The first thing you think of when you see the inside of the Institute after breaking in... is that it’s rather dusty. The second thing you think of is that it’s surprisingly clean considering that’s the first thought. But sure enough, it’s clear that despite dilapidation, the area is surprisingly well-preserved. Papers litter the floor, various pieces of porcelain and old paintings dot the welcoming area, clearly intended to show off the opulence and supposed high-class feel of the area. It’s all dust and gravel, nothing but lost memories, now; worthless to you.Welcome back to Magical Girl For Hire!--------------------Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Magical%20Girl%20For%20Hire%20QuestGeneral Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/u/MGFHQHandlerCharacter Details: http://pastebin.com/9J70gqM2 FAQ: http://pastebin.com/8unLWUjF Twitter: https://twitter.com/MGFHandlerKo-fi: https://ko-fi.com/Q5Q1MR92--------------------It’s also really dark, and the evening sun going down doesn’t help those matters. “I estimate we have approximately point-seventy-three hours before sunset,” Prima notes. “We should either proceed to search quickly, or locate a source of power.” You can’t really oppose those options. A quick check at a half-destroyed map and floor list tells you there are indeed at least 5 floors to check out, and each seems to have something that piques your interest.> Ground Floor: Services and Visitor Area (You Are Here)> 1st Floor: Transformative Cell Biology Research> 2nd Floor: Imaging Centre and Fabrication Labs> 3rd Floor: IT and Data Storage> 4th Floor: Finance and Administrative Services> Basement: Utilities (Authorized Access Only)Hm. Well, seems like the basement will be your first port of-"I feel the desire to raise a concern," Prima starts, and you simply turn to her, a questioning look on your face. "I must express concern that if we were to restore power, then the former owners may be alerted of our intentions and expedite a response. If necessary, I may be able to provide a temporary charge to any local systems with my own internal generator. This would reduce the likelyhood of any noticeable electrical signals or other indicators to be received by any potential hostile forces." Prima says as she looks straight at you. "I assure you, I would be willing to do this for the sake of the mission if asked...although I might request more time than average to recharge and recoup my reserves post-mission."Huh. That's respectable of her. You have to admit, it makes some sense. Gives you a bit more leeway, too. >You'll probably take her up on that, then. Let's get looking. (Where?)>But...no, it'll be easier to find where the hell the generator is. Can still bug out before they get here.>Other
>>3603685>You'll probably take her up on that, then. Let's get looking. >Transformative Cell Biology ResearchThis is the place to find the study about the aliens and Seither.
>>3603685>You'll probably take her up on that, then. Let's get looking.> 3rd Floor: IT and Data Storage
>>3603685>But...no, it'll be easier to find where the hell the generator is. Can still bug out before they get here.
>>3603685>You'll probably take her up on that, then. Let's get looking. (Where?)> 3rd Floor: IT and Data Storage>Other: Can she convert mana to her own electrical power now? Could she use our mana crystals to keep her reserves high?The Data Storage level should have the data backups from all of the computers from all of the levels, though they may not have the most recent data (because users never use the cloud backup storage settings or save things on the network shares they're supposed to use).
>>3603696i guess securing the main objective is a valid option too.> 1st Floor: Transformative Cell Biology ResearchAlien samples and probably were we can find the effect of Siether to the enviroment of earth.> 2nd Floor: Imaging Centre and Fabrication LabsProbably reverse engineering of alien tech and how to process Seither? Or maybe it's just a Walker/weapons research department> 3rd Floor: IT and Data StorageMain objective is probably here> 4th Floor: Finance and Administrative ServicesProbably intel.> Basement: Utilities (Authorized Access Only)I dunno a living samples? Maybe a alien in stasis?
>>3603710it's possible that sensitive or secret information would not be in a easily accessable hardware.
>>3603685> Basement: Utilities (Authorized Access Only)Lets power the place up like Prima recommended.
>>3603715Such information might be kept on a portable drive within a safe, that's protected with encryption and anti-copying protections so that data can't be copied off of it, and data can only be added. >>3603724Prima recommended NOT to power on the facility, though.
>>3603685>IT and Data StorageMain objective first.
>>3603724I would be up to power the facility. HOWEVER!! I think we cna use Prima to buy ourselfs more time. Then once she has done her thin we cna go to turn in the power and once we finish collecting the data and the owner comes trying to stop us we overload the reactor and let all of it explode in their faces.
>>3603730IT could at least allow us to acess mutiple points. If they work on a single network we could pull files from the less secured places and narrow our area of search.But then again you would think such things would be in a private system.
>>3603685>You'll probably take her up on that, then. Let's get looking. (Where?)>3rd floorCan't the bots turn up their eye sockets to use as torches? + Randa can see in the dark so hopefully we can just brute force our way past most barriers and limit power consumption
>>3603730I actually hope people come.I'm curious about the effect of Flux Wave on mechs. Unregulated power surges tend to be bad for equipment.
>>3603775Well, we do have a flaming sword we could use as a torch...
>>3603800i'm too even if it's just to turn the power on as we walk away and once the people get in expecting to face a invader we just blew the thing sky high.
>>3603820Let's just remember to power down our mecha first.Oh god, it will really suck for the people plugged into their mecha.Wait. Does this mean we can steal their mecha by killing just the pilots?
>>3603837Unlikely since we would need something to carry the mechs and to pilot you apparently need a pilot and a AICA.
>>3603839I have the feeling that we only need a robot to steal a mech because jago was capable of moving our mech without our direct permission.
>>3603845>“MOVE!” Jago shouts, and almost without your permission your mech jukes to the side>almost
Last thread is not archived btw
>>3603839No, what we need is something to carry pilots to the mechs. Or just pick them up.Jago has a rocket pack, so he must have some flight capabilities. So what we need to do is steal a transport ship.
>>3603903Something something pirates of the caribbean.We're gonna steal a ship. That ship.
>>3603903I don't understand why do you wan't to steal other people's mechas when we have our own super-duper secret project top of the shelf 'Zeon' mech, which, you know, we aren't allowed to leave behind - the contract implies that this job is also a testing run for this new model.And I don't think that we have anything that could kill the pilot and leave their mech in operable condition.>No, what we need is something to carry pilots to the mechs. Or just pick them up.You mean to get Miranda close to mechs? We borrowed Owlia's Levitation Crystal and Vanishing Sigil to be able to approach them unnoticed, but I already said that this is not a good idea in the first place.>So what we need to do is steal a transport ship.Our job is to pilot 'Zeon', not grand theft of walkers.
>>3603685>>You'll probably take her up on that, then. Let's get looking. (1st Floor: Transformative Cell Biology Research)
>>3604076>I don't understand why do you wan't to steal other people's mechas when we have our own super-duper secret project top of the shelf 'Zeon' mech, which, you know, we aren't allowed to leave behindSo that we can give them to Owlia and have a Magical Mecha Girl Squadron.ESPECIALLY since we have to leave the Zeon mech behind. Speaking of which, we should be sure to grab blueprints from it.If we are able to disable and capture mecha in good shape, we absolutely should.> You mean to get Miranda close to mechs? We borrowed Owlia's Levitation Crystal and Vanishing Sigil to be able to approach them unnoticed, but I already said that this is not a good idea in the first place.I missed that discussion, and I also disagree with it.Besides, our best bet is to rob a place where they keep Mecha. Since they'll have ships for transporting them there anyways. > Sneak onto ship. Flux wave right before take-off to disable pilots. Have Jago fly us out of there.Besides, Mecha must be worth a lot of money. Maybe if we get enough, we can convince them to let us keep the prototype. They're usually much better than production runs as they're built as "proof of concept" before budgetary concerns change things.
>>3604123Aren't we already getting blueprints from old mechs and some weapons for doing extra work?
>>3604123>Basic Hangar- A simple addition to the HQ that allows for the storage and protection of large vehicles. Has room for two vehicles, and comes with vehicle ‘security’’ zones to allow safe transportation of vehicles to mission location.We don't have enough space for another vehicle, Transport Heli and Jet Fighter would take up the only two slots that the Hangar would provide, and Hangar expansions cost 100 Lotes. So we'll probably have to do 3-5 more missions to be able to deploy mechas or leave one of the aircrafts mothballed. And then there's also upkeep, but honestly I don't understand how it works except that it takes cash from company funds instead of HQ pool.>rob the place where they keep mechaAn unlikely scenario, though maybe we can ask Sal to do the same trick that he did back in Artificer crossover if something like that would actually happen.>Maybe if we get enough, we can convince them to let us keep the prototype.I think that the price of Zeon is comparable to our paycheck for this job.>So that we can give them to OwliaThis>>3604140. We can also ask Prima to scan Zeon, maybe lending her our FutureSight could help.
>>3603685>You'll probably take her up on that, then. Let's get looking.> 3rd Floor: IT and Data StorageWhere the scientific reports and studies are likely to be stored in.I also want to know what's in that basement, can we use the futuresight to scan the area. does it have an x-ray app installed though?
>>3604249I'm 80% sure there's some hidden entrance where all the actually good stuff is while all the other floors were stripped from anything valuable long time ago except for clues on how to get to the secret floor.
>>3604257We should test that theory. Find an elevator or something and try to blast straight down. See what happens.
>>3604271We could try to use the mech's radar. A low enough frequency should be able to pass through walls and show us if there is some sort hidden room.
>>3604271Honestly what I said is baseless speculation, so please don't do that.
>>3604274A combat-oriented radar wouldn't work like that. You wouldn't want it to work like that; you'd get too many false positives and sensor ghosts.
If we go to IT, then we might find the desks of the sysadmins, and either their little notepad of passwords, their spreadsheet of passwords, or get access to their password manager.
>>3604283Its worth a try, though.
>>3604257We could try to push some mana into the power circuits and trace where they go.
>>3604910we can also use gartoun to scout the other parts of the building.
>>3604934Gartoun cost mana.
>>3605125so? there is lots of mana here and so far, gartoun hasn't drained us out of mana in any of his appearances.
>>3605128>Magical Level: Low (Estimated Recovery at 1500 mana per night's sleep) >>3603858donehttp://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/3575114/
>>3605128No...the facility is not in a hot zone so there is no mana around.Unless you are saying that the facility is being powered by seither.
>>3605204We used gartoun when we were mana drained and all of the drain came from the multiple walls that we used. We also didn't get drained when we used him to kill ferrah.>>3605206Our mech is powered by seither, which means that we can tap from its fuel tank or directly from aegis. Given that the researcher whatshisname is really eager to gain research from us, i doubt they would deny our request for mana.
>>3605125>>3605204>>3605224I think that Gartoum has his own separate manapool and the speed at which he spends it depends on amount of mana around - he quickly drained himself out when he was in the Intersection while he could mess around for an hour or so during the last mission, although he noted that the mana there is not as abundant compared to his world of origin.But! If he has his own manapool and he has to try his best to follow our orders means that he's likely emptying his tank after each summon, so he probably has to spend some time to restore his mana reserves - there were days long intervals between using the ring. Honestly I think we should read the scans of summoning books and learn how to handle him, how does his mana works and how does the Bond work. Oh, and one more thing - Gartoum is unfamiliar with this tech level, so there's not much he can do if we summon him now.
>>3605356>he quickly drained himself out when he was in the IntersectionBut that was more of the intersection inherent antimagic/mashed up magic field fucking with every magical being in there. That's why Mono doesn't need to feed on others essences or why its harder for us to train magic skills outside of specific training grounds that are built to negate said field. >But! If he has his own manapool and he has to try his best to follow our orders means that he's likely emptying his tank after each summon, so he probably has to spend some time to restore his mana reserves - there were days long intervals between using the ring. I'm not so sure about that. Honestly, i'm not sure of how many days passed between us using him to deal with ferrah and the ambush, but it couldn't have been more than three, and if the mana tank thing is true, then this is the right time to use him because he can understand the world(and ask us how this modern stuff works) without many pressures and he will be acclimated for the next time that we need him.>Gartoum is unfamiliar with this tech level, so there's not much he can do if we summon him now.The idea is that he would search for hidden rooms. Given that he moves trough shadows, it would be extremely easy for him to slip between the cracks and find said rooms.
>>3605404>I'm not so sure about that.Yeah, all we can do is to make blind guesses untill we actually read the manual. We'll probablty have to push it as >Other option when we return back to the Aegis Bay, but for some reason I think that there aren't many anons who would be interested in it.
>>3605476Probably the same reason why no one voted to read the summoning books in the summon world.
>>3605488But we read them back then, it's just that we didn't have our own summon at that time to justify a more extensive research.
>>3605476Support
>>3603685I'll support >>3604934Since we're using our Mecha for combat anyways, the low rate of mana replenishment isn't really a huge concern. We're also essentially carrying around giant mana tanks in our mechas.
>>3604934Support
>>3606126Could we ask Crane for extra Seither tanks to fuel us directly?
>>3606517i don't think there is a space for it in the walker...Not to mentiin we don't know the size of a seither tank and as far as i remember Seither can be found naturaly in crytal form (Tiberium sun anyone?) and gaseous form.We could probably ask for a container that has a seither crystal in it and try to absorv it the same way we do it with mana crystals?
>>3606529Maybe we can crush up some crystals and snort it, or get a capsule of Seither in gas form and inhale it like we're taking a hit?Just something to entertain ourselves by freaking out the locals during the downtime between objectives.Also let's us know if we can use a quick refill of mana if we have to go loud with mana blasts when retrieving an objective.
>>3606536Anon, that's some really weird stuff, I don't want Miranda to snort glass. Can't we just borrow one of their Seither crystals and use it to fill the Mana Condenser?
What the heck
>>3606536>Just something to entertain ourselves by freaking out the locals during the downtime between objectives.But why? we're already hated by mostly everyone; we don't need to make things harder just for a little gag.
>>3606536Considering that Seither exposure in large doses make the normies go crazy and whatever, not to mention the dangers of snorting crystal dust and possibly mana miasma.I th8ink i would rather go with this: >>3606564 and experiment the condeser of just sit and meditate in a room full of Seither crystals. Same way how Lori recovered from her coma during our job with Dynamic Methods by resting inside their mana reactor.
>>3606627I'm confident that doing so would work. I was wondering about combat applications; could we use the gaseous form of Seither to give ourselves a quick boost of mana under combat conditions? Since it's not practical to keep ourselves hooked up to the mana condenser while fighting.
>>3606564>>3606617>>3606622There's always the one anon with the really nonsensical ideas.
>>3606639I think the most likely thing we could do is leave a mana crystal were the seither is let the air itself fill the crystal up with seither and then we drain the contained mana from the crystal.Also it's not like getting a recharge from a mana crystal takes that long.
>>3606639Mana = seither is still just a theory at this point. And mana crystals do the same thing already. The only slow thing about them is fishing them out of the bag, and that can be mitigated with a little prep beforehand.
>>3606657Didn't Randa said that Seither sounded a lot like mana to her? I guess that could still make it count as a theory though...
>>3606622>we're already hated by mostly everyoneI just remembered that we're wearing sunglasses indoors 24/7, so Aegis pilots probably think that we're some Kool Kid douchebag, aside from the Scrapper thing.
>>3606669Other than the few who saw our eyes that is
>>3606669They probably think we looted the glasses from someone else. Since i think that's the only think of our clothes that aren't dirty or ragged or damaged in anyway.
>>3606695I always gind funny that the CLEAR sunglasses. Ended up being tinted. It would be funnier if they were red tinted as if we wanted to hide our eyes colours.
>>3606704>CLEAR sunglasseswait, didn't it get changed when we came here?
>>3606731It did. That's what i find funny.
>>3606666It should work like that, because there is no way that all the other forms of mana are exactly the same as the one she uses. OR, mana works just like the elements in the periodic table and its immutable from universe to universe and therefore, seither is the same as mana because they are fundamentally the same thing.
> "So, what'd you call me for?"> "Crane. You're aware that our recent...asset...is unusual. Exceedingly so."> "Oh, rather! It's very fascinating, and honestly, the methods and technology used to transport her here have fascinating applications- but, then again, her, ah...patron...did say as much. Have you made further progress on that front?"> "Nothing. I thought that investigating her AICAs would help a bit- match up some details or at least cause some vague similarities to crop up, but...nothing. On THAT front, though? There's some REALLY strange idiosyncrasies in their design- they're juuuust similar enough to your usual AICAs to make you think they're just heavily modded, but something about them just doesn't wash. The design and features make me think more miniature Walkers than Combat Assistants."> "Tate, Tate, Tate. She IS a Scrapper. You can't tell me you haven't heard stories about them being modded to be combat-capable, can you?"> "Of course I've heard! But that's not what I...nevermind. Anyway, what I'm personally curious about is the girl herself. Let's get back to that. Do you REALLY think she's Seither dependent?"> "Honestly, I do. Or at least, I believe she needs it to perform at peak capacity. I don't think we want to have her TOO rowdy, though, so..."> "Goodness, no. She'll probably get enough on her outings. We don't have to risk our people like that for now."> "Oh, speaking of. Avos talked with me earlier, as well as Kine and a couple of others. He was...well, he wasn't happy we didn't tell him immediately about our new guest. Had to clarify THAT. Then he said he was intrigued by her, despite being a Scrapper- or maybe because of it, to be honest- but also suggested we be wary. He also requested that he be permitted to join her on a mission some time soon."> "Avos WOULD suggest that. The whole thing is sport to him. Wants to check out the competition, no doubt."> "True. I DO wish he'd be a touch more responsible..."> "So, getting directly to the point. I think we need to get some blood and tissue samples. If she's managed to integrate Seither on a natural, biological scale...well, if we could replicate that, I think that'd solve a lot of humanity's problems, in theory."> "Hmm. Interesting idea. Do you think she'll be so forthcoming? Or that we have means to keep her under even with the Seither in her system?"> "Not at all. Most modern anesthetics get diluted by Seither, if you'll recall, and she's still a Scrapper. Probably sleeps light. That plus those modded AICAs? She clues in, things could get ugly, quick."> "Well, we'll figure something out. Maybe we'll get lucky. In the meantime, we'll use her as intended. Have to admit, this certainly complicates our initial 'retirement plan'."> "Yeah. Too valuable to just dispose of. We can pick this back up later, then. Heh, would be funny if a Scrapper of all people ends up being the key to restoring mankind."> "Very. See you around, then."
>>3606775And this would be the downside to the client not being clued into our nature. I'm not surprised they were planning to off us; with how secretive this job is it makes sense as we're only a Scrapper, and could in theory tell tales at some point.
>>3606775So, aside from the other predictably disturbing plans to study Miranda's 'adaptation' to mana, now I'm wondering if they ever planned to Pay her. I mean it's one thing to try to clean up loose ends, but not actually paying the costs of the mission is another thing entirely.
>>3606800There's not much point in paying a dead man walking. I assume they have a ability to pay, otherwise Sal wouldn't have had it listed. But he should have paid better attention to their motivations. A very valuable secret + a lone "raider" no one will miss = dead.
>>3606791i think it fine.>>3606775>Miranda is a Newtype.kek
>>3606791>And this would be the downside to the client not being clued into our nature.But they literally never know that we are an alien from between the universes. That's bad business and would prompt them to do more stupid things like try to kidnap us with more force.>>3606800>now I'm wondering if they ever planned to Pay her.Well, we're talking about a megacorp that is letting us use their top of the line/top secret mech and they are basically one of the alpha predators in this world. There is no way in hell that they would honor the deal. But it allows us to completely fuck them when they decide to off us.
>>3606808You are implying that Miranda and the bots can't handle this people.If they try to kill randa they break the contract if they break the contract well... we can break all of then and get all the money we want from their corpses.
>>3606811Kinda one of the reasons why Randa likes to up the intimidation. Stops people/clients from thinking they can get away with the deal or hurt her.
>>3606819>the Plainess focused outfit was a mistake.
>>3606819but keep in mind that we're talking about a megacorp. For them you are just another number due to how powerful they are. Add to it that their ego is very much inflated because they not only stopped, but are beating an invading alien force and well... that will make them very arrogant, to say the least.
>>3606811Sal did imply before we sent off clients usually have at least an idea that we're very much from not around here, even if they don't have a full understanding. That's why we're a scraper this time.>>3606815I was merely describing their line of thought. If they try to get violent we can absolutely make them regret it. But if they jump us and knock us out we won't even be able to request an emergency recall until we awake. We've seen this before. Remember the Outgoer we rescued that Sal managed to wrangle a favor out of?Pride cometh before a fall. Never think you are invincible.
>>3606837well yeah, but again, they never know the actual truth and this is a megacorp. They just don't care, specially when it involves deniable assets.>But if they jump us and knock us out we won't even be able to request an emergency recall until we awakeSal can Evac us without our consent if the need arises, but that would be incredibly embarrassing and sal would never let it die. It would be outgoer's discount 2: electric boogaloo.
>>3606830Let this be a lesson i guess. It was mentioned that to much plainess could have some interesting results. Now that we know what a high plainess does. Maybe we keep it at the low, or just use it for jobs that require to keep ourselfs easy to hide.Like the one job that was asking for us to go scout the badlands. Ot has it's usefullness but not for this job.>>3606834That may be true but high intimidarion would have they thinking better about trying anything funny. We kinda got lucly that we became to valuable to be disposed and that Randa (and most of the girls) are usualy pretty resistant to firearms.Although we never tested getting shot by a beam/plasma weapon. I think it would be in the same effect as a magic blast.
>>3606837I think you are just being unhealthly paranoid. Miranda is also with the bots
I mean, we can just show them that we're TOO dangerous to try to rip off. Just have to do it in a not too meta-gamey way.
>>3606842>>3606845>That may be true but high intimidarion would have they thinking better about trying anything funny.You know, i think that the low intimidation will work in our favor. That will make them think that we can be killed by a single man in a room, instead of trying to blow us up inside the mech. Its better to make them feel that we are an easy target than forcing them to kill us in more ...dramatic and effective ways
>>3606845Use our skill of harmonized mana and start to make the walker fire magic bolts and use light barriers.That should give then a scare.
>>3606845Probably have to Nebula Blast a couple of times during our assignments. Like the task to destroy this facility.
>>3606846>>3606847Imho that's metagaming, unless you come up with a reason to do it intentionally while in-character
>>3606848You think we could nebula blast and use the walker seither reactor to charge the blast?
>>3606848>>3606847that would just force them to blow up the mech. Now, i'm pulling these numbers out of my ass, but having the key to humanity's survival(and have everyone pay you for said survival) and not paying our exorbitant fees is worth the destruction of the mech we are in and maybe the whole facility we are on.
>>3606851You just gave it. A Nebula buster would be perfect to blow up the facility.Nothing more scary then a living walking nuke.
>>3606854>thinking they would blow up their prototype just to eliminate one personCome now anon...and if they ever do that we can probably sirvive with a magical barrier
>>3606856I don't think Miranda needs to do anything particularly scary today, she'll probably make the "angel of death" crap his pants a bit when they go on a mission together.Ez pz
>>3606843I don't expect us to get KO'd and strung up. But it never hurts to keep an eye out. Just in case.>>3606848While the bulk of the fighting looks like it'll be in the mechs, at only 1500 regen a day we'd need a real good reason to spend that much.>>3606851While I like these little glimpses into other characters, this isn't the first time it's revealed something Randa would have no reason to know. I wish they wouldn't reveal anything metagame-able like this.
>>3606854They're not blowing us up now, and they can't blow us up when we'll be delivering the Volatile McGuffin Power Source.
>>3606861Hmm fair point. Also it would be better to save mana for a real emergency and just plainly using it without a care is a stupid move. Even if we have a 20% decrease in mana cost.
>>3606863Well, honestly sometimes anons can completely miss the point. Like that thing with the Veilspeakers in the last mission - they've mentioned the Weild, and later we learned about the Wild and the Veil, but no one clued in that these are the aspects of the same thing, so then we had one paranoid anon trying to force his ideas that Veilspeakers are evil illuminati when they were some sort of recluse monks that worship the good dead gods instead. So I wouldn't fault QMs for being direct from time to time when anons can't clue in.
>>3606859Think about it as a megacorp. The profits you will gain with humanity's survival are infinitely higher than the cost of destroying the mech. Also, the mech can be remade and they only need to kill us once. The math is clear and we'd need to be as big as another megacorp in order for them to take us seriously.>>3606864Unless they ask us to guard the place while their "recovery" team arrives (with mech disabling weapons and lots of rocket launchers). But that is an extreme case. I'm betting that right now the'll try to kill us with more cost effective methods, like with a bullet to the head.
>>3606863>real good reason to spend that much.Can luring Orion reinforcements into proximity to the facility or blowing up a (hypothetical) hidden bunker under the building count?
>>3606848Oh hey, that's similar of my thoughts about if it was possible that Miranda could use her magic channeled through the mech, and take advantage of the mana it uses to cast spells for less mana draw from herself, or more powerful spells from it's addition. That and making it do physically impossible feats it was never designed and built for. But not sure if that might be doing too much on a mission that's is meant to debut Prima and Jago.I'm also wondering if healing people with spells fueled by mana/Seither could somehow make them more resistant/adapted to it, but that seems unlikely.
>>3606875Blowing us up also has the chance of destroying us so any explosion that would require to blow up the mech and keep enough of our corpse intact to be researched won't be enough to destroy a magic barrier so a explosion is unlikely to take us out.
>>3606879The first option seems to be possible if we harmonize our mana witht he one feeding the mech? I think we will have a huge boost in synch with it and also be able to make it shoot magic blasts thanks to the emphatic setting they have for it.
>>3606875>I'm betting that right now the'll try to kill us with more cost effective methods, like with a bullet to the head.With the scientific interest, they be weighing "preservation of the body" against "making sure it kills us before we can react" and "we've only got one shot at this". I dunno how the math adds up for them, but I hope "bullet to the back of the head" isn't the result. We're sturdy, but not that sturdy.>>3606879While the mech may run a Seither, that doesn't mean it can channel it. Just because something runs on electricity doesn't mean you can use it to shoot lightning. Not unless you fiddle with it before hand and aren't worried about it working afterwards.
>>3606863By the way, with the Meditation Room bonus it would cost us only 3000 mana out of 12500, and we'll have to spend a couple of days resting and waiting for them to repair Zeon, plus we usually fight inside the mech, sooo...
>>3606891Wait i fucked up the math, it's 3200
>>3606875I think that in the extreme case that they give up on the whole contract and just want to study Miranda to save humanity, they will want a live test subject first and foremost. Killing their mutant mercenary scrapper would be like killing the last silverback gorilla to harvest it's DNA, a damn shame and needlessly wasteful.
>>3606889We..actually are. Lori got shot by a firearm in the robot world and she was fine
We are probably more dangerous outside of the mech than in. Something to remember if it's ever disabled, or we fake it to pop out the cockpit and d cut theirs into pieces with a magiwave
>>3606882>any explosion that would require to blow up the mech and keep enough of our corpse intact to be researchedI think they would assume there surely exist more like us elsewhere. Like i said, the benefits of killing us outweigh everything else.Explosions are pretty quick. Now, given that we can be tagged by bullets, I don't think that we have the reflexes to block an explosion at point blank, specially if we also have to keep jago and prima safe.>>3606897>Killing their mutant mercenary scrapper would be like killing the last silverback gorilla to harvest it's DNA, a damn shame and needlessly wasteful.Remember that their original plan was for us to retrieve a power source that would restore humanity. We are just a nice extra that appeared out of nowhere. Unique, yes, but not indispensable.>>3606906In the mafia world we got shot and bled. I think that handler also said in that same thread that we aren't bullet proof.
>>3606775I'm honestly shocked they didn't vpnsider buying our DNA off us.>>3606873That anon was right about them using the other races and being willing to manipulate them "for the greater good" though?
>>3606918Eh whatever, worrying about that i useless and i would rather deal with the problem when it happens rather then plan for it.
>Do you think she'll be so forthcoming?I think the least troublesome solution would be to show Miranda's overwhelming magical power during the assignments while agreeing to medical tests so they can work with the limited material that we'd agree to offer. You know, speak softly and carry a big club.
>>3606926We will be charging for those tests right?
Oh, and I don't remember if it works for sure, but we can take off some of our clothing items and take intentional hits to our stats.
>>3606926I'm afraid all that's going to do is make them prep better beforehand.I don't think we can agreed to the tests. Considering what that external information would to the balance of the world, it would fall under spreading of disruptive information. usually that's tech (no plasma on a kinetics-only), but, say, unleashing a virus or introducing the concept of communism are also things that would be bad for a world's stability, something the Dealmakers are trying to avoid.
>>3606938Okay anon, you're really grating on me with your paranoid speculations and husbanding mana when we're topped off. Let's pretend that this OOC glimpse never happened and act according to what we actually know IC.
>>3606930I actually proposed that last thread, so definitely down with this.
>>3606891oh shoot, we could totally blow a nebula blast one every deployment then. That's good to know.
Came up with some ideas for group training. My -tism power level is showing too much here, but I decided to do this list anyways. Used the old pastebin cause why not?https://pastebin.com/S0sLtv2B
I don't think this was meant to be some kinda OOC warning since they basically called it off for now.Metagaming sucks though. I like interludes, but not when they cause problems.
>>3607255I don''t think this will change our performance that much though. We've had several texts like this one and everything has gone well so far, so as long as we understand that we can't abuse this information because miranda doesn't know about it, everything will be fine.
this is just some silly musings but I wonder if Prima can hack into our clients database or whatever. If the time comes for our client to renegade on the contract we can blackmail them with spreading confidential data to their rivals (bluffing and all) >>3607210I like it, this quest really is good for autistic lists like this one. Yeah when we get back we should arrange a meeting for "SES employee technique improvement" with the main goal of making everyone a versatile outgoer regardless of the types of jobs (stealth, narrative bound, hunting etc.)
>>3607268>SpoilerMaybe? But we'd really have a good reason, which we sadly don't have right now.
>>3607255Honestly I kinda am waiting for a client to betray us.So that we can steal ALL of their stuff.This includes their lives. Do slaves get turned into motes if they're taken as payment?
>>3607833Genie rules, no sacrifices, no souls, no sentiments count as valuable. Just cold hard cash or non-sentient goods that can be turned into motes.
>>3607833>Do slaves get turned into motes if they're taken as payment?Even if that could work, it goes against miranda's morals
>>3607833Would livestock, pets, or anything living? I doubt it. Too many potential knock-on effects.
>>3607833>Honestly I kinda am waiting for a client to betray us.I think this is so far the job with the highest chance of the client betraying us. It's a bit like the wild west job (in terms of who's hiring us - client being a private corporation that can make people disappear without having to worry about law enforcement) with the exception that this time our client won't have any idea about Miranda's abilities. Unless we later on have to get out of our mech and start blowing shit up with spells.So maybe your wish will come true.
>>3607964>Miranda punching mechs with her bare hands.Even if that does sounds awesome i hope we can avoid it.
>>3607978Me too. This is a sci-fi world so maybe their materials are so sturdy that we can't beat the mechs without having to rely on nebula buster. And it's just not worth it as long as the other option is to use our own mech to beat the opponent.And it's the bots' first mission so I think letting them do as much work as possible is a good idea.
>>3607978> Mana fists thoughGonna go full Rourke Susan Starwind.
>>3606938You're assuming that samples would show that, what, exactly? There is absolutely no indication that the intersection changes anyone's DNA. Now Miranda is a magical girl and may be different from normal humans, but whatever they find is not something they can use or make sense of.Instead of shutting down everything with paranoia and wild assumptions that for some reason we are wholly incapable of dealing with a hit when our CV includes conquering nations and destroying continents single handedly, we can just ask Sal if it's ok.You know later if they ask politely and this is no longer meta
>>3608067>not going Master Asia.
>>3607978I think we could topple a mech with the new Over-Channel technique. If it was standing still and not doing anything else that is.
>>3608123>Not knowing who Rourke susan starwind is.Lurk Moar.
Wait, is Roarke, not Rourke
>>3608137>not knowing who Master Asia isFuck off, Normie.
>>3608280oh i know who Master asia is, but in the context of /qst/, Roarke is just a little bit more important than him, normie.
>>3608301Nah. Some shitty quests character will never outshine the masterclass that is anime on a weebsite like 4chan, autist.
>>3608339Roarke (autocorrect before) had a successful and surprisingly realistic harem of strong independent women that had Darkskin Ara-Ara Emprese, Cute Mecha Engineer Nerd Childhood Friend, DFC Gothic Lolita Trap, Yandere Space Ace Broken Smile, Hair Drills Alien Noble, and Roarke also banged the hot reporter.All of them honestly earned through being a Big Damn Hero and a truly silly amount of seduction crit rolls.They fight beside him, with each other, and all have their bottom lines that would have ended the relationships if we crossed them. Like, a shocking amount of work and risk was put into it. No isekai "slave girl falls in love after being treated with the bare standard of respect a human being is due."Also we had grapple-kun.
>>3608535Thanks for supporting me. I appreciate you taking my side, by providing proof for how garbage the characters are.
>"slave girl falls in love after being treated with the bare standard of respect a human being is due."Except. you know, that's how we got fatima. and she was a princess, but those are just extra details.
>>3608671Nah man, we kidnapped Fatima first remember?And we didn't buy her as a slave, we fought a legit army including a secret super-weapon to rescue her, thumbing our nose at the main Powers of the setting to do so despite being in a diplomatically vulnerable position. >>3608608Nigga you just too lazy to read and that's why you have shit taste.
>>3609152But she fell in love with us when she was prisoner in our cells and we showed her our skills with the "french harp". The only reason she didn't try to fuck us on the spot was her customs.
>>3609152Not that anon, anon but harem anime of any kind is just bad taste and I won't take anything related to that seriously.
>>3609173>>3609152Uh, guys. This is getting way off-topic.
>>3609182all the waifus were hard earned, specially fatima. We literally tanked a nuke to the face for her and almost died due to it. The only one that saved us was one anon that had the uncanny ability to always roll a 10 on a d10
>>3609196>>3609182>>3609173>>3609152Wrong quest anons.
>>3603685“Alright, then,” you decide. “I’ll be relying on your for that, in that case. Let’s take a look at IT.” She nods, and you both set out to find the nearest staircase.Along the way, you find a number of indicators that despite the relative cleanliness of the place, something clearly happened. There are old books still open and worn to tatters, sludge on various tables and desks that could only be someone’s meal left to rot. Desks that have drawers open, and more. Signs, essentially, of people having left in a hurry. Curious.You find the stairs with little trouble- mostly just following signs that were still understandable. You reach the 3rd Floor, and it’s pretty easy to locate the server room and the various IT desks for the workers. Hopefully, you’ll be able to figure out what’s what here. It’s a pretty large room- at least three rows of dusty and old servers, wires and plugs still inserted, but everywhere. Hopefully they’d still work. “Hm. We’d need to power one of these AND get the system working…” Suddenly, you’re not so certain Prima would be able to deal with this…“Perhaps not,” Prima says nonetheless as she looks around. “It’s likely that the local machines would have data on them, and there aren’t as many, nor are they as power intensive. I may be able to briefly power them all, search for file histories within specific parameters, and utilize that to hone in on our desired server target- provided what we desire is not on a local system in and of itself, that is.”“And if it isn’t there?” you ask. It’s both for her learning and actual curiosity. “Hm...well, then.” Suddenly, she jogs off towards the nearby server room, and you follow, only to catch her rooting around for...something around the back. She at least seems undaunted. “I may be able to- ah, success!” It’s a plug, but a rather large one. They couldn’t have fed all that power through one socket, though…and as you look further, you do see more than a few of similar size. At least their wires are still neat and tidily arranged after all this time... “This should be a power system for a certain number of servers. Similarly I should be able to manually power them myself in sequence until we find what we require. It would require more power from me, but I would estimate my data search speed to be increased by approximately 85%, resulting in a time save of approximately 73 minutes. ”> “On second thought, maybe it’s better to just power the system. I don’t want to have you weak in the knees like that.”> “Let’s start with the local computers. We can handle it if anything tries to kick us out.”> “If you’re positive about those numbers, then alright. Search the servers. We’ll just have to make it back faster.”> OtherGeez, that's a lot more discussion than I was expecting...
>>3609243>“If you’re positive about those numbers, then alright. Search the servers. We’ll just have to make it back faster.”>Also send gartoun to explore the area and get used to modern technology.
>>3609243Seconding >>3609267
>>3609243>>3609267Supporting. Time is of the essence right now.
>>3609243>> “Let’s start with the local computers. We can handle it if anything tries to kick us out.”She's not going to be learning much if she's too tired to function well.Against Gartoun. It doesn't make and sense to bring him out here.
>>3609326why not? he needs to get used to modern tech and this place is dark and dead. That's the perfect combination for him to learn.
>>3609243> “Let’s start with the local computers. We can handle it if anything tries to kick us out.”
>>3609243>>Also send gartoun to explore the area and get used to modern technology.>>3609243Also supporting this
>>3609326Hey, paranoia-anon, if we accidentally activate automated defences then having one more guy with us would help a lot.
>>3609243>> “On second thought, maybe it’s better to just power the system. I don’t want to have you weak in the knees like that.”No ring guy.
>>3609243> “Let’s start with the local computers. We can handle it if anything tries to kick us out.”Bring up Gartoum. They'll probably think it's an alien if he attacks them.
>>3609243>“Let’s start with the local computers. We can handle it if anything tries to kick us out.”I'm worried of triggering black ice on prima, let's take this carefully.
>>3609243> “On second thought, maybe it’s better to just power the system. I don’t want to have you weak in the knees like that.”Silly Prima, this mission is to test you and Jago as outgoers, don't go knocking yourself out of the action at the first opportunity, that's just bad form.
>>3609243>> “On second thought, maybe it’s better to just power the system. I don’t want to have you weak in the knees like that.”
>>3609243>“Let’s start with the local computers. We can handle it if anything tries to kick us out.”
>>3609243> “On second thought, maybe it’s better to just power the system. I don’t want to have you weak in the knees like that.”although I agree with getting Gartoum out to check out every room and grab papers or something and get used to advanced tech.
>>3609243>“Let’s start with the local computers. We can handle it if anything tries to kick us out.”I'm against summoning Gartoum because the gun we got from our client might have a listening device hidden in it.
>>3609908Scan the gun with the futuresight or ask prima if she can see any tracking device on it. Not that hard, paranoid-chan.
>>3609939If we give it a thorough checkup before summoning Gartoum, then I'm all for summoning him.
>>3609939Oh right, should've done it ages ago. Good thinking anon.
>>3609940It's a gun. Just unload it and pass a flux wave through it. That should fry any electronic device in there, if there is any because guns have no spaces for anything else other than their required components. Also, a bug in a gun is a stupid idea because it will destroy the microphone or other sensible things with the recoil and the noise it generates.
>>3610164It's a sci-fi gun, possibly with a sci-fi bug installed - I don't need to explain how it works.
>>3610164It's not a purely mechanical chemical gun, though.It's a mag-rail gun.
>>3610177>EM pulse on every shot>contains sensitive electronicspick one.
Now that I started thinking about it, did they give us a holster with the gun? If you put the mic there then you won't have to worry about it being destroyed when the gun is used for the first time.
>>3610174>>3610177Having a bug that transmit to their HQ stupid for a simple reason: its a huge security risk for a so called black ops mission. If someone captures us or we lose the gun, whoever has it will know who our contractor is due to the bug. Also, something that is transmitting information will have some kind of output signal, which again, is a huge no-no. And it should have a battery to power the antenna that sends the data back to HQ. And it should also have some kind of IR receiver to have power and not run out of energy 20 minutes later. This might be a sci fi world, but there is no proof that they can create something so small and so powerful.Either way, if you all are so jittery with the gun...and now the holster for some reason, just put the things inside the bag of holding. Problem solved.
>>3610182I also think that there's no bug in the gun for the reasons from >>3610207But that doesn't mean that the tech of this world has to still be electronics. They could be using photonic chips, and we won't know until we get a look at their current tech.
>>3610207I mean, don't we have a comms system?You know, one they could just have always listeningfor key words like how cellphones do?Or just recording to data dump when we return to base?A bug in the gun is silly though, but being paranoid when on a black ops isn't silly.
>>3610449The mech intercom? You're right, which is why I thought we agreed to avoid talking about Intersection stuff while in the mech.But we're on the ground now. The only thing we have on us they gave us is the gun, which is why some anons were freaking out about it being bugged.
>>3610449i'm pretty damn sure that they are recording the cabin, that's why i was saying that we shouldn't talk about the intersection while we're inside the mech. but the gun bug...well, its silly.
>>3609243>> “On second thought, maybe it’s better to just power the system. I don’t want to have you weak in the knees like that.”>Summon gartoumIt's fine to be paranoid but there's no reason to be retarded about it. A microphone bug on a gun? Come on. They've got the mech comms and surely a satellite uplink with video feed. We're on foot, underground, in a structure without power so this is probably the safest place possible at the moment.
>>3610933I would make a comment on that but this idea of spying and bugged gun has gone to far and i would rather not continue it.So i will just say that yes this bugged gun is a stupid idea an we should jut move to other topic. Such as were we will sebd Gartoum
>>3610964>Such as were we will send GartoumHe could check the first floor in case someone decides to attack us, or Vera survived.
>>3610964He could check the bottom floor and see if there's anything there we should check out, or if it really is just maintenance utilities.
>>3610964I still don't think we should, but if we're going to it needs to be somewhere someone from multiple eras lower in the tech tree can still be useful. We can't send him looking for anything, he's not going to recognize anything. Overwatch is pointless with Jago outside already.
>>3610978I would be okay with that.>>3610986You mean the Basement? I was going to suggest it but Gart oum doesn't know tech so i doubt he would manage to describe to us or would be able to find anything usefull inside.>>3610999i think the voting for calling him is already winning so...
>>3610999We're doing it so he can soak up all the new stuff so he could be usefull later, you silly willy.
>>3611331I know, but him wandering around isn't going to help him learn anything. If we want him to learn, he's going to have to be taught. At least enough to gain a foothold. And we're on the clock.
>>3611446Are we? I mean i know we don't know if the people we just scared away warned the Orion higher ups about what happend here yet.But i think that Prima's plan of not turning the piwer on so people will figure oit were exactly we are should give us some cover for a time. Otherwise i can't see the reason for her to suggest that since we will blow this place anyway.
>>3610999He's just looking for secret rooms and such.Also anything alive, or glowing, or using mana/seither which he DOES know about.
Sorry for taking so long with updating.Seems like the choice is 'local computers'but also call Gartoum and see if he can help.Writing!
>>3613287Not a problem. Patience is a virtued.
Thinking about it, you can appreciate the quicker resolution...but the cost of her getting worn out so much isn’t as appealing. “Let’s start with the local computers. We can handle it if anything tries to kick us out.” Hopefully, you’ll be able to figure out what’s where before anything heinous happens.“Very well, I’ll begin, then.” At least she doesn’t argue the point- wonder if it’s because she would prefer not draining herself so much either. Rather, she just heads towards the nearest computer and beings to set herself up as she takes the plug in her hand. This IS going to take a while, though, and part of you wishes you had another body here to give the place a quick comb-over. Nothing major, just a bit of skulking around and checking in a shadow or two to make sure nothing’s hiding in them. You’re going to have to- wait.Feeling in your bag briefly, you close your hand around a small piece of jewelry you nearly forgot…“Gartoum, come out!” The inky blackness immediately begins flowing, causing Prima to briefly stop and look over in concern.“Er, Miss M- Lane? You are aware that, uhh…” she seems torn between coming over to help and continuing her duty.“It’s fine,” you assure as the black, inky smoke coalesces. “I’d like you to meet another member of our little group, in a sense. This would be-”“Gartouuum!” the individual in question states as he forms- a bipedal form that resembles a bipedal mantis-like insect this time, it seems, with an elongated head and shadow robes covering most of his body. “The lord of shadow and mischief, and…” he pauses as he looks around, violet eyes widening in naked curiosity. “...and my word, this is a most unusual room. Just what might you be involved in this time? He looks around rapidly, as though sniffing. “I sense a...strange mana in the air. Heady, spicy, energizing... and yet it makes my senses spin somewhat. How odd, yes…certainly nothing like our previous locale...”“Yeah, this isn’t what you’re used to- at least not right now,” you affirm. “This technology is something you’re going to have to get used to. I figured now would be a solid opportunity for that.”(cont)
>>3613479“Ahh...curiosity after curiosity.” He seems almost preoccupied with taking in his new surroundings- at least before his head swivels towards Prima. “And you being one of the biggest! A living doll, are you? Metallic in nature...ah, but there is emotion behind those strange eyes of yours.” He flows towards her briefly, and she doesn’t say anything, but instead takes a brief step back and approaches something approaching a combat stance. “Yes... VERY fascinating!”“P-please remove yourself from my immediate space- I have an important a-and time-sensitive task to perform…” Prima says. Huh...is that fear in her body language?Well, you’ll worry about it later. “She’s right,” you insist. “We’re inside a very large research facility that’s abandoned. A really big building that’s supposed to be about studying the body and other things. Long story short, I want you to investigate the bottom floors and see what’s there.”“A rather tall order, and rather a fluid one in addition!” Gartoum laughs. “Perhaps you could describe for me in better detail what you desire of me?”> “I’m basically giving you permission to wander around the facility and mess with things- so long as you don’t intentionally break anything. If you have any questions about a thing, ask me.”> “Actually, go down as deep as you can while still being in the facility. I want to see if there’s a secret floor in this building.”> “In particular, I want you to look around a certain area…” (What floor?)> Other
>>3613481>> “Actually, go down as deep as you can while still being in the facility. I want to see if there’s a secret floor in this building.”
>>3613481>> “I’m basically giving you permission to wander around the facility and mess with things- so long as you don’t intentionally break anything. If you have any questions about a thing, ask me.”
>>3613481> “Actually, go down as deep as you can while still being in the facility. I want to see if there’s a secret floor in this building.”
>>3613481>“Actually, go down as deep as you can while still being in the facility. I want to see if there’s a secret floor in this building.”
Also, we have a solid confirmation that seither is 100% mana.
>>3613514Appears to be spicy mana>>3613481> “Actually, go down as deep as you can while still being in the facility. I want to see if there’s a secret floor in this building.”>You have permission to mess with stuff on the way.
>>3613555>Appears to be spicy manaI wonder if its gonna make us speak with a latino accent.>>3613481Changing to:> “Actually, go down as deep as you can while still being in the facility. I want to see if there’s a secret floor in this building.”>You have permission to mess with stuff on the way. And ask me if you have any questions.
Delve down. Writing!
>>3613555>>3613563>>3613514I'm more impressed with gartoum appearance. Do you guys think that the aliens are actually mantis people?
>>3613593that's an interesting take and might explain why they used the "OH SHIT" tactics so soon after engaging them.
>>3613481>>3613495>>3613504>>3613505>>3613511>>3613555>>3613563You frown. You’ve got a hunch, and this might be the best chance to confirm or refute it. “Actually, go down as deep as you can while still being in the facility. I want to see if there’s a secret floor in this building. We’re only supposed to be able to go one floor below the ground, one called ‘Facilities’,” you explain. “If there’s more, I want to know ASAP.”“Oho? I’m to do some dungeon delving? Fascinating… and in such a place…” He seems quite interested in the concept. “I can’t say what I’ll find...but I’m sure it’ll be intriguing.” Suddenly dropping to all fours he skitters out, melting into the wall next to the door. Weird sunnavabitch.“Is it gone…?” Prima asks quickly. “Pretty sure,” you say- although you still eye the space where he left just in case.“Good,” she says quietly. There’s a twitch from her- as though she wants to say something, or maybe that’s supposed to be a shiver- but she ignores it, plugging a wire into her skull, with the first out of her body, and her eyes proceed to dim a bit. “Searching now…”...right. The waiting.>Roll 2d20, best of 3, please.
Rolled 20, 7 = 27 (2d20)>>3613640
Rolled 17, 17 = 34 (2d20)>>3613640
Rolled 15, 7 = 22 (2d20)>>3613640
>>3613640>“Good,” she says quietly.Aww poor thing, she's still traumatized by lori's actions.
>>3613656Hey...what you think it would happen if we made Gartoum to meld with the Zeon Walker?
>>3613648Prima proves again why she is best haxzoorr!!
>>3613667We'd get a fucking STAND!He might be able to enhance our machine maybe? The interesting thing will be when he enters inside an enemy machine. We need to create a cover for him. maybe call him a hacking algorithm, so it doesn't raise any suspicion?
https://youtu.be/m7J3Kjk6k-8Writing.
>>3613690>that linkwelp...time to kill some living experiments or abominations.
>>3613686How long can Gartoum last outside of the ring? >>3613690>linkthere's some fucked up shit down there, gotta ready our bombs to blow this place to kingdom come.
>>3613702Dunno. So far he has no limits regarding that(i don't take in consideration the intersection summon because those were very specific circumstances).
First Gartoum and then some biological horrors. Prima can't catch a break.
>>3613640>>3613648>>3613653>>3613655“Oh dear,” you hear Gartoum say mentally after about ten minutes. “It’s QUITE expansive down here…”“Wait, what? Expansive? So there was a hidden floor?” Friggen knew it. It always is, you swear.“A couple of them, it seems,” you hear as a response. “Rather some interesting things down here, though I’ve not the foggiest as to what they all are. Large metal constructs...oddities taking the form of metal facsimiles of humans, some that strike me as some strange combination of flesh and iron, and more besides! Strangely enough, it’s...not as amusing as I’d thought it would be. They’re all placed behind glass as though it’s an exhibit- a showcase, as it were. It all feels...well, it feels like nothing. Hm. I suppose that’s the problem, isn’t it? Might I be able to see to making my own fun, then?”Before you can answer, you’re distracted by a sudden movement from Prima. “I believe I have found success! I have located within the local hard drive a drive map of the facility, as well as a history of file transfers and residual metadata- as well, some of the remaining text files on this system pertain to requests for files involving geographical coordinate data, and requests for research data involving Seither experiments. Of relevant terminology, I have an 80 percent match with key words from an aural analysis of Crane’s mission statement, and thus can come to a conclusion that this data will be relevant to the request. I believe I now may be able to locate the server in question and retrieve the files requested with minimal error.”“Good job, both of you.” When Prima looks at you in question, you explain. “Gartoum’s found a secret facility under the basement- off the record, no doubt, and it sounds like something’s down there. Something we probably need to check out just in case our employers might like to know.”She pauses, her head micromoving between looking at you, the computer system, and the server room. “A-are you certain about this course of action? Surely Mr. Gartoum has the skillset required to deal with the situation himself? Or perhaps you would prefer to assist him? I believe that I perhaps should stay here to retrieve the files as requested.”...Well, she’s not entirely wrong, but...it’s obvious she just would rather not get close to him. > “Well, lucky you, the plan is I’ll head down myself, and you get back to the Zeon asap. Don’t lollygag, though. I’m expecting efficiency.”> “You can’t be a good Outgoer without getting into some uncomfortable situations. I’ll wait for you, and then we’re both going, clear?”> “Honestly, we’re going to blow it all up anyway, so if he softens up the situation before we get there to take pictures, so much the better.”> Other
>>3613725>“You can’t be a good Outgoer without getting into some uncomfortable situations. I’ll wait for you, and then we’re both going, clear?”>Garoutm just look and don't touch. We're going to your position after retrieving some files.
>>3613725>“Well, lucky you, the plan is I’ll head down myself, and you get back to the Zeon asap. Don’t lollygag, though. I’m expecting efficiency.”This option includes Prima retrieving both the mission data and the seither research data we're after, right?
>>3613725>> “Well, lucky you, the plan is I’ll head down myself, and you get back to the Zeon asap. Don’t lollygag, though. I’m expecting efficiency.”
>>3613725> “You can’t be a good Outgoer without getting into some uncomfortable situations. I’ll wait for you, and then we’re both going, clear?”
>>3613736Yes.
>>3613725>> “Well, lucky you, the plan is I’ll head down myself, and you get back to the Zeon asap. Don’t lollygag, though. I’m expecting efficiency.”I Would like to personally see what's down there.
>>3613725> “You can’t be a good Outgoer without getting into some uncomfortable situations. I’ll wait for you, and then we’re both going, clear?”>Other: Flashback for the first time you were a outgoer and you got a assasination mission from SalAh happy memories.
>>3613744The "I'll wait for you" option means that we're going down there together, and I think that having Prima around in the secret basement could help.
>>3613725>>3613739>Other>ask why is she scared of Gartoum so much, he's our partner
>>3613725>Swan, you'll need to experience these situations sometime, unless you want to always rely on a partner.
>>3613725> “You can’t be a good Outgoer without getting into some uncomfortable situations. I’ll wait for you, and then we’re both going, clear?”>”So, why’re you so nervous around Gartoum? I assumed you’ve been in the Intersection long enough to meet scarier sentients.”
>>3613767Well he IS a bit of a spooker if you're firmly in the land of science and law, given he is of magic and chaos
>>3613785> “You can’t be a good Outgoer without getting into some uncomfortable situations. I’ll wait for you, and then we’re both going, clear?”With >>3613771, >>3613767 and >>3613785
Nice try, but you're coming too! Writing!
>>3613791I think the most surprising thing is how Randa is pretty chill with all this weird stuff. True she has 90 years living in the intersection and working as a Outgoer, so i guess makes sense not much would phase her.Anyway Prima still needs to get used with the weird stuff. It comes with the job and if she is used to it now she will be less scared when something similar happens to her.
>>3613804Handler are you still with us?
Fuck I got caught up in watching wres I'm sorry!
>>3614160I feel like I should do a picture of Miranda giving Lori a Kinniku Buster.
>>3614167this kills the lori
>>3614160Dammit Handler...
>>3614167Do eet!
>>3613810>Anyway Prima still needs to get used with the weird stuff. It comes with the job and if she is used to it now she will be less scared when something similar happens to her.In time. Randa started out as a bone stock magical girl, personality and all. She's a lot more competent now, but a lot more cynical and morally grey as well. Wouldn't want Prima to end up like us too quickly.Speaking of, both of the bots will need to be 'blooded' at some point. There's no rush, but until they are their flexibility on-mission is going to be limited.
>>3614292Wouldn't Jago be "blooded" already? We did just destroyed the robot and probably killed the lady pilot
>>3613725Shaking your head, you step a bit closer. “You can’t be a good Outgoer without getting into some uncomfortable situations. I get things may weird you out, but that’s just part of the deal now. So I’ll wait for you, and then we’re both going, clear?”She doesn’t have a mouth, but you can pretty much hear her sigh anyway. “...very well. Some time, please.” She takes a moment to disconnect, and wordlessly she walks back to the server room, yourself following behind. It doesn’t take her long to find the server in question- number 73, apparently, and she’s quick to do similar in finding its own power source, connecting, and her eyes dim again as she searches.There’s a brief time where she blinks here and there, eyes flashing for whatever reason- but after about 5 or 10 minutes, she lights back up a bit, and nods to you. “I’ve located and downloaded the data. It mentions an area that is claimed to be a theoretical ‘test site’ for a biological rejuvenation device. They are unsure of the nature of this device, but had intended to attempt to experiment with it due to its potential ability to convert Seither into a harmless form. They never managed to perform such studies, however, as they were forced to quickly depart from the facility for ‘security reasons’.” As she gets up, however slowly, you mull over the report. Security reasons? Had the aliens discovered them? If so, then why would they not scorch everything or take it with them?“We might find out more downstairs,” you murmur out loud in answer to yourself. “Come on, let’s get a move on.”“Ah, yes…” It’s clear she’s not happy about it, but she follows you anyway. “How will we get down there?”“Hm…” Wonder if Gartoum could-“There’s an opening in the first basement I JUST made for you! Right outside of that funny little place with the metal box attached to the ropes! It’s in a rather large shaft, so- ”“The elevator,” you surmise. “We’ll make our way down there. Come on.”(cont)
>>3614348It’s fortunately not too hard to locate the elevator, and use the ropes therein once you force the doors to essentially rappel down to the basement floor. Using the emergency hatch, you hop in the elevator, force the doors open again, and indeed, as you look around at the Basement floor- to which you can see a directory on a wall nearby- and a hole to the left of that. You take a moment to peer down into the inky blackness- which is quickly lit when Prima lights up her eyes, creating a rather strong flashlight. “Huh. That helps,” you quip, and grabbing her quickly, you hop down, falling for a couple of seconds before you land on solid steel. “Over to your right, if you care to see what I’m talking about,” comes Gartoum’s voice. Setting Prima down on the ground (which doesn’t exactly stop her from sticking VERY close to you), you take a quick look around- what little light is here shows a rusted, webbed, and overall VERY in disrepair research floor, with various doors to rooms either choked with dust and debris, or otherwise broken off doors and- well, it’s just a damn mess, really.“Right, on our way,” you say softly, and tugging Prima along, you make your way along the steel walkway.It’s strange, you pass a number of empty surgical rooms, some rooms with nothing but old chairs in them...and then you walk through the hall, and you’re in a WIDE, circular room. On the walls are various diagrams and x-rays, most faded with time, but some you can still make you. All humanoid...but clearly not human. Several point out organs that you know don’t exist in natural humans, and others showing cutouts of things like massive claws, bulging additional musculature, a proboscis even on one. “This is...highly unusual medical research,” Prima says as she too studies the pictures, her fear momentarily replaced by curiosity. “Perhaps we should take some of these samples back to our employers? I cannot imagine they would be able to find much use for this, but it may be worth being able to study to assist in preventing these issues from coming about due to malpractice.”> “...eh, they didn’t ask for them. Not worth the hassle.”> “Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.> Other
>>3614348Cmon Gartoum you were from a semi-modern magical school setting I'm sure they've invented elevators... probably. Room service dummy waiters at the least.
>>3614359>“Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.
>>3614359>> “Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.
>>3614366Granted he was also locked inside a ring hidden inside a book for who knows how long, but still.
>>3614359>> “Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.potential bonus pay would be nice
>>3614366Why use elevators when you have portals that teleport you to anywhere you like?
>>3614359> “Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.Cabe did say he wanted anything that researched the aliens OR Seither. This is a research to make Seither in a not harmless form i think the nerds would apreciate that.
>>3614359> “Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.”See if there’s an organ cooler or some old blood samples around. The nerds would love that shit.
>>3614359> “Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.Pictures, sure, we can bring those, didn't Gartoum mention some mechs down here? And some hybrid flesh mechs?
>>3614359>“Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.>Other: make sure to scan them first with the FutureSight so that we can sell the paydata back at the Intersection/give them over to our R&D team.
>>3614359> Sure> Also take scans and such with our futuresight. Data is easily the most fungible product to bring back to the Intersection.
>>3614407>>3614359Supporting the get a copy of the information as well. This might speed up our plans of making a direct mana to electricity converter.
>>3614407>>3614425Support
>>3614407>>3614425>>3614439So you guys would be okay in scanning the device our clients are looking for? The enviromental one if it's able to suck the ambient mana and turn it into unharmfull it should be able to help Owlia research.
>>3614359>“Sure. Might even thank us properly for it.So they'be been sticking in seither to people using a weird device they fou d on the ground? So what's the security risk then? Place sounds too undamaged to be experiment subject breakouts, this feels really suspicious.
>>3614468Of course. There’s nothing in the contract or professionalism guidelines that say you can’t make copies for personal or non-competitive use of items that the client wants stolen/“recovered”.
We'll take a bit for them...and for us.Writing!
>>3614485>and for us. Everything that isn't nailed on the wall?
>>3614338I'd call that an assist at best. Jago was managing the mech, but we were controlling it. Plus there's the abstraction layer of destroying a piece of unthinking machery, instead of someone you can see.
>>3614485Owlia is gunna hate us at this rate
>>3614503Fair point.
>>3614359>>3614376>>3614380>>3614388>>3614394>>3614395>>3614402>>3614404>>3614407>>3614425>>3614439>>3614465You can’t help but grin a bit. “Sure. Might even thank us properly for it. Of course...we could keep some copies of this information for ourselves, as well. I have to imagine at least some of it might sell back home…not to mention what our scientist friend might be able to do with it.”“Was she not more skilled in mechanical engineering than biology?” Prima asks, although she’s looking around with a slowness that you hope is her scanning everything as you take some pictures yourself with the FutureSight. “Yeah, but you never know,” you admit.After a few minutes taking highly detailed pictures and video for you both, you continue on, where you can hear Gartoum’s humming, now. You find yourself, before long, standing in a hallway that very noticeably has a pair of what looks like mounted automated machine guns, inert, but at each end of the hallway. You can also hear...something else?Something like sloshing in the distance, like a liquid being shaken up. Stepping a bit faster, you move past a corner, and come face to face with a MASSIVE vault door, iron and thick and just barely wedged open. “Should be here, you mutter, and you grip the side of the door, and heave it open after a moment’s effort. Gartoum is off to your right as you both enter and take in the site of the large, three rows of what are clearly stasis tubes, with even more machinery in the back. “Ah, made it at last, hm? See what I mean? Don’t you think this is fascinating?!” Inside, to your surprise...is light. Artificial light- coming from a dim, but clearly still working, set of ceiling lights. And what they’re shined on is what is in those rows, floating in a strange, golden liquid.People. Mutants, each with variations more off-kilter than the last. Some with bulbous heads, some with oversized jaws, with long and sinuous tongues hanging out, some with massive claws and an elongated head- it seems like each is unique in its own grotesque way. “Simply fascinating, if perhaps morbid for humanity, hm? A veritable grotesquerie of the mortal body.”“Mhm,” you nod grimly. Turning to your bot partner, Prima seems...well, she’s just staring. “Hey, you okay?”“...a moment, please.” Hm. You’re not sure what, but...if she needs a minute, fine. You can at least take a look around. (cont)
>>3614678Poor Prima. I think we might be pushing her a little hard. She and Jago aren't nearly as worldly as our other hires, and are much younger to boot.
>>3614678It’s strange, browsing the various captives. They’re all hooked up to a sort of wired breather, and have various electrodes or something akin attached to their skin in various places. You notice there’s a control panel below each one, with a name, and below that three LEDs, green, yellow, and red each. Controls are on all of them, although you’re not sure what the three switches are for. All of them that you see are green save for one or two that are yellow, and only one is red- although you notice that that single individual doesn’t even have liquid in its tube and seems to be deceased, so you’re pretty sure what the lights are for. As for the machinery in the back… “You mentioned strange metal constructs, didn’t you?”“Yes, I did! Over here!” He takes you further back, and you see a mechanical arm, constantly moving back and forth over what seems to be some kind of small conveyor belt, each with small bits of liquid in them. It has a very small, stick-like device in its pincers that it dips in every one as the conveyor belt moves in intervals, and then deposits it into a test tube. Behind it you can see a desk- with someone’s remains in it, no less! You quickly hop over the belt to take a closer look- this is the first human remnant you’ve seen so far. His nametag on his shirt identifies him as ‘Lawrence G.’, and he seems to have died in the middle of working on...something, as the position of his rotted skeleton and body seems to still be over the keyboard, despite the system itself apparently being turned off...although looking at it, perhaps it was just in sleep mode or something.“There’s also an area not far from here with those strange humanoid facsimiles. Remind me of your metal doll, they do. A bit bigger than her- not nearly as lively, aha!” Gartoum seems to think that funny, but it just makes you think…>Action? Multiple can be taken, so.>I've got to bounce for the night. Sorry for the delay, will try to make it up tomorrow. Also if you want to do that art piece >>3614167 by all means!A part of me feels like Lorelei would try to make it awkward on purpose, though.
>>3614686True, she's had some polarizing experiences so far, maybe she needs some time to just experience normal existence a bit before she goes full mercenary. I mean she was living with Lorelei.
>>3614695Well, I feel like we should power the computer up amd download whatever it had on it. Grab whatever physical notes left first, as well as the test tubes and such.Just in case powering the computer changes the status of the mutants.Once we know more about them we can decide what to do with them.Maybe leave the other three and take the corpse back with us.
>>3614695>Look into the computer ans see if we can get the data of what is happening here. So far it seems they were trying to create a human hybrid to make humans immune or able to use Seither.>While Prima tries to recover the data go with Gartoum look at the living mechs.Should we call Sal see if he is able to teleport the mechs? They might be worth to someone.
>>3614695>Check the automated machineguns, make sure that they won't activate by accident. Salvage them if possible.>Take a few pictures of vats and the machine, scan tube samples and take a couple to add to downloaded research info.>>>3614709
>>3614709I think we should take the corpse or at least try to open the yellow one. He could stay here in charge of the others?Or we could just kill all the amuties put then in a bag and let the nerd fiddle with it once we bring the corpses back?
>>3614718Oh right, ask Sal if he can transport the mechs.
>>3614695>>3614712One more thing. Scan the muties with Futuresight it should be able to give us a bio on then as well of their status.
>>3614695>Look into the computer ans see if we can get the data of what is happening here. So far it seems they were trying to create a human hybrid to make humans immune or able to use Seither.>While Prima tries to recover the data go with Gartoum look at the living mechs.>Check the mechs' values in motes with the futuresight.
>>3614695>Action?This is the first corpse. It looks like he was caught unaware, which runs contrary to the state of the rest of the place. There's not a pill bottle or a gun or something nearby, is there? Maybe when the rest of the place left in a hurry he was abandoned. More generally, see if there's enough left to figure out how he died, might give some clues as to what happened here.We should have Prima have a look at the computer, but move the corpse out of sight if she hasn't already seen it. She seems... stressed.While she's looking at the computer, let's have Randa take a look at the "metal dolls". I suspect they are ACIAs, or something in the same family.I doubt the sentry guns arte anything special, but we might be able to get a few motes for them back home. Low priority though.>>3614712He's only going to want to bother if they're particularly valuable, and he think he can find a buyer. Let's take a look at them before hawking them.
>>3614695Scan everything, take apart the auto-guns, then go look at the bots out back. After handling those things, look into the computer.
I'm going to assume this happened after a particularly nasty prank.
>>3614695Didn't we buy a bag of holding?
>>3615268You mean for bots? Yeah, we did.
don't we have stuff from owlia to try too? can't we use them here?
>>3615853Kinda on a timer. Since the guys we just scared away might be trying to call for reinforcements. So we need to grab thing and move out of here.
>>3615853Surely we could use them, but i have no idea what we took, nor the thread were it says what we took.
>>3614695>Scan the mutants with the FutureSight, for data>Check the workstation for a thumb drive port, but don't connect Crane's hacking drive just yet>Check out the robots and the automated gun turrets; scan them with the FutureSight and see if they can be hacked and suborned by either Prima or the FutureSight>Once we're sure the robots and guns, if activated, won't try to kill us, then plug in Crane's hacking drive into the workstation to suck out all of its useful dataMan, what if the Dealmakers offer an App Store for the FutureSight, with things like hacking utilities, particle and medical analysis suites, data copiers, and computer protocol translation libraries?Miranda went for nearly 85 years of being an Outgoer without realizing she's entitled to a nearly 20% discount on pretty much everything purchased. It would not surprise me in the least if the FutureSight has a LOT more functionality than she thinks it does. It'd be like having an iPhone X and just using it for phone calls, even though you have a true 4G unlimited data plan. And your company set up the App Store with a company credit card and a no-questions-asked expense account.
>>3615949Oh right, Sal's bosses did visit us, saying they were going to be taking a bit more notice of this enterprise. Maybe they actually did hook us up with an expense account and premium access to the Intersection App Store.
>>3615949I'm fairly certain the majority of the cost is in the database, not tons of oddball toys.
>>3614695>salvage the machine gun turrets (or at least make sure they stay disabled) before Prima starts powering things up>have Prima retrieve all data that seems interesting or valuable>scan the research subjects with FutureSight and then go check out what Gartoum found while Prima is working
Check the data, check the guns, check the experiments.Writing.
>>3616415You forgot the part of.Take everything that isn't attached to the walls and floor.
>>3616421Might want to take the walls too if they come off easily enough
>>3616421Nails are no match for a magi cutting beam. No reason to leave anything bolted to the floor when we can cut through the bolts.
>>3616440>>3616437Fine, fine. Loot everything that can fit inside the bag of holding.To bad we can't take the live muties with us, the nerds would apreciate some living experiments. But that would end up badly and would probably make the muties go in berserk and destroy our clients base.
Imagine our clients' reactions if instead of blowing up this facility we just cut it into tiny chunks and stored them in our bag. "You said I could grab anything I wanted before blowing up the mission site so why are you complaining about me taking the entire building with me?"
>>3616457Dammit anon i was drinking. Now i spilled my drink.
>>3614695Just what was going on here? No reason to not try and find out. But first…You take the time to head around, scanning the various figures as best you can with the FutureSight- its medical scanning functions aren’t the most useful to you (healing and all), but they’ve come in handy on occasion. In this case, it seems like they’re about what you expected...all genetically modified, plus infused with the mana called Seither around here. There’s more than that, of course; details of what chemicals are coursing through their bodies, stability, all stuff that’s a touch over your head. Might be useful, might not.Regardless, you decide to be thorough; scanning all the rows takes the better part of an hour in itself, but you’re largely left alone for it. Looking back towards Prima shows that she’s stopped staring in one spot, at least, and is merely walking around, occasionally glancing at a test tube, or a stasis pod before returning to her laps around the room. The corpse...if she’s noticed it, she hasn’t said anything, although you know it’s been in her line of sight. At a couple of points she stops, turns to you, watches you work. No response, though, when you meet her stare. A bit worrisome, but better than going catatonic...or you guess bluescreening, in this case.After that’s finished, though, time to figure out the whos, whats, and whys. And there’s clearly only one real source for that.Hopping over the computer, and shoving away the corpse, seat and all, you kneel down to the tower to check it out- considering the shape of the drive that Crane gave you, it should be shaped like...aha! There it is. Port. Taking out the drive to double check, you find it’s a perfect match. Now, you just need to see what’s hidden away in here...“Miss?” You turn your head, finding that, to your surprise, Prima’s approached you. “May I ask what you’re doing?”“Finding out what’s been going on under here,” you say as you plug the device in. “Crane’ll probably fork over a decent chunk of change for this info.” Pausing, you look at her. “Hey, can you do me a favor? Remember those guns we saw outside?” She nods. “Can you take a look at them, see if they’re controllable. They weren’t working when we passed through, but since this place has power, I’m wondering if they’re a risk to be reactivated. Make sure either they aren’t, or if they are one of us can control them.”(cont)
>>3616517“I- understand.” She walks away quickly, and you’re not blind to notice the hitch. Might have to see what’s up with her.It’s not very long before she comes back, at least. “The emplacements appear to be manually disabled,” she mentions. “And their activation code was actually rather simple to find out. I can activate or deactivate them at will, and define their targets as motion based, or only anything that registers as organic in nature.”“Thanks a lot,” you say as you turn back to the computer. “That leaves us free to get what we need from this…” With that, you plug the drive in, and turn the computer on. Notably, it seems to run something from the drive almost immediately, with a small image of a key in a lock constantly turning after the initial boot-up sequence.>Mention Prima’s unnerved behavior. She could use some reassurance that she’s doing fine. Just needs to keep focused on what needs doing.>It’s...hm. Maybe you should apologize. Thinking about it, she hasn’t even really had proper feelings until...damn, it hasn’t been long at all, has it?>Keep quiet. She seems to be getting over it- or at least temporarily coming to terms with the situation. No need to rock the boat.>Other
>>3616520>It’s...hm. Maybe you should apologize. Thinking about it, she hasn’t even really had proper feelings until...damn, it hasn’t been long at all, has it?>Mention Prima’s unnerved behavior. She could use some reassurance that she’s doing fine. Just needs to keep focused on what needs doing.
>>3616520>Mention Prima’s unnerved behavior. She could use some reassurance that she’s doing fine. Just needs to keep focused on what needs doing.>Other: Mention to her how it was your first time as a outgoer. To help her relax.
>>3616520>It’s...hm. Maybe you should apologize. Thinking about it, she hasn’t even really had proper feelings until...damn, it hasn’t been long at all, has it?
>>3616520>Mention Prima’s unnerved behavior. She could use some reassurance that she’s doing fine. Just needs to keep focused on what needs doing.>It’s...hm. Maybe you should apologize. Thinking about it, she hasn’t even really had proper feelings until...damn, it hasn’t been long at all, has it?
>>3616520>>Mention Prima’s unnerved behavior. She could use some reassurance that she’s doing fine. Just needs to keep focused on what needs doing.
>>3616520>It’s...hm. Maybe you should apologize. Thinking about it, she hasn’t even really had proper feelings until...damn, it hasn’t been long at all, has it?When you think about it prima and jago(but mostly prima) are prodigy children in little immortal metal bodies. She needs a hug.
You should probably say something. A couple of somethings, really.Writing.
>>3616520> It’s...hm. Maybe you should apologize. Thinking about it, she hasn’t even really had proper feelings until...damn, it hasn’t been long at all, has it?> I know you want to do your best, but if it's really too much you can tell me, you know? I'm your boss, not a tyrant. > But this is the job, kiddo. It's not always pretty, and sometimes I guess I forget that I had a long time to get used to this sort of stuff.
>>3616569>I'm your boss, not a tyrant. Some bosses i had were basicaly tyrants. But Miranda is better then that.Also should we share the extra motes with Prima and Jago? Also, Also should we look into books of this place to bring tot he library?
>>3616621Also should we share the extra motes with Prima and Jago?Why wouldn’t we? They’re helping on this side mission.
>>3616520>>3616531>>3616532>>3616537>>3616546>>3616549>>3616569>>3616597The two of you look at each other as the program does it’s job- from the looks of things there’s petabytes of data to work through, so you’ve got a little time. You kinda wish she had more emotive eyes rather than just pupils. You’re not sure what she’s thinking, looking up at you.Geez. Looking UP. That’s rare. She’s probably younger than you were back when you first got here. And that’s just in reference to her build date. In terms of her having emotions, it...well, damn, it hasn’t been long at all. And this is some of the first stuff she’s really getting exposed to that she can have an emotional reaction that isn’t mandated....Yikes. “...sorry,” is all that manages to come out initially. She tilts her head slightly. “Hm? What are you apologizing for?”“Pushing like this,” you grunt. “Last newbies had at least seen a bit of action before they got brought on. They knew about war, violence. Mortal nature. You’re...from somewhere that by most accounts is a lot more peaceful, from what I’ve been told. Guess that, plus how long I’ve had to get used to it...kinda just end up expecting the same out of most everyone else.”“Ah…” she looks down briefly. “Your experiences have modified your baseline expectations for emotional stability and reactions. Thus our interactions were based off of that internal model. I see.”“Wasn’t until you started acting a bit strange that I noticed, which really shouldn’t have had to happen,” you admit with a frown as you watch the progress bar fill slowly. “So...consider the situation like this, now: if it’s seriously too much for your...processors?” She nods. “Processors to handle, then let me know, okay? I’ve got to do the whole ‘leader’ thing right, for more than one reason. So that means I’ve got to look out for you, mentally and physically. I’m trying to be a boss, not a tyrant. We’re what we’ve got, now. So I need to respect that a bit more than I have, really.” It’s not something you’re used to admitting, even now. But with Mono, and now Prima...well, you suppose there’s another thing they can bond over. “It’s not always a pretty job. In fact, it’s usually not. But we need to have each other’s backs for this. I’ve got yours.”(cont.)
>>3616658“...ah. I see. That is...hm.” She looks away briefly. “You make sense. Perhaps…” She pauses briefly, turning back to the experiment tubes, before turning to you. “I am used to combat between mechanical individuals such as myself, but I have always had subroutines to protect humans- or at least, cause no harm to them by my own actions intentionally. It...is a strange thing that I feel, to consider breaking those subroutines. I am aware that, by the definition of your job, and thusly mine, I may have to. However, the idea of such…” she shakes her head. “I believe Jago has had an easier time understanding this due to his emotional and combat-centric programming. I am...I believe the word is...jealous, of that. It is an unpleasant feeling.” If she had a mouth, she might be frowning right now. “However, it is still a new experience that I must make sense of. This may take some time.”“Yeah, that’s fine. Took me a while to get used to things when I first got here, too. At first I just kept things to defensive jobs, more innocent stuff, y’know? But later, well...I had to make decisions. Hard ones. And so here I am. Because of those decisions.”“...Indeed, you are,” she admits. “I think...I am appreciative of those decisions.” Suddenly, her attention is taken by the computer. “Ah! I believe the data has been copied!”So it has. And that means that your major assignment is complete. “Fantastic. Now…”>We’ve got some ‘facsimiles’ to look at.>Let’s take a look at their logs personally…>Other
>>3616670>Let’s take a look at their logs personally…
>>3616670>We’ve got some ‘facsimiles’ to look at.>This place is going to burn down, but that doesn't mean we have to smash Everything valuable.
>>3616670>Make a copy of logs with FutureSight to read later>We’ve got some ‘facsimiles’ to look at.
>>3616670>>We’ve got some ‘facsimiles’ to look at.Remember that we are on a timer.
>>3616670>We’ve got some ‘facsimiles’ to look at.
>>3616670> We’ve got some ‘facsimiles’ to look at.
You guys think qe should send Gartoum up to check on Jago. But just to keep a eye in him and if anything is approaching or Jago is in trouble to warn us?
Because i remember someone talking about a giving him a murmur stone but he was unable to use it because he doesn't have a mana reactor. So i don't know if he has a way to communicate with us if he is in trouble.
>>3616696Oh, yeah, add in..."Y'know, if you feel uncomfortable making those types of decisions, it doesn't mean I'll think less of you. Part of why I respect Izumi so much is that she's been able to keep her morals for so long while working this job, even when it's disadvantageous to her."
>>3616698Jago and Prima have integrated communicators (I think?), so if something happens he'll ping her. Besides, Jago would probably be spooked by Gartoum instead since they haven't met yet.
>>3616670>We’ve got some ‘facsimiles’ to look at.>remember to make a copy of the pay data with the FutureSight from Crane’s Thumbdrive.
Wait, what if the thumbdrive is hiding a listening device in it? Okay, I think I should go to bed now.
>>3616677>>3616677>>3616679>>3616680>>3616681>>3616687>>3616695>>3616696>>3616716Let's have a gander at what these are...So I'm going to need a roll. 4d20. Best of three.
Rolled 2, 4, 19, 10 = 35 (4d20)>>3616727
Rolled 16, 8, 10, 8 = 42 (4d20)>>3616727Here goes...
Rolled 6, 5, 15, 3 = 29 (4d20)>>3616727
>>3616729>>3616734>>3616734>>3616739Well, it WAS experimental work...some results were better than others.Writing!
>>3616745So we get those who work good and give our clients nerds the shitty ones. Got it.
Handler you got distracted again?
>>3616670>>3616677>>3616679>>3616680>>3616681>>3616687>>3616695>>3616696>>3616729>>3616734>>3616739“C’mon. We’ve got some ‘facsimiles’ to look at,” you say, looking towards Gartoum, who’s been slipping in and out of the room during your work at random. “Show us where they are?”“Absolutely!” And without fanfare he skitters off down a second door on the right, and you both follow.There’s a few more halls to walk through before you get there. But as you enter a dusty, yet also functioning room who’s door has been nearly knocked off for whatever reason. And beyond, you see what seems to be a large room, and with them, a set of empty tubes. But that’s not what’s interesting. What’s interesting is the five tubes in the back. One of them, curiously enough, is smashed open...the glass spray indicates that it came from inside out. Something escaped.As for the other four, however…well, THIS is a bit more familiar to you. Human shape. Dull, lifeless blue eyes, with clear, richly blue ‘skin’, showing bits of mechanical parts, staring at nothing as they rest in their oblong pods. Rather andrognyous, the lot of them. They’re all bald, and they seem all about the same height with some differing characteristics- the second one is wider bodied, and the last is a bit more svelte. The third seems slightly more muscularly designed.Androids. Clearly robotic individuals, metallic but designed to look humanoid. There’s a screen next to all of them, telling of some information. From left to right:>Shell Design 10-1a>Designation: Alex>Shell Design 11-2m>Designation: Morgan>Shell Design 12-3f>Designation: Francis>Shell Design 13-4j>Designation: JessieAs for the fifth, you notice that its pod screen has no name, just a warning: CONTAINER BREACHED flashing in red.Prima seems...well, again, hard to tell. “Are these...like me?”Good question. “Well-”“Hold, please!” Prima suddenly yells. “Incoming transmission from Falcon! Relaying!” Well, shit.“Oy, ya there?” It’s a bit odd hearing Jago’s voice coming from Prima, but you shrug it off. “Just got a ping on the radar; a lotta pings, actually! Looks like those folk we ran off went an’ tattled to their mums! Accordin’ to what I’m sensin’, we got four Walkas, and a boatload o’ smaller rides comin’ ta check us out! Ya got mebbe fifteen minutes afore they’re on top o’ us! Anythin’ you need ta finish, you best finish!”...Well, fantastic. THAT was a faster response than you thought. > “Well, we have officially overstayed our welcome. Time to get out and blast this place to bits!”> “Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”> “Any way we can hold them off? There’s clearly a lot to this place.”> Other>>3616877Nah, just writing troubles.
>>3616909> “Well, we have officially overstayed our welcome. Time to get out and blast this place to bits!”I kinda want to get the bio-droids. But we still need to blow everything and they might not be too happy once they wake up. Like the one that escape did.
>>3616909>> “Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”>> “Any way we can hold them off? There’s clearly a lot to this place.”We'll have to dash through what's left, but there's a lot unexplored.Low priority looting like the sentries should be dropped,but high ticket items like these androids are still worth it if we have the time. Ideally we can extract one of the biologicals, but that seems like long odds.
>>3616909> “Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”
>>3616909> “Well, we have officially overstayed our welcome. Time to get out and blast this place to bits!”
>>3616909> “Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”Yeah, I think that we'll have to nebula blast the facility, no time to look for the cliche self-destruct button.
>>3616930Our walker has missiles we could just blow it up. Or rig the power sources with explosives.
>>3616909>“Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”Voting for smash and grabbing morgan, just because i like the name
>>3616939I think that the hidden basement could survive the barrage, plus maybe we could catch some of the Orions in the blast.
>>361693915 minutes is way too little time and too unreliable, even if we go without grabbing one of these shells. I hate to admit it, but a good old buster is the simplest answer to our problems.
OH BEFORE I FORGET. Lets use the condenser to mitigate the mana cost of the blast. With the bonus we have from the yoga room, our total drain would be of around 1500 mana
>>3616909>>3616944>"...the second one is wider bodied, and the last is a bit more svelte."Those would be Morgan and Jessie?
>>3616930Na, just dump our missile payload and beat feet. Save the blaster for when we need it.
>>3616955Yes.
>>3616953The nerds are going to go crazy once they receive the high mana reading from a Nebula Buster.
>>3616953Uh, I miscalculated a bit that time, the manacost of Nebula Blast would be 3200, not 3000.
>>3616962Theb i pick Jesie to be taken if we are taking anyone because slender body in adrogynous is cuter.
>>3616964By the way, I believe it's been a year since the last time we've used this technique.
wait....OH SHIT. WE CAN (potentially) DOWNLOAD PRIMA AND JAGO INTO THESE BODIES.>>3616965then its 1700 instead of 1500. I honestly don't remember how much mana the condenser stores, but i'm fairly sure its around~1500.
>>3616978It stores 1500, but I don't think it's charged. Although we do have 10 large mana crystals, and they are worth 250 mana each.
>>3616978EW ew ew ew
>>3616909>> “Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”Prima would probably appreciate it if we rescued the Androids.At the least we can pull their processors.
>>3616909Wait, are they unoccupied? Then grab Morgan for Jago and Jessie for Prima.Bodies acquired!
>>3616909>>3616922> “Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”changing my vote. And i want to grab Morgan and Jesie.
>>3617003UPGRADES!!!
>>3616909>> “Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”
>>3616909Uhh, boss? Does Zeon leak enough Seither to boost Miranda's mana regen? And can we set up the Condenser inside, or would that affect the flow of Seither or simply too cramped?
>>3616909>“Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”Should've killed the old man and the rookie so they couldn't bring reinforcements.
>>3617015*or would it be simply too cramped inside?
>>3617015I'm more worried in asking if we can launch a nebula buster from inside the mech or if we need to be outside of it.
>>3617018Considering that people are voting to stay we are guaranteed to get a second chance.
>>3617018They could have raidoed for reinforcements or another patrol would have come if we killed then abd the old man and the rookie were unable to report back.
>>3617018a radio call takes no time. I can bet you that they immediately called for backup the moment they lost sight of us.
>>3617015The mechs are built to keep Seither out. Unless we park in a hot zone overnight it's certainly not going to give us better regen, and if we did that the mechanics back at base might not be happy with us for irradiating their fancy prototype.>>3617018If they'd vanished without a trace, their employers would have sent a force out to figure out why they weren't responding. Considering they were on guard duty, the investigative force wouldn't likely have been any smaller.>>3617036Radios are limited by the range of the transmitter, receiver, and atmospheric conditions. It's likely they had to get back in range of friendly contact before they could put in the call.
>>3617055No friend, the thing that helps keep the seither out are the suits. That's why people use then besides the necessity to sincronize with the walker.
You quickly look to Prima. “Think we have time to snag one of these or what?”“Er, uh, perhaps! If we’re efficient!” She confirms.“Pick, and pick fast!” Gartoum says gleefully.Right, then. A glance at their screens shows a bit more info about them:>Alex: Body type designed for all-around movement and utility. Utilizes an experimental adaptive system to provide high efficiency Seither utilization, permitting above average operational time, and is capable of traditional electric recharging. No major structural weaknesses, no major strengths.>Morgan: Body type intended for maximum safe Seither output, resulting in above average physical strength and capability of raw Seither discharge. Body type requires abnormal Seither intake to power- electrical recharging to be used only in cases of emergency. Joint structure less articulated, do not utilize for high-dexterity assignments.>Francis: Body type intended for Seither-augmented usage of internal systems; minimum Seither intake required for normal operation. Sensory systems utilize Seither to the highest degree, permitting pinpoint tactile, sight, and sound recognition. Requires electrical source for full body recharge. Physical structure modified to prevent sensor suite disruption- not intended for high-intensity usage.>Jesse: Body type intended for social interaction purposes; utilizes Seither augmentation in joint areas for maximum flexibility and stability; also capable of mild aesthetic adjustment of artificial epidermis for maximum appeal. Structural strength above-average. Electrical source required for full body recharge, Experiment Seither ExFlow system available for temporary physical augmentation.“Oy! Thirteen minutes!” Jago’s voice says hotly.“I would recommend just one!” Prima says quickly. But it IS up to you. They would just barely fit in your bag, so...>Pick as many as you dare...
That was one of the reason why Komodo said we had a death wish for not using the suit.
>>3617065>Morgan and Jesse.Time to bail.
>>3617065>Jesse
>>3617065>Morgan>Francis>Jesse>>3617055Yeah, if they had disappeared then there would still have been a big response. But I think the response would have been delayed as opposed to them calling it in as soon as they got into range to get a message off.
>>3617065>>Alex: Body type designed for all-around movement and utility. Utilizes an experimental adaptive system to provide high efficiency Seither utilization, permitting above average operational time, and is capable of traditional electric recharging. No major structural weaknesses, no major strengths.>>Morgan: Body type intended for maximum safe Seither output, resulting in above average physical strength and capability of raw Seither discharge. Body type requires abnormal Seither intake to power- electrical recharging to be used only in cases of emergency. Joint structure less articulated, do not utilize for high-dexterity assignments.>>3617063You're right the bodysuits provide Seither protection, but I think they're just intended to cover leakage that the mechs miss. Not sure though.
>>3617055>Radios are limited by the range of the transmitter, receiver, and atmospheric conditions. It's likely they had to get back in range of friendly contact before they could put in the call.Satellite phones are a thing. Also remember that aegis managed to contact us in whatever place we re when we fought, plus who knows what kind of long range tech they have managed to obtain when fighting the aliens; compared to the bug gun, its way more plausible that their mechs have some sort of long range communication device.>>3617065>Morgan>Francis>JesseWe give the eggheads Francis and we keep the other two. Sorry Alex, you are just too normal.
>>3617065>Morgan>Jesse
>>3617065>Alex: Body type designed for all-around movement and utility. Utilizes an experimental adaptive system to provide high efficiency Seither utilization, permitting above average operational time, and is capable of traditional electric recharging. No major structural weaknesses, no major strengths.Just take one.
>>3617065What >>3617071 said, and use Owlia's portal crystals or something to go out fast!hey Handler can Gartoum make portals?
>>3617076They were running away they could manage to drag or escape our attacks long enough to reach the point to call for someone and then we would have to fly back to the facility.
>>3617077Well now i'm not sure myself. I though that the intend was to protect the pilot of high seither doses that the mech requires to move around. But it could be just a safety measure as you said.
>>3617090We didn't bring the Portal Sigil, plus it was experimental.We do have Flight Crystal and Vanishing Plate though.
>>3617085I think we are sticking all the bodies in the bag of holding so...unless you want to reveal our unlimited bag to the nerds i would just grab enough for ourselfs.They can keep the research we got for then.
>>3617101we can make a pitstop somewhere else, take the bodies out and have our mech hold them all the way to the base.
>>3617065>>Alexthe all-purpose looks to be most useful due to it's efficiency and lack of weaknesses of special requirements, and picking more than one sounds too risky.
>>3617101I mean, ideally we'd only have to take Francis out. The other two can stay safe and hidden inside the bag until further notice(or course, we would have to check on them regularly to see if they don't wake up or something like that).
>>3617065>Alex: Body type designed for all-around movement and utility. Utilizes an experimental adaptive system to provide high efficiency Seither utilization, permitting above average operational time, and is capable of traditional electric recharging. No major structural weaknesses, no major strengths.
>>3617108The mech who has obvious cameras and listening devices? While we try to run away from anyone or any thing that is following us?But i guess we can always just kill all the forces that come to fight us.
>>3617065>Morgan>Alex
>>3617096Well shit, running it is then.
So far i think Morgan and Jesse are winning with Alex and Francis tied closely behind?
>>3617122Guess we will need to kill more people now. Oh well less people to compete with us i guess.
Morgan and Jesse seem to be the most voted for, Alex missed the boat, though. As did Francis.So be it. Writing!
>>3617108We're going to be fleeing the reinforcements, and if the mech is bugged as we suspect they're going to notice if we stop halfway back pop out, and come back with an android, then tell them we found it at the facility.>>3617125It's hard to tell. lots of variance in amount per vote, and the vote itself is pretty evenly spread.
>>3617116You got a point there with the recording devices, but do you think that the enemy forces will try to follow us once they see the nebula buster? No they won't. Either way, to solve the recording problems we can do this:>Morgan and jessie go into the bag.>Francis stays out and we carry him out.>After we use the nebula buster, we have out mech carry francis all the way to the base.
Poor Francis.
>>3617131we can try this. >>3617132
>>3617132While that could work, why would we need to hand over any of the androids? I think we can get more from the Intersection than by selling them to Crane.
>>3617140Fair point.. we can always make a quick scan with the futuresight to see their worth, because there are thing that are really valuable this side, but on the intersection not so much. Like the mega crystal from Owlia's world.
>>3617132That means we'd have to haul functionally a corpse all the way back to the mech. Not great while we're trying to hurry.And isn't the cockpit already overfull with both bots? where would we fit it?And why do you want to give away one of them anyway? They weren't asked for, and were in fact told we could have anything besides the specific thing they asked for.
You can’t afford to mull it over, so you just go with your first instinct, smashing the two pods containing Morgan and Jesse, tossing the latter over to Prima. “Get it in your bag!”“Ah! Yes!” Her pack is, at the very least, inconspicuous, but you both have to align the bodies just right to get them in there, which honestly takes up more time than you’d like. “Gartoum, we’re out of here!”“Right!” Huh, now HE’S seeming a touch worried. Not great. “Follow me just in case you forgot!”The three of you beat feet back to the hole you came from, Jago’s cry of ‘TEN MINUTES, YA CRAZY WANKERS!’ echoing through as you grab Prima and JUMP. It takes a couple hops, and dealing with some shrieking from Prima at the quick upwards velocity, but you manage to get back to the first floor, and bullet out the door, with Jago leaning forward as much as he can to see you. “GET IN, YA MADWOMEN!”Hardly thinking, you pitch Prima upwards, her body arcing through the air with...well, less grace than she’d probably like. “EEEeeeeeeeeeeee!” Her scream follows her until she lands flush in the cockpit, and Gartoum shlorps back into his ring without argument before you take a running leap yourself. “Wasn’t we supposed ta trash this place?” Jago says as you’re about to get strapped in. “How the heck we do that in less than nine minutes?”>...Fuck it, Buster. That should take care of it quickly, despite the cost.>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.>You can't, but you can do a bit, maybe. Toss a few rockets at the problem, haul ass, and hope it's passable.>Other
>>3617160>...Fuck it, Buster. That should take care of it quickly, despite the cost.
>>3617160>>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.
>>3617148>where would we fit it?The mech grabs it. I don't think anybody will want to pursue after what we're gonna do to the facility.>And why do you want to give away one of them anyway? Basically for an extra money bonus because they are related to their secondary goals. But if we don't want to give them to Aegis, well, we can try to sell them on the intersection.
>>3617160>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.Reminder that the mech is bugged.
>>3617172>Reminder that the mech is bugged.we don't know that, and we can ask jago to clean its drives.
>>3617160>>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.Buster is expensive, wasteful, and meta game-y.
>>3617172We might need to use the rockets if we have to deal with the mechs comming close.
>>3617179Why buster would be meta gamy? If anything not using it because there is bugs in the mech without us knowing about said bugs is meta gamy.
>>3617179How is it metagamey when it's the option that the QM provided? Besides, we're topped off at 12500 mana and most of the fighting is done inside the mech.
>>3617178We do know that. How else would they know what we were fighting at the time we were fighting it?
>>3617171I think the second objective is all related to seither and alien research. Androids are neither if those. They would be more like advanced AICA's
>>3617160>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.I don't want to give our employers any reason to consider making us an unpaid permanent employee, and I'd assume it'd be a pain in the ass to head out into one of those Sether zones for recharging.
>>3617190Satellite imagery?
>>3617160>>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.The corp is paying for the rockets, and using the buster is only going to make them more likely to want to do science to us.
>>3617190Fine, then we tell jago to move so he doesn't manage to record us, we blow the place and we reach him on foot. We are still way faster than a vehicle.
>>3617160>...Fuck it, Buster. That should take care of it quickly, despite the cost.Nuke it from orbit it's the only way to be sure.
>>3617198On a planet invaded by aliens? Unlikely, because Sats would be the first things shot.
>>3617160>>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.Don't want to explain the seither explosion to our employers. They'll want an inventory on what we used to blow it up and explaining that we're a walking WMD sounds bad.
>>3617160>...Fuck it, Buster. That should take care of it quickly, despite the cost
Well if our client asks about that BIG seither reading and explosion on that area we can just bullshit and say there was a seither security bomb or something. I don't want them to have any idea that we can channel siether out of our hands right now or later.
>>3617204couldn't they just launch more? They do have the tech to build giant mechs
>>3617160>>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.Doesn't cost us anything and get the jobdone just as well.
>>3617214I mean even use dropping our rocket payload and THEN Bustering would at least give us an alibi, and it's not like they're charging us for missiles.
>>3617214Just say we found a reactor that used Siether and rigged it to explode. Or we used a experimental launcher (like the one in fallout that is able to launch nukes)
>>3617207>They'll want an inventory on what we used to blow it up and explaining that we're a walking WMD sounds bad.They had a lot of tanks full of explode-y chemicals AND seither. Done.
>>3617216The problem with spacecraft isn't in launching them, but building them.
>>3617218The rockers might not be enough to deatroy the facility with the research and the droids.It could be enough however to destroy the hidden facility and we might need to use the missiles if we end up having to face the reinforcements.
>>3617160Hey Handler, on the worlds where They we’re mostly tech-based, like the job where Miranda worked with a spec ops team to retake a space ship taken by escaped convicts, did Miranda hide her magic? Has she ever really hidden her magic? We used guns on the Frontier world because they were more efficient on a low-mana world.
>>3617160Updated the Itemlist.>...Fuck it, Buster. That should take care of it quickly, despite the cost.
>>3617233Again if they build mechs...space crafts shouldn't be that hard.
>>3617242It's not about complexity, but the facilities. Look up how NASA builts their stuff.
>>3617233They are reliably building mechs. They can surely build some rockets in a underground silo like facility.
>>3617238On occasion, but it's not too common at all.
>>3617160>>You’ve got a lot of rockets- those should deal with the situation nicely if you unload the whole payload.If the employers are paying for the rockets then they should be used. Well, unless they're that much more useful vs the group of mechs?That and I would prefer to refrain from relying on Miranda's powers on this mission, since it's suppose to be Jago and Prima's show.
>>3617245If you want them to explode, sure.
>>3617242Completely unrelated tech-trees. And this is a post-post apocalypse. Techs could have easily been lost.And even if they could, getting anything to space is horrendously expensive. They may not have bothered.
>>3617251Guess it's settled. Rockets it is.Hopefully we will have enough time and be able to escape the reinforcements.
Rawket Barrage it is. Writing!
>>3617244Man, mechs are way more complex than rockets, specially if your rockets don't need to go higher than LEO.>>3617258>Techs could have easily been lost.But they can make mechs and rockets.>getting anything to space is horrendously expensive.They may not have bothered.The aliens come from space. Its logical that you want to defend your orbit since it give you a basically unfair advantage over your enemies, and if you want the fastest communication that is possible, you need satellites.
>>3617264
Oh boy, we've used Meditation Room to get a 20% manacost reduction bonus, bought 5 more mana crystals, carry around a Mana Condenser and wearing +1500 cap Divine Shoes. Please don't bring up mana cost in the argument the next time we need to use Mana.
>>3617249So unless there’s a Narrative Rider that specifically forbids obvious magic, using magibeams and such is a given and Miranda doesn’t bother to hide the fact that she’s got magic?Good to know.
>>3617276The techs needed for mechs are largely unrelated to the ones needed for rockets. Rockets that get into orbit have little to do complexity-wise with ones intended for combat.The aliens coming from space is a better point. ut that means you make anti-orbital weapons, not putting more vulnerable satellites in orbit.>>3617293The buster is a pointless waste here when we can do the same thing without cost to ourselves.
>people see ALL THE ROCKETS being deployed>Man she must really hate that facility uh?
>>3617305Honestly my inly reluntance in using the rockets is the :"should take care" that's writtne in the option. But this is needless discussion hopefully we will manage to destroy the hidden facility too.
>>3617306>The buster is a pointless waste here when we can do the same thing without cost to ourselves.The buster leaves a streetwide crater. The rockets don't. Specially because they are designed to fight other mechs and equally sized beasts and not blow up a research facility(so they are probably HEAT missiles).
>>3617306It doesn't even cost THAT much, one day of rest - and we're at the level of mana that we would have had if we didn't wear the Shoes. And Handler reworked training, so there's also incentive of techniqiue EXP. Why are you guys so reluctant to use it when we're fully charged? Mana deprivation effects appear only below 3k or after intense usage like spending 4k in one go.
>>3617340Its hoarding at its finest: "We'll use it when we REALLY need it".
>>3617344I swear, looking at the amount of stuff in the Itemlist, one could think we're playing a Civ quest. Of course Handler would forget about an item or ten and no one would notice too.
>>3617160>>...Fuck it, Buster. That should take care of it quickly, despite the cost.I will feel safer actually if they know we have a secret weapon.
“This thing has missiles.” You say as you close the cockpit and get set. Thank goodness Jago essentially kept the thing running for you. Within moments you’re back in the air and lining up the shots. “And we’re gonna use ‘em. ALL of them!”“Awright! Let’s make some fireworks, then!” Jago says as he gets the targeting system set up. “Droppin’ fire delay...adjusting targeting parameters...roight!”“Light it up!” You yell, and the rocket barrage begins its symphony of destruction. Missile after missile streams from the mech, making crater after crater in the facility- as big as it is, it’s still not exactly collapsing easily, but you make sure to aim for the base as you circle around and keep the trigger squeezed, essentially. Plume after plume of explosive fire kicks up, and every now and again you get lucky with a chain explosion after something volatile is hit, or the upper floors collapse under the weight in a groaning shower of metal and debris. Maybe if you hit that power source that’d be nice…Blessedly, when you’ve got maybe four or five missiles left, the visible areas of the facility are no more; just a pile of useless debris and broken parts. The underground area...well, you just hope it’s either buried or most of it is unavailable.“Think we got the majority of it!” Jago yells. “Got maybe four minutes left, so let’s-!”Suddenly a beeping. “Attention unknown Walker! You have interfered in an Orion operation, trespassed in Orion territory, and destroyed Orion property! You are hereby under arrest! Stand down and disembark your walker or lethal force will be authorized!”It’s Jago who answers for you as you begin to see the dots on your long range radar. “Shite.”>Oh dear! Ending for today. Will post tomorrow!
>>3617353Kinda late friend>>3617344That and fear. But mostly hoarding.
>>3617358Goodnight, boss.
>>3617358Now we need to deal with a enemy force without rockets. This will be fun.
The nebula buster would have saved us from this headache.Thanks for running handler!
>>3617363We're slicked for speed. We can just hightail it.
>>3617374Yeah, but we wouldn't spend so much time on bombarding it either.
>>3617374AND stealth! We can run and hide!>>3617359Meh. People are weird with their paranoia. Quite frankly, finding out we can create bigass explosions would probably make them do a cost analysis that it's really not worth having us make them in their base if they try to pull anything funny.
>>3617374You're right on that one. However we can't just zoom right into an Aegis safe zone because we have to avoid broadcasting our affiliation with Aegis.
>>3617370We weren't planning on fighting them in any case. Hell, dumping the rockets will have lightened us by fair amount with how many we were carrying.
>>3617358Night, boss.>>3617363>>3617370People voted for what they thought was the best option. Not their fault you couldn't convince them to your side.Besides, you don't think that a massive gravity bomb thing wouldn't have made them send even more people than what we got now? As well as run the risk that Aegis would try to run experiments on us if we came back?
>>3617387True. I guess we can use mana shield and hope we can manage to escape without the walker getting gibbed.>>3617393even if they sended more people they would have to try and get here. But you are right i can't be blamed for others bad decision.
>>3617393>Besides, you don't think that a massive gravity bomb thing wouldn't have made them send even more people than what we got now?It would have forced them to retreat, which was the point. They were expecting to fight just a single mech, but a miniature nuke would have made then fall back and call for reinforcements or wait until its confirmed that none of those explosion will happen again.
Aheh, maybe we can Nebula Blast the reinforcements, so that everyone would be happy, eh guys?
>>3617404I don't know if we cna do that inside the mech. Besides there is the charging if the Buster and the fact that the mechs won't stay put once they see the seither energy build up a Buster makes.A more effevtive way is use our barrier to contain the mutiple attacks and kill as much as we can.
>>3617393There's a difference between "kidnapping and experimenting on an agent that can be disappeared" and "HOLY FUCK SOMEONE'S DROPPING NUKES".Whether it's us, or a third party they can't detect, Corps are about profit not getting nuked.
>>3617393We could've told them that the explosion was caused by something inside the facility, not by us.
>>3617401Or it would have taken too much time to charge up, causing them to keep going, as well as having them witness us launching it with only our bare hands. Which is really, really bad if we don't want to be hunted down by bounty hunters and Orion on our missions for Aegis.>>3617404This is the Internet, anon. Nobody will be happy, even if they win.>>3617414You do realize I voted for the missiles, right?
>>3617414And it would be very profitable indeed to kidnap someone that can make nukes on demand for your own ends.
>>3617421The buster takes a minute at most to launch and the rocket barrage took more or less more than 3. We definitely would have had enough time to blast the whole thing and scare the shit out of orion and without them even managing to reach us trough the long range comms.>>3617423That's assuming that they are stupid enough to walk into the blast zone. Pro tip: they aren't
>>3617428If they think they can jump us before we can get a shot off, or think they can hold someone/something hostage inside a potential blast radius, they absolutely would try it.
By the way, do we keep ignoring their open comms messages, or let Jago and Prima answer them in robotic voices and try to pass it as a red herring? There were androids inside, and maybe they know about the one that escaped, so we might use it to throw them off, right?
>>3617436There's nothing to gain by talking to them. This is supposed to be a deniable op, and we don't risk letting something slip this way.
>>3617432That makes no sense at all for several reasons. >First.We has them on the radar and they were not close enough to us. >Second.The blast would have shown lethal levels of seither. Only one person has been able to enter such zone and survive its horrible side effects, and he works with aegis.>Third.An alpha strike like that usually means that somebody is coming in force. Orion would have to think twice before engaging a force that can deploy an explosive like the one we are capable of making. >>3617436We are a black ops group. Its for the best that they think we are a drone.
>>3617428You keep saying that the buster would scare them off, instead of them coming after us even harder with more pilots scrambled, or sniping us from long range when we're outside the Zeon, or trying to blow the Zeon with the heaviest thing they have, assuming that it's what caused the buster and then trying to arrest us.The fact is, the buster vote lost. We'll probably be able to complete this mission regardless. Chill out and move on from this vote. You're not retroactively changing anyone's mind, and the buster's still on the table to use on the other pilots.>>3617436I'm tempted to blast some Alestorm at them, honestly.
>>3617458They were 9 minutes away from us, charging full throttle. I don't think they could've sniped us in this situation. And I said before, nebula explosion could be passed as something detonating inside the facility. But I agree that we should stop this argument instead of coming up with asspulls about why 'X option was better than Y'.
>>3617458>You keep saying that the buster would scare them off, instead of them coming after us even harder with more pilots scrambled, or sniping us from long range when we're outside the Zeon, or trying to blow the Zeon with the heaviest thing they have, assuming that it's what caused the buster and then trying to arrest us.All of them require to reach a zone that has lethal levels of seither radiation and suffer the consequences of seither overload. It also assumes that the mechs have long range capabilities, that miranda would be stupid enough to be a sitting duck instead of immediately getting away or that the reinforcements will be able to arrive in time, when it took more than an hour for this group to appear.>You're not retroactively changing anyone's mind, and the buster's still on the table to use on the other pilots.I know, but this situation has happened several time in the past where we fuck ourselves over by not using our powers and is a lesson that for some reason we haven't learned in the whole run of the quest. Everyone wants mana for the big spells, but when the situation appears, no one wants to use them. In that case, why have the training room or the new spells or all the items that allows us to have more mana? We have used the condenser once and the mana crystals thrice. Its ridiculous to waste so much resources into something that we are never using for fear of running out of mana (which has only happened once).
Well they're far away from us, maybe we can just blast off since Zeon is very fast.Option 2:>have the Mecha point to the incoming group>Open the cockpit >we activate the vanishing glyph>activate our wings>fly/glide out of the Mecha>aim to the Orion group>Blast them with nebula buster>Get back and fuck off immediately
Also we don't have to answer our client truthfully if they ask about the seither readings of out Nebula buster. We can feign ignorance and say it came out of nowhere and shrug or a seither bomb of somekind exploded or experimental rpg was fired.
We should fuck them up with flux wave, double tap when in range and fuck off. Their seither readings will make en panic
>>3617531Nah, first run to draw off their forward elements and string them out before bouncing back, flux waving, and then running again.
>>3617531That would need us to basically engage us. Right now they are on the long range radar, therefore its safer to run away.
>>3617520They have us under observation,visually, plus the sensor records.>>3617531>>3617538Much easier to just run. Radio contact range isn't visual or combat range.
>>3617494I get that same feeling when people don't want to use any other weapons then the Flamebringer and our fists, but what can you do? People prefer sticking to the least interesting options in case we really REALLY need the cool ones later, like how everyone saves their Elixirs and Mega-Potions for the biggest boss. Hell, that happens in here as well, especially with the potions.
>>3617436I would be up for that but, keeping the silence should make then think that we are actually a drone walker as some said.
I didn't mean that we engage them, but if we are forced into a battle flux should spook them good and proper if not messing them up entirely.Hell we can pulse once as we retreat, it should look to their systems like a powerful secret weapon. That should stop pursuit
>>3617547The axe was, is, and always will be stupid though.Those new gauntlets are just waiting to be taken for a spin though.
Reminder that Flux Wave is relatively short ranged.Nebula buster probably won't work so good against a group of even somewhat spread out mechs since radius. It would have been good against the building since that's infrastructure and not going anywhere.
Point is we will obviously try to bail out. But once that inevitably fails because they will surely try to persue us we can slowly down the faster pursuers using mellee. We still have our canon and we can (probably) break their formation and use a bit of luck and Zeon speed to avoid further damage if we are forced to break through the incoming enemy.
>>3617695See, that's the crux of the issue. anons have vastly different ideal Mirandas. I think the gauntlets are ok-ish, but the axe is cool. Some anons want her to be a summoner, an unarmed master, a shield artist, a goody two-shoes, some want to use the FutureSight on literally everything, some want to use the Blaster every mission regardless of need, and so on and so forth.Maybe it's just me, but it seems like there's a lot more variance in anons than in most quests, which is why we keep devolving into these arguments.
>>3617716Nah that is just the common thing that happens in forum quests. Doesn't help that some times there are people jumping into it without knowing the character behaviour. The one thing everyone can agree here is that Miranda will always try to get more money and she loves it.
Hey, someone last thread said that we could learn new stuff, right, and that Mono could eventually learn to transform? That sounds cool, but whered they say that?
>>3618596Well, she has succubus blood, but its very diluted. I'm not sure that she will be able to do much more than transform her surrounding environment unless we manage to somehow bring her lineage to its full potential, but the consequences of doing so might be bad.
>>3618596I swear I saw someone asking if Mono can learn Power Boost and the answer was that she could become someone like the Mist Walker (werewolf from her crossover). Ugh, looks like I misunderstood/misremembered what it meant since I can't find that post.
You know full well that you won’t be able to get away with any fancy talk in this situation; it’s fight or flight. And fight’s not looking too appealing, but flight’s going to be a hassle and a half, too; you won’t be able to just gun it towards Aegis territory...“Think it’s time ta learn the terrain, then! Full throttle away from fuckin’ ‘ere!” Jago says quickly. You have to agree, but the question is which way? You’re only roughly aware of the territory makeup, but they’re coming from the east, and Aegis territory is cardinal south. North is wildlands, and you’re pretty sure a few Scrapper territories are up there. You’re supposed to be one, but actually blending in would be troublesome…yet potentially useful.Northwest is a city called Freehold, but you don’t know jack about it aside it’s supposed to be fiercely independent; potentially good to get Orion off your back... but you also might get served up to Orion if it meant leaving them alone.Cardinal West is a massive canyon- ‘Ghostfire Canyon’, as it’s called. Ominous. There’s rumors of a Scrapper clan near there, too, but again, risky in terms of terrain- not to mention they’d probably chase you longer.>North>Northwest>West>Other
>>3620577>NorthThe scrappers would love to get their hands in some tech.
>>3620577>WestThe terrain would give us a advantage since they have so little walkers (only four) and i think we can use the terrain to deny the other vehicles a firing range for our walker.
>>3620577>OtherUP! Can we fly? If not, North.
>>3620592The enemy four walkers can probably fly too.
>>3620577>WestTradition demands a high speed chase through narrow canyons in giant robots. If it comes to combat we can mitigate their numbers. If these Ghost Lights just turn out to be high seither concentrations then we could also hide out there.
>>3620592>>3620595So let's put out the pro and cons of each one?North:Pro: Orion won't chase us to far into it. Possibly get us acess to some mechs from the scrappers if we manage to trade something with then of simply loot their stuffCon: Probably will have to deal with a unmentioned number of scrapper tribes. Who will definetly lust after our walker as well as Prima and JagoNorthwest:Pro: More civilized could work in a deal with us. The fact we are a scrapper with a walker like ours might make people think that there us more to it. Possibility to get more non-aegis related tech and better walker or AICA techCon: We are disguised as a scrapper if anything they would give us willining to Orion not attacking then. Add: Unless we make a boy sunddely fall in love with us and he wants to protect us and our walker so he hides us (Yeah it happend in a couple of mechs anime)West:Pro: Plenty of place to hide and use as cover. Zeon is build for stealth so he could use the canyons to hide and shoot some rocks while being chased to make then give up. Also has a scrapper that might have some tech and it's only one compared to the many we would find on the north.Cons: Higher chance of persue and the terrian could also be used against us and the damage could really stress the walker.
>>3620577>West
Well northwest it's definetly not a option if we want to keep our affilliation with Aegis secret. The fact we are disguised as a scrapper doesn't help our situation too.
>>3620577Norf Norf! An opportunity to experiment in a target rich environment.
There is another thing to consider about going North. We will be exposing the bots one of the worst fascets of humanity, raiders and Prima already said he would have aversion of killing humans. There is also the fact that we would be exposing what is essentianly children to the violence that is dealling and walking around raiders.
>>3620577>>West
>>3620643Chances are they will get their first kill this job (think Jago already has whether it's directly themselves or through the Zeon. We got Mono through it okay so it should be fine.
>>3620666Mono is way more travelled then Prima. Jago is dealling with it better thanks to his combat programming. Besides Jago got someone killed by destroying a mech and Prima has already killed plenty of aliens. The problem is not giving then kills but introducing the process a little bit more slowly.Because as mentioned before they got emotions only recently. It's the first time they have to deal with..well everything.
>>3620681I'm inclined to think that aliens don't count since they were programmed to protect humans from harm, including wild animals. That said, it's going to be interesting to handle her PTSD. Hopefully anon doesn't say anything too stupid and we don't mess up all the rolls and make her go full Terminator
>>3620643> When you're so worried about protecting fee-fee's that you end up getting people killed.K.
Rolled 1 (1d3)>>3620577Fuck it, let the dice choose>1)North>2)Northwest>3) West
>>3620577>North
>>3620745The problem are the coded Three Law (equivalent) subroutines deep in Prima’s coding that’s causing problems.
>>3620577West
>>3620745What? Specifically the part about getting people killed.Also, it's the fee-fees of someone who just recently gained the ability to understand what the hell those even are. Probably not the best of ideas to throw her in the deep end yet.
>>3620745>getting people killedI don't get it are you upset that we will kill the Orion security following us? There is a difference in killing someone face to face and killing a pilot who is covered in a metal suit. Biggest proff just look at her reaction when Jago killed the Vera girl Prima hasn't even got phased by the pilot woman death.
>>3621155It's not just feelings. It's hardcoded subroutines in the deepest levels of her programming that she's struggling to bend.
>>3621362The beauty of true AI is that it can modify it's own code, might take a bit though.
>>3620577>Westwe fucking nailed that canyon run in Dynamic Methods fighter VR training, I bet we can get rid of these suckers.
>>3620577>WestI'm a sucker for canyon runs
>>3621155>Probably not the best of ideas to throw her in the deep end yet.We shouldn't even be taking her on these runs then. Stick her with Izumi instead or something.
>>3622720To be fair, we had to bring them on the next mission we got.
>>3622720Higher ups wanted Miranda to bring Jago and Prima with her on her next mission to see how well they'd do. Her hands were tied.
>>3617750So is this Miranda's theme? https://youtu.be/VTisqHPG-tA
>>3624244yea that works,alternately Soon Enoughhttps://youtu.be/2B1B-Wll458slightly less edgy
>>3624244>>3624295Apt, yes.
Anyone here? I'm not doing much today, so I'll be able to run.
>>3626439I'm here for a couple hours at least.
>>3626439I'll be away for the next hour or something but after that I'll be here again.
>>3626439I'm here for most of the day.
>>3626439.
>>3626439here
>>3626439Here
“West!” you shout. “We’ll lose them in the canyon!” At least, that’s the plan.“Roight!” is all Jago says before the terrain suddenly begin blasts past you. Aegis’s boasts of speed, so far as you could tell, wasn’t just bluster...“They’re followin’!” Jago says not long after. “Picked up speed, too!”“Not fast enough to catch us, right?” you ask quickly as you judge the spots on the radar. They’re holding, but that in itself is a concern.“Nah, but they’re still a touch close fer comfort!” he says, worry lacing his words.“If my database is accurate, then this Ghostfire Canyon should do well in deterring them, provided we reach it,” Prima chimes in. “There is suspected to be abnormal Seither activity in the region.”“Then let’s book it,” you decide grimly, and try to push a little extra into the engines. “ETA, twenty minutes at current speed,” Jago informs you. Good. That means that they would likely have to make some hard decisions on-“Somethin’s coming in on intercept course!” Jago interrupts, and you turn your head to see even as you do your best to shift out of its way...>Roll 1d20, best of three.
Rolled 15 (1d20)>>3626591
Rolled 9 (1d20)>>3626591
Rolled 1 (1d20)>>3626591
Interdasting. Writing.
>>3626610late but i am here for a hot hour too
>>3626591>>3626599>>3626602>>3626603You can just barely see what it is; some kind of fighter aircraft, you think; a bit bulky, a bit...bulgy? Might be alien make, actually...Suddenly, klaxons go off as three shots from it fire off, and you’re quick to react- raising your gun to fire them out of the sky as you attempt to dodge. Two of the organic missiles are splashed easily, while the third gets far too close for comfort, detonating and releasing some type of spore in the air. They hover, and you manage to blow past them just as they start going off like flashbangs, with your systems and HUD blinking several times. “GAH!” The heck?!” Jago yelps as he physically flinches. “Everythin’s gone dark on my end!!” “A type of jamming system, I believe!” Prima adds, clutching her head as well. “Something about those flashes is- interfered with our signals!”Damnit. Flying blind and with FAR less flexibility. Great. You can even feel your speed decreasing. “How long until you can fix it?”“Dunno, but I’m tryin’!” he responds, even if you couldn’t spare a glance at him right now.Your pursuers, as far as you can tell, won’t be sharing the same fate. The chase from then on is...both worrying and silent. They’re not trying to peg you with long range weaponry, but as far as you know they haven’t caught up again- you have basic visuals and sound, enough to see them as specks in the distance, but no radar, limited audio, and only your primary firearm available along with whatever else Jago’s lost. Soon enough, though, you can see Ghostfire Canyon in the distance- a large feat of natural wonder, but with a noticeably thick fog that permeates the bottom and midsection of the canyon. In the state you’re in now… “How’re repairs going?”“Not fantastic!” He says as Prima looks on at him with concern. “Hardly even know what broke at this point, really…”>Push ahead, no reason not to now. You’re going to have to drop speed even more and be careful that you don’t run into anything...>Going into the Canyon blind is suicide. You might be able to keep around the middle and top end and maybe throw them off that way, but they might be up for that risk…>Go over. Maybe you can dolphin it and have the element of surprise; up and down should cause them no end of grief, right?>Other
>>3626711>Going into the Canyon blind is suicide. You might be able to keep around the middle and top end and maybe throw them off that way, but they might be up for that risk…
>>3626711>Push ahead, no reason not to now. You’re going to have to drop speed even more and be careful that you don’t run into anything...
>>3626711>>Go over. Maybe you can dolphin it and have the element of surprise; up and down should cause them no end of grief, right?
>>3626711Radar jam, big Oof, Hm...I'm just worried about this scrapper clan now, given proximity, and seemingly random biotech attack, they could be mutated experiments gone wrong from that lab we just blew up that, escaped when it was originally shut down. But that's the worst kind of wild speculation.We could try landing in the canyon, jumping out and solo fight some mechs on foot, I bet Miranda could fight a mech 1v1.Seither doesn't hurt Swan or Falcon (Prima or Jago) does it?And who knows, if this scrapper clan is also Seither resistant maybe we'll make friendly contact.>
>>3626739oops>Push ahead, no reason not to now. You’re going to have to drop speed even more and be careful that you don’t run into anything...
>>3626739If you mean are they hurt from sheer general exposure, not as such, you think.
>>3626746Oh boy, if we sit in the Seither and something happens like it did to Lori when we camped in that mana reactor.She'll be PISSED we did something to her babies.or she'll think it's hilarious that it happened again, Lori's strange that way.
>>3626711>Go over. Maybe you can dolphin it and have the element of surprise; up and down should cause them no end of grief, right?
Up and down. Writing!
>>3626770Time to dolphin blow dome fuckers.
>>3626711>>3626728>>3626743>>3626754“Well, not a fan of trying to navigate that without radar or anything else,” you admit as you begin to shift upwards. “So, time for a change in plans. Let’s see if they like playing whack a mole.” As you expected, as you begin cruising upwards trying to get above the fogline that you’re beginning to broach, your rear cameras let you see those specks get bigger and bigger- likely trying to get you before you can break out of said fogline and start putting on speed to get out of range again.You have to eyeball it, but when you can start making out shapes instead of blobs, that’s when you dive! A sea of fog nearly blinds you, and you have to be cautious to avoid any rock outcroppings if you want to make this work right. “Roight...Seither sensors are spikin’,” Jago says. “Got some hotspots ta deal with ‘ere...shame I can’t bloody tell where they might be.”“Doesn’t matter to us too much,” you affirm as you prepare yourself. Slowing down, you have to carefully navigate the canyon pass, even if only for a bit...but in minutes, that’s when you hear the unmistakeable roaring of engines, slowing down. Looking upwards, it’s hard to see, but you can vaguely make out some figures, canvassing the area. No doubt trying to get a lock on you with radar. You’re going to have to time this right if you’re going to take them by any kind of surprise…>Roll 4d20, best of three.
Rolled 13, 4, 8, 15 = 40 (4d20)>>3626880
Rolled 14, 12, 3, 10 = 39 (4d20)>>3626880
Rolled 12, 8, 8, 3 = 31 (4d20)>>3626880
Rolled 14, 10, 6, 17 = 47 (4d20)>>3626880
Writing!
>>3626882>>3626889>>3626890>>3626894That third role is pretty annoying.
>>3626880>>3626880>>3626882>>3626889>>3626890“On my mark, get ready for combat.” You say, eyeing up one of the figures in the back of what you can make out is a diamond formation. If you aim it right, you could tag them immediately. “Ready…”One of them nearly pauses- and before the ‘beep’ of a target lock goes off, you’re hitting the throttle. “NOW!”Your mech shoots forward, bursting out of the fogline like a hunting sea beast, lunging into the center of their formation. This ends up forcing them to turn, but still they fire- they’re all equipped with machine guns, no less. Still, it’s the rearguard that is your target, and you manage to slip only a few bits of fire as you let rip your own gun into its hull the second and a half before you’re in his face.It’s a blue and gold thing, you’re not sure of the specifics beyond that; you’re already grabbing it by the arm and diving down; gunfire trailing you, you spin to keep their squadmate between them and you as it struggles despite you plugging a few more bullets into it- you can register some shaking and banging on your end, but you spin again, much like you did to Vera, and send it into the canyon wall, a shower of metal spraying up from the impact. A couple more shots send it slumping, and then you quickly have to retreat as a hail of gunfire showers the canyon floor as they sweep the area.There’s a few moments of continuous shots, but the second they stop, you freeze. Bursting forward, you risk the canyon a bit, before shooting up and at an angle; this time it’s the forwards Walker that gets your attention- sadly, however, they seem to be a bit more keen to your trick this time- bullets fly from you, and only a few manage to hit their mark, although a couple well places shots apparently cause the leader’s off-hand to flinch as the remaining three fan out to gain some space and fire on you- this time two missiles streak out, and you’re forced to dive to lose them. Two explosions sound behind you, and now you have to figure out a plan of attack while they’re actively firing at you...>Any ideas?
>>3626938Use our boost to pass near a rock formation we srill have four missiles lefed from our firework before as we pass use the missiles to destroy the rock formation and bury the enemy in rocks.Once that's dobe use the melee option of Zeon (it's about time we trsted it out) see if we can pick the Walker heads or whatever place it's locate the walker sensors using the smoke from the rock debris plus the fog to hide ourselfs
Oh, huh. I just got invited to BBQ.Yeah, not passing that up. Take your time on this one until I get back.
>>3626938>Shoot a missile toward the formation and use it as a trap to make the enemy think we are pushing out of the fog to attack then again. Once they shoot the missile we will boost and use the melee optiin of Zeon while using the shield to defend ourselfs from the other walker's fire.
No one else has any ideas?
>>3626938Supporting the melee option >>3626975
>>3626938>I bet Miranda herself flies under their radars, let's pop out of our mech, breath in some of that spicy seither air, and see if we can pop a mech by sneezing on it with copious magic attacks
>>3627018Maybe ask Prima to help Jago with unjamming/try to access Orion's comms?
If it gets too dangerous we should head back towards the wreck of the first mecha we destroyed. Even if the pilot is already dead, his/her companions will probably hesitate to shoot when the wreck is in their line of fire.Rather than sticking next to it we can just fly past or over it to use it as a temporary cover while switching to a better position.
>>3627018Or try harmonizing with the mech to boost its performance or figure out if any techniques could work while inside of it?
>>3627055Harmonizing could compesate for some of the lag we are receiving due to the jamming.>>3627033i doubt they have open comms.
Supporting the idea of trying to harmonize with the mech
>>3627109Yea open comms on the first group was classic rookie central, despite their customized mechs clearly indicating protag status
>>3627117I blame the fact that they were mercs. But you are right they do look like protagonists, they even are from the mercs that want to work toward restoring the planet.
If we're closing in melee distance, should we add in a Flux Wave? Or the risk of getting hit in Miranda's staggered state from firing one is too high?
>>3626938It’s not the best, but something comes to you, and you don’t have the time to think it through; you’re already giving orders. “You know how to access melee in this thing?” You don’t have many missiles left, but you’re gonna use them as best you can...and that’s going to be…...NOW! As soon as you see even a minor break in fire, you launch one of the rockets in question towards the northern target- it gets out of the fog bank, and as you’d hoped, attention is quickly drawn to it, though they elect to dodge and fire back at the spot where you were.“Yeah!” Jago says as you shoot out in the other direction- towards the south target (although a bit off).“ACTIVATE IT!” you yell as your shielding starts taking fire.“Doin’ it!” And with that, you can see something lance out from your forearm as you fire; a long blade that gleams with a subtle glow and a low hum. “High-frequency blades are out!”Oh! Awesome. It takes only a moment or two to take advantage; you can see the slim mecha rear back in surprise as you rear your arm back and swing.The head comes clean off with a shearing, crashing sound, but otherwise cleanly, and almost in slow motion, the remains of the body fall back, before some scrambling motion as it freefalls out of the sky.“Two down, two to go!” Jago crows as you look back at the remaining two. Surprisingly, they don’t immediately attack you after this. Wonder what they’re sayin-A sound like a cannon suddenly sounds out, and a wicked, red explosion rips through the air near you, causing their mechs to tumble through the air at the pressure for a moment, as well as yours, if for slightly less time, and several of your sensors start blinking red. “What was that?” You ask as you look down. The fog is displaced for only a moment, but you can see some sort of anti-aircraft gun aiming upwards at them, crackling with energy.(cont.)
>>3627471i think we need a distraction first. So using the missile idea under the fog to make they thing it's us using our burst to walk and closing in behind in melee is a good option.Don't know if a flux wave is possible to be shot out of our cockpit like a barrier, or how long it would take to hit the targets.
Welcome back handler. I guess we found the scrapper clan.
>>3627475“Some kinda Seither cannon, I think, of all things! S’messin’ up our systems! AGAIN!" Well, bully. Seither CANNON, though? That's kinda nuts. "Wait, hold on...got a hail!” Jago suddenly announces. “Patching it through!” A buzzing sound echoes through the cabin as you connect, only for a tinny, electric voice to come out of it. “Who are you? You’re fighting against Orion?”“Who wants to know? You just shot at us!” Jago asks before you can say anything. Damnit.“We’re against Orion and anyone affiliated with them!” The voice, now clearly male, says. “Damnit…” Jago says after muting the system. “Some of the systems ain’t acting right- like we got hit with some sorta mini-EMP!” Sure enough, you can see the other two, crackling red with energy, diving for an emergency landing, you can guess. You feel fine, but your Walker, although better… “I can keep us up, but it ain’t gonna be easy!”“Can we identify the problem areas?” Prima asks quickly.Jago shakes his head. “Not unless we land an’ take our time- too much interferin’ with too much while things are active.”"Last chance- friend or foe!?" the voice asks. "We WILL shoot again!" > “Damnit. Let’s try to play nice with them, then. Ask if we can land, maybe get some kind of repairs happening- or at least let this thing vent.”> “They won’t be trying to run after us any time soon. Let’s just get out of here- we can take it slow for a bit.”> Other
>>3627480> “They won’t be trying to run after us any time soon. Let’s just get out of here- we can take it slow for a bit.”>Say "friend" and get away from them.
>>3627480> “Damnit. Let’s try to play nice with them, then. Ask if we can land, maybe get some kind of repairs happening- or at least let this thing vent.”I want that Seither canon. We can start shooting magic blast from it.
>>3627480>"Friend.">Damnit. Let’s try to play nice with them, then. Ask if we can land, maybe get some kind of repairs happening- or at least let this thing vent.
>>3627480> “Damnit. Let’s try to play nice with them, then. Ask if we can land, maybe get some kind of repairs happening- or at least let this thing vent.”I doubt Aegis would want any Scrapper clans tampering with their prototypes, but some venting would be fine. We can always have the bots observe should they want to try anything. We're getting too much paint chip damage for comfort.
>>3627480>> “They won’t be trying to run after us any time soon. Let’s just get out of here- we can take it slow for a bit.”since the pursuers are backing off, so can we. I imagine landing and trying to meet these scrappers would only result in another kind of problem, as in the ones where they have guns on the mech, and either tell us to do things for them or else, and/or try to steal parts of it while being taken to their leader for a talk of some sort.
>>3627491There are srill people following us a little repair (using our gloves to reverse time) might prove to be a good idea.
>>3627480> "Freelancer. I'm willing to do some side work for repairs, a cot and a hot meal."> “Damnit. Let’s try to play nice with them, then. Ask if we can land, maybe get some kind of repairs happening- or at least let this thing vent.”
>>3627502Running away ASAP seems like the most sensible option to me.
>>3627501They could be waiting outside the canyon fog. They did have a lot of vehicles with then.
Oh yeah, happy freedom day, handler!
>>3627509As i said they probably formed a perimeter outside. Laying low and getting some repair ourselfs should be a good idea.
>>3627509pretty much my opinion. That and I just don't trust them to not mess with the mech.
>>3627539Just leave Prima and Jago inside/neat the mech?
>>3627539they will definitely try to murder us because we have the latest tech in mech design. I'm pretty sure that they'll think we are part of orion or something like that.
>>3627480> “They won’t be trying to run after us any time soon. Let’s just get out of here- we can take it slow for a bit.”We fuck off now!
We're good girls and bots, we swear!Writing.
>>3627480Oh yeah, how was the BBQ? Did you get your fill of grilled meats, coleslaw, and pies?
>>3627556Had Bratwurst, burgers, and ribs. Corn and potato salad.Twas good.
>>3627550Wha-? They saw us fighting Orion, why would they think that? And all Walkers could be considered 'too high-tech' for them yet they try to be civil.
>>3627566This. Plus they didn't shoot us directly the seither shot was toward the Orion walkers we could also just let then scrap the walkers that we trashed and use mana to rebuild then.This canyon has high concetration of Siether so we can just absorv it and restore the used mana.
>>3627566You know, shit happens and a very shiny unidentified mech rases at the very least a few red flags.
>>3627576Just because they didn't hit us doesn't mean they weren't aiming for it. They could've tried to hit anyone approaching, but simply missed.
>>3627579You are just being paranoid.
>>3627594Sure srill they communicated you don't shoot someone you want to kill. And they saw us killing Orion walkers so your idea is just pure unfounded paranoia.
>>3627595Yeah, definitely, but sometimes getting away is better than trying to deal with them.
>>3627601Or we could deal with then and get something from it? Like the seither canon. At least these scrappers are willing to talk.
>>3627606Lets be real, We're never gonna use the canon its price in motes will be rather low(because at the very least this group only wants it) and more importantly than that, we're never gonna get the canon unless we kill everyone. I mean, its the main thing they use to defend themselves, do you really think they are gonna give it to us, a literal unknown? Either way, don't think with you wallet, think with your brain.
>>3627617Eh we can kill everyone or use our neat gloves to grab the scrapped walkers we knocked out using the time reversal to heal it back in shape as a trade.
>>3627638That's just a waste of time and mana.
>>3627651Says you i think it's worth it because lets us practice our gloves power. If you are worried about the mana there are seither red zones we just need to take a stroll there and absorv the mana.
>>3627480“We’re friendly,” you quickly announce. “For now,” you add before he opens the channel again to respond.He nods, then switches it back. “Friendly,” he announces. “The pilot wishes to speak!”There’s an odd pause. “Wait, you aren’t the-”“He’s not. I am,” you announce. “And I’m asking to land to let my Walker vent a bit and perform some minor analysis and repair work.”There’s another pause, this one longer, and for a second you’re unsure. Then the crackling voice comes back. “Alright, but you do it in full view of us, and you don’t raise any weapons. We’ll know. Your AICA comes with you, and no weapons on your person.”“Fine.” You’re not a fan of the AICA thing, but…“Coming down,” you say, and you pilot the Zeon gently towards the ground as best you can; the fog hardly lifts once you get to ground level, but it’s lightened up a bit, at least. And you can see, as you expected, scrappers. At least a hundred of them by initial estimate, astonishingly. Probably a bit more. All of them in a hodgepodge of outfits, most of them with some kind of iron wielded on for protection, scraps of leather and cloth otherwise. Most have helmets. All of them have guns; long barreled, chunky rifles that remind you vaguely of older versions of what you saw Aegis use. They keep their weapons trained on your Walker the whole way down, as if that’d do anything...although that big cannon at the back is what you’re looking at more.As you set down, you turn to your bots. “Alright. Let’s try to keep things civil and get through this in one piece.”“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Jago mutters, and Prima nods as well. Although, looking at her, a thought comes to you.>Bring Prima with you? She’d be a big help with diagnostics.>No, keep her hidden in case something goes south and you need an escape.>Other
>>3627638You ever see that scene from Waterworld where Keven Cosner is shown to have gills to a floating town, and is thus a mutant, and he's sentenced to death by drowning in shit?Let's not risk any chances regarding us being seen as a freak and thus being executed, even if we're unlikely to die in that particular way.I never would have thought I would use Waterworld as an example for anything in a quest.
>>3627666>>Bring Prima with you? She’d be a big help with diagnostics.If she gets found out without us informing these folks, we'll have to run after the Zeon gets partially repaired anyway. Besides, the more she helps, the quicker we can leave.
>>3627666>No, keep her hidden in case something goes south and you need an escape.
>>3627666>Bring Prima with you? She’d be a big help with diagnostics.That will also fool them into thinking we have no AICA jacked into the mech
>>3627666>>No, keep her hidden in case something goes south and you need an escape.>>3627548Oh look, they want the robots out as well, just as I expected. I imagine they're going to start taking it apart for pieces of tech ASAP at this point.>>3627599>pure unfounded paranoiaAs if you know exactly how scrappers think and act in situations like this. Why would they care who we are when they started shooting so long as they can profit/loot from it in the end? Until we have actual evidence from more interactions with them, I see them as looters first, bandits second, and thugs third. In the end, it's usually much safer to assume the worst about unknown people and be happily surprised if it's not as expected than the other way around.
>>3627666>No, keep her hidden in case something goes south and you need an escape.>>3627668Sure whatever
>>3627666(nice numbers)>Bring Prima with you? She’d be a big help with diagnostics.
>>3627679They heard Jago voice.I think the better way is keep Prima inside the mech in case things go south.
>>3627690Shit you are right. Lets unplug Jago and have Prima take his place.
>>3627682That's just your impression you got from Aegis employees, who are undoubtedly biased. Scrappers aren't unified entity, just a term for people outside of corps' influence. Let's just see what this clan is about before labeling them.
>>3627700Its safe to assume they are that. This is very similar to IRL gangs. Yeah, some of them are good, but most of them will gun you down.
>>3627700Also, remember that we are a scrapper and all the trouble that said background created for us back at Aegis base.
>>3627710Agreed. While not all of them are the same, I don't think the common opinion of Scrappers is unearned.BTW, if you're going to change vote then you should make a new reply for it. It would be nice to have an emergency option in case things go south.
>>3627666>No, keep her hidden in case something goes south and you need an escape.>Have her take Jago's place as the Mech's AICA>>3627720Fair enough
>>3627682>In the end, it's usually much safer to assume the worst about unknown people and be happily surprised if it's not as expected than the other way around.Just wow dude...well i can't argue against that so yeah..you do you and keep that way i will just go and hang out and be sociable.
>>3627690>>3627696They said that they don't want AICAs inside the mech, the heck? Why are you leaving Prima inside the port, aren't they going to check it?
Seems like we're gonna have a bit of a holdout option. Writing!
>>3627745Either take her out to help with repairs or hide her better than placing her in an obvious place to look.
>>3627727To be fair, we are a mercenary that regularly gets put into backstabbing situations. Miranda doesn't have the luxury of immediately trusting somebody else unless they are from the intersection or they are clearly friendly (like a civilian or such).>>3627745You are crazy if you think we are gonna let them inside the mech. Otherwise we just turn away and leave unless they become stupid and end up forcing us to kill them.
>>3627745Where does it say they would check? or even Can check even if they wanted to? I mean I assume the cockpit is closed and locked until the pilot is back to unlock it again, similar to a car, except there's no transparent screen to see through in a mech's cockpit. Combined with how they never specified that the mech must be left open, I see no way for them to detect anything in it without expensive and specialized scanners that can somehow bypass the protections this prototype mech should have.
>>3627745 #They won't we will stay in their sight while we adjust the mech then once it's normal we leave.
>>3627666>>No, keep her hidden in case something goes south and you need an escape.Good for a backup, and if she plugs in while we're working she can still help with reporting and diagnostics.
Great, now there's three paranoids.
>>3627666>Bring Prima with you? She’d be a big help with diagnostics.
>>3627787Its not paranoia. >>3627579 is paranoia. common sense is to leave our cockpit closed, specially because they never told us to leave it open.
I think we are tied.
>>3627666“Prima.” She turns to you. Can you squeeze behind the chair? Long enough to get out of sight for a minute or two? I want you here as an emergency option in case things go south.”“It will be a tight fit, but…” she nods. “Right.” She starts moving, grunting a bit as she tries to fit herself behind the very small space just at the base of the seat, as you look to Jago.“Great. I’m popping this before they start talking. You unhook and get out first.” He nods, and you do so; you can see the collective group raise their firearms in caution as Jago steps out first. “Oy, couldja put those away!?” He lifts himself over the edge, and hops out, landing heavily, but smoothly onto the sandy surface. “Liable ta put a bloke’s optics out.”“Don’t antagonist them, Falcon,” you say as you do the same, much to everyone’s surprise. The hatch closes as soon as it opened, and as far as you can tell, no one noticed- probably too focused on you and Jago in the encroaching darkness. “It’s not polite.”“A...another outsider? How?” One of the men in the front steps up, surprise clear on his face. He’s an older one, with a rather bushy, greying beard, and wizened hazel eyes behind a rather thick suit of protective wear. The damn thing looks almost like he’s wearing a miniature bathysphere, in fact, and you’re not entirely certain a magiblast would penetrate. “How did...where are you…” he pauses, and shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter, for now.” You can see some of the tenseness leave his shoulders, but he still remains poised, and his gun is still aimed square at you. “We’ll give ya the usual, then. One fer one. A night’s meal and bed fer a day’s work tomorrow. But you’re explaining how you got that piece o’ tech.”“Pushy, pushy…” Jago grumbles. The old man clearly hears him, his eyes flickering to the bot, but he makes no other notice of it, instead waving you in with his gun. “C’mon, we ain’t got all night. Let’s get under before anythin’ comes out on us.” Already you can hear talk, murmurs about where you could’ve gotten the Walker, and a few lingering eyes on it as you walk away, guns still trained on you. “Dunno how your group does things. We got too much Seither here and there to hang out topside too long. Hope you don’t have a problem with closed spaces.” He doesn’t sound too apologetic.>“So, what do you call yourselves? What's your angle?”>“No one’s gonna go through my walker, are they?”>“What kind of work are you expecting me to do?”>Other
>>3627802The vote's been called already. >>3627747
>>3627802Nah, somebody switched their choice. Hiding Prima won.
Oh we are so dumb we could have used the invisible sigil we got from Owlia to hide Prima..maybe we use it next time.
>>3627803>>“No one’s gonna go through my walker, are they?”
>>3627803>“What kind of work are you expecting me to do?”>I expect that no one’s gonna go through my walker
>>3627807She can't use sigils or crystals or most of the magitech without mana.
>>3627803>“No one’s gonna go through my walker, are they?”>“What kind of work are you expecting me to do?”>>3627727Randa is an old, pessimistic merc, which tends to be a high mortality profession. The hell do you think has kept her alive this long? Implicitly trusting everyone she comes across, obviously.>>3627787I suppose you've forgotten the reception we got back at base for being a "Scraper". I wonder why folks might to react to someone like that?>>3627791> >>3627579 is paranoia.No, it's not. He's completely right. And we can't work on the mech from the inside.>>3627807Why? She fit behind the chair just fine. If she hadn't that would have been a good idea though.>>3627814I'm not sure, but aren't the sigils self-powered?
Work tomorrow, so I've got to end it here for today. Will resume tomorrow or early Friday. Happy 4th for everyone who celebrates it!I made REALLY good ribs today and I'm fucking proud. Managed a good smoke ring.
>>3627803>“No one’s gonna go through my walker, are they?”>“What kind of work are you expecting me to do?”
>>3627819I said early Friday, I meant Saturday. Doy.
>>3627814To be fair the sigils work with outside mana, i think. We'd only need to activate it once and give it to prima.>>3627816Seems like most of the damage is external sensors and stuff that doesn't need the cockpit open.>>3627819Thanks for running!
>>3627819I can appreciate a fellow cook. Do you like grilled veggies Handler?