THE INFINITE BROOD (Starcraft/Supreme Commander Crossover Quest!)

Time to get to work.

You aimed your fabrication arm - and a flickering webwork of blue lines exploded, then solidifed. Mass filled in, expanded, then settled. The nanites worked quite well in Koprulu air and conditions, you had to say. You weren't really expecting that they'd suddenly go on the fritz...but...everything else had been fucking weird here. When you lowered the arm on your ACU, a large land-based factory had been constructed. The flat plane of metal that made up the center of the factory floor was already pre-programmed plan you had typed into your command interface before it had even finished. You turned and began to stomp to a nearby area to construct another mine.

The factory buzzed and nanites flowed. Within seconds, the first of your tier one infantry started to march off the factory, still steaming in the early morning light.

They were mech marines - light assault bots, or LABs. Each faction had their own riff on them, but the UEF preferred simple, direct, proven methods. No beams, no sonic disruptors, just straight up machine guns and kinetic weaponry and armor plating. The first ten were off the rack before you had even finished your second mineral extraction system. You had begun work on the geothermal station that Dr. Hanson had asked for by the time the platoon was finished - and the first of the Archer class tier one anti-air vehicles were trundling away from the second factory you had established to branch out your production.

"General, the enemy forces are ETA, five minuets from the colony," Stukov said.

You tapped at your internal screen. Green and red lines drew along your screen and the ETAs snapped up.

You grinned.

Four minuets.

"Damn," you murmured off com, just to yourself. "It's almost like I'm good at this."

The alien forces were moving towards the colony at a steady marching pace: Two contingent of platoon strength infantry. They were putting out energy signatures that made you think of a low level shield emitter - but you had no idea what their actual gear was. You frowned and considered queing up some additional heavier hitters when the LABs and AA started to move into positions. You had commanded your Archer squads into a pair of hills that overlooked the curving, winding pathway that led to the colony proper. You chined in a picture in picture POV camera of one of the lead LABs as they thundered towards the position. The sound of their mechanical legs chewing up the meters by the second filled your cockpit - but you also got your first look of actual Koprulu Sector humans through actual cameras. Civilians, at least.

They watched the LABs thunder by - and several of them went sprinting for their tents. You tapped at your secondary control interface and your POV LAB swung off and stomped towards the first collection of gaping civilians. Upon seeing you approach, they immediately started to break and run - some of them to the tents, but some to a low, dense looking bunker that had been built near the entrance of the colony. You commanded your LAB to slow and stop, patched into their PA system, and spoke through it.

"This is General Samantha Clarke. Everyone, remain calm. We are going to keep you safe. If you have shelters, get to them. It's going to get hot out here."

Then you went back to the overhead view.

The LABs had formed up into platoon formation in the center of the row - blocking.

The alien fliers were keeping pace with their infantry - moving so glacially slowly that you were fairly sure they were full hover units. But as the infantry got close, the fliers swept in. They had weaponry mounted under their stubby wings - and they opened up as they stooped on your mechs. A few of the LABs blew in brilliant white flares as their internal reactors cooked off - and a spinning hunk of debris got almost halfway to the bunker before drawing a furrow in the green grass. But as the enemy fliers started to pull up and sweep around for their second pass, the Archers started to hammer away with their gauss guns. High velocity rounds whipped through the sky and you threw up a picture in picture view.

"Shit," you whispered.

The fighters screamed away - one of them smoking, then bursting into an explosion of blue-white fire and scattering, silver-black chunks.

The others kept going, outlined with flares of blueish light, the rippling impact of projectiles hitting defensive shielding clear, even at their relatively slow speed.

"They appear to have shields," Stukov said.

"Amazing. Their shields are drawing far less power than I'd have thought possible," Dr. Hanson said. "Maybe we can study the wreckage afterwards."

You threw up a picture in picture view from one of the mech marines. The enemy infantry were starting to approach faster. They were digitigrade, their legs pumping along. Then your brow furrowed. "What the fuck?" you whispered.

The infantry...

Were alive.

You almost gave the order to hold fire - an intense revulsion exploding inside of you. These weren't an enemy Commander, not some equal on the field of battle. These were people. Holy shit, did they use people as soldiers here? The idea made you clench your jaw - but you forced it down. You had a job to do. You lifted your chin. The words were remarkably hard to say. "This is General Clarke to headquarters. Rescind the biological locks on my units."

"...oh...yes, yes sir, General," Stukov said, and the tiny warning indicators on your HUD cleared up.

You just hoped it hadn't wasted too much time. The enemy were close enough for small arms fire. You tapped at the controls - but then as your mech marines lifted their arms and prepped to fire, the enemy spread their arms and crackling blue blades of raw energy burst from their arms. You were too shocked to even respond.

Fortunately, your infantry weren't.

Machine gun rounds started to kick up dust around the rushing aliens. They sprinted faster, blue-white flashes crackling around their bodies. They were shielded. They got them through the first few meters, then the next, then the next. Your mech marines started to back up, their Tom Cat MGs hammering away as they held their arms up and sprayed the incoming enemy. The first shield popped and the alien got a few more paces on sheer fucking willpower, blue blood bursting from his body. He got a few more paces before his entire form exploded into blue flames and vanished. Then the next, then the next, and the next.

Then it got into melee. Their blades were, it turned out, more than sharp enough to slash into the armored core of your LABs. One blew, then another - but you kept moving the remainder backwards and the last alien burst into flames and dropped. "Jesus Christ," you whispered under your breath. You'd lost half the platoon - but that was fine. You could replace them. You had no idea how long these aliens lived, nor how fast they bred. Or...maybe those were...biological robots?

You shook your head, then scrolled back on your overhead view.

Their surviving fliers were withdrawing, but that didn't seem to be them letting the colony off the hook - about half the fliers were clustering around their base - and something...

"What's that energy signature I'm reading?" you asked.

"It...looks like a much more stable, controlled, focused quantum teleportation effect and-"

Something bloomed on the screen. Six hundred meters of gleaming silver and glowing red - hovering in the air above the base that the aliens had established. Their fliers formed into an escort around it as you frowned. "Well, that's going to be tricky."

It wasn't just tricky.

It was fast.

The immense vehicle rumbled through the air - clearing the distance as the scouts broke off. They dove on your archers - and this time, they were joined by friends. The big new ship was a carrier, and she was launching interceptors. They were smaller, more nimble than the fliers, and they confused the Archer's guns - opening up space for Archer after Archer to pop. Your front line was starting to collapse...but hey. What else was new with Tier One?

Which was when the missiles started to streak up from the colony. Someone there had some defensive fortification you hadn't noticed before - likely cause you hadn't known what to look for. Missiles flew straight at the carrier - slamming into the side and blooming like small flowers against a shield thicker and larger than most you'd see around bases back in a regular engagement.

"They have fight, at least," you murmured.

---
Okay! Your turn ended when you used your Power. This let up to 4 (or a number of enemies equal to the players, whichever is higher) enemies act! ...all the enemies were dead. So, the round ended.

New Round begins with "arrivals" and I spent 1 shock to spawn another flight of Scouts - but these are just the heavily damaged survivors (hence why they're only Diff 1) of the first sortie. Then I spent the remaining 7 shock to create a Diff 7 Carrier! Since combat has actually started, it gets to act when it arrives.

So, in HEAT, when you act, you create Sparks - these are tiny nuggets of narrative control. Like, when you used your nanolathe skill, you were making "Platoon of Mech Marine" sparks, which justified you then blasting enemies. Sparks decay naturally and narratively, but some sparks are "sticky" - these would be sticky since, you still have those mech marines around!

Anyway, the Carrier created 7 sparks (since it is diff 7) and used 4 of them to turn your Mech Marine spark and Archer sparks into "Lots of burning, smoking, ruined wreckage." Which, hey, free mass if you suck it up! Then its remaining 3 sparks were used to create Imposing Air Cover 3, which you're going to have to work around if you want to accomplish anything! Fortunately, the 'just as planned' spark you gave the NPCs is being used, reducing the carrier's diff by 1 for this round (until the missile turret is, uh, ker smoked.)

Destroying the carrier just requires you to beat a diff 6 check somehow!

Once again, I will provide some example turns - but you can also do write ins! The system is pretty simple!

[ ] Operation: The Bigger they Fall - while your factories are producing your counter attack (narrative background fluff, not a skill check), you will show these aliens why they don't put all their eggs in one basket. You will advance, tanking interceptor damage (using your Endurance 2 skill and gaining 1 heat to negate all the air cover sparks), then blast the Carrier with your Vehicular Guns skill, taking 5 heat to do it, venting 4 heat to use Marksman and blast the surviving scouts too with your antimatter gun.

[ ] Operation: We Fight Different - use your Nanofabrication skill to build tier 1 AA guns nearby the engagement field (taking 1 heat to negate all 3 air cover), then use your Leadership skill and take 5 heat to convince the carrier to go back where it came from by demonstrating just how differently you fight - throw the fact no human has died in this fight, and you can just keep making things until they get the picture. Vent 4 heat to use Take Cover Men, and begin fabricating cover for the colonists as further demonstration of how the Protoss should just go.

[ ] Write In