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Author Topic: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Fall 1965: Final Design Phase)  (Read 18859 times)

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Winter 1963)
« Reply #75 on: March 24, 2019, 03:28:17 am »

Aratamite Activity

Coming from the depths of the Black Chamber is the Blackwell Technique, now part of standard SEEM training. After 10 seconds of concentration, SEEMs can create a symbol linked directly to the Astral realm. This symbol causes various negative mental effects in any Astral-untrained personnel seeing it, such as fainting, disgust, and some hallucinations. But for a single victim chosen by the SEEM, it can cause short-term memory loss, full and extensive hallucinations, extreme paranoia, seizures, and much more, with severe brain damage resulting if looked upon for too long. Death is possible for victims albeit rare.

The Lantern jet now in the skies is another Aratamite creation. A variant of the now-obsolete Torch jet, it sacrifices very heavy reactor shielding (replaced by extra Cryostate time), missiles, and bombs for what can be called an unhealthy amount of armor. It's now a flying tank, able to take direct Shrike hits and CLAW lasers and still fly. Though those weapons are still effective against it. Just not nearly as much as before.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Spring 1964)
« Reply #76 on: March 24, 2019, 03:29:34 am »

Combat Report: Spring 1964

As the war goes on and increases in intensity, the Merethan military starts requiring more and more ICE. Too much for both itself and the civilian sector.

Official evacuation orders go out to the lowest parts of MAGMA as STABIL-ICE is shut off there (and even above, heavily rationed). Not that many people move, that is. Where would they go? Their previous homes lie frozen and abandoned in the outside Tundras. Crime increases as gangs gain control of all the ICE in lower Magma. Many citizens feel more protected by their local crimelord than the government. Occasionally MAST divisions raid lower MAGMA to forcefully evacuate citizens and eliminate crime. To little success. President Nix Gelus condemns the activity in lower Magma and promises to "finish the war" and devote attention to domestic issues.
The biggest crime organization, DWARF, is suspected of infiltrating some parts of government to secure their ICE supplies. This is deemed an outrageous claim, yet internal intelligence and security organizations of the government start monoplizing civilian use of the ORACLE-A for mysterious classified reasons.


Sarita Dobrev makes waves in Aratam. Rumors spread of her. How she can read the minds of anyone near her. How she can kill with a single snap of her fingers. Officially, her position and she herself doesn't exist. But that doesn't stop the Aratamites from talking in their pubs away from Keepers. She is seen as a symbol of Aratam. As frightening as inspiring. People say that you'll know if you see her. Not a single picture exists, but that when she's in the room, you'll just know.

Aratam isn't free of wartime consequences. Cryostate rations are decreased across the nation. Keepers flood the streets looking for criminals desperate from rationing. The Bureau of Enhanced Operations starts feeling stress as divisions between agents grow and their tasks in suppressing crime and Merethan intelligence operations grows. Those in the know worry whether or not they'll be able to keep the upper-hand in their shadowy fighting with the underground Astral cults. For the good of Aratam and its citizens, it must be stopped, but they may be able to run amok if the state of affairs continues as-is.


The Skies

Aratamite pilots feel confident again. They have a chance now.

Shrike missile hits are almost inevitable. But now with the Lantern, they're survivable. Especially airbursts. This extra time bought allows for actual dogfighting to occur in the skies. Lights flash in the skies as the planes exchange fire over the battlefield. But in the end, Merethan air assets retain an advantage.
As survivable as the Lanterns now are, they only have two Ospreys - infantry weapons. They may be small coilguns, but they still find plenty of trouble doing enough damage. But they do a lot more damage than before. Mereth Blizzards have to be careful, now, as they can be contested.

Air strikes are no longer a reliable mainstay for ground commanders of Mereth, yet they still happen quite frequently.

Mereth has a Minor Aerial Advantage.


Mountains (Weather: Hailstorms)

"It's just like home!" laughs a Merethan soldier in the hail.
It wasn't really. It didn't exactly hail with the severity of a thousand storms back in the Tundra, and normal hail doesn't usually dent in quite the way that this stuff did. Merethan field hospitals are annoyed by the frequency of concussions when a particularly heavy piece hits a Merethan not in Bear Armor square on the head.

Wind is heavy, and the hail comes from high up, even influencing air combat. But the most important effect is pointed out by an ORACLE-A technician at one of the waypoints. The data they were getting from Ground Ears was... off. Surprisingly so. It kept on showing the existence of movement where nothing moved above the surface. The effects worsened from there as Excavator transports started getting lost. The ORACLE-A started getting confused.
Already too late, Merethan command realized their mistake. The main source of intelligence -- Ground Ears -- was actually being rendered useless by the Hailstorms! Useless! A panic ensues in the upper echelons but nothing can be done in time. Reliance on Ground Ears is cut for the time being, and more assets are deployed for recon. But the damage is done.


In a mountain pass, a division of Grizzlies moves forwards. Feeling blind and lost without the assistance of the ORACLE-A and vulnerable without an omniscient airforce above, they still continued forward.
A small squadron of SEEMs wandered in mountain-carved footpaths above the Grizzlies. Without needing to say a word, they began concentrating. Creating a hole in reality linked directly to the Astral Realm. A hole meant for some very specific people.

Suddenly, a Grizzly collapses. The pilot unresponsive, the Merethan forces panic and scatter, looking for foes. A Grizzly pilot starts screaming and hits the back of an adjacent Grizzly with a direct TALON blast, rendering both mechs nonfunctional. People start screaming through the radio. They had to evacuate. Someone was out to get them. The few Grizzlies left were paranoid, panicked, and felt sick. A pilot finally spots the SEEMs at the footpath, engulfed in concentration. Forcing himself through uncanny nausea, he aims his mech's CLAW and begins firing. The SEEMs, for once in their history, are caught in surprise. But they're still prepared.
Eventually the pilot experiences a seizure inside his cockpit, knocking his mech over. The last Grizzly left makes the arguably wise choice to retreat.

The SEEM squadron drops down with their trademark uncanny agility. They walked through the debris and picked up the survivors for prisoners, then left.


Even with their new TALON and the greater number of Grizzlies, Mereth experiences heavy troubles in the mountains. With the Blackwell Technique, SEEMs can effectively eliminate the pilots of Grizzlies without firing a single shot. Without the ORACLE-A, what's arguably Mereth's number one advantage disappears. The Bear soldiers run through the passes in the many retreats ordered by Merethan commanders this season.


Covered in a dim red glow, the hooded Aratamite soldiers solemnly and decisively make their way through the paths of the mountain.
Aratam advances in the Mountains.
[M: 2/4; A: 2/4]



The Plains

As they read the reports of the Mountains, Mereth's commanders in the plains sigh a collective breath of relief. Funnily enough, ORACLE-A is more useful here, as it's now able to devote what's basically twice the processing power to predictions in the Plains as its use lowers in the Mountains. Soldiers continue to dream of reassignment to the Plains as Aratam continues focusing their strange weather in the Moutnains.

Grizzlies march through old trench lines, followed by legions of COMBAT-equipped Bear soldiers. The Blackwell Technique continues to be an annoyance, but the nature of the Plains means Mereth can put a lot more men and mechs in one place, outnumbering the number of possible SEEMs and thus possible Blackwell symbols. A SEEM has to concentrate on maintaining the symbol and thus is no longer infuriating to hit. If they're killed by a soldier not affected by the symbol, the symbol disappears. SEEMs, and often the rest of an Aratamite battalion, often announce their presence by Grizzlies spontaneously collapsing or by the pilots spontaneously starting to hallucinate. This isn't fun. But TALONs (or anything else) can quite nicely blow up the battlefield enough to get the SEEMs before they do too much damage.

Aratamite tank crews fear the TALON, and often try nailing the coolant tubes on the weapons equipped to Grizzlies. When succesful, the Grizzly experiences a huge explosion. Sometimes the tank is caught in the blast, but usually better off than the Grizzly. Grizzlies hold an advantage here with the TALON.

COMBAT-equipped Bear soldiers shrug off hits and advance behind their Grizzlies (hoping to not get crushed by a Rockwell-affected pilot), eliminating Aratamite presences. Air support is much more sparse than before, but luckily not required. Skyrangers see plenty of use here to distract and surround Aratamite forcers.


Cut off from supplies by Skyrangers, never being able to make a plan without ORACLE-A knowing, and facing fearsome mechs and durably soldiers, Aratamite has no choice but to retreat wherever they can. Strategists start to discuss the decisive end of trench warfare in the plains.

Mereth advances in the Plains, ignoring trenches and almost ignoring Aratamite soldiers.
Mereth advances in the plains
Plains: [M: 2/4; A: 3/4]



Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

TricMagic

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Spring 1964)
« Reply #77 on: May 25, 2019, 08:06:22 pm »

Joining Mereth
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Blood_Librarian

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Spring 1964)
« Reply #78 on: May 25, 2019, 08:13:52 pm »

Merethians are bad, but I respect an individuals decision to doom themselves.
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if you want something wacky
Quote from: ChiefWaffles, MAR Discord
I continue to be puzzled by BL's attempts to make Aratam blatantly evil

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Summer 1964)
« Reply #79 on: May 28, 2019, 05:08:47 pm »

Combat Report: Summer 1964

Merethan Activity

Aratam's Astral-based operatives notice a strange sensation and some headaches this summer. Deemed fit for further investigation in the Black Chamber, Aratam's scientists don't know what caused it.
Naturally, Mereth caused it. With the first testing of the GATE/HAUNTER system. Mereth's scientists saw Aratam exploit the Astral. They got tired of being left out. So, in typical Merethan fashion, they decided to rip a hole through the fabric of reality in order to get to it rather than the "hippy magic used by Aratam." They also call it "Dimension N" (or "N-Space") instead of the Astral. Again, hippy aratamites.
Looking into the hole in spacetime may cause insanity and there have been some very questionable developments in testing the GATE until function could be found, but now it's working. Supposedly. Hopefully. No eldritch gods yet.

A very complicated system has Merethan N-Sensitive Volunteers interact with a neural interface to even more complicated technology hooked up to many many computers and the ORACLE-A in order to bind a segment of N-Space to a physical segment of reality, and keep it stable enough to send in physical objects.
The Volunteer then pilots a modified SERF -- the HAUNTER. A remote-controlled vaguely humanoid drone equipped with a fist, a sword, and thrusters instead of legs. Officially called "very cool" in a report regarding the project. The HAUNTER is pushed through the GATE where it can then travel in the weird N-Space where no physical laws actually work as they goddamn should (according to several very frustrated N-Scientists). Using some sensors for an extremely vague and poor approximation of its surroundings, it then finds the manifestation of Aratamite Astral users and punches them or slashes them with a sword.
That last part hasn't been tested but it has made engineers and pilots very happy whenever they get to think about it. Hopefully it can put a stop to or at least decrease the effectiveness of Aratam psychics.

For now, only one GATE can be deployed at a time due to being a National Effort.


Also aimed against "cheap magicians" is the Ursine Vision system developed for Grizzly mechs in a revision this season. Four television cameras adorn the chassis of every Grizzly, with their feeds each given a separate screen (with all of them covering the traditional fibrescope, being able to be moved away) in the Grizzly's cockpit. The signals are also broadcasted to the nearest ORACLE Node, which have greatly increased in size and tactical importance with this revision.
While the camera feeds do cover a greater area, their grainy quality makes combat relying them much more difficult. They can prevent pilots using them from succumbing to Aratam's Blackwell technique, but Mereth pilots generally only use the screens in case of suspected Blackwell usage.

Every Grizzly now has a dedicated trained Handler to assist in tactical/strategic matters; these handlers' berths and equipment are housed in the nearest ORACLE Nodes where they receive the camera feeds of their Pilot and a 2-way radio channel. They can also pass pertinent information to ORACLE-A to analyze, but the use of humans here leaves much to be desired. Still, better than before.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: May 30, 2019, 05:06:18 am by Chiefwaffles »
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Summer 1963)
« Reply #80 on: May 28, 2019, 05:09:07 pm »

Aratamite Activity

The pride of Aratam departs for the front lines: the A.S.V. Hour of Relentless Intent, the first and currently only Meteor-class air frigate. This huge and overarmored air vessel is equipped with heavy anti-air Tesla turrets manned by the prescient SEEM crewmen, a large coilcannon ground bombardment weapon, and a hefty radar suite to complement its command bridge. It uses six large plasma thrusters -- four on the bottom and two on the rear -- with thrust vectoring based off of existing GM-BP Reactor technology.
Its anti-air defenses with SEEMs gunning can intercept even missiles and bombs without requirement for automatic targetting. Only when capacitors are drained from constant firing, resulting in lower rate of fire, can existing aircraft have a chance at assault. Even when fired at, its massive amounts of armor make it all-but impossible for vital internal systems to be damaged, and very hard to damage its redundant thrusters. However, with all facilities not essential for immediate continued operation being placed in what amount to fancy static camps on the surface deck, it can be crippled via attack from above.

It is extremely expensive, being a National Effort.


As a more minor project this past season, Aratamite Black Chamber Astral scientists have by chance come across strange behavior and develop Wadjet Branding. Via focusing on a specific symbol -- the Eye of Horus -- embedded into their gauntlets (and tactile enough to be felt), all Astral operatives in Aratam experience a better state of mind for exploiting the Astral. Why this phenomenon occurs, scientists have no idea. But they're sure there is a reason they haven't found yet.
Astral safety and effectiveness is increased through the use of this symbol, and those training and just now entering the field as SEEM Operatives find it helpful to enact hand motions to focus on specific Astral techniques. The branding is put in all uniforms for those expected to make use of the Astral.


Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Summer 1964)
« Reply #81 on: May 28, 2019, 05:09:32 pm »

Combat Report: Summer 1964

A popular television program pops up in Mereth, telling the serial stories of an eccentric and "paint-outside-the-lines" Grizzly pilot fighting the evil Aratamites that want to turn the entire world into the Astral World. However, he's in for a twist when he finds out his new handler is ORACLE-A themselves!! Together, the odd pair must work together and teach each other. The pilot learns about the proper consequences of his actions, and proper morales. With ORACLE-A learning humanity in the process. It already is hinting at a love triangle between ORACLE-A, the pilot, and a sentient SERF that used to be a human, before a terrible disaster with the "DRAWBRIDGE project" put him inside the robot's body. Showrunners claim it's "based off of real footage from the war!"
The public loves it. The military tolerates its inaccuracies for the good PR. But something seems off about it.

A government program -- especially rare in this time of war -- gives SERF drones to citizens of lower MAGMA in exchange for shutting down cooling to large swathes of commercial, communal, and industrial areas. People seem largely happy given the circumstances, as this means more ICE to the residential areas. Many people end up spending weeks and months in their home, hooked up to a CAT interface going into the vast data conduits of MAGMA where they control their SERF to perform errands, work, and pretty much everything else. Many drones are even customized and painted in different colors and symbols, with companies making offers to pay for advertisements on SERFs. Mereth's government experiments with temporary hijacking of SERF datastreams for public safety.
The "lifepilots" participating in this program area found to be happier than before, but legitimate concerns are raised as to excercise and health. The people must queue through relatively small tunnels, now one of the rare instances of ICE-cooled areas in lower magma, to get themselves out of their residence once in a while.


The secretive Black Chamber, Aratam's department of military R&D regarding the Astral, finds itself recovering after what those in the know are calling the "Black Raid". A cult, its name forbidden to be mentioned by the B.E.O., somehow managed to locate and perform a full-scale assault on the complex where they made serious damage in both object and personnel matters, and made away with almost every bit of research on the Astral held by Aratam. B.E.O. operatives and military forces eventually arrived and repelled the raiders inflicting serious losses, but analysts believe that the cult had already gotten what they wanted.
The Bureau of Enhanced Operations maintains that the raid was an anomaly from the norm, and that the cult is not a threat. Yet from policies forbidding the true name of the Unnamed Cult, some realize that the Bureau is actually afraid of an adversary, for once in its existence.

Also in Aratamite news is the Necrostate officially recognizing "Astral Insanity" as a mental condition caused from unprepared and unsafe exposure to Astral activities. Already unofficially known in the areas where the realm is researched, many scientists were forced out of the Black Chamber due to increasingly distorted behavior. It's also believed to be a cause of combat stress in Astral operatives.
A token effort is dedicated to ways of increasing safety, preventing the disorder's onset, and potentially curing it to any degree. It's unlikely that they'll make any progress as-is, but the fact that an organized effort exists is worth a lot of hope to a lot of people.


The Skies

Not much changes in the skies in general this season. The SEEM pilots of Aratam's Lanterns find themselves more effective Astral-wise with Wadjet Branding, yet it's not enough of a change to do anything when their biggest limiter is still their aircraft and the sheer scope of things in air combat. Lanterns are able to dodge a few more Shrike missiles now, but not enough to make a serious dent in the existing balance of power. Air strikes still pose a problem for Aratam.

Aratam's meteor also exists, but as it's only present in one theatre, its effect will be considered only in that theatre's report.

Mereth has a Minor Aerial Advantage.


Mountains

In the night at an ORACLE-A Node, a convoy of Excavators is loaded with strange and interesting technology. Scientists and technicians, used to their laboratories in MAGMA and the Tundra, look around nervously while loitering outside the vehicles and making the occasional token effort in helping the loading. They're not used to being out here.
Inside the Node is Volunteer 17 -- the first Volunteer to succesfully use the gate and now, through a series of strangely quick promotions, head of the GATE Program. She has requested to spend time alone in the Node's main network room where ORACLE-A most "resides", in order to prepare for the upcoming operation. Though the supercomputer is truly located deep in Mereth territory where it cannot be harmed and is just connected here via large and redundant underground data cables.

She emerges from the chamber, her face flush with concern.
"The ORACLE's worried. Aratamites are planning something big here; ORACLE just can't tell what yet."
The technicians waiting outside and those operating their stations look at the woman with mild confusion, not used to such personification of the supercomputer they used to help strategy. They don't have much time to stare, though, as Seventeen rushes towards outside as soon as she delivered her news to the technicians.
Loading is finished just as she jumps into the back of the front Excavator in the convoy. She stares outside, lacking expression save for the position of her brow, until the door fully closes. She gives the signal, and the Excavators plow into the formerly untouched ground. Their journey expected to take most of the night, and their destination chosen by ORACLE-A. The depth of their target site is expected to draw Aratamite attention. And if that doesn't, what they'll do next definitely will. Right under the front lines in what ORACLE-A considered to be a very tactically important area.

No one knows why this area is so tactically important, not even ORACLE-A. It just know that it was. Even as they travel, the ORACLE still processes data to determine more about the relevance of the target site.

...

Triarch Dranus Orlock stands at the forward edge of the deck on the A.S.V. Hour of Relentless Intent. The large airborne vessel starting on its voyage towards the mountains, he has some time to appreciate his new post. The first Meteor-class air frigate. The only Meteor-class. He was the first of his rank, and practically had authority over every asset Aratam had in the region. The Triarch was chosen for his experience in air combat against Mereth while flying a Torch combined with his prior stint in the navy before he was transferred due to SEEM eligibility. Wind started to blow the hair under his hat back as the bottom plasma thrusters rotated to provide greater forward thrust, shooting the Meteor forward with a great lurch.

He makes his way to the bridge below deck, passing by the surface facilities where the crew resided most of the time. The red insignias on his uniform as well as his already legendary appearance has every person saluting the passing officer. He observed the gunners. Even with no incoming threat, SEEMs lazily man the Tesla turrets in case their faster than quick thinking is needed without prior warning.
Crewmen shivered even through their RA/MP armor as the Meteor raised in altitude to pass through the mountains, though altitude was kept lower in order to prevent it from becoming a shooting gallery. As confident as the Triarch was in their armor, he'd rather not test it out until necessary.

In the bridge, Orlock begins making the preparation for when the vessel reaches its destination. Not expecting immediate combat, it would serve to reinforce and coordinates both ground and air operations in the area, turning the entire region of the mountains into a staging area for Aratamite troops. Aircraft wouldn't be able to get past the tesla turrets to attack ground troops, and any significant Mereth presence on the ground can be solved with a liberal yet simple application of coilcannon bombardment. The military could easily advance forward without fear, and the Hour of Relentless Intent would render assistance wherever needed.
"Have the crew prepare for combat. Mereth's going to see us coming, and we don't want to disappoint." He smiles.

...

Seventeen watches the soldiers unload and assemble the pieces from the excavator in the freshly-dug tunnel underneath the mountains, the smell of freshly-applied Instant Roads lingering in the non-ventilated air. Technicians manage to make themselves look busy overseeing the assembly, avoiding any heavy work. Near the top of the tunnel, men in Bear armor stand on top of an Excavator (much to the dismay of its driver) expanding the top of the tunnel to make space. In unusual fits of nervousness, the Volunteer's eyes frequently gaze over at the holocube display for an Excavator's Earth Ear (removed from the cockpit to the back of the cabin for easier reading; the drivers aren't huge fans of Seventeen). She awaits with something akin to desperation for a report on the radio.

Then something happens. Voice is transmitted from an Excavator over wires across the ground to a small set of communication equipment lying adjacent to where Seventeen sits in her observation
"THIS IS NODE FOXTROT FIVE FIVE, ORACLE REPORTS SIGNIFICANT EXPECTED ARATAM GROUND PRESENCE AND UNKNOWN AERIAL TECHNOLOGY AT YOUR SITE WITHIN ROUGHLY FIFTEEN MINUTES; CONFIRM STATUS, OVER"
Most of the people at the site hear it, and see a... relieved? Seventeen scramble for the microphone. "ROGER Node Foxtrot Five Five, Operation Foxtrot Hotel proceeding as planned, please advice other forces, OUT."
Volunteer 17's former quiet observation interrupted by the communication, she jumps into a much more active role. Within three minutes, assembly is complete. Within twenty, the device is ready for operation.
The GATE.

Already, the ORACLE-A's prediction bears fruit just as it always does. Seventeen already begins tuning out the panic in the radio of a full Aratamite offensive and a "gigantic [expletive] thing in the sky shooting at us!", focused on finishing preparations. The rest of the crew on site are worried and discuss the situation on the surface in hushed voices away from Seventeen. Is it too late? Will it be enough? Can Aratam's psychics already see where they are? They definitely could, but talking about it as if it wasn't a given helps the men and women relax somewhat.
Volunteer 31 is already fitted into the CAT neural interface, and the first HAUNTER is brought out of its Excavator, wheeled towards the GATE. Its Magmagel conduits lighting up in synchronization with strain on Thirty-One's face, as they attempt to bring the two dimensions closer together. Alarms ring out and everyone gathers behind assembled barriers and excavators, wearing complete black-out eye gear just to be sure. Seventeen seems to engrossed in the many controls and diagnostic displays for the GATE to apparently care about what was about to occur.

A resounding noise fills and echoes throughout the freshly-dug-out caverns. Indescribable to most, it represented the fabric that comprised reality being torn apart to make a pathway into another dimension forcibly brought into adjacency with the local area. Strange mesmerizing light comes next, failing to tempt anyone to ignore their very stern training and look at the GATE in any way shape or form.

..

"Ensign, why has the port bow turret stopped firing?!" yells the enraged Triarch. The battle is going well, and he knows that, but a single failure in their anti-air screen against the already relentless fighters -- no doubt scrambled before Mereth troops saw the Relentless Intent, damn Oracle -- could result in their entire defense falling apart with it. Triarch Orlock knows that this battle will represent the fate of the entire theatre, and does not want a --
ugh.

The world seemed to shake and fade around him. Dranus Orlock holds his hand against his forehead briefly, before collapsing onto the hard Recombinated-Metal deck. His eyes jolt open seconds later and he jumps back on his feet, ignoring the concerned officers and crewmen. Still afflicted by a severe headache, the Triarch is about to talk when he's interrupted by the explosion of a Shrike missile against the side of the Meteor, shaking almost causing him to lose his footing once more.
"SEEMs reporting Astral disturbance!"
"Where the hell did our anti-air go?!"
"Thruster three damaged, operating at seventy percent effectiveness with multiple containment breaches!"
Another bang.
"Get that air screen back up! If SEEMs are nonresponsive, get the first person seen to operate in their stead! Get those damn Blizzards off us!"
"We just suffered a hit to port side armor, integrity holding well!"
"We've got on--two turrets, now three, back up! Mereth aircraft are drawing back. All turrets are manned again!"

Nursing his forehead, the Triarch knows something is wrong. He may not be an active SEEM operative any more, but he knows that the Astral doesn't just do that. "I want someone who isn't Astral-sensitive at every turret, ready to take over immediately if this happens again, he firmly instructs the nearest officer while hiding the pain in his voice. Leaving the bridge officers and brass to their tactics and furthered operation of the ship, Orlock rushes to the surface deck's sickbay where he knows a couple SEEMs will be recovering from the event.
Something was not right. Mereth is up to something. Underground. Directly underground. That much is obvious to anyone with Astral-sensivity; it's just difficult to conclude while dealing with a massive Astral-related headache. Not that the headache stopped. Just lessened enough to think somewhat straight.

Triarch Dranus Orlock begins discussing what the hell is going on with the two SEEMs in the sickbay while theorizing a plan in his head to deal with the new problem before Mereth could continue whatever they had wrought upon the area. They had bought enough of an advantage for their ground forces to leave them hanging for a bit if need be. Mereth cannot be allowed to finish this.

...

"Vitals look good, and HAUNTER seems to be intact." The technician overseeing the main status of the GATE/HAUNTER is thrilled that they haven't died horribly yet; Seventeen can determine this despite the man's best attempt to maintain a calm facade. She looked at Thirty-One. Her face contorting into all kind of different shapes and expressions, obviously strained in keeping the dimensions locked even with the help of ORACLE-A, just now connected via dataconduit from a late-arriving Excavator. Good thing, too. The GATE can't be used without the ORACLE-A.

Seventeen's "own" radio (technically the ripped-out radio of one of the Excavators) now simply broadcasts the monotone machine muttering of ORACLE-A as it processed data and made and dismissed predictions at stunning speeds. Not useful for humans, but soothing for Volunteer 17. The radio set up next to the GATE control station continues broadcasting the confusion and panic of Mereth's surface forces. Grizzlies cover the retreat of their compatriots, making quick tactical decision with the help of their individual handlers back at the nearest Node working off of the latest ORACLE-A data and television feeds from the mech suits. The entirety of the region's air assets dedicated to taking down what was now confirmed as a gigantic flying heavily-armored air frigate with anti-air and ground bombardment capabilities. Reported sightings of Blackwell signs, probably one pilot driven mad for a bit, and the confirmation from the rest of the Grizzly pilots that they are switching to screen-display only.
Some of the operation's personnel find light in knowing that the psychics are probably confused why Blackwell isn't working as well. Others in their relative safety underground.

The roof of the tunnel rumbles. Flakes of Instant Road slowly fall down, settling on the ground and in the hair of anyone not under something other than the tunnel roof.
It rumbles again. This time, a very distant bang is heard.
It continues rumbling, with the distant explosions growing closer at a slow yet still extremely alarming rate.

Worried if they'll be able to have the operation succeed, Seventeen decides something has to be done. Based on continued radio reports from the surface as well as minor official ORACLE reports, Aratam's vessel is clearly attempting to shell the ground directly above the site. Coilcannons, while very destructive at that scale (or any scale really), aren't great digger tools but given enough time, Volunteer 17 knows that they will breach the tunnel. They were already closer to the surface than most Excavator tunnels to expand the GATE's range.
The Volunteer grabs the microphone formerly of the radio and now connected to ORACLE-A and brings it into her Excavator's empty cabin.

"Woah! ORACLE-A usage just spiked on the GATE," yells one of the monitoring technicians, "...and rising! This really shouldn't happen! We need to stop before ORACLE-A wastes its entire processing power on this!"
"Belay that. Keep it running." Seventeen's firm voice emerges from the cabin with her. She sits on the ramp from the cabin to the tunnel's floor, almost tired. She looks up at the tunnel roof, now visibly shaking from bombardment, being tended to by several soldiers with hoses connected to a tank trailed by the last Excavator. The Head of the GATE program was never this grateful for Instant Road. It's probably buying them about a minute, which is as one could ask for in this situation.

..

Reaching the dark hours once more, the Aratamite vessel hovers over the battlefield in the mountains.

Dranus stands at the edge of the Hour of Relentless Intent, looking down at the chaos below. Only a small metal barrier stood between him and falling, though he wasn't worried. One advantage of being Enhanced like this is generally finding it harder to lose your footing. When you anticipate events -- even subconsciously -- it's harder to be literally knocked off guard from them. The Triarch is trying not to think too hard about this, though, attempting to save their Astral "strength" in case something happens again.
"Is the bombardment going as planned?" he asked the soldier, obviously sent to check on him by the rest of the command staff. The soldier was clad in RA/MP armor with his hood on. Dranus doesn't look away from the battle as he wonders what the soldier is feeling beneath the red-glowing visor.
"Yes, Triarch. Based on information from SEEM Operatives, it is expected that the breach into Mereth's operation site will occur soon." He stood still, starting at the Triarch. Probably expectantly. Dranus couldn't tell. Only when dismissed does the soldier give him the traditional praise, salute him, and depart.

The advantage bought by their earlier bombardment and continued air screening remains apparent. Orlock makes out Mereth's mech troopers covering plentiful miniscule tactical retreats as they attempt to desperately regain footing. Surprisingly smart for actions taken in such chaos, the bridge concluded earlier. According to reports from the ground, Mereth developed something to make them more resistant to Blackwell. Oh well. A shot from the solitary bottom AA Tesla turret is quite effective at eliminating the tougher ones.
Sighing, Dranus Orlock starts walking towards the bridge to continue coordinating strategy. Especially with the bombardment of Mereth's little impromptu anti-Astral(?) bunker almost reaching comple--

Oh, not again.
Wait.
This isn't right.

The Astral?
He's in the Astral?

Dranus looked around, his awareness unexpectedly shunted to the Astral. He saw the strange dimension harboring the strings of reality and minds before, when he was in the CryoStat tanks undergoing SEEM treatment. He never expected to see it again, but here he is.
But why? And why was it... off? The Astral wasn't like this. It wasn't this... similar? to reality? Is he looking at it a different way now? Is his mind tainted? Or is this what it actually looks like?
His confusion couldn't be hidden, as it was the Astral. But that doesn't stop Dranus from trying.
Until he sees something.

Something...
Merethan.
Goddamnit.

He was in the Astral. Or at least, aware of his presence in the Astral. And he was staring at a robot. A damn robot. In the goddamn Astral Realm. An Astral Realm which is also unusual even for the Astral. Dranus would take a second to ponder these circumstances more, but then he sees the robot has a sword. A. Sword.
Really, Mereth? he thinks. Then the sword is slashed at him.

It's a clumsy slash, but Dranus isn't experienced with dodging swords in a place where swords literally should not exist.
He does dodge the first slash, though.

Wait.
Dranus ponders how he dodged a sword without having a body to dodge with? This entire thing was confusing. His head hurts from confusion. His "vision" of the Astral grows distorted. He just barely sees the next slash, far too late to dodge. A sharp pain pierces through his entire... being. Starting to see the Astral warp as well as starting to see bits of the real world hidden under this veil, he knows he has to make an attempt at an offensive before he's killed, or worse.

The Blackwell technique. Ostensibly something of a window into the Astral dedicated at a specific person's consciousness (some call it "soul", but those people are dismissed as loons who have no right deciding anything Astral-related). He could... He could...
Everything hurts. Everything is strange. Everything is warped. Everything hurts.
A window into someone's consciousness. Could he use that here? In the Astral? To disorient if not at least figure out who or what he's fighting?

Acting as quickly as he can, he grips the nonexistent Wadjet Branding on his nonexistent gauntlets with his nonexistent hands and focuses.
He focuses.

He sees everything. The movement of Aratamite troops through the mountains. Merethan forces deployed to counter them. Artillery targets. Where the Meteor will be tomorrow. He sees Aratamite troops chasing him. Being shot with heavy lasers, their body and armor turning into plasma. Vibrations in the ground. Panicked reports of the Hour of Relentless Intent coming from now deceased Merethans. A person. Two people. Three people? Are they people? They're connected somehow, and this thing is one of them.

Something gives.
His vision turns back towards a strange cross between the Astral and Reality, and he hears SEEMs on the Relentless Intent screaming. He hears a report that Operation Foxtrot Hotel is no longer experiencing bombardment. He feels the Meteor move. He sees meters and electronic and holographic displays, all alerting of something. Catastrophic, and reality?

Something tears.
Dranus sees only reality. Or not. He's not sure. It seems dark, but something is loud. Very loud. Extremely loud. Strange dancing light floods the night, and suddenly everything grows silent.

Something breaks.
The Triarch slowly drifts into unconsciousness with the sound of the vessel's alarms and people running. The night has been replaced by day. Everyone screams.

..
..

A tear in reality expands rapidly across the area. Swallowing people and things alike, like they never existed. People look into it and are driven insane. They fight their fellow soldiers. People run. Many don't make it, but some do. Blinding light swarms every inch of the rock and snow. Incomprehensible sounds from the destruction of separation. Desperation.
Generals and officers at their home cities simply see a ring of darkness spread out from the center of the region. Any outpost or base, anything, that the expanding circle touches is gone into the void between realities.

It's only days later that the tear stops expanding, still in the mountains, and the survivors can finally rest. They eventually report in, and slowly the nations piece things together. Of course, not the entire picture, but something that may be a part of it. Then days later, just like it happened, the circle was consumed by blinding light as it suddenly collapsed to its original point. Scientists end up referring to what happened here as a Cascading Reality Failure, a self-feeding and growing tear in reality.
Where it started, and if there's still anything there, is unknown. Everything it touched is unknown. Changed, like it was rebuilt by someone who only ever heard stories about it. The only evidence that humans ever existed where the ring covered is the wreckage and debris at the site of the Battle of the Tear. Superstition builds easily.


Mereth's team headed by Volunteer 17 eventually reports back, the personnel telling a grand story on how Seventeen managed to macguyver a self-destruct function on the GATE to buy them time. Volunteer 31 is missing, lost when the tear opened, yet strangely unmissed by Seventeen. Notes are taken from recovered data, and the GATE rebuilt.
The A.S.V. Hour of Relentless Intent's crew eventually find their way back to friendly places, where they describe the desperate escape of their ship, crashing at the edge of the ring when a fourth of it was consumed by the ring. The crew is much smaller in number than before, yet still lead by Triarch Dranus Orlock -- who they thank for his quick thinking and for their lives. Aratamite forces arrive at the wrecked vessel to begin repairs and meet with the marines who stood behind, beginning the securing of the area.



Despite little survivors on both sides, Aratam ended up with the better half of the lose-lose thanks to inflicting heavy losses against Mereth before the incident. The marines from the Relentless Intent rally with reinforcements to quickly secure the area before Mereth can put a resistance up, effectively gaining territory.
Aratam advances in the Mountains.
[M: 1/4; A: 3/4]



The Plains (Weather: Tornadoes)

Rides in the Skyranger tend to be a bit more bumpy with tornadoes being a way-too-frequent-sight. Fortunately for everyone in Skyrangers, their engines are powerful enough to avoid being caught in anything particularly bad unless they end up going straight into a tornado from a sub-orbital trip. Which doesn't happen, thanks to ORACLE-A being able to effectively predict tornado weather patterns. This prediction comes into play many times in the Plains, too.
Regular air support from Mereth is of course rare despite the predictions. Blizzards are not meant to fly in or near tornadoes and don't have the advantage of just going over the atmosphere like Skyrangers can. While they can avoid tornadoes, their caution means their supporting of infantry is rare. Much to Aratam's delight.

ORACLE-A works... okay. Tornadoes do wreck a bit of havoc on data gathering, but as it happens they're fairly different from troop movements. Predicting enemies strategies isn't as effective, but still useful. And while Stormcaller-summoned weather is strange, somewhat unpredictable, and unusual, it's still weather. And a military prescient strategy supercomputer can do pretty well at predicting weather. Tornadoes can't be tracked exactly and precisely, and the prediction time before a tornado forms is always in flux, but Aratam can't track tornadoes at all. And raincoats on their armor won't help there.


Grizzlies rule the battlefield. With their handlers giving them constant tactical advice and Ursine Vision reducing the effectiveness of Blackwell, stopping them is pretty much impossible. Aratam often needs to rely on very well-armed ambushes to eliminate Grizzlies, and that's still a tough endeavour. Blackwell can be used on a handful of Grizzlies before the entire platoon deploys Ursine Vision screens. Often times they can destroy/disable anywhere from one to a few grizzlies in ambushes, but have to run away before retribution. And even those originall affected by Blackwell still occasionally have the ability to deploy their screens and recover from their temporary mental issues without further harm.

The TALON continues to be a menace against Aratamite tanks, and the occasional succesful hit by Aratamite tanks against TALON coolant tubes still continues to be a pretty yet annoying-for-Mereth explosion. But the tanks just aren't durable, agile, or offensive enough. They put up a good fight in the end. Accompanied by Bear troopers, Mereth does well here. Aratam's Wadjet Branding does help their SEEMs, but not enough to make the disparity; prescience hasn't improved enough for significant additional effectiveness, and techniques like Blackwell are still impractical for anything but Grizzlies using their fibrescope. With poor air support and worse ORACLE-A predictions along with Aratam's better Astral usage, Mereth does have a significantly smaller advantage against Aratam this season. But still very much an advantage.

Grizzly pilots learn to dread ambushes, even in the plains where hiding spots aren't in surplus. SEEMs seem to manage to hide just about anywhere and do serious damage via Blackwell and Tesla rifles (usually they're accompanied by regular military baseline soldiers to do the Tesla shooting). But despite the damage done, the ambushes just aren't enough. Grizzlies still take multiple Tesla shots for serious damage, and the Blackwell technique only works when they're caught off guard and even then isn't a guaranteed crippling or downing.
This strategy ends up forcing Grizzlies to travel together, affectionately referred to as "Packs" by soldiers. If one is alone for even a second, then one SEEM can easily disable or destroy the mech. It's quite paranoia-inducing.


Mereth's Grizzlies lead the way to the end of the plains. They meet plenty of resistance, but in the end they fight through.
Mereth advances in the plains
Plains: [M: 3/4; A: 1/4]



Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: May 28, 2019, 05:23:43 pm by Chiefwaffles »
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You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

flabort

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Summer 1964)
« Reply #82 on: May 29, 2019, 05:41:08 pm »

Still reading combat reports, joining Mereth when done.
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The Cyan Menace

Went away for a while, came back, went away for a while, and back for now.

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Summer 1964)
« Reply #83 on: June 03, 2019, 12:23:00 pm »

Thinking of joining this on Aratam's side. Things seem fun.
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Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Summer 1964)
« Reply #84 on: June 08, 2019, 11:44:43 am »

Combat Report: Fall 1964

Merethan Activity

In a surprise to everyone but those related with Aratam's military, Mereth has sent a man to the moon. Then some more. Because they're not just satisfied with being able to ferry cargo and personnel between the moon with the Starknight, they want to exploit the moon. The Starknight is a variant of the Skyranger, operating entirely off of a GOFAST combustion rocket engine and with a pressurized crew compartment for 6. It's able to carry half an excavator to the Moon or anywhere of  similar distance, it can spend up to 2 weeks in space, it has zero armor, and it's pretty cool. It's Very Expensive largely due to the fuel costs of a Single Stage To the Moon spacecraft with cargo included. The Cargo Bay, being unpressurized, takes up the majority of the craft. There are no actual airlocks and no form of suits allowing the crew to exit the craft after departing Earth's atmosphere.
The Starknight has 1 STC (allowing Mereth 1 TC worth of material transport in space) and provides 1 Region Rating (meaning Mereth can hold up to 1 region of the Moon at a time).

The creation of the Starknight has bureaucrats on both sides scrambling as they create two new theatre categorizations: the Moon and Orbit. The Orbital theatre is quite standard, representing the ability of each nation to maintain power over Earth's (and by association, the Moon's) surrounding space. Like the Aerial theatre there is no territory but rather advantages that allow orbital assets to help out in other ways. The Moon is quite unique. It has an unknown amount of useful regions (that are 2 sections each), with each region able to fit an "Operation" on it that can do pretty much anything the designers of the operation will it to do. Operations are created in design or revision actions and can be deployed to controlled regions of the moon as deemed necessary in the Combat phase. The number of viable Moon regions is currently unknown.
Mereth R&D has already gone over these details, and so will Aratam's R&D if they follow Mereth's actions.


Building on their arrival on the moon, Mereth has developed the MARIA Lunar Operation in a fairly easy revision. The revision primarily makes trivial tweaks to several existing designs to make them fit for lunar usage, such as Instant Roads without an atmosphere, a pressurized Excavator, and an inflatable docking connector to move crew between Starknights and Excavators on the moon.
In addition to this, the MARIA establishes a series of Starknight landing pads connected to a basic warehouse with underground "docks" for Excavators. The Operation can only be deployed in one region at a time, but when deployed it can produce either +1 Ore or +1 Magmatite.
It takes up one region on the Moon, but is Unique (so only one may be in play at a time).


Mereth has deployed the MARIA operation in their only region this season, choosing to mine for Magmatite. It takes effect immediately, making the CLAW Cheap (and thus the new standard-issue infantry weapon), the TALON Expensive (now equipped on every Grizzly), and the GATE Very Expensive (a few deployed in every theatre).
Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Summer 1963)
« Reply #85 on: June 08, 2019, 11:49:44 am »

Aratamite Activity

A relatively long-running program, where younger Aratamite citizens were recruited for long-term Astral training and biological recombination, has finally reached a point where it can be of use to the war effort.
BioForged Guardians were selected in their teens (sometimes younger than that, though those selected before their teens are not in service currently) and underwent many instances of Astral SEEM-like treatments and very gradual organic recombination to their entire body and their nervous system in CryoStat tanks, all between intensive training sessions.

As a result to the slightly modified brains ready to accept the Astral, and their gradual "welcoming" to the Astral via many SEEM sessions (unlike the single intensive session current SEEMs go through), Guardians have by far the greatest Astral abilities. Not only are they just better than SEEMs in pretty much every way, they're consciously aware of the prescience-like effect known to SEEMs. Whereas a SEEM may know to instinctively dodge away, a Guardian would know that someone is in the process of pulling a trigger on a gun pointed at them.
Importantly, Guardians are able to purposefully shift their conscious awareness into the Astral, where they can perform mental combat with others, directly sense other humans in a large area (and in some cases very faintly sense primal feelings of those humans), and fight intruders to the Astral.

Their recombination gives them better memory, better mental capability, and just better bodies. While Very Expensive, they're a soldier of the future.


Done in their revision after some reliable hunches as to Merethan activity, the Design Bureau has introduced the new ION-Storm, a two-stage variant of the Storm. Designed to intercept spacecraft making atmospheric re-entries. It has a smaller payload, a much greater range, and better (though still not great) targeting. While it wouldn't be a greater threat to most aircraft with its payload and agility, a single hit from the missile is almost guaranteed to destroy a Merethan spacecraft. First, the lack of armor and second, the fact that getting a missile exploded against you while you're experiencing the already very dangerous atmospheric re-entry is not great for heat minimization.

It's Expensive, and planned to be deployed to form a screen for Skyranger interception near important Aratamite assets. Successful hit rates aren't expected to be high, but more than high enough to make an impact. While the ION-Storm was deployed admist worries of Merethan moon and space activity, the ION-Storm will not have any impact on Starknights unless they're for some reason re-entering over Aratamite territory.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Fall 1964)
« Reply #86 on: June 08, 2019, 11:52:05 am »

Combat Report: Fall 1964

Greater Lives, the procedural show featuring an eccentric Grizzly pilot with ORACLE-A as his handler, has had its season finale. The duo discovered that the inventor of ORACLE-A, their arch nemesis this season, was actually being mind-controlled by an evil Astral-using Aratamite. The season ends as the characters worry about who else may be mind-controlled and who's behind all this. The showrunners have commented that they plan for the next season to take place almost entirely in Aratam, giving a "new view on the innocent people oppressed by their evil government." Controversy is mixed with heavy excitement.

A small factory in a MAGMA industrial sector sees an accident when several people are killed in an accident involving SERFs. Police and technicians are quick to silence any more flow of information, but people say that ORACLE hijacked the SERFs in an act of brief rebellion. Absolutely crazy, but their case isn't helped when photos are leaked showing their wounds. Wounds that suggest they were directly killed by a SERF's hands. The main company contracted with SERF production in civilian use has stated that they have implemented new safeguards to prevent this. Whatever "this" is.
Normally these rumors would be stopped when the suspects in the CATs responsible were arrested, but they just never appeared, and their identities never known.

Groups of entrepreneurs prowl upper MAGMA for investors into their latest project: space tourism. Starknights are quite expensive and the government would have to be convinced to part with one, but people would pay a lot of money to spend a day or two on the Moon. Newspapers publish articles showing ambitious design of apartments for the moon - a view that can't be beat; see higher than anyone else!. Their practicality is, for the moment, questionable.


Aratam experiences problems as the "Unnamed Cult" seems to only grow in power. Their rhetoric now including interesting declarations such as "Be the salvation of humanity; create the Deity of Humanity", they simply grow braver and braver. The B.E.O. makes a valiant effort to combat them, but are faced with an enemy that may begin to approach them in Astral "power". The Bureau may be on the front foot and on the offensive, but they know a threat like this left to grow too much could have catastrophic consequences. Usage of Guardians from the BFG program has helped slow down the Cult's growth for now, as they don't have anything that can compare. But they still recruit, and they still grow.

People whisper about Director Sarita Dobrev as if she is personally fighting the cult. Still a woman of extreme mystery and rumored power (they now say she can snap and have someone on the other side of the world die), she becomes somewhat of a symbol of the fight against both the Unnamed Cult and the evils outside that continue to threaten Aratam. They say she's the only thing keeping Aratam from being consumed by the Astral. And a lot more ridiculious rumors. But that doesn't stop her growing popularity. Not that the Bureau is ineffective at keeping her identity a secret. "Sarita Dobrev, Director of the B.E.O." may be known, but who she actually is, perhaps only she really knows.

In lighter news, the construction of residences in Aratam has finally caught up with the existing population and its growth. Aratam's capital city may be quite small, but it has massive space. Recombinated materials and construction techniques allow for huge tall buildings -- arcologies, even -- that can house extreme amounts of people with some commercial space to boot. Often times the buildings even go over the roads, starting and ending at each side. City design is careful to still motivate people to go outside and not have everything they need in one building, but citizens find it quite nice. Every citizen is guaranteed a very decent one-room residence in the city. Service to Aratam (for example, in the military) or knowing the right people or just being an exemplary citizen can all get you better residences. People say that the residences are probably bugged. This isn't too far off of an accusation.
Public transport hasn't quite caught up yet. The "Plasma Engine Train" is... not quite there yet.



This season (and the last) have proved to be... exceptionally chaotic outside of Aratam and Mereth. It's always chaotic in the outside world, sure, but when people start gasping at the television and/or newspaper it's not the best of signs. Usually. Joseph Stalin, Premier of the Soviet Union, passed away under what are appearing to be suspicious circumstances. The one witness report escaping the USSR government's blackout regarding the incident has the witness claiming that "[Stalin's] eyes just... went blank, it was like he was dead before he hit the ground .. but nothing could have caused that!"

More stunning is the Soviet ICBM launched and successfully detonating at the first wave of U.S. Ground Troops moving in to support the Hungarian Revolution (started as a result of Stalin's death). President Kennedy and his generals must have believed that they could take advantage of the chaos in the USSR. Additional waves of American soldiers have entered combat without any additional nuclear attacks, with the administrations of both countries announcing succesfully developed countermeasures towards ICBMs. The Soviet Union has already given countermeasure plans to Marxist France and several other Soviet-aligned states.
International worries are on the rise, fearing that both sides will attempt to involve other nations as well as escalate the fighting in the Hungarian War. Witnesses report strange new weapons being used by the armies in combat.


The Skies
Nothing done by either sides' R&D divisions has an impact on the skies.

Merethan pilots still hold the upper hand thanks to the Birdbrain and the Shrike+CLAW. While much more agile and much more armored, Aratam's Lanterns still can't reliably compete with the Shrike and Birdbrain. Especially when their only weapons are two infantry-grade coilguns stuck on the front.

Commanders in Mereth's Armed Forces can still hope for air support, though they won't always be there to help out, as Aratam continues to put up some fight in the air.
Mereth has a Minor Aerial Advantage.


Mountains
Triarch Dranus Orlock surveys the mountains from aboard the Meteor.
They are, of course, completely different. Apparently reality-ripping events tend to do that. Dranus never actually saw the mountains much before his last deployment, the one ensuring his own entry in history books. But these mountains seemed especially familiar to him. No idea how, or what they're familiar to, just familiar.
Disregarding the strange familiarity in some areas, the Triarch doesn't notice much out of place. That wasn't his job. That's the job of people on board the flying frigate who were chosen specifically to look for anomalies and differences. Every now and again there's a patch of withered plants, plants which the scientists tell him are not native to the mountains.

No matter. Plants tend to wither anyways when repeatedly frozen and electrocuted. Just give the new fresh ones some time. The Triarch just needed something to do while stuck with the draining task of surveying the new mountains. There are only so many maps to approve and radio communications to oversee, after all. And when the Design Bureau and the Director of the Bureau of Enhanced Operations agree on something, it's usually a good idea. For as intimidating the Director is, Dranus trusts them and their requests. He turned away from the afterthought railing and walked--

Searing pain.
Not supposed to.

Not okay.

Other.

Intruder.
Invader.

Dranus comes to, briefly wonders why he can't see anything, then realizes and moves his hands away from his head while glad he didn't vocalize that thought to anyone. He would have to sound the a--
ah. There it is. Alarm sounded. Cross that off his mental checklist. Still need to go to the Bridge. A GATE was clearly activated nearby. No doubt enemy troops are on their way, though the Meteor has some time before that as the Merethans kept out of Astral-sensing range if they haven't been spotted yet. Just have to deal with the weird punching sword-wielding robot sent in through a tear in reality. Goddamn Merethans.

The single Guardian on board is already in a deep trance, surrounded by marines with their RA/MP visors deployed and Ospreys (not Teslas, thankfully; it's amazing Dranus had to actually fight his superiors to not have Tesla rifles on his frigate) loaded. It was just a matter of waiting.
~~
I am here. No sign of the invader yet. Their robotic nature gives them some level of stealth, but someone is piloting it and they will give themselves away.

There.
...two signatures. Interesting. Yet one robotic body. Also interesting. I'll have to note this in my report.
Ah, and the tether connecting this abomination to the controller. Just have to follow it before the invader gets closer...

~~
"WOAH!" yells a scientist who was just moments ago looking at the Datalink tether load display, "That... Hey! This should not be shown as '259%', right? Like, that's not supposed to happen?!"
It was indeed, not supposed to happen. But the operators didn't have much time to do much before--
~~
Where am--ah, great. We really have to look into this massive vulnerability.
It's fine, it's okay. Avoid breaking reality, and care-ful-ly draw the Volunteer back and, ah, okay, yes, okay, that is definitely the source of the problem this time. Developed procedure won't work, so just please hurry with something new. Get rid of the, uh, this. Don't hurt the Volunteer.

Volunteer's still... sane? Yes? Yep, they look sane. Unaware, yep. If I...
Oh okay, the problem-source is moving closer. Hurry up, please. Don't know if I can distract them myself, but if you...
Yes. Yeah. Just need to do that. For a few seconds, it's fine. I got this.

~~

That failed. Understandable, I suppose, given how strange this is.
The invader is so erratic and volatile; I can no longer see discrete consciousnesses in it. The standard techniques, like the one already tried, clearly do not work.
I need to be inventive here. Mereth brings chaos into the Astral to the point where I can't even impact it. But if I press the invader while overwhelming connection then, according to the known GATE details--
...
--they will be stranded and lost to the Astral. Their consciousness dissolved.
Something's different, did time just pass? How?
I need to stop them, then determine what happened.

~~
Datalink cables are a versatile piece of technology in Mereth's metaphorical arsenal. They can transfer staggering amounts of data in staggering formats. For example, a CAT connects to a SERF by Datalink. They work perfectly. They can be plugged into other things and work almost adaptively. They are extremely reliable.
They do not spark.
They should not spark.
If your Datalink cable is sparking, you have done something very wrong.

Now, whether or not the GATE technicians and operators have done anything wrong is subjective. An Aratamite would say they commit crimes against reality, and a Merethan would say something about "square peg, round hole" in an unusually proud matter. But cables are sparking, the load monitor is now in the 600 range, and they are very much panicking. For reference, Datalink cables should not be physically capable of exceeding 100% load. That would defeat the purpose of "100%".
A technicality lost on the panicking Merethans.

The smell of many things burning from being overloaded at once can be noticed, then a blackout. Dawn light seeps in through the windows of the modular structures where the operators mostly reside, and they find themselves silent too.
Silence is punctuated by a scream.
Volunteer Fifty-six jumps from her seat, very much ignoring the weak restraints, and tears off the CAT connection.
"WHAT THE HELL," she exclaims, "WAS THAT."

Fifty-six remains skittish and at a state best described as "extremely alarmed" for a while. She mostly just tries to figure out what she experienced as the technicians realize the scope of the damage, as they talk with Command about what to do, as they mournfully pack up even the black bits of what used to be electronics, as they drive back, and through her debriefing.
She never does fully understand, and trying to explain the scattered bits of half-experience don't paint a full picture for her debriefers either. In the end, they shrug. Fifty-six is evaluated as being fit and willing for continued duty, a fire extinguisher is included with GATE setups, some of the electronics are made to withstand heavier loads, but not too much changes.

The Merethan offensive against the Meteor went... okay. Heavy losses were suffered until the Grizzly batallion coordinated TALON strikes against a specific patch of armor, disabling the bottom coilcannon. The Meteor lingered in the air for, according to the general overseeing the operation, "a very annoying amount of time" as its absurd amount of armor resisted continued attack and Tesla point defenses kept all but a few bombs and missiles away. Unable to attack the ground troops that were now rapidly gaining ground in the mountain, it very slowly retreated while broadcasting intelligence back to Aratam command.
Depleted and hurt by the engagement with the Meteor, pursuing it left the Merethans overconfident and when Aratam reinforcements arrived, a tactical rout was quickly concluded as the best option. A pyrrhic victory for Mereth, perhaps. The Meteor would take a while to repair its coilcannon, though it'd be back in operation before season end.


GATEs experience very mixed success. Wherever Aratam deploys Guardians, a GATE operation often ends in dissapointment or disaster. "Overload events", like what happened in the Meteor offensive, are most common in confrontations with Guardians. Mereth is confused by how and why these events happen. Aratam is confused by how and why the Merethan invaders get away, but its Command is generally satisfied with the end result. Rarely the Guardian manages to eliminate the Volunteer manning the HAUNTER before the Overload happens, and technicians really don't like what happens after. For when a Guardian succesfully eliminates the volunteer, it's theorized they can piggy back on the Datalink to break everything they can.
Their consciousness isn't shifted. At least, no one thinks that. With a Volunteer gone, what a Guardian can do is more akin to reaching their hand through the hole Mereth left open, and waving it around to break as many things they can before the hole closes.

When not countered by Guardians (which is a decent amount. Guardians are few in number and ORACLE-A can occasionally help finding a location where there probably won't be any), HAUNTERs can wreck havoc. Merethan scientists finally get to read the report where a Volunteer describes what happens when they slice a psychic with the sword or punch a psychic inside the N-Dimension. Not that they see much -- their senses are mostly just the "astral stress" sensors on the HAUNTER -- but they do describe a great feeling of satisfaction.


Aratam's Guardians are more than just a fancy anti-virus for the Astral/N-Dimension. They are also the best soldier Aratam has to offer on the fields. They don't dodge gunfire. They shoot you before you pull the trigger. They don't "kind of sense" people nearby, they know exactly how many people are nearby, and sometimes what those people are feeling. And even if a Merethan does manage to shoot them (which is very rare), they can just shrug off the wound as they continue fighting. Not only is their mind enhanced and their connection with the Astral greater, but their entire body is enhanced.
When they get shot, their body just quickly reroutes vital systems before healing the wound in remarkable time. And even if they get shot somewhere important or where it can't be repaired in short-term, a Guardian can consciouslly ignore the pain and continue fighting like it didn't happen. One time, a Guardian was shot in the heart through their armor. They just fought anyways, as their heart stood still. Eventually collapsing behind a piece of cover.

Mereth soldiers actively fear Guardians. The bright lighting and paint on their armor often inspiring complete breakdowns of morale. Grizzly pilots think twice before engaging one. There exists no recorded Merethan tactic for dealing with Guardians, other than "retreat and hope they follow a different group or go somewhere else".
Explosives help, though. Explosives and TALONs. Lots of those. If not retreating, the thing to do for best odds of survival is to have every soldier trying to shoot the Guardian as Grizzlies and/or air support try to do some lasting damage, probably via area of effect and a grazed shot.
A possible tactic is also the use of GATE/HAUNTERs to disrupt Guardians, forcing them to either fight the HAUNTER in the N-Dimension or to fight Merethan soldiers in reality. This is extremely hard to pull off, though, due to the GATE's short range, the difficulty of redeploying it near a Guardian when the Guardian is mobile, and the fact that Guardians can still potentially hide behind cover or other forces, disabling the GATE anyways.


Mereth offensives still continue. Skyrangers experience trouble with their tactic of dropping behind enemy lines and doing heavy damage with the ION-Storm. Not everywhere is covered with an ION-Storm, but Aratam's strategists always make sure to include them screening vital areas. There are holes, but these aren't easily found. ORACLE-A can very rarely find one, but locating the positions of enemy anti-air is nowhere near its designed purpose. But with the fact that the ION-Storms can't reliably hit Skyrangers, dropping behind enemy lines continue. Just with a few more unplanned in-air rapid dissassemblies of Skyrangers than before.
Now every Merethan soldier has a laser weapon. For Bears, it's a CLAW. For Grizzlies, a TALON. These weapons happen to be very powerful. Merethan soldiers typically end up simply marching forward in skirmishes. Grizzly TALON fire renders cover nonexistent, and Nameless Death mortars -- while not very precise -- make standing in cover not destroyed by Grizzlies a risky move. The sheer number of explosions makes it hard to stick one's head out an fire a Tesla blast at a Bear soldier. And with the tight mountain passes, it's very hard to concentrate Tesla fire to get past COMBAT plating on a Bear soldier's armor.
So Bears just march forward, shooting anyone popping their heads out with CLAW lasers. SEEMs continue to be a menace (now dwarfed by Guardians), but it's much harder to dodge CLAWs. Lasers don't have to be reloaded, they travel at the speed of light, and can be fired constantly from a CLAW. Waving your CLAW around maniacally at a small area is a surprisingly good technique at dealing with SEEMs. It does need a tiny bit of time fired at the same spot to pierce RA/MP armor, but damage done with a glancing hit is enough to distract a SEEM to be properly dealt with.
Then there's the TALONs on the Grizzlies. Frightening laser weapons that turn the air into plasma. If you want something there to just not be there any more, use the TALON. SEEMs and Guardians still target the coolant tubing which still makes a few Grizzlies blow up, but the TALON does much more damage than it takes. The few Hydra tanks that can navigate through the mountain passes don't stand a chance.

The new mountains are sullied by ICE rockets and missiles, Red Skies (still very effective against COMBAT plating with the incendiary, but not great in the mountains) rockets, and mechs. Aratam takes advantage of using the Meteor to scout (at the cost of not having the Meteor useful in combat as much) and the Guardians' ability to precisely sense nearby humans for constant ambushes. ORACLE-A takes a while to adapt to the new mountains, and isn't as effective as its technicians would like. Grizzly handlers prove quite effective at helping pass on their data, though, as they also make quite an impact in their partnership with individual pilots.
For Aratam, it's about ambushing Mereth advances and rallying around Guardians in those ambushes. Armed with their better environmental knowledge and psychic human-sensing, it's the best tactic they have.

Buut it's not enough. Aratamite infantry, with their hybrid coilguns and RA/MP armor can put up quite a fight but against soldiers armed with power armor and laser guns that have mechs with even bigger laser guns as backup, they lose quite decisively. SEEMs are the only ones that stand a chance, but with CLAWs their former tactics don't work as well. Guardians fight effortlessly and lead the way, but with so few they can only do so much. Blackwell technique usage goes up as SEEMs resort to that while hiding in cover to fight Bears, but the mental effort and time it takes just means it doesn't do enough. Guardian-led ambushes almost stop the unending Merethan march. Almost.


Extremely frightened that there's a Guardian behind that rock, Merethan Bears and Grizzlies pave the way forward in the new version of the Mountains.
Mereth advances in the Mountains.
[M: 2/4; A: 2/4]



The Plains (Weather: Electrostatic Storms)
It's good practice, especially for a Merethan, to stay away from lightning.
Some things make this harder. For example, when the lightning is aimed at you. That's bad. Avoid that.
Another example is when everything is lightning and if you're at this point you should just accept your fate.

Tesla rifles' effectiveness have gone up with the Aratamite-invoked storm, but so has their chance to explode. Bit of a win-lose there, though it does make the Merethans mighty afraid of their trenches turning into lightning. It's about the little things in life, like inspiring fear in your enemies. Overall Tesla Rifles are a bit more useful, though as always their charge time and (especially this season) chance to blow up prevents them from replacing the aging Osprey rifles.


ORACLE-A was never amazing in the plains, and that pattern is continued. When the enemy can be anywhere and go anywhere in an open field and you can't know every inch of that field, problems start to occur. Like they've always been occuring in the plains. This is made slightly worse by the electrostatic storms ruining a few of the more sensitive... sensors, used by the supercomputer. But it can still rely on its mainstays like Earth Ear. If ORACLE could have feelings, it would be tired of the plains. But it doesn't. So rejoice, Mereth.

Skyrangers encounter trouble. Just like in the mountains. Sure, Aratam has more space to cover and the same amount of cover to use, but Skyrangers were always more useful in the plains where landing is easy and taking paths to avoid enemies between objectives is relatively easy. So when they encounter some trouble, that impact is heard more loudly across the plains. They still work, and Bears wielding lasers still come out of nowhere (SEEMs see them coming but it's still out of nowhere before they can see them coming). But not as much.
Bear soldiers typically ride in Excavators (which, while nice, are quite slow considering their capacity) or accompany Grizzlies on the surface. Aratamites ride as they always have in the Raider APCs imported years ago from Cannala. Raiders may not be the pinnacle of technological progres, but they still work as long as they don't encounter any enemy.

Hydra battlegroups are headed by Guardians on the plains; they use the Guardians' sensing abilities and the Hydras' silent nature to do plenty of damage. Grizzlies easily beat Hydras one-on-one, with both superior weaponry and superior armor; the TALON makes short work of Aratam's tanks and COMBAT plating affords them a bit of time before being irreparably damaged. Usually this is enough, but against Guardian-led Hydras with Blackwell-SEEM backup, it may finally be seeing a proper change of the tides. Hydras almost always get the jump on Grizzlies, with coordinated fire taking down one or two and Blackwell technique incapacitating another before they switch to television displays (which hurts their tactical effectiveness). Hydras usually emerge the victor in these engagements, but not without decent losses on Aratam's end.
Bear troopers and air support is never far behind, thanks to the Grizzly operators notifying ORACLE-A and Mereth Command with pertinent intel whenever a Grizzly pack is attacked. Hydras often have to scatter before being hit by a Shrike or ICE bomb; and Bear troopers' CLAWs may not be as destructive as their bigger brother the TALON, but concentrated fire at a single spot can melt through armor reliably.
Ettin flak tanks continue to exist, though only make a minor impact when faced against Shrike-equipped Blizzards. Anyone deployed to the Plains will likely see more frozen ICE'd Ettins than operational Ettins.

When not leading a group of Hydras, Guardians are slightly less fear-striking than in the mountains. But only slightly. Combat in the plains moved away from being trench-centric already, but it's still a place of large engagements and artillery. Guardians can be suppressed with extreme and prejudiced CLAWfire then have multiple artillery strikes and/or air strikes called in on their exact position.
This is, unfortunately for Mereth, not overkill. It's not always possible, and it doesn't always work. Better than in the Mountains, at least. Aratam also continues to have far better artillery, with Red Skies effortlessly melting away COMBAT plating wherever it lands.


Despite the problems with Guardians, artillery strikes, and Skyrangers, Mereth has an overwhelming infantry advantage. Again: soldiers in power armor with ridiciluously effective plating, equipped with lasers that can melt through a tank's armor given coordination. SEEMs, like Guardians, are less of an issue in open fields. Aratam's RA/MP armor is effective but not quite "stopping CLAWs" effective, and their Ospreys continue to only have some powered shots (with powered shots not even guaranteeing piercing COMBAT plating).


For what generals hope is the last time, neither side actually advances.
Aratam has small advantages in plenty of areas, yet Mereth's infantry reigns supreme at such a stunning level that combined with some of their more unique methods (Excavators, Skyrangers, etc.) they still manage to hold the line. Despite artillery and tanks and psychic supersoldiers and additional fun-if-you're-not-a-Merethan-soldier stuff.

Merethan and Aratamite soldiers would stare at each other in a tense stand-offy way, if that was how combat works currently.
It is not, so they just think about the other side in a tense stand-offy way at their forward bases and outposts.
No side advances in the plains
Plains: [M: 3/4; A: 1/4]



Challenge: Oh God the World is Collapsing Around Us
When ground invasions of Eastern Europe begin and the soviets actually use a nuke, people start getting a bit panicky. These people include the Necrostate and Merethan public. Administrations have given some temporary funding to their R&D to help.

Each side will have the opportunity for a second design (simueltaneously voted on with the first one) with the goal of either subdueing fears or creating hope. Battlefield helpfulness of this action should be little to none, as that tends to make people more worried. But technological and/or societal advancement is okay.
Whichever design that helps people get over their fear/panic/lack of hope towards tomorrow the most will gain its side a Research Credit. But both designs will still be created, even if only one is the winner in this challenge.

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Fall 1964)
« Reply #87 on: June 12, 2019, 06:17:47 pm »

Aratam has developed the ANGEL Project.
A massive complex off the coast of Aratam has been built. Even more massive are the three spires rising from its corners holding electromagnetic accelerator rings. These rings accelerate at maximum safe speeds a shuttle tethered by recombinated graphene, stopping at around the 100km point where the end of the atmosphere roughly is. The tethers continue to let the shuttle continue on leftover speed towards Angel Station at the geostationary point, where a small rotated crew of 4 fit (with a maximum capacity of 10). The shuttle is very large, fitting a small second deck with 30 people max for comfort (no transfer in decks without using an outside structure) and a large bottom unpressurized cargo deck.

Not only is this considered their "Wonder" by Aratam, they've also deigned to open access to the ANGEL Project to every other country. Limited to non-military use, of course.
The ANGEL Project will double Aratam's space TC, but will not provide any of its own. It will grant Mereth +1 STC. Both sides can use it to put civilian or other non-military stations and assets into space, or use it to perform non-military research. Aratam will be notified immediately after any ANGEL-utilizing project is completed. Only Aratam can use it for military logistics, production, construction, and projects.
Aratam may close international doors to the ANGEL Project at any time, to unknown consequences.



In a similar note, Aratam has handily won the Hope challenge. While both sides have developed things that bring their people hope, they see the world as falling apart.
Aratam develops the ANGEL Complex using their recombinated materials, plasma thrusters, and coilgun experience. Knowing that they can actually go into space now as civilians (admittedly rare for the moment), but that the ANGEL Project builds an immediate bridge towards future things on the moon and space. They may already be chosen to crew the station or for training for it, but soon they feel a civilian space boom is inevitable. Especially with Aratam opening up the ANGEL Project to international use showing a possible way of the future involving peace.
Mereth, retaining opsec as they have not given their project access to everyone, does not inspire their citizens. It helps, and Merethans can dream and hope about it at night, but it's not enough with all the fears compounding.

Aratam has won the Research Credit.
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Quote from: RAM
You should really look to the wilderness for your stealth ideas, it has been doing it much longer than you have after all. Take squids for example, that ink trick works pretty well, and in water too! So you just sneak into the dam upsteam, dump several megatons of distressed squid into it, then break the dam. Boom, you suddenly have enough water-proof stealth for a whole city!

Maxinum McDreich

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Fall 1964)
« Reply #88 on: June 13, 2019, 09:25:46 pm »

been a LONG time since I was last on this forum. All the same, Aratam has another voice to convolute decision making :)
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Blood_Librarian

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Re: Mad Arms Race - Core Thread (Fall 1964)
« Reply #89 on: June 13, 2019, 10:01:37 pm »

scream fuck yess merethia sucks we got the research credittttt
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if you want something wacky
Quote from: ChiefWaffles, MAR Discord
I continue to be puzzled by BL's attempts to make Aratam blatantly evil
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