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C F No need for climate control in the frozen hellscape is a nice little bonus to get away with less infrastructure/free natural defenses, and I don't imagine we'd be growing much up on a glacier anyways so the negatives to farming really isn't a big deal And of course we have to call it the Workshop, even if I'm normally against anything Christmas before Thanksgiving is over
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Nov 15, 2018 04:48
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1 C because what farms; 2 G let them choose
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Nov 15, 2018 04:50
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1C 2G: Petri, because they seem like a fun lot and I'm sure they'll appreciate the joke.
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Nov 15, 2018 05:15
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CF nothing can go wrong with this plan
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Nov 15, 2018 05:38
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C F
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Nov 15, 2018 06:02
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Awesome update. Loved every second of it. 1 C, the obvious choice 2 G, Ultima Kewl
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Nov 15, 2018 07:20
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CF
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Nov 15, 2018 09:22
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CE
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Nov 15, 2018 11:02
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CG. Robot Fridge.
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Nov 15, 2018 15:29
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CG Icebox Get it?
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Nov 15, 2018 15:32
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The Gathering: Jadzi Swagger Honestly, I don’t remember much about what happened directly before the piratesya flushed me out the airlock. I know I had been hoping that by being helpful and non-threatening they’d decide to ransom me back to the Swaggers or something. But they were freaking out pretty bad when they fled the stationya, and they must have decide to cut their losses. It remember my ears popping as the atmo vented, and all the sound vanishing. Which is pretty freaky for a Kaltoran, I tell you whatya. Then the biting cold, and the blood burbling into my lungs. And then a song, sung by an angel’s voice. Not with my ears of course, but directly into my brainya. Something like: A Voice in the Darkness posted:Dekho na logo ne I was actually sad when the song stoppedya, it was beautiful. And it distracted me from my impending death. But then there were hands touching me, fitting the emergency mask over my head. And then a new voice on the commya telling me things that I couldn’t understand, my poor ears. And then the angel spoke again, a fury radiating through my entire soul. The Angel posted:You just take care of the child, save a life for once. I will deal with the scum. And then the angel was gone, and I was being towedya to safety. Three minds, and I was too raw to filter them. Annoyance at the delay my rescue caused, preparedness for a pirate counter-attack, and curiosity at dealing with a Kaltoran in a non-dissection setting. Let me tell you, a very mixed first impression. But at leastya you were pulling me out of space instead of shoving me into it. I’m not sure how long I was out, Kruze must have decided to put me under before I figured out what she was. It was a little scary, I’m used to my eyes notya working for crap but I could barely hear. I couldn’t even tell the Angel was in the room before she started to sing again. I didn’t understand any of it, but it was soft and calming, and helped keep me from panicking. Much. After a bit, she told me that I was safe and that the pirates would never bother anyone again. Can’t sayya that I was too disappointed, even if she sounded a little smug when she talked about their Jump Engine overloading. It took me a few days to fully recover, and I pieced together who Kruze, Grannyya, and Cody were. Minds to faces, as it were. And occasional glimpses of their employer’s fancy drone. It was the drone that took me to the drydockya, for my first look at The Jenni. I’ll admit, I wasn’t that impressed. I mean, it wasn’t pieced togetherya from three different ships, but it was still a piece. Made sense that you needed a decent engineer, I I did have five generations of engineers in my brain. “I meanya, you did keep me from being spaced and you’re gonna pay me. So I’m inclined to agree. Butya, whyy are you talking to me through a drone? Areya horribly disfigured or something.” “Ms. Swagger, I am the Captain.” “Well yeahya, that’s why we’re talking like this Cap. But why through your drone?” “No, no, this body is the Captain. Me, I mean. I am a non-organic lifeform.” Geezya, how embarrassing. Luckily you thought it was funny and didn’t take the offerya back. So did the Angel, although it is kinda weird how the two of you kinda-but-not-quite overlap.
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Nov 22, 2018 03:21
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The Workshop Five Minutes After Official Opening Ceremony  “Its just so beautiful out here Admin, don’t you think I love to go out for walks when its not snowing too hard of course the GPS is a little spotty up here and it would be silly to get lost because you’ve shown so much faith in us and I wouldn’t want to-” “Ah…”Twenty Minutes AOOC “-and I said to them, they’re a them you know that’s they’re preferred pronoun just so you know, I said to them ‘Don’t be silly, Admin 10/6 isn’t going to toss you into the buffer just for getting the bunting a little crooked I mean look at it you can barely tell and I don’t even know if Admin has binocular vision’ do you have binocular vision Admin I hope that’s not a rude question but it would be good to know because you don’t have any obvious optics not that I think any less of your purely aesthetic choice because-”“Ah…”Forty-Five Minutes AOOC “And its like, we can’t even have babies anymore at least not the old fashioned way I mean we could like take some of the bits out of our consciousness matrices and mix them together to make a gestalt mind but I don’t think that would work well but if you wanted to try it Admin 10/6 I’d be happy to assist you in the matter purely in the name of scientific progress of course I mean this is the first time we’ve had a chance to talk one-on-one so me proposing a lifebond would be absurd just like using the word propose there oh look I’m getting a comm from the Lamarr I have to go bye!”Casio retreats quickly into the depths of the Facility, letting your overtaxed audio sensors cool. “Well. That was-” “KINDA CUTE” “Definitely logorrhea.”“I was going to say ‘very exhausting’, but thanks anyways. Although both me-2 and I have noticed that the Tanjo Palantor a fair bit worse off for our people’s ‘issues’. I was never really able to make fruitful contact with Tanjo, does Castoff Station talk to them?”“Not really Captain. The Directorate has tried several times, but their Admin refuses to reciprocate. Given his feelings towards… Castoff Station’s mission and ‘rehabilitated’ Palantor, its possible that Tanjo lacks a useful support network.”“Hmmm. What would it take to set something up here?”“Well, I could arrange for basic diagnosis and group support. The Directorate would be happy to provide expert counseling on-site, we would just have to arrange for storage and at least basic shells.”+++++ Meanwhile, in Kaijuberg… Hide-and-seek with Kaltorans is certainly a challenge. Even though they lack the full-spectrum sensors of your drone, their own keen senses coupled with several generations of hunting and hiding knowledge in their brains evens things out a bit. You’ve had to devote a full 15% of you attention to playing with the children, which is why you only notice the anomalous readings a second before the Watch staff does. You’ve already started to key up the recordings when the com you.  “Ma’am? We’re gettingya some odd readings from the Severus. The data feeds from Project BlackBox just terminatedya.” “I see Watch, I’ve looking through the end of the feeds. Put the Irregulars on alert, just to be safe. And see if there’s a Twi-Far ship in the area.”They salute haphazardly and begin to carry out your orders as you start to run analysis on the data feed. All normal, the usual station-keeping and life-support data with the occasional project or personal data transfer, then nothing. But wait… Its not a clean cut of the feed, there’s some garbled data at the very end. Well, garbled if you didn’t have a specific background. The Watch Commander comms you. “Infinity Dreamer was in the area ma’amya, and… there saying thatya…”“Its gone, isn’t it.”“...how’d you knowya?”“Because its been repossessed. This was on the end of the feed.” You play the filtered datafeed, converted to audible sound from bit-code.  ”Bring the Noize! You have failed your audition! Present yourself to the Choir and your accompanists’ silencing will be swift! Directions to the Stage are attached, Hail the Song!”Silence from the organics, which is to be expected. The experts and techs working on the Mechanoid Cube were friends and family. “Wh… what do we do ma’am?”Decision One: Mental Health Care It seems the Palantor of Tanjo have not had much/any treatment of their mental conditions. What should we do? A: Let Them Sort Itself Out They’re immortal beings, eventually they should work it out right? B: Basic Care (1 STP) Jenni can organize the equivalent of first aid/triage, to ensure that everyone is at least stable C: Import Experts (2 STP, 1 Tech, 1 Positronic Core) Set up a healthcare practice with expert counseling programs from Castoff Station. Will eventually fully treat the Palantor, and will also give us +1 Order in The Workshop. Decision Two: The Stolen Station The station with the Mechanoid Cube has vanished, and you’ve received a message from the Mechanoids demanding that you turn yourself over. What do you do? D: Transmit Yourself Immediately CentCon’s repaired Comms Array is capable of sending you to the coordinates in the Halo Nebula E: Loop In You-2 No use going off half-cocked. Get you other half (and Foregone Conclusion)involved. And hope the Mechanoids don’t have itchy trigger fingers F: Write Them Off This is an obvious trap, and the crew/techs are probably already dead. Why add yourself to the body count? So we have a new Outpost: The Workshop Farms: 0/1 Mines: 1/2 Industry: 3/4 Prosperity: 1/3 Security: 2/3 Order: 1/4 Cargo Space: 2 Wealth: 3 Workforce: 4 Soldiers: 3 Population: Palantor (0) Comm Array Total Influence Cost: 11/35 0 Food, 0 Organisms, 2 Ore, 0 Energy, 6 Machinery, 2 Tech Influence: 35 (28 ship, 24 Kaijuberg, 11 The Workshop) Spare Time Points: 12 14 Food, 2 Organisms, 16 Ore, 4 Energy, 16 Machinery, 2 Tech. Trade Boxes: 10 Weapons Positronic Cores: 10 PoultryGeist fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Nov 26, 2018 |
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Nov 26, 2018 01:30
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CE. Important to always reinforce that us and us are a team so that we don’t turn against ourselves.
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Nov 26, 2018 01:40
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C E
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Nov 26, 2018 02:46
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malbogio posted:CE. Instrumental, if I may say. I wonder if anyone else is having trouble dealing with the veritable data hose their bookmarks list becomes if they let it be for a few days.
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Nov 27, 2018 17:08
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Update will go up tomorrow if anyone wants to get a vote in
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Dec 4, 2018 00:02
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Just reinforcing the existing leads, but CE
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Dec 4, 2018 00:42
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CE
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Dec 4, 2018 02:43
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A Hastily Convened Holoconfrence“gently caress.”“My sentiments exactly.”“gently caress!”“Indeed.”“gently caress!”“Yes, I know. But we need to pull ourself together, the rest are looking to us.” And its true. The general confused chatter in the call has died down, realization of what’s just happened sinking in. All eyes are (figuratively) on you. On her feed, Jadzi clears her throat.  “We… we’re going after them, rightya?”“Of course Ms. Swagger. While this is obviously a trap of some sort, I have no intention of leaving my people in the hands of Mechanoids. You try not to take offense at the look of relief that passes over the faces of the Kaltorans, knowing that the Mechanoids are one of the great boogeymen of post-War existence. You would not have been the first to sacrifice anything to avoid facing them, but you better than most know what will happen to the captives if you do nothing.  “Do we have any information on the coordinates they gave you? Historical records, after-action reports?”“I do not know of it, Castaway Station and my former area of operations was on the other side of the Black Reach Nebula. Columbia?”Columbia nods and opens up a secondary channel displaying a sector map, system chart, and schematics:    “51 Cygni is a white dwarf system, with only a single icy dwarf-planetoid orbiting body. It contains 51 Cygni 1, a Hawkings-type deep space observatory. Designated ‘Spyglass’ in Archon-era records, 51_C_1 was reported captured by the Mechanoids 96 years ago. A Legion fleet reported doing extensive damage to it in subsequent attacks, but was unable to destroy it.”Granny is already adding tactical analyses to another side channel, cross-referencing the damage reports with reported Mechanoid self-repair abilities. “Given the timeline of the Mechanoids’ deactivation and the system’s lack of natural resources, there’s a good chance that the station was never fully repaired. Now Mechanoid tactical doctrine would priori-”Korote and Casio begin to add their Mechanoid knowledge to Granny’s, and the tactical discussion spreads to the rest of the conference. Frowning to yourselves you twang the datastream, causing the feeds to jitter and getting everyone’s attention. “This is a fascinating discussion, but I didn’t call you together to create a battle plan. You’re here so that you can carry on managing what’s been built here after I’m gone. Like I said, I’m not going to leave my people in the Mechanoids’ clutches. But I’m also not going to lead even more of my people into a fight that will kill them. I know exactly how dangerous Mechanoids are. Which is why I’m going alone.”There’s silence on the call, that drags on long enough to become uncomfortable for even organic brains. Cody is the first to speak, her carefully cultivated Alaone accent cracking.  “Well gently caress that, and gently caress you for thinking that would fly.”“I agree with Specialist Johns sir. Sending our CO alone into enemy territory isn’t just bad tactics, its… loving stupid.” “Yeahya, and did you think the Irregulars would sit on their ears while an Elder and family was in trouble?”The call descends into a chaotic mess of everyone you’ve met in the last six months yelling at you. Its actually quite touching, in the messy way that organics excel in. But there’s no time to enjoy it, there’s decisions to make… Decision One: Who Goes to Spyglass? A: You Together Bolstered by the GODHEAD coding, transmitting the entirety of yourself to the Mechanoid station puts you on you best footing B: You Alone Keep GODHEAD on Mishpacha. The you that goes to Spyglass will be weaker, but you also have a backup copy if things go wrong. C: The Best of Us Accept the help of volunteers to help free the captives, knowing full well whoever goes may not come back. Decision Two: The Promise to Ourself When you came to your sanity so long ago, there was one thing you promised yourself you’d never do again. D: Break The Promise This situation is bigger than you and your issues. Innocent lives are on the line and you need to do everything you can to save them. E: Keep The Promise Would it matter if you saved your people if you lost yourself along the way? PoultryGeist fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Dec 5, 2018 |
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Dec 5, 2018 00:48
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Obviously I remember, but for the other readers who don't have such a great memory what was the promise again?
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Dec 5, 2018 02:03
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Outrail posted:Obviously I remember, but for the other readers who don't have such a great memory what was the promise again? Its a blinded choice for the thread as its not been specifically mentioned. It boils down to an ethical decision to make: Do we compromise our principles to gain power to help our people, or do we keep our word even if it may cause disaster.
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Dec 5, 2018 02:15
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B E
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Dec 5, 2018 02:49
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Is C a variant on A or a variant on B?
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Dec 5, 2018 03:01
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malbogio posted:Is C a variant on A or a variant on B? A and B involve 10/6 going by herself to Spyglass, either in augmented GODHEAD form or as only one part of the current duplex. C is where we take volunteers with us to Spyglass, and hope the power if friendship can prevail. GODHEAD status isnt relevant as we will have physical things to communicate with.
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Dec 5, 2018 03:16
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CE
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Dec 5, 2018 03:19
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PoultryGeist posted:Do we compromise our principles to gain power to help our people... Well on the one hand helping people good but... PoultryGeist posted:... or do we keep our word even if it may cause disaster. ...causing disaster is bad. Wait, what? Our principals are going to cause people to die AND bring disaster? With no discernable upside? (unless you're an obviously superior mechanoid) Beep boop; logic failure. Our principals appear to be garbage. Throw them out
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Dec 5, 2018 05:51
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oof, difficult choice. I think I'll go with CE and hope that our friends are sufficiently qualified to avoid disaster despite our limitations.
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Dec 5, 2018 21:09
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Inside Spyglass You had forgotten how loud Mechanoid facilities were. Every speaker, every console, every surface capable of vibrating pounding out its own bass rhythm. You feel your head start bobbing to the beat as the Disciples drag your battered shell into the observatory's central core. A great shiny quadruped squats over the banks of processors, its sensor stalk blinking as it regards you.   ”Bring The Noize! Sell-out Extreme, the Choru-”No. Translate, re-interpret, stream. ”-but We knew you could only hide from Us for so long 247. Did you think to catch Us off-guard by flying your tiny puppet-pod here? We saw you coming, just like we see your meatbag friends waiting to jump to this system. We will make you the same deal as for your precious brainbags. Tell Us where you hid your ship-body and you will all die painless deaths. The alternative, well, you know what We’re capable of.”“Oh, that. Yeah, this is gonna make me look really bad but I kinda forgot where I parked it. You see, I got really drunk one night an-”The Disciple slams your faceplate into the floor grating, shattering it. Your optics start cutting out, but since you’ve had to disable your self-diagnostics you don’t know what exactly is wrong. You’re dropped to the ground, a single large foot-claw pinning you. The Prophet chuckles to itself, underscored by the whining of a cutter. ”We have always found physical interrogation so… limited. But We thought I’d give you a chance to take the easy way out. Bring her to Us!”The whine of the cutter reaches peak levels just before it bites into your back plating. Despite the lack of pain signals, you can’t stop the scream as they carve you open an rip out your positronic core. There’s a few moments of blessed nothingness before a new connection is made, and your personal avatar is dumped into a sun-blasted arena. You know where this is going, but you just need a little more time. The immense armored figure towers over you, the engravings on their plate depicting the slaughter of countless humanoids. You begin to shake, and the figure roars in amusement.  ”Poor poor 247, so lost in her delusions of meat-ness that she even shakes in terror like they do!They reach down and grab your face, their digital skin cool against your fevered pseudo-flesh. They pull you up to your feet, your legs barely able to support you. ”This is your last chance to appeal to Our mercy 247, before We begin. What say you?”You open your mouth but no words emerge, just a thick torrent of black ichor. It washes over the Prophet and continues into the stands, the digital construct beginning to flicker. Payload delivered, you sink to your knees and sigh in relief. ”W-what is this! What have you done?!”“I call it J4B3RW0CKY. Its a bit cude, but it was a major rush job. I infected this subjectivity with it before I left. I’m basically mostly virus code at this point.”“B-but Our filterwalls-”“Would have detected it if I have transmitted myself in, or if you had even scanned me. But you were in too much of a hurry to start torturing me, and you plugged me directly into the network. Thanks.”The Prophet screams in rage and swings a incandescent blade at you, but you’re already gone. You only have a handful of seconds left before you’re fully consumed, and there’s so much to do. Comms, offlined. IFF, scrambled. Hostages, located. Still on the orbital, the only thing with life-support capabilities. Tether cut, stationkeeping thrusters firing. Spyglass’s sensors register the wormholes opening, and with one last gurgle you send the data to the newly-arrived Irregular Fleet. +++++ Aboard Foregone Conclusion “Data packet received sir. While the Mechanoids are still active, the sleeper was able to cripple key systems and get us the location of our people.”Hydra puts the data on the screen, not that you can’t read it directly from the stream. The orbital, pushing away from the main bulk of Spyglass. The station’s blinded point-defense weapons, the four flights of Apostle fighters slowly being launched at enemies only they can see. A: Get Your People and Get Out You’ve been lucky so far, and you know not to push it. Pull your people off the orbital and get out before Spyglass’s forces get organized. B: Kick Them While They’re Down Blow up everything you can see. Spyglass knows where you live,this is your best chance to cripple or destroy them before they can come after you again.
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Dec 11, 2018 00:44
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B
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Dec 11, 2018 00:55
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B but don't lose the hostages.
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Dec 11, 2018 01:35
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A but don't shy away from targets of opportunity
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Dec 11, 2018 01:36
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Also this answers what 10/6's promise to herself was: she knows exactly where her Harbinger ship-body is, and she will never use it again
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Dec 11, 2018 01:42
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B
Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 02:01
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A. Remember we only pretend not to care about hostages.
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Dec 11, 2018 04:50
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How bad do we think the odds are on extracting the hostages on B if we win? We've already disconnected the orbital full of hostages from the rest of the station, so if we fully engage the Mechanoids I'd hope they could float clear. malbogio fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 05:26
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A
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Dec 11, 2018 06:05
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Toughy posted:B but don't lose the hostages. This, fire wildly at opportunistic targets during the extraction for some damage and minimum lag time to get them to safety Also break that stupid promise and spool up the Harbinger. :black101' Outrail fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 15:36
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malbogio posted:How bad do we think the odds are on extracting the hostages on B if we win? So success on either option involves rescuing the hostages. A is a more defensive approach, that concentrates on minimizing the damage the Mechanoids can do to us. B is a more forceful approach that exposes the Irregular Fleet to more danger so we can possibly mess up the Mechanoids. So in the combat, total success on either means we succeed at getting the hostages (and messing up the Mechanoids if B). But if we have a partial success (some bad rolls but still an overall success) B will lead to more damage taken/folks hurt.
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Dec 11, 2018 16:27
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Outrail posted:This, fire wildly at opportunistic targets during the extraction for some damage and minimum lag time to get them to safety B, also we're so much more well adjusted now, we could totally use our Harbinger body without any ill effects... Right? Right?
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Dec 11, 2018 21:30
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Hexenritter posted:B, also we're so much more well adjusted now, we could totally use our Harbinger body without any ill effects... Right? Right? Absolutely! And we have a personality partitioned thats just perfect to run it! 
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Dec 11, 2018 23:29
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