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[piratejoe]

S01E01 - Booting Up: (3) NUKE9.13, TricMagic, Piratejoe

[Happerry]

Hacker: CF_Dogcatcher
Region: Application City
Duel Disk: MinionCall A (1), Squad Summon S (1), Squad Summon S (1),  Recovery 10 (1), Atk+10 (1), CallChiptune (0)
Other: A dastardly hacker is loose in Application City! Squads of Viri roam the alleyways, avoiding corporate security with inexplicable ease! What will happen to this once peaceful city?

For the first time in over a year, Bailey's avatar returns to Application City. It's a sight to bring back memories... few of them good.

No one pays much attention to what seems like just another employee walking down the city roads even as her form blurs when CF_Dogcatcher deploys a personal veil and turns into one of the back alleyways. Discretely bypassing the tattoo bearing GangMinions in the backstreets it doesn't take long for her to reach her target. A quick MinionCall A allows the local viruses to be subdued or driven off, and soon Bailey is descending into the basement of one of the large and yet hollow buildings in the big city.

Looking down at the exposed vertebra of the Network Backbone, Bailey gives a brief smile before planting her seed.

As the parasitic vines sprout and form into their blossom gates, the Firmament has a firm route into the depths of Application City.

While unable, or at least wise enough not to, march troops through the main city streets, smaller strike teams of officer lead CarbineMinion.exe programs filter through the backstreets and begin subduing the local HeelNavi gangs. Soon the backstreets are whispering of a new force in town, one that plays hardball. The larger gangs begin to take notice, though only probing strikes take place between the Firmament and these pre-existing forces so far, skirmishes between CarbineMinions and tommygun bearing GangMinions that find themselves sharply cut off as the more successful raids are responded to with replica viruses summoned from Bailey's chip library. In response, a few gang outposts go mysteriously silent as they find themselves devastated by the few Chamelee.mon packs CF_Dogcatcher was willing to deploy into the city where she'd have to keep a close eye on them.

Despite these probes, the other gangs fail to notice the importance of the semi-mobile vines growing across the back ends of the big application stores on the main streets, delicate looking tendrils growing through the walls to tap into the datastreams within, vampiric taproots tying themselves into the local datanet and giving CF_Dogcatcher a thousand disposable access points to the data-sphere, each individually minor but adding up into something respectable.

Though the roots are yet young, the Firmament has made good on its chance to grow into Application City. Bailey warns the rest of the group that further expansion will likely be more difficult, requiring clashes with more built up criminal forces or risking exposing their existence to corporate security forces now that they've consumed what no-program's land was available for this initial growth stage.

+1 Control in Application City for the Firmament.

Hacker: DJ King Cabaret
Region: Archival Sediment
Duel Disk: ADI - Vivi_Paltest.dat (4), Atk+10 (1), CallChiptune (0)
Other: Meanwhile, an unlicensed concert is held in the Archival Sediment. Why are these crowds of Viri- and the disturbing Naga leading them- so eager to cause a havoc? Could this be a distraction whilst other viri unearth long-forgotten relics!?

Arriving from a long forgotten link to Application City, the DJ King soon sets his forces to fortifying and reinforcing an appropriately stable seeming cavern as Vivi busies herself searching through the Sediment for 'interesting programs'. As the myriad of small passages are blocked off, and secure gates installed in the bigger openings, the first Recycling Forge goes live and groups of CarbineMinion programs lead by Officers set out, following paths marked by scouts dispatched in the original arrival to this zone.

While a sprawling maze their seems to be little active hostiles here, and what there is is mostly outdated and weak, viruses driven down here by failure to adapt, or random independent archivist-archeologists whom are bypassed or driven away as seems best. More risky is the omnipresent chance of a cavern collapse, or a tunnel finding itself flooding as the tide of the Sea shifts above and water leaks down through the sediment.

Still, little is not none, and Wyrms and CarbineMinions alike find themselves dispatched against predatory cave fish crawling across the ground on tank-tread fins with cannon-barrel eyestalks, blind-wormsnake monsters with paralyzing screams, and pale cyclopean giants with laser-shooting cyborg eyes. Vivi soon occupies herself with purging the nests of predatory bat-planes with radar dish heads that emit disorienting pulses which infest these caves, and is later seen sporting a new necklace with useful sensory powers.

As time goes on, safe(r) caverns are found, and semi-stable routes between them mapped as foundation-bearing spikes of advertisementium harvested from Application City are brought in and used to reinforce bunker-caverns for long term stability. Additional Recycling Forge are set up in secondary caverns to trawl the long lost data for anything valuable as well as allowing the production of additional viri on site.

Soon the DJ King has mapped out this corner of the Sediment, aided by his ground penetrating concerts providing useful exploratory data about the hollows and paths, and is fast establishing the infrastructure to plunge further into its depths, deeper in the past and farther away from the sea above. Vivi herself has not found much foes worth her attention, but her collecting habits have left her well able to search through the lost data for anything she considers of interest, and she's quite enjoyed this chance to expand her collection.

The Datasphere has been mostly quiescent, but that very state of dormancy makes it hard to work with such that the DJ King describes it as trying to code with a keyboard of molasses. Perhaps a more skilled hacker would do better with that, but it seems to be a feature of this zone that one must be aware of and will hinder the deployment of battlechips here.

+1 Control in Archival Sediment for the Firmament.

[piratejoe]

Sarge (1): Piratejoe

I feel that the choice in this instance is obvious. Better to have a workhorse that will stay with us for many turns and serve as a solid base for most future programs with intelligence than something specialized to a specific area, at least for now anyway.

[NUKE9.13]

I feel that the choice in this instance is obvious. Better to have a workhorse that will stay with us for many turns and serve as a solid base for most future programs with intelligence than something specialized to a specific area, at least for now anyway.

I can sort of see where you're coming from, but to call the choice obvious seems excessive. I would argue that we have several roles that still need filling, and no indication yet that Officers are in need of a total overhaul.
I would be more inclined towards doing some sort of longer-ranged damage-dealer, a defensive unit, or a direct-damage chip. Off the top of my head. 

[piratejoe]

The reason I say it's obvious is because it gives is an advantage that may be overlooked by another and advances our knowledge on making intelligent programs. Yes, we do need something like the Hunter.exe. But considering they are more specialized and a good deal of their difficulty would come from intelligence, if we do Sarge first then we can afford to grant them even more intelligence through ballistics programming and how to mask their fire and prioritize targets or even use the environment to take out multiple viri to make them even more deadly. As for the defensive unit that wouldn't be bad, though it depends on how defensive you are talking. Lastly the chip is another useful tool but eh.

The thing is, with Sarge we can have a easier time working on all future units and giving them a fairly good level of intelligence, and our skill with such will be a massive boon for the rest of the game. Honestly next turn provided Sarge goes well I'd love to do Hunter.exe, in fact before I had the idea of Sarge I'd probably be going for it now. But really I am more focused on ways to make our future projects more ambitious without needing to be more difficult while making our more basically forces more useful.

[TricMagic]

SpyEye.exe

SpyEye.exe is a mobile floating sphere with camouflage systems adapted from the Chamelee.mon data and outfitted with a Spark.lov program. Their levitation makes them capable of traveling anywhere, and their camo is well suited for spy work. In fact they can use local links prepared by a hacker or the avatar to transmit the recordings they gather, can be controlled wirelessly with the right setup on the controller's side, and give data(directives) to nearby programs from a Hacker or ADI if controlled directly by them. It should be noted that the Spark.lov program is a powerfully focused laser(Through the iris) suited to long distance snipping, and very fast, though it can't be activated while the camo system is active, and the SpyEye.exe movement stops as it acquires the targeting profile.(For stability) As well, the laser has a recharge time, so it can't be fired consecutively. The program comes in blue/green/white accents, with a yellow iris.(and laser color) While fairly difficult to produce, they are good at performing the tasks assigned to them, though their independent initiative outside their assigned objective is fairly lacking with only following preprogrammed protocols for missions. A good spy and sniper to add to our ranks.


Have sniper SpyEye.exe. These also set up into Siren giving them a method of observation and attack from range. I expect Complex at minimum, though Complicated would be fine. We could revise one without the laser for more basic spy operations where snipers aren't needed. (I can remove the weapon if that is wanted.)
And yes, it is both visual and audio recording.

Sarge (1): Piratejoe
SpyEye.exe: (1) TricMagic

Nin. I say spies for the gangs of the city. Smarts only goes so far without intelligence. Though Bailey did well on that front.

I might suggest we could eventually add the refined camo system to the Scout as well.

[piratejoe]

I feel spy eye is honestly just a scout with a more powerful gun, stealth, and that can fly with the label 'sniper' slapped on it... Further, I feel it's skills and abilities are understated that will undoubtedly effect the result if it's written, and intelligence too lacking to be of effective use as a sniper, as the whole point of a sniper is to take out important and dangerous units.

Also, we still have Hunter.exe...which was edited to have stealth.

[TricMagic]

Sarge
Created mainly by Rangers_Constellation, with a bit of tweaks and assistance in cosmetics by Ophilia, the Sarge is what can basically be called the next evolution of the officer. Sarge is designed to be a bit more durable than an officer, and most importantly, made to have a vastly improved tactical library for changing situations, all dedicated to small squad tactics, along with a better target and threat assessment, priorities, when to press an advantage or retreat, how to set up ambushes or killzones, and how to react to such tactics being used against them. In essence, it's an officer with minor improvements to durability and aim, and major improvements to it's tactical capabilities, and since it's coded by someone who used to be in the military, it's quite effective. Even so, this by itself would likely not require too much investment or time, and as such one minor additional thing was added. The Sarge has an ability, Heroism, which is announced with some inspirational words, and makes the target of Rally more resistant to damage for a short time along with healing some that had already been taken. In terms of it's form, it's naturally humanoid, and its outfit matches that of a Sargent from varying time periods and nations, from things as old as redcoats, to modern uniforms, and everything in between, though a special variant in cosmetics for the application city can make them look more like Mobsters from various time periods rather than soldiers mainly due to Ophilia who wanted such for purely cosmetic reasons.

Knight.exe
The Knight.exe was designed to look like a modern knight, with a silver-grey chest plate decorated with blue circuitry and green accents. The helmet is the head with green eyes. As an upgrade to the Officer.exe, it has better durability, a larger tactical library focused on small squad tactics, and greater threat assessment, prioritization, and decision-making processes. Of note is the Knight's weapon, the carbine rifle previously developed now has the stock serve as a handle for longsword(though still suited to serve as a stock and without a guard), and along the full length atop of the rifle is an emitter to generate the blade of a energy for close quarters combat. Along with the increase in intelligence comes improvements to the missions protocols as well, allowing them to be given a more flowing objectives list without issues. Of note the Knight also has a number of alt uniforms that are purely cosmetic for blending in, though they still retain their knightly look regardless. It was requested by quite a few people. Of note among these is a mobster style that Ophilla wanted.

Solider.exe
An upgrade to the CarbineMinion.exe, Solider.exe gain access to a collapsible baton with energy-spearhead. and a round shield that expands and collapses to a circular container that fits on the hip, as well as an upgrade to their own group tactics when working together or under the commands of others. A general upgrade to strength makes them suitable fighters, and the shield comes with a barrier power router to block ranged attacks, allowing groups of soldiers to perform a Shield Wall and Charge tactic. They also still have their carbine rifles, which they can use with the shield attached to their arm or without for more accurate shooting. The melee and ranged protocols, while not fancy, makes them good group fighters. Alone they can manage, but it's nothing compared to what they can do with proper ally Solider.exe.

Sarge (1): Piratejoe
Knight.exe: (1) TricMagic
SpyEye.exe: ()

[testmen]

I guess I prefer better melee ability to an single target buff, and a Knight aesthetic over generic military one. I would still prefer an cyber pirate theme, but I got ideas a couple of ideas that fit mold that I could try pushing.

Sarge (1): Piratejoe
Knight.exe: (2) TricMagic, testmen
SpyEye.exe: ()

[Scholar Knight]

Looks like we are doing officer variants this round. I can agree with both Nuke and Pirate. Better officers are all well and good, but right now they don't have much to organize or field or plan around with, beyond basic pulse guns and perhaps releasing a hoard of assigned wyrms. It isn't a bad thing to spend the turn on, but it seems like pirate's more just wanting to farm exp, and I definitely see Nuke's side for getting more niches filled within our army. Especially something anti-heavy or our own heavy unit.

First Mate.exe - Class:Viri - TL:DR Future proof officers
A partial revision and re-imagining of the Sarge, from a few of the other Firmament hackers and interns that got fed up with being tasked with revising the scout AI and officer.exe multiple times.
The First Mate retains the minor durability improvement over typical officers and the vastly improved tactical library almost line for line that came with the Sarge. Including improved squad tactics, better target and threat assessment, prioritization, ect. They are also equipped -by default- with a pair of pulse carbines, which enables one to overcharge the first mate itself while the other can still shoot charged shots, or overcharge two different systems.

The bulk of the modifications for the First Mate were to design the thing to be as future proof as possible. Adding in a highly customizable library with easily modifiable values and additional space for new and currently-non-existing units, the First Mate is intended to be able to make use of nearly any non-highly-specialized virus/ADI the Firmament would have the potential of fielding. Or at the very least, making it trivial to go back and re-code the additional functionality into the First Mate with those custom libraries. Similarly, the First Mate is given a reconfigurable load out and firing paradigm, letting it swap out to newer weapons should the pulse carbine be phased out or the hacker in question prefer a different armament on their officers.
And while taking a back seat to the rest of the future proofing, one hacker attempts to remake the "Heroism" code from the Sarge into a general Battlechip function, enabling the first mate to select and cast single-target Battlechips (the heal or attack boost) on members of its squad it thinks would benefit the most from. Allowing a hacker to 'preload' a battlechip into a First Mate and trust it can handle the casting while the hacker prioritizes other things.

It's also designed to look more like a pirate.


If people think that we are fine in terms of officers and would rather have a long range counterpart, then here's this.
Redirector.exe - Class:Viri - TL;DR Long Range telefrag-shooting/vaporizing sniper
The Redirector is a long range sniper unit, equipped with increased target prioritization, aiming capability, the ability to be given specified targets by officer units or the hacker, and a more basic version of the Chameleon.mon's stealth coding. The bulk of the work for the Redirector, however, will be with its weapon: the Hyperlink Accelerator.

A somewhat oversized gun compared to conventional snipers, with additional charging ports that reduce mobility while in firing position, the Accelerator does not fire conventional projectiles or energy bursts. Instead, it launches a shortlived beam that, upon hitting a surface of code, forcefully redirects the entire surrounding code to a random neighboring location in the local codesphere. In practice, this essentially rips a whole section of a target apart. The removed section tending to destabilize, fall apart, and fade away into its composite bits. While this can outright kill less armored or redundent viruses by disrupting their code's stability, it should still be effective against heavily armored opponents by removing a whole section of their armor away and revealing a new weak point for other troops to make use of.

Sarge (1): Piratejoe
Knight.exe: (2) TricMagic, testmen
SpyEye.exe: ()
First Mates: (1) SK
Redirector: (0)

[piratejoe]

Sarge (0):
Knight.exe: (2) TricMagic, testmen
SpyEye.exe: ()
First Mates: (2) SK, Piratejoe
Redirector: (0)

[NUKE9.13]

So... I prefer a melee weapon to the ability to use chips. But I also like the future-proofing of the First Mate.
Solution? Post a third option, obviously.

FirstMate.exe (Cutlass Version)
A partial revision and re-imagining of the Sarge, from a few of the other Firmament hackers and interns that got fed up with being tasked with revising the scout AI and officer.exe multiple times.
The First Mate retains the minor durability improvement over typical officers and the vastly improved tactical library almost line for line that came with the Sarge. Including improved squad tactics, better target and threat assessment, prioritization, ect. They are also equipped -by default- with a pulse carbine and an energy cutlass (more on that later).

The bulk of the modifications for the First Mate were to design the thing to be as future proof as possible. Adding in a highly customizable library with easily modifiable values and additional space for new and currently-non-existing units, the First Mate is intended to be able to make use of nearly any non-highly-specialized virus/ADI the Firmament would have the potential of fielding. Or at the very least, making it trivial to go back and re-code the additional functionality into the First Mate with those custom libraries. Similarly, the First Mate is given a reconfigurable load out and firing paradigm, letting it swap out to newer weapons should the pulse carbine be phased out or the hacker in question prefer a different armament on their officers.
Speaking of newer weapons, the First Mate's cutlass is designed to serve as a sturdy melee weapon, taking advantage of the pre-existing melee coding Officers have. The First Mate can dual-wield its carbine and cutlass with ease, allowing it to fend off melee attackers whilst firing at more distant foes. The cutlass is mostly normal, but does have a slight magnetic property that causes other melee weapons to tend to strike it rather than the First Mate.

It's also designed to look more like a pirate.

Sarge (0):
Knight.exe: (2) TricMagic, testmen
SpyEye.exe: ()
First Mates: (2) SK, Piratejoe
Redirector: (0)
First Mate (Cutlass Version): (1) NUKE9.13

[TricMagic]

Sarge (0):
Knight.exe: (1) testmen
SpyEye.exe: ()
First Mates: (2) SK, Piratejoe
Redirector: (0)
First Mate (Cutlass Version): (1) NUKE9.13, TricMagic

[Scholar Knight]

Sarge (0):
Knight.exe: (1) testmen
SpyEye.exe: ()
First Mates: (1) Piratejoe
Redirector: (0)
First Mate (Cutlass Version): (3) NUKE9.13, TricMagic, SK

A beautiful spread of variations.

[piratejoe]

Sarge (0):
Knight.exe: (1) testmen
SpyEye.exe: ()
First Mates: (0)
Redirector: (0)
First Mate (Cutlass Version): (4) NUKE9.13, TricMagic, SK, Piratejoe