>>3073667

You instead focus on the skirmishing IRH machines. Lis reports a pair drifting south trying to undercut her, so you start with the ready threat.

[I’m not getting anything from Queen, but with those rotors, we’re getting excellent acoustic signs.] She paints a few theoretical landing zones across your vision, well in range if you hustle.

They’re also quite a bit closer to Durga than you’d like to intercept them at.

“Can we divert them? I’d rather not let them get within 50 meters”


[If we get right under them, the 30mm should be able to ground them. We’d be firing from the hip though; You’re used to that though.]

“If they aren’t flying close, one’s going to pass free and clear”

[Then scrap the idea entirely: Skip up the ridge and shoot them with the rail.]

“I’ve been getting good luck with that thing. How’s cover up there?”

[It’s earth fill from site 12 I think; If you find anything to hide behind up there, it’s not going to block anything.]

Lis breaks over the radio. “I just lost that flanking pair at 201 degrees. You pick them up yet Sam?” You hear the sound of the railgun cycling and can hear the corresponding impact in the distance. Looks like she’s busy too.

>Close sweep: Cover the distance at speed, moving to track in the airborne Locusts. Cross your fingers and hope you don’t fall behind.
>Turkey Shoot: Break from your vector and go for the high ground. Silhouetting yourself is risky, but you can peg any craft that Oriel attempts to launch.
>[Ambush: They end up a bit close, but the craft will be vulnerable landing. As long as we aren’t stepped on, it’s the safe choice.]
>Deterrence: Fire max-range grenades airborne as you approach to get some sound and fury going. Surprise would be lost, but it might force them to divert.

Archives: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=panzermagd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FernglasQ

>>3073677
>>Turkey Shoot: Break from your vector and go for the high ground. Silhouetting yourself is risky, but you can peg any craft that Oriel attempts to launch.

>>3073677
>>[Ambush: They end up a bit close, but the craft will be vulnerable landing. As long as we aren’t stepped on, it’s the safe choice.]
We're not sturdy enough to risk direct engagement, and ambushing is the time-honored tradition of the fragile.

Welcome back!

>>3073677
>>[Ambush: They end up a bit close, but the craft will be vulnerable landing. As long as we aren’t stepped on, it’s the safe choice.]

>>3073687
>>3073701

>"They're armored in the finest tin foil; Just gotta get the jump on them."

ROLL: 1d100 best of 3
Bonus: You expect two of the Locust-pattern craft to land at more or less the same time: How are you going to even the odds?

Rolled 98 (1d100)

>>3073747
>bonus
If they're that thinly armored, we could try to overpenetrate one and hit the other, trying for two birds with one stone, as it were. Pretty risky to rely on that though. Or try to walk our fire across both in one burst maybe?

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Rolled 95 (1d100)

>>3073747
>Bonus
Keep one of them as a shield from the other. As in block their line of site.

>>3073787
>site
sight*

Man I am tired

Rolled 57 (1d100)

>>3073747

>>3073769
>>3073787
>>3073807

BEST: 98
BONUS:Passed

Writing

>>3073810

“Not yet, but I’m tracking them. ID’d a landing site they’re going to deploy from. How are you handling?”

“Lucky so far; splinter damage to cargo compartments. Going 2 for 2 on my end, but Jennings is having better luck. Launcher’s doing a damn good job, but he can’t fire that thing forever. He’s saving his last volley for emergencies.”

“Good plan. Keep your head down Lis; I’ll be up with you shortly.”

She signals back affirmative, and you return your focus to your task at hand.

“Let’s go with plan A; I’m not keen on getting shot again.” You hurdle a tree trunk, consciously reminding yourself that your machine’s legs are fine. Only so much you could have done for the radiator, but if you’re stuck in a sustained shooting match, you’re already in trouble.

[Figures, after I read it all out.] she adjusts the display. [Do you have any plan on how to do that 1 on 2?]

“Wing it.”

[You understand that kind teasing isn’t effective if I can read your mind?]

“Did you want a plan or not? Will it work?” You reach out to adjust the reactor, stopping short this time as the displays match your intent.

[Might make the radiator a bit angry. I’ll rate it 8 out of 10.]

“Fair enough: Try to get me their formation; this’ll get a bit messy if I don’t know how they’re coming down.”

You hear a blast in the distance: A burst of plasmoid dissipates into a 20 meter plume, quickly diffusing into a hot breeze; the projectile didn’t have time to condense. The cold material glitters as it cascades into the surrounding forest.

[We should see about giving Queen a bit of room after this; We’d be clear in minutes if she could properly engage.]

You nod in agreement as you slip into the trees.

>>3074396

You’re behind timing when you hear the rotors above you. You drive the machine faster, activating the coil charger and crossing your fingers: If you overheat now, you’ll miss your chance. The Locusts skim over you at speed, blades reversed to decelerate. They’ve been revised: You can see where armor plating was adjusted, shielding the transmitter and magazine. The entire mock cockpit has been discarded, replaced with an ominous looking conical casing level with the ground. The modifications are incredible for the time spent: Not “Assemble 3 Knights” incredible, but you’d can’t imagine a team that could alter a design so drastically… You wonder if Oriel’s units might have evolved from the original Locust design itself… Or the more disturbing possibility of vice versa.

You adjust your balance as your machine skids down an embankment, overturning saplings and brush. You’re exposed for a moment, but the moment you spotted the outrunning Locusts, you decided to risk it. It pays off, and you return to defilade before you can be detected. You manage a position about 15 meters into the treeline behind the rockfall that’s cleared this section. You don’t appear to be the only one in a hurry: The Locusts land hard and kick into stride. Once they’ve spent their momentum, they turn towards you, moving to track towards the dueling titans.

Two targets, not even five meters between them. It’s a textbook shot, and you delay yourself the satisfaction as you line up both of your weapons. You wait until the trailing machine overtakes the closer locust on the opposite side when you fire.

You loose a solid burst of 30mm at the closer machine. The rounds devastate the rotors, but the armor holds surprisingly well under the fusillade. The machine whips into a tight turn using its remaining rotors, which prompts you to revise the shot: You had intended to get both in the first volley, but you loose the HEAT round into the resilient craft.

The sound of the launch is strangely wooden. It takes you a moment to realize that the weapon fired properly, but the Locust’s secondary detonation was the source of the sound. The face-mounted casing detonates unevenly, launching what resembles a giant stack of coins into the air that cascades in waves of silver. Despite the failure, the intended effect is still apparent as your systems flicker on the edge of the radius. The machine itself bursts into flames between the impact and whatever failures caused by the sympathetic detonation.

>>3074398

You don’t permit the remaining machine any rest; you strafe to gain an angle around the wreckage, putting another hundred grenades over and through the roaring wreck chewing up the active Locust’s armor. The chin guns on the enemy Locust fire, and this time you move to angle your hull as damage control warns of minor breaching: AP ammo isn’t exactly a difficult tweak, and it would be rather anticlimactic to be taken out by a lucky spitball. The enemy machine loses gun tracking surprisingly quickly, no doubt damaged by the close detonation of the EMP.

You push the reactor just a touch further and Mia carefully feathers the settings to give you the last drop of juice you need for the capacitor. You fire KE this time; hoping to avoid triggering the enemy machine’s spiteful weapon. A solid strike slams underneath the jury rigged mount, and the machine folds backwards as the round utterly shatters its torso joint. It struggles under its useless bulk for a short moment before some important circuit or processor shatters or shorts, going silent.

You hear the sigh of your cooling system as it vents excess pressure. It reminds you to breath.

“Two down. Another one EMF blast from one of them: Looks like it’s not particularly stable.”

Lis keys in “Not stable? You mean like a bomb?”

“Flux gun!” To your surprise, Jennings keys in. There’s an awkward beat before he continues. “Don’t know how they work, but one of my Logi guys said they give him nightmares. Some IRH sympathizer in the States kept sticking them in substations.”

[It’s like a pipe bomb built inside a transformer.] Mia broadcasts, [Range is pitiful, and you can obviously only fire it once, but they’re produce incredibly powerful EMP waves…]

“That’s one hell of a pipe bomb” you zoom on the un-fired casing in the buckled Locust wreck. The surface is perfectly smooth, with a matte finish you recognize. “Can you forge something this fancy? Like how we make the Knight’s armor?”

[They’re not that complicated, but to do something this effective? You could make a very efficient design if you integrally manufactured it.]

“Shit. We need to take down this guy. We brought tents, he brought a manufactory…” You pull up the tac map, trying to eyeball a source for the IRH machines.

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>>3074400

>>3074400

“Sam! There’s two whole wings of the IRH guys heading north. They’re going after the M-type Knights.” Jennings draws the position on the map: Eight units well outside your envelope. Not only that, but you’d need to pass through the brawl to the north to get around and engage.

Your channel hits static for a moment, before Durga’s voice breaks in. “-to all units; break contact. Engage IRH wings designated Echo and Foxtrot at best speed. Repeat-”

The transmission is interrupted, not by static, but by an earthquake. You receive an immediate damage report: Durga’s opponent finally got lucky.

From the damage pattern, the Ogre must have gripped the Erinyes and bodily thrown it. You don’t want to consider the amount of force that required. No critical damage, but no pilot status either: You pray the Knight’s biomonitor got ragdolled rather than the alternative.

“Shit. Durga got blitzed. I’m going to try to buy her a breather.” Jennings shouts over the radio.

>Orders: Marshal the team to engage the IRH flight. Durga knows the situation better than you do.
>Aid: Regroup and engage the brawling Ogre: You don’t want to see what it can do if the Erinyes is standing still.
>[Bait: I can broadcast a D-type signal… And we kinda have a bomb here that’s optimized against microtech.]
>Split: Send Jennings to burst down the IRH in flight with his launcher; Only you and Lis’s coil guns are going to be even slightly useful against the Ogre anyways.
>Writein?

>>3074446
>>Aid: Regroup and engage the brawling Ogre: You don’t want to see what it can do if the Erinyes is standing still.

>>3074446
When Mia says bait she means baiting the Ogres to attack our Magd and then we pipebomb them with the EMP?

>>3074457

That is the plan, yes.

>>3074446
>>Split: Send Jennings to burst down the IRH in flight with his launcher; Only you and Lis’s coil guns are going to be even slightly useful against the Ogre anyways.
We get caught out by 2 whole wings, we're going to be in a world of hurt. But Durga is clearly having trouble.

The bait is an interesting idea, but that'd mean EMPing ourselves, and being rather blatant about our info warfare usage, which is not a trick we want to teach them.

>>3074459
What about Durga and the Erinyes? Will they be in the blast radius?

I imagine Durga getting hit with that would fuck her over due to her own micromachines right?

>>3074466
considering how close we were to one just now, and how much farther Druga is from us, that shouldn't be an issue unless we get a lot closer. We'd be right on top of it though.

>>3074466

You assume Durga's current trouble comes from the initial strike. With the range involve however, you assume you can gain enough distance as long as you prepare properly. You assume the weapon is at least somewhat directional since the second Locust continued functioning after the first's weapon was accidentally triggered.

>>3074446
Sorry about the wait. Was playing vidya

>Writein?
So I still think Jennings should split off to take down the IRH, but we should utilize the EMP bomb since we have it. So this is basically a mix of the Bait and Split votes. Jennings still goes off, Lis covers us, and we fire off the EMP at the Ogres.

>>3074465
Regarding the EMPing ourselves concern, the QM says it's directional instead of a suicide bomb so we should be EMPing ourselves as long as we keep our distance.

>>3074508
>QM says it's directional instead of a suicide bomb so we should be EMPing ourselves as long as we keep our distance.
Can we set it off remotely though? I guess we could shoot it, but that risks knocking the aim off before it detonates. Maybe we'd only take minor EMP damage if we point it away from ourselves before firing it.

>>3074469
Do you think Lis' coil gun could divert it's attention long enough for us to get close for the EMP blast or would it not give a fuck?

>>3074524

Hard to tell, You haven't hit the Ogre with KE or HEDP rounds yet. Only the HE 30mm and the HE missiles, which both are poor against armor.

Considering Jennings couldn't get its attention with the missiles however, It's hard to say it will respond without actually being significantly injured, and the response itself may be severely dangerous.

>>3074532
We can assume it's attention is Durga at the moment? Is it feasible to sneak up on it while it's moving on her. Then before it hurts her we can broadcast the D-type signal and by the time it reacts we will already be in EMP range. Hopefully.

>>3074536

That may be possible, but it risks the Ogre's response. The bait is relying on the fact that Durga is not broadcasting her identity actively, so you could give the appearance of a far more valuable target, prompting an immediate target change rather than risking the machine continuing to batter the Erinyes.

>>3074540
So wait, what if we gave the EMP to Lis and then broadcast? She could ambush it while it's lugging towards us right?

>>3074543

That may also be an option, but it would delay the response as well.

To clarify the trap relies on

A. Broadcasting a signal to gain the Ogre's attention (Only Mia, therefore Sam can do this)
B. Salvaging and deploying the Flux gun (Any of your team can theoretically do this, but it is jury-rigging explosives. Not significantly riskier than any other combat task however)
C. Activating the flux gun when the Ogre is in range/field of effect (This can be done a number of ways, with varying prep time, risk and reliability)

Delaying A risks further damage to the Erinyes. Any other task can be delayed without immediate repercussion.

>>3074552
Then I guess my vote stays relatively the same. Have Jennings split off, broadcast the D-type signal to lure, and hit the Ogre with the EMP. Maybe try to lure it to a terrain the Ogre has trouble maneuvering to buy us time.

>>3074585


Since there was a bunch of discussion on this update, I'm going to leave it up rather than closing it with a random roll. I'll close the vote tomorrow evening and finish that update for the Thursday session.

Thank you all for participating tonight.

>>3074446
>Bait and send Jennings

>>3075886
>>3074585


"We've got her Jennings; Cover the incoming. "

Writing*

I need to cover some classwork tonight, so I'll have the update up before tomorrow's session.

>>3076199

“Jennings; Move to intercept the flight; Lis and I will pull him off.” You step forward into the locust wreck, twisting the remaining supports on the flux gun with a leg. The structure collapses easily with the its current state, letting the heavy casing rock free with careful effort. “Lis; I’ve got a really bad idea, hit this waypoint as fast as you can and prepare a foundation like for a cratering charge, aligned to 270 degrees.”

[It’s not a bad idea Sam, it’s just highly reckless and relies on a half dozen converging factors of which you only have marginal control.]

“Are you broadcasting?”

[14 seconds; I need to cover the Erinyes’ distress signal, and the Ogre hasn’t moved to engage yet.]

You adjust your manipulator’s grip on the device, examining the external porting. Functionally idiot proof: two redundant wires sheathed in flexible conduit. You shear them as far down as you can, salvaging a meter of so. If the condition of the first Locust is any indicator, it’s nowhere near far enough for safe activation, but it gives you the room to rig something. You regrip and lift… Or try to. It’s heavier than it looks.

[We’re live… Broadcasting at maximum power: Hope you don’t have any fillings… No response. Hold on.]

You bully the device up using the significantly stronger leg actuators. There’s an expected warning as you go past working load on the arms, but when you lock the joints, everything goes green again. You’re now the proud bearer of a multi ton high explosive EMF charge. Neat.

Jennings keys in, “The Ogre is breaking off. 190 degrees. What the hell did you say?”

[Nothing worth transcribing. Let’s just say I’m embarrassed for it.] She returns to addressing you. [We’ve got about five minutes; It’s going to track here, and I’ll call it again to get it in range.]

Your set your machine to walk, and it naturally staggers to handle the load. You override the behavior: It’ll mean an overhaul when you finally put 01 away, but between the radiator and everything else, you weren’t avoiding it in the first place. The added ground pressure causes slop in the stride of the machine, but nothing you can’t handle with a little jockeying of the balance.

>>3077505

“You fucking brought it!?” Lis shouts as you descend the lift wire. The flux gun rests in its makeshift cradle

“I told you to gear for a bomb; You should have guessed. We’ve got two minutes. How much cable do you have?” You accept the free end of the spool.

“Twenty meters; but it’s for blasting caps, not a blockbuster!”

“Hook it into the secondary transformer on the coil gun: It’ll be more than enough voltage. The wire doesn’t need to survive more than an instant.” You eyeball the difference from the wires trailing from the ordinance. The gauge isn’t as different as you had feared, but the solid line is going to be a pain.

She shakes her head, but still runs out the cable towards her machine. “Anyone else would have grounded you by now Sam. This is ludicrous!”

You wrangle the wires into hooks and wrench them together roughly. In lieu of a more appropriate fastener, they will hold long enough.

“Get at least ten back and charge up. Don’t fire until I pop a flare. Seriously don’t!”

You hear the felling of tree trunks. The Ogre had picked up the pace. You give the wires a tug as if it will satisfy you that they’ll hold, then half-run/half stumble back to your Magd. You can see the Ogre come into view as you come online, 40 meters distant over the trees. You need him closer, but you also need to be as far from him as possible.

>Straight shot: Fire a round to fix his attention and track past the EMP device. It’ll be close, but there’s not much the Ogre can do to divert if you’re right there, but you’ll be rather close to the device.
>Intercept course: Move to intersect your position with the weapon. You’ll need half decent timing for a good shot, but you’ll be clear, and you don’t need to let the Ogre too close.
>[Booby Trap: Cut the signal and let the Ogre look for us. If both 01 and 03 aren’t readily visible in the trees, he might walk right up to the weapon.]
>Snap Fire: Wait for the machine to stop and fire as soon as it does: You’re not getting anywhere near that thing, Nor is Lis.
>Writein?

For these choices a conditional decision must be included based on results:

>Double down: If the trap fails to destroy the machine, fire immediately, aiming to clean up with the coils.
>Cut and Run: If the trap fails to destroy the machine, break away to avoid retaliation.
>Backstab: If the trap fails to destroy the machine, take advantage of the disruption to infect the Ogre with the self-destructive commands.
>Regroup: If the trap fails to destroy the machine, withdraw towards the Erinyes and hope Durga is back up.

>>3077510
>Intercept course: Move to intersect your position with the weapon. You’ll need half decent timing for a good shot, but you’ll be clear, and you don’t need to let the Ogre too close.
>Regroup: If the trap fails to destroy the machine, withdraw towards the Erinyes and hope Durga is back up.

>>3077510
>Intercept course: Move to intersect your position with the weapon. You’ll need half decent timing for a good shot, but you’ll be clear, and you don’t need to let the Ogre too close.

>Intercept course: Move to intersect your position with the weapon. You’ll need half decent timing for a good shot, but you’ll be clear, and you don’t need to let the Ogre too close.

Weren't we here just to clean up some glorified power generators? How did we end up fighting a CQC knight with a hillbilly EMP bomb?

I hope Mia doesn't go skynet on us.

I wonder how Warsaw is working out for Sigyn?

These have been my ongoing thoughts for the past few threads. Keep up the good work Fernglas

>>3077591
Alex is probably bored to tears.

>>3077510
>>Straight shot: Fire a round to fix his attention and track past the EMP device. It’ll be close, but there’s not much the Ogre can do to divert if you’re right there, but you’ll be rather close to the device.
01 will already need an overhaul, what's a little EM damage?
>>Backstab: If the trap fails to destroy the machine, take advantage of the disruption to infect the Ogre with the self-destructive commands.
More reliable than the guns (we're using this jugy-rigged horrorshow for a reason), but gives us a chance to actually track it down.

>>3077591
Oops that second one should be regroup

>Regroup: If the trap fails to destroy the machine, withdraw towards the Erinyes and hope Durga is back up.

>>3077591
psst, recheck you votes. You voted the same thing twice.

>>3077518
>>3077591

>"Be ready to peel off if this doesn't work."

Roll 1d100, Best of 3
Bonus:You do not expect eight of the Locust-pattern craft to land at more or less the same time: How are you going to even the odds?

>>3077722
I think you might have copied the last decision's bonus

>>3077730
I did not.

File: thinkinGif.gif (1.88 MB, 480x264)

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>>3077736
Did we switch to Jennings or did the Ogre get reinforcements?

>>3077739

The first one is technically correct.

>>3077722
>Bonus
uh, I thought we were dealing with the Orge. Where did 8 Locust come from?
We can't do anything with them, we've got to get in position and set off the charge. Liz is nearby, right? She's got some sort of weapon besides the goo projector?

>>3077741
Are they also carrying EMP devices and can those EMP devices be targeted to blow up in their faces?

Rolled 60 (1d100)

>>3077722
2nd attempt to roll

>>3077746

It was more clever in my head; The bonus is relating to Jennings' scenario right now.

>>3077754
Oh, that does make more sense. How many rockets does he have left, and he doesn't have other weapons left, right?


Random side question, are Magd/Knight melee weapons a thing? It sounds like a fantastically bad idea, but they might be useful in a limited ammo situation, for instance.

>>3077747

The machines are mostly of similar pattern, so that is an effective choice in target as long as the Magd does not allow himself to be in AOE of the effect.

>>3077764

Jennings currently has 4 remaining HE missiles and his 30mm gattling. He also technically has excess point defense guns from the armor package.

No production knight uses melee weapons, but units are not incapable of striking with a high-flexiblity mount like those on the Erinyes or simply ramming targets. Technically speaking, the Ogre is operating as an unarmed Knight, since the M-types failed to develop any knight scale weapons, which is why it's forced to abuse obscenely overbuilt actuators to bully targets.

Rolled 21 (1d100)

>>3077722
>Bonus
Take out as much as you can with your launcher while they are still airborne. When they land disengage a bit and let them clump together then target the HE and EMP explosives on them.

Rolled 79 (1d100)

>>3077722
bonus: Shit. If we can scatter them with the missiles we should be able to clear them out.

More importantly don't let them swam us

>>3077786
>>3077783
>>3077749

Best: 79
Bonus: Passed

Writing

>>3077779
Hmm, a scattered approach makes this more difficult, not less. Keep 1 missile in reserve for emergencies. I'll say wait for as many to land as possible, but before they start doing anything. Then rake those on the ground and almost on the ground with the 30mm, then peg any farther out you can see with missiles, reserving 1.

>>3077794

I've been delayed by poor RL decisions. There will be an update today, but I can't promise when. Outline's down, the spirit is willing, but the flesh and mind lacks vim and vigor.

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>>3084585
>There will be an update today

>>3088128

There will be an update _today_

Sorry guys. I'm clearing the decks as fast as I can.

>>3077722

The Knight pauses, scanning over the foliage. The cover can’t be so thick as to block IR, but nevertheless, it examines the site warily. Your warner tweets at you, but the knight does not immediately advanced, and still evaluates the ground.

It ponders.

“What gives Mia; he’s looking a bit skittish.” You pull the Magd up off its haunches. The movement does not provoke an immediate response.

[The D-types are collimating the machine’s inputs. It’s getting enough information to adapt and synthesize. It’s not really thinking… but it’s close.]

“What does that mean exactly?”

[It means it’s cautious. It knows a bit about us. It wants to measure us before it commits.]

“So, it’s waiting for a reaction?” You stare down the machine through the cameras; the pale light within its optics roaming. “…confirm contact. Tell him we’re glad to see a friendly face.”

You barely tap the throttle, just enough to start walking, moving slightly towards the Ogre, but mostly across the line of your IED.

[Sly; Like we’ve mistaken him for rescue…] You can feel a keen anticipation as Mia waits for the reply. [Come on you oaf…]

The Ogre begins forward again, taking measured steps. It raises its “hands” slightly and your warner stops as its sensors divert. It’s playing uninterested like a child might do trying to catch a family pet. There’s a pang of guilt, but it evaporates quickly: You can see the paint on the chassis where it manhandled the Erinyes… You hope Durga’s alright.

You continue this way quietly for a half minute; the Ogre earning a few meters with every step as you trail across the blast zone. It’s within 30, then 20… You tap the throttle to push up the pace and it matches instantaneously: You recognize there would be no distance gained from the Knight at this point. If you thought it looked large when it ignored you, it appears utterly colossal when its attention is focused on you.

“You think he’s in?” You whisper, like a single loud noise could shatter the mortal play.

[Dead center. We still need have a bit to go.] She highlights the weapon, only 15 meters distant. You can see Lis’ machine sitting stock still as far behind as the cable can permit. [45 degrees?]

“As good of a number as any. Call it.” You prime the launcher. You can feel Mia wound tight at the edge of your perception. It occurs to you that while failure is lethal for you, she has to be worried about success as well.

The Ogre reaches out behind you overhand with a mitt large enough to palm your cockpit. The gesture seems to drain the tension: like at any moment, the machine would shout “Tag”, and it would be your turn to follow. Mia seems to draw succor from the idle thought as the distance closes.

[Go.] The command somehow breathless without air. For once, the control activates with your touch, and not an instant before.

Your world flashes green, then white.

File: just looking around.gif (4.1 MB, 280x280)

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>>3089476

>>3089476

“The Ogre is breaking off. 190 degrees. What the hell did you say?”

“Nothing worth transcribing. Let’s just say I’m embarrassed for it.” is the reply.

You smile despite it all; As usual, Sam came through. His new friend is rather handy.

You glance over at the Erinyes as it appears to slump to the ground. The uninitiated would judge the Knight KO’ed from the way it sprawls, but it’s far simpler than that: With the pressure off, the knight will run a quick checkup before returning to service: With any luck, Durga’s doing the same. You pin the location on the tac map and move north at best speed. Without the Erinyes up, radar is going to be shaky, but you’ll manage, even as you wish you had Sigyn overhead… Now that would have made this easy…

02 bullies through the brush and saplings easily: It’s amazing what a little extra bulk can do to the handling of a machine already this size. You certainly don’t match the other Magd’s on a straightaway, but so long as the ground is solid, nothing short of steel, concrete or shell is slowing you down. Which is good, because you’ve got no clue how much of your head start you’ve kept. It doesn’t matter much. They can’t exactly sneak past you overhead.

You track to follow a stream that goes north-west, taking advantage of the clear banks. You catch the rotor sounds and give it a rough guesstimate: Maybe a minute or two out. You find a bend in the course of the creek giving you the best view of the sky and line up, commanding a good view of the sky from just inside the treeline.

You take a deep breath, rolling your shoulders. The fresh jumpsuit you have on under the protective suit is tight from running around in the rain, scrubbing your neck where the undershirt doesn’t quite cover. While it’s certainly not comfortable, it’s no less comforting: between all the near misses your people have been having, you’re glad to have something dumb to complain about.

A minute ticks over. The wind picks up, but the rotors are still faint. You stay quiet, adjusting the mic to see if you can catch the movement of the flier above the gust.

Nothing: Not even throttling in the wind. No way with this gusting. You take a step back to radio in from concealment.

Metal screeches. You’ve been glanced. From ahead?

There he is: Hiding the same way you were, east on the other side of the river. One of the locusts with a smoking barrel. The haze twists and turns under the airflow; A pair of rotors doing little but make noise. An explanation, but too convenient. You pivot right in time to bounce the second round on the edge of your plate. The third machine shoots, but the PD is warmed up on this one, shattering it away from your plate. It sounds like a shovel of gravel thrown into a wheelbarrow.

You try to call it in but are greeted by an error tone: The first round must have got the aerial.

>>3089945

You throw the Magd into reverse, letting the machine scrabble under you. You’ve got more important things to worry about. The 30mm spools up, and you direct overkill on the first machine. The newer pattern is more resistant, but it’s only that: resistant. The rounds flay the lower torso of the bot, eventually undermining the support until the Locust collapses, falling face first. You see the half-loaded cartridge shear from the barrel of its gun. One of thre-

Another impact rocks your machine. It breached this time: 3’o clock, under the plate. Looks like the whole family’s here. You break away from the gunline, getting as much cover between you and the remaining units. Not a withdrawal however: You still hear rotors.

They’re low, taking a trajectory south under your position. If he hadn’t tipped his hand, they could have landed and outpaced you easily. Instead, there’s a quartet of units slowing to land in perfect formation. You queue up your remaining volley, holding the last one on a hunch. The moment the rangefinder pings them, your suspicion proves correct: The formation pivots to occlude the lead Locust, leaving you with only three targets. You accept them graciously, and they barely have time to face you before the HE warheads pluck them from the air. You range for the remaining Locust before it escapes you, turning to split the difference between the fleeing machine and your expected pursuers.

You stare down a barrel. Twenty meters isn’t nearly far enough.

You feel the weapon rather than hearing it. The tinnitus whine assures you that the cockpit is breached, as does the warm trickle flowing down the right side of your face. You tear off the ruined headset praying to see light. The top surface of your machine has been torn; You see the gouge where the armor pack’s upper glacis was literally torn from its partners and carried away the underlying structure. There’s dust, but thankfully no real smoke and you’re glad when you hack on the acrid smell of explosive: No matter how bad this is, it’s not drowning in the ruins of your lungs bad. Blood runs from your right ear: The sound dampener can only do so much.

You wipe away the crimson to face the threat. It’s another locust; virtually identical to its partners, only lacking the recent retrofit: The cockpit is tinted blast-glass instead of the EMP device the others are mounted with.

You don’t need your visor to see the sub guns track up, and you pitch up to catch the lighter rounds on the remains of your armor plate. You scramble to find a useable display among the scattered components dangling loose in your cockpit. The space spins around you, probably from the burst eardrum.

“Good instinct. Vital.” The thin voice rattles from some speaker on the lead machine, barely audible in your condition.

“Nothing good about it. I missed the last bird.” You choke out.

The voice chuckles slowly. Oriel seems to have little difficulty following you.

>>3089950

You keep your good ear open, but mostly focus on a half-good panel from the nav station: You’re hoping they’re still interchangeable.

“You really got me good with the fan thing; Sam might have run it through SIG INT, but I was just sitting here picking my nose.”

“Knowing your failure… Good. Progress. Will be missed.”
You hear the servos engage: The rotors of Oriel’s machine bob over the top of your peeled canopy. Looks like it’s a time trial. You trade in the good panel to your MFD and get a frozen nav-map, Next one.

“You know those guys up there aren’t any good. We maf sur of thaf.” You flatten an errant pin back into place with your teeth. It hurts like hell, but the ribbon slots in properly. This one’s still running. You toggle to weapons. The 30mm is plain gone.

“Not concern. Wasteful… still useful. Value in ideal, not metal.”

You toggle the missile pod. No go: He’s too close, and even if he wasn’t, sensors suggest it’ll probably blow up in the tube. You lock the locust you can target anyways, adjusting the point of aim just on the edge of the flux gun. If it fires, and if it hits, AND if it explodes…

“Productive.” He states, probably catching your rangefinder as it tries its hardest to disappoint you. “Die standing. Perhaps claim you too.”

You go for desperation: The PD guns are still slewed forward. You’ll trade him favor for favor. The guns bark in a cacophony of MG fire, all falling silent at different times as one component or another fails. The tiny bullets would do nothing to any significant armor, but it cracks the suicidally vulnerable blast-glass in multiple places. All you need is one lucky pellet.

The locust stops, and for a moment you’re moving ahead; trying to figure how to disengage.

Except… the cockpit breathes.

The surface undulates with the fine shards of glass and fragments of steel. Underneath, a sick green fluid roils and drips from the damaged structure. The steel, now unsupported by the armored glass surrounding it collapses, laying flat the messy pile of sludge. The Locust does not seem to care about its critical lack of pilot, nor controls.

“Effort. Noble. Futile. Oriel is Will. Divine incarnate in steel.” The pile rears up, presenting a rippling sphere of glass and lead. The Locust leans in, towering the roiling mess of junk and slime over you. “Now mine.”

You don’t have a quip for that one. You yell and fire what remains.

>>3089953
Well, that went well.

>>3089953

You’re dead.

[No, I think I’d know if you were.]

Alright, you’re blind.

[Ugh… Kinda. Give me a minute.]

The featureless white plane that dominated your vision fades quite literally dot by dot. It’s dark, but in the walking coffin way instead of the unconscious way.

“Boot us up.”

[Do it yourself.] There’s unexpected venom in the words.

“Are you OK?”

[For what you mean, yes. But otherwise no. You’re internally hardened.]

“What?”

[Something scared your old tenants Sam: They laced your subskin with reactive filaments. Takes the edge off of EMF. They’re ridiculously fine. I, however, am not ridiculously fine. I don’t have anything to hurt and it still aches.]

You leave her to her griping. The systems of your Magd come back up slowly: pausing occasionally for a redundant relay or bypass.

When your vision comes back up, you’re virtually under the Ogre. The machine tottered over you, balanced between its outstretched arms and undersized legs. Black fluid drips from every gap and port of the machine, speckling your Magd. Lovely.

[Good riddance. Should have stuck with generators.]

You key in before Lis can work herself up too much “Perfect timing Lis. We got the bastard.”

Whatever she had on the tip of her tongue was derailed. She instead sighs. “Good… We need to get back. It’s Jennings. His machine missed his last status check”

“That is because 02 is a loss.” Durga’s voice comes over the radio slow and labored.

She rushes to follow up. “Wait. Wait. Jennings is alive, I am in contact with him using the short range set. He is mobile.”

You pull up your spyware and despite the cracked lenses, You see nothing but an empty cockpit harness. Before confusion sets in, a hand waves into view.

“Are you alright Durga?” Lis asks, “You fell off the grid for after the EMP.“

“The system was quarantined. After the pulse, the decontamination failed, and the M-types infiltrated. I could not risk accessing those systems until they cleared”

“Your biomonitor went out too. Are you sure you’re fine?”

She seems to catch your meaning “Yes. The interface failed diagnostics. It separated from the Erinyes fine, but the revised Harness-Collar anchor failed, and… lacks a pilot-serviceable override.”

When neither you nor Lis replies, she keys in more quietly. “I am stuck, and I need a screwdriver.”

>Camp: Have everyone limp back to the camp. It’s the fastest way to get to work on what samples you managed.
>Tow: Move to repair the Erinyes, then caravan back to the camp.
>Taxi: Get Jennings first. You still haven’t confirmed the area is clear, and he’s exposed.
>Scout: Everyone’s in bad shape, but that’s all the more reason to stay on guard.
>Write in?

I've got finals this coming week and next. Expect sporadic updates until the 13th. I'll figure out a holiday schedule then.

>>3089966
>>Taxi: Get Jennings first. You still haven’t confirmed the area is clear, and he’s exposed.
While it turned out ok for us, we don't need another team member getting nano-infected or bleeding out or something.

>[Something scared your old tenants Sam: They laced your subskin with reactive filaments.
Um. seeing as we didn't know we had old tenants until recently, this is very concerning. Do we have any other upgrades? I'm starting to suspect we aren't who we think we are, or that our memory has been altered.

>finals
Thanks for getting out what you can, and good luck with them.

>>3089966
>Taxi: Get Jennings first. You still haven’t confirmed the area is clear, and he’s exposed.
>Have Lis cover Durga

So what's the over-under on Jennings being #ORIEL'D

>>3089966
>>Taxi: Get Jennings first. You still haven’t confirmed the area is clear, and he’s exposed.

>>3089966
>Taxi: Get Jennings first. You still haven’t confirmed the area is clear, and he’s exposed.

No joy tonight?

Good luck with finals.

>>3093173

Yeah. This next Thursday is a definite, but Tuesday is going to depend on energy levels coming out of testing.

>>3100163
In either case, see you on the other side.

>>3100163

Next Session is going to be Thursday: I'm targeting 5 EST, but now that i'm off class, I might start a bit early.

Things went a great deal better than expected.

>>3104234
Congrats man

>>3089978
>>3089982
>>3090173
>>3091033

"We're all over the place right now. Let's get everyone together."

Writing.

>>3108804
Glad to see you, but you might want to make it a new thread, we're two from the edge.

>>3108842

Noted and planned, Thanks for the reminder