Month One -- Design and Revision PhaseOnce again, Lanre Adebayo was in the bridge with Marcellino, sitting at a chair at his card table, one arm hung over the back to give off a "casual and in control" air. But this time, there were three major differences.
First, there was a screen up on the wall, which Lanre was facing, and on that screen was the face of a white guy who looked to be in his early 30s - just about Lanre's age, actually. The man had a stolid but fierce set to his face, something somewhat accentuated by his red hair, kept neat as it was. This was Captain Gregory McNabb, the client - just a junior officer like him, Lanre realized, but at least enough of an important guy to be a player on the local scene. Hell, though... that was about to be an apt descriptor for Lanre himself, wasn't it? It kind of blew his mind that he was actually going to be dealing on a peer basis with some of his clients even as it. He wasn't sure if that spoke well of him and the others running the Retinue, or poorly of Chopta... maybe both.
The second major difference was that there was an assault rifle sitting out on the table, something Lanre had put out to help bolster the image of the Retinue, to make them look like hardened fighters (which, to be fair, they
were, or at least the survivors were), in a way that a blank fucking card table maybe, Lanre suddenly reflected, wouldn't.
The third major difference, completely ruining all of that image work, as half-assed as it was, was that there was a fifteen-year-old standing behind him, crossing her arms, looking imperious, and very clearly expecting to do much of the speaking, something that had Marcellino (just out of camera) with his face in his hands. "Hail. You stand in the presence of Princess Rivalla of the Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist! This is my retinue -in full, Princess Rivalla's Grand Biomechanical Retinue- and we have chosen to grace this sector with our presence, to provide a guiding hand in these times of trouble! We have elected to offer you our services for now - will you introduce yourself as befits a royal?"
For several seconds, a silence reigned in the bridge and on the other end of the communication, with Marcellino slowly beginning to tense up until he was trembling ever-so-slightly. Lanre, on the other hand, simply leaned forward, elbow on the table, and declared: "I'm Lanre Adebayo,
executive officer." in a tone that emphasized that he was not in fact just the executive officer.
The man on the other screen sighed, and then pulled a flask from somewhere on his side of the screen. "Well, beggars can't be choosers, I suppose." (Lanre didn't so much as flinch, while Rivalla visibly curdled.) "Right, well, ladies and gentlemen, this is the situation." The red-haired man leaned one elbow against the side of his cockpit - it appeared he was transmitting from a (fully mechanical) Titan cockpit, something that was perhaps something of a primitive notion to any Titan pilot of the Kingdom. "My name is, of course, Captain Gregory McNabb. I'm Fifhurst by blood, and of course by true loyalty, but at the moment I'm afraid that I find myself technically a renegade. The Empire of the Crown felt the need to go back home once the fighting over there really ratcheted up, and sent almost all of us back to the homeworld to participate in the fighting there - it's my recommendation, by the way, that you not try your luck there until you're quite large. But the Empire is also the only thing that has been keeping this unfortunate world together. Chopta is full of factions and small bands that would like nothing more to tear each other apart, especially in this middle part of the planet. The Empire kept some order about the whole place, and when the others left, my boys and I could not stomach leaving this place in the lurch, since we knew it would descend into chaos."
McNabb let out another sigh, this one deeper and more regretful. "Unfortunately, we were right. Fighting has broken out all over this place, and even though we're doing our best to keep order in at least part of the central belt, there's only so much one battalion can do. That, of course, is where you come in -- and it's also where the foe you are going to be fighting comes in. We've been seeing a flood of mercenaries from all over the sector come in; Crown only knows where you come from, but there are a lot of fighters down here on Chopta, and we've accepted the fact that we will have to become clients in order to attempt to rein the violence in. It's better to have at least some mercenaries on contract than to be adrift among a sea of them without even a temporary raft, to speak in analogy."
Lanre finally took the opportunity to speak again. "I'm going to want more concrete information on our actual mission from you, Captain. Your motivations are one thing--"
(Marcellino here cut in with an "--and we can appreciate them, sure!--")
"--but if you are going to be hiring us to fight, I would at least like to have as much for us to go off of as possible. We saw some amount of information in your listing, but if you have more to tell us on our target, it would help us to properly prepare to take care of your job."
McNabb got just a little huffy: "Well, I was of course going to get to that, you know. The Maruška Sisters Company was an increasingly well-known company around here, bouncing between band to band and being fairly large in size, all told. But they ultimately made the mistake of sending their leadership off to go attack one of our bases -er, one of the Empire bases- that are actually still manned, in some suicidally ambitious group's mission, and when the Maruška Sisters themselves went and died, the company ended up scattering all over the place in little groups, who we've now been hunting down for some time. The Maruška Sisters tended to specialize their Titans to perform specific roles -- for the period of time that we managed to pursue the Titan that you will be dealing with, we ascertained that he appears to have been some sort of hit-and-run unit."
McNabb continued, "Our speculation is that he would have used his spine rifle to deal a devastating strike, and then dart off too fast to be hit, but obviously now that he's gone and lost that rifle, there's much less of that to deal with. He is still equipped with two small weapons, however - these are mounted on the Titan's torso, as the arms were pretty much entirely specialized for carrying weaponry. These appear to be small acid launchers, which can fire off to... I'd say a moderate range, from what we've experienced from similar Maruška hit and run Titans and don't do terribly much on their own in terms of raw devastation, but are capable of corroding armor and making a Titan more vulnerable where it's been struck, especially over time. The Titan is equipped with legs that aren't very tough, but emphasize speed and agility - I would wager that it would be hard to keep up unless you've heavily specialized, there. He's run off to a rocky area near a mountain that's just outside of where we've consolidated our patrol area now, but we've been there before. It's been hit with some sort of cataclysm in the past, and the area is littered with pieces of rock that are of a reasonable size for a Titan to throw - it's our guess that he's holed up there because he plans to use these boulders as his finishing weapon if he's forced into a fight."
Lanre made to reply... but Rivalla spoke up now, and Lanre sort of gave up: "Well, that is information that I suppose we can use. You should feel honored that we have come to deal with this for you - not only are we a royal retinue of the galaxy's premier experts on biotechnology, but we are experienced and hardened fighters in our own right! But yet we approach even tasks such as this with zeal, for our reach and our skills reach both high and low. We accept your mission - and you WILL find us successful. Leave no room in your heart for doubt - it would not do for you to be needlessly confused about our abilities." Rivalla stood up straight, and did her utmost to give an imperious look.
McNabb looked sort of bemused.
As previously stated in the OP for the game, in the Design and Revision Phase, you will have the opportunity to use two Design Actions and one Revision Action. Since I... don't really feel like repeating everything, I encourage you to look at the rules in the core for the phase. You have the choice of doing a Jury-Rig and a Blueprint, two Jury Rigs, or two Blueprints, in addition to a Revision that you can use either to alter a part you already have, or a blueprint you already have. You'll do these all at once. You can figure out your votebox here to your liking.Barely-Rivalled-class Light Titan
Description: The Barely-Rivalled is often rejected among the Kingdom for its rather mundane figure and its small size, but this belies its true functionality -- the Barely-Rivalled-class of Light Titans is a very capable and pragmatically-built cyborg titan, which sports surprisingly good durability for a Titan of its light tonnage and small and compact size. Although its mobility is somewhat poor and it lacks any gimmicks beyond its ability to fold into position for storage, it mounts a respectable amount of weaponry for its size and is generally built for slugouts with vehicles and other light Titans, and it has the capacity to carry Carryable Equipment. It looks like a skinless humanoid without a face (having instead a cockpit) riddled with mechanical pistons and steel struts, making it a little bit fucking terrifying to look at.
Parts: Barely-Rivalled Torso
-Mounted Equipment: Medium: Biomechanical Medium Railgun
Barely-Rivalled Native Head
Barely-Rivalled Native Left Arm
-Mounted Equipment: Small: Biomechanical Small Laser
Barely-Rivalled Native Right Arm
-Mounted Equipment: Small: Biomechanical Small Laser
Megaraptor Left Leg
Megaraptor Right Leg
[1] Barely-Rivalled Torso: (Mech/Organic)
This is the core of the Barely-Rivalled Titan, and is the most durable part of the Titan, with a tough and flexible-to-physical-impact banded "ribcage" of bone and metal. 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] Barely-Rivalled Native Head: (Mech/Organic)
A fairly unremarkable head, except that the cockpit right in where the face would be on the skinless head is pretty disturbing.
[2] Barely-Rivalled Arm: (Mech/Organic)
A fairly unremarkable arm, albeit more fragile than the torso of the Barely-Rivalled. Possesses a Small Mount. Has dexterous hands and thus can operate Carryable Equipment.
[2] Megaraptor Leg: (Mech/Organic)
A double-jointed raptor leg, the Megaraptor Leg offers decently high-speed and agile movement, enough toughness to take some firepower without losing functionality (although they are not highly armored and are vulnerable to heavy firepower), a small jumping capacity which is more effective the faster the Titan is running, and melee strikes that are somewhat risky and not effective vs. heavy armor, but are very much effective vs. light armor.
[1] Biomechanical Medium Railgun: (Mech/Organic)
As generic as weaponry gets in the Kingdom, this core of metal wound around by flesh uses organically derived energy to fire off ferrous projectiles at high speed. Operates at a long range, is relatively accurate, and does good though not overwhelming damage, but it takes a long time to recharge between shots.
[2] Biomechanical Small Laser: (Mech/Organic)
As generic as weaponry gets in the Kingdom, this weapon looks almost entirely metallic but for the core of flesh in its innards that powers the laser. Operates at a medium-short range, does small but not tiny damage, and is extremely accurate, but can overheat if used too much.
Megaraptor Leg: (Mech/Organic)
A double-jointed raptor leg, the Megaraptor Leg offers decently high-speed and agile movement, enough toughness to take some firepower without losing functionality (although they are not highly armored and are vulnerable to heavy firepower), a small jumping capacity which is more effective the faster the Titan is running, and melee strikes that are somewhat risky and not effective vs. heavy armor, but are very much effective vs. light armor.
To manufacture 1 Megaraptor Leg requires: 1 Mech Scrap, 1 Organic Scrap, 2 Legs (Mech, Organic, or Mech/Organic)
Destroyed Acid Weapon
Organic Scrap with Regenerative Tissues
Organic Scrap with Intact Heart
Organic Head Scrap
Mech Scrap with Advanced Metals
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Topic: Ramshackle Titans - Rivalla's Retinue Thread - M2 Deployment (Read 10066 times)