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Storyfag

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And so there we have it. ABB wins.

images
 

treave

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Codex 2012
The God and the Youth

Strings of light criss-cross Jupiter’s low orbit. The construction of the bomb is entering its second stage; once all of the compactor discs are ready, they will commence the shrinking of the gas giant into a super-dense sphere no more than two hundred and fifty metres across, nearly six hundred thousand times smaller than its original size. This will then be enclosed in a well-armoured casing able to withstand a bombardment that would shatter our own moon. One thousand black hole generators would be enslaved to the main bomb in the core; along with providing enough energy to generate a gravity shield, they would also act as a trigger for the bomb – when the generators were simultaneously overloaded, Jupiter would turn into a supermassive black hole with a diameter measured in light years. The process would also release energy on the level of an extremely powerful hypernova; sufficient to sterilize whatever was left of the galaxy on the fringes of the newly born black hole.

“It’s rather inspiring, isn’t it?” The Tree-Emperor floats over to where I am, watching over the greatest construction project in humanity’s history from an observation balcony on the Sword of Ean.

“Yes, I suppose building something that could wipe out a hundred thousand light years’ worth of stars is a very inspiring feat.” I say. He shakes his head. “I meant everyone working together, like this. Back in my time we would not even have been able to conceive of such things.” Ean laughs. “I couldn’t imagine how big the universe was until I could see it for myself.”

“Yet the Masters could switch it off like you would a light bulb.”

“Yes, there is that. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that there is always something greater around the corner. That doesn’t mean that we won’t win, of course. Even the underdog has its day,” grins Ean confidently. “Our courage and ingenuity should be sufficient.”

“Will it? Have you been to their dimension before?”

“No, but I have received an invitation once. Some man drinking tea in a garden offered it to me.”

“Sounds familiar. I may have met someone similar.” I say, as I watch Erec struggling with Sekhenun’s laboratory machinery. “Huh, it looks like your goddess has got him tamed.”

“Ah, well…” He hesitates a bit. “She has that effect on most people. Erec and his family seem to be nice, but…”

I chuckle “The whole Hail to our God-Emperor antic gets a bit tiresome, doesn’t it?”

“I’ve had royal guards following me everywhere before. It is always tiresome, especially when things go sour and you end up having to protect them instead.”

There is a loud crash from the hallways below as Erec drops the stuff he is carrying. For the first time, I’m treated to the sight of him cringing submissively as Sekhenun begins doling out the verbal abuse. I turn to the Tree-Emperor with a grin. “Does she do that with you?”

He gives me a piercing stare with his ageless eyes and replies, “If you’re going to start talking about that, you might want to know that I have heard plenty of stories about you and your princess.”

“Right, let’s not.”

“Agreed.”

After a few moments of peaceful silence, I resume the conversation. “By the way, how are you finding that book on space combat that I lent you?”

“The treatise was interesting, to say the least. Adapting one’s mind to think in the three dimensional structure of space as a battlefield is not as easy as it seems. I’m afraid I will never be a very good pilot. I prefer the feeling of my feet on the ground as I run at my enemies.”

“But?”

Ean laughs heartily. “Yes, there is a but. But I think I can imagine the flow of battle, now that I have fully understood the weapons involved. The fundamental nature of warfare has not yet changed. Misdirection, organization, location; all of these are still as important as they were thousands of years ago. I look forward to testing my skills against the Star League.”

“Perfect. As of now, I’m giving you the job of directing our military strategy against the League.”

“Adrahasis should have more experience, given his parentage and his specialization. I think he would be more qualified. For that matter, you have more experience than I do.” He seems surprised, his lips curled in a bemused smile as he protests his appointment half-heartedly. I knew that I had him, however, and pressed on.

“As a tactician, Adrahasis is brilliant, but the Star League knows of his reputation and has ways to keep him in check. He is best deployed as a smoke screen for our real strategy. I know a thing or two about tactics, but I will be needed on the field and cannot afford to spend too much time commanding. We have many competent officers, but few have the ability to coordinate an engagement on the scale that I expect. This will not be an easy war.”

“I don’t recall commanding anything more than a hundred thousand men. This is quite different.”

“Don’t be humble with me. I’ve read your epic. You were known not only for physical ability on the battlefield, but also your cunning. Unless Shulgi was really embellishing matters, I think you will have no problems adapting to space warfare.”

“I doubt he’d be so kind as to praise me more than I deserve,” nods Ean. In a matter of seconds his manner has turned rather more authoritative as he turns his mind to the problem before him. “Very well, we will give this a try. I will need aides to help me break down the information, and you will need to get me involved on fleet organization as soon as possible. Your modern war is a bit more structured than the ones I am used to."

“Excellent. I’ll get it done. Oh, and I still need to make up an official rank for you… I was thinking Grand Marshal of the Galactic Core Invasion Force…”


-CHAPTER END-
 

Storyfag

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“Adrahasis should have more experience, given his parentage and his specialization.

Hmmm. The Tactician. A God of War, then. Child to another God of War whom Ean is familiar with? Son of Ares?

Also, another of Storyfag's Stupid Questions(tm)(R)(c):

What lured me into this thread was the promise of enslaving nations using necromancy. What combination of choices would have led us down that path? I recall one of Sekhenun's sisters animating the corpses of her egyptian army, can the Immortals do similar things? Are there any Immortals in the League or the Empire who have this power?
 

treave

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You guys never went anywhere near that, unfortunately, being too engrossed with kicking ass and taking names (or at least the prospect of it). Charging headlong into stuff all the time. Probably would have been easier to access as Shulgi.

Yeah, there are those who can raise the dead in varying forms of decay, or lack of it, but generally it isn't all that important in an era of space battles because particle beams and nukes tend to leave you with nothing to necromantize.
 

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“Don’t be humble with me. I’ve read your epic. You were known not only for physical ability on the battlefield, but also your cunning. Unless Shulgi was really embellishing matters, I think you will have no problems adapting to space warfare.”
Cunning? Ean? Bwahaha, we're so screwed. :lol:
 

Baltika9

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Hmmm. The Tactician. A God of War, then. Child to another God of War whom Ean is familiar with? Son of Ares?
Yes, actually. Now Ean's "I owe them a new ship" comment makes sense. Thankfully, Ares doesn't seem to be around anymore.
 

treave

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Codex 2012
Interlude: Preparations

Report on Current Status of Galactic Core Invasion Force

Federation Fleets

1st Fleet:
3 super heavy battleships
150 battleships
2000 cruisers
7500 combat frames

2nd Fleet:
1 super heavy battleship
100 battleships
1400 cruisers
6000 combat frames

3rd Fleet:
1 asteroid battle-station
1 super heavy battleship
10 battleships
500 cruisers
5000 combat frames

4th Fleet:
1 super heavy battleship
80 battleships
1650 cruisers
4500 combat frames

5th Fleet:
1 super heavy battleship
70 battleships
1500 cruisers
5000 combat frames

6th Fleet:
1 super heavy battleship
110 battleships
1250 cruisers
5500 combat frames

7th Fleet:
1 super heavy battleship
90 battleships
1100 cruisers
4300 combat frames

Imperial Legions

Dragon’s Guard:
815 super heavy battleships
10931 battleships
54106 cruisers

Raven’s Lance:
500 super heavy battleships
10500 battleships
68500 cruisers

Devourer’s Hammer:
1939 super heavy battleships
27710 battleships
33362 cruisers

Emperor’s Sword:
2350 super heavy battleships
21580 battleships
46000 cruisers

Serpent’s Wing:
700 super heavy battleships
13500 battleships
55000 cruisers

Wolf’s Shield:
731 super heavy battleships
9988 battleships
51319 cruisers

***

A little over more than four hundred thousand ships are at our disposal. Although we don't have the time and resources to refit the Imperial fleets, the Federation vessels have almost all been installed with mass-production black hole generators, allowing them to use standard issue black hole cannons and long range wormhole jumps. I flick the information away and check the report about the Star League. The first strategy meeting will be held rather soon; I should familiarize myself with the contents as soon as possible.

***

Report on Star League Armada (Estimates)

Sector Armada Alpha:
1000 super heavy battleships
20000 battleships
80000 cruisers
2550000 drones

Sector Armada Beta:
400 super heavy battleships
10000 battleships
100000 cruisers
3000000 drones

Sector Armada Gamma:
600 super heavy battleships
8500 battleships
95000 cruisers
2300000 drones

Sector Armada Delta:
2000 super heavy battleships
25000 battleships
35000 cruisers
1000000 drones

Expeditionary Fleet Epsilon:
10 super heavy battleships
3000 battleships
10000 cruisers
50000 combat frames


I reach the end of the page and scroll back up again. It looks like we are about evenly matched in numbers – it was a good thing that Adrasteia volunteered to retake the ships of the Devourer’s Hammer and Wolf’s Shield Legions. I notice a blinking icon at the bottom of the screen.

“You have a message from the Chief, Master,” prompts Yua. “I think it’s about your CF.”

The Engineering Chief? What about it? Curious, I open the message.

Dear Hoshikawa,

It looks like you have improved by leaps and bounds since the last time we worked together. This frame, Anhur-Shu, is truly a worthy successor to the Anhur line. The engineers have done an excellent job of tuning it and installing the weapons systems that we designed, but we can do better.

And we have.

After a bit of rebalancing, we can install two more systems on Anhur-Shu and make an upgrade to one system.

So, what shall it be?

Regards,
The Chief

...

Sweet.

***

I. Tactical Warp System.Allows me to use wormholes to warp around the battlefield at will.
Upgrade: Improved Tactical Warp System -The warp rings have been redesigned so that they no longer need to detach. The energy consumption has also been lowered, allowing for quicker warps with less cooldown time.

II. Devourer Shield. Creates mini wormholes to swallow incoming attacks.
Upgrade: Devourer Shield II - The system can now defend from up to 65536 simultaneous attacks at once and redirect 10% of all enemy fire back at them.

III. Ring Slaves. Remote drones that draw upon the black hole generator to power their weaponry. Also allows you to warp your own fire through the rings for tactical considerations.
Upgrade: Ring Familiars - The rings are now semi-sentient, imitating your reaction speed and instincts to improve their survivability on the battlefield. They can serve to multiply the power of particle or laser attacks by an order of magnitude, or be used to teleport black hole attacks.

IV. Variable Black Hole Cannon. An improvement on the original, the yield can be tuned from frame-busting to planet-busting levels. At lower yields, multiple black holes can be fired at once.
Upgrade: Annihilation Cannon - Collides a mirror pair of matter and anti-matter black holes with the target to create a burst of destructive energy that is strong enough to annihilate a star system if left uncontrolled.

V. Gravitic Drill. The spinning of the drill will create a gravity vortex that will move even battleships. At close range it can punch through the thickest armour.
Upgrade: Super Gravitic Drills - Now you have two of them. The range and strength of the vortex is increased. The drills can now also be used as remote drones. They still punch through everything.

VI. Homing Lasers. The use of gravity lenses to bend light, allowing the lasers to follow their target if the first shots miss. Nigh unavoidable once locked on.
Upgrade: Homing Laser Array - Each laser now has enough firepower to punch through a normal cruiser-class shield. Concentrating their firepower on a single target will allow you to burn a hole through a moon in one shot.

VII. Reactive Energy Armour. Uses the immense generator output to constantly create a layer of ablative energy. It can be supercharged and ejected outwards to burn the enemy, or contained and used for a ramming attack.
Upgrade: Reactive Energy Conversion - The frame's armour has now been installed with energy absorbers. This allows the absorption of heat and kinetic energy from nearby explosions or beam attacks into the reactive energy layer.

VIII. Gravity Wings. Wing-like projections that can be manipulated to immobilize an enemy or serve as an extra layer of defense. Also increases agility and maneuverability.
Upgrade: Gravity Wings IX - Up to nine gravity wings can be projected, each increasing defense, agility and maneuverability more.

IX. Degeneration Field. Using the frame’s sensors and my ability, I can ‘kill’ the random motion and bonds between atoms within an area of effect of roughly visual radius. Anything caught within will slow down drastically and begin to crumble into their constituent atoms.
Upgrade: Degeneration Lance - The ability can now be focused on a single target. This magnifies the speed of degeneration and the extent of freezing.
 

Storyfag

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IV - the Annihilator Cannon upgrade is too good to pass up.
I - I believe we should continue with the upgrades. And long-range mobility is what we really need.

What do we know of the Star League's drones?
 

treave

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Clarification, you get to pick two new systems, and only one upgrade to an existing system which can include the two new ones you picked.

As for the drones, they're like little missile carrying missiles that have the maneuverability and durability of a space fighter.
 

Esquilax

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“Don’t be humble with me. I’ve read your epic. You were known not only for physical ability on the battlefield, but also your cunning. Unless Shulgi was really embellishing matters, I think you will have no problems adapting to space warfare.”
Cunning? Ean? Bwahaha, we're so screwed. :lol:


He is - just because we happened to play him in such a way that we made insane and reckless decisions all the time doesn't mean he wasn't designed as a leader/tactician type. Basically, until the earthquake at Tjaru, we played Ean in a far more calculated manner than we did afterwards - sure, we took big risks (i.e. Sekhenun's temple) but we were certainly a lot more careful about instead of being all "JUMP INTO THE RIFT!!!!" So yeah, I have no doubt that Ean has what it takes to develop some great strategy here.

As for the systems, I find the Annihilator Cannon upgrade tempting, but it'll do us more good on the other side of the gateway than it will here. Even if we use the Jupiter bomb, we'll have yet another nasty trick up our sleeve with a super-weapon like this.

It seems to me that Anhur-Shu's biggest weakness is that it's something of a glass cannon; fast and dangerous as hell, but if we get hit, we're in serious trouble. So we've got to really shore up that weakness, which makes the Devourer Shield a no-brainer (however, since it uses wormholes, is it vulnerable to Master fuckery?).

treave, does III mean that we can actually teleport black holes to a place of our choosing once we've fired it?

I'm going to go with Storyfag's picks for now:

VII
III
Upgrade:
III
 

Esquilax

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I think that the hardest thing to deal with from the Star League (other than potential Master trickery) will be the drones. Our forces, particularly the ones from the Empire, are heavily reliant upon big battleships, and millions of quick, fast, maneuverable missiles could inflict a death of a thousand cuts upon our slower, heavier forces. The Devourer Shield II sounds like the remedy for this, but it would mean forgoing the glorious Annihilator Cannon.

Using Anhur-Shu as a meatshield and then reflecting the missiles being launched at us back at the enemy would be pretty goddamn effective. But we still have to deal with the Masters later and I find its usefulness against them a bit more questionable.
 

TOME

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I don't think we need a fleet of our own to defeat the Star League after this upgrade. Also is there really a need for even bigger cannon? We have our Jupiter-bomb to use against masters and wiping out star systems in this dimension is retarded; we only need to wipe out high ranking immortals and absorb the rest of the League.

treave, could you explain those defensive systems more, i.e. what level of protection they provide? Is Devourer shield useless against AoE attacks?
New systems:
II - Might flop to VII or even VIII if those provide decent protection.
III
Upgrade:
I

Flopped.
 

ScubaV

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I concur with II and IV, but I think VI or IX might be better for combating drones than III. Drones are going to be small and highly mobile, thus hard to hit. The rings are good for misdirection, but they won't help with hitting pinpoint targets like homing lasers will or an AoE attack. That said, the rings might be more useful the Master's dimension, but then so would having more ships that survive our war with the Star League.

II
IV
VI
 

Kayerts

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I suppose an epic does get mythologized, that's how it goes. Things get remembered as being more awesome than they really were. First Ean was kicking Marduk's ass, and now he's wiping the floor with a Master.

Let's not forget the time he threw an entire enemy army into the underworld at Tjaru without breaking a sweat, or how he dueled the deadly minotaur and took nary a scratch. Although probably his greatest victory came when he fought the spheres in their home dimension and totally killed them all!
 

treave

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Without going into biggatons, you can expect the defensive systems to handle most battleship level attacks. Obviously they have their limits. Getting fired upon by a dozen ships is different from sustaining fire from a few thousand. The devourer shield can't handle explosions, it should be used before the missile explodes. The upgrade to the energy armour gives it the highest direct tanking ability, being a passive system you don't need to worry about most times. Also Rei can manipulate it. You'll still need a fleet because, rather obviously, you cannot pin down the movements of 400000 warships by yourself long enough to get an appreciable number of them.

The upgrade to III will allow it to teleport black holes after firing via two rings, along with most of your other attacks including lasers. It's useful for all angle attacks. The upgraded rings are also far quicker and agile than any League drone. They aren't weaponless. Each has a particle beam rifle on board. To slaughter drones, the lasers and any powerful AoE are still preferable of course.
 

Baltika9

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It seems to me that Anhur-Shu's biggest weakness is that it's something of a glass cannon; fast and dangerous as hell, but if we get hit, we're in serious trouble. So we've got to really shore up that weakness,
Agreed, we did extremely well against the The Prince of Bel-Air's fleet, but even then they were pulling shots because of friendly fire and the Emperor's presence. In a bigger battlefield, and with the amount of drones they'll have (whom nobody gives that much of a fuck about), ballsy maneuvers and agility won't be a cure-all.

However, I don't think that the Devourer Shield is our best answer: I'd rather go for this
VII. Reactive Energy Armour. Uses the immense generator output to constantly create a layer of ablative energy. It can be supercharged and ejected outwards to burn the enemy, or contained and used for a ramming attack.
Not only is it extra armor, but we can also overcharge it for an AoE in case we're getting swarmed by drones. Also, ramming holes in ships as way out of tight spots/emergency boarding actions. Basically, armor+a way out of tough situations.

That, and of course the slave frones for maximum defense against the enemy's lighter units.

The Annihilator Cannon will cover us for the Raw Power.

So, III, IV, VII.

Kayerts, don't forget his masterful seduction of Minos' daughters and the passionate night of lovemaking that followed.
 

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VIII - Gravity wings are being seriously overlooked, bros. They helped us outmanuever the fleet's missiles, win against Marduk, and let us hide our ace in the hole singularity from Adrahasis while he was blathering.

VII - More defense since we're going to be a fleet slaughterer.

VI - With the advanced gravity wings speed and defense bonus, combined with the defense bonus of the energy armor, and our already somewhat advanced black hole gun, we should be perfectly suited for strafing runs on the 1000s of large targets. Homing Lasers should allow us to extend our superiority down to those hard to hit little drones and CFs too.

The disadvantage of the Devourer Shield is that it probably won't cover us from all directions at once. Sucks against drones that will probably try and surround us (though with advanced wings, they'll probably have a hard time catching up to us).

After the last battle where a small fleet was able to sneak right up behind us - not to mention the 100s of 1000s of drones the enemy has - I think we need something that can cover our backs too. Between the 9 gravity wings and the Energy Armor, that should be more than enough, provided we don't just sit in one place and soak damage - which kind of sounds like the only way we'd be able to use the devourer shield effectively btw.
 

Esquilax

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Bros, allow me to propose a quick alternative and see what you guys think:

III. Ring Slaves. Remote drones that draw upon the black hole generator to power their weaponry. Also allows you to warp your own fire through the rings for tactical considerations.
Upgrade: Ring Familiars - The rings are now semi-sentient, imitating your reaction speed and instincts to improve their survivability on the battlefield. They can serve to multiply the power of particle or laser attacks by an order of magnitude, or be used to teleport black hole attacks.

Based on treave's clarification, it seems that these two additions will allow us to have a SHITLOAD of tactical opportunities. Our black hole weaponry is already at planet-busting levels, and while we'd be sacrificing raw power, we'd be making up for it in accuracy and rate of fire. Loading up a solar-system destroying black hole would likely take up a lot of time, but being able to throw out smaller black holes and adjust them on the fly seems to be immensely useful both in this coming war and in future battles against the Masters. It would also increase the power of our particle and laser attacks to boot. I feel that the versatility it provides might make it a better bet than the black hole cannon.

The downside here is that it seems to not be as effective, particularly against drones without the help of the homing lasers.

As far the remaining upgrade:

VII. Reactive Energy Armour. Uses the immense generator output to constantly create a layer of ablative energy. It can be supercharged and ejected outwards to burn the enemy, or contained and used for a ramming attack.

We really need something to shore up our weakness in the defense department - as I've mentioned before, we're a glass cannon. Unlike the Empire, the Star League's forces have millions of drones and seem to be more maneuverable overall, so we will get hit eventually. When it inevitably happens, we need to be able to take it on the chin and keep going.

Also, the potential for a ramming attack with which to unleash Ean into an unsuspecting enemy flagship containing Star League leaders seems pretty goddamn retarded awesome.

Thoughts?
 

Baltika9

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I would go for an upgraded III, if it weren't for the Masters: raw firepower is something we will most definitely need. They existed for how many eons now?

On the other hand, the upgraded drones will definitely give us an easier war against the League (with a name like that, I wonder if their Council wears cheesy superhero costumes. I guess we'll find out soon), meaning we'll get to transfer a bigger invasion fleet into their dimension.

I sincerely doubt we'll get to fully utilize the Annihilator Cannon to it's full extent in the war without damaging our bros (unless we pull a Tzeentch-level stunt and ambush an entire Armada wing out of slipspace to get hilariously black hole'd).

But, with all the tech and talent on our side, I think we'll be good for the first war. It is the War In Heaven that we should be most worried about.

Edit:
There is a loud crash from the hallways below as Erec drops the stuff he is carrying. For the first time, I’m treated to the sight of him cringing submissively as Sekhenun begins doling out the verbal abuse. I turn to the Tree-Emperor with a grin. “Does she do that with you?”

He gives me a piercing stare with his ageless eyes and replies, “If you’re going to start talking about that, you might want to know that I have heard plenty of stories about you and your princess.”
Oh, I bet Sek and Kyrie got on swimmingly.
 

TOME

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Remember how in the last battle we had difficulties firing our BHC? We had to stand still for a while so we teleported and hid and even then we had time to fire it only twice. With the Reactive Energy Armor and Reactive Energy Conversion (new system+upgrade) we can stand still for a longer period of time and thus can fire BHC more often. And we can have Rei charge the shield if it starts to fail.

The upgrade to the energy armour gives it the highest direct tanking ability, being a passive system you don't need to worry about most times.

Flopping to
III
VII
VII
 

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