SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
Honestly compact fusion reactors and clearing the rubble off the lines should be all it takes to get a train system operating. Electric motorized trains should be a dawdle for these guys to pull off.
Age of Strife
- Location
- That light in the sky with a decaying orbit.
The cybernetics and extra brain, those sound like something from the Mechanus cult, which shouldn't exist yet.
No arrows defy them, but quivers. That is an interesting comment. Does it mean we need automatic weapon fire to take them on? Or perhaps its the storage aspect of the quiver.
I believe that most of the cybernetics that will be in use by the Mechanus Cult were actually invented in the Dark Age of Technology. As for the 'No arrows defy them, but quivers' comment from gravekeeper; I think what he's saying is that they are individually strong but have limited numbers so that if we want to stand up to them we'll want to go for a LOT of Ammo.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Which means we *need* to absorb the Dragonflies and present a united front with the 504s.
Not really. Heavy current controls linked to a switch from brain-proper and hands to grounding sounds like somebody was trying to Palpatine their problems away, which is pretty much in line with what we know of the backstory and deep plot. It sounds like somebody was not a psyker, wanted to be a psyker, and so started grafting MMI-controlled psyker brain matter into jars while reinforcing the rest of the body to reduce the inevitable test subject explosions. We see something similar in the cybernetically-controlled psyker vatbrains in technologies like warp disruption bombs and the psychic lash engines some inquisitors use.
It also fits with things like "chains so tight they cannot be seen".
It's time to pull the trigger while we can still dictate the details. If we wait much longer we are going to be forced to compromise much harder.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You will have to figure out a train design from scratch on this one, the old trains were powered by the tracks themselves, which were in turn powered by massive municipal reactors that no longer exist and there is too much damage and too much need for a minimum charge for you to be able run them. It wouldn't be terribly difficult to come up with a new design, but it would be a low hundreds research project.
It would seem to slot right in to the outline. We were already displaying the crashed craft we recovered. Combine that with a display of the functional flare shield and some dishonest suggestion that we can manufacture plenty more and their positions will look pretty tenuous.
Really?
I've just written out a list of changes that we could put in place to improve our society. I would like to hear what everyone has to say about them.
- Economic
- Business Model: Change to Private Corporations
- Law
- Freedom of Expression, Assembly, and Association: Change to Open Expression (Only after we have an Intelligence System in place)
- Constitutional
- Prime Minister (Stewardship): Same
- On the writing of laws: Legal Advisor
- On the spending of money: Power of the Purse
- Prime Minister (Stewardship): Same
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Maybe, but I'd like for us to *actually* have economic decisions available for us, which won't happen if we switch to Private Corporations.
- Location
- Pilipinas
I think without an Intelligence System, Freedom of Expression and Constant Government Oversight, Private Corporations can be used by our enemies to infiltrate our society, make the lives of commoners far worst as well as do other 'unethical' things like in RL...
13.3
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Leave the situation be until you can figure out better methods (No change)
[X] Deal with the Recyclers first
Figuring that the best course of action would be to just leave things alone for now, you instead turn your attention fully towards the Recyclers. This is going to be exceedingly tricky to pull off. From what you obtained from your interrogations they are semi-nomadic, moving between various camp sites out in the deep forest to the south of your settlements. You have a vague idea where some of these camps are supposed to be, but the prisoners have not thus far yielded up anything more concrete than vague distances, and in any case their knowledge is now rather out of date.
Still, 80 Jaegers with 8 SAWs and 16 underbarrel grenade launchers and properly trained with grenades both fired and thrown is a hell of a lot of firepower as you move into the woods. While you can't hold anything with numbers like that, you can definitely give the Recyclers a damn good reason not to try to mess with you again and possibly liberate some of the people they have taken captive over the years.
The first few weeks go exceedingly poorly, with you finding neither hide nor hair of the Recyclers. Maybe you should have come out last year when the trail would have been warmer? No matter, you always have more to do than time to do it in so there is little use in complaining about it now.
You do find it eerie this deep into the forest, days away from any sign of human interaction. The forest floor detritus is thicker out here, not routinely cleared by controlled burns, and the dangerous flora and fauna is all so much more densely packed together, an unmanaged riot of life all competing with each other in explosions of violent, aggressive evolution.
You spend one night out on watch in the deep forest and find that the eeriness is actually ratcheted up significantly. There is something out there, but you can't get any sort of read on what it might be, and you certainly don't have anything concrete enough to justify running out into the woods beyond a creepy feeling, but there is something... maybe.
A little over a month into the expedition and you find your first actual clue when one of your men points out that some of the plants are wrong in a clearing. Looking over them, you realize that he is right: the leaves don't appear to be as tough, and as you move in to carefully examine them you realize that they smell distinctly sweet. Dabbing them you take a few samples for analysis, but you think the smell might actually be something like vanilla. While nowhere near as aggressive as the toxins and irritants on Dandriss, apparently by the simple fact of being alien there are certain Terran biochemicals that the native life will simply avoid due to being unpleasant smelling and strange, although they tend to acclimatize quickly if deployed in mass amounts.
You think you have found a sort of garden, a cultivation camp for certain plants that will have them grow while the Recyclers are elsewhere. Also, now that you are looking at it, you realize that the forest is somewhat clearer over here. The Recyclers are probably using controlled burns of their own to manage the forests.
While there are minor fires all the time in the forest - it is only every few years that there is the right confluence of factors for a firestorm or Great Firestorm - you start following burn trails, trying to track the Recyclers. You are unfortunately starting to run out of time in the woods since your supplies of chelating agents to help mitigate what your portable purifiers can't get is starting to run low and there is only so much you want to risk out here. You have maybe another six weeks out here before you should head back home, and in any case the longer you spend out here the greater the risk of something going rather catastrophically wrong. Fortunately you have found another growing site, although you do have to wonder why they are so distantly spaced. You would need Sammael to confirm, but perhaps they need to keep the defences they are using for their crops "novel" so that the local wildlife remains spooked of them rather than curious enough to sample them.
Hmmmm...
You can taste them, you think. They taste like vanilla and cinnamon, and you have to admit that their armour probably smells delicious when new. Still, you are only finding places that they have been, rather than where they are or likely will be.
This is it. You found a camp where the ashes from fires had yet to be dispersed by the elements. They are days away, but you have been out here for close to a third of a year now and you and your men are going to be needed back home for other duties and you are almost out of medicine to keep trace levels of heavy metals from starting to accumulate in your bodies. You all should be able to tough it out, but still...
"Holy shit, who are you?!"
All things considered the woman wandering into the scene is lucky to not get perforated by the perimeter for her outburst, although to be fair it wasn't like she wandered into the middle of where you are examining things, she was just loud in her discovery of your troops. After patting her down through her rather unkempt gear made from forest leaves - not armour strength but clearly good enough for standard forest use - your guards march her up to you. Looking rather wide eyed at the raw firepower assembled, she asks, "Who are you?"
"We're from Greengraft," you reply.
"Never heard of- wait! Are you the guys who helped the 5-0-Fuckers a few years back?" She asks, which you can only blink incredulously at.
"You're... you're from the Machine Heads?" You ask.
"Damn right! Well, I was up until two years ago when those nut cases came out of the forest while we were out logging. Did not expect that to happen, I can tell you that right away," the woman explains.
"I did not expect them to go that far," you note dryly. Well that just expanded your search area by several tens of thousands of square kilometres if you had to come out here again.
"Well I've spent the past two years marching through the fucking forest, so its not like it was easy on any of us. I was even pregnant for part of it," the woman then goes quiet for a moment before a brittle smile crosses her face and she says, "Well, he got his in the end, which is why I'm out here and not still with them."
"And where are they?" You ask, realizing that you finally have a lead.
"I... uh... don't actually know. I ran away a few days ago from this camp and I don't know which direction they went. This was something of an impulsive suicide run, I will have to admit. You know how it goes, you shank a rapist bastard in the middle of the night and then run away into the woods and get lost for a few days before wandering back to find that everyone is gone, replaced by heavily armed people who are somehow related to the blood cultists," the woman explains in a rather chatterbox manner.
You sort of face palm before you say, "Okay, let's start again: I am Dia Stone of Greengraft. May I know your name?"
"Oh, yeah! I'm Reena Kenzie! Wow, you guys are a lot calmer than the 5-0-Fuckers," she says excitedly, offering her hand to shake.
You sigh and then turn to your troops and ask, "You know what would be nice? People talking to us." You then take her hand to shake it.
You really need to sit down with Reena and find out what the fuck is going on with the 504s and Machine Heads... or more precisely get her back to Armin who knows how to make people tell their tales properly. Still, you are so close, but Reena isn't going to be any help in finding where the Recyclers are now and looking at her you don't want to risk losing her before she can talk to Armin to anything. Oh, you will get her story today but he will get it so much better in a few weeks.
Do you...
[] Head back now (0.8x)
[] Spend a few more weeks hunting (0.8x)
AN: I know the above weightings are pointless, I just felt like showing that Dia doesn't like either option
[X] Deal with the Recyclers first
Figuring that the best course of action would be to just leave things alone for now, you instead turn your attention fully towards the Recyclers. This is going to be exceedingly tricky to pull off. From what you obtained from your interrogations they are semi-nomadic, moving between various camp sites out in the deep forest to the south of your settlements. You have a vague idea where some of these camps are supposed to be, but the prisoners have not thus far yielded up anything more concrete than vague distances, and in any case their knowledge is now rather out of date.
Still, 80 Jaegers with 8 SAWs and 16 underbarrel grenade launchers and properly trained with grenades both fired and thrown is a hell of a lot of firepower as you move into the woods. While you can't hold anything with numbers like that, you can definitely give the Recyclers a damn good reason not to try to mess with you again and possibly liberate some of the people they have taken captive over the years.
Rolled 34 + 30 + 30 + 30 Experience = 124
vs.
Rolled 16 + 46 + 24 - 30 Limited Intel = 56
No leads
vs.
Rolled 16 + 46 + 24 - 30 Limited Intel = 56
No leads
The first few weeks go exceedingly poorly, with you finding neither hide nor hair of the Recyclers. Maybe you should have come out last year when the trail would have been warmer? No matter, you always have more to do than time to do it in so there is little use in complaining about it now.
You do find it eerie this deep into the forest, days away from any sign of human interaction. The forest floor detritus is thicker out here, not routinely cleared by controlled burns, and the dangerous flora and fauna is all so much more densely packed together, an unmanaged riot of life all competing with each other in explosions of violent, aggressive evolution.
Rolled 75 + 46 = 121
????
Maybe...
????
Maybe...
You spend one night out on watch in the deep forest and find that the eeriness is actually ratcheted up significantly. There is something out there, but you can't get any sort of read on what it might be, and you certainly don't have anything concrete enough to justify running out into the woods beyond a creepy feeling, but there is something... maybe.
Rolled 23 + 30 + 30 + 30 Experience = 113
vs.
Rolled 30 + 46 + 24 - 30 Limited intel = 70
A clue
Rolled 32 + 22 = 54
vs.
Rolled 30 + 46 + 24 - 30 Limited intel = 70
A clue
Rolled 32 + 22 = 54
A little over a month into the expedition and you find your first actual clue when one of your men points out that some of the plants are wrong in a clearing. Looking over them, you realize that he is right: the leaves don't appear to be as tough, and as you move in to carefully examine them you realize that they smell distinctly sweet. Dabbing them you take a few samples for analysis, but you think the smell might actually be something like vanilla. While nowhere near as aggressive as the toxins and irritants on Dandriss, apparently by the simple fact of being alien there are certain Terran biochemicals that the native life will simply avoid due to being unpleasant smelling and strange, although they tend to acclimatize quickly if deployed in mass amounts.
You think you have found a sort of garden, a cultivation camp for certain plants that will have them grow while the Recyclers are elsewhere. Also, now that you are looking at it, you realize that the forest is somewhat clearer over here. The Recyclers are probably using controlled burns of their own to manage the forests.
Rolled 20 + 30 + 30 + 30 Experience = 110
vs.
Rolled 36 + 46 + 24 - 25 Limited intel = 81
A better clue
Rolled 88 + 22 = 110
Dub dubs!
vs.
Rolled 36 + 46 + 24 - 25 Limited intel = 81
A better clue
Rolled 88 + 22 = 110
Dub dubs!
While there are minor fires all the time in the forest - it is only every few years that there is the right confluence of factors for a firestorm or Great Firestorm - you start following burn trails, trying to track the Recyclers. You are unfortunately starting to run out of time in the woods since your supplies of chelating agents to help mitigate what your portable purifiers can't get is starting to run low and there is only so much you want to risk out here. You have maybe another six weeks out here before you should head back home, and in any case the longer you spend out here the greater the risk of something going rather catastrophically wrong. Fortunately you have found another growing site, although you do have to wonder why they are so distantly spaced. You would need Sammael to confirm, but perhaps they need to keep the defences they are using for their crops "novel" so that the local wildlife remains spooked of them rather than curious enough to sample them.
Hmmmm...
Rolled 17 + 30 + 30 + 30 Experience = 107
vs.
Rolled 33 + 46 + 24 - 15 Limited intel = 88
Closing in...
Rolled 14 + 22 = 36
vs.
Rolled 33 + 46 + 24 - 15 Limited intel = 88
Closing in...
Rolled 14 + 22 = 36
You can taste them, you think. They taste like vanilla and cinnamon, and you have to admit that their armour probably smells delicious when new. Still, you are only finding places that they have been, rather than where they are or likely will be.
Rolled 25 + 30 + 30 + 30 Experience = 115
vs.
Rolled 43 + 46 + 24 - 5 = 108
Just missed them
vs.
Rolled 43 + 46 + 24 - 5 = 108
Just missed them
This is it. You found a camp where the ashes from fires had yet to be dispersed by the elements. They are days away, but you have been out here for close to a third of a year now and you and your men are going to be needed back home for other duties and you are almost out of medicine to keep trace levels of heavy metals from starting to accumulate in your bodies. You all should be able to tough it out, but still...
"Holy shit, who are you?!"
All things considered the woman wandering into the scene is lucky to not get perforated by the perimeter for her outburst, although to be fair it wasn't like she wandered into the middle of where you are examining things, she was just loud in her discovery of your troops. After patting her down through her rather unkempt gear made from forest leaves - not armour strength but clearly good enough for standard forest use - your guards march her up to you. Looking rather wide eyed at the raw firepower assembled, she asks, "Who are you?"
"We're from Greengraft," you reply.
"Never heard of- wait! Are you the guys who helped the 5-0-Fuckers a few years back?" She asks, which you can only blink incredulously at.
"You're... you're from the Machine Heads?" You ask.
"Damn right! Well, I was up until two years ago when those nut cases came out of the forest while we were out logging. Did not expect that to happen, I can tell you that right away," the woman explains.
"I did not expect them to go that far," you note dryly. Well that just expanded your search area by several tens of thousands of square kilometres if you had to come out here again.
"Well I've spent the past two years marching through the fucking forest, so its not like it was easy on any of us. I was even pregnant for part of it," the woman then goes quiet for a moment before a brittle smile crosses her face and she says, "Well, he got his in the end, which is why I'm out here and not still with them."
"And where are they?" You ask, realizing that you finally have a lead.
"I... uh... don't actually know. I ran away a few days ago from this camp and I don't know which direction they went. This was something of an impulsive suicide run, I will have to admit. You know how it goes, you shank a rapist bastard in the middle of the night and then run away into the woods and get lost for a few days before wandering back to find that everyone is gone, replaced by heavily armed people who are somehow related to the blood cultists," the woman explains in a rather chatterbox manner.
You sort of face palm before you say, "Okay, let's start again: I am Dia Stone of Greengraft. May I know your name?"
"Oh, yeah! I'm Reena Kenzie! Wow, you guys are a lot calmer than the 5-0-Fuckers," she says excitedly, offering her hand to shake.
You sigh and then turn to your troops and ask, "You know what would be nice? People talking to us." You then take her hand to shake it.
You really need to sit down with Reena and find out what the fuck is going on with the 504s and Machine Heads... or more precisely get her back to Armin who knows how to make people tell their tales properly. Still, you are so close, but Reena isn't going to be any help in finding where the Recyclers are now and looking at her you don't want to risk losing her before she can talk to Armin to anything. Oh, you will get her story today but he will get it so much better in a few weeks.
Do you...
[] Head back now (0.8x)
[] Spend a few more weeks hunting (0.8x)
AN: I know the above weightings are pointless, I just felt like showing that Dia doesn't like either option
[X] Head back now (0.8x)
__________________________________________________REASONING_____________________________________________________________
Finding out what is going on between the 504s and the machine head will be extremely useful and we can hunt the recyclers again later on.
__________________________________________________REASONING_____________________________________________________________
Finding out what is going on between the 504s and the machine head will be extremely useful and we can hunt the recyclers again later on.
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Hazardine
Asura of Darkness
- Location
- Somewhere in Florida
@Academia Nut
Is there any chance that will get bonuses to the searching for teh Recyclers again if we go back now, since we discovered several of their camp locations as well as private groves of modified fauna.
If so then
[X] Head back now (0.8x)
Is there any chance that will get bonuses to the searching for teh Recyclers again if we go back now, since we discovered several of their camp locations as well as private groves of modified fauna.
If so then
[X] Head back now (0.8x)
Do you...
[X] Head back now (0.8x)
[X] Head back now (0.8x)
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
[X] Spend a few more weeks hunting (0.8x)
We're already here. Heading back in now just means we'll have to try again later. Let's finish this.
We're already here. Heading back in now just means we'll have to try again later. Let's finish this.
[X] Spend a few more weeks hunting (0.8x)
We're so close...
We're so close...
[x] Spend a few more weeks hunting (0.8x)
We seem to be having even better chances with each look, and should be able to undertake the search with no penalty from our lack of intel, perhaps even a bonus from them being so close. Given the large amount of area the recyclers seem to be covering, I imagine that starting over would be a pretty big opportunity cost, probably netting us the starting -30 penalty again, and if we don't find anything we can always bring Reena back then. Raiding the recyclers for their technologies would be a great boon, after all, not to mention nipping their raiding in the butt. Their is also the public opinion victory of dealing a major blow to viscous raiders which might prove useful for our attempts to provide a united front among the local factions against the future threat of The Authority, or the humanitarian concern of saving prisoners.
We seem to be having even better chances with each look, and should be able to undertake the search with no penalty from our lack of intel, perhaps even a bonus from them being so close. Given the large amount of area the recyclers seem to be covering, I imagine that starting over would be a pretty big opportunity cost, probably netting us the starting -30 penalty again, and if we don't find anything we can always bring Reena back then. Raiding the recyclers for their technologies would be a great boon, after all, not to mention nipping their raiding in the butt. Their is also the public opinion victory of dealing a major blow to viscous raiders which might prove useful for our attempts to provide a united front among the local factions against the future threat of The Authority, or the humanitarian concern of saving prisoners.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, you know the general area of several of their camps, so so long as there are no major environmental upheavals within the next year you should be able to start off on better footing the next time you come out here.
As good a footing as we are now (which implies the same level of penalty) or would we still likely be working with a bigger penalty then the one we've reduced our initial too, if our next roll would even have a penalty?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The penalty would go back up a bit (probably start at -15) in that case.
You are currently at a small bonus.
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
[X] Head back now (0.8x)
For now, I think we'll have a bonus for searching next year, meaning we'll almost certainly find them. If AcademiaNut says otherwise, I'll change my vote.
For now, I think we'll have a bonus for searching next year, meaning we'll almost certainly find them. If AcademiaNut says otherwise, I'll change my vote.