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

You watched the timer tick down another tick.

"All right," you said. "We're not going to sit by and let all those people die. Move the E1 out of range with a quantum jump, I don't want you being at risk from direct fire."

"Yes, General. It will take us a few minutes to re-establish contact," Stukov said, his voice firm.

"Understood. During that time, you're under the direct command of Major Horner. Matt, you keep the ship safe."

"That'll be easy enough, sir," Matt said. "You keep yourself safe down there. I know five minutes aren't long, but..."

You chuckled. "I'll be fine."

In orbit, the fusion reactor of the E1 started to get shifted towards powering up the quantum jump drive. You knew that secondary systems were being teased down and the targeting computer was being warmed up to move the entire mass of the ship a few dozen AU away from Tarsonis - well outside of the range of any of the incoming Dominion warships. You wondered if, with the bulk of the planet between them and the quantum jump, the officers of those approaching ships would even detect the energy signatures.

Well.

They were going to detect this.

You started off by sending an order to your secondary factories. You hadn't built up nearly enough infastructure to build an actual army in a reasonable timeframe, but you had enough engineering units on the field to give them the orders to begin work on what you needed. The first dozen or so robotic vehicles trundled into your camera pickups as you stretched out a tight knot in your neck - their nanofabrication beams began to scythe through the air. First, they flattened the landscape and blew away anything that might get in the way of their pre-designed construction routines. Crumpled trees and crushed cars vanished into vapor, sucked up and placed into the economic system of your base. Then the shimmering blue outlines of fusion reactors started to coalesce, with space between each of the large, dome shaped buildings.

You got to work on the actual centerpieces.

Artificial gratify had been figured out a century after quantum teleportation - the two fields were deeply interrated in a way that took several complicated degrees to understand. Fortunately, the people who had those degrees had worked with the UEF's army corps of engineers to design the fabrication plans for the HSD Pulse unit. It was a spindly structure, looking a bit like a metal antler set without a deer to go with it. The antlers spread away from a central pillar that itself sank into a rectangular structure that housed the actual complicated stuff. It was a big black box to you, but you knew the basic physical properties.

The shield projected out would cover a fairly hefty area, redirecting mass and creating solidified areas of spacetime. If the incoming orbital platform landed on you, it'd pop that shield like an eggshell, but if it landed nearby, the explosion would be blunted by the shield's effects. Course, you didn't plan on just making one.

By the time the E1 reestablished their quantum linkup to your ACU, you had finished three overlapping shield generators.

"General," Stukov said. "We're picking up a signal from the approaching Dominion forces. I think they've noticed your construction."

You grunted. By your estimations - based on decades of battlefield practice and seeing the effects of damage and shields and their chaotic interactions - you were fairly sure even a direct hit from the orbital platform on your base would be fine. The shields would stop it, shunt it to the side, and only slightly overheat. Your grin was a little whimsical at that thought, but you were fairly sure it wouldn't hit directly. Which meant you still had to get the civilians here.

First, though.

"Put them on," you said.

The image crackled and a craggy faced, balding man with a silver fringe of hair appeared in the screen, wearing an ornate red, gold and black uniform. His collar was bedecked with gleaming stars - four. General, if he used ranks similar to the UEF. And so far, you hadn't seen any evidence that these far flung colonial backwarters had strayed too far from the same military and cultural history that had led to the Earth Empire and the UEF after it. His voice, aristocratic and drawling, came through as he lifted his chin and sneered at you with an impressive mien of absolute and utter self confidence.

"I don't know what militia you're a part of, nor what alien technology you've rustled up, nor how you got onto my planet, but this is General Edmund Duke, leader of Alpha Squadron and the man responsible for the reclamation of the world of Tarsonis. Surrender immediately and unconditionally to the authority of the Terran Dominion and Emperor Mengsk."

Your lips thinned. "I am General Samantha Clarke, head of the United Earth Federation Expeditionary Force."

"Earth-" General Duke started.

"And I don't take orders from colonials," you shot right back. "This planet appears to be under no law or legal claim at all - save for the aliens your Dominion has allowed to infest it without response."

"Now, listen here-" Duke started.

"Furthermore," you cut him off. "I can only assume if this is your planet, you will be assisting me in the rescue of the civilians you've left to rot here for the past eleven months - though so far, your 'help' has been dropping a small asteroid on our heads, an act that's going to kill people that have managed to survive a year of Zerg unless I do something about it."

Duke's eyes narrowed. "You claim you're from Earth. Missy, no one in the Korpulu Sector even knows where Earth is. Hell, half the folks here don't even think Earth exists. You better have more than bluster and some scrounged up mercs and stolen Protoss gizmos to back it up."

Your responding frown was flinty. "Observe from orbit. Interfere, and we will bring you to heel, Duke."

Your thumb cut off the communication. "Asshole," you growled.

"Not exactly a politic first introduction," Tosh said over the line.

"The President is extremely clear about his opinion on monarchies," you said, flatly, then scroll out your view and peer down at the fortifications where the Confederate survivors were holed up. Fortunately, they weren't near all three of the Zerg hives. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to matter - the nearer hives were the red and purple ones, but the only forces currently on the move was a graceful flight of Zerg bioforms. Their wings beat in ragged patterns as they swept back along a curving arc overhead, clearly on the hunt for...food or targets, you weren't sure what. However, as they flew close to the Confederate facility, they actually veered to the left...and started flying your way.

This was going to be fun, wasn't it?

---
HEAT
0/6

ENEMY SHOCK
11

STICKY SPARKS
Economic Outposts (3)

BASE
Economic Structures (Work[Waste]: None | Sparks: None | Adds: +3 (Nanofabrication)

SPARKS
None

ENEMIES
A Platoon of Mutalisks: Difficult 5, Damage (2), People (3)

Alllllllllll righty! We got some mutas incoming! Your shields exist narratively, but mechanically, do nothing but prevent the asteroid strike from killing you. Narratively, the mutalisks can just fly under the shields and splat you with acid up close! These bad guys have characteristics: Damage (2) means they're extremely damaging due to the acid-bounce and their massed numbers, while People (3) means there's a small town of them!

In short: A deathball!

What do you do?

[ ] Operation: Airforce - use your nanofabrication as a secondary characteristic to negate their people (3) down to People (1) characteristic by fabricating a small air squadron of interceptors, then attack with your Leadership 2 skill vs People 6 (Diff 5.) Take 9 heat to succeed, overheating to 3 - adding +2 to the Shock for the scene and dropping your heat to 0.
[ ] Operation: Long Term Plans - use your nanofabrication skill, flat out, to create Mass 6 (Mass 6 (Limited Fortification Sparks (2))) and let them try and batter through that. They likely will in a round, and may still have some damage left afterwards to hit you, but it'll slow them down. Then cache in your Economic Outposts spark to get +3 to buying gear and purchase a Land Factory for diff 7+1, taking 3 heat to do so. Vent 3 heat using Just As Planned to get 4 Planning sparks and immediately apply those to add +4 to your defenses.
[ ] Operation: Aggressive Turtling - cash in your Economic Outpost sparks to get +3 to buying gear, then buy Turrets for diff 9, taking 4 heat to do so. Then, attack the Mutalisks with your vehicle weapon skill. Augmented by turrets, your damage and range work as secondary characteristics, negating their people (3) to nothing! Diff 5+1 vs your skill of 2 allows you to succeed for 4 heat, putting you at 2 overheat - adding +1 Shock and dropping your heat to 0.
[ ] Write In


Breakdown for TLDR!

Airforce immediately takes the badguys out, but does not provide any long term gear changes - but it keeps your economic surplus for future use! It will make the situation sliiiiiightly more dangerous.

Long Term gives you a temporary defense (which can be easily destroyed) and then a factory, which will make future operations easier since you can build a shitton of tanks, robots, and so on. Then, you get 4 planning sparks for future use! however, this leaves the mutas alive! They CAN attack you if they manage to get past your defensive sparks!

Agressive Turtling is a bit like airforce (it takes out the mutas), but it also gives you the long term gear of Turrets (representing enough defenses that it'll take a long, hard work for the enemies to blow them up.) It makes the situation a little bit more dangerous!