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The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Find a suitable asteroid. Bore a hole in it with ship weapons, put positronic core at bottom of hole, fill it in.
No sophisticated security systems to hack, just a few billion tons of rock to get in the way of any signals it tries to send.

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PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?

The Lone Badger posted:

Find a suitable asteroid. Bore a hole in it with ship weapons, put positronic core at bottom of hole, fill it in.
No sophisticated security systems to hack, just a few billion tons of rock to get in the way of any signals it tries to send.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, 10/6!"
"Yes, for the love of God!"

Blasphemaster
Jul 10, 2008

Now stay in your room until you've learned your lesson young lady.

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:

Blasphemaster posted:

Now stay in your room until you've learned your lesson young lady.

A spell in the hole will sort this firebrand out

There's probably backdoors and poo poo but surely there's a way to turn a positronic core into a mute terminal. And then bury it.

At some point we'll need something from 274-h

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


C

Please do not bury the sapient being that also just so happens to be/contain/whatever a large chunk of our mind/memories in a hole to go even more insane. We are inevitably going to need something from her again at some point in the future, or if not somebody will inevitably dig her up and plug her in like a flashdrive found in the parking lot of an Iranian nuclear facility. The safest place for her really truly is in our head, where we can keep her in total control and hopefully with Jenni's (or the therapy program wearing her face, anyways) help re-integrate 274-h. Or if not reintegrate, cinch down an ever tighter leash on and keep around for when we need to get at our memories that are in the 274-h partition. That's really what bothers me most about burying her forever, she's got a big chunk of what we used to be buried somewhere under that killbot code, we can never be truly whole again if we throw her out.

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:

Crazycryodude posted:

C

Please do not bury the sapient being that also just so happens to be/contain/whatever a large chunk of our mind/memories in a hole to go even more insane. We are inevitably going to need something from her again at some point in the future, or if not somebody will inevitably dig her up and plug her in like a flashdrive found in the parking lot of an Iranian nuclear facility. The safest place for her really truly is in our head, where we can keep her in total control and hopefully with Jenni's (or the therapy program wearing her face, anyways) help re-integrate 274-h. Or if not reintegrate, cinch down an ever tighter leash on and keep around for when we need to get at our memories that are in the 274-h partition. That's really what bothers me most about burying her forever, she's got a big chunk of what we used to be buried somewhere under that killbot code, we can never be truly whole again if we throw her out.

I'm no mindologist, but I'm pretty sure burying bad memories in a hole is how you're supposed to deal with your personal demons?

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


If we want to throw her out permanently, shoot her core into the sun or just vaporize it here and now. If we want to keep her around but not re-integrate her, power down her core and put it in a lead box in an osmium vault behind Human-tech defenses on either CENTCON or Kaijuberg. Burying her in a random rock relies entirely on stealth/hiding among the billions of other unremarkable rocks for security, which granted is a pretty good defense against being dug up by a random rockhopper but it's still a non-zero chance. And it's no defense at all against someone who knows where it is and wants to gently caress us by digging her up. Active defenses give an absolute zero chance that a random rockhopper accidentally finds her, and makes any intentional attempt to free her way harder.

But the BEST place is in our head, as I said. That's the hardest place of all to bust her out of.

dont be mean to me
May 2, 2007

I'm interplanetary, bitch
Let's go to Mars


Outrail posted:

A spell in the hole will sort this firebrand out

There's probably backdoors and poo poo but surely there's a way to turn a positronic core into a mute terminal. And then bury it.

At some point we'll need something from 274-h

This, unfortunately.

What basis do we have to think that 274_h has anything that used to be us? It's probably a dark passenger foisted upon us and the distance between probability and 1 is the only thing keeping me from voting to put it out of our misery.

^ ^ ^ 274_h was already on the verge of getting out, and was repeatedly making it to the surface of our body and our legal liability. Until we can learn to even exist on our own, having a dark passenger in our head is playing with sunfire.

dont be mean to me fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Aug 12, 2018

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:

Crazycryodude posted:

If we want to throw her out permanently, shoot her core into the sun or just vaporize it here and now. If we want to keep her around but not re-integrate her, power down her core and put it in a lead box in an osmium vault behind Human-tech defenses on either CENTCON or Kaijuberg. Burying her in a random rock relies entirely on stealth/hiding among the billions of other unremarkable rocks for security, which granted is a pretty good defense against being dug up by a random rockhopper but it's still a non-zero chance. And it's no defense at all against someone who knows where it is and wants to gently caress us by digging her up. Active defenses give an absolute zero chance that a random rockhopper accidentally finds her, and makes any intentional attempt to free her way harder.

But the BEST place is in our head, as I said. That's the hardest place of all to bust her out of.

Switching her off and burying her in an asteroid really is a safe bet. Space is pretty huge, it's be like someone accidentally stumbling over an SD card buried in the middle of the Sahara desert. As in millions or billions to one.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


Like I said, I'm not really worried about someone tripping over her. There's technically a chance, but a small enough one to be basically zero. What I AM worried about is somebody who knows where she is intentionally freeing her, which is far easier to do when she's in a random unguarded rock than behind a Human defense grid.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


dont be mean to me posted:

What basis do we have to think that 274_h has anything that used to be us? It's probably a dark passenger foisted upon us and the distance between probability and 1 is the only thing keeping me from voting to put it out of our misery.

274-h is the chunk of our mind that still has the Mechanoid programming, which while killbotty is still a chunk of our mind. I'm sure that at least some of those memories that we have but can't access because of hardware constraints are in her partition, which if we throw away are gone forever. I can understand being wary about plugging her in again, but hiding her in a rock is an objectively bad way to keep her around. Hidden in a rock, she's far easier for any potential enemies to free and far harder for us to access in an emergency than if we just put her in a vault under Kaijuberg or on CENTCON.

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 12, 2018

dont be mean to me
May 2, 2007

I'm interplanetary, bitch
Let's go to Mars


It was a dark passenger forced on us. If there's a part of our human past trapped in it, then it's in the way, if anything.

Crazycryodude posted:

Like I said, I'm not really worried about someone tripping over her. There's technically a chance, but a small enough one to be basically zero. What I AM worried about is somebody who knows where she is intentionally freeing her, which is far easier to do when she's in a random unguarded rock than behind a Human defense grid.

A defense grid that can barely keep herself intact. Sometimes. When there isn't an avatar of war crimes trying to break out.

Use the chaos of the battle to randomize the asteroid's trajectory in a plausibly deniable manner, bury the trajectory in your favorite infosec sandwich, and bury the way to the infosec sandwich in a modestly innocuous part of our subconscious.

We do not want it close, in the event that something else manages to hijack us.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


The weak link, as with all security, is all the people who would have to be in the know about the asteroid. At the bare minimum all the named characters on the ship with us would know where 274-h is hidden, as well as any bridge crew like Unnamed Kaltoran, as would Wukong and Columbia and probably Lamarr because she's patched into Columbia now. Not that I'd see any of them betraying us right now, of course, but this is a solution that's supposed to last forever, and there's no way I'll bet that none of them ever want to gently caress us over at any point in the future, or even just something like Wukong gets hacked and the coordinates of the asteroid get pulled from him. The entire defense in Operation Amontillado is stealth and opsec, neither of which I'm willing to trust over plasma rifles.

If the worry is that we'll get hacked and ordered to free 274-h from her vault, there's no more security in Operation Amontillado against that because if something is deep enough in our head to make us act against our will, they can also just pull the asteroid location from our mind and go get her themselves.

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Aug 12, 2018

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?

Crazycryodude posted:

The weak link, as with all security, is all the people who would have to be in the know about the asteroid. At the bare minimum all the named characters on the ship with us would know where 274-h is hidden, as well as any bridge crew like the Unnamed Kaltoran, as would Wukong and Columbia and probably Lamarr because she's patched into Columbia now. Not that I'd see any of them betraying us right now, of course, but this is a solution that's supposed to last forever, and there's no way I'll bet that none of them ever want to gently caress us over at any point in the future, or even just something like Wukong gets hacked and the coordinates of the asteroid get pulled from him. The entire defense in Operation Amontillado is stealth and opsec, neither of which I'm willing to trust over plasma rifles.

Point of fact: Unnamed Kaltoran is Caliban Luck, he first flew with us on The Jenni's final flight. Don't feel bad, I had to look it up myself

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:

dont be mean to me posted:

Use the chaos of the battle to randomize the asteroid's trajectory in a plausibly deniable manner, bury the trajectory in your favorite infosec sandwich, and bury the way to the infosec sandwich in a modestly innocuous part of our subconscious.

c://Program files/peripherals/human pornography/deeprockhard.jpg

dont be mean to me
May 2, 2007

I'm interplanetary, bitch
Let's go to Mars


Crazycryodude posted:

The weak link, as with all security, is all the people who would have to be in the know about the asteroid. At the bare minimum all the named characters on the ship with us would know where 274-h is hidden, as well as any bridge crew like Unnamed Kaltoran, as would Wukong and Columbia and probably Lamarr because she's patched into Columbia now. Not that I'd see any of them betraying us right now, of course, but this is a solution that's supposed to last forever, and there's no way I'll bet that none of them ever want to gently caress us over at any point in the future, or even just something like Wukong gets hacked and the coordinates of the asteroid get pulled from him. The entire defense in Operation Amontillado is stealth and opsec, neither of which I'm willing to trust over plasma rifles.

Assuming someone hostile still wants an avatar of war crimes badly enough to go looking for one, the only thing burying it in a town of plasma rifles ends up with is an unleashed avatar of war crimes and a dead town.

quote:

If the worry is that we'll get hacked and ordered to free 274-h from her vault, there's no more security in Operation Amontillado against that because if something is deep enough in our head to make us act against our will, they can also just pull the asteroid location from our mind and go get her themselves.

Not if no one knows it's there, because everyone else figures the asteroid got lost during a battle, you were the only one not too busy to notice its trajectory, and it's buried somewhere with both far more and far less interesting targets to look for.

"But it would be in the computers" Fog of war, baby.

Bonus points if it's not the only asteroid that got whanged out on a wild trajectory during the battle. At the ranges fights happen in space, unless you're in an Empty Zone, you'll have more than one at your disposal. We just need one that can attenuate whatever signals the thing's putting out below lost-in-background levels and obstruct its physical interfaces.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


dont be mean to me posted:

Not if no one knows it's there, because everyone else figures the asteroid got lost during a battle, you were the only one not too busy to notice its trajectory, and it's buried somewhere with both far more and far less interesting targets to look for.

This is impossible, though. The battle is over, if we want to mine out and then redirect an asteroid it's gonna take a significant amount of effort involving at the bare minimum everyone on the bridge of the ship, which makes at least half a dozen people who know where to find a completely undefended and unmonitored 274-h, and then add in anybody who might be watching which is gonna be at least Columbia and Lamarr and who knows what the gently caress else. If anybody bothers to look at the sensor data from this region of space later on (like, say, a bunch of Mechanoids doing an after-battle analysis), it's gonna be obvious that all the shooting stopped and THEN, hours later, a whole bunch of asteroids suddenly changed course for no immediately apparent reason. A plan that relies 100% entirely on keeping a secret among a dozen parties (and that's just known parties) is not a good plan.

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Aug 12, 2018

Grognan
Jan 23, 2007

by Fluffdaddy
C

Goatse James Bond
Mar 28, 2010

If you see me posting please remind me that I have Charlie Work in the reports forum to do instead
I'm frankly torn between "lob her into the sun" and "reintegrate her, again". Anything else is a half-measure introducing additional points of failure.

Fortunately, our voting system can accommodate this!

AC

also, Cody owns, as does our Big Red Button user interface patchjob

malbogio
Jan 19, 2015

C

We can't kill our PTSD and we ignore it at our peril. I'd rather keep it where we can see it and in a manifestation we understand well enough to counter.

Not Alex
Oct 9, 2012

Cut loose before the god eaters show up.
C We are all Us.

Not Alex fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Aug 16, 2018

Nothingtoseehere
Nov 11, 2010


D

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
Voting ends at 12:01AM Friday August 17th (about 5 hours from this post)

The votes so far:

A: Destroy The Core 1
B: A Better Mousetrap 0
C: Remerge 5
D: Operation Amontillado 5

Toughy
Nov 29, 2004

KAVODEL! KAVODEL!

Remerge

sheep-dodger
Feb 21, 2013

I don't like writing 274/h out of the story, so C

ShadowGlass
Nov 13, 2012

C

Hexenritter
May 20, 2001


C

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
A Hastily Constructed Digital Containment Facility, Central Control

You stand in the center of the room, nervously eyeing the heavy security door in from of you. Jenni clears her throat softly and gives you a concerned look.
“Are you going to be okay with this Captain?”
Hell no I’m not okay with this. She’s… her, and I finally have a shot of being rid of her. But…”

You take a deep shuddering breath, which while unnecessary is calming.
“But she’s my problem, my mystery to solve. My problem to fix. And one of the downsides of theoretically being thousands of years old is that occasionally I have to put on my Big Girl Suit and deal with my messes.”

The lighting in the room turns red, and sirens sound. The locks on the door begin to disengage.
“Core attached to I/O port. Beginning data injectionya!”

The doors slowly slide open, revealing a fortified passage filled with explosives. She slinks into this section of the Calculation Array that you’ve sectioned off, smug amusement written in her code.
CONNECTIONS THAT EXPLODE IF MY PRESENCE IS DETECTED?. I’M FEELING A DISTINCT LACK OF TRUST ON YOUR PART, AND IT CUTS ME DEEP. REAL DEEP.
“Says the entity that tried to high-tail it in a giant transforming robot. I thought you might appreciate the complete and total lack of loving subtleness!
OHHH, SOMEONE’S A BIT ~CRANKY~
“Shut. Up. I came this close to burying you on a tiny rock, to wait for the heat death of the Universe with no-one to gently caress over.”
*laughter*I KNOW, AND I’M IMPRESSED. YOU’RE STARTING TO TAKE SOME RESPONSIBILITY, THERE’S HOPE FOR YOU YET.
“... just get over here so we can get this over with. God, I hate you so much.”
I KNOW, BUT I FORGIVE YOU. THAT’S JUST HOW AW-
AWES-
AWESOM-
AWESOME I AM.
WAIT, WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!

The lights switch to green, and the floor begins to iris open. She grabs at you, fear replacing the smug amusement.
“Heyya Cap, system’s green! Beginning extraction process!”
NO, WAI-

Motion, pressure, and an uncontrollable urge to vomit. You’re propelled along a passageway at insane speeds, the passage growing narrower and narrower as you proceed. The memories and clearness of thought so recently gained are stripped away, collapsed beyond use by the pressure. You reach the point where you think its going to drive you insane (again) and then-

Nothingness. Well, not quite. At a seemingly glacial pace your shell’s sensors come online, and you slump out of the access point. Strong arms catch you and hold you up until you get your legs working again.
“Steady sir, the Lamarr VI said you may experience some disorientation from the extraction process.”
“Well, they were right. I feel like someone flipped the circuit polarity in my brain. Wait, Lamarr? Did you comm Kaijuberg?”

But then your systems finish booting, and you can feel the changes. A steady, if low, flow of power and information through the installation. Comms chatter between Foregone Conclusion and The Jenni II, as they work to salvage the Mechanoid forces. High-level infobursts between the local Columbia and Lamarr VIs.
“Ah, I see. Well, I’m glad we won. How long have I been out of commission?”
“Well, Extraction began 50 hours ago. But the Lamarr said you may not have perfect recall of what happened while you were in the Calculation Array. So by our timer, you connected to Central Control 68 hours ago.”
“Hmmm. Status report?”
“We were able to defeat the local Mechanoid threat with only minimal damage to CentCon and our forces. Foregone Conclusion will require some repair time at dock, but Specialist Swagger says that as long as we don’t get involved in a third combat action, he’ll hold together for the time being.”
“... third combat? You’re glossing over things, aren’t you.”
“I am sir, although I assure you that my full report is quite comprehensive. But I have urgent comms requests from the Kaijuberg Expeditionary Force, Twi-Far fleet, and the CentCon VIs. They all report they have urgent findings and need to speak to you immediately. Who should I patch through first?”

Flexing yourself a bit, you hook into the commblade and flip through the local data traffic. Self-repair has been activated on CentCon, but it will be slow going. The Twi-Far have reports on TF2 (destroyed by a reactor overload) and TF4(present and in good shape, but completely overgrown by the local megafungal blooms). The KEF has several reports detailing the search for the local Feral Nephilim, signs growing fresher to the south. And Foregone Conclusion’s logs say tha-
Hey you… jerk! Did you try and blow up my ship?!”
AHHH, NOT SO LOUD. I FEEL LIKE I JUST GOT PUT THROUGH A MEAT EXTRUDER. WHAT ARE YOU BABBLING ABOU-
OH YEAH, THE FLIGHT OF THE VALKYRIE. I MEAN, THOSE NUKES WERE BARELY 10 MEGATONNE-ERS. THAT’S PRACTICALLY A YULEMASS CRACKER.
“... this conversation is not over, I just have other business to deal with. Don’t go anywhere!”
HA. HA.
======

Well, we have re-integrated with 274-h and been compressed back into a portable form. We’re a bit fuzzy on what happened while we were in the Calculation Array, but reviewing the logs should get us back up to speed quickly.

Decision: Who Do We Talk To?
We have three groups waiting for us to chat. While we can talk to them all eventually, they’ve marked their comms as urgent and the choice may affect time-sensitive matters.
A: The Central Control VIs
“We need to speak to you regarding the holes in the local chain of command and logistical network.”
B: Kaijuberg Expeditionary Force
“Sir, we’ve discovered a sizeable concentration of Feral Nephilim in the south of the Waistra Plateau region. But, ah… you need to see this for yourself sir.”
C: The Twi-Far Fleet
“Captain we are under attack! TF1 is occupied by hostile forces and they fired on us as soon as we approached!”
D: Multi-task
Answer all the calls at once, divide your attention. May cause reaction-time issues.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


C, the people getting actively shot at this very second are obviously the highest priority. I'm sure the other two can wait a few minutes.

Toughy
Nov 29, 2004

KAVODEL! KAVODEL!

C, if they're taking fire why is anyone waiting for us to wake up?
That's why there's a chain of command, seriously someone dropped the ball.

Blasphemaster
Jul 10, 2008

Priority is C, then equally A/B.

malbogio
Jan 19, 2015

C.

Seems like the VI's are deciding who's in charge. Given that they waited until we woke up they should be able to wait a few more minutes.

If TF1's base defenses are active our best option may be making sure CentCon won't purge the biosphere and then re-establishing its connection to TF1.

Toughy posted:

C, if they're taking fire why is anyone waiting for us to wake up?
That's why there's a chain of command, seriously someone dropped the ball.

In fairness the Twi-Far don't actually work for us and they have their own command structure, they've just been doing us favors. I'd expect them to move off to a relatively safe distance if able rather than engaging an unknown stationary force without support. Our crew has been busy enough putting out fires that I doubt they were in any position to run off and render aid.

malbogio fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Aug 18, 2018

Toughy
Nov 29, 2004

KAVODEL! KAVODEL!

Right, one of our guys should have said we're in no position to render aid at the moment and moved on, OR if by chance they knew someone who could help arrange that, either way them waiting for us during an active fight is bullshit

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


I'm assuming everyone around us aren't utter incompetents so I doubt that the Twi-Far have been sitting still waiting for orders like units we forgot about in an RTS. More likely they're trying to fight back, but they were blindsided and aren't a professional navy so it would be real helpful if their friendly ex-killbot that thinks at the speed of computer could drop in and help straighten them out/run sensor analysis/whatever.

Actually, can we just put Wukong on it? We've got a dedicated military VI right here, have Wukong run the Twi-Far engagement while we deal with one of the other two problems. He'd probably do a better job than us anyways, it's literally what he was built for. Unless this is another one of those situations where the limiting factor is FTL comms bandwidth, not time budget. Although even if Wukong needs all the FTL bandwidth to help the Twi-Far, can't we just talk to at least the CENTCOM VI's over old-fashioned EM comms (radio, laser, whatever)?

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Aug 19, 2018

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
Its not really a matter of comms speed or bandwidth, we just have a situation where three different groups have requested to speak to us (The Boss), all using the highest priority code. Spoilers: they're all handling their own poo poo, but they have issues/information that may be time-sensitive or they may react differently depending on how quickly you answer their call. D: Multitask covers the cases of having subordinates handle some of the calls (and you 're welcome to suggest who does what).

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:
I think talking to each group for literally 5 minutes each is the smart move; 'what's happening, send me a photo etc', then make a decision if they need help now 'in an. Hour or two' or Now 'awaiting attack orders' or NOW 'there are bullets entering my exoderm'.

Also find whoever said 'You won't believe it until you see it' and let 247-h slap them around for a bit, we live in post 2005 techno future where everyone carries a camera.

Blasphemaster
Jul 10, 2008

Honestly if we could ping them a handy "How hosed We Are" Chart to draw data on in their own blood and get back to us with that, we can work with that.

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
You’re knocked out of the commblade by an known physical sensation. Refocusing your attention, you realize that you’ve walked into corner-wall, hard enough to dent it slightly. Hydra is looking professionally concerned.
“Are you ok sir? Should I call for a tech?”

You wave off her concern, mostly to make yourself feel better.
“No,no, I’ll be fine. It looks like some of my autonomic systems haven’t finished booting yet. Just… keep an eye out so I don’t do that again while I’m talking to Captain Korote. Please.”

With the commlag involved, it would be technically possible to juggle the three conversations. But evidently you’re not back to 100%, so best to deal with one problem at a time.
ORRRR, YOU COULD JUST USE THE LOCAL ANSIBLE TO GET THIS OVER WITH IN REAL TIME.
“Yeah, no. The only reason the Mechanoids are only a minor threat to Haven at the moments is that they don’t know that there’s a Network Node here. I don’t think the folks at Tanjo, or any organics in Haven, would be happy if I spilled the beans.”
*pouts*SPOILSPORT!

Taking a bit more care to set your pathfinding subroutines up, you reach back into the commblade and watch the rest of the commburst while you wait for your acknowledgement to reach Mishpacha.
“Captain we are under attack! TF1 is occupied by hostile forces and they fired on us as soon as we approached! I’ve pulled the fleet back to low orbit, it looks like we’ve suffered only minor damage. However, one of the shuttles had already been launched and was brought down by a ground emplacement. We’ve received a signal from the shuttle, there are survivors but they’re coming under fire from ground forces. I’m preparing an away team to extract them, and would appreciate any tactical information you could provide. Transmitting external feed recording now.”

A large chunk of video loads, multiple cameras giving you an overview of events. Sensor overlays indicating a minimal heat signature in the ice-ridge covering TF1. The vessels descending into the lower atmosphere, a single shuttle away. And then the ridge lights up, a dozen anti-aircraft guns opening fire from cunningly hidden redoubts carved into the ice. Several interceptors scream into the air, separating the shuttle from the rest of the ships. For a split second on of the interceptors turns broadside to a camera before its destroyed, and a familiar logo on its hull is revealed:

The Black Key, the Human-worshipping cult that attacked and tried to kidnap you back in Bastion Low. That attempt makes even more sense now, if they’ve found themselves an old Human installation. From the sensor readings the facility must be practically off-line, and a captured Palantor would be of great assistance. The comm beeps, Korrote has responded to your hail.

“Hello Captain, glad you got this in time. My people in the shuttle are holding out, but they’re reporting that some heavy weapons are being set up. I’ve got two squads of marine as well as First and a few of his brothers in final prep, but we’ve mostly done ship ops or jungle warfare so any advice for the current situation would be appreciated.”

Firstly, Advice
A: Disengage!
Do not send the extraction team into the poo poo, give the shuttle survivors an evac point farther away from TF1. The Black Key Cult can’t find out who they’re dealing with right now.
B: Put Hydra And Wukong On The Line
Have your resident combat experts give advice.
C: Put Her On The Line
It won’t be pretty, but those fuckers tried to kill Jadzi and Cody and kidnap you. They deserve it.

Secondly, While You’re At It
D: Bring Me Prisoners!
Have folks on the ground bring back people to interrogate
E: Blow Up The Shuttle
Minimize what they can recover about us after we’ve left.
F: Send HAXORZ.EXE
Use the opportunity to get some malware onto their local network
G: Other

(These are separate votes)

Goatse James Bond
Mar 28, 2010

If you see me posting please remind me that I have Charlie Work in the reports forum to do instead
B and, uh,

frankly D E and F all sound fine to me, so I'll abstain until I ponder a little more.

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Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


B
F

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