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>>36760100
Though you lead a small strike team, you've since been redistributed to four separate objectives. And speaking of, you're about due to learn yours.

"Ah, Major," Web Spider greets smoothly, giving you a salute--technically he outranks you for the purpose of this mission, but in your experience, people tend to pay deference to hulking buffalo/weapons platforms.

You return the salute with a nod. "So what do I need to know?"

"Classified information--not to you, of course," Spider explains. "We've had several teams running deep seismic scans--something the 5th apparently insists we make a habit of after last week--and what we're finding suggests that this facility is a great deal larger than we had anticipated."

"How great?" you ask.

"Recon teams out around the canyon, groups inside... basically everywhere we've looked, we've detected more underground. As much as four times larger than the initial estimate. And going off intel we've received from some recovered captives, we believe the lion's share of the base is blocked by massive time-lock doors."

"So, let me guess..."

"That's right. We'd like you to go find the nearest one, knock politely, and ask them to let us in."

You flex your hands, pushing your fist into your palm. "I can do that."

"Lovely," the Shinobi unit coordinator says primly. "Best of luck, Major. If you'll excuse me, I need to continue my debrief, and get ready for Commander Zero's return."

>Questions?

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And, once again, here's your character sheet.

Major Warhead Wisent, SA-rank, 15th Artillery Command Major Defense Response Officer

WEAPONRY:
Kinetic Missiles: Uniquely designed to overcome the ablative and dissipative construction materials and techniques of modern architectural design, Wisent’s core weapons launch fast-moving missiles that exact a grievous toll on anything unfortunate enough to be struck by them. Almost completely ignoring shielding systems, these weapons can bring down a target of nearly any size, and those not killed outright by a direct hit are grievously wounded.
--Code-Locked: Deemed too dangerous to be used without express permission, Wisent’s primary weapons have a remote-control firelock that is only released in certain combat environments. Current status: Unlocked, weapons free.
Rocket Tubes: Slow-moving, dumbfire GV-T rocket torpedoes. Can only be shot directly forward. Though useable in conventional battle, the real advantage of this system--matching those found on the mass-produced Gun Volt mechaniloid--is the defensive properties of the plasma-deflecting casings. Used for active defense against incoming fire, suppression of a fire lane, and creating openings to launch Wisent’s signature missiles.
--Quadruple Pod: A chassis refit has permitted the Major to mount two more firing chambers along his front, doubling his torpedo output.
Hammerhead Missiles: A multidirectional two-stage weapon platform. The initial payload strikes a forward target. On impact, the warhead releases multiple cluster missiles, which then fire backward to sweep and catch additional targets. These warheads can damage Wisent himself if not carefully managed, but he can fire as many as three at a time at the cost of taking a few hits himself.

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>>36760160
WEAPONRY, CONTINUED:
Warhead Driver: A miniature rail along the arm that can project single specialty missile weapons. While limited in supply, this mount provides as many as three accessory warheads and can accept any standard-sized fitting.
--“Hot Pepper” HP-W Incendiary Rocket: Using his ATLAS system and the nigh-immunity to heat it provides, Wisent has started favoring these thermal payload weapons, fired into the ground at point-blank range to create a massive fireball. Currently equipped: 3 (2 ready, 1 used)
“The Cracker:”: A specialty-made and wholly unique weapon, this was installed with a great deal of redundant failsafes that make suicide only highly likely, rather than an outright guarantee. By dropping his shielding and quick-ejecting his outer armor plating, Wisent can activate his Coulomb Repulsion Amplification Cycloid system, which--in short--disrupts fusion, such as that found in LIFE cells. The system is embedded deep within Wisent’s torso, and its effective radius is thus far untested, as the weapon has never been fired.
--Code-Locked: Deemed too dangerous to be used without express permission, this volatile upgrade has been fitted with a firelock, remote-operated and released. Current status: Locked. Friendly risk too high.

>>36760135
How many hostiles can we expect and how well equiped are they'?

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>>36760176
GENERAL:
Phase Shielding: Wisent boasts a robust armor battery backed by a secondary LIFE cell and top-of-the-line heavy armor. His shielding system is extensively upgraded and capable of enduring extended battlefield operations and multiple direct hits from SA-class weaponry.
Close-Combat: Wisent, bearing a massive armored frame and overwhelming physical strength, is a deadly melee combatant, able to rip most Reploids apart with his bare hands.
Anti-Thermal Layered Active System: An ATLAS system combining multiple layers of antithermal gel and vacuum pockets provide Wisent with near-invulnerability to both cryonic and thermal energy weapons. Though the system itself can be damaged through successive hits, Wisent himself rarely has more to show from powerful weapons than scorch marks or a thin layer of frost.
Magnetic Attractor Suppression System: The MASS serves as a hard counter to debilitating magnetic effects, negating all but the most powerful, and sharply improving his defense against what few can power through this considerable defensive upgrade.
Jump Boosters: Moving a heavily armored frame is no easy task. For improved mobility, Wisent has opted to install a system of booster rockets that help give him a respectable vertical clearance despite his massive size and weight.
Variable Weapons Emulator System: 4-slot. Major Wisent has disabled his VWES out of concern for the possibility of going maverick.
VWES ENTITIES: Disabled.

>>36760176
>“The Cracker:”
Lets, uh, lets hope there's nothing in here we'd have cause to want to use that on.
>Questions?
Nothing comes to mind, we seem to have a straightforward assignment.

Fuck yeah, MHQ.

That is all. No questions.

>>36760200
If they had relevant answers to that question, they would have told us. We are bad-ass veteran tank of interior redecorating, we can handle it, whatever it is.

>>36760611
And then all three Philosophers are behind the door.

>>36760660
Yeah, we 'handle' that too: by dying horribly but dealing as much damage to them first as possible while communicating that back out to the rest of the team. The point is more that they obviously don't know what's behind those doors. It's therefore a stupid question to ask.

>>36760745
>>36760660
Man if all three philosophers are behind the door, we request immediate unlock on the Cracker and let that fucker rip.

>>36760766
After we're done screaming in terror, naturally.

Hey, HC, if you're still taking suggestions, how about A Very Beret Christmas for the Xmas thread? I'd love to see more of the tank and file.

>>36760766
Actually, that is a good point: we're on a solo op into unknown but heavily-fortified enemy territory. The chances of friendly-fire are nil, and the chance that a situation where using the Cracker is a realistic option are very much not nil. We should request that authorization now, or before opening the door, or whatever.

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>>36760819
Still taking suggestions, yeah. Had a few so far, all of them could be good but none are really jumping out at me.

You can also go for silly or serious, and I have a few ideas for flashback ops from other cast members. Then again, I'm planning to do those anyway, at some point.

TL;DR I dunno. Also, writing.

My only real question here is, "Why is this buffalo so incredibly badass?"

>>36760830
This is a distressingly good point.

>>36760868
Is there any chance you could give us Anode's specs? It's been forever, and I don't remember everything that he does have.

Also, will we have an opportunity to become as heavily armed as Wisent?

>>36761325
Not without extensive body additions, which will cut our agility

>>36761415
Yeah, we're probably better served focusing on tricky shit and utility for Anode, but this opportunity to be one of the big mothers for once is delicious.

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>>36761325
Sure, I can give Anode's specs, just a moment.

And you could become as heavily-armed as Wisent. However, you're a fresh(-ish) A-rank; Wisent was built to a higher standard and then pushed it harder and longer. It's not impossible, but the time frame involved is not going to be anytime soon. Another thing to consider is what your DNA is suited towards. Synergistic upgrade design is going to carry you further and faster for less. As for what your DNA will be compatible with...well, that will become more and more clear over time. Consider how much of a pain in the ass integrating Wolfspider's cryo weaponry with a beam weapon was. Similar principle.

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>>36761325
>>36761609
http://pastebin.com/GfrYysSK

>>36761690
Rangemaster? I thought we were Drillmaster.

>>36760952
Because HC ordered these mavs to get their asses kicked so hard that the Space Division finds them in orbit, and he's just the buffalo for the job.

>>36761808
As we have yet to master any drills, we will have to find ourselves a home. A home on the range.

>>36761609
How effective would Wisent's Kinetic Missiles fare against Saetos? IIRC the only thing we had that did even remote damage to him was the Misericorde, and all that did was crack his chest open enough for us to shock him.

How closely knit is the Military Rank and the Power-Level Rank?
I'm guessing Anode is a Lieutenant mostly because he is A-Rank, instead of any actual training.

>>36761825
Do we get a cowboy hat? Can we stick bull-horns on the ride armor? Oh boy!

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>>36761885
Kinetic missiles fare well against pretty much everything. It wouldn't take more than a few direct hits to put Saetos out. The trick, of course, would be scoring them.

>>36761891
They're linked, but there's wiggle room. India is a Lieutenant because of repeated demotion, while Tanker is a Captain (literally as low as his grade can be at SA unless he starts chasing X around at all hours yelling the Jaws theme) because all he does is the hunting half of his job, leaving the boring stuff for Dodo. Seven, a Major, holds a higher-than-average grade despite only being A-rank because he does about three times more work on the backend than anyone else. Schwarz (also a Major) does a solid mix of both.

Lieutenant is the entry grade for maverick hunter commissions.

>>36761901
I think the next movie night should be a marathon of some Terrence Hill Spaghetti Westerns, preferably the ones with Bud Spencer.

>>36761891
As far as I understand, Anode was also built and educated specifically to be an officer. Remember he didn't come to the Fourth off the assembly line. Part of that two years had to have been in training or officer school.

>>36761901
Hell yes!

>>36761963
Seven's one hardworking asshole. What's the average time from Lt. to Captain?

>>36761963
>(literally as low as his grade can be at SA unless he starts chasing X around at all hours yelling the Jaws theme)
Now I want to see this

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>>36762032
Depends on a few things. Average is probably somewhere around a year to a year and a half, but business has been unusually busy for pretty much all of Anode's hunting career.

>>36762073
Unusually busy, and metagaming tells us shit is about to go down, hardcore.

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>>36760200
>>36760745
>>36760830
"I don't suppose we have any impressions of what to expect?" you ask.

Spider scratches his chin. "Some. The deeper we go into the facility, the heavier the mechaniloids become. Almost no Reploid contact any more, at this point. That concerns me."

You nod. "Pulling them back to defend the inner facility?"

"It's the likeliest scenario. They wouldn't leave automated assembly unprotected, it's too important to their long-term capability."

"That being the case, has Command reversed their decision on my weapons lock?" Not that you're eager to test what was once described to you as 'a surefire way to kill yourself,' but duty calls.

"Negative," Spiders replies. "With no real projections of how far it might reach, the threat of wiping out the high-ranking hunters of every single fighting unit at once was... inadvisable."

"Thought so," you say. "Just checking. I'll radio if something comes along to change their minds."

"Please do," he replies, tone suggesting he needs to get on with whatever he has to do. You do as well. You turn and make your way carefully through the FOB, heading down the course you were directed at.

Wonder how different MHQ would be if we'd voted Anode as a C/SA/G class during character creation. Or a P rank stomping around with a plush Mett.

>>36762167
I'm glad we went for the rank we did. Not too high and not too low.

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>>36762143
You march past a hunter checkpoint, bristling with guns, Reploid and mechaniloid alike. The hunters salute and part around you, permitting you access to the unsecured pathway beyond. It's not long before you encounter the first signs of maverick activity. Head Gunners, arranged in a defensive array, open fire with their missiles from extreme range. You don't even pause, marching ahead as the ordnance impacts uselessly on your armor, shields not even flaring. They're angling their mortars when you answer with a single hammerhead, right down the line. The shell sails between them before impacting on the far door and releasing its secondaries, which impact across the back of the 'loids and pepper them with explosions. Neither remains standing.

That seems to have gotten their attention. You don't get much further in before you're greeted by not one, not two, but three ride armor soldiers. They don't wait, dashing at you at full tilt.

>Prime kinetic missiles, take 'em one by one.
>It's too early to tip your hand, stick with the small stuff.
>Let them get close, then give 'em a one-two with a Hot Pepper and melee.
>Other?

>>36762167
I kind of like the idea of Anode still being a silly bastard and the FNG, but built P.

>>36762204
This is all I want for the Christmas thread.

>Stick with the small stuff.

I can just picture how this mission ends.

>Wisent delves deeper and deeper into the facility.
>Finally, at what looks like the deepest assembly line, he realizes what this is.
>A Sigma assembly line.
>Radioing it in, he fights his way to the facility's fusion reactor as all the other hunters are pulled out.
>Reaching his final destination, he stands atop the soon to be destabilisied reactor, pulls his best JoJo pose, and announces on open comms...
>"What's crackalackin', bitches?"
>cue explosions

>>36762200
>It's too early to tip your hand, stick with the small stuff.

I think while the enemy probably knows us and knows what we can do, this is the best call.

>>36762200
>It's too early to tip your hand, stick with the small stuff.

It's too soon for the missiles, and I'm not keen on meleeing 3v1.

>>36762243
It's worse than a Sigma assembly line. They're making knock-off Hunter merchandise, including kung-fu grip X action figures and Schwartz lunchbox.

>>36762200
>Let them get close, then give 'em a one-two with a Hot Pepper and melee.

>>36762200
>It's too early to tip your hand, stick with the small stuff.

We're only just getting started, after all.

>>36762200
>It's too early to tip your hand, stick with the small stuff.

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>It's too early to tip your hand, stick with the small stuff.

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY

Also:
>>36762204
>>36762242
Now -I- kinda want to see this what if scenario. I imagine it would kind of resemble a space marine in terminator armor being a goofball.

>>36762518
>walking down hallway
>CRUNCH
>oh shit, we stepped on Em

>>36762667
>check out motor pool
>CRUNCH
>destroyed all ride chasers
>India's gonna kill us

>>36762757
>DEATH FROM ABO-
>CRUNCH
>we wipe out half the Berets

>>36762200
Stick with the small stuff.

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>>36762242
>>36762254
>>36762259
>>36762337
>>36762339
You size up the opposition and make a quick judgment call--small arms should do fine for these guys. The fact that they scrambled such a fast response tells you they'll scramble a faster one if they know exactly what they're up against. Besides, you can take it.

As they barrel in, you exact some free hits with a salvo of GV-Ts, followed by a pair of the Hammerheads. The lead ride staggers, slowing its charge as it takes the torpedoes, then goes up in an enormous fireball as the blast-back cascades across its backside. The target for the primary is damaged but not out, followed by the all-but-unharmed third.

The wounded one meets its end as its own momentum works against it, caving in its own chest on your outstretched fist. A quick half-turn, and you slam its buckling remains into the last, which stumbles, but stays up, ignoring the parts of its former comrade crashing against it and delivering a strike of its own, barreling into you with its fist. Your shields blink once in annoyance, and then you grab hold of the thing with both hands. The cockpit is protected by a shielding canopy, which sputters and tries to hold as you simply drain the ride's power plant with your tender ministrations. Finally, the intangible force holding back your arm first weakens and then stutters and fails. The armor's power cell starts going critical from overdraw, and you lightly take hold of the pilot's head and squeeze.

All clear, minimal damage. You continue your march, shaking stray ride parts off your arms as you go through the next door.

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>>36762840
Now this...this is interesting. Assembly lines. New and exciting ones.

"Spider?" You call.

"Yes, what is it, Major?" he answers promptly. Probably keeping a close eye on your line.

"I have some operational lines here. They seem to be producing variant mechaniloids. Permission to clear out some targets of opportunity?"

"Granted," he replies. "Good hunting."

>Thin out the guards first, then destroy the lines undisturbed.
>Take out the lines, they'll call in more enemy forces for you to clear out.

>>36762859
>Thin out the guards first, then destroy the lines undisturbed.

>>36762859
>Thin out the guards

>>36762859
>Thin out the guards first, then destroy the lines undisturbed.

>>36762859
>Thin out guards

>>36762859
>Thin out the guards

>>36762859
>Take out the lines, they'll call in more enemy forces for you to clear out.

WAIT
We thin out the guards, and they call reinforcements, we thin then again, and they call for more reinforcements, repeat until an actual challenge appears
And the bloody lines are still there
>Take out the lines

HC, what was the best-case result of the Saetos mission? Could it ever have gone the non-cluster-fuck route? I'm curious.

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>>36763219
Casualties were a given, but if you'd been able to see through the trap (not that I'm blaming you, it was a very sneaky trap), you could have gotten off with much lower losses.

>>36763283
Fuck. Damn you, Robo-Chicken.

>>36763049
I have to agree. Its a factory producing its own defenders. Kill the lines.

>>36762859
>Take out the lines.
This mission is about taking this production facility out, not playing grab-ass with standing maverick forces.

>>36762859
>>Take out the lines, they'll call in more enemy forces for you to clear out.

Guys, did we ever tell Em what Diamond's maverick call sign was?

>>36762859
>Take out the lines, they'll call in more enemy forces for you to clear out.

>>36763633
Since this was a tiebreaker, (re-)writing now. Lines wins by 1.

>>36763283
So how would you say things worked out with Saetos in 'canon'? Did he die by X3, or did we derail shit?

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>>36764179
History looks back on Saetos as an early combatant in the era. He would have been killed shortly before the Doppler Rebellion kicked off in earnest, having put several units into a state of vulnerability via the high casualties he exacted.

>>36764261
At least we haven't made things worse than canon...

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>>36762955
>>36763049
>>36763441
>>36763546
>>36763576
>>36763633
While you're not keen on the idea of taking on the entire maverick base by yourself, you can at least get some more attention over here. And more to the point, destroying the lines should be your top priority.

Speaking of, you've gotten a closer look at them--they seem to be manufacturing a variant Gun Volt. Scramblers--themselves modified--flit to and fro on their helicopter blades, grafting new armor and modular weapons to their frames. The scramblers are larger than the standard, and those electrical welders look like they could be weaponized handily.

You target the line with your first kinetic missile, sighting on to the back end and letting fly. The results are instant and enjoyable, as the entire system goes up in a massive chain of explosions, running from the impact, down the conveyor, and annihilating every Volt on it. The main assembly that you targeted it almost dull by comparison, the missile practically devouring it at the center of the payload.

That gets the attention of the Scramblers. They swoop down at you en masse--the hammerheads clear them out easily enough, but without any work to do on the Volts, the air is positively thick with them. One grabs hold of you, sending a shock through your body with the arc-welder. More surprising (and impressive), though, is that it's capable of lifting you. You're almost proud of the stupid little thing.

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>>36764455
Unfortunately, that's about as far as you're willing to let it take you. Though you can't twist your bulky frame around to grab hold of the thing properly, you're not exactly helpless. With another dozen Scramblers swooping in to try to take you apart, you simply wait for one to close in and then slam your fist into its optic, then engage your arm rail.

The fireball is almost more impressive in the air than shot into the ground at your feet. Almost. The fireball is drastically overkill, but every single Scrambler in the room goes down in one massive blast. It even takes out a few of the Gun Volts that are still in operation. You drop down to earth with a massive thud that echoes through the chamber, leaving you amid a few of these up-armored Gun Volts.

Clad in a mottled, dull red instead of the classic blue, these models seem to have been customized with an additional armor overlay and some modifications to their weapons systems. Its faceplate is protected by a spherical armored mask, the normal optics obscured by a hostile red slit for a visor. Boxy cutouts permit access to their torpedo tubes, while an additional underslung mounting modifies their namesake volt systems. The assembly takes on a glow around its base, a pylon lowering as the volt system opens. It opens fire, and not one, but three electrical balls rocket out at high speed--each linked by a crackling energy tether, and the latter two hovering off the ground at staggered elevation, filling the air with an electrical wall.

>Jump jump!
>Shoot shoot.
>Other?

>>36764490
>JUMPJUMPJUMP

>>36764490
>Jump jump!

>>36764490
>Shoot shoot.

>>36764490
>Jump and Shoot!

>>36764490
>>Jump jump!

>>36764490
>Jump and shoot man!

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don't remember if i posted these so if i did, whoops

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aaaand this

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>>36765037
>>36765063

>>36765037
>>36765063
Nice

>>36764490
>JUMP/SHOOT MULTITASK

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>>36764538
>>36764560
>>36764765
You're not exactly the most nimble of sorts, but that's what the jumpjets are for. You take back to the air for a brief sojourn, letting the arc of lightning pass beneath you and touch down under it with a thump. You fire your torpedoes just as it does, the identical weapons detonating against each other between you--unfortunately for the mechaniloid, you brought twice as many. The two hits thud off its plating, staggering it enough for you to follow up with a trio of Hammerheads.

The first is destroyed by the initial hit, and the remaining secondaries wash over the nearest to it, destroying them. The last falls to one more salvo of torpedoes, and you manage to avoid most of the backblast from your own weapons--you decided it was worth taking a small hit to clear them all out before they could open up on you together.

So far, so good, minor drain to your armor battery and plenty of oomph to go. You take the time to blow up a few more belts down the length of the room, destroying the helpless Gun Volts midway into their refit. Thus assured all you're leaving behind you is scrap and craters, you move on.

Immediately, the door behind you seals with three bulkheads (laughable) and then a projected energy shield (less so). Up ahead, you see a line of no less than six Bar Wayings spring to life, securing the room (hah!) against you. The ground begins to shake, and you feel it warm beneath your boots as grates open all over the room and begin to flood it with molten metal.

Oh, that's quaint.

>The Boomfalo knocks once
>HIDDEN MISSILES!
>Other?

>>36765662
>The Boomfalo knocks once

>>36765662
>The Boomfalo knocks once

>>36765662
I can't tell which is the Kinetic Missiles so
>NOT the Kinetic Missiles
>Or the Boomfalo knocks once, whatever

>>36765662
>>The Boomfalo knocks once

>>36765662
>The Boomfalo knocks once
"Is that the pizza guy? Why did he knock so loud? And why only once?"

>>36765662

>The Boomfalo knocks once
Rev up those Teddy Roosevelt references.

Going to bed now, thanks for the thread HC.
Players, don't do anything Anode would have done.

>>36766220
>Players, don't do anything Anode would have done.
Welp, thread's over, we have no options available.

>Give me a knock, one knock only please.

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>>36765662
>Oh, that's quaint.

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>>36765662
You lightly--well, relatively speaking--step up to the next platform with the first of the Wayings, even as the floor you left is drowned in blazing hot slag. You approach the mechaniloid, spanning from ceiling to floor, trying to keep you from escape.

You put a hand on it and push. It strains, whines, buckles, and then simply folds in half around your arm before exploding harmlessly off your arm. You stride through and lightly continue your way up--you're not particularly quick, but without having to so much as slow down, it's not a major issue. You march through, leaving your weapons cold as the temperature of the room rises, stopping short as a massive industrial press comes down on the belt you're clambering over, almost impacting on you. The rest come online in a row beyond it, spanning across the room. No major issue, aside from your lumbering hide only just having enough time to clear them on their rise-and-fall pattern.

The one complication is a Waying expertly placed between two presses. You lean low, hunched and ready, and take off at a thundering gallop as the press rises out of your way, shoulder tackling into the thing and tearing it from its moorings. You stop short, resting your back against the press you just cleared as it comes back down, narrowly avoiding the one in front. That taken care of, you're free to advance and clear the room, the pooling molten metal only halfway up the room behind you. You clear the door, which seals once again as the one on the lower level did, and you find yourself in a wide open expanse, the ceiling stretching up twice as high as the last.

And here, at last, is something interesting. A massive, flying mechaniloid--massive being an understatement, it might be twenty times your size--all wings and cowlings and turbines and an insectlike array of graspers all up and down its bottom. You see it break from its holding pattern and fly down, ready to strike. This thing was clearly waiting for you.

>?

>>36766855
Try to gauge its movement capabilities before we engage full-on? No sense firing missiles without a lead time.

>>36766855
Hello not Saetos. How you doing? Test the thing's mobility first and try and keep it away. We are pretty good at the range game.

Also, Warhead, could totally be called Missile Bison and preform pyscho crushers on everything.

>>36766855
That thing is huge. Anything that huge is going to have problems maneuvering, throw some noise at it and see how it reacts.

>>36766855
Eh, if/when we destroy it, make sure it doesn't fall on us. How big is the room we are, anyway?
Also
>Take aim, wait for it to move before firing, and do not stand still

>>36766855
Attempt to gauge its mobility

>>36767140
>Also, Warhead, could totally be called Missile Bison and preform pyscho crushers on everything.
Rocket Psycho Crushers.

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Stand by, a bit logjammed, and I'm taking a quick break to run to town for stuff.

So, who wants to see if we can perform jump-jet assisted spinning piledrivers?

Anyone else think this is a crash course in the school of Big fighting as well? By which I mean the two initial schools of combat Em told us about a while back, depending on frame and strength.

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>>36766948
>>36767140
>>36767219
>>36767222
>>36767308
You decide to make a few probing attacks to gauge how it moves. You can't properly torpedo it from this angle, so you try for a hammerhead, to see how it dodges.

It doesn't. Instead, the mechaniloid twists up sharply at an impossible angle for something so large, and simply snatches the missile in its lead graspers. You stop getting data returns from the ordnance, and it doesn't explode into secondaries.It turns the weapon around clumsily in its arms and re-engages the engine, sending it back at you. Your sensors pick up the missile going live--tagged as unfriendly.

Um.

You fire another Hammerhead at it, this one impacting the first in midair and detonating. You only just avoid your own cloud of secondaries at a heavy jog. A moment later, the thing's "mouth" parts and a blue-white light begins to build at the head. It's charging some sort of beam weapon, by the looks of it.

>Try shooting again, maybe it'll drop the laser to catch your fire!
>Focus on defense, see if it slows or stops while firing.
>Other?

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>>36768974
Aaaand that was me. Dammit.

>>36768974
>other
Uhm, is there any non-missile we can throw at it? Even if we're just ripping shit out of the ground?

>>36768974
Well i was going to suggest shooting its mouth with our buster but we DONT HAVE ANY
Start throwing shit and call for back up

>>36768974
Let's not stand around throwing missiles into that thing's maw. God knows it'll probably chose right then to fire, destroying our ordinance and roasting us.

Start moving, look for a firing angle not involving missile-catchers or standing in front of charging beam emitters.

>>36768974
See how well it does doing that to four missiles, maybe fire more while it's distracted? I dunno. Can we mess with explosives to make them blow early?

>>36768974
How close is it to the ceiling? Maybe we can put a Hammerhead behind it and catch it in the secondary explosions?

>>36768974
Try and demage the head, the neck, the emitter, I don't even know what. But if needs charge-up time, then it's a great time to make it fuck up when it can't afford to.

>>36769267
LEFT
CLAW
NORTH
RIGHT CLAW SOOOUTH

>>36769301
That is legit my sole inspiration for this character. I'm going to try to prepare a mission or two of ours for storytime, if no one else has something prepared.

>>36769406
Ahaha, awesome. I'll look forward to it.

...Wait, the whole song or those two lines in particular? Because the whole song is going to make for a very strange reploid.

>>36769619
The GM may or may not have prepared a rabbit made of steel. He won't tell me. My two main weapons outside my Emerald-grade buster are magnetic claws simply labelled North and South, though.

>>36761963
>unless he starts chasing X around at all hours yelling the Jaws theme

Pfft. "Unless."

>>36769738
Maybe "Until" is more appropriate?

>>36768974
I'd say a twin helping of rockets to try and handle the flame followed by a kinetic missile. If need be, use Incendiary rockets to ignite the ammo it catches.

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Gonna pause for the night. Archiving now, assuming it isn't already up there, will resume tomorrow/create a new thread if needbe.

>>36770148
I hope we don't get caught in that explosion then.

>>36772772
>>36769823

And of course I fail quoting, what else is new?

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>New MHQ
>Get back from work too late to participate

Damn... Here, have a classic to keep this thing going until tomorrow.

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bump

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I will try to provide a storytime to bridge the night! The game my group is running is based on some homebrew work focused on fast action and cinematic-type progress, so it's not going to be as long as some others featured in the threads of this quest. I ask you bear with any awfulness as I try to take tabletop banter and turn it into a story interesting to more than just the people who were there.

>>36775217
You have my attention, sir.

Our story is set between X1 and X2, during the cleanup immediately following the fall of Sigma. The Maverick Hunters are still shorthanded, disorganized, and overtaxed trying to bring the rest of the rebellion under control. This has led to massive recruitment efforts, and today is one of the mass briefings of newbies this policy dictates.

The hall is large and open, filled with a hodgepodge of humanoid and animal-based reploids. At the front of the room is a humanoid reploid wearing white armor with blue detailing, but no obvious weapons. The reploid looks like one of the older navigator models, from before the Sigma Rebellion.

Her voice is clear but hurried, as apparently there are more pressing things to do after this general briefing. "Welcome, new hunters. Maverick attacks are on the rise, and they're getting pretty bold. There have been direct attacks on the actual hunter facilities, not just terror strikes on the populace. Because you're all new to this, you're being assigned to teams for 'shakedown' operations; not exactly cakewalks, but missions where you are not expecting major resistance. This doesn't mean they're pointless. All the missions involved are intended to put pressure on maverick operations."

"Your team selection will be sent to you momentarily. When you have your team designators, head into the next room and find the officer designated to your team. Your first missions will probably begin VERY soon, so don't be surprised when we throw you straight into it. There is a war still on."

Back in time for storytiem? I'm okay with this!

"If you are assigned to Team F, remain in here, I'll be your primary officer." Data is flashed to all new recruits, and as the crowd move toward the next hall, two reploids move against the flow toward the front. One large red hunchbacked crustacean, awkwardly being shunted aside by the crowd, and a light red and yellow striped insectoid that moves forward with purpose, parting the sea of reploids before him.

As the room finally thins, one last reploid, a large duck-type, clips the lobster's shoulder and glowers at him before moving past. The white-blue officer walks toward the remaining two, and speaks with clipped tones. "You two are the F team newbies, then?"

"Yes, ma'am. Magnet Lobster reporting!" His posture a little too rigid, and a salute almost banging his forehead.

"Scorch Drone also ready for duty." He offers up a salute, with all earnesty, but considerably more professionalism.

"Good. I'm Echo, 5th Communications Unit back when that was important. Right now I'm F-6, and your team officer. I'll be giving you your choices of assignments, when we're clear enough to give you those options. But for now, a shakedown mission so we can figure out if..." She seems to glance sideways for a moment, reading something. "... a civilian and an undertrained hunter experiment can keep themselves alive."

At this information, Lobster glances nervously at his companion, then hurriedly salutes again, clearly not aware of when that's appropriate. Scorch simply offers up a confident smirk before he thinks better of the comments and simply nods. "Trust me, I wouldn't have come if I wasn't certain I'd be ready. Just tell us who we're after, and we'll take care of the rest."

>Please forgive the sudden transitions in writing style or perspective, I'm patching this together from all of our inputs and modifications for story flow, and later die rolls. I really should have rewritten this all beforehand, and not as soon as I announced I'd be posting it.

>>36775310
>>36775432
Oh god an audience now I can't just weasel out.

Also, it's starting to feel really disingenuous that I keep telling captcha I'm not a robot while using it to tell everyone a story about me pretending to be a robot.

>>36775455
There's no escape now. We demand shenanigans.

Echo seems to resist rolling her eyes at the new meat "If you two come back fine, the first thing we're going to have to go over is unit etiquette. Though this part should be enough for the moment: We are not military. We are a police force. An over-militarized, overburdened police force that half the planet confuses with an army, but still a police force. Lay off the rigid salutes before you bang a dent into your head."

The lobster's rigid saluting is immediately replaced by rigid...standing.

Scorch Drone shifts on his feet. "A question. Does that mean more often... enforcement jobs rather than, well, 'shakedown' missions?"

"It used to. Mavericks used to just be individual, glitchy nutbars. We'd capture for repair and reprogramming. But this whole Maverick army thing... new operating procedure is to prioritize neutralization and survival over capture and rehabilitation. We expect you to stop maverick operations we send you into more than we expect you to bring home criminals. Retiring mavericks is the norm now."

Scorch simply nods again. "Right, right... Something to keep in mind, I suppose. I understand."

Echo pauses a moment, thinking, but finally adds "But if you DO bring home a captive maverick, it wouldn't be unappreciated. Just don't kill yourself trying."

>And then firefox stopped loading captchas and I had to change browsers.

>>36775455
Don't worry, and don't be afraid to take your time.

>>36775617
PANIC AND RUSH EVERYTHING

>>36775707
>OH GOD OKAY I'LL TRY


"Alright, on with the actual mission. We don't like being attacked, and the fact that these mavericks can stage a proper assault is annoying. We want to kneecap their operations. That means taking their supplies."

Scorch shrugs. "Alright, so just running interference on supply lines or something...?"

"Basically. We've located a supply warehouse they're using for light material. Energy and fueling rather than weapons and staging, with a light guard compliment. Seizing it would be a good turn for us without heavy risks, which is why we want newbies like you to try it. If you can't clear and seize, destroying the supplies would also be acceptable. But I'd REALLY rather you capture than blow it up."

Lobster slowly raises a claw. "Excuse me, but how many is a light guard?"

"Light guard means mostly light-combat reploids, mass produced designs. Hoganmers mostly, but a few Disk Boys were reported. Someone thinks they saw some larger combat mechaniloids, probably Gun Volts, but there can't be more than a dozen total enemy units in the entire warehouse. Both of you are rated as heavy combat models. Magnet Lobster, your military overhaul puts you head and shoulders above anything in that warehouse. Looking at your specs, I'm honestly not sure any of them could actually HURT you through that armor."

Lobster's optics dilate considerably at hearing this. "Oh. That's good."

"Any further questions? If not, we can head into over to Deployment and get you two on the ground."

>I sort of forgot how long it took to get started. First session and all.

>>36775731
Scene-setting is interesting too! I presume duck-guy is going to be recurring. And a dick.

>>36775731

"How are we getting there?" This lobster doesn't know shit.

"Teleportation deployment. They have an interdiction field up, so you'll be put at the edge of it. We didn't see any external defenses, so there won't be much to stop you from walking up to the building and finding a way in."

Scorch perks up slightly. "Convenient. And those 'mass-produced' models... should we know anything about them, or will their abilities be obvious?"

"Hoganmers and Disk Boys use shields, but their actual weapons are slow. Gun Volts have more armor and better weapons, but require direction from reploids for advanced tactics. Their normal AI makes them into little more than gun emplacements. Hoganmers are actually obsolete these days, Disk Boy 08's are their replacement models."

"Ah, so when you said 'light guard,' you really meant it. Well. Nothing more out of me, so we'll be ready to roll, then?"

"Since we all seem to be on the same page now, let's get you down to Deployment and get this moving. I'll be providing support over the comms; I'm a Navigator and can keep you appraised of the situation from here."

"Yes, ma'am."
"Sounds good to me!"
>mfw the GM left the 'n' out of every single iteration of 'Hoganmer' and I have to fix them all
>oh right this board has character limits

>>36775780
>I presume duck-guy is going to be recurring.
So I'm told!

>And a dick.
I'll let you know when I stop laughing at this comment.

>>36775857

The deployment room isn't too far from the large briefing room. It has a pair of technicians running the consoles, one humaniod and one actual human. The teleporters are mechanical platforms that raise themselves about a foot off the ground. Echo leaves the pair with the technicians to head down to the command area, and the human tech asks idly, "What team are you with?"

Lobster, eager to speak to someone less intimidating than an officer, answers, "F team, sir! F-23 and F-24 ready to go!"

He kind of stares for a moment before recovering, badly. "... oh. Uh. Good luck, then." His reploid partner looks less than amused by the tech's reaction. "Team F newbies are headed for the third maverick warehouse, just put the coordinates in."

"Don't worry about anything, you'll do fine. Hop up on the platforms and you'll be there in a flash."

Scorch climbs up on the platform without much further ado, looking around briefly to take in a few details before a brief check of his own weapons. "Ready as ever..." Lobster follows onto the platform, and poof.

Also, suddenly, an amusing conversation just happened between myself and Scorch Drone's player.

S: f5f5f5f5f5, etc.
S: DESPITE HAVING SEEN THIS STORY BEFORE, I AM INTERESTED IN ITS CONCLUSION
M: I KNOW
M: i'm like, waiting to see what happens then suddenly realizing it isn't going to until i post it

>>36775872

The teleportation is fast; one moment F team is looking at the deployment room, the next they're standing next to a steep mountain cliff face on a very wide road, almost without transition. A relatively nondescript warehouse is a few minutes walk in the distance, nestled into the side of the mountain; it's tagged in the mission data as the target. There's no obvious weapons or defenses, aside from a heavy warehouse door.

On the opposite side of the road from the cliff face is a rocky field, and in the far distance is a city. GPS uplink hasn't told you quite WHERE you are yet, so no idea which city that is. The city is many hours away, though.

Lobster looks out at the view, then turns to his partner. "So, do we just start walking? I don't think I'm built to sneak."

"Oh, same here. I guess the plan is just to scope the place out, sight people, and then scrap 'em before they try anything fancy." He offers up a shrug. "Magnet Lobster, wasn't it? I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun."

The Navigation uplink clicks together; letting both hunters know they've been linked to each other and that Echo is listening in case of emergency.

"Yeah, Scorch Drone, right? You look a lot more prepared for this than I am. Armor aside, I'm a communication and repair specialist, not a fighter. They did give me a plasma weapon, though." He brightens slightly at that.

"That'd explain it. This's the kind of thing I'm built for, though... well, first mission and all. The sooner we've got this one under our collective belts, though...!" Scorch raises an arm, offering up that smirk again before moving in the direction of the warehouse. "Let's get a move on. Sooner we ruin these guys, the better."

>>36775904
So your character isn't much different than your real personality, huh?

>>36775936
I'm probably a way bigger asshole than Magnet Lobster. Honestly most of his personality came from how funny I thought it would be for the giant tank of the crew to be clueless and easily intimidated. I promise you'll see that veneer melt in combat after he realizes no one is going to cooperate with the police like they're supposed to.

>>36775927

About halfway to the warehouse, the building makes various alarm noises. This team is hard not to notice; the warehouse gate opens up partway and spits out three reploids riding some kind of car-things with cannons on their hoods.

As the ride attackers approach, they open fire on the team, catching Scorch across the front with one blast and glancing Lobster with two more. Lobster steps back as Scorch throws himself forward, igniting a beam saber seemingly made of concentrated flames. He dives to the side of the one that attacked him first, dragging a furrow of shorn armor and melted paint down its fender and door.

As the other two vehicles move past toward their target, the wounded one turns to ram this hunter for the insult. Scorch gives the driver a patented smirk and seemingly drops his guard. At the last possible second, a blur of red and yellow lunges sideways and snaps the saber parallel to the ground, cleanly cutting off everything above hood level, windshield, driver, and all.

Lobster's voice pipes up at his ear, "I'm activating my new countermeasure suite. It's supposed to make it harder for them to draw a bead on us." Scorch turns back to see the results, as both remaining road attackers' shots go just stray enough to be dodged by a surprisingly spry giant crustacean.

Seeing that both targets slowed to aim at his partner, Scorch jams his EAS forward and announces himself to the rearmost car with a slash across the back, dealing significant damage to the frame before the enemy reploid gooses up his speed to get away. Lobster decides to try out his new weapon and fires on the incoming damaged vehicle.

>Combat takes significantly longer to post, as I actually have to rewrite nearly the entire thing, as my logs contain mostly intent declarations and die rolls. Sorry.

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>>36776109
I cannot fucking believe I forgot the image for this.

>>36776109
It's cool, go at your own pace. It's good so far.

>>36776139
Thanks!

>>36776109

All combat-trained eyes on the field go a little wider, seeing the distinct lemon-shaped and lemon-colored plasma envelope of the single most basic buster weapon in production in the last fifty years. It impacts the top of the incoming car's windshield, leaving the smallest of burn marks and actually enraging the driver. He answers the insult by flooring it toward the lobster, safe approach be damned.

In a screeching, meaty crunch, the vehicle collides with the hunched red hunter, who moves exactly not at fucking all. As the hulking lobster looks down, puzzled, at the poor bastard in the driver's seat, he has just enough time to regret this decision before a loud 'chuff' of EAS thrust signals incoming doom.

Wreathed in orange-red fiery energy, Scorch Drone impacts the back of the road attacker and compacts it between himself and his confused, armored partner. Reduced to half his former depth, the driver does as much slumping as the wreck around him allows. The only answer forthcoming to Lobster's continued confusion is a smirk and a wink from a crazy insect.

The topless vehicle quietly rolls past the scene of the devastation.

>>36776271

Scorch gestures toward the last target, turning for another pass. Lobster nods and fires, managing to hit a vent on the front of the vehicle, causing gouts of smoke to pour out. The driver holds relatively steady to fire, but again goes wide, aim ruined by countermeasures and smoke.

The insectoid pats the lobster on the back, "Here, you wanna take this one? You seem to have gotten the kinks outta that pea-shooter of yours, and I can't have all the fun."

"Man, I think I CAN do this fighting thing."

One more shot hits something vital, and the road attacker explodes. Two down and one liberated to find itself, and the team turns to the warehouse. The building clearly has been reinforced, with smaller doors removed or bricked up. There are upper-story windows, but on the ground floor the giant door is the most obvious entrance. The side of the building actually is flush with the rising mountain, and it's likely some of the warehouse goes into the mountain, underground.

"Alright, are we going in the hard way, here? They did mention not wanting to totally bust everything up, especially since we're still waiting on a welcoming committee..."

Magnet clacks his claws. "I'll give it a shot, then."

After getting a solid magnetic grip on the bottom of the door, Lobster yanks upward. The door resists, but clearly wasn't designed to stand up to much actual force, and the internals break as the door rolls up. A pair of Hoganmers and a Gun Volt are right on the other side of the door, prepping for attack. They are completely surprised.

>>36776431

Before anyone can react, the halo of orange-red glow shines out and a reploid bug slams into the Gun Volt hard enough to stagger it backward and buckle the armor, and glowing lemons follow into the damaged armor, disabling the internals and making the mechaniloid go dark.

The Hoganmers, old and battle seasoned, react by cooly readying their shields and flails. They immediately divide up targets and sling giant spiked balls forth. Drone hits the deck as one passes over his head, as Lobster staggers backward with the impact of his incoming, negating most of the force. Before the Hoganmer can reclaim his weapon, Lobster snags the giant metal ball in a magnetic grip and holds on.

Scorch surges forward and dives under his target's shield, coming upward in a bladed uppercut that nearly bisects the old reploid, putting it out of commission. The last enemy combatant, weapon out of his control, hunkers behind his shield only just in time for the spiked ball to be magnetically reversed straight into his shield, impacting his shield arm right off. One glowing tackle from a bug later, and the last Hoganmer is no more.

Scorch picks himself up, dusting himself off after the fire from his thruster system dies down. "Alright, that felt good. If the rest of these guards go down like those guys did, we'll be the most commended new team once we get back."

"Man, this is more intense than I thought it would be. So...do we just search the place?"

With nobody shooting or to be shot at, the warehouse turns out to be a giant, single room with a control room in the back corner of the upper story. There are catwalks around the edge of the upper level, providing an overview of the room. On the ground floor, large shipping crates and palletes with boxes on them take up a lot of the floor space, creating an area of broken cover. The back area of the room is dark, except for a pair of pinprick lights on the upper level.

I appear to have lied to you all about this being shorter than other storytimes.

>>36776556

Lobster takes a second to collect himself after seeing a guy explode. "Okay, control room or creepy dark corner first?"

"Control room. If they have a way to call for backup or something, this might not be the cakewalk that was advertised. If we surround and take 'em out before then, then no worries."

"Good call. Marching order?"

Scorch looks over his partner a second. "I do like heading in first, but you've got that crazy armor. You take the brunt of it, then I'll sweep 'em out?"

Lobster begins the climb to the catwalks. "If you say so." Crossing the catwalk to the control room door, Lobster braces himself and opens the unlocked door. "If anyone wants to surrender, this is the time for that, I think?"

The scene inside the room shows a pair of Disk Boys arguing with a non-combat humanoid reploid at the console. When they see hunters, the non-combat reploid puts up his hands, one of the Disk Boys actually dives toward the window down to the ground floor, and the third dives for the console. Lobster's magnet claw slams the window jumper into the wall with a magnetic shove before he can make the window.

"Seriously, though, we're Maverick Hunters, and we do accept surrender." The non-combat reploid raises his hands a little higher. The diver is trying to get up, but the one that hit the button is pulling his shield to the ready

"Okay don't cut up the guy with his hands raised."

Scorch chuckles. "I'll try to restrain myself."

>>36776571
As long as we see ML flipping out and taking down a small army, Arnie-style, while Scorch stares in confusion, it's all good.

>>36776684
He just takes them out with bodyslams using his enormous armour. Straight murders a Hoganmer by leaning on him

>>36776684
>>36776730
Lobster's superpowers are more suited to having nervous conversation with people trying to kill him while they whale ineffectively on his ridiculous ocean-floor pressure armor.

>>36776763
And lemons!

>>36776763
This sounds weirdly adorable.

>>36776781
This just sounds weird.

>>36776659

At a shove from Scorch, Lobster barges into the room, firing at the readied Disk Boy as he moves. A few glancing blows are followed by a flying bug clearing completely over the lobster, coming down blade first. The beleagured Disk Boy takes significant damage, but begins to laugh. A low whining noide begins the emanate from the back of the building. As the floored reploid comes up at the ready, the non-combatant makes for the door, receiving a magnetic tug that jerks him back into the room like a dog running to the end of its chain.

"Sir, please remain surrendered and do not flee!" Lobster is not about to have his first capture running off.

"That's enough, chuckles." For maybe the third time in a day, Scorch tackles a guy so hard he explodes, finally cutting off the laughter. The remaining Disk Boy takes a ready stance as Lobster turns to fire on him, catching the plasma on his shield and retaliating with a signature throwing weapon. Unfortunately for him, it plinks off the massive crustacean's armor before returning.

The enemy thrusts his shield forward to ward off any retaliation, only to be surprised as the shield keeps moving forward, ripped from his hands by magnetic force. Seeing an angry bug bearing down and missing his only defense, he dives for the window again, taking a glancing cut while in mid-air. Just before he lands, a clumsy magnet grab on his boot screws up his stance and he smashes his legs on the floor, now immobile. The non-combatant maverick has contented himself cowering in a corner.

"Scorch, mind seeing about that guy while I call in?" Both hunters freeze as the whining outside the room picks up again.

"Oh. Right."

>>36776781
Always lemons!

>>36776852

Scorch, for his part, displays the only uncertainty he has so far. "Uh, we should... whatever Chuckles did with the console, it ain't good."

"Hey prisoner person, what IS that noise?" Lobster scans the console for info to no avail.

"... we were using it as a generator for our interdiction field, since we didn't need to use it to fight. He turned it back on."
"It? ...can you turn 'it' back OFF?"

In that moment of spooky pronoun game, Echo calls over comms. "The teleport interdiction field just went down, but we have a power surge at your location. Is everything clear?"

"Ma'am, I don't know. Someone activated something and our prisoner is being kind of vague." The two pinpricks of light in the back of the warehouse rise up, and start moving foward. "It's loud in here."

Scorch notices the light show beginning in the back of the warehouse. "Oh, what the... what 'supplies' were they carrying here, again?"

Echo is silent for a beat, then, "LIFE energy capsules, The kind you run your internal shielding on. I'm sending backup, they'll be there shortly. Identify the threat and deal with it the best you can. If you're injured, open one of the supply cases and try to find some capsules, that should keep you alive. Keep the threat contained until backup arrives, if at all possible."

Lobster finally finds the controls for the lights, and turns them on, full.

The back of the warehouse lights up. It's a giant mechaniloid.

>>36776982

OOC conversation between myself and the GM at this point in the mission.

>ML: (if that's a cf-0 i'll kill you)
>GM: (8D)
>ML: (motherfucker)

>>36776982

The mechaniloid has large spiked fists, a large round body, and a relatively small legs. It's tromping foward, trailing the remains of what apparently HAD been the interdiction field generator from it's back.

"Might want to get some capsules, Scorch. This is going to suck."

"Oh, yeah... we got a wild one."

Lobster turns back to his comms. "Echo? I uh. I don't know what to do with our prisoner."

"Is the prisoner resisting?"

"He tried to run, but he's stopped since then. I can't contain him and fight THAT, though. No way."

"Then either retire him, or ignore him if he's not currently hostile. The warehouse doesn't have outbound teleport, so he'd have to literally run if he left"

"I...alright." Lobster adopts an almost patronizing talking-to-a-child tone. "Hey guy, get outside and don't go far, okay?" The non-combat maverick nods and runs for it, dashing past Scorch as he digs an energy cell out of a crate and absorbs it.

He looks up at the giant enemy stomping straight at him, and blasts a small amount of flame from his back-vents. "Alright... s'go time." The bug ignites his saber once more, this time the flame-like energy channels less tightly cohesive, and swings for the fences at the air in front of him, sending a wave of energy out from the blade. For it's part, the giant mechaniloid only wears a scorch mark from the encounter. "This armor is really good!"

As Lobster fails to find a way to shut off the monstrocity from the console, he moves to the windows just in time to see a giant spiked fist fly down at Scorch, fast. Raising his blade defensively, the hard-hitting bee is slammed backward through several crates before tumbling to a stop. Lobster calls out as the crashing stops, "Oh god, are you okay down there?"

Scorch flips himself upright, calling out, "Decidedly not!" as he frantically digs into the broken crates he just passed through for the sweet promise of living through the next attack. "Mind taking some attention?"

>>36777085

Lobster takes cover at a window of the raised control room and fires through the glass, hitting the mechaniloid's unarmored head, and making himself a target. He then hopes that was a good idea.

More interested in a target that hits back, the massive machine turns to the command room, just noticing a red, antennae'd head disappearing under a window frame. Rearing back a huge spiky fist, the mechaniloid demonstrates for everyone in attendance how useless that kind of cover is, smashing the entire command room, sending Magnet Lobster to the ground with half a room's worth of electronics and walls following him down.

After the clatter dies down slightly, a muffled voice cries out, "I think I'm okay! I got that attention!" LObster begins frantically shoving metal debris off of himself before he's a stationary punching bag.

"Hff... well, at least you can take a punch? Just don't plan on taking another one! There's only so much warehouse here."

Lobster fires out of the pile, doing negligible damage to the target."I think they gave me a cheap gun!"

"We'll get you a better one once we take this thing's head back and have it mounted, okay?" Scorch tops off what he can of his internal shielding with what's in reach and steps back forward.

>>36777143

Scorch whistles once, and launches another blade beam to bring some notice back his way. The giant mechaniloid obliges, no longer seeing the downed Lobster as a threat. Lunging forward, it sends a gigantic fist almost straight down at the bug.

Waiting for the very last impossible second, Scorch Drone fires EAS and flame vents as one, rocketing past the incoming fist close enough to sear it with his sword, flat out runs halfway up the arm, and puts all of his momentum into a single, two-handed swing.

The blade cleaves clear through it's neck, and the head goes flying across the warehouse, pinwheeling mechanical fluids. The CF-0's body freezes, fist buried in the crates under Scorch's feet.

Lobster, just free from the wreckage, immediately bolts for the open door, screaming, "Oh god run it's going doooooowwwwwwnnnnnnn!"

"Hey, don't need to tell me twice, with a punch like... hey, where- ah." Scorch turns in time to see a streak of red leaving the warehouse. He hops down from the stack of crates, shooting a glance to the decapitated robot, and then the severed head, before he offers up a shrug. "Magnet! Dude's frozen. He's gone."

Calming slightly, Magnet taps comms, "Echo, Scorch just cut the goddamn whatever's head off, I think the warehouse is clear...ish? Everyone is dead or ran away, anyhow."

Echo confirms, "The power source just went blank, if you have no other hostiles, the place is clear"

>>36777270
Lemme guess - the prisoner was on the most wanted list, and he's just escaped on a ride chasers.

>>36775498
>I hope you didn't think I forgot about shenanigans.

>>36777270

Scorch takes a look around the half-trashed building. "Yeah, we're solid, here. Where's the captive?"

Lobster, suddenly concerned about his success at capturing, looks around for the noncombat guy. He is found, not at the door outside, but about 5 minutes down the road, about where the ruined road attackers lie, still running. "I think you'd catch him before I would."

Scorch shrugs. "I guess I'd better get to that. Be right back."

As Scorch begins his run, Magnet gets back on comms. "Echo, our prisoner fled, but I can see him from here and I think Scorch can outrun him. Uh, what do we do from here?"

"I'm cancelling the backup call to Team B, but I'll have regular grunts on the scene to hold the warehouse in a moment"

As Lobster casts his gaze around at his first mission as a real Maverick Hunter, something he entirely missed in the frantic pace of the warehouse fight catches his eye. By the door, there are several road attackers with no drivers

"...hang on, Echo."

>>36777411

The car is too small for Lobster's whole body, but he can almost drive while standing in the seat. It appears to have hand-based controls instead of foot pedals. "I'm on prisoner capture!"

"HEEEY, I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO TOO FAAAAAARRRR!" Lobster attempts the horn to catch the prisoner's attention, but the horn turns out to also fire the buster on the front of the Road Attacker. The noncombatant begins running much harder than before

"Fuck, sorry!"

The Road Attacker is just barely faster than Scorch, and he adds in a conversational tone as the bizarre oversized lobster in a go-kart passes by, "I wanna know where he's planning on beating it to! ...But in all fairness, I wouldn't stick around with the guy who just decapitated the giant mech. Which, by the way, is me. I did that."

Lobster damn near runs over the fleeing reploid, who dives to the side and curls up, cowering. Back toward the warehouse, several mass-produced reploid hunters teleport in, filing into the building. Lobster cramps the prisoner into the tiny space on the seat next to him and begins driving back.

Echo teleports in after them, looking around, then spots her newbies in the distance.

Turning to the captive, Lobster fails to explain. "I think you have to be debriefed or possibly put into jail? Sorry, guy, but at least I didn't let the bug cut your head off, right?"

"Hey, I'm not a serial killer or something, over here. That only happens to folks who're trying to punch me. Don't do that." The team rolls/jogs back up to the building entrance, captive in tow.

>>36777426

"... I. Are you. What." Echo stares at the whole Road Attacker display, the car only going barely faster than Scorch, and the captured prisoner.

Scorch attempts to explain the area. "They tried punching me. It didn't work."

Lobster tries explain the car. "I can't run very fast, ma'am. I didn't want my first capture getting away. ...it's okay that I used one of these, right?"

Echo holds the bridge of her nose, momentarily. "That's... fine, sure. And good work with that CF-0, Drone. We'll clean up in here, and we've brought a deployable teleportation station, you can head back and have the Lifesavers look you both over."

"Excellent. I had to appropriate some of those supplies so I didn't get crushed, but my shields can only do so much, so..." Scorch offers up a shrug. "I'm glad it went well. We'll leave it at that."

Lobster takes a minute to remove himself from the car. "And what do I do with this guy?"

"Take him with you, hand him over to the guards at the station. And don't worry about the supplies. Honestly, I expect high command is going to take the capsules and material and destroy the warehouse afterward."


SESSION END

>>36777439
Oh my christ this took like four and a half hours to transcribe, rewrite, and post. I now have a really healthy respect for quest masters.

>>36777459
Thanks for the tale

>>36777459
I love these two. That poor prisoner... when's your next session?

>>36777485
The second one has actually happened already, but the hell am I going to try to shove it in here tonight. Maybe next thread.

>>36777503
Aw... Still, thanks for storytiem

>>36777515
Just to tease you, next time features Lobster's repeated failures at talking smack, and the Biotic God of Disk Boys,

>>36777503
Bonus Christmas gift!

Ten hours since HC fled. We must perform the sacrifice.

>>36777717
I'll get the grease.

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I'd offer some storytime to help keep the thread afloat until HC returns, but there's a slight wrinkle in that HC is one of the players, and I don't know for sure if he plans on incorporating any of the events of the game into MHQ.

HC is a pretty cool guy, eh writes quests and doesn't afraid of anything.

Oi, is this the quest with Pacman X?
Been curious with what happened to him
Also, anyone knows about brother Uralmarsh Ursa and the other quests?

>>36778001
Damn, that would have been fun. No minor incidents or one-liners you could safely write about?

>>36778050
Our GM doesn't quite go for minor incidents. Also now that I think about it we haven't actually accomplished all that much in the game, mostly because GM has about the worst case of real life issues ever, so sessions are few and far between.

It should hopefully be safe to bring up our first maverick encounter, wherein the bad guys rolled so spectacularly poorly that their boss called them, berated them for incompetence, then remotely detonated them.

>>36778118
... Continue, good sir.

Don't suppose anyone's ever played as a Maverick? Could be fun.

>>36778141
...Right. Don't have logs on hand, so this is going by memory.

First up, a brief rundown on the cast, kept vague in case they turn up in MHQ.

Speedy flier, very flashy, generalist in that their gimmick doesn't lock them into a specific method of combat. (me)
Brick shithouse of a groundpounder, damn fast for how sturdy they are, can't recall offhand their combat style.
Specialist A, flier, what I can remember of their abilities was support, combat and otherwise.
Specialist B, flier, [REDACTED] (hc)

IIRC, the GM initially had this set before Vienna.

So. There was a particularly gristly maverick incident in a crowded civilian location. Due to reasons, we are poking around the scene, which is being preserved via some kind of low-energy stasis field thing. We get some insight into things, along with some footage of the attack. Around this time, we realize two important things.
1) The building is set to collapse at any moment, the stasis field is the only thing holding it together.
2) We are being watched from above.

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>>36777717
OH MIGHTY HC, BY THE STONE OF THIS WALL BE SUMMONED

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>>36778315
Being both the fastest and the most visible, I take off after our voyeur. It's a nice foggy night, hence my visibility being important, the others would be able to follow me through the fog. Despite lacking a flight system, our runner was doing damn good running across rooftops, at least until we tripped him up and he fell/disappeared into an alley. I say disappeared because we never heard him land, and the alley was filled with particularly dense fog that none of our sensory equipment could penetrate. Shortly after we decided to not try entering the spooky fog, some form of electrical discharge rippled through it, followed by the runner arriving from the opposite roof's access door, alongside a quartet of support (don't recall what model the support was, aside from them having shields).

Battle commenced, and as mentioned, the opposition rolled so poorly that after a few rounds of their buffoonery, suddenly the four mechaniloids all grabbed the guy, some mysterious guy who was presumably the maverick's boss called up, yelled at the guy for being incompetent, and detonates the mechaniloids, taking the reploid with them.

>>36778408
Reasons never to go mav, number 1: asshole bosses.

BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL, I SUMMON THEE! HC, ANSWER MY CALL, AND ENTER THIS THREAD, LEST SHIPPING DISCUSSION COMMENCE!

>>36779020
I'm on the job, folks. I'll track him down.

In the meantime, how's everyone enjoying being an S-Rank bison?

>>36779213
Fun, except for lack of bullshit crazy ideas and movie references. Also, no baaaaaats.

>>36775217
Damn, I wish I was in your group.

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Okay, I am back! Bear with me for a little while more as I try to put on a semblance of life.

>>36779941
Feeling better?

>>36779974
Not even a little, unfortunately.

Also, big thanks to Magnet Lobster and a certain co-player of mine for the storytime while I was passed out.

>>36760100
Ah damnit, I just find out about a new MHQ, and I have to go to work soon.

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>>36778039
The GM veto'd a literal Pac Man X, but I managed to do a nod to the idea. My character was PMX-CB, a mass-production model Armor-Cruise, operating a garishly-painted yellow Ride Armor (named "The Hungry") with a sharktooth paint pattern around the rim. It got increasingly Frankensteined as more and more upgrades and overhauls and customizations were added to it.

Unfortunately, that game also didn't survive contact with Real Life, though it ran for a good while. Sometime I need to sit down with the GM and work out storytime to share.

>>36780432
What game do you expect to end MHQ on? Or is it just until Anode dies?

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>>36768974
You size it up and decide that you'd rather risk a hit from your own ordnance--the lower-power stuff, anyway--than chance whatever it's got for you. Kinetic missiles are most definitely out, unfortunately, at least for now. The thing isn't quite up to the ceiling, a hundred meters up (and taking up more than half of that), leaving a little space you might squeeze some ordnance in behind it.

You fire a trio of hammerheads over its head, aiming to detonate them behind the mechaniloid and catch it in the backscatter. Once again the thing twists around far more nimbly than it has any right to for something so huge--upending itself and looking vaguely like an upturned horseshoe crab as the energy weapon it was charging dims. From this angle, you can see cables lash out from each of those little graspers. Two manage to snare their targets--as you suspected--but is unable to catch the third, screened specifically to foil the attempt using the first two as a shield. It flies past, detonates, and rains miniwarheads on the thing's back.

Once again it lurches around impossibly, dropping the first two missiles as each of those graspers launches its tether and snares almost half of the secondaries out of the air. The dropped hammerheads detonate harmlessly against the floor as it turns its back to the remaining barrage of explosives in the air--you've hit it, but you've also given it about a dozen shots of your own.

Fortunately, you can take it. There's no dodging that salvo, but you don't really need to. And more than that, you've got a better idea of what it can do. Less optimally, it takes a cue from your trick and rises higher, beginning to charge its beam again closer to the ceiling. It looks like it's building charge, ready to swoop down and rake you with the beam once it's charged.

>Pepper it with more Hammerheads, fired behind you.
>Take the time to maneuver.
>Other?

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>>36780661
I have plans up through X5 (well, our own much less stupid chains of events), and no problems continuing from there. It depends entirely on reader interest and the continued life of the community. If Anode dies, I can present any number of options ranging from another maverick hunter in the same timeframe, a different part of the series, even a maverick, possibly even venture forward to MMZ.

>>36780788
>Take the time to manouver

>>36780810
>Anode 'dies'
>Ciel finds a blue, eletric reploid instead
>Take the time to maneuver

>>36780788
Maneuver.

>>36780788
>Take the time to maneuver.

>>36780902
>ZX happens.
>Main character gets Anode and Cathode biometals.
>Can wreak untold havoc on the enemy, but his social life is filled with possibly millenia old movies and sibling squabbling.

Also, maneuver yourself into position.

>>36780810
That File name

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>>36780827
>>36780902
>>36780941
>>36781006
You motor as hard as you can, trying not to dwell on how silly a buffalo looks when it's not charging AT something. Your own hammerhead secondaries rain down around you, scoring a few hits and finally making your shields start doing a little work. The beam fires an instant later, a blue-white laser chasing you across the floor and carving up the ground just behind your feet. So you can dodge it, and that actually looked moderately impressive. Nothing critical, though. At the same time, you've also sized up the thing and know how it grabs, how much it can grab at a time, and that it prefers defensive fighting to try to wear you down. You're going to win this one handily, though the question is how much damage you'll take for your trouble. Just peppering it with hammerheads and then getting half of what you give doesn't seem like a winning formula, not that you can't take it.

As for the mechaniloid, it's once again pulling out a new trick. It hovers down into the middle of the room and splits apart down the middle, another energy ball charging between the two halves. The graspers on the underside thrash wildly, before each little claw opens up and opens fire with a cascade of mini-lasers. They plink off your armor harmlessly, but they also conveniently ruin any shot you might be able to take if this thing is vulnerable.

Well, mostly. Now that it's low enough, you engage your jumpjets and fire a quartet of HV-Ts across the room. They impact across its bottom half, scoring a solid hit. It gets its own turn, unfortunately, launching a massive, searing globe of energy back at you, unperturbed by your attack. You take the hardest hit of the battle yet, shields flaring to full as they absorb the searing heat. You impact roughly, none the worse for wear, as the thing's halves begin to slide back together.

>Enough with reacting, start hitting first.
>See if you can bait it into another opening..
>Other?

>>36780788
Maneuver, it seems to have some intellect, at least enough to adjust it's own tactics.

>>36781588
Gr8 b8 m8 time.

>>36781588
>Enough with reacting, start hitting first.
Become a one repliod stampede

>>36781588
>hit first

>>36781588
>Enough with reacting, start hitting first.

>>36781588
Hit it fast and hard, we have other priorities.

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>>36782017
>>36782377
>>36782805
>>36783752
Right, that's enough horsing (bisoning?) around.

You trigger the jump-jets again straightaway, before the two halves finish sliding back together, and unload another salvo of HV-Ts. The lasers continue to slide uselessly off their casings, letting them impact on the target and score yet another hit. You follow that up the instant the grasper beams fade with another trio of Hammerheads--this one shot behind you and away from the mechaniloid interceptor.

It catches a full dozen micromissiles, but then it catches the other sixty or so to the face(, torso, graspers, shields). You're caught up in your own explosives once, then twice as it fires your own back at you in retaliation. Still nothing to write home about.

It rises up out of the way, very clearly irritated--you're not sure whether it can't hijack dumbfire weapons, or if it's just that the graspers have been busy every time you've had occasion to try. It rises up to the very top of the room and begins trying to charge its mouth beam again, where it will be safest.

Silly thing. You fire another Hammerhead trio, this time in several directions--you have to admit you're impressed with how it adapts, grabbing and immediately rereleasing one to cancel the other, minimizing the warhead scatter it takes and giving it a clear window to target the third, fired low. It immediately follows its counterattack by separating into two halves again, conserving the charge from the mouth beam to power the energy sphere. The grasper beams, still occupied with juggling your missiles, are slow to warm this time, though they remain ready to intercept.

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>>36784439
Unfortunately, this time you're ready for it instead of the other way around. As it attempts to snare the third and final Hammerhead, you leap, grab hold of the tether, and let it reel you right back up to the top of the room. Unperturbed (though listing slightly), it continues to charge the energy globe.

You grab hold of its top piece, even as you crush the grasper you rode up, then find a purchase on the bottom half. As the energy ball becomes a blinding blue-white ball of death, you simply close the damn thing on its own plasma generator. You feel a thump to go with the muffled blast inside as it massacres its internals, flight systems sputtering and conking out, taking you both back to earth as its surface is peppered with a chain of explosions. The rest of the body goes up in a hellish gout of light and flame, once again leaving you singed, but none the worse for wear.

That'll do.

The door to the next room--dented and pitted from the sustained fire it weathered in the battle--awaits. As you draw close, you can hear machinery moving on the other side--another assembly room, by the sounds of it.

>Take it fast.
>Take it slow.

>>36784497
>Take it fast.

The slower we go, the more time they have to come up with something that can actually worry us.

>>36784497
Take it fast. We've had the element of surprise on our side a couple of times, let's see if we can keep that going.

>>36784497
>fast
Fuck these guys. That cheap fucker had us stuck in one place far too long. Give these fuckers the horns.

>>36784497
>gotta go fast

This bison has places to be, you dirty mavericks.

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>>36784593
>>36784619
>>36785916
Having used up your quota of Fun on the interceptor-thing, you storm through the door in a hurricane of ordnance, firing a pair of Hammerheads across the way and putting a Kinetic Missile into the first convenient target you see.

That target happens to be an up-armored Hamma Hamma, with an oily purple-blue sheen on its bulky armor casing. It takes the impact on the shoulder, its side crumpling and blazing under the impact...and then holding steady, a faint shield winking out as the explosion clears.

Huh. That's a first.

It turns (that's a second!) on heavily armored treads, trundling towards you as it opens up with a nose laser (a third), the shot sizzing off your armor as your Hammerheads rain down around the room.

Huh. Guess this is what that assembly line is producing, then. It throws one of its spiked balls, which you smash aside with your fist, and feed it another kinetic missile. This one catches it full in the chest, caving it in as that phase shield falters and the warhead eats away half its torso before it all goes up in an explosion.

Yeah, thought so.

The line is massive, as it has to be, with dormant Hamma Hammas slowly rolling across it and entering bays where the new parts are grafted on.

>Enough of those things could give you trouble. Clear the assembled ones first.
>Oh no no no, that line has got to go.

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>>36786550
So it ate my name again, with bonus "captcha refused to work until I hard reloaded the page."

Stupid thing.

>>36786550
>multitask, send enough ordinance to upfuck the line while throwing the rest at the hammas

>>36786550
>clear the line
Enough is trouble, more and more is worse.

>>36786569
At some point during storytime, firefox just stopped loading captchas completely, it was great.

>>36786550
Break the line first before focusing on enemies. If need be, using the fire balls and the like to weaken them while you destroy the assembly. Remember, we are trying to stop them from producing more of these things.

>>36786550
>Oh no no no, that line has got to go

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>>36786664
>>36786739
>>36787004
>>36787216
First priority has to be the assembly line this time. You make a running leap and crash down onto the belt amid the Hammas, smash one out of the way as it clears the foundry exit, and fire a kinetic missile down the pipe. Another hop and a salvo of hammerheads as you go, one more kinetic to wrap it up, and the entire line goes down just as the unmodified Hammas are coming up.

That leaves you with a room full of the ones that completed to deal with, along with something new struggling (and failing) to protect the assembly systems. It's yet another variant of an old frame, the Aclanda scorpion. This one's claws and tail look more elaborate, and it actually has a set of clumsy--but functional--legs. A trio of them make their way forward, one in the back sweeping the room with some sort of laser grid projected from the tail, while another mounts the wall. Meanwhile, a total of four of the custom Hamma Hammas made it. Fortunately, all of them took some hits from your indiscriminate missile spam. They roll their way towards you, lasers blinking uselessly as they close in. Those spiked balls can block conventional fire, unfortunately, though Hammerheads don't really care all that much about that. You enjoy the rare situation of firing as many Hammerheads as you can at a time and getting absolutely no stray heat from it, as the absurdly tough mechaniloids soak it all up. None go down, even under the sustained barrage, but they're clearly damaged. One kinetic apiece should sort them out.

In the back, meanwhile, the Aclandas (their sides and tails emblazoned with SECURE, apparently the variant name) open fire on you, firing shots through laser grid-screens projected from their tails. They look as though they're active defense shields, designed for conventional plasma. Heh, poor sods. Two of the three are slightly damaged from stray missiles.

>By the numbers, front Hamma line first, then sweep through the Aclandas.
>Hot Pepper!

>>36787908
>hot pepper
Bring the fucking rain!

>>36787908
>Hot Pepper!
Part of me thinks ill of using our last special ordinance here, but the rest of me wants to see some motherfuckers on FIRE.

>>36787908
>Hot Pepper!

>>36787908
>Hot Pepper!

BURN! BURN TO THE GROUND!

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>>36788001
>>36788087
>>36788126
>>36788821
You should probably conserve this last rocket just in case you need it.

On the other hand, nah.

You grin to yourself as you throw your armored bulk into the air one last time, really giving your jump jets a run for their (well, your) money. You cock back your fist, arming the rail and priming the warhead as the mechaniloids arrayed against you turn to track your meteoric descent. They fire, for all the good it does, and you come down right in the midst of their number, slamming your fist into the floorplate with a crash that peals off the walls like a thunderbolt. On impact you trigger the rail, feeling the satisfying whoomph of exhaust as the incendiary rocket goes on its short, merry way, impacting roughly one yard later. With the safety range set to "no," you're engulfed in a blazing conflagration, bathing you and the world in heat and flame.

The already much-abused Hamma Customers don't fare very well, especially considering they got a front row seat to the fireworks. Scratch those. The Aclandas don't fare much better, as you dislodge one from the wall and blast the weapons off the other. Only the furthermost of the set survives, its laser grid shield serving as a nice divider between a charred front and a pristine back.

You tromp on up to it, ignoring the lasers that fail to score your armor, letting a last, desperate mortar impact on your eyes without much more than an annoyed grunt. It's trying to reposition, backing up to line you up for another salvo, when you simply walk through it. Your boot crushes its head in with a fizzle and a pop of damaged electronics, and its body explodes as your footfall presses the entirety of your weight down on the stupid thing. You pull your boot free as it explodes underfoot, and make your way to the room ahead.

You're getting close, now--no more assembly lines, no more functional space to be filled.

Once again, though, you have company. This time, it's someone your speed.

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>>36788966
As tall as you are, if not taller, you recognize Tumult Terapin from the 4th officers' descriptions. Standing tall in the center of the room, he bristles with weapons--you see barrels protruding over his wrists, grenade tubes, missile pods, and a pair of heavy plasma cannons. He doesn't speak, doesn't showboat, doesn't do anything to acknowledge your presence but sight on you with his weapons and begin a slow, calm walk to close range.

>Go.

>>36788994
Ok, this bugger is a heavy hitter, but one we can handle. The shell is probably going to be it's hardest point, but any energy defense is useless against kinetic missiles, and our anti energy ones can deal with his shots. Still, don't let him get in close range yet, and fire some missiles to test how thick his shell is.

>>36789114
Seconding.

>>36789114
thirding this

>>36788994
Send out some dumbfire rockets for protected assessment, be ready to follow with something nastier if he makes a move.

>>36788994
Dumbfire rockets only for now, trying to make it stay away. We also need to know if it can redirect fire like the mechaniloid

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>>36789114
>>36789216
>>36789290
>>36789725
Rather than close to melee straight off, you hang back and open up with a quartet of HV-Ts, starting simple. He raises his arms, firing a pair of lasers from the barrels into them--sliding off the casings uselessly. Even despite that, Terapin doesn't so much as slow, letting them splash across his chest without so much as a blink. He continues firing, sending a pair of lasers raking across your shields. You fire another set of torpedoes, and this time he hunches in and jukes to one side in a surprisingly nimble twist for such a large maverick. He returns fire, breaking into a run as he builds momentum.

You wait for him to shoulder in for a running slam, and trigger the jump-jets, boosting high overhead. You chase him with a pair of Hammerheads as you come back down to Earth--he starts to turn, but not fast enough, as one passes by his side under one arm, and the other impacts square on his back. Undaunted, even as his shields flash--not once, but twice--a secondary pulse?--His lasers strobe to life again, streaking out at all angles. You note he isn't aiming--the beam itself is auto-targeting, burning down individual secondaries from the missile. Only two reach the target, and his shields flash again faintly--barely registering the impact as a meaningful hit at all. Then, a moment later, that secondary pulse repeats, and you can't help but notice stray shrapnel from your ordnance thrown from where it fell around him and clattering to all corners of the room.

Some sort of weaponized shield flare, and an automated point-defense system. That is a truly wicked combination. Unfortunately, now he knows about your GV-Ts, and you suspect your kinetic missiles are a secret to no one. More pressingly, he moves to the attack again, angling on you with his laser cannons as he launches a pair of grenades around your feet.

>?

>>36790206
...screw it. He's been outfitted to put down our ordinance? See if we can directly target the defense systems, in melee if need be.

>>36790206
Fuck it. Meet the bastard head on. Let's see if a reconstructed mav will play chicken. Ramming speed!

>>36790206
Fuck it, turn his tactics on him and play Bomber Man. Kick grenades back at him if possible.

>>36790838
I don't think this is a good idea. You kick, they go boom
>>36790206
Death from above, evade by jumping and crush the bastard

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>>36790356
>>36790368
>>36791290
http://youtu.be/wZmyMEPmiqw

You leap the grenades, jump-jets flaring to life as you go up, up, up, and inexorably come back down, boots leading--

And Terapin promptly seizes you by the toe with both hands and slams you, hard, into the ground, followed by firing his plasma cannons down into your gut. Oof.

Okay, you might have just met your match in close combat. You fire another salvo of HV-Ts to buy yourself space as you haul yourself up with a grunt, leaping backwards to avoid the punishing follow-up as his fist impacts where your chest was a moment ago.

Melee is an option, but not one you want to go into on his terms. He chases your retreat with another salvo of grenades and two plasma cannon shots, one splashing across your raised arm as you come down for a landing. You return fire with more HV-Ts, and this time, it's his turn to take to the air, footfalls rumbling as he leaps the slow-moving projectiles and comes down on you, ready to plunge his fist down.

You answer his charge with a near-on point blank kinetic missile shot. His front arm, ready to ward off your strike, abruptly snaps forward and fires his point-defense laser. The missile explodes in the air between you as he comes down through the blast, unharmed (but his approach ruined). You grab his outstretched arm, fingers closing around the laser's barrel, and you rock yourself forward, meeting his charge with a horned headbutt.

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>>36792237
His shields flash, then flash again, and a painful pulse washes over you, sparking your own. Definitely a weaponized system. Your follow-up strike is interrupted by a bright flash--he popped some sort of flare--and you feel your legs swept out from under, sending you crashing back to the ground. Your vision returns as he rounds out his kick, a backwards leap carrying him back a truck's length. You flare your jump-jets from a crouch, boosting aside as he lobs another grenade volley, unable to avoid being raked with plasma fire in midair as he sights you. You answer with more HV-Ts as your shields fade, and then open up with--

>A second salvo of Gun Volt torpedoes.
>Hammerheads.
>Kinetic Missile.
>A charge.

Charge, motherfucker!

>>36792256
Hammerheads.
He's not off balance enough yet to go for the takedown with melee or Kinetics, and if he gets out of the first torpedos, he can get out of the second,

>>36792256
>Hammerheads
>>36792460
has a good point

>>36792256
>Hammerheads

>>36792256
Fire the sharks

>>36792256
>Hammerheads.

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>>36792460
>>36792650
>>36792686
>>36793002
>>36793163
You use the opening to let fly with a volley of Hammerheads, directly on the heels of the GV-Ts. It's not ideal for scatter, but it's a step up from the torpedoes, and this way--

Perfect. He avoids the torpedoes, plasma splashing across them uselessly, an instant before the Hammerheads catch up to their backs and detonate against your own ordnance, delivering a defensive backscatter, keeping him from closing in. He lobs grenades over the top, arced high, timed to come down just after the hammerhead secondaries pass. That gives you ample time to clear their trajectory. You opt for a lateral move rather than diving straight forward or back, keeping your zoning, and maintaining pressure with a Hammerhead shot behind you. It fills the air with micromissiles for Terapin's point defense to choke on. You support it with another wave of torpedoes as his defensive lasers start to cut swaths out of the incoming ordnance.

>Trick works. Flood his point defense with more back-fired Hammerheads, he can't get them all.
>Go for the kinetic missile on the heels of your GV-Ts.
>Other?

>>36793229
Go for the kinetic missile.

>>36793229
>other
Trick him with the Gunvolt-Hammerhead trick againg, but when he goes to defend, and his shields start popping, hammer him with the kinetics.
If he somehow avoids the hammerheads, just hold them

>>36793229
>>Go for the kinetic missile on the heels of your GV-Ts.

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>>36793274
>>36793278
You decide to make a push. Another cascade of Hammerheads foils his targeting, and you draw in closer, hoping to cut the time he'll have to respond. The first wave of projectiles washes over him, and he hunkers down to ride out the second.

Instead, you surge forwards, pounding feet sending tremors through the floor as you sight on and launch your first Kinetic missile of the engagement.

Like the Hamma Hamma, but less surprisingly, he endures the hit without buckling, superior armor and his bizarre double-shielding trick helping carry him, but you know he felt that. In return, however, you're close. Too close. His backplates eject and the thrusters at the edges of his massive shell flare, vents angling, as he surges out of his crouch and snares you with bewildering speed. Ignoring a wave of point-blank torpedoes to the chest, he slams you to the earth, fist cracking hard across your face in time with his laser cutting across it. He hauls you back upright as you kick at his middle, sighting onto you with his plasma cannon and firing it as he drives you back down. The other cannon fires alternatively as his fist cocks back and rams into your midsection. He turns and hip-throws you, a pair of grenades sailing through the air with your body and exploding across your now-very-complaining shields, taxed heavily from the brutal barrage.

As you haul yourself upright and he vents thermal exhaust from the shell, it dawns on you. 'Tumult.'

Right.

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>>36793557
This time, you buck the trend by charging him directly, HV-Ts leading. He sees what you're going for, but it's too late--you ignore the extra grenades ripping across your sides and wrench his plasma cannon up and off your face, sending a bolt of blue into the ceiling. Pushing him off-balance even as his point-defense lasers fly off-mark, you pump another kinetic missile into him. He turns and takes it on the shell, blasting a chunk of it free with a hexagonal ceramic plate. Beneath it, an orange energy shield takes its place, shoring up the vulnerability as his reactive shields clash against yours.

You've taken some real hits, now, and so has he. You need this to be over swiftly.

>Dodge this.
>Overwhelm, confuse, and destroy.

>>36793583
I'll take the Option 2 special, please.

>>36793583
>Overwhelm, confuse, and ruin this mofo.

>>36793583
>Trap. Dominate. Fuck.

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>>36793793

>>36793583
Option 2 please.

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>>36793687
>>36793765
>>36793836
You've found a trick, and there's only so much he can do to answer it. Between some more friendly fire and that melee burst attack, you know which you prefer.

You open up with another salvo of GV-Ts--practically a 'close in to melee with me!' signal--and launch a full trio of Hammerheads, two behind, one in front. Terapin's lasers sight onto the latter as he vaults the torpedoes, coming in for another brutal exchange. You trigger jumpjets again, firing another hammerhead at him to replace the one he burned down and buy yourself another second. As he prepares to leap after you, the bombardment of micromissiles comes in and fills the air beneath you with explosive death. You come down with a two-handed slam, bringing your fists down on his head--he catches your strike, the two of you straining to control the grapple for a moment before you trigger the jumpjets again, twisting around in midair, and wresting a hand free, even as the plasma cannons align.

Your kinetic missile goes off first. He lurches in midair, suspended from the force of the blast for a moment, chest caving away. As you plummet, you seize him again, knocking his cannon off-course and nearly searing your ear off, whirling around as you fall and slamming him to the ground, kicking up rubble and debris with the force of your combined landing. Even still, he won't go down--a grenade clocks you in the chin and jerks your head upward, an instant before he grabs it and brings it down to meet his head. As you reel back, you fire another missile, this one going wide. He comes in with a rabbit-punch, folding you double and then bringing his knee up into you. You feel yourself actually get air from the force as he lets go, and fire a salvo of HVTs down onto him as he tries to angle his guns past them to put another plasma cannon burst on-target.

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>>36794143
You grab his outstretched cannons as they fire, lifting him up and slamming him down. Your hands burn under the heat running through the barrels an instant before you hip-check him back, shoulder into him, and fire a salvo of whatever that side of your body has to reach at point-blank range. He stumbles back, wrist-lasers going wide and flares popping, and you put another salvo of torpedoes in after him, followed by another barrage of hammerheads at your back.

His lasers cut down half the incoming, but nowhere near enough. Finally, riddled with dents and scorches, the sheer volume of ordnance leveled on him punches through his beleaguered shields. Once, twice, three times, and they finally fail, the remaining warheads ripping across him in a staccato burst. Even as his LIFE cells fail, he continues to fight, grenades exploding in their tubes and plasma cannons unfurling like spent firecrackers from internal heat and pressure. Soundlessly, the rehauled Tumult Terapin dies again, eyes still scanning you for weakness, looking for any opening he can take as you send him back to the grave.

And then, finally, it's over. The last of the Hammerhead secondaries thud tonelessly against the far wall as the explosions settle, leaving nothing of the maverick who stood there a moment before. A momentary check of your own systems--strained, unhappy, overheating, but functional--tells you that you've carried today, and will live to see another.

With nothing left between you and your objective, you set off once more, at your methodical pace, rubble and scrap crumbling underfoot as you reach the door you've been asked to "lockpick."

With a tired grin, your practiced eye turns to picking out its faults. Four kinetics to the corners and one more for good measure to the mid, that ought to be the ticket.

"This is Wisent, calling Web Spider," you comm.

"Speaking. Go ahead, Major."

You chuckle. "Knock, knock."

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And that's the thread! Thanks for reading, thanks for the storytime, and thanks for the late-night readers who kept up with me to this uingodly hour so I could finish this beast in one thread.

Next story thread, we'll be returning to Anode, and we've also got a Christmas special to do. Any questions, comments, etc, now that you've done the last of the op's character branches?

>>36794250
>Questions

Yes, I have one. What is the best Nick Cage movie, and why is it Face Off?

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>>36794273
I try not to talk about religion in my threads.

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>>36794273
>>36794301

:V

>>36794250
Schwartz is dead, isn't he. Admit it. Guy's kicked the bucket.

... thanks for running!

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>>36794638
He's probably fine.