charge your busters, if only because it won’t telegraph another opening move. You’re tossing it back and forth in your head, and you don’t like it--if you can’t keep Em at range, then inevitably, he’s going to get close. You don’t want to stay there, but you need to at least survive.

The moment the whine of building plasma becomes audible, Em is barreling down on you again. You fire one half-charged shot, drawing your lance as it clears your buster, and this time, dash in after it. He meets your charge, saber snapping out in a wide arc, as you stop short and loose the other at near-point-blank the instant it reaches full charge.

The blinding glare fades as a second saber comes out, slapping the shot off target. He springs back as you surge forward, firing a coil and swinging it around to try to catch his feet. He rolls his sabers quickly, fraying the line but not quite cutting through, then leaps over it as you thrash it across the ground. You drop the line and fire another, this one latching onto the ground. You immediately retract, swinging your lance wide and engaging the Shriver, trying to cover yourself with the wide arc of the slash as you pass.

Em steers you on the way by with the end of one of his blades, pushing up and away from beneath your blade--even with Mass Shriver, while you’re airborne, that strength doesn’t do much to let you lever it. He comes in behind you as you snap-fire a Lockon Hunter the moment your coil falls, lance coming back around to stymie Em’s approach.

The laser passes over his shoulder as he ducks below your wide swing. You feel his saber rake across your side again as you turn and wheel your lance, but he’s already past--you see the instant of him already transitioning to a backswing and engage your boosters, wreathing in flame.

You could have sworn you nailed him, but you didn’t feel the bite of impact. You turn to see him already coming down on you again, unslinging his flambard as it springs alight.

You trigger a Raikousen as you streak in, bringing your lance around in a rising cut, aiming to slap his blade out of his hands with the Shriver, but he rolls it around the move in a fluid parry and arrests his move, swinging for your heels as you break off. Again, you spring back and he surges forward, only to reverse as you snapfire a Blackout and boost straight through it, lighting the cloud up with arcing lightning as you surge your capacitors. At the end you hop and slam your buster forward again with another Lockon, Em glancing it off the flambard and advancing into another counterstrike. It meets your lance as you slam it down, trying to pin the blade, raising your buster to fire another shot into his face.

File: business as usual for mav(...).gif (499 KB, 500x320)

499 KB GIF

>>1587503
He jerks his neck to the left as one hand leaves the flambard, batting your buster away with the back of his elbow. The tapered hilt of his kris digs into your arm as he leans forward, practically stretching over you as the trick-release springs loose and another knife ignites. He rakes it back as you try to channel your capacitors again, but he exacts his hit while yours slips away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BVcxLQB-hA

Em lunges, and for a moment, you’re reliving Wren. You twist around his side, but he follows close, nearly taking a chunk out of your midsection as he levers knife and flambard around in a wild arc, the larger blade coming to a rest on his back again as he rounds out the motion, and in an instant another blade takes its place. The knife flies as you raise your buster, catching your Wrenade inflight and detonating it as it leaves the barrel. The blade pirouettes on, slicing deep into your arm and holding there. He sweeps low, vanishing from your peripheral again, and only a reflexive Raikousen keeps the sting of his dueling saber to a light rake across your back. You come down on your heel and pivot, swinging your lance around as you shear the knife hilt off your other arm, but he’s already in close, surging forward and up with a deep thrust into your midsection. You slam an elbow down and fire a point-blank Wrenade, this one engulfing you in shrapnel, but he’s sprung past again, using your own body to block the shred of ceratanium.

Your lance dies as he drives his boot knife into your own, firing a Shell Driver straight down for escape, recoil launching you away in a high arc. Vision swimming, you seem him already closing to your landing as you reach for your knife. A coil to pull you away from his waiting blade, and then you throw yourself forwards again, engaging your boosters the instant they come off cooldown to close the distance, bleeding all your capacitor charge for a full-speed meteor flash, knife trailing.

There’s a bite of impact and then a floaty, disorienting sensation as you pass.

>YOU HAVE BEEN RETIRED
>COMBAT RATING: A
>SIMULATION DATA CAPTURED

...Damn it.

You turn back, as your “body” reconstitutes. Em sheathes his knife, none of the illusory damage blocks clinging to him. Your destroyed weapons--his knife, your lance--reappear.

“That was better,” he offers. “Nice close quarters switchups.”

>How the everloving fuck did I not hit you.
>Roll with it. Back to the lesson this started with.
>Other?

>>1587511
>How did I not hit you
>Any fuckups on that one that you haven't gone over already

Em feels a bit like the Kämpfer from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. Outrageously fast, an enormous bag full of tricks, impeccable skill, but thin armor. Unfortunately, if we're the Gundam Alex in this metaphor, we're only really doing the "Get Wrecked" bit of Alex's appearance, instead of the "Getting Wrecked while Wrecking Kämpfer" bit. Anyway!
>Roll with it. Back to the lesson this started with.

>>1587511
>How the everloving fuck did I not hit you.
>And I swear to fuck if the answer is "outskilled", I will chaff you IRL.

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>1587511

>Roll for it.

Any reason we didn't go all Pikachu on him?

HC mentioned Em would have had a really hard time fighting those lanceteamers at teh end of S1 without the phase lance.

We shouldn't use charged shots next time, just keep spamming rapidfire busters at him from range. Feint with the lockons - aimdodging is great and all but what happens when you aimdodge and your enemy doesn't actually fire? You look real silly and end up off balance, that's what.

>>1587830
>>Any reason we didn't go all Pikachu on him?

I think we were using our charge up as fast as we got it for mobility. Also lightning is no use if we can't hit the fucker, and the issue with emerald is hitting him.

>>1587511
>Roll with it. Back to the lesson this started with.

>>1587573
To me, he's more like the Correl from Gundam X: stupidly fast, only carries a knife, and we could kill him with head vulcans IF WE COULD FUCKING HIT HIM

>>1587511

>How the everloving fuck did I not hit you.

Oh, I see the problem. Em is saber dash cancelling. We need to get in on that.

>>1587511
>>1587924 sounds like a solid plan to me. Round three! FIGHT.

>Other?
I also have have a morbid idea to cap this training session off, if we have time. Em wants Anode to do him in, if he were to go maverick. Fair enough. But if he's going to dump that in our lap, he should know how it feels to do the same, for someone HE respects and considers a friend.

The only hunter sims available are those of members who are inactive, yes?

So. How would you all feel about a brutal, no-holds-barred co-op match versus Schwarzhund?

>>1588073
Against Schwarzhund, Em gets serious to the point that he actually uses his buster.

>>1587511
>Roll with it. Back to the lesson this started with.

>>1587938
But we do have a tipe of ammo that helps conduct electricity

>>1587924
>>1588073

Liking these ideas, though I want another round with Em before we let Schwarz take us behind the barn.

Also I really don't think he'll have a problem with it. Given his relationship with his siblings plus how horrifying the maverick virus just *is,* I think this is something where he'll practice what he's preaching. I mean, you kind of have to in this line of business.

File: Cain Labs plays Megaman.png (258 KB, 500x576)

258 KB PNG

Righto, I'm heading to bed. Sorry for the crawl, I felt off all day long and I'm not sure why. Hoping it's lack of sleep and not illness.

I'll probably be especially scatterbrained this week as I run, as I'm going to be doing a lot of unrelated work this week between posts.

Emerald is some fucking bullshit. I get that he's a melee hyper-specialist, but he should not be pulling off half the maneuvers he is.

>>1588673
Oh yeah, before the day is over

>Remember to phone your dad

>>1588737
The second brain is responsible for that

>Secondary Subprocessor: Nicknamed a “second brain,” this computer suite helps coordinate battlefield information, beam-in telemetry data, global positioning, rangefinding, velocity (both the unit’s own, and of people, objects, or even projectiles), and more. It provides greatly heightened battlefield awareness and boosts Emerald’s already prodigious reaction times to inhuman speeds.

>>1587511
>How the everloving fuck did I not hit you.

File: HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN.jpg (84 KB, 942x942)

84 KB JPG

Goodness me, I forgot to greet the thread.

Hello, thread.

>>1589243
Hello satan

File: Crankshaft joins a space (...).webm (2.97 MB, 1200x506)

2.97 MB WEBM

>>1589243
howdy satin

>>1588911
"Like, seriously, I've spent more downtime at the range than anyone else here. Is our firing range shit or what?"

Flashback:
"Live combat training IS A VIO-LAYSHUN OF RANGE SAFETY!"

"Okay maybe it just can't compare to practical experience."

File: super fighting food poisoning.png (33 KB, 300x219)

33 KB PNG

Sorry for the lateness, folks. A little superfighting food poisoning happened.

>>1587565
>>1587643
>>1588044
>>1588911
With the stakes set, you find yourself more than a little irritated. “Okay, seriously. I got a hit on you the first time, how the fuck did you get by me?”

“You know, everyone gives me shit,” Em replies with a dirty, vindicated grin, “But when it’s your own ass on the line, suddenly not being the best isn’t cool anymore.”

“I asked you a question, lime ranger.”

He rolls his eyes. “Come on, dude, did you think you invented charging your own body? Shit, there’s a guy in the 14th that even does it with electricity like you do, and he can’t tag me either. Feels like I’ve been dealing with nothing but that shit for weeks.”

“How about the explosives?”

The smug gradually vanishes as Em’s tone turns more businesslike. “It was close, but the blackout cloud takes a moment to really kick in, and the ceratanium ones don’t really behave like a conventional grenade. It’s more like… a flying brick of pain that gets bigger at max distance.”

You snort. “You’re a real poet, you know that?”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, good attempts, but I knew that you’d go for them. It was pretty much your only real chance, so I anticipated it.”

“What about busters? Lasers? Burning your shit? Zapping your shit? Those weren’t ‘a chance?’”

Em scowls. “Anode, how long have you been hunting?”

“Like three months now. You know that.”

“I have been doing this job for six goddamn years. I have been an A-rank for about as long as you’ve been alive.”

You glare at him as, tiny figure or no, he looks straight back, unmoving. It’s a long few seconds of uncomfortable silence before you huff and break off the staring contest. “Then what the fuck chance have I got?”

He heaves his own, equally-theatrical exhale. “That’s what we’re here for, dumbass. Look, if you live as long as I have? As long as Schwarz did...” His voice wavers for a moment. “You’re going to
be a fucking terror. You’re already getting there.”

You snort derisively.

“I’m serious. When you know what you’re doing, even if you never take a new piece of kit again… The first year’s the toughest. And we’ll get you through it.”

You remain silent, contemplative as he crosses the distance toward you. “...You better promise to actually upgrade, if I agree to this.”

He sighs. “I will, okay? I was--Schwarz almost had me convinced. And then shit got worse, all over, all at once. Look, I’ve still got--he spent some time with me coming up with a plan. I still have ‘em--update them from time to time. They’re in my safe, I’ll give you a key. Okay? Just so you know I’m not full of shit.”

You pause, mulling it over--still stormy, but he sounds both sincere and apologetic, for his ridiculous amounts of baggage. “All right. But when I can beat you--”

File: HC and CL see votes for s(...).png (302 KB, 1018x928)

302 KB PNG

>>1591667
“Consistently,” he adds.

“Consistently, fine--if you even try to worm out of it, the deal’s off.”

He nods. “That’s fair.”

“Very little about this is fair, you stupid green chode,” you observe, whapping him on the shoulder a little harder than is strictly necessary. “I’m not exactly happy about being your murder buddy.”

He hangs his head. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. And… well, for what it’s worth? Thank you.”

With that dealt with, unpleasantly and for now, he actually starts getting into the lesson, killing the sim capture. The hardest part is the footwork--partly his fault, he admits, suggesting you stick to disengagements except on certain terms. Actually sticking it out is tough, even with Em slowing way, way, (way) down to show you certain moves.

Still, it’s not like you had no saber training before this. What Em teaches you builds nicely on the movements--more when and where, rather than unlocking the secret technique of the lima beam. He does suggest a few moves to bring your Mass Shriver into things, and help you practice your timing. With the upgrades to your Capacitor, you get it down to a neat, refined throttle, spending only as much charge as you need to. The knife comes into play too--he helps you practice quickly drawing and striking in a press, using it defensively, stancing and cover, how to swing it--you’re not on his level, but you can get a good three jabs in short order.

And, like you ran into with Collide, Em also shows you the melee combatants that give him pause, even queuing up Tanker’s sim (updated uncomfortably recently) when you ask how anyone beats him in melee.

“This is how,” Em says dourly as he looses seven flawless, blindingly fast sword strokes in an instant, only for Tanker to simply bodily lift him and tear him in half.

That little demonstration gets you talking about the biggest threat to an otherwise favorable melee engagement--hitting an enemy that just does not care about the damage you’re doing. For that, Em suggests the Shriver, the Shell Driver, dropping chaff, or just jetting the hell out with Raikousen or, preferably, saving your booster as the ultimate Get Out of Jail Free card.

You finally feel like you’re starting to get somewhere--if a little self-aware of your own feet and how clumsy you feel--when Em turns his head up towards nothing and his expression darkens. A moment later, he vanishes from the sim as you hear Gopher’s voice from everywhere at once.

“I’m fairly sure I sent you back here to prepare your report for the meeting, Captain.”

“Yeah, and I’m fairly sure I told you the mantis can handle that,” you hear Em reply defiantly as you end the sim, the pod hissing open as you’re returned to your real body--lingering chassis damage and all. “This was more important anyway.”

“You know the last officer who spent all day running sims, Emerald?”

File: dead faces screaming in t(...).jpg (80 KB, 470x391)

80 KB JPG

>>1591672
Em takes a step forward, and for a moment you’re actually worried he’s about to take a swing. “Can we maybe not compare me to the fucking murdering traitor? Sir?”

Gopher doesn’t so much as twitch. “Get the fuck out of here, Captain.”

Em throws the crispest, most form-perfect salute you’ve ever seen, all the more condescending for it. “Yes, sir.” He catches your eye as he march-storms out, saying nothing.

Gopher watches him go, without turning back to look at you. “Do you know why he hasn’t been court-martialed yet, Captain?”

“Manpower?” You offer.

“In the time it takes to sortie and repair you from one mission, I can send him on three.” Gopher folds his arms. “It won’t last. But until then, he’s the only reason we can keep our operational tempo. Ursa keeps getting loaned out to whatever unit has an S-class threat that day. I have to spend an hour on my knees every time I try to deploy Templar. Flares is still adjusting to her new combat role. Most of the rest are B, and I need you for objectives.“

“Sir?” You ask. This is more you’ve gotten from him in a minute than you do on most weeks.

“I need you to keep him stable, Captain,” Gopher says, turning to you. “We can’t afford another Seven.”

A half dozen possible responses to that come up, but none of them are particularly grand offerings for a superior officer. “Yes, sir,” you settle on. “What was that about a briefing?”

“All-hands strategy meeting. And you’re speaking.”

Um. “What?”

“You’ve had repeated contact with these PHANTOM assholes,” he says, “and more importantly, you’re alive. R&D has been studying other failed ops and downed hunters, and they think there’s a connection.”

“Do I, uh, need to prep?”

“Not really. Just consider what you’ll say. It’ll be cut and dry, just us. I’ll disseminate to the powers that be later.”

“Copy,” you reply miserably.

He nods. “Keep your little friend in line, Anode. Get your repairs finished, then we’ll roll your debrief into the meeting. Two hours.”

...Lovely.

>You know Foxfire was loitering for that, she had to be. Go deal with her.
>Forget it. You’ve got a date with the Lifesavers.
>Look for someone or something else to decompress from the Melee Misery Midget Minute. (Specify)
>Other?

>>1591681
>Look for someone or something else to decompress from the Melee Misery Midget Minute.
Find Grach, for the love of God. We need melee tricks, we need advice on black-ops assholes and shitbird command structures, and we need a drinking buddy that doesn't want to die.

He is the man for us.

>>1591681
>It's been a long, LONG time since we called home.
>At least, it feels like it.
Did anode even get to talk to them since getting his capacitor ripped out?

>>1591681
>You know Foxfire was loitering for that, she had to be. Go deal with her.
Also confer with India.
And maybe catch up with Cathode.
All that couldn't take two hours.

>>1591700
I think he's busy with the 10th.

>>1591681
>You know Foxfire was loitering for that, she had to be. Go deal with her.

Before the inevitable petty blackmail fuckery

>Go deal with Foxfire

>Now that you've met a couple, ask if she's got any weird intel she can tie to the phantoms.

>>1591681
>You know Foxfire was loitering for that, she had to be. Go deal with her.

Why not.

>>1591681
>Look for someone or something else to decompress from the Melee Misery Midget Minute. (Specify)
Catch up with Grach

File: Maverick Hunter Quest.png (1.99 MB, 984x1492)

1.99 MB PNG

Recap updated.
https://pastebin.com/wMtuXJM2

>>1591681
>R&D has been studying other failed ops and downed hunters, and they think there’s a connection.
PHANTOM on Moloch's op

>>1591770
>Why not.
You don't ever need an excuse to avoid Foxfire

>>1591681
>He nods. “Keep your little friend in line, Anode.
Yeeeah, just had to throw that "little" in there, didn't he? Gopher keeps the moral high ground for practical reasons, but there's definitely no heart of gold under his tough exterior.

Anyway. Dealing with loose ends is sort of becoming our thing, so:
>You know Foxfire was loitering for that, she had to be. Go deal with her.

Hold up. Before we do ANYTHING, we need to give Gopher the 411 on that message left on Conda's monitor, and see if we can get permission or he can arrange for us to take care of it at some point, or send someone who can.

After that, we should probably get to the Lifesaver to finish up whatever repairs we need. Maybe we can shoot Foxfire a message, low-key? She's a cyberjockey, I'm sure she'll be fine not talking in the meat dimension.

>>1591681
"Sir, Seven had gone traitor well before my first mission. Has there been any follow up on that? Hunters who had missions were the enemy knew very well how to deal with them... and they didn't return. Just how many missions did he sabotage? Do they have numbers? And honesty he did that under Schwarz nose abd with all due respect sir, he was way better at finding traitors that anyone else we have left in the Fourth."

>>1591681
>You know Foxfire was loitering for that, she had to be. Go deal with her.

Never. Not.

>>1592220
We can organize the Baccarat thing after the meeting. Gopher's pissed off in general right now - he should be easier to talk to after we blunder through the meeting and he feels a bit more charitable.

>>1592343
We don't like Gopher, we just respect him, but yes.

He also seems to fail to understand the Hunters is not the army. Hunter Reploids are dead man walking, something Frog seemed to get. All work and no play, unless is a very urgent matter, will just maje things worse.

>>1592471
I dunno, I like him. He basically stood up for us and the Hunters on national television. He might have been doing it for the good of the outfit, but I can still respect it.

>>1591681
>You know Foxfire was loitering for that, she had to be. Go deal with her.

File: bettertoaskforgiveness.png (478 KB, 600x600)

478 KB PNG

I made this in anticipation of Gopher coming down hard on us for simming each other, but it seems like Em got most of the flak because he was brushing off other shit.

>>1592471
I agree 100%

That said, I don't respect him so much after his "little friend" comment. Someone who lets out a remark like that about a subordinate, especially a subordinate touchy about people mocking his size, is not exactly a hard line professional, no matter how much Emerald may antagonize him. He sounds to me like he's taking things that threaten the 4th's unit cohesion not just as a danger to those under his command, but as a direct insult to him personally.

I'm trying not to read into it too much, though. Not until we've interacted with him more.

>>1592509
That's bloody perfect.

>>1592484
>>1592536

As mentioned before, he doesn't really care about people just about his job.

We know there's still a leak, because Collide knew Anode was coming out on the mortarphant mission.

Something to keep in mind on the phantom debriefing.

>Can we pull tanker's sim logs? He's a S-class battle maniac who just went maverick, I'm guessing he's been practicing on his to-kill list.

>>1591681
>Deal with (ugh) Foxfire. And let Indy know about the plane parts.

File: Smug red man.png (1.11 MB, 847x1200)

1.11 MB PNG

>>1592509
HAHAHAHAHA IS THAT THE FUCKING GOPHER FROM WINNIE THE POOH

>>1591735
>>Go deal with Foxfire
>>Now that you've met a couple, ask if she's got any weird intel she can tie to the phantoms.

Yeah, that. That sounds like it's got a wacky chance of working.

>>1592973
Every S sound out of his mouth comes as a hard whistle, but nobody in the 4th has been stupid enough to mock him for it.

>>1593152
We've already made a hammer pun at Frog, let's continue the tradition of pissing off our superiors!

>>1591681
This >>1591735

>>1592590
It doesn't seem likely that Frog would have endorsed Gopher if he were just a professional ladder-climber.

If all he cared about was his job, he also wouldn't have just dumped a bunch of information onto the Rookie Captain regarding how he hands out other hunters' assignments. There are so many ways that could cause a career to backfire horribly, only someone emotionally at the point of boiling over could possibly think it was a good idea.

>>1593330
Rookie Star Captain. Honestly the things we hace survived so far is quite impressive considering we haven't been doing this for at least a year.

With how many Hunters the Fourth lost, Anode and Em are making him look good as Em punches over his weight class a lot and we kerp surviving deathtraps.

>>1592656
And yes, let's talk about the leak.

>>1593390
Well, Em said himself that if we survive as long as he has we'll be a force of nature.

File: anode tries bringing mult(...).jpg (29 KB, 347x268)

29 KB JPG

>>1593398
I'm anxious and a bit scared to think about where we'll be after 1 year

>>1593525
About three threads further.

>>1593525
Most people have already said that Anode's workload and struggles far surpass that of the average Hunter up to this point, and the fact that he's gotten away with as much as he has already is stunning. There is no doubt that once Anode actually gits gud, he could become an all-star Hunter, and that's WITHOUT his sister as backup. The two of them together, both A-rank, were able to take out a low G-grade Maverick, as a reminder.

>>1593540
High SA, not G. It got retconned.
They still did damn good though.

>>1593660
It was technically G with that Decay weapon. We just got screwed by politics.

>>1593689
>We just got screwed by not getting paid for retiring him and also by Doppler
Fixed

>>1591681
>Look for someone or something else to decompress from the Melee Misery Midget Minute (Grach)

Seconding >>1591700 because >>1592656

Although Foxfire is a close second.


>>1592471

To be fair, circumstances are different. War were declared and everything went to shit, so it makes sense he'd think the Hunters need to adapt to that.

>>1592509
>>1592973
>>1593152

Look what you did. I can't unhear this now. I hope you're pleased with yourself.

>>1593788
Even when he goes traitor I won't be able to unhear it.

File: Spoiler Image (194 KB, 486x437)

194 KB PNG

>>1592509
I laughed far too hard at this.

>>1593525
>*deep breath*
"SO THERE I WAS, WITH MY DICK IN HER ASS, AND I FELT SOMETHIN' WEIRD! AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT--THERE WERE THE MISSING BATTERIES!"

File: I've seen some shit.jpg (45 KB, 700x458)

45 KB JPG

>>1593532
I can't even be mad.

>>1593788
Well, I mean...

>Gopher simply looks the lot of you over, quickly sizing you up. "I won't bore you with speeches," he says bluntly--air whistling between two large front teeth as he does. "I think you've heard enough of those today. Do your job, don't screw me over, and I'll take care of you."

You should have been hearing it like that all along.

File: Soul Foxfire.jpg (184 KB, 568x483)

184 KB JPG

>>1591718
>>1591730
>>1591735
>>1591770
>>1591992
>>1592274
>>1592490
>>1592877
>>1593143
You sigh, rubbing the back of your helmet (with a slight wince--your torso armor still isn’t very happy). Em may not care about side effects from this, but you sure as hell do.

“Okay, you stupid fox, you get all that?”

There’s a momentary pause, and then a response on your comms. “Yeah, yeah I did.”

You look around--India never showed up after all. “So is this the part where I ask nicely for you to keep a lid on that shit, or the part where I threaten you with physical violence?”

She chuckles--and despite all odds, it doesn’t sound even a little smug. “No threats required on this one, O Captain my Captain.”

You snort. “Bullshit.”

“Well, I mean--” There’s the smug-- “I could just lie to you. Yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir.”

“Buuut…”

“End of statement.”

“Foxfire.”

She snickers. “You know, I begin to see why you hunters are all so high-strung.”

“What gave it away? The open maverick rebellion, the death of half our friends, or the insanity of the other half?“

Your vision fuzzes with static a moment, and a camera feed to her directly connects. She leans forward in her chair from… somewhere, edges flickering. “That last one, mostly. I mean, little boy green over there--”

“He hates height jokes,” you warn.

“Noted, aaaand in the vault,” she replies cheerfully, tapping her temple.

“Damn it.”

“Yep. Anyway, if I was like that? Running around inside my own head worrying about ‘no Foxfire, you are the demons?’”

“I hate you,” you mutter.

“Yes, good--I’d be pretty uptight too.”

“And that shit with Gopher? Were you listening in?”

“Yes, but not through you,” she says unhelpfully. “And I can be discreet.”

“Will you?” You ask, a touch of warning in your voice.

“Halcyon and his goons are much, much better at being much, much worse than you can manage, sugar-muffin,” she replies, leaning back on her chair with a grin. “Not that you can, but you don’t need to try to keep me in line.”

“I kinda do,” you grumble. “Seriously.”

She leans forward again, pulling the camera up close with one hand. Her sensor optic (removed and replaced with a different one, you notice) rolls around twice as she fills the little screen in your head. “Anode?”

“Yes?”

“Let me spell this out for you.”

You roll your eyes theatrically. “Listening.”

“I. Am. A. Jackass.”

File: my bad my bad.jpg (290 KB, 768x512)

290 KB JPG

>>1594579
“...Yes, and?”

“What that means is that if you lob a nice, slow pitch over home plate, I’m going to take a swing. I can’t not.”

“That’s what… she said?”

She grins toothily. “See, like that. What it does not mean is I biological function where I function biologically.”

You pause for a second. “Ew.”

“Listen. I’m not a hunter, won’t be a hunter, don’t want to be a hunter. But here I am, playing lab-rat for His Lordship the Gilded Coil. You think you want me dead? You can get in line behind Mister H. Like it or not, this is my new normal.”

“So, act like it,” you say, going for a gambit you’d been considering for a while. “You had contacts where hunters can’t get. You heard anything about a maverick group called PHANTOM?”

She pauses for a moment, leaning back again with an appraising look as she taps her chin. “You’re learning. Can’t say I’ve heard the name in my circles, but I DID find a few reports that fell off the back of a truck. Nothing solid, but the stealth systems they’re using don’t have any of the usual tells. I can think of exactly one group that was trying anything past the camo Geist has been using.”

Holy shit, did that just work? “Yeah?”

“Fun place. Second or third Reploid-run company ever, I think the first one that wasn’t opened by-and-for. Tell you what, I’ll drop mention to my handlers. If you don’t hear anything about it from your boss, they’re keeping it secret on purpose.”

“What then?”

“Then, my dear joy-buzzer, you realize why we don’t all do things by the book.“

The line drops and her grinning mug vanishes from your optics as the call ends.

...Well, that’s one fire put out.

You think.

>Give Grach a ring.
>Call home.
>Find the Brit.
>Other?

>>1594579
>>1594587
Well, that went about as well as could be expected.

>Call home.

>>1594587
>Call home.
>Demand to know where belated birthday gifts are.

>>1594587
>>Call home.
it's been too long.

>>1594587
>>Call home.

File: 1475009028196.png (490 KB, 770x433)

490 KB PNG

>>1594587
Hey she actually helped us

>Call home.

>>1594587
What's this about a ring?

>Call home.

>>1594587
>Call home.
Long overdue.

>>1594092
Wrong. Is more like he...just look at previous threads. But to sum it up, we are just an asset for him. The only reason he defended us is because if he didn't, we would have transfered to another unit were we would be way less public and he would have lost a valuable Hunter who, with help, took down a guy who had a weapon so lethal not even G classes have it.

Again, Frog cared about people, he doesn't.

>>1594800
That's pulled directly from an archived thread, and not what I was really pointing out. The whistling through the teeth is what I was pointing out. I get what you're saying, but pragmatism doesn't necessarily exclude genuine emotions and attachments, just that they're probably stowed deep where they can't get in the way of the necessary business of war.

That said, call home.

>>1594587
>Ring up mums and dads.

>>1594587
>Call home.

Assuming India did show up, she probably went to drink heavily and/or work on plane stuff after Em started to emosplode. She probably needs time to repress this before we can talk to her again.

...oh no. We sent those parts there. She's going to feel even MORE emotions when she gets there. I don't suppose Gopher would blame us if we just hid in a closet until our briefing? She'll find us if we go to the Lifesaver bay.

>>1595812
>India
>emotions

Shut it down, full security alert, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill

>>1594897
All the emotions he show up so far are hating Em and being angry because we didn't report right away, when in fact there wasn't any order to report right away.

He also admitted that he would glandly sent us to any suicide missions if it helps his goals.

I don't care if he is shortstaffed or having a bad time, the least he could do is shown a bit of care, he doesn't.

Frog cared too much, Gopher doesn't care enough. That might be the right actitude for the job because Hunters don't last much, specially during war. But all he is shown doing is being rude and gleefully sending us to our doom.

Not to mention we still have leaks in the Fourth or at least we are being spyied on.

Yes he defended us in national TV but that was just to avoid us transferring to another unit because we are a valuable asset.

Not to mention the Hell that would happen if they tried to Court Martial us over a booched mission.

X would get involved as witness since we helped him dealt with a traitor before. We would then expose, even if it was a closer door trial, that there is still traitors on the Hunters. Then when they examined our past missions to do a performce review the fact that guy was using a Decay weapon and they covered it would come out.

And with the fact we still have traitors a video of the trial would have been leaked somehow...

Yeah Gopher has no other choice but to publicaly support us.

>>1594587
>Give Grach a ring
MARRY THAT MAN.

>Grach is real and strong and he's my friend.

>>1596141
Now that I've had a chance to catch up, MAN you are nursing an incredible hate for a guy doing his job. There is no elaborate-ass system of checks and revenge balances keeping Gopher from publicly shaming us or whatever. He's a commanding officer that knows we do our damn job. Our job IS kind of suicidal, and our resources are stretched thin enough that safety is at a low point. He's not publicly condemning us or Emerald because we are his damn soldiers, and we're not threatening him with some kind of wild self-destructive expository shitshow because we are a fucking Hunter and we know that we follow operational procedure even if it makes us personally unhappy. Gopher is upset with Emerald BECAUSE he is acting suicidally. He needs all his people in one piece.

Actually Grach would probably have a chance of knowing about the phantoms too, given the business he was in.

>>1596141
Shut up Bokan

>>1596141
What the... I don't even know what to make of this. Almost makes me sorry I brought up Gopher's dickishness in the first place.

I just felt that Gopher's a bit of a jackass who takes insults very personally, and covers for his thin skin with military formality. That's all. Not a nexus of evil; just a guy, with a job, who says and does stupid angry stuff sometimes. Like most people.

By the way, you misread Gopher being angry at Anode in >>1591672 and >>1591681
He was only mad at Emerald. And bureaucracy in general.

>>1594587
>Find the Brit.

>>1596433
And with Halcyon commanding the Hunters, Gopher has to deal with him a lot more often than Frog ever did as unit leader. I'm chalking down all of Gopher's lack of patience for bullshit to that alone.

>also, check to see if there's a way you can pay back emerald for his help with tumult - if he's got some electric guy coming up or something we can do another two-player mission.

>>1596226
Then he could at the very least not use insults.
>>1596433
Did I? Maybe.
>>1596637
We got budget cuts and yes Halcyon is an asshole, does that excuse Gopher actitude?

I don't know, do you think your boss being as asshole excuse you insulting your workers while also gleefully overworking them and sending them to suicide missions?

**"In the time it takes to sortie and repair you from one mission, I can send him on three."**

Since that includes ANY mission we do it means Em is bypassing rules and Gopher is letting him.

And with our luck it will turn out the traitors left do not include Gopher.

We should have asked Foxfire to investigate the leak but that would get her killed.

Sortie *and* repair. Emerald's strategy is 'dodge so you don't get hit', so he doesn't need repairs, so he can do more missions.

File: Megaman looks in on MHQ.png (21 KB, 138x150)

21 KB PNG

>>1596860
Shut up Bokan

>>1596860
>Em is bypassing rules and Gopher is letting him
What rules do you think those are, exactly?

>>1596949
I know it's tempting, but can we try to ignore the moron who thinks your (military) boss should be your best-buddy/therapist/local saint? It only encourages their rampant stupidity and lack of reading comprehension.

>>1596860
>>1596226
Dude, it is really simple. Em, currently destabilized as he is by losing Schwarz and Hammer, is not making any effort to make a good impression and been coming off as an unstable, prideful suicidal lemon. Gopher has a war to try and manage the main ground force of. The amount of patience he has for bullshit, given how weakened the Fourth was by the loss of 2 S officers, three As, a B, the Crossmore, and most potential officers working their way up from the ranks, not even getting into how many infantry were lost or turned, is enough of a headache to sour even the nicest officer into an asshole. Gopher was not nice to begin with, and he inherited that bullshit.

That said, he has the Fourth's survival at heart. He goes to bat for the officers that don't start shit on base, which Em was doing for a bit due to grief, he tries to match up who is most likely to live with who is best pointed in the threat's direction, and he knows that war is hell. He also knows we are both his current core of the Fourth's Command line as we lost Hammer and Schwarz. He has to lean on us because the mantis is currently acting as 1/5 the muscle of the Fourth, Uralmesh tends to be on loan, Firefly is used to a different sort of combat engagement, and Halcyon is protective of Templar because all Weissreiter units are likely classified testbeds for all sorts of toys. The only others left that are Fourth officers from before the shit hit the fan are India and Crankshaft. So yeah, it'seems all shit, but you know what? We are what's left for our weight class that might come back, and he probably is running missions too in all honesty. Shit sucks, but right now it sucks for everyone in different ways. Some guys have their lives fall apart, some have to keep it all together, and others have to weigh the price of lives as resources to try and use as efficiently as possible while knowing there are going to be losses. Gopher has to weigh chances of who will have best odds of ending a fight, Em has his life falling apart and has to find his own way to stop that route, and we have to keep the Fourth together. Those are their roles, and god help each of them.

>>1594587
>Give Grach a ring.

File: Firestorm Gopher.jpg (79 KB, 396x558)

79 KB JPG

>>1597127
>and he probably is running missions too in all honesty.

Now that I'd like to see. In what sort of missions would Gopher risk the 4th's own commander (himself)? Given his pragmatism, I can't imagine they'd be very difficult.

"Hey me, there's a B-class attacking a school but there's literally no-goddamn-body else available, want me to sweep it? Sure, me, sounds good, I authorize the use of me."

Then he just ports in, wastes the target and ports out. "Firestorm" can't be only a nickname.

>>1597237
I'd prefer to see the debriefing:
"Now me, why did I proceed to unleash my primary weapon, a typhoon of burning hate, in an area that still had civilians present?"

"Shut up me. I wasn't there. I didn't see what that Mav bastard was going to do to those kids. I can take my complaints and shove 'em in the gap between my teeth."

"Keep talking like that, and I'll have myself court-martialed!"

>>1596141
>But all he is shown doing is being rude and gleefully sending us to our doom.

Gleefully? Not at all.

Grimly.
Stoically.
Knowing that sending us to our doom is only justifiable if it gets more results now than he would be likely to get by keeping us alive and sending us on many more non-suicidal missions.

I don't think there's any way to prove to you that he actually cares about the Hunters under his command as /people/. But you can be damn sure he cares about them as /assets/, and you never throw an asset away in war unless the payoff is well worth it.

>>1594587
>>Find the Brit.

We haven't had a good talk with India in way too long. Plus, given the nice present we just gave her, we're likely to be on her good side!

>>1597632
She'll be having emotions, it's dangerous to be within 200 feet of her person at this time.

>>1597127
>been coming off as an unstable, prideful suicidal lime.
Fixed that

File: Emerald having a friendly spar.gif (2.83 MB, 290x195)

2.83 MB GIF

>>1597780
the best part is that your post ID is green

>>1596141
>>1597630

He'd (relatively-speaking) gleefully send us on a suicide mission, true. But that's only because we always come back.

>>1597699
All the more reason to see her.

File: don't dismember me bro.jpg (124 KB, 863x719)

124 KB JPG

Right, post tonight may be delayed or not at all, I need to cook, work out, and start actually trying to clean this shithole apartment up.

>>1597867
Luck doesn't last forever. We only survived the last mission out of luck. Had that stupid Elephant been a minute or two later in making that PHANTOM angry we would be dead.

And having leaks in an already quite difficult mission didn't help.

The Hunters is not the army, or if it is is a very shitty army were most Hunters are literally build for the job and you can't leave until you either did cover the cost of building you. Oh and the survival rate is abysmal.

Maybe India didn't really do us a favor by paying for that part we needed, then we could have retired and be out this hell.

>>1598273
And at every point we chose to do this because someone has to. We have our intelligence department, the Doppler Army has it's own. They prepare their people for the worst, we prepare ours for the worst, and try to fuck each other over as heavily as possible. It is just how it goes, and of course there are leaks. No way in hell was Foxfire their only intelligence officer out there, and some of the others may have had PHANTOM support.

As for the Hunters being an army, of course they are a bad army. They are a police force first and foremost, army second. They just have the misfortune of having to act as a military force for a situation thathat has happened multiple times over the past couple years. Probably why they try to make Repliforce a thing, in the future. But that is why you keep seeing all these issues in the series, and HC and Cain have said as much before.

>>1598489
Poor Hunters.

After Repliforce they have to pick up the stressful Military ball again, making guys like Grizzly Slash say there's essentially no difference between them and the Mavericks.

Then years later, people lose enough confidence in them that they have merc groups like Red Alert as legitimate competitors.

And then the Hunters evolve into the entire government after the Elf Wars kills 60% of all humans and 90% of all reploids.

I wonder what Anode would think if he knew that was coming.

There is value in striving, of course, even when the end is known. Actions are at their most important at the moment they're made. But I bet he'd have feelings about it.

>>1598616
Thing is, we can change the future. Who says that is where we go? Could be better, or could be worse.

>>1598706
So far, it's been looking better. X retired a G-class mav and saved one of his unitmates after we stopped Mac from kidnapping him in the X3 intro stage.

>>1598746
Wait, we did that?

Sheeeit

File: Mmx6blizzardwolfang.jpg (181 KB, 945x694)

181 KB JPG

>>1598746
>>1598926
Don't forget that we also met Blizzard Wolfang before the incident that would lead to him being retired under false pretenses, and can basically act as a character witness.

That is, if we didn't outright avert it already. I feel like the mission that we met Wolfang on was supposed to be the incident that led to him being retired.

>>1598926
Yes, despite the way things look and feel, we are officially on a brighter timeline than the canon timeline in the games themselves.

>>1599035
i forgot how fullblown grimdark the original timeline is.

>>1599035
The Enigma Cannon is still fucked up in this timeline, but that was directly our fault.

>>1599046
I bet if we somehow bungle our way to X5's point in the timeline, we'll likely be drafted to help find the replacement parts for Enigma to stop Eurasia from crashing into the Earth since we were the one that fucked the cannon up in the first place.

File: OPA_2741.png (94 KB, 400x300)

94 KB PNG

>>1599042
Seriously. But the evolution of robotics over 3000-odd years is compelling to me.

The Mega Man franchise is a story about the gradual replacement of humanity by its artificial life in stages of incremental unity. In the end, biological humanity is gone, but memetic humanity remains. Everything that makes us us, all the joys and despairs and quirks of sapience, are duplicated 1:1 in the Carbons and Mega Man units and so on.

The way that "humanity" survives into the far future, the franchise says, is by becoming artificial.

>>1599069
Or they'll just have us stand there, grab the conduit, and see how good our aim is.

>>1599206
I have it headcanoned that ever since the Wallaby op, somewhere in a file cabinet in Command HQ is a document outlining a plan to plug us into a major powergrid in the event of a P-class threat.

>>1599029
I want to save Shield Sheldon.

...Blaze Heatnix can go die in a fir--wait, shit.

>>1599069
I don't see how we can *avoid* X5. Sigma brought his A-game for that one. It was basically his Hail Mary and he used resources I'm not sure we can even touch.

X4 and X6 there's a chance, but X5...

>>1599231
India pilots a supernuke right up to it before X and Zero can even get their roster assigned.

>>1599245
>not anode attached to a fuck powerful generator.

>>1599231
>I don't see how we can *avoid* X5
I got....TWO good threads. A not insignificant amount of unused manpower will exist. Repliforce remnants.

The other is investigating just where the mercenary groups were coming from, and giving them security/counseling support as opposed to shutting them down for illegal activity.


As for the game proper, we don't really have enough dakka to make the Enigma Canon stronger. Cathode might have an S-rank DNA or 2 by that time that would help, but unless we can massively increase Anode's Capacitor output, we can't contribute much. Charge the canon faster? That in itself might help due to the debris burning up more in the atmosphere.

But the Spaceship, well. If we can keep a remote control Hunter alive and well by that time, Zero won't have to crash into anything.

>>1599231
X5 we keep India alive and get even more explosives on a space shuttle.

>>1599296
What if they made a mechaniloid version of those wireless recharging devices they use for some aircraft, and then had Anode booster through a bunch of them directly upwards to achieve escape velocity

>>1599231
I've GOT IT. We get the Giga Attack version of T. Coil, and turn into a tentacle monster. Using it, we grab and retract 70% of the debris that will fall all over the place, and instead of most of the planet getting virused, it's just us.

>>1599231
The situation for the hunters as a whole seemed to be horrifying when you consider that we did well even with all that happened. Dopplar's attack was suppose to be a decap strike. There wasn't suppose to be a chain of commands or a army. He'd cut the hunters' head off, and use the time and resources to build sigma his shiny new body. I could see the situation being more a direct raid on Doppler town with but X and Zero while everyone held on. A mad dash until they find his HQ.
But that didn't happen. Things were rushed. We had time. While we lost a good portion of our army and air force, we still have some of both.
What will change the course of X5 is simply how strong the Hunters are. If Repliforce doesn't split them, if all that shit with Double doesn't cause trouble, and the lot stand tall, they could likely have enough man power to get everything ready and deal with the maverick outbreaks.

>>1599231
There's a good chance we meet Sheldon on the Atlantica op

>>1599347
But then there's a maverick tentacle monster on the loose. The doujin artist community will implode on itself.

>>1599231
A few of Gate's creations are sympathetic in some way. Like Rainy Turtloid, Shield Sheldon, Commander Yammark, and Blizzard Wolfang. The rest of them are pricks that I wouldn't care about one way or another.

As for preventing X5, I don't think we could, but as I said, we'd probably have a more active role in the MHQ version of X5's events, given that we are directly responsible for breaking the Enigma Cannon, hence why I said we'd probably be drafted in X and Zero's efforts to recover the parts needed to rebuild the Enigma, and MAYBE help soup up the Shuttle if the Enigma fails, as per canon.

Unless the Enigma doesn't fail, like it can do sometimes in X5. Dunno how to meet those conditions, though; I think that's a random chance sort of thing.

>>1599434
highest possible chance is 90%.

And, uh, even that is subject to some real bullshit RNG.

>>1599446
Conversely, it's entirely possible to get no parts, fire the cannon as a "fukkit" and succeed anyways.

>>1599370
But that's when the ultimate doujin appears:
>Em gets upgrades
>and a sex change
>....and endo
>all to take on tentacle maverick anode and protect cathode from incest by sacrificing him(her?(him?))self

File: mypaint_2017-01-14_17-47-01.png (324 KB, 738x613)

324 KB PNG

>>1599470

>>1599446
>>1599461
>Anode acts as a capacitor for the Enigma
>The extra punch his reserves give the cannon is enough to allow the Enigma to successfully destroy Eurasia.
>X and Zero congratulate Anode and thank him for his contributions.
>But WHOOPS Sigma's alive, he's pissed, and he's looking for Anode.
>Cue the Yakkety Sax as we run like hell from Sigma's wrath.

>>1599483
>implying we arn't gonna save doppler and thus get a proper cure many many games earlier then we should giving us a proper chance to throw down against sigma.

>>1599609

Wasn't that basically the canon ending of X3 anyway?

>>1599655
I think it might be the Doppler Suicide ending that is canon.

If Dr. Doppler is evil, we just need to find his good twin brother Dr. Gang

>>1599434
question, how damaged was enigma in cannon? because as far as I can tell it was mostly intact. The lenses the bit wallaby shot and I think some of the capacitors were wrecked, but I remember the briefing saying it would be back up and running in a few months.

was it more badly wrecked in cannon x?

>>1599686
I think it is, but in either ending, whether it's Zero with the one-shot antivirus, or Dr. Doppler himself attempting to take out Sigma with a suicide attack, it's implied that he dies either way.

>>1598489

And after all this shit there is the depressed as fuck Megaman Zero timeline. But Legends that happens a long time after that... I dunno still better than Megaman Zero, waterworld with a tons of islands and that.

>>1599916

Something happened that resulted in all the other space vehicles being unusable as well, could very well be it just aged into uselessness.

>>1600057

huh, sounds like a political move killed any space pointing WMDS. I'm going to blame hayclon, cause he's a prick and tried to ground India.

>>1600057
well India's whole aircraft crusade is happening because they're downscaling manned aircraft. This might be a hint towards there being no spacecraft for X5.

>>1600061
On that note, it seems like that was subverted too... or at least delayed. At the very least Repliforce hasn't happened and fucked everything up because

>MUH HONOR

yet.

I'm almost positive that if Repliforce does happen and subsequently X4 does as well, India will have been one of the Hunters who defected to Repliforce. I don't want it to happen, but given her character, it seems highly likely. I really hope we won't have to fight her in that case, though.

>>1600057
And yet they find working old tech all the time in diggs. Oh you mean in X not Legends.

Actually the cuts in the space program are probably because of the Maverick Wars. Creating and training Hunters takes money. Heck they are even cutting Hunters pays... the whole thing is a money sink.

The problem is that they should cut the whole space program and not leave a big hulking space station in orbit in the first place.

How expensive can it be, didn't Doctor Willy put Robot Masters in Space?

File: We will build cities in a day.jpg (76 KB, 1280x720)

76 KB JPG

>>1600071
I share this opinion. Repliforce has an air/space force. She'd probably march right up to Storm Owl and say "You need me."

>>1600217
The robot masters in MM3 (and certain others -- Star Man, Astro Man, etc.) were already up there because humanity had started extraterrestrial mining. Wily didn't start all that himself, he just took advantage of Light's trusting nature to co-opt the Gamma project using materials from the pre-existing mining sites.

>>1600505
But he did create his own space Robot Masters later.

>>1600505
>Implying India wouldn't just straight up take over the Repliforce's Air/Space division

You know she would.

File: NO REGERTS.jpg (551 KB, 1280x1012)

551 KB JPG

Trying to get a post out tonight.

In retrospect, running a thread the week before expecting a houseguest with the entire fuckdamn apartment to scour top-to-bottom was not the greatest of ideas.

File: Anode feasts.jpg (20 KB, 480x640)

20 KB JPG

>>1594595
>>1594625
>>1594709
>>1594731
>>1594740
>>1594749
>>1594786
>>1594897
>>1594921
>>1595812
...Yeah. Yeah, it’s been more than long enough.

You head into the Command room--a shell of its former self, stripped down, a few panels missing, and only a central screen and keypad left. Damn, this place really is going away.

You dial home--momentarily concerned-then-relieved as you realize the terminal might be disabled--but the line connects, and after a moment, the familiar hold pattern of Liberty Labs comes onscreen.

“Lllliberty--Anode!” Singh beams as he hastily sets down a coffee-stained mug. “Holy shit!”

“Howdy, 2,” you grin. “Miss me?”

“Whoever you were playing with didn’t,” he replies wryly, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

“Beg pardon?”

He taps his chest. “You’ve got some no Anode on you, there.”

You look down, grimacing. “Oh right. Shit.”

“Was gonna say, you look like,” he offers.

“Gee, thanks,” you fix him a fake-wounded expression, sticking out your lips in a theatrical pout.

“Aw, there there, my son,” he replies--you always liked Singh--”If you’re calling, it can’t be too bad.” He pauses. “Can it?”

You snort. “I think I’ll let the armor speak for itself.”

“Fair point. How’re you doing, kid?”

“Still here, or so they tell me. Everything okay back on the ranch?”

“Busy as hell,” he replies. “Honestly, I thought this was a prank call, it came in unregistered.”

“Huh, that’s--oh, duh. We’re moving and this building’s almost shut down.”

“That’d do it.”

File: Anode becomes a druid.jpg (152 KB, 500x333)

152 KB JPG

“Explains the answer. How’s Cathode, you heard anything?”

“I was hoping you’d tell me. She sent an email the other day, not much else. I guess you guys have been busy too.”

“Well, I know she’s not dead as of whenever they update that sort of thing,” you offer unhelpfully. “And, uh. Yeah, I’ll let my chassis speak for itself there. Is anyone else there?”

“No, actually, just me tonight.”

“Well, shit. It’s what, 8 over there?”

“Yeah, I was just locking up. This is actually our first early night in a while. We’ve been rebuilding that C. Cap your ladyfriend asked for.”

“Oof. Working overtime on my account?”

Singh grins. “Oh no you don’t, you little shit. We’d have done it anyway, no guilt. Shoo. Shoo!”

“Okay, okay. Why’d you just happen to have another capacitor lying around?”

“Project in progress. Can’t tell you too much, but--no, I see that grin, you’re not getting another sibling yet.”

“Damn. Go on?”

“...But we explained the situation to our contractor and in light of the circumstances, they accepted the project delay and pushed back our deadline.”

“Damn, that was decent of them,” you note, impressed.

He snorts. “It was goddamn lucky for us, our reputation and a few million zenny were at stake. Let’s be honest, we’d do it again, but that was incredibly unprofessional. We dodged a bullet, there. And you dodged a billet.”

You grimace. “You’ve been saving that for weeks, haven’t you.”

“Avis came up with that one as soon as we greenlit the sale. At cost,” he adds. “We’re in a good place, but not good enough to have given a working C. Cap away and still be rosy. You’ve made some good friends, Anode.”

“I learned it from you, dad,” you grin back.

“Speaking of, how’s the other one doing? The one you brought over, the gem guy?”

You snort at ‘the gem guy.’ “Em is… Well, he’s been better.”

“I bet. Rough times?”

“Juuuust got finished dealing with a whole bunch of rough times. Next time I’m on leave, I want to round up the family and go get wasted.”

“There are a few promises to share a drink with you two over here,” he muses.

You catch up like that, asking about the family--the usual nothing’s-really-changed pleasantries, which holds a certain appeal all its own, after the chaos and calamity of Geneva in the wake of the Doppler rebellion. Before long, though, you can’t shake the growing feeling of guilt tugging at you--you’re a hunter, and you’ve probably got some shit you Should Be Doing. The point is only driven home as, again and again, you realize you probably shouldn’t get too far into potentially sensitive information, and end a line of discussion with a quick ‘I can’t talk about that.’

Reluctantly, you sign off, realizing with a start that the call home took up more time than you thought.

>Go get those repairs. Gopher did order.
>No time. Go get ready for that briefing.

>>1602495
>Go get those repairs. Gopher did order.
Briefing prep can be done while we're recumbent on the slab.

>>1602495
>No time. Go get ready for that briefing.
We're not getting deployed right away, and the Lifesavers probably won't be able to make any meaningful repairs in the hour and a half or so we have until the briefing starts.

>>1602495
>Go get those repairs. Gopher did order.

>>1602495
>Go get those repairs. Gopher did order.

>>1602495
>>Go get those repairs. Gopher did order.
Let's get ourselves squared up before jumping into more stuff.

>>1602495
>No time. Go get ready for that briefing.
It'll add dramatic effect.
Everybody loves dramatic effect.

>>1602495
>Go get those repairs. Gopher did order.

>>1602495
>Go get those repairs. Gopher did order
Ask for a cover-up job to fix your appearance, you'll be back after the briefing for the full repairs.

>>1602495
>No baby brother/sister Diode for Anode and/or Cathode to tease

weh

File: Of course there's no PHAN(...).jpg (10 KB, 210x240)

10 KB JPG

>>1602612
Sure we will.

>>1602613
I think we were going to be Diode, but we'd have been too powerful, so we were a sibling pair instead.

>>1602618
or simply too expensive.

>>1602495
>No time. Go get ready for that briefing.

>>1602613
Yet.

>>1602495
>Go get those repairs. Gopher did order.
If we're late, blame it on the Lifesavers. They probably hate us anyway.

>>1602649
I find it vaguely dubious that a WEAPON cell tuned to generate large quantities of lightning would be more expensive than our capacitor getup, considering that replacing our excised core module bankrupted the Hero of Vienna.

>>1603150
Consider that if Diode were to be, at An or Cath's size, all the systems would have to be half the size.
That'd cause expense to spike.

>>1603169
Consider that a hypothetical Diode wouldn't need to be filled with expensive capacitors because we could just have an integrated weapon that shits lightning on demand.

>>1603150
Well, consider it like this. Not only would you be able to shoot large quantities of electricity, you'd also be able to store large quantities that you'd generate on your own, easily building to 100% charge despite how many ways we have to spend it, and then be able to dump it into a hit at will, our raikousen, or our mass shriver.

>>1603190
But why would we /need/ to store electricity if we can just generate it on demand? That is what I am getting at. If we have a magic faucet that can generate power, we don't need to bother with an electrical rainbarrel, we can just use the faucet.

>>1603199
maybe the point was that the best place(in combat) to be generating electricity is not the best place to be USING it.

>>1603190
Anode with any sort of perpetual charge generation or electro vampirism is a terrifying prospect, even more so now that the Mass Shriver is in play.

>>1603244
Anode with Training is a horrifying prospect. He has a lot of little things that can help him with charge, mobility, and speed without being squishy. He can fight little with the capability to punch like a big. Imagine him having the precision to use the Lock on hunter to aim for a joint or weak point. To be able to make full use of wrenades. To properly engage and disengage from melee. It's a scary thing.

>>1603181
Wouldn't that just be Cath, though?

>>1603199
Well, think of it like the standard Giga Attack in the X games compared to the buster. Sure, you can just use your buster and shoot it constantly, but sometimes you just need to open up a can of fuck you on everything in the area. The generator would likely act as a buster sort of effect, controlled bursts of set output that can rebuild to high levels. The capacitor just lets you store energy on mission to release at a perfect time to just fuck the day of anyone or anything in the room.

File: 100000.jpg (145 KB, 720x425)

145 KB JPG

>>1603181
What if...

Liberty Labs' next Reploid isn't electric elemental

>Follow Orders

Go ask the Lifesaver about the repairs and see how long it'll take. If we can get it done before the meeting, do it; if it'll take some time, get as much done as we can and then head off.

>>1602495
Go get those repairs. Gopher did order.

They can wait, with our luck that meeting might end in a fight.

>>1603462
Then light zap tesla noogies.

>>1603462
Is gonna be ice isn't it? Because we are highty incompatible with ice.

And also look moe, like a winter bunny girl or something.[ /spoiler]

File: Hunter Command gets back (...).jpg (28 KB, 500x377)

28 KB JPG

Right, I'm gonna try to get a post out again tonight, but I may need to beg off hard. I only just got back home after work-gym-shopping trip, with guest houseclean prep ahead of me still.

It's midnight coffee time.

Can we sim while being repaired?

>Simfight sheepman.

>>1605655

Don't be ridiculous. That's an absurd waste of time.

We wouldn't last 10 seconds against a G-rank like Jet Ram.

>>1606137
Fuck off mate, every single simulated match between SS and Jet has ended in SS wining.

>>1602495
Get fixed, prep briefing while repairs. Make sure the salient points are in order. Try to keep all the details clear.

>>1605655
"It says Sheepman! Why the hell is this sim full of cute sheep girls?"

"This is a pure Virtual Sim about a Maverick that ws retired ages ago, someone must have been bored and edited it into a mob rush."

"Okay and why it's playing the sing Viva la vida loca?"

"That's probably Foxfire is trolling you again."

File: upgrades.png (320 KB, 574x345)

320 KB PNG

HC's busy entertaining company, for the record. So here's a question to consider in the meantime, just for the fun of it.

Emerald said that if we trained to know 100% of what we were doing, we could be a real terror even if we never got another piece of kit again. And I agree; what we have really is versatile, and barring obsolescence, could carry Anode at least through X4.

But if you could give Anode one completely new trick --

In addition to all the Capacitor tricks, the lance, rapid-fire busters, chaff debuff, wire action, piercethrough lasers, exploding ranged energy shield, armor-piercing-by-way-of-freezing beam knife, flaming tackle jetpack, high-end scouter, super-shrapnel grenades, high-range high-kickback mortar shell, and Falcon Punch --

What would it be?

>>1609454
honestly? Getting that shoulder mounted system with a good range option and full rotation. Being able to just put down fire while doing other actions is handy for suppression and keeping them down. Could even go the gunvolt option. Metal needles that we can conduct electricity to.

>>1609454
a fucking subtank.

>>1609454
SAETOS SWORD

Self-repair, lol.

>>1609454
VWES-8, so he can use all of those goodies on the same mission.

File: Mortarphant swats a fly.gif (4.39 MB, 393x233)

4.39 MB GIF

>>1609490
>>1609501
>>1609524
Sword on the third reply. I'm impressed it took that long.

Me, I'd go with the shoulder cannon, even if it wasn't VWES-ready. I think there's space in Anode's toolkit for a vulcan or micro-missile battery, something even more rapid than the busters, a method to spray-and-pray while readying one or both hands for something more dedicated.

>>1609490
I'd back that. We've packed our VWES, any more is a sidegrade at best, and mixing new data into the old would sharply reduce the ammo. We need external/chassis modifications, and the shoulder mount fits that nicely; shame we passed up morphant's mount.

Now I'm imagining what our current VWES stuff might have looked like as should mounts. Shoulder-mounted zipline anyone?

>>1609620
Thinking about it, our legs are packed modification-slot wise, but how many "slots" do we have open in the rest of our chassis?

>>1609628
Our busters only have spool motors.

Our back is a little busy with jetpack and actually carrying our weapons like the lance, but we should have a slot or 2.

Torso is filled nearly to the brim with the capacitor. Anything further would probably be capacitor, shield, or armor.

Head only has OPAL, we have room to put more targeting systems, although that would be of questionable use/compatibility for anode. Maybe a small tracking device launcher to tag targets?

Not sure how much you could fit on the waist/lower torse.

>>1609454
Grab a shoulder cannon system, but make it a buster and give it an independent VWES-2 system.

>>1609454
>rapid-fire busters
they're only 1 step more rapid than the standard at this point, though.

My instinct tell me that it should be a way to expend charge at range. We're very limited in that, despite having 2 good upgrades available(more conductive coils, and instacharge busters). But neither of these would be good against Em., so I'm hesitant to pick them as The One Upgrade.

I'd have to go for a ranged method of destabilizing plasma, something with far more aoe and strength than tumult

>>1609729
>My instinct tell me that it should be a way to expend charge at range.

Something like the ability to generate ball lightning?

>>1610272
but all the ball lightning moves are slow, and we have slow fire covered by blackout and shell driver.

A fast crawler would be good, something to foot shock enemies without needing chaff on the floor.

>>1610415
Like the charged Triad Thunder? Punch the ground, roll out the lightning?

File: Sword of +5 Retardation.webm (2.81 MB, 1328x718)

2.81 MB WEBM

>>1609524
MUH NIGGA

>>1610740
>There's still a fellow swordfag left in these threads

BROTHERRRR