The first few months pass without incident; men and women long used to constant fighting settle uneasily into quiet, normal lives. Simus oversees the excavation of the hole into which the new base would be built, Pancaek always at her side, clanking metal fists together at anyone who looked at her. Skylar and Anton and a revolving group of other amateur mechanics spend their days modifying the adhoc airforce of reclaimed ships, the junkyard alive with the flickering glow of torches until well into Hephaestus' gloomy nights. Leman, Angel, Miyamoto, Felix and many more self proclaimed soldiers spend their time in training, shooting down targets in the VR or training their hand to hand against scrap metal dummies beneath the great shadow of the sword and it's cradle. Lars busies himself with propaganda, a corner table in the mess hall acting an office where he and Charles- and anyone else who felt like they could write a slogan or jiggle- would meet and spend hours arguing over the best way to get the message of the new glorious robot overlord to the people.
By the fourth month the deep metal skeleton of the base has been set in place, and Simus walks the high crossbeams over the several hundred food abyss that will soon be her command center. Local workers and maintenance teams from the sword begin construction on the new laser battery, precise optics, focusing chambers and enormous gimble systems ferried along underground networks from an automated assembly plant somewhere under the planet's crust. Morul completes his first skittish test flight in one of the reclaimed ships and Jack pilots the Thundertron on long walks, surveying the area and watching from the distant hilltops as repair drones coat the radioactive remnants of the shipyard in molten lead from enormous crucibles set along the crater's edge.
At six months the soldiers are helping to smash up the ruins of the old command center, collapsing it in a slow, semi-controlled manner with lazy laser target practice and the occasional test round from the new artillery gun set into the mountain top. A circular railway now surrounds much of the compound, weaving through the newly sunk foundations of bunkers and trenches that mark the eventual path of underground tunnels between them. Maurice, Faith and Mesk spend much of their day in the deep sections of the underground, working with the Doctor in the fleshlabs, growing the modified sods which the defense forces had commissioned. Renen, with Lyra curled up by his side, sits atop the sword and silently waits for his skills to be needed once more.
The first of the Steve bots, mechanical beings eerily similar to those of the Snowglobe, are seen floating several hundred feet above the concrete cap of the nuclear crater at eight months. The workers speak of a shaft several miles deep hidden somewhere in the surrounding mountains, consuming huge amounts of materials drawing repair drones from miles around. The great guns of the Sword shift for the first time since the ship has landed, grinding across the surface of the ship and locking themselves into place, barrels pointed up at the heavens. Bonfires of scrap material burn on the edge of the aurora every night as earth moving machines bury the majority of the base back under the rust colored soil. The ninth month sees the Sods, pale from their life below, but bristling with muscle and programmed knowledge, stepping out onto the Hephaesian plains and running drills inside the bunkers.
On the eve of the ten month anniversary of peace, Steve's voice broadcasts within the halls of the Sword, the chambers of the new Headquarters and out across the newly finished memorial park atop the concrete cap of the crater.
> I have picked up a Jump in signature. And then, 10 anxious minutes later
> Total number of ships unknown. 10 at least. This is what we were waiting for. The fleet is here. It will take them roughly 46 days of deceleration to reach us. They will no doubt use sub FTL systems to hail us before then. We will not respond. We are on radio silence from this point on. They will have to come in quite close to see that the situation has changed using their imaging equipment. At that point, they will no doubt send several landing ships to evaluate. This is when we will attack.
The next weeks are long; each day longer and more anxious then the last. The fleet sails toward them slowly but inevitably, a death they can see coming but can do nothing for but wait and prepare to fight back as best they can. The final few days are deathly quiet and solemn, an awkward, nervous silence that seems it will never end. The last night is filled with fitful sleep and many find themselves walking the cold, red dust plain which they have called home for a year, quietly admiring the fruit of their collective efforts.
The alarm comes in the late morning, as the sun drifts toward it's peek in the sky.
>They have entered their long orbit and launched several ships. ETA on atmospheric entry is 12 minutes. 16 till touchdown. All hands, prepare for battle. I'll handle these now, but after this, no more fucking around. We're starting.
((So did I build the ship & create the engineer group also what is my aux now +1, 2 etc ))
No. You're not pulling ships and engineer corps out of nowhere after we spent like 2 months getting this all planned out.
But you did level up.
((Claps for PW. That was a massive list and you did really well to slog through it. Seriously, Kudos.
Now to spend my 10 tokens...))
4. 2x 1/8 kt charge
5. Tesla sabre.
1 spare
Done
Obtain gloves.
Figure out basic properties of the thing. You know, size, shape, weight, stuff like that. Ideally also figure out what the heck it does because seriously this is stuff I could have done the day after I got it.
Gloves don't help. It fucks with you anyways.
I described the shape. Size is about as big as your head. It has no weight. Did you read the description? The thing is pretty fucking hard to mess with using normal methods.
((Hey PW: I checked the idiots in space.txt and it seems you forgot a to set a few levelups from last mission. My dex and endurance should be 5, not 3. Willpower should be 22. I raised aux to 3 and uncon to 1. It also says I've got 0 tokens, even though I should still have 7))
got it.
Put on the space suit! It is time to look cool!
You put on the spacesuit. It's like the MK I, but older. And bulkier. Probably more a museum piece then anything. Though, there is something kinda odd about it. Can't put your finger on why.
Examine the skull. Read the names on it.
There are hundreds of names written in very small letters. You don't recognize any of them. You just want a list of the names?
Bishop follows Steve's directions.
You run your gloved hands over jim's back until you find a small panel set in amongst the synthetic sinew. You pop it open and search around inside for the aforementioned button, finding it set rather far back and at an awkward angle. It takes a few minutes of jabbing about with a screwdriver to finally get it, but eventually you succeed and the display begins to list systems and their status.
>Skeletal system: Intact
>Musculature: Minor damage to left pectoral
>Sensory systems: Functioning.
>Internal performance limiters: online
>Life support systems:Functioning
>Brain-case: Secure
>Organic controller: Abnormalities detected.
Like I said before, a great deal of pretty much everything is gonna be secret or at least not told to you. The world is like the missions, half the fun is being dropped in strange and unknown circumstances and having to figure things out.
((I should really keep more notes in mind for that sort of thing.))
Feyri smiled as Bishop moved to 'do the deal'.
"I wonder what else Steve has put into everyone with the robotic body. And...I guess we should start to notice our weaponry more. Most of them have knobs, dials and buttons that are unlabelled.
And no manual."
After giving Bishop a pat on the back, in a friendly way, she turns one of the dials of her Laser Rifle mentioned earlier.
You turn one of the dials on your laser rifle and look at it for a few seconds. It doesn't do much of anything-doesn't explode, fly, roll over, or become a death ray-but then again you haven't tried firing it yet.
Deactivate the performance limiters.
Does anyone want to spar?
You wanna do that in normal life? I hope you enjoy accidentally breaking everything you touch while also damaging yourself. Should probably save that for when you need it.
I'm currently taking a catnap, curled up on my bunk.
Catnip catnap catcoma
If possible without activating the button, wear the suit beneath the Mk II during the mission.
Str 3; Dex 3; End 3; Cha 7; Int 4; Wil 15//Spe 0; Int 1; Han 0 (-1); Con 1; Unc 0; Exo 12; Aux 3 (+1); Med 0
Mk II Suit; Microwave PK Amp; laser rifle; 3 tokens: normal cigarettes; blue smokes; datapad (with platformer shooter); nanoghosts; shock trigger (with me); odd suit
Appearance: 5'11'', 170 pounds in a rather unmuscular frame, shoulder-long brown hair, short goatee, brown eyes, a rather long chin that earned him his nickname. Age 32
Half a robot foot. Robot right arm. Wears basic clothes when not in the Mk II.
Possible, but if something hits your chest it might press the button accidentally.
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