Super Robot Wars æ: Martian Mecha Mega-Crossover

Miscounted and thought we had a tie for a second there. Theletos it is.

I'm feeling motivated and have done a lot of pre-writing so I'll see if I can squeeze in an update tonight. Overall my plan for this quest is regular updates on Wednesday and Saturday but I can sneak in an extra prologue chapter.

[X] XAW-3 Theletos

"XAW-3 Theletos, huh? Well, nice to meet you," you say, letting the machine's automatic boot process run while you attempt to find a manual, or at least a systems checklist.

"External lights...huh. OS last updated NCE 0016? Shit, this is practically Calamity War vintage." You turn on the machine's spotlights to illuminate the darkness surrounding the machine to reveal nothing much more than a cave with a metal shutter directly in front of you. Well, you can rule out spontaneously manifesting a robot - it seems that you came to it.

You've heard of things like this before - even looked for them in the more foolish moments of your youth. Remnants of the Calamity War abandoned or intentionally buried in secret bunkers on the Martian surface. Large portions of Chryse, at least the parts where they don't care about phone reception, are powered by Minovsky-Ahab reactors dug up from such castoffs, and flashier mercenaries and pirates would use high-spec machines restored wholesale from where they'd previously been entombed. On the other hand, you've never heard of one being found fueled up and ready to start, but if miracles keep happening to you, you're not about to start complaining.

"Right, how do I get out of here...well, there's no door controls, but there is a heat weapon..."

After a minute or so of carving with a weapon designed to cut through armor, you've reduced the hangar shutter in front of you to slag, along with, apparently, a sheet of rock in front of it that was camouflaging it. The Theletos moves smoothly as you push the controls forward to walk out of the forgotten hangar and survey the situation.

Shockingly, you're not far from the hidden BAHRAM base - in fact, after ducking your machine down behind some of the debris you just created, you notice the entrance to BAHRAM's own formerly camouflaged hangar with the three Gjallarhorn mobile suits still inside, one of them apparently still having fun popping shipping containers with its rifle. You also see the telltale signs of contrails heading upward from the base's orbital launch catapult - someone's already launched shuttles, and with no evacuation order, you're positive that it was Gjallarhorn making off with Dr. Links and Dolores. You'll need to get to the catapult yourself (and pray this thing you've found yourself in is spaceworthy), but first you you need to do something about those mobile suits in the hangar before they slaughter the rest of the Phantoma pilots, or start bringing down the base itself. You consider your options...and the biggest weapon you can find in the Theletos's loadout.

[ ]You have the initiative, and a giant axe. Charge in and smite evil!
>[+1 CQB, Gain Heavy Weapon: Resonance Cleaver]

[ ]There's a gun in here big enough to pierce Nanolaminate even from this distance. Line up a shot from concealment.
>[+1 Aim, Gain Heavy Weapon: Fusion Cannon]

[ ]Divide and conquer. This is the perfect opportunity to lure the enemy into a trap, and you've got exactly what you need to set it up.
>[+1 Evade, Gain Heavy Weapon: HOST Remote Weapons System]

[ ]Wait, zoom in. That's Stevenson putting together an AT rocket. If you just draw the enemy's fire, your comrades can take care of them.
>[+1 Defense, Gain Support Weapon: Jammer Bolt]

Your work done, and three mobile suit kills to your name (take that, weird AVS kid), you start moving at speed toward the orbital catapult, discovering in the process that the Theletos has a flight system built in - really unusual for mobile weapons that old but it too, somehow, still works.

"Was this thing abandoned a hundred years ago, or was it put there last week?" you wonder aloud, when suddenly a streak of green shoots out of the catapult ahead of you and toward the sky.

IDOLO.

---

A Few Minutes Earlier

You are Lieutenant Radium Lavans, and you just watched your Orbital Frame kill a man.

A squad of Gjallarhorn infiltrators disguised as maintenance workers had ambushed you and IDOLO's support crew in the Orbital Frame's secure hangar. Most everyone died in the ensuing point-blank firefight, but one of the spies successfully entered IDOLO's cockpit and booted it up, only for the Orbital Frame to launch itself at maximum acceleration toward the walls of the launch catapult, doing no damage to its Metatron-enhanced frame and breaking the would-be thief's neck almost instantly.

IDOLO opens its cockpit. You approach, and dutifully remove the Gjallarhorn goon's corpse.

"Lieutenant!"

Viola is calling you, coming into the room herself only to find you and a scene of carnage. Ever dutiful, she updates you on the situation.

"Dr. Links and Dolores were kidnapped by another unit!"

You barely have time to stagger out a confused "Dolly!" before you find yourself vaulting into IDOLO's bloodied cockpit.

"What are you doing?" Viola asks. You shouldn't have to tell her.

"I'm going to rescue Dolly! If they're taking her back to Earth, they'll use the Uhlenbeck Catapult at Deimos Base. If I take IDOLO, I can catch up before they--"

A gunshot pings off of IDOLO's armor. You turn to see Viola pointing her sidearm at you.

"The hell are you doing, Viola?" you ask.

"IDOLO is a top-secret military weapon. No order to pursue have been issued. If you take it, you'll be committing a crime against BAHRAM."

"I know that! You think I care? This is Dolly we're talking about!" You turn to leave again.

"Stop! Please, Lieutenant! If you go, they will kill you, and I will have to come after you to do it."

You ignore her.

She takes another shot.

This one grazes your cheek.

"You said you would fight with me and show the Earthlings who we are. You told me to die for this planet. Was that all a lie? Were you just making it up to sound cool? Lieutenant?"

You pause to listen to her rant, then continue to climb into the cockpit. IDOLO is calling you. Dolly is calling you. You feel Viola aiming between your shoulder blades.

Then you feel her arms wrap around you from behind.

"Lieutenant...you're all I have left...please..."

You turn to face her--

"Viola. I finally know what to do with this power. IDOLO's power. Power is not to be used with a hateful heart, but to protect the ones you love."

---

A Few Minutes Later

You find the laser comms and switch over to BAHRAM's band to start asking what the hell is going on, and quickly raise Viola, who's apparently managed to secure a LEV that wasn't in the hangar.

"Lilia! Radium's gone. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen! All that talk about quitting and now he's flying off after Dolores to die!"

This has officially gone from clusterfuck to disaster. IDOLO was the root prototype for the entire Orbital Frame project. If he's haring off with it toward a Gjallarhorn base like he always did in mock battles...

A man's voice breaks into the comm channel on override "Attention, all available BAHRAM forces. This is General Rutger Tyusha. A test pilot has gone AWOL with an experimental unit and is en route to Gjallarhorn's Deimos garrison. All available forces are to INTERCEPT and DESTROY the test unit designated IDOLO. Do NOT engage Gjallarhorn. Do NOT allow Gjallarhorn to obtain IDOLO by any means!"

"Fuck that!" you say, to Viola, because you're not high enough rank to say that to a general. "Vi, we're going after him. I know you can talk him down, and, well, I've got plausible deniability now."

"...what the hell are you piloting?" she asks.

"Not important. Let's just get to the catapult."

---

Fortunately, going to orbit in an individual mobile weapon is a lot more doable on Mars than it supposedly is on Earth, thanks to the lower gravity and thinner atmosphere. Unfortunately, the delta-v granted by the catapult is just enough to get you out of the gravity well, and isn't going to catch you up to IDOLO's boosted accleration, and you can just barely see the signs of its passage ahead of you in flickering lights that lance out to shred Gjallarhorn's hastily-deployed mobile suits and patrol cruisers. Too bad for them the thing uses Metatron-pumped lasers that bypass their nano-laminate, not old-fashioned particle beams.

The utter destruction wreaked by IDOLO's passage has sent the normal orbital traffic into such chaos that you barely notice that there's another firefight happening in orbit until you're practically on top of it, with one of Gjallarhorn's patrol cruisers having avoided the swathe of destruction to continue with whatever traffic stop they were originally going after. Wait...you're being hailed again.

"Hey, BAHRAM!" you hear an unfamiliar voice over the comm band. "You guys lose something?"

"Who is this?"

"It's Tekkadan, Miss Lilia," you hear Biscuit Griffon cut in. "We took off for Earth early, and well, things got a little complicated."


"Specifically, this is Orga Itsuka, Tekkadan's commander. We have a VIP aboard, and Gjallarhorn figured that out before the green streak over there disrupted their operation."

"Excuse me! I believe we might be of mutual assistance," Kudelia Aina Bernstein's voice cuts in. Orga really needs to work on his comms discipline. How many mics does he have open on the bridge of that transport? "We have a plan for the ship, but please go help Mikazuki! You're fighting Gjallarhorn now anyway, right?"

"Well, we are."

"We don't have time for this, Lilia," Viola cuts in. "If Gjallarhorn doesn't kill Radium, BAHRAM will!"

"Mikazuki and Akihiro are engaging five Grazes in the direction of Deimos. Just running interference will be worth a big rebate, and also, we won't all die," Orga explains.

"What are you damn kids fighting a war for anyw--"

"Viola. Let's go. I've got an idea," you say.

True to Orga's words, there's two units engaging fi--four Grazes almost directly on your flight path, two standard and two Schwalbe Grazes. You and "Mika" are tied again, you guess. One of the Tekkadan units is a repainted Graze hanging back and taking potshots with a smoothbore cannon, but right in the thick of it is...

"Is that a Gundam Frame? I guess I'm not the only one who dug up an antique today," you comment.

"Oh, it's Violet and Lily. And here we are fighting Chocolate Guy and his sidekick. Today is strange," Mika comments casually as he lines up to throw a gigantic metal club.

"I'M NO ONE'S SIDEKICK, YOU DAMN SPACE RAT! I'M SPECIALIST MAJOR GAELIO BAUDU--" then the mace hits him and puts a visible dent in his cockpit.

The other Schwalbe Graze is sneaking up in the Tekkadan ace's blind spot, though: Mikazuki moves in that mobile suit like a martial artist fighting on foot, but he still doesn't have eyes in the back of his head.

"No time to stop and talk, Mika, just...heads up!" you shout, as:

[ ]You charge in and block the other Schwalbe Graze before he hits Mikazuki with an axe, then kick off and continue toward Deimos
>[+1000 HP, Gain Skill: Parry]
[ ]Fire a spread of beam shots at the other Schwalbe Graze - it won't hurt him, but it'll be a distraction, and you can keep your current trajectory going
>[+1 Hit, Gain Skill: Hit & Run]
[ ]Do a flyby like a shmuck in an old propaganda film. It'll break his attack without slowing you down.
>[+1 Mobility, Gain Skill: Dash]
[ ]Just interpose yourself in front of Chocolate Guy's axe. You're in a giant robot, you'll be fine.
>[+1 Armor, Gain Skill: Support Defend]

However you do it, your sudden interruption prompts a professional but obviously very startled reaction from the Schwalbe Graze pilot. As you speed past, though, you do see the mobile suit throw you a salute, of all things.

"Thanks, Lily," Mikazuki says as the sniper pilot - Akihiro, you assume - plugs another distracted Graze, forcing the Gjallarhorn group to fall back.

"The Utopia Colony Phantoma squad is coming up from the south," Viola reports. "Let's go!"

---

Deimos Base

You are Lieutenant Radiom Lavans, and you are going to save Dolly.

BAHRAM's ground-based missiles couldn't stop you.

Gjallarhorn's LEVs and mobile suits couldn't stop you.

They couldn't even touch you.

With IDOLO all thing are possible.

You blast through the outer wall of the Deimos Uhlenbeck Catapult with a single massive burst of Metatron energy.

"Dolly...where are you? There should be a cruiser in here..."

You enter the main axial launch chamber, and are ambushed by another squad of Gjallarhorn Phantomas at close quarters. They aren't a match for IDOLO's blades. One of them is giving you trouble, but--

There. You see her. Your beloved Dolly, and Dr. Links, dressed in normal suits and scrambling out of a maintenance shaft that was damaged in the fighting a minute ago. You desperately split the last Phantoma in half with IDOLO's sword, and reach out a hand...

There's handgun fire. Someone firing at the doctor--no. No no no no no no no

"Dolly!"

A blank of several seconds. You've crashed into the wall but with IDOLO's help, you've gotten Dolly into the cockpit.

She's been shot three times, all bullets meant for Dr. Links.

"Hold on, Dolly, I'll get you to a hospital right--"

She reaches out a hand. "I'm sorry. I wanted to be...by your side...forever..."

You plead, and you scream, and the cockpit glows green...

---

You are IDOLO.

Your frame is engaged in COMBAT. You enjoy this. You will make the Earthlings SUFFER for what they did to your Frame Runner. You lock on and obliterate enemies with the power of METATRON. You RIP and you TEAR and you destroy all those who would harm your Frame Runner and his BELOVED.

Your Frame Runner is INCAPACITATED. You are granting him his fondest wish. You are granting his BELOVED's fondest wish. He and she and YOU will be together FOREVER.

The world that METATRON makes possible fulfills all desires.

They will never be apart.

You destroy LEV after LEV.

You destroy Mobile Suit after Mobile Suit.

Damage levels exceeding 25%.

Combat is interfering with your Frame Runner's HAPPINESS. You must destroy the ENEMY. You seek a target.

Gjallarhorn GRAZE Squad. Threat level: 0%. Irrelevant.

BAHRAM PHANTOMA Squad equipped with MAGNETIC ACCELERATOR CANNONS. Threat level: 25%. You are not properly EQUIPPED for these enemies. Logging tactical update for Dr. Links.

Unknown unit, provisionally designated XAW-3. Threat level: UNKNOWN. Capabilities of Frame not listed in database. Provisional assessment: 75%.

SGT Viola Gyune's PHANTOMA Threat level: 80%. ERROR - INVALID TARGET. Your Frame Runner wants to talk to her through the METATRON connection. You do not understand why. She's already shot him once today.

Setting Target to XAW-3.

Analyzing weaknesses...
[ ]Target pilot's melee capabilities impaired by hesitation. Accelerate and strike under guard.
>[-1 CQB]
[ ]Target pilot's awareness of distant targets is limited. Strike from outside line of sight
>[-1 Aim]
[ ]Target pilot's movements are predictable. Pattern match and anticipate strategy
>[-1 Evade]
[ ]Target pilot can be overwhelmed with direct force. Overpower.
>[-1 Defense]

---

Welcome to the main stat-generating part of character creation: choices made here automatically succeed, but how you go about things determines what Lilia and Theletos are good at, and what their weaknesses are.

I'll do a full primer on mechanics later, but here's a brief rundown:

• All stats default to +2 (except HP, which starts at 7000)
• CQB+Hit or Aim+Hit is rolled against target Evade+Mobility using opposed d10s, depending on if it's a melee or ranged attack.
• Damage is based on the weapon damage+CQB or Aim directly compared (not rolled) against target Defense+Armor.
• Parry makes you better at defending against some attacks
• Hit & Run and Dash both make you narratively faster, either at repositioning or charging
• Support Defend lets you tank for friendlies

For this chapter, please vote in PLAN format, listing your options as subheadings of the plan name. For example:

[X]Plan: Cleaver That Swords Evil
-[X]You have the initiative, and a giant axe. Charge in and smite evil!
-[X]You charge in and block the other Schwalbe Graze before he hits Mikazuki with an axe, then kick off and continue toward Deimos
-[X]Target pilot's awareness of distant targets is limited. Strike from outside line of sight

Which would give a net of +1 CQB, +1000 HP, the Parry Skill, a Heavy Melee weapon, and -1 Aim

This chapter was once again primarily based on Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and Zone of the Enders: 2167 IDOLO. I apologize for putting poor Miss Hayes in the refrigerator with so many other Kojima love interests, but unfortunately, we're in the middle of everyone's backstory here. I promise, the next time I kill someone without a roll, it will be one of the IBO boys I'll try to avoid it once we're in numbered chapters.

Look ma, all prewriting.

[X] Plan: DOM be nimble
-[X]There's a gun in here big enough to pierce Nanolaminate even from this distance. Line up a shot from concealment.
-[X]Do a flyby like a shmuck in an old propaganda film. It'll break his attack without slowing you down.
-[X]Target pilot can be overwhelmed with direct force. Overpower.

Mars Sphere, Deimos, outside the Uhlenbeck Catapult


It is somewhat vindicating to know, after all that time spent protecting Project IDOLO and keeping it secret, that it is in fact just as devastating in actual combat as the brass had thought it would be. Radium's killed dozens by now after re-emerging from the Uhlenbeck Catapult shaft, BAHRAM and Gjallarhorn alike; he's completely berserk and unresponsive to comms, and he just punted you across the surface of Deimos Station like a soccer ball. All this while Theletos was spewing warnings at you that you didn't understand. What in the actual hell does "INCOMING FOLD WAVE" even mean?

IDOLO. The image of a God.

Metatron, God's voice.

You almost, for a moment, give up hope of beating this thing. Whatever you'd accidentally found to come fight it in, an Orbital Frame is a generation ahead of it in technology...

...but that wasn't quite true. You can see the damage adding up. IDOLO was never prepped for combat, never had Nanolaminate Armor applied, never had any subweapons systems attached. Radium wasn't even using the Vector Trap's shield function correctly, with numerous bullets getting past it to chip away, slowly, at IDOLO's armor. One lucky hit from a Phantoma with a Mag Cannon got in and managed to cleave off IDOLO's wing binders, cutting its thrust down from "yes" to "followable by the human eye", and with more reinforcements arriving, Radium was pinned against the surface of Deimos Base.

"Vi! If you're gonna talk him down, do it now! Make him eject!"

You take aim at IDOLO's reactor. The cockpit's detachable, so, maybe...

"Vi...? Vi, can you get him on comms?"

Viola isn't responding, but her Phantoma is facing down IDOLO. Gun down, visor pointed at visor...maybe they're having a conversation.

Your finger tightens against the trigger as you see the Metatron in IDOLO's frame glow even brighter...

---

Your name is RADIUM LAVANS.

You have just married YOUR BELOVED.

You may kiss the bride.

You pick Dolores up and begin to carry her out of the chapel where you were married. You hear the raucous applause from the empty pews.

Damage levels exceeding 50%.

You look up to see your best friend waiting at the church door.

"Look, Dolores. Viola came to see us after all."

Viola looks confused. She must have just had to fly in, you guess. She's still wearing her BAHRAM jacket. "Lieutenant..."

"We're about to leave for our honeymoon. IDOLO's waiting outside."

"Lieutant, please get a hold of yourself!"

"We're going to be together from now on. Isn't that right, Dolores?"

Dolores turns in your arms to look at Viola. Targeting...

"Lieutenant," Viola says softly. "Dolores...she's dead. There are no vital signs in there except you. You're hallucinating."

You stop and glare at this INTERLOPER.

"Who...the hell are you? Why are you getting in our way? Can't you hear it? That's Dolores's voice guiding me."

That's correct, Radium.

I raise my hand.

Charging Burst Attack.

"PLEASE STOP, LIEUTENANT!"

WARNING! DAMAGE LEVELS EXCeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee--

---

You'll review your sensor recorders later and confirm what you thought - you fired about three quarters of a second before the Phantoma squad did, a solid beam of hyperfocused, full-spectrum electromagnetic energy lancing through the main junction of IDOLO's power system, before it could release a massive, spherical burst of energy at Viola. The rest of the frame is quickly pulverized by railgun shots from the BAHRAM squadron.

Viola's LEV is the only one not shooting.

Seconds later, IDOLO is a broken mess at the bottom of a shell crater on the outside of Deimos's Uhlenbeck Catapult.

You don't see any sign of an intact cockpit.

Your first action, and it ends with you killing your superior officer. It's just...

...pointless.

You receive orders over BAHRAM's band to start retreating before Gjallarhorn asks too many awkward questions, but before you can even react, emergency override messages start pouring in.

"Oh what now?"

---

By the time you've turned around and rocketed away from Deimos (fun fact you note about Theletos: no fuel gauge, but you're also not feeling any drop in your thrust, so it's fine) it's obvious that whatever IDOLO's been up to is going to go down in history as the second-worst thing to happen to Mars today. Gjallarhorn's garrison fleet, already in disarray after Radium's stunt, is locked in a knife fight with an enormous armada of ships of a type you've never seen before, almost like pictures you've seen of oceanic fish and Earthborn bugs, all emerging from a single huge crystalline object that appears to contain...

"Is that fucking Jupiter?"

Gjallarhorn's garrison ships attempt valiantly to form a line of battle and fire at these apparent invaders, but their railgun and beam cannon shots seem to curve away from the interlopers even as the volleys are fired.

You're stunned for a moment before you start recording sensor data. There's...very little. No radio or laser transmissions, no Ahab signatures, not even any recognizable life signs. Just an enormous fleet of, you have to assume, robots that are now launching their own attack at the defending ships - railguns, from the look of it, and some chemical rockets. Ones powerful enough to tear into Gjallarhorn's fleet and the hapless civilian traffic that happens to be near the conflict.

Emergency broadcasts fill the public bands, with Gjallarhorn and Martian colonial officials both urging shelter for those on the surface and evacuation for orbital traffic - via the Phobos Catapult, obviously, since Lieutenant Lavans just so helpfully put a hole in the Deimos one. You're not any less angry about having to kill him, but you're certainly not happy that his last act in this plane of existence has probably doomed you to getting killed by robots.

"Lilia," Viola's voice cuts across the laser comms. Completely flat. "I'm returning to base."

"You're going back down there? We're being invaded by aliens or some leftover Calamity War AI or something!"

"I don't care. They can kill me. But if some piece of shit drone's going to do it, I'm dying on Mars."

"Viola? Viola!"

She's no longer responding.

You look back and forth between the surface of Mars and the rapidly disintegrating battle line in orbit. Some dumb brave bastard in Gjallarhorn rammed the giant crystal ship as it made for a landing, although unless it's very badly heatproofed, he probably just succeeded in making it land somewhere it didn't intend to.

Technically, you're AWOL from BAHRAM. Also technically, you're not stealing if you either decide to take some potshots at the invaders or make for Phobos and bail, instead of following Viola back down to the surface to die. Clearly, your life's at a crossroads here, and it's time to make a decision.

[ ]Viola has the right idea. You'll make your stand with her and take as many of these bastards down as you can [+1 Devil]
[ ]It's time to make like an Earth Tree and get out of here. There's nothing more you can do.
[ ]Protect Mars at all costs...even if it means protecting Gjallarhorn [+1 G

While you're still considering, something slams into the Theletos again.

"WHAT THE HELL, I WAS HAVING A MOMENT!"


This one's different from the other invaders coming out of that crystal ship. For one thing, it's humanoid - practically skeletal - and for another, rather than engaging Gjallarhorn in a swarming death battle or even attacking the damaged Deimos Station, it seems to have beelined directly for the Theletos.

You scramble to reorient your scavenged machine into a combat attitude, thankful your gun doesn't seem to have run dry after fragging Radium, but it rapidly turns around and punches the Theletos again, moving without any apparent inertia to mercilessly pummel your new ride.

"What the hell are you?" you ask, slamming the button for CIWS lasers to try and ward it off. It jukes to the side so fast it leaves afterimages in your cameras, then takes what appears to be a huge katana and slams it across Theletos's cockpit armor, slamming your head into the cockpit wall, leaving a gash cut out of your main monitor's view, and starting warnings blaring that you're a few millimeters of...whatever Theletos is made out of away from hard vacuum.

Just your luck. You're still in your jacket and muddy boots.

The unknown pauses for just a second and you see it clearly, highlighted against the red of Mars, staring almost imperiously at you as you fly away from it from that last hit's momentum.

"Well...whoever you are...you should stop posing and fight!"

With the minimum possible movement, you angle the Fusion Cannon at the unknown and fire, hoping it thinks you're dead in the void. You apparently do take it by surprise, as it doesn't dodge the blast...however, it also doesn't look like you did any damage, some sort of deflector like IDOLO's Vector Trap popping up to block the shot entirely.

You're honestly insulted when it flies off toward the main melee instead of finishing you off.

"That's right...run...piece of..."

Oh right. You weren't wearing a helmet. You raise a hand to your forehead and feel blood.

The last thing you notice before you pass out is one of Theletos's sensor readouts. It's apparently assigned a name to that unknown.

XAW-1.

---

And that's the end of the Prologue. This chapter was inspired by the end of Zone of the Enders: 2167 IDOLO and the beginning of Martian Successor Nadesico. All "original" mecha images are sourced from RetroGrade Minis's LANCER mecha creator, including the Black Witch (XAW-1), originally created by Massif Press.

Lilia was rudely interrupted before making a votable decision this time, but I am going to put a purely OOC matter to a thread vote before we start getting into the meat of the game:

Should SRWæ have voting moratoriums to discuss plans before voting opens?
[ ]No moratoriums (updates will continue to be followed by 48 hour voting periods)
[ ]Yes, a 12 hour moratorium (each update will have a 12 hour voting moratorium followed by 36 hours of voting)
[ ]Yes, a 24 hour moratorium (each update will have a 24 hour voting moratorium followed by 24 hours of voting)

Bear in mind that I'll be asking for plan votes to determine battle strategy during future, less deterministic conflicts, if that makes a difference. I reserve the right to change this (or really, any rules I come up with) later on, but I wanted to get y'all's general opinions now.

I'm also planning to make some informational posts either tomorrow or in conjunction with the next update on Friday, so look forward to some GAME MECHANICS. Also, and I want to emphasize this now since we're at the end of the first "chapter", please let me have any commentary or critique you have on the story and style so far, any improvements you'd like to see, and any questions you have about the story or writing process.