No, SV, You Are the Forest! (Riot Quest)

"Fleet Admiral, Commodore Bokelu reports that the escort Aching Hearts has fallen out of formation."

"You would not be reporting this to me if it was for something as inane as cowardice," Wahanna replied tersely.

"No, Fleet Admiral. The Aching Hearts has not responded to any hails, and seems to have simply shut off their engines. They are no longer accelerating."

"The flotilla has already reformed?"

"Of course, Admiral. This loss will not degrade that flotilla's capabilities any more than any other loss of a ship."

Fleet Admiral Wahanna Tokebu did not blink as she took the information in. The only thing that she could possibly do was use override codes to force a communications channel open.

"She wants me to open communications with them."

"Not in so many words, of course."

"Of course," Wahanna murmured. Did she have the time for this...? She looked around, briefly checking the screens around her, the general disposition of the fleet, and the disposition of the Ingaba fleet – what was left of it.

Yes, she had the time for this.

"Open up a channel to the Aching Hearts for me. I'm sure there is something fascinating going on, and I would like to discover why they are committing an act of cowardice enough to see them removed from the service, at the very least."

"Channel open, Fleet Admiral. Two-way link online."

An image appeared on her screen, showing her the other vessel's Captain. He appeared to be... blissed out of his mind on something,

"A-admiral," the Captain stuttered. "I'm sorry. I've failed. I can't focus. The rest of the crew... they were hit worse, by whatever this was. It's all I can do to sit somewhat upright."

"Captain. Explain."

"I don't know! I don't know. I can barely focus enough to speak! I can't bring myself to switch the cameras you have access to! I can't -! I can't... can't even lift my arms..." the Katown did not cry, not as a number of other mammalian species did. If Katown could, however, the good Captain would be crying right now.

"What happened, Captain? Please explain."

"A, wave of peace and serenity washed over us, like a tidal wave, without even the benefit of the tides receding first," he coughed roughly. "I was too frozen over to do anything for long enough that the rest of the bridge managed to turn a bunch of things off. Not everything, though. We still have power and air and warmth."

"Very good, Captain. I will check around as I can."

"Fleet Admiral. I would salute, but I find I can't. It still feels like nothing is wrong, which is just so wrong a thing to feel."

The channel was cut.

"Get me another line to that ship. And make sure it isn't to the bridge. Get our ECW teams to hitch onto my signals. I want to know everything going on on that ship. Everything."

"What do you think it is, Fleet Admiral?"

"I don't know. It isn't like anything I've encountered or read about before, however."

"Another link is up, to the auxiliary bridge."

"Show it."

The Fleet Admiral saw another Katown officer acting like they were high while on duty. Recreational substances were not banned aboard Katown vessels, but usage during duty hours, or on call, or especially while in a combat situation were banned. Restricted narcotics were, of course, always banned, generally because they tended to impair their users more than was reasonable, or for long enough that their users tended to just die.

"So peaceful, quiet.... oh hello. Admiral? I see the stars on your uniform. Ah, Fleet Admiral! It's so serene here, in space? With nothing trying to shoot you? Isn't it?"

"Commander, explain."

"I really can't, Admiral. Everything that was important just... isn't. It's calm. Peaceful. Soothing. Like there is nothing at all to worry about."

"Your ship has not begun decelerating with the rest of the fleet."

"Ah, we might fly out into the Void Between Stars before either rescue and deprogramming or this strange effect wears off. Oh well. It's peaceful there, too. Even with our other enemies out there."

"Very well, Commander. Good day."

"It always was, Fleet Admiral. We just couldn't tell..."

The connection ended.

"Delve into what records we have, Lieutenant Ohboka. Every mention of this sort of phenomenon, even the slightest hint, even if it's in fiction."

"Ma'am!" her flag lieutenant saluted and got to work.

"The link is still open. Find everything on that ship. It will all be relevant when we get to the courts-martial required for something like this. Especially if they are exonerated, which seems likely.

"Now. What could have caused that?" she asked herself, staring at the icons representing the remaining Ingaba fleet. "Was it you?" she thumbed her cheek. "Or," her eyes moved to view the Forest, "was it you?"

Her fingers tapped against the armrest of her chair, all against her will. She couldn't help it, not this time.

Unexpected variables were plenty in war, but she had thought they had accounted for them all already, that the probes had already spotted all that there was to see. Perhaps that was not so.

"What are you hiding?" she asked in a whisper, fear preying upon her imagination.

*-*-*-*

Admiral Gonagles did not curse as he witnessed the strikecraft returning to their carriers.

An unpleasant surprise, as if there had not been enough unpleasant surprises in this system since the end of the last war.

They would need better training for layered point-defense setups fleetwide.

Both fleets were slowing down now, the Katown fleet to turn and come to grips with the Ingaba fleet, while Gonagles' First Division was slowing down in a futile, desperate attempt to get out of range.

He knew how it would go. So did everybody else in the fleet, yet none of them broke formation. None of them shied away from their duty, in this moment.

That duty was simple in idea and difficult in execution. Buy more time. Time for the First Fleet to arrive. Time for the Forest to do whatever it was going to do. The longer his ships were present, the longer it would take for the Katown to come in and start fortifying the place.

The ships of the First Division were redlining their drives to slow down, and it was not enough. The Katown were braking harder with one exception – their dreadnought.

An interesting strategy that would no doubt pay off.

"Time to energy range?"

"Thirty minutes. Admiral."

Gonagles nodded minutely, his ears still and flat against his head.

"All the orders that I can give have been given. All the words that should be said, have been said. All my papers are in order, and I hope all of yours are, too.

"We will not hold here, but we do not need to. We just need to hold out for long enough to ensure that Admiral Monagles does not arrive to a fortified system, and with what we've seen so far I assure you that would be a most unpleasant thing for him to face."

Wave after wave of heavy missiles would be a nightmare to face off against. Fortunately they didn't seem to have reloads readily available – a munitions transport carrying nothing but immense numbers of those missiles? Which could be controlled to some degree by the ships firing them, instead of practically blind-launched through a wormhole?

That was something he had made sure to recommend to the higher ups in his reports. Hopefully they would be read in time to be researched, developed, prototyped and tested before something like them was actually needed.

"If there is anything left that needs to be done, do it now. Any last words, dreams, hopes, prayers or wishes for those we leave behind. A break to use the facilities, as there will soon be no time for it. Whatever you need to do to make your peace with what will come. That is all."

"And sent," his flag lieutenant said, hovering over the shoulder of the comms officer.

"Excuse me?"

"Admiral? Did you not want that sent to the fleet? They all deserve to hear it, not just us."

*-*-*-*

The Crystal Forest had not been idle in the hours that had so far passed. Its trees had worked to gather resources and prepare. Cracks had been established within Sharding Trees to enhance the available Shard Volley, improving the Forest's active point defenses.

Magnetic fields had been laid upon and around each other, establishing the Shield that had so reliably protected the Forest for its existence. It likely was not strong enough to protect against any coming onslaught, but there was little to be done about that except devote more time and attention to it – it would not fade before the battle was done, and surely their next move would invite retaliation.

With all other preparations as complete as possible, something unusual began to pick up speed then.

The forest seemed to drink in the light around it, growing dark and dim. It had been doing so for the entire time, but now the process seemed to accelerate. Light and particulates entered the Forest's dominion, and did not escape.

The Research Trees, in conjunction with the Ingaba Orbital Station, managed to discern the patterns of Katown ECM, and as the Ingaba made sure to send off as much data as they could to their counterparts in the First Division and the courier hanging by the hyperlane, the Forest made sure to identify the truth of the best available target, whittling down options until the expected strength of its strike matched the defenses of said target.

There was only one real option, of course.

The big ship the Katown had brought with them would suffice.

*-*-*-*

"Admiral!"

"What?" Gonagles growled as he worked to reposition the most damaged ships in the fleet, hoping for just another few volleys, another few minutes, even as those very ships shattered and broke against the volume of fire coming their way.

"The lab! They've broken Katown ECM!"

"... too late for us. But not for Monagles. Transfer it through to the courier."

"Sir!"

Katown strikecraft had been whittled down to about half of its original complement at this point, and their escorts were similarly reduced... but it wouldn't matter, not for Gonagles and his first division. The Katown fleet's Cruisers, Battleships, Carriers and Dreadnought were all still intact, cosmetic damage at most, while Gonagles' First Division was almost all dead, hanging on by threads of armor, Katown weapons over-penetrating already shattered structural braces and supports, and sheer blind luck.

Escape pods had flowered away from his shattered ships, but only those on unfortunate vectors – namely, directly towards the Katown fleet – were shot down, which meant that at least some of his crews would live.

Even as Gonagles cursed them for the loss of more of his crews, he understood. It was plausible to use such to generate boarding actions, even if such were against the galactic rules of war; if you weren't a member of the wider galaxy then there was no way to enforce such rules.

"Admiral, the sensors on the Illuminated Sorrow are registering strange readings from the Forest."

"Oh?" The sensors on the Persistent Hunter had already been knocked out on that facing, forcing them to rely upon the sensors of the other ships in the fleet for it – and so many other ships had been knocked out that the usual data-links had been rerouted several times already, resulting in a cascading series of minute delays.

"It seems to be getting dimmer for some inexplicable reason."

"Even beyond the previously reported ECM effects and distorted light mirroring known gravitic effects?"

"Even with both of those corrected for, it's gotten dimmer, like it's sucking in as much light as it can."

"Any word from the station?"

"They don't know what's going on, either. According to the Choir there, the forest isn't silent, per se, rather it seems to be unusually focused on something – as though it's more in the now than it has ever been before, rather than... spaced apart? Slowed down? Something."

"Hmm." Gonagles' ears flicked as he checked the sensor display for himself, something caught his eye and he attempted to request a refinement of the image, only to be interrupted as the ship shook.

"Admiral."

"Captain."

"We don't have enough armor left to shift the ship to take hits with anymore. Anything that comes in next is going to strike something vital. I'm ordering everybody to the escape pods, including you."

"Of course. Just a few more moments – and keep the ship rotating so that the pods launch away from the Katown fleet.""

"Sir," the channel closed, and Gonagles turned his eyes back to the sensors, requesting that the computers refine what he thought he had seen.

A flash of light in the darkness. And another. A third, a fifth, ten... what was the Forest doing?

"No time to figure it out," Gonagles muttered, moving as the alarms for abandoning the ship blared throughout it, and the crew that remained alive moved to where the pods were. "I want to be there for my daughter's graduation, which means getting off this ship, not figuring out what the Forest is up to this time."

He did not run for the closest escape pod. He walked. Running would just get him killed when the ship took another hit, which happened several times during his walk.

"Get us out of here."

"Alignment for optimum release in five minutes. We'll be launched away from the Katown Fleet, the hyperlane back to our territories and the Forest."

"Excellent."

Time passed. There was nothing to do except hope that the remaining bulk of the ship protected them from hostile fire, that the ship was no longer firing was reason enough to discount it, that the other escape pods had launched successfully. Preparations for launch included disconnecting links to the rest of the ship, so they were even more blind than they had been before, the view-ports only revealing gray walls.

"Launching."

Finally, nobody in the pod said, but Gonagles was certain they had all thought it.

The pod rumbled. Safeties disengaged. Panels blew out. The pod launched, soaring into space, witnessing dozens of others do the same...

"What happened?" someone asked, astonished, and Gonagles couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

It seemed that the Forest had not been lying in wait for no reason.

*-*-*-*

Senior Scientist Oragles was sipping at a drink, doing not much of anything. There was little to do in this moment, and it was always a nervous thing to wait and watch and have already contributed as much as you could. Unfortunately, as the man in charge of the station, he was always on call.

"Ah, sir?" A member of the psychic choir asked, in an attempt to get his attention.

"What?" Oragles asked tiredly, already expecting some new demand that would heavily push on his already exhausted science teams. Most of whom were asleep.

"The forest sent a message, and we aren't sure what to make of it."

"Well?"

"Ah, sorry, sir. Tired. I'm the only one awake enough to tell you, but -"

"It doesn't mean much at moments like these; you are forgiven."

"S-sir, the Forest said that it was, err, something about how 'the range is clear' and that they were 'opening fire'. While I can guess as to what it means, I'm going to sleep, sir. Good night."

"Sleep well," Oragles answered automatically.

The Forest had shown some measure of 'weapons fire' as a result of the missile volley launched its way previously, but the weapons shown were much closer range than this.

On the other hand, the Forest had had seven long years with the weapons that had been exchanged to them. Perhaps they had finally deciphered something, made something or developed something that could be used?

"Ah, sir?"

"Oh what now," Oragles flicked his ears in irritation. Had it even been five minutes since the Choir member had left the break room? What was the point of a break room if he couldn't take a break?

"The whole forest seems to have gone 'dark', sir. Cameras aren't picking up on anything, one couple visiting an observation bubble can't see sh*t and reported it immediately, and sensors are giving conflicting reports from within the distortion and the effects of whatever ECM the Forest is spouting -" and hadn't that been a surprise; both effects, truly. They were sitting on a goldmine of information, if only they had the time to figure it all out and put it to use! - "compared to being outside the distortion but we had thought we had corrected for it -"

"Slow down," Oragles ordered. "There isn't anything we can realistically do right now. Our Choirs and research teams are sleeping. We have no weapons systems and only a tiny number of actual soldiers on board, just in case. Now, start again."

"Yessir!" the man took a deep breath. "Sensor data and analysis from CIC indicates that the Forest has gone dark. As in, is absorbing more light than it is reflecting. Not just some of it, like usually happens, but all of it.

"One of the more enterprising individuals took a look back, and it has been steadily getting darker and darker since the Katown fleet showed up."

"We knew the Forest was up to something. It looks like it will finally show us what that something is," Oragles shrugged. He had been going for far too long at this point.

"Ah, Senior Scientist?" this call was over the local network.

"Speaking," Oragles gruffed. Why did everything have to pile up all at once?

"We're detecting gamma radiation spikes from a point located somewhere between the Forest's crown and the detected edges of the ECM and distortion field – wait, no, there's a leading edge, what do you mean there's a leading edge?! Let me see the data -" the line cut.

"Sir? What was that?"

"It looks like the Forest has launched its attack," Oragles said with a blink. "I wonder how they expect to hit? Is the distortion effect being used to lens the beam? But no, the range is too long. But, maybe that's something we can do? Hmm. I'll need to think about this.

"But still, gravitational lensing, if we can get the emitters and lenses for the effect small enough, should increase the effective maximum focal range of our energy weapons by quite a bit. Perhaps by as much as, oh, five or six times? That sounds useful. I'll need to propose that when this mess is done with."

"Ah, sir? It sounds like you need a nap."

"I need a full week of sleep, is what I need, but I won't be getting that anytime soon, now will I?" he asked rhetorically, both of them already knowing the answer – and wonder of wonders, the other man didn't point it out.

"I will be taking notes on this," Oragles said, heaving himself to his feet and moving back into the labs, one of the places the entire sensor network fed its raw data to. He would take better notes there than in the CIC, though he didn't really belong in either location, damn it all.

*-*-*-*

One moment, Admiral Tokebu of the Katown Imperial Navy had been seated at her chair on the flag bridge of the Impeccable Taste, looking over reports. All the reports. So many reports.

If these reports were all physical, entire forests would need to be carried around by the Fleet in order to supply enough paper for them. And not forests like the one floating off in the distance, doing who-knows-what, no. Carbon-based forests with wood capable of being processed into paper.

The next, she was blinking stars out of her eyes and tasted blood on her tongue. Her helmet was pressing against her desk. Several screens had shorted out, while others were showing nothing, or data that was clearly garbage.

"What happened?" she asked the air, not expecting an answer.

"Admiral! We took a hit. A big one," a corpsman came into her view, the Katown symbol for 'medic' clearly visible upon his shoulders. His response was rather grimmer than expected.

"How?" Tokebu slurred, blinking her eyes rapidly as she struggled to come to.

"I have no idea, ma'am. One moment everything was fine, the next the ship rocked. We've been doing SAR for a while now, and the fleet has slowed to match pace and cover us."

"Ingaba?"

"A lot of escape pods and wrecks from what I saw. A few ships left, they seem to be moving towards the edge of the system. I dunno what they're doing that for."

"Hyperlane, must be."

"That's right, that's why we're here," the corpsman said with a shake of his own head.

"How's the ship?"

"Dead in the water. Power surge in engineering took out the engines, power is down to tertiary plants in most places, the main bridge is just gone... take a look for yourself, Admiral," the corpsman said, distracting her as he checked her vitals. "You seem to be good enough for now. Med bay's overflowing with more serious injuries, including most of your staff. Someone will come by and check on you in an hour. If you aren't doing well then..."

"To bed with me, I know."

"Good." He left, and Tokebu heaved herself up, filtering through her own screens to get a look at the ship. The screens undamaged enough to still use, that is, leaving her with a sense of incompleteness, as though she was half-blind.

Internal damage reports were... well. Incomplete. Her ship was half-blind.

There was a hole through her flagship. A hole. Right through the toughest armor and structural supports the Katown could devise, married to the best damage control teams Tokebu had ever met – before, possibly, today, how some of those Ingaba ships kept fighting she did not understand – and the best layouts and designs their shipwrights could dream up.

No, the Damage Control teams on her flagship had to be superior. After all, she still had power flowing to her systems, now didn't she? Even with a hole through the middle of her ship, there was still pressure.

Which meant she could give orders.

And it seemed as though a most grievous error had been committed. Which, honestly, made sense; ensuring that the Impeccable Taste made it home was important.

However.

"Do we know who did this?" Admiral Tokebu asked her diminished staff.

"All signs indicate that it came from the strange Forest in the system, Admiral, and then they determined that it was roughly the equivalent of a strategic Wormhole fortress... the kind of fortress that is more easily captured than destroyed from the outside."

"And why has nothing been done?" her fingers tapped on the seat of her chair in her impatience before she willed them still.

"The only forces available for such an attack are ours, and, well, the spalling and damage that has been done wrecked them. Most of what is left are assisting with damage control, and even with all of them taken into account we only have a fraction of what we should."

"Then that will have to suffice. Get them together. Brief them as best we can. Then take that orbital station, and the Forest. For the Imperium!"

*-*-*-*

Fleet Admiral Monagles of the Ingaba Directorate stood upon the flag bridge of the Shield of Honor and gazed at the display projected in the center of the room. His arms were held loosely by his sides, long practice preventing any nervous twitches from appearing there.

The plot had last been updated immediately prior to their jump into the hyperlane between star systems, and the information presented then had been grim. The Katown fleet had been substantially larger than worst-case projections, caused by new technology not seen before, and half the fleet entrusted to Admiral Gonagles had already been destroyed. Escape pods and lifeboats littered the system as tiny specks of dust, their transponders squawking emergency codes.

The Case Black issued by Senior Scientist Oragles was the only reason his First Fleet was even moving prior to the Katown fleet's arrival, the overpowered hyperdrive on the automated courier racing through to inform them of that fact forcing Monagles to ensure everybody slowed down.

This allowed for every last ship's crew to finish arriving, that all spare parts were loaded, that no ship used their full thrusters upon disengaging from the docking umbilicals at the local starbase.

Slow is steady, steady is smooth, and smooth is fast.

As he had before, he would arrive as quickly as he could, as prepared as he could, with overwhelming firepower... or as close to that as he could manage. Dreadnoughts. This Katown Imperium had Dreadnoughts. He did not shiver; he had faced worse odds before and come out victorious.

"Hyperlane exit in five minutes," the words resounded through the ship's speakers, and Monagles made sure his helmet was sealed. Who knew what sort of environment they would be entering.

The Katown could have managed to set up a blockade of the Hyperlane, their fleet lurking nearby to strike as a fleet appeared out of hyperspace. It wasn't likely, but it had happened before, to generally ruinous losses on one side or the other.

"Real space reversion in five, four, three, two, one... Reversion complete."

Everybody on the flag bridge, and indeed everybody on every ship in the Fleet, got to work.

Except Monagles, who had the privilege of needing other people to finish their work before he could get started.

Time passed, but less than expected before the plot was updated with new ships.

Friendlies, within shouting distance of the hyperlane... only three ships.

"Admiral, we're getting updates now... a lot of updates. The research base managed to break some measure of the Katown's ECM, so we should have better targeting than Gonagles' fleet, and they managed to reverse-engineer some measure of their missiles, but they seem to be out of those..." she trailed off, re-examining the message on her own screen.

"And?"

"... and the Forest seems to have knocked a hole in the Katown 'Dreadnought'. It's dead in the void, Admiral, and their fleet is hovering around it."

"There's also a detachment sent out from said Dreadnought to the Forest and the base there. According to the other ships, it's a mix of fighters and transports that departed from the Dreadnought."

"Get all the data transferred that can be transferred, then order those ships to attempt to start picking up what escape pods they can," Monagles ordered. Never give an order you know won't be obeyed, and those crews will not do the wise thing and hyper out.

If they were going to do that, they would have done it already, and his ships would have detected it.

… if he had survived this mess, he likely wouldn't have left either, especially not with the knowledge that reinforcements were coming.

The plot finally updated more completely. Screens came to life. Data poured in as links were restored, the blindness of hyperspace not yet circumvented to a sufficient degree to allow them to be maintained in transit.

His own ships were shown as glowing green icons. The remnants of Gonagles' fleet were a slightly different green. The Katown were highlighted in red. The Forest was listed in a pale blue.

Tiny, glittering dots showed the number of escape pods with active transponders, a shower of them scattered across the battle space. Crippled and destroyed ships lingered everywhere, expanding clouds of debris rending large swathes no-fly zones, even for his shielded ships. Transponders and IFF beacons blared from some of those wrecks, siren calls that could not be answered, yet.

A great many of the Katown's lighter ships were among the cripples or the dead. The remainder of the fleet was keeping pace with their crippled Dreadnought.

Good.

Admiral Gonagles had not sold his fleet for nothing, and the worst-case scenario of additional hostile fleets jumping in from the Matlownee or Blathubu had not materialized.

As such, his First Fleet was utter and absurd overkill for this, which meant that it could be split back up into several component pieces and return to protecting their other borders. After this mess was cleaned up.

"Message for the Katown Fleet," Monagles rumbled.

"Recording."

"This is Fleet Admiral Monagles of the Ingaba Directorate. You will be allowed to leave with everything capable of moving under its own power, recall all of your parasite craft, and even transfer personnel off of your crippled ships – even destroy black boxes and similar aboard said ships – but only if you begin immediately upon receipt of this message.

"Choose wisely, Admiral Tokebu of the Katown Imperium, and you may yet make many more wise choices."

Time passed, and Monagles shook his head.

"It seems as though she has chosen poorly. Orders to the fleet. First through fifth divisions, head straight for their fleet. Sixth through ninth, move to cover the Wormhole, provide supporting fire as you are able. Tenth division, move to cover the Crystal Forest. That forest, and our research base there, are the only things of import in this system."

*-*-*-*


Situation
-Hostile fleet-group has begun accelerating towards the Ingaba Fleet. Rough estimates of still-mobile vessels:
Katown Fleet:
1 Dreadnought, Crippled and incapable of contributing.
~24 Battleships
~6 Carriers
~300 Strikecraft
~60 Cruisers
~165 Escorts

Katown Detachment is accelerating towards the Crystal Forest. Detected Craft:
1 Siege Parasite
6 Assault Transports
14 Space Superiority Strikecraft

Ingaba First Fleet
~60 Battleships
~120 Cruisers
~400 Escorts


The Loop Tree is in effect, doubling all non-automatic successes and converting all automatic successes to dice at a 1:1 ratio, and tripling all successes from there.

Growth Actions are currently too slow to take effect on a relevant timescale. Conduct additional research to obtain combat Growth Actions.

Movement actions are currently too slow to take effect on a relevant timescale. Conduct additional research, or grow additional Skimmer Trees, to obtain combat Movement Actions.

Most Research Actions are unavailable due to the impending fight.

Communication Actions

[ ][Action] Convince the Predators to aggressively aid the Forest
-On Success, the Predators will pro-actively seek out and work against threats
-Otherwise, the Predators will only defend the Forest if something lands within it.
-Predators are considered Super-Heavy Interceptors, and are good against Strikecraft and Missiles.
-6/20 successes, successes are banked between combat rounds but expire when combat ends.

[ ][Action] Request assistance from Solar-Winds-Distant.
-This could result in something useful! Or not.
-She will likely demand something as recompense for any act she takes.
-Requires a minimum of 10 successes; more successes results in a higher likelihood of something useful, or reduced requirements for recompense.

[ ][Action] Reach out to the Katown Imperium Fleet
-[ ][Action] Write-in what to speak about / ask / complain about
-Requires 15 successes

[ ][Action] Reach out to the Research Base.
-[ ][Action] Write-in what to speak about.
-Requires 5 successes

Defense Actions

[ ][Action] Erect the Shield! (Magnetic)
-An unknown amount of force is being brought to bear against the Forest, and it must be protected.
-Successes here will act against incoming weapons fire for one combat round.

[ ][Action] Ready a Shard Volley (Crystal)
-This action primes resources to hurl a volley of razor sharp shards of crystal, splintered from the trunks and branches of the Forest itself. Successes are banked against future need, but only to a point – 10 successes per Magnitude of the Forest can be stored. 32.4/40

[ ][Action] Launch a Shard Volley (Crystal)
-Should the incoming Katown parasite craft get into range of the Forest, Shards will be launched at them.
-This action may prove redundant in the face of other actions.

Growth Actions
-Standard Growth Actions are not available at this time. Non-standard growth actions have not been researched.

Offense Actions

[ ][Action] Soothe the Hostile Fleet to mess with their coordination (Psychic)
-Success can prevent ships from acting, or only acting with part of their full complement.
-Opposed Action. Hostile fleet psychic abilities are low to nonexistent.

[ ][Action] Magnetize hostile forces or incoming kinetic or explosive weaponry (Magnetic)
-Success can prematurely detonate explosives, deflect kinetics and halt or slow incoming vessels.
-Opposed Action.

[ ][Action] Fire the Beam! (Crystal, Light, Magnetic)
-At the Enemy Fleet, of course.
-The Ingaba are your Friends!
-For now.
-Will contest against hostile E-War tools for targeting. Successes are currently on a 5 or 6. Successes will then burn through armor and hull of any ships hit.

Research Actions
-Standard Research Actions are not available at this time. Available Non-standard research actions are listed below.

[ ][Action] Work with the Research Base to penetrate hostile ECM (Light, Magnetic, Gravitic)
-Immediately improve targeting for Fire the Beam, causing a success on a roll of 4, 5 or 6.
-Spread targeting improvements throughout the round for allied forces
-Lasts one combat round, as hostile ECM reconfigures in response.
-Requires 25 successes.
-A continued success here will ensure that the targeting of the 'Fire the Beam!' action remains the same throughout the round, instead of abruptly falling off in the middle.

[ ][Action] Try to figure out where Solar-Winds-Distant actually is in relation to the Forest. (Psychic)
-It feels close by, hovering near the crowns of the Forest, and yet far away, on the other side of the star, at the same time. Discern the dichotomy of these feelings, utilizing the enhanced processing currently available to the Forest during this time and while Solar-Winds-Distant is still present.
-Unlocks new researches and technologies upon completion.
-Requires 50 successes if completed immediately. Otherwise will roll over into more standard research requiring 200 successes.

Survival Actions

[ ][Action] Attempt to store resources against future need. (General)
-All successes stored. 164.8 successes banked against recovering future damage or to pay off the debt owed to the Ingaba Directorate.

[ ][Action] Utilize the Twist power to alter the apparent size of the Forest (Gravity)
-This action will change the appearance of the Forest for all incoming weapons fire, potentially generating a miss from what would otherwise be a hit. Should this action succeed, it alters the success tables for all incoming weapons fire, changing from a success on a 4, 5, or 6 to a 5 or a 6.
-This action will only last for the round it is erected during. 0/20.
-Should this action succeed on continuous rounds, it will not appear to 'fall' narratively.

[ ][Action] Erect the Empty Veil (Void)
-Cloak the Forest from opposing sensors, deliberately hiding it from all forms of detection.
-Opposed Action. Unlike with Shields, the Veil rolls against each other faction individually.
-On success, this will reduce the success tables of all incoming weapons fire for the round much as the Twist power. If both succeed, the missiles will only succeed on a roll of 6.
-This action will only last for the round it is erected during.
-Should this action be taken on continuous rounds, it will not appear to 'fall' narratively, though it may rise and fall in apparent strength.

Forest Actions
Forest Actions are those that rely on a simple majority vote to occur. They are separate from other votes, and are frequently separate from each other.

This turn, the Forest Action is used to determine if the stored Shards should be used against the missiles.

[ ][Forest] Yes
-This action uses the primed resources to launch high-velocity razor-sharp crystal shards at a nearby target. Successes stored by the 'Prepare a Shard Volley' action will be converted to successes against incoming Missiles, Strikecraft and/or ground forces, reducing their available dice pool.
-This action will reduce enemy dicepools on a one stored success to one die ratio each time.

[ ][Forest] No
-If this action wins, no stored successes will be spent.

Targeting Priority
This turn there are two 'Forest Actions'. This action is about the target priority for the 'Fire the Beam!' offensive action, and is a simple majority vote. If all targets of a given type are dead before all energy is expended are fired, then targeting will aim for the next set in line, and so on. Targets without any votes will be after all targets with votes.

[ ][Targeting] Katown Battleships
[ ][Targeting] Katown Carriers
[ ][Targeting] Katown Cruisers
[ ][Targeting] Katown Escorts
[ ][Targeting] Katown Strikecraft
[ ][Targeting] Katown Assault Vessels

If the 'Fire the Beam' action is not used, this part of the vote is meaningless. So it goes.

Other

[ ][Action] Write-in
-For if you believe I'm missing something. I reserve the right to disapprove of any write-ins, or appropriate them for other purposes and places.

Focus

Choose any four actions from the above for the Forest to focus on. These are voted upon by the entire group, and are in addition to the individual actions taken by each member. Multiples should be indicated with a x#, so the second identical action would be x2, etc.

[ ][Focus] Action Name

These Actions will receive a number of automatic successes equal to the Magnitude of the Forest and any bonuses from other sources.

At the moment, the top four focus actions will win, each receiving the focus of the Forest.

Your Votes should look like the following:

[ ][Action] Action
[ ][Focus] Action 1
[ ][Focus] Action 2
[ ][Focus] Action 3
[ ][Focus] Action 4

[ ][Forest] <Yes or No>
[ ][Targeting] <Target>

Newcomers should add one of the following:

[ ][Tree] Heart Tree
[ ][Tree] Mind Tree
[ ][Tree] Root Tree

This vote will always be open.

*-*-*-*

While round one was a disaster for the Ingaba, round two... probably won't be, unless the dice decide to start heavily favoring the Katown.

So I clearly can't manage eight updates in two months as I had wanted. As such, voting on the next Quest to be updated will be postponed until all eight updates for this quest are complete – so you've got another six updates, instead of another two weeks or so, until the next vote.

As with the previous decision, voting will be hosted on my Patreon when the time comes, and you will not need to be a member or a supporter. Thanks for reading!