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A stutter is how it starts. A hitch in your link, the seamless flow of commands and affirmation being slacked for 1.23 seconds causing the stride to be delayed just enough to not quite be a misstep.

The ground-eating pace you kept up for the past hour has been marked by such things, characteristic of Sophie’s dwindling stamina. No further military patrols dogged your steps, the plains gave way to civilian habs, and the navigational turn to the east to approach the Academy was executed without problems.

Ensconced safely within her metal cocoon, your pilot consults her bright console. Her eyes squint, tracing patterns on the map.
“Target is the biggest building in the center of the campus. A stadium normally used for sporting events. The roof is undoubtedly closed right now because of the weather, so collapsing it could be an option.”

“Do we have structural plans for the stadium? I request permission to attempt to access the local net and obtain said information.”

“No, and denied. We work with what we have. Ow. Don’t want to trip any silent alarms before we get there.”

You feel her thoughts, her emotions. Her frustration at the lack of briefing mingles with your own disappointment. The fear of failure.

The strain of trying to keep focused for so long is taking its toll.
“Low-sync, pilot?”

“No, no. I’ve got this. Need to see the map to make the calls. Stop trying to coddle me.”

The statement, while not inaccurate, does sidestep the actual problem of faltering sync. Namely, that you need her able to sync later, not now.

“Drop down willingly, pilot, before you black out when actually in combat. It is an unacceptable risk to the mission.”
The frame is pulled to a stop by your will.

“I will verbally brief you, to compensate for your ocular imperfection. Low-sync, pilot. In seven seconds. Six. Five.”

“What? No!”

“Four. Three. Two.”

Reluctantly, she slides down. Out of mid-sync, back to low. You can feel your thoughts slowing, the lighting-fast reactions and ability to transform thoughts into motion no longer being so easy.

It is good to find her being reasonable, now.

“Excellent, pilot.”

Sullen silence is her response. And a muted flash of anger.

“If we engage enemies, I will help pull you back up.”

“I don’t Need your help for that. Just move along, Beta. Stick to the plan.”
Anger fades to disappointment. And a note of acceptance.

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Almost to the Tsang Tsun Military Academy, you’ll need to pick the approach. Beta is positioned directly to the West currently. The layout of the grounds is roughly a large oval.

What was the plan you worked out, again?


Pick Method
>Loud and Fast.
Run in to strike hard, and rely on speed to get out. Simplicity itself.
No rolling for stealth. Probably straight to combat, depending on what enemy forces are there.

>Imposter attempt, Part B
With the IFF codes from Icicle Company, you could continue your masquerade as a different machine, right up until you are in range of a chosen target.
Doesn’t require rolling on Your part. This is different from just trying to be totally undetected.
This is also an ‘unlocked’ option that is available because of what you stole earlier.

>Slow and Silent.
Remaining in stealth, you just need to slip through any active sensors and make it to the point.
Requires rolling, varying degrees of difficulty depending on which target you’re going for initially.
(Sneaking directly to the Stadium’s harder than trying to just knock down some residential buildings, for example)

>The Remote Decision.
You’re calling in Headhunter to hit something first. Then you’ll look at sneaking or charging, or anything else.
Headhunter does some rolling. Maybe loud, maybe quiet.

>Write-in, something else
Pick the first target to go for. The only thing you’re actually requested to strike is the Stadium, but you could make reasons to hit elsewhere for the sake of the mission.

>The Stadium.
It’s what you’re here for. All the Academy leadership is supposed to be attending a social event here.

>The Mech hangars.
Along the Southern edge, normally a full battalion of training mechs are located here. Any response would be coming from this location. Why not hit them first?

>’Zone 6’
A wide section of unlabeled buildings to the West, you’re set to pass by these if you directly went straight towards the stadium at the center.

>Residential buildings.
Mostly to the East, potentially the best target to create a distraction by drawing attention.

>Watterson Observatory
To the North, this is another potential distraction target, in addition to being a hardened target.

>Write-in, something else?

A/N:
Feel free to ask questions. This is supposed to be the ‘how it ideally goes’ plan before you run into opposition or hangups.
If you do decide to just call Headhunter onto the primary target and leave, then I’ll laugh, but it’s an option you do have.

File: Core of Steel Combat Mechanics.png (1.47 MB, 1830x992)

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Oh, and Character sheet. Combat mechanics posted in the picture.

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 (Added into stats already)

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


Skill is used for Stealth rolls, along with detection. And is affected by Sync. Will is used for E-War and hacking, and isn't.

It's good to be back

>>5975464
>Imposter part B
>Go for stadium

Hit em. Wipe em. Fuck off. Best plan

>>5975544
+1

Maybe we also hit the mech hanger on the way out?
I also suggest we save Headhunter for an emergency, such as Sophie passing out

>>5975464
So many potential targets, so few mechs to do it with.

>The Remote Decision
>The Mech hangars

>Imposter attempt, Part B
>The Stadium

I’m assuming the Icicle company mech we’re impersonating is undergoing maintenance in those hangers. If so, we can angle our approach to the starium from the mech bay and Sophie can play the part of a trainee that was in the area when it was attacked and took the mech out to reinforce the VIPs.

If she can feign trouble with communications until someone starts calling us out on it, even better. Lets us get closer before telling them who we are so there’s less excuse to redirect us elsewhere.

Icicle company will be so screwed by the time this is over. There’s going to be Loyalists convinced that someone on their team handed over IFF and other operational information to get this far.

I’m open to alternatives though.

>>5975464
I'd support the Imposter plan, but I feel we're going to get caught early if asked why we're approaching the Stadium. So I ask, which target would put the Stadium between us and the target? Have Headhunter create a distraction at the said target and we'll act like we're responding to the attack (and just happen to pass through the Stadium).

>>5975464
>The Remote Decision
>The Mech hangars

>Imposter attempt, Part B
>The Stadium

Anon has a good plan.

>>5975564
>>5975464
I’d be willing to back this over my own (>>5975561). Same general plan and all.

Along those lines, I’ll formally ask where the mechs in maintenance are being kept so we can pretend we did an emergency deployment.

Maybe Sophie can add some confusion later by stating some ground troops made their way towards the mechs and were taken out, which is why she hopped in and started moving towards their obvious target. Make them either spread out looking for more low-visibility targets that don’t exist or call everyone in giving us an excuse to close in all the way, pop leadership, and jet out before the rest can arrive. We should be faster than anything they have.

>>5975564
Hangars are in the south, Stadium in center, so swinging north and approaching from that direction makes you look like you're heading for....well, the Stadium.

>>5975588
Maintenance is in the Hangars, usually. There's some underground sections in the same area, also, that would show up on the map you received. March out from there, and proceed west for the training ranges.

>>5975464
Also, I just realized how bad the vote formatting looks. No clear definition between vote section 1 and 2. Whoops. A little late to change it at this point, unfortunately.

>>5975604
It's settled then.
>The Remote Decision
>The Mech hangars

>Imposter attempt, Part B
>The Stadium

>>5975604
Guess we have to pick between coming from the hangers to justify why we’re spoofing a mech that’s undergoing maintenance or coming from across the stadium and hoping they don’t think too hard about how we got there. We could also spoof a deployed unit, but same risk that they’ll notice the same friendly being tagged twice eventually.

I’ll lean back towards coming from the hangers. If we lie about troops also being in the area it’d make sense to fall back to stadium. No way would anyone have luck finding them in this weather, so it’s better to hole up around a target they know they’ll be aiming for.

We can also say we’re not in shape to find and fight whatever just hit the mech bays when the troops failed to take it, but we can stomp on troops around the stadium just fine.

>>5975464
>Imposter attempt, Part B

>The Stadium.

Keep up the act. We hit then point blank. They won't know what happened until we long gone.

>>5975464
>The Remote Decision
>The Mech hangars

>Imposter attempt, Part B
>The Stadium

>>5975561
+1
I like this anon’s plan. Keep impersonating Icicle Company as long as we can.

>>5975561
Supporting

>>5975464
>Remote Decision

>Impostor Attempt, part B

BETA IS IN FIRST PLACE FOR THE TOURNAMENT


LETS!
FUCKING!
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

>>5975464
supporting >>5975561

>>5976398
Total. Core. Victory

Beta tournament
Beta crown
Beta world

>>5976398
AI CORE SUPREMACY

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Headhunter strikes the mech hangars in the south, delaying any reinforcements possible and sowing chaos while you continue to mimic a Black Knight from Icicle company, pushing for the actual target of the stadium.

The chances of being uncovered and identified before you complete your mission rely on the unreliable and impossible to calculate metric of human interest, but nothing should be out of order. Outside of visual acquisition, that is.
Over the next minutes on the approach, you send a series of transmissions. Carefully timed and curated to appear like random junk data, they should be impossible to decode unless one has the appropriate cipher key and is listening for the correct cues.

Even an AI like you would be annoyed at catching enough worthless junk first. Yet, they convey the new and updated plan of attack to Headhunter. Coordinates of strike point and a timer. To try and fit anything else is unneeded.

The response is a slight flare on thermal sensors, further off than you were expecting. To the west and trailing your path. A brief dropping of whatever thruster baffles conceals their flight capabilities. You assume that is an acknowledgement and affirmation, even without a specific returning comms channel.

Good. It would be aggravating if they undid your careful work of hours maneuvering into position with a single miss-timed broadcast.

The delay does have the extra benefit of giving a mandated rest period to your pilot, ideally giving a respite from the intense focus of Mid-sync.
Her see-sawing on the gamut of mild nervousness to crushing fear isn’t particularly conducive to relaxation, and you still don’t exactly know what you can do to settle her.

Maybe you got too used to the slightly cold, separated connection of Thea’s VNDI implants. Was Sophie always so….unstable?

“Relax, pilot. I have conveyed instructions to Headhunter, and they have received them.”
Calm. Focus. Confidence. All things you try to convey across the tenuous link of low-sync.
“You are safe. We will not know defeat.”

“Easy to say when you can see.”
The retort is half-hearted, and followed by a sigh.

“I am your eyes, pilot. Better than your own sensors could be. For example, I detect three active reactors to the west of the Academy.”
A stop in your own tread tells you more.
“Two Medium or light units. Designate Target One, Two, Three. Two appears to be following One, moving fast on an irregular path. Three is stationary.”

“Towards us? Are…”

“Negative. It is not optimized for a search pattern. Highly inefficient. They are doing irregular stopping and starting movements. Thermal readings detect light laser fire. Moving patrol elements may be engaging undetected targets on the ground when stopped.

Her pulse slows, breathing becomes more regular as her mind runs through your analysis. And finds flaws.
“In this weather? Really? List off the things you would be unable to detect at this range, that they could be firing at.”

“Infantry. Powered armor units. Non-fusion powered vehicles. Stealth-capable mechs, like Ronin. Headhunter. Civilians. Structures-”

Sophie cuts you off.
“Infantry? In this weather? No, this is an Academy. It’s not a patrol, a training group. Probably. Doing a course under extreme conditions. They’re engaging training targets. Stopping, firing, starting. Match up the movements and tell me if they follow that pattern.”

A full stop and listening to your seismics give you an answer.

She’s right (Mostly), and you tell her as much, causing a surge of smugness and confidence, while she orders you into a detour to give the training machines a healthy amount of space.
Pilot successfully distracted, mood buoyed, and nervousness defused. Slightly.
The path you take is north of the newly designated ‘training area’, still maintaining the profile of the BLKT-09 Black Knight. With all of the slowness, heft of tread, and IFF of the patrolling mech you stole it from. You aren’t hiding, but not trying to draw additional attention, either.

It doesn’t even attract the attention of the training duo, even as they seem to finish their erratic movements and circle to rejoin the third, stationary reactor.
Three then proceeds to follow the same route of the prior mechs. The seismic tremors its steps leave allow you to place it as a heavyweight machine.

Despite being approximately thrice the tonnage of its lighter companions, the progress it makes is not marked by stops or stutters, the mark of an experienced pilot, and the cracks of a railgun rings out in the distance, muffled by snowfall.
That does narrow the potential models it could be down. A fragment of your attention scours the Warbook, the scant information proving not enough to get a positive identification.
An upgraded Dominus, a Legio, a Claymore, any of the three, or others. All perhaps requiring an amount of respect, if well-piloted.

If Headhunter does their attack run from the West, as you would expect them to, this machine could be by happenstance perfectly positioned to get one or two shots on them when they approach or evacuate.

Another problem. Perhaps. You could just trust Headhunter’s inferior machine to hold up to the fire and call them in anyways.

Being shot down would be a fine enough distraction, after all.

Or they could avoid the fire and be perfectly fine.

You're getting into a feedback loop.

You remain silent, not voicing your concerns to your pilot. Her blindness does let you exploit this chance to make a decision on the problem without orders.

Options:
>Try another coded broadcast to Headhunter, light on details but directing them to attack from another vector

>Try a detailed broadcast. You could use the opportunity to exchange information much more freely, and make a more detailed plan.
You’re just another patrolling machine calling their far-away lance. There should be nothing suspicious. Nothing at all.

>Strike early, strike fast. Close and crush them, resolving the problem in a more direct manner. No changes needed. They won’t even get to scream.

>Do nothing. Stick to your plan. Headhunter will solve the problem themselves. Or not.

>Defer to your pilot. Bring her into the loop.

>Write-in. Something else?
A/N
I am impressed and honored by the performance of Beta on the popularity contest section of the tourney. However, he's also in the awkward middleweight section of 'not OP enough to be a planet-cracking monster', yet way too much for anything shorter than a two-story building. It's a highly amusing power scale problem that only appears in crossovers.

That's also not even touching how questionable a contestant he is when it comes to most non-combat competitions. Flirting? Repeated confusion.
Delta might know more, with the amount of people she ate.

I may have also shelled out to someone for some actual commissioned art, so maybe we'll see where that goes sometime down the line.

>>5977312
>Try another coded broadcast to Headhunter, light on details but directing them to attack from another vector.

>>5977312
>"Flirting competition? 'Flirting' not found in warbook, elaborate."
>"It means saying something nice to make people like you. A lot. Basically."
>"Understood. Contestant xxxxxx, you have a small logistics footprint."
Perfect.

>>5977312
>>Do nothing. Stick to your plan. Headhunter will solve the problem themselves. Or not.

>>5977312
>Try another coded broadcast to Headhunter, light on details but directing them to attack from another vector

>>5977312
>do nothing
He isnt our ally. Not really

>>5977312
>Try another coded broadcast to Headhunter, light on details but directing them to attack from another vector
Help the asset out

>>5977312
>Defer to your pilot. Bring her into the loop.
I’d recommend
>Try another coded broadcast to Headhunter, light on details but directing them to attack from another vector
to her though.

All she’d need is the info on the railgun, the approximate location of the mech (probably in relation to the target area), and an updated timer to with how long we think she’ll need to loop around them or erase them. Up to her to figure out the rest.

She was the pilot who surrendered to us before, she if she gets taken down she may do the same. I’m hesitant to allow the Empire access to any of her information on her mech or our mission here by indirectly allowing her capture.

>>5977312
>Try another coded broadcast to Headhunter, light on details but directing them to attack from another vector

>>5977312
>Try another coded broadcast to Headhunter, light on details but directing them to attack from another vector.

We’re gonna need this guy later.

>>5977312
>>Defer to your pilot. Bring her into the loop.

Rolled 3, 4, 4, 5 = 16 (4d6)

Dice, roll of 1, second roll of 3.
First for Opfor. Second for Will

>>5978090
Opfor be sleepin' today fr

>>5978090
Well, Opfor didn’t see anything. Aaand Sophie climbed back up herself to see what we just did, or she’s trying to stay in low-sync. She’s the only one with 3 Will that we know of.

I take heart in the fact we haven’t been asked to contest the Will roll.

>>5978098
It is a blizzard out there. I’d be sleeping in too.

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Your processes turn the decision over, and over once more.

The risks are not so great, should you use the same method of broadcasting as you did earlier. At stake, detection would read only as a mistaken approach vector. A different flight plan. Innocuous.

Perhaps you are approaching this from an incorrect perspective.
A set of supposed allies inflicted more damage upon you than full companies of Tamar mechs and men. Dagger squad’s betrayal did give you a painful lesson in trust. Even thinking of the outcome makes you seethe.

Do you want Headhunter to return from this mission intact? If you met a month ago, they would have been an opponent. If orders had not changed, and Thea not changed friendlies into enemies. No, it was up to her commander at the time. Sunray. Kinston. Both?
You made your choice then. For fear of consequences, or self preservation, it matters not. Only the outcome does.

The longer Headhunter remains an effective combatant, the more they can assist your mission, and the greater the chance of success and your survival.

That is worth the risk, you judge. You can dispatch them later.
A shiver ripples through your skin. Does Command, does General Marik, view you that way? View the cores? Waiting until you are no longer effective, then brushing the liabilities away in an erasure of what you are with kill commands, memory wipes, and reprogramming.

No. You have value. You have use. You are needed. The Empire needs you. You Will make your mark in history. You will not be forgotten. Not be replaced.
Besides, to throw away your best weapon would be illogical. Let alone preemptively remove the problem. It would be like….ejecting the Sunburst laser array, because you used it to cut your own leg off. Nonsensical. If its capacitors were overloading, and set to explode, perhaps. But no sooner.

Headhunter is the same. An ally and effective tool, until proven otherwise. It has given no indications of unreliability.
Neither did Blake.

Introspection concluded, you begin the process of encoding and disseminating the data packets.

All while the awkward, stamping tread takes you around the northern edge of the training ground, away from the practicing mechs and into inhabited areas. Roads, snow-covered and hardened. Bereft of movement or tracks. Merely pooling lights from poles, providing a tepid illumination in the snow.

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The danger of detection may be replaced with the danger of identification, but your Predator array still fails to pick up on the panicked traffic of an alarm. Merely unsecured transmissions of worthless things. Random pictures of a mass of people, saluting. Nonsensical messages. Poor-quality shakey videos. Why would they be throwing hats, anyways?

Unchallenged, even still. What a mockery of security.
Full sensor sweep, again. Thermal outputs….seismics…mag-scan…..visuals, poor as they are. Many light vehicles, parked. Idling. The three mechs from earlier. Buildings could block emissions for you to pick up on, and often muddle your mag-scan, but it is still clear that no actively moving machines are close enough to intercept you.

Bare steps from the campus, proper, of the Tsang Tsun Military Academy. And yet nothing.
The timer still ticks away. Closing in on the time of attack. Mere minutes.

Inhale. Exhale. Human actions.
Pilot is in Mid-syncAnd has been

“Beta. If I asked you to stop, would you?”

“Insufficient information. Your wording is very imprecise. Elaborate.”

“To call off this attack.”

“We have our orders. Do you have an appropriate reason to not carry it out?”
You leave off the potentially construed as insulting remarks about timeliness. This current moment could be said as the sixth to last minute possible for such a debate.

“A feeling. That we aren’t getting the whole picture.”

A feeling.
“Do you suspect something is amiss here, Pilot? A delay would-”

“I KNOW! I just, just…”
The trailing off does not inspire great confidence in her fortitude.

“What, pilot?”

Her head shakes.


Pilot problems or not, the time is now.

>Execute.
You head for the Stadium, immediately after Headhunter begins their attacks on the southern hangars.

>Call off.
Very minimal time for subtleties this late. You’ll need to contact Headhunter directly for a delay.

>Write-in. Changes to the plan? Contact Command?
A/N
Had to fix formatting. Whoops.

>>5978175
>Give the Order, Pilot. Attack or abort, it is your decision.
>We appear to be crashing a social celebration, theory, their new crop of Pilots has just been promoted. Elimination of leadership and pilots serves the patriots cause by eliminating resistance to Marrik's march.

>>5978180
Support

>>5978175
>Pilot is in Mid-sync
Ohhh, Sophie you sneaky little devil. I’m proud of you and your will; that you’re growing bolder as a person. The problem is just that you’re directing it against us.


>>5978180
>Give the Order, Pilot. Attack or abort, it is your decision. I trust you either way.
+1 to this along with some clarification
We give her, let’s say… 30 seconds to decide. Even if headhunter begins his attack in that time, it’s no biggie. Sophie seems hesitant about killing the students, but no one has any qualms about destroying the mechs in the hangars. So we don’t really need to worry about tell him to delay.
If Sophie is unable to make a decision, then we attribute it to her overworking herself, and continue with the mission as planned.


As a reminder, if the pilot tells us to abort the mission, then we take zero blame and are not at fault. In fact, listening to the pilot is what Kinston -prefers- us to do. What’s more, this wouldn’t count against our perfect record since the mission was called off rather than us failing to complete it.


I’ll say that I’m not against abandoning the mission. There’s two reasons why.
1. Do it for Sophie. She’s asking if we trust her, and part of me wants to affirm that. We’ve worked so hard to build up good relationships with our pilots, so what is this if not another chance to reassure her. Actions speak louder than words after all.
2. More enemy pilots means the patriots are less likely to win. The patriots being less likely to win means that Beta and Delta are more valuable. Being valuable is good for us.

That said, going ahead with the mission isn’t too bad either. Kinston won’t be in a bad mood when we return.

The only thing is that Sophie cannot throw us under the bus and make us take the blame when we return. We also have the memory logs to prove it in case she starts acting irrational. If she asks us to get in trouble instead of her then we say no. It’s fine if we lie for her sake and say that we detected some new variables (that way she called off the mission based on facts rather than “a feeling”), but if Kinston gets mad then it’s not fair if she asks us to pay for her screw up.

>>5978175
Holy shit welcome back, I was wondering where this quest went, also
>>5978180
>supporting.

>>5978175


>>5978180
Support

Still got a job to do. But it's Sophie's call at the end.

>>5978180
+1

So Sophie knows what we did, and didn’t have any problem with it.

Maybe we actually did better by not deferring to her. It proves we were willing to protect someone else without being ordered. Hardly the first time, but each instance adds up.

>>5978175
Know what, I’ll propose an alternate plan after outlining what I think the big picture is.

Like >>5978180 said, the target seems to be both pilots and leadership. I’d argue the leadership is just a nice bonus honestly, killing the bigwigs won’t stop the pipeline, only slow it. Marik’s timeline likely doesn’t need it slowed, it needs it set back. The “social gathering” the leadership is at was the real target all along.

Kinston mentioned choking on the hypocrisy. Sending the child soldier who lost her whole class to make more enemy pilots like herself would fit the bill.

So, alternate plan idea
>Have Headhunter continue with the attack on the training mechs
>Hijack the gathering with Predator and have Sophie contribute to the event. Ask if she would like to take back some of the memories she gave you to assist with making the human connection to this class.

Sophie can spell out that we had the opportunity to strike them directly. We’re close enough to hijack the graduation after all, and we did take out their mech hanger. They could call in Icicle Company, but it’d only prove there is no choice to spare them. That they’re enemies, and enemies don’t get to choose when they die. Like her class didn’t when State Sec rolled in and massacred them for some political power play her group didn’t even factor into.

Where she goes from there is up to her. She can encourage them to join her side. At least she had enough humanity to spare them, while the Empire wouldn’t. She could encourage them to shift to independents in the war, that Command is screwed up enough on both sides and they should be something better. You’re supposed to encourage graduates to do better than the current generation, right? Even if Sophie is part of that despite probably being younger than this group. And was never told that in her graduation since she never had one. She just went to war.

One of her friends was going to give her a callsign when they graduated. Like some of them no doubt promised each other.

She still doesn’t have one. Only her mech does.

It’s not what the mission called for. But it might accomplish the same thing without costing her soul like Kinston figures it will. It’s the best we can do to protect her from the fallout. And we get the bonus of having thought of it first. “Only a tool for the pilot” my ass Kinston, this is way outside what they intended pilots to use us for and we still find ways to contribute!

>>5978180
support

>>5978175
>Execute
>Do you not remember statesec killing your classmates? This is war. You must kill your enemies assets. Especially when they're nicely grouped together.

There's no reason not to kill these people...

>>5978180
Support

OH SHIT!
HELP!!!

The guy running the tournament is demanding "some sort of art (MS paint doodles or napkin sketches are fine)" in order to register a valid IP for the voting and participation. See >>5979438
I fucked up the original submission, so even though Beta is a legitimate contestant, I myself do not have a valid IP for the tournament.

Anon's of Core-of-Steel quest, PLEASE, I need your help in getting fanart of Beta + MERRYGATE

>>5979487
Just click "Draw" down at the bottom of the window and make something awful. Then say it was Sophie trying to draw Beta with her ruined eyesight.

>>5979487
I have negative art skills so I can’t assist. There’s always the /qag/ thread to ask around in. Something where MERRYGATE has just finished an introduction to biology and is about to start on how to use general knowledge of it to tailor chemical weapons?

You can request terrible AI art of them and say Delta or the Empire submitted it. The worse it is while still capturing the idea it involves Beta and MERRYGATE, the better.

>>5979487
Merrygate? Isn't that ObserverQM's thing? Wait I wonder if Solstice Quest has started up again

>>5980972
Yep, she's from Retaliation Quest by ObserverQM.
The tournament is having the different contestants interact, and I'm excited to see Beta talk with her since she is also an AI like him.

Actually, while we're on the topic, I'd appreciate some input from CoreQM. How do YOU think Beta would feel upon meeting her? I ask because I don't have much material to use as reference. We the players never personally saw the three siblings bond, it's only been talked about after the fact. The other situation was with Athena, but she was a dumb-dumb AI, so Beta didn't have a legitimate conversation with her.
IRL I ship it, but in-character I've got no clue how Beta would act.

>>5980994
I suppose the best analogy we could posit in the thread would be if we met a Tamar Core that we knew wasn’t based on Anohkin’s work. Similar enough to understand, but clearly not part of our immediate family.

I’d be willing to treat this theoretical Core as a relative to start. Worthy of immediate acknowledgment in a way that humans have to work with us for a long while to earn, but we’d need to learn more about them before we’d consider them close enough to trigger the effects of (and general protectiveness implied by) As One.

>>5980994
I know what Retaliation Quest is, namefag, I've been on every fucking thread of it.

Rolled 4, 2, 2 = 8 (3d6)

“Theory: We appear to be interrupting a social celebration involving a promotion ceremony of pilots. This should serve a double purpose for the Patriot cause, to decapitate leadership and eliminate pilots before they can be fielded.”

Reasoning, so clear and logical, provided by the machine. If she goes forwards now, there is no turning back. A traitor by both word and action.

“Give the order, Pilot. Attack or abort, it is your decision.”

Is…Is what she’s doing here wrong? She wishes the world would stop, turn back time to when the Empire’s enemies were simply on the other side of the border, when things were clear and certain.

Wishful thinking. Not even her better half could perform such a miracle.

Perhaps just reach out, talk the leadership she was going to murder into sitting this civil war out. Fulfill the mission another way. Following the letter of her orders.

But the time for planning such a thing would have been hours ago. To stop, to reach out for an uncertain chance.
That would have shown up on logs, on records. Far too much of a gap to explain away. She would never pilot again if that came to light. Never sync again.

So at the bottom of the slope, the end of the rolling snowball of choices, Sophie makes her decision.

“There is no decision. Engage and destroy.”

Her senses expand, limbs become ensheathed in steel. Focus reaching out to every point of the frame. The numbness, the aches, the frailty of flesh vanishing. The world is slowing again, every moment a new possibility opening up.

Her timer counts off the last seconds.

And the slight sense of resignation is swept away by euphoria.

File: Stick a mech on the roof.jpg (63 KB, 1024x575)

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The first sign you see of Headhunter’s assault beginning is an alarm raised.

The second sign is the thermal plume of an explosion. Something large. Ammunition dump? Fuel bunker? It fades too quick to be a runaway fusion reactor.

Your cue. Sophie lends her voice to the confusion.
“Patrol, Icicle One responding to unknown explosions in the south.”
Obviously fake, but gives you a vague reason to be moving directly through the campus to your target.

Moving now, every second counts. Ready-five pilots would be racing to their machines if they weren’t already there, leaping into cockpits and powering on weapons.

Target in sight. Line up primary weapon.
A massive building, large enough to walk a mech into if desired. A monument to structural engineering, covered by a wide dome, slanted to allow snow to slide off under the current chilling conditions. Vulnerable.
Collapse the building, kill all those inside.

Sunburst finally spins to life, a blue-white beam spraying thermal energy into the outside edge of the wide dome. Metal twists and flexes, melting under a long burn. Slowly. Too slowly.

Switch to short-range, high power mode, and aim at another section. Perhaps the Sunburst isn’t an ideal weapon for this task.

The groan of the strut is audible, crying out, before transforming into the snapping crunch of a single support failing.

There is a faster way to accomplish this.
Thrusters catapult you up above, before letting gravity take hold to send your full weight down on the roof. The effect is immediate and dramatic, the remaining roof collapsing in its entirety, sparks flying and lights winking out.

A brief scramble to keep your feet in the falling metal is a challenge, but a manageable one.
The cloud of dust raised by the demolition is still falling while you engage in further destruction, one arm swiping back and forth from the inside to tear ferrocrete chunks out of the interior.

Sensors confirm the building was occupied by many people.

Dust and debris settle.

From the end of the timer to the destruction of the target, 62.2 seconds. You should have just opened with the physical strike.

Either way, mission accomplished. Targets eliminated?

Sensors sweep over the rubble.

Heat from the interior escapes through the vanished roof, appearing oddly on your thermal sensors.

There are many unmoving bodies, cooling swiftly. Ones that do move brighten briefly under Sunburst’s attention, before becoming unrecognizable in milliseconds.

Targets eliminated.


Your minds turn to extraction.
Legs propel you back out of the ruined stadium, over the edge and out.
Eyes look south, to the flashes of Headhunter’s explosions winking in the storm.
Reactors are powering on, the inevitable response. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Then to the west, to the training grounds, where already online mechs scramble to aid.

To the north, free and clear, yet completely the wrong direction.

And to the east, unknown yet seemingly clear.

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Voting

>You will go North to lie low and then evade before making your way back to base

>You will strike South, helping Headhunter disengage and destroying the enemy ‘response force’

>You will go West, bluffing your way back past the now-distracted training mechs and retracing your steps

>You will go East, heading through new, unknown enemy territory.

>Write-in.


A/N:
Another unknown AI? Probably initial paranoia and caution, attempting to ascertain if they are likely to eliminate Beta. If they are friendly and not pathetically weak, then an exchange of ideas and data is in order.

Also here's the one precious piece of fanart I have someone drew back with Dagger Squad.

>>5981139
>You will strike South, helping Headhunter disengage and destroying the enemy ‘response force’
I want him around in case Sophie passes out


>>5981131
Chill tf out. It's not about whether you've been on that quest or not, I'm saying the name because there are other anons in the thread who might be curious.
And the only reason I had a tripcode is because I left it on by accident after posting stuff for the tournament.

>>5981139
>You will strike South, helping Headhunter disengage and destroying the enemy ‘response force’

>>5981139
>You will go North to lie low and then evade before making your way back to base
Flyboy should be fast enough to just vroom out of there.

>>5981139
>>You will strike South, helping Headhunter disengage and destroying the enemy ‘response force’

>>5981139
>You will strike South, helping Headhunter disengage and destroying the enemy ‘response force’

>>5981136
>>5981138
>Is what she’s doing here wrong?
Yes but this is war. The moment you get into the fucking robot Sophie, you are already damned.
>Perhaps the Sunburst isn’t an ideal weapon for this task.
We still picked it because we're up against other mechs. A missile strike would have been bloodier but cooler

CoreQM, when will everybody including Beta wake up to the pilot being addicted to linking?

>>5981318
>A missile strike would have been bloodier but cooler
We need to find a new supply of G42, would have made things much faster

>>5981139
>You will strike South, helping Headhunter disengage and destroying the enemy ‘response force’
Well, I tried to give you an alternative Sophie. Whether you’d have taken or not would have been another question.

No one will question us running towards an attacker, and it’d be nice to get some performance info on Headhunter.

>>5981139
>You will strike South, helping Headhunter disengage and destroying the enemy ‘response force’.

>>5981318
I think Kinston already knows. He reviewed the footage of the ace gank in thread 5 and saw Sophie nodding off during high-sync.

To be fair to Sophie, how could you not get hooked on being a ten meter tall death machine that thinks at three times human speed? I feel sorry for Gamma’s pilot that the best they can manage is a measly 1.5.

>>5981338
Do you think Kinston will ever confront Sophie and Beta on it?
Do you think Thea will ever find out or get addicted herself?

>>5981353
Nah, Thea’s too tough.
Sophie got hooked on linking because we damaged her brain, and she’s an impressionable teenager.

I’ll answer the Kinston question with another question: Why did he send a blind girl with known neurological damage and easily observable personality disorders into combat?

Kinston makes a show about giving a shit but he knows that Beta is his only route to survival. Sophie’s just a pawn he can sacrifice to make it happen.

>>5981338
He definitely knows. He desperately wants her to back out, but he can't ask her to because he knows how badly the war needs her.

>>5981139
>You will go West, bluffing your way back past the now-distracted training mechs and retracing your steps

Known terrain and the entire point of headhunter's attack was to draw attention away from us. Kind of defeating the purpose if we go toward it.

Bonus points if we can smash the training mechs and pilots along the way.

>>5981353
If he blames/confronts Beta about it then Kinston can go f himself. We have more of a right to be angry than he does.
Nobody told us that linking can have these side affects. Ffs, Beta probably doesn't even know or understand what addiction even means.
Once again, information being withheld from him is causing problems that he is now having to deal with.

>>5981139
>You will go North to lie low and then evade before making your way back to base

>>5981139
>You will go West, bluffing your way back past the now-distracted training mechs and retracing your steps

>>5981139
Are you OK OP?

>>5984577
I think OP said he’s in engineering college.

Which means he’s currently having his nuts crushed to a fine paste by finals.

If that’s the case, good luck and Godspeed OP!

>>5985337
I don’t remember my engineering finals ever being too bad, but I’m one of those weird people who liked exams since I remembered material taught in classes well. I was less equipped to study in college compared to others once I hit Junior and Senior years, but I still did better on finals than my class grades would normally suggest.

Find either a quiet place or a group of people in your major that you can study with, crack open the relevant books, and sample problems in sections that you know you were weak in. Build a vocab list if you’re iffy on some and there’s been questions in past tests on it. Grind your way through one or two problems you’re confident in just to prove you’re right, then move on to different material.

If the class is one where you’re given an equation sheet, even better. Learn what each variable stands for and what it looks like in a written problem. Everything after that is plug-and-chug that needs no further study. You only need to work problems where those equations have special criteria to be valid so you can remember and recognize the rules.

If the class is organic chem, get the crying out of the way early. Then buckle down and prepare to work a lot of problems since there a lot of rules to confirm. Save the ones you’re confident in for the end (unless they’re fundamental to later problems you aren’t sure of) to prove you didn’t jar the process to solve them loose while working the others.

This has been General Exam Tips, brought to you by Anon.

>>5984577
It's so over

>>5986644
We're not even back yet, bros...

File: Needs more snow.png (2.49 MB, 2382x978)

2.49 MB PNG

>You will strike South, helping Headhunter disengage and destroying the enemy ‘response force’

A thought bubbles through your link.
It is strange to see so many mechs ready and waiting for an attack. Five is too many. One, two, perhaps would be expected, especially with the three training counting as a ‘fast response unit’.
Was it your fault? A mistake, perhaps?

Or coincidence. Either way, Headhunter may need assistance.

Leaving the rubble in your wake, you run south towards the first of the signatures.

While preparing to work on intercepting and decoding the flurry of transmissions soon to pass through the air, naturally. What kind of second-rate Core would you be if you couldn’t multitask?

Jamming to block everything wouldn’t slow any further external response much. Landlines or a more powerful transmitter that can punch through your Predator would be somewhere around the Academy, already calling for aid.

It would be more useful to leave the lines open and passively gather intel.

Or it could be a chaotic jumble of screaming junk data and spitting garbage.
So someone else decided to open up jamming at that point in time. Well, it wasn’t like you and Headhunter were communicating much, anyways.
Accelerate to maximum ground speed. Stay on target, the nearest reactor signature. It is only thermals which guide you, magscan melding the machine with the hangar it stands outside, while seismics are worthless while your own tread shakes the ground.

A pair of blue flashes through the storm reveal its armament. Laser-based, aiming at the sky.

Away from you, on the other side of the hangar buildings.

All you need to do is round the corner of the hangar, strike physically to ground them, and apply Sunburst on its close-range profile until their reactor is breached and shuts down. Or explodes.

Planning over.

File: Headhunter Assault.jpg (156 KB, 902x1280)

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Wait for the lasers to flash once more, then go.

Half a heartbeat passes before you Move, passing around the corner and visually identifying your target as a drab green Crab medium walker. Its primary armament on a cooling cycle, 7.3 seconds pass with you closing the gap and delivering a crushing punch to send it reeling forwards, then targeting the thinner rear armor with a pulse pays dividends in another thermal spike from breached engine.

Struck so suddenly, in quick succession, maybe a truly elite pilot could have caught themselves, turned, and at least taken a single shot at you.

Instead it flops down in front of you, face-first fall broken by the protruding snout of the machine, heat skyrocketing and engine spinning down.

You give it one more burst of blue photons in the center mass to ensure it will never stand again, and turn your attention to surroundings, and the remaining four active defenders.

One reactor spikes and fades to nothing with a crack-crack of explosions.
Three, then.
Headhunter flashily reveals their position, rising back into the sky on an obvious thermal plume.
Having discarded whatever thruster shrouding they use for stealth, tracers, lasers, and missiles follow.

Giving easier tracking and targeting to the sources.
Not that you needed it. Much.


A trainer mech, half your height, lofts missile after missile into the sky before you cut through the spindly left leg with an extended burn, leaving it to topple and helplessly squirm on the ground.
Too easy.


The show-off’s evasive ovals in the sky turns into a dive on a different reactor, before that winks out.

One last machine.
You race for it, ground speed comparing not so favorably to their airspeed, but they have a greater distance to travel.


The hapless victim gets the chance to fire off several rounds and lasers into the sky before you close to visual range, identify it as a green painted Shadowhawk, and pepper with repeated laser strikes.

It swivels to face you, returning the favor with its own weaponry, flailing about with its own myriad of mismatched weapons.

A roar of thrusters, a loud ker-chunk, and Headhunter makes your distraction fatal, taking it in the back with its queer melee spike weapon, then letting it go limp and collapse to the ground.

Like a puppet with severed strings.
Exhale.
Your pilot shakes her head, a spike of pain translating across the link.
Manageable. Nothing to worry about. Determination and steadfastness replace it swiftly.


Eyes lock on your ‘ally’, while they start walking towards you, at a much slower pace.
Grounded, they’re far more ungainly than you. Clearly it is a machine that happens to have ground movement as an afterthought. Vulnerable when grounded.

When closed to a range where audio communication is possible, they gesture about with an arm, harsh tone filtering through the speakers.

“Mission complete? Lost track of you for a while. Hostile jamming doesn’t make it any easier, either.”

Your pilot gives her affirmation, voice wavering slightly.
“Comp- Complete. Just to extract, now.”

“Fine. I’ll shadow you out, just as before, after finishing putting a few more of these hangars to rubble.”
>I need 4 rolls of 1d6, for Skill
Detection


AN:
Overly optimistic update schedules and CoreQM, name a more iconic combination.

>>5986994
We love you CoreQM, please don't die or get cancer OK?

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5986994
rolling

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5986994

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5986994

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5986994

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5986994

>>5986644
We're back

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5986994
Rolling

Something to consider with Sophie as we work our way back - should we try using EWAR on Headhunter to see how it operates? Performance logs for the thrusters and weapons would be good to have.

If there’s something in them that indicates a vast improvement over Patriot tech then Command could try for a tech exchange. Better thrusters for better cyber defense, for example. But what they do with the information really isn’t a concern for me.