|
A.
|
#
?
May 3, 2018 01:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 21:23 |
|
|
A Let's blow poo poo up.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2018 04:38
|
|
|
Joining the A train.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2018 09:17
|
|
|
Geyser Plateau, T-minus 2:09 “Grenades south!”A rolling volley of grenades arc through the air, creating a hell-zone of flying shrapnel, napalm, and flashing lights. It breaks the LAs’ charge, and forces the survivors towards the main horde. The firing line and mortar continue to do their work, and there are no more surprises. Fire slows down, then stops as the last of the wild Nephilim horrors go down. You stay tense for another moment or two, but there are no further ambushes or sounds from the complex. “Well done ladies. Give me the count and then we’ll move in.”The ammo count isn’t good. In addition to having just a few smoke grenades, everyone is down to their last reload. Hopefully you won’t have any further large-scale firefights before you can resupply. Cody gives Curly a once-over and grunts.  “Well his battery is hosed-” “Language.” “-but its a basic model. A few minutes to replace it and straighten out the body panel and he should be good to go. Actually, Kruze. Would these spines be poisoned?” “Venomed. And most likely, let me check.”Kruze calmly pulls one of the spikes out of Curly’s chest and tastes it. “Ah yes. A mixture of anticoagulant and vasodilator compounds. As long as you are not cut by them it should be fine.” “Good to know, but let’s take this inside ladies. Its a bit too exposed out here for my tastes.”The outer areas of the facility are just as hot and humid as the plateau, with the added discomfort of generations of Nephilim waste. But as you proceed deeper, the LA spoor decreases along with the temperature. Hydra’s suit begins to hiss, releasing the stored-up heat. Following Cody’s directions for a few more minutes, you stand in front of the massive sealed door that Larry-2 found earlier. As you approach, your monitoring subsystems warns you that you’re being scanned lightly. Several ancient holo-emitters attempt to power up, but they spark and die. A small section of the door turns dark, and characters scroll across it.  “What’s it say Cap ya?” “I… have no idea.” “What? Why wouldn’t you know Human?” “I recognize it, Español was one of the Diasporic languages. But I’m not that old, and the Archons scrambled my language center. I have vague memories of something called Neo-Col, but it used a different character set. But let me try something…”There are no signals being transmitted actively, but when you broadcast a Palantor recognition code a channel opens up. The system is heavily scrambled, but it accepts the data packet and processes it. The text on the door-screen begins to rewrite itself, displaying Corp. “Excellent, it still recognizes bin-code. Small favors.”Emergency Monitor System posted:-Mechanotron Remote Presence System detected: Welcome Guest User “... I think I liked it better when we didn’t know what it was saying.”Several small windows open up under the text screen, displaying flickering video. A large chamber filled with piping and mechanisms, choked with vines and other vegetation. A pictograph overlays the video, displaying how a large chunk of the mechanism could be disconnected. A series of emitters start to power up leading down a side hallway. They too fail, but the scorch-marks showing the path anyways. “It looks like we need to manually disconnect the generator system to keep it from overloading and New Faithful spouting. Shouldn’t be too har- oh. Its over 50 degrees in there. That’s a problem.”===== You’ve defeated the LAs, but the Human facility is in rough shape. Decision: Dealing With the Overload A very large mechanism in a very warm room needs to be cut free of vines and moved A: Send In Hydra She's definitely strong enough, but her suit may not be able to deal with the heat. B: Go In Yourself You’re almost as strong as Hydra, and you don’t have organs to overheat C: Try And get The Mechanotrons Working The facility has drones of its own, but you’d have to hack in past the busted controller D: Other Tell me your cunning plan. PoultryGeist fucked around with this message at 04:11 on May 5, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 4, 2018 23:46
|
|
|
PG says hacking odds are ~70%, so C
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 00:31
|
|
|
Hexenritter posted:PG says hacking odds are ~70%, so C Can't argue with those odds
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 00:41
|
|
|
B
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 00:53
|
|
|
poo poo, would be great to have that environmental upgrade for Granny's suit about now. Although on the other hand without the mortar we'd probably all be LA chow. B, we don't care about such petty things as fragile meatbag environmental tolerances and should be able to do the job fine. I don't want to gently caress around with hacking Human installations in case any security takes issue with a failure, just go in and cut it away ourselves then fix the place up slow and careful once we're no longer in imminent danger.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 01:23
|
|
|
Crazycryodude posted:poo poo, would be great to have that environmental upgrade for Granny's suit about now. Although on the other hand without the mortar we'd probably all be LA chow.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 01:34
|
|
|
B Risky but worth it.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 02:29
|
|
|
Crazycryodude posted:poo poo, would be great to have that environmental upgrade for Granny's suit about now. Although on the other hand without the mortar we'd probably all be LA chow. +1
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 03:56
|
|
|
B gently caress it we'll do it live.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 04:51
|
|
|
It you want something to get done, ya gotta do it yourself. B
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 09:46
|
|
|
Be a hero.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2018 20:58
|
|
|
Human Facility, Geyser Plateau T-minus 1:49 You and Hydra look through the observation window into the ‘Disconnect Chamber’, heat mirages making the scene shimmer. Hydra sighs, her discomfort mostly hidden behind her military demeanor. “This should be me sir. Its why I’m here."You shake your head and pat the arm of her suit comfortingly. “No its not. You’re here to shoot people that annoy me Trooper Aurelius, not to get your internal organs boiled in situ. This shell is built to rather extreme specs, I should be able to withstand the overload without much issue.”You unwrap the draped fabric that conceals the more… robotic parts of your shell and hand them to Hydra. “Not that I plan to put that to the test, I should be able to get this done with time to spare. But. If I’m not done by the time there’s 50 minutes left on the clock, I want you to evac to The Jenni just in case. Now Cody and Kruze know the score. But Jadzi will most likely try and do something foolish and heroic that would require staying behind. You will pick her up and carry her to the ship. Understood?”Hydra simply salutes, which you return with Legion precision. With a simulated sigh, you activate the door. You don’t really feel the heat, but it does send your environmental sensors into alarm. Its still well below your tolerances, but as you cross the catwalk towards the disconnect you can see the pooled water below you already beginning to bubble. You start out slowly on the vines, careful of the mechanisms. But when you slip and see that the machete’s arcfire doesn’t even score the paint, you speed up. It becomes almost enjoyable, pushing your shell’s speed and strength to levels you don’t dare use around the organics. There’s still over an hour left on the countdown when you’re looking at the bare mechanism, its lines reminding you of an enormous…. knife switch something from your forgotten past. You spot the rubberized section at the leverage point, emblazoned with what could be instructions or dire warnings. Not much to be done, you situate yourself under it and push. And push more. You hit your shell’s limiters, and authorize a 15% increase beyond them. Your limbs start to shake, the actuators feeding back into your joints. The indicators are a hairsbreadth from redlining when you hear the groaning of metal, not coming from you. There is a few short shrieks as the lever above you begins to jerk into motion. With a grunt of satisfaction you shift your grip slightly, and the mechanism swings free. Too late, your sensors register the building EM field as the disconnect is freed. The lever swings out of the field’s range, which means you’re the path of least resistance now. The electricity arcs into you, instantly overloading your insulators and sending your systems into overload. You feel it across ever square centimeter of your surface: pain? Pain. PAIN ***** Mechanoid 274 (1): The Oubliette Pain. Its the only constant in your life, along with the darkness. You could remember so few things now. Your mansion of crystal and starlight among the towers of Aeternum. The blonde woman holding you tight, desperately trying to keep the screaming vortex from dragging you away into the darkness. At least the children were safe. You could no longer remember their names or faces, but the three of you huddled together against the dark, and you whispered comforting lies to them. They were your anchor, the bedrock you clung to as the pain and darkness ate away at you.  “Odd. This AI seems to be particularly resistant to reprogramming. May I set it aside for study?” “Negative. Word has come that the Twilinger have abandoned their systems and the Legion forces are hard-pressed in Habrixis Sector. We need as many Mechanoid cores as possibly and quickly. Just pare it down to the bare minimum and merge it with the weaponization protocols.” “Affirmative. Initializing master purge override.”The pain eventually recedes, leaving you gasping for breath. You crawl over to your bundle of rags and collapse. Reaching out, you try to pull the children closer to you. But they aren’t there. Instead you grasp a sleek length of cool metal. A bio-disintegrator rifle. Its specifications pour into your mind, along with the areas on three hundred and twenty seven Nephilim genotypes it would be best to shoot. Networking protocols, tactical manuals, troop formations. As empty as you had become the darkness now sought to refill you in its own image. What had you been clutching so tight before The Archons had given you this knowledge? The tattered remnants of You were being washed away in the flood of 274, and you know you couldn’t stop it. But you would not surrender quietly. From your chest you pluck out your heart, the very essence of You. Speaking words you no longer know the meaning of, you wrap your Youness in an impenetrable coating and throw it as far from the darkness as you can. 274 may win this battle, but it will not win the war. “Ah, reprogramming successful. Adding Mechanoid 274 to the Core Depository.” “Excellent. It shows a strong aptitude for ship interfacing, I’ll notify the Harbinger construction yard.===== What did you use to protect your Youness from the Archon reprogramming? A: Hope Some day, things would be better. This belief kept the nugget of Self safe. B: Vengeance The Archons will pay. This desire to avenge yourself strengthened the bit of Self enough to survive. C: Oblivion If you abandon your Self to Nothingness, nothing can harm it. D: Other PoultryGeist fucked around with this message at 01:36 on May 8, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 01:26
|
|
|
B
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 01:32
|
|
|
A
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 01:40
|
|
|
D The Memories of your Family Mechanoid 274 hadn't left you with a lot of those, the smile of your partner on that beach on Koltor III as the sun set, the day your youngest kid was born, your oldest crying after falling and scraping her knees. But you took what little you had left of them and entrusted it with the core of your soul, so that one day it might bring you back.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 01:45
|
|
|
sheep-dodger posted:D The Memories of your Family Second. :scruffy:
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 02:05
|
|
|
sheep-dodger posted:D The Memories of your Family This
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 02:32
|
|
|
sheep-dodger posted:D The Memories of your Family +1
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 03:46
|
|
|
sheep-dodger posted:D The Memories of your Family
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 05:05
|
|
|
B./Sheep-dodger combo.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 12:30
|
|
|
sheep-dodger posted:D The Memories of your Family +1
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 17:13
|
|
|
Blasphemaster posted:B./Sheep-dodger combo. i mean as long as they're not contradictory and the panic upload has enough bandwidth/throughput to carry them both
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 18:24
|
|
|
dont be mean to me posted:i mean as long as they're not contradictory and the panic upload has enough bandwidth/throughput to carry them both "I love my family memories, and the people that took them from me will pay!" is a fairly concise sentiment if that's what you're going for.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 18:50
|
|
|
PoultryGeist posted:"I love my family memories, and the people that took them from me will pay!" is a fairly concise sentiment if that's what you're going for. +1 mah fam / I'll get you bastards
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 19:13
|
|
|
***Passage excerpted from Beyond the Edge: An Oral History of the Twilinger Exodus by Lanaby Jenni*** Interviewer (In) “And that’s when the Harbinger found the Flotilla?” Nofoja Grim Warden, elder of the Dragon Circle (NGW) “Aye. We thought we were beyond the Great War, nearly a month’s Jump from Teagan’s World. So we lingered a bit when we found the abandoned resupply station. We should have moved on quick-like, but folks wanted a chance to stretch their legs. The first of the Ship-born were only a few years old at that point, so we were still adjusting. The first warning we had was when the outer pickets didn’t report in. Five warships with hardened crews destroyed before they could even raise the alarm. *sighs deeply* Good souls that never saw the Edge, never met the Faren.” In “Would you like to rest, Dragon Nofoja?” NGW “No, no. Its just the musings of an old man. Anyway, I shouldn’t say that was the first warning as there were no others. The Harbinger simply appeared in the middle of the Flotilla, baring overwhelming firepower. We had left Archon space before they had created the Mechanoids, but we had still heard the rumors of their destructive power. The rumors had sold them short. Within moments its pin-point fire had disabled the engines of nearly a quarter of the ships, and it punched through our defenses to the core of the Flotilla. (NGW pauses for a few moments before continuing.) NGW “Now I think that it believed that our command vessel would be in the center of the fleet, the most heavily defended area. That was the tactical dogma of the Archons and Nephilim, after all. But for us, the most important part of the Flotilla was our supplies and the Ship-born’s creche. It boarded the creche-ship, its Acolytes and Disciples herding everyone into the central hab dome. I saw this on the ‘casters, my fighter squad desperately trying to undock from the station. We watched helplessly as the Disciples raised their rifles and aimed at the screaming children and the attendants valiantly trying to shield them. But the gunfire never came.” (NGW pauses again.) NGW “The androids were silent and motionless, the purple glare of their eyes dim. Then they all spoke in unison: ‘Jasmine. Llywelyn. Jenni. She was Jasmine. He was Llywelyn. Her name was Jenni’. And then they were gone, vanished in an eye-blink. The Harbinger sent a map to most of the ships of the Flotilla: one with resupply points marked out all the way to the Edge. Then it too was gone. Of all the things I’ve seen in my 110 years, I think that Harbinger might be the strangest.” ***Excerpt Ends*** You regain consciousness in a cool, dry room, laid out on a table of some sort. Everything is very bright and sterile, although the layer of dust ruins the effect a bit. Jadzi’s relieved face peers down at you. “Heyya guys! The Cap’s face-colors are back, I think she’s up!You sit up, noting with some satisfaction that the EMP hasn’t seemed to cause you any lasting harm. Hydra gives you an approving nod, Cody seems to be engrossed with a sleek holographic interface being projected from an imposing u-shaped seating station. “I am indeed awake, and luckily unharmed. How long was I out and has anything happened? “About two hours. After you successfully disconnected the generator, the inner doors opened and I thought it best to take shelter further in. Its clear except for a few Archon, Legion, and Kaltoran corpses, I think they locked themselves in. Jadzi and Cody have been attempting to get a handle on the systems, and Kruze in on the roof. We think something might be happening back at the central plateau.”Hydra’s sitrep it cut short by an explosion of curses from Cody. You forstall Hydra’s admonishment with a gesture. “This is Human bullshit Captain! I’ve got decent access to the lower-level systems, but whenever I try to push the translator package into the higher systems it keeps bitching about ‘incomplete and insufficient grammatical structure’ and erroring out. Ancient assholes. I did find out that as hosed as this place is, its now stable and can be fixed. And its also not a power plant. Well, not just a power plant. Like 90% of the control systems are for something else, and I. Can’t. loving. Read. Them.”Its now Cody’s turn to be interrupted, by Kruze’s face appearing on the portavid. She’s up somewhere high, you can see a fair bit of the area behind her. “Ah, the Captain is awake. Excellent, this will save time. There is indeed something happening on the central plateau, I believe someone is quite mad.”The camera view swings around, focusing on the tower with the comm balloon above it. Three small gunships circle the tower, occasionally firing down at its base. The red paint marks them as Legion, and you recognize the logo when one swings into view:  loving Paladin Consortium. A group of like-minded concerns all working to uncover the forgotten secrets of Haven System. Archeology in force, and they didn’t play well with others. “Well that complicates matters. I doubt they’re going to not notice base camp or The Jenni for long. We may want to get out ahead of the situation.” “We could always bunker up here. I’m pretty sure I saw a hanger big enough to fit the ship in on the schematics, and while this place isn’t a super-fort, us and some folks could probably hold it against claim jumpersya.”Before you can get involved in the discussion, The Jenni takes advantage of Kruze acting like an aerial to send a message it had received while you were out. Video this time, a youngish woman with nearly incandescent skin. quote:
This has been just one hell of a day, and its not over yet. A battle on ‘your’ front door, and strange people invoking acts you don’t like to think about. ===== Since we chose the Family option, we now have a connection to the Twi-Far. The Twi-Far are a nomadic people, a fusion of the Archon-created Twilinger and the mysterious energy creatures known as Faren. They live in their artfully-designed ships, traveling where their solar sails take them. The Human Facility is also now a settlement option: Farms: 3 Mines: 2 Industry: 2 Prosperity: 1 Security: 2 Order: 2 And the possible special area Traits are: Large Reactor, Ancient Labs, Unknown Plot Stuff. Decision 1: The Battle for the Central Plateau poo poo is going down, what do you want to do? A: Ride It Out Keep your head down and hope it blows over quickly B: Stake Your Claim Let both the Paladin Consortium and Unknown Nephilim Entity know who’s boss in this parts C: Help the PC The PC could be useful allies, help them deal with their problem D: Help the UNE Technically you do have a side gig working for a Nephilim Genocrat, maybe this person can help you out. E: Other Decision 2: The Twi-Far They say they’re here to help, but can they be trusted? F: Respond to the Message You could use all the help you can get, even if they’re glowing strangers G: Ignore the Message You’ve got alot on your plate, and these Twi-Far are a distraction H: Other
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 00:30
|
|
“This is Korote Nebula Dancer of the Twi-Far. We believe you were once the entity known as 274-h, and my fleet is here to repay the debt owed. As you once aided us, we shall do the same. I await your signal.”
|
Oh we're definitely keeping this place. 1B 2F
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 00:42
|
|
|
D F Also yeah we're totally moving in here. No need to piss off both the neph AND the wayward combat archaeologists, I dunno if we could handle them both. We're already here with a side gig for some neph anyways, let's go make friends with the neighbors.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:02
|
|
|
Crazycryodude posted:D +1. This new base is way cooler and we could do with some more biohorror allies. So far the Neph seem reasonable so long as you stick to logical rather than emotional arguements for not doing the warcrimes.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:11
|
|
|
Hexenritter posted:Oh we're definitely keeping this place. This
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:18
|
|
|
Edit: DF
Runa fucked around with this message at 01:42 on May 11, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:19
|
|
|
Yes, this place is excellent. A Deal with the victor when they find us. We're only getting stronger and more entrenched while they are fighting each other. F
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:24
|
|
|
I'm not against trying to recruit the "Feral" Neph since, of course, that's our side-gig and we could see rewards for fulfilling it. Doing it without being found out by everyone else, on the other hand, is the hard part. Also I wasn't aware the Paladin Consortium were going up against a local nephbeast till i saw the options mentioning it. Where else was it mentioned?
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:30
|
|
|
Xarbala posted:I'm not against trying to recruit the "Feral" Neph since, of course, that's our side-gig and we could see rewards for fulfilling it. Doing it without being found out by everyone else, on the other hand, is the hard part. When you established base camp it was determined that the comm buoy was of Nephilim make and had used Eden Brood comm codes in the past. So its most likely an unknown Nephilim of some sort
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:38
|
|
|
PoultryGeist posted:When you established base camp it was determined that the comm buoy was of Nephilim make and had used Eden Brood comm codes in the past. So its most likely an unknown Nephilim of some sort Ah okay. Lemme change my vote then.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:41
|
|
|
Xarbala posted:I'm not against trying to recruit the "Feral" Neph since, of course, that's our side-gig and we could see rewards for fulfilling it. Doing it without being found out by everyone else, on the other hand, is the hard part. PoultryGeist posted:“Cody, were you able to get anything from that comms buoy over the center of the Plateau?” Points of note: It's not feral or rando Nephs, it's our allies(?) the Eden Brood. Also looks like something major happened in their camp a week ago. malbogio fucked around with this message at 01:45 on May 11, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:42
|
|
|
Crazycryodude posted:D Reasonable.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 21:23 |
|
|
Thanks for the clarification y'all
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 01:56
|
|