>>1613288
Woooo!

Showtime.

JUST GIVE US THE COUCH AND WE WILL GO EASY ON YOU.

>>1613295
Yeah what he said!

We're not gonna go easy on them at all.

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I don't think we ever had a .6 before.

>>1613288
Time for Black Out The Sky Quest!

>>1613288
>Talker tanks march through the streets
I think our speakers may have met their match boyos.

>>1613288
>Talker tanks

Already trying to copy our speaker's speaking! Those bastards.

>>1613299
Shhhhhh. They don't need to know that.

Aww yeah, baby. Hive Queen quest.
>tfw have to get up at five in the morning tomorrow
fug

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>>1613288
Dam human black ops? That's pretty cool.

Daily reminder

>Raid OQ
>Read the locked memories of that thinker.
>Board a scav vessel for their FTL.
>Send a diplomacy team to earth.
>Build that new FTL prediction building.
>Take Reprive (I think that is the system that our mother made her last stand and it only has mining corvetts, it would be a great test for our raiding fleet.)

File: Just a small escort fleet.jpg (95 KB, 963x524)

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Never forget!

GAS THE SQUIDS
NUKE THE WHALES
STAB THE MONKEYS
TRUST NOTHING
THE VOID IS WATCHING

>>1613316
What was the white queens ship count at her last battle again?

>>1613307
Look on the bright side, if you keep up with this quest until it wraps up you can head off to whatever it is you have to do without wasting any time sleeping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKTtUpDfj4Q

Got to kick my self for not realizing the connection between the cravers and orks that QD used as meta references ast thread

Both were created by ancients to fight there wars for them but managed to outlive there makers

But given ancients seem to be everywhere, hell we are one, these scavs makers may be directing them to this sector

>>1613334
Don't forget the numbers she had were likely the very last troops she had left to her name after the OQ and ceph pushed her that way

she likely had many times more than that amount at her height of strength

>>1613329
> not trolling the whales with what they think are the voices of the dead
Their cries of anguish are just too delicious for us to nuke them.

>>1613334
She had:

>1 Hive ship
>35 Battleships
>150 Battlecruisers
>500 Cruisers
>1000 Frigates
>3000 Corvettes

>>1613349
I know, most of her fleet back at the battle was composed of picket fleets she had withdrew.

>>1613346
my theory is they scavenged some starships that either crashed on their homeworld or they overwhelmed some visitors and highjacked their ship

>>1613334
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/36074456/#p36075191

1 Hive ship
35 Battleships
150 Battlecruisers
500 Cruisers
1000 Frigates
3000 corvettes
I think we've got a long way to go before we're ready to tangle with both the OQ and void gods.

>>1613350
>"Ooooh~. You owe your late brother moneeeyyyy~."

>>1613357
>>1613366
Thx.

>>1613366
Well, once our fleets our finished we will have

>1 Hive Ship
>56 Battleships/Carriers
>590 Battle Cruisers
>3,200 Cruisers
>9,737 Frigates
>6,671 Corvettes

And our ships hit much harder, pound for pound, than our Mother's. I think we're at the point where we really should consider heavily raiding the OQ.

Agreed that we're nowhere near being ready to attack the Void.

>>1613370
>"Remember that aunt who gave you a gift once? She's gonna hold that over your head FOREEEVVEEEEEERRRR~ OOOOOOH~

>>1613300
We have many times, but only because we skipped .1 through .4.

>>1613379
>And our ships hit much harder, pound for pound, than our Mother's.

Don't know why but that made me chuckle.

>>1613370
>>1613392
>"Remember that new traine? He might have being poste by your side but he is just bidding his time to replace you. OOOOH~"

>>1613379
Oh yeah we're definitely ready for some good old raiding now. Hell, we could just send in the stealth pods en masse and have them detonate their nuclear payloads underneath worst aunt's biggest ships just to troll her. The salt would be biblical in scale.

>>1613370
>"WOOOO~ This is the voice of the brother you killed. Construct a shrine in my memory or I'll tell that guild how you're planning to backstab them and undercut their prices."

>>1613370
[anxious maw-grinding intensifies]

>>1613370
>>1613392
>>1613412
>>1613426
Arent the whales the ferengi? thats normal shit for there whole stichk right?

Always plotting to raise themselves to a higher level in there social group and treating everyone else as a rival/tool

>>1613446
They wouldn't be ashamed of any of those things, just afraid of repercussions and/or payback. Like a Ferengi would.

>>1613434
We should do a version of A Christmas Carol with the hive voices as the ghosts of Christmas.

THE CHAINS WILL DRAG YOU DOWN INTO THE ABYSS, WHERE YOUR KIN WAIT FOR YOU WITH HUNGRY MOUTHS.

>>1613370
Ummm, don't the Valen completely lack concepts of families (or gender) like that? I thought they were raised and a community and never knew their biological parents or siblings.

>>1613464
The first time a valen dares to cross the hive, we should drive it insane with perpetual, inescapable voices in its head.

Should send a good message.

>>1613464
That would be great. At the end we could have the Valen "Scrooge" go insane and start giving all his wealth away to dirty Taidarens beggars.

>>1613466
I think I remember something about some Valen placing markers like paint or even jewelry on their tadpoles to keep track of them in the communal raising pools but that they're kind of the outliers.

I'm not sure how gender affects their culture since they alternate between male and female every year or so. I remember several times someone saying "actually he's a she this season" or something

>>1613475
You trying to start a culture war?

>>1613481
> You trying to start a culture war?
I think the goal is more to just troll the hell out of them.

>>1613475
That would scare the fuck out of the whales, giving money to the pedes? they would send that whale to the mental house for that

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QD sure is taking a while...Im sure everything is just fine.

>>1613379
For the most part our fleet design and tactics is actually worse than any of the older hives since we don't take advantage of our racial advantages (numbers, replacement speed, instantaneous travel that is effected by sensor quality, etc. and that's not even getting into the tech that is basically wasted since nobody seems to realize how to exploit it properly) like the old hives were forced to. We're lucky the Black Queen is essentially senile from brain cancer.

>>1613475
The Valen probably hate A Christmas Carol, and other human media that advocate charity and generosity without it being an investment or getting something in return.

Conversely, what media would Valen love while most humans hate?

>>1613501
What about s3nding it's money to a non-protable charity? Or would that be worst?

>>1613507
Atlas Shrugged?

>>1613507
The sport business industry. And the eastern culture of haggle for a sell of human culture.

>>1613507
Im sure Valens could respect the charity known as patronage and acts of good publicity.Its only stuff like opening a soup kitchen or getting a heart for a heart transplant of someone without power or connections to someone who does.

>>1613513
That probably included in tax planning, like how it is in real life where giving money to Non Profits lower your taxes and up in PR

>>1613513
Isn't that exactly what Decker did?

>>1613466
They belong to clans, so a larger family unit

>>1613534
Yes but as anonymous donor so it won't have tax reduction on any person.

>>1613545
So no benefit, thus it was like giving money to beggers on the street

>>1613527
>>1613507
You guys do realize QD said there is a situation where Valen will actually extend intently benevolent offers with no strings attached right?

>>1613288
Daily reminder

>Raid OQ
>Read the locked memories of that thinker.
>Board a scav vessel for their FTL.
>Send a diplomacy team to earth.
>Build that new FTL prediction building.
>Take Reprive (I think that is the system that our mother made her last stand and it only has mining corvetts, it would be a great test for our raiding fleet.)

this is my first time doing this

>>1613598
OY! That's my job and i already did it! >>1613312

>>1613598
Remind me, what is this about the thinker we need to investigate?

>>1613567
It's as if an entire race of beings has some among them that defy cultural norms

>>1613612
It has some memories that mom locked up

>>1613567
>space jew whales giving money without strings attached.

call me dubious.

>>1613567
Ummm, when? I'm pretty sure the whole point of "gifts" is to put the receiver in debt. The humans fought a whole first contact war with the Valen in no small part because the humans thought the gifts came with no strings attached when that was not the case.

>>1613609
Sorry my bad i did not see you

>>1613617
The thing you've got to keep in mind is that they are more instinctively empathetic than any human being ever was. They're naturally psionic, which makes them far more aware of the situations of others than we would be.

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>>1613288
General Cunningham stands in his office with your speaker drone, examining the holo-projector over his desk as orbital paths and fields of fire overlap in a chaotic menagerie of colors. The projection is Elvenine, you realize, and your ships are highlighted in green as they close in on the world's orbit. The hologram is clearly not set to scale.

"We still have some of the AO guns up and running." Cunningham says. "Your ships actually drove them in closer, within range of the guns, and we've been able to pick some of them off while they dropped their shuttles." He points to several spots on the hologram, showing points highlighted in blue. "It looks like they'll be falling back again without much trouble, we gave them a hell of a bloody nose and you rightly put them down for the count over Argos. After all that it looks like they don't feel very confident in their odds anymore." The general searching in his coat for something, pulling out a cigar. You recognize the brand as he lights it with a wooden match.

"The Hive will assist in the surface combat once their vessels flee." Your speaker says.

"No need for that." Cunningham says. "It's got a good population and a nice environment, but the weather is hit or miss. When a storm starts up it can last for months and nearly cover a hemisphere, so most of the architecture is built into bunkers. You can just provide orbital bombardment support and the local navy can clean up whatever they leave behind." He reaches into his coat and pulls out another cigar, holding it out to your drone. "Not sure if it does anything for you, but rude not to offer." He says. Your drone examines the cigar with some confusion on its purpose, beyond the fact that it is harmful to human health, yet highly popular regardless.

"Just hold it in, uh, whatever you fancy to taste with. You're not supposed to inhale it, just taste the smoke a bit." He says. "Careful not to bite it in half though." The drone sniffs at the small roll of tobacco, studying its contents before it delicately grips it in its beaked mandibles. Cunningham holds the match up to the end. "There you are. Any flavor that fits your fancy?" He asks. Your drone chitters as it attempts to speak, then carefully takes the cigar with both its claws.

"This speaker is immune to known human intoxicants and sedatives, but recognizes this to be a method of inducing relaxation." It says.

"I suppose you lot evolved past carnal pleasures with your collective. Still, an ocasionan such as this deserves a proper cigar between friends in celebration. Once the railway is secured, we'll be heading direction into the capital. Hopefully by then the strike team will report back with good news." Your speaker bites back down on the cigar, nibbling at the paper as puffs of smoke begin to billow from the breathing holes along its back. A human opens the door to the office and quickly salutes, glancing at your drone with some visible confusion.

cont.

>>1613636
Which they use to there advantage

>>1613644
A smoking speaker drone? adorable.

>>1613644
>sparking up with speaker
I like this humans style. The hive could stand to learn from this man.

>>1613644
So cute

>>1613644
You know those signs you see at the zoo sometimes telling people to not give the monkeys cigarettes because it gives them caner? We need one of the those at the embassy now for the speakers

>>1613644
Could we ask Cunningham if we can harvest the scavs bodys?

>>1613614
>>1613617
Nah. It's genetically built into them to good to their children.

>>1613676
Did you not read "This speaker is immune to known human intoxicants and sedatives, but recognizes this to be a method of inducing relaxation."?

>>1613688
it's for the yucks

>>1613629
When their children are involved. QD explicitly said on his ask.

>>1613679
Ask? We don't need permission to research the scavs.

What's he going to do, say "no you can't"?

>>1613661
Think if the smoke glowed and the speaker had a suit in a dark office sittning on a spinchair

>>1613701
>The Illusive Speaker

I think I smell spin-off folks

>>1613644
We might want to tell Cunningham the leader of the planetary invasion is en-route to the rail yard. If so, we'd need to specify that we intend to ambush the Matriarch and that we need to capture, but NOT kill, at any cost.

>>1613707
Support

>>1613707
good point

>>1613644
Nice now our speaker must enter in the tabaco industry!! We have being making a terrible diplomatic bumper in not offering cigars t9 the other humans we meet from the commonwealth!! We must fix this immeduatly!!

Alsi we need smoking speaker with a navy hat just for the laughts.

>>1613707
It would be better to just tell the local human forces in the area to 'get back. no, farther. Farther...'

>>1613750
Support

>>1613644
"Sir, the industrial sector has been cleared. No survivors were recovered."

"How many were found?" The general asks. The human glances down to a small data pad on his arm.

"I'm not sure, Lord General. The search teams didn't include that in the report."

"Excellent. The last thing any of us need is to get involved in the bureaucracy of taking on unimportant prisoners. Though these bastards certainly seem to have no lack of morale. Not quite to Hive standards, but put up a hard fought fight."

"Yes Sir!" The human says quickly.

"Have the shuttles loaded up and prepare for sub-orbital drop. The spaceport is going to be a hard fight but once we get the anti-air offline we're going to hit it hard." Cunningham says. "Oh, and before I forget, make sure the leg on my suit is properly replaced by tomorrow morning."

"Yes Sir!" The human barks again. He salutes as he turns on his heel and rushes out the door.

Your speaker examines the holo-projector with the general as he blows a cloud of smoke through it, making it flicker and ripple like a disturbed pond, and he whisks the projection away with a swipe of his hand as Argos replaces it.

"We should have the area secured soon. It looks like your forces have made quick work of the battery. That place was locked down tight, no easy way in."

"The enemy commander is fleeing below ground, and will soon arrive at the human rail yard." Your drone says. The rail yard appears in the air, and a line running beneath the ground between it and the anti-orbital battery some kilometers away becomes highlighted in red.

"I see. What are the estimated numbers?"

"One. It carries more than sufficient firepower to be a threat, and is quite large. The Hive is deploying to its destination." You say. Cunningham nods.

"Good idea, that. My men at the railyard are still fighting to the control center, and the outlet for that tunnel is a decent ways from the combat so it would spread them a bit more thin than I'd like. Still, let me know if you want any reinforcements. I'll be ordering additional troops into that area regardless, now that Sir Hughes has taken down most of the anti-air."

>Accept the offer for human reinforcements
>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone
>Other

>>1613791
>>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone
This one is ours.

And no one will see us capture it alive.

>>1613791
>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone
>>1613815
Support

>>1613791
>>Accept the offer for human reinforcements
>>Stress that we intend to take this one alive
Knight and speaker vs. Matriarch. This is a fight I'd pay to watch.

>>1613791
>>Other
The Cunningham knows human troops and capabilities better than we do. It is of paramount importance the enemy leader be taken alive at any costs. If you can personally guarantee your men will not impede that objective, they are welcome to assist in the capture operation.

>>1613823
Human reinforcements can't be trusted not to kill it, even if we tell them not to. They lack the level of discipline and lack of self-preservation of drones.

>>1613791
>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone

>>1613791
>>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone

>>1613815
There isn't any reason to hide the fact from the humans. They are perfectly aware of the value of interrogating the head of an enemy force, particularly one as tenacious yet advanced as the scavs.

>>1613791
>>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone
>>Stress that we intend to take this one alive

>>1613791
Wait QD what loot did we get?

>>1613791
>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone
Explain that we intend to take it alive, but don't elaborate.

>>1613791
>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone

>>1613791
>>1613840
>>1613826
>>1613831
>>1613840
>>1613846
Support

>>1613843
All them eggs.

>>1613791
QD did we take all the eggs?

>>1613867
>>1613867
We had a loot roll. What I want if we got anything of actually value.

>>1613791
"No." Your speaker chirps. "The enemy leader must be captured for interrogation. This will require the expenditure of many drones and extensive collateral damage. It is recommended to avoid the area."

"Very well. With your technology I suspect you can do a better job of interrogation than we ever could, even if we had their language down properly. Still, I hope you do share its dirty laundry with the rest of us."

"Their armor is integrated surgically. They do not wear additional clothing and have no need for laundry." Your speaker chitters. Cunningham lets out a loud laugh as your speaker resumes nibbling its cigar.

"Well let me know if it knows anything useful." He says as your drone bites at the cigar, chewing it into strips as it quickly swallows the smoking roll of tobacco as smoke billows from its beaked mandibles.

"The Hive will provide any relevant data of strategic or tactical importance." Your drone says. "And this speaker can acknowledge there is a unique chemical composition and texture to this dried plant matter." The general shrugs.

"Not exactly how it was intended to be used, but you like what you like."

>Have your drones deploy at the mouth of the tunnel and set up your ambush just outside
>Have your drones enter the tunnel and head off the brood mother on her way to the rail yard
>Wait for her to get out into the open and attack with your large and flying drones
>Other

>>1613791
>>Refuse, the Hive can minimize risk by handling the situation alone
We can use the fun toys more freely if we don't have to worry about hitting humans.

>>1613961
Do them all and just flood the place with drones

>>1613961
>>Have your drones enter the tunnel and head off the brood mother on her way to the rail yard
might as well try to box her in. Worst that'll happen if they can't hold her in the tunnels is she breaks the surface, putting her in range of the big guns.

>>1613977
The worst that can happen is a cave-in killing her.

>>1613961
>Have your drones deploy at the mouth of the tunnel and set up your ambush just outside

>>1613961
Can't we just psionically lift her off the ground and essentially block all of her possible movement by doing so? Sure would help with capture.

>>1613961
>>Wait for her to get out into the open and attack with your large and flying drones

>>1613977
>>1613984
Don't do this guys. Remember how effective she was in a choke point before. We need to be able to fully use our numbers if we want to take her out. Let's surround and overwhelm.

>>1613989
No we can't.

>>1613961
>Have your drones deploy at the mouth of the tunnel and set up your ambush just outside
Get her where she has no possible escape routes.

When she arrives hit her with both our land based swarms and aerial attack units.

>>1613961
>>Have your drones enter the tunnel and head off the brood mother on her way to the rail yard

We excel in tunnels right.

>>1613996
Where's the proofs. We can lift a speaker, why not her?

>>1613961
>Wait for her to get out into the open and attack with your large and flying drones

This anon is right changing my vote.>>1613993

>>1614001
No. Chokepoints are our bane.

>>1614009
Too fat

>>1614009
Because she too big. You'd need a shit ton of relays to lift her ass.

>>1613961
>>1613993
I vote for this

>>1614022
>>1614023
I see!

>>1613961
Wait for her to get out into the open and attack with your large and flying drones

>>1613961
>Wait for her to get out into the open and attack with your large and flying drones

Please roll 1d100, best of 3 for your initial ambush.

Rolled 34 (1d100)

>>1614074
FOR MOTHER!

Rolled 52 (1d100)

>>1614074

>>1613961
>Have your drones enter the tunnel and head off the brood mother on her way to the rail yard
We don't know where specifically she's going, or what her plan is. Heading her off will make it harder for her to somehow scrape together an escape.

Rolled 30 (1d100)

>>1614074
Am i late?

>>1614074
For Mother!

>>1614101
not late enough

>>1614101
Oh for fuck sake!! Why i wasn't late!!

Rolled 93 (1d100)

>>1614074
I'll roll too just because.

>>1614116
Yooouuuuuu

>>1614116
There it is!

Just a bit too late.

>>1614116
Just so i can feel bad? Okay i ain't rolling anymore then.

>>1614087
52 isn't good, but it's not terrible either. And if we're sending in large drones (like the Titan), even with the low roll we are still likely to weaken or at least slow her down.

>>1614087
Better than the 34 I guess

>>1614194
Or my laughble 30.

At least this way Cunningham won't see how many drones we lose here. We're gonna take one for the team.

>>1614181
52 is a disaster honestly, it's very rare to have a roll that low on a best of three

>>1614247
Don't feel too bad. Our incredible run of 90's against the Scavs had to end sooner or later.

>>1614286
But that 95, 97, 95 roll last thread was awesome... i guess the matriach wouldn't be so hard to defeat if we didn't wanted to adopt her.

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>>1614074
Weapons Fire fills the air in a constant deafening roar of noise as plasma grenades detonate to plumes of fire and smoke as particle beams and projectiles chip away at the selective covers of scavenger packs. Alphas can be seen peeking their armored heads up on occasion as they open fire, most of them suited in the powerful armored drop suit replicas they have so quickly pressed into production, their shoulders holding a mixture of microrocket batteries and grenade launchers fitted to use standard Commonwealth munitions.

Your speaker is crouched behind a building with Hughes and his team while other human fireteams can be seen spread across the area, ducked behind metal crates and scrapped vehicles where wounded are quickly treated in the field. Not far ahead, just behind the firing line of scavenger grunts, a small shuttle hovers overhead as it slows its speed, and drops several crates that are quickly torn into by several grunts at the direction of an alpha. One of the grunts splays out on the ground, thrashing in pain and confusion as its head is hit with a burst of weapons fire as the human troops spray at their position, and the others shove it out of the way as they open the crates and begin setting up some manner of weapon system while the shuttle begins to hover back into the air, its hull glittering with the sparks of small arms glancing off its metal frame before a grenade detonates along its side in a plume of plasma. It dips to one side, accelerating in a lopsided manner as it curves to the side and drops altitude. Smoke trails from several of its pulse jets until one of them explodes from some malfunction, and the entire thing slams into a pile of storage crates stacked beneath a sliding crane, grinding against the pile as it ploughs through and into the crane itself. More explosions go off until its jets sputter to nothing, and it rolls to its side like a speared animal as it bleeds out some manner of fuel from its hull that quickly has it surrounded in flames.

"Nice shot!" Someone shouts.

"These things don't much like armor." Hughes says. "Bet from their looks they're low G. Amazing they can put up a fight like this in this kind of gravity."

"It's the move assists, sir." One of the humans notes as he places several rounds into a grunt's cover, sending it diving back behind it. "You can see it all up and in their bodies. They all got augs. Saw some up close before and it looks a lot more invasive once you cut one open."

"Probably too integrated with their biology to disrupt easily." Hughes says. "Still, either aim for the torso or the limbs. The head doesn't have anything in it so don't bother." One of the scrap metal piles explodes, sending scavengers flying through the air in flaming chunks while others sprint doused in flames as they claw at themselves in a panic. The humans quickly gun them down.

cont.

>>1614344
I must say after so much repeatinga fuck ups from the Union is nice to see the humans doing something right for a change.

>>1614390
Yep.

Frankly, that's why I wanted us to ask for humans to back us up on the capture. There's always a chance we'd fuck it up and it'd be nice to have some back up for the possibility we don't succeed entirely on our own.

It's too late to wonder about that now, though. The die is cast.

>>1614344
Huh is that pic from a movie or game?

>>1614344
"They're running out of bodies." Hughes says. "Third squad, get around that exposed flank and hit them with the heavy I-80!" The radio cracks with a statically voice as one of the squads hoists something that looks similar to the Suncaster found in Union space, although clearly from some other one of the many countless human manufacturers. It is larger, and fitted with a small deployable tripod whose legs seem to be some manner of move assist servo system, allowing the entire apparatus to cling to the user's body, latching onto a special small platform on the human's belt and then swinging over to his back as his squadmates clear the path ahead. He and another human are quick to deploy the gun as they run for cover, and swing it into the corner of an open container where the tripod grips the metal, fixing it in place as the gunner swings it over the scavenger position and opens fire.

The plasma coated rounds rip through the scavengers, sending several small packs of grunts scattering as they try to reposition themselves against the new threat. The pack alphas turn, aiming their weapons as the gunner pets their suits. One fires its weapon, and human still running for cover, his shortened rail rifle blasting madly as he moves, is struck with a lancing beam that causes his torso to burst into a fine red mist as chunks of flesh and strips of light armor scatter behind him as his legs flop to the ground. His arms are burnt, still gripping his weapon as they fly in either direction while the smoking remains of half a helmet bounce off the top of the adjacent metal container almost comically.

"They're scattering, move in, now now now!" Hughes shouts, and he dives out of cover, sending several explosive rounds into the group of scavengers as he sprints forward, his squad following at his heels. A grenade goes off behind the alpha's position, knocking it forward as the plasma weapon fills it with simmering holes that sizzle and crackle like cooking meat. Hughes slams into the position with his shoulder, ducking behind a simmering cargo loader as he pushes a scavenger's corpse out of his way and plants his weapon on the hood of the loader, firing a torrent of projectiles at the retreating packs. Your speaker arrives behind him shortly after.

"Your combat is efficient." Your drone says. "However, reinforcements will be arriving soon. The enemy commander is approaching. It must be captured alive, but this will be of grate difficulty and danger. Avoid contact with this target. The Hive will expend its drones to ensure capture." Hughes looks to your drone for a moment between bursts of fire.

"Where is it coming in at?" He says.

"The area designated as tunnel four." Your speaker replies. "It is some distance from this location. You are to proceed as before, but the Hive has come to understand humans are most optimal when given an explanation for all nearby stimuli, even if it is not important for the given objective."

cont.

>the Hive has come to understand humans are most optimal when given an explanation for all nearby stimuli, even if it is not important for the given objective.

Then now i can only see the humans as big violent but still delicate children..

>>1614600
Well.... That's because they are.

>>1614624
anon, I hate to break it to you but you are a human.

>>1614633
Don't be silly quantum thinker. We are all thinkers working to acomplish mother wishes

>>1614521
Google image search says it's from the film Battle: Los Angeles.

>>1614675
Thanks

Well i need to get up early so goodbye anon's and try to not screw things up.

Rolled 66 (1d100)

>>1614693

>>1614674
I'm sorry to disappoint you anon but this is a thing called fantasy, it is not actually real. It can still be enjoyed but to confuse it with reality is a dangerous precedent.

>>1614723
t. Autist

>>1614723
The only fantasy here is the one where you think someone believes HQQ is real.

>>1614737
>>1614739
I think he referring to the fact sleeping anon hopes we other anons will not screw things up, not the nature of the quest

>>1614553
"Thanks for the courtesy." Hughes says as he ducks back behind the cover as the hood flairs with a bursting blaster bolt. "We'll have our hands full here for a while yet, so you go ahead and do what you need to do."

"Yes." Your drone chirps. "The Cunningham appreciates your combat efficiency and is confident in your progress."

"Good to hear- Parker get me an incendiary on that pallet jack, burn them out of there! Move up the I-80 we need covering fire here!" He turns back to your drone for a moment.

"You just let the General know that the anti air is still up, but we blew a few holes in their coverage. They can send in shuttles along grid points eight-one-five and six-six-nine. Their air power is gone but they still have a few logistics craft flying around here. I think they're automated but they can hold troops in the cargo bays, so any incoming forces need to anticipate a quick response."

"Yes." Your drone chirps. "The Hive has relayed this data. Be aware of incoming hive forces. They will seek to keep the enemy commander away from other enemy forces."

"That would be best. Last thing any of us need is their leader in here giving them any more coordination. As it is they seem to just be content setting up firing line after firing line, but I'd prefer to go up against a stonewall strategy over a properly organized counter attack any day of the week." He pulls out a small grenade, and quickly throws it over the cover of the loader, ducking back behind it as pellets of hot concrete chips rain down from above, and a simmering, clawed hand lands between him and your speaker. Your drone examines it for a moment, picking it up inquisitively before eating it, chewing the armored hide and biting it off the combat blade housing attached near the wrist, sucking out the meat like a boiled lobster.

In the distance, a rumbling of thrusters and beating wings roars over the horizon as a number of shuttles swarm over the mountainside where a row of tunnels have been dug. Commonwealth flak guns begin pelting them, bursting with plasma in the air as several of your shuttles dip in the air as several thrusters die from a direct impact, while others feel ripping plasma scour their hulls as they fly through the bursting clouds of explosives and ionized fire, flames and smoke trailing from simmering wounds along their hulls.

cont.

>>1614344
I loved Battle for LA solely because of the aliens, glad to see I was thinking along the right lines when I tried to imagine the Scavs.

File: Oh shit.png (78 KB, 240x240)

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>>1614776
>Your drone examines it for a moment, picking it up inquisitively before eating it, chewing the armored hide and biting it off the combat blade housing attached near the wrist, sucking out the meat like a boiled lobster.
>sucking out the meat like a boiled lobster.

Jesus Christ how horrifying

>>1614776
I was confused until I realized those Commonwealth flak guns are still controlled by the scavs.

>>1614776
Warriors quickly drop, their wings carrying them the rest of the way while wasps quickly fill the airspace. Heavy warriors land with loud thuds in their own shallow craters as they crack the ground with their claws. One of your shuttles rolls over as its thruster gives out, and it plummets to the ground in a ball of fire as drones dive from within. Others begin to flee as your drones begin to swarm, the shuttles trailing plasma as they aescend back into the air. Your colossi drop down from the cargo bay of a passing shuttle, and then another, both of them landing at high speed as their armored carapaces grind into the ground beneath them, plowing through several idle trains and piles of cargo pods as they roll over from the backs and right themselves on their feet. One of the two shuttles bursts open from a direct hit, and it spirals into a hillside as the other shuttle arcs back into the air.

Your drones hoist themselves up, toppling several train cars as they march their way towards the tunnel. Your wasps take to the air, hunkering down into a firing position along the loading cranes set overhead, and your drones swarm over the area, finding a mixture of cover and hiding places from which to attack. Your wasps are small targets, and fly low to the ground, well out of the reach of the local anti-air guns, but your aircraft lack the more durable reentry graded armor of your shuttles, and will surely take heavy losses if you deploy them, although if you deploy them in large enough numbers you are certain some will manage to break through the plasma flak.

>Deploy your aerodynamic drones
>Hold them back
>Other

>>1614816
You don't like lobster?

>>1614846
>Hold them back
We can storm those anti-air positions before deploying our close air support.

Where the fuck is everyone?

>>1614846
>Hold them back

Drones are expendable, but that doesn't mean throwing them away is smart.

>>1614846
>Other
How about some orbital bombardment on those scav anti-air positions? We have ships in orbit and it would be relatively easy to blink in more. We could use molecular disintegrator warheads if the anti-air is in a hardened position.

>Hold them back
They might be needed to intercept any rescue shuttle or the like that may come to pick up the Martiarch. Just throwing them into fire would be wasteful here. We can deploy them once the bombardment has mitigated the anti-air threat somewhat.

>>1614870
Backing orbital strikes, if we can be that precise with them.

>>1614870
>They might be needed to intercept any rescue shuttle or the like that may come to pick up the Martiarch.

Good call. I'd hate for her to actually escape. The only thing worse than using more drones than necessary is using drones and failing.

>>1614870
The Cw want those intact, and we landed enough drones that we can spare some to take back the controls easily on the ground

>>1614846
>>Hold them back

>>1614846
>>Deploy your aerodynamic drones
Use plasma cannon fire to take out or subdue AA nests, and back them up with
>Other
Precision orbital strikes.

>>1614864
It was more of imagining our speaker just devouring it up like a kid with candy that spooked me.
We are terrifying

>>1614889
I think capturing the Matriarch takes significant priority over keeping the anti-air guns intact. I don't think the Commonwealth would even have a problem with this given the how much a captured Matriarch would make our fighting the Scavs easier.

>>1614846
>>Hold them back

>>1614846
>Hold them back

>>1614899
It is when we told them not to worry about helping capturing her and just focuse on taking control of the Anti Air from the scavs

>>1614846
>Hold them back

Your drones can feel the distant rumble echo out from the tunnel. A light can be seen far off, glowing faintly in the darkness, growing quickly. Sparks flair from the rails as the ground shakes with a constant low rumble. Your drones quickly dive out of the way as a cargo train flies forward, launching itself off the tracks as it plows through the steel stopper and grinds through the pavement, quickly falling on its side as it tumbles forward and comes to a slow, screeching halt embedded several meters into the ground. Its attached cars, mostly open flatbeds, fly up through the air as the whole thing collapses in on itself, coiling into a massive heap of twisted metal.

cont.

>>1614402
It reminds me, we're very protective of humans even outright refusing their assistance and opting to fight ourselves even if it was advantageous to us. Vide: nowhere incident where we may have been able to shut it down if we had human operators.

>>1614963
Not quite since we have Theseus and he's for this shit then the humans.

>>1614963
Um no? we turned down that union kill team cause they were starting to get hit with hallucinations and vulnerable to corruption as we saw with the crystal brains, we only allowed eliz because of the built in protection she has from whatever the changes did to her

It was unity drones that allowed it to be shutdown, we should have let him deal with it earlier

>>1614968
*better for this shit

>>1614968
Speaking of Theseus, we've made progress on getting the Union to talk with him, we should start looking for opportunities to do the same in the Commonwealth.

>>1614983
He'd probably be happy for the chance to expand

>>1614968
>>1614971
I see, I don't remember this right then if that was how it went.
>um no

>>1614960
Oh shit that's the matriarch right there. Kind of wish we'd brought the aerial drones now.

>>1615007
We still have the air drones. They're just in reserve instead of getting shot down. Meanwhile, the CW is making progress on hitting the anti-air battery so we will take fewer losses when they are sent in.

>>1614960
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKNf1Ff9sI8

As the train cars slide into place, settling into the clanging pile of scrap, your drones hoist their weapons and prepare their attack, holding some distance from the tunnel itself. The rumbling of the ground continues, a throbbing earthquake growing rapidly in intensity, until the sides of the tunnel rupture forth as the scavenger brood mother rams through the stonework in a full gallop, leaping over the wreckage of train cars and slamming through a pile of cargo pods set along the side of the tracks, sending them flying with a swing of its massive clawed arm.

Your drones open fire, pelting it with chitinous slugs meant more to slow it down than to actually injure it, although its thick armored hide makes that danger less of a possibility. It reacts all the same, swinging its arm over one of your warriors, slamming it into the ground as its mind winks out from existence. Its shoulder mounted blasters pivot into position, opening up with a torrent of blaster bolts at your wasps, forcing them into the air as they harry the brood mother with their particle beams, lancing out at its back, singing the large harp-like speech organ set beneath its massive mane. Its arm swings at your warriors, sending three arcing high into the air in battered chunks as they vanish over a nearby warehouse. Your heavy warriors rush in, targeting its legs as they fire their weapons, and the brood mother hoists its massive blaster cannon, firing a bold of condensed massive photons that explode like a grenade as it impacts, searing one of your drones as another explodes into chunks from a direct hit from the massive weapon. Its other weapon begins to rotate, spinning up quickly as thermal vents glow white hot with heat, and a quick spray of rapid fire plasma bolts rip through the drone's armor as its arm flies off as a torrent of plasma bursts in its flesh. Several legs are torn apart as the heavy warrior continues to drag itself forward, its remaining claw outstretched, and the matriarch brings up its arm as the heavy blaster charges for another shot, and slams it into a train car. The metal bends at the strike, your drone winking out of your mind as its body compresses into a thick paste pressed within the deep crater on the side of the freight car as the car itself tips to the side, bouncing back and forth on the tracks as it settles from the impact, causing the shredded limbs of your drone to sway back and forth, still attached to the thick pressed paste clinging to the metal in a thick mixture of blood and pulped flesh.

The matriarch hoists herself upright, standing at her full height of nearly four meters, still rather small for a brood mother, but plenty large enough all the same, and steps forward, her clawed feel flattening a warrior, and it brings its arms down upon another of your heavy warriors, crushing it beneath its arms before hoisting it into the air and tearing it in half.

Cont.

>>1615044
>standing at her full height of nearly four meters.

huh, for some reason I was imagining her as larger than this. Our heavies are around 3m tall and so far she's shredding through them without too much difficulty. Hopefully their anti armor weapons will help to at least slow her down while more drones pour in on foot.

File: 1377140871555.gif (1.4 MB, 532x372)

1.4 MB GIF

>>1615044

Squeeze that bitch!

>>1615044

Hughes sprays the enemy position with his weapon, forcing several scavengers to dive for cover as the human troops advance to a better position. Several scavengers twitch with a sudden shock as their heads pivot to the side for a quick moment, and several of the humans ducked behind cover point their weapons to the side as a deafening crash of twisting metal echoes over the entire facility, muting the sounds of heated combat as debris clouds rise into the air in the distance. A moment later, as the sound of combat slowly fills back into perception, several mangled, darkly colored chitinous chunks fall from the sky, one landing atop a scavenger, killing it easily under its weight as a warrior bounces off the pavement, followed soon after by its own legs, while another slams into a nearby wall, punching clean through the sheetmetal and crashing into some unseen pile of machinery.

"What the hell was that?" Someone shouts. Your speaker chirps calmly in return.

"The enemy commander utilizes extensive highly efficient augmentations. These enhancements grant it great strength previously unseen in combat forms of its size." Hughes looks at your drone for a moment with some confusion.

"You sure you're not the one needing reinforcements?" He asks.

"The Hive will manage the situation." Your drone chirps in reply. Several explosions can be heard in the distance, as blaster bolts can be seen bursting in the air beyond the row of warehouses.

>Have your drones attack in order to attempt to incapacitate the matriarch
>Have your drones charge into melee and attempt to wrestle it to the ground
>Call in an airstrike on the matriarch, at the risk of losing more aircraft to the local air defence
>Other (write in)

>>1615132
>>Have your drones attack in order to attempt to incapacitate the matriarch

>>1615132
>Have your drones charge into melee and attempt to wrestle it to the ground
If the Heavies can use their sledges on her knees and elbows she should be much easier to deal with

Did we ever equip some Heavy Warriors with the cryospray+sledge combo?

>>1615132
>>Have your drones attack in order to attempt to incapacitate the matriarch

>>1615132
>Have your drones attack in order to attempt to incapacitate the matriarch
Send the Titan to fetch for Mother

>>1615132
>Have your drones attack in order to attempt to incapacitate the matriarch

Use both melee and ranged attacks to incapacitate as able. Once she is incapacitated she can be wrestled to the ground and taken into "custody."

We have nonlethal bullet too don't we?

>>1615161
Yes, the Titan would be good here.

>>1615132
>>Other (write in)
Send in a speaker or listener drone from the wiki page to help subdue the matriarch psionically.

>>1615199
Not a bad idea. We can do that with the nearby ambassador if she somehow pushes through and gets in range of the humans.

>>1615161
>Send the Titan in to wrestle it to the ground

>>1615209
How about a speaker drone riding in on a pissed off titan?

>>1615235
While the speaker is loudly cursing out the Matriarch

>>1615193
We have collosi, their armor is rared against starship hulls. We need to get behind her, sever or damage those shoulder guns, and dose her so full of sedatives she sees stars.

>>1615199
Listener would work. No one would even need to see it, it can work its magic from camouflage.

Maybe yank a cybernetic out of its port.

>>1615132
>Other. Keep up pressure on her front while Heavys and flies move in on her flanks and back to try to disable her shoulder mounts and/or use what sedatives thatve proven effective on the parasited Scav on her.

>>1615257
We can use that as a tactic used in conjunction with the vote to attack to incapacitate. It is an accomplishment of the same thing.

>>1615132
>Have your drones attack in order to attempt to incapacitate the matriarch

You wonder if the matriarch could be vulnerable to psionic attack.

>Have your speaker divert to the combat zone in order to attempt to use psionics to help incapacitate the matriarch
>Keep your speaker in contact with the humans
>Other

>>1615296
>Have your speaker divert to the combat zone in order to attempt to use psionics to help incapacitate the matriarch

>>1615296
>Have your speaker divert to the combat zone in order to attempt to use psionics to help incapacitate the matriarch.

>>1615296
Send in the Speaker

>>1615296
>Have your speaker divert to the combat zone in order to attempt to use psionics to help incapacitate the matriarch.

>>1615296
>Have your speaker divert to the combat zone in order to attempt to use psionics to help incapacitate the matriarch

The humans are doing fine on their end.

>>1615296
>>Other
Haven't we designed non speaker psionic drones too? Like the Whisperer. Can't we use one of those.

>>1615314
I think you mean the Ghost bugs.

>>1615314
They probably aren't around while the speaker is.

>>1615296
>>Have your speaker divert to the combat zone in order to attempt to use psionics to help incapacitate the matriarch

>>1615319
It would be weird if they weren't available, because we abstracted away the crunch of deciding what drones to send at all, we never had a choice.

>>1615296
>Have your speaker divert to the combat zone in order to attempt to use psionics to help incapacitate the matriarch

Please give me 2d100, best of 3. First for the drones to continue their attack, second for your speaker to make its way through the combat zone to the matriarch.

Rolled 54, 53 = 107 (2d100)

>>1615334
For Mother!

Rolled 28, 9 = 37 (2d100)

>>1615334

Rolled 84, 59 = 143 (2d100)

>>1615334
For Mother

File: Soon.jpg (136 KB, 599x620)

136 KB JPG

Rolled 85, 55 = 140 (2d100)

>>1615334

Capture thing for Mother!

>>1615334
And for fuck sakes we already have the Ghost bugs there why don't we use thoses?

>>1615345
The drones are looking much better, but the speaker's having some trouble.

>>1615349
Umm, because the ghost bugs only have basic relays (at least according to the pastebin). They don't have any of the psionic manipulation abilities the speaker has. Their chem glands could be useful, although we have other drones on site that could likely deliver useful drugs. We'd probably need to give her at least enough to kill a carnotaur to put her down, though.

>>1615351
We should have those stupid Ghost Beetle design on location already. Why are we sending the speaker?

>>1615317
Since when did those have a moderate relay?

>>1615359
See >>1615358
They don't have moderate relays.

>>1615360
Because people wanted moderate relay put in them so they could use psionic cloaking.

>>1615365
When was that vote? Can you please link to the thread?

If we did make that change and it was just forgotten I'm all for sending them in.

>>1615334
>Send in the Titan.

Deploy it.

>>1615378
Our colossus is no slouch. It's bigger than the Matriarch and probably has more powerful weapons and armor.
That being said, the Titan would be no slouch in this situation either.

>>1615359
There are undoubtedly some in a shuttle or ship somewhere nearby, but it's not a stealth mission so they wouldn't be any more on-site in the ambush than a speaker would right now.

>>1615365
I can't remember that either. About which thread was this?

>>1615334
Your drones unleash a torrent of fire at the matriarch, pelting its armor with chitinous slugs and lancing particle beams. It lashes out, swinging its claws at your drones as its blasters open fire, bringing down several wasps as they fly overhead. The matriarch opens fire with its plasma cannon, shredding several of your drones as its massive blaster bursts with a sudden explosion of heavy photons, instantly sublimating away layers of flesh from your warriors as they scatter from the onslaught. You are careful to avoid the obvious vulnerabilities, although the armored hide of the brood mother is likely well suited to deflecting the attacks of your drones, you are not trying to kill her, but wound her. The powerful cybernetics in her limbs give the naturally skeletal looking limb a thicker, almost gorilla like appearance, the armored implants layered overtop each other in overlapping rings of cybernetic ports and layers of woven artificial fibers coated in metallic armor lined with shield projectors. The assembly itself seems almost condensed, and you realize it is likely not intended to be replaced as the matriarch grows, but to expand and unfold over time. You suspect the dense muscular augments is rather inconvenient practically speaking, as many of the joints are too thick to bend properly, a major issue for the scavenger biology given their normally slender and highly maneuverable bodies. You suspect it is more a hinderance for a matriarch at this stage of development, but even if the bulky augments prevent any proper articulation, her limbs can impact with a frightening amount of force on par with what you would expect from one of your large drones.

Your speaker chitters suddenly as it backs away from its covered position.

"This speaker is required elsewhere. It will return when possible." Your drone says quickly. Before Hughes can say anything, the drone quickly leaps over the cover, diving towards a cargo pod, then skittering towards an overturned loader. You hear the humans increase their fire, either giving your drone cover or taking advantage of your drone distracting the scavenger firing line as you feel the heat of blaster bolts popping against the pavement around your speaker.

"Speaker is for speaking! Do not shoot at speaker!" Your drone chitters loudly as it scurries away, its legs a chitinous blur as it throws its weight in quick zigzag patterns across the open ground between itself and the warehouses beyond which your drones fight.

cont.

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>>1615454
>"Speaker is for speaking! Do not shoot at speaker!"

>>1615454
Speaker is best for speaking, not for being shot at!

Go shoot at a titan you stupid couch-stealing parasites!

>>1614783
Same here, the first description of the Pulse Jets made me think of BoLA aerial fighters.

>>1615475
wtf with that gif? is that an actual show?

>>1615487
Out of curiosity are you a teenaged girl? You act like one.

>>1615487
The whatanimeisthis website gives me this AKB0048 First Stage Ep#03 @ 00:16:54

>>1615454
The matriarch continues to fire on your drones as it shrugs off the torrent of small arms fire directed at it, its massive form shifting slowly into the open as your drones prod at it with their weapons, keeping their distance from the brood mother's powerful claws. Suddenly, there is an explosion at her side, and the matriarch stumbles to the right, slamming into a freight car with enough force to leave a sizable dent within the metal as her personal shields flicker to life in response. She turns quickly, her plasma cannon glowing with heat as she levels it at your colossus. The glowing increases as flames lick out from the thermal vents. Your colossus opens its mandibles as its rotary stinger spins up, quickly sending a whirling torrent of chitin slugs slamming into the matriarch as its shields flicker in response, and the plasma cannon unleashes a massive ball of glowing ionized fire arcing through the air with tendrils of energy arcing out in all directions like lighting scouring your nearby drones and roasting several within their own carapaces.

The plasma plumes on contact, detonating in a vibrant and momentary sun that envelops your colossus. Flames and smoke flow up in a massive pillar as charred flesh and searing blood begins to rain from the sky as the gutted, hollow shell of your colossus drops to the ground with a massive thud. The matriarch hoists the plasma cannon away from herself as it becomes enveloped with steam, flames pluming from its vents like small jet engines as scorch marks begin to burn into the armored hide of the brood mother's arm.

Another explosive shell from your other colossus impacts the scavenger in the back, her shield flickering as her mane ripples across her harp-like vocal organ in a harsh, painful cacophony as the strings snap apart from the force. Her body falls forward, collapsing to the ground with a thud as her claws dig into the pavement in an attempt to pick herself up. Servos whine and complain as the synthetic muscle fibres bulge out with strain, and her right arm shudders with a quick snapping sound that makes her drop her weight and slam her head into the ground. Her left arm punching the ground as she shifts her weight under it, picking herself up with a noticeable limp.

"Speaker is for speaking, not fighting! Speaker bad at fighting, that is why speaker is speaker and other things are not speaker, speaker speaks for mother!" Your drone chitters in nervous confusion, searching for any target to its primary function as it lands onto the top of the twisted metal heap of a trainwreck near where the matriarch stands hunched over in agony.

"You are bad speaker!" It chirps. "Mother of bad things, they do not know how to do thing for mother!" The matriarch spins its head to face your speaker as it hisses aggressively, then dives back behind the pile of scrap as a heavy blaster bolt sends the twisted metal on which it was standing a moment ago scattering into the air in glowing chunks.
cont.

>>1615501
Thanks

Its an actual show

>>1615505
Your colossus blasts away with its front mounted gun as the matriarch's shield flairs against her hide, and it sends another explosive shell into its side, sending it toppling to the ground again. It levels its plasma cannon, charging another quick bolt as it struggles to keep the arm elevated, the injured arm shaking visibly as it crumples with the recoil of the released plasma bolt. It arcs wide, scouring the side of your colossus as it drops to its left side, the flesh within the drone's legs boiling in their armor from the arcing energy of the passing plasma before it detonates against a wall away from your drones, sending boiling rubble flying into the air and raining down in hot chunks of simmering rock.

Your speaker moves in closer, dashing between cover as it hides behind its brothers until it is close enough for its relay to do its work.

Please roll 1d100, best of 3 to mentally incapacitate the matriarch.

Rolled 53 (1d100)

For Mother!

>>1615514
Mum!!!

Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>1615514
For Mother!

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>1615514
For Mother!

>>1615523
Saved

Also, holy shit that matriarch managed to one shot a Colossus and cripple the other one.

Rolled 98 (1d100)

>>1615514
Do not adjust your television set.

>>1615526
Aye, and that thing is not even full grown yet

>>1615505
Speaker = Maximum Cute.
Love its trash talking the Matriarch for being a bad mother and not knowing how to do things for Mother.

>>1615523
Good enough.

>>1615528
Mother dammit, not again.

>>1615505
>>1615514
Our Thinkers must be itching to get their mandibles on the Matriarchs super-plasmacannon and mini-shields

>>1615526
That's the power of plasma cannons son!

We should really get around to equipping some of our drones with one of them sometime.

>>1615543
This sounds an awful lot like our own plasma cannons actually. It's just that we've never used them before. Reeeally want to try them out now.

>>1615545
I dunno, I don't remember them being able to do a Metroid charge-shot like that

>>1615543
Eh the shields sure, but those plasma-cannon seems normal like the ones we use,

>>1615552
That's their entire shtick man.
>Plasma Assault Cannon – This devastating siege weapon collects plasma into a large magnetized field and fires it at a target. The resulting bubble of plasma bursts on contact, burning and obliterating anything near the target with a blast comparable to a low yield strategic strike, devastating anything from buildings to armored vehicles. The amount of thermal energy stored within a single blast of the weapon is too great to be contained for any extended period of time, forcing the drone to charge each shot just prior to firing. The result is a highly telegraphed attack that is so destructive no warning would matter. The weapon can fire before being fully charged in order to attack mobile targets, but it is most effective against stationary targets, such as buildings, docked ships, or bunkers. Like the Thorn Cannon, it is forced to be equipped in a specific way due to its design, forcing it to be equipped to a large drone’s forward facing weapon graft. Ventilation tubes and plasma condensers are implanted along the sides and abdomen of the drone, resulting in collected plasma to glow from beneath the armored carapace as it charges an attack, and causing thermal damage to anything nearby from the venting heat after a shot is fired.

They can charge for up to 30 seconds, building the explosive force of the shot exponentially. A fully charged shot from this thing carries the equivalent force of 31 tons of TNT.

>>1615552
Our plasma cannons are extremely powerful, but vulnerable. I don't think they were ever capable of radiating plasma "lightning" type like this one.

>>1615545
Yeah, I think installing some more plasma cannons on large drones would be a good idea after seeing them in action.
Do we need to design a new drone for that, or will QD just be able to swap out some of our existing large drone weapon components with these?

>>1615560
Actually, a couple of our existing drones carry them already, notably the aerial bomber drone. Of course, QD is perfectly happy to swap out weapons prior to a battle, and will usually do so if we vote for it. It's basically a matter of picking which weapons you want him to focus on in the dialog when a fight starts, if only we remember to.

>>1615559
Yeah I know about the PAC, I thought we had one that was a regular Plasma Cannon that didn't do charge shots.

This matriarch gun seems like a hybrid between the two is what I was getting at

>>1615565
Well, if that is the case, maybe we can get an upgrade for the Plasma Assault Cannon out of this. I believe we are still waiting on the results of a loot roll from last week...

>>1615565
>>1615559
Either way, this looks like a way to get a minaturized version we could put on a Heavy Warrior or some nimble aerial drones for some bombing runs to suplement the big bomber drone >>1615562 mentioned

>>1615565
Yeah, our regular plasma cannon is a medium sized weapon that fires bullets wrapped in plasma, while our PAC is a large sized literal cannon. Oh, and our plasma spray is fuckhuge flamethrower. The way it's being described I assume it's either our PAC or a some sort of EM based equivalent to it.

I used to get all our plasma weapons mixed up all the time when they first came out.

Eitherway. This Pet Momma is going to kill things for mother soon.

Hmmm. Well, a slave raceish thing would probably anger Heretic and the Skyl though.

So lets just Clone her!

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>>1615514
Your speaker runs forward, hoisting itself over the heavy warrior it was using for cover and diving towards the matriarch as it attempts to hoist itself back up from the pavement. Its head quickly whips up to face your drone, its shoulder mounted blasters fixating on its position as you reach out with your mind at the alien thoughts whirling through the matriarch's mind, gripping it tightly in a stranglehold.

Your speaker hisses as it leans in, the matriarch slowly falling backwards as the drone marches closer until it falls to its side, its head twitching uselessly as its various cybernetics buzz and whirl with incoherent and contradictory movements.

"You are bad speakers." Your drone says. "The Hive will make you better at speaking, and you will speak of many things that Mother would like to know." The matriarch's claws twitch, struggling as if against immeasurable weight to reach your drone with flickering thoughts of terrible violence. They ebb away as you squeeze its mind tightly into a neat ball of thought from which no conscious understanding can arise as its body collapses entirely, and your speaker steps aside as a specially selected warrior, deployed just for this occurrence and so chosen to avoid any undue curiosity, steps forward from well behind the other drones, a delicate mound of flesh within its arms. The parasite quickly opens its mandibles, gnashing them madly in the air as it seeks its intended target.

Even frozen in its mind-locked state, your warriors struggle to tear through its armor, more suited for a heavy tank than as any kind of personal armor plating, it takes the effort of several heavy warriors to pry open one of the sliding overlapping plate layers, and your drones slice through its hide as the parasite quickly writhes in the wound, pulling itself in as it chews through the scavenger's massive neural heart, taking over its function as it integrates itself into its new host.

The images are strange. A mixture of sound and heat, but darkness beyond that. Even still, there is color, but it is given temperature, not shade. An image is an active thing, not a still structure. The matriarch's head holds a mixture of senses. Faint electromagnetism ripples through the air, while heat crawls through its medium, congealing near its sources that leave trails of warmth in their wake. Billowing trails of hot gas flow from your drones as they glow like road flares, each sound they make an echo bouncing from surface to surface, showing a flash of fine detail of the cold landscape.

You can feel the others, too. Trails of chemical scents in the air that run like roadmaps to the packs fighting in the distance. Their echoing cries from their bone chimes reaching the matriarch with ease, and their radio signals flickering in a dazzling mixture of encoded pack-speak and proper communication.

>Order the scavengers to flee
>Disrupt the scavenger communications and hinder their combat coordination
>Other (write in)

>>1615576
>Order the Scavengers to ransom their civilian hostages for "safe passage" as secured by Their Matriarch. Their harvest is over, they will leave on the next arriving ship.

Ordering them to flee might make them just butcher any left.

>>1615576
>Disrupt the scavenger communications and hinder their combat coordination

>>1615576
God damn are we terrifying. I mean really, compared to us the Scavs have nothing on horror.

>Disrupt the scavenger communications and hinder their combat coordination
It'll be less obvious we've immediately mind-controlled the Matriarch. If the Commonwealth manages to kill/capture a Matriarch in a future battle they will realize that this death does not cause all the Scavs to suddenly flee. A disruption in communication and command/control is more "natural."

>>1615576
>>Other (write in)
Order a few of the most valuable, knowledgeable, experienced, technically inclined Scavengers to fall back to a very specific location together, but leave the rest of Scav tactics untouched.

>>1615576
>>Order the scavengers to flee
Get them out of their fortifications and nests, our drones will tear them apart and implant any alphas.

>>1615579
>>1615576
Yeah it's the most natural effect we can do, short of making no outwardly visible sabotage at all.
>Disrupt the scavenger communications and hinder their combat coordination

>>1615576
>Disrupt the scavenger communications and hinder their combat coordination

>>1615588
It's also the only thing we can do to get them to release their hostages without blowing them up. If we just disrupt communications that means that each of their alphas will just make their own calls, and if experience with these things show anything it's that they are unoriginal in their doctrine. If forced to give up territory or resources, they will destroy anything of any worth, and that will include the hostages in many situations. If we order them out now and tell them not to blow up the humans we can give them all a good chance of surviving, but if we leave it to individual alphas they will put up as much resistance as they can before strapping mines to anything they think their enemies value.

>>1615576
>Disrupt the scavenger communications and hinder their combat coordination

>>1615576
>Disrupt the scavenger communications and hinder their combat coordination

Please roll 1d100, best of 3.

Rolled 11 (1d100)

>>1615600
For Mother!

Rolled 26 (1d100)

>>1615600
HWG

>>1615600
For Mother!

>>1615602
>>1615602
ok no more rolling from me

Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>1615600
Hello children, this is your mother calling.

Rolled 94 (1d100)

>>1615600
Fall!

>>1615607
Thank fuck

>>1615608
YET FUCKING AGAIN, THE 90+ ROLL COMES ONE TOO LATE

Rolled 73 (1d100)

>>1615610
Then let me disrupt the pattern a bit

>>1615600
You feel the pores along the matriarch's back open, pouring forth an unnatural mixture of contradictory scents as you send haphazard pings of chaotic and meaningless pack-speak code out over the radio frequencies of the fighting scavengers. It does not take long for the wind from the fires around you to carry the scent away, and the effect is clear and immediate. Cohesion is lost, panic quickly spreads, and packs shatter in moments as the overriding scent of the matriarch conflicts with the orders of their pack alphas, while fragments of pack-speak send mixtures of conflicting and mutually exclusive orders, chopped and pasted together into a confusing static from which no useful data can be gathered.

Many of the scavenger grunts fall back on instinct, acting more like pups than the trained warriors their alphas would claim them to be. Some abandon their blasters and dive at the humans with their claws, quickly being gunned down as they sprint the open distance, while others still flee, believing their leaders to be dead, dying, or compromised. They run, their instinctive effort an attempt to escape the control of their leaders into the wild and grow to become a leader themselves. They too are gunned down, either by the human troops or by their alphas for the act of insubordination or cowardice, both an equally damnable crime. Most continue their fight, but ignore their orders as they are lost in the confusion. They stay in their cover, firing at the humans as they advance around them, oblivious to the tactical situation beyond their single position until someone reaches their flank and puts them down.

The alphas are the least effected, for obvious reasons, but their higher intelligence comes with its own drawbacks. Their confusion is more directed. More aware at the source as a betrayal of the most cruel kind. They respond with even stronger scent commands, louder shouts both audible and electromagnetic, and it only adds to the confusion as their command structure crumbles into a shouting match that you are already winning. Several of the alphas begin to cast blame to their peers, using past slights or power plays within the social structure of the armada as the logical reason for them to be the beneficiary of the current betrayal, choosing instead to gut each other than allow them to enact whatever plan of escape they believe the perceived betrayer may have concocted.

A rare few seem to soak in the spreading chaos with a maddened fervor. Bathing in the chaos of their collapsed command structure as if set free from shackles. They plunge themselves into combat, firing madly in all directions as if to pick up the slack of their failed brothers until they are gunned down, cursing the humans in their last moments as they detonate thermal charges or overload their blasters as they succumb to their wounds.

No matter what each individual chooses, it is over quickly. Any battle without a command structure will inevitably become a slaughter.