File: Deco.png (214 KB, 504x807)

214 KB PNG

>>3080376

“Ugh, sorry, it’s just,” you prop your wide face on your hands, “I didn’t go into this line of work to kill living treasures. Bad guys, sure. Maniacs, absolutely. But Humpback was… special. She made a bad choice for good reasons and just… stuck with it long enough that there was no going back.” You sigh. “And it’s all my fault that she stayed active long enough to turn.”

Your friend steals a sip of your drink. “I had one exactly like that.”

“Somehow I doubt it’s exact, Deco,” your posture sinks to the table.

“Near enough, then.” She traces the rim of the glass. “Impact Satellaika. Nice old cosmonaut, used to be a big figure in space mining. She was a consultant on Nouveau’s weapon system, so I saw her around the home lab a lot. We had fun.”

You watch a bead of condensation sprint to the bottom. “You liked her?”

“One-sidedly.” Deco affects a Russian accent, “She good dog, alvays good for talk. You vant advice? She give advice. Satellaika give advice like asteroid to head, boom.” She chuckles at herself, sliding back down to solemnity, “And then one day she fell in with the radical pro-Repliforce humans who dirty-bombed part of Lima.”

“She was protecting them too?”

“Yeeeup. They needed her, she said, ‘cause they were a hunted minority. We hadn’t spoken in years, but maybe, y’know, if I’d made the effort, reached out to her before then, never let her feel alone...” Deco steals another long sip, and in the pause you hear the unspoken hint of concern for you. She’s a good friend, for checking in like this. “I named one of my cactuses after her,” she continues. “Still carry her stock weapon, too. As a reminder. It’s all I can do for her now – remembering her well, and learning from her.”

You sit up and take your drink back before she drains it all. “To bad choices of crush,” you toast.

“As if crushes ever made sense,” she smirks and clinks an invisible glass with yours.


>Check your datapad.
>Get those upgrades.
>Let’s get out of here and do something fun.
>?

File: Meteor Showa joins the Hunters.png (775 KB, 600x620)

775 KB PNG

Good morning and Happy December!

When I started this spinoff back in April I had an endpoint in mind. This is it, and here we are. If I've set everything out correctly with the quick pacing that I've tried to stick to (in plot if not posting frequency), this should be the last thread.

Let's go.

>>3080377
>Check your datapad.

File: rude.jpg (19 KB, 459x317)

19 KB JPG

>>3080377
Hooray! Also, hello, I'm still not dead.

And man I hope suptg's scripting is updated for this new domain thing...

>Check your datapad.

Deco's probably not the only one who tried to get ahold of us.

>Check your datapad.

>>3080377
>Check your datapad.
oooh, an early christmas!

>>3080420
LL was on the ball, he sorted it out while channel was still in the testing phase.

File: weapon get.png (1.56 MB, 1759x1855)

1.56 MB PNG

>>3080439
We don't deserve that man. He's the best.

>>3080439
>>3080442
Excellent. Long may the archive stand.

Writing now.

File: zennypile.png (100 KB, 240x240)

100 KB PNG

>>3080377

With your other hand you flap out your datapad.

“You ever gonna upgrade that thing?” Deco asks. “Or go full-HUD?”

“Nah, all the good consumer models are too expensive and I like having at least some of my feeds tactile.”

“Luddite.”

“Am not.”

“Fine. I’m sure you’d get a nice Lalinde model for free if you were sweet on our Requisitions officer,” she teases.

“Hush.”


MISSION
C O M P L E T E

- A-Rank Mission Parameters Complete: 35,000z
- Pirate Cell Neutralization: 5,000z
- Repliforce Cell Neutralization: 5,000z

TOTAL: 45,000z
ACCOUNT: 60,000z


It seems a bit low for what was involved, but you guess they’re being conservative because of the part you played in Humpback remaining a threat in the first place. Fair enough.

You scroll through Spazer DMs…

>DECO
Mimi! Hey! Congratulations on polishing off your roster, you’re the first one done for this period! If you don’t mind waiting up for the rest of us slackers, maybe we could do something later?

>I.MONITOR
Glad that mothballed jellyfish came in handy. No worries about breaking it, better to use than not.
So I noticed you charged some of my rebeams – ever hear of this guy named Rock Dingo? He does amazing work with a synthesizer, almost better than Drywater Euphoryptus. I’ll post some links later.

>G.CHAGOI
GOOD JOB HUNTING THAT WHALE SISTER!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH, MAYBE NOW MY SHIP CAN REST IN PEACE …
I’M WORKING ON ANOTHER FREIGHTER NOW, I’LL NAME HER THE METEOR SHOWA JUST FOR YOU :) !!!
WE’RE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU BACK HOME, PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF :)

>FLURRY
Hey you. Just got a box of bread-scented candles courtesy of your VeraZon account. Thanks, Showa. You’re all right.

>V.BATTERAM
Still three on my roster. You beat me again. Good work. Bar later?


And the news… seems to be dominated by one headline.


>HALCYON RESIGNS
Maverick Hunter Commander Halcyon has resigned his office effective immediately, at the urging of CainLabs, the WRC, and a growing number of unit commanders at bases around the world. His infamously disastrous platforming of Major Primus is rumored to have been the proverbial final straw, but his administration had been plagued by poor decisions ever since Repliforce’s secession . . .

He’s out. He’s really out.

Turtle must be dancing right about now.

Deco must have read your face well. “Halcyon, right? Leave it to the Hour to not cut into sports for it...”

“I never thought he’d do it without a gun to his head.”

“Yeah, Turtle’s on cloud nine, but Nouveau’s been sour about it. Volt’s taking it well. No idea about Skittle. Me, I’m glad he’s out.”

You keep scrolling. “Any idea who’ll replace him?”

“Nope, but I hear the Americans are pushing hard for one of theirs.”

“When don’t they?”

You two share a friendly chuckle.

File: Meteor Showa attempts rom(...).gif (858 KB, 450x360)

858 KB GIF

>>3080528

“So anyway,” Deco shifts gears, “I came here for you. First officer done with their roster means a party in their honor!”

“Since when?”

“Since right now,” she beams. “You’re gonna have a good time tonight, Meteor Showa, my treat, and you’ve got no say in the matter!”

Typical Deco. But sure, you’re down to put Humpback well out of your mind.

“Just us?”

Deco’s gaze shyly flits away. “Well, I mean, parties are more fun with more people, but gosh, if you really want…”


>Invite other friends.
>Decide later, leave and get upgrades.
>?

>Invite other friends.

>>3080532
>Invite other friends.

>>3080532
>Decide later, leave and get upgrades.
If we're celebrating a completed roster, we gotta do it with a new and improved Showa.

....wow Deco. I mean, if you're offering.

>>3080532
>Invite other friends.

File: Volt Batteram.png (487 KB, 1200x1025)

487 KB PNG

>>3080528
>>3080534
>>3080538
>>3080576

You straighten up. “Y’know, you’re right. I’m gonna see if I can make it a real party. Yeah! I’ll get everyone on board!”

“Everyone?” Deco spreads her fingers to half-cover her mouth. “I mean I can afford it, but we all have such different schedules!”

“Doesn’t matter!” A sudden buzz of enthusiastic defiance suggests your drink might be taking effect; to make sure, you slam it back and spit out the crumpled little umbrella. “We’re all friends, aren’t we? If the need is great, we’ll come together like Hunters!”

Deco’s grin threatens to take her ears off. “That’s the spirit!”

At that very moment, Volt walks in and heads to the bar. You jump up and wave both arms at him.

“Volt! Volt! Over here! You want to party with us?!”

He stops short. Seems to think.

“Yes.”

“One down!” You pump your fist and slam your earcap. “Meteor Showa to Fifth Communications!”

“Yeeeou have reached the station of your favorite shortcutter,” Atajo chimes in. “What’s up? I thought you were done.”

“Not yet I’m not! Can you come down to – Deco, quick, where? Where?!”

“Anywhere you like!”

“To wherever I pick! We’re going to have some fun!”

Atajo’s comm line hisses with a wincing inward breath. “Aw, damn, not tonight, I’m on shift for another eleven hours. And I’m kind of navigating two B-ranks right now. The guys need me, one already fell in a pit and – hell, this one’s being swarmed by bats. I’m breaking contact. Later.”

“Frig.”

“No luck?” Deco asks. Volt arrives with a stemless glass of probably-wine.

“Going down the list,” you motion for Volt to sit. “Hey Flurry, think you can pull away from what you’re doing for a couple hours? I’m building a party.”

“Sorry, Lieutenant,” Flurry’s friendly gruffness fills your ear, “I’ve got a party of my own. Thompson and his girlfriend invited me to a chick flick with a friend of theirs. Maybe next time. Oh, and thanks for the candles.”

“No sweat. You’re welcome.” You drop one hand and raise the other, swapping ears with military precision. “Hey Skittle, you busy?”

“This is the comm line of Their Highness Scatter Seelie. If you’re dying, try the navigators.”

“Heck! Golau, hello, can you come to a party?”

“This is the comm line of the dear sibling of Their Highness Scatter Seelie. Don’t you feckin’ bother them, whoever this is.”

File: Meteor Showa (maqqy96).png (794 KB, 1000x888)

794 KB PNG

>>3080691

“Okay… Monitor, you there?”

The pleasant voice of the Hunters’ long-serving replibrain Rho intercedes with the same message everyone gets when trying to contact a busy operative.

“Iron Monitor is currently on assignment. Would you like to be alerted when he is next available?”

“No thanks. Hey, is Vitamin—is Lifesaver Bee-Twelve Veracruz available?”

“Observing.” She pauses. “No. He is currently assisting with surgery on Veracruz Sixth Unit officer Vermelha Coral. Would you like to be alerted when he is next available?”

“No, thank you.”

“Thank you for your patience.” The line cuts out. You flick your discarded drink umbrella across the table.

“No dice?” Volt seems absorbed in sampling his drink’s bouquet. Lucky him with his sharp olfactory senses.

“Not yet,” you huff. “Okay, I’m delegating authority! Deco, reel in your brother. Volt, get Rubus.”

Deco snaps a salute. Volt nods with purpose. Their subsequent chatter is lost in your own focus.

“Commander Turtle, this is Lieutenant Showa, are you available for immediate fraternization with lower ranks?”

“Sadly no, Meteor,” she lets you down reluctantly, “I’m on my way to discuss matters of succession with Sloth. But while I have you, let me just say congratulations. I’ve never seen a Hunter bounce back so far so fast from such a devastating injury. I’ll do all I can to impress that upon the base commander and recommend you for restoration of your Captain rank.”

You didn’t see that coming. “Um. Thank you, ma’am.”

“My pleasure, Meteor. We have some interesting times ahead. Do take care of yourself.”

She cuts out. You check with your impromptu mission team.

“Nouveau’s in,” Deco shakes a thumbs-up.

“Rubus is training,” Volt reports. “Says the rest of Decomms is too swamped.”

“So that’s only four so far…” you rub under your chin.


>That’s enough.
>Try Skittle again.

>Initiate Party.
>Get your upgrades first.

That’s immediate connections. What about extended connections? Family, prior teams, orher circles?

File: Skittle goes maverick.jpg (180 KB, 968x1200)

180 KB JPG

>>3080695
>Try Skittle again.
>Get your upgrades first.

You're not getting away that easy, you maudlin, morbid, ambiguously-gendered bastard.

Also, as for upgrades, my thinking's twofold:
1: We are almost definitely going to get ahold of them, and
2: Last time we put off upgrades Stuff Happened, let's apply a healthy dose of preventative paranoia.

>>3080717
You could try for more, of course, but the implicit meaning of "everyone" was "closest-proximity friends." Knowing what she knows, she was going down the list of likeliest candidates for attendance. The wider her net, the less likely she'll catch someone... but with voter support, we'll see!

>>3080695
>Try Skittle again.
>Get your upgrades first.

>>3080695
>Try Skittle again.
>Get your upgrades first.

Yeah, we can probably do both at once.

>>3080383
I'm definitely going to miss this quest, thanks for getting this far.

>>3080695
>Try Skittle again.
>Get your upgrades first.
Say you need upgrades form them specifically. Imply that you want to use Humpback's VWES for a melee weapon. Imply that you want to call the melee weapon the Sounding Rod. That'll get their attention.

File: Doctor Wily.jpg (86 KB, 750x600)

86 KB JPG

>>3081074
I am equal parts dismayed and pleased that you've gleaned such a full understanding of Skittle's character.

File: lamp.png (267 KB, 701x448)

267 KB PNG

>>3080695
>>3080733
>>3080819
>>3081040
>>3081074

“… But Skittle would never forgive me if I left them out.” You slap the table and scoot out. “I’ll get them moving in person and knock out a little upgrading while I’m there. Fellow lieutenants,” you straighten up like a general, “we will reconvene in sixty minutes at the Depth Charge.”

Deco mock-gasps. “Enemy territory, Commander?”

“Fortify yourself, Lieutenant! We’ve dealt with the likes of them before! But this time we won’t stop at karaoke!”

“Risk assessment?” Volt replies straight-faced, not missing a beat.

“Heavy! Break for preparations and return ready for action!”

“Understood. Glad to finally join you on the front lines,” he allows himself a smirk.

Flanked by your friends, you strike what you’re sure is a killer pose as you point to the door.

“Veracruz Fourth Celebratory Unit, move out!”

----

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skEiMCA35iE

The upgrade lab has come a long way in a short time. With walls demolished and equipment moved in, what was once a miniature jail of tight quarantine cells is now bright and breezy like a past-century medical ward. There’s space to grow, and complicated surgical arms on the two existing slabs suggest Skittle’s just getting started.

You stride right in. Golau sweeps the floor, looking a little downtrodden. Their antennae droop like sad dog ears, putting a damper on your buzzy happiness.

“What’s up, Your Grace?” You gently broach.

They sigh between sweeps. “Just tidying. Skittle’s returning from some work they can’t tell me about.”

“I’d think either of those would make you happier than you look right now.”

They prop the broom – who even uses a broom anymore? – against a door frame.

“This is it, is it?”

“What is?”

“The park, my park, is going to re-open next week, I’m told, so my little vacation’s almost up. And then with you done with your roster, you won’t be needing us anymore, will you? With how busy everyone is around here, this might be the last we see of each other…”

You laugh, sympathetically. The font of good cheer just needs some cheering up.

“Aww, Golau, just because a Hunter’s done with her list of Mavericks doesn’t mean she’s forbidden from visiting the medics!”

“It doesn’t?” They perk a little.

“Oh, gosh, of course not. There’s no way I’d stop coming to bask in your sunshine. Besides, there’s always room for some sort of upgrade, and with the way I’ve been coming back lately I’ll still need somebody as a preferred repair technician.”

“But you’re so strong!” Golau’s eyes shine with anxious admiration. “What if you’re never smashed up again?”

File: LÄMP.png (224 KB, 701x448)

224 KB PNG

>>3081131

You take the sweet little mothfairy by the hand. “Then I’ll come on my own time and visit. And as for your time here? We could always use more permanent help. I’m actually surprised Skittle hasn’t pulled strings to get you officially aboard…”

A sharp two-tone cough pierces the exchange. Skittle flits in under a personal invisible stormcloud.

“S’because I want to keep my dear sib well outta this line’a work, like.”

“Oh, Skittle,” their twin rolls their big eyes, “I can handle it!”

“Of course you can, but I’ll be damned if you do. There’s lessons you learn hunting Mavericks for a living, lessons I’d rather not have you learn.”

“Oh come now,” Golau flips their wrist, smiling, “it’s so fun here! The people are so nice and the technology is so… shiny! And I’m capable enough to help, aren’t I? I’m just like you!”

Skittle angrily zips straight up to their sibling’s face and levels an index finger between their eyes.

“No,” Skittle promises, “no you aren’t. Not yet you aren’t. And that’s a right blessing, that is.”

“But—!”

Skittle advances aggressively, leading with their finger, bully-fluttering Golau back and back right up to the wall. You try to step away, but moving would only draw attention, so you awkwardly stand there and bear witness.

“You’re not staying around long enough to let the dark slide in,” Skittle declares in the angry growling tone reserved for wit’s end, “not while I’m alive to love you you aren’t. I won’t have another me. I can’t be having with it. You’re going back with the light in your eyes and the smile on your face to live the longest and happiest life you can live or by Mother Church I will clip your wings and glue your hair and throw your toys in the sea, Golau Gwyfyn. Be told.”

You venture to cough a tiny cough.

Skittle shuts their eyes, affects a theatrical full-body sigh in and out, roughly grabs Golau by the ears and kisses their forehead.

“We’ll talk more later, you and I.” They smile at you, “Pardons, fishflake, just got a bit cross with Proteus for professional reasons. Shouldn’t’ve brought it with me. So what can we do for you? Uppies from Moby Jane?”

“Well yes, but I also wanted to invite you two to a party.”

Golau quite literally brightens, making a little inward crescendo-gasp of excitement. Skittle clamps their hand over their mouth before they explode.

“Done. Where and when?”

“I wanted to take you and a few others around the Depth Charge again to get more use out of it. But that depends on if you can work fast enough to meet the others there in under an hour…”

Golau, mouth still clamped, giddily vibrates their fists and flutter-bounces in the air.

“You wanna see how fast we work, do you? Then hop on that slab and don’t blink.”

File: armor tech.png (4 KB, 256x224)

4 KB PNG

>>3081135

UPGRADES:

VWES:

>Chorus Cannon
A wide, weaponized blast of precision-directed sonic vibration. Travels through bodies and shoves low-mass ones backward. Superficially similar to a short fat Storm Tornado. 24 shots.

>Shock Lance
A narrow, weaponized blast of precision-directed sonic vibration. Deals more damage than Chorus Cannon, but stops at the first body it contacts. 16 shots.

>Echo Shields
Applying Sounding Humpback’s DNA to your shield battery will add a shockwave effect to your life-saving invincibility every time it activates. Upon taking enough damage to flash your shields, your body will emit a two-meter blast of moderate sonic damage and kinetic force. The pushback will affect objects of a mass equal to or lesser than your body. Theoretically infinite, but practically limited to about 10 “shots” or less, given that each activation means that you’ve taken a chunk of damage.

Synergy:

Options for synergy are unavailable. Necessary enemy DNA has already been synergized with other enemy DNA to create your Frost Bombs and Spark Hand-Drill.

Pity. But hell, your kit’s already right ripper, it is. Still, take a look at what some high-class “inspiration” can get… -S

>Bolide
Adds a flame effect to Echo Shields for increased damage. 20,000z.

>Ball Lightning
Adds an electrical effect to Echo Shields for increased damage. 20,000z.

>Kiai
Explosively boosts the base damage of Echo Shields. Force and range remains the same. 20,000z.

>Reverb
Sonically boosts the force of Echo Shields, for when you absolutely positively have to shove away a melee foe of up to twice your mass. Damage and range remains the same. 20,000z.

>Shock Wave
Adds an electrical effect to Chorus Cannon or Shock Lance for an electrical stun effect. Damage remains the same. 20,000z.

File: bustin makes me feel good.jpg (143 KB, 570x740)

143 KB JPG

>>3081146
GENERAL:

>Breach Jump
Replaces the thrusters in your tail to allow for a burst of omnidirectional acceleration above water. You may double-jump. Combined with your existing Thruster Dash, you will achieve the maximum mobility currently feasible for your body type. 40,000 zenny.

>Energy Capacitor
A new part to your energy balance systems, similar to the one that made Meganeural Spectrod’s “Axis Slider” possible, allows you to store a charge in either your buster or your throat and immediately switch it to the other. Switching VWES will not eliminate charge; if switching to a weapon that can carry no charge, the charge is simply juggled from one emitter to the other. Recent increased efficiency in the Requisitions department has lowered its cost to 20,000z.

>Efficiency Draw
Hardware and software upgrades to your WEAPON system add 33% more WEAPON energy to a specific VWES entity, meaning more shots. This may be purchased multiple times, but only once per entity. 20,000z each.

>Dynamic Neural Active Scanner (DYNAS)
Chaser Girtabomb had modified and integrated a sophisticated hardware scanner to scan his foes. A similar version can be yours, affixed externally as a pair of ear-mounted eye-covering lenses. Staring at a single target for two consecutive seconds will return a highly-accurate read on their LIFE Core stability (i.e. their exact HP). A four-second stare will provide advisement on a foe’s structural and systemic weaknesses. 20,000z.

Hardpoint Devices:

Your hardpoint is currently occupied with a Saber Pack. Swapping it with a different device would be simple work. However, your sabers are carried in the Saber Pack, thereby leaving two Gear slots free. If the Saber Pack is removed, your sabers would once again need to occupy one Gear slot each.

>Denial Vulcan
Your upper-back hardpoint can mount Girtabomb’s stinger cannon, a multi-directional rapid-fire energy gun comparable to the front cannon of a ride chaser. Fires plasma lemons as fast as you like, forever, simultaneous to your other weapons, without cooldown. Cannot take a charge or fire a VWES entity. Recent increased efficiency in the Requisitions department has lowered its cost to 20,000z. (Cost-free aesthetic modification will make the gun resemble an anglerfish lure.)

>HV Rifle
Corona Sphynx’s high-velocity-ammo rifle could be yours. Stock option punctures armor with solid projectiles; recent increased efficiency in the Requisitions department has lowered its cost to 10,000z. Upgrade option allows for firing VWES entities at 33% greater damage but with 33% greater energy consumption – meaning fewer shots – for 10,000z more.

>RF Buster
Install a second buster in your hardpoint. Stock two-shot fire for 5,000z, +10,000z for three-shot or a charge capacity to four-shot.

>Charge Buster
Install a second buster in your hardpoint. Stock two-stage charge for 5,000z, +10,000z for a third stage.

File: get equipped.png (76 KB, 300x223)

76 KB PNG

>>3081151

Additional Weapons:

>Additional Saber
Purchases a new saber to upgrade as you like. The stock option, low-phase 30cm, is 5,000z; 60cm extension and hi-beam tuning are 5,000z each.

>Ceratanium Axe
The long-hafted axe of a woodsman, or perhaps a headsman, once carried by Arbor Elk. Though slower to swing than any beam saber, its damage is still equal to a low-phase blade. It can also parry other solid weapons, pierce energy-nulling defenses, and knock back foes of equal or lesser mass than you. Requires two Gear slots to carry and two hands to use. 10,000z.

>Thagomizer Pick
On the logic that “it’d be right baller, like,” Scatter Seelie has offered to craft you a short-hafted pickaxe weapon modeled after Freezer Ostenops’s spiked tail. Though slower to swing than any beam saber, its damage is still equal to a low-phase blade. It can also parry other solid weapons, pierce energy-nulling defenses, and puncture armor with great precision. Requires one Gear slot to carry and one hand to use. 5,000z.

>Repulsor Wing
A thick bracelet device projects a butterfly-shaped kinetic barrier which repels plasma ordinance and clashes against beam sabers. Its “durability,” or total damage-null capacity, is twice that of your Old Growth Arbor Wall, and will break if that limit is exceeded during a single mission. A “shield bash” technique is possible, but the light damage it would deal counts against its durability. Recent increased efficiency in the Requisitions department has lowered its cost to 10,000z; still requires one Gear slot.

Weapon Upgrades:

>Fire Element
“Inspired” by Corona Sphynx’s DNA, Scatter Seelie has offered to add high-temperature combustion to one of your melee weapons for added damage. 10,000z.

>Electric Element
“Inspired” by Arc Morpho’s DNA, Scatter Seelie has offered to electrify one of your melee weapons for added damage. 10,000z.

>Explosion Element
“Inspired” by Chaser Girtabomb’s DNA, Scatter Seelie has offered to add an explosive effect to an energy-based melee weapon for increased damage. On contact, the beam will terminate in an outward explosion, adding to the damage the hit would have caused, but it will render the beam inactive for one second thereafter. 10,000 zenny.

>High Frequency
“Inspired” by Sounding Humpback’s DNA, Scatter Seelie has offered to add a hypersonic vibration to any solid-matter melee weapon for increased damage. 10,000 zenny.

(Repulsor Wing’s damage will increase if an element is added, but it can still break. Your beam sabers are already upgraded to the maximum extent; new flavors of hurt will require new sabers.)

Available Zenny: 60,000.

>>3081146
>Chorus Cannon

I feel like taking the stock option this time.

>DYNAS
>Breach Jump

Seeing weaknesses is always a pretty damn good option, and I will always be a proponent that speed and agility conquers all.
Gotta go fast

Denial Vulcan and Breach Jump seem like the perfect Circle Strafe Forever combo

File: swiggity swooty.jpg (68 KB, 831x1101)

68 KB JPG

Breach Jump is an absolute must. With Flex 2 and our other mobility boosters, we're going to cut way-the-hell-down on getting hit while also opening a new lane of enemy denial, offensively and defensively.

Torn between taking Echo Shields with Bolide (Showa had this originally and would enjoy having it back), or Energy Capacitor.

On the flipside, if I recall, the saber pack frees up our base 2 slots, and we could fill those with a Repulsor Wing (or two!) and an Inspired element.

In fact, I think I just convinced myself.
>Echo Shields
>Breach Jump
>Repulsor Wing
Not sure whether to vote for a second one or add Explosive or High-Frequency to it to round out VWES. Consider the above my hardline Yes Definitely votes, and the below two a whichever-is-the-most-popular:
>Secondary Repulsor Wing
>High Frequency

Side note, on one or both Repulsor Wings, request they look like Skittle's and Golau's mothpatterns instead of Morpho's.

>>3081146
The Echo Shields not taking a VWES slot is nice.
I still want to improve the koi's ammo, to make it seem like it's one of our primary armaments again. If we get the Breach Jump as well, that takes exactly our full savings, but if not, the Kiai and Reverb effects for the shield seem interesting.

>>3081146
>Echo Shields
>Breach Jump

I really like the Denial Vulcan and Dynas, but it seems unlikely we'll get a chance at both.

So, I guess the Dynas?

>>3081166
I'll change my vote towards
>Echo Shields

Still voting for
>DYNAS
>Breach Jump

Hi, me again, Just going to repost the link to the VWES Bank doc, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vi3L_8MuATO4paK4X9Wy7SemcTes8-yBBB67vLO_k98/edit?usp=sharing
The list has expanded with a few new entries, and theres a new section for featuring Combination Weapons that combine two or more DNAsnow, with a few examples.
Remember that comments and original submissions are welcomed, and encouraged, and I'll frequently curate the doc to add them as appropriate.

>>3081343
Ooh, thanks. More flavors of boss weapons for Christmas!

>>3081404
Is kiai just flavor text, or does it add much more damage than standard elemental?

File: cool fish don't look at e(...).gif (29 KB, 320x240)

29 KB GIF

>>3081782
It adds damage, but no additional pushback or effective distance. And unless a swath of votes comes in quickly, it won't make the cut.

>>3081146
>Echo Shields
I think we're juuuust tanky enough to hurt small melee things a lot, but just light enough that the knockback will only slow down big things instead of keeping them away from our counterattack.
>Kiai
With our mobility and aoe, we are turning to a very harsh attrition fighter.

>Breach Jump
you're in. No contest.

>Repulsor Wing
>Explosion Element

Damn, outta money. We could get sound pick and round out 4 elemental melee that I mentioned last thread.

>>3081810
I was talking about flat numbers. Like, does Bolide make it deal 1.5x damage, while Kiai 2x damage?

no matter. Could we get a full stat sheet for the "completed" Meteor Showa at the end of this?

>>3081823
Bolide would add fire-type damage specifically. Kiai takes the base sonic damage and makes it hurt more. Same boosted damage for the technique, different flavor and visual effect.

And I'll certainly have to put one together, won't I...

>>3081146
>>3081847
....hmm. Fine, let's at get a THEMATIC upgrade then, just incase we don't get any more.

change >>3081812 to

>Echo Shields

>Breach Jump

>Repulsor Wing
>Explosion Element

>Thagomizer Pick
>High Frequency

We've got an all-elemental buffet here!

>Echo Shields
>Breach Jump
>Repulsor Wing
>High Frequency

Yes, yes, votes are delicious.

Ten more minutes and I'll call it for writing.

>>3081915
Right! That'll do it. Writing now.

File: Junk Rat retired by Repul(...).jpg (187 KB, 1600x900)

187 KB JPG

>>3081154

It’s not even a choice. You’ve never had a double-jump before, and none of the shield-type Mavericks in your career ever gave you the chance to weaponize your shields. You select Echo Shields and Breach Jump without a second thought. Thanks, Sound…

“Well won’t that make you a fiery salmon,” Skittle remarks. “A far cry from when you were just a dash-speedy tank, it is.”

Golau flutters around one of the surgical arms. “Would you like to spend anything else?”

“It’s now or never on some of ‘em,” Skittle adds, hands blurring through tool placements.

You frown a little. “I didn’t think rights to enemy data expired that quickly after a roster.”

“They don’t. But the wink-nudge ‘inspiration’ is gonna show up as a breach of regs when Mirkwood’s people do a review on the completed rosters for this three-weeker. Unless I delete the evidence that it wasn’t just me feeling a flash of genius. Which I will.”

“Are you saying the spare elemental options—”

“Constitute giving you more of a bite at the data than you’re owed, yes.”

Golau fiddles with your schematic on a private screen. They giggle, “Quite naughty, isn’t it?”

“Then why’d you charge me for them?”

Skittle enters data faster than you can read. “Cover story. Parts and labor. Something to satisfy Sheepy’s people.”

“Mirkwood, Sheepy… they do have names,” you lightly chastise.

“They haven’t earned ‘em yet. Now what’re ya buyin’?”

“Stick some explosive inspiration on a Repulsor Wing. It’ll come in great handy for getaways.”

“Right you are. Now hold still.”

Flashes and blurs of sparkle and color zip every which way as you lay back at an incline. Skittle works their magic on your LIFE core’s shield battery while Golau tinkers with ludicrous speed at a workbench. The latter fairy sings a little to themself.

“Paid ag ofni, dim ond deilen, gura, gura ar y ddôr… hee hee hee hee…”

“Is that the good kind of giggle, Your Grace?” You call over.

“Oh, the very best.”

“What’s that song?”

“Lullaby, an ancient one,” Skittle clarifies from somewhere below your chin. “Don’t fear, it’s just a leaf, beating, beating on the door.”

“Because this darling leaf can beat right back, you see?” Golau carries a hexagon the size of your hand over to you and begins fitting it to the back of your left arm. “Clever, aren’t I?”

“It is. I like it.”

Golau bites their lips to keep their smile at least partially restrained.

In no time at all the twins are done. Skittle closes up your lid and seals the seams.

“And that’ll do you. Step over there in the open and give the Wing a try-out. But not the Jump, you'd bash your head.”

“There ought to be a mnemonic motion entry in the limb’s root file now,” Golau encourages you.

File: Nouveau.png (337 KB, 560x960)

337 KB PNG

>>3082060
You hop down. The device on your arm has some weight to it, but nothing affecting mobility. As advertised, you know right away how to use it. You imagine a Victoroid dashing for you, plant your feet and swing. A kinetic barrier shaped like – yes, moon moth wings, flares in and out for the duration of the swing. It’s about as big as you, and trails sparkles.

Golau squeals happily. Skittle merely grins.

“Good sense of aesthetic advertisement.”

“Isn’t it?!”

You make a fist and activate it in place. On closer inspection, the sparkles are holographic. “Oh thank goodness, I thought it was a glitter generator…”

Golau begs with their eyes.

“I don’t want it to be, no.”

“Aw.”

“There there,” Skittle pats them. “Now let’s wipe what data needs wiping so’s I don’t get pinned to a corkboard, yeah?”

“But the partyyyy!”

“There’s time enough. Off you go, Meteor, we’ll be there.”

----

You arrive outside the Depth Charge, the dockside bar of the 6th Marine Unit, freshly speed-buffed to make a good impression. You seem to be the second one to arrive; Nouveau waits outside, arms crossed. He seems distracted, his head and eyes tilting in little saccades suggesting a full-UI data feed.

“Lieutenant.” He blinks. “I mean, Showa.”

“Captain. I mean, Nouveau. Still working?”

“Not as such. Reading Spazer comments regarding the Hunter leadership…”

“First rule of Spazer: never read the comments.”

“I can’t help it. Wars are won and lost on intelligence, even social cold wars.”

“Something you want to talk about? We have time, unless everybody else is already inside.”

“They aren’t.” Nouveau closes his eyes and pinches his nose.

“You recall, I’m sure, when Turtle addressed us about Halcyon. Asking us to keep her honest while she fought to boot him.”

“Yeah?”

“She was mostly talking to me. I approved of Rhodes well enough, good man with a tough job, but Halcyon was exactly who the Hunters needed. Bringing Los Mortales back to the fold, investing heavily in Cyberspace, every part he played in creating Repliforce… even the parleys and dealmaking with lesser evils. It was all, fundamentally, to save lives. He did what I’d have done in his position, right up until he decided trotting out Primus was a good idea.”

You nod, letting him speak.

“I suppose…” he studies his hand, “I suppose I never allowed myself to think the Hunters could do wrong. If we aren’t the solution, if reploids hunting reploids isn’t the only way, then we’re just Mavericks with sanction. Aren’t we?”

You think about it.

Combined with choices made previously in the game, this decision will have repercussions for your future.


>Halcyon was right.
>Halcyon was wrong.

>We are still the solution.
>We mis-stepped.

>>3082064
My editing side is annoyed by that line break. "You recall, I'm sure," is Nouveau still speaking, just to be absolutely clear.

File: This kills the Anode.gif (1.45 MB, 495x491)

1.45 MB GIF

>>3082064
Hm.
>Halcyon was right.
>We are still the solution.

A complete bellend. He had no good intentions, but the moves he made were sound.

And the "mavericks with sanction" line might earn him a friendly lean-over-and-flick-his-ear. Mavericks have made themselves the enemy of history in a way rarely so objective. Hunters are a solution, even if an imperfect one.

>>3082064
>Halcyon was right.
>We are still the solution.

>>3082064
>Halcyon was wrong
He may have been doing it for the right reasons, but he gave up to much. If we cant have trust, if the Hunters Cant be believed in completely, then we get more "political Mavericks" and we end up fighting a war with no winners.

>We are still the solution.
But luckily, theres nothing we cant come back from yet. The Hunters heart are still in the right place.

>Halcyon did what was right, but only for the hunters as an organization, and not for the hunters as people.

Ultimately, neglecting that factor was his biggest failure; morale is harder to measure than firepower, but more important.

Also his problem wasn't even trotting out Primus.

His problem was doing that shit on live TV. If he'd prerecorded it there wouldn't be any chance of a backfire.

>>3082060
wait. They're gone? NO SOUND PICK EVER!? Sad trombone.

>>3082064
>>Halcyon was right.
>>We are still the solution.
He did a lot of good, the biggest issue was that he was a pretty smug jerk about it. Even that rich cheetah sniper park didn't harm a whole lot of people for how much budget it probably provided, and beating her before Morpho prevented all sorts of PR backlash.

>>3081343
I wonder if it would be in bad taste to add VWES options based off of the MHQ/Shooting Star characters...

File: it wasn't.png (188 KB, 482x269)

188 KB PNG

>>3082202
Canon lore note:

Halcyon worried that any private recording of Primus's capitulation and call to surrender would be declared a fabrication or a reprogramming. In addition he wanted to sell the hell out of the moment. He wanted to coast for the rest of his life on what a victory it was, how great his leadership was, please don't fire him for basically creating Repliforce.

X, meanwhile, felt that a stage of that magnitude would have the greatest effect for fostering peace, and he found Primus very convincing.

And who in the world would doubt a plan when both Halcyon and X were in total agreement? Certainly not anybody in a position to stop them.


>>3082363
Depends, depends... but I mean, it's all fandom, and slightly altered universes can exist. Use VWES options from this story as you'd wish.

>>3082064
>Halcyon was wrong.
He had a plan and none of his decisions could be considered wrong at the time, but when your choices backfire with so much riding on them, none of that matters. It's a job that requires total perfection, all of the time, and the one guy who came close to that switched sides.

>We are still the solution.
THAT'S still on Repliforce.

>>3082371
Yeah, but that's what doing a 30 second broadcast delay is for.

admittedly Primus getting up to give a speech and then the feed cutting would still be bad PR, but it wouldn't be as apocalyptically bad.

It fits as Halcyon being too arrogant to take reasonable precautions, though.

File: why skittle.png (17 KB, 408x408)

17 KB PNG

>>3081074
>>3081081
I should stop

File: Skittle Prepares for Joint Op.gif (6.66 MB, 345x344)

6.66 MB GIF

>>3082447
Never.

File: Scatter Seelie loses it.jpg (74 KB, 640x640)

74 KB JPG

>>3082447
"For the love of God, Scatter Seelie!"

"Yes, for the love of God."

File: violence solves everything.jpg (159 KB, 923x713)

159 KB JPG

>>3082513

Also, votes called, writing now.

File: end me, enbie.png (106 KB, 800x1415)

106 KB PNG

>>3082447

File: tegaki.png (4 KB, 400x400)

4 KB PNG

>>3082447
>Sounding Rod
Constructed from the Sounding Humpback's DNA and the remaining parts designed for high amplitude sonar output, this weapon is designed more for secondary effects rather than direct damage.

High intensity vibrations allow this weapon to repel plasma when swung like a bat. Although impractical for small arms fire, it is one of the few that can handle larger balls of plasma without shorting out.

When raised aloft, the vibration module inside the center begins projecting echoes through the tuning fork tip. No damage is dealt unless underwater, but consistent use marks targets in a very large range, transmitting location data through cover and smokescreens.

When actually striking opponents, the sonar is tuned to shorter, stronger bursts for added damage, but it is actually less effective at shaving armor than dedicated high frequency weapons.

File: Nouveau on a Tuesday.gif (1.99 MB, 500x500)

1.99 MB GIF

>>3082064
>>3082110
>>3082134
>>3082177
>>3082152
>>3082335
>>3082400

You listen to the lapping water at the docks, gathering your thoughts before replying.

“Deco told me something recently. Me and Skittle both, actually. She said a choice is never more important than when we make it. And for the people we save, the ones who have the most to gain, nothing we do is ever wasted.”

Nouveau seems to be studying you. He’s definitely listening. You watch the sky and rock back on your heels.

“I don’t make a habit of talking about my politics, but… Halcyon had the right idea. Overall, I mean. He might’ve been a jerk, but he saved lives, and he wasn’t responsible for what General chose to do. Halcyon just used what power he had to save those who had the most to gain. Like any of us do, every single mission. It wasn’t wasted effort for the people still alive to criticize him.”

You look back down. Nouveau’s posture has completely changed. You’ve rarely seen him more at ease.

“That’s not a common opinion, Showa. I wouldn’t have expected it from you.”

“I know. Guess I’m just too serious sometimes.”

“Not at all. Tell me, Showa… absent Halcyon, do you think we’re doing the right thing?”

You step over and give him a knuckle-tap to the forehead, which is probably insubordination but you don’t care. “Of course we are. We’re not Mavericks, we’re the furthest thing from Mavericks. They serve themselves, full stop. They call themselves Revolutionaries, but how will their revolution end? Have you ever seen a Maverick village? A Maverick government? Can you even picture one?”

“Yes, actually. Skulls and dark spires are involved. No future for the world, that.”

“Hah! Their only future is power creep. A boot stamping on another boot, forever. That’s not us. We will never be like them. We do what we can to protect as much as we can to the best of our judgment, and if what we do is flawed, or ends up looking flawed…”

Sounding Humpback’s voice rings in your memory… “Only future generations can decide whether we are truly Maverick or not…”

“… Then we adjust. We keep trying, better and better. The future generations that we make sure exist are welcome to hate us, because they’ll be free to choose.”

Nouveau examines the sky in thought. “The price of being a Hunter…”

“You dig the best ditches, they give you a bigger shovel.”

He snorts a laugh. “You sound like the fairy.”

“Heh. Maybe. All I know is, we have rules. Responsibilities. And if we hold to them, and stay what people need us to be, then in spite of everything, we are the solution.”

File: Afterlife_VIP.jpg (318 KB, 1646x922)

318 KB JPG

>>3082962

“Until we pull a Halcyon,” Nouveau smiles.

You laugh away some tension you didn’t know you carried until you dropped it. “Oh gosh that was stupid of him, wasn’t it? Hey, let’s give the freaking Repliforce Army guy the biggest stage in the world and then expect him to stick to the script.”

“A dismal end to a proud career, to be sure.”

“And if I can be demoted with good cause, then he can too.”

“We’re of one mind there, Showa. Thank you.”

Deco’s cheery voice pipes up from the distance. “Mimi! Brother!”

“Looks like they’re here.”

Nouveau flips his hair. “Good. I only have an hour free at the outside.”

“Aw, really?!”

“Did you think the second-in-command of the Veracruz Fourth could drop everything for a social outing?”

You tap your fingertips together. “Maybe a little…”

“Tsk-tsk,” Deco tsks, “is he being crabby about his schedule like Scatter was on the way here?”

“Hey, princess, some of us have vital science to be done.”

“I don’t, I don’t!” Golau’s wings shed whirligig sparkle effects. Their face looks fit to burst into confetti.

You wipe away the caveats with vigorous hand-waves. “It’s no problem, no problem, we’ll just have to be efficient! Come on, Celebratory Unit, let’s make the most of tonight!”

Your party enters the Depth Charge, finding it less active than the night of the ill-fated broadcast but still deserving of its reputation as the base’s off-duty hub.

Nouveau is the first to comment. “I wouldn’t say no to some light private entertainment in a private booth.”

“Oh pishposh,” Deco play-smacks him, “we did karaoke last time! Look, the dance floor’s open.”

“Bet I could out-dance you,” Volt smiles thinly.

“Ooh, bar’s open too,” Skittle rubs their hands. “I can commandeer it, mix us something righteous.”

“With fizz?!” Golau bunches their fists to their cheeks.

“You can’t just commandeer another unit’s bar,” Nouveau grouses. “Their hex-tactics games are open, I doubt you could best me there.”

“I can best your face, Cap.”

“What does that even—”

“Mimi,” Deco interrupts, “we’re here in your honor, so why don’t you decide for us?”

With everyone’s commitments, you can only scrape one full hour together with your friends.

You will have the opportunity to visit and thoroughly enjoy two attractions before the pressures and necessities of employment force your party to split. Each, if selected, will raise approval for two of your friends. Choices made at the attraction may raise approval for anyone regardless of their taste for it. No choice will subtract approval.

Combined with choices made previously in the game, this social outing will have repercussions for your future.

Select your first destination:


>Karaoke
>Dancing
>Bar
>Game

>>3082970
>Game

>>3082970
>Dancing
How does a mountain goat dance? I must know.

>>3082970
>Bar
Gotta get things loosened up first.

>>3082970
If the tie persists, consider me switching to Game.

>>3082970
>Game

File: Zerohasaproblem.jpg (124 KB, 800x600)

124 KB JPG

>>3082970
>Bar

I'm not saying I'm blatantly favoring Skittle (I totally am), but I also propose you imagine that cute little maniac crewing a bar. Imagine the little bow tie over their armor as they proceed to alternate between whipping up gorgeous, fascinating cocktails, or pulling a Bill Murray and give everybody tequila.

>Bar

Mornin'. Bar it is! Post to come eventually.

Twister Pegasister would be a good name for a Reploid.

File: kentucky mud.jpg (36 KB, 453x640)

36 KB JPG

>>3082970
>>3083107
>>3083553
>>3083587

“Gotta have fuel first,” you grin.

“Now you’re talkin’, like,” the twins rub their hands and zip in helix formation straight over to the line of stools. And over the bar. The bartender, a female-type Standard Beret in blue, recoils more in surprise than in offense.

“Don’t mind them,” you trot up, “they’re, uh, specialist mixologists and entertainers who signed up after a Maverick destroyed their pub.”

“And it was just terrible,” Deco plays along with a gossipy hand-flap, “glass and mahogany everywhere.”

The bartender shrugs with her eyebrows as Skittle flits around the racks like a gnat. “Takes all kinds, I guess. What sort of entertainment?”

“Now you’ve gone and done it,” Skittle mutters at the edge of hearing.

Golau glows. This is their moment. “Well let, me, show, you!”

Warm-color holographic sunbeams sparkle through cool-color springtime rain as the merry fairy pirouettes across the bar, projecting an interpretive-dance stage show within a radius of a couple meters. You’re not sure what the interpretation is about, if indeed it’s about anything, but it’s unrelentingly joyous and draws more than a few spectators.

“One’a their routines,” Skittle smiles like a mildly embarrassed sibling as they tip rum into a decanter and swirl it around. They’ve contrived to project a rainbow bow tie around their neck.

“Cute,” Nouveau observes at a disapproving remove like a stuffy headmaster.

“So what’ll it be, folks?” The bartender tries to regain her territory. “I’m Bluey, by the way.”

You can hear internal snickering in the look Volt gives you. You elbow him. “I’ll have—”

“No daiquiris,” Skittle interrupts, “this isn’t a kindergarten.”

“No drink-shaming,” Nouveau scolds.

“Says the guy who’s into cheap beer, like as not.”

Nouveau snootily buffs his shoulder trim. “For your information, mosquito, I was going to order rum, provided that you don’t ruin it with whatever you’re making.”

“Now that’s interesting,” Skittle’s eyes sparkle. “Ever had a Rum Martinez?”

He scoffs, seating himself and crossing his legs at the knee. “There’s not a chance in the world you could craft one correctly.”

“Oh that is a challenge, like. Bluey! Got any wood chips?”

She looks impressed that he’d even ask. “Yes, actually, under where your, uh, entertainer is dancing…”

Skittle buzzes off and clatters under the bar. Volt ignores him, raises a finger to the actual tender. “Riesling,” he orders.

“Coming right up. You, ma’am?”

“Mezcal,” Deco takes a stool between you and Nouveau.

Bluey nods your way. “And you?”


>Cream liqueur.
>Tequila.
>Rum.
>Wine.

>>3083681
>Cream liqueur.

I 100% approve of this crew's taste.

>>3083681
>Cream liqueur.

>>3083681
>Wine
History buff probably likes Old Things

>Cream liqueur.

File: Scatter Seelie.png (527 KB, 1200x1198)

527 KB PNG

>>3083681
>>3083687
>>3083688
>>3083702

“I’ll have a cream liqueur.” You glance down the bar. “Welsh.”

Bluey fixes the orders. Meanwhile, Skittle plays with fire. They laser-burn the wood chips in a strainer into a teapot and pour in the rum, then tip the charred chips into an infuser and fill the emptied decanter with smoke laced with the nanomachines responsible for any good buzz in reploids.

They only then notice your drink. “Holy Mother is that Merlyn?”

“Said so on the bottle,” you raise your glass to them.

Skittle laughs as light as their still-dancing sibling. “You’re all right, friendo. Now watch a master at work.”

With a tiny personal chorus of clinks and swishes chiming underneath the thrumming dance music from the floor and the chattering encouragement of Golau’s appreciative audience, Skittle finishes the mix and slides it to Nouveau. He samples it. His eyebrows go up.

“Well well.”

“That’s high praise from him,” Deco stage-whispers.

Nouveau raises the glass. “To craftsmanship!”

Your party clinks with him.

“Here here!”

“Cheers.”

“Kanpai!”

“Iechyd da!”

The conversation ebbs and flows. Nobody talks about work until Skittle mentions the time you and your first squad destroyed a major Maverick intel outpost by aiming onsite data beams into a makeshift parabolic mirror.

“Whoosh it went,” Skittle acts out, “straight down the tower, boiled the cooling systems and fried Barnacle before we ever laid eyes on him. My first unmitigated success!”

“I’m still sorry about retiring the nuke guy before you could get the jury-rigged teleporter up and working,” you apologize.

“Water under the bridge, fishflake. My science wasn’t up to snuff against my luck that time. Or the other time.”

“Other time?” Volt asks, sounding like he’s dreading the answer.

Skittle takes a drink. “You don’t want to know and I don't want to shiv the mood. Suffice it to say I gave Command a proposal and they gave me a major psych eval, for some reason. Sent me to a desk at Fifteenth, then Sixteenth poached me. And here I am. Lovely place, couldn’t have landed better. I do miss the park, though.”

Golau hugs them. Skittle allows it.

File: Scatter Seelie joins the (...).jpg (223 KB, 960x1200)

223 KB JPG

>>3083862

“An amusement park?” Nouveau guesses.

“Oakwood Theme Park. It’s—”

“It’s a wonderful place!” Golau announces, prancing across the bar just behind everyone scooting their drinks closer. “There’s rides and candy and parades and…”

When they’re done with the pitch a few minutes later, your friends open up about their pasts before active service. Given that Deco, Nouveau, and Volt were all commissions, however, they don’t have much to recall outside of family. The mood warms with stories about parental figures.

“My mom ran the company,” you volunteer when it’s your turn. “I was lucky. Some people don’t even meet the owner, but she took a real interest. The lead reploid designer did too, but more… y’know, distantly.”

“Mm,” Volt nods.

“Some are like that,” Deco noncommittally agrees.

“He wasn’t bad, don’t get me wrong. Always watched my show.”

“Wait, you had a show?” Golau’s antennae twitch.

“Not really, it was just a recurring segment,” you self-consciously backpedal. “Current events in historical context. It was meant for kids, classrooms even.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Deco leans on you, “it was a whole production!”

“They spun it off into a news series with off-the-shelf video editing and me doing all the writing. That’s not really a whole production, even if NHK did carry it…”

Volt’s heavy hand squeezes your shoulder. “Hey. You’re a celebrity for something besides hunting. That’s a fact. Be proud of it.”

You decide that he has a good point.

Select your next destination.


>Karaoke
>Dancing
>Game

>>3083865
>Karaoke

With a side of more drinks. By the time we get to gaming or dancing, we should be completely hammered.

>>3083865
>Karaoke

>>3083865
HC makes a good point.

>Karaoke

File: please axl not nickelback(...).jpg (155 KB, 1280x960)

155 KB JPG

>>3083865
>>3083890
>>3083895
>>3083897

You slap the bar with a wooden thunk, a little harder than you intended.

“You’re right! And you know what else I’m proud of?!”

“Your career?” Guesses Volt.

“Your little museum?” Guesses Deco.

“No! Well yes. But no! I’m proud of all of you! We’re the best! And you know what best friends do?!”

“She’s gonna say karaoke,” Skittle smirks.

“Karaoke! Bluey, send us something straight, we’re taking a booth!”

“Aye-aye,” she salutes.

You lead your party to the second room on the left down the hall past the dance floor, well aware of the small window of scheduling that lets you have everyone together. The space is cozy with six bodies in it, but you recall from the last time you were here that it had great acoustics. You approach the sound system...


>Go first.
>Invite (specify friend) to go first.

>Sing something aggressive.
>Sing something peppy.
>Sing something soothing.
>Sing something bold.

>Spend your remaining time here.
>Split it with another destination (Dancing/Game).

>>3084027
>Go first.
>Something Japanese from 1973 specifically the opening theme to the original Neo Human Casshan

>Spend your remaining time here.

>>3084027
>Go first
We brought them here, we might as well go first.

>Sing something aggressive.
>Sing something peppy.

>Spend your remaining time here.

File: every navigator crazy bou(...).jpg (34 KB, 384x374)

34 KB JPG

>>3084027
>Go first.
>Sing something peppy.
>Split with another destination (Game)

I wanna see Skittle and Nouveau have a drunken strategy-off.

File: Skittles finds the bigges(...).jpg (768 KB, 3000x1687)

768 KB JPG

>>3083862
>and fried Barnacle before we ever laid eyes on him
ACKSHUALLY, Barnacle survived, and his SOS call is what got us our first look at [REDACTED]. Though I suppose we can't actually talk about that part in public.

>>3084120
There's stories you can only tell to a certain degree of clearance!

>>3084263
That's no excuse to lie about the fate of Barnacle. For all we know he's still out there somewhere, waiting to get revenge.

File: Scatter Seelie pep talks (...).png (1.37 MB, 1920x1080)

1.37 MB PNG

>>3084280
At some point, we ought to all get together and tell CARE's story proper.

I got to flip Sigma off.

>>3084354
I already storytimed us once, I think in one of the mainline MHQ threads. It was during the session where you decided to play viral expert and got glittered for your trouble.

File: Slash Beast when he hears(...).png (87 KB, 294x294)

87 KB PNG

>>3084540
Indeed, I remember that one being told.

File: what did you say about pa(...).jpg (244 KB, 874x866)

244 KB JPG

>>3084540
That's hardly the end of things, though, is it?

Okay, took care of things, now to finish writing.

Hope you've enjoyed the downtime...

File: karaoke.jpg (87 KB, 1440x1080)

87 KB JPG

>>3084027
>>3084065
>>3084070
>>3084104

It’s your party and you’ll sing if you want to.

“All right officers of the Fourth,” you twirl the mic, “get your language files ready, ‘cause there’s no better version of this one than the Japanese original.”

Your friends take their seats. Deco brought her mezcal in with her and keeps it at her lap. Nouveau sits forward.

“Surprised you’re into this,” Volt comments to him.

“Voices have been singing for over a hundred thousand years, Lieutenant. It’s cultural. And I’m going next.”

“With what?”

“Enya, if the machine has it…”

“Hush you two!” Skittle shushes them as the music starts up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYVw3_NCawI

Deco gasps at your opening vocalization. “Is that Hundred Bluering? I saw one of her concert videos—”

“Zip it!” Skittle hisses.

You proceed, in your native-set language.

Facing my longing, here in this place
My crazy, non-stop craving created,
I don't even know what's true and what's a lie
There's so much information
It surrounds us and corners us
Today, once again, I'm being tested
The face of the town, so full of sadness
Is buried by the crowd, by things, in the bustling town
And yet another person is swallowed up
By a crowd of people wearing the same expressions

I'll face it with all my love
Hanging on to a faint wish
I'll go, in this paradise that's dried out my heart
When you reach out to "give up" or "end it"
I want to at least shine a soft light ahead of you and keep shining

A Larimar server steps in right between verses, sets a tray by the couch and backs out with a bow. Golau moves to distribute the drinks, but Skittle slaps their hand and does it themself.

You continue, noticing Deco lip-syncing the Japanese perfectly,

When we want to warm somebody's heart
We can prepare the words
But in this world, everything is hypocritical, nothing means anything
All around me I see helplessness
I've had so many nights when I've gone to sleep wearing despair
But I told myself, even as I cried

"What I have to face and overcome
Is surely
The boundaries my heart has made because it was too scared"

At the second break between verses, you beckon to Deco. She vigorously shakes her head and holds her drink to her chest. Nouveau nudges her but she stays put. Volt rolls his neck and makes a show of preparing to stand up, and that’s what gets her out. She hands him her drink and joins you.

You share the mic. She’s good, but she laughs under the first couple of lines.

File: megaraoke.jpg (274 KB, 800x600)

274 KB JPG

>>3084929

Yes, we all have the right to freedom and happiness
So I have to be moved
By words like "surely" and "more"

I'll face it with all my love
Hanging on to a faint reality
I'll sing, to wipe away the overwhelming confusion
I'll try to keep things consistent
In this ever more chaotic time
Before I get addicted to what I've been given
Okay, CODE CRUSH!

The applause rolls. You two take a bow, and you point the mic at Nouveau.

“Nnnnext!”

The time you spend is a treasure.

True to his plan, Nouveau fishes up Enya from the karaoke machine’s extensive archive. Skittle goes next with a rendition of “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya,” sampling from a cover done by the reploid band Rock Monster five years ago. They pass off to Golau, who delivers a soulful performance of another recent cover of an old tune: a perennial favorite among reploid partiers called “I Am Not a Robot.” When Deco steps up for her solo she picks an early 21st-century song you’ve never heard, something about counting stars. Finally, Volt – stoic Volt, background-loomer Volt, wine-snob Volt – brings the house down with Dragonforce.

Now here we stand with their blood on our hands
We fought so hard, now can we understand
I'll break the seal of this curse if I possibly can
For freedom of ev-er-y man
So far away we wait for the day
For the lives all so wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days
Through the fire and the flames we carry ON!

You never knew he had it in him.

In the end, time comes to call. Your knot of friends joins you on the way back, chatting and joking and groaning in turn, each of you a castle wall to the other against the outside world. The art-style siblings take turns leaning on each other and then swatting each other away to Sibling Distance. Golau rides on Volt’s shoulders, their elbows on his flat helmet, in no risk of falling but supported by his hands just the same. Skittle flutters close to your side the whole way, conversing when called for but otherwise pleasantly quietly tippled.

You love them all.

But you think you might be in love with one of them specifically.

As your party returns to the Fourth’s big square donut and starts to split off, you’re chilled by a sense of finality. The end of a roster, the end of an evening, the end of a rare moment when all your friends are in the same place at the same time with no purpose but each other. You don’t know when you’ll ever have this moment again. You can’t let it end with just a fade.

“Hey,” you call out.

They pause.

“I, um.”

“Out with it,” Skittle prompts.

You try to say it.

Darn it, you don’t know what to say. The heck is this so hard?

You smile and fight through the awkwardness to say what matters. The only thing that does. The truth.

“You guys… are the best.”

----

File: Valence Proteus boss battle.jpg (117 KB, 1280x720)

117 KB JPG

>>3084942
You awaken, late, recumbent in your room’s pod. A familiar tingling is what brings you back.

“Meteor Showa.”

It’s Valence Proteus. You know better than to try replying; he doesn’t use Sixteenth’s proprietary comm system to ask questions.

“We’ve made a breakthrough regarding Soul Format,” he says. “Report to your commander at once.”

The sensation lifts. A breakthrough? That can only mean one thing…

You hustle up to the Command Room. Turtle is there, looking pleased with herself. Valence Proteus is present in holo.

“Reporting,” you salute. “What’s this breakthrough?”

“The fruit of past investments,” Turtle keys something in. A satellite view of an island blinks into the main screen.

Proteus flicks his flagellum mustache. “One of our outposts has reported success in determining the origins and precise nature of Soul Format. The chief on-site DNA researcher believes that, with you as an experimental subject, he can render all reploids invulnerable to effects such as the one you suffered.”

“Wow… so where did it come from?”

“Appropriately enough,” Proteus gestures, “that very outpost.”

You squint. “I can’t say I’m familiar with it…”

Turtle brings up an interior map of the facility. “It’s called Laguz, one of the surviving islands of French Polynesia. They sold it to us under Commander Wong, and since then it’s been given over to the creatively-named Reploid Research Laboratory.”

“A Maverick occupation some years ago resulted in the Erasure phenomenon,” Proteus explains. “The site chief is convinced that Mavericks who fled ahead of the retirement force preserved enough data to recreate it in a more limited yet no less dangerous form. In order to facilitate synthesizing an effective immunity treatment, he needs you – you personally – to travel there and submit to examination.”

Makes sense. After Skittle and Proteus’s ministrations, your system is a one-off. Still, you wonder…

“Can’t he come here?”

“No,” Proteus dilates his cyclops eye’s six pupils. “The Laboratory’s hardware is essential, despite Scatter Seelie’s opinion, and it cannot be moved.”

Well that just begs the question. “What was their opinion?”

“Untenable,” his pupils narrow. “They believed they could fabricate a sufficient duplicate here if given time. That may well be true, but frankly, entrusting Scatter Seelie with the technological schematics of the DNA equipment of the Reploid Research Laboratory would constitute…” Proteus’s pupils dilate in a loading-circle pattern for the length of his very meaningful pause, “… an unacceptable risk.”

“I understand.” And boy do you. “Then who exactly will I be meeting?”

File: Spoiler Image (148 KB, 737x902)

148 KB JPG

>>3084958

Turtle flips a few holo-keys at her armrest control. “One of our best – a fish-type as well, coincidentally. He's an internal commission built by a true luminary in the field of reploid DNA studies.”

The face comes up. He has some interesting angles.

“This gentleman,” Turtle gestures. “Metal Shark Player.”

You’ve heard stranger names. “I’ll be glad to meet him. Straight beam-in, then?”

“Yes,” Proteus nods, “Laguz is thoroughly secure. Status scans indicate all personnel and security are in nominal condition. You won’t be in any danger.”

“Glad to hear it. I’ll head right out.”

“Lieutenant,” Proteus acknowledges before blinking out.

“Take your time once you’re there,” Turtle smiles. “Your roster is complete, after all, and lacking Halcyon, we’re in a new world. I think you’re due some time on a quiet island to celebrate.”

“Yes Ma’am,” you smile back. “Thanks for everything.”

“My pleasure, Meteor.”

You head over to the waiting teleporter. Your destination is already entered.

You leave Veracruz with nothing but hope for a pleasant check-up.

The glittering evening expanse of the South Pacific greets you.

Missiles whistle in from above.

Your teleport pad is on a jutting section of cliff facing the sun. It’s not an outdoors type of pad. It was moved.

To trap you.

The cliff face is sheer, but stairs have been carved out of it some distance ahead of you.


>Run.
>Climb.

>Bold Approach: Prioritize swift defeat of hostiles.
>Cautious Approach: Prioritize watching for ambush.

>Offensive Advance: Prioritize attacking your foes.
>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.

>Power Assault: Charged shots, big hits.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.

File: you remember how well tha(...).jpg (305 KB, 996x1280)

305 KB JPG

>>3084975
>Climb
>Bold Approach
>Defensive Advance
>Rapid Assault

Heckin' knew it. Don't die, Showa.

>>3084975
>Climb.
>Bold Approach: Prioritize swift defeat of hostiles.
>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.

Well SHIT. Good thing we opted for a shield-based ability.

>>3084985
I'll support this.

Who tries to trap a FISH on an ISLAND?

I don't think this trap was meant for us.

File: 1383158851459.png (147 KB, 265x200)

147 KB PNG

>>3085024
This is the Reploid Research Lavatory. We'll be flushed if we try to swim away.

File: Clearing the uplink bunker.jpg (531 KB, 750x727)

531 KB JPG

>>3085024
It was personally addressed to us tho.

>>3084975
>Climb.
>Cautious Approach: Prioritize watching for ambush.>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.
>Power Assault: Charged shots, big hits.

>>3084975
>>Climb.
>>Bold Approach: Prioritize swift defeat of hostiles.
>>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.
>Rapid
gotta get some use outta those upgrades

File: Meteor Showa learns air dash.gif (1.33 MB, 540x375)

1.33 MB GIF

>>3084975
>>3084985
>>3085009
>>3085087
>>3085259

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez33P10qco0

What a way to start your day.

The missiles are assault-craft tier, no small mechaniloid junk. Your first instinct is to leap out to the sea, but you’re not 24 hours removed from an ocean of pain and your situational awareness is still scrambling up from zero. You need to play this defensively.

You run and leap out to the cliff. And then leap again. Your tail jets flare, newly supercharged, carrying you to the rock face while the first missiles rain behind you and destroy your easy exit. You cling hard and kickjump up, struggling like a salmon.

Another wave of missiles streaks much closer to the cliff on the same vertical bearing.

>[Flex +2]

You jump up to your left and second-jump back to your right, a successful dodge of falling ordinance both times. Rock crumbles under your grip and drops your left arm as a third missile streaks down your lane. You plant your feet on the wall and double-dash-jump right for it as your new shield flares up.

>[Armor +1]

You swat the missile, the arc of your arm and the added explosive force of the kinetic barrier knocking it clear away before it explodes.

An unevenness in the rock gives you a more secure handhold and a precious second to reassess.

Okay. You’re on a cliff, on an island, being shot at. Okay.

“Meteor Showa to—”

A storm of loud crackling static claws at your ears. You shut off comms and hear more whistling, but not from above.

>[Flex +2]

You get the heck out of dodge. Identical missiles to the previous waves impact where you had hung. You turn your head; out in the water, rectangular shapes are shelling you. Metal Hawk mechaniloids? No, of course not – Metal Hawks are air platforms, Metal Rheas are ground platforms, and Metal Penguins are for sea assault.

Repliforce sea assault.

What the heck happened here?

You keep climbing. Another perpendicular barrage blows stone off the wall under you, but your double-jump keeps you well ahead of it. A fresh parallel wave suggests the pattern: two and two. No sweat. If this holds you can dodge your way straight to the top.

Tiny mechaniloids suddenly pop from the rock face and clamber down toward you, timed to the vertical barrage. You’ve seen them before. Rat drones.

>[Flex +2]

Adding quick bursts of buster fire to your jump-dodging around the missiles is an annoying wrinkle, but your defensive state of mind aims to buy the safest jumping distance you can, not the longest. You progress through the single wave of rats and double wave of Metal-series missiles.

You are one-third of the way up the cliff. You glance at the carved-in staircase; you can easily see Guardian and Death Guardian mechaniloids by their shields.


>Get over there, get solid platforms under your feet.
>Keep climbing.

>Stay the course.
>Change an Approach/Advance/Assault method.

>>3085464
>>Keep climbing.

>>Change an Approach/Advance/Assault method.
>Power Assault
Rat drones? Against hinoiki? Keep climbing that waterfall, koi.

>>3085464
>Rat Drones
>Metal Shark Player, the DNA salvage specialist

Oh, Is it Boss Rush time now?

File: put 'em up.png (126 KB, 400x400)

126 KB PNG

>>3085599
For a given value of rush, yes.

This is the start of the endgame.

>>3085599
>>3085636
Oh dear, what was the weakness chart again?

Boar ->deer-> butterfly-> racer
Ostenops->orangutan
Rat
Whale

Those are the confirmed ones, what else?

>>3085882
Spitballing
>Boar ->deer-> butterfly-> racer->Ostenops->orangutan->Whale->rat

Kinda works, but i fail to see how drones are effective against the sniper unless we play a very slow game of tank and aggro

File: selection.jpg (116 KB, 640x480)

116 KB JPG

>>3085882
>>3085906

Flame burns Arbor Elk.
Wood conducts and crushes Arc Morpho.
Electricity moves faster than Chaser Girtabomb.
Sticky bombs make excellent bait traps for single-minded animals...
Fish drones nibble away at Freezer Ostenops's cryomer-filled bones.
Liquid cryomer fractures Deepwell Orangutank.
Drills pierce the thick hide of Sounding Humpback.
Soundwaves snuff the flames and damage the ears of Corona Sphynx.

And Meganeural Spectrod freezes in the cold.

There are other weaknesses you haven't yet exploited, but that would be Telling.

>This is obviously the climax, so look around for a symbolic waterfall you can swim up.

>>3085954
>Fish drones nibble away at Freezer Ostenops's cryomer-filled bones.
mmmm, tasty

File: Breath of Fire.jpg (116 KB, 1200x916)

116 KB JPG

>>3085464
>>3085494

Now’s not the time to stop climbing.

The missiles stick to the pattern: vertical, vertical, horizontal, horizontal, though never quite in the same arrays twice. You cling and jump, cling and double-jump.

“Showa to—agh!” The static volume is painful for the moment you try to contact help. Whatever operation’s running here definitely wanted to control what information left. But how in the world, you wonder, did the occupiers thwart Sixteenth Unit scans of one of their own outposts?

You come within sight of two slow Wall Cancers just as more rats sweep down and another missile wave follows them. This much junk thrown at you at once needs perfect timing…

>[Flex +2]

You switch to Arbor Wall, charge up your throat, and enter the Cancers’ range. They quickly build up their energy balls. You fire a seed to secure a perpendicular cyberwood platform several meters above you and jump right up under it. Your hands and feet skid slowly down the rock face as the balls ricochet off and the rats come to the roadblock.

Your Hinoiki breath melts through the entire plague wave, eats into the stone and ignites the wood. The missile coming for you impacts the Wall and shatters it into smoking debris plinking off your face and shoulders. Yes! You jump through the smoke, drawing your Gaia Sword and cracking the crabs – a swing through the left first, then a wall grab and double-jump past the right one, gouging a slash into the cliff on your way past.

The Gaia Sword’s convenient pommel spike also gives you better purchase on the rock. You bash it in and hang tight for a second, looking back and down to restore situational awareness on the Metal Penguins.

The bombardiers are now the least of your problems. A dragon is rising to catch you.

It’s an Eregion-model mechaniloid, an enormous anti-air melee dragon, emerald green.

You would say that a Standard Beret is riding it, but lacking a saddle, the all-too-familiar figure is simply standing on its shoulder, arms crossed.

“You’re a long way from home,” Captain Decim taunts. “I’ll roast you here and now, Fire Fish of Veracruz!”

You are two-thirds of the way up the cliff, hanging in place by your saber and the grip of your free hand.

The dragon opens its mouth.

>Act.

VWES:
>Arbor Wall: 12/12
>Fluid Lockdown: 6/6
>Remote Koi: 12/12
>Spark Hand-Drill: 16/16

>Gaia Sword: ∞
>Ice Zanbato: ∞

>>3086167
he's been shocked, frozen, rooted, thermited, drilled, Koi'd....

....his weakness is sound, isn't it? And given our current loadout, the only way we're triggering it is to physically hug him.

>FROST BOMB into the dragon's mouth
see, this is why I asked for a stat sheet
>Remote Koi laser Decim himself
>Keep climbing, charging up
>Switch into a dash/fall tackle and give Decim a big fiery kiss. Save one dash for the return trip/dodge

The trio's been rooted, staked, thermited, UV'd, shocked, frosted, cerataniumed, and thoroughly buster/sabered.

It could be drills, bombs, or sound, and right now my money's on bombs.


Also, while our final boss may not be Nightmare Showa, we may be up against someone using our old legs for doubledash.

>Also, while our final boss may not be Nightmare Showa

Dude we're fighting a dragon. That's her.

>>3086445
It's a known dragon mechaniloid though?

>>3086167
Let's try the Frost Bomb, and then feed it a Hand-Drill when it's closer.

I think unhorsing him should be our priority.

Good morning! Back to the workweek. Keep suggestions coming, post to come eventually.

>>3086698
Just now noticed the VWES error, too. That's what I get for posting tired. Corrections:

>Arbor Wall: 11/12
>Frost Bomb: 12/12

(Hotspot IP range has been blocked from uploading pictures. Heck.)

>>3086167
>>3086198
>>3086669

You’re literally up against a wall, but it counts as high ground.

You yank yourself up by the embedded saber hilt and pop out a quick three-per-shot sequence of Frost Bombs with the swing of your buster arm. You airjump and grab again and start building power as the dragon’s own charge-whine reaches its peak.

>[Flex +2]

Two of your bombs stick, one to a wing and one to the unoccupied shoulder, while the third just misses the jaw. Decim glances at them before pointing up at you. The Eregion breathes a line of plasma orbs nearly as big as you. You calculate trajectories as fast as instinct. Your mobility will keep you out of danger of the first couple orbs, but simple geometry tells you that in a second you’re going to be caught out by the end of the stream.

So you fall to meet it.

>[Flex +2]

The first shots hammer the cliff, tearing out chunks of stone as you kick off above them. You trigger the Frost Bombs to splash, seizing patches of the dragon in icy hard-setting fluid. Decim’s expression alone is worth the drop. He braces his stance and flips his shoulder mortars forward, but just as you estimated, the last giant bead of the plasma necklace slams into you and sets off your shields.

Your Echo Shields boom like whalesong, catching Decim in the radius. The blast repels him like an opposing magnet. His shots go comically wide and his shields strobe to put Golau to shame. You intended to land on him, but you’ve blown him clear off his mount by the time your feet hit the dragon’s shoulder.

He snatches its tail on the way down, hanging tight. A set of giant tearing claws reaches for you.

>[Flex +2]

You dash backwards like a rocket, propelled not only by your feet but the volcanic thermite cone from your mouth. The fiery splash does grievous damage to the ice-weakened hull and ordinary grief to all around it.

You twist in the air and fire your tail boosters to slam back into the cliff. You skid and scramble, but the exchange with the dragon is over. It swoops up past you, flight systems still alive. Decim’s bellow dopplers past.

“Lateral fire! She’s almost up!”

And indeed you are. Breach Jump makes it a breeze, and no more missiles rain down.

You crest the lip of the cliff and see why. Knot Berets at six stationary turrets, arranged three and three, have their barrels pointed straight at you. A full dozen rat drones dart between them. The dragon takes Decim overhead, well out of your range, arcing toward somewhere further afield behind the turrets.


>Act.

VWES:
>Arbor Wall: 11/12
>Frost Bomb: 11/12
>Remote Koi: 12/12
>Spark Hand-Drill: 16/16

>Gaia Sword: ∞
>Ice Zanbato: ∞

>>3086773
Clear out the drones with the drill and advance between the turrets, then engage the Berets first on one side then the other.

>>3086773
Spark drill. Spark takes care of the drones, drills take care of the turrets.

Mop whatevers left with remote koi, and jump clear over them with a hinoiki ready up front

The frost bombs still leave slick ice patches we can dash over, right? Let's lay traps for the rats, detonate, then use them for faster clearance to close on the turrets on one flank. Maybe gaia stake one and lever it into firing into the others.

File: megaman_x4___knot_beret_b(...).gif (4.66 MB, 1200x1000)

4.66 MB GIF

>>3086773
>>3086785
>>3086787
>>3086854

Six turrets. Six gunners. A pack of killer rats. Behind the turrets stretches a wide paved space with a single hangar and a forest behind it.

This is a heck of a gauntlet. Time to show it who’s the A-rank.

You start charging and switch to your Sparkdrills as the barrage begins.

>[Flex +2]

You fire twice and get moving. The spreading trios of electric-linked drill bits take out four of the missiles and score lucky hits on two of the rat drones. The rest of the little buggers flow around and swarm for your ankles as you outrun the remaining incoming shots.

Staying on the ground is far more optional than it was yesterday. You quick-swap to Frost Bomb and pop-pop two clusters on your way up the highest vertical leap of your freaking life. The turrets re-adjust slightly to cover what you’ve just told them is your potential range.

The bombs land and the rats mob them like they’re cartoon cheese. You hit the trigger and exterminate the lot. By the time you hit the ground you have a patch of ice ready for you to exploit. You’re off to the races and it’s just hilarious how wide the front tier of turrets miss you.

>[Flex +2]

The back tier has better luck; one missile intercepts you, but a glittery flap of your Repulsor Wing takes the hit like a champ. Nothing reaches you but the noise. You pass into the front tier of turrets and face the unluckiest Knot Beret in the world. Your Meteor Melter hits full charge the instant you come out of the dash slide. He takes a Hinoiki practically point-blank and disappears from the waistline up.

You fire two Remote Koi into the air and Chaser Dash down the turret row. The back tier sees where you’re going and opens fire; you jump, jump again, and overleap the three missiles. It’s like flying. It is flying. You crash saber-first into the second gunner and Chaser Dash to the next as your koi harass the back tier.

The third gunner tries to engage you directly, but the sakura-trailing beam of your Gaia Sword dismisses him. You move to menace the others, but they’ve already abandoned the turret controls to try a team effort to shoot your fish. The coordinated pistol barrage does plinking damage at best, but not enough to get past the scales of the miniature Ginrin Showas.

You’re in top form. High mobility, speedy drones, an awesome kit, and hotter fire than ever. Repliforce regulars have got nothing on you, no matter what guns they hide behind.

Your lovely fish dish out much more than they get. Two Knots come untied and you solve the third by cutting straight through.

File: Rat King.jpg (389 KB, 1280x1037)

389 KB JPG

>>3087093

The hangar ahead of you rolls its entryway like a garage door. Your run slows to a cautious plod and you order your injured fish closer.

The slow rise of the steel reveals three ride armors: a Raiden, an Eagle, and a Sea Lion. You roll your neck, feeling confident.

“Maria, Maria, Maria… gonna make this three for three, are you? Well come on, I’m having fun!”

The door keeps rising. The armors are unoccupied.

“Um.”

Another dozen rat drones rain from the hangar ceiling and swarm for the cockpits. Between them and you, concrete and metal crack and burst as the late Liege Iteratton burrows up from the ground. His eyes are blank, his snarling face wooden, his posture bestial. All the signs of a resurrection…

The zenny drops. This place studies DNA. You suspect you’re now stuck on the Island of Doctor Player, and if he could fool Sixteenth, this place might have been compromised for a long, long time.


>Act.

VWES:
>Arbor Wall: 11/12
>Frost Bomb: 9/12
>Remote Koi: 10/12
>Spark Hand-Drill: 14/16

>Gaia Sword: ∞
>Ice Zanbato: ∞

File: you get the fuck out of here.gif (626 KB, 500x437)

626 KB GIF

>>3087098
Heck!

Frost bomb the nearest line of the rats between you and Iteratton, then Arbor Walls. One to unmoor and surf over the ice patch and into Iteratton, another into the cockpit to choke it out before the rats can crew it.

Once battle is joined proper, go in for the kill on Iteratton fast and hard. Ideally we pop more koi to snipe the rats out of the bowls of the armors.

>>3087098
use the koi like discount frost bombs, baiting the rats to bite and exploding Hanabi while lasering the Sea Lion

More or less follow >>3087120, but leave the Eagle unharmed as we try to comandeer it: I'd really like to just hover over all of them, firing homing shots while charging up another hinoiki

follow

File: Liege Iteratton blindside.gif (726 KB, 245x178)

726 KB GIF

>>3087098
>>3087120
>>3087410

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf3vfoSICo4

You know his limited tricks. He was smart enough to use poison smoke as hit-and-run cover, but now he’s just a plague rat with backup. The real concern to your mind is the ride armors. It would be great to commandeer one…

You put your strategizing on pause as Iteratton charges you. Three rat drones emerge from the chest aperture where the tails of his rat-king-aesthetic armor spiral together and cling to him like a possum. You build a Melter charge, sic your koi on the pilot rats downrange, stow your Gaia Sword and reach for your Zanbato.

Iteratton burrows into the pavement with furious gnawing and clawing. His rats remain above and make for your legs.

>[Flex +2]

You crack out a few buster rounds, but the rodents are more nimble than you remember. Your koi Hanabi themselves into the Sea Lion’s cockpit an instant before you switch back to Frost Bomb and pull another jump-and-shoot. Chaser Dash carries you farther than they can nibble and Breach Jump lifts you higher than they can leap, but you yourself are much less interesting to them than your bombs. They catch one each while you’re still in midair and you trigger them immediately. The freeze stiffens them and the splash fuses them to the ground on little quick-dry stalagmites.

You land on rumbling ground.

>[Flex +2]

You escape, your tailfin just barely ahead of Iteratton’s snapping incisors as he erupts through concrete like it were gravel. You turn and scatter-sticky him; two Bombs make contact. He ignores them in favor of scrambling on all fours again and spawning more drones.

Memories of old samurai movies beg you to do something really cool.

You half-turn away from him, right arm across your chest, hand on your Gaia Sword’s hilt over your left shoulder. He draws near.

You trigger the Frost splash and Chaser Dash to his left. The sky-blue fluid freezes his rats to him and spreads over his body as your high-speed hi-beam rakes his whole body, nose to tail. Your velocity only increases as you cross the previous splash zone, propelling you toward the hangar on your knee, arm out in a beautiful finish to an iai cut that trails holographic cherry blossom petals. In defiance of narrative convention he fails to die, but high-phase plasma into cryo-weakened hull has just ruined his day. His shields just don’t stop flashing.

You keep skidding on your knee a couple meters and pop back up into a trot. The Raiden and Eagle are in good shape and starting to move, but the Sea Lion is flame-scorched and immobile. A single rat head peeks out of the rim of either cockpit, making it look for all the world like they’re being piloted by lone mice. It would be a lot funnier if they weren’t coming for you.


>Finish the armors first.
>Finish Iteratton first.

>Destroy the armors.
>Keep one (specify) intact.

>Power Assault: Charged shots, big hits.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.

File: FUCK.gif (27 KB, 184x144)

27 KB GIF

>>3087751
>Finish Iteratton first.
>Destroy the armors.
>Power Assault.

Rattyboy is critical, and not built for direct hits. We have a few sources of them to mix it up with, too. I'd love to barf thermite right onto him as he emerges from below, but we'll see what opportunities permit.

>>3087751
>>>Finish Iteratton first.
I doubt the rats can man armors properly without the controller, braindead or no.

>Keep one (specify) intact.
Eh. The Raiden. Our main concern is the bladey Maria, and some extra hp wouldn't hurt.

>Power Assault: Charged shots, big hits.

>>3087751
>Finish Iteratton first.
Always kill the generator first.
>Keep one (specify) intact.
Fly armor, fly! Homing missiles and hover should be good ablative vs the dragon later.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.
He’s weak, dont need the huge setup anymore.

>>3087751
>Finish Iteratton first.
>Destroy the armors.
>Power Assault.

>>3087751
>Finish Iteratton first.
>Keep the Eagle intact
>Rapid Assault

Itty bitty ratto can't take much more and the rats themselves certainly don't need to be overkilled.

>>3087751
>Finish Iteratton first.
Treat the disease and the plague is gone.

>Keep one (specify) intact.
Gotta keep the Iggle.

>Power Assault.
Time to vaccinate Shark's pet.

Also, glad to see Meteor Showa return!

File: great teamplay.jpg (177 KB, 1280x531)

177 KB JPG

>>3087888
And I'm glad to have her return!

Nice amount of votes this round, and some clear favorites for courses of action. Calling it here, writing soon.

File: Liege Iteratton without t(...).png (356 KB, 1200x900)

356 KB PNG

>>3087751
>>3087763
>>3087765
>>3087782
>>3087787
>>3087863
>>3087888

You can think of a lot of uses for an intact ride armor, but you can take your pick of both by removing their controller from play.

You charge your buster and turn your back on the hijacked rides. Iteratton has gotten to his feet again, fists tucked into his rat-jaw gauntlets, his hunched posture spoiling for a fight. You get a running start toward the nearer slick, but he neither dashes nor spawns. The incisors and jawlines of his gauntlets fire out left and right. Thruster-propelled sets of gnashing rat teeth nibble their way to you.

>[Flex +2]

It’s a surprise, but after all your upgrades he’s still your inferior in speed. You circle wide on a coasting Chaser Dash and fire, but he already begins burrowing with fresh sets of teeth when you line up the shot. Your plasma shears off the paved surface. The projectile fangs continue in a straight line – and looking downrange, you see the Raiden and Eagle are in full motion, the former dashing much like you and the latter taking to the sky.

“New tricks,” you mutter. “Well me too.”

The Raiden matches your long-dash curve. For a moment – the moment that your buster takes to charge up – you chase each other around a circle some fifty feet wide. You break it first and shoot down the middle. The tiny-headed Raiden’s fists tuck in for a pummeling.

>[Experience]

Sparring with Volt not once but twice has told you enough about fisticuffs to dodge the opening swing and strike deep. An ordinary splat of thermite preps the hull for your buster blast and the Raiden careens away, smoking.

Up above, the Eagle fires. Three homing comets streak down as you feel the ground rumble.

>[Flex +2]

You glance down as you jump, possibly a mistake as it gives you a perfect view of Iteratton’s ravenous maw gnawing for anything it can reach. You jump again, sprouting shiny moth wings from your arm as the Eagle’s shots converge on you.

The Repulsor Wing nullifies two of them, and you have no choice but to accept the third one blast-marking your stomach, but you pay back the pain double on the gnashing Maverick with an acrobatic twist and a gravity-assisted shield-bash swing. The repulsor repels with explosive force, tumbling Iteratton across the pavement.

You land astride the hole he dug as the Raiden charges you. You spit a Melter rocket as you grab your Zanbato and pursue the resurrected Maverick without waiting for the impact.

Iteratton hisses and lunges for you, arm-jaws and face-jaws wide for a savaging.

“Chew on this!” You shout as you drive your oversized saber down his throat. Your reach outdoes his; the cryomer layer gives him his last meal and the lemon-yellow blade runs him through. New tricks or not, his body was never designed for such a mighty blow, and it starts rupturing the instant you swing the blade out of his hip.

File: Eregion.png (10 KB, 301x277)

10 KB PNG

>>3088060
You look back; the Raiden lists to one side at the end of a long dash and crashes into the hangar’s door frame. The Eagle misfires its cannon before it reaches the homing stage and only shoots the ground near you as it drops out of the sky. It lands on its feet, gracelessly crumpling to its knees and skidding its chest. Unresponsive rat drones spill out.

“Ew.”

You rush over to check on its cockpit. Minus some gnaw marks on the controls, it looks serviceable… which is good, because you hear mechanical flapping.

Decim, still dinged, returns on his much more injured dragon, flying in from the woods. It looks like he brought company from out there: two Tentoroid Black-Shells, spiky spinny ladybugs.

You doubt he’s here for pleasantries.


>Prioritize Decim.
>Prioritize the Eregion.
>Prioritize the Tentoroids.

>Board the Eagle now.
>Leave it out as bait.

>Power Assault: Charged shots, big hits.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.

VWES:
>Arbor Wall: 11/12
>Frost Bomb: 7/12
>Remote Koi: 10/12
>Spark Hand-Drill: 14/16

>Gaia Sword: ∞
>Ice Zanbato: ∞

>>3088065
>>3088065
>Board the Eagle now.
Those tentoroids will mulch the ride armor

>Prioritize the Tentoroids.
deploy some koi to wear away at Decim, and homing shot Decim or the tentoroids. We can chop off the dragon's wings later.

>>3088065
>>3088080
Wait, these are the indestructible tentoroids, not the miniboss.


>Prioritize Decim.
instead. We're not punching through those beetles without some very persistent drills and thermite

>>3088084
Correct. The black-shells are essentially super-Gabyoalls, upsized mechaniloids immune to conventional plasma rounds and... most forms of weaponry.

Have your koi pilot the other armor. He'll never see it coming.

File: asagikoi-300x230.jpg (35 KB, 300x230)

35 KB JPG

>>3088099
Sadly the spliced-together DNA emulations of your combat-ready siblings doesn't incorporate their more serious tricks. Asagi's system-hijacking is reserved for her own school. All that yours got from hers was agility and range.

>>3088111
It was a joke. I think. Maybe.

Unless we go and stick our sister's arm on our back as a hardpoint.

>>3088065
>Prioritize the Eregion.
>Board the Eagle now.
>Power Assault: Charged shots, big hits.

This building is a bunker against good signal strength. Post to come.

>>3088065
>>3088080
>>3088084
>>3088541

The Eagle’s cockpit reads your body type and, like any modern ride armor, auto-adjusts to fit. Pedals here, controls there – okay, good. You set the onboard buster to charge up, engage the wing jets and fly for the hangar roof.

“If it was up to me,” Decim shouts over the Eregion’s flapping, “you’d have teleported into a pile of bombs!”

You land. Your ride’s jets quickly cycle back up. “Whad’you want, a thank you?!” You open fire and boost-jump to meet the dragon.

The Tentoroids spin past to plink two of the homing shots, but the third strikes the Eregion center-mass. Interesting that it didn’t go for the beetles too – but you guess it makes sense that the massive mechaniloid would be the bigger draw for the homing system. Feathering the jets to stay aloft, you add to the punishment with a Melter rocket and rapid-tap the Eagle’s trigger at Decim specifically, going for accumulative damage.

>[Flex +2]

The Tentoroids buzz back and forth and block all but two of the ride armor shots. One ladybug takes your rocket and flashes under the molten aluminum. The Eregion’s forearm protects its rider; its shields blink from the plasma that slips through the body-blocking.

“HE wanted to test you one last time!” The Repliforce Captain continues. “So score on THIS!”

The dragon lowers its arms and jets straight for you.

>[Flex +2]
>[Armor +1]

A quick and furious exchange begins.

You might be agile enough to evade, but your mount isn’t. The most you can do is start charging and pivot it back so feed the dragon its legs first. The maneuver doesn’t quite go to plan – it takes a devastating claw-rake from the legs up to the chest, but its shield battery holds. The reach of the Eregion’s top claw is enough to tag you, but it’s just far enough away to only scrape your armor layer under the neck. Fair’s fair. You fire the Eagle’s stored charge into the dragon’s collar. Its battery labors to protect it; the open wound on its shoulder pours out smoke. A twin shot from Decim’s shoulders buffets your ride’s belly. You open wide and spit him a Melter rocket, but the injured Tentoroid takes it again while its partner crashes into the Eagle’s cannon arm. The controls scream – you abandon ship, swap your VWES, gain some air with a Breach Jump and fire a Spark Hand-Drill at the dragon and its keeper.

Electricity sizzles. Drills shriek through the monster’s hull.

You land at the edge of the roof after what feels like an hour. The dragon goes down in flames and rolling explosions, crashing through the roof and thundering its demise.

Decim sticks a three-point landing at the opposite edge. His ladybugs, one factory-fresh and one severely wounded, orbit him. The roof is wrecked, smoke billowing out of the colossal hole. He and you occupy opposite ends of a seemingly stable stretch of shallowly-arching metal.

“Think I won,” you call out.

>>3088706

“Not this time!” He snaps out his cavalry-style sabers, the high-phase blue glow adding a formal sheen to his officer’s armor. “He’ll rip your immunity out of whatever’s left of you!”

Your buster starts whining its full charge. “Who? Major Quartus?!”

He laughs. “I’LL be the Major soon enough! All hail General Quartus! REPLIFORCE FOREVER!”

The beetles swing out on a pincer maneuver. His fast-charging cannons blast two third-stage shots at you. He’s keeping his distance, possibly having learned his lesson in Maracaibo.


>Knock out the Tentoroids first.
>Forget them, eff him up.

>Keep him distant.
>Move in close.

>Banter for information.
>No games. Put him down.

>Power Assault.
>Rapid Assault.

>?

VWES:
>Arbor Wall: 11/12
>Frost Bomb: 7/12
>Remote Koi: 10/12
>Spark Hand-Drill: 13/16

Fie and blast, no pictures again. But the show must go on!

>>3088710
>Forget them, eff him up.
>Keep him distant.
>Banter for information.
>Power Assault.

Use our drones to assist against the beetles while we focus on Decim.

>>3088710
>>3088718
Seconded. Also, keep ragging him about running away every time. He keeps saying he'll end us every time we meet but bugs out early.

>>3088783
Definitely go for this jab!

>>3088718
thing to remember is sonic is his weakness. Countering him with our shields or the repulsor wing will be how we do the most damage to him. Bait him into dumb moves and punish him for it.

File: would you believe I just (...).jpg (471 KB, 768x1024)

471 KB JPG

>>3088710
>Forget them, eff him up.
>Move in close.
>Banter for information.
>Rapid Assault.

Switch to low committal attacks. He's got a better read on our mobility now, with flankers and a strong command experience using them. We're right where he wants us, but as long as we stay aware of it, we should come out on top.

Be ready to feed a koi or a Hand-Drill to the Tentoroids in a hurry, but if possible don't do more than harass and harry to keep ourselves clear.

>>3088710
>Forget them, eff him up.
>Keep him distant.
Tentoroids aren't posing a major threat, and it isn't worth using up all our shields this early in the mission.

>No games. Put him down.
>Rapid Assault.

Back home, votes cast. Time for fightin' writin'.

I kinda miss Mass Shriver now, I want to throw those tentoroids at Decim directly.

>>3088111

One koi to work the pedals, one koi gripping the steering controls like Phil in Groundhog day.

Trenchcoat optional.

>>3089467
That would take a lot of coordination.

File: beep beep.jpg (61 KB, 468x366)

61 KB JPG

>>3089510
Maybe a skill for S-rank.

File: Remote Koi deployment.gif (1.37 MB, 500x281)

1.37 MB GIF

>>3088710
>>3088718
>>3088783
>>3088786
>>3088848
>>3088995
>>3089085

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7byP8TlPG98

>[Flex +2]

Your dash and agility makes a joke of the shots and the beetles both. You let them be a stage hazard as you take a cue from the double-late Iteratton and spawn two fish on the move. He fires again, you overleap the shots, and you pepper him with plasma on the way down. He dances through your barrage, takes a plink for his trouble, and fires again when his charge tops out.

“I shoulda known you had another Maverick partner!” You jump them again, sending your fish – A and B in your heads-up display to the sides of your vision – on a pincer maneuver to match the ladybugs’ own. “You’re always running back to them!”

His charge-up is so fast he throws second-stage shots like they were singles. He strafes around the colossal hole, green comets streaking through the smoke.

“What would Hunters know about allies?!”

Your drones’ display shows one cannon aiming and firing independently of the other, trying to knock down the fish even as he shoots ineffectively for you. You duck, dodge, juke, jump.

“Was it the shark who fixed you up?!”

His shots are as good as tracers, allowing you to plot his momentum... “I was back on my feet the same hour! What’d it take you, a week?!”

You spit a rocket-propelled Melter grenade, but in come the Tentoroids.

>[Flex +2]

A hop, a jump, and you’re over the unmarred one while the injured ladybug valiantly sacrifices itself by eating your thermite rocket. It ruptures as it flies, providing exactly the cover Decim needs to tag you with a shot. Your armor holds, your battery unbothered, but ow it stings.

“You’re getting slow, Showa!”

“I’m only slow ‘cause I’m not running!” Koi A consistently succeeds at lasering him while Koi B darts about to draw his independent fire. “You ran at the Bahamas base! You ran at Maracaibo! Nice job, Repliforce! The Most Cowardly Army in History!”

Decim’s pet Tentoroid spins to his aid and absorbs your fishbeams. “SHUT UP!” He roars.

He finally passes clear of the smoke and dashes for you, sabers out, alongside the hole. You plant your feet and don’t give him an inch, streaming shot after shot with a Melter rocket thrown in for spice once its cycle is up. He keeps his cannons back, charging per usual from green to yellow, and cuts through your missile. The thermite blast is reduced to a premature drizzle. It doesn’t slow him, nor do your shots; his parrying slash only gets his arm in position for the scissor-swing he telegraphs. Knowing his tells, you dash out to the edge of the roof, getting ahead of any saber length while ordering your koi to dart around the beetle and close in.

He slams his foot down, stops his dash cold and flips his cannons forward.

His charge has gone from yellow to pink.

“DecimATOR!”

File: X1_xsupershot.jpg (61 KB, 640x423)

61 KB JPG

>>3089707

>[Flex +2]

A wide pink sphere shines around him, frying your too-close fish and unleashing a frontal meteor swarm of twelve pink plasma balls from each cannon. You flare your tail-boost not for a second jump but a hard right-angle turn in your escape dash. It’s still not enough to get out.

You duck your head. Your shield flashes from your gauntlet. Eight Decimator balls hammer the Repulsor Wing and spare you from a world of hurt. The barrier digitizes around the edges in protest of the hit, but it allowed you to take a legitimate shout-the-name attack with zero personal damage.

His moment of shocked hesitation, momentum spent and big gun fired, is all you need to close the distance. Your hand grips your Gaia Sword hilt.

You see his eyes flick to your right.

The laser-damaged Tentoroid tackles you from the side.

What he intended to be a sucker punch backfires horribly as he and the bug both get a faceful of Echo Shields. The sonic blast careens the Tentoroid out on a self-destructing arc and buffets him over the edge of the hole, flashing like a rave. You follow him out and down into the fading smoke.

He fails to recover in time, lands on his knee and rolls. You land on your feet and press your advantage, scoring a shield-worrying slash with your Gaia Sword. You go for a thrust to stake him, but he thrusts first –

>[Flex +2]

— over your shoulder. His sparking leg lashes out –

>[Armor +1]

— pushing himself away to a rolling recovery, doing no more than scuffing you. You roll the Gaia Sword in your hand and let him backstep some distance among the ruins of his dragon.

“Talk,” you order. “Why did Player want me?”

His cannons don’t charge. His knees and ankles spark; his shins are dented from the fall. He hides behind his crossed cutlasses. “Your immunity. He copies it, Repliforce gets it. Soul Format can go wide-range. Broadcast over Cyberspace. We’ll be the last left standing.”

“Another Soul Erasure…”

He grins, getting back into it. “Oh, the affected reploids will still be alive – probably. Not filleted like you were. Just given a hard reset and formatting. The Hunters will be at our mercy – us, with all their best skills.”

You charge up your Meteor Melter. “Your plan’s stupid. I came here willingly, oblivious even. Why fight me when he could’ve waited by the pad with a force beam at eye level?”

You hear a hum from Decim – not his shoulders, but his sabers. They slowly glow brighter, blue to purple. “Tests. This island is full of them. If he killed you when you landed… then he wouldn’t learn… everything you are!”

File: prominence.jpg (375 KB, 1076x1030)

375 KB JPG

>>3089713

For being a Repliforce Captain, his posture telegraphs far too much. You burn your dash as fast as it goes and escape outside the range of any saber – but he wasn’t going for a melee cut. He slashes an X-formation and his blades keep going, blazing after you like they’d simply snapped off the hilt.

>[Flex +2]

Your expensive flexible architecture pays dividends by giving you the twitch-reaction you need to let the flying hi-beams pass.

You land with your weight on your back foot. Decim runs for you, not a dash but a defiant charge.

You answer him with a mouthful of dragon fire. The wave of flaming thermite globs ablates the skin off his face, melts off his hat and deforms his rope-decorated pauldrons. The devouring heat warps his neck and shoulder joints, opening them for your primary weapon to leak into his torso.

He plods to a stop. His shields blink with fatal sluggishness. He raises a salute one last time.

“Repliforce… fffor…”

A flash of light. Rolling explosions. Streaking beams escaping his overloading hull.

You stow your saber.

“Never.”

You walk out of the hangar, undeniably pounded but definitely still in fighting shape.

The paved area is empty but for you. You gingerly double-tap your comms; the time between the taps still screeches static. Looks like it’s all up to you.

You look out into the forest. The rectangular roof of a building peeks over the canopy some distance ahead. The interference, you guess, is coming from there.


>Bold Approach: Prioritize swift defeat of hostiles.
>Cautious Approach: Prioritize watching for ambush.

>Offensive Advance: Prioritize attacking your foes.
>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.

>Power Assault: Charged shots, big hits.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.

VWES:
>Arbor Wall: 11/12
>Frost Bomb: 7/12
>Remote Koi: 8/12
>Spark Hand-Drill: 13/16

HP: Two-thirds.

>>3089716
Goodbye, Decim.

>Cautious Approach: Prioritize watching for ambush.
>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.

Let's try to not lose more health than necessary.

File: I seriously hope you mave(...).png (215 KB, 510x546)

215 KB PNG

>>3089723
Seconding.

>>3089716
Thats a heckuva buster upgrade we missed out on.

>Cautious Approach: Prioritize watching for ambush.
>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.

>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.
start using those arbor walls for cover and firestarters

>>3089758
Good catch.

I can confirm, because why not, that eliminating Captain Decim with a sound-based weapon during your roster would have gotten you the X1 fourth-stage buster.

By the time of post-X4, it was still powerful and impressive but no longer state of the art.

File: cyberforest.png (33 KB, 269x240)

33 KB PNG

>>3089716
>>3089723
>>3089755
>>3089758

You weigh your situation and the scales tip to pessimism. You’re probably the only allied-slash-sane person on the island, with who knows what cybernetic horrors lying in wait. Nobody else seems to be coming right now, either to stalk or help.

You take out your datapad and leave a note in your view-offline Spazer page.

This is SSKN-KS-01 Meteor Showa, Maverick Hunter, Veracruz Fourth. I’m caught up in a Maverick plot. A segment of Repliforce compromised Laguz Island and teamed up with the site chief to… well, I don’t want this retroactively classified because then my family won’t see it, but take it from me, it’s bad. I’m going to try and stop it. I’m stranded on Laguz right now. I think this should auto-send if I take down the interdiction field. If. Or maybe whoever comes after me will find it.

Check my will as to who gets what part of my stuff. I updated it recently. Yes, Asagi, you can have the signed poster of Prime Minister Inoue, just don’t freaking put stickers on her. I’ll haunt you, I swear.

Um. Anyway. Thanks for everything. I should go.

I love you.

Sorry for leaving ahead of you.

You hit Send. The little triple-laser icon wiggles. It will keep wiggling forever until it reconnects to the site server. Modern datapads work under the assumption of ubiquitous signal.

You spit-burn a circle in the pavement, place your datapad in the center and step over the rim.

You set your jaw and enter the forest.

Every tree is an artificial oak, a monoculture typical of places where matching aesthetics to extinct local trees was either cost-prohibitive or inefficient. You can’t imagine anyone in such a remote place would care to reflect whatever grew here natively.

You run at a wary pace, leaving your big guns off charge to keep the noise down. It helps right away; you hear buzzing. You recognize the pitch as belonging to the wings of Kyunbyuun mechaniloids, killer bee scouts and harassers. You duck out of its line of sight, your back flat to a tree. It sounds like it’s moving in a cluster of others. You don’t want to kick the hive quite yet, so you move on.

And nearly trip over a dead body.

The Steel Beret has been lying there for a while. Underbrush has grown up around his limbs, which look a little discolored from exposure. You can’t tell what ended him and you’re not in the mood to turn him over and check for backstabs. You put your hands together, bob a quick nod, and gingerly step around him.

Stepping with care through the woods reveals more bodies lying around. A Steel Beret there, a Lanceteamer there, all old-style rank and file with no visible wounds. A body farm without the organic decay. You hear more bees and seek cover.

You hear a rustling above you.

File: king of the forest.jpg (108 KB, 533x800)

108 KB JPG

>>3089985

You jump clear of a falling obiiru, an unarmed tree snake. It wiggles to right itself. Looks at you. The little light on top of its head flashes a warning light and beeps a shrill klaxon. You shut it up with a single shot.

The fallen bodies start to move in the undergrowth.

Resurrection is a forbidden science for a reason. The process leaves the victim no better than a mechaniloid from the neck up, a monster with just enough sapience to recognize targets and attack with all the skill its body can boast on paper. The dead-eyed victims staggering upright fit the bill as perfectly as Iteratton did, but you wonder with no small sense of dread whether they were resurrected or… Formatted.

You arm your buster, glancing around for routes of swift egress.

“Oh come on I already know this place is evil I don’t need freaking zombies underscoring it!”

They don’t seem to care. The Steel Berets take aim.

>[Flex +2]

You shoot first nearly every time, senses cued to the environment and anything moving therein, and in such a state of caution none of the shots they crack off can touch you.

Your path takes you to the Kyunbyuuns’ hives, Mega Nests, Repliforce insignias still painted on the central hexes. A splat of Melter spit burns the first down with ease while you pick off the bees individually. You summarily clear a second nest in the same way when a large single-shot round hits its host tree.

A dead-eyed Howlite hovers around a tree like a lazy marionette, arm cannon out. A Chrysoprase rises from the dirt, still clutching a lo-beam saber that sputters like a bad lighter before igniting.

Tests. Decim said the island was full of them…

The Howlite dives and you put him out of his misery with a quick-draw Gaia Sword. The little green regular rushes you, but your reach and saber intensity vastly outclass his. Through the trees ahead you can see a trace of metal wall, the facility you saw before.

You take two more steps before you hear a heavy crashing.

>[Flex +2]

You duck. A cyberwood monolith collides edge-on with the tree trunk next to you. The plank’s edges are rows of spikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uQjgTzw1Qw

Arbor Elk stalks toward you with practically taxidermied eyes. A metal deer skull decorates the back of his wicked new single-bit axe.


>Act.

>>3089986
Our former tactic will work even better against a dumb Elk than the original.

Spam thermite on the floor. Use either ourselves or remote koi to bait him into walking and jumping into them.

At some point, root elk himself and sticky the roots with frost bombs. Stall the explosion and everything to buy time for a hinoiki and keep zanbatos humonguous reach out to ward a counter.

>>3090091
If hes too strong for the roots, sticky THEN root THEN explode

I relay a vote from HC, and I do solemnly swear it's not cheating. One vote is one vote, and I do my best to synthesize on an >Act.

Hunters' honor.


"Bring that skull back for Skittle's chasers.

Overall we need to treat this as a marathon, not a race. We also can't assume mindless means our old tricks will work assuredly.

That said, we do have the hardest possible counter for Elk with our supercharged thermite Promenence. Let's use that and go for a decisive takedown before we can get axed. Range things out with patches of area denial fire, and our blades."


I'll give it another half hour, then start writing.

>>3090091
>>3090288
just so we're clear, these 2 ids and I are all the same person.

Mobile data and dynamic IPs have had me jumping all over the place.

>>3090337
Thanks for the heads-up. I know my ID changes all the time when I'm not at home. Still, you plus HC constitute two votes, so I'm satisfied with proceeding.

Post to come.

>>3089986
>>3090091
>>3090317

His intimidation fades as quickly as it comes. You had him outclassed when you were barely off your hard reset. You build charge in your throat, but the growing hum makes him accelerate.

You discourage him with buster fire that his ceratanium axe nullifies. He leaps high, embeds his blade in a tree, hangs there and drops three pairs of seeds. Hinoiki needs another second to finish, so you dodge the dispersal easily enough. The Arbor Walls that form are unlike yours: forbidding barricade panels of cyberwood thorns.

Two Chrysoprases rise from their shallow graves, caked in dirt. You’re ready to fire, but Elk kicks from one tree to another with astounding athleticism – not that it matters, since you see where he’s going. Your breath cone is long and wide enough to catch him and the bulk of the tree; both are engulfed in a conflagration. He falls like a rock, burning and flashing bloody murder.

You turn your attention to the regulars.

>[Flex +2]

They’re quick, but you’re quicker. You draw your saber and clash with the first attacker; his neglected saber successfully parries but flickers under the punishment. Your blade slides down his and burns through his hand and arm. Your buster double-taps him in the chest and down he goes. Whatever happened to him here, it kept his shields from activating.

The second semi-dead Chrysoprase goes for a jumping slash. You parry it, fire point-blank into his chest, and kick him under the entry wound.

>[Armor +1]

The strength of the blow pushes him further than you expected. He hits a thorny Arbor Wall and sticks in place.

A massive blade cuts the wall off at the bottom.

>[Flex +2]

You know what’s coming, but don’t expect the velocity. As you dash through a gap in the area-restricting walls, the felled thornwall goes from zero to a hundred in a single kick. Spikes scrape your tail like nails on a chalkboard. Your shield battery ignores it, but it’s still another bite taken.

You bite back, immolating Elk and two walls and everything in between with your full-on Hinoiki. He staggers back, helplessly burning, buying you the time you need to spit and spit low-level thermite globs at every other wall he seeded. Between the aimed Melters and the splashout from the Hinoiki, you make yourself a toasty hell.

Flames rise and spread. Six fallen reploids you didn’t even notice start to rise, already on fire.

Elk ignores the calamity even as licking fire blinks his shields every couple of seconds. His voice comes out his open mouth, but his lips don’t move.

“You harm. My forest. My people.”

That’s definitely a resurrection talking. You stare into the uncanny lack of affect in his face. “I’m not here for whatever’s left of you, Elk.”

“You harm. I kill.”

>>3090416

He raises his arm, forms his buster. A single seed pops out. He catches it on his blade and drives it into the soil, erupting murderous spiked roots in a line toward you.

>[Flex +2]

You pop a Remote Koi, just one, and send it to one side of the line while you take the left at a dash. He takes the right and swings at your drone. The little HUD window indicates his strike speed has improved; if your drone were any slower it might be sashimi.

Two undead Howlites hovers up, engulfed in flame. Shooting them down is light work, but it takes time. Time enough for Elk’s addled brain to compute that you’re the bigger threat. Time enough to leap over his spikewall. Time enough for you to finish another Hinoiki charge.

He burns in another gout of consuming flame. His attempted decapitation strike burns with him, but he’s still a lot of mass plummeting for you.

You make to dash, but two burning crawling Chrysoprases latch onto your ankles.

>[Armor +1]

Their already-weak structural integrity has been compromised by the energetic fire. Even with two weighing you down, you dash through the fire and the flames to carry on. Elk lands in a heap. Braces on his weapon. Stands back up.

“You haaaarm!” He lows like a cow.

You’ve had about enough of this. Your koi helpfully auto-targets the last two crawlers and lasers them into submission. You take your Zanbato in both hands and flare it out, the liquid blue containment completely out of place in the wildfire.

“Your people are safe.”

Elk’s glassy eyes blink, just once.

“My foooorest!” He starts moving.

>[Flex +2]

You give him back one of his seeds. The roots arrest his legs, pitching him forward. He struggles, breaking one leg free before the fire catches and spreads to him.

You advance. A splash of cryomer. A snap and sizzle of hibeam. Arbor Elk expires in the flames, his core-failure explosions only adding to the spectacle. You click off your greatsaber and leave his remains to smolder.

The catching fire is a stroll for you. Cybertrees, of course, have means to contain a spread. Before long you’re into unmarred greenery again.

>>3090419

Up ahead you see the facility – a side entrance, you guess, for how bland it is. The clearing between the woods and the building is deathly quiet. You step in, watching for anything, any trace of ambush or buried mines.

There’s nothing. For a mercy, there’s genuinely nothing in this quietly foreboding space. You don’t believe in ghosts, but it almost feels haunted with lingering intent – as if, one world to the left, something terrible would have awaited you here. In this world it simply doesn’t. There’s not even an [i]it[/i] to be absent. All that disturbs the quiet is the sound of your own walk cycle… and a perfectly normal organic dragonfly zipping through on its way to somewhere more important.

Your drone takes a brief interest in the bug, but doesn’t register it as a threat. It hovers over your shoulder as you pass through the clearing, having already banished the ghost that might have met you.

The door scanner reads you with a cursory zigzag of security beams. Screw-like locking mechanisms unscrew and the doors part.

You step in. The interior is… an interior. Between here and the far wall stand genericized prefab walls of Neo-Castleism architecture, bare metal patterning broken at intervals by interlocking seams and hinting at no particular purpose. The floor lies littered with dead junk, all rank-and-file corpses and pieces of – you skim, comparing to your database – nineteen types of mechaniloid. If this is a research lab, you’re not impressed.

A hatch in the ceiling opens. A junk cube drops in and shatters on the floor with a tumultuous clatter. Along with it comes something more alive: a Genjibo cyberspace-projector mechaniloid, a distant cousin of a Jamminger with a lens at the base. Comparing to similar models you know of, this one is up-armored with stylish metal rivets.

“Is this your eyes and ears?” You ask it. “I’ve climbed your cliff, I’ve waded through your body farm, but I’m not here to be your janitor. Let me in.”

The Genjibo casts a cone of light below it. Junk flies to its beam like it were magnetized. The detritus compacts and forms into a humanoid shape. A blue flicker gives it a skin.

It’s Volt Batteram.


>Bold Approach: Knock down the Genjibo at all costs.
>Cautious Approach: Take out the minions as they come.

>Offensive Advance: Prioritize attacking your foes.
>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.

>Power Assault: Charged shots, big hits.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.

>>3090420
So this is where we would have fought one of our allies, if they ever died? Oof.

Wow, Genjibos are small. I'd consider dash grabbing it and puncturing the lens with a solid matter weapon, but uh, no solid matter weapon.

>Cautious Approach: Take out the minions as they come.
>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.
this Volt has no battery, so pretty much all melee. We can take our time running rings around it, melting all the junk into proper slag.

>Rapid Assault

Maybe send an arbor wall to the walls or ceiling at some point, give ourselves a grabbing point to lunge a different direction.

>>3090420
>Cautious Approach: Take out the minions as they come.
>Defensive Advance: Prioritize evading hazards.
>Rapid Assault: Low-power shots, multiple hits.
I don't THINK Genjibos are able to summon more than one sub-boss.

File: Xarmors.jpg (493 KB, 859x752)

493 KB JPG

>>3090425
>>3090566
Let's not assume anything less than full power Ram, and hope we're pleasantly surprised.

>Cautious Approach
>Offensive Advance
>Power Assault

So far they've been whittling us down with distracting adds to stack up the attrition. Let's keep an eye towards that. Above all, though, we know from repeated experience that adjacency to Batteram is not the place to be. We should be able to make good use of the Hand-Drills for wide nets of defense against the little targets while we evade danger zone with the junk-Batteram.

File: Mecha-ArmMMX2.jpg (58 KB, 588x396)

58 KB JPG

>>3090420
>>3090425
>>3090566
>>3090727

“Rude,” you scowl.

The Genjibo zips up to the ceiling to wait as the bluer-than-usual Volt rushes you, now independent of the projector. You’re not afraid, being that you know it’s literally made of junk. You sic your trusty drone on it and pepper the big body with three plasma shots, taking care where you step – and it’s a good thing you do, because you notice a suspicious shifting in the clutter.

A Mecha-Arm strikes like a snake, but thanks to your attentiveness it clamps on thin air. Not-Volt executes a canned combo on where the Arm would have held you. After having fought the genuine article not once but twice, you feel insulted.

The persistent lasering from your Remote Koi causes no visible reaction in the fake except for hot metal dripping off the structure under the holo-skin. Not-Volt clangs its fists together, forms a suspiciously solid-looking ball of “electricity” between them and punches it at you.

>[Flex +2]

The projectile, at least, is as fast as the real thing. You sidestep it, and your peripheral vision picks up more movement in the junk. Another Mecha-Arm fails to grab you, but its angle of attack forces you to dodge into Not-Volt’s path.

>[Armor +1]

It executes a Flash Kick under your chin. Your head jerks back and you forced to your back foot. That, too, is Real-Volt-speed, even if it lacked his mass. You show it some Showa speed and perform a combo of your own, a low Melter splat and a buster double-tap.

The projection fizzles at the first buster shot; the second passes straight through. The compacted junk is scored with hit laser lines from your drone.

The Genjbo dives, lights its lamp and sweeps over the junk on its way to the far side of the room. It forms clumps of junk as it passes over, each one flickering into a blue Mettaur D2. The little homunculi go on the march and spit blue pellets.

>[Flex +2]

They’re literally trash mobs, nothing more. You leave them to your koi, dash-jump and jump again for height to add gravity to your Gaia Sword swing. The Genjibo flickers, throwing off clashing saber-sparks; it’s a lot sturdier than the standard model. The new humanoid golem it clumps together takes on a smaller form that you try to saber while you’re here, but it’s still under the light, which seems to give it a shield effect too.

The lamp clicks off and it shoots back to the ceiling to fly an observational figure-eight, its shields taking the pair of shots with which you chase it. Your new opponent’s shape finishes rendering.

Deco raises both busters.

>[Flex +2]

You snap up your Repulsor Wing as a fusillade of geometrically perfect needle-spikes launches at nearly point-blank range. The capabilities of the junk copies are enough to perfectly mimic her Platonic Suite’s cover-fire template. Your life-saving shield endures it until it can endure no more; the hexagon on your forearm sparks, the wings digitize and blip out—

File: meanwhile in Deco's closet.jpg (167 KB, 1024x565)

167 KB JPG

>>3090883

>[Armor +1]

—and you feel no pain as the last handful of big needles plinks harmlessly against your sturdiness.

“Sorry, Dee.”

You repeat the one-two-three combo that finished Not-Volt, but this time your two-three are Gaia Sword slashes. Absent the Genjibo, she lacks any sort of barrier. Deco’s form scatters like your former shield and her body of junk falls apart.

The Mets perish under your drone’s cutting laser. The Genjibo sweeps back down…


>Hit it hard with (specify).
>Knock out its minions first.

>Stick with Rapid Assault.
>Switch to Power Assault.

>>3090890
>Hit it hard with (specify). Lets try hitting it with a Zanbato combo.
>Stick with Rapid Assault.

>>3090890
>Hit it hard with the Zanbato.
>Stick with Rapid Assault.

This is working pretty well. Sturdy or not, it ate a nice heavy saber swing. Let's feed it another, then gain some ground and switch to Hand-Drills.

>>3090890
>Hit it hard with Zanbato.
It seems our Koi is doing a good enough job, and going with Zanbato to conserve weapons.

>Stick with Rapid Assault.
I haven't seen this thing do anything to make me want to DPS it to death, and it seems like we're in a pretty good position right now.