Well...we could always push another angry god into existence?
Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
Well...we could always push another angry god into existence?
- Location
- Library
It feels like obvious trap option. If Rose could spot it, analyze it and exploit it in middle of battle, Leon Gregor most probably predicted this route of attack and have counter-measures in place.
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Okay, so here's the thing. Evolution is dumb. It can't think strategically or consider landmines in the future; it's a process based solely in the present. That means it can't see traps coming.
So here's an idea: how about we see if we can get it to evolve countermeasures against the umbilical? This would be a version of [ ] Survival of the Least Inadequate where we attack the cable and instead of cutting it off entirely, we add poisons into it until the dracoform decides it don't want nunna that and rejects the feed. Piercing a small hole in the cable to inject nasties will probably be a lot easier than severing it entirely and stopping any backups, we'll get to put another horrible murderdrug into the beastie in the process, and there's a non-trivial chance that its evolution will not just reject the cable but actually counterattack what it thinks is the base injecting it with poison.
And because I'm terrible and this probably involves jamming a sharp primium pointy thing into the cable to add nasty drugs to the liquid inside, I'm referring to this idea as plan [ ] Spike the Punch.
(I am aware that this is basically the Life version of Disruptive Phone Calls Prana in how it turns allies against each other and makes the front line not trust what their command is supplying them with. This is fully intentional. Henriette isn't the only one who's picked up a few things from Jamelia.
)
So here's an idea: how about we see if we can get it to evolve countermeasures against the umbilical? This would be a version of [ ] Survival of the Least Inadequate where we attack the cable and instead of cutting it off entirely, we add poisons into it until the dracoform decides it don't want nunna that and rejects the feed. Piercing a small hole in the cable to inject nasties will probably be a lot easier than severing it entirely and stopping any backups, we'll get to put another horrible murderdrug into the beastie in the process, and there's a non-trivial chance that its evolution will not just reject the cable but actually counterattack what it thinks is the base injecting it with poison.
And because I'm terrible and this probably involves jamming a sharp primium pointy thing into the cable to add nasty drugs to the liquid inside, I'm referring to this idea as plan [ ] Spike the Punch.
(I am aware that this is basically the Life version of Disruptive Phone Calls Prana in how it turns allies against each other and makes the front line not trust what their command is supplying them with. This is fully intentional. Henriette isn't the only one who's picked up a few things from Jamelia.
)
For @Cornuthaum:
[X] The Long Climb: Yes, it's grown reactive armoring and a frictionless coat. Yes. This makes it hard to scale. But if someone was to temporarily neutralize that armoring... he can breach the pod again. And this time he won't only get a partial kill.
- [X] Chestburster: Hey, would you look at that? The reactive armour and the frictionless coating only covers the outside. There are no scales inside the mouth, gullet or organs.
We know that by system design, the pod is meant to be fully inside the chest. Therefore, there will be structural sections where it's meant to sit in situ, underneath the current external mount.
We know Rose can throw Piero as a fastball special.
We know Piero has a Forces 4 punch.
A solution presents itself. All Rose needs to do is throw Piero into the beast's mouth, on a trajectory aimed at the control module, and then Piero can Superman-punch his way through the interior to tear the control pod off its mounts. Forces 4 punches shall be applied internally.
(Rose should probably stack as many defences on Piero as she can because "inside a dragon" is basically the definition of a hostile environment)
[X] The Long Climb: Yes, it's grown reactive armoring and a frictionless coat. Yes. This makes it hard to scale. But if someone was to temporarily neutralize that armoring... he can breach the pod again. And this time he won't only get a partial kill.
- [X] Chestburster: Hey, would you look at that? The reactive armour and the frictionless coating only covers the outside. There are no scales inside the mouth, gullet or organs.
We know that by system design, the pod is meant to be fully inside the chest. Therefore, there will be structural sections where it's meant to sit in situ, underneath the current external mount.
We know Rose can throw Piero as a fastball special.
We know Piero has a Forces 4 punch.
A solution presents itself. All Rose needs to do is throw Piero into the beast's mouth, on a trajectory aimed at the control module, and then Piero can Superman-punch his way through the interior to tear the control pod off its mounts. Forces 4 punches shall be applied internally.
(Rose should probably stack as many defences on Piero as she can because "inside a dragon" is basically the definition of a hostile environment)
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- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ok, that would be a very funny way to kill it, but if things go wrong then Piero will be trapped and imobilized by the magical superbiology. If it can evolve to be stronger than Piero, then it can form an internal cage and start digesting. While unlikely, "trapped inside a plague dragon's stomach" is an environment that could, possibly, kill Piero until he is dead.
- Location
- U.S.
As much as I want this, and I want it a lot, I feel like we should wait on this until the EXEMPLAR showdown. It would be incredibly fun though.
I kind of agree. Those seem fun, and honestly I think Piero and Rose should be the ones to take down the Dragon, thematically at least.
This is amazing, and fits the situation well IMO. The fact it's so Jamelian also appeals to me on many levels.(I am aware that this is basically the Life version of Disruptive Phone Calls Prana in how it turns allies against each other and makes the front line not trust what their command is supplying them with. This is fully intentional. Henriette isn't the only one who's picked up a few things from Jamelia.
This was an excellent fight. You tricked me for a second when Piero blew Sanjeet in half, I thought we were going to spend the rest of the update versus Berserk Dragon.
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... it occurs to me that if Rose does the cable-sabotage (and buffs herself with a stealth rote) while Piero does a big obvious display to keep its attention on him (mechanically cooperating with Rose on the rote), there's a reasonable chance that Sanjeet will miss it entirely and think the poisons coming down the tube are the base trying to sabotage him. Which may well lead to him going FULL SHINJI and rejecting the umbilical and tearing out of the hangar in an attempt to be a shonen protagonist in a psychological horror story.
Hmm. That'd probably basically be a Mind attack saying "you're paying so much attention to Piero that you miss the sabotage and conclude that THE BASE IS AGAINST YOU TOO!" alongside the Life one to inject HORRIBLE NASTIES down the umbilical, which... Rose definitely has the Spheres to do; she's got Mind 4 along with Life 4. Piero is Mind 1, I think, which is enough to act as support-caster by playing distraction.
Our glorious history of sowing discord and making our opponents angrier tells me that this idea cannot possibly fail.
Edit: Yeah, okay. I tend to think that rotes should only be used on a plan that's already pretty good and which could work on its own, to shore up the weakest bits. And this is a pretty good plan - "sabotage the nutrient feed to poison it and make it reject the umbilical, then wait for it to run out of power and stab it to death" - that's enhanced by two rotes that shore up the weakest part; "Life-hack it into treating the nutrient feed as an enemy" and "Mind-hack it into wasting some of its firepower on the base instead of us".
So with that in mind I'm going to officially vote for:
[X] Spike the Punch
(as opposed to [ ] Punch the Spike, which is what Piero tried against the pointy primium nodule on its back)
Hmm. That'd probably basically be a Mind attack saying "you're paying so much attention to Piero that you miss the sabotage and conclude that THE BASE IS AGAINST YOU TOO!" alongside the Life one to inject HORRIBLE NASTIES down the umbilical, which... Rose definitely has the Spheres to do; she's got Mind 4 along with Life 4. Piero is Mind 1, I think, which is enough to act as support-caster by playing distraction.
Our glorious history of sowing discord and making our opponents angrier tells me that this idea cannot possibly fail.
Edit: Yeah, okay. I tend to think that rotes should only be used on a plan that's already pretty good and which could work on its own, to shore up the weakest bits. And this is a pretty good plan - "sabotage the nutrient feed to poison it and make it reject the umbilical, then wait for it to run out of power and stab it to death" - that's enhanced by two rotes that shore up the weakest part; "Life-hack it into treating the nutrient feed as an enemy" and "Mind-hack it into wasting some of its firepower on the base instead of us".
So with that in mind I'm going to officially vote for:
[X] Spike the Punch
(as opposed to [ ] Punch the Spike, which is what Piero tried against the pointy primium nodule on its back)
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wouldn't FULL SHINJI result in humanity being reduced to Tang and merged into a hivemind, AKA Transhuman victory conditions?
But yes, I suppose convincing him that the base is already compromised, that he is alone, would result in the rejection of the necessary support. I suppose the crisis version of this is that he breaks away from the base and goes on rampage through Tokyo with Godzilla... but that may have been inevitable given input conditions.
Bah!
[X] Spike the Punch
FULL SHINJI in downtown Tokyo is not a thing that ends well for world stability - especially if more Shockwaves get called down to take him out. Even if by killing him the dracoform goes berserk, at least it doesn't have an Enlightened Scientist controlling it that way.
Ghost bullets don't sound like they'll be useful against the EXEMPLAR IV behind it, ref:
So, that means we should go for:
[X] The Long Climb:
- [X] Family Reunion: Rose launches Piero at the Entry Plug, using Life to augment her strength and if possible Mind to draw attention to the imminent threat (could she use her vampire-ness as a focus for understanding how to appear threatening to predators?).
- [X] Jarmen Kell: While Sanjeet is hopefully distracted, Cross and Clarent draw a bead and blast him.
Ghost bullets don't sound like they'll be useful against the EXEMPLAR IV behind it, ref:
In other words, ghost bullets don't melt primium shielding.
So, that means we should go for:
[X] The Long Climb:
- [X] Family Reunion: Rose launches Piero at the Entry Plug, using Life to augment her strength and if possible Mind to draw attention to the imminent threat (could she use her vampire-ness as a focus for understanding how to appear threatening to predators?).
- [X] Jarmen Kell: While Sanjeet is hopefully distracted, Cross and Clarent draw a bead and blast him.
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Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
dude he's got like 20 seconds
a minute at most
he's not gonna make it very far,
The odds of him pulling an S2 Engine out of his own ass are low, admittedly, but why risk it when the ghost bullets won't work on the EXEMPLAR IV coming up next? I mean, those things won't even work on Kessler, and impressive as he is, he's not literally Control.
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It doesn't work on primium unless we can crack it. That's still a pretty good ace to have in the hole.
Sure, but you have to crack it first. The way I see it is, we have a way to end this fight right now. If we want to use the ghost bullets in the next fight, we need Piero to open up another primium braincase first, at which point we have plenty of other Enlightened Science shenanigans that will also work.
- Location
- U.S.
[X] Spike the Punch
I'll also note that cracking any countermagic they have will be easier since we decided for them to not have crazy CM shenanigans as one of our choices way back. And that even if it isn't a brain-shot, the rest of their bodies will be much more vulnerable, and that is an advantage we can use at a critical moment.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
[X] Spike the Punch
I like this plan, since at a minimum it forces the Cancer Dragon to spend time/energy fighting it's own support network. At best, it rapidly neutralizes a major enemy combat unit and lets us punch deeper into the base towards our real goal, and keep the Ghost Bullets as a card up our sleeve for dealing with the upcoming EXEMPLAR IV. That it preserves a small chance Sanjeet will survive the battle to have a serious discussion with Henriette and Ling later is a bonus. (Though it is amusing at this point the three of them would be down to a bedridden Henriette, a Sanjeet torso, and Ling's head in a jar a la Futurama. All they could do is yell at each other.)
I like this plan, since at a minimum it forces the Cancer Dragon to spend time/energy fighting it's own support network. At best, it rapidly neutralizes a major enemy combat unit and lets us punch deeper into the base towards our real goal, and keep the Ghost Bullets as a card up our sleeve for dealing with the upcoming EXEMPLAR IV. That it preserves a small chance Sanjeet will survive the battle to have a serious discussion with Henriette and Ling later is a bonus. (Though it is amusing at this point the three of them would be down to a bedridden Henriette, a Sanjeet torso, and Ling's head in a jar a la Futurama. All they could do is yell at each other.)
[X] Spike the Punch
- Location
- in the trash
So, CONTROL isn't actually protected against ghost bullets. They have extreme resilience against raw firepower before you factor in the AT fields, but ghost bullets are specifically meant to bypass all that soak.
No, they're not.
They're meant to bypass walls, tanks, and things like that. They're still just regular-ish bullets damage-wise. They're there for massive-ranged wallhax shots within the Technoparadigm, not for raw damage or soak ignoring.
- Location
- U.S.
...I want to write a stunt now for the big fight where Blanc is about to get the advantage, and then gets his plan wrecked by surprise bullet from forever and several walls away. That would be fun.
It also won't work.
They have ridiculous soak. These are basically normal-ish bullets made for shooting tank commanders without damaging the tank.
They still HAVE countermagic, they just aren't walking around with a shipping container's worth of Primium strapped on them.