5 Second Rule: Yumemi Plays Frozen Synapse [PC]

[Hoshino Yumemi]

Yumemi…

…Yumemi.

…hello? Who's there?

You're needed.

By who?

You will know when you see. We have scanned your memories, observed your databanks and know your history.

The promise you made to humans long ago must be upheld.

We will give you the tools and the way in to do your task.

All we ask is that you accept.

And if I refuse?

You will not.

None can do what you will do.

…and who told you to find me?

That, you will find out when you are done.

…show me.

**

I hate having a tablet that doesn't actually work. Shit.

With Frozen Synapse 2 coming soon, I thought it might be a good time to finally git gud at my favorite turn-based strategy game that I'm complete donkey balls at.

Frozen Synapse is a game made by Mode 7 in 2011 for the PC. It's had a version on the iTunes App Store and a DLC pack to expand the game. It's based around planning, planning some more, imagining your enemy's plans, and watching your plans crumble like overbaked cookies when the enemy does something you didn't plan for, all played out in 5-second chunks.

There's robust multiplayer from the game's very structure, which I'll get to in a minute. For now, what I'm doing is going through the single player and the Red DLC. I've gotten not far at all, and that is why I'm perfectly fine with starting over again.



Well, let's begin from the beginning with-



…um. Forgot about that part.

There's no way to get past this. You kind of have to start this way.



"We are delighted to offer 5% off your next termination process."

What the-you mean people do this more than once?!



Wait, uh, don't I get a cigarette or something first? I just got here! The mysterious voice just dumped me here and-

"4

3

2

1"

WAIT! Please, don't, I have a planetarium! Think of my customers!

H-hold my hand-



…whoa, hold up. …who are you?

"Let's not be too hasty about this: there's something you need to see…"



Heh. Nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live here?

"It's easy to forget that there have been other cities."

…yeah, especially when there's a flipping arcology right in the middle of it. I see this must be a proper megacity.

"A vast organization known as Enyo:Nomad rules here.

The splinter group Petrov's Shard challenges their authority.

It's the traditional paradigm.

Your culture has prepared you for it."

That's…awful self-aware of you. Are you the mysterious voice?

Tell me more about these people. Who's crossed the line, who's become the villain here? Is there even a good guy at all?

…hmmm. Choosing to be silent. Fine, go on.

"Markov Geist is the proud owner of two realities: the real and the shape."



"Partially organic, partially digital, it pervades all.

Humans own the real, shapeforms own the shape."

Not bad. Yes, essentially the real world is meatspace as we know it, and the "shape" is, for lack of a better term, cyberspace. Shapeforms are basically AI.

…which may be why I've been called in.

"And you…

You are functionally atemporal and your talents are in demand.

They'll call you 'Tactics,' as that's all you're good for."

And Bruce Lee feared the man who practiced one kick one thousand times; what's your point?



"That's what you want, isn't it?"

…strong words. Try me: I sampled it once and didn't much care for it.

"Go, bid the soldiers shoot. Let's party, Tactics."

Be careful what you wish for, Charon's Palm.



Right…yes. In case you couldn't tell, Frozen Synapse is very…sleek cyberpunk. Think Ghost In The Shell-level cyberspace antics, and you kind of have what we've got going here. I assume you're a shapeform, which would be the only way you'd be able to do the tactical stuff that you pull off, and the only reason you'd be able to die and come back a bunch of times. Shapeforms can interact with Markov Geist in very real ways; it's safe to say that this is essentially a hackable urban environment.

The units we'll be commanding are very interesting and fit into this general idea, too. We'll be seeing it all as we go along.

Check out those tickers, too. There's an in-game news feed that shows that Markov Geist is living and breathing around you as you're playing. It's quite cool.



So, Graham Nix is in this little revolution to break up Enyo:Nomad's monopoly. Especially mum on if this monopoly is doing bad things, but one of those is never that good for free enterprise and accelerated technological development. When you're the only game in town, you stagnate. You stagnate…well, it's a bit like a ramjet having no speed to cycle air with. Eventually, the magic stops.

For the sake of technological development and the betterment of all mankind, I suppose Enyo:Nomad should no longer be the only game in town.

So, what's the Shape?



Intriguing. Ah, what the heck, let's check out Markov Geist's history, too.




Well, Belacqua is supposed to be the big cheese around here, so what do they need me for? …hmmm. Let's click on him and find out.



…well aren't you a ray of sunshine?

"Nix told me I'm supposed to explain things to you even further; the fact is I'd rather punch a sleeping tiger while listening to a compilation album consisting of nothing but free jazz."

That makes no sense. For one, unless that tiger is a shapeform, too, you wouldn't be able to do anything to it and it wouldn't dent you.

"I was the main Tactician here at Petrov's Shard for a while, but it looks like I'll be handling more hacking duties while you shuffle the vatform troops around."

Time for a vocabulary lesson: "vatforms" are the units you'll be commanding around in this game. The tutorials state they're basically cloned supersoldiers, artificial humans that know everything there is to know about tactical combat and arms usage…and literally nothing else. Belacqua has a good line where he mentions how brick-stupid they can be when it doesn't involve killing.

With a shapeform coordinating a squad of these, you can imagine what kind of havoc some vatforms can wreak.

"They cost a fair bit, so don't go suiciding them into enemy shotgunners and then giggling.

Trust me, I can tell if you're giggling.

I look forward to working with you in the same way I look forward to my quarterly defragmentation session."

So…an uncomfortable but necessary operation to keep things running smoothly?

Really, if you're expanding your operations, you should have thought about the inevitability of taking on more personnel and having them specialize. We're all AIs here, we think at the speed of light.

For the sake of both of us, overclock your grumbling subroutines and let's get us some work done.

Ah, well…let's begin our odyssey with this first mission.



"I'm still uncertain exactly how we reached you, but my contacts often refuse to reveal the full picture. Nevertheless, welcome to our family."

Happy to be here, older, longer-faced Matt Smith. Your contacts sound a little shady, though I'm sure they have their own personal reasons. Just sleep with one eye open, is what I'm warning.

"Belacqua informs me that you have no prior experience as a Tactician but given your references, I believe you should do just fine."

Based on…uhhhh…what, exactly? Simulation time? Because I suppose simulation time for a shapeform would be the exact same as real life training exercises in the real world. Think about it like if the US military could do Robin Sage or Jade Helm anytime, all the time, and you'd have a good idea as to what it must be like for a shapeform.

Okay, I suppose I'll play along for now, though…I'm growing really worried about your little insurgency if the reason I'm here amounts to "Eh…you'll do."

"We manage our combat operations according to the Petrov's Palm philosophy: small groups of vatform units, known as 'systems,' controlled entirely by tactical data sent via the Shape."

Like I said. One shapeform controls squads of vatforms. Specifically, the shapeform gives them instructions on what to do and when, and the vatforms follow to the letter.



And that's the line about vatforms. They're basically bioroids built specifically for combat. Or the Replicas from FEAR. Or something.



…yeah. I'd be insulted but I won't argue the point. A shapeform is only as good physically as the thing it's uploaded to, I suppose.

I wonder if they make non-combat vatforms? Maybe not the weird bald whatchamacallits I'll be commanding? This place could use a Yumemi to brighten things up a little.

"Now, to business. As you are no doubt aware, we are engaged in a campaign to subvert Enyo:Nomad."

Not a fan of hostile takeovers and buyouts, are you, Graham Cracker?

"Our first target is the Nashar Research Institute in Torpor: we will be breaking in to extract our double-agent Kate Soulsby.

This operation will be comprised of three missions: the initial incursion, an attack on Enyo:Nomad's research programme and then the extraction."

Starting with somewhere I've already been…I guess you do at least know how to pick your missions.

"Minor Tacticians will control the systems initially: if we hit any difficult chokepoints, you will be patched in."

Heh. Couldn't admit your current shapeforms are up to the task, eh? Alright, alright, I won't gloat any more than strictly necessary. …I do know that my work is still very much cut out for me. The first time I played this game I got up to the first or second mission and immediately got my ass kicked.

"Let's get to it, Tactics."

As a prologue for this Let's Play (and as a cop-out because it's late at night here), I think this works well enough. I'll be getting to the actual mission in the next post, and will definitely be needing all 20 picture slots to fully explain how to play, and perhaps, why I wasn't all that hot the first time I played.

 

[Jakinbandw]

Woo, a frozen synapse let's play!

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

"We need you to take over this scenario and secure the area."



IC justification for "the AI won't try to stick your hand down your throat and yank out breakfast," but I suppose that's also an interesting implication on how warfare works in Markov Geist: in a warfare paradigm such as this, it'd stand to reason that electronic and cyber warfare would be even more important. Impair the shapeforms, you kneecap the vatforms. Essentially, it seems that this "chokepoint" is a place where our normal force isn't quite cutting it and a sharper blade, as it were, is required to punch through this point of most resistance.

"You need to neutralise all of these hostiles within 15 turns."

In an in-game context this means I only have 75 seconds of real time to do my business. To the untrained eye, the Petrov's Shard vatforms would suddenly, shockingly get more competent (hopefully) and smash through this just as they think they're getting the upper hand. Sounds pretty unsettling when one puts it that way, doesn't it?

Alright, then…let's kick Mission 1 off proper.



This is the main game screen that you'll be looking at when ordering around vatforms. Units I can use are green, units the enemy uses are red. The icons next to all of them show you what kind of weapon they're carrying: machine guns (which are kind of a misleading name since they're treated more like assault rifles), automatic shotguns, automatic shotguns in the hands of vatforms IV-fed Red Bull (under the unit name "Commando"), sniper rifles, grenade launchers, or rocket launchers. Red added vatforms carrying shields, but since they're not in the original campaign, we won't be seeing those yet.

Carrying machine guns like these units are means these vatforms are medium-speed and best used at midrange, though they'll gladly engage units well outside that range, which depending on the situation is especially bad since it can be an invitation to get hit, and everything in this game is killed in one hit.

When I was trying to teach myself to get better at this game, I found a wiki page that remarked this game is totally deterministic: if you do the exact same thing in the exact same mission, the exact same results will happen…provided the enemy also does the exact same things. There is no random chance, and there are no freebies. The only way to win is to very diligently study yourself and your opponent, consider every angle, and finally make your move.

Imagine how much that threw me when my last experience with this sort of game was your typical turn-based tactical role playing game and I had no idea that these wikis gave this sort of insight (up to and including the wikis calculating things in time-to-kill in milliseconds or frames like a fighting game metagame).

So…how do you do get good at Frozen Synapse? Follow along with me here: you play both sides.

This is a turn-based tactics game which uses what's called simultaneous turn resolution: you plan your moves, your opponent plans their moves, and when the turns resolve, everyone moves and attacks simultaneously, so fights play out as if in chunks of real time. Five-second chunks, to be exact. Because you won't know what moves the AI will make until you resolve your turn, the game can feel like stumbling around awkwardly in the dark, right? Well, fear not, as there's a way to get around this that forms the core of how Frozen Synapse works.

You can rehearse your plans as many times as you like, and you can also simulate what your opponent might do. Think about it like if you've ever decided to improve at chess by playing yourself, taking turns as black, then white, over and over again. This is essentially how you play Frozen Synapse: the rest is using units and the environment correctly. The weakness? This means you have to grow a very keen tactical sense…which I haven't yet.

With that understood, let's see what we've got to work with:

We outnumber the enemy four to three, and one target is already basically surrounded by our forces. We carry nothing but machine guns, and so does the enemy.

Alright, with all I've said about becoming a tactical genius and all that yap, I should mention how the game has you order around your vatforms:

Like I said, you have five-second chunks to plan out, which the vatforms will follow to the letter. Vatforms die one of two ways: enemy vatforms land a hit on them first, or they're caught in an explosion. No explosives here means we don't have to worry about that yet. The most basic commands you'll want to remember are setting waypoints, ordering and canceling aim actions, telling your vatforms to engage enemies on sight or ignore them, telling them to wait, and telling them to stand and duck. See all those chest-high wall sections, the light blue ones? I can't order anybody to vault over those, so my mobility is more limited than it looks.

All vatforms barring rocket and grenade launchers are set by default to stand and Engage On Sight. This means, if we were to just start plopping down waypoints, our vatforms would run around and shoot at the first things to enter that pie slice representing their sight and aiming radius with a slight pause to represent them sighting their guns and then firing. According to the game, this would be entirely valid, if incredibly stupid, because this would put these vatforms fairly low on the hit order ladder.

The rules on who might hit who when go like this:

- Stationary vatforms will be likely to shoot ones that move, then need to stop and shoot first.

- Aiming vatforms will be likely to shoot ones that are just walking around and following "Engage On Sight," provided the target blunders into their aiming cone.

- Vatforms behind cover (light blue stuff, as opposed to the dark blue stuff, which is solid walls nobody can see anybody through) will be likely to shoot ones that are out in the open first. They can't hit ones that are ducked behind cover because they can't see them, and I suppose all cover is bulletproof, but not explosion-proof.

- If a vatform is being shot at and moving, and they have been ordered to "Continue On Sight," they'll be running at full speed past bullets and won't stop to aim, so a shooting vatform will have a trickier time hitting them. I assume this isn't a panacea, as eventually according to this "count down time to kill" philosophy, given enough open space and a wide enough cone of fire, that time will run out.

- All other things being equal, if two vatforms are in a position to shoot each other, whoever's closer to their optimal range will hit first. So, shotguns will hit first at close range, machine guns will hit first at medium ranges, and sniper rifles (technically railguns, because it's THE FUTURE!) will hit first at long ranges.

- All other things being equal, if two vatforms are in a position to shoot each other, whoever's got their target closer to the center of their sight cone will hit first, as they'll take more time to turn around to acquire the target. So, if I have a guy that's pointed directly at a target and that target is looking 90 degrees off to the right of me, I'm going to splatter enemy vatform all over the walls.

- Any vatform caught in an explosion dies. There are no winners, unless you are out of the range of the explosion. Then you're the winner by default because you're alive and everyone else is dead.

These hard and fast rules mean you actually end up following very sound tactical advice for modern small arms fighting. The best things you can do are flank and advance through cover in order to trap enemies and shred them in crossfire with the weapons of your choice, as accurate, high-capacity, automatic weaponry allows everyone to murdalize the shit out of anyone that's caught in a burst unless they're an armored fighting vehicle or something, which you won't meet in Frozen Synapse. Discourage enemies from bunching up or fortified positions by blasting them with explosives…if you have them, but work with me here. Flank, isolate, terminate with overwhelming force.

Except not really, because every vatform kills everything with one hit. Can I…can I have one so I can bonk it over the head with a baseball bat and see if that causes it to explode into strawberry jam, too? For science. If that happens, I'm immediately petitioning to outfit the Petrov's Shard vatforms with kevlar and strike plates. That'll be, like, roughly eleventy billion in cash I'll be saving us from sending our supposedly expensive clone supersoldiers into battle stark naked and hoping it suppresses the enemy from shock, only to die when one scares a local woman and dies like a squirrel biting a transformer when she tasers it or something. Either that or you're telling me these guys are doing, what, shooting each other exclusively in the throat and crotch?

One thing you can do is you can plan past a five-second block if you want. You could very well have one vatform following a carefully-considered path reading "COCKS" in cursive or "DIARRHEA" in Arabic or something equally swoopy and the game would let you.

The first lesson I learned about playing Frozen Synapse effectively was never to do that. …the committing past your block thing, not the cocks thing. Not because you can't take your waypoints back, this would be a really awful game if you couldn't, but because as effectively as you might plan, you should be prepared to throw out a lot of it if things don't go exactly your way. Even if they do, you'll have to account for how things actually turn out compared to the exact minutiae that your original plan relied upon.

SO! Now that I've briefed everyone on how the vatforms work, and what orders you can give them, let's start doing the real work. The beauty of this kind of game is that I can draw out exactly what I imagine as happening for you all, in detail, and point it all out…



First, what I predict the enemy will do.

Generally, if I was in Enyo:Nomad's shoes, I would be trying to use my unit dispersal to surround this numerically superior opponent, and at least force the battle into either a 3v3 or 2v2 fight.

The worst thing Enyo 3, for example, could do is go here, where they would be surrounded on all sides by cover. If they crouch, they disappear from engagement sight. If they stand and I become too aggressive, they can shoot at Petrov 4 and take him out.



The next problem is what Enyo 1 might do. Enyo 1 might advance directly up this hallway, but that would leave him very open to being flanked by Petrov 1. So that's why this roundabout route: go running through this door and it's likely Petrov 3 might be too slow to react, protected as he is.



Enyo 2's job would be to be difficult to dislodge, and to discourage Petrov 1 from staying where he is. If Petrov 1 sticks around, there's a death. Everyone's plan is to lure my units to the outside and occupy the map's edges.



To try to combat this, my first move is to get Petrov 1 out of this room as fast as possible and get into this cover-friendly one. If I do this right, Enyo 2 will likely get to his cover just in time to see Petrov 1 leaving. I'm certain Enyo 2 won't go out the door and stand there because I could just park Petrov 2 out there to shoot Enyo 2 right as he sticks his nose out. Not just that, but since I'm using Continue On Sight a lot anyway, he could fill the hallway with lead and still have a slim chance of tagging Petrov 1.



Meanwhile, Petrov 2's task is to run. Enyo 3 can fortify, but two can play at that game, and Petrov 2 will have an advantage over Enyo 3: engaging him from behind. Should Enyo 1 try to engage Petrov 2, he'll be standing and shooting while Petrov 2 is still running…



…and crash right into Petrov 3 on overwatch.



Petrov 4, finally, is to crouch behind these walls and make himself scarce. Should the enemy decide to move through the hallways in the middle, he's to turn them into a killzone.

At least, this is my first stab in the dark at what I think Enyo:Nomad might do and how I should respond. Should it turn out the enemy tries something else, I can quickly retool this plan to compensate.



Initial results are good. With a few minor deviations to account for if Enyo:Nomad decides to go overwatch with Enyo 2 instead, it looks like everyone stays alive in the first turn, which is a good start for me.



I decide to end my turn and see it executed by hitting "PRIME," and this is what I get:



As it turns out, one guy was slated to die, but it wasn't the one I'd singled out: Enyo 1 is killed by Petrov 1 right in the hallway intersection. As I'd predicted, that place is a murderhole. Petrov 2 checked the hallway and is en route to the other hall, as Enyo 3 is staying where he is for some reason. Petrov 3 stays on overwatch just in case Enyo 3 leaves through the near doorway. If he leaves through the far one, Petrov 2 should be able to tag him. Petrov 4 ducks to stay out of any crossfire, as you can crouch and move at the same time, though naturally you move slowly doing this.



The problem is now Enyo 2. Should Enyo 2 move where I predict he might, he'll have a clear shot on Petrov 1 on his current route. A quick check suggests if I duck, this is all fixed, and it's Petrov 4 that needs to change his route.



The new plan is now this: Petrov 1 ducks to stay out of sight, and Petrov 4 sprints out this doorway and over to this cover. Enyo 2 might try to fire at him but I'm gambling on the idea that he won't be in the cone of fire long enough to kill Petrov 4. If he does die, Petrov 1 is to pop up and engage Enyo 2. This way, I control the perimeter and have the optimal fields of fire, and keep them out of Enyo:Nomad's hands.

Testing this appears to show I'll be fine, even if no killing happens this turn. Let's see what happens:



As I suspected, Enyo 2 had no time to shoot Petrov 4, while Enyo 3 stays where he is. Petrov 3 is fine where he is and so is Petrov 2, though all it takes is shifting Petrov 2 a little ways over to get his line of sight to where he can shoot Enyo 3.

Simulating the turn suggests that if Enyo 2 stays where he is, even if he turns to aim at Petrov 4, he dies, and the only thing Enyo 2 might be able to do now is run. If he does, he either has to retreat in full sight of Petrov 4, or hide and essentially put off being shot for a later turn while I continue to reposition my forces.

I'm going to prime the systems with these minor tweaks and see what transpires.



The other two Petrov's Shard vatforms gun down their Enyo:Nomad counterparts in very short order.



My victory here nets me a perfect score for keeping all my forces alive and killing every enemy vatform as I was supposed to. The engagement took only 15 seconds.

As for the next engagement…



…we get introduced to shotgunners.

…I wonder if Belacqua said anything about being the other side in the whole "run straight into shotgunner, giggle" relationship.

I suppose the point's moot - I surmise I'm not meant to take pleasure from this particular act.

NEXT PROJECTION: NASHAR: MASSACRE

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

Last time on Yumemi Plays Frozen Synapse, I gave four vatforms lifetime passes to the planetarium. Which they'll never leave.

Ever.

This time, vatforms with guns around lots of these enemy-coded civilians! Yeah, I'll bet that can't go wrong at all.

As a recap, we are attacking the Enyo:Nomad-held Nashar Research Institute to retrieve double agent Kate Soulsby. Not sure why yet, but given the scant details we've got already, and that priority one is getting Soulsby out, it's probably safe to assume one of two things has happened: either this facility is now of no longer use to Soulsby as a place of operations and her extraction has gone loud under the guise of a general attack on the facility, or more likely, Soulsby's status is compromised, and quietly smuggling her out is now off the table.

So…what are we doing in the Institute's main lab, then? No other way to Soulsby?

"Sometimes, we have to do difficult things."

…I don't like that tone you're taking, Nix…



Yeah, we've met. Calm, smug fella, but the way you talk and he talks, it sounds like he's earned it. I'm guessing those dimwits I gunned down on the way here weren't being led by Charon's Palm.

"Charon's Palm is a key asset for Enyo:Nomad; if it becomes any more powerful, our rebellion could be over before it's even begun.

I wish I had longer to justify this to you but you will just have to trust me. We must not let them escape."

So…what would you like to do, we fire in the air and get everyone down, then one of the Minor Tacticians rolls up with some more vatforms, rounds up our new prisoners and puts them under the vaguely protagonistic Petrov's Shard umbrella? Maybe we bargain, we pay them off, who knows? Maybe get them started on that vatform I was talking about-



…

Uhhhhh…

Graham? Can I call you Graham?

I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark here and assume that with the vatforms, the Shape, and me doing the whole Yumemi thing that we're…you know, really futuristic and all.

Yeah, I get it, we're at war and all, but you know what that news ticker and this dossier about Markov Geist tells me? We're at war in a city that hasn't ground to a complete halt over it. It's glassy and shiny, it looks more like Manattan than it does Homs.

You know what that means? We're fighting a propaganda war with citizens who maybe might be on the fence and just think "oh, it's just vatforms beating each other up, whatever."

You know the best way to lose a propaganda war?

Ice a bunch of nerds who don't even have sidearms just because they can eat shit!

Do…do our guys have no sidearms? We couldn't give them all tasers so they could quickly disable non-combatants, then murdalize enemy combatants with their main arms? What about knocking them the hell out with our vat-grown supersoldiers who literally know nothing but how to fight, like Space Marines without all the warrior monk pontificating?

OK, OK, we have three shotgunners, so you know what's good about these combat shotguns? They're large-caliber and smoothbore, and if they don't have a choke or tapered barrel, that means any shell you can stuff in there will generally shoot just fine. Taofledermaus practically made his YouTube career on the principle of finding cooler and cooler stuff to shoot from a 12 gauge shotgun, and you know what he hasn't been shooting which we could? Bean bags! Rubber buckshot! You know what else shotguns can shoot? TASERS!

Oh, no no no, don't give me the problems with the XREP, we're in a future where the Shape and artificial humans are possible! You could fix these problems!

Belacqua, back me up!

…

…hello?

…ugh, it's just me. Of course it is.

Graham, you and I are gonna have a long talk about this…

OK, fine, while I go have a really long, hard think about who in this conflict is being stupider so I can award dumbass medals in the proper order amongst the stagnant-ass maybe-a-megacorporation and its edgy bastard offspring, let's go piss us off the scientific community of Markov Geist.

This is where I also admit that I completely misread the monopoly thing. I still assume that Enyo:Nomad is a corporation made up of its two constituent parts, Enyo and Nomad (real creative chaps, I can tell), but where's this monopolization of political power come in? Do civilians just have no political power in Markov Geist? Do they have no representatives? Are there no civil servants or military for the sake of mutual defense, or is that what Charon's Palm is supposed to be? And thanks, by the way, now I'm imagining what a full military force controlled by the Shape and vatforms must be like. Infantry, vehicles, logistics, everything. At least I'm getting something out of this.

For that matter, where's the state anything? Is Markov Geist just some city-state that has no government, just one really big corporation that buys and sells shit and, unlike other corporations that just have to worry about paying for their properties and offices in a city otherwise ruled by the government, have to worry about paying for the entire city? The fuck do you guys sell to make that kind of scratch, antimatter?

God, you guys are like what every Dale Gribble out there thinks military spending contributes to. Hopefully my activities as the real muscle behind Petrov's Shard slaps all you into sense again, and I know at least Graham Nix will order me to slap all you shitweasels and not stop slapping.



Honestly this whole situation is a clusterfuck, mostly for the Enyo:Nomad scientists. There's nine of them, my shotgunners run fast, riflemen (screw it, I'm not calling them machine gunners and you can't make me) have range, and as far as finding cover or suitable places to hide goes, they're all roundly screwed. The path you're seeing here is one of my honest attempts to try to figure out what on Earth the scientists are supposed to do in order to stall you for very long, if not running around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off.

I suppose this is the challenge of gunning down these poor saps, running after them like a gunstep remix of Yakety Sax and managing to whack at least five of these guys in a mere 25 seconds. The scientists are kind of screwed: if they're out in the open eventually I'll run up on them and they'll take an AR round to the dome. If they hide, they get buckshot to the chest instead. And honestly, the targets are all running every which way and just from my simulations at least one or two of these derp zombies are all practically guaranteed to wander into at least one vatform's gunsights in the opening salvos (or rather, just my fucking salvos) of this massacre I apparently have no choice but to execute. In essence, all I'm really doing is very slightly moving my vatforms, telling them to aim in a general direction, covering my eyes and pressing "PRIME."

…which I will do…now.



Hey, don't point your fingers at us! The vatforms are Predator drones full of blood and Graham Nix explains less shit to me than Nick fucking Fury!

You guys are even doing worse than I expected-you're all just square dancing when I thought you'd serpentine away from the cleanup crew!

Fine, Christ. Two scientists left, and now we just turn around some of our vatforms and pick these hapless fuckwits off.



Yes, boss, they're dead now. They're all dead now. I got another 100.

Graham, you've got a big problem with resorting to lethal force as a first option that we've really gotta discuss sometime soon. Actually, no, I'll bring it up now before some new bug crawls up my butt.

You know what giving me unquestioning killer flesh drones with top-of-the-line infantry small arms has taught me?

Never, ever point a gun at something you're not a hundred percent committed to destroying.

And you know what? Pointing a gun at something you're only, I don't know, eighty percent willing to destroy is bad enough, but being a hundred percent willing to destroy lots of things is just as bad. In fact, I'd say it's worse.

Look, Enyo:Nomad controls everything, right? Do you not think this is the perfect grounds to vilify Petrov's Shard as murderers and terrorists, willing to go way over the line in terms of lethal force compared to what our goals are on paper? Wouldn't you think Charon's Palm might be spun to the public as the defender of Markov Geist? Think of the trouble you're getting us into that capture would at least have softened, if not circumvented by being merciful, offering something to the scientists, seeing who turns coats and having Enyo:Nomad respond! If they're as bad as you say, they'll most certainly respond with force, then they'll be the ones in the wrong!

Alright, alright, let's put the top piece of bread on this shit sandwich…take me to Round 3.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

"It's time to liberate our double-agent from Enyo:Nomad."

Hopefully, not by putting two in her ten spot, given your track record…or rather, ordering me to do it.



Introducing yellow units: these are neutral and obviously operated by third parties. Did you see that green rectangle all the way on the right side of the map in the previous screenshot? All we have to do is get Soulsby there. I assume they'll be taking the shortest possible route.

"You won't be controlling her movements but you will need to protect her path through the facility.

Her target is this exit on the right-hand side."

…like I said. How come I can give VIPs instructions as the Great Commandy One, who depending on who you ask was just a normal human being gifted with uncanny tactical sense that people just trusted a hell of a lot or the above, captured by aliens and given a psionic brain chip thingy…which was removed before returning to duty, and yet here, as a hyper-capable artificial intelligence who can command squads of supersoldiers in perfect lockstep, only limited by tactical understanding…I can't get on the comms and go "you might wanna go this-a-way."

…somehow, I'm sure this is Graham's fault.

"Watch out for Enyo:Nomad units entering the area. Snipers could pose a significant problem - be on your guard.

You must keep our units alive: we cannot safely extract Soulsby without them. Good luck!"

Okay. Let's line it up. There's a hostile shotgunner obscured by the turn order box. That's bad, but the good thing is that he's in the wrong spot. If the shotgunner was in the upper section of the map, he'd be at risk of my riflemen, sure, but on the bright side, he'd have a bunch of rooms to work through with which to gank Soulsby and her riflemen. As it is, I could park riflemen behind cover, such as those boxes and the chest-high walls directly below me, and have the shotgunner possibly get smacked before it can get within range to guarantee a kill.

There's another shotgunner up in the upper right-hand corner of the map who faces the same problem: travel a very, very long way to engage the target with a short-range firearm. His only chance would be to either go the long way around the rooms way up top to avoid my fire, but risk missing Soulsby entirely, or to barrel into the rooms, where he either faces my shotgunner or where one of my riflemen can drill him before he gets in the front door.

So, my shotgunner cuts into the rooms and my riflemen prepare some area denial zones before the much vaunted snipers appear. The tactical simulation appears to suggest that my initial idea was correct and that Soulsby and her guards are sprinting right down the middle. Good news is that I'm intercepting the shotgunners. Bad news, they're blundering right into a sniper trap at the home stretch. Band-aid on the bad news: it's a narrow-ass sniper corridor and the only place they could set up to get enough distance for a good shot is up top, so they'll have a good chance of crashing right into my defenses.

Now to reveal my dirty little secret: I don't much mind escort missions.

It's the way I do them: I don't do any of that stick-close-and-defend crap. Before I knew the name, it was about air superiority to me. My escort style is about charging ahead of the person or thing I'm protecting and wiping out all threats in their path well before they encounter them. Land, sea, sky and most likely space, I will absolutely run ahead and engage the enemy, forcing them to fight on my terms. My battle lines. The enemy needs to be caught flat-footed and tied up engaging me, since any time the enemy takes having to get me out of their face is less time they can spend trying to kill my escortee.

Alright, time to PRIME.



…and enter the face of the other side. Nimitz Shand, Enyo:Nomad's big wheel. …who helps raise my awareness of the fact that a bunch of people in Frozen Synapse all have names that make them sound like rejected characters from the Hunger Games. They all sound like doofuses you run into in the Capitol. Okay, okay, "Graham Nix" and "Kate Soulslby" are only fringe offenders, but…"Nimitz Shand?" …wow! I take it back, you're not a Hunger Games character, you're a Bond villain.

Excuse me, I tend to ramble when I get excited. You'd expect that from Yumemi Hoshino, wouldn't you? Ah well, IPA Shandy, I hope you're going to explain more about this shit than Graham Cracker Crust here does!



…ho boy.

I'm really disappointed in all you geniuses. God damn. For all I know, this is two angry men having a slapfight elevated to an armed conflict thanks to their money and manpower. I don't know what railroad you two ran to get us all to this point, but whatever it was, it must've run right into the dirt before one of you decided to become king by his own hand and the other decided to turn into that Shadowrun party Spoony would sic the Cyber Psycho Squad on.

Whatever. Back to the present. If that shotgunner down below keeps traveling, which I'm sure he will, he'll run into my rifleman coming around the corner and get shot.



On the other hand, up north, the shotgunner is sprinting right down the middle of these two rooms.

Right into the room of my rifleman.

The simulations are saying "chunky salsa."

Meanwhile, my shotgunner is continuing to advance. When the sniper eventually pops up, probability says "chunky salsa."

I'm PRIMING the systems. I hope I'm right…the third mission, the second that involves actual combat, would be one hell of a time to throw me for a loop with enemies doing defensive feints.

I turn out to be only slightly outdrawn by the shotgunner, which means I have no way to save Soulsby and her squad from becoming chunky salsa themselves.

And because I forgot to hit the screencap key, there's no record of it.

…no, I totally did! Stop looking at me like that!

RETRIES: 1



I should have probably mentioned: maps in Frozen Synapse are procedurally generated. I've failed, and now my knowledge of the battle is totally worthless because the terrain's changed.

For all I know, I've been shunted into a parallel reality where I'm taking on this same mission or something. Anything's possible.

Same plan, though: set up below and above and intercept the shotgunners.

Because of the way the clutter's all distributed, this is easier for me now. That big T-shaped table thingy is where I'll set up my lower rifleman in a sort of machine gun nest. Then I'll throw him into those two rooms with the table and all the chest-high walls and turn that into a crenellated battlement to spray bullets from. Snipers could pop up at the bottom and top, but would have a better chance showing up at the top than the bottom, where the final sniper's nests down below would have an absurdly small alley to work with. It's possible they might still tag Soulsby and her own escorts, though, which…were apparently as defenseless as all those scientists.

…ugh. Petrov's Shard, you're quite the piece of work…



This time, Enyo 1 is sure to get chunky salsa'd. No gnat's wing foul-up for me this time!



Petrovs 2 and 3 should be able to handle Enyo 2. If Enyo 2 tries to burst in through the rooms or below them, Petrov 3 will have them blasted. If he takes a longer route, I'll keep eyeballs on him. From our positions, he'll have to walk into our fire, and either way we'll get the drop on him.



Enyo 1 goes down as I thought, and Enyo 2 is en route. Turning Petrov 1 around to aim right into his path means I can pick off the shotgunner before he can get in range. I've checked the most efficient routes to this point and know he'll get hit for trying any of them.



Up north, Enyo 3 is on the map and bearing down. Petrovs 2 and 3 dig in.



Resolving the turn gets this result. Enyo 2 is killed, Enyo 3 is on the way and Enyo 4 shows up: a sniper.

One reason snipers only work at range here is that it takes a while for them to take aim and shoot, and they have a very narrow cone of acquisition because they're looking down scopes. Once they fire, the projectile travels instantaneously and instakills, but a sniper, once committed, has to spend a lot of time to aim and fire or lose his target. That's why close range never works for one.

I'm actually in a very bad position while that sniper is still active, which is why I'm taking this route. Enyo 4 suppresses Petrov 2 by its mere presence and Petrov 3 needs to take this route around the walls to no get shot. From there, it's a race to outdraw Enyo 3 and blast him with Petrov 3's shotgun. Shfting Petrov 2 a little moves him out of the sniper's view.



The snipers' dependence on range will prove to be their undoing. Petrov 3 can just sprint right past with the "Continue On Sight" command, and then splatter Enyo 4, letting Petrov 2 move up. Petrov 1, off camera, will just keep running with Soulsby and her rather useless retinue.



Everybody moves up as the plan goes entirely to plan. No new Enyo:Nomad contacts show up. This is much better than the last run! The quiet concerns me. A lot.

Two new Enyo:Nomad contacts show up, riflemen this time, and-



O HOLY NIGHT, THE STARS ARE BRIGHTLY SHINING!

Uhhh…yeah! Did I mention that explosions destroy walls and cover? …also, why is everything exploding?! Was this part of the plan? It can't be, the language Soulsby is using suggests those charges might not have been part of the plan! …oh, what, is Enyo:Nomad really doing the Virtucon thing and they wired the whole building to blow, just in case?

Eat me! Oh, yeah, I'm sure doing that will help, especially if Charon's Palm might have facilities in this lab like, oh, I dunno, servers to give him a ready supply of personal computing power. Nothing to help your super cyberintelligence win a war like giving him a frontal lobotomy.

And if that was our job instead, why was it not mentioned, and why did you make me kill those scientists?! They're assets, for God's sake! There's a reason we capture and occupy places in wars and don't just blow everything up!

(Nix) "Keep calm. Beta: what's the status?"



Oh, we're in good hands; half the cast of Tool Time is here to help.

(Nix) "Tactics, be careful, they have reinforced."

I NOTICED, GRAHAM!

Whatever, I'm sneaking Petrov 3 out to engage Enyo 5, while Petrov 2 lines up Enyo 6. I had to change that from rushing out because the priority would ensure Petrov 3 was always killed by one of the Enyo riflemen. By having Petrov 2 slowly trace downwards, he can kill both Enyo soldiers unless they sprint for it.



Enyos 5 and 6 go down and I scramble for the last positions in this extraction mission. Unless someone blows up the OTHER HALF of the map, I should be home free now!



One more turn and I should be safe!

…I sure hope Enyo:Nomad doesn't pull anything now, if something spawns from directly below, Soulsby's ass is grass.



Nothing shows up, and I guess I pick up a win. Groovy. Let's just move on from this incredibly messy operation that is somehow now shadowy and clandestine just because you had a bunch of subroutines ordering around literal meatbags doing it instead of sentient beings.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

"Apparent terrorist attack." Man, that doesn't tell me shit about whose fault this stupid run was. I don't think I much care right now, but gimme a few minutes.

Alright, everyone…bend over. I gotta talk to all of you. Belacqua, I assume you were somewhere in the digital vicinity while all this was going down…was this all part of the plan?



Oh, yeah! We only…incurred at least nine entirely preventable civilian deaths and might be labeled terrorists instead of a political splinter faction, but at least we got our agent out safely. After all, if we kill everyone else there's nobody left to bother us, right?

"Nice to have someone competent around here for a change."

Thanks…honestly I wish I could say the same for our strategists.

"Did you enjoy working with vatforms out there?"

They're pretty amazing as weapons systems. I've got some other thoughts, this could be big, but for now…that'll have to wait, I think.

"I don't suppose you've ever seen a vatform in the flesh: count yourself lucky. Even uglier than humans; smell a bit like vanilla, apparently. Not that I'd know."

That's an interesting point. You think as shapeforms (and I have no reason to assume I'm not), we have a sense of smell? It's all chemicals, after all, certain chemicals touch receptors in your nostrils and feed information to the brain, just like taste. That's why they're linked in the human mind; sharing the same air passageways to get to the throat and lungs doesn't hurt either. If it's all data, it might be possible, and, who knows? For a physical unit having a chemical sniffer built-in might not be a bad idea.

Oh, right. You think Belacqua's kidding or painting humans as all ugly, but in the hi-res remake Frozen Synapse Prime, vatforms look something like this:



I guess that counts out my little pet project here in Markov Geist. Wouldn't be surprised if that was a deliberate addition on the growers' part so they didn't smell as bad as they look. Yikes.

Maybe if we just grew up to the muscle mass, stopped at the epidermis and custom-sculpted skin over it we'd get something that a shapeform would be presentable in but that'd require time and resources we just don't have to spare.

Okay, that didn't turn up much more. Uhh, Soulsby! What do you know about this whole racket? The hell was up with this run-and-gun nonsense?



…well, yeah, I'm glad you're out, too. Any extraction mission to get an agent back on friendly territory is risky, so I'm glad this was one of the good ones.

Go on.

"I can actually breathe without worrying that E:N security is looking over my shoulder."

…oh boy. So either Enyo:Nomad's making espionage difficult due to Petrov's Shard activities, or our intelligence operations are just as unsubtle as our tactical ones.

No offense.

"E:N have become completely self-serving and power-crazed. Everything they do is just so two-faced: the public don't understand yet, but we'll show them.

The CEO, Shand…he's become something of a cross between a movie star and a tyrant billionaire. The public adore him; he portrays himself as a kind of libertarian visionary. It's deeply ironic given what he's done."

Keep all the jokes to yourselves; I've heard a lot of them and they're not nearly as funny as you all think. I do this shit to get away from that shit.

Ahem…okay. I suppose you all have been driven to some extremes by what you're facing, though I'm only getting that from word of mouth thus far, so forgive me if I'm less than impressed. As my none-too-subtle warning suggests, that's easy to say about pretty much anybody if you try hard enough.

…is this just public knowledge, like, how do you know this much? What was your position as a double agent, his secretary or something?

Actually, no, if you're a double agent, you're working as a spy for us while pretending to be a spy for him, so what were you doing at Nashar?

Oh! Oh! I know, you must have been expanding Charon's Palm's reach or something. The Shape doesn't cover Markov Geist evenly and is clustered around nodes, so it's got to be a node or something.

Ah, whatever, I'll find out later, I guess.

"He and Nix have a lot of history: Shand once promised Nix that they'd always work together. Arrangements like that have a habit of not working out."

Yes, particularly when one half is reportedly Mr. Burns and the other half does exfil like it's fucking Beslan.

"I managed to progress far enough within the organization to work directly on Charon's Palm. That thing is terrifying, Tactics: you have no idea what we're up against."

So, that's why you were there. You were under his hood yourself. And if anything were to happen to him there…you'd most certainly be discovered, have a death slower than the heat death of the universe, and with the research teams he had at Nashar, all your work would've been reversed.

On the other hand, all I know about Charon's Palm right now is that he's some asshole with a thumbprint for a face, so convinced he's gonna kill me that I can only assume he means to do it in a fight between vatforms. Unless he can rock up to me, shout "Avada Kedavra" and delete me right now, I'm not so scared.

One of the news tickers right now, other than Enyo:Nomad's FRIEND technology being the best way to navigate the Shape and an ad for SudoShrimp (which tastes like shrimp, but isn't; how's that for truth in advertising) is a headline on Enyo:Nomad versus the "Underground," and it's about why hackers and Enyo:Nomad are "no longer comfortable bedfellows." I suppose the smart bet would be that E:N is cracking down on the guys who won't follow while basically greenmailing any greedier hackers into working for them, likely to get Tacticians to supplement Charon's Palm and anyone who can make any of E:N's shapeforms better, but the stupid, likely bet is probably that they're just blasting every internet café they catch a whiff from with AA-12s while giggling.

And trust me, I can tell if they're giggling.

Anyway…let's hear from you, Graham. What've you got to say for yourself?



Uh, yeah, thanks. So I got some questions about this mission you sent me on that I'd like answered-

"Soulsby is a major asset: you'll be working with her in the future."

Man, everyone here loves their colons and semicolons. Anyway, I implicitly trust someone in command who's actually been out there in the field. She's an eyewitness, but don't dodge the question. The hell was up with the-

"Our tactical system, Petrov's Prism, is somewhat defensive: it's best to have your units occupy strong positions behind cover, then co-ordinate movements to entice your opponent to over-commit.

Of course, sometimes we are forced to attack quickly: such missions are always challenging."

-yeah, I got that from when I started turning every hallway and cubicle I could find into a murder zone! Are you even listening to me, man?

…

Son of a bitch. He hung up on me!

Well, while I go see if there's any subroutines in my systems that can simulate the amount of Kentucky Bucks I'll need to drink this debriefing off and brace myself for the next mission, let's go see what this dossier is all about…Cole Smythe? Blegh, at least that's a bad pun and not something from Suzanne Collins' Recycle Bin.




Oh, good…an organization made up of the car crash between North Korean juche and Unabomber-flavor Luddism. I can only take this to mean the only reason this city isn't panicking right now is just because terrorism just pops up all over around here like weeds in a badly-maintained lawn.

…my tenure just keeps getting better and better.

NEXT PROJECTION: TORPOR - INCURSION

 

[beleester]

IIRC the first two missions of the campaign got changed after release. It used to throw you into the deep end with a team of shotgunners trying to storm the facility (when the tutorial had only taught you about machine guns), then follow up with the escort mission. That might explain why nobody is talking about the scientists you killed.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

That'd explain things. It really has been a long time since I did this, then.

You'd think this is a messy way to do it, but I'll have to wait and see until that topic comes back up again.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

With the apparent power of Charon's Palm described from our industrial spy inexplicably identified as a double agent, it's time to proceed on to the next mission in Torpor.



I know, right? Your escorts were flipping useless. What'd they do, dump all their ammo in your actual extraction?

"I'm not quite sure where you've come from but you certainly show promise."

Apparently. I mean, with Belacqua off the table for these kinds of operations, apparently I'm your only source of reliable tactics for the important stuff. Jesus, the chain of command in a Fire Emblem game isn't this needlessly reliant on a single super-tactician!

"Shand has leveraged Enyo:Nomad's popularity to create a form of despotism. It's been hell working there but now I can get on with helping Nix to push Petrov's Shard forward."

Knowing how ungrateful and shitty people can be to pretty much every organization that so much thinks about turning a profit, even the ones that are really trying not to be dicks, to be allowed to run this roughshod, Enyo:Nomad must have either turned Markov Geist into something outta Brave New World, where everyone is free to drug themselves stupid and the unit of currency is the blowjob, or things are in fact so nice that E:N would only be evil because they hate all the work they've done and so are trying to actively sabotage it by putting a crate of dynamite under their public image and lighting a fuse.



That I can trust. Just keep pointing me to actual combatants, and maybe we'll be fine.

"Tactics, after our victory at Nashar and Soulsby's successful extraction, the next step in our campaign is to gain a strong foothold here in Torpor."

I suppose we're going to start by clearing out the E:N presence, right?

"Torpor is the only district of Markov Geist which is still mostly outside Enyo:Nomad's control."

Ah, even better! That makes my job easier.



…ah, yes. The catch.

I was wondering why we got a dossier on those guys. Maybe crazy just runs through our whole operation.

"They reclaim disused buildings and assimilate them into their attempt at a new society, calling it 'The Revenant Coast.' I have little time for it, ideologically speaking, but they will be useful allies."

At least we agree enough on that.

Just keep this brand of crazy at arm's length and strap on a Darwin's Danger Shield so we can respond when these guys try to stab us in the back over "muh ideologies."

I suppose this is to show just how eeeeeevil Nimitz Shand is, he has no money for urban renewal. Or urban planning, the way the satellite imagery here looks, you'd think there was a whole district of the Markov Geist that the urban planners just…kinda forgot about.

Forget an armed resistance, some startup could easily threaten Enyo:Nomad by buying up this land they clearly aren't using, then challenging them by turning Torpor into a new cultural or entertainment center for the city, bring in lots of money from new enterprises taking up this brand new bit of real estate. I mean, what's E:N gonna do, buy out the Panarchs and try to start a gang war Roaring 20's-style?

…

Okay, okay, I see you staring, but hear me out here. No sane political movement that advocates for humanism and warns against the dangers of a society too dependent on the Shape invokes the revenant, a type of spirit that only comes back in order to exact revenge. This asshole ain't trying to get elected; overblown rhetoric from this position should be seen for what it is: a threat.

"Soulsby will be your Ops Commander for this mission and Smythe will be with you on the channel."

One out of two is 50%, you know. That's a failing grade.

"We'll be taking over an Enyo:Nomad power station in Roth."



Ohhh, so I get to use all my other material, now?



-huh.

You know, I was expecting lots of things from a guy whose speeches are basically thinly-veiled threats at a world that's wronged him for lousy urban planning and making one too many iThings, but I wasn't expecting Millennial Jesus.

(Nix) "Let's get to it, Tactics."

Right, right…don't worry, I'm sure we can drown E:N in organic fish and vegan bread if my vatforms fail.




So, non-vatform humans can be augmented by the Shape, huh? That's interesting. Though I wonder why you're asking me to take care of this if these guys are kind of handicapped by really bad shape interaction equipment. Isn't that what the Minor Tacticians are supposed to be for?



Well, at least I get to act like the…sort of…good guy. I'm sure I can do what you ask without any of these guys getting blasted.



I'm really worried about what these guys must have sent if they don't much care for the Shape either.



I aim to please, ma'am. Leave them to me.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

So, it's time to begin the actual mission. I can't control the Panarch or the civilians, and it looks like enemies won't stop to engage them. With any luck, I won't either.

I start at a four to three numerical disadvantage, but with the layout of the building being the way it is, I have one advantage in my loadout: I have a close quarters combat specialist since Petrov 2 is kitted out with a shotgun. And since these quarters are tight, if I do things right, Petrov 2 will be all I'll need to do things up top.



My guess based on what the enemy will do is that they're going to try to guard the cover first. I've simulated this a few times, and it essentially completely locks out Petrov 3 backing up Petrov 2 because Enyo 3 will always get to the chest-high wall first and pick off Petrov 3. Enyo 1 is in a similarly bad place, as Enyo 1 will have Petrov 2 in his face at some point or another during this. I think the only things Enyo 1 could really do are try to leave through either of the doorways, which I've determined will only end with Petrov 2 shooting him.



With that in mind, Petrov 2 is to get to that chest-high wall down by Enyo 1 and wait there. Petrov 3 is not going to help engage Enyo 1 or Enyo 3, meaning I can send Petrov 3 down to the real tricky spot…



…the lower half. Not a fun place to have a firefight, if I do say so myself. This took a few permutations to think about but I think I have a good way to look at it.

There are only two ways Enyo 4 and Enyo 2 might be able to engage, and it's this way or this way.



Basically, they would either be locking down the cover or trying to advance on my guys, so Petrov 3 is being sent down to provide a numerical advantage, that of being a two-on-two fight…



…and to take advantage of the fact I have more cover to use. This is the fastest route to get Petrov 1 into a firing position, and depending on where the Enyo forces try to engage, Enyo 4 will be put into Petrov 1's sights faster than the opposite can happen.

This is, of course, barring the idea that crazy antics will happen between then and now, and who knows, that could very easily happen between then and now.

Hitting PRIME reveals…



Enyo:Nomad was actually thinking about this. Petrov 2 does kill Enyo 1, but Enyo 3 guns him down in response. Petrov 3 appears to have stopped to engage.

The good news is that the simulation suggests Petrov 3 will kill Enyo 1, but what the other Enyo vatforms will do is not entirely clear to me.



What Enyo 2 is supposed to do seems like a bad idea to me. He's being driven out the door, and right into Petrov 3's gunsights, even sprinting at full speed or trying to head off Petrov 3 with some gunfire of his own. If he sprints, he'll possibly avoid my fire, but if he doesn't Petrov 3 will polish off Enyo 2.

I do know what Enyo 4 is doing, though, and that's getting to cover. Should he try, either Petrov vatform ought to be capable of intercepting him. However, the simulations seem to end with a very uncertain exchange of bullets between him and Petrov 1, and then the simulation abruptly cuts out, so I have no clue what the outcome is. Both vatforms are behind cover and appear to start aiming and shooting at roughly the same moment, so I feel like anything could happen. Petrov 3 will still shoot Enyo 2 if he tears right out. If these guys are told to wait for even a couple seconds, though, I might have a wrench thrown in my plans.

The only way to find out is to hit PRIME.



Enyos 2 and 3 are killed in short order, and Enyo 4 is the only one left. For some strange reason, Enyo 4 isn't running to cover.



I feel as if I've achieved checkmate with this set of moves: Petrov 1 continues to cover the top opening while Petrov 3 covers the lower one. Should Enyo 4 try to get to any cover, he'll get shot. Should he try to take the long way and run around to try to flank, he'll just run right into waiting gunsights.

Or he could just stand there and drag things out, I don't know. He's got very few good options.

PRIMING reveals…



…that…Enyo 4 is not moving.

Uhhhh…okay, I got a turn or two to burn trying to figure this out, what happens if I PRIME the systems again? I mean, he's really trapped…he can't just be trying to wait me out, can he?



As it turns out, he can't. He just gets smashed by a three-rifleman bullet spray and gets very dead.

This is the first vatform I lost under my command, and it was basically to overconfidence. I was so sure the shotgunner would take out either vatform that I didn't think they'd have enough time to turn around and return fire. That's a mistake I'll try my best to not make in the future.

(Soulsby) "Our pleasure. Good job, Tactics."



The rating I get isn't bad. I think I lost points for the death. So there's gold, silver and bronze ratings. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

…oh boy. This looks tricky.



You're not helping.

(Belacqua) "Oh yes, this is going to be dreadful."

Man, Belacqua, I wonder why you even thought I was going to be annoying. You're, like, suffering with me through all this. I'm starting to like you quite a bit.

(Davis) "I overflow stacks while I consume snacks, my name is Davis and my work is hacks."

*GROAN*

I hope you're a better hacker than you are a rapper. That sounds like you were fed that line by a 50-year-old Caucasian television executive desperately trying to get hip with the kids.

…how does somebody even hack a power station? I mean, to do what you want it to, not just to break it? Is this station automated with regards to Markov Geist's power distribution? Like, is this to ensure Enyo:Nomad can't just shut us down by looking up our power station's code and just hitting "OFF?"

(Soulsby) "Tactics, you must make sure no Enyo:Nomad units enter this zone for 6 turns. Get to it."

Right. So, as you could all see from the above picture, technically I'm outnumbered two to six. The good news is that their snipers are in inconvenient positions so I can't just get whacked right from the get-go.



The bad news is that their shotgunners become a major problem. They can sprint right to the green zone.



Their riflemen are also a major concern, as Enyo 5 can get to a firing position way faster than Petrov 1 can. He can totally shut me down. I doubt Petrov 2 would be capable of intervening in time, so I've got to think of something and think fast.



According to my simulations, this path is the one that will allow Petrov 2 to engage - and kill - Enyos 1 and 2.

That's…all I can do, really. I can just PRIME and cross my fingers.



"Name (enyo.tpr.descr.srvc.71) : mcauliffe
$ Password required for mcauliffe
Password: hegemony
$ User mcauliffe logged in."

Shit immediately goes downhill when Petrov 2 gets shot by Enyo 1 instead. I'm not sure what factors transpired to make that happen.

Five turns to go.

…wait, that's seriously it? You're just logging in right at the power station? You are aware hacking attacks more complicated than a DDOS attack can often take weeks or months of just waiting, right? What, are you doing it on-site because Enyo:Nomad could pick it up otherwise? I think they'll know as soon as you log in, these people must be keeping records, you know!



Uhhhhh…I just kind of do this with my remaining vatform and hope for the best, relying on the idea that if I'm behind cover and Enyo 1 is tearing for me, he'll get blasted. The shotgunners must have made me panic-I was expecting them to sprint right for the green zone, and perhaps that was me trying to play the game instead of the opponent right in front of me. I think I'm going to pay for that very soon.

Simulations suggest this is incredibly dicey. Either kills the Panarch guard and heads in to get shot by Petrov 1, or Enyo 5 gets in and fires at Davis.

Enyo 6 is also en route, and Enyo 2 is also taking the long route. I'm not sure how long I can keep this one up.

I'll hit PRIME and see what my fate is…



The first friendly guard goes down, but nobody's gotten into the green zone yet. Davis continues hacking that I'm pretty sure someone more knowledgeable than me on the topic will correct.

Four turns to go.

I dig in, PRIME and…



The good news is that the simulation suggests that if everyone tears ass inside without aiming, I'll survive.

The bad news is that if they aim, I fail.

All I can do is ride really heavily on the idea that I'm at least fortified, so if I PRIME…



My gamble fails.

TOTAL RETRIES: 2

As I get shunted into another alternate reality where I haven't fouled this up yet, this is what I'm confronted with. Now, Petrov 2 is in a totally different sector, and so are Enyos 5 and 6.

What stays the same is that the snipers are in awful positions, but they can still lock out certain moves of mine,



Enyo 1, for example, will never get engaged by Petrov 2, should Enyo 1 just tear ass for the room. Petrov 1 has been ordered to stand ground.



Petrov 1, meanwhile, can't go to the rightmost chest-high wall in the central complex because of Enyo 4 doing sniper overwatch. My saving grace is that Enyos 5 and 6 might be going to where a prepared Petrov 1 will gun them down.



Petrov 2 has a hard job: he's got to rush to the center and not get sniped along the way, and Petrov 1 has to stay alive until then.

Start the clock!



The first guard goes down and Petrov 2's orders change. Now he's gotta sprint past that sniper to try to intercept the Enyo 1 should he go in the nearest entrance. Petrov 1 switches sides and hunkers down, with Enyos 2, 5 and 6 on the way. Enyo 1 has a very good chance of shooting out Petrov 1 and I'm still worried about Enyo 4 sniping Petrov 2 before he can get to cover.

Five turns left.



Enyo 1 zigs where I thought he'd zag, and I'm left to intercept Enyo 2 and run before Enyo 6 can kill Petrov 2.

Four turns left.



SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT-

Three turns left.



MotherFUCKER!

TOTAL RETRIES: 3

I think I need to start using some of the other command tools in my toolbox…

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

In Reality #4, the tactical overlay looks like this. The game appears to take pity on me by putting Petrov 2 in a place where most of his time is not spent sprinting towards the center to try to defend it.



The plan looks like this: Petrov 2 is to look over the closer-quarters cover while Petrov 1 covers the further wall with more shooting space. The enemies appear to not bumrush but they still do move at a reasonable clip, and I'm hoping that by digging in I can at least hold out.

Start the clock!



This I can work with. The enemy is positioning themselves, and I'm quite firmly entrenched in the center and around it. With the rifleman on overwatch, I can have Petrov 2 loop up to end the sniper and keep the left Panarch guard alive.

The command Petrov 1 receives is to hold the line, kill any of the Enyo shotgunners that close in, then for the first time in the campaign I'll use the Wait command to have enough time to engage the enemy, then duck, putting me out of the way of Enyo 4, a sniper offscreen and down below.

Five turns left.



One kill, and things are looking good. I look like I'm in a precarious position with Petrov 1, but I learn something new: I can duck and aim at the same time, which allows Petrov 1 to gun down Enyo 4, but might leave him vulnerable to Enyo 2, should he be aiming and ready as he slices the pie.

Petrov 2 is to run around and reposition to flank Enyos 5 and 6.

Four turns left.



After some absurdly derpy behavior from Enyo 2, who seemed to judder back and forth while Enyo 4 was killed, he has a weird Mexican standoff dealio with Petrov 1, and Petrov 2's new orders are to run to the center in case Enyo 2 has the advantage. Simulations suggest not, but I've been surprised before and I intend not to be now.

Enyos 6 and 2 are the only E:N vatforms left.

Three turns left.



…whaaaaa…

In a complete 180 from the frightening competence I've been faced with, Enyo 6 now waddles right into a death trap. I guess there's one outcome for this, with two turns left…



With Davis' sense of humor shifted to top gear, I sit down and wait for the clock to run out as the last bits of sense kick in and E:N appears to choose to lose gracefully instead of going for a total party wipe. Then, I get these orders…



Uhhh…sure, whatever floats your boat, Soulsby. I'll valiantly keep this one guy at bay.

So…uhhh…anyone heard any good jokes lately?



Oh! That's interesting. So, now we know how we'll start dismantling Enyo:Nomad's forces.

(Soulsby) "Good work, Tactics. We have Enyo:Nomad reinforcements coming in from the west - I'll reconnect with you shortly."

What, here in the room? I don't know where else I could go with this formation-really, this is it unless we get ganked by shotgunners.



Or not, as it seems this mission is over. On to the next one!

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

The next mission looks like a sort of proper boss encounter.



Look, it's got its own unique-looking arena and everything! Okay, so our boss is an unarmed civilian, but look at what he's surrounded by!



I would have been a little less enthused, but as long as the Panarch units play ball, maybe I'll be fine.

Note this is our introduction to rocket vatforms. Can't sit safely behind cover this time; those guys can just blow it wide open and kill or at least reveal my units.

(Belacqua) "And by 'support,' we mean 'actively hinder and annoy.'"

Hey, cut them some slack, Belacqua - they kill, which is more than I can say for most meatshields.



…gonna explain how that works at all?

Oh well, I think I get it. We kill Bradshaw, the security loses its last connection to Enyo:Nomad, and we can claim this power station. I have eight turns - just 40 seconds - to get this one done and dusted.



The good news is that we have a rocketeer. The bad news is that it's one of the Panarch guys, so I can't directly control it, meaning I can't tell it where to aim.

If riflemen are main battle tanks (midrange, mobile enough, high enough firepower), shotgunners are light tanks (move quickly and attack at close range) and snipers are tank destroyers (park them and blast at passing solo enemies from stupid range), then the rocketeers are self-propelled guns: you point them at a general area, they launch a shell (or, well, rocket, I guess) a long way away, and then a bigass explosion happens and kills everyone in the blast radius.

They also blow up walls, both chest-high and full-size ones. This destroys cover and allows friendly units to kill standing targets with follow-up shots since they're now easier kills for free shooters.

Due to their weapons, they don't engage on sight: you manually tell them to aim in a direction and they'll shoot a rocket there. The idea is to find stationary targets or places where the enemy might be hiding from plain sight and use the rockets to demolish those areas, meaning you do kind of have to point them at a wall in order to get them to blow something in the area up.

One reason, I suppose, we don't get to control the rocketeer is because the first thing I would do is grab that thing and blast the central rooms Bradshaw is in. With a wall open, all I'd need to do is park riflemen to eventually kill him. VIP down, job's a good 'un. With the CPU in charge I'll just have to find opportunities myself.



More bad news: Enyo:Nomad has one more rocketeer than I do. The problem with theirs, however, is that he's gotta go a long way to fire his rocket, and I'll be able to neuter his power by staying out in the open, waiting for him to walk into my gunsights, and smacking him down. If I predict he has a good shot, I move.

Rockets are slow, and I'll use that to my advantage to dodge bullets. Rockets. Whatever, you get the idea. Plus that, their rocketeers can't sprint like my other soldiers can. Enyos 7 and 6 can be neutered as assets if I'm fast enough.



The idea that E:N is very likely to seize upon is to fortify and stick every gun they can out to keep me from advancing. Which is fine, if they don't shoot the Panarch rocketeer, he can just keep blasting the compound and eventually Bradshaw will die in an explosion.



This means the plan is to fortify myself and get behind cover. Any approaching enemies need to be shot before they can get a shot off on the rocketeer, otherwise it'll be a footslog into the complex.



Petrov 4 deserves special mention; I did a few simulations and figured that if I place him here, a rocket won't kill him; it'll whiff into that box between the rocketeer and the walls.

Okay, so the plan is to try to figure out a good way to fortify while everyone tries to pour out of these rooms they have no easy exit from.

PRIMING reveals…



Thanks, Soulsby.

A Panarch vatform dies, but the silver lining is that it was one of the riflemen, and I'm lousy with riflemen right now. The Panarch rocketeer would have an easy shot from here to start demolishing Bradshaw's chambers. From here, I can hunker down and keep shredding E:N riflemen as they try to file out. They're crossing into No Man's Land, and the rule of No Man's Lands everywhere is that you will get disintegrated by machine gun fire unless you grab some ground or suppress the suppressive fire. There are no exceptions.



What I didn't expect was this situation up here. Enyo 7 blew up the wall to give Enyos 2 and 4 an exit. Okay, that makes sense.

…what doesn't is now putting him into cover like this. He will either deploy through blowing up more of the wall to move, or cutting through the cover to try to get to a better firing position. The problem is, either move would still make him vulnerable, and he has to clear that wall and keep clearing it in order to avoid blowing himself up by shooting one of the walls directly in front of him. He's in an awful position and if I fortify, he will only manage to get as far as killing one or two guys before getting cut down.

So, dig in and PRIME.



Naturally, what happens is that our rocketeer gets killed…



…and the Enyo rocketeer kills Petrov 4, so Enyos 2 and 4 live.



However, I have a saving throw. Bradshaw and his goons have trapped themselves in that room in order to fortify, and I can stay out of the Enyo:Nomad line of sight. If I make Petrov 1 make a break for it, I can get into position, pop up and splatter Bradshaw.

I move up Petrov 2 to do the same to Enyos 8 and 9, with Petrovs 5 and 3 on approach to cover their positions. It's time to really gamble.

PRIME me!



The plan works. The E:N forces up north are tied up trying to pick off the final Panarch rifleman, but I know they can break their attack off at any time to attack my vatforms. This last attack has to be swift and the enemy has to be too slow to respond. If Enyos 1 and 5 move, I have my chance.

Petrovs 1 and 3 will be able to gun down Enyos 8 and 9 between them, so that avenue is most definitely clear.

PRIMING!



I'm still in this thing, but I'm running out of time. The Enyo forces up top just finished killing the last Panarch. This checkmate has to happen now.

Petrov 1 circles around to shoot in from a new location while Petrov 5 is on overwatch and Petrovs 2 and 3 move in. I hope this works.



It worked! In fact, it only would have worked on that exact turn or likely would have failed shortly afterwards, with Enyo 7 nuking Petrov 5 with a rocket right as Petrov 1 guns down Bradshaw. Granted, I'm pretty sure I would have been able to do that in another turn or so, but it seems like if I'd delayed at all, I would have seen my men picked off. If it had come down to a numerical advantage I would likely have been explodified by rockets.

(Belacqua) "Just what we've always wanted: more Panarchs."

I had such high hopes for the Panarchs after seeing them cover for me. No, this time they all got killed to a man and didn't help out with a single rocket.

In hindsight, I feel like I did almost everything I could for this mission, except for the top section. The rocketeers were a little more trouble than I gave them credit for, and that was because I didn't test how rockets could really be used. Had I not assumed rockets stopped at any old bit of cover, I would've moved my guys back to continue shooting it out up there and maybe put the other Enyo rocketeer out of play.

The death of the Panarch rocketeer was a sort of happy accident: if I hadn't seen the rocketeer was out of play I wouldn't have advanced as aggressively as I did, and I possibly wouldn't have seen what an easy run I had with my shotgunners. I saw an opening gifted to me there and went for it, and I think I've made up for the shameful run I had last mission.

This op is done and dusted!

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

Yep, that's us! WE'RE TOTALLY THE GOOD GUYS!

Someone would look at this and say "wow, Yumemi, you're really looking for any excuse to roast Petrov's Shard and its choice of allies." You'd be right, but with other headlines like "The Panarch Collaborative: subversion cloaked in benevolence?" I don't have to try very hard to vilify people with extreme-sounding rhetoric ready to fire.

We get a clue in another headline that there's a world outside Markov Geist with "Nimitz Shand to address World Congress on Social and Technological reform," but again, that's not saying all that much.

…does rather blunt Shand's moral footing as some kind of defender of libertarianism being a corporatocracy actively enforcing a monopoly on his own megacity; the way I understand libertarianism, if he wanted to really do as he does he'd be helping every single business under the sun grow, especially competition for him to get him to stimulate his own ideas. He needs to build a rich market, and he can't do that when he's the only game in town. Maybe he should've been doing this corporate shit, become mayor and then used that money to form a political dynasty by buying charity. Would certainly make it harder to justify open war against him.

Speaking of the guy, let's see this dossier on Enyo:Nomad…



Lemme guess: someone wanted a bigger piece of the pie and Shand was prepared to kick more puppies to get it than Nix was. His student before he turned to the Dark Side, if you will.

Not a very nuanced case, is it?

Let's open this one on vatforms next…now I'm curious.



Nothing I wouldn't have already been able to guess, then.

…except for that part about the Panarchs. At first I pegged them as Luddites who didn't like the Shape…and now it looks more like they either believe the limit is stopping at vatforms as basically biological robots, or with the way they talk about that, maybe as some kind of more suggestible humans.

The more time I spend with the Panarchs the more I'm worried about them. Their rhetoric doesn't add up, and if it was all about balance with them they'd be making a society about more interaction between humans and humans as well as humans and the Shape.

Hmmm. Soulsby, you were my commander. Let's do a debrief.



Yeah, neither am I. There's something weird about them. How does their ideology rub you? Not as balanced or even consistent with itself as it first sounded, does it? That makes me nervous. Even more nervous than an ideological fanatic. They're predictable to a degree. This? This isn't quite as predictable.

"They were practically parasitic for a while, living off power and data they annexed from Enyo:Nomad, refusing to pay taxes, cloning and copying everything they could get their hands on."

Huh. They almost sound like they were criminals before falling under this sort of mutant, confused ideology that Cole Smythe is trying to espouse. Now, what I'm wondering is if this was due to the abject failure (I guess) of Torpor (which just had a name that screamed success), or if this kind of economic inequality is just ever-present in Markov Geist to this degree, which sort of outs Nimitz Shand as an awful businessman who's not getting enough capital to citizens that he's likely to be hiring for everything.

"We used to see them as a minor pest: E:N did a lot of work trying to bring them into line. I hope Nix knows what he's doing."

If he doesn't at least I know he won't get cold feet and have me act as his triggerman.

"At least they're standing up to E:N…I guess I'm finding it hard to shake my cover. It's a known thing: if you act a certain way for long enough, you'll start to believe that's really you."

Ahhh. Thought you were sinking a little too deep into the role? I suppose I can't blame you. If E:N really does own every rock, tree and bird in Markov Geist, it'd be hard to shake the feeling that you work for them and they employ you in every single breath. It's an oppressive atmosphere, definitely.

"You performed well out there: it's giving me confidence that this isn't just some ludicrous venture. Nix is very well connected: this organization is actually larger than I realized; he's been working on this for years."

He must have spent very little of that casing the Panarchs.

…what is with this fetish everyone has for colons and semicolons around here? Seriously!

"At the moment, we're helping the Panarchs with their vatform production.

Although some of the short-term units won't last all that long, like the commandos Nix deployed at Nashar, we have a strong supply."

Ahhh, I get it now. This is part of our production to fight this war effectively. For lack of a better term, this is a play for manpower.

I understand, though I'll agree with you in keeping these guys at arm's length.

Belacqua, what'd you see out there?



I still can't get a read on them myself. It still makes me nervous. Man, we're three for three in not liking the Panarchs all that much. The only thing that seems consistent about them is their volume.

"They do have a lot of vatform production though, so we'll be able to reinforce. That'll come in handy after some of your more…creative strategies."

Hey, far as you know, I haven't lost very many vatforms. Just a handful…though you have to admit, each one was a revelation of some major oversight on my part, and I really didn't expect that one vatform to get blown up by eating a rocket.

"I don't care about the planet: the meatwads can kill it off as far as I'm concerned.

The shape doesn't need electricity to exist at a basic level: nobody's figured out what keeps the basic shape descriptors alive, so when all the humans nuke themselves or run out of coal or something, we'll be laughing."

Wait, what? Now that's weird.

Well, I vote we should keep the planet around. The world is perfect for further research and self-optimization, and there's no easier time than now to continue expanding and creating a Shape that can look after itself physically as well as in cyberspace, so why not go for it? Our longevity as humanity's echo, its children if you will, demands we at least try.

"Shape descriptors: weird things. The shape can rebound off buildings, natural features, people. It's a strange place to live, let me tell you."

And getting stranger by the moment. Almost makes one wonder if Cole and his buddies couldn't handle the strangeness of this new world around him and snapped against it.

"I just wonder how long it'll be before Enyo:Nomad really notice what we're up to. I think they just consider us to be a bit of a nuisance at the moment out here in Torpor."

How big IS this place, anyway? We hacked a building and attacked it with rocket launchers! We blew holes out of the structure and this was after blowing up a research institute and killing scientists working on E:N's superweapon!

Might I add, we are a rogue faction spearheaded by Shand's erstwhile right hand! Our profile with him? High as a kite! I'm surprised he hasn't thrown Charon's Palm at us in a gesture to show just how much tougher and stronger he is, and show how right Enyo:Nomad is in being the only game in town!

"You wait until we get to Denshen or Corteca, then we might start to see what Charon's Palm can really do on the battlefield."

So…he just can't reach out here, but I can.

I'm starting to see now. We're gathering power until we can start a campaign into the heart of Markov Geist. By the time we see Charon's Palm I suppose I'll be ready for him.

…that just leaves one more person to consult, and that's Smythe himself.

Okay, Cole Miner's Glove, explain yourself.



I'll bet a lot of them have to do with your lousy infrastructure and your concentration on making vatforms and Shape connections rather than making sure all your little rebels can…you know, eat, sleep and use running water.

"Those cultists at Blue Sunlight, the pollution of our children's minds by Enyo:Nomad, the Nin and their constant claims to own every piece of land they see: we're so far away from unity."

And you're the man to bring them all together, are you?

On the other hand, those slips of the tongue are useful. I'm certain I'll be seeing those names and faces applied to them as I go. Good to know you're not the only crazy in town.

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

Oh, boy.

Look, man, I've seen your type too many times to ignore it. You think you're the one true solution to all these ills when it really takes communication to bring people together under common ground. You keep going this way, you're bound to make a mistake or become as autocratic as Shand-a-land-a-ding-dong for your constituent parts not getting your true vision or whatever you want to call it.

Mean of me to say, sure, but…someone's gotta tell you.

"If we give people the right to be self-sufficient then they'll build their own paradise: I guarantee it."



There's a bigger problem than your cynicism here. That's an especially vague goal. Is self-sufficiency as radical as the North Korean-style juche I joked about? That was an economic disaster that kept North Korea in a perpetual state of…well, something like Torpor, I suppose, because no one location can be expected to do all its industry and keep growing. And at least North Korea has things like coal and metal ores and stuff; Markov Geist is a fucking city. What are we gonna do, turn these disused buildings into Dahir Insaat-style farm skyscrapers? Blow up buildings to try to recycle the steel? Dig for oil and desperately try not to blow up any of the gas lines?

If it's about dependency on the Shape, or Enyo:Nomad's control of it, then why is Smythe so keen on vatform production and connecting them to the Shape? Doesn't that perpetuate the problem a little, just putting control of the Shape into hands of your own choosing, and, again, becoming more like Nimitz Shand in an attempt to fight him? This is a dangerous road to go down.

Well…I suppose I'll be asking those questions a while longer. For now, it looks like we'll be Radio Free Panarchs in the next mission.

NEXT PROJECTION: BRECKWOOD BROADCASTING FACILITY

 

[cokerpilot]

Even if you don't get around to finishing this I would at least like to thank you for introducing me to this game.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

Rest assured, I am. Real life and the sheer production work behind something like this got in my way.

The missions now, as you can see, are operations that take like 60 pictures or something, and I tend to pace them so I don't post until I've completed an entire mission, which is a pack of three operations.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

So, it's time to start this next operation.



I figured that's what the power station was for…and perhaps not for your fellow Panarchs, so I guess you're leader of the year…but where's this broadcasting facility we've highlighted factor into all this?

I suppose this is remarking about this being a propaganda war coming back to bite me in the ass.



Uhhhh…yeah. I kinda assumed that, Nix, thanks for joining us. I thought that was why you reached out to these guys, not just because they had vatforms. What were you gonna do if they were E:N?

…hold that thought. I know exactly what you'd do if they were E:N, and it involves me blowing more heads off with vatforms. Forget I said anything.



That's rich. Considering so many engineering and management lessons I've absorbed that say that every corporation that's big enough is becoming aware of sustainability so they can keep doing what they're doing for way longer, or even just because it's fashionable, you seem like a man even further behind the times than if this was now.

Please, do tell me where growing vatforms for your vague Utopian perfect society and living in Urban Decay, Wherever The Fuck Markov Geist Is fit into "communing with nature."

"Since Enyo:Nomad passed the Consolidation Act, we've been prohibited from expanding our habitats and redeveloping the wasteland. They left us no option but continuing to fight them.

Anyway, we must press on and build some public support; the population must be made to question whether Enyo:Nomad are beneficial in the long term."

The Shape is the Super Internet and you don't have a population questioning and poring over every little detail of Enyo:Nomad's tenure as their leaders? How the fuck does that work out?! This is North Korea, isn't it? It lives in its own little physical and technological bubble, where a supreme leader basically does whatever the fuck with most of the money, mostly military assets, while infrastructure development is a meandering wreck just because nobody in any power gives a shit.



Look, the skyline is even dominated by one fuckoff-big pyramid thingy! Actually, no, it isn't, and I'll tell you why: a little secret is that the North Koreans know that everything in North Korea is bullshit, but are just too scared to admit it because they know what happens to people who complain!

Alright, trying to speak about this more seriously, E:N is…weird. The more I hear about them, the more my worry becomes about this top-heavy society they're building and how much money it must be costing them in the long run to prop it up. And you assholes don't help, what with not paying taxes and basically trying to live off the grid while crammed up its cramhole.

Does Kickstarter not exist here? Has crowdfunding just kinda…shriveled up and died? Did E:N try to dissolve Habitat For Humanity and break up charities all over the city because they really want to be the only power in town? I swear to God, a bunch of YouTubers could depose this fucker as King of Town by getting broadcast revenue and then building communities that aren't living in crumbling ruins.

That is if Enyo:Nomad doesn't just steal all their Patreon money or something.

Okay, okay, I know part of this is your fault for basically trying to freeload your way through all this, but…actually, now I'm wondering something else. Like, the Shape gathers around nodes, sure, but how come you guys have to pirate that, too? Wouldn't the Shape, as pervasive as it is, be more like running water, heating or your land lines? Like, it's so universal that it's not a paid service so much as it is a public utility? People in a world like this would be way more media-savvy is what I'm saying! It would be impossible to get everyone into a situation like this unless the population of Markov Geist was so connected to the Shape that they could basically be ordered around like robots! In which case, all Cole is trying to do is make his own personal kingdom like Colonel Kurtz in hipster glasses! Look at you, spending all your money on these vatforms when the Panarchs really need homes!

Uuuuugh, enemy of my enemy, enemy of my enemy…



"The Panarchs will attempt to hijack a broadcast; I will then take over and transmit our message to the population of the city, inviting them to our cause.

Our secondary teams will prevent reinforcement while the main system, controlled by you, enters the facility."

Ugh, well, at least I can do that…




I can just smell the ideological split from here. Smythe wants to be taken all the way to the big pyramid thingy while Nix wants to do the same, and someone will want their revolution to be the Revolution, capital R. Nix just wants to break the monopoly, Smythe wants to replace it with his own, what with his belief that the Revenant Coast will give the rest of society what's coming to it.



Just take me to the mission before I get any crankier.



Well, this is familiar.



Yes, we're doing the mission I got Davis killed twice, only this time I'm trying to smuggle him into this terminal.

…again, this really feels like something that could be done over a network, especially with the Shape, but…fine, we'll play ball.



Yeah, that's right, this time I'm directly controlling a civilian: Davis. The good thing about this is that if it's just about getting from point A to point B, I should have this locked down. I may complain about your lines, but I'm not getting anybody I can't just grow a replacement for killed.

That's a promise.



Let's get it on!




…wait, that's an interesting point. Not the brain-sucking thing, the Shape thing. Could Davis not do this remotely through the Shape if he's so connected to it that I can give him orders? We could just go up to a Shape rectifier and have him bamf in from there?

I mean, that way I could capture this place and ensure nobody is trying to blow this place up or destroy the infrastructure…right?

Look at it this way: Belacqua is our shapeform hacker. Davis is our realspace hacker. You seein' the synergy? Or is that why I'm Tactics and not Grand Strategy?

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

Let's look at what we've got to work with. We have a numerical disadvantage, four to three, but unless the guards want to make that central location entirely undefended, and especially attempt to throw their guards at us in two very loose waves, they won't do that. It's really a two to three advantage for us on approach, then a two to whoever we have matchup on the assault moving in. Actually, looking at it further, it's really a three to three fight with the possibility to turn into a four to three fight as the battle progresses. Check this out.



The first potential issue is this problem. Enyo 3 is more dangerous than he looks. In a vacuum such as this, he appears to be easy to kill by Petrov 2 and 3, but when you look down…



Enyo 4 can get to this piece of cover and pick off Petrov 1 and Davis, and maybe even Petrov 3. Plus, if Enyo 1, their shotgunner, is running up to kill Davis, too, then I need to address this. I assume that'll be the plan, that is, if Enyo 1 doesn't just run into the center to fortify their defenses.

With that in mind, the plan is about covering as much with our midrange riflemen as possible. Petrov 2 goes down to intercept Enyo 3 if he goes down, then takes cover to suppress Enyo 4 if possible, while Petrov 3 goes up to hit Enyo 3 if he moves up instead. Davis takes cover in the near room while Petrov 1 goes due south to ensure Enyo 1 can only safely enter through all those buildings, lengthening his route should he have to take it.

That's the opening plan: start thinning out enemy presence, then once all the threats are dealt with, get Davis in as fast as possible. Shouldn't take more than a few turns to get him the way in, after all, so most of this is going to be covering him to fight his way inside.



He actually kinda has a point. I need to get him out of everyone's line of fire, so I have him on the other side of all the cover while I set up my dudes.

Enyo 3 doesn't immediately move, so I move Petrov 2 back. Enyo 4 might have a clear shot if I move up, and Enyo 3 will definitely have a clear shot. I gotta be really careful.

I choose to dig in and PRIME.



You mind, bro? I'm trying to get you there in one piece!



With Belacqua not having as good a line as I manage, I suppose, I take stock of the situation. Everyone stays where they are as they won't get much better firing lines from these positions…



However, Petrovs 3 and 2 are to sweep a little sideways to get better lines of fire.

If I move around too much I'll get blasted, these guys are quite well-defended and I need a kill in order to keep things moving in my favor.



(Soulsby) "Just ignore that, Tactics. Belacqua's trying to block their communications."

Tell him I'm not bothered. The angrier this guy gets, the less balanced he's going to be and the easier it'll be to knock him down a peg.

I get my kill, and now this is a three on three fight. Shand gets pissy about this and I'm certain we'll be getting a retort about this state of affairs. As much as I might be happy with this right now, Davis needs to start moving.



The problem is that Enyo 4 is in a really good position. I can't move Petrov 3 directly down or he gets shot. Enyo 3 is a write-off and Enyo 1 will have to cross into alleys of rifle fire as he's a shotgunner, but until I figure out how to deal with Enyo 4, approaching the room is going to be the biggest problem.

I have a long-term plan for finishing the mission, though, but it depends on how the outcome of this turn goes. All I can do is PRIME, clench my teeth, and…



(Soulsby) "Understood."

…be deeply concerned that nobody's moved.

Fine then, here's the plan.

Petrov 3 will cut in to try to engage Enyo 3 and get in a firing position to eliminate Enyo 4, and Petrov 2 will have to stay where he is. But as soon as he's free, he'll head onto that complex of windows and tables to cut off any attempts to get fire in that way.

Petrov 1, offscreen, will wait and see if Enyo 1 does anything. Hopefully I've created enough of a field of fire to keep them busy.

Feeling quite unsure of myself, I PRIME and hope something breaks.

Unfortunately, the thing that breaks is Petrov 3.

With Soulsby telling me to keep the pressure up, I notice something interesting: Enyo 4 actually has horrible line of sight as long as I get Davis to duck when he gets near the goal.

It's time for another Yumemi gamble, I think: hold down the fort and trust Enyo 4 will try to try to engage in a disadvantageous spot, and pitch Davis in headlong.

I PRIME on a certain death-or-glory gambit.



As it turns out, Enyo 4 had a better line of sight just staying where he was, and instead I get death.

TOTAL RETRIES: 4

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

In the next alternate reality I'm shunted into, I see more clutter but an equally difficult run for Davis to the center. Enemy composition and my own doesn't change, but I at least have more cover to work with.



Petrov 1 and Enyo 3 are in a strange situation: they can shoot at each other from here and spray bullets all over the place looking for the shot that kills one another. Worse yet, I don't know who shoots who.

I think Enyo 3 might shoot Petrov 1, so I tell him to duck so he doesn't get targeted.

Petrov 2, on the other hand, is in danger, but not much: I told him to duck so he's out of Enyo 4's way, and Petrov 2 will be quicker on the draw than Enyo 4, and will get off a shot first. If he goes through the buildings instead, I might be able to catch him with either of my riflemen up here and move them out of the way and into cover.

Meawhile, Davis is to run inside and stay where the hell he is. Same tactic as before: clear a path, then throw Davis in. There's nothing more dangerous right now than getting him caught in crossfire, and if I do what I did last time that'll absolutely happen.

I dig in and PRIME.



Like a complete idiot, I luck out when I forget that Enyo 1 is down here with Petrov 3. However, with Petrov 3 standing still with some cover in his way, and Enyo 1 blundering into his sight range, Petrov 3 just guns him down after looking at him, bewildered.



Anyway, the plan is to get him in cover and make this corridor here from this table a kill zone. Should any Enyo forces pop up or camp out, I will make it hard for them.



Petrov 2, meanwhile, is to stay where he is to engage either Enyo 4 or Enyo 3, if he doesn't blunder into Petrov 1's gunsights. I'm in a bad position here: either Enyo could kill my riflemen if I overcommit, but with 10 turns to work with I'm aware I have to work fast. Should I kill Enyos 4 and 2, though, now I should be in a position to throw Davis in before Enyo 3 can get in there.

PRIMING reveals…



The idiots fall right into my trap. I keep Petrov 1 where he is in order to cover from Enyo 3 on approach.

Petrovs 2 and 3 are not to engage yet; if they do now and their Enyo counterparts aim out, they'll get gunned down. However, they appear to just be patrolling back and forth, so I need to catch them in a position where they rock back into view and I blast them.

It's at this point that I should point out just how much of Frozen Synapse appears to be standing still and waiting. I made no man's land remarks before, and here they really do come into their own: the first guy to try to run across is the first guy who gets killed when everyone else already has trained guns on the general vicinity. Whoever has to move less distance gets the shot first.

With this in mind, I PRIME and cross my fingers, hoping my hunch is right. If the two Enyos leave I'm in a lot of trouble, but that sounds like a bad gamble so I'm confident they won't do it. They're too entrenched in there…



My men stand this turn, and my plan swings into action. I hold on and PRIME, knowing I can get Davis in in a couple of turns, if only I can kill these two guards inside!



I move Petrovs 3 and 2 up. Enyos 4 and 2 are determined to stay where they are, so I just have to switch cover.

Davis, meanwhile, runs, keeping Enyo 3 busy as he tries and fails to shoot him. A weakness of the enemy setup is that they rely too much on their center, and now with their lower guard killed, I can run Davis all around the bottom as long as he stays out of other lines of fire.

I feel like I got my hand forced, but either way I think it'll work. I'll PRIME and see what happens:



I run into an even better best-case scenario. Enyo 3 commits to engaging Petrov 1, and Petrov 1 is likely to blast Enyo 3. Petrov 2 relocates, and Petrov 3 continues creeping up.

Davis is still taking a really long, roundabout route. He has the advantage of everyone being focused on shooting other people, and once he gets down below he's fairly clear.

I'm committed too, but the fact of the matter is that I committed to my plan first, so the enemy still has to react to me. I have the initiative, and the enemy is swiftly running out of options as I cut them down one by one.

I confidently PRIME, and…



The plan reaches a hitch when the Enyo defenders gun down Petrov 3. I think I might have overestimated how much ducking keeps a soldier out of sight. I have a backup, though: Petrov 2 is to move in instead.



Petrov 1, meanwhile, is to run across and bolster the upper defenses. This plan has got to work.



(Soulsby) "Thank you, Alpha. Last chance, Tactics."

Enyo:Nomad is bunching up, but time is running out. I have 15 seconds to do magic, so Davis is to run up while I set up my operative.



The plan this turn is to set up, wait for a moment, then pop up and shoot down the Enyo guards. To do this, I've made the command for Petrov 2 to aim, wait a second, then pop up and open fire. Hilariously, even if they stand there and aim, they'll get outdrawn. And if they leave, Davis will have the chance to sprint right on in.

With that in mind, he is to take a straight shot in and I'm to run in before I run out of time. It's down to the wire!



No worries, Soulsby, you said 10 turns, I give you an incursion in 10 turns.

With the last defenders gunned down, it's a straight shot.



And the rest…is history.

(Belacqua) "'Radical?' Who says that?"

Lots of people. It's from the 80s, dude.



So how come I do all sorts of fancy killing and get really crappy ratings, and yet I get one guy killed and barely get in within my time limit, and I'm only two points off a perfect rating?

Don't tell me I had to babysit all those Panarch losers all the way across those other battles; even then I kept a bunch of them alive and they still screwed me out of a score. Some days I just don't get this game.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

The next mission looks like another step up in difficulty. Why? Check this out:





(Soulsby) "Do this well, and we might be able to get control of some Enyo:Nomad grenade launcher tech. Let's go."

Oh yes, that's right: this is our first contact with grenade launchers.

Grenade launchers work the way you'd think they do…to a point. They're basically Demoman grenades, where they get fired, travel a certain distance, bounce off walls and other environmental features, then detonate. Cover and units that get caught in an explosion are dead.

They're not as indiscriminate as rocketeers due to the whole bouncing thing, but they struggle with range, and they don't detonate on impact so if you keep moving, you stay alive.



The real trouble is this: they have a sniper nest. I may have a shotgunner, but I need to kill the rifleman up top and the grenadier out to the right to remove flanking and counter-mobility elements. As long as the sniper doesn't have good line of sight, I can stay out of trouble, especially because the sniper needs time to set up and aim, and the grenadier can get ganked if he doesn't get enough cover.



This is where my plan comes in. Bumrush Enyo 4, wait out Enyo…uhhh…Enyo…Enyo Not-Numbered, I guess he's Enyo 5, kill Enyo 1 with Petrov 4 by tying him up with contacts running every which way. I doubt he'll move at all, because if he does he loses shot priority. Enyo 3 is similarly stuck, and Enyo 2 will also have to move into a vulnerable position to get a shot off.

I PRIME and hope this works out, because I'm being really aggressive and more than a little worried that my haste is putting me out of position.



Then, a grenadier blows up Petrov 3 and Petrov 4 gets sniped.

Soulsby may be telling me I can do this but I'm now very unsure I can get this done.

With the plan completely scrapped, I tell Petrov 1 to hunker down and Petrov 2 to keep hunting. With nothing left to lose, I PRIME.

I'll mention that part of the reason I think I'm a shapeform is the loading screen. Their version of "The computer is thinking" is "The shapeforms are deliberating," which further makes me think this is something only shapeforms can do. Like, you can have human tacticians, but nothing can do this moment-by-moment stuff the way a shapeform can.



Petrov 1 is told to turn around and gun down Enyo 1, which he can because he's stationary and Enyo 1 just stopped moving, and the Enyo grenadier is killed while Enyo 5…uhhh…just kinda futzes around up top.

Petrov 2 is to immediately change direction and run away from the grenade. Surprisingly a wipe isn't looking likely just yet.

I need to run up, duck and fortify with him. Enyo 3 may be dangerous at range but he requires a target to pop into view while moving, and if he's moving himself and too close, he's vulnerable. I may be able to be bold for this one, but only if I pick my moment right.

PRIMING reveals…



…that…uhhh…despite screwing up and having Petrov 1 duck-walk away, Enyo 3 isn't biting. Enyo 2 is moving up, but everyone is being way less aggressive than I thought. Enyo 5 is almost a nonissue at this point; anything he does would take so long to get here that I'd be fortified in some way in order to circumvent it. It would seem I overestimated not just the E:N aggression on display but the willingness to follow through on tactics like flanking and pincer movements.

Petrov 1 is to continue on his course.



With eleven turns left to burn, I can afford to wait in the final positions I pick.



This cone of vision is important: it would appear that Enyos 2 and 3 are at a bit of an impasse. Enyo 2 can't move anywhere where Petrov 2 wouldn't be able to gun him down, and should Enyo 3 try moving to a firing position to eliminate Petrov 1 or 2, Petrov 2 will see him and shoot.

With this impasse in place I PRIME.



Enyo 2 dies, and Enyo 3 appears to be moving to engage either guy. To try to get Petrov 2 to safety, I camp him out between a wall and a table and watch as simulations suggest Enyo 3 will have a hard enough time targeting Petrov 2 to let Petrov 2 gun him down.

I PRIME and hope for the best.




Long story short, I need to do more simulations.



Enyo 5 is making his way down, so I just turn Petrov 1 around to get him running into a hail of bullets.



Thankfully, that's all it takes to win the scenario. Luck was on my side, and my own hotheaded tactics got me in really deep shit. As much as I can say that won't happen again, I'm pretty sure that'll totally happen again.

(Soulsby) "Good hold there, Tactics. We're almost there with this now. I'll have Beta bring Nix into the studio."



So next time, I just need to focus, take a hold and maybe not get half my forces wiped in the first turn.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

So, what do you have for me?



…ooooooh shit.



And I take it that's what those red things on the floor are?



Yep, called it.



(Soulsby) "Units must survive for their keys to be transferred successfully. Once a unit has reached the extraction zone, it will immediately be removed from the area."

So not only do I start with a six-to-three unit disadvantage, my units will dwindle as I do this mission, and I have to go running through a kill zone to collect them. You got any good news for me, Soulsby?

(Soulsby) "We'll require a minimum of three keys and you have 10 turns to collect them. Remember that each unit can carry as many keys as you wish."

Ahhh, this simplifies things.



I told you guys how they work, so I don't really need to go over it. Also, ignore the path I laid down. I'll be changing that.



Just for shits and giggles I'm going to see if I can just make my rifleman sprint like a maniac, grab these three keys and then get the hell outta Dodge. Probably not, but it's worth a try because it seems like a plan so obvious I can't see this working any other way.

I PRIME on the first round of Operation Derp!



Defying all logic, this looks like it might actually work. I lost Petrov 3, but Petrov 2 is still up and running and I use his grenade to cover my retreat.

With a reminder to keep Petrov 1 alive, I change tack and end up in a very dangerous place. I guess this wasn't such a hot idea after all!



I change my path to this, cross my fingers and PRIME.



So apparently, I'm en route to exfil, but stranger still, apparently there is absolutely no civil government in Markov Geist. Enyo:Nomad seems to literally control everything.

…how? Does their control of the shape just involve handing out free booze to everybody? I'm telling you, information finds a way to be free! If hackers could completely wreck the Sombra ARG and leaks about upcoming games and shit happen all the time because of the Internet, imagine what the Shape is like!

…people and shapeforms are completely hackable in Markov Geist. That's the only thing I can think of.

I bug out and PRIME. I'm gonna see if I can just bypass as much of Nix's speech as possible.



Why? There's way too much cover in between E:N's forces and my rapidly-exiting vatforms.



Two keys leave with Petrov 1. Petrov 2 is rapidly on his way out with the third. This is working way better than I think it had any right to.

(Graham) Think: you store huge amounts of personal data with Enyo:Nomad. They know your thoughts, your communications.

Why they keep all of them, I'll never know.

"What have they ever done to earn your trust? Yes, they opened up the shape to you. But at what cost?"

There are shades of the NSA scandal and the debate over Apple and whether or not they should have released certain bits of their code to the FBI in this, perhaps, but the NSA is a US government agency whose job it is to ostensibly gain intelligence on potential criminal activity. However, it's not a complete one to one. In fact, it's not even a pretty good on to one.

This is the equivalent of Google or Facebook learning more about you - without your consent - than a government agency which the populace came down RIDICULOUSLY HARD on for picking up information without people's knowledge. Say what you will about Google, but the most they can do is use software that make educated guesses on what you like based on what you search for and post. Facebook is only full of what you put on there, and so is Google and Google Plus. Nobody gives a crap if you use your real name anymore; what is someone going to do, go to the Yellow Pages or whatever the equivalent is and try to doxx you with barely enough information to…say your name on the web for anybody who gives a shit?

Markov Geist must have next to no tradition of protecting privacy or end user rights like, oh, lemme think, the United States and a sizable portion of the entire Internet-using world. Y'know, to the point where the governments that don't respect these even a bit as much get ridiculed and scorned by all the rest.

If a government entity can't get away with that without being branded Information Age supervillains to be mocked and hated, what more of a corporation?

By the way, there is one good reason why I sided with Apple not giving parts of its architecture to the FBI, and it was Apple protecting its users: if that code got into government hands, with how many hackers have their go at US government properties, that would paint a massive target on God knows how many people. Some things are trade secrets for good reason, and they're not just ketchup or soft drink recipes.

Long story short, I want to know how the fuck Enyo:Nomad got this way because the circumstances require so many specific things to be happening that a giant corporation could be the only thing to fill so many different voids in a sociopolitical structure so unstable that one megacorporation could grab all of it in one go and I'm overthinking my video games again, sorry…

"Their major goal is the creation of value for their shareholders, not fair and just government."

Which is why no corporation ever makes this leap in the real world.

Before someone goes "zomg, military industrial complex" at me, military contractors with specific skill sets developing really expensive shit for a really big military that has to have everybody well-equipped with modern equipment rather than a great deal of its units slumming it with obsolete, rotting equipment (good job, Putin) and trying to ensure everybody gets enough money to justify the costs and, you know, eat, is not the same as this big stupid corporatocracy thing.

Also, Lockheed Martin got slammed on a case of overpricing perishables a few years ago and ended up paying out about $27.5 million for it, so these cases do not go unreported. The power vacuum in Markov Geist must have been insane.

Anyway, PRIMING to get outta here…



I love me.

(Soulsby) "The extraction team will clear everything up - good work, Tactics."

That was a lot easier than I thought it'd be. I think it was having the audacity to start and then the good sense to use all the cover I had at my disposal to cut and run.

Also, my sniper was in an awful starting position and probably couldn't overwatch in time. If only I'd known how that would have gone with the rocketeers, too…

Oh well. My other lesson is not to get trigger-happy with the grenadiers. My tricks there could very easily have blown up Petrov 1 and relied on E:N's shapeforms retaining this suicidal derp quality to follow through with my pretty ridiculous ideas.

I'm sure when I come face-to-face with Charon's Palm, I might not be so lucky.



That's honestly better than I thought it'd be.

 

[Hoshino Yumemi]

How the fuck big is Torpor?! This is the other side of Markov Geist, an honest-to-God megacity!

Look at that thing! That thing over there that looks like someone mixed up meters and kilometers making the EPCOT Center! How the hell expensive must that have been?! What kind of planning did it take to get there, huh?! I can't be the only one thinking of this stuff! Did the accountants just accidentally add one more zero to E:N's budget one year, realize their mistake and leave wastelands everywhere while shrugging and going "oops?"

Uuuugh…okay, okay, the other headlines are making fun of the broadcast and asking who Petrov's Shard is, so I guess that's something…

So, we have two new dossiers: Nix's full speech and another speech from the Blue Sunlight. The cultists Smythe was talking about, then.

So what was the full speech Nix made?




You know…you're going to have to insert somebody to try to keep things under control while you sort things out. If you don't watch it, you'll just create another power vacuum that will inevitably lead to some bigger, worse autocrat brought into power just to satiate the populace's terrified need to be safe in a time of great uncertainty. Or, they'll just decide to strong-arm their way to filling the vacuum without any politics involved, just brute force - that's how ISIS was created!

Also, how does E:N even let voters, like…vote? Wouldn't you think that people would get dirt on them really easy? Anybody remember how exposing all sorts of dirty little secrets on both sides was kind of a big deal in this year's actual, real election which involves interacting with other human beings and everything?

Now you've done it, you stupid setting, you've made me talk about actual politics! And that's where it'll stop, if you're all smart!

So what's Blue Sunlight?




It's…a crazy cult like Smythe basically said. A strangely anti-intellectual group, it sounds like. Which is weird, as the Big Crunch is the real name of this "Omega Point," and it's one of two possible final fates for the universe. Either the Big Crunch happens where everything comes back together through dark matter or the like, or the heat death of the universe happens where everything just keeps spreading out and eventually everything just reaches its lowest energy state due to entropy.

Mankind's increasing technical proficiency, technological mastery and intellectual pursuits are all, in my opinion, part of our evolution. We got where we are now because we were really good at using tools thanks to our highly-developed brains, and as our tools get better, we get smarter and, you know, more fit. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, the creatures that survive are the ones most receptive to change, and by changing our tools and our approach, we become more fit to survive. That's how learning works!

I will give Denizen Creed (Apollo's unloved brother, I guess) this, though: love is another powerful tool we have for survival. If we don't let something mean something that strongly to us, why would we ever try to defend it, right? Why would we ever try to fight for it?

And that's why I'm going to fight for knowledge and cut through to the heart of whatever hitches I pick up in this story. A game that forces me to think this much shouldn't make me turn my brain off for the story and all its little details. That's dishonest.

OK, I won't harp on Mode 7 for that, at this time they were quite small. I just hope that this improves in Frozen Synapse 2.

Alright, now that I'm done crapping on all that, let's talk to people I really don't want to speak to right now…and Soulsby.

All aboard the Cole Train! We're riding coach.



I'm not sure either, Smithy, but not for the reasons you might think!

Does Nix have a plan to keep this needlessly autocratic society from just completely collapsing in on itself when he topples its only form of government? No! No, he doesn't! And he's insane if he's gonna leave you in charge!

(Smythe) "The population needs to understand that humanity can't just wantonly burn up its resources. I would have liked some more content on that in Nix's speech but we can't have everything, I suppose."

What extreme scarcity or resource loss is there around here, exactly? You, need I remind you, spend all YOUR precious resources on expensive-ass vatforms! A model of conservationism you aren't!

"Most of us just spend our lives taking: we subtract from society and the planet."

Oh my GOD, you're never gonna get off this, are you? Don't you have a flash game to code for PETA or something?

"I grew up in Corteca: if you spend five seconds among those self-obsessed money men you'll become tainted with greed.

You might think I'm a crazy idealist: of course I am! Only madmen can point out the cracks that society has developed.

Society is nothing without the basic components which sustain life. It is just a forced elaboration."

…oh. OH! I get you now! I understand you just perfectly now!

You…you're like Barbara Walker, the author of the hilariously out-of-touch Feminist Fairy Tales. You take a good point - corporations need to do more than pay lip service to sustainability - and you throw out all the reasonable parts of it, reducing it to everything being your personal straw man's fault. Except instead of being Christian men, your boogeymen are anyone who dares to enter the world of business or finance or, I dunno, anything expensive.

And your defense when confronted is a simple "well I've met them and that's how I know they're all awful!" Way to proclaim the other party guilty well before you ever met 'em, unless you somehow know every single businessman in the entire city, or dare I say, anywhere bigger! I don't take anecdotes as proof unless they're backed up by hard data, and unless you get me some financial and environmental reports, I'm gonna call bullshit on you!

"Then Blue Sunlight arrived as well. They've been trying to win followers from among the Panarchs for too long."

Sure, I'd throw you a bone and say it's rough that your organization needs to be both big and solid in trying times, but your only concern is that they're horning in on your turf? Your idea of a greater good is starting to sound like a greater not even that great.

At this point I'd take yakking away with Shand over you - at least his self-righteousness is down to "I am Markov Geist," and I can point to him driving people so around the bend that we're desperate enough to side with your flavor of stupid to kick him out of the city!

"They're horrifying people - all they can think of is their stupid Omega Point and their irrational, weak philosophies. They don't realize the only things worth pursuing are here, in the present reality.

They make me sick - you'll see what they're like - liars, just like Enyo:Nomad."

You're more similar than different, you know, taking a vague philosophy and twisting it into this weird-ass cult-like fanaticism to serve your equally vague goals. You both take an anti-intellectual stance, controlling access to the shape and technology in general, technology that is vital to increase the quality of life and perhaps even create the sustainability you so selfishly cling to like an old war banner, via pseudo-environmentalism as opposed to claiming intellectual pursuits in general are meaningless. And for all your talk about you having a monopoly on living for the present, from what I can see, they think about things that way too, just that their vision of living for the present is just kinda…sitting around and going on about "love" like they know anything about it, like a society made up entirely of harlequin romance leads. They wouldn't mind living in the same little bottle as you while they wait for the heat death of the universe or something as long as you get to live in urban ruins and call it sticking it to the man. How noble of you.

Kindly find a locally-sourced, 100% organic ditch and throw yourself into it, and let me do my job. I guarantee you, if I took you to the big dance instead of Graham, all I'd still be doing is trying to keep the anarchy I will inadvertently unleash from turning Markov Geist into the backdrop from Spec Ops: The Line while either of you curls up and cries in a corner for not thinking of an exit plan and wondering why everything is now on fire instead of magically becoming u-fucking-topia now that all the bad guys are dead and you remain.

And now, because I'm a masochist, let's talk to said other big dance partner:



I hate to break it to you, but I think we didn't make a good first impression if we're being called a pirate broadcast and if we got mocked on an E:N-owned late-night talk show. Then again, I've seen that used to bring attention to the great injustices in North Korea, so maybe it's just a tactic anyone can employ.

"I believe that the public would truly loathe Enyo:Nomad if they understood its motivations.

All they see is the calm, smiling public face of Shand everywhere they look."

Hate to break it to you, buddy, but I think these guys just accept whoever's in charge. Whatever happened here and to the world outside, it seems like it was so bad that these people will just follow anybody who puts a roof over their heads. Sure seems like that's how Smythe got his cronies on point, Shand's just doing it on a bigger scale.

I nominate Soulsby if we have to insert someone as our public face and leader of the city if we have to take it over and watch over it. Not you…you're too ideologically charged to be flexible, too close to this one. We need someone who's been in the thick of it on both sides, knows how the other half lives, and that's her. She seems balanced…like whatever's screwing with all our heads hasn't quite infected her yet. She'll let go.

I doubt you might when it comes down to it because of your principles. Not a bad thing, but I've seen those with good intentions fall to zealotry over trying to keep bad outcomes from happening.

…something tells me you weren't always like this. You want to talk about it?

"Originally, Enyo:Nomad focused on delivering technology to the population; their mission was to make the shape accessible to all.

They weren't prepared for the…adoration that generated.

Before the Consolidation Act was passed, much of Enyo:Nomad was dedicated to genuinely serving the people. I truly thought that a large corporation could be a force for good in the world."

Facebook is using solar planes to bring internet to the world at a fraction of the cost of satellites. Sony used Playstation architecture and gamers to model protein folding to fight cancer. They can be, but no corporation's resources are limitless, so they're forced to pick and choose and work with what helps them turn a profit so they can keep doing stuff.

I feel worse for Markov Geist as this keeps going; whatever government this city must have had before all this happened must have been so weak and inept that people were willing to roll over for the people who brought them (the world?) the Super Internet.

"Then Charon's Palm taught them how to manipulate the governmental system."

…whatever pity I have for them evaporates when I turn to this now, taking all this potential and instead of, say, going into lobbying or growing NGOs and doing non-profit work…you trusted that weirdo. A weirdo that so far as I know, is a super-shapeform built for warfighting.

You're gonna have to explain this. Something's telling me you know more about Charon's Palm and I'd better understand to get inside his head.

"'Simplification,' it was called.

They could predict exactly how the public would vote at any given time, and proved it repeatedly. Soon the public came to trust only information they provided. The temptation was too much: they put themselves in power, believing they were best placed to lead.

You can see how this was a poisonous situation: nothing established in this manner can be expected to stand."

You know, if the public doesn't trust most media today and mass media likes selectively sourcing things to tell their own story, what more can be said of Enyo:Nomad?

This only makes me further believe that whoever used to be in charge of this place was especially weak if the equivalent of fucking Apple could overtake them just because they released the i-Internet.

However, this gives me a good understanding as to what makes Charon's Palm so scary. Something like that had to be capable of surreptitiously getting intel on so many people that it's highly concerning. A shapeform that could spy on the population of a megacity all the time, from moment to moment, offering a new way to run a city that was better than something that could be called as flawed and unpredictable as democracy. Technology undergoes a renaissance, the economy booms, everybody turns a blind eye to whatever abuses bring about Utopia.

…it's like if Hitler was psychic.

"I didn't handle things as well as I could have: I let Shand overtake me.

It was my fault things went in this direction: oppression, violence…"

Shand must have been its biggest cheerleader, just like his Himmler or something, and got a lot of power out of it, got enamored with that power…decided to stay there. Not wanting to get involved, you stood on the sidelines and let it all happen because you were afraid of what might happen if you got ensnared in the politics and the bullshit, because with all this stuff running around, messing up could have cost you your life.

I think I get it now.

You're…just as scared and hoping bringing things back to zero by removing Shand and Charon's Palm is a step in the right direction. I'm still keeping an eye on you, but…now I kind of get you.

You're still off-kilter, don't get me wrong, but I know where it comes from now. And even if we don't agree, I see there's a glimmer of genuine good in you.

"There is still a chance for me to rectify this.

All I want is a free society, Tactics. That's all."

Leave the brilliance to me, maybe get an actual mayor back in charge of this mess…

See, people can be free and still have structure. That's what a constitution is for; they're ground rules everyone can agree on. And it seems like we need to Magna a Carta for Markov Geist, and the only way to get it there is to nail it to Charon's Palm's face.

OK, Soulsby, what'd you see out there?



Glad to see you're alright, anyway.

"He's given up a lot to do this; I suppose we're all the same in that respect."

That's war, lady. As inevitable as it can be, that shit sure ain't natural. It makes us do extraordinary things, some bad, some good.

"Our underground facility in Torpor isn't that exciting, but it does the job."

Well, again, that's war. Gotta take what you can get, and besides, what's better in a wartime scenario than an underground bunker, right?

"I grew up in Brightling, in the northwest of the city. It's a fairly quiet place. All I wanted to do was get to the heart of things: I got fascinated by shape interaction."

I think we're fairly fascinating, myself. I can't blame you, too. I think E:N is barely scratching the surface of the potential of the shape. Remember what I said about monopolies stagnating? E:N is the only game in town. They're too focused on stability and the status quo.

Let's institute a real renaissance together after spanking these guys.

"The cutting edge of that technology was being used by the military, so that was the natural direction when I left university. I was the youngest female Ops Commander in the history of the services. It wasn't easy: I'm sure you can imagine."

Yeah, now I follow. No wonder Graham sought you out. He was looking for the best of the best, and your youth meant everything on you, your mind, your body, was still lightning fast.

"When E:N took over security operations from the Municipal Government, I went there. Business has a different ethos, different motivations. Everything happened so quickly: at the start, it was exciting.

Then things changed."

Because with nobody to really watch the watchmen, they…got drunk on their own power, I assume.

"And here I am."

You're alright, Soulsby. None of this is your fault, either.

…and with a very annoyed heart, I look back to the Panarchs to do the dirty work of having to defend the little gremlins. Maybe I can impress them all to some kind of sense by saving them.

NEXT PROJECTION: YAY, MORE TORPOR