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

THE SWARM SHEET
The Brood of Blades
Cerebrate Prime: Samantha Clarke
LEVEL: 5
XP: 205/210
TRAITS
Strategic Genius: Once per structured encounter, Sam can create a piece of the environment that is in her favor as a sticky spark. Roll a d3 for its value.
Empathetic: upon meeting an NPC, learn their motivation!
Legendary Commander: Gain 4 Command sparks at the beginning of each mission/combat. Command sparks may be spent to give NPCs orders, which they may either obey or refuse to obey (doing nothing instead.) Command sparks may not be regained via skills or powers.
Hunted: Something wants her - but for what? +1 Danger to all scenes​
SKILLS
CLOSE COMBAT (2): Brawling, Edged Weapons
PERSONAL (2): Awareness, Resilience
SOCIAL (4): Charm, Empathy, Leadership, Taunt​
MASTERY
ACU Pilot (2): Nanofabrication [Mass], ObSat Operations [Range]
The Hilt (4): Biomorphic Spawning (People), Regeneration (Durability), Physical Perfection (Speed), Telepathic Dominion (Range)​

POWERS
The Living Swarm
Vent: 4-0
Effect: Gain 1 Living Swarm spark, +1 per vent reduction.​
The Living Swarm: While this swarm exists, move in three dimensions and through anything smaller than a keyhole, reforming at will. You may expend these sparks to cause 3 Hit Sparks in a Area 2 radius.​
Area Upgrade: +1 to Area Characteristic​

Biomorphic Reinforcement
Vent: 4-0
Effect: Create 1 Biomorphic Reinforcement spark, +1 per vent reduction, which can be given out to anyone within Range 2, or to yourself
Biomorphic Reinforcement: +1 to Damage or Mass characteristic for the purpose of raw physical strength/feats.

Back to Back
Vent: 4-0
Effect: Choose 1 ally (+1 per vent reduction), within Range 1. Each can take one action using one of your skills, any of them that you wish. Once they have done so, you may make a free attack with your melee weapon, getting +1 to your skill per ally that acted.​

Adaptation
Vent: 4-0
Effect: Create a number of sparks equal to the enemy's difficulty, narratively based on turning their abilities against them. Works on enemies of Diff 2>, +2 per vent reduction.​

Just as Planned…
Vent: 6-0
Effect: Vent 6 heat and create 1 Planning Spark for her or an ally, +1 Spark per vent reduction.​
Planning: The person holding this Spark can expend this to get +1 to a skill check as a free action. Using this Stack counts as you are helping for the purpose of relationships.​

GEAR
Zeratul's Psi-Blades
Adds: +0 (Edged Weapons) | Characteristics: Damage [Speed] (4)[1]​
Shadowstep (3): Can expend as a free action to move without crossing intervening space.
Guarded Space (3): Can expend to use Damage as a secondary characteristic for Durability, reducing incoming Damage characteristics.​

GALACTIC WAR
Victory Points: 5
RESOURCES
TERRAN DOMINION [Background] (1)​
The men and material of the Dominion - limited, but they're mustering as we speak.
ALLIANCE EXPEDITIONARY FORCES [Mastery] (1)​
While you have access to several ACUs of every faction, they lack economic and technological support to be fully effective.
ZERG HIVE [Mastery] (1)​
The scant few Zerg you control that are free of Amon's influence. Mostly Zerglings.
AEON FLEET [Background] (1)​
While half a dozen CZARs seem impressive, they're not actually well made for ship to ship combat.
ALLIED COHESION [Motivation] (1)​
The alliance is fragile and weak.

FRONTS
Trade Sector-34-51 [Pirate Activity]
Pirates Raiding 6 (Supply Lines in Disarray 1)
COMMAND: Jim Raynor | ARMY: Raynor's Raiders
RESULTS: Pending

Braxis [Zerg Invasion]
Borealis Siege 6 (Zerg Rampage1)
COMMAND: General Samantha Clarke | ARMY: Brood Clarke
RESULTS: Pending

Typhan II [Active Xel'Naga ACU]
Typhan II Occupied 6 (Xel'Naga ACU Spotted 1)
COMMAND: Lt. Colonel Mathew Horner | ARMY: UEF Armored Command Unit
RESULTS: Pending

Deep Space Sector 981 [Hive Fleet Identified]
Zerg Hive Fleet Spotted 6 (Kerrigan? 1)
COMMAND: Citizen-Commander Dostya | ARMY: CN Armored Command Unit
RESULTS: Pending
ENEMY ASSETS (Currently Known)
THE GOLDEN ARMADA
ACTIVITY: Unknown | Threat Level: 6​
 
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I took Clarke's hallucination to be the psionic message that Kerrigan sent out during her time in the cocoon. The same psionic message that alerted Jim to the fact that she was still alive and set him off on his journey to try and save Kerrigan, which he ultimately failed to achieve the first time around.

I can more readily buy the idea that psionic messages can be sent out omnidirectionally like radio waves and received without the sender knowing the recipient's exact location, more so than the idea that Kerrigan is able to track down a person across a distance that spans the entire Korpulu Sector and them some, and pick out a person with no notable psionic talent, who Kerrigan has no idea even exists.

Kerrigan having that degree of omnipotence kind of breaks the setting as a whole if only because it raises the question of how she or the zerg ever lose, let alone more powerful entities from the sequel.
It doesn't feel that way, especially with the existance of Duran.

[X] Head to Redstone (Begin Operation: Ruins of the Confederacy)
 
Tarsonis: Steal an adjutant, fight off the zerg. Nice and simple.

Redstone: Umm... ok, either we learn that Duran is lying to us or we save a bunch of traumatized kids. In canon SC2 Redstone was just a stopping point to mine a bunch of minerals, New Folsom is where you'd find the Spectres. According to the fandom wiki (which isn't exactly the best but whatever) the Ghost Academy was originally on Tarsonis before the Dominion moved it to Ursa

Haven: So, we probably learn that we've got a bunch of infested civilians aboard our ship which would be fun but also it kinda might be important to, y'know, find that out ASAP. We also might meet and/or fight off the Daelaam protoss (the main ones who were busy purifying planets the zerg infested)

I'm gonna go with
[X] Head to Redstone (Begin Operation: Ruins of the Confederacy)

It'll be interesting to find some non-Aeon psychics.
 
[x] Head to Tarsonis (Begin Operation: The Great Grave Robbery)

Soooo remember how Mengsk got caught out in canon? An adjutant had caught his transmissions to Jimmy boy and Kerrigan. An Adjutant on Tarsonis.

It'd sure be swell to just get that.

What you did know was he had then spread a virus through loyalist Cybrans that served the Earth Empire and the United Earth Federation, turning them against their masters.

It's always funny to hear the slavers' propaganda.
 
[X] Head to Tarsonis (Begin Operation: The Great Grave Robbery)

Lets not let our people think that emperor mengkns is a good guy yah?
 
DragonCobolt said:
Tosh nodded. "Big risk for a small gain, I say.
...Should he be shaking his head instead of nodding here, or am I missing something?

[X] Head to Tarsonis (Begin Operation: The Great Grave Robbery)

The Redstone ruins should keep well enough, and the refugees seem safe enough for now on our ship. The adjutant situation might or might not be connected with another of the factions of the big war being active in the sector, though, either already or in the future, and so seems like a higher priority to get information on.

Oh, and good luck with the game system development, by the way! And thanks for running the quest. :)

Spart117MC said:
Let's go save some kidnapped kids.
Wait, you think there might be someone still there? Or... hm. Reading back, I suppose the Dominion might bring more in, but that's if the rumors are even correct. And even if they're planning to bring some in, it's quite possible they haven't gotten to it yet, as I read it?
 
[x] Head to Tarsonis (Begin Operation: The Great Grave Robbery)

Given our overall mission is to bring these worlds into the federation and deny them to the Cybran and Aeon checking up on Adjutants and making sure they are not subverted by the Cybran seems most urgent of our possible missions.
 
Soooo remember how Mengsk got caught out in canon? An adjutant had caught his transmissions to Jimmy boy and Kerrigan. An Adjutant on Tarsonis.

It'd sure be swell to just get that.

It took the Dominion four years of fighting zerg and searching the ruins to find that adjutant. I think it'll keep even if we don't immediately go there.

Wait, you think there might be someone still there? Or... hm. Reading back, I suppose the Dominion might bring more in, but that's if the rumors are even correct. And even if they're planning to bring some in, it's quite possible they haven't gotten to it yet, as I read it?

If the Dominion is restarting the academy then there is no 'if', there are going to be kidnapped kids at the academy because all ghosts are trained from childhood and no one volunteers to become a ghost. They're hunted down and taken by the state the way psykers are by the Imperium in 40K.

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Lets not let our people think that emperor mengkns is a good guy yah?

Going to Redstone also achieves that. Remember, it's the Ghost program that made Hanson appalled at the Confederacy. If Clarke and crew runs into the Dominion and finds that they're continuing to use the same methods as the Confederacy it'll make clear that Mengsk isn't any better than the folks he usurped.
 
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Spart117MC said:
If the Dominion is restarting the academy then there is no 'if', there are going to be kidnapped kids at the academy because all ghosts are trained from childhood and no one volunteers to become a ghost. They're hunted down and taken by the state the way psykers are by the Imperium in 40K.
Which makes sense (and thanks for the information), but it's uncertain if the academy is being restarted, and if it is, when. To some extent, it might even be actively better to wait a bit -- if they are restarting it and we strike after the first cohort of kidnapped children is delivered, we can rescue them, whereas if we strike before they arrive but after they've been kidnapped, well, I doubt the Dominion is just going to send them back home. Obviously it would be even better for the children to not be kidnapped in the first place... but I'm not sure how we can actually prevent the kidnapping without it basically just being blind luck.
 
They won't release the kids but there's a chance that they'll move them. There is no active academy on Redstone in the future which means if there is one now then sometime in between the games it got moved. I don't want to wait only for any possible kids on site to be moved or worse, for their indoctrination — which involves repeatedly wiping their memories and inducting them by having them spill blood the same way cartels trap kidnapped members into a life of crime — to be complete and for Clarke to have no option but to use lethal force because she doesn't have the means to capture a bunch of teenagers with psychic powers, that can read minds, go invisible, and have been brainwashed into being loyal killers.
 
[X] Head to Tarsonis (Begin Operation: The Great Grave Robbery)

We need to get a handle on these Zerg fellows so we can strategize better
 
An argument in favor of going to Redstone based less in my perennial need to help youths placed in bad situations in fiction, is that getting information on the Ghost program will give the expedition a better idea of what they can expect in regards to those who sport psionic abilities in the Koprulu Sector and potentially come up with countermeasures for them. That is fairly important given how common psionics are in the Koprulu Sector, more so since Doctor Hanson's notes imply such abilities don't appear to exist on the SupCom of this quest.

While the claims are remarkable, he had demonstrated an unerring ability to pass several debunked and discredited esper tests from the 20th and 25th centuries. It seems that the random luck of the draw has given the Koprulu offshoot of humanity access to the dreams of countless hack sci-fi authors...psychic powers.

That says to me that the Aeon in this quest are not as psychically attuned the way they often are in other SupCom fanworks. In fact looking back on things, Clarke not once considering that her headaches and hallucinations to be the result of a psychic attack and the only security response when she saw the Kerrigan's message being a result of her firing off a handful of rounds into the wall, suggests the UEF hasn't ever had to contend with psychic phenomena over the course of the Infinite War.

Clarke didn't immediately peg that Relashem was talking to her telepathically either. Hells, the fact that he was able to reach out to her telepathically and wasn't stopped by her ACU's defenses or set off any alarms also points to psychic abilities being an out of context problem for the crew. If that's the case then the expedition is going to be particularly vulnerable to that angle of attack.
 
[X] Head to Redstone (Begin Operation: Ruins of the Confederacy)

and thus, recuperating the field of psionics into the UEF is gonna be a mad boost to the Commanders back home, a mad selling point justifying this whole operation, and just mad profitable for all involved in exploiting the Koprulu psychics industrially, it's basically the cosmos giving its blessing to UEF neocolonialism and hegemony.
 
Oh and to be clear: I decided to put ghosty stuff in Redstone rather than New Folsom because mechanically and visually, I thought Redstone was cooler. Lore is mine to abuse!
 
Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on Oct 17, 2023 at 11:29 AM, finished with 22 posts and 15 votes.


a tie! a tie?!

Will no one rid me of this meddlesome tie?!
 
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