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Tips hat. edit: what a page snipe 
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Jun 2, 2021 23:15
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:46 |
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Back in Black “Yes, well, let’s not rush into those. The last one was traumatizing enough.” Your tone was brisk. Anna’s voice echoed through your mind brightly. ”And this time you have the daemon prince on your side!” Oh good. Actually … ”Anna, have you snuck in there before?” “Those aelfworlds? Not that I recall. I usually just brute forced it. Huron’s forces, the fallen Magi that Oneoh has collected, mercenaries and refugees and whoever was still alive. By the time the galaxy was ready to hit the last stable place left, well. Everyone was desperate.” Memories flickered through your mind, the nearly infinite dead when the Empress’ light went out. The fraction of survivors, using daemon engines and xenotek and forbidden lore, any trick they could dig up or steal, all to get to Janissary space, and consistent faster-than light. The tens of thousands of Nephilim waiting, with bright eyes and brighter guns. ”Surprised you survived that.” “Most of them didn’t. But the Beast did, and some others, and we made it to the capital.” Her voice turned amused. ”Why it never occurred to me to just try sneaking in, I don’t know. I guess when I looked at the untouched prepared elite armies of the Consul, I wouldn’t even consider it.” “Well, I’m considering it.” You paused. “Are you being sarcastic with me?” “Not even I’m sure.” “Well, good.” The others were waiting patiently at your long silence, and you shook yourself. “Sorry. I want to get some surveillance first. Figure out local forces near the aelfworlds, strategies, technologies. Maybe see which one we want to hit first.” Camarilla nodded. “We do have a number of infiltrator units we can use…” “No, I want to go myself.” Huron shook his head even as Camarilla was speaking. “Oneoh, this is a very bad idea. You are irreplaceable…” Huron snorted. “And let’s be honest, terrible at this. Flipping the table, yes. Sneaking out and dodging your bar tab, no. Play to your strengths.” You smiled toothily. “What is Consul seeing, right now?” Fabiyan cocked his head. “A vast fleet on his border unseen in millenia. An alliance of Imperial and Fallen forces.” “And he’s just struck wildly at our supply lines. So we’re most likely going to counter attack in force, blow for blow.” “Yes.” “So we won’t do that. Hold the forces here. I go in, scout things out.” Camarilla pursed her lips. “With respect, you don't even know what you are looking for. You have no training as a spy. Let me go with you.” You considered it, shook your head. “No. We’d spend the entire time stepping on each others’ toes, having never trained or worked together.” Fabiyan was staring at you. “You can’t be planning to solo this.” “No, I’ll take you.” He narrowed his eyes. “I … don’t like this. Aelfworlds and the two of us, they haven’t mixed well. Let me take Centurion, we are military. Can blend in.” You raised your eyebrows. “And none of the ancient Nephilim on these worlds will recognize one of the most famous soldiers in the universe, who they may personally have fought beside?” He flipped it around on you. “And they won’t recognize you?” “I can change bodies and faces like clothes. After a couple hours in my labs, even you wouldn’t recognize me.” He grunted sourly, and you turned to look at Limosa. “You’ve been oddly quiet this whole time.” “A chance to take over after you die? Why speak up?” “Seriously.” He mulled it over. “It’s not … your worst plan.” “How encouraging.” He ignored it. “We could have you in a tramp freighter, falling out of the aether. Get some body sculpting done. Have the Olympus in vicinity for when it goes to hell. It’s not a terrible plan.” “What would you do?” Limosa shrugged. “Call it a day? We own half the galaxy, he’s not going anywhere. We’ve won already. Why double down?” “That’s why you didn’t become Lord-Sire, you know. Unwillingness to go all-in.” He sighed. “I’ll talk with Elenora, start hashing together a freighter for you. And I’m sure Ms. Skade will want to help you with your clothes.”
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Jun 3, 2021 16:32
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Never let an opportunity be wasted. If were going flesh shaping maybe we can pack in some interesting bio-weapons in our new flesh. Just your standard nantie swarms or self replicating face melter pathogens. 100% expect we will be captured. Welcome back Loel!
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Jun 3, 2021 21:02
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Loel posted:You smiled toothily. “What is Consul seeing, right now?” The instant Consul notices that we're not launching a counterstrike, he'll realize something's up and start searching for our plan. That means that we need to show Consul exactly what he's expecting and launch an attack anyway, even though it'll be doomed. Huron's really good at this: let him plan out a reasonable reprisal attack that'll take the focus off of us. The Janisseries probably have our number at this point, so we'll probably need to have someone impersonate Ohone in the Eschatologist leading the attack. Make it big, messy, and convincing. Chaos option: attack the same place we're infiltrating, 30 seconds after we land. Not only will it turn the whole place into a chaotic mess (which plays to our strengths), it'll also be a great warmup to get the thread back into shape for our real modus operandi: nuking ourselves in the face over and over.
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Jun 4, 2021 03:04
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Ya I thought the plan was to infiltrate one place and reprisal attack/ guerilla hit and run attack somewhere else
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Jun 4, 2021 03:32
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Here's hoping for a return of mechadendrite theater.
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Jun 4, 2021 05:43
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Shades and fragments You looked at yourself in the mirror critically, lips pursed. “I don’t know.” Anna and Oneoh both echoed surprise. “The winged look is excellent right now. I’ve used it to pacify a thousand worlds.” Anna nodded. ”Agreed. I think the filaments of light are the wrong way to go, we should use raven feathers, but wings are the starting point.” “You do remember that we are going to an orthodox world where they don’t like mutants, right?” Anna shrugged. They don't like Daemon Princes either. Or … whatever Oneoh is. Grandiose toasters.” ”Better a toaster than a bird. You still have your organic hangups, I’m far closer to the ideal of an Ohone.” A snort. “I’ve seen a million iterations, and sorcery turns up far more than you’d think.” ”A million failures, maybe. The moment we focused on bringing back the Mars Technocracy, we started conquering everything.” ”Mm. Wait till that blade turns in your hand, it always does.” You made a face. “Focus, please. Skade is already digging through all the closets of every woman in the fleet. That will not hold her long, we need to decide what body we're using.” A gesture. Your form burst into its component parts, hundreds of bones and dozens of organs, held floating in the air by your will, for all the world a dissection manual. Oneoh spoke first. ”The bones are a Seraph polyalloy, nanoforged. Extremely difficult to craft, even the old Technocracy only used it for speciality projects. Resistance and strength.” Magenta and golden fire flared up and down the metal, leaving deep scribbles. Anna’s work. ”Sorceries from before the elves. Resilience and strength, and not oathsworn to the Fallen Gods. There were xeno sorcerors, before humanity walked the savannahs.” Here and there, scrolls of ancient writ were bound over them. “Articles of Faith, from the moon of Titan. Perseverance and strength.” Anna’s eyes gleamed, looking at them, but said nothing. Nestled among the bones, synthetic organs of the finest craftsmanship. You had operated with synthetics for decades, but Oneoh had brought a whole other level to the game. The finesse with which the organs could be designed - from the cell up, choosing which lab grown chemicals would operate and how - was simply unimaginable. Her voice was low murmur, highlighting each part, and how they were optimized for command and war. Weaving through the fibers, Anna’s magick. Caressing and dancing like smoke, it meshed and overlapped with the artificial designs, flaring here in and there with blessings of speed, of tension, of a jittery excitement that acted beyond and below the merely human. You could think faster than nearly any Machine you’d ever designed, and move as fast as a thought. Floating above them, layers of muscle, reforged and rebuilt at the nanomolecular level, customized in Technocracy labs, subjected to chromosomal and retroviral improvements. Buried wings and claws and mechadendrites, tucked away as needed. Skin as tough as armor, but sensitive to the touch, wreathed the entire design like some strange flower. Swirling through and above them, in dozens of colliding circles, thousands of runes igniting through the air, of Faith and prehumanity, of Psicence and Magick. As far above the Nephilim above the merely human, so you too were above the Nephilim. Skade stopped short the moment she came in, seeing your component parts scattered across the room. “.... Is this a bad time?”
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Jun 5, 2021 06:00
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A man has a boat. That boat sails into a nuke and the hull has to be replaced. Then the man dies so the boat has to go back in time to replace the man. This goes on and until one day, as the boat man is replacing its rudder with a pair of lungs, the boat-man stops. It looks at its hands made from timber and flexes an anchor line of sinew and thinks to its self... "I could really do with a nice dress. Maybe something in crimson."
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Jun 5, 2021 08:55
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But what about the LEGS ohone always keeps her legs in mind for Fabs
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Jun 5, 2021 11:40
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Toughy posted:But what about the LEGS ohone always keeps her legs in mind for Fabs I actually had a line for that in the original draft lol. Anna was doing spells, Oneoh did cyborg stuff, and they ask us what we were bringing to the table. And we said legs for Fabiyan. I edited in the Grey Knight stuff and lost that bit of banter, Ill mention the legs again somewhere later. Witch and the Wardrobe Quick as a thought, your body reassembled, your voice speaking even as the component parts met. “No, now is fine. What do you have for me?” She didn’t miss more than a beat. “Well, we weren’t sure what size to go with…” ”Three meters tall. With wings.” Could have been Anna or Oneoh both, that comment. You pushed it down. “I was thinking a lie somewhat close to the truth. Voidborn, Dynastic Trader of some sort. Like one of the smaller Families we used to deal with. You know the type?” “Sure, no problem.” Behind her, a dozen servitors carrying twice their weight in dresses filed in. “That lets us play with our budget a little bit, I’m thinking down on our luck. Old successes, nothing in this lifetime. And falling out of the aether … From how long ago? We could do something retro, something from a millenia or two ago.” You considered it, shook your head. “We’d need more research to pull it off successfully. A few decades, maybe a century at most. Not a lot of cultural drift in that time.” Skade nodded. “And a bit of lag for past successes … Let’s go with Octus Brake. Excellent designer from one of the capital worlds. One of his Reds, I think. ” She ghosted a smile. “My family sponsored him, back when he started. We always had an eye for talent.” “Never heard of him.” “You always were a plebian.” “Do these outfits have concealed weapons? Shield generators?” She made a face. “Boss, these are art. Materials from species and worlds that don’t exist anymore. Cuts using higher mathematics that only mad psyker magi could understand.” “So no guns?” She pursed her lips. “These are for a Lady. Think jewelry and garter belts.” You considered the wedding ring Fabiyan gave you, still on your finger - carrying a one shot directional bomb that could bore a tank. “I can work with that.” “Good, because interrupting the lines of this dress is blasphemy on a hundred worlds.” “Really?” “Sure.” Elements of the dress were held, stretched, posed. Skade hemmed and hummed as she worked, long pins and needles clipping this and that. You grimaced uncomfortably, you had no practice with some of these poses and Skade insisted on precision. After an interminable time, Skade stepped back and smiled. “Perfect.” You looked at the mirror. “This looks exactly like when we started.” “Trust me, it doesn’t. There’s a lot of elements going on.” She gave you one more once-over. “Let’s talk accessories.” You nodded. “I’m thinking shield generator necklace. And some weapons in the bracelets.”
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Jun 5, 2021 18:57
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 Oh how I've missed this. Prometheus Cycle: time loops, nukes, and heresy, tastefully knit together with a hint of high fashion.
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Jun 5, 2021 19:40
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Go back a bit. Intra-molecular force field generating lattice inside the bones, coating the interior structure among whatever we replaced the marrow with to provide a quantum link to thermal power generators which we drop into local stars to provide energy generation. Can be used to form a protective shield, molecule-cutting force blades, and extend further into neutron monofilaments with ranges measuring into kilometers. The field can generate and absorb heat energy to provide a wider range of defensive and offensive options. Think advanced biononics from Hamilon's Commonwealth books. But you know. Ohone-ized.
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Jun 5, 2021 20:22
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One way Acheronic Emergency Recall Beacon. Boosted with witchery to prevent... "shenanigans" Preferably strapless.
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Jun 5, 2021 21:18
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Blasphemaster posted:Go back a bit. Intra-molecular force field generating lattice inside the bones, coating the interior structure among whatever we replaced the marrow with to provide a quantum link to thermal power generators which we drop into local stars to provide energy generation. Can be used to form a protective shield, molecule-cutting force blades, and extend further into neutron monofilaments with ranges measuring into kilometers. The field can generate and absorb heat energy to provide a wider range of defensive and offensive options. Funny you should mention stuff along those lines. While I've never read those books, the Seraph Pattern bodyframe mechanics we got from Oneoh who had just got those from her transformation into an Erinyes are very similar, there's the 5 dimensional cortical stack backup, full synth/biological nanoforges in every bone (polyalloy bone at that, allowing for shapeshifting), and the Technocracy's scientific response to psionics: effector field technology that lets her create anything from force fields and force blades to the pressure wave generated by explosives, along with all the other fun poo poo you can do with that kind of thing. There are also pheromone generators and electromagnetic wave manipulation for controlling the emotions of others. Erinyes, as well as being capable of the kind of feats you'd expect from a combat psyker, are also the ones who come in after the invasion's done and sway the hearts and minds of the populace, letting them do things like publicly torture and kill particularly egregious governors, custodes captains and the like. There's a post of mine way back where I started showing the spread of the Athenian Technocracy that has just such a spectacle, which they call Iudicium. This is all knowledge available to Ohone, but she's been keeping Oneoh's advisors like Iosef and Ataraxia at arm's length. The latter could show Ohone all kinds of stuff she probably doesn't even know that she's capable of yet. edit: Oh yeah checking my notes I forgot to mention the teleport node, and the other stuff the Erinyes program inherited from the Perfecti program; hyperblade generators, the spontaneous weapon generation, quantum level communications hyperlink, and the omnisensor suite. The only pattern that's better is the Anunnaki one that Sebekh and the other members of the Consensus have, and that one includes gridfire generators, a quantum-entangled noetic field array and generators for the hyperreality fields that you saw in the stuff where they were experimenting on warp entities and the one where Sebekh fought off a squad of Cruac. This isn't really  spoilers , as it's mostly all stuff that's been shown on screen, and the rest's there in Ohone's tripartite consciousness.Arkanomen posted:One way Acheronic Emergency Recall Beacon. Boosted with witchery to prevent... "shenanigans" Hexenritter posted:the teleport node Hexenritter fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Jun 6, 2021 22:47
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Project Runway The dress was making it difficult to walk. You had worn extensive body armors most of your life, strength augments and servomotors whirring and clicking as they lifted half-ton drills and power tools. When you had become Lord-Sire, you inherited power armor that weighed tons, with weapons that were more commonly seen on helicopter gunships. This new outfit, though, required precise movements you only barely remembered from your diplomatic training. And the Magi weren’t really … good, at it. As a rule. It was generations of amateurs teaching amateurs, and no base-line human to explain clothes didn’t work that way. Even the most diplomatic Magi wore clothes like they were hanging off an exercise machine. Whatever changes Skade had done were forcing your actions, though. It was tight here and loose there, and your hips and calves and shoulders were manipulated into a certain flow you didn’t recognize or understand at all. It was the only way to move without tearing the fabric, though, and you absolutely did not want to sit through another fitting. Or stand, as it were. No, the main problem was that Oneoh and Anna were still arguing. ”Please. We’ve got five dimensional cortical stack backups, we’ve got molecular force fields, we’ve got lattice generation and effector field recall beacons. Not only does everything you do waste time, but it’s redundant. It’s clumsy nonsense designed for and by primitives. While you are still chanting to heathen gods, my nanomachines have already solved the problem.” Anna’s reply was amused, an elder discussing a child. ”Your little toys presume natural laws hold. They may have worked in your shallow end of the pool, but Ohone and I know things operate at deeper levels. When a million elf souls are churning around you, while a demon prince of Lilith is devouring them for power, machines don’t work. And then it’s down to Faith, and Will.” Oneoh snorted. “Faith is for people who couldn’t pass math class. Our models already include cross dimensional variant laws. We have seen all your worlds and half worlds, and found them wanting. Some of our scientists have looked into your sorceries, and they were utterly useless compared to better areas of research.” Her laugh was harsh, mocking. ”Machines imagining worlds. How naive, of course they only model things they can imagine. It’s like asking a child to speak a completely new language - which makes sense, given you are only two or three decades old. When you understand that the machines can’t model things outside their narrow range, when you learn to consult the daemons who were present at the start of the universe - well, at that point you might have learned to crawl.” You rubbed your temples, tried to tune them out. They really were not stopping. Limosa looked at you sympathetically. “Still going?” You blinked, tried to composure. “How long have you been there?” “Long enough. They do like to talk, don’t they.” You paused, nodded. “Ah. Telepath.” “One of the best.” You turned inward, voice a snarl. ”You may not care if I hear you, but maybe you should care if outsiders can!” A moment of surprise, then blessed silence. Thank the Empress for small favors. Limosa smiled faintly. “Anyway. What do you want?” He held up a folder. “We’ve gotten the basic design down for your tramp freighter. Similar to any of a million still flying through the galaxy.” He paused. “Well, I presume. Anyway, it’s a very common design. We understand the plan to be the same, you drop in with your freighter with Fabiyan. I figure I can be on the Olympus in short jump range for evac, but I thought you might want some redundancies as well. A) Keep the freighter base line with no changes. B) Upgrade sublight and FTL engines with Technocracy units C) Imperial Autocannons with plate covers D) Augmented computer with gridfire targeting program Any one of those we can do and still keep it looking within the baseline, but the more we add the more obvious it will be.” Huron leaned in as well. “We had some proposals as well.” You twitched in surprise despite yourself. “When did you get here?” “Came in with Limosa. And Centurion, and Blackfinger.” They waved. You winced. That level of inattention could get you killed. “I must be really out of it.” Blackfinger smiled wolfishly. “That dress is taking a lot of thought, I expect. Looks good.” “Thanks. So what proposals?” Centurion coughed. “Going in alone is a bad idea.” “I have Fabiyan.” “Yes, but … just two people on a scouting mission? We should take advantage of this.” You shook your head. “Of what? They are expecting us to retaliate.” “Of course they are. But the predictable move is predictable for a reason. It requires a response. We can see their tactics and methods by how they react, make better plans from there.” “What were you thinking?” “Drop the Eschatologist on the planetary capital. No one has seen a weapon like that in ten thousand years, they’ll pull out all the stops.” Huron raised his hand. “My forces are on the border, awaiting a decade of plunder and conquest. I promised them wealth beyond anything seen in lifetimes. We need to use them or lose them. Set them loose on a dozen outlying worlds, we’ll get just as much information without showing one of our trump cards.” Blackfinger nodded. “I am thinking similar, but let’s play to our strengths.” “What would that be?” He grinned. “Complete and utter chaos. Start your stealth mission, sure, but a few hours in I’ll pop out with a few million troops, a few dozen nukes. We don't need to scout, just drop on the biggest cities and figure it out from there. Kick the anthill right over, let’s see what bugs are hiding.” What plan do you want to do? Loel fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jun 7, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 22:01
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 Oh man, each of those options sounds good. Spoiled for choice really, the Eschatologist landing in the capital would be such a complete and utter "what the poo poo" moment for the locals, and the other two both seem like they'd dovetail perfectly with one another, a feint with one hand and a stab with the other.
Hexenritter fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jun 7, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 22:27
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No upgrades, we ARE the upgrade Plan Huron and Black finger, time it so Huron is first and Black finger follows us a day not hours. Toughy fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Jun 8, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 22:30
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Plan Huron. Also, holy wow I've missed this. I hadn't even read the stuff from 2019. Excited for a more small scale diplomatic/espionage event, ideally with a gala or race involved.
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Jun 8, 2021 01:31
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Absolutely Plan Blackfinger. It's been far too long since we've nuked ourselves, let's get some practice in.
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Jun 8, 2021 02:16
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A. Por que no los tres?
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Jun 8, 2021 07:13
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Blackfinger and C Gunboat diplomacy with a mess on the doorstep to cover our retreat. Don't show them anything fancy yet.
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Jun 8, 2021 20:38
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So far we have:quote:Ship refits: quote:Invasion Plans Im not scheduled tomorrow, so Ill see how the votes go then 
Loel fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Jun 8, 2021 |
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Jun 8, 2021 22:09
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Oh, woops, I forgot to vote for gridfire. Gridfire. Obviously. There is no kill like overkill.
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Jun 8, 2021 23:13
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Anyone want to tie-break how we upgrade our freighter?
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Jun 9, 2021 22:51
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Keep the freighter as is
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Jun 9, 2021 23:59
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C+Huron
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Jun 10, 2021 20:14
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I was gonna say, and not that it helps the tie-breaker. B) Upgrade sublight and FTL engines with Technocracy units Invasion Plans - All of the above....
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Jun 16, 2021 18:33
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Plan Huron, baseline ship.
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Aug 11, 2021 04:56
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