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>>40800361
>>"Cut him some slack Anya, he saved our butts back there."(diplomatic intervention)

Looks like were're going into single player mode for a while. Alright lets roll with the diplomatic option, hopefully things will pick up as the night goes on.

Writing...

>>40800361
>>"Cut him some slack Anya, he saved our butts back there."(diplomatic intervention)

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Anya turns her glare your way. For moment it look like she's going to chew you out but she eventually releases Lev with an exasperated sigh. Lev eyes her warily as she pulls a duffel bag from the truck and stalks off presumably to start making camp.

Now that you think of it she seemed pretty shaken, she was clearly bottling something up. Maybe her first taste of combat was getting to her.

Lev seemed quite nervous himself, breathing heavily through his nose and clenching his fist as he watched Anya go.

>"Hey Lev, come on I'm gonna need your help patching up the Cognis."
>"Don't let that bitch get to you man, you did good out there, now come on, I need your help again."
>"I got something that'll cheer you up..."
>Go after Anya and chastise her for bing mean to Lev.
>Go after Anya and ask her if there's something she wants to get off her chest.
>Leave those two to their thoughts, go outside and get some air.
>Write in.

>>40801115

>"Hey Lev, come on I'm gonna need your help patching up the Cognis."
then
>Go after Anya and ask her if there's something she wants to get off her chest.

>>40801159
I'm afraid you can't do both. Choosing the first means you immediately start repairs on the Cognis and leave Anya to simmer.

>>40801221
Can't he get started without us?

>>40801221
Have them both help repair?

>>40801236
>>40801248
If you really want to hit both bases, write in how you'll do it.

>>40801248
More to the point, if she start bitching about how she's too good or something to be elbow deep in grease give him the stare long enough and tell her to pass tools

>>40801285
give her*
>>40801278
It's our best means of survival, destroyed and it's worth nothing to our potential buyer not counting the fact that we''ll be dead ...

>>40801344
They both understand that.

Anya's setting up the camp. As far as she's concerned Sergei and Lev can handle the repairs. If you want them to switch jobs, or have them both focus on the same task I need to know specifically what you want to say to them.

I'm defaulting to the first option chosen. If you guys wanna do more than the pre-written options allow you gotta earn it.

Writing...

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Lev blinks and turns towards you.

"Uh... yeah, lets get to it."

You spend the next few hours welding and bolting armour back into place. You even find some extra tools and supplies lying around the factory floor, apparently this used to be a mech factory.

Lev seems to have gotten better at working the repair arm, you both settle into a rhythm. Occassionally you take a break and instruct Lev in basic mech maintenance so he's more useful in the future. After a few hours Anya shows up and calls out to you.

"Hey! Dinner's ready if you guys are interested."

You were interested. It had been a while since you ate and the stress of combat combined with the repair work had given you an appitite. You and Lev follow Anya back to a trio of bed rolls arranged around a kettle sitting on a portable cooker. Anya hands both of you a steaming pot of cup noddles and a packet of military rations.

For a while you all eat in silence focussed on your own thoughts. Finally Anya speaks up.

"So Mr. Boystov, have you given our final destination any thought?"

>"I'd like to know more about Zanvra."
>"I'd like to know more about the International Forum."
>"Are there any other potential buyers?"
>"Money is money, might as well flip a coin and let that decide."
>Ask about something else..
>Write in

>>40801892
>"I'd like to know more about the International Forum."
but
>"Are there any other potential buyers?"

>>40801892
>"Are there any other potential buyers?"
>"Money is money, might as well flip a coin and let that decide."

Writing...

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Anya takes a sip of water before answering your question.

"The International Forum facilitates dialogue between the nations of the world in the interest of keeping the peace and promoting the greater good. When dialogue fails they use sanctions, coercion and eventually force. They have a sizable force of 'peace keepers' and maintain a near monopoly on worldwide telecommunications with their Bifrost satellite network."

She takes another sip.

"Mores to the point anyone who wants to run supplemental cloud computing threads through said network has to go through them. This makes it very hard for countries to deploy mechs outside their borders without I.F. approval. As for other buyers there aren't really any obvious choices..."

Lev pipes up.
"What about Neromius, Landum or one of the other Neviks? They're also great powers, surely they'd have an interest in the Cognis."

Anya stares blankly at him.
"Landum is practically in bed with the I.F. security council; to sell to them is to sell to the I.F. As for selling to the other Neviks, Norden Nevik is out of the question, they're the most likely to shoot us on sight and even then going back into Surden Nevik, fighting our way north THEN trying to get through one of the most heavily fortified borders on the planet is... unfeasible to say the least."

"Well that leaves..."

[1/2]

"Wessen Nevik is on the other side of Norden Nevik so same problem only worse, plus I have my suspicions that they had a hand in developing the Cognis. Neromius don't like taking crap from the I.F but they're not as eager to stick it to them as Zanvra is so that would be a long shot."

You all sit silently for a moment before Anya speaks again.

"I suppose if you really wanted other options we could just auction the Cognis off on the black market. It could potentially be extremely profitable but it also exposes us. Once word gets out that the Cognis even exists there will be a lot of people who will try to kill us before we can make the final sale."

>"Let's sell to the I.F."
>"Let's sell to Zanvra."
>"Let's auction this bad boy! Get rich or die trying amirite?"
>"They really all sound like different flavours of shit sandwich, let's let fate decide."
>Write in.

>>40802610
>"Let's sell to Zanvra."

Rolled 1 (1d4)

>>40802610

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>40802795
>>40803032
Looks like you guys are all I'm getting tonight. Breaking out the d2.

Writing.

>>40803075
You've got Banished and Golem Quest running at the same time.

Late to the party

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>>40803178
((Maybe I'm too much of a newfag but I don't see how that's a problem. Given the ratio of effort it takes to run a quest vs. participating, players have ample time to follow multiple quests but maybe I'm being too naive or something...))

You think for a moment.

"Zanvra sounds like our best option. It's closer and they sound less likely to screw us over. All the other options are potentially more profitable but also more risky, and the money's useless if we're not alive to spend it."

Anya nods.
"As good a decision as any I suppose, one more thing I suggest we add more armour to the Cognis; we'll need it."

"Can we just do that without impairing it's performance?" asks Lev

"Yes actually. They were planning to add some turle shell plating before we stole it, obviously they never got the chance. We've got enough weight allowance to add another layer of armour."

You nod.
"That's great but let's deal with that tommorrow it's been a long day."

You all draw straws to decide who should take the first watch, unfortunately it turns out to be you.

-------------------------

After a quick breakfast you spend the next morning with Lev reinforcing the Cognis's armour while Anya packs up the camp, she finishes about half way through and just goes back to reading the Cognis's user manual in silence.

>Continue working in silence, everyone's fine where they are.
>Tell Anya to help with the armour upgrading.
>Tell Anya and Lev to switch places, Lev should know how to pilot the Cognis as well.
>Ask Lev about Anya, she seems to know everything and you're feeling a little disadvantaged.

>>40803550
>Ask Lev about Anya, she seems to know everything and you're feeling a little disadvantaged.

>>40803550
>Tell Anya and Lev to switch places, Lev should know how to pilot the Cognis as well.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

Back to two player mode... which is still better than one player mode. d2 time.

Writing...

>>40801892
>>40778046

Reminder of our brief history of the world.

As Lev shifts another piece of armour into position you take the opportunity to grill him.

"So... about Anya. I thought this hair brained scheme to steal the Cognis was just between us?"

Lev looks away.
"Be realistic Sergei, we're both pretty low level did you think we could pull it off ourselves? We needed someone with clout on our side."

"So why didn't you tell me we were bringing her on board?"

"She didn't want me to. Wanted to reduce the risk of it getting traced back to her if you didn't make it out of the base..."

You do a double take.
"Wait? SHE didn't want you to tell me about her!? I thought this was our little venture, now you're telling me she's been using us, hell are you both using me!?"

"It's not like that Sergei! You're... you're my friend okay. I wouldn't screw you over like that so easily."

"But you WOULD screw me over?"

"Ugh that came out wrong. No I wouldn't screw you over. I stuck my neck out for you back at the border didn't I?"

That was true... you let it slide for now.

"So how did you get someone like Anya on our side anyway?"

"Well..." he sighs "I'm her secretary alright. I've known her for a while. I took a risk when I invited her onboard but she seemed receptive to the idea of stealing the Cognis."

Curiouser and curiouser...

"So why did she agree to help you?"

"Office politics... nuff said."

>Let it go for now
>Press Lev for more info
>Write in

>>40804236
>Let it go for now
>SO why is she such a shitty hacker compared to you?

>>40804236
>Let it go for now
>Fair enough, but speaking of politics, can you give me the low down on the area? I was never much interested in how things broke down for here and the nations around Surden Nevik except in so far as I might be fighting somebody.

Let's wrap this up...

Writing...

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Lev blinks
"Neither of us know jack shit about hacking Sergei. When I hacked the based turrets I did it with a rather expensive automatic infiltration program I bought in a seedy part of town."

You snort.
"I can't really see you being able to navigate the seeder parts of town."

"Well okay, maybe Anya helped out there too. She knew some people, I just picked it up."

"Anya again..."

"As for the nation we're in now well, Foskoedal is a former colony of Nevik like most of the countries around here. They have a democratic government, they don't like the Neviks much but holding a grudge is a waste of energy so they still trade with us and stuff. In recent years most of their industrial base moved to the coast after resource deposits were discovered off shore."

"What about the military?"

"You used to be a pilot, weren't you breifed on all this back when you were in the armed forces?"

"My knowledge might be a tad out of date. Last I heard their army was average, decent amount of armoured vehicles, most of the mechs are updated GGA models like the ones we fought at the border. Their elite and specialist units might have a few machines from Apex or Exo-terra but they'll be few and far between."

Lev shrugs
"That sounds about right though I think they've been pushing to update their inventory in the past few years so they might be phasing out the gator refits for crocodiles."

"Great" you mutter.

------------------------------

After finishing the upgrade you also make sure to reload the railgun and missiles and with that you are ready to move out.


Cognis Status:
Cognis Armour Integrity:45/45
Missiles:6/6
Railgun Rounds:20/20

Stored Assets:
3 Missiles
19 Railgun Rounds
1 De-Orbiter Strategic payload.

((That's all for now guys calling it a night. Thanks for playing. I'll linger for some Q&A. It was a really slow night, clearly I could do better so I'm keen to hear your feedback.))

>>40805016
Updates come a little slow, that's all I see that could be picked up?

>>40805045
I'll admit I've been rushing the threads onto the board a little half baked, but that's because the conventional wisdom for new quests is to run frequently to build up a following.

In truth I can't keep this up. I'll be toning down the frequency and hopefully this will result in higher quality threads.

>>40805155
Probably for the best.

>>40805169
Indeed. Tentative date for the next session will be Sunday. No promises though. As always check the twitter.