((First off, you got a roughly equal mix of good and bad dice. However, you got bad dice when you really didn't want them. Your future mission is looking perilous at best now.
Second, these 504 Timeout errors are really pissing me off.))
Oh. Oh my.
I propose the following motivational speech:
"Eli. We got ambushed off balance, and I promise you, we will NEVER be unprepared for Vanguard again. Yes, your sisters died, but we will too if we don't win this war. So now. We make planetfall soon. Are you going to come kick ass for them with us?"
You give your rousing speech to Eli. It seems to really perk her up, and she nods her head as vigorously as she could, without disturbing the Morey surgeons working on setting her arm straight.
“I’ll make sure to be planetside with you all” She says, trying to smile through the pain.
..A..ALL FORCES TO THE PODS WERE GETTING OUT OF HERE NOW!
Private link with Ari "No matter what we avoid the vanguard. Even our ace in the hole doesn't have power...which reminds me do we have a second?"
After giving your rousing speech, which was more successful than you thought it would be, you briefly contemplate rushing right after the vanguard or even rushing planetside using the shuttles, however you dismiss that notion as you have things to do currently. The mission on the surface will have to wait.
Besides, you need the all clear from the three Fleets that engaged the Vanguard.
We probably should start a new policy about all weapons(non-explosive) and armor should be keep in sleeping quarters or something along these lines.
You send out a communiqué over the Battle-net telling your sisters to keep their equipment as close to them as possible at all times, to guard against Vanguard attacks at unexpected times. It goes well, with all of your sisters who thankfully survived the battle with the Vanguard, keeping their stuff with them as they return to their rooms.
**
Right now since were being hit we should get what we can in to the pods and drop to the target planet to engage the Slinkar. The Humans seem to have very few on field troop numbers so we may be able to avoid them and just fight the Slinkar for control of our old HQ.
Proceed as plan i say.
An before i forget see if Ala-Shar is on her own and needing help. If she is then we should mount a rescue for her and bring her with us.
Once we get to the target planet we'll proceed as plan. If the Vanguard however take the HQ then we'll just have to wait for them to leave...
You think about going to the planet again. From what you saw, the Vanguard seem to operate in only small units, compared to the Morey and Slinkar. Their firepower, however, seems to be far higher. Manoeuvring around them whilst on the planet should be fairly easy so only minor changes to the plan will be needed, mainly just to watch out for Vanguard troops.
That is, unless the Vanguard decide to try and take the old Morey HQ. Its something to keep in mind, you decide.
You decide to check on Ala-Shar.
“Ari, any idea where Ala-Shar will be?”
“Probably on the Bridge with the Admiral”
“I’m going to have a word with her. You help look after Eli, ok?”
“Gotcha”.
You hurry off to the Bridge, where you see a grim looking Ala-Shar and a rather unsteady looking Admiral. The Admiral is leaning on her command chair. She looks like she has had a huge shock to her system.
So our weapons are worthless against their shock troops.
I would in fact agree with the pullout idea.
We should pull out and go get weapons that aren't utter bullshit before engaging the vanguard. See that alien chick about that option.
You slow from your run to a walk as you get closer.
“What’s wrong?” You ask, a bit confused at the Admirals condition.
You get no answer from Ala-Shar, and the Admiral seems to ignore you, turning back to her consoles and screens, tapping away furiously and giving out orders.
“Ala-Shar?” You ask again.
“It seems...” She says slowly “...that the Vanguard have been given an upgrade. It is no wonder the weapons we gave you didn’t work. They would have worked previously, and I still wouldn’t discount your small arms from doing damage, but they seem to have received a massive technology boost”.
“We need to pull out then and get weapons that can actually damage them.”
“That is the problem, Pandora. We don’t HAVE any weapons, at least woman-portable, that will be able to punch through that armour they use. Now, from what we know of the Vanguard, it is only their more elite units that use that armour, and the majority of them seem to be tied up fighting the Vanguards mysterious enemy somewhere in space that has not been charted by the Council races yet. From what our scans tell us, at least 98% of the troops they landed on the planet, all 30,000 of them, are the Vanguards standard troopers, whose armour is lesser than that of their Marines, and nowhere near as good as their dreaded Warfighters.” Her face goes a significantly lighter shade of purple at the mention of the Warfighters. “Prey you do not meet them....”She says. She pulls herself together with a clearing of her throat.
“What about the fleet? What is its status?” You ask.
At the question, the Admiral turns around and, in a small voice, mutters “Retreating....”
“What....?” You cant believe what you just heard. “We had three huge fleets! The Abasha, Lar-Sinder and the 21st Galactic Strike Group! Are you telling me they lost?”
“YES!” The admiral shouts, turning on you. “The Abasha fleet was
WIPED OUT! The Lar-Sinder fleet lost 86% of its forces! And the 21st Galactic was reduced to 20%! I think the
ONLY consolation we can get is that the Vanguard wiped out every Slinkar Fleet in the system! As far as I am concerned, this system now belongs to the Vanguard.” She stops, panting. “The only surviving fleet that is fully intact is this transport fleet, and even that has taken heavy crew losses due to those damned marines.”
“I...I cant believe that.....” You stammer.
“Take a look. “Ala-Shar says, pressing a button that opened the Bridges shutters.
Outside, there was pure carnage. If pictures were allowed in a dictionary, what was before you would be the very embodiment of the word. You could see, from where the ship is, the remnants of the 21st Galactic and the Lar-Sinder fleets retreating towards you. You can also now see that the middle wreckage-ring in the system is now far more dense, littered with far more modern looking Slinkar and Morey ships, as well as the old hulks of varying sizes and classes from decades past.
And right at the centre, with barely a scratch on them, are the two Vanguard fleets capital ships. The smaller support craft, you can see using the ships scanners have taken some damage, but you cannot pick up a single Vanguard ships wreckage in the system.
“Impossible....” You mutter.
“Oh, it is very possible.” Ala-Shar says. “And the worst part? Your mission is still going ahead. Not only do we need the HQ and its databanks, the only weapons in this system that could possibly make a dent in those Vanguard ships are the ground based planetary defences on that planet. We also need someone to escort the supplies we were supposed to be sending down to the troops already there.”
“You have to be joking.”
Sadness crosses her face. “I wish I were. These are the orders of the Presidentess that we got over the FLT comms lines whilst you were fighting the Marines. The Presidentess is coming to this sector personally. She will be leading the Matriarchs personal fleet to this sector to engage the Vanguard.”
Ask about the vanguard personal shields. Comment on them being plasma-proof and ask if that implies any vulnerabilities.
They probably have better metals that can soak up the heat better then shields.
“Do you know anything about the Vanguards new technology, primarily their shields?” You ask, hopeful.
“I am sorry. I have not seen that type of technology used by the Vanguard in any recordings we ahve to them to date. It must be very recent. I would also hazard a guess and say that their base armour has also being increased in strength as well.
“Any weaknesses that you could hypothesise?”
“Well, the Matriarchy has been working on advanced personal shields, however the Vanguard ones seem to be far more effective than anything we have at the moment. One thing we seem to have found, however, is that shields are primarily used to stop energy weapons. This means that laser, hyper laser, plasma, destabilised plasma, hyper plasma, and anything higher has a very high chance of being blocked or significantly weakened. Use Coil, gauss and mass-driver/railgun weapons where possible as their solid projectiles will probably penetrate the shields. Whether they penetrate the armour is another matter entirely.”
****
proceed as planned, watch out for vanguard, try to remember a bit more of your past with the help of the probes, focusing on remembering the English language.
Once we get to the target planet we'll procede as plan. If the Vangaurd however take the HQ then we'll just have to wait for them to leave...
I seriously think you should try to relearn the English language, not only will it allow you to intimidate the Slinkar with "Vanguard" battlecries, but Ala-shar has stated that the Vanguard want peace, and having a person who can understand and speak both Morey and Vanguard would be invaluable, thus making sure that the main character, if not her whole brood unlikely to be "disbanded" (executed) due to lack of remaining troops.
Long term planning
Thanking Ala-Shar for her time, you walk back to your room, extracting yourself from your equipment and setting its self-cleaning routines to work. You do the same with your undersuit.
Taking to heart your own advice, you keep your equipment close to you. Your engineer pack you keep by your bed, with your weapons. Your suit and under-suit are nearer your wardrobe, but still close to you.
Lying naked on your bed, you begin to think about things other than the immediate problems.
You communicate with the probes again.
‘Hello Talli. Sorry I haven’t contacted you for a while. Things have been quite hectic out here.’‘We know.’ They respond, their voices filling your hearing, filling your head from the inside out. ‘
It is unfortunate what happened to the members of Elianna’s brood. We felt their lives being extinguished, alongside that of their AI’s. We are sorry we could not do anything to help’.You stay silent for a moment.
‘It is not something we should dwell on. We cannot change the past. What is done is done. We can only look forward.’
You are silent for another few minutes.
‘
What I wanted to ask you is on a different track as to recent events. Would it be possible for you to help me remember my past?’
‘
The chances are slim, but we can but try. Now, concentrate....’
You calm yourself, and focus on retrieving your memories.....
You start to remember.
You remember your age clearly. It wasn’t what you thought before. You were 24 years old. You were young, athletic, intelligent and you were engaged to a large, strong man called Horace, who you loved with all your heart. You can feel yourself start tearing up, tears falling from your eyes, at the memories.
You remember your twin daughters, only two years old, young Annastasia and Katarinka. You had a large extended family, with a doting pair of parents and an ever loving set of grandparents. You remember you lived in a large house with your fiancé and your children in the United Kingdom, more specifically Northern England. You feel yourself let out a wail of anguish at what you have lost.
You had a successful job, not as a secretary but as a budding manager in a large company so soon after university.
After the large points, your head starts to fill with more specific memories. Your first steps, your childhood, your friends and family, your school life, your deflowering, and giving birth to your precious daughters.
And, maybe most importantly of all, your name.
Katia. Katia Heartwood.
This is all followed by a rather comprehensive summary of the English language. You feel the knowledge flow into your mind, the grammar, spelling rules, simple and complex sentences, vowels, consonants and various other pieces of information re-embed themselves into your brain.
‘
I.....Remember....’ You think to yourself.
In your enthusiasm, you try to speak English. All that comes out of your mouth, however, is a series of weird and grinding sounds, as if your vocal chords are not structured correctly to form the sounds needed.
But, baby steps. You at least remembered your past and your language.
************************************************************************
Right so to make it easy for the GM.
Find Ala, see if we can get another awesome grenade like that, and get EVERYONE IN THE DAMN PODS!
Once we get to the target planet we'll procede as plan. If the Vangaurd however take the HQ then we'll just have to wait for them to leave...
((You have a stockpile of those big bombs.))
************************************************************************
What do you do now?
Status:
1. Calm.
2. Mentally fit
3. Physically fit.
4. Clear thoughts and currently inactive mental factions.
5. Free moving.
6. Naked
Condition:
1. Physically Healthy. Chest wounds healed. Extensive Scarring.
2. Mentally Stable.
Inventory:None. Currently Carrying/Wearing Nothing.
Available Equipment:1. Mark 3 Vat-Born Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Suit
2. Mark 3 Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Helmet
3. Basic White Skin Tight full Body Under-suit x 4
4. Advanced White Cooled Skin Tight Full Body Under-suit x 2
5. Mk5 Mass-Driver pistol (sidearm)
6. Arishok Plasma pulse rifle
7. Dikari Plasma shotgun
8. Warrisk Mass-Driver Battle Rifle
9. Combat Engineering Equipment and explosives.
10. Stun/Concussion rifle
11. Casual clothes x10 (White skin tight suit, Gloves, Boots)
12. Ceremonial robes
13. Royal Guard Armoured Powered Exoskeleton suit
Implants and Augmentations:1. 2x Loyalty probe in the Striatum part of the brain.
2. Multi-range optics (Thermal, magnetic, IR, UV, multi-stage magnification etc) implant on eyes.
3. Command and Control (C&C) nano-module implanted in head.
4. Communications array nano-module implanted in head.
5. Fortified 7th Generation reverse engineered biological nano-machines in blood stream, bones, muscles, tendons and organs.
6. Nano-memory modules in the Cerebrum, holding all relevant non-personal data.
Brood Composition:1. Forward Command and communications: 10 Vat-born.
2. Field Combat Medic and Long Range Specialists (Snipers) all come in at 50 persons each.
3. Heavy assault and Light Assault have 250 each.
4. Infiltrators: 50
5. Heavy Support: 120
6. Combat Engineers: 120
7. Scouts: 100
Ari's Contingent:1. 12 Scouts
2. 7 Infiltrators
3. 5 Forward Command & Comms
4. 19 Field Medics
5. 13 Combat Engineers
6. 22 Long Rage Specialists (Snipers)
7. 25 heavy Support
8. 23 Light assault
9. 64 Heavy Assault (including Ari herself)
EDIT:
Shouldn't the main character be feeling resentful against the Morey? I mean, they kidnapped her, utterly stole her life, enslaved her, kept her in a vat for ten years, took her out to mindrape her with loyalty probes, and are using her as an expendable peon to fight a war they got themselves into. English could be useful to negotiate with the vanguard, but if the character had a vengeful bent more than a saint, she should try to assassinate everyone who caused her to be forced into this hell and/or use the English to defect to the Vanguard with the whole brood if possible.
So far, it is not as black and white as that. The Matriarch seems to be, at the moment not in control of the Morey government. The Old Guard Generals also seem to have been marginalized. And lastly, the scientists seem to be guided by the Iron Fist of the Senatorium and the Presidentess, who is the Antagonist in the Morey politics.
She is the one who took joy in torturing the main character.
She is the one who hates humans.
And, who knows, maybe she was the one who sanctioned and forced the scientists into producing the Vat-Born in the first place...... ((remember, crazy people arent particularly rational))
Author
Topic: (SG) Starfire: War and Politics - Enemies Old and New - UPDATE 03/07/2014 (Read 87586 times)