Remove ads

Petals of Titanium -- My Life as a Mecha Setting Bridge Bunny Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
[X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
 
[X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)

[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)

[X] You speak with Captain Andre (one downtime)
 
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
[X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
 
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
[X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
 
[X] You speak with First Officer Grayson (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by Omegahugger on Aug 1, 2019 at 7:34 AM, finished with 41 posts and 35 votes.
  • [X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Captain Andre (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
    [X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
    [X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
    [X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
    [X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
    [X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
    [X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
    [X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Captain Andre (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Captain Andre (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
    [X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
    [X] You speak with Captain Andre (one downtime)
Click to expand...
 
Changing vote

[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
[X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
 
Oh boy, a tie! And for rather different choices too!
Wait no it swung. Good, good. Plan Talk to All the Pilots is go!

I also note from this distribution of votes that J6 remains in our heart as second-best girl. :p
 
[X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Captain Andre (one downtime)

There's a lot of good arguments for other votes, but I'm partial to this one.
 
[X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
 
[X] You speak with Captain Andre (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
 
Ugh, this setting is just so fucking bleak.

Anyway, writing on the wall here. I'm pretty sure we're going to have to sacrifice ourselves to avoid our entire polity of what seems like the last humans in the universe from getting destroyed by the infinite power of evil. What, and the whole "We're going to suicide on a superior enemy fleet in their own territory out of what amounts to being spite", and nobody really considered surrender until everything was already dead thing. Like, it's actually depressing how literally nobody on the opposite side has been portrayed as anything but a psychotic zealot who exists for nothing more than murder and destruction, and they're sufficiently good at indoctrination that they can create shit like, well, North's sister.

We might have had a chance beforehand, but we've basically shunted all of our losses onto the mecha force over the course of the game, reasoning that "We can replace them, that's their job, right?" And now we're finding out in the finale that "no, actually, you can't, we're down to the point where we can only maintain maybe a skeleton CSP now and most of our elites have been spent at this point."

Like, I'm moderately sure that the final "Here's what you lose choice" is going to involve

"You personally manage to avoid death"
"Perbeck and some of her squad are not killed"
"The Titanium Rose is not destroyed"
"You do not fail to destroy the enemy fleet"

And we get to choose maybe one of these, two on the most, and one of those has to be spent to actually have our side survive until they send three more fleets stronger than this one to finish us off, as their morale level has been established over the course of this story to be "As required or needed to achieve our goals, one of which is your complete genocide as a people"

Because this is what happens in a carrier setting when one side has strike craft and the other side does not. The side that doesn't have them gets annihilated.

This story just breaks my heart because I've seen where it was going for a long time, but the characters are just too good to ignore it and write it off like I do most tragedies, and I hate it for that even as I keep reading every update.
 
Last edited:
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
[X] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)
 
[X] You speak with Captain Andre (one downtime)
[X] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[X] You commit what time you can to recording a message for your family, just in case (one downtime)
 
Alectai said:
Ugh, this setting is just so fucking bleak.

Anyway, writing on the wall here. I'm pretty sure we're going to have to sacrifice ourselves to avoid our entire polity of what seems like the last humans in the universe from getting destroyed by the infinite power of evil. What, and the whole "We're going to suicide on a superior enemy fleet in their own territory out of what amounts to being spite", and nobody really considered surrender until everything was already dead thing. Like, it's actually depressing how literally nobody on the opposite side has been portrayed as anything but a psychotic zealot who exists for nothing more than murder and destruction, and they're sufficiently good at indoctrination that they can create shit like, well, North's sister.

We might have had a chance beforehand, but we've basically shunted all of our losses onto the mecha force over the course of the game, reasoning that "We can replace them, that's their job, right?" And now we're finding out in the finale that "no, actually, you can't, we're down to the point where we can only maintain maybe a skeleton CSP now and most of our elites have been spent at this point."

Like, I'm moderately sure that the final "Here's what you lose choice" is going to involve

"You personally manage to avoid death"
"Perbeck and some of her squad are not killed"
"The Titanium Rose is not destroyed"
"You do not fail to destroy the enemy fleet"

And we get to choose maybe one of these, two on the most, and one of those has to be spent to actually have our side survive until they send three more fleets stronger than this one to finish us off, as their morale level has been established over the course of this story to be "As required or needed to achieve our goals, one of which is your complete genocide as a people"

Because this is what happens in a carrier setting when one side has strike craft and the other side does not. The side that doesn't have them gets annihilated.

This story just breaks my heart because I've seen where it was going for a long time, but the characters are just too good to ignore it and write it off like I do most tragedies, and I hate it for that even as I keep reading every update.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


Lets be frank - I'm reading through this and Im fairly sure that this was written as a tragedy the entire time. As in the early bits was all about not immediate dying.

Which frequently is how a story may start - but we never stopped losing.

So yeah - I'm fully expecting us to lose and maybe have a grand scene of the family doing suicide attacks when the second force gets back to our previously defended location
 
Hrm. I half-thought that lieutenant NPC here was mostly a thing because we 'burnt' so many mecha assets previously, and kind of a sign that 'technically you guys SHOULD be out of mecha but you're supposed to get something for the opponent to fight so have a bog-standard veteran'...
I also think it's not helpful that we didn't have any major 'named enemy mecha' besides Mosi to think about- if we say, had known that 'the star wolf, pilot Lupina Feniros' was out there as a Blade of the Empire it would have been more compelling, but that's probably also due to our role as bridge bunny/supporting character-we're not GOING to get a face full of the rivalry stories we'd get if we were one of the mecha pilots on the battlefield.
 
Zaealix said:
Hrm. I half-thought that lieutenant NPC here was mostly a thing because we 'burnt' so many mecha assets previously, and kind of a sign that 'technically you guys SHOULD be out of mecha but you're supposed to get something for the opponent to fight so have a bog-standard veteran'...
I also think it's not helpful that we didn't have any major 'named enemy mecha' besides Mosi to think about- if we say, had known that 'the star wolf, pilot Lupina Feniros' was out there as a Blade of the Empire it would have been more compelling, but that's probably also due to our role as bridge bunny/supporting character-we're not GOING to get a face full of the rivalry stories we'd get if we were one of the mecha pilots on the battlefield.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's because like smart people, the enemy is holding their limited store of aces in reserve until the decisive moment.

They had one after all in the form of Nega!North, who was expendable, unlike the ones they actually trained up themselves.
 
Alectai said:
It's because like smart people, the enemy is holding their limited store of aces in reserve until the decisive moment.

They had one after all in the form of Nega!North, who was expendable, unlike the ones they actually trained up themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I mean, to be clear, Mosi was politically unpopular, but extremely talented to the point that there was no good excuse to deny Green's reccomendation to promote her or give her access to an advanced unit she could excel in. Similarly Kim, who just had the misfortune of being born Jovian. They were both treated as expendable for that mission, but not because they weren't Divine Navy assets or weren't people who the Divine Navy had sunk a lot of resources and time into training and outfitting.

I'm also going to point out that literally every ace I had show up onscreen for the Divine Navy so far has been killed or otherwise removed from the fight, which I've been worrying is like, bad storytelling on my part honestly, going into this final stretch. The fleet attacking Titan is well established as a completely seperate force from the ones we'd been dealing with so far and, reminder, completely destroyed as of this post. I never intended to communicate the idea that they were hiding all of their good ones somewhere offscreen as a deliberate ploy.
 
Well I mean... if we are losing the Empire is losing worse. They didn't just fail at their mission to take out their target decisively. They were utterly annihilated. An entire fleet just gone.
 
redaeth said:
Well I mean... if we are losing the Empire is losing worse. They didn't just fail at their mission to take out their target decisively. They were utterly annihilated. An entire fleet just gone.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So?

Hasn't it been established they have an absurdly good indoctrination engine going on? And we're exiles in a single planetary ring--the only thing that would stop them is a morale hit... And between their indoctrination combined with "We hold the rest of the system that matters", them winning is just a matter of time, since higher population + greater industrial base + greater capacity to endure losses = "Our victory is a matter of time"

Like, unless we find out that "No, actually, we couldn't afford to send this fleet, but we had to do it out of ideology and unless it wins and comes back mostly intact, we're going to collapse because our ridiculous indoctrination engine actually requires maintenance or it starts collapsing, and we can't afford that"
 
Actually, from what I can tell that is exactly right. These two fleets are once in a decade thing. Not only time travel terms but expensive as hell. If we manage to destroy the other fleet as well then the Empire is going to find itself in a spot of trouble and we saved that freighter with its valuable cargo and preserved most of Saturn's orbital infrastructure. We can rebuild, probably fast enough that we might be able to send a retaliatory fleet against the Empire.

Unlike us they won't have a fleet to stop us.
 
Its almost like the Empire has next to no ability to project force or exploit its fringes considering the Jovian system is a powder keg, and that with enough time the gas giant systems if left to their own devices can become obscene fortresses that the Divine Navy has no realistic means of breaking.

For instance, that proprietary stealth carrier with positron weaponry and all sorts of fun things the Divine Navy is scarcely beginning to explore? That's the test bed for all the next generation technologies the Divine Navy will have to deal with next time they invade. And we know their R&D isn't remotely as far along.
 
Alectai said:
So?

Hasn't it been established they have an absurdly good indoctrination engine going on? And we're exiles in a single planetary ring--the only thing that would stop them is a morale hit... And between their indoctrination combined with "We hold the rest of the system that matters", them winning is just a matter of time, since higher population + greater industrial base + greater capacity to endure losses = "Our victory is a matter of time"

Like, unless we find out that "No, actually, we couldn't afford to send this fleet, but we had to do it out of ideology and unless it wins and comes back mostly intact, we're going to collapse because our ridiculous indoctrination engine actually requires maintenance or it starts collapsing, and we can't afford that"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There's also a real chance the Empire will go "actively fighting these rebels is throwing away good resources for little to no gain, so let's stop doing that and just leave them to it".

Having the pretend Emperor make up some excuses saying stuff like "since the Divine Navy is invincible and the truth of the Divine Majesty is blindingly obvious, there is no way the rebels outside the system can harm the sacred kingdom" and "the Emperor has in his magnamity allowed those wretched souls live out their lives in peace, for their reckoning will come afterwards".

Doublethink is to be expected in totalitarian regimes like that, so convincing the public that the enemies that had to be destroyed no matter what years ago can now be left behind would be relatively easy.
 
[x] You speak with Guardswoman 1st Class J6 (one downtime)
[x] You speak with Lieutenant Commander Owusu (one downtime)
[x] You speak more with the ship's new pilots (one downtime)

aaaaaa. Not this vote...but the one after it is the one I dread the most.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top