B) Less gunboat, more diplomacy. Keep stationery, do not fire or do anything at all. Let them throw everything they have at the tank, it can so far afford to keep it up. Give them a chance to calm the fuck down, we haven't harmed any of them yet. Assuming the incoming fire does stop at some point (either they see they're not putting a dent in us, or they run out of ammo), have one of the Elites crawl out and present the same terms in person. Tell them that if they let us take over rather than fight us, they'll be able to count on technology like this if they need defending, otherwise we'll return with a proper occupation force and let one of these tanks pulverize all your defenders. (never mind that we only have just the one tank at the moment, but we might cook something up later) We'd really rather not resort to force, because we'd like to improve this world, not destroy it. Feed them some high-idealistic monologue, see if they warm up to us. If they don't, pack up, 'port out and return. We'll return with an occupation force, as promised, as soon as we can actually spare one. If they do, park outside the gates and wait until squads C and D return to survey the situation in the place.
The guards of the village continue to flip their shit over their total and complete inability to keep you out of the walls of the village - which was basically their entire job - and have almost turned their heavy guns around when their commanding officer commands them to stop and
keep the damn weapons facing the right way in case
enemies they can harm with their bullets show up and to quit wasting assault rifle ammo on a target that hasn't taken a single scratch from their bullets. They sheepishly turn their guns back around. In the time it takes to restore order, the Elites radio in having spotted what looks to be six machine gunners and around twenty-five Infantry in this part of the defenses, organized into groups of one MG and four Infantry with an officer of some sort attached to each of those. The commanding officer steps forward - apparently, he was the only one of their defense force calm enough to notice you hadn't fired your rather intimidating weapons yet. A hatch at the back unseals and your Elite steps out - knowing the Thaumatank's back armor is weaker won't help them while the Mana Barrier is up anyway. The Elite activates his mana barrier and takes off his helmet to give them a human face to recognize so they think of them as people instead of as faceless, masked Magitech Elites or just a large and invulnerable but passive tank.
"Allow me to make the state of things clear," he says, speaking loudly and clearly for the crowd to be able to hear. "Our Commander has harnessed the lost technology of mana manipulation. With this power, we seek to make these wastelands safe. With this technology helping you defend - which it will, if you join us - you need never fear banditry or other marauders attacking you again."
"Allow
me to make the state of things clear," the Militia Captain snaps back. "The Free Village of Ironhead has stood tall and unbroken against marauders and the Armitage Corporation for generations. We will not give in to your control so easily." Shouts of agreement from the crowd.
"I wasn't done yet." The crowd quieted for your Elite. "If you don't consent, we're going to leave, and pretty soon we'll be back with one of these tanks
and a proper occupation force. We'll also have the Thaumatank we bring use its weapons. We don't want to use force, though. We'd like to improve this world, not destroy it. Our goal is not conquest, it is security. Security for
everyone. How many villages in the wasteland are not so well-equipped to fight off bandit attacks or looters, do you think? Too many. We want to change that. We won't bow our heads to Megacorp tyranny, either. No, we're going to do one better than that. We're going to give them a goddamn People's Revolution and free the downtrodden citizens of those rat-cages they call cities. We need people who want to bring about a change in this world, people who want to help not just themselves, but to help others as well. We'd like for you to choose to be a part of that."
The Militia Captain and crowd looked more thoughtful than angry or fearful now. "I'll... need to talk to Ironhead's leaders about this," he says hesitantly. "It... may take a while."
Did you guys figure out which research path you intended to use to get moar vehicles?
Mobility at first, for basic (cheap) buggies. Once we have those, let's move on to hover buggies via Magitech.
At The Shell, a band of 17 raggedly-dressed individuals approaches and requests entrance. You spot a couple children amongst them. Or midgets, maybe. One of those two.
Let them in. Interview them to look for super-obvious crazies and malcontents, but be generally accepting.
Apparently, the 17 of them are civilian refugees; they've been fleeing for days on end from a corporate recapture patrol from somewhere to the south - they've been pursued relentlessly but it seems that in the last few days the pursuit slowed down, though they dared not slow. Now, dehydrated, exhausted, starving, and generally half-dead, they beg for sanctuary.
that kind of thing is exactly what I need more info on all these things! Not to determine things like "how best to make teleportation bombs?" but things like "are cost-effective teleportation bombs feasible"
Anyway, why wont you just answer the questions, rather than have this tedious meta discussion, are the answers supposed to be things we're not supposed to know yet? if so, can you just answer with the main characters best guess
In most of those cases, if you were already certain it was possible you'd have probably figured it out already. Nobody is totally sure what Magitech can or can't do. A lot of the research - what isn't reverse-engineering or recovery of things - is testing limits or possibilities of stuff. Almost anything you can ask, the answer is "Theoretically, it could probably be done" because by nature magic isn't terribly constrained. In practice, there's no way to know without trying.
I don't even know what the hell you're asking for, though, for that matter.