Month Two -- Design and Revision PhaseŽaneta Viliauskas stood in the bridge, with Christel at her side, waiting near the ornate table and in front of the large central screen display that made up the (rather lovely, Žaneta thought) communication center of
Le Bouclier, and... well, honestly, the first thought that bubbled up to her head was that she hoped that this contact was less of an asshole than Cano. Žaneta had resigned herself at the start of this campaign to the fact that she would have to deal with some unpleasant people, but people who thought themselves charismatic and worldwise and then whined at a little bit of battle damage were not exactly at the top of the list of people Žaneta wanted to count as her business partners. After all, she'd been through quite a few campaigns, now, and she'd seen serious
blood, which was really what she was more inclined to consider an issue than something that could be reasonably reliably fixed. It was that sort of veterancy-
Žaneta was jarred out of her thoughts by an elbow nudging at her - turning, she saw her second-in-command, looking up at her with an expression that... well, it told Žaneta that Christel had probably just read most of her train of thought completely, and it was a suspicion confirmed when Christel (who, thankfully, did take a moment to try to put her words together respectfully) spoke: "Commandeur, our contact is connecting now. Ah... this is only barely my role as Commandeur Spirituel, but... please, try to take them in with an open mind and a welcome? We... do represent our order both militarily and in a sense diplomatically, after all."
This drew a small groan, and a nod, before Žaneta focused in on the screen, straightening herself out. "Yes, of course, Christel. I apologize. Right, then. Let's get this done, and we can get going for this next mission."
With a nod, Christel hit the button to accept the incoming communication. With that, their contact appeared on the screen - a dark-skinned man in an olive-green military uniform. He provided something of an immediate contrast to Cano - whereas Cano had wild hair and cultivated a roguish look, this soldier had a uniform that was immaculate (and... bedecked with golden trim, even), with neat, close-cropped hair. The contact began talking, in a booming voice, "
I, am Major Chidike Ihejireka. It is a pleasure to meet you, fine mercenary fellows - today you have the honor of participating in the return to prominence of the very greatest state to grace the lands of the planet Nchoputa - that for which this planet was named!" One of Žaneta's eyebrows began to quirk downwards into a flat line, by way of involuntary twitch. But he kept speaking, "I speak of course... of the Kingdom of Nchoputa! The light of technology and science originating on
this world, before the arrival of the Crown, it was us who dominated, our name on the lips of all - but we were not, as the Crown, conquerors of all, but instead content to simply be the brightest star of the planet, with our sphere of influence simply stretching across the globe. And now it is once more our time to rise to this benevolent, advanced position." And he kept speaking, his eyes at this point closed as he went on his spiel "For you see, the Crown has now retreated to its own lands to fight its own grand war, meaning that the time has come for the great nations of this fair planet to seize their rightful place! And of course the Kingdom of Nchoputa is there to answer the call, although there are many not so great as us who also wish to seize by force that which is not truly their place-"
At this point, Major Ihejireka opened an eye, and seeing that Žaneta was visibly twitching further as her patience wore threadbare, proceeded to break into uproarious laughter. Žaneta
bristled, her entire form stiffening up into angles (why did it have to be another asshole?), Christel recoiled with a decidedly scandalized expression, none too pleased with somebody willing to bust out a speech like that entirely insincerely, and Major Ihejireka laughed and laughed and laughed until Žaneta finally cut him off with a dangerously sharp tone. "
Please. I can only assume that you did not advertise for something on the expense level of a Titan mercenary Order simply to waste its time, so I am going to have to ask that you collect yourself, and actually conduct business."
Thankfully, after raising a hand as his laughter trailed off into chuckles, Major Ihejireka did comply. "Ah, aha- sorry- sorry- I do apologize, I do apologize, I know this is unprofessional, I know this is unprofessional. Ah, but please do understand where I am coming from here: the royalty is insisting we introduce ourselves "in a way befitting the prestige of the Kingdom", and I am only slightly exaggerating what they mean. I am as much of a patriot as anyone, but it is difficult not to have at least some fun with it when the attitude is as premature as it currently is. But I do apologize for having that fun at your expense, since you did come here to perform a mission for me. Right."
Major Ihejireka cleared his throat and continued. "When I say the attitude from the royalty is a little premature, what I mean is that the situation up here in the North is extremely messy, which is where plenty of work comes for people like you - even entirely separate from the silliness up with the aliens near the pole. The Empire of the Fifhurst Crown has almost entirely pulled out up north, probably since they figured that what little they left of our governments up here would keep things nice and in order for them. Well... to give you a piece of information to make up for my earlier rudeness, they probably aren't coming back here any time soon, and everyone knows it, since the Crown's been struggling to keep the planet administrated in recent years, so the entire North is going up in a huge landgrab. All of the big countries on this planet that meant anything before the Crown showed up in the first place were up here, and we all want to get back what was ours and maybe a bit more. Problem is that they of course never let us rebuild ourselves while they were around, so everyone is running around trying to put together what they can. We're mostly managing to occupy garrisons here and there, but it's mostly a piecemeal effort. Therefore, if we can get a proper Titan attack from mercenaries like you, it will bring something to bear that almost nobody else will have actually in position yet, and we'll have a head start."
Having been given some space to collect herself in turn by the change in her contact's demeanor and his decision to actually provide her with some information (even if it was more explanation of their strategic position than the tactical information she actually needed), Žaneta took in a breath, nodded, and spoke with less venom in her voice. "That situation is understood. As you can imagine, I'm going to want to know about the terrain and base I'm attacking, the turret and vehicles mentioned in the information that came with the mercenary advertisement, and... perhaps a bit about the behavior I can expect from our foes, if you can provide it."
Major Ihejireka inclined his head slightly and responded without much hesitation. "Naturally. So, you're going to be facing the "Diildeshgüi Society". They're essentially a bunch of subordinate officers to the Crown who think they're the successors to a pre-Crown nation. Unlike the Kingdom of Nchoputa, the Crown didn't keep much of the Diildeshgüi Republic around, since they weren't terribly civilized, just a bunch of hopped up central raiders who went up northwards a while until they took a lot of land and then settled down, but of course they do think otherwise. They've taken over a fort in the southern reaches of the forests up here which was actually originally one of
our forts meant to let us project vehicles outwards into savannah terrain - but if they keep it, it means that they get a fortified spot to project power from their core in the savannah into ours in the forests I mentioned, even if it's not as efficient as the other way around. This means that in terms of terrain, you have the base itself, several roads heading southwards, and forest in all other directions outwards. That forest is pretty thin, though, so their vehicles are still going to be able to drive around, though obviously not as quickly as on the roads. You'll be coming on from the north."
"As for what you'll be facing, the base has a big turret on it that I have to imagine is going to be the big issue. The Crown took over the base when they took over, and the turret is Crown issue, so it's pretty good - the weapon on there is one of their Crown Ruby lasers. They really pride themselves on those things - they're reliable, they don't tend to miss what they're aimed at, and their armor penetration is fantastic. Since this base wasn't very important for the Crown, though, it's just a single Medium laser. The turret's also got a fair amount of armor, and though they're not going to be able to get any meaningful repairs done on it, the Diildeshgüi are probably desperate enough to send a crew up for
some battlefield maintenance. The vehicles aren't as much of an issue. They're "armored" cars with what I'd say count as a Medium railgun each, but they're Diildeshgüi guns, not Crown guns, so they're not as good, and though the cars are fast they have near no armor for what counts for a Titan. The guns can still hurt if you do get tagged by them, but they're pretty slow, so I'd wager that they're going to try to use hit-and-run tactics on you."
Arquebusier-class Light Titan
Description: The Arquebusier-class Light Titan is a common sight among smaller mercenary groups in the Arehan Frontier Union, among skirmisher forces in the AFU's military proper, and among civilian organizations wishing to keep some level of Titan protection to themselves, being relatively cheap and portable. Although a little expensive for its tonnage, being Avalonian, that tonnage is extremely light for even most light Titans, but the Arquebusier-class capable of slugging it out with even heavier light Titans. It is a relatively hardy little Titan, especially around the Torso, is capable of using Carryable Equipment, and mounts a respectable amount of equipment, but its limbs are weaker and it isn't very fast. The Titan looks largely Mech, but the presence of components sprinkled throughout with ritual markings give away its Magic nature.
Parts: Arquebusier Torso (Damaged - Weapon Mounting Destroyed - takes 1 Mech Scrap and 1 Magic Scrap to fix)
-Mounted Equipment: Medium: Destroyed
Arquebusier Native Head
Arquebusier Native Left Arm
-Mounted Equipment: Magimechanical Small Laser
Arquebusier Native Right Arm
-Mounted Equipment: Magimechanical Small Laser
"Arcanebusier" Left Leg (Damaged - Fragile - takes 1 Magic Scrap to fix)
"Arquetwosier" Right Leg
Carried: Dragonnade Railgun
[1] Arquebusier Torso: (Mech/Magic)
This is the core of the Arquebusier Titan, and is the most durable part of the Titan, with a blessed keystone mounted within it providing extra structural support, especially against physical impact, for its otherwise mechanical frame. It possesses a Medium Mount, connections for a Head, Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, and Right Leg, and a Carryable Equipment hardpoint, but is otherwise largely unremarkable.
[1] Arquebusier Native Head: (Mech/Magic)
A fairly unremarkable head. Though it's structurally just mechanical, the machine spirits in the electronics keep it Mech/Magic. The addition of two ghosts, the dead sniper Puerta Brothers, provides bonuses to target acquisition, especially at long range. The Puerta Brothers are generally quiet and non-disruptive, but don't get along with Rozhestvensky, like everyone else.
[2] Arquebusier Arm: (Mech/Magic)
A fairly unremarkable arm, albeit more fragile than the torso of the Arquebusier. Possesses a Small Mount. Has dexterous hands and thus can operate Carryable Equipment.
[1] "Arquetwosier" Right Leg: (Mech/Magic)
Although not exactly bursting with quirks, the "Arquetwosier" is a sufficient, reliable leg. Thanks to the reworking of the mechanical aspects of the leg, the "Arquetwosier" operates with moderate speed, provides a moderate (but smaller) boost to accuracy when standing still, and has some basic sturdiness to it, though it is still only lightly armored.
"Arcanebusier" Left Leg: (Mech/Magic)
A fairly straightforward upgrade of the Arquebusier's left leg, the "Arcanebusier" left leg has received a significant boost in speed and in agility compared to its base, able to move at a moderately fast pace with outright good agility. If it is damaged or if the other leg is sufficiently damaged to prevent it from holding much of the Titan's weight, the agility of the leg needs to be toned down lest joint failure be risked.
[2] Magimechanical Small Laser: (Mech/Magic)
As generic as weaponry gets in the AFU, this weapon uses the electronics of a laser device to a fire a, well, laser, but is actually powered by several extremely small electronic spirits. Operates at a medium-short range, does small but not tiny damage, and is extremely accurate, but can overheat if used too much.
[1] "Dragonnade" Railgun: (Mech/Magic)
A slightly light Carryable Weapon, the Dragonnade is long-range and fires accurately, but with low muzzle velocity, limiting that accuracy against distant, moving targets. Has a respectable rate of semi-automatic fire. Does moderate damage with its initial hit, and then does damage-over-time as if the target were being shelled by small and medium cannon weaponry. Initial strike pierces armor well, but both initial and prolonged damage do poorly against larger mechs, doing less damage and more localized damage respectively. Breaking more than half of the spike off ends the effect. Comes with free angry Slavic ghost.
[1] Mark 3 "Crown Amethyst" Medium Plasma Beam: (Mech)
A Medium weapon, shall we say, "liberated" from a hastily abandoned Fifhurst base. This weapon fires a rather beautiful purple, beam of plasma. It operates at long range with moderate accuracy and does relatively (comparable to, say, a Large weapon on the weaker end) devastating damage - additionally, due to the charge of the plasma itself and the magnetic fields involved in actually keeping it as a coherent beam of plasma, the "Crown Amethyst" may temporarily interfere with the functioning of Mech components on the part it hits. It has two major tradeoffs - firstly, the charge time for the weapon is very long, dwarfing, say, a standard Medium railgun. Secondly, its penetration is quite poor - if it hits the armor of a Titan, it is likely to heavily damage that armor but not the structure beneath to a significant extent, unless that structure is already exposed.
"Dragonnade" Railgun: (Mech/Magic)
A slightly light Carryable Weapon, the Dragonnade is long-range and fires accurately, but with low muzzle velocity, limiting that accuracy against distant, moving targets. Has a respectable rate of semi-automatic fire. Does moderate damage with its initial hit, and then does damage-over-time as if the target were being shelled by small and medium cannon weaponry. Initial strike pierces armor well, but both initial and prolonged damage do poorly against larger mechs, doing less damage and more localized damage respectively. Breaking more than half of the spike off ends the effect. Comes with free angry Slavic ghost.
To manufacture 1 Dragonnade Railgun requires: Railgun OR Destroyed Railgun Scrap Or Mech Scrap w/ Advanced Magnetic Tech, 3 pieces of Magic Scrap.
Mech Head Scrap
Mech Left Arm Scrap
Mech Right Leg Scrap
Mech Scrap with High-Power Battery
Mech Scrap with Rapid Rotary System
Destroyed Fireball Weapon
Magic Scrap with Conjuration Ritual Components
Magic Scrap with Aura Detection Components
Frère-Chevalier Jalen Elliott (Level 1)
Traits:
PanickyMissions until Level 2: 0/2
Sœur-Chevalier Yana Nikolaeva (Level 0)
Traits: None
Missions until Level 1: 0/1
Author
Topic: Ramshackle Titans - Knights Reliquar Thread - M2 Deployment (Read 9688 times)