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Jan 8, 2015 07:01
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| # ? May 14, 2024 14:25 |
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I just want to say, all of you are great  This thread routinely makes my stories better, and sees all the little things I put in (like the neurons and the word echoes. It took forever to make that even remotely intelligible  ). I couldn’t do it without you. The truth is out there You turned a skeptical eye up towards the platform. While the idea of survivors was pleasing, it didn’t seem likely. This creature, whatever it was, seemed much more likely to be some xeno or aberration of the Great Enemy. Indeed, you weren’t even sure if it was fully sentient - it had failed the sacred rites of Turing, although you didn’t think you had time for the more in-depth rites of Voight-Kampff. The idea of a Tech-Priest who didn’t speak binary was ludicrous. Best to find out what you were getting into. Summoning Dana back, you began another series of modifications. Removing the flare launcher, replacing it with the visual apparatus which you had put in the first time you had received her. You allowed yourself a brief moment of pleasing nostalgia. This was the skull of an enemy, that foolish barbarian-pilgrim who thought you were a follower of the Men of Iron. And now it served you, and the will of the Omnissiah. After a quick test - image fine, transmission fine - you sent Dana back upwards. Your squad had taken the time to have another meal and stretch their muscles, but you put them back on their posts shortly after. You were pleased with their instant obedience, and resolved to use them well. A well fed retinue was an effective retinue. The transmission went directly into your brain in a wave of binary, and you felt a brief moment of vertigo as your body ascended. You closed one eye, shutting out the local information that was being fed into it. This let you see what Dana was seeing without the confusion of also seeing your squad fall back into place. Instead, you focused your mind fully on the task that was ahead. The neural webbing was stretched all along the upper walls and base of the platform, and you mentally rubbed your hands together in glee. Getting a hold of that material might allow for some lovely experiments later. How far could a brain be spread before it lost cohesion? And from what losses could it recover? You had to know. You wondered what practical applications might be possible. A semi-sentient organic machine would get around the strictures of Iron Men, and might possibly improve your effectiveness aboard ship. Indeed, having a web of sensory information being fed to you from the entire ship might give you a substantial advantage over Limosa. Now that was a fun idea. What happened to a psyker when they were distributed? Ah, Dana had arrived. She navigated carefully between strands, her metalline eye receiving all sorts of strange flickers from the webbing. Speculatively, you thought it might be information transmitting - the creature thinking. You didn’t have enough information to say if it was receiving data of your approach, but you didn’t think so. You weren’t seeing any organs that might have a sensory use, and no Machines-Spirits. The elevator platform had stopped between floors, allowing Dana to float into the passageway of the next floor, and then rotate and cross into the platform itself. The images you were receiving from the passageway were … interesting. The thick webbing had spread all along the tunnel, and you could see it laced casually over machines that slumbered in a similar office to the one you were in. You weren’t sure if the webbing was actually connected to the machines, but the possibilities were fascinating if so. You would have liked to have the option to switch to an infrared lens, but you lacked the resources for full modularity here. The real prospects of stealth probably weren’t great anyway - the whirring of a servo-skull was not a quiet thing, unless you had considered even more modifications which, again, you lacked the resources for. Sometimes you cursed being away from your ship, and a fully stocked Temple. Instead, the bright beam of Dana’s light passed over the rooms, observing a vast amount of webbing. You could see limited passageways that human sized objects could pass through, which allowed Dana to float easily, but the overall effect was a claustrophobic organic mess. It lacked the finesse of the webbing below the platform, instead seeming to go for sheer bulk. They all flickered rapidly, given the effect of a small fireworks show, and you wondered if it had side effects. You knew some people couldn’t process it, and you rather hoped none of them were in your squads. It would be for an awkward lesson to learn about that now. In an ideal world, you might have standards for that sort of thing, but this was a grab bag of troops at the best of times. Turning to the platform, you were almost overwhelmed with the sudden increase of sensory data. It had been turned into a horrendous nest, with dozens of huge spider-like things, all skittering about and tending to the webs. Hundreds of little ones danced along the strings, doing things you couldn’t explain, and at the center was a monster the size of your Chimera. Its ancient legs had atrophied long ago, and its carapace had opened up, neural material spreading through the chamber. You felt a moment of revulsion. Dana had been floating through its brain. Amidst the webbing, you could see hundreds of skeletons. Their bones had been picked clean, skulls cracked open for the gooiness that had been inside. Other bones had been snapped open for the marrow, and on the floor you could see a carpet of scraps, few of them human. In your mind, you could see what had happened - the earthquake opening some ancient and horrible passageway, the creatures pouring out. And then nesting on a primary food source, devouring all the explorers who tried to escape. It still didn’t explain why Mother had destroyed all information about it though. Perhaps an alliance of some sort, one monster with another. The spider things leapt forward when they saw you. More technically, saw Dana. They brought her down with a quickness that was frightening, and immediately began cracking open the skull for its parts. Throwing Dana aside in frustration, your brain confused by the sudden change of imagery, you were quickly distracted by the screaming. You switched feeds, back to where your body was. Around you, complete bedlam. Your soldiers were pointing guns at each other, backed into corners, their faces white with fear and betrayal. Some of them were curled into balls and crying, and Tanya was pointing up at the elevator, at the encroaching darkness. She was screaming. “The beast! Its coming for us!” What do you do? A. Your troops are useless right now. Grab the biggest gun and start shooting at whatever is coming down. B. Shoot someone to make an example, then get them shooting at the real enemy. C. You knew it, this all part of Mother’s plan to betray you. Begin shooting at the heretics. D. They will make a splendid rearguard while you rappel away. E. Something else Your troops are not responding well to whatever it is, so any ideas to try to get them back under control will be need to be drastic
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Jan 8, 2015 18:40
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"These are spiders you fools!" Do we have access to fire? I think we need fire.
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Jan 8, 2015 18:47
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B then A  Snap them out of it then get to blasting. We are going to need all the firepower we've got to take out the spider queen. Also RIP Dana. Burn the webbing, burn the xeno, then we burn the heretic. The Emperor's holy fire shall cleanse all
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Jan 8, 2015 18:47
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Dana is repairable, just has a hole in the top of her skull. No problems there. You do have incendiary grenades and launchers, but the troops aren't really there to use them.
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Jan 8, 2015 18:50
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Colonel Wood posted:B then A This. a guy, start blasting a hymn to the Omnissiah, burn poo poo to the ground
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Jan 8, 2015 18:51
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B then A sounds good. Burn the spiderbeasts!
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Jan 8, 2015 18:53
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E Get the troops on their feet to start shooting anything that moves. Nerves are just wires. Sensitive fleshy wires. We are a tech priest that loves to mash probes into things and jolt them with currents that are pleasing to the machine spirits. We should have the built in tech to essentially taser the neural webbing at disruptive frequencies and damaging voltages. Hell, take a spare power cable and slam that thing into the thickest bit of webbing near us. The thing has to be some sort of hive mind like creature. Let's give it a big old shocking Mars welcome. Then fight our way to the main body and burn that loving xeno to ash in His name. Arkanomen fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jan 8, 2015 |
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Jan 8, 2015 19:05
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We have a vox enhancer unit or something like that, right? I do believe a loud "IN THE NAME OF THE GOD-EMPEROR OF MAN, YOU WILL STAND YOUR GROUND!" followed by A should be our best bet. It's a nice mix of action, invoking religious zeal, and intimidation. e: Arkanomen posted:[b] E Although doing this instead of shooting would be OK, too.
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Jan 8, 2015 19:06
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Cleanse it with fire by whatever means. If there is a sample of material or maybe a small spider or two when the smoke clears good, but no time for that now. The reaction of the troops is strange and seems like it indicates a psyche attack as well? Good news is that an immense fireball will travel up the shaft. It also has the advantage that fire itself shouldn't wipe out the elevator mechanism. If the webs are flammable it should be quite spectacular. How do we make an immense, ascending fireball? Do we have the means to fill the shaft with a flammable gas of any sort? Mother having deleted the knowledge of this seems to indicate an alliance, which means the blocked shaft is useful to her. That in turn might mean she really has a vested interest in keeping everything as is, even to the extent of feeding this monstrosity. Probably occurs for her as in service to the greater good in some twisted way. Presumably the Spider-Brain also keeps anything from entering from above.
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Jan 8, 2015 19:29
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my dad posted:We have a vox enhancer unit or something like that, right? I do believe a loud "IN THE NAME OF THE GOD-EMPEROR OF MAN, YOU WILL STAND YOUR GROUND!" followed by A should be our best bet. It's a nice mix of action, invoking religious zeal, and intimidation. This works for me
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Jan 8, 2015 19:36
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LowellDuring our exam of the webbing did we find anything that would make us believe its flammable?
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Jan 8, 2015 19:41
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my dad posted:We have a vox enhancer unit or something like that, right? I do believe a loud "IN THE NAME OF THE GOD-EMPEROR OF MAN, YOU WILL STAND YOUR GROUND!" followed by A should be our best bet. It's a nice mix of action, invoking religious zeal, and intimidation. my dad has a good plan
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Jan 8, 2015 19:49
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my dad posted:We have a vox enhancer unit or something like that, right? I do believe a loud "IN THE NAME OF THE GOD-EMPEROR OF MAN, YOU WILL STAND YOUR GROUND!" followed by A should be our best bet. It's a nice mix of action, invoking religious zeal, and intimidation. This then, Arkanomen posted:E This. What a blast!
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Jan 8, 2015 19:57
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Given that we are mech-assassin, if we can rally our troops, maybe we can rig up something quick to use the neural webbing to our advantage while they shoot at the giant spider?
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Jan 8, 2015 20:09
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BURN IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!
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Jan 8, 2015 20:45
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B and then Arka's plan.Arkanomen posted:E
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Jan 8, 2015 21:07
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Grognan posted:B and then Arka's plan. This
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Jan 8, 2015 23:01
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ZAP IT WITH LIGHTNING! Then burn it with fire. Edit: Can we overload Dana from here?
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Jan 8, 2015 23:52
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E The Sacred Chants of the Omnissiah will bolster their spirits and cow our foes! Emit 10,000 repetitions of our favorite binary hymn over the next ten seconds. Maximum volume. Then burn the enemy with holy fire.
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Jan 9, 2015 00:02
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"THAT WHICH IS NOT HUMAN IS LESS THAN US! STAND FAST AND BURN THE BEASTS SO THAT WE MAY RISE ABOVE! FOR THE OMNISSIAH, FOR THE EMPEROR!"
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Jan 9, 2015 00:10
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So it seems to me that Mother has a deal with Spider Brain and periodically sends the most inquisitive (ie dangerous) members of her flock up to get eaten. We're a danger so she sent us to get eaten likewise. Probably the reason the heretics are freaking out is either because Mother's twisted them to be vulnerable to Spider Brain's psychic attacks, or she' loving with them herself to make them easy meat. So I propose the following: Plan my dad (Yell then shoot...with fire) BUT if that seems to be going south, D GTFO with a Grab Tanya First as part of the escape plan
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Jan 9, 2015 01:03
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Psykers man. Can't live with 'em, can't traverse the Warp without 'em.
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Jan 9, 2015 01:10
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Hah, the ancient and sacred rites of Turing and Voight-Kampff. Good stuff.
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Jan 9, 2015 01:41
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Plan My Dad then Plan Ark Burn it with
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Jan 9, 2015 02:38
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So, before we go with plan : Gameplay wise, will executing a member of our platoon let us attempt to rally? I don't want to just shoot someone for no particular reason.
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Jan 9, 2015 02:54
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Volmarias posted:So, before we go with plan They should be more afraid of us, then they are of the monster(s).
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Jan 9, 2015 03:24
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Let's do it up B then A style time to multiclass! 
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Jan 9, 2015 04:06
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my dad posted:We have a vox enhancer unit or something like that, right? I do believe a loud "IN THE NAME OF THE GOD-EMPEROR OF MAN, YOU WILL STAND YOUR GROUND!" followed by A should be our best bet. It's a nice mix of action, invoking religious zeal, and intimidation. I'm not that familiar with 40K lore but can a Tech-Priest beseech the God-Emperor in time in need or will the Adeptus_Mechanicus punish the Tech-Priest if he didn't pay homage to the Omnissiah?
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Jan 9, 2015 04:48
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AmyL posted:I'm not that familiar with 40K lore but can a Tech-Priest beseech the God-Emperor in time in need or will the Adeptus_Mechanicus punish the Tech-Priest if he didn't pay homage to the Omnissiah? I've been using either, depending on the audience. It's the same entity, just in different aspects. jng2058 posted:Mother has a deal with Spider Brain New band name spotted. Mother and the Brain Spider. Loel fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Jan 9, 2015 |
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Jan 9, 2015 05:01
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LowellDND posted:New band name spotted. Mother and the Brain Spider. haha, nice. It's like "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from--" ...wait. ARE THESE THE SPIDERS FROM MARS?!
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Jan 9, 2015 05:16
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mepstein73 posted:haha, nice. It's like "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from--" Well they didn't sing back to us in binary and use such filthy things as neural tissue for information transfer instead of good old bio-wire so I'm going to say no.
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Jan 9, 2015 05:19
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mepstein73 posted:...wait. ARE THESE THE SPIDERS FROM MARS?! Ohone played the dregs, with help from Dana and Tanya, Against Golgatha's Spiders. She played close to hand, but made it too far, Became the Tech-Priest Hand, And Omnissiah's Man. Ohone really sang, screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo Like some cat from the Traal, she could flame 'em by serv'tors She could leave 'em to hang Skulls came on so loaded man, well armed and filled with flames. So where were Brain Spiders while they tried to flay our guards? Just the pod lights to guide us. So we bitched about the dregs and should we crush their sweet heads? Ohone gamed for time, hoping that they were Heretek Tanya was just crass, She was the naz With God given sass She took it all too far But boy could she duel wield pistols. Making love with her ego Ohone sucked up into her mind
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Jan 9, 2015 05:41
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Just saying, LowelDnd hes the best grasp for an awesomely shlockly, hammy, amazing take on 40k
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Jan 9, 2015 07:20
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Thank you Grognan! and Hiho, thats an awesome rendition My, this is a meaty plan. Lets see what we can do… I want to believe You felt an ocean of rage spasm through you. How dare these meat sacks rebel against you? To live was to obey, and these ingrates had forgotten that most sacred truth. You leveled your hellgun, fired. One of the rebels fell to the ground, chest smoking, internal organs cooked. Your augmented voice rose above their pitiful babble. “In the name of the God-Emperor, stand your ground!” They quailed before your righteous anger, their fear of you overcoming their fear of the xeno. “You will obey! You will serve the Omnissiah!” Your voice rose to a shriek. “Get on those guns and began firing!” Slowly at first, then with alacrity, they returned to the rope balcony, began pulling triggers in the general direction of up. They weren’t particularly accurate, with nothing to aim at and with shaking hands, but they were obeying. Interspersed with the autorifle fire, grenades were being launched with that poomf sound that was so ubiquitous to them. You had organized them into firing a Mechanicus Cocktail - flashbangs, frags, and smoke grenades. It was designed to be a disorientation before destruction, smoke and noise and light attacking the senses before the fragmentation attacked the body. It had served the Imperium for thousands of years, and you saw no reason to change doctrine. Sadly, they could only fire one grenade before needing to reload. Fruitlessly, you wished you had found six shooters somewhere along the way. That would have allowed you to use the cocktails at the cyclic rate, which would have let you begin the next phase of the attack. It was unfortunate thing that such weapons were left to the higher quality troops, and you hadn’t had the opportunity to acquire them yet. Less than half of your retinue had made it to the ropes, so you went amongst them with kicks and slaps. You were smaller than most of them, but your anger and the smoking example of failure got them back into the line. Their accuracy was continuing to be trash - some of them were even firing straight across the gap - but right now you just wanted that hideous darkness suppressed. It would have trouble coming closer with the belts of ammo that were being sent at it. Grabbing your riding servitor, you screamed at it to begin the hymns of the Omnissiah. The sacred binary erupted in an ear shattering dirge, the oldest song known. It was randomly broken by the sound of detonations in close spaces and close proximity, and you could only feel that the Omnissiah would be pleased by such a demonstration of His Will. Even now, you could begin to see spider organs and broken rubble falling from above. Coming out of the thick darkness, highlighted by flashing smoke and the detonating shrapnel, an army of spiders. They came down on draglines, maws cackling madly, or swarmed down the walls, clinging to the uneven terrain as if born to it. Revulsion pressed against your mind, the sheer hideousness of what lie before you threatening to overwhelm you, and your troops began to shudder, their rate of fire slowing. Drawing on your faith and the righteousness of your cause, you attempted to rally them. “That which is not human is less than us! Stand fast and burn the beasts so that we may rise above! For the Omnissiah, for the God-Emperor!” The effect was sporadic, some troops firing, some only staring slack-jawed at what was coming. You leapt among them, hand glowing as it fired hellbolts at the monsters. “Shoot, you worthless bastards!” That helped. The fire picked up again, and the spiders seemed to falter. At the corner of your eye, you could see that Matthias and Tanya had held it together most. They, too, were pale and shaking, but their guns hadn’t ceased yet. While you weren’t looking, Mathais had managed to get Dana to come back, and she was drilling ropes below the platform. Amidst the smoke and bright lights, you could see spiders attempt to stop Dana, who simply used her pneumatic drill on their hideous form. They shrieked horribly, and fell into the depths. Tanya began ascending the ropes, dual pistols firing with impressive accuracy. She had twisted the rope around her legs, and was more springing then climbing. Her body coiled and launched a meter at a time, guns firing and reloading all the while. Nearby, Matthais had a death grip on his rope, spraying wildly with his autorifle. He was spinning erratically, rope twisting, but the staccato fire did not cease. Following their lead, some of the braver troops, the first ones to get to the ropes, followed. They lacked the skill of Tanya, instead climbing slowly and with care, but they kept a hand free to fire at the darkness. Grenades continued to detonate in the smoke above, the noise simply reducing to a simple ringing in your ears, and you could see more spider parts and debris fall. Your troops ducked their heads as they did so, cuts expanding on their face and shoulders. There was a fireteam still curled up and crying on the floor, but you couldn’t wait any longer. You mounted your riding servitor and leapt into the column, your servitor’s clamps grabbing onto the gear teeth and working its way upwards. You could barely hear the shriek of binary anymore, even though your teeth was vibrating with it, and you palm mounted hellgun was shooting as fast as it could cycle. The waves of spiders seemed endless. It felt like hours, but you could tell that you were pushing them back. The office floor seemed forever behind you. The explosions above had began shredding ropes, and some of them were cut entirely. The soldiers on those lines fell into the depths, and you couldn’t take the time to feel regret. You needed to destroy this monster, more than anything you had ever needed anything in your life. Waves of revulsion, of hate, of betrayal pushed against you, and you focused it all on the beast above. Even Tanya’s rope was cut at some point, and she had leapt catlike into the rubble scarring that now framed the elevator. She was climbing with ease, and you felt a moment of vestigial horror at seeing the similarities between her and the spiders that were coming to attack her. Her large handguns cut down them down like they were nothing, and she continued to press the attack, not noticing your suspicious eyes on her. You could smell burning, the platform within sight above you. It was an unholy fog of miasma and death here, the explosions having ceased. The smoke cloud, however, had little where to go, and your throat itched unpleasantly. You could see the neuron webs burning feebly under your assault, and the silence that had followed was almost deafening. Your troops, the remainder that had made it, shuffled exhaustedly onto the new passageway, neural webbing outlining their weary faces. Turning, you could see the platform itself shrouded in the thickest darkness. Your retinue was having trouble holding their weapons, and some were dry heaving - liquid vomits had happened on the ascent earlier, the detritus falling far below. Their inability to aim their weapons probably wasn’t going to be matter, really. You knew at a glance that you were almost out of ammo and grenades. How do you press the attack? A. You are low on ammo. Fix bayonets, and charge into the elevator platform. B. Do that, but fire all your remaining grenades first. C. Save your ammo and your troops, attempt to disrupt the neural net with mal-frequencies and voltages. D. Waste not want not. Hack the neural net and bring home a spider boss. E. Something else I really wanted to make an Ender’s Game joke here, but I just couldn’t make it work. The cocktail recipe is an unofficial thing I learned in the USMC infantry, and it’s always appealed to me. I’m modeling the grenade launchers as the M79s, and Ohone wishes she had some Milkor MGLs. Your small arms, of course, are the AK series. I really tried to make a thermobaric fuel air explosive happen in the elevator column, but you simply didn’t have the resources. So I went with piles of grenades. Loel fucked around with this message at 00:11 on May 17, 2016 |
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Jan 9, 2015 15:35
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C. Save your ammo and your troops, attempt to disrupt the neural net with mal-frequencies and voltages. Save the holy fires for the big finale. Ride the Lightning to lure the big bad out
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Jan 9, 2015 16:04
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C+D, see if we can make this thing convulse, then save some samples for later.
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Jan 9, 2015 16:06
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C or D, C or D.....nah, we're radical but we're not THAT radical. Kill the fucker.
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Jan 9, 2015 16:09
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D
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Jan 9, 2015 16:18
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| # ? May 14, 2024 14:25 |
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C Ride the lightning
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Jan 9, 2015 16:25
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