An Armored shell With a Squishy Center (a SupCom/Multicross SI)
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Log 1
Born of inspiration from the Planetary Annihilation SIs on this site and SB by @Faith, @Drich, @TikiTau and others I offer up this little train wreck.
Log 1
I can't remember which I noticed first, the wail of the trucks breaks or its headlights shining down on me. It doesn't really matter though. Why would it when I didn't have time to avoid the skidding semi that had lost traction on the ice?
//////
Cold.
That was all I felt as the darkness began to recede. The cold blocked out all sensation from my body, I couldn't even feel my attempts at movement. I let out a yell, trying to see if I could grab anyone's attention but while I knew the sound of my scream I didn't hear it.
Time passed but I don't know how long. When you can't feel anything its hard to notice the passage of time, but I'm still thinking clearly so that's a good sign right? Well either way I held on till a light came on, a hologram floating right in front of my 'face'. A symbol I didn't recognize with lettering I didn't know hovered in front there in the void, grabbing my attention and letting me forget about the cold for a time. Before I remembered that I couldn't really move I went to touch the symbol, driven by the need to interact with SOMETHING only for the whole thing to flash for an instant and vanish.
I tried searching for it, hoping that I had simply got turned around but I couldn't find it, I couldn't even tell if I was moving at all. The cold started to return as I continued the pointless search, each thought letting the sensation gain strength but then the hologram came back.
Text using an alphabet I couldn't read scrolled in front of me for a few seconds then vanished replaced by what looked like a tiny control center painted in blues and yellows. A square table sat in the center with circuit patterns running across the surface in greens, red and blues. Around the edges were what looked like computer monitors each about the size of a TV with one four times as big directly across from me.
I tried to lean forward to get a better look at things but as I did an odd whirring accompanied my movement. I looked back and my attention was immediately fixated on what I saw. A thin robotic arm stretching from a man sized cylinder. I recoiled causing the arm to rapidly extend further from the cylinder until it reached it's full extension bringing me to a sudden stop.
I stayed still for a little bit, a few seconds I think but that's hard to tell when there's nothing to give you a frame of reference for the passage of time, but then I moved the camera towards the cylinder and the small view port just above the mounting point for the camera boom. I shifted up a bit so that I could glimpse into the window and the cold from before came back with a vengeance. I was looking at my own face only... damaged.
A raw open wound ran across the left side of my face like someone had shoved me up against a grinding wheel and this damage extended downwards towards my body and out of what I could see. My gaze, the camera gazed was fixed on me the cold feeling growing more intense the longer I stared.
"Commander stress level exceeding allowable levels, administering medication." A mechanical but feminine voice echoed around me and I watched as a tube connected to my neck flickered with light before my panic and the cold receded. I 'blinked' or at least I did the mental equivalent of one and examined what was around my body.
Tubes ran from ports in the sides of the cylinder to link to the veins of my arms and the arteries in my neck. A device of of blinking lights and what looked like plastic rested on my neck with wires and tubes running from it to the ports on the cylinder and a clear breathing mask affixed to my face.
Starting to get uncomfortable I turn away from the sight of my body and look at the table, trying to get my mind off of what I had just seen. I move towards it and examine the circuits a bit more, noting that they traced paths between small domes of a diamond like materiel and speakers each about what I think is a centimeter across. I move closer only to recoil again when the table comes to life and a hologram forms a map hovering above the table.
As I got over my surprise the screens around the room come to life, the smaller screens filling with numbers and icons while the large screen filled with what looked like live footage from a camera, the view point looking over a snow covered forest. Glancing down at the map I noticed that it matched what the camera showed while at the center stood a figure I recognized starting to rise from a crouched position.
The camera was looking through the eyes of a post Infinite War Armored Command Unit.
Author's Notes:
Ya some people are not going to be happy with my starting ACU but I have good reasons for it which will be shared in Log 2 along with my first setting once i figure out how to make the Info dump tolerable if not entertaining. Fair warning though my writing is done in small bursts so I won't be matching the update speed of those that came before me.
As for why SupCom instead of PA? I know supcom better since i've only had PA titans for two weeks now.
Index of chapters and other relevant things posted here:
Log 1
Log 1
I can't remember which I noticed first, the wail of the trucks breaks or its headlights shining down on me. It doesn't really matter though. Why would it when I didn't have time to avoid the skidding semi that had lost traction on the ice?
//////
Cold.
That was all I felt as the darkness began to recede. The cold blocked out all sensation from my body, I couldn't even feel my attempts at movement. I let out a yell, trying to see if I could grab anyone's attention but while I knew the sound of my scream I didn't hear it.
Time passed but I don't know how long. When you can't feel anything its hard to notice the passage of time, but I'm still thinking clearly so that's a good sign right? Well either way I held on till a light came on, a hologram floating right in front of my 'face'. A symbol I didn't recognize with lettering I didn't know hovered in front there in the void, grabbing my attention and letting me forget about the cold for a time. Before I remembered that I couldn't really move I went to touch the symbol, driven by the need to interact with SOMETHING only for the whole thing to flash for an instant and vanish.
I tried searching for it, hoping that I had simply got turned around but I couldn't find it, I couldn't even tell if I was moving at all. The cold started to return as I continued the pointless search, each thought letting the sensation gain strength but then the hologram came back.
Text using an alphabet I couldn't read scrolled in front of me for a few seconds then vanished replaced by what looked like a tiny control center painted in blues and yellows. A square table sat in the center with circuit patterns running across the surface in greens, red and blues. Around the edges were what looked like computer monitors each about the size of a TV with one four times as big directly across from me.
I tried to lean forward to get a better look at things but as I did an odd whirring accompanied my movement. I looked back and my attention was immediately fixated on what I saw. A thin robotic arm stretching from a man sized cylinder. I recoiled causing the arm to rapidly extend further from the cylinder until it reached it's full extension bringing me to a sudden stop.
I stayed still for a little bit, a few seconds I think but that's hard to tell when there's nothing to give you a frame of reference for the passage of time, but then I moved the camera towards the cylinder and the small view port just above the mounting point for the camera boom. I shifted up a bit so that I could glimpse into the window and the cold from before came back with a vengeance. I was looking at my own face only... damaged.
A raw open wound ran across the left side of my face like someone had shoved me up against a grinding wheel and this damage extended downwards towards my body and out of what I could see. My gaze, the camera gazed was fixed on me the cold feeling growing more intense the longer I stared.
"Commander stress level exceeding allowable levels, administering medication." A mechanical but feminine voice echoed around me and I watched as a tube connected to my neck flickered with light before my panic and the cold receded. I 'blinked' or at least I did the mental equivalent of one and examined what was around my body.
Tubes ran from ports in the sides of the cylinder to link to the veins of my arms and the arteries in my neck. A device of of blinking lights and what looked like plastic rested on my neck with wires and tubes running from it to the ports on the cylinder and a clear breathing mask affixed to my face.
Starting to get uncomfortable I turn away from the sight of my body and look at the table, trying to get my mind off of what I had just seen. I move towards it and examine the circuits a bit more, noting that they traced paths between small domes of a diamond like materiel and speakers each about what I think is a centimeter across. I move closer only to recoil again when the table comes to life and a hologram forms a map hovering above the table.
As I got over my surprise the screens around the room come to life, the smaller screens filling with numbers and icons while the large screen filled with what looked like live footage from a camera, the view point looking over a snow covered forest. Glancing down at the map I noticed that it matched what the camera showed while at the center stood a figure I recognized starting to rise from a crouched position.
The camera was looking through the eyes of a post Infinite War Armored Command Unit.
Author's Notes:
Ya some people are not going to be happy with my starting ACU but I have good reasons for it which will be shared in Log 2 along with my first setting once i figure out how to make the Info dump tolerable if not entertaining. Fair warning though my writing is done in small bursts so I won't be matching the update speed of those that came before me.
As for why SupCom instead of PA? I know supcom better since i've only had PA titans for two weeks now.
Index of chapters and other relevant things posted here:
Log 1
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A little glimpse at some of the world building i'm doing.
developed five years after the retaking of Earth the Hall series ACU was designed to serve as colonial defense unit in contrast to the Clarke series ACU reserved for the UEF's most elite commanders. In accordance with the Disarmament Treaty signed two years before it's release the Hall series and it's assigned units have a lower combat potential then both Clarke and the ACUs used in the Infinite War but makes up for by being cheaper to build and possessing more efficient programs for handling resource management.
Someone want to volunteer to be my beta for when the next chapter is ready?
developed five years after the retaking of Earth the Hall series ACU was designed to serve as colonial defense unit in contrast to the Clarke series ACU reserved for the UEF's most elite commanders. In accordance with the Disarmament Treaty signed two years before it's release the Hall series and it's assigned units have a lower combat potential then both Clarke and the ACUs used in the Infinite War but makes up for by being cheaper to build and possessing more efficient programs for handling resource management.
Someone want to volunteer to be my beta for when the next chapter is ready?
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Log 2 ready for a Beta to take a look at it. any takers?
edit: if no one answers before i go to bed I'll post the chapter then.
edit: if no one answers before i go to bed I'll post the chapter then.
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Log 2
Going to bed now so here it is.
Log 2
"You sedate me again and I will find a way to rip out whatever you use as a brain."
"Commander distress levels exceeding safe levels, area secure, sedating."
//////
I think I'm starting to hate the AI or VI or whatever that is in charge of my medical needs. After realizing that I'm a mangled body inside a giant humanoid war-factory my ensuing panic attack got me sedated no less then three times, possibly more as I had some vague recollections of waking up, screaming and falling back asleep. Not really sure why I'm not freaking out anymore but now at least I'm not getting sent off to la-la land by a needle happy computer.
I swung my camera over to the map, and took a look at the ACU and its surroundings. I was out for a pretty good length of time since there was solid layer of snow piling up on the war machine. Considering that the camera responded to mental commands I might be able to use that to give commands to the other systems... and there we go. The room shuddered as the ACU began marching over to the first of a trio of Mass nodes I detected in the area and fired up it's engineering tool to build the first of the queued extractors. There's a TA joke I could make here but I'm above that.
//////
I have a decent little base up and running now. A trio of extractors, a pair of generators, an air factory and a number of point defense; each made of three heavy point defense and on AA gun in a two by two square. One of pair of engineers is working on a radar post while the other helps the factory upgrade itself which should be enough to keep me safe for the near future assuming there isn't another ACU out to ruin my day stomping about somewhere.
Immediate needs met I had the camera switch it's focus to one of the wall screens that had what looked like an index showing. To my surprise it was in English rather then the other language the physical labels on everything was in. ignoring the connivance of the screen being in English start trying to puzzle out how to work it when I notice a tiny little version of the UEF symbol hovering over a tab labeled ACU. With a figurative shrug I imagined clicking a mouse button and the screen changed to a status readout on the ACU.
Most of the functions were grayed with with a red message saying 'system locked'. The only things that were online were the functions you get when starting a match along with the AA gun. Along the was what looked like a scan of a trading listing off some of the ACU's stats and history.
'Developed five years after the retaking of Earth the Hall series ACU was designed to serve as colonial defense unit in contrast to the Clarke series ACU reserved for the UEF's most elite commanders. In accordance with the Disarmament Treaty signed two years before it's release the Hall series has a lower combat potential then both Clarke and the ACUs used in the Infinite War but makes up for by being cheaper to build and more efficient programs for handling resource management.'
Well, that vindicates the idea that SupCom2 was weaker then regular supcom. As for the other tabs it looks like they are unit data-banks with category names matching the research menu's from the game. A quick tab through them reveals that the units you don't get right off the bat but I don't have a research function. Instead it seems I have an automated system breaking the encryption on the stuff which will take time. Experimentally I tried willing the decryption subsystem up on the next screen and was rewarded with a progress screen on and a diagram with which to set priorities.
A soft chime comes from the holotable as all current build orders completed and I turned back to the map to see the area I landed. Based on what the map showed the Radar's name and the in game range were both horribly wrong. The map gave me a high detail image of the terrain for over a 100 kilometers while I got a topgrahic map for 500. A green line noted the 50 kilometer range the system would detect units within; speaking of units there was a cluster of radar signatures to my east on the far bank of a river. All of the signatures were on the ground but labeled as unknown configurations.
I send out another wave of orders, the air factory with help from from one of the engineers began building Wasps and bombers at the two to one I favored for four repetitions while the engineer that had built the radar post began building a Land factory which I preemptively gave orders to build 20 Rockhead tanks, four Anarchists AA vehicles and, to my joy when I saw their icon, four Field engineers.
By the time my first batch of aircraft was finished one of the unknown signals had moved out over the water and the sensors registered a artificial construction supporting it. I ordered the two fighters and the bomber over to the river to get the unit over the water into camera range and the sight that came up on my main view-screen chilled me deeper then Cold ever did when I remembered those stupid looking fins on the top of it.
"Commander stress level exceeding allowable levels, administering medication." the computer intoned as I was looking at the Gruz construction vehicle. Panic filled me once more as a turned to an empty view-screen and started thinking about a map of the solar system. I was rewarded with a such a map and my heart sank as orbit of the planet I was on was charted out.
I was on Earth in the Year 2150 and I had a little over a year to escape this dying world.
Log 2
"You sedate me again and I will find a way to rip out whatever you use as a brain."
"Commander distress levels exceeding safe levels, area secure, sedating."
//////
I think I'm starting to hate the AI or VI or whatever that is in charge of my medical needs. After realizing that I'm a mangled body inside a giant humanoid war-factory my ensuing panic attack got me sedated no less then three times, possibly more as I had some vague recollections of waking up, screaming and falling back asleep. Not really sure why I'm not freaking out anymore but now at least I'm not getting sent off to la-la land by a needle happy computer.
I swung my camera over to the map, and took a look at the ACU and its surroundings. I was out for a pretty good length of time since there was solid layer of snow piling up on the war machine. Considering that the camera responded to mental commands I might be able to use that to give commands to the other systems... and there we go. The room shuddered as the ACU began marching over to the first of a trio of Mass nodes I detected in the area and fired up it's engineering tool to build the first of the queued extractors. There's a TA joke I could make here but I'm above that.
//////
I have a decent little base up and running now. A trio of extractors, a pair of generators, an air factory and a number of point defense; each made of three heavy point defense and on AA gun in a two by two square. One of pair of engineers is working on a radar post while the other helps the factory upgrade itself which should be enough to keep me safe for the near future assuming there isn't another ACU out to ruin my day stomping about somewhere.
Immediate needs met I had the camera switch it's focus to one of the wall screens that had what looked like an index showing. To my surprise it was in English rather then the other language the physical labels on everything was in. ignoring the connivance of the screen being in English start trying to puzzle out how to work it when I notice a tiny little version of the UEF symbol hovering over a tab labeled ACU. With a figurative shrug I imagined clicking a mouse button and the screen changed to a status readout on the ACU.
Most of the functions were grayed with with a red message saying 'system locked'. The only things that were online were the functions you get when starting a match along with the AA gun. Along the was what looked like a scan of a trading listing off some of the ACU's stats and history.
'Developed five years after the retaking of Earth the Hall series ACU was designed to serve as colonial defense unit in contrast to the Clarke series ACU reserved for the UEF's most elite commanders. In accordance with the Disarmament Treaty signed two years before it's release the Hall series has a lower combat potential then both Clarke and the ACUs used in the Infinite War but makes up for by being cheaper to build and more efficient programs for handling resource management.'
Well, that vindicates the idea that SupCom2 was weaker then regular supcom. As for the other tabs it looks like they are unit data-banks with category names matching the research menu's from the game. A quick tab through them reveals that the units you don't get right off the bat but I don't have a research function. Instead it seems I have an automated system breaking the encryption on the stuff which will take time. Experimentally I tried willing the decryption subsystem up on the next screen and was rewarded with a progress screen on and a diagram with which to set priorities.
A soft chime comes from the holotable as all current build orders completed and I turned back to the map to see the area I landed. Based on what the map showed the Radar's name and the in game range were both horribly wrong. The map gave me a high detail image of the terrain for over a 100 kilometers while I got a topgrahic map for 500. A green line noted the 50 kilometer range the system would detect units within; speaking of units there was a cluster of radar signatures to my east on the far bank of a river. All of the signatures were on the ground but labeled as unknown configurations.
I send out another wave of orders, the air factory with help from from one of the engineers began building Wasps and bombers at the two to one I favored for four repetitions while the engineer that had built the radar post began building a Land factory which I preemptively gave orders to build 20 Rockhead tanks, four Anarchists AA vehicles and, to my joy when I saw their icon, four Field engineers.
By the time my first batch of aircraft was finished one of the unknown signals had moved out over the water and the sensors registered a artificial construction supporting it. I ordered the two fighters and the bomber over to the river to get the unit over the water into camera range and the sight that came up on my main view-screen chilled me deeper then Cold ever did when I remembered those stupid looking fins on the top of it.
"Commander stress level exceeding allowable levels, administering medication." the computer intoned as I was looking at the Gruz construction vehicle. Panic filled me once more as a turned to an empty view-screen and started thinking about a map of the solar system. I was rewarded with a such a map and my heart sank as orbit of the planet I was on was charted out.
I was on Earth in the Year 2150 and I had a little over a year to escape this dying world.
- Location
- Arizona
Well, I've gotta give you credit for going away from the PA Commander trend.
So far, this seems fairly well written (it could easily be far far worse). The setting is solid Scifi, so that's good. You have an incoming threat to work against, and technology to possibly acquire and redesign. My main issue is, I don't yet know what your limitations are. Do you have an R&D method, is your tech tree limited in anyway, do you have access to the any of the other SupCom2 factions' tech, is your fleshy body going to suddenly die at some point, are you susceptible to psi/warp shenanigans, etc. To be clear, I don't want you to answer me directly, but to keep these kinds of things in mind as you develop your story.
Compared to the other PA commanders, a SupCom commander has more variety in unit design, but less speciality. When a PA commander would send in a Dox swarm, you'd send in upgraded Mech marines or Rockhead tanks with AA guns and shields. The downside is, you are less capable of Von Neumanning your way to victory.
I guess you can call me interested. I'll Watch this progress.
EDIT: The irony is, if this was a PA SI, an Atlas titan could probably put Earth back into its right orbit. that'd have been real easy.
So far, this seems fairly well written (it could easily be far far worse). The setting is solid Scifi, so that's good. You have an incoming threat to work against, and technology to possibly acquire and redesign. My main issue is, I don't yet know what your limitations are. Do you have an R&D method, is your tech tree limited in anyway, do you have access to the any of the other SupCom2 factions' tech, is your fleshy body going to suddenly die at some point, are you susceptible to psi/warp shenanigans, etc. To be clear, I don't want you to answer me directly, but to keep these kinds of things in mind as you develop your story.
Compared to the other PA commanders, a SupCom commander has more variety in unit design, but less speciality. When a PA commander would send in a Dox swarm, you'd send in upgraded Mech marines or Rockhead tanks with AA guns and shields. The downside is, you are less capable of Von Neumanning your way to victory.
I guess you can call me interested. I'll Watch this progress.
EDIT: The irony is, if this was a PA SI, an Atlas titan could probably put Earth back into its right orbit. that'd have been real easy.
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Current unit list
Land
Land
- Rockhead Tanks
- Anarchist Mobile AA
- Meteor Mobile Missile Launcher
- Engineer
- Field engineer
- Wasp Air Superiority Fighter
- Eagle Eye Bomber
- TigerShark Submarine
- Mastodon Cruiser
- Land factory
- Air factory
- Naval factory
- Heavy Point defense turret
- Heavy AA defense turret
- Mass extractor
- Power generator
- Radar Instilitation
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So trip to Pluto soon?
Right now i'm at the start of the Earth 2150 campaign, priority goes to surviving and getting off this rock before it hits the point of no escape.So trip to Pluto soon?
Hence building a transport and going to Pluto.
I was making a joke.
Issue is my morals will demand I act and frankly? My efforts to save lives might doom the lives of others. I'm not a super powerful AI with human morals like the PA commander SIs, I'm civilian who's at best an armchair general up against generals and commanders who earned their stars in a war that makes any RL earth has seen look like a kindergarden slap fight. Combine that with me possibly using resources needed for the canon evacuation efforts and well...Hence building a transport and going to Pluto.
I was making a joke.
Log 3
Log 3
I ordered the trio of planes back to base. I couldn't afford a fight right now, not when I was still dealing with the shock of learning that the Earth is going to die in a year. My attention turned to my land factory. Five of the tanks were ready and the sixth had just started but if I was up against the Eurasian Dynasty it wouldn't be enough. A single ED base could build a strike force in hours and based on my map I am in the middle of Siberia which means that there's at least a few dozen bases within range to hit me within a few days if they travel by ground, less then a day if they use a transporter to shuttle in there forces.
I ordered four more repetitions of my original build order and added another Anarchist, another Field Engineer and five Meteors to each of the repetitions. This will put me at 175 land units on top of the two engineers and the 12 aircraft I will have. I added one more repetition to the air factory build queue to push my end amount up to 190 units not counting the engineers and the buildings. Only issue is that with one factory building this army could take longer then the Gurz needs to finish that bridge. To deal with this I take the engineer off assisting the factory and order it to start construction on a second Land factory then stop and build a third. My ACU immediately turned and started building the second land factory.
I queued orders for both the new factories to add the full suite of add-ons to themselves and moved the third and fourth repetitions to the second factory and the fifth the the third. I also tagged a cluster of three engineers to the third factory's build list. The instant the second land factory was done I re-tasked my ACU to aiding the first and sent the engineer that I had doing that previously out to the river to get a sonar instillation up. The River wasn't deep enough for my ships but I fear it could support ED attack boats which made expanding my sensor network with sonar a worthwhile pursuit.
By the time the last of the factories was online the bridge was around a fourth of the way across the river. This was both interesting and worrying. From what I could remember a bridge segment would take about the same amount of time to build as a small turret which took about 40 in game minutes. Now in the game it looked like it was built from scratch so I could be dealing with the Gurz building prefabs to rapidly get that bridge built.
I needed an answer and so I sent back out that same trio of planes I had used earlier to take another look. Once they were in camera range I took a closer look at the enemy force and my theory was confirmed. The Gurz was deploying prefabricated sections of a pontoon bridge rather then the fixed sections from the game. This would get them across the river in minutes but not before my first batch of Land units were ready.
"Units under attack." the computers voice shook me from my thoughts just before the Wasp who's camera I was using started shaking from the impacts. Turning the wasp to face the attacker I saw a group of four Tiga's armed with chain-guns firing wildly at my group. Most of the shoots missed suggesting the pilots were green but I didn't want to take any risks or tip them off to what my firepower was like. I ordered the planes back on a round about path to avoid letting them pinpoint my base.
I glanced at the health of my fighters and found that their armor had already recovered from the few hits taken. If I could I would be gritting my teeth right now. I didn't pay attention and let a group of Taigas ambush me. The only reason Taigas could be armed was to give an extra cheap unit to send out to die and I let myself get jumped by them! My attention returned to the map and I noticed that the bridge was now over three fourths of the way across. The camera panned over the map till it reached my base and excitement overcame the frustration. My first batch of land units was ready for battle.
I designated the batch as Group 1 and ordered it out towards where the bridge would end. As they moved I began to micro manage the formation they would make at the end. The first and second ranks would each be made of 10 Rockheads staggered in a way to allow them all to fire forward without fear of friendly fire. The third rank was the Field engineers and Anarchists in an alternating sequence and the rear was the five meteors. The formation came to a rest eight kilometers away from the bridge head just as the final segment finished construction. I watched as the Gurz's radar icon quickly withdrew from the bridge and half the ED vehicles lined up to quickly make their away across the bridge while the other half positioned themselves flanking their side of it as if to provide covering fire for anyone crossing
As the first half came off the bridge they started to form a half circle around it. Their commander was a cautious one, the question was if that caution was born of inexperience or of having been ambushed when crossing a bridge before. I'm inclined to believe the second as from what I remembered the ED was big on loyalty over competence so it's likely that their novice commanders would be glory hungry fanatics rather then someone who would stagger their forces going over a newly built bridge.
As the second half began to cross I gave my forces their orders. Open fire when the enemy reached four kilometers away from their position.
I ordered the trio of planes back to base. I couldn't afford a fight right now, not when I was still dealing with the shock of learning that the Earth is going to die in a year. My attention turned to my land factory. Five of the tanks were ready and the sixth had just started but if I was up against the Eurasian Dynasty it wouldn't be enough. A single ED base could build a strike force in hours and based on my map I am in the middle of Siberia which means that there's at least a few dozen bases within range to hit me within a few days if they travel by ground, less then a day if they use a transporter to shuttle in there forces.
I ordered four more repetitions of my original build order and added another Anarchist, another Field Engineer and five Meteors to each of the repetitions. This will put me at 175 land units on top of the two engineers and the 12 aircraft I will have. I added one more repetition to the air factory build queue to push my end amount up to 190 units not counting the engineers and the buildings. Only issue is that with one factory building this army could take longer then the Gurz needs to finish that bridge. To deal with this I take the engineer off assisting the factory and order it to start construction on a second Land factory then stop and build a third. My ACU immediately turned and started building the second land factory.
I queued orders for both the new factories to add the full suite of add-ons to themselves and moved the third and fourth repetitions to the second factory and the fifth the the third. I also tagged a cluster of three engineers to the third factory's build list. The instant the second land factory was done I re-tasked my ACU to aiding the first and sent the engineer that I had doing that previously out to the river to get a sonar instillation up. The River wasn't deep enough for my ships but I fear it could support ED attack boats which made expanding my sensor network with sonar a worthwhile pursuit.
By the time the last of the factories was online the bridge was around a fourth of the way across the river. This was both interesting and worrying. From what I could remember a bridge segment would take about the same amount of time to build as a small turret which took about 40 in game minutes. Now in the game it looked like it was built from scratch so I could be dealing with the Gurz building prefabs to rapidly get that bridge built.
I needed an answer and so I sent back out that same trio of planes I had used earlier to take another look. Once they were in camera range I took a closer look at the enemy force and my theory was confirmed. The Gurz was deploying prefabricated sections of a pontoon bridge rather then the fixed sections from the game. This would get them across the river in minutes but not before my first batch of Land units were ready.
"Units under attack." the computers voice shook me from my thoughts just before the Wasp who's camera I was using started shaking from the impacts. Turning the wasp to face the attacker I saw a group of four Tiga's armed with chain-guns firing wildly at my group. Most of the shoots missed suggesting the pilots were green but I didn't want to take any risks or tip them off to what my firepower was like. I ordered the planes back on a round about path to avoid letting them pinpoint my base.
I glanced at the health of my fighters and found that their armor had already recovered from the few hits taken. If I could I would be gritting my teeth right now. I didn't pay attention and let a group of Taigas ambush me. The only reason Taigas could be armed was to give an extra cheap unit to send out to die and I let myself get jumped by them! My attention returned to the map and I noticed that the bridge was now over three fourths of the way across. The camera panned over the map till it reached my base and excitement overcame the frustration. My first batch of land units was ready for battle.
I designated the batch as Group 1 and ordered it out towards where the bridge would end. As they moved I began to micro manage the formation they would make at the end. The first and second ranks would each be made of 10 Rockheads staggered in a way to allow them all to fire forward without fear of friendly fire. The third rank was the Field engineers and Anarchists in an alternating sequence and the rear was the five meteors. The formation came to a rest eight kilometers away from the bridge head just as the final segment finished construction. I watched as the Gurz's radar icon quickly withdrew from the bridge and half the ED vehicles lined up to quickly make their away across the bridge while the other half positioned themselves flanking their side of it as if to provide covering fire for anyone crossing
As the first half came off the bridge they started to form a half circle around it. Their commander was a cautious one, the question was if that caution was born of inexperience or of having been ambushed when crossing a bridge before. I'm inclined to believe the second as from what I remembered the ED was big on loyalty over competence so it's likely that their novice commanders would be glory hungry fanatics rather then someone who would stagger their forces going over a newly built bridge.
As the second half began to cross I gave my forces their orders. Open fire when the enemy reached four kilometers away from their position.
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Wobulator
Within 1 AU of you!
- Location
- Mars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
cheap
This certainly looks interesting.
Decim
On again, off again lurker.
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
It's Earth 2150 I believe, not 2140.
2150 is the better know squeal to 2140.
Log 4
Log 4
The commander of this force wasn't all that foolish. Rather then charging his full force off to engage in battle he used around a dozen armed Taigas each with a group of infantry escorting it as scouts to search the forest. He likely hoped that I would either attack them or would be flushed out as I tried to avoid the scouts. But they started on the wrong side of the forest and they were stopping to check some of the smaller groves of trees and what seemed to be caves. They clearly weren't hunting for me so what were they hunting for?
I moved my aircraft closer to the scouts but at a higher altitude. The images would be worse but the Taigas wouldn't be able to see them that way. I ordered ground forces to advance at a snails pace to avoid making to much noise as they approached to be just within the Meteor's firing range of the enemy forces.
Just as I finished giving the movement orders the second and third land factories each finished their first batches of units. Designating these Group 2 and Group 3 I had them move out of the base to the half way point between me and Group 1 to act as a reserve just in case things went south. Everything seen to I settle into watch and wait for the ED to tip their hand.
///////
All of my construction orders had completed by the time something happened. I almost missed it as I was positioning the new Groups to flank my base. A small group of people dashed out of a thick patched of trees and past the rear of one of the Taigas as it followed it's assigned infantry to investigate a cave. Zooming in I notice the tattered state of their clothing and the presence of some figures who were barley even half the height of the larger members of the group, children.
Suddenly this began to make sense. The ED take the worst of the Soviet Union and raise it to new heights so its likely that they escaped a purge of some kind. This whole force was likely hunting groups of survivors who saw something they shouldn't have. Their caution is likely an effect of them seeing my fighters.
Well I've already kicked up the hornets nest so there's nothing wrong with a more open intervention. With that decision the bombers swooped down and struck the the scouts closest the refugees and my meteors let loose the first salvo of missiles.
////
This wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter. The opening salvo of missiles tore apart their heavy tanks and forced the lighter units to scatter. Before they could respond I ordered Group 1 to charge after triggering Afterburn. All the while the Eagle Eye bombers ruthlessly hunted the enemy scouts, diving down to ensure that the bombs hit with maximum accuracy.
The cannons of the Rockheads thundered and a volley of 40 tanks shells soared through the forest, some missing but most finding their mark among the light tanks. The survivors head enough presence of mind though to fire back, the first one smart enough to notice where my shots came from and the others following his lead. Some of their shots hit my charging forces, bouncing off the frontal armor of the tanks with what little damage caused being instantly patched by the Field engineers.
My tanks let loose a second salvo but the enemy had already managed to get their bearings and had reoriented to have their fronts facing my forces, reducing their profiles and putting the thickest armor in the direction the shoots were coming from. The armor did nothing to save them. When the shells hit directly they punched clean through and even shots that merely scraped their tanks or hit their tracks left gouges in their armor and crippled their ability to flee. They sent out second volley of their but was wasted as my the afterburn ended, slowing down my forces enough that the enemy's aim was thrown off.
Something was off with that salvo though and I soon noticed why. The remaining heavies and the medium tanks were pulling back to bridge. The commander must have survived and was using his light units as sacrifices to buy time for his real forces to withdraw to the far side of the river. I wouldn't allow that. My meteors let loose their missiles which came down on the center of the bridge, not destroying it but doing damage and causing the tanks That hadn't hadn't past that point to stop.
This sealed their fate as the bombers swept in and loosed their cargo as a third salvo of missiles rained down upon them. The bridged shattered and the tanks fell into the ice cold waters of the river. With the bridge gone the bombers and missile launchers turned their attention to the forces still on my side of the river. All of my units fired this volley and the last of the light tanks ceased to exist as the Medium tanks opened fire, shooting wildly at my forces in an attempt to ward them off.
Seeing that the battle was effectively won as the bombers banked around to hit the remainder of the enemy I turned my attention away from the conflict and searched for the civilians. I found them pulling some netting off a truck I had missed and piling into it, one of the children standing at the entrance the top watching as my forces mopped up the remaining the enemy. The silhouettes of my tanks clear against the backdrop of the burning husks
In a flight of fancy I had the the wasps fly low, clearly visible to the kid. As they past the ravine each of the ten Wasps dipped their wing towards the child. The kid fled into the ravine arms waving and got bundled up into the truck-bed as the drive started the engine and the whole thing started to move. As I watched them flee from the battle site I started to wonder what they thought of what just happened.
I'm probably not going to write anything from the refugee's POV. i don't have confidence in writing their viewpoint decently at this point.
as for my update rate i don't know how long till i start to slow down.
The commander of this force wasn't all that foolish. Rather then charging his full force off to engage in battle he used around a dozen armed Taigas each with a group of infantry escorting it as scouts to search the forest. He likely hoped that I would either attack them or would be flushed out as I tried to avoid the scouts. But they started on the wrong side of the forest and they were stopping to check some of the smaller groves of trees and what seemed to be caves. They clearly weren't hunting for me so what were they hunting for?
I moved my aircraft closer to the scouts but at a higher altitude. The images would be worse but the Taigas wouldn't be able to see them that way. I ordered ground forces to advance at a snails pace to avoid making to much noise as they approached to be just within the Meteor's firing range of the enemy forces.
Just as I finished giving the movement orders the second and third land factories each finished their first batches of units. Designating these Group 2 and Group 3 I had them move out of the base to the half way point between me and Group 1 to act as a reserve just in case things went south. Everything seen to I settle into watch and wait for the ED to tip their hand.
///////
All of my construction orders had completed by the time something happened. I almost missed it as I was positioning the new Groups to flank my base. A small group of people dashed out of a thick patched of trees and past the rear of one of the Taigas as it followed it's assigned infantry to investigate a cave. Zooming in I notice the tattered state of their clothing and the presence of some figures who were barley even half the height of the larger members of the group, children.
Suddenly this began to make sense. The ED take the worst of the Soviet Union and raise it to new heights so its likely that they escaped a purge of some kind. This whole force was likely hunting groups of survivors who saw something they shouldn't have. Their caution is likely an effect of them seeing my fighters.
Well I've already kicked up the hornets nest so there's nothing wrong with a more open intervention. With that decision the bombers swooped down and struck the the scouts closest the refugees and my meteors let loose the first salvo of missiles.
////
This wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter. The opening salvo of missiles tore apart their heavy tanks and forced the lighter units to scatter. Before they could respond I ordered Group 1 to charge after triggering Afterburn. All the while the Eagle Eye bombers ruthlessly hunted the enemy scouts, diving down to ensure that the bombs hit with maximum accuracy.
The cannons of the Rockheads thundered and a volley of 40 tanks shells soared through the forest, some missing but most finding their mark among the light tanks. The survivors head enough presence of mind though to fire back, the first one smart enough to notice where my shots came from and the others following his lead. Some of their shots hit my charging forces, bouncing off the frontal armor of the tanks with what little damage caused being instantly patched by the Field engineers.
My tanks let loose a second salvo but the enemy had already managed to get their bearings and had reoriented to have their fronts facing my forces, reducing their profiles and putting the thickest armor in the direction the shoots were coming from. The armor did nothing to save them. When the shells hit directly they punched clean through and even shots that merely scraped their tanks or hit their tracks left gouges in their armor and crippled their ability to flee. They sent out second volley of their but was wasted as my the afterburn ended, slowing down my forces enough that the enemy's aim was thrown off.
Something was off with that salvo though and I soon noticed why. The remaining heavies and the medium tanks were pulling back to bridge. The commander must have survived and was using his light units as sacrifices to buy time for his real forces to withdraw to the far side of the river. I wouldn't allow that. My meteors let loose their missiles which came down on the center of the bridge, not destroying it but doing damage and causing the tanks That hadn't hadn't past that point to stop.
This sealed their fate as the bombers swept in and loosed their cargo as a third salvo of missiles rained down upon them. The bridged shattered and the tanks fell into the ice cold waters of the river. With the bridge gone the bombers and missile launchers turned their attention to the forces still on my side of the river. All of my units fired this volley and the last of the light tanks ceased to exist as the Medium tanks opened fire, shooting wildly at my forces in an attempt to ward them off.
Seeing that the battle was effectively won as the bombers banked around to hit the remainder of the enemy I turned my attention away from the conflict and searched for the civilians. I found them pulling some netting off a truck I had missed and piling into it, one of the children standing at the entrance the top watching as my forces mopped up the remaining the enemy. The silhouettes of my tanks clear against the backdrop of the burning husks
In a flight of fancy I had the the wasps fly low, clearly visible to the kid. As they past the ravine each of the ten Wasps dipped their wing towards the child. The kid fled into the ravine arms waving and got bundled up into the truck-bed as the drive started the engine and the whole thing started to move. As I watched them flee from the battle site I started to wonder what they thought of what just happened.
I'm probably not going to write anything from the refugee's POV. i don't have confidence in writing their viewpoint decently at this point.
as for my update rate i don't know how long till i start to slow down.
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Wobulator
Within 1 AU of you!
- Location
- Mars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Good chapter. It seems a little odd that SupCom tech, weapons from more than a thousand years in the future, have any issues with Earth 2150 tech. There's already a massive technological difference between now and a hundred years ago, and SupCom is way farther than that.
where's that Pic url...
but more seriously they didn't have all that much trouble. all the direct hits were insta-kills and that weren't were glancing blows that would have been brushed off by my forces but mangled their armor.
edit: as for my tank's armor the damage was utterly pathetic and the engineers repaired them because the tank's computers sent up a "taking fire" flag.
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Wobulator
Within 1 AU of you!
- Location
- Mars
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- She/Her
Because that's not really how tank armor works in real life. In games, tanks have progressive damage- you hit it, and it'll take continuous damage until it blows up. Real life is much more binary- either you penetrate the armor and completely destroy it, or you don't, and absolutely nothing happens. Glancing blows wouldn't do anything to the tank no matter what.where's that Pic url...
but more seriously they didn't have all that much trouble. all the direct hits were insta-kills and that weren't were glancing blows that would have been brushed off by my forces but mangled their armor.
edit: as for my tank's armor the damage was utterly pathetic and the engineers repaired them because the tank's computers sent up a "taking fire" flag.
I'll go through it and patch that up tommrow.
TechnoMage
Hacking Reality is Fun
I dont agree. Even blows that are stopped or deflected will reduce the structural integrity of armour.
Example, body armour rated to stop small arms fire will often fail if the second shot hits close to the first.
Also what do you mean with this bit [In games, tanks have progressive damage- you hit it, and it'll take continuous damage until it blows up]
I have never plaed a game like that, is that a 2150 game mechanic?
Arafell
Verified Cephalon
- Location
- Oregon
Reactive armor tends to disagree with you.
Even if armor segments don't literally explode to protect the tank from rockets, it can still get dented and cracked from repeated hits. Enough damage to the same section can cause it to fail entirely, letting bullets/explosives through to damage components.
Wobulator
Within 1 AU of you!
- Location
- Mars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
What? Literally every game with tanks that I've ever played has that mechanic.
While yes, getting shot by a tank gun will decrease the structural integrity of the armor long-term, it doesn't matter short-term. Body armor is completely different technology than tank armor, so the comparison doesn't really apply.
True, but that takes a lot of hits to a small area.
okay details on the fix: I'm going to rewrite the glancing blows as them skidding along the sides of the tank or turret and leaving long gouges in the armor. That settled? good.
anyone want to throw out ideas on what the refugee's reactions to this whole thing is?
anyone want to throw out ideas on what the refugee's reactions to this whole thing is?