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Storyfag

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Whatever reactors they have, even if exploded, won't compare to the force of hitting someone with a massive moon fortress at sublight speeds.

Truth be told, even a grain of sand traveling at a significant fraction of c will be a deadly relativistic kill vehicle :smug:
 

Baltika9

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Well, what about explosion on impact? Double hazard.

Or, better yet, use a fortress to slam into a planet with an overloaded reactor, pushing it up with our thrusters into the middle of the killzone. And then let the whole thing explode, sending shrapnel/planetary chunks everywhere, while we teleport to a safe distance and watch the whole spectacle. And fire our big gun, just in case.
 

treave

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Whatever reactors they have, even if exploded, won't compare to the force of hitting someone with a massive moon fortress at sublight speeds.

Truth be told, even a grain of sand traveling at a significant fraction of c will be a deadly relativistic kill vehicle :smug:


It's likely to disintegrate upon hitting anything, though. The bigger and denser it is the better chances you have of having something left to hit your target with. This is also why I'm now declaring SHIELDS, SHIELDS EVERYWHERE even if they're not explicitly mentioned. Assume your weapons are powerful enough to get past shields that can handle interstellar travel. Fuck, it's true that sci-fi writers have no concept of scale. :(

At those speeds, the fortress is the explosion.

I fucking hate physics.
 

Esquilax

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I'm getting the feeling that this battle might end up quite long and that at some point, they may get another crack at us with Vajra once it recharges. I'm wondering about potential ways in which we could bait them into hitting their own fleet. When we got hit by Delta, it took a chunk out of their own forces as well.

But it is still sufficient to destroy fleets, as you have seen. The specialized drone acts as a targeting module for the cannon and relays the FTL signal. The speed is instantaneous at these distances.

This is easier said than done, because it seems that once the drone locks on you and the signal has been relayed, you are fucked. I have no idea how we could make the signal lock onto say, their fortresses, but I'm open to suggestions.
 

treave

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Codex 2012
After running the scenarios, surprisingly, sneaking onboard the Vajra is actually easier than trying to take on everyone and their mother in a big fight.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
treave: Sorry, why don't we just fire a normal black hole at the star and then run out of their weapons range? The black hole would collapse the star in on itself. (I know you said before that the annihilation cannon would cause a nova, would a normal black hole do the same?) You said the fortresses take weeks to move. That means that their mass is quite large. Varja too probably? Add a black hole to the mix and they'll be scrambling just to keep Varja and 20 space forts from falling into the black hole - a bit hard to aim your superweapon while doing that...
 

treave

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20? :lol:

Your weapon doesn't have the range. Charge it up where it can actually do damage? Enjoy dronerape. Charge it up from a safe distance? A black hole won't reach before dissipating, and the annihilation cannon would miss. Probably miss.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

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And even if it didn't. BOOM.

Yikes. More than 20 then.

Meh, fly close enough to the sun and the drones will be toasted (hopefully the energy armor would protect us). Besides, I would think only a small black hole would be enough. It'd fall through the core, come out the other side a few 1,000 times over the course of a few minutes while we run. By then it'd achieve the mass to collapse the star entirely. But hey, I'm no physicist.
 

treave

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The small artificial ones you make with minimal charge time have too short a life span to eat anything significant of a star's mass before blowing up. I believe this trait was mentioned at least once in the updates.

Also, it bears mentioning again, but drones aren't as limited as missiles. They can correct their course and even stop and attempt other more complicated maneuvers. Like flanking a target from all directions.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

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I had assumed once they'd consumed enough material they would become stable and that the star (especially the core) would provide enough material of sufficient mass to do that before the black hole could explode... Guess not. :D
 

treave

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Codex 2012
The Belly of the Beast

Gelmark System. 06.08.4033

“Glory to the Mushuszu Empire!” screamed the head floating in the glass jar. I look at Jheverg, who nods proudly. “This is my best man, Boshen. He will serve you well.”

“I will do my best, Bel-Senya! I will not let you down! Glory, all glory to the Dragonwarden!” I have entirely no idea how a disembodied head could scream so passionately, but it managed to do so anyway despite a clear lack of lungs to draw breath with.

“Yes, glory.” I reply with an awkward cheer. “Yua, how is the IFF working out?”

“I see no problems with it, Master. It should buy us enough time once we exit the wormhole.”

“Well, once I’ve installed the head on the console, we are ready to leave.” I say.

“O, to grant me a seat on the glorious panel of this divine automaton that wards our Emperor! I am not worthy!” cries Boshen.

“…Jheverg?”

“Yes?”

“Is there any way to calm him down?”

He shakes his head with a smile. “His faith is beyond reproach, Sir Hoshikawa.”

Bummer.

***

Carneus Beta System. 06.08.4033

When we exit the wormhole, I am suddenly very glad that I did not come unprepared. The League had put much of their resources into constructing defences just like how we had put all of ours in creating the bomb. They had considerably more resources to spare, and had been at it for much longer.

Carneus Beta has a single white dwarf, with five planets orbiting it; one terrestrial and four gas giants. There are not many ships present; I can detect perhaps six hundred cruisers, though there are probably more, but very few battleships. It looks like there is no Sector Armada present here yet. What they have, on the other hand, are fortresses. There are at least seventy major fortresses the size of moons. Every fortress is shaped like a shallow cone; at the top of the cone, on the flat surface, stood six main guns that could each put out enough energy to render a planet permanently uninhabitable. That is without getting into the multitude of lesser armaments it has, as well as the drone swarms that guard each fortress. The space fortresses have been anchored to one another with an extensive network of tubes spanning a good part of the system. Each of these tubes are lined with more weapons. You could literally walk from one planet to another just by following the tubes. Twenty more fortresses are orbiting at varying distance from the stars, tasked with guarding the jump points at close proximity. At the center of it all stands their prized weapon; Vajra Shula. It is shaped just like a regular fortress, except that instead of the main guns that usually lie on top of the cone, a thick, long, silver spear juts out in an extremely phallic manner.

Like it or not, that overcompensating piece of deadly art would be our goal. I had decided that an all-out assault would be too difficult and that a quieter approach suited a single mech more. It's not every day that you get access to the IFF of a shuttle that once carried a colonel of their special ops. Plus, it gives me more options. I like options.

“They’re scanning our IFF, Master.”

I snap my attention back to the task at hand. There’s no time to be analysing the system right now – I can do that later. Even though the IFF is checking out with them, I see drones approaching. They will probably begin firing in a few seconds.

“I’m powering down all extraneous systems. Getting into a fight here would be bad. Rei, set a course for the Vajra Shula. Boshen, time to get to work.”

“I was only awaiting your command, Dragonwarden! For the eternal glory of the Mushuszu Empire! My cloak is the cloak of the righteous; the sinners shall avert their eyes from the justness of its weave. My cloak is the cloak of the bold and the mighty; the weak shall not recognize the glory of its cut…” And his chants continue, incessantly, as he hides our presence from their sensors. It works.

Rei brings us carefully past the drones, which are circling where we were just a few moments ago. We’d have to be careful not to go too fast, lest we break Boshen’s concentration. The cloaking would not be perfect; the constant scans of the fortresses’ powerful sensors would detect us sooner or later, but I had come out of the jump rather close to Vajra Shula – it was always likely to be closest to the jump point heading towards Carneus Alpha – and we do not have far to go to reach the League’s shiny new spear.

Unending waves of drones stream around us as Rei makes countless delicate manoeuvres to slip past them. Touching even one would be disastrous. There were just too many drones. From my estimates, each fortress could probably house millions. The systems appear to be highly automated; there probably aren’t that many personnel stationed here. They wouldn’t usually need to, not with a fortress network this strong; best to have your smarter officers out there devising strategies and conquering worlds rather than waste them in a backwater system so heavily defended that no attacker in his right mind would usually come knocking. They don’t need that much tactical brilliance when they can drown any invader with drones and beams and missiles. Taking this system in a straight fight would be long and brutal, even with a full fleet at my back. Conversely, losing Carneus Beta would deal them an immense blow in both morale and resources. Taking over their fortresses, or even their superweapon, now…

“We’re here,” says Rei.

The hangar bays are closed, but that doesn’t really matter. I had already suspected that it would be impossible to sneak inside without attracting attention. A giant robot parked in the hangar tends to do that, and it’s not like Boshen can keep up his cloaking forever. I cast a glance at the head.

“…fashion… dazzling…” he mutters, beads of sweat floating all around the jar. I’ll have to get Rei to clean it up if we have time.

“Alright. Tear it open. Boshen, you can stop now. Good job.”

He gives a huge gasp, his eyes wide and staring. “…praise the Emperor! Praise his Warden!” The drones react immediately, as a rain of missiles comes flying towards us, but it's too late now.

Anhur-Shu digs its clawed hands in between the seams of the bay doors and pries it open, shrugging off the explosions by defending its back with the gravity wings. We slip inside quickly before we are swarmed. The frame’s feet skids against the hangar floor. There seem to be screams coming from all around us; we have terrified the little men in space suits. There is a cruiser they are working on. We blow that up. There is a rack of drones standing nearby. We blow that up too.

“O, and in the year of the Dragon did we penetrate the belly of the beast and blow shit up real good. I am not worthy of such wondrous sights!” wailed Boshen so gleefully that he forgot to speak like a good and proper Spirit of the Empire. Well, that’s it. I prepare to depart the CF. Ironically, as long as I’m going to be at Carneus Beta, inside Vajra Shula is the safest place to be; they won’t fire upon their most important fortress, the hangar acts as a natural chokepoint, preventing Anhur-Shu from being swarmed, and the drones are not manoeuvrable enough to fight inside the relatively small space of the hangar, unlike a humanoid frame. I suppose they can plink away at the CF with small arms fire all day if they want. It's a free galaxy.

“Sis, I’m going off now. Keep Anhur-Shu ready for anything. Let me know immediately if there’s anything wrong.”

“You’re leaving me with him? Can’t you at least take Boshen along?” Rei is uncharacteristically distraught.

“Well…” I might need to be stealthy, and the head could be a double-edged sword. He can cloak me in a pinch, but he is so loud all the time.

***

A. Take Boshen along. I’ll just mount him on my backpack, he can be an extra pair of eyes.

B. No way.

***

Opening the cockpit, I leap out of the frame. The hangar is still in zero-gee, and I shoot towards the nearest wall. Flipping around and pressing my feet against the wall, I kick off in another direction, towards a hapless defense droid dejectedly watching its ammunition bounce harmlessly off Anhur-Shu. Stretching one hand out, I smash it to the ground. My tentacles swarm out from the ports in my suit and jack into the droid.

“Yua, this thing must have some sort of information on the layout of the fortress.”

“Yes, Master. I’m extracting information right now, so just hold on.”

The data feeds directly into my brain. It looks like all passages are equally guarded; I should expect to face security squads and defense drones, as well as wall, floor and ceiling turrets no matter where I go.

Well, that wasn’t unexpected. Now, as to where I should head first…

***

A. The room labelled power chamber. This is probably where the artefact that powers Vajra Shula lies.

B. The room labelled control and operations. This is where the brain of the superweapon is; I suspect that it uses a quantum computer for its FTL calculations.

C. The room labelled database facility. From what I know, this could be linked to the League’s database; I should be able to obtain information about almost everything I want to know from here.
 

treave

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When encountering an enemy superweapon, you shouldn't be thinking 'let's test our knowledge of the superweapon via a series of careful skirmishes and begin devising a plan to negate its advantage in battles with the enemy armada'... that's too boring. You also shouldn't be thinking 'let's go blow up the superweapon! Now!'... that's just a waste.

You should be thinking 'Cool shit. I'm gonna steal it.' That is how you troll the League. :troll:
 

Azira

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Alright. I've deliberated.

AB

Extra eyes seem extremely useful, but even moreso the possible cloak. Senya can ignore the chanting. He's ignored the fawning of whatshername, Emiri? He can ignore Boshen if needed. And being quiet now seems a moot point.

Oh, and hacking a quantum computer would be fun!

Especially for Yua. Could we still make her into an AI goddess if she possesses the entire fortress network? :glee:
 

Storyfag

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Hmmpf.

Let's not get greedy, shall we? Trolling the League by stealing their weapon *would* be beautiful. However, since we're inside the fort, let's get back to our mech and proceed to tear this place apart from the inside with black holes.
 

treave

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That would take a very long time. It's kinda big. And you don't want to fire off anything that you can't escape from. Besides, in the end you're playing a character that prioritizes knowing things. More curiosity, less uncultured barbarianism please. This weapon is a work of art.
 

Baltika9

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Option number three: we steal Vajra and repurpose it as our CF's personal sniper rifle for maximum ownage.
:thumbsup:
Although, I'd rather we get a minigun or bazooka, sniper rifles are too standard-issue. Or a spear.

As I see it: take away the superweapon, sabotage their fortress network and pump them for maximum intel.

Since I doubt we'll get to do more than one: AA, Senya has tge electronics covered, the Spirit will help us avoid personnel, we're not as tough without nanites.
 

Esquilax

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Damn it, now I'm really regretting not going for the Degeneration Field. This would have been the perfect place to use it in considering we're on foot. treave, will Rei be able to handle herself in here on her own? She won't get swarmed here, but if we bring the head with us, it's probably best not to hang around too long.

Well, the way I see it, if I were the Council, I'd definitely place safeguards on the artifact that powers the Vajra Shula. Pulling it out from where it's stored won't be as simple as picking up something off the shelf. However, hacking into the quantum computer that allows for the instantaneous calculations on the signal relay of the FTL cannon could really neutralize their weapon. More importantly, since there are no Sector Armadas here, the vast majority of the defenses on this system are automated and controlled by the computer - something that a skilled hacker like Senya could no doubt exploit. Lastly, I think the database facility is a bit of a wild card, but I am fairly positive it might give us instructions on how to actually get the piece in our hands safely. Oh, and finding out where Epsilon is would be gravy.

The downside is that Rei would have to fend off lots of drones by herself, but I think she can handle it.

Voting AB for now. Really, I could flop to any of the choices though.

Flopped to AC
 

Baltika9

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Damn it, now I'm really regretting not going for the Degeneration Field. This would have been the perfect place to use it in considering we're on foot.
Wait, don't we already have this ability on foot, treave?
The range is spherical. Though I say visual range, the effective range probably goes for less than a hundred kilometres in radius. Any further and there are far too many particles for you to track without blowing your mind. Requires a lot of concentration in the first place. You can actually pull this off on foot, albeit with far lesser range. I did say atoms, but you can think of it as slowing down and breaking everything. A de facto time slowing spell, in a sense. It can be resisted by strong immortals with high regen.
 

Jester

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It's also rather a pity no one thought to follow Delta, ram their flagship, and steal any targeting drones onboard so that we could figure out how to spoof the signal and do other wacky things to their targeting.

Dmn i wanted to get Delta drones and do some science on them. : |

That would take a very long time. It's kinda big. And you don't want to fire off anything that you can't escape from. Besides, in the end you're playing a character that prioritizes knowing things. More curiosity, less uncultured barbarianism please. This weapon is a work of art.
Yes it is. Main component was made by someone compensating, but its ability to send light fireworks is worth it.
Sound like something made for me. :P

Treave how much time passed since last shot? Taking into consideration that we were able to get human head in that time... or mby not, getting some tissue for science should take few minutes and having some fanatics should shorten that.

If close we could send one to alpha or beta and gamma, even if we wont be able to shot we will find out position of epsilon.

Vote AB.
 

Esquilax

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Interesting...

The space fortresses have been anchored to one another with an extensive network of tubes spanning a good part of the system.

I wonder if/how we could manipulate this via the quantum computer.

I am becoming a bit more confident that AB is the way to go. It isn't necessary to get Vajra into our hands - I feel a far greater success would be to sabotage all of their automated defenses and fortresses so that they have no place to fall back to any longer. These defenses are likely linked to that computer of theirs. A move like this might force them into a confrontation with Ean's fleet, since they can no longer afford to just sit and wait for us at Carneus Beta.

It's important to note that despite their access to Master tech, quantum computers are still extremely rare and valuable to the League:

The quantum computer is worth ten of me to the Council.
...
With some tinkering, we have managed to get it operational with one piece.

So, even with all their knowledge and resources, they needed to do a lot of fucking around to get the Vajra Shula into a usable state. Sabotaging the quantum computer would get them back to square one; they'd have to get another quantum computer for it to make the FTL calculations, then they'd have to make their superweapon operational again. Unfortunately, this would take a long time, and in the meantime, we'd be able to operate with impunity.

You know what, bros: I say fuck Vajra. Sabotage the computer and go after their defenses instead. With the computer malfunctioning, we would have lots of time to operate with no fear of their tricks. And with their defenses gone, they would have little choice but to come out and face our fleets since they'd have no place to hunker down any longer.
 

Storyfag

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Right you are, Esquibro. Sabotaging the fortresses should be our top priority, and taking over their control center should be the most efficient way to do it. Overloading the forts' power cores or making them shoot each other sounds like fun. But I'm not a fan of your "fuck Vajra" attitude. After the forts are sabotaged, we'll have to get/black hole the artifact ASAP. The Council cannot be allowed to retain it, or there *will* be trouble.

But at this point AB is optimal.
 

Kipeci

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BB

Rei might require this head's prestigious abilities, as painful as it is for us to part.
 

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