Heaven Was A Fortress (Built In Heavens CYOA Inspired Quest)

For a moment, you gaze into the unfathomable darkness. The temptation to look is almost overwhelming, but you know better.

You turn away and keep walking.

For a moment though, as you step away, you can feel the Entity on the edges of your periphery. Vast tendrils that make the Lost Cause feel tiny, and flesh that if spread out could cover continents. It is confused, the tiny little light that it had been chasing is gone beyond its own sight.

It's sad it couldn't get to know you.

It mourns your passing as it turns to leave, even though your vessel remains in its shadow for at least another day before it is actually gone.


A chill passes your spine even as KL shouts again. This time though, you're not listening. You've made your decision.

Even if she may never forgive you. Even if she hates you for the rest of your life. Your heart isn't strong enough to kill KL and you know it. She's your oldest friend, the one that decided on her own that it was her duty to look after the strange alien that her Lord had brought home one morning. Aside from your father, she had been the one that was always there.

You erupt into a corona of psionic energy, and KL closes her eyes in visible frustration.

"I'm sorry..."

"Dammit Morev…"

"I know."

Your stasis takes effect, freezing her in not-time so the infection cannot spread before you can get her to the dedicated stasis pods on the Lost Cause. The Marines look between you and the now-frozen KL. "…Ma'am?"

"We're placing her in stasis as soon as we get back to the ship…" You trail off as you finally give words to your hope, even though it doesn't explain it all. "Lost Cause, can you read me?"

<"I can hear you ma'am. We'll have the medbay ready for your arrival. The colony?">

"Can… how long until the colony space port is overrun?"

<"It already is."> AD-331's voice is tight with emotion. You both know your next orders, even though he's still holding out hope for the wrong one.

"Then… bring our guns to bear. Prepare to glass the colony." The atmosphere is tense with your words, but Dagenruff discipline is solid.

<"Yes ma'am."> And that's that. The Marines around you shuffle awkwardly, even as you stare down at the frozen KL.

"That's it I guess. Should have known that a bunch of innocent colonists weren't worth saving compared to a personal attendant." You don't know who says it, but you feel the words strike you like a punch to the gut.

"H!" Another reprimands him, but the damage is done.

"No. He has the right." The Marines around you shuffle awkwardly, and somehow you manage to raise your head. "Protocol says once infected, you're to pull the trigger, no matter who it is. Even if they're your closest friend or most beloved family. I'm taking a risk sticking her in a can, but… I'm not strong enough to pull that trigger." You gaze at H, the one that called you out. His gaze is wavering but is still full of frustration and anger.

He's frustrated you're not sending them back down for the colonists. And to be honest, so are you.

"We don't have enough Marines on the Lost Cause. If we had more, I would be turning this ship around right now. But I have to keep in mind the Empire. If even one of those ships down there gets off-world with an infected, that's another infected planet. The Lost Cause doesn't have the guns needed to run interdiction on the entire planet, and we don't have the Marines to take back the spaceport before any of the ships make it in the air, let alone keep it long enough to evacuate any survivors." Your vision blurs, tears. "I want to save them. But I'm not strong enough to take that risk. So you can all hate me for my hypocrisy. I deserve it." (You need it.)

You know they can't see past the featureless mask of your combat skin, and you know your voice is steady enough, but somehow they all seem to know you're crying. Even H looks away and you place a hand on the side of your helmet. "Lost Cause… open fire when ready."

<"…Understood.">


"Keep the civilians moving!"

"We can't!"

"What do you mean we can't?!"

"There's no ships! The Spaceport is overrun!"

The colonial guard captain pushes himself off the wall where his too-few soldiers are desperately trying to gun down the Beasts as fast as they appear so he can run over to the front of the procession. "The port is overrun?!"

It is. Just past the last gate, the main tarmac, with the few Hellscape capable ships the colony kept on-loan for transportation and trade, is crawling with Beast Assault Forms. Little black dots that marr the beautiful coloring of the civilian vessels. And even as he watches, one of them is already moving towards the launch pad, the deep thrum of its engines barely noticeable over the screams of monsters and frightened innocents.

"Shit. We don't have enough men to take any of those ships."

"Mr. Soldier, does that mean we're going to die?" The voice of a small pup draws his gaze from the death of their hope to the people it was his job to save.

The small golden child was looking up at him with curiosity in her eyes, little floppy ears hanging loose and framing her slightly angled face. The sight breaks his heart, but he forces himself to kneel down next to her. "It's all going to be alright. There's a ship in orbit; they'll definitely send-"

He doesn't finish his sentence as the heart of the city flashes with light. A small pop echoes through the air—as if someone had just snapped their fingers—and then everything was over.


You watch the shuttle's screens as they display the consequences of your orders.

The Lost Cause briefly reorients itself to ensure all of her weapon batteries are brought to bear if necessary. They likely won't be needed, but some distant part of you that had worked so hard at the academy appreciates the thorough preparations. As it is, a single large hatch opens on the side of the Lost Cause's armored prow, allowing the torpedo launcher to be extended for firing. The ship holds position for second as firing solutions are calculated and double checked, and then the trigger is pulled.

There's no flash of light or expulsion of gases with the torpedo's launch—the destructive weapon is hurled from its armored tube by a simple but effective coil gun—but the weapon's own drive activates a few seconds later in a brilliant flare of light. The weapon's velocity increases dramatically as it rockets down towards the planet, gravity only aiding its progress.

As you watch, compression heating from the torpedo's sheer speed causes the atmosphere around it to turn to plasma as it is crushed against the outer casing. From the time of launch, it takes bare seconds for the weapon to reach the surface. The warheads on torpedoes are usually proximity devices due to the highly mobile nature of their expected targets. For this though, it had been changed to a simple altimeter fuse, one that initiated the warhead just ten meters over the road surface of the city below.

There's a brilliant flash of light as the stasis field around the quantum filament warhead releases, and though you can't hear it, you know that there's a small, yet clearly audible snap that accompanies the activation. One that is heard across the entire length and breadth of the warhead's area of effect. You didn't know why this happened—the technical explanations were well beyond even your level of understanding and indeed that of 99.999999% of the Empire's subjects—but you knew that that peculiar quirk had earned the quantum filament warhead the nickname of "Party Popper" in the military.

You'd thought that rather funny when you first learned of it, but now? Now you can't see it as anything but sickeningly black humor in the face of a weapon that had just annihilated a city and erased a few million people.

The "Nuclear Disassembly Shockwave" produced by the filament warhead simply… undid everything within its radius of effect. The Strong and Weak Nuclear forces both come apart like gossamer threads under the effect, with atoms quite literally falling apart under the propagating effect. Protons, neutrons, and electrons all went their separate waves before those particles further disintegrate into their base quarks.

You see this happen in startling clarity on screen as the city just… turns to dust. Skyscrapers are blown away in the wind as their molecular structure ceases to exist. Within a second, everything within a one hundred kilometer radius of the initiation point is gone, including the Mesa the city had been built on.

A fraction of a second later your shuttle's sensors register the passage of an enormous radiation pulse, a heavy mix of x-rays, gamma rays, and neutrinos that would've easily killed any biological species caught unprepared. As it is, the shuttle's systems merely log the exposure, as it was wholly insufficient to penetrate the craft's exterior.

You would've liked for the process to have stopped there, but unfortunately in the face of this kind of risk, you can't take chances. "Lost Cause—"

<"We have it, ma'am."> AD-331 cuts you off almost as soon as you start speaking. His voice is firm… more so than yours is. He knows what he's doing. You quietly thank him in your mind, even though you say nothing aloud.

That last communication to the Lost Cause sees the ship beginning to pummel everything on the Mesa that showed signs of habitation. Streams of blue-white light tinged with ultraviolet streak down from the heavens as the Lost Cause's main battery speaks. Rather than the city itself, the target of the powerful cannons are the outlying mines and hydroponics facilities as well as any other visible structure on the Mesa.

Stream after stream of molten fire from the plasma impactors scorch the surface into glass. The boiling heat of the compressed plasma rapidly balloons out from the impact site to cook their surroundings clean of life while the kinetic portion of the attack causes significant tremors to spread. It's a process that takes several minutes—long enough for the shuttle to reach the ship— before the guns finally fall quiet. You know it wasn't just because there had been so many targets, but it had also been because each mine had to be thoroughly targeted until the entire subsurface structure was destroyed.

People far enough below ground would've survived any strike that simply closed off the surface, and you can't condemn them to weeks, if not months, of starvation—or worse—until they finally passed away. They had been innocent in all of this, so the very least you can grant them is a swift and clean death.

The shuttle docks with the Lost Cause, and everyone aboard is hurriedly rushed into decontamination and medical. No one can see the tears pouring down your cheeks behind the opaque mask of your combat skin until it's finally removed in the medical bay. If anyone cares though, none of them feels it necessary to speak up about it.


"Captain? I'm here to report on the Glassing." AD-331's voice is deafening in the dark silence of your quarters. "I could come back if necessary."

"No," your voice cracks, "Now is fine…" You shut off the monitor of your personal work station. "What's the damage?"

"One million, three hundred forty thousand colonists. No confirmed survivors. Post-bombardment scans show that there was a Hive Tree that was somehow missed under the Mesa that our Impactors destroyed in the final follow up. How long it was there, we don't know, but it stretched nearly five kilometers. I'm planning on firing again tomorrow after the Patrol gets here just to be sure."

"That's fine… any shipboard discipline problems?" Your voice is level, but something in it must have reached AD-331 because he shuffles where he's standing. "AD-331?"

"... HJ-7813DF wishes to present his apologies for his conduct on the shuttle. After he and the other Marines cooled off, they agreed that you were in the right for Glassing the colony. After-action checks on the combat scans showed that at least two infested vessels were preparing to launch when the Party Popper hit." There's a shuffling sound, and the click of claws on metal grating. "He requests permission to stay with the ship once our relief gets here."

You take a deep breath and heave out a sigh. "Granted. And tell him that I'll… accept his apology. Is there anything else, AD?"

"Just a communique from Sector Command, they want to congratulate us on containing the situation as well as we did."

"Understood. You are dismissed for now."

"Ma'am." He turns and leaves. The closing door plummeting your quarters into darkness, broken only by the tiny light above your work station, once more.

You pick up the arsenka bottle and violently throw it across the room, screaming, "Why won't any of you hate me for this?!"


The 14th Patrol fleet arrives three days after the colony of Sanskrit was annihilated.

For the entire day following their arrival, the entire planet is subjected to a clinically thorough bombardment by a thousand plasma impactors as they make sure that no signs of the Beast Plague have survived their run in with the Lost Cause. The once-beautiful planet is steadily reduced to a charred husk of its former glory.

"Fucking hell, I hate the Plague. Entire worlds reduced to this. And what did we get out of it? Virtually nothing! Builders damn it all…" GH-708 shouldn't be verbally complaining out loud, but no one on the bridge has the courage to tell her otherwise. Not with you standing at the hololyth that is displaying the very situation she's complaining about, face still red from your tears. "One and a half million people… it—"

"That's enough GH-708. We know… I know." She finally trails off at your quiet words. "I looked through the data the ground team was able to bring back." It wasn't as much as you wished it was, but it was something. And that something was the answer you had been seeking… along with so much more you already wish you didn't know.

"What'd you figure out, Morev?" AD-331's question is a soft but firm demand for information.

"I… am apparently one of ten artificial Builders born to control a collection of God Vessels known as Patricide-class Super Dreadnoughts. And even that's a modification from my main use, which was a vector to send commands to these vessels by the Builder's central command structure." You lean against the hololyth on your elbows, hands clasped loosely before you. "My… secondary purpose, if you could call it that, was to breed with the entity controlling the ship so that it could perform a kind of self-replication. I was little more than a womb to facilitate a new species' ability to reproduce in the service of an uncaring military."

"That's sick." Are the first words to make it into the ensuing silence. "How the fuck were you expected to do that?"

"Apparently the God Vessel doesn't follow the same laws of reality we do. Overall the entire project was unpopular to the extreme, but they were fighting something that made it necessary."

"Fuck." Somehow that word manages to encompass all of your feelings on the matter. This new information suddenly has you actively wondering if finding this Vessel was in any way a good idea, but the part of you that was your Father's Daughter refused to give up.

"Guess if it tries taking you as a breeding sow, there's going to be a lot of dead Dagenruff to pad the bed." AD-331's off color joke isn't funny, but most of the bridge laughs anyway.

"I can't ask any of you to do that for me."

"Too late," fourteen voices call as one. That dark spot in your gut that reminds you of the one and a half million lives you sacrificed tightens even further. "Either way though, do we at least know where the God Vessel is?"

You glance up, AD-331 doesn't look any worse for wear… but somehow you can tell the reason he's asking is because he's as on edge as you are. In a way, everyone else on the bridge is. You look back down at the scorched representation of what had once been a thriving colony.

They all want to know if this sacrifice had been worth it.

"... There's coordinates in the data for where the God Vessel's construction berth is supposed to be located. Whether or not it's accurate… we'll find out when we get there." A cheer rises amongst the bridge crew, and a tiny flicker of light feels like it is born in the depths of your despair.

This sacrifice won't be in vain. These people's deaths will mean something in the end. You promise. (Then maybe you'll forgive yourself.)


The Apollyon Nebula is hard to describe. It is well on it's way to becoming a star in it's own right, but remains stretched across a truly vast area of space. Pillars of dense, fiery orange star-stuff snake through the void like the nerve endings of a great beast.

But that's not it's greatest feature, no. This region of space is known best for one thing, and one thing alone.

"Wow… those are Wake Angels!"

Semi-translucent, the glowing blue creatures utilize a form of passive psionic propulsion to frolic through the void around the Lost Cause. Each of them are only a few dozen meters across at the largest, but they amass in a pod of a thousand. A tiny constellation of their own stars that flock around your ship, seemingly uncaring of the fact it could slaughter them all.

"Never thought I'd see one of them, let alone an entire pod. Did you know that in the years after the Great Expansion, one of the Lords of the Northern Fringe had a number of them captured and relocated through the Empire?"

You blink, glancing at EW-1717, "No, I didn't. What happened to them?"

"Word is they somehow made their way back here. Though no one has a clue how, considering Wake Angels have never exhibited any form of FTL ability. The whole thing was almost dismissed as a hoax before they started showing up all over the empire at random to chase ships."

"Chase ships?"

"They're playful; if you just hit the engines and go speeding off they'll follow for a few thousand kilometers before they tire or get distracted by something shiny. My Grandfather's ship had a small pod that followed him for lightyears, though no one has a clue how they kept up even after they jumped through Hellscape."

"That's pretty amazing," AD-331 chuckles. "Hey Captain, should we give them something to chase?"

It's… not a terribly bad idea. The Lost Cause is slow, though chances are they won't care about that. And the crew would probably need something to lift their spirits. On the other hand… you've got a job to do, and you should probably work on finding the God Vessel.

(Though a small voice says nothing stopping you from doing both.)


[] [Prancing Angels] Give Them A Chase

[] [Prancing Angels] Focus On Your Objective


"Captain? We need to talk. Something's come up," AD-331 announces to you the morning after arriving in the Apollyon Nebula.

You blink up from the hololyth in surprise. "Okay. FC-0912, you have the bridge. Lead the way, AD-331."

He does so, turning sharply back to the Ship's spine-ward hallways. But instead of taking you to either your quarters, his, or even just a briefing room, he pulls you aside into a small cubby with maintenance access where he huddles over you with a worried look in his eyes.

Honestly if it wasn't for that last bit, you'd be heavily distracted by the fact he was now hovering over you with most of his chest on display.

"I've been keeping in contact with some of my personal servants back home, having them keep tabs on my Father. He didn't appreciate you outdoing me at the Academy, and my dumping the entire Home Fleet for a post on what he sees as a one way ticket to abject failure really didn't help things. Somehow he managed to sneak a spy onto the Lost Cause, and they've been feeding him our progress using a secure QEC link. I have some Marines looking for them, but my Father already knows we're on the verge of finding the God Vessel."

… Huh, so this is what panic feels like. You've known about it intellectually, and what you've been told says you should be having a worse reaction, but something in you is keeping the feeling of your entire torso trying to crush your organs into paste from affecting your ability to think. As it is though, it's terribly distracting, and you're on the verge of hyperventilating. "What is he planning to do about it? And how long do we have?"

"He learned just before our last Hellscape jump, and has already sent ships to blow the Lost Cause to pieces with the intent to capture you and me alive if possible. He wants it to look like a bad run in with Pirates."

"And if they can't take us alive?"

"He's already looking for a new wife apparently." AD-331 looks like he bit into a particularly sour fruit with that admission. Apparently Lord Mustafa was so obsessed with power he was willing to sacrifice his own son to remove you. He was, if anything, an example of the worst the Great Empire's nobility could contain.

If you found the God Vessel, not only would your Father's own power be solidified, it would skyrocket by the simple fact he had such a powerful vessel under his control, regardless of how many proxies it was through. Mustafa's own monopoly over the Border Region due to controlling the Shatran Trade Road would be reduced to little more than a subsidiary to feed Sage's hold over the Helgast Border Realms.

"How many ships are we looking at?"

"Three at least, two Cruisers and a Battlecruiser. But the Battlecruiser has been delayed due to their Hellscape drive being overhauled with some prototype equipment. If we're lucky, we'll only have to deal with the Cruisers and then have enough time to find the God Vessel and awaken it."

"We're not that lucky."

AD-331 quietly nods in agreement. You didn't have the best grades in politics—not that the class was even graded really—but you know for a fact 'make it look like pirates' is slang for 'vaporise everyone that would say otherwise'. It's not a terribly subtle strategy, but when you're in space there's not a lot of people that can hear you scream. And those that can know better than to go looking for it.

You would love to send word to your Father and ask for backup, but even if you did they won't get here until long after Mustafa's hunters will. So your best bet is to—"AD-331, do you have any solid suspicions on who our spy could be? If we're going to face your Father's Guard, then the last thing I want is for someone to be blaring our coordinates all over the region."

"Yeah, it has to be someone on the bridge. No one else would be able to hide the setup needed for a private QEC link, and you didn't tell anyone except us that our destination was the Apollyon Nebula before we actually left. The Marines are checking their quarters now, but…"

"Very little time for a full investigation."

"Right. So how do you want to play this Morev?" Part of you is happy he's calmed down enough to stop calling you Captain, but the shadow of Sanskrit laughs at the feeling.

"How else? Surprise inspection." The both of you grin at each other. "Have the Marines wait outside the Bridge."


"Popping an inspection people, everyone to their feet!" Your return to the bridge is as subtle as a torpedo. As in, it wasn't.

"Ma'am?" Is the confused response from all twelve officers even as the Marines file in behind you and AD-331. "What is…"

"No time to explain, let the Marines check you and your stations, then we can get this all over with relatively painlessly. Or at least, I hope so." The procession is awkward as several of your bridge officers stumble out of their stations to stand away from them so the Marines can do their inspections.

The inspection of the Navigation Station reveals that GH-708 has been sneaking food from the cafeteria. Against hygiene regulations, but not really something you care enough to do more than remind her not to eat while on duty. But it's the inspection of the Communications Station that brings up what you had been looking for.

1344-RDK doesn't even so much as fidget as the Marine inspecting his station brings back a black market Station tap QEC. The kind of illegal thing that only the professional and stupid bought. And considering you hadn't even suspected him of being a mole, you were betting on the latter.

Raising an eyebrow, you look back up to him. "So, anything to say?"

"Not at this time ma'am." He stares straight ahead and at the far wall.

You sigh. 1344-RDK is from a minor House on the edges of Helgast space whose entire purpose was about regulating immigration between the two. And watching for slave raids, but those were rare. "I'd love to go over this thoroughly, but we're on a tight schedule. Bring him to the brig for now. We'll talk later if we survive." He blinks in surprise even as the Marine that had found his little hook grabs him by the shoulder, but you ignore it. "As for the rest of us, bring the whole ship to red alert. A hostile Noble doesn't want us to succeed and we have enemy vessels in bound. They're—"

The sensor station beeps, and 88-BB-101 turns around to check it. "Two contacts… cruisers."

"Never mind we're out of time." You wave everyone back towards their stations, "all hands, battlestations! I want all torpedoes and missiles warmed up and ready for fire, all Marine Teams ready for boarders. Get me the impactors fired up and ready."

Your bridge crew scramble for their stations, even as the wailing of the battle stations alarm begins to echo throughout the hull of the Lost Cause. The hololyth turns from a soft blue to a harsh red, even as the sphere representation of the space around your ship zooms out enough to show two tiny red blips.

"Those are line Cruisers." AD-331 announces after looking at the sensor readings himself, confirming the tiny little pit of dread already forming in your gut. "We won't last in a stand up fight."

"We won't need to. My Ancestor's modifications to the Lost Cause means we have nearly twice the sensor range they do individually, and even if the reactor is dated, my Father got the guns modernized, even if they're not top of the line."

"Torpedoes?"

"Torpedoes."


[] [BATTLE BEGIN] Battle Turn's Plan

Power

• Power is the lifeblood of your ship. The amount of energy your ship has at its command is determined by your ship's generator, and serves as the limit to how many weapons you may have active at one time; a weapon or module without power is one without function.
• For most ships, their generator output is comfortably in excess of what they require to function at full capacity. The Lost Cause, however, still has its original generator core, which was easily sufficient for its original armament, but is now somewhat inadequate for its modernized loadout. Watch your budget closely, Captain.

Power Draw

• Power Draw is a stat possessed by all Modules that do not operate passively (like the life support). In order to use a Module, you must have an amount of free Power equal to that module's Power Draw.
• If a Module's Power Draw stat has a second value listed inside parentheses, this indicates that that module can be overcharged, diverting more power into it to increase its effects, up to a maximum of the secondary value.
• If a Module's Power Draw stat has multiple values separated by slashes, this indicates that that module possesses multiple intensity settings, each with a differing power draw.

System Charge

• A Module with this stat requires a "spin up" or "charging" period before they can activate. The System Charge value is equal to the total Power Draw the module requires over this period in order to activate.
• A Module with System Charge will also possess either a (C) or (I) tag. These stand, respectively, for Continuous and Interruptible.
• Modules with the Continuous tag must maintain an uninterrupted power draw until they are charged and used, and any loss of power will result in complete loss of charge.
• Modules with the Interruptible tag will store their charge, retaining it even if active power is lost, and thus allowing them to charge up even with erratic bursts of power. However, they typically have a much higher required charge, to necessitate such systems.
• Some System Charge Modules may additionally have the (V) tag, for Variable. Modules with this tag may draw any amount of power less than or equal to their Power Draw Value, allowing them to present a lower system load in exchange for proportionally increased charge time.

Damage

• Self explanatory, Damage is an expression of the offensive power of a Weapon Module.
• Damage values separated by slashes indicate different outputs for different settings of a Weapon Module.
• Damage values followed by a scaling note in parentheses, such as (+1/p), indicate the rate at which a module capable of overcharge increases its output with additional Power, one point of Damage per point of Power Draw, in the case of the given example.
• Damage values with a second value in square brackets indicate that the value changes relative to a specific range bracket. For example, the Lost Cause's Plasma Impactors deal less damage in their second bracket than their first.
• Damage values presented with a multiplier indicate multiple, individually distinct discharges, such as separate missiles.
• Modules with a (B) tag on their damage stat are Beam weapons, capable of a sustained stream of continuous fire. Beam weapons are uniquely valuable in their ability to circumvent the "damage gating" of void shields with sustained fire. When struck by a sustained beam assault, damage in excess of the shield's integrity will spill over into the hull, rather than be lost. However, this is compensated for by the fact that beam weapons typically only function at short to medium ranges, makinging maintaining continuous fire difficult against mobile targets.

Range

• Range indicates the maximum distance an effect may travel before losing effect, be it missiles running out of fuel or an energy attack diffusing too much to be effective. One Range is equivalent to one hex on the tactical map.
• Range values separated by slashes indicate different values for different settings of the Module.
• Range values followed by a scaling note in parentheses, such as (+1/p), indicate the rate at which a module capable of overcharge increases its Range with additional Power, one point of Range per point of Power Draw, in the case of the given example.
• Range values with a second value in square brackets indicate that the Module possesses a second range bracket, with differing effects (typically damage fall-off) within each bracket.
• Some attacks may have a Range value of ∞. This indicates that the relevant attack will continue forever, or until it hits something, whichever comes first.

Speed

• Speed indicates how fast an effect moves. One Speed means that that effect can traverse one hex on the tactical map within the space of a turn.
• Speed values separated by slashes indicate different values for different settings of the Module.
• Speed values followed by a scaling note in parentheses, such as (+1/p), indicate the rate at which a module capable of overcharge increases its Speed with additional Power, one point of Speed per point of Power Draw, in the case of the given example.
• Speed values with a second value in square brackets indicate that the value changes relative to a specific range bracket.

Integrity

• Integrity is, unsurprisingly, the value of a given object or effect's integrity. Its HP, in other words. If something's Integrity is reduced to 0, then it is either disabled or destroyed, depending on context.
• Integrity values of effects (such as shields) separated by slashes indicate different values for different settings of the responsible Module.
• Integrity values of effects (such as shields) followed by a scaling note in parentheses, such as (+1/p), indicate the rate at which a module capable of overcharge increases the Integrity of its effect with additional Power, one point of Integrity per point of Power Draw, in the case of the given example.

Recovery

• Recovery is the amount of Integrity something regains each turn. This is most typically found in energy shielding, but can occasionally show up in cases where a vessel is capable of self repair.
• Recovery values separated by slashes indicate different values for different settings of the responsible Module.
• Recovery values followed by a scaling note in parentheses, such as (+1/p), indicate the rate at which a module capable of overcharge increases its Recovery speed with additional Power, one point of Recovery per point of Power Draw, in the case of the given example.

Resistance

• Resistance is the value by which incoming Damage is reduced before it can damage the Integrity of the relevant object or effect. For instance, if an attack with a Damage value of 3 strikes a ship with 10 Integrity and 2 Resistance, the damage will be reduced by 2, meaning the ship's Integrity will only be reduced to 9. If the same attack struck a ship with the same Integrity, but no Resistance, that ship would be left with an Integrity of 7.
• Resistance values separated by slashes indicate different values for different settings of the responsible Module.
• Resistance values followed by a scaling note in parentheses, such as (+1/p), indicate the rate at which a module capable of overcharge increases its Resistance with additional Power, one point of Resistance per point of Power Draw, in the case of the given example.

Sensors

• Sensors let you see what's happening around you, their range is how far they let you see. If you want to know what the enemy is doing, they have to be within range of your sensors.
• If something happens outside of your range, you won't be able to see it. But if that something sends something into the range of your sensors, then you will be updated on "last known activity in this area" such as the presence of a ship that fired a shot or debris from something blowing up.
• Range value followed by a scaling note in parentheses, such as (+1/p), indicate the rate at which military-grade sensors can increase from their passive range with additional power. One range per point of Power Draw, in the case of the given example.
• Special note about Sensors: All allied vessels that are actively communicating share vision on their sensors. If communications are jammed, then all vessels must resort to their own sensor ranges. These situations will always be announced at the start of combat, and if the jamming stops an announcement will be made.

Turns

• Turns progress in stages: Weapon Firing > Projectile Movements > Ship Movements > Impacts > End Turn.
• Initiative order for ship movement is: Players Take Action > Enemy Ships Take Action > Allied Vessels Take Action.
• Projectile movements follow the same initiative order as ship movements.
• Moving through a hex with active weapon fire means taking a hit. Damage is calculated on hit, per hit.
• Unless explicitly stated in a battle plan to control weapon fire, the fastest weapon will always impact first. In order to control weapon fire, the plan must state at which hex the sequence of shots will pass through.

Maneuvering

• Maneuvering is dependent on the type of drives the ship has.
• Reaction type drives, such as the Lost Cause's impulse drives, continuously accelerate the ship if they have power (and are active). Reaction drive ships must contend with their own momentum when maneuvering, indicated by colored directional arrows on the ship's token. Green is positive momentum, meaning moving along this vector will increase your speed. Red is negative momentum, meaning moving along this vector will reduce your speed by an amount equal to your drive output. In order to reverse your direction, you either have to keep taking the negative momentum arrows until you reach zero speed, or take the green positive momentum arrows that are just off your current path to 'turn'.
• If you cut power from your engines while under momentum, your ship will keep moving along it's last course in a ballistic trajectory.
• Inertia type drives do not interact with momentum at all, instead moving in any direction they want, up to a number of hex equal to their speed. However, Inertia drives suffer from both greater power requirements than Reaction drives and a hard cap on their top speed. Inertia drives are superior to Reaction drives in maneuverability and de/acceleration, but lose handily in terms of absolute top speed.
• Ships with Inertia drives do not have limits on their orientation while in motion, and thus their "foreward" direction is indicated by a blue directional arrow on the tactical map.

Hex Stacking

• When two or more allied ships occupy the same hex square, they merge into a single token, forming a "fleet" or, informally, "doom bubble". This has both positive and negative effects.
• Fleet tokens utilize the cumulative values of all component ships for shields, hull, and weapons, due to their ability to "rotate" damaged inwards in the formation while replacing them with fresher ones.
• In order to target specific ships in a fleet, you have to set targeting priorities when making combat plans. For example: Sensor Ships>Light Ships>Capital Ships>That Fucker That Shot Your Dog. Your vessel will attempt to follow this priority, but it is possible for the enemy to interfere via their own counter motions.
• If your vessel is in a fleet, you can set a desired action chain for your own. For example, you can specify they are to leave light ships and frigates on the outer edges until destroyed as a kind of ablative armor for your capital ships, or have vessels break off from the fleet if they take too much damage. If nothing is specified, then Anastasia Morev will follow standard Imperial Doctrine to rotate ships "inward" as their shields go down to be covered by ships who have stronger shields and/or hulls in order to maximize combat life.
• If a beam and other continuous weapons are fired into a fleet, it will focus on burning down a single ship at a time unless interrupted by fleet motions such as another ship getting in the way, or attack vector being interrupted by an allied ship. The latter can be intentionally ignored by either specifying if a beam weapon is being fired to keep the vector clear, or have the firing ship just burn through the allied vessel.
• Fleets do not use the cumulative stats for sensors; when stacked into a single token, a fleet's sensor range is equivalent to that of the highest sensor range among the component ships.
• Certain weapons count as "AOE" weapons, which can hit all targets within a hex equally, meaning the cumulative shield benefit of a fleet formation is bypassed. One example of a weapon with potential AOE application is the Subspace Filament Warhead "Party Popper" Heavy Torpedo.

• When two hostile ships enter the same hex, it triggers a "micro-turn", wherein both ships gain the opportunity to fire their weapons at the opposing ship, so long as those weapons are A) currently powered, and B) possess a Speed equal to or higher than the target ship's remaining movement.
• When a micro-turn completes, both ships continue with their movement.
• A Micro-turn is triggered every time two or more hostile ships enter the same hex, meaning two ships with speeds of 6 and the same heading could trigger up to 6 micro-turns between them.
• Exiting a hex occupied by a hostile ship does not provoke attacks or trigger Micro-turns.
• Ships firing into a "furball" of multiple ships fighting each-other within the same hex run the risk of striking their own allies rather than the targeted ship. Certain specialized sensor arrays can mitigate this.