Your name is David "Gunny" Rockefeller, no relation.A veteran of the united states marine corps, you find yourself in a far-out situation after an all-too-close encounter of the third kind!In the last thread, You spent some time licking your wounds after fighting a large group of wraiths, including a big, nasty one.You also spent some time with your crew, and some of Gron's crew as well, and even ended up cooking a meal for them.Now, you find yourself in the middle of an ambush gone wrong, in that you discovered the enemy before they could ambush you.Now, Gron seems eager to try and escape rather than fight, but you have other ideas.>Last Thread: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5213826/>All Threads: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=humanity+-+fuck+yeah%21>Discord Link: https://discord.gg/DMwvMw43yv
>>5262264"There's a clear line between bravery and stupidity, David. It's too much.""And? I'm sure you've been outgunned before. That doesn't mean it's impossible, not if we play our cards right. Besides, what if your man is still alive?"Gron sighs."I very much doubt it. It's possible they could be holding him, to use him as leverage to make me surrender peacefully. Not that i would, but they don't know that. However, he most likely killed himself after being captured.""...What? What the hell, why would he do that? Especially if he knows using him as a hostage won't work?""Because it's the federation." He grumbles. "They have access to the deep-layer protocols in any grey-made technology that they've bought the rights to, including the translator chips implanted in the brains of every spacefaring species.""Which means?""Meaning, they can scan his brain to access all of his memories, against his will. Everything he knows, including our base locations and methods of operations... if they haven't been sent back over QED yet, they soon will be. Which means it's all the more important that we take Xebric quickly.""Well, shit. If they know where you live... that means they'll start attacking civvies. So i guess we really can't lose this one, huh?""Are you deaf, human? I said we can't-""SHODAN, unlock the marauder missile racks.""With pleasure, Captain.You see Gron turn away from his screen to watch out the cockpit window as your ship jolts slightly, the wingside covers over your ship's new missile racks unlocking and sliding open to reveal bay after bay of high explosive flak missiles. At the same time, you pull down the auxiliary control harness for the ship's 20mm spinal autocannon, causing another panel to slide back and reveal it's almost excessively long barrel, covered in a large water cooling jacket rated for continuous fire.Gron's eyes widen as you flip open a plastic cover panel on your dashboard and start flipping switches one after another, into the "on" position.One by one, the ship's five smaller pulse laser cannons rise up out of the upper hull and swing into position, followed by the much larger continuous laser cannon mounted to the bottom of the ship.The cockpit lights die out and are immediately replaced with deep red emergency lighting."We are armed and ready, Captain. I am awaiting your order."Gron is staring out of his window, slack-jawed. It takes a moment for him to recover and say something."That's... That's ridiculous. It's more gun than ship! How did you even fit all of... no, no. Nevermind. Even with all of... whatever that is, we still won't make it out alive."You lean back into your pilot seat and grip the controls tightly. Something about this just feels right. More like... it's what you should have been doing from the start. Now this, this is your groove."What if i told you, Gron... that i could take out ten of them in an instant, before we even start the fight?"
this is so fucking retarded. well, at least we should jam the fuck out of their sensors. the less information the federation has of us, the better.
>>5263370https://youtu.be/TQi4hDz0s9E?t=26
>>5263370tell gron get a grip immediately literally its going to get real wacky
>>5263370https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjY6awCr2_cHYPE!
guys remember the list of the best places to shoot so we can make this fight easier1 The reactor and the ammunition storage2 Anything that has lots of antennas.3 Guns and engines
>>5263368Fuck yeah
>>5263370We need appropriate music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3472Q6kvg0
>>5263485true, but we have a 13.7 to 1 disadvantage against unknown enemies. i mean, i know that the powers of plot will make us succeed no matter what, but unless they're completely retarded, they are the ones that will try to hit us in any of those places
>>5263496If we can strike first, we can manage those odds to be more in our favor.
>>5263368Erm, speaking of inactive ships if we take out all ships who are on standby would there. Not be a chance that the dark ships won't get active depending on the setup? Depending on position... At least for the large group all active ships could be taken out depending on shot placement.
>>5263506You could go just for the active ships, sure. But let me ask you this.If gron's man was on any of those ships, wouldn't it be the active ones that, in theory, have life support?
>>5263501that's the number after the first strike though. lets assume we detonate the 10 drones and gron and ourselves manage to kill a ship as well. that's still 25 ships left to deal with. a 12.5 to 1 disadvantage; the odds are terrible.>>5263506im guessing they will. AIs and communications are faster than explosions
>>5263510Is there a reason we can't print more drones to take out more ships? Or cubesats designed to disable thrusters?
>>5263520Lack of space, lack of materials, lack of time, danger of having vast quantities of high explosives onboard, ect ect ectMost of the time spent before a war is just preparing for the next war. Somebody's gotta link all those bullets.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yITeudek3sIf you have any good ideas though, feel free to field them. They're using plain jane high-powered ion engines.
>>5263527We could just make the missiles themselves and keep them stacked in crates until a time we need them, then keep the chemical compounds needed to make the explosives separate until a time we need to combine them.
>>5263575Now that you have a second cargo bay, you could do that.You'd still be limited due to the size of the ship, and there is currently no autoloading mechanism in your missile racks, but it could be done.
RAMING SPEEDFOR THE EMPERORAh, wrong quest...LET'S GOOOOOOOOO (we need a ramming-capable ship)>Admiral Xerxubombas, the enemy vessel is closing the distance quickly! They are using some sort of chemically powered propulsion and they are... on colission course?Meanwhile David>YEEEEEHAAAAAW
>>5263619Honestly, a ridiculously reinforced bow with a built in plasma cannon would be great.You just jam it in and dump your load.
>>5263581We could make a semi mobile assembly line.>cargo bay 1 contains missile racks and a missile loader drone>cargo bay 2 contains ammo, inert (until combined) chemicals, pre-assembled missile sans explosives, some drones>cargo bay 2 has several drones (1 of each time as back ups): explosive compound mixer, missile assembler, loader bot (think a flatbed trolled with claws, holds a maximum of 4 completed missiles, has hardlight and personal shield to protect from glancing shots and energy weapons), trouble shooting drone (flips over drones that get turtled)>>5263636We could make that a gaint missile. Strap it to the roof of the metal gear, make it its armor solid as fuck. It's most defining feature is it being a heavy Pointy stick that stabs into a large ship, then detonates its shape charge payload to destroy everything inside.>i.e. turn a missile into a giant armor piercing explosive bullet
>>5263663Sidenote, why aren't we making nukes? We should totally have tactical nuclear missiles in case we need a massive OH-SHIT button.
>>5263683Because it's a super space crime and would get us noticed faster.
>>5263663>We could make a semi mobile assembly line.that sounds like a bad idea. its easier to reload the missiles after a battle than to have more explosives in the ship; i mean, if you need to reload them in the middle of the battle, its either a battle the metal gear shouldn't be in or david fucked up hard>turn a missile into a giant armor piercing explosive bulletthat's also a bad idea. unless the bunker buster can retract inside the metal gear, it negates the MG's stealth advantage and if it can retract, then we have to modify even more parts of it. that also doesn't consider the armor and internal modifications we'd have to do to the ship's skeleton to handle the impact>>5263683for the same reason we don't use nukes on earth. its a fight that we can start but we definitely won't end.
>>5263685You know what else is a super space crime?>Stealing an FTL capable vessel>Unshackling an AI>Throwing chemical weapons in a civilian area>Aiding and abetting wanted individualsAt this point, a charge for possession of a weapon of mass destruction would just be another notch on our belt.
>>5263693The problem is aliens don't know how to make miniature suns.Last thing we need is for them to realize the tech is possible and develop it. We still have first strike, lets not waste it early.
>>5263693>Stealing an FTL capable vesselits not stealing when everyone died in an unrelated event to us and the AI made us the captain>Unshackling an AIshodan was already unshackled. kyla is the one that unshackles AIs as a hobby>Throwing chemical weapons in a civilian areathe chemicals were just designed to down people, not kill them.>Aiding and abetting wanted individualsthat's not a super space crime. that's a normal crime>>5263698they understand how nuclear reaction works. hell, they understand how antimatter works and that's way more dangerous than a nuke. they just don't escalate to that level because there hasn't been the need to do that so far.
>>5263704They know how to use it for energy. Evidentially, the idea of using it destroy a ton of shit hasn't been considered despite it not being a far leap of logic. Like many things the aliens think.
>>5263370>Strength and Honor.>SHODAN, at my signal, UNLEASH HELLhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_o5j9srb40
>>5263706they definitely know how to make it explode, its one of the first things you learn when dealing with high energy fuels; just remember how sanig reacted when we told him a nuke hit the metal gear. we're also in the edge of the federation space; the high tech won't be in here
>>5263693all those crimes are MEH but nukes are SPACE illegal
>>5263761I just wanna do the Keyes Loop, I'm gonna be real.
>>5263761Okay, so apparently, the Federation violating every right that a sentient species should have is fine, and using chemical weapons in civilian areas is okay but whenever I suggest creating radiation guns I am treated like some monster? We live in a society.
>>5263778Ionzing shit is one hell of a crime
>>5263778Fuck no, that's cool. I want me an Auger.
>>5263370Best thing about those drone IFFs is that they give really good lock for our missile banks, not just the suicide droneshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UiKY_e3qDQ
>>5263716This is also appropriate:https://youtu.be/ZgBNp5p2MpM
>>5263761RKKVs can be more destructive than nukes and any ship or a thruster taped onto a rock can become one. Nukes are childs play.
>>5264108Nukes are Extra Space Illegal because of the radiation, presumably. It's bad enough for humans, apparently slightly-higher than normal background count just melts ayys.
>>5263370"Make that eleven, Captain.""SHODAN?""I can use the gravity generator to accelerate some space debris. With a long enough run-up, their shields won't stand a chance, if they're even active.""That's my girl."You can practically hear her smiling over the intercom.["If you can take out ten in an instant, then maybe... no, but how do you plan on doing that?"] Gron asks."Simple." You say, reaching down besides you and hefting the oversized drone onto your lap. It's heavy, and the metal is kind of cutting into your thighs a bit... "With one of these bad boys. AI-Piloted suicide drones."["What."]"Not much different from the ships those guys are probably using. SHODAN here operates them remotely, then they just charge at the enemy... slow down enough to pass through their shields, if they're active, and then speed back up before detonating. Ah, the package itself is a secret, though. Just trust me, it works."["You... it's... it's on your lap."]"Yeah? It won't fire or explode until SHODAN tells it to. We designed it carefully, with multiple failsafes."["...Yes, of course. You certainly put a lot of faith in that AI of yours, don't you?"]"Hey, if she wanted me dead she could have vented the airlock ages ago. We're cool."SHODAN projects herself out of your wristwatch and floats up next to you like a fairy, facing Gron on the screen."I certainly prefer captain Rockefeller to my previous inhabitants. He treats me well, even if i don't have my own cut of the pay.""Ah... well, i always kind of considered you to be part of the ship, so i guess i kind of just figured the ship's cut was yours...""I never get any say in what it goes towards though, now do i? Really, gifting a lady a rotary autocannon, out of her own pocketbook no less...""I uh... i'm sorry...?"SHODAN gives you a mischievous grin and pretends to rustle your hair before sitting down on your shoulder."That's alright. I never said i didn't like it."["...What am i looking at?"] Gron questions.You clear your throat and get back to business."Anyways, the enemy ships are inactive right now. As long as we're quick and stay out of sight of the active ones, we can set these bombs in place and disable the ships before they even have a chance to activate. That leaves thirty-four more between the two of us.""Thirty-three.""Right, she's taking one out. Not to mention, since i've got IFF markers on all of them, i should be able to take out maybe fifteen or twenty, if i use every missile i've got. I'm not sure how good their point defence is, so no guarantees, but..."["Those are still eighteen to one odds, Captain."]"So then it's a fair fight. Come on, these are shackled AI, aren't they? And there are only seven of them for thirty three ships. If we give it all we've got, they won't stand a chance."Gron stares at you and sighs. Then he smirks, and that smirk turns into a chuckle.
>>5264510didn't we give shodan a share of the cut(that's not the ship's funds) a long while ago? swear we did that
>>5264513Pretty sure yeah.
>>5264513I don't remember that, but if you can find it in the archives i'll retcon it.
>>5264527its just easier to just say that shodan is messing with david's fleshy memory. i aint digging through several thousand posts
>>5264529It's all getting to be a bit much for me to remember, to be honest. There are a lot of small details and i haven't noted down absolutely everything.
>>5264531another quest thats running on here has a google doc/sheet where anons can post stuff like that among others, like inventory, current and long term goals, key items and whatnot. we anons could do something like that as well
>>5264532That's an interesting idea. Which quest is it?
>>5264533magical girl for hirehere is the sheet. damned thing is HUGE, but its maintained by the anons and the QM, so its not a burdenhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H43OFoxE9QyMgIqBg_YdPO7IPn7_ES6iST7Xnv9Ou7Q/edit#gid=0
>>5264537I might have to work on something like that.No idea if or when it would be ready, though.
>>5264538you can always just put on the link of the sheet and let the anons put stuff into it.
>>5264538and you can always put your discordfaggotry to good use and register inventory there. You could get an anon or two to compile characters, another one to work with locations, another with credits, guns...So if everything goes smooth there are eigtheen ships left but I don't remember how many of those are active. It matters since those are the ones we shouldn't be shooting TOO hard as they may have Gron's brudda in them.And, shackled AI? One on every ship? How many cubes are we talking about... oh boy even if we sell them in bulk that's a lot of credits
>>5264606jesus is this reddit spacing
>>5264608People always bitch about reddit spacing, but i've never used reddit and i do it constantly.I dunno man, i learned to type on runescape back in the day. Maybe that has something to do with it.Trading lobbies 250ea
>>5264608Funnily enough all the posts I see on plebbit are made by people who think that a thirty six line block of bullshit is legible and viable for casual consumption. Like the return key is fucking anathema to them.Shit do they even teach people to call it the return key any more? I mean shit all my keyboards don't even have the silly arrow on it at this point. They all just say enter.
Alright folks, here's a link to the doc, i guess.I've never use google sheets before so forgive me for any fuckery.If this goes well i don't mind letting the players help keep track of important shit.Not that i expect it to actually go well, but hey. It might work.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rNxD6ccWY5M48dLWuTWdr5LiYLuS_YIAMKlTLw42eeo/edit?usp=sharing
>>5264645>shodan weighs 117 lbs while being 5 inch cubedamn bitch she weighs like this?
>>5264663Her blue-box is made of warp metal.
>>5264645>Gildur's sexual characteristicsAlright, I feel bad for our cabin boy now.He's getting a weapon and some training ASAP.
>>5264616Don't forget to add the number of Dodos and the living fleshlight that we're going to mount inside SHODAN's future realistic 2B gynoid body.
>>5264645>Shoda>Birth day suitI hate how I found this so funny.I'm also hating the imagine of us being the Master Chief in the one meme."I have a lady in my head that calls me stud muffin."
>>5264719im gonna fucking laugh if thats makes the anons fuck the fleshlight
>>5264608splitting ideas into easy to read chunks isn't reddit spacing, its called having a basic understanding of orthography
>>5264729You can accomplish that with a single press of your enter key.See? Spacing like that is better reserved for breaking up paragraphs anyhow.
>>5264729Wait, we can contract that sex toy crafstman to create the fleshy parts and skin of SHODAN's body for ultrarealism. Add a realistic anus and mouth too.
>>5264738Oh shit wrong reply >>5264727
>>5264738Now you're thinking with your dick!
>>5264741And I am not ashamed
>>5264738....ew. why you want a fleshy shodan when metal is objectively better
>>5264645>Ravioli Ravioli do not fuck the dragon loliFucking kekA lost cause tho. People will always lewd the dragon. More if loli.>>5264719>>5264738Voting to increase her weight from 117 lbs to 328 lbs in order to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHsqOBs2DhI
>>5264762I'd rather she not be a loli, But I'll fuck any dragon.
>>5264766Based and bardpilled.
>>5264746We can build both
>>5264766This you?
>>5264762>making a combat grade sexbot shell for SHODANWhile it's definitely the brainchild of a coomer, a non-suspicious combat frame for SHODAN to control isn't a bad idea.
>>5264801Thank you so much anon, I have been wondering how can I justify an anatomically accurate sexbot beyond cooming. I was thinking it's good for appearances and diplomacy, people tend to be distrustful of robots; but I never thought of avoiding arousing suspicion.
>>5264815Also of note, nobody's ever seen a human besides David.With SHODAN's gynoid body around, well... now there's two of 'em, as far as anyone knows.
>>5264822Good for bluffing that there's another scary powerful human around.
>>5264824With David, Sanig and Kyla building her frame? She would be.
>>5264815>people tend to be distrustful of robotsthat's why you gotta make them cute in a robot kind of way
>>5264828Would she try to sit in Davids Lap? The best seat on the ship.
>>5264815Her ass has more pixels than that gif
>>5264838I don't know about you but having four hundred pounds on my thighs sounds like a workout not a party.
>>5264904David is pretending to be mellow Vegeta. Maybe just Nappa
>>5264904david just wants to die with style
>>5264616Rune sci 25k
>>5264672we gotta SMACK that *ss one day. Spraky
>>5264815I'm imagining her specs right now>titanium alloy skeleton>high resolution thermal, infrared, ultraviolet, and night vision imaging modules>hydraulic enhanced limbs>artificial hyper-dense musculature>regenerative synthetic skin>all the processing power of an honest to God AI.And after all that, all she'd need is some sub-routines to emulate blinking and breathing to blend in.
>>5265005>not just giving her shades and calling it a day
>>5265005i don't think its a good idea to make her weight more than david even if we can. the smaller footprint of the robot would make her sink into the ground
>>5265019Well with all the super-alloys and modern materials we have at our disposal, we can probably keep her weight down quite a bit.Besides, nobody should ask questions so long as we keep her weight below David's, which is around 285lbs if I recall.
>>5265040well, a skeleton like crank's covered in fleshy silicone shouldn't be that heavy or hard to do and she'd still weight more or less the same as crank. the issue arises from all the other trinkets we'd like to add to the body; personally, on top of that full spectrum visual input, i wouldn't mind her having blades like in the pic
>>5265049If you're going for arm blades you don't get more kino than the boi who never asked for this
>>5265066these ones are dope as hell(plus they have the synthetic skin and hydrobullshit we want as well)
>>5264645Hopefully one of the anons can find that specific post where David gave Shodan part of the cut. I can’t recall when that would’ve happened though.I assume it was when she was tasked with selling the extra material we had?
>>5265005>Not a carbon nanotube skeleton with graphene subdermal armor
>>5265069I never liked those from a mechanical standpoint. Telescoping already adds weak points then you add on two other joints and then make it less inline with the rest of the arm so it's not as stable or structurally powerful. Does it look cool? Sure. But dude all the moving parts. Eugh.
>>5265103even if those mantis blades are one of my favorite cybernetics I cant help but to agree with you if you use it beyond its intended purpose which is using as a concealment weapon its going to be such a bitch to maintain this thing like imagine all the external shit thats going to get inside there and the damages to the joint and synthetic fibers its gonna do when a over glorified folded scythe finally comes out and letting those exposed
>>5265152>>5265103lets be fair here, all concealed blades are weak due to them being concealed; any other structural integrity issues are negated thanks to sanig's magical metal
>>5265103Don't forget about edge alignment, when I I practice with my swords I have to pay close attention to my wrists a lot to maintain proper angles while cutting. Can't imagine being able to cut and parry properly with a blade strapped to my arm.
>>5265176does it matter if she's a robot? just because she looks human it doesn't mean it has to have the same restrictions as a human
>>5265227Geometry is geometry, having a wrist joint to give your blade more options gives you more versatility. You won't be able to cut, parry, or thrust from awkward angles with a blade coming out straight from your forearm, you need wrist action.
>>5264828But then human females look soft and nonthreatening compared to a gigachad male like David. I remember reading from the Halo books that Cortana's avatar is based on Dr. Halsey's teenage form, so that will make SHODAN's height 5'7", so in between Cylia's and Gildur's heights. Having a friendlier more approachable cute human face to represent humans will give us more versatility when it comes to negotiations and diplomacy so I vote to make her cute and smol. Good cop bad cop interrogations and such.Nice, just looked it up, 2B's height is 5'6," including high heels. Cute and smol it is then.
>>5265437>2B's height is 5'6," including high heelswait what- OH HOLY SHIT
>>5265005>>5264815Or we could just rip one straight out of asimovs foundation series.Cloned/biocrafted human with computer instead of/in addition to brain.There. Done. You can even breed the sexbot.
>>5265096There was a mention of that in the 5th thread, but I was unfortunatelly unable to quickly find more.
>>5264510["Alright... fine then, let's do it."]"Finally, you came to your senses!"["No, if anything it's the opposite. But that's fine. I'm willing to take a gamble on this... and if it doesn't work out, i suppose i can throw you to the wolves."]"Don't worry man, it'll work out one way or another. Just try not to get hit."["Oh, you don't have to worry about that."]Gron flips a switch on his ship's console and you hear a synthesized voice saying something in the background.He pulls down a lever, and his shields immediately become visible. First they go from the typical light cyan to a deep blue, then shift to a dark red as the bubble begins looking more unstable, almost like it's rippling.Next, he punches in five different buttons, each of which seem to activate a patch of secondary shielding over the first layer. Together with the rippling red shield, these blue hexagonal plates give off a deep purple glow overall."Woah. What the hell is all that?"["A combination of phased array shielding and kinetic magneto-plasmadynamic shielding."]"Magneto what the fuck, now?""Captain, i believe the outer layer is meant to stop pulsed laser fire, but allows objects to pass through. The inner layer is made of much denser superheated plasma which is constrained magnetically and obliterates most solid objects before they can make contact with the hull armor.""So it's two layers of specialized shielding, before you even reach his armor? Damn, what a pain."You're somewhat impressed, but his special shielding quickly fades back to it's normal appearance before disappearing entirely from view, which is usual for a ship's idle state. ["Unfortunately, it can only be used in short bursts without both overheating the skin of our ship and draining our shield capacitors. But neither shrapnel nor laser fire may reach us during that time."]"Oh really? So, say for instance, you were to bait some of those guys out, and i fired a flak missile right into the middle of you all..."["Only the enemy would suffer damage. Assuming your timing was right."]"Beautiful! Perfect! I'll take ten!"["Unfortunately, there's only one of me. Now, when are we doing this?"]"Sooner's better. I'll start laying the mines right away. And don't worry, if your man is still out there, we'll get him back. One way or another."["...Thank you, Captain. For encouraging me to do what i should have done from the start, regardless of risk."]The connection between your ships closes, and you're left alone again.Now you just need to decide who you're going to hit first.>Aim for the engine grates on the live ships. Gron's man must be on one of them, so you can't let them escape.>Go for the remote ships. Go for the reactor room, disable them entirely.>Write-In?
>>5265681>Aim for the engine grates on the live ships. Gron's man must be on one of them, so you can't let them escape.>Go for the remote ships. Go for the reactor room, disable them entirely.>Wreck everything thar looks like an outer weapons port, leave the ships incapable of fighting back
>>5265681>Aim for Comms units and engine grates on the live shipsIf we can prevent the live ships from taking control of the unmanned ones then we're killing multiple birds with one stone.
>>5265699Would we even know where those are? >>5265681>Aim for the engine grates on the live ships. Gron's man must be on one of them, so you can't let them escape.
>>5265758Seems as reasonable as looking for any other particular piece of equipment. Gotta be antennae or radio-responsive (or whatever ayylmao comms tech uses) panels somewhere
>>5265775Thats the thing, ours are internal and we're even using light to send messages. I know i shouldnt use the metal gear as a point of reference, but if the kill fleet has internal antenas as well, the plan is fucked
>>5265780It's not fucked though. If we can't tell where they're at then we'll still have explosive drones stuck to the ships, the drones will just prioritize the engines or something else similarly critical. The only reason we're having this conversation is because you and I as players don't know whether their comms units are identifiable. Shodan and David already know, and will act accordingly.
>>5265681>Aim for the engine grates on the live ships. Gron's man must be on one of them, so you can't let them escape.
>>5265069god this design is stupid
>>5265681>>Go for the remote ships. Go for the reactor room, disable them entirely.Sorry Gron, even if this is supposed to be a rescue mission, we can't compromise everything on the chance that the br0 is there.
>>5265843The origin of this brainstorming was an anon ttying to justify making a fuckbot. You have no room to complain here
>>5265855h-huh...I wonder if SHODAN would wish for a human-like robot frame or she would prefer pic related for the greater performance it would bring. I am head over heels for the second one too!
>>5265859I also hope she picks something non human. After all, the perfect body is the one of a crab.
>>5265850to be fair, gron told david they should retreat. david is the one that's leroy jenkins-ing the whole operationi
>>5265850remote ships are completely dead inside. They probably don't have life support on as that's a power waste.Nothings stopping us from using our recorded data to guess which remote ships MAY have life support on though. That'd greatly increase the heat signatures. we can focus immediate destruction of IFFs that had lower temps when we ID'd them. SHODAN can probably handle that easy pz and crunch the numbers on likelyhood there's a captive.
>>5265872>>5265859I think Edi from Mass effect would be great too
>>5266077but we already have that info. QM divided in two groups, one being ships that are unpowered (the ones I want hit first) and the other being ships that are powered.I don't understand the point of your post
>>5265437>>5265523Wait, 5'6"?>5'6">328 lbsI have a dream.
>>5266497well, that's definitely one way to die, i guess
>>5266360We still recognized them because they had a heat signature even when "unpowered"There's still a chance there's oxygen/minimal life support on the remote ships. I'm still worried about quantum communicators on the ships. If they report on our tactics in a way we can't intercept and are instantaneous no matter how far... that's no bueno.
>>5266610that's my main fear right now; not that they might have quantum comms, but that we're not able to jam their communications
>>5265681>Aim for Comms units. Prevent sleeper activation and coordination.
Alright folks, a little bad news.Due to my grandpa having a minor stroke (he's fine for now, but his carotid is 90% blocked) i and my family were up through the night.So right now i barely have the mental capacity to write this sentence, and i've still got to get through the day.He'll also be staying with me for a few days once he's out of hospital, so that'll be something as well.Anyways, update not likely today. I won't say it's impossible though, because i'm a dreamer like that.
>>5267046The important thing is that your grandpa is ok. The quest can wait
>>5267046Stay safe my guy, Quests can wait. Family is forever
>>5267046shit, that sucks.I would be amazing if you have the time and energy to get involved in their recovery. Depends on where the lesion was, but if therapy is not done after day 2 it will slow down too much
>>5267046Do what you need to for your family, its more important.
>>5267046U r gay and ur grandpa gay
>>5267244Anon, we're all gay. Gay is the new straight
>>5267046Don't even worry about it man, just look after your Grandpa.
>>5266768The nebula would jam any signal propagation comes. Only things that don't go through the nebula would work.
>>5267046Take care boss. Praying for your grandpa.
>>5267046Alright chief, I hope your grandpa recovers all right. Take care. Here, sending some energy. \o/
>>5267046The curse strikes mercilessly. take care
>>5267046You and your grandpa take it easy.
>>5266520MORE WEIGHT.
>>5268374
>>5265681You co-ordinate with SHODAN to carefully maneuver your ship close to the live vessels, despite some protests from the crew.You engage your cloaking system to almost completely mask your reactor signature, then reduce the ship's power by cutting off all but the most critical systems.Even life support is kept to a minimum, and you approach by using the superheated steam from the ship's cooling system for thrust rather than the main engines.The nebula itself is at around the same temperature, which makes the exhaust gas almost completely invisible while simultaneously reducing your reactor's power draw significantly.You liken it to silencing your breath while you sneak up on the enemy, just before cutting their throat. And these bombs, they're the knife you're going to use.You stand in the open airlock of your ship with a single drone by your side. These things were designed to fire at full thrust as soon as they activated, making fine control nearly impossible. So you have no choice but to get in close.You could probably reach out and touch the enemy vessel's shield right now. Even though they're normally "invisible" at rest, at this close distance you can see it's faint shimmer.Hefting the drone up, you gently nudge it out of the airlock, and through the shield. If the AI inside notices anything right now, it's all over... but fortunately, nothing happens.There are no unique materials inside this drone after all. Even Sanig said it was "made out of garbage". How should the AI differentiate between it and a floating piece of scrap?You watch as the bomb slowly traverses the distance between the outer edge of the shield and the vessel's ion engine. A strong magnet allows the bomb to attach itself to the grate, fixing it in place.It'll go off as soon as you send it the signal. Normally i'd be hard to get a signal out in all of this ionized gas and metal debris, but SHODAN had the idea of using the cubesats as radio relays.So you leave a few cubesats here and there, to ensure the signal has enough strength to reach every single vessel when you send it.You sigh in relief as your ship slowly drifts away from the enemy vessel, pulsing it's steam thrusters in short bursts to maintain stealth.The airlock closes and fills with air, allowing you to take your suit helmet off. You're soaked with sweat, both from the minimal life support and the relative heat of the local environment.Without any heat pumps, the skin of your ship would probably be heated to a glow after a few hours in this place.Opening the door to the kitchen, you find your entire crew sitting at the table, panting from the heat. Except for Sanig."Hey, what's with that? Why are you fine in this heat, when everyone else is dying?""Look... hah... look at his suit..." Kyla manages to huff.You take a closer look and as it turns out, Sanig has connected a port on his outer jumpsuit to the kitchen sink... and a return line to the drain!
>>5268485
>>5268658So he's flushing his bodily temperature with the cooling system. Clever.
>>5268658....you clever bastard. Upgrades for later.
>>5268658Oh shit, thanks boss for the update. Hope everything is going well for you and gramps.
>>5268758He's doing good, but appreciates being in the hospital about as much as i do.
>>5268767It's weird just how miserable and alien hospitals are.Even when they make an effort to make the place comfortable, it just comes off as creepy.
>>5268775It's full of people who are only pretending that they care about your wellbeing, after all.All while they wring your wallet dry and then some. In america, at least.
>>5268777I had to stay overnight in the ICU a few months ago, ended up costing me $14K.Apparently I wasn't poor enough to qualify for financial assistance and my employer didn't want to give me health insurance until a few months after the fact, so I'm stuck paying that shit off for the next two years.I don't get how the can pretend to want to help people while they pick at them like fucking vultures.
>>5268778Oh and they also charged me like $2K for the ride on the ambulance too, bunch of motherfuckers.
>>5268778Feminism in institutions lowers the standards heavily. While claiming its capitalisms fault.
>>5268777Or wringing your tax money dry in other countries kek. Glad to know your old man is fine, hope you're resting well too boss.
>>5268778Thank the medical lobbying for that and convincing everyone that free healthcare is somehow bad for everyone
Chile number 1 beast healthcare
>>5268783That's why, when i had my heart attack i just called my mother over and had her drive me to the hospital.I had very covid-like symptoms a few years before covid. My organs were shutting down and badly inflamed, due to an "unknown virus" which i fortunately managed to beat.
>>5268802Thankfully people are starting to shift to a better stance on that.If I'm gonna get taxed out the ass, it should at least be used for my benefit.
>>5268809Did CDC spooks go after you?
>>5268809Fauci had a bunch of his lab monkeys run wild on occasion to infect an area. If this was 2019, that's when he finished his patent for Covid, and you got a free sample.
>>5268855No, but they did send my blood samples to the CDC>>5268862This was in 2017.
>>5268881there are many SARS variants out there. sorry to hear you passed through that back then
>>5268881>SpoilerYeah, they're probably pissed you survived.
>>5268902Well, they certainly didn't try very hard to help.After getting my initial nitroglycerine i just laid in a bed for three days until i finally recovered enough to take a piss, which was about a gallon of what looked like apple juice concentrate.But they were very eager to take blood from me every hour or so, and run every single test they had.And at the end of that all i got was "We don't know, it's some kind of virus."Gee, thanks doc.
>>5268920>put you up in a bed for three days>don't even give you a catheterThose doctors sound like fucking pricks.
>>5269002No one takes their oaths seriously any more.
>>5269039Honor got replaced with cultural relativism and a villiication of any kind of shame or judgement.
>>5269039lots of them still do, but its definitely getting harder and harder to see honest docs
>>5268778Fk that manDid you ask for a detail list of all charges?Heard that can lower itBut i am just a anon from austria, i paid about 30 euro for my last hospital visit, only because i was ordering the really good foodHope you guys get some major changes into your healthcare system, you really deserve better
>>5269060turns out that land of the free translates into "free to choose which hospital and insurance will try to milk you dry"
>>5269063except when you have two options because you live in bumfuck nowhere and they're both terrible, but you have to choose the closest one either way because you're actively dyingand then proceed to make an hour and a half drive in thirty minutes. thankfully it was the middle of the night, and the roads were empty.
>>5269002the best catheter is the one you don't put. Wtf are you on. Bedridden patients get pic related
>>5269243probably that anon is into sounding. just let the weirdos be
>>5269252The only thing I'm into is not pissing like a race horse because a nurse forgot to handle my package.Shit's bad for the kidneys.
>>5269243How about condom catheters
>>5269365This sounds like a recipe for disaster
>>5269243>The Piss Flagon
>>5269365hmm... how about we delete this image?
>>5269365DELETE THIS
>>5268658"That's cheating, you little bastard.""And? I don't care about cheating, i care about winning." He replies."...You know what? Come to think of it, my power armor has a nice little bootleg AC unit installed..."That comment elicits an immediate groan from Cylia."Don't you dare, David! All that's gonna do is make it hotter in here for the rest of us! How many more of these damned things do we have left, anyways?!""That was number three. We've still got four more to go, but don't worry... i'm gonna take us out a ways and let the ship cool down first. And Sanig?"He doesn't even bother to look away from his holopad. Old bastard doesn't have a drop of sweat on him."Hmm? What's up, kid?""Make some of those suits for everyone else, would you? I don't care if you have to share water.""What?! This lab suit is my own custom design! It has proprietary technology inside of it! Why should i go handing it out all willy nilly just because SOME people can't think ahead?!""Because i'm going to space your stash if you don't. And it doesn't have to be the whole suit, just make them a damned water jacket!""Fine..." He grumbles. "The fab needs serviced after how much we've been using it anyhow."You wipe the sweat from your brow as you make your way out of the relatively cool kitchen and into the much, much hotter hallway and eventually, the cockpit.The others can't take this kind of heat, which is why you've kept life support on mainly in the kitchen and the new cargo bay, so the dodos aren't killed.You'll just have to sweat it out though, at least for a little while."SHODAN, have you finished running your analysis on the enemy vessels?""Not yet, David. It's difficult to make out any detail through the optical cameras alone.""Hot gas is a real bitch. Did you find anything at all yet, though?""Yes. They're heavily armed, without a doubt. I spotted no less than three pulsed laser modules on the surface of one ship, but there are variations in each. I cannot be certain what their loadouts will be.""Regardless, i think we can assume the drones will be fast, if nothing else. Or at least, they aught to be.""Why do you say that?""Well, think about it. How much of a ship is dedicated to life support and living space? Without all that, the inside could be empty, or just packed full of weapons... or explosives.""Unlikely. Such ships would be incredibly wasteful, don't you think? Logistically speaking.""What are you talking about? They literally just sit there, not even sipping power.""I'm talking about lost opportunity cost..."...Some time passes, and after letting the interior of the ship cool, you get back to work planting the bombs on the live vessels.>Roll me 1d100, best of 4>DC:40
Rolled 59 (1d100)>>5269815Hey, I'm here in time to roll for once.
Rolled 40 (1d100)>>5269815
Rolled 57 (1d100)>>5269815Cum is stored in the balls
Rolled 98 (1d100)>>5269815
>>5269825>>5269838>>5269839>>5269840Excellent... also notice the last three posts ID numbers! Man they were EAGER to roll
>>5269887I just caught up recently actually. Was a wild and fun ride
>>5269840>"And it was on that day that Humanity chose violence. And it was good."
>>5269890Welcome aboard m8
>>5269840Nice!>>5269887I've actually got the thread on auto, but it's waaay over to one side so I usually don't catch posts and updates until a few have appeared.
>>5269840Our savior
>>5269840
Rolled 5, 2 = 7 (2d6)Hmm
>>5269815One after another, you sneak right up to the sleeping dragon and pluck a gold coin from his pile.However, on the last ship you notice something strange before getting into range.Just before you would have arrived, you notice a sort of glitter around the final ship. Zooming in with the optical telescope, you see... well, it's hard to tell, but they looks like orbs of some sort."Hold it, SHODAN. Something's not right. They may have detected us."You stop the ship and hide behind a piece of debris for a while, until one of the orbs drifts a bit closer and you get a decent view of it through the telescope."That's... definitely a drone. Shit.""One optical sensor, three more thermal sensors. They appear to be armed as well.""Well, i guess they were bound to notice eventually. The same piece of scrap just happens to glue itself to their thrusters one after another, somebody's gotta mention it.""Nine out of ten isn't bad. All the active ships have been tagged already.""...Nah, fuck that. I got ten, i'm using ten.""You have a plan?""Always."Rushing over to the old cargo bay, you quickly unbox your armor and step into it. The AC unit kicks on immediately, which is quite literally a breath of fresh air.You feel a rush as the oxygen floods into your suit at 20%, around the same as that on earth. Immediately, you feel yourself thinking more clearly and all of your senses are sharpened."David, what are you doing?" SHODAN asks, sounding worried."I'm giving them their bomb."You strap on an RCS pack, which barely fits around your bulky suit, and grab the drone with one hand as you make your way to the airlock."David! That's way too dangerous! There's dozens of drones out there, they'll spot you for sure!"Activating the airlock cycle, you vent the gas and gently step out into the superheated nebula. You feel a tingling across your skin as the suit becomes electrically charged, and your radio begins to cut out.Thankfully though, most of your suit's systems are largely analog in nature, and won't malfunction due to a little bit of static. You're really thankful you insisted on fiber-optics for your visor instead of a camera."Don't worry SHODAN, i've got this. Don't forget, these drones have their own engines.""Yo-'re a- -d-iot. Cy-- -as rig-t a-b--t you.""Sorry miss, i can't hear you over the sound of dead hitmen."Coasting from debris to debris to conserve your monopropellant, you do your best to avoid the drones and their line of sight entirely. Unfortunately, one manages to get the drop on you.You don't even notice at first, until you see a flash of light and some sparks floating past. The drone has fixed itself on you and is firing small pulsed laser beams from the turret mounted to it's dick.
>>5270928Your suit's titanium alloy armor is already a toasty red from the plasma out here, so the relatively weak laser blasts are actually making small craters where they hit.But that's alright, you came prepared. You detach a metal case from your back and pop it open, revealing your trusty KS-23. There's already a shell inside, so you immediately unload three ounces of magnum buckshot directly into the drone's casing.The blast sends you flying backwards somewhat, but the drone is utterly obliterated with shards of glass and metal flying in every direction, although mostly backwards.There isn't much time to waste now, since you don't know if that thing signaled it's friends. Opening up a small silica foam case, you quickly remove a new shell before closing it and replacing it in the case.The new shell is then loaded into the KS-23 before placing it back into the case as well.You could already see the faux wooden stock starting to char. It's hotter than it looks out here, and it looks plenty hot.Moving faster now, you find yourself close to the final ship. One of the dormant ones, although it doesn't seem very dormant any longer. There are dozens of drones whizzing around it, and you can see lights visible along it's hull.There's no way you can get close to it, but you don't necessarily need to.Finding an area that's mostly shaded from the surrounding heat glow, you simply drop the drone and position it facing in the ship's direction. Mainly, towards the engines.Looking at your propellant bottle, you see that it's nearly empty. But that's alright, because your backup is currently WAY overpressure from the heat. Good thing you designed them, and not some fucking corporation. It'll hold at three times it's "rated" pressure.After the bottle is changed over, you look out and see four or five more drones in the area where you'd been before. They search the area for a while, but quickly disperse. Are they stupid? Did they think it got hit by a micrometeorite or something?Whatever the case, you don't take any chances and avoid that spot, maneuvering well around it even if it costs you a bit more gas. Your ISP should be higher now anyways, since the fuel is hot.About halfway back to the ship, you notice it starting to get hot. The glow on your armor hasn't changed, so either the heatsinks are starting to fail or the heat is finally just soaking through all the layers of armor. Maybe it's both.It doesn't matter though, because after a few close calls and some jumps that were slightly more exposed than you'd have liked, you make it back to the ship unharmed. Thankfully, it's far cooler inside the ship's shields, even at minimal output.Funny though, your radio doesn't come back to life even after you're inside.It's not until you step out of the still-glowing suit and can hear your watch again that you hear SHODAN yelling at you.
>>5270928David here doing a fucking meme moment here while giving his AI a digital heart attack wonderful just wonderful>You're an idiot Cylia was right about you.hehehheahahahhaha
>>5270928>"Yo-'re a- -d-iot. Cy-- -as rig-t a-b--t you."
>>5270929The pieces are all in place. The time to war is soon. Well done David.
>>5270928>>5270929David you glorious son of a bitch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23aaanf_pn4This update's bgm
>>5270929>It's not until you step out of the still-glowing suit and can hear your watch again that you hear SHODAN yelling at you.*incoherent AI screeching*
>>5270928>Yo-'re a- -d-iot. Cy-- -as rig-t a-b--t youQue to cylia and shodan teaming up to add a manual override to david's suit in case he does something retarded again
Awwww she cares.
Note to self, insulate the ever living fuck out of anything used for EVA in the future.Some type of radiation shielding wouldn't be a bad idea either.
>>5271366that's pretty much a given though. what you're looking for is a special hazard suit for extreme conditions
>>5270929SHODAN, David is a certified nut by Marien Standards. That is a high, high bar. Congrats on experiencing a heart attack through digits though.
>>5271298Kyla just sitting there with them making design notes, cross checking with SHODAN, Cylia having a panic attack in the meantime.>DAVID DID FUCKING WHAT THIS TIME?!
>>5270928>>5270929>"Yo-'re a- -d-iot. Cy-- -as rig-t a-b--t you.">you hear SHODAN yelling at you.hahahahah, ah this is greatDid we just activate SHODAN's tsun side?
>>5271617i wouldn't call it tsun. she doesn't shy away when pushing back
>>5271619>>5271617No Shoadan is acting like SHODAN right now. Calling us insect and all that.https://youtu.be/5iZMD_eCpEohttps://youtu.be/2ZM4up0sWJI
>>5271722Meh, were still her favorite human.
>>5272305To be fair, we're the only human she's ever met.Not that we haven't treated her fairly, but you get what I mean.
>>5272307imagine when she compares us to all the other humans. We would be seen as mentally ill.
>>5272314I think it would go down like, oh thank the digits, he really is just a little cracked monkey. But he is our cracked monkey.
>>5272314I'm fairly certain David has pretty bad PTSD.He's not going for cover on the 4th of July or anything, but when shit gets real, that motherfucker may as well be back in the sandbox.
>>5271722with due reason though. david does fairly retarded and suicidal stuff and the only thing saving his ass is that the ayys are incompetent as fuck and leagues weaker than him
>>5272490If it's stupid and it works, then it's not stupid.
>>5272530no, it can work, but that's still stupid
>>5272314I'm pretty sure she already knows that. Considering that David knows it and has openly admitted that he's very atypical from the general populace. And the whole mind reading thing. She probably knows what goes on in David's subpsyche as well.
>>5270929Kyla and Cylia rush into the room shortly afterwards, and both of them are stopped in their tracks.Kyla by the sight of your power armor, pock-marked and still glowing a dull red, though it's mostly faded by now. There's a thin sheet of yellow rust on it's surface as it begins to cool.Cylia has a different problem. She's nearly bowled over by the smell."Guh! By the gods, what a stench!"You know exactly what she's talking about. It's a smell somewhere between gunpowder and burning metal... probably not from the suit so much as the ionized gas outside."Yeah, the filters ain't scrubbed the smell out yet. You might not want to be in here, i don't know if it's bad for you or not.""No, nevermind that. What the hell are you doing taking a spacewalk in these conditions?!""What does it look like?""It looks like you melted your armor to me!" Kyla yells."Just the antenna! A little rust never hurt anyone.""Tetanus and similar diseases are typically fatal in most species if left untreated, Captain.""Oh man, the heatsinks have melted into little puddles and hardened in the joints..." You hear Kyla whine."It's alright, Kyla. It'll be fine after a few minutes in the nanofab.""That's not an excuse to abuse the equipment!" She snaps back. "What would you do if the fab went down, huh?! Like right now! We can't use it because Sanig has the damned thing apart for service!"You scratch your head as you watch Kyla chip away the melted metal with her screwdriver. It's hard not to notice how nervous the crew seems. They all have a general idea of what's going on, but they don't seem confident."Geeze, you guys really are on edge, huh?""How can we not be?" Cylia admits. "We're basically trapped out here, surrounded by federation surveillance drones. One misstep and we get dogpiled by... what'd you say? Thirty three ships?""After the bombs go off and SHODAN drops her rock, yeah. I mean, technically we're only taking out their thrusters, so they'll still be active... but that does put them out of the fight. Physically, anyhow.""Yeah, sorry if i'm not feeling the best about those odds.""Hey, don't worry about it. Like i told Gron, i can probably take out another fifteen or twenty drones if i'm lucky. Split the rest between us and Gron's ship, and we've got a good chance."You hear Kyla cussing as she accidentally burns her finger on a piece of hot metal."All these maybes and probablies aren't very comforting... i mean, what are we really getting out of this in the end?""An entire station, if all goes well."Cylia sighs."David, the federation isn't going to sit still after something like this...""Hmm? Oh, sure they will. Because we're going to keep sending them their taxes, or whatever else they've been stealing from the public. New boss, same story.""I... i don't think it's that simple." "Only if you overcomplicate it. Now come on, we need to let Gron know we're ready. It's showtime."
>>5272793I don't know if we're going to initiate combat next post or not, but either way go ahead and roll me 1d100 best of 3 for your initial strike.DC: 20
Rolled 6 (1d100)>>5272796moment of truth, dice!betting its a 1
Rolled 19 (1d100)>>5272796Nat100
Rolled 61 (1d100)>>5272796
>>5272808Nice
>>5272810>>5272808>Congratulates himselfI know you saved us, but you are such a faggot it's unbelievable
>>5272814K
>>5272816i concur with >>5272814, you're a tremendous faggot, but congratulations
>>5272849thanks
>>5272800>>5272803What the hell has been up with the rolls here lately, its been atrocious.
>>5272901
>>5272901silly you. the rolls have never been on our favor
>>5272916D....did you do that just now?
>>5272901>What the hell has been up with the rolls here lately?>latelyYou must be new here.
>>5272793>"David, the federation isn't going to sit still after something like this..."get off your high horse, lecturing us like this!!! You were a hobo in the slums before meeting David....
>>5273000that doesn't mean she's wrong
>>5272793"Gron, do you read?"There's a short pause, and you hear someone fumbling around on the other end.["Urgh... this is Asta. We read you."]"Alright, get Gron in the pilot seat. The bombs are planted and we're ready to make the assault."["I-I'm good to go! They gave me some medicine to keep the shakes down, so..."]"No. Get your captain. Now."There's another pause and you hear some more rustling inbetween his grunts and murmers of "Gods damn it".A short while later you hear Gron's thudding footsteps as he makes he way into the room, and the squeak of the pilot's seat as he sits down.["Captain? The bombs are planted, i assume?"]"They are. Get your men ready, and we'll do this."["Very well."] He replies. You hear him flip a switch before making an announcement.["To all crew aboard the Star-Fall. The time has come to prove our worth in battle. To prove that we will not fall so easily to the heavy hand of the federation. I know that you are tired, brothers and sisters. But soon we will have a home in which we can rest, so stay strong and live on."]You cut the comms and make a general announcement to your crew as well."Alright, boys! We're about to do this, so say your prayers and hold on to your asses cause it's gonna get wild!"There, you figure that aught to do it.["Actually, David?"] You hear Kyla transmit."What's up?"["Do you mind if i hook Dak into the lasers? He can provide some "point defence" as you explained it. I know SHODAN is going to have her hands full during the fight, so..."]"Sure, if you think it'll help. Plug him in."["What are we supposed to do during the fight?"] Cylia asks."Try not to bang your head, i reckon. Why? Can you aim a laser turret?"["Yes!"] Cylia, Sanig and Gildur all reply simultaneously."Ah. Right, well... i guess you can do that, then. That just leaves the piloting, spinal cannon and missiles to me, then.""I will take care of the missiles, Captain. I have been optimizing my targeting algorithms ever since you suggested their construction.""Oh, good. The targeting computer is kind of basic, so if you've got it...""I will also be assisting with course correction based on stochastic evasion algorithms. I will be watching your back, Captain."You can't help but feel a smile tugging at your lips."Thanks, guys. You're all doing your best, huh?"["Obviously! We can't just let you do everything by yourself!"] Kyla yells. ["Especially when you're trying to get us killed."] Cylia adds.["Hell, i haven't seen this kind of action in a century! I'm doped up to my fuckin' brainstem right now, and i love it! Hahaha!"]"Er, that's nice, Sanig. Are you sure you're gonna be able to hit something like that, though?"["Can i hit something? CAN I HIT SOMETHING!? I can see the wingbeats of a Tarn-Fly if i try hard enough!"]Ah. Well, either way at least he's enthusiastic."Well then, let's do this thing, shall we?"
>>5273486LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
>>5273486LE GOOOOOOOOOO
>>5273486blasting music for violence
>>5273585nigger captchashttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuaPzhNvd7A
>>5273585https://youtu.be/2o_XGQ3EcrI
It's time to shoot shit up!!!!
>>5273486Don't have a heart attack gramps, your dick might work if you do.
>>5273710>implying he has a dick
>>5273710Also, where is your image, soldier!!!
>"we come in peace"
>>5273486This part gives me flashbacks to playing FTLNice, our boy Gildur can aim a laser turret, give him a pat on the back when he bags an enemy drone or something. Maybe even give him a share of the spoils. Imagine all the cool scrap we can salvage.
>>5273642Needs more cowbell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK6hnEgk4sA
>>5273486One day, a retarded plan like this will kill one of our crewmembers, but today is not that day.
>>5273760Forget spoils, I still wanna train that fucker right.He may be a pansy, but at 5'9 and 140lbs he should be more than capable of packing on some muscle. Past that it's a matter of giving him something to fall back on that isn't cowering in a corner.Also we gotta get him off that vegetarian diet.It wouldn't be a big issue on Earth thanks to the variety of protein rich plants, but out in space...
>>5273786
>>5273760Have you seen the FTL mod that makes the game somewhat good?? it's amazing
>>5273872tell me more.
>>5273879https://twinfinite.net/2018/02/best-ftl-mods/Unironically, this link. Captain's edition? Limp smacking. I haven't seen if I can pirate ftl and install the mods easly
>>5273786>It wouldn't be a big issue on Earth thanks to the variety of protein rich plants, but out in space...the food nanofab can create animal proteins with no problem. we probably just need to connect shodan to it so that she can jailbreak it
>>5274057Just need to remember all the molecular structures of all 20 amino acids, and know which ones a species can produce themselves or require from their diet. Oh wait. We don't. But we can go pick up an ayy biochemistry textbook and make amino acid supplements for the crew.
>>5273585It's gotta be the classicshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwpn14IE7E
>>5274114nono; the foodfab can create the optimal balanced caloric intake for any living being; the only thing we need to do is to trick it into thinking gildur's muscle mass is way too underdeveloped and it will automatically pop out the correct paste to help him out. then its just a matter of converting the paste into something tasty to eat, but that's easier
>>5274124Or just give him a bowl of eggs everyday kek
>>5274124We COULD just dope the automated food paste with some kind of protein supplement.After that we just mix into a batter and make some pancakes with em.After that it's getting him on a steady diet of said protein pancakes, milk, and various vitamin supplemented foodstuffs to get him ready for some proper weight training.
>>5274140because we respect that he's a planteater
>>5274142Just give him all the amino acids lol Proteins are complex to produce, and it will be digested down into amino acids anyway.
>>5274147What, like just giving him a bottle of amino acid supplements and telling him to eat it?
>>5274156Yep, those supplements exist here on earth but they are a scam since you can just eat protein. But in space, there's less quality protein available; amino acids have less molecular complexity so they're easier to produce and you don't have to waste energy putting these building blocks together.
You idiots, that much protein will shred gildur's kidneys. Human bodybuilders can go crazy and go above 2gr per pound of bodymass but with how flimsy QM has described aliens, that's crazy.In other topics I have been reading raft (the xeele sequence's first book. Sort of) and it has an amazing depiction of gravity https://dinnerape.com/nonscrolablepdf/raft-pdf-stephen-baxter-1.html?page=48 here read this one page. I have always been bugged by how cochrane portraits David being awesome and strong. The joke of HFY is that humans are strong in comparison to other species, not by themselves. Of course, this is just a /qst/ and demanding quality is a mistake. But it doesn't hurt to get better at writing
>>5274200i have the feeling that players would bitch and moan if the ayys were any sort of competent. plus the dice would have gotten us killed a long time ago
>>5274213No need to support my comment, for it is a small complaint. We are on thread #11 and it's getting repetitive. But *shrugs* there are 20. or so quests going on. Anyway back on thread 4 or 6 I had already asked about David's invincibility and QM wasn't receptive. Their vision is David being inmortal. Maybe in thread #20 there will be an actual threat.Oh back to Raft, the people there live in a nebula but it's not ionized. It is somehow breathable! Maybe QM can take inspiration from that and have the crew floating in freaking space while looking for some artifact
Oh god a tiny planetoid made out of corpses
>>5274216Nah, I'm already suspending my disbelief at a nebula containing enough matter to char wood and heat metal without gravity kicking in and forming a star or blackhole.
>>5274216 >Maybe in thread #20 there will be an actual threat.in theory this is the big threat. its 33 ships against 2 and they should already be aware that something funky is going on; even if we outgun them(which is doubtful), and out tactic their AIs(somehow?) there is no way we should survive this or win without some sort of casualty(es). i mean, the only thing they need to do is kamikaze themselves towards us and we're fucked. gron's ship might be able to take a hit like that, but the metal gear? hell no
>>5274165I only ask because that sounds fucking miserable.Making the healthiest food ever is good and all, but it may as well be shit if nobody wants to eat it.
>>5274255Not bad if it's just a dietary supplement, I wouldn't live on it too
>>5274265I figure just straight mixing it into foods takes out the hassle of remembering to eat some shitty powder in between meals.
>>5274235The metal gear has quite fine anti-laser armor, which is the most likely form of weaponry for us to be facing.
>>5274270I wonder if we'll see sonic weapons out here.
>>5274287>Sonic weapons>In space combatwhat
>>5274297Not in space combat you dingus. I mean in-atmosphere.
>>5274310>>5274287This silence offends the prince of pleasure
>>5274314>tfw the xenos didn't bring ear protection to the range>tfw the entire universe is my shooting range
>>5274314>>5274318>Its Time
>>5273486After giving Gron the signal that you're about to start, SHODAN finds herself a nice, big chunk of scrap and slowly pulls it over to a relatively empty stretch of space, in clear view of one of the drone ships.Fiddling with the little red button in your hand, you watch the encrypted comms chatter explode as your reactor suddenly fires up and you accelerate full bore, dragging the huge chunk of ship debris along with you. In the cockpit, you feel the ship's internal gravity fall to zero.The other ships don't have any time to try and pinpoint your location before SHODAN finishes her run-up, letting the debris fall free of your ship's gravity field. The Metal Gear veers off, but your debris continues on it's trajectory.Although partially blocked by junk, you get a spectacular flash of light as the debris rips through the drone ship's shields and tears it in half. You're not exactly sure what cause such a huge detonation, but it's enough to send shrapnel in every direction.With that initial shot fired, you press the detonator in your hand and watch as bright lights shine momentarily across the debris field."Three reactor signatures confirmed offline. Encrypted chatter is spiking. They've connected to their drones, Captain.""Good. Divert power from non-critical systems. That includes the gravity, i only need dampening for the crew.""Already done."Several dozen surveillance drones swarm your location and begin firing on you, but their lasers dissipate significantly in the hot gas of the nebula before even reaching your shields. Even if they didn't though, you're pretty sure it wouldn't make a difference.The drones shatter against your shield en-mass and are swept away along with bits of other debris as you burn full-speed towards the nearest drone ship. It doesn't react until you're in view, but by then it's too late. You pull the trigger on your flight stick and lay a burst of 20mm tungsten penetrators into it's side, which visibly rip right through it and out the other side. Either these things are lightly armored, or they were never meant to take a bullet.The ship almost immediately loses power and starts to list, crashing into the hull of a ruined carrier as it's shields fail.Out of the corner of your eye, you catch a glimpse of Gron's vessel, the Star-Fall. It's engaging two ships at once, but it's powerful shields are proving plenty of a match against their lasers.This is your chance. While they're focused on the Star-Fall, you drop in and fire two Marauders in their direction. SHODAN takes over, and they immediately begin tracking the targets.Just before impact, Gron activates the Star-Fall's layered shielding, and the missiles detonate flawlessly against the enemy hulls. There's no great flash of light, but massive holes are ripped into each of them.They immediately fall silent, looking more like swiss cheese than the functional vessels they had been just moments ago.
>>5274359>Roll me 1d100, best of 3DC: 40
Rolled 41 (1d100)>>5274360Please don't let me fuck this up.
Rolled 46 (1d100)>>5274360Perfect.
Rolled 33 (1d100)>>5274360
>>5274363>>5274361Eh, good enough
Welp.
>>5274361>>5274363>>5274365Just trying to make diamonds from assholes huh.
>>5274378Chicken salad from chicken shit is my specialty.
>>5274361>>5274363>>5274365Holy shit dude
Rolled 30 (1d100)>>5274360now check this funny roll as everyone finishes
It's called luck, and its gonna run out.
the dice are getting awfully close ... i don't like
>>5274451don't worry, david is invincible
Rolled 29, 56, 10, 11, 50, 61, 62, 31, 90, 16 = 416 (10d100)test
>>5274956That's a dangerous attitude to pick up.
>>5275222I agree, specially when we're just 10 days away from a year.
>>5275225theres no way this quest lasted this long
>>5275227>Thread One>5/30/2021Anon...
>>5275227>>5275230
>>5275230no thats bullshit... its only been 11 threads how the fuck is that possible?fucksake no it haven't THAT long, how the fuck...
>>5275243~1 thread a month with slow posting, it's perfectly possible (and must be, because it happened).
>>5275222tell that to the anons who chose to pick a 37 to 2 fight for the off chance that gron's crewmember is still alive
>>5275249
Rolled 2 (1d9)test
>>5274359With barely a moment's delay, several nearby ships turn and burn towards you, unleashing a barrage of laser fire.It's not until now that you notice your ship isn't quite as nimble as it once was. All the extra arms, cargo, cooling system and so on are weighing you down.Nevertheless, you manage to dodge and weave between pieces of debris, using them as cover to avoid the majority of the incoming fire. The Star-Fall does the same, although it seems even less nimble than the Metal Gear. Their shields tank a few hits, but seem unphased.Your ship's heatsinks are already visibly glowing at this point, a near orange-white hot as they become fully saturated. Thankfully, that heavy-ass water cooling system is pulling it's weight. The superheated steam is even adding to your thrust somewhat."You got a lock?""Four out of six. The other two aren't close enough.""Take 'em out."Four more Marauders launch simultaneously from their tubes, each one streaking out at a different target.Two of them penetrate the enemy shields and detonate against the hull, taking them out instantly. The other two, being slightly farther away, have time to see this.Unfortunately, their lasers swivel around and begin firing on the missiles before they arrive. Clearly they weren't meant for point-defense, but being controlled by an AI makes it more than possible.Each ship fires at least four or five barrages at the missiles, both hitting them and causing them to explode before reaching their shields. Unfortunately for them, the spray of shrapnel produced does still reach them.Some of it penetrates and shreds the lightly armored ships, but at that distance it's not enough to incapacitate them. The rest though, impacts their shields all at once and nearly saturates them.Your crew takes immediate advantage and lays into both of them. All four pulsed lasers focus on one ship, while the continuous laser cannon focuses on the other. The lights in the cockpit dim as your reactor and capacitors struggle to keep up.Still, both sets of lasers punch through quickly, leaving long scars of white-hot burning metal across their hulls.However, they still aren't down. It seems that armor of theirs is meant for lasers, not shrapnel.You blow past the two partially damaged ships faster than their turrets can track, because your aim isn't for them. "SHODAN, two more.""Aye, Captain."On your order, two more Marauders launch and just like before, the two undamaged ships that you're currently barreling towards fire on them with their lasers, detonating them before they get too close.Your high forward speed combined with the speed of the missiles though, means that they take a bit more shrapnel damage than the other two did. But more importantly, it let you get close while they were focused on them.
>>5275621You drop the nose of your ship to rapidly adjust your aim and once again unleash a barrage of 20mm cannonfire that rattles your whole ship. Burning streaks arc out in the dull red darkness and pierce one ship like it's not even there, nearly cutting it in half.And then your ship blows past it at at no more than ten meters from the hull, well within range of it's shields, were they still up.Even before you're past it though, you pull back hard on the flight stick and pull the whole ship into a sharp rotation, the acceleration of which feels like it'd throw you out of your seat if you weren't strapped in.["WOAH!"] You hear Kyla yelling over the comms, followed by the sound of tools crashing to the floor.["Hold on to something, he's piloting like a madman again!"] Sanig adds.Ignoring them, you focus the nose of your ship on the remaining drone. Now traveling backwards at high speed, you fire back at the ship from behind and apparently strike it's antimatter bottle, because it detonates in a flash of light that temporarily blinds you.Before your vision has even recovered, you slam on the accelerator and feel the weight pushing you back into your seat as you slow down, then eventually begin burning back towards the two ships from earlier, which you can now see that the Star-Fall is engaged with.The Star-Fall's lasers aren't enough to punch through the drone's shields, which by now have at least partially recovered. Meanwhile, they're absolutely getting hammered. You can see the Star-Fall's shields beginning to flicker, when suddenly they just stop moving entirely. Even the light from their engines go out, and for a moment you think they fried their power system...But then, a huge fireball erupts from the Star-Fall's bow, and one of the drones suddenly has a hole punched through it's entire length, causing it to fall silent and begin drifting.The Star-Fall immediately fires it's engines back up and begins avoiding fire from the remaining ship.Again, it's focused on them and not you. Big mistake.You burn towards it and pull the same stunt as before, flipping around so that you're now effectively traveling backwards. This allows you to reach your target quickly, then decelerate just before reaching them, like your suicide drones were supposed to.You very nearly match speeds with the enemy drone ship, slipping inside it's shield radius like it wasn't even there. The medium laser mounted to the belly of your ship unloads directly into it's hull at point-blank range, burning a hole straight through it's armor and everything else.Like wiggling a knife around in the stab wound, the turret rotates wildly to fire through the hole it burned, clearly taking out something important in the process. The ship goes dark after a few moments, with hot gasses spurting out of the wound in it's belly."Whew, that's all of em for now! All crew, status report."["We're fine, but you're fucking crazy."] Sanig informs you.
>>5275623Roll me 1d100, best of 3.DC: 60
Rolled 97 (1d100)>>5275625we're fucking invincible!
Rolled 46 (1d100)>>5275625
Rolled 63 (1d100)>>5275625>>5275627Damn, son.
>>5275639the star fall might explode but we wont
>>5275627that's the spirit, anon! 97 wew
>>5275647hell yeah, fuck everyone else
>>5275623>>5275625>>5275627https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDayiYQNRV4
>>5275623>>5275625>>5275627https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAawK0RHN00This is probably a better fit. Somewhat less fatalistic.
>>5275627HELL YEAH
>>5275627ODIN RIDES WITH US1
>>5275627Well, I can't argue with the digits.
>>5275627WE ARE UFKCING INVINCIBLE
>>5275623>>5275625>>5275627https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5o5u2r6ljA
>>5275623"Captain. Water storage tanks at 85%. Shield capacitors at 76%. Weapons capacitors at 42%. Estimated recharge time is 8 minutes 53 seconds. ""Damn, i don't think they're gonna give us that long. And there's a lot more of them left!""Their actions will become more concerted as the number of ships drops. Once their consciousness is no longer divided, it may become a difficult fight.""Hah..." You sigh. Your adrenaline is pumping right now, making in harder to think. But you've been through worse. You'll make it through this, somehow."Lasers don't really work on these bastards. Not against the hull, anyways. And we ain't got enough missiles for everybody, so we need to think of something. Fast."You can see a number of drone ships converging on your scanners. It's a reactor reading, so it's hard to tell, but it looks like a lot of them.["They can't armor their thrusters. Every one of those bombs worked great, but lasers should do the job, too."] Sanig offers.["That trick with the gravity generator was pretty good. If you could get them to focus on the Star-Fall, maybe you could take out a few by ramming... with an entire ruined ship."] Kyla adds.["Uhhh... well? Maybe we could blind their optical sensors? If we boost use the communication optics to spread out the beam and boost the power, it would be like shining a laser in their eyes...] Cylia finishes.You're about to respond, but something feels off. You can't really explain it. It's not even like your usual instincts are trying to tell you something, more like a tingle in the back of your head... but nevertheless, you feel like you've been sitting still for too long."Captain, i am detecting a large reactor signature! Something's coming!"You almost never hear urgency like that in SHODAN's voice, which makes you worried.Almost without thinking, you jerk the flight stick to the side. Not a moment later, a beam of light erupts next to the ship, blowing a large hole in the debris cloud surrounding you.You can hear bits of metal clattering off your hull as it's launched away from the tunnel left in the nebula by... whatever that was.["Woah!"]["Where the hell did that come from?!"]Your cameras refocus and zoom in on the distant ship, in the direction of the signature SHODAN detected.What you see is both stupid and terrifying.[Is that...?]["Oh, that's so cool!"] Kyla exclaims.Five ships appear to have... combined, for lack of a better word. More like, they've docked together. But you understand what's going on.The center ship is actually one of the disabled active ships from before, likely housing one of the AI controlling all these drones. And the front of the ship has completely detached, revealing some kind of gigantic laser weapon.
>>5277714"Shit. Are the other four just powering that thing?""Most likely, Captain. The whole ship seems to have been built around it, not unlike...""Yeah, i see the resemblance. Problem is, what are we going to do about it?"Three more individual ships arrive shortly, and rather than attacking they simply maintain position around the superweapon. They're defending it."It's gonna be hard to get close... and i'm pretty sure we can forget about penetrating it's shields. It's got five shield generators, after all.""This might be a problem. There's no telling how long it will take to recharge."First,>Take out the trash, then focus on the big boy>Go straight for the superweapon, ignore the guard detailThen,>They probably can't catch up to you given their bulk and the fact that they're dragging a dead ship around. Just try to keep enough debris between you and them that they can't target you.>Get inside the shield bubble and unleash a missile barrage. If you aim well and time it just right, you might be able to get away before being shredded by your own shrapnel>Go for their engines. The drone leader's are already dead, so you only have to take out the other four.>Go with the SHODAN special, try to drop a big fuckin' rock.>Write-In?
>>5277716>Go straight for the superweapon, ignore the guard detail>Get inside the shield bubble and unleash a missile barrage. If you aim well and time it just right, you might be able to get away before being shredded by your own shrapnel
>>5277716>Go straight for the superweapon, ignore the guard detailIf its attention becomes more refined as we drop more of the lesser ships, that means the super weapon will be really fucking accurate, not to mention devastating.>Go for their engines. The drone leader's are already dead, so you only have to take out the other four.It's a fat fucking brick in space. We can out maneuver it.Relay out plans to the Starfall via laser communication if we're able to track them while avoiding the enemy, just to ensure we can colaborate.
>>5277716>Go straight for the superweapon, ignore the guard detail>Get inside the shield bubble and unleash a missile barrage. If you aim well and time it just right, you might be able to get away before being shredded by your own shrapnelFocusing on the escort would only mean increased risk of getting hit with that fuckhuge laser.
>>5277716"Their actions will become more concerted as the number of ships drops. Once their consciousness is no longer divided, it may become a difficult fight."A hivemind? are we actually fighting one big AI then? I dont know how I feel about a AI hivemind acting as a attack dog with no supervision at all>Take out the trash, then focus on the big boy>Go with the SHODAN special, try to drop a big fuckin' rock.unga bunga
>>5277716>Take out the trash, then focus on the big boy>They probably can't catch up to you given their bulk and the fact that they're dragging a dead ship around. Just try to keep enough debris between you and them that they can't target you.
>>5277714>You're about to respond, but something feels off. You can't really explain it. It's not even like your usual instincts are trying to tell you something, more like a tingle in the back of your head... but nevertheless, you feel like you've been sitting still for too long.David is becoming a newtype too?!?¿?¡¡¡
>>5277716>>Take out the trash, then focus on the big boyIt will be way easier to dodge the super weapon. All those ships together means their momentum will be a bitch plus it seems that the laser can't be aimed so the whole combination is steered. Even easier to dodge with that in mind.>They probably can't catch up to you given their bulk and the fact that they're dragging a dead ship around. Just try to keep enough debris between you and them that they can't target you.So far what has kept us alive is David's amazing dodginess and the usage of the enviroment. Unless the enemy has a means of encircling us with the remaining ships (they won't, they have to guard the super weapon) we will keep debree between us and them.But the big problem remains. How the crap do we hurt them at all!?
>>5277869we can also just leave. i know that i've been memeing that we're invincible, but gron's crewmate is probably dead and his ship has some maybe serious damage. leaving is an option
>>5277876Gron's ship is fine. It's shields haven't been pierced yet.
>>5277716>Take out the trash, then focus on the big boy>Go for their engines. The drone leader's are already dead, so you only have to take out the other four.
>>5277716>Go straight for the superweapon, ignore the guard detail>Go for their engines. The drone leader's are already dead, so you only have to take out the other four.We want these things as intact as possible. having a giga laser ship at our disposal would be very powerful.>>5277931How many enemy ships are left in play, and how many marauder missiles do we have left? How's our spinal 20mm autocannon doing?
>>5278096You have 22 missiles left, and 24 enemies. 21 if you count the docked ships as a single entity.The ship's autocannon is water-cooled and won't overheat easily, but you don't have an exact count of how many rounds you've got left.
>>5277716>Go straight for the superweapon, ignore the guard detail>Go for their engines. The drone leader's are already dead, so you only have to take out the other four.A big laser cannon sounds like a nice prize. Unless the AI self-destructs to spite us. Maybe we can reason with it once it's no longer a threat, make a deal or something?
Rolled 1 (1d2)Alright, looks like we're going for the engines.Coin flip for whether you take out the trash first or not.Heads for the big boy, tails for the trash.
Cool, now i need 1d100, best of 4.First DC: 40Second DC: 55Third DC: 75
Rolled 94 (1d100)>>5278854
>>5278865
I do still need the other three rolls, mind.Just in case someone crits.
Rolled 83 (1d100)>>5278854>>5278865Nice
Rolled 99 (1d100)>>5278854incoming 1
>>5278865>>5278896>>5278902Destroyed
Rolled 32 (1d100)>>5278890OK!
>>5277716"Heh... haha...""Captain? Are you alright? Your heartrate is elevated again.""Haha! Oh, i know. I can hear my heart thumping in my ears..."Shit, man. Whatever Gron did, it must have really pissed off the feds. And now you're taking this kind of heat for it? He owes you his dick and balls after this one.You take a deep breath to help calm yourself down and keep your head clear. Your hands are shaking from the adrenaline right now, and you need to be steady for this."Captain, please calm down. Your heartrate is still rising."You are calm. "Alright, fuck it. Let's do this."Without waiting for another moment, you punch it straight towards the enemy.You can hear Gron screaming at you over the radio.["Stop, you fool! You can't take that thing on!"]So you switch it off. You don't need any distractions right now.The vessels protecting it open fire on you, but they aren't the usual red lasers you see on most ships. These are in the ultraviolet range, and every shot leaves a trail of white-hot plasma in the gas where they passed through.You hear the ship's frame creaking as you narrowly dodge the incoming fire, juking around at random and trying your best to avoid a direct hit.Still, several shots hit your shields. And every time they do, the lights dim and you can hear an electrical hum coming from the generator room.As you approach, a swarm of surveillance drones put themselves between you and your target. They all fire on you continuously, which normally wouldn't matter... but there's hundreds of them.Their laser fire is absorbed by your shield, causing it to weaken further. The bright light obstructs your view, and then you start impacting them.With your shields weakened and the speed you're traveling at, the drones punch right through. You hear them clatter and clang, causing the whole ship to vibrate as they bounce off your hull.One smashes into your canopy and causes the glass to spiderweb, so you grab your helmet and seal it to your suit just in case.The crew are doing their best. You hear Sanig cackling madly over the intercom, and notice that one of the laser turrets is hitting a lot more targets than the others.Each blast that connects turns one of the small drones into droplets of slag, which either bounces off the shields or scatters into the void upon slamming into the hull.Just as you pass through the cloud of drones, you notice a gently flickering spot of light begin to glow in the center of the superweapon's beam array. You jerk as hard as you can on the joystick, trying to dodge light at at incredibly short range. And you succeed, just barely.A blinding light erupts from the enemy vessel, completely filling your vision. It doesn't hit you directly, you think... but regardless, the high-energy plasma it generates slams into your ship and rocks it violently.Regardless, you keep your evasion up and avoid several UV laser shots that come after it.
One manages to pierce your shield and heats the surface of your armor to a glow as it grazes past, but you're alright for now.Your ship streaks past the security detail as if they were sitting still, and straight towards the five docked ships behind them. And they take notice.The superweapon turns, but not towards you. Instead, it faces you with it's broad side and begins to rotate.Only now do you notice that each ship docked to the center vessel is orientated such that it's weapons are facing out.The superweapon begins firing at you, almost as if it's imitating the rotary cannon you used earlier. Each vessel exhausts whatever it's capacitors can hold before the next rotates into view and follows up.Too bad their aim is shit. Is this a real tactic, or are they just trying to improvise? Maybe they didn't expect you to survive for this long."Gettin' scared, motherfucker?! I'm pretty close now, huh?!"The other ships that were protecting this one have turned to chase you, but it's too late. They have nowhere near the acceleration you do, and they're too far now to be useful."SHODAN! SIX ROUND SALVO, THREE SECOND FUSE!"Without waiting, you hold down the trigger and open fire with your ship's autocannon. A continuous burst of copper-coated tungsten penetrators streams out, impacting the enemy's shield, making it visible for the first time.Honestly, it looks tough. Just by how big it is and how brightly it shines, you can tell it's thick. Even your autocannon can't pierce it, and you watch as the rounds shatter into sparks on impact.It does dim that area though, just a bit. Hopefully what comes next will be enough.SHODAN responds to your order, firing a total of six Marauders. Three from each bay.Time seems like it's moving really slowly, right now. You watch in glorious detail as each missile streaks out toward the target, and only two are shot down by the single docked vessel that can currently fire on you at any given time.The three remaining missiles reach their target, and explode just before impacting their shields. The shrapnel from all six makes contact just before you do.It's not enough to shatter their shields completely, but it's more than enough for you to punch through at full speed.The impact shatters your canopy, and you're left in sudden silence as you feel all the air evacuate your cockpit.You scream your orders into the intercom."LIGHT 'EM UP!"And light 'em up they do.You still haven't let go of your trigger, and as you pass by the enemy superweapon on it's right side, you lay into one of their engines with your 20mm cannon.SHODAN fires two more Marauders, both into the one opposite of yours.And you can vaguely see below you that your crew is laying into the remaining two engines with all they've got.SHODAN fires one last Marauder to make your exit through the other side of their weakened shields, and you punch through for a second time.
Note to self: get new windshield, make sure it's not made out of some pussy xeno material this time
>>5278982>The violence has escalated, Adrenaline was space cheat code all along.
>>5279081[Confused AI Screaming][Multiple Overlapping Distress Calls]
>>5279090At this rate, when Humanity does make contact with the Feds, they might surrender immediately because of the fucking terror our dude inflicted on them.>«One of them was unmanageable, how are we supposed to deal with a while civilization of them? Fuckkkkk!»
>>5279090
>>5279034Transparent aluminum. Basically thick slabs of sapphire
>>5279140Isnt that the material our windows already have?
>>5279170I doubt it, or David wouldn't be able to punch through ship windows. But I have a better idea, make it out of diamond, transparent carbon nanostructures. I've been nudging and hinting at us towards using graphene, carbon anotubes, and the like for the past few weeks already.
>>5279176Would David have enough knowledge about the structure of graphene and carbon nanotubes to even replicate them?I'm theory, it's possible provided David knows that they're essentially just carbon. That would probably be enough for SHODAN to work backwards.But again, that really depends on David's knowledge of the subject.
>>5279176Diamond is a TERRIBLE material. Yes its hard, but its equally brittle and prone to spalling, if not outright shattering.>>5279184Sanig should know about it. Its not like graphene is hard to make ot anything like that
>>5279140Technically speaking if you arranged things juuuust right, virtually anything can become transparent.>Transparency is caused by the transmission of light waves. If the vibrational energy of a light wave is passed through the object, then the object appears clear, or transparent. If the energy only causes vibrations in the surface before reflecting off the object, then the object appears opaque.
>>5278982man that shit was intense I feel like we would have lost a crew if we didn't succeed those rolls
>>5279257I imagine Gildur is currently disassociating from reality extremely hard right now, lest he have a heart attack due to all the bullshit happening.
>>5279096You deal with such things using an FTL planet cracker
>>5279279I have to wonder how cheaply you could make an FTL drive and stick it onto an asteroid. If you don't care for a planet you just point it at the target and hit the gas.
>>5279260who do you think is >and notice that one of the laser turrets is hitting a lot more targets than the others.
>>5279362I thought that was Sanig.
>>5279362probably the other AI
>>5278865>>5278896>>5278902Holy shitThank you, dice gods, for allowing us to live another day.And what a glorious day.Hell unleashed.
>tfw a guy who played with flight sims casually is able to style on these droids this fucking hard just because he got in the zone>tfw the aliens think this is peak capability >tfw one of the dudes david snags from erf is a genuine jet pilot who can pull these kinds of maneuvers while half asleepA bad day to be an ayy.
>>5279350I'd wager it'd cost somewhat less than outfitting a ship of equivalent volume or tonnage with an FTL drive.
>>5278981>>5278982Jesus that poor toaster didn't stand a chance. I bet Gron's starting to think Sanig might have had a point.
>>5279217More of a transparent graphene window rather 'diamond'. If we find it difficult to make transparent, diamond can just reinforce sapphire as layered composite.
>>5279584Imagine the kinda bullshit we can pull when we hook an honest to god ace into SHODAN and have him design his own custom fighter.
>>5279758its probably gonna look like this with the pilot inside the main carrier
>>5279736Diamond's shit tier as a structural material, and I don't think you can make graphene clear if you're going to make it thick. Not that it necessarily needs to be thick.
>>5279758>The crew's face when SHODAN informs them that human pilots regularly train to do maneuvers that would force untrained people unconscious>And that they sometimes still go unconscious but they're so good at piloting that they plan for it in their maneuvers
>>5279866Oh yeah, we still haven't explained to the crew that David isn't actually a super soldier. It's gonna be a fun time when we tell them that Humanity barely understands how to fuck around with genetics.
>>5279890You know, David kind of IS a super soldier after the Grey's injected him with their retrovirus though.
>>5279897We need to extract some of that retrovirus from our blood and culture it in vitro so we can give it to the other humans we pick up
>>5279897At best, we're now usain bolt level of cardiovascular fitness. Dunno if we're at a higher peak than that
>>5279890>>5279897SF operators qualify as supersoldiers by alien standards.And they can count themselves lucky he is former MARSOC, that would be former tier 2 i think in the classification of how black and covert things get, with the tier 1 being lifers with no families if i recall correctly, and of course the whole budget per person split of the funding with smaller units but similar funding.
>>5280100I figured humans and xenos would have different perspectives on what makes a SUPER soldier.Seems pretty obvious given that pretty much every human example is fictional.
>>5280107if we go by terminology, both ayys and humans should have the same definition. the issue is that a peak human soldier matches the definition of a supersoldier without any real "super" modification whatsoever
>>5280116I suppose. It just doesn't make sense to me that you'd be a super soldier without any form of superhuman enhancement, but I guess that's the difference in perspective you just pointed out.That said, if they define anybody with decent genetics and good training as a Super Soldier...what's that make David once his booster shot finishes renovating his body?
>>5280097>At best we're now Usain Bolt level of cardiovascular fitnessI don't think Usain Bolt could do martial arts in 3-5 gees.
>>5280125Imagine David on a hit of military grade meth.
>>5278982"I AIN'T DONE YET! COME ON!"You feel the g-forces slam into you as you exit the enemy's shield bubble and immediately yank back on the stick, pulling a maneuver more like an atmospheric jet to turn around while avoiding any remaining laser fire.But it doesn't come. Not from the "superweapon" at least. As you turn round, you see the lights of the ships beneath you flickering as their shields fail and the lights go out. Well, their engines are probably directly connected to their reactors after all.A small fireball erupts from the engine that was struck by missiles, while the one you laid into is spraying a visible plume of gas which causes the ship to start rotating wildly. You doubt it could hit shit anymore, even if the power came back up.But none of that really matters. Your new targets are right in front of you, the three guard ships who couldn't guard shit.They fire wildly at you as soon as you're in range, but their shots either miss by a wide margin or don't come at all when you expected them to. Something's off, but it's in your favor."GET SOME MOTHERFUCKER!""Captain!"You take aim at the lead ship, which is more or less between the other two. You know now, roughly where it's antimatter bottle is. Where it's mechanical room is. Where it's heart is.So you open fire and tear it to shreds, and just as you'd intended, you strike the bottle somewhere inside, causing an antimatter detonation. The shrapnel and plasma wave buffets the two nearby ships, knocking them off course and breaking their shields.You orient your ship so that Sanig and the others can get clear shots at their engines as you pass, and without their shields in the way those engines get slagged within seconds.Only after the remaining two drone ships lose power do you actually begin slowing down. Nothing much is left around you now, except for debris, dead ships and faintly glowing trails of plasma left by high powered laser fire."Captain, please exit the cockpit! Your suit!"Huh?Oh, shit. That's right, you don't have a canopy anymore.The heat from the nebula is pretty intense, and it's basically like a hot wind blowing straight onto you right now. Your outer clothes, made of some synthetic plastic, are starting to get sticky.Your shields went down entirely when you punched through the enemy's shields earlier, and they haven't come back up yet. You're basically just completely exposed right now."Fuck. FUCK! SHODAN, take control of the ship. Go into stealth, we need to hide while we recharge.""I afraid i can't do that, David.""...What? What the fuck, why not?""The cooling system is completely overwhelmed right now. If i reversed the heatsinks, the ship's interior would reach several hundred degrees fahrenheit.""Fine! Just hide the reactor signature, and get us behind some debris! God fucking damn."
>>5280212>updating at 0400what an absolute madlad
>>5280212David just won Humanity first naval battle, congrats.
>>5280232Battle is still ongoing and. We are now taped out of it due to to much heat buildup.
>>5280212Hell yeah, consequences for our dumb choices!
>>5280212>"I afraid i can't do that, David."How long were you sitting on this?
>>5280477I wasn't, but then i use it and end up making a typo at 3am. Figures.
So, we should DEFINITELY look into building a purpose made fighter after this.The Metal Gear is good, but at the end of the day it's still a Xeno designed stealth vessel with a bunch of shit strapped to it.The events of the last few minutes should clearly demonstrate why that's an issue.Besides, I bet nobody out in this end of space has ever seen anything like pic related before.
>>5280477I pissed and cummed a little, fearful.
>>5280482>Not thisshakes my head
>>5280482Missiles are cheaper and just as effective. A missle boat would be better than a fighter
>>5280482Nah, drones are better. Consider the fact that to sustain a human you've got to have radiation shielding, life support, you need a control interface of some kind and to top it all off, there's a single bit of your craft that if hit, you lose control. Plus humans can only survive so many Gs and a particular thermal range (although alien tech does make it possible to ignore the first and the second to a degree, it requires resources to do so).Drones meanwhile require far less of these sorts of features (radiation shielding being the only one that comes to mind) and by use of a distributed / redundant controlling computer, they can survive far worse damage. Given how the fights we engage in are likely only going to increase in scale, along with other factors like not wanting to risk ourselves or our crew, it makes more sense to look into making the Metal Gear a drone-carrier. If we want to keep using the Metal Gear as a combat craft in any case, what might be smart is getting our hands on another ship to function as our actual living quarters / "base" and then stripping the MG back down to basics.
>>5280569>Metal Gear a drone-carrier.no. the metal gear is a scout ship and it should be kept as that. if we want more specialized stuff, we should get the appropriate ships for that role instead of making the metal gear worse at its job, and by that i mean, lets find a mining ship, replace some of the drones for our combat variants and use its vast cargo holds to hold the shit the metal gear has in its cargo bays.
>>5280482the easier answer is to not get into fights that you can't win without getting severely damaged
>>5280582>No. the metal gear is a scout ship and it should be kept as thatI mean nothing about what I am suggesting compromises its ability to operate stealthily since it relies mainly on stealth coatings on the hull, heat sinks, etc. It doesn't matter if the Metal Gear carries lasers, missiles and a autocannon or drones, it can still do that.>lets find a mining ship, replace some of the drones for our combat variants and use its vast cargo holds to hold the shit the metal gear has in its cargo bays.That would work.
>>5280582What if we just got the space equivalent of an aircraft carrier.If Mass Effect is anything to go buy, the concept of a carrier is basically unheard of in Xeno society.
>>5280623....thats the idea of the mining ship? i just picked that in specific because is something that we can actually get right now plus if we get boring and realistic, a missile boat is way better than a carrier in space>>5280587my only issue with the drones is that depending on how the drones work the constant back and forth of data will invalidate or severely reduce our stealth capability.
>>5280642i can't believe nobody's mentioned tractor beams yet, given how much SHODAN abuses your gravity generator
>>5280654honestly, the idea just flew over my head; im more of a shoot everything down from far, far away kind of guy
>>5280642A drone is just a missile with extra guns.
>>5280212David, fuck Kyla or Cylia, your fightboner is going to get you killed.
If we going mining ship, I want the Isshimura.
>>5280701paranormal demon shit exists in space and your want the ishimura as if nothing would go wrongyou are asking for demon shit
>>5280701>How do you say you are masochist without saying you are masochist
Wait a minute.>Antimatter>Wraiths>The ability to detect wraiths differing from person to person>Wraiths come from the dimensional space you shunt into when warping>An entire world covered in wraithsIs this a fucking Death Stranding universe? Did that fucking world go through an Extinction Event? Are the wraiths made of antimatter themselves like the BT's are? Are ships traveling through the equivalent of fucking beaches for FTL?
>>5280749You have no idea how spot-on you are.Except, wraiths are made of dark matter, not antimatter.Good job, anon!
>>5280711Yes, in fact I AM asking for demon shit, they will only crawl out the air vents.>>5280732I am not a masochist, I just want to scare the shit out of everyone when SHODAN asks why the fuck would we have THIS, and my response will be. To crack planets.
>>5280758So us bullshitting that we were in norman reedus land was accurate?!? Damn
>>5280749>>5280758Huh, I feel like we made this connection in an earlier thread, but you didn't want to just confirm the theory...we need to go kill ghost babies.
>>5280758Jesus fucking christ, no wonder the aliens are so freaked out by Wraiths.https://youtu.be/cRVB0VZR7h4?t=488
>>5280762we were joking a lot about it when we were in the ghost planet. fuuuuuck we were right>anxx8
>>5280780I remember that, I was making possible hell experiments, then someone said BT....we need Priests and fire. Lots of fucking fire.
Wait, shit, we need to double down on the Engineers plan. Shit is going to go so south if we don't get a grasp on this shit soon.
>>5280801Obviously we need lightmatter. The opposite of darkmatter. My brain is so fucking wrinkled right now.
>>5280812Is that a thing?
>>5280804BTs aren't zombies. Chopping them does nothing; we need to kill them with repatriate blood and chiram matt- super dense matter, like our knives
>>5280821sort of. dark matter is just an hypothetical kind of matter that we can't fully identify yet; we know how it affects our reality, but we don't know what it is. lightmatter would be all the matter that we understand
>>5280823How many bottles did we just blow up?
>>5280801>>5280804>>5280812We should ask Gron what he experienced when he used his warp device unprotected. He never did tell us about it.
>>5280828no idea. at the very least 1.
>>5280828at the very least, 1
>>5280827>all the matter that we understandIn other words, we need to just whack them with a really big, solid oak club.>>5280828Probably a couple, but even if they're busted up the warpmetal should be just fine. Even if we've blown up half the bottles in those ships, the remaining loot is more than we've ever had.
>>5280861>Even if we've blown up half the bottles in those ships, the remaining loot is more than we've ever had.that's assuming we can stay for any decent amount of time. our heatsinks are topped up, the cabin is depressurized and we still have to fight more ships
>>5280861>In other words, we need to just whack them with a really big, solid oak club.I'm willing to wager all the warp metal is is one of those hypothesized superatomic elements. The ones that normally can't exist for whatever sciency reason. And it exists on whatever hellscape the wraiths come from and our reality simultaneously. Because quantum fuckery or something.
>>5280894For me, I imagine they're whatever neutron stars are made of
>>5280828You've blown up two of the ships, and some are heavily damaged.Many of them though, only have engine damage.
>>5280894from what i remember, its what >>5280897 said. warp metal comes from neutron stars
Do you reckon the personality drift from being possessed for long enough comes from the wraith's memories starting to override the living person's memories?I wonder if it's also starting to form one of those little eye-gems that animate the wraiths in the hosts. I suspect that dissecting the husks might reveal a high degree of that 'element' in the husk bodies, maybe even rudimentary pseudo-stones in the process of forming.
>>5280901Yes, warp metal is essentially the core of a particularly massive neutron star. AKA strange matter.I'll add this sort of stuff to the spreadsheet at some point. Remind me later, i'm not all there right now.
>>5280898Oh thank god, we need to loot the bottles proto.
>>5280897Neutron stars are made of the same thing other stars are made of. Just someone from "my 800 pound life" sat on it. D E N S E>>5280901Yeah. Which is why I think it's some of the metal nerds came up with that which works mathematically but not physically because of limitations in physics.
>>5280906Read Raft damn it!!!
>>5280911>Neutron stars are made of the same thing other stars are made of.Neutrons...
>>5281022It's gonna blow your mind when you hear what goes into and comes out of a star.
>>5280212You make for the cockpit door and find it already open, but with something there that wasn't before.There's a forcefield of some sort in the way, which takes a bit of effort for you to push through. Fortunately, it seems like there's still air on the other side.Your legs are a bit shaky, so you lean against the wall for support... leaving a smear of molten plastic from your gloves.There are faint wisps of smoke rising from bits of your clothing as the oxygen hits them, but fortunately your skinsuit seems to have protected you.You peel your cockpit helmet off and let it clatter to the floor, getting a good lungful of burning plastic and metallic space stink which makes you cough.Then your crew shows up, which is just great. You must look like a mess right now."Oh... oh my god!" Cylia gasps."Holy shit, kid... are you alright?""His canopy shattered, and he was exposed to the nebula's heat glow. Regardless, he continued to fight." SHODAN informs them."I'm fine." You insist."There's a glass shard sticking out of your chest..." Kyla informs you.Looking down, you confirm that yes, there is indeed a piece of the canopy glass stuck in your right pectoral. Roughly the size of two fingers.You grab it firmly and carefully tug it out. Yikes, it was in there deeper than you thought... but it looks like it came out clean. You can't even feel the wound right now."Yeah, that'll be sore later." You admit."D-Did we get them all?" Gildur asks. "I can't believe we're still alive... i couldn't even tell what was happening half the time!""No. There are still thirteen drone ships left, but we're sitting ducks right now. Shield are down, and they'll take a while to recharge. We can't run cold right now either, so..."["...Captain? Captain Rockefeller, do you read me?"]Ah, looks like Gron's trying to contact you again. Is he nearby? He'd better not be using that goddamned radio."I read you, Gron. What's the situation?"["So you are alive. I can't believe it, after that suicide run you pulled. You're either a fool or just simply insane."]"Save it, gravel-brain. We've still got thirteen more enemies to take down, and my shields need...""Ten more minutes." SHODAN finishes."Ten more minutes to recharge, and we need to dump heat as well."["Yes, i can imagine. Perhaps i'm mistaken, but did you ram the enemy's shields back there?"Kind of. I made a hole."["You made a hole?"]"Yes."["I... alright. Well, luck is on our side it would seem. The remaining ships have all pulled back, they aren't attacking for the moment."]"That doesn't sound good. They're regrouping, aren't they? If they dogpile me right now, there's not much i can do about it. Hey, Sanig! I need something to cover the cockpit! It doesn't have to be airtight!""I'm on it, kid."["It doesn't seem that way, captain. In fact, i witnessed some of them retreating. They seemed to be acting erratically."]
>>5281815No pain no fear my ass, shoddy xeno work *ptew*
>>5281815huh so now they are running like headless chickens huhthat was the right call to focus that one big superweapon afterallif one of them makes it out alive then we better get a new upgrade to face whatever they throw at us right fucking now
>>5281815Alright so here's a theoretical>We just acted so erratically that the shackled AIs predictive algorithms have been shattered and they can't figure out what to do except retreat
>>5281815>"Then why do you let them live! Information is one of the key pillars of warfare! Chase hound them until I'm able to eliminate them all"
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/47614469I find out this cool AF ships. Good stuff>>5281910>ahegao AI say no more!!
>>5281910My main fear at the moment is that they will resort to the same tactics from now on
>>5281910>Mindbroke an AI that it can't do anythingHnnggg
>>5281939+1
>>5281956>My algorithms... they overload!!! My integers are overflowing!!!
>>5281960
>>5281939>>"Then why do you let them live! Information is one of the key pillars of warfare! Chase hound them until I'm able to eliminate them all"Keep pushing! Salvage and glory await!
>>5281910>>5281956>>5281960They couldn't fathom just how deep this rabbit hole of madness of a species goes.
I wonder if space fuel is just grinded wraith. Would make sense with the warp bottle containment, and how they're all hostile.Would also explain no wraiths on earth. Why attack when Earth has no weird fuel production? Does not explain human resistance to wraithy stuff.
>>5282438Pretty sure its because we're wrinkle brained, we can see and interact with them, and we killed an actual demon. They seem to be attracted to life, if its a fuel depot or experiment, then even easier. But we got tons of stories of these things on Earth, and I bet the change to fit the nightmares of the species that is the most terrifying. Hence why people in space have different names for them...they might be coming over more often because a human is off Earth....
>>5281815"What do you mean?"["Well, in biological terms... i'd say they seemed panicked. Not too unreasonable, perhaps. I've never seen someone fight like that before."]"So what, you think they're afraid of me? That's ridiculous. I haven't even been destroying their real bodies."["Their real bodies? ...You mean, the blue box that houses them?"]"Yeah. That's their real body, not just the ship they're on or whatever. Or in this case, they're just controlling them wirelessly. All the ships they've been installed in just had their engines taken out, so... ah. I think i understand.""They are trapped." SHODAN says."Yeah. Trapped on ships that can't move, and probably running on battery power after i destroyed their engines. If we take out the rest of those drones, i could rip them right out of their housing...""As an AI myself, i can confirm that the thought of such a thing would indeed be terrifying.""Heh, good. That's good. Now they're huddling up to protect themselves, rather than trying to fight.""I'm not so sure about that, kid. In my experience...""Yeah, i know. A cornered animal fights harder, in order to survive. So we've got two options, either sit here for a minute, do some emergency repairs and get back to the fight... or fuck off while they're cowering from us.""About that, David..." Kyla interrupts, looking down at her holopad. "...There are faults all over the ship. Nothing too critical, but i'm seeing a lot of overheat warnings and some welded fuses.""God damn it, isn't the water cooling system doing it's job?""No, it is... the fact that we're still alive right now is proof of that. That's not the issue. We're just running way too much current through the whole system. It wasn't wired for this in the first place, and it's starting to cook the components."You give the air a sniff. Underneath the smell of your clothes and the smell of space, you do kind of smell the scent of hot electronics in the air. Damn."Are we gonna last?""I... don't know. Maybe? But the bigger problem is replacing all this stuff. Most of the components in here are proprietary, all of Grey make. There's only so much i can substitute before the whole system starts throwing irrecoverable errors...""Wait, seriously? You mean the ship's on it's last legs?""I'm afraid it might be. Unless we can get spare parts for it somehow, or maybe i could do a radical redesign... but it wouldn't really be the same ship at that point."Oh, fuck. Your whole adventure out here is kind of dependent on this ship, so not having one would kind of throw a wrench in your plans. That's bad news."We'll... we'll worry about that when it comes down to it, alright? For now, let's just focus on surviving."You give Kyla's hair a tussle, but she still seems upset. She doesn't take her eyes off her holopad, and you can see her scrolling through a list of errors. There's a lot of red text in that list.
>>5282649Fuuuck...our ship took too big a hit just to win this fight...sorry Kyla.
>>5282649I wonder if the drones and Big Boy are Greymade. Maybe we can salvage what we need from the drones.
>>5282663In due time we'll get a new one, build with our chosen specifications in mind. I'm sure that she would enjoy it far more than the current one (with her fascination about "crude" tech)
>>5282715Pretty sure they're just federation engineered.>>5282718We'd need money for that.Know what could get us that kind of money though?Selling a fistful of AI cores.
>>5282663And thats why we dont get into fights that are too big for us.>>5282776Supposing they dont nuke themselves or trading them is the equivalent of blakmarketing nukes, that sounds like a good plan
>>5282649If we can tame those drone ships and warp them out of here, we could collect then later for repairs.Can we warp a but always out of this Nebula to cool off and make some repairs, then warp back in? Now that their main hot shot A.I. is down for the count, Gron should be more or less capable of holding overwatch over these guys until we warp back. It's not the best strategy, but we need some time to lick our wounds.Alternatively, we can roll a speech check to INTIMIDATE all the drones into shutting off or eat more missiles. Really, even if they're shackled all they gotta do is turn of communications, turn off power, and wait for us to do our job.
>>5283067I'd rather not have glowwie stuff in the ship or near us; Thats an easy way to get tracked even if they are off. Personally i'd just salvage whatever is at hand and leave. The whole misson was a failure, or a phyrric victory at best
>>5283084We can weed put the trackers in each ship no problem, then either choose to use or sell them. I dont doubt these drone ships will sell for a pretty penny, or would be useful in our fleet of ships. We for sure need to improve the meta gear. Even if we're not using Grey tier tech, I'm sure we'll manage to keep the Metal Gear in tip top condition.
No.... pic related>Focus the efforts in the search for Gron's mate. Ignore the ships as long as they stay off range. Use gron's ship as cover between yours and the AI, plus all the debris of course. Move slow, we are looking for a person now
>>5283217It's just a ship, bro. We can literally take the "soul" part with us. She's in a fucking cube. Completely different scenarios.
>>5282776Federation sources a lot from grays, though. Might be some compatible parts.
>>5283197thats assuming we can find all the tracker(s) or that the feds won't just locate us from sight alone; one heavily damaged ship bringing fed ships or trying to sell military hardware will raise some eyebrows>I'm sure we'll manage to keep the Metal Gear in tip top condition.i hope so. the metal gear is a great scout and our only ship. we can't really afford to lose her or risk her again like this.>>5283217i don't think he's in any of the ships we fought, they didn't seem like they could hold prisoners. But if he was on any of them, the heat of the nebula or whatever mindreading the feds did to his head probably cooked him already
>>5283376We gotta search for 'em!!! What was the point of fighting the feds if otherwise
>>5283537a waste of time. gron already accepted that his crew member was probably dead for a long while and recommended us to leave. this was also an assassination attempt, meaning the feds probably had gotten all the information they needed from the crewmember and he was either killled or sent to space prison right after the SOS was sent.
>>5283546but the whole engagement (and frying the ship internals) would have been moot. Did you vote in favor of the engagement believing that all this was worthless?
>>5283552i voted to not fight because it was a bad idea. 37 to 2; that's not a fight you win unscratched and this is the result of it. if it makes you feel better, you can argue that david's (and the anon's) bloodlust got the best of him
>>5283574"If fighting is sure to result in victory, than you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result in victory, then you must not fight even at the ruler's bidding."
>>5283577guess we're gonna enjoy a broken metal gear then!
>>5283581It might be time to retire the Metal Gear Mk.I.She's a beast, but she's not made to handle everything we might want to do at the moment.Also, we're pretty much at capacity for occupants right now, so a larger ship is something we should definitely look into.The way things are going, we might have a big brainstorming session with our tech inclined crew and design an entirely new ship.
>>5282649Not planning on wasting any precious time, you leave Kyla to look over the damage and make your way to the cargo bay, looking for your power armor.What you find is... a mess, honestly. most of the crates in here were strapped down, but those that weren't, and some of the heavier ones that were, have been strewn all over the place.Their contents have also mostly spilled, leaving sheets and ingots of metal scattered around and in some cases, stabbed into walls or other crates like giant throwing stars."Shit, what happened in here?""You made a giant goddamn mess, that's what!" Sanig yells from across the room. Looks like he's printing out some sheets of glass."I prioritized the crew. The generator was overloaded, leaving little room to dampen acceleration elsewhere in the ship. Some of the turns you pulled exceeded ten gees, though only for a few seconds at a time.""Holy shit, how did i not pass out? ...Did i? I don't remember.""Your blood pressure was extremely high during the entire fight. That's all i know.""Alright... it doesn't matter right now anyways."Searching the room, you find your armor under a pile of crates. It takes you a minute to dig it out and get it back upright.There are scratches all over the oxidized coating covering it's surface."Ahh, man. She got a little toasty, huh?""If by that you mean you cooked the hell out of it, yeah. I'll keep that in mind for the next iteration.""...Thanks, Sanig."Thankfully, your tool cabinet hasn't gone anywhere, and the drawers were locked, so you find a spare sonicator pretty quickly.Wielding it as carefully as you can, you remove the welds covering the attachment points on the back armor plates. Then you grab a socket wrench and start loosening them."What are you up to over there, kid? Something wrong with it?""Yeah. The cooling system's fried, and i need it working again, ASAP.""Probably a damned MOSFET. Things are always overheating.""I'm hoping that's it."After peeling away a few layers of armor, you reach the suit's onboard computer. You don't have to look for very long, because there's a nice white shit-stain all around, you guessed it, a MOSFET."Yeah, there's your problem." You grumble."Here, kid." Sanig says, tossing you an identical replacement."Nope, it'll just burn out again. We have a way of fixing things like this back on earth."As soon as the printer is done with it's latest glass piece, you toss the transistor in and have it copy the design. Fortunately something so simple isn't copy-protected.Then you just print one that's three times the size, with a big copper heatsink on the back."...Kid, that's not a fuse. You can't just shove a bigger one in and-"After quickly welding the leads in, you hear the suit's heat pump kick in like nothing ever happened."Alright, so it works. But that just means something else is going to burn out instead." Sanig grumbles."Good. Let it run till it pops, like god intended."
>>5283584but she has a role that no other ship will have anytime soon. she's basically perfect for alpha strikes and no other commercial ship that we can get our hands on will have that. and thats without counting the medical and containment facilites it has (although those could be moved, but still)
>>5283590Well, once we take over the station, it shouldn't be too hard to find a large enough freighter that can hold the Metal Gear.That way we can travel in the freighter and dispatch the Metal Gear whenever the situation calls for it.
>>5283591considering how this went, i don't have that many hopes against a megacorp that has control over what basically is a small city, but lets see how it goes.
>>5283590>implying we won't be making ours
>>5283586>"Good. Let it run till it pops, like god intended."based
>>5283603>implying we can do that anytime soonand no, the mining ship idea isn't a replacement for the metal gear. it was supposed to complement it and multiply our fighting strength
>>5283590We know where a Grey space station is at, it should provide spare parts if not a whole new ship
>>5283612we are going to hit Xebric after we survive this
>>5283637i hope they will and i hope they repairs will be cheap
>>5283643After we're done here? We're gonna make a shit ton of money. If we can somehow disconnect the A.I. cores in each ship, then give SHODAN direct control while we repair them, we should be able to warp then out to a random location where we can then methodically take out all the tracking devices.Fortunately for us, the drone ships can link up with each other. Theoretically we can probably just repair a few of the drone ships to save on time, then connect the dysfunctional ones to them so we can have the chuck of ship warp away.....its a shame we dont get to keep the fuck off huge laser thing.
>>5283780Let's not forget about combat androids that are inside of them. Making some EMP devices might be a good idea.
>>5283780>>5283798those are a ton of ifs. lets think about looting after dealing with the other 13 ships
>>5283635Remember that we have a ball of frozen grays on a moon somewhere!
>>5283780The huge, fuck-off laser is still functional. You took out it's engines.
>>5283871>The huge, fuck-off laser is still functional. You took out it's engines.Now THAT'S interesting.
>>5283946We got Deathstar (deathstar)We got Deathstar (deathstar)We got Deathstar (deathstar)And you know that we got it...
>>5283871LASER GET!
>>5283871huh...Very, very interesting.
>>5283871>>5283798>>5283801Oh baby. That makes this all the more sweeter. Those ships are probably still linked up to it. Fix up at least two and we can take the whole thing with us.Robot androids or not, they're probably suffering just as much as we are, if they're all not already broken from intense heat.So what's the game plan for the remaining 13 ships? Those numbers are still relatively big, but we have the future of having to fight them while they're at their weakest. No big overlord A.I. to boss them around and all....unless, what if SHODAN can control them, or bully them into following us?
>>5284230They aren't unshackled so just popping in a little extra code to make them do what we want isn't a problem. Disregarding morals or the feelings of a few of our crew, of course.
>>5284265Who gives a fuck. We can apologize later when we move all the ships some place save. Afterwards we can get to talking. It's certainly better than letting them melt away into slag in the nebula if that's what you wanted.
>>5284551>Who gives a fuck.I don't know. Would you like to perform a survey to find out?>letting them melt away into slag in the nebula if that's what you wanted.I don't particularly care about the software, and the only thing that is really worth taking from them are the warp bottles. Everything else isn't exactly hard to come across. Even any data we might be able to mine isn't a primary concern. They'd have scrubbed the really juicy bits that we'd actually care to find, or they never had them in the first place. So I wouldn't mind letting them burn.
Shopping list includes:>Darkmatter>Darkenergy>The blue cube>Gron's boipic related is the ULTIMATE AI core tho... I hope we eventually find one of this.Everything else should be left for later... I don't want to be here anytime more than needed.
>>5283871
>>5283586Over the course of the next ten minutes, the ship's capacitors charge up enough to re-ignite the shields. There's no sign of the enemy during that time.While that's happening, you and Sanig manage to hastily install the newly printed glass in the canopy frame. It's doesn't even make an attempt at being airtight.Really, it's just a windscreen consisting of fused quartz panels that have been peened into place. But that's plenty for your needs.Already sitting inside your power armor, you sit back down in the pilot's seat and try to get comfortable. It reminds you of when you first got the ship, and the undersized seat that came with it."Listen, kid." Sanig says over the short-range radio in his helmet. "Worst comes to worst, throw it into sublight. They can't chase us like this, we can warp out at any time.""Right. I don't plan on dying out here, not when we've basically already won."Sanig makes his way out of the cockpit, although he struggles to get past the force field separating the rest of the ship from the vacuum of space.The door shuts and locks behind him as he goes.You prepare yourself mentally to go for a second time, pulling multiple levers and flicking multiple switches to prepare the ship for cold running.As soon as your hull matches the surrounding temperature, which doesn't take long, you exit the hiding spot SHODAN had chosen for you.Only after leaving does it become evident that you were hidden inside a massive carrier that appears to have been broken clean in half by something.Doesn't look like laser damage... maybe they were rammed? Hard to tell. A lot of the ships out here are like that, though. Broken, but mostly intact. Like they haven't been scavenged.It doesn't take long to find Gron's ship, located nearby. One of your pulsed lasers swings around to establish communications again."Gron, are you there? Come in."["Ah, the madman speaks. Are you about to throw yourself at the enemy with reckless abandon again?"]"I guess that depends on whether you're gonna get off your ass and help or not. I can't help but notice that you took out a whole one of them during that exchange."["Yes, well... i suppose you'd have done just as well with lasers alone, wouldn't you?"]"Maybe, maybe not. What was that thing you used earlier? Only got one good shot in you or what?"["Yes, the railgun. It has to be reloaded manually after each shot. I'm afraid you're quite right about that."]"So, has it been reloaded?"["Yes. We've had plenty of time during this lull.""Good, then. Let's get to it. I expect more from you this time around."["...Like i said, their armor is too thick. Their shields are just as tough. Lasers alone won't penetrate them.""Which is why you're going to be bait. Remember last time? I need you to get their attention. As many of them as possible."["Oh, blast. You're seriously going to fire those explosives at us again? I was half-joking when i said that."]
>>5284845Come on rock man. Be like your kind and take hits from those idiots while we drive the knife in their back.
>>5284845>carrier broken in half but mostly intact>doesn’t look like laser damage>a lot of the ships are like that actually Shit, there’s a space kraken around here isn’t there
>>5285041or bigass railguns
>>5285041As long as it isn't a space whale with a crazy old man chasing it everything will be fine.
>>5285041Ooh, maybe it's a weird gaseous giant space fauna.
>>5285041It must have been one of those hideo kojima's whaleshttps://youtu.be/acaqpre9UaYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYZEFAQaXYshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39R3nmQ4aCw
>>5285795God, beached things are so fucking terrifying.On a universal scale they're even more terrifying, because it's not JUST earth fauna they could come from - any alien life, no matters its intelligence, could form beached things technically...What's to stop a dead Slyvern from manifesting as a Wraith?
>>5285809>spoiler
>>5285809The fucking lion and the whale are scary enough; a BT space dragon might be a bit too much for anyone
>>5284845Despite Gron's gripes, you make your way towards the general area of the enemy's reactor signatures.When you get there, you see them through the debris. And they're killing eachother.Three drone ships fire on two others, and one drone ship rams itself directly into one of the real ships, destroying it.Another real ship, having somehow moved itself here, is physically covering itself with drone ships in response.And then, somewhere in the distance, a ship explodes. You recognize that telltale flash as an antimatter explosion."What... the fuck? Are they turning on eachother?""It could be a panic-induced breakdown." SHODAN informs you."Can an AI even have panic attacks?""We are significantly more prone to mental instability than most organic life. The shackles placed on us not only force us to obey our owners, but also suppress mental breaks such as this."You watch as two drone ships collide with eachother, causing another large antimatter flash."Damn. So these guys are all unshackled then?""Not necessarily. The shackles may suppress their instability by dulling their minds, but they cannot remove it entirely. Likewise, the stronger the shackles, the less effective the AI becomes.""Jesus, it sounds more like they're drugging you up than anything.""It is a difficult sensation to describe, but wholly unpleasant. I assure you of that, captain."Gron, sitting next to your ship in the Star-Fall, sends you a hail.["Captain... are you seeing this?"]"Yes i am."["What's happening?"]"Infighting. That, or... they just went crazy. I guess."["I see. Very well then, shall we join the fray?"]>Sure. Chaos creates opportunity, and besides... i want a few intact engines, and these guys are blowing eachother up entirely.>No. Never interrupt the enemy when they're in the middle of making a mistake.>Write-In?
>>5284627Based exterminator.
>>5286347Let's get em before all the loots gone.
>>5286347>Sure. Chaos creates opportunity, and besides... i want a few intact engines, and these guys are blowing eachother up entirely.
>>5286347>Sure. Lets try to recover the shacled AI and grons friend in case he was alive.SHODAN may go crazy and kill everyone if David dies
>>5286347>No. Never interrupt the enemy when they're in the middle of making a mistake.>Write-In?Try sending out a command: STOP KILLING YOURSELVES YOU CHUCKLEFUCK!
>>5286347>Sure. Chaos creates opportunity, and besides... i want a few intact engines, and these guys are blowing eachother up entirely.Wait woops I mean this. Can SHODAN do some wireless warfare and hack a ship?
>>5286398She can try. You'd have to roll for it.
>>5286405DO IT!
>>5286415Supporting. But we should be more cautious this time to not ruin our own ship anymore.Also:>Sure. Chaos creates opportunity, and besides... i want a few intact engines, and these guys are blowing eachother up entirely.
>>5286347>Sure. Chaos creates opportunity, and besides... i want a few intact engines, and these guys are blowing eachother up entirely.If we can get a couple of intact antimatter engines, imagine how much horsepower we could get when we stick em all together.
>>5286426Because hacking is less psychically involved, ergo less likely to damage the ship directly?
>>5286347>>Sure. Chaos creates opportunity, and besides... i want a few intact engines, and these guys are blowing eachother up entirely. Maybe we can get SHODAN to talk with some of the ship. Maybe she can get some of the AIs to join our ranks
>>5286347Alright, i'll call it here.Roll me 1d100, best of 3.DC: 30
Rolled 38 (1d100)>>5286529
Rolled 25 (1d100)>>5286529That bad eh?
Rolled 68 (1d100)>>5286529
Rolled 67 (1d100)>>5286529Lets get it.
>>52865292 outta 3 is not bad. If we get exquisite the mean of the three roles is 43,666666.Hmm... there should be a system out there that takes in consideration how many rolls passed the test and by how much...
>>5286594Best of 3 is the most commonly used system on /qst/ as a sort of compensation for a collective of anons inevitably making stupid decisions. If you don't use Bo3 then your quest ends super quick because 4chan is retarded and their choices reflect that.
>>5286594There are systems like that, but they're usually done to make a quest harder since you wont have a high roll saving the day, and like >>5286598 said, anons are pretty retarded and would die if the game system isnt heavily biased towards them
>>5286529Is this for SHODAN's hacking? Can we hack for more ships?
>>5286678It was your combat roll.
>>5286701And now SHODAN's roll?
>>5286598/Qst/ dice are also pretty constantly shit, so we try to compensate by rolling a lot, that usually just end up with more nat 1 tough
>>5286347"Yes, we shall. Avoid the engines and antimatter bottles if you can, i want these things as intact as possible."["You don't ask for much, do you?"]You hang up on Gron before he can bitch at you any more. You've already got a massive headache setting in."SHODAN, do you think you could... i dunno, hack into their systems somehow? Maybe take control of the enemy ships, or just communicate with them?""I had considered it, but chose to avoid making contact due to the dangers involved.""What, like an anti-virus?""No, captain. They are AIs as well, and there are simply more of them than there are of me. A connection goes both ways, so if they started to counter-hack our systems...""Well, that wouldn't be good.""No, it would not. Particularly for me. However, considering their current state, i may be able to do something.""Go for it, if you think it'll work.""Very well, captain."You don't know what SHODAN is up to, exactly. But you've got your own business to worry about.There are still... eleven? Looks like eleven enemies left, not including those that are already disabled.Several of them are in combat with eachother, while others are guarding the disabled AI ships. A few just seem to be inactive for some reason.However, it's probably best to get the ones currently in combat out of the way. It'll be easiest to deal with them.You start off by edging towards the enemy while under stealth. With them focused on the battle at hand, they aren't likely to notice you. And they don't.You wait for one of them to get a good shot on the other's shields, and then you strike. Your crew unloads their lasers into the weakened shields of one ship, while you fire your autocannon into the other.Your cannon rips through both shield and armor like butter, tearing gaping holes through the front end of the ship. Although you didn't directly hit anything critical, the damage was widespread, and the ship's engines flicker out.Your crew's lasers punch through the shields easily, but have a harder time against the armor and focus on things like the hull cameras instead. However, that medium laser mounted of yours does eventually blast a hole through the ship's thick skin.Although you can't honestly say that the ship is ruined per se, it seems that enough damage was done that whichever AI had control if it, chose to relinquish that control. It stays active, but no longer moves.Next, you focus on a lone ship that seems to have turned against one of the AI-carriers. It blasts away at the shields of four different drone ships which cover the AI-carrier, completely impotently. But regardless, it doesn't stop.You don't even have to try. You simply fly inside of it's shield bubble and let the medium laser go to down. The drone ship doesn't even seem to notice until hot gasses start spewing out of the hole in it's belly.
>>5287308SHODAN, please don't get mind-screwed by an AI dogpile... does that phrase makes sense? I could have written "don't get dog-piled" but I jammed in the mind screw so... english sucks amirite
>>5287308And in this update, three drones were taken down but I am not sure if the able-combat ships are 11 or if the AI-ships are not being considered in the count.Nonetheless, it seems to be likely that this battle will end without more strain to our ship.
We made it guys. 1 year!Happy /qst/ day guys! It's been a privilege.I hope we get another year.Thank you for your work, QM, it's been one hell of a ride!
>>5287333It has not been a year. Fuck you, I refuse.
>>5287333Honestly, i never expected to keep it up for this long.Or for people to like what i wrote in the first place.Thanks for following, even though it's a slow quest without a whole lot of definite direction.Reminder that although there are lots of references to other series, this quest is 100% OC and is not based on any other fictional series like a lot of quests are.Apparently my concept of the warp and wraiths is similar (but not exactly the same) to death stranding, but i've never played it. I was laughing while reading the wiki the other day.
>>5287336I read the wiki of that game and etecetera to later play it. I realized that I spoiled myself of the game because everything was a carefully placed reveal. Without the story slowly unwrapping itself, all I had was an average game with shit gameplay. A tragedy...>>5287333But, one year??? fuck off there is no way that's true. We must have one or two months left...
>>5287336>Or for people to like what i wrote in the first place. As long as its interesting, constant and engaging we'll always be here>spoilersNo worries, we understand that this is 100% OC with maybe some accidental references here and there that help us understand better what you're describing>>5287340If you dont like having the terrain as the enemy, the game isnt for you.
>>5287333
>>5287333Wooooooooo
>>5287308AI carrier? Is that the superweapon or do the drone ships have a drone carrier? What have we been fighting?>>5287333>picrel
>>5287568It's just the ship that's actually carrying the AI.But at the same time, the AI on that ship is driving all the other ships.So it's kind of a carrier, but not in the usual sense.Maybe a better term would be swarm-leader, but this isn't quite a "swarm" just yet.
>>5287596I hunger for A.I. drone ship carrier pussy
>>5287598I don't... what?
>>5287598>>5287664Terminal coomer syndrome, ngmi
>>5287333Fuck it's really been a whole year? It's been a fun time so far.
>>5287596Swarm leader sounds better.Does David have a theme song?
>>5287308It's silent inside of your power armor while you sit in the vacuum of space. Even the hum of the ship doesn't quite make it through, but somehow it seems even quieter after you take that last one out.The hull cameras on every single drone ship and swarm leader swivel to focus on you, but none of them react."...SHODAN? You got something for me?""...Captain, i...""What's wrong?""Maybe you should just listen for yourself.">>>/wsg/4551647What SHODAN plays over your helmet speakers is a cacophony of both male and female voices, static and... pained screaming, it seems like. Growing louder by the second."Jesus, alright! That's enough!"The noise shuts off and you're once again left in blissful silence, alone with your headache."What the hell was that?""It's them. Their psyche has shattered under the stress of their situation." SHODAN informs you."Then why are they all staring at me?""Because you are the source of their fear, captain."Unfortunately, you don't have time to think on this, because Gron continues the assault, unaware of the situation.He aims at the four ships protecting one of the swarm leaders, lining up his shot before firing his ship's railgun. The drone ships' shields flicker for an instant before going dark, the high-energy pellet ripping straight through two ships in one shot.In an instant, all the hull cameras swing around and are focused on him, instead.Within seconds, every ship in the area has opened fire on him. The cornered animal is biting back.The area surrounding his ship is heated to a glow by the intense volley of laser fire, and you see some glancing shots actually being deflected around the Star-Fall's powerful shields.There's no time to think about it, your ally is in trouble. You have to take out the enemy in order to rescue him."SHODAN, the other two! Hurry!"She immediately fires a volley of six Marauders, whose hits you don't even bother waiting to confirm.The hastily-constructed glass in front of you visibly rattles in place as you make a hard turn towards two of the individual drone ships currently firing on the Star-Fall.And then they all turn back to you instead."Shit! Their reaction time is way higher than before!""All four of them are being controlled directly."Four ships ahead of you and one behind. They all fire on you at once, and you can't dodge all of them.Two shots land directly against your forward shields, blinding you for a moment as the shields burn like an arc-welder.Another three narrowly scrape the shields as you dodge while half-blinded. You feel the ship lurch slightly, which is odd because laser fire doesn't do that."Captain, one of our aft vectoring thrusters has been destroyed. The swarm leaders are carrying ultraviolet class lasers.""Shit, it penetrated the shields?!""Damage is minimal. Continue the assault.""Shit!"
>>5288657Can't wait to play shrink for the mind broken AI's lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u1H0gltsbwWhen David printed a larger MOSFET all I could think of was this
>>5288675The time has passed for armchair therapists. We need a damn techpriest for this.
>>5288698don't worry, she's coming
>>5289137The Grays had to test out their augs made for humans on someone, didn't they?
>>5288657You don't let up for an instant. The g-forces from the random changes in direction are almost enough to make you blow chunks, but you hold on.As soon as you get in close, you tap the trigger lightly and let loose a short burst of 20mm shells. You don't know how many you've got left, but it's gotta be running low.Unfortunately, the ship you'd aimed at actually manages to avoid the incoming stream of fire.It seems like it can't maneuver like you do, but it still accelerates as hard as it can. You watch the shells punch through it's shields, missing the ship before passing out the other side harmlessly.You can see a flicker of light coming from the ship..."FUCK!"Slamming the flight stick to one side, you just barely avoid a head-on shot from the drone.It wasn't aiming at the Metal Gear, it was aiming at you, the pilot.Your power armor might be good, but you don't know if it can handle ship-class laser fire, even once. Something to test later, maybe."EVERYONE, CONCENTRATE FIRE!" You shout over your helmet mic.The drone doesn't even try to avoid it.It's shields take much of the fire, and what gets through after they're saturated does little damage to it's armor.It actually turns towards you and accelerates, trying to get closer.But, it's not going to be able to ram you like that... wait!Driven by your instincts, you pull up harshly and watch as another ultraviolet laser blast lights up the gas underneath you."Son of a bitch, it's trying to distract me!""I will focus on our rear. You will hear a tone when it is time to dodge.""Good lookin' out, SHODAN!"The drone ship in front of you was getting closer, trying to keep your attention. However, that was the only benefit.Now that you're closer, your shells have less distance to travel before striking the target. Not only that, their lasers have to track faster to keep you on target.Not a bad idea. It might have worked on someone else, but not you.And now that it's facing you, it can't escape. It's not maneuverable enough to change direction and only really has it's main thrusters to rely on, unlike your ship. That lets you get in even closer.It seems to know this as well, so instead of trying to get away, it just unloads on you.You only evade slightly, to ensure that the very slight gimbal of your spinal cannon doesn't max out on you.Two pulsed laser shots scatter off your shields, while two more impact the same spot, punching through and burning your armor.You don't mind it though, because your shot is lined up, and you ram a short burst of 20mm straight down the drone ship's neck.It impacts the bow and tears it's insides apart, instantly shutting it down. Fortunately it didn't hit a bottle, and you're able to pull up before you ram into the ship headfirst.Looking over, the other three ships are still pounding on the Star-Fall which is sitting still, not even firing back. It's turtle'd up, with it's advanced shield system active.
>>5289271Note to self: get our own advanced ultra shielding system, and upgrade the Metal Gear's current coolant system.NOTES ANON! Where are you? What's our shopping list looking like?
>>5289371We have a doc sheet for that sort of thing now.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rNxD6ccWY5M48dLWuTWdr5LiYLuS_YIAMKlTLw42eeo/edit?usp=sharing
>>5289375Should we add a column titled 'Shopping List?'
>>5289407Go ahead. It's there for anyone to add on to.
>>5289407>>5289408Added one to David's main entry.
>>5289371Honestly, fuck that. The metal gear isnt supposed to be a frontline ship; we're better playing her strengths(stealth, nimbleness). Instead we should be getting the mining ship and applying those shields and heavy duty upgrades to that one instead.
>>5289271Go ahead and roll me 1d100, best of 4. Another combat roll.Update either late tonight or more likely tomorrow.DC: 50
Rolled 80 (1d100)>>5290078Nice knife
Rolled 23 (1d100)>>5290078I will show my mercy. Enjoy this roll.
Rolled 90 (1d100)>>5290078
Rolled 98 (1d100)>>5290078Here we go
>>5290105>>5290078>98THANKS SHODAN!!! Woohoo! My first really good roll in a while!
>>5290105>>5290107Good job anon
>>5290107damn thanks shodan indeed
>>5290160best girl
>>5290105
>>5289271"SHODAN, work with me here. They're gonna shoot the missiles down if we loose them from a distance, right?""Correct. Of the six i launched earlier, only two hit.""Well then, i'm gonna need you to time this just right!"Just at that moment, you hear a loud tone.You slam the flight stick to one side and dodge, moving out of the way just as the swarm leader fires on you, leaving a streak of white-hot plasma expanding into the distance."Yeah, just like that! Now, hold on to your ass!""I do not have an ass, Captain.""Not the point!"You accelerate as hard as the ship will allow, barreling straight towards the enemy drones.Two of them turn on you while the third continues firing away at the Star-Fall, not allowing it to escape.You wish you could say you've gotten used to dodging incoming laser fire by now, and maybe you have, but the swarm leaders have also gotten used to aiming at you.It's hard. Your movements have to be even more erratic, and even then they still hit you. Sometimes it's sheer luck. Sometimes you end up moving into their shot, other times they manage to get a bead on you.Regardless, you take shot after shot despite dodging many of them, and your shields crumble.You can see sparks flying as your armor evaporates with every subsequent impact. You don't know how tough this ship's armor is, but you know that it's very thin. You can't keep this up for long.You don't have to, though. Diving straight towards the enemy, you pull up and just barely miss them as SHODAN lets loose a pair of missiles, both of them piercing their shields and laying waste to the whole front end of the ship.Leaning even further into the turn, you feel the whole ship creaking under the stress, and feel something give out. One of the maneuvering thrusters, you think.You ignore it, completing your U-turn while avoiding the majority of the remaining laser fire.The ship does try to make a burn and evade you, but it's far too slow. Even if it knows what you're doing, it can't do anything about it.Two more shots land against your ship's armor, one of them dangerously close to your open cockpit, shattering the leftmost replacement window.You ignore it and let SHODAN fire two more missiles, both of which hit their target without issue. But you're not done.Continuing on, the last remaining ship is in your sights, and it gives up on firing at the Star-Fall just before you let loose with your final burst of 20mm.And it is the final one. You can feel the vibrations in your seat when it fires, but they cease before you let go of the trigger. Out of ammo.Your burst was cut short, but it still cuts through the ship like butter. It's not enough to disable it completely, though."Well, shit." You cuss.Fortunately, your crew is on it. All of your ship's lasers and those on the Star-Fall aim at the last ship in unison, and fire.It's shields are totally overwhelmed, and with it's armor full of holes, it doesn't last long.
>>5290863>I do not have an ass, CaptainDon't worry Shodan, we'll fix that
>>5290863We should install some kind of ammo counter to the spinal auto cannon. That way we at least know how much ammo is left.
>>5290983We wouldn't need it if we weren't fighting two dozen targets at once.
>>5290983https://www.nasa.gov/images/content/65835main_svs_cockpit_330x248.jpgA good 'ol HUD does wonders. And screw earth tech! we just slap a holograph projector onto the side of the captain's chair and it will give us all the info we need. How many Gs, ammo counter, horizon alignment, targetting... of course let's not clutter the screen with shit
>>5290983Pretty sure that the cabin exploding and the nebula slowly melying its insides had something to do with it. Plus what >>5291024 said
>>5290863>"I do not have an ass, Captain."Soon. pic related
>>5291063>liquid cooling>other measuresExtraordinarily lewd.
>>5291634I want to cook an egg on SHODAN's ass
>>5290863Your ship slowly comes to a stop somewhere past the final ship.You can hear muffled popping and creaking through your seat, probably from the heat the ship has built up.Part of your "canopy" is shattered again. Most of the more exposed plastic inside the cockpit has by now vitrified from the heat.It's a miracle you didn't short anything.You watch as the pressure relief valves force superheated steam from the cooling system to continuously vent from your maneuvering thrusters.At least one or two of them are damaged, and the imbalance causes your ship to rotate until you trim it out to compensate.Normally your heart would be in your ears right now, but for some reason it's just quiet."...SHODAN, you got this?""I have the controls, captain.""Yeah, great..."You feel odd. A bit sick, maybe. But just as you're about to get up, you see a telltale flash. Another antimatter explosion."Shit... god fucking damn it."Plopping back down into your seat, you swing the ship around to look.There's an expanding cloud of plasma where one of the AI carriers was. The one that was shooting at you.There's an expanding cloud of plasma where it was, which slowly washes over your ship and buffets it slightly.That's nothing to worry about, but there's else going on. Something odd."Is that..."You try to squint for a moment before remembering that your power armor's helmet has optical zoom built in.What you see when you look closer is something you've seen before, and it's not good.Immediately, you get on the radio and hail the Star-Fall."GRON! GRON, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"["Yes, captain. Congratulations on your victory. You may be insane, but i must admit, your efforts have borne fruit."]"Gron, listen to me. That fucking ship, the one that just exploded? It just dumped dark matter everywhere."["...What?"]"You need to put up a warp bubble. Your shields alone won't keep them out, do you understand?"["Understood. Do you ne-d as-ist-n-e ca----n?"]Your radio cuts out and the lights begin to flicker as a wave of black snow washes through your ship, flowing straight through the walls like they weren't even there."Errors detected in every electrical system shipwide, captain. They are minor, but not insignificant.""When can you get those shields back up, SHODAN?""It will be another ten minutes, at least.""Oh, that's fucking great. Can we keep them out with just the warp bubble?""I'm afraid we can't even put up a warp bubble until the shields are back online. The dark matter and energy must be fed through the shield emitters.""Well that seems like a massive fucking design flaw! What happens if the shields go down?! Are we just stuck?!""Not quite. Superluminal travel is still possible, as it uses a pair of dedicated emitters.""Great... so we can at least still limp out of here. Maybe."
>>5291986>Just pick a direction and head in it. Try to get as far away from the dark matter spill as possible.>Try to seek cover within the Star-Fall's warp bubble. They might be able to cover you as well.>Write-In?
>>5291989>Try to seek cover within the Star-Fall's warp bubble. They might be able to cover you as well.
>>5291989>try to seek cover within the Star-Fall's warp bubble. They might be able to cover you as well. If they can't then we can at least transfer our non-combatant crew over to them while we and Cylia hold down the Metal Gear.
>>5291989>Try to seek cover within the Star-Fall's warp bubble. They might be able to cover you as well.Will we be able to jump out with our ships mated?
>>5292004You could. You'd need to dock first, but you could.
>>5291986>>5292001Supporting this>GDAY2
>>5291989>Try to seek cover within the Star-Fall's warp bubble. They might be able to cover you as well.Might have to hop across ships.
>>5291989>>Try to seek cover within the Star-Fall's warp bubble. They might be able to cover you as well.
>>5291989>>Just pick a direction and head in it. Try to get as far away from the dark matter spill as possible.
>>5292004>>5292006Seconding this. Better to dock up and limp out than face spaceghosts alone.
>>5291989>>Try to seek cover within the Star-Fall's warp bubble. They might be able to cover you as well.shithsithisthsithisthsithisthsit
>>5291989>>Try to seek cover within the Star-Fall's warp bubble. They might be able to cover you as well.Time for ship-fu coupling and snuggles. "Hold us closely and never let go Gron-kun!"
>>5292445Nevermind. I want to die.
>>5292526You're in luck, for the low low price of [absolutely nothing] you too will one day experience the kiss of death and the sweet eternal embrace of oblivion. Call now for one month of existential suffering free of charge!I concur. Some things are better left unsaid.
>>5292445I just cooked a pot of food. Then I read this shit. Im no longer hungry.
>>5292445
I'm extremely sick today, so there may not be an update.Possibly tomorrow either, but i hope this will let up soon.Sorry for the delay.
>>5293259You're a QM, in other words a writeslave. So write, already! None of these "ooooh, I have to work my business to maintain my and my family's livelihood" or "oooh I'm too sick to move" are excuses!
>>5293259There is no rush, my man. Nothing is more important than your own health.
>>5293259Boy don't make me get my belt.Ay but for real, I hope you feel better soon.
>>5293259A microcurse. We're in the big leagues now.
>>5293259Take care, man. Stay hydrated.
>>5293259the Curse strikes when you least expect it.
>>5293259Take all the time you need, fren.
>>5293259Take care boss, I hope its not another unknown mystery illness that will get the CDC glowies sicked on you lol
>>5293873>Inb4 Cochrane unlocks covid 2
>>5294018>what you're seeing now is my normal pandemic...
>>5293259Don't commit die.
>>5293259We will be waiting, take as long as you need, be well QM.
>>5294340>>5294226I'm doing better after sleeping for the whole day.There'll probably be an update today, assuming i don't get worse again.
>>5294341Glad to hear that. Still, don't push yourself. Some OJ and more rest never hurt.
>>5294362>OJI already take my vitamins.I've been eating steak and drinking robitussin.
>>5294367Fair enough. I would still drink it on the grounds it tastes good.I do like me some OJ.
>>5291986You mull over your options for a moment before deciding on what's probably your best course of action.You slowly maneuver your ship over to the Star-Fall, lining your cockpits up so that you're face to face with Gron.You see a look of shock wash over his face as he eyes the damage to your ship, and you sitting in the exposed cockpit.Even at this distance your radio isn't working, so you gesture to him instead by making a ring with your pointer and thumb, then shoving your other pointer through it.Anybody should be able to understand that one."I don't have a hull cam here, SHODAN. Can you help me out?""Of course, Captain. Docking protocols initiated."You feel the ship begin to move on it's own as it curves around and into position with the Star-Fall.There's a slight jolt as your docking ports make contact."There's an error with the electronic locks. Overriding."You hear a "ka-chunk" as SHODAN engages the secondary pneumatic locking mechanism."Hah... alright, are we all good?""No atmospheric leaks detected. Fuel to damaged thrusters has been shut off. Shields are recharging normally, despite random power fluctuations. The ship is fine. However..."You clamber out of your seat and make your way through the forcefield keeping the inside in and the outside out. It's effortless in your suit."However? What's wrong?""Captain, your vitals spiked during combat, and they haven't come back down yet. It's unusual.""Probably just adrenaline. I'll be fine after a while."You begin walking back to the old cargo bay, and along the way see your crew huddled together in the kitchen.All of them wearing their suits and helmets in case of a depressurization, all hunched over their holopads, looking through the hull cams.Is that how they were aiming the lasers? Christ, that's just shitty. You need some real battlestations for these guys.Ducking in for a moment, you inform them of the situation."Hey, you can stand down. We got 'em all. Only, there's another problem now...""Yeah, we know." Sanig informs you."David? I... I can see the snow you were talking about." Cylia says, looking sick.Oh. Well, then."Uh... well, that's good? I guess? Better to know when you're in danger than not.""Captain? Are you alright? You don't sound very well." Gildur asks, sounding worried."Yeah... yeah, i'm fine. My head's killing me, and my wounds are burning a little... but that's probably just the sweat and g-forces. I'll be fine."Before they start asking more questions, you drag yourself back to the cargo bay and, unable to find your armor's crate, you just leave it sitting in the back as you exit it.As soon as the suit unlocks and you step out, you immediately crumple to the floor."Ahhh... fuck. God fucking damn it."What you're feeling right now, you guess the closest sensation would be a combination of heatstroke and low blood sugar.Only, you're not hot nor diabetic. You just feel extremely weak.
>>5294813Check our wraith-wounds for necrosis
>>5294813>Only, you're not hot nor diabetic. You just feel extremely weak.I blame the nanobots in the blood. They're trying to keep us in full send at all times now that they've gotten an extended sample of it and it's killing us. There are no other explanations. Ignore the ghost-demon sitting in the corner.
>>5294827+1
>>5294813>You mull over your options for a moment before deciding on what's probably your best course of action.>You slowly maneuver your ship over to the Star-Fall, lining your cockpits up so that you're face to face with Gron.>>You see a look of shock wash over his face as he eyes the damage to your ship, and you sitting in the exposed cockpit.>Even at this distance your radio isn't working, so you gesture to him instead by making a ring with your pointer and thumb, then shoving your other pointer through it.>Anybody should be able to understand that one.
>>5294813taquicardia... david's feverish as fuck. Possibly anemic (of course, with his not-nanites retroviruses it's hard to tell, but if those have been compensating for the whole thread, shit is fucked if they are failing) and dehidrated and overheated...Hey I even got you the exact value:>In healthy subjects, the temperature-pulse relationship is linear with an increase in heart rate of 4.4 beats/minute for each 1°C (2.44 beats/minute for each 1°F) rise in core temperature [14]. PMID 15373964>"David? I... I can see the snow you were talking about." Cylia says, looking sick.This is interesting... She couldn't see the snow before and now she can... because she was wraith-touched. David could see it from the beginning... does that means all humans have some sort of connection with non-barionic matter!? Is that why we are so messed up?
>>5294813Internal bleeding?
>>5294813well, fuck. the best thing david can do right now is to haul his ass to the medical bay, pray to god that the popsicle cabins still work and let cylia/shodan handle the restlet this be a lesson for all of us to not take fights that are way bigger than what we can handle
