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golden bubble
Jun 3, 2011

yospos

CD

We need those Sunglasses Antiphoton Visors.

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Relentless
Sep 22, 2007

It's a perfect day for some mayhem!


AE Kick rear end and take names.

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib

Not Alex posted:

Dashing rogue, the skill.

Well, a bit more roguish than dashing in River's case it seems like.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Kai Tave posted:

Well, a bit more roguish than dashing in River's case it seems like.

"He dashed away from the scene of the crime"

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
The way things are going, it's gonna be kind of funny if our rowdy boy here winds up piloting a Goblin.

Blisster
Mar 10, 2010

What you are listening to are musicians performing psychedelic music under the influence of a mind altering chemical called...
BF

Tech rules everything around me.

dont be mean to me
May 2, 2007

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


CF

Skellybones
May 31, 2011




Fun Shoe
It has to be A D for the soldier of fortune.

Black Feather
Apr 14, 2012

Call someone who cares.
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PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?

Infractions Listing, Cioelle System Security posted:

Subject WZ-4J-ABNeg-G07Y-219/Fi-ZZZ9
>Grand Theft, Suborbital Vehicle: 8 counts
>Grand Theft, Orbital Craft: 4 counts
>Felony Omninet Fraud: 7 counts
>Impersonating Union Personnel: 3 counts
>Affray: 8 counts
>Public Drunkenness: 13 counts
[Listing Abbreviated to Save Storage Space]

“Oh my! You certainly were a very busy young man, Pilot River. The time management skills alone are quite impressive for a Human Person.”

You give the subaltern a #5 Wink. “Ah, you’re going to make me blush Bo. And the best part is, if I complete my tour with Mirrorsmoke I’m in the clear. A great system, yes? Now, I was told to report for the staff briefing upon arrival?”

The subaltern’s eye-servos twitch slightly. “BOUDICA, Pilot River. And yes, the staff briefing will be beginning in a few minutes in Briefing Room #3. I’ll tag it in your HUD, and then transfer your gear to Intrepid Dawn while you’re being briefed. Hangar Fab is waiting for your input before they put the finishing touches on BABY, I’ll make sure they include space and charging ports for your personal loadout.”

An arrow blinks into view, pointing you towards a side hallway. With a quick salute, the subaltern is off towards a large stand of lifts.

Well, guess its time to see what this is all about, yeah?

*****

Briefing Room #3 is your basic Union construction stylings, with only what you assume is the Liyongo banners in the corner betraying that you’re not in Cioelle, or even Cradle. The uniforms give away the current transitional times though, older jackets with LDF patches worn over new Union Auxiliary jumpsuits.

The gawking is a bit more pointed here. The wing commanders, platoon lieutenants, and battery crew chiefs don’t seem to be much for ‘pilot idolization’, and you suspect that they don’t appreciate MSMC’s more lax dress code. You’re in the midsts of distributing some finger-guns to the biggests scowlers when there’s an official-sounding throat-clearing from the lectern. A stern woman in captain’s stripes looks across the roo, favoring you with a nod. Your HUD pings with an update pushed from Legionspace.


Captain Binti Okafor //Intrepid Dawn//

“Excellent, let’s begin. BOUDICA, if you would?”

Folks settle down into the seats as subalterns distribute the mission slates. A large-scale hologram of a Jovian-type subsystem springs to life in the center of the room. Trajectories and tide-codes write themselves into the whirling of orbits.

“For Pilot River’s benefit, Tyrant is the outermost planet of our system. Home to a handful of gas extraction autofacts, its generally ignored. It seems that was a mistake however. While we still haven’t discovered where the pirates that attacked Wayward Son came from, trajectory analysis from the freighter and LDF listening posts indicate they fled to Tyrant afterwards.”

The holo zooms in, to one of the smaller moons inside the orbit of the rings. New markers pop up, indicating minimal gravity, no atmo, and high magnetic flux.

“Specifically, T3. T3 was the base of operations for the colonial survey teams were exploring what extractables Tyrant possesed. A small facility was constructed within the moon to house the teams, a General Massive Systems Pattern 7 EXPLO/BUNK. You’ll find the particulars on your slates. According to colonial records it was mothballed 58 years ago, but SYSINT says they’re picking up multiple faint heat and EM signals.”

The main holo zooms out again, and multiple new trajectories light up.

“The mission is simple. Patrol FUMO will nearlight drop into Point 1, within Tyrants larger flux bands. This will help disguise the Cherenkov shift from any sensors present. Eternal Dusk will provide fire support and ECM duties. Intrepid Dawn’s 1st and 2nd Wings along with Pilot River will secure an LZ for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Marine Platoons. Furious Twilight’s forces will act as reserves until the enemy base is secured. Full dispersals are on your slates and FUMO legionspace.”

Captain Okafor looks about the room, emphasizing her words with a grim continence. “While we are mobilizing to smash a dangerous pirate group, intelligence on who exactly we’re dealing with is of vital importance. All fire teams are authorized to detain high-value targets they encounter and any com/con or NPH systems are to be tagged for SYSINT retrieval. And… be careful out there. This enemy has shown a disturbing fondness for mass-casualty tactics, and as bad as I want them I want you to all come home too. Dismissed.”

Everyone salutes and begins to file out. You’re looking around to see if ‘your’ subaltern has come back when you hear the Captain’s voice.

“Hello Pilot River, a word?”
You turn and hit her with a #2 Smile. “Of course, mon a-capitaine. My time is your time.”

She doesn’t seem to be too impressed by the display of charm, but she also doesn’t seem to be put off. She waves a hand, opening a Legionspace screen. “As BOUDICA has briefed you, your Everest has not been fully printed yet. As we were unsure of who exactly would be joining us, Command thought it best that you’d be allowed to customize your mech based on your thoughts of the mission parameters.” She keys in a sequence into the holoface. “I’ve just given you access to Intrepid Dawn’s printer catalog and priority status in the queue. We’ll be 10 hours in transit, should be plenty of time to finish your… Baby. Now please excuse me, I have arrangements to make before we leave port.”

You’re pleasantly surprised that they were knowledgeable enough to give you some mod time. You were half-expecting to be handed a stock Everest shell and told to deal. You pull up your slate and look through the deets. Your half-aware of a subaltern leading you to the Intrepid Dawn and your berth, but you’re too into the zone to really care. You’ve only been on a few sorties with MSMC, but the training program drilled the need to customize into everyone’s head.

Granted, you’d have some more options if you had scored some manufacturers’ licences, but that took more dosh than you’d earned so far. The GMS Universal License gave you some options at least. Let’s see, there was the open moonscape here you’d have to secure an LZ against an unknown number of foes. Then there was the facility itself. While the majority of it was large enough for a Class I shell like the Everest, there were still some human-scale bits in the control areas. Several ways to go here.

Pre-installed Mission Equipment:
-GMS EVA Module
-Omninet Hook

We Should Go With A(n):
A: Balanced Package
-+1 Engineering
-MC-AMR Anti-Material Rifle
-MC-DMR Battle Rifle
-MC-P Pistol
-MC-TK Tactical Knife
-Stable Structure Mod
-GMS Pattern-A “Apple” High Explosive Grenades
-Custom paint job

B: Fast Assault Package
-+1 Agility
-MC-EB Heavy Charged Blade
-MC-RPG RPG
-MC-SG Shotgun
-GMS ‘Burst’ Jump Jet System
-Grapplers
-Custom Paint Job

C: Heavy Weapons Package
-+1 Hull
-MC-Cyclone Superheavy Pulse Cannon
-MC-TL Thermal Rifle
-GMS Type I Flight System
-Custom Paintjob

D: Infantry Support Package
-+1 System
-MC-DHK Drone Nexus (Hunter-Killer)
-MC-MG Heavy Machine Gun
-MC-CB Charged Blade
-Companion/Concierge-Class Dummy Plug
-GMS Pattern-A “Jericho” Deployable Cover

PoultryGeist fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Sep 16, 2018

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
So a brief bit of detail on our choices: Hull, Agility, Systems, and Engineering are the four primary mech attributes in Lancer, serving as modifiers to various rolls as well as secondary stats. Hull is the most basic and straightforward, modifying our mech's overall take-hitatude. Agility is linked to speed and evasiveness but not necessarily initiative as Lancer uses a non-rolled form thereof. Systems is our mech's electronics, modifying the range of our sensors as well as our e-war capabilities. Lastly, Engineering is a measure of our mech's sophistication, modifying our ability to tolerate excess heat buildup as well as making it easier for us to repair things that break down in the field.

Also Lancer doesn't really lock you into "classes" like other games do, so there's nothing really stopping you from making a sneaky hacker who also packs a big gun or two, so you don't need to worry about making incorrect choices that might lock you out of something cool down the line, especially right now.

That said, my vote is for D. The Companion/Concierge Dummy Plug is a low-grade AI system which isn't as sophisticated as more advanced military-spec AIs but still allows us to hop out of our mech and give it orders to do stuff on its own, which can be a very useful capability in a utility sense if not necessarily the most optimal combat strategy. The weapon loadout is also a pretty well balanced one, giving us an H/K drone nexus (think a VTOL weapon pod we can order to go shoot people), a heavy machinegun (self explanatory), and a charged blade (energy-reinforced melee weapon good at carving through armor). Deployable cover is exactly what it says on the tin. Also it's labeled an infantry support package, and if we wind up supporting some infantry there's a good possibility they may buy us drinks later.

JesterOfAmerica
Sep 11, 2015
B

I am always a fan of being a beserker and the ability to get in fast and hit hard is great!

hollylolly
Jun 5, 2009

Do you like superheroes? Check out my CYOA Mutants: Uprising

How about weird historical fiction? Try Vampires of the Caribbean

Gonna go with D as well.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Baby's got a temper. And a bigass gun.
C

Not Alex
Oct 9, 2012

Cut loose before the god eaters show up.
D seems nice. Good range of weaponry.

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
B

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN
D
I like the idea of being to set our mech in watchdog mode while we do some wetwork ourselves. Who knows what shinies those pirates have in there.

Also numbering your winks and smiles is very Stainless Steel Rat and I approve.

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo

Deadmeat5150 posted:

D
I like the idea of being to set our mech in watchdog mode while we do some wetwork ourselves.

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
Also just to clarify, the heavy machine gun is a mech scale heavy machine gun, not an infantry scale one. The Cyclone is the biggest and baddest gun on that list, but the HMG is no slouch.

Relentless
Sep 22, 2007

It's a perfect day for some mayhem!


Deadmeat5150 posted:

D
I like the idea of being to set our mech in watchdog mode while we do some wetwork ourselves. Who knows what shinies those pirates have in there.

Also numbering your winks and smiles is very Stainless Steel Rat and I approve.

Let's do it.

Black Feather
Apr 14, 2012

Call someone who cares.
BD

Quornes
Jun 23, 2011
D sounds most fitting. Also for some reason I feel like our guy would look similar to Wario

Cloud Potato
Jan 9, 2011

"I'm... happy!"
D.

Blasphemaster
Jul 10, 2008

D. Because when you get off shift from a long day at the explosion factory, it's nice to have a bunch of people who owe you their lives and therefore drinks. Also the Captain Chick wants to keep her casualties low, so if we help with that maybe that ups our chances of doing the horizontal space boogie. (note to self: shower soon)

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib

Blasphemaster posted:

D. Because when you get off shift from a long day at the explosion factory, it's nice to have a bunch of people who owe you their lives and therefore drinks. Also the Captain Chick wants to keep her casualties low, so if we help with that maybe that ups our chances of doing the horizontal space boogie. (note to self: shower soon)

See, this guy gets it. Also yes, take a shower, you don't have to be a goon to be a shady character.

dont be mean to me
May 2, 2007

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


Blasphemaster posted:

D. Because when you get off shift from a long day at the explosion factory, it's nice to have a bunch of people who owe you their lives and therefore drinks. Also the Captain Chick wants to keep her casualties low, so if we help with that maybe that ups our chances of doing the horizontal space boogie. (note to self: shower soon)

Fine, D.

malbogio
Jan 19, 2015

D

golden bubble
Jun 3, 2011

yospos

C, death is the best status effect.

CourValant
Feb 25, 2016

Do You Remember Love?
Vote C: Heavy Weapons Package

We're assigned to take and hold a LZ, so, bring plenty of BOOM, and, the ability to take BOOM.

Not Alex
Oct 9, 2012

Cut loose before the god eaters show up.
While the boom delivered is impressive, the Cyclone needs to be reloaded between shots and is difficult to run and gun with. Not exactly one's first choice for breach and clearing a pirate moonbase. That's my reasoning for picking the HMG instead.

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?

Not Alex posted:

While the boom delivered is impressive, the Cyclone needs to be reloaded between shots and is difficult to run and gun with. Not exactly one's first choice for breach and clearing a pirate moonbase. That's my reasoning for picking the HMG instead.

Yeah its really a choice between a 'big gun' (HMG), and a 'gun so big you can use its magazines as melee weapons' (Cyclone)

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
Its amazing the difference a shower and a shave can make. Granted, you’ve worked up a bit of a sweat assisting with the final checks of Baby, but the grey MSMC jumpsuits are quite good at absorbing various bodily fluids. The designer knows their client well.

Baby Com/Con posted:

Systems Status:
>Companion/Concierge-Class Dummy Plug: GREEN
>GMS EVA Module: GREEN
>GMS Omninet Hook: GREEN
>MC-DHK: GREEN
>MC-MG: GREEN
>MC-CB: GREEN
>GMS Pattern-A “Jericho” Deployable Cover: GREEN

You and the Fab crew stand back, admiring the the freshly printed and assembled Everest. There’s a round of handshakes and back-pats that leave you a bit bruised. Whoever put together the genestock for the Liyongo colony must have decided that ‘big fucker’ would make a decent baseline. The head of the Fab crew (who even the officious BOUDICA had simply called ‘The Chief’) was the shortest person you’d seen and he was still a good four centimeters taller than you. He eyed up Baby, then turned and gave you an approving nod.

“Interesting loadout Pilot. I would have thought you Mirrorsmoke boys would have been more with the missiles and shells and other assorted explosions.”

You chuckle before indicating the armature-mounted HMG with a jerk of your chin. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly call the MC-MG a small gun mon ami. But yes, if I was with a fire team or even full squad of mech I’d be packing more booms. Since its just me though, your marines are going to be doing alot of the heavy lifting. So having a nice grab-bag of tricks to help them out seemed more appropriate.”

The Chief gives a satisfied grunt and claps you on the shoulder, causing your knees to buckle. He then starts shouting orders to his crew, to get Baby situated for loading into one of the dropships.

(You’ve made a good impression on the Fab Chief and his crew)

With Baby ready to go and in good hands, you realize you’ve got about 7 hours of free time before the drop. What to do, what to do…

A: Mingle With the Auxiliary Crew (Swindle)
Given the situation, a damned drink is probably out of the question. But you could still hobnob with the grunts, shoot the poo poo, maybe even win some of their *checks travel guide* ‘Liyongese Credits’.
B: Study the Mission Briefing (Investigate)
Details were a bit thin on the ground, but you might be able to come up with some possible tactics if you apply yourself.
C: Tinker With Your Gear (Tech)
You think you might be able to bypass some of the safeties on your hand-held printer, get it to accept alternate feedstocks.
D: Get Some Shut-Eye
Once you drop, who knows when the next time you’ll get to sleep?


FYI, Downtime Activities will involve a roll of the listed skill. Depending on the result, good, bad, or mildly inconvenient things may happen. If you sleep, you bypass the Downtime.

JesterOfAmerica
Sep 11, 2015
B

Blasphemaster
Jul 10, 2008

E:Fabricate a miniature spy drone and remote control it to the women's barracks. :shepface:

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
Picked a rogue and criminal, might as well do some swindling.

A

Not Alex
Oct 9, 2012

Cut loose before the god eaters show up.
Gotta jailbreak our printer before printing anything quite that, ahem, useful. Soooo C

malbogio
Jan 19, 2015

AB

Grognan
Jan 23, 2007

by Fluffdaddy
D

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
See? Our machinegun charm is already paying off.

A because we specced into this dangit, with a secondary fallback vote for C in a pinch. Mission briefings are for nerds.

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Relentless
Sep 22, 2007

It's a perfect day for some mayhem!


C

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