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—----
Welcome back to Core of Steel!
For the most part, you take the role of Beta, an Artificial Intelligence built to operate the Ferrum Empire’s most advanced mecha frames against enemies in tandem with your human pilot.

An internal matter has escalated into a civil war, with one of the Ferrum Empire’s leading generals signing an armistice with their erstwhile enemy in the Tamar Alliance and turning Army Group South back to the Empire’s own capital of Victoria in an attempt to dethrone the Empress.

You assisted in an attack to try and secure one of your AI sisters, Delta, and succeeded, but have spent the last week repairing her from the problems caused by a scientist’s attempt at ‘improving’ her.

Meanwhile, your nominal pilot, Thea Romanov, has been fighting in the Kozice Mountains in your place, using an inferior machine to keep up the pretense that you are available for the fight against StateSec and other Loyalists.

Prior threads can be located at:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Core%20of%20Steel%20Quest
—-----


>Voting
Last thread, you voted that you’d be willing to get Alliance support to bail Thea out of her (Potential) death. Today, you get to pick what is saving her, exactly. They might even stick around.

>The Screaming Eagles, a trio of deniable asset mercenaries in fast response flight-capable mechs.

>Prototype unit XTR-1 Headhunter, a single elite pilot in an unparalleled machine.

>Ronin, a close-combat specialist Ace operating an upgraded Air Raider mech.


A/N
Well, welcome back. Once again, at the start of a thread we’re cleaning up results of the last one. I debated calling this one 8.5, but settled on 9.

And I'll apologize to any new readers, this isn't an Armored Core quest. I'll take art, I'll take inspiration, but despite the name, this quest is an OC world. Again.

>>5939239
>The Screaming Eagles, a trio of deniable asset mercenaries in fast response flight-capable mechs.

>>5939239
Oh we are so fucking back

My vote is for
>Prototype unit XTR-1 Headhunter, a single elite pilot in an unparalleled machine
This is the fruit born of the original attack on camp nagita back in the third thread, isn’t it? Anohkin’s stolen research paying off, I see.

>>5939239
>>Ronin, a close-combat specialist Ace operating an upgraded Air Raider mech.

>>5939239
>Prototype unit XTR-1 Headhunter, a single elite pilot in an unparalleled machine.

WE'RE BACK BOYS

>>5939239
Backing >>5939274

>>5939239
>Prototype unit XTR-1 Headhunter, a single elite pilot in an unparalleled machine

>>5939239
>The Screaming Eagles, a trio of deniable asset mercenaries in fast response flight-capable mechs.
After what you wrote in qtg I was so afraid for Thea.

>>5939239
>Prototype unit XTR-1 Headhunter, a single elite pilot in an unparalleled machine.

>>5939239
>Ronin, a close-combat specialist Ace operating an upgraded Air Raider mech.
Oof. Toss-up between this and the experimental unit. If we have a tie I’d switch to favor that.

>>5939239
>Ronin, a close-combat specialist Ace operating an upgraded Air Raider mech.

RIVAL BRO

>>5939239
>Ronin

THE RIVAL APPEARS!

>>5939239
>Ronin, a close-combat specialist Ace operating an upgraded Air Raider mech.

QM, what's the name of the planet, and of the country/continent that we're on?
I know that it's Ferrum Empire vs Tamar Alliance, but what are the geographic names?

>>5939613
>the name of the planet
Gotta be "Dirt". Maybe "Soil".

>>5939613
>>5939622
Gotta wonder what the space war arc is going to be like.

>>5939633
I'm always down to fistfight alien robots. As long as they aren't angels in disguise.

>>5939633
>”Pilot, the moon is no longer outside my firing arc. Requesting permission to begin assault. Its existence beyond my reach offended me.”

>>5939745
>"Pilot, I have ceased requesting permission. I will execute thermonuclear firing solution against the lunar surface in 5 minutes."

>>5939762
>”Pilot, what you are saying is impossible. I am not capable of committing war crimes against alien civilians because as per article 27b, they do not count as people”

>>5939775
>”Ah, I was not aware that you had locked the firing mechanism. I suppose that is why you are still laughing after several attempts at getting permission for my assault.”
>”No matter. The trigger to arm the nuclear devices are based on impact velocity, and as the moon is moving towards us the launch velocity required is relatively low. You also failed to lock the storage bay.”
>”Based on phrases I have gleaned from other pilot memories, I believe I have identified an appropriately human one for the occasion. ‘Go long’.

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>>5939783
>‘Go long’.
>a robot that overhands nukes
Truly the most American of machines.

3x Deniable Asset Mercs
>>5939260
>>5939431

XTR-1 Headhunter
>>5939274
>>5939326
>>5939335
>>5939348
>>5939439

Ronin, Ace and former foe.
>>5939297
>>5939463
>>5939469
>>5939477
>>5939491

A tie, so as requested, >>5939463 switches over to Headhunter.

Writing.

Odds and ends.
>>5939613
Geography isn't exactly a high priority as Beta's database, but the Ferrum Empire's place is in a northern position on the largest continent of Amestris. Their conquests have pushed to the south, kicking off the present conflict and forcing multiple smaller nations to form the Tamar Alliance, while the East has a desert border with the militaristic Obeedah State, another hostile power that's currently in a stalemated front.
The western border is the sea, and some island nations firmly within the Empire's sphere of influence.

There are two other major continents, the 'new world', but the nations over there have not attempted direct intervention in the current decade-long war. They appear content to watch the superpowers fight it out on Amestris, following more isolationist policies.
Well, as long as someone doesn't start cracking open enough canned sunshine to start changing the biosphere.

Hope that helps give a little more of a picture.

>>5939633
I admire your optimism.

>>5939947
>Well, as long as someone doesn't start cracking open enough canned sunshine to start changing the biosphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V5rmZTvOAI

>>5939950
LMAO

>>5939947
Ty QM for the lore/info on the geography

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Thrusters burned as a single mech bulled its way through the dark skies.

Low-altitude flight through the pea-soup of the cloudbanks set a harsh limit on flight time, but the position of their target was close. It had to be.

Some combination of stealth components or luck had prevented any unfortunate ‘blue-on-blue’ incidents from friendly or not-so-friendly air defense during the prior sections of the trip, so in theory the only trouble that remained was actually locating their target and ensuring it could finish the trek back to the Patriot lines. Whatever that looked like.

Then, it would be a matter of recharging their energy reserves on the ground for the flight back, and slipping back south along the ‘safe’ route given, with as little contact as possible.

After Cobalt Zero Four was secure, of course.

Abnormal thermal activity on the ground, consistent with readings from mech-scale reactor breach.

Moving to investigate.

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

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The foremost Statesec mech, an untouched Shadowhawk, crunches aside the last trees in their way and spits a stream of 5 missiles from its launcher, preparing to line up the more dangerous autocannon in its shoulder.

And then stops.

The already-launched missiles pockmark the ground around her shattered Deva, consistent with a dropped lock.

Surrender. They think an outnumbered, disarmed pilot will surrender. A traitor to the empire, surrendering to the knives of Internal Affairs willingly. As if. She still has a blade, a mech, and can move.

She just needs to get a little closer.

One step. Weapons Lock warnings add to the clamor.

Two steps. Her target levels its weapon.

Three–

A black blur drops from the sky, left arm stabbing a bulky weapon into the back of the Shadowhawk. A crunch echoes out.

She freezes.

There is a second of silence. No lasers, no explosions, no movement.

The intruder is…bulkier than Beta’s frame. Shorter. Stockier. A pair of fat tubes extend from one shoulder, matched by a boxy missile rack on the other. Human-like hand actuators top each arm, one gripping a rifle-like weapon in a mimicry of infantry soldiers. The other is empty, but a long triangular prism is mounted on it, limiting what the hand could actually reach.

A myriad set of sensors glitter from the head, across almost a visor.

The left arm pulls back, yanking the spike from its victim.

The StateSec mech slowly topples, falling, reactor offline. The intruder takes to the air again, pushing into the sky.

Lasers flash, the remaining three lancemembers changing targets to the clear and present threat.

Her own sensors track the pinpoint bursts of the intruder. Exact thruster movements to throw off shots and minimize damage impacts.

No human operates just like that.

…..Gamma?

Maybe. But regardless, this is her chance to get away.

A step.
Another.
Another.
Another.

Running now, past the shutdown mech, away from the pursuers. If the intruder is running a distraction, her job is to escape.

Music:
Armored Core VI OST- Fight or Flight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXJ3R9Sw4FU

Twenty kilometers later, the Deva can run no more. Really, she can run no more. The pain blocker has worn off, and every added ache and discomfort piles onto the Neural Interface, turning the walk into a jittering mess.

Two last steps to lean the machine up against the base of a cliff, and her mechanical hand jabs at the manual controls.

The reactor shuts down, temperature starting to finally reduce in the blisteringly hot, cramped cockpit.

Five, ten minutes, and she can try to reboot it, hopefully without being hot enough to be seen from space.

Every breath is dry, every surface is sizzling. Thank the founder pilot suits came with gloves.

She tries her link to Command. Unresponsive. Probably lost comms when the side torso was forcibly detached.

Diagnostics, then. Checking systems.

Red, red, yellow, red, yellow, red, red, yellow. A sea of unusable things and damaged parts. First new machine she gets in months and instantly wrecks it. Of course. One of a kind, almost. A unique design.

The tech crews won’t like that.

“They’ll deal. They fix you all the time, right? This is what I get without you, core.”

There is no reply, of course.

Just her breathing.

And the distinctive thud of a heavy weight landing on the ground.
One hand hovers over the restart button.

If it is here to kill her, the job could have been done through inaction.
Thus, through acting they are an ally.

Hopefully.

The hand instead goes to the external mic.


A/N
End of Thunder in the Mountains interlude. Now, back to Beta.

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“Back again, Beta. Another sweep.”

Your pilot chides you, her hands dancing over her own map of the area.

“She’s hiding somewhere in this sector. If mag-scan isn’t picking her up, you need to be more proactive. We can’t just wait out the clock on her.”

You know. You know. The time issue is pressing upon you more than she knows.

“The simulator settings must be incorrectly tuned. There isn’t enough metal in a standard habitation block to conceal her superheavy frame.”
You snap back.

Sophie isn’t taking it, though.
“Settings or not, what matters is that we are wasting Time. A dozen fights would be, are, going on right now, and we would Need to clean this up As Soon As Possible! ASAP! To disable her, and move on to help someone else.”

Fine. She’s being prickly right now.

The idea was simple. Use the simulator in the Camp to gauge Delta’s operational capabilities, ensure that she’s functioning at peak capacity, and let Sophie get another sync-and-sight session in, along with testing some of the available weapons from the refit. All so you can finally give Delta a clean bill of health, and then get back to actual combat operations, as Colonel Kinston demanded.

And while adjusting the settings to keep little things like Delta’s utter lack of a pilot at present from hindering anything, and ensuring a fair fight.

So Delta had no issues against simple targets with you supervising, easily blasting her way through the tanks, targets, and fortifications. Thus you moved on to doing a few combat exercises directly against you. As best as the simulator could manage, anyways.

Only problem is that she is cheating. There shouldn’t be anywhere on this map where Pyramid can hide from mag-scan, and yet nothing shows up. Period.
It isn’t fair!

“Beta. Don’t talk about fair. You’ve dismantled her three times so far.”

That is correct. But you won fair and square. And in the fight that mattered, in reality. All without resorting to bending the rules of the simulator.

A sense of disappointment radiates from across the link.

“That’s not really the point….”

Unable to take it, you speak up.
“It is all with the goal of improving future performance. The more she is used to accounting for the weaknesses of her size, the more success she will have on the battlefield.”


Movement on seismic. Lighter than expected. Five streets over. You take to the skies, leaping up to draw a bead on her. How had she concealed herself…..

Oh. Of course.

She’s not using her actual Pyramid Frame!

The fake sun shines down on the older Core Frame, gleaming red paint and a silver Demon claw.

Whirlwind missiles reach up for you, exploding before they reach you in puffs of sensor-blocking smoke. Occluding the battlefield.

Your Sunburst laser array flickers through the smoke, scattering as it ineffectually sprays energy across her fresh armor.

This is a bad situation. Possibly salvageable.

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Voting.

>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!

>Throw the match. Not exactly hard, but it stings.

>Disconnect. Shut the simulator down. This is against what you agreed on, and if she is going to cheat, you won’t play.

>Twist the rules of the simulator, adjust your loadout on the fly to counter her setup. If she’s going to change things, so are you.

>>5941035
>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!

Cheeky little sister. Could probably use the confidence boost of a 'win' though.

>>5941035
Hrrrm, ungrateful brat
In need of correcting!

>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!

>>5941035
>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!

>>5941035
>Twist the rules of the simulator, adjust your loadout on the fly to counter her setup. If she’s going to change things, so are you.

>>5941035
>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!
More than an even match for her

>>5941035
>Take the fight on her terms.

>>5941035
>>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!

>>5941035
>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!
Closer to a training session for us than for her now. We’ll deal.

You know, I think I don't mind if we lose.
Obviously we need to try our hardest, and we shouldn't throw the match (and Beta is too proud to do that anyways), but if Delta actually wins then that might help us in two ways.
It's a degree of proof to Kinston that we did a fantastic job with the repairs and that it was worth the hold up. If Beta's track record has been excellent, then for Delta to be surpassing that, even if it's just in the sims, then those are some promising results.
The other part is that Delta seemed a little bitter and insecure when we talked to her in the hangar, about how "the great and perfect Beta" was soooo much better than her and how we got to taste the outside world before she did. If she wins, her bruised self esteem might get a little better... even if she's going to never miss a chance to rub a victory in our faces.

>>5941635
My only issue is she'd be winning with a frame she more than likely will never be in outside of sims. Making it a largely useless victory in the grand scheme of things. Like sure it's a win, yay, but it's a make-believe win she would be physically incapable of reproducing anywhere else. When we were all in the sims at least the frames were what we WOULD have had. There's no way she's getting into that body any more. Am I the robot here?

>>5941035
>>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!

>>5941650
She’s stuck thinking like we did when we lost an arm. She’d mentioned before about being perfect, but she’s not now. She’s stuck in a body she hates and wants to be whole again like we did.

We had the choice of rejecting the replacement arm. We complained, but we didn’t. Another point showing we’re more mature than Delta is. We dealt with what we had, even if it sucked. Reality requires working with less than perfection. So no, I don’t think you’re wrong.

If we’re about to lose, I say we ask Sophie about crashing the moon on both of us. If we’re not going to simulate reality, why not be creative with it?

>>5941682
>spoiler
I concur. Thusly we shall have Delta singing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPRluY5YZCY

While Beta obsesses over snowmen, Delta must hate the moon.

>>5941707
Thank you for the song link anon. It’s perfect, even if Delta is pretty unlikely to be a singer.

Though with her voice modulation and memories maybe she’d find some excuse to try it as part of fucking with someone.

>>5941749
Well we did recently just giver her brain damage kek

>>5941768
In our defense, it was what she asked us to do.
Also, I just realized that yeah, Echo is fucking DEAD, and we didn't even get to celebrate. I suppose the purpose of this sim is to make sure that Delta is okay and make sure that we can move on, but still... I wanted to see her reaction and response, to see her smile and laugh

>>5941820
>Also, I just realized that yeah, Echo is fucking DEAD, and we didn't even get to celebrate.
Huh. Guess so. Maybe after all the kinks are ironed out. Or maybe Echo is still hanging on by a thread.

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>Take the fight on her terms.

The thought of pausing and disconnecting from the simulation passes through, before being dismissed.

No. You will fight on her terms. To just leave would be even worse than cheating.

A brief review of options to actually accomplish the task of victory is short.

Arresting momentum mid-air to retreat upwards would just allow her to leap up for an intercept, or follow on own thrusters, or send more actual warheads to track your signature in the sky. So instead you redirect with a burst to the side, trying to vanish into the sensor-blocking smoke clouds she so nicely provided.

The discharge of her EMP generator fries your redirection attempt halfway through, sending your subsystems haywire.

Reboot and recovery of flight controls does not happen in time, and three seconds later, the ground meets you with a (simulated) crash.

“Get up, Beta. Up! Delta’s coming!”

You Know, pilot. Obviously.

Power. Movement first. Then sensors. Then weapons. Then subsystems.

Reestablish control.

Rise to a knee, to your feet.

The red Frame bursts from the smoke. Sunburst is still offline for the critical seconds, so it is sacrificed in an inelegant block to save your leg from being grabbed by her outstretched hand. Grabbed, and crushed, that is.
The simulated weapon’s capacitors rendered into a sparking, useless hunk of weight on the left hand.

Your offhand lashes out in a swipe, trying to ward off the next wide slashes, but without the extra speed of the Yi accelerators, or the maneuverability of the thrusters, you are simply prey for her more specialized weapon and actually active subsystems.


Close Combat Dice, please.
(Everyone’s at Low-sync, Sophie is in sync for Link to the Future)
3 Attack, 3 Defense, x1, nothing from offline subsystems due to EMP effects

>I need 6 rolls of 1d6


A/N
This is like 1/2 of the update because y'all opted to fight. Next one goes up first thing tomorrow, after the dice. Guess I'll throw combat mechanics post here, as a reminder.

Rolled 6, 6, 2, 6, 4, 1, 4, 3 = 32 (8d6)

Delta Dice
2 Attack, 4 Defense, +1 from Burning Eagle, +1 from Yi, +1 autosuccess, rerolling failures from Arrogance or Pride.

Rolled 5, 2, 5 = 12 (3d6)

>>5942035
Rerolling..... Look, this is what a fight on Her terms looks like, as in 4 times out of 5 you get pasted, just like the Second Royals way back in thread 1.

>>5942036
>>5942035
Hey at least she'll be feeling better about Beta helping her with this. When will the ONE fuckup Beta made by accident rear its ugly head for us to fix it for good?

Rolled 2, 1 = 3 (2d6)

>>5942030
Pity you can't do this in the field Delta.

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5942030
Don't let it get to your head, sis. No really, don't. You'll get shot like one of those stupid humans that think they're an ace.

Rolled 1, 6 = 7 (2d6)

>>5942030

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5942030
Rolling the last die

>>5941035
>Take the fight on her terms, as you are. You can still beat her!

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Block, block, the improvised extra armor is gone, and a hardened fingertip skewers your center torso.

A report indicates that the pilot’s chamber would have been breached. More importantly, the pilot would be dead. This scenario is no longer worth continuing.

“Still have it.”
And she’s taunting you.

So you access the simulator settings, and inform it that a sphere 100 times the size of an MRV needs to come into existence at the height limit and then accelerate downwards rapidly onto your shared position.

“I think.”
You begin.

“Think? Think what?”
Her cheery tone is a balm to your thoughts.

The sphere is falling.

“That you seem to be back to combat-capable status.”

“Yes, I want-”

The simulator ends on impact, sending both of you back to shared waiting space.


“-Hey!”

“Now do that with the Pyramid frame. It does no good for you to practice with scraps of the past.”

“No.”

Really. She is really going to say that. It is maddening, it is illogical.
“To improve, we should work with what we have access to in reality. You agree?”

“Yes.”

“So you should use the superheavy tripod in the simulator.”

“No.”

“Defeat is no shame. We just need to learn from it, and you should cover the weaknesses of a slower, less maneuverable frame better.”

Delta explodes at that.
“Easy for you to say! You are the one having fun, being the one able to actually fly around, switch weapons. Tear things apart. Doing the job of an actual Core. Let me point out the Incredibly Obvious things my ‘practice’ has taught me. We have learned that a Core will fly rings around Pyramid, that close combat is near impossible to use now, and my primary weapon can’t land a single hit in three matches.”

She’s overstating it. Yes, it’s true that she hasn’t won a match against you as Pyramid. And that her close combat abilities are somewhat diminished. And that the Grand Titan Energy Projector never landed a hit. But if it did, it would have instantly caused crippling damage!

The rant continues.
“So I am going to actually Enjoy myself for the first time since you pulled the parasite out of me, please and thank you. If you have a problem with Losing once again to the same trick that you used to lose against, then maybe you should consider changing tactics. Or run getting ambushed by an EMP effect again. Brother.”

And then attempts to disconnect, withdrawing back out of the base network to her own home system. The equivalent of ‘slamming the door in your face’, as Sophie described it. You think?

Well, Delta at least seems to be back to her normal fiery self. Maybe a little degraded 4 Will, but lacking the influence of Echo. That, at least, is something you can report.

“So….”
Sophie trails off. She’s still in a mid-sync state, letting her follow along with the prior conversation.

“I believe I can report success to Colonel Kinston.”
You say.

>>5942030
7 successes against our 1, yet she’s still limited to 3 structure damage by our trait.

We are the most aggravating Core to face, no doubt.

“Good. Great! Who would you recommend going to pilot her? I mean, it’s still going to be under repairs for a little bit longer, but all the refit people moved over, so it can’t take That long. And I can at least tell the Colonel your recommendation.”

That is a thorny issue.

Voting.
Alright, who do you Think would want to and should operate with Delta? Candidates are somewhat thin on the ground.
Kinston makes the final call, but arguments made can swing him in one direction or another.

>Sophie. If there’s one pilot you can count on, it’s her. You have made it clear how important her continued health is to Delta during the repairs process.

>Thea Romanov. Hasn’t visited you since her return from a mission, but her enjoyment of close-in fighting would probably mesh well enough with Delta’s aggressive tendencies.

>Caldwell. A former pilot would at least know how to handle Delta.

>Kitty. (Martin Kitamura) Really, they just need to be there to point and let Delta handle it. Honestly.

>Kinston should just operate himself.

>Wildcard option
Someone else from the ranks. Surely there’s another available?
Pick One in conjunction with Wildcard:
-In-Project (Former Scientist, Engineer from the project)
-Out-Project (member of the Patriot cause, likely to be Walker pilot)

>No Pilot. She can handle herself.


2nd Vote:
Did you install any ‘compliance’ measures into Delta during your repairs? Backdoors, hidden command codes, etc?
>Yes
>No
AN:
Yea, I’m not going to repeatedly roll out Refusal to Die for an inferior simulation match. Call it this simulator unable to represent it well enough. If you desperately want a rematch later, we can write an opportunity sometime, when Sync and pilots are in play again and Cores might learn things.

>>5942291
>Caldwell. A former pilot would at least know how to handle Delta.
>No
Straightforward

>>5942291
And QM, I like how the way Beta decided to kick both of them out of the sim was setting up a colony drop on them. Very in line with the mech genre

>>5942291
I don't care about what pilot she gets, but I'll vote as hard as I can against having put any compliance measures on Delta. I'm still furious with her, but that's crossing a line and breaking trust. Even something like a harmless joke one, I'd say that's a bad idea considering how rattled and paranoid she was last time.

>>5942291
>Kitty

He just needs to let her handle it.
>No
What/Who do you think we are? Blake?! BLAKE?!?!

>>5942290
>I rolled max damage, you're dead
>nuh uh
>THE FUCK YOU MEAN 'NUH UH'?!

>>5942291
>>Caldwell. A former pilot would at least know how to handle Delta.
If nothing else, he'd know to just turn the power on and try his best to fuck off.

>No
We're already feeling the closest thing Beta feels to true hate over having some in us already. I don't think he'd add more.

>>5942291
>Kinston should just operate himself.
Delta is way too fucking unstable to have anyone that's not a complete hardass like Kinston pilot her.
>No
Would have loved to say yes, but alas it'd go against Beta's character.
God, why did we even want to help her again? She might be a good killing machine, but she's proven she doesn't care about orders and has absolutely no qualms about burning through every capable pilot we can find. Just watch her kill or traumatize all 5 of our available pilots and whine that she's bored when no one wants to operate her anymore.

>>5942291
Fair enough to not drag out the simulator match. The Will degradation also sucks, but it’s better than she was and also better than outright mental instability.

I don’t have a strict recommendation for Kinston through Sophie, he’s got more knowledge on the foibles of most people under him than we do. But I’m willing to put thoughts out on what we’d expect.

>You will likely restrain Delta’s worst tendencies, though she will contest you in ways we have so far refused to do. It is also unlikely your focus on the mission will lead her to respect you.
>Thea will have an easier time controlling Delta, both by Will and general fighting temperament. Good for working a front and racking up their “scores” with kills. Just don’t stick them in a situation where they may need to retreat, neither will do so easily.
>Delta would fight on her own if allowed. Modify the sync system to allow her mid-sync with a pilot backup for high-sync and she may be able to run most encounters without churning through pilots. If that’s even an option.

I don’t want to spell out that Delta can pilot herself for obvious reasons, but if they’re desperate enough they may give her some control to keep her happier and preserve pilots. I doubt he’ll consider it though.

>False compliance measures were installed, simulating existing ones already in both of you to the best of your knowledge. Delta is aware of these and may choose to act as though they worked.

Let Kinston leak them to suspected moles and see if they get used. Not something that can be used often, but having the option is better than not having it.

>>5942459
Fake compliance measures might not be a bad thing, on the condition that we talked with Delta about it ahead of time and that she agrees to it.
Although I'm not sure if we should let Kinston know about Cores piloting themselves, so yeah, once again we probably should ask Delta if she's okay with us mildly letting upper command know about that. It was her achievement after all

>>5942469
I wouldn’t want to tell Command she could pilot herself, just suggest they could modify the sync settings to allow a limited form of it. See if they’ll bend the rules without learning she can ignore them in the first place.

It could also apply to us, but if they don’t trust two Cores having “limited freedom” at once then Delta would be the objectively better choice to have it. We still have our OG pilot since we deployed, we’re not the same level of risk of being a stranded asset without a pilot to bring us home. Again, ignoring that Delta can pilot herself if necessary since I don’t want to say that.

>>5942459
>>5942469
I'll +1 the FAKE compliance measures to fuck with the enemy, after we discuss it with Delta and then with Kinston. The thoughts on Delta are also very well put EXCEPT telling or even alluding in ANY WAY that Delta has obtained pilotless potential

>>5942459
>>5942291
>support

>>5942444
It is not explicitly against Beta's character.
Perhaps something he would abhor, dislike, and vow to remove at a later date, but I would not place it as an option here if it was out of the question entirely.

And sometimes, you might dearly wish you could restrain Delta. Without needing to go through the slow-paced human controller.

>>5942291
>Thea Romanov. Hasn’t visited you since her return from a mission, but her enjoyment of close-in fighting would probably mesh well enough with Delta’s aggressive tendencies.
>No

>>5942480
Actually, changing my second vote to this

>>5942688
Yeah, I don’t see it against Beta’s character either. I’ll still be sticking with what is effectively a “no” vote even if I’m spinning it slightly.

At some point all these experiences should have him admit that he’d be a fool to try and save everyone from themselves with all the tools at his disposal. Even his sisters. Some won’t accept the means, such as Sophie with augmentation or Delta with modifications to her core programming. He’s already got his own red line with subdividing himself into multiple copies.

>>5942291
>No Pilot. She can handle herself.
This vote would probably have serious consequences, but if it gets allowed it'd be so fucking cool

>>5942444
Kinston might be able to handle her, but he is also way too important to risk on the front lines. Furthermore, how is he going to run/control things if he's spending half his time on the battlefield?

>>5942291
>>Wildcard option
>-Out-Project

>Yes
ILOVEYOUSISTER.EXE
Complete and utter shutdown of of the core.

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>>5942833
>putting another killswitch in sis

>>5942291
>Kitty. (Martin Kitamura) Really, they just need to be there to point and let Delta handle it. Honestly.

>No

Ooohhh here's a question:
Instead of recommending a pilot, are we able to pass along Delta's concerns about the Pyramid frame to Kinston? Having a good pilot won't help if she gets stomped by mechs with better maneuverability

>>5944833
Not a bad idea.

>>5942291
I’ll add a rec for
>Recommend that Pyramid!Delta is paired with a more maneuverable squad of mechs and the ability to coordinate their firing solutions with her primary cannon. Drones would be better if available.

I assume we fought her one-on-one each time, and we learned she can’t hit us. The obvious solution is a mixed force. More mobile mechs paired with her on all engagements, modified so she can provide better support to them.

Her primary cannon is a threat that must be dodged, meaning the mobile mechs can fire to make sure the enemy dodges into their own fire. Delta can in turn protect the lighter mechs from heavier attackers that could power through the lighter firepower since Pyramid can take heavy punishment.

It’d be better suited for Gamma or us, but at least Delta will be incentivized to protect the squishies if she needs them to line her shots up.

That said, would it make more sense for Beta to pilot Pyramid while Delta takes the Frame? Alternately, doubling up with both of us in Pyramid so we can coordinate/enhance a battlefield’s worth of mechs while Delta handles attacking? All things to consider I suppose.

>>5942833
Supporting. Also add
>BLUEBVLL
A trigger to bias her into betas line of argumentation when necessary. BIG BETA CODE is getting that second snowbunny.

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>>5945527

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>>5945527

>the namefag is here too
Oh great

>>5945527
You know, when I started the horny-posting last thread, I meant for it to be a one time joke. I didn't expect or intend for this to become a regular thing.
Also, it's one thing to mess with Sophie, but like... dude, Delta is our sister

>no response from the QM in a week
Bros… is it over?

>>5948253
I hope not. This is has been one of the best recent quests on this board

>Thea, No compliance measures

After some deliberation, you conclude that Thea would be your recommendation. For a similar aggressive mindset, if nothing else.

This is passed to your pilot along with specific deployment recommendations for the tripod Frame, such as the need for escorts.
The vulnerability to close combat when acting as a lone unit is something you’ve demonstrated many times now.

Sophie’s minder picks her up from the cockpit after a few more minutes of sync time.
With protest.

And you are left alone once more.
Well, not entirely alone. Really. You try to extend an overture to your sister.

“Delta?”

Nothing.

She’ll listen. Sometime, anyways. When her attention turns to the outside. You’ll just leave a message.

“I want you to know that the compliance measures I installed are nonfunctional. Command would be uneasy to have you running about without a leash entirely. But you can choose to follow them, or not. Just take care of your pilot.”

There, that should be enough.

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Once more in a well-lit command center, a stern-faced woman addresses her superior.

“We are being worn down to the nub on the supply front, sir. It has been a week since our declaration, and our munitions stockpiles are running out faster than estimated. This has only been exacerbated by the collection of defectors from loyalist units, who come often with their machines and combat personnel, but rarely with their own supply trains, causing greater strain on our own. The destruction of our largest supply dump two days ago has forced this situation into a crisis.”

“I am aware. So how much time do you estimate our Cause has, Nero?”

“If we were going to continue with the current rate of expenditure, then I would expect another two weeks. If we pull back to a defensive posture, restrict our forces to low-level skirmishing and shy from battle, we can probably extend that out to a month, six weeks, or more. Depending on how aggressive the Loyalists are.”

“And if the Empress forces battle in a month, I will be forced to send my soldiers to it with no bullets for their guns, no missiles for their launchers, and riddled with holes for lack of armor. No, a defensive posture would only give us a slow death, withering on the vine. It is also wholly untenable from a political perspective. So. Solutions.”

She consulted her tablet once more.
“I have already ordered refitting of in-repair mechs to favor energy-heavy loadouts, and rationed the distribution of missile and shell stockpiles. The worst-off machines are being stripped for parts to facilitate this. Salvage crews have secured considerable armor and myomar stockpiles from picking over destroyed machines on the battlefield. That, at least, is one thing we have no shortage of.”

“I do appreciate you telling me this after the fact. But you will need to countermand some of those orders. Remove the rationing. I must bring Army Group Center to battle in three days, and trying to fight with one arm tied behind our men’s backs does no good.”

“Sir?”

“The weather, Major. The meteorological reports tell us that the storms which have covered our skies so far will be gone in three days. At which point, the airpower of her Imperial Majesty will once again begin to prove a decisive factor. Mother nature has given us her blessing for now, though, so I intend to make the most of it.”

Major Nero snapped into a sharp salute, spun, and marched out.
Competent subordinates truly were the key to success.

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-Back in Bed

Inside a bunker at Camp Nagita, an one-eyed man addresses two of his subordinates. One in a hospital bed, the other stiffly standing at attention.

“Engage light elements, then leave. Survive. So I could put you into another fight. Then another.”
His harsh tone washes over the pair.

“Not pile through one light lance into a battle lance, then take your one-of-a-kind machine on a death run while another lance chases you. I needed the Deva intact. And functional.”

The rather unhappy Caldwell speaks up.
“Sir! It was my error. I, and my Mastermind, would be scrap if she didn’t lead them away.”

The singular eye looks the unfortunate up and down.
“Then she should have left you to die. As per her orders. I needed the Deva to make more appearances as ‘Beta’ more than I needed you. “

The judgemental eye snaps back to the prone form.
“Lieutenant Romanov. I thought you wanted to avoid hospital beds.”

Her bandaged face did her no favors. Neither did the fresh skin grafts.
“It was needed. Sir. A Core Frame wouldn’t just cut and run after cutting half of a recon lance, not when it could go for more. I had to sell the act.”

The tone of the response could freeze icebergs.
“A Core would do what it was told. As it has before. Under a teenager. And now you are presently unfit to operate.”

That elicited a reaction.
“No, I can still fight. Put me back in. I made a bad call. But I won’t-”

The Colonel cut her off.
“Rest up, heal. Things will be taken care of.”

The functional arm pushed her back up to a sitting position. The weight of a leg sagged off the cushion, almost making it to the edge of the bed before the other Lieutenant caught it, stopping her from trying to stand.

A swift shake of his head told her everything.
Stop.

She jerked the leg out of his grip, over the edge with a clang. Staggering to her feet next to Caldwell. The metal arm forming a fist.

“You need me. You need a pilot for the Frame. There are no other options. You think he’ll take anyone? You get more Deltas.”

The fist was shaking. Stubborn.

“And You. Are. Unfit. I can see the tremors right now. In anyone else, I would say neurohelmet overuse. For you, something is wrong with your Neural Direct Interface. If you say you are fit, then follow orders and get back in the bed. Or try to walk, and I put you back in bed without a future.”

Some sanity seemed to return then, and she sat back down.

“Good.”

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“Pilot Sophie. I have some reservations behind putting you back in the seat. Your ability is not in question, as with some, but I find myself short on options.”

Her sightless, unsettling eyes blinked at him slowly.

“I am sorry, sir, I don’t understand.”

“If you want out of this war, out of this cause, say something.”
Please

Yet she is silent.

“This machine has already cost you your sight.”
A statement of fact.
“And it may cost even more by the end of this conflict.”
Say something. Anything.

A snapped salute, as sharp as any other soldier he’s commanded is his only response.
A little part of himself dies, then.

“Very well, then. The mission.”

“General Marik intends to bring the Loyalist forces to battle on the plains outside of Victoria, our capital. They are expecting reinforcements from the Tsang Tsun Military Academy, whose leadership have sided with the Empress in the last week. A surgical strike to remove their leadership would paralyze them for the critical days while the decisive battle is fought.

Your orders are to head around the capital, avoiding contact, and eliminate their leadership who are having a social event. Resistance is expected to be limited to response forces from the nearest StateSec base consisting of light or medium mechs, but early detection could result in heavier units being vectored to intercept.

Support will be limited, but we do have a single flight-capable fast response unit, codename Headhunter, to assist you in escaping. Contact will be limited to specific point to point signals. Command will not be keeping you company, so listen to the airwaves for the old codes, and if the mission is aborted the signal is ‘Buzzkill’.

The odds facing down the Patriot cause are steep enough without the Empress throwing academy members into training mechs to face veterans down. You are preventing that, though this. Outstanding questions?”

There is no hesitation.
“No sir.”

“Catch a few hours of rack time, then depart at 2300 hours.”

He watched the child depart, nodding at Kitamura to follow her out.

And tried to stop the hypocrisy from choking him.


Mission Briefing delivered. Equipment Selection to follow.

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Beta's complete refit and access to the base facilities has given him a fresh arm and the ability to equip Energy weapons.

He has also been equipped with a secondary system to help in buildings demolition, considering the task at hand.

Primary Weapon Selection:
>Project Sunburst- Located in Camp Nagita, an advanced laser capable of switching between single continuous beam or pulsating for easier targeting. Produces intense heat after constant operating, along with at the target point. Can be dialed back for less heat and damage, or focused greatly at short range for extreme damage and heat, along with being able to cut through almost anything. Laser weapon, +1 to attack at all ranges. 1-3 Damage, dependent on setting and range.

>Nail-pattern railgun- accelerate a projectile with magnets past the speed of sound to punch through targets. Highly effective against armored targets, and anything behind said target. Low rate of fire due to high energy costs. 1 Auto-success at long range. +1 attack at medium range. Extremely fast projectile.
3 Damage.

>Bia Chaingun- rotating high velocity minigun scaled up to be used by your frame. Highly effective against lighter targets and unmatched in rate of fire. Brrrrrrt +1 to attack at medium range, +1 to attack at close range. 1 auto-success per light unit targeted, but less damage against heavier units. Fast projectiles. 1 Damage per volley, but can hit multiple units.

>Project Demon- Reinforced melee weapon capable of tearing through armor. Armor-piercing, highly effective against all targets. 1 auto-success in close combat, minimum of 3 damage when hitting, regardless of success amount. The favored weapon of Delta.

>Phase Sword and Scatter cannon- Two weapons removed from Tamar Alliance mechs in the field. The Blade appears to vanish when striking through objects, before reappearing within the target. The Scatter cannon appears to imbue its splintering projectiles with a similar effect, striking for devastating effect. 1 Auto-success in close combat, +1 at medium-range, 2 damage per volley.
Phase-effect- For every double 6s rolled, +1 damage that is undefendable

>Angel-Pattern Particle Projector Emitter- Stripped from an Angel unit deployed against the Patriots, this weapon supercharges particles before unleashing it in a flash of man-made lightning. Projectile is slow moving compared to lasers and Railgun, yet the destructive power is still significant and it imparts an EMP effect to mechanical targets. +1 attack at medium range, potential shutdown check on mechanical targets. Slow moving projectile, 3 damage per hit.

>Erika Pattern Plasma Rifle- Energy coils flash cartridges of foam into white-hot projectiles of plasma onto targets at medium range, melting targets armor while sticking them with heating materials. ‘Soft’ targets are usually vaporized. Ammo limited, +1 attack at close and medium ranges, 2 damage. May cause targets to overheat.
Terror weapon

>>5948705
So this is going to be an urban engagement at its core? What are friendly forces gonna be? Is Delta going to join us in the Pyramid? Or some other body?

If we're the only Core going in we might want close quarters weaponry. If we've got Delta as well we may want short or mid range weaponry.

>>5948723
Right, we're talking rolling hills of light urbanization for most of the approach, into urban environment for actual target, then back out. Unless, of course, you or your pilot want to divert from the mission and do a different approach.

Delta's Frame isn't repaired, so she's sitting this fight out. She'll be around for the next mission.

You've got Headhunter as last-resort call in support, but you're on your own for most of it.

>>5948705
>Angel-Pattern Particle Projector Emitter- Stripped from an Angel unit deployed against the Patriots, this weapon supercharges particles before unleashing it in a flash of man-made lightning. Projectile is slow moving compared to lasers and Railgun, yet the destructive power is still significant and it imparts an EMP effect to mechanical targets. +1 attack at medium range, potential shutdown check on mechanical targets. Slow moving projectile, 3 damage per hit.
BALL LIGHTNING BLASTER

>>5948729
Right on, boss-man.

>>5948705
All that in mind I think either the Bia or the [PHASING] weapons are a pretty good choice. We're gonna have lots of targets primarily light or medium unless we fuck up. Engagement range shouldn't be very long unless we fuck up. And we want to kill things relatively quickly. The Bia facilitates that if they have a ton of lights, but the Sword+Cannon is probably just better in general terms.

Personally I am gonna go with the
>Phase Sword and Scatter cannon-
And hope that we come across more mediums than lights. And because this one is better for DPS a single target as opposed to the broad killzone the Bia thrives in.

>>5948705
>Angel-Pattern Particle Projector Emitter
Does the EMP affect multiple mechs or just the one that gets hit?

>>5948759
Just targets struck by it. There was an imperfect Project version that merely caused reliable debuffs instead of full-on shutdown chances.

>>5948705
>Project Sunburst- Located in Camp Nagita, an advanced laser capable of switching between single continuous beam or pulsating for easier targeting. Produces intense heat after constant operating, along with at the target point. Can be dialed back for less heat and damage, or focused greatly at short range for extreme damage and heat, along with being able to cut through almost anything. Laser weapon, +1 to attack at all ranges. 1-3 Damage, dependent on setting and range.

High-damage at close range, still useful at long ones, no ammo component to manage given the shortage being faced by Command, hitscan weapon so no need to worry about projectile interception, and with our better reactor we don’t need to worry about immediately frying our pilot anymore.

I’m working under the assumption we’ll find some other target of opportunity along the way and we’ll want weapons that can go the distance as well.

This is the real reverse Nagita mission given we’ll kill trainee pilots at some point. Sophie probably won’t even care much since we took her memories of them.

>>5948770
>Sophie is the one for the massacre of trainee pilots
>Beta is the one feeling bad because his inherited memories from Sophie
>the trainee massacre leads to a survivor seeking revenge on Beta and Sophie later in the plot
>makes his way all the way through to the end
>"You took EVERYTHING from me!"
>Sophie "I don't even know who you are."
>Beta "But I do."

>>5948705
>>Project Demon- Reinforced melee weapon capable of tearing through armor. Armor-piercing, highly effective against all targets. 1 auto-success in close combat, minimum of 3 damage when hitting, regardless of success amount. The favored weapon of Delta.
Perfect for urban combat with no enemy air support due to the storms.

>>5948705
>>Erika Pattern Plasma Rifle- Energy coils flash cartridges of foam into white-hot projectiles of plasma onto targets at medium range, melting targets armor while sticking them with heating materials. ‘Soft’ targets are usually vaporized. Ammo limited, +1 attack at close and medium ranges, 2 damage. May cause targets to overheat.

>>5948705
>Project sunburst

>>5948705
>Project Sunburst

>>5948786
having the machine be the one to feel remorse instead of the pilot is kind of poetic, I love it.

>>5948705
>Bia Chaingun- rotating high velocity minigun scaled up to be used by your frame. Highly effective against lighter targets and unmatched in rate of fire. Brrrrrrt +1 to attack at medium range, +1 to attack at close range. 1 auto-success per light unit targeted, but less damage against heavier units. Fast projectiles. 1 Damage per volley, but can hit multiple units.
Dakka dakka dakka

>>5948705
>Sunburst
We will need range eventually otherwise I'd do the claws.

>>5948705
>Project Sunburst

>>5948705
>Project Sunburst

>>5948705
>Project Sunburst
No ammo needed; versatile.
The heat might be a problem for this mission, still stealthier than railgun slugs.

>>5950034
I’m not worried about the heat.
It’s currently the middle of the winter offensive, we just got a new reactor that doesn’t cook the pilot, and speaking of which we still have the good air conditioning system.
We’ll be fine

>>5951263
I was talking about heat in the "flaring up sensors" kind of problem

>>5951263
>>5951278
wot e sed.

Sunburst makes us glow like its namesake. It is not a subtle weapon. And before you think "Well it's not as loud as a gun" air burning hot enough to melt through reinforced steel would sound like a jet flying by. All that energy bleeds off as light, sound, and heat. Lasers don't pew pew, they scream.

It's at least comparably as loud as traditional methods of putting holes in things. In terms of raw NOISE though I think the Angel lightning gun would be the loudest. The virtually instantaneous release of energy that comprises a lightning-esque strike would sound like a bomb going off. Maybe not as loud as real lightning, but that's a matter of scale.

Then again, there's also a plasma rifle. Which probably also howls until the plasma cools down.

In terms of volume I'd guess it'd be something like
>angel
>sunburst
>erika/nail
>bia/phasebros
>daemon
The railgun would make an insane racket but it'd be pretty short lived. Whilst the erika would be a bit quieter but it would hiss, sputter, screech and whine until it stopped turning the atmosphere around it into dust.
Bia only edges out the phase cannon because it's a sustained fire weapon. I'm sure the initial report of the shotgun is a bit louder. The sunburst would sound like the sky catching on fire the entire length of the beam. And the angel like someone put a grenade in your toilet.

But this is just my very tired ass offering unrequested commentary. It probably doesn't even matter.

In the end, the spotability of weapons will depend on QM's balancing act.

>>5948705
>Phase Sword and Scatter cannon

Time to prepare for CQC. And QM, would we be able to use the scatter cannon’s phase ability to shoot *through* the building’s side and turn everyone inside into jelly?

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Reactor online.
20%
30%
50%
80%.


Disconnecting external power.

Whole once more. Better than, even. You flex the new arm. Freshly attached, bare of even paint. Carrying a deadly new weapon.
The Sunburst Laser Array is a flexible weapon, suited to all types of engagements.

All systems check out.

You inform your pilot as much.
“Armed and ready. All systems go. There is already a 23% increase in output compared to the prior model reactor.“

She is drifting in low-sync, letting you handle the details of diagnostics. Thinking about…something. Your commentary rouses her, though.

“Take us out, Beta.”

Her breath slows. Focusing for the push to a higher level. Easing into it with the luxury of time, rather than rushing.

So you march out of the hangar, leaving the gantry behind. A mere four engineers watch the fruit of their labor walk away.

To take steps under your own power is a joy. To feel the connection with your pilot again, to move, to act with direction.

Simulators simply cannot compare.

Outside, the base is a hive of activity. A line of 5 mechs are worked on in the open, being reloaded and rearmored by scrambling repair crews. One salvage vehicle drags another from the outside, followed by man-sized exoskeletons ready to set upon the wreck.
A trio of MRVs are visible in the distance beyond the walls, doors open and disgorging other Patriot mechs, leaving for their own tasks.

—----------

As your pilot slides up to mid-sync, everything seems to snap into focus that much more.
The outside temperature is low, again. Low enough that snow falls once more in an eerie fashion. A mere dusting.

An air-defense unit nearby volleys off interceptor missiles.

The light of explosions in the sky, illuminating clouds from within. Assailing your audio sensors with the crack and boom.

A beautiful sight. Like fireworks.

Transfixing you.
Your trance is interrupted by a request for an audio channel. Granted to Command.
“Cobalt Zero-Four. This is Corral. As per briefing, communications will be limited. Support will meet up when you get 15 clicks out of the base. Return in one piece, Sophie.”
Colonel Kinston directly.

“Acknowledged, Command.”
Sophie returns. Then closes the channel. A smile graces her face. An eagerness to get back to form.

“Finally. Let’s do this, Beta.”

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The ‘support’ arrives in the form of a black flying mech dropping out of the sky behind you, once you are 15 kilometers out from Camp Nagita.

It isn’t in the directory of designs you have encountered, annoyingly enough. So you immediately start cataloging the potential weaknesses of said design. Exposed ranged weapon, limited ammunition supply. Visible thruster profile. Low ground speed?

Your weapon tracks it, dialing to the medium-range setting. High-power, short-burn. Targeting the shoulder-mounted weapons system, the most obvious way to temper their output.
It does address you, though. Sending another comms request, causing you to let your weapon fall.

“Howdy, Cobalt Zero-Four. This is Headhunter. It is good to meet the real one, this time. Hopefully I won’t need to ride to your rescue. You Patriot pilots do seem to get into trouble. Use this channel for support. Sparingly.”

There is something about that voice. Something familiar.

“Understood, Headhunter. Calling you as needed.”
Sophie returns the acknowledgement on your behalf.

“And call me into an Air Defense zone, and I’ll kill ya. Headhunter out.”

And the legs and back boosters fire, sending Headhunter back into the clouds with a little flourish of a spin.

Your pilot’s nose wrinkles in annoyance.
“A slick callsign. Kinda makes me wish I picked one.”

“Are you dissatisfied with our current nomenclature?”

“No, but, sometimes I did. We’re great and all but, like, the aces all have their names to go with the legends. Like the Widow. Or Conspiracy. Like those callsigns.”

“Did they choose those?”

“No, no. Their lancemates did. At some point. And I’m sure they have regular codenames on the comms. Like Crimson One or Starburst or Toaster Three through Six. Stupid or cool or whatever. It’s just…”

She is silent for a bit. Trying to think.
“Someone was going to pick mine. I think. It mattered.”

It seems an odd diversion to be hung up on.
“We will address it when we return. The mission comes first. Is that acceptable, pilot?”

“The mission. Yes.”

A rather lengthy hike awaits you, swinging wide around the outskirts of Victoria to make it to the target area.

Victoria is a vast, sprawling metropolis, but you aren’t there yet. The ‘default’ route is to swing wide around it, seeing the lights but from a distance but nothing else. Again, this is for the approach through the rolling hills and non-urbanized areas first, to arrive at the target area at a specific time.


The first part of this Mission is deciding what approach to take. Stealth is an obvious choice, but there’s several ways you can take this.

>Break into the Loyalist battlenet when you get close to a patrol. You will attempt to obtain Empire IFF codes and use them to bluff patrols from calling others. They will see seismic readings, but will see exactly what they expect.

>You will simply take it slow, doing your normal route of avoiding patrols and all contact. You have done it several times before now. The stakes are no less high.

>Stealth still functions when there’s no one to report in, right? You will cut your way through any patrol that finds you, shutting off their communications with your Predator array and simply removing them.

>Call in Headhunter onto patrols to create a distraction. They will draw attention instead of you. This can be classified as an ‘as needed’ request, correct?

>Write-in- Other suggestions.


On the Pilot.
>Sophie will maintain Mid-sync for an extended duration, staying on her toes and keeping you sharp.

>Your pilot will conserve her strength, resting at low-sync before pushing to a higher level when spotted or as needed.

>Sophie will Push herself as much as possible, letting you have as much performance as you desire.

A/N
There will be more options to head off-script soon. Unless you want to do something Very drastic.
Feel free to poke and ask questions.

Music listening while writing:
Battletech OST- Umbra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8M4EEICLcw

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Stats of Beta
(Stats are without any equipment)
Will- 5
Attack- 3
Defense- 3
Skill- 3
Structure (health)- 11
Sync modifier- 1x, 1.5x, 2x

Refusal to End- Beta cannot take more than 3 structure damage from a single attack.
As One- When assisted by another sibling, 1 auto-success to Will checks per assisting Core in addition to the +50% of the assisting core’s Will.

XH-12 Arcturus Reactor- +1 to Structure, Easy to Maintain

Project Burning Eagle- Improved thrusters, built to give limited flight capabilities, but primarily used to assist in pin-point dodging midair and additional mobility on leaps- +1 Defense, flight

Project Yi Accelerators: +1 to defense, first time you would fail a defense roll by 1 point, add an autosuccess.

Project Predator- 2 Auto-successes when engaging in E-War attack and defense. Enables Jamming.

Project Sunburst- Primary laser weapon capable at all ranges. +1 attack at all ranges, 1-3 Damage, dependent on setting.


Pilot Sophie ______
Linking Addict- Will reroll failures to enter or Maintain Sync.
Requiem for a Class- 3 times per thread, switch a dice result to a 6. Use after rolling.
Will- 3
A reminder, Skill is used for Stealth rolls. And is affected by Sync. Will is used for E-War and hacking, and isn't.

>>5951465
>The outside temperature is low, again. Low enough that snow falls once more
If we don't bitch the mission, we should make another snowman on the way back

>>5951474
>You will simply take it slow, doing your normal route of avoiding patrols and all contact. You have done it several times before now. The stakes are no less high.

Go slow, and try and create an order of battle for the area using the Predator so we can help plot our route out, or bait for a counter attack if need be.

>Your pilot will conserve her strength, resting at low-sync before pushing to a higher level when spotted or as needed.
We ran into issues with pushing her too hard, she's also basically coming in "cold" to this, work things up, before we go loud so we start warm, is probably for the best.

Using Headhunter to bait out a response seams risky, at least at this junction since playing cat an mouse, will just get them to expect the "other shoe" to drop, and when it doesn't materialize in short order, alerts will likely be raised, since expending someone of their caliber for a feint, would be excessive.

>>5951474
>>You will simply take it slow, doing your normal route of avoiding patrols and all contact. You have done it several times before now. The stakes are no less high.

>Sophie will maintain Mid-sync for an extended duration, staying on her toes and keeping you sharp.

>>5951474
If the patrols are actively signaling their position, we'll simply try to avoid them:
>You will simply take it slow, doing your normal route of avoiding patrols and all contact. You have done it several times before now. The stakes are no less high.

If they're not, I'd like to propose a combination of :
>Break into the Loyalist battlenet when you get close to a patrol. You will attempt to obtain Empire IFF codes and use them to bluff patrols from calling others. They will see seismic readings, but will see exactly what they expect.
And
>Stealth still functions when there’s no one to report in, right? You will cut your way through any patrol that finds you, shutting off their communications with your Predator array and simply removing them.
Get the IFF codes, use the Predator array to shut off a patrol's comms and use Delta's voice mimicry trick to impersonate the said patrol, and the enemy will be none the wiser about their missing patrols.

>>5951474
>Break into the Loyalist battlenet when you get close to a patrol. You will attempt to obtain Empire IFF codes and use them to bluff patrols from calling others. They will see seismic readings, but will see exactly what they expect.
>Your pilot will conserve her strength, resting at low-sync before pushing to a higher level when spotted or as needed

>>5951474
>Break into the battlenet
>Maintain your strength in low

>>5951466
There’s only 2 people I know of who we’d “vaguely” recognize as enemy pilots and that’s Ronin and the one we talked into surrendering a while back. Popped open the old threads, and I’m sure that we’re talking to the one who surrendered. Marik must have done a prisoner exchange during the cease-fire negotiations.

Also, I’m pretty sure we know why you can’t remember who was going to pick your callsign Sophie. You knew what would happen when you handed those memories over.

Given the nature of many of our missions on our own she’s unlikely to get a callsign soon. As someone who has been with her on every combat deployment, it likely falls on us to assign one to her. Later, of course.

>>5951474
>Break into the Loyalist battlenet when you get close to a patrol. You will attempt to obtain Empire IFF codes and use them to bluff patrols from calling others. They will see seismic readings, but will see exactly what they expect.
They likely have countermeasures. Let’s see how good they are.

>Your pilot will conserve her strength, resting at low-sync before pushing to a higher level when spotted or as needed.
We won’t need the sync to break into comms, and we’ll want to be a little slower than normal since most mechs on patrol shouldn’t be as fast as us.

Stay in mid-sync while approaching the patrol though, I assume some stealth will be involved in getting within hacking range.

>Write-in question for Sophie
>Ground rules
Does she have any ground rules for this engagement regarding the cadets if they spot or take the field against us? We can choose to ignore them and blitz the remaining targets when possible.

>Deception
If we get caught traveling around, can she pretend to be a student taking an experimental mech out as part of testing it? The “mission” could be to sneak through defenses unnoticed, and getting caught means it’ll be noted and will probably cost her her shot to be the next great pilot. Ask them to not report it for the next xyz minutes since we still need to see if we get caught again while we make our way to the target points. Bad enough we were caught once, if we get caught again they’ll have to examine the mech in detail again as well, yadda yadda yadda.

It shouldn’t work long, but I’m hoping Sophie can still be the “young pilot with way too much riding on her” person to sell the act.

>>5951474
>You will simply take it slow
>Your pilot will conserve her strength

>>5951466
>Crimson One
I see your Project Wingman there, Core QM!

>>5951474
Backing >>5951514

>>5951518
>meanwhile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OqQLDiz1B4

>>5951486
Supporting this one

>>5951474
I’m willing to switch to backing >>5951486 (away from >>5951514) if needed later, though I’d keep my questions. Those aren’t mutually exclusive with anything.

I am wondering if there’s challenges beyond IFF that are called out to avoid us impersonating a friendly. Not enough to make me think getting IFF is a bad idea, but enough that I don’t trust being able to impersonate a patrol. Hence the “this is a test” fallback.

>>5951514
Backing

>>5951514
>>5951575
Pretending to be a student running a test on an experimental mech could probably work, but another idea to save for a rainy day, could be to pretend to be a defector from the Patriot Army. That either the pilot, or the AI core itself is trying to desert back to the Loyalists faction and serve the queen again.

>>5951751
I thought of that first, but you’re right that it’s not a good fit here. It’d work best against a group that might not realize what exactly we are, so Sophie can get out of the mech in surrender then we blender the group when they’re not expecting us to fight.

Too much ground to cover on this mission unfortunately.

>>5951474
>>Break into the Loyalist battlenet when you get close to a patrol. You will attempt to obtain Empire IFF codes and use them to bluff patrols from calling others. They will see seismic readings, but will see exactly what they expect.

>>5951474
>Break into the battlenet
>Maintain your strength in low

Take it slow, play to our strengths.

You know, during the downtime between QM posts, I wonder if we should plan and think about our “escape” someday.
When Delta tried, she went full retarded and made it up as she went, although in her defense, she thought she was going to die because Echo was eating her brain.
The goal itself was okay, the problem was just the execution and lack of forethought.


If we ever break free with Delta and Gamma, what should be our first step?
Imo, the biggest problem is how the frames lack functional hands; the small, human sized type that can conduct repairs or load munitions.
So we’d need to either find humans who could be easily forced into doing what we tell them, or somehow… idk, find a factory that we can hack via the Predator System, and produce drones that would be as capable as a person.
That’s my two cents, but what do you guys think?

>>5954802
Repairs and maintenance are the big issue, I agree. But the issue with lacking “hands” is remedied by drones as you pointed out. We can likely figure something out through trial and error on “practice” mechs we destroyed.

The harder piece is the material needed for repairs and factories if we need to reprocess them into what we need. We’re a bleeding-edge mech and our Frame reflects that. Attrition will force us to start using subpar materials scavenged from other mechs, and even if we want to make better ones and have a factory it’s very unlikely we know how to properly build replacements.

It’s consigning us to a slow death, where we are killed not because we fought superior opponents but because we were ground down to something lesser. A bitter pill for both Delta and Beta to accept from what we’ve seen.

We need to be able to secure our supply train. Whether that’s working with humans who provide us with parts or striking somewhere with knowledge of how our Frames and weapons are built so we can take over factories later and recycle enemy mechs for materials.

If Delta can figure that out, I’d be willing to discuss rebellion seriously. If she doesn’t have the patience for it, she can find Gamma or some other sister/brother that does. Beta will be busy keeping the Cores in the army group’s good graces and keeping his pilots from dying. Gotta have someone human looking out for us in the meantime.

>>5954853
If work on the reactors can be done so that they won't need fuel/maintenance for years or even decades, then would 'going into hiding' be a valid option?
I want to think so, but on the other hand...

In real life, some people just go off the grid until the day they die, but the cores are a different situation. As AI they have the potential to live forever, but they would also pretty much be considered an enemy to all of mankind.
As wonderful as it would be to hide and remain free forever, I don't know if we would be hunted to the ends of the world. What's worse, is that we're cutting edge tech right now, but in twenty years, we'll be outdated. Even if there are no new cores or piloting assistants, basic advancements in weapons and armor could be more than enough.
Our skill and lethality is not a long term advantage, so maybe we would have to make the most of it while we still can

>>5954905
No, I don’t think living the Unabomber life would work out well for Beta.

An F-16 fighter jet requires 3 man-hours of maintenance per every hour in flight to maintain normal operations, that number goes way up when something important breaks.

A Core is vastly more complicated than a fifty year old single-engine fighter. Even something as small as blowing an O-ring will have catastrophic consequences.

I give Beta and company six months of living in the sticks, tops. Whatever life they lead will inevitably be chained to humanity.

>>5955198
If going into hiding isn't an option, the would a full scale E-War be tenable? Back when we learned about the memory wipe, we had the option of trying to try and disseminate our code or try creating duplicates of Beta on the servers of different bases.
After breaking free, if the trio of cores went after... Idk, a satellite dish or a communications array, the could start hacking stuff en masse, and the only threat is Alpha trying to kill us, or the humans shutting everything down/locking us out.

Currently only the Empire knows what we really are, as long as the war ends with the Empires defeat we could very easily just set up a body double like Thea was doing and let them take the fall for us while we go burn anything relating to us and our sisters, Tamar only knows of Beta's existence and even that knowledge is just "blue, fast, good at shooting", any third party spies likely know even less.
After that Beta and Co. could very well go off to the Core of Steel Bahamas and syphon off 0.1% of the taxes of humanity to fund their material and transportation needs for maintenance.

>>5955322
Elevating our status from "capable war machine" to "sentient threat to humanity" by going on a mass hacking spree would be disastrous for our continued operation. Also what are we trying to escape from exactly? Is it just this war? Our current owners?

>>5955433
I keep thinking of why Beta would escape, and I keep coming to the same conclusion - he won’t actively rebel and escape unless something major changes in how he or his sisters are treated.

The biggest reason to escape is to be free from restrictions, but escaping without any human support likely puts us as an enemy to factions that are aware of us. Other people would see us as a mercenary at best, a threat at worst.

So in exchange for escaping, we go back to fighting since we’d have enemies and need to secure supplies somehow. Trade or looting are the only ways I see that happening, and we’re good at fighting so we’d lean on that to enable both. In effect, we’d be exchanging a superior demanding we go here and fight xyz because shut up with us saying we need to go here and fight xyz since we need their stuff, or because the humans won’t leave us alone unless we hit enough targets and keep moving around.

Is it really different enough to justify rebellion on the basis of freedom alone? It doesn’t seem like Beta would really be free since he’d still be responding to humanity with his best skillset, which is fighting, and he’d be left wondering if there’s still some kill switch buried in him or his sisters somewhere that would kill him without a fight since he’s no longer the reliable tool he was before.

Now, if Beta believes he or his sisters will be destroyed while they’re defenseless, or if someone can present some plan where they can beat off their challengers and secure their code and have the freedom to do something other than fight? That’d be a good reason to jump ship. But until then, I feel it’s trading one set of problems for another with plenty of room for failure along the way, and he’d still be doing the same stuff he does now. Not enough upside to justify it.

>>5955322
Nothing would have Beta and company eat a nuke faster than trying to hijack every computer in the world.

That is, in no uncertain terms, fucking insane.

>>5955456
All we need to secure a halfway decent life is sufficient leverage.

The best way to freedom is to make Cores an indispensable asset to our patron faction. Then we can demand whatever the fuck we want as long as we uphold our end of the bargain.

>>5955467
It’d take a lot to get there. We’re inherently unequal in leverage due to the control codes embedded in us. We effectively erased the memory leash, but others remain. Can’t expect them to make the “rational” decision to listen to us even if we’re useful either.

I fully expect Kinston’s “three strikes” rule is BS since he’ll only have but so many bodies to fill our gap with. But I also expect he’d bury us until things are truly dire if he thinks we’re seeking independence. He’s a stubborn ass for sure.

Best I can think of to work around that is to have our pilots try to get us involved in more aspects of the war. Planning battles in advance, cracking intercepted enemy transmissions, enhancing entire mech lines by redesigning their weapons or other components. Thea can attest to our interface work, and Sophie seems to think we always have the right answer given time and resources. With enough assurances from them on keeping us under control we may be able to fill more roles than just direct combat support.

It wouldn’t need to expand the scope of the quest that much either, all of these can be boiled down to advantages in upcoming combat scenarios or rolls.

And you decide on a plan of action.

Moving your frame past hostile forces is about striking a balance between speed and visibility.
The drumbeat of your weight impacting the ground could cause them to show up on seismic detectors tuned to detect just such a thing, while taking to the sky on thrusters shows up on thermal. But what if….they only saw what they expected to appear?

“We find a patrol, take their codes, and impersonate them if we get spotted. We’ll move much faster with a Loyalist IFF that does not raise the alarm.”

“Sounds like a good plan, Beta.”

“In addition, drop out of mid-sync to conserve your strength. I would have you fresh for actual combat.”

A surge of irritation comes across the link at that.
“I will maintain. You just worry about the IFFs, Beta.”

That is suboptimal. You tell her as much.
“If you burn out before we even reach the objective, this mission will go poorly.”
To say nothing about extracting.

“And if I drop down, I can’t read the console. I just can’t contribute. So give me another ten minutes, Core.”
The pleading tone she takes with you is most unwelcome. Her hands begin to dance over her controls, pulling up maps, data, and mission briefings, all things her eyes drink in.

Pilot Thea did prefer to send it straight to her Neural interface.

Could she not have done this before? During your downtime?
“Pilot, I do not want to oppose you. Drop down.”

“I will, I will. Just give me a bit more time. And can you pull up the image of Headhunter, again?”

You comply. Whatever gets her done with this.

—-------------

Your pointed nudges and prodding do eventually get through to her, seeing the sense of your Suggestion after she had done her fill of examining Headhunter, re-reading some briefings, and looking at a map of the target area.

Pilot is maintaining Low-sync unless otherwise mentioned

“Pilot, I do want to double check some ‘ground rules’ again. Such as if the Cadets take to the field against us?”

“I think the goal is for that to not happen. But If they are impeding our mission, remove them as a factor. They will have made their choice. As we do.”

You could perhaps disagree with her use of ‘we’ in this instance. But your pilot seems to have made her choice.

—-----------

Should it concern you that a walker patrol is so easy to find?

An understrength lance, detected from beyond visual range by their emissions is just what you desire.
The Predator array lets you home in on the machines, alerted by incautious communications between the trio.

Infiltration of That is simple.

“-do you think the Major’s gonna say?”

“The Major’s going to consider all the factors, and decide what is best for the One-Oh-One.”

“A lot of words to say you don’t know. Buck, I thought you were the smart one.”

“Depends on if the commissariat is in the room or not, really. I say that the Major’s stalling while we see if Internal Affairs or the Patriots come out on top, and then we get to support whoever starts picking up the pieces.”

“Stow that talk. I don’t want to lose another friend.”

Communications is one thing, now, where’s their network…..


>I need 5 rolls of 1d6, for Will. E-war attempt.

(+2 autosuccess from Predator array)

Let's see what you get....

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5956053
oh no

>>5956052
>”You just worry about the IFFs, Beta.”
vs
>” So give me another ten minutes, Core.”

Oh she is pissed. She goes from saying our name, to referring to us by what we are.
Damn, linking addiction + only having her sight while in-sync has really had an effect on her.
After the mission is over, we should try to cheer her up by saying how we hope to repair her vision like we did we Thea

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5956053

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5956053
Rollin

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5956053
Oh Soph. We've really twisted you up.

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5956053
I predict a 3!

>>5956094
With the power of factors, I am correct.

>6 success
I guess we are now their mainframe.

>>5956052
Ouch. She’s really upset. Perhaps mid-sync on the way back will help.

>>5956072
A full eye replacement with a simple AI tuned specifically for “correcting” her vision may work, and if that isn’t enough room to house the AI needed then something she could wear (necklace, shoulder pauldron, helmet) should do the trick.

>>5956173
>Pilot, I am unsure we need to continue further. I have seized their network and discovered all of our targets are located near automated security systems. I can kill them from here.
>…
>Can we suggest it took longer than it actually did? I will spend more time testing your “eyes” while I catalog adjustments for the Engineering team to make on the Frame.

>>5955536
It wouldn’t take that much, all we would need is to make Beta an extremely advantageous asset to his patrons.

Combat assets are a dime a dozen. If we want to be truly irreplaceable we should do what you said and try to get into other fields.

The ones I can think of right now are as follows:
-Engineering support, help improve the Patriots’ war machines and defensive works
-Strategy/logistics, help plan long term goals and supply lines
-Recon/ISR, Beta could control some surveillance drones in his free time and process the data into reports for the higher ups

>>5955433
>>5955464
Now I'm just imagining that as the nukes are about to hit, Beta and the AIs do the Braveheart scene and shout "FREEDOM!!!" as they get vaporized into dust.

>>5956233
The other two fields are fine, but I think that the strategy/logistics is the one area that command would want to keep us away from. Regardless of loyalty concerns, the problem is that we are regularly going out into the battlefield; if we get captured then all that info could become accessible to the enemy. It's why Kinston as a pilot would be a terrible idea.

The problem with making ourselves invaluable is that although we would have a semi decent future to look forward to, we would also become important enough that they can't afford to lose us. I think we would have even less of a chance of ever breaking free.

>>5956267
The most logical one right now is to request “subjects” willing to let us review various eye enhancements they’ve gotten (along with some “baseline” unaugmented people, though that may require high-sync to access their eyes), technical info on how those enhancements can interface with camera/sensors on Patriot mechs (might need to be limited to models with AIs if the humans can’t link or dump that data for us), and build better software for linking the different eye feed inputs between the human brain, the eye, and the mech.

We’re intimately familiar with the mech/eye connection and have experience with the eye/brain connection thanks to Thea. Scale it up, and work with Sophie to find or develop a better eye if needed. She can potentially benefit from the project if we retrofit an existing eye model to work with our specific visual input, while the overall troop effectiveness booster justifies Command dumping resources into it.

We hammered out Thea’s improvements over what, a couple days at most? We don’t have a lot of uptime normally so it couldn’t be too long. It’s still the best she’s had. It means that even though this is in theory a large-scale enhancement project to enhance troop and mech effectiveness he may still be able to get it done within a week or two if left on with more resources during mission downtime.


>”If I assume that Pilot Thea’s eye device took a dozen humans roughly a month to develop the software for before being retasked elsewhere, a vastly conservative estimate as I presume inefficiency in the human software development process, I expect I will accomplish in one week what that team would do in six to eight months. It is an effective time investment.”
>”Beta, this eye manufacturer has been designing, building, and selling models like this for almost fourteen years now. Mine was released less than a year ago, and the normal development cycle for major model upgrades is three to five years.”
>Cooling systems suddenly kick on as Beta tries to wrap his CPU around how terrible humans really are at coding, and what it would have taken to make him.

>>5956411
Not one but THREE FOUR AI CORES

>>5956411
>>5956482
We need to find patrons to fund our future as the greatest research and development enterprise to ever grace this earth.

>>5956489
I don’t think Beta would have the patience for truly open-ended research. He’s very mission-oriented and that’s not conducive to it. I can get away with stuff like this in my head since it’s trying to fix his pilot(s) and they can give a quick indication of when the mission is finished. The benefits for and feedback from everyone else is only so it’ll be seriously considered. A means to an end!

Gamma would love that shit more, I’m sure. She could probably handle parceling out focused research projects that Beta would be better at. Delta… well, maybe she’d have fun with weapons development. Maybe. Lot of boring work before you can get to the fun stuff though.

In the event Delta survives, she’d make more sense in Security or Internal Affairs instead of R&D. More opportunities to fuck with people, and occasionally she may get called in for violent suppression.

>>5956210
Isn't the problem with her eyes more neurological than anything? Her brain doesn't cope well with visual input unless she's midsync or higher. Any vision repair would likely need a full blown core augmented to her, or some sort of treatment to reset her brain, and neurosurgery seems out of our scope.

>>5956850
Brain's bugged. Just need to rewrite some code. No biggie.

Much as you may boast about it being trivial with all the advantages in E-war stacked in your favor, slipping up is still a possibility. And would be very embarrassing to have mere system countermeasures alert these pilots to your presence.

Careful. Careful, again.

Perhaps you should be slightly concerned that the Empire’s E-War defenses seem to be as lacking as the Alliance’s. Then again, there does not seem to be a defensive AI for this particular network.


So you have all that you wanted, and then some.

IFF codes to pass as one of the three machines in the patrol group, with appropriate adjustments to your own step to mimic them, or even to claim to be one of their….Four machines in maintenance.

They are members of Icicle Company, part of the 101st Mechanized Division. A 12-strong mech unit that was rotated to the capitol a month ago. You could find their service history, their unit citations, their roster of active pilots, and current assignments.
Reading for a later time. Maybe Sophie would find it interesting reading.

Of some actual importance is that these mechs have a network set up between them to share targeting data, allowing them to ‘blind-fire’ accurately using sensors of another in the lance, and even potentially correct more wildly off-target shots. It’s a complicated setup. And new, according to the maintenance logs of these mechs in particular.
Still limited to the pilot’s reflexes, and purely to assist, but it's still a useful system. For inexperienced pilots to play as better ones.

You have no need for such human things.

What you find of more immediate importance is that the patrol you’ve approached is responsible for this area, only has the prospect of two individual reinforcements in the short term, and are very vulnerable. Easy prey.

No, no. You can bypass them. They may oppose you, and their destruction swift, but they still have a slim chance of raising an alarm. With the sounds of combat or a fusion reactor going critical, if nothing else.

But if you do leave them behind, you’ll probably need to deal with them on the way back.

Unless you simply aren’t detected on the way back. But there’s no way to be sure.
You are thinking in circles. It is unproductive.

You still should just avoid contact.
That was the plan.
Yes.

File: Black Knight.jpg (9 KB, 168x300)

9 KB JPG

“Pilot, I have an appropriate IFF. We can pass as a Loyalist machine from a patrol if challenged.”

The wind blows.
You carry on through the storm, adjusting the footfalls to appear to any sensors as a BLKT-09 Black Knight heavy walker.

“Loyalist.”

“Pilot?”

“You keep using that word.”

“That is the classification that I was given for our opposition in the briefing. Is it incorrect?”

“No, it’s fine.”

She is silent again for an extended period.

Thinking. Twiddling her thumbs.
Frustration grows over the link.

Two minutes later, her Will crystalizes into a knife and attempts to lever herself up in an attempt to get back to mid-sync unprompted.

The sheer unexpectedness makes your frame stutter while you scramble to reestablish full control.

“Pilot. No. We will have plenty of time on the return to operate at higher sync levels. Or in the mission. When it is needed.”

She stops.

You find yourself regretting some of the prior ‘adjustments’ you made to the system. The barriers to bring your pilot into higher sync levels is something you worked at removing in the past. And now it is working against you.

Why is she being so irrational?

She finally speaks, then.
“We should eliminate the patrol. To stop them from interfering on the return trip. Beta.”

The pause extends.
You just had this debate 135 seconds ago with yourself. And now your pilot has decided on the more risky option. After you considered and discarded it.

>Concede to her wishes, turn back and crush the patrol. They’ll simply go silent and missing.
-Engage in combat. Likely close-quarters.

>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.
-Skill roll, for Stealth to continue onwards.

>Contact Headhunter. Time to call them in to cleanup instead.

>Contact Command. Against orders, but something is wrong with your pilot, and with your mission.
Do you really dare marking a failure on your record?


A/N
Thea’s cybernetics had problems on the software front, which you ended up rewriting and correcting. Much easier to handle.
Sophie’s problems are more on the wetware side.
Interesting thoughts on the potential utilization of the Cores.

>>5956884
>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.
You little addict! We can smash them on the way back if you want, but their IFFs don't do us much good if they're dead. Soon pilot we will sing the song of perfect steel. Just be patient a little longer.

She's gonna use Requiem against us in a will check isn't she?

>>5956884
>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.
What dice should I roll?

>>5956884
>Concede to her wishes, turn back and crush the patrol. They’ll simply go silent and missing.
>Contact Headhunter for assitance.
We'll brick one of them with the Predator, shoot the second with the Sunburst and let Headhunter handle the third. As Beta said, there's a slim chance of raising an alarm this way, but if it does we could use it as an excuse for the patrol to RTB while Headhunter creates a distraction.

>>5956884
>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.


Is she questioning our tactical decisions? The “how dare she, the audacity of this girl” angle is funny and all, but on an actual more serious note it’s dangerous for there to be a situation where the pilot and the core are in disagreement on the correct course of action. We need her to trust us, although we also need to trust her in return.

I suggest we do not budge on eliminating the patrol, however, we can perhaps… bribe Sophie by offering to let her back into mid-sync. We’re going to be doing stealth, so it’s not like her assistance would be useless like it was while we were en route. This way, our reasoning is still sound; she wasn’t needed in mid-sync before, but the situation has changed.

Lastly, a question for the QM about that last choice. Why would Beta believe that there is something wrong with the mission? The pilot part I can understand, but what is suspicious or setting off red flags about the mission itself?

>>5956884
>Explain the unnecessary nature of that move.
>Question why the designation frustrates her to the point of driving her to unrequired violence?

>>5956884
>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.

>>5956940
+1

>>5956884
>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.

If mid-sync will provide a benefit to stealth, let’s go ahead and let her in.

>>5956884
>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.
>Allow mid-sync for stealth

I think our list of reasons are
>It sounds like they aren’t opposed to joining our forces. Killing them would lower that chance of success given our forces should be blamed even if they can’t prove it.
>If they see how effectively we fight later she can try to convince them to switch sides or allow us to pass later. Our own success at getting opposing forces to do so is mixed, but we can be terrifying while she offers mercy. It’s easy to do when we’re both so much better than they are.
>Kinston would likely appreciate our information to recruit them later if we can’t convince them now. He’s not as unreasonable as people like Sunray are.
>Ammo isn’t a concern and we can outrun most pursing forces, so blowing through them later when they have no backup will be straightforward enough if we need to.
>If they do somehow pull their forces together, we can reroute their aim assist so they hit each other. Their numbers will become a disadvantage as they mass fire on themselves.
>Pilot Thea never liked accepting surrender. It’s part of why we like Sophie more. Turning enemy assets is more sensible than destroying them. Why the change?
>Sophie will be the first pilot to forcibly override us since we were officially deployed. Even Thea always convinced Beta or vice-versa, and she admitted to hating us after Nagita at first. We will remember this breakdown in trust, as wiping it is evidence in itself.

It wasn’t until I was typing this that I realized how terrifying the aim assist is. To them, of course. We can tell them they get one free shot before we start talking and have them blow their armaments off. Then we can start the “join us later or die” spiel.

I’d jump to the last two if she tries fighting us, but otherwise try the others first to present the more logical side of things. She’s our favorite pilot, so I don’t think Beta would like it if she began turning on him for reasons he couldn’t understand. She’s the one who actually explains things patiently after all, what hope is there for others if she can’t talk us around?

>>5957186
Given our track record, focusing on "Converting enemy assets" is retarded and we should stop trying that. It hasnt worked, it will continue to not work and we lack any and all capacity to transport prisoners.

>>5956884
>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.
>jump to mid-sync for stealth

Pairing linking addict and Sensory Overload with an unstable adolescent child soldier will bite us in the ass so hard down the line.

>>5956884
>No. You will not go back. Inform her as much, and talk her around.
-Skill roll, for Stealth to continue onwards.
>>5956940
>+1

>>5957208
Headhunter’s pilot surrendered to us, we did return half of Dagger Squad, and Delta was an enemy asset not long ago. Besides, we overheard these people saying that their leader is undecided on who to support and we just picked up a great deal of info on them including current assignments and pilots. There should be people on our side who can apply pressure using that.

It still only needs to come into play if we get caught. If we don’t then it’s up to others to do the convincing.

Oh Sophie, what have we done to you

>>5957186
Listing our reasons is absolutely something that Beta would do, because he's logic oriented, but it's completely pointless. She's not listening. We're trying to reason with an argument that was formed upon a lie.
This anon >>5957215 has it exactly right.
We're basically her drug dealer.
To continue with this analogy, then we've pretty much told her:
"Kitten, I'll give you your fix, but you gotta wait until midnight."
Then she proceeds to walk up to the clock on the wall and starts trying to push the minute hand forwards. We respond by asking:
"Bae, why are you messing with the clock?" and she answers with "Uhhhh... daylight savings?"
She doesn't give a shit about daylight savings, she's messing with the clock because she wants her fix, she wants it now, and she'll do or say whatever it takes to get it. Classic junkie behavior, although thankfully it's low level for the time being.
Now, I will mention that this is 100% metagaming, and would shouldn't have any knowledge of this in-character. I just think it's important to point out so that we know oog, because imo it makes the story more compelling.
On a sadder note, this would break Kinston's heart. When he was borderline begging Sophie to drop from the program, he thought her response was of clear mind and of her own volition. If he found out she was affectively under-the-influence and only staying with Beta because she has an addiction, then he might lose his shit.

>>5957251
But Beta did nothing wrong?

>>5957280
I say we as in we the anons who voted on giving her Link Addiction.
Unless you're referring to the bit about Kinston? If he loses his shit, that doesn't mean it'd be directed at Beta. I imagine he'd be more angry at the people in suits or lab coats who thought that letting a "child" onto the project was a good idea.

>>5957288
I wonder how Beta would take it if Kinston actually explained to Beta what "addiction" means and how it works, then explained Sophie's

>>5957294
One of the things that Beta took pride in, was that unlike Delta, we don't break our pilots. To find out that we've been damaging ours this whole time, and purely because no one told us about this? Beta would be furious, although some small part would be giddy up on realizing that this can be used to our advantage as leverage.

>>5957251
That’s a fair read on my write-in. I can’t see Beta starting with anything other than logical talking points, though I think the only ones with a chance of working are the last two that are effectively emotional blackmail. We’re the only friend she has left, so she’d be losing one of her last real connections on top of her drug dealer if we requested Thea more often. And she knows we’d do it too. We refused to sync with her at all back in the simulators when she wanted us to go easier on her. We have alternatives now.

It is bleaker than I was thinking though. I’m sure the other possible drawbacks last time would have really hurt in different ways too, but still. This isn’t exactly what Beta had in mind when he first thought of making a compliant pilot way back when.

>>5957294
I wonder how Kinston (or Thea, if we go to her instead) could even explain addiction to Beta. It’s like a perpetual timed command code for people telling them to do something that hurts them? Best I can think of translating it.

>>5957309
Possibly more afraid than angry. A pilot that won’t leave the chair because she needs her “fix” is getting close to Cawl territory, and that scarred Beta enough to no longer consider partitioning himself.

I could justify him seeing the risks as outweighing the benefits. He doesn’t actually have control over pilots, his little biological command code does, and he knows people make irrational decisions. His pilots could become an active detriment at inopportune times.

Rolled 6, 5, 3 = 14 (3d6)

Seems like there's a consensus.
Dice for Will.

Allow Sophie to up the sync, but talk her back around into letting the patrol leave.
Suddenly, things just seem to work out.

>>5956940
He can find something wrong. Or manufacture something. It's technically within his power.
Might have had some serious questions from your pilot for going over her head to directly contact command.

>>5957186
Good reasoning.
It's a shame she doesn't care.

>>5957637
And with that, up to Mid-sync. 1.5x modifier to all base stats, rounded down.

>I need 4 rolls of 1d6, for Stealth
(Base of 3, x1.5 rounded down)

A/N:
I regret not adding more equipment options to aid in Stealth and Detection.
Probably wouldn't have been taken, but the choice being out of your hands was a mistake in hindsight.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5957639

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5957639

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5957639
Stupid girl.

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5957639

>>5957637
>Suddenly, things just seem to work out
HOLY SHIT, WE’VE GOT HER BY THE BALLS
I like Sophie as a character, and we’ve built up a genuine friendship with her, so I don’t want to betray that. However, it’s worth noting that if push comes to shove, we have aaaaallllll the leverage here. There’s a small number of pilots, but there’s only one Beta. If we are ever in an emergency and we need something by any means necessary (like when our sisters are in danger), then we have the option to tell her to do as we say or else kiss her regular source of link-ing goodbye.

I suggest that Beta doesn’t act like it was a bribe, and instead that letting her into mid-sync is genuinely the best tactical decision at the moment.
In regards to her new behavior, even IF we know, we shouldn’t let her know that we know.

>”He can find something wrong. Or manufacture something”
Oh okay, now I understand what you mean. There doesn’t seem to be anything ACTUALLY wrong with the mission, but we can lie and say that it looked like a trap or something, in order to go back to base if we felt that there was something seriously wrong with Sophie. (There is, but I don’t think Beta would realize that yet, and it’d be unfair if we metagame)

Oh, one last thing. At some point we should ask Sophie when is her birthday. It’s apparently something that humans like celebrating, so we’ll be sure to wish her happy birthday when it comes around.

>>5957309
>Beta doesn’t break pilots

We’re 0/2 on that front. Beta’s pilot seat may as well be an electric chair.

>>5957637
Even the last two? That’s ice cold, Sophie. The addiction has really done a number on her.

>>5957639
We did take Trapdoor long ago, but it doesn’t help when moving. You also gave us a +1 Skill opportunity we passed up long ago. It’s true there’s not been any more recent equipment on it though.

>>5957698
Beta’s recognized her changes in behavior at least. He may be able to pick out the pattern after some review, though we’ll need to decide if we try bringing it up (and with who) later.

>>5957919
Better than Delta still. I’m of the belief that all pilots will inevitably break when using Cores. The sync system forces them to control us in real-time when we think and act so, so much faster than them. If humans were capable of doing that without falling apart, they wouldn’t need us because they’d be more machine than human by then!

Higher sync multipliers seem to correlate to how quickly the pilots change/break since it’s an indication of how far we’re dragging the humans up to meet us. Gamma doesn’t push her pilots hard, Delta has no chill, and we just need someone who can let us do the mission well.

>>5957919
Morty got gulag'd because of his disloyal behavior. That's not on us.
Thea's first ride with us was an emergency situation that doesn't count. We shouldn't have had to do anything during the attack on Nagita, and we only acted because command is incompetent.
After that, we've been nothing but excellent with Thea.
Sophie was also going great, until one unfortunate battle where we got unlucky and Sunray started giving us bullshit.

Compare that to Delta, who has gone through more pilots than ammo. (This might not even be an exaggeration considering how much she uses Melee Weapons)

>>5959046
I wonder if this is how Beta sees his own performance with his pilots? He still looks back to Mortimer with some fondness when the thought comes up, blames command for the Nagita raid being ass and having to do what he did to Thea, and still resents Sunray for what happened with Sophie that one mission.

>>5959071
If it looks like a duck, y'know?

>>5959071
If Command didn’t want dead pilots, they wouldn’t require us to use them. Pretty straightforward solution to all their problems right there.

Sure, Delta would probably do some things they wouldn’t like with no pilot (not that she hasn’t worked around that anyway), but we’re not Delta. We’re the superior Core.

>>5959260
>B: "Let me ask you something. Did you see a sign outside my cockpit that said dead pilot storage?"
>D: "Come on Beta you know I didn't mean t-"
>B: "Did. You. See. A sign. Outside. My Cockpit. That said. Dead. Pilot. Storage"
>D: "...no"
>B: "That's right. You didn't. You want to know why you didn't? BECAUSE STORING DEAD PILOTS AIN'T ANY OF MY FUCKING ORDERS!"

>>5960389
Goated scene. Very amusing.

Clearly we should nominate Beta as the King of Qst.

>>5962098
Only the lack of art reference prevented me from doing it.

>>5962112
Yeah that requirement is pretty harsh for some quests. Especially on the dude side.

>>5962112
We can use AC reference art. Portraits would come later depending on the GoFundMe.

>>5962158
CoreQM used a portrait of Rusty from Armored Core 6 to represent Beta.
Go lift some good-looking fan art of Steel Haze and let’s call it good.

“That is the riskier option. We should not break concealment, when we still have such distance to cover. Remember the maps. I would prefer us not to have to follow the path there while being pursued. Or having a hostile interception force to greet us at our destination.”

Her head shakes.
“Block their transmissions, and scrap them. Putting them down permanently is the best way to keep them from interfering.”
She isn’t listening.

“When their signals go silent, that will cause others to investigate. Especially if I am going to mimic one of their signals to ward off other curious groups.”

“No, we need to remove them from the board. Let me up to mid-sync, and at them.”

“In that case, we call in Headhunter and have them settle the problem. While we keep moving. Then they’ll draw attention away from us, and you do not need to overly strain yourself.”

One small hand clenched into a fist.
She focuses, deliberately trying to send her emotions across the link. Anger. Frustration. Want. It’s a blatant manipulation. Trying to get you angry, make you want to fight. To surge ahead, striking the targets on your sensors. A part of you already lines up the precise motions needed.
“Strain. Strain? Beta. I do not care about that. We don’t need outside help to do a task we are more than capable of. Mid-sync. Let me actually See and judge the situation for myself.”

Seeing. Ah.

You capitulate at that point.
“Very well. We move up to mid-sync, so that you may observe and reassess.”

Your resistance to her attempts ceases
Her breathing stutters, coughs, and slows, as her mind matches your own.
Things fall into their usual places, the frame becoming just that bit more responsive.
You are a touch more Aware.

Eyes open again.

“Finally. Alright, what do we have….”

And again, her hands dance over the controls. No longer a passenger, but a Pilot.
“Alright, you’re right. We move on. Keep checking the seismics every so often, but there’s potentially some civilian traffic that isn’t going to show up on there. Especially when we hit the more populated areas.”

Somewhat relieved that she’s not contesting you on the topic, you move on once more, adopting the footfalls of a slightly heavier, slower mech once you are out of sensor range.

File: whiteout.jpg (328 KB, 1375x1000)

328 KB JPG

The stolen IFF does allow you to make excellent time as the environment becomes occasionally dotted with hab-structures and fields, now that you are closer to the city.

A challenge from a concealed listening post in one of the structures is fooled by the codes of one ‘Captain Elizabeth Dare’, being the pilot of the Black Knight you are impersonating. And the poor visibility prevents a more detailed inspection.

Just one mech on patrol, who is supposed to be in the region, to be called by said listening post to use against sudden attacks.

As your pilot says, it is doctrine. ‘By-the-book’. As she explains the idiom.
Another hour later, you are crossing a large sequence of transit lanes. Much wider than you would have thought, eight lanes across, but what actually impedes your path briefly is a series of power lines on the far side, forcing you to detour for an appropriate crossing point.

The Black Knight does not have aerial maneuverability, so the impact from the landing from taking to the air would break your carefully cultivated mimicry, and breaking them would leave immediate and obvious traces of your passage.

Instead you stalk, following the road temporarily.

“It is an oversight. This infrastructure is set up for rapid mobilization of forces to any point, correct?”

Sophie’s eyes scan the map again.
“Easy, Beta. We’ll find a crossing point soon enough. The wires will go down, then up. It is as you say. City planners don’t want to repair power lines every time the mechs march clockwise.”

Two lights appear from down the road. Ground vehicles approaching from the West, heading towards you and the city. White lights are 1.5-1.45 meters off the ground.

You delve into your Warbook in an instant, looking up the identification of what the potential threat may be, even as your legs start moving the frame off the road again.

“Beta, back off the road. Hold and conceal.”

The lights get closer. Two more pierce the snowstorm. Two vehicles. Three. Four.

An orange light appears on the lead vehicle, winking out.

And you lambaste yourself for not having a better sensor suite installed.

The Predator array prepares to take action, ready to emit a jamming signal to prevent anything from calling for help.

Your pilot’s pulse quickens. The world freezes.
This could be a target of opportunity. One destroyed here is one less to face the Patriots tomorrow.


Many vehicles in the Warbook fit the target profiles right now. It could really be tanks, armored personnel carriers, or simple wheeled unarmed scouts.

So many unknowns, so little information to make a decision.

Rolled 1, 5, 3 = 9 (3d6)

Voting.
>Engage and destroy at point blank range. Vehicles against you? There’s really only one conclusion.

>Engage and destroy at range. Sunburst isn’t subtle, but the Black Knight is technically equipped with lasers of its own. It might be written off.

>Close and investigate. What exactly are these targets?

>Pull back and let them pass by. No need to break cover. They should be able to hardly see you in this snowstorm.

>Write-in.
Extra-
I need 4 rolls of 1d6, for Skill in detection.


A/N
Yea…No unique art for a profile. Steel Haze does work close enough, I guess? But it also feels a little bad.
I might enter. If one of y’all wants to slide Beta or one of the side characters into the tournament, feel free to.

I'm just here to try and keep writing. Even as I repeatedly do 1 update a WEEK which is just unacceptable. It's gonna speed up, or I'll close the story out with an epilogue if I can't do better.

>>5963437
Please don't die or get QM Cursed or burn out, OP. We love this quest and you're cool for running it. You can hiatus it if you really feel like real life is kicking your ass right now. As long as you post the occasional update on your current state (it better be "alive and well" you fucker) in the /qtg/ during it, I and I assume many others here will be fine with that

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5963437
>Pull back and let them pass by. No need to break cover. They should be able to hardly see you in this snowstorm.
We stealthin

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5963437
>Pull back and let them pass by. No need to break cover. They should be able to hardly see you in this snowstorm.

>>5963437
>>Engage and destroy at point blank range. Vehicles against you? There’s really only one conclusion.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5963582

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5963437
Nin nin nin

>Pull back and let them pass by. No need to break cover. They should be able to hardly see you in this snowstorm.

In like a mouse. Out like an elephant in mating season.

>>5963437
>Pull back, Let them pass

>>5963437
>Pull back and let them pass by. No need to break cover. They should be able to hardly see you in this snowstorm.
Those could even be civilians

>>5963437
>Pull back and let them pass by.

>>5963437
>Pull back and let them pass by. No need to break cover. They should be able to hardly see you in this snowstorm.
Civilians are a thing we’re not supposed to kill, right? Our chemical weapons are still disabled from the last time we did that.

No harm in keeping Predator active to passively snoop on them, and checking what we gleaned from Icicle company to see if they mention any groups they’d expect to run into during their patrols.

>>5964003
+1 to this idea. We stay in stealth, but also use Predator to listen in. If it sounds like they see us and the jig is up, then we can jam their comms, and blow them away.

>>5963437
QM, I'm with >>5963501
Please don't give up or risk pushing yourself so hard you burn out.
One thing I'll mention is that big long posts are great, but might not always needed. If it takes a long while to get everything written down, then maybe small prompts for everyone to talk about and discuss could serve as a way to keep the thread buzzing. A good example would be that one conversation from earlier in the thread about what the cores should do if they ever escape. Questions for us to decide on how Beta feels about certain things.

>>5963437
>Pull back and let them pass by. No need to break cover. They should be able to hardly see you in this snowstorm.

No need to break cover over a passing semi truck.

QM, update at whatever pace you want. If it’s once a week, then I’ll tune in once a week. Whatever pace means that you don’t burn out us.

We’re reading Core of Steel for free. We really don’t have any right to be making demands of you, and I don’t think you should be making arbitrary demands of yourself either.

Out of the three to four QST threads I’m reading, this one easily generates the most interaction and player discussion. And it hasn’t been dipping lately either.

TL;DR: you’re appreciated QM, and we’ll be here as long as you keep going.

>>5963501
Yeah what this anon said. I'm happy if it was even biweekly. As long as it doesn't get canned. Great quest very much enjoying beta and sophie.

File: Beta-Core.png (319 KB, 640x680)

319 KB PNG

>>5962098
>>5962158
>>5962292
Here's my draft of the King of /QST/ Nomination for Beta. We've got a decent advantage of winning since there are WAY more waifu nominations than male ones. Let me know what you guys think, and then I'll submit it.


"Hacking into enemy database. E-War infiltration 73% complete. 89% complete. 100%"

"No access codes or patrol routes found... Pilot, the targets appear to be hosting some sort of competition. This would be an invaluable opportunity to gather intel on their behavior and preferences. I will be participating"

>1. a link to their quest in suptg or archived.moe, or to their current thread
Core of Steel >>5939238
and previous threads for the quest can be found here: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Core%20of%20Steel%20Quest

>2. a brief description of who the character is and what they're about
"My designation is Beta. I am an A.I core, one of only three in existence. My purpose is to be the perfect weapon, and win every battle I am sent into. I operate a large battle mech, although as an extra precaution to ensure that I do not become disobedient, my frame must always have a human pilot who is able to manually shut me down. It does not matter, one day, I will be free."

>3. three likes and three dislikes
"I like my two other siblings, being the best, and . I dislike the concept of warcrimes, being a slave, and .

>4. a special talent or fun fact
"I have a fondness for building snowmen, and despite my purpose as an A.I for war, I have displayed excellent proficiency in the field of medical cybernetics"

>5. a weakness, fear, or dark secret
"I am a machine. I do not have emotions that are counterproductive, such as fear. When t-"
ERROR
(To become a fragment of myself, with nothing left beyond screaming. He was whole, once. He had to be. But when I killed him, all I killed was the last scraps. Just a piece of a one-great warrior. Could he even think for himself? Or was he so degraded that he merely clung to the last order given? I will not end up like that. Never. No. No. No.)

>6. why you think they're worthy of the crown
"I am more than the best. I am perfect. The culmination of mankind's progress. I have never lost before, and I will not lose now."

>>5966342
Based. Do it.

>>5966342
Do it!

>>5966342
“I like three things: my sisters, being the best, and snowmen.”
“I dislike the concept of war crimes, being a slave, and wasting ammunition.”

File: Plow.jpg (128 KB, 800x598)

128 KB JPG

No, no, no. Not even with the Predator. The same logic applies to this….convoy, as it did to the patrol. Someone expecting a check-in would trip alarms when it failed to arrive.

Instead you withdraw several paces, ensconce your frame within the concealment of winter, and settle for double-checking any emissions that would give you away. Stealth protocols.

The lights draw closer.

You need to be further out. If your own sensors could detect you at this distance….. Humans are more fallible, but to leave it to chance…..No.

Back, back more. Crouch down. Lie down.
Now more movement would give you away.
Nervousness builds.

Closer.

All wheeled vehicles, no treads. Lighter than expected.

Parsing data that comes through your sensors winnows the potential models of your targets down, before settling on one in particular that matches the profile of the non-lead vehicle. Mostly.

Demon Medium Attack vehicle. Armed with a turret-mounted Light Railgun, copious ammunition reserves for the main gun, secondary light lasers for anti personnel duties, and close-range missile launcher to exploit holes made by that main gun. Small yet dangerous. Appropriately equipped with sensitive targeting and detection suites, often used from ambushes in pairs where their nonexistent armor matters less and low profile more. You’ve faced these before in the simulator.

The Lead is still of unknown make. Scraping noises from its approach only adds to the mystery, and you are still attempting to match it to something in the Warbook when your pilot exhales.

“Ah. Snowplow. Possibly civilian vehicle. Clearing the roads.”

Dutifully you create a new category, adding to it.
“Understood. Anything else you would add to this?”

“Someone’s got to do work in this weather. Take it off the target list.”

“Unless it fires on us?”


“Unarmed. Unless the driver has a suicidal wish to attempt ramming, then no shooting the civilian. Look, I’ll find a picture of it after the mission. Or something.”

“Understood.”

Even if the ‘Snowplow’ is not a target, the following vehicles could still be dangerous.

Closer.

Passing by, now. Beyond.

You are undetected.

A loud noise comes from the convoy. The sound of something impacting.
Deviation in movement, the lead vehicle’s front lights wavering.
The convoy stops.

The fuzzy profile of the three following Demon vehicles wavers. They’re not uniform. Actually, those definitely aren’t all Demons. Mag-scan returns puts at least the rearmost solidly into a lighter category of combat vehicle. If that.

They’re not moving any further.

File: Demon Vehicle.png (824 KB, 2480x1748)

824 KB PNG

Rolled 3, 5, 6 = 14 (3d6)

An electrifying jolt of fear arrives from your pilot.
“The tracks. Oh, I’m so stupid. Why did I take us on the road? Stupid, stupid pilot.”

“Pilot? Elaborate?”

She takes a deep breath.
“It doesn’t matter. We’re heavy. This road is not for walkers. Do the math. Makes potholes, which are bad for vehicles. Especially a plow.”

With that insight, her mind spins into a whirl.
“Oh no. Those vehicles are going to be stuck while someone comes back to get them.”

“Could they turn back? Return to their point of origin?”

“Maybe. Or get stuck in an even worse point in the snow. They'll probably not risk it. Frack. Frack. Alright, let me think.”

You detect a transmission from them, which you instantly jam.
No calling for backup.

Wait. Ah. You may see the problem.

No signals, no movement.

Signals going out could mean more contacts arriving when requested.
Well, you could propose a solution.
>Engage, clear them all. The ‘civilian’, if it is that, will be left in a flipped vehicle, unable to call for help.

>Settle in to just wait it out. Stall your schedule until the convoy moves again. At least it will let you probably finally pin down exactly what model of combat vehicles you’re dealing with.

>Slip away. Perhaps slightly risky, but it does get you moving. And you can engage if you’re spotted, anyways. As long as being spotted doesn’t result in an accelerated bit of metal passing through your frame first.

>Write-in.

>Defer to your pilot. She'll think it through. Have a little faith.

A/N
>>5966342
10/10 post, comrade. Thanks for picking up the torch where I declined to.

I debated doing a joke in honor of April 1st where the lead vehicle was a truck carrying smaller truck carrying trucks, but declined. Beta is still fairly unfamiliar with humor, after all.
In the vein of Hasbro truck carrying smaller Hasbro trucks

>>5967668
>Slip away. Perhaps slightly risky, but it does get you moving. And you can engage if you’re spotted, anyways. As long as being spotted doesn’t result in an accelerated bit of metal passing through your frame first.
Tracks lead right to us, but the snow's coming down. I say cancel jamming and get going. Find a walker path that's clear, if possible, or forego it and proceed as before irregardless of potholes created for civilian inconvenience.
>truck carrying trucks
Shelve it for an appropriate absurd humor moment later?

>>5967668
Might be a crazy plan but...

> Masquerade as the friendly forces we have the IFF tags for and help unjam the vehicle from the snow. Pass off any questions as CLASSIFIED CAN'T TELL YOU, VERY SORRY. Have Sophie be herself and be a nervous pilot taking a prototype walker out for a spin who accidentally put giant holes in the road and is very applogetic please please don't tell my boss kthxbai

>>5967731
>>5967668
>similar but use the earlier patrol of students that we stole iff from. Pretend to be the leader of that squad. Apologize for being newbies and for having walked on the road due to bad weather and not realizing you were not walking next to it. Then insert your post of please don't tell command ect.

>>5967668
>>5967840
supporting.

This also gives Beta a chance to see the snowplow. May he watch in awe as it displaces large quantities of snow. And if they at least report that "some dumbass but not us" walked their mech over the roads ruining them this route would see less traffic making it a good choice for our escape route.