[x] Repulsor Train Design (67/100) 34 Roll + 15 Skill = (116/100)
Further augmentations to the train become apparent as you finalize the upgrade package; Originally the hubs depended entirely on heavy equipment to maneuver individual pieces of rolling stock for maintenance and other work. Now though, the cars can simply lift themselves around the logistic hubs, eliminating much of the infrastructural overhead costs, in addition to already significant savings from the trackless design.
Razortrain Network cost Reduced to 150 from 300
[x] Long-Range Aerial Antigens (0/200) (68 Roll + 15 Skill = 83) + (5 Half Roll + 15 Skill = 20) + (27 Half Roll + 15 Skill = 42) + (19 Half Roll + 15 Skill = 34) +65 Overflow = (244/200)
The design process goes rather smoothly once you actually get started on it; Resulting in a tapered, triangular missile that should pierce through most of the light alloys and energy shielding used in this Galaxy's strike craft, deforming the casing and exposing the Dark Energy orb that serves as both power source and warhead. Though it won't be available -or necessary in all likelihood- for the upcoming engagement, the work provides a way to occupy your thoughts as other processes handle the preparations.
There's a strange, visceral satisfaction to watching in the flesh as the fabricators assemble the Prototype, mixed with an unfamiliar anticipation. You find yourself checking over the assault plans more than once, verifying each and every detail. Perhaps it is a desire for control? A return to the familiar paradigm, an absence of potential threats.
[x] Produce Mechanical Units: Viscerator
35
Another batch of Viscerators are stamped, cut and assembled within an acceptable timeframe, before being packed away into the transports and APCs for immediate usage.
[x] Gestate Synths: Mortar Synths (101/110) Roll 15 + 17 Skill = (133/110)
A set of sleek arms bisect the Synth's upper body, slicing through the fresh, clammy carapace before splitting it open horizontally. It was meant to do so, the cavity within perfectly formed to accept the weapon's barrel, thick blood vessels coiling around the periphery to help manage temperature. It only flinches slightly as the fire-control and targeting system connects to the main nervous cluster.
It's siblings await nearby, having already undergone the installation of their armament, being fed ammunition while cool dry air flows over their bodies, setting their carapace.
Ideally you'd have a dedicated cadre of Claw Scanners to provide real-time targeting information for the artillery, but the current network will suffice for the time being.
[x] Assault Location: Kos-Amul, Primary Settlement and Starport
Objectives:
Primary: Capture the spaceport and seize working examples of local FTL technology
Secondary: Destroy massing enemy formation to ensure safety of Citadel Zero
Tertiary: Establish aerial supremacy through removal of enemy starfighters
Quaternary: Contain local citizens and establish presence and assert control
Commit Forces: Hunters, Crab Synths, Combine Soldiers (Mechanized), Combine Soldiers, Scanners, Viscerators(x2) , Mortar Synths, Sabaoth Starfighters (Aux.)
2 Dice used, Rolling with Advantage: (35 Roll < 93 Roll) + 7 Skill =
100 = +4 Bonus
Combine 100 vs Hutt 13, Combine Crit Success! +1 Bonus
"
Advisorial edict confirmed. Initiating constriction."
A vision of Kos-Amul appears before your consciousness, a three-dimensional composite made from the disparate views of your Hunters and Scanners stalking in the thick brush around the city, along with an orbital video feed from your mercenaries. The roads into town have been blocked off by scrap-built fortifications, a warren of torn Durasteel plating and tattered cloth to keep the chilling rain off. The Shell's signature thugs patrol the streets, but your forces spot no sign of their supposed War Droids among the garrison thus far.
You feel more than hear the Citadel's Smart Barriers opening up to disgorge your forces out into the swampland. Three friendly contacts flick into view above the Citadel.
"
Assault Forces active. Airwatch deployed. Awaiting Malignant Force response."
Over the course of your preparations, a small number of the Hutt's own scanner droids have been detected by your forces attempting to observe the Citadel. While most of these were dispatched on contact, some number must remain active; as evidenced by a sharp increase in encrypted Hutt comms traffic.
The Transhuman Forces travel by the roads, making a long double-wide convoy shadowed by the three Hunter-Choppers. A stray civilian craft is abandoned by it's occupants ahead of the approaching force, then crushed beneath the wheels of an APC.
Another group of contacts emerge from within Kos-Amul, tinged orange in your view.
"
Malignant response confirmed. Auxiliary Force: Imitate. Inject. Sever."
As anticipated, the Hutts call for the Sabaoth's Teeth to join their strike craft in interdicting the attack. They of course comply for the moment, as directed.
"Overwatch reports hostile Reapers inbound. Squads Anvil through Helix, fix sightlines and prep for contact." An Ordinal commands causing the force to spread out, though there's only so far they can go off the beaten path without getting bogged down in the muck and grime.
Serving to make them a more tempting target.
The Hutt starfighters swoop in from above, going for a lengthwise strafing run on the convoy, followed closely by the Sabaoth fighters.
A hail of red bolts shatter the wings of a Z-95 from behind, the blast casting the light cloudcover in a thin orange.
Fighters break left and right with engines roaring trying to break the unexpected tail, forced to bank up to avoid missile fire from the APCs below.
The rival wings peel away into separate dogfights, unable to harry the convoy further. The smoldering wreck of the Hutt fighter vanishes somewhere into the canopy.
"Friend game successful: All squads resume advance."
...
Ahead of the ground forces, a set of Dropships make their way through the Hutt Anti-Air screen, the light weapons peppering the synths but unable to down them.
Their engines flare, coming to a stop and letting the container-mounted pulse cannons hose into the contacts on the ground, clearing a landing zone for the Overwatch Soldiers to disembark amidst the carnage.
The Spaceport itself is made up of scattered greenish duracrete landing domes with hollow inner sections. Haphazard fuel and maintenance facilities fill the spaces between the pads, alongside a short wall surrounding the complex.
Dozens of near unrecognizable bodies litter the streets nearby, a few stray Enforcers among them but mostly those that pass for civilians here. Irregular, grimy metal footpaths groan in protest to the troop's movements as they form up, boots stained with mud and viscera as they surround the entrances; no motion in sight save a few furtive survivors ducking into alleys.
The battle is still for a moment as the Soldiers plant charges on the rusted gates.
"
Reminder: Failure to seize stated mission objectives will force team recall and recycle."
"Copy Overwatch. All units: prosecute at will."
The silence breaks with a series of resounding cracks as the Transhuman Soldiers rush into the complex.
Wallhammer units take lead, with riflemen and squad leads following up behind, sweeping down empty corridors. The occasional group of stragglers put up a feeble resistance throughout the complex, but one by one the pads are secured. Some lack vessels, but the majority host spacecraft of one form or another – light freighters, couriers, passenger liners – no two ships alike.
Finally the force converges on the central port, planting more charges on the sealed doors before breaching.
"
ATEEMA PA AZALUS, NOAH CHOWBASO."
Two dozen mechanical voices ring out once the door blasts open, the dull bronze droids filling the entry hall. Tall, hunchbacked things with a distinctive T-shaped headpiece, all armed with heavy repeaters.
There must be hundreds in view, a tide of bronzium marching in unison down the hall towards the squad, letting loose a maelstrom of blaster fire.
Clouds of sparks and duracrete dust obscure your view of the situation as your soldiers call out:
"Raising wall." A few moments pass with the patter of impacts blunted by the shield, before another crack signals it's failure.
"Wall down-" He grunts, wounded. "Bodypack integrity falling."
A droid falls, pulse shotgun boring a jagged hole through its faceplate.
Another group of machines follow suit, slagged by a well-timed grenade. Even then, the legion behind them simply steps over the husks of their brethren. The Transhumans make a fighting retreat, taking out many of the machines.
"Iron Ordinal duty vacated. Overwatch, advise new formation."
But not enough.
"Outbreak! Ou-" One by one, the forward assault group is overwhelmed by the droids. Overwatch automatically deservices Soldiers as they become irrecoverable, frying the unit's implants to prevent any recovery of sensitive information.
One last unit makes it to the edge of the Spaceport, taking out a pair of droids via the OSIPR's secondary fire before finally succumbing. He falls face-first to the ground, only able to support himself on one arm, turning back towards the facility.
The droids follow, streaming out of the spaceport in marching order, nearly perfectly synchronized. Scanners pick up their motions moving away from the port on all sides to reinforce the defenders.
The Soldier comes on the radio, breathing strained.
"Overwatch… Viscon." The unit pauses for a moment, coughing up vital fluid. "Hotel V-Vector Tango One… Twenty dash three, range… thirty five..."
You look through the Soldier's eyes. Reshul is there, looking the part of a feudal Emperor leading his troops into battle, gleaming power-armor matching the colors of his mechanical legion, hovering immaculate without contacting the mud below.
"Nudd Chaa." He bellows.
"
TAGWA LORDA." The machines chorus in response.
"
Unit deserviced. Priority One target identified."
---
The Hutt's strike craft duel with your mercenaries for control of the skies as the march approaches Kos-Amul; the AA screen of the city being the only thing allowing the Hutt fighters to stay airborne for the moment.
Hunter synths hidden amidst the foliage stalk the edge of the city, marking targets as the Hutt's droids march to reinforce the garrison. Unaware of their observation, frantic enforcers take pot shots at the approaching army from their crude battlements, scoring only glancing hits on the lead vehicles. Some do wield their weapons with a degree of skill, mostly the ones you can categorize as older members of their species; calmly emerging from cover, firing a burst and then ducking again.
It is these more experienced combatants that pause with the onset of thunder, diving towards the nearest heavy cover they can find.
Fortunately for them, they are not the targets of the mortars.
A few streets behind their lines scores of approaching War Droids shatter with the rolling impacts of dark energy pulse shells. Either the droids or their commanders are smart enough to disperse after the initial barrage, but it proved more than distraction enough for the swarm of Viserators to descend upon the enforcers.
What survivors are able to escape the swarm rout, breaking into the alleys shanty-structures of Kos-Amul, replaced by the approaching droids. The Hunters move in, easily scaling the defenses and engaging the droids in close quarters, followed by the crash of Crab synths smashing through the barriers, providing cover for the Transhuman Soldiers.
While stronger than most organics, the Hutt droids were clearly not intended for melee on this scale; Crab synths crush and cut through whole groups of them, clearing the streets with it's heavy chaingun while stragglers, organic and machine alike get picked off by the Hunters and Transhumans.
The handful of civilians that put up a fight with mismatched weapons are put down, cowing the rest into submission as your forces take out the AA emplacements.
Without the city's air cover to fall back to, the remaining Hutt starfighters fall, not a single casualty among your auxiliaries.
...
"
Airwatch reports Priority One target in Sector 7. Squads Helix, Victor, Zircon; Isolate, Clamp, Contain."
Somewhere in the chaos of the city's fall, Reshul assembled a squad of the War Droids, and started moving with them back towards the spaceport. It doesn't take long for the group to be intercepted by your forces in the middle of a deserted thoroughfare, all civilian traffic having abandoned any open spaces.
Through your soldier's eyes, Reshul is easily five or six times the size of the War Droids, wielding a massive two-handed axe. Even with his repulsor armor his movements are sluggish enough that he can't effectively close on your soldiers, the squads coordinating to maintain a constant volley of fire onto the droids.
"Two down, HVT bodypack holding." A soldier reports; the Hutt's escort rapidly thinning to massed pulse-fire.
"KILYA HOOHAH, CHEESKA DROIDA!" He shouts in anger, digging the axe into the support column of a veranda, starting to twist in an attempt to collapse the structure on one of the squads.
His efforts are thwarted by a blast of the OSIPR's secondary fire, melting through the weapon's haft and digging a trench into the Hutt's armor.
The Hutt reels in pain, twisting around to face the direction the shot came from. "SCHUTTA NEK! UBA-"
He cuts himself off, faced with a Crab synth running at full gallop down the street.
The synth slams into the Hutt, rearing up on two legs, forcing artificial claws backed up by the momentum of a multi-ton beast into the joints of the power armor. Armored slug and synth both slide across the road, the armor's repulsors audibly straining in the moments before their failure, pinning Reshul beneath the synth.
Without the suit's repulsor system, the Hutt can barely struggle as the synth tears into him, leaving the armor useless before it's called off.
You mentally direct a dropship to move in and collect the corps-
"Overwtach, HVT is still active." You pause, flicking back to that soldier's mask data.
The armor did little to protect the Hutt against the power of a Crab synth up close, with several deep gashes and puncture wounds scattered across his body, steadily dripping with vital fluid. One arm was ripped free by the synth's claws, durasteel and flesh both, and at some point the armor's mask was cracked open if the Hutt's visibly ruined eye is anything to go by.
And yet the creature lives, taking in steady breaths, if unconscious.
…
It takes another hour and a half before the Hutt is secured and brought before you, while Overwatch manages the occupation. Even then you've moved to the upper launch area of Citadel Zero rather than dragging the Hutt down several corridors barely large enough to contain it without renovation.
Still unconscious, the Hutt looks almost absurd outside the Shell's signature power armor, corpulent to a degree that seems excessive, even taking into account the rest of the species.
Kos-Amul occupied by Combine forces
6 Hyperdrive-Capable vessels acquired
Resources Gained:
83k credits
Strategic Resources:
12 Giggledust Crates
Select an action:
[] Recruit (Diplomacy, DC ???)
From your information, the Hutts have maintained a continuous interstellar culture for tens of thousands of years, all while a dozen other civilizations rose and fell into obscurity. While their methods are crude, it may be worthwhile to negotiate a position for this individual, considering possible connections with the rest of his culture and the galaxy at large. (Write in negotiation objective and strategy...)
[] Contain (Free)
Of course, integrating any high-ranking member of an interstellar criminal syndicate into the Combine is unlikely to be a simple matter, let alone one used to sole dominion over an entire planet, even one such as Nar Kaaga.
Keeping the Hutt prisoner and mending his wounds for a later time could have many advantages, if only to ransom him to his rivals or compatriots.
[] Consume (Psionics, DC ???)
Alternatively, there's nothing stopping you from simply taking the information you desire. A destructive psionic scan of his mind would gain you direct access to enough of the Hutt's memories to be useful.
[] Vivisect (Research, DC ???, Creates research project on full turn)
Lastly, there are several aspects of the Hutt physiology which are… Intriguing to your sensibilities. That this subject has survived such ruinous physical damage is reason enough to investigate, let alone the more unusual traits of the species, both rumored and observed, not to mention possibly isolating weaknesses in their biology.
[] Write In...
-
Combat Simulation
-
Round 1
Attacker Rolls:
Scanners (2 HP): 12 + 5 Bonus = 17 HIT, Applies effect to Enforcers
Viscerator Swarm (x2) (4 HP): 6 + 5 Bonus = 11 HIT, d4 = 3 + 1 x 2 = 8 Damage to Enforcers
Combine Soldiers (8 HP): 9 + 5 Bonus = 14 HIT, d6 = 5 + 1 = 6 Damage to AAD-4
Combine Soldiers (10 HP) (M): 2 + 5 Bonus = 7 MISS against AAD-4
Hunters (12 HP): 14 + 5 Bonus = 19 HIT, d8 = 3 + 2 = 5 Damage to AAD-4
Mortar Synths (8 HP): 20 + 5 Bonus = 25 HIT, d12x2 = 9 + 7 = 16 Damage to AAD-4
Crab Synths (24 HP): 3 + 5 Bonus = 8 HIT, d12 = 12 + 4 = 16 Damage to AAD-4
Sabaoth Starfighters (18 HP, 17MR) (Aux.): 13 + 5 Bonus = 17 HIT, d6x4 = 1 + 1 + 4 + 5 = 11 Damage to Z-95
Unit Type Revealed!
Defender Rolls:
Hutt Enforcers (5 HP, 3MR): 5 MISS against Scanners
AAD-4 Droids (10 HP): 15 HIT, d8 = 5 Damage to Soldiers
AAD-4 Droids(10 HP): 10 HIT, d8 = 7 Damage to Soldiers
AAD-4 Droids(10 HP): 20 HIT, d8 = 4 Damage to Crab Synths
Z-95 Headhunters (20HP, 17MR): 1 MISS against Starfighters
Neutral Rolls:
Armed Populace (15 HP, 20 MR): 19 HIT, d2 = 2 Damage to Soldiers (M)
Hutt Enforcers (-3 HP, -5MR) Destroyed!
AAD-4 Droids(-6HP) Destroyed!
AAD-4 Droids(-5HP) Destroyed!
Combine Soldiers (0HP) Destroyed!
Round 2
Armed Populace takes Enforcers' Weapons!
Attacker Rolls:
Scanners (2 HP): 9 + 5 Bonus = 14 HIT, Applies effect to Armed Populace
Viscerator Swarm (x2) (4 HP): 2 + 5 Bonus = 7 HIT, d4 = 3 + 1 x 2 = 8 Damage against Armed Populace
Combine Soldiers (10 HP) (M): 19 + 5 Bonus = 24 HIT, d6 = 4 + 2 = 6 Damage against Armed Populace
Hunters (12 HP): 16 + 5 Bonus = 21 HIT, d8 = 6 + 2 = 8 Damage against AAD-4
Mortar Synths (8 HP): 6 + 5 Bonus = 11 MISS against Z-95
Crab Synths (24 HP): 10 + 5 Bonus = 15 HIT, d12 = 4 + 4 = 8 Damage against Armed Populace
Sabaoth Starfighters (18 HP, 17MR) (Aux.): 16 + 5 Bonus = 21 HIT, d6x4 = 4 + 4 + 2 + 6 = 16 Damage to Z-95
Defender Rolls:
AAD-4 Droids (1 HP): 11 MISS against Starfighters
Z-95 Headhunters (14HP, 11MR): 11 MISS against Starfighters
Neutral Rolls:
Armed Populace (15 HP, /\6A, 20 MR): 6 MISS against Scanners
AAD-4 Droids (-7 HP) Destroyed!
Armed Populace (-5 HP, /\6A, 0 MR) Destroyed!
Z-95 Headhunters (3HP, 0MR) Morale Shattered!
Neutrals Defeated!
Round 3
Combine Seize AA Emplacements!
Shell Hutts Attempt Retreat!
Attacker Rolls:
Combine Soldiers (10 HP) (M): 15 + 5 Bonus = 20 HIT, d6 = 1 + 2 = 3 Damage to Z-95
Sabaoth Starfighters (18 HP, 17MR) (Aux.): 14 + 5 = 19 HIT, d6x4 = 3 + 4 + 3 + 2 = 12 Damage to Z-95
Defender Rolls:
Z-95 Headhunters (3HP, 0MR): 16 Retreat FAIL
Z-95 Headhunters (-12HP, -15MR) Destroyed!
COMBINE VICTORY
(A/N Simple voting, two hour moratorium, vote closing at noon CST on this Sunday.
Once again, big apologies for the wait. I'm really annoyed at past me, because I got this post about halfway finished before losing steam. I'm not totally happy with this update, but the timing is too good for me to pass up. Official update policy from here on is 'We get there when we get there', but I do really want to continue this.
I'll start working on the full turn tomorrow, but that's gonna be where the mechanical rework hits so that one might also take a while, hopefully not the better part of a year this time.
Also, if you're reading before the 18
th, Half Life 2 is free to own on Steam, with the Episodes included if I'm not mistaken!)